Sara Moola and her husband Mike Vaughn met the night before our country invaded Iraq.  That’s significant because that meeting not produced a great marriage and family, but also a fantastic business that better prepares our troops to execute strategy on the battlefield.  Sara, Co-Founder and CEO of Visual Awareness Technologies and Consulting (VATC, Inc.) describes the company inception:

We debated on the night we met whether or not the US would invade (Iraq).  Mike was working for systems integration for the military and is a retired Special Operations Veteran.  I have a background in International Development/Geographical Information Systems (ID/GIS) and I was working with the military in missionplanning systems.  We both thought regardless of what the USA decided to do, there had to be a better way to serve our military with faster, innovative solutions to prepare them for better coordination and execution on the battlefield.  I wrote the Business Plan for VATC and we started our business on this premise in 2003.  We married in 2005.  As of 2012 the company has over 160 employees in over 20 locations worldwide.  We support Integrated Training Environments and Integrated Training Systems to better prepare our troops and coalition partners in irregular scenarios.

Mike and Sara make a dynamic team.  She brings business savvy to her husbands extensive experience with battlefield execution.  Together with their team, talented individuals who also have Special Forces experience, they help our troops to fight the fight better.  They equip our military elite to stay excellent at what they do and stay ahead of the curve in a changing (world) environment.

But Mike and Sara don’t stop with helping those fighters in the field.  They are staunch supporters of  those soldiers who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice during their service.  Sara describes their mission behind the mission:

Mike introduced me to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, an organization that provides free education and other support to the children of the Special Operations Warriors Killed in Action.  I wanted to do more for these kids other than going to the fundraising events.  I founded the Warrior Outdoor Leadership for the Future (W.O.L.F.), which provides week-long outdoor leadership camps led by active duty and retire Special Operations Forces. We are currently trying to initiate a human resiliency support program.  This entails hiring social workers and psychologists worldwide to support our military troops.  As the suicide rate of our US soldiers hits one per day, we find it troubling that we cannot fill these positions.  We need the psychology community to mobilize and help us in this critical area.

Sara and Mike have won numerous awards, including Inc. 5000 in 2012, Lead Women Entrepreneurs, 2012 SBA Team of the Year, etc., and they are destined to win much more.  VATC is a great company with a great service, a great mission and a great team.  They train other organizations to do what they do on a regular basis; plan and execute effectively in the midst of a changing environment.  ”Never be surprised by surprises,” Mike states.  Sound like valuable advice to a business as well as a strike team?  You bet.  That’s in the works.  For now, this husband and wife team is dedicated to protecting our nation and providing for those who’ve given all for that protection.

Charlie Pilkington, Founder and Managing Member of NorthStar Technologies, often looks at the framed quote from Gary Comer, Founder of Land’s End:

Worry about being better; bigger will take care of itself.  Think of one customer at a time and take care of each one the best way you can.

Charlie reminds me of why entrepreneurs are America’s competitive advantage in the world economy.  He exudes inspiration and confidence. He’s unflappable and unstoppable.  He has the integrity to live out the quote hanging on his wall.

I have the satisfaction of knowing that we provide recovery services to over 1000 clients nationwide and employ 20 great people.

And like most entrepreneurs, Charlie is innovative.  Referencing his experience in Air Force Intelligence, he spotted a gap and decided to fill it.

I oversaw Risk Management for a $4 billion bank group, and collections fell under my department.  I worked with both local and national recovery agencies at collecting charge-off debt and check collections.  As an end user, and working with several companies, I saw what worked and what didn’t.  I envisioned a one-top shop for both first and third party collections that involved a web-based reporting function for uploading accounts and payments. This was all cutting edge in 2002.

Most starters like Charlie show signs of entrepreneurship in the 4th grade.  Charlie’s first venture started when, as at age 9, he looked up one late Fall morning and saw an opportunity.  Mistletoe cluttered the top of a nearby tree.  He noticed that a number of trees suffered from the same affliction, and with Christmas around the corner he saw an opportunity.  He climbed the trees, cut out the fungus and sold the greenery to homes in his neighborhood.  Then he looked for the next idea to invest his $21.  That’s I call a “born with it” DNA Economy Hero.

NorthStar has had it’s challenges for sure.  Winn Dixie’s bankruptcy in 2006 left the company without it’s largest client.  But they’ve more than recovered.  They’ll double in size in early Q1 with an acquisition.  NorthStar, unlike many second stage ventures, secured growth capital from the third bank they approached.  Charlie saw the first two as preparation for the third.

The first two banks spent most of their time telling me how ugly my “baby” was.  They just showed me how to make it “prettier” for the third.

NorthStar has become on handsome kid under Charlie’s watch; and while he’s got plates to spin with the new purchase and other ideas in the works, his $10 million EBITDA BHAG seems almost as certain as his first $21.

Mayra Jimenez and Ivan Rincon are two of the smartest entrepreneurs I know.  My company has worked with over 500 fast-growth companies in the past three years. Over 95% of their leadership teams are are out of sync on their value proposition.  Not Mayra and Ivan.  Their company, Orchid Boutique, owns the Purple Cow in their industry. I met these two Economy Heroes at the Inc. 500 Awards meeting last month in Phoenix.  Mayra took a few minutes to describe the origin of their USP.

We saw a void in the market for luxury swimwear for women. We knew there was a special type of swim product being made in Colombia, our native country, with very special one-of-a-kind crafting.  We saw an opportunity to bring these designs to the international market with a top-notch online portal, and target discerning women who crave style and sophistication in their beachwear.

Mayra and Ivan created the Luxury Swimwear category that launched like a rocket and pushed them to the limit.

At the end of 2008, before the second year mark, our business exploded.  We grew 600% in the next twelve months.  It was hard to keep up with the volume; we struggled as quick turnaround service and strong customer service became more difficult.  We were understaffed, exhausted, and exhilarated.  We gave it all we had to accommodate every customer as if they were the only customer.

Mayra and Ivan recently opened the first brick and mortar Orchid Boutique in South Miami Beach.  The store will provide a face to a brand that continues to build with lightning speed.   The Jimenez family is out to change America’s perception of swimwear.

We don’t want swimwear to be an afterthought.  We want women to look forward to wearing it.  We want swimwear to become socially fitting.

Leonardo nailed it when he said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”  If that’s true, and it is, then Mayra and Ivan have definitely cracked the Da Vinci Code with Luxury Swimwear.

Tom Henell, COO and co-founder of the North American Professional Liability Insurance Agency (or NAPLIA), doesn’t want much. “In five years I want the headlines to read that NAPLIA changed the insurance industry.”  How’s that for a BHAG?  Tom Henell is not your traditional entrepreneur.  He’s part of what’s been called “The Bounced.” Tom started his career on the traditional corporate track; but then bounced to a different role.

I started working in insurance by accident.  I had ambitions to go into law, and went to work for a law firm right out of college that specialized in insurance.  The firm was in downtown Boston, but the culture wasn’t great.  I looked for other opportunities and found an insurance agency that sold professional liability insurance to attorneys.  Thus, my career in insurance was born.  NAPLIA convinced me to join them in 2003, and together with my two partners we’ve grown the company to become a nationally recognized leader in our industry.  We have 25 employees and we’ve been named to the Inc. 5000 for five consecutive years.

Many Economy Heroes are value-driven, and Tom is no exception.  He’s created what he calls a “culture of generosity.”

Our focus is on maximizing the individual’s potential for the betterment of the whole.  We try to give back significantly to local and national charities.  We understand that we are blessed in our position and want to share our success.

His partner and NAPLIA CEO, Gary Sutherland provided the example that spurred Tom into his current paradigm.  Sutherland sold insurance out of his basement for several years.  One day he surprised Tom with a generous offer.

He didn’t hire me to grow NAPLIA; he wanted to help me be successful and become a full partner.

Unlike most business owners, Tom and Gary have no desire to build NAPLIA to sell it.  They want build their culture and be part of a successful and progressive company that happens to sell insurance. When I asked Tom to identify the entrepreneur’s greatest fear, he replied with a different response than any I’ve experienced thus far:

As your company grows, you start to feel the responsibility of being a leader. When you start out, you make decisions based on your personal interests, and usually on a day-to-day basis.  Now at our monthly company meetings, I have 25 people looking to me for direction and support.  It’s a lot of pressure to know that these people rely on you for their well-being.  It’s easy to get overwhelmed at times and to bring those feelings home with you at night.  I’ve found that the key to combat this is to develop a vertical organization structure with quality managers who can relieve these burdens by running different departments within your company.

When a company Founder’s greatest fear is the welfare of his own employees you know you’ve got a culture, not only of generosity, but commitment.  A wise man once said, “Confidence is a by-product of predictability.”  I’d say NAPLIA’s employees have confidence in their leaders.  Tom Henell lives out what Steven Covey preached.  If you want to see a best demonstrated practice of “First Things First”; look no further than NAPLIA.

Delegating authority is a notoriously difficult undertaking for many business owners to accept, especially when it comes time to bringing in an outside CEO. In a Q & A in The New York Times, Lisa Price, founder of the beauty products company Carol’s Daughter, explains how she learned to calmly accept that an outside CEO might not be such a bad thing. Price explains that while juggling a lot of issues, it helps to put an actual dollar amount to the value of your time and then determine whether or not it is cost-effective for one person to handle every single task. “I did something as long as it made sense to me to do it,” she said. “And then, once it made sense to turn it over to someone else–either because it could get done better, or because I could spend my time making more money elsewhere–I did it.”

Inc. Magazine, A Model for Smarter Growth, August 23, 2010, Jason Del Ray

We all know that companies under 250 employees depend heavily on the Founder to wear more hats than Lady Gaga and spin more plates than a short order cook.  But as their companies build momentum, Entrepreneurs often find themselves buried in the fray of operational details and strategic delegation becomes a necessity.

Delegation is essential to growth, no question.  But when does an Entrepreneur refrain from delegating?   The founder must not release the company’s most valuable asset in order to maintain momentum and growth – he or she must protect the “Fastball”.

What do I mean by “Fastball”?  Consider my favorite baseball ever – Nolan Ryan.  Ryan is considered by many to be the greatest pitcher of all time.  Batters braced themselves for almost twenty years when Ryan took the mound because they had no question what was coming – a blazing, 100 mph fastball right down the center of the strike zone.  Hall of Famer, Reggie Jackson, said of Ryan’s heater – “It disappeared half way to the plate.”

Nolan Ryan built an incredible career around one thing – something he was passionate about; something he did better than anything else.   All Entrepreneurs have their “fastballs” and although the company at some point must get good at what the founder does best in order to scale, it makes little sense in the first few stages of corporate growth for her to give up trips to the mound to throw her heater.  It’s what she, and the company does best.

I spoke recently with the CEO of one of the fastest growing middle market software companies in the country.  When I asked him to identify his fastball, he pondered then responded, “I raise capital.”  Indeed he does; last week he secured an additional $35 million to fund the warp 10 growth of his baby.  What would happen if he was not free to pound the Private Equity flesh?  His company would exceed their speed limit and grow themselves out of existence.

Bottom line, stay on the mound.  You wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

It’s two days after the ultimate gut check on our country’s political paradigm.  Fortunately Admiral William Stockdale’s quote to Jim Collins rings in my ears:

You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

Thus Jim Collins coined the Stockdale Paradox.  Embrace the brutal facts, but have unwavering faith that you will prevail.  I encourage all Economy Heroes to embrace the Paradox this morning and keep pumping.  The brutal facts of taxation, mandatory health care, and a plethora of other policies stare you in the face, but you must have the unwavering faith that you, and your “baby” will survive.

Why?

Innovation – America depends on you to create the medical technology that cures and heals, the engineering that makes the inefficient and costly cost-efficient, and the capsule that enables a man to step off a platform and “fall with style” for twenty three miles.  The Fortune 1000 no longer innovates.  They buy your idea so that they can inflate and scale it with capital.  Without you, nothing new happens.

Inspiration – America looks at Dave Drieling, CEO and Founder of GTM software and marvel at a guy who can create a $65 million dollar business that started out of his car trunk.  Because you take the risks that change our lives, we watch and remember that entrepreneurs are our nation’s competitive advantage in the world economy.

Employment – Once you survive No Man’s Land, you create over 85% of the jobs in this country.  The GEs and Microsofts create less than 3%.  If you think the job market is tight now, think of what would happen if more of you pull back.

I’ve had the privilege of hanging with enough of you to know that you play to win.  Don’t fall into the trap of loss aversion; don’t let today’s news tempt you to “play not to lose.”  Keep knocking on the Private Equity doors to bridge your capital gap.  Keep honing your Value Proposition.  Keep hiring the talent that will take you to the next level.  Free yourself to do what you do best.

I know I’m speaking to the choir.  But I want you to know that I’m your biggest fan; I’m an Entrepreneur Activist.  Going forward, we’ll have to fight for every win we get.  Mike Tyson once said, “Everybody’s got a strategy until he gets hit.”  Well, we’ve been hit, but we won’t stay down.  From now on, this is truly is a Freedom Fight for Entrepreneurs.

Embrace the Stockdale Paradox, but keep pumping.  Your company needs you, our country needs you.  Now more than ever.