business

If you could go back in time and do one thing differently in your business, what would it be?

I would have shared with the banks my long-term vision and got them involved instead of just going to them when I needed money. I should have got them on my team right from the start.

What has been the most rewarding moment in your decades of entrepreneurship?

Our last annual managers meeting. I gave my motivational talk and then I asked, How many people here started as a forklift operator, a warehouse person, a roof loader, or a truck driver? We had 600 people and almost half of them stood up.

If you were charged with fixing the U.S. auto industry, how would you do it?

The guys who run the auto companies are out of touch with their customers and their employees. They ride to work in their limousines. They go up in their elevators and lock themselves in their offices. They don't walk out into the plants. They wouldn't even drive in the neighborhoods where their employees live. They give themselves big bonuses when the company isn't making any money. I'd make them get involved with the people who are building the cars. They've got to become real people.

Can you imagine how many hot dogs you would have to sell to make a $50K?

This highlights one of the mistakes that organizations make when thinking about innovation.

Although top executives typically keep their eyes on the end game (usually some variation of short- and long-term stock price), as you move down through the organization this changes. The focus shifts to measuring and managing tasks and products (such as selling hot dogs). The reality is, these are only a means to an end.

The solution? Stop micro-managing activities and make sure that every employee understands – and keeps their eyes on - business fundamentals and what matters most. This will enhance both creativity and overall business performance.

...it's the same with business. If you focus on the goal and not the process, you inevitably compromise. Businessmen who focus on profits wind up in the hole. For me, profit is what happens when you do everything else right.

If you are at all successful in your business, be prepared to never have another good day or bad day at work. There will be so many things -- good and bad -- happening on any given day that you will be on a roller coaster of highs and lows. If that excites you, then go for it.

What is the most overrated skill for an entrepreneur?

The most overrated skill is skill. Luck is more important. The entrepreneur gets credit for being this genius, when really he was just at the right place at the right time.

...there's no such thing as sustainability. There are just levels of it. It's a process, not a real goal. All you can do is work toward it. There's no such thing as any sustainable economy. The only thing I know that's even close to sustainable economic activity would be organic farming on a very small scale or hunting and gathering on a very small scale. And manufacturing, you end up with way more waste than you end up with finished product. It's totally unsustainable. It's just the way it is.

I've always learned on-the-job, in real time. A problem comes up; I research it, and try to solve it. You can't study to be an entrepreneur; you have to develop those skills day in day out.

All entrepreneurial experiences are related, whether you're selling worm poop to Wal-Mart or a grade tracking application to the public elementary school system. In the end, it's all very similar.

Entrepreneurs don't really make mistakes, though. We just make decisions that seem right at the time, but which sometimes turn out to have been the wrong path to take. For example, we allowed a buyer to place a huge opening order and later had to take some product back. We didn't have our sell-through programs in place, so in hindsight, it would have been wiser to sell in less product at the outset. The scary thing is you are always making decisions without knowing the future. Should we invest in more machinery, or stay with more labor? Should we build a large inventory, or try to fill re-orders as they come in? In making these decisions, you're really betting on one outcome or another, as opposed to making mistaken decisions.