THE THREE PILLARS

The Anti-Corporate Experiment: How We Built ICO (And Kept Our Sanity)

Twenty years ago, my wife and I pulled the ripcord.

We decided to cut off all employment and sell our real estate to start a new adventure. A new company.

Honestly? I wasn’t looking for a "job." I was looking for a life. I wanted an activity that generated income but didn't consume my existence. After a few false starts, we found our groove importing wooden pallets and shipping container loads of grain from Canada to Central America. (I was fortunate enough to launch this with my sister-in-law and business partner).

But once the gears started turning, I realized something. I needed ground rules.

I came from the corporate world, where I didn't always agree with the values driving the decisions. I knew exactly what I didn’t want ICO to be. So, I boiled it down to three principles. Not buzzwords—just three real pillars that would guide this adventure.

1. PURPOSE (We don’t serve the company; it serves us.) This might sound backwards, but the purpose of building ICO was to serve the people working in it, not the other way around.

I didn't want a team that would sell their souls for the logo. We’ve all seen it—people who identify solely by their job title ("My name is... , the Director/Manager/Boss"). If that works for them, great. But I didn't want that here.

I wanted to go to my kids' swim meets. I wanted to see my daughters’ ballet performances. And I couldn’t very well do that while expecting my team to stay glued to their desks (especially if their kids were at the same swim meet!).

2. FREEDOM (Trust is the only currency that matters.) I spent eight years working for a boss who was brilliant but totally controlling. He would call me multiple times a day just to ask, "Where are you?" and "What are you doing?"

I hated making excuses for eating lunch in my own house. It seemed absurd. So, I made a promise to my future team:

• I am never going to call you to ask where you are.

• I don’t want a detailed report of your every move.

You decide the time, the place, and the pace. This only works, of course, if you hire the right people. As Warren Buffett says, look for Intelligence, Energy, and Integrity. But if they don't have Integrity? You actually want them to be lazy and dumb. An intelligent person without integrity will sink you fast.

3. PROFITABILITY (Growth is good. Sanity is better.) Freedom and flexibility are nice, but they don't pay the bills. We knew we had to be profitable, but we didn't want to build a "monster."

We aren't trying to be Amazon. We aren't trying to conquer the globe. I decided early on that unless it was an absolute emergency, we wouldn't load up on debt just to inflate our sales numbers.

Does this limit our growth speed? Yep. Do my entrepreneurial friends think I’m crazy? Probably.

My uncle likes to say, "A company that doesn't grow, dies!" I get his point, but I didn't want growth at the cost of our freedom. We grow if and only if it allows us to keep serving our people and living good lives.

The Result? When I first laid out this plan—the freedom, the lack of micromanagement, the "sanity-first" growth—I wasn't sure anyone would sign up.

But when I pitched it to my sister-in-law, she didn't just nod; she was all in. She was the first person to take this path with me. We’ve been working together for 20 years, and looking back, I’m glad we stuck to the plan.

Here’s to the next 20.

Cheers, JC