8 Lessons From 25 Years of Building a Mult-million dollar Business

Last week I sat in a private room at One International Place in downtown Boston.

A bank invited us in to meet with a few private equity firms. If you've never seen how this works — basically, they book these hotel rooms, take the beds out, put desks in, and you sit and have private meetings, one after another. We met with 11 firms. People who have more money than God. One lady sat across from me and said, "I have $16.5 billion available to invest right now."

It just so happened that our room was looking right across the street at the building where I started. Twenty-five years ago I was over there, trying to sell somebody on buying a single oil change. Scraping pennies for a 50-dollar sale. Back then I didn't even know rooms like this existed.

As tears filled my eyes, I looked over at my partner Todd and told him, "You helped me cross the street."

He looked at me and said, "I dragged your ass across it."

And he's right! None of this happened fast, and none of it happened alone. So I want to tell you exactly what got me from that side of the street to this one — because all of it is something you can start doing today.

Find a Mentor Who's Already Done It

Don't try to make it your own.

That's one of the biggest mistakes I see people make. They want to figure everything out from scratch, like they're the first person to ever build the thing they're building. You're not. Somebody has already done anything you need to do. Go find them.

I didn't get here on my own ideas. I got here because people like Todd dragged me across the street — people who had done it before and were willing to show me how. When I'm stuck, I don't reinvent. I find the person who's already solved it.

Try this: Make a short list of the three biggest problems in your business or career right now. Next to each one, write the name of one person who has already solved that exact problem. Don't have a name? That's your assignment this month — go find that person and buy them a coffee. You're not looking for a cheerleader. You're looking for someone with the scars.

Turn Your Mistakes Into Lessons

I've made plenty of mistakes. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I haven't.

You should feel the sting of a mistake, a little. That's how you remember it. But don't sit there and punish yourself over and over. Take the lesson out of it and move on. The only mistake you're not allowed to make is the same one twice.

Try this: After anything that goes wrong — a lost deal, a bad hire, a month in the red — write down two sentences. One: what actually happened. Two: what you'll do differently next time. Two sentences. Then close the book on it. The point isn't to relive it. The point is to make sure it pays you back in a lesson.

You Can't Scale Yourself, Build Systems

Early in my career, I relied on myself alone.

I could just naturally do a lot of stuff, I always had that ability. But when you're trying to grow a business, you can't teach "me" to anybody. There's only one person who works like me, thinks like me, sees it like me. That's not teachable.

So you need a system. And the deeper I get into this, the more I believe systems are one of the most important things there are. A system takes what's in your head and puts it where other people can actually use it.

Try this: Pick the one thing you do that you keep saying "it's just easier if I do it myself." Write it down step by step, the way you'd hand it to someone on their first day. That document is the beginning of a system. Do that with one task a week and in a year you've built something that doesn't depend on you being in the room.

People Are Your Greatest Asset

Nothing we talk about happens without people. Nothing. Not technology, not AI, not any of it.

If you've been to my store, you've seen the signs. One of them says, "Yes is the answer. What is your question?" Now that sign means nothing on its own. It's just a bunch of words. It's mumbo jumbo. It doesn't mean a thing until the people bring it to life.

Anybody can write a slogan, print a sign, get a tattoo. That's the easy part. The people are what make it real. The people are your greatest asset, full stop.

Try this: Look at your favorite value or slogan, the thing you've got painted on the wall or written in your deck. Then ask one honest question: can the newest person on my team actually act on this today? If not, the words are decoration. Spend your energy on the people who turn it into behavior, not on more words.

Always Help Others (Even When There's Nothing In It For You)

In February of 2025, a guy walks into my shop completely unannounced. Nobody sent him. He says, "My name is Ralph, I'm vice president of Midas. I heard about you. Show me how you do it." I spent an hour and a half with him that day. Treated him like gold. Asked him what I could do for him, how I could bring him some value.

I didn't know where it would go. I just helped.

Fast forward to last week. We did a class up in Canada for Midas — and Ralph gets up on stage, plugs his phone into the big screen, and starts showing pictures from the day he met me. I didn't even know he had them. He says, "That's the day I drove unannounced into Charlie's shop." And then this week, a major deal comes up with one of the biggest auto repair groups in the world, and the guy wants a reference. I tell him, "Call Ralph." Ralph tells him, "There's nobody better on the planet."

That entire chain started with 90 minutes I gave away for free to a stranger.

Try this: This week, help one person with absolutely no expectation of getting anything back. Give them real time and real value — not a brush-off, not a "let's grab lunch sometime." The whole point is that you don't know which 90 minutes turns into the relationship that changes your life. So treat all of them like they might.

There's No Such Thing as Business Ethics, Only Ethics

I can't teach you to be honest. You either are or you're not.

They once asked John Maxwell to write a book on business ethics. He turned it down. They said, "You're John Maxwell, you can write anything." And he said, "There's no such thing as business ethics. There's only ethics." If you're an ethical person, you'll be ethical in business. If you're not, you won't. Same person, same rules, everywhere.

Try this: Stop keeping a separate set of standards for "business you" and "real you." Before a decision you're unsure about, ask the simplest question there is: would I be comfortable if the person I respect most found out exactly how I handled this? If the answer is no, you already know what to do.

Pressure Is a Privilege

I tell my people something a lot of them don't get: you don't understand the weight of the responsibility I carry. And I don't say that to complain. I say it because it's a privilege.

Not everybody gets to have this kind of pressure. If you don't have any pressure on you, you should ask yourself why — because a lot of the time it's that nobody's put anything important in your hands. Nobody believes in you enough yet. The pressure is the proof that people are counting on you.

Todd worked 40 years, retired, and we pulled him back into this. He's tired, he's fighting health issues, but he works his tail off because he wants to go out with a bang and leave something to the industry. A CEO with over 100 shops called him the other day and said, "Todd, I searched everything I could, and everything goes back to you." So now I feel like his whole legacy runs through me. That's a heavy thing to carry.

But I'd rather carry it than never be trusted with it.

Try this: The next time you feel the weight of something — a deadline, a team depending on you, a number you're responsible for — try reframing it just once. Not "why is all this on me," but "look who's counting on me." Same pressure. Completely different fuel.

Never Quit

I'm going to be straight with you. There were so many days I wanted to quit I couldn't count them.

I've had people steal from me. I've had people lie to me. I've had months where I'd run the P&L at the end and find out I owed money to my own business — I lost more than I made. Those are the days you want to throw your hands up and say, "Screw this, I'll go get a job."

I didn't.

Try this: Write down your own version of "the days I almost quit." Keep the list somewhere you'll see it. Not to wallow in it — to prove to yourself you've already survived the thing you're afraid of. You've been at the bottom before and you're still standing. That's evidence, not just hope.

Don't Quit Before You Cross

Right across the street from where you're standing right now could be everything you ever wanted. A whole different life. And you have no idea it's even there. It's just sitting there, waiting for you to go get it.

Twenty-five years ago I was on the wrong side of that street, fighting for a 50-dollar sale, and I didn't even know the room I'd be sitting in last week existed. I was this close the whole time. I was also this far away. The only thing that closed the gap was that I didn't quit, I found people who'd already done it, and I tried like hell to do the right thing every step of the way.

So whatever street you're on today, keep going. And don't quit before you cross.