The Ten Roads to Riches: The Ways the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!)

The Richest Road 19

befriend all the advisers you may ever need

-you

don't need them

on your board.

Culture

or

Cult

-su

re

Among the most important tasks you as a founder have in build-

ing to last is creating an enduring culture that maintains your stra-

tegic vision long after you're gone . Fail and your successor may

fold and sell to the first viable buyer or morph your firm into some

bastardization.

My firm's based in the woods where few would

suspect-on

a

mountaintop above San Francisco's penins ula. I've lived my life in

forests and see them as a benign and peaceful work environment.

Yea

rs back, as we started growing into a larger firm with more

employees, industry locals would refer to us derogatorily as "the

cult on the hill." I don't know if I'll get my way or not, but if I do,

long after

I'm

dead they'll refer to us as "the cult-sure," because if

you're trying to build something lasting you must have a culture so

"sure" that no person, event, economic cycle, or social trend can

knock it off course.

That'

s what Dow did.

BOOTSTRAP

OR

FINANCE?

Fourth question: Capital intensive or not? Another way to think

about that: Will you require equity financing from

out

siders that

dilutes your ownership, or will you largely be able to bootstrap-

financing growth from recycled profits plus bank borrowing?

Capital-intensive businesses tend to be in categories like indus-

trials, manufacturing, materials, mining, pharmace ...