A high percentage of businesses fail because of product, market placement, its leaders or the relativity of their business. Many businesses start and do well for several years and then lose their edge because they are no longer relevant. This last point is the one I would like to speak to.

If you have ever eaten at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, you will see corporate advertising signs all over the walls of companies and products that once existed. I would guess that 90 percent of those companies no longer in business. When I see the old corporate advertisements, I always ask myself, how did that company lose its way?

There’s not a better example of what I am talking about than the automobile industry.   In the early 1900s, it was so captivating that in 1915 in the US alone, there were 632 automobile companies that tried to build and sell cars. Many only lasted a few years before they went bankrupt and went out of business. Some car companies, like Studebaker, Packard and Hudson made cars for many years and still went belly up. Many people believe that Henry Ford invented the automobile but in 1903 when Ford Motor Company was launched, there were already 68 car companies. Only two of those original car companies still exist today.

Creating a business is one thing, but keeping a business relevant to the consumer is quite another. Staying with the car company theme, Alan Mulally retired a few years ago from Ford Motor Company and was probably the best CEO that Ford ever had, including people with the last name of “Ford.” Alan was an outsider to the Ford family, but stepped in and saved the car company. See, with Ford it wasn’t enough just to have the last name Ford, they needed a person that could almost reinvent Ford Motor Company and reach the consumer in a new, relevant way. That is exactly what Alan did.

So, you may ask how can a company remain relevant and remain vibrant through the test of time. Well, I think Ford may offer the best answer to that. Bill Ford, who was Henry Ford’s great grandson, was the CEO of Ford until 2006. Ford Motor Company suffered under Bill Ford’s leadership for several years and had experienced staggering losses. To Bill Ford’s credit, he understood that he lacked the ability to turn the company around and went looking for the person to take his place and found Alan Mulally.

Think about that for a minute. Here your last name is Ford and your great grandfather founded the company, but you accepted that you were not the right leader to run the company. I have a very high regard for Bill Ford for recognizing where he was good, where he was not, and the fortitude to make that decision.

Side note here: no one is good at everything, but smart people will surround themselves with other people that are good in the areas in which they are weak.

So again, you may ask how a company can remain relevant. I believe it starts with leaving ego and arrogance at the door. No one is good enough or smart enough to act that way. I believe the second thing is to realize when your time has passed and have the foresight to replace yourself. Lastly, the first thing Alan Mulally did after becoming the CEO was call every department head into one room and without any fear of job loss, he asked every department head where Ford was failing and how did that department head think it could be fixed. After hearing that there was no wrong answer and no risk of losing their jobs, they began to tell Alan and the rest of the department heads where they were weak and where they were strong. Alan began that day to build his team and recreate Ford Motor Company into what we know today. Today, Ford is still relevant to its customers.

Whatever your business is or whatever your job is you should ask yourself, are you current and relevant to the times and are you moving toward being better at what you do. The next time your boss talks to you, tell him your ideas on how to improve the company or the work you do. Most people only talk about what is wrong. If you talk about what is right and how to improve it, trust me, he/she will look at you differently and will have a new respect for you. It is my guess that when most layoffs happen, they don’t lay off the ones who try to improve the company and have the right attitude.

There is not a set age where you are no longer relevant. It is an attitude, humility, and sense of being that defines this. In the hotel business, look at Bill Marriott; he is 86 years old and will still stop the conversation in an entire room when he walks in. So, just because you are 50, 60, 70, or 80, don’t think you are no longer relevant just because of your age. That said, know what you are good at and be honest with yourself on what you are not good at.

Be smart, be active, read, exercise and improve who you are and always have something in life you want to strive toward. KT

It is believed that throughout an adult’s life that are very few times when the right opportunity presents itself at the same time you have the right ability. Some believe it may happen less than five times in an adult’s lifetime. Obviously, many people miss these forks in life’s road due to the fear of failure. Fear can mask itself in anxiety, self-esteem, complacency, apathy and other self-imposed emotions that hold us back and stall our efforts for a better life.

I have often used a term called “flipping the switch,” to explain when a person sees the opportunity and believes in themselves that they have the ability and then steps forward and becomes that person. One of the greatest examples of this is Billy Graham who passed away three weeks ago. He was 27 years old when he did his first crusade and realized that ability and opportunity had intersected with God’s calling. He stepped forward at 27 years old and started a life that impacted millions of people.

Colonel Sanders (KFC) was 62 when he began selling his receipt for fried chicken to restaurants out of the trunk of his car. Truett Cathy (Chick-fil-A) was 48 years old when he ventured out and opened his first restaurant in a shopping mall. This list could go on for pages, but you get the idea.

In each example above the person realized that their ability had intersected with opportunity and in each example, they stepped forward and flipped the switch in their life. I dare say not one person has ever recognized opportunity every time it knocks at the door. In my humble opinion, all we need is one time to change our life and the lives of those around us. One time to answer the door and step into the place God is showing you. KT

There was movie that came out in 2006 called Facing the Giants. It was a faith based movie about a high school football coach trying to find the way to get his team winning. It is not a pure sports movie like “Rudy,” or “Invincible” etc. but there is a real message to this movie. The message is to find the “why” in what we do. Not just focus on the who, what and when. Everyone reading this blog should find the “why” in relationship to our work, family, career and hobbies. In short, if the “why” is powerful enough, the “how” becomes clearer. If it just to make money any buy more things, good luck with that.

My eyes watered a little bit last night watching that movie because in 2006 when the movie came out, I drove up near the college one of my daughters was attending to watch the movie with her. I thought the movie was helpful to me and maybe would be to her also. So, last night as I am watching, I remembered 12 years ago setting beside my daughter, searching for the why in my personal career and spending a special moment with her.

If you can find the “why,” the how, what and when becomes much more clear. KT

Sometimes in life, a failure can be the catalyst that puts you where God wants you to be. In my personal life that is exactly what happened when I failed miserably with the restaurants back in late 80’s. It was because of that failure that opened the door to hotel brokerage. The guy I bought the restaurants from also sold hotels and he felt so bad for me over the restaurants, he showed me how to sell hotels. That was the thing that kept me and my family from bankruptcy and losing everything we had.

Many people view a failure as the reason to not try anymore and a small percentage of people view failure as the perspective needed to get where they are supposed to be.

One of the most interesting corporate stories of failure is Ford Motor Company’s launch of the Edsel automobile brand in 1958. The actual story is long but I will try and keep it brief.

In the early 50’s the board of directors at Ford wanted to create a new automobile brand that was separate from Lincoln and Mercury.  Not just a Ford nameplate, but a whole new brand like Buick or Chrysler. They leveraged the entire future of Ford Motor Company.  Ford ordered massive market studies and consumer interviews to determine the look, function, feel and name of a new automobile brand that would resonate with the public. By 1955 the board voted to name the new automobile brand after Henry Ford’s son’s name, Edsel who was the president of Ford from 1919 till his death in 1943. They began to build the assemble plants and develop dealers to sell the Edsel and the first cars were finally brought to market for 1958 the year. This launch was reported to be the most expensive automobile launch in automotive history. They spend 350 million on launching the Edsel brand and in today’s dollars that would be 2.9 billion. Ford brought on 1200 new Edsel dealers across the country that built new showrooms and sales facilities and Ford was finally ready to unveil the new car to the public. It was an extravaganza like never seen before in the automotive industry.

They launched the car for the 1958 year and shut down production in 1960. Three years! As it turned out, they brought a car to market that was what the public said they wanted in 1955, not 1958. It turned out to be the ugliest car on the road and the front grill looked like a horse collar. Buyers would walk in the showroom and take one look at the Edsel and go across the street and order a new Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile or Ford. It was a disaster. The car was longer and wider than most every other car on the road and sales were just a fraction of Ford’s expectations. The cars leaked, sputtered, rattled, broke down and felt like you were driving a boat.

It was the worst financial failure of Ford Motor Company’s history to this day. Shareholders, competitors and many economists thought that Ford had failed so badly that they may go out of business.

Well, Ford licked their wounds and came out with the Ford Falcon in 1960, Galaxie Victoria in 1961, the restyled Thunderbird in 1961 and of course the Mustang in 1964 that forever changed the automotive world.

So, what is the main point? This is it.  Sometimes, failure is just failure. Other times failure is the key to you finding what you should really be doing. KT