Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:15:52 · Penny Pritzker
And so I figured if I started something and built it, at least it would be harder to get rid of me because I was sort of theoretically essential to the business, if you will. So don't kid me, that was part of the motivation. So anyway, that's how I ended up becoming an entrepreneur. It was the way I felt that, you know, there weren't a lot of paths for me to grow in existing businesses. You know, the guys were kinda looking out for the guys. And so I was like, okay, then I'll build it. I'll do it from scratch. And once you've done that, once you have... And and you learn a lot. I made so many mistakes. Unbelievable the number of mistakes I made and unbelievable some of the bad decisions I made. But I learned from them, and what I learned is is if you recognize you made a... You hired the wrong person. Literally, I didn't know how to fire someone. I had to call my uncle, and I said, I hired the wrong marketing person, but I don't know how to fire them. Could you give me a tutorial on how do you tell someone it's not working out? And, of course, I was racked with guilt and everything. Of course. But he helped me understand that when someone's not in the right job, they usually know it too and that you need to help them understand that it's just not working. It's often portrayed as being very brutal, but this was really... It was clear that this person I'd hired, they didn't really... They weren't comfortable in the job either. So, anyway, I learned a lot by doing.
00:17:36 · Alexa von Tobel, Penny Pritzker
[00:17:36] S0: There's a natural value system in your history around the the love of the builds. And you've even said it a few times. There's something honorable about it. And I think you and I have not really ever had the conversation directly of we believe there's something noble about building a net new business from scratch, taking a white piece to paper. I believe it's incredible because there's a lot of innovation rooted in it. Right? When you're innovating, you're making something better. You're rarely building something that's worse than what exists out there. And so I always love that piece. Why do you think you like building things? Like, what what what part about it makes you feel so... That is noble? [00:18:19] S1: Well, I think there are two things that are important. First is to build a business that succeeds means you're filling some need that society has. Yep. Businesses don't endure if society doesn't need them. Doesn't matter how much effort you put into it. I think the other part that I learned, and I learned this as a young person, I watched my parents, you know, help the bellman become ultimately the general manager of a hotel, if you will, or I watched this... Them helping people grow. And I and I really felt the humanity of that. I felt the... Boy, if you can create a new entity that employs people and gives people purpose and they feel belonging and the culture is healthy, we've all been seeing unhealthy cultures, but you can create a healthy culture where people feel respected and trusted. What's wrong with that? That feels noble to me.
00:18:19 · Penny Pritzker, Alexa von Tobel
[00:18:19] S1: Well, I think there are two things that are important. First is to build a business that succeeds means you're filling some need that society has. Yep. Businesses don't endure if society doesn't need them. Doesn't matter how much effort you put into it. I think the other part that I learned, and I learned this as a young person, I watched my parents, you know, help the bellman become ultimately the general manager of a hotel, if you will, or I watched this... Them helping people grow. And I and I really felt the humanity of that. I felt the... Boy, if you can create a new entity that employs people and gives people purpose and they feel belonging and the culture is healthy, we've all been seeing unhealthy cultures, but you can create a healthy culture where people feel respected and trusted. What's wrong with that? That feels noble to me. [00:19:18] S0: You and I also bonded over the fact that the innovation economy, the innovation part sector startups, whatever you wanna call them, those are often the part of the economy where you go from zero jobs to 5,000, 10,000. When a company grows dramatically overnight and invents a lot of jobs, that's also pretty noble, right? [00:19:39] S1: That's what I mean. You're creating opportunity for
00:19:39 · Penny Pritzker, Alexa von Tobel
[00:19:39] S1: That's what I mean. You're creating opportunity for [00:19:42] S0: creating And you're absolutely right, it is the humanity of helping people get to the top, and pulling people along with the business. But then also just the fact that you're solving real problems for society, and creating net new jobs, all while creating a lot of value. It's... It it... There's a lot of alignment. [00:20:00] S1: It feels good.
00:20:00 · Penny Pritzker, Alexa von Tobel
[00:20:00] S1: It feels good. [00:20:00] S0: It feels good. It feels really good. So just to quickly name some of them, Penny. You've co founded more than seven companies. V Senior Living, which is basically your, like, an early breakout to the concept of senior living in general. The Parking Spot, which we've all seen those around the airports. Artemis, obviously an incredible real estate, inspired with me here. And and I won't name them all. And then you went in to become The US Secretary of Commerce for the country. And one thing I'm really proud of, and it's pretty corny, but when you were there, you're really known as the innovation leader and it's like bringing incredible innovation to the White House. And I mean, the way we met was because you... I remember getting an email from President Obama, which I thought like my husband was punking me. And it was like, would you become an ambassador to the country with... On behalf of Penny Pritzker and US Secretary of Commerce? And I truly was like, this is not real. And then quickly, was like, is this real? Oh my god. I'm... Wow. But you were just innovating. You were thinking outside the box. You guys were doing things, not following normal playbooks, and really trying to think about being in the White House and using the reach of the the incredible love of America differently. Say more about that.
00:21:19 · Penny Pritzker
[00:21:19] S1: Well, first of all, one of the great honors of my lifetime is to serve our country. And I... If one ever has the opportunity, I highly encourage people to do it. You know, first of all, I think I didn't really know what the rules were in the sense of, oh, well, this is the way it was always done. So I treated it like it was a business, and I just brought my entrepreneurial thinking to the table. And it forces you in government, you know, because you're moving from thing... Different topic to topic. You have to be agile, but you also have to be creative because there's always problems. Right? You're not there to work on things that are working smoothly. You're working on things that aren't working. And one of the things that President Obama was interested in, he gave a speech in 2009 about... In Cairo about one of the challenges in in countries is there isn't enough job creation or entrepreneur... There isn't a capital available for entrepreneurs to succeed. And so he wanted to really promote entrepreneurship in The United States and around the world, and he felt that that might be a solution to some of the ills and and the fact that there were a lot of people who just didn't have opportunity. And so that was the concept. What are you gonna... You know, come up with something. And so now you're you're sitting there, and on a white sheet of paper, it's like, well, let's create presidents, ambassadors for global entrepreneurship, which you were one. And that's how we met is was we selected you among one of 20 people, and we asked you basically, would you... And then we made it up. It was not like there was a playbook. We made it up, and we said, we would ask you as a, you know, premier entrepreneur in our country, agree to once a year go on a trip with either the president or the vice president or the secretary of commerce or the secretary of state and promote entrepreneurship. And then we also asked you each to have some kind of philanthropic activity around entrepreneurship. So set an example. Be an example. The way you're an example every day to everybody here and with our founders, please do it on behalf of the country. So you and I are in Morocco, which is... We were at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and we... You know, which was another thing that was created. It didn't exist, But I think it...