From NFL Quarterback to Serial Entrepreneur: Fran Tarkenton on Growing a Successful Business

Transcription

1 1 This is an edited transcript of the December 04, 2013 SmallBusinessTalent.com podcast interview titled From NFL Quarterback to Serial Entrepreneur: Fran Tarkenton on Growing a Successful Business. Announcer: Are you a hard-working, self-employed professional striving for small business success? There is help. Welcome to the SmallBusinessTalent.com podcast featuring candid conversations about successful self-employment. Welcome to the SmallBusinessTalent.com podcast. I m Stephen Lahey, and I ll be your host. Let's kick this off with a question. When I say Fran Tarkenton, what first comes to mind for you? For most of us, it's probably football. Fran played quarterback for the University of Georgia Bulldogs and played for 18 years in the National Football League as quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants. He's also a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, and is recognized as one of the greatest football players of all time. Of course, many of us also know Fran as the author and coauthor of some excellent business books, including What Losing Taught Me About Winning: The Ultimate Guide for Success in Small and Home-Based Businesses, Every Day is Game Day, and One More Customer. Fran has launched a variety of successful companies over the years in industries such as computer software, financial services, small business training and development, and so on. By the way, his largest company achieved revenues of $142 million. For the past 17 years, Fran's mission has been to be the trusted spokesperson for small business in America. Today, many of his companies provide services and applications for small business owners throughout the country and help them succeed. Fran has an inspiring and straightforward business philosophy that he s here to share with us today. Here's a quote to get us started. "There is only one reason for a business to exist to provide products and services that enhance and improve the quality of life of its customers." I find that inspiring.

2 2 Fran, it's an honor to have you on the podcast. Thanks for being here. Glad to be here, Stephen. In your football career and in your business, you've obviously been a very driven, high achiever, and it's obvious that you don't back down in the face of adversity. Tell us about the roots of that. Where did that level of drive and focus and tenacity start for you in your life? Well, it probably started from the time I could think. I grew up as a small child in Washington, DC, in the alleys there. I played kick the can, I played touch football, went in the parks and played baseball. I played everything. And I competed and I love to compete. I love to challenge myself. I'd always play with older kids because I had to be better, and they made me better. I also learned the value of working. In Washington, DC, I lived in the city. I lived on 602 Maryland Avenue, six blocks from the Capitol. At five years old, I took my wagon down to the Safeway on Saturday and the ladies would have their grocery bags, and they d come out and put them in my wagon. I'd pull that wagon for a block or two blocks or three blocks and they'd give me a dime. I really valued that. And then I had a paper route, and I loved that. Everybody says to people going into business, just go find something that you can be passionate about. Well, I look back at my life of all different types of jobs and I had jobs while I was playing football because I didn't make any money in football and every job I had, I liked. I had a passion for my work because I was delivering service to people and they paid me some money for that, whether it was 10 cents to carry groceries in the wagon or whether it was the $600 a month that I was paid in the winter of 1962 when I had an off-season job as a pro football player. I worked for Wilson Truck Systems. At Wilson Truck Systems I went out to South and North Dakota where they were based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. My job was to knock on the doors of shipping clerks in the cold of winter in South and North Dakota, zero degrees, wind chill of ten below, and get these guys to ship their goods on Wilson Truck Systems from the Dakotas to Minnesota, Chicago, and back. They paid me $600

3 3 a month. I loved that job because I was helping to generate commerce. I was giving a service to these people that they needed. And the company, Wilson, paid me to go do that. That always inspired me. And later in my life, as you just mentioned, my mission in business, the thing that really drives me is helping other people, solving problems for other people, bring them goods and services and information that are helpful to them. When your mission is to help people, you've got a sustainable business plan because the byproduct of that is that they will do business with you and they will find your products and services valuable and they will pay you money for that and then you have a chance to make a profit. If your mission is to make money, to be a billionaire, a millionaire, just whatever you can make, then you'll compromise your principles. And we see that every day, don't we? We see it with Billy Bob and Mary Sue. We see it with Steven Cohen at SAC Capital in New York City where he's been fined $1.8 billion for cheating, insider trading. We see it at Johnson & Johnson for having lied to consumers about their products. It s caused great harm to their company into the billions of dollars. We're seeing it at JPMorgan Bank who has been now fined $16 billion for lying to the customers. And so what gives me passion and energy is that I am filled up with helping people do better. That's a really inspiring thing and it's also a really great business strategy. And one of the things that does set you apart, and the other guests whom I've had on SmallBusinessTalent.com apart, is they're in business to help people. There are so many others, though. People I would call gurus, business gurus, many of whom have never actually run a successful company, but they're great speakers. They're silver-tongued persuaders. You've seen many of them, I'm sure, come and go as I have. I'm 51. You're in your 70s. Yes. I'm 73. You know what, it's an interesting thing. My first salary in football was $12,500. My top salary in 1978, I made $275,000. I was the highest-paid player in football. Today the PR guys make that much money. But in my early days of building

4 4 businesses, my customers and partners were big companies. IBM was my partner. Ernst & Young was my partner. I was on the board of directors for Coca Cola Enterprises. I worked a lot with Mr. Sam Walton of Walmart. So I was working with big companies and had big company customers. Seventeen years ago when I wanted to go out and provide truth and services and help for the entrepreneurial pool of people that are starting to go out and start their own businesses, I had a great knowledge base because I was and am an entrepreneur. I had put my hands into the soil. I learned quarterbacking from watching quarterbacks, from talking to quarterbacks. I didn't talk to the offensive lineman about how to play quarterback. That's how I learned to play quarterback. I learned entrepreneurship by talking to entrepreneurs all the up to Mr. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, Bernie Marcus, the Founder of Home Depot, down to Billy Bob and Mary Sue. But what I didn't realize in this entrepreneurial world, is that there were 540,000 startups every month but two years later only 9% of those businesses still survived. That bothered me. I realized that 70% of all businesses are sole proprietors, and I had never known that. Not only did these folks not have access to the truth, access to the right kind of people, the right kind of information to start and run their business, but they were also beat on by these get rich quick, silver bullet orators. These were people had no interest in them and still have no interest in them, but they had a couple qualities. Number one, they were skilled orators. I mean they could sell ice to the Eskimos. Highly skilled speakers. They would get you into their trap and into their warp with their silver tongues. And the second thing they had in common was this. They had never, ever run a business. They had never had their hands in the soil. All they wanted to do was get your credit card. You know what? I've got a book here by and I'm not going to give the guy's name but he's one of those gurus out there. And the book jacket he's got green, yellow, red, purple on it, and it's No BS Sales Success. That s right, No BS Sales Success. Get their credit card and bank it for as much money as you can and go on to the next person. Isn't that a wonderful mission to have in life? That's awful.

5 5 But I didn't know that existed, that these people were preying on these wonderful people who wanted to be entrepreneurs in the greatest country in the world. That's why I have spent my last 17 years with this group of small business owners, learning to use the Internet to bring out a bigger tent, to deliver more resources to go out and help these people with the truth, the knowledgebase that they could use on a repeated basis to be able to have a better chance to succeed, to be able to be in online communities where a carpenter from Atlanta, Georgia, could even ask questions of a carpenter out in Seattle, Washington. That's why to do this I needed to get big companies on board. I've got Office Depot as my main partner, but we've got many Fortune 500 partners that have come to bear on this, to bring resources and our resources are all small business practitioners. The first thing we did was built a great content-rich website that a small business entrepreneur could go to and get all the information they need to start and run their business, and we're making good on that and it's free. They don't have to buy anything. That website is SmallBizClub.com. I invite your people to go and join, and be part of our group to help each other get smarter. Yes, absolutely. And I did sign up for my free membership. I also looked inside SmallBizClub.com and one of the things that interested me and this is beyond what you ve just said because it's so true, honest and experienced people like yourself are actually pretty rare out there. You've built businesses and you're helping people, not just getting out on the speaking circuit. But, anyway, on SmallBizClub.com you walk members through your Seven Business Maxims. Now that is really inspiring stuff. Can you walk us through those seven maxims, Fran? I'll be glad to, and I'll do it quickly. Number 1, the mission of business, and we've talked about this, is to help people. We've already talked about that. Number 2, people have to talk to people. I, in my office here, I have a lot of young people, a lot of diverse people. I sit in their offices, we talk, we vet. I never make a decision by myself because we're not going to make great decisions by ourselves. So I just think it's so important that we reach out and talk to people. Talk to customers. What do you need? How are we doing? What

6 6 can I do better? That's what needs to be done. That dialogue has to be ongoing. Number 3, there are no silver bullets. When someone comes to me and says, "I've got the greatest idea, the greatest this or that, and come join my deal and I'm going to make you a billion dollars overnight, it's easy," I run. And maybe I'll miss some really good deals, but this is rule number three to our people. There are no silver bullets. Number 4, reinvent yourself every day. We've got to be more relevant every day. We've got to be smarter every day. The world is fun today. It's fast. Creative. Innovative. I mean, ten years ago we thought we were going to be dependent on oil and gas from the Middle east for the rest of our lives and now we're looking at oil independence. Technology is changing and we're doing things now technology-wise that we'd have never dreamed of. And so we've got to understand, as entrepreneurs, we've got to get smarter. We've got to reach out. We've got to talk to more people. We've got to read more things. We've got to change. We've got to adapt to a digital marketing world and an Internet world. So number four is reinvent yourself every day. Not every year. Now the next one, Number 5, I love. You know how people say you've got to create a sense of urgency? I don't say that. You've got to create a sense of desperation. I wake up every morning with a little bit of edge, a little sense of desperation. How in the world am I going to learn more today? How am I going to get smarter today? How can I help my customers more today? How can I help my prospects more today? And I go to bed at night with the same sense of desperation. When you have a sense of desperation, you make sure that you get it done today. You don't have meetings with 40 people and then have another meeting and another meeting and another meeting. You vet, you vet, you vet, and then you go act and you move at the speed of light. Number 6, you learn from your failures more than you learn from your successes. After I finished a football game, you know, I think of this. National Football League, it's theater, it's drama. You play 16 weeks out of 52 weeks, and that's it. So when you win a game, it's euphoric. You go out with your family, you go out with your friends, you celebrate, you're telling each other how great you are, and what great plays we made. When we lost, I went home with

7 7 my wife and I sat down and thought what did I not do right? How did I not prepare? Why wasn't I ready for that blitz? And I reconstructed everything in the game, I reconstructed all my preparation, and therefore I learned more from losing than I did from winning because when we win we don't question things. We say that's just the way it is, everything worked. I did everything right. Well, we never do everything right. So you learn more from your failures than from your successes. Don t let your failures get you down, it's a great, great learning experience. Number 7, nothing takes the place of hard work. We're not digging ditches here in the entrepreneurial world. We're out helping people. We're doing good work, work that should stir our soul. I love to come to work every day. I will never retire. I am blessed that I've got my health at age 73 and I've got my faculties and I've got the energy to be able to go out and use a lifetime of learning - to be able to share that with other people. People tell you it's easy and you don't have to work hard? You've got to work hard but working hard is a joy! That is a gift! If you're doing something you truly believe in because it's a good thing, then you've got the tiger by the tail. Yes. When I played in the National Football League, all those years, it was highly competitive. But I never obsessed about winning. Just like business is a process, football is also a process. What did I concern myself with on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, prior to the Sunday game? It was the processes I had to be making sure I was spending my time with the right people on the right things, doing the right physical things, the right mental things to give us a better chance to win on Sunday. When people just focus on winning, they lose. If they just focus on getting rich, they lose. Nick Saban, the great coach of Alabama, has won three national championships in four years. Unheard of. He's won four national championships in his career. Unheard of. And about to win another one this year maybe. He was on 60 Minutes not long ago, and he said he never talks to his team about winning, he never talks to his team about SEC championships, he never talks to his team about NCAA championships. It's the process that he talks to them about. Here are the things we've got to work on today and tomorrow to give ourselves the best chance. If we work the

8 8 process well enough, good things happen. If we short-circuit the process, bad things happen. It's a really good point that you're making here. It's wedding that sense of urgency and passion to strategy and thinking. A lot of people think that athletes aren't as challenged mentally as they would be in business. But that s not true at all. Yes, not true at all. For example, right now we see Peyton Manning doing great things. Peyton Manning and I've known the Manning family forever. His dad Archie is a great friend of mine. Peyton is playing out in Denver. If you look at the 32 quarterbacks there are 32 starting quarterbacks in the National Football League Peyton Manning would be the slowest of all 32, he has the weakest arm of all 32, and yet he's the best of all 32 because Peyton Manning is executing all the things that I've been talking about. He understands the game. He works to the game. He takes care of every detail. He cares about his people. And I think this. To our listeners, here is what I believe is essential. Respect. You've got to have respect for everybody. Respect for your opponents. Respect for your players. Respect for the lowest person in the organization to the most important person in the organization. You've got to be transparent. You've got to tell the truth. You've got to be humble. Humility is a terrific thing because every time that I think that I've got the answer, then I don't. I get hit right in the mouth. The more we think that we have the answer, the more we think that our thing is working, if it's not broken, don t' fix it, just let it be, then people are going to run by me because they are going to be thinking quicker and better than I because they're going to be more aggressive and more in the spirit of reinventing themselves and learning and pushing to be better. We've got to be smarter every day. In football, I had to be smarter not only week-to-week, but I had to be smarter game-to-game. I had to be smarter quarter-to-quarter and minute-to-minute. Because the defense gets paid, they're well coached, they look at all my films, they see what I'm doing, so I've got to be quick and I've got to respond to that and change. Business is no different and that's the fun of it. The people that

9 9 play fast and play deep and play with the right goal of helping people, they have the chance to win. This whole idea of bringing passion and strategy together. That is something to think about in business and life. And it also occurred to me when you were talking about respect, that respect means you're raising the bar. Yes. Because if you respect a customer, you automatically want to do more and create more value and be there for them. But if you're just thinking, well, I ve got to go to this meeting, and what can I extract from the customer? That's a whole different bar that's a bar you can step over. That's not the high bar. And that s one that people overlook. The basic fundamentals of life start with respect. Treating people the right way. Even if they have a different philosophy than you. Be able to listen to that philosophy. I tell my people here in my office, tell me what you think. You come from a different world. You're 25 years old, you come from a high-tech world, you understand social media better than I, tell me what you believe and what you think and don't worry about telling me what you think I want you to tell me. I want your brain, your mind, your soul. Now in doing that, understand that I may have a different point of view. And that's okay. Don't be afraid of that because I in turn am going to give you my point of view, but I'm going to do in a very kind way, in a very respectful way. And understanding, you know, in this political world we live in, my goodness, we demonize the left, we demonize the right, and these are awful people, they don't care about anybody I don't live in that world. I live in the world of listening and understanding that someone might have a different opinion than I and I'm going to respect that opinion and understand that opinion. That's what life is about. If we do that, we have a chance to come together and make things happen. I like the people who get stuff done. I don't care whether you're left or right or whatever. I want people to get stuff done and that's the people I want to hang out with.

10 10 When you respect people and they respect you, it really does transform both of you. Yes. Both of us get transformed. And that's what creates team, and that's what we're really talking about. It comes full circle. Football, business, life. Fran, this has been a really inspiring conversation, and I just want to remind people, first of all, go to SmallBizClub.com, sign up now for free, and you'll be glad you did. There's an enormous wealth of resources. I don't know if there's anything you'd care to add to that, Fran. We have the resources there and then we have the capability. We've partnered with a lot of folks to be able to help small business owners with everything from digital marketing to incorporation to online coaching. All kind of tools are there for those who want to engage with those tools. We have one mission, to help everybody that's starting their business or running a small business to have access to the truth and knowledge to be able to make that business run. And I'll just say one last thing. You're not alone. If you're a solo entrepreneur like me, you're not alone. Visit SmallBizClub.com. Join now, it's free. Fran, thank you again for being here. Thank you so much. I've enjoyed it very much. Thank you. I really appreciate it. And to our listeners, thank you for spending some time with us today. If you like what you heard, I encourage you to visit SmallBusinessTalent.com now and subscribe to the podcast by . When you do, you ll be alerted whenever we post fresh podcast content, of course, but you ll also receive special resources for subscribers only, including our new LinkedIn guide to acquiring ideal clients, and much more. Thank you again for listening today and best wishes for your success.

11 11 Announcer: The SmallBusinessTalent.com podcast is a production of Lahey Consulting, LLC. Thanks for listening.