When Colonel Sanders franchised his signature fried chicken recipe, he was in his sixties. After years of selling from his roadside restaurant in North Corbin, Kentucky, Sanders decided to try and market the recipe to investors.

He was rejected 1,009 times.

Sanders refused to let the rejection cull his self-belief. In fact, he took it in his stride, and learned something new about selling with each ‘no’. He adapted and developed tenacity. Investor number 1,010 read the passion and willingness in the Colonel’s eyes, and bought into the recipe.

10 years later Sanders was the proud owner of the United States’ largest fast food operation, and KFC was born.

Edison failed over 10,000 times to get his electric lightbulb working, but he refused to see them as failures. He saw them as lessons on what didn’t work.

In presenting your product or service to an investor, not only do you have to show your passion, but prove that you, like Sanders and Edison, are tenacious and adaptable.

Now more than ever, in this rapidly changing world, even the very best ideas have a shelf life, so it is important to communicate your adaptability from day one. Investors are interested in people, and not products. Rebel entrepreneurs must show investors that they have the tenacity to get through uncertain financial periods. 3D4Medical had to adapt in order to remain in business. In fact, we reinvented three times, starting off as a company that licensed 3D medical stock images before it became what it is today – developer of the world’s most successful medical platform.

Einstein famously defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. In order to thrive, we have to keep going, but also adapt.