
12 The Ten Roads to Riches
talk to them.
Their
interests are often harmful to
your
longer-term
vision and your firm's health.
They
may only care about the stock
next week.
Sometimes to do the right
thing
for
your
firm's future, you
must make costly decisions
that
could
hurt
earnings and stock
prices in the here and now. Today's public is often
short-term
ori-
ented. And you can't tell anyone anything in the supermarket you
don't
tell everyone, or you and
your
firm are in legal trouble. So
in the dairy aisle you smile, shake hands,
shut
up,
run
like hell,
and hide .
If
you can, it's best to remain private and see only customers
and vendors at the supermarket.
That
doesn't mean I
don't
like
public stocks. I
do-my
business is built on investing in
them-I
just never want to run one. You shouldn't either.
THE
BIG
BUll'S-EYE
There's
great satisfaction in building an empire and employing
oth-
ers. But there are
downsides-the
bigger you get, the
more
peo-
ple attack you .
The
truly successful develop sharkskin and an ego
requiring scant maintenance.
You're ridiculed from
the
start. Since
your
novelty is new or
different, it isn't from the established
order
.
Most
folks can't envi-
sion it as you do, and will think you're a bit
crazy-until
after your
firm is seen as a success.
Then
you'll be hailed as a visionary.
This
is true
of
almost every radically successful founder.
The
bigger the
success, the more they were ridiculed early on.
On
this road, you will be seen as