Page 206 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

Go Slow – Two Bulls at the Top of the Hill
When Solatube first rolled out in Australia in around 1991, it was a story of the two bulls atop the hill because the desire was to go out there as quickly as possible and get as many resellers on board as they could – first up, first served. This definitely was not the right thing to do. If they had slowed down and put the right structure in place and been patient, they would have had a lot better long-term result and a better return. After five years, only one or two out of fifteen resellers were left.
I didn’t know at the time we bought the franchise for New Zealand that we were also partnering up with a company in Australia with a disgruntled and dysfunctional franchise network and structure.
Coming back to the story of the bulls at the top of the hill.
There are two bulls at the top of a hill; one is an old bull, the other is a young bull. At the bottom of the hill is a herd of cows. The young bull says to the old bull, ‘I’m going to run down there, and I’m going to do my business with that cow.’ The old bull says, ‘Hey, no, no. Best walk down there calmly and do our business with the whole lot of them.’
The point of the story is that if you take things slow and don’t rush, you can get a far better result. It doesn’t have to happen overnight. Take the long-term, structured approach. Too many people in life want to make money as quickly as possible and are not prepared to work for it. Some
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