There are many ways to smoke the competition and become the number one leader of your industry. For 27 years I ran a company and never in a market did we ever run second-place and if by chance we did, well it was not for long. Second place is for losers and that is no place for meat or my company. It is no place for my country, my family, my business or myself.

First place is the only place and if you are not in first place or vying for it, then you are not in the competition. Winners win and losers make excuses. We often see winners moving up very fast through the ranks and we know where they will stop in those rankings; at number one of course.

They say losing sucks and I guess that makes a lot of sense, too darn bad for them. In business you must find ways to smoke your competition. You must out market them, out sell them, blow away customer expectations and dominated the word-of-mouth advertising and referrals. How can you do all this?

You can win and smoke the competition through strategic planning and execution with dedication, commitment, perseverance and goal setting towards your future victory. Many people in the past who have done business with me or on our team as the vendors, independent contractors, franchises or management have called me a hardass, but I guess I am in good company, as they also called Jack Welch a hardass.

Nevertheless, Vince Lombardi would be proud of our company because we smoked the competition and folks we never looked back. Consider this in 2006 and kick the wimps, political correctness pusses and whiners out of your company. Keep this team strong and win!