Security is for cadavers. In our comfort zone, we tend to be conservative
and security conscious. We can sink into a rut. If you want perfect security,
then buy a coffin.
If you want to do more than grow incrementally, then you need to practise
some radical thinking. Set yourself a radical target. A radical target will
often involve a BHAG—a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. To achieve a BHAG, you need to
alter the way you currently operate but this ongoing search for innovation is
what keeps you ahead of the competition.
Very early in the life of axxis I was still living at home
with Mum and Dad and my bedroom was also my office. I wanted to expand and move
into a shop but I had started with zero capital and cash flow was very tight.
I noticed that the main shopping mall in the CBD had expanded and added
additional floor space—some of which was unleased. I wanted the space but they
wanted a contract. To make matters worse, the centre manager had the surname
McDonald and, like every good Scotsman, he was as tight fisted with money as a…Scotsman!
Nervously, I approached the centre manager and made him an offer. $100 a
month for a space worth 30 times that amount—on the proviso that either party
could give notice of one month. Amazingly he agreed to the deal. Now came the
trickier part. Stocking the shop. I was now outside my comfort zone and also
outside my finance zone—and I had to fill 70 square metres of shop!
Luckily for me, my girlfriend (now my wife) had been given a car by
her parents. She shared my vision so we used the car as security to purchase
enough stock to fill the shop. Now I just had to sell enough to repay the car debt.
I didn’t want to face my girlfriend’s parents if the car was repossessed!
After less than a year, I was able to sign a long-term lease and one of
my businesses is still a tenant in that same shopping mall, almost thirty years
later—unfortunately paying slightly more rent than the original $100 per month!