Bill Rancic, businessman, entrepreneur and winner of the inaugural season of NBC’s The Apprentice reality TV show, spoke at the Greater Lansing Strategic Business Luncheon in late April. Rancic’s talk included many experiences that led up to his appearance on Donald Trump’s show, and advice for budding entrepreneurs regardless of age or prior experience.

Rancic told the story of how, as a 10-year-old, he turned a weekend “stuck” at his grandmother’s house into his first business opportunity. Waking up on a Saturday morning, he spent four hours in his grandmother’s kitchen becoming an expert in making all kinds of pancakes. On Sunday morning, he got up early, called all of his grandmother’s friends and invited them over for a pancake breakfast. While cleaning up after the meal, he found a $5 bill under every plate. Like any good 10-year-old, he gathered them up, told no one, went home and asked his mom and dad if he could spend all his weekends at his grandmother’s house. Five weeks later, while cleaning his room, his mom found a stack of $5 bills in a sock drawer. He had to confess that he was running a makeshift restaurant out of his grandmother’s kitchen.

Although that particular business was short-lived, the entrepreneur in Rancic had been awakened; and listening to him talk about his many adventures, it’s obvious that he hasn’t let it go back to sleep.

Rancic added, “Some people are luckier than others. And does that mean they work harder? Probably, [because] they recognize opportunity.” Opportunity such as the one presented Rancic when the sixteenth person scheduled to appear on The Apprentice scratched at the last minute, opening the door for him to go on the show and eventually win—a victory which led to three years of working virtually side-by-side with Trump.

During his talk, Rancic, a self-proclaimed people-watcher, spoke about time spent with such successful businesspeople as Trump, Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks) and media mogul Ted Turner. Even though “they have completely different personalities,” he said, “[they] have very similar traits. One is that they’re all good decision-makers. Most people have a hard time making decisions and they miss out on opportunities … which leads to ‘analysis paralysis.’”

The second common trait: All three found very creative solutions to their problems instead of trying something that’s been tried before. And third: “These guys never quit and they never make excuses.” He singled out the financial straits in which Trump found himself in the early ’90s—billions of dollars in debt and no one would take his calls. But “he didn’t give up, he found a creative way to get out and fought his way back [to the top].” Rancic added that, when you’re passionate about your work, “you’re going to be willing to make the sacrifices necessary [to succeed]. Waking up at 5 a.m. to do a job you hate is tough.”

The start-up company that turned Rancic and a friend from budding to successful entrepreneurs (even before TV came calling) was his cigar-of-the-month club that began with an ingenious marketing idea.

Things just kept getting better from there, as 1,000 members became 4,000 during their Father’s Day promotion and then 8,000 after Christmas. In 2009, the company, which had since evolved and sold to Synergy Brands, had revenues of $100 million.

Rancic talked about one strategy that has helped him succeed, including his Apprentice victory. He called it the “marathon strategy,” patterned after marathon runners who set many little goals along the way to running/winning a marathon. On The Apprentice, Rancic said that his little goals included making it to the upper half, then the final four and then the final two. “I always wanted to win,” he explained, “but I chipped away and chipped away, making the overwhelming goal more manageable.”

Finally, he talked about three reasons why people are successful.

1: Practical execution. In the real world, it’s about getting the job done and delivering results, also known as “actions speak louder than words.”

2: It’s about agility. “You have to take your blinders off. You gotta be willing to adjust and change up your game plan,” he said, adding that most of the other contestants on the show only brought one strategy and management to the table.

3, Taking and managing risk. “And a lot of times you have to micro-manage that risk and turn it into success.”

Rancic concluded by leaving the audience with an Emerson quote: “Always, always, always do what you’re afraid to do, and you will find success.”

Sponsors of the luncheon event included: Auto-Owners Insurance, Converged Network Solutions, Dart Development Group, Dean Trailways, Eagle Eye Golf Club, The Greater Lansing Business Monthly, National Career Readiness Certificate/Capital Area Michigan Works!, TechSmith and WILX TV-10. 

For more photos of this event, visit www.lansingbusinessmonthly.com.