I was
in Las Vegas for a conference, taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel.
I asked the driver, “How long have you lived here?”
He said, “Twenty-seven years.”
“Wow! A lot has changed since then, huh?”
“Yeah. I miss the mob.”
“Huh? Real y? What do you mean?”
“When the mafia ran this town, it was fun. There were only two numbers that
mattered: how much was coming in, and how much was going out. As long as
there was more in than out, everyone was happy. But then the whole town was
bought up by these damn corporations ful of MBA weasels micro-managing,
trying to maximize the profit from every square foot of floor space. Now the
place that used to put ketchup on my hotdog tel s me it'l be an extra twenty-five
cents for ketchup! It sucked al the fun out of this town! Yeah... I miss the mob.”
(Sure, we could bring up other issues with the mob, but let's just leave it as a
metaphor and a lesson.) I told this story a lot at CD Baby.
Sometimes MBA types would ask me, “What's your growth rate? What's your
retained earnings rate as a percentage of gross? What are your projections?”
I'd just say, “I have no idea. I don't even know what some of that means. I started
this as a hobby to help my friends, and that's the only reason it exists. There's
money in the bank and I'm doing fine, so no worries.”
They'd tel me that if I analyzed the business better, I could maximize
profitability.
Then I'd tel them about the taxi driver in Vegas.
Never forget why you're real y doing what you're doing.
Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable?
Isn't that enough?
