I Walk the Line

I Walk the Line

No, this is not a piece about Johnny Cash, though I imagine that his song by the same name talks to a similar problem we all face in one way or another. And there’s yet another song title. What exactly is a line? Is it simply a demarcation or is it a barrier not to be crossed. Is it about providing guidance and directionality or is it a warning not to be crossed? When I think about walking the line I think of being on the straight an narrow, but decidedly doing so with an eye towards not going so far as to somehow transgress the allowable sand appropriate.

We all walk many lines during out lives. Some would say that seeking balance is what life is all about and what is that if not walking the line? But I have a very specific line that I find myself treading. I have tread this line for many years with a constant array of different circumstances. I should start by explaining what’s on either side of this line.

Passion and enthusiasm inhabit one side of the line. These are the qualities that advance the world. These are the stuff of legends. Without passion and enthusiasm we are little more than vegetation, walking through life, taking in water and sunlight and allowing the predestined and preprogrammed photosynthesis to do its thing of making cells, growing to a genetically finite size and advancing to dust so that the next piece of vegetation can perform its similar purpose in the circle of life. I am on a flight watching an old favorite, Dead Poet’s Society where Robin Williams admonishes his prep school students to be anything but ordinary. Without passion and enthusiasm, there is nothing left but ordinary.

In the business of private equity, there must be a vision that gives a purpose and a direction to the effort. This vision is what defines the raison d’et of the enterprise. It is said that all private equity should aspire to a scalable opportunity that will create a 10X financial opportunity to the backers of the company. That sort of outcome does not come from ordinary. That comes from vision and vision that gets fulfilled comes from passion and enthusiasm. Some call it conviction, but conviction is a mere byproduct of a good vision and passion that burns bright in the pursuit. Conviction can be a simple feat of placing nose on grindstone and having the stamina to keep it there. It can advance a cause, but rarely leads to the outsized results that drive private equity. But true passion is the belief that what you are pursuing is both achievable and worthwhile and it is, with no exaggeration, what makes the world go around.

The other side of the line is far more mundane and practical. It is an arena of prudence and risk wariness. This is where budgets and careful forecasting reside. It is the stuff of diligent and precise work where the need is less for inspiration than perspiration, which is said to be how innovation comes to pass. Investors expect such care be taken with their money because even where there is enthusiasm for the cause and vision, there is an overriding desire for success and success comes about through careful and measured achievement before it soars into the stratosphere of the 10X world.

The line is between passion and care and it is a sharp divide. Nothing can kill passion faster than an abundance of care and nothing can throw care under the bus faster than excessive and uncontrolled passion. The need for balance between passion and care is ever-present. Without that balance there is either failure by lethargy or failure by excessive exuberance. The most difficult part of the balancing act is in following the line through the stages of developmental lifecycle. The fact is that the line is not static, but ever-changing and buffeted by the external environment, competition, changing demographics, geopolitics, technological evolution and that most ephemeral and flighty of all things, investor sentiment. The greed/fear line that afflicts the investor world has direct bearing on the passion/care line. In some ways they are co-dependent and co-determinate. In fact, most investors can understand the passion/care juxtaposition, but are unwilling to admit to being subject to the buffeting that comes from the wavering of the greed/fear wobble. Passion and care are considered equally honorable and necessary qualities. Neither greed nor fear are considered desirable traits and are not spoken of in polite company, but are rather whispered in the hallways and trenches by those most affected by them.

I walk the line between passion and care and have done so as a banker, as a manager, and as an entrepreneur. I know the Greeks asked only one thing of a man at his funeral and that was whether he had passion. After his funeral it was left to his partners, his wife and his children to decide if he exercised sufficient care as well. I believe I know how to balance passion and care though I will guess that most of my investors feel I emphasize one or the other better based on their personal results. Those results are what they are and do not speak to the balancing act much because no balance is ever able to totally eliminate risk or insure success.

I believe I am blessed in one important aspect of this private equity process. My natural brain chemistry does not cause me to tend towards greed and my experience over forty plus years of walking the line has vacated whatever fear I once possessed. I have said many times that once you have looked into the abyss, little can scare you. I have been on that precipice and stared into the void, so I fear not. As for the greed, I attribute that lack to my mother and her enduring view that it will all work out for the best and that tomorrow is another day.

That all said and done, I once again find myself walking the line. I cannot help myself but shout my passions to the rooftops as it is part and parcel of passion. But I have learned to equally broadcast my care and my concerns, which I always do weekly to my staff and my investors. I insist on the luxury of being able to say that I may have been wrong or misguided, but I have never been guileful or uncommunicative of the risks and care that must be had. That is how I walk the line.