Yesterday I was hosting our new BX launch in our Palm location.
One of the attendees when I mentioned business sellability immediately got up and told the entire room it was important what I was saying and then went into his story.
He had bootstrapped a business from scratch and in a few years turned it into a multi-million dollar business.
Soon he was given a lifetime opportunity.
An offer to buy the business for $21 million.
And that is when things went wrong.
“We took our eyes off the ball and I started focusing on other things.
“In the meantime, my equity partners who were running the daily operations forgot to appreciate what went into growing the business and made decisions that ate away at the foundations.
The buyer wasn’t liking what they were seeing and the offer amounts began falling rapidly.
Soon my partners wanted to take and run with an extreme lowball offer, and I had to step in with lawyers to ensure they didn’t take the remaining money and run.
Long story short.. offer went to zero and I was left cleaning up the mess..”
It was an expensive lesson he shared with us.
He was able to bounce back and get back on his feet and start other businesses.
When I asked him if he ever received a $21 million or greater offer again ?
The answer was no.
And so this lost opportunity and how it would have changed his life is now in the “If Only” universe.
I was hoping that his story was going to end with the happy news that he got the opportunity again.
But often it does not… unfortunately.