3 Who Failed Big and Then Won Bigger

Every business is bound to make mistakes.  Some of those mistakes will be small ones, while others may be catastrophic.  But, it’s good to know that even after the most stunning downslides, some companies out there are tenacious and innovative enough to not only hang on, but bounce back bigger than ever. These three businesses learned from their mistakes and are better now than ever before.

Apple – In 1985, Steve Jobs was asked to leave the company he co-founded after power struggles with then-CEO John Sculley.  It was the worst decision Apple had ever made, and they’d soon find out that Steve was key to the company’s success.  Apple spent the next decade making mistake after mistake.  While Steve went on to buy visual effects house Pixar and found another computer company, NeXT Inc., Apple struggled.  Computers based on the IBM PC were proving to be stiff competition, and Apple’s response was to introduce a new line of computers that were barely distinguishable from each other.  Poor marketing strategies led to failure for the line, which consumers found overly complicated.  Apple saw its market share shrink from 20% to 5%.

After a surprise alliance with IBM and a few more failing products, Apple purchased Steve Job’s company NeXT, which effectively brought Steve back to Apple.  Steve became CEO, and under his guidance, Apple began its rise back into competitiveness.  Its PowerBook and iBook products became wildly successful, and the company went on a software buying spree in 2000 that made Macs highly attractive to consumers.  Despite coming so close to failure, Apple is once again a sought-after brand with a bright future.

Pixar – George Lucas, going through an expensive divorce, was in need of cash.  He saw Pixar – the computer animation division of his LucasFilms empire – as an easy pawn.  In 1985, when Steve Jobs was laid off from Apple, he sold his shares and spent $10 million on Pixar, a bargain-basement price considering that Lucas had originally asked for $30 million. At the time, Pixar had made a very expensive ($135,000) computer that specialized in graphics, and Steve had a vision of selling the computer to hospitals for technical use.  He didn’t see much potential for profit in the animation division of the company, so he decided to focus on hardware instead.

Bad move. The company began losing money at a rapid pace, even as its animated shorts were gaining recognition and the animation division won an Oscar. Steve had sunk $60 million into Pixar, so he jumped at the chance to do a full-length animated film for Disney when they asked.  Pixar received $15 million from Disney to complete ‘Toy Story’.  Though it was a huge hit, Pixar didn’t see any of the profits – they had signed them away to Disney – so Steve decided to take the company public.  After a battle with some Pixar employees who had been granted contracts and profit sharing, Steve succeeded in his goal and renegotiated Pixar’s deal with Disney. Disney accepted Steve’s demands that Pixar get half the profits, equal billing and creative control.  Then, in 2006, Disney acquired Pixar for $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal. Pixar has remained a separate entity, however, and continues to release films as Disney-Pixar.

Donald Trump – The businessman everyone loves to hate soared into the public consciousness in the 1980’s, when he rapidly developed a number of large building projects in Manhattan.  He took over a stalled attempt to restore the Wollman Rink in Central Park, which was years behind schedule and way over budget, and received much media attention when he completed the project in 6 months with $750,000 of the $3 million budget left over.

Starting in 1989, a recession combined with some money mismanagement on Trump’s part led to his inability to meet loan payments.  He had financed the construction of his third casino, the Taj Mahal, with $1 billion in high-interest junk bonds.  By 1991, his company declared bankruptcy and Trump himself neared personal bankruptcy.  Banks and bondholders restructured his debt, but the following year his hotel, the Plaza in NYC, was also forced to file for bankruptcy. In 1995, Trump combined his casino holdings into the publicly held Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, but the properties were unable to keep up with competitors.  In 2004, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts filed for Chapter 11 protection, and Trump relinquished his CEO position but remained Chairman of the Board.  The company has re-emerged from bankruptcy once again as Trump Entertainment Resort Holdings.

Despite the bankruptcy proceedings in 2004, Trump was enjoying renewed celebrity status after becoming executive producer and host of his own reality show, The Apprentice, in which he acts as some kind of business jedi master.  He nurtured a reputation as one of America’s most successful businessmen despite his financial troubles, and in the years since then he has remained a major figure in pop culture.  His current real estate projects also seem to be succeeding, particularly the Trump International Hotel and Tower – Honolulu.

The Power of Trump: How to be a Shameless Self-Promotion Whore

What’s Donald Trump’s secret to crazy-huge business success? A whole lot of vanity, and the tenacity of a pit bull.  If there’s one thing Trump has never been afraid of, it’s tooting his own horn. He proudly emblazons his name across nearly every piece of commercial property he owns, will go on for days about how he made his fortune and isn’t afraid to flaunt the money he has made off his business ventures.

Trump told ABC News, “Most successful people I know are vain. That’s why they’re successful. … I don’t think there is anything wrong with being vain. If there was, I probably wouldn’t admit it.”

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump has seized on to one of the secrets of success: self-promotion. Though he may take it to extremes – often exaggerating to get attention – Trump has mastered the art of image building.  How else could a real estate mogul be a world-famous figure? And, for that matter, Trump’s business ventures haven’t all been successful.  Far from it.

That doesn’t mean he’s portrayed as a failure, though – Trump keeps the hype going at all times, obscuring those business failures and continuously painting himself as the best of the best.  And it works. He’s portrayed like some kind of superhuman master of business on his hit reality show, The Apprentice, and people buy it.

So, how can you parlay Trump’s tactics into success for your own company? Of course you don’t want to come off as arrogant or a braggadocio, but self-promotion is often the ticket to getting recognition. After all, if you’re not confident about what your company’s selling, how will anyone else be?  You’ve got to trumpet your accomplishments, because your competition sure ain’t gonna do it for you.

Did your company just land a huge account, open a new store, meet an important sales goal or reach some other objective? Put out a press release, write about it on your blog, tell your friends and family and add it to your resume.  Make sure potential customers know about your every success.  You don’t have to do it in an in-your-face, annoying way – you could simply add the information to the company profile page on your website.

The perfect time to self-promote is when you’re networking.  Headed to a conference, or a business get-together? When introducing yourself in a business setting and talking about your company, don’t be afraid to mention awards and recognition you’ve received.  Those things will help cement your company’s identity in their minds, which may just get you more referrals, press, or investors.

Another great avenue for self-promotion is social networking.  As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, Twitter is a great way to get out information about you and your company in an effective yet not-too-annoying way.  Tell your friends and business associates about that new investor, or the interview you did with a magazine.

You should also have an elevator pitch memorized that sounds natural and is easy for others to remember.  Don’t know what an elevator pitch is, or how to craft one? Check out our previous post, ‘Honing the Elevator Pitch: The Art of Who You Are in 30 Seconds’.

Keep in mind that you don’t want to drive people away by incessantly droning on about your successes. If you’re overbearing, you’ll soon find that people will avoid you, stop following you on Twitter, or ignore you. Don’t turn yourself into a spammer. Keep it brief, and make sure you’re listening to what people around you are saying as well.

For more tips on shameless self-promotion, Trump style, check out his #1 best-selling book, ‘How to Get Rich’.