How They Did It

HOW THEY DID ITREAL-WORLD ADVICEFROM TODAYS MOST

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS

ROBERT JORDAN

IMPORTANTTo begin Please save thisworkbook to your desktop orin another location.

Table of ContentsHow to Use This Interactive Workbook .................................................2Bob Jordan Million-Dollar Insights.....................................................3Howard Tullman The Five Keys to the Future ....................................8Jim Dolan The Five Keys to Investor Success ...................................12Dane Miller Success Is in Empowering Your People ..........................16Raj Soin Secrets to Successful Team Building....................................20Steve Shank The Three Paths of Disruptive Innovation......................24Bonnie Baskin The Three Building Blocks to Becominga Successful Entrepreneur.......................................................................28Brian Sullivan Three Rules for Successful Product Development ......31Mark Tebbe - Developing a Strong Corporate Strategy ........................35Dave Becker Turning Vision into Business .........................................39Joe Mansueto The Four Keys to Advanced Entrepreneurship.............42Robert Jordan Lessons from Visionary Leaders .................................46Enhance Your Audio-Learning Library withThese Great Titles from Nightingale-Conant! ........................................49

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How to Use This Interactive Workbook

How can you get the most out of this interactive workbook? Research has shown that themore ways you interact with learning material, the deeper your learning will be.

Nightingale-Conant has created a cutting-edge learning system that involves listening to theaudio, reading the ideas in the workbook, and writing your ideas and thoughts down.

In fact, this workbook is designed so that you can fill in your answers right inside thisdocument. By the end, youll have your own personal success system.

For each session, we recommend the following:

Preview the section of the workbook that corresponds with the audio session,paying particular attention to the exercises.

Listen to the audio session at least once. Complete the exercises right in this workbook.

In addition to the exercises and questions, weve created a special section of the workbookcalled How Ill Do It. This is a space for you to write down the creative inspiration you getwhen listening to the program. First, youll learn How They Did It, and then youll discoverhow YOU can do it too!

Dont just listen to this program devour it! Strategies dont work unless you use them.Test and use the strategies that make sense to you, consistently, over time until theybecome habits. Listen to the program more than once. Listen for the key ideas that you canuse to impact your attitudes, actions, and results. True change takes focus and repetition.

Lets get started!

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Bob Jordan Million-Dollar Insights

Welcome to How They Did It, a very special program from Nightingale-Conant designed forentrepreneurs, company founders, and leaders. This program is a series of 10 interviews withincredible entrepreneurs: Howard Tullman, Jim Dolan, Dane Miller, Raj Soin, Steve Shank,Bonnie Baskin, Brian Sullivan, Dave Becker, Mark Tebbe, and Joe Mansueto. These 10founders started from nothing, and they have collectively created $18 billion in value andtens of thousands of jobs. And theyve also created products that touch our everyday lives.But theyre not names that youve known. They dont live in our memory yet.

Why look at entrepreneurs? Why look at entrepreneurship? There is no problem that isbeyond the genius of women and men to solve.

There are huge problems in the world. We are coming out of a recession that is secondonly to the Great Depression; there are diseases that need to be cured; there are shortagesworldwide. Look, for example, at the shortage of water. Planet Earth is not makingany more water, and so the solution to that kind of shortage, its got to come from us.Entrepreneurs can solve these kinds of problems. You give people freedom, you give themthe ability to create companies, to create products and services, and we can take on any kindof challenge.

In a lot of cases, we hear about the success of a company and we only see the end resultof success. We have no idea what the company went through to get there. What kindsof challenges did they have along the way? How did they do it?

Thats what this program is for. We want to show you how these success stories REALLY didit. These arent celebrities. They arent from some special city. These are regular people just like you who built something special. They didnt inherit their businesses theystarted from scratch. They started with simple ideas, and from those ideas, big thingseventually came around. They persevered through obstacles and grew their businesses to asize that is at least $100 million.

Before we get started, though, lets look at the 10 top tips for being a successful entrepreneur.

1. Launch is always a leap. In each of these cases, there was a moment in time whenthe entrepreneur had to make a decision to take the leap. In some cases it meantquitting a job without any guarantee of success. Most of us try to avoid failing,but these successful entrepreneurs took a leap of faith.

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2. Your idea is wrong. Usually the first idea the entrepreneurs had wasnt the winningidea. They had to experiment and listen intensely to customers to develop the winningproducts and strategies.

3. You have to look again. Successful entrepreneurs are relentlessly curious. You haveto look for the opportunities and then keep looking.

4. Boredom can be a blessing. If an entrepreneur is bored, he or she has the time to thinkcreatively. Use it to your advantage.

5. Success is never a solo act.All of these entrepreneurs say that their success did notcome from them alone. Success only comes from the formation of powerful teams andpartnerships.

6. Attitude trumps skill. More important than being skilled is having a burning desireto be in the game. And what trumps attitude is need. By relentlessly exploring whatcustomers have to have, they were able to dream up products and services and developa passion for them. THEN they developed the skills they needed.

7. You have to strike out more, not less. Thomas Edison never gave up; he struck outmore times than the average person would ever tolerate. A lot of people think that if wetry something and it doesnt work that it never will work and they give up. Successfulentrepreneurs fail MORE than the average person, not less.

8. Look in the mirror. These entrepreneurs looked at their efforts, what they were doing,what they could be doing better. If you know yourself and what youre good and whatyoure not, youll know who to partner with to complete the skill set.

9. Iterate, execute, and repeat. This means that in order to succeed, you need to be ableto look at problems differently than most people. These entrepreneurs werent cynical;they were curious. How can we solve this? Instead of This cant be solved.

10. Let your customers co-create.We live in a new world. You cant just put a productout and expect your customers to buy it. Instead, the reference from you customersfriends who may be saying something, Tweeting it, making some kind of mention onFacebook, blogging about it, thats far more important to them than whether to not theysee a television advertisement for something. While in that same light, what thesefounders have discovered is that your customers become co-creators in what you aredoing as a fascinating new kind of world in which to operate.

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There is incredible power in askingsuccessful people how they did it.

YOUR TURN

What kinds of problems do you see in the world that bother you?

Have you ever thought about what should be done to solve these problems?

Describe a time when you took a leap of faith. How did it turn out?

What do you do if your first idea doesnt succeed? What is your attitude?

How comfortable are you with failure?

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What are your personal strengths and weaknesses?

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In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listeningto this session.

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon,or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor,

though he builds his house in the woods,the world will make a beaten path to his door.

attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Howard Tullman The Five Keys to the Future

Howard Tullman is the founder of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy andchairman/CEO of HYPR>BOX, LLC. Prior to Flashpoint, Howard founded a number ofcompanies, including Experiencia, Inc.; Tunes.com, which sold for $135 million; andCertified Collateral Corporation, which he took public. He was chairman of Cobalt Group,acquired by ADP in 2010 for $400 million. In addition to founding companies, Howard iscredited with the turnaround of Kendall College, which faced liquidation. Howard moved thecollege into a new facility and engineered the sale to Laureate University. He is a trustee ofWTTW and of the New York Academy of Art, and he serves as an adjunct professor atNorthwesterns Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

The Perspiration PrincipleYou dont get what you wish for; you get what you work for

Five Perspiration Principles

These five principles are going to be the foundation of how the world changes over the next10 years.

Key #1 Hyper-personalization

Google is the rearview mirror that looks at what youve done in the past and tries to computesome information about where youre headed. Facebook, on the other hand, gets the USERSto tell exactly what theyre interested in, what they want, what their friends are interested in.We never imagined that we could have this much personal information about people.

We have more data and more precise information, and that permits us to target individuals ina finer and more highly precise fashion than we ever had before.

Key #2 Know before you go

Not only to we have more precise targets, but we also have unbelievable tools for measuring.This is accountability in measurement. We dont have to rely on someone else to find out thespecific data, measurements, and expenditures. Because so much data are available instantlyand to almost anyone, its going to be cheaper to market. It will be more effective, and wellhave conversion and interaction rates that are surprising.

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Key #3 Constant Connectivity

The reality of the world we live in today is that as we become more connected, we combinesocial with mobile and get mocial. In other words, we are going to need every bit ofinformation, all the tools available, and social networking, and we want it available in realtime.

Real-time, constantly available tools permit us to make decisions, to consult our peers, tohave our location and places tell us information thats relevant to us. The fact that wereconstantly connected is going to drive everything that goes on. And, its going from activeto passive. Software is being developed that automates the connectivity.

Key #4 Expanded Value Exchange

Value exchange is what drives everything. Any time you save someone time or money orcost, or increase their productivity those used to be the fundamental equations that wouldrequire them to connect and to invest. But now, with the Internet and social media, there aretwo more ways that value is exchanged.

There are new forms of currency. A currency is a collection of accomplishments. A currencyis check-ins. A currency is credit. A currency is game points or levels within games. Thesebecome status level among friends.

Status has become an astonishing driver. People DO care about badges and numbers offriends, and contacts and levels are not just ways of keeping score but have to do with howwe feel about ourselves and how we publish ourselves to the world.

The second is risk avoidance. We have tools to keep us from making wrong decisions. Forexample, you can now scan a barcode and get instant reviews or competitive pricing in realtime. Constant connectivity is allowing consumers to avoid risk, be smarter, and makeindependent decisions.

Key #5 Low Barriers to Entry, High Barriers to Success

People are more easily able to enter new markets, create new products, and bring things tomarket. This is because its so much easier now to develop strategies for marketing, sales,and infrastructure where the world does the work for you. People costs, equipment costs, andcapital costs are changing dramatically. Outsourcing is not only acceptable, its a preferred

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way of doing business. However, the barriers to success are also high because there are nowso many more people doing the same thing.

The people who really understand these tools and how to use them will discover that they canget their idea to market, they can iterate their idea with levels of feedback that never existedbefore, they dont have to bet the farm, and if they understand the process of failing fast which is really a doctrine of opportunity cost and of interaction which is the constantsuccess of approximation and improvement as you move toward a goal then theyunderstand that thats what it takes to be successful today.

Technology will change, but people skills wont.

YOUR TURN

How can you use the five keys to change your existing business?

What kinds of new opportunities can you see from the five keys that can help you launchnew businesses, products, and services?

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Jim Dolan The Five Keys to Investor Success

Jim Dolan is the founder of The Dolan Company, which he has guided through a number ofbusiness launches and acquisitions to an IPO in 2007. The Dolan Company now operates in25 states, has 53 product lines, and employs 2,000 people. Previously Jim was executive vicepresident of the Jordan Group, Inc., a New Yorkbased investment bank specializing inmedia. Trained as a journalist, he worked for News Corporation, the Sun-Times Company,and Centel Corp.

Three Takeaways from Jim Dolans Business Experience

1. Listen to your customers. Really listen to them; dont assume that youre listening.2. Look at what the asset is that you really have. It might not be what you think it is.3. Question the rules. Dont break them, but see if you can play outside them.

Everybody is an investor.

The Five Keys to Investor Success

1. Always have a hot stand-by.

Make choices for yourself. The person with more choices will win in negotiation, will havea better, stronger, deeper strategy. A lot of companies dont plan ahead and dont do the workin advance, so when they most need choices, they have fewest choices to make. When youhave more investors lined up at the door wanting in, you have choices. So build that in foryourself. Take the extra step, make that extra call, keep those people current. Its a ton ofwork. Its not easy.

2. Treat your investors like customers.

Its easy to think about what problem youre solving for your customers. But dont forgetthat your investors are stakeholders too. Most investors think about the short-term. Theyrealready thinking about how to get their money back. As an entrepreneur, you have to respectthat and treat them like customers. And what does that mean? You listen to them, youunderstand their needs, and you factor those needs into your strategy. Just like you are withyour customer customers, your investor customers have the same needs. If you alignyourself with them from the very beginning and youre open with them about that, its betterfor everybody.

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3. You can never overcommunicate.

What does the investor want? Whats the problem youre solving for that investor when theinvestment is made? Is the problem to show progress? Is the problem to make money short-term, to make money long-term? What is the problem? So the more you listen and the moreyou understand that, the more you can deal with the investor in a way that works over thelong term.

Investors want lots of information, usually more than you want to give them. They wantfrequent progress reports; they want a sense of being consulted. Whether or not you reallytake their advice is not the point.

You can never overcommunicate. There are many ways to communicate. You should usethem all. You should call them, you should go see them, you should understand really,really listen to them understand what their needs and their strategies are so that yourcommunication matches that.

4. Give your investors choices.

Private company investors often can feel trapped, may even not invest in the company forfear of being trapped. Help them avoid that by making sure that they can rely upon you to,in effect, make a private market. You can help bring in new investors to buy them out whennecessary and when appropriate. Thats a great relief to private company investors and likelykeep them in longer and maybe make them come in the first time when they wouldnt haveotherwise.

5. Always do one more thing.

Always do one more call, one more model, just do one more thing. Even at the end of theday, everybodys exhausted, lets make one more call to investors. When you think you havethe money raised, make one more call anyway. Overraise, overfund. Dont take the moneyfrom everybody, but make more people interested than you think you need.

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YOUR TURN

What systems do you have in place to listen to your customers?

What asset do you really have? Is there another one you might not be seeing?

Are there any rules youve been blindly following that could be questioned?

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Good judgment comes from experience,and experience comes from bad judgment.

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Dane Miller Success Is in Empowering Your People

Dane Miller is the co-founder of Biomet, an orthopedics medical devices company, whichgrew from $17,000 in sales its first year to annual sales exceeding $2.7 billion. The companyhad its first public offering in 1982 and was taken private in 2007 for $11.4 billion. Danebegan his biomedical engineering career at Zimmer USA in Warsaw, Indiana, moved toCalifornia, and later returned to Warsaw to launch and lead Biomet as president and CEO.

TwoWays to Measure Drive in an Entrepreneur

1. If you dont have enough confidence in your product to use it yourself, youd betterfind something else to do.

2. Hands-on is the right management style.

Advice for Entrepreneurs

Be ready to dedicate your life to success, because if youre not 100%, maybe 150% behindit and thats not for a year or two, it may be five years, may be 10 years you wontachieve success. This is going to become your life. Only you can decide when youveturned the corner, and at that point, you can have your life back.

In the early stages of a business, you need to be able to differentiate between being acompany and being a development project. At first, deploy your capital in things that willproduce a result. Theres no use having a director or manager of sales if you dont have asales force. Be prepared to be your own cheerleader and to make your own sales. Get yourhands dirty, figure out how you get it done, and then hire someone and teach him or her howto get it done.

You need to have a Plan B that is rational and satisfying from a career standpoint. This wayif you stumble and fall, you have somewhere else to go.

Bloom where youre planted. You can do what you want to do right from where you are.

The real future of a company isnt on the balance sheet or P&L statement; its the people andhow you create an environment where people can do their best work. Sometimes it meansjust getting out of their way.

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Three People Management Tips

1. Hire good people, give them room, and get out of their way.2. Retain quality people.3. Give everyone in the company a sense of ownership.

YOUR TURN

How confident are you in your product or service? Are you willing to use it yourself?

How hands-on are you? Are you willing to get in there and do the work yourself?

Is your life set up so that you can dedicate 100% of your time and energy to the success ofthe business for several years? How will you balance that with your family and personalneeds?

Is your business a company or a development project? Are you spending capital accordingly?

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Whats your Plan B?

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Raj Soin Secrets to Successful Team Building

Raj Soin and his wife Indu founded Modern Technologies Corporation (MTC), a provider ofengineering, management, and technical services. They brought the company to an IPO in2002 and $500 million in revenue before being acquired by BAE for $425 million. Raj owns anumber of companies involved in manufacturing, private equity investments, and real estatedevelopment.

I have never seen a business fail.I have seen management fail.

Rajs Enduring Lessons of Success

To do any job, especially in services, you need people to do it. Having the right people,motivated and focused to get the job done, makes the difference. We individuals can createideas, we can provide environment, but to grow to any size, you need lot of people gettingthe work done. And theyre the ones who are coming in contact with the customer. Youvegot to have people who are very motivated to get your job done right.

Before you demand loyalty, you have to be loyal to your people. Its a two-way street. Ifyoure loyal, then you will end up with people who are very loyal to you.

A problem is an opportunity for people to differentiate themselves. Whenever most peopleencounter a problem, they tend to back off. But if you can solve the problem, you can getahead of your competition.

Look for people with the right attitude. It doesnt matter if someone is a high school graduateor a PhD, if someone has the right attitude and are success-oriented, they will work with youhand in glove to solve a problem.

You can tell someone doesnt have the right attitude when the person starts talking about allthe problems he or she is facing. A person with the right attitude will walk in and say, Thisis the situation Im on, and these are my solutions. Do you have some other ideas?

Pick a team that is agile and willing to adapt and change. Technology is changing so fast thatby the time you get to the end goal, the world has moved on you. You need a team to be ableto work on the situation the way its happening now, not the way you planned it.

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When youre hiring people, dont focus on their resume or bio, but on how they handlethemselves. If their terminology has more of a self focus, then they probably arent a goodfit for a team. Do they talk about how they worked with others to get something done? Thatsthe right attitude to building a team.

When the team hits a wall and isnt making any progress, refocus and work around it.Usually, we get so focused on the effect of the problem and the results that we dont look atthe root cause. Instead, refocus and work around the problem.

In team building, set a vision, but never set the process. Let the members of the team comeup with the process and build the roadmap to further the vision. That will bring the solution.

Most importantly, you have to stay realistic. Never believe that your plan is foolproof.

YOUR TURN

How do you show your loyalty to your people? How has this been reciprocated?

When has a problem become an opportunity to differentiate yourself from the competition?Are you facing such a problem now?

Who on your team has the right attitude? How do they demonstrate it?

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Have you had the experience of refocusing and working around a problem? Write that downin the following space:

Is there a time when you set the vision for an end result and let the team develop the strategyto get there? Describe it here:

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Steve Shank The Three Paths of Disruptive Innovation

Stephen Shank is the founder of Capella University, which he took from inception in 1991 toIPO in 2006 as one of the first online education platforms in the world. Capella now serves35,000 students from all 50 states and 59 countries. Prior to founding Capella, Steve wasCEO of Tonka Corporation.

Key Lessons from Capella University

There is a difference between a technology business and a business that uses technology.

A technology business is about bringing a new technology to market. But, there arebusinesses that use cutting-edge technology, but the core business model is not about thetechnology. Its about something else. You need to understand whether youre in thetechnology business or in a business that uses technology.

You cannot target everyone.

Choose the path of least resistance and choose a market where you have the greatest chanceof succeeding. There are opportunities that your competitors arent pursuing. They dont careabout them. Find them, target them, and youll have a better chance of success.

A lot of entrepreneurs have a conservative streak.

Theres an image of an entrepreneur as a maverick. Actually, successful entrepreneurs havea conservative streak. They understand that resources are limited, and they dont want to losethem. Make sure that your value proposition is such that you will not lose money.

You have to reinvent your value proposition as the environment changes.

What worked for you in the past wont work as the environment changes. Your valueproposition needs to change as the environment changes.

You have to have a plan as to how you get through to the point of investment viability.

This means having a solid operating and financial model to get outside investors. If you donthave a plan for profitability, you wont be able to attract investors. Planning is key.

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Two Types of New Ventures

1. A venture that had incremental development using traditional business and operatingmodels that are already established in the market. This might mean opening up a newmarket, such as a geographical market or a target market.

2. A venture that is innovative almost to the point of disruptive innovation.

Every dominant market player has built a business modelon a set of assumptions about how the world operates.The world pretty much doesnt operate like that now.

This is a time of tremendous opportunity to rethink things.

The Three Essential Components of Disruptive Innovation

1. Look at the existing companies in the industry and how they are treating theproblem/audience.

2. Look at the experience the customer has. Its not always about implementing a newtechnology.

3. Bring the customers into the value creation process. Let them co-develop and co-createvalue. This also means soliciting feedback so that youll know when youre off track.

FourWays to Find Disruptive Opportunities

There are four ways to find disruptive opportunities where you can change how the gameis played.

1. New Technology2. Lower Price3. New Customer Experience4. Convenience

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YOUR TURN

In your business, what are the opportunities for disruption? Whats wrong with the waybusiness is currently being done? Who is not being well-served?

Describe a typical customer experience in your business. Is there a way to do it differently?

How can you bring your customers into the value-creation experience? Is there a way forthem to co-create or co-develop something?

Is there a way you can make your product or service more convenient?

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Until youre the lead dog,the view never changes.

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Bonnie Baskin The Three Building Blocks to Becominga Successful Entrepreneur

Bonnie Baskin is the founder of two companies, ViroMed and AppTec Laboratories. Shefounded ViroMed in the early 1980s and built it from a small, independent virology lab intoa nationally recognized leader in clinical infectious diseases and industrial biosafety testing.Following the sale of ViroMed to Laboratory Corporation of America for $40 million,Bonnie spun off the remaining medical-device services business as the newly formed AppTecLaboratory Services. AppTec expanded into services for biopharmaceutical manufacturingand was sold to WuXi Pharmatech in 2008 for $163 million. Bonnie serves on a number ofprivate and nonprofit boards and is a past president of MNBIO, a Minnesota biotechassociation.

Key Lessons from ViroMed and AppTec

A product or service is only valuable if its perceived to be valuable by your client orcustomer.

You may think you have a great idea, service, or product. But its the client or customer whoultimately decides whether or not its valuable.

You have to reinvest back into the company so that you can grow the company.

This doesnt just mean money. It also means energy, time, and everything. Double down onwhat you believe in.

Have the flexibility to be able to change directions on a dime.

Thats what gives you the competitive advantage. While you have established divisions of thecompany with established processes and systems, you also need to have systems in place toencourage innovation. You have to continue to look at what opportunities there are to be ableto grow your company and to be able to enter into new opportunities that will add to thesuccess of the company.

Entrepreneurs are only entrepreneurs in retrospect.At the time they start, theyre called crackpots, dreamers,and unhireables. Its only after they become successful

that they become entrepreneurs.Jeffrey Sudikoff

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The Three Building Blocks to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur

1. Be early in the market.

2. Be passionate about reinvesting in the company.

3 Stay fresh.

YOUR TURN

If youre in a business, were you early into that market? Describe the market that youentered.

If youre not yet in business, what is the market like? How much competition is there at thispoint?

Are you prepared to reinvest money, time, and energy back into the company? How will youdo that?

What are the systems you have in place to stay fresh?

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Brian Sullivan Three Rules for Successful ProductDevelopment

Brian Sullivan is the founder of Recovery Engineering, Inc., an industry leader in the design,manufacture, and marketing of consumer water filter systems sold under the PUR brandname. Brian grew revenue to $200 million, took the company public in 1993, and sold toProcter & Gamble in 1999 for $265 million. Brian went on to lead SterilMed, Inc., ahealthcare services company that reprocesses medical devices. He sold the company toJohnson & Johnson in 2011 for $350 million.

Strategies for Product Launch

Ask, What problem are we solving?

Be very objective. Dont develop a technology and then try to find applications. I thinksometimes people develop a technology and they want to find a way of applying thattechnology. Your technology may or may not be relevant. It may be interesting, it may bedifferent, but it may not be better. Ultimately, better for less is the best outcome when youredeveloping a product.

Understand that youve only got one shot.

This is especially true if youre selling a retail product. If youre able to convince retailsellers to sell your product, you have to make it work.

Sometimes good enough is good enough.

Often people will extend product development times or wait until everything is perfect beforebringing something to market. Youve got to be pragmatic and objective about where the lineof good enough is.

You need to develop processes that will allow you to produce in quantity maybe evenbefore youre finished developing the product.

When you play in the big leagues, they dont care whether youre a startup or not. Theyexpect you to deliver. You may still be developing your product, and so you need to have thecapacity to predictably develop, launch, and validate the processes and be ready well inadvance to ship those products. Otherwise youre going to lose your window.

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To build a business, you need to be in a rhythm of launching new products.

Start thinking about the next product launch and what product improvements youll make assoon as your current product launches. Keep doing this to build momentum. Theres nothingworse when youre starting up a business or launching a new product than to createmomentum and then shoot yourself in the foot. If youre able to stay on that wave, youknow, the momentum youve created with your first product, and keep iterating and keeplaunching new ones, expanding your shelf space, expanding your consumer base, everythingworks. It just feeds on itself

Be methodical about how you define your approach.

Think through how youre going to approach defining the price point, identifying thecustomers needs, managing the project so that its ready to launch on time and then embedthose processes into your business.

You have to define a standard for yourself of beingexcellent, and you keep living into it.

Its not about one event. Its continuous.

Three Rules to Follow

Rule #1 Define the customers problem.

Think about why the customer might be interested in an alternative solution to his or herproblem. This requires you to be very objective. Sometimes people imagine that the customerhas more problems than they really do. Be deliberate about what problem you are solving.

Rule #2 Determine whether or not there is a viable business solving that problem.

And also understand what it is that you would need to do to solve the problem. What featureswould you need to incorporate in that product that would solve that problem? What pricepoint would the customer be willing to pay for that product?

Then, in turn, you use that, in the case of a price point, to understand what youremanufacturing costs would be and what your distribution costs would be. That defines whatthe engineering challenge is. You have to deliver a product that has these features, with a low

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enough manufactured cost. This requires you to work backward from what price youll beable to get from the customer and understanding the costs and what your margin of profitwill be.Rule #3 Develop a plan to launch your product.

This might even mean planning the launch of your product as youre continuing to developthe product. Be disciplined in your planning and go-to-market strategy. This involvesquestioning your distribution, marketing support, service or aftermarket support, and whetheryou need sales reps. These are questions that need to be answered before you prepare thelaunch of your product. Because if you get that wrong, if you have this great idea thatssolving an important problem for customers, and then you launch it poorly, your window ofopportunity may go away.

YOUR TURN

What problem will your product or service solve?

Can you build a viable business around it?

What systems do you have in place to identify your product launch plan? How will youanswer the questions of distribution, marketing, sales, and other issues?

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Mark Tebbe - Developing a Strong Corporate Strategy

Mark Tebbe is the founder of two companies, Lante Corporation and Answers.com. Lantegrew from a two-person firm to an 850-employee NASDAQ-listed international corporationand was acquired by SBI Group in 2002. In 1999, Mark co-founded Answers Corporation,which went public in 2005 and was acquired in 2011 by AFCV Holdings for $127 million.Mark is the founder of Techra Networks, a Chicago-based consulting firm that assistscompanies in leveraging technology for their business needs.

Answers from Lante

Whats Your Price?

Everybody needs to have a number in his or her head and, ironically enough, its usuallya very even number. Some people say give me a million dollars and I would be happy forlife. Give me $2 million, $5 million, $10 million. Everybody has a number.

How can you stay off the treadmill?

The difficulty lies when your number is no longer enough. Lifestyle tends to climb in linewith what youre earning. Then youre on a perpetual treadmill of always having to earnmore and more to just be happy.

Why should you create a company?

Dont create a company to create an exit strategy. Create one because its what you believein and what you want to do. To be really successful, you have to think about how to do whatyou like to do.

When should you exit the company?

Sometimes as youre running a company, other things in life become more important.Sometimes youve taken a company as a far as you can take it, and you dont want to riskyour investors money by staying in. At some point, youll see the writing on the wall andyoull not feel it in your gut, and youll decide its time to change.

HOW THEY DID IT35

Developing Your Corporate Strategy

1. Listen to the marketplace

You have to listen to what is in the market and the feedback that youre getting from yourcustomers, your potential customers, your competitors, your suppliers, and listen to it in anunbiased manner. All too often, people are too quick to dismiss bad news or challengingnews as not accurate. We see a better way. You very well could see a better way, but you atleast should avail yourself of the knowledge that these people are sharing with you to makesure and validate that indeed you are seeing a better way and that what youre doing is goingto be successful.

2. The team has to make a good decision.

The team is the one that makes the decision, not any one leader. The team has to worktogether to make a good decision for all constituents in the business. It doesnt have to be aperfect decision, though. Just a good enough one.

3. Dont give up.

If you decide to sell your business or if you decide to restructure financially, it gives youopportunities that you didnt have before and allows you to pursue a totally refreshed or atotally tangential strategy that you could not have done in the old structure. Or it totally freesyou of the burdens of the past and allows you to think freely as to how to conquer the nextphase.

YOUR TURN

Whats your price? What amount of money do you wish to have, personally, that would allowyou to live the lifestyle you wish?

HOW THEY DID IT36

What do you enjoy doing? What are you passionate about? Can you envision doing this formore than eight hours a day for years to come?

Describe a time when you failed to listen to feedback from your customers, prospects,competitors, or other information in the market. What could you have done differently?

What would be a condition that could happen that might cause you to leave or restructureyour business?

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HOW ILL DO IT


A good plan,executed vigorously today,

is far preferableto a perfect plan next week.

HOW THEY DID IT38

Dave Becker Turning Vision into Business

David Becker is the founder of First Internet Bank, the first onlinebank anywhere in the world, now boasting $500 million in assets. He is also the founder ofre:Member Data Services, acquired by Open Solutions; and founder of VIFI, which providesInternet services to financial institutions. VIFI was acquired by Digital Insight Corporationin 2002. David founded and remains actively involved as CEO of three other Indianapolis-based companies: OneBridge, a credit and debit card processing firm; DyKnow, a companyspecializing in educational technology; and RICS, a firm he acquired and relaunched toprovide inventory control and POS systems.

Ideas to re:Member

Boredom can spark creativity.

Be sure and take time away from the day-to-day life in the office. When youre not dealingwith the running of the daily affairs of your life, the creative switch turns back on. You startto think of creative ideas for your business.

Jump off the cliff.

Dont be afraid to make a bold move. As Daves grandfather said, No matter what happens,they cant eat you. You will always survive. You dont have to do it alone, but dont beafraid to take risks.

Take your team with you.

Develop a core team of people who have expertise in things you dont, and then bring themwith you from company to company.

Be the quarterback.

Ultimately, somebody has to make the tough decision. If option A isnt working, then find anoption B. Things change, and you have to be the one, ultimately, to make the decision tochange things. You have to make the call.

HOW THEY DID IT39

Know the point of exit.

You have to be willing to walk away. If youre thinking you have to get the deal done, youcant negotiate from a position of power. It wont be a good deal for either side at that point.

YOUR TURN

When is the last time you were bored? Did you find that your creative juices startedto flow? Plan another time when you can get away and do some creative thinking.

Do you consider yourself a risk taker? Have you ever jumped off a cliff? Is there a cliffyou wish you had the courage to jump off now?

When have you had to be the quarterback? What tough calls have you had to make?

When have you been willing to walk away during a negotiation? Is there a time when youshould have walked away but didnt?

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HOW ILL DO IT


HOW THEY DID IT41

Joe Mansueto The Four Keys to AdvancedEntrepreneurship

Joe Mansueto is the founder of Morningstar, which he took from a solo launch in anapartment to global operations as a public company with revenues of approximately $600million and 3,000 employees. Morningstar is a leading provider of independent investmentresearch in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, offering an extensive line ofInternet, software, and print-based products and services for individuals, financial advisers,and institutions. In addition to Morningstar, Joes love of magazines led him to purchase Inc.magazine, Fast Company, and Time Out Chicago.

Messages from Morningstar

You have to have enough confidence in yourself to trust your own judgment and not relyon what others think.

Find a market that is viable and that you believe will increase 40-fold with your efforts.

The secret is a relentless focus on the product. Create good products, listen to the customers,take their feedback, and then put it into the product. Always focus on improving yourproduct.

Invest back into the business. This gives you a huge advantage over competitors who haveinvestors or corporate parents drawing out funds. Put your own money into your products.

Marketing has changed. You can enhance and build an established brand through marketing.But in these days of technology, the people will quickly see what the product is, and if itdoesnt measure up to your marketing, youve gone nowhere. You have to have a greatproduct and then build it by word of mouth. You cant create a brand through marketing.

To take your business to the next level, you need a team around you. Youve got to delegateto them. Business is a team sport.

Dont give away your equity easily. If you give away your equity, youre going to give upcontrol at some point. Youve got to really value equity very highly.

HOW THEY DID IT42

Four Keys to Advanced Entrepreneurship

Key #1 Study success.

Study the companies that are doing well. See what lessons you can learn. Read voraciously.Read business magazines, read annual reports, go to conferences, surf the Internet.

Key #2 You have to reinvent yourself.

As you reach each new level of success, you have to learn new skills. How do you become aglobal CEO? How do you take a company public? You have to reinvent yourself and yourskill set as you get more successful.

Key #3 You have to have a long-term horizon.

The real advantage of being an entrepreneur is the ability to think long-term. You have tomake investments for the long-term. You can make a decision that will make you look goodin the short-term, or you can do something that might depress your earnings a bit but is theright thing for the company in the long-term. You always want to be making decisions thatin five years youll be happy you made. You have to be willing to endure some pain today forgreater good tomorrow.

Key #4 You have to go against the grain.

The only way youre going to do something great and something that stands out is to goagainst the crowd. You have to be careful that there isnt a good reason no one else is goingthat direction. But if you follow the crowd and do whats popular, it will be tough to standout.

HOW THEY DID IT43

YOUR TURN

How often do you read about other successful companies? How can you increase the amountof time that you devote to studying success?

Whats the next level of success for your business? What skills will you need to acquire toreinvent yourself?

Have you ever made a decision that was painful in the short-term but paid off in the long-run? Have you ever made a decision that was easy in the short-term but hurt you in thelong-run? What other choice could you have made?

Describe a time when you went against the grain. What choices have you made that weredifferent from what was popular at the time? Is there a choice you can make now in yourbusiness that is against the grain?

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HOW ILL DO IT


FAILUREcan be a friend.

HOW THEY DID IT45

Robert Jordan Lessons from Visionary Leaders

30 Takeaways

1. Hyper-personalization is key.2. Hyper-measurement and accountability are essential.3. There are low barriers to entry, but still high barriers to success.4. Be the outsider.5. Treat your investors like customers.6. Always have a hot standby.7. Get your hands dirty.8. Set yourself up for sacrifice.9. Everyone should have equity.

10. Attitude comes first, not credentials.11. Loyalty is key.12. Nurture entrepreneurs on your own team.13. Know your audience.14. Technology is not necessarily about the technology.15. Bring your customers inside.16. Look for adjacencies and acquisitions.17. You have to reinvest.18. Seek new opportunities.19. You have to define the problem.20. Define an affordable solution, or there is no business.21. Have a disciplined go-to-market plan.22. Take your team with you.23. Youve got to jump off a cliff.24. The quarterback makes the call.25. You have to read the marketplace.26. Get to know your enemies.27. Exit is not always final.28. You have to study success.29. You have to reinvent yourself.30. Go against the grain.

HOW THEY DID IT46

HOW ILL DO IT


HOW THEY DID IT47

We decided after writing the book to continue the conversation with entrepreneurs online. Werecommend that Nightingale-Conant listeners who want to see more content from us andfellow entrepreneurs go to the website of the same name, at www.HowTheyDidIt.com.

Folks who would like to share their thoughts and answers from the workbook can email me,[email protected].

48HOW THEY DID IT

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26570PG1-WCDR

Baskin, BonnieBonnie Baskin is thefounder of twocompanies, Viromed andAppTec Laboratories.She founded Viromed in

the early 1980s and built it from asmall, independent virology lab into anationally recognized leader in clinicalinfectious diseases and industrialbiosafety testing. Following the sale ofViromed to Laboratory Corporation ofAmerica for $40 million, Bonnie spunoff the remaining medical deviceservices business as the newly formedAppTec Laboratory Services. AppTecexpanded into services forbiopharmaceutical manufacturing andwas sold to WuXi Pharmatech in 2008for $163 million. Bonnie serves on anumber of private and non-profit boardsand is a past president of MNBIO, aMinnesota biotech association.

Becker, DavidDavid Becker is thefounder of First InternetBank, the first onlinebank anywhere in theworld, now boasting $500

million in assets. He is also the founderof re:Member Data Services, acquiredby Open Solutions; and founder ofVIFI, which provides Internet servicesto financial institutions. VIFI wasacquired by Digital Insight Corporationin 2002. David founded and remainsactively involved as CEO of threeother Indianapolis-based companies:OneBridge, a credit and debit cardprocessing firm; DyKnow, a companyspecializing in educational technology;and RICS, a firm he acquired andrelaunched to provide inventory controland POS systems for retailers viathe Web.

continued

Featured inHOW THEY DID IT ROBERT JORDAN

Dolan, JamesJim Dolan is the founderof The Dolan Company,which he has guidedthrough a number ofbusiness launches and

acquisitions to an IPO in 2007. TheDolan Company now operates in 25states and 53 product lines and employs2,000 people. Previously Jim wasexecutive vice president of the JordanGroup, Inc., a New York-basedinvestment bank specializing in media.Trained as a journalist, he worked forNews Corporation, the Sun-TimesCompany, and Centel Corp.

Soin, RajRaj Soin and his wifeIndu founded ModernTechnologies Corporation(MTC), a provider of

engineering, management, and technicalservices. They brought the company toan IPO in 2002 and $500 million inrevenue before being acquired by BAEfor $425 million. Raj owns a number ofcompanies involved in manufacturing,private equity investments, and realestate development.

Mansueto, JoeJoe Mansueto is thefounder of Morningstar,which he took from a sololaunch in an apartmentto global operations as

a public company with revenues ofapproximately $600 million and 3,000employees. Morningstar is a leadingprovider of independent investmentresearch in North America, Europe,Australia and Asia, offering anextensive line of Internet, software,and print-based products and servicesfor individuals, financial advisors, andinstitutions. In addition to Morningstar,Joes love of magazines led him topurchase Inc. magazine, Fast Company,and Time Out Chicago.

26570BIO-1

Miller, DaneDane Miller is the co-founder of Biomet, anorthopedics medicaldevices company, whichgrew from $17,000 in

sales its first year to annual salesexceeding $2.7 billion. The companyhad its first public offering in 1982 andwas taken private in 2007 for $11.4billion. Dane began his biomedicalengineering career at Zimmer USA inWarsaw, Indiana, moved to California,and later returned to Warsaw to launchand lead Biomet as president and CEO.

Shank, StephenStephen Shank is thefounder of CapellaUniversity, which hetook from inception in1991 to IPO in 2006 as

one of the first online educationplatforms in the world. Capella nowserves 35,000 students from all 50 statesand 59 countries. Prior to foundingCapella, Steve was CEO of TonkaCorporation.

Sullivan, BrianBrian Sullivan is thefounder of RecoveryEngineering, Inc., anindustry leader in thedesign, manufacture,

and marketing of consumer water filtersystems sold under the PUR brandname. Brian grew revenue to $200million, took the company public in1993, and sold to Procter & Gamblein 1999 for $265 million. Brian wenton to lead SterilMed, Inc., a healthcareservices company that reprocessesmedical devices. He sold the companyto Johnson & Johnson in 2011 for $350million.

continued

Tebbe, MarkMark Tebbe is thefounder of twocompanies, LanteCorporation andAnswers.com. Lante

grew from a two-person firm to an 850-employee NASDAQ-listed internationalcorporation and was acquired by SBIGroup in 2002. In 1999, Mark co-founded Answers Corporation, whichwent public in 2005, and was acquiredin 2011 by AFCV Holdings for $127million. Mark is the founder of TechraNetworks, a Chicago-based consultingfirm that assists companies inleveraging technology for theirbusiness needs.

Tullman, HowardHoward Tullman isthe president/CEO ofTribeca FlashpointMedia Arts Academyand chairman/CEO of

HYPR>BOX, LLC. Prior to Flashpoint,Howard founded a number ofcompanies, including Experiencia, Inc.;Tunes.com, sold for $135 million; andCertified Collateral Corporation, whichhe took public. He was chairman ofCobalt Group, acquired by ADP in2010 for $400 million. In additionto founding companies, Howard iscredited with the turnaround of KendallCollege, which faced liquidation.Howard moved the college into a newfacility and engineered the sale toLauriate University. He is a trustee ofWTTW and of the New York Academyof Art, and he serves as an adjunctprofessor at Northwesterns KelloggGraduate School of Management.

26570BIO-2

.Table of ContentsHow to Use This Interactive WorkbookBob Jordan Million-Dollar InsightsHoward Tullman The Five Keys to the FutureJim Dolan The Five Keys to Investor SuccessDane Miller Success Is in Empowering Your PeopleRaj Soin Secrets to Successful Team BuildingSteve Shank The Three Paths of Disruptive InnovationBonnie Baskin The Three Building Blocks to Becoming a Successful EntrepreneurBrian Sullivan Three Rules for Successful Product DevelopmentMark Tebbe - Developing a Strong Corporate StrategyDave Becker Turning Vision into BusinessJoe Mansueto The Four Keys to Advanced EntrepreneurshipRobert Jordan Lessons from Visionary LeadersEnhance Your Audio-Learning Library with These Great Titles from Nightingale-Conant!

What kinds of problems do you see in the world that bother you: Have you ever thought about what should be done to solve these problems: Describe a time when you took a leap of faith How did it turn out: undefined: undefined_2: What are your personal strengths and weaknesses: undefined_3: How can you use the five keys to change your existing business: new businesses products and services: to this session: What systems do you have in place to listen to your customers: What asset do you really have Is there another one you might not be seeing: undefined_4: undefined_5: How confident are you in your product or service Are you willing to use it yourself: How handson are you Are you willing to get in there and do the work yourself: undefined_6: Is your business a company or a development project Are you spending capital accordingly: Whats your Plan B: to this session_2: How do you show your loyalty to your people How has this been reciprocated: Are you facing such a problem now: undefined_7: in the following space: to get there Describe it here: to this session_3: business is currently being done Who is not being wellserved: Describe a typical customer experience in your business Is there a way to do it differently: them to cocreate or codevelop something: undefined_8: to this session_4: entered: undefined_9: undefined_10: undefined_11: undefined_12: What problem will your product or service solve: undefined_13: undefined_14: undefined_15: undefined_16: more than eight hours a day for years to come: undefined_17: undefined_18: to this session_5: undefined_19: you wish you had the courage to jump off now: When have you had to be the quarterback What tough calls have you had to make: should have walked away but didnt: undefined_20: reinvent yourself: longrun What other choice could you have made: undefined_21: to this session_6: to this session_7: Text1:

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