150: Brian Scudamore — Willing To Fail
We intellectually understand the value of failure, but so few of us actually want to experience it. How can we embrace failure with less of the sting? Is it even possible? How can we freely experiment and try new things, whether it works or not, so that we can achieve growth in our industry?
Brian Scudamore is the Founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? He is a serial entrepreneur and a high-school dropout. Brian is also the author of his newest book, WTF?! (Willing to Fail): How Failure Can Be Your Key to Success. As an over-achieving failure, Brian has learned a thing or two about picking himself up and dusting himself off.
As Brian and his co-author Roy H. Williams were wrapping up the book, a theme kept popping up over and over again; it was ‘failure.’ Failing repeatedly was what led to Brian’s bigger successes in life. These failings were actually big, big blessings in disguise for Brian.
For example, five years into the 1-800 business, Brian found himself hating his work and knowing he didn’t hire the right people. So, he fired them all and built everything up from scratch again. These were big and very tough lessons Brian learned early on in his career. Today, he’d rather take the time to find the right people than hiring ‘bodies’ to fill seats.
Interview Links:
Scaling Up Podcast Episode 012 with Brian
Resources:
Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops.
Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.)
