Robert J. Ringer > Quotes

“reality isn't the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.”
― Robert J. Ringer

“People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true.”
― Robert J. Ringer

“Perhaps the most important reason of all for taking action now is that time is finite. No matter how proficient you are, you can only accomplish so much in a lifetime. Every second that's wasted reduces the totality of what you can accomplish by one second”
― Robert Ringer

“In South Africa, they dig for diamonds. Tons of earth are moved to find a little pebble not as large as a little fingernail. The miners are looking for the diamonds, not the dirt. They are willing to lift all the dirt in order to find the jewels. In daily life, people forget this principle and become pessimists because there is more dirt than diamonds. When trouble comes, don’t be frightened by the negatives. Look for the positives and dig them out. They are so valuable it doesn't matter if you have to handle tons of dirt.”
― Robert Ringer

“Every person has the inherent right to "self-proclaim"--to announce, at any time he chooses, that he is on any level he chooses to be on.”
― Robert Ringer, Winning through Intimidation: How to Be the Victor, Not the Victim, in Business and in Life

“Reality isn't the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are. Either you acknowledge reality and use it to your benefit, or it will automatically work against you.”
― Robert Ringer

“One of the most important words when it comes to mental-health maintenance is "next.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“You should never kid yourself about the reality that you must always give something up in order to gain something.  If”
― Robert Ringer, Million Dollar Habits: 10 Simple Steps To Getting Everything You Want In Life

“Based on firsthand experience, it was apparent to me that the most relevant factor in my ongoing dilemma was my posture, a conclusion that produced the Posture Theory, which states:  It's not what you say or do that counts, but what your posture is when you say or do it.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“What I am referring to is the Theory of Next, which states:  The key to maintaining a positive mental attitude is to recognize that no one deal is that important.  The person with a true positive mental attitude possesses the power to say "Next!" and quickly move on to the next deal when things don't work out.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“Cornerstone No. 2 is the Theory of Relevance, which states:  No matter how interesting or how true something may be, the primary factor to take into consideration is how relevant it is to your achieving main your objective.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“Stated in theory form, what I'm talking about here is the Theory of Intimidation, which states:  The results a person achieves are inversely proportionate to the degree to which he is intimidated.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“If you’ve never experienced the misery of failure, the chances are pretty good that you haven’t tried very hard to succeed. I’ve never met anyone who has made it to the top—and managed to stay there—who didn’t first taste the bitterness of defeat, usually many defeats.”
― Robert Ringer, Looking Out for #1: How to Get from Where You Are Now to Where You Want to Be in Life

“The reality from my vantage point was that 50 billion years from now, when the earth is nothing but an ice ball, my problems of today will be too insignificant to have been recorded.  Indeed, there would undoubtedly not even be a record of the entire century in which I had lived most of my life.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“Two factors, in particular, were especially significant in this deal.  First, I used my strong posture to persuade the seller to sign a commission agreement based on 5.5 percent of the total selling price rather than the 3 percent figure I normally used.  After my Dayton and Memphis experiences, I took it as an article of faith that every seller worth his salt would, at a minimum, try to at least whittle down my commission—regardless of what figure we had agreed to. That being the case, I thought it would be interesting to see if starting out at a higher commission figure than I hoped to actually receive would produce better results.  When the inevitable commissiondectomy attempt began, I would be able to better afford to have my commission cut.  It was just a matter pacifying the seller's sick mind.  My experience had convinced me that the important thing for him was to believe that he had succeeded in shafting the real estate broker who had committed the dastardly sin of selling his property for him (and probably saving his financial hide in the process), even if his belief was an illusion.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“I guess you might say that it was a paradox of sorts in that I prepared for long-term success by bracing myself against the effects of short-term failure.  I again emphasize that this philosophy works only if you are prepared to succeed.  It does not work if you simply use it as an excuse to fail in a situation where it may have been possible to succeed had you tried harder or been more persistent.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“During the second call, I explained that since we were both (meaning the buyer and me) busy people, I thought it would save a lot of time if he could answer a few quick questions over the phone.  That way, I explained, I could avoid sending him properties that did not fall within his guidelines.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“That's because time brings into play the Fiddle Theory, which states:  The longer you fiddle around with a deal, the greater the odds that it will never close.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“Alas, the truth had to be acknowledged.  If Ms. Best was "the best," I was the Dalai Lama.  She was not the best; she was not good; she was not average; she was not even bad.  She was, in point of fact, the worst secretary I had ever hired—a living, breathing, full-fledged incompetent, fit only for employment by a government agency.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Million Dollar Habits: 10 Simple Steps To Getting Everything You Want In Life

“I again made it clear that there was absolutely no negotiation regarding my 3 percent commission for the sale of the eight properties.  However, "in a show of good faith to try to help pull this deal together," I said that I would consider taking an additional $50,000 cash right now in lieu of any future commission on the units to be completed and purchased at a later date.  In other words, I was going to give the Booze Brothers (and, theoretically, Ernest) the opportunity to save several hundred thousand dollars (my potential commission) down the road by coming up with an additional $50,000 right now. When Ernest and the Booze Brothers came out of the ether, the commission we finally agreed upon as a compromise was $426,901.39—about $50,000 more than the approximately $375,000 commission I had been shooting for.  Let me tell you, that kind of compromise made up for a lot of past Commissiondectomies.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“My objective at these buyer-seller meetings was to display so much knowledge about the property and the closing of the deal that even the seller would be embarrassed to challenge my right to a commission.  (If you're chuckling and shaking your head from side to side over that last comment, you're starting to get it, because my objective proved to be nothing more than wishful thinking.  Sellers always challenge agents' commissions.)”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“I also vowed that if someone refused to sign a commission agreement with me in the future—regardless of the reason—I would assume that he was a Type Number Two and walk away from the deal.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“I told the Booze Brothers that I would set up a conference call with Ernest, and that if we all kept calm and worked together, the "points" (that old standby word for "problems") in question could be "handled.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“The reality was that the more desperate the owner, the better my chances of concluding a sale.  As a result of my new posture, desperation had become my best friend.  Thus, if the owner's asking price was at least within shouting distance of the ball-park price I had calculated, and assuming there were no extraordinarily negative factors involved, I would be prepared to move forward with trying to find a buyer.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“I then whipped out my file of pre-typed contracts (which I never referred to as contracts, for reasons you should by now understand) and said, in a matter-of-fact tone, something to the effect of, "I like to keep things simple, so I just use a one-page 'understanding' to summarize the deals I'm involved in."  Here again it was a matter of word choice.  Whether a document is called a contract or understanding has no legal significance whatsoever, but psychologically it can make all the difference in the world to the person sitting on the other side of the table.  Contracts scare people; "understandings" sound innocuous, especially if their purported purpose is only to "summarize the deal."  This was a delicate and critical moment for me, because if I failed to get the owner to sign the understanding, I had wasted a lot of time, energy, and money.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“Being liked was not much of a reward for being poor and disrespected.  By the same token, money and respect were more than enough consolation for having a pack of insecure neurotics dislike me.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“Cornerstone No. 1 is the Theory of Relativity, which states:  In order to settle on a rational course of action (or inaction), one must first weigh all pertinent facts in a relative light and carefully define his terms.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“I was so busy lapping up Mr. Biggshotte's flattery that I committed an infraction on the scoring play.  And that, for an experienced graduate of Screw U., is indefensible”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“The first four steps of selling are familiar to most people.  Being a successful salesman requires: Having a product to sell that other people value. Locating a market (i.e., buyers) for your product. Implementing a sales presentation and/or marketing strategy. Closing the sale. These four steps have been discussed in many sales books, but, remarkably, I've never seen the fifth—and most important—step discussed in any book: 5. GETTING PAID!”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation

“I tried to (and still do) live by the words of Abraham Lincoln:  "If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.”
― Robert J. Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation