Mentors Magazine: Issue 3

24 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

because they had no other ideas, who are
doing well.

And the wonderful thing is, these make 16
times... imagine what difference it would
make in your life, if you were earning 16
times what you are earning today? And so,
I started to really deep dive in to business
model reinvention, and I took the recipe
and I pulled the parts apart and I found
that there is a series of things that you
need to question. And one of the things
that really affected me when I was a young
man, is always be open to the possibility
that you could be wrong. Always be open
to the possibility that you could be wrong.
Because its falling in love with being right,
that causes people to fail.

Harvard Magazine interviewed the 500
CEO's of the top companies in a major, ma-
jor annual business model innovation study
for their companies, they found that 80%
of company owners, presidents, the CEO's
of the biggest companies in the world, ad-
mit that their business model is obsolete.
But they say, 'why don't you change it?'
And they say, 'well I don't know how, and I
don't want to create something worse; out
of the pan, in to the fire.' And so, what if
your business model is not working, what
are you going to do? He said, 'well I am go-
ing to retire fairly soon'. And they said this
over and over again, in interviewing the
CEO's. They said, 'well I will pass it on to
the next person, my successor can take
care of the business model.'

Well the fact is that if you are going to have
a long run at your job or your company, if

you own your own company, you have to

take care of it yourself. So that is the

starting point, and there is several ingredi-

ents.

I do two seminars by the way; one seminar

is called Business model innovation - the

two-day version...or business model re-

invention; and then I have a one-day ver-

sion. The one-day version has seven parts

to the business model and the two-day ver-

sion has ten parts. And what I do is I ex-

plain, almost like an accordion spreading

out.

And so, the starting point... let me just step

back. When I speak to an audience, and I

speak to a 100 audiences a year, all over

the world, the first question I ask, is I say,

'why do you get up in the morning and go

to work?' Just a sort of a fun question, 'why

do you get up in the morning and go to

work?' And the audience is usually si-

lenced. They sort of smile and look at each

other, and they mumble. And I say, 'well, I

will tell you the answer, the answer is you

get up in the morning and go to work, so

that you can make more money.' You want

to make more money, you don't want to

make the same amount of money, and you

don't want to make less money, you want

to make more money. Is that correct? And

everybody smiles and agrees and nods

their head 'yep that's it.'

So, we are all on the same page. And so, I

said, 'now, when you get your work, there

you are at work, there you are in your busi-

ness, how do you make more money?

What is the key? How do you make mon-