“It pays to increase your word power.”

Talk is cheap,” or so the saying goes. But maybe it really depends on who’s saying what and when. In the right situations, the right words can be transformative.

Case in point: Years ago, Barnett Helzberg Jr. asked Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Marion Labs founder and Helzberg’s mentor, if there was anything he could do to pay Kauffman back for all his time and insight.

Kauffman’s response: “You’ll help somebody someday.”

Just four words long, that statement was a spark in Helzberg’s imagination. It inspired him to form the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program, a nonprofit that finds seasoned mentors for less experienced business owners.

Four Words, $748 Million

In the past two decades, HEMP has served more than 300 local entrepreneurs, achieving impressive results along the way. On average, a HEMP mentee experiences revenue gains of 43 percent after joining the program. A mentee’s employee count usually grows by 30 percent.

All told, the companies of HEMP participants have contributed about $748 million to our region’s economy.

A few words clearly aren’t the only ingredients necessary for entrepreneurial success. The men and women who own those companies, their mentors, their employees—they deserve the credit for their own work. And HEMP wouldn’t exist if Helzberg hadn’t conceived of the idea and thrown himself into building the organization.

But Kauffman’s words acted as a catalyst.

Last month, HEMP hosted its 20th anniversary celebration at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Everybody on the stage seemed to have a story about how, with a few words at the right moment, their lives changed.

Mistress of ceremonies Diana Kander, a Kansas City entrepreneur who now teaches at the University of Missouri, talked about how she lobbied for admission to the Kauffman Labs program, even though her company wasn’t exactly the right fit.

The program director, Bo Fishback, challenged her to grow her company to $1 million. It led Kander to take her revenues from $70,000 to $800,000—a huge jump, and one that wouldn’t have been possible without Fishback’s words.

Be the Catalyst

Of course, impact can’t always be measured in dollars. Dan McDougal, the owner of Dredge America, told the audience about his mentor, the late Ray Pitman Sr., who was the posthumous recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award for mentoring.

Years ago, McDougal was on the verge of losing his business, but Pitman talked him through it. With the right words, Pitman told McDougal that he could survive.

And he did. Dredge America is thriving today. But more importantly, McDougal said, his family has been able to live the American dream. “All that is thanks to Ray Pitman.”

If you’re a business owner, there’s a good chance you’ve had someone in your life who said the right words to you precisely when you needed to hear them. Maybe it was a teacher or a coach, a customer or a spouse. But it made a difference.

And you have the power to do the same today by giving the right words—of challenge, of encouragement—to someone who needs
it most.

Try it. You might be shocked at the results.