Sliding doors

A friend runs a business started in the 1980s, about the same time as a near identical business in another state.  Today the latter does $5.5b in sales and has a market cap of $13b.  My friends business probably does $30m and he still owns it, nice business and he’s doing fine.

But the $13b question is, why the quantum difference in success?  Same business and it’s not tech, still selling the same stuff as 40 some years ago.  I don’t know the management of the other company but they started small too, the CEO & Chairman were in place for 20 years.  My friend is an entrepreneur, the archetypal grifter, hustler and make something from nothing type.  But there is clearly a step change between the entrepreneur and the leader of a world class company (its total returns to shareholders are top decile over 30 years; ~400x return).

Could the smaller company have been as successful?  Of course, same business, so the difference is luck of course and leadership.  You don’t even have to imagine the difference in value created by better leadership, less grifting – it’s circa $13b!  Leadership by leveraging others rather than doing the literal lifting.

Success still requires hard work, smarts and luck but focusing on the right levers and knowing when your game is not as good as it could be is when you can avoid the sliding door moments.   Woulda, coulda, shoulda is not a good defense when you know you have options.

Coaching may sound like a cop out but imagine telling your future self you left 400x return on the shelf because you were too busy doing rather than leading and asking for some help to become a better leader.