SPEED READING EVELYN WOOD SEZ: MONEY
Author: H. Bernard Wechsler

The following is based on excerpts, direct quotes, and paraphrased comments
from lectures, personal conversations and writings by *Evelyn Wood (1909-1995).

1. Q. "Could you talk about what you have learned about money? You
don't have to give personal details, but you have been very successful.
What have you learned, and how can it help our students in speed reading,
many of whom are executives, small business owners and professionals?

2. Q. "Boasting and bragging is not my style, I am a school teacher from
Utah, and proud of it. I have learned an awful lot about how an educational
business operates, half of which is how not to go bankrupt when no one
is interested in what you are offering.

Speed reading was a learning-experience for me, and made me discover my
strengths and admit my weaknesses. You just cannot build an international
business by yourself. We started in 1959 and were ready to throw in the towel
after two-years. Speed Reading was not a big-hit when I was all alone, we
needed non-educators who could attract our market, and who had the money
to pay for monster ads to ballyhoo - "Triple your reading speed with the same
comprehension or better, or your money back."

3. Q. "My students are critical-thinkers, could you give us some rules of
success?"

So, you want the famous Evelyn Wood Eight (8) rule system to making millions.
Step one is throw all the rules out-the-window because everyday must be
survived in the beginning. Okay, here is what I discovered based on no
background in business, and very little natural inclination to become rich,

Number #1: If you are not chasing your dream - not someone else's, you
will not weather the storms because business is tough-stuff, not "manna
falling from heaven." Pick an area that excites you without limit, and
make yourself an expert. You will have 13 hour work days, often have
seven-day work-weeks, and if you don't love your business - you will retire
gracefully or involuntarily from the war because it is battle after battle.

Only your dream keeps you sane, with a little help from family, associates
and your values and faith.

4. Q. One, is focus on your field of expertise, How did it work for you?"

I wrote the book, the curriculum, trained the instructors, and taught the
classes. What made it fun was that I loved speed reading and had the
opportunity to have kids and adults, students, executives and professionals,
excited to learn the skills of reading three (3) books, articles or
reports instead of the solitary one; it made my blood flow. I wasn't working
to earn money - my husband Doug took care of our daughter Carol's needs,
I was a missionary bringing speed reading to world. It was my dream to
change the way the world read, concentrated, comprehended and remembered,
one-student-at-a-time. It's sounds corny and unrealistic, but money never
entered into the equation, and certainly not fame. I had too many defeats and
rejections to believe it would even happen in my lifetime.

5. Q. "Please, some rules, how did you treat your first students?"

a) Get into the mind of your clients - the students. Discover "their" dreams,
the motivations of why they would pay you a large sum of money to learn your
program.

b) Coddle them - speak to them like family or your best friend. Let every day
be a "crash-course" for you, in how to teach speed reading. Learn by asking
them questions. The secret is feedback, and it's everything.

c) Get personal with each and every member of your classes. They want
"substance", not hot-air, something they can use immediately and permanently,
to GROW personally.

d) Excite their feelings and emotions about letting-out their hidden talents and
gifts. People never use half the inherent gifts they were born with. Why?
Because it takes effort and practice. Make them fanatics for their own personal-
growth. It's your job to flatter them enough to release their latent genius. If not,
go back home to your gardening and daughter.

6. Q. "So you appealed to their need for specific "outcomes", different ones
for kids and adults, and others for executives and housewives, right?"

Make each student feel "appreciated" for what they are and what they can
become, as if they were your own family. Praise their victories, and give gentle
feedback to correct their errors.

Next rule if you are keeping count, is "perseverance": Give up your business and
dream only after we are conquered by - Martians. Life and business are a process,
a step-by-step growth experience.

Lincoln said, "The best thing about the future is that it only comes -
one-day-at-a-time."

Every day sit-in on a different instructor. Ask yourself if they are treating
the students with respect, like family. Are they inflating their ego, or creating
stress? Are they making the speed learning strategies too hard or use explanations

that making learning simple?

7. Q. "You have to be the general, sergeant and the custodian. Does it get
any easier?"

Sure, you train your own successors - a teacher-trainer, administrators,
and spokespeople - all it takes is enough success to pay the bills.

The next law is to pay for or attract public relations. Here's why, even though
we advertised extensively coast-to-coast, folks don't believe advertising. You
paid for someone to praise you, while public relations is third-party endorsement
by the editor and reporter, and in my case - Johnny Carson.

I would add this with trepidation - you must have controversy, conflict, to be
a great guest or give an outstanding interview. If not, you are boring, and as
bland as yesterday's fish. We had no trouble in that area, the schools and
administrators hated speed reading. How we graduated two-million, including
four U.S. Presidents is a separate tale - it was not a piece-of-cake.

8. Q. "What enabled you to go from almost bankruptcy to incredible success?"

"Networking" was one of our secrets. Each graduate became a part of our
speed reading family and recommend us to her/his peers and family. All the
advertising and P.R. cannot replace "networking", asking and getting help
from your graduates because they are "believers" and know that we deliver
on our promises. Get one high school girl or boy who read 3 - 4 - or even 5 books
in the time others read one, and the entire student body wants to be a speed reader.

Word-of-mouth is everything - testimonials are vital because credibility is
what took us from a few classes and penury, to 2 million, and pardon the
boasting - almost a billion dollars.

9. Q. "Give me another rule, this is getting very informative."

Never be satisfied with the way the instructors teach the class, improve
the audio-visual aids, their verbal presentation, and most of all keep
improving the course. We added note-taking skills, concentration development,
vocabulary improvement, memory cues, and test-taking techniques.

The Speed reading syllabus will never be completed, it is a "work-in-progress",
fifty-years later. Anything that helps our students develop their skills, their
knowledge-base, their personal wealth, in our Knowledge-Economy, MUST
be added to the curriculum.

10. Q. "But is there a rule when you are missing an important piece of the
puzzle? We are not all - triple-threat stars who can do everything to create

success."

No one succeeds alone. Out there is the right someone who can complement
your knowledge and know-how. But they must be as dedicated as you are
to incredible success, and not just want to earn a pay check. We require
dedicated fanatics who want to bring speed reading to the world, nothing
less will suffice. Keep asking the question - how can speed reading be
even more useful, practical and easy? We must strive for "great", not good.

11. Q. "How do you grow?"

No glittering generalities - you must find like-minded folks to permit you
to become an international organization. Get specialists to help find them,
the licensees, the French and Spanish instructors, but you make the final
choice. There is a "right" time to expand into other states or countries,
and of course a wrong time before you are prepared to give the "support",
required for success.

We can afford to move slowly, but accurately. It's
a big world, with six billion folks. No, we cannot get them all, only our
niche-market, those who will accept nothing but the best in speed reading,
not phony claims of teaching 25 thousand words per minute.

12. Q "But aren't there proven rules in every industry learned after decades
of operation?"

Sure, and they are often wrong and a stumbling-block to success. We have
CPAs, lawyers, Ph.Ds and PR specialists, but we are not slaves to the rules.
My experience is if you let experts do their jobs according to the rules, we get
standard work products, moderate success, and an attitude of cautiousness,
beyond what is necessary.

We err on the side of being bombastic about what
we do, not exaggerating, but talking to the dreams and aspirations of our
niche market, the students, executives and professionals we work for.

Experts told us we could not charge a "big-ticket" price and still mass-market
internationally. We did not follow their accounting rules.

That's it, pardon the boasting and bragging, but we want to tell the truth and
have our experience help our graduates in their careers and in gaining wealth.
Be useful - and find your dream.
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copyright 2003
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org
Email: hbw@speedlearning.org
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H. Bernard Wechsler is a senior educational consultant to The SpeedLearning
Institute, affiliated with Long Island University, The Learning Annex, and in
NYC schools, through The DOME Project.
He is one of the founders of Evelyn Wood Speed Reading, graduating 2 million,
including Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Carter.
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*H. Bernard Wechsler and The SpeedLearning Institute are NOT associated,
affiliated nor connected with the present management of Evelyn Wood speed reading.
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H.Brnard Wechsler is senior educationl consultant to The SpeedLearning Institute, affiliated with Long Island University, The Learning Annex, and The DOME Project. He is one of the founders of Evelyn Wood speed reading, graduating 2 million includin Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Carter.

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