Ahh. I think I understand better the issue/problem here. Perhaps
an analogy or story could of some help (or perhaps not).
I know a very successful pizza company in the Southeast which
started up about 18 years ago or thereabouts. It is a private
company. Well, the founder started the company out of an unused
storage closet in his dad's garage business. So it is the
classic success story. Work hard, keep your customers happy,
stay focused and outsmart(or outwork) the competition. Today,
his operation is the most successful private pizza company in
the region.
But there were times when things were really tough for one reason
or another. Once, he switched a supplier for cost reasons and
he paid dearly. Another big problem occurred when a competitor
started an aggressive price war that forced him to cut prices too. A major cost reduction program saved him and this turned
out to a long term blessing when prices normalized after the
price war.
Anyway, his company is now flourishing after almost two decades
of hard work, and he is a very wealthy and satisfied entrepren-
eur. But, it took a long long time. He says that every week
he counts his blessings, but reminds himself that successful
business always requires hard work and constant diligence. He
persevered through the tough times because he says he always
felt that his mission would work fine over the long haul. He enjoys his work and he likes to see happy customers.
Now, the more I think about this, the more I see there is a
BIG difference between the pizza story above and this company
Inman just joined. The pizza entrepreneur never had to think
about a stock price at the end of each day. He didn't really
know or care what his operation was "valued" each day. He
kept on working hard and staying true to his mission. This has
always been the big 'bugaboo' of stock investing versus private
entrepreneurship. In reality, there is no major difference
except the PERCEPTION. Private companies have the same business
challenges as public companies do. But, private companies do
not have the 'daily perception' issue that is generated by a
stock price at the end of each business day.
Start-ups take a long, long time to take off, assuming they
take off to begin with. It sounds like some people here are
having a hard time dealing with this reality. If this is so,
then I think they need a reality check. I say this not as an
admonishment, but rather just a simple fact. For example, Dell
started up in 1984.It wasn't until 1994 that Dell really
started to take off and flourish. It took a decade or so.
Well, this post probably won't help alot for those of you who
have been in this comapny for a very long time. But, you
might want to realize that sometimes it takes a very long time
for tech start-ups to gain traction and flourish. If you didn't
realize this fact before, then perhaps you better understand it
now.
All the best and ......CMD
AI
