If you’re not familiar with the life and achievements of Randy Haykin, I recommend you watch this interview with Randy:
How did being a lifelong learner benefit Randy Haykin’s career?
All of the positions Randy held with Apple, Paramount and his own venture, Interactive Minds, required him to innovate. At Apple and at Paramount he was innovating with technology. In his own business, he had to innovate to build the business from the ground up.
Being innovative requires that you have an open mind, and are willing to learn new things.
Because Randy Haykin was willing to do this, it made him valuable to the organizations he worked for. So much so, that he was promoted to senior positions and offered great salaries.
He also earned the respect of his peers and was able to build a network that benefited him when he started his own venture.
It also made him attractive to other entrepreneurs, such as Carl Nichols, who eventually left a $200,000+ job to join him as a partner in the still young Interactive Minds.
I have also found that my willingness to be a learner and to take action has given me opportunities. Both in 2014 and in 2019 I was approached by friends to join them as partners in their business. In my own agency, it has allowed me to excel in results for my clients, beyond what my competitors offer.
There are many times I do work for clients who have been with other agencies previously, and we get them much better results.
What was Randy Haykin’s “toughest hurdle” as a business leader?
This was when he had to inform a team of 15 people, who had put their heart and soul into a project for 12 months that they believed in, that the business had been sold and would close down.
I could imagine why it would have been so tough to do that. It’s not nice to have to tell someone that they don’t have a job anymore. Especially when it is a group of 15, and you’ve worked together hard on a project for a year.
I could understand how he would feel like a failure and that he had let them all down. However, as he pointed out, for every 10 startups, 2 will be total failures. Even so, it still was hard to deal with.
Why do the risks of entrepreneurship seem worth it (or not worth it) to you?
For me, the risks of entrepreneurship are worth it, without a doubt!
I have lived both lives; the life of an employee, and the life of an entrepreneur. The life of an entrepreneur is by the far the best, and I encourage my children to do the same.
One of the reasons it is worth it is because of the type of person you are forced to become as an entrepreneur. To be successful as an entrepreneur you have to learn to lead others, to be confident in speaking with potential clients, to be disciplined in getting the work done, in learning how to find the balance of not being greedy but also not giving away your services for too little.
You are forced to learn things, and to become someone of value.
Another reason is that entrepreneurship is the ultimate for accountability.
As a business owner you determine if you and your team are getting paid. If things don’t go well in the business, no one is going to just give you a wage anyway. But it goes both ways; there is also no limit to how much money you can earn.
The main reason entrepreneurship is so valuable to me is the freedom it gives me with my time and movement.
I can take time off whenever I like.
And because our digital marketing agency is an online-based, we can work from anywhere in the world. In fact, we just sold our home and are moving 4 hours away… with no impact on our agency.
Also, we have structured our agency so all our clients pay us on a monthly basis, on autopilot. This means we have a guaranteed, predictable cash-flow.