Resources Versus Resourcefulness

I tell this story from stage frequently. And I think it is an appropriate time during this virus mess to remind everyone about the difference between having resources and being resourceful.

This is what separates the true entrepreneurs from the wannabe's.

Cole originally named the company Kenneth Cole Incorporated in September 1982 and planned to showcase his new line of shoes during market week at the Hilton New York Hotel. This being the biggest showcase in the world.

Finding that he could not afford to purchase a hotel room or showroom to exhibit his line (lacking resources), he borrowed a truck and asked the mayor’s office for permission to park two blocks away from the Hilton Hotel in front of a fancy shoe building (being resourceful).

The mayor's office said "Um.. No"

The mayor's office told him that permits were only granted to utility companies and production companies shooting full-length motion pictures.

Now if he had sent one of his employees out to do this, they would have come back and told Kenneth, "nope, can't do it."

Being Resourceful

So, lacking in resources but not lacking in being resourceful, Cole changed the name of the company to Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc., got some letterhead printed up and applied for a permit to shoot a full-length motion picture entitled “The Birth of a Shoe Company”.

With Kenneth Cole Productions painted on the side of the truck, they opened for business, in front of 1370 Avenue of the Americas. They had a fully furnished forty-foot trailer, klieg lights, a director, a rolling camera, models as actresses, and two NYPD policemen as doormen.

A velvet rope allowed a limited number of people into the trailers and in two and a half days they sold forty thousand pairs of shoes. The company remains Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. to this day to honor this unusual beginning.

WWWD and WWVD?

Walt Disney was famously short on cash (resources) during the construction of Disneyland. So much so, that he could not landscape the entrance.

It was just weeds.

So he had his art department create some signs with the Latin names of the weeds, and then stuck them in the ground. Voila! Instant landscaping!

Now, WWVD? (what would Vance do?)

Like many small businesses, we lacked resources (cash) during the first few years. But I was not short on being resourceful. Going door to door to door to get carpet cleaning clients. I used every minute of my day marketing to my target audience.

Yes, even then, I did not want to be cleaning carpet for the "Two 3 hundred pound lesbians, sitting on the front porch of their single wide trailer, drinking moonshine with their three legged dog running around the pole that flew the confederate flag"

To be clear, I have no problems with lesbians, illegal spirits, over weight people, dogs with missing appendages or those living in trailers. But this was a house I did not want to clean.

In this time of crisis, take stock of your resources.

If you are lacking in resources, time to be resourceful.

You need to be ready to be back in business.

Remember, you won't profit unless you implement,

Vance "resourceful" Morris