BOSTIC: It's a motivator for me. I like creating the opportunity for people to have economic independence. And I'm sure it motivates them as well. But they also like being out front. I really think everybody likes to win. So I try to create a winning environment, where people get along and there's no politics. Absolutely no politics. If I find politics here, that's a sure way for someone to see the door. I want everybody to channel their energies into achieving the objectives of the company and their own personal goals. In this company, you don't leapfrog somebody else for any reason other than your own productivity.
* * *
INC.: What about your personal goals? You keep talking about controlling your destiny. What exactly do you mean by that?
BOSTIC: I mean having total freedom to pursue whatever you want to do. Now let me add that not everybody wants control of their destiny. It's a scary thing to some people. But it's very important to enterprising individuals.
INC.: Have you always been driven by this desire to control your destiny?
BOSTIC: Yes, I'd say so. It really goes back to my dad and mother, who were both in their own business. And my father-in-law was a big influence, too. He was an entrepreneur in the best sense -- a guy with good instincts, a terrific people person. He tried to help me do my own thing with the Burger Chef franchise. After I failed, I realized I had to go about it in a different way, but I was still working toward the goal of controlling my own destiny. It was a step-by-step process like anything else.
* * *
INC.: How do you mean?
BOSTIC: In order to control your destiny, you need economic independence. At least most of us do. A lot of people would like to walk in and tell the boss to go pound sand, but that's tough to do -- especially if you have responsibility for a family. So you need economic security, which means building equity. Salary I always considered to be something you spend. Equity is something you build. If you want to be completely independent, you have to build a lot of equity. That takes time and planning, and you need to establish intermediate goals along the way.
* * *
INC.: Can you give us an example?
BOSTIC: Well, I got my first taste of equity at PepsiCo, but it wasn't very satisfying because I couldn't affect the value of the stock. It was too big an ocean. Nothing I did had any measurable effect on the value of a share of PepsiCo. So I came up with a personal goal, which was to get into a position where I could have impact on earnings per share. Otherwise, you can have lots of equity but still have no real control over your net worth. That's one reason I took the job at Berkey.
* * *
INC.: You eventually sold American Photo for $45 million. Did that give you the economic security you were seeking?
BOSTIC: Yes, and that was one of my specific goals in starting the company. I wanted to get that out of the way. I'd just finished working for two of the world's biggest jerks. I wasn't going through that again. I made up my mind that, if there had to be a jerk in a company, the next time it would be me.
* * *
INC.: Why did you wait so long to go off on your own?
BOSTIC: I wasn't ready. When Ben and I reached our final impasse, I walked out with six months of severance pay, which was only enough to keep me going to the next job. Then I became president of Nimslo Corp., a start-up camera company, and equity was a big part of the deal. That was another bad experience, but at least I left with $1.2 million. So then I had capital; I had a plan; and I was really ready to do my own thing.
* * *
INC.: I'm confused about something. If you achieved economic independence when you sold American Photo Group, what is your goal now?
BOSTIC: My goal is to build a company worth $1 billion and sell it in four or five years.
* * *
INC.: Why a $1-billion company?
BOSTIC: To be honest, I don't know. I've got all the material things I'll ever need, so it's not that. It's just my goal. I don't know why. It's there. It's a challenge. If I ever do it, I suppose there'll be something else.
* * *
INC.: Why have you already decided to sell the business? Why don't you keep it?
BOSTIC: I always like to know how I'm going to get out of a business before I get in. I think the worst thing you can do is to fall in love with a business and lose your objectivity. You shouldn't even start without an exit strategy. If you don't have one, then you haven't really thought through what you're doing, and you'd be wise to wait. You can always modify the plan as you go along, but you should have an exit point in mind.
* * *
INC.: I don't understand your logic.
BOSTIC: Look. Business is free enterprise. Free enterprise is subject to the ups and downs of any particular market at any particular time. Sooner or later, the pendulum swings. Something happens: technology changes, or your market changes, or there's a hurricane or an earthquake. You've put your whole life into this company, and now it isn't worth anything. What a terrible thing to have happen. If you want real freedom and real security, you have to cash in your equity, put the money in the bank, and start drawing interest on it. Because something can always happen tomorrow.
* * *
INC.: But you already have real freedom and real security.
BOSTIC: It's still important to have a plan for getting out. It keeps you honest. It forces you to test the value of what you're doing. When you think about selling, you have to ask, would anyone else want to be in this business? If the answer is no, the next question is, why are you wasting your time? Business is a way to build equity and value. That means somebody must be willing to pay you for what you've created. If you can't get out what you put in, you should probably reassess what you're doing.
