An Interview With Chad Silverstein
College Does Not Teach You to How to Try and Fail and Try Again — College teaches you how to study for an exam but at no point does a student have to keep taking an exam over and over again until they get 100%. In business you need to keep trying over and over again until your business is successful, until you get your 100%. So you cannot use the same mentality you had in college in business.
We are starting a new interview series about the world of entrepreneurship beyond the classroom — a realm where theory meets grit, and education meets real-world challenges. We want to hear about critical business wisdom that often goes unspoken in academic settings. I had the honor of interviewing Andrew Chan.
Andrew Chan is the founder and owner of Exotique Men, a revolutionary entertainment company focused on the wedding industry. He graduated with his Bachelors and Masters in Engineering from Cornell University where afterwards he spent six years working as a mechanical engineer. He then pursued his MBA from New York University and went on to work on Wall Street for the next 10 years before realizing his passion and starting Exotique Men.
Thanks for being part of this series. Let’s jump in and focus on your early years. Can you share who was your biggest influence when you were young and provide specific examples of what you learned from them that helped shape who you’ve become and how you live your life today?
Growing up, my mom was the biggest influence on me and shaped me into the person I am today. She immigrated to America and was one of the hardest working people I knew. She worked in a factory during the day and took accounting classes at night. Her English was poor but through hard work, consistency and dedication, she was able to realize the American dream. She instilled a sense of work ethic within me that I would not have been able to achieve on my own.
Staying on the topic of influence, who has been your biggest catalyst more recently and what can you share that you’ve learned from them that led you to making changes in your life?
More recently, my biggest catalyst was my boss in the entertainment industry who I worked for. He showed me that success was more about staying consistent and working towards a specific goal rather than how smart someone was. Growing up, I did the whole traditional route of getting good grades, going to a good school and getting a decent 9–5 paying job. However I never really felt fulfilled. While I was in graduate school, I was working as a dancer at a nightclub and the owner was very successful. He had full control of his life, he could work when and where he wanted and he was able to realize the financial gains through growing and expanding his business. I realized that was more important to me than to try to climb the corporate ladder.
He did what normal school does not teach one to do, which is to keep trying and failing at a specific thing until one achieves their goal. School teaches kids by giving them an exam at the end of the year and depending on what grade you get, that would dictate how “successful” you were at school. However in the real world, there are no grades. You need to try and fail and keep reiterating over and over again. That type of learning is not prevalent in school (nor should it be because it would be an inefficient way of teaching a large number of students). Learning how to bridge that gap was the biggest turning point of my life.
In this interview series, we aim to reveal what seasoned entrepreneurs wish they had known when they were starting out and capture what the textbooks and college professors left out. Mistakes are invaluable. Can you name one specific mistake that you made early on, and learned the most from, but wish you’d been forewarned about?
One mistake I made early one was trying something out, failing at it and then giving up on it. I had toyed with the idea of starting my own business but I had never fully committed simply because I was scared of failing. In school, failing is always bad. It means that I would have to repeat a class or take summer courses. So it was always better to just simply avoid failure in school than it was to try something difficult and then fail. So that method of thinking spilled over to how I handle the real world, which is an incorrect approach. In the real world and in business, failures happen often and its important to stay focused on one’s goal than to dwell on failure.
Is there a leadership myth you believed early on that you’ve since debunked through your real-world experience?
I think too many people make leaders out to be all-knowing or the “alpha” in the group but in reality leadership is simply about making sure everybody’s happy. I don’t lead through fear or by demanding things, rather I leader by having an open mind and by making sure my employees are happy and my customers are happy. As a leader, I am always the last to be happy because I won’t be able to sustain a long running business if I’m the only one happy and my customers and employees are upset.
What’s the key operational insight you’ve gained since running your business that was never mentioned in any classroom?
The key operational insight I’ve gained was the idea of trying and failing multiple times. The classroom does not teach you how to try and fail at something over and over again. Rather it teaches you a concept and you go off and study it on your own and then you get tested on the concept and you get a grade on it. There are no grades in business and its all about getting to success of remaining in failure.
Did college prepare you for scaling a business? What specifically was missing?
College did not prepare me for scaling a business because college only teaches theoretical concepts. Scaling a business requires a lot of trial and error and college does not provide you with room for trial and error. By trying and failing multiple times, you become the best in your niche and your strategy and you learn from your mistakes.
Any unexpected challenges in team dynamics that your academic experience didn’t prepare you for? How did you handle it?
Once I was in the real world, I was dealing with people from all types of backgrounds and experiences. In school, you work in teams with your peers, who are all in college with you. In the real world, you have to deal with a lot of different personalities. Some come from tougher backgrounds than others. Not everyone that you work with in the future went to college. The best way for me to handle things were by keeping an open mind and by listening to other people’s thoughts and ideas.
Have you had to unlearn any widely-accepted business ‘wisdom’ in your journey? What was it and how did it affect your strategy?
I had to unlearn the widely-accepted business wisdom that hard work was always the answer. Sometimes it was more important for me to take a step back, relax and come back with a new strategy than it was to work hard simply for the sake of working hard. There’s a time and place to work hard but just keeping your head down and grinding with no good strategy in place is not a great solution. By relaxing, taking some time away from the business problem, and rethinking things, those were some of the new pieces of wisdom I had gained to replace the idea of working hard simply for the sake of working hard.
What’s your advice for new entrepreneurs? What are your “5 Things You Won’t Learn in College But Must Know to Succeed in Business”?
1. Keep an Open Mind — its very important to keep an open mind in business. There were things that college taught me that I never thought would be true in the real world. For example, I worked as a dancer while in graduate school and I never thought that people would be buying tickets to the show in the middle of winter but I was wrong. The business model my boss had implemented at the time was successful because he always kept an open mind to the market.
2. College Does Not Teach You to How to Try and Fail and Try Again — College teaches you how to study for an exam but at no point does a student have to keep taking an exam over and over again until they get 100%. In business you need to keep trying over and over again until your business is successful, until you get your 100%. So you cannot use the same mentality you had in college in business.
3. Keep Your Overhead Low — The most important thing in business is staying alive to fight another day so it is important to keep your overhead low. College does not teach this but rather goes over the theoretical concepts of business. By keeping your expenses low and your business alive, it allows you to withstand different market conditions and helps strengthen your business.
4. College is a Tool, Not the Solution — College is there to provide you with knowledge and experiences but it is not the solution to a successful business. The solution to a successful business is having a clear goal in mind and taking small consistent steps towards that goal.
5. Sometimes It Is Better to Take a Step Back — College teaches you how to work hard but in business it is sometimes better to take a step back and to take a break from things. Never once have I looked back and said to myself that if I had stressed myself out more that I would have done better.
How do you ensure your team not just understands but embodies your business principles? Any techniques you wish you’d known earlier?
I check in with my team from time to time to make sure the team dynamic is still good and the environment is healthy. It’s a good idea to build strong rapport with your team members so that you can identify any issues early on.
If we were sitting together two years from now, looking back at the past 24 months, what specifically has to happen for you personally and professionally, for you to be happy with your results?
If my business grew in the media and across the country (we are expanding) then I will be happy two years from now.
Looking back over the last two years, what key accomplishments make you satisfied with your progress?
Getting the company to be self-sustainable was a key accomplishment. I don’t have to put money into the company anymore and I’m able to use the profits to reinvest in itself so now it has sort of become its own self growing animal. It definitely takes a lot of the pressure off.
As someone with significant influence, what’s the one change you’d like to inspire that would benefit the most people?
I’d inspire people to take more risks. I think a lot of people are scared of taking risks simply due to the fear of failure but life is not about getting to the finish line with the most amount of money in the bank. It’s about maximizing our experiences and growing ourselves and building things that we can be proud of.
How can our readers keep up with your work?
You can visit our website at http://www.exotiquemen.com
Thank you so much for joining us! We wish you only success.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur and Thought Leader with over 25 years of business experience. He has founded, operated, and exited multiple companies and now builds into a handful of high impact CEOs. Chad has launched multiple online communities, including a recent leadership development platform, and also serves as a strategic advisor for Authority Magazine’s thought-leader incubator program.
To learn more and connect with Chad visit: chadsilverstein.io
Andrew C Of Exotique Men On 5 Things They Forgot To Mention In College was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.