Note: This is the third in the series of blog posts about stuff that has served me well in the world of business. The success of Own Web Now, ExchangeDefender and Shockey Monkey has been well chronicled, these posts are more about me – some stuff I was born with, some I learned after hitting the wall with the head too hard and often. Take it for what it’s worth, forward it to your friends if you like and if you’re interested in these please feel free to join my private list by clicking here.
So far I’ve covered the importance of tolerating failure. I’ve also explained how I know when to quit and when to be patient. I even explained how to manage failure and make the best of it. Finally, the single biggest reason I’ve been successful has to do with accepting death as a natural progression of business.
Ever heard of the book “Good to Great”? It’s what most middle managers hail as the greatest study of transforming mediocre companies into outstanding ones. The only (slight) problem with that is that most of the companies discussed in Good to Great are by today’s standards either immoral or dead. Whether they sell stuff that gives people cancer, whether they went bankrupt or got rescued by TARP or even if they are among the greatest polluters in the world – we focus on the good stuff. There is a lot you can learn from failures too:
The single fundamental truth to business (taxes aside) is that everything comes to an end.
I wish I had learned this early on. 
I’ve made plenty of mistakes early on in business.
I even had two really ugly setbacks, financially, that brought me to an inch of just going on to do something else.
With each bad day coming to an end (at seemingly later and later hour).. I would wake up the next day.
I would go back to work.
Why? Because I liked what I did, because it mattered to me and those that counted on me.
I could have just sat there and watched TV but not doing anything at all is still a choice to do nothing and you’re doing something about the problem even by ignoring it. Sadly, you’re only making it bigger.
At some point your business will end. At some point, you too will come to an end. That’s business and that’s life. Could you be angry about your mortality (if you are why are you reading this blog?) – of course not, so you can’t treat each business idea or each business as life that you’re angry at. Businesses come and go, your preoccupation shouldn’t be with the exact time and way the business ends but with what it does along the way. More importantly, because you have resources to run and build multiple companies, don’t waste time trying to prevent the death of one – spend more time trying to build something great.
For example, email security of on-premise servers is a dying business. ExchangeDefender’s competitors that protect on-premise Exchange servers are either dying or trying to partner up with everyone in the world in hopes of preventing the inevitable conclusion that people will no longer build office-based email servers. Wouldn’t it be a better use of time, money and energy to actually focus on building products and innovating instead of trying to maximize the short-term revenue that has only one trajectory? Down.
I don’t say this to criticize them, I understand. If I feared death, that would be my course of action as well. Why spend money developing and innovating – let the service slip but sell sell sell sell. But the inevitable truth here is that it will come to an end and while my businesses may have indefinite lives, I know I don’t and I don’t want to waste my energy on riding a dead horse.
This is where most people mess it up
People equate death of a business or business line or product or service or line as a failure.
People look at relationships that end, agreements that don’t work out, contracts that end up in fire as a negative thing.
If I cried over every business fuckup I’ve personally made I would have drowned in my tears by now. So I don’t cry much – I tear up contracts, I end relationships, I fail and.. I’m still alive to go on and do something good tomorrow.
Yet, most people get so caught up in not making a mistake, not failing, not offending anyone, not taking the wrong turn and not potentially making a fatal business mistake that they end up paralyzed in something that’s already dead. Person that is stuck in a dying company that avoids making a change or moving on is losing more every single day compared to the person that went to try something better.
People fall in love with their ideas, companies, the norm… that as I mentioned in the previous post: they sell themselves the dream. Don’t do that to yourself!
Refuse to live your business life in a constant fear of that business dying
Today is September 3rd, 2012.
Picture September 3rd, 2013. Exactly a year from now.
What do you want your business to look like then? Can you financially afford to make it happen? If yes, do it. Motivate yourself by looking at what your business could be and how you could be a part of making it there.
Do not sit in fear of making a decision that could end your business. If you lived your own life like that you’d never cross the street in fear of getting hit by a bus.
Once you’re no longer in business of preventing a business from going under… there is a second part to this equation.
We’re in business of transitioning the business
For the past 15 years, ExchangeDefender has been transitioning from ISDN to Y2K to web design to colocation and data center solutions to the cloud to the communication.. and to whatever is next.
I always get to play with the latest toys, work with the latest technologies and what I get to take home (aside from ridiculous amount of money) is the satisfaction of being able to make people realize their own satisfaction – both my employees and my clients.
So once you have a business that makes money… don’t sit there waiting for a venture capital or rich people bad at math to scoop you up. If you’re in that seat you’re already dead but you’re too stupid/ignorant to realize it… instead focus on what more you can do.
One thing unique to successful entrepreneurs is that we are always looking for that next thing. It’s about solving problems, not avoiding them. It’s about embracing and introducing change, not trying to avoid it.
Some day I will die. Pretty sure about that.
However my ideas, concepts, drawings and mistakes will die much sooner. I’m OK with that. Because I’m not in love with what I used to do for a living, I’m in love with what I’m about to do. That’s why I’m in the office on Labor day.
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