Even with the best of intentions and hard work, sometimes our plans and desires just did not work out like we had hoped. By Gary Shotton #000383

Click Here to download in audio (.mp3 format); right click on link and select “save as”

Click Here to download in video (.mp4 format); right click on link and select “save as”

It Didn’t Work Out

By Gary Shotton

Hello, my name is Gary Shotton, and I am here as a part of Inspiring Better Business. Today we are going to talk about “It Didn’t Work Out” you know a lot of times when you hear somebody talk, all you hear is there successes and of course you want to hear how things worked out. How things worked out at the last minute and everything was good and how faith worked. But you know the reality to this whole thing is that it does not work out perfect every time. Well, if you watch very many of our lessons you will probably know by now that at one point in my life i started a move moving a storage company. Using a horse trailer and the horse traders pulled behind my car and it has got its own story how that happened, and I owned that for 17 years before I sold it.

I jokingly but truthfully say sometimes I guess; I was a slow learner because I was learning so many things in this moving and storage business about people. About the way you collect money how to do accounting, I mean there was so many things that I learned. It was my school of hard knocks, but reality was I had a plan to own mini-storage units, and this was back in the early 1990’s. And in truthfully known when I first talked to a bank about mini-storage units, they did not really know what a mini storage was.   So, I was ahead of the curve and I think god was leading me in that and I must tell you up front that I never owned a single mini storage, so it did not work out. I was driving on a main road in my hometown, and I felt the lord leading me as I was thinking about mini-storage unit business had my plans.

I was looking for some land, I was not out looking for a land. I am just driving back from the airport along the main highway, and I really felt the lord lead me just a real subtle turn left and go down. What is called 21st street and I go down and sure enough they are on the corner is a big empty lot about five acres. I look out there and there is an older gentleman mowing the grass he is on a big tractor or a tractor with what is called a brush hog. He is out there mowing it and I pulled up and he pulled up beside me and you could have thought this was somebody that was hired to mow the grass with this tractor but no his first initials. I will not give his last name, ut he went by FL and by those initials and he stopped the tractor had his cowboy hat on and pretty hot day and he gets off his tractor and says hey I asked him say do you know who owns this land.

He said, “I do” and I said, “would you be interested in selling this land” and he said “yes”.  Remember, it was not three or four minutes before that the spirit of GOD. I had felt that said turn left and go down there and I pull in and in five minutes. I am talking to somebody that wants to sell land that would be perfect for a mini storage and so I kind of get excited, but you know I get to know this miss older gentleman and basically, we start down the deal. He said sure I would love to put him in storage here in fact I will sell you the land and I will finance the land so that you can pay me after you get going man. This is a deal made in heaven and so I proceed on with uh the plans and I know what to do. I think and I there is ordinances and construction permit and I hire and pay for a commit to pay for an engineer to design the ability to get the utilities.

There I pay for what is called a soil sample, so they can design the building structure correct for I can contract and committed to pay for other engineering fees related to building this ministorage. All on the belief that I am building a mini storage because I went to the bank and i had the bank and they said this sounds like a pretty good deal and so they had a letter of intent telling me that they would loan me $877,000 on this mini storage project. Because they knew that the land was that, if it failed, they could also take up the land and so they had collateral. There I have the letter of commitment I have the everybody is working down the road and suddenly. We have a problem from the architect is design for the ministorage he really misled the construction cost.

Because he made things a little more elaborate than they needed to be, instead of the proposal being at $877,000 is like $1,100,000.   The bank did not like that, and I would not either. So, I proceeded to work with the architect and take some things out not things not necessary and we got it down really close to that $877,000. But the bank got cold feet they realized that Gary did not have any risk at this, because I was basically using collateral for the land as the down payment for the $877,000 loan. Frankly, this is a little bit of a big loan for me at that point was probably part of the problem, but the bank pulled out after I had made over $50,000 of commitments for and was work was done soil sample engineering, my goodness and this did not come at a good time.

So, I am just telling you that I never built that many storages I never built a mini storage I had so many plans and hopes and desires. I could see that if I was going to have a master plan for more than one mini storage, I had a master plan actually for a large number of mini storage units. And I had a plan that was going to involve long-term storage, short-term storage anyway to move I was calling it call secured the name move mart just like Walmart or drug mart or pet mart. Anything you want it all hinged around this mini-storage location and that was my anchor spot I had another spot picked out. I had a third thoughts picked out and I had already surveyed the possibility of going to other cities nearby. I am going to knock it down did not work out well I wish I could tell you that it was all great.

Because I over the deal got sued on something was misunderstanding with this architect. I had to settle with him now my name is in the you know in those in the business section it was not on the front page as just a lawsuit. It happens it is not like the end of the world to get sued it is a way of resolving a misunderstanding and we resolved that over time, you know be honest with you I was pretty heart-broke, and it really redirected my course because that did not work out. I can see why in many ways and I could go into it but the truth of the matter was i had felt the spirit of god lead me. I had some strong indications I had worked down the path but, probably was ahead of my game i probably and i do believe that I was not at that what i teach now is grow slower and go step by step.

I was biting off way too much at once and probably if I had secured that it was, and I can drive right by there right now. After I got through and they did not pay me for any of this expense because they had their own people do it and they built a mini storage there. But I know enough about it that they had problems with that many storages were the way they built it so maybe god was leading me but maybe god was protecting me but at the end of the day I did not quit. I kept on going and I am telling you when it does not work out do not think you know you are disappointed you go into your quiet space and cry a little bit just wipe the tears off clean up take a nice shower stand in the shower and cry there if you want to do not let on continue to let God rule in your life reign in your life. And it too shall pass it will get better well I hope you understand that I am being honest with you here and I want you to do well in your business. And if every single time it worked out, I would be surprised thanks for being a part of Inspiring Better Business.