A salesman from the eastern United States Arrived at a frontier town somewhere in the Old West. As he was talking with the owner of the general store, a rancher came in to shop. The owner excused himself to take care of the customer. The rancher gave the storekeeper a list of things he needed and he wanted credit to purchase them.
“Are you doing some fencing this spring it looks like?” asked the store worker…
“Sure am, Will,” said the rancher.
“You fencing in or fencing out?”
“Fencing in. Taking in another 360 acres across the creek”
“Good to hear it, Josh. You got the credit. Just tell Harry out back exactly what you need.”
The salesman was seriously confused. “I’ve seen all kinds of credit systems” he said “but never one like that. How does it work?”
Well, said the storekeeper, “if a man’s fencing out, he’s on the defensive, and he’s just trying to keep what he’s got. With no plans to grow anymore. But if he is fencing in, he’s growing and getting bigger. I ALWAYS give credit to a man who’s fencing in, because that means he’s got goals for the future and plans to grow!”
I love that story. And have a similar story of my own to relate. When Atlas was only about a year old, I had landed a large contract for service. This contract was way out of my range for the equipment I had, and I didn’t have the cash to buy more, so I needed a small loan from the bank to purchase a few machines. I went to our local bank and asked to speak to somebody about a business loan. Since I didn’t have enough credit under my business, they wouldn’t even let me speak to the lender. Saying I needed at least (2) years of banking records before they’d even consider a loan.
How was I supposed to get the credit history built, if nobody was willing give me a shot? It took about (2) months of me sending emails to the commercial lender before he finally agreed to sit down with me. After about an hour of showing him my plans for the future, a copy of the contract I had landed, and sharing of my passion for the landscape industry, he had heard enough. And said he’d be in touch at some point. I left the bank that day feeling like that may have been my only hope, and wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I had to remind myself that I was going to figure it out somehow!
A few days later, I received an email that they were approving me for a small loan to get the equipment I needed to serve this contract, and also to start building my history up! He had mentioned in all his years of banking, he had never seen the institution grant a loan to somebody with less than a year of business history! The irony of this story — That same bank today has now funded hundreds of deals for us, and also that same client is still a client today! One of our best clients! They may have not asked me if I was fencing in or fencing out, but they did in their own way!
Ask yourself this, Are you looking forward? Do you have plans for future growth, or are you just trying to protect what you have? Once you choose to protect what you have, and not focus on growth anymore, the regression path has begun! And that backslide will happen quicker than you realize.
Had that rancher been trying to just protect what he had, that store owner would never have given him the credit he needed. The same way my bank would have never funded my first couple of new pieces of equipment if I wasn’t persistent and tenacious and passionate for future growth!
If you have the right expectations for personal, Professional, and spiritual growth for tomorrow, that means most likely you’re going to put your best foot forward today, and go ALL IN to see that it happens. No matter what it takes!