An Interview with ‘The Apprentice’ Bill Rancic: Leading your business without fear of making mistakes
By Janie Pritchett-Clark
“I think entrepreneurs are raised,” says Bill Rancic, the first winner of Donald Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice.” We’re sitting in the boardroom at the John Q. Hammons during the NWA Business Conference. In a couple of hours he’ll share his views on being an entrepreneur and leading a business idea to greatness.
For now he’s candid about the next generation of entrepreneurs.
“I think we are loosing a whole generation of entrepreneurs because of the way parents are raising their kids,” he says. “I’m seeing it in the big cities. The day these kids are born their parents put them on a waiting list to get into the right preschool, then the best grade school, and the right high school so they can get into an Ivy League college. Their lives are so scripted, so managed that they’re not taught about making mistakes and recovering from failures along the way.”
Instead, he says, our kids are taught that everything has to be propped up and perfect.
“When they get in the real world they can’t cope. Kids are afraid to try new things because they are afraid of failure. Their parents are afraid of them failing. But they have to fail sometimes. That’s the only way they are going to get ahead. It’s the only way they are going try to new things.”
Entrepreneurs are risk takers, Rancic believes. Later he’ll recount the traits he has observed – good and bad – in the entrepreneurs he has met along the road of his own success, which may have started with blueberry pancakes at his grandmother’s house at the tender age of 10.
“I was lucky because it was okay to make mistakes, it was okay to have failures. But it wasn’t okay not to try things,” he says of his home life. His parents were both schoolteachers. “Every failure had a lesson.”
Rancic credits the book, “Millionaire Next Door” by William Danko and Thomas Stanley as one his early lessons. It was a book his father gave him and a book he recommends every young person read.
“It really changed the way I perceive money and the way I spent money. It helped me understand how to amass wealth. It taught me about not wasting money. You don’t need to make a million dollars to become a millionaire. Slow and steady wins the race.”
Another experience that changed Rancic’s life was a boat wash and wax business he started in college with a buddy.
“All the jobs were paying minimum wage and I knew I was worth a lot more than minimum wage. Although I did make a lot of money doing the business, the lesson I learned was far more valuable, because it enabled me to meet all these wealthy people.
“Growing up my parents associated with other school teachers. That’s who they hung out with and those were the adults that I knew,” he explains. “I never knew successful entrepreneurs and successful businessmen.
“I got to know these guys, I got to befriend them because they trusted me with their $700,000-$800,000 babies (yachts). I got to meet these wealthy people and get to know them up close and personal.
“I thought, ‘if this guy can do it, I can do it.’ It gave me an incredible amount of confidence to start a business right out of college.”
It’s not that aligning yourself with wealth and power is the essential ingredient, he explains. “But you don’t ask a poor man how to get rich. It doesn’t make sense.”
Rancic started a Cigar of the Month Club in a tiny Chicago apartment not long after graduating college. “It was a good market, a product on the upswing. A little bit of luck and a lot of hard work,” he recalls. “Everyone laughed at my idea. They said, ‘you’re insane’ and I didn’t listen to them.’
Part of Rancic’s message to audiences is the startup of his cigar club business and the creativity he used to draw attention to the pioneering concept. He packaged cigars and “nerdy” glasses with a message sent to radio and TV producers asking for airtime.
“I knew I had to get the word out and I had to overcome a lot of hurdles. I had no money. I didn’t take a paycheck, I didn’t have a security net.” Rancic recalls. “Failure was not an option.”
So how do you recognize a great entrepreneurial idea? Especially when others are knocking you down?
“Each entrepreneur has to look at the business idea and trust their gut instincts.” People aren’t always going to give you good advice or support your enthusiasm, he says. “Trust your gut instincts. Don’t accept failure as an option. Give it everything you have and be willing to sacrifice.”
Recognize, too, he suggests, that the end game is not always creating a big company.
“Right now I’m a solo-preneur. I keep things real lean. I’m not into show.”
Taking a small business to the next step should be done strategically. “You never want to make a career-ending injury-- like a football player who blows out his knee. When you are an entrepreneur and you take on too much debt or grow too soon it can end your career. You don’t want to miss an opportunity. You have to find the balance. It’s a fine line.”
To be a leader, an entrepreneur, you have to be the orchestra conductor.
“The conductor himself is not an expert at playing each and every one of those instruments, but he gets them to play in harmony with each other. As an entrepreneur, you have different experts doing things for your organization and your team.”
Winning the role as the first ever Apprentice hasn’t hurt his success, for certain. But it’s easy to conclude that Bill Rancic was destined for success in life no matter where the road took him.
“Success is a funny word,” he says. “I often wonder why some people are successful in this world and others not. For me, it comes down to one word: Fear.
“When we are born into this world we have two natural fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Every other fear is learned.
“Do what you are afraid to do and success will follow.”
