Perseverance Pays

Business ownership can be a humbling experience. As soon as you think you've got things figured out, it seems the bottom drops out from under you.

That was the case for Tracy Markie's Engenuity Systems, Inc., when the Arizona firm topped $1 million in sales after its third year. Then the bottomed dropped.

Markie's partner left to start another company, taking 11 of the firm's 12 employees with him. The company, needless to say, was devastated.

But Markie didn't quit. He restarted the company in a spare bedroom of his home and has since become a major distributor of networked-control devices, electrical systems to control light bulbs, switches, appliances and machines by connecting them into a single communications network.

The company now employs 17, with revenues reaching $6.5 million in 2007. Oh, and he recently moved the company out of his spare bedroom and into a 4,000-square-foot facility.

It seems most successful entrepreneurs have this type of story. The key to turning a tragic event into a happy ending is perseverance. A trait all entrepreneurs need to succeed.