Step 3: Find Your Inside Man (Ch. 8-17)

Question 1

how did the call with Bill Gates chief of staff go?

Answer 1

he said no. then went on to say Alex needed to engineer momentum

Question 2

how did Elliot Bisnow come into the story?

Answer 2

he put together a summit for entrepreneurs, where Bill Clinton and Gates both attended. something someone told Alex about awhile back. when researching it he came across Elliot.

Question 3

who was Elliot’s hero?

Answer 3

Ted Turner, the founder of CNN

Question 4

who became the number 1 candidate for a mentor?

Answer 4

Elliot

Question 5

the cold email to Elliot was…

Answer 5

a hail mary and it worked. it never hurts to go for it.

Question 6

people who dress similar…

Answer 6

…gravitate towards each other. making it easier to build friendships. Alex used that idea with Elliot, dressing similarly.

Question 7

pg. 145 (Alex & Elliot talking)

		“Okay, so, I guess my first question is: What was the tipping point in your career that allowed you to build so much momentum?”

Answer 7

“There is no tipping point,” he said, still typing away. “It’s all just little steps.”

Question 8

What are Elliot’s first rule?

Answer 8

1. never use a phone in a meeting. always carry a pen, the more digital the world the more impressive a pen is.

Question 9

Elliot’s second rule?

Answer 9

2. act like i belong. walk into a room like you’ve been there. don’t gawk over people or celebrities. and never ask for a picture. pictures are for fans, not peers.

Question 10

Elliot’s third rule?

Answer 10

3. Mystery makes history. don’t post everything online. anyone changing the world doesn’t. keep people guessing. people who are impressed by social media posts aren’t people to care about.

Question 11

Elliot’s fourth rule?

Answer 11

4. if you break your word it’s over. if something is told in confidence, be a vault.

Question 12

Elliot’s fifth rule?

Answer 12

5. Adventures only happen to the adventurous

Question 13

how does Elliot have meetings?

Answer 13

begins cracking jokes, seeing how the persons life is going. then subtly begins asking of passions and endeavours. if the conversation switches to him, he brings it back to them after.

at the end of the meeting he shares his story.

Question 14

pg. 154 (how story is more impactful)

“He leaned in and lowered his voice, enunciating each word. “Never again will you sit in a meeting with someone and not tell them that. Your mission is nice, but this story tells me more about who you are than anything else you could possibly say. This story commands attention.”

Answer 14

“Everybody has experiences in their lives,” he added. “Some choose to make them into stories.”

Question 15

“when it’s in front of you…

Answer 15

…make your move”

Question 16

Elliot took Alex to a TED conference the same day they met, the problem was…

Answer 16

Alex also had a final. with an opportunity at his finger tips of everyone he was surrounded with he made a choice to call the school, explain what’s going on to the deans assistant, then after a long pause, she told him what to say tomorrow after returning.

people help people on a mission.

Question 17

Elliot & Austin invited…

Answer 17

Alex to spontaneously go to London. He made up excuses at first, his mom threw a fit, eventually he ended up going.

Question 18

Elliot started selling…

Answer 18

ad space for his dads real estate company. cold calling, getting rejected. then he began asking who the marketing directors were, would call back a week later saying “this is Elliot Bisenow for Sarah Smith”.

he never was concerned with failing, only making progress.

Question 19

Elliot’s secret to cold calling

Answer 19

“It’s because you’re overthinking it,” he said. “Just tell yourself you’re calling your friend, dial the number, and start talking right away. The best cure for nervousness is immediate action.”

Question 20

at the core of Elliot’s life is

Answer 20

immediate action and relentless hard work

Question 21

Elliot began Summit by

Answer 21

cold calling young entrepreneurs, rallied them together for a weekend, and paid for all their flights and accommodations

$30k on his credit card. he then called companies asking if they’d like to sponsor an event with those coming and sure enough they did.

Question 22

Elliot’s motto

Answer 22

“bite of more than you can chew. you can figure out how to chew later”

Question 23

At the nightclub in Barcelona Elliot made Alex

Answer 23

tell the price is right story to everyone.

“Elliott started pointing to complete strangers. The more uncomfortable the situation, the better I became. Each repetition wore down The Flinch. At a certain point, I could barely feel it.”

Question 24

“But what your story is about isn’t as…

Answer 24

…important as how you tell it.”

Question 25

what did Elliot learn when he went to his first business meeting…

Answer 25

the client told him to take off the tie and jacket, got two seats at the bar, grabbed some food and beer, then asked “what do you want to sell me”

Elliot relied “i’d like you to do this and this at this price”

they negotiated. and closed a $16k deal.

the guy at the end said “Kid, that’s how you do business”

Question 26

in most cases the best case scenario is…

Answer 26

gaining experience. the worst case is losing money. money can be regained, experiences only happen once.

Question 27

A common routine of the successful…

Answer 27

full 8 hours of sleep
exercise in the morning

Question 28

“At the tournament, he met a Goldman Sachs executive who said he might be able to get his firm to sponsor the second Summit event. Elliott told him Goldman didn’t even have to pay as long as Elliott could put the firm’s logo on the “sponsors” page of the event website. Elliott then called other companies and said, “Look, it’s almost impossible to get to be a sponsor of Summit right now. We’re working with very few companies, and our most recent client is Goldman Sachs, so if you want to be serious, let’s be serious. We’re only working with the best.” It was another example of Borrowed Credibility. That Goldman Sachs relationship enabled Elliott to lock in other sponsors, which led to a lot of the eventual success of Summit.”

what is this an example of?

Answer 28

being a straight shooter, creativity, urgency, and credibility all in one.

Question 29

when setting up the white house event…

Answer 29

Elliot pulled it off in a couple of days by calling people and telling them “when the white house calls, you answer”

Question 30

“I’ve learned that you have to go for it, even if there’s a chance you’ll fail…

Answer 30

…The planets are never going to perfectly align. When you see an opportunity, it’s up to you to jump.”

Question 31

“You see, most people live a linear life,” he continued. “They go to college, get an internship, graduate, land a job, get a promotion, save up for a vacation each year, work toward their next promotion, and they just do that their whole lives…

Answer 31

…Their lives move step by step, slowly and predictably.”

Question 32

“But successful people don’t buy into that model. They opt into an exponential life. Rather than going step by step, they skip steps. People say that you first need to ‘pay your dues’ and get years of experience before you can go out on your own and get what you truly want. Society feeds us this lie that you need to do x, y, and z before you can achieve your dream. It’s bullshit. The only person…

Answer 32

…whose permission you need to live an exponential life is your own.”

Question 33

Alex turned down…

Answer 33

to work for Elliot to continue pursuing his mission

Question 34

“we don’t have time…

Answer 34

…for failure”

Question 35

“studying the paths of successful people, and while that’s a good approach to learning, I couldn’t solve every problem that way. I couldn’t copy and paste other people’s playbooks and expect it to work exactly the same for me. Their playbook worked for them because it was their playbook. It played to their strengths and their circumstances. Not once had I ever looked within myself and wondered about my strengths or my circumstances. What did it mean to out-Alex someone? While there’s a time for studying what’s worked for other people, there are moments when you have to go all in on what makes you unique. And in order to do that…

Answer 35

…you have to know what makes you, you”

Question 36

after getting rejected by the referred agents…

Answer 36

at 3am, at the point of having nothing to lose, Alex sent his top agent on his list an email about the belief in the mission, how they can change the world together, how he’s fed up of the industry.

he changed his approach. she signed him.

Question 37

pg. 224 (Tony Hsieh)

“Most people never take the time to ask themselves why they’re doing what they’re doing,”

Answer 37

Tony said. “And even when they do, most people lie to themselves.”

Question 38

pg. 275 (Tony Hsieh)

“Ego isn’t particularly healthy,” Tony continued, “but what’s worse is having it and lying to yourself that you don’t. Before you start thinking about marketing tactics, become self-aware of what’s motivating you below the surface…

Answer 38

…Don’t judge the motivations as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Just ask yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing. Choosing the right tactics becomes easy once you know your end goal.”

Question 39

what’s the most important time after launching a book?

Answer 39

the first 3 months. spreading the seed is what gets a book to be #1 best seller.

Question 40

when do many highly driven people get up?

Answer 40

between 4-5am

Question 41

when Alex asked Tony why he never let his employees shadow him, he replied…

Answer 41

“they never ask”

Question 42

the greats don’t wing-it, they…

Answer 42

rehearse, prepare, and know that being dynamic comes with the territory

Question 43

nobody smart actually…

Answer 43

…drops out of school. they take leave of absence or a semester off while pursuing something bigger than school.

Question 44

pg. 295 (Elliot speaking to Alex of school)

“I went through that same stuff with my parents,” he said. “But then I realized: Why the hell is school supposed to be one-size-fits-all? There’s a line from a Kanye song I heard years ago:

			Told ’em I finished school and I started my own business
			They say “Oh you graduated?” …

Answer 44

….
No, I decided I was finished.

		“You did school,” Elliott said. “Now it’s time for you to do you. It’s time for you to finish.”