Principle number three, never be held hostage. Do you feel like a victim? Are you doing that to yourself?

You must be strategic in life. You must think ahead and build structures around you so you never get stuck in a situation where you can't do what you want to do.

No one ever has the power over anyone. You need to be smart. You must systemize,

skill up, and stand in your value so you don't get in any situation where you are held hostage.

Back in 2008, I had a problem. My sales reps were expensive. They had big egos and they ran my entire

home security business.

I learned an important business lesson the hard way. Never let anyone get bigger than the system.

I had set up a system that forced me to depend on sales reps way too much, so I was held hostage by them.

Honestly, the entire company was. it was a role I wrote myself into

without realizing it. You see, our company would hire these high-priced sales guys who had a great

deal of experience. But every time they had a great week, the next week would be terrible. Why? Because these

guys would go out and party or get lazy or comfortable. They would

get paid and head to the clubs, where they would blow all their money on table service at the

strip club and too much gray goose. The following week, revenues would plummet. Then, after a

failed week, they would work hard again so sales would skyrocket. One of the sales guys, Josh,

even went missing for three

days. Everyone was worried. Where's Josh? He was missing for another appointment, his colleagues were

saying. When he finally showed up, he said he'd been kidnapped. Really? He was out partying,

chasing women, and doing drugs. I had to fire him. It was a pattern. I would hire these

top sales reps who were young and hungry and they would get a lot of money in their pocket. They

weren't used to it and they didn't know what to do with it. I'd built our business operations

around the success of sales guys, like this with big egos. They didn't care about the team's

...