Should've Stayed In Food & Beverage...

Why are you here? No, really think of that question before you answer it. WHY are you HERE?

In this place?

At this time?

For what purpose?

While this question can easily be pawned off as purely theoretical, I want you to ask it from a realistic standpoint.

Let me share a short story with you while you consider your answer. Some 12 years ago, I was riding in a car with a friend and old college teammate of mine on our way to play basketball. We had been out of school and into our professional careers for a few years now and we made it a point to get together and play ball from time to time. Well, I looked at him and said "you know, some guys, when they graduate from college, they get together and start businesses. You know what we do?" He answered, "What's that?" To which I replied, "we go play ball together". We sat in silence for the rest of the trip... and by November of the same year, we started an investment group with 2 other college educated, business-minded friends of ours. We had a vision that we'd not only invest in small business, but also create our own small businesses. So we thought of our first venture; wrote a business plan; scouted locations and got the estimated financial needs on paper. $2.5 Million! That's what the plan called for. We were college-educated (a condition more commonly known as “Broke”) not rich, so we needed to find a way to get the money. As it turned out, if we could produce 10% of that, the bank would give us a loan for the rest. Again, college-educated (aka broke), not rich... so we set the plan aside and went about finding a way to come up with $250,000 (10%).

Then one day, shortly after, an opportunity came about and we started a cleaning service. We had no experience; no equipment; and barely any money. We added another friend, put $250 apiece into the pot (for a whopping $1,250), and set out to see what we could do. We wrote our contracts to start on Fridays and for us to receive payment up front. On our first live Friday, we took off from our regular jobs, picked up the check, bought the supplies and took the whole weekend to learn how to service the building efficiently. Fast forward a year and a half later and our cleaning subsidiary had 3 contracts and 12 employees. The cleaning business is hard though. You only ever hear about the spots you missed; never the ones you hit. We learned to handle complaints swiftly, but as they mounted, we grew tired of managing a fledgling company, working a 9-to-5, and balancing our home lives. By the end of our 3rd year, I was knee deep in evening law school classes, another partner was building a non-profit, and the others were managing a variety of projects. Our cleaning business wasn't getting the proper attention it needed. As a result, we were coming to a close on 2 of our 3 contracts. So we decided as a group, amicably, to disband altogether. In closing everything up, we were going through the numbers for a final time and came to a realization: in less than three years, we turned that $1,250 initial investment into $275,000 in revenue. Shortly thereafter, we came to a revelation: we had forgotten what we came for. It was a classic mistake and a lesson I still take pretty hard on myself. Looking back though, there's no shame, as it happens to the best of us.

Even Jay-Z, who built a multi-million dollar brand admits that he and his business partners had a bout with “business amnesia”. In a track entitled Lost Ones, he parallels himself to Casino's Sam Rothstein and admits that he should've stayed in food & beverage and then recites a line that still resonates with me- “ain’t nothin’ left to say though, I guess we forgot what we came fo'."

The money that passed through our company’s hands was at least enough for us to move to the next phase of one of our bigger plans, BUT we, like so many others, forgot WHY we were there in the first place. So I pose the question once more and challenge you to ask yourself from time-to-time - in your entrepreneurial journey… on your career path… why are you here?

In this place?

At this time?

Are you getting what it is that you came for?