Ep 009: Founder of Ugg, Brian Smith: “Your 300 was my 28”

Startup Life Hacks | Business and Life Advice | Founders | Entrepreneurship

Brian Smith was born in Australia, where he developed his love of surfing. A chartered accountant, he studied at the UCLA Graduate School of Management, and with $500 of start-up money, he founded UGG Imports to bring sheepskin footwear to America. After seventeen years, as sales reached $15 million, he sold the business to Deckers Outdoor Corporation. The UGG brand has since exceeded $1 billion of international sales times over.

A passionate innovator and entrepreneur, Brian is one of the most sought after business leaders in the country today. As a media guest and inspiring speaker, he is committed to teaching his breakthrough business strategies to entrepreneurs and translating personal vision and spirituality into company culture.

Brian spends his time with family and friends in Southern California, still surfs, plays golf and attempts to improve the planet everyday.

Strategies used to fund business

We didn’t know what our strategy was back then. None of us had the money, so Doug and I borrowed $500 to buy the first samples from the manufacturer.

Founders

Doug was his surfing buddy. Brian saw a photograph in the surf magazine, looked at Doug and asked, “Hey Doug, you wanna go into business? We are going to be millionaires.”

How did you choose the name for your company and how important was that in establishing your brand?

Nobody knows who started the name Ugg. The name was pretty generic in Australia, but in American law, nobody had brought in sheep skin boots and stayed there, so I was the first one to register the name.

Do you think Ugg boots for men will make a comeback with Tom Brady back in the scene?

It already has. We originally made it a hit with surfers. Then all the moms were buying it for the kids at Christmas. Then got in the snowboard and ski market. But when we went back east, we discovered in Minnesota that ice hockey was bigger than surfing and every kid has to go to the rink and they have to change shoes. And so these moms had to sit in these 40 degree rinks watching and it was a perfect market to switch over and I started sponsoring pro hockey players and that’s what got it kicked off. So when I sold the company, the new company Decker’s Corp took it on and that’s when they started to realize that they had to build a men’s market. And Tom Brady was a natural.

Describe a moment when you felt like giving up

I should have given up after selling those 28 pairs that first year. But I couldn’t because I had $15,000 and 480 pairs left in the warehouse. So I couldn’t give up and started selling in swap meets.Believe it or not, the biggest sales came from opening up the van at Malibu beach.

HUGE SUCCESS

Just starting is the most success I’ve had.

Superpower

The reason why Ugg and everything exists is the result of my tenacity. It took me 10 years to graduate as an accountant for a 4 year course. I refused to give up. And then when I quit and got into the Ugg business, there were so many times, so many disasters when I could have just stopped. But I just had this tenacity that now I believe in it. I don’t care how hard it is right now, I think I can overcome this obstacle.

Kryptonite

Every person has an element of this. It’s doubting your self worth. Overcoming that negativity and lack of self-worth and identity. That’s always been my biggest Achilles heel.

IF YOU CAN HAVE ANY SUPERPOWER…

Capacity for unselfish love. If you can take every action of your day as a loving action, as long as I have that knowing that I’m doing the best I can and the best for everybody, then you end up being not so affected by all the pricks out there that get in your face and sometimes you just begin avoiding them.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

The Birth of a Brand

Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller – Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success

ADVICE TO HACKER NATION

Find out what you are better than most other people at, and then do it. If you can figure out what you can do better than anyone else, and do it, and do it for the love and the passion for it, not the money, then the money will somehow find its way to you. Everyone’s got some sort of skill inside them and you gotta figure out what that is.

Feast

Upon Uncertainty

Fatten

On Disappointment

Enthuse

Over Apparent Defeat

Invigorate

In the Presence of Difficulties

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