Ninety-Five Percent will fail...

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Wow - I just picked up my old copy of Dan Kennedy's The Ultimate Sales letter and have been skimming through it again and came across this statistic.

If you followed a random group of one hundred people from the time they entered the workforce until they die here is what you will find:

ONE will be wealthy

FOUR will be financially secure,

FIVE will keep working and never retire, not because that is what they want, but because they have no choice

THIRTY SIX will be dead

FIFTY FOUR will be dead broke - absolutely dependent upon meager SSI benefits, support from friends and family and charity.
#copywriting #fail #ninetyfive #percent
  • yes I've read that too...now the question remains, what leads to a man becoming wealthy? What has he mastered that the others haven't?

    I'm willing to bet persistence and always taking action and doing something...you might fail at something a certain number of times, but the person who succeeds is the one that sees each failure as a learning experience and keeps going.

    Most people don't have what it takes because they are impatient and try a few things (or worse, the same thing repeatedly) and give up when they don't get the result they want.

    I think it was Ted Nicholas who said that only 5% of what he tries actually succeeds. And he is a master marketer.
    • [1] reply
    • Persistence is key. Those are some very interesting numbers though wow.
  • This is a really cool sales teshnique and is used by some many different people.

    I see people use it a lot at the start of key note talks.

    it realy scares people for a start and then gets people thinking- christ i want to be in the minority that gets it right.

    show me how?
  • What about the 36 who are dead? How did they fare? (Also, since these people were followed from when they entered the workforce until they die, aren't they all dead?)
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Hmm.. are these numbers supposed to be applied worldwide or for just America? Only 2% of Americans make over an average of $250,000 a year so I believe that only 1 in 100 can be considered truly wealthy, but I'd have to think more than 4 in 100 are able to retire with decent comfort after the age of 67.. particularly because so many households have two incomes nowadays with so many women entering the workforce and thus two social security checks a month and Medicare.

      Was this statistic published in Kennedy's first publication of The Ultimate Sales Letter or the most recent one(2011 I believe)?
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    • Good points, Red! I only brought up the $250,000 as the top 2% to bring across the point that it can be assumed the top 1% makes a good amount more than that, and thus can be considered by most as "wealthy". In the wake of Occupy Wall Street last year and all of the talk about the "1%ers" I tried to find how much one needed to make per year to be in the top 1% of total income earners in the U.S. but surprisingly found no such data.

      ... but I just looked it up right now and found the Tax Policy Center in D.C. says one had to make $532,613 in 2011 to be considered in the top 1%. Even without a scientific definition of 'wealthy' most would agree that's a boat load of money and can be turned into a cash-generating empire even with mediocre investment strategy.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Only one will be wealthy? Amazing...as far as I know it depends on a person's mind set and goals. We can be persistent and determined for the wrong reasons and never learn. But if we have a clear goal of what we REALLY want 5 or 10 years from now or let's say even after retirement then we don't really need to depend on Social Security benefits (when we retire, right?) or any other sort of financial assistance.
  • Dude, sorry to be the one pointing it out but, it doesn't make any sense. If you follow 100 people until they die, only thrithy six actually die? Are the rest zombies?
  • Well that's depressing
    • [1] reply
    • Cheer up.
      The numbers are just a construct. Useful as a marketing ploy but nothing more.
  • Go to YouTube and watch the 'Strangest Secret' by Earl Nightingale. He uses that exact parable very artistically.
  • Did I read this wrong?

    You said the article said "If you follow them till they die".

    Guess my question is: Why are only 36 dead? If you follow them till they're dead...wouldn't they all be dead?
  • I would need to see evidence for such statistics. I also read in this health program that decaf coffee is made with formaldehyde. Do I believe that? Of course not.
    • [1] reply
    • I have also read somewhere that the federal government has put Flouride in our water and we are supposedly drinking it everyday. Unbelievable!
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    Ninety-Five Percent will fail...

    Wow - I just picked up my old copy of Dan Kennedy's The Ultimate Sales letter and have been skimming through it again and came across this statistic. If you followed a random group of one hundred people from the time they entered the workforce until they die here is what you will find: