Your Business Is a Story – Don’t Let It End Like This

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I’ve just come off a full week of training with the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation in Johannesburg and Durban, diving deep into the undercurrent that quietly makes or breaks growing companies: cash. Not the headline-grabbing revenue numbers, not the next sexy funding round… just solid, boring, beautiful cash.

We spent time unpacking tools that are deceptively simple but devastatingly effective. Like the cash conversion cycle – how long it takes from investing in stock or effort to seeing money land back in your bank account. Like the idea of annuity income – recurring, reliable revenue streams that don’t require you to resell your value every month. And, of course, the Power of One – the remarkable compounding impact of a 1% improvement across price, volume, margin, receivables, payables. Tiny tweaks that seem negligible in isolation, but when they align, can change the trajectory of your business.

It reminded me of something else I saw unfold on a very different kind of stage. When Game of Thrones first aired, it was a masterclass in storytelling. Complicated characters, political intrigue, moral ambiguity… it was gripping. The early seasons had a slow burn, a careful build, and the confidence to delay payoff until it mattered. And then, in the final season, it all collapsed. Fans were outraged. Characters made baffling decisions. Plot arcs unravelled in the space of two or three rushed episodes. And the ending, so long anticipated, felt shallow, unearned. It was a mess.

Why did it all go so wrong?

Turns out it was a perfect storm. George R. R. Martin, the original author, hadn’t finished the final books in the eight years since they started making the show. He got distracted… by the fame, the attention, the sideshows. The showrunners, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, were suddenly forced to go off-script, to stop adapting and start creating. At the same time, they’d been offered the ultimate Hollywood prize: a Star Wars trilogy of their own. Faced with that temptation, they rushed the final season. They tried to wrap up a decade-long story arc in just six episodes. And in doing so, they exposed something uncomfortable: they were brilliant translators, but they weren’t great original creators. Their weaknesses, once shielded by the source material, were now on full display.

The fallout was brutal. Not only did they lose the loyalty of millions of fans, but the very prize they’d chased – the Star Wars contract – was taken off the table. A rushed ending. A reputation in tatters. And no new franchise to show for it.

It’s a story I see echoed in business all the time.

Consider what happened to USIT, once a global player in student and youth travel. Flush with ambition, they acquired Council Travel in the US. It was a big move into corporate travel. They were extending their brand, leveraging their balance sheet, trying to scale. But then came 9/11. Flights stopped, travel evaporated, and their cash position imploded almost overnight. Bonding requirements surged. Lenders backed away. And suddenly, what looked like a bold growth play became a fatal cannonball. Within months, they were bankrupt, and the empire they had built collapsed into fire sale and acquisition. In South Africa, the company I worked with at the time picked up a few of their shops at bargain basement prices. The story stayed with me, and served as inspiration for my book The 3 Sins of New Leaders.

In both cases – Westeros and USIT – the early wins were real. But the leap into untested terrain, without the right buffers or structure, exposed cracks that had always been there. And in both cases, the temptation of the “big opportunity” blinded them to the slow, steady work still required.

Which brings me back to the Power of One. Because it’s not just about financial literacy – it’s about mindset. The entrepreneur who knows that small 1% gains, compounded across pricing, conversion, margins, and terms, can create real, sustainable traction is the same entrepreneur who doesn’t need to chase the Star Wars contract. They’re not gambling the farm on untested assumptions. They’re building a business that works, even when the plot gets messy.

There’s a difference between momentum and mastery. And the only way to earn the latter is through patience, discipline, and a ruthless commitment to testing before scaling.

The truth is, most of us will face our own version of that Game of Thrones moment. The source material runs out. The market shifts. The temptation comes knocking. And when that moment hits, it’s the foundations we’ve built, or failed to build, that will determine what comes next.

So keep an eye on your cash. Build in buffers. Protect your runways. Look for 1% gains instead of Hail Mary wins. And never mistake early success at translation for the skill of original creation.

Your story deserves a strong ending. Don’t rush it. 

PG’s Pro Tip:

Before you fire a cannonball, test your bullets.

Whether you’re scaling into new markets, taking on a huge new client, or shifting your business model, don’t let momentum trick you into skipping the testing phase. Small, consistent improvements – your Power of One – will always beat a dramatic gamble in the long run. And if the source material dries up? Make sure you’ve built your own playbook by then.

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