By Annie Nelson
Have you ever followed a successful person for years, hoping to “pick their brain” and soak up their wisdom? Someone you’ve admired and respected from a distance? I recently had that very opportunity. I found myself in the office—though it felt more like a museum—of Mr. Bob Parsons, a self-made billionaire from Baltimore and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. It was an absolute honor and privilege to spend the afternoon discussing military service, family, business and life with this incredible man. While we can’t fit the entire conversation here, I hope you enjoy some of the highlights and a short excerpt from his New York Times bestselling new book, Fire in the Hole!, which tells the story of how he went from having nothing to making more than $3 billion. It’s honest, hilarious, raw and full of valuable business and life lessons.
How did you decide to do a book, Fire In The Hole?
Well, I have friends, guys I served with in Vietnam, that always pushed me to do a book. I thought about it and thought it made sense. There’ve been a couple of false starts. And finally, I just decided to do it. I can list several reasons why, but first, it’s so that generations of my family could look back and say, here’s what the old man did.
What made you want to join the Marines?
I was a terrible student. I failed the 5th grade, and at the end of every school year thereafter, whether or not I passed was a photo finish. I was a senior in high school in March 1968 when two buddies told me they were going to talk to the Marine Corps recruiter. I went along with them to hear what the Marines had to say, and they (the Marines) had me at hello. The three of us enlisted on the spot. Because I was only 17 at the time, my mom had to sign off on my paperwork. We all went to boot camp that August, and six months later, we were carrying rifles in Vietnam. I learned three incredibly valuable lessons that helped me a lot while serving:
- I could accomplish much more than I ever dreamed I could.
- I had a right to be proud.
- Discipline—not in the form of punishment, though there was plenty of that. They taught me that responsibility is sacred. If you have a job to do, you must have the discipline and backbone to see it through and not let the guy next to you down.
Everything I have ever accomplished I owe to the United States Marine Corps.
Below is a book excerpt provided to U.S. Veterans Magazine.
Chapter 23: Everyone Wins
That period when you’re tipping toward great success is such an exciting time in companies. I’d been through it with Parsons Technology, and now I could feel it happening with GoDaddy, too. From the time of our first Super Bowl commercial onward, GoDaddy always had people pursuing us for acquisition. By 2005, we were the largest ICANN-accredited registrar on the internet. (ICANN stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.)
Then, in April 2006, things really heated up. That was around the time we announced our plan to go public. I had hired Lehman Brothers to manage the initial stock offering. We were looking to raise over $100 million and to significantly increase the value of the company. We went through the motions, jumped through all the hoops, filed the appropriate paperwork and were moving forward as if this were the right next step.
However, the closer we got to the date, the more I thought it was a bad idea and potentially a bad deal. I was suddenly going to have all this reporting and bureaucratic stuff to do, and, frankly, there wasn’t enough money involved to invite that headache. So many people who’d had nothing to do with building our company were standing in line with their hands out. I don’t like partners, and for the most part, I don’t take loans to operate my businesses. It was my money, my rules.
Before anyone knew my latest thinking on the subject, the Lehman team came to me and said they had bad news. They were going to have to give a haircut to our stock price. They said it like it was a joke. I didn’t find it funny. Not one bit. So I responded the only way I knew how: honestly and to the point.
“Well, I’ve got some worse news. I’m not going public.”
“Oh, you’re teasing,” they said, half laughing, half panicked.
“No. I’m as serious as a heart attack.” And I was.
They couldn’t believe it.
Our lead attorney, who had handled the initial public offerings, or IPOs, of a lot of companies, said that in his entire career, mine was the only company he had ever dealt with that had backed out of an IPO. Much later, he also said that my decision was right as rain.
On August 8, I officially pulled the plug. I didn’t make too many friends by doing that, but that was fine by me. I wasn’t looking to make friends.
After that, several other companies came to us and made offers, but I never felt like it was the right offer or the right time. I was having fun. I would know when it was time to cash in my chips. There was still a lot of work to do and a lot of good times to have.
Excerpt from Fire in the Hole! by Bob Parsons with Laura Morton, published by Forefront Books and available on Amazon.com.
How did your Marine Corps experience in Vietnam change and motivate you to start your own companies?
I came back from Vietnam with a new work ethic. Not all the changes in me were positive. I was a different guy. The guy that went over there was on the happy-go-lucky side, liked being around people, liked going to different events and so forth. The guy who came home had a short temper, was always a little bit depressed; occasionally, when he was alone, he’d cry and didn’t want to be around people. He buried himself in his work, and that kept him going. PHOTO: As a result of his service and injuries, Bob Parsons earned a Purple Heart. COURTESY OF BOB PARSONS.
Sometimes I think, without PTSD, I wouldn’t be as successful as I am. I was a worker bee to get my first business off the ground and wrote all the programming code with no formal education. I would come to work at eight in the morning, let’s say Monday, straight through Wednesday at eight in the morning, and about eight o’clock at night on Wednesday, I’d start to slow down and not get much done. I knew it was time to quit when I would start to hallucinate and hear voices that weren’t there. I worked those crazy hours until I got my business up off the ground, and I did it because I loved it. Then I took it a little easier, but I worked hard every day, again, because I loved it. Would I have done that without the Marine Corps? No… They taught me the importance of hard work. I couldn’t outspend my competitors, I couldn’t out-hire them, but I could outwork them.
What advice would you give aspiring entrepreneurs?
Well, first of all, they need to know their success will be determined in large part by how they think. How they think determines everything. And you need to be doing what you’re doing for the right reason. If you’re doing it solely to make money, you’re dead. If you’re doing it because you love what you’re doing and wanna make a difference, a very positive difference. Oh man, you’re almost there.
Tell me about your PTSD and how you discovered psychedelics.
I had a temper. I didn’t want to be around people. I couldn’t watch fireworks. Occasionally, I’d go off by myself and just be in tears. It’s one of the trickiest diseases because it affects the front of your brain and how that area controls the “fight or flight” response. When I read Michael Pollan’s book, How to Change Your Mind, I had a breakthrough. I had never used psychedelics and wouldn’t have considered doing so before reading the book. My wife helped me find two people who treat veterans with psychedelics. I did a four-day guided treatment, and after, I was a different guy. People who knew me would say, “My God, he’s different.” One of the things I always point out is that psychedelics don’t make you perfect. But they do make you better. And I can’t stress this enough: the therapy does the healing; the psychedelics make it possible. PHOTO: Working with The Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation. COURTESY OF BOB PARSONS.
So many of our readers suffer from PTSD. If you were to talk to someone having difficulty with their PTSD, what would your advice be?
Like all veterans, I still have memories no one should ever have. Do I consider myself completely cured of PTSD? No. Do I think I’m much better than I was? Yes, absolutely. Do I want the same thing for my fellow veterans? Yes. If a veteran is struggling with PTSD, I would ask them to be brave and call the PTSD hotline staffed by The Semper Fi and America’s Fund (760-725-3680) or get help somewhere.
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