Since around 1998 I’ve watched a smart engineer in Santa Rosa California make millions of dollars in profit every year, and then spend it all foolishly. He can build just about anything mechanical, get it manufactured, sell tens of thousands of them at a high profit.
But he can’t manage the money or the business end of things, and so whatever he makes he loses or mismanages. I’m talking about millions of dollars every year for over 10 years. He’s not better off today than he was 10 years ago.
This is the story of most business owners. Just because you are a great baker doesn’t mean you can own your own bakery, just because you are an amazing handyman doesn’t mean you can run your own real estate business.
There are two fantastic business reality shows – Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank. If you are a business owner you need to watch every episode. There are business owners who pitch great products but they can’t be trusted to execute the business plan because they suck at business, and there are others with great business skills and poor products – the people who have good business skills and poor products usually do better than the person who has a great product and poor business skills.
Ideally you’ll have both a great product and good business skills.
