Be Greedy or Be Stupid | But Never Both

When I was young lad of 13 my father took me to a business meeting in Omaha. We lived in Denver and my dad owned a small airplane charter and flight school on Stapleton Field (now Denver International Airport). My dad needed money to make payroll for his business and thus was meeting with a potential investor in Omaha. This was no ordinary investor but when you need money the tendency is go to whomever and wherever has the money.  He sat in a desk elevated 2 feet off the ground and had us sit in chairs with the legs cut in half so as to appear we were looking up at a god. It worked. I felt lower than a bug.

When he appeared at floor level 30 minutes later after the meeting was over, both my dad, 6’3” 52 inch chest and I, 5’9, young, and handsome (ha-ha) frame at the time (now 6’3’ with 48’ chest and 240 lbs) thought this guy was a certifiable midget of 5’4 inches. Don’t get me wrong lots of people are short and I have nothing against short people but this guy looked like the Wizard of Oz and to finally show his real nature was jaw dropping.

He agreed to lend my dad the money and on our way out he tried with great effort to put his arm around my dad. He got as high as his waist and I heard him say, “Be greedy or be stupid but never both”. I asked my dad what that meant and he said, “I could loose his money from trying the best I could to make outrageous returns and fail (greedy) or I could loose his money doing the best I could to make a reasonable returns but make wrong decisions and fail (stupid), or do the best I can to hide the money, tell lies of what happened to it or steal it (Greedy and Stupid). He knew people that could put our family in harms way if my dad stole the money. If he was to catch my dad and the thief always gets caught, eventually”

I never forgot this because along the way I have been both greedy, by trying to tag along with the Hunts to corner the Silver Market and lost a small fortune in my 20’s, or stupid when I purchased $1 billion of mortgage servicing assets to be whipped sawed by interest rates and lost another small fortune in my 30s.  The incidences in my life of making stupid decisions or greedy decisions could fill the New York public library, but I can honestly say without issue that I have never stolen someone’s money which would be stupid and greedy at the same time.

This is not so true of the partners, employees, vendors, customers and shareholders in the 13 businesses I have founded since I was 13 years old. As I look back the old saying, “what goes around comes along” still holds. The thief always gets caught, always, all the time.

For example, I was buying a bank in Minnesota in my 40’s and as a typical deal you deposit with the buyer in escrow 10% down and balance when the regulators approved the purchase of the bank. I wanted to be a banker so bad and the seller knew this as I salivated over the deal. He wined and dined me with the all the, “in” bankers throughout the county. I should have seen it. Then one day he asked if I wouldn’t mind giving him the entire purchase price upfront so he could make earnings and if I didn’t get approval he would wire the funds instantly back to me. Heck, I was his friend. He was a trusting banker, and he was connected to a network of upstanding gentlemen. Why not? Well I gave him the funds (handshake) and days later I was turned down by the regulators (didn’t have the pedigree) thus never got approval. When I sent the banker wiring instruction to return my funds he said, “What money”? The original agreement calls for no other agreements in and around this agreement. “What handshake?”, and he hung up. I was shocked. A banker, no less, was stealing my money.            

After spending a half million taking depositions my attorney said the banker wanted to see you go down in flames and was very jealous. He also said that I could spend another $2-4 million getting to court and loose, because as an experienced business person I knew contract law. His advice to me was, “Why don’t you cut your losses and chalk this one up to stupidity!” I took his advice and lost millions.

I actually don’t know what happened to the banker but I was given the gift of a lifetime.  This experience could have angered me forever but a older mentor said to me, “don’t give those who have taken something from you, a place in your mind by replaying the anger and hate over and over – as they will not only own your something, they will also own your mind as well”.  I took the hurt and anger to prayer and soon after stopped blaming the banker. I owned the reasonability of my decision myself.  I forgave myself for the temptation of banker needing to steal my money. I forgave the banker for his stupidly and greed. I found the gift of forgiveness and peace.

I look at my stupid or greedy decisions on this journey from the mountain peaks into the deep valleys of life, and thanked God he gave me the experiences of exploring the nature of people, places, and things. Yes, I’ve been hurt countless times by PEOPLE, a PEOPLE who for no other reason want to see harm done to others and the ironic thing is wrong it is always punished. If not by justice, by self imposed guilt which leads to drinking, drug abuse, sex abuse, pornography, and a trail of evil spiraling bad misfortune. 

As America’s largest online small business finance network with 510,000 small business members we connect small businesses to all the professionals related to the typical CFO management role (lenders, insurance agents, private investors, lawyers, accountants, and consultants).  In this process we sell our member data to these professionals yet our employees are often tempted by these professionals who have suggested that our (employee) send them free contact information and in return they will pay them a sizable closing fee if the deal closes.  It has never failed that those employees who have accepted the bribe of GREED and STUPIDITY have always been caught in the act and they are fired.

I pray that as we all go through life’s journey of temptations to cheat, steal, and lie, that we think first of our families, our reputations and most of all we think of the guilty mind share this festers forever in our mind.  Be Greedy or Be stupid – but never be both at the same time..   

Tom Markel CEO iBank.com

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3 Online Technologies That Help Small Businesses

Businesses these days have it so much easier than businesses of yesteryear when it comes to the technologies available to the small business owner. This is especially true when you look at how the Internet has changed the way companies can conduct business and maintain a competitive edge. Smart business owners are taking advantage of the affordable online products and services that are available to help them have a smoother running, more competitive operation.

Your company doesn’t have to be an online business to take advantage of what the Internet has to offer. Any sized small business, whether you have one employee or one hundred, can use one or more of the online services currently on the market. Below, we will briefly touch on three ways you can use the Internet to help you run your business.

1.  Online Communications

For most companies, the telephone is the main way they communicate with their customers. A traditional business phone system is so last century. Today, there are virtual business phone systems that allow you to receive and make phone calls using the Internet, while giving you features you once only could dream of.

For example, a virtual phone system allows you to have full control over inbound call routing which means that if you are away from the office, you can transfer incoming calls to your cellphone, or any working landline. You will never miss another important business phone call, or have a customer talk to an answering machine unnecessarily.

A virtual phone system gives you complete control of your communication with features, once reserved for only the largest corporation, at a price any small business can afford. This can give your business an advantage over your competition by making it very simple for you to communicate with your customers.

2.  Online Payroll Services

Every business has employees, even if it is just the owner, and employees need to be paid. Unless you are an accountant or bookkeeper, numbers probably aren’t your thing, yet running payroll involves a lot of number crunching. Online payroll services give you access to a secure website in which you enter your employee’s information one time and then it just takes a few minutes to run your payroll.

Instead of sweating over payroll withholding calculations, your online payroll service does all of the heavy lifting for you. Working with the latest tax tables, payroll taxes are calculated automatically and tax forms are filled out for you.

Payroll can become something you look forward to, instead of dread, when you use an online payroll service.

3.  Online Backups

Most companies use computers during the normal course of doing business, which means that important customer or business information is stored on hard drives. What would happen if your hard drive were to fail, no longer giving you access to the valuable information stored within? Unless you backup your business computers, this very well could be a situation you might face.

Every computer should be backed up twice - one backup stored onsite at your business, and one backup off site. This gives you complete protection in case something happens to your business facilities, while still giving you quick access to backups.

The easiest, and often most affordable, offsite backup solution is using an online backup service. Commonly called backing up to “the cloud”, online backups give you secure, encrypted, offsite storage that is easily accessible when you need to restore a file. There are online backup plans for any sized business and any sized budget that give you the added data protection your business needs.

The Internet has enriched our lives in many ways, and the same is true for your business. The Internet gives your company access to affordable, yet powerful and useful, products and services that not only make your business run smoother, but can give you a competitive advantage.

About The Author

Marshall Davis runs Business Service Reviews, a website that reviews small business services and products that lets the small business owner use technology to their advantage.

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