No Guts, No Glory?

Companies on the fast track often bend the rules with investors and clients to keep up their growth curve. In the following excerpt from MoneyHunt: 27 New Rules for Creating and Growing a Breakaway Business (HarperCollins), authors Miles Spencer and Cliff Ennico, co-hosts of MoneyHunt, a TV show featuring entrepreneurial success stories, tell the tale of one entrepreneur's say-anything strategy that won over clients and investors.

Successful businesspeople are, first and foremost, salespeople. If you cannot sell, do not, we repeat, do not start your own company. We're all comfortable selling ourselves when we're certain we can deliver all the things we promise. But what about the times when we're not sure we can deliver? We've been told since childhood it's not wise or ethical to promise something if you know there is a risk you'll break a promise. Sometimes, however, being a successful salesperson and getting the big deal that makes or breaks your company requires that you do precisely that. And that takes sheer audacity.

When you sell audaciously, you're taking a big risk. Except in some extraordinary circumstances, you won't get away with it. In the short term, you can succeed with BS. But sooner or later, you have to prove to the marketplace (and to yourself) that it isn't just BS. You have to back your words up with real performance.

This article was originally published in the December 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: No Guts, No Glory?.