Jeff Burgess Motivational Business Manager
Author

From Broken Bones to Big Risks: Learning the Value of Jumping In…Or Flying

During my childhood, I spent a decent amount of time in the cast room of Evanston Hospital, what with four broken arms by the time I was twelve. Dr. Thomas Sweeney, who passed away a few years ago, was literally my orthopedic surgeon on call.

It’s not often that an eleven-year-old is on a first-name basis with a surgeon.

The first broken arm is also my first childhood memory. I was four years old and innocently riding my tricycle in front of our neighbor, Alica Barasa’s house. I must have leaned too hard and fallen over sideways, breaking my right arm on her front lawn. Yes, I fell on grass, not cement.

I had to have more than enough shares of bumps, scrapes, and bruises, so much so that my parents had me wearing a dog tag around my neck. It had my first and last name on the top line, followed by “if found hurt or unconscious” on the second line, then lines three and four with my address and phone number.

Back when I was in third grade, one of my favorite TV shows at the time, as a ten-year-old, was Man from U.N.C.L.E. Having blond hair, I, of course, related to Ilya Kuryakin, played by the late, great David McCallum. One Saturday, along with three friends, we were playing “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” with one of my friends on my side as Napoleon Solo. The other two friends were the “bad guys” from THRUSH.

We were playing a cops-and-robbers-type game while mimicking the TV show. Somehow, my friend and I managed to climb to the top of this stand-alone, ten-foot-high garage roof and started shooting at two other friends—the bad guys—standing in the soft asphalt alley below the roof.

We shot and shot, but neither of them would fall. Frustrated, my next move was an early contender into the “What Was He Thinking?” bucket. Hint: He wasn’t.

I did exactly what I saw Ilya Kuryakin do on a previous episode: leaping off the roof and attempting to land on the bad guy, who, again, was a childhood friend.

Glad my jumping aim resembled my shooting aim. I could have hurt him badly. Instead, it was only me.

From what I was told, a man knocked on the back door of my parents’ house and asked my mother, “Did you have a son named Jeff?”

As it turned out, she still did, although a son with two broken arms in elbow casts during a ninety-degree summer.

One would think that this would have opened my eyes to the concept of cause and effect. It didn’t. I likely did not learn that until my dad’s sermon just before I landed headfirst into the computer industry. Nothing like the third-grade roof incident, but certainly not considering potential consequences before taking action.

I sure wish I had trademarked Ready, Fire, Aim.

For the most part, Dad’s “get your shit together” sermon did more than motivate me; it also had me thinking things out, somewhat against the current of a 100mph brain.

However, understanding cause and effect should never deter your willingness to take a risk, and I was always a risk-taker.

Business Lessons from the Roof: Why Cause and Effect Shouldn’t Kill Your Courage

My original mentor in the computer industry, Jud Beamsley, certainly was a risk-taker. First, get the deal, then worry about it. This was a lesson I have not only carried with me for over forty-five years but also utilized a dozen times, with an 11-1 won/loss record. And the loss became a win after the fact, as it got me in with the customer later.

Cause and effect could also describe those early days of my company, BCD. I took risks, and at times, I didn’t consider the “what if.” It was always just go for it. It was having belief in yourself. No balls, no glory, and all that stuff.

Always best to play in the game, rather than watching from the sidelines.

As I did with Ron Pope in 2004. Yes, of course, I used Know Thy Competition. That was CDW, then a public company. At the time, public companies were required to book orders only after receiving a customer purchase order.

And in Know Thy Customer mode, I knew Ron could not wait for his POs to come over from India, as he was already six months behind on orders.

Therefore, to help Ron (and me, of course), I offered to ship his orders all week long with purchase orders sent every following Monday to reconcile those orders on our books.

He and I both immediately had something in common – we were both each other’s heroes. Before being introduced to Ron, I had the bank all over me after a challenging year. Ron was up to his armpits in “Where is my order?” messages.

The only risk was cash flow. These would turn out to be millions of dollars of orders—$14M in the last six months of 2004 alone. Granted, I had strong HP relationships, but none with their Accounts Payable team. If I were buying the necessary hardware through the Ingram/Tech Data distribution centers at Net 30, and HP was to pay in ninety days, I would be fucked, if only because of the volume.

We also had to bring the goods into our lab and reconfigure them to meet the order’s specifications. Add another four days in and out. That’s another way to realize you may be fucked, when you start counting in the number of days in and out as it relates to the account payable.

The only risk was that I had no history with HP as my customer, only as our vendor. It was not a question of them paying me, it was when. The larger the Fortune 500 company, the greater the likelihood of slow payment. It’s not their intent; it’s their processes. Nimble is not in their vocabulary.

The only thing to do was to call in the cavalry. Another one of my “Jeffisms,” fess up before you mess up. Better they hear it from you rather than finding out the hard way.

I was honest and transparent with Ron. It wasn’t that we didn’t have large credit lines; we did. The concern was that Ron alone was likely to chew all that up. My calling Ron was a sign of strength, not weakness. It showed that I was unwilling to wing it, and instead, we jointly set a foundation to make it work.

He arranged for Carly’s pre-approval on everything ordered to be rubber-stamped, ensuring payment within forty-five days. I appreciated that, as forty-five days is doable for large, bulky companies. Even if it had been on Net 30, we would have been paid forty-five anyway; they just cannot move any faster.

Leaps of Faith and Fortune: Flying Lessons 

This time, although I was not wearing a dog tag, I jumped off a different roof and instead landed on my feet. In hindsight, there is never really a risk if you can get in front of a customer.

The only risk is to yourself having the courage to take the flying leap. LOL, flying leaps were what I was all about!

Ron’s $14 million in spend during those six months electrified my company and got the bank off our back for good; we never looked back. Computer Reseller News (CRN) named BCD among the fastest-growing computer reseller companies in 2004.

I sent the plaque to Ron. He earned it more than we did.

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To learn about this entire journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today!

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