John

Seriously, good article!

Look, my business has survived the great recession. It has survived a nosedive in revenues a year ago and now will have more revenues than ever before. With enough effort, we can reach 7-figure revenues next year.

Every single business plan I’ve written turned to dust within a year. That is, all of the projections and marketing plans and staffing plans became nonsense very fast. No one has a crystal ball that works.

We know that we have a service that sells. We know that we’ve done a poor job of selling it. We know that strategic relationships of all sorts now make our future rosy. We know that the technological landscape is changing fast. We know that we can only deal with a limited amount of that change and must choose wisely and/or adapt quickly — preferably both.

The most interesting phenomenon, which I predicted intellectually and now experience emotionally, is that the more successful you become, the more you become concerned about making the right decisions. Success also means more work, lots of it, and more time thinking about strategies and tactics. Too many would-be entrepreneurs just do not understand this. They think that the hard work is getting to success, and that it all becomes easy afterward.

I agree completely that you must seek employees and partners with character. Character to me means honesty and a strong work ethic. It also means being able to absorb the shocks of starting a business, not complaining or finding excuses, rather looking forward and accepting challenges as a part of the good life. You cannot change the past; you can only learn from it.

My third job was with DEC. My boss was considered by many to be a hard-ass. I screwed up early on — don’t recall the details. He called me on the carpet. I merely apologized and said that I learned never to do that again. Conversation over. We worked well together ever since then. The thing is that I truly meant it. I love learning and applying what I learn. I hope that, as a boss, I can emulate that boss.

How do you convince people to take these lessons to heart, to be real?