[Music]
thank thank you Alan let me give you a
little background on why we that’s the
title of the talk my great-grandfather
started our family business in 1896 and
and and I’m the fourth generation in the
family business and up until the 70s it
was basically a regulated monopoly and
as all of you know the bail system was
broken up in the 70s and quite frankly
we lost our biggest customer who was 25%
of our revenue but a hundred cent of our
earnings and so there was only one thing
to do and that was to try to sell our
way out of the problem so I approached
my grandfather about about banking us to
do this and he was good enough to let
bill scott and I start building
businesses but shortly after he agreed
to fund us a really good friend came to
us and tried to talk us out of it and
and he had been really I think
instructed by our competitor to try to
talk us out of starting this business
and he knew I had a you know such a love
for dogs I’ve always had bird dogs and
so he used this analogy he said Bubba
let me tell you something it’s really
easy to make a million dollars raising
dogs on paper but it’s really hard to do
that in the real world
ok and so today what I share with you is
we’ve probably been fortunate enough to
either back or look at hundreds of
business plans
hundreds of financial models and an old
friend and boy member of ours here bill
Parr used to say this whenever we would
make a presentation he said Bubba it’s
going to take twice as long and twice as
much money as you think to build this
business and what I would share with you
today and even though I know these rules
ok I know him I have them by my own
business plans in all of the businesses
that we’ve been involved in there’s all
have been to businesses that actually
were started and and delivered on time
and on budget what they said they were
going to do so so I would also share
with you that there’s never been a
other time if any of you were thinking
about starting your own business these
are all little tidbits that you can take
away and it may be in these those
snippets you’ll think about them as you
build your business but there’s never
been a better time in my lifetime to
start a business cloud computing is
accepted now enterprises will buy from
startups you can start a business you
know on five or six million dollars
that’s what it used to take just to
build the data center that you were
going to put your stuff in and buy the
equipment so there’s never been a better
time the the next little thing I will
share with you is that we’re in a unique
situation and that there’s never been
four generations in the workplace before
but the one thing that’s consistent
across all four of those generations is
they want to know what you stand for so
my advice to you is to create a value
system for your business
lay out the goals you won’t but be able
to articulate what you really stand for
so that when you recruit people to work
with you or you’re out selling customers
everybody’s consistently knowing what
you’re doing and we believe this so
strongly that we’ve got it in a
tombstone at the front door of the
building and this is what we stand for
and we put it there so if there are
customers coming in they can hold us
accountable to it if they’re employees
that are looking for an opportunity to
work with us they know what we stand for
and as we walk by it every morning when
we go to work we know we’ve got to live
up to that value system if we’re going
to build kinds of businesses that we
want to build the the second piece of
advice I’d give you around that value
system is finds you a partner if you’re
going to start a business
it is lonesome doing it by yourself and
I put this little phrase over there you
could talk yourself into doing anything
and we all know that we’ve all done that
and I go back and reflect on my business
career where I’ve had a partner that
would challenge the thinking that we
would we would shut the door and have a
heated conversation but when we open
that door we like to arm-in-arm and went
forward we made the most money when I
had that partner and I lost the most
money when I didn’t so I highly
recommend that you consider that this is
something I can teach my grandboy Zhai
actually we were up in the mountains
about a week ago it
I tell them I said boys when Donna is
gone what is the one thing y’all gonna
remember Donna I said he said we will
become who we hang out with so you pick
your friends very carefully and I say
the same thing at a business environment
you need to recruit people that you
believe have the same values you have
and you will build a substantial and
significant business I really believe in
having a board you need some trusted
advisors you need to have them around
you where they can counsel you and by
the way there’s a lot of great people
that’ll do this for nothing but if you
give them a little stock in your company
or options in your company you can
actually have them really interested in
helping you be successful and it’ll keep
you from just making some really dumb
mistakes we have another saying is and
this is the real criteria of meeting
with the CEOs that we’re going to invest
within it and the cheap chief the
central management team is that we
always bet on the jockeys and we don’t
bet on the horses okay and I will tell
you we’ve got a policy that before we
invest in a company we take the spouse
of the CEO and the and the executives
out to dinner because what we’ve learned
over the last 40 years is they you’re
going to spend as much time with the
people at work as you do at home quite
frankly and and and if you go do that
you’ll get to watch and see how that
person treats their spouse which is
going to be exactly how they’re going to
treat the associates they work with
after they get comfortable with them the
this next point I have to give you a
little story to explain what it means
the need to love and they need to be
loved and all the folks that work with
me know I use this term all the time in
different situations but when I was a
young guy about 25 years old we had
about 130 operators that worked at the
phone company that switched all the
calls and I started hearing rumblings of
room of union rumbles and and we’ve
never had a union and there wasn’t a law
there was a lawyer over Birmingham dick
Walton who would take you as a client if
you didn’t have a union and so I took
our lawyer and we go over to Birmingham
and I sit down with dick Walton and dick
asked us a lot of questions and then he
said to me he said cam I want you to
understand there’s only two things that
make the
around the need to love and the need to
be loved well you know I says you go
away and you you know think about what
we’ve talked about and you come back in
a couple of weeks but what I want you to
do is to go home and have a meeting with
the operators and I don’t want you to
bate anything I don’t want you to bate
with them and we should write down
everything that they think could be
better at work put it on a piece of
paper so I did exactly what he said
although I will tell you when I got to
the street with the lawyer I said we
paid that guy to tell us that you know
this and so he said yeah and so we we
actually came home and did what he said
okay husband knowing to me my dad
decided that he was going to redecorate
the operating room now I know this is
going to be hard for you to believe but
the operating room was four walls that
were concrete block okay it was in the
center of the phone company and it was
really stark and my dad decided this’ll
date how long ago it was
he decided we were gonna put these corks
queires on the walls and then he was
going to build a curtain across one wall
and that curtain would actually simulate
that there was a window behind it even
though the curtain was closed and it
wouldn’t make the room feel better well
lo and behold that’s what he did I
didn’t have any idea he was gonna do
that and then about two weeks later I
did what dick Walton told me to do I got
the operators back together again and we
started down the list and I’ll never
forget the first thing that was on the
first list and how the second
conversation went the first time we met
the first thing that came up was one
operator said I like for us to be able
to drink Coca Cola’s at the switchboard
and remember dick told me don’t object
so I wrote it down didn’t say a word I
say I’m thinking of myself like you
gotta be kidding but I but I didn’t I
didn’t say that so two weeks later we go
back and we start down that list and I
said the first thing on the list is we
ought to be able to drink Coca Cola’s at
the switchboard and one operator before
I could say anything she said that’s the
craziest idea I’ve ever heard of she
said if somebody spills of coke in the
switchboard we’ll all be out of the job
and I got to put my kids to school she
said I absolutely don’t think that’s a
good idea
No and all the other operators said well
we vote no to well guess what happened
every one of those issues got solved
without me opening my mouth okay and I
and it dawned on me
my dad had gone in to decorate the
operating room and the and the operators
were saying cam jr. cares about us okay
and all the things that were problems
two weeks before vanished they weren’t
problems anymore so this is a very very
powerful concept that need to love and
the need to be loved and it’s got to be
genuine it can’t be made up it can’t be
people see through all that so it’s kind
of really be genuine I’ll tell you one
more story real quickly around that same
concept we backed about six years ago an
outstanding executive from Greece and on
Sunday afternoon one day we shook hands
on the deal and we invested and we’ve
never invested in a company from Greece
before actually hardly outside the
southeast and on the way home my partner
was with me and he said on the way home
the entrepreneur I asked he said look
how long do you think he’ll take clothes
I said we’ll probably take 120 days 130
days and I saw the blood comes raining
out of his face and I didn’t understand
why and I waited a few minutes to ask
him I said you know left terrace why did
you ask me that question he said well I
have a seven-year-old son at home and I
was hoping to get home for Christmas
this was about the middle of November
well when we laid him out in the car at
the airport I called the lawyers and
said look we need to close this deal
before Christmas where this guy can get
home and of course the lawyers response
was well that’s impossible we can’t
possibly close this deal that quick I
said yes you can
they said how do you even know he has a
son I said look nobody wouldn’t make
that up you guys get this deal closed
well guess what we did and he got home
for he got home for Christmas and from
that relationship we created a real bond
with each other personally and if you
think about it here here we are now
building a company we’ve got probably
six companies that are that have
employees in Greece they’re probably 60
or 70 employees in Greece that are
coding and working every day for our
companies but it was really because we
had a bond that I trust you and you
trust me and so if you think about it
had you and I’ve been in Greece we
would’ve loved to get home for
kids so I just can’t tell you how
important this is and make sure it’s
genuine free cash flow is all that
matters I can’t I can’t overemphasize
this if you were losing money and by the
way we have businesses that are losing
money if you’re losing money here on
somebody else’s time and on their agenda
and and the one thing I say about this
is don’t confuse that your bank and your
credit cards or equity those guys expect
to be paid back that’s not equity loans
from your family is not equity they
expect to be paid back so free cash flow
is all that matters and you need to have
a plan that gives you cushion to get to
free cash flow because why it’s gonna
take twice as long and twice as much
money as you think when you start okay
the next one the next one is you came
out crook a crook especially if you
aren’t one okay and and so I’ll tell you
this because you know if you’re not a
crook you don’t think like a crook okay
and when you find yourself in business
with a crook you need to get out as
quick as you possibly can I have a great
story here where we got in business with
a guy and he was a card-carrying crook
and we realized that we got out and we
lost about a quarter of a million
dollars no more than a year later this
big huge opportunity surfaced a bunch of
our friends got in business with him we
didn’t we actually started a competing
business to what he was doing and lo and
behold he took all their money and
bankrupted the company and we ended up
building a substantial public company
simply because we didn’t allow ourselves
let’s see here the next one is big boys
and little boys can’t play together and
I and I use this analogy you think about
it in grammar school we had kids playing
on a playground but they all kind of
migrated to a different place the little
boys get in one place the medium-size
kids get another and the large boys
getting another and the reason is
because they can’t play together because
somebody’s gonna get hurt and what I
share with you is that the same thing is
true in business when you’ve got to
start up business it is really tempting
when some big successful brand comes
along and
hey I’d like to partner with you my
suggestion to you is don’t do it now you
say well well why do you say that camp
well look I’ve tried it twice and it
didn’t work either time and so I’ve
learned that lesson and you don’t need
to learn it it’s just really hard but
you’re flattered because you think this
big brand is going to want to work with
you the truth of it is there are a
different agenda than you are they have
different budget cycles they have
different timing the people turnover and
here you are trying to get the positive
cash flow as fast as you can the rule of
78 this is I love recurring revenue
businesses and this is an important
concept for you to learn and understand
the rule of 78 so let me give you the
perfect example if I sold one item each
month for a year for $100
what would my revenue is assuming I had
no churn what would my revenue be that
year seventy eight hundred dollars and
the reason is that seventy eight hundred
billing months in a year so if you build
a customer engine I sell one in January
a billion for eleven twelve months I
sell one in February I build him for 11
months I said I wanted March I built him
for 10 months you see what I’m saying
you add that up it’s 78 billion months
so as you review business plans or you
write your own just do just do the quick
test how many I got to sell a month
what’s the price how many Billy much do
I have and you could pretty much figure
out what your revenue is gonna need to
be the the correlations are big boys and
little boys is you can’t do 50/50 deals
I’ve never seen that be successful
somebody’s got to be in charge and I’ve
got a great story around this we were
doing a 50-50 deal in South Carolina and
negotiated a 50/50 deal although we
don’t do them so right at the closing
table I said to the founder on the other
side I said look we can’t do a 50/50
deal and he said I knew this was too
good to be true I knew I knew something
was going to happen I said no no hold on
there I said we want to take our 1
percent and give it to the guy that’s
gonna run the business so you’re gonna
earn 50 we’re gonna own 49 and he’s
gonna own one and about two weeks went
by and this guy’s name was
he’ll get you he called me up and he
said linear I didn’t understand what you
were doing he said now that God doesn’t
call me at all he calls you every night
he said you gave him the one point I
said look pill somebody had to be in
charge and so he’s in charge not you and
me he’s in charge so I highly recommend
don’t do 50/50 deals the next thing I
would tell you right quickly is the
first 50 million is the hardest revenue
you leverage generate if you get the
company 250 million you can’t stop it
from going to 100 but that first 50
million a lot of things are going to
change the employees are going to change
issues are going to change customers are
going to change customer services gonna
change a whole lot of things are going
to happen while that’s going on I think
we got time well let me say this the the
people ask a lot of times what is it cam
that you you know you’d recommend we
watch or listen to I were a big believer
in the sastra podcast I listened to him
almost every morning there about 18 to
20 minutes and I listened to a lot of
them multiple times I’ve got them
bookmarked and then and then that two
books that I think he really ought to
read if you’re gonna build a business or
if you’re gonna be in business and one
of them is is the richest man that ever
lived this is a this is a book about
business we actually give this to all of
the managers of our businesses when we
start on where we invest in them we
challenge them to read this and help us
build a business around the core values
that are exposed in this book and
they’re really based on the book of
Proverbs I highly recommend it the other
thing that I wish I had known earlier in
my business career I’ve been exposed to
as a book called a sociopath next door
this is a little bit frightening 125
people in this country is actually a
sociopath now that doesn’t mean they’re
a killer what that means is they have no
conscience it means that they will take
advantage of you they will throw you
under the bus they don’t care about you
they’re normally attractive they’re
normally articulate they don’t have long
term relationships
if you marry one you probably won’t stay
married very long because they they just
don’t bond and so until I understood
reading this book I had places in all my
business career where I didn’t
understand certain people and after I
read this book
I could almost go back and go he was one
she was one he was one he was one and
and so I highly recommend that she read
that book thank you all for letting us
be here today
[Music] [Applause]
thank thank you Alan let me give you a
little background on why we that’s the
title of the talk my great-grandfather
started our family business in 1896 and
and and I’m the fourth generation in the
family business and up until the 70s it
was basically a regulated monopoly and
as all of you know the bail system was
broken up in the 70s and quite frankly
we lost our biggest customer who was 25%
of our revenue but a hundred cent of our
earnings and so there was only one thing
to do and that was to try to sell our
way out of the problem so I approached
my grandfather about about banking us to
do this and he was good enough to let
bill scott and I start building
businesses but shortly after he agreed
to fund us a really good friend came to
us and tried to talk us out of it and
and he had been really I think
instructed by our competitor to try to
talk us out of starting this business
and he knew I had a you know such a love
for dogs I’ve always had bird dogs and
so he used this analogy he said Bubba
let me tell you something it’s really
easy to make a million dollars raising
dogs on paper but it’s really hard to do
that in the real world
ok and so today what I share with you is
we’ve probably been fortunate enough to
either back or look at hundreds of
business plans
hundreds of financial models and an old
friend and boy member of ours here bill
Parr used to say this whenever we would
make a presentation he said Bubba it’s
going to take twice as long and twice as
much money as you think to build this
business and what I would share with you
today and even though I know these rules
ok I know him I have them by my own
business plans in all of the businesses
that we’ve been involved in there’s all
have been to businesses that actually
were started and and delivered on time
and on budget what they said they were
going to do so so I would also share
with you that there’s never been a
other time if any of you were thinking
about starting your own business these
are all little tidbits that you can take
away and it may be in these those
snippets you’ll think about them as you
build your business but there’s never
been a better time in my lifetime to
start a business cloud computing is
accepted now enterprises will buy from
startups you can start a business you
know on five or six million dollars
that’s what it used to take just to
build the data center that you were
going to put your stuff in and buy the
equipment so there’s never been a better
time the the next little thing I will
share with you is that we’re in a unique
situation and that there’s never been
four generations in the workplace before
but the one thing that’s consistent
across all four of those generations is
they want to know what you stand for so
my advice to you is to create a value
system for your business
lay out the goals you won’t but be able
to articulate what you really stand for
so that when you recruit people to work
with you or you’re out selling customers
everybody’s consistently knowing what
you’re doing and we believe this so
strongly that we’ve got it in a
tombstone at the front door of the
building and this is what we stand for
and we put it there so if there are
customers coming in they can hold us
accountable to it if they’re employees
that are looking for an opportunity to
work with us they know what we stand for
and as we walk by it every morning when
we go to work we know we’ve got to live
up to that value system if we’re going
to build kinds of businesses that we
want to build the the second piece of
advice I’d give you around that value
system is finds you a partner if you’re
going to start a business
it is lonesome doing it by yourself and
I put this little phrase over there you
could talk yourself into doing anything
and we all know that we’ve all done that
and I go back and reflect on my business
career where I’ve had a partner that
would challenge the thinking that we
would we would shut the door and have a
heated conversation but when we open
that door we like to arm-in-arm and went
forward we made the most money when I
had that partner and I lost the most
money when I didn’t so I highly
recommend that you consider that this is
something I can teach my grandboy Zhai
actually we were up in the mountains
about a week ago it
I tell them I said boys when Donna is
gone what is the one thing y’all gonna
remember Donna I said he said we will
become who we hang out with so you pick
your friends very carefully and I say
the same thing at a business environment
you need to recruit people that you
believe have the same values you have
and you will build a substantial and
significant business I really believe in
having a board you need some trusted
advisors you need to have them around
you where they can counsel you and by
the way there’s a lot of great people
that’ll do this for nothing but if you
give them a little stock in your company
or options in your company you can
actually have them really interested in
helping you be successful and it’ll keep
you from just making some really dumb
mistakes we have another saying is and
this is the real criteria of meeting
with the CEOs that we’re going to invest
within it and the cheap chief the
central management team is that we
always bet on the jockeys and we don’t
bet on the horses okay and I will tell
you we’ve got a policy that before we
invest in a company we take the spouse
of the CEO and the and the executives
out to dinner because what we’ve learned
over the last 40 years is they you’re
going to spend as much time with the
people at work as you do at home quite
frankly and and and if you go do that
you’ll get to watch and see how that
person treats their spouse which is
going to be exactly how they’re going to
treat the associates they work with
after they get comfortable with them the
this next point I have to give you a
little story to explain what it means
the need to love and they need to be
loved and all the folks that work with
me know I use this term all the time in
different situations but when I was a
young guy about 25 years old we had
about 130 operators that worked at the
phone company that switched all the
calls and I started hearing rumblings of
room of union rumbles and and we’ve
never had a union and there wasn’t a law
there was a lawyer over Birmingham dick
Walton who would take you as a client if
you didn’t have a union and so I took
our lawyer and we go over to Birmingham
and I sit down with dick Walton and dick
asked us a lot of questions and then he
said to me he said cam I want you to
understand there’s only two things that
make the
around the need to love and the need to
be loved well you know I says you go
away and you you know think about what
we’ve talked about and you come back in
a couple of weeks but what I want you to
do is to go home and have a meeting with
the operators and I don’t want you to
bate anything I don’t want you to bate
with them and we should write down
everything that they think could be
better at work put it on a piece of
paper so I did exactly what he said
although I will tell you when I got to
the street with the lawyer I said we
paid that guy to tell us that you know
this and so he said yeah and so we we
actually came home and did what he said
okay husband knowing to me my dad
decided that he was going to redecorate
the operating room now I know this is
going to be hard for you to believe but
the operating room was four walls that
were concrete block okay it was in the
center of the phone company and it was
really stark and my dad decided this’ll
date how long ago it was
he decided we were gonna put these corks
queires on the walls and then he was
going to build a curtain across one wall
and that curtain would actually simulate
that there was a window behind it even
though the curtain was closed and it
wouldn’t make the room feel better well
lo and behold that’s what he did I
didn’t have any idea he was gonna do
that and then about two weeks later I
did what dick Walton told me to do I got
the operators back together again and we
started down the list and I’ll never
forget the first thing that was on the
first list and how the second
conversation went the first time we met
the first thing that came up was one
operator said I like for us to be able
to drink Coca Cola’s at the switchboard
and remember dick told me don’t object
so I wrote it down didn’t say a word I
say I’m thinking of myself like you
gotta be kidding but I but I didn’t I
didn’t say that so two weeks later we go
back and we start down that list and I
said the first thing on the list is we
ought to be able to drink Coca Cola’s at
the switchboard and one operator before
I could say anything she said that’s the
craziest idea I’ve ever heard of she
said if somebody spills of coke in the
switchboard we’ll all be out of the job
and I got to put my kids to school she
said I absolutely don’t think that’s a
good idea
No and all the other operators said well
we vote no to well guess what happened
every one of those issues got solved
without me opening my mouth okay and I
and it dawned on me
my dad had gone in to decorate the
operating room and the and the operators
were saying cam jr. cares about us okay
and all the things that were problems
two weeks before vanished they weren’t
problems anymore so this is a very very
powerful concept that need to love and
the need to be loved and it’s got to be
genuine it can’t be made up it can’t be
people see through all that so it’s kind
of really be genuine I’ll tell you one
more story real quickly around that same
concept we backed about six years ago an
outstanding executive from Greece and on
Sunday afternoon one day we shook hands
on the deal and we invested and we’ve
never invested in a company from Greece
before actually hardly outside the
southeast and on the way home my partner
was with me and he said on the way home
the entrepreneur I asked he said look
how long do you think he’ll take clothes
I said we’ll probably take 120 days 130
days and I saw the blood comes raining
out of his face and I didn’t understand
why and I waited a few minutes to ask
him I said you know left terrace why did
you ask me that question he said well I
have a seven-year-old son at home and I
was hoping to get home for Christmas
this was about the middle of November
well when we laid him out in the car at
the airport I called the lawyers and
said look we need to close this deal
before Christmas where this guy can get
home and of course the lawyers response
was well that’s impossible we can’t
possibly close this deal that quick I
said yes you can
they said how do you even know he has a
son I said look nobody wouldn’t make
that up you guys get this deal closed
well guess what we did and he got home
for he got home for Christmas and from
that relationship we created a real bond
with each other personally and if you
think about it here here we are now
building a company we’ve got probably
six companies that are that have
employees in Greece they’re probably 60
or 70 employees in Greece that are
coding and working every day for our
companies but it was really because we
had a bond that I trust you and you
trust me and so if you think about it
had you and I’ve been in Greece we
would’ve loved to get home for
kids so I just can’t tell you how
important this is and make sure it’s
genuine free cash flow is all that
matters I can’t I can’t overemphasize
this if you were losing money and by the
way we have businesses that are losing
money if you’re losing money here on
somebody else’s time and on their agenda
and and the one thing I say about this
is don’t confuse that your bank and your
credit cards or equity those guys expect
to be paid back that’s not equity loans
from your family is not equity they
expect to be paid back so free cash flow
is all that matters and you need to have
a plan that gives you cushion to get to
free cash flow because why it’s gonna
take twice as long and twice as much
money as you think when you start okay
the next one the next one is you came
out crook a crook especially if you
aren’t one okay and and so I’ll tell you
this because you know if you’re not a
crook you don’t think like a crook okay
and when you find yourself in business
with a crook you need to get out as
quick as you possibly can I have a great
story here where we got in business with
a guy and he was a card-carrying crook
and we realized that we got out and we
lost about a quarter of a million
dollars no more than a year later this
big huge opportunity surfaced a bunch of
our friends got in business with him we
didn’t we actually started a competing
business to what he was doing and lo and
behold he took all their money and
bankrupted the company and we ended up
building a substantial public company
simply because we didn’t allow ourselves
let’s see here the next one is big boys
and little boys can’t play together and
I and I use this analogy you think about
it in grammar school we had kids playing
on a playground but they all kind of
migrated to a different place the little
boys get in one place the medium-size
kids get another and the large boys
getting another and the reason is
because they can’t play together because
somebody’s gonna get hurt and what I
share with you is that the same thing is
true in business when you’ve got to
start up business it is really tempting
when some big successful brand comes
along and
hey I’d like to partner with you my
suggestion to you is don’t do it now you
say well well why do you say that camp
well look I’ve tried it twice and it
didn’t work either time and so I’ve
learned that lesson and you don’t need
to learn it it’s just really hard but
you’re flattered because you think this
big brand is going to want to work with
you the truth of it is there are a
different agenda than you are they have
different budget cycles they have
different timing the people turnover and
here you are trying to get the positive
cash flow as fast as you can the rule of
78 this is I love recurring revenue
businesses and this is an important
concept for you to learn and understand
the rule of 78 so let me give you the
perfect example if I sold one item each
month for a year for $100
what would my revenue is assuming I had
no churn what would my revenue be that
year seventy eight hundred dollars and
the reason is that seventy eight hundred
billing months in a year so if you build
a customer engine I sell one in January
a billion for eleven twelve months I
sell one in February I build him for 11
months I said I wanted March I built him
for 10 months you see what I’m saying
you add that up it’s 78 billion months
so as you review business plans or you
write your own just do just do the quick
test how many I got to sell a month
what’s the price how many Billy much do
I have and you could pretty much figure
out what your revenue is gonna need to
be the the correlations are big boys and
little boys is you can’t do 50/50 deals
I’ve never seen that be successful
somebody’s got to be in charge and I’ve
got a great story around this we were
doing a 50-50 deal in South Carolina and
negotiated a 50/50 deal although we
don’t do them so right at the closing
table I said to the founder on the other
side I said look we can’t do a 50/50
deal and he said I knew this was too
good to be true I knew I knew something
was going to happen I said no no hold on
there I said we want to take our 1
percent and give it to the guy that’s
gonna run the business so you’re gonna
earn 50 we’re gonna own 49 and he’s
gonna own one and about two weeks went
by and this guy’s name was
he’ll get you he called me up and he
said linear I didn’t understand what you
were doing he said now that God doesn’t
call me at all he calls you every night
he said you gave him the one point I
said look pill somebody had to be in
charge and so he’s in charge not you and
me he’s in charge so I highly recommend
don’t do 50/50 deals the next thing I
would tell you right quickly is the
first 50 million is the hardest revenue
you leverage generate if you get the
company 250 million you can’t stop it
from going to 100 but that first 50
million a lot of things are going to
change the employees are going to change
issues are going to change customers are
going to change customer services gonna
change a whole lot of things are going
to happen while that’s going on I think
we got time well let me say this the the
people ask a lot of times what is it cam
that you you know you’d recommend we
watch or listen to I were a big believer
in the sastra podcast I listened to him
almost every morning there about 18 to
20 minutes and I listened to a lot of
them multiple times I’ve got them
bookmarked and then and then that two
books that I think he really ought to
read if you’re gonna build a business or
if you’re gonna be in business and one
of them is is the richest man that ever
lived this is a this is a book about
business we actually give this to all of
the managers of our businesses when we
start on where we invest in them we
challenge them to read this and help us
build a business around the core values
that are exposed in this book and
they’re really based on the book of
Proverbs I highly recommend it the other
thing that I wish I had known earlier in
my business career I’ve been exposed to
as a book called a sociopath next door
this is a little bit frightening 125
people in this country is actually a
sociopath now that doesn’t mean they’re
a killer what that means is they have no
conscience it means that they will take
advantage of you they will throw you
under the bus they don’t care about you
they’re normally attractive they’re
normally articulate they don’t have long
term relationships
if you marry one you probably won’t stay
married very long because they they just
don’t bond and so until I understood
reading this book I had places in all my
business career where I didn’t
understand certain people and after I
read this book
I could almost go back and go he was one
she was one he was one he was one and
and so I highly recommend that she read
that book thank you all for letting us
be here today
[Music] [Applause]
Please follow and like us: