A couple of weeks ago, I met a man at a business luncheon. His name was Richard Montanez. You may not know Richard by name, but you may know his product. Richard is the guy that invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. At the time he came up with the idea, he was working as a janitor in a Frito-Lay plant. He’s now a Sr. VP for Frito-Lay. His one product does $4 billion in annual sales. He’s kind of a big deal there at Frito-Lay as you can imagine.

Richard’s story is both amazing and inspirational. (You can read it here.) While he is now only in his 50’s, Richard is wise beyond his years.

As I listened to Richard during his luncheon speech, I came away with these 3 lessons that I wanted to share with you:

# 1) You’re not like everybody else. You’re different.

Try as you might, but you’ll never be like everyone else. Never. You’re different. Accept that you’re different. Better yet, embrace it.

What makes you different also makes you unique. And because you’re unique, you possess skills, talents and visions that no one else possesses. Use those to your advantage.

# 2) Your friends can hold you back.

Most everybody wants to be like everybody else. So when they see you doing something different, it makes them uncomfortable. They don’t want to try different things, so they want to bring you back. They want you to do what they’re doing instead.

So if you’re trying to get ahead in life, your friends may end up holding you back. Recognize when that is happening. You may have to distance yourself from your friends so that you can progress.

# 3) Ridiculous just might work.

Perhaps it is ridiculous to think that one could put salsa on Cheetos and people would like it enough that it would become a $4 billion annual business. And it’s ridiculous to think that a teenage dropout working as a janitor could stand in a factory conference room and pitch this idea to the CEO of one of the largest brands in the world.

Sometimes, some of the best ideas are those that are so ridiculous that they just might work. But you won’t know until you take a risk to find out.

Take for example “Sun-Staches“. These are novelty sunglasses that were highlighted on a recent episode of ABC’s Shark Tank. These 3 entrepreneurs were nearly laughed out of the Shark Tank. The laughing stopped however when it was mentioned that these ridiculous glasses brought in $5.7 million in sales last year.

BONUS: #4) Opportunities are often disguised.

Richard pointed out that opportunities are always around you. Sometimes you just need to create an awareness for yourself so that you can recognize them when you see them. Unfortunately many fail to see opportunities because they’re often disguised as “hard work”.

Thanks for reading our newsletter today. I hope you found some insights that you can apply to your business and personal life.

To learn more about these 2 success stories, simply click the links above.

To your success,

Enrique Garibay

http://www.MLMLeads.com – Helping Entrepreneurs Everywhere Since 2003