Keith Dorson, founder of the Win-Win companies, joins Neva Lee Recla to talk about the habits, skills and characteristics of all great entrepreneurs. Keith strives for excellence in all aspects of his life, from business to family, and he helps his clients do the same. He takes the time to find a win-win solution in everything. Listen in as he and Neva talk about their experience as entrepreneurs and share their secrets for success.

I do.

And so do a lot of your audience.

Yeah. That’s impressive. I mean, I don’t read that fast. I could.

Yeah.

But I normally read at nighttime, so that.

Nighttime is an excellent time to read after a long crazy day.

Nighttime is an excellent time to read after a long crazy day when you’ve left it all on the field, and you’ve worked hard, nothing like coming up with a good book.

Exactly! What does Win-Win mean to you?

Oh, excellent question. Well I see three choices. There’s win-win. There’s win-lose. And there’s lose-lose. Do you know why I picked win-win? I like it when everybody listening, everybody’s participating, everybody walks away with a benefit. Everybody wins with a smile, and a superhero power. Not win-lose where you win and I lose, or vice versa. Everybody ought to get something out of the relationship. And lose-lose is my least favorite. It’s when everybody goes, “Ah, well nothing works.” Let’s not do that.

That’s awesome. Well that’s really cool because I think win-win means to me like what you said, everyone’s happy. Everyone has a benefit to things instead of lose-lose, or win-lose where you win and I lose. I’m like, “Ah, I guess I messed up.” Or lose-lose where we’re all sitting in the sorrow and we’re all disappointed.

And win-win isn’t always easy, but I think it’s always possible. If you don’t give up, and you go at it, and say, “We’re going to stay at this until we both win,” it’s possible.

Yeah, I agree. That’s something that I think a lot of people forget is they forget to stay in the win, and then they kind of stay in the “lose” sort of thing. So, I think you and I are on the same page.

I agree.

What lessons have you learned from flying that applied to business?

Lessons I learned from flying that apply to business. I think flying changes the world. Do you remember people long time ago used to live and die in the same little town? They never went anywhere. They never really traveled. I bet you’ve traveled. I bet you’ve seen some of this great country in which we live. I bet you seen some of the world.

What if we had to live and die all within five miles where we were born? There are people that for many years that’s what they did. Aren’t you glad we can get on an airplane and go somewhere?

Oh yeah.

I bet you travel and flying impacted your breakfast. Do you remember what you had for breakfast today?

I had orange chicken from leftover Chinese food.

Where do you think it came from?

Chicken!

I know, but did it come from California? Where do you think they grew the chicken? Where do you think they got the orange spice? Where do you think this delicious leftovers? I bet you it came on an airplane. I bet you it came on a truck. I bet you it wasn’t grown in your backyard. Did that chicken come from your backyard?

No.

Ah, then it came from somewhere else. That’s the power of flight.

So, when I went to your office, there was a bunch of helicopters, and I thought it was really cool. Can you share with the audience more about the helicopters and planes that you had?

Sure, the love of aviation, where did that come from? Well, I started many years ago at a place called Hughes Helicopters. It was by a famous guy you might have heard about in history called Howard Hughes. He wanted to make sure that everybody had a love of aviation. Matter of fact, the Howard Hughes Foundation still works today at hospitals in solving problems around the world. It’s still very active. I like people to know that aviation is an important part of our everyday experience. We are who we are because we can get on an airplane and fly.

Do you have friends around the world?

I do, and most of my friends actually are. Most of my kid friends actually live in Florida or California, so I don’t get to see them more.

I even remember one of the bands that you like I think is over in Europe some place. Is that right?

Yeah, I think it is. Yeah.

And that’s all possible because of aviation. So my office is filled with helicopters, airplanes, things that remind people that we’re all in the same blue spaceship together called the Earth. And boy, would be tough if we had to walk everywhere we want to go, wouldn’t it?

Would be. It would be painful.

I love to walk, I love to jog, but it’s so fun to get in an airplane and go.

It is, even though I get a little bit nervous every time I fly when there’s … What’s it called?

Turbulence.

Turbulence, what you said.

And you might like this, it’s called CAT, t’s called clear air turbulence. It’s the kind you don’t see, you don’t see the cloud, but all of the sudden you’re in there and they say, “keep your seatbelt on anyway,” because all of the sudden the airplane could bounce.

Yeah.

It’d be a little scary, so I bet you’ve never been scared of a cat before, but you are if you get a cat inside of an airplane, clean air turbulence.

Yeah. I hate it when I’m in the bathroom, and its turbulence.

Bounces you around inside.

There’s the time you know the xylophone doors where they’re like all wonky.

Yeah.

I got stuck in the bathroom.

Oh, well that could be a little nerve-racking.

Especially if there’s turbulence, and there was.

That’s why they tell you to do that when it’s calm and cool. And sometimes you don’t have a choice because mother nature calls. I hear you.

Exactly! What does it mean to you to be a great entrepreneur? Because that’s what we’re talking about is, what does it mean to you to be successful, be happy, and be a great entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur means someone who seeks opportunities.

Well, an entrepreneur you know is a fancy French word. And it actually means someone who seeks opportunities. So entrepreneurs can’t leave something well enough alone. They are always looking for the next superhero power, they’re looking for the next idea, they’re looking for the next thing they can do to make the world a better place. Let me give you a quick example.

Everybody on the planet has something called flies. You know house flies, those little things that buzz around the horses and the pigs and flies? And you have that look, which is a great face by the way. How do you solve a fly problem? If you had too many flies that were living with you, and you didn’t want to live with flies, how would you get rid of them?

We went through that problem. We got a bunch of fly swatters. I remember my sister, and my mom, and my dad were in the kitchen and smacking the fly swatters swatting all the flies.

One solution would be a good old-fashioned fly swatter. I bet you own a couple, and I own a couple in my house as well.

Yeah.

What’s another solution for getting rid of flies other than a fly swatter? Now we’re going to expand our thinking process here. We’re going to be great entrepreneurs together.

Well, you could also catch and release them. You can catch them in your hand and bring them outside.

Excellent, catch and release. You’d say, “I don’t want to hurt the fly, it might have a nervous system. I’ll catch it, and I’ll send it back out in the wild. They can go do its thing in somebody else’s backyard.”

Yeah.

Very creative solution. You know what you just did to come up with that? You were being entrepreneurial. You were looking for an opportunity. Have you ever heard about the ones that they shoot salts? They’re like little plastic guns, and you put table salt, and you can shoot the flies with sea salt.

No, I haven’t.

You have one made out of horse hair, like a horse’s tail, because how does a horse get rid of flies?

Swats it.

It swishes its tail, right? Well, you can buy horse tail fly swatters.

So, we actually need to take a quick break.

All right.

But, where can people go to find out more about you?

Probably whatdoesaladderdo.com

That’s a genius. That sounds cool. All right. So, we’ve been talking with Keith Dorson about great entrepreneurs. We’ll be right back.

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