No B.S Friday: You have more resources than you realise
One of the things you realise once you’ve been investing as long as I have is that money isn’t the only form of capital.
Sure, it’s a big one. It’s the biggest one. Money makes a lot of things happen.
But it’s not the only resource at your disposal.
You might have knowledge capital – you might understand how a subdivision process works, and someone with money capital will want to get you involved in a subdivision project as a knowledge partner.
That’s putting knowledge capital to work.
Or you might have social capital. You might have a deep and close network of friends and professional associates who can help you get stuff done.
I often watch people who think that they can bully their way through projects. I can see the tradies and suppliers start to get frustrated and annoyed. They burn through their social capital, and then wonder why nobody returns their calls.
“Nobody in this town wants to work anymore. Huff.”
But the capital I want to talk about today is trust capital.
I have a friend who is a bit of a creative powerhouse. Amazing mind. Brilliant ideas all the time.
Only trouble is, his imagination is bigger than his life can handle. He’d be lucky to execute on maybe half of the ideas he sets in motion.
The half that don’t make it tend to just fizzle out in a puddle of bewildered investors and backers.
I’ve been one of those backers. I know him well enough to not come on board as an investor in those early stages of dreaming, but I’ve still come on board as a backer, deploying my hard-earned knowledge capital.
I’ve helped him refine his business model. I’ve helped him come up with business systems. I’ve helped him shape-up his pitch to investors.
Or I used to.
I used to until he burnt through all of his trust capital.
Now when he comes to me I simply say, “Nup, your trust account has insufficient funds.”
I don’t get behind anything he has, no matter how good it might seem, because I simply don’t trust that he’s going to stick with it.
And now, the absence of trust capital in his network is a liability. It’s holding him back.
For me, I know I need to be very careful about being true to my word. It’s important to me that people know that when I say I’m going to do something, it gets done.
This isn’t just about integrity as an ideal. It’s about building up trust capital.
If people know that I will be true to my word, no matter how hard it gets along the way, then it’s much easier for them to get behind what I’m putting out there.
And having a reputation of simply doing what you say you are going to do is incredibly valuable. It opens a lot of doors.
So invest in your capital. Build it up in all its forms.
And don’t forget trust.
JG.
Eva says
I totally agree with your article above. I had the experience where I went to a Super conference recently and heard this guy speak that was supposed to be ‘honorable’ and ‘true to his work’ and although initially sounded shallow, the more I listened I thought ‘He has some reputable people using his systems so he must be as he says’. So I signed up with good intention, Two days later my world did an about face and I needed to cancel my application and when I was called by their office, although listened to, it now appears that I was only being managed. The cancellation that I requested was ignored and moneys accessed. Despite repeated communications, I am being stonewalled. Not an honorable man after all!!!