Sam Kinison said it best –
“I’m like anyone else on this planet — I’m very moved by world hunger. I see the same commercials, with those little kids, starving, and very depressed. I watch those kids and I go, ‘Fuck, I know the FILM crew could give this kid a sandwich!’ There’s a director five feet away going, ‘DON’T FEED HIM YET! GET THAT
Sam had it right. If you want something, you have to go to where it is. I recently had a reader ask me where he could go to get financing. I genuinely wanted to help him, but everyone gets financing differently. Once I had a partner that just started calling rich guys who donated to the local museum. Once, me and my partners chipped in. Once I went to family members. You name it – and it can be done. But the thing you need to do is go there. You have to go where the food is.
You want to meet wealthy guys who have money to give? You have to hang out where they do. They go to fund raisers and museum events. They go to the marinas. Hell, you could even just drive around downtown till you see a bunch of German cars parked in a lot – guess what, rich guys probably hang out there. Now that you know where they are, you have to get over the fear of asking.
Let me let you in on a secret. There are people out there that WANT to give you money. They really do. I had one investor that literally put $4 Million Dollars aside every year to invest in small business guys. He has his reasons, but one is taxes. He would rather give it to a guy breaking his ass to make something than to the government where it will be wasted or used to bribe crooked world leaders. So, remember, these guys are out there. You just have to come to them with your game face on and your papers in order. You aren’t looking for a handout – you are looking for a partner. In case you didn’t know, investors are partners and hopefully mentors.
The next thing I mentioned is that if you have an idea, and the investor wants a big fat chunk of your business, how much should you give up?
It all depends on how badly you need them and what their money (and experience and mentorship) brings to the table.
I have no problem turning 90% of a $100,000/yr business over to an investor if they can guarantee to make that business a $10,000,000/yr business in three years (which you can stipulate in the contract) with their contacts, experience and mentorship.
Do this math real quick.
100% of 100,000 = 100,000
10% of $10,000,000 = 1,000,000
I would take a million dollars over a hundred thousand every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
The right investor may hook you up with a better quality crew. He or she might open locked doors for you from their network of rich folks. They may have a marketing agency that can take your product to market faster and better than you could have in 5 years. But the trick is finding the RIGHT investor for you. Not every guy with $50,000 burning a hole in his pocket is the right guy to take on as an investor.
The best way to find the right financier is to find people who are in or from the industry that you are breaking into. Don’t worry about someone stealing your idea. Once you get going, they will be able to “steal” it anyway. The iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player, and it wasn’t the last either.
The right money man has almost more of a stake in your success than you do. You will have to share your secrets with them (not all your secrets but most of them). Put it in this perspective. You can buy smart people, but not all smart people have resources. That being a universal truth – it is better to have 5 rich guys in your pocket than 10 smart guys on your coat tails.
So get out there. Go to where the food is if you want to eat. Then again, you can always get full on “Stone Soup”. I will explain this a little more in my next post.
Keep Hustling
Another great read hustler. Thank you.
That’s what I always think too. Why don’t they just move? Well, there are parts in China where the peasants are restricted to certain areas of non arable land. They can’t go to where the food is although some of them do get to “escape” once in a while. A sad fact of life.
The world is a hard place full of people born in bad circumstances.
I had a friend from China and he and his family lived on soup made from any vegetation that they could find and ANY protein they could find. Being poor and hungry sucks the world around.
I work with an organization created to combat this problem in Africa right now. But we also have a system where we educate the children and village in ways to create sustainable agriculture and durable buildings made from renewable resources. We try to help them solve their immediate problems (hunger and shelter) while showing them how to address their long term problems for the future.
There are places in South America where homes are crawling with Guinea Pigs because they reproduce quickly, eat very little, have fur for clothing and meat for eating.
People do what they have to to survive. I actually had a great post on dictators and despots that use strategies to control their people that are exactly the way pimps keep their stables in line. But my browser crashed and lost it. Maybe I will try to rewrite it.
Keep Hustling
Yo hustler I respect your game and the way you play it. But you live in a world where it’s every man for himself, and it doesn’t get put simpler than that. We are all animals surviving on who kills who first. I’ve been a hustler since age twelve, along the same lines as you, but my game is more successful and hard-lived than yours. You chose to hustle by cuttin company deals, I chose to hustle by cuttin cocaine. You chose to invest, I choose to hold-up. I’m going on my 3rd million with my gang and no one can stop us. Just remember bra, its only illegal cause the government says it is. If you don’t think it is wrong, than it can’t possibly be. Keep hustlin’ pussy style or come fuck with the big dogs.