Page 19 - Midas Touch

is that I did not want to be in the nylon-wallet business. I fell into the
business through my stupidity.

Story #1: A Fool and His Money

As most people know, the number-one skill of an entrepreneur is the
ability to sell, because sales equals income. Since I did not know how to
sell, I took my rich dad’s advice and got a job working for the Xerox
Corporation at the age of 26, not because I liked copiers, but because
Xerox had a great sales-training program. Although I was not good in
sales, I studied, practiced, took extra classes, and slowly but surely, after

three years, was consistently one of the company’s top sales agents and
actually started making some money. From 1974 to 1976, I managed to
save $27,000 (which back then was a lot of money) to start my first
business.

There is a saying that goes: “A fool and his money are soon parted.” Well,
I was the fool, and my money was soon gone. This is how I parted with my
money.

A friend called me to ask if I would invest in his company. He promised I
would have the money back in a month plus 20% interest. My friend John
had been a very successful entrepreneur (emphasis on the words “had
been”). So I believed he was smart, successful, and would take care of my
money for 30 days. Besides that, a 20% return on my money was tempting.
So, I handed him the money, and he handed me back a promissory note.

A month later, I called John to collect my $27,000 plus $5,400 in interest.

As you may have already guessed, he did not have the money. He blamed
his CFO, Stanley, a CPA by training, for the mix-up.

“I told Stan to buy more product so we could ship it to our retailers,” said
John, “but Stan paid off some old bills instead. Now we have no product,
no money, and no profits. If Stanley had bought materials like I told him
to, I would have the money to pay you.”

While John’s explanation made business sense, I had a bad feeling in my
gut. I should have said something, but I bit my tongue and bought his

story. In reality, I believed his story because I needed to believe it. I
needed to believe John. If I didn’t, I was afraid I would not get my money
back.