Very Short Interview No.1

Hey guys,

for this post I will be talking about my first very short interview with a entrepreneur.

For my interview, I chose to interview a longtime family friend of mine, Van Saliba. Before I talk about my interview with Mr. Saliba I am going to give you a little bit of background about him. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1979 with a bachelor's of finance and soon after went to work as a CPA for Deloitte Consulting until 1982. From there, he was able to start up his own company named Lumbermen's LLC in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area of Florida. This company is a private equality investment firm that specializes in acquisitions of other companies. Mr. Saliba been the president of Lumbermen's LLC for nearly 34 years now and has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success. Other than running his own company, he often engages with multiple other investments that we did not talk about in great detail. He is truly the definition of an entrepreneur in every sense of the word. So, without further ado, lets get into the interview.

Q1: What do you believe is the most important characteristic for an entrepreneur to possess?

A: "One word, perseverance"

Q2: What has been the greatest difficulty you have faced in growing and expanding your business/company?

A: "Bryce, I have five letters for you. M-O-N-E-Y. The hardest thing about starting a new company is acquiring capital. After that, everything else will fall into place and be a little bit easier on you."

Q3:What do you believe is the first important step in turning an idea into a company?

A: "The first step would be to do a test run. You might have a really great idea, but you will not know for sure unless you test the market first. A lot of people falsely dive head first into a business or new idea that they think is good but have no idea if it will actually work. You need to be certain that you will be successful and not lose money before any initial actions can be taken."

Overall, the interview was a large success and he was able to give me precise, yet very effective answers to some pretty tough questions. I really enjoyed his answer on #3 about testing the waters. Many people often mistake entrepreneurs for extreme risk takers when they are in reality excellent planners. This experience was great because it afforded me the opportunity to explore the mind of a very successful entrepreneur!

Until next time,

-Bryce