Matt Wasserlauf — January 17, 2019 — January 17, 2019
One of the greatest lessons I ever learned about being an entrepreneur I learned in college. But it wasn’t from the classroom. And it came from failure.
During my junior year at Indiana University, I was on spring break in Sarasota, Florida when I met a man named Paul Stocks. He recruited me to sell t-shirts on campus, and I was excited about the prospects. I knew I could sell, and meeting a man who could help me fulfill the ordering and mentor me in what was my first sales position was exciting.
Once back on campus, I went about selling and felt that intoxicating feeling of being an entrepreneur for the first time in my life. It didn’t take long before I had my first sale: an order of 100 t-shirts for the SDT sorority for their upcoming dance.
When I called Tom Stocks, he congratulated me and told me to send a certified check from SDT, to get the order expedited for production.
After sending him that check, I never heard from Tom Stocks again.
Failure.
It’s one of the deepest feelings of pain and hurt one could ever experience, and I’ll never forget how it impacted me at that moment.
I learned my first lesson in being an entrepreneur:
1. Your reputation is all you’ve got, and in order to be not only a serial entrepreneur, but also a successful entrepreneur, you have to do the right thing.
I dragged myself, tail between my legs, to the SDT house to let them know what happened and fall on the knife for this gaffe. They appreciated my candor and accepted my apology.
For the last 30 years as a businessman and entrepreneur, I’ve always been honest, transparent and fair. I’ve seen karma run its course, and though I never learned what became of Paul Stocks, I know what goes around, comes around.
2. An entrepreneur needs to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
A solo warrior out on the Plains, driving the Western frontier. The cutting edge. It’s the scariest place there is, while also the most exhilarating place in the world.
3. Just do it!
An entrepreneur’s DNA is certainly in the blood, and you can function as an entrepreneur in a big corporation or any organization, for that matter, but when your time comes to strike out on your own, it’s mission critical that you just do it. My time came in 2004, after I had worked at a start-up called The FeedRoom for four years. The FeedRoom was an excellent place to learn and function inside an online video start-up, which is precisely why I went to work for them. I gained incredible experience in both what to do and more critically, what not to do. But as The FeedRoom started to run aground, I knew it was my time to strike out on my own. I did so, even though I was leaving a lot of money on the table, right after my son was born and taking on incredible risk with no income in the foreseeable future. I recognized that it was something I had to do and summoned the inner confidence that I could make it happen. It was my moment, and I had to “just do it!”
I built BBE into Online Video’s first Video Network and VINDICO into the industry’s first ad-serving platform. I sold BBE seven years later and secured my family’s future for many years to come. The “just do it” lesson is a lesson for all entrepreneurs who must recognize that moment when you need to go for it and strike out on your own. It is the calling every entrepreneur gets and must heed when that time comes.
4. The most essential quality any entrepreneur needs to possess is an unending supply of positivity.
You’ll need every ounce of it. The day I left The FeedRoom, not only did they hold from me my commissions owed on a million-dollar deal I closed before leaving, they threatened to sue me for competing with them after they pivoted out of the advertising business I was setting off to get into. I distinctly remember talking myself off the ledge to remain positive and stay on track. I remember getting slow payed by our largest agency partner Mediavest when receivables ran in excess of 180 days and coming eerily close to not being able to make payroll to the 70+ employees we had at the firm. And I also vividly remember keeping the team moving forward, despite an economy that was grinding to a halt in the Great Recession of 2007/8. Through all of these times, I called upon my endless supply of positivity to keep the wheels moving at our company, BBE. When we finally sold BBE to Specific Media in 2010 after seven years in business, I recall my mentor, Jim DePalma, telling me that what I had accomplished was the impossible. Staying positive through all the ups and downs was what made the impossible, possible. Every entrepreneur needs an endless supply of positivity.
Over the years, I have learned many lessons as an entrepreneur, but these are the themes that have continually characterized my entrepreneurial journey. Part of what makes entrepreneurship so exciting is that there are always new lessons to learn around every corner. One of the greatest gifts I’ve found of being an entrepreneur is the continual life-long learning and growth throughout the journey.
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