The Greatest Entrepreneur in the World by Sean C. Castrina

Author:Sean C. Castrina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Published: 2016-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

THE TEACHER

In putting together our team, there was no more important team member than Amy Merrick. Amy’s story was a key part of what drove her to be so successful in her area of expertise. She married her high school sweetheart soon after graduation, only for him to leave her with two young sons for reasons I still have no clarity on, not that any excuse would justify him abandoning his young family. I always assumed her situation brought out her fierce survival mentality. Very early on, I knew she was as tough as they come.

She started out as a part-time receptionist for one of Emmit’s service companies, but she quickly moved up through various key positions to the point where he trusted her with anything that he knew had to get done. She had great capacity, a trait he valued equal only to trust. In her original part-time position answering the phones, she excelled taking note of why customers made the first call to his company and why they continued to call. She was organized and detailed; creating a daily log that charted all sorts of valuable information that she gathered just by asking customers for feedback. These questions helped her gather data that allowed her to suggest ways to make future advertising more strategic. It was no surprise Emmit brought her on full time as fast as he could.

She took on roles of increasing responsibility and had many titles, but as only Emmit could do in his plainspoken way, he explained her mission simply became to “get us some customers, make sure they keep using us and like us so much they tell everyone they know how good we are.”

Emmit’s broad-stroke description meant Amy was in charge of “advertising and customer experience” in her final role with him and his broad service business holdings, which allowed her to challenge anyone or anything in the service process that may have been a factor in a failed customer experience. Her job was to effectively advertise what the company could repeatedly deliver and she was not going to allow that promise to go unfulfilled. Customer experience was another new phrase that I learned and heard preached as gospel, which classified it as an “Emmit.” That single word would come to describe anything Emmit declared was a definitive rule in life or business.

To say Amy was forced on the team would be an understatement, but no one in our first five years would be more valuable. I remember it like yesterday; Emmit with his slow, confident, request that you knew couldn’t be refused.

“Johnny, I want you to meet someone who has been quite valuable to me and my businesses for more than a decade. Since I have a good bit in this new pot of ours, I am going to ask you to allow Amy to help us out as we get our footing.’

“Help us out” was either sarcasm or just his usual way of under playing what her contribution would be.

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