Business &amp; Branding

Business &amp; Branding Archives

Stay ahead in business: strategies and insights for success

Most everybody knows Matt Damon, and many identify him <a href="https://screenrant.com/matt-damon-best-movies-career/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">by roles including</a> Jason Bourne, Private Ryan or the talented Tom Ripley. Even people unimpressed with pop culture generally admire this down-to-earth, hardworking Massachusetts boy as someone they wouldn’t mind hanging out with in a sports bar.



But since most of us can’t exactly visit Cheers with Damon, here are some interesting facts you can drop the next time he comes up in conversation.



<h2 id="h-1-matt-damon-wrote-good-will-hunting-with-ben-affleck">1. Matt Damon wrote Good Will Hunting with Ben Affleck.</h2>



<a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-ben-affleck-matt-damon-wrote-good-will-hunting/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cited as Damon’s breakthrough film</a>, with Damon even winning “Breakthrough Artist” at the 1998 Critics Choice Awards, Good Will Hunting was written by Damon and his childhood friend, Ben Affleck, when they were struggling to land jobs as fledgling actors. In it, Damon plays an undiscovered math genius from South Boston. Damon, however, is certainly not a dumb actor playing a smart guy, as he attended Harvard University himself to study English, though he did not complete his degree.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-2-he-had-a-feud-with-jimmy-kimmel">2. He had a ‘feud’ with Jimmy Kimmel.</h2>



If you watch the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live, then you have probably wondered what the deal is with his “feud” regarding Damon. Here’s how Jimmy Kimmel explained it, in a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/01/23/168808769/jimmy-kimmel-making-late-night-a-family-affair" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2013 interview with NPR</a>:



"We had a bad show.… The guests were bad, and I was <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/changing-the-narrative-how-to-silence-your-inner-critic-in-the-new-year/">feeling pretty bad about myself</a> at the end of the program. And I decided to say, for the amusement of one of our producers who was standing next to me… 'I want to apologize to Matt Damon. We ran out of time’.… And he got a kick out of it, the producer, so I just started doing it every night to amuse him.



"Matt Damon was just the first name that popped into my head. I was trying to think of an A-list star, and somebody we absolutely would not bump if he was on the show.… The legs on this bit are unbelievable to me. I mean, people laugh every time I say it.… Repeating the same joke every single night, you'd think eventually people would get tired of it, but they don't."



The fictional <a href="https://www.thelist.com/623357/jimmy-kimmel-and-matt-damons-feud-explained/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kimmel vs. Damon feud</a> escalated with various pranks and antics over the years, but <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/matt-damon-hosts-jimmy-kimmel-415305/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">came to a (joking) head</a> in January 2013, when Damon “kidnapped” Kimmel and sought his revenge for being constantly bumped (1,205 times, to be exact) by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOHeLc7g6iI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hosting Kimmel’s entire talk show</a> that night.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-3-he-and-ben-affleck-are-childhood-friends">3. He and Ben Affleck are childhood friends.</h2>



Forget <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-8-most-important-qualities-of-a-healthy-marriage/">lasting marriages</a>; in Hollywood, you’re lucky if you can <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/maintaining-friendships-is-hard-heres-why-its-crucial-for-your-well-being/">find a true friend</a> who’s been with you through thick and thin. Damon and Affleck can consider themselves very lucky on that count. <a href="https://www.insider.com/matt-damon-and-ben-affleck-timeline-of-friendship-and-best-moments#1980s-affleck-and-damon-met-as-kids-after-their-moms-introduced-them-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Close friends since childhood</a>, Damon and Affleck grew up just two blocks away from each other in Cambridge, Massachusetts and are, in fact, family. Well, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/buddies-damon-affleck-are-also-distant-relatives/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tenth cousins once removed</a>, but who’s counting?&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-4-matt-damon-is-committed-to-charitable-work">4. Matt Damon is committed to charitable work.</h2>



A prolific humanitarian, Damon has been heavily <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-give-back-purposefully/">involved in several charities</a>, and even satirized his commitment to charities and nonprofits in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5BMQxeSgsw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an episode of Entourage</a>. One of his charitable enterprises, <a href="https://water.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Water.org</a>, is a global nonprofit “working to bring water and sanitation to the world,” according to their website. Originally the founder of the H2O Africa Foundation, Damon and Gary White later <a href="https://water.org/about-us/founders-board-team/matt-damon/#:~:text=Through%20his%20work%20with%20Water,to%20safe%20water%20and%20sanitation." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">merged their organizations</a> to create Water.org.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-5-he-is-worth-his-salary-and-then-some">5. He is worth his salary, and then some.</h2>



In Forbes’ first-ever “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/2007/08/03/celebrities-hollywood-movies-biz-cz_dp_0806starpayback.html?sh=746938f654fd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ultimate Star Payback</a>” list in 2007, Damon was ranked as the most bankable actor in Hollywood. According to the article, “for every dollar Damon got paid for his last three roles, his films returned $29 of gross income.” An actor who's worth the outrageous paychecks? We can get on board with that.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-6-matt-damon-is-a-great-comedic-actor">6. Matt Damon is a great comedic actor.</h2>



No list of Damon should go without mentioning his brilliant guest appearances on the hit TV comedy 30 Rock as the boyfriend of Tina Fey’s character, Liz Lemon. During his time on the show, Damon played a pilot named Carol Burnett (ha!). Damon might not be widely considered as a comedic actor, but his small performance as Burnett the pilot should prove that assumption wrong.



This article was published in June 2013 and has been updated. Photo by&nbsp;Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock

Most everyone knows who Matt Damon is because of iconic roles like Jason Bourne. But here are six things you probably don't know and should.

Most everyone knows who Matt Damon is because of iconic roles like Jason Bourne. But here are six things you probably don't know and should. | SUCCESS

6 Things You Didn't Know about Matt Damon

6 Things You Didn&#8217;t Know about Matt Damon

Comment

Matt Damon: 6 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/matt-damon.jpg

Home

SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/success_opengraph_image.png

Jennifer Chang is the former associate editor for SUCCESS. She has a corgi puppy who has more Instagram followers than a dog should have. Tweet or follow her thoughts and favorite links at @jenzchang.

https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/96f2b6395e22e54b341d6e4a98e09485ff6602993cdfc525c77d053e68e36f20?s=96&d=mm&r=g

Jennifer Chang

Personal Development

Personal Development Archives

Personal Development | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

Let’s talk&nbsp;about risks.&nbsp;Even if you’re not contemplating a risky new move, you’ve probably taken a few risks to get to where you are today, and chances are you’re not done taking them.
In a recent podcast for Harvard Business School, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey defined entrepreneurship in terms of risk-taking. “The definition of entrepreneurship is actually taking on significant risk, usually financial, in order to build something,” he says. “That means anyone can really <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/15-legendary-quotes-from-successful-entrepreneurs">take on an entrepreneurial attitude</a>. An entrepreneur does not necessarily create a business. It’s just a very bold attitude of taking on risk.”
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/what-ive-learned-from-living-boldly-and-taking-risks">What I’ve Learned From Living Boldly and Taking Risks</a>
Taking on a bold attitude for a risky next step isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Here are a few ways to harness the power of positive risk-taking.

<h2 class="BODY">1. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/why-taking-risks-is-worth-it">Fight the negativity bias.</a></h2>
The world is full of uncertainty. Take, for instance, the business world, which is especially prone to unforeseen disruptions. In the past 50 years alone, we’ve seen the rise and fall of Fortune 500 companies and the creation of entirely new industries. Every decision, including the decision to do nothing, carries some element of risk. “The problem is the negativity bias—we tend to exaggerate <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/4-reasons-you-should-be-risking-rejection">the riskiness</a> of certain moves and underestimate the opportunities of others,” entrepreneur and productivity expert Tim Ferriss writes on his blog.


<h3 class="BODY rtecenter">“The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” —Mark Zuckerberg</h3>

Risky behavior is everywhere. Instead of fixating on the consequences of a risk you’ve never attempted, try to evaluate the entire scenario, including any potential hazards of maintaining the status quo. “Risk is an unavoidable constant of life, so your focus should be on taking the right kinds of risks that offer the right kinds of opportunity,” Ferriss says. Some questions to ask yourself: Which risk is worth taking? Which risk would impart <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-happiness-habits-of-successful-people">more meaning or happiness to my life</a>? Which risk would pay off more in the long run?
As Facebook co-founder and Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg famously stated, “The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

<h2 class="BODY">2. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/podcast/ep-67-boost-self-belief-with-these-10-steps">Build self-efficacy.</a></h2>
As the popular Ralph Waldo Emerson quote goes, “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” Researchers have found that Emerson was onto something. In their 1994 study on risk and decision-making, entrepreneur researcher Norris Krueger Jr. and strategic marketing professor Peter Dickson discovered that small, measured risk-taking behaviors can <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/use-these-7-tips-to-boost-your-confidence">increase confidence and self-efficacy</a>, the “I think I can” positive psychology that enhances goal achievement.
So the more experiments you make, the better you get at making them. And the more risks you take, the more positive your risk experiences become. If the idea of risk-taking still makes your palms sweat, try to increase your comfort level by taking a small risk before embarking on a bigger one.

<h2 class="BODY">3. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/top-of-mind-6-tips-for-smart-risk-taking">Be intelligent with your risks.</a></h2>
It’s important to add that building confidence in risk-taking doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll take smart risks. It might be helpful to build in parameters or conditions for each risky decision. When Todd Goldberg, co-founder of digital event organization platform <a href="https://www.eventjoy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Eventjoy</a>, left his job in August 2013 to pursue his startup, he gave himself one year to generate significant revenue or funding.
It turns out that Goldberg was uncannily perfect in his one-year limit. In September 2014, little more than a year later, Ticketmaster purchased Eventjoy for an undisclosed amount. “We had more lows than I can count—getting no’s from dozens of investors and the product breaking at critical moments, just to name a couple,” Goldberg says. “Despite all that, we’ve had an amazing year that included being accepted into Y Combinator’s winter batch, raising funding, making great progress on the product, and most important, growing at a good rate.”
As a football player for the Philadelphia Eagles, Emmanuel Acho fully understands the varied risks that come with his job. “The dilemma many athletes face: Is it worth maximizing capital now, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/to-be-successful-do-what-you-do-best">maximizing my talent now </a>with the small window of time I’m in the NFL, or should I try to focus on opening doors for the future?”


<h3 class="BODY rtecenter">Building confidence in risk-taking doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll take smart risks. It might be helpful to build in parameters or conditions for each risky decision.</h3>

Acho currently focuses entirely on football, but during the off-season, he invests his time in earning a master’s degree and running an online community startup, Be Neighborly. “Startups are hard,” Acho says. “They are miserably hard, yet <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/7-challenges-successful-people-overcome">it’s in our blood to just be challenged</a> and pursue something risky. In the off-season, people were traveling and having fun, and I was just studying and working. Hopefully that pays dividends in the long run.”

<h2 class="BODY">4. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/content/ep-5-fail-often-and-fast">It’s OK to “fail.”</a></h2>
While the “Fail fast!” mentality of startups might sound strange, expecting <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/why-failure-is-good-for-success">failure could actually be seen as a method for success</a>. New York University conducted a gambling experiment in which some participants were told that losses were completely inevitable and acceptable, while others weren’t given the same pep talk. At the end of the study, participants who expected losses didn’t become dejected when losses occurred, and they were able to outperform their peers by taking more intelligent risks.
Know that failure is an option and come up with a plan on how to handle loss. Being mentally prepared enables you to make positive risk-taking decisions without fear of the unexpected, which can be the most crippling component of taking a risk.

<h2 class="BODY">5. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-dont-wait-until-tomorrow">Just do it.</a></h2>
After you’ve analyzed a risky opportunity to death, <a href="https://www.succhttps://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/go-with-your-gut-the-science-of-instinct">sometimes it’s best to listen to your gut</a> and just do it. “Now that I’m on the other side and have started Eventjoy, I’ve learned that creating, and even joining, a startup is not as risky as it seems,” Goldberg says.
“You’ll learn more in two years than you would have in five years of a ‘normal’ job. You’re forced to be resourceful, which can be a powerful thing when it comes to creativity and execution. You often have a large role in something that will hopefully impact millions of people. Plus, if it all falls apart, you can always go get another job.”
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-build-your-courage-to-achieve-anything">How to Build Your Courage to Achieve Anything</a>

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2015 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy and comprehensiveness.

5 ways to harness the power of positive risk-taking

Let’s talk&nbsp;about risks.&nbsp;Even if you’re not contemplating a risky new move, you’ve probably taken a few risks to get to where you are today, and | SUCCESS

Afraid of Risks? How to Be Bolder

Afraid of Risks? How to Be Bolder | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/afraidofriskshowtobebolder.jpg

Despite the church’s many open windows and doors, the sticky August heat hung in the air like a pesky, unwanted visitor. I paused mid-lesson to wipe the sweat from my forehead and glanced up at my students, all of them female entrepreneurs from&nbsp;neighboring villages in northern Ghana. One was quietly dozing off, another concentrated on breastfeeding her infant, and the others seemed to be staring into the distance. Crickets, or another local species of noisy insects, chirped.“OK, time for a break! Let’s meet back here in 10 minutes.”Our group began to disperse, but Porter Anyagre, a widowed charcoal seller, grabbed my hands and held them in her own. She grasped them for several seconds before carefully saying a few words—as if by saying them slowly, I&nbsp;could fathom the gravity of her message even if I&nbsp;couldn’t understand the language.My translator, Salumi Yakubu, grinned. “She said she’s very thankful you’re here. And that she’s honored to learn.”Like many of the volunteers who join nonprofit on a business-as-mission trip, I expected my time in rural Ghana to be uncomfortable—unfamiliar food, no air conditioning and a lack of indoor plumbing. But as Anyagre held my hands and smiled, I realized how insignificant those inconveniences were in light of the lives that could be changed—mine included.Which is what Videre does: change lives. Since its first class in 2010, the organization has equipped entrepreneurs in developing countries with training and microfinance loans, empowering them to use their businesses as means of giving back to their villages. Members of their communities nominate participants, and the program, broken up into three one-week phases, teaches the basics of starting or expanding their businesses.Volunteers, generally business professionals or entrepreneurs, serve as business coaches. Because Videre has Christian faith-based roots, pastors and members of local churches work as translators, facilitate on-the-ground operations and build trust with the local entrepreneurs. Already Videre officials are seeing a positive impact on local economies.“We recognize that poverty isn’t simply a physical, monetary thing,” says Brittany Bradberry, Videre’s director of operations. “Poverty is also emotional,&nbsp;spiritual. So we seek to address all those areas and help them bring spiritual and physical transformation to a community.”As a result, all entrepreneurs’ business plans must include a component that Videre calls a Kingdom Impact Strategy, which explains how they intend to use their businesses to share their faith and help others.Comfort Ibrahim, who graduated from Videre’s program in 2011, purchases raw rice, mills and processes it, and then sells the rice to bulk buyers. Ibrahim is a widow and the primary caregiver for seven children and relatives, but she sets aside some of her profits to buy school uniforms and books for other children in her village who cannot afford them.Another Videre graduate, Boajon T. Simon, travels among 17 communities to sell medicine. He had already been in business for five years before joining the training program, and it was through Videre that he was able to purchase a motorcycle with his business loan—an upgrade from the bicycle he previously used. He also gives a portion of his profits back to his community.“Without the program, I would have never had the money to get a motorbike, which lets me travel farther and help more people,” Simon says. “I also learned a lot about how to spend my profits—saving some, reinvesting some and using the rest to help others.” He later sought me out to show off his motorcycle, beaming with pride as he stood next to his pharmacy on wheels.Complaints about the difficulties in getting loans in Ghana are a common refrain among Ghanaian entrepreneurs. Even if they are approved for loans, typical lenders’ interest rates start around 30 percent and skyrocket upward. By contrast, Videre’s interest rates are 15 percent, and the nonprofit requires only that applicants have potentially profitable business plans and complete its program successfully.Even harder to obtain than financing is a solid education in business and finance. Most participants are illiterate, and many of them agree that knowledge is the most valuable commodity they gain from the program.“We’ve had entrepreneurs come to our program, and they’re completely confused as to why their businesses were losing money,” Bradberry says. “Turns out, it just wasn’t a profitable idea. But they never actually ran the numbers and probably didn’t know they had to.”The business training is considered to be fairly rigorous, especially for participants who haven’t attended school or aren’t used to sitting for extended periods of time—consider my snoozing scholar, for example. Still, the majority of enrolled entrepreneurs successfully graduate, receive their loans and begin repayment on time.“It’s simply incredible what owning your own business in this area can do,” Bradberry says. “Sending their kids to school, doing good in their communities and having extra money to save up—it sounds simple, but these are all things that would otherwise have been nearly impossible.”When it’s time to say goodbye to my group of entrepreneurs, we take pictures and exchange hugs. They ask me when I’m going to return. It breaks my heart to tell them my plans are uncertain, so I say I’ll do my very best to visit. “Besides,” I add, “I don’t want anyone to forget about me once you all have thriving businesses!” Their eyes twinkle as they laugh.Tears well up in my eyes. Anyagre reaches out to hold my hands once more, smiles warmly and lets them go.&nbsp;

[node:summary] - Videre, a nonprofit group, educates Ghanaians on the basics of entrepreneurship, so they can provide for their own needs and the needs of others.

Despite the church’s many open windows and doors, the sticky August heat hung in the air like a pesky, unwanted visitor. I paused mid-lesson to wipe the | SUCCESS

Teach a Person to Fish...

Teach a Person to Fish&#8230;

Teach a Person to Fish... | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/TeachaPersontoFish.jpg

In 1978&nbsp;Kip Tindell and his two partners founded The Container Store, which also became the start of the storage and organization industry&mdash;an entirely new retail category at the time. But rather than focusing on the product&mdash;as innovative as it was&mdash;Tindell focused on the people.Instead of treating employees as replaceable cogs, the company invested more than 260 hours of training in every first-year employee and paid them double the industry average. Rather than trying to undercut competitors, the company built stronger, long-term relationships with its vendors to create products that nobody else could offer. It wouldn&rsquo;t just sell containers; by helping customers organize their homes and workplaces, The Container Store would help people <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/3-proven-ways-to-save-time" target="_blank" title="3 Proven Ways to Save Time | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">save time</a>.And of all the commodities to sell, it turns out that time is a rather important one. It&rsquo;s no wonder that there are more than 70 U.S. locations and that the annual turnover rate for employees is less than 10 percent&mdash;extremely low for a retailer. We spoke with Tindell about his views on conscious capitalism, leadership and being a great salesperson.Q: In those early startup days, I&rsquo;ve read that you heard comments like, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re going to sell empty boxes? That sounds crazy!&rdquo; How did you get over those naysayers?A: We just kind of discounted the naysayers. We never listened to them and spent two years without pay to develop the concept and resources. And in the same way you love somebody, you just have faith and confidence, and it&rsquo;s not easy for anyone to just tear that down.I don&rsquo;t think you can be an effective leader unless you&rsquo;re optimistic. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/9-ways-to-say-no-to-negativity" target="_blank" title="9 Ways to Say No to Negativity | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">Having a glass-half-full outlook on things</a> is a prerequisite to being a successful and great leader. In the end, it&rsquo;s going to be great. And if it&rsquo;s not great, then it&rsquo;s not the end.Q: The Container Store has seven &ldquo;foundation principles,&rdquo; one of which is the Man in the Desert Selling&mdash;an original approach to sales if you&rsquo;re not a born salesperson. Why do you think it&rsquo;s so effective?A: That was one of the principles that I came up with myself. It&rsquo;s a really simple, almost corny story. There&rsquo;s a man lost in the desert, and he stumbles upon an oasis. He asks for a glass of water, which you give him, but what else does he need? He probably also needs to call home, and some food or a hat to protect him from the sun.I like the philosophy and how it puts the imperative on helping. You can&rsquo;t help the customer by passively wimping out. Say a customer has a tie rack in one hand and a shoe rack in the other. It&rsquo;s not a big leap of faith to guess she&rsquo;s got a closet at home that&rsquo;s driving her crazy. So if you wimp out and let her get out of there with those two items, she&rsquo;s still going to have a messy closet. Or you can be brave and compassionate enough to help her organize the entire closet. And when she leaves, she&rsquo;ll be ecstatic and know the problem is solved.Every salesperson in America really wants only one thing, deep down&mdash;to get through the day without being accused of being pushy. Frankly, I always thought that the more wonderful a human being is, the more they&rsquo;re concerned about that. People who are just SOBs don&rsquo;t mind being thought of as pushy. But a wonderful, beautiful, interesting, conscious person doesn&rsquo;t want to be accused of being a pushy salesperson.Q: Now that The Container Store is a publicly traded company, how are you able to reconcile that with your conscious-capitalist views?A: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/from-the-corner-office-john-mackey" target="_blank" title="From the Corner Office: John Mackey | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">John Mackey</a>, the quirky co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, and I were college roommates at the University of Texas, and we&rsquo;re both very committed to conscious capitalism. I&rsquo;ve been on his board for eight or nine years, and I&rsquo;m lucky to spend time with people such as <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/from-the-corner-office-herb-kelleher" target="_blank" title="From the Corner Office: Herb Kelleher | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">Herb Kelleher</a> [co-founder of Southwest Airlines]; I&rsquo;ve learned from those guys and have tried to decide for 10 years whether or not we, as an employee-first company, could go public.There are many bigger names who want to buy us because we&rsquo;re a great growth vehicle. But subjecting your team to another management team doesn&rsquo;t seem right to our culture and people. Looking at other alternatives, going public in a very conscious way was the best option for growth.So we did an [initial public offering] with a 14 percent direct-to-share program, mostly for employees, when it&rsquo;s typically around 2 percent. I&rsquo;m big on getting as much stock in the hands of employees as possible. It&rsquo;s hard to do that when you&rsquo;re private, because as much as you love your private partners, they usually don&rsquo;t want to dilute themselves to give stock to employees.[Going public] has been terrible, horrible, wonderful and great. It puts everything on a bigger stage. It&rsquo;s not an exit strategy; it&rsquo;s more of an entrance strategy. Now we can really make a model that other people can emulate in a consciously capitalist way.Q: What was it like to be college roommates with Mackey? Were you guys already showing entrepreneurial inclinations?A: We both were very, very interested in philosophy. He majored in philosophy; my dad wouldn&rsquo;t let me major in philosophy, so I&nbsp;majored in English, which is the same thing. And we were very idealistic and very into reading. As we got out of school and started building our businesses, we applied a lot of those life philosophies to our business. We&rsquo;re both really big on the thought that we had to have the same code of conduct in life as we do in business. It&rsquo;s not acceptable to have a looser morality with business, although you hear it all the time&mdash;&ldquo;You have to understand: It&rsquo;s just business.&rdquo; No, I don&rsquo;t understand. What, you&rsquo;re going to screw around the people you do business with? No, it&rsquo;s all life. It&rsquo;s all part of it.Businesses are so big and powerful that when businesses are mindful of their wake and take care of everyone, the world becomes a better place. So a guy like Mackey has really increased the life span of the average American by changing what even Walmart sells in their grocery stores, with healthier food, and that&rsquo;s important to him.We at The Container Store believe that your life is vastly better if you&rsquo;re well organized. Everybody&rsquo;s so time-starved today; we feel we&rsquo;re improving the quality of life by giving the gift of organization, by saving time and space. The gift of organization is maybe not as important to the world as the gift of a healthy diet, but it&rsquo;s a lot more important than most people realize.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/quick-tips-to-get-your-office-organized" target="_self" title="Quick Tips to Get Your Office Organized | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">Feeling inspired to organize something right now? Check out 3 quick tips to get started on your office.</a>

In 1978&nbsp;Kip Tindell and his two partners founded The Container Store, which also became the start of the storage and organization industry&mdash;an

In 1978&nbsp;Kip Tindell and his two partners founded The Container Store, which also became the start of the storage and organization industry&mdash;an | SUCCESS

How The Container Store CEO Keeps the World Organized

How The Container Store CEO Keeps the World Organized | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/Selling Time.jpg

It&rsquo;s never&nbsp;an easy road&nbsp;to follow in your father&rsquo;s footsteps and run the family business. But when your father transitioned that business from a traditional niche publisher to a booming Internet company, it can be a downright thorny challenge for any successor.Founded in 1966, Edmunds published paperback quarterly pricing guides for new and used cars. Peter Steinlauf purchased the company in 1988 and launched its first website in 1995. Since then Edmunds.com has grown to a website-only car shopping resource with 18 million visitors a month and approximately 550 employees.His son, Avi Steinlauf, has been part of <a href="https://www.edmunds.com/about/" target="_blank" title="About | edmunds.com" rel="noopener">Edmunds.com</a> since 1998 and was named CEO in 2011&mdash;an unsurprising appointment, as the younger Steinlauf worked his way up and became a respected figure in the company. Here, the 44-year-old CEO offers his lessons on fostering a great company culture and growing a family-run business.Q:&nbsp;What is it like to work in a family business but also have to &ldquo;earn&rdquo; your position? Did you ever feel held to a higher standard?A: I joined the company right after I graduated from business school, and I&rsquo;ve been here ever since. Back then, it was just a handful of employees; we all worked remotely and didn&rsquo;t have any office space. I was working out of New York, moved to Southern California in 1999, and things really started to grow exponentially since then. It&rsquo;s a fun story to tell after the fact, but there were a lot of <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/the-5-emotional-challenges-youll-face-as-an-entrepreneur" target="_blank" title="The 5 Emotional Challenges You’ll Face as an Entrepreneur | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">difficult times along the way</a>.I initially started in the capacity of doing some business development and marketing; after that I spent some time on the operational side of the business, ultimately becoming the chief operating officer. Then I assumed the title of president, and four years ago I became the CEO. I&nbsp;think, to a certain extent, I&rsquo;ve earned my stripes in many different things, but I&rsquo;m most fortunate to have been able to grow along with the business.Q: Edmunds.com is consistently named one of the best places to work in the Los Angeles area. How do you cultivate a great company culture?A: We want to give people a great reason to be at the company. We try to be progressive in terms of some of our new technologies so that people feel like they&rsquo;re advancing their careers&mdash;so that it&rsquo;s not just a great place to be, but <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-characteristics-of-a-great-company-culture" target="_blank" title="5 Characteristics of a Great Company Culture | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">a great place to grow</a>. We understand that some people will make it a place they want to spend many years at, but some people won&rsquo;t. So we want their time with us to be mutually beneficial.We also adopted something called a Results-Oriented Work Environment (ROWE), where we got rid of the concept of vacation time. You can take an unlimited amount of vacation or sick days. You no longer have to count the days you take&mdash;we&rsquo;re all about the results. As long as you, in whatever your role is at the company, can get your work done, it doesn&rsquo;t matter where or when you get it done. Your team will define what those results are, so if that means you have to be present at a certain meeting every week, then that&rsquo;s part of the result.But if you need to be home because your kid&rsquo;s sick or you want to take a three-week trip, as long as you organize it and are able to contribute accordingly, we&rsquo;re OK with that. It&rsquo;s a reflection of who we are, and most folks find it very liberating. One of the things people love most about working at Edmunds is that they&rsquo;re treated like adults.Q: You presented a fascinating premise at the South by Southwest V2V conference&mdash;the merits of staying private when so many want to file an initial public offering. Why does Edmunds.com want to remain family-owned?A: When I tell folks that we&rsquo;re looking to remain private, if the marketplace is frothy&mdash;like it is today where there have been probably more IPOs in the last 18 months than we&rsquo;ve seen in the last 10 years&mdash;people will say, &ldquo;Well, why not? Is there something wrong with you? Are you idiots?&rdquo; But there will be other times, like during the recession in 2008, when people will say, &ldquo;Oh, you guys are geniuses!&rdquo; I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re geniuses or idiots; I think we just have a long-term orientation. We see <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/4-steps-to-revolutionary-business-growth" target="_blank" title="4 Steps to Revolutionary Business Growth | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">great growth potential</a> in this vertical that ought to keep us busy for a long time, potentially generations to come. Folks who are looking for quicker hits and don&rsquo;t want to be rooted in one thing for too long have a different orientation. Going public is not about a right or wrong decision, and it&rsquo;s not the be-all, end-all for us.But at the same time, we do things that mature public companies are doing. So we&rsquo;ve got a Big Four auditor. We&rsquo;ve got a board of directors with a number of outside directors. From our vantage point, we think that we&rsquo;ve got the best of both worlds, and we&rsquo;re not spending any time managing Wall Street&rsquo;s expectations. We&rsquo;re taking all of the resources that would otherwise be focused on what public companies would focus on, and we&rsquo;ve got those focused internally, like continually innovating or improving our company culture.Q: Is there anything you do on a regular basis that inspires or recharges you?A: I try to visit our clients and customers multiple times a month, and I find it hugely recharging. Oftentimes you can find yourself overwhelmed with things you need to get done at your desk or with meetings in the office. Those things are important, but sometimes what&rsquo;s even more important is to get out, hear directly from clients or customers, and see the process for yourself.I try to get myself out there into different markets around the country and see how different people are shopping, how dealers are selling and what&rsquo;s going on. We have an initiative at work called Get Your Boots On, and it encourages everybody to get out there, myself included. Getting out and seeing, touching, feeling and bringing back those insights is hugely beneficial.&nbsp;<a charset=" " href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-to-run-a-family-business" target="_self" title="How To: Run a Family Business | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">Check out 7 guidelines on how to run a family business and keep the peace at home and in the workplace.</a>

[node:summary] - Edmunds.com and Avi Steinlauf have made great strides together. He shares his success lessons, including his approach to company culture and the benefits of staying privately owned.

It&rsquo;s never&nbsp;an easy road&nbsp;to follow in your father&rsquo;s footsteps and run the family business. But when your father transitioned that | SUCCESS

Filling Dad’s Shoes: A CEO Takes Charge of His Family Business

Filling Dad’s Shoes: A CEO Takes Charge of His Family Business | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/All in the Family_0.jpg

Perk up&nbsp;your pinkies&nbsp;and slide your elbows off the table; it&rsquo;s time to talk social marketing etiquette&mdash;good manners for when you&rsquo;re interacting with fans online.They can be as obvious as &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t take sides in an Internet argument&rdquo; (it never ends well) or the more subtle &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t &lsquo;like&rsquo; your own posts on Facebook&rdquo; (it doesn&rsquo;t hurt anyone, but it looks vain and desperate). The key is to act like a decent human being whose real-world manners translate accordingly to the virtual world.DON&rsquo;T ignore comments or questions. If you were at a networking event and someone struck up a conversation with you, would you walk away? Don&rsquo;t let comments or tweets slip through the cracks. Thank your fans for their input, &ldquo;like&rdquo; or &ldquo;favorite&rdquo; their comments, and don&rsquo;t be afraid to engage in questions, no matter how tough or critical.DO give credit where it&rsquo;s due. If you see a great image, quote or blog post that you&rsquo;d like to post because it&rsquo;s relevant to your brand, don&rsquo;t give the impression of plagiarism. On Facebook use the &ldquo;Share&rdquo; button or clearly give a hat tip to the fan or business that created the engaging content. On Twitter use the &ldquo;Retweet&rdquo; function or tag the rightful owner&rsquo;s Twitter handle.DON&rsquo;T hijack threads. Burger King wouldn&rsquo;t hand out flyers in front of a Chipotle, so why would you want to hawk your business on an unrelated Facebook thread, no matter how virally hot it is? Fans are smart and can see right through that spam-like behavior. Likewise, don&rsquo;t hijack another company&rsquo;s branded hashtag on Twitter. &ldquo;When you see companies create well-performing hashtags, don&rsquo;t hop on their hashtag train to promote irrelevant content,&rdquo; says Maggie Hibma, who is HubSpot&rsquo;s product marketing manager. &ldquo;It devalues their hashtag and, as a result, your brand.&rdquo;DO shine a light on your fans. It&rsquo;s not polite to always talk about yourself, so find ways to applaud your fans. A CrossFit studio might give kudos to a client&rsquo;s weight-loss journey, or a beauty salon could share how stunning a loyal customer looks with her new blond highlights. But regardless of how well you know your fans, DO ask for permission before you snap a picture or share &nbsp;information.DON&rsquo;T use disreputable ways to gain fans. Buying followers or using bots or trickery to gain new fans is about as useful and impressive as paying people to stand around your brick-and-mortar store to make it look busy. &ldquo;Instead of manipulating people, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/gary-vaynerchuk-great-content-doesnt-make-demands-often" target="_blank" title="Gary Vaynerchuk: Great Content Doesn't Make Demands—Often | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">crank up your compelling content</a> and be proud that those who follow you have voluntarily chosen to do so,&rdquo; Hibma says. &ldquo;[Fans] who will take action on your content are much more valuable to your business&rsquo;s bottom line.&rdquo;<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/smart-ways-to-engage-your-social-media-fans" target="_blank" title="Smart Ways to Engage Your Social Media Fans | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener">Check out 3 smart ways to engage your social media fans.</a>

[node:summary] - These do's and don'ts will serve you well on Facebook and Twitter.

Perk up&nbsp;your pinkies&nbsp;and slide your elbows off the table; it&rsquo;s time to talk social marketing etiquette&mdash;good manners for when | SUCCESS

5 Basic Etiquette Rules for Social Media Marketing

5 Basic Etiquette Rules for Social Media Marketing | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/Digital Decorum.jpg

When you talk to Angela Proffitt, the first thing you realize is how humble she is about her accomplishments. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m passionate about what I do, but when I first started out, I didn&rsquo;t even know <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/entrepreneur-test-do-you-have-what-it-takes" target="_blank" title="Entrepreneur Test: Do You Have What It Takes? | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">what an entrepreneur was,</a>&rdquo; she says with a laugh. &ldquo;It just happened!&rdquo;Proffitt was working in health care when she stumbled into event planning after acquaintances asked her for help. She has since built a thriving Nashville-based business, <a href="https://www.vividexperiences.com/about/my-story" target="_blank" title="My Story | VividExperiences.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vivid Experiences</a>, which has garnered A-list clients that include country solo artist Kellie Pickler and Lady Antebellum&rsquo;s Hillary Scott, as well as awards, raving testimonials and international media attention.But Proffitt is quickly becoming just as well-known by partners and competitors for revolutionizing an industry better known for tulle than tech.Proffitt has always run a paperless office, keeping electronic records instead. But that&rsquo;s not the norm in the event-planning and wedding industry, despite the myriad contracts and minute details involved.After a flood inundated much of Nashville in 2010, many of her partner vendors lost paper records. &ldquo;They came to me and needed help. So I held a class and showed them my process of making my iPhone my office,&rdquo; Proffitt explains. Soon word spread of Proffitt&rsquo;s expertise in &ldquo;going paperless,&rdquo; and she began to realize how much she had to offer her industry in coaching and productivity resources.&ldquo;I just wanted to let my peers know that, hey, there is a better way to do this. Let me share my experience with you, and here&rsquo;s why. It&rsquo;s created a nice little niche for me because creative people need people with business sense, and they don&rsquo;t always plan for that.&rdquo;She still teaches her popular paperless productivity class and, in addition to running Vivid Experiences, is growing a speaking and consulting career in the events industry.Proffitt credits her local Nashville branch of <a href="https://www.eonetwork.org/about" target="_blank" title="About | EONetwork.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">Entrepreneurs&rsquo; Organization</a> and EO mentor Michael Burcham, CEO of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, for helping her realize and reach this next level in her career. &ldquo;I joined a Catalyst [accelerator] class a few years ago. I &nbsp;had never taken a business class, and it felt like I was getting an MBA through my Catalyst class,&rdquo; Proffitt says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really fortunate to be part of EO and even just to be around other people who think and operate like I do.&rdquo;<h3 class="START-UP_SU-HED-LC-Brunel-Poster-Semibold-32">Proffitt&rsquo;s Productivity Tips</h3>&bull; Favorite tools to go paperless: She swears by Dropbox, Google Drive and Wunderlist apps.&bull; Secret to team management: The <a href="https://www.true-colors-test.com/truecolorstory.html" target="_blank" title="True Colors Personality Research and History | true-colors-test.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">True Colors personality profiling system</a>. &ldquo;Knowing how people are wired allows us to save time and work together more cohesively.&rdquo;&bull; First rule of organization: Break up your to-do list into small chunks. &ldquo;Little by little, your life can be made easier and less cluttered.&rdquo;<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/3-steps-to-a-paperless-life" target="_self" title="3 Steps to a Paperless Life | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out 3 steps to managing a paperless life, plus tricks to cut out the clutter other people insist on giving you.</a>

When you talk to Angela Proffitt, the first thing you realize is how humble she is about her accomplishments. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m passionate about what I do,

When you talk to Angela Proffitt, the first thing you realize is how humble she is about her accomplishments. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m passionate about what I do, | SUCCESS

Modernizing an Industry Better Known for Tulle than Tech

Modernizing an Industry Better Known for Tulle than Tech | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/Tulle and Tech_0.jpg

While most people can only dream of space travel, Kellie Gerardi aims to go where no man or woman has gone before. Gerardi is one of 700 astronaut candidates with Mars One, which seeks to send a manned mission to the red planet in 2025. When she&rsquo;s not planning to become a Martian, Gerardi works for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, the trade association for the commercial space industry.&ldquo;In the past, when you thought space flight, you thought NASA and all its incredible accomplishments. But today, that definition is changing, and it&rsquo;s encompassing a whole new landscape of industry participants who are really revolutionizing the way we think of space,&rdquo; Gerardi says. &ldquo;In the future, I see us expanding our economic sphere beyond Earth, so that eventually we&rsquo;ll be conducting business in orbit; we&rsquo;ll have commerce in&nbsp;space.&rdquo;From suborbital tourism and research to plans for asteroid mining and fuel stations in space, the sky is, well, no longer the limit. The technology that led to the smartphone revolution &ldquo;has enabled smaller, faster and more efficient satellites and spacecraft, coupled with the reduced dollar per pound to get to orbit, which is inspiring all of these new startups. There are many areas that are ripe for disruption,&rdquo; she says.Are you looking for new horizons or feeling limited by earthbound business opportunities? Gerardi has these tips:&bull; Stay informed. Visit <a href="https://www.commercialspaceflight.org/about-us/" target="_blank" title="About Us | CommercialSpaceFlight.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">CommercialSpaceflight.org</a>, sign up for its newsletter, and find out about conferences and other events where you can participate and network. (After all, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation&rsquo;s directors include a high-flying group, with executives from businesses such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic.)&bull; Become a mentor. &ldquo;A lot of these new space companies are composed primarily of engineers and techies&mdash;and they&rsquo;re really amazing at what they do&mdash;but there&rsquo;s room for improvement in things like management flow, marketing and public relations, and other things that every other industry has had time to develop,&rdquo; Gerardi says. Offer your <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/top-of-mind-the-value-of-mentors-for-business-success" target="_blank" title="Top of Mind: The Value of Mentors for Business Success | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">services as a mentor</a> to get your foot in the door.&bull; Be proactive. Join local meet-ups to bond and learn from other space fans. If your knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects is shaky, take control of your self-education and tackle a do-it-yourself space science project. &ldquo;For the price of a motorcycle, you can build your own satellite and launch it,&rdquo; Gerardi says.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/2012-success-achiever-of-the-year-elon-musk" target="_self" title="2012 SUCCESS Achiever of the Year: Elon Musk | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elon Musk, the 2012 SUCCESS Achiever of the Year and the brains behind SpaceX, has the ultimate goal of putting life on other planets. Read this space fan&#39;s story&mdash;and the story behind his rocket-building </a><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/2012-success-achiever-of-the-year-elon-musk" target="_self" title="2012 SUCCESS Achiever of the Year: Elon Musk | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">ventures.</a>&nbsp;

While most people can only dream of space travel, Kellie Gerardi aims to go where no man or woman has gone before. Gerardi is one of 700 astronaut

While most people can only dream of space travel, Kellie Gerardi aims to go where no man or woman has gone before. Gerardi is one of 700 astronaut | SUCCESS

Space Fans, You Can Pioneer the Final Frontier

Space Fans, You Can Pioneer the Final Frontier | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/Pioneering the Final Frontier.jpg

Rick Sapio is on a mission. The founder and CEO of the investment holding company Mutual Capital Alliance recently launched <a href="https://www.abillionentrepreneurs.com/about/" target="_blank" title="About ABE | ABillionEntrepreneurs.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Billion Entrepreneurs</a>, a nonprofit organization aimed at inspiring a new kind of entrepreneurship around the world.The first step is creating a crowd-funded documentary that&rsquo;ll feature entrepreneurs sharing their challenges and triumphs. A Billion Entrepreneurs, the movie, was successfully <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1142913041/a-billion-entrepreneurs-the-movie" target="_blank" title="When You Find Your Purpose, You Can Do Anything! | Kickstarter.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">funded on Kickstarter</a> Oct. 9. With the $200,000 goal reached, the movie&mdash;ABE for short&mdash;will debut around April 2015.&ldquo;My definition of entrepreneurship is to take responsibility for outcomes. It&rsquo;s not just [about] business,&rdquo; Sapio explains. &ldquo;What would the world look like if people took responsibility for their lives?&rdquo;It sounds like an ambitious task, but Sapio has faced seemingly insurmountable odds before. &ldquo;My father passed away from cancer when I was 13, leaving my mom with no money. Unfortunately, she had a nervous breakdown and never recovered. There were nine of us kids, and all of us became entrepreneurial,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;From the age of 13, when I opened a bicycle shop with a friend, I have never looked back.&rdquo;Entrepreneurship can change lives, says Sapio, a member of the Dallas chapter of the <a href="https://www.eonetwork.org/about" target="_blank" title="About EO | EONetwork.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">Entrepreneurs&rsquo; Organization</a>. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s impacted me at every level&mdash;my social life, my business connections, my happiness, my commitment to learning and growth all were born out of EO, which reoriented me around learning, growth and giving back.&rdquo;To watch a trailer from A Billion Entrepreneurs or take the pledge to become an entrepreneur, visit <a href="https://www.abillionentrepreneurs.com/" target="_blank" title="ABillionEntrepreneurs.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">SUCCESS.com/ABE</a>.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/entrepreneurs-are-not-normal" target="_self" title="Entrepreneurs Are Not Normal | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Entrepreneurs aren&rsquo;t normal. They&rsquo;re freaks. Find out why that&rsquo;s a good thing in an exclusive excerpt from Darren Hardy&rsquo;s upcoming book, The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster.</a>

Rick Sapio is on a mission. The founder and CEO of the investment holding company Mutual Capital Alliance recently launched A Billion Entrepreneurs, a

Rick Sapio is on a mission. The founder and CEO of the investment holding company Mutual Capital Alliance recently launched A Billion Entrepreneurs, a | SUCCESS

Seeking a Billion Entrepreneurs

Seeking a Billion Entrepreneurs | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/ABE.jpg

It might be because you realize you’re in over your head. Or you’re ready to retire. Or perhaps you feel like you’ve taken your startup as far as you can, on your own. For whatever reason, the decision to sell your business is never an easy one. How do you find the right buyer? And what should you do if you decide to stay on after the sale? How does selling your business impact your employees?

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/louderback" target="_blank" title="Jim Louderback | LinkedIn.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jim Louderback</a> found himself asking these same questions. As a veteran in the tech media industry, Louderback was the former editor-in-chief of PC Magazine and also served as vice president and editorial director of TechTV, giving him unique insight into the world of startups, especially as he became the CEO of web video network <a href="https://revision3.com/about/" target="_blank" title="About | Revision3.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Revision3</a>. In 2012, he sold Revision3 to <a href="https://discoverydigitalnetworks.com/about/" target="_blank" title="About | DiscoveryDigitalNetworks.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Discovery Digital Networks</a> for $35 million, stayed on with Revision3 as general manager and recently resigned in September 2014 to focus on writing a book about being a first-time CEO.

If there’s anyone who understands the potentially awkward situation of what happens after a startup is acquired, it’s Jim Louderback. We recently discussed how selling your business can impact company culture and team morale, and how to attract a sale in the first place.

Q: When you sold Revision3 in 2012, what convinced you that Discovery was the right buyer? 

JL: We initially worked with them on a partnership, so they could distribute some of our videos on their website. As we worked with them we realized that we actually looked at the world the relatively same way. We had built the No. 1 nonfiction web original video company, and we were really No. 1 in the world for web video. So we were talking to Discovery, and they said, “Well, we’re the No. 1 nonfiction television company in the world.” And we’re like, ‘Wow, we really are quite similar!”

Something I never wanted to do in building a company was to build it for somebody to acquire. I know that some people go at it like, “We’re going to build a company that’s going to be great for Google, or Facebook or Cisco.” I always thought that the right thing to do was to build a great company and then hopefully you find somebody who would want to buy it.

As it turns out, I probably could have done much better if I had tried to build [Revision3] with Discovery to begin with. And the really interesting thing is that, afterward, we do strategic planning every year and we come up with six or seven words that represent our company, our values, and who we were. It’s funny because we sat down with the Discovery guys and put those words out, and they said, “Five of those seven words are words that we use to describe Discovery.” It was one of those things where we realized, “Wow, we really are a match made in heaven!”

Q: Early on, you ran the content for a startup that sold to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s venture company and it didn’t turn out so well. But you learn a lot more from your mistakes than you do from your triumphs, so what did the Paul Allen sale teach you? Did that experience inform you on the Revision3 sale?

JL: The thing that I really learned when we went through the sale to Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital was to keep an open mind. You’re now part of an organization that has a different point of view than you did, so you shouldn’t just slavishly stick to your point of view because you think it’s right.

One of the lessons I didn’t learn as well as I should’ve is, don’t just do what the company wants without thinking it through. Paul Allen had us build 10 hours of live television coverage of tech and tech investing. He wanted a tech version of CNBC; this was in 2000. And then in 2001, the dot-com bomb hit and we shut it down. And I wasn’t the one who specifically would’ve said to him, “This is a dumb idea, don’t do it.” But as it turns out, it really wasn’t that smart of an idea and we all said in the back of our heads, “Well, we don’t think this is going to be a success, Paul, but we’ll do it anyway! Because Paul Allen wants it!”

And certainly, when Discovery bought Revision3, that was in the back of my mind and we certainly talked through stuff, but Discovery wasn’t the company to come in and say, “Now, you need to go do this!” They were really good about saying “We’re going to keep you separate, keep doing your things the way you’re doing it. In the end, we want to learn from you, we want to turn you guys into us.”

Q: Since you were a first-time CEO, what was it like to stay on after the sale? Did it feel strange to feed into this larger media company?

JL: It was fine for me, because I had been at larger companies and I had some sense of how to operate within a larger company. Once you’re bought by a larger company, a lot of that autonomy is gone—you can’t do everything you want the way you want it. Yeah, we had a board and I certainly had to run things through the board on strategic issues, but even some of the smaller things—well, you can’t just give that person a raise, you have to go through the compensation committee. And I’ve been there before, but some of the people I worked with were like, “What?! We can’t just do that?”

If you haven’t been through that [corporate setting] first, it’s almost jarring.

Q: Right! It’s definitely good to be small, nimble and make decisions quickly like that. What was that like, managing those expectations of your employees, and changing processes and procedures?

JL: There were a couple of folks who didn’t really take to it. You have to expect that when you go through this; you will lose some valuable team members who don’t want to be part of something that’s more bureaucratic—and we certainly did. I expected it and it happens, so you have to plan for it.

There were a few other companies who had sold to YouTube about nine months before we did, and their turnover hadn’t been that high. Ours was a little bit higher, but in part, that was because we were in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where there’s so much more opportunity. And they were in New York and Los Angeles, and there are so many more startups going on here.

Q: So it’s because of the talent poaching? Or competition?

JL: Well, once you get bought by a larger company, you lose the brass ring—you lose the prospect that you might sell for billions of dollars and everybody would become millionaires. That brass ring no longer exists once you sell your company. Now they can and do provide options, but you’re never going to have that potential to make millions and millions. You have all these startups in the Bay Area that all have that potential. Very few of them are ever going to get there, but they all have that potential.

Q: For startup founders and business owners, what would be your best advice to those looking to sell their businesses?

JL: First of all, you’ve got to find somebody who wants to buy your business. [Laughs] It’s not easy to finds someone who wants to. But let’s say you do have someone who wants you—the key is to find someone who has shared values, where your companies are aligned, where your mission and your vision are somewhat similar. And if you’re choosing between a couple of options, certainly look for the one with shared values, where they really believe in what you’re doing.

And I think, even so, even when you have that, realize that things will change. Because in the end, they bought you.

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/selling-your-business-but-want-to-retain-its-talent" target="_self" title="Selling Your Business but Want to Retain Its Talent? | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Are you selling your business but want to keep its talent? Discover the dangers of losing high-value employees and how to motivate them to stay.</a>

It might be because you realize you’re in over your head. Or you’re ready to retire. Or perhaps you feel like you’ve taken your startup as far as you can,

It might be because you realize you’re in over your head. Or you’re ready to retire. Or perhaps you feel like you’ve taken your startup as far as you can, | SUCCESS

‘I Sold My Startup—But I Didn’t Leave’

‘I Sold My Startup—But I Didn’t Leave’ | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/I Sold My Startup.jpg

Rome wasn&rsquo;t built in a day, and neither is a business. Just ask Michael Conway, managing director of <a href="https://www.clothes2order.com/pages/about-us/?oscsid=06a3171db94a1d43b8860a3af5581159" target="_blank" title="About Clothes2order | Clothes2Order.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Clothes2Order.com</a>. Conway, 42, launched the clothing company in 2002 and has continued to hone the business model to keep pace with changing economic trends and markets. Today the London-based online retailer is thriving, with clients that include Google and eBay.Conway, a member of the <a href="https://www.eonetwork.org/about/" target="_blank" title="About EO | EONetwork.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">Entrepreneurs&rsquo; Organization</a>, offers the following &ldquo;Seven Deadly Sins&rdquo; for a startup, adapted from a blog post in <a href="https://blog.eonetwork.org/about/" target="_blank" title="About Overdrive | Blog.EONetwork.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">EO Overdrive</a>.1. Self-sufficiency: Some businesses work as solo enterprises, but most need to be scalable. If you don&rsquo;t know how to grow your business without cloning yourself, you&rsquo;re sentenced to a life of hard labor with an unappreciative boss&mdash;yourself! Build enough margins into your pricing so you can hire or outsource the tasks you don&rsquo;t need to be doing.2. Product worship: Being product-driven is a fast road to failure. It doesn&rsquo;t matter how good your product is if the customer doesn&rsquo;t want it. Know what customers want, what they need and what it takes to get it to them.3. Neglect: Most often seen in terms of legality, neglect also extends into business plans. When somebody mentions to me that I really ought to be thinking about X, I ensure that X is on my to-do list in the next 30 days. Sometimes X is not a problem, but if it&rsquo;s a blunder that comes back to bite me, I&rsquo;ll spend even more time and money solving it later.4. Picking a tiny target: If you&rsquo;ve picked too small a niche for your business, growth will cease very quickly, either because your competitors have cornered the market, or you expand to fill the niche and discover there&rsquo;s nowhere else to go. You might be happy being the big fish in a very small puddle, but it&rsquo;s better to know if that&rsquo;s your future before you jump in and muddy the water.5. Playing the equals game: This one doesn&rsquo;t look like a sin at all, but it&rsquo;s a business destroyer all the same. If you have business partners, it&rsquo;s tempting (and often seems fair) to have equal shares in the ownership. In the long term, however, it&rsquo;s unlikely that you and your partner will agree on all aspects. Deciding early on who will have the authority to make the tough decisions is important, and that individual will need to have sufficient investment in the business to stay motivated.6. Time-is-right-ism: Many wannabe entrepreneurs never get a business off the ground because they seek guaranteed success. For true entrepreneurs, the leap of faith is the launch pad, but for those &ldquo;when-the-time-is-right&rdquo; entrepreneurs, it&rsquo;s the point when they stop dead.7. Overpaying for market share: Habitually spending too much on advertising or incentives is death to a business. Instead perform a rigorous assessment of the potential return and test it thoroughly. Make sure you won&rsquo;t spend more money getting customers than selling to them. And then enshrine your assessment as a rule so that as your business grows, anybody who has the authority to spend money on customer acquisition knows how to measure the cost against the potential return.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-ingredients-for-startup-success" target="_blank" title="5 Ingredients for Startup Success | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Now that you know what has the potential to stop your startup, find out what 5 ingredients are vital for startup success.</a>

Rome wasn&rsquo;t built in a day, and neither is a business. Just ask Michael Conway, managing director of Clothes2Order.com. Conway, 42, launched the

Rome wasn&rsquo;t built in a day, and neither is a business. Just ask Michael Conway, managing director of Clothes2Order.com. Conway, 42, launched the | SUCCESS

How to Stop a Startup

How to Stop a Startup | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/How to Stop a Startup.jpg

It&rsquo;s the nightmare that every business owner dreads. One day, out of the blue, a talented and hardworking employee hands you his two weeks&rsquo; notice. Still reeling from the shock, you go through stages of panicky self-reflection&mdash;How come I didn&rsquo;t see this coming? Can I still convince him to stay? How am I &nbsp;going to fill this position?The emotional toll this scenario has on a leader, regardless of his or her business&rsquo;s size, industry or location, is the biggest problem described by entrepreneurs worldwide in conversations with Seattle-based serial entrepreneur David Niu.At the time, Niu was on a six-month &ldquo;careercation.&rdquo; Feeling exhausted from running several startups, he bought one-way tickets for himself, his wife and his 11-month-old daughter to travel the world and recharge.&ldquo;I had a couple of goals. First, we wanted to create some amazing memories as a young family. Second, I &nbsp;was stumped by how I could love&mdash;yet feel so burned out&mdash;running my own company. So I wanted to take some time to really think, journal and meditate, but also interview entrepreneurs wherever we went and ask them about their biggest problems and best practices,&rdquo; Niu explains.&ldquo;I talked to a wide range of entrepreneurs, like the winemaker in New Zealand, the fruit trader in China and the financial services consultant in Seoul, and asked them all these questions on culture, leadership and management,&rdquo; Niu says. Over and over, he heard about unexpected employee loss at every interview when he asked, &ldquo;What&rsquo;s one pain point you&rsquo;d pay someone to &nbsp;eliminate?&rdquo;Even during his hiatus from work, Niu couldn&rsquo;t escape the calling of another startup idea. The concept persisted throughout his journeys, as he pondered how business owners could prevent the shock of unexpectedly losing talented employees.&ldquo;I found that many leaders truly care about their people but didn&rsquo;t have really good tools, and I want to give them a way to get the pulse on an ongoing basis of how happy, frustrated or burned out their people are before retention sinks or issues fester and become cancerous,&rdquo; Niu says.After returning to the States and writing a book based on his journey of self-discovery, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1499242786/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1499242786&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=sm0fe-20&amp;linkId=3D3NCWGZF5QIVT5H">Careercation: Trading Briefcase for Suitcase to Find Entrepreneurial Happiness</a>, Niu founded <a href="https://www.tinyhr.com/about/" target="_blank" title="About | TINYhr.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">TINYhr</a> in 2012 with a goal of building workplace happiness: &ldquo;Our mission is to make employees happier, and since we spend over 70 percent of our time at work, why not be happier?&rdquo;TINYhr&rsquo;s product, TINYpulse, is a weekly one-question survey that&rsquo;s emailed to a client&rsquo;s employees. Questions are designed to measure <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/inspire-your-employees-with-engagement" target="_blank" title="Inspire Your Employees with Engagement | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">employee engagement</a>. They can be fun&mdash;&ldquo;If you had to describe your company as an animal, what animal would it be and why?&rdquo;&mdash;or straightforward&mdash;&ldquo;On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you at work?&rdquo; All the feedback sent via TINYpulse is anonymous, and employees can also submit suggestions or give cheers for peers&mdash;open or anonymous praises for co-workers who do great things.TINYhr has 500-plus clients worldwide, including big-name companies such as HubSpot and AAA.&ldquo;We use TINYpulse ourselves religiously. TINYpulse comes out weekly, and then we review two of them at a time. We meet at the company every two weeks, and we put it on a big screen. I don&rsquo;t hide anything; it&rsquo;s all transparent. So if you say, David is a dirtbag, it all shows up,&rdquo; the founder chuckles.One particular complaint Niu faced pertained to onboarding new hires.&ldquo;I was focused so much on trying to find the right candidates that when they came onboard, I wasn&rsquo;t as present, and I didn&rsquo;t give them a great experience,&rdquo; Niu says. &ldquo;I got in front of the company and said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re right. I didn&rsquo;t do a great job, but my commitment to you is that we&rsquo;re going to go from zero to hero when it comes to onboarding, and people are going to visit our company to write key studies about how well we onboard.&rsquo; &rdquo;Niu credits his humble leadership style to the <a href="https://www.eonetwork.org/about" target="_blank" title="About EO | EONetwork.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">Entrepreneurs&rsquo; Organization</a>. He&rsquo;s an active member in the Seattle chapter.&ldquo;The Entrepreneurs&rsquo; Organization has been such an influential part of my life, and when I first joined the organization, I was really young and focused on making more money,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Now there&rsquo;s so much more that it offers me&mdash;on how I can be a better person, how I can be a better father, husband, friend, business leader. And that business part is subordinate to the personal stuff that I &nbsp;get out of EO.&rdquo;Perhaps the greatest gift from EO was its network of international members who served as Niu&rsquo;s interview subjects during his careercation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d never met them before; I just reached out and told them I was in town. And they were so selfless, so giving. It&rsquo;s been an amazing organization,&rdquo; Niu says. &ldquo;So at TINYhr, we donate 1 percent of our time to the community, 1 percent of our product to nonprofits, and this year, we&rsquo;ll be donating 1 percent of our profits to EO.&rdquo;For now, Niu keeps himself busy with TINYhr and serving on the board at <a href="https://www.buddytv.com/about/about.aspx" target="_blank" title="About | BuddyTV.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">BuddyTV</a>, a startup he previously founded. But don&rsquo;t rule out another careercation. &ldquo;My wife and I are thinking we should do this every five to 10 &nbsp;years,&rdquo; Niu says with a laugh.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/discover-the-formula-for-happy-employees" target="_self" title="Discover the Formula for Happy Employees | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Discover the formula for happy employees. These aspects of on-the-job contentment will help your company thrive.&nbsp; </a>

It&rsquo;s the nightmare that every business owner dreads. One day, out of the blue, a talented and hardworking employee hands you his two weeks&rsquo;

It&rsquo;s the nightmare that every business owner dreads. One day, out of the blue, a talented and hardworking employee hands you his two weeks&rsquo; | SUCCESS

Should You Take a Careercation?

Should You Take a Careercation? | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/Keeping a Pulse on Happiness_0.jpg

<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doc-scan-scanner-to-scan-pdf/id453312964?mt=8" target="_blank" title="Doc Scan | iTunes.Apple.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Doc Scan (Free)</a>There&rsquo;s no need to tote around a bulky scanner, Apple users. Capture, organize and send multipage documents, pamphlets or business cards to contacts new and old&mdash;with the app, you can even email files as PDFs or upload to Dropbox or Evernote. And there&rsquo;s no need to worry about quality&mdash;Doc Scan removes shadows and brightens the document, whatever it is, for a clear and sharp scanned image.<a href="https://getbase.com/tour/mobile-crm/" target="_blank" title="Mobile CRM | GetBase.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Base ($15/month)</a>The fastest-growing lead-tracking app on the market, Base lets you run reports, manage your accounts and organize complicated spreadsheets or charts of your important sales leads from virtually anywhere. Automatic syncing and offline access make data transfer easy.<a href="https://contactspls.com/" target="_blank" title="Contacts+ | ContactsPls.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Contacts+ (Free)</a>Android and Apple users can seamlessly sync contacts from their phonebooks, email accounts and Google contacts into one simple, smart address book. You can also peek at a history of all your interactions with a particular individual&mdash;very helpful if you need an icebreaker.<a href="https://success.com/article/42-apps-you-need-right-now" target="_self" title="42 Apps You Need Right Now | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Love getting more done with apps? Check out our list of the 42 most essential apps available today.</a>

Doc Scan (Free)There&rsquo;s no need to tote around a bulky scanner, Apple users. Capture, organize and send multipage documents, pamphlets or business

Doc Scan (Free)There&rsquo;s no need to tote around a bulky scanner, Apple users. Capture, organize and send multipage documents, pamphlets or business | SUCCESS

3 Apps to Organize Your Biz Documents

3 Apps to Organize Your Biz Documents | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/Tapping New Streams_0.jpg

Virgin Group founder and CEO Richard Branson has always been an unconventional entrepreneur, and in his newest book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591847370/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1591847370&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=sm0fe-20&amp;linkId=333QUIL5TYRUZHZ5">The Virgin Way</a>, he highlights his guiding leadership principles. Here are a few memorable excerpts:&rsaquo;&rsaquo; &ldquo;Like it or not, in the eyes of our customers, employees, friends, whoever, perception is very much reality&hellip;. We are all consumers and yet I am constantly amazed at how many businesspeople seem to dwell in some kind of subjective blinkered cocoon instead of looking objectively at their own products and services.&rdquo;&rsaquo;&rsaquo; &ldquo;Management is much more about maintaining processes, disciplines and systems than about changing them. Strong leaders, on the other hand, while maintaining stability, must have vision, creativity and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to influence others to follow and support them in the challenges of moving an organization into uncharted and often highly risky &nbsp;territory.&rdquo;&rsaquo;&rsaquo; &ldquo;Back in the early retailing days of Virgin, as we began to grow with more stores, a record label, recording studios and the rest, we never lost sight of &lsquo;serious fun&rsquo; as a driving force behind the business. We carried that same culture&mdash;which was and is really just a passion for having fun with what we do while doing it better than the others&mdash;into banks, trains, telecoms and planes, plus a multitude of other very diverse businesses all around the world.&rdquo;<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/the-bad-boy-of-business-wants-you-to-be-good" target="_self" title="The Bad Boy of Business Wants You to Be Good | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Get more on Richard Branson&mdash;his leadership style, plus his larger mission.</a>

Virgin Group founder and CEO Richard Branson has always been an unconventional entrepreneur, and in his newest book, The Virgin Way, he highlights his

Virgin Group founder and CEO Richard Branson has always been an unconventional entrepreneur, and in his newest book, The Virgin Way, he highlights his | SUCCESS

Leadership, ‘The Virgin Way’

Leadership, ‘The Virgin Way’ | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/articles/Leadership The Virgin Way.jpg