Taking Notes

Through his entire life, Richard Greene has been taking notes. Very early each day, he starts with a fresh piece of paper and writes down the things he plans to do during the day, framing the immediate future with purpose and intention. Then, as the hours unfold, he adds to his daily notes and writes down important matters from his conversations and meetings for later follow through. Keeping up with technology, Richard now scans these notes for safekeeping and later reference, in his computer files.

“I believe the mind absorbs more when you write things down,” he remarks today. “And beyond the internal benefits lent from living a thoughtful, reflective life, I also believe strongly in the power of communication within a professional setting. In meetings, my best practice advice is to write down the most salient one-liners and then distribute these “Key Points” to attendees to see if anything needs to be modified or expanded, and to remind them of who is to do what, by when. It’s the most literal way to make sure we’re all on the same page, and it does wonders for promoting progress, streamlining strategy, and creating a harmonious company culture.”

Now the founder of RGA Business Advisory & Venture Funding, Richard has synthesized the salient points from a lifetime of professional experiences and now uses them to help companies and nonprofits achieve success of their own. “As a business advisor and coach, my greatest passion is helping people,” he says simply. “I have more years of experience than I’d like to admit, and so many one-pagers of Key Points that my computer memory is packed to the brim. I think there’s something in all of that which can help make the road easier for others, and that’s what RGA is all about.”

Richard launched RGA in the late 1980s. “On the business advisory side of the coin, my goal is to help companies and nonprofits increase their income,” he says. “Oftentimes, these organizations concentrate on volume and sales, which are important, but net income at the bottom line is at least as important as revenues. One of my objectives as an advisor and coach is finding specific ways to help clients increase their bottom line by reducing their expenses without reducing the quality of the products and services they acquire, taking advantage of the often little-known tax incentives and credits available to them, such as research and development tax credits, which apply to a broad range of innovations.”

Richard also helps with business plans and strategy, often interviewing a company’s employees to get their opinions on how it’s run and what can be improved, and then reporting back to executives to help implement positive changes. On the venture funding services side, he serves as President of the D.C. Metro chapter of Keiretsu Forum, the largest group of accredited investors in the world. In that capacity, he’s part of the Mid-Atlantic region, consisting of New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the D.C. metropolitan area. “The overall operation of the Forum started in 2001 on the West Coast, and just like weather, it swept east,” explains Richard, who was asked to help form the D.C. chapter. “We blend together early stage companies looking for funding with accredited investors who have the money, and over its 14 years, the members of Keiretsu Forum have invested more than $450 million in early stage companies. Thanks to our extensive vetting process, our cooperative mentality, and our dedication to informing our investors, we’re much more than just another angel investing group. By performing comprehensive due diligence on selected companies, reports are issued, so that investors become informed investors before they make their investment decisions. We’re a connector between entrepreneurs and investors, and in one capacity or another, we stay with those companies that get funded all the way through their exit.”

At its essence, Richard says he is in the “know business.” The phrase is derived from one of his heroes, Socrates, who said, “The smart person is the one who knows what he (she) knows, and knows what he (she) doesn’t know,” to which Richard adds, “but knows where to get it.” With an extensive knowledge bank of his own and a keen sense of where to go to get the information he doesn’t know, he has an army of experts with which to tackle most business problems and an intuitive understanding of when, and who, to connect. “I’m a true networker at heart, to the point that I’ve collected more business cards than most people can imagine,” he laughs. “I revel in the challenge of connecting the right people to accomplish great things.”

Even as a young boy, Richard aspired to pursue a profession where he would be involved with people. He was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, and moved to D.C. with his family at age five. His father had done well as a salesman for Metropolitan Life Insurance in New England, but after the relocation, he got involved in the jewelry business and ultimately ended up with a store of his own on 14th Street in D.C. “I used to spend a lot of time there, and I was his runner,” Richard recalls. “I would take the trolley to the jewelry repair shops on F Street for him. Other times I was a young salesman in my father’s store, and after waiting for him to finish tinkering late Saturday nights, he’d take me to the Hot Shoppe for a hot fudge cake as my reward.” Richard’s mother, who had worked in the FBI in Herbert Hoover’s offices before Richard and his older brother were born, helped out at the family jewelry store as well.

As a boy, Richard enjoyed playing basketball, baseball, and checkers at the playground just down the street from his house, and he made his first buck collecting for a newspaper route from subscribers. He also took up clarinet and participated in a number of orchestras and bands, including the Police Boys Club band, in which he marched in an inaugural parade. Later on, while attending Roosevelt High School, he joined a fraternity and was given an award for being its best member. He also found the time to organize events for charity, foreshadowing the leadership roles he would play down the road. “My parents taught us to care about people and help others, and my grandmother reinforced that message,” Richard remembers. “She was religious, and a lovely lady. She once met a young couple who needed some help as they got on their feet, and even though we lived in a small row house, she invited them to stay with us.”

Richard also looked up to his uncle, a prominent local attorney in town who inspired in him an interest in entering the professional world. Yet, as his high school graduation approached, he found himself unsure about which avenue of that world he wanted to pursue. He liked mathematics but didn’t love science, so when people suggested he go to engineering school, he was torn. But then, thankfully, someone suggested accounting. “Though I was interested in ultimately becoming a CPA, I also thought it would be a tremendous baseline for any business I might want to get into, and that it could open a lot of doors,” he says. “That’s what I’ve found to be the case.”

With this vision in mind, Richard earned his Bachelors and Masters Degrees with honors from Benjamin Franklin University, which was later absorbed by George Washington University. He began working part time at a small public accounting firm to help pay his way through college while gaining valuable experience, and after working hours, he and his employer launched and operated a computer service bureau specializing in punch cards that would make the chads of the future look sleek and sophisticated. “I would sit by the programmer, who would take wires and connect them on electronic accounting machines to make changes I suggest,” Richard recalls. “That was the beginning of a lifelong trend—I’ve never really fit the mold of the typical CPA. I was always out there looking for other areas to work on and thinking outside of the box, with a keen penchant for being an early adopter of technology. I was one of the first people to put word processing into an accounting firm, and I assisted the Information Industry Association in forming their Voice Processing committee.”

Richard received his CPA license as soon as was legally permitted, at age 21. Several years later, two friends he had taken a CPA review class with had formed their own small accounting firm, and interested in an entrepreneurial opportunity of his own, Richard decided to leave his post to launch a solo venture in their shared office space. They then decided to join forces to create Aronson West & Greene, which later became Aronson Greene Fisher & Co. and grew to over a hundred employees during his twenty year tenure. Shortly before the formation of the firm, Richard got married, and had three children through its early years.

“I think it’s great to live your life amongst different worlds,” he remarks today. The following years were indeed a conjoining of many different worlds. From five years of power boating on the Chesapeake Bay, to playing basketball with nuns, his life seemed in a state of constant evolution. At work, he spoke about his interest in the entertainment industry to one of his clients, who ran a small club in Georgetown called The Cellar Door. That client began introducing him to artists like folk singer Tom Rush and groups like the Starland Vocal Band, who later wrote the hit songs “Afternoon Delight” and “Country Roads,” for which the group and John Denver received Grammy Awards. Richard became a business manager and accountant for these talents, opening up other doors and leading him to work for political satirist Mark Russell at Ford’s Theatre, with its artistic director, Frankie Hewitt, and performers like Red Letter Day. He was also put in touch with figures in the sports world, taking on clients like Bobby Beathard and Russ Grimm of the Washington Redskins.

These brilliant opportunities were overshadowed by the tragic loss of Richard’s first son, who died at age eight of a blood disorder. “You never get over that,” he says. Still, Richard and his wife were thankful for their younger son, and for the birth of a daughter. They fell in love with the adventure of boating and kept a boat on the Chesapeake Bay for several years, and they picked up biking as well. Though they ultimately divorced, they remain close friends to this day, and shortly after their separation, Richard was lucky enough to meet and marry an outgoing and lovely woman named Miriam, who has two sons and at the time was performing in a Baltimore Dinner Theatre.

The accounting firm, as well, underwent a number of name and cultural changes through Richard’s twenty-year tenure. “We ended up with ten partners, and for me, that was nine too many,” he jokes. Always interested in the world beyond accounting, he struck out on his own to launch RGA Business Advisory and Venture Funding, ushering in a brand new world of entrepreneurship to explore. “It was a rude awakening to have a hundred people to count on one day, and the next to be ordering my own paperclips,” he says. “But I never doubted that it was the right thing for me.”

Now, as a business advisor and coach, Richard’s leadership philosophy centers upon the passion for communication that has always driven him. He places special emphasis on speaking with people about their interests and earning their confidence, not only because it’s a good business and leadership practice, but also because it keeps him young. “I’m still a student every day,” he avows. “I enjoy hearing about other people and what they do, learning a lesson in one place and applying it in another to engender new possibilities.” To this end, Richard is always looking for ways to utilize his connections and experience for the benefit of others. “I’ve had my ups and downs business-wise, and I think I’ve learned from all of it,” he affirms. “Communication and reputation are key, and doing what you say you’re going to do will take you far. These are principles I live by, and they allow me to lead my clients toward the success they’re looking for.”

Alongside his work through RGA, Richard continues to a play a role in the entertainment industry as part of a group that utilizes its strategic partner distributors to show operas, ballets, rock concerts, classic movies, and other pieces in over 4,000 movie theaters across the world. “The idea is to expose people to entertainment and sporting events at an affordable price, so that shows that would otherwise be cost prohibitive are instead brought to a larger audience,” Richard explains. “Beyond being a positive cultural force, the idea is entrepreneurial in the sense that it’s like a Pay-Per-View in the movie theater. Classic movies, for instance, often sell more tickets than any other movie for the week they’re showing. This indicates that people want access to these cultural and entertainment events, and as someone who has had a lifelong passion for this industry, I’m excited to help expand this access.”

In combining his passion with entrepreneurship in this way, Richard is quick to encourage young people entering the working world today to do the same. “Find something you’d be truly happy to do every day,” he says. “I really believe in the maxim that, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Invoking one of the numerous sound bytes Richard always keeps in mind, he describes the elements of success by using the analogy of a table that needs three legs to stand up. “The legs are the idea, the implementation, and the marketing and promotion,” he details. “Only with all three will the table stand up, and it must have a top, which is made up of the resources, expertise, funding, management, and other pieces you put together. In life, as well as in business, this design applies over and over again. But you can’t do it yourself—you need a team that’s compatible, with everyone rowing the oars in the same direction and with the same interest and passion.”

If one were to read through the individual pages of notes that make up each day in the life of Richard Greene, this is the story that would emerge. It’s a story of togetherness and family shared between his two marriages, and a rich tradition of love celebrated between the family as a whole, with four grown children and twelve grandchildren, including the six in Israel. “My wife and ex-wife have become good friends, which makes it so comfortable to celebrate holidays and other gatherings with all of our combined families,” he says. It’s a story of spirituality and music, hard work and fun. It’s a story of connection, innovation, and the success that comes from bringing people together in the pursuit of genuine betterment. And most of all, it’s a story of learning, because life is a classroom, and Richard is always taking notes.

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