My last newsletter got a few of unsubscribes – so I know I did well! Lol!
As I have told many mentees in recent weeks, since my QLA 20th year anniversary I would be getting much tougher the next 20 years! LOL! Because I know how tough it really is out in the real world! And too many self-righteous success coaches, tell you how easy it is to be a high performance person! Of course, those that have been trying to be a high performance person know that is BS! And I know that the tougher I have been in the past 20 years the better the results with my QLA devotees! In that regard, I feel it incumbent upon myself to share this email below, vies a vies my # 97 QLA NEWSLETTER!
TONY HAS BEEN A GOOD FRIEND AND MENTEE FOR ABOUT 15 YEARS. I MET HIM WHEN HE WAS 33 YEARS OLD. HE IS IRISH, A CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT, EXTREMELY BRIGHT AND A VERY GOOD FRIEND! IN ADDITION TO HAVING THE CHALLENGE OF BEING IRISH AND LIKING TO DRINK, LOL, HE IS VISUALLY IMPAIRED! YA HE IS ALMOST TOTALLY BLIND! YA – HE CAN’T SEE AND I AM NOT WRITING SO YOU HAVE PITY, ETC! HE HAS MORE ABILITIES THAN MOST READING THIS NEWSLETTER! I COULD WRITE ABOUT MEETINGS HE WENT TO THE WRONG BUILDING, ETC, AND BEING IN SUCH GOOD HUMOR IT WOULD SOUND IMPOSSIBLE TO MOST OF YOU – BUT I WON’T! I COULD ALSO WRITE ABOUT THE DITCHES HE FELL IN WHILE TRAINING AS A BLIND RUNNER – BUT I WON’T! HE IS AN EXAMPLE TO ALL OF US!
WE WERE PARTNERS IN THE 90’S. WE TRIED TO BUILD A CHAIN OF IRISH PUBS IN DUBLIN. WHERE ELSE WOULD WE BE THAN DUBLIN TO CREATE IRISH PUBS, WITH AN IRISHMAN! WE BUILT A VERY EXCLUSIVE DREAM TEAM AND HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS, BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY FAILED! NOT BECAUSE OF HIM, BUT A LOT OF OTHER THINGS THAT IT WOULD TAKE TOO LONG TO DESCRIBE HERE!THE MAIN POINT IS TONY WITH ALL THAT HE HAD TO DEAL WITH WAS ALWAYS PART OF THE SOLUTION! TO THIS DAY, I STILL USE HIM AS A BENCHMARK WHEN ASCERTAINING IF I AM INTERESTED IN PEOPLE AND, OR DEALS! HE ALWAYS WENT THE EXTRA MILE – NO MATTER HOW INCONVENIENT! AND WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE – A LOT OF THINGS ARE VERY INCONVENIENT!
I STILL REMEMBER CROSSING A BUSY STREET IN RUSH HOUR IN DUBLIN! WE WERE RUNNING POTENTIALLY LATE AND I SUGGESTED WE WALK DOWN A COUPLE BLOCKS TO A CROSS WALK WITH A SIGNAL. TONY SAID HELL DAN THAT COULD TAKE 10 MINS! LET’S CROSS HERE – AND OFF HE WENT – MARCHING AS TO WAR! SOMEHOWHE GOT ACROSS THE STREET WITHOUT A HITCH AND BEFORE ME! NEEDLESS TO SAY, WE MADE OUR MEETING ON TIME! HENCE, HE REMAINS MY STALWART HERO!
I have talked and written about him many times over the years! He took QLA and my coaching into a different dimension for athletics of the disadvantaged! He has represented his country internationally! He has married and has 2 lovely daughters and a terrific wife! He proposed to his wife on the bridge over Guthrie Castle loch! She is a special lady even though she is a tree hugging Irish solicitor/lawyer! LOL!
His words speak for themselves! He is an exceptional man and I am extremely proud to say I had perhaps a little to do with his success! He has made me proud and I am extremely happy to have him in my stable of very special QLA mentees and friends!
Here is his recent email:
Hey Dan,
Hope all is well with you and Sally. Thanks for the latest newsletter – read it and listened to the 4 minute webinar extract – I didn’t find it scary or anything you should be ‘forewarning’ people about! Sure the language is direct and uncompromising but anything else wouldn’t be you!
Reflecting on your admission that you would give yourself a 70% for delivering on your potential, I think you are being a bit hard! For me, I definitely have not achieved my potential but what I do know is that I’m ‘batting at a more higher average’ than I would have been, had I not immersed myself in the QLA for a few years. One can always ‘slip’ back into a comfort zone and I think I have done that, but for me it’s a much bigger and wider zone with higher expectations than it would otherwise have been.
I like the mail from your newest success story, Jennifer. I particularly like her comment that she didn’t’ take a threat from her boyfriend seriously as she is bigger and stronger than him! There are women we both know that would ‘hand your balls back to you on a plate’!
To your continued success,
Tony
QLA NEWSLETTER # 97 AGAIN FOR THOSE THAT MISSED IT! AND A FEW IMPORTANT TRAVEL DATES, AS POST SCRIPTS BELOW, ANNOUNCING WHERE I WILL BE IN THE NEXT COUPLE MONTH WHERE I AM AVAILABLE FOR LIMITED TIMES TO MEET!
A MAN WHO PROCRASTINATES IN HIS CHOOSING WILL INEVITABLY HAVE HIS CHOICE MADE FOR HIM BY CIRCUMSTANCE!
Are you happy where you are in your life?
Time waits for no one! The year is 50% gone!
What have you done so far in 2013?
How are you doing with your year-end goals? Are you proud of what you have done so far this year? If you tested yourself – how would you score? Of course I could go on! If you’re reading this, I sincerely hope you are looking for a change!
I recently celebrated my 20th anniversary in coaching/mentoring QLA devotees! It has been a remarkable 20 years with many successes and of course a number of speed bumps (and a couple giant craters that would dwarf the Grand Canyon) in the road, as well! In that regard, I asked a long-time friend, mentee and business partner how he would rate himself over the last 20 years? At the same time, I rated myself no more than a 70/100 for my long career spanning 5 decades – knowing that I left many things on the table that I could of accomplished – but didn’t! But I kept swinging at the plate – as I still do!
I have written on many occasions, we all have regrets and as I approach my 68th birthday I am often puzzled how and why people do the things they do in the name of good business, parenting, marriage, politics and life in general! As my dear Dad used to tell me – if you live long enough you will very likely see it all! Ergo, I often say – never under estimate how wrong you can be! He lived to be 91 and saw plenty: working as a 7 year old shoe shine boy delivering boot leg liquor during the depression; serving during WW2; serving during the Korean War; and raising me till I reached maturity and visiting me at Guthrie Castle – he told others, I made him very proud!
Taking the above into consideration – with me being older than most of you reading this newsletter – and having coached thousands in the QLA methodology since 1993 – I have some very strong beliefs vies a vies what it takes to be a high performance super successful person! Hell, I have strong views of what it takes merely to be an “also ran” person! Because I have also seen a great deal, dating back to my career long before coaching, where I had success in all parts of the world – I know what it takes to achieve and be a high-performance person! These high performance persons range from Medal of Honour recipients, billionaires, Olympians, astronaut’s, Presidents, Men of God, and some say the Devil himself!
I say this because the QLA methodology is a culmination of my total experiences in life and business with countless people from all backgrounds and demographics! Individuals who have been a Global 25 CEO to guys pushing flower carts! It is the step-by-step system for you to achieve your desires and dreams with no cash! No Ivy League education! No connections! No experience! The only requisite is – the belief in the idea that you can make it happen – if your desire is real and you believe in yourself! I give two great examples below of what can be achieved with no education and no money – with “Mikey the pizza boy who now is a movie maker” and his girlfriend “The Blonde Bimbo” who just made her 2nd acquisition at age 22!
The last April Castle Seminar was extraordinary and was oversold, so I decided to give another seminar in September, even though I had decided I would not! LOL! It was an easy decision for me – because I still love working with those who have dreams! As I say often – Man plans and God laughs!
If you are not moving toward your goals, perhaps you should seriously consider a change of course – now with half the year left! And speaking of change, I am told by marketing pundits, I should increase the cost of the Castle Seminar! But it will remain the same at 10,000 pounds sterling (circa $15,000) because it is still considered out of most peoples comfort zone (CZ) and that is a good thing! Why? Because after more than 40 years of success in life and business, I know one thing to be categorically true – to be a high performance person you “must” stretch yourself outside your CZ! And the plain and simple reason for most people not being more successful is they have stayed put – where they feel comfy and not threatened! An example of this stretching is me moving to Asia when I turned 60 in 2005, from my extremely comfy surroundings! First to India and then to Manila! And in that regard, I see at least one more geographic change in my plans! So if I can continue to push myself at my age – why can’t you? As I have told countless QLA devotees, I never ask any of them to do something I haven’t done myself – or continue to do every day!
If you are on the fence about what to do next – listen and watch this short 4-minute video from a recent webinar from Guthrie Castle. It will put your thinking in proper perspective! It is pretty graphic, so be careful who you give it to – LOL! But it is vintage me and I make no apologies (other than I look like I have just got out of bed, but I had just completed a gym workout! LOL!) for its content or aggressive posture! When I was live during the webinar, I saw the audience numbers fall as I hit many tender trigger points with the audience all over the world! Listen and learn! Pass it on to someone you want to help achieve more in their life! I personally feel very strongly you should make it mandatory for your kids over 15, to listen to it daily! LOL!https://www.youtube.com/embed/c1gaes7YfZA?rel=0&autoplay=1
DID YOU LISTEN TO THE FOUR MINUTES?
Well what did you think? Did it sound familiar? Could you relate? Did you feel any guilt? Now if I was a regular success guru – which thank God i am not, I would not talk to you in this manner! Hence, you are probably asking – why does Dan talk to us this way? Or why wouldn’t Dan tell me it is easy to be a high performance person, etc., like virtually all other success motivational gurus do? Well if you have to ask – you are subscribed to the wrong newsletter – and please unsubscribe! Because that is certainly not consistent with what I have seen it takes to be very successful in this extremely competitive world we live in today! I tell it like it is and have for 20 years in the coaching/mentoring arena! In fact I have told it like it is almost all my adult life – or for almost 50 years, since I volunteered for the US Army in 1966! And in that “tell it how it is” vein, I would put this video on your cell phone and listen to it daily, if not more often! Inundate yourself with the absolute reality of what it takes to be super successful – get outside your comfort zone – now! You can thank me later!
My next 7-day QLA Castle Seminar is September 20-26, 2013. It is almost filled up, with 8 weeks to go and will be another extravaganza like no other! I guarantee it!
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
You were once interested in QLA and Dan Pena, or you would not be receiving this newsletter – but something happened! Can you justify why you are where you are in life? Or why you didn’t take direct action? Of course you can! That is what is great about being human and procrastination! If you are still a candidate to initiate great things this year, contact Thelma at thelmag@guthriecastle.com and obtain more info at http://www.danpena.com/seminar
I look forward to seeing you at my Fairy-Tale 15th Century Guthrie Castle – where you can make “today’s dreams your realities now” as so many others have in the past 20 years!
To Your Quantum Leap,
Dan
P.S. Read the Foreword of my 2nd edition book “Your First 100 Million” by Dr Klaus Kleinfeld, Former CEO of NEOM, Former President/CEO of Siemens; Former Chairman/CEO of Alcoa; Former Chairman/CEO of Arconic http://www.danpena.com/from-the-book/foreword-by-dr-klaus-kleinfeld/. As I have written, I mentored Klaus from 1997/8 to 2005 when he became CEO of Siemens AG, then the 25th largest company in the world! Klaus was my honoured guest at April’s QLA Castle Seminar!
P.P.S. And to show you another example of perseverance with no PHD and no money – here is the girlfriend of “Mikey the pizza boy” who now makes feature movies in Hollywood! And you must remember, Mikey was a limo driver when I met him and first gave him direction and guidance!
Some of you have asked me to tell more of my 22 year old super star – who I call affectionately The Blonde Bimbo! I have written about this very young lady before! She is a terrific example of what can be accomplished with very little – which is the basis of my QLA methodology! Read her recent email to me – and if you don’t feel f- – – king ashamed and lacking you are probably doing something correct, or have given up! But if you do feel lacking – well you know what I will say! WTF! Of course you may be of the large group of readers that merely feel sorry for yourself! Again WTF!
“Hi Dan,
Got you message on Facebook, resending business acquisition details!
Thanks for adding me to your newsletter awhile back, Mikey said I couldn’t write you until I bought another business I could tell you about, otherwise I would just be wasting your time.
I have been eagerly waiting to update you.
Trying to buy my second Pilates studio last year was a bust. Man plans, God laughs
Mikey threatened to break up with me if I wasn’t going to grow my business exponentially. I told him I’d like to see you try, I’m a lot taller and stronger than he is! But I figured I’d better
get growing sooner rather than later. So I’ve been working on acquiring another studio in Palos Verdes/Rolling Hills estates down the street from when you lived in Rolling Hills. The original
asking price of the studio was 255,000 after the first meeting with the owners I knew I would be able to get the business for less.
I then made three offers for them to choose which offer they liked.
1) 150k with 10k down and the balance as a seller note.
2) 120k with 20k down and the balance as a seller note.
3) 75k cash pending my loan went through.
I made offers hoping they would take the 75k cash but happy with any choice.
The concern with the studio was that the business location potentially had to be moved, this is something i foresaw and made my offers according to this possibility. After finding out
that moving the studio was a must and not just an option the owners came back and gave me an even lower offer then I had given them by 25k!! They called me and offered a more
“creative financing solution” actual words he said. Funny because during our first meeting Mikey came with me and used those same words when talking about financing. Mikey had
implemented this from the beginning the idea of creative offers knowing i have very low funds to finance it.
1) $50k cash to buy the studio
2) 25k down with a note of 30 equaling $55k total
Well unfortunately my loan never went through but luckily with a creative offer of 25k down and 30k note I was able to buy my second business last week. I have a beautiful new location
to move the studio into in a prime part of Palos Verdes/Rolling Hills estates area. I am putting the right team in place and preparing for my next acquisition.
Love all the castle videos!
Ps Hit my goal, 2 businesses prime locations while I’m still 22 years old.
Also congrats on making the final cut in Mikey’s Mikeyboy the movie!
Best,
Jennifer “the Pilates room”
– see more at: http://www.danpena.com/newsletter/new-qla-case-study-workshop-seminar/#sthash.xxzwn4o8.dpuf
All three, Klaus, Mikey and Jennifer did several things extremely well, but really excelled at: 1) they listened; 2) followed QLA; 3) and were doggedly laser beam focused!
P.P.P.S. Our scars have the power to remind us that the past is real. There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.