Be unreasonable in life and business.
That was the core message guests at last night’s SMEI Vancouver event walked away with after listening to institute B’s skool principal, Darrell Kopke, talk about goal setting.
What does that mean? Here’s an example for you. Back when Darrell was GM of lululemon, the company’s founder, Chip Wilson, shared his goal with him: to own a 10,000 sq ft waterfront mansion on Point Grey Road. That was ten years ago. Chip currently owns three waterfront mansions. The message: think big.
The small group of individuals who teamed up to build the lululemon business labeled Nike as their main competitor. At that time, lulu had less than $1M of sales. Flash forward to 2006 when a former Nike employee had moved on to work with the Kitsilano based yoga wear company. He revealed that by 2006, lululemon had become Nike’s biggest competitor in women’s apparel.
Darrell moved on from lululemon to enjoy a life of anti-suffering. A few years later, he founded institute B, a company focused on ‘New Skool Business’. Rather than doing business simply for profit and ‘book value’ (the ‘old skool’ way), institute B’s legacy is to add value to society by doing good things for the community.
Other important messages from Darrell:
- Eliminate all excuses and complaining from your life
- Be 100% responsible for the success of your company
- Be generous — very very generous (it will come back to you)
- Forgiveness is for the strong
‘If schmos like me can do it, schmos like you can do it’, Darrell told his audience. So, dream big, be unreasonable, and be 100% responsible for your own success.
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Ciao for now,
EI
