Are You Going to Sell Out?

I found myself caught off guard the other day.

A prospective teammate asked me a simple question: “Are you going to sell out?

My answer was immediate but shallow.

“I'm not going to sell... It's not going to happen... I promise…”

He pushed back gently: “I appreciate that... but money does funny things to people…”

“Nope, I wouldn't sell.”

We circled back to this topic multiple times during our conversation. I kept giving the same answer, but clearly I wasn't convincing. Here's why: I was answering from my gut without giving him the deeper reasoning that lives there.

I knew my conviction. I just didn't have the words ready.

So let me try again. Let me tell you why Walt Disney and Issy Sharp didn’t sell out when it could have been so easy — because their stories reveal the heart of my own conviction.

Walt Disney's Choice
In Disney's early days, after Steamboat Willie took off, distributors constantly approached Walt about buying his studio. The money being thrown at him wasn't even tempting. Walt wanted to be “the king of animation.” He believed quality was his only real advantage, and selling would have meant surrendering that advantage to become just another supplier. (a financial instrument.)

Issy Sharp's Pledge
When Four Seasons was struggling for capital, Issy Sharp had every reason to bring in outside ownership. Instead, he pledged everything he had. In his own words: “If quality is your edge, you can't compromise it.” He knew that passing off ownership would mean money — not quality — would drive every decision. As he puts it: “I owe my success to my freedom. Independence has an incalculable value.”

Here's what I see in both stories:
These titans built great businesses with a passion for staying independent because they understood something profound: becoming a financial instrument inevitably leads to compromise of the work itself.

Walt and Issy were building with such care and conviction that they created platforms for their teammates to build their life's work alongside them.

(How beautiful is that!)

What a competitive advantage. This is the difference between evangelists and mercenaries.

They viewed selling to financial investors as surrendering the very thing that gave them their edge and creative control over their destiny.

So here's my deeper answer to that question:
You and I aren't building solely for a financial win.

We're building our life's work. (We’re finding ourselves through our work.)

We don't need more money. We need more meaning. (All of us do.)

The profits come when the passion is visible daily.

The titans of industry play a game of meaning. A game of loving the craft. Building something worth talking about. Something worth passing on. It takes time. 

The reward for great work is more work.

Walt and Issy were optimists. They knew the future would be brighter because they were COMPOUNDING their wisdom and relationships.

Why would you sell something if you know your best work still lies ahead?

Why would you sell something that's a vehicle to spend time working alongside people you like, admire, and trust?

(I know for sure Century's best work still lies ahead, and we keep filling our bus with people of passion.)

Quality and care transcend. But they can only flourish when the ownership structure is based on one's life's work — not a financial instrument.

That's the beauty of family business.

We're building with brick. Slowly. Carefully. Deliberately.

Let's get to work this week. Let's build something worth passing on.

Onward,
Matt

P.S. Independence is about the freedom to love your work without compromise.