I credit RM for reminding me of some important truths. He called me the other day seeking my advice on a matter he was struggling with. During the course of that conversation, wherein I gave him brilliant advice, the conversation turned to some things I was struggling with myself.
I’m a deal-maker at heart. Very few things are as engaging to me as when I sit down with a business entity, look the other guy or gal in the eye who is sitting across the boardroom table from me, and churning out a business deal of some sort – one that will benefit both me and them.
Potential deals are, for me, something similar to fishing. I may have one or more fishing lines set up at any given time and I wait for them to become activated. Often the timing just isn’t right. But even if the timing is right, there is no guarantee I will be successful in reeling in my catch.
So I was kind of stalled on this one potential deal. The earlier traction looked promising, and then it simply faded into oblivion. It involved a very impressive company based out of San Francisco. They had a sizable presence in Phoenix with massive office space in a massive skyscraper in downtown Phoenix. But after some great progress, things suddenly shut down and there was no communication. I had been told a principal player had sent me an email a week or so earlier, but I had never received the email, which left me wondering if the principal player had an incorrect email address, or if I was being played.
RM shook me back into reality: “Get in your car and go there! You may not have a phone number, you barely have a name, but just show up there! Nothing may ever come of it, but nothing is going to come of it the way things stand at the present!”
He was right. Early the next morning, I got in my car at about 6:45 AM and arrived at the parking garage in downtown Phoenix right at about 8:00 AM. The building was a massive one, perhaps more than 30 floors or so. I had the address but I wasn’t sure how to gain access to the upper floors. I spotted a security guard behind a desk. I asked him where the company in question was located. He told me they were mainly on the 10th Floor. Great! That was more information than what I had coming in. He instructed me to go see another security guard located in another part of the floor we were on. I found the second security guard in question. I told him who I was and who I was there to see. He placed a phone call to a receptionist on the 10th Floor. She said she would locate the executive in question and tell him I was downstairs in the lobby.
I didn’t know what, if anything, would happen. But I waited. And waited. And waited.
After about 25 minutes, the executive came into the lobby area where I was waiting and introduced himself to me. We started talking. He was impressed that I showed up. He asked if I had time to accompany him upstairs to his office so we could talk further. We had a very productive ad hoc meeting in which we found we had shared interests. He told me he did send me an email earlier and he gave me the exact day and time. I checked and found nothing. Random email lost in cyberspace. Who knew? No worries. We continued the conversation, clearing hurdles, examining shared interests, building trust. It looks like we are now on the road to making a solid deal.
Was that luck? Was that an anomaly? Not at all. It was action!
I got back to my office and did the same thing with two more fishing lines that were stalled, and in both cases, new traction was gained and now two additional deals are on the verge of bearing fruit.
Be a person of action! Show up! Make the phone call! Walk into an office even without an appointment! There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. You won’t always succeed by showing up, but you are almost sure to fail if you don’t show up in some way. When there is nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying, by all means: try!
I hope I have stirred something within you by having written this column.
It’s great if I have.
But that’s not enough.
Now get up off your derriere and take action!
