做个有饥饿感的创业者

在生活中或者生意场上获得了像赢了美国“超级碗”大赛那样的成功后，如果不马上重新投入训练，你就再也不会赢第二次——你必须保持饥饿感，无论输赢，无论成功还是失败。不管赢得今年超级碗的是卡罗莱纳黑豹还是丹佛野马，如果他们停止训练，就再也不会举起这座奖杯。成功需要保持专注，一旦停止追寻，它就会和你擦肩而过。你必须把争取成功作为一种应尽的义务、一项不成功便成仁的任务、一样不可或缺的东西，你的心态得像一只在运肉卡车车厢里的饿狗。

让顾客知道你有饥饿感。不要表现得好像你不需要他们的生意。有句老话说：“在真正成功之前,首先装作成功。”嗯，它在这里并不适用。相反，你得“像饿了一样去做事，以保证自己不会挨饿。”

今天我要向大家提出两项挑战：

1. 你必须改变自己的思路。

没人喜欢那些表现的高人一等的人，所以绝不要让自己显得重要到不需要别人的生意。如果你不需要他们的生意，你也就没生意可做。大家都欣赏那些能多付出一些，真正向别人展现出自己的所想和所需而且珍视他人生意的人。目空一切的态度永远也创造不出强大、资金充裕、繁荣而又富足的经济。

在我主持的研讨会上，几乎每次都会有人对我说：“如果我对生意表现得过于迫切，恐怕就会显得软弱。”我的回答也总是一样：“你可能犯的最大错误就是没有对生意表现出饥饿感。”让我们面对一个事实，那就是在任何经济中，你需要客户的程度都要超过他们需要你的程度。“他们需要我，而我不那么需要他们”的态度一定会失败；对待顾客时要显得他们比你和你的公司更有价值，因为情况确实如此。

在任何时候都要表现得好像你的生命就依赖于每一笔交易。如果你必须告诉别人你真的需要他们的生意，那么，你就很可能表现得还不够有饥饿感。表现出饥饿感意味着你的目标很高或者竞争意识很强。它也许源于战胜贫困或以往失败经历的需要，也可能是因为你对成功是如此的渴望。无论你在生活中的位置如何，如果你想保持领先，就必须愿意不惜代价地争取更多生意，无论时局是好还是坏。

2. 采取大量行动。

去年做的事对眼下的市场来说没有任何意义。曾是本领域龙头，如今却只能在书上看到的公司在历史上比比皆是。Sears和Kmart就是两个绝佳的例子。它们都曾是某个领域的主导者，但都因为傲慢而失去了这样的位置。目前这两家公司都在市场中苦苦挣扎。

把所有的时间、精力、创造力和资源都用于推进自己的目标，让自己出类拔萃到足以一直夺取竞争对手的业务。真实的生意场是世界上最残酷的战场，它不容忍自负，也不容忍生活在过去中的人。顾客不会重视借口、时机、原因、评级、过往和处境，他们只重视结果。如果你想建立自己的经济，就得知道自己面对的是什么。你必须愿意做别人不愿做的事，甚至在似乎“过分”的行为层面采取那些你自己或许都会认为“不合理”的行动。

缺少努力可能就是因为认识不足，或者十分自负，也可能二者兼有。请变得比以前更有用、更客气、更容易相处、更谦逊，而且愿意付出额外的努力。

超过所有人的期望，表明你真的希望和别人做生意，并且竭尽全力来予以争取。如果你让客户有了喜欢你的真正理由，展现出愿为他们做任何事的可靠意愿，总是能提供帮助而且绝不退缩，他们就会愿意跟你做生意，无论是什么样的生意。请记住，增加洽谈次数的唯一途径就是跟更多的人进行交流，并且充分说明他们为什么要在你身上花时间。

就我个人而言，只要为我服务的人展现出那种饥饿感，表明他们愿意为了争取我的生意而竭尽全力，我就会尽可能地为他们提供支持。只要能展现出这种饥饿的态度，我就会一直跟他们做生意。我觉得我的这种做法并不特殊。大多数人都希望获得善待和关注，他们渴望别人提供这样的服务，因为我们的文化中缺少这一点。

你必须对自己获得的所有机会展现出深深的欣赏和感激之情。要愿意通过“后仰”、“侧弯”、甚至在必要时“倒立”等姿势来让别人知道你愿意不惜一切代价来争取他们的生意。别让过去的成功给自己一种虚假的安全感，从而使你觉得今天和以后自己不再需要获得成功。你必须把注意力放在未来，这样才会有未来。

一定要一直展现出你在发展业务方面的饥饿感和渴望，途径就是每时每刻都表明自己是多么的以服务为导向，而且对客户是多么的感兴趣。不懈地跟进，通过一切方法（当然是合乎道德而且专业的方法）来争取别人的生意。要有饥饿感。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

校对：詹妮

When you win the Super Bowl, in life or in business, you cannot ever win again if you do not immediately go back to training — you must stay hungry, win or lose, success or failure. Whether the Panthers or the Broncos win the Super Bowl this year if they stop training they will never win another Super Bowl. Success requires constant attention and the moment you stop hunting for it, it will escape you. You must approach the creation of success as a must-have obligation, do-or-die mission, gotta-have-it, hungry-dog-on-the-back-of-a-meat-truck mentality.

Let your customers know you are hungry. Don’t act like you don’t need their business. There is an old saying that tells people to “fake it ’til you make it.” Well, this doesn’t apply here! Instead, you want to “act hungry to make sure you don’t end up hungry.”

I challenge you today to do two things:

1. You must change your mindset.

No one likes people who act like they are better than others and never act so important you don’t need people’s business. If you didn’t need their business you wouldn’t be in business. Everyone appreciates someone who goes the extra mile and really shows others that he or she wants, needs, and values others’ business. You will never create a powerful, solvent, prosperous, and abundant economy with an attitude of arrogance.

In almost every seminar I conduct, someone will say to me, “I’m afraid I might seem weak if I act like I want the business too much.” My response is always the same: “The biggest mistake you can make is not to act like you’re hungry for the business!” Let’s face it: You need clients more than they need you in any economy. An attitude of, “they need me more than I need them” always fails; treat your customers as though they’re more valuable than you and your company—because they are.

Every moment of every day act like your life depends on every transaction. And if you have to tell someone that you really want his or her business, well then, you probably aren’t acting hungry enough! Acting hungry means that you’re aggressively ambitious or competitive. Perhaps it stems from a need to overcome poverty or past defeats or it is because your desire to succeed is so great. Regardless of your position in life, if you want to stay on top, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to earn more business—during good times and bad.

2. Take massive action.

What you did last year means nothing in the market today. History is laden with companies that were number one in their field but who only exist nowadays between the pages of books. Sears and Kmart are two perfect examples of these. Both dominated their fields at one time, but their arrogance cost them their positions—and now they’re struggling in the market.

Spend all your time, energy, creativity, and resources in advancing your goals and getting so far ahead of the pack that you seize your competitors’ business along the way. The real world of business is the most brutal battlefield in the world; it will not tolerate conceit or people who are living in the past. Customers don’t value excuses, timing, reasons, ratings, yesterday, position; they only value results. If you want to create your own economy, you have to know what you are dealing with. You must be willing to do what others won’t do—and even take actions that you might deem “unreasonable” at activity levels that seem “obsessive”.

Any absence of effort is likely due to a lack of awareness, an abundance of arrogance, or a combination of the two. Be useful, courteous, accessible, humble, and now more than ever, willing to go the extra mile.

Surpass any and all expectations, act like you really want someone’s business—and do whatever you can to earn it. If you give your clients genuine reasons to like you, demonstrate an authentic willingness to do anything for them, are consistently helpful, and never quit, they will want to do business with you, whatever your business is. Remember that the only way to increase appointments is to increase the number of people to whom you speak—and then amplify the reasons why they should make time for you.

Personally, any time someone who serves me continues to exhibit that hungry desire to do anything humanly possible to earn my business, I find every reason possible to support him or her. I stick with that person as long as he or she keeps exhibiting that kind of hungry attitude, and I don’t think I am unique this way. Most people want to be taken care of and paid attention to, and they crave this type of service from people because it is lacking in our culture.

You must show great appreciation and gratitude for every opportunity you get. Be willing to bend over backward, sideways—even do handstands, if necessary—to let people know that you’ll do whatever it takes to earn their business. Don’t let yesterday’s successes give you a false sense of security and make you feel like you don’t need success today and tomorrow. You must have your attention on the future to create one.

Always, always, always demonstrate your hunger and desire to grow your business by displaying how service-oriented and interested you are in your clients on a daily basis. Follow up relentlessly and do anything you can (ethically and professionally, of course) in order to obtain someone’s business. Be hungry!