12 - Management

Summary

I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position.

Charles Swindoll

Entrepreneur’s Diary

I teach a course on entrepreneurship, and I always invite numerous successful entrepreneurs to give guest lectures on the subject. One of my favorite speakers is Greg (PhD from Cornell). Greg was raising money for his start-up venture about the same time I was raising money to start my fish business. Greg is now worth millions of dollars (that is another story), but he retains a casual attitude toward his success. When Greg comes to lecture, he typically wears jeans and a knit sport shirt with a fleece jacket. Greg describes the early beginnings of his company and how he hated big-company corporate structure. You know ... having to report to so-and-so ... following this and that procedure ... properly documenting this and that. Greg started his own company so he wouldn’t have to follow all those rules and do a lockstep with corporate ways of doing things. Well, initially, this approach worked okay for Greg. But, then as his company went from 3 employees to 20, to 100, to 300, he found that he had to follow many of those same corporate rules that he hated before. He was having trouble managing under this new structure. It wasn’t as much fun as it used to be. I asked Greg if it had to be this way. He responded with a slouch to his shoulders and a roll of his eyes.

The majority of this chapter was written by my oldest brother James. He was always to me the smartest person I have ever known. It seems appropriate he would author this chapter on management. Enjoy the chapter; I think it has lots of nuggets of wisdom that you will find helpful sometime in your entrepreneurial career. And thanks, Jim, for sharing your management knowledge.