Assumptions and Donkeys

There was a rancher on his horse in a beautiful Wyoming valley. 

The rancher and his dog seemed to notice a dust cloud in the distance at the same moment.

Within a few minutes the dust cloud turned into a large black Mercedes SUV. The vehicle pulled to a stop next to the rancher.

A man stepped out of the vehicle in a $5000 suit, Italian Loafers (no socks…of course), cufflinks and RayBan Aviators. His hair was perfect, but his teeth were a couple of shades too white. 

The newcomer said hello and immediately offered a simple wager… 

“If I can tell you exactly how many cattle you have in the valley, can I take one of the little ones with me?"

The annoyed rancher replied, "A calf, sure."

The sharp dressed man flashed his blinding smile and opened the back of the SUV where he started a laptop, which connected to the vehicle's hotspot before calling up a series of satellites and zooming in on that exact spot in real time. He then forwarded the resulting video back to a group of analysts at the office and within a few minutes a small printer buzzed to life and printed out a 114 page report in full color.

The man walked over to the rancher, handed him the bound report and proudly proclaimed, " You have exactly 2273 cows out here."

The rancher gave a slow nod and the stranger began to hustle one of the smaller animals into the back of his SUV.

As he struggled, the rancher said, "Mister, If I can guess exactly what you do for a living can I have that animal back?" 

Looking a little less polished after the loading of his very disagreeable new passenger, he confirmed the second wager.

Without hesitation, the rancher said, "You are a Business Consultant."

The visitor curtly responded: "How did you know?"

The Rancher said… “you showed up here without being invited. Then you gave me the answer to a question I did not ask and already knew the answer to. Now you expect to be compensated for it even though you know nothing about my business.”

There was a long awkward silence… 

He then said….Now, let my dog out of your car!

That is a funny story…

All credit to my partner Vince Caine ’s daughter, Emma Claire for that joke… essentially to make fun of Vince and I as consultants!

There’s a great take away in this joke, and I am very guilty of this myself.

When a financial advisor or firm reaches out to me to discuss an engagement, within a couple of minutes, I have already made some assumptions and mapped out what I believe would be their best consulting program.

Imagine the bias that creates on the front end of an engagement!

When I started my business, I operated under the hypothesis that I just needed to help advisors with their Investment Portfolios and Portfolio Management Systems.

I was dead wrong. 

The questions to consider: What assumptions are you making about your clients and prospects?

To clean-up an old saying…

When you assume…it makes a Donkey out of you!

I hope you enjoyed this Saturday Note.

Past Saturday Notes can be found here: Link

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