How can I do things better? How do I become my own boss? What is the entrepreneur mindset?

These are questions innovators live daily. Learn from entrepreneur, Joe Gagliano, the “cliffs” he's jumped from and the impact that’s had in his life.

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Host

You're listening to the No Grey Areas podcast with Patrick McCalla. We welcome back Joseph N. Gagliano, author and creator of No Grey Areas. Joe provides advice on having an entrepreneurial mindset. Let's dove in.

Patrick McCalla

Joe Welcome back to the No Gray Areas podcast, which is actually named after your book in the movie that we're making about your life story. And we're actually let's let's before we even jump into the podcast about this entrepreneurial mindset we're going to talk about, we got to give a little update to the listeners on the movie

Patrick McCalla

. Right. So.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Sure.

Patrick McCalla

It's exciting. Are we just the scriptwriters is jumping in the third rewrite.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, we're that's pretty much been getting some really good reviews so far. We've had it out to a lot of professional screenwriters or reviewers, I should say, and it's coming along nicely. We're starting pre-production. We're starting casting, yeah.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And ideally, we're looking at starting to shoot a third quarter this year.

Patrick McCalla

Oh, I'm really excited. I know I've told you this several times, but every time I read the script and I'm now read it four times, I get more excited about it. I mean, there's obviously some changes and some things that they're going to do to make it better.

Patrick McCalla

But it's a fascinating story, cautionary tale, as we've talked about before, a story about, you know, this just this idea of restoration, redemption. It's just it's a beautiful story. So I can't wait to see it on the big beautiful.

Joseph N. Gagliano

It's something I haven't heard before. It was a painful journey, I can tell you that much. It's an intriguing story. A cautionary tale is something I really embrace. And I like to say because I think with my pain that I've gone through.

Joseph N. Gagliano

If we could help answer some questions or fill in some gaps for this our youth today, that's a cool thing to do. And that's really the purpose behind what we're doing here. We're making this film. It's not visions of grandeur or having a film about your life or some.

Joseph N. Gagliano

It's the purpose behind who we're doing it for and why we're doing it. And the partnership with Ambassadors of Compassion is a great it is a great cause trying.

Patrick McCalla

To reach a million students with this. And like you said, if if you could help some young people not make the mistakes that you made when you were 22, 23, 24 mistakes that in some ways you're still paying for today.

Patrick McCalla

That's really your heart. And I love that you have that heart to share that. And and Steven Headache Smith was part of it as well him being part of that. So. Well, let's jump into what we're going to talk about on this podcast today, that entrepreneurial mindset.

Patrick McCalla

And and you're perfect for this because I've always been fascinated by entrepreneurship and I think a lot of my life actually work with it in the social sector. You know, how do you solve issues? Okay. You're clearly from the business perspective on that.

Patrick McCalla

But the more I've gotten to know you, the more I realize you are. Just when God created you, He created you with that entrepreneur mindset that that spirit. I first learned that about you. My very first trip I took with you.

Patrick McCalla

I was just asking you questions about your life. And you do you remember this? You started to tell me about your one of your first jobs, Baskin Robbins, and you got fired from it because you called was the wrestling team?

Patrick McCalla

Yeah.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, I was on the wrestling team in high school and the owner let me close the store that night it was, you know, January or February and in Chicago. And I had some teammates from the wrestling team come in and.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Sure enough, the owner was in this car in the parking lot watching and he was watching the whole thing. Yeah. I gave away some free ice cream to my friends. Hmm. Thinking I was, you know, trying to be cool.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I don't know if I was just trying to be their friend or whatever it was. I just didn't ring up a couple of them. And he fired me on the spot. Yeah, I'd be on the spot. And it was a great lesson.

Joseph N. Gagliano

In a lot of ways. It's a lesson of integrity. Yeah. First and foremost. But it was also a lesson that, hey, I want to own that ice cream. Next time. I want to own it. I don't want to have someone tell me what I can do and what I can give away.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I want to own that. I want to be the owner of that store. So that was something that I figured out at an early age.

Patrick McCalla

Well, and most most of our listeners are listening. They're not watching, but they're watching. They could see a huge smile on my face as you were telling a story, because that's where I started getting inside of Joe Gagliano head.

Joseph N. Gagliano

God help. I know it's messy in there, but it's.

Patrick McCalla

Fascinating in there because, again, I don't think everyone would think of it that way. But that's where that entrepreneurial mindset came in, is where it's like, Hey, I don't you know what? If I want to give away ice cream, I want to own the ice cream, and then I get to decide if I want to give it

Patrick McCalla

away or not. Sure. That's a little bit of the entrepreneur mindset. So I looked up the definition of entrepreneur, and one of the first definitions I saw was a person who organizes and runs a business. A little lame because I think there's a lot of people that run the business.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I don't agree with that. That could be a h.r. Director in a company. It could be a manager of a of some type of industrial shop. He's basically running the business, but he has no risk.

Patrick McCalla

Yes, that's why I like the next one. A person who takes on greater than normal risks asks where we're starting it into an entrepreneur, right?

Joseph N. Gagliano

Correct.

Patrick McCalla

Like you didn't have a lot of risk when you were just running the ice cream shop for that manager. You had some risk when you started giving away for free.

Joseph N. Gagliano

But but the.

Patrick McCalla

Risk would be if you actually said, I'm going to own this ice cream.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah. You know, for me, the true definition of an entrepreneur is the guy that's going to jump off a cliff. And figure out how to build an airplane on the way down. We just got to figure out if you if you have a vision, you're going to figure it out.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yes. And you're going to put your head on the chopping block in Myanmar, unfortunately. And my wife will tell you this and my kids will tell you this, and people in my circle will tell you this. I'm a glutton for punishment.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I'm the type of knucklehead that'll jam that round peg into the square hole. Yeah, because I believe that Peg was meant for that hole. Now, the good thing about an entrepreneur and taking on that type of risk. Is you only have to be right one time.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And if you're right one time. It'll pay the dividends.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah, for sure. Well, you. Your life has been this way. I mean, from the time again, you were in like high school when you started figuring that out a little bit and you've jumped off a lot of cliffs and tried to figure out how to build a plane on the way down.

Patrick McCalla

Like, that's been consistently part of your life. But as to I would say what were were too many faith. The reason that I love this this topic is because in the very first chapter of the Bible, we see where it says, in fact, the very first verse, it says, in the beginning, God created he's the ultimate entrepreneur

Patrick McCalla

. He created. And then a couple of verses later we see where we were creating this image. So I think when people are living out that entrepreneur spirit, they're really living out the fingerprints of God in us as creators and inventors.

Patrick McCalla

So it makes sense. I mean, I love that about that. I see that in you. So here's what I want to do. It's going to be a little different today. Okay. I just have a list of quotes about entrepreneurship.

Patrick McCalla

I'm going to read one of them and then I want you just to give dialog on it. Okay. Maybe one statement might be a little bit longer. So here's the first.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Let's see how this goes. Yeah. Okay.

Patrick McCalla

So reject the tyranny of the picked. Pick yourself.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I'm going to bet on myself. Eight days a week. Eight days a week. No one's going to control my destiny. Yep.

Patrick McCalla

Here's another one. The ship you are waiting to come in may very well be the ship you need to build.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Once again, it gets back to controlling your destiny. I mean, to wait for that ship that's going to be on time may not be on time, maybe oversold, maybe overbooked. But if I build the ship myself, I'm going to take it.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Whatever the heck I want to take it. Yeah.

Patrick McCalla

Here's another one. Excellence isn't about working extra hard to do what you're told. It's about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Okay. It's working. Working smarter, not harder. You know the working class man? I've got a ton of mad respect for them. I could not do what they do. It's. I would fail miserably. But I looked on the flip side of that.

Joseph N. Gagliano

They could not do what I do. Like I will work smarter than. The physical person will work harder, and I don't know if that makes sense. It's certainly not meant to be condescending at all because what they do I know I can't do.

Joseph N. Gagliano

But on the flip side, what I do, I know they probably can't do. So hopefully that makes.

Patrick McCalla

Can we throw a story in there on this that would work perfect for it. Remember when you told me the story about when you almost car washes and that was early back? Don't tell that story because that that fits perfectly with what you're saying.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah.

Joseph N. Gagliano

So I was really blessed, had a great ride. We used to own all the shammy man car washes in town, you know, peak of operations we had at 13, 14 sites at 600 plus employees and I office at the store on Hayden and Thomas in Scottsdale.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I built that store and then I had a second floor office up there in the Saturday before Mother's Day, which Saturdays were usually, you know, the Holy Grail in the business. Yeah, better be washing cars on a Saturday or Sunday and it had rained on the Friday, which makes it even more glorious.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Right, because cars are dirty. And then the Saturday before Mother's Day happened to be Cinco de Mayo. So, you know, predominately a mexican crew, which I got mad love for the Mexican people, they are as loyal as can be if they're with you there, with you.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, I'm up in the office and I'm watching the cameras and I'm I don't know what I was working up there or doing some stuff and and all of a sudden I see cars like lined up around those block on Thomas Road right here.

Joseph N. Gagliano

So I go down there and I talked to my lead guy, ah, this kid, Alfonzo, one of the first guys I've ever hired. And he was down there and they were just so shorthanded. Nobody showed up for Cinco de Mayo.

Joseph N. Gagliano

So I said, okay, I'm going to help. Yeah, what a horrific idea that was. And so I said, okay, I'm not going to really do anything hard. I'm just going to drive cars off the conveyor belt to the front line and take the towels out of the washing machine and bring them to the front of the line

Joseph N. Gagliano

. Well, I tell you what, Pat, I probably lasted ten, maybe 12 cars. And I was like dripping sweat. It's May 5th, right? And I'm looking at this stuff and I finally I walk up to Alfonzo. I said, Hey, let's just close this.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Let's just close for the day. He said, Mr. Joe, we got this go up in your office again. He knew where you belong. Yeah, he knew exactly where my place was. Yeah. And that gets back to what I can do.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Open the office was different than what these guys can do down there. And I've got crazy respect for the working guys.

Patrick McCalla

It's not that one is right or wrong. It's. It's just how it really is.

Joseph N. Gagliano

How it's just how you're wired. So God wired us to be. Yeah, that's it. Yeah.

Patrick McCalla

Okay, here's another one. Here's another quote about entrepreneurship. It's not about having a map. Sometimes it's about drawing a map.

Joseph N. Gagliano

No, it's it's you know, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. If there was a road map to success that all you had to do was follow the blueprints. I mean, everyone would obtain success. Yeah, it's just not.

Joseph N. Gagliano

It's not.

Patrick McCalla

So. So. So an entrepreneur says, I'm going to go figure out how to.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Figure it out. And along the way, you're by the way, you're going to get kicked in the gut several dozen times. You're going to feel the depths of rejection several dozen times. But as I said earlier, you only have to be right one time.

Patrick McCalla

Which goes back to you may draw the wrong map once, twice throughout your life. Six times you're not. If you're going to.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Go, yeah, you're definitely going to. You know, what I like to say is, especially for the younger kids that are out there that are I have visions of being an entrepreneur. You're going to pay a lot of stupid tax along the way, a massive amount of stupid tax.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And but if you could build people around you that had paid those debts already is had paid that stupid tax have navigated different waters as to what's good and what's bad. And hey, don't go down that road because there's there's a whole bunch of bumps down that road.

Joseph N. Gagliano

It's going to cause you a heck of a lot more pain go this way instead. You know, that's where we get around our circle. Who's our circle? Who are we looking up to? Who who's guiding us? Yeah, that's what's important.

Patrick McCalla

You know, it's interesting that last point, we won't go down this road because we'll get off topic here. But the last few guests we've had on our podcast have talked about this idea of making sure that you know who's in your circle.

Patrick McCalla

So it's interesting you how you touch, you know, what we're talking about.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And you know what? Pat it. You know, I'll be 54 here in. 60 days. I think it is, hopefully. I know you just welcomed the 50.

Patrick McCalla

Clubs in the 50 club.

Joseph N. Gagliano

With congrats. Yeah, I. You know, I was talking to my wife Tracey about this a couple of days ago, actually, because I was talking to someone who is in my circle who I really care for. And on a personal level, he's got a heart of gold and a friendship level.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I know I can count on him eight days a week, but sometimes he doesn't really get work and a lot of people don't. And I finally, at the ripe old age of almost 54, I had this epiphany. And I said to Tracy, I said, You know what?

Joseph N. Gagliano

I'm finally coming to realize that most people don't really understand what the heck I'm saying. Hmm. She goes, You're just learning that now.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah.

Joseph N. Gagliano

It's like, I see it so clearly in my mind. It's like you and I talk about playing checkers or playing chess. Yeah. I'm constantly thinking down the road and playing chess where maybe some other people don't have that skill set, and they're thinking about, Hey, what do I want to have for breakfast tomorrow morning?

Joseph N. Gagliano

I'm not even, like, there at all. I'm thinking, what's going to happen three or four steps down the road after breakfast, so.

Patrick McCalla

Well, and Joe, that brings up a great point. I think that's another piece of of of an entrepreneur mind is that you are always paying playing chess. You're you're thinking four or five moves down. And again, it's not right or wrong, but there are a lot of people that are task oriented and they're thinking about the next

Patrick McCalla

thing. And you and they get a lot of work done.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Patrick McCalla

Stops.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And it's a curse. You know, I walk into a restaurant with my I could be with my wife and my kids and my in-laws, people I really care about. It could be with my friends. And we're going to have a nice dinner.

Joseph N. Gagliano

We're going to have bottles of wine. We're going to just be together, right? I can't sit there and enjoy the dinner. I got to think about how many employees are in this place. What's their average, their average per plate, how many hours they open?

Joseph N. Gagliano

Patrick McCalla

The end of dinner, you franchised that out, haven't you? Yeah.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I said, how can we do this bigger, better and better? Yeah. And that's a floor that I have. I'm breaking down models all the time to try to understand revenue versus expenses. You know, where they do in here, where they suffering, where can they improve?

Joseph N. Gagliano

And why can't I just go have dinner with my family and friends?

Patrick McCalla

You know, almost every entrepreneur I've met says the same thing, though. You're like, I can't turn my brain off. I can't turn my brain. I can't turn it off. So I've heard that that that must be another consistency with entrepreneurs.

Joseph N. Gagliano

It's a curse.

Patrick McCalla

It's a curse. Here's another one. People who make a difference never wait for just the right time. They know that it will never arrive. The right time will never arrive.

Joseph N. Gagliano

It's it's never going to come. You know, just like when young couples get married, they say, well, we want to have a family, but we have to wait for this. We have to wait for this. We have to get you know, we want two and a half kids.

Joseph N. Gagliano

We want a white picket fence around the house. It's never going to happen. Well, if I only had 50,000 in the bank, then we can go ahead and have kids. Okay, here's a newsflash. You get that 50,000 in the bank.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Joseph N. Gagliano

Patrick McCalla

The entrepreneur says I'm like you said, use the analogy you use earlier. I'm jumping off the cliff and I'm going to figure out how to build this as we go.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Dude, I'm ripping the Band-Aid off. I'm going in. I'll take the body punches along the way because I'm a glutton for punishment. Yeah.

Patrick McCalla

Okay. How about this one? I like this. This is this. This dates us, but it's a movie we both saw. Mickey is saying this to Rocky, and he says The worst thing happened that could happen to a fighter.

Patrick McCalla

You got civilized. Now, I put that in my entrepreneur folder because I think that sometimes how entrepreneurs work is they're uncivilized.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You really dug deep for this stuff, didn't you? Oh, I did. Going back to the seventies would rocky here. Right? Wow. That's you know what I think of when you say that, Pat? I think of success should not change a person.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You know, Jay-Z said more money, more problems. Yeah, that that's probably true. But success should not change a person. How you get success defined, the person that you were to get success if you done it with honor and integrity and everything else, you know, I'm going to preface it that way.

Joseph N. Gagliano

But just because you obtain success doesn't mean you should change, you know? And the biggest thing I know I've said this to you before, but I'll make sure I could say it here on tape as well. But it gets it.

Joseph N. Gagliano

It aligns perfectly with disciplines in life, disciplines in life. No matter what you're doing on a business level, whether it's business disciplines, whether it's trading disciplines, whether it's gambling disciplines, whatever it may be. So I liken it to if you're a a blackjack player.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Mm hmm. And you go to Vegas and you have success playing blackjack, and you're a consistent player where you play $100 a hand. And you have disciplines that you're following, whereas that if that dealer turns over a face card or a ten and you've got a six, you're going to hit it because you know.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Overwhelming odds are that you is going to have a tow and you're going to have a 616 and and it's a loser. So when you're playing a high roller hand and you always hit a six, and what happens when that same person who has success playing on hundred dollars a hand now jumps to the thousand dollar table

Joseph N. Gagliano

? Hmm. And now all of a sudden, the money starts dictating that person's success or that person's disciplines. So when that same person gets, he's got $1,000 bet out there and that six comes, and now all of a sudden he's scared or she's scared and second guessing whether or not she or he should hit that that that hand

Joseph N. Gagliano

. My response to that is you've got no reason to even be playing the game. If the money is going to dictate how you play the game or change your disciplines, you have no reason to play the game. So it's just what Mickey said to Rocky in that movie.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You went and got civilized. What got civilized changed because the money changed Rocky. But when Rocky got humbled, when what Uncle Paulie or his brother in law, Paulie or whoever it was, lost everything in the last one. When Rocky got humbled, he got back to who he was.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah. Rocky four where he goes and he starts training like he did in the first one.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, that's right.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah. Okay, so let's go back from the seventies. We're going to go back even further. Here's another quote. Sooner or later, Orville and Wilbur Wright had to jump in the plane and fly it. You can't keep things in the incubator forever.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Man. You can keep from going back to the drawing board. You get to these tech guys that are just always incubating new tech and and the market will always tell you what's going on. So if you got a concept, you got a thought, bring it to market.

Joseph N. Gagliano

The market will always speak what's going on, whether it's good, bad or indifferent, you'll know pretty quickly as long as you could protect the rights and make sure it's not going to get stolen or pilfered from you and everything else.

Joseph N. Gagliano

But there's no reason to keep things in the box. All they want is bring it out to market. Let the market tell you what you're going to do with it.

Patrick McCalla

That's good. Here's another one. If you always fit in, you are probably expendable.

Joseph N. Gagliano

These are great. Yeah. It's what's going to make you stand out. I mean, you're going to work for a corporate America. And a corporate America has. There's a. Hundreds of thousands of kids coming out of college. Yeah. That are all in that same.

Joseph N. Gagliano

That same demographic, that same group. The same look. They're going to wear their fresh tie to the interview. They're going to wear their their new suit to the interview. They're going to put their best foot forward. But they're there's nothing that's going to differentiate them.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Mm hmm. Oh. Do you want to be in the masses? Some people do, and that's great. I can't even get my mind around that.

Patrick McCalla

I know you can't. I know that. Okay. You're going to love this one. This is a quote by Alexander Graham Bell. And the reason you don't love it is because I hear you give a similar quote often. Bell said this When one door closes, another door opens.

Patrick McCalla

But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the ones which opened for us. Yeah. Now you have a window coat you use.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always say, you know, God closes the door, but opens up a window. Yeah. You just got to find the flip in window. He's never going to leave you alone. He's. He's always going to be there.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I know. He's always been there for my life, even with all these crazy pitfalls that I've gone through. But, yeah, you just got to find the window.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah, and that's an entrepreneur mindset, without a doubt. Which which I think, again, some people are wired as entrepreneurs, some aren't. But I think there's things that we can learn from entrepreneurs that we all need to do. And that would be one of them, wouldn't it?

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah. You know, something else I'd like to see all the time paid. It's never on our time, but it's always on time. We can take these body blows. We can get kicked in the gut. Things may not go the way we planned, but God's up there looking down at us saying He's laughing at our plan.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Our plan is meaningless. He's got the plan. We're just a steward. Well, we're on this earth for the poor. Maybe we get a a few blessings. Maybe we don't get blessings, whatever it is. But our planet is meaningless.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You know that as well as I do.

Patrick McCalla

Well, since we're making a movie right now, let me quote from a movie. This is a quote from Moneyball. The first one through the wall always gets bloody. Always.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Well, it's it's certainly not easy to pave your own path. You know, that is wild idea. Just because everyone's doing something doesn't necessarily make it right. So sometimes you gotta zig instead of zagging.

Patrick McCalla

And it's painful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's a here's one by Henry Ford. You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.

Joseph N. Gagliano

But you could lose a reputation pretty darn quickly. Yeah, but tell you that much. And I'm. I'm the poster child for that. That's for sure. I mean. As much good as I think I am my heart tells me to do in this world as much good as I think I may have done in this world.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I'm always the convicted felon that did because I didn't have the the moral compass dialed in at the young age of 23 years old to say no to something. So as much as he said, you know, the power building a reputation.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I flipped a script on that immediately, that, hey, you could lose it, right? Or you could lose it faster than it took you to build it.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah. And I think you bring up a great point, especially for anybody, but especially with entrepreneurs. If you're not careful in not grounding that entrepreneur mindset in integrity and honesty and those type of things, those character qualities can get yourself in a mess square.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah. Yeah.

Patrick McCalla

For sure. Yeah. Well, this one touches on something. You've already mentioned another quote. When it comes to entrepreneurship, the concept of zero failures is worse than useless. It's counterproductive.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You're gonna fail. There's no doubt about it. I mean, there's a few of those unique, unique situations where people went out there and. You know, stepped in and goal from from day one. But that's more than likely not going to happen.

Patrick McCalla

Now that and that's again this goes way beyond entrepreneurship but isn't that a truth that we need to try to get our young people to understand is they're coming up in life, they're starting to think about their futures, whatever, that it's not if you fail, it's when it's.

Joseph N. Gagliano

When. And that's the beauty of the entrepreneurial mindset at a young age where you get these kids that graduate college or they don't graduate college, they go try to go into the workforce right out of high school. And they're just laser focused on, I got to get a good job.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I get my resume doing this and that's fine. But the the the rub that I have with that is that what they have on their side versus what someone like me or not so much you because you're younger?

Joseph N. Gagliano

Barely. Yeah. Barely is. Right. They don't we don't have the time on our side to make a mistake. You know.

Patrick McCalla

I.

Joseph N. Gagliano

We were what.

Patrick McCalla

You're saying.

Joseph N. Gagliano

1825 when I talked to your son Kyle all the time. It's I said, Cal, don't be afraid to make a mistake, because, you know, what's the worst thing that can happen? You fail, but you got so much time to figure it out.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I think it's the def. It's the quasi definition of insanity if you if you fail. But yet you've learned something. And if you could take away a nugget or two and learned and not duplicate that same mistake again, you will your your chances of obtaining success are greater.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And you know what? Maybe you don't have success at the age of 21. Maybe you get kicked in the gut a few times, but maybe get kicked in the gut again. On your second entrepreneurial venture at 25. But now you're a little wiser at 27.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And you know what? You fail three times in a row. But gosh, your fourth time at the age of 30, you got some good. Background behind you. You've got the right people around you. You've got some great experiences that you've learned from in the past, and your chances of success are greater at that point because they had

Joseph N. Gagliano

time on their side. If all of a sudden you or I go out and try to become an entrepreneur at the age of 50 because I'm going to leave my corporate job that I've had for 20 years that's paying me every Friday and I feel warm and fuzzy with it.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And now I'm going to try to go take my nest egg that I've made for 20 years working for corporate America to try to go open up a business. And he fails at the age of 55 or 56.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, he's in trouble. A little.

Patrick McCalla

Harder.

Joseph N. Gagliano

That person's in trouble.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah. He's hoping for Social Security to kick in pretty soon. Yeah.

Patrick McCalla

Well, and that brings up a great point that the less runway you have in front of you.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah.

Patrick McCalla

The less you're probably going to be willing to risk.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You know, without a job.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you resonate with this one. Entrepreneurs are always restless.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Not 100%. My mind doesn't stop. And I truly believe I personify entrepreneur because yeah, you do it every different do wants is I'm a I don't want to say a 30,000 foot guy, but I'm probably a 10,000 foot guy where I've learned to trust in a lot of people around me that are detail guys that, you know

Joseph N. Gagliano

, I get a 50 page contract with me. I'll I I've got so much trust in some attorneys that just read it, you know, make sure these bullet points are in there, but just read it because I don't want to read it.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, but yeah.

Patrick McCalla

Always restless, always want to more to more. And these are the these are so Joe, you could almost say. Joe Gagliano And then have this quote underneath it.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Oh boy.

Patrick McCalla

Either you're in or you're in the way too.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You're either with me or you're not. Yeah, it's, it's, yeah. But I will say at the age of 53, I'm a lot more patient, which you've seen me go ballistic. Right? So if I'm saying I'm patient now, just imagine how impatient I was really earlier.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've, I've matured a lot bit, which is, doesn't really say much.

Patrick McCalla

No, that's.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Good because I don't have, I don't have tolerance if, if I. My tolerance is probably a bad word, but I don't have patience. If I think someone's on my team, but then they're not committed. Yeah, yeah. You're either in or you're out.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah.

Patrick McCalla

And I think a lot of entrepreneurs that were listening would go there. Yeah, that's so true.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You.

Patrick McCalla

We're going. We can do this. We can take this here. Are you with me? Are you in? Or if you're not?

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, but you know, the thing of it is, there's certainly not an entrepreneur out there that can claim 100% success for what they accomplished, even if it was a guy that had a gizmo or a gadget or some type of intellectual property that he created himself, he still had to rely on the trademark attorneys, the patent attorneys

Joseph N. Gagliano

, the attorneys in some capacity, the accountants. It's a collective team effort, no matter what it is. So if you're if that team is not all in with you, if that team's questioning you or questioning your vision or questioning your moral compass, it may be I don't want them on my team.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I don't think too many people, but I don't think anyone that's successful is going to want someone that's not committed.

Patrick McCalla

That's true. Yeah. If someone went and read the book about Steve Jobs or watched the movies about Steve Jobs, you know, one of the extreme entrepreneurs, they would find exactly what you're saying. Yeah, it wasn't just him.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You know.

Patrick McCalla

There was a team. It was a group of them.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And he was ruthless. He did? Yeah. He didn't tolerate much of anything.

Patrick McCalla

Yeah. You talk about either you're in the way or you're either you're in or in the way. Yeah, that would be him and and he matured some over his his time as well, but. All right, last one. We've all been told to not bite off more than we can chew.

Patrick McCalla

But wouldn't you rather choke on greatness than nibble on mediocrity?

Joseph N. Gagliano

You know, I think about security and I think about security in the false sense of security, I should say. So tying in what we talked about with entrepreneurial entrepreneurism and being an entrepreneur and and a sense of security, it's a false sense of security.

Joseph N. Gagliano

So you go out and get a job. You go out to get a job and you get a paycheck every Friday. And you feel this warm sense of security that me and I, I just had to wake up at 8:00 am to be at the office at nine.

Joseph N. Gagliano

I had to punch my clock out at five. I had to go home Monday through Friday. And I got that check on the end of I got that check every Friday and that's great. That's what makes this country what it is.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And this country is flippin amazing, the hardworking people that make this country go. But it's a false sense of security because the people that own that business. Now, granted, there's going to be a relational stuff there. There's going to be people that are vital to the company.

Joseph N. Gagliano

But if that guy got it, that ownership wanted to downsize or their business wasn't pertinent anymore or valuable anymore, or they hit some type of skids with a lot of these companies did during COVID or somebody wanted to buy them.

Joseph N. Gagliano

What do you have left? Yeah. So it's a false sense of security because you're getting a paycheck every Friday or twice a month or whatever it may be. Rather than the entrepreneurial mindset that's going to control your own destiny.

Joseph N. Gagliano

Yeah, you're going to sink and swim on your own tuition. You know, it's like. Owning a house instead of renting a house. Okay. That landlord can't wake up one day and say, gosh, I'm going to get by tenant out of there because my my niece needs a place to live in Arizona.

Joseph N. Gagliano

And then what you're stuck with, if you're renting that house, you're stuck with trying to find a new place or battle some landlord in court. And good luck on that. So it's the same thing where. You know, if you're working for a company and you enjoy what that company is doing, why not try to do it yourself

Joseph N. Gagliano

? Yeah, and I don't know, Pat, it's a lot of people may not agree with that. It's just I don't agree with someone else that doesn't agree with it. Yeah, well, and that's.

Patrick McCalla

Why I'm smiling again. Those that are watching see me smile really big when you said that, because you're like, why not go do it yourself? That's the entrepreneurial mindset. And again, this this has been a school like maybe 30 minutes or whatever we've been on here.

Patrick McCalla

All the listeners just got a 30 minute schooling in entrepreneurship and it's great. But again, it's it's part of the fingerprints of God on how he made you. Again, the Bible starts with in the beginning, God created he created you in his image.

Patrick McCalla

And you as an entrepreneur are a creator and inventor. And it's one of the things I love about you, Joe, so thanks for sharing some of those ideas and thoughts with us. I know we all learn something. Thanks, Joe.

Joseph N. Gagliano

You got it.

Host

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