| George was sick of being number two, and a distant number two at that. His company had been chasing the leader in their industry since its inception. One day he got a call from his attorney saying there was an opportunity to grow by acquiring a promising new company. The price tag: $750,000 and 1% of the new company, plus $1.6M salary for its leader to come on board and implement his technology. He estimated he could increase George’s revenues by about $130,000 a day.
George turned the deal down. He didn’t think they could survive the investment required.
Would you have taken the deal? Or would the size of the numbers involved have created fear that would have stopped you?
In the FreshBiz business simulation games we facilitate, time after time we see people passing on opportunities and support that would change their game, because the cost to act contained the word “million.” In the debrief, when we ask, “If the denominations we’d used would have been in tens, or cents, would that have changed your analysis?” Almost every time the answer is yes.
Most of us have stories associated with money that cause us to become fearful, protective, and defensive. The larger the number, the more vulnerable we feel. The less willing to risk. The more likely to pass on something that might make all the difference.
George was the CEO of Excite and the opportunity he passed on was to purchase Google—for about 1/200,000th of its value today.
Where in your business do you get hung up on the costs of investments, whether of money, time, resources or something else, that could be game changers?
What is your money story preventing you from doing? |
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