A short motivational YouTube talk by Russ Lowry urging listeners not to let critics or jealous people discourage them from starting businesses or side hustles. He uses anecdotes — notably a client’s 16-year-old daughter who sold over 300 custom hoodies in 48 hours and made $16,000 — plus his own career stories (28 years as an entrepreneur; 15 years at Reynolds Tobacco; ran his new business on the side for two years) to illustrate persistence, risk-taking, and ‘failing forward’.
Questions this video answers
Over 300 (sold out of 300+ hoodies in 48 hours).
$16,000.
16 years old.
28 years.
15 years.
Chapters
Today's video we're going to call this don't let them tear you down. We've talked about this a few times, but it bears repeating. I've seen a few stories about this. And then yesterday I was meeting with a client and he was telling me about his daughter. He has four kids, just like I do. He's a serial entrepreneur. He's on bars and restaurants, and now he owns a bunch of dry cleaners and a electric company, you know, very. He's on convenience stores. And he was telling me about how his daughter, who's some kind of influencer or has a small following, had designed and built her own hoodie with her own logo that she's got and had created. And he said these things kept showing up at the house, these samples. She went through like 10 samples. She told him after the fact. And she would just tell him, dad, don't worry about it. You know, someone sending me a sample to look at. After she sold and dropped her first, it was like 320, 340 of these really nice designer hoodies. The word got out. One of her friends told her, dad, hey, do you realize what your daughter just did? She sold out of 300 plus hoodies she designed in 48 hours. And he was shocked. He was really proud. He couldn't believe it. She didn't ask him for a dime. She didn't tell him what she was going to do. But when her brothers first heard about this, first thing they both said is, no one's going to buy anything from you. That's stupid. Why would you do that? That's a waste of your money. Until she said, Well, I made $16,000 on these hoodies. They were specially designed. She's 16 years old, too. Specially designed. And I marked them up, you know, considerably. But I, you know, designed them. Best fabric I could find. Special logo. One time only. People are begging for now. She's doing some stuff this fall, so her own family was willing to tear her down because people are jealous. People are jealous of your success. They're jealous that you're stepping out of a mold. So don't let other people tell you what you can and can't do. They don't know you. They don't, you know, they don't trust you. They don't. They're jealous of you. I know what you're made of and I know you can do this. But don't worry about the opinions of other people. If you step outside, maybe your industry or even in your industry, if you start Your own business. You know what we call these days? A side hustle. Because people will say, that's never going to work. You're not going to be able to do that. No one's going to subscribe to your system. No one's going to let you come do this. Don't listen to them at all. Don't even tell most people. Maybe you're trusted inner circle, of course, your spouse. Don't even let us say anything, which I would never say anything if someone steps out and does their own deal. I love entrepreneurism very much after doing it for 28 years. But so many people around you will do this to you and it'll make you reconsider. Because we all, you know, much as we shouldn't, and we've talked about the immunity to criticism, we shouldn't value what other people say about us negatively or positively necessarily that aren't our spouse, our immediate family, and even sometimes immediate family. We bicker with each other. So don't let other people tear you down. When you have an idea, do it. You know, life is fleeting. The days are long, the years are short. Take that chance, you know, reach out to the old man, but don't worry about the opinions of other people, you know, and even if you fail, learn from it. We all learn from our mistakes if we're smart, you know, failing forward, especially, like I said, my video. In your 20s, that's the time to really take some crazy chances. But you can take chances at any period in your life. I know guys who have switched into insurance in their 50s and a lot of teachers that have like a little retirement or military folks will decide to start a second career in their 50s because they have some backup with the pension and. Or they still want to get out there and do something. And this may be something they've always wanted to do. So don't let them tear you down. Don't let anyone tell you you can't. That's actually fuel for fire for me. When people used to tell me when I was a young agent, I remember the old guys were like, hey, you can't sell shit between November, December, maybe early January, you got Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. People are tightening their belts in January. What are you wasting your time? And my first year when I was an agent, I was like, well, I think I'll just ignore those fools because they're idiots. They do the minimum viable they can. So they go golfing three or four days a week. They make a big sale or have a good week. They take the next week off, playing around, and they come back starving again. So perhaps I'll just ignore those guys. I did head down. I treated November, December, January like any other month, Meaning I just worked my tail off. I still marketed. I did what I always do. And guess what? I sold a lot of insurance and led the. Led the district and was, you know, nationally ranked because I didn't listen to other idiots out there telling me what I could or couldn't do. Same thing. My whole insurance where I was younger, they're like, you can't do this, you can't do that. You can't beat this guy. That's the top guy in the state. I'm like, so I met that guy, actually, when I was climbing the ladder. And he gave me kudos because no one was really challenging him. He's a hell of a nice cat. And not too much later, I was winning in home and auto sales over this longtime guy, which I think I lit a fire under his tail because I didn't let people say, there's no way you could beat that guy. He's the best in the state, one of the top in the nation. Okay, challenge is on. Game on, gloves down. And that's what you got to think about when people tell you no. That's really the fuel for your fire and say, you can't do something again. They don't know you. They don't know what you're capable of. They don't know the upbringing you've had and, you know the push you've been given by me and mom. So don't listen to them. Burn the boats if you have to. Go all in. But take the challenges, see what you can do. Do the side hustle, start the new business. It's just crazy what can happen. Like, I was with Reynolds Tobacco for 15 years, started this gig, did it on the side for two years, working full time for both jobs. Basically burned the boats, resigned from rentals, took a package. When we were having a downsizing, mom had Casey quit her job. She went to, like, part time so she could get discounts at the Gap. Went all in. And 28 years later, so far, so good. So good luck.
