Just before my 18th birthday, I decided to start a business selling mail-order rock-climbing gear. I can still clearly remember the first day I drove to my Post Office Box (yes, this was before the internet) and found orders with checks attached (yes, people used to mail checks). Wait, I thought, I just got out of bed, and there is money waiting for me? I was hooked.
Little did I know that this tiny business I started in my mom’s den would grow into one of the tactical equipment industry’s leaders and provide me with a lifelong passion that would feed my family and hundreds of others. While the business has evolved in many ways over the past almost four decades, one thing has remained constant. Every year I run a larger and more complicated enterprise and — in the process — stretch my leadership skillset to its limits.Over the years, perhaps the most frequent question I receive from strangers is a variant of “What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started AARDVARK?” Although there is not a single lesson learned, five lessons (learned through errors and pain) would have been very valuable when I was a budding entrepreneur.
