
52
1The
Ten
Roads
to
Riches
Plenty
of
people with charisma and vision still Rame out. Again,
think like a private equity guy and review
that
section in
Chapter
7.
Then
answer the following questions:
II Does your potential horse have an exciting business vision?
One
you believe in so much, you'd
put
your own money into it? (You
don't have to,
but
would you?)
• Does your horse do a good job
of
firing himself from jobs and
delegating?
This
is vital. Review Chapters 1 and 2 on founders
and
CEOs
and make sure your guy (or gal) is exhibiting most if
not
all
of
the required attributes.
• Has your horse failed before? Failure is ok! If your horse has
failed, tried again, and failed again (but differently from the first
failure), it shows diligence and a learning curve.
Don't
hitch to
someone who keeps failing in similar ways. Learning from his
failures (like
Herbert
Dow
from Chapter 1) may bone up your
horse for victory. Even Sam Walton flamed
out
his first time
out
the chute.
Once
you've found the right person to drag you along
through
his or
her
success, go with your gut.
Either
you trust and com-
pletely admire this person or you don't.
If
you do, be endlessly
loyal. That's what a
CEO
demands from a ride-along as a quid pro
quo for being the
one
the
CEO
can't do without.
If
you can't find it
within you to trust your future success to the fate
of
one
leader, you
may be better off taking the established firm route.
That
works! But
the bigger bucks are definitely ...