Margin：多一點，好一點

你知道美國總統Garfield有關margin的故事嗎？

總統Garfield有關margin的故事可以教你掙更多的錢，教你享受你生活中更多的成功樂趣。

What President Garfield's story of "margins" can teach you about making more money and enjoying more success in your life

James Garfield出生在一個小木屋裏（log cabin)。家境貧困，父母也沒什麽文化。然而他自己後來卻成了一位學者、內戰時的一位英雄，接著當了十八年的國會議員，最終還當上美國的第20位總統。 小時候，他在學校裏有位對手，每次人家拿的分數就是比他高。他很迷惑。誰也不比誰更有天分，誰也不比誰受到更好的教育，或更聰明，那到底是怎麽回事呢？一天夜裏，它揭開了那孩子的秘密。 那天夜裏他熄了燈準備上床睡覺。不經意間從窗戶望出，跨過校園，發現他的對手仍然在挑燈夜戰。他連續觀察了幾個晚上，天天如此，他的對手每天晚上總是要多學上一會兒。 Garfield認識到他的對手就是利用每天多讀一會兒而超越了他。因此他決定，每天自己也要多讀那麽一會兒，而且每天比對手再額外多讀15分鍾。到了學年結束，Garfield發現自己的成績比對手好了一點。 在現實生活中，作每件事都一樣，成功和失敗之間的區別就那麽一點點。對於體育競技和娛樂比賽，其實大家相差無幾，贏者也就是贏了那麽一點點。我們要說的事，不是說誰比誰更聰明或更有能力，而是說你如何去開發這些能力和如何去用這些能力。

James Garfield was born in a log cabin to poor, uneducated parents, yet he went on to become a scholar, a Civil War hero, a U.S. congressman for 18 years and, eventually, the twentieth president of the United States. When he was a young boy, Garfield had a rival student at school who consistently received higher marks than he. This puzzled and frustrated him because he knew that the other boy was no more talented, educated, or smarter than himself. Then one night he discovered the boy's secret.  Garfield had put out his lamp and was getting ready for bed when he looked out his window across campus and noticed that his rival student was still up studying. He watched him every night after that and noticed that this process continued; his rival was putting in several additional minutes of study every night. Garfield decided that it was by this small margin that his rival was beating him and decided to not only match his rival's extra study time, but to make sure he added an extra 15 minutes more every night. At the end of the school year, Garfield found himself ahead by a small margin. As in all things in life, the margin between success and failure is often exceedingly small. It's not uncommon for the average athlete or the average entertainer to win by a very small margin. That's because it's not just a matter of having natural talents and abilities, but rather what you do to develop those abilities and how you put them to use.

 Success in business is just like that

How is it that one small consulting firm can double or triple its revenue when others in the same area, marketing to the same customers, using the same vendors, remain stagnant or even decline?

Go to any event in the IT industry two years in a row and talk to the same business owners you spoke to at the previous year's event. Why do most report only a tiny increase in growth, clients, profits, and success year after year and continue to complain about the same problems, while only a small few report exponential gains?

Why do so many consultants settle -- even resign themselves -- to owning a "job" that commands them to work 60+ hours a week without breaks, significant rewards, or the promise of a big payout?

That's because success in business -- which is the ability to get things done, to persuade others, and to develop a master plan and execute that plan -- is in direct proportion to the owner's ability to invest that little extra marginal time and effort into mastering the key skills every business owner must learn to be a success.

Obviously one of those skills is selling and marketing. Truth be told, it's the "Achilles heel" of most smart, hard-working, small business owners in the IT industry. It seems that no other aspect of running a profitable, thriving business stumps them more.

And if you are reading this, you would probably agree that your lack of expertise in marketing IS significantly harming your income, profitability, and overall success in business to some degree.

But I've got some great news that is actually a "secret" most don't know about marketing

You don't actually have to be a marketing master to generate significant gains in your business; you only have to be marginally better than your competition.

Do you know the old joke about two men walking through the woods who stumble upon a bear? Realizing the immediate danger they are in, the one man starts to run only to notice his friend is bent over tying his shoes. He yells to the other man, "What are you doing? Why are you tying your shoes instead of running?" The other man replies, "I'm tying my shoes because I don't have to outrun the bear -- I only have to outrun you."

The same is true in marketing your business. You don't have to be a Zen master at marketing to win -- you only have to be marginally better than the competition.

Just imagine being able to be only five per cent or 10 per cent better than your competition at attracting new customers and closing sales. Imagine being only marginally better at marketing online and creating web sites that really sell. Imagine knowing only a handful of "tricks" for attracting new clients with direct mail, networking, and partnering that your competition wasn't even aware of.

Just think about what that would do to your income. The effect would be astounding.

Quite honestly, I don't like to tell my clients this little "secret" because I truly want them to master marketing. I want them to know what I know and invest serious time into studying the "art" of persuasion. But truth be told, they only need to make a few changes to see results; that's because most of their competitors are so severely lacking when it comes to marketing.

-----By: Robin Robins,

[惠蘭]

端午節快樂!

[惠蘭]

Agree with you. Thank you for sharing.

[stillthere]

Success in everywhere is just like this.