Jerry Brazie is a poor kid from Portland, Oregon with eight brothers and sisters. He has owned and operated more than a dozen companies over the last 20 years with combined sales of more than $450 million. Jerry has had more than 10,000 employees and has owned and operated many types of business including: Transportation, gas stations, car washes, convenience stores, reclaimed wood, a management company, and a driver services company. He has also been active as an industrial and commercial real estate investor and owns more than 100,000 square feet in the Portland area, a residential land developer and homebuilder, and has bought, sold, remodeled and flipped more houses than he can count.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
None
When business started difficulties overcame:
“the problem was the investor didn’t have the money that he said he had. And I didn’t understand. I thought that if you just went and sold and you sold the business and you started the business and the business was sold profitably that you make money and there is no issues. I didn’t know about this little thing called cash flow. So I had to learn what those cash flow lessons were. I grew the company to fast and the investor didn’t didn’t have the money that he needed to keep that business afloat. Even though we were growing in doing $3 million a year we were broke essentially because we had no cash”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Washington: A Life Book by Ron Chernow
- Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge Book by David McCullough
Favourite Quote:
The Poem Victory By Herbert Kauffman
“You are the Man who used to boast
That you’d achieve the uttermost,
Some day.You merely wished to show,
To demonstrate how much you know
And prove the distance you can go..Another year we’ve just passed through.
What new ideas came to you?
How many big things did you do?Time left twelve fresh months in your care
How many of them did you share
With opportunity and dare
Again where you so often missed?We do not find you on the list of makers good.
Explain the fact!Ah No, ‘Twas not the chance you lacked!
As usual – you failed to act.”
Recommended Online Resources:
- The Entrepreneur Way – Learn from successful Entrepreneurs with Free Daily podcast interviews that reveal their business success secrets
- Forbes is a global media company, focusing on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle
- Fortune is an American multinational business magazine headquartered in New York City, United States. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, owned by Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. The magazine competes with Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek in the national business magazine category and distinguishes itself with long, in-depth feature articles.[2] The magazine regularly publishes ranked lists, including the Fortune 500, a ranking of companies by revenue that it has published annually since 1955.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“don’t be scared of change and that’s change to get the business started, that’s change once you start the business, that’s change once you been successful or that’s change when you are not being successful. Don’t be scared of change. Because change can freeze you so that you make no decisions and that ultimately, I think is the ruination of more companies are less. So, ones that are failing to act even though they may know they need to act but they are scared of the change. Or you want to become an entrepreneur but you are scared of the change in your life… I embrace that and I would encourage others to embrace it the same way. Understanding that you are capable of so much more. So in personal life constantly don’t be afraid of change and then in business once you get there always be looking at it and changing it as required” …[Listen for More]
More About Jerry Brazie:
- The Jerry Brazie Podcast
- Senvoy
- Jerry Brazie
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Long–range planning works best in the short term.” Doug Evelyn
Other Quotes From the Chat with Jerry Brazie:
- “just know what you are getting yourself into before you go and do it and be prepared for it. It takes a certain kind of mindset to be an entrepreneur”
- “think even that word entrepreneurship has been taken over somewhat and I don’t think it really means in the pop culture and social media and all of that what it really means. Right so is not some 28-year-old kid who invented and app and now he’s a billionaire. Those unicorns are standalones and they really don’t exist for the rest of us. Business is just very difficult but you are capable of doing so much more. Just understand what it is you are getting yourself into by listening to The Entrepreneur Way. This format is a fantastic example of what I think people should spend time doing before they jump in”
- “the simple thing is cash flow and managing your business from a paper perspective. Everybody should manage their business from a paper perspective not emotionally. There is a disconnect Neil I think and this has been my experience having worked with as many entrepreneurs as I have… there is a disconnect between the top line and the bottom line in business. So, on that profit and loss statement the only thing that matters is that you are making money.”
- “Being uncomfortable is by definition being an entrepreneur. By that I mean if you’re comfortable something is wrong, you are missing something, you are paying attention to something you should. So for me I constantly search out the uncomfortable. I search out the uncomfortable in the context for what I am always looking for what I am doing wrong and not concentrating on what I’m doing right”
- “reading is where I get my education”
- “you can’t hesitate to act and you need to look for those opportunities that are available to you. It’s one thing to talk about it and what you are going to do. Next year going to do this in the next going to do this and so many people do that but they don’t actually act on it. So, you had a lot of great ideas but what do you do with them? Well nothing I’m still sitting behind the same desk that I have been complaining about for years. And so that action, getting out there and taking action on your life I think and then making those decisions… And acting on them”
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