Renewed Enthusiasm

LagunitaVentures (our excellent business consulting service) provides developmental support for emerging companies. We have recently wrapped up an assignment with a company that will fail. It will fail because the owner is incapable of doing things differently. We refinanced his receivables, gave him step by step instructions on how to reorganize his business for success. He said to me one day at lunch (we are hands on usually), "you guys think I'm really slow, don't you?". My response was not YES! but that's what I thought. Instead I explained that while some of our vision had been accomplished it was not because he had shown courage and made the necessary cuts and changes. It was because he refused to address the issues and hid them in a corner or in some cases the employee went away (with customer lists and contacts and real bad feelings). He could not understand why they all want to "hurt" him. I learned a long time ago that some guys were a lot smarter than me and I'd be wise to surround myself with them and not hope for the easy way out.. How about you?