It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Imagine that. I had just completed a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland Magna Cum Laude. But instead of tracking the expected path of work in a large, unusual engineering office, I became an employee #2 at a startup Energy Auditing Company that ran from the back room of a house in the suburbs.

In my free time I worked on a bike sharing business that I started with some friends. And oh yes, I lived in my parents’ basement.

I lived my entrepreneurship.

There was only one problem. I didn’t make any money.

After a few years of sporadic salary checks, my parents started nagging me to get a “real job”. But there were too many exciting things that I didn’t want to turn my back.

We had just created a software product that helped us reduce the time we spent on our energy audits drastically. It enabled us to collect data digitally in the field and then automatically generate reports by clicking a button. It turned out that other contractors in the industry also had the same problem, and there was a real potential to licens the software for them.

There was only one problem. We didn’t have a lot of money. (Do you recognize a topic here?)

So I did what every twenty entrepreneur would do. I agreed to pay for our newly created software company for welding capital. After all, I was still in the basement of mom and dad and the opportunity to have participation in a technology company was exciting.

Unless it worked as we were planned. We were in a volatile market too early, and our bank account triggered a constantly changing series of industry standards. We had no choice but to give up our software ambitions and attribute to contract services.

And this is where the 60,000 dollar -salt check comes into play.

Because when the contract company acquired the software company, I had the choice. Will I pay my equity and take a large fat salary check home for the year in which I had worked without payment? Or do I use the equity in the less sexy contract business, the future of which was anything but safe?

What would you do

I decided to stay invested.

Let me tell you this was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make. At that time it felt like I was putting all my chips on an already lost hand.

In reality it was an investment in my future and turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Here is the thing. Growth requires investments.

Company. People. Relationships. If you want it to grow, you have to put something in.

When I kept my business worth 60,000 US dollars in business, it was not just a financial investment in the business. This choice was an investment of my commitment to the company and trust in the ownership team.

And this loyalty was repaid in multiple when she asked me to become the company in return, a few years later, Chief Operating Officer.

If I had made another decision and decided to take over the check, I would have no doubt that I would not have received this opportunity. And without the experience of being a COO, I would never have started to be slim.

We all make decisions during our entire life. Sometimes they are trivial. In other cases, they change.

This was one of these life -changers for me. Not only because it led directly to where I am today, but because it taught me an important lesson that I do today at work that I do with my customers.

It taught me the value of investing.

Our number 1 as a business owner is to decide where and how we can invest the resources we have. Unter -investment leads to stagnation. There is no resources. But intelligent and strategic investments in the right places can achieve unimaginable returns.

This is my number 1 as a scalability consultant. To help my customers find the places in their business, they can invest their resources to have the greatest impact on their growth.

Because growth requires investments.

If you are willing to invest in your growth and support the operational infrastructure, please contact. I would like to help.