Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life [Paperback]

Trevor G Blake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 23, 2012

How many self-help books are written by authors whose biggest success is selling self-help books? New York Times bestseller Three Simple Steps is different.

Despite stock market crashes, dot-com busts, and the specter of recession, the author started a virtual company from home, using a few thousand dollars of his savings. A few years later, without ever hiring an employee or leaving his home office, he sold it for more than $100 million. As the economy slipped into another free fall, he did this again with a company in a different field. He accomplished this through no particular genius. Rather, he studied the habits of the many successful men and women who preceded him, and developed three simple rules that, if followed diligently, virtually ensure success. Using them first to escape poverty, then to achieve a life of adventures, he finally turned them toward financial independence.

Written in a straightforward and no-nonsense style, Three Simple Steps shows you how to take back control of your destiny and reshape your mind for increased creativity, serenity and achievement. While building on the wisdom of great thinkers and accomplished individuals from East and West, Three Simple Steps isn't a new age text or guide to esoteric fulfillment. Rather, it's a practical guide to real-life achievement by a pragmatic businessman who attributes his incredible successes to these very simple ideas. Three Simple Steps, a 2013 Small Business Book Awards winner, is a must-read guide for everyone who wants to achieve more, live better and be happier.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...an inspirational and thought-provoking read..."
—Publishers Weekly

“Trevor Blake has provided a clear and concise road map for those of us who believe we were born to make a difference but needed help getting started. The empowering and inspirational message will change your life. ... It did mine! Three Simple Steps is a guidebook that you will use regularly.”
—Debbie Knight, President & CEO, DK Innovative

“Three Simple Steps is a magnificent, genuine guide that revives the American Dream. Each compelling chapter is a formidable footprint of the author's and reader's journey together toward success and hope in these trying economic times.”
—Li-Xi Yang, MD, PhD, Director of Research, California Pacific Medical Center

"Finally, a book about how to succeed by an author who has actually achieved something before writing about it! I have worked with many aspiring entrepreneurs over the years, and they would all benefit from reading and learning to live Three Simple Steps. I wish I had been given the opportunity to internalize these important lessons earlier in my own career."
—Drew A. Graham, Managing Partner, Ballast Point Ventures

“Three Simple Steps demonstrates how to be successful where others miss the mark. ... Learn how to free your own potential, how to champion your mentality, physicality and spirituality, and, ultimately, how to turn these attributes into your own triumph.”
—Deborah E. Cool, PhD, CEO, Calidris Therapeutics, Inc.

“Trevor showed me early on in my career to keep things simple. I've watched him build two successful companies from his home. He is a man who cares and knows how to do great things with the simplest of plans. Three Simple Steps is sure to help us all gain greater business success and keep in perspective the things that matter most to us.”
—Jennifer Olsen, President & CEO, Resourceful HR LLC

"One of the best experiences in my career was working for Trevor Blake. The ability to inspire one to achieve comes not through sharing a philosophy, but by sharing and imparting a belief in your success, and the steps to get there. Trevor did that for me. I continue to carry that belief throughout my varied career as a business executive, singer, and mother, and this book is a reminder that no matter what the barriers, you can achieve your own definition of greatness."
—Joan Curto, Cabaret icon and bestselling artist of May I Suggest?

"This book bucks the self-help-book trends of bullets, charts, grids and web links, trading them for elegant, powerful truths about what it takes to create a prosperous, happy life -- at home and at work.
—Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Inman News

"Offers sound advice and clear steps that could be applied to one’s own life."
—Lani Relucio, Examiner.com

“I've read dozens of personal fixer-upper tomes by business gurus and New Age self-helpers, but this one is different in one important way: Blake actually followed his own three simple steps to get to where he is today—a happily married multimillionaire businessman and philanthropist. Finally, a self-help author who's done more than write self-help books!”
—Blogcritics.org

About the Author

Author of "Three Simple Steps"Trevor Blake was founder and CEO of QOL Medical LLC, a company focused on solutions for rare diseases, that he started in 2002 with a few thousand dollars. Its virtual business model was unique in an industry crying out for change, and it sold in 2010 for more than $100 million. In 2006, he founded ANU, a unique not-for-profit dedicated to developing low-side-effect cancer drugs. In 2011, he cofounded Kalvi Medical LLC and is its CEO.
Prior to this, Trevor was VP Commercial Development at Ceptyr and Director Commercial Development at Orphan Medical. He has worked in the UK, Europe, and the USA with companies such as Lipha, 3M, and Biogen and has won many industry awards, including marketing professional of the year.
He has an MBA from Durham University (UK), and was a graduate of Britannia Royal Naval College (UK).

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: BenBella Books; 1 edition (August 23, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1936661713
• ISBN-13: 978-1936661718
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.7 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Entrepreneurship

More About the Author

It is widely reported that over 50% of reviews on Amazon.com are fake. 5-star reviews can be purchased from dozens of places. I have asked family and friends to refrain from posting, so every review you read here, good, bad, or indifferent is authentic. Authenticity in self-help and inspirational books is surprisingly rare. Even some of the best known were written by authors who had never tasted success before their book caught on. That is dubious to say the least. Three Simple Steps is the real deal. I grew up poor, and had no advantages other than the advice in this book. I used the steps to first get out of poverty, then for a life of travel, and finally for financial independence. I started two companies for a few dollars, one in 2002 and the other in 2005 and sold both for over $100 million each. Only then did I feel sufficiently qualified to show others how to get their dreams.

For me one of the secrets to business success is the ability to constantly put myself in my customer's shoes. It might sound obvious, but I meet leaders of sales and marketing teams who have not talked to a customer in years. My definition of a customer is anyone who is in receipt of my attempts to communicate with them right now. So, if I imagine being a first-time reader of this author page, I would have two immediate questions of the writer. What gives him the right to tell me how I can succeed, and what is in it for him? I have answered the first question already.

To round out the authenticity, all my profits go to cancer research and development. I don't need you to buy the book or to believe in its content. I also donated 8000 copies to libraries in the US for a reason that is disclosed in one of the stories in the book. That answers the second question.

We all feel stuck in life at one time or another, and we all need a little guidance - someone to pull us free of our personal quicksand. I received that helping hand in the form of inspiration from great writers like Paulo Coelho and from an addiction to reading the life stories of self-made men and women and then copying their behaviors.

So, as this is a biography page, what about Trevor? Here is what my publishers say:

Trevor G. Blake started his first company when he was twelve, hopping off a school bus at a main stop, running into a candy store to buy bulk supplies and then jumping back on to sell to his fellow travelers. He learned two things:

1) People pay for convenience

2) Eating the profits is not a smart way to grow a business

Desperate to break an ancestral pattern of poverty and underachievement, Trevor applied for entry to the elitist Royal Navy officer college (BRNC) when he was just fifteen. He became the first person in his province ever to be awarded a reserved place. In 1979 he entered the college as a Midshipman, finding himself standing in line with His Royal Highness Prince Andrew. Within six months Trevor was promoted to Divisional Sub-Lieutenant. Trevor graduated with the higher award of College Colors in 1981 and served in the fleet before resigning his commission to marry in 1984. He and his wife recently celebrated their twenty-eighth anniversary. (2012)

With a degree in radiation physics and nuclear medicine, Trevor worked as a Senior Therapeutic Radiographer in one of the UK's busiest cancer treatment hospitals. He was part of the research and development team that worked on the first hospital-based proton treatment Centre in the world, a role that led to him being sought by commercial entities working on particle accelerators (cyclotron).

What followed was 20 years experience as a commercial development leader with successful biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies, including Lipha and Riker. After Riker was purchased by 3M Pharmaceuticals, Trevor went on to be named 3M Manager of the Year in three consecutive years before he was awarded 3M's Marketing Award. During that period, Trevor completed his MBA at Durham (UK) University Business School.

His success at 3M UK indirectly led to his relocation to the United States as a National Accounts Director. 3M Pharmaceuticals was eventually purchased by Graceway for $875 million.

Prior to the launch of its first product, Avonex, Trevor joined Biogen also as a National Accounts Director. Avonex became the first $1 billion multiple sclerosis drug. Biogen-Idec has a current market capitalization of $36 billion.

Later, Trevor became Director of Commercialization at start-up company Orphan Medical, where he oversaw the successful launches of four newly FDA-approved medicines for rare diseases. Orphan Medical was purchased by Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $130 million.

In 2002 Trevor founded his first company QOL (quality of life) Medical LLC, a unique specialty-pharmaceutical company, and America's first and only fully virtual pharmaceutical business. By 2008 QOL was achieving $20 million a year in revenues with gross profits of >83%, while developing five medicines used to treat rare diseases, mostly in children. Despite having no facility or employees, QOL provided medicines all over the world, and also set up a compassionate use program that allowed over 25% of patients to get free medicine and no patient to pay more than $30 co-pay. This highly successful business model with customer satisfaction at its core (people actually praising a pharmaceutical company!), attracted the attention of suitors, and QOL was sold in two separate deals in 2009 and 2010 for a total value of $105.5 million. Prior to the sale QOL was America's most successful "non-employer business" in history.

In 2006, Trevor also founded ANU, a unique virtual-structured oncology research and development company, which has since licensed patents to over one hundred inventions that target difficult to treat cancers. The aim of the company is to develop treatments with similar cancer killing properties to currently used drugs but with lower side-effect profiles. In 2011 ANU formed a joint venture with a major Asian company (PUMC division New Pacific). As part of the transaction Trevor retains 33% ownership of Neovia Oncology Ltd.

Trevor was CEO for both companies.

In 2012 Trevor co-founded Kalvi Medical, a virtual pharmaceutical company focused on improved formulations of currently marketed medicines, and is its CEO.

Trevor is also President of his philanthropic foundation "Friends of George ," with a fund that allows pets and owners to stay together in harsh economic times.

In 2012, Trevor achieved New York Times Bestseller status for his book Three Simple Steps (launched August 23, 2012, by BenBella Books), A Map to Success in Business and Life and is passionately teaching his success philosophy to others.

Trevor's next book, The 4% Mindset will be published in 2013/14

Never stop dreaming.

Cheers
Trev

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best self-help books I've read October 25, 2012

By Ali Binazir

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I found Trevor Blake through an article on Inc.com on why complainers are bad for your brain. Something about his voice compelled me to look up his new book, and a few minutes later, I had it downloaded to my Kindle. The mixture of riveting personal history and unconventional self-help advice got me finishing the book in two sittings.

Even without the self-help component, the book makes for a fascinating read: Trevor's impoverished childhood in England, with the bullying he endured; his quest to enter England's top military school against all odds; anecdotes from his time as a soldier; his romance with an equally determined young woman; his unlikely early business success; the dream of moving to America; and his subsequent entrepreneurial ventures. Most poignant are the accounts of his mother Audrey, which are alone inspiring enough to be worth the book's purchase price.

However, it is as a work of self-help that I'm recommending this book. First of all, I like its simplicity. The three steps are, in fact, simple. Basically:

1. Think in terms of what you want, not what you don't. Corollary: avoid negative people and media.
2. Take at least 20 min a day of quiet time. This is a daily meditative practice to clear your mind and focus on the void, because the void is the wellspring of all creation.
3. Formulate what you want in life in terms of intentions, not goals: "An intention is a goal but with all doubt about its attainment removed." In other words, assume the feeling of your goal already attained.

This stuff is simple but far from simplistic. In fact, each of the three practices has precedents in ancient wisdom, from Taoism to Buddhism to American Transcendentalism. Although Trevor doesn't reference those traditions, this is stuff that's been around for thousands of years. He does reference contemporary science to back up many of his recommendations, especially on avoiding negativity, which I appreciate.

Second, Trevor has demonstrated real, reproducible business success with his techniques. He makes a salient point that most self-help authors dispensing advice on success weren't successful businessmen themselves (Napoleon Hill being a glaring case in point). There's a certain amount of credibility that comes with being a serial entrepreneur with consistently respectable results, and Trevor has that.

Third, the book just has the ring of truth to it -- a certain mystical, alchemical quality which is hard to define. It just seems to resonate with the structure of experience: 'Y'know, come to think of it, the times when I've been successful, that was what I did.' Thus far, you had been doing it unconsciously and accidentally. I'm grateful to Trevor for making that structure explicit so we can follow it deliberately. I just finished re-reading the book, and I'm looking forward to reporting back on the fruits the implementation of its ideas will bear.

-- Ali Binazir MD, author of The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible, the highest-rated dating self-help book on Amazon

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Publishers Weekly gave TSS a Great Review October 10, 2012

By Glenn Yeffeth

Format:Paperback

First-time author Blake boasts an impressive set of accomplishments: overcoming a dirt poor, hardscrabble existence in Wales to be selected for the Royal Navy, and jettisoning a corporate career to bootstrap a business which he eventually sold for more than $100 million--during a recession, no less. Unlike many entrepreneurs or masters of the universe, Blake maintains that his success was not merely the result of intelligence, hard work, or even being in the right place at the right time; rather, he attributes his successes to three basic ideas which he identified and incorporated into his life after studying the biographies of self-made millionaires and other inspiring people. Blake expounds on these three characteristics: changing or reclaiming your mentality, creating moments of insight, and turning ideas into new experiences through intention... this is an inspirational and thought-provoking read about how control over your mind and thoughts can yield a more fulfilling life.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read for anyone looking to "jump start" their lives. October 1, 2012

By Rachel

Format:Paperback

I own a small business, and I read this book upon recommendation from one of our clients (who is a business success in his own right!). I'm so glad I took him up on it, as it was a great read! Filled with personal stories from the author, scientific studies, and simple (but not necessarily easy!) steps to help focus your mind on what you really want to achieve. I'd recommend this book to anyone who feels a bit stuck, and is open to making an effort to make small adjustments in their lives for big impact.

The only reason I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5 is that the personal stories -- while relevant to the three steps he talks about -- were a bit long. Mostly I just had a hard time going back through the book a second time (had to "work around" the peronal stories) in order to find the things I wanted to make note of and bookmark!

The three steps themselves are relatively common sense (especially if you're already a reader of books about success, leadership, business, etc. ... I suspect you've come across these concepts in the past.) But for me, I thought these concepts were spelled out in a way that pulled all the things I have already read and learned together in an easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement way.

This book was WELL WORTH what I paid (I read the Kindle edition), and I'm even considering purchasing a few printed versions to give to a few people!