The terrorist attack on September 11th couldn’t have come at a worse time for my software company. I’d made the decision months beforehand to completely rewrite our company’s software code using the best and most up to date technology of the day. It was an expensive and gutsy call, but I felt it would provide us with the best software system of its kind in the world and we could trample our competitors when finished.
It was however no small undertaking and it was not without huge risk. It was also very expensive! We were in fact burning through a million dollars a month in salaries alone as we raced towards completing this project (and in the meantime bearing the cost of simultaneously maintaining our aging software system). Our sales revenue was keeping pace, but just barely.
That all changed when those planes crashed into the twin towers. All business in this country just seemed to stop and no one was buying anything while we mourned the attack on our country. Our company went three months without selling anything; but our overhead continued to run virtually unabated and was rapidly eliminating our meager cash reserves. We spent nearly four million dollars with virtually no income to replace it.
Gulp….
So what to do? We decided to reduce our workforce and for the first time in the history of the company we had a layoff. Even with the severe cuts I realized it wasn’t going to be enough. I couldn’t further reduce our workforce without making cuts so deep that we would conceivably be unable to function. We needed additional working capital and we needed it fast!
My experience with banks in these situations is that they are useless; they only lend money when a company can amply demonstrate that they don’t need any. If any risk is involved they will turn you away so fast your head will be spinning. Our only option was to seek a venture capitalist and private equity fund money. These guys are willing to take big risks, but they want a big return. I disliked having to meet their terms, (but had to admit that it was only fair), and I brought one into our company as a partner. Their investment was just what the doctor ordered and their cash combined with our intense sales effort and austere management policies got us back on track.
After the crisis was over I ended up having to pay the venture capitalist firm a net-net $5 million dollars to buy them out of our company. While I regretted having to pay it, without their help our company would’ve had a serious mountain to climb and there are no guarantees that it could have even survived at all.
Instead of floundering we finished writing our new software system, got our sales going again, rehired those employees that we wanted back, and increased in size from 100 plus to nearly 200 employees. A few years later I sold that company for $75 million dollars with no debt.
So today I see all of the dirty politics about “vulture” capitalists aimed at Bain Capital and Mitt Romney and like any knowledgeable business person I know that it is just a bunch of political hacks engaging in outright fabrications, (lies), in the interest of getting elected.
Venture capitalists bet on companies that might be struggling and nine out of ten times they lose their bet (and their investment) because their turnaround effort is unsuccessful. Occasionally they hit a home run and make millions and that is why they take the risk. They serve a purpose in business and many millions of workers across the United States are gainfully employed today in this country because of them.
I’m not surprised that Obama and his liberal anti-business, class-warfare inclined Democratic cronies lie and distort the truth to further their socialist government agenda, but I tell you that it grieves me to no end to see Republican presidential candidates like Newt Gingrich, (whom I used to support), Governor Perry, and former Senator Santorum outright lying about Romney’s record on this subject.
The facts are that Bain Capital had an unbelievable success rate in turning around bad situations in companies and hundreds of thousands of people are gainfully employed because of what he did with that company.
Last week I had an opportunity to teach some inmates incarcerated in a prison near my home how to write a business plan. These prisoners hope to open their own businesses when they get released from prison and it just might be their only opportunity to become employed. The lady who heads this program up told me that I’d better hurry and finish teaching my classes, because they were in the process of closing down the prison in an effort to save money.
Indeed 1700 people who work there and live in the county adjacent to me will soon lose their jobs. I was thinking about these unfortunate employees and wondering what they might do. There are no factories or jobs available for 1700 people in our little community. It’s a scary, disturbing thought. I see unemployment lines getting longer, food stamps, and foreclosures looming ahead, and my heart is heavy for them.
It is said that Mitt Romney created over 100,000 more jobs than were lost during the time he served with Bain. Think about all of those families gainfully employed, paying bills, putting food on the table, sending kids to college and buying homes. We currently employ about twenty employees at Honey Lake Plantation Resort and Spa and I know what it means to them to have a job; I can only imagine what it must be like to create 100,000 for families just like them. I congratulate Mitt Romney and those like him. I don’t begrudge them making money in the process; otherwise why would they bother.
Last night I attended a party after the GA/FL retriever field trial competition. One lady asked me who I was going to vote for in the presidential election. I told her I was voting for Mitt Romney. I think he is the only candidate who is qualified to turn our economy around. I also believe he is the only one who can beat Obama whom I’m fervently praying gets defeated.
Is Romney perfect?
Absolutely not! But then again neither am I or anyone else.
Has he ever made mistakes?
Of course! But not nearly as many as I’ve made.
In fact the perfect candidate or voter does not exist; only Jesus Christ is perfect.
Most campaigns lie about their own record while digging up whatever garbage they can about their opponent’s records, (and if they cannot find enough they just fabricate something).
Don’t believe the lies and distortions of politicians desperate to get elected at any cost; they lack any semblance of truth and integrity. Urge the candidates that you like to run an honest campaign, based on fact and not fiction. And when you vote, consider that if a candidate will run for office using an outright lie as their campaign platform just imagine what they will do when they get in office.
While serving as our President, (the highest office in the land), Bill Clinton outright lied to a jury and not only survived, but is to this day revered by the masses.
And we wonder why our country is in the mess that it’s in???
Where are our moral values?
There is no such thing as a “little white lie” or a lie told with a “wink and a nod”, or merely “spin” that everyone participates in. A lie is a lie is a lie according to God.
Do you know who, (according to the Bible), is the “Father of all lies”?
Of course you do.
ALL lies come from satan and there is no way God will bless a lie or the person issuing it, or a nation condoning it.
John 8:44
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.