18 Laws
Of Success From ‘ Shark Tank ’ s ’
Robert Herjavec
Serial entrepreneur , investor , television personality , and Ferrari race car celebrity Robert Herjavec has lived the classic rags to riches story . Today , he is one of North America ’ s most recognizable business leaders . But if you look at how the self-made multi-millionaire started off in life , you never would have imagined he ’ d end up where he is today .
Born in Eastern Europe , Robert arrived in Canada on a boat with his parents after escaping Communism in the former Yugoslavia . “ My dad escaped from jail in a communist country and grabbed my mom and me , and we came to Halifax when I was 8 years old ,” he said . Arriving with $ 20 and one suitcase between the three of them , they took a train to Toronto and lived in a friend ’ s basement for 18 months .
In his new country , he experienced a difference in economic classes and discovered for the first time that compared to everyone else , they were extremely poor . He spoke no English and was often bullied for his accent and unstylish clothing . To earn money , he delivered newspapers and waited tables in the 1990s . From those early jobs , he discovered that the relationship with your customer is the most important relationship .
He credits Warren Avis , founder of Avis Rent-A-Car , for showing him his potential as an entrepreneur and for helping him realize that he couldn ’ t be successful without help from others . “ He was the first person to tell me that I was way ( and I mean WAY ) off base in my approach to sales , and I ’ ve never forgotten the lesson ,” Robert wrote on LinkedIn . “ At the time , he took me to the window in our office and asked me to look at the hot dog vendor selling at the edge of our parking lot . He told me that I was acting like the vendor — pushing product and doing all the work to make a living . He followed that statement with , ‘ You need to be the guy supplying the dogs to all the vendors if you ever want to scale .’” When Robert left Avis at 25 years old , he received a $ 60,000 payout . It was the biggest check he ’ d ever seen , and at the time , he thought it was the most money he ’ d ever make .
He got his start in technology after applying for a job selling IBM mainframes for a start-up company . Although he had zero qualifications , he convinced the founder to hire him by offering to work for free for six months . He eventually rose to become the general manager of the company . But when he was fired shortly after , he used that as his motivation to start his first technology company , BRAK Systems , out of his basement . BRAK quickly became the largest internet security firm in Canada , which he then sold to AT & T Canada ( now Allstream Inc .) for $ 30.2 million in 2000 . After selling BRAK , he became vice president of sales for RAMP Network , where he helped facilitate the sale of RAMP to Nokia for $ 225 million . Receiving options for his help , he became a stay-at-home dad for three years before founding the Herjavec Group in 2003 .
Today , the Herjavec Group is recognized as a global cybersecurity operations leader , specializing in managed security services , compliance , identity services , and incident response for governments and enterprises . A $ 200 million company , his goal is to build it into a billion-dollar company .
Every book he ’ s written — “ Driven ,” “ The Will to Win ,” and “ You Don ’ t Have to Be a Shark : Creating Your Own Success ” — has appeared on the bestseller ’ s list . Millions seek his business advice as seen on TV , in print , on the radio , and in digital media — including as a LinkedIn influencer . He shares his business expertise with other entrepreneurs as a leading Shark on ABC ’ s Emmy Award-winning show “ Shark Tank .” He also invested in “ Dragons ’ Den ,” a Canadian reality show that ’ s similar to “ Shark Tank ,” and participated in the show for six seasons prior to becoming an investor on “ Shark Tank ” in 2009 .
From a poor kid with broken English and nothing more than $ 20 in his pocket who didn ’ t even know he could own a business to starting up technology companies worth hundreds of
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