TZL 1445 (web)

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FROM THE FOUNDER

Personal reflections

These are “the good old days,” so don’t take anything for granted and find something to enjoy in even the most mundane aspects of life.

I am writing this piece as I sit in seat 10C on American Airlines flight 4587 from Northwest Arkansas National Airport to LaGuardia. I’m going to a board meeting with one of our clients – a well-known architecture firm that is among the best in its field of speciality. I really enjoy the founder and primary principal. He is a very cultured and classy fellow with a wry sense of humor. He is also very gracious. I have always said the people are the best aspect of this “industry,” and this particular character is one of them – one of many I have known over the years.

Mark Zweig

Occasionally people ask what I am doing these days. I am basically retired from Zweig Group and this business at this time. I’m 64, and sold my ownership back to the company on a long-term deal about four years ago. I still write this column for The Zweig Letter , and I occasionally talk with my old friends both inside and outside of the firm. While it would be nice to take some credit for the firm’s lengthy existence, its success in the past few years has been to their credit alone. The owners and managers have really impressed me with their ability to not only keep this thing going, but to modify/adapt/evolve it in such a way that it is today more viable than it probably ever was. I am very thankful for that. I have a lot of friends, family, and former clients who are very successful. They never slow down, and they

seem to have a limitless appetite for doing more, making more money, and playing (and winning) at the “success” game. While that used to be me not too long ago – I had two businesses going at the same time, both about the same size, both on the Inc. 5,000 List, along with being a faculty member teaching entrepreneurship at The Walton College, owning a growing collection of cars and motorbikes and what felt like a whole lot of real estate (houses, apartments, condos, and commercial properties) – that’s not me today. I’m a full-time “entrepreneur in-residence” at The Walton College and I chair two local Vistage groups (Vistage runs support groups for privately- held company CEOs and others), and I have plenty of time to talk with and mentor both my current and

See MARK ZWEIG, page 12

THE ZWEIG LETTER JUNE 13, 2022, ISSUE 1444

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