13. Mike Bruns | The Momentum That Builds a $200 Million Dollar Company

Listen to this week's episode with Entrepreneur Mike Bruns. Mike founded trucking company Comtrak with one driver after working for three bankrupt companies prior. Twenty-three years later, Mike sold Comtrak with $200,000,000 in revenue and 1,500 employees. My conversation with Mike is unconventional and engaging. It's not your typical business conversation. Mike talks about getting scrappy, how we as people develop, the driving force behind opening up 21 locations, how much money is enough money, the importance of philanthropy, how he wants to make an impact, the aspects of life that won't change, what makes a bad acquisition and much more. 1:03 I'm going to be the smartest 90-year-old you know 1:49 Transitioning from trying to make Friday's payroll 3:30 Industry experience is less important than raw talent 3:57 Daily habit- make my morning rounds 5:50 Mistake of hierarchy that organizational chart determines one's value 9:13 Empathy whether necktie or uniform on 11:30 No smoke-filled room 13:00 Working for 3 Bankrupt companies shows you what not to do 13:20 Trucking was immaterial for what I did for a living 13:36 I knew what buttons to push 17:21 Take the person for what their value is. You can't take a chainsaw to someone 20:23 Changed from doing everything to letting people do things better than me 23:50 We learned the most from mistakes 25:00 Examples how to make the best out of mistakes 26:05 Let's give the mistake the biggest wow factor they have ever seen 26:29 Enough money is enough money 27:44 Most conservative trucking company in the business 32:00 Where I learned to scrap 34:54 How we decided where to expand locations 37:02 Didn't care about size 37:17 I had to run ahead and see what we were doing next 37:47 Create new challenges for people 38:17 Working in a dying industry sucks 42:28 My greatest joy was taking someone and reinventing them 48:16 I didn't plan beyond a year 50:33 Technology creates opportunities today, but some things don't change 52:42 Even if I wasn't first I could react because I had the best people 57:46 What does well run look like? 59:33 Revenue hides sins 1:00:57 What acquisitions to stay away from 1:03:09 How to move on after selling 1:07:00 Importance of Philanthropy 1:10:19 Helping others created buy-in with employees 1:17:40 How to buckle down during a setback 1:24:30 Going backward to appreciate going forward 1:27:11 Humility is the secret weapon