Hello. My name is Nemo and I’ll be your host – and perhaps more than that – should you decide to stay. I hope you will. Because I can help you get what you want from life. Money. Success. Even happiness.
But first things first. I’d like to tell you something about myself so you can determine if I’m qualified to help you.
My First Lesson in How Not to Make a Living
I am nearly 50 years old. At 14 I had my first real job working weekends at a car wash. I remember that experience all too well. As the cars emerged from their robotic shower, I’d hop inside, run a gray rag over the windows, jump out and glance at the wall clock. It took approximately 28 seconds to do each car.
I passed much of my precious weekends that year looking at a gray metal wall clock – 960 times on Saturday and another 960 times on Sunday. It was an early lesson in how not to make a living.
It didn’t take me long to figure out on which side of the paycheck I wanted to be. Four years later, at 17, I started my first business. I have worked pretty much full-time and non-stop (either on my own or for others) ever since.
Time Out for More Work
My career has been interrupted twice – each time for two years. The first was a stint with the Peace Corps, from which I learned a lot about relative values and the joy of teaching. The second came at age 39, after I sold a $135 million business and retired.
Well, that’s what I called it. “Retirement.” What I did was buy and build myself a rather extravagant “personal office” in which I devoted myself to hobbies. These included writing screenplays and novels, painting really awful abstractions, wholesaling fine art, trading vintage cars and…ahem…. starting little businesses – just for the fun of it! I very quickly found it necessary to hire a personal assistant (one of my best hires ever) and before I knew it I was happily working 12 hours a day.
That was my retirement.
More Experience than You Could Shake a Stick At
During the active parts of my career I have been employed as a busboy, bartender, housepainter, carpenter (rough and finished), roofer (flat and shingle), clerk, bouncer, aluminum siding salesman (like Richard Dreyfus in Tin Men), soda fountain jockey, hawker of cookware and vacuums, art broker, teacher (college and grammar school), researcher, writer, editor, copywriter, curb painter, tinsmith and pool installer…
I’ve also owned and run many businesses, starting with P&M Painting and including a pool installation service, a landscaping business, a nutritional supplement company, a venture capital firm, at least a dozen publishing houses, a discount jewelry outlet, a dozen direct marketing enterprises, two public relations practices, a career counseling service, at least a half dozen real estate development ventures, a fine art dealership, and a rare coin brokerage, just to name a few.
I have been a partner in two businesses that grew beyond $100 million, two more that exceeded $50 million and at least a dozen that surpassed the $10 million mark. I’ve owned and run public as well as private companies, onshore as well as overseas, local and international, service and product, retail, wholesale and direct mail, profit and not-for-profit. I’ve done all that and other things I don’t care to remember. What I haven’t done is hold public office or run a Fortune 500 business.
A Modest Disclaimer…
I have had a great career – one that has made me happy and my family wealthy yet there have been bumps in the road. Failed ventures. Near bankruptcies. Law suits. Friendship gone sour. My career is a very patchy quilt of triumphs and botched efforts, clever moves and faux pas, smart planning and dumb miscalculations. (I sometimes shudder to remember some of the things I’ve done.)
So when you consider my credentials, take into account the sheer scope of my experience. It’s quite likely I have had some connection with something you are presently doing.
If and when I give you advice, you can be sure that I will be speaking from experience. I try never to recommend a course of action because it appeals to my intellect. If I suggest you do something, it is because I’ve done it myself – or have failed to do it – and I know (from experience) the difference.
A second qualification I’d like you to keep in mind is my Rolodex – the contacts I’ve made and the people I’ve known. I am very lucky to have worked with some true money-making and business-building geniuses. I’ve listened to what they’ve said and watched what they did. Everything I’ve learned from them will be passed on to you.
And finally, please consider my love of teaching. I come from a long line of teachers and I can’t seem to shake the habit. It gives me enormous satisfaction (call it ego gratification if you must) to show someone something useful. There is no better feeling than to know you have helped someone succeed.
Like any good teacher, I do not expect you to know what I know, or to learn in a single lesson that which I spent four years learning. When you get coached by me, you’ll never feel stupid, because I’m not going to assume you know more than you do. What we are doing – accelerating your personal and business success – takes a little time. I’m more than happy to spend that time with you. I hope you are too.
Achieving Everything You Ever Wanted … One Day at a Time
If you choose to work with me, you’ll begin your training this Monday with a 2-week free introductory program.
During this time you will be introduced to some very important ideas about making money, succeeding in business, improving productivity and staying energized. In addition to good ideas, I will give you specific advice and direction – actions that will definitely move you toward the goal you are seeking, whatever goal that is.
Once this framework is in place, you will hear from me every business day. We will talk about a hundred things, each a piece of the puzzle of your success. If one piece doesn’t quite fit, don’t worry. Another one will surely come along that will size up just right.
Your trial membership ends after the first 10 messages. Thereafter, you will have a choice to discontinue this service or … sign on for another 10 or 20 years. If you decide to stay – as I hope you will – then you will be billed as a full-time member which will give you complete access to all of the member links on the website – including the Archives which contains every message sent to date and Speak Out, the member bulletin board.
Early to Rise is your personal wake up service. It’s your alarm clock to success. It’s me coaching you, helping you get what you want. It’s a daily coaching program based on my personal experience, the wisdom of those I’ve worked with and my natural interest in teaching. It is the result of everything I’ve done and failed to do. Everyone I’ve met. All the deals. All the triumphs. All the defeats. Every brilliant idea and every very dumb one.
Making You Wealthy, Healthy and Wise – That’s My Job
Early to Rise is meant for the up-and-comers, the ambitious, the future fortune makers. It is not written for – nor will it please – crusty old timers who already know it all.
If you are ready to work hard and are open to being coached, then ETR can be enormously helpful. If not, then you will be wasting your time on it.
If you like you can think of me as your personal success coach. And that doesn’t mean you are not already successful. Even a world-class athlete will use a coach to go further, to achieve more, to reach the top. That’s what I can do for you.
And like a good coach, I’m going to be “in your face.” I will be there first thing, every business day, pushing and prodding you, giving you ideas and suggestions, telling you stories of what I’ve seen, explaining how I have done things …encouraging and inspiring you to accomplish your goals. I won’t stop till you get what you want.
Early to Rise is not a course. It is something different, something that probably couldn’t have existed before the Internet. It is alive. It is developing. It is personal.
I hope you will see – immediately and clearly – that Early to Rise is not like anything else you have run into in the past. It is not self-help. It’s me helping you. It’s not motivational although I hope it motivates you.
And most importantly, Early to Rise is not theoretical. There is a saying. Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach. I think it is a bad saying for a bunch of reasons, and it certainly isn’t true of me. I am not a best-selling author. I am not a touring guru. I do not make my money by giving speeches or writing essays.
My success has come from being in the trenches, from working non-stop for 37 years, from starting and growing more than 50 businesses, from selling more than half a billion dollars worth of goods, from negotiating tough deals and firing nice people and closing businesses I loved and pushing myself to exhaustion. I’ve been there. I’ve done it. And not just once. Over and over again.
I am sure I can help you succeed. But it’s not going to happen over night. Success takes time. You are going to have to have your own experience, to make your own mistakes. Early to Rise won’t prevent you from failing. In fact, it will encourage you to fail more. But your failures will be smaller and they will be less costly. And most importantly, you will learn from them.
Eventually, if you stick with me, you will succeed. And then, when you do, I’ll be there with you. To congratulate you and show you other ways to build on your success.
Nemo
I’d like to start my trial membership now.
