The Power of One

The tools of the twenty-first century and the Millennial Corporation model let you act like a large corporation. Still, perhaps you may ask yourself: Why would anyone want to buy from me when they can have the security of buying from a large corporation? I can’t answer that question for you, but I can assure you that there are numerous answers, unique to your own situation. List your assets, and then build on them. Don’t think negatively: I’ve never done that before. Think positively: I have the ability to do that!

Here are reasons why individuals and small companies have succeeded in the past:

1. You have the ability to keep things simple. Bill Gates’ MS-DOS was known for its compact simplicity at a time when space was at a premium. Can you keep things simple for small businesses like yourself?
2. You have a good idea that no one will listen to. It’s not a problem that no one will listen to your idea. No one ever wants to be the first to try a new idea. Try it out yourself, collect the data as evidence, and then share your success. Prove to others that it is easier to make money with your idea than with theirs, and they will ask if they can use your idea.
3. You are highly credible. Do you sometimes feel as though you are “not a good salesperson”? Perhaps it is because you are honest to the point of being blunt. Make your honesty an asset. People want to buy from people that they trust. You just have to build an ironclad case for yourself. Novices at selling don’t realize: You don’t really “sell” yourself. You present yourself. Prospects have to sell themselves on you, and it is invaluable for you to be credible!
4. You offer the same quality, or better, at a lower cost. Enough said.
5. You have a clear vision of where your client needs to head. Again, another obvious winning advantage.

The list goes on and on.

Make a list of your strengths over the competition. Fine-tune the list and make certain that you believe in it. Then act from a position of strength, knowing that you have something that others will want.

How will you sell yourself though? Start with easy sales, selling to people that know you well and trust you. Remember that you are not really selling, but rather presenting an offer for those who trust you to join you. Future entries will provide more details about how to accomplish this.

Starting Your Own Business

Although it is but one theme for a Millennial Corporation, I'd like to continue to provide information about the idea that anyone can be a virtual corporation.

Millennial Corporations let you start or grow your own business in such a way that you can:

• Have no start-up costs
• Scale your business up at whatever pace you want, without any growing pains
• Leverage your competitors’ strengths to achieve success
• Increase your profits by “doing the right thing” and avoiding questionable practices
• Achieve your objectives in a fraction of the time it takes others
• Magnify your successes by replicating them at will
• Be in the top 10% of your field, guaranteed
• Defy “conventional wisdom” and achieve better results
• Do all of the above by applying your personal knowledge and strengths to the Millennial Corporation formula for success

Whatever idea you wish to pursue, you will be supported 100% by your own energies, your mentor’s commitment, and proven procedures for doing business in the 21st century. Not all ideas make it to market, but your idea will evolve until it becomes market-worthy.

How can the Millennial Corporation model offer you such dramatic opportunities?

• Traditional businesses “invest” money with little guarantee of return. Millennial Investment principles require that all micro-investments provide at least some equity at each step of the way.
• 20th century synergy was defined as 1 + 1 = 3. 21st century synergy is defined as 10 for me and 10 for you = 100 for us.”
• Veteran millennialists truly understand The Law of Abundance: that there is more than enough wealth in the world (even within narrowly defined markets) for everyone to achieve their greatest ambitions.
• Hoarding money reduces returns. Millennial principles allow money to travel faster, bringing back returns faster.
• The 20th century mentality is “get a job.” The 21st century mentality is “pursue your passions.” Those who just do their job are competing against everybody else. Those who pursue their passions stand out as the best in class and attract others who are best in class.
• Co-opetition is more than a buzzword. It is a mathematical procedure for getting the most out of cooperation, with just a touch of competition. You work closely with your trusted partners, not strangers. Your partners will compete to get ahead faster than you, but you all will reach your destinations. This is perhaps the greatest secret: Your mentor is invested in your future. Your mentor wants you to succeed. Competition becomes a non-issue. You will succeed as fast as you choose to succeed.
• Malcolm Gladwell speaks of The Tipping Point in his book of the same name. If enough things are going in the same direction, sooner or later things tip in your favor. Millennial principles throw so much force in the same direction that success—in one form or another—is virtually guaranteed.

Virtual Corporations

Any corporation or other business entity can pursue the Millennial Corporation model. However, the Millennial Corporation model doesn't just apply to business entities in the traditional sense. Any person can serve as a Millennial Corporation. Thanks to the Internet and other 21st century tools, individuals can act like companies.

This concept is actually not new. Throughout time, individuals have acted as though they were larger than they really were. Recognize that you can accomplish anything that you can tell your close associates to accomplish. That is, a Millennial Corporation is a virtual corporation.

Employees of a Millennial Corporation can not only shape their job, but they can also shape their entire future. The Millennial Corporation looks at each person’s personal goals and commits to helping that individual to achieve them all. If the employee wants to create a new focus at the company, that employee can become director of the entire enterprise, researching and cultivating the market, and locating experts to make it happen. In this manner, the company truly operates at the speed of its employees’ thoughts.

For customers and partners, this means a type of responsiveness that is rare in the industry. A Millennial Corporation has no underlying agenda to slow things down. Its only purpose is to be responsive to its customers, partners, and employees, locating and hooking up the talent to make things happen.

If I have seen further than [others], it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants. —Sir Isaac Newton

Millennial Corporation Overview

The key to success for high-tech firms—and indeed for any company—in the 20th century has always been responsiveness to customers and employees, using a reserve of brilliant ideas from dedicated employees. That model, however, is insufficient now that business moves “at the speed of thought,” as Bill Gates says in his book. With each new idea, there are paradigm shifts, making old ways of doing business obsolete.

With ideas borrowed from countless successful people and corporations, the concept of a Millennial Corporation provides a vision for companies which seek high growth while tapping the secrets to doing business in the 21st century. A key concept for Millennial Corporations is that ideas are most valuable when they are shared, so take these ideas and spread them around telling others to visit this blog as well.

Each day new secrets will unfold on this blog, and (over time) additional secrets will be discovered. Millennial Corporations are not defined by one or two concepts, but rather by a complex set of principles that together shape how successful corporations act in the 21st century.

Millennial Corporations deploy a variety of tools for creating leverage, to meet the ever-increasing demands that they face. These tools, however, would not be possible without two key concepts: integrity and giving. Millennial Corporations depend on each other, and so they need to be able to trust each other. Furthermore, the only way that they can receive what they need is if everyone around them is willing to give. Thus, Millennial Corporations depend on selfless giving. As basic as these concepts are, for most businesses and people, they present a serious paradigm shift. Significant effort must be exerted to produce this paradigm shift, but all such efforts will be rewarded, in the present and then even moreso in the future.

One final point: This blog provides for multi-directional communication. You, too, can be a part of the evolving definition of a Millennial Corporation. Keep up with this blog to the best of your ability, and share your thoughts through comments and other responses.