A founder nearly bankrupted his company in 2011 by hiring an expensive external CEO during a sales slump. Within six months the new CEO's changes made things worse, forcing the founder to return and fire him. He learned three lessons: never make permanent decisions on a bad day, build strong processes before bringing in an operator, and trust yourself to learn the skills needed to scale.
I've nearly bankrupted not one but two companies in my 20-plus year career. Here are three things I'd avoid if I could do it all over again. So the second time I nearly lost everything, it was 2011 and I was running my first real company with real employees and real revenue and a really big office. We had a few years of really solid growth, but one quarter sales just stalled and I had no idea why. So I did what any first-time founder CEO would do in my position., I absolutely freaking panicked and I didn't just panic. I fired myself and I hired a very experienced, very expensive corporate CEO to replace me. And I basically stepped aside into an advisor role and I told myself it was the mature move. It was the right thing to do. And the new CEO came in and made changes in 6 weeks that I had absolutely been avoiding for years. But by month 6, the winds were gone and sales were getting worse. But by month 10, we were pretty much in a death spiral. And that's when I knew I had no choice. I had to come back in, I needed to fire my replacement, and I needed to step back into the role that I never should have left. So here's 3 things that I learned and I wish I could do again. Number 1, never quit on a bad day. When I fired myself, I was scared, I was panicked, and I was convinced that I was the problem. And so I made a permanent decision on a temporarily bad day, and by the time the bad day had passed, The company almost didn't exist anymore. If you wouldn't make the call you're about to make on a good day when you're feeling calm and clear-headed, you have no business making it when you're scared. Number 2, for the love of God, build the operating system before you hire the operator to operate the operating system. I brought in an expensive operator to run the company that had no system, so this person just made 'em up, brought in a playbook from somewhere else, applied it to the business, and when it didn't fit, 10 months later, we were nearly bankrupt. Number 3, never let anyone convince you that you don't have what it takes to scale your business. You don't need adult supervision. You don't. You're freaking awesome. You just need a new playbook. The skills that got you to 7 figures aren't the same skills that will get you to 8 figures and beyond, but the person who has to learn those new skills is you, and you absolutely can do it.
