1-hour listen
Portsmouth, NH & San Antonio, TX
Hey everybody, this is Pete Worrell from Bigelow, and I'd like to welcome you to this episode of the Positive Enterprise Value Podcast. In this podcast we interview seasoned, successful, high-performing Entrepreneur Owner-Managers (EOMs), people who own and lead significant enterprises in a variety of domains and niches across the country.
Have you ever noticed that some private enterprises successfully transitioned through evolutions and revolutions in leadership, management and even ownership? Some ending up with a terrific new majority owner, the EOM moving gracefully into the next interesting and rewarding chapter in their lives, surrounded by friends with their positive legacy intact, and their independence powered or fueled by the fortune they just realized. While others’ outcomes look more like a train wreck. Is it luck or is it more than luck? We think it's more than luck.
In this episode I have the fun of interviewing Michael Kiolbassa. Michael and I have known each other for almost 10 years. He is the CEO of Kiolbassa Provision Company in San Antonio, TX where they're celebrating their 75th year in business. It was Michael's grandfather and then his father, who shepherded the business, which was largely a fresh meat slaughtering house until Michael came along. And now, of course, it is widely known as one of the highest quality sausage and provision companies in the country.
Michael talks us through when he joined the business. Some of the challenges he had both in the business and with his family (Michael’s father and uncle had owned the business until then, so Michael had both his own immediate family as well as cousins in the business.) He shares some of his hopes and dreams to become a national business and some of the adversity he encountered along the way.
Michael is extremely articulate and candid and vulnerable about some of the challenges, failures and learnings; I know you will love this episode because I surely did. Without further ado, join me in listening to Michael Kiolbassa.
Listen below or on Soundcloud here.
What I am Reading / Listening to
The Life Impossible: A Novel (2024)
By Matt Haig (2024)
Seventy-something Grace Winters needs Ibiza more than she realizes. Grief has taken over her thoughts, regret has set in, she’s lost her feeling of self-efficacy, and she’s a victim of anhedonia—an inability to experience happiness. She heads to Ibiza and a home she’s inherited, trying to make sense of a friend’s death (who left her the house). She’s forced to step outside her comfort zone and befriend some creatives on Ibiza who expose her to their peculiar ideas. It’s the act of making room for possibilities in her life, which allows Grace to change her trajectory and outlook, and positively impact her new island community.
I have never read a Matt Haig book before. I appreciate where Haig was going with this speculative fiction. The picturesque descriptions of Ibiza’s rugged beauty and the unique encounters she experiences are captivating. Haig introduces intriguing themes about facing one's past, appreciating life’s mysteries, and the sometimes-unexplainable beauty of the world around us. The magical realism elements at times drifted into territories that felt too abstract, but I rolled with it.
Maybe this book came along at just the right time for me. Haig’s writing is beautiful, and he is brave to tackle profound questions about hope, reinvention, and healing in a way that resonates. A fantastical storyline, life affirming themes, and hopeful characters. As cliché as it sounds−when I finished this work, my heart felt a tiny bit restored, and he made me see the world in a more beautiful light.
Entrepreneur Owner-Manager Quote
“I think it’s generally human nature to overestimate risk and underestimate opportunity. And so, I think entrepreneurs in general, you know, would be well advised to try and bias against that piece of human nature: The risks are probably not as big as you perceive, and the opportunities may be bigger than you perceive.
And so, you say it’s confidence, but maybe it’s just trying to compensate for that — accepting that that’s a human bias, and trying to compensate against it. The second thing I would point out is that thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
© 2024 Bigelow LLC. All rights reserved.