Every day, I came across people saying I need someone to give me enough money so I can start a business even though they have the wherewithal to finance it themselves.
If you want to go into business, money or the lack of it is just one of the many obstacles you must overcome.
So, they ask the three F’s: family, friends and fools, and if they don’t cough up, usually because they are sceptical of the unproven business idea or the person’s ability to succeed with their money.
Now they wait, telling everyone they come into contact with about how not getting the money is costing them their success, setting up a crutch as a reason why they have failed in life instead of admitting they feared loosing there own money.
Then they wait and wait, and then inevitably, someone else has done it, or the idea has run its course, and the market is on to the next opportunity.
I remember 30 years ago, when we were in retail, I heard a poem that helped me to understand how people thought when parting with their money, enabling me to have empathy and not sympathy when selling products that customers wanted but didn’t want to part with their money on that day.
We would have probably spent 2 hours with them, so we were keen to get the sale; the poem went something like this.
The Bride, white of hair, is stooped over her cane; her footsteps were uncertainly guided.
While down the opposite aisle, a man with a toothless smile, the bridegroom in wheelchair, came riding.
Now, who is this elderly couple thus wed? When you’ve closely explored it, you’ll find that it is the rare, most conservative pair who waited until they could afford it.
Sometimes, we all wait far too long to do what we need to do to enjoy our lives, all because we think.