Sometimes Success is Harder Than Failure

 Imagine how it must have felt growing up as a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger?

Back in 1993, the Power Rangers were at the top of the charts, everyone knew who they were and the child actors who played them were pop icons. They made more money as teenagers than their adult parents in most cases. 

Austin St. John, (Red Ranger) maybe one of the most popular of the crew, was at the top of his game, maybe the most highly paid of them all, but no more. St. John is a paramedic in Washington DC after several unsuccessful attempts at restarting his show business career.

St. John is not alone; many childhood actors are now in mediocre positions, leading average lives, always relishing those few moments of fame, money and success.

Imagine if That Were You!

How would it feel having been at the very top of your game early in life only to experience drifting and dissatisfaction with your own life afterward?

Back in 1984, PCs were starting to emerge as a true business tool, not just a toy for techies. People like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs saw the potential and jumped in big.

I saw it too. I was a salesman for a semiconductor company’s rep firm. I left a mid-level job as an applications engineer for Mostek (now defunct) and joined Nova Sales with a promise of a big territory and loads of commission dollars.

I took a 50% pay cut to join Nova Sales and I worked my butt off. I drove 175 miles a day between accounts. I met with clients at all times of day and night, and after 14 months, it was working. I was making $34,000 a month in commissions, back in 1984.

Then The Change Came.

 Two forces were at work during those years; the PC was beginning to emerge and the semiconductor market would turn down in the cyclical way it always does. 

I had a choice to make; stay with it and live through the boom-bust cycle or move to something new. I realized I had to go and fulfill my dream of building my own company, only I didn’t know what that would be or how to do it. I started anyway. 

I Decided to Build Timeslips Corp.

 We were off to a rocky start; our original idea would not work in the marketplace, we pivoted to time and billing software for lawyers.

That change to our business model landed us directly in the middle of the hottest software market to evolve over the following years; PC accounting software for service professionals.

We were at a precarious moment in our trajectory, we had sold several hundred copies and people liked our product. Yet, we couldn’t get any retailers to carry our product. We had tried and failed to get into Egghead Discount Software; a chain of over 100 stores.

 When the October 1987 edition of InfoWorld hit the presses, it had our review prominently displayed as one of the featured stories. To our shock, amazement, and delight, we were awarded a 9.3 out of 10; the highest score ever awarded a software product and tied with WordPerfect. Our phones rang off the hook, literally. Within weeks we had offers from all the distributors and both Egghead and Staples came to us! 

We built an industry-first Certified Consultant Program and that cemented our lead and generated another 7 figures in year two of the program. After 6 years in business with about 100 employees and 350 Certified Consultants.

I had created a startup and grew it profitably without an investor to over 100 people. I had invented a new sales channel (the Certified Consultants Program,) created a new paradigm for how a software company could vertically integrate and build a business with hundreds of partnerships using other software companies’ resources. I was speaking from stage 40 times a year and nominated as Inc Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the year, two years in a row.

I Was At The Top Of My Game!

We sold the company to Sage, Plc in 1994 and I stayed on as COO of the US Division until 1998 when I moved back to Massachusetts with my wife and 4-year-old daughter. 

It had happened. The American Dream. We sold the company we built in our garage and it sold for enough money back then to supposedly set us up for life. Now a days, our sale price looks like a pittance compared to the dot-coms that sold after our little company did.

Now, I was that childhood TV star, only I didn’t know it yet.

I came home to MA like a conquering hero, or so I thought. As I started circulating my resume to venture capital firms, looking for a CEO role, I experienced something I hadn’t expected to feel ever again.

 REJECTION.

I couldn’t get a job and at 44, I was considered too old. VC firms were looking for CEOs in their late 20’s to take out some of their newly hatched ventures.

I didn’t know what to do with myself, I was lost, I had nothing to do. I considered starting another company but I didn’t have that big idea I had when I started Timeslips. I started attending angel investing group meetings, which exposed me to young entrepreneurs with fledgling businesses, I was asked by many for help, which I gladly did.

 It made me feel valuable again, helping these young businesses and it was that same need to feel valued that led me to make investments in what I thought would be the stars of tomorrow, but 4 years later, most of my investments were worthless.

I had become well known as someone who could figure out business models and was starting the get the attention of those same VC firms who rejected me several years earlier. I accepted a consulting assignment to fix a new startup. My new idea led me to accept the position as the CEO of that startup in the furniture space, backed with a $2.5M investment, so we furiously built a furniture marketing company on the web.

We hit a huge roadblock several months later when the once high-flying furniture.com was exposed as a sham, which cast us in the shadows of that giant. Then the dot-com bust arrived and the economy turned down hard. After the dust settled, 30% of the furniture industry was decimated. Just 3 years later, the Small Business Association (SBA) accused our venture firm of falsifying documents and shut them down.

We were out of money and with no resources. It would be impossible to survive. I fired myself along with all the senior management and searched for a buyer of the remnants.

I Was Drifting Again.

No direction, no passion, nothing to drive me. I love helping others; it made me feel like I had something of value to someone. It fed my need to feel successful in a small but important way. I struggled with several business ideas and startups until I decided to flip real estate.

 Then, The Phone Call.

 Back when I built Timeslips Corp, a pushy salesman named Chet Holmes decided my company was his target for being a client. Chet was relentless; he never gave up pursuing me, until finally, on my own terms, I relented and advertised in his magazine; California Lawyer.

It was one of those moments in time when you ask yourself “Why didn’t I do this a year ago?” Sales went through the roof, and Chet Holmes and I became fast friends. That friendship which started somewhere around 1988 grew strong over the years. 

After I sold the company, Chet and I remained closer than ever enjoying a deep, rich friendship. Chet and I spoke weekly most of the time, sharing our vision, hopes, and dreams. One of our hopes was that one-day we would work together. 

That day was about to materialize when Chet called me with a problem. He was having a difficult time with a staff member and wanted to blow off some steam. After listening, I offered to call the source of Chet’s angst and see if I could shed some light on the situation. 

“If you could take one big thing off your plate, what would that be?” - I said to the top sales guy in the company. He promptly said that recruiting was his biggest problem.

I did something unexpected that Friday morning, I retorted with “Let me do it” even though I didn’t know how. So Chet sent me a DVD from his business mastery program; How to Recruit Sales Superstars.

 I quickly realized that with my software and systems background, I could easily automate and create procedures to quadruple my results. Six short weeks later, I had tripled his sales force, set up an automated system and build a flow chart for all the critical paths related to the way we recruited sales people.

I had helped my friend Chet and I was done, or so I thought. Chet tempted me to stay on and build a recruiting division, which I did. Soon thereafter, I was asked to be President and immediately we began negotiating with Tony Robbins.

We wanted Tony to market our powerful business-building tools and training products. Tony loved the intellectual capital we brought to the table and we cut a deal to actually start a whole new joint venture called Business Breakthroughs, Int’l which would include Tony Robbins in a big way. 

Tony and Chet asked me to be CEO and President.

I was thrilled, I was back! It was 2008, I had something to build again. We went on to double sales, then double it again, generating over $25M a year. Tony, Chet and I were thrilled with what was happening, we made big plans together in our 2010 Business Mastery meeting.

Shortly thereafter, Chet fell ill while on vacation in Mexico, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Leukemia and rushed back to Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Sixteen months later, Chet had died, and most of the staff was grief stricken as expected. I came up with a “master plan” to jump-start the company and emerge from the cloud that had overcome us. 

I flew to San Francisco and presented my plan to Tony, he loved it. We made a video together; Tony expressed his confidence in our new plan and me. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be as the family had other plans.

I Resigned. I Had No List, No Products, No Platform.

I started my networking activity at a frenzied pace, contacting everyone I knew who had the potential to offer some guidance. I spoke with my old friend Jay Abraham who said to me “You can’t let what you know go to waste, you have to find a way to share it with the world.” All that is wonderful but what was I going to do? 

At 57 years old, I was out looking for something new again. Would I truly ever find my lifetime mission? Why wasn’t I content with what I had already accomplished? 

To the outside world, I was “successful” in most every respect but inside all I felt was the empty pit of not being good enough… again, and having to start over, again.  

Using Jay’s words as inspiration, I started to write. I wanted to document everything I did over the last decade to create and build thriving virtual companies. That resulted in a new book called The Invisible Organization. It was published and hit #1 on Amazon in 5 categories, the reviews were universally excellent. But nothing really happened as a result.

Looking back, I had no back-end for the book; no course or upsell, just a book. That was a mistake. I thought the book would have generated consulting work or other opportunities, but it really didn’t. I was back at square one.

How can I get my mojo back and maybe even be energized again, but I didn’t know how.

I picked up consulting assignments along the way, I built a coaching program for clients, I started a division for another company, none of which turned into a lasting path to a fulfilling future. Sure, I had some private coaching clients but that was not the long-term path I wanted. 

Then I Realized I Was Not Alone. 

There were others like me, people who had accomplished something big once before, but couldn’t talk about their feelings of failure with most of the people in their lives. We are told we are role models, titans of success. Yet, inside it still feels like a failure. 

If you have read this far, you might be thinking “poor Mitch, a millionaire without a mission” and you would be right. I don’t deserve or want your sympathy; I want to be with others who have had a similar experience so we can work it out together in a safe environment. 

I want to help others who need to discover who they are AFTER the struggle is done and who want to create meaning once again in their lives. 

That’s Why I Created Mission: Next. 

In the next 30 days, I am hosting an event in Boston for people like us. 

If you resonate with having had success in your life and then drifting, wanting the NEXT big thing, let’s talk. I have a home for you, and you are going to love it. 

I Built This for All of Us!

If You Want To See What I Am Doing Now, Click Here