Find An Attorney And CPA That Will Help You With Your Business
... not just with your taxes!
In this audio snippet, you'll hear about:
- Why the hell do you want to do that?
- People that made extraordinary amounts of money: I bought something for a buck and sold it for two.
- You have to know how to recognize value
Audio Transcript
Travis:
Actually, Yosef, it wasn't too long ago––and it's probably happened on
several occasions––that I walked into your office and said, "Yosef, I
want to do this and this and this. And is that possible?" And you'd say
to me something along the lines of, "Travis, from being your
accountant, yes, we can make that work. Being your lawyer, it will be
legal. But let me ask you a question: why the hell do you want to do
that?" [laughs]
And
it always makes me step back for a second and say, "Wow. Have I not
thought this through all the way? Do I not have all of the information
that I need here?" And one of the things that I've always really
appreciated about working with you is your great business perspective,
and not just necessarily your knowledge on taxes and legal.
Yosef:
Well, Travis, thank you so much for those extraordinarily kind words.
There are a lot of people that have made extraordinary amounts of money
in business, and if you ask them what they've done for a living,
they'll say, "Yeah. I bought something for a buck, and I sold it for
two."
Travis:
Mm–hmm. [laughs]
Yosef:
And then you have Harvard MBAs who will spend years doing case studies
on businesses and will graduate, and they will go off and raise venture
capital financing and still not be successful.
Travis:
Mm–hmm.
Yosef:
I think what it really comes down to is recognizing value. And I think,
if someone's going to go into business, they have to keep certain basic
principles in mind. Some of them––again, I don't know all of them––you
need to understand what kind of value you can provide, and you need to
find out if somebody actually wants that value, and whether they'll pay
for it.
Frequently,
you may have some really valuable ideas and insights, and the problem
is, there's no demand for it, or the demand won't pay your bills. And
you just shouldn't go that route. Again, a lot of what value is about
is really understanding what is valuable and what's not. What may be
valuable to you may not be valuable to somebody else.
Travis:
Right. And with all of the perspective that you've gained over the
years, you have a unique insight into what may or may not be valuable
for somebody.
Yosef:
Right. And again, I've been wrong. [laughs] I've been very pleasantly
surprised. But generally, for someone to be successful in a business
endeavor, they really have to understand the value that they're going
to provide and whether there are people interested in that value, too.
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