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Ron Finklestein tells Blogging Authors how the events of 9/11 prompted him to write Celebrating Success!, Fourteen Ways to Create a Successful Company
Ron writes: On 9/1/01 I was laid off from my job as a Principal in a consulting practice. This happened, in a large part, because the Y2K conversion effort that many companies under took in the late 1990 was so successful.
On 9/11/01, the unthinkable happened. Terrorist destroyed the world trade center in New York City. This single act, in my opinion, changed more lives that any single act in the history of the United States, except the civil war, including mine.
In the past, when I lost a job, I never had any trouble improving my position in the next opportunity. This changed as a result of 9/11. Companies cancelled:
• Hiring plan
• Capital improvement projects
• Major investments in there business
• And Acquisitions of other companies
After looking for a job and spending over $10K dollars on employment services to help me find another job, I faced one on the toughest decisions I would ever make.
I decided I needed a change of locations and I decided to move from my lifelong home. I did not want to, but having discovered no opportunities here, I decided to go somewhere where there were more opportunities.
I talked it over with my wife and she understood and was just as concerned as I was. My son Aaron was a senior in high school and the impact on him was not as great as the impact to my daughter Emily who was a sophomore.
I sat down and talked with Emily and told her the decision I came to and why. I told her that she would be able to finish high school and she could join me after she graduated. I was surprised when she didn’t seem concerned and I wonder if she really understood the impact of what we were discussing.
After about a week, she came back to me and said that if she went to summer school she would graduate a year early. I was surprised at this because she was captain of the soccer team, in Character Counts, Latin Club and a variety of other organization. I asked her why she would do this and she simply said, “I don’t want to be away from you for two years.”
At that point I made three decisions. The first was that my problems are not my children’s problems. The second was that I would no longer be unemployed because I have great skills. I hire myself and start my own company. The last decision was I would do something about the job situation in my home town. I was tired of my friends and family leaving the area because they were limited opportunities available.
I started my business AKRIS LLC, a business coaching and consulting firm to help businesses take the next step in personal and professional development.
In an effort to give something back to the community and help solve the problem of people leaving the region, I help create the Celebrating Success! The Northeast Ohio Business Conference. The purpose of the conference is to change the regional mindset by educating them on what local companies do to be successful. I want to help these companies and individual focus on what is right and good about their companies and the region.
In 2002, the conference was starting to take form. I was working with a number of volunteers who owned small companies. Many of these companies formed because of a downturn in the local economy. These were individuals who did not want to leave their homes and were looking for ways to grow their business while giving something back to the community.
During our first year we decided to make it easy for companies to nominate themselves. All a company needed to do was write a paragraph about what they did right. Once we received the nomination we would take each nominee through a structured interview. The outcome from the interview process was a one page story that highlighted their success, with an emphasis on lessons learned and actions taken. The story, along with the nomination and interview notes, were given to the conference judges. The judges would then select the top 12 companies that would present at the conference.
As I conducted the interviews I realized that all the companies did the same things. Many time they used different terms but when I peeled away the nomenclature, all the results could be distilled down to specific action steps. One afternoon, I met with one of the conference volunteers to review the interview results with her. We were sitting at Barnes and Noble, enjoying a cup of tea, when I told her what I found. She listened quietly as I discussed the highlights of the interview process. I remember telling her how glad I was that I was not a judge. The stories were good and it would very hard to chose; especially since I met each company individually and I could see the passion they had for their work. She suggested I write a book documenting the results. I will be forever grateful for her suggestion because it changed my life. But I did not embrace the idea enthusiastically.
At first I was cynical about her suggestion. I did not think I had anything “different” to say. Also, I was afraid to tackle a project of this size. I never written a book and I did not know where to start. Finally, I just started a coaching and consulting company and I was not sure I wanted to take the time to do this project.
I sat on the project for a few months. The economy was slow, getting appointments with prospects was difficult and companies were not spending money. Since I had some time I decide to write the book. Once I got organized and started writing I was surprised by how much information I had and how easy it was to get started. As I started writing I had an epiphany. Before I started my own company I worked as a consultant for over 20 years. During these 20 years I was involved with thousands of companies and worked on countless problems and projects within these companies. I finally realized what small companies do to be successful.
The book is about what companies do to be successful and how they move through the process from startup, through the growth process, to a mature company. The book not only contains the results of the interview process but it contains the 20 years of experience I gained as a consultant. I started to clearly understand why things worked in these larger companies and how these concepts could be easily implemented in smaller companies.
Out of this book great a second book and a coaching and consulting methodology. The true challenge was not in writing the book but taking all the knowledge I gained over the last 20 years and pulling out for others to use. I stated earlier in this article that I did not think I had anything “different” to write about. I did. It was the marriage of over a year of research on three dozen small successful companies and blending with over twenty years industry consulting experience, a powerful blend of research, experience and results.
To purchase the book follow this link: http://www.aboutbusinesssuccess.com
Ronald Finklestein
President
AKRIS LLC
Finklestein has published two books: Celebrating Success! Fourteen Ways to a Successful Company and The Platinum Rule for Small Business Mastery. He founded The Business Leadership Association, co-founded Celebrating Success! Northeast Ohio Business Conference (www.neobusinessconference.org.) Other Board affiliations include: Advisory Board, Center for Information Technology and eBusiness of the University of Akron and Advisory Board, and Kent State University Center for Information Management.
Finklestein is available for coaching, consulting and speaking engagement, workshops and seminars. You can contact him at info@yourbusinesscoach.net or reach him at 330-990-0788. Sign up for his newsletter at www.yourbusinesscoach.net.
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