What’s your product? What feeling will your customer walk away with? Peace of mind? Order? Power? Love? What is he really buying when he buys from you? The truth is, nobody’s interested in the commodity. People buy feelings. And as the world becomes more and more complex, and the commodities more varied, the feelings we want become more urgent,

The commodity is the thing your customer actually walks out with in his hand. The product is what your customer feels as he walks out of your business. What he feels about your business, not what he feels about the commodity. Understanding the difference between the two is what creating a great business is all about. Charles Revson, the founder of

How much money do I need to live the way I wish? Not in income but in assets. In other words, how much money do you need in order to be independent of work, to be free? In fact, there is ultimately only one reason to create a business of your own, and that is to sell it! To do it, to finish it, and then to get paid for it!

Creating money standards is not just strategically necessary for your business; it is strategically necessary for your life, for the realization of your Primary Aim.

unless your Business Strategy and Plan can be reduced to a set of simple and clearly stated standards, it will do more to confuse you than to help. Your Strategic Objective is just such a list of standards. It is a tool for measuring your progress toward a specific end. It is designed for implementation, not for rationalization. It is a template

Your Strategic Objective is a very clear statement of what your business has to ultimately do for you to achieve your Primary Aim. It is the vision of the finished product that is and will be your business. In this context, your business is a means rather than an end, a vehicle to enrich your life rather than one that drains the life you have.

‘Your arrows do not carry,’ observed the Master, ‘because they do not reach far enough spiritually.’ Eugen Herrigel Zen and the Art of Archery

before you start your business, or before you return to it tomorrow, ask yourself the following questions: • What do I wish my life to look like? • How do I wish my life to be on a day-to-day basis? • What would I like to be able to say I truly know in my life, about my life? • How would I like to be with other people in my life—my family, my

“The difference between a warrior and an ordinary man is that a warrior sees everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man sees everything as either a blessing or a curse.”