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FROM THE FOUNDER
I have worked with business owners for more than 42 years, and I have started a half-dozen businesses on my own or with partners, bought several, and became an owner in four or five others. Business ownership can be one of the most rewarding things for any person to participate in. Things that made me happy as an owner
Many people who don’t have their own businesses think business owners are only interested in making money. While some business owners are, in fact, like that, most are not. There are many other motivators for them, and a variety of other aspects of business ownership that make them happy. Here are some of the things that made me the happiest as a business owner: 1. Being able to create good jobs. There is little that’s more gratifying than being able to offer a good job to someone who may not have that opportunity if not for you. More than once, we hired people who didn’t have the degree they were supposed to have to do a certain job, or people who had just gotten divorced and badly needed a job, or people who were mistreated at their prior job and were beaten down. When you own the business, you are ultimately in control of who works there. Knowing that you are helping people out by giving them a job that allows them to afford to support themselves and their families is very rewarding. Seeing all those people with
unique skill sets come together to do something collaboratively just gets me excited! 2. Seeing people who worked in my business become highly successful. I think back to one case years ago when we hired a young fellow who was just graduating from the MBA program at Boston College. He was Irish and grew up in a very modest household, got his engineering degree in his home country and then came over here and had to work as a painter and sleep in a construction trailer until he could get up enough cash for an apartment. He was driving a $200 car when we interviewed him. A short time after we hired him, he had a new BMW company car, and a few years after that, he was married to someone from a well-known family and owned a four-bedroom house in a prestigious area. Today, he owns his own business and is highly successful by any standard. He is obviously an exceptional individual, but witnessing his and many other’s rise to success are some of my proudest accomplishments.
Mark Zweig
See MARK ZWEIG, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER MAY 23, 2022, ISSUE 1442
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