The Myth of Overnight Success

Most of us are seduced by the idea of overnight success. But success in business takes time, hard work and integrity -- lots of all three. Personally, I've never met an overnight success. I've met people who've done something well for a long time and were suddenly discovered.

 

But the real truth is that it takes a long time to be an overnight success. It took 25 years to build Record Bar into the success that made me a wealthy man. Bare Escentuals, my second company, was an overnight success after only 14 years.The one thing both of these success stories have in common? Time.

 

The business models for the two companies were utterly different. We achieved the same level of success by hanging around for the long run, by showing up every day to do our jobs, and by focusing on doing what we did and doing it well.

 

Small successes over time lead to big wins. We started Record Bar with one store in Durham, N.C. We knew where we were headed; we were in the business for the long haul.

 

One year stands above the rest as being particularly tough. The economy was down and record sales had followed that downward drift. We were a small company at that point, and we were having troubles making ends meet. Retail mark-ups on records are less than generous, so we were looking for new ways to make money.

 

A stranger showed up at the store with a truck full of records. He had all the good stuff, and it was cheap. The tags on the records bore the name of a company I knew well. It was obvious the records were stolen and it later became obvious that someone I knew at the company was involved.

 

You can imagine how lucrative buying records at half the price could have been at that moment. We were in a tough spot and we needed to cut costs or find a new stream of revenue to make money. And we were struggling in an industry where people are renowned for bending the rules.

 

I didn't even consider the offer. I wanted to be able to sleep at night. I said to my wife and business partner Arlene, "We'll get rich a few days later."

 

The decision paid off in the long run. We made it out of the recession without cutting corners or damaging our relationships with any distributors. At the height of Record Bar, we were managing 180 stores. We were the second largest retailer of records and tapes and running a 140 million dollar business. I had personally met some of the biggest names in the music business at that time -- Frank Zappa, Harry Chapin, George Jones, Michael Jackson and many more. We did well by doing good. For as long as it took.

 

For me, business means putting in the time, working hard and adhering to an unyielding standard of integrity. No matter how great the temptation, you take the higher road. I made every decision knowing that I was the one who had to get up and look myself in the face each morning.

 

For more information about the author, visit www.barriebergman.com.