ALFH Success Stories - Alan Gottlieb

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Click here for Alan Gottlieb's Resume

Alan H. Gottlieb Success Story

Shortly after graduating from Class IV of Ag Leadership in 1990-1991, I was helping facilitate a session at an Agricultural Conference. Previously, I had been working on the idea of starting a green waste to compost recycling business with two business associates. During the session on sustainability, I had mentioned the need for a large scale greenwaste recycling business on Oahu. After the session, one of the participants approached me and explained that he had previously started such a business, but it had been terminated when his previous partner decided to change directions. Now, with four of us as partners, we collaborated and used our individual areas of expertise to research starting a green waste recycling business on Oahu, as we saw a definite need. Until that time, nothing like this had been done in Hawaii on a large-scale, commercial basis. Within a year, Hawaiian Earth Products was born.

Ultimately, our business hardly resembles our original Business Plan; but we adapted to the things that worked and abandoned the things that didn’t work. Our first five years were tenuous, to say the least; and we learned a lot about this business. We reorganized our ideas and our direction, and from that point on things have been much more successful. Our focus has stayed on Quality and the unrelenting desire to always improve. Hawaiian Earth was a big idea but was supposed to be a small business, initially with three employees. Today, we have forty employees at two recycling centers with hired management.

Meanwhile, none of us partners ever gave up our “day jobs.” My primary career remains in the cattle business, where I am the business manager for Ponoholo Ranch, one of the top 20 largest cow/calf ranches in the United States. I remain actively involved in the leadership of our commodity associations.

Many of the skills I learned in Ag Leadership have played a role in the success of my career. Furthermore, the network and comraderie among Ag Leadership alumni have created many opportunities.