When the Board Told My Great-Grandfather to Quit (He Said No)
Fellow steward,
Imagine coming back from serving in World War I and being told by the board that was watching over your company while you were literally in the trenches that you should shut the doors on the business you hoped would support your family for the years ahead!
That’s where my great grandfather, Henry Bryant, found himself.
Henry came back from the war in France to his hometown in Wisconsin in 1918 to his board making a strong recommendation to close the doors of the family business!
The board told him it wasn’t worth his time because there were too many headwinds preventing the business from performing well:
Global uncertainty with World War I
Bracing for supply chain issues as world powers were in war
Stressed by a global pandemic (Spanish Flu)
Learning to adapt to the incredible technological evolution of electricity
Managing labor shortages with so many serving the country in World War I
Do these problems sound familiar?
TIMELESS TRUTH: HISTORY DOESN’T REPEAT. HUMAN NATURE DOES.
Too many challenges. Too many problems. The board didn’t think the business was worth his time. He should start something else.
Henry definitively said: “NO!”
Henry instinctively knew that the value in a business is solving problems.
John D. Rockefeller would agree with Henry’s decision: “We are continually faced by greater opportunities brilliantly disguised as insolvable problems.
Problems are just opportunities in work clothes.
Here’s the takeaway from the start of my great grandfather’s business when he was told to shut it down.
It took time. This challenge of pushing through in the early 1900s was just to get the party started. Henry didn’t know the challenges of 1918 were just the appetizer for the years ahead of him. (The great depression is a decade away. I’ll share that story soon.)
When we zoom in on a story it can seem unbelievably daunting.
When we zoom out on a story we can see the timeless truths.
TIMELESS TRUTHS:
Stay in the game because great things compound. (HUNGRY)
Challenges are opportunities to learn and adapt your skills to compound. (HUMBLE)
The strength of the team is what makes winning possible because trust can compound. (TOGETHER)
Every nation. Every economy. Every business. Every person. Everything has seasons of good and bad.
It’s the tough seasons that put us in a position to become who we’re supposed to become. It’s the tough seasons that put us in a position to grow in the good times.
I know this because I have been a direct witness to Century’s growth because Henry leaned in when others would not have. He stayed in the game when it was good and when it was bad.
TIMELESS TRUTH: We’re going to have both good seasons and bad seasons.
Let's lean in—for our families, for the generations ahead, through the good and the bad.
Let’s lean in for our family businesses like Henry did for mine over 100 years ago.
It’s the same as ever.
Onward,
Matt