Thursday, April 24, 2008

Benefacto Nominus Idiocritus

I had a chance to fill in this morning at a so called "leads group" and it started me thinking about Julius Caesar. Why you might ask?
Well I have often wrote about the differences between true leaders and the rest. Julius was a leader - and like all leaders he not only tolerated change neither did he enjoy change but rather he initiated and caused change. The Roman Empire was strong, it had been the same size for a while, who needs to expand? Why put forth the effort? Because Julius was not content with maintaining something good; he wanted to expand and grow into something great!
So at this leads group there were about 80 business owners who exchanged "leads" and "referrals" at the end of their meeting - I counted about 20! Now excuse me in advance for going on a rant, but 80 business people work for a week and can only collectively come up with 20 referrals - asinine! Then they ask about business generated from the group on an annual basis and I ask the fellow next to me how much business he has received from the group - $7500.00 is the answer . How much Profit? $1500.00 is the answer. Minus the dues and membership fees leaves about $800.00!
So let me get this right - 2 hours a week x 52 weeks is about 104 hours or two average work weeks devoted to this group to make how much? $400.00 per week!!!! Wouldn't your time be more productive somewhere else and isn't your time worth more than that? Bottom line is that these folks would be better off looking to their Church, their Gyms or some Volunteer work as a source of "leads" than to spend it here. I was advised to not mention the group specifically so I am going to follow that advice - but here are a couple of alternative names I came up with for this group and maybe you can work it out:
1. Better Not Invest
2. Below Normal Intelligence
3. Block New Ideas
4. Boring Never Inspires
5. Ban Nothing Idiotic
6. Believe in Nominal Income
7. Be No Innovator
8. Barrage of Nutty Individuals
9. Brag but No Invoice
10. Benefits Never Improve

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