Velocity Conference: Day 3

The third and final day of the conference had the two dozen of us back in the comfort of the Faculty Club in Berkeley.  The assembled cast included several veterans and a relative newcomer:

• Gary Rogers, former CEO of Dreyer's Ice Cream
• Louis Jordan, SVP of Corporate Finance at Starbucks
• Joe Walsmith, Entrepreneur in a number of companies
• Rick Roethke, Founder & CEO of Barrington Management Co, a real estate firm
• Nicholas Seet, Founder of Auditude

Gary Rogers told us a fascinating tale about visiting an ice cream shop penniless, jobless, and looking for whatever work they had.  Two days later, he was the new owner of Dreyer's Ice Cream.  His ability to seize opportunities whether or not he seems to have the resources to do so absolutely exemplified the entrepreneurial spirit, and it served him well throughout his career.  He gave us seven points of advice to take with us in our own careers:

1. Make the most of every day (and he extended this to include "be serendipitous")
2. The joy of life is in the struggle
3. Be a builder (the process is the most fun part)
4. Prepare to be lucky ("fortune favors only the prepared mind")
5. Be a persistent optimist ("there is no such thing as can't, only won't")
6. You can only make some of the people happy some of the time, and that's enough
7. Develop a sustainable competitive advantage and leverage it

Rick Roethke struck me as somewhat of a modern-day folk hero.  He actually joined us for many of the sessions during the conference, including the cocktail reception at Plug and Play, where I talked with him for quite a while.  "I'm not like all these people here," was one of the first things he said to me.  When I asked what he meant, he explained, "They probably wouldn't like the way I do things."  He continued to describe his career: laid back, enjoying the ride for what it is, never working too hard, taking vacations when he wanted to take vacations (even if it meant ending jobs), a lot of luck, finding deals by talking with people on vacation, and so on.  For Rick, his storied career wasn't for some feeling of achievement, purpose, or altruism; it was something to do that provided him the means to enjoy life.  His main concerns were world travel and relaxing in San Diego.

With all that we hear in our professional lives, and especially in business school, about success and taking on more projects to get ahead, Rick's story causes a bit of pause.  Yes, there is another way.