Written by Anthony Duran, CEO/Founder
Anthony (Tony) Duran’s visionary guidance has been instrumental in pioneering new categories and innovations that have enhanced the golf and sports markets. As a leading advisor and consultant, Tony has led the development of 55 early-stage companies into successful and profitable entities over the past three decades.
The challenging roads that are less traveled can create positive changes in life and business, and career/business pathways are as unique as each one of us.
Many years ago, I realized that working for someone else would not allow me to build my envisioned lifestyle. This revelation started when I was a child. I saw my father give many years of dedication, focus, and hard work into being the best employee he could be for ATCT. He moved up through the ranks from worker to foreman to supervisor, educating himself to move up the ladder into an upper management position. Just before his 30th year as an employee, expecting the retirement plan he worked hard for, he was forced to retire with Verizon/ATCT (due to a merger). The full retirement benefits my father expected were never realized because of this situation. I was shocked by the realization that despite your years of dedication and commitment, a Company could decide to go a different direction and terminate the relationship with a loyal employee. The retirement he envisioned with travel, vacations, golf rounds, and free time to spend with my mother and their grandchildren never happened.
In 1990, at 29 years old, I left a good-paying job to pursue a career as an Independent Consultant. I looked younger than 29 years old at that time, and when I described my Consulting vocation to others, it frequently drew strange looks and occasional laughter in disbelief. Many people stated that Consulting was for old gray-haired guys who couldn't find a job or for C-level executives in between jobs. Neither was my case since my success as an employee could lead to many more jobs if desired.
A path to financial independence: My two-fold thinking on this matter
I found that I could earn more money working for multiple Companies simultaneously with a combined income rather than a single Company and sole source of income.
I knew that if I lost one of the Companies I worked for (Clients), I would only lose a fraction of my income, not all of it as an employee in a job situation.
Over the past 35 years, I have earned a healthy, above-average six-figure income as the owner of a leading Consulting Firm in the Golf and Sports industries. By recognizing my passion for Golf and sports and a roadmap for building specialization and a "niche" in these industries, I've created a way of earning a living by doing something I love. I don't consider what I've done exceptional, and for this reason, I felt compelled to share my learning process and execution strategy.
Signposts from the upcoming book “Job security without a job”
Recognize that a crisis is an opportunity. They travel together most of the time.
Learn from your mistakes, but throw away the rear-view mirror. No looking back.
Guard the sanctity of your thoughts. Reframe bad experiences with gratitude.
Inventory your passions and expertise and seek a career path that combines your passions and utilizes some of your expertise.
Establish and continually refine a personal “niche” with continuous self-education to identify you as an expert and strong resource in that role or category.
Build supportive marketing and sales tools, such as brand, logo, business card, website, social media, collaterals, etc.
Profile top client or customer targets by SIC, company size, company type, number of employees, revenue, business stage, etc., and use these attributes to build a prospect database of priority contacts.
Take massive action and be consistent with prospecting activities. Work on your sales skills and self-image if this is challenging for you. Otherwise, you can pay a prospector to execute the prospecting and lead development.
As your schedule and revenue flow fill with projects/clients/customers, keep the prospecting activity consistent with new contacts. If you don't have the time to do this due to workload, you should have the financial resources to pay someone part-time to help with prospecting and lead generation so that you don't have future income gaps.
Network within your core industry and ancillary markets. Find individuals and/or companies with complementary capabilities to strengthen your ability to deliver results.
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Read more from Anthony Duran
Anthony Duran, CEO/Founder
Anthony (Tony) Duran is the Founder/CEO of one of the leading marketing firms in Golf and Sports (AnthonyDuran.com), pioneering new product categories and breakthrough innovations that have expanded the markets and enhanced the performance levels of athletes. Pioneering new categories in the Golf and Sports Industries, such as plastic spikes, hybrid golf clubs, GPS devices, robotics, artificial intelligence, micro-mobility and single-rider golf carts, has positioned Tony Duran as a leading innovator building pathways for disruptive technologies and new products to advance the markets. The 2006 USGA Rules of Golf change to allow distance-measuring devices in amateur golf tournaments was led by Tony Duran.
