Page 200 - The Way to the Top
P. 200
John J. STOLLENWERK
President of Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corporation
Advice is only as good as the person divulging it. My mentor, Don
Schuenke, is a great person with great advice.
Don told me, “You know, John, in business and in life, you’re never
done. You can never just sit back and rest on your laurels.” And at sixty-
three years old, I still live by that advice every single day—with the way I
run my company and how I approach life in general.
One of the ways to continually advance a business is to take risks. And
this can be a daunting prospect. But one must be able to take risks and try
new things and even fail sometimes. Some of the most bountiful lessons
actually do come from failure. If we don’t keep challenging ourselves and
each other, continue pushing the envelope, we run the serious risk of
becoming stagnant. A company that is stagnant will eventually fail and a
person in a state of torpor isn’t experiencing life to its fullest. After all,
who wants to sleepwalk through life? So while the advice may seem
simple, it’s actually predicated on continually choosing to do those things
that are often most difficult.
Always keep reaching and risking
