I do not support the mentality of a free-for-all “bailout” as has been so commonly sought these days. This comes down to the old “if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day” mentality. Whether a loan is appropriate, I do not know. I wish I had the right information and know-how to form a fact-based opinion on this. Maybe I am not that smart, and maybe it is above my pay scale. Read on and I will give you some opinion and insight to my opinion. Don’t get me wrong. I struggle right along witht the best of them. I lost millions of dollars in 2008.
I learned a long time ago that I have been able to perform much better with the understanding that when I fail to achieve my requirement of sustaining an income, there is nobody around to save me. I believe this to be among the most valuable business lessons I ever learned.
In my youth, I had parents with some money. They could have bailed me out and made life a lot easier for me on many occasions. I think this was in the back of my mind for a while as I grew my first couple companies. I never let those thoughts take over, but when I was 17 years old and off on my own and running a marketing company along with three to four jobs to support it, I suppose it was easier to think that if I failed, there would always be a warm bed and something to eat back at Mom and Dad’s place.
I have failed like GM, only worse. I remember some really hard times when I was all alone with nothing in the cupboard. I am not here to pluck your heart strings, so I will not get too far into the details, but I will say that there were times when I lost a lot of weight without trying.
I was not lucky, and I did not have huge windfalls. I took on as many as five jobs at a time and I developed my product better. This is the part that GM neglected. Jimmy Carter begged for cutting dependency on overseas oil 30 years ago, but GM had enough money back then to ignore the market. Over the following decades, there have been many indications of GM weakness, but they did not hear the call. It is not just about gasoline … it is about many other business and marketing strategies that have hurt them. They made a bed over decades, and allowed ignorance and arrogance lead them.
I believe that it is time for GM to do what I did in the face of catastrophic failure … work harder and work smarter. If their plans and ideas have failed, there is a reason.
As I write this, I would like to note that just in the past three years I have purchased two Hummer H2, three Corvettes, and one Escalade for a total of about $325,000. This makes the contents of my garage predominently GM in origin. I am certain some of you readers have sent some dollars their way, too. Yes, I am a fan of GM products, but what did they do with all of that money?
Author Mark Murnahan is the Chairman and CEO of YourNew.com, Inc. and provides SEO consulting services to companies and non-profit organizations. Mark Murnahan may be reached toll free at 866-A-Web-Guy (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*) for consultation.