Encourager E-Book

Dirk Eckart

• Herausgeber: Neufeld Verlag
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 139

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Private as well as business assets invested in serving the company, Christmas cards in summer and desired wages for the employees! Since 2001, a lot of crazy ideas have come from the two entrepreneurs Walter Stuber and Dirk Eckart which were often greeted with disbelief. However, their success has proven their merit! In this book, the two "crazy managing directors" of Gemeinhardt Geruestbau Service GmbH in Rosswein/Saxony will explain why thinking outside of the box is so important, why failure can sometimes take you further than constant success, and how to become happy by being your own boss! The title says it all: Encouraging people on their way to self-employment, independent of their age! BEWARE: This bit of literature could change how your thinking and put you on the path to success!

Leseprobe

Walter Stuber & Dirk Eckart

Encourager

A practical guide by twocrazy entrepreneurs

German Library catalogs this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic information can be found on the Internet website www.d-nb.de.

Cover design and layout:

spoon design, Olaf Johannson and Daniel Eschner

Photos:Shutterstock.com, private

Publisher: Edition Wortschatz

© 2017 Dirk Eckart and Walter Stuber

Edition Wortschatz im Neufeld Verlag Cuxhaven

ISBN 978-3-943362-57-2

Reprints and reproduction, including excerpts are permitted only with the express permission of the authors.

www.edition-wortschatz.de

It is by challenging ourselves that we grow!

Independent entrepreneurs wanted!

A preface by Dirk Eckart

The time is right for a motivational book for entrepreneurs and those who want to become one! Why? Because I have been noticing for quite some time that within secondary schools, universities and colleges, the focus has been toward future employees instead of future bosses.

Students are learning to write applications, but little to nothing about how to work out a business plan. You can also rarely find anything within the curriculum about to taking on responsibility for yourself as well as for the community!

Role models wanted!

Unfortunately, this dilemma can already be witnessed within ones own family! Children are always looking up to their parents and are mimicking them in many ways. How do we expect the younger generation to develop if they do not have any positive role models at home and can therefore not experience the drive or courage to tackle matters?

These young individuals will quite often follow a similar path which they are presented daily, and will have „no desire for anything“. What a shame! After all, there are surely many individuals among them who are bursting with talent!

A brave new adventure!

With this book, I would like to encourage you to become an independent entrepreneur. I want to show you how worth while it’s to challenge yourself and to try new things! It is by challenging ourselves that we grow! Failure is part of the process, but failure should never discourage!

Being independent does not just mean to lead a company, but also to be aware of your obligations, to be courageous, to make decisions and to stand by those decisions, and to live with their results!

In that sense I wish you all the courage you may need for your future!

I have gained so much experience and I want to pass it on.

Experience and expertise

A preface by Walter Stuber

“Up to the age of 50, we create so much crap which we can use as fertilizer for the company we found when we are 50 and then grow to be successful!” No more valid words have been spoken by economic journalist and seminar instructor Karl Pilsl. It’s like he took the words right out of my mouth!

I am not looking forward to retirement like others in their 50s, but instead I am burning to see what I can undertake in the upcoming years.

Just a few years back, I was certain that I would continue to work in the company that I founded. Today, I can easily see myself starting a whole new business, when my son, Ingolf, takes over my current position as the managing director. The possibilities are endless! I do not need to repeat some of the mistakes that I made in the past! I have gained so much experience, and I want to pass it on.

For young entrepreneurs and generation 50+

This book should encourage you to be your own boss without keeping the highs and lows a secret, give you tips on how to successfully bring about a great business idea with little capital, and clarify what it takes if you want to lead a company.

Therefore, we focus on young individuals as well as those of you who are 50 and older and would also like to try something new vocationally. Unfortunately, how much potential and expertise is waiting. Unknown, especially when “edlery peole” want to open new businesses and become independent.

Take responsibility

„What does humanity get out of it that I exist?“, is a question Karl Pilsl always poses during his seminars. Especially businesses, regardless of age, have to ask themselves this question repeatedly and find the answer! Our society will need people in the future who take responsibility! Entrepreneurs do this day in and day out! What about you?

Dirk Eckart says THANKS

Thank you, Walter Stuber. You always believed in me; you gave me the armor I needed for my career and for kicking me in the keister often enough! I am thankful that I was able to realize my vocational life’s work together with you! I would also like to thank my family: my wife Ulrike, my daughter Suse, and my son Hannes. Without them, I would not be where I am today!

I especially want to thank you, Ulrike. You have supported me ever since I first decided to start at Gemeinhardt Geruestbau. You are manly responsible for raising our children to be good, honest, and valuable people. You have a talent for bringing me back down to earth when my head gets stuck in the clouds and for building me up again when I have failed or have been set back. I am so grateful that I have known you for 44 years now and that our relationship has been going strong for 33 years! You have the lion’s share in all of this! THANKS!

WE say THANKS

I owe a debt of gratitude to all of our faithful companions, employees and friends who have always cheered us on to keep moving forward!

Representing all of those who deserve our gratitude, we would like to say THANK YOU to Guido Uerschels, Reingard Poehnitzsch, Uwe Krahl, Thomas Gogolla, Jürgen Frey, Ruth Langer, René Brix and Sabine Langenbach.

Sadly, we cannot name everyone who has stood by our side over the years and provided us with advice and support. Still, be that as it may, please take this heartfelt thanks personally!

Walter Stuber says THANKS

Thank you so much my loving wife, Burgunda. You always had my back so that I could chase my vocation and as my hobby of being an “entrepreneur and networker”.

Thanks to my sons, Ingolf and Andy, as well as to my daughter Sindy.

Thank you, Dirk Eckart, that you not only believed in our joint success on good days but also on those bad ones! Special thanks go out to my sister Heidi and my brother-in-law Oswald Woehr who are always praying for my family and my business.

My deepest gratitude goes to God, the father of Jesus Christ, my savior. He is the one who gives me the strength I need for my daily business life. I know that I will never fall deeper than in his arms!

CHAPTER 1

We ask:Why?

Values and visionsas the basis for success

He’s got the stuff!

Walter Stuber about his partner Dirk Eckart

Loyal, honest, inquisitive, a safety nut and a neat freak, friendly, humorous, fun to work with; those are the deciding factors for an ideal employee in my company. I was searching for a competent foreman, and then Dirk Eckart showed up, and he could offer all of that. I had to have him on my team! A wise choice, he quickly brought forth an above-average level of performance and I liked how he managed the scaffolders.

Then he became ill, and because of his illness, he was gone for months at a time. When he told me that he could no longer work as a foreman, it became clear to me that I did not want to lose such a motivated employee. For this reason, I offered him a job as a site manager. At that time, some people could not understand why I would do such a thing, but I remained steadfast in my decision. I had no doubt that Dirk was the right person for the job!

I had to have him on my team!

Growing to accomplish new tasks

He, however, had to get used to his new field of activities. Office work and all revolving around this position were are all new to him. He patiently allowed me to explain everything to him; he educated himself further and was a quick learner. Back when he held the position of site manager for a large construction site at Potsdam Square in Berlin from 1998 to 2000, I knew I could count on him 150%.

I had the impression he wanted to prove to everyone that he had what it takes. He commuted to Brunswick, was building a house in Rosswein and cared for his family. He wanted to be on top of things, and he was. And, I admired him for that.

When the construction crisis struck and the owner considered selling the Rosswein branch, Dirk was one of the first to signal his willingness to be part of a takeover. And that, even though bookkeeping, controlling and marketing were all foreign languages to him!

I greatly appreciate his honesty

Successful with honesty, a thirst for knowledge and humor

In the beginning, we were five associate partners in the newly founded Gemeinhardt Geruestbau Service GmbH. However, Dirk Eckart and I quickly realized that only we had the same goals in mind for the company. That was the essentiel foundation for successfully working together. And, that is also why only the two of us “remained” as associate partners and managing directors.

Again, Dirk tackled his new tasks with great diligence and gained new knowledge through tirelessly educating himself further as well as through additional training.

I appreciate his honesty, and when I throw crazy ideas around, he is right there with me. And, even when we colufd not realize the disired effect, he takes it all with humor and responsible composure! Just another reason why I am so happy to work with him!

Innovative, impatient, future-oriented

Dirk Eckart about his partner Walter Stuber

Describing Walter Stuber on just two pages? An almost impossible feat! I could fill novels with all he and I have experienced. But I will try to limit myself to the essentials.

We first met back in 1994. I applied for a position with him as a scaffolding foreman. Back then, he greeted me with the words: “Eckart, I have been waiting for you for a long time.” At that time, I did not understand what he was trying to tell me.

Time and energy invested

Just two years later, I had a severely herniated disc, and because of this, I could no longer climb up scaffolding. Walter was hell-bent on keeping me. He offered me a position as a site manager and a tempting 500 DM higher salary which, by the way, he took directly from his executive pay. That’s Walter Stuber!

“Walter had faith in me and my abilities!”

Walter had faith in me and my abilities, even then when I was not used to office work at all and crippled the computer plus the printer! He became my teacher, not just with software and hardware! He invested much of his time and explained to me the complex relationships in the business world and taught me how to act economically. In 2001, he even made me his business partner!

An original with a mind of his own

We have been working together for 23 years now and 16 of those as business partners. I appreciate Walter Stuber as an innovative, constantly driven, ever-changing, visionary, future-oriented, never resentful, cellphone crazed, network enthusiastic, nature-loving individual. Some of his characteristics cannot be seen at first glance. For this, you have to get to know him better and thus will learn to like him more.

However, this is also Walter Stuber: He is impatient and demands a lot from his employees, family members, business partners, clients, and so on.

In return, however, he will give you everything he has: time, energy, money or words and knowledge. What he (and sometimes even more than that!) has, he enjoys passing on. Privately, he does not demand a lot. His only passion are books. He loves to buy them and he buys a lot; so it goes without saying that he has quite a few.

Once he has set his sight on something, there is no turning back.

The “promoter”

Walter has my utmost admiration for the fact that he was able to consequently and radically reduce his weight due to health reasons. For this, you need an iron will and stamina. Again, you can see his mentality: Once he has set his sight on something, there is no turning back!

“Eckart, I have been waiting for you for a long time.” I asked myself for many years what Walter Stuber meant with that statement when we first met. Now I know! This man has a “sixth sense,” a “gut feeling” as to whether or not the person standing in front of him has potential worth promoting! For me it is clear, without him, I would not be who I am today!

Why?

The definitive question for success

by Walter Stuber

“We know what we want, and we have got some fantastic ideas!” It is with this mentality that the five of us young entrepreneurs started out in 2001 and wanted to conquer the market with our Gemeinhardt Geruestbau Service GmbH! Unfortunately, the reality was quite different. In the end, three managing Directors left. Of course, Dirk Eckart and I asked ourselves why our original plan did not work out.

Only after we read John Strelecky’s “The Big Five For Life” and booked a corresponding seminar did we find an answer. It became clear to us that we had already committed the biggest mistake right from the start! The original five of us never asked ourselves the question WHY. Why did we found the company, and what was it’s purpose?

What do we want to achieve?

The three partners who left the company’s management had other goals in terms of company size, strategy and the long-term perspective of the company. Earning money was vital to us two remaining shareholders, but we wanted immediately to reinvest what we had earned in the company. After all, at some point, we wanted to hand over a stable, profitable company to our children.

If the goals are not the same, then there is no future in a joint business!

It is all about the reason!

In his book “Start with why”, management consultant Simon Sinek describes, among other things Apple’s success story. It is closely linked to the “why” question. Right from the start, the company had an answer and communicated it to customers: “For us, everything we do is about questioning what already exists. We believe that you have to think differently.” Their philosophy hasn’t changed to this day, and that’s a big part of Apple’s success.

The author continously emphasizes: When the question of “Why” has been answered for a business, making decisions gets easier, employee loyalty is higher and trust becomes “the common currency”. If people in management positions were more aware of asking the question “why” first, they “would spark optimism and innovation would be abundant.”

When the “why” has been clarified, there is nothing to stop effective, successful work!

A common goal inspires