Courage. Sacrifice. Pain. Those were among the topics explored at the first Upsize Growth Challenge workshop last month, where our winning business owners reminded me why I love the entrepreneurs who talk with us.
Just when I think I can’t take another canned piece of corporate-speak from another guy in a suit-and I read a ton of it in stacks of publications as part of my job-I get to talk to Upsize entrepreneurs. Yes, I think of them as “Upsize entrepreneurs,” which to me means people who are willing to keep it real.
They’ll tell us about their successes, of course, and how they and many other people made them happen. But they’ll also share their flops, and most importantly for our readers, what they learned.
Perhaps they trust Upsize because they recognize we’re peers-we, too, are fighting mightily to build our business, and we understand and admire everyone else in the game. Perhaps they’re generous or grateful or both, willing to teach others as they’ve learned before and will need to do again.
Perhaps they’re disarmed by my intelligent questions, piercing blue eyes and keen reportorial talent-but that’s just the kind of delusional comment that a true Upsize entrepreneur would never make. I guess statements like that go unchallenged when you’re editor AND co-founder of the magazine, and no one edits your column.
Sandy Hansen, the owner of AgVenture Feed & Seed, says she’s finding the courage she needs to start growing her company again. She took over AgVenture after tragic circumstances, and tried just to survive for a time. I find her take to be interesting, as though she’s shaking off the years of shock and struggle, and deliberately deciding to leave behind that old company and mindset.
“It takes a psychological switch. Thankfully I went from near bankruptcy to a nice life, and that’s why I think our time is right to bust through,” she said. “Sometimes your psychology needs time to re-program and not think about what you were.”
Chad Nyberg and Nathan Smith, the co-founders of PCS Residential, at first seem like brash entrepreneurs, ready to boast about their spot on a fastest-growing company list and tout their latest big goal. But they go on to describe the cost of rapid growth and the hollowness they feel if their business is to only be about money. They talk like the older, wiser empire builders they are striving to become.
“We know what it means to chase money, because when you’re entrepreneurs the world tells us to grow. But it leaves a little bit of emptiness. Our true passion is to grow a company that makes values-based decisions, that affects the lives of many, many homeowners,” said Smith.
Honesty. Insight. Clarity. All three business owners have these traits and more, and I thank them for being Upsize entrepreneurs.
