The World Doesn’t Need Your Granny’s Hot Sauce, and Other Things I Learned From Kevin O’Leary

The World Doesn’t Need Your Granny’s Hot Sauce, and Other Things I Learned From Kevin O’Leary

Swing by Kevin O’Leary’s website, and you’ll find a masthead declaration you’d probably expect from a guy who unironically celebrates his ironical pseudonym.

“You can call me Mr. Wonderful: Kevin O’Leary’s success story starts where most entrepreneurs begin.”

Ironic, bold, a little smug, and gospel truth. I like it, though I suspect the latter is what really makes his critics’ skin crawl — and keeps network viewers enthralled.

For those of you who don’t have a television, Kevin is an entrepreneur, author, investor, host of ABC’s Shark Tank, and, as he’s been told, “the most hated man in Austria.”

I think he takes some pride in claiming the “most-disdained” title of at least one country.

Love him or hate him, you can’t argue with the fact that Kevin’s the real deal: a self-made man that has grown a business empire from nothing more than intuition, grit, thick-as-hell skin, and a dash of tough love, angst, and business savvy he inherited from his mother.

He’s met Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, lived in nearly any country you can name, invested in those you can’t, made journalists cry, and continues to entertain nine million weekly network television viewers.

Not bad, Kevin.

I learned a lot during our hour-long conversation, and as someone with a reputation for being disagreeable, I found myself in good company.

It was a brilliant, hilarious, enlightening, and “wonderful” hour. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Here are a few of the highlights.

Listen to your mother and invest now.

Many feel it’s impolite to talk about money, but Google suggests Kevin is worth somewhere in the ballpark of $400 million.

How did a middle-class kid whose alcoholic father passed away when he was seven defy a short deck of cards?

Kevin attributes much of his success to his mother’s tough love and clandestine business acumen.

“When my father died, my mom decided she didn’t want anyone to control her destiny,” he said.

So she began a five-decade-long habit of squirreling away 20 percent of every paycheck and investing in bonds and stocks that paid dividends. That continued for over 55 years — a secret her second husband would die without knowing.

When she passed away, Kevin got a call: “You’ve got to come down here. Your mother died a very wealthy woman.”?

He didn’t believe it, but the numbers spoke for themselves.

The three-fold lesson is clear:

  1. Listen to your mother.
  2. Maintain discipline.
  3. Invest now — and start with 20 percent of each paycheck.

Wealth doesn’t create financial literacy. Financial literacy creates wealth.

Don’t become an entrepreneur because it’s easy. Become an entrepreneur because you don’t want to answer the phone.

Why open your own business? To borrow Kevin’s words, “because you want to get to a place in life where you don’t have to pick up the phone when it rings because nobody controls your destiny anymore.”

Freedom, not time. That’s why you become an entrepreneur.

As a fellow “unhirable” who wants the option not to answer the phone, I share Kevin’s sentiment. I chose entrepreneurship because I’d rather work 100 hours every week for myself than 40 hours for someone else.

It strikes me that any good entrepreneur should feel the same.

The world doesn’t need your granny’s hot sauce.

To illustrate the point, Kevin told me about a women-owned company called Basepaws that — get this — tests your cat’s DNA for $29. It sounded as ridiculous to Kevin as it did to me.

Apparently, there are some 110 million cats in America, and their owners want to know how to optimize their pets’ diets. Basepaws tells them how to do it.

I didn’t get it. Kevin didn’t get it. Neither of us has to. The company just sold for $100M.

Point taken, but as he does, Kevin took the point further. “Look, I don’t care what your granny’s recipe was; the world doesn’t need another hot sauce.”

Substitute any product or service for “hot sauce,” and you’ll figure out pretty quickly whether you have a winning idea or not. Aspiring entrepreneurs need a winning product, but as Kevin reminds us, a winning idea is never enough.

“Great ideas are a dime a dozen,” he says. “Do you have executional skills to drive that idea forward? Are you willing to put in the work to see it through?”

The answers to those questions will separate the wheat from the chaff — or in this case, the feline DNA tests from your granny’s hot sauce.

Men have a lot to learn from women about business.

I know Kevin’s a fierce advocate for female-run businesses, but I wanted to know why. Kevin noticed a startling differentiation between his companies run by men and women.

So he looked back at seven years of data and found:

  • Male-run companies reported 30 percent quarterly growth rates but only hit their targets 60 percent of the time.
  • Women-run companies reported 15 percent quarterly growth rates, yet they hit their targets 95 percent of the time.

Why does this matter?

Kevin explains: “When you hit your quarterly targets, staff attrition is practically zero.

Women understood that, so they were pragmatic about their growth. Their outcomes were significantly higher as a result.”

Take from this what you will, but I see a good lesson here.

The dead bird never learns to fly.

Kevin and I have different backgrounds but share a few things in common: We’re both fathers, and neither of us came from privilege.

I wanted to get some parenting advice from a father who’s achieved great success. More specifically, I wanted to know how Kevin resists the urge to spoil his children.

Kevin’s mother hated entitlement. So when he graduated from college, she gave him some good and bad news.

The good: She came to his graduation.

The bad: She told him, “The dead bird never learns to fly.”

It sounded cryptic to Kevin, but he understood it the moment he received his diploma and walked off stage.

After he graduated, she cut him off financially. It led to a two-year struggle, but you can guess the happy ending: The bird lived and learned how to fly.

Kevin’s mother saw entitlement as a curse. Why?

“If you ‘de-risk’ a child by telling them they don't have to worry about anything,” said Kevin, “they don't. When you withhold, you give them a gift.”

Solid advice.

Thanks for a great conversation, Kevin.

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