[00:01:01] This will make more sense. During the episode, our guest today is nothing short of an entrepreneurial miracle at the ripe age of 21, he founded Astor & Black, which quickly became the fastest growing custom clothing company in the US. He’s been named an Entrepreneur of the year. I think he’s been among INC’s three 30 under 30.
[00:01:22] He’s built and invested in a number of companies, including men’s clothing, healthy food delivery, and even a futuristic robotics who lead cooking machine. He’s been a previous guest on Beyond 8 Figures. And today he’s returning to share his recent experience in selling yet another company. Let’s all give a warm welcome to David Schottenstein.
[00:01:46] David Schottenstein: So I started a sunglasses and glasses company called Priverevaux with some Hollywood celebrity partners, Jamie Foxx, Hailee Steinfeld, and some others back in 2017. And we really, over the last couple of years, we’ve really built up a real name for ourselves in terms of quality, in terms of brand and very, very aggressive price point kind of undercutting everybody else in the market.
[00:02:14] We really did something unique in that we were able to create an actual brand and real brand affinity with the customer base, even though the price point was, you know, 30 bucks for a pair of sunglasses, which typically $30 for a pair of sunglasses means junk. And obviously in this case, it really, it meant quality. It meant style, and it meant, you know, if you’re buying them and you’re wearing them, you’re financially savvy, cause you’re avoiding getting ripped off and spending 200- 300 bucks for a pair of sunglasses. That’s made exactly the same way. So fast forward a couple of years we did that. Did a great job of it, made sure that we were getting lots of attention, lots of organic press. And we were approached by a group called Safilo out of Italy, big eyewear. Great, great group over there. And they approached us and they said, we love what you guys are doingand we’d love to make you part of the Safilo family. So one thing led to another and that was that.
[00:03:08] A.J. Lawrence: Being bought up by them. It seems you guys creating the company perfectly to get acquired by that type of company. Because there is so few players in there that make any real traction to actually become a real player. They had to come and get you.
[00:03:24] David Schottenstein: That’s right. I think if we build something disruptive and typically. Safilo has been around for 130+ years. So you talk about, you know, you have companies like that, they’re not creating new companies within Safilo. They’re not, you know, that’s not their model. Their model is they’ve been established, they’ve been around forever. And when they see a trend or they see something new and exciting in the marketplace, you know, that they feel is disruptive and that they feel they can you know, Hey, you’ve gotten it, you’ve gotten it to the 50 yard line. We want to take it further, take it to the end zone. They kind of jump in and make an acquisition.
[00:04:00] And that’s pretty typical just about any industry. If you go into any industry and you are disruptive and you make enough noise, the older, more established guys will typically come in and try and you know, scoop you up.
[00:04:12] A.J. Lawrence: Could you, I know Michael’s going to want to pull it back, but one of the things I felt really in diving through that was because of your partnerships with the celebrities. They weren’t just spokespeople. They were actual partners in the company and there is this whole thing of, you know, almost audience-led businesses.
[00:04:32] Did you, do you see that as being part of your disruption or, you know, what really did you see as that disrupting factor for you guys?
[00:04:39] David Schottenstein: I think the disruption that’s happening across a number of industries, you know, and I, I would almost say this is a trend and it’s a trend that’s not going to go away is consumers are so much, so much better informed nowadays because of the amount of information that is available to people. You know, it’s at our fingertips. It’s sitting there on, you know, you go on to Google, or you look at even your Instagram or Facebook feed. There’s so much, there’s so much information in terms of how things are made, where things come from.
[00:05:10] Consumers are much more savvy in terms of price. And, you know, it’s a lot harder to convince a consumer nowadays that, oh, you should spend $200 on a pair of sunglasses or you should spend $250 on a pair of prescription glasses because the consumers now know that the markups are ridiculous in that industry. And so when consumers become better informed, then they become more savvy. Price and value becomes much more important to them. And that’s what I think is happening. What I think is happening in every industry, not just this industry, is that disruptive players are coming in with really high quality products at a much more aggressive, lower price point than what has been traditional let’s say in that industry or whatever industry. And the consumers are now, because they’re better informed, they are willing to make a switch. And perhaps they were buying, you know X for 20 years or 30 years but now that they know that Y is made the exact same way with the exact same materials or ingredients but it’s a quarter of the price, you know, Hey, I’m willing to, I’m willing to switch and, and shift my brand allegiance you know, my brand loyalty over to something else, because clearly this is a better value.
[00:06:23] I think that’s happening, you know, it’s widespread and across many industries.
[00:06:28] Michael: So. It seems like that’s really the force and the wave that you’ve written now to two successful exits. Was that intentional? Did you really design this second go-to kind of be a modern day remake of the original?
[00:06:48] David Schottenstein: I mean, to an extent, yeah, the design, the thought process was we want to create, we want to create a high quality product and why don’t we want to create a product and bring a product and an experience to the market that previously consumers have had to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on, you know. Previously was only accessible to a select few because of the prohibitive price point.
[00:07:14] And that’s what I did with my first go round with the custom suit company. It was you know, you could only buy a custom suit if you were willing to spend a thousand plus dollars. And back when I started that company in 2004, there was not a lot of people willing to spend a thousand dollars plus on a suit.
[00:07:28] So when we came in offering that same experience, the same convenience, the same quality foryou know, $400, you know, $500, suddenly the market you know, when you drop your price point, when you cut that price point in half, it doesn’t just double your market size, it exponentially increases, right? That’s the way it works with any, anytime you drop price, your market size, your target audience exponentially increases. And that’s what we did with the first company.
[00:07:55] And that’s what I did with the second company as well. When you drop your sunglasses price point from, let’s just say from a hundred dollars down to $30 your market size is so, I mean, I would have to say it’s probably literally a hundred times greater than the market was, maybe even more.
[00:08:12] Michael: And I think to A.J.’s point about going audience first, if I remember right with the custom suits, NFL players were a big part of your initial market.
[00:08:23] David Schottenstein: That’s right.
[00:08:24] Michael: Was finding and choosing celebrity partners a big part of the growth planning this time around?
[00:08:31] David Schottenstein: It was, but more so from the branding perspective. Because you know, one of the things, when you’re coming out with a product that’s $30 that typically cost a 100+, people are going to be suspicious and they’re going to question the quality and they’re going to question the styles. So having established voices and brand ambassadors and people that were partners who can really tell that, help us tell that story, and reach that on, you know, reach a wider audience and convince the consumer that, Hey, this is really a quality product. You’re not sacrificing anything. You’re just saving a bunch of money when you buy this product, that was really important. So the celebrity partners were very important piece of that.
[00:09:11] Michael: Interesting. And one of the big things that’s always fascinated me is luxury branding. And it seems like you’ve really mastered that luxury brand at a price that everyone can find palatable.
[00:09:25] David Schottenstein: I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered it. I’m getting better and better at it. Let’s put it that way.
[00:09:30] A.J. Lawrence: It’s your process, you’re building your way.
[00:09:33] David Schottenstein: Yes.
[00:09:34] Michael: So when you come back on as a billionaire, then you’ll have mastered it.
[00:09:38] David Schottenstein: That, that I can say maybe I’ve gotten closer to mastering it. Yeah.
[00:09:42] A.J. Lawrence: There’ll be a whole another layer on top of that. There always this, it’s the fun of this game.
[00:09:47] Michael: So I guess the question I’ve got there is really, you understand the branding and the name and the positioning, does that crossover throughout cultures, or have you found that a lot of this really sticks to the American identity?
[00:10:06] David Schottenstein: No. It crosses over to cultures for sure. In today’s today’s day and age with given how connected people are. We live in a world where across the ocean isn’t so far away anymore, so it definitely crosses over and we’ve had a lot of success, thank God. And a lot of different markets. So we did very well here in the U S we have a huge presence in the middle east and the United Arab Emirates and other places. We have a big presence in Europe, so definitely crosses into various cultures.
[00:10:38] A.J. Lawrence: Yes, I live in Spain, I’m actually in Southern Spain on the Costa Del Sol, and I’ve seen them, you know Marbella, I’ve seen them in Malaga. So it is really who was like, wait, I know this brand when I saw coming on. You talk about getting better at this brand. Was this just an opportunity that came along or was this like a building block that you said, you know what I have this, one of the things I’m always fascinated is as entrepreneurs, you know, they talk about repeat entrepreneurs. But in reality, most folks I know who call themselves this insane thing are just constantly failing.
[00:11:15] And then have, you know, some people like you have bigger successes, but most of us have like lots of little failures that kind of disappear that no one ever hears about. And then a few things that do really well. Was this a deliberate thing or an opportunity that came your way?
[00:11:35] David Schottenstein: It was an opportunity that came my way through Jamie Fox. So Jamie actually brought this to me. Jamie really was, this had the idea. And, I would say that after that it kind of became like, he had the idea and then I executed,so it was something that, you know, that an idea that was brought to me and then I kinda took it from there.
[00:11:59] A.J. Lawrence: So your journey as an entrepreneur, it’ll then put you in a position where you could then take on something like this.
[00:12:05] David Schottenstein: That’s right, exactly. My journey as an entrepreneur, I think equipped me with what I needed to actually take his idea and turn it into a reality into a viable company in business.
[00:12:17] A.J. Lawrence: Finding that fascinating when I talked to people like you if it is that skill set, you build and it’s never easier, but it becomes a little bit more understandable, I think.
[00:12:29] David Schottenstein: Sure, absolutely.
[00:12:31] Michael: What was the hardest thing in each one of your past four businesses? And how did it change from each business to business?
[00:12:43] David Schottenstein: Quality was the common hurdle in the fashion related business, no question. Just how do I get, how do I keep the quality at a high level, but yet at the same time, keep the price point down at a level that I can still offer this product at a significantly reduced price from what people are typically used to.
[00:13:02] In the non-fashion business, which was the legal billing software I started called viewable. The challenge was, you know, we were essentially selling a product to law firms that law firms didn’t want. So the challenge is essentially how do you sell a product to someone who specifically does not want that type of product and you almost have to it’s like giving a child medicine, which is never, I don’t know if you guys have kids, but reinforcing, forcing a little kid to take medicine is not a fun process. And it was kind of similar to that.
[00:13:35] Michael: Do you see comparisons between developing a luxury brand that people want to buy and convincing those lawyers that they have to take their medicine?
[00:13:46] David Schottenstein: Not at all. Couldn’t be, could not be more different. One situation you’re surprising and delighting the customer and the other situation you know, you have a bunch of attorneys who have zero interest in providing that level of transparency to their clients for obvious reasons.
[00:14:03] You’re somehow convincing them. Not only, not only are they going to do it, but they’re going to pay for it too, you know? Not a fun process and not, there’s no surprise and delight aspect in that business.
[00:14:15] Michael: So would you start a legal software company again?
[00:14:19] David Schottenstein: I would never go into a business like that again, that business was just, it was a good idea. It was something that stemmed from personal experience. You know, having to deal with lawyers and being really surprised with my bill. But no, I would never go into that business like that again, just not for me.
[00:14:36] A.J. Lawrence: You sold it, correct?
[00:14:37] David Schottenstein: Correct, we sold it.
[00:14:39] A.J. Lawrence: Very good. So was that a relationship? Cause I noticed in reading it was with a legal partner or was that something you decided because you know, I’ve had that fun of what they emphasis bill, who the hell is this person? What kind of led to that?
[00:14:57] David Schottenstein: Yeah, that was just when I had my first exit and I had to, and I had to pay the legal bill. I was told by the attorneys representing us that the bill would be X. When the bill came in and was 2x that and I was like, yeah, I was like, guys, this is crazy.
[00:15:15] They were like, look, we have a legitimate reason for why this is so expensive. And my take on it was, you know, this is not a legitimate reason. And I realized there was just a disconnect between, you know, their process and my expectations and their billing cycle and managing my expectations. And I figured that, Hey, if I can kind of bridge the gap there, maybe customers would really appreciate it, et cetera, et cetera. And the customers appreciated it. The lawyers did not.
[00:15:44] A.J. Lawrence: Given your experience across this and the different things. Are you planning on staying with the company long-term or do you have new ideas that are set for the future?
[00:15:55] David Schottenstein: So I am going to stay with the company for a few years, for sure. Give them my best in terms of trying to help them execute on the continued growth vision.
[00:16:05] At the same time, of course, I’m going to look at new ideas and I wouldn’t get involved with something in a capacity that would really pull me away from Priverevaux for the time being but, definitely as a strategic investor, you know, that type of thing.
[00:16:20] A.J. Lawrence: Maybe coming back, we’ve touched on some trends, but is there anything, you know, from a business point, cause if you’re talking about being an investor, is there anything you’re seeing now that is very interesting to you? A big trend in that opportunity in the space for businesses.
[00:16:38] David Schottenstein: I wouldn’t say there’s a specific trend that I, you know, like that I see as a huge opportunity. I think the big, the opportunity that I see is again, utilizing the easy access. You now have the consumers through social media, through all these various platforms. I do think it creates the ability that perhaps previously wasn’t as really accessible to people to sell a product, a disruptive product, or to tell a disruptive story, you know, without spending nearly as much money to do so. You know, previously, if you wanted to tell a disruptive story get it across to the consumer, you know, maybe you have to get tele, you know, you have to do TV advertising, which is a fortune.
[00:17:19] Nowadays, you can really tell that story very effectively through social media for a lot less money. And you have much easier time spreading the word even through things like WhatsApp. I mean, if you create a great video that people want to forward to their friends, that starts to get forwarded around on WhatsApp, next thing you know, everybody knows about the fact that your product or your service is available and is available for a fraction of the price or, it was very disruptive. Maybe it’s not a fraction of the price, maybe it’s just a different process that’s very disruptive and that’s outside of what the way things have been traditionally done. So I just think we’re going to keep seeing more and more of that.
[00:17:58] We’ll keep seeing companies come out with products and services that are different than what people are accustomed to, and they get their word out super fast, very quickly. So that the time it takes for that disruption to occur, that that time, that runway is shortened.
[00:18:15] A.J. Lawrence: Yeah. Actually that comes up a good one because this is part of how Michael and I started talking. I agree completely that compression of the costs, time, talent, all that, it’s getting easier and easier compared to like my first company in the mid-90s and then so on as I’ve gone through the years, but there’s a lot of good ideas that I know concern margin and can turn profitability but wont scale. How do you turn them into opportunitie?.
[00:18:46] David Schottenstein: Well, a lot of it is about the people.
[00:18:48] A.J. Lawrence: Yeah.
[00:18:49] David Schottenstein: And, and so you can have a great idea, but if the person who is supposed to be delivering on that idea isn’t rock solid then the idea doesn’t mean a whole lot. So I would say that that’s a big piece of it. Obviously the idea needs to make sense, I’m not going to get behind something if the idea is a waste of time. But if someone comes to me with a great idea, but I look at that person and I don’t think that person has the grit or the persistence to really see it through then I’m not going to get involved with it. So oftentimes I’ll get involved. I’ll give you an example. There’s a company called Swimply, they’ve been in the press non-stop. You know, it’s like the Airbnb for swimming pools. Right? So they came to me the idea of pre COVID and I really felt like, you know, this could go either way. This either this is a really stupid, and they went on Shark Tank by the way, and the sharks told them, you know, this is the worst idea ever.. And I wasn’t sure.
[00:19:45] I really felt like, well, you know, it could be a terrible idea, but at the same time, you know, this kid that came to me with the idea is, you know, one of the most aggressive, persistent human beings I’ve ever I’ve ever met in my life. And I was just really impressed with his level of grit and determination.
[00:20:05] So, I invested and I joined the board and I became an advisor. And, you know, you fast forward, the company just exploded and they just raised a big round with some major investors and major funds that previously wouldn’t have looked at it. And you know, now they’ve got these big, big time guys coming in.
[00:20:26] You know, that’s a company that really could have gone either way. It’s an idea that, you know, yeah, it could, it could be big or it could have been a total failure. And I think it was all about the founder and the team that delivered on that. So that’s what I look for. I look for really great, great people to invest in and you know, who have good ideas and have a vision.
[00:20:47] A.J. Lawrence: If you had one opportunity, if you could only do one sort of investment with the money you just took off the table, what would you do?
[00:20:58] David Schottenstein: You know? That’s a good question, obviously a tough question. I think I mean, if I had to pick one thing, I think real estate is probably the smartest safest bet. I think, you know that they’re not making more of it. And if you’re smart about where you put your money in, you go, go into, uh, obviously, you know, there are certain things that look like they have a very bright future, certain things that don’t. I think if you’re smart about how you do it and you buy it right. I think it’s kind of a no lose proposition. Obviously there are definitely ways to lose money in real estate, but I think that real estate is probably the smartest safest bet.
[00:21:36] And if you had to do one thing, you know, you get income, you get appreciation, the asset, the depreciation for tax purposes so a lot of benefits to real estate.
[00:21:46] Michael: I come from a real estate family and they are furious that I did not go into it. To your point, the risk profile is just so vastly different than the amount of leverage you can get on the asset is likewise outsized compared to most other asset options.
[00:22:06] A.J. Lawrence: If you were starting now, what would you do to earn a million dollars? Knowing what you know now ?
[00:22:14] Michael: All the knowledge, none of the resources.
[00:22:17] David Schottenstein: All the knowledge, none of the resources, it’s a tough question. You know, I could say I’d start another sunglasses business and just do it slightly differently. And I definitely wouldn’t go into the custom clothing business at this point. Sunglasses businesses is crowded. I think I would probably look for a product or service that people are historically used to paying for the nose for and figuring out can I offer this product or this service at a significant discount without compromising quality? How do I get that message out? And I would probably try and again. I, I would, my nature to what I would do is I would just try and be disruptive.
[00:22:55] I would try and identify that product or service and then go at it.
[00:22:58] A.J. Lawrence: It sounds very much like the resources would help, but it, what you’re bringing to is your experience that very much, you know you’re going to be able to create something. So it’s just the matter of finding that opportunity. The resources just could smooth out the edges and speed up the process.
[00:23:18] Michael: When did you fall in love with disruption? Because you seem to really understand that core concept?
[00:23:25] David Schottenstein: I don’t know. I don’t know that there was a specific moment that I was like, you know, I want to be a disruptor. I think as a teenager, you know, I had, I had cousins who wore beautiful clothing and spent a lot of money on that beautiful clothing. And my dad wouldn’t let us, you know, he would not let us spend a lot of money on clothes and I loved clothes. I was a clothes hound. My dad was not gonna let us go drop that kind of money. So, when I was in school in Venice and I met a kid who had these gorgeous custom shirts made and he was getting them made in Hong Kong for a fraction of what you would normally expect to pay. That to me was like fascinating. Like, wow, I could, I can get these shirts made and I did. I got these shirts made from his guy and I got them for like super inexpensive, a price that my dad had no issue with. And then I was walking around wearing the shirts and everyone who saw them thought I must have spent a fortune on them and you know what I mean?
[00:24:22] And so that was like, wow, like you could. If you’re resourceful, you can. You can probably do this in other industries too, you know? And so that’s probably when I, when my eyes were first opened to the power of disruption and of doing things differently, et cetera.
[00:24:41] A.J. Lawrence: Your wife, you had mentioned that she, you know, she has her own podcast, so why don’t we plug it? But then also I would love to learn more about how you guys look at being dual entrepreneurs, you know, in your family. What does that mean as you guys plan for the future?
[00:25:00] David Schottenstein: So my wife has a podcast called From the Inside Out and she’s very focused on mental health and mental wellness. And she’s got her master’s in psychology and she actually got her bachelor’s and master’s after we were married after we had four children.
[00:25:18] So she aggressively pursued that. She is a fountain of knowledge and she has, she has a way of taking really complex concepts that perhaps someone who’s not, who doesn’t have a master’s might have a hard time understanding and putting them into very easy to, you know, she breaks it down into something that’s really easily digestible and easy to understand and also very practical.
[00:25:43] So, that’s what she focuses on. And she gives classes, she wrote a children’s book called Sarah dreamer, which became a bestseller children’s book all about self-empowerment and believing in yourself. So she’s a busy bee. I call her the queen bee. She’s very, very busy. But she still manages to put out four course dinners on an almost nightly basis.
[00:26:08] And she’s a chef extraordinaire. She’s a mother extraordaire, wife extraordinaire, and she juggles it somehow. She balances it and you can listen to her podcasts to find out more about how she does it. But what I will say is one thing we found as a now couple that’s both constantly going out and working, you know, constantly when I say going out and I mean, we’re constantly trying to achieve more.
[00:26:34] We both, we both view as parents, I think we both view our constantly working and trying to accomplish more, we see that as one of the best examples we could possibly give our children. Do as I do, not as I say. You know, you live by example and you want your kids to, I want my kids to feel like, okay, my parents may have, achieved financial success but that doesn’t mean you stop working. But it doesn’t mean you stop trying to accomplish things. That doesn’t mean you stop trying to achieve the next level of success while at the same time demonstrating to them that you know, family comes first. Here, relationship with your spouse comes first. Your relationship with your children comes first. You know, yes, business is important and success is important, but there’s a point where you, you put the phone down, you put your computer away and you focus on what’s important.
[00:27:29] So we both have that same exact mindset. And I think we’ve done, uh, we’ve done a good job, really kind of conveying that to our children and making sure our children really understand that and get that on a daily basis.
[00:27:43] A.J. Lawrence: Since I have three kids and I think I’m in the saying you have four. How old are your kids?
[00:27:49] David Schottenstein: My son is 16. Our son is 16 and then we have, a 13 year old girl, a 10 year old girl and a six year old.
[00:27:59] A.J. Lawrence: Okay. Yeah. I literally the same for your first three, 16,,14, 10.
[00:28:05] David Schottenstein: Yeah. There you go. And then we, so have a very lively, very active household.
[00:28:12] A.J. Lawrence: Very cool. Yeah. I like how you’re saying it because I read something raised, um, a few months ago and this is a thing a lot of what I’ve been looking at is, don’t focus on having a family business, you focus on building a business family around keeping the family together. So teaching the kids like, look, you don’t have to be involved in any of this, whatever, but you need to understand what this means, what it allows you and why we do this to stay together and to keep each other together and support ourselves as we move forward with whatever insanity goes on out there in the world.
[00:28:54] David Schottenstein: I think one thing that, you know, my wife is teaching the kids an dmyself really is that it is possible to achieve. It certainly is an admirable goal. I don’t think it’s always achievable, but she certainly is achieving it where you can achieve financial success and at the same time, do some real good.
[00:29:17] She’s coaching. One of her core competencies is ADB ADHD coaching. So she coaches a lot of young, young people who have challenges of ADHD and she’s coaching them on how to be more productive and how to accomplish their goals. And it’s just amazing to see like these people you know, the transformation that she helps engineer and she gets paid well for doing it. But at the same time, aside from getting paid well for doing it, you have these people that previously were not successful either in their careers or even in school. And all of a sudden, there’s this massive change. And that’s something that’s also something really special that we get to see on a daily basis here.
[00:29:57] A.J. Lawrence: A social value. Yeah, that is pretty cool. That is wonderful.
[00:30:02] Michael: I want to talk a little bit more about that sort of social value, because I know that’s one, the giving back is something that I think doesn’t get talked about as much as part of the entrepreneur’s journey? And honestly, I think it might be one of the most important parts. I’m a big fan of the idea that all the money we make is only ours until we give it back.
[00:30:27] David Schottenstein: That’s a definitely. You know, we’re Orthodox Jews and Orthodox Jews have a very big focus on charitable giving and it’s, you know, kind of in the Orthodox Jewish community. You can be the biggest business success, but if you don’t give charity, you’re nobody. That’s the way it works. So yeah, that’s, that’s definitely a big, a big piece of it.
[00:30:48] It’s also, I think very important in terms of constantly staying driven. You know, if you don’t have charitable goals, you don’t have that feeling that, Hey, I want to make more money and give more money away and change and help create positive change in the world or my community.
[00:31:05] You can lose your motivation as a businessman or businesswoman very quickly. Because at a certain point, you make a certain amount of money and the difference more money is going to make in your lifestyle. You know, there’s diminishing returns, right? At some point it’s like, well, I can do this. I can do that. Well, what more do I, you know what I mean?
[00:31:24] Like what more do I need to really enjoy anything? But when it come, if you’re a big, if you’re a big giver, if you give a lot of money away to charity, there’s a never ending amount that you can give. It’s just, there’s so many good causes out there and so many good things you want to get involved with and you need more and more money to do that.
[00:31:41] So suddenly there is no enough, you know, you got to keep going and if you have a talent as an entrepreneur, Uh, you almost have a responsibility to keep, to keep using that talent if you’re going to use it for good.
[00:31:54] Michael: Couldn’t agree more.
[00:31:55] A.J. Lawrence: I just want to add, I really do like that because as an entre- I mean, I try and get back and I’ve tried to incorporate things, but that positioning is just so logically true. It resonates, it makes sense. It’s hard to get to the first layer of like making money as an entrepreneur. It’s so few of us go through that insanity, but once you do, it’s like, okay, wow. What do we do now? Why do we do now. But positioning it through your journey as an entrepreneur because you can, and then therefore you should, it feeds it.
[00:32:33] That that’s pretty powerful. I like that.
[00:32:36] David Schottenstein: Yeah. Well that, that, that concept isn’t my own. We are, or as I mentioned, we’re Orthodox Jews and we belong to a Hasidic group called Chabad-Lubavitch and the Lubavitcher Rebbe who you know, bless his memory, uh, who is our spiritual leader and still is. So someone came to him. I just saw a video a couple of days ago, someone sent this to me. Uh, someone came to him and said to him, you know, Rebbe I just sold my business, we have a lot of money. We have an opportunity to actually buy the business back because the people that bought it from us didn’t do a great job with it, kind of a classic story.
[00:33:14] And we can make a bunch more money buying it back and we building it. And I want to ask the Rebbe when he just shows, when is enough enough and you know, the Rebbe, this is a spiritual leader, right? And he, this guy’s coming to talk about business and the Rebbe, he said to him, as many people did by the way. He said, you have a talent as a businessman, you have a talent, right? You have – that’s a God given talent. You have to use that talent. It’s never enough. You have to use that talent because that talent enables you to give and to do so much good in the world. And you have no right to sit back. And just not use that God given talent for good.
[00:33:54] You have no right to do that. It’s a God given talent and you have an obligation to do something good with it. And I believe that’s true. You know, if someone is an artist and as good as God has given them an amazing talent as an artist, then they can beautify the world and bring light to people’s lives through their art, they have an obligation to do so. Same thing with any talent that you’re given.
[00:34:17] Michael: Thank you for coming on today and sharing all of this awesome information. I know we’ve got several future episodes planned to have you back. And I can’t wait to dig in more on some of these concepts around building an entrepreneurial legacy and family. Where can the audience find you?
[00:34:37] David Schottenstein: Thanks for having me. In general, I’m not really public. I’m on Instagram and Facebook on private on both, but you’ll read about my next business or my next venture, but Priverevaux.com is our company website. And, I’m sure we’ll have, you know, I’m sure I’ll have more stuff coming out here in the future.
[00:34:56] Michael: Yeah. And that is linked in the show notes everyone. Go get yourself new glasses.
[00:35:02] A.J. Lawrence: That’s it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. You can find more information about Swimply and David’s other efforts in the show notes, along with the best links to connect with him below.
[00:35:17] This episode of Beyond 8 Figures is over, but your journey as an entrepreneur continues. So if we can help you with anything, please just let us know. And if you liked this episode, please share it with someone who might learn from it. Until next time, keep growing and find the joy in your journey. This is A.J., and I’ll be talking to you soon. Bye bye.
