Start, Run, Grow, Sell
The Official Opening Of A New Business
Walking into my new laboratory for the first time after being officially opened was a thrill of a lifetime. It's one thing to walk into a new facility and enjoy how it feels, looks, and smells. It's also a thrill if you had a part in its design and implementation. But I realized that I was in a very small club of people, especially in medicine, that didn't just design the facility. Or oversee it's creation. Or the formulation of the underlying business and company. Or manage the financing. Or create a business plan. Or hire the staff. Or formulate sales and marketing. Any one of those items can be immensely gratifying, yet at that moment when I walked into my laboratory for the first morning of work...I realized that I had worn, and would continue to wear, all of those hats.
Doing It All ... Is Gratifying
It wasn't until many years later when I realized the rareness of what I had done when it was pointed out to me by a friend Mick. While on the phone, discussing some issues that I needed some advice about regarding the sale of that laboratory, he said something that I have never forgotten. "Steve, you don't realize that you are in a very small club of people who have started, run, grown, and then sold a business. Not very many people have done that...".
Those words hit me, and...