Nobody Builds A Career Alone — Here's My Proof

I read an article today about the NFL draft, and it sparked gratitude in me. The point of this article was this: these men did not get there on their own. So many people stepped into each of these men’s lives and sacrificed their time, talent, and treasure to them to become one of the 247 NFL draftees.

This is true for me in life and business. How did I get here? People invested in me. They saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself, and they decided to help me develop it.

At twenty-two, I knew I wanted to run companies. I didn’t know what that meant. I had no idea how to get there. I didn’t have a process. I did know that I had to pour myself into everything I did. Every opportunity I was given. Every task I was assigned to complete. This dedication to excellence yielded opportunities for increasingly larger roles.

But as I look back on my career, I see the people who poured into me. They wanted me to keep growing so I could achieve the career success I dreamed of. Without them, I can now clearly see that I would have stalled out long before my desire and capabilities were exhausted.

Here is the list of people who brought me along...

1. My sister, Janet - Open my eyes

2. Jack Goldstein - Taught me accounting and opened my eyes to possibilities

3. Richard Brock - Taught me entrepreneurship and equity ownership

4. Jim Porter - Taught me professional general management

5. Sterling Williams - Showed me the way to building a public enterprise

6. Bill Leonard - Discipled me in the ways of my Lord, Jesus Christ, in life and business

7. Sig Mosley - Demonstrated how to serve a community and invest in Startups

8. Kathy Paparelli - My most important coach.

Janet Paparelli

My sister wanted me to get a great education. But she also wanted me to be exposed to the world of ideas, the arts, and people with an expanded view of what was possible.

To this end, she was the first actually to listen to me. She believed in me. She loved me. She wanted more for me than my parents could imagine. When I was nine years old, she would engage me in conversation. She asked questions about the world. She wanted to know what I saw and what I thought. These conversations were of no interest to my friends. They didn’t have a family member like my sister, Janet. Their world remained small, and so did their ambitions.

Janet challenged my father to support me in attending Xavier High School in NYC. She insisted it was important for me to “get out of Jersey City” and its small-town thinking. There was so much for me to learn by going to school in NYC. She didn’t know precisely how it would change me to go there. She did know it would change me for the better. She convinced my father she was right. My dad, still not completely convinced, decided to pay for this private school and all the associated expenses. It was a big financial decision for a man who worked on the railroad as a trainman.

Jack Goldstein

And then there was Jack Goldstein, who hired me as a junior accountant in a CPA firm. He taught me accounting from the ground up. He showed me how to be a professional. He taught how to interact with clients. He moved me from accounting theory, which I learned in college, to application. In less than a year, he transitioned me from student to professional. And he did all this because he believed in me. He invested in me.

He also knew me well enough to see that being a CPA was not my future. He saw my interest in CPA office automation using computers and encouraged me to step out and take a chance in this new and expanding software industry.

Richard Brock

I joined Richard Brock. He was the first tech entrepreneur I ever met. He was the founder of a software company that sold to CPAs. He was a CPA himself, and he saw how automating a CPA office could drive growth and profitability.

He also saw that I could help him build his company. He believed in me. He hired me. He told me that if I helped him grow his company rapidly, he would make me a partner. We grew the company together. I was loyal to him and worked as hard as he did to make the company a success. He came through for me and made me a partner.

I still remember that first performance review in his office so clearly. Richard was the most exciting businessman I have ever met. He had a wall full of degrees, which showed his academic success. And he had certificates of recognition in academic excellence and in business.

During the review, he asked me, “What is it you are trying to achieve?”

I quickly answered, “I want to be you.”

Then we sold the business, and I had new ambitions.

Jim Porter

I wanted to be a general manager. I wanted to run a business, lead people, and help them succeed. In walked Jim Porter. He led the team that bought our company. He spent hours with Richard and me. He wanted to ensure we were committed to growing the business, post-sale. He also wanted to understand our interests and how they intersected with his ambition to become the CEO of the public company that bought us.

Jim and I hit it off. I learned so much from Jim. He taught me how to be a professional manager of integrity. How to choose and manage a leadership team. How to do forecasting and how to lead a company to achieve those forecasts. He coached me on how to present to upper management and build their trust and support. In short, over 4 years, he coached me into becoming a respected general manager and, eventually, a division manager with multiple general managers reporting to me.

Sterling Williams

But the public company we sold to was acquired in an unfriendly takeover. Jim Porter left the business, and Sterling Williams, the CEO of Sterling Software, walked into my life. Jim coached me to become a business general manager. Sterling was coaching me to become an upper-level executive of a public company. Because of Sterling and his belief in me, I upped my ambition. I wanted to become the CEO of an enterprise software company.

I remember sitting in the President’s meetings. Six presidents were running Sterling Software. We all reported to Sterling Williams. I learned so much by watching Sterling lead those meetings. His talent was an unwavering focus on results, combined with building a team of trusted leaders. He was the smartest businessman I ever met. He could distill information quicker than anyone I have ever met to this day. He was also practical and truthful.

He taught me that the truth must become self-evident in business. It must be pursued, uncovered, and dealt with if you have any chance to succeed. There was no politics or posturing; there was only the truth, reality, the problem to be solved. This one lesson changed my business life. I still practice this relentless pursuit of the truth to this day. As Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.”

My division was sold, and I lost my ambition. I found myself stuck, without a mentor or coach who could help me reach the next level. Stuck in a business and industry that didn’t interest me, I became unfulfilled and rudderless. This led to missed goals and my eventual transition out of the company.

Now what?

A big part of my dissatisfaction with the last management position was my family. I realized I was trading my time with Kathy and my children for money. I began a search for more meaningful work, which would allow me to make my family a priority.

Through what seemed like a long, winding, frustrating personal and professional path, I became an angel investor. The vision was to create a group of companies in which I had majority ownership. I would do this by helping experienced managers start and build their own companies. It was angel investing with a higher purpose.

Bill Leonard

This is when Bill Leonard came into my life. Frustrated and unfulfilled with no job and no income, I turned to God. My first step was getting sober. I went to AA to address my addiction to alcohol. Following the AA steps got me to recovery and sobriety. It also had me asking, “Who is this God that got me sober?”

I met Bill Leonard after the Executive High Tech Prayer Breakfast. He coached me into the Kingdom of Heaven. He helped expose me to his network of high-tech executives, each of whom was a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. And he also coached me to become a Bible study leader and the leader of a business ministry. He showed me how to be a marketplace minister. This was the purpose and fulfillment I was looking for all along. Serve and glorify God by using my leadership and business skills to develop and equip other leaders.

Sig Mosley

My next coach, who showed up during my “long winding” road. It was Sig Mosley. He inspired me to become an angel investor. I met Sig in what was his first angel investment. I was the company’s President. I was hired to turn it around by finding product-market fit and getting the company on a growth trajectory. I failed at this. The company eventually delivered an incredible return to its shareholders by turning its patent portfolio into a business. I made my transition to become an angel. I wanted to be like Sig.

Sig showed me how to invest in the community and in our local entrepreneurs. I watched as he met with everyone, helped them in any way he could, and invested in a few of them. I followed most of his model, but not all of it. He invested in companies that would require venture capital. I invested in businesses that would reach profitability and provide cash distributions. The way we got to our investments was the same. The investment strategy was different.

Sig was a great coach in making me a more complete angel and community servant. He is still a dear friend, and we are helping each other figure out this last season of life.

Kathy Paparelli

My most important coach throughout my adult life is my wife, Kathy Paparelli. She kept me humble when I was full of myself. She encouraged me when I was down on myself. She picked me up and pushed me out the door when I was clueless about my next step. She listened to my dreams. She helped me pick the right people to do business with. She made my life full and fun as we created a family together. In short, she loved me.

And there is no substitute for a coach who loves you. These people, these coaches I talk about at the different stages of my life and career, were all people who loved me.

And this is why I am so grateful.