My amusement and vending career is beginning year 23 in 2004. This March, at age 45, I've officially hit middle age. I frequently look back at my career path, wondering exactly how I found myself in this place and time, and how my opinions and actions have evolved over the years. I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on a few. Some of my early career thoughts are either entertaining, or disillusioned. Maybe you can relate...or maybe you can just laugh.
When I was in my early 20s, like many of us at that age, I knew everything. It drove my dad crazy. Forget the fact that I had been in the business a matter of months and my father had been doing it successfully for 35 years. I was college trained, after all. It was time for some changes. I'm sure many of you can relate to this conversation with your parent/boss.
My opinion today, entering my mid 40s with the full benefit of hindsight, is that I still think I knew a lot more at that age than I got credit for, I just wasn't very diplomatic in presenting it. Age is a natural discriminator both for the young and the old. Luckily, my father let me scrape my elbows a few times, and I'm better for it. He allowed me to put his finances at risk while I learned. I think that would be tough for a parent. Being young and a little cocky, works, as long as you've got someone in the wings watching, ready to reel you in at a moment's notice.
A major deficiency early in my career was that I didn't know what I didn't know. Occasionally, I run into that in business today, people who don't know what they don't know, and thus don't go find out the right answers before taking action. Sometimes that works, but more often it results in an uninformed decision being made.
I know many younger industry members hear similar things from parents and their employers, who in this industry are frequently the same people. There is no substitute for experience. I used to hate to hear that. It's one of the ironies of being in business today. You can't get experience by reading a book. You can't buy it. You have to live it, both good and bad, and it takes time.
No one has all the right answers. The successful (defined in this article as "self made wealthy people") I've gotten to know throughout my life all have one thing in common. They've been right more often than they've been wrong. They're not always right. They've all made business errors.
For years, I always thought that the people who made it did it by making all the right decisions. Not so. Most importantly, they've all made at least one very big decision correctly, and subsequent smaller decisions that didn't undo the genius of the big one, which has lead to the wealth they enjoy today.
I've heard this referred to as a "career flash-point." All of them have at one time or another made a decision that has "put it all on the line."
The difference between very wealthy people and entrepreneurs that have gone broke is actually very little. Both types of people put it all on the line, which is the same first step for both the successful and the unsuccessful.
They go with a gut feeling, and when they're right, it's a great payday. It's a great thing about our country and our system. Anyone can be the big winner. Anyone. And when they fail in one business, they are given the chance to try again, and in some cases again and again and again.
The textbooks are full of immigrants who started out with a dollar and turned it into a business empire. Luck plays a legitimate role too! I don't know too many very successful people that don't feel a little lucky deep down inside.
I was telling a friend the other day that the one big difference between our former small business and our corporate business at Sugarloaf is that the smallest mistakes used to consume us until we fixed them. All else waited.
Budgets waited. Expansion plans waited. Business planning waited. I think once even Thanksgiving dinner waited. If we had machines out of order, or an unhappy customer, we stopped what we were doing and fixed it. If time permitted, we resumed our other activities, but often it did not. There was always another crisis to deal with.
In an environment as large as Sugarloaf, we would be kidding ourselves if we didn't accept the fact that we have significant business issues somewhere that need to be fixed 100% of the time. I feel as though we spend our time identifying the issues and fixing them, rather non-emotionally, most of the time. I think we would have been more effective in our small operation if we had been more like this. The mantra is "fix it and move on." When you think you're overwhelmed, overworked, you look around and see that everyone is just as busy.
Patience is the one theme that resonates when I think of advice I've received. Be patient. I thought, "Who has time to be patient?" I find myself much more patient today in situations than I ever did before. The same events that years ago would have put me on the ceiling now may just require a day or two to sort out.
And it's not necessary to fight every battle. Just the important ones. So hold that blistering email you're about to send for a day or two. It may not even be necessary when you cool down. I think as you age, your decision making process automatically matures.
A major lesson I've learned from observation and experience is that bridge burning is never a good idea. Not with friends, girlfriends, customers, employees, vendors, friends of friends, neighbors, co-workers, never. You just never know. This industry, and planet, is way to small.
One of my biggest fears is that I've burned a bridge somewhere and don't realize it. I could name examples of those whose respectful manner and reputation are a joy to interface with, even when adversarial issues are unavoidable, as well as many more examples of those who, even momentarily, get caught up in their own self imposed, self perceived, self importance.
Ultimately I think it's about being honorable and respectful to others. Job positions, job titles, don't mean a thing at the end of the day. They give you a license to do absolutely nothing other than treat your fellow man with the same respect you would should the circumstances be dramatically different. People with attitudes generally have a day of reckoning of some fashion in their future. You see examples of this everyday in business and in your personal life.
I also think too many people underestimate their own abilities. I frequently see people who have exceptional abilities that would be successful no matter what line of work they were in, but they lack confidence in their own abilities. Maybe it's because my formative business years were spent in Wichita, Kansas, where just about everyone it seemed was an entrepreneur. I've learned that failure doesn't limit your ability to succeed. Pick yourself up and go do it again.
Successful leaders and successful entrepreneurs aren't determined at birth, but rather develop through trial and error which always require a great deal of risk. A little luck helps too. Or, put another way, you have to "show up" and give it a try.
Quality of life has taken on a whole new level of importance for me. Children will do that to you. The days of working seven days per week, and looking forward to Thanksgiving because it will be a quiet day at the office, then working all night, are well behind me.
I remember the first time I thought seriously about talking to my father about selling our family business. I was standing over a ten foot putt, had $5 on the line, and the only thing running through my head was: "We've a bank payment due tomorrow and I've no idea how we'll be covering it."
I missed the putt, and lost the $5. We sold the business. To this day, the absence of personally guaranteed business debt in my life can put a smile on my face just by thinking about it. It happens to many of us in this capital-intensive industry at one time or another. I'm not fearful of debt, but I am fearful about the kind of bad debt that doesn't have a sound business model to pay it back.
I read in a magazine recently an interview with Greg Norman, about what he's learned as a businessman in his lucrative career. He said rule number one is never to guarantee anything personally. Unfortunately, I don't think he's ever been in the amusement business. How do you do that? We never figured it out. I think a factor is that you start with so much money that you have leverage with the lending institution. Of course, that's easier said than done.
I've gotten the rap among some friends that "I travel all the time" with my job. That really irks me. Probably because it's generally true. It's what I do, and what we do. It's a reality of most businesses today. You must be in front of your customers, or someone else will be. I'm out six to eight days per month. Others travel a great deal more. I could surely do without the business travel, but I've decided that life is about trade-offs. I'm not sure the perfect situation exists.
A side bar to this travel issue for me is that a little travel, in my way of thinking, is great for a marriage, especially with children. Everyone gets there occasional space, we all miss each other for the day or two we're apart, and the returns home are right out of the Walton's. I wonder if my wife would agree with that theory?
If you can get up in the morning and say with conviction that you are looking forward to the day, and enjoy what you do, then you're in a good place. Not everyone says that. Actually very few do. Just when you think you want to be your own boss, and you start your business, then your banker calls you and you realize who's the real boss.
The point I'm making is that anyone can find in anything and anyone something
that they don't like. The guy who said be sure you're enjoying the journey
as the destination is not what it's all cracked up to be, to me, couldn't
have been more right on. Today's a gift, and tomorrow is no certainty, and
there are no "do-overs" in life. Starting with the end in mind,
meaning a goal of having no regrets, might be a good way to start each day.