After Lou Manco’s great suggestion of R, you finally have a shot at maybe being able to tell what industry I’m planning on going into.
So if you have any guesses for what the industry is or just want to guess another letter (Remember, I only take the first letter from the comments. So, get your suggestion in early) leave it in the comments.
-Nick
What, you don't trust business advice from a 40 year old with no shirt and long hair?
As some of you may know, I spent a good number of years as an illusion designer. Creating and designing large-scale stage illusions and effects…you know, magic tricks. I did that until last year when a book I had written on the topic, just 2 months shy of release was lost to a hard drive failure. After losing a book I spent the better part of four years writing, I decided to call it quits for a time and have since been developing and planning other ventures like my Countdown to Millions.
And although I may be out of the “biz” I still carry with me all the lessons I learned from my years designing and performing magic. So, here are five lessons I learned from magic that can also serve me (and hopefully you as well) in the business world:
5. Show off your Dancers
Let’s be honest, magicians in general are not a good-looking bunch. Most of them spend their time dancing around in outfits that the 1980’s would have found ostentatious. So, when they’re onstage, you’ll notice that most magicians hardly ever actually do anything. They stand around while their assistants dance seductively in skimpy outfits. They wave their arms mysteriously, while an assistant in a box is doing all the hard work. It really makes you wonder why the magician is even there.
In business, you don’t have dancers…unless you run a dance studio. However, what you do have are assets; whether they be products, sales people, or simply a new twist on an old idea. It’s important to focus on these, because these things create excitement. Sure there is some creative force behind it all (Like the magician), but without attractive assets to present to an audience, no one is going to care about what you’re offering.
…Unless you happen to work with a lot of tigers.
4. Stay Flexible
As majestic and graceful as a good magic performance looks, there is a lot of torso twisting and back-bending being done by the assistants (and occasionally the magician) in order to pull off the feats that you are witnessing. There’s a reason that magicians tend to pick flexible dancer-types to be their assistants instead of, say, butchers. If you can’t easily stick your own foot up your own…well, umm, let’s just say you won’t last long as an assistant.
Likewise, if a business wants to be successful, it and it’s leaders must always be willing to bend and twist to avoid the swords and saws being thrust at them. And before I stretch this metaphor any thinner, I’ll move on.
3. Always Try to Stay in the Black
As any of your, ummm, “larger” friends can tell you, black is very slimming. This is a secret that magicians have been exploiting long before the Style network started promoting it for all of their plus-sized viewers. In magic, black is generally used to thin or obscure a hiding spot for the magician or one of his assistants, tricking the eye into thinking that there is no way a person can fit in a certain space. So if a magician can stay in the black, he’ll stay out of sight, and not be exposed. Thus the show goes on successfully.
Similarly, in business if a company can stay in the black, then it will stay out of any bad press. So, while it’s okay to take on some debt in order to start or grow a business, after a certain point you have to expect a company to make money
…Facebook and Twitter, I’m looking at you.
2. It’s All About the Performance
There are some amazing illusions out there being performed by some of the best magicians in the world, but those same illusions are often performed by some of the worst. The effect that they are trying to sell is not the important part, their ability to sell it is. A bad magician tries selling himself, an okay magician tries selling himself, and a great magician does sell himself. People are not really there to see effects they are there for a performance and a good magician will give it to them with or without the fancy effects.
In business if you can sell yourself or your company as a concept and become greater than your products, then people will give your company the attention rather than just the products. This is how Apple created their legendary “cult of Mac.” The experience of owning a Mac (and also Steve Jobs) were built up to be the real product. Once people bought into that, they practically had to buy the computer to go along with the attitude.
Full Disclosure: I only use Macs, so I guess I got suckered in with this trick too.
1. Criss Angel is only Famous Because he Sold his Soul to the Devil
…Either that or he’s got the best marketing team in the world.
In magic terms, Criss is a hack. He utilizes camera tricks far too often and is a horrible performer in general, but he is successful. Why? His team markets him as the greatest magician ever. Couple that with his ability to sell himself as the “real deal,” creating a cult out of what would normally just be fans, and you have a very powerful marketing tool at your disposal.
So, let that be a lesson to you: If you want to be a magician, but you happen to be horrible at magic, just get the best magicians around: a PR and marketing firm.
And while good marketing might not be able to save a horrible business, it can definitely help one that isn’t the best.
So, what do you think. Are there any lessons from magic or any other field that you can think of that can also apply to business? Let me know in the comments.
-Nick
Well, we’re still trying to discover, through a game of hangman, what industry I plan on getting into in order to begin my path towards millions.
And it looks like Dom’s choice of the oft-unbeatable “E” may not have been the best one, giving up only a single space. It could have been worse. A little stick figure could have had a body part added to the two dimensional noose above. Luckily Dom help to prolong the life of our little stick-man, who as of right now is still invisible.
So, there is one letter known…anyone have a guess as to what it could be? If so leave it in the comments. If not, feel free to post a letter in the comments. I’ll take the first letter that someone posts and plug it into the puzzle above.
Hang in there.
-Nick
What other face so appropriately says, "I've lied?"
Well, I was hoping to keep this site going for a little more than 10 days (As the countdown on the right indicates), but recent events have forced my hand in this situation, and I must tell you that I am not who I say I am.
Those who read this blog, undoubtedly know me as “Nick Fox,” but truth be told he is simply some guy I found on Facebook, I just ripped off his profile image and plugged him in as a character in this whole “Countdown to Millions” thing. The concept itself was hatched, as most great ideas are, a few weeks ago at a bar. I was talking with a friend who said that what people really need right now is an “everyman” someone they can follow and relate too when everything else in the world seems to be going wrong. So, I just randomly searched Facebook, until I found a suitably ambitious-looking young man; that was Nick.
Nick probably has no clue that I did any of this, and if he does, he seems to be a good sport about the whole thing, because I haven’t heard from him yet.
So, why, if Nick doesn’t know about this do I have to unmask myself? The truth is I happen to be quite a successful entrepreneur, and by some accounts a multi-millionaire already. Those who spend any amount of time on the web will know my name: Kevin Rose.
You might know me from some of my ventures such as Digg, Revision 3, Pownce, or the beer-laden podcast known as Diggnation. If it isn’t obvious by now, my hand was forced for legal reasons. When Jay, the CEO of Digg, found out about my little site here, I got hell for it…not just from him, but from our legal team as well. Clearly this little blog of mine could not survive. It was stupid of me to think that my deception wouldn’t be uncovered and there wouldn’t be any repercussions from it, but given the potentially libelous nature of the material here, the legal team told me I only had one option: Shut down the blog.
I have to say, it was fun being anonymous for a while, to have to work for every set of eyes that came across this site. It really made me appreciate how far I’ve really come in my own life. And although Nick doesn’t realize it, that is a gift that he gave to me.
To anyone, including Nick, that I’ve hurt in any way, I’m sincerely sorry. I can only say that I only had the best of intentions, I only wanted to give people hope, something to aspire to, and with the economy the way it is, hope is something that we will always need…even us millionaires.
-Kevin
Update (April 1, 2009 - 7:12PM): What’s that? It’s April Fools day, you say? Well, I guess I’m not Kevin Rose then…damn looks like I’m going to have to keep working if I ever want to get millions and a BusinessWeek cover like K. Rose. Hope you all enjoyed my little diversion, but now I must get back to work.
-Nick “I’m a Real Boy” Fox
Blair Witch 3
Okay, if you don’t understand what the line drawing above represents, you were officially never a child, please leave.
To those who had a childhood, and are thus still here, you know that this little pictogram means that I’m inviting you to play a little game of hangman with me.
So, you’re probably wondering what you are supposed to be guessing. It’s simple, just guess what industry I’m planning to jump into as my first official venture.
The first letter put forth in the comments will be the letter I use. So, comment quickly if you have a letter you want to play.
If you don’t feel like guessing letters, feel free to try to complete the phrase. Who knows, maybe there will be something in it for you…though probably not.
Good luck and hang loose.
-Nick
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m starting a weekly series of posts showing you how you can think like an entrepreneur. These aren’t meant to be get rich quick scenarios, these are not things like “make millions using Google AdWords,” these are all little things, that when put together will increase your creativity and help you to start thinking like an entrepreneur. With that said, my first tip (if you couldn’t tell from the image):
This is my entrepreneurial face.
Now, your little black book does not have to be little, it does not have to be black, heck it doesn’t even have to be a book, all it really needs to be is some organized place where you keep your ideas. If you’d prefer to use Post Its on your wall or a word document, so be it, I’ve simply chosen to use the height of all pretentious writing tools: a Moleskine notebook.
The trick to using your little black book, just like anything, is persistence. You must be willing to write in your book without a filter, without judging what you’re writing. No matter how good, or how bad an idea is, write it down. Given a little time, and some further thought, you may find that you can refine a bad idea and make it spectacular. Along the same lines, make sure you write down your nebulous ideas; an idea doesn’t need to be fleshed out for it to be useful. In fact, I usually leave myself about a page or two for every idea just incase I want to write any further notes, thoughts, or further develop the idea.
As much as I wish it was, creativity is not a constant, so it is important to write ideas down as you have them, or else they may be lost forever. So, always make sure that you have your little black book handy for when you have a sudden moment of inspiration. You don’t want to have to beat yourself up later for forgetting “the best idea in the world.”
You’ll note that I never said this was limited to business ideas. I did that because entrepreneurial thinking is something you can apply to any and all aspects of your life whether it be business, pleasure, finance, writing, experimental physics, or whatever. Personally, I keep two Moleskine books: one for business and product ideas, and the other for comedy and movie ideas and they both stay within 10 feet of me at all times, because you never know when an idea might hit.
Before I transitioned myself to the little black book model, my room was covered with scraps of paper with half-baked ideas, and somewhere across the room there was probably another bunch of papers refining those ideas. Over the years, because I lacked any sort of organizational system, many of those ideas were simply lost, either physically, or just contextually. You’d be amazed how quickly you can forget the meaning behind something you wrote. Take for instance this, apparent, comedic gem that I found on a scrap of paper: “Smoke Condom.” That’s it! That is the extent of my note regarding what I thought was a brilliant idea at the time. Now, all these years later, I haven’t the foggiest idea what I was talking about.
Persistence plays a role here as well; always follow up on ideas, and clearly define them for yourself, otherwise a few years from now you might find yourself struggling to remember what the hell a smoke condom is and why it would be so hilarious.
Alright, here’s this week’s tip in a nutshell: Write every idea you ever have down. Creativity comes in bursts so you’d better be ready to transcribe it when it arrives. And always make sure to follow up, define, and refine your ideas so you don’t forget what the idea was.
With that said…does anyone have any idea what a smoke condom is? I’d really like to know.
-Nick
'ello, 'ave you got an oidea for me? (Typing in an accent is difficult)
For an entrepreneur, one of the hardest things is taking an idea from concept to completion. That process may have just gotten a bit simpler.
For all of you creative types out there, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, is creating a television program specifically for Virgin Atlantic’s in-flight entertainment. The show is called PitchTV, and it could allow you to get your idea in front of the right trans-atlantic passenger to take your concept from a really nice dream to really, really real.
Branson has also promised a special prize for his favorite pitch every year.
So what are you waiting for? Upload your pitch to the website. Who knows, if your idea is good enough, you might even beat me to $1,000,000.
-Nick
From now on, this is the only crazy thing on this blog.
I often joke that I must be crazy, or at the very least daft, to attempt to start a business in the current economic climate. But just today, I found an article that has my back in my endeavor to start a business and make millions.
And this isn’t just any article; no. It comes straight from the land of fancy accents, queens, Mary Poppins, and Sting: England. And as we all know, England is without fault (Unless you count bad teeth, the enigma of beefeaters, and all the people they’ve killed in the pursuit of an empire that has since fallen), so such an article is always welcome around these parts…especially when it makes me seem nearly sane.
In the article it discusses many of the reasons that I decided to start this mission, including the simple idea of trying to overcome a challenge, and even goes so far as to say that a new golden age of entrepreneurship is on the horizon. Now, I’m not saying that I will in any way contribute to this golden age, but it’s comforting to know that there are others like me who see this time not as a cause for fear, but rather as a prime opportunity to create and change the world around us. Whether the world is simply limited to our own personal life, or whether it reaches into other spheres of influence, there’s no denying that there is great potential for the entrepreneurs in all of us.
So, with that in mind, over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting some thoughts of mine on how to foster that creative, entrepreneurial spirit. Who knows, with some training maybe you too could become part of the coming entrepreneurial revolution. And just as with any revolution, it’s always the crazy ones that seem to lead the way.
-Nick
Maybe Biggie got it wrong.
As the song by the Notorious B.I.G. once mused, “It’s like the more money we come across; the more problems we see,” so it stands to reason that the more money you have the more difficult your life will become. If that was true, I’d have to be absolutely insane to attempt to make as much money as I am (Which I may very well be). But what if Biggie got it wrong? Just as someone can choose to work smart instead of hard, so to can you choose to forgo “mo’ problems” in favor of a smarter approach to money. This is the very same approach that millionaires the world over use…though they often pay someone to do it for them. However, the secret to this smarter approach is something that you can do yourself, and you don’t even have to be a millionaire to do it. That secret is automation.
As you know from your everyday life, though there may be a few big issues with money, the majority of the problems that you come across are relatively minor, but given enough of them they can become overwhelming. The trick then is to get your money to work for you and not against you, through automation. By doing this you can clear your schedule and leave more time to enjoy the money you have, or even make more of it, like I’m attempting to do.
This article posted by Timothy Ferriss, author of the spectacularly engaging book The Four-Hour Work Week, and written by Ramit Sethi, author of the boldly-titled I Will Teach You to be Rich, lays out some great approaches to automate your money. The article includes great tips on setting up accounts to help organize your finances, getting money wired into those various accounts automatically without you having to lift a finger, and even how to get your bank to waive some fees and surcharges (With some helpful scripts you can use to make it happen). There’s also a lot of helpful advice about setting up an “emergency fund;” something that has become increasingly important in these tough economic times.
Following the advice in that article might not make you a millionaire, but it may just make you think like one. So, give some of the tricks a shot and let me know how they work out for you. Who knows, you might be able to save yourself some money and some headaches, leading to a life with more money and fewer problems.
-Nick
So there you go. If you’ve ever wanted to become a millionaire, just follow my simple instructions and you’ll be there in no time. That said, I think I’ll choose another, non-pornographic, route to my millions.
-Nick