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Business Rule #10:
Never Despair
November 11, 2004
(PAGE 3 of 4)
Many of you reading my column are attending business school and figure, “Hey, when I get my MBA, I’ll be set and ready to go!” You think that by the time you graduate, you’ll know all that it takes to succeed, that some great company will accept you with open arms, and that it will be all smooth sailing from there. Well, I’m here to tell you that the real learning begins after you receive your MBA.
Trust me, because I learned the hard way. It took me more than a few hard knocks to realize that I didn’t know everything. My experience at Stanford only set the stage. Indeed it was only after I graduated that I learned how to adapt to the real world. Not only did I become a more effective leader for it, but also a better individual. In my case, I have always made the effort to surround myself with great and talented people—and that has been the key to my success.
But even with such wonderful people around me who I am pleased to call both employee and friend, there were still times when I wanted to give up.
Just for the readers of The Apprentice Rules will I recall a very painful time and a dark past for The LaVelle Organization. I will share with you what I had to go through that made me despair and almost give up.
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I was busy closing deals left and right and I was riding high! I was young, brash and educated—a killer combination. I felt as if nothing could stop me, utterly invincible. I had closed four big deals, and I had three more on the table. The phones rang so much that I had to hire extra staff to answer just my calls. I also hired some new property managers, accountants, assistants and other various positions around the office. I hired these people based on the amount of business that I was bringing in—but hadn’t closed on yet. I knew that it would just be a matter of time before I closed, so I would sit in my office and look out the window and think how great it was to be… me.
One day in early October 2000, my CFO walked into my office, looking grim. He said, “The deals didn’t go through; the seller backed out at the last moment.”
I sat there and took that in for a moment—then anger hit. I demanded to know why they backed out of a great deal and wanted them on the phone now! My CFO nodded his head and stopped me. “That’s fine”, he said, “but it seems that if we don’t reorganize, we’re not going to make payroll in the next two months.”
People who know me personally know that I’m a very giving person. I love the holiday season, and I treasure family. There is nothing more important in the world than family and here I was faced with the only logical choice I had: I would have to lay off employees, two months before the holiday season.
It tore me apart. I didn’t know where to turn. Sure I could have taken equity out of some of my properties, but what good would it have done? It would have only been a quick fix, a temporary solution. In November, I announced the layoffs and what departments would be affected. I swore that I would get back every single employee who was laid off and that I would provide severance packages to all.
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Well, I’m here to tell you that the real learning begins after you receive your
