The money grab. We’ve all experienced people or maybe we’ve experienced ourselves engaging in some business or activity just for the purpose of trying to cash in. Or cash out. Whatever.
Any business person who’s been around the block at least twice knows it never works. Ever. Sure, you may make some decent cash over a short period of time, but doing something just for the financial reward long term is a sure fire way to end up in commodity jail.
My wife and I attended our local home show recently. This is a huge convention where contractors and any business that has anything related to the home sets up shop to sell you their crap. Some of the crap is actually not crap, it’s decent, but a lot of it is crap.
Anyway, we walked down an aisle and were nearly horse collared by this guy, let’s call him “Tom.” Tom sells energy. Solar energy. Now, I don’t like to stereotype but could this freakin’ guy fit the “slick” salesperson profile any more? The slicked back, jet black hair; the ratty looking, stained white collared shirt; jeans; cowboy boots; and most importantly, the “shtick.”
“Hey, there’s a good lookin’ young couple who looks like they’re up for saving a lot of money on their electric bill ...” Yep. We took the bait; we were either exhausted or stupid or both.
Tom booked his appointment to come see us at our house. He came over, mapped everything out and pulled out his contract. He was giving me his final “close” but I wasn’t listening. All I could think about were the seventeen different gigs he did in his thirty year professional history and how he ended up as the chief solar energy panel sales guy.
He spent time on the road with famous musicians; he wrote the lyrics to a famous song; He started this company; he sold it. He built that company; sold it and made another fortune. I was in the Wizard of Oz for two fucking hours in my own living room. What the hell were we thinking?
Snapping back to reality, I said, “Tom, my wife and I will discuss it and call you tomorrow.”
Tom had a decent product. It would’ve saved us money. He was in a very specialized field with only a couple of other competitors—we did the research. But we didn’t buy. Why not? Because we didn’t like Tom. That’s it.
I have a sneaky suspicion we’ll run into “Tom” over the next couple of years, at some other convention, selling something else. The money grab never works.
