It had been quite a while since I sold my car to fund our working capital. My partner and I spent all our time just focused on our business. We worked long hours and drove around in a battered old pick up truck. We were totally consummate about our business. When I was not working, I was reading every book or article I could find on business, and business management
; It was my passion.
Although my partner and I were both engineers,
I had retreated from the engineering side to finance. The only numbers that
interested me, then and now are financial numbers. I had come to realise that
the most important thing in running a business effectively is through financial
reports. This is when I started using the motto:
“It’s all in the numbers. Show me the
numbers”
One day, I went to see a leading bank. Two
years had lapsed since my first attempt at raising a loan. I submitted to them
my proposal. The head of the bank was present with his most senior deputy. They
were both looking at my document. “Did you prepare this?” He was totally
shocked by my presentation.
He openly said to me, that he had never
seen anything like it, and wished every manager in his bank would see it. “You
have literally taught yourself banking, just to get a loan!” He begged me not
to show it to another bank.
All that preparatory work had finally paid
off: I got my ,loan...but I was already thinking beyond thinking local
banks...why not the World Bank?!
To be continued...
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