Tip the balance...

Great insight from Thomas B Pickens yesterday. Tom is CEO of Astrotech, an aerospace engineering firm based in Texas. He talked about how discussions with his dad on his previous ventures led him to realise an obvious epiphany of entrepreneurship:

Back in the day Tom's dad worked in the oil industry and was very successful. The demand for oil seemed to increase with every day and the more they produced the more they could sell. But contrary to his dads practise, Tom's early ventures in business focused on making incredibly bespoke instruments for major clients like NASA, clients who only ever wanted the production of one item. One day Tom's father sat him down and said "Tom, why aren't you richer?"

After he had recovered from the shock of such a direct question Tom realised, to really make money, a business needs to be scaleable. Like oil. Whatever you produced got sold. So Tom has changed tactics, he now makes products that are high demand and have a global and growing market.

His final remarks to us were:

"Make sure you do the scale thing... then you'll be a success!"