I have a great idea for a tv show. Five camera crews follow five people picked at random who send in a postcard or make a call. Each crew is assigned to follow one person for 24 hours to see how hard that person is willing to try to reach for at least one solid, even if tiny, measurable step towards a long-term goal

You're given a list of 1100 people who urgently need a rare product that you happen to have. Nine hundred of them consider $200 an excellent price to pay for each one, and you're only paying $20 per item. Plus, you know that you can get as many as you need from someone else who wants to sell them so badly he'll give them to you on credit. (By the way, opportunities somewhat similar to this happen hundreds of times every week across the country, every week, from cars and houses selling for a hundred dollars to IPO's that multiply dollars in a single day).

It takes but a few minutes to present the item, plus travelling time, and setting up appointments by phone, internet, fax, etc., for each prospective customer.

Keep in mind that nine hundred out of the eleven hundred are going to be thrilled with a $200 price tag, while the other hundred will refuse to pay it, and may even be abusive in the process.

The catch is, they're attending a special banquet, and anyone wearing a particular variety of orchid gets a personal, two-hour audience with two of the world's richest men. So you have the opportunity to sell every one of them this particular rare flower. Therefore, the item is only worth $200 to these people until this coming Friday evening.

The question is, how many of those people will you see? Almost precisely 93 of every 100 people, even in the face of such enormous opportunity, are too profoundly stupid to act upon it. No kidding. Ninety-three of every one hundred people will earn as much as double or triple their normal daily pay, believe they made a 'killing,' go home to sleep, and do it again for another day or so until the deadline. Maybe, just maybe they'll work as much as twelve hours per day.

What about you? Are you like me? Would you find a way to see all nine hundred of those hungry customers?

How many hours will you sleep between now and Friday evening? If you get to all nine hundred of the hungry clients, you collect $180,000, subtract the mere eighteen thousand you pay, and you have $162,000 profit for a few days of work.

The biggest challenge here is that you believe the foregoing is 'only a hypothetical example.' In fact, it's a great example of a thousand opportunities being followed up by thousands of people every single day of the year. It's the biggest challenge because those people following up these opportunities already believe in, understand, and know the value of following through on their better opportunities, where you don't.

Doesn't get too much more complicated than that. They believe, and they act on those beliefs. You believe differently, and act upon your differing beliefs in a completely different way. This is easily analogized with Henry Ford's famous comment that "People who say they can, and people who say they cannot.... are invariably right." Think about it.

You're handed a list... ... ...

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