Understanding the Reality

Not only do we lack to the capital to pay constituents customary rates, or to pay them at all, we lack the resources to manage them effectively. Combine this with a few other realities:

  • First, no one cares as much about the business as we do.
  • Second, no one has spent as much time thinking about it as we have.
  • Third, these people have lives in which they laugh, relax, sleep, drink for fun and even take things lightly.
  • Finally, what we spend all day thinking about is a blip on their radar screen.

“We WILL get through this together.” 

At early stages, you don’t have the financial or human resources to put in place “normal” relationships—relationships in which people are paid market salaries and have normal working hours and conditions. This applies to many constituents such as employees, vendors, advisors, board members and consultants. When people are working for below market salaries, and often with undefined roles, our lack of management of them and aligning them to the most efficient tasks given their time commitment causes frustration.

With the exception of full-time employees, these resources dip in and out of our world. When a member of your advisory board wakes up in the middle of the night (like we do), he likely did so because he was worried about his sick daughter or his new boss or his mortgage bill or his golf game. Think of it like a pie. Our pie is 99.999 percent our business. Their pie is life, love, family, business, sports, travel and the rest of their normal lives.

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