I learned this the hard way, and so now I'm asking you to learn it if you don't know it already.
Around about the 11th of March 2020, we had an open night for the new practice. It was a huge celebration, maybe 100 people there, lots of people milling around, oohing and ahhing, telling us we'd done a brilliant job, how brave it was, how visionary it was to build such a place at this time, but the truth was, we had no money of any kind, and we were about to shut for a COVID pandemic (We didn't know that then).
On that night, though, my bank manager Ian, who had helped me and guided me through the process of the property development project that I'd become embroiled in over the previous 2 to 3 years to build the practice and the site the practice was on ushered me into our treatment room 6 (the big fancy one). He looked me in the face and said to me, "You realise, Colin, in times of crisis, liquidity is king."
What he meant was when the world is difficult, cash rules all.
We had no cash (of any kind).
It's a miracle that we made it, and I've told that story many times, but we did, but what we learned was that you always have to have access to cash.
And so, maybe it's ok once to go all in, in a way that people call 'ballsy', but just remember that if you hit a crisis during that point, you are dead, and the little guys that win are the guys who get to carry on playing.
Remember, Warren Buffett made most of his money after he was 75 because he kept on playing.
And so, having the humility to leave a little bit in the tank helps you if an unexpected crisis arrives. Remember that the problem with unexpected crises is that they are unexpected.
Leave a comment