MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 2 | 77
business is not just about making widgets,
it’s about running the business of making
widgets, the hiring, the HR, the strategic
planning, it’s the operations of the business.
It’s an interesting book and I based much of
what I did with BNI on that book. For exam-
ple, one of the things that he says in there is
write everything down.
In your early days, write everything down
about your business. What you are doing,
how you handle customer complaints, you
know how you do your training. He said,
'write everything down as though you are
going to franchise your business. Even if you
have no intention of ever franchising your
business.' And I remember thinking, 'I am
never going to franchise this business. I
don't think this is franchisable but its good
advice. So, I will write everything down.' I
wrote everything down Neil. And then guess
what, a few years later, I had a manual, and I
am looking at this and I am going, 'you know,
I thought I could franchise this business.'
And by golly I did. And did so very success-
fully, love that book, The E-Myth.
The other book I would recommend, is by
Jack Canfield, and that’s his The Success
Principles book. Outstanding book. Personal
development... and of course I know Jack re-
ally well, he is a good friend and he lives
what he talks about in the book and its one
of the reasons why he is so successful, so
those are two books I would recommend.
Neil: Thank you Ivan.Neil: What I would like to do with you now is
speculate about the future a little bit. What
one thing would you do with your business if
you knew that you could not fail?
Ivan Misner: You know, my answer to that
question may surprise you, I would do noth-
ing different. Because I never really, really
particularly worried about failure. I knew
that things that I would do would fail, and so
that I just had to adjust, to failures along the
way. And so, when I was really convinced
that something would benefit the business. I
did not really care about failure. I got my
ducks in a row, I went in to it with as much
understanding of the problem and what
could go wrong, but I could honestly tell you,
Neil there is nothing I would do if knew that
I could not fail. That I have not already tried,
and I am interested in doing. Does that make
sense?
Neil: Absolutely yeh thanks for that.
Ivan Misner: So, for people who are listening
to this, don't be afraid of failure. It’s going to
happen. Just go in with as much knowledge
as you possibly can, to what you are going to
do. You know Murphy's Law; you have heard
of Murphy's Law Neil?
Neil: Yeh of course.
Ivan Misner: What can go wrong, will go
wrong. So, would you like to hear Misner's
Corollary?
Neil: I would love to.
Ivan Misner: Murphy was an optimist, be-