In business for yourself, not by yourself. ~Ray Kroc
Ray Kroc still inspires entrepreneurs to build a team.
If there’s one man who knew a thing or two about putting together a successful, scaled-up enterprise, it was the man behind the expansion and triumphs of McDonald’s. (You might even say he knew “billions and billions” of things about building a business…)
It would have been easy for me to begin an IT staffing and executive placement firm on my own, and do the placements on my own, and remain a one-man shop and send my kids to college and retire nicely with my wife on a beach some place.
But I wanted more than that. I wanted to create an organization that could be sustained if I left for a week. Or if I got sick. Yet if I wanted to pursue separate ventures – say, write a book about my business – the entity I created needed to remain operational.
To get to that point, I needed to build a team. I did, and I have, and…
I would define what Mr. Kroc said – “Being in business for yourself, not by yourself” – as how an entrepreneur culls together a team and organizes it to meet their personal goals, all the while helping their employees pursue his or her own ambitions.
Just another entrepreneurial lesson learned…
If you’d like to hear more on this story or others like it, you’ll find them in my new book, 15 Bedtime Stories That Keep Entrepreneurs Awake at Night. Practical advice that will help small business owners grow their business while avoiding the pitfalls so many entrepreneurs find themselves in.
