Daily Excerpt: Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts (Stites): The Wig Business
Excerpt from Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts
I did believe, however, that there was a good market for human hair wigs, and a few weeks later I told Borghese that I would start my own distributorship. I knew a young man who wanted to be in his own business and thought he would be a reliable partner. A large man of six foot two, “Big Mike” was tired of working in his father’s auto parts store and wanted to strike out on his own. He had an attractive little wife and a new baby boy. Mike and I each put in $7,000 and agreed that I was to sell the product outside the D.C. area while he ran the office and sold in D.C. and surrounding suburbs; his wife would keep the books. We ordered the wigs, rented a small storefront on Wisconsin Avenue, and when the first shipment arrived from Italy, we were in business! I loaded up the car and took off throughout Maryland and eastern PA, visiting beauty shops.
In the second month, I contracted with a small but exclusive department store salon chain as their wig source and found that Kenneth was their consultant. Kenneth had achieved considerable acclaim as Jackie Kennedy’s hairdresser and was considered at the top in the salon business. I was in several meetings with Kenneth and other hair styling notables, never saying much, just allowing the styling discussions to fly over my head, if you will forgive the poor pun. Outside the salon, Kenneth was all business, and he knew how to capitalize on his famous association.
After we had been established over two months, our sales began to improve weekly as our small business became known for top quality. Then one Friday afternoon, I drove back to the Washington office with the week’s sales receipts and orders to find that Mike had become restive in his position of running the office, and he had made only a few sales in the D.C. area. As I unloaded the car, he couldn’t wait to tell me that we were going to trade places. He would run the sales operation; I would run the office.
I waited Mike out, saying nothing, and carried my inventory into the office. When he had finished outlining how the business was going to change, I looked at him and simply said, “No Mike, it won’t work. First of all, we have an agreement that you are to run the business from here and sell in and around D.C. and I am to sell the product everywhere else. Second, the sales are going well, so we shouldn’t change things.”
Mike straightened himself up and told me in no uncertain terms that he was tired of doing nothing in the office, and that he would take over the sales. I asked him if this was absolutely his final word. He puffed up some more and said he was going to run things from now on.
I studied his face, wondering if there was any other motivation for this turn of events. Perhaps he was just trying to impress his wife. I decided he meant what he said, so I answered, “All right, Mike, if that is what you want, so be it. The company is yours. I resign as of right now and will have everything signed over to you on Monday.”
There was a shocked silence, then Mike gasped and shouted, “You can’t quit!”
I quietly said, “Mike that is the one thing I can do.” I dropped my order book, checks, and keys on his desk.
He shouted, “But what about your seven thousand?” and became very red in the face. His wife had turned pale. For a moment, I thought he might have a stroke. He slammed his fist on the desk and shouted again, “You can’t quit!”
I looked at him and said, “You can have the money Mike, and the business. We had an agreement, and you are going back on your word. I won’t work with you anymore.” I turned and walked out of the office.
The following Monday my attorney gave Mike a release signing everything over to him. I called Prince Borghese, told him what had happened, and said that I didn’t think there would be many more sales of wigs. Mike closed the business less than three months later and went back to selling auto parts. The $7,000.00 investment was most of my working capital, but it was only money.
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