Amy Wilkinson - The Creators Code: The Six Essential Skills of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs

Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster eBook.

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster eBook.

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2015 by Amy Wilkinson

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition February 2015

SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Interior design by Claudia Martinez

Jacket design by Julius Reyes

Jacket design by Patrik Svensson

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilkinson, Amy, 1972

The creators code : the six essential skills of extraordinary entrepreneurs / by Amy Wilkinson.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-4516-6605-2 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-4516-6607-6 (trade paperback) ISBN 978-1-4516-6609-0 (ebook) 1. Entrepreneurship. 2. Leadership. 3. Executive ability. I. Title.

HB615.W5543 2015

658.4'21dc23

2014020861

ISBN 978-1-4516-6605-2

ISBN 978-1-4516-6609-0 (ebook)

Dedicated to things that havent happened yet and the dreamers who will make them come true

The Six Essential Skills

Be a Sunbird, Architect, or Integrator

Manage Speed like a Race-Car Driver

Master Fast-Cycle Iteration

Set a Failure Ratio

Solve Problems Collectively

Unleash Generosity

Kevin Plank was kicked out of prep school, bounced into a military academy, and saw his dreams of playing college football seemingly vanish when not a single Division I school recruited him. But in 1991, he muscled his way on to the University of Marylands football team as a walk-on fullback.

Plank worked harder on the field than others. He had to. He hustled and put his head down to jolt opponents. Eric Ogbogu, a six-foot-four, 245-pound Maryland defensive lineman who went on to play for the New York Jets, the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Dallas Cowboys, often tells people he suffered only one concussion during his college career, and it came compliments of the five-foot-eleven, 228-pound Plank.

Plank perspired a lot. One day, he weighed the sweat-soaked cotton T-shirt he wore under his uniform and discovered that it added three pounds to his weight. Smaller and less athletic than his Division I teammates, he couldnt afford to be slowed down by his gear. Could a less absorbent undershirt provide an edge?

Plank found a fabric store near the Maryland campus in College Park and explained what he wanted. Synthetic fabrics, he learned, wick away sweat more effectively than cotton. Plank bought a bolt of a stretchy microfiber material, found a local tailor, and had a T-shirt made. It took seven prototypes and $450, but he got what he wanted: a snug T-shirt that weighed three ounces dry and only seven ounces wet.

Plank gave his teammates samples of the shirt. After their next game, they raved about it.

The little-known secret behind Under Armour geared for tough football players is that its the same material as womens lingerie, Plank said with a smile.

After graduation, Plank drove his Ford Bronco to New York Citys Garment District to track down a fabric supplier. He found a small mill in Ohio willing to manufacture his shirts. He called every equipment manager in the Atlantic Coast Conference (Marylands home athletic league at that time) and went locker room to locker room, handing out samples of his moisture-wicking shirts. Working from his grandmothers basement in Washington, D.C., Plank and a friend, Kip Fulks, hustled twenty hours a day, chasing orders and boxing shipments.

Yes, it was difficult, Plank told me, but I never believed it wasnt possible. Despite burning through $17,000, every cent of his savings, and amassing $40,000 in credit-card debt, he didnt stop. When Nike representatives dismissed his products at trade shows, he began sending Nike cofounder Phil Knight an annual Christmas card with the message, You havent heard about us yet, but you will.

Soon orders started coming in: Plank made his first sizable sale to Georgia Tech, and North Carolina State followed. When the Atlanta Falcons called to ask whether Plank could fill orders for long-sleeve shirts, he responded, Of course! then scrambled to figure out how. Next, baseball, lacrosse, and rugby players wanted Under Armour gear. Before long, a company started by a football player for football players even began serving the womens market. Today, Under Armour is a $2.9 billion global brand.

Plank isnt an expert in fabrics or manufacturing, or even retail. He never played a down in the National Football League. He doesnt hold a degree from an Ivy League school. He is a creator who has cracked the creators code.

What defines our brand is that there is this blue-collar, this walk-on mentality, that there is nothing that can stop me, there is nothing that can prevent me from moving forward to being successful, Plank said as we walked across Under Armours campus in a gritty Baltimore neighborhood.

In 2007, on the other side of the United States, Joe Gebbia received a letter from the landlord of his San Francisco apartment: Dear Joe: Your rent has gone up 25 percent. Gebbia and roommate Brian Chesky wondered how they were going to afford it.

Recent graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, they planned to attend the Industrial Designers Society of America conference that week. While looking at the conference organizers Web site, they happened to see a notice: Sorry, the hotels are sold out. There are no more rooms in San Francisco. Surveying their living room, the two designers realized they had space where they could put people up, but no extra beds. I have an airbed in the closet, Gebbia told Chesky.

Inspiration had struck. They inflated the bed, along with two others borrowed from friends, and started to think about the experience they would want paying guests to have. What if they picked them up from the airport? Why not put mints on the pillows? What if they cooked breakfast for their guests? Then they had the name. It wasnt a bed-and-breakfast; it was an airbed-and-breakfast. Airbnb was born.

It was a delight hosting Kat, Emil, and Michael that inaugural weekend, Gebbia said, remembering the first three people to check into their airbed hostelry. The positive experience, extra cash, and connection with their guests got Gebbia and Chesky wondering what would happen if they encouraged others to rent out their spaces.

The duo brought on computer programmer Nathan Blecharczyk to help build Airbnb. Their target market: conference-goers.