Expert-Secrets full book

objection I hear WAY too often. “I’m not certified. I don’t have a degree. I
haven’t been to school for this. How can I possibly claim to be an expert?” I
always smile when I hear these words come out of someone’s mouth because I
know where I came from.
I ask them, “Well, I’m curious. You paid me $25,000 (or $100,000) to teach
you this stuff. What do you think my credentials are?”
They think about it and usually say something like, “I don’t know. Do you
have any marketing degrees?”
I say, “Nope. I barely graduated from college, and I got a C in marketing.” I
didn’t get good grades, and I don’t have any certifications to my name. But
guess what? I’m REALLY GOOD at what I do. My results are my certifications.
Tony Robbins told me that when he first started learning neuro-linguistic
programming (NLP), he signed up for a six-month training course, and after just
a few days, he fell in love with it. He gained skill quickly and wanted to start
helping people immediately. The trainers said, “You can’t, you’re not certified
yet.”
Tony said, “Certified? I know how to help people. Let’s go help!” That
night, he left his hotel room, walked across the street to the nearest restaurant,
and started helping people quit smoking and assisting them with lots of other
amazing things. He ended up getting kicked out of the program because he was
practicing without being certified. Yet he’s gone on to transform tens of millions
of people’s lives using NLP—all without any certifications.
Your results are your certification.
I hereby give you permission to help people. You’re ready now.
“But Russell, what if others know more about my topic than me?”
There’s a book (and a movie) called Catch Me If You Can that illustrates this
point pretty well. It’s the story of a famous con artist, Frank Abagnale, a brilliant
high school dropout who masqueraded as an airline pilot, a pediatrician, and a
district attorney, among other things.
There is a point in the book where he starts teaching a sociology class at
Brigham Young University. He teaches the whole semester, and no one ever
figures out that he’s not a real teacher. Later on when they finally do catch him,
the authorities ask, “How in the world did you teach that class? You don’t know
anything about advanced sociology.”
He replied, “All I had to do was read one chapter ahead of the students.”
That’s the key. You don’t have to be the most knowledgeable person in the
world on your topic, you just have to be one chapter ahead of the people you’re
helping. There will always be people in the world who are more advanced than
you. That’s fine. You can learn from them, but don’t let it stop you from helping