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Many years back, I bought an office suite. I had several employees, but in my own private office, I had the old school mahogany desk with a credenza and all of the accessories. I spent a few thousand dollars on it. It was nice. Big chair, fat guest chairs, fake rubber plant, everything. Then the shit hit the fan. I might have been able to sell it, but when the shit hit the fan the last thing on my mind was liquidating furniture, and I sure wasn't going to try and move it just because it was worth something on Craigslist. I think if memory serves I left it there.
I posted photos on the forum a few years back about a vacant floor on the office building I used to have an office in near Minneapolis. In it's day, the office was incredible, the brainchild of some high flying .com CEO likely during the boom where money grew on trees. The office had putting greens all over it, huge community rooms where you know foosball tables were, and undoubtedly cappuccino was sipped over strategy discussions before they lost it all. By the time I came upon their desolate memorial of an office, it looked like one of the final scenes from the movie Boiler Room. I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they spent on their offices while they churned through millions of OPM before they succumbed to their lack of CENTS.
Have you ever seen Jeff Bezos original desk? He BUILT IT from a door he had.
Visit Amazon's offices today, and you will see all the desks are now manufactured to emulate this. As rich as Bezos gets, he never wants the employees to forget the origins and heritage of Amazon.
When I sold my company in October, they bought the assets of the company. All of them. Down to the tape dispensers. I still have the office and warehouse which I kept, knowing I'll want it for the next one. However, aside from a few folding tables (literally) there's not much in there right now.
So tomorrow, I am figuratively having Jeff Bezos desk delivered. I could go out and buy a great new office suite, but whom exactly is it I would want to impress with that? I'd rather keep it simple. 10 years from now, I am not going to care what furniture I and my future employees sat at in my makeshift warehouse office. I won't care what rental car I had in Cleveland, what hotel room I stayed at in New York, or what flight I took to Los Angeles.
I learned at Walmart to be ruthless with expenses. Spent money where you need to, and conserve where you can. Pass up the things that don't matter so you can participate in the things that do. If my choice is $3,000 worth of office furniture vs. $3,000 worth of advertising, I will take the advertising. If the advertising goes right, I will be able to buy what ever furniture I want, but it's hard to barter furniture for advertising if you run out of cash.
So I have 5 desks coming tomorrow. They're actually really nice, and will do exactly what we need them to do. I will enjoy them, because I bought all 5 for almost nothing. And they match, so it won't look like I bought them on a street corner.
I'll try and post a picture if I get around to it. Sam Walton didn't build Walmart by spending all his money on stupid shit. If a door desk was good enough for Jeff Bezos, it's good enough for us. I am saving the capital to spend it where I need to spend it. I learned what was important long ago, and a corner suite with a putting green isn't even on my radar. I'd rather be sitting on a beach with the money in the bank.
I posted photos on the forum a few years back about a vacant floor on the office building I used to have an office in near Minneapolis. In it's day, the office was incredible, the brainchild of some high flying .com CEO likely during the boom where money grew on trees. The office had putting greens all over it, huge community rooms where you know foosball tables were, and undoubtedly cappuccino was sipped over strategy discussions before they lost it all. By the time I came upon their desolate memorial of an office, it looked like one of the final scenes from the movie Boiler Room. I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they spent on their offices while they churned through millions of OPM before they succumbed to their lack of CENTS.
Have you ever seen Jeff Bezos original desk? He BUILT IT from a door he had.
Visit Amazon's offices today, and you will see all the desks are now manufactured to emulate this. As rich as Bezos gets, he never wants the employees to forget the origins and heritage of Amazon.
When I sold my company in October, they bought the assets of the company. All of them. Down to the tape dispensers. I still have the office and warehouse which I kept, knowing I'll want it for the next one. However, aside from a few folding tables (literally) there's not much in there right now.
So tomorrow, I am figuratively having Jeff Bezos desk delivered. I could go out and buy a great new office suite, but whom exactly is it I would want to impress with that? I'd rather keep it simple. 10 years from now, I am not going to care what furniture I and my future employees sat at in my makeshift warehouse office. I won't care what rental car I had in Cleveland, what hotel room I stayed at in New York, or what flight I took to Los Angeles.
I learned at Walmart to be ruthless with expenses. Spent money where you need to, and conserve where you can. Pass up the things that don't matter so you can participate in the things that do. If my choice is $3,000 worth of office furniture vs. $3,000 worth of advertising, I will take the advertising. If the advertising goes right, I will be able to buy what ever furniture I want, but it's hard to barter furniture for advertising if you run out of cash.
So I have 5 desks coming tomorrow. They're actually really nice, and will do exactly what we need them to do. I will enjoy them, because I bought all 5 for almost nothing. And they match, so it won't look like I bought them on a street corner.
I'll try and post a picture if I get around to it. Sam Walton didn't build Walmart by spending all his money on stupid shit. If a door desk was good enough for Jeff Bezos, it's good enough for us. I am saving the capital to spend it where I need to spend it. I learned what was important long ago, and a corner suite with a putting green isn't even on my radar. I'd rather be sitting on a beach with the money in the bank.
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