Money comes to those with goals

Richard Denny is chairman of the Richard Denny Group. He runs an executive search business, a training firm and he's a motivational speaker. He is the author of six best-selling books on selling, is a direct descendant of Sir Walter Raleigh and is the son of a Baronet. "I used to be terrified about speaking in public until I went on a course about how to do it," he says. "And although I didn't realise it at the time, it has turned out to be a fantastic way of advancing my career. "Not only by speaking at events, but in being able to stand up and persuade the people you work with that something needs to be done or changed." Denny spends a lot of time doing motivational talks about sales. "How do you become a success at sales? I tell people not to be pushy. Be pully instead. I wanted to buy a laptop computer and saw three sales guys. "The first one told me all about the latest laptop he had, about gigabytes, megabytes, the lot. The second one did the same. The third one came to my house and asked my why I wanted a laptop. What did I use it for and how often? "After half an hour of talking about me and what I wanted he said I might have just the thing. He probably one had one laptop in his car all along, but the point was he showed interest in me and had the courtesy to ask me what I wanted. And he got the sale." Denny says in a tough economic market, there is a massive opportunity. "But you have to up the effort," he says. "Get on the phone more, see clients more, network more. People might say the market has dropped, but not by 50pc. By 5pc, maybe, so you need to put it 5pc more effort." Denny says he comes across a lot of young entrepreneurs who make the mistake of wanting to make money followed." When it comes to getting and staying motivated, Denny advises writing a to-do list the night before rather than first thing in the morning. He says the way to motivate yourself throughout the day is to set goals, do the worst job and gradually tick things off the list. "By the end of the day you will have achieve your goals," he says. In a career that has taken in supplying chicken eggs to Harrods and selling everything from Yugoslavian lamb to Greek cement to British Steel, Denny has made, lost and made a fortune. Today, he lives in the Cotswolds and spends several months of the year sailing on his yacht. He adds: "It doesn't matter what others say, think or do. It's what you say, think and do that counts."

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