How I Lost  A Million Dollar - Deals And Projects That Don't Pan Out

In the high stakes of international business it is easy for a multi-million dollar deal to fall through the cracks, but one deal can make a different...

When my kids were young I used to tell them to call me  "my millionaire dad".  I just love the sound of the word  -millionaire - it conjures up the image of an invincible business man, all knowing, all powerful!!

Even since I can remember I have always have a goal of being an entrepreneur , investor and working for myself. I believe then and I believe now that everybody should have a side hustle and not to depend on the company. (Sometimes companies can fire you at random and not without adequate reason). I have heard so many stories of people reporting for work and being told that they are being fired without any warning. Always be prepared, don't let this happen to you my friend.

I have had a few jobs where I have been fired, but it did not make a different, because I always had a hustle going on. As soon as I got fired I went back to what I like doing - working for myself!! Sometimes I don't have two coins to rub together but it does not really matter because in my  mind I know we work for two kinds of money - your everyday daily money for expenses and your long term wealth building projects -learn to work on your everyday money expenses and your long term wealth building projects simultaneously.

Before the real estate down turn I was involved with about ten investors that we do deals together. I call them my front money partners. The partners fronted the capital and we bought the properties and flipped. At one time we bought over $15 million worth of property. We made some money, but also lost some money as a result of the market downturn. The 2008 real estate downturn was very devastating and it is still taking its toll on individuals and families all over the country. As of now housing values are increasing, but we have a long way to go.

Now let me tell you about how I lost a few millions. If you are involved in high stakes businesses that a lot of people are involved, especially, all you need is for one person to screw up and everything goes down the drain.

I was involved in a $37 million bio-mass processing facility deal in an overseas market. The project was progressing smoothly and we have signed the memorandum of understanding . The funding for the project has been secured and all of a sudden the project sponsor stopped returning calls. The entity that was supposed to provide the collateral reneged on his promise.

Our lead person was always going to visit our sponsor to solidify the project and move the deal but we realize something was wrong when our lead person could not locate the sponsor. After repeated enquiries we discovered that the project sponsor has secured funding from another entity.

We were devastated - after all we have been working on the project for the past twenty four months.  The project was costing about ....37million...and my partner and I was supposed to make about 2 million dollars in finders and other fees.

Let me introduce you to a business that most of you might not be familiar with - It is called a Finder - A Finder is somebody who locates a service or a product for a client - it could be introducing a service to a client, help arrange a multi-million dollar deal  as a finder  - as a finder what you do is introduce a source. Typical fees could be 3% of the first $5 million ...or the amount could be $50 million and the fee could be .5% of $50 million. It could also be locating a rare painting, an art artifact, or something like that,  or an item for a client and you charge a fee.

Let me tell you that most MBAs who get out of the elite business schools like Harvard Business School go into what we call private equity. They arrange financing for corporation and make huge fees on the capital that they arrange.

Our deal was a high stake international deal, but deals go soar all the time. As a matter of fact 90% of deals just don't go through; however, all you need is just one deal to fund!! As a Real Estate Agent I have  been involved in deals where the buyer I was representing was also working with another Agent without my knowledge. On  numerous occasion, I lost money because the buyer decided to use another Agent without my knowledge. (The Buyer was secretly working with another Agent while simultaneously using my services). Such sometimes is the nature of business, some people can be duplicitous!!

All of us in one way or the other lose deals. Our first , second or third businesses do not pan out. What do you do in situations like this? The most important thing is not to give up;  continue to pursue your dreams. Over the past  years I have lost numerous deals - such are the nature of deals - you have to have a number of balls in the air, because you never know which one will mature and yield the fruits. I keep a lot of deals in the air!!

Currently, I am working on some high state international deals that involves a lot of money, I am praying and hoping this time all these deals pan out.... I just want to leave a legacy for my children's children as the bible says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children!!