A Story of Success

This is the story of a developing executive named Joe. This is also the story of what happens when knowledge and experience is passed on.

Two years ago, Joe and some friends started developing a technology that could change the way people communicated wirelessly. Up to this point, Joe had funded the product development through angel investors and family who saw the promise of his technology and believed in his vision.

Finally, after a lot of work, Joe’s dream looked like it was going to become a reality. The technology was fully tested and ready for introduction in the target market. After talking to a number of potential customers, Joe had a good chance of signing a deal that would either make or break the company.

If he went forward with the deal, he would have to hire more people, expand capacity and borrow money to make it all happen. Joe had always had his hands in every part of the business with his main love being the technology they were developing. He knew that to be successful, he would have to let go of the role he loved and focus on running and growing the company. Joe was in uncharted waters.

Joe felt all alone at the top of his rapidly expanding organization. He could not show uncertainty to the people who were looking to him for direction. He could not show uncertainty to the investors who were looking to him to make a significant return on their investment. If Joe did not get some help soon, he would be in trouble.

One Day, Joe was having lunch with a close friend and telling him about all the exciting things that were happening. How all of a sudden, it went from Joe and some friends working night and day on an idea that they had passion for to having to worry about running a business. Joe was a brilliant engineer who had never run a company at this stage of its development.

Joe's friend said that he knew of an organization who could help him. This organization had helped him when he was in Joe's position. He told Joe that this organization was dedicated to setting and maintaining productive advisory relationships between developing and experienced executives.

Joe said that he really needed someone to work with but that money was a big issue. Joe's friend said that the company matched him up with a talented executive advisor, set up a preset hourly rate and only billed the time that he had worked with the executive advisor.Joe was very excited and called the organization when he got back to his office.

Joe had a great needs analysis meeting with the advisory organization. Later in the week, Joe got a call from the organzation that they had an executive advisor that would be perfect for him. Joe agreed to meet the advisor.

The advisor's name was Kathy and she had been a top executive with a Fortune 50 before moving on to run several successful entrepreneurial companies.

Later that day, Joe called Kathy. After talking on the phone, Joe asked Kathy if she would like to meet for lunch. Kathy said she would be delighted and they set up a lunch meeting for the week after.

At the lunch meeting, Joe started telling Kathy of the challenges that he was experiencing in running a rapidly growing company. Kathy had been through this a number of times and understood how Joe felt. She also recognized that Joe and his company had great potential.

At the end of their meeting, Joe was sure that Kathy was the perfect executive advisor for him. Kathy was excited at the opportunity to help Joe attain what he was working so hard for. With that a Joe called back the organization, worked out an hourly rate and signed to work with Kathy on an as needed basis.

Joe and Kathy talked on the average of once a week. Joe no longer felt lonely at the top of his company. He had someone to ask advice, bounce ideas off of and sometimes talk about his frustrations and shared successes. Joe also found himself sharing the things he had learned with the people in his company. Everyone was benefitting from his advisory relationship with Kathy.

That first big contract had been extremely productive and the company was growing nicely, Joe's employees were happy and Joe's investors were ecstatic. Joe's dream had become a reality.

Because of his success, Joe was asked to speak at a number of technology meetings. At every meeting, Joe was asked "What was the key to your success?" Everytime the question was asked, Joe answered "Kathy".

The audience would look around trying to see if Kathy was in the room. After a few minutes, Joe would say that Kathy was his friend and trusted advisor through the whole process. Kathy was the person that guided, developed and supported him through all the rough times.

Joe explained to the group that he had made a promise to himself that he would pass on his knowledge and experience to anyone who asked for it and that he was now asking everyone in the audience to "PASS IT ON" as well.

This story illustrates how knowledge "PASSED ON" can help people of multiple generations and locations achieve their dreams.