To read the introduction to this "Greatest Mistake" series click here.

“The fact that I’ve been in the same farm equipment dealership for 38 years may not equate to success as much as stamina. I’ve certainly had some measurable success over the years as well as some well-intended mistakes. Hindsight is 20/20, so looking back at the mistakes is easy. Here are 4:

“In 2001, we took on the line of Condor man-lift equipment. We didn’t understand the man-lift market — or lack thereof — in our area. Just about every time we touched one for a rental or demo, we lost money. Our best day in the man-lift business was the day the last 3 were sold at auction — and at a substantial loss.

“In 1981, we purchased our first semi-truck. I failed to research the market and study our needs; I simply bought a used truck and trailer from a dealer who went out of business. Turns out the truck was grossly underpowered. The guy selling it to me said ‘Just drive like you’re mad at it.’

“The drinking of the Kool-Aid. While I’ve usually been loyal to my main supplier and embraced programs and goals, I may have, at times, substituted its short-term objectives with the long-term well-being of my own dealership. The usual issue was inventorying a product that it built that was outside of its core strengths. The net result was usually higher inventory, higher debt-to-asset ratios and lower profit margin.

“Finally, our single largest financial, emotional and customer relation mistake involved a new product introduced by a well-known shortline supplier that was brought out too early. We should’ve metered out the first new products slowly to ensure quality and reliability. We let high availability, high customer demand and our own greed overshadow the risk in a high-tech product introduction. As it turned out, the product had numerous quality issues. It took us years to repair the damage to some of our best customer’s faith in our product offerings.”