Perseverance: The Hungry Bird Gets the Worm

“Ryan, what the hell are we going to do?” 

I’ll never forget this day, it was a crisp fall morning in Charlotte and I was waiting for the train to bring me to my stable full-time banking job. 

“There’s absolutely no deals in the hopper, and there’s no way that this one deal is going to keep the lights on for me man. It’s not making enough money”, Ian said in one long exasperated breath. Ian was completely panicked, I could tell by the sound of his voice. 

Let me interject here before I continue with this story. Ian was not alone in having this freak out moment. At the time we had only been in business for a little over a year together, I was still working at my cushy corporate finance job, Ian on the other hand had gone all-in. He was solely relying on this business to cash flow in order to cover even his basic expenses. 

But I too would have my fair share of freak out moments along our 3 year investing journey (more on that later). Now, back to Ian…

“If we don’t find another deal soon, I’m going to have to get another job”, he said as his voice wavered in frustration. 

I took a deep breath and looked off towards the train pulling into the station.  How was I supposed to sit here, ready to start the day at my cushy corporate finance job--one where they would be giving me a guaranteed paycheck at the end of the week--and tell my desperate business partner that everything was going to be fine? 

Ian did have every logical reason to be concerned. The market was tough, we had no deals on the horizon, and there was no certainty that we’d be making more money anytime soon. 

“You must overcome fear and take risks”, I heard myself saying, almost before I even had a chance to fully think it over. It was a quote from a book that Ian and I had both read called “Secrets of a Millionaire Mind” by T. Harv Ecker. “We knew this was coming, we can do this Ian, we can’t let the fear control us”, I reminded him. 

Here’s the moment in the conversation where Ian could have told me to go kick rocks. Because it’s true, in that moment his mind could pull up on-demand a million and one doom and gloom scenarios. My mind could have honestly gone to that same place as well. But I fought against letting my thoughts even go there, and I reminded my friend to do the same. I knew that I didn’t have any certainties to offer him. But I did know who we were as individuals, and what we were capable of. I knew that come hell or high water, we had signed up for this, and that we COULD pull this off. 

“I know, you’re right, it’s just a dry spell” Ian said after a long pause. 

“Thank man, I needed that today”--bullet dodged, Ian was back on track!

And I kid you not, just a couple of HOURS after that fateful conversation, a deal had surfaced that Ian and I thought had gone cold months before. We were under contract shortly thereafter, and just like that, the roller coaster went back up again…

Until it came crashing back down, and this time I was one who was riddled with panic. Remember when I said that I’d share my freak out moment? Well here it goes...

“We need to talk”, I said to Ian one afternoon. Which is probably one of the most ominous ways to start a conversation that I can think of. But the fear was beginning to mount for me. 

It was 2017, it had been a tough few months and we were in yet another dry spell.  There was pressure coming from different angles, and cracks were beginning to show in my armor. The grind had completely worn me down to the point where I began to question if our strategy was even right in the first place. 

“We’re not growing fast enough, I think we should pivot” I said to Ian on the other end of the phone. 

“Pivot? Okay, what’s your thinking behind that?” Ian gently challenged. 

“What’s my thinking behind that? Money! We need MORE money, like yesterday”, clearly I was getting to a fever pitch. I immediately began to rattle off reasons why we weren’t scaling fast enough, and how we weren’t going to be able to sustain ourselves on what we were currently making. 

I was so freaked out, I was actually ready to completely abandon the initial strategy that Ian and I had sat down and carefully mapped out. This strategy, might I add, is one that we spent hours researching. It was one that we had decided on LONG before there were these kinds of heady emotions in the mix, and well before Ian and I had any real skin in the game. In other words, this strategy was objective, based on fact, and was far removed from any type of emotional reasoning. 

“You’re not wrong to challenge the strategy Ryan, but if you’re going to do that, you need to do it for the right reasons” Ian said matter-of-factly. Ian knew that I was in the grips of some pretty strong emotions, and that I may be in need of some perspective. And I’ll always thank him for his insight during this time. Whether he knew it intuitively or not, I needed to be talked off the ledge. 

Had Ian decided at that moment to feel my fear, and let it get into his head. We may have changed the business plan that has made us so successful today. Archimedes Group may not even exist if we had gone with my fear and made that pivot. 

So what’s the lesson here?

If you can take anything at all from this experience it’s this: 

Fear will always be there, and you damn well better learn how to get comfortable with it. 

This may be blunt. But it’s something that anyone hoping to work for themselves must get comfortable with, and quickly. 

Because the truth is, entrepreneurship IS risky. And more often than not, the stakes are incredibly high. Your life savings, your home, your family could all be on the line at any given time. And I don’t know about you, but that’s enough to keep me awake at night. 

Just because Archimedes Group has successfully scaled, does not mean that Ian and I no longer experience fear. I think the thing that success can give you is perspective--and the ability to manage your fear better. 

Our brilliance in those individual moments to each other was to help the other manage their fear. 

My suggestion to you? 

Build accountability systems in place early on to help you manage your fear. Whether it be a friend, business partner, or trusted mentor. You must surround yourself with people who are going to talk you off a ledge and set you back on the right path when the going gets tough. Because your own mind can be a personal hell if you let it run wild with fear. 

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