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Today, we speak with self-made Billionaire, Founder of $30B market cap, Paychex. You’re gonna love this guy! He has a new book: Built, Not Born: A Self-Made Billionaire’s No-Nonsense Guide for Entrepreneurs.

We dig into the book and his insights on why and when you start a company. He also talks about how to build a long-term, successful business and what important steps to take before marriage.

Encourager of Entrepreneurs

Tom found himself as an encourager of entrepreneurs. He understood why people evaluate whether they want to become an entrepreneur or not. He knew that there are a lot of things to take into account, such as risk and hardships exclusive to entrepreneurship. 

As risks would be evident in any career, Tom shares that sometimes it is even riskier to work for somebody than it is to be your own entrepreneur. Besides, a business can serve as an heirloom or an asset that one can resell.

“If your business concept is well thought off, and you are very well qualified to run your little company, your medium-sized company, whatever. then I think that’s the best of both worlds.” – Tom Golisano

Wise Words For Entrepreneurs

Aside from a winning concept for an enterprise, Tom shares entrepreneurs must have industry knowledge. Before launching Paychex, he used to sell accounting machines while working for a payroll processing company that caters to large corporations. He believes this industry knowledge affected his success.

“Anybody who is considering being an entrepreneur, the first thing that I would ask is ‘what’s your industry knowledge?’ You know about this industry, you’re getting into that you could absolutely make a difference or are you gonna end up getting a very serious or costly education because you got into something you really did understand?” – Tom Golisano

Sales Management is a Must

For Tom, Sales management is one of the biggest issues with entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs mask the issue, saying its a “cashflow problem” but in reality, the company is not making enough sales.

Tom advises entrepreneurs to start making calls and to immerse themselves as much to learn about the sales process. 

“You’re not gonna be able to develop a good sales team unless you have that knowledge yourself. You might as well dig right into it. start making sales presentations and sales calls, and if you still don’t think you’re the right person to be doing that, at least you’ll be in the position to train somebody you hire to perform that function.” – Tom Golisano

To hear more about Tom’s stories about what it’s like being married to Tennis Legend, Monica Seles, philanthropy, investment strategy and many more, download and listen to this episode. 

Bio: 

Thomas Golisano — entrepreneur, philanthropist, and civic leader — is the founder and chairman of the Board of Paychex, Inc., headquartered in Rochester, New York.

With more than 12,000 employees and 100 office locations nationwide, Paychex is a leading national provider of payroll, human resource, and benefit outsourcing solutions for more than a half-million small and medium-sized businesses.

Tom Golisano served as Paychex’s president and chief executive officer from 1971, when he founded the company, until October 2004.

Mr. Golisano and Paychex have consistently been recognized by the business, financial and national media.

Mr. Golisano was listed among the FORBES top 10 bosses in the U.S. for three consecutive years, beginning in 2002; the annual ranking is based on chief executives who provide the best balance between their compensation and shareholder return.

In February 2020, his first book, Built, Not Born was launched, providing Tom Golisano’s trademark direct and often humorous style, and no-nonsense advice across all phases of business ownership.

Mr. Golisano has demonstrated an ongoing dedication and commitment to a variety of civic issues and organizations. In 1985 he launched his first philanthropic endeavor by establishing the Golisano Foundation, which awards grants to organizations providing opportunities for those with intellectual disabilities.

His philanthropic contributions, both personal and through the Golisano Foundation, have totaled approximately $300 million helping hospitals, educational institutions and many other organizations.

In recognition of his achievements and endeavors, Golisano has received numerous awards and holds honorary doctorate degrees from five different colleges and universities.

Mr. Golisano is a member of the board of directors of several private companies and institutions.

He is the former owner the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League, which he purchased on March 14, 2003, demonstrating his commitment to Western New York and the region’s economic climate.

Mr. Golisano said that it was important to keep the team in Buffalo because it is an economic and community asset.

Mr. Golisano sold the team in 2011 with the stipulation that the team remain in Western NY.

Born in Irondequoit, New York, Mr. Golisano graduated from Alfred State College in 1962 with a degree in general business management.

He was presented an honorary doctorate of humane letters, at his alma mater’s commencement ceremony, on May 17, 2009.

Mr. Golisano is married to Monica Seles, professional tennis player and member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He has two children and several grandchildren.

Links:

Tom Golisano 

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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Join us in another fascinating and timely discussion with Yancey Strickler, Co-Founder & former CEO of Kickstarter, one of the most important new companies in the Startup ecosystem. He is the author of the new book This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World.

Yancey is an experienced entrepreneur who shares very powerful insights that apply to your business and your life. Listen to our discussion about Bentoism. It’s an intriguing way to think about life.

A Chapter From The Book

In a chapter of Yancey’s new book This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World, he shares about Adele and how he found a startup company that measures loyalty and engagement. Adele faced issues with scalpers purchasing and jacking up prices of her concert tickets.

“Currently, we imagine that economics is how everything should be distributed and here, Adele, found some other value through which to make herself available.” – Yancey Strickler

Through the algorithm, Adele chose Top 30 per area of her most loyal fans. These people got access to tickets at their original prices. According to reports, fans were able to save 6 to 10 million pounds.

A New Lens in Doing Business

Yancey considers the Adele example as a powerful and pervasive lens in doing business. Adele found a could-have-been a post-economic way to distribute goods, placed a halt to that and ultimately, provided more value to her loyal fans.

“To me, that is a new kind of choice, a very new kind of decision. It is suggestive of what, of how capitalism evolves, of how we evolve as a society. Basically, where we all recognize the importance of financial value. We can also recognize the limitations of financial value being so dominant, as it is right now.” – Yancey Strickler

Social Entrepreneurship and Bentoism

Christopher and Yancey exchanged stories about social entrepreneurship and how it has become an emerging conversation right now. Yancey believes that social entrepreneurship will succeed when it becomes a dominant point of view of everyone.

“Right now, marrying a financial purpose for a nonfinancial purpose is like the cute indie thing to do. But we should root for this to be like mainstream arena rock. I want this, headlining stadiums.” – Yancey Strickler

Yancey also shares his idea on Bentoism or Beyond Near Term Orientation. He came up with this idea when he was doodling and creating graphs while evaluating what he wants at the moment and what he would want to achieve in the future. 

To hear more about This Could Be Our Future and more information about Yancey Strickler, Kickstarter Co-Founder, download and listen to the episode.

Bio:

Yancey Strickler is a writer and entrepreneur. He is the cofounder and former CEO of Kickstarter, author of This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World, and the creator of Bentoism.

Yancey has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People. 

He’s spoken at the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, Web Summit, and events around the globe. 

He cofounded the artist resource The Creative Independent and the record label eMusic Selects. Yancey grew up in Clover Hollow, Virginia, and began his career as a music critic in New York City. 

Links:

Yancey Strickler

Bentoism 

Book: This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.

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We continue our run of legendary authors and today, we hang out with one of the smartest people in business, Joe Pine, one of the godfathers of “The Experience Economy.” It’s the 20th anniversary of his seminal work and he is reissuing an updated version of the book

In this episode, we dig deep into the future of experiences and how companies use it to differentiate and create massive competitive advantage. Pay special attention to Joe’s radical insights around building a data flywheel and the big strategic difference between Facebook and Amazon.

From UI to UX

Joe Pine shares with us about the re-release of The Experience Economy, bearing a new preview, that he and his partner wrote. They focused on the subtitle: Competing for Customer Time, Attention and Money. Companies embraced the importance of user interface in the past and now, user experience, or UX. 

“When the first book came out, we talked about it as a nascent, an emerging, a forthcoming experience economy and now, we say it’s here. It’s all around us. I used to have to argue with people that this was happening. Now, I just say it: people want experiences. People now say, ‘yeah I get it.’” – Joe Pine

Further, Joe shared how the internet was at infancy back then. The www was just created in 1994 and in 1999, they didn’t have much to say about it. However, later over time, Joe shares they looked at it thoroughly and found the reason why people were on the internet was to surf the web—to have the experience of things that they couldn’t have otherwise.

Data Flywheel

Christopher shares his insights on how companies achieve category domination today. He shares that a big part of their strategy is getting their data flywheel spinning.

“The data flywheel is a learning relationship. If you cultivate a learning relationship, it grows and deepens over time. You can almost lock your competitors out because you know more about these customers than they do. Even if they switch, they have to teach them all over again what you already know.” – Joe Pine

Data Privacy

Further, in the discussion, Christopher remarks about how other companies cannot replicate the “data on customer-intimacy” that Amazon has with its customers. Joe agrees with Christopher as Amazon has yet to sell data to anybody, as they want to use it themselves at the moment. 

“From an authenticity standpoint, that corrodes them [Facebook and Apple] from the inside out, because they are selling your data. They’re in it for the data, to sell to somebody else, rather than in it, for your best interest.” – Joe Pine

To hear more about the co-author of “The Experience Economy” Joe Pine, download and listen to the episode.

Bio:

Co-author of The Experience Economy, Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike.

In 1999, Joe and his partner James H. Gilmore wrote the best-selling book The Experience Economy: Work is a Theatre & Every Business a Stage, which demonstrates how goods and services are no longer enough; what companies must offer today are experiences – memorable events that engage each customer in an inherently personal way.

In 2011, The Experience Economy came out for the first time in paperback as an Updated Edition with new ideas, new frameworks, and many, many new exemplars. Each of Mr. Pine’s publications add a wealth of knowledge and experience to the business world, but The Experience Economy has become a quintessential read.

Mr. Pine also co-wrote Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital Frontier with Kim Korn, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want with Mr. Gilmore, and in 1993 published his first book, the award-winning Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition.

Each book details Mr. Pine’s breakthrough thinking as he has accurately charted many structural shifts — from individualizing goods to today’s focus on customer experiences and many other changes in the economy and consumer sensibility.

The economic competitive reality of the future is fast-paced change. Mr. Pine helps clients design strategies to leverage these new economic opportunities and create experiences that drive revenue.

Since revolutionizing the way we should approach and think about business with The Experience Economy, Joseph Pine has continued to be at the forefront as a thought leader. In his speaking and teaching activities, Mr. Pine has addressed the World Economic Forum, the original TED conference, and the Consumer Electronics Show.

A former Visiting Scholar with the MIT Design Lab, he is currently a Lecturer with the Columbia University School of Professional Studies, and has also taught at Penn State, Duke Corporate Education, the University of Minnesota, UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management, and the Harvard Design School.

He serves on the editorial boards of Strategy & Leadership and Strategic Direction and is a Senior Fellow with both the Design Futures Council and the European Centre for the Experience Economy, which he co-founded.

Mr. Pine’s experiences prior to co-founding Strategic Horizons include holding a variety of technical and managerial positions with IBM. 

Links:

Linkedin – Joe Pine

Company – Strategic Horizons

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.

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We continue our run of legendary VCs and legendary authors like our guest for today, Ted Dintersmith. He’s a former top tech VC and he’s the author of the book What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across America.

This is a powerful look at what’s possible in education from a smart, committed, super thoughtful guy.

What School Could Be

Ted Dintersmith went to all fifty states, visiting some 200 schools and spoke to different school personnel and students. He says he was stunned by the innovative classrooms and schools he found across the USA. However, he also talked about schools who he described as good in paper, but not as good in reality.

“There were so many schools like that, where on paper, it looks likes the kids are doing really well. Good grades, good test scores, reasonable to good College placements. The point I make is that I think these kids, are not really being helped in terms of being prepared for a world defined and shaped by innovation. They’re actually being impaired.” – Ted Dintersmith

Shifting Mindsets

Ted shares his conversations with school teachers, administrators and students shifted his thinking. He further says that the measure of success in so many schools is aligned with a few narrow capabilities.

He questioned the schools, asking if he puts a kid in their school who excelled at memorizing material, replicating low-level procedures and following instructions, he bets that kid would be on the honor roll.

“SAT tutors say, ‘don’t be creative when you take this test. Don’t think of unusual ways to answer it. Think clearly, simply and formulaically. The 2nd thing is, if it’s hard and it’s going to take a while to figure it out, skip it.’ Is that a great message for the kids?” – Ted Dintersmith

Education is a Pie Eating Contest

Ted continues to share with Christopher his insights that many kids are being told that they’re not gifted because they don’t match up to those narrow skills. Christopher also remarked in an overly simplistic form, that education nowadays is like a “Pie Eating Content” where you jam everything, regardless of what kind of pie it is, and know that the more you take, the better.

“It’s crazy. We organize most of education around what’s easy to test and not what’s important to learn.” – Ted Dintersmith

To hear more about how to encourage kids, unleash their passion and support dedicated teachers and more about Ted Dintersmith, download and listen to the episode.

Bio:

About Ted

Links:

Ted Dintersmith

Twitter: @dintersmith

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.