dpd1 - 2:25 am on Jan 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

I've found that maybe 85% of venders I try to contact, don't respond at all. That's businesses of all sizes, but mainly large ones of course. Every time it happens I always hope that maybe someday I'll be so successful that I can just blow off customers left and right too, but something tells me that will never happen.

The pattern I've seen with a lot of people that I've personally known trying to start businesses, is that they always have the; 'If I build it, they will come' mentality. They go out and spend a ton of money getting a space, hiring people to do everything, purchasing all kinds of equipment... When in reality they should be making the stuff themselves in their garage. So they blow all their money on all this start-up stuff and have no customers. Then they just want to sit around all day and play boss and never get their hands dirty. Then they're all surprised when it goes down a year or less later. Throwing money at something is fine if you have the money to throw. But for everybody else, you have to bring more to the party than that. I don't know how many times I've had friends tell me they want to be partners with me in some business... But they bring zero to the table... No craft, no skills, no sales leads, no money... They just want to be the boss. If I have to do everything, what do I need a partner for?