“You Can’t do That, Dan”
Purveyors of conventional wisdom have told me for years I couldn't do this or that. I did. I've kept the list of the things I "Couldn't do" …… but did. These are listed also in my book "Your First 100 Million". The message, of course, is that you can do that!
Ninety-Five "Can't Dos" Which I Did! | |
1.
|
You can't take 26 units in one semester (1/2 year) of college/university! |
2.
|
You can't take 15 units during summer school at two universities simultaneously when 6 units is the max! |
3.
|
You can't leave Bear Stearns and go in to the oil business, a business you know nothing about! |
4.
|
You can't play 72 holes of golf in one day! |
5.
|
You can't run 1,000 miles in one month! |
6.
|
You can't run 100 miles in one day! |
7.
|
You can't run 38 miles on your 38th birthday! |
8.
|
You can't build the 50th largest exploration and production company from scratch in a collapsing market! |
9.
|
You can't buy a castle! |
10.
|
You can't build the fastest growing natural resource company during the worst recession the energy business has experienced in 50 years! (GWRI grew at 67,000% per year for eight years, or over 500,000% in total!). |
11.
|
You can't convince the Kuwaiti Investment Office (KIO) to a restructuring that will sell in The City (The London financial district) |
12.
|
You can't hire the Kuwaiti Investment Office's (KIO) own brokerage firm and use them as a mediator to negotiate a restructuring with the KIO! |
13.
|
You can't convince the KIO to back a long-range plan to build a natural resource company! |
14.
|
You can't go public using a $60,000 option on property you don't even own and turn it in to $50,000,000 in 3½ months! |
15.
|
You can't buy Bow Valley USA ("BV"); it's too large. It's 5 times larger and owned by one of the largest energy conglomerates in North America. |
16.
|
You can't get financing to buy Bow Valley in such a short time frame! (Seven weeks) |
17.
|
You can't tell the Financial Times journalist he has faeces for brains! |
18.
|
You can't marry a virgin! |
19.
|
You can't leave the US to raise your kids! You can't move back to the US and back again. |
20.
|
You can't change your social economic milieu! |
21.
|
You can't go to college/university! |
22.
|
You can't finish 3 years of college/university in 1½ years! |
23.
|
You can't change your major area of studies over and over again and still graduate! |
24.
|
You can't live an outrageous life and ever amount to anything! |
25.
|
You will never reach the age of 21…30…40…50…55! |
26.
|
You can't get quality people to leave their jobs for less money, no contract, and relocate at their expense! |
27.
|
You can't do $50million in revenue your first year in business with only one employee (me!). |
28.
|
You can't get a major contract with the US federal government (FDFC) with no employees, no office or money, and only a leased fax machine! |
29.
|
You can't be engaged to be married for 2½ years! |
30.
|
You can't marry, and stay married, to a woman whose parents loathe you! |
31.
|
You can't plot to overthrow a communist government (Haiti) in the western hemisphere in 1980! |
32.
|
You cant' do a major equity offering on the back of a major restructuring of Great Western Resources Inc (GWRI)! |
33.
|
You can't get the KIO to participate pro rata in restucturing! |
34.
|
You can't get the KIO to put up money pro rata in a major equity offering a week after Desert Storm! |
35.
|
You can't get The City to participate in the growth of GWRI when your persona is so outrageously controversial! |
36.
|
You can't take GWRI public when you have no experience in the energy business. |
37.
|
You can't get the most prestigious law firm in the UK to represent you for the public offering! |
38.
|
You can't get the Israeli government to choose GWRI over major oil companies to drill in Israel! |
39.
|
You can't sell your first drilling fund in 1982 with an injunction against Great Western Energy Corp. ("GWEC")! |
40.
|
You, an unknown, can't compete in a drilling fund market that is already saturated! |
41.
|
You can't get a New York Stock Exchange member firm to sponsor your drilling fund! |
42.
|
You can't get a "Fortune 200" size firm to affiliate itself with your drilling fund sales! |
43.
|
You can't build a refinery with no engineering experience, fighting the unions! |
44.
|
You can't get Orthodox Jews to sign a contract for the Israeli government on the Sabbath, while in Israel! |
45.
|
You can't resurrect the Bow Valley negotiations once they've left the table and headed on back to Canada! |
46.
|
You can't convince Bow Valley you can perform! |
47.
|
You can't get a bank to put up $85 million to buy Bow Valley's coal operations when you have no coal experience! |
48.
|
You can't get Citicorp to back you when no one at the bank has ever done business with you! |
49.
|
You can't get City Stockbrokers to guarantee the Bow Valley transactions! |
50.
|
You can't get the KIO to guarantee the Bow Valley transaction! |
51.
|
You can't get the KIO to underwrite GWRI while in the acquisition mode! |
52.
|
You can't get a major accounting and law firm to carry GWRI like a bank during the growth mode! |
53.
|
You can't turn down $30 million for your shares in GWRI! (the 1989 attempted takeover). |
54.
|
You can't be one of the highest paid energy executives in the US (Top 5, 1986 – 88)! |
55.
|
You can't get a multi-million dollar rent free lease in Houston when your company is still in the "minor leagues"! |
56.
|
You can't pay an extra $1 million for a acquisition when the deal is already cut! |
57.
|
You can't honour an acquisition deal when oil prices collapsed before funding and when the price of oil dropped in half! |
58.
|
You will never get the KIO to back you after your mole's departure! |
59.
|
You can't get a court to issue an injunction to stop the issuing of the Los Angeles Athletic Club's October Marathon first place award to a bogus winner! |
60.
|
You can't get blue-blooded advisors in The City when you first come to London! |
61.
|
You and your wife can't go to the Cotton Club in Harlem in 1978! (The only white attendees). |
62.
|
You can't out-drink (1981) the biggest drinker in The City! |
63.
|
You can't change the way you think about raising children! |
64.
|
You can't change the way you think about being a husband! |
65.
|
You can't volunteer for the draft at the highest point of the Vietnam War! (June 1966). |
66.
|
You can't continue to lift weights with a torn rotator cuff and double hernia! |
67.
|
You can't go public the same day as Jaguar (a UK government-owned legend) and finish the day at a premium! |
68.
|
You can't change the investment direction from the public offering prospectus so soon after receiving the money! |
69.
|
You can't cut the overhead (senior sales (40%), benefits etc.) so soon (90 days) after a public offering! |
70.
|
You can't go public in the UK! |
71.
|
You can't buy a foreign company over the phone on New Year's Eve! |
72.
|
You can't buy a foreign company for less than it has in the bank! |
73.
|
You can't have a dream come true unless you have a dream! |
74.
|
You can't restore Guthrie Castle in less than one year! |
75.
|
You can't live off-post (against Army regulations) as a single junior officer! |
76.
|
You can't buck the Mafia…and win! |
77.
|
You can't find anyone that will take GWRI paper in an acquisition! |
78.
|
You can't double GWRI's share price (in a few weeks) in order to make an acquisition in December 1985! |
79.
|
You can't grow GWRI without giving up control! |
80.
|
You can't shove a major energy company out of an acquisition deal while you were a non-player! |
81.
|
You can't run GWRI from Guthrie Castle! |
82.
|
You can't continue to out-trade KIO! |
83.
|
You can't write a Seminar manual in less than four months! |
84.
|
You can't do a Seminar entitled "You Can't Do That"! |
85.
|
You can't start a Wall Street financial planning seminar (TFC) from scratch! (1975) |
86.
|
You can't interest people in the "You Can't Do That!" philosophy! |
87.
|
You can't double GWRI share price in four months from the initial public offering! |
88.
|
You can't write a book (first of a trilogy) in less than 100 days! |
89.
|
You can't build a 18 hole golf course at Guthrie without planning permission! |
90.
|
You can't sue The Financial Times newspaper (arguably one of the most influential financial papers in the world) and win! |
91.
|
You can't coach unsophisticated neophytes to acquire and consolidate fragmented ("cottage") industries! |
92.
|
You can't coach individuals with no financial acumen to engage international accounting and law firms to act on a strict "success orientated" fee basis only! |
93.
|
You can't teach unsophisticated "neophytes" to finance deals at 100% (or more) using debt/equity financing with other people's money (OPM) entirely! And you can't use the same methodology with top 25 world companies. |
94.
|
You can't spread your Quantum Leap Advantage methodology throughout the UK and Europe! |
95.
|
You can't rent Glamis Castle (The Queen Mother's home) for your 50th birthday! |