Chapter 1

So, you wanna be a founder?

My father, Martin, told me that it would be better to earn 50 cents for yourself than $1 from someone else.

That advice is exactly the opposite of what I would tell any of my three boys.

Why would you want the aggravation, challenges and heartache of running your own business, when you could earn twice as much in a job without the stress? What’s more, I’ve seen people make lots of money working at multinationals like Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, and closer to home Macquarie Bank, Atlassian, Afterpay, Zip, WiseTech Global and Canva – to name just a few – earning huge salaries and seeing their stock options soar in value.

However, if any of my three sons wanted to have a go, I would back them to the hilt. But I would say to them that:

• IF after a reasonable period of time, you’re not earning at least as much as you would in a job, and
• you’re not building an asset that you can sell one day, then …

don’t waste your bloody time!

Being a founder or a business manager is tough, make no mistake about it. I remember when one of the team at Com Tech said, ‘Dave, I’m worried, you look tired.’ To which I replied, ‘You should worry when I don’t look tired.’

Com Tech was like another child – I lived and dreamed it 24/7. Every day I was thinking: What can we be doing better for our staff and customers? What do we need to do to keep winning? In a fast-changing world, with increased competition, reduced margins and customers demanding better customer service, you have to be thinking this every single day.

I remember when we had our first large bad debt. I was devastated. I called my dad in South Africa and told him that we had just written off $70,000 because a customer of ours (HiSoft Computers) had gone bankrupt. My dad asked how much business we had done with them over the years.

‘$3 million,’ I replied.

‘And what was your profit margin?’

‘30 per cent, Dad.’

‘So you made $900,000 and lost $70,000 – not a bad deal.’

But what he said next still rings in my ears.

‘My boy, if you chop wood, you get splinters.’

And how right he was. If you’re going to be in business, you’re going to have setbacks. If you do karate, you have to be willing to take the knocks – it goes with the territory.

I couldn’t explain the skills required for a founder any better than Jack Welch, legendary CEO of General Electric. Jack suggested that you need the four ‘E’s of leadership to succeed.

1. Do you have the ENERGY to be a founder? There are so many challenges, both in and out of your control, that require so much energy. To give an example: as CEO, when you drew up your budget at the start of 2020, you didn’t take into account that there would be a global pandemic shutting down large parts of the global economy. What impact will this have on your business, positive or negative, given you have already prepared your budget and didn’t bank on this eventuality?

2. Do you have the ability to ENERGISE a team of people to be the best that they can possibly be? Great founders enable their team to achieve more than would have been possible in another environment. I can tell you that this is one of the most satisfying parts of being a founder. I have seen people, including myself, achieve goals they had never dreamed of attaining. When I started Com Tech I never would have believed that I was capable of running a national company with 1400 people – after all, I had never hired a single person prior to Com Tech. Miracles happen when you are part of a great team with a great culture.

3. Do you have the EDGE to make those tough Yes or No decisions? Should I fire my best salesperson because they do not share the values of the company? Should we open an office in the USA? Should we launch a new product … or scrap a non-performing one? Do we need to pivot our business because our original business plan just hasn’t stacked up the way we expected? Sometimes people won’t make a decision until they are 100 per cent sure of the facts. However, even with all the data and analysis, you will never be 100 per cent sure. There is always risk involved, and by the time you get to your 100 per cent, the opportunity will probably be gone

4. Do you have the ability to EXECUTE on your business plan? Lots of startups and plans look terrific on a PowerPoint presentation and an Excel spreadsheet. Great founders have the ability to execute on the plan – or pivot when things don’t go as expected.

When I ask founders why they want to start a company, some reply, ‘I want to be a millionaire,’ or ‘I want to build a unicorn.’ Most successful founders haven’t had either of those ambitions as their number one goal; it generally happens as a consequence of building a great company. Ask Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates or Scott Farquhar. Entrepreneurs usually have a vision that goes way beyond money.

Consider Elon Musk – he sold PayPal to eBay and exited with $US160 million. Instead of going to chill on a beach, he chose to put $100 million into SpaceX and $60 million into Tesla – he bet the entire farm on building the next big thing, or in this case the next big things.

Here’s another piece of advice to a founder. There’s no issue when a sportsperson wants to win – it only becomes an issue when a sportsperson wants to win at all costs. Lance Armstrong wanting to win the Tour de France was not the problem – wanting to win at all costs became his problem. The same applies in business. Wanting to succeed is great, but succeeding at any cost is not an option. You can make money, lots of it, but you can’t lose your reputation, not a shred of it. Running your business with integrity should always be top of mind.

• • •

Miracles happen when you are part of a great team with a great culture.