The Education of Millionaires - Michael Ellsberg [109]
He said, “There are other people in your business that are making a lot of money?”
“There’s a couple of cleaning companies in Phoenix that make over a million dollars a year,” I said to him. “But they’ve been around a long time, they’ve got good name recognition, they’re established. Where’s with me, it’s almost impossible to make this business work, and all people care about is price . . .” and blah blah blah. I was making all these excuses.
I thought these excuses were legitimate. I had been working really hard. I was not ripping people off. I was doing the right thing—I delivered good work. I truly cared about my clients. I explained to him how I’d gotten certified, I’d gotten training, I’d learned this craft over the last year and half or two years since I dropped out. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t successful.
After I made all these excuses to this guy as to why I wasn’t successful, he said, “Well, if there are other people doing well in your industry, and you’re not, there’s nothing wrong with the business you’re in, there’s something wrong with you.”
And I said, “Well, no, no, no, you don’t understand . . .” and I went through a whole other list of excuses as to why the business wasn’t working. “I’m good at what I do. It’s just a really tough business. I want to get into a different, better business, which will be easier.”
He said, “Look, young man. You’re like most people. You think the grass is greener on the other side. What’s going to happen if you go into another business is you’re going to spend another six months, another year, another two years, learning the technical skills of another industry, so you can go out and repeat the same bad business habits that have caused you to be a failure in this business.
“What you need to do, young man, is learn fundamental business skills. Because once you do, you can apply those to any industry. But until you learn how to make a business work, it doesn’t matter what industry you go into, you’re still going to fail at it.”
That was probably the most profound advice ever given to me, at a time in my life when I was willing to hear it, and have it sink in.
Joe had gone to college for two years at New Mexico State University. He then left to go to Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona. He got an F in the course “Owning and Operating a Small Business” while there. And a C in the course Principles of Marketing. But a friend told him that another guy was making oodles of money in the carpet-cleaning business. He hated school—he found the classes too abstract and removed from day-to-day realities and concerns—and decided to leave and see if he could support himself in this new business.
For the first two years, the business was a complete failure. Part of this stemmed from some serious personal problems. He had a difficult upbringing. His mother died when he was four, and he moved around a lot as a child, often living in trailer parks, in circumstances that involved physical and sexual abuse. “I had zero memories of anything positive in my childhood. By high school, I was very messed up. I was pretty much a drug addict. In my worst possible state, I weighed a hundred and five pounds, from freebasing cocaine for three months straight. I was completely lost.”
By the time of the lake trip, however, Joe had gone past rock bottom, had cleaned up from drugs, and now was ready for change