Business Features
EXCLUSIVE: The Entrepreneur’s Top Five Resolutions For The New Year
By April MacIntyre Dec 29, 2011, 4:06 GMT
At 95 years-old, entrepreneur Stan Dashew is a bona fide “sage for ages.”
With 2012 upon on us and the third year of the Great Recession behind us, it’s time for entrepreneurs – and those who would like to be – to look to a brighter New Year.
Who better, then, to seek advice on where do we go from here than an entrepreneur who has seen it all?
At 95 years-old, entrepreneur Stan Dashew is a bona fide “sage for ages.”
Mr. Dashew earned that sobriquet by establishing a score companies responsible for more than 40 patents in industries diverse as off-shore navigation technology, medical equipment and mass transit.
He is probably best known for the numerous patents he holds for the machinery that made possible the first bank credit card system – BankAmericard.
Mr. Dashew began his professional career at the height of the Great Depression (yes, that one!) in 1936. Lessons for business, and life, leap from his still very agile mind.
M&C sat down with inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist and avid sailor (more on this later) Stanley Dashew to share his Top Five Time-Tested Resolutions For Entrepreneurs.
1. Find New Ways To Utilize Existing Products Or Services:
"Most people think of innovation as just about creating new stuff. But the problem with brand new inventions is that they often require substantial start-up capital, which at the moment is in particularly short supply. Instead, think of new ways of repurposing existing products and services.
"My early success in automating the credit card industry beginning in 1957 was based on this “reconnaissance” approach. The Databosser, a machine that I had previously invented to emboss metal i.d. plates for military equipment during WWII, was tweaked to emboss plastic credit cards. The Databosser could produce one thousand cards per hour; our nearest competitor’s technology produced only 50 per hour."
2. Ask For Advice From Clients, Colleagues and Customers:
"False pride and hubris have no place in the entrepreneur’s toolbox of tricks. You’ve got a great idea, now don’t flatter yourself in thinking you have all the answers. Ask you circle of business contacts, including the aforementioned but also vendors and suppliers, for their advice on how to overcome your next obstacle to success. You will be surprised how many will be not only willing to help but don’t right enthusiastic about it. (After all, in various ways they’re all vested in your success)."
"Early on in my first career as a salesman, I used my youth to get helpful advice from more experienced people. Later when I was boss, I imparted this same wisdom to my own employees: You can learn a lot more, a lot faster and move ahead a lot further if you seek the advice of others."
3. Show, Don’t Tell, What You Can Do For Clients:
"My company was the first to mass produce credit cards. It was our technology that allowed the 1.2 million Diner’s Clubs members to be first, in 1961, to switch their easily damaged paper cards to shiny new plastic ones. Next we captured the Carte Blanche account, but the brass ring was American Express’ – considered the most influential and prestigious company in the world at the time. We had one competitor vying for the account, the Addressograph-Multigraph company. Its name within the business world was almost as universally known as American Express. Virtually every company owned on an A-M business machine for mass producing form letters."
"As a new company with much less brand recognition, we had to do something different to win the account. So we did our homework and found out exactly which Amex executives would be attending our client presentation."
"When it came time for the meeting, we presented each of the executives with a prototype Amex card, complete with the artwork still used today (which we borrowed from their traveler’s checks) and each one embossed with the executives’ names, and a faux account number and expiration date. As a final flourish, which underscored Amex’s extraordinary customer loyalty, each card included a reference to “a member since….” (Yep, that was my idea)."
"The whole thing was sheer show & tell. Ok, call it a gimmick if you like but whatever you call it, it won the account. Here’s the lesson: Don’t just tell potential clients or investors what you can do for then. Show them – in the most dramatic and creative way you can."
4. Find A Partner With Opposite, But Complementary Skills:
"Creating new machines was mostly profitable and always challenging. Investing in real estate turned out to be just as challenging, but more profitable. When I made my first leap into commercial real estate, I relied on a young real estate salesman who previously had helped me to find office space. We became partners in a new real estate investment company in which I supplied the capital and my young friend supplied the sweat equity. I won’t both with the details of the transaction and its history but suffice to say that my initial $150,000 outlay yielded a $5.5 million return a few years later. That, my friends, is the measure of a successful partnership."
"However, a successful partnership doesn’t always have to be about money. The most successful business partnership in the last 30 years was that one between Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs."
"They first met in 1975 when both of them had virtually no money. Wozniak was a largely self-taught computer engineer. Jobs lacked Wozniak technical prowess but had that vision thing that would later come in handy. They both were aggressively ambitious and believe fervently believe that the computer could make the leap."
"The best partners have opposite but complementary skills. But, and here’s the really important part, their values and tolerance for risk must be completely aligned."
5. Pursue You Most Passionate Dreams:
"In 1949 I embarked with my young family – including my newborn baby daughter – on a 15-month, 15,000 mile transoceanic journey in a 76-foot-schooner that I christened Constellation. Seriously. If you’re so inclined, you can research it; our modern-day Swiss Family Robinson adventure was covered by more than 50 newspapers in the day."
"At the time I took the, ahem, plunge I was at the top of my career – the top selling salesman in my company’s history. So why did I leave it all behind? Simple. I made the calculation that if I were ever going to pursue my passion of sailing in my dream of a transoceanic voyage, I couldn’t wait any longer."
"It was the best decision I ever made. By the time I arrived at my final destination in Los Angeles at the ripe old age of 34, I decided to leave my company and begin my first enterprise. Publicity from the trip prompted a business contact to renew his acquaintance with me, and his company’s technology became the basis of my first company."
"Obviously, not everyone will want to go out and sail a boat half way around the world. But everyone can find an activity that will inspire them and be conducive to building relationship – business and personal. You can still find me many weekends sailing off the coast of Southern California."
More information about Stan Dashew is available online.
