An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Listen to your “positive” inner voice — I think most of us have that “little voice” inside our heads telling us what we should or shouldn’t do. And, most of us, once we reach a certain level of maturity have a reasonably well-informed sense of right and wrong. When you face a difficult challenge and you’re thinking about quitting or giving up, listen to that nagging voice in your head that reminds you to keep going because this thing you’re trying to do is right and important and then — keep going!
As a part of our series about “dreamers who ignored the naysayers and did what others said was impossible”, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Pruitt.
David Pruitt is a first-generation college graduate from UNC-Greensboro and previously served on the advisory board for their Bryan School of Business. A licensed CPA and a member of the AICPA and NCACPA, Dave started his business career in an entry-level accounting position before advancing to first CFO, then CEO, of Performance Bike, for a time the largest cycling retailer in the United States. He is an avid reader, a happily married husband for over thirty years, a proud father of two successful children, and currently resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us your ‘backstory’?
Ok. I’ll start at the beginning. I was raised in a southern, blue-collar, lower-middle-class, and, unfortunately, dysfunctional family. My father was physically and verbally abusive and my mother was mentally ill, I suspect schizophrenic. I had two siblings who eventually became homeless — one of them for over twenty years — more importantly, they’re doing well now.
In any event, partially because I was the youngest of three kids and witnessed the struggles of my older siblings (who I love dearly), I managed to pay for college, graduate, became a CPA, and after a few years land at Performance Bike. When I started, we had 12 retail stores and revenue of $40 million or so. Over the next roughly twenty years when I served first as CFO, then later as CEO, we grew to well over 100 stores, $250 million in revenue, and at our peak employed 2,000 people. As mentioned above, we were the largest specialty cycling retailer in the United States when I left the business.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
My project is a book!
I retired from Corporate America a few years back, and began writing a memoir — “Relative Distance.” It will publish in October 2022. It’s the story of my siblings and me and our journey beyond a difficult upbringing. A large focus of the book is on my successes and failures in the business world and my brother’s story of traveling across America for twenty years as a homeless person. The commonality to our individual stories is the psychological challenges we each faced in moving our lives forward — though we were able to do so successfully. This is a challenge many adults, who were abused as children, face. The goal of the book is to show the different paths one can follow in finding their life purpose — even when raised in the most difficult of circumstances. I hope someone who needs to put a difficult past behind them and reach their full potential will gain some inspiration from our story. That is certainly a person I want to help! But I believe anyone who enjoys an inspirational, well-paced story will enjoy the book and take away something for themselves they can use.
Ok, thank you for that. I’d like to jump to the main focus of this interview. Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us? What was your idea? What was the reaction of the naysayers? And how did you overcome that?
In my business career, there are many stories. One short one: A firm that bought majority control of Performance, soon after taking control fired our CEO. A team member and I went to New York to pitch them on us running the business, directly stating what we thought we could do to make things better. But they told us we weren’t ready and unceremoniously blew us off. They eventually hired someone from the outside (for three years), then fired them — and then — they finally handed the reins to me. Within two years we had turned things around and had one of the best financial performing years in company history! While there would be challenges ahead as many retailers faced in brick and mortar in those days (and still do today), I had my moment in the sun.
But, that’s not my most important naysayer story. My most important naysayer was my father. Ok — I’m NOT the first person whose parents told them they would never amount to anything when they were growing up. I fear many people carry that scarring memory inside them — and are bogged down in their life pursuits because of it, People don’t understand the implications when a child is told that by a parent — it’s an almost insurmountable thing to overcome. After all, if the person in the world that you, as a child, most love, respect, fear, look up to, etc. doesn’t believe in you — how can you possibly believe in yourself? But that’s the challenge I was faced with post-adolescence — and I suspect so many others are as well — but it can be done!
In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong? 🙂
I’m extremely proud of the successes I’ve had in life — but I’m equally humbled by my failures. I believe, for a disadvantaged child who grew into a “novice” parent (as all parents are initially), the goal of “generational lift” is the ultimate redemption — and perhaps the very definition of serving your family and community well. My kids, one a 2nd-year medical resident soon to be a cardiologist, the other educated at one of the best business schools in the country — Kenan-Flagler at UNC-Chapel Hill — are the fruit of whatever successful labors I’ve had in life. I always wanted them to be better than me -and the very good news is I think they are!
I also think most people who knew me when I was young (but didn’t know what I was going through at home) would be very surprised by my life story. It’s also very true that they aren’t thinking about me these days — they have their own challenges!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There were many, including several business mentors.
But I will give you a different one, a wonderful teacher named Dorothy Ross! After rewarding me with straight A’s, she took me aside at the end of the fourth grade and told me she thought I would do great things one day! I was already a damaged little boy and her positive declaration meant the world to me. But, sadly, in the short term, her faith couldn’t propel me forward. Not long after, mainly because of things at home, I began to fail badly in my studies. I barely finished High School!
But I never forgot her example — she was a strong, competent, caring woman. I respected her so much and again, she saw something in me when I desperately needed it. For some reason, her voice stayed in my head through the years. Maybe I needed that voice of faith to plant the seed of possibility- or maybe I just needed a strong and capable mother figure. I’m not sure. I can only say I thought of her often as I was making my rise in corporate America. For some crazy reason, I didn’t want to let her down — even though I knew she would have no idea how my life was going.
Regardless, one thing is certain, I’m not the first person whose life has been positively impacted by the good work of a caring teacher!
It must not have been easy to ignore all the naysayers. Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share the story with us?
I’ve already outlined probably too many things above.
Based on your experience, can you share 5 strategies that people can use to harness the sense of tenacity and do what naysayers think is impossible? (Please share a story or an example for each)
Carry a “measured’ chip on your shoulder — I’m not advocating that you linger in vengeful resentment toward your naysayers. But the truth is we are human beings who remember the bad things that have been said or done, the negative people we experience in life. But pragmatically file the memories away. Use them to fuel effort, desire, and drive! Satisfaction at beating back a naysayer is quite enjoyable! The person who was better at their job than anyone I’ve seen in my lifetime is Michael Jordan. Watch his Pro Basketball Hall of Fame acceptance speech on YouTube to get a sense of how he used “slights” as “logs on the fire.” It’s not the primary tool in your toolkit — but properly harnessed, the “measured chip” is a powerful thing!
Listen to your “positive” inner voice — I think most of us have that “little voice” inside our heads telling us what we should or shouldn’t do. And, most of us, once we reach a certain level of maturity have a reasonably well-informed sense of right and wrong. When you face a difficult challenge and you’re thinking about quitting or giving up, listen to that nagging voice in your head that reminds you to keep going because this thing you’re trying to do is right and important and then — keep going!
Several years back, I was negotiating to complete, what I believe at the time, was the largest retail acquisition in U.S. specialty cycling history and I was dealing with a brilliant but difficult individual on the other side of the table who fought me tooth and nail on every business point — large and small. After much time and effort, negotiations stalled and it seemed like it wasn’t going to happen. Our board of directors and the other senior leaders in our business had given up. They’d moved on to other things! But my “inner voice” kept telling me to push forward, it could be done. I flew out, met with the seller face to face, pulled in the lawyers, and got the deal done. And it helped fuel our growth for several years to come.
Zealously enforce accountability– In life, it’s easy to quit hard things. And important things, things of value are generally not easy to achieve. But if you set achievable and important goals (see below), don’t let yourself off the hook because meaningful results don’t come quickly or easily. Hold yourself accountable — and persevere!
As I’ve said, after I retired, I wanted to help those raised in a difficult environment, an obvious goal, given my personal history. I thought about volunteering in my community, a very good thing for some. But I am by nature an introvert. I didn’t think that would work well for me. But what would work? How could I hold myself accountable to help others like me? I stewed on it for a time until an idea coalesced.
I’ve been an avid reader since I was twenty years old. Like many, I love a good book and over the years I’ve occasionally wondered if I could write one of my own. In addition, I’d pretty much hidden the story of my difficult upbringing from friends and family my entire life. I began to realize if I could tell my story (and my brother’s story) well, maybe awareness could be raised and people brought up like me could be inspired to reach their full potential.
Zealously enforce accountability….to goals that are both meaningful and possible — Attempting the seemingly impossible can sometimes lead to greatness but it can also drive you crazy as you labor to reach the unreachable. You can make yourself very unhappy in abject failure. So, it’s a delicate balancing act. I’m driven in the goals I chase — but sometimes pragmatic in the outcomes I define as success.
My wife asked me one day if I only sold 10 books and 10 people were helped — would all my efforts be worth it? I decided that, yes, it would be. I’m now in position to be successful with the upcoming October publication. It’s been a long and challenging journey. I consider it to be the 3rd hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But I’m quite proud of the finished product — but yes, I have to admit I hope to sell more than 10 books and, most importantly, help more than 10 people — so many more!
But most importantly I held myself accountable to achieve a worthy goal.
Choose your role models well — Emulate the tenacious behavior of the talented people around you. The intelligent application of energy and commitment can drive success. It’s right in front of your eyes. Find those people, learn their methods and behaviors — and then press forward with your important agenda.
What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?
With an acknowledgment that we live in an increasingly secular world, my bootstrap philosophy is:
“Let no one but you, and God, define the outcome of your life. No one.”
I’m not saying we shouldn’t listen to good advice — we should. We should actively seek the support and counsel of people we love, respect, and trust. In addition, things will happen to us in life that are not our fault. But how we react to those things, the decisions we make, the behavior we exhibit, and the actions we take are our responsibility — period.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
You won’t be surprised by my answer.
I think we as an American society need to be more aware and protective of the quality of life of our vulnerable children. Over four million children are reported to child protective agencies each year and four hundred thousand kids wind up in foster care annually — with an average stay of twenty months! There is a real link, along with mental illness and other factors, in the growth we’ve seen in homelessness in this country because we fail to adequately support and protect our youth. I’m still coming to grips with possible solutions — though I fully understand the cost of failure. My book “Relative Distance” is my initial attempt to raise awareness and hopefully fuel discussion of this issue.
Can our readers follow you on social media?
https://www.facebook.com/david.pruitt.501
linkedin.com/in/david-pruitt-b471b528
Thank you for these great stories. We wish you only continued success!
Dreamers: “They Told Me It Was Impossible And I Did It Anyway” With Author David Pruitt was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.