The Formula (Part 1)

A dirty trailer park bum’s guide to winning in business

I remember that day vividly.

I was sitting the back room of my dad’s t-shirt shop… my home away from home… the place I went every day after school and stayed working and playing until 9 or 10 o’clock at night.

It was pretty awesome thinking about it now.

1. A converted warehouse with a massive garage-style door at one end that made it easy to box up the shirts and ship out in mass.
2. An eight-position automatic screen printing machine… so you could load up 8 shirts at a time, push a button and have the machine squeegee each shirt flawlessly.
3. Two 10-foot dryers that could crank out hundreds of shirts per hour.

Everything had been perfectly planned and designed by my dad after years of working in the t-shirt business.

He knew exactly what kind of volume he needed to do, what equipment to buy and precisely how to lay it all out so we could crank out thousands of shirts per day.

So, as I sat there that day watching the strange men loading each piece of equipment up one by one…

I felt like my entire world was collapsing.

After awhile, I couldn’t take it and I ran out back behind the dumpster and spent the next 30 minutes bawling my eyes out.

What happened? Who were these people? Why were they taking everything?

I was sad. I was angry. I was confused.

I wanted to run back inside and scream at them to “STOP!”… but my dad was there watching, too. Letting them take everything… looking defeated.

That was the day I decided I was an entrepreneur.

And, I vowed that I was going to “figure this business stuff” out… mainly so I could come back and help my dad and make sure this kind of thing never happened again.

It’s been over 20 years now since that day.

And, my entire focus from that day forward has been on understanding the mechanics of business… which is frankly pretty weird when you’re 12 years old.

I’d love to say I have it “all figured out”.

I don’t. I don’t know that I ever will.

But my focus has never really been about me. I’m my own guinea pig… but me knowing the “formula” has never been my goal.

Being able to explain the “formula” to other business-minded people has never been my goal.

It’s my about my dad.

My kids.

Being able to explain it to someone with zero “business training”… to someone who doesn’t think of themselves as an entrepreneur.

Being able to explain to the dirty, “trailer park trash” me of 10 years old.

That’s my goal.

And to inspire him. To not just give him some mental framework that sounds cool… but to light his heart on fire.

For him to not just understand but FEEL.

So, with all that in mind… I have to ask…

What makes you angry?