The UnStoppables

FOREWORD A Quest for the Essence of Entrepreneurship xiii THE UNSTOPPABLES IN SEVEN SENTENCES XXI INTRODUCTION How the Chairman of Rackspace, Some Navy SEALs, and a Few Israeli Innovators Came Together and Discovered the Heart of Entrepreneurship 1 Entrepreneur Problem, Entrepreneur Solution 3 Our Road Trip 5 The Big A-Ha!'s 5 Part I: Big Ideas About You 7 Part II: Your UnStoppable Tool Kit 8 Part III: Conclusion: Us 9 The Power That's Waiting 9 A Word About Language 10 PART I Big Ideas About You 13 CHAPTER 1 Who Is an Entrepreneur and What Do They Do, Really? 15 Opinions: Everybody's Got One . . . 16 Who's Going to Make It through Hell Week? 18 Here's What We Do Know 19 . . . And So Do Most Five-Year-Olds 20 The Entrepreneur's Real Difference 21 What Do They Dream About? 21 From Entrepreneurial to Entrepreneur 23 Big Wide Tent 23 Not Just for Start-Ups 24 Not Just for CEOs 25 What It Adds Up to 26 CHAPTER 2 Accelerated Proficiency 29 Wax On, Wax Off 30 The Krav Maga Kids 31 Accelerated Proficiency 101 32 The Four Steps for Accelerated Proficiency 34 The Law of Motion 34 How to Do Anything the AP Way 35 Think on Your Feet 36 Simple Beats Complicated 37 Define the Center--And Go All in 38 CHAPTER 3 Emotional Mechanics: What Only Neuroscientists, Your Friends in the SEALs, and the Israeli Army Will Tell You 39 What Is Emotional Mechanics? 41 Examples All around Us 42 Understanding Fear 43 Fear and the Brain 44 Fear's Achilles' Heel 45 The Power of Risk 46 The Power of Failure 48 The Power of Obstacles 50 The Love Advantage 52 The Unsurpassed Power of Belief 54 CHAPTER 4 How to Master Emotional Mechanics Like the Experts 57 True Team: The Number One Fear Tamer 58 The Mental Magic of Reframing 59 The Secret of Self-Talk 62 Micro-Scripts Are the Self-Talk Secret 62 The Simple Power of "Knowing What to Do" 63 Procedures and Automatics 64 Extinguishing 65 Fear Training 66 Fear Energy Turned Around 66 Goodness 67 PART II Getting Down to Business: Your UnStoppable Tool Kit 69 CHAPTER 5 School of Everything You Need to Know (in an Hour) 71 Orientation 71 The Optimizers versus the Entrepreneurs 73 The Challenge for Any Company 75 Our Mission at Accelerated Profi ciency U. 76 CHAPTER 6 The Big Picture in an Hour: Ideas, People, and Execution 79 Everything You Need to Know about Ideas 80 What All Business Ideas Must Do 91 CHAPTER 7 Big Picture (Continued): People and Execution 93 People 93 Founding Teams Always Have an Edge 94 People and Culture, Day One 95 Give before You Get 96 What Employees Want 97 What Customers Want 97 What Everyone Else Wants 99 Execution 99 The Law of the Laser 100 Data Makes You Dumber 103 Practice with Live Rounds 104 Ask, Ask, Ask Is How You Receive 106 CHAPTER 8 The UnStoppable Six: How to Run a Billion-Dollar Business or a Start-Up the Rackspace Way (in about an Hour) 109 The Piper Cub Principle 110 The UnStoppable Six 111 The Strategic Three 112 The Tactical Three 113 Business Planning: Make the UnStoppable Six Your Template 116 CHAPTER 9 Everything You Need to Know about Your Unique Difference (in about an Hour) 119 "Where Is the Center?" 119 Specific Is Terrific 120 No Difference? Then You're a Commodity 121 There's Always a Difference--If You Know Where to Look 122 Anatomy of a Selling Difference 123 The One Item of Carry-on Rule 123 Your Dominant Selling Idea 124 How Rackspace Discovered Its Difference 130 The Universal Paradox 132 Other People's Heads Are All That Counts 133 CHAPTER 10 Everything You Need to Know about True Teams (in about an Hour) 135 The Roots of Small, Super-Powered Teams 137 True Teams 138 How an UnStoppable Culture Nurtures Teams 141 Fish Camp 142 Big, Simple Cultural Symbols 143 True Teams at Rackspace: The Untold Story 145 CHAPTER 11 Everything You Need to Know about Succeeding with Customers (in about an Hour) 149 Today the Saying Needs a Tweak 150 What's a Customer? 151 Succeeding with Customers 152 Customer Psychology 152 The Most Important Principle of All: Wear Your Values on Your Sleeve 157 CHAPTER 12 Everything You Need to Know about Making Yourself Famous (in about an Hour) 163 Caution: Famous Works Both Ways 164 Branding 101 165 The Four-Line Elevator Pitch 177 How Name, Frame, and Claim Made Rackspace a Multibillion-Dollar Company 178 CHAPTER 13 Everything You Need to Know about Creating Revenue, a.k.a. Selling (in about an Hour) 181 Marketing without Sales Is Like Motherhood without Sex 181 The "Selling Is Evil" Myth 183 The Five Universal Steps to Selling 184 The X Factor in Selling 195 Teach Yourself to Sell the Accelerated Proficiency Way 195 How Much Revenue? Just Break Even 196 CHAPTER 14 Everything You Need to Know about Perfecting Your First Product (in about an Hour) 199 Professionals Make It Real, Not Ideal 199 Remember, Nobody Wants 57 Features; They Want 1 Done Best 200 Which Data to Listen to, Which to Throw Away? 204 UnStoppable Themes 206 PART III Conclusion: Us 209 CHAPTER 15 Entrepreneur Country and the E-Companies 211 The Stakes Are the Same 212 How We Can Do It 213 The Entrepreneurial Groundswell Is Happening 214 Teaching to the Essence 215 The E-Companies 216 Fear Cultures 217 Belief Cultures: How They Happen 218 Managing to Strengths 220 New Entrepreneurs and Enterprises Spawned 220 Welcome to the Arena 222 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 225 INDEX 229