Through his books and consulting services, Brian Will says he’s on a mission to provide advice and support to businesses facing surmountable challenges.
Listen to the full interview of Brian Will with Adam Torres on Mission Matters Business Podcast.
How did you get started as an entrepreneur?
Will says he was never a good student, but stresses that a person’s past doesn’t necessarily dictate their future. While he wasn’t all that interested in school, he notes that he’s always had a calculating nature. After getting married, for example, he started working for a business where he earned $160 a week cutting grass and soon realized the business owner was making $1000 per week. So, he bought a mower, weed eater, and blower, and launched his grass-cutting business, eventually expanding into seven franchised locations around Atlanta.
In the following years, he started his insurance company, which he says was the first call center in the US selling health insurance over the phone. After its sale in 1999, he started a software company, an insurance company, a digital marketing company, and currently owns a chain of eight restaurants.
Tell us about your book, The Dropout Multi-Millionaire.
This is the second book in the series. Will says it took him five years to write the first one which encompasses his journey from school through his career. The Dropout Multi-Millionaire however only took 6 months to complete and specifically covers the business principles of success he has learned along the way.
What, in your view, can cause a business to fail?
Will says every individual follows a decision-making process based on the data they receive from their past; some data, they’ll accept, while the rest will be rejected. A major problem, he says, is that if a person has never successfully operated a business in the past, they may not have the specific critical thinking skill necessary to make the right decisions to make their business a success. This essentially leaves them with only guesswork to depend on.
The only difference between Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates vs. ordinary individuals, Will says, is the way they think. According to Will, those business leaders in particular think at a level that few people can compete with.
So, to avoid business failure, Will stresses the importance of joining a mentor group or CEO organization where people with experience can guide you to make better decisions. If a business owner has an ego, he notes, they won’t be able to take advice from others, and that can cause a business to fail. Also, he says, they’ll never be successful if they don’t know their business numbers—things like what’s going on with sales and supply, and how inventory is being managed.
Do you have any plans to write a new book?
Will is planning to launch his third book, titled ‘NO.’ He says it’s based on the psychology of sales and negotiation, as ‘no’ is the most potent word sales people and/or customers can use. The book includes stories...