Seek Out Advice

Small business owners tend to be loners and self-reliant. However, that attitude can get them into trouble and keep them from growing. Albert Black of On Target Supply & Logistics decided he needed experts to help him. John Castle is one of Dallas' leading executives. He has become one of Albert Black's key mentors and he serves on the board of On Target.

TRANSCRIPT

JOHN CASTLE: I think Albert was smart because he knows that often business is about relationship. It's about people doing business with people.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) John Castle, an officer at EDS, serves as Albert's board chairman.

JOHN: One thing I found very attractive about Albert when we had lunch, is he has an attitude: I want to learn. The role we play is a sounding board. Albert brings to us his ideas, his strategies, and we give him our perspective on what he's saying. And often it's a different perspective than what we've seen, how other companies have gone through some phases he's going through.

ALBERT: I think John Castle, who is a friend and someone that I think as an angel that has flown into my Christian life--he advised the board of directors. He felt that On Target was getting into the "serious" business arena. Once we got over the $10 million mark, he felt that our strategic direction needed a little bit more challenge, a little bit more balance, a little bit more experience added to it.

JOHN: He's very open with us, and, again, that's Albert's attitude about, 'I want to learn more.'

This video appears as an illustration of shrewdness in "The Wise Worker is Shrewd (Proverbs)" in Proverbs and Work at www.theologyofwork.org.