I've been watching Dragons' Den for a long time now, but one thing never ceases to amaze me. I'm talking about the entrepreneur who just won't listen.
On this week's show we met Frank Santiago, founder of Jitterbee, a shakeable pancake mix. Although Santiago got traction with his product early on, recent years have been hard. Santiago has invested $80,000 to get Jitterbee on grocery story shelves, yet last year had only $3,600 in sales.
The Dragons were unanimous. Not only did Santiago not get a deal, the Dragons urged him to stop investing money in his company.
But here's the kicker. I hear it week after week. Upon leaving the Den, Santiago said, "I'm going to keep going. I won't stop until the river runs dry."
Why, oh why?
You have five of Canada's leading business experts urging you to stop (Kevin O'Leary sometimes "forbids" investing another dime), and yet these entrepreneurs insist on persisting.
It's like those delusional contestants on American Idol who audition but clearly can't sing. When the judges break the news to the hapless contestant, it's as though they're hearing it for the first time. They insist that they CAN sing. Everyone in their lives agrees! Conclusion: The judges must be wrong. That's right, Randy and Steven Tyler and J. Lo must be wrong.
I guess it's human nature to believe what we want to believe.
But the American Idol judges aren't wrong. Neither are the Dragons. They're the experts. And when we have the opportunity to be in the presence of experts, we ought to do ourselves a favour and listen to their advice. Especially when evidence appears to be hitting us over the head.
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