1+1=3

Happy Friday,

Simply describing this is boring, so instead, an example.

When we started ECO:LOGIC Engineering, we needed office space. Short of money, we set our sights on cheap space in a nondescript industrial area.

The building owner would get a paying tenant (1), and we would get office space (1). 1+1=2.

But was there a way to make 1+1 = 3? Asking and trying to answer this question makes all the difference. What we needed more than anything else was work. That was our 3. Was there a client with work who might have some office space we could rent?

I called Duane G. Duane and I had worked together right out of college at a large construction company. When the economy turned south, I learned Duane was getting cut, so I let him know, and we started brainstorming his options. “What kind of work do you *want* to do?” I finally asked. Commercial real estate.

By complete happenstance, I'd recently met the owner of a large Malaysian real estate development company. I handed Duane the guy’s card and told him to call. He did, and he got the job.

Years passed, and I knew Duane was now in charge of getting approvals to develop a new town in central California called Mountain House (planned pop. 40,000). So I rang him up. “Hey, five of us just started our own water/wastewater engineering company and need office space. Any ideas?” “As a matter of fact, I’ve got two thousand sf of class A space right here in our building I can sublease to ya.” “We’ll take it!”

Class A cost quite a bit more than class C, so I had to overcome the predictable hand-wringing. Ugh…But sharing space with Duane opened up trust-building discussions about water and wastewater at Mountain House. Those quickly led to reconnaissance trips and then contracts. Over the next seven years, we completed $10 million worth of contracts, and their duration and cash flow enabled our fledgling company to hire staff. Hiring first employees is one of the great filters to overcome when you try to scale a company.

If we'd never asked the question and just defaulted to incremental thinking, subleasing from Duane never would have been explored, and ECO:LOGIC might never have gotten off the runway.

Punchline: To accelerate your career, team, or company, take a detailed inventory of every potentially leverageable asset you have, however trivial - skills, attributes, contacts, resources, insights - then look for ways to combine them with people, companies, or clients to create exponential value. Find the unexpected combinations where your assets multiply rather than add, turning 1+1 into 3 instead of 2. It enables you to create rather than wait for opportunities and gives you a lot more control over the future.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Dave

Feedback and blowback are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

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