What I learned from reading Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of Vans by Paul Van Doren.
My entire life, I've never had one big idea.
I'd like to think I woke up one day, figured out how to make the world's best canvas and rubber waffle soled deck shoes, how to distribute said shoes, and thus create the first vertically integrated tennis shoe company in the world.
But the fact of it is, I could have been growing potatoes.
Actually, shoes has nothing to do with my success.
What I've accomplished comes down to one thing, my knack for identifying and then solving problems.
What I do better than anyone else is cut out distractions.
If a system isn't working efficiently, I can see where it's jammed.
Eliminate the problem and find a way to keep everything moving forward.
Everyone has something that they naturally do better than anyone else.
This just happens to be mine, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to leverage it.
Then there's everything I learned by doing much of vans.
Early success was the happy result of hard work and creative troubleshooting.
It helps that at vans, we used vulcanized rubber on the soles of our shoes.
It helps that we identified retail spaces.
It helps that we dialed in production like Lee Iacocca on his best day at Ford or Chrysler.
It helps that we knew our customers, especially the skaters and the surfers and the moms.
It helps that I handed over the reins in 1980 when I got burned out and was able to return in 1984, per an order from a judge in bankruptcy court.
It also helps that we were tenacious.
I learned that what makes a successful entrepreneur is the same thing that makes a good skateboarder or a good surfer.
You need grit and determination to get back up every time you're knocked off the board.