In 2007, Rhett Power and Peter Gasca resigned from lucrative consulting jobs with tremendous professional freedom to start their first company together, Wild Creations. Just a year later, the worst economic recession in a generation paralyzed the global economy. In the face of overwhelming odds, and in true entrepreneurial form, Power and Gasca were able to persevere with a great deal of creativity, common sense, and, ultimately, sheer determination.
Within two years, Wild Creations grew to be recognized by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce as the fastest-growing company in the state and by Inc. Magazine as one of the 500 fastest-growing companies in the U.S.
Through One Million Frogs, Gasca and Power hope to provide other aspiring entrepreneurs with validation and inspiration, using the knowledge they gained in growing a highly successful business of their own in one of the most tumultuous times in a generation.
An entertaining twist on start-up entrepreneurship told through the emotional
and often comical journey of one unlikely frog company.
INTRODUCTION
"The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing."
-- Walt Disney, Co-Founder, Disney
Our entrepreneurial story plays out the way most do: an idea conceived over watered-down Russian beer and flatbread pizza at a quaint Georgian restaurant high in the cool mountains of Kazakhstan. It pinnacled with the company we founded, Wild Creations, being recognized as one of Inc. Magazine's 500 fastest growing private businesses in the US and the number one fastest growing business in South Carolina.
The root of our success: frogs.
We'd like to say that it all went as planned. Nothing, however,went as planned. For starters, our original vision of running alarge multinational investment holdings company turned into wrangling frogs and making toys. The transition, of course, was an interesting one and most certainly did not happen overnight.
Along the way, there was more pizza and probably too much beer, mortars in Afghanistan, more miles than most people drive in five lifetimes, cheap hotels with fleas, pilfered toilet paper, extreme government agencies and extremer special interest groups, guns and police, endless trade show pitches and tubes of lip balm,and more than one lonely Christmas season spent at a mall kiosk bartering live frogs.
Okay, so maybe that is not the way most startups go.
It is not, however, as different as you might think. If you replace allof that history with the underlying themes that encouraged them,you will find commonalities. Belt tightening, stress management, risk taking, dedication and long hours, innovative thinking, thriftiness, interpersonal skill development, conflict resolution, hard work, salesmanship, and unending personal sacrifice.
If you ask ten successful entrepreneurs for the secret to success,you will receive twenty unique stories and more than a fair share of clichés. And while most will not involve dodging live ordnance in Afghanistan or frogs, all will share these same themes.
This book is one of those stories.
It's about two regular guys who for years worked in comfortable consulting jobs in "Corporate America," with job security, comfortable paychecks and the freedom to fill numerous passport pages, but who had unfulfilled and conflicting ambitions. It's about our entrepreneurial journey, from our catalysts to taking action through the most significant economic crisis in a generation, and rising from the bowels of complete failure and mediocrity to sitting with John Lasseter, the founder of Pixar, at the Academy Awards of Toys. All with an improbable frog company.
This book is filled with stories, anecdotes and, yes, a few clichés,but the genesis behind it all was to provide other aspiring entrepreneurs a set of our hard-knock lessons to guide them to their entrepreneurial dreams. Most stories involve mistakes wemade along the way that were sometimes avoidable and always expensive. We hope to impart wisdom through what was ourcollective ignorance.
We understand completely that most aspiring entrepreneurs whoread this book will eventually make the same mistakes we have. We are, after all, natural risk takers and universally inquisitive. Entrepreneurs are the type of people who burn themselves onthe frying pan because we just had to see "what if." That natural curiosity is what encourages them to venture out and start businesses, build legacies, and leave their marks in this life.
So the greater intent of this book, to a certain extent, is to provide you with validation and inspiration.
The fears and anxieties you have are common. True, some people have more tolerance for risk and, hence, are more inclined to be entrepreneurs, but this book will provide evidence that you don'thave to be Elon Musk or Sir Richard Branson to start a business.
All you need is a little common sense, courage, and persistence. Not necessarily in that order.
And when you fail -- and you will, often -- we hope the stories and anecdotes in this book will serve to provide you with not onlythe tips to help you be successful, but also the moral support youneed to persevere.
You are not alone in your ambition. The first step is the most difficult. Read on and you will come to understand why entrepre-neurial success cannot be defined by a single adjective or cliché, but instead only by the embodiment of a complete narrative of another entrepreneur's successes and, more important, persever-ance through all the hard times.
"Great Book that gave me an insight into entrepreneurship. Totally recommend to everyone interesting in starting a small business." ~ Amazon Reader
Great book!
"Great book - real life examples of what it is like to start up a startup and the work and sacrifice to make it work. Buy It!"
~Ron F.
Rhett Power is co-founder of Wild Creations, an award-winning start-up toy company named one of Inc. Magazine’s Fastest Growing US Companies. A member of the United States Department of State’s International Speakers Program, he travels the globe speaking about entrepreneurship, leadership, and management alongside the likes of Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann, AOL Founder Steve Case, and President Barack Obama. He has written for the Huffington Post, Business Insider, Time, and The Wall Street Journal.
He served in the US Peace Corps and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. In addition to being the co- author of One Million Frogs, Rhett is a regular contributor to Inc.com and Success Magazine. Power lives in Charleston, South Carolina.
Peter Gasca is a business consultant, entrepreneur, craft beer enthusiast and dad. His first startup business was recognized twice as an Inc500/5000 fastest growing US small business, and his accomplishments earned him a nomination as Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young.
Peter is a regular columnist at Entrepreneur.com and Inc.com and is featured often at Business Insider. He also mentors startup entrepreneurs through his work with local innovation centers and universities. He speaks regularly on the topics of startups, entrepreneurship, innovation, business communication, innovation and creativity.
Peter is a native of Phoenix, AZ and currently lives in Myrtle Beach, SC.
