#216 Paul Van Doren (Founder of Vans)

My entire life, I've never had one big idea. I'd like to think I woke up one day. Figured out how to make the world's best canvas and rubber waffle sole deck shoes. how to distribute said shoes and thus create the first vertically integrated tennis shoe company in the world. But the fact of it is

I could have been growing potatoes. Actually shoes has nothing to do with my success. What I've accomplished comes down to one thing. My knack for identifying and then solving problems. What I do better than anyone else is cut out distractions.

If a system isn't working efficiently, I can see where it's jammed, eliminate the problem, and find a way to keep everything moving forward. Everyone has something that they naturally do better than anyone else. This just happens to be mine, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to leverage it. Then there's everything I learned by doing. Much of Van's early success was the happy result of hard work and creative troubleshooting.

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