From A Drug Arrest to A Successful Business Exit

Eric Gilbert-Williams Shares His Journey of How Entrepreneurship Shaped His Life

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In This Episode

Entrepreneurs are not business people, and business people are not entrepreneurs. There is a unique shift in the mindset that occurs between those two roles, and the difference happens more as a business grows, which forces many people to switch between the two. But what drives one person into an entrepreneurship path? What life events instil that drive to create something all your own? 

Eric Gilbert-Williams may not have the end-all answer to those questions, but he has a lot of ideas around the topic pulled directly from his own life experiences. Sharing his early struggles with the law and finding stable employment, he illustrates how the entrepreneurial spirit of perseverance and learning from failure helped him to build a successful business, achieve a successful exit and has set him on his next path of projects. 

Episode Breakdown

First 10 Minutes
We get to know our guest Eric Gilbert-Williams as he joins us from Thailand. Eric explains to Dave & Greg the events of his childhood that led him to find himself in trouble with the law and on a path he knew would only lead to one bad path. He shares how a taste of entrepreneurship helped him to keep preserving to find a way that would work for him.

10 Minutes – 20 Minutes
Eric shares how his successful roofing company turned quickly to nearly failing, and it took a core group of employees and friends to get together and push through the rough spot to become a more successful business. Eric explains now how he’s looking for new projects and focusing on how to help kids use entrepreneurship to overcome life struggles. 

Greg asks questions about what skills Eric feels he developed from his childhood years to bring into his early entrepreneurship and Dave asks about what he feels draws him (or others) to entrepreneurship. Eric points out how parents can play an essential role in identifying their kids’ passion and helping to nurture that passion. 

20 Minutes – 30 Minutes
The group talks about the area of entrepreneurship, which Eric is passionate about. Eric shares how early on, he encouraged many friends to start businesses and helped them start businesses before he realized that entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Eric shares how he no longer encourages people to start businesses but will help anyone once they have chosen to go on that path. Eric makes a point that entrepreneurs are not business people and business people are not entrepreneurs. There is a unique shift in the mindset that occurs between those two roles, and the difference happens more as a business grows. Eric shares his experience of having a business grow and the differences between different business employee sizes. The group wraps up talking about how exiting a business feels. 

Eric Gilbert-Williams

Eric Gilbert-Williams

Eric Gilbert-Williams is a Canadian Entrepreneur, Business Coach & Advisor, Inventor and Author in Progress. He discovered the Entrepreneurial Spirit at a very young age and has embraced it with passion ever since. He grew his last venture to over 60 people in peak seasons and reached the #20 spot for fastest growing company in Canada before selling it in 2018. He experienced challenges with drugs and gangs as a teenager and found redemption through hard work, discipline and a laser like focus on making positive changes. Eric is now writing a book about his experiences to help other struggling teenagers experience the business same success.