35: Achieving Sensational Results with Duane Cummings

Daniel Giordano

About Duane Cummings

Duane was born in Germany before his family moved and settled on the West Coast of the United States. His family was poor, but he never realized the challenges he was over coming as he thought life was great. After losing a soccer scholarship he entered the military just like his father was. After a varied military career he left the military for love as he fell in love all over again with and married his high school sweetheart.

Duane’s Business Progression

Duane got started in business as a small-scale entrepreneur in the military, loaning money and taking peoples duties and as a coach.
After an epiphany at this 9 year olds birthday, his vision and priorities shifted away from coaching to other business opportunities.
One of the biggest lessons Duane learned came when a faulty exit sign caused his antique business to burn to the ground and he wasn’t properly insured. He still feels that this unfortunate experience made him a wiser businessperson.
Duane says although he had an income and he was making money in this phase of his development he didn’t feel very successful.
A private label clothing company followed when a colleague suggested that as Duane was getting clothing made that he get extra made, save money, and have extra product to give away – which Duane did, and this lead to his own clothing label.
The consultancy business started because people wanted to know his story and how he could help their business.

Mentors

Father Victor Roberts took an interest in Duane as a person by asking telling deep questions that made him think deeply about himself.
Every question he ever asked still rings in Duane’s ears to this day.

Duane still doesn’t feel he has arrived yet. He wants to stay hungry for success.

It was only when he started consulting with a large oil company he realized that he was no longer talking about hundreds or thousands of dollars but rather millions of dollars, and this brought a whole new level of understanding about his achievements and evidence that he must be doing something right.

Right now Duane is working on his books, speaking – a lot of which is focused mainly on younger audiences in universities and schools.

Mission behind Non Profits

To aid others, act on ideas and achieve sensational results.
Hi focus is to give what others want, not to try and enforce his beliefs or products on others.

Duane’s Book – ‘Selling Out Your Funeral’

Duane got inspiration from a funeral of a friend whose son had died at the age of 20. The school gym was packed and were literally people streaming out the doors – and it got him to thinking of how many people would actually come to his funeral.
He rationalized that if you were to sell out a concert you would not start selling it the day before it was on, so why shouldn’t you go out now and start setting seeds that will serve others and indirectly cause you to be remembered.
There are lots of ways that you could monetize bringing value to others, so it need not be a total sacrifice without reward.