Teach Me Restraint

I was hanging out with my friend last week and he was telling me about the startup company he works for and how they had dug themselves into a bit of a hole. Long story short, they had received a commitment by an investor for one million dollars. In the midst of all the excitement, they had evaluated the company and determined that they needed to hire three new people to keep the company expanding.

So they did just that. Within a couple of weeks they had three fresh new hires. Here comes that hole they dug. When it came time for that check to come in………never did. The investor backed out at the last minute. Problem my friend was having is that all of these new hires are family men who need the money to support their families and he was having hard time with the idea of letting them go.

In the end all the top guys at the company decided to take a pay cut so that they could keep these guys on while finding another investor. But what it taught him was a lesson in restraint and making sure the money is there before spending some or really any of it.

I know I have found myself in that position before (not with a million dollars) and his story only reminded me once again that restraint is a key tool in living life, supporting a family, running a business or even a creative project and many other things.

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