One of the many things I enjoy in life, just like other people around the globe, is making a decent buck or two. In the world of today, making money is either getting harder to do or easier, depends on who you talk to. Like everyone can tell, there are two sides to the coin – one heads and the other tails. Either way, it’s a coin. Saving money seems to be a little harder to do, with banks getting stingier and stingier and interest returns around the fifteenth of a percent or so.
Alas, what does one need to do to get into business in Eeyou Istchee? Work hard and sacrifice some parts of your present life and get into the world of making money for yourself. I tell you, if there was a tough market out there, it seems to be the local markets take the most beating and local businessmen must have a set of rules to guide them. As I’ve told many people who cared to listen, it has a lot to do with who you think you are and whether or not you are really right about yourself.
Take the following quiz to see if you really got what it takes to make money.
1. True or False – There is no love in business. If you said true, then you are half way there to being a smart business person. If you said false, then you have to admit that you are wrong and say it’s true.
2. Saving pennies don’t count – True or False. If you said true, you get another point and it gets you a little ahead of the red line, which today, is just fine. If you think that pennies are just pennies, wait until you have thrown away a few thousand before admitting your small error in judgement.
3. Customers are always right – If you said yes, it is obvious that you are usually on the purchasing end. If you said false, it means that you are usually the type of salesperson who ignores the customers’ wishes. If you didn’t say anything, you venture ahead a full 10% to being a savvy business person.
4. All bankers are cruel people who won’t lend you money. If you said yes because you were rejected at the bank for a loan, that’s because you haven’t felt the real cruelty of having to pay it back without money. If you said no, you are probably already a good customer at the bank and can get the true value of yourself using real cash from other people.
5. Time is money – This should be a no-brainer. Do you see the number of people all around you who talk for a living? Politicians, newscaster, weathermen, we all pay them to keep us occupied for no real reason other than to give them more money of course. If you are anyone in those categories, that principle applies too. Now, if golfing were a real business you could get paid even if you botched the last surgery on the ninth hole using your BlackBerry to guide your intern through a complicated quadruple cranial dissection of a lobotomized customer (I mean patient) and make room for a PayPass interact chip with medical insurance so the next time, you’ll get paid quicker. If you said no, you must be on some social-aid program.
6. If you got most of these questions in your favour, you probably got what it takes to be a business person. If you don’t feel comfortable with your responses, don’t worry, you will make a good customer.
7. Finally, good guys always win. If you said “huh” and scratched your head, go back to question one. If you said no, you are probably guilty of some wrongdoing. If you said yes, success is usually guaranteed, and you can pick up your Much Belated Award for business.
