I know this is not an easy question. What drives you?
I’m driven by my family, and by what my work means for them and for our lifestyle. Everything I do in my life and my work is to empower my family with as many opportunities, tools and resources as possible so that they can be successful. Because my global agency works with a distributed team, we’re able to travel worldwide. I have the flexibility to be there when my kids or my wife needs me. And we’re able to do it without financial burdens hanging over our heads.
Knowing how precious and rare that gift is drives me keep growing and to keep pushing my business forward – even on the hardest days.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person you are grateful towards who helped you get to where you are? What lesson did you learn from them?
I’m most grateful towards my business partner, who founded the agency with me 11 years ago (and who also happens to be my wife). Throughout the process, we’ve had to take risks and give up things that go well above and beyond what most normal people’s risk profiles allow. But because of that greater appetite for risk and the trust she has in me, it’s meant that we’ve been able to experience things that other people wouldn’t have the appetite or the stomach to do. I’m forever grateful for everything we’ve done together, and all of the great things we continue to achieve.
How do you push through your worst times?
Growing a business is hard. It’s not for the faint of heart. But really knowing what I was doing and who I was doing it for has helped me push through the tough times to find solutions – and that includes not letting myself down.
I’ve always taken a lot of pride in my ability to persevere. I may not be the smartest person in the world or the best marketer, but what I am able to do is to keep going when others would quit. Just recognizing that what I’m facing would drive others to give up altogether keeps things in perspective for me, and motivates me to keep going.