BIO: For over two decades, Dave Clare has been a practitioner who has led multiple businesses in and through commercially and organizationally challenging times.
STORY: Dave was trying to fill up his unhappy life and thought investing in a community leadership center was the answer. The center only hemorrhaged money and never brought in any revenue.
LEARNING: Don’t buy stuff just because you’re trying to make yourself feel happy. Keep the absolute minimum on costs, and drive revenue. Never compare your insides to other people’s outsides.
“If I’m happy on the inside, I don’t have to try and force happiness on the outside. And I don’t have to make poor decisions on the outside.”
Dave Clare
Guest profile
Purpose, Leadership, and Simplicity are the keys to success in shaping your business evolution.
For over two decades, Dave Clare has been a practitioner who has led multiple businesses in and through commercially and organizationally challenging times.
Bringing care, compassion, and urgency to his process, Dave’s legacy in the making is one of achievement, fulfillment, and joy in the workspace. Dave’s process works because they matter to everyone - clients, teams, leaders, everybody!
Worst investment ever
In 2000, Dave was living in Canada and was a licensee of the world’s largest personal and organizational development company. He had just come off a very successful year and thought it would be great to embed himself in the community.
Dave decided to leverage the equity in his house and buy a building where he’d set up a Center for Leadership Excellence in the community. He’d worked really hard to position himself in the business community. He found this ancient building, bought it, and renovated it. The house was over 150 years old then. Dave bought new furniture, hired staff, and started the center.
Dave just kept spending more money in a business that, at the time, really wasn’t making money. The company didn’t have a recurring revenue model and wasn’t building equity.
Then the global financial crisis hit, and Dave’s staff started disappearing one by one. At this point, he was upside down on the house and the business and lost 70% of his client base. Dave had heavily invested in tier-one automotive clients. When the global financial crisis started, Obama pulled many automotive plants from southern Ontario and put them back into America. When this happened, many of Dave’s clients’ businesses were decimated. Therefore his business was destroyed too.
Lessons learned
- Don’t buy stuff just because you’re trying to make yourself feel happy instead of buying something because you need it.
- Having a robust support network is critical.
- Take responsibility for your poor decisions.
- Only invest in stuff that adds value to your clients.
Andrew’s takeaways
- No matter how far down you go, you can turn things around.
- Keep the absolute minimum on costs, and drive revenue.
- Never compare your insides to other people’s outsides.
Actionable advice
Invest in yourself and find inner happiness because if you’re happy on the inside, you don’t have to try and force happiness on the outside or make poor decisions to mask your unhappiness.
Dave’s recommended resources
- Have a 30-minute free online whiteboard session with Dave about yourself and your leadership. Dave will help you look at any of the four critical frameworks of culture, strategy, tactics, and performance for your success. Mention that you’re a My Worst Investment Ever podcast listener, and he’ll slot you in one of the four weekly sessions.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Dave’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to free himself up from his responsibilities in his business so he can focus more outside of it.
Parting words
“Don’t be afraid to fail.”
Dave Clare
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