Broke Dude Starts Sailing School with $6 Bucks

It does NOT take money to make money...

True Story:

Anthony Sandberg was a sailor who wanted to change the world in some small (or big) way.

It was just after the Vietnam war and sailing was a sport reserved for the rich.

A young ambitious Anthony wanted to make it a sport for every person regardless of their economic class by starting a reasonably priced sailing school.

With more courage than cash and after spending the bulk of his savings on a $6 business license.

He needed at least ONE SAILBOAT.

Makes sense?

After all, he wanted to start a SAILING SCHOOL!

And he wanted to start it NOW, not after he saved up a fortune, or improved his credit only to take on a fleet of debt.

What did Anthony do?

One day on a walk in the Berkeley Marina he noticed that a marina is NEVER empty.

There are always boats docked.

He understood marinas are filled with boats owned by people who don't know how to sail or care for them.

(I call this a Trash Can or Under-utilized Asset)

And THEN he got a crazy idea:

… to "borrow a boat".

His idea was to OFFER (action verb) to teach the owners how to sail and take care of their boat if they would let him use it for his new school during the week.

I'm sure like anyone else, he came up with 15 reasons why he shouldn't go make the offer?

Like, would they really fork over the "keys" to their expensive boat, in exchange for a few lessons from a "nobody"?

Maybe it was knowing that the "leverage" he needed wasn't going to be found in any library?

...or maybe it was because he was tired of eating tuna every night?

I dunno?

But...

He made the OFFER.

Every day at the beginning...

He'd walk up and down the marina making "the offer" to sailboat owners.

Faster than the wind changes direction...

One client became two, then three, then five and his little sailing school soon became big.

Fast forward to today...

And Anthony Sandberg, a regular dude with a dream, owns OCSC Sailing School... one of the largest bootstrapped sailing schools in the world.

...with a fleet of over 50 yachts and 75 employees (in 2017) and fulfilling his dream of making sailing accessible to many more people.

All started on a $6 business license, no debt and the brass ballz to boldly make offers.

Rooting For Ya,
Travis

PS I'd love to hear your take on the moral of this true story.