Sirbasku

u k s a b r i S Jim

by Mary Kirkman

personalities

u k s a b r i S Jim

by Mary Kirkman

partner Bud Haney, Profiles International.

Along the way, he also has enjoyed successful ventures in real estate, construction, and Arabian horses, where he is an integral part of Arabians Ltd., and has served on the board of The Pyramid Society.

All of that didn’t happen overnight, although life began auspiciously enough.

“I had a wonderful childhood,” he relates.

“I don’t think I ever heard a discouraging word from my mother in my entire life.”

She always emphasized that it’s what’s inside that counts, he says, and then adds candidly, “I’m kind of funny-looking, so I always had to overcome the fact that good-looking people have a little easier time.”

Sirbasku’s father, on the other hand, demanded only the best. “His message was ‘you can do it better; that’s all right, but is it the best? Not the best you can do, but the best.’ Mom’s message was ‘you can do anything you want to do,’ and Dad’s was ‘do the best.’”

Jim Sirbasku with his wife Judy and one of their favorite horses, Bint Gypsy Rose.

From that foundation, Sirbasku In the 1920s, George Gershwin wrote a song that begins “‘S progressed to mentors. “I’ve had the Wonderful, ‘s marvelous ...” Talk to Jim Sirbasku, and you wonderful experience of having people who affected my life suspect he might have known Gershwin in another life. Every pretty dramatically,” he says. Not just one here or there, but a other word out of his mouth is “wonderful.” How are you today, succession of them. He was not an outstanding student, he Jim? “Wonderful!” How’s it going? “Wonderful!” “She was a recalls (“I was consistently average”)—and then a wonderful wonderful mare ...” “He is just a wonderful guy ...” teacher named Mary Hand gave him his first A. “I’m not giving It happens so consistently, with such regularity, that if it’s an you the A for the work that actually got done,” she told him, “but act, it’s an exhausting one. No, says Sirbasku, that’s just the way for the work you put into it.” That vote of confidence made him he’s chosen to live his life. “It isn’t what happens to you in life try all the harder. that’s important,” he says. “It’s your attitude about what happens The next mentor was track coach Bob Wentworth. “I was to you that’s important. That’s the philosophy I live my life by—I blessed with short muscles, so I was a track person,” Sirbasku wake up every morning looking for ways I can do things, instead explains. He competed in a variety of track disciplines, but of ways I can’t.” credits his coach with inciting the urge to win, win, win.

That positive approach has propelled Sirbasku, now 57, to Next in line was football coach Steve Silianoff, and from the remarkable success in business—first with a motivational way Jim Sirbasku lives his life right now, Silianoff’s lessons training and management development franchise that he owned appear to have been the most influential. Silianoff, who had in Minneapolis, then at the helm of the parent corporation in been dropped behind enemy lines as a spy in World War II, Waco, Texas, and now, still in Waco, with the firm he owns with believed that he could have been killed countless times during 78

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personalities that period, and now lived every Sirbasku was intrigued, but not day as if it were gift. “I can convinced. He didn’t see himself remember not practicing and him as a salesman; he wasn’t about talking to me very sternly about to invite rejection. This time it that, and letting me know that was his brother-in-law, there was more to life than cars successful entrepreneur Jerry and girls,” Sirbasku says. “He Minea, who became his mentor. focused me on long-term goals, “Jerry explained that in selling, but taught me to live my life one when people say no, they’re only day at a time and at as high a saying no to your idea, not to velocity as I could.” you,” Jim says. “That helped me Not everything came together work up the courage to buy the right away, however. Out of high SMI franchise.” His grandfather school, it took Sirbasku seven provided the capital. years to graduate from the “It changed my life,” says University of Minnesota, paying Sirbasku flatly. “Suddenly I was for his education by working in a wearing sharkskin suits, alligator packing house. Along the way, he shoes, driving a Cadillac, living picked up a trade as a butcher. in a gorgeous apartment. The “During that time, I suffered a world had virtually opened up. lot,” he recalls. “I had gotten What I was selling was what I married to this wonderful girl had believed in, which was that [Judy Murray, to whom he remains you can have anything you want, Jim Sirbasku, age 5. married today] that I’d told I was do anything you want, if you set going to be a doctor. She was the a goal, wrote a plan, worked the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen plan, and set a date. I was selling in my entire life, and I fell in love with her the first five minutes motivation—enthusiasm, excitement, the future, a dream.”

I saw her. This was like the troll marrying the princess. I Before long, his business was expanding, employees were wanted to give her all of life’s wonderful things, so I’d made her being added—and a call came from the home office. The owner some promises, you know how that works, when you’re young of SMI invited Sirbasku to sell his franchise, move to Texas, and and brash ...” teach others to do what he’d been doing. At the time, he was 28 He graduated from college with a major in business years old. administration, but by that time he was earning more money as “In a very short period of time, because of the successes that I a butcher than he could with a college degree. Enter a had and the deals that I did, and the fact that I was in Texas combination of mentors. One was fellow worker Jack Werdon, during the real estate boom, I ended up a millionaire and then a who repeatedly reminded Jim that if he remained in the packing multi-millionaire,” he observes. In partnerships or alone, he house, he would waste his life, but while he was there, to form owned a construction company, a real estate company, no bad habits and to become the best employee in the company. shopping centers, and apartment buildings.

The other was Sirbasku’s grandfather, George Sirbasku, to By the late 1970s, in Jim’s words, “The troll had come of age.” whom he was very close, who advised him, “Now you have a He was at the top of his game in business and in demand as a trade, and you can work with your hands. It’s time to work with public speaker. “I was kind of full of myself,” he admits. “It’s your head. You can make all kinds of money with your mind; you probably common, but it certainly wasn’t common for me. I can’t with your back and your hands.” don’t think I made Judy very happy.”

Ironically, it all came together when Sirbasku was promoted The fact was, the couple was growing apart. They had adopted to foreman. One of his benefits was use of the boss’ restroom, two children—David, now 32, and Susan, now 22. While Jim was the only warm place in the company on cold Minnesota days. involved with his work, Judy was raising the kids, and they both Taking a break there, Sirbasku began picking up the reading were moving in different directions. “It was really scary to me, material his boss had left behind—The Wall Street Journal. When but I didn’t know how to deal with it, so I worked harder,” he took a copy home for Judy to read, she spotted an Sirbasku says wryly, “which is the common malady of most advertisement from SMI, offering franchises marketing sales stupid, insensitive men. When you don’t know how to fix a training and management development. problem, avoid the hell out of it, and it will eventually go ARABIAN HORSE TIMES • MARCH 1997

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personalities away.”

Canadian Top Ten and The solution, it turned out, Salon du Cheval winner was just across the street from Doriba.

Jim’s office. It was a horse barn.

“We’d go to shows and When Judy would drop in at the people would ask which office, she frequently went horse we owned,” Jim across the street when she left. recalls, “and I couldn’t Often there was a little horse remember the names. I show going on. An Arabian couldn’t figure out ‘Ibn’ or horse show. She fell in love ‘Bint.’ It was a mass of with Arabians and met David confusion.” Magazine and Marian Gardner. photos from those years Blissfully ignorant of his wife’s reflect him asleep at major growing interest, Jim, equine events across the meanwhile, was incensed over country. He laughs when he a heavy tax burden. At the remembers it. It was Judy’s country club one weekend, he business, totally off the was railing about the problem clock for him. For once, he to a friend, when he was was Mr. Judy Sirbasku. overheard by David Gardner.

Finally, some new Gardner introduced himself acquaintance exclaimed, The Sirbaskus at a 1970 SMI convention. and advised Sirbasku to buy “Oh, you’re Doriba’s Arabian horses. “The more daddy!” Astonished at what David talked, the more I thought is common phraseology in ‘I’m going to try this,’” Jim the Arabian world, Jim recalls, and against all his better judgment and the advice of responded, “I’ve never been called a horse’s father before; I’ve skeptical friends, he promptly invested in four broodmares and always been called a horse’s something else.” When that got a some shares in a stallion. Having then taken care of his tax hearty laugh, he decided that while he wasn’t especially situation, he dismissed the horses from his mind. fascinated by the horses, the people were pretty cool.

A few weeks later at dinner, he mentioned the investments.

Over the years, Sirbasku’s interest in the Arabians grew. He What kind of horses? Judy asked. What do you mean, what kind? overcame his shyness enough to go into the pastures once in The kind with four legs and a tail! Where are they? she queried. awhile and learned the basics of handling horses. He enjoyed I don’t know, he responded. Nor did he remember from whom he investing in stallions (“I like stallions; mares are okay, but had purchased them. Finally, when he described Gardner, she stallions excited me”), particularly Ruminaja Ali. He and Judy said, “David Gardner.” Then it was his turn to ask questions—”I eventually sold Doriba in the first Ali Summer Classic, and it was wanted to know how the hell she knew David Gardner!” after that sale that Jim Sirbasku became professionally interested The upshot was that the family left dinner on the table and in horses. While he didn’t intend to interfere in Judy’s management headed out to Bent Wood Farm, where Gardner was then of their operation, he had begun to realize a role for himself. working, to see their investments. However, no one there knew At the sale, Sirbasku observed how difficult it was to sell them or their horses ... “I was a little nervous at this point,” Arabians within the limited Arabian community. Why not, he Sirbasku says. “I mean, after all, it was over $400,000 ...” Then reasoned, attract outsiders? That made more sense. Moreover, David Gardner showed up, and everyone but Jim tramped out he’d been doing that sort of thing for years. So was born into the pasture to check their horses. “I was afraid of them,” he Arabians Ltd., at the time a partnership between the Sirbaskus says frankly. Judy, on the other hand, was not—she was a little and the Gardners. shy, but she was in love with Arabians. Now when Jim was knee “I came up with the seminar idea of bringing newcomers in,” deep in work, she had an involvement of her own.

Eventually, just breeding stock was not enough; Judy was ready to move to another level and acquire a top-caliber show horse.

Her argument to Jim was convincing: I’ve stood by you all these years as you’ve had your interests; just help me get started seriously in the horse business. He gulped, and did. They bought 80

Sirbasku says. “It’s a little bit of a bold statement, but we probably bring more newcomers into the business than anybody in the world does. We did a calculation one time at The Pyramid Society, and came up with nearly 41% of all the people that were listed in the membership directory bought their first horse through Arabians Ltd. I think we may have one of the most ARABIAN HORSE TIMES • MARCH 1997

personalities

Jim and Judy Sirbasku on their wedding day. successful horse marketing companies in the world.”

A few years ago, the Sirbaskus bought out the Gardners’ interest, merging Gardner Bloodstock, Rock Creek Arabians (the mare care facility), and Arabians Ltd. (the marketing arm) into one entity, run today by Judy Sirbasku.

Along the way, however, not everything was perfect. In 1991, Sirbasku was fired from SMI, along with some of his top people, with no explanation. The experience catapulted him into a new and exciting period of his life.

“I’d always heard about the Japanese philosophy of hiring people for life, and everybody I ever talked to in the United States always said, ‘we never want to fall into that trap. We never want it mandated that we have to hire people for life. That sounds terrible,’” reflects Sirbasku. “As people said that to me, I said to myself, ‘but I thought I was hired for life. I was a superstar and I don’t have a job. This is really wrong.’

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“I wondered what I did wrong, what really happened, and I wondered why we don’t want to hire people for life. The more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized that the reason we don’t want to hire people for life is if you hire the wrong one, it’ll make your life miserable. But if you get the right one, it’ll make your life wonderful. So I decided that one of the things we wanted to do was figure out a way to select the right person for the right job. We thought there was an industry. The laws were changing, all of the rules of testing had been changed, and it was time for something new.”

He and Bud Haney founded Profiles International, at first selling testing products, teaching companies to use them, and providing on-going service. In six years, the company expanded to 75 regional offices (including several Caribbean locations and outposts in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India) with 500 sales people. It is now divided into 81

personalities

Jim and Judy “Roaring into the Nineties” at the Egyptian Event.

research and development foot and say this is the way (it now markets its own things have to be done.” He testing products as well as shakes his head. “It’s a a variety of others), matter of influencing people manufacturing and to do things you want them shipping, and the production to do and looking out for of computer software. It them at the same time. The owns the office park which only thing you have to ask surrounds its headquarters. yourself is ‘Am I doing the Part of the business, right thing? Do I sincerely Sirbasku observes, is believe I am doing the right motivating managers to thing?’ You start injecting change the way they think in that into your management a changing world. Today, style and your lifestyle and one of the fast-growing before long, wonderful problems in industry is things begin happening employee theft; employers to you.” can no longer count on So what constitutes “notThe Sirbasku family (L-R): Judy, David, Jim, and Susan. employees to be honest. It is wonderful?” It’s hard for more important than ever Sirbasku to say. When before that results be people let him down, he achieved by motivation, rather than direction. guesses. But you sense that even that is not major. At last, he “Too many times, we as management—as leaders—think we reveals that not long ago, over a period of two years, four of his can create almost indefensible policies and rules and stamp our closest friends died. “Every once in awhile I get blue thinking 82

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personalities

Bob Boggs and 1994 U.S. National Reserve Champion Stallion Thee Desperado with Judy and Jim Sirbasku.

from Arabians Ltd., and they make plans for the evening. If they’re staying in, they enjoy collaborating on dinner and cleanup, and spend the evening together. Their marriage, he states, was saved by the communication which opened through their joint involvement in Arabian horses.

When he first sat down to talk, Sirbasku noted conversationally that if he didn’t want to reveal something about himself, he was adept at hiding it—believable, because sometimes people who talk a lot, as he does, can be as good at obscuring things as those who say very little. Sirbasku’s sheer energy and enthusiasm, however, argue against his deliberately hiding much of importance, unless he is first hiding it from himself.

“My philosophy in life is don’t sweat the small stuff,” he says, in summary, “and remember, everything is small stuff. I’ve worked on my attitude so long and so hard to try to find what’s right with something instead of what’s wrong, that if something happens to me in my life, I generally sit down for a moment and instead of feeling bad, I get aggressive. I don’t know if that’s a conditioning process—or it may be sick, I don’t know—but I start to say I’m going to find something good in this and I’m going to turn this into a good thing. It may take me the rest of my life, but I’m going to turn this into something good. And it almost always happens.” ❑

about that, because I miss them. I miss them a lot. I don’t try to think about it a lot—I try to keep them out of my mind—but they were very important people in my life.”

All but one were in his age range. Does he worry at all about death? “It isn’t something I want to happen,” he replies, “but I don’t exercise and I don’t do all of those things that keep you alive. I work like mad, and when people ask me when I’m going to quit, two things run through my mind. Why should I quit when I’m doing what I love? I love to work; it’s not work! I love to make deals and sell and build businesses and get financing and solve business problems. And then there’s something down deep in my core lately, because of what’s happened to my friends, that I don’t want to quit working because I don’t want to die.”

If he wanted badly enough to exercise, he admits, he would find a way to fit it into his schedule. So why not? “My feeling of immortality ...” But wasn’t that recently rocked when his friends passed away? He’s silent for a moment, and then says, yeah, well ... “I guess it did rock me—I’ve recently dropped 30 pounds.”

Then, back on his game, he laughs, “But looking at me, you still can’t find it!”

Life now for Jim Sirbasku enjoys a regulated flow. Up early, he putters before heading out to the office around 8:30. Fueled by little more than bagels, business is non-stop until around 7:30, when he connects with Judy, who about then is knocking off ARABIAN HORSE TIMES • MARCH 1997

Jim and Judy Sirbasku.

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