Lou Schillaci argues that building a successful company takes about seven years of accumulated learning and luck. He says trusted mentorship can help you avoid costly mistakes and compress that timeline, positioning himself as a hands-on guide for CEOs and executives rather than a one-off advisor.
Look, you know, people say, would you have done it again? Yes, I would have done it again, but I wouldn't have made the mistakes. The difference between being able to make, create a successful company in which now I understand and I say to people, it takes 7 years. It's because those 7 years are filled not only with your ambition and your luck and all that. It takes time. It takes time. And people say to me, you're experienced, but, you know, I also know an experienced guy who's been doing it for 5 years. Well, I say, well, I've been doing it for 25 years and you can't shortcut time. So time is what gives you all of the elements that come together to make a successful company. However, if you could delete the mistakes you made, obviously that time can be compressed, delete all the bad times, and you've got an end result much quicker. I think you have to go through them. But if I'd only had someone to help me in those early stages when I was making ridiculous errors and errors of judgment, errors of direction. It would have been so much easier. And that's why I say to people, get help. It's a badge of— mistakes are a badge of honor, but you don't need to have those badges. You don't. You can go along with someone. And I call myself in other essences, a wingman. So I come along with I don't know, it's a CEO or COO or even CMO. I've done all those 3. And sit alongside them to discuss individual situations that lead to some sort of ending that they're looking for. It's a lot easier than just, you know, 1 hour, hello, what did you do last week? And this is what I suggest. It can't really be done that way. You really need time to sit down next to somebody.