The Best Player On The ‘92 Dream Team (How To Find Greatness For Acquisitions)
The Best Player On The ‘92 Dream Team (How To Find Greatness For Acquisitions)
A lot has changed in college sports in recent years now that athletes control their own likenesses and can get paid with NIL deals or brand sponsorships. Back in the day there certainly were some under the table shenanigans to get players but there was some sense of fair play in the amateur ranks.
This included the Olympics, where our college basketball players routinely crushed the rest of the world. Over time, however, other countries (who basically fielded professional teams) started to catch up. This being America we didn’t appreciate that so we decided to send the Dream Team, fielding the greatest basketball squad of all time in 1992.
Dream Team, 1992
A lot has been written about the Dream Team’s journey to gold, so I won’t rehash that here. There is one factoid that is pretty awesome that I just learned. Did you know that Michael Jordan was the only player on the team that studied tape of their opponents? The best player of all time still thought it was necessary to put in the work even though there was zero chance they were going to lose.
You want someone like that on your team. A guy or gal who brings their “A” game every time whether it is in business or in sports.
Which Game To Play?
I have been on some great teams. I was in the Army and then I worked at JP Morgan. There were amazing people at both places. I learned very quickly that when you are surrounded by “A” players you can accomplish big things. I could have had a great career in both places but one thing that I saw at JP Morgan put me on an entirely different path. I noticed that most of the clients I worked with had gotten their wealth through owning a business.
When I started to dig deep into exactly how cash flow was generated I saw the “Buy Then Build” playbook being run over and over again. It wasn’t that the people I was helping were super geniuses or anything either. The key was to keep doing what was already working and then accelerate everything. When I realized this, I decided the acquisition game was a sport I could win.
When I made the decision to start buying businesses the first question I had to answer was “Who was the first player on my team going to be?”
The SBA: The Michael Jordan Of Acquisition
The Small Business Association is your best friend in the Acquisition Game. Why? Because you never have to worry about a partnership dispute with an SBA funded loan. If you have a private investor fund 90% of a deal you can rest assured they are going to be communicating with you a ton. It would be weird for them not to be considering that they are bearing a huge amount of the risk.
The SBA doesn’t bear risk in the same way. They are more concerned with compliance. Once you are approved, it is pretty easy to keep them happy. Pay on time and don’t do anything illegal. That is a pretty low bar when you think about it.
Once you figure out the process it is just like having Michael Jordan from the Dream Team onboard. The SBA is consistently great. I will keep getting SBA loans as long as they will give them to me. With their help you don’t need to be a millionaire to get a deal done and you always know what to expect. They are an amazing ally to have on your team and are an awesome step one for going from zero money to a cash flowing business.
