1. Get Ready to be Broke

So this week was more of a roller coaster than usual, and like all things interesting in my life I figured I would share it.

Lesson # 1: Dante is a pimp in a tie

A bit of chest thumping, but whatever.

Lesson # 2: Transparency is KEY

This was probably the most cliche statement in 2009, so I am sure your eyes are rolling. BUT, what do you do when it is YOUR company that needs to be transparent. Not a hypothetical company, not a Fortune 500 , not a client … your company, the one paying your bills.

This week we had two issues arise with work we were contracted to do for clients. Both of them were honest mistakes, and the kind of issues that can happen to anyone, but we were at a cross roads with both clients. The issues were severe enough to warrant us being taken of the accounts. In reality, both issues were caused by circumstances that are not part of our everyday business, or that we even knew were going on (this lesson feeds more lessons to come). But that is the reality of doing business.

As a business owner do we cover our tracks, and do whatever it takes to keep the client?

No. Instead we chose to man up, take blame for our mistakes, offer swift actionable changes to benefit the client in the situation. Now by doing this we knew we were likely going to lose the account, however something interesting happened, the fact that we were transparent, willing to fix the situation, and provided excellent customer service in both cases caused the client to realize how safe there business actually was with us. We were not the company that was going to mess up, and leave them in the lurch, instead we were the company willing to protect them at all costs, despite our benefit or loss.

Lesson #3: When something is broke, FIX IT!

When your company is humming along and being profitable, it is sometimes hard to stop the machine to make repairs you know are necessary. With the above issues however, this month, we halted several of our process, and made massive overhauls in the middle of work. Very few companies would do this, but what we realized was that our mission has always been driven by Quality, in services and customer service, and if we have processes that aren’t giving our clients that one basic principles they must be scrapped and redesigned, from the ground up.

Lesson #4: If you want the most from your staff challenge them

As you can imagine the reinvention of process in our company was a huge undertaking for our staff, so I decided to sit out in the main work area yesterday to help them along. I was surprised, and delighted to see the aggressiveness and enthusiasm they had about tackling the challenge. It made me realize that the ingenuity if our staff is something we should harness via processes and not suppress. By creating challenging assignments, not only will it make the staff rise to new levels, but it will also produce the best quality services for the client.

Lesson #5: Google Doesn’t Understand Privacy

Seriously! This never came up in testing?

Lesson #6: Snyder men are dead sexy

To start, this post is more of a therapeutic exercise for me than anything.

In the last 12 months I have:

1. Seen our company grow from 2 dudes (Jordan Kasteler and I) to 12 full time employees, with a bunch of awesome clients

2. Worked with some awesome people to create another company that is launching called Second Step Search

3. Traveled all over the country and world speaking (over 90 days of travel booked in 2009)

In that process I lost myself.

It’s funny that when you begin to have success in some areas of life, no matter how minimal, you lose focus on others. The culprit was an ego that began to develop. It clouded my judgment, it changed my focus, and almost cost me my family.

The difficulty is that our society, and especially the Internet world, puts success on the same plane as ego. It is as though the two concepts are not to be separated, and penance is allowed for one because of the other.

This has become exceedingly clear to me in my travels this year, as I saw people even putting ego before success, figuring perhaps that a sheer projection of their own value is all that is need to accomplish goals. The concept to me seems to be nothing more then “fake it till you make it.”

But still, in July, I stood completely lost, thinking the world, and everyone in it revolved around my greatness. My breaking point is something that is private, and not really fodder for this blog, but it was life changing for me. Several realizations occurred based on this event:

1. In the grand scheme of this universe, time, and space, my small business accomplishments mean nothing. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but as people our legacies are not often formed from our career based actions. Actions themselves can form a legacy, but often these are not self serving. In the end, we will all be gone, and what we will be remembered for is what we gave to this world, not what we took from it. For me personally, I see my family as my legacy, and the reason I started down this path was to improve life for them, and enrich the possibilities for my sons.

2. If you feel you are already the best at whatever it is you do, you will be hard pressed to learn anything that will help you grow. This is a firm reality. If you are the smartest person in a room, who do you have to learn from? The answer is, everyone else in the room. This is a concept I really began to understand when I was teaching. I learned more in my time as a teacher than I have at any other singular time period in my life. Those kids taught me about life, relationships, how to create community, and a myriad of other lessons I still hold dear. Ego, stops this entire process. You have nothing left to learn because you are the best. Everyone’s opinions and ideas are inferior, so why even take them into account?

3. I had, since my time as a teacher, prided myself on my kindness towards other people. I had completely lost this. I no longer cared about anyone but myself. Who should I care about? I was the most important person I knew. The funny thing is that much of the success Search & Social has, has been based on the reputation Jordan, Loren, and myself have for being kind, stand up guys, that people wanted to establish working relationships with.

4. I had always been fiercely individual, and now was allowing myself to be put into a role everyone expected of me.

In the months following these realizations, I have done a ton of soul searching. In the end I realized, ego almost destroyed me. It was not the reason for my minimal success, it was an ugly bi-product. This realization is hard to swallow, but it saved me, and it is something I stay conscious of now as I navigate through my personal and professional life.

This is not to say people shouldn’t be proud. Pride in ones accomplishments is natural, and deserved, but there is a clear difference.

Pride is defined as -

1. A sense of one’s own proper dignity or value; self-respect.
2. Pleasure or satisfaction taken in an achievement, possession, or association

Ego is defined as –

1. The self, especially as distinct from the world and other selves.
2. In psychoanalysis, the division of the psyche that is conscious, most immediately controls thought and behavior, and is most in touch with external reality.
3. An exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit.

Ego, by definition, is not reality, based on external factors, and self involved.

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give to young entrepreneurs is to set aside time everyday to reflect on who you really are, and how that person has led to your successes or failures. By grounding yourself in that firm reality, you will find more success than you ever would falling into the trap of ego.