Feb

29

Number 1 is never to get in over your head. Not having staying power will prevent you from reaping the benefits that occur on those small number of businesses you own that need just a little bit more before striking the gusher.

Number 2 is never under any circumstances accept an offer out of the clear blue sky for your share of the business that seemingly is good, but where the party offering you the buyout knows much more than you do. I have lost millions on many occasions by accepting a quick profit in a deal where it turned out if I waited a year or two or three, I would have realized a tremendous windfall.

Number 3 is not to mix romance with business. Romance should come out of business not business out of romance. The romantic aspect will cause a strain and make you look foolish too all your colleagues.

Number 4 is not to have 3 person partnerships as too many coalitions can form, and you will be involved in diplomacy rather than business.

Number 5 is to keep your business consistent with the idea that has the world in its grip. Give your customers what they want, and give returns and the customer is always right.

Number 6 is to be sure that you are aligned with the forces in Washington that control so much of life these days, and have so much in perks and profits to give to their cronies.

Number 7 is to associate yourself with good partners, and good friends, and good employees whose loyalty goes beyond the dollar or the clock. An ounce of loyalty and integrity is worth more than a pound of immediate profits. When the going gets tough, and it always does in business, you need to have the loyal ones. Certain groups and certain belief systems are aphoristic and proverbial for their disloyalty and tendency to deceit and they should be avoided.

Number 8 is to always remember that when dealing with a family business, the loyalty of the family members is to themselves but not to you. The worst short term frauds and cons, and some of the worst long term cons, I have been victimized in had a father and son working in concert to deceive you into giving them your chips.

Number 9 is to associate yourself with people that have a record of success in their family, previous career, or athletics. Those who tend to fail in one thing will bring you down in the other.

Number 10 is to work hard and keep good records so that you will learn from your mistakes and be able to jump in with full force on the good opportunities when they occur. Keep a reserve for such. I know there are many more. And some of mine aren't sharp enough. I tried to memorialize business tips that are directly applicable to markets, and number 2 for example can be quantified for very good reward to risk.

Which ones would you correct and how would you add to this list with market implication?

Russ Sears adds: 

11. Be aware of the competition, learn from them and have a strategy to compete. Perhaps the reason athletes do well is because they are aware of the competition and develop a niche or strategy to beat or compete with them. Likewise for successful family, there are few things more powerful and motivational than common goals and team-work within a clear framework for utilizing each individuals diverse unique talents and self interest. A successful family man has shown that he is capable of uniting such a competitive group.
 


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3 Comments so far

  1. Ed on February 24, 2012 10:13 pm

    I would say never let up and never let yourself think you have won. The battle for the customer, appointment, or other opportunity must be fought for with vigor each day. My biggest setbacks have come when:

    -I thought I was so far ahead I could kick back and celebrate “the good things”
    -I thought the victory trophy would be handed to me do to circumstance rather than merit

  2. douglas roberts dimick on February 26, 2012 3:49 am

    Precepts

    “Example Is The Best Precept” Aesop

    My summer out of law school at our camp then on Little Rattlesnake Lake (or Raymond Pond) in Maine, I wrote my first book(unpublished), totaling 58 pages with illustrations. 20 years hence, I find them of the same preeminence among all and truest in their accorded order herewith — in life and business…

    1. Knosco Tipsum — Know Thyself

    “Philosophy has informed us that the most difficult thing in the world is to know ourselves. This adage is so decisive for us that credit is given for it not to one person, but to the god at Delphi.” Marcus Tulius Cicero, De Legibus

    2. Life Is A Struggle

    “If there is no struggle there is no progress.”
    Frederick Douglas, Ltr to Gerrit Smith
    March 30, 1849

    3. Keep It Simple

    “Still we live meanly, like ants… our life is frittered away by detail… Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity — I say, let our affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand…
    simplicity of life and elevation of purpose.” Henry David Thoreau, Reading

    4. The Balance (Justice) In Nature — Dike’

    “And it is characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil,of just and unjust, and the like, and the association of living beings who have this sense makes a family and a state.” Aristotle, Politics, Ch2

    5. Seek Out Older And Wiser Counsel

    “The young prince should surround himself with older and wiser counsel.” Machiavelli, Education of The Prince

    6. The Economics Of Freedom

    “There can be no liberty unless there is economic freedom.”
    Margaret Thatcher, Time, May 14, 1979

    7. Be Skilled In All Ways Of Contending

    “This is the story of a man, one who was never at a loss… He did his best.” Homer, The Odyssey, BkI

    8. The Importance Of Education

    “That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in his youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of her laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but knows passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself.” T. H. Huxley, Science And Culture, 1880

    9. Learn To Communicate

    “If names are not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language is not in accordance with the truth of things,affairs cannot be carried on to success.” Confucius (tr. James Legge)

    10. Life Is A Gift — Do Not Waste It

    “The world rolls on, time presses. Ten thousand years are too long. Seize the day. Seize the hour. Mao Zedong, Time, July 12, 1971

    dr

    Ps. For my sister’s Zareh and the Chair’s pride.

  3. steve on February 27, 2012 11:24 am

    Look upon a business as a marriage. It is a contract sometimes one that will force you to sell your soul.

    Ask yourself is this something I want to be involved in 24/7. Are you willing to do someone else’s job who left on Friday for employment across the street.

    Are you capable of wearing several hats. Look at your self objectively. Are you as smart as you think you are. There is no on-the job training. Someone once said about poker, learn the game or bring a lotof money.

    Do you want to take a vow. For richer for poorer………..

    Look at your business partners objectively. Align yourself with those who complement you or complete you. Look at their home life their morals their values. etc. Look at them as they might be 6 months and six years down the road.

    Read and study the proper books BEFORE YOU ENTER INTO THE BUSINESS.

    If possible, have a trustworthy lawyer and a financial person (accountant) as a partner. This will save a fortune in legal fees and prevent you from poor advice.

    Remember that a little bit of something is a lot better than a lot of nothing. Be willing to give up a little bit for the good of the business.

    Either be one of the smartest people in the room with respect to the business or stay out of the room.

    Read Think and Grow Rich.

    Have a stable home life. If married, be sure the spouse understands what this will entail. Eliminate destructive vices such as drugs alcohol, sexual, moral, narcissistic. hedonistic.

    Be sure this is something that you will want to wake up in the morning for. Something that you want to do rather than have to do.

    Remember everybody has a boss. Even the head of a corporation must answer to someone.

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