S1:E7 – Thoughts on Entrepreneurship with Kevin Harrington
Show Notes:
James Mayo:
Welcome back to The Most Hydrated Podcast. I’m James, your Chief Hydration Officer, and you’re joining me for my drink-sized chat on various topics. Today, I’m joined by the original Shark, SOS investor, mentor Kevin Harrington. Kevin, welcome.
Kevin Harrington:
James, thank you. Great to be here.
JM:
Greatly appreciated you sharing your adventures and journeys. The format, in case people haven’t listened in, is ten questions in ten minutes. What do you wish everyone understood about the world of entrepreneurialism?
KH:
So many people say, “Oh, I’d want to start my own business; I want to be my own boss”. They don’t understand the amount of hours it takes. I know people that wanted to open their own bar. Well, you’re open from lunch, sometimes closing at 2:30 in the morning. That can be a fourteen, sixteen-hour day. It’s hard work. You need to raise capital, you need to be prepared to work, you need to get good people around you, so if you’re going to be an entrepreneur be prepared for a tough road.
JM:
And, many people say more no’s than they do yes’s.
KH:
Absolutely. Over the years getting the door slammed… that’s all part of the process. I know people that go out to raise money, they get turned down. I’ve talked to people that’ve been turned down dozens of times before they got a yes. You have to be relentless in your pursuit of capital.
JM:
Thank goodness both you and I have small noses, because that door slamming in your face hurts.
KH:
Exactly.
JM:
Do you think staying hydrated is important to an entrepreneur’s overall performance?
KH:
Absolutely. I’ve been a healthy person for the last fifteen years of my life at least. I decided when I hit fifty years old that I want to live a long time. My father, when he was ninety, said, “if id have known I was going to live this long, I would have started taking care of myself a lot better, a lot sooner.” And I said, “well Dad, thanks for telling me”– because I was about fifty and I said “now’s my time.” So, getting the right nutrition and hydration is so important, it’s funny. I should know, but last week I woke up in the morning and I had a headache. My wife said, “are you hydrated?” She said “go drink some water, get hydrated — well, hey, we have SOS, too.” The bottom line is — after a couple shots of water and some SOS, that headache was gone. If you wake up feeling bad, what is that going to do to your day, your motivation, your interviews? You want to keep energized and healthy, and being hydrated is important to your cells operating at a high efficiency and feeling good.
JM:
I agree, and most people aim for the coffee. I’m trying to educate people that “definitely take your coffee or your double mocha Frappuccino but reach for an SOS first because that’ll set you up.” So, how do you stay healthy? I heard you’re pretty good with an iron or a wood.
KH:
I get up early, I work out, generally—I’m not a gym rat. But I like to run the neighborhood. I do quite a bit of things to stay in shape including golfing—love golfing. By the way, I have a couple country clubs. My favorite one is the one that you have to walk. There’s no carts. You get a caddy, they carry your bag, but you’re walking seven, eight miles on a good day. I live in Florida. We get sunshine 345 days a year, so I like walking, running, boating, biking, golf, all these great things. It keeps that blood flowing, and that’s important. And I eat right, too.
JM:
Next time I see you I’ll take you for a run if you take me for a game of golf, because I’m brilliant on a dog leg to the left, but anything on the right I’m a disaster.
KH:
Ok. You got a deal.
JM:
In your entrepreneurial journey, what surprised you the most?
KH:
Many people give up too early. It’s because maybe they didn’t have the passion in the beginning, but I’ve seen so many people that it’s like “Oh, I had this idea a few years ago, and somebody just came out with what I came up with five years ago”. I’m like “what are you saying to me? Are you trying to impress me that you thought of it before these people did? You’re not impressing me because you didn’t take action. The fact that you had the idea and now somebody else five years later is making a fortune on it, you should be upset with yourself and not proud.” This is part of the problem. People want to take the easy way. It’s a grind and you need to make it happen. Too many people quit, they bow out early. I have a saying that I followed: Winston Churchill said, “success is being able to deal with failure after failure without the loss of enthusiasm.”
JM:
How do entrepreneurs change the world? I’m mean, you’re one of them that’s moved the needle. How do they change the world?
KH:
We see it right now after the pandemic. There’s more jobs out there than people are willing to apply for. At the end of the day, there’s major innovation from the entrepreneurial community. Think about a guy like Elon Musk—Tesla, electric cars—this is changing the world. This is innovation. One of the biggest things I do is assemble a dream team around myself, and, James, a lot of this is your vision, too as you’re launching and growing SOS. You want to have the right people around you and empower them to greatness and success, and to help build your vision. Get them focused on your vision, empower them, and have a solid plan that everybody can join together and execute.
JM:
That’s true. It’s also fortunate to have people like yourself giving me advice because there’s so many looming potholes that we can fall in that if I can fall in one less pothole on my journey that’s a better opportunity for success. Do you have a secret talent?
KH:
Every time I meet somebody, I try to identify their strongest suits. What is their strength? Because like me I’m not a great finance guy, I’m not a great operations guy. I’m a marketing, sales-oriented person. When I meet people they may have certain things, but they can’t do this and this, but in today’s world we look for experts and specialists, so I like to find the greatest strength and then empower the people to go build from that strength. One other thing I would say is that I have the ability when I look at a business on the front end I can run through the cycles of executing, and I can visualize almost in a movie fashion in my head where the company goes, some of the problems it’s running into, and these are the reasons why I’m adjusting as I go. Because I’ve been down so many paths with hundreds of businesses, I’ve seen so many things happen that I like to play that movie out in my head when I’m watching a startup from the beginning, and this gives me the ability to bring the right people in to prevent some of the problems from happening.
JM:
What’s the toughest aspect of being an entrepreneur?
KH:
The buck stops with you. If you’re running the company and something happens, a lot of times you want to put blame on other people. I had a woman that was in my accounting department. Her job was to issue credits to people that returned the product. We found out she was issuing returns and credits to all her friends and relatives that had never bought anything. She was a bad person, but why did this happen? Because I didn’t have the proper controls in that accounting department and allowed her to do that. That was my problem and that’s one of the toughest aspects of being an entrepreneur. It all comes back to you.
JM:
SOS Hydration—what’s your opinion?
KH:
I love it. That’s why I’m involved. You know that. It’s in my golf bag when I golf. I’ve been in the beverage business, and I’ve had some success in the energy side of the business. Hydration is a big problem not just for entrepreneurs, but families, mothers, children, it’s across all spectrums, and as a golfer here in Florida, we get 345 days of sunshine, and it’s going to be 89 degrees today. I won’t be on the golf course, but if I was I’d have my SOS with me.
JM:
What’s your favorite hydration hack for entrepreneurs and business owners?
KH:
It’s SOS. Get the best thing you can get to protect and cover yourself. I live in St. Pete, but tomorrow I’m flying to Columbus, Ohio to play at Muirfield Village at Jack Nicholson’s course. This is a bucket list thing. I play better when I’m hydrated versus not. I’ve tracked myself after a few nine holes and that headache is going again, hydrate, and boom! It relaxes the feeling on the golf course. It makes you feel better. That’s my hack. I want to thank you for getting me involved with the company, James, it’s a solid future.
JM:
Thank you very much. Kevin, we’re out of questions. Everybody, thank you for listening.