Posted by Mary the milkmaid was going to market carrying her milk in a pail on her head.
As she went along, she began calculating what she would do with the money she would get for the milk.
“I’ll buy some fowls from Farmer Brown” she mused, “and they will lay eggs each morning, which I will sell to the parson’s wife. With the money that I get from the sale of these eggs I’ll buy myself a new dress and a hat; and when I go to market, all the young men come up and speak to me! Jane will be so jealous, but I don’t care. I shall just look at her and toss my head like this.”
As she spoke, she tossed her head back, the pail fell off it, and all the milk was spilt. So she had to go home and tell her mother what had occurred.
“Ah, child” said the mother: “Do not count your chickens before they are hatched!” And here ends the most important lesson for any young business. Think back to that proper job you had, not the paper round as a kid, or that summer job in the shop. That first real job after you had grown up and ventured out into the world. When you go that very first pay-check at the end of your first week or month. Do you remember?
How quickly did you spend every penny? It’s a life lesson blowing your first pay- check- it’s what sets you up for all the forthcoming years. And it’s all the more important when it comes to your first internet business or entrepreneurial venture. Your whole future track can be set in those first few months. As you are working towards that first payday, are you already thinking of how you are going to spend it? Once you’ve sold that first app or launched that new social media site, are you already thinking of that sports car or swanky riverside apartment? You can already feel yourself slipping into that cosseting seat and turning the key to hear that V8 rumble as you sweep off heading straight toward the next thing on your list.
But if your killer idea doesn’t take off, and you’ve used all your venture capital funding, that sports car isn’t going to look so sexy on the back of the truck the lease company has sent to take it back.
You just made the same mistake our young milkmaid did…
Dream big but don’t let it veer you off the slow and steady path to the bigger picture.
You counted your chickens before they are hatched…