Guy Reams (00:01.262)
Today is day 157, revenue solves all problems. So when I was younger, I remember I was working at this company and I walked in early morning. I was there early and I got in and I walked past the sales area and the sales area was really a room full of cubicles. It was a call center. So salespeople would, you know,
Dial for dollars, dial for dollars is what they were doing. And there was one sales guy that was there, still were working already. And I noticed that his clothes hadn't changed the night before. So he had stayed up all night working. And I asked him what he was doing, what's going on? How'd you stay up all night? And he said, this is what he taught. He told me revenue solves all problems. So apparently he had some problems and his solution.
was to sell more. That was his solution. So revenue solves all problems. So I've oftentimes thought of that phrase. Many times I've been in business meetings or investor meetings or I've been trying to solve a problem in a particular company. And I always think that, you know what? We can sit there and nickel and dime all these problems, but really what we need is more revenue. That's what we need. Now,
Obviously not all revenue is the same. You want high margin revenue, but of course still revenue does solve problems. Now, notice that he didn't say revenue brings happiness, because money can't buy happiness, they say. But it can solve problems. And sometimes problems are the barrier for you to becoming happy. You just can't enjoy life when you're struggling with some significant problems. So,
If you had the resources, you could remove the obstacles. So in that case, revenue can indeed help bring happiness. So when I was younger, I actually thought balancing a checkbook was important, because that's what I've been taught, right? So I got my account at Wells Fargo, and I would balance my meager,
Guy Reams (02:24.296)
Bank account every month like clockwork and I organized it very well and I would do I would balance the checkbook well, I Remember one time I went to balance and I couldn't balance it and Come to find out Wells Fargo had been charging me a slight fee at midnight due to what they would do is they would
do this weird thing where they would take withdrawals out before deposits and then they would charge you a fee because you didn't have enough funds and then they would reverse it but they wouldn't reverse all of it they would only reverse a couple pennies so I noticed that they were they shorted me like two cents so I got on the phone I was haggling with them I wrote them letters I was really upset because I was trying to balance it anyway long story short
Several decades later, I think it was literally two decades later, I get a letter from an attorney. And in the letter is a check for my two cents plus interest for 20 years. I guess they had filed a class action lawsuit. And my complaint ended up being part of the testimony, or part of the evidence. I don't know what it was. But.
But anyway, I had learned shortly after this episode of Wells Fargo that balancing a checkbook was not all that big a deal, and I had made the commitment to myself at that point. I will just go make more money. I don't want to worry about two cents in the bank. I want to overcome that. My mindset became, I'll just go make more money. That'll be the solution. Then I won't have to worry about balancing a checkbook. Now,
I had some success with that off and on. But anyway, so there you go. And I remember in business, not too long ago, I was at a company where an executive decided to make a big deal about certain expense categories and how much they were costing the company. We need to be more frugal. We need to watch these expenses. So we underwent this real intensive budget.
Guy Reams (04:43.828)
exercise with expenses. And we had to find accounting and give out so much budget to the people and then to the sales teams. And then we had to hold them accountable for it and have a review. And so I was thinking all this work and effort that we have to go into track this one expense category, there was really a small amount of money, very small.
So I remember when we were in a meeting, I made a joke or I made an argument. I asked an open question, which is, what if I were to just go sell 2 % more this next quarter? If I did that, could we ignore this expense problem? So could I go solve it with revenue so I don't have to deal with this? I wasn't looked at too kindly for making that comment. But.
It does kind of prove a point. This idea that revenue will solve the problem is a growth mindset. It's not a fixed mindset based on the scarcity of resources. It's the idea that if I'm lacking, I can go grow it. I can go get more. Rather than I'm lacking, therefore I need to cut. Therefore I need to reduce the impact on the scarcity. It's just a different mentality.
I venture to say that the growth mentality is better, obviously, because that's the way I think. But anyway, now.
I don't really believe that money buys happiness. I agree with, barley, most of you that money is only going to get you so far. Your sense of fulfillment comes from a lot more than money, clearly. However, even though it may not equate to personal happiness, it can certainly solve problems. It can certainly help pave the way for you to go solve your problems. And I can tell you this, absolutely for certain,
Guy Reams (06:42.078)
Revenue is the lifeblood of any business. You have to be focused 100 % on revenue growth at all times. Companies cannot get away from the idea that revenue is always the chief and foremost priority. With that, I'll say thank you.