| I just got back from driving through the hill | | | | |
| country and listening to Dan Kennedy | | | | What's this got to do with internet |
| interview Gene Landrum. As a "gold" member | | | | marketing, writing e-books, and running an |
| of Dan Kennedy's mentoring service, I get CDs | | | | international online business? |
| every few weeks of Dan, or his partner Bill | | | | |
| Glazer, interviewing a mega-successful | | | | EVERYTHING!!! |
| entrepreneur. | | | | |
| | | | I think the most valuable benefit of my |
| Lundrum gave Dan a delightful interview full | | | | internet marketing lifestyle is the people I |
| of amazing stories taken from his books. And | | | | get to hang out with. After years of being a |
| he made me feel like I belonged to a group, | | | | loner, I've got a "peer group!" |
| which is a feeling I don't get much- even | | | | |
| when I'm hanging out with musicians. You'd | | | | I get to hang out with Joe Vitale, who broke |
| be amazed at how many artists and musicians | | | | all the rules in the book publishing |
| are just sitting around waiting to be | | | | business, and went to number one twice on the |
| discovered while they continue to do the same | | | | national best-seller charts- while the |
| thing all the other musicians and artists are | | | | authors who played by the rules sat around |
| doing. | | | | and complained. |
| | | | |
| Losers, losing by following losers. Not much | | | | I get to hang out with Cindy Cashman, who |
| of a plan, but it's pretty popular. | | | | made a million bucks by "writing" and |
| | | | promoting a blank book with a great title. |
| Until I discovered the internet marketing | | | | |
| world, I felt like the only square peg in a | | | | I get to hang out with Craig Perrine, who has |
| world of round holes. Listening to Dan's | | | | achieved amazing success by breaking the |
| interviews makes me realize that I'm actually | | | | rules in the internet list-building business. |
| in good company- I'm a member of a group of | | | | |
| entrepreneurs who follow Sam Walton's Rule | | | | And there are many others- the internet |
| #1. | | | | marketing is world populated with wild, |
| | | | intelligent, brave, and interesting people. |
| Do you know Sam's "Rule #1?" He used it to | | | | |
| build the most successful retail business in | | | | These are the mavericks- the square pegs- I'm |
| history. | | | | honored to know them. |
| | | | |
| Do you want to know the secret that he used | | | | All my life, I've heard "get a REAL job!" |
| to make WalMart unstoppable? | | | | |
| | | | The miserable, gray people- the ones trapped |
| Keep reading. | | | | in the job they hate (which, according to Dan |
| | | | Kennedy's research, is at least 2/3 of the |
| His "rule #1" has been my credo all my life, | | | | population) wanted me to join them in their |
| and I've caught a great deal of shit for it- | | | | misery. |
| it turns out that Ayn Rand, Thomas Edison, | | | | |
| Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Ford, H. Ross | | | | Parents. Teachers. Unsuccessful musicians. |
| Perot, Donald Trump, Richard Branson, and | | | | Bosses (musicians have lots of bosses- |
| most of my other heroes had the same credo. | | | | because we keep a day-job just long enough to |
| | | | book gigs, then we move on). |
| Want to hear a story? | | | | |
| | | | Television- Trump and Branson have TV shows, |
| Due to a bizarre and surreal series of | | | | and that's a good start... but they're about |
| circumstances, I found myself living the life | | | | hiring employees! The winners get a JOB! |
| of a high-school drop-out street hippie in | | | | |
| 1973. I'd tell you the story, but you | | | | You can bet your momma's egg money that |
| wouldn't believe me. | | | | Donald Trump doesn't want a job. Richard |
| | | | Branson doesn't want a job. They didn't get |
| Kafka's an amateur compared to East Texas | | | | where they are by working for someone else. |
| wingnuts- and I got on the wrong side of a | | | | |
| town full of East Texas wingnuts and had to | | | | I think they should award prize money to the |
| quit high-school at 17. | | | | contestant that tells Donald Trump to take a |
| | | | flying f**k at the moon, and starts his own |
| My best option at the time was to move in | | | | business. |
| with a house full of hippie musicians in the | | | | |
| Montrose area of Houston. It was shelter, | | | | The education factories- imagine what would |
| and we usually could scrounge food- Anderson | | | | happen if schools taught entrepreneurship |
| Fair, a spaghetti restaurant that featured | | | | instead of wage-slavery? Our whole education |
| folk music, would feed us in return for a few | | | | system sucks lemons because it's based on a |
| hours of music, but only the zucchini | | | | 19th century model, and designed to turn out |
| spaghetti. | | | | workers- for jobs that haven't been available |
| | | | in decades! Factories that turn out waves of |
| You can live on zucchini spaghetti if you | | | | miserable, gray people- suffering through the |
| have to. | | | | week and living for the weekend. |
| | | | |
| We played strip clubs and gay bars. We | | | | What would happen if they taught people how |
| played for peanuts- literally. | | | | to think, instead? |
| | | | |
| After a year or so of this, on a hot and | | | | Family- here's the big one. Anytime my |
| humid night, I accidentally drank a quart of | | | | family gets together, I get to hear about how |
| mysterious tea, which caused me to take a | | | | I'm the one who's always "coloring outside |
| psychic time-out. When I came back from | | | | the lines" from one of my relatives- he |
| visiting the red queen, I realized I needed | | | | thinks he's insulting me! |
| to go to college. | | | | |
| | | | That's the thing I'm proudest of, and the key |
| So, I walked, in the early morning hours, | | | | to my success. Nobody ever accomplished |
| through the darkest, most dangerous part of | | | | anything important, or grand, or OUTRAGEOUS |
| Houston, to the bus station and took the bus | | | | by coloring inside the lines. |
| home. I walked into the house as my father | | | | |
| was drinking his morning coffee and announced | | | | Following the rules is for losers. |
| that I was ready to go to college. | | | | |
| | | | Did you notice the list of heroes I put at |
| Skeptical, he suggested I get a job. After a | | | | the top of this article? They have a lot of |
| year or so of manual labor, I finally made my | | | | things in common: |
| way to North Texas University- on the | | | | |
| strength of a good SAT score and a better | | | | 1. They didn't wait for permission to be |
| audition with the piano faculty. | | | | great- they just went ahead and did it. |
| | | | |
| After a year of cutting down trees, I was | | | | 2. They didn't worry about credentials or |
| probably the "buffest" piano major on the | | | | diplomas. Richard Branson has an eighth |
| campus. While I was there, I designed and | | | | grade education. Frank Lloyd Wright had |
| -with the help of a physics major buddy of | | | | about three months of formal schooling. All |
| mine- created the first laser light show in | | | | educated successful people, regardless of how |
| the southwest. We had a running engagement | | | | much "schooling" they have, are |
| at the Fort-Worth Museum of Science and | | | | self-educated. You can't trust the educators |
| History. | | | | to educate you. |
| | | | |
| After three years at NTSU, I sent an audition | | | | 3. They were OUTRAGEOUS! Branson and his |
| tape to the University of Texas, and got | | | | hot-air balloons, and now space flights. |
| accepted in their graduate composition | | | | Thomas Edison announcing the light bulb long |
| program. | | | | before he actually had created one. |
| | | | Everybody on that list listened to sage |
| I still hadn't gotten my high-school diploma, | | | | advice from the gray people and called |
| technically, I was a high-school drop-out | | | | bullshit on it. Then they went on to create |
| going to grad school. | | | | a better world. |
| | | | |
| I loved college. I ended up with music and | | | | 4. They made their own rules. And then |
| English minors, but that only tells part of | | | | broke them. |
| the story. I was a photography major, | | | | |
| studying under Gary Winnogrand. I studied | | | | 5. They had grand failures, followed by |
| journalism. I took art classes. I was in | | | | grand successes. |
| heaven. My degree plan was to not worry | | | | |
| about getting a degree. I was getting an | | | | I tell my clients at the Your Portable Empire |
| education. | | | | University, and I'll tell you- there ain't no |
| | | | such thing as failure. It's all data. To |
| After a few years, I got a glimpse of the | | | | succeed BIG you may have to fail big. It's |
| naked under-belly of the modern classical | | | | just a stretch of highway- you may have to go |
| music world and didn't like what I saw. A | | | | through some bad road to get where you're |
| showdown with a famous composer during a | | | | going. |
| seminar was the final straw. | | | | |
| | | | The odds that we will be as successful as |
| He accused me of prostituting my art by | | | | Thomas Edison or Richard Branson are small, |
| making money writing commercials. What a | | | | even if we try... but if we don't try, |
| crock! This was the same guy who financed | | | | there's no chance at all. |
| his studio by doing sound-effects for shampoo | | | | |
| commercials. And some of the other ways he | | | | I'd rather fail big than live small, wouldn't |
| prostituted didn't have anything to do with | | | | you? Especially knowing that "failing big" |
| his art. | | | | is just a stop on the way to "living large." |
| | | | |
| I bailed on college, and joined a rock band. | | | | And what was Sam's "Rule #1?" |
| | | | |
| Wouldn't you? | | | | Here it is: "Break the rules." |
| | | | |
| A short time later, we were touring with | | | | ******************************************** |
| Cheap Trick, Heart, ZZ Top, The Climax Blues | | | | ******* Pat O'Bryan is the CEO of Practical |
| Band- it was a wonderful, exhausting, amazing | | | | Metaphysics, Inc., Director of the Milagro |
| experience. | | | | Research Institute, an award winning |
| | | | songwriter, recording artist, visual artist, |
| At this point in my life, I was probably the | | | | author, video producer and internet marketer. |
| best educated high-school dropout rock star | | | | He is the host and promoter of the "Your |
| on the planet. | | | | Portable Empire" Un-Seminars. |