People leave messages with Warren all the time about wonderful ideas for a business they want to start. Whenever possible he meets with them or calls them back to (1) test their ideas against reality and (2) assess their motivation. At first he makes a real effort to talk them out of  “it.” When an idea is real and the motivation strong, he supports them as they launch their business. But it  doesn’t always work that way. Here is one of those stories. 
       A friend (Andrew) called Warren to tell him about a friend who wanted to start a recycling business. Bill (not the real name) had a heart problem (not the real medical condition), but wanted to start a business picking up the great things people set on their curbs for trash (this is the real idea). Bill had decorated his home and sold many of the items rescued from the landfill on eBay. He thought there was a potential for a good business. 
       Bill and Warren got together for about an hour to discuss the idea. Bill’s heart condition and car made it difficult to rescue large items, but Bill had salvaged pictures, small appliances, chairs and many other household items. Bill had already made several hundred dollars selling items to friends. In the discussion Bill mentioned a need for money by the church Bill attended. Bill also talked about a friend who had a big barn. Bill had an interest in blue grass music and had actually developed several blue grass festivals. 
       Warren made several suggestions: (1) Contact the church to develop a source of labor and people who had a truck. Their volunteer effort could be used to generate funds for the church. (2) Talk to the friend about using the barn to store items salvaged. (3) Consider developing a festival as a fund raising event to launch the project. We scheduled a time to get together again to evaluate progress. No charge for the first meeting, this time. That probably was a mistake. 
        The second meeting was postponed – several friends couldn’t make it. It was rescheduled at Andrew’s house. No one else came. Andrew was late. Bill and Warren continued the discussion, fleshing out details. The church was interested, Bill thought. The friend with the barn sounded excited, but wanted money. Bill worked for a car/truck dealership part-time. Maybe something could be worked out. BVR had some grant money that might be available. The bluegrass festival sounded like a lot of work. Maybe too much work. The charge this time was for Bill to send ten people to Chimorel’s website and give Warren feedback about what happened. 
        Within a few days Warren received the following feedback. About six people had been contacted with one email essentially saying, “Check this out, giving our website. I’m interested.” The BVR contact thought Chimorel was a multi-level scam. The church pastor wondered what Chimorel was. No one else seemed to have bothered. Obviously, Warren needed to make some improvements to the website. Maybe Bill needed to take the assignment more seriously. 
       Another meeting was scheduled. It was harder to get down to specific planning this time. Bill was going to be writing a business plan for BVR. There were now four possible businesses, including the recycling idea. Warren did a little reality testing for each idea. The assignment this time was to set up a meeting with one business for Warren’s business. Bill decided which business to contact. 
       About two week’s later Warren sent Bill an email asking about progress. Bill eventually replied. He was busy writing the business plan. Warren could call the business if he wanted. Partial contact information was provided. BVR eventually put several thousand dollars in to Bill’s project, helping him set up an eBay business. After a while Bill thought eBay took too much work. Nothing much actually happened. We expected Bill to do some work to set up a flea market event for us. We are still waiting.