Nothing Good Comes Without Sacrifice

A few years ago on the TV show “Shark Tank,” an ambitious young man from Southern California presented the concept of giving shoes custom paint jobs. A few of the sharks — multi-millionaires and billionaires who offer people money or a partnership to start-up or expand their businesses — were interested, and made offers. And the kid walked away with nothing. He had an inspiring story of being down and out (I don’t really remember all the details) and started a t-shirt shop and then came up with the idea of the custom paint job on the shoes. He said, he’d come from nothing to “livin’ the life.”

And yet he walked away without an offer. Why?

As an offer was presented to him, he was asked what he was willing to give up to build his business. His response was along the lines of, “I don’t see why I should give up anything. I’ve come so far and I’m livin’ the life.” At that point the offer was withdrawn, and Mark Cuban — self-made billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks — looked at the young man and said something to the point of, “You gave the wrong answer. You should have said, ‘I’ll eat hot dogs for a year if I can learn from a partnership with you and grow my business.’ “

The fact of the matter is that if you’re an entrepreneur, or want to become one, sacrifice is the name of the game. You left your job for a better deal—your own business, the chance to be your own boss and call your own shots. After all, working 80 hours a week for yourself beats working 40 for someone else, right?

But the question you face as you start to build your business and your life is what are you willing to sacrifice for your dream? Nothing worth having was ever done without sacrificing something to accomplish it.

Somme sacrifices are givens. You’re going to sacrifice your comfort, often physical and definitely emotional. Building something always forces you out of your comfort zone emotionally. And there’s an excellent chance you’ll sacrifice physical comfort in some way as you build and grow. Sleep, free time, and aspects of your social life are also on the chopping block here.

But what about those other things you’ll need to sacrifice? Are you willing to sacrifice your pride and learn from others, and rely on others?

Of course there are some things that shouldn’t be on the block either.

Zig Ziglar often said that if in his climb to the top, he ruined his relationship with his wife or his children, then the price wasn’t worth it. The late Larry H. Miller, owner of the Utah Jazz, head of a billion dollar company (35 car dealerships over 6 states, a racetrack, restaurants, a chain of movie theaters, radio and TV stations) regularly worked 80 and 90 hour weeks, even after he was well enough established that he didn’t need to put in those hours. He missed the childhoods of his children and it was his greatest regret.

Your health shouldn’t be on the table either. You may be working longer hours, but you need to take care of your health to keep building your business. If you ruin your health, you’ve sacrificed too much. Your contributions to this world are more than just financial and material. Again, we go to the example of Larry H. Miller. His insane hours created erratic sleep habits and patterns to say nothing of his eating habits. All that led to diabetes. The complications created by all that put him in the grave at 64. These days, that’s young. Your health is not worth the price. Keep it. As Denis Waitley has observed, “Health is a gift given to us that we don’t realize we have until it is gone.”

But what are you willing to sacrifice? Your comfort? Are you willing to eat ham and beans for a couple of years because you’re pouring all your money back into your business? Are you willing to hire a great salesman and pay him ten times over what you’re making as the owner of the company to build it right?

Are you willing to follow the example of Le Van Vu, an emigrant from Vietnam? His father was successful there. Until the communists took over, and murdered his father. They moved to South Vietnam and prospered again until the fall of Saigon. He got his family out at the last minute and moved to the Philippines. There he built up the Filipino fishing fleet and became a wealthy man again. And lost it again to upheaval. On a boat to America he considered suicide, thinking he couldn’t do it all over again. His wife talked him away from the edge of the boat. When they arrived in the U.S. they were taken in by a cousin who let them live in the back of his bakery. Eventually they bought the bakery, but continued to live in the back, without owning a car, using the restrooms of the mall the bakery was located in to give themselves sponge baths. They sacrificed because they knew the sacrifice would ultimately bring them a better life. Today he’s multi-millionaire several times over, and living a life of luxury. But the sacrifices preceded the luxury. Are you willing to sacrifice for that?

What sacrifices are you going to make? Or do you think you can do it without sacrifices?