Being Right and Wrong
If you missed our CEO Brent’s most recent annual letter (come for learnings, stay for the picture of a relatively heftier Brent holding a javelina), you need to do yourself a favor and read it right now. Even after acknowledging that I’m an impartial observer, I think you’ll end up finding that it is worth your time.
As for why that is, it’s because Brent gives a pretty raw, unvarnished look into what it’s been like for him to build Permanent Equity over the past decade. What’s remarkable about that journey is that Brent was a pretty successful guy 10 years ago, and he was even more successful than that when he hired me as Permanent Equity’s (then adventur.es; if you know, you know) underqualified CFO in October 2018. (People often ask why we changed our name and it’s because we were tired of others thinking we operated a Spanish travel website.) Given that, it would have been pretty easy – logical, even – for him to keep doing exactly the same things he was accustomed to doing. But as you’ll read, he’s ended up doing things – both personally and professionally – wildly differently.
One of the questions Brent asks me a lot because I think he knows it was a pretty big decision for my family to move from Washington, D.C., to mid-Missouri is “How’s it going?”
My answer, ever since pretty much day one, has been “It’s exceeding expectations.”
For example, Brent reveals in the letter that last year Permanent Equity generated almost $50M of distributable free cash flow thanks to $400M of revenue on $230M of invested capital. To put that in context, when I got here those numbers were more like $10M, $100M, and $20M.
Did I think growing that much in six years was possible when I took the job? Sure. Was it probable? No it was not. But I think one of the reasons we’ve achieved what we have is because we try to embrace it when we discover that something we believed to be true is wrong. Or at least is no longer right. Because if you go on being wrong about things, personally and professionally, you can’t and won’t grow.
Here’s the letter. I recommend it.
Finally, a quick housekeeping note. This daily will be skipping Thursdays this season since that’s the day we’re sending out our series on successful succession planning. I hope you’re signed up to receive it and see you Friday.
– Tim
