03 Aug Be a Person with Sense, Not a Fool
I recently read a profound quote from William Bolitho, the late South African journalist who wrote the book “Twelve Against the Gods,” and called great writers like Ernest Hemingway friends.
“The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your gains. Any fool can do that,” wrote Bolitho. “The important thing is to profit from your losses. That requires intelligence; and it makes the difference between a man of sense and a fool.”
In business and in life you will be dealt with several losses. One of my mentors and investors always reminds me, “Scott, there are things in business you cannot control. They include the weather, taxes, government policy, etc.”
I would add a world pandemic to the list. The past 18-months have been interesting. I still recall the day the entire world shut down. We had clients calling asking to stop their campaigns or put their advertising on hold. When things started to recover in late 2020, COVID hit our office. We had to shut down for three weeks. After hitting three straight weeks of record sales in February, the ice storm of the century hit Texas, taking out our power for a week.
We could have easily looked at each of these losses and given up. Was it worth the fight? I think every one of our friends would have understood if the business shut its doors. Another casualty to the pandemic.
Going back to the beginning of the pandemic, we decided as a company that we were going to fight.
But it was never an option. Going back to the beginning of the pandemic, we decided as a company that we were going to fight. Fight for our business, but also fight for our clients. Our job was to help our clients with their content marketing needs. Now more than ever our clients needed us. We took on the attitude of “bring it on.”
I am so proud of our team. We figured out a new way to produce videos for our clients that was safe for our guests and our staff. We lowered our pricing to help small businesses and we started focusing more on people over profits.
What is amazing is that our company grew during the pandemic. I had to hire more salespeople and a VP of Sales. We opened new markets in Austin and Los Angeles, and because of our new knowledge we were able to do it more cost effectively than originally planned.
I am not going to go as far as to say I am thankful for the pandemic. But there are valuable lessons I have learned as a CEO during this season of life. Lessons that I believe make our company stronger and make me a stronger leader.
Like Bolitho said, “The important thing is to profit from your losses.” So don’t be discouraged as the world is now dealing with the next wave of the pandemic, or if the next big storm takes out your power. Just look to what you can learn from the disruption and turn your loss into profit.
Scott Miller is the CEO of Centerpost Media and host of the Create, Build and Manage Radio Show and Podcast. You can find Scott on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter via “@scottmillerceo.” Centerpost Media is a marketing agency with a vision to help every business they encounter with their media needs by providing outstanding quality, service and value. Centerpost Media is the parent company to BizTV, BizTalkRadio, BizTalkPodcasts and Bizvod.