Since the age of 12, Brian Cook has been an entrepreneur and has had a variety of businesses. From construction companies to prepared foods, Brian has done it all. But he didn’t realize until college that he was a serial entrepreneur. Serial entrepreneurs start business after business, sometimes with the intent of selling off.
One thing any entrepreneur can tell you is that if you’re not in business to help people, you’re in the wrong business, regardless of how many businesses you have. That may be why Brian has often associated his need to start businesses with a disease because he has an incredible urge to solve problems through the businesses he creates. So, I interviewed him for my podcast.
Fueling Passion Even Through Setbacks
Brian has a motto: If you can do what you love, that’s the ticket. Health and fitness have always been a passion for Brian, and he has used that passion to not just drive his business but to help other entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Passion plus failure is a model he uses to keep pushing. So for those of you who have failed and quit, take a lesson here because this model has been working pretty well for Brian.
Brian realized early in his entrepreneurial journey that every six to seven years he would have a setback. That caused him to be analytical and, as a result, he created a framework to use in future businesses. Brian admits the idea of StretchMed was not a new thing on the market when he created it, he just learned a way to do it better. He encourages all entrepreneurs he works with to not be concerned with what’s already out there but to figure out a way to do what’s already being done — better.
Brian says that our bodies weren’t designed to be idle all day. And while other solutions have existed to remedy this problem over the years — physical therapy, chiropractic care, massage therapy—none of these solutions stretched every joint in the body the way it was supposed to move. When he invented StretchMed, it took stretching to another level, encompassing 36 stretches from head to toe in 50 minutes. This is something that had never been done.
Developing Others: The Real Key To Success
Although Brian came across many challenges throughout his early years in business, he never let them keep him down, nor did he quit. He learned to overcome them and then fell into franchising. As a franchisor of 22 years, Brian now has a business that teaches other entrepreneurs how to franchise their businesses. Brian said that even with all his great ideas and systems, they’re worthless without people.
“Wealth creation is a direct correlation of your ability to develop people.” Brian Cook
He goes on to say that our limitation is people. It’s about growing the right people. He incorporates what he calls the Principle of the 4C’s into his business strategy which helps in developing the individual, which in turn helps in putting their business on a different level. Learn about the 4Cs and other things about business that you didn’t learn in school in this discussion with Brian.
Listen to the full episode of my discussion with Brian Cook. Don’t just listen and keep on with your life but take the time to really listen to discern your next steps to fulfill your purpose.