Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship gave me an education no classroom could provide.

There is no guaranteed paycheck.

No organizational safety net.

No one to blame.

Only decisions.

I learned that companies don't grow unless their leaders grow.

I learned that cash flow isn't an accounting term.

It's oxygen.

 I learned that good people can become bad partners when they stop moving toward the same future.

And I learned perhaps the most important entrepreneurial lesson of all:

Reinvention isn't failure. Sometimes it is the prerequisite for survival.

At one point, I helped build a manufacturer's representative business that was struggling badly. The market we knew was no longer the market we needed.

So I went looking for a different game.

We moved into passive telecommunications components, an entirely new industry. I flew to Las Vegas, found manufacturers willing to take a chance on us, and rebuilt the business.

Revenue improved.

Margins improved.

The company survived.

Eventually, I sold it.

But the real value wasn't the exit.

It was learning that when circumstances change, you don't have to remain loyal to the business model that created the problem.

You can reinvent.

That lesson has followed me through every venture since.