I Met a CEO in Business Class and Asked Him About Success
One of the most inspiring encounters of my life
Around 2 months ago, I had to fly overseas and decided to treat myself to business class for the first time in my life. It had been a goal of mine for a long time, it was a long flight, and I could finally afford it. I strongly believe in spending hard-earned money on experiences rather than things, because they create memories for a lifetime, while things only provide temporary satisfaction.
I was curious not only about the experience but also about the people I was going to see there. Would they look like everyday folks or multi-millionaires? I got a first glimpse of them in the business lounge, which you get access to when you buy this kind of plane ticket. Most of them seemed like regular folks, although there was a slightly higher-than-average ratio of people in suits.
I boarded the plane, found my seat, and immediately noticed that the guy sitting right across from me seemed very friendly. A jovial, loud-but-not-obnoxious, nice-to-the-stewardess kinda guy, who when he realized he had forgotten his Bluetooth headphones and the crew only offered him wired earbuds as a replacement, laughed out: “Haha that’s okay, I love a little old school vibe! Reminds me of my teenage years!”
Business class seats are designed to isolate you from the people around you, so they’re built far apart from each other. It’s nice when you want to sleep or watch a movie, but when you would like to chat and nobody is around, it’s a bit frustrating. I wanted to know what the friendly guy next to me was doing here, what his story was.
I happened to have my own noise-canceling headphones with me, and I figured I could offer them to him for the flight. I had another set of earbuds with me as a replacement, and this would be a great way to start a conversation. After an hour of flight and on my way to the bathroom, I approached him and offered him my headphones. This sparked one of the most inspiring and instructive 2-hour conversations I’ve ever had.
The man happened to be the CEO of a relatively unknown but very successful Saas company around employee management and HR. He had started his company from scratch almost 15 years ago and had grown it to tens of millions of dollars in annual recurring revenue, with a simple subscription model. Although I’m not especially interested in building a Saas company, I’m an entrepreneur at heart. I run my own business around content creation, and so I had a ton of questions for him about building a successful business/company.
In this article, I want to share the most valuable insights I got from this conversation, and I hope they can help you on your entrepreneurial path as well.
Steady wins the race
“If I could tell only one thing to the younger generation, it’s definitely “steady wins the race”. Kids these days, they pick up something to try and drop it the week after. A lot of them don’t try anything consistently anymore. When I started out I told myself “I’ll make at least 3 calls today to drive my business forward, and do that for 2 years”. Whether it’d be to sell, promote, call the accountant, or just to keep in touch with a prospect… I’ve done that every single day since I started, and it has grown the company slowly but surely.”
I could 100% relate to what Rick (that’s his name) was saying here. When I started writing content online, I told myself I would publish at least 3 articles a week, and write every single morning at 6:30 am. I did this for nearly a year and it helped grow my following, my brand, and my business overall. Since then I’ve switched to a more relaxed average of 1 article per week, but consistency has remained key. There’s barely any day in my life when I don’t write anymore.
I also started a Youtube channel almost 6 months ago, and I’m committed to posting at least one video a week for the first year, without fail. I have all my scripts ready and I sometimes shoot 3 videos in one day to make sure I always have something to edit and publish on time.
Consistency is paramount when building a business, especially online. The algorithms that run the internet like consistency, and the more you post content related to what your target audience loves, the more you’ll maximize your chances of showing up on as many screens as possible.
It can be pretty discouraging to always create more with sometimes very low results, but the key is to think very long term. 1, 2, 5 years down the line, the effort you put in now will be worth a lot more because there’s no way you’ll get nowhere by doing something every day. If anything, you’ll learn a ton. Rick gave himself 2 years. I gave myself 1 year for writing (I’ve now been doing it for almost 3 years), and I’m giving myself 1 year of experimenting on Youtube.
Don’t pay yourself until your company has $1M in the bank
“I remember when I first signed a customer for a $250,000 2-year contract, 1 year after we started. I looked at our company bank account and thought: “Holy cow, I could pay myself $80,000 right now and be done for the year.” At this point we had $600,000 in the account, and this was more money than I had ever seen in my life. But I committed to not paying myself a dime until we hit our first million, just as a mental thing. 5 months later we hit 1 million, and I put myself on the payroll for the first time. My salary was the same as my average employee.”
I’ve had my business for almost 2 years now and have never paid myself a dime. I use the company account for business expenses, but I’ve never actually paid myself cash as the owner of my business. I also work for a startup my CEO sold for $30 million 2 years ago, and he didn’t pay himself for a long time before the company started being profitable.
Of course, Rick’s company was experiencing a healthy rate of growth (from $0 to $600K within a year, and then from $600K to $1M within 5 months) so he deserved to get paid. But his company hadn’t even been on the market for 2 years, and it’s always better to mitigate risk by saving money for a rainy day. At the scale of a business, $1,000,000 is not that much money, especially because costs rise as the company grows.
Not paying yourself during your first years in business is a rule followed by many entrepreneurs, including myself. It doesn’t mean you have to follow it, but more often than not, you’ll find it’s safer than adding a salary to the payroll. And once you start paying yourself, make sure to not let greed get the best of you, give yourself a normal salary.
Nothing sells itself
“Something that struck me early on with your product was that it was much better than any of the competition out there, but nobody knew about it. Everything about it was better: the technology, ease of use, data protection… Everyone who was trying our product loved it. But for the first 6 months we barely made any sale. We thought we just had to create a great website, have a clear offering, a great product.
This was 15 years ago and the internet was a lot less crowded place, but even then nobody could find us with just that. We were not putting our message out there enough. Then we started running ads, making phone calls, giving away a free trial membership, and it grew from there. You can have the best product in the world, if you don’t put it out there you won’t make a dime. All your competitors have the best product in the world too.”
When Rick told me this, I happened to have just finished reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s memoir, in which he explains the exact same concept: you can make the best movie in the world, if you don’t promote it people won’t go see it. Back in the 80s, American studios didn’t invest as much money into European promo tours, because they felt it was too risky of a market. But Schwarzenegger was from Europe, and he knew the untapped market was huge, so he pushed the studios to send him there to promote his movies. All of his success is based on selling stuff to people, be it a new bodybuilding competition, a movie, or food supplements for fitness junkies.
Everyone’s product is the best, the greatest, and better than the next option. Of course it is, because otherwise why would you buy it? The thing is, it’s not about brainwashing people with mindless marketing. It’s not about making them buy your product by renting out the most billboards in town, or getting the most ads online. It’s about getting your message across to the right people, and being passionate about what you do so that you know all the ins and outs of your market, all the problems your customers face, and all the solutions you can offer them.
Lease, rent, borrow, don’t own
“For the past 5 years with the business now, I’ve personally made a ton of money, I’m set for life, and I can buy pretty much anything I want. But for the first 10 years, it wasn’t like that. I would only use rental cars, stay in rented places, and all the cash I had was either from my $80,000 salary or from loans against my equity in the business. Another piece of advice to the young generation is don’t buy sh*t. It weighs you down, slows you down, it makes you financially vulnerable, and you don’t need much when you’re young anyway. They say real estate is great to invest but then look at 2008. I say wait until you’re very wealthy to actually own stuff, anything can happen before that.”
This is such valuable advice, and it is based on the key distinction between being rich and being wealthy.
Rich people make good money and see it as a way to buy more stuff.
Things, status, maintaining a certain lifestyle… For many rich people, a big percentage of their “wealth” is tied to their income, and if they were to lose their job or their cash flow tomorrow, they would immediately start bleeding money, unable to buy more things and/or pay bills.
Wealthy people put their money to work before thinking about what they could spend it on.
They may not have a salary, but they have multiple cash flows, a high net worth, and a financial situation that can weather the highs and lows of our modern economy. They don’t focus on owning, buying, or spending, they prefer investing, compounding, and growing.
Luxury brands, fancy cars, and big houses scream status and the good life, that’s why people seek to look rich. But being rich is not about spending, living fast, and burning through money. It’s about building financial robustness, thinking long-term, and investing in your future.
It was a 10-hour flight, with a lot of sleeping, reading, and eating delicious food. 2 of those hours were spent talking to Rick about his success, and that was one of the most inspiring conversations I ever had on what it takes to be successful.
Starting a company 15 years ago probably doesn’t have a lot to do with starting a Saas startup now. Servers space costs nothing, creating a website has never been easier, and online advertising enables you to reach millions of people who have a direct interest in what you have to offer. The world was a different place then, but some of the core principles of entrepreneurship haven’t changed:
- Steady wins the race. Commit to something for at least 6 months before saying it doesn’t work, ideally 1 year.
- Don’t pay yourself at first. It helps the company financially, and if you have investors it shows them you’re committed to growing the business.
- Nothing sells itself. You can have the best product in the world, if you don’t tell people about it nobody will buy it.
- Lease, rent, borrow, don’t own. Owning things slows you down and makes you more vulnerable financially.
After we landed, I bumped into Rick again in the baggage hall, waiting for my suitcase. His bags came before me. One was a regular Samsonite suitcase, but the other one was a full backpack that looked like it was made for hiking. “Ah, that’s my son’s stuff, don’t ask me how I ended up having to check it in!” he said. “Oh, nice, your kids travel much?” I asked. “Well, my son just sold his website for $500,000 and decided to take a sabbatical, hiking around, to celebrate. I think it’s great for him but I told him a hundred times he shouldn’t sell, he should grow the business more. He didn’t listen to me, I’m telling you, kids these days they don’t commit!”
I thought it was amazing this guy’s son already sold a small business. I wanted to ask him how old his son was, what the website was about, how long it took him to get there… But before I could say anything, he grabbed his bags, started walking towards the taxi lane, and said to me:
“Anyways, it was nice meeting you, good luck with your business, and remember: steady wins the race!”
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