9 Rules that brought me from the edge to the Sweet

Talking about the construction of something from something, especially when you look from a background, give a voice that is not able to mold, so that you are not just running a business. You are running off the walls.

I have won this journey. I grew up in El Paso, a first -generation Mexican -born American child, who initially learned that no one was going to give me a seat on the table. So I built a.

Over the years – starting as a line baker at the University of Columbia, joining the commodity trade, then the foundation of OTC Global Holdings and watching it became the world’s largest independent interior brokerage – I had to prepare as a leader. Not in theory, but in survival. These nine principles are not by playbook. They are the ones through whom I lived. Some came naturally. Something I had to learn a difficult path.

Related: 5 major leading principles that advance real results

1. The effect on Anna

I have seen that more deals die on the altar because one needs to be right rather than being effective. I’ve been a boy too. When we were building OTC Global Holdings for the first time, I also firmly tied some ideas (branding decisions, hiring calls, even the tech platform) because they were mine. But Anna does not measure. There is an effect.

Today, I tell every founder to my guardian: Your pride is not your strategy. Kill your ego before killing your business.

2. Let the suspects speak

In the early days, when I told people that I was going to create a global brokerage firm outside Houston, he smiled as I told him that I was going to open a trick truck in Paris. I was not from New York. I didn’t go to the waron. I didn’t look like the rest of the business world.

But here is the truth: Once you stop performing for the crowd and start building for the customer, you will release yourself. Let the doubtful talk. They are not on your payroll.

3. Find a good wingman

No one is alone. I have been fortunate to have a business partner and key member of the team who were not just smart but those who challenged me, completed my blind places and shared the same fire.

In the early 2000s, when we were still scratching and cash, I had a colleague who pulled me aside and said, “Javi, you are very good at kicking the door open. I will handle what happens next.” This confidence saved me from burning and saved the company from spreading.

Find someone that is not your clone. Find your bluffer when you need.

4. Find a roll model

I did not grow with the CEO in my circle. But I knew how to study them. I read every business bio on which I can raise my hands, make veterans in the industry a shade and not only learned what they did but they thought.

Finally, I stopped copying and started to mold. You do not need a guardian in the traditional sense. You need a blueprint, even if it is borrowed.

Related: 7 Things I wish I knew before becoming a leader

5. Live and learn

Let me be honest: My first investor pitch was a catastrophe. I stumbled with numbers, my hands were shaking, and I mistakenly told the investor by wrong name – twice. I wanted to crawl under the table.

But the next day I showed again. And next. This is the tool we pay. If you are not ready to look stupid in the beginning, you are not ready to win at the end.

6. Madness defeated talent

When I started trading, I was not a smart man in the room. But I was the most passionate. I was about to read the European market updates at 3:00 pm, I was just to ask dumb questions that they did not want to answer.

Raw talent is fine, but the madness is the one that builds the empire. If it doesn’t keep you at night or wakes up in the morning, maybe it’s not your thing.

7. High Agency is a superpower

The agency means that you believe you have control even when it faces difficulties. This is not deception. This is notorious.

When the 2008 financial crisis suffered, we had every reason for being folded. Markets were frozen, clients were panicked, and we were bleeding. But I looked at my team and said, “No one is coming to save us. So we save ourselves.”

High agency leaders do not wait for the perfect situation. They move anyway.

8. Calendar your preferences

Don’t tell me what your priorities are. Show me your calendar.

I used to say that my family was #1 – but I realized that we didn’t have the opportunity to go out for dinner in three months. Therefore, I started to put the main goods in ink. My workouts my daughters and wife. Time to think.

The calendar does not lie. If this is not scheduled, it is not sacred.

Related: What makes a good leader? Here I have learned as CEOs after more than 20 years.

9. Adaptation or die

I have done myself a dozen times. Broker CEO investor donors now, I am working with new projects in AI, advising renewable energy and young businessmen who remind me of me 25 years ago.

The world does not care about how things were. It cares how quickly you can axis. I have seen big companies die because their leaders were very old. I have also seen an increase in under -dugs because they dared to throw out what they were not doing.

Success is not a straight line. This is a series of battles – some public, very private. This principle? They are not just ideas. These are the reasons I am still in fighting.

And if you are reading this, you are too.