One of the biggest traps for entrepreneurs is the temptation to choose a partner, an employee, a vendor, a consultant, a lawyer or any other service provider, simply because that person/company is supposed to be the “best” in their particular field. If we at Think Big had a nickel for every person who came through the door touting their team as having the best web designer, the best software engineer or the best sales director, we’d have a pretty big jar of nickels. And while excellence is an extremely important factor in choosing one of the above mentioned providers, the question is not whether that individual/company is the “BEST”, but rather whether they are the “BEST FOR YOU”.
My standard stump speech on
entrepreneurship always includes a few minutes on the importance of learning
from one’s mistakes. Not a day goes by
that I don’t counsel someone on how each
mistake can make you and your business stronger if you are willing to embrace
it. And yet, just because one says it
over and over does not mean that we don’t sometimes ignore our own advice.
A couple of years ago, I pursued a new venture that had significant
geographic spread. The venture required
the involvement of individuals in New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta and
Kansas City. Even though I am an
attorney by trade and have been involved in hundreds of millions of dollars of
complex transactions, this particular deal was beyond my area of
expertise. Trying to prove that I
belonged with the big boys in all of these cities, I retained the services of
an attorney who had a reputation for being the “best” in the city in handling
this specific type of transaction. It
didn’t matter that I had not worked with this attorney before. I was convinced that he was the right person
for the job because he was deemed the “best” by others.
I won’t bore you with all of the
ugly details, but hiring this attorney was a huge mistake. In the middle of
our transaction, my attorney decided that one of our potential business
partners had a better chance at landing the deal and he kicked me to the curb
in order to switch his representation to that person. To this day, I’m still shocked by the way
things transpired. I don’t know whether
it was an ethics violation, and I’m not interested in spending any time to find
out. Instead, I used that error in
judgement on my part as a learning experience going forward.
Since that day, I have never hired a
service provider or taken on a partner based solely on competence. I now look for someone I know or trust above
all else. Someone who I know has my best
interest at heart and will look to protect me when things get difficult. And I must say this philosophy has paid
significant dividends. Any endeavor
worth pursuing has its ups and downs.
There are always going to be those critical moments in the life cycle of
a business when the easy thing to do is just throw up your hands and give
up. At those critical moments, it is
extremely important to have a support structure around you that assists you
through the difficult time. Those are
the people who are the BEST, because they are the best for you at that point
and time.
Don’t
misunderstand. I’m not suggesting that
ability and expertise are not extremely important. Every vendor, consultant, provider, and/or
partner that you retain has to be capable of getting the job done. However, there is almost always more than one
person who is capable of providing excellent service. In the past few years, I have been very lucky
to find both tremendously talented people who are also exceptional friends: my
partner at Think Big, Herb Sih, my
partner at Connexsus, Rusty Rahm, my
attorneys, financial advisors, and others.
I go to sleep every night knowing that each of them is an outstanding
business operator and a great friend who I trust to support my business and
life ventures.
The
bottom line is this: In most instances,
there is more than one person/company capable of providing excellence. Your challenge is to find that person who is
both proficient and aligned with your interests. They may be aligned personally, financially
or philosophically, but your business will operate much better if you can match
up at least one.
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