It was the Fall of 1986...

Every colleague of mine who has been here for any length of time has heard this story so many times, they often begin to recite it aloud every time I begin it.

It was the fall of 1986, and I had been thinking for some time that there was a better way to serve our Louis Harris and Associates clients. We did quantitative research only, for the most part only large quantitative projects, and I thought we could serve our clients more effectively if we were involved in a broader range of their research needs--qualitative as well as quantitative, small projects as well as large. That strategy, I felt, would give us an ever-growing knowledge of our clients' business, and strengthen our relationships with them--thus better positioning us for all their larger projects.

Neither Lou Harris nor Humphrey Taylor (president of the firm and no relation to me) thought the idea was a particularly good one. Lou was never a believer in qualitative research, and Humphrey felt that chasing and doing small projects would distract us from our core business and our fundamental strength.

So after much thought, one day I walked into Lou's office and said, "Lou, there's something I have to tell you. I've decided I'm going to leave the company, because I think I can make this work on my own. I don't know exactly when I'm going to leave, but it's probably going to be sometime in the next year, and I just wanted to tell you now to give you plenty of time to replace me."

Lou's reaction was characteristically terse: "Oh, really? Well, okay, I suppose you might be able to eke out a living."

But the next day he called me into his office and said, "Scott, let me ask you something. Suppose one night you walk into your house and you say to your wife, 'Honey, there's something I have to tell you. I've decided I'm going to leave you, because I want to be on my own. I don't know exactly when I'm going to leave, but it's probably going to be sometime in the next year, and I just wanted to tell you now to give you plenty of advance notice.' What do you think she would say to that, Scott? I'll tell you what she'd say. She'd kick your ass out the door right then and there, and I should do the same!"

He didn't (fortunately). I stayed for eight more months. Peter Fondulas, then a research analyst, thought the idea might just work too, and joined me.

On May 4, 1987, the company was open for business in the basement of my home in Rye, NY. In the weeks before that, Lou and Humphrey offered a little piece of the ongoing business I had been managing, and told me that I could keep it ("If you can, that is," said Lou).

With the $6,000 I had saved, this little piece of business gave us three months of positive cash flow, but no prospects beyond that--because of a promise not to go after Harris clients.

I was very lucky to have the opportunity to work for Lou Harris and Humphrey Taylor for seven years, and I am forever grateful for their generosity at the end of my time there. I learned this business from them, and they gave this little company the kind of head start that turned out to be just enough. A great deal of hard work (and a whole lot of luck) took over from there.

And it continues.