Colin's mentor Randy Curran, former owner of Superfeet, told him bluntly: "you suck and you're not successful." The wake-up call led Colin to monthly solo lunches for reflection and a mentorship style built on honest self-assessment instead of bluffing.
My conversation with Randy Curran from Superfeet completely changed the way I looked at my career, my life, my business. And very simply, I went to meet Randy at a restaurant. I consider Randy one of my mentors. He's run a very, very successful company. He no longer owns Superfeet, but I'll never forget sitting there and he came into the restaurant and he said to me, Colin, sorry, I don't have time to sit down with you today. I know that's 90 minutes we booked together. By the way, I'll be back in 90 minutes. But I'm gonna ask you some really serious questions when I get back. I want you to think you're meant to have lunch by yourself. And I still to this day now I have lunch on the 30th of every month by myself, no phone, no nothing to think about it because it changed my trajectory. He came back 90 minutes later. And he said to me, Colin, tell me, how are things? I said, things are super successful, Randy. He said, so let me ask you a question. Are you paying yourself what you want? Are you making the money you want in your business right now that you want? Are you taking the time off that you want? Are you spending the time with your kids that you want? I said, no, I'm not, Randy. He said, stop bluffing yourself. You suck and you're not successful. And I'd sat there and I was like, wow, how can you be so rude? How can you be so blatant? That changed my trajectory completely because I started to look at things going, if I'm going to be a mentor for others, I need to be able to call them on their stuff. Randy called me on my stuff that day. Every decision I make around success, I keep on thinking about Randy. I've got like this little Randy bird on my shoulder. Remember, don't bluff anyone. Don't bluff yourself the most.
