I often get asked how to start a business with no money or resources and my response to the person is “Why do you want to start a business?” When I hear responses like “I want to be my own boss,” “I want freedom,” or “I want to make a lot of money”, and “you can’t get rich working for…
Secret Academy Episode – John Temerian
Coming from a family of car-loving businessmen, one would think that John Temerian would want to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps and continue the tradition of being in the automotive business. However, he wanted to blaze his own path to success and tried his hand in the real estate realm. As a way to generate buzz for homes he was selling, he came up with the idea to create a fun car event that would hopefully attract owners of luxury and exotic vehicles. Thus, Palm Beach Supercar Weekend was born and with it was his ticket to the luxury and exotic car market that he tried so hard to avoid as a career. As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree because in the end he wasn’t able to ignore his love of cars. Soon thereafter, John partnered up with someone he had met through Palm Beach Supercar Weekend and filled a niche in the Miami area by creating Lou La Vie, a high-end luxury and exotic car rental brand.
Creating Success Even When Faced with Adversity
For the past 19 years, I have hustled and worked very hard to push my life forward. I overcame incredible odds like not being legally allowed to work, not understanding the language of the place I lived and still having to find work, not having the opportunity to go to school, and questioning if I would ever have a place…
Secret Academy Episode – Charlie Hoehn
Anyone graduating around 2008 knew that finding a job after college would be hard with the decline of the economy. Charlie Hoehn was tired of sending his resume to hundreds of employers with no luck, so he decided to change his approach. He decided to only work on projects that truly interested him, and he would do it for free. What started as helping local businesses for free evolved to several paid opportunities. One job lead to another and soon enough he was working with other respected entrepreneurs like Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, Ramit Sethi, and Chad Mureta. Charlie has since authored two books, the first called ‘Recession Proof Graduate’ that breaks down the idea of ‘free work’ to land your dream job, and the other book called ‘Play it Away’, a book on the importance of playing to reduce stress and anxiety.
Secret Academy Episode – Owen Fuller
Owen Fuller never thought of himself as an entrepreneur growing up (and even to this day he doesn’t necessarily identify himself as one). He planned to major in history and become an attorney, but life doesn’t always go as planned. Owen found himself working at a wireless company in sales, but eventually moved into a marketing role after seeing the company take off at an exponential rate due to marketing strategies. Eventually in 2009, he opened his own marketing agency, Fit Marketing, focusing on in-bound marketing and became the 10th fastest growing company in Utah. His success lead to the birth of Qzzr, an interactive quiz tool you may have seen on social media. After securing $2 million in seed funding, his clients now include the likes of IBM, Yahoo, Sports Illustrated, Reddit, Yelp, and many more.
Secret to Success – Bobby Genovese
After deciding to quit school in the 9th grade (much to his parents dismay), Bobby Genovese realized that wealth would not be acquired by working for others. While working odd jobs in Canada, Bobby developed his own personal skills of sales and persuasion, which helped launch his first company Continental Gold that was comprised of the wealthiest investors in Vancouver. His knack for identifying opportunities snowballed into a vast portfolio of businesses under his BG Capital Group umbrella that focuses on mergers/acquisitions of small to medium businesses across all verticals.
Secret Academy Episode – Bobby Genovese
Bobby Genovese is a world famous entrepreneur who grew up on a farm in Ontario, Canada with two brothers and his single mother. After dropping out of school in 9th grade, he got a job as a barn manager and taught horseback riding. It wasn’t until he worked for his stepfather selling wild flower seeds that he learned the art of the sale, which later snowballed into several ventures that led him to move to Vancouver. He took a huge gamble with a networking plan that got his foot in the door of investments. Today, he is chairman of BG Capital Group, a merchant banking and asset consolidation firm, currently worth about $200 million.