Not long ago, a young entrepreneur reached out looking for advice on investing about $100,000 in a collector vehicle.
He had already settled on an American classic. It wasn’t something he planned to drive very often or at all.
His office is attached to his warehouse, and he wanted something interesting to display. If it appreciated over time, that would simply be a bonus.
As he described what he was looking for, I interrupted him with a question.
“Who are your clients?”
“Mostly successful business owners in their sixties.”
That was all I needed to know.
Instead of discussing the car, I asked where those clients signed their contracts.
“In my office.”
I told him to forget the car.
He had called expecting a conversation about collector vehicles. Instead, I suggested buying a pre-war Harley-Davidson.
The recommendation wasn’t based on auction prices or appreciation charts. Nobody knows what any collector vehicle will be worth ten years from now.
It was based on something much simpler.
A collector car is a wonderful thing to own, but it generally belongs in a garage or a warehouse. A pre-war Harley belongs in an office, where clients naturally gravitate toward it before a meeting ever begins.
People are curious. They walk over for a closer look. Some remember a father or grandfather who rode one. Others have questions about its history. Before long, the conversation has drifted somewhere neither person expected.
Business comes later.
We caught up again recently, and I asked how the motorcycle was working out.
He said almost everyone who came into the office walked over to it. Then he said something I haven’t forgotten.
“The people who sit on that motorcycle seem to be the same people I end up doing business with.”
That wasn’t because the motorcycle sold anything.
It simply changed the first five minutes of the meeting.
Most investments are judged by what they earn. Appreciation, dividends, interest, cash flow. Those are all legitimate measures.
But every so often an investment produces a return that doesn’t fit on a financial statement.
That’s a different kind of return.
And in business, it may be the one that matters most.
