If we could ask the most successful people, "What's your secret?" They would certainly acknowledge, "There is a secret: It's OPM - other people's money."
Most of them invested their energies in taking great ideas (in some cases someone else's ideas), and conceptualizing great projects or companies around them. The next step is to go out and get other people to fund those ideas. Curious that even after they have plenty of their own funds, they still feel it would be somehow like cheating if they fund things themselves. They need the validation that comes from convincing someone else to put their money into their endeavor.
There is no doubt that OPM has been a major force in business. In commissioned sales, it shows even more clearly. Salespeople take advantage of their company's money (in the form of supplies, utilities, facilities, and promotional ads), as well as their ideas (products, services, programs, or scripts), and throw in their efforts and time, to accomplish their goals. Our contribution to the equation, however small, is key to the process. Salespeople can't do it all, but it's obvious that companies would not succeed without their sales force. A symbiotic existence with equal benefits to both parties...
Besides using other people's money and ideas, the ultimate goal of successful people is actually get to the point of having their efforts delegated to others, making their own use of time more productive. They use assistants, computer software, agencies, and so forth, to speed up the results and minimize their efforts. This ability to share the burden is the true mark of a winner, in such a competitive market.
Comments(0)