Over the past 6+ years, I’ve spent most of my time working with business executives of small to mid-sized organizations under the Vistage International umbrella. It’s work that is fulfilling and business owners often see a huge impact in their business. I think I would call it - “the small business competitive advantage.” Over the years I’ve worked with many companies that were able to maintain their positive momentum because they received critical insight from their peer group and from me, their business coach. For me, there is no higher calling than to assist small business growth in a world marketplace. I therefore was introduced to a recent article in the NY Times featuring Raphael Pastor - the CEO of Vistage. It goes:
I recently had an interesting conversation with Rafael Pastor, the chairman and chief executive of Vistage, a leading organization for chief executives. He relayed a story that one of his members had told him. This particular C.E.O. has a school-age son who came home one day and asked if his father would call himself something other than a C.E.O. It seems that the boy’s classmates were giving him a hard time about the fact that his father runs a company — as if it were something to be embarrassed by. My first thought was, “What?” Maybe I could understand it if his father were a politician! But then I started thinking….
Anyone who understands advertising knows that repetition is the key to creating a “brand.” Unfortunately with all of the reports of greed, dishonesty and incompetence, the C.E.O. brand is now pretty well established. But there’s an aspect of this that is not well understood. There are actually two kinds of C.E.O. — those who run big public companies and those who own and operate smaller, privately owned companies.
Let me be clear: this is not about big-company chief executives being greedy and small-company chief executives being honorable. It is about how connected the C.E.O is to the success of the company. It is about the consequences if things don’t work out. It is about how much risk the C.E.O. assumes. While it’s not uncommon for public company chief executives to walk away from their jobs with millions of dollars for their trouble and for the trouble they cause employees and stockholders, small-company chief executives rarely get to do that.
Commitment is what makes small business great, and at the same time can make it frail. Mr. Pastor then states:
To many, betting the house may seem an insane risk to take. And maybe it is. But if small-business owners weren’t willing to take that risk, there would be far fewer small businesses in America. You see, many entrepreneurs are what I would call “all in”: all of their money, most of their time, and most of their ego and self worth and pride are involved. Sometimes they put too much in, at the expense of their families and general well-being…
But the fact is that when small company chief executives fail, they often face dire consequences. And that’s an aspect of business ownership that is rarely noted in the glamorized view of entrepreneurship that we frequently see portrayed. Nor is it fully understood by public officials who always seem eager to have small businesses borrow more aggressively and hire more aggressively.
I encourage you to read the article in total - it’s spot on. Entreprenuership is what made the U.S. great. And as this article states, most of the time its an “all in” game. Need I say more. Let’s honor those entrepreneurs we know and support them so they’re able to accomplish really great things.
