Founder's Touch

I read "The Founder's Touch" this past week about Paul Galvin and the beginning of Motorola. Now that was a wild ride. Paul and his partner went all out two seperate times before Motorola ever began. Both times they landed flat on their faces, the first time shut down because they couldn't pay inventory tax and the second again because they ran out of money. Motorola was bought from the ashes of the second crash. For years after it was up and running they were up against the wire, nearly crashing and burning again several times, but this time they pulled out of it. Oddly enough I think that part of their later success was because of the tight times at the beginning. Reading the book I got the sense that they formed a very tight team. Here are just a few of my favorite quotes:

"Even small problems seem big when they are not solved. Making an effort to solve them keeps them small." P.V. Galvin

"When a man and a woman have shared the hardship that Lillian and I have shared, there are not words that can easily describe how much they come to mean to one another." P.V. Galvin

"He had a unique way of adding up a man's potential in his own mind. Someone once said of him that 'he could remember a mistake a man had made ten years before.' It was true that he could recall these episodes of error, but what he watched closely were the ways in which the man either benefited or did not benefit from the mistakes. One of his favorite sayings was, 'I don't mind a fellow who is dumb but I can't stand one who is numb.'" Petrakis quoting Galvin

"Do not fear mistakes. Wisdom is often born of such mistakes. You will know failure. Determine now to acquire the confidence required to overcome it. Reach out. . ." P.V. Galvin