I Never Thought They Would Take My Wristwatch
In 1984 I started a small technology company in Cape Town. We sold terminals and printers to IBM mainframe users, and within a few years we had become one of the most admired suppliers in the South African IT industry.
Then the economy almost came to a standstill in the run-up to South Africa's first democratic election in 1994. Large companies stopped buying. Cash flow dried up, and in 1992 my business closed.
Losing my business and my income was bad enough. But the real disaster came afterwards, when I discovered what the personal guarantees I had signed actually meant.
I had signed those guarantees because, like most business owners, I was told that this was simply how business was done.
Nobody sat me down and explained the raw truth.
They simply asked me to sign.
Nobody explained that if the business failed, the bank and creditors could come after me personally.
I never went bankrupt in the formal court sense. What I did have was a steady stream of sheriffs arriving at my home and taking things away.
One Morning I Sat On The Floor Of Our Empty Lounge And Cried
The sheriffs had been coming to the house for months.
Every visit they carried something else away.
The furniture.
The television.
The office equipment.
Eventually, they even took my wristwatch.
My wife had gone back to work because somebody had to keep food on the table.
That afternoon she came home, sat down beside me on the carpet, and quietly said something I have never forgotten.
“I think God is telling you to take this experience and share it with everybody so they never have to go through it themselves.”
It was probably the most generous thing she could have said.
She had every reason to be as angry as I was.
Instead, she gave my failure a purpose.
Everything I have done since then, from seminars attended by thousands of business owners to this book, grew from that single conversation.
That experience became the foundation of CrashProof Your Business.
Why I’m Giving It Away
The strange truth is that almost nobody wants to buy a book about business failure, personal guarantees, sureties, creditors, banks, cash flow, and protecting their family from fallout.
I understand that. When things are going well, these subjects feel distant. When things are going badly, it may already be too late.
So, for a while, I’m testing something different. I’m giving the complete PDF edition away free.
Inside The Book You’ll Discover
- What personal guarantees and sureties can really mean for you and your family.
- Why a profitable business can still collapse because of cash flow pressure.
- How to separate business risk from personal assets as far as possible.
- Why banks, creditors, landlords, suppliers and partners may not behave the way you expect when trouble arrives.
- How to start thinking about business resilience before the crisis arrives.
What Happens After You Request The Book?
Enter your first name and email address below and I’ll send you the complete PDF.
After that, I’ll send you a short email sequence discussing some of the dangers covered in the book. I’ll explain the ideas in plain English, add some updated thinking, and show how these lessons apply to small business owners today.
You can reply to any of those emails with questions. I still enjoy helping business owners think through these challenges before they become expensive.
Get The Free PDF
Enter your first name and email address below. I’ll send you the PDF edition of CrashProof Your Business, followed by a short practical email series about protecting yourself, your family, and your business from risks most owners are never properly warned about.
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