The City Connection Magazine December 2014 | Page 14

Welcome to Club Aqua Continuedfrompage7
Steve: I'm gonna give some advice. There are stories that mold
us into who we are and who we become. I've been self-employed
since I was 15 ½ years old. I've been very fortunate - right place,
right time, in a lot of those instances. One of the things that
stops people from being successful is fear. I watched an interview
and I'm gonna tell you this real fast, I was 15 ½ year old. True
Story. It was with Famous Amos, the chocolate chip cookie guy.
I was clicking channels, four o'clock in the morning; young kid
who couldn't sleep and I seen an interview with Famous Amos,
the cookie guy. The reporter asked him, he said “Amos, why did
you put a cookie stand on a corner that had three cookie stands
before you and every one of them went out of business?” And he
reply was “Well because the problem is people will spend almost
everything they have. They might have their last $10 in their
pocket and they might need that last $10 but they will stick their
hands in, pull that money out halfway and be like no I need this
for my next meal when that $10 might have been what brought
them over to Tom” What I got out of that was fear. People will
start a business. They will spend half their life planning, planning on the business, trying to get it up an running but they will
be too afraid to really make the step. I think was I realized that
I had my first business 2 ½ weeks after that interview I watched.
So I think as far a business success, I think what stops a lot of
people is fear. If you are telling yourself if I lose this money or,
if I risk certain things I'm never gonna have it again, then you're
never going to. You've got to take that leap of faith. If you're not
willing to do that, you're going to be sitting on your couch for
the rest of your life always wondering whether you would've,
should've, or could've. I think the fact I've never had to look
back has a lot to do with a lot of my businesses, and I own a lot
of other businesses besides Club Aqua. If I had to contribute any
one cause why most people are not successful, that would be the
reason.
Steve: You have to love what you do.
Seth: Exactly. The money will come.
Steve: The more money I've given away in my life, the
more I've made. That's a fact.
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Seth: We live by that. I know whatever he
did, he's always been successful in his life.
Everything that Steve has pretty much done
has turned to gold. And I've known Steve a
long time. I've seen pretty much everything
he's done. Everything he's done, he's been
successful. Everything he's ever said he's
gonna do, he's does. Otherwise, I wouldn't
be here. For those people who come to us for
the wrong reasons, and don't believe in what
we're doing, they don't need to be here. We
have a lot of people here that share that same
vision with us and know where we're going.
We're going public. We're gonna build three
or four more facilities just like this in other
states.
Steve: What a lot of people don't know is this
facility is actually employee owned. I had
an incident where I basically lost everything
in 2008 from a person who I thought was a
friend. You find out when you go from up here
to down here, you really find out who you're
friends are. I had what we call a rude awakening. So when I lost everything, the people
that didn't lose my phone number, which is
my staff, most of my management staff. When
we came up with the idea to get back into the
club business, let's do an entertainment facility, the one thing that I insisted on is that
we do something but we have to reward our
real friends and bring them along for the ride.
So when we created this facility, a lot of people don't know this club is actually employee
owned. They get share distribution, profit
sharing. There's actually a Board of Directors
here that we've elected. I think because we
balance that family atmosphere along with
making money, I think that's going to be a key
ingredient to our success. TCCM