Ronald L.
Hollis

There is no such thing as work-life balance — plan your life with a complete integration of all activities. Your "job" should be part of an overall strategy of a whole life, aligned with your spouse, children, health, recreation — not something you "clock in and out of."

A key is being structured, disciplined, and candid. Candid communication about what you're doing and why is critical. For example, my family always has dinner together on Mondays with a family meeting to discuss goals, schedules, and challenges. I treat it with the same commitment as a customer meeting.

During the early days of my career, I was always willing to sacrifice Friday nights and weekends to work on something that could grow my skills and value. The harder I worked then would allow more freedom to enjoy life later.

My personal energy is driven from being aligned to my purpose. When I'm investing every precious minute towards my overall purpose — having a positive impact on business and life management — I am happy and rejuvenated.

I enjoy the power of successful business enterprises in positively affecting customers, team members, and the community. These transformations have very long-term and exponential impacts on the lives of those around you.

I have little tolerance for ignorance and laziness and will willingly ostracize those people from my life. You become the average of the people you spend time with — so I work to always be averaging up by intentionally finding and associating with those stronger than me.

Poor planning, mismanagement of resources, and waste. I've always been a disciplined person willing to invest time to plan, track, and execute. As a CEO, I documented and reviewed my current "energy drains" every morning — usually a person in the wrong role.

I challenged myself to remove an energy drain from the list within a few days. I would meet with the person directly and let them know they were on my energy drain list — and that WE needed to figure out the cause and resolve it quickly. Amazingly, this candid conversation was almost always effective.

I'm not a big fan of typical charitable approaches — the business of the charity often gets in the way of its mission. I work more on teaching a man to fish and letting him decide how to guide his own life.

My primary areas are setting life goals, being accountable, and being willing to invest more today than you're being paid for. I give a copy of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich and Tommy Newberry's Success is Not an Accident and offer to meet and discuss their progress.

I also practice what I call "entrepreneurial altruism" — investing time with young business CEOs to help clear the clutter of their business path. I apply my skills of candor, logic, and accountability to drive them forward.

A strong work ethic and the willingness to work harder and smarter. I've never been a 9-5 person — I focus on accomplishments, not time of day.

As John McEnroe described it: I hate to lose more than I love to win. This drives emotional reactions and major sacrifices to prevent losing, with a personality that doesn't linger on victories — always thinking about the next goal.

I was raised poor, which drove me to prove I was just as capable as anyone from a fancy private school. That motivation carried forward — when I was peers with MIT engineers, I simply worked harder and studied more.

I also hate waste. This has cultivated a strong sense of detail and pursuit of excellence. If things can be done more efficiently, I have a primal urge to find that path. Most companies grow to a level and stall — refusing to understand that doing what worked yesterday will only allow an organization of yesterday to exist.