What happens when you start a business with the four people you believe in most? What if they’re also four of your very best friends? 

It sounds like a setup to a punchline, but it’s a question I’ve wrestled weekly since April. When you Google “how to start a business”, one of the things you’ll find in most of the top results is the line “never start a business with your friends.” But that’s exactly what Music Effect Design was- four friends with disparate goals surrounding common values. Over half a year later, I understand what those articles are warning of. I think I also understand why that blanket statement is rife with error.

Getting Started

Starting a business is pretty simple, logistically. You decide what you want to do, who’s involved, and file some paperwork with your state. And that’s it. Congratulations! You’re a business owner now! 

But as George Washington might say in Hamilton: “Starting is easy, young one. Succeeding is harder.” 

The U.S. Small Business Administration says there are over 600,000 new businesses each year nationwide. Twenty percent of those close within the first two years. We all knew that starting would be the hardest part, but I don’t think any of us expected so many bumps in figuring out our identity. 

We had worked together closely many times already over the last four years. In our first real business meeting, we laid out some vague ideas about what we wanted to accomplish (it seemed so specific and pointed at the time). It seemed easy. Share the work we love, inspire others, make a positive impact on the activity, and make a business out of it. Essentially, we knew “why” we wanted to start a business. The real challenge begins at the “what.”

What’s with the “What”?

As a teacher in the marching arts, your options are limited by time.

For example, if you have a show coming up in 2 weeks and the closer isn’t ready, your options are limited by that 2 week window. You could perform half the closer. Perhaps adding a Saturday rehearsal to make sure it is better. Maybe you could change some parts of the show. Not matter what, time is always a limiter in your decisions. You can’t realistically learn a brand show in 2 weeks to fix the closer issues, there’s not enough time. You probably can’t change the song you’re doing in the closer and relearn the entire thing in 2 weeks (especially with other movements to clean). 

Think on an even smaller level: if your students struggle to perform part of the show in practice one day, you are limited by the amount of time you have to focus on it that day. Time is a great limiter as an educator. 

What we were not prepared for (at least what I was not prepared for) was that time is unlimited in the business world.

What is your goal? Well, it can be whatever you want it to be. 

When do we want to achieve it? You pick. 

The website needs updating, what’s our deadline for updating it?

You get the point.

We struggled with how to achieve our goals. We also realized that many of us had different goals, though all of them were aiming towards a common target. What we needed was scrupulous introspection.

Drilling Down to What Matters Most

When we started, I was personally focused on company procedures. How do we work with one another in order to succeed? I focused on Operating Procedures and standards with which we work. Focusing on these procedures first was a blunder. We understood each other, but we had never sat down and had a raw conversation about the principles with which we want to operate. 

But once we began to discuss principals, we realized that was still not yet the core of what our discussions needed to be. Principals are a great lighthouse when making tough business decisions. They are great mental tools that help one make the best possible choice when many seem right (or wrong). Principals were closer to what we needed, but starting there didn’t make sense either. 

After many months, what we finally realized we were missing was clearly defined core values that motivated us to start in the first place. They were present in each of us. But without carefully defining why they were important to each of us, we struggled to clarify how each decision we made reflected those values. 

We spent many hours choosing words- ranking them based on what mattered most to each of us individually. We sought to understand why certain people were so attached to certain words, why others were redundant, and what really drove us forward with this business. In truth, words are only words. What actually matters is the feelings we associate with those words. Those are powerful. They are the heart of our intentions.

After months of stumbling and drilling down to what matters most, we elected four guiding values that broadly encompass everything we believe we want to be as a business:

The Values that Guide Us:

Integrity:

It is easy to say this is important. Most people would include integrity. But integrity is furiously hard to fully realize. As we take on new projects or act on new information, we desire to align all of our words and actions vertically- into a company that operates farther than merely ethics. We accept we will not always succeed, but will perpetually strive to achieve integrity in our actions with each other and with our community.

Community:

Speaking of our community, making real connections with people is at the heart of the pageantry arts. Lifelong friends, meaningful performances that move an audience, and shared exhaustion and satisfaction after a job well done… These are the components that truly make this set of activities the best in the world. We move people and lift each other up when we put community above excellence. We will forever strive to achieve absolute excellence (see Quality below), but to do so while ignoring building community is unacceptable to us.

Respect:

Respect is our word that triggers us to ask “would I appreciate the effort I put into what I’m doing if I were an observer?”. This does not just include work to us. It incorporates how we communicate, how we share ownership of our faults, and our missteps. Respect is more than politeness (I’d argue it occasionally goes against politeness). Respect is acting in the same way you would appreciate if others acted towards you.

Quality:

This was the final hurdle for us as a group. Defining quality as growth oriented was the real missing piece. We intend to produce quality work that is predicated on growth focused quality. We perpetually invest in our own edification, collaborate with ourselves to ensure our work is at the quality we expect, and reach out to our clients to ensure they are satisfied in every conceivable way.

To say these were long discussions would be to miss the point. These discussions were hours long, many times over many months. But they helped us fully see each other through the right lens. Before we ever discussed procedures, principles, or how to make quality work, we had to understand what drives each member. What you see in this blog is the peak of the iceberg. So much of our effort continues to move towards understanding how our values affect our work, preferences, and what decisions drive us forward.

The Expected, the Unexpected, and Why We’re Thankful

You’re probably asking: “why write so much about our missteps and faults during Thanksgiving week?”. Well, I have been asking myself the same thing. But upon reflection, it’s simply because this is among the very top of the list of things I’m thankful for this year. I want to share why doing something that’s been so difficult has already reaped such a reward. I knew this would be special from the moment we started, but I could not have foreseen the path we would walk. 

The expected:

• When you are surrounded by brilliant people, it’s time to get serious about what you do. Working with four brilliant people requires you to be at your very best all of the time. This is joyous. It can also be exhausting.
• Great people are stronger than great ideas. While we had a plan early on, having the right people has given us a channel to turn sometimes mediocre ideas into something special. 
• Starting a business during a pandemic has significant tradeoffs. Sometimes it feels like we’re using a chisel to carve a tunnel through a mountain. There are reasons why it’s the perfect time, though. In my opinion they relatively balance each other out.

The Unexpected

• Five people with common values rarely all see situations the same (I think I am particularly guilty of being a dissident). I saw this as a problem early on. After learning more about groupthink, I realize this is a lotus blossom: special, rare, and to be treated like it is precious. 
• Integrity drives decisions forward in an inevitable way. In 2020, silence is its own statement. We realized that if our values do indeed guide us, then our business has to make our values known explicitly. Maybe this comes at the cost of potential business, but it’s the space we choose to operate within because we believe it’s the right thing to do.
• Transparency is hard, even with people you fully trust. Candor is something we work towards every week. And while we are not always successful, we are inspired in the pursuit. It’s not always easy to hear that your effort isn’t quite good enough. But knowing that opinion is coming from someone who believes in your ability to be great softens the blow. What’s even sweeter is when you tackle a project again for it to turn out significantly better.
• You will never look at your friends in exactly the same way. Every time we chat, there’s something in the air pointing out that we are more than just friends now. We are partners in business, responsible for each others’ well success in a way that is heavier than friendship. In my opinion, it is a bond of extreme trust in each other.

Which brings us to the crux of this blog. 

I am thankful that we chose to do what most recommend we do not

We aren’t typical people. If you are still reading this far in, you’re probably not typical either. We broke a norm- we started a business with the people closest to us. We bet our money and our time on each other. 

And while many turn away from conflict and choose to ignore it, we try our best to turn towards it and manifest something from it. We choose to grow towards what we see as right, and we seek to understand each other better along the path.

I am thankful for this platform where we can connect with people who feel the same way we do. If you are walking an atypical path like us, we hope you’re thankful for your journey too. Because sound advice is tremendously valuable. But turning towards what you think is right is the only way to live your life in harmony with yourself. If you’re struggling along the path, be grateful. Many quit their journey when things got difficult, but not you.

Inside everyone is excellence, but excellence does not happen alone. Steady yourself, stay true to what you believe. I cannot promise you it will be easy, but I can promise you it’ll be worth it. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone,