BlackSmith adVentures Episode #1

BlackSmith adVentures is the story of us, our team, our paths, our pitfalls, and our celebrations. We recently formed BlackSmith Ventures after exiting two (2) very successful startups in the Clean Energy segment and Oil & Gas industry. We took two companies, ABUTEC and ASHCOR, from inception to eventual exits to strategic buyers (those in the same industry) and investment buyers (private equity type investors). It has been a 20-year journey nuclear energy, oil & gas, metal manufacturing, entrepreneurship, and the most important one - people. Many of my teammates have been on this journey with me for over a decade. So, while we don’t share the same last name or blood line, we have certainly become family.
The events of 2020 taught me one great lesson – humility and the ability, plus willingness, to change rapidly. And so was spanned our newest adventure and one that I hope continues forever… BlackSmith Ventures. BlackSmith Ventures was formed to ‘forge’ creativity with the entrepreneurial mindset to grow products, brands, and companies. So, what does that mean? Simply put, our team partners with companies, and sometimes acquires companies, where we focus on growing the brand, scaling the business, and operating the company. We take companies from inception to the momentum phase. You’ll find, though, that one character trait that we look for in all our ventures is whether we can help people grow in their confidence. You’ll see this interwoven throughout our journey.
I’m not one to think back very often as I’m the visionary type, but I think its worth sharing some of the lessons learned along the way. We’ll drill down on specific lessons as the journey continues, but for now I’m thinking about more overarching, broad, lessons that have been our guiding foundation.
The first is Faith. Faith, to me, means complete trust in something you can’t see. I believe faith is our strongest attribute and one that we lean on daily. Faith is believing that no matter what happens, we’ll be ok. Believing that we are not in control and that’s ok. Believing that we are working for something bigger than ourselves.
The second is Perseverance. Is funny how we get really creative when we get really hungry. There have been too many times when we were on the verge of running out of money, not making payroll, losing a big customer, you name it, that we could have stopped. In whatever you do, hold this truth…. Never, ever, suffer alone. Never, ever, give up. Never, ever, count yourself out. This life we live doesn’t have a destination so you how we can “win” or “fail”. We can’t, so keep your faith (trust in what you can’t see) and keep never give up.
The third guiding foundation that I’ve learned is one that I still don’t internally possess, Patience. Patience is not my virtue. I believe in going all in, right now. That being said, with businesses the microwave approach is not always the best. We see so many instant homeruns these days… Entrepreneurs who start a business and it seems like an overnight success. I believe these are the anomaly and not something we should celebrate. We often don’t see the hardwork, tears, creativity, sweat, and relationships that come into play in growing or scaling a business. We prefer the crockpot approach to business. An approach that is based on long term success and not short term greed. Sustainability through patience. Not an easy one for me to swallow, but its proven time over time to work.
The last lesson we’ll mention in this post is probably the biggest lesson we learned and has the most impact, humility. If we start to see success, we can easily drift in to pride. The dictionary defines pride as, “a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.” Just reading this definition makes my skin crawl. Why? Because we’ve lived this. When we started our entrepreneurial journey in 2007, it was based on humility, faith, and patience. When we started achieving success it morphed into look at what “we” did. Look at what “we” achieved. It wasn’t until I read Carey Nieuwhof’s book, “Didn’t See It Coming”, in November of 2019, that I realized I had a problem. “Pride” had creaped into my life. I couldn’t wait to get to the end of the book to figure out the answer to this problem. How do we solve the “pride problem”? The answer? Humility. Humility is the opposite of pride. Humbling yourself, and in our case, our organization, can break barriers personally and professionally. It’s a game changer.

Learn more about our operating companies at:
RemainSafe www.RemainSafe.com
AXL Eye www.axleye.com

Видео BlackSmith adVentures Episode #1 канала Andy Smith | Business Builder