What playing basketball at Ohio State taught me about building companies

I played forward for the Ohio State men's basketball team. I was not the most talented player on the floor, and I knew it. What I learned in those years has shaped how I have built and run companies in Michigan for more than two decades, and it shapes how Creek Equity operates today.

Preparation beats talent

The teams that beat us were rarely more gifted. They were better prepared. They knew our sets, they knew our tendencies, and they had practiced against them until the response was automatic. Business is the same. The founder who has studied the customer, the competitor, and the numbers walks into every meeting with an edge that no amount of charisma replaces. When I evaluate an operator, the first thing I look for is whether they have done the work.

Accountability is not optional

On a basketball court there is nowhere to hide. If you miss a rotation, everyone in the gym sees it. The best teams I played on had a culture where you owned the mistake immediately and the next possession started clean. The worst had people explaining why it was not their fault. I have run companies both ways, and I only run them one way now. At Creek Equity, every operating company reports to me quarterly on the numbers that matter. Not because I do not trust the people, but because accountability is how trust gets built.

The right people in the right roles

A good coach does not ask a center to bring the ball up the floor. The most common mistake I see in growing companies is a capable person in the wrong seat: a brilliant salesperson running operations, a technical founder managing a sales team. Part of what Creek Equity brings to a business is the willingness to have that conversation early, and the capital to put the right person in the chair.

Trust your position

The last lesson took me longest to learn. Once the plan is set and the people are in place, you have to let them play. A coach who calls every pass loses the game. An investor who second-guesses every decision loses the operator. I work closely with the leaders of every company we own, but the work is theirs. My job is to make sure they have what they need and to hold them to the plan we agreed on.

I still think about those gyms. The lessons were cheaper then than they are now.