Ready

My name is Gary Shotton. I’m here in Guadalajara, Mexico. We’re finishing up a four-day trip with three days as a coaching and event for entrepreneurs, and we’re here ready to get on our plane going home, and I said I think I’ll just cut a video here. Today, I’d like to talk about being prepared, and I’m going to start with the story of when I was just a youngster on a farm and ranch. My parents owned and operated a farm and ranch. My dad’s an entrepreneur and They were very kind to us, very encouraging, they were not the kind of teachers that would be what I call “textbook” or go to the blackboard and get out the mark-a-lot, give me an outline, and create some kind of a lesson that way. They tended to teach on the fly in a way that we should just kind of pick it up. We should look back now, and mostly now I look back and say wow there was some good lessons. So, one of the lessons was the habit of saving and so being one of three boys, we’re fairly close together in age, we were not twins or triplets, we’re just close in age, and we had two tractors, and three of us young boys ages 10, 11, 12, 13, in that age. Our habit was that dad needed us to drive tractor. And so, probably with moms encouragement, dad paid us a quarter an hour to drive the tractor. Well believe me, this is not a problem with us, because we’re excited about driving the tractor. We felt big and strong and older than our age, and we got paid. More importantly, if we weren’t driving tractor, the assignment was to help mom do the dishes, do the laundry, and for sure work in the garden, and we didn’t get paid doing that. So basically over a period of time, I mean we were never given allowances, and it was amazing I never had that money to spend. We’re not in a spending habit, So, what actually happened is mom and dad kept that money they owed to us, and then they had a deal that if we get fifty dollars, they would match the fifty dollars, and we’d go down to the bank and put the a hundred dollars in the bank. We got some quarters, dimes or something for A’s on our report cards. I mean little things, not allowance though. So, over a period of time this started adding up. Well, from aging like 10, 11, and 12 till I was 17 I find out that we have – I personally had probably about five thousand dollars in the bank, and I’m thinking okay, I think I need a new car. I mean that’s my money, I worked for it, I earned it. So I approached my dad and I said “You know, I’m really thinking I ought to get a little money out of my account and buy a car,” and he said “Hey, no way, that’s not happening. Leave it in there.” Now my lesson is on being prepared, because here’s what happened. I’m now about a sophomore in college. I’m about acres of land and the selling price required that we put down a down payment of a partial payment out of own pocket, and dad took my sixty seven hundred dollars, my other two brothers, added it together, we had twenty thousand dollars. Mom and dad scraped up the other twenty thousand dollars and we put down the forty thousand dollars and we were successful. Dad was successful in buying that land at the auction with that down payment. Well the good thing was the land was such that the sale was such that the wheat that was already planted comes to us, as the new owners. In other words, the sellers didn’t retain that and on from April to July we didn’t do anything but cut the wheat, and half the land was totally paid. Are you kidding me? Am I glad I didn’t get a car. Well, that would be the stupidest thing under the sun. Dad was always ready for the deal. He made us think ready for the deal. He made sure that when the opportunity came, and they’re not talking about always big opportunities, he was ready to buy. Now, let me give some examples. I’m digging here for my billfold because inside my billfold I have a cubby hole where I hide a bill. I hide a bill. I think that’s a hundred-dollar bill. It’s normally a hundred-dollar bill. I haven’t looked at it for a while because I pretty well have, for the last 40 years, had stuffed a hundred-dollar bill in my bill fold. I’m not trusting that hundred dollar bill. I’m just more comfortable. I’m ready for the deal. I’ve had to use it occasionally. That’s what I had. I had the hundred dollars. Let’s talk about the time that I had a need in my moving and storage business. I had the need for big trucks, and the big trucks… I had looked and looked and looked, and nothing shows up, and you know what? I found 11 trucks for sale – used. Painted the exact brand that I needed for my agency, and I bought 11 trucks for the price of one new truck, about fifty thousand dollars. I had twenty-five thousand dollars to write them a check for twenty-five thousand dollars, and I they knew I could finish up the other 25 shortly. Wow I was ready. Are you ready? Are you down to the bottom of the barrel?Are you operating on empty all the time? I don’t hold that philosophy. I had a particular teacher that was just so excited about godly faith, and so proud that they had zero money. I didn’t operate that way. I don’t agree with that. I’m not knocking what they’re saying, I’m just saying I don’t think I want to be at zero. So I maintained always some degree of flexibility. Sometimes it’s cash. To be honest with you, when I bought this machine shop ten years ago, I had the opportunity to put over 112,000 dollars in a CD. In 10 years I’ve never taken it out. I’ve always had a hundred thousand dollars. Now, it’s grown a little bit, and it doesn’t grow much. It’s very liquid. I don’t want to be stuck with not being able to pay payroll. Now, am I overly cautious? You be the judge. But, I’m ready. I’m ready for the deal. I think a lot of people miss it because they overspent, are behind the ball, they don’t – the good deal comes, and they don’t, can’t, or won’t take advantage of the good deal. I hope this is helpful. I ask you to consider sharing these videos with others. I hope the background noise was not prohibitive, and it would bless us if you would share these videos with other people. Thank you very much.