Lessons from a holding company founder: Austin Linney
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes and 32 seconds
I had a chance this week to sit down with Austin Linney, an entrepreneur and the founder of Crementum Capital Holdings.
Austin and a group of investors buy home service businesses with the goal of improving margins and making the business run better.
In bold are direct quotes from Austin filled in with a little bit of context from our conversation.
“I just don’t put parameters around what I can do.”
Austin really highlighted how people are too tied to doing things the normal way. It’s okay to think outside of the box, and if people are calling you crazy then that’s probably a good sign that you are on the right track.
We broke down the recent layoffs at Google and other tech companies, compared to the continued shortage of skilled laborers. “When we’re young we want sex and sizzle. It took me 7 failed businesses to understand that I didn’t want any of that.”
Don’t let ego get in the way.
We quickly got into what Austin called “The innate fascination with how people make money.” When he said this I felt like it was something he pulled straight out of my brain. It seems like every entrepreneur has this fascination.
Universities and typical learning paths do not scratch that itch of getting into the nitty gritty of how people become wealthy. Entrepreneurs start by becoming bartenders, then they get into sales, then real estate, and it just becomes a snowball of optimizing for finding new ways to make money.
It was really important to Austin that this should be balanced with the realization that it’s okay to stop and exit the rat race. It’s okay to have a business that does $12,000 a month but only takes 2 days a week to run.
“How many times do we hold onto something longer than we should.” Being able to let go and try something new is an underrated business skill. “You have to pivot.”
“Perceived value to another person, is not the same as the value you are giving. Where are the areas in your life that you can add things that are not a big deal to you, but are a big deal to them. 2 hours out of my day are going to yield me 10 years of results.”
I thought this was an interesting thing to chime in with. This reminded me of a Bible verse directly quoting Jesus Christ. “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:” - Matthew 20:27
Regardless of your religious beliefs, this is a powerful lesson in servant leadership.
Austin’s Book Recommendations:
Our entire conversation was about 23 minutes long, watch the full video on Youtube!
To follow along and connect with Austin, follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AustinLinney
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