Kobus and I were drafted into the army at the age of seventeen. We became good friends during our basic training (boot camp) and then attended the Operations Intelligence training program together before being placed at an air force base. We had a lot of fun which included getting drunk, jabbing a hole into the door of an airplane with the blades of a forklift, overturning a battery-operated luggage cart and smashing the back of a staff sergeants car with the same forklift. I loved the army.

After the army we went our separate ways, but remained friends. We boated, camped and stayed in touch. I worked in a government department and then got a bursary for Hotel School and Kobus trained and then worked as psychiatric nurse. He got married and caught his new wife in bed with another woman three nights later. He remarried and became a medical rep. While working as a salesman, the man who tended his garden told Kobus that he could make personalized resin pen holders that Kobus could sell to the doctors he was calling on. This became a lucrative sideline until the gardener told him that he could also teach him how to make resin baths, basins and commodes. Kobus put him to work in his garage and soon had his own factory. Two years later, he was a millionaire.

I tell you this story because its not about education. There are many educated people around who have no money, no success, no vision. The universities and colleges make their money by promising people theyll succeed because of education. And its not about ideas many of us have great ideas that we keep in a box on a shelf somewhere. Its all about TAKING ACTION. That is what defines the winner and the conqueror. Action is what separates the men from the boys. Talk is cheap. Kobus had the guts to take action. And to bounce back when things went wrong. Goethe said, The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

Taking action means moving, getting off the coach and out of bed, doing the difficult things and taking risks. In business, even the things that dont work, work. Thats because we learn from success as well as from failure. If youre not failing often, youre not taking enough action! The more failures, the closer you get to success. Stop talking and start walking. DO something. Pick up that phone, write that letter, go to that meeting. Woody Allen said that 90% pf success is showing up. You never know whom youll meet! You dont stumble across opportunities watching television. You dont meet many winners in a bar or a casino. Alfred Adler said, Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement. Finally, we build trust by what we DO, not by what we SAY. Take action. Benjamin Disraeli said, Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.

Robin J. Elliott

Robin J. Elliott has worked with literally thousands of businesses, in Africa, Canada and the United States since 1987 and has trained and spoken to thousands in his seminars. He has appeared on national television and radio and in national newspapers and conducts his business on an international level.

His passion and specialty is helping people to start and grow their own businesses using Joint Ventures. His mission is to share the magic and power of Joint Ventures with entrepreneurs worldwide and to facilitate meetings between like minded businesspeople through his Joint Venture Forum.

Robin J. Elliott has been officially included in the International Who's Who of Entrepreneurs in 2002 and has been nominated as a candidate for inclusion in the 2004-2005 edition of the International WHO'S WHO of Professionals. He has won international sales awards and was a Finalist in the Ernst and Young "Against All Odds National Entrepreneur Competition." Robin was an Executive Director of the South African Sales Association (STASA) and has been a Rotary International Director.

Robin's articles are published in national magazines and his regular, weekly e newsletter articles reach over 23,000 people per week.

He has written six books and has made fourteen videos and dozens of audiotapes and CD's. He is a sought-after speaker.

His training and qualifications includes Hotel management, Transactional Analysis, Organization and Methods (Work Study), Sales, Marketing, and Management, Personality Styles, Psychology, Theology and Public Speaking.

Robin has been married for 20 years to Frederika Elliott. Frederika (Rika) Elliott has degrees in education, Minimal Brain Dysfunction and more. She lectured at a Teachers Training College, taught school and has worked alongside Robin in their business since 1987. Rika owned and ran Success Consultants and has an intimate understanding of Joint Ventures.

Robin and Rika live in beautiful Vancouver, Canada. They enjoy business, downhill snow skiing, swimming, kayaking, hiking, reading and traveling.