Plan B Mindset

The other day my colleague Jeff said something very simple that really resonated with me – “We can’t let a reason become an excuse.” He said it in relation to how our business at The Members Group continues to work on improving our processes and how other projects often get in the way. In some cases, we have let a reason (time constraints) become an excuse (I can’t work on that project because I have so much to do). I have spent a great deal of time thinking about the differences between a reason and when it becomes an excuse, and how that influences our own ability to act. There are always reasons why things happen that derail us from our plan for today, or our vision for a product or business. Resource constraints. Time constraints. Changing priorities. Competitors that change their tactics in the market. Our bosses, co-workers, spouse, children all make demands that can throw us off our game. They are all reasons – valid ones at that. But when they become excuses, we lose somet

Here we are, two-plus years from the epicenter of the financial crisis. September 2008 AIG and Lehman Brothers melted down within a few weeks. It began a run on the financial system that lasted for easily a year and a half, and is still felt today. I was thinking about that week when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 2008. TMG Financial Services was just starting to gain critical mass towards our business plan of acquiring portfolios from credit unions. We had thoughts on permanent funding for the portfolios and had put in place some temporary funding, but nothing substantive had come together. With the financial crisis, we realized our sources of funding weren’t coming from the usual suspects. On that Tuesday, we met as a management team to figure out what to do. Looking back, it really wasn’t a pleasant meeting. It was mostly dark humor and grim comments about what had happened to the financial industry and where we, as a start-up among giants, would end up. I imagine more

In my day job, I am the CEO of TMG Financial Services, a credit card issuer that works with community financial institutions. As I was thinking about what a Plan B mindset really is, I began to reflect on our business and I thought about the world we live in. We began the business in 2007 to provide credit unions and other community financial institutions an option to provide a competitive credit card offering to their cardholders. We purchase the assets, enhance the program and brand it as if it came directly from the financial institution. We build partnerships that intend to be invisible to their members and customers but can create a competitive offering that stands up to the largest issuers in the country. Most people in our business would tell you that 2007 was not the best time to start a new credit card company or be in the financial services industry. The capital funding to buy portfolios evaporated as the credit markets collapsed. The economy began tanking and unemployment

I live in a Craftsman bungalow built in 1919. The family we bought the house from about 10 years ago had lived there since the early 1940s. Needless to say it needed a bit of work. It turns out that I enjoy doing this type of remodeling, although I had never tackled a challenge like this. My first project was the bathroom – I had remodeled a bathroom before, so I felt confident that it was within my skill set. Lisa and I picked out the tile, the fixtures and determined the floor plan. Then I tore into the walls. That was surprise number one – in addition to the plaster that I expected, the exterior wall was pure brick, the ceiling was layers of particle board and after my demolition I had a huge pile of rubble on the ground. And I was distraught. This was not what I bargained for. We had a vision of a beautiful bathroom that would begin our restoration of this great house. What I now had was a pile in the middle of the room. What happened next is illustrative of many activities in