“Rats came up from the canal, fed on the plentiful corpses, and multiplied exceedingly… When he turned in that night he heard a scuffling, shone his torch on the bed, and found two rats on his blanket tussling for the possession of a severed hand.”
– Capt. Robert Graves’ Autobiography, Goodbye To All That
If Napolean said it.. it had to be right..
And so the generals acted like Napolean and ordered frontal assaults…
And their men were wiped out
Which is the story of the First World War in a nutshell…
And the story of many of our businesses today.
Whose owners follow the dictates of people or companies that have little to no relevance for what they are doing today.
Becoming sold on the latest shiny objects or told they must follow branding strategies that Coca Cola and McDonalds use those are brand winners.
And the business owners who fall for it end up paying a fortune.
Before ending up as one more casualty in the no-man’s land between start up and full achievement of the dream.
And the rats keep on feeding….
…the agencies and “experts” peddling expensive solution after expensive solution while rifling through the pockets of the dead bodies of their clients’ businesses.
The numbers don’t lie.
70% of profitable business owners looking to sell will fail to get the price or terms they want.
In fact, many will fail to sell at all.
And often it’s because they were told what to do and how to do it… Blindly… no questions asked…
like the business equivalent of Napolean’s armchair generals.
And that little man lost it all at the end…
But the successful entrepreneurs show a different way.
A timeless way that empowers them to capture what they have earned.
And love every minute of it.
Which we will talk about in our next Owner’s Table. You can grab your invite to sit at the table here.