隐姓亿万富翁

P1

• Rebuilding Erie, it's a marathon, not a sprint.
• Cover the basics first - you can't build a business when survival is your fulltime job.
• Finding a job - it's just like fishing. The more lines you have in the water, the better chance you have of getting a hit.
• Recognize your strengths and weaknesses - a lot of jobs in Erie for which I don't remotely qualified for.
• Find your buyer first and work backwards. Based on what they want.
• There's so many times that people throw away things of value. They just have to find a buyer to connect to.
• People miss out on a lot of opportunities when they panic and quit too early.
• Don't judge a book by its cover.
• No job is beneath you - working hard at a job, any job, builds confidence and gives you selfworth. That confidence will help catapult you to the next level.
• Diversify your efforts.
• Buy low and sell high.
• A relationship is what sales is all about. The key is knowing how to read people, convincing them that they need what you're selling.
• Tap into the herd mentality - get in front of a group, and sell them. If you can get just two people in that group to buy what you're selling, odds are the whole herd is gonna follow.

P2

• Find your buyer first and work backwards.
• Identify a need and fill it - the trick to starting a successful business is to choose something the market needs and build a great team.
• I'm gonna need some serious startup funds to get this business off the ground. The best way that I know to make big money is in real estate. So I want to buy a house to flip it to cover the startup costs for my business. But for now, I need to think on a smaller scale.
• Craft beer business - people are spending money on it. The industry is in continual growth. It has the potential to scale nationally. It's a collaborative field.
• Surround yourself with people who can strengthen your weaknesses.
• Know your **** - make sure you know all aspects of the business.
• Human capital - most important criteria for hiring someone is their personality. I need people with managerial skills, brewing experience, food component. But I don't have any money to pay them. It's sweat equity.
• I care about if somebody is gonna fight hard, going to stay long, and going to believe in the company. I'm looking at their eyes. I'm seeing if they stare back at me. I'm seeing how long they blink.
• Instill confidence - if your team doesn't believe in you, you're going nowhere. Make sure your team believes in the vision as much as you do.

P3

• Be ready to pivot - not every deal goes as planned. A good business person is always prepared to handle the quick turns and failures that come with starting or running a business.
• Surround yourself with experts
• Do your due diligence - just having a great idea doesn't mean it's right for the market. Always research and vet your business before you get too far down the road.
• 1. BBQ and beer restaurant. 2. Go national with sauces and rubs. 3. Bring in local beer. Diversifying my business effort will get me to my milliondollar goal. Now I need to sell my team on the idea.
• What would an IT system look like that would really enable this business to run as efficiently as possible.
• Underdog needs to be worth a million dollars very quickly. One way that I can quickly scale up is by creating my own brand of beer that is made by the craft brewers and then take that national.
• Venn diagram.
• Know how to motivate - how do you push someone to be better without knocking them down? How to read people? What tactics to use in order to motivate them to step it up?
• There's all different styles of leadership. What I fall under would be called 'servant leadership'. I want my employees to feel that I work for them. Tell me, give me feedbacks.
• Knowledge is power - you have to know what you're talking about when you sell your product.

P4

• If you're going to build the American dream, be prepared for setbacks. It's how you recover that counts.
• Chris Sirriani is like the godfather of craft beer in Erie. If I can get him on board, I think all the others around town will follow.
• Turn rivals into revenue - always eliminate potential conflicts by striking deals that are mutually beneficial.
• Create space for talent - if you don't have a space for the talent you met, create one.
• Streamline the pitch - a too large picture confuses suppliers. Less is more. Focus.
• "No" is the start of the conversation.

P5

• Find people smarter than you.
• Set your own table - actively seek out opportunities to be successful. Don't wait for the perfect opportunity to fall into your lap because it never will.
• Business is tough that people are gonna eat you up. This is about you fighting for every scrap you can get.
• Don't let a setback kill your confidence. You're gonna have them, no matter what. It's inevitable. Take it and learn from it. These are the days you fight. Because that's the only way you win.
• Lose the battle to win the war. Selling house is not the war; the war is to build a million-dollar business.
• (Once bitten twice shy)

P6

• Don't pigeonhole your players - while Matt the beer director, he is an ultimate MacGyver. There isn't a tool he can't use, and he can help Chris Trotte to finish the smoker.
• Majority of time when I worked well, I had competent people who knew what they were doing. I am nervous, but the more confidence we have for Christine, the more chances we are gonna have to win this whole thing.
• Check your plane before you fly it - pilots go through an exhaustive checklist before they take off, because lifes are at stake.
• If things go wrong, don't go with them - the ability to remain cool under pressure is what sets apart the pros. I remember at the height of the financial crisis, I walked outta a deal very upset. I said I would never work with them and I would never do a deal. But I needed to make a deal. So they withdrew my original deal, came back and charged me an extra 50% on top of what I was trying to get. Why? Because I lost my cool.
• Managing cash flow issues are something that people starting a company deal with everyday.
• (I thought the financial crisis in 2008 was bad. This takes the cake.)
• This is what it's like to start a business. It's messy, and the only way to get throught it and be successful is to have the right people around you.

P7

• Shut up and listen to the experts. Open your ears to the experts you surround yourself with recognize they are offering up feedback to help you succeed.
• Ribfest is the opportunity to see how they can work together under pressure.
• Interviews don't tell you everything. Cream rises to the top during the Ribfest, and it's Ashley.
• Leaders need to step up. Christine is responsible for inventory. She should have known how much stock she would need to hit today's sales target.
• If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
• Adults are grown children. They just need somebody to listen to them.
• When conflicts rise, combat is optional. Don't react at companion in the midst of a war.
• When everybody else packed up and left because of the bad weather, we kept serving. I won't quit. The weather is an excuse. When you make excuses, you never reach your goals.
• Endure more pain than anyone else - the reason why I've been successful is that I push through tough times and endure more pain in my competition and ensure I don't quit.

P8

• Don't confuse effort with results - spinning your wheels only works when you are going forward. It's a given that we all have to work hard, but it's about working smart. It's about what did you get done at the end of the day.
• People deserve hand-ups not handouts. Underdog team worked its tail off and they deserve the money. I don't feel I'm giving them anything.
• Don't make excuses.
• With talent, hard work, intuition and ultimate resilience, you'll find that taking the risk can manifest your dream. When we bet on ourselves and work together, we keep the American dream alive.