As somebody who's started a couple companies and sold them for vast reserves of wealth, fame, and dominion over the animal kingdom, I'm here to offer a couple pieces of advice. First, I often hear about slogans that CEOs have over their desks or on their desks or perhaps tacked up on the wall. These slogans remind the CEO, we are told, of some humbling experience, or the necessity to focus on the customer, or of the lives of how many people he's responsible for as the head of this burgeoning enterprise. Here's the deal: these signs are there for one reason: to make YOU think the CEO is wise/brilliant/focused/ and an achiever. Achievers have slogans dammit, and if your CEO has one, he must be an achiever. I don't have a sign on or above my desk, but I do have advice for the young entrepreneur who one day hopes to sell his company for more money than could possibly be spent or bestowed in a lifetime: negotiate for other things besides money. Not nearly enough entrepreneurs, when locking horns with some crafty corporate development executive, think to ask for "revenge on my enemies". Remember, you are hopefully dealing with a corporation with power and leverage over financial institutions, industry, and executives throughout the world. No doubt if they REALLY want to buy your company, the LEAST they can do is screw a couple of people that have it coming. It won't cost them much in real dollars, so they'll likely accept it as a little extra lagnappe they can toss your way to sweeten the pot. Imagine how happy you'll be at home the day the deal closes, when you can think to yourself: "not ONLY am i now fabulously wealthy, but Harris is never gonna get that home loan, and Johnson's new BMW is gonna be worth less than a skateboard in three hours". THAT's my advice to the successful entrepreneur.
Posted by Dick at December 3, 2003 09:25 AM | TrackBack