38 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3anticipated the threat?
Brian Tracy: Well you must again... you
must be open to the possibility that you
could be wrong. You must be open to the
possibility that this has the potential to
change the market.
I have studied leadership and military strat-
egy and there is a wonderful line they
teach in Sandhurst and in West point it is
that 'diversion that you are ignoring is the
main attack'. And it’s a won-
derful thing... in other
words when something
happens in the market, that
seems peripheral, that
could be what is going to
put you out of business
completely. And that’s what
happened to both Nokia
and Blackberry, is that pe-
ripheral business, that com-
pany that... Apple that had
never had a telephone in
their history, that was the
main attack, that was what was going to
put you out of business completely, and it
did. So, you have to be open to the possi-
bility that you could be wrong. You have to
be open to the possibility that one new de-
velopment in technology, could change
your business completely.
And the critical thing is always, 'what do
your customers want?' And what do they
want more of, and they want it faster, and
they want it easier, and they want it at low-
er cost, and they want it to be more con-
venient.
We can wrap up with what I want to share
with you, and it’s a book that I am thinking
of writing. I have five or six books on my
back middle shelves. And the book is called
“The 'Er' Factor.” And English is the only
language in which this would work because
'Er' stands for the comparative.So, its easi-ER, its fast-ER, its cheap-ER, its
Costli-ER, and so on. And all of your suc-
cess in life as a business person is the num-
ber of Er's that you have, is
your product... is fast-ER to
use, its easi-ER too to get, its
cheap-ER, and so on.But you're always looking
for ways to make your prod-
uct or service superior to
your competitors in some
way. And your competitors
are thinking day and night
about how to make their
products and services supe-
rior to yours. And so, it goes
on and on, sort of like leap-frog when you
are a child, you jump over one person,
then the other person jumps over you, and
then you jump over them and so on. So,
your job is to be superior to your competi-
tor and then your competitors' job is to be
superior to you. The ER factor, find some
way to do it faster, easier, cheaper.We have in the United States today, and I
do not know if it’s happening in the UK but
in the US we have a phenomenon that’s
taking place, its home delivery of food and
restaurant food. And about five years ago,
somebody started to offer home delivery“So, your job is to be
superior to your
competitor and then your
competitors' job is to be
superior to you. The ER
factor, find some way to
do it faster, easier,
cheaper.”