Defining success

I was recently being interviewed for one of those cheesy "entrepreneur profiles" and the reporter asked me to name the entrepreneur I most admired.  I'd been prepared for the usual "biggest mistake" and "biggest risk" and "how you got started" questions, but this one caught me off guard.  I actually couldn't think of a single big name entrepreneur that really got my juices going.  The usual suspects like Richard Branson (Virgin), Howard Schultz (Starbucks) or Bill Gates (you know) have never been my idols for some reason, even though I've read their books and admire their success. 

Instead, I found myself envisioning all of the entrepreneurs I've met through the years who aren't famous, who haven't made gazillions of dollars, but have a strong sense of purpose.  They have concocted their own definition of success, not necessarily the one created by mass media and pop culture.  They are happy in their own skin, and whistling while they work.  I want to be like them.

There's a great book I'm reading by Bo Burlingham, an editor at Inc. Magazine, called Small Giants.  I'll post a full review when I'm done with it, but Bo has chronicled fifteen entrepreneurs who have decided to chase greatness instead of bigness.  It doesn't mean that they aren't big (some have revenue of over $100M and over 1000 employees) but they aren't huge, and they don't define their success by those types of metrics.  They define their success in their own terms, usually after years of searching for what it is that makes them tick, and best serves their customers, employees and community.

Burlingham's conclusions about what make these companies great is very similar to Homestead's philosophy of success, which I've written previously about in this blog (see the links to my previous posts in the list below).  Our definition, called the Homestead Creed, can be summarized as the following five priorities:

1. We put our employees first, who in turn...
2. Build world class products and services, which...
3. Delight our customers, and in doing all of the above remember to...
4. Serve our community, all of which allows us to...
5. Build shareholder value.

As those of you who've been reading this blog know by now, I've put a lot of thought into what kind of company I (which eventually became we) want to build, and I would urge all entrepreneurs out there to do the same.  Come up with your own definition of success.  Don't let the Wall Street Journal, or mass media, or some watered-down pop culture ethos automatically define your success.  Carve it out for yourself. 

Do you really need to be worth 1 billion dollars, or 100 million, or even 10 million?  Would 1 million do it?  What are you going to do with that money anyway?  Do you really want to stop working, the refrain uttered by so many people who haven't really thought through it?   (I know if I stopped working I'd go crazy, and so would my wife!)

How important is it to have an impact on other people in your life?  Lots of traditionally "successful" people are egotistical, or loners, or treated others with indignation on their way to the top.

Running a high-growth, high-profile, "successful" business is also more perilous than it may appear (trust me on this one).  You can become trapped by other people's expectations, and the bigger you get, the bigger you have to get to make people happy.  If you're not careful, the thing you are making bigger can be seriously lacking in substance and quality.  Worse yet, it can be a lousy place to work, and an even worse place to be a customer.

Growth can also be a double-edged sword from a financial standpoint.  Fast-growing businesses often collapse from their own success.  They simply can't get enough capital or people or wharehouses to keep up with the growth they have created.  If you don't invest, you flatline.  If you do invest, all of your infrastructure collapses, or you find yourself on the brink of financial collapse.

I'm not knocking wanting to be rich, or striving to have a high-growth business, or hoping to some day be a Wall Street darling.  I want all of these things for Homestead to some degree, actually.  But make sure you want them after you've given it careful thought, and decided it is really what you want.  Many people just assume they want the generic definition of success, and then when they get it, they realize it isn't their definition of success at all.

All I'm saying is, chase your own dream, not somebody else's.  When I finally figured this out, it made building a business a lot more fun.  Now the journey is my destination.

Happy business building!

--jsk

Comments

[Sean]

Justin,

I thouht I was the entrepreneur you most admired?!?!?

Oh well -

Take care,

Sean

[Josh Koenig]

Strong words. I like this perspective though. I'm hopeful that the future wave of enterprise will be both more network-oriented (as opposed to monolithic) and more socially-driven (as opposed to purely economically driven). It seems like there's a lot of room to thrive by "doing it right," which often means working on growing your market rather than dominating your competition.

[Helen DeRamus]

Homestead is making it easier for me to build a business nationwide and in my business that's a must now. Your company has the best customer service of any company with which I deal.
I think there is no doubt that your company in its committment to quality of service will continue to prosper economically and otherwise.
Thanks for making it a whole lot easier to conduct business because I have one less thing to worry about. Networking has paid off richly for me in all aspects with use of my website. I am obviously one of your delighted customers.

[Mary]

Dear Justin,

Why do you allow high volume internet pupymills to sell their dogs with PayPal using a Homestead website? Many of these sold in bulk/pay with credit card dogs will end up in Rescue shelters around the country.

These high volume breeders, selling poorly bred and in some cases diseased dogs for huge profits, thrive and survive because of severs like yours.

Is this the kind of business, Homestead is promoting?

[Justin]

Mary,
Thanks for the heads up. I'll look into the issue. We do have a list of sites that we don't allow at Homestead, and if we find that websites are being used to promote cruelty to animals, we'll add those to our list.
Justin