The Butler Project

Could you recover from a multi-million dollar loss?

Here’s more from my conversation with Mike, an advertising executive. In this excerpt he tells me about overcoming adversity, and his greatest attribute.

Mark: Can you think of … a setback that you’ve experienced and what you learned from it?

Mike: Yeah, in 1985, I had four of my biggest clients go bankrupt on me. It was all within a month of each other. Left me hanging for 2 million dollars.

Mark: 2 million dollars in 1985 - that’s a lot of money in today’s dollars.

Mike: It was a lot of money then.

Mark: How did you bounce back from that? What did you learn from it?

Mike: I learned you just have to be persistent. It took me four years to work out of it. You just face it up front and you deal with the people that you owe money honestly. You call them, you dont wait for them to call you, you give them updates all the time, and then you’re very careful with who you give credit to [in the future].

Mark: [C]an you give me a rough idea of what it’s been worth to your company - the fact that you did persist instead of giving up?

Mike: Oh, its made all the difference - I didnt declare bankruptcy; everybody told me to. Your name is everything in business. Having a name associated with integrity and [meeting] your commitments makes all the difference. It’s meant everything…I can’t place a dollar figure on it; millions and millions.

Mark: What attribute of yours, then, has been the biggest factor in the success you’ve experienced?

Mike: I would say my persistence, and just staying with it, not giving up, showing up every day, attacking the problems every day, and doing a little bit at a time. Having an attitude that you’re not going to get rich overnight. There’s not one little scheme thats going to make you rich. You just get up and go to work every day, and try to work through things, and after a while you’ve built something that has value. It’s persistence.

Are you noticing how often the word persistence comes up in these interviews?

I know we’re barely scraping the surface of Mike’s experience here, so take a minute to think through what he overcame. $2 Million in 1985 dollars is approximately $3,950,000 in 2007 dollars. Try to imagine the feeling of losing almost $4 Million in a month.

Setbacks are a part of life. One of my favorite success authors says life is nothing but a series of problems, only interrupted by the occasional crisis.

If you want success and financial independence, accept the fact that problems and setbacks are guaranteed for all of us. Embrace each one as an opportunity to deal with the next more easily.