Accountability | Entrepreneurship, Bootstrapping A Business, Bootstrap Business, Start A Business

Rolling It off the Giants’ Shoulders

Friday, June 6th, 2008

Small businesses have a tendency to grow a little. The founders move out of the garage and into an office. Part-time and then full-time employees start to appear. Business goes well–and then it hits an almost invisible hump. Well before bootstrapping is over, the business is too big for the founders to run on their own. As the giants, the founders hunker down and brace themselves under the heft of the team standing on their shoulders. Somewhere in there, reality strikes. The team has to step forward and the founders have to roll the responsibility onto their shoulders. If the founders hold on too long, they collapse under the weight. If the team steps off early and isn’t ready, the founders watch as their fledgling company crushes their workers. When giants are working with humans, it takes maturity, balance, and vision to keep the company rolling forward.

“It’s tricky for the owners to let go,” Rich says. “You see companies where the owners can’t let go and it crashes and burns.” It takes maturity for a founder to do what is best for the business. Think of it. You’ve lost sleep over this. You’ve sacrificed family time (hopefully not all of it). Whatever it is you’ve done, you’ve poured your heart and soul into your enterprise. If the company grows, you can’t baby it forever–but by the same token, growth isn’t necessarily eternal. Walking that line means making decisions with your head as well as with your heart. You love the feel of that team standing on your shoulders. Each colossal step forward shakes the earth. But giant though you be, you’re still a mortal. Be mature enough to trust your team.

Trusting your team and shouldering the burden is always a delicate balance at first. They didn’t keep a futon in the office for six months. They have a steady income. They haven’t seen everything you have, so shifting the burden starts with little things. “A great example is this monitor,” Rich points out, one that had died a few days earlier. The team member poked his head into Rich’s office and asked what to do. Rich remembers how before, he might have dealt with the problem himself. Now? “What are you going to do about it?” he asked. Obviously the owners keep their eyes on things, but having your eyes on a project is different from being up to your ears in it. Ron adds that “one of the things we’ve also seen is that we’ve got guys . . . who’ve come from more of a corporate background. [Their] initial attitude is, ‘Those guys are the founders. They’ll take care of it.’” Ron shakes his head. “Some of it’s environmental, but some of it’s physiological.” Some team members naturally invest themselves in the survival of the business. Others need to learn. For both, there is only one way.

That way is the vision. Helping your employees catch this vision at the appropriate time keeps things rolling. “So oftentimes people look at the physical compensation,” Rich says. “Typically, that’s the smallest compensation in a company of this nature. What [our team is] using, five-year-college-grads couldn’t get the knowledge.” They need to lose sleep the way the owners lose sleep. They don’t just have to sweat deadlines; they have to sweat bullets. “Give guidance, direction, and incentive,” Ron says. Rewards or profit-sharing programs help take the team from balance to vision. For me, if I stick this out, I have a career path. If I don’t, I putter along and fizzle out. In bootstrapping, make or break is not one day or one deal. Make or break is the whole tenor of the work. Humans have to step down and race forward. Giants have to let work roll onto the team’s shoulders. When that happens, fire doesn’t belong alone to the bellies of the founders. Fire fills the office, the enterprise, and the vision of the future.

Posted in Rich Christiansen, Ron Porter, Loyalty, Bootstrap Business, Accountability, The Team, Peter V. Hilton | Comments Off

Embracing Failure

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

Up until I was about 17 years old I didn’t have to learn too much about failure. I was one of those “blessed” kids that swings through school like it was Saturday morning cartoons. My last year of high school I met a teacher who recognized me for what I was, someone who had never gotten knocked down. What did he do? He gave me the first D of my life. I was shocked, I couldn’t believe that I had done so poorly! I had prepared! Reviewing my paper with another girl in the class I saw that she had done something very similar and gotten a much better grade. I went to my teacher and he explained that I had not risen to my full potential, and that he measured everyone on a scale of what he thinks they can do, not what they have done in the past.

That semester was full of D’s and C’s and yes, even some F’s. It was awful- but I soon learned to embrace what seemed to be my biggest obstacle. I spent the time to get it right, I challenged myself in new ways, and, resultantly, ended up with the grade I wanted and a new understanding of how to push myself. Funny- years of success had resulted in mediocrity, but a few months of failure gave me a chance to find out what I was made of. I’m just grateful that I had that first experience with failure in the playpen of high school instead of in the real world.

What can your failures do for you? As a business owner you won’t get it right all the time. Occasionally you’ll hit a wall- what then? It starts with your attitude. Don’t let your failures define who you are. Just as my failing grades didn’t make me a failing person- your failed business or decision doesn’t mean you are incompetent. It just means you’re human.

There’s another side to embracing failure that requires you to take action. After a failure you can’t just pat yourself on the back and move on. You need to reflect, understand what went wrong, and change. Rich has shared this with me on a variety of occasions, a couple of times in the context of mountain climbing. When trekking in the Himalayas understanding your failures is not something you put off. Making the same mistake twice could mean you’ll never get out- instead, it’s essential to be grateful for survival, and to take immediate action to make sure you’ve changed.

Long story short? Don’t come out of any situation empty handed, whether it be a success or a failure. Make your failures work for you.

embracing

Posted in Rich Christiansen, The Search for Guidance, Mountain climbing, Accountability | 1 Comment »

Why run away from our mistakes?

Thursday, October 25th, 2007

So just a little update about the BMW bumper mishap. Rich called this guy twice and left a message for him, very patiently and calmly, about figuring out what to do. Instead of calling Rich back, he called me on Saturday night. He started getting rather uppity, claiming that he has called my number four times now and that I have never gotten back to him. I told him that he actually only called me once, and that when I received his message I passed it on to my boss, who would now be taking care of the problem, since it is his car. And he said “Well, your boss called me, but I don’t answer numbers I don’t know.” Then he continued to get angry with me, making it out to be my fault that him and Rich had not had contact yet. I figured instead of wasting his apparently precious time talking to me about something that I can do nothing about, he should have just called Rich back. But what I did instead was give him Rich’s cell phone number and told him to call him immediately and that I had done my part and needed to be left out of it from now on. Today Rich called him for a third time and finally got a hold of him so they can deal with this minor incident that has turned into a huge hassle.
Being accountable can pay off. Once two years ago I was driving home to Washington with a roommate. It was dark and late and we were almost there, spending the last part of our trip on back, forest roads in Western Oregon. I was speeding, wanting to be done with the twelve hour drive and because there were no other cars on the road. Of course I got pulled over. When the officer asked me if I knew how fast I was going I said, “Yes, I was going 80″. He then told me that he only clocked me at 79 MPH and that he was going to let me off with a warning because I was honest. Could I have denied that I was speeding and claimed injustice? Yes. Could I have cried like most girls would have? Yes. Could I have begged forgiveness and promised to never do it again? Yes. But cool, calm accountability really paid off. As it has in my life since then.
And honestly, I know what it’s like to not want to deal with something I’ve done wrong. Another example happened just today in the office. Rich had me schedule a flight about two weeks ago for a trip he is taking in January. I noticed later that I accidentally scheduled it for 11/18 instead of 1/18, clearly I misread the date. When I called the booking agency to fix it, they charged $100 for the change of itinerary. I felt absolutely horrible but knew I had to get it fixed. Truly I was a little bit nervous about telling Rich about the added cost. When I explained the situation, and took accountability for it, he said, “Those things happen. I’m just glad you caught it.” And as Erin said, that is why it’s great to work here.
So what have I learned from all this? Being accountable is so much better, because we all make mistakes. Avoiding the inevitable and blaming your mishaps and oversights on others is just showing cowardice and disrespect. Taking accountability is definitely taking the higher road. We all want recognition and praise for the things we do right, so why not also be willing to take the blame and the consequences for the things we do wrong.

Posted in Bootstrap Business, The office, Accountability | 1 Comment »

Archive for the ‘Accountability’ Category

Rolling It off the Giants’ Shoulders

Embracing Failure

Why run away from our mistakes?

Pages

Archives

Categories