Focus on WOW!

In the speaking industry we have only one person who is a billionaire, Dr. Nido Qubein.

He came to America with no money. His focus was to learn English. He carried around little 3 x 5 cards and learned ten words every day until he mastered English. His English, I suggest, is better than that of almost anybody you know.

Nido Qubein attended High Point University in North Carolina and then started learning the business of business. He is now the President of High Point University. He is on the Executive Committee of Great Harvest Bread Company and serves on the Board of the 9th largest financial institution in the U. S.

When the president of High Point University died, Nido was unanimously voted president. He didn’t really want the job. He went to his wife, who said it was okay. He went to his clients and said, “I still have to talk 100 times a year in one of my other businesses.” They all said that was fine. Nido has raised over $100 million and is making High Point University the Harvard of the South. To do that, he decided to have a focus different from anyone else. He asked, “What are the ‘non-WOW’ factors in my university?” He pays one guy $100,000 a year to find out what a “non-WOW” is and pays another guy to tell him what a “WOW” is.

That means each of these guys has focus!

One of the WOWs is that when the parents visit the campus with their daughters, Nido says, “Every night after dark we drive your daughter home. So she is safer here at High Point than anywhere else.”

That’s a WOW!

“Every hot day we give free ice cream.” It costs $4 for each ice cream bar.

That’s a WOW!

Nido has 101 WOWs, which have completely transformed the university experience for his students.

I love this concept, because every person working in a business needs to be focused on a WOW over the course of the year.