What is the value of a beating heart? How much is a dedicated mind worth? No amount of money can buy either. It’s not so much the cost; it is the value of these items. There is a cost in nurturing and developing a strong heart and dedicated mind, but their value is measured by the results that the combination may generate. There are lots of people with great ideas but precious few who risk making their ideas a reality. Business owners fall into the latter category so where do you look for direction? How do you decide?
Over my years in business, I’ve found that you need two things to survive – cash and credibility. If you are going to succeed in business, you’ll need help. No matter who you are or what you’re worth, nothing worthwhile is accomplished exclusively in isolation. A great idea needs an audience. A marvelous product needs customers. A set of blueprints needs skilled trades to make it a reality. Everything needs something to make it happen. So at the start of each day, what do you search for?
I suggest that you look for credibility. When you’re in business, you interact with the people – customers, employees, creditors, and family – so you need to project truthfulness. You need to find the truth in what people are trying to sell you. When you are hungry for that sale which will make your day, and your prospective customer is beginning to smell like a rat, do you do the deal anyway? Do you overlook their lack of credibility and extend credit, even though the voice in your head is shouting, “Don’t!”?
People can substitute a lack of credibility with cash. You can use cash to motivate, to buy your way out of a problem, or to conceal your intentions by blinding others with their own greed. It is a part of the goal of being in business. I’ve seen intelligent business people start with lots of cash get swept up in a torrent of unfortunate events that left them with nothing. Those who lost only the cash endured the storm, whereas those who lost their credibility and their cash lost everything. Credibility will get you cash and cash may buy you credibility, but without either, you have nothing.
So what should predicate your decision-making? Think about cash and credibility. In the course of doing business, one or both is always on the table. One or both is always at risk. We seldom think about how cheaply we sell our dedication and commitment during the working day. But they are in fact the most valuable pieces of inventory we have, yet we often parted with them cheaply. We often make poor choices, which by themselves are not catastrophic, but poor choices compounded can lead to disaster. When you need to make a choice, consider the value of what you are getting weighed against the value of what you are giving up. It’s not so much the cost measured in dollar that will be your undoing, but the time and energy to recover from a bad decision. What is the cost of a protracted lawsuit? What is the cost of combat? What is the value of survival? How much is success worth?
So don’t be afraid to do business armed with nothing less than your credibility because your credibility will get you the cash. With more cash, you appear more credible. Direct your decision making to acquire more of each, but don’t lose sight of what you put on the table every time you make a decision in the quest for either.