“When you have completed 95% of your journey you are halfway there”…anonymous
How long does it take an experienced investor to tell if a business plan will succeed?
Well, if you ask Malcom Gladwell, he will say that the experienced investor can tell within seconds.
Gladwell, the famed author of the bestseller The Tipping Point, starts his second bestseller, Blink, by talking about this phenomenon.
Specifically, Gladwell tells the story of an interesting series of events…
In 1983, the J. Paul Getty Museum was presented with a sixth century BC statue with an asking price of $10 million. The statue was consistent with other statues of its kind — Testing confirmed it was made of materials that were thousands of years old. And papers proved that the statue had been in the private collection of Swiss physician since the 1930s.
So, the museum decided to purchase it.
Fortunately, before the deal was consummated, the museum had a few more experts assess the statue. Each knew right away that it was a fake.
What’s most interesting is that these experts didn’t have to conduct fancy tests; they simply looked at it and knew. When asked, one expert replied that something just “didn’t look right.” Another said that the first word that came to his mind was “fresh” and that “fresh” was “not the right reaction to have to a two thousand year old statue.”
Upon further review, it was determined that the statue was in fact a fake.
How did the experts know that it was a fake in just a few seconds and without detailed tests? Gladwell believes the experts were able to make quick, subconscious conclusions based on the immediate facts presented to them, and that these conclusions are often correct. This is the same case when investors review a business plan – the first few seconds are critical. Your plan must connect with the investor and then you have the rest of your plan to tell your full story.
