Episode #736 - Staying Balanced As An Entrepreneur with Orrin Klopper, CEO of Netsurit

Welcome to this edition of the million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

Time zones don't do impact things. And now as you, how is your, your. So your family has been very pleased with your success. It's, it's got to feel, it's got to mean a lot to your mother. It's got to mean a lot to you for her to see your success. You bring her over, you take her on a tour of all the offices.

No. So, so no. My mom was very proud of me and you know, so she, she passed in 2016 but, but she saw a whole lot of the growth and the success, you know, so in the early days when I, when we weren't making enough money to pay the bills, she would get me to come and train her how to use a computer. And so that was a way for her to support the business and for me to a little bit of extra income. So I would go and train her. I mean she gave me a loan. I mean the equivalent today is probably like $3,000 back in the early days of the business. And so she was, she was unbelievably proud. And my dad, my dad passed last year, but also led a full and an amazing life. So there was this article I was, when we reached a certain milestone, the South African version of Entrepreneur magazine. I was on the front cover.

Wow. Congratulations.

No, thank you. This was quite, quite a while ago and my dad had this copy so anybody come to the house, he would, he would take this thing out and show them and tell them so. They were both unbelievably proud and yeah, I miss them. Man, I wish they were here to see, you know, to see where things have grown to. But I know in their time they found a lot of pride in, in, in, in, in what we were able to achieve. Business.

What, what do you do to keep your personal, you know, the, your, yourself balanced personally.

Yeah, so, so the number one goal in my dream book talks around this exact thing and it's about, it's going to sound boring or, or, but it's about discipline and habits. So I've literally got a series of, of things that I know if I do daily. Okay. That you know, it's, and it's really also around self love. So the best dad I can be or husband or colleague or friend or brother or whatever relationship I hold dear is if I'm showing up as the best or. And I can be. And so some of those things are, is a stretching routine I do. I write in my gratitude journal. I exercise. My eating is a very, very, very important thing I have on my dad's side of the family. We can put on weight, literally at the. I can look at a burger and I can put on pounds, okay? So I have to put a lot of energy into thinking about what I eat. So there's a whole lot of things that I know if I do these things, I'm going to be the best RN I can be. And my daughter Larry was born. I was 45 when she was born. I only have one child, so I'm going to be 66 when she's 21. So I'm going to make sure that I can, you know, dance with her at her 21st and I can hopefully, you know, be there for as much of her life as possible. So we put a lot of energy into health and fitness. I go for regular medical assessments. I mean, I did a full angio gram this year and I plan to do it every year. So just be as proactive around my health and the things that feed my soul so I can be the best.

Orin, how are you? How do you keep your, how do you track your time at the business to make sure you're not consumed at the office?

So I work, I work, I travel a lot. So like I'm sitting now in a, in a house I'm staying in in New Orleans and I've been working in here for the last three days. So I, I'm. And I'm. Multiple time zones. We've got an advisory board member in London. We've got the South African office. We've got the office, we've got, you know, so multiple time zones. So I'm juggling this all the time. And you know, by Microsoft Outlook, you can only put three time zones. If you use the new version, you put more. I don't like the new version. So, like, I'm constantly juggling, juggling time zones. So it's a kind of. So Sundays I don't make any commitments. Sundays is my day to recharge the mornings generally. I don't have a lot of meetings in the mornings. I use that for quality thinking time and actually getting things done. And then I've got some of time that I, that I keep focused on specific goals and objectives. And yeah, I really prioritize my family. Let me put it this way. Having lost my dad and my mom and other family members and knowing how fleeting life is, I feel I'm the most present I've ever been. And for example, when I'm with my daughter, I really feel present. And I think that's one way of knowing if I'm getting the balance right.

Yeah. Do you find that you talk about your traveling. Do you find that it's important for you to be in and out of those main offices on some kind of cycle? You know, one of the things is the, you know, of course, virtually we can, we can be there on a regular basis. But they used to say before the zoom world hit was the, the footsteps of management was the best fertilizer. You know, you need to be walking through the outlying offices. And because of that, like Sam Walton with Walmart, he flew his own private plane, his own little one single in as Cessna I think it was. And he would fly in and out of these little airports and have somebody, the store manager come over and pick him up and they, they'd have an instant meeting inside the, you know, close the, close the Walmart and they'd have an instant team meeting right there in the lobby type thing. But he was constantly flying around like that. Do you find that that's important for you or is it seeing clients or. It's just, you know, one thing is, it's just, you know, people ask me if I travel much and I always said no. And then, you know, but actually yes, I do. It's just one of these, one of those, one of those, one of those, one of those. And it adds up to a full schedule. But I don't have a regular committed schedule that I have to travel to. You know, I never, never had that. How about you?

No. Look, so, I mean, I made the decision in 2020 when my daughter was born as Covid broke to move back to South Africa. So I traveled to New York every single month. So I'm on a plane a lot. I'm one of the few United Premier 1K members that's often in economy class. I have, I'm very frugal. I don't want to. I often get upgraded using points and so forth. So I'm on a, I'm on a plane a lot, I travel a lot. The mass, the sheer mass of the rate at which we're growing and what we're trying to do for me to get to customers and to people is just old people. It's just not possible. In the old way, we used to operate so pre covered. We were, we were like an in office culture and I was Living in New York, if I wanted to work on a Saturday or Sunday, I went to the office. That was just how I thought, okay. Now, I very seldom go to the office, very seldom. I've got a home office in South Africa. I've got a home office in, in New York. I've got, and then I work on the road, you know, wherever, wherever, wherever I need to. So I've had to let go of a whole lot of those dynamics. The one way we do connect is through these, the Dreams program and the Dream Connect. But that being said, Larry, I think we are still resting on or benefiting from how connected we were. And there are a whole lot of those people that are still there. And I think we need to apply our minds around this remote work dynamic because, like, as a young person coming into an industry and you kind of join a company and you just sit at a desk at home. Right. I don't, I don't think, I don't think that's right. I don't think that's going to create the pace of growth and the connectedness that you could if you were in an office. But in the same breath, Larry, we had some people that were commuting to go to our office in Manhattan two hours a day.

Yeah.

What can you do to find two hours in your day for the rest of your life? It's like, I can never force those people to go back into the office. So, yeah, I, I, I, I travel a lot and I don't go and see everybody in person. But when I do, it's unbelievable and it's inspirational for me, and it creates another level of connectedness. So I think we need to do more of it. But I have to protect my balance, and we have to protect the balance of our people.

Well, that's why, yeah, but that's why, Oren, people in your position, you know, at a certain point, you know, it's your, your health and your this, that and the other. But. Right. Writing and economy from South Africa. Good Lord, you got. Well, one thing is, it's a reward for keeping your weight off, because if you had an extra weight filling up those little tiny seats. But, you know, that's why people like you buy jets. You know, they jet all over, you know, so they could, you know, at some point that might be a, a smart thing for you to do if you keep expanding, you know. Another if you double again.

Yeah, you know, sure. No, so we, we, we, you know, one of our advisory board members is a pilot as a plan, and another acquisition Opportunity we're talking to has and you can see the, the benefits and, and so forth. So. Yeah, I suppose I, I kind of still feel we're working progress.

Right, sure, yeah, feel that way, you know, and so, and, and, and I.

Do, I do sometimes get that upgrade, you know, so I'm not always, but it's, but there's something in it. Look, my super, one of my superpowers is sleep. When I travel with my daughter like I did now, I, I managed to get us all upgrades because traveling with her in economy and then her not sleeping and me not sleeping, and then I gotta hit the ground running when, but, but yeah, maybe next year we can make it a rule that for the long haul flights, we fly business cars.

There you go. Hey, do you have a dream of, of getting your own ranch in South Africa?

No, no, not. I, I don't. I have. Look, I love, I love South Africa. I love the coast, coastal areas of South Africa. So I could imagine at some point having a home somewhere on the beach.

Would, would, would, would be beautiful.

But I'm also kind of one of those people that the less I have, the more I have type dynamic, you know?

That's true.

So I've never been very, very materialistic from that perspective, but I think a home somewhere on the beach in South Africa would be amazing.

Absolutely. Thanks for your time. This has been really fun, really educational, and I'd love to do it again down the road. But what I, I know you got a full week in front of you and so we're going to let you go, but I always let my guests have the final word, and it's kind of a reward for the people who wind up listening all the way through. And so what would you add or want people to have as a takeaway for our conversation today if they're wanting to either expand their business or want to get a business of their own and make the job, what, what would you have them focus on?

Yeah, I think from the beginning in, in, in our business. And it's, it's a big part of what I, what I focus on today is I think the most successful entrepreneurs are those that are not doing it alone and that can look back and see the great choices they made as far as the people they either partnered with or hired. So that, I think is the one thing that I've learned and been unbelievably grateful for. And then the last thing I would want to add is, Larry, I've probably done 40 podcasts, and the way you navigated this conversation. Conversation. I spoke about things I've some of the things I've never spoken about before. And it's just you have this way of asking questions in such a real and authentic way that made it unbelievably fun for me. So I just, I just want to say, I just want to thank you. I really enjoyed talking to you. And you, obviously you're really good at this, you're a natural. But you ended up getting me to talk about things I've never spoken about on a podcast before. So thank you.

That's. You're very kind and you are very appreciate those comments. And it only worked because you were willing to go along with it and so to open up. So thanks so much. Wishing the best for the company. From what I hear, from what I'm hearing, you've really got a solid foundation and there's no reason, you know, the industry you're in, the opportunity there, the way that you have structured your company, there's no reason I'm hearing any kind of signals that you should expect anything except really exciting growth. So it's going to be fun for us to hopefully check back in down the road and we can talk about that and see what new lessons you've learned and all. So thanks so much.

Only a pleasure. Thank you, Larry.

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