Not All That Glitters Is Gold: How to Grow Your Business
Not All That Glitters Is Gold: How to Grow Your Business
My career genesis was in sales consulting. I sat in boardrooms with long tables and helped company leaders develop business plans to enter the US market.
The plans we created earned these leaders venture and angel funding. It also earned these leaders ulcers and anxiety.
The money they had received came with expectations of results. Strategy was now required to become execution.
Executing the sales and marketing pieces of business plans as an outsourced service provider was not the glamorous road to take. Boardrooms are prettier than sales floors.
Walking away from consulting for outsourced services felt like a step back, but it was undeniable from my personal experiences that execution offered the bigger pain and bigger opportunity.
Amazon is amazing now, but initially, it simply sold books online. That is hardly something you brag to your friends about. However, it was a needed service and eventually spawned one of the largest and most successful companies in the world.
Far too many people pick that which is sparkly instead of that which is steady; they choose what glitters instead of what goes!
I live on a ranch. It was a bucket list item, one that derived from genetics and centuries of family farmers and ranchers. I have 3 neighbors—each own property worth north of $1,500,000.
One neighbor started a company that sold metal pipes. He eventually sold his company and bought the ranch with the proceeds.
Another neighbor bought the land when it was considered “outside” of city limits or country. He had the foresight to buy the property while it was cheap. He is now a millionaire because he was the first in line.
The last neighbor owns a company that manufactures cement boxes that house underground electric lines. He purchased the ranch from the profits of his current business and lives there on the weekends.
You go to school and teachers tell you to be a lawyer or doctor—fancy! You start a company, and you want to be Facebook or Steve Jobs—impressive!
My neighbors and I did nothing fancy or impressive. We sold metal pipe, got in line first, made cement boxes, and offered outsourced sales and marketing, yet each are now millionaires with beautiful ranches on a river.
