Richard N Seaman is the Chairman of the Seaman Corporation. He is a committed believer in the vitality of entrepreneurship. Richard’s career has been focused on the creative development of the business enterprise. His vast experience in a wide range of creative business initiatives across multi-functional disciplines serves as a valuable resource to many business and community involvements. Richard has been successful in growing his small family-owned business from $2 million in annual sales to greater than $200 million in the challenging industrial fabrics industry.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Larger more established businesses
- Donald E. Noble
- Stanley Gall
When business started difficulties overcame:
“when I went into the business it still felt like a start-up business and we had some real major challenges at that time… When I got out of college, we were faced with a huge cash issue almost bankrupted the company… I had to learn very quickly that cash is king”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies Book by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t Book by James C. Collins
- Leon A. Danco Books on Family Business
- John L. Ward Books on Family Business
- Thomas Moore Books
- Care Of The Soul: An inspirational programme to add depth and meaning to your everyday life Book by Thomas Moore
- Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship Book by Thomas Moore
- The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life Book by Thomas Moore
Favourite Quote:
- “There is no limit to what a man can do so long as he does not care a straw who gets the credit for it.” Charles Edward Montague
- “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away … Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain
Recommended Online Resources:
- LinkedIn – 500 million+ members | Manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network. Access knowledge, insights and opportunities.
- Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“benchmark other entrepreneurs, both successful and unsuccessful ones. And then develop your long-term strategy. When you are going to start I think you want to decide are you going to create a business that you want to harvest and have an exit strategy for down the road, you want to create a business to be a lifestyle business that funds your lifestyle or do you want to create a business that will leave a legacy. And there is no question in my mind that depending on which of those directions you want to go it will impact the kind of strategic decisions you make about your business all of which will have both short-term and long-term impact on the success of your business”…[Listen for More]
More About Richard Seaman:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Every problem is a gift—without problems we would not grow.” Anthony Robbins
Other Quotes From the Chat with Richard Seaman:
- “I also tried to do that, to create long-term sustainability in a way that I wouldn’t lose the entrepreneurial spirit and the innovative culture that my father started in the business”
- “the importance of investing in human capital I would have started that earlier. I doubt that my father would have felt hiring a personnel manager was anything we needed to invest in at the time”
- “building an outside independent board of directors. When my father passed away and I was thinking about the future of our company and thinking about the mentors that I was talking to you about. What were larger corporations doing to grow and be sustainable? I wanted to replicate an outside board of directors, an independent board of directors. And over the course of coming years I was able to do that and that board of directors has been invaluable to me through my time as CEO growing our business ”
- “Passion is the secret to success. If you don’t have a passion for what you are doing the likelihood of being successful in the long-term is pretty minimal… You don’t have passion for the product or service that you’re providing, and passion for your customers then it’s going to be hard to be successful in the long-term”
- “I think the other thing that’s important is to have a willingness and open-mindedness to continually learn, to go forward and continually learn… You have to continually commit to learning for yourself”
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