19 or 20 years old, I was an entrepreneur then but didn’t know it. I formed my first band. I was the manager, the booking agent, bought all the clothes for the band, and hired each one of the guys in the band and for specific parts. I got us our first recording contract, took us to the studio, and made those decisions. I did every aspect of it.
I did so much of it as a young man, up until I was 24, when I left that business and was fortunate enough to be hired by Johnson & Johnson to be a hospital representative. I probably still had entrepreneurial tendencies even after working for Johnson & Johnson but I was so new in the medical business that I cast aside my entrepreneurial spirit in order to learn, because I had a lot to learn. That’s when I immersed myself into the medical business. I volunteered at [Houston’s] Ben Taub Hospital so I could learn more how products were used, how the doctors thought, how nurses thought. That was a period of my life that I immersed myself a lot. Then my entrepreneurial spirit kicked in eight or 10 years later, and I began thinking to start my own company.
X: If you could go back in time and get five minutes with any major historical figure, who would it be, and what would you want to say to them?
LL: I would have loved to have an opportunity to speak with Dwight Eisenhower. The reason is because he was such an influence for our country from World War II but he was a strategic thinker as a general in the army. I think, strategic thinkers, I’m drawn to people like that. I would ask him what processes did he use to make the decisions he made while commanding our forces.
In the world of business, it would be Steve Jobs. I would have loved to have gotten to know him. He was so creative. He had an ability to foresee markets and technology. And I’m in technology now and I like to think that I have the ability to grab ahold of what’s coming and do something about it, but that guy really did.
X: What leadership lessons did you get from your parents?
LL: My dad was a tremendous mentor to me because he was an entrepreneur. He owned a group of auto parts stores. It was not quite at the level that I am but, in his
