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JUST AS IN LIFE, IN BUSINESS ALSO YOU SHOULD LEARN FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS?

This is the content of part of my book I published in 2006 called PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS, the next volume will be published soon.

~CHAPTER ONE~

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

I was going to call this book the Business Law for the entrepreneur from a business man’s point of view. But I thought that it was really more truthful to tell you about the means by which I learned my Street Smarts. I have learned most of what I know about business law through learning the hard way, not only by studying Business Law in the MBA School and having numerous long and expensive conversations and consultations with my many attorneys and attorney friends but also by taking numerous seminars and training classes. However, I need to tell you honestly, there is no better way to learn but through personal experience and there is no better school than the school of hard knocks; except one distinction; it is also perhaps the most expensive way to learn a lesson. A truly intelligent man is one who learns through the experiences of others as ones’ own experiences are much more costly. As you know, I am not a lawyer. I am an entrepreneur, an MBA, and a CEO with over twelve years of business experience, and also a cosmetic surgeon with five board of medical specialty of medicine including cosmetic surgery, laser surgery, ambulatory medicine, and general medicine and surgery in addition to many other qualifications and degrees. Every one of the disciplines and sciences that I have learned and mastered has demonstrated to me that there are systems and protocols for their execution. The reality of it is that business as any other venture in life has laws of its own. Here I am trying to give you the business laws in a very simple capsulated format from my point of view as an entrepreneur. Being in business school and having gone through the MBA training at the University of California, one of the courses I took was Business Law. In this course I got exposed to a wide variety of concepts of law. In my practice as a CEO and entrepreneur, I am constantly dealing with contracts and corporate Law, Real Estate Law, Medical legal aspects of the business of medicine and god knows what else. It seems like you can almost never get far enough away from the legal aspects of law as long as you are in business. The way I look at it is if you are going to be subjected to it you might as well know about it. Also, the way I look at it the more you know the more you learn, and then the more you are aware when you are being misguided, misled, or misinformed. At least if you are not going to be your own lawyer, know enough so that you have some idea as to how you feel things should be and keep yourself out of trouble. Most importantly you need to be practicing preventative defensive business law. The only way you can do that is at least by learning a few things in a simple format.

~CHAPTER TWO~

BUSINESS LAW MADE SIMPLE

If you don’t love or like yourself, no one else will. The reality is that as far as that applies to business you have really got to love yourself enough to protect yourself. You have to love yourself enough not to allow yourself be a main target for anyone to be shooting at. The truth of it is if you don’t protect yourself there are plenty of people who will knowingly and even many who unknowingly will hurt you financially, professionally, and otherwise. You really need to be loving yourself enough to protect yourself by setting up the corporate structures, the business structures, agreements, contracts, and things that are necessary in order to be protected all throughout your career. Another truism is if you don’t ask you won’t get. Make sure you are very clear about what it is you want and expect in return for what you give when you enter into any type of a relationship or business with a partner. You need to be clear. You ask for what you want and put it in writing. Anything that you discuss in any sort of a business setting or situation has to be in writing. If it was not written, it never happened. It has to be written. It has to be signed. I am not a proponent of partnership. In my reality and in my world it is always better to hire individuals and not necessarily become partners with them and not give the equity of a business to someone who is going to do certain work, especially if you happen to be the creative out-of-the-box thinker in the Paradigm of Boundary less Creativity. Make sure that you take full control of the business always. As they say, whoever owns the physical entity or has the cash has nine-tenths of the law. Make sure that the lease is under your name and the business name is under your name. Make sure that you own the trademarks, the intellectual property, and the patent. As much as you can, try to have full control of the entire entity. The other thing is to make sure there is documentation for everything and anything that happens. Nobody should be really in full control of the numbers except you. If you are going to allow an accountant or someone have access to cash and the cash transfers to the bank, you have to have two or three or four people who sort of countercheck each other and put that into the systems of procedures and protocol. Trust, but verify. This is so very important. You have to at all times do surprise visits, surprises checks and balances, and surprise audits. Make sure that people never feel so confident and comfortable that you are not aware of what is going on that they feel they can “pull a fast one on you.” Always keep them on their toes. Make sure that they all know that in fact you check every single thing at any time and that if you don’t do it regularly you are going to do it randomly, which is even better because if they don’t see a pattern in your craziness it is harder for them to break the code. They really have got to have the feeling that your eyes and ears are just growing from everywhere and you are on top of things at any time. Call at any time and ask them for an explanation of what is going on. Trust as long as you do verify. Just like President Reagan said, “Don’t buy the smiles.” Just remember that. Many people give you these smiles, very phony looks and smiles, and make you feel very comfortable. It took me a long time finally to come to the belief and realization that I could not really trust what I was seeing. What really happens is that when you are in the position of power, the position of leadership, the position of ownership, and the position of the boss and the CEO, people do not necessarily let you see the real thing. They try to show you what they want you to see. In reality, there could be a completely different reality behind the image. You have to realize the more successful you become the more elusive those smiles, those statements, and those claims may be. You may at most have only a handful of people in your organization who are truly honest with you. Most of the others are actually looking at you as the boss. The boss is really not a friend no matter how you slice it. It took me a long to realize you could buy them lunch, you could buy them dinner, you could give them very good offers, gifts, bonuses, and raises; but when it comes down to the bottom line no one is your real friend except for a handful of people. Usually those are the people who really have something at stake. The reality is it is mostly ethics, but at the same time it is their professionalism and their personal character that determine who they are committed to. There are seldom times that you are going to find those types of characters especially in the smaller business setting. Just know that in reality, you cannot trust the smiles, you cannot trust the statements, and you cannot trust the claims. Even though you are a trusting person, you do want to be decent, you don’t want to be manipulative, or don’t want to be not trustworthy; you just have to be aware and alert at all times. The other issue that is very, very important is don’t trust degrees and don’t trust the training, the education, the licenses, and all those other things. If something doesn’t feel right to you and if your gut feeling tells you that this is not right but the other person is guiding you, leading you, telling you, feeding you, or teaching you; then don’t do it. Don’t trust the degrees. Don’t assume that the person who has the degrees knows more or that what they say is correct and you do not know what you are doing or you are wrong because you don’t have the degrees.

~CHAPTER THREE~

STAKING YOUR CLAIM

You really as the boss, as the owner, as the CEO have a lot at stake. At the same time, you have this subconscious commitment and complete motivation to see your organization succeed. That in itself puts you in a position where you become clearly aware of things that are not correct and good and don’t feel well or feel right to your subconscious. When you make a judgment and you are asked to make a decision, always take your time. Take a step back. Give yourself enough time to wholeheartedly connect with the greater intelligence of the universe within you look at the situation. Separate yourself away from the politics, away from the circumstances, and away from the people that you are involved with or the people who encourage you one way or the other and their personal gains. Look at the situation as a true entrepreneur and a committed individual who has the best interests of the organization at heart. That is your job as a true entrepreneur; to make that best decision for the organization. If that “best decision” happens not be the best for the persons or people who are around you at the given moment then so be it. If you make those decisions consistently and constantly in the best interests of the organization, then those people who are around you who don’t have the best interest of the organization at heart will fall off the ship very quickly. Then in their place, you will have the privilege, the honor, and the opportunity to place those people who come on board whose thought processes, beliefs, and intentions are aligned with yours in the best interest of the organization. Have no fear of losing people who are not committed to you, to your organization, and to the best outcome of your organization. There is no power like the power of commitment and true belief in the best possible potential of the organization. Remain committed to that. Don’t trust the degrees. Don’t trust the statements. Don’t trust the claims. Make it your motto to say results speak for themselves. Trust, but do verify. When you get a suggestion or recommendation that does not seem right and does not feel comfortable, always get a second and a third opinion from two or three independent unbiased individuals, always, always. In most of the meetings as bosses and CEOs, we are expected to be the ones who actually start talking and running the meeting. Do not lead by giving the answers, by making claims or statements, or basically being the one who speaks or speaks first; but, be the one who sort of leads by question. Most successful people in the business lead by questions. Ask questions say about, “How would we be able to do this? How can we improve this? How can we do better? How can we achieve success?” Constantly in every circumstance, ask questions. Then the next step is to listen. Ask questions, listen, and don’t talk first. Allow those people who are involved with you in the organization to really share their thoughts and their prophecies, and then come to the conclusions. If you get that input from them, generally you have gotten their buy in at the end of the day so you do not really have to convince them when they come up with the right recommendations. They generally know their departments better than you do and tend to make better judgments and better recommendations anyway. When they come up with the recommendations, they already have a buy in and now to prove to you that in fact what they said was true and that in fact they made the right statement. At that point, you have gotten their buy in. Generally people do more for their own cause than they do for anybody else’s cause. If that is their cause, then you are sure to get one hundred percent of their efforts most likely.

 

~CHAPTER FOUR~

HANDLING CONFRONTATIONS

By all means, avoid confrontation in any situation you are in. Just be sure to avoid any confrontation as much as you can. Remember as the boss and as the CEO, you have more to lose than anybody else does. If there is a confrontation or a situation in which you feel there is an unfair, unethical, or unacceptable statement, approach, or situation facing you, don’t confront it head on. Take a big step back. Take a deep breath and relax. The truth of the matter is whatever you can do now in haste and as a reactive effort; you can still do a little later. The chances are you are not going to do it that way later if you think about it. Think it through and talk to some people who know the situation and understand the situation and the strategy of dealing with that situation better than you do. It is always to your advantage as a CEO to have wise people around you. Surround yourself with wise intelligent people who have been there and done that including attorneys, but not limited to attorneys. See other CEOs, other entrepreneurs, experienced business people, and people with whom you can actually verbalize your concerns and issues. Then, they can give you their feedback and recommendations. Always remember that no one man is really aware and cognizant of everything except you in the entire circumstance. The bottom line is that the final burden of the decision lies on your shoulders. You have to hear everybody’s point of view. At the end of the day, you make that decision that really feels right to you. The job of a CEO is really to listen to everybody’s point of view, to gather as much data as you can, and then to execute by coming up with the best decision that fits that particular circumstance.

~CHAPTER FIVE~

HOW TO HANDLE LEGAL REPRESENTATION

In legal types of situations, if you are running a business of any kind, as an entrepreneur or businessperson, then I do recommend that you have an attorney who really cares about you and has your best interest at heart. I know that some people traditionally hate attorneys. Hate them if you must, but hire one you can stomach anyways. Have that person really almost filter and look at every decision, everything you do, everything you intend to do, everything you plan, and everything you execute at every given time. Make sure that in fact you run things by them and make no decisions without first consulting with them. Trust me. The few thousand dollars a month that you may be spending on an attorney can save you thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars later, not even mentioning the headaches, the problems they can help you avoid. Definitely, by all means, have one available and definitely consult them. Do not wait until there are problems and then bring it to them. It is better to discuss things preventatively with them. Never sign a contract without running it by your attorney, never. I don’t care what kind of contract it is. It is much better if you can run it by your attorney. If you can afford to have a full time corporate attorney, the sooner you can grow your organization to have one available the better it is for you. Don’t fall for the paradigm that an attorney is an attorney is an attorney. There is no such thing. Generally, law is such a vast knowledge that no one knows it all. In reality, law is one of those specialty fields. For every aspect of the law, there is a specialist who knows that aspect much better than others in the legal field do. Find the absolute most expert of an individual who can give you the most solid, concrete, and trusted advice in the area of the specialty that you are dealing with whether it is corporate law, contract, real estate, franchising, medical malpractice, medical legal laws, Stark laws, and so on. Make sure that you have a super expert who can guide you whether it is in the taxes and IRS issues. Never think that you are going to save two or three hundred dollars and just go to a general attorney. Actually, that two or three hundred dollars may be a very expensive decision for you and may cost you thousands and thousands of dollars later on. It is always better to pay a few hundred dollars for a real competent attorney’s advice up front and save yourself thousands of dollars and a lot of headache in the long run. Everyone loves your money. If you are willing to part with your money, they will be happy to take you on a ride on their promise machine. The truth of it is that when people come to you and pitch a sale or some kind of thing, the reality is that they are essentially testing you and seeing how easily you part with your money. Everybody is an expert if you believe it. Everyone is a consultant. Everyone can give you advice. Everyone can give you suggestions. Especially if you pay for it you are going to get exactly that, a whole bunch of advice, suggestions, and hot air basically. What I always say, I learned this the hard way, is that I don’t pay for advice and I don’t pay for information. I can get information from a library. I can read a book. I can go on the Internet. I do not need information. I need a hands-on to do the recommendation. Then, what I also tell the people is that you have to be willing to put your money where your mouth is. If you are going to give me advice, part of how you are going to get paid generally for that advice is by helping me get the results. It has to be somehow related to the results I achieve from your advice.

THERE ARE NO MINOR SURGERIES! EVERY SURGERY IS MAJOR!

~CHAPTER SIX~

 ABOUT PROFESSIONAL EXPERTS

As much as you can try to create that type of a financial win-win relationship with whoever claims to know how to do certain things, make a direct relationship between the money they earn, the advice they give, and the results they achieve for you. It is easy to give advice, but in reality what you really need as an entrepreneur is people who can help you implement whatever it is you are implementing based on the advice that they give you. In reality what you need is help implementing. You need people who have done it before not people who have just learned how it possibly could be done. You need somebody who can walk you through it, take your hand, and just step-by-step show you how it is done. That is really the advice the type of hands-on advice and recommendation that is worth it for you. I remember that I actually went and spent thousands of dollars learning about certain thing about a business concept. The man, who was speaking on that DVD that I had spent thousands of dollars on the series, seemed to know it all so I hired him. The PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 17 by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved first thing he said was, “I will not come to see you because I am too busy unless you pay me up front several thousands of dollars plus you pay for my trip, my hotel, my X, my Y.” I sort of agreed assuming that this person knew everything that there was to know about the concept that he made the DVD on. He showed up. He spent a day and a half with me. Frankly, when he left, I knew just as much as I did before he came. The only thing was he was several thousand dollars richer and I was several thousands dollars poorer. There was no real benefit to hearing him talk above and beyond what I had learned from his CD. Then, I realized that this man had just learned these concepts, made a CD, and in practicality has no ethics. Actually, one of the things he talked about highly in the CD was the concept of ethics and giving more than you receive. In fact, he gave ten times less than I even expected or he had promised. You have to realize that in fact people can say all kinds of things. Don’t trust the words, always verify. Talk to people. Get references. Never ever enter into a relationship without getting references, several references. Make sure that in any type of relationship that you enter into that people actually have something at stake. They have to provide a result. Based on that result, they get paid not based on delivering information. PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 18 by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 19 by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved Another experience I had is that we had a company that claimed that they were experts in marketing and management. We trusted them. They just told us how years and years of experience had made them one of the leaders in this certain field of marketing. We did our due diligence. We found that they were actually around for a long time. They had a good talk. They had a nice presentation. We fell for it. The next thing we knew they offered the contract to us several hundreds of thousands of dollars worth. We signed on the dotted line after doing our due diligence. What happened was in the beginning they handed a big package of information to us which was, basically, the major part of the intellectual property that they transferred to us. It was essentially equivalent to buying a book from the library and not much more. The rest of the package was the minority part of it. Pretty much in the first week of the relationship that we had consummated, they had earned from us based on the contract thousands and thousands of dollars at one lump sum. Pretty much the rest of it was all just services. Actually, they did that very poorly with minimal results. The reality was that they had loaded the relationship and the content of the contract up front so pretty much they had earned their fee very fast. We pretty much became a victim of this type of a situation. It was actually a very expensive lesson. I am sharing that with you so by reading this book you have learned a very, very valuable lesson. Never fall for a contract. Never sign on a dotted line where you are actually supposed to pay a very big lump sum for a certain service or information. Firstly, information, as far as I am concerned, is worthless. Don’t buy information necessarily unless it is from someone who has done it PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 20 by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved through trial and error and that information can save you a tremendous amount of heartache, pain, and losses in the form of trial and error fees. The reality of it is that information is only part of power. Action is another part. You need someone who can stand by you, side-by-side take action with you, and assure that you at the end get the right result. You need someone who can set the right expectations for you so that your expectations are realistic. Someone who can help you strategize, create a very specific game plan for achieving your goals, support you as you execute, and also is able to help you identify your results, and find out how close or far you are to your intended outcome. At the end of the day if you are far away, then they can help you redirect, reguide, and re-maneuver your path so that you can ultimately achieve the results you want. That is where the value is. Results speak for themselves never for promises. That is the biggest thing that you learn in business.

~CHAPTER SEVEN~

TURNING OBSTACLES INTO OPPORTUNITIES

One of the things that is always common to any entrepreneur is that from time to time you are going to come up against some obstacles. In fact, what is interesting is as you continue to grow as an entrepreneur the obstacles continue to grow in size and in dimension. Initially, a small little obstacle could be just mail arriving late and that may just put a damper on the days plan, you get a message that you were supposed to get through a secretary and could end up costing you half a day, or something like that. As time goes on, these obstacles continue to grow. That is because your ability now to manage those smaller obstacles continues to grow. The obstacles continue to grow in direct relationship with your ability to manage them. An obstacle that initially seemed to be very large may actually be just minimal and not even noticeable to you in a few weeks or months as you continue to manage and take care of it. These obstacles continue to grow. You have to remember that there is no obstacle large enough for the right person who thinks outside of the box and believes in the paradigm of limitless, boundaryless creativity. Whether you have to go over it, under it, around it, or right through it, by working smarter and not harder and thinking outside the box you can create a solution. I guarantee it. If you think hard enough, talk to the right people, and surround yourself with the right intelligent people you can create an intellectual alliance; tapping into the higher consciousness of the universe through the expertise of several people in one thought process, you will find the solution to any obstacle. What you have to realize is never give up. Never give up no matter how difficult a situation is there is always an answer. Also, remember the creator teaches you things and helps you grow by giving you obstacles. As a result of those obstacles and problems that we call problems there are actually opportunities. As a result of those opportunities, you can always grow and become better, greater, and more powerful. Remember what does not destroy and what does not kill you only makes you stronger. Obstacles are always opportunities. You have to really have a positive creative mind, think positively, and realize that as long as you think positively those obstacles can become results. One of the things now we were talking about regarding the law is that there are a lot of different legalities that limit you from actually doing certain things. You have to be aware that in essence law is not just a simple cookbook of how things are done, but there is a combination of codes and legalities by which you can divert, get around, be creative, and basically get the same end result that you are looking for still legally. You have to be open to this. You have to be able to look outside the box, talk to the right people, find ways to be creative and to strategize, and set up the situation, the relationship, and the contract, the agreements, and terms in such a way that you can ultimately get what you are really looking for It may not necessarily be in the simple format that you were initiallythinking or that is traditional in some other industries orenvironment. It may have to be a unique endeavor or undertaking.Ultimately, it is a possibility. All you have to do is be creative andbe open to the possibilities, talk to the right people, have the rightpeople around you, and believe. With the power of belief andpower of certainty, you will prevail.If you believe that you can do it and if you have the passion, theinterest, the intelligence, and the desire to do it that is basically asign in fact, a factual sign that you can do it. If you did not reallyhave the ability, the capability, and the power to do it; you wouldnever have the desire to begin with. The fact that you have thedesire to begin with is an absolute assurance in my book that youcan do it. The fact that you know you can do it even if it does notseem like the obstacle is moveable: you may not even need tomove the obstacle. It may be that your competitive advantage isthat most people looking at the obstacle are not going to want totackle. By being able to find a creative way to get around it, underit, or through it, you would be able to then find a competitiveadvantage for your business. That would be in fact that thing thatputs you on the map and makes you unique and extremelysuccessful. You have to be open to that.What is interesting is that obviously we talked about not eversigning an agreement without your guardian angel. I call mycorporate counsel my guardian angel. Never sign a contractwithout your guardian angel, but also be very wary. There are a lot of people who say they are consultants. Consultants,

consultants: there is no such thing. Everyone is a counselor or a consultant. Consultant means somebody who can just read a book today, then start teaching you, and get money from you. Do not fall for that. You are smarter than that. Never fall for that. Never sign anagreement saying that in exchange for a certain dollar amount you are going to hire somebody and that you guarantee a payment to them for any information or promise that they made to youespecially if it is marketing.

Marketing and Sales are Two of the Key Elements in Business

How to Establish Marketing & Sales?

~CHAPTER EIGHT~

HOW TO USE MARKETING WISELY

One of the things with marketing that they are notorious for is that every body has all the answers and everybody knows everything, but in reality there is no guarantee. They will tell you that they think they can do it. You sign a contract. The next thing you know they cannot, but you still have to pay them because they never guaranteed it. Be very, very cautious with that. Results speak for themselves. I did mention this to you. I do want to make sure that you really comprehend it. Every time that you agree to pay somebody make sure that you have clear, concise, achievable results that are realistic and that they only get paid according to the results  they create. Make sure that you make every financial arrangement and payment contingent on achieving measurable results. If they can’t achieve the measurable results for you and they can’t assist you directly to really create those results, don’t promise to pay them especially if it is marketing. Marketing and advertising is one of those difficult areas that you will probably spend a great deal of your money on as an entrepreneur trying to develop your business. There is a saying that says I know that fifty percent of the money I am spending on marketing is being wasted except I just don’t know which fifty percent. The reality is more than fifty percent, PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 25by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 26by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved perhaps eighty or ninety percent, of the money you spend on marketing is constantly being wasted. If you speak with marketing people, they have learned ways to basically guide you on being branded. We are branding you and people are hearing your name. If there is no measurable increase in your gross revenue as a small business, you do not need to be branding yourself. Every dollar you spend has to directly affect your gross revenue. It has to directly affect your dollar amount of income. If it does not affect you, you have wasted your money. Be very cautious with that. Be very cognizant of that. Do not fall for things like that. The bottom line of it is that if you are talking about marking you are talking about the cost of leads. In other words for every dollar you spend or every certain unit amount of money you spend, you need to be getting a lead. If you are not getting that consistently and if you cannot rely on that type of a return on investment, then you are spending your money and wasting your money. Make sure you are sensitive and cognizant to that. Do not fall prey especially to those people who claim they are consultants and know it all, but are not willing to relate their income directly to the results they are going to create for you. Make sure that if you do come up with an agreement and your attorney does write it that you put the burden of proof on the one who is receiving the payment so they do not traditionally and honestly just receive the payment based on a time frame, amount of time, energy, or effort they invest. But, in fact, they get the payments according to certain results that they are going to create for you. They prove that in fact they have provided those results and the numbers that they promised in order to get payments. That is the only way you can really put yourself in a position of safety and security as a businessperson. Remember as a business person you are always the victim of people who want to make a fast buck on your hide. Make sure that you understand, realize, and remember that you have no friends. You have no friends as a businessperson. You have no friends. Even though you have alliances and you have relationships, you ultimately have no friends. People who are in business and generally claim to be your friends as a business owner or as a CEO are generally looking at you as a means to getting to their own intended end. They want a result out of you. As long as you, your existence, and your business are benefiting them, they are your “friend. ”Wow, what an abused, over utilized, meaningless term is a “friend.” There is no such thing in business. That is not the definition of a true friend. A friend, at least in my book, is someone who stays with you regardless if the circumstances benefit him directly or not. He stays with you virtually because he is a friend and because he commits himself to you as a friend. He is going to standby you, because he knows that tomorrow you would do the same for him. That is a friend, but in business a lot of people claim to be your friend when in reality all they care about is the results that they earn as a byproduct of being around you. In reality, at best, they are acquaintances or maybe perhaps alliances. If they are strategic alliances, that is fine. But, just be aware that in fact ultimately they are only there as long as you benefit them.

PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF Hby Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved ARD KNOCKS – PAGE 27PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 28by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved Make sure that you set the rules. You set the rules according to your particular interests, your particular needs, and your particular environment and circumstance of your business and do what is right for you. It is all about the money finally in business. It is all about the bottom line when it comes down to the evaluation of a business. Trust me if you are cash negative, if your business is in a position where is has no future, you don’t have a business mold that is successful, and you are not making the profits you need; you are not going to be around for long. It is all about the money. It is all about the bottom line although the intention is to find some thing that you are passionate about, that you love doing, that you enjoy doing, and that you benefit the universe and society as a result of doing it. Then, you do it well and give it a 150% of you, if there is such a thing. There is nothing more than a 100%, but you have given the maximum you can. Once you give that maximum that you have, that is all you can do. That is all you can expect of yourself. You expect more of yourself than anybody else does, but the bottom line is that you give all you have to that cause. Then know that there is ultimately you and the relationship you have with the greater power, the Creator, God. Everyone around you is ultimately there because you benefit them somehow. As soon as you stop benefiting them as a matter of a fact, especially if your existence, your decisions, or your intentions threaten their interests, they may change their position very, very quickly before you even know it. That is when I have to warn you again. Do not trust the smiles. In fact, you may see a smile, but always ask yourself is my decision PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 29by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved going to directly benefit this individual and is my circumstance going to directly benefit this individual. If it does not, know that maybe there is a potential that this individual’s smile is not real. I am not a proponent of actually playing chess or some of the things that you read in the typical methodologies of manipulative management such as the things you read in books such as Machiavelli on Leadership. Some of his texts talk about being conniving and so on and so forth. It is true to some degree in the bottom line. He has things that I am paraphrasing. He talks about how everyone is out there to get you and that there is a war out there and you should be ready to fight at any time. The bottom line is that you have to be prepared and have to be ready. You have to know that in fact when it comes down to it; only you determine the level of success you achieve by your preparedness and your ability to maneuver.

~CHAPTER NINE~

GOOD RELATIONSHIPS MAKE A SUCCESSFUL COMPANY Make sure that as a CEO you understand that relationships make atremendous difference in your level of success. You always want to have as many people above you in certain areas of expertise as you possibly can find. You want to surround yourself by people who know more, who are more competent and more capable, and have more, and people who can help you up. You can surround yourself by people below you to feel good or you can surround yourself by people who are above you in knowledge, skill, and ability to assure your success. Do that latter. Make sure that you surround your self by people who are great. Make sure you understand that if you are the biggest hotdog among your friends, then you are areal weenie. That is really true. Strategic alliance is the power of win-win relationships between people of like minds and people who have the interest to help others who have helped them. That is exactly where the alliance can benefit you tremendously. Make sure that you have atremendous amount of people around you who are going to be helping you up as you help them. PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 30by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 31by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved Always be aware, as I mentioned before, that they are your allies as long as their personal interests are not threatened. If you are going to be forming a relationship with someone who has a strategic alliance with you, then make sure that you keep their interests at heart and make sure that most of your decisions or almost all the decisions you make for your environment, organization, and team also benefits them. That assures that their alliance with you continues to grow stronger and remains intact with you. Relationships are very important whether these people are your vendors, your colleagues, your comrades, or friends. The bottom line is that you need to benefit them as they benefit you. Always give more and give first. That is the rule to success in building a relationship. Do you want to test them? If you really want to know if they are your friend or not it is very simple. Make sure that you slightly delay just gratification for them or even minimally threaten their interests and see what their immediate response is. See how much of a friend they are. Always test your friends. Always test your alliances. Make sure that you understand how much strength that relationship has without them necessarily knowing that you are doing it. One of the things that I do sometimes is knowingly on purpose I delay payments to some of my vendors who claim to be very good close alliances to me for a brief time. Then, I sort of learn the elasticity or the ability of that relationship to tolerate this type of as train. Of course, I never let that break the relationship, but I sort of have a feel of what that relationship or the strength of that relationship is a little better. That has always shown me that sometimes in life I do need their support and need to be assured that these individuals will stand by me through a difficult time.

IPRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 32by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved want to know how much I can trust my vendors. If the vendors threaten to stop the services or the supplies they provide me right after they are delayed payment for a few days, then I know that that vendor needs to go and that I need to replace that relationship with my vendor. Versus, I have people who actually seem to try to work with me and try to make relationships continue to grow despite the fact that I have delayed their payment. Then, I know that these individuals are in fact people that I can bank on and God forbid the business was truly in trouble then at least I could bank on them as vendors. Especially in today’s market in America, there are a multitude of choices of vendors and business allies at any given time. Make sure that you surround yourself by those people who ultimately are there to ensure your success because they feel that your success means more success for them. You can really benefit from this win-win relationship. What is an amazing dilemma is that we are here to create an alliance with all men. We love each other. We love other people. The truth of the matter is, is that we are here to learn, to give, to share, and to give of ourselves. Men are also people. Men are all people. The reality of it is that as long as humanity has existed there have been certain characters, creeds, and traits that have been common in all men. You have to be aware and know that as different as people are they still have several things in common. It is almost common in all people of certain genders. For example, I had a mentor who taught me in business. He said with women jealousy is a huge drive. This competitive jealousy is a huge drive.You have to always be aware of it. That is true. We all know that. The same thing exists in men, but in a different way. They have this pride and competitive pride. When you listen and read books

PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 33by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reservedlike Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus, you realizethat men and women think differently. That is really also true inthe way they approach business as well. Try to read these types of concepts and really understand that women like to be listened to, they like to heard, they like to be paid attention to, and they like to be acknowledged for their thoughts, fears, and concerns. If you give them that, they generally respond better to you. Men would like to have this feeling of comradery and partnership with you. When the day is gone and over with, they just want to go on and put it all out of their minds. That is another important concept to apply in business. It is true that we should love all people. We do. However, we should not necessarily trust them, because when it comes down to terms of business things change. Moment to moment you have to be aware. You have to always consider the worst case scenario and be prepared for the worst case scenario. Trust, but verify. Be always aware and on guard. I have a friend who told me one day, “Shane, just know that everyone given the chance will gladly lift you off your throne and sit there themselves.” It is true. Especially the larger you become and the more successful you become. Anyone given the chance will gladly lift you off your throne to sit there themselves. It is a concept of business that I have learned. It is difficult to really learn when you are young, because you would rather want to believe otherwise. As you grow, you come to believe this is in fact the case. Be aware. Be aware at all times.

~CHAPTER TEN~

OPEN HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY If you have a deep dark secret, share it with no one and take it to the grave with you. There are no secrets. Trust me it will always come out when you least expect it or least desire it. The truth of the matter is that if you really don’t want it out there don’t share it with any one. Keep it inside. Learn how to keep the secrets to yourself. We hope that there are no real bad secrets, but the truth of the matter is that if you don’t want others to know about it, then don’t tell anyone. Don’t think that if you tell this person it is not going to go anywhere. It is not true in most cases. You have one friend and that is your Creator. You are your own friend – that is most important. If you do not love yourself, then no one else will. In addition, in addition to that, you have the Creator. Be able to have that real close relationship with God, the Creator. Be able to meditate and share with him everything that is going on. Before you do anything, talk to him. Make sure that he gives you the guidance if it is the true meaning of things. Ethics essentially means do to others as you wish done to you. Make sure you talk to Him, the Creator, at all times. Ask him for guidance. Ask him for the teaching. Ask him for what it is that is good in his eyes. Do that which benefits others. Do those things PRICELESS BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS – PAGE 34by Shane Sheibani, MBA, MD, FAACS, ND © 2006 American Elite Corp. All Rights Reserved that give to others and benefit others at all times. I taught you how to meditate and find your spiritual home where you can see eye-to-eye and face-to-face with the Creator. This is the place where you can come to, meditate, emotionally get closer to the Creator, and share your issues with him face-to-face. He forgives you as long as you forgive yourself. Make sure that you have done things based on what He asks you to do honestly and truthfully at all times, fair to your mankind and to others. Do those things that you would wish done unto you. Don’t do those things that would hurt you if someone did them to you. As long as you do that, you can truly, honestly sit face-to-face with the Creator and be honest with Him and tell Him that you have done the right thing. No one can love you unless you love yourself. Remember that. You deserve it. Always say out loud, “I deserve it. ”Say it again, “I deserve it.”

Shane Sheibani, MD, MBA, FAACS, ND

Dr. New me
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