I didn’t know much about what I wanted to share here when I started in business In October 1984. If I did, (would have saved myself a lot of heartache and, more importantly, avoided my romance with bankruptcy seven years down the road.
If not for GOD our business would’ve been wiped off just by my making this one huge mistake that I’m about to reveal here.
Unfortunately, I still see many Beginning Entrepreneurs and even some veterans making the same horrible mistake today. I’m hoping that by revealing this business growth stumbling block, you will learn from my ignorance and make a huge success of your own business adventure, without getting lured into this wasteful distraction.
So what is this mistake? It’s jumping at every object that shines on the horizon, deceptively appearing like the most brilliant business or income opportunity idea to hit the marketplace since sliced bread.
This thing that I call the Scourge of Business Owners is so strong a temptation that only a few entrepreneurs can claim to have escaped its pangs until they’ve almost lost their core business before they came to their senses.
It all starts with the desire to expand or to have multiple streams of business income. That in itself is not a bad idea if you ask me. The problem usually lies with when and how to make it happen.
You see a business that is beginning to gather steam, attracting loyal customers, and delivering exceptional services to those customers. Then, like a curse from the evil forest, this business owner will get attracted to the idea of creating another income source, leveraging the resources from the fledgling business that is just gathering momentum.
In a matter of months, this business owner will start struggling to keep his core business and the new one afloat GOD helps him, as He helped me, the business owner will quickly swallow his pride, retrace his steps, and start warming his way back into the hearts of the loyal customers he had neglected in his desire to expand.
But for many other business owners, there is no turning back. Pride and ego would have clouded their thinking. They couldn’t imagine a whole of them pulling the life support plug from a business idea that is as good as dead.
In my own experience, especially since that first near-disastrous per before you commit your capital and other resources to them, are nothing but a lame duck.
Experience which took place in September 1991, I have come to terms with the fact that some business ideas, which look very good on paper before you commit your capital and other resources to them are nothing but a lame duck.
These days, once I realize I’m backing the wrong horse, I don’t waste any precious time agonizing over its inevitable demise. I just quickly dig its grave and bury it. And I do that with little or no emotion.
Having provided this background information let me now list some of the businesses I will not touch with a long pole and why. Before I give you the list, please understand that I’m not in any way saying that these business models are bad or that you cannot get rich doing them, these businesses are no go area for us.
All I’m saying is that, as for me and my team, these businesses are a no-go area for us.
With that said, the first business I wouldn’t touch with a long pole is any business that I don’t have a good grasp of how it works or that no one in our team that I trust knows much about. And by that, I mean practically ANY business, even if there is concrete evidence that the business will pump out ten figures annually in pure profit.
Am I going nuts, you ask? No, I’m not. As a matter of fact, the reason I’ll keep avoiding getting involved with these kinds of businesses is so that I can keep my sanity.
Think about it. Nothing can infuriate you more than having ‘experts’ you hire to run a business you don’t know much about telling you to spend a huge sum in the venture and you have no way of knowing whether they are telling you the truth or they’re just trying to rip you off.
I had one such experience I could never forget. Not too many years ago, I got my team together at our NGO. Success Attitude Development Centre, to chart a way forward after it became clear that a program that we floated and did everything to prop up wasn’t working.
A team member came up with what definitely looked like a great idea on paper. And we started to work on it after we had thoroughly analyzed it. But there was a problem. Each time we sat to discuss the idea; I discovered that I was constantly struggling to understand certain aspects of what we were to do next and how we were to go about it.
In other words, if the guy who came up with the idea was not around, or he goofed, we all would be stranded. When you consider the fact that I was supposed to be the driver of this idea, that I was the one that would sell it to members of our community you will realize that this was not a situation that you should be a figurehead.
After investing considerable human and material resources in the project. I didn’t hesitate to pull the plug off it. All my team members couldn’t understand why I had to do it. But I knew that the project was doomed to fail sooner or later. So instead of waiting for it to fail, I killed it by myself.
Here’s another example. An American and his team were in the country just last year. They were introduced to me by a young journalist friend. According to the journalist, the Americans were into Forex Trading. They were in the country to explore how to establish the business. However, they ran into some difficulties in the process. And they sought my help, which I was glad to render.
Perhaps as a way to show appreciation for helping them, they decided to bring me into their Forex Trading business. They came up with the business plan and showed me all the money we could make together. And it ran into several million US dollars.
Now, I didn’t [and still don’t) know a damn thing about Forex Trading. I’ve some young friends who specialize in Forex Trading who teach people on our platform how to do it. But I never for once showed the slightest interest.
The only thing I was familiar with in the terms they use in Forex Trading is “pips.” And that was because I had served in the Nigerian Army and I know that commissioned officers wear pips. But my young friends doing the Forex Trading were very quick in pointing out to me that their own ‘pip’ had nothing to do with the ranks worn by army officers. And that ended what could have been my only knowledge about Forex Trading.
So, when these Americans were presenting their business plan to me that showed all the money that was just waiting to be made, I just sat through their presentation staring at the computer screen, not showing a flicker of interest.
The Americans would’ve wondered what sort of a human being I was. But I didn’t care what they thought. If I made the mistake of getting involved in that business, I was sure I would lose my money and my sanity as well: thank GOD for forbidding it.
