Bribery and Disruption
I don’t have the time for this business.
No, really. The age-old excuse that stops the vast majority of people from achieving financial freedom applies to me too. I don’t have time – at least not today.
First they closed the centre of Colchester for a cycling event and I was an hour late getting home. Then I finally despaired of the computer, bundled it into the back of the Mini and made an unscheduled dash into Ipswich. Then the dog – who hasn’t walked more than the end of the road since she had her puppies, decided it was time to saunter all the way down to the river.
By the time we got to one O’clock, I was feeling so frustrated I had to console myself with a beer and sandwich on the terrace and a chapter of Chris Taylor’s emThe Formula for Success in Network Marketing./em
From three O’clock I was going to be out of commission again, collecting children from school and delivering them to Maths, tennis, piano, Beavers and athletics…
In short, by the time I had dealt with a couple of opportunist phone calls, my business was going to have to be crammed into 45 minutes.
How to say my 30 second thing to six people in 45 minutes?
Grabbing the Win-a-Mini clipboard, I leapt on my bike and headed for the town car park.
It was the grumpy woman on the ice cream stand and, as usual, she didn’t want to win a car. But then, out of the blue, her boss turned up.
“Is this your business?” I asked him.
Yes it was. We chatted. I asked him what he did in the winter.
“As little as possible.”
“D’you want to get paid for doing that?”
And we were off. Five to go in 35 minutes…
Over by the Pay and Display Machine was a man who asked me to call him next week – and then a woman who I’m now going to see on Monday at 11 O’clock.
She was followed by a man who wants me to call him next Thursday for an appointment – and then there was one who said “No”.
And finally a student who wants to make money and who has a father who, according to her, wants to save money.
Which brings the total to six in just a little under 45 minutes.
However, I had given out only two DVDs so I had one to go. Back on the bike, I kept an eye out for a likely target. There he was, a grey-haired man with a collecting tin. He looked cheerful. Clearly he was energetic but maybe his pension wasn’t performing.
Stopping beside him, I reached into my bag: “I’d like to give you something,” I began.
“Thank you very much,” he said and proferred his tin.
I gave him a DVD -and I must confess he didn’t look thrilled.
I had to give him 50p as well. Am I the only distributor who has to pay people to take the DVD?