NFA Finance

Most people think the car business is about cars.

After 25 years in it, I can tell you that’s not true.

The car business is about people.

The cars just happen to be sitting in the middle.

Over the years I’ve bought thousands of vehicles.

Sold thousands more.

Financed customers.

Collected payments.

Handled service issues.

Solved problems.

Listened to stories.

And somewhere along the way I realized I wasn’t really learning about cars.

I was learning about human nature.

One of the biggest lessons I learned came from the buy-here-pay-here business.

People think you’re financing a vehicle.

You’re not.

You’re financing a person.

Two people can drive the exact same car.

One will make every payment on time.

One won’t.

The difference usually isn’t the vehicle.

It’s the person behind the wheel.

That lesson changed how I looked at business.

And honestly, how I looked at life.

The longer you’re around people, the more you realize success has very little to do with talent.

It has a lot more to do with habits.

Responsibility.

Discipline.

Character.

Follow-through.

I’ve watched people with every advantage in the world struggle.

I’ve watched people with almost nothing build incredible lives.

The difference was rarely intelligence.

It was usually the decisions they made every day.

The car business also taught me something else.

Everybody is carrying a story.

The customer buying a $3,000 car.

The customer buying a $100,000 car.

The mechanic.

The banker.

The salesperson.

The business owner.

Everybody has a story you can’t see.

A divorce.

A health issue.

A dream.

A failure.

A comeback.

A fear.

A goal.

When you’re around people long enough, you stop judging them so quickly.

You realize most people are doing the best they can with what they have.

The other thing I learned is that people want to be heard.

More than anything.

Most customers don’t remember every detail of a transaction.

But they remember how they were treated.

They remember whether you listened.

They remember whether you respected them.

And that applies far beyond the car business.

The older I get, the more I believe business is simply people.

That’s it.

Whether you’re selling cars, real estate, insurance, software, or coffee.

It’s people.

Understand people and everything gets easier.

Ignore people and everything gets harder.

Twenty-five years in the car business taught me a lot about vehicles.

But the most valuable lessons had nothing to do with cars.

They were lessons about trust.

Responsibility.

Character.

Relationships.

And human nature.

That’s what I’ve really been studying all these years.

The cars were just the classroom.

— Nick Francis