My father had secondary education that matched how he grew up: in the “school of hard knocks” and Dad-jokingly, his school colors were black and blue.

We entrepreneurs get bruised too.

We meet people or they are referred to us deemed hot prospects and after an exciting first qualifying call or zoom chat, they are enthusiastically ready for a proposal, and then…you know what’s coming next…nothing.

Crickets.
Ghosted.
No reply to next steps.

Ouch. That two-way street of enthusiasm is only one-way.

And then after no more than 2 additional contacts (three strikes and yer out!), they may or may not reply with “I’ve gone another direction.” or “My spouse said no.” or worse, “It’s not in the budget.”
And I think in my bruised ego-head, “What other direction are you going other than nowhere further?” or “I am not coaching your spouse.” or “And it was in the budget last week?”

So we get bruised but we are not broken. We must heal and grow and resupply the funnel and then repeat the sequence. Hopefully with lessons learned and more serious prospects after vetting them better.

And once in a while the prospect does break the skin and causes a trickle of blood to form and we put a Band-Aid on it and heal but those take a little more time.

And that Band-Aid, as you can see from the graphic, sticks there until we are no longer oozing, so we can bring home the proverbial bacon from others who appreciate our craft and unique POV.