Picture was taken by Robert McKibbon another one of my inspiring entrepreneurs peers that accepts no excuses! Held me accountable and cheered me on for almost 25 years.
This week has been incredible, and today was particularly special as I had the chance to catch up with one of my closest friends. They are not only a dear friend but also an extraordinary entrepreneur, constantly pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo. Our conversation was truly remarkable, filled with stories that could easily belong in a Hollywood movie.
It made me reflect on the journey that risk-takers like us embark on to succeed in life. As immigrants to this country, we couldn’t help but laugh about how drastically different things would have been if our parents hadn’t chosen to come to this beautiful land of opportunity.
As a startup founder, it’s common to have a “cowboy” mentality, where you’re winging it and faking it until you make it. The amount of action required to build momentum is enormous. You find yourself in income-building mode, wearing all the hats and fulfilling various roles in different departments within the company.
However, there comes a point where you become the roadblock to growth and scaling. To address this, you have no choice but to start hiring a management and administrative team. This approach involves structuring your team by hiring others to buy back your time, allowing you to focus on areas that will enable scalability.
One of the challenges in transitioning into a leadership role is recruiting the right people. As you transform, the staff you hire become your followers. These individuals step into roles and responsibilities that you used to manage. They become your core execution team. I distinctly recall the moment when my first core member took on a crucial responsibility to support me, followed shortly by another member in a different key role. Gradually, I formed a management team that took ownership of all aspects of the company. I worked closely with each team member to support their learning and development in their respective roles.
It was evident to me that taking care of our clients and staff partners was simply common sense. I had a dual obligation to both parties. By prioritizing the partnership with my staff, I knew they would in turn focus on nurturing their relationships with clients. Understanding their personal goals became a key focus for me. Once identified, we worked together tirelessly to achieve those goals. When my staff achieved what they desired, it became clear that the company also flourished. It was an incredible feeling to deliver success to each and every one of them. Ultimately, my leadership fostered a prosperous environment.
Mastering the art of delegation was crucial. I would delegate tasks that required immediate attention but didn’t necessarily need my personal touch. This allowed me to focus on solving larger problems and handling the challenging and relentless aspects of leadership. It was evident that, as the leader, I had to take on responsibilities that my staff partners shouldn’t be burdened with.
Our victory bell has been rung over $200,000,000 times as a symbol of our achievements. I vividly remember a moment when Marc Halpin, my trusted operations partner, seemed defeated and disappointed when it was rung. It was the first sign that our rapid growth was overwhelming everyone involved. This reminded me of the courage and leadership displayed by General Hal Moore in the movie “We Were Soldiers,” based on true events. Like soldiers in the trenches, amidst chaos and bullets flying, we remained calm and fought every battle with the ultimate goal of winning the war.
Since the inception of my company, I struggled to reject any opportunities that came my way. Saying no was difficult for me. However, it wasn’t until I reached a peak with 225 staff partners and an annual income in the eight figures that I experienced severe burnout. This led to my hospitalization due to mental exhaustion, but it served as a turning point for me.
I finally learned the importance of saying no. Personally, I began declining requests for my time and stepped down as a board member from certain organizations that were taking me away from maintaining balance in my life. I shifted my focus to other significant aspects of my life and nurturing relationships.
Every founder has a vision for their company and their own life. However, as a visionary, you soon realize that you are paving the way towards success for yourself and your company. It becomes crucial to effectively share and communicate this vision to allow your staff partners to align their personal ambitions and goals with the path you are forging. This ensures that all stakeholders understand the potential opportunities that lie ahead and drives progress forward.
From an external perspective, people, clients, and staff may see our company as overflowing with money. However, I strongly embraced the value of “doing more with less.” With a biweekly payroll ranging from $300,000 to $500,000, along with material, equipment, and overhead costs, I recognized the importance of being mindful of our budget. I refused to be seen as someone who simply handed out money without thought.
To gain perspective and insight, I had discussions with our bankers, who encouraged me to maintain a tight hold on our finances. This further reinforced my commitment to sticking to our budgets and keeping a keen focus on financial planning.
As our company grew more established, we focused on reinvesting our profits into growth. One key metric, aside from our “profit per project,” was our Accounts Receivables. I emphasized increasing receivables while keeping expenses low. My mindset was to let the economy be the only factor that scaled us back. And indeed, in October 2016, we received the first signal that things were going to slow down.
The completion of the Calgary airport expansion and the crash of Alberta’s energy industry played a significant role in this slowdown. It was inevitable that these major projects would only happen once in a lifetime, and the market could only sustain prosperity for so long. By late 2017, our backlog of contracts caught up to us, resulting in three unfortunate events: a decrease in income, the influx of receivables, and the impending layoffs that impacted half of our company.
The most noticeable change we experienced was in our working space. It would be an understatement to say that change was frequent. We constantly restructured our office space every six months, eventually moving to a larger location. At times, it felt like a game of musical chairs for our staff, with the constant reshuffling.
Looking back, I remember instructing someone about their relocation, and they didn’t even bat an eye. It was evident that the company thrived on continuous growth and evolution. We embraced the need to adapt and adjust to the actions we were experiencing. Trying new ideas and recovering from failures became part of our adjustments. We learned that failure provides valuable insights and that our commitment to seeing things through, even in financial setbacks, gained respect from our clients.
The lessons we learned from feedback and discussions proved to be more valuable than the money lost. These experiences prepared us for future situations, knowing exactly what needed to happen in order for us to achieve profitability and reach the finish line.
Regret has taught me a valuable lesson. As I gained experience, I began to notice a pattern among some of our problematic clients. Upon reflecting on my career, I realized that I have two regrets, both related to our values. We allowed clients who did not align with our values, resulting in two negative outcomes. Firstly, our good clients were negatively impacted by the experiences with these bad clients, and our staff members or management were mistreated in pursuit of our clients’ profits or interests, without considering mutual benefit. Secondly, we tolerated staff members who disregarded our code and core values, without taking any disciplinary action. This not only undermined our values but also led to the mistreatment of hardworking staff members who were integral to our organization.
In the summer of 2016, during a retreat in San Francisco, I had an eye-opening realization about how heavily invested I had become in taking care of others. While my financial and career aspects were thriving, other parts of my life lacked focus, particularly my personal development. From family and staff to vendors, clients, advisors, and government obligations, I prioritized everyone else’s needs before my own.
Being consumed by these responsibilities took a psychological toll on me. Despite my accomplishments, I consistently felt like an underdog, constantly questioned or targeted by others. It took me a few years to understand that life is inherently simple, and we complicate it unnecessarily. As of November 2023, I have become a calm and collected individual. I have come to recognize the trauma I experienced and appreciate all the experiences, whether good, bad, or ugly. They have shaped me into a unique person with a childlike curiosity to explore new things and gain valuable skills from both successes and failures.
I made it to the other side of the crazy ride, managing personal growth and navigating the journey of entrepreneurship revealed a clear realization to me: I am unique, as are my fellow entrepreneurs. This uniqueness can sometimes lead to confusion or misunderstanding from friends and family who may view us differently. Initially, this realization made me insecure. However, I came to understand that being different simply means we need to make more efforts in initiating relationships, social events, or conversations. Ultimately, I realized that the perception others have of me is just that – a perception. There is a level is misunderstanding of what you are, what you value and sometime intimidation of your abilities and achievements.
Either your difference with others will help inspire them or it will deter them, either way, it is our responsibilities to continue to initiate, to be humble and remember, at the end of the day, it isn’t our achievements that make us who we are, it’s our heart and character that does.
Your Friend
Danijel Slisko
