Thursday, January 16, 2014

Entrepreneur Bio: John Mackey

By Hedrick Lepsch


You may be coming from college and you might be ready to get out there and start your life. There are some hard realities that are going to set in fast. Life isn't what you learned in those books and there are a lot of things that you still need to learn about getting ahead in life. The degree is good but it may not take you to the top tier. Here are some things to learn before you get torn apart out there.

But, 30 years ago, that would have been almost unbelievable. When John Mackey, one of the founders of Whole Foods, and its current CEO, started his company in an old house in Austin, he did not expect for it become anything larger than merely a place for a few people to buy quality food, but as time continued, his success became more and more apparent.

Many times as a leader you are expected to make decisions at the drop of a hat and it really isn't that simple especially under stressful circumstances. Judgment entails the ability to calmly make sound decisions when the pressure is on or even when there isn't any pressure at all. Sometimes it takes following your instinct. The marines have a saying that goes like this "a poorly planned decision initiated is much more effective than a great plan not." There is a lot of truth to that statement and it takes a little bit of foresight and experience to really understand it.

What makes this story even more amazing is that John Mackey, when he started his company was a college dropout with only 25 years on this earth to back up his plan.

Those leaders who are shy or afraid to really get out there and make mistakes rarely make any kind of difference in the world. Those who are willing to move forward when everyone else is afraid, will find that they are much more successful.

You will soon find out that it is all about who you know and not exactly what you know. The people you are surrounded by may be your key to getting to your next career. If you aren't keeping up with people, you will find that you are really just shooting yourself in the foot and it will hurt you in the future.

Beyond being personally and financially successful, Mackey also has been a forerunner in the promotion of organic foods. He hopes to bring accessibility to these products, and so far he has been successful. And, he has made great efforts to decrease his own salary and place caps on the salaries of all executive employees of whole foods.

You need to know what you can do that no one else can. What makes you unique? As soon as you know, find out how you can make that work for you in the end. The sooner you can do this, the sooner you will be on your way to success.

Leadership is something that we all have to work on sooner or later. If you are trying to understand leadership better you can always go to leadership training in Denver.




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