"Part 8: Cameron Johnson Is Recognized As One of the Youngest and Most Successful Business Consultants In the World Today Who Teaches His Clients How to Be More Productive With Less Effort While They Create a Real Business" by Ralph Zuranski
Listen to Cameron Johnson's In Search Of Heroes by clicking this link.
Ralph Zuranski: How important was it to believe that your financial dreams would eventually become reality?
Cameron Johnson: I think, in order to set a goal, or set a dream, you have to actually understand that this has to be a realistic goal. So I think it is almost crucial that we are able to believe that we can make our dreams come true, if we just take the necessary steps in achieving those goals, and accomplishing them.
So I think it is crucial. It is hard to set a goal or have a financial dream for yourself if you are not going to believe that it has a chance of being real. So I think we need to set realistic goals, and then I’d say that is 100% valuable.
Ralph Zuranski: Why is it valuable to know exactly how much money you want to have in your bank account, and when?
Cameron Johnson: I think the first question to ask is why do you want that amount? What is that amount of money going to do for you that you don’t already have now? Is it going to buy you things you don’t have, or is it going to pay off debts, or make you more financially stable and make you happier that way?
But why do you think any amount of money will make you any happier than you are now? So I think that is kind of the first question to ask yourself. Then, if you actually put a dollar amount on that, then I think you need to put a date on it, too, and then use that as a goal to be there by that certain time.
But the first question I would say is, “Why do I want this amount of money? Why do I think I am going to be a happier person? Why do I think I am going to be healthier or love my family any more, or anything else? Or my family is going to love me any more?”
Why would you think that is going to happen, just because you have that amount of money in the bank? You know, money does not buy happiness, by any means. So I think that is an important question, too.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, I think that is, also. What is your definition of heroism?
Cameron Johnson: I think a hero is someone who helps others and gives back. I think that is the simplest definition that I can give you. I know there have been so many heroes in my life that have served as mentors to me in the business world.
They have guided me along, and anytime I have ever asked anyone for advice, I have always been greeted with open arms and have been able to get great advice. A lot of those people have turned out to be my mentors, and a lot of my success is thanks to their credit.
So, I think those are the true heroes, those that give back more than they take from life. I think that is the definition of hero to me.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Cameron Johnson: Well, fortunately, going back to the previous question, I have lived a charmed life and I have had very few difficulties, other than some arguments with my parents when I was growing up.
I always admired successful business leaders, and I would read business book about the Donald Trumps and the Michael Dells, Bill Gates, and Richard Bransons of the world. That kind of always helped me stay motivated, because I had my dreams or my goals set on being a successful business leader myself. So that kind of helped me along.
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Cameron Johnson started his first business at the tender age of nine. By age 12, his company was selling Beanie Babies™ over the Internet and he profited $50,000 that year. At the age of fifteen, he became an advisory board member of a Tokyo-based company and published his autobiography in Japanese which became an instant best-seller.
At the age of 21, he has founded and sold more than a dozen businesses and has been featured in more than 250 media outlets worldwide including Newsweek, BusinessWeek, the New York Times, USA Today, CNBC, and MSNBC. He’s served as a consultant to several Fortune 500 companies and is a frequent speaker to a variety of audiences including high schools, colleges, and corporate executives. In January, 2007, his new book titled You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way – And Live the Life You Want – With the 19 Essential Secrets of Entrepreneurship is being released by Simon & Schuster. Cameron Johnson lives in Blacksburg, Virginia. Visit his official website http://www.cameronjohnson.com.
Why work for someone else when you can call your own shots, pursue your dreams, and find success on your terms by starting your own business? So many people end up bored with their jobs, stuck in the corporate grind, never following their true passions. As wildly successful young entrepreneur Cameron Johnson shows, you don’t have to live that way. We’ve entered a new age of entrepreneurship, with the Web making it easier than ever to start and run your own company.
As Johnson’s remarkable story reveals, the entrepreneurial way of life is a great way to make sure you love what you do—and offers the potential to achieve extraordinary success by following your gut and going for what you really want.
What about the risks? Don’t you need lots of money? Don’t most start-ups fail? Johnson shares his essential secrets to entrepreneurial success that show you how he got into the life at very low risk, and with very little money, took an idea that excited him and ran with it, achieving great success and satisfaction with businesses he loved. He didn’t have an MBA; he didn’t even have a college degree. But he had learned the simple but vital secrets he reveals.
Cameron Johnson is a seriously happy entrepreneur who started his first business when he was nine with $50 and a home computer. Before he’d turned twenty-one he’d started twelve successful businesses and was offered $10 million in venture capital to grow his hot web company CertificateSwap.com—praised by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the leading-edge “Web 2.0” business successes—even bigger. He has never taken out a loan or racked up any debt, and every one of his businesses has been highly profitable—so profitable that he’d made his first million before graduating from high school, and he’s put away enough cash that he could retire today. But that’s the last thing on earth he’d want to do; he’s much too happy starting up new companies.
Through the story of his own impressive career so far, in You Call the Shots, Johnson takes you behind the scenes of entrepreneurial success and empowers you to hit the ground running with your own great business idea, no matter how young you are or how little money you have to invest.
Cameron Johnson had started, run and sold 12 successful companies by the time he was 21. His business successes have been featured in Time, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, USA Today and many more, as well as on the Today Show and Good Morning America. When he was fifteen he became an advisory board member of a Tokyo-based company, and his autobiography, 15-Year-Old CEO, published in Japanese, became an instant best-seller. He has consulted to Fortune 500 companies and spoken at the Wharton School, among others. Every one of his businesses has been a success, even in the worst days of the Internet bust. As a freshman in college, he started CertificateSwap.com, an online marketplace for gift cards, which was a runaway success and for which he was offered $10 million in venture capital. He lives in Blacksburg, VA.
Advance Praise for Cameron Johnson and You Call the Shots
Cameron Johnson wrote me a letter when he was eight years old. I didn’t write back to him, but I responded with a surprise for him when he visited New York City. Thirteen years later, he’s given me a surprise—he’s written a terrific book! No matter what your age, you will enjoy and learn from Cameron’s book about his accomplishments thus far. I’m sure there will be more to come.
— Donald J. Trump
You Call the Shots is for everyone committed to following their dreams. Cameron Johnson thoroughly outlines the strategies it takes to remove obstacles to entrepreneurial success. This book is essential reading for anyone with a passion for life.
— T. Harv Eker, #1 New York Times best-seller Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
If you want to be an enlightened money-maker, read my friend Cam’s brilliant book now—and apply it.
— Mark Victor Hansen, coauthor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul
and One Minute Millionaire series
Cameron Johnson’s extraordinary entrepreneurial journey has made it possible for him to develop more sophistication and business savvy by the age of twenty-two than most professionals accumulate throughout an entire lifetime! In You Call the Shots he shares his personal secrets, experience and advice in a warm and friendly way that’s sure to motivate people of all ages.
— Jennifer Kushell, New York Times best-seller Secrets of the Young & Successful: How to Get Everything You Want Without Waiting a Lifetime