Many of us headed into the world of entrepreneurship with visions of grandeur. We think about the exit in a few years where we receive more money than we can comprehend and we go live in Vail for the rest of our lives.
Then about halfway through the third day we look and simply ask WTF? After that, we begin to question what success actually is at some point. Our friends aren't scooting off to Vail either and we realize that it is a lot harder than it is sold to look like.
The handbook of success is a very limited edition print item, and I certainly haven't come across it. So this begs a very specific question. What defines success for a local business owner?
That is what I am tackling this week. It is a very person thing, and a conversation that I love to have with people.
Stories of boom and bust are frequent in the world of Texas oil and gas. Fortunes have been made and lost in the blink of an eye. Some more spectacular than others.
The Houston area is a hub of these stories. Not all companies are created equally as far as business acumen, strategic planning, and risk management are concerned, and Houston has seen some massive booms and busts.
As the dot com economic bubble was occurring through the late 1990s, many of these oil and gas companies were producing big results as well. They were not at all related to this technology craze, but the general euphoria spread its wings across many sectors of our economy. Money was flowing EVERYWHERE.
One company in particular in Houston was growing like mad. By all visible monetary accounts, they were crushing it. They were trading natural gas in a newly deregulated market in one of the main hubs of that commodity in the US. Their success looked like a straight line to the penthouse! Money was flowing everywhere.
This particular company was a darling of Wall St. The stock soared and the employees who were sitting on the stock saw their personal net work explode during the run up. They worked hard and trusted management, and they were being rewarded handsomely.
One thing that had not been done by the leadership was to uncover what success really looked like for not only their company, but their employees as well. It was assumed that money was the only scorecard of success, so all was good, right?
The executive leadership of the company had a problem. They were so desperate for the money scoreboard to show they were successful that they ended up cooking the books. They didn't really know what mattered most underneath some amount of wealth.
When scrutiny and oversight was finally applied to Enron, the house of cards came crashing down. The collapse was so legendary that they made a movie about the smartest guys in the room. The employees went from having personal wealth to none in a blink of an eye.
We are talking about success this week on The Porch, and how to define it for you and your customers. Money is always a component of our lives, but for true success to occur it is simply a symbol of what you are truly chasing. When you uncover that, work becomes easier.
Grab the coffee. Join me as we look at how to define and obtain success for you.
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