In any multi-person organization it's the combined effort of the many members that make it a success. Problem is, how do you effectively single out one person for praise? The engineer that came up with a brilliant circuit gets all the kudos, but without the production crew, mechanical engineers, purchasing, admin, sales, and service people to make it happen, that special product would never become a reality.
But, sometimes, when companies are just starting out small, it's easier to identify the heroes that make it happen.
And often, those heroes go unnoticed.
27 years ago, back in 1997, Terri and I left Genesis Technologies and together we restarted PS Audio. We bought back out company for the princely sum of $1.00 (at that price you can imagine there weren't any assets other than the name).
Back then, and for several years after, it was just the two of us. I had my office upstairs in our family home while Terri's office occupied the living room. While I worked on products and websites, Terri built the actual business.
Single handedly.
She figured out how we were going to fund it (by gathering dozens upon dozens of credit cards and getting cash on them all), setting up the organization, and then running it for years to come, leaving me to putz around figuring out the Power Plant.
Eventually, we started growing in numbers but still, Terri ran the show: making deals, paying vendors, fighting the banks, keeping track of all those beans in accounting, managing the household and our own finances, raising our four sons and loud-mouthed beagle, and hardest of all, keeping me pointed in the right direction. Together we would travel the world meeting dealers and customers alike. She is always the joy and laughter at the dinners.
Without her running the business the company would not exist today. And she's never gotten the kudos and the credit for all her hard work.
Terri epitomizes the unsung hero and I aim to fix that.
You see my ugly mug more than anyone else at the company—which I suppose makes me the "face" of the company—but that's simply because I am not shy in front of a camera (and can babble with the best of them). But you'd have never seen my face had it not been for the unsung heroes that have made all this possible.
From our son Scott, who, for the past 15 years has elevated the company far beyond what we could have hoped for, to the production folks, our operations managers—our president, Jim—engineering support, sales, service, and... oh my! The list goes on...
But, at the top of that list is Terri who, today, is still the backbone of this company.
Thank you.
