Entrepreneurship: If You Wait Until You're Ready, You'll Never Do It

Vern Cushenbery of Cush Capital says that entrepreneurship is a lot like parenthood: “If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll never do it!”  So dive in, entrepreneurs.

Vern Cushenbery,
Cush Capital

Just before he was leaving for the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha with clients, I caught up with Vern Cushenbery, chief executive officer of Cush Capital Management, LLC.  As an owner of his own capital management firm, a finance guru, and a big thinker, Cushenbery has launched a successful business after a decade of experience in investment analysis and research.  So how did he do it?  Read my Q&A with Cushenbery himself: 

TBP (Think Big Partners): What ignited the spark to start Cush Capital? 

Vern: I majored in finance in college because I had an interest in the way the stock market works.  I had an attraction to thinking about investments in terms of relative advantage.  One of the common traits of investors like myself is that we are attracted to solving problems.  I thrive in that environment.  Putting the puzzle pieces together in finding that next great investment opportunity is what keeps me going.

TBP: When did Cush Capital launch?

Vern: Cush Capital launched in August of 2008, but our performance dates back to my prior firm beginning November of 2007.  It’s a meaningful date because it was within 2 weeks within the absolute peak of the market.

TBP: What types of success have you seen so far at Cush Capital?

Vern: So far we’ve been able to make it through the second worst downturn in 100 years.  That’s pretty remarkable in itself.  During that period we’ve been recognized by MorningStar as a standout manager.  They awarded us their 4 star rating.  That’s significant.  We are one of only two managers in our category that can make that claim over the past three years.

TBP: Explain to me what makes Cush Capital different than any other capital management firm.

Vern: We are a research organization—that’s what we specialize in and thrive on.  We market ourselves based on a better brand and a better caliber of research.  Most of our competitors in the registered investment advisory space are in the business of identifying and recommending a diversified lineup of mutual funds.  Each mutual fund has a portfolio manager based out of New York, Chicago or LA.  The client never gets to meet the person making the decisions with their money.  We use a different model because we’re a research organization.  We do the research here in town and we can back those decisions up and sit down with our clients and tell them why we are making the moves we are.

TBP: What is your main goal for Cush Capital?

Vern: Our main goal is to grow the firm through better research.  We have goals and price targets for every investment we make, we have milestones for every client we do business with.

TBP: What is one piece of advice that you would give an entrepreneur looking to start a business?

Vern: The first thing that comes to mind is the same advice I would get from parents when my wife and I were thinking about having children, which was ‘if you wait until you’re ready, you’ll never do it.’  That’s also applicable to entrepreneurship!

TBP: How do you Think Big? 

Vern: My biggest aspiration for this firm would be to accumulate enough assets to influence the management teams of companies we invest in.  We want to do business with morally-minded, ethically-minded people of extremely high integrity.  To the extent that we see certain companies engaging in practices that are less than admirable it would be nice if, on the basis of our size, we could influence their behavior for the good of the financial marketplace and for the good of society. That would be tremendous.

Written by Allison Way.

@AllisonThinkBig

The Importance of Exercise on the Entrepreneur's Mind

Written by Allison Way, writer and videographer for Think Big Partners and bizperc, two of Kansas City's newest entrepreneurial resources. 

In a recent study conducted last month, researchers recruited schoolchildren (age nine to ten) to conduct a series of physical and psychological exercises. The children ran on a treadmill to test their fitness and were then asked to complete a series of cognitive challenges which involved watching directional arrows on a computer screen and pushing certain keys in order to test how well the children filtered out unnecessary information. The results? The children who were more fit scored better on the tests.


Dog-n-Jog, which took place last week in KC,
is a great way to keep in shape to encourage
a more creative mind. 



After scanning each of the children’s brains using magnetic resonance imaging technology, the researchers found that the fittest children had a larger basal ganglia (a part of the brain that helps maintain attention and coordinate actions) as well as an enlarged hippocampus (which helps one to focus on complex memory). Together, these two parts of the brain allow some of the most intricate thinking. The researchers concluded that being fit in young people may “enhance neurocognition.”

As a matter of fact, it may not only be young people whose brains are affected by fitness. In a study done in Sweden a year ago, researchers found that 18-year olds who had better fitness also had higher I.Q.’s. The fittest of the fit were then more likely to excel in more lucrative careers. Georg Kuhn, professor at the University of Gothenburg, says that although there is no direct evidence that exercise leads to a higher I.Q., researchers believe that aerobic fitness produces specific growth factors and proteins that stimulate the brain.

So what does this mean to the everyday entrepreneur? This means that exercise can actually improve small business. The more aerobic exercise that a small business owner or entrepreneur may indulge in (especially during childhood), the better off they are setting up their own future. Exercise can stimulate creativity. So whether it’s that next business marketing strategy you’re looking to enhance, or a new logo that you want to tackle, aerobic exercise and physical fitness can actually improve the results of your brainstorming!

For Kansas City business owners, there are tons of ways to stay aerobically fit while still upholding a career in entrepreneurship or becoming an entrepreneur. Even a twenty-minute walk on a lunch break can improve an entrepreneur’s brain functionality. So get out there: take the dog for a late night jog around the Plaza, go swimming at Ocean’s of Fun on the weekend, or commute to work via bike. There are many ways to enhance your physical fitness without sacrificing your work time.

What do Microsoft, General Electric, Hewlett Packard and Hyatt all have in common?

Answer - All of these companies were launched in a recession or a bear market. In fact, according to a recent CFO magazine study , more than half of the 2009 Fortune 500 companies exist because an entrepreneur launched them out of seeing an opportunity or out of economic necessity - all during hard times like today. Further, almost half of the 2008 Inc 500 companies had similar recession or bear market origins.

Why is this so? A few reasons are:

• During times of economic uncertainty, many larger companies deal with layoffs and a worried workforce. This can take the focus away from what should be done the most during times like this, which is focusing on customer service and keeping clientele.
• Recessions force lower costs across almost all industries and can make it easier for a smaller, startup company to compete for market share that larger companies can not or choose not to embrace.
• High quality talent becomes more plentiful and often at a lower cost, making it easier to hire key team members.
• Bigger companies can not react as quickly to opportunity, providing smaller, more nimble companies a competitive edge.

The Kauffman Foundation also has a study, "The Economic Future Just Happened" that also shows that recessions and bear markets can actually be very productive times for entrepreneurship in this country.

So don't let 2010 and a shaky economy hold you down. Register now for Think Big Kansas City, coming up March 3rd, 2010!