Hey guys! Are you ready to supercharge your success? In today’s podcast, we learned that preparation is essential for achieving your goals. On this video I shared my journey to MBA success, and how I had to put in extra effort to learn accounting and excel in the program.
But hard work paid off, and today I’m an entrepreneur who hosts the Stark Raving Entrepreneurs podcast.
Our message is clear: the satisfaction of success from preparation is better than anything you can buy.
And we’ve created a website, aictoolsforbiz.com, to help you prepare and stay ahead in today’s world.
So, let’s get inspired, let’s get prepared, let’s get super great! Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast, and check out the special tool on aictoolsforbiz.com to start your preparation journey.
#preparation #success #entrepreneurship #terrybrock #aictoolsforbiz
Here’s a transcript of this episode so you can enjoy reading it if you choose. Please let us know what you think of getting the transcript and if it is helpful.
Terry Brock [00:00:00]:
As an entrepreneur, we’re always looking for some extra advantage. You can help us get ahead, and how do we get that genius that is needed? I know I can use all I can help I can get on that. I want to share with you today some opportunities that you can use to get ahead with it. I’m Terry Brock, your guide here at Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, where we help entrepreneurs like you get ahead and achieve the goals they want. Matter of fact, I’m here on the road right now, out here in a back room, staying with relatives, and I thought I’ll just go keep it real, let you see what it’s like. So we’re out here, and I wanted to share this with you because I read this article that was so incredibly good in the Wall Street Journal that really helped me. It was by a guy that I respect a great deal. His name is Andy Kessler, and he’s got several articles.
Terry Brock [00:00:42]:
Here it is, right here on the screen right here. You can see put this out here. And he asked it 1% inspiration, 99% preparation. And he says it really well. Matter of fact, he goes in here in the paragraph that starts here in the second paragraph. The expression genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration is often attributed to Thomas Everett Edison. But apparently around 1890, a little bit earlier, a writer and academic named Kate Sandborn gave a lecture saying genius was a combination of inspiration and perspiration, and talent is perspiration. Okay, hey, we can relate to that.
Terry Brock [00:01:19]:
As entrepreneurs, we know we have to get out there, and it’s a matter of really working. You don’t just have the great ideas and do it. You got to have that perspiration put in the hard work. But there’s more to it than that as well. See, even without Twitter, ideas floated around and permeated society. When Edison was later asked what genius was, he answered, 2% is genius and 98% is hard work. When asked if genius was inspired, he blurted out, BA. You can just hear him say that.
Terry Brock [00:01:45]:
BA. Genius isn’t inspired. Inspiration is perspiration. And, you know, we’ve embraced that. I have myself and you probably have as well, the idea of hard work. You don’t just get it by saying, oh, I’m going to do it, and I’ll work a nine to five Monday through Friday. Oh, and it’s my time off, and my union contract calls for that. No, we don’t work that way.
Terry Brock [00:02:05]:
Others do, but we don’t. And for us, we know it’s something more. And I think that Andy summed it up really, really well when he said he’s going to update this. Matter of fact, let me show you what he said here really important. Let me update the saying. For the 21st century, success is 1% inspiration and 99% preparation. Ideas are shooting around faster than ever, but most are worthless because no one does the hard work to implement them. Implementation requires hours and hours.
Terry Brock [00:02:33]:
Not of sweat we’re in a service economy now. But of preparation. You must do it all reading. Get this reading. Researching. Falling into one rabbit hole after another on the Internet to find the right series of precedents and test cases and quotes to make your point, pitching your idea coherently and succinctly so it doesn’t sound pie in the sky, but practical. That really is the key. You see.
Terry Brock [00:02:57]:
Preparation is everything. Matter of fact, hey, that’s what he said here. Preparation is everything. Forget football’s. Old timey. Three yards and a cloud of dust. After a 2021 touchdown, los Angeles Rams receiver Cooper Cup shared his read of the defense. They had a little three deep fire zone, brought the nickel off the edge.
Terry Brock [00:03:18]:
Safety dropped down. They didn’t look like they were doing a replacement fire zone. Well, hey, that level of understanding required preparation memorization. And here’s a keyword practice and news. Stephen Curry draining half court shots isn’t luck. And, you know, that’s actually inspirational because you realize a lot of people get this stuff, and they’re way smarter than I am. And I look at them and go, gee, I wish I could be that smart, but I have to work carved throughout my life. I’ve had to do it that way.
Terry Brock [00:03:47]:
Had to really put in the extra effort. I almost got thrown out of the MBA program. I don’t tell many people that, but I can tell you here. I did the first quarter that I had. We were in the quarter system there at Georgia State, and I had to take a whole bunch of preparation courses. Prereqs. They call them prerequisites because my undergrad degree was radio, TV, and newspaper, and we didn’t study a whole lot of accounting in that, like, zero, and I didn’t know what it was. And they told us this thing of the T accounts and all that.
Terry Brock [00:04:16]:
Well, I really tried hard, and I ended up getting A-D-D as in dummy. And it was Terrell, and I was devastated. Another D word there. They even sent me a letter, and it said, terry, this is from Georgia State University. Terry, we notice you got a D. You can’t stay in the program with that, but we’ll give you another chance. You have to take that course over again, but if you do better this time, if you pull out, then we’ll let you stay in the program. And I was really shocked because I thought I was going to do it here.
Terry Brock [00:04:42]:
I told everyone I was going to get an MBA, and I almost got thrown out of the program. But then a little spark hit me. That inspiration. I’m going to figure it out. I’m going to do it again. I’m going to take the same class again. I’ll get an A this time. So I went back, did it again, worked hard, tried to get it, and I got a b as in barely getting by.
Terry Brock [00:04:59]:
That was not good. And then they sent me another letter. They said, Terry, we did a calculation, a D and a B is a C, and you can’t stay in the program with a C, but we’re going to give you another chance. And I thought, okay, here we go. And the chance was, I got to take an accounting cost accounting course, not financial accounting, which is what I was taking first. And the cost accounting rumors notoriously among the students there and that were studying it, the MBA program, it is much tougher. Oh, great. So I made a decision then.
Terry Brock [00:05:29]:
I was going to get into it. And I really worked at it. I did the preparation, I put the work in, and I would do literally 40 to 50 spreadsheets at a time, doing the numbers over and over and over relentlessly, until I burned it into my little journalist brain here with radio, TV, and newspaper, what in the world this accounting thing was about. And I got an A, got an A in that class. And from that point forward, I had learned how to do it. Now, I don’t say that to brag about me at all because, boy, I got a long way to go. But I will say it to you that what you want to do is you want to get in there and do the prep. You’ve got to put in those reps.
Terry Brock [00:06:03]:
You got to do the things that really matters and what counts. I think Andy summed it up really well here when he talked about at the end of this article, the only answer comes from that 99% preparation. Study everything, not only the task you’ve been assigned. Dig deep. Come up with these ideas, with ideas and potential solutions. Work on an elevator pitch for what excites you. Don’t wing it. That’s an important one.
Terry Brock [00:06:26]:
For those of us who are speakers, prepare. And trust me, the feeling you get from preparation induced success is better than anything you can buy at a dispensary. Preparation will make you super great. And I think that’s the key. You got to prepare, get in there and do the extra work. Right now, we’re facing a time of tough economic times of inflation and a terrible recession, maybe even a depression. Well, now’s the time for us to all get better than we ever could. You want to do that, do it on your own, but also do it with others.
Terry Brock [00:07:00]:
Matter of fact, one of the ways that we provide help is with our Stark raving entrepreneurs. Some free resources that really can help you. It’s helped many people already. Free resources you can use. You go over to Starkravingentrepreneurs.com, you’ll find out about it, and you can sign up for our events@starkravingevent.com. That way you can attend that session. It’s gone wednesday at four. We always do them on Wednesday at four.
Terry Brock [00:07:22]:
We want to give you the tools so you can start learning how to do that preparation. And by the way, if you like what you’re seeing here, please like this. Share and subscribe we want to help you out on this in a way that you can get ahead. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a special treat that Jean and I put together for you. We’ve got a tool that’s available that you can see a lot of different tools. Aictoolsforbiz.com that’s the address all lowercase aictoolsforbiz.com you’re going to learn about chat, GPT, canva, dal, e, two Uedly. Several other tools that are out there like stable diffusion, OpenAI lexica, art all of these available. Matter of fact, here those of you who are watching this on video, here’s the QR code so you can bounce over there quickly.
Terry Brock [00:08:05]:
If you’re catching this on audio. Again, the address is a tools for the number four biz, bi, z all of that as one word lowercase.com aictoolsforbiz.com this will help you to get ahead and to learn how to prepare how to do it right in today’s world. Well, I want to thank you very much for joining me, because you’re taking your time to be here and we want to help you. If you’ve got questions, please let us know. We want to give you some information that you can use right away. And a good way to do that, of course, is some of the videos that are already there. I’m recommending some that can help you right now. Look on these and do the preparation.
Terry Brock [00:08:43]:
Get in there and make it happen. I’m looking forward to hearing from you, and I hope you will be able to do the very best and not only hope, but I know that you’re going to be able to do it. We’re going to apply the wisdom and the knowledge that we need, and we’re going to make this thing together. Thanks for joining me.
