here's a cliché in our world of buying businesses:

You have to submit 3 LOIs before you close your deal.

And another:

A deal dies 3 times before it closes.

These are obviously approximations; every searcher's mileage will vary.

But they point to a core, unhappy truth about buying a business:

‍Broken deals are part of the game.

On your journey to buy a business, you are exceedingly likely to invest and lose: time, money, and perhaps most costly of all, hope.

Part of being successful at this game is managing all three so that you don't exhaust any of them before you get your deal over the finish line.

But, if you're a regular listener of Acquiring Minds, you probably already know all this.

Countless guests have referred to their broken deals.

Well today, I wanted to have on a searcher who just went through this. I know Nick Wheeler personally, and had been getting updates on his search.

Including his landscaping deal, which looked like a great business, and a great business for him in particular.

Well I also got his update when that deal died.

And I asked Nick, would you come on the pod to share what a broken deal looks & feels like as it's happening?

He generously obliged, so today you get to see this infamous "broken deal" phenomenon up close.

I think we all agree that showing the good and the bad in this messy, unpredictable world of buying small businesses is valuable, and the experience Nick shares here is definitely that.

He does a great job calling out lessons & takeaways as he goes.

My own takeaway from this conversation is the power of attitude. All of us, both in search & in life, can learn from Nick's perseverance and good humor in response to a maddening episode.

Here he is, in-the-trenches searcher Nick Wheeler.