There are 13 Horses to ride, listed from the worst horse to ride to the best one. When the odds are quoted, it is not the payoffs which are being quoted. Rather, it is your chances of winning big, your chances of becoming "successful" on your own, which are being quoted.
- The Long Shots (Bad Horses)
13. The Hard-Work Horse : 100 to 1
12. The IQ Horse : 75 to 1
11. The Education Horse : 50 to 1 - The Medium Shots (Good Horses)
10. The Company Horse : 25 to 1
9. The Creativity Horse : 20 to 1
8. The Hobby Horse : 15 to 1
7. The Publicity Horse : 10 to 1 - The Short Shots (Great Horses)
6. The Product Horse : 7 to 1
5. The Idea Horse : 6 to1
4. The Other-Person Horse : 5 to1
3. The Partner Horse : 4 to 1
2. The Spouse Horse : 3 to 1
1. The Family Horse : 2 to 1
THE LONG SHOTS
These are the most popular horses to ride. These are also the most difficult and the least likely to pay off. The long shots are based on finding something inside yourself. A long shot, unfortunately, doesn't pay off any better than a short shot. It's just a more difficult horse to win with.
The Hard-Work Horse : 100 to 1
The longest of shots is yourself. When you build your personal marketing strategy around your own talents and abilities and neglect outsiders, you are riding yourself. It's a tough proposition. You usually fall behind and then you start whipping yourself. Whipping yourself is another way of saying "working harder". If everyone else is putting seven hours a day, you put in eight. If everyone else puts in eight, you put in nine and so on.
The truth is Hard work and a good horse will get you anything in life, the hard work is optional.
The IQ Horse : 75 to 1
It has been seen that CEO's of most major companies didn't have a very high IQ level. The top executives come from the middle of the IQ curve. There's a reason why intelligence doesn't correlate very well with success. The smarter people are, the more they depend upon themselves. After all, they know everything. They depend on themselves to get ahead. But it's a long shot. Less intelligent people know they are less intelligent. Therefore, they are more likely to look for others to help them up the ladder of success.
The Education Horse : 50 to 1
Related to IQ is the issue of education. Should a person depend on the Education Horse to get to the top? Well, the Education Horse is particularly good out of the starting gate. All by itself a college degree doesn't buy you very much.
Remember the function of the Education Horse is to get you into the race. A degree all by itself is unlikely to make your horse go any faster. Be careful riding the Education Horse. You can easily lose your most precious commodity in the halls of ivy, the common sense.
THE MEDIUM SHOTS
What differentiates a medium shot from a long shot ?
The long shots are based on finding something inside yourself. The medium shots are also based on using something inside yourself, but with a difference. You have to connect that concept with others.
The Company Horse : 25 to 1
Most people think this is the horse to ride. A college-graduate-to- be would interview with a number of big companies on campus, hopefully getting a number of job offers. Normally he would pick the biggest company or the highest starting salary, preferably both. Once that decision was made, he was set for the rest of his life. It was ever upward and onward, with the CEO prize a reasonable possibility. It is not true
To sum up, the Company Horse is the most popular horse to ride. Each year, millions of college graduates flock to interview with the corporate recruiters. " The bigger, the better " seems to be the rule when deciding which job offer to take. However, to succeed you have to have the foresight to be an Early Bird, the stomach to be a Politician, the fortitude to be a Flasher, or the luck to be a Hero or a White Knight!
The Creativity Horse : 20 to 1
It is not necessary that if are creative and talented, you will become successful. To be a creative star, you need more than talent. You need recognition. If you are an artist, you need a gallery to recognize your ability. If you are a writer, you need a publisher. If you are a musician, you need a record company. In short, you need recognition from someone else who can make you successful. You need a horse to ride. Creative talents also have to learn to listen to their audiences. They have to adapt to what people want them to be, rather than vice versa.
The Hobby Horse : 15 to 1
It's amazing how, many successful businesses have evolved out of avocations or hobbies. One of the factors that comes into play is confidence. When you like to do something, you tend to do a lot of it. The more you do it, the better you get at it and the more confidence you develop.
The Publicity Horse : 10 to 1
It's a fact of corporate life, especially in big corporations, that visibility counts for more than ability. It's nice to have both, but if you have to take one or the other, take visibility. You can ride the Publicity Horse to the top because 90% of the people are not independent thinkers. The Publicity Horse is powerful, but it also works in reverse. Negative publicity can destroy a product, a company or a person. Nor is it the volume of publicity that counts. What you should strive for is to generate one powerful positive story that you can repeat over and over again.
To ride the Publicity Horse well, you have to learn how to "play the press". You can't be too aggressive and you can't be too bashful. As a general rule, don't call them. Let them call you. And to give yourself a chance to make the publicity big time, you have to be slightly outrageous. It's the offbeat, shocking or controversial idea that will get the attention of the media.
THE SHORT SHOTS
What's the difference between a short shot and a medium shot ?
In a medium shot situation, you depend partially on yourself and partially on outsiders. In a short-shot situation, you depend totally on outsiders for your success. When you get totally outside of yourself, the odds are better.
The Product Horse : 7 to 1
A person can become successful by being associated with a product that is successful. That is by riding the Product Horse.
This shows that, recognizing somebody else's genius is almost always the key to your own success. The biggest problem that happens is that, most people can't recognize a good product when they see one.
Another aspect which is interesting is that, it isn't necessary that the person who invented a particular product becomes successful. Most of the time, it is the person who recognized the potential of the concept, who becomes successful. The best example being Dick and Mac McDonald who introduced the concept of hamburgers in drive-in's. However, it wasn't these two brothers who gained the maximum profits out of this new concept. In fact, it was Ray Kroc, who recognized the brilliance of the McDonald's concept and made hundreds of millions from it through the famous McDonalds outlets, which he set up after getting the rights from the two brothers.
The Idea Horse : 6 to1
Everyone knows that an idea can take you to the top faster than anything else. But people sometimes expect too much of an idea. They want one that is not only great, but one that everyone else thinks is great too. There are no such ideas. If you wait until an idea is ready to be accepted, it's too late. Someone else will have preempted it. As going the saying, " Anything definitely in is already on it's way out."
To ride the Idea Horse, you must be willing to expose yourself to ridicule and controversy. You must be willing to go against the tide. You can't be first with a new idea unless you are ready to stick your neck out. And take a lot of abuse.
A good idea is seldom recognized as such. When Brian Epstein went to London to try to get a recording contract for the Beatles, he was snubbed. Among the rejections came the classic from Decca: " Go back to Liverpool, Mr. Epstein. Four-groups are out." It is a different story altogether that the Beatles went on to become the most famous group in history. Experts are usually wrong, especially when they pontificate on subjects which tend to reflect unfavorably on their own expertise.
According to Ries and Trout, a good idea which needs nurturing, can be recognized, by asking the following questions.
- Is it a First ?
- Is it Bold ?
- Is it Obvious ?
- Is it Simple ?
- Will it upset the Apple Cart ?
A good idea has publicity value. And nothing has more publicity value than an idea that is shocking. Advertising agencies have learned that shocking ads make good publicity. And good publicity makes a successful ad agency.
The Other-Person Horse : 5 to1
The key to success is always somebody else. Even when you ride an idea or a product to the top, you are counting on others to recognize the value of the idea or the product. You don't make a sale. Somebody else has to buy. What's true in selling products is also true in selling yourself. First somebody else has to recognize your good qualities and then "buy" you by giving you a job or a promotion.
In the course of a typical career, this selling and buying process takes place many times. Furthermore, the timing can be brutal. There is an easier way. One of the best horses to ride is the Other-Person Horse. You sell yourself once and the job is done. The person who is most suited to be the Other Person is your Boss. By impressing not only your immediate boss but the boss two to three rungs above you, will make your task of getting to the top that much easier.
The Partner Horse : 4 to 1
The Partner Horse, of course, is a variation of the Other-Person Horse. The difference is that partners are combinations of equals. Equality has a number of advantages. True partners trust each other. They can be objective with each other. Usually you are not a good judge of your own ideas. You need someone you can trust to evaluate your ideas, perhaps to suggest changes and modifications. And vice-versa.
Partners can be a powerful combination in almost any business or professional situation. Two people can usually do better than either one would alone. There's a long history of entrepreneurial partnerships in the business world. Jobs and Wozniak of Apple. Allen and Gates of Microsoft. But perhaps the most successful of all partnerships was the one that was started in 1938 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in a garage in a rooming house.
The Spouse Horse : 3 to 1
Marriage used to be for two reasons : love and/or children. But times are changing. New divorce laws have redefined marriage as an "economic partnership." In the living room as well as in the courtroom, marriage has been an economic partnership for many years. Most women, like most men, are nowadays employed. With both spouses working or looking for work, it's a tragic waste to ignore what you can do for your spouse, or vice versa. There are signs that riding the Spouse Horse is becoming more and more popular. What about love ? Who's to say why people marry the people they do. If you marry for money instead of love, at least you suffer in comfort.
For whatever reason you find yourself married, make the most of it. It's crime not to. No one is likely to be more helpful in your career than your spouse. No one has more motivation to help you. No one is available 24 hours a day than a spouse. Every one of us needs someone else to give us a boost up the ladder. It is ironic that many people would rather ask a stranger for help than their own spouse. An "economic partnership" implies cooperation, not competition.
A horse in the barn is worth two in the bush.
The Family Horse : 2 to 1
You can't divorce a son or a daughter, or a parent for that matter. That fact alone gives this horse an advantage over the Spouse Horse. The Family Horse is responsible for the many corporate dynasties you find in the world today. 175 of the Fortune 500 largest industrial companies are family controlled, according to Family Business magazine. That's 35%. The magazine defines family control as 25% ownership with at least two members involved in running the company. That leaves out some big companies with large family ownership positions.
The Family Horse ought to be your first choice. Before you look for another horse to ride, look at your birth certificate. If you find a name like Kennedy, Ford, Trump, Tata, Birla, or Ambani, look no further. These are powerful family dynasties. Maybe your family belongs on this list. If so, accept your good fortune. Don't fight it.
By Tanadi Santoso
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