When I launched my first startup, we urgently needed some cash to keep the company alive. So I roped in a world-renowned expert to conduct a pretty expensive workshop.
We just needed 100 signups and for the next 12 months, we would not have to worry about money. And with such a stellar speaker, it was practically free money.
But when we started marketing, surprisingly, despite all our effort, we got only two signups. No matter what we tried, nothing was working.
Then we figured out the problem — our message was not reaching the right audience — the industry titans and CXOs. So the solution was simple: Advertise in a newspaper that is read by these biggies.
So we spent a few thousand dollars to run an ad in Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong edition) and waited for the remaining 98 slots to fill up.
Do you know how many signups we got from the ad? Zero. To be fair, we got one email enquiry but it did not convert.
After losing thousands of dollars and cutting a sorry figure, we called it off.
We all think we are smart and know the right answers.
But there is only one way to know for sure — try it out in the real world. There is a 5% chance you will succeed. There is a 95% chance that you will be humbled. But there is a 100% guarantee that you will be wiser.
The world’s best MBA is not offered by IIMA, Harvard, or Wharton — it is offered by the “School of Hard Knocks.”
– Rajan