Just Get Started
I recently read a piece on an incredible entrepreneur, Stewart Resnick, who happens to be the biggest farmer in the United States. He just has a knack for seeing holes and filling them with smart businesses. He married a woman who happened to have an incredible understanding of marketing. What they have built together is huge and for any entrepreneur, a truly worthwhile read whether you care about farming or not, it is about their journey.
One of the things that Resnick points to his success is in his first job at 13. He went to work for the local Pharmacist and his job was to bring over to the mess in the storage closet. He stood there and was almost paralyzed at the mess he saw and the boss came in and said to him “just get started”.
That has been ringing in my head since I read those words. These days I have been reflecting on how I got to where I am. There are many factors but those words brought out something to the foreground in my early working years. It is one of the reasons I am a big fan of having as many jobs and experiences before you turn 30.
I had a job in high school and another one in college where the place was completely unorganized, and I just talked in and just got started. I figured it out. How to organize the mess. When I ended up managing the Kings Plaza Cosmetic Department at Macy’s at 22 years old, nobody really gave me any direction. I just started organizing and by doing that I figured out how to run a more efficient business. I got zero direction as nobody really understood the cosmetic business but most of the higher-ups in the store who I reported to understood soft and hard goods which each have their own set of business nuances.
The best entrepreneurs I have ever met seem to just get started. They see a void in the market, an opportunity, something that needs to be fixed, an evolution of a vertical that nobody else sees and they just get started. Sure there is some thought but the reality is they just wake up one morning and start down a path until they figure it out. I always wonder what it is I see in certain founders that I have backed from some an early stage and perhaps it is just that just get started attitude that I am drawn to.
Comments (Archived):
Moving is Living.
I get the real point of what you are saying here and I agree with your overall sentiment but as far as Resnick and this story is concerned – it’s disturbing. Its troublesome on so many levels – not the least of it is that he is now controlling PUBLIC water and public land and water rights which should be for ALL people not private industry where in the case of his almond crop – he’s bringing in over $ 375MM and paying $ 11/hr to the labor. This is some real robber baron shit. I find so much of the journalists findings DEEPLY troubling.
agree on all of this. i am focusing on the entrepreneurial aspect.
in fact the more I read – its a LONG article – the more disturbed I am! The way the Resnicks live (like Marie Antoinette) while then treating their workers like children (deciding how they should eat,and that they know better etc) – but then not even providing clean drinking water! And the back room deals to gain more control of water and natural resources in the valley. This is a DARK story and one I am afraid is becoming more common with the consolidation of wealth.