Getting Distracted with Opportunity
The cruelest thing for me, is that I have a business brain. Yet I failed when I actually executed this with a physical brick and mortar food business. This failure though hasn’t stopped my mind from analysing opportunities everywhere.
Yesterday I became really, really depressed. I saw two fantastic purchasing opportunities that I knew I could flip and make a serious amount of cash. Like $5m in cash. It would take maybe a year, possibly more, but it was definitely doable. The only problem was I needed a significant amount of capital to execute it.
That’s the cruel part.
Now that I have absolutely no capital, finding these things is even more heartbreaking.
Did it stop me? Not at first. I found a warehouse I could either buy or rent to house the stock, made the website as part of the sale of the merchandise (in my head). Worked out all the selling channels including ebay, amazon and self hosted website. Marketing campaign. Warehouse sales. Scheduled time for in person fittings. THE WORKS. And yes I did the maths – three times – to make sure I would still walk away with a significant multi-million profit.
Except I can’t do it.
I even looked at applying for a personal loan to see if I could do it. Turns out I could have done it partially, but the merchandise is only available as a bulk purchase so that was off the table.
Borrowing money sort of goes against everything I want to do moving forward anyway. I thought about maybe trying to find someone who could bank roll it, but then I thought anyone with that type of money is probably not going to be interested in this opportunity – even though there were significant gains possible.
I started to think critically about why the stock was available. I understand that some business owners just can’t be bothered with the whole ‘online’ thing. They don’t want to do the shipping etc., but they miss this at their own peril. I know my markets and I know I can move the merchandise but I can’t.
So I got really depressed and frustrated. Why am I having these opportunities thrown at me? Because I’m looking for them. And that is my mistake.
So instead of rubbing salt into my wounds, looking at the things I could do to make money – seriously there is money to be made everywhere – I need to stop looking, save up some capital and then execute. Like I just said there are opportunities everywhere, but most of them need capital – even what I’m doing now costs money for hosting so you have to have some money to do just about anything. However, getting a little money together to start? That’s possible. Look at me I’m doing it right now.
So I’m going to try really, really hard to stay focussed on my six month goal and not look up until I’m done. By that time, if my plan has worked, I should have significantly more capital than I do right now, which I can use to execute on opportunities that exist then, instead of now.
In The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, he describes several types of people. I’m a Maven. I read a lot of tidbits. I look at real estate a lot. I shop for deals and then voila – I can put all the elements together into an opportunity. I pass on tidbits to people all the time and tell them who they should talk to, to get the information or action they want.
By Malcolm Gladwell – The Tipping Point (1905-07-09) [Paperback]
I’m hoping that eventually this skill will help me in my ultimate execution of my plan, but right now I’m at Stage 2 and that is where I have to stay for the next six months.
I think also for me there is something soothing about being distracted – even for ten minutes on a Youtube video about being a nail technician – a long ago dream that I realised I’m actually bad at but still really, really want to be good at. It helps me dream and leave my reality which is that I’m broke and may not make it. The What If, If Only, How Can I’s keep me looking at anything else that may be a quicker way to fix my situation than my six month plan. Every time I do though, I realise that my six month plan, which was my ten year plan, is the best way for me to start. It may not work, but it’s not going to hurt – too much. It might end up that I’ve written thousands and thousands of words and no-one reads them and I don’t make any passive income from them, but it’s what I’m good at, deep down, and have always done.
So be critical of yourself. Recognise when you are getting distracted, procrastinating, hoping, wishing, dreaming. Then get back to your plan. It’s why it’s so important to write it down – at least for me. I get lost in my head and when I come back to Earth I look at my piece of paper again and go ‘Oh Yeah – that’s what I’m doing’ and then get right back to doing it.
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