The Academy Awards are over and, once again, I didn’t see any of the movies. Mary Kay wanted to see “Slumdog Millionaire” but I kept saying, “How good can that be?” As I watched the Awards last night I listened to the message many of the movie stars kept saying. I’ll get back to the recurring message I heard.
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been on the road and attended the International Franchise Association Convention in San Diego. Another amazing event with over 2300 people in attendance. The numbers are staggering. 1 in 7 people in America now have a job due to franchising.
Former President Clinton was the keynote speaker who opened the event. I have to admit, sitting about 25 feet from the former leader of the free world was cool. Dina Dwyer-Owens became the Chairwoman of the IFA for the next year. Dina became President of the Dwyer Group, representing over 1400 franchisees in 13 countries in six franchise systems, at the age of 35 in 1999. Now she represents all 1350+ franchisors who are part of IFA. If you get a chance get her book, “Live RICH (Respect, Integrity, Customer Focus, Having Fun) – How to build success in your company and your life – with a proven Code of Values.”
Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman and CEO, also spoke. She recounted that she started her career as a secretary. When she was ousted at HP her reported severance package was just over $21 million. Whew.
I sat at a roundtable session with Margaret McEntire, founder of Candy Bouquet. 20 years ago she started this company in her garage. Now, she has 800 stores in over 35 countries.
As always Fred DeLuca of Subway was there. He started at age 17 with a $1,000 loan. I’m not sure but I think he almost has 30,000 franchise stores now. He is always most gracious and willing to help new franchisors. Each year someone who is winning a major IFA award cites Fred’s kindness and willing to help attitude as a key to the award winner’s success.
Tariq Farid, founder of Edible Arrangements, received IFA’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. His career started at age 17 when he used a $5,000 cash advance from his parents to purchase a flower shop in East Haven, CT. He opened his first Edible’s store in 1999 and now has over 800 locations throughout the world.
Mary Kay and I spent a lot of time with Jennifer Kushell. This early-30’s dynamo is the global expert on Gen Y. Make sure you go to her site and register at www.ysn.com and learn more about Jen and the amazing stuff she is doing throughout the world.
OK. Now back to the Academy Awards. What I kept hearing last night was actors and actresses saying “keep believing in your dreams”. They thanked the people who had faith in them and helped them get through the tough times. They said it wasn’t easy.
It was no different than what Dina, Tariq, or Margaret said, or what happened for Fred or what Jen learned from her dad when he was the IFA Chairman in 1977. Each of these people is tremendously successful and able to really give back to others.
Success is believing in yourself and keeping the faith and focus – especially when the naysayers tell you how hard it is. Your passion will propel you. You might win an Academy Award. It you don’t, you will be able to look back with great pride and be an inspiration for someone else – just like all the people I talked with at the IFA convention.
I think I better go see Slumdog Millionaire with Mary Kay. Right after I finish Dina’s book!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
You got any of the Kool-Aid you've been drinkin'? You should package it up and franchise it.
Fred DeLuca is one of the most undesirable scumbags in the whole world. He's a shmuck with a capital S! There are more lawsuits against Doctors Associates than McDonalds, Burgerking & Dunkin Donuts combined.
But you probably don't care, you're most likely selling people down the river too!!!!!!
bloodyfranchise.......great comment......I always love people who have internet muscles and flex them on blogs....my favorite part of your comment is when you backed up your attack with facts......please don’t ever let those get in your way.......considering that franchising creates $2 trillion in revenue every year, employs nearly 15 million americans and less than 10% of franchise businesses close each year, I would say that it isnt the worst industry to be a part of.......I just hate when real world stats gets in the way of my complaining........whats next?????are you going to attack PETA for cruelty to animals?????
Truth:
Fred Deluca is a blight on franchising. Recently he staged a coup to steal $700 million in Franchisee Ad Fees. His Board of Trustees sued him. He retaliated against the franchisee board members with multitude of frivilous lawsuits and operational code infractions. He co-orced vendors by threating upcoming contracts (Turbo Chef, Frito-Lay, Otis-Spunkmeyer to name a few)if they participated in trade shows put on by his sanctioned franchisee association (as they had joined the advertising funds lawsuit representing the beneficiaries of the fund). At least one former association board member who was harrassed and forced to sell, committed suicide.
These are the facts. Look them up.
Post a Comment