‘Are your intentions honourable?’ her father said when I asked if I could spend the night with his daughter. . . I nodded my head, shook his hand and my wish was granted.
It all started with a bicycle race. I had a brand-new bike, I was at the front of the line with the best pole position and as far as I was concerned the race was all but won.
Pole position was the key, I thought to myself, and a new bike, how could I not win?
Unfortunately I could not have been more wrong. And all too often I see the same mistakes made by my potential customers all the time:
– All the gear but no idea
If you want to win a race you really need a whole load of tools to make sure you have the best chance.
1. You need the best equipment that you can get. In my case, a chopper was definitely the wrong kit for the job.
2. You need experience. Up and down our drive without stabilisers could hardly be considered experience.
3. Training. Getting ready for the race takes months, if not years of training. I can assure you I had none at all.
4. Coaching. To win you need someone to give you guidance, someone who’s an expert in the field and knows how to get you from the start to the finish. I’m sure my Dad gave me some advice, but since the pole position had been given to me more as a mascot position due to the fact that he had organised the race, did not mean that I could win.
I was naive to say the least.
The Renegades platform is unlike so many out there, so what have you got to lose?
Bang, the starter gun went, I hopped onto the pedals and moved like the wind. I grabbed that iconic mid gear console, pulled into second gear and the first of my competitors pulled past me. WTF! I thought. I pulled that stick into 3rd and, standing up, put all the power that my legs could pump into those pedals. Yup that did it, I was flying. I think the downhill has as much to do with my flying success as my ferocious peddling and yet other people were still flying past me. I couldn’t understand it. A corner approached and I was going too fast. I applied the brakes and, before I could say boo to a goose, the front wheel hit a wobble, so typical of a chopper, and I was thrown off, shredding my hands and knees on the coarse African dirt.
I don’t think I had gone more than about 250 yards and my race was over. It was also my first ever memory of getting into an ambulance, an experience I’m happy to say I have never had to repeat. The similarity between this experience and the real business life of so many of my customers is scary. I try to warn prospects of all the mistakes they could make; the wrong gear, the wrong advice, no training, basically a crash waiting to happen.
Just the other day, one of my long established customers came to see me.
“Wow there’s a lot of people getting into this business now” he said.
“Of course,” I said, “It’s a lucrative growth model”.
“Yup but few of them seem to last very long” he said.
Again, I thought yeah that’s about right for all the reasons I’ve already mentioned. Most people are not willing to admit they made mistakes getting the wrong advice and so give up, egos bruised and financially stressed, so sad.
I, on the other hand, was luckier than most. You see at 6 years old I had no idea what he was talking about, so I just nodded my head and my wish was granted. I got to visit my then best friend who just happened to be a gorgeous girl, and, obviously battered and bruised, I wanted some sympathy, so I asked if I could stay the night.
If circumstances had been repeated years later my intentions would definitely not have been ‘honourable’ as her Dad put it, but my lesson had been learned.
If the dad of a gorgeous girl asks you if your intentions are honourable, always say yes!!!
Oh yes and I would definitely have had a better bike, I would have trained, and I would have had some coaching.
So, I ask you, are your intentions honourable? In this case, not to some young girl’s Dad worrying about the chastity of his most prized creation, but rather to yourself and your vision, your future and your family, and what are you doing about getting the right equipment, training, and coaching to ensure your success?
The Renegades platform is unlike so many out there, so what have you got to lose?
All the training, all the resources, all the coaching you could possibly want.
Are you ready to step it up a gear?
