WEBVTT 00:00:15.537 --> 00:00:17.665 When I was a kid 00:00:17.665 --> 00:00:20.599 in grade school, in grade two in Winnipeg, 00:00:20.599 --> 00:00:23.377 my teachers sent a note home to my parents 00:00:23.377 --> 00:00:25.722 and said that I was a terrible student, 00:00:25.722 --> 00:00:28.782 and that I wouldn't focus and pay attention, 00:00:28.782 --> 00:00:32.366 and that I was sitting in the back of the class playing games. 00:00:33.467 --> 00:00:35.046 And they were right. 00:00:35.046 --> 00:00:39.338 And that kind of happened in grade 3, grade 4, grade 5, 00:00:39.338 --> 00:00:41.755 and then all the way through school, 00:00:41.755 --> 00:00:44.503 so I would be willing to bet beer tonight 00:00:44.503 --> 00:00:46.768 that causes or does not cause cancer. 00:00:46.768 --> 00:00:49.701 I would be willing to bet that I'm the dumbest guy in the room 00:00:49.701 --> 00:00:52.567 because I couldn't get through school. I struggled with school. 00:00:52.567 --> 00:00:54.251 But what I knew at a very early age 00:00:54.251 --> 00:00:56.271 was that I loved money and I loved business 00:00:56.271 --> 00:00:58.156 and I loved this entrepreneurial thing, 00:00:58.156 --> 00:01:00.125 and I was raised to be an entrepreneur, 00:01:00.125 --> 00:01:02.852 and what I've been really passionate about ever since -- 00:01:02.852 --> 00:01:05.230 and I've never spoken about this ever, until now -- 00:01:05.230 --> 00:01:07.560 so this is the first time anyone's ever heard it, 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:09.410 except my wife three days ago, who said, 00:01:09.410 --> 00:01:11.670 "What are you talking about?" and I told her -- 00:01:11.670 --> 00:01:13.570 is that I think we miss an opportunity 00:01:13.570 --> 00:01:15.000 to find these kids 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.000 who have the entrepreneurial traits, 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.000 and to groom them or show them 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.390 that being an entrepreneur is actually a cool thing. 00:01:21.390 --> 00:01:24.000 It's not something that is a bad thing and is vilified, 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:27.000 which is what happens in a lot of society. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.000 Kids, when we grow up, have dreams, 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.000 and we have passions, and we have visions, 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.000 and somehow we get those things crushed. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:36.666 We get told that we need to study harder 00:01:36.666 --> 00:01:39.000 or be more focused or get a tutor. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.000 My parents got me a tutor in French, 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.282 and I still suck in French. 00:01:43.781 --> 00:01:46.000 Two years ago, I was the highest-rated lecturer 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.427 at MIT's entrepreneurial master's program. 00:01:48.427 --> 00:01:51.379 And it was a speaking event in front of groups of entrepreneurs 00:01:51.379 --> 00:01:52.460 from around the world. 00:01:52.460 --> 00:01:55.500 When I was in grade two, I won a city-wide speaking competition, 00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:57.000 but nobody had ever said, 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:58.796 "Hey, this kid's a good speaker. 00:01:58.796 --> 00:02:00.826 He can't focus, but he loves walking around 00:02:00.826 --> 00:02:02.312 and getting people energized." 00:02:02.312 --> 00:02:04.340 No one said, "Get him a coach in speaking." 00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:06.790 They said, get me a tutor in what I suck at. 00:02:07.460 --> 00:02:09.680 So as kids show these traits -- 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:11.631 and we need to start looking for them -- 00:02:11.631 --> 00:02:13.206 I think we should be raising kids 00:02:13.206 --> 00:02:15.120 to be entrepreneurs instead of lawyers. 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:16.680 Unfortunately the school system 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:18.870 is grooming this world 00:02:18.870 --> 00:02:21.500 to say, "Hey, let's be a lawyer or let's be a doctor," 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:23.183 and we're missing that opportunity 00:02:23.183 --> 00:02:25.650 because no one ever says, "Hey, be an entrepreneur." 00:02:25.650 --> 00:02:28.831 Entrepreneurs are people -- we have a lot of them in this room -- 00:02:28.831 --> 00:02:31.910 who have these ideas and passions or see these needs in the world 00:02:31.910 --> 00:02:33.650 and we decide to stand up and do it. 00:02:33.650 --> 00:02:36.337 We put everything on the line to make that stuff happen. 00:02:36.337 --> 00:02:39.120 We have the ability to get those groups of people around us 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:41.291 that want to kind of build that dream with us, 00:02:41.291 --> 00:02:43.168 and I think if we could get kids 00:02:43.168 --> 00:02:46.045 to embrace the idea at a young age of being entrepreneurial, 00:02:46.045 --> 00:02:49.078 we could change everything in the world that is a problem today. 00:02:49.078 --> 00:02:51.849 Every problem that's out there, somebody has the idea for. 00:02:51.849 --> 00:02:54.250 And as a young kid, nobody can say it can't happen 00:02:54.250 --> 00:02:57.463 because you're too dumb to realize that you couldn't figure it out. 00:02:57.463 --> 00:03:00.080 I think we have an obligation as parents and a society 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:01.940 to start teaching our kids to fish 00:03:01.940 --> 00:03:04.713 instead of giving them the fish -- the old parable: 00:03:04.713 --> 00:03:07.100 "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. 00:03:07.100 --> 00:03:09.776 If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." 00:03:09.776 --> 00:03:12.262 If we can teach our kids to become entrepreneurial -- 00:03:12.262 --> 00:03:14.168 the ones that show those traits to be -- 00:03:14.168 --> 00:03:17.260 like we teach the ones who have science gifts to go on in science, 00:03:17.260 --> 00:03:19.791 what if we saw the ones who had entrepreneurial traits 00:03:19.791 --> 00:03:21.634 and taught them to be entrepreneurs? 00:03:21.634 --> 00:03:24.310 We could actually have all these kids spreading businesses 00:03:24.310 --> 00:03:26.329 instead of waiting for government handouts. 00:03:26.329 --> 00:03:29.780 What we do is we sit and teach our kids all the things they shouldn't do: 00:03:29.780 --> 00:03:33.370 Don't hit; don't bite; don't swear. My 9 year old is into swearing big time. 00:03:33.370 --> 00:03:36.026 I'm harnessing it a little bit. 00:03:37.506 --> 00:03:40.110 He actually told me he learned the C word the other day 00:03:40.110 --> 00:03:42.795 and I was terrified, and he said: "It stands for 'crap'", 00:03:42.795 --> 00:03:44.032 I was like, yes! 00:03:45.164 --> 00:03:48.516 Right now we teach our kids to go after really good jobs, 00:03:48.516 --> 00:03:51.680 you know, and the school system teaches them to go after things like 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:52.986 being a doctor and a lawyer 00:03:52.986 --> 00:03:54.801 and being an accountant and a dentist 00:03:54.801 --> 00:03:56.632 and a teacher and a pilot. 00:03:56.632 --> 00:03:59.388 And the media says that it's really cool if we could go out 00:03:59.388 --> 00:04:01.494 and be a model or a singer 00:04:01.494 --> 00:04:04.668 or a sports hero like Luongo, Crosby. 00:04:07.396 --> 00:04:11.145 Our MBA programs do not teach kids to be entrepreneurs. 00:04:11.145 --> 00:04:13.143 The reason that I avoided an MBA program -- 00:04:13.143 --> 00:04:15.435 other than the fact that I couldn't get into any 00:04:15.435 --> 00:04:17.947 because I had a 61 percent average out of high school 00:04:17.947 --> 00:04:19.306 and then 61 percent average 00:04:19.306 --> 00:04:21.993 at the only school in Canada that accepted me, Carlton -- 00:04:21.993 --> 00:04:25.500 that's a good school, because you buy one term, and get one free. 00:04:28.055 --> 00:04:31.394 But our MBA programs don't teach kids to be entrepreneurs. 00:04:31.394 --> 00:04:33.769 They teach them to go work in corporations. 00:04:33.769 --> 00:04:36.796 So who's starting these companies? It's these random few people. 00:04:36.796 --> 00:04:40.234 Even in popular literature, the only book I've ever found -- 00:04:40.234 --> 00:04:42.643 and this should be on all of your reading lists -- 00:04:42.643 --> 00:04:44.197 the only book I've ever found 00:04:44.197 --> 00:04:47.105 that makes the entrepreneur into the hero is "Atlas Shrugged." 00:04:47.105 --> 00:04:49.915 Everything else in the world tends to look at entrepreneurs 00:04:49.915 --> 00:04:51.784 and say that we're bad people. 00:04:52.060 --> 00:04:53.623 I look at even my family. 00:04:53.623 --> 00:04:56.110 Both my grandfathers and my dad were entrepreneurs. 00:04:56.110 --> 00:04:59.554 Both my brother and sister and I, all three of us own companies as well. 00:04:59.554 --> 00:05:01.504 And we all decided to start these things 00:05:01.504 --> 00:05:03.534 because it's really the only place we fit. 00:05:03.534 --> 00:05:06.718 We didn't fit in the normal work. We couldn't work for somebody else 00:05:06.718 --> 00:05:09.561 because we're too stubborn and have all these other traits. 00:05:09.561 --> 00:05:11.567 But kids could be entrepreneurs as well. 00:05:11.567 --> 00:05:13.922 I'm a big part of a couple organizations globally 00:05:13.922 --> 00:05:17.789 called the Entrepreneurs' Organization and the Young Presidents' Organization. 00:05:17.789 --> 00:05:21.284 I just came back from speaking in Barcelona at the YPO global conference, 00:05:21.284 --> 00:05:23.920 and everyone that I met over there who's an entrepreneur 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:25.360 struggled with school. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:28.810 I have 18 out of the 19 signs of attention deficit disorder diagnosed. 00:05:28.810 --> 00:05:31.603 So this thing right here is freaking me out. 00:05:31.603 --> 00:05:33.872 (Laughter) 00:05:33.872 --> 00:05:36.472 It's probably why I'm a little bit panicked right now -- 00:05:36.472 --> 00:05:39.162 other than all the caffeine that I've had and the sugar -- 00:05:39.162 --> 00:05:41.380 but this is really creepy for an entrepreneur. 00:05:41.380 --> 00:05:43.505 Attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder. 00:05:43.505 --> 00:05:46.416 Do you know that bipolar disorder is nicknamed the CEO disease? 00:05:46.416 --> 00:05:48.553 Ted Turner's got it. Steve Jobs has it. 00:05:48.553 --> 00:05:51.285 All three of the founders of Netscape had it. 00:05:51.285 --> 00:05:52.942 I could go on and on. 00:05:52.942 --> 00:05:55.611 Kids -- you can see these signs in kids. 00:05:55.611 --> 00:05:58.510 And what we're doing is we're giving them Ritalin and saying, 00:05:58.510 --> 00:06:00.205 "Don't be an entrepreneurial type. 00:06:00.205 --> 00:06:02.807 Fit into this other system and try to become a student." 00:06:02.807 --> 00:06:04.610 Sorry, entrepreneurs aren't students. 00:06:04.610 --> 00:06:06.714 We fast-track. We figure out the game. 00:06:06.714 --> 00:06:08.543 I stole essays. I cheated on exams. 00:06:08.543 --> 00:06:11.332 I hired kids to do my accounting assignments in university 00:06:11.332 --> 00:06:12.885 for 13 consecutive assignments. 00:06:12.885 --> 00:06:16.180 But as an entrepreneur you don't do accounting, you hire accountants. 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:18.463 So I just figured that out earlier. 00:06:18.463 --> 00:06:20.051 (Laughter) 00:06:20.051 --> 00:06:21.489 (Applause) 00:06:21.489 --> 00:06:24.937 At least I can admit I cheated in university; most of you won't. 00:06:24.937 --> 00:06:28.055 I'm also quoted -- and I told the person who wrote the textbook -- 00:06:28.055 --> 00:06:30.583 I'm now quoted in that exact same university textbook 00:06:30.583 --> 00:06:33.533 in every Canadian university and college studies. 00:06:33.533 --> 00:06:35.613 In managerial accounting, I'm chapter eight. 00:06:35.613 --> 00:06:37.807 I open up chapter eight talking about budgeting. 00:06:37.807 --> 00:06:40.216 And I told the author, after they did my interview, 00:06:40.216 --> 00:06:41.942 that I cheated in that same course. 00:06:41.942 --> 00:06:44.839 And she thought it was too funny to not include it anyway. 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:47.354 But kids, you can see these signs in them. 00:06:47.354 --> 00:06:50.641 The definition of an entrepreneur is "a person who organizes, operates 00:06:50.641 --> 00:06:53.095 and assumes the risk of a business venture." 00:06:53.095 --> 00:06:55.486 That doesn't mean you have to go to an MBA program. 00:06:55.486 --> 00:06:57.374 Or that you have to get through school. 00:06:57.374 --> 00:07:00.431 It just means that those few things have to feel right in your gut. 00:07:00.431 --> 00:07:03.432 We've heard those things about "is it nurture or is it nature"? 00:07:03.432 --> 00:07:06.603 Is it thing one or thing two? What is it? I don't think it's either. 00:07:06.603 --> 00:07:07.949 I think it can be both. 00:07:07.949 --> 00:07:09.836 I was groomed as an entrepreneur. 00:07:09.836 --> 00:07:12.318 When I was growing up as a young kid, I had no choice, 00:07:12.318 --> 00:07:14.573 because I was taught at a very early, young age, 00:07:14.573 --> 00:07:16.565 when my dad realized I wasn't going to fit 00:07:16.565 --> 00:07:19.359 into everything else that was being taught to me in school, 00:07:19.359 --> 00:07:22.216 that he could teach me to figure out business at an early age. 00:07:22.216 --> 00:07:24.026 He groomed the three of us, 00:07:24.026 --> 00:07:25.702 to hate the thought of having a job 00:07:25.702 --> 00:07:29.364 and to love the fact of creating companies that we could employ other people. 00:07:29.364 --> 00:07:32.860 My first little business venture: I was seven years old, I was in Winnipeg, 00:07:32.860 --> 00:07:36.145 and I was lying in my bedroom with one of those long extension cords. 00:07:36.145 --> 00:07:39.540 If you're 30 years old, you don't remember phones with extension cords, 00:07:39.540 --> 00:07:40.419 but I do, I'm 44. 00:07:40.419 --> 00:07:43.173 And I was calling all the dry cleaners in Winnipeg 00:07:43.173 --> 00:07:46.420 to find out how much would the dry cleaners pay me for coat hangers. 00:07:46.420 --> 00:07:48.534 And my mom came into the room and she said, 00:07:48.534 --> 00:07:50.594 "Where are you going to get the coat hangers 00:07:50.594 --> 00:07:52.405 to sell to the dry cleaners?" 00:07:52.405 --> 00:07:54.440 I said, "Let's go and look in the basement." 00:07:54.440 --> 00:07:57.025 We went down to the basement. I opened up this cupboard. 00:07:57.025 --> 00:07:59.763 There was about a thousand coat hangers that I'd collected. 00:07:59.763 --> 00:08:02.643 Because, when I told her I was going out to play with the kids, 00:08:02.643 --> 00:08:04.681 I was going door to door in the neighborhood 00:08:04.681 --> 00:08:07.215 to collect coat hangers to put in the basement to sell. 00:08:07.215 --> 00:08:10.158 Because I saw her a few weeks before that -- you could get paid. 00:08:10.158 --> 00:08:12.289 They used to pay you two cents per coat hanger. 00:08:12.289 --> 00:08:14.364 I thought, there's all kinds of coat hangers. 00:08:14.364 --> 00:08:15.753 And I'll just go get them. 00:08:15.753 --> 00:08:18.965 I knew she wouldn't want me to go get them, so I just did it anyway. 00:08:18.965 --> 00:08:21.342 And I learned that you could negotiate with people. 00:08:21.342 --> 00:08:24.119 This one person offered me 3 cents and I got him up to 3.5. 00:08:24.119 --> 00:08:25.804 I even knew at a seven-year-old age 00:08:25.804 --> 00:08:28.403 that I could get a fractional percent of a cent, 00:08:28.403 --> 00:08:30.876 and people would pay that because it multiplied up. 00:08:30.876 --> 00:08:32.661 At seven years old I figured it out. 00:08:32.661 --> 00:08:35.326 I got three and a half cents for a thousand coat hangers. 00:08:35.326 --> 00:08:37.407 I sold license plate protectors door to door. 00:08:37.407 --> 00:08:38.951 My dad made me go find someone 00:08:38.951 --> 00:08:41.095 who would sell me these things at wholesale. 00:08:41.095 --> 00:08:43.898 And at nine years old, I walked around in the city of Sudbury 00:08:43.898 --> 00:08:46.634 selling license plate protectors door to door to houses. 00:08:46.634 --> 00:08:48.791 And I remember this one customer so vividly 00:08:48.791 --> 00:08:51.408 because I also did some other stuff with these clients. 00:08:51.408 --> 00:08:52.744 I sold newspapers. 00:08:52.744 --> 00:08:54.859 And he wouldn't buy a newspaper from me ever. 00:08:54.859 --> 00:08:58.552 But I was convinced I was going to get him to buy a license plate protector. 00:08:58.552 --> 00:09:00.638 And he's like, "Well, we don't need one." 00:09:00.638 --> 00:09:03.531 And -- I'm nine years old -- I'm like, "But you have two cars 00:09:03.531 --> 00:09:05.615 and they don't have license plate protectors." 00:09:05.615 --> 00:09:06.465 He said, "I know." 00:09:06.465 --> 00:09:09.781 I said, "This car here's got one license plate that's all crumpled up." 00:09:09.781 --> 00:09:11.377 He said, that was his wife's car. 00:09:11.377 --> 00:09:13.036 I said, "Why don't we just test one 00:09:13.036 --> 00:09:15.857 on the front of your wife's car and see if it lasts longer." 00:09:15.857 --> 00:09:18.551 I knew there were two cars with two license plates on each. 00:09:18.551 --> 00:09:21.062 If I couldn't sell all four, I could at least get one. 00:09:21.062 --> 00:09:22.593 I learned that at a young age. 00:09:22.593 --> 00:09:24.110 I did comic book arbitrage. 00:09:24.110 --> 00:09:26.531 When I was about 10 years old, I sold comic books 00:09:26.531 --> 00:09:28.287 out of our cottage on Georgian Bay. 00:09:28.287 --> 00:09:30.609 And I would go biking up to the end of the beach 00:09:30.609 --> 00:09:32.614 and buy all the comics from the poor kids. 00:09:32.614 --> 00:09:34.929 Then I would go back to the other end of the beach 00:09:34.929 --> 00:09:36.436 and sell them to the rich kids. 00:09:36.436 --> 00:09:39.080 But it was obvious to me, right? Buy low, sell high. 00:09:39.080 --> 00:09:41.387 You've got this demand over here that has money. 00:09:41.387 --> 00:09:44.031 Don't try to sell to the poor kids; they don't have cash. 00:09:44.031 --> 00:09:46.722 The rich people do. Go get some. So that's obvious, right. 00:09:46.722 --> 00:09:48.127 It's like a recession. 00:09:48.127 --> 00:09:51.167 There's still 13 trillion dollars circulating in the U.S. economy. 00:09:51.167 --> 00:09:53.922 Go get some of that. And I learned that at a young age. 00:09:53.922 --> 00:09:55.899 I also learned, don't reveal your source, 00:09:55.899 --> 00:09:58.612 because I got beat up after about four weeks of doing this 00:09:58.612 --> 00:10:02.027 because one of the rich kids found out where I was buying my comics from, 00:10:02.027 --> 00:10:04.669 and he didn't like the fact that he was paying a lot more. 00:10:04.669 --> 00:10:08.161 I was forced to get a paper route at 10 years old, I didn't really want it, 00:10:08.161 --> 00:10:10.763 but my dad said that was going to be my next business. 00:10:10.763 --> 00:10:13.255 So not only would he get me one, but I had to get two, 00:10:13.255 --> 00:10:16.288 and then he wanted me to hire someone to deliver half the papers, 00:10:16.288 --> 00:10:18.757 which I did, and then I realized that collecting tips 00:10:18.757 --> 00:10:20.292 was where you made all the money. 00:10:20.292 --> 00:10:22.218 I would collect the tips and get payment. 00:10:22.218 --> 00:10:25.599 I would go and collect for all the papers. He could just deliver them. 00:10:25.599 --> 00:10:27.781 Because then I realized I could make the money. 00:10:27.781 --> 00:10:30.761 By this point, I was definitely not going to be an employee. 00:10:30.761 --> 00:10:33.364 My dad owned an automotive and industrial repair shop. 00:10:33.364 --> 00:10:35.843 He had all these old automotive parts lying around. 00:10:35.843 --> 00:10:37.563 They had this old brass and copper. 00:10:37.563 --> 00:10:40.540 I asked him what he did with it, he said he just throws it out. 00:10:40.540 --> 00:10:43.743 I said, "But wouldn't somebody pay you for that?" He goes, "Maybe." 00:10:43.743 --> 00:10:47.199 Remember at 10 years old, so 34 years ago I saw opportunity in this stuff. 00:10:47.199 --> 00:10:48.915 I saw there was money in garbage. 00:10:48.915 --> 00:10:51.791 And I was actually collecting it from all the automotive shops 00:10:51.791 --> 00:10:53.054 in the area on my bicycle. 00:10:53.054 --> 00:10:54.866 And my dad would drive me on Saturdays 00:10:54.866 --> 00:10:56.917 to a scrap metal recycler where I got paid. 00:10:56.917 --> 00:10:58.600 And I thought that was kind of cool. 00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:01.745 Strangely enough, 30 years later, we're building 1-800-GOT-JUNK? 00:11:01.745 --> 00:11:03.332 and making money off that too. 00:11:03.332 --> 00:11:06.939 I built these little pincushions when I was 11 years old in Cubs, 00:11:06.939 --> 00:11:09.831 and we made these pin cushions for our moms for Mother's Day. 00:11:09.831 --> 00:11:13.018 And you made these pincushions out of wooden clothespins -- 00:11:13.018 --> 00:11:15.737 when we used to hang clothes on clotheslines outside. 00:11:15.737 --> 00:11:17.658 That's what clothespins looked like. 00:11:17.658 --> 00:11:19.642 And you'd make these chairs. 00:11:19.642 --> 00:11:22.097 And I had these little pillows that I would sew up. 00:11:22.097 --> 00:11:23.737 And you could stuff pins in them. 00:11:23.737 --> 00:11:26.584 Because people used to sew and they needed a pin cushion. 00:11:27.684 --> 00:11:29.707 But I realized that you had to have options. 00:11:29.707 --> 00:11:31.859 So I spray painted a whole bunch of them brown. 00:11:31.859 --> 00:11:35.122 And then when I went to the door, it wasn't, "Do you want to buy one?" 00:11:35.122 --> 00:11:37.010 It was, "Which color would you like?" 00:11:37.010 --> 00:11:39.435 I'm 10 years old; you're not going to say no to me, 00:11:39.435 --> 00:11:42.547 especially if you have two options - the brown one or the clear one. 00:11:42.547 --> 00:11:44.437 So I learned that lesson at a young age. 00:11:44.437 --> 00:11:46.545 I learned that manual labor really sucks. 00:11:46.545 --> 00:11:49.160 Right, like cutting lawns is brutal. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:52.313 But because I had to cut lawns all summer for all of our neighbors 00:11:52.313 --> 00:11:55.395 and get paid to do that, I realized that recurring revenue 00:11:55.395 --> 00:11:57.330 from one client is amazing. 00:11:57.330 --> 00:11:59.508 That if I land this client once, 00:11:59.508 --> 00:12:01.762 and every week I get paid by that person, 00:12:01.762 --> 00:12:03.626 that's way better than trying to sell 00:12:03.626 --> 00:12:05.925 one clothespin thing to one person. 00:12:05.925 --> 00:12:07.670 Because you can't sell them more. 00:12:07.670 --> 00:12:11.110 So I love that recurring revenue model I started to learn at a young age. 00:12:11.110 --> 00:12:14.617 Remember, I was being groomed to do this. I was not allowed to have jobs. 00:12:14.617 --> 00:12:18.120 I would caddy, I would go to the golf course and caddy for people. 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:20.989 But I realized that there was this one hill on our golf course, 00:12:20.989 --> 00:12:22.817 the 13th hole that had this huge hill. 00:12:22.817 --> 00:12:24.864 And people could never get their bags up it. 00:12:24.864 --> 00:12:26.788 So I would sit there with a lawn chair 00:12:26.788 --> 00:12:29.472 and just carry up all the people who didn't have caddies. 00:12:29.472 --> 00:12:32.920 I would carry their golf bags up to the top, and they'd pay me a dollar. 00:12:32.920 --> 00:12:35.217 Meanwhile, my friends were working for five hours 00:12:35.217 --> 00:12:37.731 to haul some guy's bag around and get paid 10 bucks. 00:12:37.731 --> 00:12:40.787 I'm like, "That's stupid because you have to work for five hours. 00:12:40.787 --> 00:12:42.273 That doesn't make any sense." 00:12:42.273 --> 00:12:44.717 You just figure out a way to make more money faster. 00:12:44.717 --> 00:12:46.175 I sold pops at a bridge night. 00:12:46.175 --> 00:12:49.448 Every week, I would go to the corner store and buy all these pops. 00:12:49.448 --> 00:12:52.835 I would go up and deliver them to these 70-year-old women playing bridge. 00:12:52.835 --> 00:12:55.429 And they'd give me their orders for the following week. 00:12:55.429 --> 00:12:57.813 And I'd just deliver pops and I'd just charge twice. 00:12:57.813 --> 00:13:00.384 I had this captured market. You didn't need contracts. 00:13:00.384 --> 00:13:02.390 You just needed to have a supply and demand 00:13:02.390 --> 00:13:04.324 and this audience who bought into you. 00:13:04.324 --> 00:13:06.558 These women weren't going to go to anybody else 00:13:06.558 --> 00:13:09.040 because they liked me, and I kind of figured it out. 00:13:09.040 --> 00:13:11.109 I went and got golf balls from golf courses. 00:13:11.109 --> 00:13:14.465 But everybody else was looking for them in the bush and in the ditches. 00:13:14.465 --> 00:13:15.476 I'm like, screw that. 00:13:15.476 --> 00:13:18.175 They're all in the pond and nobody's going into the pond. 00:13:18.175 --> 00:13:20.349 So I would go into the ponds and crawl around 00:13:20.349 --> 00:13:21.872 and pick them up with my toes. 00:13:21.872 --> 00:13:23.710 You just pick them up with both feet. 00:13:23.710 --> 00:13:25.095 You can't do it on stage. 00:13:25.095 --> 00:13:28.409 You get the golf balls, you just throw them in your bathing suit trunks 00:13:28.409 --> 00:13:31.171 and when you're done you've got a couple hundred of them. 00:13:31.171 --> 00:13:34.223 But the problem is that people all didn't want all the golf balls. 00:13:34.223 --> 00:13:36.221 So I just packaged them. I'm like 12, right? 00:13:36.221 --> 00:13:37.613 I packaged them up three ways. 00:13:37.613 --> 00:13:40.593 I had the Pinnacles and DDHs and the really cool ones back then 00:13:40.593 --> 00:13:42.028 that sold for two dollars each. 00:13:42.028 --> 00:13:44.498 Then I had all the good ones that didn't look crappy. 00:13:44.498 --> 00:13:45.612 They were 50 cents each. 00:13:45.612 --> 00:13:48.119 And then I'd sell 50 at a time of all the crappy ones. 00:13:48.119 --> 00:13:50.005 They could use those for practice balls. 00:13:50.005 --> 00:13:51.467 I did that [at] a young age. 00:13:51.467 --> 00:13:53.440 I sold sunglasses, when I was in school, 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:55.033 to all the kids in high school. 00:13:55.033 --> 00:13:57.545 This is what really kind of gets everybody hating you 00:13:57.545 --> 00:14:01.157 because you're trying to extract money from all your friends all the time. 00:14:01.157 --> 00:14:02.445 But it paid the bills. 00:14:02.445 --> 00:14:04.624 So I sold lots and lots of sunglasses. 00:14:04.624 --> 00:14:06.404 Then when the school shut me down -- 00:14:06.404 --> 00:14:08.558 the school actually called me into the office 00:14:08.558 --> 00:14:11.358 and told me I couldn't do it, so I went to the gas stations 00:14:11.358 --> 00:14:13.442 and I sold lots of them to the gas stations 00:14:13.442 --> 00:14:16.050 and had the gas stations sell them to their customers. 00:14:16.050 --> 00:14:18.318 That was cool because then I had retail outlets. 00:14:18.318 --> 00:14:19.562 And I think I was 14. 00:14:19.562 --> 00:14:22.692 Then I paid my entire way through first year university at Carlton 00:14:22.692 --> 00:14:24.399 by selling wine skins door to door. 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:26.800 You know that you can hold a 40-ounce bottle of rum 00:14:26.800 --> 00:14:30.504 and two bottles of coke in a wineskin? So what, right? 00:14:30.518 --> 00:14:33.306 Yeah, but you know what? You stuff that down your shorts, 00:14:33.306 --> 00:14:36.273 when you go into a football game you can get booze in for free, 00:14:36.273 --> 00:14:37.540 everybody bought them. 00:14:37.540 --> 00:14:39.717 Supply, demand, big opportunity. 00:14:39.717 --> 00:14:42.802 I also branded it, so I sold them for five times the normal cost. 00:14:42.802 --> 00:14:44.722 It had our university logo on it. 00:14:44.722 --> 00:14:47.146 You know we teach our kids and we buy them games, 00:14:47.146 --> 00:14:50.269 but why don't we get them games, if they're entrepreneurial kids, 00:14:50.269 --> 00:14:53.365 that kind of nurture the traits that you need to be entrepreneurs? 00:14:53.365 --> 00:14:55.411 Why don't you teach them not to waste money? 00:14:55.411 --> 00:14:56.994 I remember being told to walk out 00:14:56.994 --> 00:14:59.059 in the middle of a street in Banff, Alberta 00:14:59.059 --> 00:15:02.025 because I'd thrown a penny out in the street, and my dad said, 00:15:02.025 --> 00:15:04.394 "Go pick it up. I work too damn hard for my money. 00:15:04.394 --> 00:15:06.558 I'm not going to see you ever waste a penny." 00:15:06.558 --> 00:15:08.213 I remember that lesson to this day. 00:15:08.213 --> 00:15:10.216 Allowances teach kids the wrong habits. 00:15:10.216 --> 00:15:12.183 Allowances, by nature, are teaching kids 00:15:12.183 --> 00:15:13.943 to think about a job. 00:15:14.150 --> 00:15:17.612 An entrepreneur doesn't expect a regular paycheck. 00:15:17.612 --> 00:15:19.562 Allowance is breeding kids at a young age 00:15:19.562 --> 00:15:21.048 to expect a regular paycheck. 00:15:21.048 --> 00:15:23.788 That's wrong, for me, if you want to raise entrepreneurs. 00:15:23.788 --> 00:15:26.416 What I do with my kids now, I've got two, nine and seven, 00:15:26.416 --> 00:15:28.936 is I teach them to walk around the house and the yard, 00:15:28.936 --> 00:15:32.450 looking for stuff that needs to get done, come to me and tell me what it is. 00:15:32.450 --> 00:15:34.557 Or I'll come to them and say what I need done. 00:15:34.557 --> 00:15:35.627 And then we negotiate. 00:15:35.627 --> 00:15:37.471 They go around looking for what it is. 00:15:37.471 --> 00:15:40.188 But then we negotiate on what they're going to get paid. 00:15:40.188 --> 00:15:42.010 Then they don't have a regular check, 00:15:42.010 --> 00:15:44.383 but they have more opportunities to find more stuff, 00:15:44.383 --> 00:15:47.927 and they learn the skill of negotiating, and finding opportunities as well. 00:15:47.927 --> 00:15:50.990 You breed that kind of stuff. Each of my kids has two piggy banks. 00:15:50.990 --> 00:15:53.278 50% of all the money that they earn or get gifted, 00:15:53.278 --> 00:15:56.235 50% goes in their house account, 50% goes in their toy account. 00:15:56.235 --> 00:15:59.305 Anything in their toy account they can spend on whatever they want. 00:15:59.305 --> 00:16:02.803 The 50 percent in their house account, every six months, goes to the bank. 00:16:02.803 --> 00:16:03.785 They walk up with me. 00:16:03.785 --> 00:16:06.569 Every year all the money in the bank goes to their broker. 00:16:06.569 --> 00:16:08.482 Both my kids have a stock broker already. 00:16:08.482 --> 00:16:10.839 But I'm teaching them to force that savings habit. 00:16:10.839 --> 00:16:13.077 It drives me crazy that 30-year-olds are saying, 00:16:13.077 --> 00:16:15.291 "Maybe I'll start contributing to my RSP now." 00:16:15.291 --> 00:16:17.442 Shit, you've missed 25 years. 00:16:17.442 --> 00:16:19.373 You can teach those habits to young kids 00:16:19.373 --> 00:16:21.298 when they don't even feel the pain yet. 00:16:21.298 --> 00:16:23.424 Don't read them bedtime stories every night. 00:16:23.424 --> 00:16:26.228 Maybe four nights out of the week read them bedtime stories 00:16:26.228 --> 00:16:28.684 and three nights of the week have them tell stories. 00:16:28.684 --> 00:16:31.425 Why don't you sit down with kids and give them four items, 00:16:31.425 --> 00:16:34.561 a red shirt, a blue tie, a kangaroo and a laptop, 00:16:34.561 --> 00:16:36.448 and have them tell a story about them? 00:16:36.448 --> 00:16:37.908 My kids do that all the time. 00:16:37.908 --> 00:16:40.254 It teaches them to sell; it teaches them creativity; 00:16:40.254 --> 00:16:42.130 it teaches them to think on their feet. 00:16:42.130 --> 00:16:44.363 Just do that kind of stuff and have fun with it. 00:16:44.363 --> 00:16:46.705 Get kids to stand up in front of groups and talk, 00:16:46.705 --> 00:16:48.754 even if it's just in front of their friends 00:16:48.754 --> 00:16:50.253 and do plays and have speeches. 00:16:50.253 --> 00:16:53.203 Those are entrepreneurial traits that you want to be nurturing. 00:16:53.203 --> 00:16:56.067 Show the kids what bad customers or bad employees look like. 00:16:56.067 --> 00:16:57.657 Show them the grumpy employees. 00:16:57.657 --> 00:17:00.589 When you see grumpy customer service, point that out to them. 00:17:00.589 --> 00:17:02.823 Say, "By the way, that guy's a crappy employee." 00:17:02.823 --> 00:17:04.979 And say, "These ones are good ones." 00:17:04.979 --> 00:17:05.882 (Laughter) 00:17:05.882 --> 00:17:08.858 If you go into a restaurant and you have bad customer service, 00:17:08.858 --> 00:17:11.495 show them what bad customer service looks like. 00:17:11.495 --> 00:17:12.802 (Laughter) 00:17:14.232 --> 00:17:16.230 We have all these lessons in front of us, 00:17:16.230 --> 00:17:19.895 but we don't take those opportunities; we teach kids to go get a tutor. 00:17:19.895 --> 00:17:22.208 Imagine if you actually took 00:17:22.208 --> 00:17:24.909 all the kids' junk that's in the house right now, 00:17:24.909 --> 00:17:27.483 all the toys that they've outgrown two years ago 00:17:27.483 --> 00:17:31.055 and said, "Why don't we start selling some of this on Craigslist and Kijiji?" 00:17:31.055 --> 00:17:32.408 And they can actually sell it 00:17:32.408 --> 00:17:35.467 and learn how to find scammers when they get email offers come in. 00:17:35.467 --> 00:17:38.348 They can come into your account or a sub account or whatever. 00:17:38.348 --> 00:17:42.035 But teach them how to fix the price, guess the price, pull up the photos. 00:17:42.035 --> 00:17:44.632 Teach them how to do that kind of stuff and make money. 00:17:44.632 --> 00:17:47.326 Then the money they get, 50% goes in their house account, 00:17:47.326 --> 00:17:48.755 50% goes in their toy account. 00:17:48.755 --> 00:17:49.993 My kids love this stuff. 00:17:49.993 --> 00:17:53.280 Some of the entrepreneurial traits that you've got to nurture in kids: 00:17:53.280 --> 00:17:56.832 attainment, tenacity, leadership, introspection, interdependence, values. 00:17:56.832 --> 00:17:58.918 All these traits you can find in young kids, 00:17:58.918 --> 00:18:00.393 and you can help nurture them. 00:18:00.393 --> 00:18:01.796 Look for that kind of stuff. 00:18:01.796 --> 00:18:04.382 There's two traits that I want you to also look out for 00:18:04.382 --> 00:18:06.557 that we don't kind of get out of their system. 00:18:06.557 --> 00:18:08.911 Don't medicate kids for attention deficit disorder 00:18:08.911 --> 00:18:11.011 unless it is really, really freaking bad. 00:18:11.011 --> 00:18:13.115 (Applause) 00:18:13.814 --> 00:18:17.890 The same with the whole things on mania and stress and depression, 00:18:17.890 --> 00:18:20.354 unless it is so clinically brutal, man. 00:18:20.354 --> 00:18:22.828 Bipolar disorder is nicknamed the CEO disease. 00:18:22.828 --> 00:18:24.993 When Steve Jurvetson and Jim Clark 00:18:24.993 --> 00:18:27.263 and Jim Barksdale have all got it, 00:18:27.263 --> 00:18:29.056 and they built Netscape -- 00:18:29.056 --> 00:18:30.744 imagine if they were given Ritalin. 00:18:30.744 --> 00:18:32.720 We wouldn't have have that stuff, right? 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:35.906 Al Gore really would have really had to have invented the Internet. 00:18:35.906 --> 00:18:37.277 (Laughter) 00:18:37.277 --> 00:18:41.809 These skills are the skills we should be teaching in the classroom 00:18:41.809 --> 00:18:43.144 as well as everything else. 00:18:43.144 --> 00:18:45.706 I'm not saying don't get kids to want to be lawyers. 00:18:45.706 --> 00:18:47.582 But how about getting entrepreneurship 00:18:47.582 --> 00:18:50.372 to be ranked right up there with the rest of them as well? 00:18:50.372 --> 00:18:52.382 Because there's huge opportunities in that. 00:18:52.382 --> 00:18:54.351 I want to close with a quick little video. 00:18:54.351 --> 00:18:57.411 It's 2 minutes and 10 seconds, I'm going to go 30 seconds over, 00:18:57.411 --> 00:18:59.300 I apologize, but I'm doing it anyway. 00:18:59.300 --> 00:19:02.353 It's v video that was done by one of the companies that I mentor. 00:19:02.353 --> 00:19:03.545 These guys, Grasshopper. 00:19:03.545 --> 00:19:05.994 It's about kids. It's about entrepreneurship. 00:19:05.994 --> 00:19:08.803 Hopefully this inspires you to take what you've heard from me 00:19:08.803 --> 00:19:11.825 and do something with it to change the world. 00:19:12.910 --> 00:19:15.518 [Do you remember when you were a...] 00:19:16.099 --> 00:19:19.063 [Kid... And you thought you could do anything?] 00:19:19.063 --> 00:19:21.179 [You still can.] 00:19:21.179 --> 00:19:24.218 [Because a lot of what we consider impossible ...] 00:19:24.218 --> 00:19:26.722 [... is easy to overcome] 00:19:26.722 --> 00:19:29.831 [Because in case you haven't noticed, we live in a place where] 00:19:29.831 --> 00:19:32.116 [One individual can make a difference] 00:19:32.116 --> 00:19:33.308 [Want proof?] 00:19:33.308 --> 00:19:35.580 [Just look at the people who built our country;] 00:19:35.580 --> 00:19:38.002 [Our parents, grandparents, our aunts, uncles ...] 00:19:38.002 --> 00:19:40.750 [They were immigrants, newcomers ready to make their mark] 00:19:40.750 --> 00:19:43.663 [Maybe they came with very little] 00:19:43.663 --> 00:19:46.182 [Or perhaps they didn't own anything except for ...] 00:19:46.182 --> 00:19:48.471 [... a single brilliant idea] 00:19:49.091 --> 00:19:51.476 [These people were thinkers, doers ...] 00:19:51.476 --> 00:19:53.643 [... innovators ...] 00:19:54.479 --> 00:19:57.380 [... until they came up with the name ...] 00:19:58.282 --> 00:20:00.604 [... entrepreneurs!] 00:20:01.381 --> 00:20:04.306 [They change the way we think about what is possible.] 00:20:04.306 --> 00:20:06.946 [They have a clear vision of how life can be better] 00:20:06.946 --> 00:20:08.978 [for all of us, even when times are tough.] 00:20:08.978 --> 00:20:10.991 [Right now, it's hard to see ...] 00:20:10.991 --> 00:20:13.599 [... when our view is cluttered with obstacles.] 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:16.665 [But turbulence creates opportunities] 00:20:17.190 --> 00:20:20.255 [for success, achievement, and pushes us ...] 00:20:20.255 --> 00:20:22.883 [to discover new ways of doing things] 00:20:22.883 --> 00:20:25.893 [So what opportunities will you go after and why?] 00:20:25.893 --> 00:20:28.319 [If you're an entrepreneur] 00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:31.147 [you know that risk isn't the reward.] 00:20:31.147 --> 00:20:34.073 [No. The rewards are driving innovation ...] 00:20:34.073 --> 00:20:36.328 [... changing people's lives. Creating jobs.] 00:20:36.350 --> 00:20:38.441 [Fueling growth.] 00:20:38.441 --> 00:20:41.884 [And making a better world.] 00:20:41.884 --> 00:20:43.350 [Entrepreneurs are everywhere.] 00:20:43.350 --> 00:20:45.875 [They run small businesses that support our economy,] 00:20:45.875 --> 00:20:47.692 [design tools to help you ...] 00:20:47.692 --> 00:20:51.215 [... stay connected with friends, family and colleagues around the world.] 00:20:51.215 --> 00:20:52.780 [And they're finding new ways] 00:20:52.780 --> 00:20:55.115 [of helping to solve society's oldest problems.] 00:20:55.115 --> 00:20:56.640 [Do you know an entrepreneur?] 00:20:56.640 --> 00:20:58.648 [Entrepreneurs can be anyone. Even ... you! 00:20:58.648 --> 00:21:01.553 [So seize the opportunity to create the job you always wanted] 00:21:01.553 --> 00:21:02.829 [Help heal the economy] 00:21:02.829 --> 00:21:04.559 [Make a difference.] 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:06.310 [Take your business to new heights.] 00:21:06.310 --> 00:21:07.460 [But most importantly,] 00:21:07.460 --> 00:21:10.691 [remember when you were a kid ...] 00:21:10.691 --> 00:21:13.650 [when everything was within you reach,] 00:21:13.650 --> 00:21:17.763 [and then say to yourself quietly, but with determination:] 00:21:19.472 --> 00:21:21.363 ["It still is."] 00:21:21.363 --> 00:21:23.042 Thank you very much for having me. 00:21:23.042 --> 00:21:24.899 (Applause)