MY BIGGEST MISTAKE WAS...

People are the best thing about business. But they can also be the worst, says emphatically the Principal Strategist of Lauric Strategy+ Marketing, who has come to work today in a bright blue polo tee-shirt and cream-colored slacks matched with Teva flip-flops.

He looks just like your average guy- in weekend wear, not the businessman and entrepreneur at the office the first day of the work week. Far from the typical image of a successful businessman he seems to be, yet, his personal ventures have grown to include companies located across continents and, in recent years, are seeing triple-digit growth.

To him, people are generally on two sides of the bell curve. They can either provide you with the greatest victories and profits but they can also cause you to suffer your biggest losses- and whilst he doesn’t go into detail what really transpired, he is candid about his entrepreneurial journey having had its fair share of mistakes- and some of the lowest moments of his business career were a result of him placing trust in the wrong person.

No industry, no one, is immune, he insists.

The media and entertainment company was making a directional transit towards content development and production which included substantial plans for motion-capture technology, then one of the newest technological developments in global media production. His research was thorough, he had met with representatives of the technology companies at a tech convention in Las Vegas and he even had the space mapped out for the equipment, now all he needed was a supplier.

There are many out there who will, with an arsenal of collaterals, material and impressive demonstrations portray the best of themselves to you. If you’re not listening carefully, if your company is at a phase eager for business development and you make a hasty decision, you just might find yourself paying for a very, very expensive lesson, and the cost of such a blunder is greater than the dollar factor. Even if you are convinced that such a cost is payment ‘for your business education with those mistakes’, it is, as he puts it, impractical advice for an entrepreneur.

Listen, he stresses, listen hard to those whom you intend to work with. Listen to candidates in the interview room. Listen to individuals whom you plan to form partnerships with. Listen to those whom you will invest in, and whom may be your prospective investors. Listen to everyone who will be a part of your business- and make it a strong attribute in your manner of business. Take the time to know those whom you are doing business with and be slower to act.

 

“Absorb as much information as you can.” He smiles. “Read, listen and learn as much as you can about what it is you will be doing. Information diminishes risk. You will be better equipped to make critical decisions.”