The Right Mentor Can Change Your Life

"Who has the MBA? Who started this business from scratch? You? No. Me," my future partner said with a tone of firmness.

We were at a party in Miami. We were standing in the kitchen, and I was giving him advice on where to take his business from here. I was twenty-two years old. He was twenty-seven at the time. I knew close to zero about business.

He graduated with honors. Scored highest in Alabama on the CPA exam. Served as an officer in the army where he taught other officers finance. Came up with the idea of practice management software for CPAs. Wrote it on his own time with the help of his wife. Left the regional CPA firm to start his own firm. Started a service bureau business to process financial statements for government institutions and started a software company to serve other CPAs.

And I've got the nerve to give this guy advice on his business.

That was the beginning of our relationship. Once I got over the gut-punch he delivered, I realized I had a lot to learn from this man. I wanted to be a businessman and entrepreneur. This was the man I chose to teach me. It was a great choice for a twenty-two year old.

Within two months of meeting Richard, he offered me an opportunity. He said, "Join me and we will sell software to every CPA in America." And you know what? I did join him. We did sell software to every CPA in America. At least we tried. But in trying, we built a really great business that was eventually purchased by a public software and services company. The sale of our company changed my life.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. This story is about mentoring.

Richard showed me how to be a successful entrepreneur. He did it by allowing me to be in his space, his company, while he was doing it. I was his right-hand man. I was in the room when he was pitching prospects. I was there when he convinced bankers to lend him money even though he had no assets to pledge. I saw how he came up with marketing ideas to promote our product. I learned how to prepare and execute for a trade show. I watched him successfully navigate the valley of death after choosing bad, highly-experienced, lacking in loyalty partners. And the list goes on and on. I was right there. I watched him. And I learned. Boy, did I learn. Richard was an amazing mentor.

I joined Richard as an employee in this new software company he’d just created. I told him before taking the job, I'd join him on one condition. I wanted to be a partner. I wanted ownership.

He told me, "If you and I work well together and I see you can add significant long-term value, I'll make you a partner." His word was good enough for me.

I quit my job, left the CPA profession, and packed up all I owned. I stuffed it into my 1975 Honda CVCC, the forerunner to the Civic, and drove from Miami, Florida, to Mobile, Alabama. All my friends in Miami thought I was crazy. It turned out to be the best career decision of my entire life.

The truth of the matter is, I fell in love with Richard. He was an entrepreneur. And back then, we didn't even give people who started businesses that moniker. They were simply business people who started businesses from scratch. Businesses in new industries that were promising and unproven. These people, just like Richard, left steady income career opportunities for a chance to create something new, something big, something important.

Richard was inspiring. When he talked, I was spellbound. He saw something that wasn't there. He saw a software company that would change the CPA profession. This software would allow them efficiencies that would far exceed the efficiencies of their electronic calculators. He saw so clearly how they could grow more quickly with fewer people and become far more profitable. He saw it. And at the time, no one had even heard of software. But Richard, he saw it all. He just knew it was reality.

Joining Richard, the first entrepreneur I ever met in my life, changed the course of my life. Saying I loved him is not an understatement. It wasn't romantic love. It was a love rooted in deep respect and admiration. I wanted to follow him. I wanted to be in all the meetings he was in. I wanted to go to dinners and drinks with him so I could hear him think out loud. I wanted to learn.

In my first annual review, Richard asked me, "What do you want to achieve in the next year?"

I remember we were sitting next to each other in his office facing his desk. Our backs were to his wall of fame. This was a wall filled with plaques representing all the academic and leadership achievements he’d earned in his young life. And although they were impressive, they didn't matter to me. What mattered to me was the man sitting next to me. He was the man I wanted to become.

Richard had the vision for a great company and the business acumen and confidence to achieve it. He had a great wife and a beautiful baby girl and just the right house. And he was respected.

So when he asked what I wanted to achieve in the next year, I answered, "I want to be like you."

And that was when I realized he was my mentor.

He was a great choice.

Thank you, Richard, for choosing me to join you in June of 1976. You changed my life.