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Sitting On An Accountant’s Desk

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Right after I graduated from college, I went to work at a (very small) publicly held company.

Soon after I went to work there, the president of the company basically resigned and the Chairman of the board of directors put me in charge.

Right after I got put in charge, one of the biggest investors came to me and sat down in my office.

He was a 65 year old wise old sage who spoke real soft, but when he spoke, people listened.

The guy sits down with me and he says “okay, I know that your daily life is crazy, but you have to promise me one thing. You have to promise me that you will get your quarterly reports turned into the SEC on time.”

I gave him my word that it would get done.

I told our in-house accountant to tell me if our outside accounting firm wasn’t going to make the deadline a week before it was due.

A week before the deadline our in-house accountant told me he wasn’t sure they were going to make it.

I called our outside accounting firm and got the guy who was doing it on the phone. His name was Boyd.

“Boyd, are you going to have our stuff done?”

“Uh, I think so — it is looking pretty good, yeah, I should have it done I think…”

“Okay Boyd, I will follow up with you in two days.”

Two days later.

“Boyd, do you have our stuff done yet?”

“Not yet, I have been really busy. I am planning on getting to it soon though.”

“Boyd … that is not what I want to hear. You told me that you would have it done!”

“I know, I know, but the partner gave me some extra work and I have been really busy trying to get that done…”

So I hung up the phone and drove 1.5 hours away to his office.

I walked in his office, and asked the receptionist for him.

She buzzed his office.

He came out and thought he could meet me in the lobby and get me to go away.

“Hi Boyd. I came to get you whatever answers you need to get this stuff done. Which way is your office?” He pointed.

I walked right into his office and sat down.

He came in his office, cleared off his desk of the stuff he was working on and worked on our stuff.

For two days STRAIGHT (16 hours straight) I sat in his office with nothing to do but look at him punching numbers into a computer.

Needless to say, we got our quarterly report filed.

Why is this story important here? Boyd the accountant is very similar to vendors that we have — especially appraisers.

You can “hand and hope” (HAND them your deal and HOPE they do it) or you can follow up like crazy.

Call first, if you don’t get what you want, call again and again and again. Yes, do it all in the same day.

If you don’t get what you want, show up at their office. Be nice, but be realistic as to what you need.

No one cares about your deals as much as you — or in other words … never trust your job to someone else.

Never.

Note: this originally went out as an email to a group of sales people in the mid 2000’s.

sitting-on-an-accountant

Are You A Pirate?

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One of the better articles I have read about being an technology entrepreneur was written last year by Michael Arrington.

If you are thinking about starting a business, I recommend you read it because it is treasure map of what to expect in your future. If you have started a business, I recommend you read it because it is proof that at least one other person in the world understands your insanity.

From Arrington:

Entrepreneurs, though, are all screwed up. They dont need to be rewarded for risk, because they actually get utility out of risk itself. In other words, they like adventure.

The payouts for starting a business are just terrible when you account for risk. A tiny minority of entrepreneurs ever get rich. And the majority of entrepreneurs would probably make far more money, and have more stable personal relationships, if they just worked for someone else.

If you have started a business or are in the process of starting a business, chances are that Arrington’s words are scarred into your soul at such a level that you can actually feel them and not only read them.

I dont care if youre a billionaire. If you havent started a company, really gambled your resume and your money and maybe even your marriage to just go crazy and try something on your own, youre no pirate and you arent in the club.

Are Pirates cool?

I think so.

So You Think You Want To Do A Startup?

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Thinking about doing a startup?

Take the time to read this presentation by Tara Hunt (aka @missrogue).

Chances are if you have never done a startup, you will read this and think “oh, that was nice”.

And if you have done a startup before but are now quietly doing something else, you will remember the terror/pain/exhilaration of the startup (reminds me of the first time you ride a Cannondale F4 mountain bike off a cliff), think it is funny and say “wow, that is so true”.

And if you are in the middle of doing a startup right this very minute?

Grab a tissue. This will stir your soul.

So you want to do a startup, eh?

Second Rule of Management: Fire Fast

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Dear Little Brother,

One of the most difficult situations you will soon be faced with as a new manager has to do with firing people.

When is the best time to fire someone?

The first time it crosses your mind.

Maybe at first glance, this seems a little dramatic — but it isn’t really.

This simple rule of thumb was taught to me by a wise old crusty boss (who was busy getting an online MBA degree at the time) that I once had and having been through more-than-a-few of these situations, I can tell you that this simple rule is a good idea.

Most of the time, it seems that people react to the words “getting fired” in a negative way.

I think this is a little weird that people react this way.

In my experience, most of the situations I have been involved in where someone was fired ended up positive for both parties.

Not all of them — but a vast majority of them.

One of the most common reasons I have seen people stay too long in the wrong job has to do directly with the rule of: in times of crisis, people tend to revert to the familiar.

If you translate this into the behavior of most of the people who are now working for you, it means that even if deep-down-inside they know that they are unhappy in their job for whatever reason, they still don’t quit.

They just keep showing up, day after day doing mediocre work and hoping they just don’t get fired.

So if you develop enough of a managerial sixth-sense that this is happening with someone – sit down with them, learn more about what is really going on and then if it really is a case where they need to move on?

Fire them.

Remember: hire slow, fire fast.

Love,
Justin

The First Rule of Management: Be There

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Dear Little Brother,

HOLY.

Someone put you in charge a group of people and gave you the title manager?

Congratulations.

You have managed to work your way up to middle management in the jungle that is Corporate America.

Workin’ for The Man.

So it is probably about time that I mentioned just a few of the rules of management that I have seen work.

Sure, there are all kinds of gurus who may have their own rules garbage, but hey – since you know me personally, chances are you can filter what will work for you.

Rule #1 Of Management: Be There

The first rule of management is an absolute rule.  Violate it and you will watch your objectives slip by and not get done right – if done at all.  People will wander around mostly lost and in those millions of moments of decisions will do-whatever-they-want.

In the absence of a physical presence of a leader, almost without fail a leader will emerge who is physically there.  And if someone else rises up to lead the group, guess what? No need for you.

Without a leader physically present every day, people generally will develop their own set of “work norms” that become the default expectations of what “good” work looks like.  Guess what? Those performance metrics that the herd develops will usually be far, far lower than those that you need in order to meet your objectives.

Vacation? Yes. Take as much time off as you can and don’t let it impact the work.  I think you will find that when you let the first rule of management burn itself permanently into your skillset you will find that you tend to sneak away for a long weekend every now and then, but the days of taking the month of July off are probably gone.

Be There.

This one should be simple for you, but it isn’t simple for everyone.  Some people don’t like to wake up every day and show up to the same place and do the same thing over and over.

But you do.

And I suspect you will be a a great manager.

Love,
Justin

Vote With Your Feet

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Lately I have seen more than one person talk about how bad the situation is that they are currently in.

How something is happening that shouldn’t be.

Or how someone is in charge that shouldn’t be or how something should just be different in some way.

And almost without fail, any time I hear someone talking about how something should or shouldn’t be or how something should or shouldn’t be different than it is – I remember a simple phrase that I learned in my first Real Estate Bar Camp:

Vote With Your Feet.

Vote With Your Feet as in: just get up and walk away.

When you Vote With Your Feet and choose to do “something different” than what you see going on around you, you do two things:

  1. You send a signal to everyone around you that you didn’t agree with what was happening
  2. You are suddenly free to focus on what YOU think should be happening and can get busy making it happen.

Don’t like your boss at work because they are mean to you?

Vote With Your Feet.

Think you should have gotten a bigger raise or a bigger Christmas bonus this year?

Vote With Your Feet.

Tired of working in an industry or on a project that doesn’t excite you?

Vote With Your Feet.

Vote With Your Feet Works Two Ways

The concept of Vote With Your Feet doesn’t only work with NOT wanting to be a part of something, it also works when you WANT to be a part of something.  Want to work with someone for whatever reason?

Vote With Your Feet.

Show up where they work and ask them if you can work with them.  If they say no, come back the next day.  If they still say no, come back a week later. Still no? Keep. Coming. Back.

The strongest organizations in the world are those where the people who are involved with them volunteer to be there.

Voting With Your Feet Enables Magic To Happen

The real magic happens when you vote with your feet, do something in a different way and then get lots and lots of people to follow you.

And if you get lots and lots of people to follow you?

You just might change the world.