I saw an interesting clip on social media. It was a pitch for the TV show Shark Tank. A wildly popular TV show that has entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to savvy investors known as sharks. The sharks are looking for places to continue to invest and the entrepreneurs need capital and leadership.
The episode I watched, that lingered with me as I write this is the one for Coffee Meets Bagel. It’s a new twist to online dating, sort of like Hot or Not meets eHarmony, but without the questions. They link you with friends of friends through your Facebook login credentials. Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, offered them 30 million for 100% of the company and they declined without hesitation.
Thirty million dollars is a lot of money. That is more money than most people accumulate in a lifetime and would certainly allow them to retire comfortably. But, when you have the bigger picture in mind and you know what you’re worth, you won’t settle for 30 million dollars.
This reminds me of a guy named Mark. He started a company in the early 2000’s. In two years, he had built this company into a successful 30 million dollar/year company, but it was losing money. Yahoo offered to buy the company for 1 billion dollars, yes, $1,000,000,000.00. He declined without hesitation. He knew what it was worth. He had a vision of the future and he was not going to let something get in the way of that, in this case one billion dollars. He kept the company and now he’s worth 61 billion and his company’s market capitalization is 400 billion. He could have sold his company and sailed off into the sunset, but he knew what he was worth and what he wanted… His company? Facebook.
I am not saying Coffee Meets Bagel will be the next Facebook and I’m not saying it isn’t. What I am saying is, what are you working on? In business, relationships, life? Part of it is having that thing you believe in so much, and the other part is having the personal integrity to keep the dream going when some one wants to wrestle it from you, it may be a dream opportunity in that moment, but in the long run, it actually isn’t.
Sometimes you have to, move on to the next one. Build your dream again. If you’ve sold in the past, it’s not too late to go back to it or go to something similar or something that tickles that same part of your soul. Be adamant about keeping it in your life, do it without reservation or hesitation. Go with your gut and keep that project. See the future. Don’t sell!
It doesn’t have to be money, it can be relationships, charity work, work projects. You have to know what draws you to a certain project and be confident. Don’t get sidetracked. Believe in your product, not for the success, but because you believe in it. It may pay off for you and bring you that big payday in money, happiness, or other fruits that you’re looking for. But, it may not and the satisfaction of what you do will be enough.
Don’t sell.
Believe in your “Heck Yeah!”
Helping YOU live better by Peter Jeong 