(This is a personal message that Dan Kennedy wrote in response to a written lett

er addressed to him (from myself) a little over 1 year ago).

PLEASE NOTE: I've taken the time to re-type this document in simple Notepad form
at so that any "publishing details aren't "attached" to his response or my copy
of the document. i.e. - The only 2 people on earth who know who wrote/received
this letter are Dan and myself. So judge this letter on content, rather than phy
sical perception. - I recommend you copy and paste this in a Word Document to r
ead it easier. Enjoy
My Original Question: Dan, when you were first starting out, How Do You Decide
What Direction and What Industry to Focus Your Efforts On?!
------------------------------------------------------------------------Dan S. Kennedy
Mr. ******

********,

My apology for the delayed response.

I can't really answer your question as it was posed, as I identified my directio
ns so early. Instead, let me briefly discuss considerations in choosing or reje
cting different opportunities. While there are many, key ones include: Practica
lity, Profit, and Preferences.
The first has to do with the actual "doability" of the idea or proposition, taki
ng into account my experience, knowledge, time, other resources, connections, as
well as its independent merits. In other words, just because an opportunity is
good does not necessarily mean it is best or appropriate for me or you. Within
this, is degree of ease or difficulty; and speed or slowness. I am wary of qua
gmires. Finally, there is the ability to apply the direct marketing strategies I
have the most success with and rely on, which gets to size, reachability, respo
nsiveness, demographics and other considerations about the target market(s). Wh
at may be a huge and complicated challenge to one person can be an easy and simp
le task for another, totally dependent on whatever type(s) of LEVERAGE each pers
on has. At this year s SuperConference, I am speaking about LEVERAGE in my big roc
ks talk. Leverage varies per individual, and at different times in an individual s
life, and you need to be rational in assessing what leverage you have and lack,
in order to select situations most responsive to whatever leverage you may have
. For example, in various situations your case aside medical training and knowl
edge might be a point of leverage; in others, useless and irrelevant. Same with
your extensive real estate flipping know-how. Your youth, youthful energy and wi
llingness to work. Beyond that, whatever else you know, who you know and who th
ey know, capital if you have it or can get it, best skills, etc. I lack your yo
uth and youthful energy, but my age and treachery offer different leverage. My
30 years experience is a point of leverage in dealing with people in their 40 s an
d 50 s as they respect wisdom; it is usually a drawback rather than point of lever
age in dealing with 20 and 30 year olds who see me as old guard defending out-date
d ideas. And so on. Ideally, an opportunity is chosen where whatever points of
leverage I have are very powerful. For example, at my age and time in life, I
am more willing to leverage accumulated knowledge than active work, so I must lo
ok for situations where I can be paid or secure equity for what and who I know r
ather than for what I will do. At your age, I lacked such leverage but had othe
r kinds.
The second, Profit has to do, first and foremost, with the TRUE financial worthi
ness of the project. It has to be commensurate with investment, risk, time, eff
ort, even aggravation, carefully taking into consideration trade-offs. For exam
ple, in the not very distant past, my going to a meeting to work on a business o
r discuss an opportunity, had a cost of only several thousand dollars for the ti

me plus a first class commercial plane ticket. Today it costs, at minimum, the
$16,800.00 I could have made meeting for that day at home with a client from my
waiting list or writing copy for a client, plus private air travel at about $2,0
00.00 per hour. The stakes are higher so the meeting must be worth more and the
decision to participate or refuse is more significant. There are also Present
Bank, known Future Bank, Potential Future Bank and synergy considerations. The
last is pretty important: is the Profit from x made at the expense of a , b and c that
already involved in?...or does x inter-connect with and further the interests of o
r create additional profits from a and/or b and/or c ? There must be sufficient size
of opportunity to produce sufficient Profit. At age 20, my concerns regarding P
resent Bank vs. Future Bank were weighted quite differently than they are now.
I didn t not understand how I could afford patience, so I would choose bird in han
d over flock in future almost every time. At age 30, with different knowledge,
experience, leverage, that changed. Again at 40. Again at 50. But, to be succ
inct, there are two pitfalls to be as conscious and cautious of as you can: one,
getting mired in an opportunity offering size 3 profits to size 8 skills. Two,
mis-calculating true profits.
To be very, very specific about a target market, I am concerned with its size an
d the psychology, behavior, and financial wherewithal of the customer in it, the
ir affinity to me and my likely ability to connect with them, and their demonstr
ated responsiveness to direct marketing. Through this prism, I am trying to pre
dict the profit value of a customer.
Third, Preferences should ALWAYS be considered, even when you might think you ca
n t afford them. Real drudgery for which you have no passion and at best apathy w
ill never, never tap your talents or make you rich or celebrated. Connecting yo
urself in any way to toxic people, dangerous people, people genuinely disliked b
y you, your spouse or your dog is too high a price for any apparent award. This
is not to say you behave like a baby and only do what you like all the time. I
t s not that simple. But you must keep in mind that your performance is the key t
o everything, so it must be well directed, supported and facilitated, not hamper
ed. Very few people grasp the extreme extent to which the world can be required
to conduct itself with you as you prefer, and the earlier you discover this, th
e better.
As to the broader, bigger picture of
How do you find it ?....one part of that answer i
s exposure. You have to get out and about and curiously investigate a vast vari
ety of people, places and things, and more importantly, make yourself and your b
est points of leverage visible and known to as many people as possible. In this
way, opportunity will find you. Beginning with enthusiasm for and skills in sa
les and marketing is an outstanding advantage over many; many have to bring this
about late, after committing to a career or business; you can apply yourself to
just about anything and do well. While looking for your ideal thing, you might
consider helping other people with their things. Almost every existent busines
s has untapped, stored value that can be liberated and new profits shared.
Finally, time waits for no one, not even 25 year olds. So massive action is bet
ter than any other.
Best,
Dan Kennedy