What’s the most foolish decision you have ever made?
Invest your money on what you know how to do and chances are high that you will succeed.
Of all the foolish things I’ve ever done in my 20-something years, it was to sink my money into a business I knew nothing about. A hardware. I kid you not, I actually threw a good amount into a hardware that brought me nothing but unshed tears of regret. Everywhere I went, I would spot fully stocked hardwares which seemed to be doing quite well going by the many cars I’d see parked outside the establishments. I asked myself why I wasn’t taking advantage of this bestseller, which seemed like it would make me a big pot of gold.
Many months later, I’m still smarting from that absolutely idiotic decision. I learnt a couple of lessons from that ill-conceived investment, even though at the time, I believed that I would hit the jackpot within a year and finally retire while I was still young enough to enjoy the many good things that the world has to offer, before arthritis struck and confined me to a chair.
I didn’t have to wait long before I realised what a blunder I’d made. Besides investing in a business you know nothing about, another mistake is thinking that you can run a business ‘virtually’, via phone and WhatsApp, etc, and then making a technical appearance in the evening… in the evening after clocking off the job that enabled you get that loan you used to set up the business, and yet expect it to grow and make you money.
This is especially true if what you’re selling is tangible, where money exchanges hands regularly. If selling a service, you can, to some extent, afford to run your business as you’re toiling elsewhere, but if you sell items, whatever they may be, you cannot afford to run the business in absentia. You have to be a constant presence, and most importantly, you have to be the cashier, otherwise your employees will rob you blind, CCTV camera or not.
I also learnt that business is not for everyone, that there are people who have that Midas touch for business, such that everything they touch turns into gold, and they seem to do it with so much ease, while there are others who, even if they may have bottomless capital at their disposal, no amount of fertiliser or mulch will make their business get off the ground.
The last lesson I learnt is that if you are going to start a business, it should be founded on skills you already have, the business should be able to feed off your expertise, this way, you’re not running blindly in the dark, hoping that you won’t trip on something.
One of my young relatives works for an IT company. In January this year, he set up his own company, selling the same skills that his employer pays him for, even though he works for his company on weekends and some evenings when he is not required to work late. The last time I saw him, he was in the process of employing two upcoming IT professionals like him to take up jobs that come in during the week. I have a feeling that in a year or two’s time, this young man will feel confident enough to resign and fully concentrate on his business.
In a nutshell, invest your money on what you know how to do and chances are high that you will succeed.
