For founders hoping to build a business that will last for decades, the key to unlocking lasting success is to never stop thinking like a startup, according to investor and author Eric Becker.
“It’s a little bit counterintuitive. Most people associate something that lasts over time as becoming bureaucratic, slow-moving, indecisive,” says Becker, co-founder and co-chairman of Cresset Capital, a Chicago-based wealth management firm with more than $70 billion in assets under management. Becker has started or invested in more than 100 companies, he says.
The “long-game companies,” as Becker calls them, are typically “more nimble” than their competitors, which allows them to better navigate the inevitable ups and downs of running a business. Leaders of those companies have to be able to weather difficult stretches while looking ahead to predict shifting markets. Then, they must take decisive action to come up with fresh ideas that can set their companies up for continued success.
Those lasting businesses have “the ability to really see into the future where things are going [and] take action when action is needed,” Becker adds. “They actually are all of the things that you think of in a small, fast-moving startup.”
