26 Jun Entrepreneurs Should Give Before They Get

Startup entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs are forever forgetting about the golden rule when approaching investors for investment into their concept: TREAT OTHERS HOW YOU WANT TO BE TREATED.  I don’t care how great your idea, how experienced your team, or how brilliant you are if you don’t understand that you need to give before you get anything from people.  Just the other day I stumbled upon an opportunity to help a potential future client.  I could have jumped at the opportunity to quote a piece of expensive custom software or just hand over what I knew would work as an affordable, efficient solution.  Now, I have no idea if that potential client will turn into a client, but I am absolutely confident that when you treat others the way that you want to be treated it comes back to you exponentially.

Entrepreneurship requires intense focus, but if you are so focused that you stop paying it forward and treating the people in your community the way that you would want to be treated you will find that your entrepreneurial journey will be more difficult and stressful that it needs to be.  In any of your meetings always ask how you can help before explaining what help you need.  Even investors have needs and if you happen to connect me to someone in the community I have been looking to meet- from a casino executive to a reputable tailor- it will earn you huge points as you ask me to invest in your business.  Advertising executives have been saying for years that people don’t buy from brands- they buy from people.  In the same sense, investors don’t invest in brands- they invest in people.