The 7 Highest Value Skills

The 7 Highest Value Skills

By Douglas Vermeeren, The Modern Day Napoleon Hill

What are the highest value skills for entrepreneurs? What are the most prized skills in you need to develop if you want to build your wealth and success? In the marketplace today there are many so-called gurus who are promoting their version of the highest and most valuable skills - but truthfully, most of them don’t have the experience to give an accurate report. Before I share my insights I should qualify myself. The media calls me the modern day Napoleon Hill for my extensive interviews with more than 400 of the worlds top business leaders and entrepreneurs. As you can imagine 400 first hand relationships with some of the biggest brand leaders and most successful business leaders in the world gives a unique perspective. It is no longer guess work and after about 50 of these people you start seeing some profound similarities.

Let me share 7 of the most valuable skills you will need to develop for success. I have put them in the best order that you need to learn them as well, however base don your talents and interests some of these may come easier than others. I’ll also share my reasoning behind why these are important why they are in this order.

1. Creating and nurturing a high level network

Developing your network and your relationships are listed as number one. There could be no other skill at the top of the list. All of your opportunities and influence will come from this e you spend the most time with. The old adage that “Your Network determines your Net worth” is a fact. 

All of your best opportunities will come directly through those you know. You will also be branded based on your associations. Your level of influence will also be affected by those you know and who supports your work. You don’t have to look far to see how well this is understood in the world of marketing and business. Millions are spent to secure endorsements from people who already have influence in the marketplace. Celebrities and athletes are paid multi-millions of dollars to wear a specific shoe, shirt or brand. 

As your network rises so do the opportunities that will come your way. You will receive invitations to attend events or participate in business deals. 

In addition, you’ve also heard that you become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Your network is your strongest influence in what you will do, what you believe is possible and who you will become. In regards to your network you can never afford to play small. 

All successful people understand the solutions to their problems come from those they bring into their network. (sometimes that means even hiring those smarter than you for specific tasks - that’s still your network.) Most people don’t understand the definition of a network or how to use it. But when constructed and utilized effectively amazing things can be created.

2. Focus & Clarity

Many people have argued that the ability to stay focus and get clarity should be number one. I would agree that it is very different to determine which of the top two should be first. And to some degree that is true. You need to understand your purpose before you can effectively build your networks. However I have chosen to list it second as I have found that having the right network can help you determine what you should focus on. 

Often I have had a business idea or a strategy that I thought was going to be productive and effective. I have them shared it with a trusted friend in my network. Within a short period of time they helped me to see flaws that were detrimental and suggest improvements that made the concept or idea more powerful. With their support they have also helped me to be more focused by making me accountable. 

4. Marketing 

Marketing in its simplest form is how people hear about you and how they feel about you. This messaging can be crafted and the frequency with which is repeated can be controlled. Most entrepreneurs struggle to understand the difference between creating a promotion and building a brand.

Some people may argue that sales & negotiation is more important than marketing. But what I have found is that in todays society if your marketing is done well you often don’t need to spend much time selling. Effective marketing does the selling for you. Think for a moment about exotic sports cars like Ferrari and Lamborghini. How hard do they work to sell their cars? Have you seen TV commercials or radio ads? Do you see them posting regularly on social media to come take one of their cars for a test drive? 

They don’t have to do it. Their marketing has positioned them above traditional sales approaches. Let’s make this personal for a moment. I do own a Ferrari so I can answer a few questions about their marketing and selling strategies as I have experienced it first hand. When you go to a Ferrari dealership no one approaches you. The associates there are simply to answer questions and they don’t do much selling at all. 

When Ferrari launches a new vehicle they don’t send you sales materials in the mail. Instead they invite you to a very upscale high level unveiling. The room is filled with specifically invited individuals. If you have been invited it is because you are special to Ferrari and they make sure you know it. The room is decorated in a sophisticated motif with appropriate ambient lighting. At these events wine and appetizers are served and sometimes there might a small jazz quartet playing in the background or a DJ. Nothing upstages the car. At a given time that night they reveal the car, most often by driving it into the party area. Even then they do not try to sell - as you can imagine that night they sell several cars which are generally only available by pre-order. Ferrari knows how to business through marketing.

5. Sales & Negotiation

Some of gurus out there today list sales as the #1 skill. Sales are important but they are not the top skill you could develop. They are wrong for the following reasons:

A)Focusing on sales alone is short sighted. A sale may provide a financial transaction that will be profitable for you, but it is also a one time event. Once the sale is complete it is a shallow victory if there is no long term relationship to create futures sales or other opportunities. Relationships are more important than transactions.

B)There are some opportunities that are more valuable than making a sale. I have had many opportunities personally where a contact has brought me opportunities that have generating a significant fortune. However had my priority been to sell them something they would not have trusted me enough to approach me with the greater opportunity. 

C) Seek for a customer second. The highest and most successful business leaders I have studied have found that rather than selling to someone it is always best to form a relationship with influencers who have large groups of your customers already. Let them sell for you. A clear and obvious example would be to look at the retail world. One of the top achievers that I interviewed was a man named Ed Mercer. He was the inventor of the mood ring and the glow in the dark yo-yo. Rather than sell it himself to his customers or even open a store front to attract more customers he decided to do things in a much smarter way. He formed a relationship with K-mart one of the larger retail chains in his time. He let them sell it and get it into the hands of his customer. Ultimately that deal made him millions and once the deal was completed he had very little time commitment. This is a demonstration of the principle of leverage discussed below.

As for negotiation there is an old saying which I have found to be particularly true. The saying is: “You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you can negotiate.” This is true not only in business but in life as well. Negotiation is a form of sales and that is why the two are listed together. 

6. Ability to recognize and set priorities

How you spend your time determines what will show up for you in the future. While some entrepreneurs struggle with procrastination and a poor use of time those are not the points I want to address here. What I am talking about is getting busy but doing the wrong things or doing the right things in the wrong order.

Right now there are a lot of so-called gurus online telling everyone to wake up really early, go to bed really late, hustle, grind and make incredible sacrifices. While this sounds like wise council it is actually very counter productive and not smart. As I interviewed the worlds top business leaders there was rarely found anyone who did this. The most successful business leaders understand that this is a recipe for less effective business and more likely to lead to burn out and frustration. 

And beside isn’t it peculiar that these gurus will tell you to get so dedicated but they really don’t tell you what you to do. I believe it’s because they don’t know so they default to the answer just work harder than anyone else. That’s just stupid.

One of the most important high value skills you can develop is to know what is important to do and what needs to be left out. Not everything you re faced with is of equal value and too often entrepreneurs stop their progress by trying to be better doing things that actually don’t matter. I call it, “Perfection in uselessness.” 

There is great wisdom in knowing what activities will improve your situation and be productive. What will be relevant and rewarding in what you do? And once you truly understand your high result activities the idea of grinding and hustle are ridiculous. Your time and financial freedom are much closer to actual realization than you may currently be experiencing. 

Before you get busy take a moment to look at what really is most important.

7. Leverage

This is the most important principle in scaling and growing your business and multiplying your resources and expertise. Generally when an entrepreneur starts their journey and even often through out they ask questions like “What can I do?” Or “How will I do it?” These questions quickly manifest their inexperience. In addition, whenever I hear someone ask these questions I already know that their company will have significant limitations. As I spend time with the highest levels of business leader on the planet their questions do not involve the words what, how and certainly not the personal pronoun “I.” The question they ask instead is WHO. 

Who will do this? Who can help with that? Who will provide the funding? Who will help us find the customers? Who? 

The word “who” implies that they don’t expect to do it alone and they are already on the hunt for people smarter, more effective, better connected and more resourceful than they are. 

The organization of resources to create leverage is a top skill that all wealthy and successful people have. Perhaps this final highest value skill is directly related to the first. You can’t create powerful leverage unless you have a powerful network. 

This discussion on leverage is far from complete. But it’s important to understand that all successful ventures whether in business or in the achievements of mankind have always been accomplished by a team. By yourself you will never be able to rise above your own strengths and weaknesses. As a team you can scale beyond your own ability and efforts.

There you have it! The 7 most highly valued skills you need to develop according to research of more than 400 of the worlds top achievers. This is not an opinion. This is actually what the worlds multi-millionaires, billionaires and top entrepreneurs have in common. If you are looking to Crete success beyond the norm these too, will be what you must develop.

Over the last two decades Douglas Vermeeren has conducted extensive first hand research into the lives of the worlds top achievers. He has the success strategies of top business leaders from Nike, Reebok, Fruit of the Loom, FedEx, KFC, United Airlines, Microsoft, Ted Baker, Disney and others to share with you. ABC television and FOX Business refer to him as the Modern Day Napoleon Hill.  He is a regular featured expert on FOX, CNN, ABC, NBC, CTV, CBC, The Huffington Post, NY Daily News and others.