Patty Bender
PartnerVista Private Equity Group
The Mistake: Seeing things only in black and white. Early in my career, I was a high school English teacher and track coach. One time my principal...
If I Knew Then...
Even born leaders have learning curves. In this feature, local insiders share their wisdom and talk about mistakes that shaped their business philosophy.
Trey Azar
FounderAzar Family Brands
The Mistake: My mistake was not having enough patience. We didn’t spend enough time taking a hard look at the vodka category before we brought Cinco...
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Vista Private Equity Group -
Ty Pennington
Television Host
TLCThe Mistake: The biggest mistake I’ve made is taking off my comfortable hat. What I mean is, I’ve sort of made a career out of being myself. That’s...
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Denise White
Founder and CEO
EAG Sports ManagementThe Mistake: Being too trusting. More than 10 years ago, I hired a woman who had no experience; I wanted to promote and elevate women in the business...
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Paul D’Arcy
Senior Vice President of Marketing
IndeedThe Mistake: I became a CEO before I was ready to lead. I was very lucky in my early career to have the opportunity to start a company when I was 28...
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Kevin Lamar
President and CEO
SoftScienceThe Mistake: We didn’t do enough market research. When SoftScience started up, we were targeting the podiatric market, people with plantar fasciitis...
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Eddie Habibi
Founder and CEO
PAS GlobalThe Mistake: Losing sight of our core competencies. It was circa 2003 and we became enamored of a sexy technology adjacent to the ones we were...
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Jennifer Breithaupt
Global Consumer CMO
CitiThe Mistake: I believed if you worked hard and had a great attitude, things would just happen for you. Early on, things worked out that way, so I...
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José Cáceres
Co-founder
La PanaderíaThe Mistake: Initially, when we came to San Antonio, we thought we could figure out the real-estate part of our business, ourselves; we didn’t think...
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Landy Labadie
Senior Vice President
Two Roads HospitalityThe Mistake: I wish I had known [at the beginning of my career] that yes, the guest is important, but your team is more important. I’ve noticed times...
