I happened to be listening to a one-on-one interview the other day with a very well know and highly respected internet marketer.  I was taking notes as he was discussing his opinions about fast growth in business. He certainly knows of what he speaks – as he built a $5,000,000 business as a solo-entrepreneur in less than 18 months.

One of his comments though initially bothered me and stuck with me as I was applying his ideas to my fast growth in business model.  He basically stated his belief that “entrepreneurs are magicians”.   As soon as he said it – it began to cause me irritation.  Here was why.  When many people think about magicians they think of Harry Houdini, the magic hat or sleight of hand tricks and illusions. For me I was thinking initially of – age old quips like “magicians never share their secrets…”  And the more I went down that road the more I began thinking of things like Maybe this is why so many internet marketers have bad reputations – because they market an illusion, they build a business based upon “sleight of hand” tricks”, they don’t really share their secrets of what is working right now or exactly how they are having success today.  Come back for a future post on The Money & You – Ring Game and why what is working right now is all that is relevant in internet marketing.

My thought about magic and success in a fast growth business was – if it’s magic it’s not real… give me real practices, processes, things I can do that are real not smoke and mirrors. I demand and deserve real value.  My initial thoughts were – I don’t want to be a magician.  I want to be a craftsman, a true recognized master in my field.  Able to teach, show anyone prepared – how to master the skills of my craft. That is my mission… helping people build fast growth businesses that serve their lives…

So at this point in my mental thought process I was stuck in a negative spiral – not liking where I was. I respect this guy and what he has done. I do have a process of getting out of the spirals like this. It is not to ignore or just think positive – it is to break down what I see and eliminate that negative spiral – blow it apart and see what is really there and rebuild into a useful tool or belief.

So here is exactly how I got from Point A to Point B – From initially being repulsed by the thought of entrepreneurs being magicians, mysterious, sleight of hand experts, smoke and mirrors – to totally agreeing with the comment and being passionate that it is one of the secrets to being a successful entrepreneur.

Here is what I did I went and looked at definitions to get more of the black & white foundation - Wikipedia defines a magician as “A magician is a person skilled in the mysterious and hidden art of magic, the ability to attain objectives, acquire knowledge, using supernatural  or nonrational means”  Wikipedia also goes on to define magic as “Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is the practice of consciousness manipulation and/or autosuggestion to achieve a desired result”

I had complete alignment with those descriptors of an entrepreneur.  Entrepreneurs appear mysterious at first, they do attain objectives that seem to mystify most people.  They are relentless about acquiring knowledge and at times appear to accomplish things because of supernatural abilities… persevering when most others quit, seeing the possible in the seemingly impossible….

Even things like sleight of hand -   Wikipedia defines it as “…one of the means used by a magician to produce an effect going on to say … Advanced sleight of hand requires months or years of practice before it can be performed proficiently in front of spectators.”

All successful entrepreneurs use what might appear mysterious to get their results, they can take years of practice, learning from a master teacher/mentor before their proficiency appears visibly….  Famous magicians like Harry Houdini were masters at their craft – they did learn from others – they had/have incredible devotion to their craft.  Successful entrepreneurs are magicians! fast growth in business requires the attention to detail and devotion to their craft.

OK – Watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat… nothing up my sleeve … presto!