Kathryn Graddy — It is now my pleasure to introduce Len Asper, founder of The Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship.

A graduate of Brandeis University, Len is the president and CEO of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corporation. He has also just stepped up as co-chair of the International Business School Board of Advisors and previously served several terms on Brandeis University Board of Trustees.

I'm thrilled to be working with him.

Len is a passionate and generous supporter of both his alma matter and the International Business School. He's completely committed to making Brandeis International Business School a great business school.

Leonard Asper — Greater.

Kathryn Graddy — A greater business school.

(audience laughing)

Kathryn Graddy — Okay, the greatest business school.

I will now invite Len to share more about his vision for The Asper Center before presenting the, and the International Business School before presenting the Asper Award to Robert Herjavec.

Len, the floor is yours.

Leonard Asper — Right. Thank you. Robert should be, he is live?

Or will be very soon.

Oh, yeah, there he is, there he is, yeah. Hi, Robert!

Robert Herjavec — Hi, guys. Hi, Len.

Leonard Asper — We have real producers here. Okay, thank you. Well, actually, I was gonna, but I have my new phone, like, just trying to be cool, I have my notes in my phone, but the thing goes to dark green, like, it's, you know, that you need to put the code in every two minutes. So I don't know. Maybe some of you guys know how to stop that.

(audience murmuring indistinctly)

Leonard Asper — Speak if you know how to make that work. Actually, I will say my son, Matthew, is here. He's a junior undergrad. Sorry, Matthew. He was the reason I was texting 'cause I told him to park in Spingold. He ended up at Spingold and looking at in the theater. I said, "Spingold Theater." And I didn't really give him enough details, so I apologize for that.

Anyway, he'll know where the business school is sooner or later.

I do want to, first of all, thank the organizer and everybody at the business school. We started this entrepreneurship program. It was one person, Chuck Reed. And it was an idea. And like every, like, a lot of successful things, people took it and people, master got onto it, deans got on as well, the dean at the time.

And Katy, of course, herself has led and championed this. And then so many professors have gotten involved and created such an incredible program that I'm so proud to be a part of. So thank all the staff of the school for that. Give them a round of applause.

Really different than 10 years or seven years ago when we started. It's just gotten, you know, so much better and bigger than I ever imagined. So thank you for that.

I do wanna say also thank you to Robert for joining us today. We'll get your awards in in a second, Robert.

Tell me if you don't, but I don't know, I think you all know what a big deal this is to have Robert here.

And, you know, I was in a, I was telling you I was in an office with a senator in Washington, a very famous senator, and Robert was on TV. And I made some joke about, "Oh, you know, the Kingdom of Canada has taken over your office." And they said, "Oh, you know, Robert Herjavec, do you know him?" I said, "Yeah, I met him once or twice." And they said, "You know Robert Herjavec?" And they had a business idea, of course.

It's a senator from United States. So I was talking about conflicts of interest, not naming anything, whatever.

Anyway, so I just got a couple quick things down, downtown in the comments about entrepreneurship.

The reason I got into this and decided this was an interesting idea was because A, I've seen the other entrepreneurship center to be very successful before there was one at Brandeis. But also, it just goes back to this whole concept of, you know, what is business? It's a lot more than numbers, and the numbers are a very important aspect of it, but the art of business is as important as the science of business.

Now, whether it's relationships, understanding how to manage relationships, understanding how to read contracts, the words do matter, understanding what's going on in the world, what's going on in pop culture, what people want, what people like, how to relate to others inside and outside your environment. It's all part of it.

And having more and more experiences, as many as you can is important. It's as important as knowing numbers, and the future value of money, and present value of all those things, which are important, by the way. And if you don't know somebody, well, you should.

I remember a friend of mine went to Harvard Business School and said, "The first thing I learned about business is get a good finance person." So hopefully, we're producing some who understand the art and some who understand the science who can come together, and that symbiosis of those two concepts is really important to be successful in business.

So Brandeis, we talked about Brandeis being the best and the greatest. I really believe, you know, we should be creating the greatest business school on the planet here. And that should, we should, that should be our goal.

Like, why settle for less? There's no reason we can't be.

And there's no barriers to entry, we already solved that problem. And there's no reason we can't be the best.

And both in terms of the experience you get, one gets here and the value others place on leave, on a Brandeis business degree. And that's what I'm striving to make happen.

And I'm doing it because partly 'cause I'm loyal. I love it here, I love it. I loved the school. I had an incredible time here. And I just am really, I'm really loyal to it.

I want, you know, I'm a team player. This is all the same. This is my team, I'll always be part of this team.

Secondly, you know, my name's beside Brandeis University, so I can't help it. I'm kinda forced to be, you know. When I say, "I went to Brandeis," I don't want people to go, "Oh, yeah, is that some school in Boston somewhere?" Or, "Is that in Yugoslavia or in Latin America?"

(audience laughing)

Leonard Asper — But we have Yugoslavia all over this place here. But, you know, I want them to say, "Whoa, you went to Brandeis. Whoa, that's what I want, so." And you want that.

So we're all the same team here, and I think it's gonna be, we're headed towards something great. It's just have a been a long journey from going from a Master's of International Economics and Finance when I was here to what we've got here.

And so I'm really proud of, you know, this school, and I'm so glad to be associated with it.

And so Robert, I wanna thank you for, again, for accepting this award.

One thing about Robert is you all know enough about him, but the one part of this award that's important to me is that people who win it give back to society. No one has done, has gotten a better track record of that than the today's recipient of the award because big successful business is about stay wherever you, about yes, the reward, but it's also a responsibility.

And I don't think anyone in this room would doubt that or oppose that comment, but it is part of it. To win this award, you have to not just be good, and smart, and make a lot of money, you have to give back, and Robert does that, as I say, like no other. Okay, both in time and in money.

So Robert, there's actually a script that I have to read the formal words. Okay, so this is where the age starts to show, right?

(audience laughing)

Leonard Asper — Let me get my glasses. Okay, so it said, I think I can't even like...

(audience laughing)

Leonard Asper — A pair of glasses, give me a pair of glasses.

These work? Oh, this is 2.5s?

Okay, good, I've got 1.5, right?

Well, Robert, Brandeis University celebrates and honors Robert Herjavec for his leadership in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation. The Aspen Center for Global Entrepreneurship, April 27th, 2023, thank you very much.

Robert Herjavec — Thank you very much.

Leonard Asper — Thank you, this is, yes, the last thing. I like that. The last thing I'd like to thank, actually, Chadha, former and fantastic for the prop of the glasses, PwC Consulting, longtime friend, CEO and CFO of many companies. Thanks for coming and providing the prop.

Robert, thank you, it's all yours.

Philippe, take it away.

Philippe Wells — Great, thank you so much.


Okay, here we are. Well, I know everyone wants to hear from Robert, not from me. And I know you guys have a lot of questions, but I did wanna kick it off with one question just 'cause I was reading through Robert's book, "You Don't Have to Be a Shark".

And one thing that really stood out to me, just the image of it. It's the Herjavec cold shower approach just thinking about launching your own business.

And Robert has a bunch of things he goes through in the cold shower approach. And I just wanted to ask one other thing, which is in "Shark Tank", the goal, the end is to get the money, to sign the deal.

But as we know, that's actually the beginning, really, of the journey. Like, you surmount this hurdle, and then it's hurdles, and hurdles, and hurdles, and hurdles. So I just wondered if you could kick it off, maybe, and talk a little bit about your experience with the entrepreneurs and how you kind of manage that process of communicating, inspiring, and conveying to them that, "You know what? Great, now let's roll up our sleeves"?

Robert Herjavec— Yeah, can you guys hear me? I just wanna make sure everybody can.

Oh, that's great. Thank you.

First of all, I wanna thank everybody for the award. It means a lot to me. You know, it's always nice when you get recognized for good work, and especially giving back, and especially when you get recognized by someone I respect and admire as much as Len.

So thank you for the kind words, Len. And I love how you embarrassed your son in front of the entire class. That was classic.

You know, "Shark Tank" is really, we've become such a cultural phenomena.

For those of you that don't know, Kevin, the mean bald guy, and I are Canadian. And we actually started the show in Canada almost 20 years ago.

So think about that. We've been doing that format for 20 years now. And you can count on one hand how many TV shows have lasted for that long.

So I just wanted to give you that context, like, it's incredible. And I'll never forget in the first season, we were at a launch party with ABC watching the first premier. And by the way, I've only ever seen one full episode. I find it very difficult to watch myself on TV.

And right now, I'm seeing myself in a split screen with you guys, and it's freaking me out because in my mind, I feel I look like Brad Pitt. But when I see myself on TV, I say, "Who is that guy? He kinda looks like Robin Williams."

So that there's this whole disconnect for me around that. But I was at this viewing party, and the head of Data Analytics from ABC was standing next to me. And the show comes on, and I said to him, "What do you think?"

And he was very unemotional, he's a data guy. His job is to decide from an analytics perspective if the shows will get picked up.

So this was our first episode, we shot the entire season, and I said to him, "What rating do we need to get in order to get a second season?" And he looked at me, and he said, "You need a 1.8."

And I said, "Oh, if we don't get a 1.8 tonight, there won't be a season two." He looked at me, and he said, "If you don't get a 1.8, there won't be a second episode."

(audience chuckling)

Robert Herjavec — That's how brutal American TV is. It is one of the most competitive businesses out there. It's extremely fickle because everybody wants to copy a good idea, and most people are afraid to do something new.

"Shark Tank" was new. And one of the things we never saw happening was that families would love our show.

We are the number one show on television for family viewing. It's one of the few shows that a mom, a dad, a kids can watch. And when I say kids, I mean, like, eight-year-old kids. Like, I'll be walking down the street, and I have, like, eight-year-old kids come up to me and say, "Oh my god, Mr. Herjavec, I love the show. I've been watching since I was little."

And I'm like, "How long have I been doing this?" Anyway, what I love about your question is, you know, most people who've never started a business think of business or entrepreneurship as a state in time, meaning you start the business, it begins and it ends.

Or you become wealthy, it begins and it ends. Or some magical thing happens, and you cross through a magical door, and it's, you know, unicorns, and puppy dogs, and sprinkles for the rest of your life. And what you learn is it's really constant forward momentum.

The great businesses that I've met and seen are the ones that are constantly adapting. If you could put the changes in life, in your personal life, in business, in macro conditions, if you could quantify all of that as an economist on a spreadsheet, everybody would be a successful entrepreneur.

What makes it hard is the uncertainty. Stuff changes all the time. It's the dynamic nature of running a business.

And, you know, we on "Shark Tank" have become really good friends, all of us. Well, five of us except one. I won't tell you which one. But we actually talk about this stuff because we love business we love. And people think we love money.

And don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with money. And I love cars, and I love airplanes, and I love to play at life. But what I really love is creating something. There is such an incredible satisfaction to have an intangible idea that doesn't exist.

And starting a business, and building a team, and walking in and seeing your name, whether it's your name or a name that you created, and creating life, I just, nothing beats that.

And once you do it, and you're successful in your terms, forget anybody else's terms, nobody can ever take that away from you. And that's the one thing we always say.

You know, we say, "If you lost it all tomorrow, could you do it again?" And maybe it's a little bit of arrogance, but all of us are like, "Yeah, absolutely, I would do it again."

But partly 'cause we love doing it, like, we love the game. And, you know, Mark Cuban always says this, "Great winners are great competitors, and they love to play the game."

Philippe Wells — Great, thank you, great answer. Who wants to ask the first question? All right, Sohun.

You have to actually come up here to the front.

Robert Herjavec — Woo-hoo, let me see him.


Philippe Wells — You better not have pitch deck on there.</v>

Robert Herjavec — If it's a really good idea, I'm investing Len's money.

Philippe Wells — Yeah, (laughing) that's a great idea.

Sohun Sanka — Hi, Robert, it's nice to meet you. So my question was specifically revolving around the scope of my role that I'm doing right now. So I'm currently a digital marketer tasked with the testing and adoption of AI marketing tools for my agency, and I just wanted some advice on how to create use cases since there aren't many specific references for adoption of AI within an agency.

Could you provide me some advice on communicating potential business impact to stakeholders, testing methodologies, and process design for this?

Philippe Wells — Let's just stay with part of it. Let's just do one.

Could you, just one part?

Sohun Sanka — We'll distill it. Could you provide me, yeah, for an AI adoption and testing, could you provide me advice on how to communicate potential business impact to stakeholders?

Robert Herjavec — So let me put all of that into, like, one bucket for you.

So right now, I'm at an FBO in San Francisco, and the biggest computer show in our space was going on this week. It's still going on. It's called RSA.

And I rarely go to computer shows to get great ideas 'cause it's the old Wayne Gretzky thing. You know, if everybody's skating to the pockets, probably too late. You wanna go to where the puck's gonna be kinda thing.

But I love going to the shows to see what people are talking about, what the buzz is,'cause I think you've gotta understand the pulse of the business community.

So I say that because every booth, every second person was talking about AI, like, it, you know, last year, everybody was talking about cloud adoption.

The year before that, people were talking about, you know, identity or the lack of a perimeter. So just for context, I own a pretty large cybersecurity firm. We're probably one of the largest in our space in the world. So we're deep in this.

My worry about AI, in general, is everybody is talking about AI. It is probably the most overused, buzziest word out there. And I kinda have a general rule of thumb that tells me the technology is waning is when the guy who cuts my hair starts asking me about a technology.

I always worry that I'm late to the game.

So when I got into cybersecurity, and I sold my second business in it, everybody was talking about the internet, including the guy who cut my hair.

He's like, "Oh, I'm gonna start an internet company. Do you think this internet thing is gonna be hot?" I'm like, "I gotta get out of this. It's time to sell."

My general view about AI is that it's heavily misunderstood.

So in our world, we deal with mass amounts of data. So the basis of what we do is we take in logs, so think of a log like an electronic fingerprint. Every time you touch your computer, every time you touch a tablet, every time you do anything electronically, that is a unique fingerprint, which we call a log.

We take those logs in and correlate them to make sure no one's attacking you online.

I'm oversimplifying it, but think how many billions of logs an average enterprise creates in a single day. So we've been using deep learning, and mission learning, and all kinds of technologies for years in order to be able to make sense of that.

Now all of a sudden, everybody has AI. Microsoft has AI, Google, two days ago, announced the new AI engine, has a plugin for something. I'm not really sure where that world is going. I do think of it in more simplistic terms.

To me, it's the ability to make sense of massive amounts of data and create use cases around that.

So digital marketing in our world is really about creating a presence online to create inbound leads.

I don't know how your company looks at it, but in our space, that's the big push for digital marketing is we wanna create the top of the funnel, where we get lots of leads, build activity, and then those customers come in, and we convert them for something.

So we use a lot of deep learning data, AI type stuff to try to understand that customer journey. Meaning if somebody clicked on something, how long did they stay, where did they go?

And then where did they show up afterwards? Meaning did they fill out a form? Did they show up as a lead with one of our salespeople?

And then we combine all of that data with other tool sets, which I'm sure you know, things like 6sense and all kinds of other tools to try to provide, so if somebody clicks in from Chubb Security, we try to understand has anybody from Chubb Security looked for this kind of information? How many people have hit our website? And we try to track those patterns.

Anyway, really long-winded answer to tell you, I think that I would focus more on the digital marketing component of it, and the output, and the value that I get out of it from using data as opposed to just AI. I think it's the application of large-scale data against marketing problems, and then how does my customer benefit from it?

Philippe Wells — Thank you. Okay, Omar.

Omar Abuhamdeh — Hi, Robert, I was hoping you might be able to speak to the differences you see it between, you know, this concept of, I think, working really hard, long hours, a lot of stress, and working effectively in a way that kinda brings about real outcomes.

Robert Herjavec — Great to meet you, Omar. Thanks for your question.

It's a balance. I think, so Kevin and I just had this argument, where Kevin believes everybody should work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and if not willing to do that, "They should be fired and burn in hell," or something to that effect, as I think he called it.

I think it depends on what stage in life you are and what you want out of that stage in life. So I think as an entrepreneur, you need to make a decision what's more important to you at that point in your life. Meaning is balance in your life really important to you in your 20s, in your 30s, 40s?

Or is quality of life, including a certain type of financial background, more important to you? Nobody can make that decision for you, by the way.

For me, the decision was relatively easy because we were very poor. So I didn't go into my 20s thinking, "Quality of life, how hard do I work?" I just didn't want to be poor anymore.

But I didn't think about being rich, I didn't understand what rich meant. I just didn't want to be poor. So I was willing to work literally 20 hours a day for years in order to gain a foothold so that later in life, I would have the freedom to live my life the way I want to.

Now, the irony out of all that is I still work 20 hours a day, but I really, really love what I do. But the difference is, in my 20s, I had no choice. It was either be poor, stay in your position in life, try to get ahead.

Now, I have a choice that I can live any way I want, and I choose to do it because I'm probably not very good at anything else, and I feel like we're building a great business, and it's exciting.

You know, two years ago, with this business, we were a company of 200 million and 200 people. And two years later, we're a billion dollar company with a thousand people. Like, that to me, is exciting. And so I'm really, really into it, and I love to compete.

But it's really true, somewhere on your journey, it's not about working harder, it's about working smarter.

In fact, at my board meeting just last week, what my board said to me, and we have a lot of really smart people on my board, they said to me, "You're not giving yourself enough time to think," because I've gotten into the weeds so much that every day I come in, every moment of my day is super busy and super planned out.

And now, I'm starting to schedule blocks of time, where I literally do nothing. And in that time, I find I'm more creative, and I create things that maybe other people don't see.

But in my 20s, man, I just worked like hell. I didn't know anything, I didn't know anybody. I had no money. And so I just had to outwork everyone else in the room.

Omar Abuhamdeh — Thank you.

Philippe Wells — Thank you, thank you.

And I understand it's actually Emil had his hand up before, and then we'll do Sion-Grace, and then we'll do Neil.

Emil — Hey, Robert, my name is Emil, fellow.

Robert Herjavec — Hey, Emil.

Emil — I had a question because we talk a lot about success. You know, entrepreneurship usually has a connotation of being successful, making money, but this may seem a little bit of a basic question, but I'm just curious if you could speak on, specifically, you know, a big failure that is very notable to you and how you overcame that.

And the reason I asked is because as students, you know, we're entering a potential market where it seems turbulent, you know. The outlook may not seem so positive. And coming out into that market, whether you wanna start a business, or come to a job, or look for a job, you know, wanted to hear your thoughts on what that kinda mindset is like and what, you know, if someone were to feel failure, go through failure, what were some things that you'd recommend that person to do?

Robert Herjavec — Yeah, it's a great question.

You know, I do think it's challenging right now in the market. But interesting side note, most of us, Mark Cuban, Daymond, Kevin, we all started great businesses in times of great upheaval. And I've often thought about this, "Why is that?"

And somebody said to me the other day, "Great change rarely benefits the incumbent." So think about that. Yeah, it's hard out there.

Things are changing. You've got the regional bank issue. You've got a potential recession. Someone is gonna benefit. The question is which of those sectors are gonna benefit and which are gonna stay the same?

And I've really thought about that because just because you're big doesn't guarantee success. So I think a lot of incumbents are gonna change. Here's an amazing stat for you. 50% of the Fortune 500 companies on the current list weren't there 15 years ago.

So just think about how big you have to be to get onto Fortune 500 list, and 50% of them don't exist anymore. Like, talk about change and upheaval. I think the mistake that I made is I always thought, and that's why I love your question, I always thought life is about being right.

How many times can I be right? How many times can I be successful? And what you learn is you are gonna fail way more than you're gonna succeed. Like, way more. But you only have to be right once, you know?

And Cuban has a great saying. He said, "You know, I've started a lot of businesses. A lot of them didn't work out, but I sold one for $6 billion." It's pretty good.

And, you know, I haven't quite got there yet, still working at it, but I can count on one hand the amount of great success I've had. I can't count the amount of failure. And it's not big failure because I think great entrepreneurs don't take bets that will kill you.

You know, the problem with death is it's pretty final. Once your company dies, it's really hard to come back from the dead. It's very, very difficult.

So yeah, I'm a risk-taker. Len's a risk-taker. Great entrepreneurs are risk-takers. But you wanna take smart risks. So yeah, I failed a lot. I mean, I remember times when I couldn't meet payroll. I remember a time I had to sell one of my collector Ferraris to meet payroll 'cause I had a shitty CFO, who did horrible cash planning, and called me on a Wednesday, and said, "We don't have enough cash to make payroll Friday."

And I love that Ferrari. But guess what? I love the company more. That car was gone like that. So lots of little failures like that along the way because, you know, if you're not failing, you're not pushing that limit, right?

It was the, who was it, Jacques Villeneuve who've said, "How do you know you're going too fast is when you spin off the track." And so you've gotta constantly pushing those limits without crashing the car, I guess, is the point, but yeah.

Emil — Thanks so much.

Robert Herjavec — Yeah, thank you.

Philippe Wells — Actually, just wanna take one quick question from online, which is, "What would you say to someone who is afraid to be an entrepreneur?" Right? That was the question.

Robert Herjavec — What I would say is the pain of your current situation isn't great enough.

And what I mean by that is, you know, I'm very comfortable talking to large groups of people. I do speeches for 5,000 people, 20,000 people. I think I'm one of the top cybersecurity people in the world.

There is no meeting I can walk into where anybody will intimidate me for anything.

That's me today.

At 20, I couldn't speak to another human being. I believed that, you know, typical Eastern European, I believe that people who put themselves out there were good at talking, were showy. I believe that if you're great at something, the world is gonna beat a path to your door.

What I learned is there is no such thing as genius in the darkness of a basement. The world is not gonna beat a path to your door. No one is going to find you. No one is gonna come magically out of the sky, and prick you out of obscurity, and make you great if you don't put yourself out there.

Now, that sounds easy, but you gotta picture, like, I was the geekiest, shyest, like, I literally couldn't talk to another human being. And then I, just one day, I said, "I really don't like my life. I really don't like being poor." And if it was just about me, I think I probably would've never changed.

What got me going or kind of kicked me in the behind was my parents left a communist country at 37 years old. My dad left jail, grabbed my mom and I, crossed the border to Italy. We had one suitcase, we ended up in Toronto. They gave up everything for me.

And when I say everything, we had no family, no friends, my dad was 37 years old, had, like, 50 bucks to his name, and didn't speak the language, and did it for me.

And I'm the only kid, and I'm 23, and I'm saying, "Oh, I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I can, you know. I don't wanna put myself out there."

And then finally I said, "Oh my God, what am I doing? I gotta make something of myself." And I didn't have visions about, you know, being rich or, you know, being worth X amount of dollars, or buying a jet.

Like, none of that stuff ever went through my head. I just needed to be successful in life. And so my answer is everybody in this room and everybody watching, you will have to do something to move your life fundamentally forward that may not be native or comfortable to you.

And at that point, you'll either do one of two things. You'll say, "It's too hard, I can't do it."

Or, "I don't wanna do it." Or you'll say, "The pain of where I am is too great." And trust me, you will change. Pain is the greatest motivator.

Philippe Wells — Thank you. Sion-Grace.

Sion-Grace Mendy — Yeah. Hi, Robert. Congratulations on your awards, and thanks for being here tonight.

My name Sion-Grace. And I'm a passionate, I have a great passion for Africa. I'm an entrepreneur with a great passion for Africa. By the way, tell Mark Cuban that I reached out to him. He still owes me an answer.

(Audience laughing)

Sion-Grace Mendy — So I just have to say, okay, and I love the show by the way.

Robert Herjavec — Thank you.

Sion-Grace Mendy — So my question, what advice or how can we connect with investors who to invest in Africa? Because as you know, Africa is this region that most people don't know about.

And yet, the returns are great because it's higher than other developing countries, and it's even higher than the developed economies. So I have this idea, I'm an entrepreneur, how can I connect with investors, and educate, and tell them that, "Yes, we're gonna take a chance on this, but it's gonna pay off."

Thank you.

Robert Herjavec — Thank you.

So your question is more how do I connect investors? Let's put Africa aside for a sec. I think there's a first step which is what are most investors looking for, right? And I think at its simplest level, and I'm not talking about people or funds that invest in specific regions, or government-backed funds, or those kind of things because there are funds you can go to, economic development funds and places like that, they'll invest in a region because that's their mandate.

So I'm putting those aside because I think you'll probably find what those are, and you'll approach those. I'm just talking about investors.

So before I wanna invest, who will invest in Africa, my question would be how do I get an investor and how do I prove to them that's something of value? Secondly, it happens to be in Africa.

So the first thing from an investor, what people look for is a return and risk. And the best way to prove to an investor that there's minimal risk is some element of a track record, some element of scale, some element of data.

So if you're telling me in this particular region in Africa, if I opened up a retail store or if I started selling a certain good, it will grow at a certain rate, show me some data for three months.

Like, show me a sliver of data that proves out a longer period of time. I think that one of the biggest mistakes that we see on the show and I see in general is people that are looking for investors want me to take a leap of faith.

They come in, they give me an idea,nand they don't have any data to back up that idea.

And if you ever watch the show, whenever we challenge people, but they come, "Oh you know, if you invest here, my sales are gonna be a million dollars.

If you believe in my T-shirt, we're gonna sell a million dollars the first year." And you'll always hear us say,"Well, have you sold any T-shirts?" And they're like, "Well, no, I haven't started." And we're like, "Why don't you go stand in the street corner and try it, like, sell three, sell four before you tell me you're gonna sell a million."

And then people come back, and they push back on this, and they say, "Well, no, no, no, no. If you know the T-shirt market is $10 billion, f I can just get 1% of 1%," and we hate that because big statements like that are like a leap of faith.

So I think there are a lot of people that are open to investing in non-standard regions, you know, in the US or Europe because they're very competitive. So it's not so much about the region as it is what's unique about your idea, or your business, or your product that happens to be in Africa.

And I think if you can combine those two things, show me a track record of some data, I think people are super interested. I mean, investors like to make money. I mean, that never goes away. Regardless of the macro conditions, that's a constant.

Sion-Grace Mendy — Thank you.

Robert Herjavec — Thank you.

Neil — Hello, hi, Robert, my name is Neil. Just gonna keep my question really short. Are there any habits that you recommend us, students, at this period of our life to develop to better prepare us for a successful career in the workforce?

Robert Herjavec — Discipline, you know, I think if you... Discipline and resilience.

So here's an interesting stat for you, Neil. Out of the five sharks, three of us had the same job in our 20s. Only one of us has an MBA. We all have different careers. You know, Barbara was in real estate, Daymond was in fashion, I was in cyber, Mark was a tech streaming guy.

But all, three of the five had one job in common. And believe it or not, it was debt collection. So all three of us, including me, three of us were debt collectors.

And I will tell you right now, it is the crappiest job you can imagine. Like, I'm going way back. Like, today, there's laws, there's certain things you can't say to people, but I worked in this huge boiler room, where you literally call people 'cause I don't know if you guys know this, but credit card companies take a percentage of their overall debt, ranges from, like, 1 1/2 to 3% depending on the card, and they sell that debt to credit collections companies for pennies on the dollar.

So if they have a million dollars of debt, they'll sell it for, you know, $80,000. And so what the debt company basically does is, "If we can get more than 80,000, we're making money." And back then it was like, "Pay your bill, Neil. You're, you know, we're gonna come to your house. We're gonna send the," like, it was, like, brutal.

And I only got the job because I couldn't get any other job in business. I was an artist, I have a degree. Believe it or not, I have a degree in classical English literature. Shockingly, there wasn't a lot of business jobs for people with classical English literature degrees.

So I was like, "Oh, I don't know what I'm gonna do with my life." My dad was like, "You'll never amount to anything! You can't even get a job!"

And the only job I could get was credit collections. But I did it for, gosh, almost a year and a half. And out of almost all the jobs I had except cyber, I learned so much.

The one thing I learned is resilience. Like, every call was crappy. But man, every now and then, there is a ray of sunshine. Starting a business, being an entrepreneur, going to school for four years or five years, it's not always sexy, and exciting, or romantic.

Building a great business is about all the little things you do for those one or two moments of, you know, sheer sunshine. So I think if you have the discipline and you can build a thick skin, which we call, which I call resilience, it's pretty hard not to succeed.

Neil — Thank you.

Robert Herjavec — Thank you.