It's Not About Being In Business; It's About Staying In Business

by Rick Duree

When I got my first bank loan, my banker asked, “Are you ready for your first withdrawal?” I said, “Sure!” To which he asked, “How much do you need?” I said: “$10,000? I think that sounds like a good number.” (I was so professional back then!) He replied: “OK. Do you want to count it out with me to make sure it’s right?” This is where things got a little odd. I thought his comment was off because his tellers would have counted it twice already, and I trusted in their ability to count a fairly small $10,000 withdrawal accurately. But whatever.

We walked to the side room and started counting out the money bill by bill. Let me tell you: If you’ve never held $10,000 in your hands at one time, don’t let the first time be when you’re in front of your banker because, trust me, you will get a little giddy!

Money is emotional. It shouldn’t be. It’s just paper. But when you’re holding 10,000 bucks in your hands and that’s three times greater than your own personal net worth, let’s be honest – you might start giggling a little.

I tried to hold back the smiles. I felt a little bit like a fool with my banker staring at me. But he knew what was going on inside my head. I think he just wanted to see my reaction. Maybe he was feeling me out on whether he had made a smart bet on me.

Yes, be excited that you’ve opened a store, but also realize that your worst day in business, bankruptcy, is always around the corner. Staying in business, not taking out the first loan that you’ll owe back to the bank a year later, should be what makes you giddy.

One of my buddies owned a small coffeehouse chain. I saw him one afternoon and he looked a little more lively and quick than normal, a little lighthearted. I asked him what was up in his life to bring about this visible change in his demeanor. He told me he had just successfully exited his business, selling his ownership to one of his store managers. It just felt nice having the burden of business off his shoulders and out of his checkbook.

I was floored! He had been so proud of his new-age all-natural coffeehouses, but on that day he seemed to be almost celebrating. That’s when he taught me a life lesson I’ll never forget. He said, “Rick, it’s true that when you start your business you have this ‘high.’ Your best day in business is your first. But after that it gets tough. Your second-best day in business is the day you sell.” I looked at him, knowing that for him and his family, the exit was the right move.

I’ve heard this lesson from other successful people a few times since and look forward to testing it out myself in a few years. I’m not going to tell you that all entrepreneurial scenarios will follow my buddy’s “first-day, last-day” model, but most will. When people get excited about launching their new venture, they often cannot see the day-to-day difficulties they will face in the trenches of business. They get a little giddy.

So, enjoy the moment, that first day in business. Ones like it won’t come around too often in life. Then get to work and build something you can successfully exit from in the future, enjoying the second-best day in business.

A self-made entrepreneur, Rick Duree launched four successful businesses and had four kids by the time he was 30. A professor of entrepreneurship, inspirational speaker and community builder, he founded the Duree Center for Entrepreneurship, where he actively mentors young creators ramping up their startups. He is also the author of “The Entrepreneur’s Bible: 52 Proverbs of Profit.”