Steve Cody On Overcoming Odds, Serial Entrepreneurship And His Latest Company
Steve Cody has started 18 businesses and clearly is a lifelong learner. He doesn’t make excuses and has built opportunities over the years with the attitude “where there is a will there’s a way.” This no excuse attitude was a big part of the episode, as he shares examples of how he learned to be independent and solve problems.
Growing up in a household with a single mom, moving schools a lot and having to get started paying bills young he’s leveraged all of that into his character. Much of the episode is evidence about how much of an impact his mother had on him to becoming the businessman that he is. Learning how to aim for your big goals, try things you’ve never done and win, or learn, are great examples of such life lessons.
We also get into the discussion around how to best help other youth who may be having to overcome odds and some ideas as a society on how we can make some changes. Steve is a great person to lead this charge because he understands first hand what some youth are going through. He brings up a great point that we really need to meet them where they are, because those who struggle just don’t know any different.
Steve started his first business out of necessity to start pulling his weight with household bills. And before long he had scaled one business after the other. Building from one opportunity to the next, he went from a window cleaning business at fifteen, to rental businesses and eventually building tech companies. Steve takes us on quite the journey to share all of his entrepreneurial experience and how it’s similar to being a lifelong artist.
Chatting about education and how Steve found that for him the best education was business was a really interesting part of the conversation. We discuss how to get clarity over your ideas, and why entrepreneurship may be the best lifestyle for many of us. The fact that Steve simply can not work in an environment with a boss was a very interesting thing to learn about as well. For many of us we have the same ideas, but don’t take that leap.
We hear about his latest venture, “Bunking” which is a marketplace for shared living and travel of like-minded people. And we even learn about the fact that Steve and their family lost a son to addiction, something that he struggled with, but used as fuel to keep pushing as well. It’s tough to summarize an episode, because listening is always the best way to take it all in. There were many great moments, hope you enjoy!
Memorable Quotes
“There's no grand plan, I just kind of find problems in life and then work to solve them.”
“If I look at myself and the way I was brought up, you don't even know good from bad.”
“I'm not an artist, but I can imagine they love painting pictures and they get right into it. They have a vision and they want to see it through. I think an entrepreneur is a lot like that. We get this vision, we get excited and we want to see it through.”
“It's a gift not wanting a boss.”
6 Things To Keep In Mind On Your Entrepreneurial Journey
- There are different opinions, but loving what you do is a huge part of it. Loving what you do will allow you to be persistent and creative throughout the journey.
- Be an artist. Create your art by diving deep into problems you can solve.
- Be realistic and simple with the first business. What is a problem people have, will they pay you to solve it? Solve it, and keep solving it.
- Enjoy the excitement and energy of appreciating that collecting money is a matter of being rewarded fairly for helping people with their problems.
- Realize that a lot of other people’s success took way longer than you think, so don’t compare yourself to their path.
- Remember that the more you want, the tougher it will get, so be prepared to overcome challenges.
Guest Bio
Steve was 15 years old when he launched his first company. He is currently the CEO and founder of Bunking. The company provides a marketplace and community to help people create shared living and travel experiences.
He has a wealth of knowledge and truly understands the value of creating world class software, building stellar teams, and connecting communities around the world by providing everyone with equal access to online marketplaces. He is a tremendous speaker and retreat leader in the world of entrepreneurship as well, especially for youth.
Having accumulated over 30 years of experience in building companies that have employed thousands and generated over $750 million in lifetime sales, Steve has had success in multiple industries including software, marketplaces, services, and rentals. But, he has also learned from failure and tragedy as much as triumph and is a great example of someone who lives that Just Keep Learning life.
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