“If the founder of an organization does not empower the next generation of leadership to carry the enterprise forward while he is still viable as a leader, the organization he founded will cease to exist within 10 years after his death.”

I have no recall of how I learned that information, but I have known it for nearly 40 years. My confidence that it is true tells me that I trusted the source.

I was working in an industrial steel fabrication shop in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma for 3 dollars and 35 cents an hour when I learned a second truth I cannot prove, but I remember the episode clearly. The year was 1976, when a million dollars was like ten million dollars today.

I was listening to a radio interview while driving a delivery truck down Lynn Lane. The man on the radio had mailed a survey to a large number of millionaires and a surprisingly high percentage of them had completed that survey and returned it to him.

He was sharing the characteristics of self-made millionaires:

“Do self-made millionaires have a high I.Q.? No. The percentage of self-made millionaires with a high I.Q. is the same as the general population.”

“Is it education? No. Self-made millionaires are no better educated than the rest of us.”

“Is it family money? No. Self-made millionaires are no more likely to come from a wealthy family than you and I.”

“Is it family connections? No.”

“Did they marry someone whose family had money and connections? No.”

“Did they ‘get discovered’? Did they get a big break? No.”

When all of my assumptions had been shattered, he said there were only four things that self-made millionaires tend to have in common:

(4.) Self-made millionaires are more likely to have been fired from a job than the rest of us.

(3.) A high percentage of self-made millionaires have filed bankruptcy at least once.

(2.) Self-made millionaires distrust traditional wisdom and believe there is a better way.

(1.) Self-made millionaires think further ahead than we do. They have a time horizon that isn’t measured in days or weeks or months, but in years.

The invisible man on the radio went on to say that a person’s socio-economic strata is largely determined by how far that person thinks ahead.

The average American has a plan for their next two paychecks. Their upcoming paycheck is fully committed, and they have bills to pay with the paycheck that follows, although that one offers a small opportunity for discretionary spending. The paycheck after our next one gives us a little bit of hope.

Two paychecks ahead is the furthest we dare look. This is what it means to be middle class.

But at least we are not struggling to find the money to buy a new battery for the car so that we can get to work, or trying to borrow money to pay a long-overdue electric bill, or wishing we had enough food in the kitchen to last until payday. These people are struggling, but that is not the bottom. No.

At the bottom of the socio-economic strata are the addicts who can think only of their next drink, their next score, their next fix. Their time horizon is a few hours, at most. Tomorrow doesn’t enter their mind.

Friend, I am convinced you can succeed at anything you choose to do, provided you have the emotional staying power to survive your mistakes.

No matter how hard you try, there are a certain number of mistakes you are going to make. This doesn’t mean you have failed. It means you are learning.

So always keep trying. But above all:

Think ahead.

Roy H. Williams

PS: “The one thing all famous authors, world class athletes, business tycoons, singers, actors, and celebrated achievers in any field have in common is that they all began their journeys when they were none of these things.”

– Mike Dooley

PPS: When business owners struggle, they often blame everyone but...

A successful mechanic shop brings in about $500,000 a year. But whether or not the shop owner makes any profit on that $500,000 isn’t determined by how good they are at repairing cars, but by how good they are at running a business.

And even those shop owners who are good at running a business might not be good at converting telephone inquiries into customers.

You realize I’m not just talking about auto repair shops, right? I’m talking about every category of business in America.

At this moment, I’m talking to you about yours.

1. Are you good at your job?
2. (Are your customers impressed?)
3. Are you good at running a business?
4. (Pricing, recruiting, work-flow management, inventory management, vendor relations, employee retention, customer retention, payroll management, etc.)
5. Are you good at generating inquiries?
6. (Advertising, brand-building, sales activation, customer word-of-mouth and online reviews.)
7. Are you good at turning inquiries into customers?
8. (Close rate, conversion.)

Now, back to Jerry:

1. Jerry was good at his job.
2. So good, in fact, that his reputation allowed him to bring in 12 times as much business as the average “successful” auto repair shop. Jerry wasn’t bringing in $500,000 a year. He was bringing in $500,000 a month.
3. Jerry was good at running a business.
4. He and his wife traveled and enjoyed life at a much higher level than most of us.
5. Jerry was good at generating inquiries, mostly because his auto repair shop made customers happy for a lot of years, and happy customers tend to multiply.
6. But Jerry was only average at turning telephone inquiries into customers. Still, he was doing 12 times the sales volume of the average “successful” mechanic shop in America.

Jerry and his wife are often at Wizard Academy.

Jerry was paying attention when I said, “Bad marketing is about you, your company, your product, your service, how many years you have been in business and how many awards you have won. Good marketing is about the customer, and how your product or service can change the private little world they live in.”

After contemplating those words, Jerry and his wife realized that how they respond to telephone inquiries is a form of marketing. Specifically, it is the kind of marketing that can improve the percentage of incoming phone calls that become customers.

I encouraged Jerry and his wife to experiment. I said, “Try something new. Give it time to work, but if it doesn’t work, try something else that is new.”

Jerry’s second experiment caused his business revenues to jump 53% above the previous year, month after month.

Jerry’s mechanic shop no longer does $6,000,000 a year. He now has a $9,180,000 mechanic shop.

I know what you’re thinking. You want to know how Jerry and his wife lit the fuse on the rocket that put their business into orbit, am I right?

Okay, I’ll tell you.

Jerry’s wife said, “Every incoming call begins with the caller saying, ‘Can you,’ ‘Do you,’ or ‘Will you.’”

“Give me some examples,” I said.

She said, “Can you repair the transmission on a 2018 Mercedes-Benz E400?”

Our answer is, “Yes we can. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”

“Do you work on Volkswagens?”

“Yes we do. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”

“Will you take a look at my Porsche 718 Cayman? It dies every time I make a sharp left turn.”

“Yes, we will. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”

Do you see what Jerry and his wife are NOT...

The Growing Up Years: Ages Birth to 20

When a man is in his teenage years, people with good intentions will ask, “What are your plans for the future?” Fewer than 10% of us have a real plan at that age, but we make one up so that we don’t disappoint those who believe in us.

I tell teenage boys the truth when I sense they are feeling adrift. “It is rare to know at your age what you want to do with your life, but people will often ask you as though you are supposed to know. But the real truth is this: If you have your head completely out of your ass by the time you are 30, you are way ahead of the game.”

The Education Years: Ages 20 to 30

Regulated careers – engineer, lawyer, doctor – require a young man with a plan. The rest of us just bumble along and learn from our mistakes.

People assume that a man who “plans his work and works his plan” is more disciplined and has a higher I.Q. than those of us who bumble. But I believe it is better to aim your temperament than try and change it.

Planners prefer structure. Bumblers prefer adventure. This doesn’t mean Bumblers are less visionary, less disciplined, less committed, or less intelligent. They just prefer to improvise, innovate, and impress, rather than plan, schedule, and execute.

Planners tend to become professionals. Bumblers tend to become business owners, tradesmen, salespeople, consultants, worker bees, or bums.

As of January 2024, there were 1,100,101 physicians in America. The average primary care doctor in America makes $265,000 a year. Specialists make an average of $382,000, which is about the same annual income as the owner of a modestly successful plumbing or air conditioning company with fewer than 10 employees.

In January of 2023, there were 1,331,290 lawyers in America earning an average annual income of $100,626 a year. Lawyers in the 75th percentile make about $103,000. Top earners make an average of $131,000, which is about the same as a modestly successful salesperson working for a local TV or radio station.

Like I said, a man’s path forward has more to do with temperament than anything else. To force a man to behave outside his temperament is cruel and unusual punishment.

The Acquisition Years: Ages 30 to 40

For most men, the years between 30 and 40 are about gaining experience and status and possessions as we quietly struggle and claw our way upward. Adrenaline is our drug of choice. Conspiracy theories, video games, sports betting, fishing boats, sports cars and motorcycles provide us a way of escape. These are the years when onlookers say, “The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.”

But in spite of our visible successes, we cannot quiet the inner voice that whispers, “If other people knew you the way that I know you, they would know what a phony you are.”

It is no coincidence that Henry David Thoreau was just over 30 when wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

The saddest of all men stay in toy-gathering mode for the rest of their lives, wanting only to make more money and a bigger name for themselves. When such a man reaches 60 and looks back at his 30th birthday, he hasn’t really gained 30 years of experience. He has had one year’s experience 30 times. But he doesn’t know how to do anything else.

Having never discovered his soul, he goes to his grave with his song still in him.

The Elevation Years: Ages 40 to 50

For about 80 percent of American men, the decade beween 40 and 50 is when we will make our mark on the world. The big leaps forward, the fingerprints we leave behind, the stories that will be told when we are gone, usually happen between our 40th and 50th birthdays.

These are the years when we begin to see clearly.

These are the years when we make fewer mistakes.

These are the years when we suck the juice from all of our...