The fight for the strongest guarantee

What do you think about warranties?

Are they necessary? Do they make sense as a customer? Are they worth adding to your offers? What types of guarantees are there?

Let’s add some context:

In life, the most guaranteed thing is that we will die. We don’t know when, we don’t know where, but we know it will happen at some point.

I know, it sounds “deadly”, but that’s the reality.

The better we understand how things are in reality and accept certain circumstances that we cannot control, the more advantaged we will be throughout life.

But if we were to refer only to this, the next question probably comes: ok, and if we die anyway, what’s the point of it all? Why do we do anything?

Look, I don’t want to get too deep into life philosophies. The purpose of life is not a general one valid for all people. Each of us gives a purpose to our lives, and those who have a strong purpose are those who do not need other guarantees. Because they will do everything possible to achieve their goal, multiple times if necessary, without fear of failure.

But not everything we do and not everything we buy is necessarily related to this goal.

Sometimes we just live. Or we need entertainment. Or we want to test and try new things.

We love New Experiences. But we often have a very big perception problem: that only the best things should always happen to us.

But we know that it is not always possible.

And it wouldn’t be nice if life were like that.

I mean let’s think a little, what would life look like if it was always “pink”?

If we didn’t have hard times, upsets, challenges, obstacles, and if we were never exposed to pain or other unpleasant feelings, how would we really know how to enjoy the good times?

In everything there is a duality. It’s the principle of polarity. Of course, for some the pain is more intense than for others. Some cope with pain more easily. Others adapt quickly to pain, to fear, to distress. And they manage to overcome any obstacle, no matter how difficult it is.

But when it comes to material things or some experiences, we’ve been used to guarantees.

Somehow you expect that when you buy a product you have a guarantee.

Or when a service is delivered to you, likewise, you expect to receive guarantees.

And your customers in turn expect you to offer guarantees.

But is it a healthy approach?

Let’s see…

The first forms of guarantees appeared with the emergence of the economy, since antiquity, from the time of Ancient Egypt. Among the oldest forms of guarantees is the Code of Hammurabi (1754 BC), which included a series of written laws with provisions related to guarantees and collateral. At that time, collateral was physical goods, animals, objects, land.

In Ancient Rome, guarantees became more sophisticated. Until an obligation was fulfilled, ownership of an asset was temporarily transferred to a creditor.

But enough with the history lesson. Let’s get back to the present.

Yes, the guarantee is healthy because the world perceives it as something standard. Practically, economic operators are obliged by law to offer the money back within a maximum of 14 days, if the buyer decides to return the product. In the case of services, there is no such obligation, but each service provider may or may not offer a number of such guarantees.

In Romanian online businesses, most entrepreneurs want guarantees when it comes to their money.

They are willing to invest money, but they do so with some uncertainty. And this uncertainty is rendered by an inner feeling caused by fear.

Why are they afraid?

Or rather, what causes their fear?

There can be many reasons in between, and some of the types of fear I have played in this video.

Sometimes fear comes from ignorance. That is, you have some confidence and understand that you need to do certain actions to achieve a desired result, but you do not know exactly how certain things are done. Or you don’t know why it has to be this way and not the other way around. Or you don’t know if it’s good to do it this way, or if it’s the best, economical and (at the same time) profitable option.

And so, you start to lose control. And the feeling of insecurity arises. This feeling is very common in people who have the creative (entrepreneurial) spirit in them, but they never do anything. They just come up with a lot of ideas. They think, they procrastinate, they plan… they want everything to turn out perfectly… and in the end they give up before they even start because they realize they are not prepared enough.

But can you ever be ready enough?

In any case, the conclusion is simple: he must assume it. So do I, so do you.

When I was employed in the marketing department of a top real estate agency in Cluj, I took a breath of fresh air outside the headquarters. And next to me was the owner of that agency who had also taken a cigarette break. He was a respectable man, always groomed and dressed in a suit, with an imposing attitude (one of the city’s millionaires). I remember even now one very important thing that he said to me very, very unpredictably: “Andrei, you know what the biggest problem is with people today? That he does not assume.” And that marked me.

Once you accept that you can fail, only then are you truly empowered to make potentially positive change in your business. If you are guided by fear, this feeling will subconsciously affect your actions, decisions and results. And paradoxically, with all the guarantees in the world, you will fail.

Warranty makes sense under some conditions. It’s normal to want to be able to return a product if you bought it and it was defective from the factory. That’s a meaningful guarantee.

But is it normal to want you, as a service provider, or you, as a client, to want to achieve extraordinary results, without assuming anything in life and expecting mega guarantees to be 100% safe and have absolutely nothing to lose?

So anyone could try to create an empire. But the reality is different.

And in some areas or domains, the guarantee is just a nice word to soothe the feeling of panic before you press the “buy” button after adding your card details.

Don’t get me wrong: caution is very important in business.

It is important to be cautious so as not to get impaled. Because the moment you take a stake is painful. But it doesn’t hurt that you lost your money. Not at all. You don’t even think about that money anymore because you quickly come to terms with the idea that you won’t see it anymore. But what really hurts is that your ego bleeds.

“HOW COULD I BE SO NAIVE?”

It’s funny (on the outside) and sad (on the inside) at the same time.

There are many spikes and sometimes you can’t get rid of them with all the caution in the world. I say this because I myself have been pricked. Serious. It happened at the end of 2023, when my business was doing very well. We were earning very well. I ended up making even 3000 lei in an hour from providing marketing services. I was on a roll. And since I earned so well from providing services, I also had an active portfolio of cryptocurrencies and kept investing to double or triple my investment. And just then, blinded by those gains, I was approached by a person who lured me to gradually invest amounts of money in a cryptocurrency platform where it seemed that I could earn 10, even 100 times better and faster than in others. And because I was on the wave, I ended up investing up to 12,000 euros in that whole story.

Of course my face fell when I realized that it was all a scam and that I lost all my invested money. And you know how I reacted? POKER FACE. I was actually super careless about that money, even though I worked for it. It hurt me for a moment because I (an extremely cautious person) suffered one like this. But I controlled myself very well. Others think they were getting depressed or losing their zest for life. It was an experience that made me stronger.

I said the following to myself: “I got angry. I redo them 10 times just for the hell of it, because I know I can. And then this financial loss will mean nothing.” Said and done. The following months I continued the work and made all the money very quickly, because I forced myself to have an iron will. That’s where I came up with this idea for the new webinar: “How I earned 100,000 lei in just 3 months, without working more”. Because that’s exactly what happened this year. And last year the same. And then, I decided to come up with a free super training myself and start helping more people achieve such gains. But not necessarily from marketing. But from anything, as long as it’s legal and can work well with the methods I’ve used for myself and my clients.

But notice how all these things have a contrast and make the story much more interesting. That’s why it’s good to have negative moments in life, with the mention of knowing how to enjoy them too, not just the positive ones 🙂

One of my mantras is this: “I have the ability to control and channel my emotions in the direction that serves me best.” Because the main enemy standing in the way of any person’s success is the mind.

And do you think I had any guarantee that I would succeed in all this? Not. Could I lose more? Yes.

But you have to get over the setbacks very quickly. You have to fail fast. Maybe you get it the first time, maybe not. If you are alone, without guidance, without help, the journey will be more arduous. There will be many difficulties. You might not even be able to handle them. Who knows? It’s just you with you most of the time. You must continue to live with yourself and accept yourself with the good and the bad.

Do you think it’s easy to live with yourself after making such a blunder? Possibly not. But is it worth blaming yourself for the rest of your life because you chose to see “what if…” instead of just sitting around thinking about “what if…”? Definitely NOT.

That’s a lesson I learned a long time ago, but it’s a topic I’ll discuss another time.

So you still want guarantees? Do you still offer warranties?

Guarantees won’t save you from the inevitable. In fact, if you knew for sure that something would work no matter how much time and effort you put in, would you still need a guarantee?

The guarantee is an excuse for those who want to have an excuse when they fail.

In reality we know very well that everyone wants to have results and success. But if they want and know clearly that they will have them, why do they need a guarantee?

“Burn the ships.”

Enter Spartan mode. The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés did this to motivate his soldiers to win the war of conquest of the Aztec Empire. He made this decision to eliminate any possibility of retreat, forcing the troops to fight to the end. And this crazy idea made him win. This victory had a significant impact on the history of Latin America.

Is it a good approach in business too?

Certainly. When you have too many options and too many excuses, you tend to brag. You know that if it doesn’t work now, it will at some point. But in business sometimes it’s like a war or a jungle. Wins who is fiercest, who is most determined to win and who comes up with the best strategy, properly applied.

Will you offer guarantees to your customers?

It depends. It depends on what you are selling. It depends on the type of client you have in front of you. Be prepared with a guarantee because not everyone has a gladiator spirit. Not everyone wants to be a champion. And then, come with guarantees. Guarantee them the best services. Money back if they don’t get what they want. Guarantee their success (even if it’s not entirely up to you). Some will want you to guarantee them success at all costs, even if the helm is in their hands. Maybe you shouldn’t bother with them in the first place, but maybe you have a certainty that it will work.

Can you count on them to do everything in their power to be successful? Not. That’s why you need to put conditions on the warranty. You see.. many want to win but are not willing to pay the price. Many want fame, fortune, freedom… but how many are willing to make a sacrifice? How many will be willing to work to see their dreams come true? How many will want to invest time, money, energy to get what you guarantee?

Here are some tough questions.

But you will manage. With a little proper guidance you will make the best decisions. The important thing is not to waste too much time on this journey because time is a limited resource and as I said at the beginning of this letter… you will die at some point. But before you die, live!

Stay strong!

Andrei Isip