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Marching to a Different Drum Brings Challenges and Rewards Al Arens knows firsthand what it takes to grow a successful business. When he joined Medler Electric Co., a family-owned distributorship of electrical equipment, in 1969, it had 15 employees working in a single location. Over the next 25 years, Arens played an instrumental role in growing that business to 15 locations and about 150 employees. He was well-equipped for the challenge, armed with a degree in electrical engineering from the General Motors Institute of Technology and almost a decade of experience under his belt, working first for GM and then for a large electrical equipment manufacturer. Arens tapped those assets in helping Medler Electric Co. grow its business, to be sure, but to hear him tell it, his technical expertise was by no means the key element in that winning formula. "The growth happened because we were people-oriented," he says. "We invested in educating our associates. In 1995, the focus at Medler Electric changed from people to the bottom line only, and that change in philosophy caused me to take a hard look at what I wanted to do with the rest of my life." Opting to "listen to (his) heart," Arens decided to leave the company whose exponential growth he had driven for a quarter of a century and to start a new business that would better reflect his own values and beliefs about what is truly important in life. That decision led to the launch of Life Enhancing Programs, a training and consulting company, in 1997. As anyone who has faced such a choice knows all too well, leaving the security of a successful position at an established company is never an easy decision, but it was one Arens had come up against before. Although he describes himself as a person who has always been inquisitive, questioning everything and a bit of a noncomformist, he admits that leaving General Motors was one of the toughest decisions he ever made.
In a very real way, it was that decision that laid the foundation for Life Enhancing Programs, even though it would be 30 years before Arens launched his company. When people ask him what he does today, Arens tells them that he facilitates "self-discovery learning," and his departure from GM was an important milestone in his own journey of self-discovery.
AIDED DISCOVERY Fundamental to Arens' philosophy is a belief that everyone has all they will ever need at birth, and he is fond of quoting Galileo: "You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him to discover it within himself." That, he says, is the guiding principle behind Life Enhancing Programs (LEP), and creativity is its key driver."Creativity is creating the new or rearranging the old," Arens says. "From my work experience, I learned that many people have much to offer, but because they lack communication skills, their uniqueness stays hidden. Oliver Wendell Holmes said that one of the greatest tragedies of our times is that most people die with their music still in them." In a sense, the objective of Life Enhancing Programs is to help people find their music and set it free. To achieve that goal, LEP training focuses on integrity or wholeness-balancing body, mind and spirit. Arens believes that the soul and the spirit are too often neglected in the present-day work environment, so he zeroes in on spirituality. Not surprisingly, that can be a tough sell in a bottom line-driven corporate environment. "My ongoing success is dependent on the degree to which the workplace is becoming more open to the idea of wholeness. Often, management does not buy into this, so my business has been slow in growing," he admits. "It is, however, beginning to grow. The idea of integrity-balancing body, mind and spirit-is a message whose time has come." Undeniably, there is a visionary aspect to what Arens is trying to do with LEP, but with his pragmatic grounding in engineering and business, he knows that dreams are only realized through concrete actions
Wydro's book has also provided the blueprint for Arens' personal growth. As an electrical engineer, he was attracted to the book because the author applied Ohm's law-electrical current is equal to the voltage in a circuit divided by the resistance-to communication. "Wydro's interpretation says the level of excellence in communication is equal to a person's creative potential divided by their fears, resentments and prejudices," Arens says. "Expanding one's creative potential and diminishing one's fears, resentments and prejudices then becomes the key to success. Jobs, money and status can vanish, whereas skills, once developed, will be an anchor to weather any challenges." Applying the principles in Wydro's book gave Arens the courage and direction to leave a safe, secure corporate job and start his own training and consulting company, he says. Now he is trying to make those same advantages available to others through Life Enhancing Programs. Selling and promoting the book has been an important business generator for LEP, and the company sells and promotes other books, as well. Another step Arens has taken to help Alma, Mich.-based LEP grow is winning approval from the Michigan Board of Construction Codes for two of the company's programs, Legendary Customer Service and Integrity. Both programs have been certified to meet the continuation education requirements for Michigan building inspectors.
UNANSWERED QUESTION So far, LEP has not been a "roaring success" financially, Arens admits, but a solid foundation has been laid, and growth is starting to materialize. Just how lucrative the company might eventually become is an unanswered question at this point, but in Arens' eyes, at least, there is no question about its success. It's already there.8. Do I know how to take advantage of the resources, public and private, that are available to help me chart the best course for my endeavor? "The greatest reward for me is an inner satisfaction that, yes, I listened to my heart, took the risk and did it," he says. "I also got to know myself at a deeper level. When you don't have a system to hide behind, you find out what you are made of-the real you." For Arens, that journey of self-discovery has sometimes been painful. One of his goals had been to become president of Medler Electric, the company he helped to grow for a quarter of a century, but he was passed over for the position. He says the pain he experienced defies description, but that it led him to look inside himself and really ask the tough questions. Arens believes there is a "Divine Design" that governs all, and that what happened to him was done according to that plan. He has made peace with it and understands that his rejection, painful as it was, is what led him to leave Medler and start Life Enhancing Programs. And that, he believes, is exactly what is supposed to be doing.
To be sure, turning a profit remains a top priority for most entrepreneurs when launching a new business, and it continues to be an important goal for Arens. What his experience underlines, however, is that entrepreneurship can provide a pathway to other rewards, as well. Arens believes that the payoff he receives in other areas more than makes up for slow going on the financial front.
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