As Wrench grows, I and myself having interesting conversations with all kinds of people. They are curious about us. They get blown away by our ‘origin story’. Other entrepreneurs especially – the more I share our story the more I’m reminded that Wrench truly is one of a kind!
Recently I was on a podcast with Sijin. We talked about how, in this time of job insecurity, people should become entrepreneurs or start a small business. Somehow the conversation started and ended with the notion of ‘peace’. I said that for me peace was my priority – and had always been. Right from the start of Wrench we cherished the freedom to do what we wanted on our own terms. Maybe that’s what us makes us unique – the deep desire for peace and freedom. It was never about the money. We saw money as the means to an end not the end itself. And so instead of growth, revenue, and profits we focussed on creating value, earning respect, and building trust. I avoided the commitments, investors, and business models that might have brought in quick money but would have endangered our peace.
There were tradeoffs, of course. Growth was slow, we postponed many milestones, we didn’t become as big as we could have. But no regrets. I can say with a hundred percent surety that I am happy with where we are . Because: entrepreneurship should not become self-destruction. You shouldn’t have to work yourself to death for money. Money without peace is meaningless.
We built Wrench by leveraging customer relationships and aggressively managing cash-flow – We avoided quick-fixes like personal loans and borrowing from banks. We chose my trade-offs. We compromised on our lifestyle and material pleasures but never on our goals and values. So the difficulties never became destructive. The sacrifices never became defeats. The load we carried never broke us. We made sure to keep everything manageable and bearable.
And that’s the Wrench founders philosophy in a nutshell: take care of your customers, take care of your people, take care of yourself, and everything else will fall into place. Meaning: when it comes to the market put your energy into getting to know your customer and satisfying him. When it comes to operations, control the cash flow, pay employees on time, be conservative about expenses. And: scale only when the operating model is repeatable; otherwise you’ll burn out.
Yes, entrepreneurship is not easy – but it shouldn’t destroy you. Your ‘success’ shouldn’t be measured by money; it shouldn’t depend on the next deal, the next trend, the next geopolitical event. You must enjoy the journey, both the ups and the downs. Unlike sports, an entrepreneur should play to play, not to win. Run the race for the joy of running! What’s the point of winning if you’re too worn out to enjoy it?
The full conversation is at https://youtu.be/jU3mbVYv9AA . I hope you will watch it. (And stay tuned for part2.)