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This story will impress your kids… it certainly impressed ours!

…and there is a little lesson in it for them.

It will demonstrate that it is not necessarily what you learn at school that brings you success, but perhaps having a little attitude is the magic ingredient!

Last week my friend Gary and I attended an unusual business event in Freo call Entrepreneur X Factor. We really didn’t know what to expect. On arriving it was immediately apparent that there was tremendous energy in the room. People were super friendly and engaging. Successful entrepreneurs, Mike Handcock and Dave Rogers ran the show along with multi millionaire guest speakers.

Why was the event so unusual?

 

There were two parts to it. The first sessions were all about Quantum Business (which is definitely not your normal run of the mill business focus) and the after lunch session was an exciting competition with participants getting up in front and publicly spruiking their business idea or concept. The audience judged the event. Budding entrepreneurs, seeking big business to support them, were scored on their one minute presentations. The competition was similar to the TV show “The Lion’s Den”. Investors were in the room looking to partner with the winner and help them grow their idea. It was all very exciting and a little tense during the competition. The winner was a guy called Dr Joe.

 

I’d love to share more about the excitement of the Entrepreneur X Factor competition and I’d love to share with you the insights about Quantum Business, but my purpose of this blog post is to share a story that will impress your kids!

So here goes…

There was this tattooed guy in the room dressed in a checked shirt and jeans. He had a goaty and shaven head, wore a black choker necklace and earrings.

He was a self proclaimed bogan who loved hotted up cars.

This odd looking character was introduced as Justin Herald. I had heard of the name before, but wasn’t able to pin point where I had heard it.

Justin was one of the guest speakers and he came to the front to share his experience and hopefully offer some valued advice to us all. Justin told us his story of how he built a multimillion dollar business from literally nothing!

There were no airs or graces about Justin. He was an everyday bloke who really didn’t care what people thought of him. He spoke his mind, he definitely had charisma and he had real attitude!

His Dad was a church minister and Justin grew up within a church community. It was in a church that his first business evolved.

During one particular church service he was spoken to by an elderly lady who pointed out to Justin that he had an attitude problem and that he should mind his manners.

Justin Herald didnt take well to people “ticking him off” especially about his attitude and especially when he was 25 years old! This telling off ignited an idea!

Justin had only $1.25 in the bank and he needed some cash to put his idea into action. So he asked his brother for $50. He then bought some cheap shirts, took them down the printer shop and had them print “Attitude” slogans on them.

He enlisted the support of his brother and mates. Each of them put on one of the freshly printed shirts and they all attended the Sunday service at the church making, sure that they all stood in full view of the opinionated lady.

She was not happy when she saw the blatant prank Justin had pulled. The shirts had served their purpose very well and Justin was delighted!

After the service a number of people took an interest in the lads’ “Attitude” shirts. In fact some people inquired about buying a shirt from Justin. This was unexpected, but Justin thought it would be worth a few dollars, so he used the money he had from selling the first six shirts to his mates and organised for a bunch more to be printed with “Attitude” slogans.

Word got out and his little business began to emerge.

He decided to try selling his shirts at the Sydney Markets. He’d never done this before and had no idea how it would go. So he asked one of his mates if he’d lend a hand. His mate said “No”. So Justin asked if he’d lend a hand for one hundred bucks, and his mate said “I’d love to help!”

They arrived at the markets and were allocated a table. So he tipped his box of shirts onto the table all jumbled up. The shirts were a novelty and people were interested.

To his complete surprise he sold out in the first two hours.

His excitement and business grew from there. He printed more and more shirts and was selling $10 000 worth of shirts every weekend at the markets. Next he tried retail stores. The owners moved him on because they had never heard of “Attitude” branded shirts. They also said that their customers were not asking for “Attitude” shirts.

Justin had an idea. He asked his mates to call all the retail stores in the area to ask if they had “Attitude” shirts in stock. He gave it a few weeks and then paid a visit to these same stores with a sample of his shirts. They were so pleased to see Justin and couldn’t wait to get his shirts up on display saying

“You wouldn’t believe the number of calls we’ve had with people inquiring about Attitude shirts”.

“Oh really?!” 

Justin Herald’s business continued to grow with the introduction of other lines of clothing. He received an invite to be interviewed on The Morning Show. So he rocked up and told his story. He claims that literally within thirty minutes after the interview the phone rang hot with retail stores placing orders for his shirts. Justin said that he never needed to advertise his product as he was regularly being interviewed by TV, business magazines and the newspaper. He always made for a great story as he didn’t look like the regular businessman. Justin has a real sense of humour and loves to rib the people around him. He admits that he has lots of attitude himself, and believes that is why his brand works. Justin is very easy to talk to and he also says that the secret to a successful business is connecting with people.

The Deal.

This chapter in Justin Herald’s story draws to an end when a very large company approached him to do a deal. He was called to a board meeting. Justin rocks up as he does in his jeans and checked shirt to confront the line of suited lawyers and business leaders in this company. Firstly the formalities, then eventually they passed over the official offer for him to look at.

Justin read the dollar number on the page in disbelief. He asked the lawyers if the comma was actually a comma or was it a dot. They said it was a comma. He then said, “Do I get a TV with that?”

They looked at one another and said “Of course!”

So he took the deal which was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He also took the TV from their wall. They wanted to get him a new one, but he said simply that then he would have to try and rip the box and packaging apart to get it into his recycling bin, and that he didn’t want to muck around with doing that.

So from having only $1.25 in his bank at the age of 25, Justin Herald grew his business in a relatively short time to be sold for hundreds of millions of dollars!

Today Justin Herald has his fingers in different pies. He has just launched “Intimidate Industries” which is his new Sunglass brand which already is a highly sought after brand before it even hits the stores. He also owns numerous other highly successful businesses.

Justin left us with four excellent “Ahahs!”…

•    You need a “switch” to give you the purpose, focus and drive required to start a business. His was the opinionated lady at church. Justin is very grateful for her.
•    He quotes his favourite word “Next!” Justin explains that you will be faced with a multitude of barriers, setbacks and naysayers as you try to move ahead with your business. He just says “next” and moves on. Many people would fall back to their comfort zone and give up, but not Justin.
•    Networking. He says it is the way you relate to your customers. Word of mouth brings you greater business.
•    Lastly for his biggest tip…. “Give it a Crack!”

After the presentation Gary and I had the privilege of chatting to Justin Herald one on one. We found him to be a genuine nice bloke. He told us that his mates today are the same bunch of blokes he hung out with when he was twenty. He never made the grades at school and his “attitude” had him in a lot of trouble during those years. However, it was his attitude that has made him what he is today.

Let’s hope that Justin Herald’s success story inspires your kids like it did mine. Your kids don’t have to have all the “credential” that school expects for them to be successful…  

(read our last article on Green School and their philosophy on education)

Here is the blurb about Justin from his website…

Justin Herald has fast become one of the rising stars in the fields of business and personal development. At the age of 25 with only $50 to his name, Justin Herald set about changing the course of his life. Justin created Attitude Inc, a clothing brand that became an international licensing success that turned over in excess of $20 million per year.

Justin’s success was so well noted that he was named the “INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR” for 2005.

He recently was also awarded the Future Leaders Award, which recognises him as being one of the 50 most influential leaders of the next generation in Australia.

He has had his own column in numerous magazines and in papers nationally in Australia and overseas. His articles have a weekly readership of over 5.5 Million people. He also is the author of 8 international best selling books.

Justin Herald is regarded as one of Australia’s most sought after speakers with engagements book all over the country and overseas speaking in front of 150,000 people each year.

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