From the Founder
The Hard Path is Easier!
By Dr. Ivan Misner, BNI Founder and Chairman

I am writing this column from beautiful Vail, Colorado, while attending a meeting of the Transformational Leadership Council. TLC is a group put together by Jack Canfield (co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series) and is comprised of trainers and "thought leaders" helping to transform people's lives in various ways.

During the five days of seminars and meetings, I had an opportunity to sit in on a presentation by Steve D'Annunzio that I felt compelled to write about. Steve spoke of many things, but what really resonated with me was his discussion of taking the easy path or the hard path in the decisions that we make throughout life.

He said, "Taking the hard path often makes life easier and taking the easy path often makes life harder!"

I sat there and thought about how much that truly applies to BNI. I've seen some groups that take the easy path. They don't hold members accountable for attendance, quality referrals, following the system, or general support of the group. Many of these things are, in fact, hard to maintain. The real tragedy is that they may go down this path for a very long time, unwilling to take the necessary hard steps to build a successful BNI group. The results are inevitable—the chapter struggles.

On the other hand, I see some groups that work hard to maintain attendance, generate quality referrals, follow the system, and cultivate a positive attitude. This is incredibly difficult to do consistently. These chapters tend to be much more successful.

In BNI, taking the hard path often makes business and life much easier, and taking the easy path can make business and life much harder.

Steve ended his presentation by asking, "Are you practicing hard/easy or are you practicing easy/hard in your life?"

This is a powerful question for every BNI chapter to ask. It might make a great discussion with your fellow members. Is your group taking the hard path to success? If not, what can you do, right now, today, to help move the chapter forward on the hard path to make your life easier?

Called the father of modern networking by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the founder and chairman of BNI, the world's largest business networking organization. His latest New York Times best selling book, Masters of Sales, can be viewed at www.MastersBooks.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company. He can be reached at misner@bni.com.