Ruthless

Busy day today. Lots of meetings. And we’re now officially into the Christmas party season. This evening I attended the Orbex Christmas open house. Of course, they probably refer to it in the non-Christian, more inclusive “holiday season” manner. Dwayne, the owner, is an old friend. We met during my third work term while doing my undergrad at UW, in 1987.

We’re doing more site tours tomorrow. I think we’re viewing approximately six sites. Mostly existing buildings. Two are currently empty lots. I also have investor and networking meetings tomorrow. Looking forward to another productive day.

I came across this Warren Buffet quote recently, and have been trying to slide it in to a post at some point. Since an opportunity has not really presented itself, I’ll simply foist it upon you.

“If you lose dollars for the firm by bad decisions, I will be very understanding. If you lose reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless.” -Warren Buffet

We’re building a service business, which is also necessarily a “reputation” business. I don’t tend to ever be “ruthless” with team members, but the team we build will have to understand the deep lessons captured in this quote.