The Greed Gene: How Excessive Greed Can Bleed Your Business and Ruin Your Life
The Buddhists believe that greed is the primary obstacle to enlightenment. I’ve come to the conclusion there is a greed gene. There simply can be no other explanation. Greed is the evolutionary consequence of the ‘hoarding instinct’; a dynamic in the social evolution of greedy humans. In the very old days those that hoarded for the winter did not starve as readily as those that did not. This hoarding instinct is a species trait even though most of us don’t face daily starvation.
My friend Jerry was smart and very ambitious. I had known him through work at another company and Jerry asked me if I could take a look at his start up venture. A quick assessment showed that the business model was OK but as usual the devil is in the details of execution. And all the finer points that go with it.
After our initial meeting Jerry pointed to his array of cubicles and said this was his future fortune. He wanted to build a 12 story 20,000 square foot house with the middle stories used as a showroom for all his vintage cars; sort of a Jay Leno copycat.
To launch this, he was using his own start up money and was pursuing venture capital. This is a common strategy but Jerry thought his model was so good he could do an end run and not abide by all the usual and customary venture capital rules. What intrigued Jerry the most was he could raise and use someone else’s capital to drive his own company. Or at least that was how Jerry saw it.
Jerry showed me his proposal through a venture capital broker and it turned out the guy really wasn’t a broker per se. He was a scam artist and a lot like greedy Jerry. Jerry got his initial investors to pony up more cash to funnel to the broker who kept stringing Jerry along.
‘Funding and riches are right around the corner’ the broker would always say. Right. Greedy Jerry wanted to believe it so much that he ended up convincing himself. But it didn’t happen.
At some point the smoke screen finally blew away and the ugly truth was seen in the raw. Jerry had exploited his employees and cut costs wherever he could so he could stretch the cash flow out until the injection of the first round venture capital funding his broker promised would soon be in the bank. It never came.
Three months after I had seen Jerry he called to tell me the gig was up. He had lost everything and was going through a painful bankruptcy. He didn’t say if his cutesy wife was part of that too and I didn’t ask.
Patricia was a hardworking business woman that had built a successful company with her ex-husband whom I had gotten to know while working on a start up project. As part of the divorce settlement, she got one of the companies. Patricia asked me to look at her books and do some projections for a rapid expansion into six southwestern states.
At first I thought it might be her resentment of her ex’s new flame; a ‘hottie’ in today’s vernacular. But later I determined that Patricia’s problem wasn’t so much emotional baggage from a failed marriage but a matter of her own uncontrolled greed. This greed obviously had contributed to the break up of her marriage.
Patricia is one of those people that feel they never actually get what they truly deserve. They are always coming up on the short end of the stick. Justice was needed and business was the great equalizer. And the fastest way to get something was to take it. And for Patricia, the easiest and fastest place to take it from was her own company.
As I got to working on the growth strategy I came to realize that growth would be impossible. There were big problems in the Riverside and San Diego offices and the regional manager in Sacramento just walked off the job one night. All fingers were pointing to Patricia.
When I brought this to her attention she asked me to sit down and she started going over all the ways her ex screwed her over and how she had to make the necessary adjustments. Some of this involved a remake of her and the company’s image and that is why she bought the Lexus instead of paying the payroll taxes.
She then admitted she was a bit overdrawn and had gone through the entire credit line. Would I please help her and go to San Diego and Sacramento and talk to the creditors? She had no money but would give me a nice share of the company in due time. Maybe two percent over a ten year period. Two percent of what? I respectfully declined.
I lost track of Patricia. Jerry called me several months later and wanted to sell me some sort of MLM utility bill plan. What is odd is that both Patricia and Jerry were very bright and had a lot of skills and capabilities. They had a vision and the drive.
But like the tight fisted stock they carried down with the ship, their dreams sputtered before having a chance to develop. Their greed doomed them from the start. From miscalculating employee loyalty to over optimistic projections it was one white lie after another as they continually convinced themselves all was well. In retrospect it wasn’t any one of the little lies that did them in; it was the accumulation.
A lesson for us all in there somewhere, no?
Jack D. Deal is the owner of Deal Business Consulting. He can be contacted at jddeal@jddeal.com Related articles can be found at http://www.jddeal.com and http://www.freeandinquiringmind.typepad.com
How to Omit Failure from Your Vocabulary
Do remember hearing this saying when you were a kid: “Sticks and stones will break my bones; but, words can never hurt me”? As a child, you needed to believe those words, to protect your heart and maintain your self esteem. However, in the business world, words can definitely hurt. If you want to omit failure from your vocabulary, seven words or phrases must be erased from your business language: forgot, blame, excuse, curse, do not care, will not do, and no.
Telling you customer or client that you forgot to do what you agree upon can be fatal to an otherwise successful business. While it may seem like a simple mistake to you, the message your customer or client receives can cost you a potentially faithful long-term customer. You simply forgot. Your consumer hears, “my needs are unimportant. I am unimportant.” As a result, he/she will probably take business to your competitor, in order to feel valued.
If you want your customer to feel valued, do not play the blame game. Coming off as insincere at best, you customer will perceive you as unprofessional and unable to employ responsible workers. You are the boss. You are in charge! Do not blame, fix! The customer does not care who is at fault. He/she wants the promised service or product.
Deliver on the product or service, and do not waste the customer’s time making excuses. If you do make a mistake, be honest. No excuses! A customer can smell an excuse from miles away. However, if you are truthful, you consumer is more likely to appreciate your honesty, giving you the opportunity to make things right.
If you hope to make circumstances right, watch your language. Even though it is not directed at the customer, cursing is so unprofessional and counterproductive. Customers will be more likely to return, even if a problem has occurred, if you have the ability to deal with a situation with grace under pressure. Cursing is simply offensive, and your consumers are apt to take their business to a competitor who can handle business, both good and bad.
Bad business is to give your customer the impression that you do not care. Should you find yourself in the position of arguing with a customer, never say, “I do not care!” In fact, do not even convey that message with negative body language or insinuations. As quick as lightening, your customer will visit the competition and find someone who will care.
Similar to the message of not caring, do not simply tell your customer that you will not do something they have requested. If the request is impossible or totally unreasonable, offer an equitable solution or a workable alternative. Oftentimes, you client will come into the business with a preconceived idea of what he/she wants or needs. You job is to provide what is expected or present an idea you consumer has not even considered.
In addition to refusing to comply with your customer’s wishes, never say “no”. A short, curt “no” is final. You have effectively shut off all lines of communication. Keep the dialogue open. Work with the customer to find the answer.
So, if you want to be successful in sales and marketing, you must erase the seven fatal words and phrases from your vocabulary. You are in business to provide a product or service. Eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive, and watch your business grow.
Paul Sutherland is an Accelerated Business Growth Coach. His company – Daniel Thomas International – http://www.dti.eu.com helps corporate and SMEs to grow their businesses with tried tested and proven techniques and strategies, increasing their bottom line profits in 90 days or less.
Communication Helps Create Business Success
Business schools announce the importance of clear communication to the world; established businesses address it in forums and within Annual Reports, and small, entrepreneurial businesses learn how important communication is…some of them, the hard way.
Clear communication between business and clients should be one of the key objectives for every entrepreneurial business owner.
The importance of clear communication distills down to common sense. If one knows what customers want and need, one can design what is sold and the program can be created to meet the needs if the client or customer.
But in the hurry-scurry and topsy-turvy business world environment of today, how can one entrepreneur stay directly in communication with clients and customers? Good entrepreneurs actually seek out ways to communicate and keep their message in front of clients, and embrace tools which make their jobs easier and less intense.
One of the newest tools to assist in maintaining communication between client and business owner is an effective online organizer. Most offer similar functions and efficiencies with many of them using similar platforms as a basis for operation.
What should one seek in an online organizer? Look for software that allows newsletter generation features based on multiple templates. Be sure it also offers direct newsletter transmittal to predefined opt in email addresses, allowing contact between client and entrepreneur. If contact is important, seek out organizers that spin up a newsletter or e-zine using simplified templates and will send it to a defined user group. This will allow the opportunity to send different ezines or newsletters offering different content to predefined users.
Think this is impossible to achieve? By searching out an online organizer, the opportunity to subscribe on a Software as a Service (Saas) basis is available for less than the cost of a cup of gourmet coffee a day. Business owners will find themselves hard-pressed to avoid subscribing because of cost.
Users will find not only contact management software that keeps current clients separated from leads, but also templates for websites, as well as a complete user-friendly E Suite for newsletters, targeted email, and Ezines in some of the organizers available online. Templates speed development and WYSIWYG functionality allows even digitally-challenged users to create professional-looking documents for opt in email users.
Small and Medium Business owners now have another low cost tool to enhance and expand communications with their clients and customers.
Alan Guinn operates an award-winning Worldwide Consultancy, searching out new products and clients. He found his ideal organizer at http://www.youronlineorganizer.com
What Defines a Breach of Contract – Contracts 101
No matter how good both parties intentions are when entering into a legal agreement, unforeseen circumstances can throw things off track. If this prevents one of the parties from fulfilling his end of the deal, it may be considered a breach of contract.
Legal obligations are created in a business contract, and they must be fulfilled by the both parties. Depending on the specific terms of the contract, a breach may occur when one party fails to perform on time, does not perform in accordance with the agreement’s terms, or does not perform at all. Usually, a breach of contract will be categorized as either “material” or “immaterial” in order to decide the appropriate “remedy” or legal solution.
Generally, both oral and written contracts are legally enforceable, so caution should be taken in entering into handshake agreements. It’s always wise to make sure your agreements are in writing to ensure that the contract terms and details are not remembered differently, or even forgotten.
A breach of contract is defined as a failure to fulfill the duties under the agreed upon terms. A contract can be breached if:
- One party does not perform as promised
- One party does something making it impossible for the other one to perform the duties of the contract
- One party makes it clear that he or she will not perform the contract’s duties
When one or both parties breach a contract, the other party is entitled to various types of remedies. Here are most common remedies sought:
Consequential Damages
The breaching party pays the non-breaching party an amount that brings that party back to the same position they would have been in if the contract was performed.
Punitive Damages
The breaching party makes a payment to the other party as punishment for breaching the contract.
Liquidated Damages
This type of damages is agreed upon as part of the contract itself, before signing. It stipulates that if one party breaches the contract, that party must pay a specified amount.
Nominal damages
This minimal amount is provided in the event that the non-breaching party wins the case but suffers only minimal financial losses.
Other remedies for breach of contract may include:
Specific performance
In some circumstances, a court can require the breaching party to perform their duties as agreed upon in the contract.
Rescission
Either party is required to perform the contrac’s obligations, as if there were no agreement signed. If one party has performed some of his duties, the court tries to bring that party back to the same position he or she was in before the contract.
The statute of limitations on filing a breach of contract lawsuit varies by state. If a party does not file within the state’s specified time limit, he or she loses the ability to seek damages through a breach of contract lawsuit.
It’s impossible to completely lay out all the circumstances that may arise in the course of doing business. In some cases, it may even be necessary for compelling business reasons to breach a contract effectively written contracts can provide valuable guidance and predictability to the parties and, if necessary, to the courts in determining where they stand.
John Siegler is a co-founder and CFO of Practice Technologies, Inc., creator of RealDealDocs.com. RealDealDocs.com gives you insider access to legal documents drafted by top Lawyers in the US. Search over 10 million documents and clauses for Free at http://www.RealDealDocs.com.