Reid Lewis ’84 thought of himself as a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates guy who would grow an enormous company. He turned about to be better at the growing part than the enormous part and has become a specialist in entrepreneurship, and though he wouldn’t mind a little more stability, he’s found that he loves the challenge and personal nature of his work. For our fourth episode he explains how that all happened.
PODCAST EPISODE 4: Reed Lewis
TRACK
I’m Scott Huler and this is The Devils’ Share — a podcast of Duke Magazine
Series One: Now What?
[music]
ACTUALITY
And i can look back on the things that ive done and whether they were financially or business successful or not, business successful or not, i’m proud of them. We had good stuff, we had good people working together as a team, we honored… our diff perspectives, we did a good job, right? And so I feel good about that
TRACK
Ah, the comforts of a successful career
ACTUALITY
At the same time i’m anxious about where the businesses are going
TRACK
Okay, nothing’s always easy. Anyhow, on The Devils’ Share we’ve been talking with Duke alumni about how they have met — and dealt with — those complicated successes and anxieties that define life after graduation. Life when you think you’ve got a handle on things and then, suddenly, everything changes.
ACTUALITY
THAT WAS IN 2011 when i’d been in the biz for a couple decades. and i kept thinking i’m gonna grow this up i’m gonna be like steve jobs and grow a big company or bill gates you know of course they’re super rare. When we sold that company then i want back into starting new companies which is really really hard and where you realize how little you know and how often you go down crazy ratholes and you get nowhere but i kinda like that
TRACK
A good thing to like — when that ends up being your business.
ACTUALITY
I’m Reed Lewis. I graduated from Trinity in 1984. So i’m an entrepreneur. I’ve started and run and sold some companies.
TRACK
Running businesses, as it turns out, requires different skills than starting them.
ACTUALITY
I’m a hands-on guy… my last board-member who was a venture capitalist told me i was an early stage guy. I’m like, I want to grow one of these things to be bigger and bigger and he was like “No, Reed, you’re the early stage guy.” So I usually start when there’s nothing, when there’s an idea, a problem, and try to make a solution that actually turns into a business.
TRACK
He learned that his skill set didn’t quite fit his conception of his work after he sold his first long-term business.
ACTUALITY
So it was really humbling to leave the relative safety of the couple-decade-old firm that we had sold and be in brand new startups, be on the edge.
TRACK
But life on the edge turned out to suit him.
ACTUALITY
as an entrepreneur you could work for years and get nothing. Or you could work a little while and find something really good. And i was going along starting these new companies, and at each point saying, wow, i didn’t know anything about this, where am i going, how did i get here,
TRACK
Which feeds your sense of adventure, though of course it’s a little hard on the planning.
ACTUALITY
You can sometimes solve problems, build technology, you never sell it. That’s fun for a while, but you gotta eat. I should have been, like been a lawyer, (laugh) billed by the hour, every hour you know how much you’re earning.
TRACK
Not really. He found that he preferred the entrepreneur’s satisfactions, even though they come at the cost of the entrepreneur’s challenges.
ACTUALITY
Well the thing i comfort myself with, and probably every entrepreneur, probably every person with a creative idea, has to realize that their idea may go somewhere or it may not, the most important person for them to satisfy is themselves. You gotta write something or build something or accomplish something and live up to your own expectations, or fight for your own expectations, not someone else’s. Because if you sit around and wait for some outside validation, you’ll always be second-guessing yourself, never satisfied.But in reality you do the best you can with what you have. The Information you have, the resources you have, and you move forward.
TRACK
For advice Lewis turns again to a great entrepreneur.
ACTUALITY
Trust yourself, keep going. Someone told me a quote that Steve Jobs gave one time … he said most people will never be an entrepreneur because they give up too soon. If you know the history on his career he had some early successes and then it was hard for a long time until he found his way again. So trust that you’ll find the right thing. If you’ve come to D uke, right, you’re already a accomplished smart capable person, you don’t need to succeed every day at everything just keep going and you’ll find it.
TRACK
Next on The Devils’ Share
ACTUALITY
I was assigned to a fraud case, and I was the most junior person that was involved in the case, and I was able to figure out, exactly what happened and how it happened, and it was like it was Professor Plum with the candlestick in the conservatory!
TRACK
Thanks for listening to The Devils’ Share, from Duke Magazine.