Helen Maslocka Shares Thoughts on Ego and Relationships With Investors, Board and Advisors

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Transcript

226NCIIA08_ego

Cannot have an ego in this stuff. You need to learn to be straight, calm, cold water on your face, and have people in your life that will be frank and honest with you that are not associated with the company and that are not your investors. And remember that your investors are not your friends. They might have been your friend before they invested. But after that they are your investors. And they want to hear the story. Your board of directors are not your friends. They are your board of directors. Your advisors that you hire are your advisors. And they will probably be frank with you. And you should have frank advisors. Or if they are free they will give you frank answers. But remember, if you are the CEO, if you choose to be in that role or you find somebody, CEO is always on stage. There is never a moment in that job when you are not on stage. You stand there when things are going really badly. And you tell the truth. And you stand up straight. And you tell your employees what's going on. And if you have a window of opportunity you tell them how you are going to get from this problem through to a solution. You must be very strong. And you must hold the hope and the opportunity. And you must stand strong with it. And you must do that with your board of directors as well. And that is not easy. And so you need to be able to have the chutzpah and the wear-with-all to do that. And if you can't do that then don't do this. Because it is very hard. It is filled with sleepless nights. People talk about being laid off. And you know, a layoff coming. Well let me tell you. There is a potential for lay off every minute of every day in doing a company like this. And you know, I have been able to see things from the early stages to big successes and launch a lasik procedure. And I have seen smaller successes. And now we are on the verge of commercializing and figuring out what that commercialization route is. Do we raise a large amount of money from additional investors? Do we do a corporate partnership? How is it best to get to market? And how rapidly do we do that? How effectively can we do that? And those are important questions. But there are hurdles. I mean you know, a clinical person who is outstanding has recently decided to move to another country with her husband. She has given us lots of notice. But you know, a life change for her is a hole that I have to fill. And a very difficult hole at this point in time. And those things happen. And I was in Europe and making phone calls and working 17, 18 hours a day with that problem and others. And they do continue. And you keep going. And you have to have that stick-to-it-ivenesss and that wear-with-all to be stable. And if you cannot be stable then it is a problem. And I would say that for myself just speaking honestly. I am single. If I had met the right man or will meet the right man that would be fine. But there - I am alone at this. Now I would say to you that if you have a stable relationship, I have talked to my colleagues in a marriage or whatnot. That can be very helpful. Because you've got somebody there that is a support for you. Instead, I have very close friends and family that are my support. You must have that. Somebody that you can go to that truly does love and care about you as you start this. Because there are going to be moments that are extraordinarily difficult.