Key Question:
A: Reading helps all of us to get out of ourselves to discover someone else's world. This is key to a small business owner as we tend to get stuck in a rut and think that we are the only one suffering with a certain problem.
Q: What keeps you from reading?
A: Most of us would answer that we don't have time to read. Marty would give back the famous response, "You don't have time not to read." When we asked him about the palm tree outside of his office door he said he doesn't have time to travel so he just sits under the tree to get the feeling he is in Hawaii.
Think about it
What would you like to know more about right this minute? What book, magazine or web site might have information on this important topic?
Clip from: Boardroom, Inc.
Stamford, Connecticut: In this episode of the show we go inside one of the most productive businesses in the world (using the ratio, gross income to total number of employees). Where the Fortune 500 companies average under $300K per employee; in this small business, it is over $1M per employee.
How can any business be so productive? You'll learn right here.
Marty Edelston, founder of Boardroom, Inc. started this company in 1971. Today they are the publisher of the world's largest subscription-based newsletter, BottomLine Personal; this business with just 78 employees will do over $80 million in sales. This is about five times the productivity rate of the Fortune 500 companies.
He believes these results come from a powerful process he calls, I-Power. Marty believes every person has an endless supply of ideas, especially ideas to improve their workplace. Every week every employee is asked to answer two questions: What can I do to improve my work area? And, what could others do that would cause my work area to improve? Simple, brilliant, easy to do, so what are we waiting for?
Marty was 47 with three children at home when he quit his job as a salesman in the publishing business. He had worked for some of the country's biggest companies and felt there was a need for a publication that ". . . helps people live their lives in this increasingly hostile world."
All the key ideas and videos of this episode...
Go to the homepage of this episode...
Boardroom Inc.
Marty Edelston, Founder & CEO
281 Tresser Blvd
Stamford, CT 06901
2039735900
Visit our web site: http://boardroom.com
Office: 2039735900
Business Classification:
Information Services
Year Founded: 1971
Read
HATTIE: (Voiceover) Here's Marty's advice to all of us who would like to build our businesses.
MARTY: Well, it's classic advice: Know what you're doing, and find out in every possible way. Of course, it's best if you are moving into an area that you're fully cognizant of, but then read everything you possibly can. And people are so lazy it's just incredible.
HATTIE: You said earlier there were a handful of books that you really believe in, in terms of business advice. Can you recall the list or...
MARTY: It's really life advice. I'm not sure I can remember all of them offhand 'cause there's so much going around in this little head here. Everything is selling 'cause you have to sell so much. And whatever--well, you sold me on the interview, I have to sell you on doing it right, etc. The best book is, `How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling,' by Frank Bettger, and now, a lot of years, 30 years or so after its original publication, it's still very much alive. And oddly, it was featured, as you may recall, in the film `Barcelona.' It was the silliest thing I ever saw. I mean, to build a sophisticated film around that book and people's dedication to it, but it was a wonderful film, actually. I mean, the concept was silly, but it was really beautiful and it was so powerful.
The measure that you want to apply to everything all the time is 'What's the highest use of my time right now?' Sometimes it's to sleep, of course; sometimes it's to skip rope; sometimes it's to do push-ups.
HATTIE: (Voiceover) And what continues to fascinate a person who has achieved so much success?
MARTY: I'm most interested in the continuation of our society.
