Walk Away to Sharpen the Offer

"Despite saying he’d give me a good deal on it, what Colin put forward originally was nothing special, in my opinion. I told him so. It took me walking away from the deal for him to sharpen his offer. (Lesson: Never underestimate the power of saying no.) We eventually got it done, though, and the subtle yet sexy green Porsche was mine. Business had, once again, been the enabler of cars."

"But equally, successful people say no often too. At least, that’s according to Warren Buffet. Just because an idea is interesting doesn’t mean it’ll be successful, especially if the odds – contracted or otherwise – aren’t in your favour. Sometimes it’s better to walk away. But fast-forward six months, and the power guys came back. They’d been making a further go at things in the meantime but hadn’t secured another investor, so the lawyer member of the pair called up to ask whether there was any chance at all that I was still interested. ‘I suppose there’s always a deal,’ I answered, before adding, ‘I’d do it if you’d give us half of it for nothing.’ The guy was silent for a minute, thinking, before he simply said, ‘Keep talking.’ So, I did – all the while thinking, Oh hello, we’re on here, with surprise. I outlined what I thought would be good terms: They would hand 50 percent of the company over to us, and we would fund it from there – putting in the working capital required to run the business. Plus, we would retain the option to buy another 26 percent of the company later, if things went well. I was futureproofing with that last clause. I knew that if we had more than 75 percent of the company, we had a stronger position and more control. We wouldn’t then need to ask minor shareholders to vote on special…"

"They had a good model. Because they were buying in bulk, as opposed to producing the electricity, they had lower overheads and could sell power on to customers 10 percent cheaper than what other retailers were able to do. Sales support was what they needed and what I knew well by now, so I set up a meeting. When they first came to see me, they were excited and ambitious about what they were doing. And they had equally high hopes around the numbers required for someone to buy in. I was interested but felt that they were asking too much, so I said no. I’ve always had an eye out for opportunities. That’s one of the ways that successful people differentiate themselves from the unsuccessful: They see potential where others don’t. It’s kept me moving around different industries…"