Earl Stafford

  b. 1948 | American entrepreneur

At The Bottom

— 1990

He had been forced to lay off his entire staff, and his income had fallen to zero, almost literally overnight.

For the family of Earl Stafford, the holiday was almost completely lacking in good cheer in December 1990.  Stafford, who had founded an information technology company just two years before, had just lost the only two contracts he’d been able to secure.  He had t been forced to lay off his entire staff, and his income had fallen to zero, almost literally overnight.  His electric and phone bills were unpaid, and he was trying to figure out a way to explain to his children that he would be unable to buy them any Christmas presents.  Two years before, everything had been going well for the 20-year Air Force veteran.  After retiring from the service in 1988, he’d taken a good job with a company that provided personnel and aviation services to the Federal Aviation Administration.  At the age of 40, he was moving into a comfortable second career as the founder of Universal Systems and Technology (UNITECH).  But Earl Stafford was restless and decided after only a few months that he would launch his own company.  His first two years brought a $300,000 subcontracting job to work on NASA’s Hubble space telescope.  Things were looking up for Stafford and UNITECH until problems with Hubble were discovered shortly after its launch in the spring of 1990.  Though UNITECH had nothing to do with Hubble’s flaws, Stafford — along with scores of other contractors and subcontractors — lost their contracts.  By fall of that year, Stafford’s only other contract was gone as well.  Two years into his new career, Earl Stafford was broke.