Have you ever had a car you hoped your customers, associates and co-
workers would never see?

I had a car like that - actually I've had several. One in particular
comes to mind.

2½ years ago I was national sales manager for a company which was
exhibiting at a trade show in Chicago, and this particular evening in
March 1999 we?d planned a dinner meeting for our reps and
distributors from across the country to motivate and educate them. I
drove my rusty 1984 Toyota Tercel station wagon to the show and
parked it several blocks away.

At the end of the day a couple of people asked me if they could get a
ride to the dinner meeting. It was kind of difficult to say no. So
the president of our German partner company and some sales reps
followed me to the car; I popped the hatchback so they could put
their briefcases in the back, and they noticed the jugs of water I
was using for coolant - the radiator had recently sprung a leak.

I hadn't topped off the radiator for a few days and the level was
getting low just then. I was too self-conscious to add water before
we drove off. As I drove I watched apprehensively as the temperature
gauge crept towards the red. I could just imagine the engine blowing
in the middle of downtown Chicago, two blocks from the restaurant.

We had the meeting and I did my level best to pump everyone up about
selling our network technology. Nobody said anything to me about the
car but someone later joked to my boss: "Mike, you really need to pay
this guy better." I was in earshot, and I replied that a few months
ago, I'd had the money to buy a car (actually enough for a used car,
or maybe a down payment for a new one) but had chosen to invest in
the company instead. The German company president told me buying the
company stock was a much better investment.

I had in fact made that exact decision just two months earlier. And
I continued to drive a crappy car to work just this year, when it
became financially wise to replace it with a much newer one.

As for the investment, I just cashed in on that last week. I more
than doubled that investment every year, making 7x on the money.
That's enough to pay cash for a new car - which is NOT how I plan to
invest it, by the way.

Sometimes it IS advisable to spend your money on a nicer car,
especially if your clients are going to ride in it. But you must do
so as a logical business decision, not based on your emotions about
driving an impressive set of wheels. And if you're trying to decide
whether to invest your money in a car, or a "real" investment, that
should be a no-brainer.

A year after that March 1999 sales meeting, one of the guys who
attended told me that in early 1999 he'd lost his biggest customer,
sending his entire business into a tailspin. At that trade show, and
prior to our sales meeting, he was seriously considering closing his
doors and just getting a job.

Whatever I said that night motivated him to persevere, and a year
later had turned things around so completely that he sold his company
for a half million dollars.

The old cliché is really true: It doesn?t matter where you are,
what matters is where you're going. When you?re on the move, people
can sense it and they'll follow you, even when things look ugly on
the exterior!