Five Stories – One Lesson

By on March 19th, 2010

The finale for Season 5 of Dragons’ Den was devoted to the 5 constant figures in the Den, the five Dragons. The show was titled Path to Riches and went through the story of how each Dragon reached their current success.

What was especially fascinating about the show was that while discussing 5 unique stories, they all contained a single common lesson.

  • All five Dragons came from modest roots.
  • All five Dragons worked hard to get to their current positions.
  • All five Dragons had to rely on themselves.

Brett Wilson talked about his roots with family, how at one point, he let his family take second place to financial success, and learned the hard way why a person shouldn’t do that.

Arlene Dickinson talked about her roots of growing up in poverty, being a single mom with 4 children, with no formal education or training. She earned her way to the top of Venture Communications.

Jim Treliving and Kevin O’Leary both talked about the downside to working for someone else, not being in control of your own destiny.

Robert Herjavec talked about family values, and how you don’t get a free ride in life.

If you’re planning on pitching your business to the Dragons, you should really watch this episode. If you wonder why the Dragons act the way they do, the answers are all here. The key points, though, are that:

  • You have to believe in what you’re doing
  • You have to have worked hard to get to where you are
  • You have to know what your business is about

Besides that, you also need to know the following, which will help you get closer to a deal:

  • What is your company’s current financial condition (get out that balance sheet)?
  • What were your revenues in the past?
  • What are your projected revenues, and how did you figure that out?
  • Who would buy your product?
  • Who are you competing with?
  • Why does anyone care about your product (this goes back to the first point in the previous list – you have to believe in what you’re doing)?

Related posts:

  1. A Lesson in Marketing
  2. Dragons' Den Special Holiday Episode
  3. Looking for a Business Mentor
  4. The Value of an Idea
  5. Investor Takes a Bite Out of a Business
Categorized under: Advice for Small Business Owners, dragons den, Work at Home.
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  • paul__sullivan

    Hey Elie, great post.

    The key message I took from the show (from three of the five dragons anyway), was that money can't buy happiness. Seems like Kevin O'Leary and Jim Treliving are able to get by with what money brings ;-)

    Also, your message on knowing your numbers is critical. I read another article on how Brett Wilson grills the entrepreneurs mercilessly regarding their financials & their projections, but that is typically edited out of the segments.

  • http://blog.optimalupgrades.ca Elie

    You're absolutely right regarding the other lesson not mentioned here – you need to define happiness, and for most people, money is merely a route to getting there.

    The editing really does put odd spins on the pitches. Robert can apparently be as aggressive as the show depicts Kevin to be, Kevin isn't as nasty as he's portrayed, and often information is left out of the final cut that can really change the perspective on a pitch (see my post from last Friday, and the first comment for an example).