Several years ago, while teaching high school Biology, I took a very big risk with a great friend and we started a company.It was incredibly difficult. I was “in over my head” on a daily basis. It took enormous risk and sacrifice but it was also the education of a lifetime.We started very organically. He resigned from his job to focus on it full time. I contributed the best I could and worked nights and weekends while still teaching.We planned and designed and wore out whiteboards. We found investors that believed in our ideas and plan. We hired a bunch of really smart, but more importantly, great human beings that believed like we did. We worked with contract manufactures and software developers. We found more investors. We dealt with lawyers and accountants and kept up with our deep pocketed competitors. We did our best to keep our investors happy.I was part of every good decision and every not so good decision made in the company from sales to finance and from operations to HR. In the end we sold a good number of machines and software. We made mistakes but did things mostly right. We earned a respectable valuation and sold it to a Fortune 500 company.It was during this time that I was often reminded of the phrase “… there are race horses and there are plow horses…”.Race horses are out front, the face of the company. Plow horses are generally behind the scenes doing work that supports the race horses and others in the organization. I am a plow horse. I am comfortable enough to be out front and I am capable in any situation but I have learned that I am most valuable working problems, products and process and supporting people in their effort to improve the company and themselves.It is this concept that has guided the way I have worked in every corporate role I have held since.