In the final BYU-Hawaii School of Business entrepreneurship lecture for 2006, a businessman who has based his success on "changing lives through inspiring family entertainment" outlined how some of his unconventional approaches have led to hundreds of profitable products and media releases.
Seldon O. Young, Co-chairman and CEO of NEST Family Entertainment™ and a member of the BYU-Hawaii/Polynesian Cultural Center Presidents' Leadership Council, started at age 20 to produce and market such products as Animated Bible Stories for Children, Living Scriptures™, The Swan Princess — an original G-rated general release movie, and many others, including several technologically innovative services.
Young, who is originally from Wyoming, told the business students in the Auditorium on December 5 that, despite only attending university for one term, he has used his high energy and unique business philosophies to good effect. For example, he noted that corporate mission statements have little meaning if employees don't know or follow them.
Young said he likes statements that can "help you build a driving force. I decided I needed something a little different. I came up with a simple philosophy, and it starts with this: Make money, operate on core values, and have fun. I'm not joking." He added persistence and passion are also important.
Along the way, Young explained he has learned a successful entrepreneur must "love chaos. Business is chaos." This is one of "about 20 different principles I try to thrive on," he continued. "This is the fifth one, and I call it the fifth dimension. The problem with not having pressure is you don't know how to deal with it. Everyone in this life is going to have to deal with it some day."
"The best way to deal with it is to have already gone through difficult processes, and realize that you can feel the heat. In business, you learn to feel that heat. The fifth dimension is dramatic."
Young also stressed integrity in all his dealings. "Integrity is at the root of all. I do business with a lot of partners, 15-20 at a time," he said, showing a copy of the one-page agreement he uses with all of them that contains contract language calling for integrity.
Another is persistence — "the primary key throughout my drive to success. Part of that was I lacked some of the wisdom. I lacked some of the schooling; and the only thing I could overcome that with was pure persistence."
Others include loyalty — "a big deal"; diligence and operating as a team; and empowering people, giving them some authority as well as accountability. "We demand urgency," he added. "We want decisiveness. We are loyal to the company's purposes. And the last one: Never become complacent."
Though more unconventional, Young pointed out he has also broken through barriers by dressing differently than the people he does business with — sort of an anti "dress for success" technique; and being a humble pest. For example, he has literally camped out all day in an attorney's offices — sometimes dressed in an aloha shirt with a folding beach chair — waiting for contracts to be signed.
"I call this the Hawaiian close," he said. "You have to be persistent at it. You've got to be pesky if you want to get the deal done."
Young also told of being technologically innovative, inventing the infomercial business and starting a call response center in the 1970s that eventually answered more than 50 million calls with over 4,000 employees. That business also used electronic line identification before the phone companies offered it, he pointed out.
He acknowledge there have also been failures along the way, including a chain of jewelry stores (inventory issues), a health resort (partner problems), a time share chateau in France (devalued dollars), tee shirts (employee integrity), children's books (not enough margin), and personal caller ID (the technology was too early), among others.
"We all have failures. I do not have a Midas touch," Young said. But he does have a "secret" that helps minimize risk, that he also shared with the business students: "Don't wait until the end of the year to look at your numbers. As a matter fact, the power is in the daily P&L [profit and loss statement]. You always have to look at it because it's what generates the ideas for change. It's critical to know where you're at."
In closing, Young read a saying he keeps hanging in his office about persistence. "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence... Genius will not... Education will not... Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent," he said.
"It's great to be with you," Young said. "I know that the course you're on can be a fun one. Why don't you go out and make money, and have fun."
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