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Introduction To Leverage
Almost all successful individuals understand the power
of leverage. And that success in any endeavor is
accelerated by using leverage. You may become
successful without using leverage but, you if you
aren’t using it, that means you are willing to
compromise the level of success, speed, and time
necessary to get to each level.
Leverage is an action or mechanical effect to
help achieve a purpose.
Leverage has been used since time immemorial. In fact,
each of us has experienced, used, or witnessed
leverage, but we are not all aware of the importance
and the incredible power of leverage in everything
that we do. The cost of not utilizing leverage in your
personal life and business strategy is huge. We need
to get intentional and strategic in the use of
leverage in every part of our lives.
But first, let’s discover where we did not use
leverage and thus experienced limited results.
Here is my example. In the late ‘80s, I became
involved in the training and speaking industry by
buying into a sales-training franchise. It seemed to
make sense. I was a top sales performer and this
transition was one where I could bring immediate
credibility to my programs.
One major item was missing, however. Yes, leverage . .
. in the area of marketing. I look back at this now
and shudder at what I did. As franchisees, we were
instructed to have four appointments a day and hold
public programs for our sales training. The method
taught by the franchiser was one without leverage:
simply pick up the phone and start calling people —
anyone, one-on-one. Don’t bother to profile the
potential clients — just call.
Well, I followed their strategy ¯ I was young and
naive once ¯ and quickly found out that even with
enormous and continuous effort, there simply was not
enough time in the day to talk to enough people whom I
didn’t know, who didn’t want to talk to me, and
who were not interested in my product or service.
(Those were the days before email.)
Even though I was in the Top 5 of all the franchisees,
I was still losing money. There simply was no
leverage. Within a couple of years, the franchiser
lost all its seed capital and went bankrupt, no
leverage was just one reason.
So let’s go the other way and describe where
leverage is being used by successful individuals every
day.
In the TV show The Apprentice, Donald Trump was
expounding about his large real estate and development
projects, including the almost $1 billion new Trump
Tower in Chicago.
Do you think for a moment that he’s using is own
money? Not a chance; his projects are being built with
other people’s money. What about the design? Would
he be using other people’s experience, expertise,
and ideas to design and fulfill his project
objectives? Of course. Who is going to build this
tower? It will be the work of other people. In fact,
Donald’s projects are impossible without leverage.
Yes, some will argue he is leveraged (has borrowed)
too much, but that is not the point. Without leverage,
none of this would have been possible. The greater the
amount of leverage (if done correctly and soundly),
the greater the speed to achievement.
The key to leverage is to be aware, strategic, and
intentional in its use everywhere, both personally and
in our businesses. To best illustrate leverage, here
are examples of the contrast between using it and not
using it.
>> Buying a home
Purchase home with cash: No Leverage
Mortgage: Money Leverage
>> Learning a new computer program
Teach yourself with help books: No Leverage
Hire an expert to teach you in half the time:
Expertise Leverage
>> Determining your personal purpose and
career
Do it on your own without help: No Leverage
Complete an assessment to accelerate the process: Time
& Expertise Leverage
>> Building a successful business
Do it on your own: No Leverage
Create strategic alliances and JV partnerships:
Contact & Credibility Leverage
Of course the list can go on forever in every aspect
of our lives. In some cases, using leverage is not
appropriate, but it should be considered in most
situations.
By going it alone, you are without leverage. You will
have to rely on your own time, contacts, experience,
expertise, money, and other resources. This is a
painfully slow way to proceed and it will limit,
hinder, and reduce your success.
Interestingly enough, we tend to react in the opposite
direction when we are under stress or pressure; we
contract (to save money or resources) using fewer
contacts and less leverage at the exact time when we
need to expand our reach and impact via leverage.
If you embrace leverage as a foundational strategy,
you will feel release and freedom because you no
longer have to be everything to everybody all the time
by yourself.
Action Steps
Apply this summary of leverage points to all of your
activities. Identify where you can intentionally
implement more leverage:
>> Connect with someone who is already a master
at leverage and get his or her feedback/coaching on
how to expand this concept in your life. (By the way,
this strategy is leverage in itself)
>> To maximize the strategy of leverage, you
will have to give up your ego. If you want to be the
center of attention, designer, and creator of all that
you have, this process will not be as successful.
>> Be intentional about creating Strategic
Alliances and Joint Ventures, but only JV with
individuals or organizations with like-values. (Use
the CRG Online Values Preference Indicator as a
starting point.)
>> I want to challenge you to double your
expectations around your objectives in life — by the
end of this week. The only way you can achieve that is
by outside resources (leverage). Force yourself to
think of all the ways, relationships, and processes
that would help you achieve that goal.
>> Continuously be on the lookout for
enhancements and new opportunities to increase your
leverage. What started out for me as a one-on-one
coaching business has lead to seminars (50 people per
session) to tele-seminars (hundreds of people) to
training company and e-zine (thousands) and a Website
(millions).
>> Finally, stop doing alone what can be
done together.
By Ken Keiss
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