Denise White
Founder and CEOEAG Sports Management
The Mistake: Being too trusting. More than 10 years ago, I hired a woman who had no experience; I wanted to promote and elevate women in the business...
If I Knew Then...
Even born leaders have learning curves. In this feature, local insiders share their wisdom and talk about mistakes that shaped their business philosophy.
Ty Pennington
Television HostTLC
The Mistake: The biggest mistake I’ve made is taking off my comfortable hat. What I mean is, I’ve sort of made a career out of being myself. That’s...
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EAG Sports Management -
Sushil Thomas
Co-founder and CEO
Arcadia DataThe Mistake My mistake was trying to do it all myself and taking on too much. This happened earlier in my career, when I was working as an engineer...
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Paul D’Arcy
Senior Vice President of Marketing
IndeedThe Mistake: I became a CEO before I was ready to lead. I was very lucky in my early career to have the opportunity to start a company when I was 28...
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Kevin Lamar
President and CEO
SoftScienceThe Mistake: We didn’t do enough market research. When SoftScience started up, we were targeting the podiatric market, people with plantar fasciitis...
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Jennifer Breithaupt
Global Consumer CMO
CitiThe Mistake: I believed if you worked hard and had a great attitude, things would just happen for you. Early on, things worked out that way, so I...
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Stephanie Newby
CEO
Crimson HexagonThe Mistake: The mistake was misunderstanding how important it is to put a communications strategy in place and to be deliberate about using the word...
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Landy Labadie
Senior Vice President
Two Roads HospitalityThe Mistake: I wish I had known [at the beginning of my career] that yes, the guest is important, but your team is more important. I’ve noticed times...
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Stuart Graff
CEO and president
Frank Lloyd Wright FoundationThe Mistake: Focusing solely on the bottom line. In the many roles that I played over the course of my career — legal counsel, business leader,...
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Michael Traub
CEO
Serta Simmons BeddingThe Mistake: The mistake we made was that we totally ignored the culture of a company we took over. When I look back at my career, I had the...
