I was at a conference on Monday put on by Harvard Business school, and the Tech Coast Angels (an investment company that as invested like 100 million dollars in new business startups). Some of the content was really interesting and I got to watch a business pitch competition where potential businesses pitch their plans to the investors in an effort to get money.
At times during this conference I really felt out of my element, not so much that I didn't belong, but moreso that I didn't want to be involved with the people there and the type of business they were all in. Ultimately these people are looking to start or fund businesses that are going to operate on a national level and generally the criteria is that within 5 years the business will be reporting like 25 million dollars in revenue. Basically I felt like I really couldn't envision myself pitching my business ideas to these people and operating a business on that scale.
I started thinking about why and I basically concluded that I am a small town person. I grew up in Boulder Creek California and lived there for 18 years. Boulder Creek has maybe 5,000 people living there but you'd never see half of them because their houses are hidden off in the forest. There is one main road that runs through town and there is not a single stoplight there (we had one once but everyone complained so they took it down). There's one elementary school, no high school, the only fast food place is an old old Foster's Freeze. The grocery store is a little place called Johnny's Super. All this to say that I am from a tiny town that is surrounded by other tiny town's, outside the tiny city of Santa Cruz. When I moved to Riverside I felt like I was moving to a huge city, but when I tell people that they all seem to think I'm a little bit crazy, (LA and San Diego are big cities, Riverside is apparently a small city by comparison).
All this to say it is really quite reasonable that I would be used to a small town feel which doesn't breed thoughts of doing business all over the country and even around the world.
This would explain my firm set beliefs in customer service and personalized service in business. I come from a place where you know people that live in your town and where small service oriented businesses are all there is. While being rooted in this may effect my ability to be wealthy I would rather be in a business I enjoy and am proud of than in one that gets me 5 million dollars in private funding from the Tech Coast Angels.
I'm not sure if all this makes sense, I was kind of rambling but hopefully a point about me was conveyed.
3 hours ago
2 comments:
Yeah, we got the point about you. You want to work hard for a business with great customer service and go broke doing it. lol
Not really. It seems that you want to start a family owned type of business that people can trust and really enjoy being a part of. Let me know when you get that one started. I may like to give it a try. And if you need some help, I'll be a worker with good customer service.
Interesting blog. It caused me to think of two things.
I thought how important it is to really know yourself. I know this is very cliche' but it seems knowing who we are, what we are trying to do and who we are doing it for helps us stay grounded and make choices that are true to us.
I also thought about something I heard long ago. We must not discount small beginnings. Starting small does not mean we will end up that way. It is interesting to look at some of the people who are doing very well had very small beginings. I do not think we need to aim for big but aim for what we feel called to do.
Sometime that can be bigger than we think.
Mike Miller
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