Back from the Brink: Gaining Inspiration from Apple, Rob Lowe, Avian Adventures, and
Others.
By Carol Frank
STEVE JOBS AND APPLE, INC.
As I mentioned in one of my recent articles, I recently finished
reading Walter Isaacson’s fascinating biography on Steve Jobs.
While I found it highly entertaining, I was also on the lookout
for business lessons that I could share with my readers and
clients. The most glaring lesson? You can pretty much be
comatose, on your last breath, left for dead, and then end up as
the CEO of the most valuable company in the world. This
lesson was especially poignant to me – as you will soon find
out.
Yet my favorite non-business book of 2011 was Rob Lowe’s
Stories I Only Tell My Friends. It was entertaining, insightful,
funny, and inspirational. It appeared on best-seller lists throughout
the world. Who knew the man was such a brilliant writer and
storyteller? (And yes, he actually wrote it – he did not use a ghost
writer.) The book details how, after hitting rock bottom, Rob Lowe
climbed out of the dungeon and landed back on top with starring
roles in a multitude of TV series. The sex-tape scandal is long gone,
and fortunately he is now remembered for his positive contributions
to hits such as West Wing and Brothers and Sisters
AVIAN ADVENTURES
In 1985, Steve Jobs was unceremoniously fired from the
company he and Steve Wozniak had built from the ground up.
His difficult personality, his inflexibility, his inability to follow
orders combined with an unfriendly Apple Board of Directors
led to his ouster. He struggled over the next few years trying to
get his new company, NeXT Computers off the ground. NeXT
was not a successful venture and I have no doubt there were
days that Steve Jobs couldn’t believe how far he had fallen.
While Steve Jobs was struggling with NeXT, Apple was
struggling from a lack of innovation, a floundering corporate
culture, and a strong surge by Microsoft. Their stock drifted
down to around $13.00 a share. Their market share for PC’s
was dwindling. They simply weren’t the hip, cool, innovative
company they had been in the early 80’s.
Fast forward 16 years. At the time of his death, Steve Jobs was
worth an estimated $8.5 billion. The whole world mourned his
passing; his biography has become an international best seller.
Not only had Steve Jobs redeemed himself, but he had
completely reinvented Apple into the hippest company in the
world and whose stock traded for $420/share on January 13,
2012.
ROB LOWE
As young adults in the 80’s, my girlfriends and I thought Rob
Lowe was just about the most adorable thing ever. His career
was red hot – appearing in films ranging from The Outsiders, to
About Last Night, to St. Elmo’s Fire. He was hot, hot, hot.
Then, at the height of his career, the 1988 Atlanta and Paris sextape scandals landed him as the butt of jokes on just about every
talk show on America. His fall from grace was rapid. He
quickly went from starring in major motion pictures to barely
being able to get an audition. His career was comatose; no one
wanted to take a chance on him. He was a wash-up at the ripe
old age of 24.
From 1996 to 2007 I owned a birdcage manufacturing company,
Avian Adventures. We grew quickly into a very successful
company, selling container loads of cages to many of the top
distributors in the country. Then in 2000 I was sued by a
competitor, and through a series of unfortunate missteps, I ended up
losing 85% of my revenue in ONE YEAR. Ouch. For the next
three years I languished at that low level of sales, waiting for the
lawsuit to get settled and to find a way to move my production out
of Mexico. There were days I would go to the ATM and not know
if I could take $20 out. I was on the brink of bankruptcy, but my
passion for birds and my product kept me from throwing in the
towel. Finally the lawsuit was settled in 2002, and over the next
five years I scratched and clawed my way back to the top, regaining
nearly 100% of the business we had lost. In 2007 I sold my
business to Midwest Homes for Pets, and realized my dream of
moving from Dallas, TX to Boulder, CO.
The lessons I learned throughout this miserable ordeal led me to
write my book Do As I Say, Not As I Did!: Gaining Wisdom in
Business Through the Mistakes of Highly Successful People. I
wanted people to know that successful entrepreneurs can make big
mistakes, learn valuable lessons, and come back to not only survive,
but to thrive.
From Robert Downey Jr. to Britney Spears, to Ford Motor
Company, it is entirely possible to be left for dead in the eyes of the
public, reinvent yourself, and come back stronger then ever. This
knowledge is comforting to any business owner who is going
through a tough time and doesn’t necessarily see the light at the end
of the tunnel. Just because you are struggling now, does not mean it
will always be that way. So if you have a solid product or service, a
strong business model, and the passion to navigate through the
potholes and pitfalls of hard times, you will come back out on top.
In the words of Winston Churchill “Never give in. Never give in.
Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or
petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good
sense.”
Carol Frank of Boulder, CO, is the founder of four companies in the pet industry. As a
Managing Director at SDR Ventures Investment Bank, Carol leads the team in
executing pet industry transactions including M&A, capital formation and strategic
advisory services. She is also the owner of BirdsEye Consulting, the consummate
source for pet sector consulting expertise.
She can be reached at carol@carolfrank.com