Robert Thomas Bethel is the orchestrator of seventy-seven business turnarounds over the past fifty years. Early successes and troubles in his own professional career inspired his passion for taking over struggling businesses and guiding them towards the road of profitability. Bob has turned around companies in various industries—from restaurant chains to engineering firms—and has helped save over ten thousand jobs as a result of his strategic business counsel. A graduate of the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, Bob owns several companies across the southern United States and has operated businesses both nationwide and internationally. He is an Eagle Scout and, in addition to counseling, also spends times teaching three-day seminars on best business practices throughout the United States. He currently resides in Orange Beach, Alabama with his wife, Reese.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
When business started difficulties overcame:
“Attempting to get over what I had not prepared for and what I didn’t know Neil. Accounting, finance, banking, dealing with inter company conflict which is a huge factor in all the businesses that I take over, we simply don’t put up with it, and I explain its damaging, it kills that company culture to have conflict so that’s another thing that’s dealt with straight up front”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America’s Energy Future Book by T. Boone PickensFavourite Quote:
“A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius without a plan”
Recommended Online Resources:
Tim Ferriss – 4 Hour Workweek and Lifestyle Design Blog
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“So many entrepreneurs come up with an idea, they bounce it off of a friend or a co-worker, they go to a bank and they talk about it with the banker and whether or not they can get the capital to start, the first step in buying or starting a business or if you’ve been in business for a year or 2 and you want to improve your business, what I would recommend Neil to everyone is to get online, take your industry trade publications, identify the top 5 successful people in your industry and go see them and I know the first time I did it I did not expect to get a return phone call when I made a call to an industry leader to an industry I had just gone into, I did get that call returned, I did go see that person and the time I spent with that person was unbelievable valuable in real world hard truth experience that have already occurred. And because I got so much information with that first one I continued it, and in 52 years, in all of the calls that I had made for advice every single one of them had been returned Neil and during that call I asked that person every single time may I come see you for a few minutes when I have time, every single time I’ve been told yes, and the value of those meetings with industry leaders over 52 years, there is no way to express the information value to the companies that I’ve been involved in” …[Listen for More]
More About Robert Thomas Bethel:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” Viktor Frankl
Other Quotes From the Chat with Robert Thomas Bethel:
- “You must handle the reigns of a company like you’re riding a horse or driving a car, I have been riding horses since I was 5 years old, there has not been a time in my life that I have not owned horses, I am a fairly decent horseman, I would never get on a horse Neil without putting a bridle on that horse because without a bridle there is no way I can control that horse so why in gods name would I jeopardise my company by not putting a bridle on in the form of control”
- “You spend time with someone, and get to know them a bit; you’re going to see what they’re made of”
- “I don’t want someone making decisions before they know what the facts are”
- “I try and look for people who have big dreams, are willing to pay the price to make those dreams come true and can utilise our organisation to take them to the next level”
- “ The vast vast majority of people are good people, they want to do a good job, they want to take care of their family, we primarily all have the same desires for our lives”
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