Page 45 - Midas Touch

When you’re out of money, do you:

Call mommy?
Call daddy?

Ask for a government handout?

Look for a job?

Go back to school?

Blame someone else for your financial
problems?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions or don’t feel you can be

objective about yourself, please ask a friend who will be blunt with you.
You see, to be a successful entrepreneur you must be able to handle
feedback. If you cannot handle blunt and direct feedback, it is better that
you keep your daytime job. People without strong character cannot take
direct feedback. Feedback is important because business is nothing but one
giant feedback mechanism. No matter how great you are, your feedback

will not always be great, and you’ll have to be able to accept that. In the
marketplace, if your customers do not like your product, they will not buy
it. This is feedback. A company that has high expenses and low income is
feedback. If you tell an employee to do something and they do the
opposite, this is feedback. If you find a trusted partner stealing from you,
this too is feedback. If your banker says no when you ask for a loan, that

rejection is feedback.

Find a friend who will give it to you straight. As painful as it may be, get
over it. Take the feedback, even if you do not like what they are saying.
Think of it as a character-strengthening opportunity. You’ll need as much
of that as you can get. As we have said many times, feedback is easier and
cheaper to take from a friend than it is from the marketplace.

You’ll learn, through the course of reading this book, that becoming a
successful entrepreneur is more than a great product, money, education, or

a strong business plan. Being a great entrepreneur takes intelligence, but
not the kind that we typically think of when we picture intelligent people.