.......with an idea.
A business starts as an idea. We've all been there.
Many years ago I began running. Long before it was popular and in a most peculiar place. The flight deck of an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. After a long grueling day of work on the flight deck I would change and begin my up and down....some 900+ feet, from stem to stern, in either direction dodging aircraft being placed for the next day's missions. I continued, to this day, to run daily in civilian life. In 1976 Bill Rogers and Frank Shorter brought home the Olympic gold & silver. In 1977 the NYC was going to break the confines of Central Park and run through the five boroughs of New York. Shorter, Rogers and most Olympians were to run the inaugural event. As I watched them run I was inspired to join them. However, the odds were against me. Unlike them, I'm 6 ft 3 inches tall and weigh 203 lbs. hardly made to go the distance. However, beginning in 1977, and for seven consecutive years, I ran and completed the NYC Marathon. Over the years there were many many races used as training runs in addition to a daily regime. Gladwell, in Outliers, is correct as it relates to repetition and the miles upon miles will attest to this.
I was at the beginning of the running boom. I had an idea, vision and youthful enthusiasm. I was a participant and could relate to my brethren. From a business perspective I was quite inexperienced. I researched franchises but the stumbling block was money. I didn't have it and didn't know where or how to get it. Oh, how times have changed.
stay on the offensive and celebrate the small victories................