Yacht Lot
Outside our balconies here at the Fairmont in Monte Carlo, are a dozen yachts that come and go, I’m estimating from 100 to 200 feet in length. One has a chopper on the rear deck, which you can see in a photo posted previously. In addition, the nearby marina has a dozen of these monsters docked elbow-to-elbow, like a line in Disneyland, bumpers touching, a $100 million conga line.
This has, as you’d imagine, provoked my metaphorical thinking:
- TIAABB: There Is Always A Bigger Boat. Whether the Sultan of Brunei, a Russian oil magnate (who has his “A” docked nearby, a cross between the Battleship Potemkin and a nuclear sub), or Paul Allen, someone will always add a few feet to claim his is bigger.
- They don’t show up all that well. When there are so many, they are far less unique and noteworthy, just like the Ferraris you quite literally trip over trying to cross a street here. (Porsches are like bikes.) Bumper-to-bumper you can’t appreciate them, and docked out in the bay you can’t see them all that well.
- The ones in the bay require, ironically, an itsy-bitsy little boat to get the occupants to shore! Nothing grand about that entrance.
People who build and buy these yachts have every legal and ethical right to do so, and more power to them, especially if they really enjoy the comfort and transportation, and it isn’t all just for show. If I liked to cruise between destinations I’d probably like to try one myself.
But there’s no sense having something that is purely for show, and appears in places where it’s not so terribly different in any case. You don’t need to pretend you’re a larger company than a solo practitioner (I wouldn’t call it the Summit Consulting “Group” again today); you need to accentual your own strengths, which are agility and personalization, not mammoth size and unwieldiness; and you need to drive things yourself, not with a crew or committee.
There’s a difference between a million dollar mindset and having a million dollars, between being happy and trying to prove that you’re happy, between being outstanding in your field and thinking you have to prove more than that.
Be comfortable in your own skin. That will make for a boat that suits you and a calm sea.
© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.
JP ZHANG
Well said Alan…I will try to translate part of them into Chinese and share with my clients. It might be a bit bad news for the LV handbag makers, but surely appreciated by many young people who live in a VERY materialized transitional period…
Steve
Agreed, Alan. The last time I was in Monaco, I saw no less than five red Ferraris parked side by side at a casino near the waterfront. I thought that was very impressive, until I saw a couple of dozen more in the next fifteen minutes. And you are correct, Porsches are truly the Chevrolet of Monte Carlo!
About the touting of yourself as a solo practitioner…don’t you find that you close yourself off to certain areas of the market as a solo practitioner? I guess what I am really talking about is someone who is not as established and well known as you are…wouldn’t they be closing themselves off?
Wasn’t calling yourself Summit Consulting Group necessary at one time?
Thanks and Cheers –
Steve
Alan Weiss
You don’t “tout” yourself, you simply are honest. Nothing to be ashamed about. You missed my point. I wouldn’t have called it Summit Consulting GROUP if I had realized it was totally unnecessary. People want value, not heft.