Dare To Dream – Success Eludes The Timid

He Looked At Me Like I Was Crazy and Asked: “You Want To Do What?”

By Dr. Jake Baker

It was summer of 1992.  I had finished my second book Cheque Mate and was trying to decide whether to give the book to my publisher or self-publish and take on the marketing by myself.  After some time, I made the decision to self-publish which is a huge commitment but for me, at that time I knew it was the right decision.

I began assembling a marketing team and one of the components I wanted to emphasize was media, particularly television and radio. I had the contacts and a great topic so I knew I could book plenty of radio and tv time.  I had already appeared as an analyst on several local and national news programs so I knew that aspect of media would be achievable.  But I wanted more.  I wanted something that was exclusively geared toward marketing.

As I went through the process I settled on an idea that was to say the least, out of the box.  I spoke to a couple of media folks that I knew and told them what I wanted to do.

One out of Phoenix, AZ was stunned when I told my plan.

He looked at me like I was crazy and asked; “You Want To Do What?”  So I repeated my idea.  I want to create an infomercial for Cheque Mate. His replay was pretty mater of fact. Jake no one has ever done an infomercial on a book.  I am not at all sure that will work.  You’re going to have to sell a lot of books to come out on this.

But, I had already put together a budget, and knew what I had to spend and had also put together a three-part marketing plan that I believed would not only make the informercial viable but lucrative.  Time would tell if I was right – and I understood the risk involved – about $250 thousand and a year of my time.  But I believed in the message of the book, I believed in the marketing plan, and I knew that I didn’t want to go the traditional route of using a publisher which took control of the project out of my hands.

So we kicked off the campaign.  We filmed a thirty-minute infomercial and a series of commercials advertising it.  We used radio and television to promote the infomercial and the book which we had made into a three-part package to give it extra value.

In the end we made more than ten times our investment and sold about 100,000 copies of the book between hard back and soft cover sales.  Yes it was a lot of work, but it raised our profile, increased our audience for the daily radio program I hosted and the process taught me more about marketing and publishing than any college curriculum could have.  I got a practical PhD in marketing in one year.

Here are a few of the take-aways from that impossible undertaking.  Twelve thoughts on winning even in impossible situations.

• First – Stop … think through every step of what you are going to do
• Second – Pay attention to details – do what you can and use professionals to do what professionals do
• Third – the copy must be right – we had to create different iterations of the copy to make it better and stronger and to tailor it to the audience we were trying to reach
• Four – be persistent and consistent – always move forward – don’t look back – believe in what you are doing
• Five – don’t listen to the nay-sayers who tell you “It can’t be done.” It can
• Six – Declutter what you are doing – Simplify – Overcomplication is a recipe for disaster
• Seven – Be honest with yourself – if it doesn’t work fix it and move on
• Eight – Educate yourself – learn more about what you are doing that the experts
• Nine – Be Passionate about what you are doing – COMMIT or fail
• Ten – Surround yourself with positive people who are winners because they are committed and have the courage to be honest with you
• Eleven – Don’t be to hard on yourself – there is no such thing as perfection
• Twelve – Fix it – Deal with it – Don’t allow yourself the luxury of whining about it – it will destroy you
• And here’s a Baker’s dozen for you – Remember the people and things for which you are grateful. Gratitude both to God for His blessings and for the people around you who bless you – and remember to be a blessing in return

Since that Infomercial thirty years ago, I have been involved in some great adventures.  I been blessed to:

• Have built an expatriate community in Central America
• Built and sold two international companies and created a reclamation project in North Africa
• Been in media, hosted a daily radio and television program, been a copywriter for 30 plus years and run a radio network for thirty years
• Written hundreds of commercials – wrote the script for several national broadcast documentaries – been a producer on a full-length Hollywood movie – written six books and published over 1600 articles
• I have traveled the world and seen a lot of life both good and bad. Not bad for a kid who spent his childhood in the 14^th Street Project – known as the John Hay Homes.

And in all of that I have learned that the one overawing principle of success in any venture is this.  Dare to dream, act on that dream, and refuse to stay down.  If you continue to pull yourself off the canvass you will eventually win.

This is the attitude I bring to every project with which I am involved.  Whether it is writing a script, a book, an email campaign, or a letter to a friend who is hurt or going through a tough time.  Put your heart and soul into what you do.  Fuel your passion.  Do what you do as if God Himself was watching, because He is.

I have never chosen to be a leader of anything.  I just do what I do because I believe in it and people have followed. The same can be true for all of us.  Being a leader isn’t about finding a parade and getting in front of it.  Being a leader is about doing what you do because it is the right thing to do.  It is about the servanthood of leadership and it is about lifting those around you and helping them discover the excellence endowed into them by their creator.

Make plans to avoid impossible situations but when you are faced with the impossible welcome the opportunity to succeed where no one believes you can.  Tilting at windmills is stupid, but beating the odds, will change you forever.

Your Life Will Bring You A Series of Great Opportunities Cleverly Disguised As Impossible Situations – Success Is About What You Do With Them.