Chapter 1.  Passion

An entrepreneur must have a burning desire to start a company.  I call it Passion.

And here’s the best thing you need to know about Passion:

Success is 90% Passion and 10% talent, and I am living proof of that!

I remember reading a business article that said in order to be successful you had to be able to see yourself in that place.  If you want to be a performing success, you must see yourself on the stage or screen.  You must see yourself playing the guitar or other instrument.  You must see the audience going crazy for you. 

If want to be a manager or supervisor, you must see yourself leading a sales meeting, see yourself giving a speech or see yourself doing such a terrific job that your company promotes you on to bigger and better things.

For me, I could see myself starting and running a company.  I had the unique opportunity to work for Motorola for a little over 10 years and while I was a very successful salesman, I was a horrific failure as a manager.  I was demoted three times from management positions and each time during the “demotion” review it was noted that my interpersonal skills were horrible.

Now I always thought that my managers were the problem, not me.  I wanted to run things the way I wanted, and my managers would not allow me to do things my way.  I often expressed that my managers were idiots but once I started Houston 2-Way Radio in February 1990 I quickly realized that I was the idiot and if I did not embrace and utilize the management skills that Motorola was trying so hard to make me understand then I would fail.