A few years back, I met with a client and some potential investors. We did the usual go-around about my client and his ideas and abilities. At the end of the meeting, the two investors in their pressed white shirts and ties offered my client $250,000 for his business and got up and left him to think about it.
I looked over at my client, assuming he's be ecstatic, only to find him with a look on his face as if I'd just given him peas and carrots for dessert! "Aren't you happy?" I asked.
"Sure, I'm happy," he replied.
So, I started thinking something was wrong here. For whatever reason, I asked him the magic question: "What if they offered you $10 million? Would you be happy then?" Did I hit the nail on the head.
He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a manila folder. "If I had $10 million, I'd do this!" It was a business plan for a theme park, one that really got his entrepreneurial juices flowing. This idea was one he was really passionate about.
So, we took the investors money, started the original business; but, we have still not lost site of the bigger picture. Because...that is where the passion is. And that is where he must go.
Where is your passion? That passion must come through in your business plan. It must infect your investors with the same emotion and confidence.
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