Dream Big and Win

2Perfecting

An old proverb about success and determination says that the journey of one thousand miles begins with the first step.

The strategy to go step by step became my marching orders for creating TransPerfect, a translation and language solutions company. There were so many moving pieces in the beginning that if I tried to do them all at once (i.e. run until I drop), I'd have been destined to fail. If I were to perfect the process, I'd need to proceed one step at a time.

The First Step

I'd begun assembling pieces as soon as I gave Paresco my notice. My body might have been in the office at 24th and Park during those two weeks, churning out my work, but my heart and mind were fixated on the language services world.

The after‐hours chats I'd had with my translator friends became more prescriptive as the clock at Paresco wound down. I couldn't stop thinking about what my philosophy for running a language solutions company might entail. I reached out to everyone I knew, getting opinions on the market and finding out what services their clients wanted. When we'd talk prior to my quitting, I'd ask them theoretical questions like, “In a perfect world, what would your clients want to see done differently?” But once I made the decision to leave, I sought out specifics, like, “What practices could be implemented to help you achieve maximum client satisfaction? Same‐day service? A higher commitment to quality?”

If we were to create the world's premier language services provider, ...