MINDS w/ Jim Eiting 01/28/2010 Summary
MINDS w/ Jim Eiting – “Focus for Success”
January 28th, Mr. Jim Eiting sat before ten great MINDS. While he entered quietly and spoke softly, his insights thundered and optimism encouraged. The message was on point for all experiencing the “Great Recession”, for all Americans. Change creates opportunity. Current times may be confusing. But there’s never been more opportunity. Focus and you’ll have success.
And focus we did over the next hour and a half.
Jim prefaced the talk with an historical and bright reminder. We are all of entrepreneurial roots. You see, our forefathers booked a one-way ticket to a better life. They were adventurous. They were creative. They were adaptable. Californian ancestors were the most inventive of the lot, an ideal lineage for entrepreneurial success.
When Jim’s father passed, he said to his mother, “how tragic that all that knowledge is gone.” That moment inspired him. He would look after his children and the past, current and future employees of Midmark. He would chronicle his learnings and discoveries in a book: Focus for Success, A Primer for Entrepreneurs and Business People. He brought the same care to the University Club library as he did his book. Rather than paragraphs and parables, Jim bullet pointed us forward. I, thus, offer you a few of the many nuggets learned during his fifty years of entrepreneurial experience.
Notable Nuggets:
- If you don’t sell, you don’t eat.
- A lion hunts best on an empty stomach.
- Create a recession resistant product.
- You could put a fence around America and we’d still survive. Most other countries do not have this luxury.
- In life, learn more, faster.
- Your name is a promise.
- Discipline drives a company.
- Writing a book is 5% of the work. 95% of it is marketing.
- Transparency builds trust.
- Be yourself. Everyone else is taken
- Build a team of wonderful people that are honest and uphold integrity.
- A spouse doesn’t have to work in an organization to be important to it.
- The whole should be something greater than the sum of its parts.
- In start-ups, one must be humble. He spent many years down on his knees begging for sales, begging for payments.
- In small towns, jobs are really important to the people.
- Start with the other person.
- Know your sweet spot.
- “If we’re not having fun, then we’re doing it wrong.”
- Work on your company not in it.
In short, Jim’s success stemmed from his care for people, his focus on them. His company, Midmark, which he’s handed over to his daughter, carries on this culture and is exemplified in their motto “Because We Care.”
