August 2, 2023 • 41 mins
What does disruption in the marketplace look like? Can start-up companies survive and thrive in today's crazy economy? What does it take to be an entrepreneurial success? My conversation with technology executive Tom Williams. He unpacks years of success in companies like Cisco, Praxon, Novell, and Combinet. An advisor to a multitude of boards, Tom has also authored 6 books and is a featured speaker in multi-national events.
More information about the podcast can be found at TheChuckCrumptonShow.com
Thank you for listening. Please enjoy.
More information about the podcast can be found at TheChuckCrumptonShow.com
Thank you for listening. Please enjoy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I always have this drive for notperfection, but to being good at something.
So I grew up in a neighborhoodwhere we had. The only thing
it's saved me beginning in trouble wasplaying baseball and us kids will get together,
but I really wanted to play baseball. Well, you go after that
with that drive, this saying Iwant to be good at When I do
(00:23):
get in Bob with something and youwant to everything about it, you want
to excel it. Not the showoff. You just want to challenge yourself.
Thank you for tuning into another episodeof The Chuck Crumpton Show, a
(00:45):
not for profit podcast making a differencewhere conversations are real and raw. We
are grateful for your support as webuild one of the fastest growing podcasts in
the US. Please subscribe. Moreinformation can be found at the Chuck Crumpton
Show dot com. Thank you forlistening. Here's Chuck. Hello. This
is Chuck Crumpton and welcome to anotherepisode of The Chuck Crumpton Show. I
(01:08):
am so excited to have you aspart of the audience. I think you'll
enjoy today's episode. I am recordingthis in July of twenty three in beautiful
Charleston, South Carolina, and Iwill tell you it is hot as blazes
outside. I hope wherever you are, and we have listeners all over the
(01:32):
world, that your climate is ais a little less brutal than what we're
suffering through right now in Charleston.But it's so good to have you and
so good to know that the audiencecontinues to grow. We've had a little
bit of a shift and a delayin the building of a new studio,
(01:53):
which should be done here in acouple of weeks. I do this as
a way to give back. Idon't charge, I don't monetize the show.
It's a way for me to giveback because I've been given so much
and I've been incredibly fortunate and blessedin my life and in my career.
More information about the show can befound at the Chuck Crumpton show dot com.
(02:16):
Really simple, very straightforward. Onthe show, we have real and
raw, candid conversations with executive thoughtleaders about life and business and leadership,
and we delve into the personal.We really get after it, and I
really enjoy being behind the microphone.I really enjoy connecting to people's heads and
(02:40):
their hearts. So I would asktwo big favors of you. Number One,
subscribe to the show. It's reallyeasy whether you listen on Google or
Spotify or Apple or Amazon. We'reon all the major platforms around the world
and we have listeners all over theworld, which is amazing, and that
(03:02):
audience, like I say, justcontinues to grow and grow. And number
two, if you would share theepisode. I was talking to one of
my guests that I had on overa year ago, and she was sharing
with me that a former co worker, after listening to the episode that she
(03:24):
had with me our conversation, herformer coworker called and said, I was
at the end of my rope,but because of your conversation with Chuck,
it gave me hope. And that'sone example of a lot of thoughts and
feedback that we get. And Ihope you'll find this episode to be just
(03:49):
another example of a great conversation aboutlife, leadership, and business. And
it is my privilege today to introduceTom Williams. Tom is a technology veteran
with over four decades of experience leadingprivate and public companies that profoundly alter how
(04:11):
we work, learn, entertain,and interact. As a son of an
auto mechanic and a bookkeeper. Tomgrew up in Rhode Island. Fascinated by
changing how things work. He startedhis career in the information technology department at
the Community College of Rhode Island,where he led the design development of the
(04:32):
nation's first electronic grade reporting, automatedclass scheduling, and online student information systems.
Memorex Corporation lured Tom to Silicon Valley, where he resides now in San
Francisco with his wife. Since then, Tom has been a founder chairman,
(04:54):
CEO, independent board director, andstrategic advisor to private equ defunded companies,
with acquisitions by Cisco, Novelle,SI Tech Systems, Honeywell, and ericson
returning over a billion dollars in equity. Tom earned an NBA from Santa Clair
(05:15):
University, a BS and Business Administration, and he also served honorably as a
drill sergeant in the US Army.And it is a real privilege. Would
you welcome to the Chuck Crumpton Show, Tom Williams. How are you,
Tom? I'm doing terrific. Thankyou for the opportunity to spend some time
with you, Chuck. We mettwo or three months ago at a great
(05:41):
conversation. I heard about Joe background, and we had a lot of synergies
and a lot of things we wantedto explore. Absolutely, you referenced the
time that we met in Charleston atthe Harbor Entrepreneur Center, which, by
the way, those guys are doinggood work over there. Really appreciate being
a part of that. And I'lltell you this, It's going to sound
(06:01):
funny, but it's the absolute,sincere truth. When I walked into that
session that afternoon at the Harbor Center, and I think you and I were
in a group session together with youngentrepreneurs. You know. I sat down,
honestly, having come late to theparty you guys had already started,
(06:25):
and I was listening to you,and I thought my first thought was,
who the hell is this guy?He is like a rock star, because
you were offering so much value tothe discussion. As we've talked about in
the intro leading up to this point. Now in our conversation, obviously,
(06:48):
you're an innovator, executive, formerCEO leader, you're an author of multiple
books. You've had a dellar career. I want to jump right into the
pool, Tom and ask you thisquestion with all the accolades that we've already
talked about. Who's the real TomWilliams. I define people that I hire
(07:15):
as either Nettakers, Coasters or netGibberts ultimortal life. I've always been that
person that wants to feel good aboutsomeone else winning, doing, succeeding,
how doing a good time. AndI guess it's built into my nature.
I'm not sure exactly where it comesfrom. I'm not sure if it's DNA.
(07:35):
I'm not sure a mistake. Butyou know, I don't relish,
if you would, the limelight,because that's not where I come from.
But I do relish success of others. Yeah, I'm so success of your
podcast, for example, hopefully thatI will help you with that, but
(07:56):
it's got nothing to do with me. I to give an idea, an
idea of thought, and then someonesays, oh we could do that,
well, let's go do it,okay, And my nature has never been
to stop and say no or feelembarrassed, because it's never really a bad
(08:16):
idea, I mean, right,the right timing. I've had that happened
quite often, but it may havenot a clear understanding of what to do,
but at least a start and thenwhen you look at people's eyes and
you see that the light blake andthey look up until the right and they
picture something, then you know you'vegot something interesting to explore. And I
(08:37):
enjoy that smile and that glow thatcomes out of teams. Say let's go
do that. And we met thatday with those five or six people,
these entrepreneurs, and we talk tothem. You can see that their their
energy, their excitement about winning andsucceeding. So it's not about me,
It's not about a sign or youknow, I'm not a celebrity. I
(09:01):
don't want to be a slip.I want to background and I'm five.
What drives that tom, What drivesthat passion to see others when over yourself?
You know, I think it's goodto do with learning. I have
a first for knowledge and the onlyway I can learn something is to have
(09:22):
other people talk. So I usethis phrase what I do speeches. You
listen to learn, you talk toteach. And I like listening to people
who look at AI today for example, Internet of Things, all the noise
around artificial intelligence, and you're saying, okay, there are good things and
(09:43):
bad things about everything. But asI look into or saying it is a
very exciting technology is beginning to appearand subtle companies like Navidia and others the
building technology to allow that to happen. That's wonderful. So what's I think
The driver to me is I havethis thirst for knowledge in the early way
I can learn that is for others. Yeah, that's good. I want
(10:09):
to camp out for just a moment. On that session we had here in
Charleston a couple of months ago,a word that kept coming, I think
both verbally and nonverbally to me fromyou as you spoke to those young entrepreneurs
was the word disruption. Unpack thatplease? Okay. So I look at
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about other business plans a year,and as you know, very few of
them pass degree. So what Idecided to is put a filter. And
the filter is, shall we somethingthat's disruptive, innovator, defensible, and
skilled. I called it's mot Ihave that an article website, and that
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built us out about nine right away. Because someone might have an idea in
many cases there I call one trickponies or they have something. It's that.
When I was at Memoricks do aategicplanning, there was a phrase that
just felt like fingernails on a chartbullIt advertising that said we are a faster,
(11:22):
thinner, cheaper, smoother, andthen I'm going then who all right?
Right? And I think it wasit was a crazy ad camp.
It just drove me nuts because thatmeans that you are number two, and
to me, if you're number two, your first loser. Okay, So
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if you want to change things,if you want to be an agent of
change, I've been accused of beingat which I appreciate that you want to
change things from the way it isnow to something that's better. And in
that process it might be a stupididea, but once you explore and unpack
it and you go interesting. Sowhen I talked entrepreneurs, I will get
(12:07):
it. We heard this a coupleof times about a mission statement that had
a negative what we don't do?Is this? What do you really do?
Okay, let's change the mission statement. Okay. One of the gentlemen
in that group was doing some sortof cybersecurity and I said, well,
you're talking about talking to customers sayingwell, we'll fix what's broken. And
(12:33):
my comment is that'snot the right missionstatement. Mission statement is we're gonna tell
you what you don't know. Okay, so so know what you don't know.
I think it's the phrase I use. So that changes the dynamic when
you talk to teams like that.So I think it's important that entrepreneurs understand
the value proposition and what they're changing. If you are just finding something is
(12:58):
cheaper and faster, you're not justinsructing anything. You're just being a participant
in the market. Steve Jobs agood example. Okay, we could see
just over the horizon. So heknew the difference between what a customer wanted
and what a customer needed, andthat was different and he was good at
that. Though. I think theconcept being disruptive is the freeload if you
(13:24):
would about what you're going to doin terms of digital transformation, whether it
be in health sciences, health tech, eye tech, all the tech words
that are flowing around. So Ilook for business models. I look at
what one's going to change everything,and that's probably in my DNA because I
wouldn't see something change. Does thatmake sense? Yes? Absolutely would.
(13:46):
You're looking at a hundred business plansa year, right, You're seeing a
lot of stuff come across your desk, And again, I love you,
I love your enthusiasm and your passionnot only to listen right, but also
the courage to say no, thisis not going to cut it. But
when you look at these entrepreneurs andthey can be you know, twenty five
(14:11):
or seventy five, it doesn't matter, right, this bringing a new product,
a new service, a new ideato the marketplace. What are some
of those obstacles in having that disruptivemindset? What I tend to do is
focus initially what's right about it,focus on what's wrong about okay, and
(14:35):
a lot of the wrong about itit might be because it's truly to the
market. In two thousand and six, I'll give you an example, I
started a company called Cinematics. Andwhat I wanted to do because a networking
person in my background, is torun also level audio movies and music over
(14:58):
the network. And we did it. We actually demonstrate it. So but
you could buy a get a DVin that case, you write the DVD
from from Netflix, lower it inand you have it in your server and
you can show it to the house. And I remember bringing this business plan
to a couple of venture capital friendsof line, and they said, what
(15:22):
are you doing? I go,what do you mean d blue rays coming
out? It's going to lunch.I oh, this is an example where
you're a little too early okay tothe market. So that I've been in
that one because there's no way we'regoing to get funded because of this mindset
at the time. So a lothas it got to do with timing U.
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And the other part is what isthe value proposition to the customer?
Why would they want to buy thisthing? And there's this Jeff Moore does
this book called Across the Chasm andearly adopt is my usual your product,
but then it might get stuck,okay, so the first kid of the
block where no one cares okay,So you need to get to those late
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users and things like that, themasses. So when I look at these
business models, I get jazzed excited. When I see something that's just going
to change everything. I want tobe part of that. I want to
be on that train. And thenthere's others where I saw a business plan
and try to advise them saying it'snot quite fair. But if you consider
(16:30):
going in this direction, you willhave some traction. But there's always this
fear of a fun factor, fearin certain of doubt. When the entrepreneurs
all feel comfortable with it, theydon't make that ship. Okay, So
if you look at an hundred businessplans virture capital firms, except heasn't to
(16:53):
look at or fun ten out ofthe ten, three will sail, three
or four will break even, andtrade will be winners and maybe one's an
outlier. Yeah, that's it.So they hit ratio. It's almost like
playing you know, double sixes onthe craft table. So so what's important
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for them is to give them thetools that's necessary for them to really think
out what the business model is andbe able to present that to potential partners,
whether they be investors or customers orwhatever, so that they can have
the excitement and share legs. Sothat's that's important with entrepreneurs. That's also
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important with the emerging companies because theyhave an initial market penetration and they get
stuck. Yeah yeah right, sothey think about all the next step is
so you see a lot of caseswhere you see civil attraction and then the
company gets stuck and then go away. Google was the fourteenth searchage, okay,
alto this was the first. Yeah, So what happened in that transition
(18:06):
between those two. So you'll getthis concept with the entrepreneurs that have an
idea, but they've got to beopen minded. You're kind of molded and
that's where you I come in asmentors. It's like, well, okay,
you're there, but ninety percent's notgoing to get it. Now.
I really appreciate you sharing that.I was in a session last week or
(18:27):
week before last in the same setting, right, and the young entrepreneur said
as as she was sort of explainingher value proposition and you know, perceived
need in the market. I lookedat the person and I said, are
(18:48):
you building a business or are youbuilding a lifestyle? You know, I
have talked to entrelts, least entrepreneursand ask the scot I'm going to write
about this in fact, are youa missionary or are you an entrepreneur?
And a lot of cases, alot of those hundred business plans, our
missionary states I'm going to change theworld. Why because people are doing things
(19:12):
wrong? Well, I'm we're goingto do that. When you look at
an entrepreneur that you would trying tosteer them to find some way to be
disruptive because they are thinking about this. So if you get them to think
outside the box a little bit morerather than have a very narrow comfort zone.
(19:32):
To me, it's like a guythat works to the gym and wants
to do wellness drengths. Okay,well, maybe the idea is to be
able to have a special way forpeople build muscle. Our job as mentors
is not to say no. Ourjob is to give them some guidance to
change their compass a little bit andlet them think about We've talked a little
(19:53):
bit about this as we've gotten toknow each other. Tom the life.
You know, the last company Ibuilt and sold, I started it,
you know, in my toolshd.You know, they were just there were
lonely, lonely, lonely days.And you know, I had a wife
(20:14):
that was a stay at home momand two kids that loved to eat.
So my whole focus was survival.And maybe that first stage is that of
survival. We're literally trying to keepthe lights on. So if that assumption
is true, and I see thatwhen I speak to entrepreneurs, for that
(20:37):
young entrepreneur again, whether they're twentyfive or seventy five, it doesn't matter
what do you give that guy,that girl, what's the message for them
as they're sitting in their tool shedand they're saying, give me something that
(20:57):
I can give me a life preserver. Well, first of all, I
don't think that you need to technology. Yeah, take a look at Michael
Jordan, take a look at thesports. There's that one young man,
one woman, you know, practicingevery day. If you have the passion
that you want to do something.And I'm a big fan of the Beatles.
(21:18):
I mean they never learned music,Yeah, they never. They can't
read music, but they found away to skiffule first and get a couple
of guitars work, and they changethe music corp. Right. But the
thing is is that if you havea passion about so, and the question
is you will follow that passion regardless. I think I mentioned in my background
(21:41):
when I worked at the community college, I was working on Saturday nights,
but again because I really wanted tosucceed with the student body. Now,
yes, it does cost you abit of a loneliness, It gets you
lowly, but the reward on thatcoming back on the other side for you
(22:02):
astounding when you see students happy andpeople happy to use in the product.
You know, I remember, I'llgive you an example, going to a
little red schoolhouse up on the ArcticCircle in suite okay, well they had
in one of the routers that weput together, and these young kids we're
(22:22):
on the internet. That's amazing.We wake up at the Arctic Circle in
this little building. There's twelve kidsand they're running internet. Right, and
you look at that and go out. These kids, these young people are
going to be smart, new,successful whatever they do, right, But
they see what's exciting about change.I think most people, whether again whatever
(22:48):
industry and could be sports, itcould be technology or whatever you want to
change it differently. Look at Curryfor the gold for the three players.
Yeah, that took a lot ofpassional, a lot of practice together.
I don't know if the DNA isevolved. I don't know where it comes
from, but I think you've gotthat passion go through it because he's what
(23:08):
happens. I have this thing,this phrase I use, I could have,
I would have, and I shouldhave. I want to be able
to answer all three of them allright, so that I can close that
chapter. But if I don't,I saying, oh yeah I was,
maybe I should have done that,right. That's the part to me is
(23:29):
well, Hello, this is ChuckCrumpton. I just want to speak to
business owners and event planners out there, just for a moment right in the
middle of our show. I lovepublic speaking. It's one of the great
joys of my life. It's oneof my passions, and I would love
to speak to your group, whetherit's a workshop, handel, keynote.
(23:52):
I just love communicating real truth andreally helping business owners and organizations improve and
to grow and to be bigger andbetter. So if you have an interest,
if you have a need in havinga workshop speaker, panel speaker,
or a keynote speaker, please giveme a call eight six four nine one
(24:18):
five zero zero six six. I'llbe happy to send you over examples of
talks that I've done in the past, but really more importantly discuss what your
needs would be in your organization andbe able to speak to your folks.
So again eight six four nine zerozero six six and I look forward to
(24:41):
speaking to your organization. Sin I'ma big fan of I don't know if
you know Dave Ramsey. He's afinancial guy. I't in Tennessee. Roll
my kids up through sort of hisdepth free living perspective, and they've talked
very openly about, you know,being hard charging. I think at twenty
(25:06):
six he was a millionaire with realestate. He met God on the way
up, and then he went bankrupt, and he said he got to he
met him on the way up,but got to know him on the way
down, which I find to beprovocative and refreshing. Right. But the
(25:27):
point is he's had those you know, he had those young struggles being an
entrepreneur, starting his business on thecard table in his kitchen, and now
I think he's got eleven or twelvehundred employees, three hundred million dollars operation.
I'm curious, with all the successthat you've had, and you've had
(25:49):
a lot of dog gone success,man, what's been the toughest part and
all the things that you've done,what's been the toughest part for Tom Williams.
Uh, Well, that's just avery good question. Let me frame
with it's a couple of different waysand maybe we'll get to answered correctly.
I remember when I had was juststarting out with while the company's life started
(26:15):
and we're having difficult the others guynamed John King, he worked at IBM,
I moved in the East Coast whenI was living there, and uh,
I remember talking to him and Iwas talking about a company and I
can't remember what him the company was, but he failed. I may lost
llions of dollars. When did anipo went went down to zero? He
(26:37):
just got another job. Why didhe get another job? Because John said
he knows what it means to fail. And I think in the case of
Ramsey, and I don't know himthat well, but in others that I
think entrepreneurs are taking a risk.But then if they do fail, you
get off the ground and you geton your knees, you stand up again,
(26:57):
and then you go the next one. And the whole industry, everything
that we do, there's fairs inour life and the question is what do
we do about So John King toldme, just geek, he knows what
means a bill okay, And Igo, wow, that makes sense.
(27:18):
So I have mixed results. Insome cases sold companies right, sold them
for fire sale because the technical worldchanged. It's been very successful. But
I think that if you've got thedesire, and indeed I didn't need the
money just to desire, go changethings. And that's exciting because when you
(27:45):
see the gleam in other people's eyes, really validating your vision. That's a
wonderful thing. So again I don'tknow where it came from. I don't
know it's because I maybe spend inchand watch by cartoons. I don't know.
But I grew up in a verypoor environment, you know, in
(28:07):
my background, and I watched myfather who was an auto mechanic and had
his all little garage and my motherwas the bookkeeper, and both of them
had no more than it's great education. Yeah, they struggled to be independent,
and maybe that's where I got theindependence accidentally, view would a stroke
to do? What? Do somethingdifferent? So I don't know if I
(28:29):
can answer that question. But there'sbeen setbacks, you know, the uninte
at point as they call it intechnology. What you do about the counts?
Now? They can cower down andsay I'll never get into it again,
or they can get up and goforward. And from those experiences,
(28:51):
did you ever have a time inone of those setbacks where you just felt
like cashing it in? I don'tknow. I've come I've had some close
ones. Okay, So there wasone episode that comes to mind where we
(29:11):
were doing contract work for a companycalled three Com. I could not get
funding for the company who did theroutes called Combinet, and no it would
fund us. So we luckily,by chance, got a contract with three
com to take our technology and putit into their product. And then we
(29:33):
were living paycheck to paycheck if youlook at it that way. And I
had four employees or five employers.No, I had twelve employees, and
we needed that money for that payment. There was a progress payment and I
had basically thirty minutes to get thatcheck deposited in Bank of America. Well,
(29:56):
the payrold checks one out. Yeah, all right, so you get
these moments of despair, all right, when you get that anxiety saying,
oh my god, how much andmake this work? And how they're going
to tell these people that their paychecksjust bounced. Yeah, so you get
you get onto that level. Butthen the question is do you go the
(30:18):
employees before that and say it's overall right and wait for a three come
to give you the check or tosay, let me see if I can
just do whatever I have to do. Yeah, that check and finally got
a release and I'm racing down tothe bank. I think at fifteen minutes
before. So you get these despairmoments. You get employees that don't believe
(30:44):
in themselves, and you have tohave a chat with them, say I
believe in you go to it right. You know. Maybe it's because being
a CEO and being at the bottomof the ORB chart. I think we
talked about that. Uh, yourjob is to get all these people would
be successful. No. I rememberI two years ago, I was in
Atlanta and I met with an oldVP of sales and he thanked me,
(31:08):
this is that the five or securisHe goes, I just really appreciate what
they can make of me a man. Right, So I'm going, okay,
well that's okay, wonderful. Doesit make you feel good? All
right? But it's it's hard.There were moments and I can't think of
one because I tried to maybe suppressthem. But but I came close to
(31:33):
this case with commonet of shutting itdown, and it was that close.
It was that goals it scary.I think I would have drank a lot
of wine. Well no, Imean I got some some crazy stories and
things like that that came out okay, but nothing that would give me the
(31:57):
point of anxiety. That that Iwas going to famil. I was always
looking for what's the next step,what can I do? How can this
work out? Okay, and let'sfigure that out. She would say,
I was lucky. Yeah, Well, do you think that grit came from
(32:20):
your parents? Come from you know, you're a drill sergeant in the army.
That helped shape that grit. Ialways have this drive for not perfection,
but to being good at something.So so I grew up in a
neighborhood where we had the only thingat saving beginning in trouble was playing baseball,
(32:42):
and those kids would get together.But I really wanted to play baseball.
Well, okay, so I didn'tjust want to just put I want
to pitch along the lefty, youknow, I want to play hard right,
And you go after that with thatdrive to saying I want to be
good at When I do. Youget involved with something and you want to
everything about it. You want toexcel it, not to show off.
(33:07):
You just want to challenge yourself.So I think it's not great as much
as it's sticktuitousness. I like thator blind tenacities. I want to look
at it. Yeah, I likethat. That has paved the way for
a very successful career that you guyshave enjoyed and Adam boy AT's off to
you, man. And what Ilove about our new friendship is the ability
(33:31):
to affect change and to effect tomove the needle. In my healthcare days,
I dealt with a number of youknow, executives in the healthcare space
that you know, after a fewglasses of wine and I get steak dinner,
you know, they've looked at meand they've said, you know,
(33:53):
Chuck, I've done well, butyou know, I wished I would have
done some other things in my youknow, in my life, in my
career. Right. So I thinkthe more that we can help others,
the more we can help move thatneedle and make an impact and create uh
(34:15):
an environment conduced it for change.And you mentioned being a change agent.
Um, I appreciate that passion.Man, you know what our job is
to be That it was at anapp guard in the in the dry dish.
Yeah, well there's corrupt, right, And my idea is that it
(34:37):
wasn't me. I cared about astupid idea that someone said and looking to
that, okay, and the thousandsof people that worked on teams that hadded
my career and then getting successful andproud of what they could tribute. So
and goes back to my six easeof culture. I think he probably saw
(34:58):
that on my website. Yeah,the concept of empowerment. A lot of
current CEOs that I talked to thatwe're at our third of our life.
They're so stuck, you know,because the economy changes, the market changes,
the landscape changes, and they don'tfeel they have the tools. Rather
(35:19):
than to grit should be able tohandle that. Young teams coming up and
the senior senior executive team, thesenior leadership team, I guess they're they're
looking for guidance so they can takecharge of what their particular discipline is.
So it's always been that way,since it's the beginning of time, all
(35:40):
right, and it's our job,you and I to pass on our mistakes
and our successes. But then they'regoing to find something totally different. But
it's a foundation. I'll close it. One of the comment One of the
things that's happened I think you andI both experience is what I call the
sound mentor Okay, some of thewife that said something did something you know
(36:07):
that just changed the way you lookat things. So I'll slit two stories.
I worked at a high end Canneserestaurant in Rodala and it was a
family of five men who emigrated fromChina, no more than in eighth grade
or fourth grade education, and itstarted this restaurant and it became extremely successful.
(36:32):
I remember when I was sixteen,I worked all my life, but
going to the restaurant to work,I was being chided by other boys.
Why would you go to a Chineserestaurant because they don't serve chicken in their
child mayne. They served something elsethat's a cut four legs. And I
(36:52):
stupid me, right, I gointo Saturday morning because I'm gonna be cleaning,
cutting chickens up and things like that. And I said the Bob and
listen, I not talked to theseguys about you know what this is.
And he goes, Charlie Wilco isthe word of you. So I'm not
sure what the exact phraseology. Sitdown on that crane. Let me tell
(37:15):
you something. Okay, we servea hundred fifty chicken John Mains on a
Saturday, one hundred and fifty eachbach one has eight ounces of meat.
So if we want to do whatyour friends told you to do. Some
now you have to go out andcatch probably one hundred and fifty animals.
(37:35):
They get back, clean them andget the meat. Maybe he gets six
ounces out of them. Okay,these furry animals, and then put them
in a freezer and then we'll beable to cook m I don't know how
to get it. One hundred andfifty of these animals. I go.
That's the point. And at thatcircle of moment you taught me critical thinking.
It was just a phenomenal of thatbecause I loved that. Where now
(37:59):
I go about those boys saying,you guys jerks right, well, fifteen
sixty year old, we're all jerksat that point. Yeah, but you
will learn something, something triggers.So probably was a mentor an invisible hand
if you would. Yeah, Ilove that in my career when I am
today. So let me let meask you this. You're you're doing amazing
(38:21):
things coast to coast. You're sittingin Silicon Valley right now. Two months
ago, you're sitting in Charleston withme. How can we keep up with
you? We don't want to stalkyou, but we do want to follow
what you're doing. All the positiveimpact. You know, the Silicon Valley
is expanding. There are a lotof hub opportunities. I like the idea,
(38:45):
maybe because I'm a startup first andis to go a place that we
can do startups to start a networkor hub. And you see over the
last ten years, probably accelebrated bythe Zoo and team's capability, that there's
now additional hubs, not only youknow Minneapolis for big machines, and Silicon
(39:06):
Valley and San Francisco with Boston.All these areas begin to emerge as technology
helps, and then you have successfulpeople. It can be mentors like yourselves,
and then you have servifavidors. Youknow, the facilities, the legal,
the hr or the outsorts I Tand all that stuff. All these
(39:27):
things come together and you create thisenvironment. Doesn't necessarily mean you have to
have public support. You just gonnacreate I call it spin service and investor
network. Okay that if you dothat, then you replicated what happened to
Silicon Valley. And that's what wasexciting when I visited with you with the
RBEC to see that gleam in theeye where where I'm seeing some stuff popping
(39:52):
out of there, going wow,that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, we
want to change things. So Iwant to point quickly as we close own
a point folks to your website,m Williams Books dot com. You are
the author of a number of booksthat have done very, very very well,
(40:14):
and I encourage people to get tothat site. Um. Your email
is Tom at snaka dot com,s or I'm sorry ce Na RCA dot
com dot com any other links toget to you, my friend, and
if someone wants to talk, justfeel free to give me a call send
(40:36):
me an email with the Snarca dotcom email. I do respond to all
the units. Tom, Thank you. That was a real treat and what
a what a joy for me tohave this conversation today. I want to
make sure that you have a wayof following Tom. Tom can be reached
at Tom at Snarca dot com.That is Tom at ce Na RCA,
(41:04):
and of course you can look himup on LinkedIn, Tom Williams. But
Tom, thank you for being onthe show. Thank you for sharing a
piece of your heart today. Andmore information about the show can be found
at the Chuck Crumpton Show dot com. Until the next episode. This is
Chuck Crumpton. I hope you havea great day,
I always have this drive for notperfection, but to being good at something.
So I grew up in a neighborhoodwhere we had. The only thing
it's saved me beginning in trouble wasplaying baseball and us kids will get together,
but I really wanted to play baseball. Well, you go after that
with that drive, this saying Iwant to be good at When I do
(00:23):
get in Bob with something and youwant to everything about it, you want
to excel it. Not the showoff. You just want to challenge yourself.
Thank you for tuning into another episodeof The Chuck Crumpton Show, a
(00:45):
not for profit podcast making a differencewhere conversations are real and raw. We
are grateful for your support as webuild one of the fastest growing podcasts in
the US. Please subscribe. Moreinformation can be found at the Chuck Crumpton
Show dot com. Thank you forlistening. Here's Chuck. Hello. This
is Chuck Crumpton and welcome to anotherepisode of The Chuck Crumpton Show. I
(01:08):
am so excited to have you aspart of the audience. I think you'll
enjoy today's episode. I am recordingthis in July of twenty three in beautiful
Charleston, South Carolina, and Iwill tell you it is hot as blazes
outside. I hope wherever you are, and we have listeners all over the
(01:32):
world, that your climate is ais a little less brutal than what we're
suffering through right now in Charleston.But it's so good to have you and
so good to know that the audiencecontinues to grow. We've had a little
bit of a shift and a delayin the building of a new studio,
(01:53):
which should be done here in acouple of weeks. I do this as
a way to give back. Idon't charge, I don't monetize the show.
It's a way for me to giveback because I've been given so much
and I've been incredibly fortunate and blessedin my life and in my career.
More information about the show can befound at the Chuck Crumpton show dot com.
(02:16):
Really simple, very straightforward. Onthe show, we have real and
raw, candid conversations with executive thoughtleaders about life and business and leadership,
and we delve into the personal.We really get after it, and I
really enjoy being behind the microphone.I really enjoy connecting to people's heads and
(02:40):
their hearts. So I would asktwo big favors of you. Number One,
subscribe to the show. It's reallyeasy whether you listen on Google or
Spotify or Apple or Amazon. We'reon all the major platforms around the world
and we have listeners all over theworld, which is amazing, and that
(03:02):
audience, like I say, justcontinues to grow and grow. And number
two, if you would share theepisode. I was talking to one of
my guests that I had on overa year ago, and she was sharing
with me that a former co worker, after listening to the episode that she
(03:24):
had with me our conversation, herformer coworker called and said, I was
at the end of my rope,but because of your conversation with Chuck,
it gave me hope. And that'sone example of a lot of thoughts and
feedback that we get. And Ihope you'll find this episode to be just
(03:49):
another example of a great conversation aboutlife, leadership, and business. And
it is my privilege today to introduceTom Williams. Tom is a technology veteran
with over four decades of experience leadingprivate and public companies that profoundly alter how
(04:11):
we work, learn, entertain,and interact. As a son of an
auto mechanic and a bookkeeper. Tomgrew up in Rhode Island. Fascinated by
changing how things work. He startedhis career in the information technology department at
the Community College of Rhode Island,where he led the design development of the
(04:32):
nation's first electronic grade reporting, automatedclass scheduling, and online student information systems.
Memorex Corporation lured Tom to Silicon Valley, where he resides now in San
Francisco with his wife. Since then, Tom has been a founder chairman,
(04:54):
CEO, independent board director, andstrategic advisor to private equ defunded companies,
with acquisitions by Cisco, Novelle,SI Tech Systems, Honeywell, and ericson
returning over a billion dollars in equity. Tom earned an NBA from Santa Clair
(05:15):
University, a BS and Business Administration, and he also served honorably as a
drill sergeant in the US Army.And it is a real privilege. Would
you welcome to the Chuck Crumpton Show, Tom Williams. How are you,
Tom? I'm doing terrific. Thankyou for the opportunity to spend some time
with you, Chuck. We mettwo or three months ago at a great
(05:41):
conversation. I heard about Joe background, and we had a lot of synergies
and a lot of things we wantedto explore. Absolutely, you referenced the
time that we met in Charleston atthe Harbor Entrepreneur Center, which, by
the way, those guys are doinggood work over there. Really appreciate being
a part of that. And I'lltell you this, It's going to sound
(06:01):
funny, but it's the absolute,sincere truth. When I walked into that
session that afternoon at the Harbor Center, and I think you and I were
in a group session together with youngentrepreneurs. You know. I sat down,
honestly, having come late to theparty you guys had already started,
(06:25):
and I was listening to you,and I thought my first thought was,
who the hell is this guy?He is like a rock star, because
you were offering so much value tothe discussion. As we've talked about in
the intro leading up to this point. Now in our conversation, obviously,
(06:48):
you're an innovator, executive, formerCEO leader, you're an author of multiple
books. You've had a dellar career. I want to jump right into the
pool, Tom and ask you thisquestion with all the accolades that we've already
talked about. Who's the real TomWilliams. I define people that I hire
(07:15):
as either Nettakers, Coasters or netGibberts ultimortal life. I've always been that
person that wants to feel good aboutsomeone else winning, doing, succeeding,
how doing a good time. AndI guess it's built into my nature.
I'm not sure exactly where it comesfrom. I'm not sure if it's DNA.
(07:35):
I'm not sure a mistake. Butyou know, I don't relish,
if you would, the limelight,because that's not where I come from.
But I do relish success of others. Yeah, I'm so success of your
podcast, for example, hopefully thatI will help you with that, but
(07:56):
it's got nothing to do with me. I to give an idea, an
idea of thought, and then someonesays, oh we could do that,
well, let's go do it,okay, And my nature has never been
to stop and say no or feelembarrassed, because it's never really a bad
(08:16):
idea, I mean, right,the right timing. I've had that happened
quite often, but it may havenot a clear understanding of what to do,
but at least a start and thenwhen you look at people's eyes and
you see that the light blake andthey look up until the right and they
picture something, then you know you'vegot something interesting to explore. And I
(08:37):
enjoy that smile and that glow thatcomes out of teams. Say let's go
do that. And we met thatday with those five or six people,
these entrepreneurs, and we talk tothem. You can see that their their
energy, their excitement about winning andsucceeding. So it's not about me,
It's not about a sign or youknow, I'm not a celebrity. I
(09:01):
don't want to be a slip.I want to background and I'm five.
What drives that tom, What drivesthat passion to see others when over yourself?
You know, I think it's goodto do with learning. I have
a first for knowledge and the onlyway I can learn something is to have
(09:22):
other people talk. So I usethis phrase what I do speeches. You
listen to learn, you talk toteach. And I like listening to people
who look at AI today for example, Internet of Things, all the noise
around artificial intelligence, and you're saying, okay, there are good things and
(09:43):
bad things about everything. But asI look into or saying it is a
very exciting technology is beginning to appearand subtle companies like Navidia and others the
building technology to allow that to happen. That's wonderful. So what's I think
The driver to me is I havethis thirst for knowledge in the early way
I can learn that is for others. Yeah, that's good. I want
(10:09):
to camp out for just a moment. On that session we had here in
Charleston a couple of months ago,a word that kept coming, I think
both verbally and nonverbally to me fromyou as you spoke to those young entrepreneurs
was the word disruption. Unpack thatplease? Okay. So I look at
(10:37):
about other business plans a year,and as you know, very few of
them pass degree. So what Idecided to is put a filter. And
the filter is, shall we somethingthat's disruptive, innovator, defensible, and
skilled. I called it's mot Ihave that an article website, and that
(11:01):
built us out about nine right away. Because someone might have an idea in
many cases there I call one trickponies or they have something. It's that.
When I was at Memoricks do aategicplanning, there was a phrase that
just felt like fingernails on a chartbullIt advertising that said we are a faster,
(11:22):
thinner, cheaper, smoother, andthen I'm going then who all right?
Right? And I think it wasit was a crazy ad camp.
It just drove me nuts because thatmeans that you are number two, and
to me, if you're number two, your first loser. Okay, So
(11:43):
if you want to change things,if you want to be an agent of
change, I've been accused of beingat which I appreciate that you want to
change things from the way it isnow to something that's better. And in
that process it might be a stupididea, but once you explore and unpack
it and you go interesting. Sowhen I talked entrepreneurs, I will get
(12:07):
it. We heard this a coupleof times about a mission statement that had
a negative what we don't do?Is this? What do you really do?
Okay, let's change the mission statement. Okay. One of the gentlemen
in that group was doing some sortof cybersecurity and I said, well,
you're talking about talking to customers sayingwell, we'll fix what's broken. And
(12:33):
my comment is that'snot the right missionstatement. Mission statement is we're gonna tell
you what you don't know. Okay, so so know what you don't know.
I think it's the phrase I use. So that changes the dynamic when
you talk to teams like that.So I think it's important that entrepreneurs understand
the value proposition and what they're changing. If you are just finding something is
(12:58):
cheaper and faster, you're not justinsructing anything. You're just being a participant
in the market. Steve Jobs agood example. Okay, we could see
just over the horizon. So heknew the difference between what a customer wanted
and what a customer needed, andthat was different and he was good at
that. Though. I think theconcept being disruptive is the freeload if you
(13:24):
would about what you're going to doin terms of digital transformation, whether it
be in health sciences, health tech, eye tech, all the tech words
that are flowing around. So Ilook for business models. I look at
what one's going to change everything,and that's probably in my DNA because I
wouldn't see something change. Does thatmake sense? Yes? Absolutely would.
(13:46):
You're looking at a hundred business plansa year, right, You're seeing a
lot of stuff come across your desk, And again, I love you,
I love your enthusiasm and your passionnot only to listen right, but also
the courage to say no, thisis not going to cut it. But
when you look at these entrepreneurs andthey can be you know, twenty five
(14:11):
or seventy five, it doesn't matter, right, this bringing a new product,
a new service, a new ideato the marketplace. What are some
of those obstacles in having that disruptivemindset? What I tend to do is
focus initially what's right about it,focus on what's wrong about okay, and
(14:35):
a lot of the wrong about itit might be because it's truly to the
market. In two thousand and six, I'll give you an example, I
started a company called Cinematics. Andwhat I wanted to do because a networking
person in my background, is torun also level audio movies and music over
(14:58):
the network. And we did it. We actually demonstrate it. So but
you could buy a get a DVin that case, you write the DVD
from from Netflix, lower it inand you have it in your server and
you can show it to the house. And I remember bringing this business plan
to a couple of venture capital friendsof line, and they said, what
(15:22):
are you doing? I go,what do you mean d blue rays coming
out? It's going to lunch.I oh, this is an example where
you're a little too early okay tothe market. So that I've been in
that one because there's no way we'regoing to get funded because of this mindset
at the time. So a lothas it got to do with timing U.
(15:45):
And the other part is what isthe value proposition to the customer?
Why would they want to buy thisthing? And there's this Jeff Moore does
this book called Across the Chasm andearly adopt is my usual your product,
but then it might get stuck,okay, so the first kid of the
block where no one cares okay,So you need to get to those late
(16:07):
users and things like that, themasses. So when I look at these
business models, I get jazzed excited. When I see something that's just going
to change everything. I want tobe part of that. I want to
be on that train. And thenthere's others where I saw a business plan
and try to advise them saying it'snot quite fair. But if you consider
(16:30):
going in this direction, you willhave some traction. But there's always this
fear of a fun factor, fearin certain of doubt. When the entrepreneurs
all feel comfortable with it, theydon't make that ship. Okay, So
if you look at an hundred businessplans virture capital firms, except heasn't to
(16:53):
look at or fun ten out ofthe ten, three will sail, three
or four will break even, andtrade will be winners and maybe one's an
outlier. Yeah, that's it.So they hit ratio. It's almost like
playing you know, double sixes onthe craft table. So so what's important
(17:14):
for them is to give them thetools that's necessary for them to really think
out what the business model is andbe able to present that to potential partners,
whether they be investors or customers orwhatever, so that they can have
the excitement and share legs. Sothat's that's important with entrepreneurs. That's also
(17:40):
important with the emerging companies because theyhave an initial market penetration and they get
stuck. Yeah yeah right, sothey think about all the next step is
so you see a lot of caseswhere you see civil attraction and then the
company gets stuck and then go away. Google was the fourteenth searchage, okay,
alto this was the first. Yeah, So what happened in that transition
(18:06):
between those two. So you'll getthis concept with the entrepreneurs that have an
idea, but they've got to beopen minded. You're kind of molded and
that's where you I come in asmentors. It's like, well, okay,
you're there, but ninety percent's notgoing to get it. Now.
I really appreciate you sharing that.I was in a session last week or
(18:27):
week before last in the same setting, right, and the young entrepreneur said
as as she was sort of explainingher value proposition and you know, perceived
need in the market. I lookedat the person and I said, are
(18:48):
you building a business or are youbuilding a lifestyle? You know, I
have talked to entrelts, least entrepreneursand ask the scot I'm going to write
about this in fact, are youa missionary or are you an entrepreneur?
And a lot of cases, alot of those hundred business plans, our
missionary states I'm going to change theworld. Why because people are doing things
(19:12):
wrong? Well, I'm we're goingto do that. When you look at
an entrepreneur that you would trying tosteer them to find some way to be
disruptive because they are thinking about this. So if you get them to think
outside the box a little bit morerather than have a very narrow comfort zone.
(19:32):
To me, it's like a guythat works to the gym and wants
to do wellness drengths. Okay,well, maybe the idea is to be
able to have a special way forpeople build muscle. Our job as mentors
is not to say no. Ourjob is to give them some guidance to
change their compass a little bit andlet them think about We've talked a little
(19:53):
bit about this as we've gotten toknow each other. Tom the life.
You know, the last company Ibuilt and sold, I started it,
you know, in my toolshd.You know, they were just there were
lonely, lonely, lonely days.And you know, I had a wife
(20:14):
that was a stay at home momand two kids that loved to eat.
So my whole focus was survival.And maybe that first stage is that of
survival. We're literally trying to keepthe lights on. So if that assumption
is true, and I see thatwhen I speak to entrepreneurs, for that
(20:37):
young entrepreneur again, whether they're twentyfive or seventy five, it doesn't matter
what do you give that guy,that girl, what's the message for them
as they're sitting in their tool shedand they're saying, give me something that
(20:57):
I can give me a life preserver. Well, first of all, I
don't think that you need to technology. Yeah, take a look at Michael
Jordan, take a look at thesports. There's that one young man,
one woman, you know, practicingevery day. If you have the passion
that you want to do something.And I'm a big fan of the Beatles.
(21:18):
I mean they never learned music,Yeah, they never. They can't
read music, but they found away to skiffule first and get a couple
of guitars work, and they changethe music corp. Right. But the
thing is is that if you havea passion about so, and the question
is you will follow that passion regardless. I think I mentioned in my background
(21:41):
when I worked at the community college, I was working on Saturday nights,
but again because I really wanted tosucceed with the student body. Now,
yes, it does cost you abit of a loneliness, It gets you
lowly, but the reward on thatcoming back on the other side for you
(22:02):
astounding when you see students happy andpeople happy to use in the product.
You know, I remember, I'llgive you an example, going to a
little red schoolhouse up on the ArcticCircle in suite okay, well they had
in one of the routers that weput together, and these young kids we're
(22:22):
on the internet. That's amazing.We wake up at the Arctic Circle in
this little building. There's twelve kidsand they're running internet. Right, and
you look at that and go out. These kids, these young people are
going to be smart, new,successful whatever they do, right, But
they see what's exciting about change.I think most people, whether again whatever
(22:48):
industry and could be sports, itcould be technology or whatever you want to
change it differently. Look at Curryfor the gold for the three players.
Yeah, that took a lot ofpassional, a lot of practice together.
I don't know if the DNA isevolved. I don't know where it comes
from, but I think you've gotthat passion go through it because he's what
(23:08):
happens. I have this thing,this phrase I use, I could have,
I would have, and I shouldhave. I want to be able
to answer all three of them allright, so that I can close that
chapter. But if I don't,I saying, oh yeah I was,
maybe I should have done that,right. That's the part to me is
(23:29):
well, Hello, this is ChuckCrumpton. I just want to speak to
business owners and event planners out there, just for a moment right in the
middle of our show. I lovepublic speaking. It's one of the great
joys of my life. It's oneof my passions, and I would love
to speak to your group, whetherit's a workshop, handel, keynote.
(23:52):
I just love communicating real truth andreally helping business owners and organizations improve and
to grow and to be bigger andbetter. So if you have an interest,
if you have a need in havinga workshop speaker, panel speaker,
or a keynote speaker, please giveme a call eight six four nine one
(24:18):
five zero zero six six. I'llbe happy to send you over examples of
talks that I've done in the past, but really more importantly discuss what your
needs would be in your organization andbe able to speak to your folks.
So again eight six four nine zerozero six six and I look forward to
(24:41):
speaking to your organization. Sin I'ma big fan of I don't know if
you know Dave Ramsey. He's afinancial guy. I't in Tennessee. Roll
my kids up through sort of hisdepth free living perspective, and they've talked
very openly about, you know,being hard charging. I think at twenty
(25:06):
six he was a millionaire with realestate. He met God on the way
up, and then he went bankrupt, and he said he got to he
met him on the way up,but got to know him on the way
down, which I find to beprovocative and refreshing. Right. But the
(25:27):
point is he's had those you know, he had those young struggles being an
entrepreneur, starting his business on thecard table in his kitchen, and now
I think he's got eleven or twelvehundred employees, three hundred million dollars operation.
I'm curious, with all the successthat you've had, and you've had
(25:49):
a lot of dog gone success,man, what's been the toughest part and
all the things that you've done,what's been the toughest part for Tom Williams.
Uh, Well, that's just avery good question. Let me frame
with it's a couple of different waysand maybe we'll get to answered correctly.
I remember when I had was juststarting out with while the company's life started
(26:15):
and we're having difficult the others guynamed John King, he worked at IBM,
I moved in the East Coast whenI was living there, and uh,
I remember talking to him and Iwas talking about a company and I
can't remember what him the company was, but he failed. I may lost
llions of dollars. When did anipo went went down to zero? He
(26:37):
just got another job. Why didhe get another job? Because John said
he knows what it means to fail. And I think in the case of
Ramsey, and I don't know himthat well, but in others that I
think entrepreneurs are taking a risk.But then if they do fail, you
get off the ground and you geton your knees, you stand up again,
(26:57):
and then you go the next one. And the whole industry, everything
that we do, there's fairs inour life and the question is what do
we do about So John King toldme, just geek, he knows what
means a bill okay, And Igo, wow, that makes sense.
(27:18):
So I have mixed results. Insome cases sold companies right, sold them
for fire sale because the technical worldchanged. It's been very successful. But
I think that if you've got thedesire, and indeed I didn't need the
money just to desire, go changethings. And that's exciting because when you
(27:45):
see the gleam in other people's eyes, really validating your vision. That's a
wonderful thing. So again I don'tknow where it came from. I don't
know it's because I maybe spend inchand watch by cartoons. I don't know.
But I grew up in a verypoor environment, you know, in
(28:07):
my background, and I watched myfather who was an auto mechanic and had
his all little garage and my motherwas the bookkeeper, and both of them
had no more than it's great education. Yeah, they struggled to be independent,
and maybe that's where I got theindependence accidentally, view would a stroke
to do? What? Do somethingdifferent? So I don't know if I
(28:29):
can answer that question. But there'sbeen setbacks, you know, the uninte
at point as they call it intechnology. What you do about the counts?
Now? They can cower down andsay I'll never get into it again,
or they can get up and goforward. And from those experiences,
(28:51):
did you ever have a time inone of those setbacks where you just felt
like cashing it in? I don'tknow. I've come I've had some close
ones. Okay, So there wasone episode that comes to mind where we
(29:11):
were doing contract work for a companycalled three Com. I could not get
funding for the company who did theroutes called Combinet, and no it would
fund us. So we luckily,by chance, got a contract with three
com to take our technology and putit into their product. And then we
(29:33):
were living paycheck to paycheck if youlook at it that way. And I
had four employees or five employers.No, I had twelve employees, and
we needed that money for that payment. There was a progress payment and I
had basically thirty minutes to get thatcheck deposited in Bank of America. Well,
(29:56):
the payrold checks one out. Yeah, all right, so you get
these moments of despair, all right, when you get that anxiety saying,
oh my god, how much andmake this work? And how they're going
to tell these people that their paychecksjust bounced. Yeah, so you get
you get onto that level. Butthen the question is do you go the
(30:18):
employees before that and say it's overall right and wait for a three come
to give you the check or tosay, let me see if I can
just do whatever I have to do. Yeah, that check and finally got
a release and I'm racing down tothe bank. I think at fifteen minutes
before. So you get these despairmoments. You get employees that don't believe
(30:44):
in themselves, and you have tohave a chat with them, say I
believe in you go to it right. You know. Maybe it's because being
a CEO and being at the bottomof the ORB chart. I think we
talked about that. Uh, yourjob is to get all these people would
be successful. No. I rememberI two years ago, I was in
Atlanta and I met with an oldVP of sales and he thanked me,
(31:08):
this is that the five or securisHe goes, I just really appreciate what
they can make of me a man. Right, So I'm going, okay,
well that's okay, wonderful. Doesit make you feel good? All
right? But it's it's hard.There were moments and I can't think of
one because I tried to maybe suppressthem. But but I came close to
(31:33):
this case with commonet of shutting itdown, and it was that close.
It was that goals it scary.I think I would have drank a lot
of wine. Well no, Imean I got some some crazy stories and
things like that that came out okay, but nothing that would give me the
(31:57):
point of anxiety. That that Iwas going to famil. I was always
looking for what's the next step,what can I do? How can this
work out? Okay, and let'sfigure that out. She would say,
I was lucky. Yeah, Well, do you think that grit came from
(32:20):
your parents? Come from you know, you're a drill sergeant in the army.
That helped shape that grit. Ialways have this drive for not perfection,
but to being good at something.So so I grew up in a
neighborhood where we had the only thingat saving beginning in trouble was playing baseball,
(32:42):
and those kids would get together.But I really wanted to play baseball.
Well, okay, so I didn'tjust want to just put I want
to pitch along the lefty, youknow, I want to play hard right,
And you go after that with thatdrive to saying I want to be
good at When I do. Youget involved with something and you want to
everything about it. You want toexcel it, not to show off.
(33:07):
You just want to challenge yourself.So I think it's not great as much
as it's sticktuitousness. I like thator blind tenacities. I want to look
at it. Yeah, I likethat. That has paved the way for
a very successful career that you guyshave enjoyed and Adam boy AT's off to
you, man. And what Ilove about our new friendship is the ability
(33:31):
to affect change and to effect tomove the needle. In my healthcare days,
I dealt with a number of youknow, executives in the healthcare space
that you know, after a fewglasses of wine and I get steak dinner,
you know, they've looked at meand they've said, you know,
(33:53):
Chuck, I've done well, butyou know, I wished I would have
done some other things in my youknow, in my life, in my
career. Right. So I thinkthe more that we can help others,
the more we can help move thatneedle and make an impact and create uh
(34:15):
an environment conduced it for change.And you mentioned being a change agent.
Um, I appreciate that passion.Man, you know what our job is
to be That it was at anapp guard in the in the dry dish.
Yeah, well there's corrupt, right, And my idea is that it
(34:37):
wasn't me. I cared about astupid idea that someone said and looking to
that, okay, and the thousandsof people that worked on teams that hadded
my career and then getting successful andproud of what they could tribute. So
and goes back to my six easeof culture. I think he probably saw
(34:58):
that on my website. Yeah,the concept of empowerment. A lot of
current CEOs that I talked to thatwe're at our third of our life.
They're so stuck, you know,because the economy changes, the market changes,
the landscape changes, and they don'tfeel they have the tools. Rather
(35:19):
than to grit should be able tohandle that. Young teams coming up and
the senior senior executive team, thesenior leadership team, I guess they're they're
looking for guidance so they can takecharge of what their particular discipline is.
So it's always been that way,since it's the beginning of time, all
(35:40):
right, and it's our job,you and I to pass on our mistakes
and our successes. But then they'regoing to find something totally different. But
it's a foundation. I'll close it. One of the comment One of the
things that's happened I think you andI both experience is what I call the
sound mentor Okay, some of thewife that said something did something you know
(36:07):
that just changed the way you lookat things. So I'll slit two stories.
I worked at a high end Canneserestaurant in Rodala and it was a
family of five men who emigrated fromChina, no more than in eighth grade
or fourth grade education, and itstarted this restaurant and it became extremely successful.
(36:32):
I remember when I was sixteen,I worked all my life, but
going to the restaurant to work,I was being chided by other boys.
Why would you go to a Chineserestaurant because they don't serve chicken in their
child mayne. They served something elsethat's a cut four legs. And I
(36:52):
stupid me, right, I gointo Saturday morning because I'm gonna be cleaning,
cutting chickens up and things like that. And I said the Bob and
listen, I not talked to theseguys about you know what this is.
And he goes, Charlie Wilco isthe word of you. So I'm not
sure what the exact phraseology. Sitdown on that crane. Let me tell
(37:15):
you something. Okay, we servea hundred fifty chicken John Mains on a
Saturday, one hundred and fifty eachbach one has eight ounces of meat.
So if we want to do whatyour friends told you to do. Some
now you have to go out andcatch probably one hundred and fifty animals.
(37:35):
They get back, clean them andget the meat. Maybe he gets six
ounces out of them. Okay,these furry animals, and then put them
in a freezer and then we'll beable to cook m I don't know how
to get it. One hundred andfifty of these animals. I go.
That's the point. And at thatcircle of moment you taught me critical thinking.
It was just a phenomenal of thatbecause I loved that. Where now
(37:59):
I go about those boys saying,you guys jerks right, well, fifteen
sixty year old, we're all jerksat that point. Yeah, but you
will learn something, something triggers.So probably was a mentor an invisible hand
if you would. Yeah, Ilove that in my career when I am
today. So let me let meask you this. You're you're doing amazing
(38:21):
things coast to coast. You're sittingin Silicon Valley right now. Two months
ago, you're sitting in Charleston withme. How can we keep up with
you? We don't want to stalkyou, but we do want to follow
what you're doing. All the positiveimpact. You know, the Silicon Valley
is expanding. There are a lotof hub opportunities. I like the idea,
(38:45):
maybe because I'm a startup first andis to go a place that we
can do startups to start a networkor hub. And you see over the
last ten years, probably accelebrated bythe Zoo and team's capability, that there's
now additional hubs, not only youknow Minneapolis for big machines, and Silicon
(39:06):
Valley and San Francisco with Boston.All these areas begin to emerge as technology
helps, and then you have successfulpeople. It can be mentors like yourselves,
and then you have servifavidors. Youknow, the facilities, the legal,
the hr or the outsorts I Tand all that stuff. All these
(39:27):
things come together and you create thisenvironment. Doesn't necessarily mean you have to
have public support. You just gonnacreate I call it spin service and investor
network. Okay that if you dothat, then you replicated what happened to
Silicon Valley. And that's what wasexciting when I visited with you with the
RBEC to see that gleam in theeye where where I'm seeing some stuff popping
(39:52):
out of there, going wow,that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, we
want to change things. So Iwant to point quickly as we close own
a point folks to your website,m Williams Books dot com. You are
the author of a number of booksthat have done very, very very well,
(40:14):
and I encourage people to get tothat site. Um. Your email
is Tom at snaka dot com,s or I'm sorry ce Na RCA dot
com dot com any other links toget to you, my friend, and
if someone wants to talk, justfeel free to give me a call send
(40:36):
me an email with the Snarca dotcom email. I do respond to all
the units. Tom, Thank you. That was a real treat and what
a what a joy for me tohave this conversation today. I want to
make sure that you have a wayof following Tom. Tom can be reached
at Tom at Snarca dot com.That is Tom at ce Na RCA,
(41:04):
and of course you can look himup on LinkedIn, Tom Williams. But
Tom, thank you for being onthe show. Thank you for sharing a
piece of your heart today. Andmore information about the show can be found
at the Chuck Crumpton Show dot com. Until the next episode. This is
Chuck Crumpton. I hope you havea great day,
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