Your First 100 Million – Dan Pena

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Your First 100 Million

Prologue

The Price of Fear… the Reward of Courage

As this book goes to press, the financial world is free falling through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Men of wealth and presumed integrity in the financial world have committed treachery on a scale of uncounted billions of dollars, affecting millions of “ordinary people” around the globe.

Bernie Madoff is the most despicable of these “pirates in pinstripe,” committing fraud of some $50 billion, deceiving even his closest associates and oldest friends. By March 2009, Bernie was in custody while lawyers bickered over the bones of his frozen assets, and he awaited his turn to plead guilty in court. “So what?” say his victims. “Our life savings have vanished.”

We cannot change the past, only recover from it. And perhaps learn its cruel lessons. The first lesson is this: the paralysis of fear can cost dearly; while the rewards of determined courage are incalculable.

In the meantime, concealed amid the carnage of financial ruin, are some stocks that dare to offer the prospect of profit. B2C, our own investing group, for example, is engaged more in “contravesting” than investing – looking for stocks anywhere in the world that are undervalued, mostly paying dividends. We think this period of bear market is an excellent opportunity to reach boldly for the bargains that are out there.

Our advice, as you seek to venture into the heady whitewaters of business acquisition, dream team building and Quantum Leap expansion, is to take courage. Grasp chaos. Force change. And follow the methodologies you’re about to read. One day, sooner than you could have imagined, the financial nightmare of the first decade of this millennium will be a harsh but fading memory.

And you’ll have survived to be the super success you knew you could be.

D e d i c a t i o n

In the book you’re about to read, I talk about the importance of mentors as a Quantum Leap to wisdom. Years ago, as a young hot shot in the corporate world, I learned the secrets of super success from three gentlemen who mentored me at critical times in my life.

Constantine “Costa” Gratsos had made his fortune as a lifelong associate of shipping icon Aristotle Onassis. He took a liking to me, became my first mentor, and showed me how to swim in the deep, dangerous waters of business.

Jim Newman, the business visionary who created the term “comfort zone” showed me how to expand my horizons. Thanks to Jim, after I attended one of his PACE Seminars in 1978, I moved out of my comfort zone at Bear Stearns and became a super successful oilman.

Jerry Ormand was already a legendary Texas oilman when I met him. Yet he took the time to introduce me to the fine points of the oil business, and how to survive and prosper amid the chaos of a rough-and-tumble industry.

Jerry… Jim… “Costa”… this book is gratefully dedicated to you.

– Dan

FOREWORD

By Dr Klaus Kleinfeld

Former CEO of Siemens, AG.

Congratulations! You have chosen an extraordinary book that describes a step-by-step framework and methodology for building a super successful business from scratch, while attaining the skill sets of a high performance person. The precepts described in this book are straight forward, yet very powerful. The author, Daniel S. Peña, has put into simple words how he achieved success at the highest level starting with nothing more than a dream and the passion to succeed. I strongly recommend “Your First Hundred Million” for those who have a dream, little or no capital, and desire a road map to build a significant net worth and achieve the life of a high performance person.

It is written in a style that will ingratiate you to the author, because he tells it exactly like it is, with no varnish or hesitation. At times you may even be shocked by how he describes what it takes to be a high performance person and achieve your dreams in today’s rough and tumble ever changing business environment. He calls his precepts and methodology QLA, or Quantum Leap Advantage and it’s based on his almost 40-year personal worldwide track record of success.

Over many years Dan has become a very good friend. I know Dan’s comments might often raise your eyebrow with his candor. However you will truly enjoy hearing what it takes to succeed from someone who has really lived it. And you can tell this isn’t theory, because he gives you real examples from his life and those that he has coached and mentored. Dan has operated in the same real world you do every day and succeeded against all odds. But more importantly, countless devotees have used QLA successfully and achieved their dreams and goals!

Read this book and I know it can be the first step towards the realization of your dreams and being a successful high performance person.

All the very best,

Klaus Kleinfeld

Introduction

Your Quantum Leap Advantage

“Always try to go into business with an unfair advantage.”

You will never have read a business book like this one.

Because you hold this special edition, you may have heard me speak. You may have even been to my castle; you might even be a business partner. So you’ll realize immediately this book is written the way I talk to audiences at my “Quantum Leap Advantage” seminars. You’ll also understand it’s not a book for everybody, because success (and the wealth it brings) isn’t for everybody. But I know you’ll profit from it, because it captures under one cover – all the Quantum Leap strategies I’ve been pounding into people’s heads for several years now.

The Business sections of bookstores and libraries across America, the UK and Europe are packed with books that tell you how to become a successful entrepreneur. Some of them are written by men and women who have achieved a respectable level of success. Others are written by professors who understand business as a theory, but have never had their own business. These books typically take the reader through the step-by-step mechanics of starting, growing and ultimately selling a business. Others are manuals that cover taking a company public, tax issues, raising capital and other topics an entry-level entrepreneur needs to know. They include checklists, graphs and formats for business plans and letters of intent. There are probably nuggets of “how-to” information in these books. But I’ve found most of them to be as flat and lifeless as road-kill.

But more to the point, none of these books tells you how to prepare your mind for being super successful. They skip over how to adjust your perspective just slightly, so you can take what I call a Quantum Leap…make millions of dollars…and do it over and over again!

What if you had access to the secrets of a man who has the strength, skills and self-confidence to make one Quantum Leap after another, even make them simultaneously, and knows he will ultimately become a billionaire before he quits? What if you could receive, in his own words, the wisdom of this active multi-millionaire – not one of those “real estate rich” morons or some silk-suited seminar mooches – but a man who took his own energy corporation from an $820 investment to an incredible $400 million in market capitalization in just eight short years!

That’s what this book is all about.

It’s about achieving the mental toughness and laser-beam focus you need to make a ton of money. I’ve packed this book from beginning to end with the same strategies I’ve been thundering across the financial capitals of five continents. But I’ve left most of the detailed checklists to that pedantic crowd of pedestrian business people and dusty professors who write those “how to” books.

Putting it another way, most business writers give you some weapons, or at least a weapon’s manual, and send you out to face the realities of business. Through my Quantum Leap methodology, I show you how to prepare and focus your mind and spirit for executive battle – against entrenched institutions … vicious corporate assassins… and those nay-savers of success, the purveyors of conventional wisdom. Don’t let anyone tell you, ‘You can’t do that!’ Because you can! That’s the Quantum Leap difference.

They used to call me crazy…and worse. They’d say, ‘Dan, you can’t do that!’ And, by God, I’d do it. Then, when I made my first few million dollars, they started calling me “controversial.” A London newspaper labeled me “the most controversial man in London in the Eighties.” (A public figure is “controversial” when he’s got too much money and influence to be called crazy. Besides, he might be crazy enough to sue you into oblivion.) My British advisors would shiver and say, ‘Dan, you can’t do that!’ So I’d do it. Now, in my early fifties, I’m mellowing into “eccentric.”

I thought I would stay retired – I sure as hell don’t have to work – but then I realized what poor advice most people are being fed about success by “feel good” frauds in the personal development field. You’ve seen them grinning and charming on TV. You know who I’m talking about.

I have become a business success coach to a selected group of entrepreneurs who I feel have seemingly boundless energy and determination to become super successful. I also conduct seminars in the U.S., the United Kingdom and the E.U. – and at my 15th Century home, Guthrie Castle, near the North Sea above Edinburgh, Scotland.

Through my U.K. enterprise, the Quantum Leap Organisation, my associates and I identify entrepreneurs, and nurture them along in pursuit of their dream. The success stories coming to fruition in Scotland and England are proving what I’ve said all along – that Quantum Leap strategies are universal in their application. You can sell a solicitor, a proper “City gent” in London, on your dream as easily as you can a lawyer in the United States, and you can take £500,000 from the Bank of Scotland as smoothly as you can from a Second Vice President of Citi Corp.

Get Your First 100 Million – Dan Pena, Only Price $87

I call my basic seminar “The Quantum Leap Advantage,” and I deliver others as well on more specific entrepreneurial topics. They are all hard-hitting, no-nonsense seminars, packed with the brutal truth about making big money and are delivered “in you face.” One attendee wrote on his critique sheet, “Dan Peña is a bulldozer of knowledge…” – I like that!

This book, in content and tone, is an extension of those seminars. It is my answer to the question I get continuously, “Dan, you’ve said so much in three days. Do you have something I can take home and read?” I do have such a book, written in the late Nineties. The QLA strategies and methodologies – how to make your first 100 million – are as relevant today as they were then. Like any good recipe, the QLA recipe for high-performance and super success never goes out-of-date.

But since our first publication, so much has happened in the world, the global economy and the business community. So I decided to update the book in time for the second decade of this century and for a new generation of passionate, fired up entrepreneurial achievers. Maybe like you.

Bear in mind that I didn’t write this book to make you feel good inside or to stroke your self-esteem. Instead, I give you the unvarnished truth you deserve about how corporate business really works, and how you need to think, feel, train and be prepared to make the system work for you, so you can take your first Quantum Leap.

And begin building your own dream.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Dedication 2

Foreword 4

Introduction: Your Quantum Leap Advantage 5

1. Super Success – Not for the Touchy-Feely 8

2. The Barrio – and the Castle 23

3. Conventional Wisdom – the Loser’s Crutch 36

4. Getting Comfortable with High Performance 50

5. Building Perception to Become Reality 66

6. Creating Your Dream Team 78

7. 11 Steps That Make the Deal 100

8. The Plan with No Escape 118

9. Offering Lenders the Chance to Finance Your Dream 130

10. More Capital Ideas for Financing Your Deal 151

11. Acquisitions – the Secret Of Quantum Growth 168

12. Your Grand Exit – Dying or Selling 190

13. Take Action Now! – or Never 202

Appendices 215

A. 11 Steps from an Idea to its Execution 216

B. Quantum Leap Advantage Action War Plan 217

C. The Business Investment “Red Flag” Checklis 220

D. Words to Help You Make Your Millions – Peña-isms 224

E. Your Own Natural Resources for Success 230

F. Once or Twice in A Lifetime – Knock! Knock! 239

G. Charlie Soladay’s Eulogy 242

H. A Profile of Daniel S. Peña, Sr. 246

I. You Can’t Do That! 250

J. Proud Moments – and Sad Ones 256

K. What People and the Press Have to Say about Dan 259

L. You’re Right, Dan. This Stuff Really Works! 264

M. Sample Letters 269

N. Consolidation – the Strategy of Consolidation:

The Secret of exponential Growth 283

DISCLAIMER: Seminar presentations, newsletters, books, QLA products and other communications are not intended to convey legal, accounting, tax appraisal or other professional or investment advice which is expressly disclaimed. You are expected to use your own due diligence and consult your own professional advisors before taking action or making decisions, and comply with all applicable laws. Remember: “Investigate before you invest!” I can’t do that for you! No presentation or communication and nothing in this book shall expressly or implicitly bind any person or entity to any contract, agreement or course of conduct, or waive any part of this disclaimer.

Chapter One

Super-Success – Not for the Touchy-Feely

‘Super success is not for the wishy washy. Victory in business, like war, comes to the toughest son-of-a-bitch in the valley.’

This is a book about making money.

I don’t mean a few extra bucks in your spare time. Any moron can do that. I don’t mean increasing your sales 20%, or buying real estate or getting into the discount mortgage scam. I’m talking about making so much money you can’t count it – you’ve got to weigh it.

This is no “get rich quick” book either. “Get rich quick” implies “get rich easy,” and if you think you can get rich easy in today’s world, you’re either about to murder your rich uncle – or you’re stupid.

Nor is it one of those “wealth without risk” books. Accumulating money without taking risks is a fantasy fed to the faint–hearted or the elderly who are not so much interested in achieving wealth as they are terrified of becoming poor. The high performers – the super successful – do take risks. I sure did. Still do. Anybody who’s not taking risks in business is not making real money. There is no super success without risk. There just isn’t. And no safety in being a high-performance person. If you want safety, this book isn’t for you.

Finally, this is not a book to help you feel better about yourself.

Conventional wisdom is that if you feel good about yourself, you’ll make money. As you’ll see – if you read on – I grew a company to over 400 million dollars in real market value, working on the premise that all conventional wisdom is crap. The truth is that when you make a lot of money, then you’ll feel good about yourself.

So why should you read on? Here are some reasons. I’ve built from scratch more dollar value than any other personal development or business success coach who’ll ever try to sell you a book. I’ve lost more money in just one bad deal than a lot of those slick-suited guys on the “feel-good-get-rich” lecture circuit ever made in their whole lives.

What else?

I’ve made over 75,000 business decisions during my 37-year business career. That’s probably 70,000 more than anyone who’ll read this book – or anyone selling success books and tapes. I’ve made more than 600 financial presentations on five continents (all but Antarctica – there’s no money there!), raising over one billion dollars during times nobody else could raise a cent! And in between I’ve logged million of miles in travel, thousands of nights in hotels, thousands of business meetings, and more than 250,000 business phone conversations.

If anybody wants to talk about more business experience in the past 37 years than Dan Peña – in the trenches or in the peaks – let me know.

You should also read on because, if you can handle it, this book is written for you.

I’m writing to aspiring entrepreneurs who have the fire in their belly to achieve super success. I’m talking to the owners of small or mid-sized businesses, people who are already successful and want more… and the CEOs, Directors and other top executives of companies who are now looking for geometric growth in a competitive, unforgiving marketplace. In short, this book is for “serious players.”

But beyond that circle of capitalists, anyone who seeks a greater degree of success in their life can benefit from this book. To borrow from Joe Batten, the advertising legend and mentor to Ross Perot, whose accounts included the U.S. Army: I’m writing for you if you want to “be all you can be.” Now that you’ve bought me – I assume you haven’t browsed this far – let me assure you I’ve got more for you between these covers than you’ll find in an entire library of sudsy proverbs and platitudes. Hence, the cover price.

When I retired the second time, a few years ago, I quickly got bored with doing nothing. I gradually became interested in sharing the brutal truths I had learned in the business world with others. After all, I had made tens of millions before I was 40 years old. Why not pass along the benefit of years of experience to those who were on the cusp of success, so that they could enjoy extraordinary business achievement of their own. And, quite frankly, my ego demanded it.

That idea led me to make a commitment to be a business success coach. I reasoned that if other super successful business performers could deliver their proven wisdom and strategies to a willing and receptive audience of eager listeners ready to take bold action, so could I.

I couldn’t have been more wrong!

THE SEMINAR CROWD – PERPETUATORS OF THE BIG LIE

The Nazis taught us how effective a Big Lie could be. They shouted their propaganda so loudly and so often that we in the “civilized world” accepted their crimes until the brutal truth slapped us in the face. Today pimple-faced neo-Fascists scream there was no Holocaust – and a lot of well-meaning people give them an audience.

At the same time, a much smoother type, the “success evangelists,” are infiltrating the country, filling conference rooms and convention centers, and feeding desperate audiences the Big Lie about personal success.

My introduction to the “seminar circuit subculture” was a real eye-opener. It didn’t take more than five minutes for me to realize what the seminar business is all about. The sad truth is nearly all seminars look alike. Most of them are the same distillation of conventional wisdom, spoon fed to you in outline form so you can copy it down. And if you’re too slow or lazy to take notes, you can always buy the $495 to $2995 tape-set, manual and even software packages conveniently set out on the table at the back of the room. They take all major credit cards…

Even more to the point, if you listen to the tapes . . .if you actually read the book, you get the overwhelming feeling of, “Yeah, that’s right. I guess I already knew that, I just never saw it organized so neatly before.”

Of course, doofus! It all sounds familiar because you grew up listening to the same conventional wisdom these guys did! Now they’re making money selling you the stuff you’ve heard all your life.

‘Achieve a balance between your business life and your personal life.’ ‘Make a list of what’s good about yourself and stick it on your mirror.’ ‘Make a list of what you need to do this week.’ ‘Set achievable goals so you’re not disappointed.’ ‘Buy a used car, because it’s already depreciated.’ ‘Get a 15-year mortgage instead of a 30-year mortgage.’

Crap…CRAP…CRAP!

You may be one of those people who attends seminars, buys the books, the videotapes, the cassettes and the financial advice life support systems. If you are, then I suspect they’re all lying around your home or office right now gathering dust; thousands of dollars invested in advice your parents gave you for free and against your will years ago.

But just as important as realizing the content of the typical seminar message is to expose the “authority” of the smooth-tongued performers who deliver their wisdom around the country and on late-night infomercials. I was appalled at the lack of business acumen of so many of the seminar presenters. Those personal motivation gurus that come to your city . . . those pearly-teethed infomercial guys . . . the so-called authors that line the bookstores with “how-to” success books – they’re mostly frauds!

You need to ask yourself, how many of these business success “experts” have made any serious money. Damn few. Next ask yourself if they made their money is the business world? How many of them scrapped their way to super success in the kill-or-die corporate environment? How many of them started from scratch and built a business empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars? Don’t bother scratching your head. The answer is: hardly any.

It didn’t take me long to learn that most of these phonies have made what little money they do have in the seminar business – taking your money!

I quickly discovered that I’m the only multimillionaire I know of on the seminar circuit who made my money in the real business world, creating a hundred million dollar empire. As you’ll learn in the next chapter, I wasn’t just exposed to 400 million dollars of transactions one day. I created a company that catapulted to a worth of over 400 million dollars on a major stock exchange – starting with a phone . . . a leased fax machine . . . and $820.

Another question. These people are supposed to be teaching you how to become successful, which is a code word for “rich.” But how many of them are multi-millionaires? Few if any. In fact, the only one I know is a good friend, Ted Nicholas, one of the finest marketing copywriting and self-publishing guru in the country, maybe in the world. A lot of the rest live in rented properties and are dodging the tax man. Yet they’re telling you how to get rich!

Before you buy your next book or tape, consider the author and ask yourself, ‘Is this guy where I want to be? Is his success story the blueprint I want for my success? And how did he make his money? In the business arena, or selling books and tapes, and putting butts in seminar seats? Think about it.

I’m not going to tell you what I think you want to hear so you’ll like me. I don’t care if you like me or not.

I also discovered something interesting about those roomfuls of seminar attendees I assumed were so eager to take “bold action.” I was stunned to discover the level of apathy of the average seminar attendee. Most of them are more interested in hearing feel-good stories and pleasant proverbs than the truth about becoming super successful. Most of them just want to be stroked, to hear “You’ve already got within you what it takes to succeed. Reach inside and draw from the wealth of your own potential.” They want validation that they’re okay, in the tradition of “I’m okay, you’re okay.” What crap!

Take some risks.

The super successful understand that risk is necessary to grow.

The super successful also have a different perspective on risk. Several years ago, a guy named Charles Givens made a ton of money on a book he called Wealth Without Risk. He put together a whole program based on money-making/money-saving ideas, hired some used car salesmen, and peddled his program in hotel conference rooms all over the country. A close examination of his book revealed that virtually all his “ideas” were little ideas to make a little money here, save a little money there – stuff any financial advisor could tell you.

The only people who grew anywhere near “super successful” were Givens and his inner circle of associates. His converts saved a few bucks on insurance premiums, made a little money in real estate – mostly “flipping houses” – and thought they were rich. But without taking risks, they were all small potatoes, and eventually the Givens organization was dragged into court and has long since disappeared. (Givens’ legacy is the half-hour “Paid Advertising” TV program – the infomercial – and a generation of skilled and dapper pitchmen who still work the seminar circuit trying with only limited success to replicate the Givens phenomenon.)

The genuinely super successful understand that risk is necessary to grow. In my seminars I refer to the “Quantum Leap,” an explosive, geometric growth in your company that merely more sales or new locations could never achieve. A Quantum Leap requires risk.

One of my favorite “disciples” was a young guy named Fidel Vargas, one of a group in the mid-Nineties I called the “Mexican morons.” I quickly saw Fidel’s potential and paid for him to attend the seminar at my own Guthrie Castle in Scotland. Much like myself, Fidel was a product of the Los Angeles barrio – except that this Latino firebrand completed his undergraduate work and MBA at Harvard. He also made national news several years ago by becoming the youngest mayor in the United States at age 23 – of Baldwin Park, California. These days, he runs a venture cap fund for an investment firm in Southern California. QLA made some lasting impressions on Fidel.

“Dan Peña struck me immediately as larger-than-life,” Fidel said recently, “somebody determined to squeeze every last dro