Now, first off, let me say I’m not a big fan of Dragon’s Den/Shark Tank or any version of the idea. That being said, I do occasionally watch the show when I’m channel surfing. It was during one of these surfing fests that I stumbled across Dragon’s Den UK and the inspiration for this article.
In the episode, they had two pitchers. One who presented a single dress which could be worn 10 different ways, and the other an innovative hammer to get into hard to reach places.
Both of the pitchers were quickly shot down in a rather rude manner…but hold on, was this some sort of deja vu moment for me???
About a month ago, the Canadian version of Dragon’s Den had a celebrity special and they had two different pitchers with the same products!!! Both got funding after the “celebrity judge” gave their approval (it looked like both would be initially shot down as well).
When I went looking for funding for the Equine Centre, I approached every bank and credit union that there was. Being right in the middle of the 2008 financial meltdown, I too was rejected by every one of them. Even some private money offering loans at 15% were turning me down, not that I was interested in that rate.
Tenacity does pay off, remember that you only need one person to say yes. 100s could say no, it doesn’t matter, as long as you find that one yes, and agreeable terms (don’t make a bad deal just because someone says yes).
With everyone saying no, what did I do? I started over again, from scratch, I kept knocking on doors of different bank departments, had meetings to present my plan, and got rejected more and more. Eventually though, I did find the financing I needed, ironically at my own bank which had rejected me 4 times prior (I just didn’t fit into their loan criteria), by different departments. The best part is, I got a better deal than I could have hoped for as well.
Lesson: Believe in yourself, it pays to be persistent.
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