Some Lessons You Just Don't Forget

This week marks the fourth anniversary of the D'Amelio Network. Not "fourth" as in years -- but "fourth" as in months. Starting something from scratch is always a bit daunting - made less so, though, by the great support from those who believe in the value this company can bring to the marketplace. As a result, we are off to a great start. Nonetheless, I'm not one who presumes anything.

I think about the first time I did this – I was 19 when I started a booking agency called Master Talent. I was living in Connecticut and it was the way I put myself through college. It turned out pretty well because I kept it growing after I graduated college and became a pretty formidable firm. We booked local and regional rock acts at colleges, night clubs and high schools throughout New England. In 1979 I decided to sell the business to a competing group from New York. I had had enough loud music and late nights - it was time to move on. What happened next was pretty sad for the founder of a business to witness. The folks who bought my company didn't share the same values. Long story short, in about 5 years, what had been a thriving business simply evaporated. My take-away from that - and the lesson I have never forgotten - is that success is fragile. It can't be taken for granted. It looked so easy to the folks who bought the business, but they failed to understand the little things I did which made my business successful with the customers who were loyal to me. They knew the business - they'd been doing it for years. They were successful in their own right. They just didn't understand the foundation of my customers' loyalty. Their failure to understand how my business was so very different from theirs – even though we were in the same business - was a fatal flaw.

As I launched DN in January, I reconnected with the shopkeeper work ethic that I engaged when I began my first business in my parent's basement. Truth is I've always taken that approach to business. I reminded myself that we are here to serve others – not ourselves. And if we do that well, business will prosper. It's all pretty simple, really.