When the worms became depleted from picking so many each night, I would water the neighbors yard and get worms from their house. They gave me permission. I now learned how to find new supplies. I learned that I could not keep up with the demand. My brother began doing it too. We would compete to see who could get the most worms each night. I was the tight wad between the two of us. When the grocery store owner gave us our money I put it in my pocket. My brother went straight to the candy section and spent it all. Both of us grew up as entrepreneurs. He has owned his own business for over 30 years. Just think, it all began with night crawlers and finding our first customer.
Both of us have become business owners in our careers. Both of us have lead thousands of people in employment in our careers. Both of us have gone through the period of time when we wanted all of the control. We became control freaks. We knew what we wanted, we knew how we wanted to get it done and we did not enjoy having anyone else tell us how to do it. Control freaks.
Control freaks have something inside their make-up that help them develop the right kind of stuff to build a successful business model. Control freaks develop key characteristics that represent the kind of stuff needed to help them over come the obstacles that get in the way of failures. Control freaks possess determination, persistence, stick-to-it type characteristics, stubbornness and as a result have the ability to push through many of the obstacles that kill most business attempts. I have witnessed many business owners use their control freak attitudes to help them survive the business development process. Without that attitude many would not have made it.
Then something happens. Growth shows up. Growth brings on some new components to the business model. Control freaks and growth do not mix very well. Control freaks can get away with doing what they want to do when the business is small enough for them to control. When the time to do the work of the business can be squeezed into the day a control freak can manage, control can be governed by one. The business is small enough to be managed by one person. Then something happens. Growth occurs and changes the ability for the control freak to be able to do it all. Too much important work becomes too much duty to do in a regular day of time devotion. The control freaks build it and as it grows away from their control, they now are faced with deciding whether or not to kill it or mature it with others gaining control. Control freaks do not like to share control. They know how they want it done. They do not want to do it like someone else suggests.
Growth becomes a very serious crossroad for control freaks to manage. I have witnessed most of the control freaks I meet and their business models will never be able to grow large. Never. Giving up control is harder to do than building a business model that succeeds well. I have actually watched many control freak owners kill their business growth. The very same characteristics that build the model to become successful are the very same ones that kill the model from growth. The 'bell' curve shows up. They blame their employees, their family, their banker, the economy, the market, the suppliers, the customers and anything else that moves the wrong way from being what they want to control. Their control needs kill their growth and offers them a wonderful set of excuses to manage. Their business model will exist forever but it will always struggle. They are determined to prove that. It is a funny thing to watch thousands of business owners do this very thing. It is personal to them. They have not yet learned how to make the business model the boss. They are control freaks, they want to remain being the boss. There is a big difference.
I also remember when I noticed that the bank gave me some money too when I left it in their place for safe keeping. I remember quietly trying to figure that one out. I did not need to mow grass or collect night crawlers to get more money. That was a new concept for me. I did not share my confusion about that deal with anyone. I came from a family that did physical labor in order to earn money. All I ever saw was how you give your work over to someone who pays you for doing what they needed done. Nobody ever showed me how compound interest worked. I wondered if I got some helpers to help me could I do what the bank was doing and pay them a little bit so I could keep more. I did not fully understand how interest worked but I could see how to get some employees to help me to earn more. It did not look like the bank was willing to pay me very much for me to keep my money in their building. I could not earn enough numbers waiting for them to add to my account so slowly. I could get some friends to help me and earn a lot more much quicker if I could set them up with my parents mower and pay them less than what I earned from my customers. A few did it. It worked. I beat putting more in my account than the bank did. I remember discovering that fact.
I did not do it very much because I was very young and thought when some adult figured it out I would get into trouble 'using' friends that way. I only did it once in awhile, when I was certain I would not get caught. I did not want to ruin a good thing. Little did I know back then how 97% of the general population would be 'used' today as employees working for the benefit of so few business owners and it would be the standard of acceptance everyone honored. I had no idea back then. I thought it was something criminal. I thought for sure I would get into trouble doing something like that.
Business leaders develop some of the most interesting set of views. They allow their personal thoughts and feelings dominate their business model decisions. One of the great benefits I learned as a very young entrepreneur is that your business model is the king. Your model runs the show...not yourself. You are independent from your business model. You do not own the model, it owns you. I remember when I cut the lawn of one of my neighbors he became upset with something I did. I do not exactly remember why he got mad but I think it was something my father did. He had someone else do his lawn instead of me. I remember my father telling me the neighbor was a jerk. All I could see was less money in my account. I could care less if he was a jerk...he paid me money. I remember thinking how stupid we can become when we let our feelings eliminate our money flow. I did not necessarily care how that neighbor lived, I just liked what his money did to my passbook numbers. I was just a little kid, who cares about that other stuff?
When I saw that man mowing his own lawn I decided to go tell him I was willing to cut his lawn. He had one of those new electric lawn mowers. I could not understand why he wanted to keep managing his motions to get the cord out of his way as he turned back and forth. It looked like a lot of extra work to me. I had him turn it off so I could ask him if I could go back to cutting his lawn. I was introduced to the art of selling. I was introduced to the art of 'cold calling' a disgruntled customer. I know I must have looked really innocent back then because he stared at me for the longest time before he said no. I could not figure it out. He seemed to want me to cut his lawn and I wanted his money in my account. He was a cranky old guy but I wanted his business anyway. We did not make a connection so I never cut his lawn again. However, I did find a lady around the block that said yes. She became my new replacement. Now I could keep my account doing what it was doing before. Life was good.
Control freaks are strictly governed by heir emotions, not the business model. When push comes to shove they will lean toward the emotional side of the equation for making decisions. It is a sad thing to watch.
Years later I still witness this kind of control freak activity with many business leaders. Recently I helped to lead a broken business model from the depths of near bankruptcy to recovery enough to be able to sell it to a larger concern for a fair profit. It was one of the highlights of my career. When I first arrived as the manager hired to figure out how to save this company I was greeted by one of its most noted 'cranky-old-guy' customers. He was brash and abrupt as to how he would be willing to allow me to lead our business relationship. It was a rude and forward introduction. He became a regular pain in my side in my first few months getting to know this business model, its employees, its customers, how the land laid and its potential. After the sale was completed nearly four years later this 'cranky-old-guy' customer had developed a routine monthly trade with our business to the tune of almost $1200 per month. Although still cranky and expressive, he paid his monthly bills on time. When the new ownership purchased our recovering business model they placed their own manager into my old seat of leadership. I would have done the same. They shipped my work duties to another location, away from the place I previously managed. I would have done the same.
In less than a week I was asked by my new management team what I thought about this particular 'cranky-old-guy' who came into the office of the new manager and tried to tell him how to run that model. All I said was this, "His checks always cleared on time." Two days later I heard the new manager told that old guy to go somewhere else with his rude and curt behavior. Control freaks manage with too much emotions. It was my first thoughts. I remain quiet at my new place about how business leaders perform silly procedures for making decisions about how to collect money. Two months later, I received a phone call from one of the employees still working at that old business model I previously managed. She wanted to know how to go into the new computer system and look up the balance of the account a customer has in the system. She knew I would have already figured out how to do that. She was correct. With no training from my new environment, I guided her over the phone on how to crawl through the computer system and find his account balance on our new computer system. It was an amazing experience. The account she was puling up was the one owned by the 'cranky-old-guy' that was asked to take his attitude somewhere else. Apparently, he did just that. His balance for the month was less than $85. How sad. In the whole time I managed that outfit for nearly four years his account never fell below $1,000 per month. Emotional control freaks are willing to give up nearly $12,000 per year to help satisfy how good they feel about being in control. I see it all of the time. They actually miss it.
A few years later I was riding in a truck with my father. He finally came clean on the deal that happened to our cranky neighbor and why I was not allowed to cut his lawn anymore. My father said he and the old man had a disagreement about where the two were parking on the street we shared. My father said the old guy used some words to describe how our lifestyle was poor. It offended my father enough to tell the old guy I would not be cutting his grass anymore. As we drove along to where we were going, I was more confused now than I was before I learned the reason why. I kept thinking, we were poor...who cares? At least he was placing some of his money into our account. I was still very young in that truck, hearing that news, but I still could not wrap my head around the emotional reasons used for stopping the flow of money into my account. To this day, I am thankful for that huge lesson.
Today, many years later, I listen to my new management owners describe how the poor economy is killing the business volume in the business model I used to manage. Control freaks build it, then they kill it. They will blame everything else. I see it all of the time.
Until next time...
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