Steve Dinisio is the Angel of Death for failed businesses. When a business fails, the owner makes two calls. One to the bank and the next call to Steve.
Steve sells their equipment, furniture, inventory, everything. Maybe he buys it cheap and sells it. Maybe he sells it for a commission.
Either way he’s trying to help them scrape the last piece of dream out of their reality.
He makes a profit on everything he sells. He didn’t go to college. He has a healthy seven figure a year business liquidating other businesses. Go Steve!
There are always businesses failing. 85% of businesses fail. One quick note: if you are profitable on day one, then the odds go down to 20% that you will fail.
This doesn’t have to be a sad time. Dreams are a rainbow. Reality is in the spectrum of colors. Then it rains and a new set of dreams come out.
I spoke to Steve for almost an hour and put the conversation on my podcast.
I wanted to learn more how he did his business and then I got excited and exchanged ideas how I thought he could make his business much bigger.
I shouldn’t say “exchange”. I gave un-asked-for advice to an already thriving business and he politely said, “ok”. I can’t help myself.
But this is not why I bring up Steve. I don’t want you to have to liquidate your business.
I hope you never have to call Steve (sorry Steve).
Here’s why I bring up Steve:
Steve wrote me last night. He said, “I’ve gotten some great leads from that podcast And loads of emails from people offering suggestions.
“And these aren’t guys trying to sell me their service. Just your listeners offering to help. You’ve got a very nice group of people listening to you. Thanks.”
I’m really proud of that. Pride kills, right? But it’s great to see people connect. The strength of your connections’ connections is the true value of your network.
That’s a combination of your skills, your beliefs, your character, your effort to reach out and help others.
And your ability to step outside the boundaries set up nicely for you by everyone else. The gatekeepers, your colleagues, your bosses, sometimes family, sometimes huge industries or government.
The people who laughed at your dreams.
The best way to choose yourself is to build a community of other people choosing themselves. This is the only way to survive in this new economy we woke up in.
Tam Pham wrote me. He said there’s many “Choose Yourself Meetups” starting up in different cities. I didn’t even realize how many cities. Koh Samui, Thailand?
He said, “can you promote the list of meetups?”
Because he knows that it’s better for him, better for everyone, if more people are reaching out to each other and helping each other choose themselves and find their own dreams and create their own realities.
Tam wrote the text for me. So I’m going to write it here:
Ever since my best-selling book, Choose Yourself, was published in 2013, it has started a movement throughout many cities.
If you’re interested in meeting like-minded people that have used the philosophies in the book and chosen themselves in their lives, I welcome you to join these meetups groups and attend their upcoming events.
1) Choose Yourself Meetup: New York, New York
http://www.meetup.com/choose-yourself-meetup
2) Choose Yourself Meetup: Massapequa, New York
http://www.meetup.com/LIChooseYourself/
3) Choose Yourself Meetup: San Diego, California
http://www.meetup.com/The-Choose-Yourself-Meetup-Group/
4) Choose Yourself Meetup: Bay Area, California
http://www.meetup.com/Choose-Yourself-Bay-Area/
5) Choose Yourself Meetup: Schaumburg, Illinois
http://www.meetup.com/Choose-Yourself-Schaumburg-Chicago-S
6) Choose Yourself Meetup: Deland, Florida
http://www.meetup.com/Its-Your-Turn-Choose-Yourself-Accoun
7) Choose Yourself Meetup: Austin, Texas
http://www.meetup.com/Austin-Choose-Yourself-Meetup/
8) Choose Yourself Meetup: Houston, Texas
http://www.meetup.com/Choose-Yourself-Meeting-Based-on-Jam
9) Choose Yourself Meetup: Melbourne, Australia
http://www.meetup.com/Melbourne-Choose-Yourself-Meetup/
10) Choose Yourself Meetup: Manchester, United Kingdom
http://www.meetup.com/Choose-Yourself-Manchester-Share-Ide
11) Choose Yourself Meetup: London, United Kingdom
http://www.meetup.com/Choose-Yourself/
12) Choose Yourself Meetup: Toronto, Canada
http://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Choose-Yourself-Meetup/
13) Choose Yourself Meetup: Ko Sami, Thailand
http://www.meetup.com/Ko-Samui-Choose-Yourself-Entrepreneu
If you want to start your own meetup, send an email here: info@chooseyourself.me
You can also join the Choose Yourself community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/chooseyourself.me/ where everyone shares ideas and resources with each other to improve our lives 1% each day.
—
I wrote him back and told him (or anyone starting a Choose Yourself Meetup) that I’ll donate books for any meetups.
One business I was invested in failed about a decade ago. The CEO lied. Someone stole. The customers left. The product was probably bad. The business was liquidated.
But I had nobody to call. I had no network. And the original founder blamed me. Everyone hated me.
I became a shut-in because I didn’t want anyone to see me or talk to me. That period lasted three months before I would leave my house.
Well… now I think I’m beautiful. “ugly beautiful”. So now I leave my house. And people see me again.