THE ROAD TO EXCELLENCE
The road to excellence and mastery in any field of endeavor begins with the conceptual knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals, not from the accumulation of techniques, methods, and procedures.
Professionalism, certainty, and confidence develop from a focused, repetitive, and disciplined practice of the basic principles. Which, when applied expertly, can open the door to success, prosperity, and happiness.
Daniel Jacobs, 2013
My perspectives on Dan Jacobs compare him to the most knowledgeable and highly respected executives in North America.
Having worked extensively with Dan, I have always had the highest regard for his personal integrity and business ethics.
Dan always held the highest respect from employees and clients alike. Employees at every level in the company trusted him, and all senior managers relied heavily on his inputs.
As an advisor, Dan also touched us all with his availability for advice on personal matters. He was willing to offer advice in a very helpful humanistic framework and recommend a course of action to handle the situation properly.
Very truly yours,
Steve Vachss, MBA, V.P. Presenternet.net
Happy Mothers Day to my beautiful and talented wife, Myrna Jacobs, mother of my children and grandchildren and greatest mother I know.
Following is a short essay I wrote for her on this Mothers Day.
IT’S HARD TO FOOL YOUR MOTHER
She listens to what you’re not saying, sees what you’re keeping secret, she feels your pain no matter how remote you may be. She hears past your words and sees through your actions. Even your silence can speak volumes to your mother.
But, she also listens when no one else will, and is interested in every word. She cares when no one else does, she forgives the unforgivable. She is continually under-acknowledged for all she does every day, yet she continues anyway. She can sense the intangible and touch you in ways that are unforgettable.
She is empathetic, compassionate, concerned, kind, considerate, gentle, inexhaustible, and always understanding with boundless patience and unlimited love for her children. Mostly, she always knows more than she is letting on will continue to love you no matter what.
This is how I feel about the mother of my children, Myrna Jacobs. I’m supremely happy that she chose to share her life with me!
Treasure your mother above all else as she is unquestionably doing the same for you at every moment.
Dan Jacobs
Mothers Day 2012
Through some alchemy of specious argument and vacuous logic, some individuals engaged in an effort to reduce all life to a mechanical, stimulus-response existence. This is an nefarious effort to minimize and even eliminate all real human contact, connection and interaction. Such individuals are the enemy of free people.
For when the dreamers cease to dream, when the curiosity, creativity and imagination of poets, writers, painters, musicians, and artists of all kinds are abandoned and wasted through neglect or abuse, the beauty and aesthetics of the culture tends to deteriorate to crude and savage forms. And we will have lost our greatest resource for sustaining any semblance of life, livingness, freedom of expression and survival as a free people.
For in art – and the artists’ willingness and ability to create – we find kindness, honesty, forgiveness, beauty, aesthetics, and real, live communication which is essential to human interchange and interaction.
– Dan Jacobs 2005
My search in life is for truth, wherever it may lie.
So, to avoid adding to the glut of truth decay inundating our minds and eroding our senses at an ever-increasing velocity, I’ll cut to the pith of the matter at hand, tendered solely for your enlightenment and possible amusement.
All truths are basically simple — and the following two provide no exception:
1. Indecision = inaction.
2. Decision = action.
I have long treasured the message that decision and commitment are the open sesame to success in any endeavor, and I’ve sought to enlighten others to the power of this simple truth.
Your intention and resolve alone will provide the energy and drive to overcome known and unknown obstacles and keep you focused when uninvited distractions appear to slow your progress.
Simply, when your decision is made without doubt from self or others; without any attention given to logical…
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Author’s Note: This is an article about an important book, “The Natural Laws of Selling,” and its author Daniel W. Jacobs. It’s not a book review, per se, though I recommend the book highly. The article discusses parts of the book, but it is also about the author, who has helped thousands of professionals to become confident and effective. And though Jacobs focuses on sales, his “Natural Laws” are equally invaluable for professions like teaching, clergy, politics, law, personnel recruitment and entertainment—in fact, any environment that requires relating to other people and affecting their beliefs.
A marketing executive, a young man who I’ve known since he was a teen, recently asked me for advice on how to improve his career skills. “Is there a great online course or a book you’d recommend?” he asked.
He was apparently surprised when I answered, “No. Like most people who have held positions in the business world, I receive three or four business book promotions a day. Over the years, I’ve sampled many courses and read a ton of books, but few have been worth my time. There is, however, one new book that is different from the rest. It’s ‘The Natural Laws of Selling,’ by Dan Jacobs.”
“I’m not a sales exec. Why would I read a book on selling?” he asked.
“You don’t sell products,” I responded. “But you do sell ideas. It’s all about human relations, and how you persuade clients or colleagues—even friends—to believe in you. I’ve known the author for many years. I was pleased to see him write a book articulating what he teaches in the workplace.”
With that, I reflected back to the day I first met Dan Jacobs in San Jose. He had called me previously to discuss a VP job with a technology marketing agency in Southern California. To be perfectly honest with him, I revealed that I had already received an offer letter from a good company closer to home, and had therefore completed my job search. Unflappable, Dan suggested that we could just have a chat over a nice lunch. He was interesting and friendly, so I accepted his no-strings-attached invitation.
Meeting him in person for the first time, I was surprised. Expecting a typical corporate image, I instead met a man who appeared more like a college professor. And I was even more surprised at how he led me through his thought processes. There was no “pitch,” and no waterfall of information about the client company he represented. He didn’t push me in any specific direction. Though he asked me about my attitude on several subjects, he didn’t turn the luncheon into an interrogation.
Overall, it felt like a casual, though sincere, discussion between two friends; viewing a common goal from different directions. I surprised myself by agreeing to fly to Orange County in Southern California, for an interview with the company’s CEO.
The actual interview was like no other that I have experienced. I met with the CEO, a tough, aggressive woman, and her HR director. Dan Joined us and played the role of advisor, subtlely redirecting the conversation at various precarious points. The CEO’s style was challenging and combative. Feeling free to counter her barbed challenges, I struck back politely, though with equal vigor. Dan somehow kept the verbal scrum on track. The meeting ended with a surprise. The HR Director handed me an offer sheet. Dan reviewed it with me, and I accepted it.
As I began my new job over the next month or so, I noticed that Dan, still working as a consultant, would arrive once or twice a week, and conduct one-on-one sessions with people at all levels and functions. I realized that he usually spent the most time with the weakest functions, especially the sales force. Each person with whom he spent time appeared to become more confident and energized. I saw each person’s performance improving.
What was Dan teaching them? He was a bit like the Mr. Miyagi character of the Karate Kid films; giving instructions that each person trusted, even if they didn’t fully appreciate their power. In Dan’s situation, however, he was giving each person a new tool that they agreed to try. And each tool made each person stronger and more capable.
That’s why I was so pleased to learn that Dan has now packaged many of those tools in his book, “The Natural Laws of Selling.”
Steve Vacchs, via Discovering Natural Laws That Change Everything
Note: Myrna found this hand-written piece I wrote in the spring of 1968. Much of it is still true today. – Dan Jacobs
We all have an overwhelming desire to be needed, to be wanted, appreciated, to be loved. In order to fulfill this desire we must first be willing to love ourselves. We must know what it is that we can love, and must be satisfied with the love we hold for ourselves before we can determine what qualities we could love in another.
This love cannot be given out loosely, without reflection, indeed, love is given only after careful deliberation. It necessitates, that is, forms obligations for which sacrifices must be made. For me to love, she must be deserving of that love. She deserves it if she is so like me in important ways that I can see myself in her. And if she is ore perfect, that I can love the ideal of my own self in her.
We can see that this love for oneself cannot be an inward, selfish kind that only takes. But must rather be an outpouring, unselfish kind that recognizes and expresses the best that is in us.
When you discover your live in your being, don’t be afraid to reveal it. You have uncovered one of the basic principles of happiness. But this is only one of many that are needed to be really happy.
When you discover this love in another, and she in you, then you have begun to uncover the true secrets of happiness. This mutual warmth, affections, admiration, enthusiasm, respect, love is found only seldom. Cherish it as yourself.
Daniel Jacobs, Spring 1968
The Beginning
Once when I was unaware that love could come so fast, I allowed myself a day, not even that . . . an afternoon.
It was cold that day. The Union was full, so we warmed our feet in bed, and love crept up between our smiles.
What Does Love Do?
What does love do after it has spent the summer chasing butterflies? In fall when butterflies are gone, love lies down to sleep.
For two months I lived with love but didn’t count the days. Across the car we spoke of trumpets and love and loneliness and again of trumpets.
For two months I lived with love. Nights of music, shiny barmaids and red velvet. Nights of thought and nights of hope. And nights of absolute despair.
Mornings of lovemaking and girl scout eggs. Afternoons of smiles and sun and frosty cones. And once again the night.
I didn’t catch a butterfly that summer. They were too lively and unpredictable They were too fragile to clutch tightly.
Night Falls
Night falls on a Day of tears. My heart and soul yearn for times of waterfalls and bubbling fountains and counting every star in a midnight sky.
By Myrna Jacobs, late 1960’s
When things aren’t working out as you hoped, seek out and discard any old assumptions that may have outlived their usefulness. You may discover that assumptions are hazardous to your wealth.
Daniel Jacobs, 2017
If you’ve ever done something wrong, harmed someone who didn’t deserve it, or injured someone or something intentionally or unintentionally, you’ve got a problem. You’ve set in motion what could be called, the concept of inevitable consequence.
Why? The answer is a variation on the natural law of karma, which is: whether good or evil, you tend to get back what you give out; your actions now (cause) will influence your future (effect).
You carry with you the factors that attract bad things happening to you because you feel you deserve it – if only to “pay” for the wrong you’ve done to others.
Every prison inmate will tell you they’re innocent of the crime(s) for which they were convicted. But internally, they know they have done far worse things that they were never caught for, and they “deserve” the punishment they got this time.
Only when you feel that you’ve given enough good to others to balance out the bad you’ve done will you get off this rollercoaster. Nothing else works.
Want to change your life? Take a look at what you’re putting out. Unless it is something that you’re willing to have happen to you, don’t put it out. Put out positive vibes, and that’s what you’ll get in return.
What goes around, comes around.
Daniel Jacobs, 2017
THE RAIN CAME DOWN
a poem by Myrna Jacobs
I read your letter in the rain
Sitting in a park called Freedom
It seemed so fitting
You told me you loved me
You said you knew how much I’d cried
And wondered why I stayed.
It’s all about the place called freedom
The one we’ve sought together
It’s about the lessons
Learned as two
It’s the way you smile and how you make me feel
It is the wisdom, it is the understanding.
There is a song I once heard
That said
“they can’t stop us on our road to freedom”
When I sent you the lyric,
I knew you’d see why I stay,
Why I help and why I wait
The rain came down but I didn’t care
I saw it as a cleansing thing
The cold wetness streaked my face
And fell on your words
And we hold on, no thrive.
Everyone wonders and nobody knows
It is you and always has been with you
That I wanted to travel this road
Myrna Jacobs
15 April 2006
METAYA 
Hi Steve,
Thank you for this posting. I just re-read your story of how we first met, and your writing is entirely accurate. I thought hearing my side of the story might be of interest, so here it is.
My title with the company was “Senior Executive Advisor.” But, at least initially, it translated to being a “chainsaw consultant.” My marching orders were simple and direct: “We’re barely keeping our head above water. You’ve got one month to cut the deadwood and get us going again. Fast!”
The first to go was the highly-paid and mostly unproductive salesman in the San Jose area. I did my job, though not without some gnashing of teeth and bruised feelings and then started my search for a better replacement.
After interviewing many would-be candidates, my interface with you was my first ray of hope. When you agreed to meet for lunch, I remember thinking, “Now here’s someone who can not only listen but who could also put together more than two sentences that make sense!” To put it mildly, I was elated that you were even interested.
Yes, the CEO, to put it mildly, was combative and often quite abrasive. And I freely admit to some concern about how you would react. But, as expected, you handled the meeting masterfully as the professional that you were and are. But, even better, the CEO was able to see the enormous value you could bring to the company, just as I did, and made you an offer. Happily, you accepted and came on board.
In working with you during the years that followed, my instincts about the depth of your experience and competence in all aspects of the business were confirmed, as you consistently met and exceeded all expectations. I hope we can work together again down the road.
And that, as the saying goes, is the rest of the story. 🙂
Dan Jacobs