Several years ago, when 3Pillar was in its infancy, we had three clients. One of those clients was responsible for 50% of our revenue. After being acquired, that company was acquired again.
I’ll never forget being asked to meet with the president of the company. My heart sank. My palms were sweaty. I could feel that something just wasn’t right.
Sure enough, our contract was terminated, and we were thirty days from going out of business. We only had seven employees at the time, but four of us were working with that client. It didn’t take long for me to realize that time was of the essence.
Luckily, the CEO of the company that had just sold agreed to go out to lunch with me. It was over lunch that he explained that within two years, I would look back from a different perspective and call this moment the best thing that could have happened for 3Pillar.
Sure enough, in two years I looked back, and I did say that exact thing.
At that moment, the best thing that could have happened to us was us losing that contract. It woke me up. It helped me to realize that my job was to build a company, not to write code.
That moment put me out and set me on the path of turning things around. It was a wake-up call. It helped us to grow. It helped us to build. It helped us to gain momentum.
It made me a CEO as opposed to a developer, project manager, product manager, or architect. It forced me to lead and to work on the business instead of in the business.
Trials and tribulations happen to us all the time. Sometimes, the biggest punches to our gut become the biggest accelerators in our lives. It’s all about perspective.
What will you decide to do? Will you have the perspective to turn a trial into a life-changing moment?