Saturday, July 9, 2016

Acton Hero: Erick Slabaugh

From this video.

Erick Slaubaugh was a ‘’reluctant entrepreneur’’ who joined his father’s company when he was 19 years old right as the company was going through a very tough time. Apparently he started from the bottom and worked his way up to become the CEO; he had to earn his position and learn even though he and his father owned the business.

I was very moved by the memories Erick shares about his youth. He ‘’started with less’’ than his friends in a certain way. As a co-owner of the family business, he had to work very hard and at the moment he couldn’t enjoy life as much as his friends. He had to make sacrifices like working long hours, not going to parties, and not earning big paychecks; today the tables have turned and his friends say that ‘’he was lucky’’. He was not lucky, he just worked much harder and now he enjoys the rewards.

Erick mentions that en entrepreneur needs to have the courage to make hard decisions, but let one’s moral values guide those decisions. A successful person must also be humble enough to ask for help and find mentors.

Another valuable piece of advice is not to invest in something just because is trendy when we don’t understand it. He tells about how he invested in a venture during the dotcom bubble because many people were making money off it, but that the investment would have been much more successful if he had just invested it into his own company. 

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