\nThese last few weeks have been filled with meetings. At each one, we
\ndescribe what we’re trying to do and we’ve been getting almost unanimous
\nconsent that what we’re doing is great and that we have something really
\ninteresting going on. They tell us that we’re on the right track and tell
\nus they want to put some cash into our fund.<\/p>\n
\nWhen we come out of those meetings, we’re on a high. Getting positive
\nvalidation about what we’re trying to accomplish makes us feel incredibly
\ngood about what we’re doing, and when we survive grillings on our plans by
\nseasoned professionals in this area, we gotta feel good about that!<\/p>\n
\nIt’s like going to a therapist. You have a problem; you’re
\ndepressed; you feel like the world is down on you and you can’t make things
\nright. You hate yourself and it seems like everyone else thinks you’re
\nworthless too. Then you see a therapist. They boost you; they tell you
\nyou’re not a loser. You can get better and they’ll show you how. They
\nchange your outlook on life and you start feeling really good about
\nyourself again as a result.<\/p>\n
\nThese meetings are like therapy. We go in wondering if we’ll leave
\nmildly bruised from the expert pounding. Instead, we defend our plans and
\nassumptions and the biggest validation anyone can give us is for them to
\ncommit their own funds to us, which shows their trust in our model and in
\nourselves. So instead of leaving feeling like we suck, we leave instead
\nfeeling like we’re doing great and other people think so too.<\/p>\n
\nBut at this stage, it’s all therapy to me. The next stage is about commitment.<\/p>\n
\nPeople say they will invest in us, but who knows if they really will.
\nMoney changes people, as I said in a previous post. Saying something is
\nnot the same as doing. Until we see the money actually come in (or in this
\ncase, commitment by signing the subscription agreement), it’s just all
\ntherapy. Nice therapy for sure, but our goal isn’t to prop up our
\nself-esteem; our goal is to build our fund and implement our plan to prove
\nit works.<\/p>\n
\nI have already met people who have changed when it came to money. I have
\nalready met people who could not commit their own cash no matter what. I
\nam sure I will meet more, and even some who will invest money and then
\nchange later. Does money bring out our true natures? In the uncomfortable
\nworld of cash, I almost think I don’t want to find out some things about
\npeople, especially those close to me.<\/p>\n
\nYes it is an interesting thing, to peer into peoples’ inner feelings. But
\nas I said before, it’s about the commitment and not therapy and truly, it
\nis a “put up or shut up” world we’ve leaped into…<\/p>\n
\nCorollary 1: Saying you’ll do something and actually doing it are two very
\ndifferent things.<\/p>\n
\nCorollary 2: Don’t start work until you see the cash in the bank account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
These last few weeks have been filled with meetings. At each one, we describe what we’re trying to do and we’ve been getting almost unanimous consent that what we’re doing is great and that we have something really interesting going on. They tell us that we’re on the right track and tell us they want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-angel-investing-venture-funds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dshen.com\/blogs\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dshen.com\/blogs\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dshen.com\/blogs\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dshen.com\/blogs\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dshen.com\/blogs\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dshen.com\/blogs\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dshen.com\/blogs\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dshen.com\/blogs\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dshen.com\/blogs\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}