What is the Pearl?
This concept came to me late at night but it was quite profound and realistic to me. The life we live can seem to good or bad depending on your circumstances and your outlook on life. The problem however comes when you think about the things you want to do with you life but cannot due to financial constraints.
This is a concept to consider for all entrepreneurs
The Pearl… In the Bible there is a verse that states the following.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. Mathew 13:45-46
No I’m not here to preach to you but to talk about a concept. The Pearl in this verse can be seen as that one thing we all are looking for.
Have you ever sat down and look at your business, growing as it may be, and wonder if this is the one that will take you to the heights you want to go to? Will this business allow me to live the life I really want to live in the manner I want to live it?
We are told a lie as children that we can become whatever we want to become. You can be what ever you want to be if you just work hard ant put your mind to it. We take it in and recite it so many times that we sooner or later believe it.
So we go out in life working hard with laser focus on our goals. Unfortunately many of us fall to the way side or rather fall short of actually reaching our goals. Why is that?
We have the drive, we have the mindset but yet we just cant seem to break through that glass ceiling on our lives. This is where another lie comes in to play. The only thing holding you back is yourself or maybe you have heard this one. Whether you can or whether you cant you are correct.
These are great quotes spoken by great orators throughout the years. The odd thing is all these quotes are just the same information rebranded by another speaker and hyped up in a way to make you seem as if you need this secret knowledge to make it in life. Guess what
Its all bull shit!!
Trust me, in time you will come to realize this. All the books in the world wont really help you achieve what you want out of life.
Okay I can read your thoughts right now saying this guy crazy what he talking about. Everybody knows that knowledge is power and reading books and having knowledge will help you in life.
That’s another lie that is fed to you. Let me put it this way… The average CEO reads 30 books per year or some nonsense like that. Or how about this one. A person with a college degree can earn 1million dollars more than a person with out a college degree. You know what I’m talking about.
In the words of George Carlin , Bull shit, Bull shit Its all bull shit.
Lets get to why it seems as if I’m so sour and crazy like you are probably thinking right about now.
The Smart Kid
Answer these questions
Do you know a man known as Donald J Trump? Well yes he had some education but he wasn’t the smartest kid in the class, yet he went on in life to build a real estate empire in the real estate capital of the world… New York.
NO matter how you feel about him he did something you could never in 10 lifetimes living the way you do to achieve and that’s a fact. I’m not gonna even mention that this low grade not so smart man became the president of the United States. He wasn’t a genius at all and rarely read any books much less motivational books.]
How about a man called Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? Both dropped out of college to start their business and now their dream is in just about every home in the world.
Ever heard of Warren Buffet, or Jeff Bezos? Both finished college but Buffet went to an ivy league college and complained that hey know more than the teachers so he went to a sort of community college just to say he had a degree. Bezos studied electrical engineering and got his degree, a whole lot of good that did him selling books.
One of my favorite millionaire, Gary Vanerchuck admits he was not the sharpest tool in the shed yet he is now running a multi million dollar company doing advertising.
You getting my point right about now? Ok lets bring it home. Ever heard of a man called Sebas Sebastian ? or how about Franklyn Wilson? Sebas admits to going to college and not going to class and I’m sure you heard the talks about Mr. Wilson he is a smart man but not so book smart. These two men are here in the same country you are and they are not the ones to be out reading 30 odd books per year.
I think I’ve made my point. you don’t have to be the smartest kid in the class nor have a degree to actually make your dreams come true. Hard work and education can take you places in the working world but not to far in the business world. There is a big divide so much so its like two different languages.
So what does all this have to do with a pearl. well I’m getting to that in a second, just laying the background story.
I’m an entrepreneur
In this day and age it seems as if everyone is an entrepreneur. In fact there is a quick podcast about an entrepreneur vs businessman here on broughtupsy.com. The thing is that it sounds sexy to say that your an entrepreneur, it makes it seem as if you are doing something important building something special. Well guess what you ain’t building shit. Sorry not sorry to be so blunt but its truth.
You are limited by what you can build in this county and that is kinda your parents and grand parents fault and bit of yours as well. You see without getting into politics its quite simple. We got the dirty end of the stick to work with but we never dealt with it.
Its near impossible for a boot strapper to invest outside the county, its overly expensive to ship outside the county but even to bring things in you get charged. So transportation of goods is heavily taxed. No matter what you purchase a product for when it arrives you have to mark it up nearly 200% that’s just the cost of doing business in the Bahamas… se what I did there.
The Pearl…
Ok enough breaking your spirt lets talk about this pearl. The pearl is that one amazing business you can start that will break through the glass ceiling and earn you enough freedom to live the life you want to live and more.
This pearl of a business is out there and as a businessman or a entrepreneur who realizes how rigged the system is, is always on the look out for this pearl of a business. When you find this business, when this idea hits you it will be like that verse in Mathew. you will sell all your equipment from your present business shut it all down to get started in this pearl business.
The question is does such a business exist that you can build ethically? Oh boy…
Ethics
So I bring up the concept of ethics because I have a running bet with a few people to name a local business ran by a black Bahamian that is well known over at least two generations and the owner or backers are not or not connected in politics, drug running or some other form of quick cash including marrying a foreigner and using their money or privilege’s. I’m sure at least one exist I just don’t know of it as yet.
Entrepreneurs and business persons are constantly cheating on their business because they realize that there is a point in which they will not be able to grow. Due to the limited population and not being able to scale to more people to help grow their business.
Even if you try to get slick and say well get into a business of selling something people need like water or food. This is a good strategy but then you find out that you are not the smartest person in the country because there are possibly at any given time 100 other people thinking and doing the same thing and when you get in to that business you are able to see how many folks are actually in the business.
What is Success?
Besides the bible verse of the pearl I’m always weary of the story of The Pearl by John Stienbeck. Its an interesting read where tragedy befalls a small family an in trying to make their life better the main character finds an enormous pearl but soon everyone wants the pearl and a chase ensues. In the end the man who found the pearl wound up loosing his only child, the same child he wanted to enrich their life.
This is a concept to keep in mind and may even be apart of another self help book called the fear of success. You see we want that pearl business but often wonder if that success will bring hate and danger to you and your family like the story The Pearl.
This, if you haven’t figured it out yet , is why your friend who started a successful business doesn’t really hang around you any more and moved into that gated community.
Its all about focus
So what is a person to do when living this entrepreneur/business life? look focus on what you want and read books that will help you get where you want to go. Reading motivational books will actually keep you back because you will always second guess your decisions. The one thing that sets those who make it from those who struggle is the ability to not give a crap nor care about what others think of them, get busy on becoming the best in their market and keep pushing.
Reading books is fine but don let it take up all your time. Instead get busy in growing your business and finding a way to reach a larger customer base. This is the key to a successful business. The more persons in the market for what you selling the more likely you are to reach and earn more. If you in a niche market with less than10,000 people then you have a problem and you wont be able to grow your business.
There is a point that you have to honest with yourself and realize that the business you are in has a cap and you have to keep your eyes open for the next pearl and eventually the perfect pearl business.
Another way to make it in the Bahamas is to have multiple streams of income. Oh my… this is a discussion in itself because I cant tell you how many time I’ve heard entrepreneurs talk about multiple streams of income but they cant even get their main business of the ground. ?They keep switching from one thing to the next without ever establishing themselves.
If you’re doing this you are just wasting your own time and getting on other people nerves… STOP IT!!
Look this is just an honest rant of what I have experienced in my own life and have seen with other business owners, results do vary but seldom differ.
I remember a friend telling me a few numbers that I found interesting. The average Bahamian business person starting a small business will never reach $60,000 per year much less $100,000 per year in their business. This seemed unlikely to me until I listened to a conversation with Gary Vanerchuck on a show talking about the magic million dollars.
We all like to say I want a million dollars but never realize how unrealistic that is for many of us. Here are the numbers of the top performers in ther respective fields. This is based in the united states with millions of people so how you think you gonna make a million dollars in a country that doesn’t even have half a million people and divided by a number of islands with poor transportation and shipping companies? You see how misguided those numbers are that you are trying to obtain? you can see where you fall in the percentage at this link
I’m not trying to discourage you but just the opposite, I’m trying to get you grounded in a realistic number that you can achieve and live a comfortable life. If you keep chasing the dream you will have to make some major changes such as your location and in some businesses your skin color.
