Opportunity Knocks Twice; Chapter 5
Editor's Note: Utah Pulse is serializing the book, 'Opportunity Knocks Twice,' by Don Hale, as told to Mark Hale. We'll publish two chapters a week. You'll enjoy the wit and wisdom of one of Utah's great entrepreneurs, founder of Hires Big H. To buy the book, click here.
SECTION TWO
Take a Chance On a Good Opportunity
Frankly, life is tough and there is not much room for mistakes, but that should not discourage you from taking a chance in relationships or in business. But the chance you take must be on a good opportunity.
What is a good opportunity? In working to find out what a good opportunity is for you, consider your needs, strengths, skills, and personality. Consider all the logical possibilities of the opportunity and all the logical consequences of taking the chance. Do the positives of the potential outcome outweigh the negatives? Once you weigh out the logical possibilities and logical consequences, consider the illogical ones. Logic does not always follow life. Be prepared for some possibilities that seem illogical. Make all, or at least most, of your mistakes in the planning stages where it will cost you little.
Seek the opinions of others without relying too heavily on them. Opinion does not always determine behavior; sometimes people offer an opinion that they would not follow themselves. Listen to your gut. Do not talk yourself into something, or let others talk you into something, that is neither a good opportunity, nor good for you. And, likewise, do not talk yourself out of something, or allow others to talk you out of something, that is either a good opportunity or good for you. Your gut, your inner self, will know what is right for you. Follow it.
You and you alone are responsible for your choices. You are the one who will be responsible for the outcome of the choices you make and the chances you take, so you must be the one that makes the decision. In the end, you must be willing to take the chance and feel good about it; if not, do not take it—wait for a good opportunity.
Opportunity knocks twice
CHAPTER FIVE
Career Beginnings
Working at Hale’s Market became not only an opportunity to learn business, it provided steps to additional opportunities.
I continued working hard at Hale’s knowing full well the life-sustaining value of the business. Although the day-to-day work ever continued and required long hours—7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Sunday—I knew this was necessary to help support our family and my future family.
Every day at Hale’s Market we would see old friends or meet someone new. So, as my parents had established it, Hale’s market became a bit of a gathering place to stop and chat.
Watchful of what my mother did with real estate, I started thinking about it myself. One of our customers at Hale’s worked in real estate and he and I became friends. One day, while he shopped at Hale’s, I asked him to keep an eye open for any good real estate deals. Not long after that conversation, he came back to tell me of six small homes, each with about a 25 foot frontage, for sale on Seventh East near Fourth South in Salt Lake City, a few blocks from Hale’s Market. At the end of the business day, I went to look at them and thought, “Why not?” I bought the homes.
When opportunity knocks—answer.
Local customers and friends continued to shop and visit with us at Hale’s. One day my old friend who had delivered groceries for the market in the Model T stopped by. We had been friends for a long time; we had been in the same scout troop and received our Eagle Scout awards together. He said, “Don, I have a beer tavern—the Viaduct Inn. Do you want to go ‘halfers’ on it with me?” I liked the idea of branching out into other businesses. I told him I would be his partner, but I had to continue managing Hale’s Market. A while later, we bought another tavern called the Wagon Wheel Inn. I developed a nightly routine of driving by our taverns to see, by the number of cars in the parking lots, how busy they were. Next, I drove past our competition’s taverns to see the number of cars in their lots. This became my way to check on our business as well as our competition’s business.
One early morning, while buying produce for Hale’s Market, I proudly told the vendor about my beer taverns. He said, “You may make yourself a lot of money, but it will never do you any good.” That thought stayed with me. As a tavern owner, I saw firsthand how alcohol can negatively affect lives. One of our bartenders would sometimes booze it up with the customers. He became interested in one of the customers he drank with, and he eventually quit his job and ran off with her, leaving his family behind.
Good opportunities lead to doing good.
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