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Once again this year, KMK Consulting Company along with our parent, Keating, Muething & Klekamp law firm were lead co-sponsors with Ernst & Young in the Entrepreneur of the Year Program.
Our Greater Cincinnati recognition and awards dinner was held on June 28th. Chairman and CEO, Mike Burke, had the honor and pleasure of presenting our firm’s comments to this years finalists and guests at this very special black tie event. Mike’s words were both inspirational and emotional for everyone in the room.
We have had so many follow-up comments about Mike’s speech that we decided to share it with our colleagues and friends. We hope Mike’s thoughts about the entrepreneurial spirit and about the importance of "making a difference" beyond simply being successful are of some personal benefit to you.
Thank you for allowing us to share this speech with you.
Once again, Keating, Muething & Klekamp and KMK Consulting Company are proud to join with E & Y and the other sponsors to salute the leadership, energy, innovation and success of this year’s EOY finalists.
At KMK, we are proud of and thankful for the great associations which we have had with many of the community’s most successful entrepreneurs. And, we are particularly proud of the effect that the leadership of our entrepreneurial friends and clients has had on the growth and prosperity of the Greater Cincinnati region.
Entrepreneurship is synonymous with life, with spirit, with growth, with challenge, with risk, with empowerment and, of course, with leadership. Not all entrepreneurs are successful like those finalists here tonight. In fact, statistically, most entrepreneurs aren’t. But, the good that is done by so many who step up and take risks, exercise their leadership, generate commerce, create jobs is what the American Dream is all about and has been critical to the growth and success of our United States economy.
While not all may agree with Jack Welch and his business tenets, no one can deny that GE, the mammoth multi-national company, has been able to remain energized and entrepreneurial, relishing change and using its size to succeed rather than using its size as an excuse for lackluster performance. GE has annihilated bureaucracy; it has inspired self-confidence and rewarded simplicity and speed in the operation of its business.
Jack Welch has accomplished this by using the four "e’s" to screen and pick his leaders. Jack’s four "e’s" are: - "Energy" to cope with the frenetic pace of change;
- "Energize" – the ability to excite, to galvanize the organization and inspire it to action;
- "Edge" – the self confidence to make the tough calls;
- The fourth "e" is "Execute" – the ability to deliver and never disappoint. – Executives, entrepreneurial executives – execute – they get things done!
It has been my experience that business leaders – successful entrepreneurs like all of you – have these four e’s, as well as many additional significant qualities. Some of these additional qualities and instincts include:
- A "guiding vision" – a clear idea of what you want to do and the passion to pursue it.
- You are "pragmatic dreamers." Walter Wriston of Citicorp called it a "dream with a deadline."
- You have a strong point of view. It is always the person with the strongest point of view who influences the group – who wins the day. My experience is that a powerful point of view is worth at least 80 IQ points.
- Finally, you have candor. It has been reported that seven of ten people in organizations do not speak up if they think their point of view will differ with the conventional wisdom of their boss’s point of view, even if they believe their boss is going to make an error. But the boss or leader really needs to cultivate strong-minded associates with the wisdom and courage to make recommendations; in fact, to say "no" when "no" is the right answer.
Those of us who have been life-time Cincinnatians know that there is no lack of talent, innovation and vision in Greater Cincinnati, men and women who have these four significant qualities and have Jack Welch’s four E’s. All of you here and many other emerging entrepreneurs have exhibited significant entrepreneurial skills and ability. It is our responsibility, obligation and challenge to make Greater Cincinnati an environment where talented people stay at home and others can be recruited to our region. These people must be motivated to develop and hone their skills and have those skills rewarded by attracting capital investors in order to incubate, accelerate and create an overall environment where leadership matters and entrepreneurship is handsomely rewarded.
One of my long time, good friends, Tom Arington, CEO of Duramed, whose patience, resourcefulness and entrepreneurial spirit have been a personal inspiration to me, recently gave me a copy of the book, Half Time. This book, written by Bob Buford, challenges the successful entrepreneur not to rest on the success of the first half of your life. So whether you are 40, 50 or 60, Mr. Buford says your life is at "half time." Mr. Buford challenges the entrepreneur to change his game plan from "success" to "significance." Mr. Buford points out that entrepreneurs really enjoy what they do and they become better at it as they grow older and, therefore, they are not ready to retire even though they may have the means to do so. I am not suggesting by referring you to Mr. Buford’s book that any of you should quit your day jobs and go moonlighting. What I am suggesting is that, as Mr. Buford points out, "We should stop counting the years and start making the years count."
Mr. Buford challenges successful people to select their own epitaph. Bob Buford tells us that his epitaph will be "100 x." It means 100 times. Mr. Buford says that he has taken this from the parable, The Sower, in Matthew 13. Mr. Buford states that, "I am an entrepreneur and I want to be remembered as a seed that was planted in good soil and multiplied a hundredfold. It is how I wish to live. It is how I attempt to express my passions and my ‘commitments.’ It is how I envision my own legacy. I want to be a symbol of higher yield in life and in death."
The challenge for all of us is to create an epitaph that says something about who you are, at the essence of your personality and your soul.
Recently, I gave a copy of Mr. Buford’s book as a birthday present to my good friend, Harry Fath, who is one of the finalists tonight. While I am really proud of all the "success" that Harry has achieved as an entrepreneur in his first 60 years, I am even more inspired by Harry’s efforts to create "significance" in his second half.
I, therefore, challenge all of you successful entrepreneurs to multiply all that God has given you and in the process, to give it back. The conclusion is simple. The second half of our lives should be the best half; in fact, a personal renaissance. If the first half was a quest for success, the second half is a journey to significance. Instead of giving up and settling for life on its own terms, you are ready for new horizons, new challenges. You are ready to move from success to significance, to write your own epitaph, daring to believe that what you ultimately leave behind will be more important than anything you could have achieved in the first half of your life.
As all of you in this room continue your life, whether it be in the first half or the second half, all of us at Keating, Muething & Klekamp and KMK Consulting wish you Godspeed. |
