9UNP0649SD_Dave_Anderson_WordPress
Entrepreneurship in Society
Dave Anderson 
How To Succeed In College And Life

- This is Entrepreneurship in Society. It is a course that's offered through the University of Wisconsin School of Human Ecology. I'm Jeanan Yasiri. As we begin today, I'd like to extend thanks to our partners in producing this course, the UW Office of Corporate Relations, the UW College of Engineering for their technical support, and financial support that's provided by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which is committed to advancing academic education in entrepreneurship. 

Additionally, we thank our media partners, Wisconsin Public Television and their University Place crew for taping today's lecture. I'm very pleased to introduce our special guest today, Dave Anderson, founder of Famous Dave's of America. The barbecue franchise known and Famous Dave's was established in 1994, when Dave opened up his first operation in Hayward, Wisconsin. Within a year, Famous Dave's announced its initial public offering on NASDAQ. 

A year later, National Restaurant News recognized the organization as one of the hottest concepts in America for originality, innovation in menu, decor, service, and strong consumer approval. Ernst and Young, along with NASDAQ, and "USA Today" recognized Dave in 1997 as Minnesota and Dakota's emerging entrepreneur of the year. As a Native American, Dave devotes his life to making a difference in his community, as well as being a business entrepreneur. 

He certainly pays attention to the lives of others less fortunate. Oprah Winfrey's Angel Network recognized Dave's leadership development work with at-risk youth. Dave has a master's degree from Harvard University, which I trust he will tell us about. Please join me in welcoming Dave Anderson to share with us "How to Succeed in College and Life: Lessons from an Entrepreneur." 

[applause]

- Good afternoon! 

- Good afternoon. 

- Some of you sound asleep. Now, whenever I go and share my story, I always start off with a rousing cheer. So I'm going to ask everybody to stand up. And what's going to happen is I'm going to do this cheer first, and then I'll repeat it, and then we'll all do it together. The cheer goes like this. I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific! So, let me repeat that. It goes, I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific! On the count of three, we'll all do this together. 

Here we go! One, two, three! I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific! That was lousy. Absolutely lousy! There were some of you who were kind of looking around and saying, "This is hokey, do I really have to do this?" No, you don't. There's a lot of things you don't have to do in life. But I will tell you this. There's going to come a time when you need to stand up for the things that you believe in. 

There are times when you've got to share with the world your hopes, your dreams, and your aspirations. And if you're aren't comfortable getting out of your skin now, in a comfortable surrounding now, you will never make it in life. Entrepreneurship is not a profession. Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle. Every one of you has the seeds of greatest within you. So don't worry about what the person next to you thinks. I want every one of you just to let loose. I know you have the energy. 

I know there's enthusiasm. Let's just pretend we're at Wisconsin badger football game. So, on the count of three, here we go. One, two, three! I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific! All right, that was a whole lot better. Now, I would say sit down. So, repeat after me. I am a winner! 

- I am a winner! 

- I am a superstar! 

- I am a superstar! 

- I am a champion! 

- I am a champion! 

- All right, I want you to think about this. Look at somebody, either to your right or left, and think this thought. This person has done amazing things in their life. They have done some incredible things, just to even get accepted, just to even be here in this school. And you never know what kind of story that person has that's right next you. So, I want to look at the person who's to your right or left, and I want you to say, you are amazing. 

- You are amazing. 

- I am in awe of you! 

- I am in awe of you. 

- You are going to do amazing things in life. 

- You are going to do amazing things in life. 

- But more than that... 

- But more than that. 

- I think... 

- I think. 

- You are... 

- You are. 

- Good looking. 

- Good looking. 

- All right, now give yourselves-- 

[clapping]

 Now you can be seated. I want to share with you how important it is to be passionate. And those of you who got here a little bit early, I asked a lot of you to come down in front. I'm a big believer that if you're going to succeed in life, if you're going to be an entrepreneur, and again entrepreneurship is not a profession, it's a lifestyle. And every one of you has the seeds of greatness within you. Every one of you who has ideas and dreams. 

Just one idea, if unleashed, could change the course of mankind. And every one of you has that within you. But if you're sitting in the back rows, you know, I can see everybody up here. I notice who's taking notes. If I were you, if you had a multimillionaire-- If I had a multimillionaire standing in front, somebody who started out with nothing, and has succeeded, I would be scribbling furiously away. I would walk out with more notes than anybody in this room. 

You know what? If you're sitting in the back rows, I can't see you. I may be willing to finance your business, but I will never know who you are when you're sitting in the back rows. So I want to encourage all of you, you may think that this is just college. It is not. One of things that I share is that every day in college is no different than your first day on the job. A lot of times, people say look, when I get my job, then I'll really buckle up and then I'll really work hard. 

I know some of you are working hard now, but it's your actions and behaviors that you are doing every day of your life that is going to determine your success throughout your career. I will tell you that I hire a lot of people. Throughout my career, I've hired a lot of young people, a lot of college graduates. There's like this gap of graduates, that when they graduate, they're not work ready. There's this gap there. 

So, your actions and behaviors that you do every day while you're in college, determines how successful you will be when you actually do graduate and you get your first job, or you start your first business. So, one of things I like to encourage all of you, is that every day when you're at class, don't think of it as college, think of it as being in the workforce, being an entrepreneur. And look at your university professors as either your bosses, your supervisors, or a CEO of a major business. 

How would you act and behave? Look around you. Look around you right now. The people that are sitting next to you may be a customer. They may be a client. They may be somebody who you would want to hire, or maybe they would want to hire you. Then ask yourself, what type of impression am I making? That's how important it is. As a successful entrepreneur, I have the opportunity to travel all around, and go to many different meetings with high-level CEOs of other businesses. 

One of things I always ask, I say, what do you look for when you're looking for a young person to come into your business. Number one, they always say passion. Passion and enthusiasm. So, being able to stand up, stand out, get fired up. You know, never holding anything back is so important. Then, where I come from, I'm living up in the Twin Cities, you have the Minnesota Vikings. 

It's interesting, because you'll see young people sitting in stands, painted purple, long golden braids, helmets with horns. Then, originally, I grew up in Chicago. That's where my entrepreneurial story really gets started. We have the Chicago Bears. Then, we're all in Wisconsin. We have the Packers and Cheeseheads. 

I've watched some amazing games held in Lambeau Field, but one of the strangest things to me, always, is that it may be freezing weather, and there are people sitting in the stands half-naked, one side of their body painted green, the other side painted yellow. And what do they have on their heads? Cheese. Cheeseheads. Then we've all seen some of these folks, doing some crazy, interesting things, right? Grown people getting excited, enthusiastic, to cheer on a team. 

Here's what I want to think about. If you look at a professional team, and you look at the tens and tens of thousands of fans that are standing and cheering in the stands, think of this. How many of them will actually ever get a chance to meet those professional football players? Why is it that we don't show up every day of our life with that same type of passion and that same type of enthusiasm? I've been an entrepreneur all my life. Starting out, I never thought I could succeed. 

What you're looking at is actually my first restaurant. This is my mom's Indian fry bread stand, where we used to cook Indian fry bread and sell at an Indian pie house. This is my humble beginnings. And really, this is that story of entrepreneurship. In this great country that we live in, it doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter what you've been through. 

The one thing that matters, if you have dreams, and if you have ambitions to make the world a better place, that in this great country, anything is possible. If my story today ever reaches home, is that right now, you may not know how your business is going to get started. You may not know how successful you will be. But every one of you, there's a reason why you're in this class, because every one of you does have dreams, and you have hopes of doing something great. 

When I was growing up as a little kid, growing up in the city of Chicago, I never thought that I could succeed. Both my parents are Native Americans. My dad's a full-blood Choctaw Indian from Idabel, Oklahoma. My mom is from the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe in Hayward, Wisconsin. A lot of people over the years, they've asked me, they say, well Dave, Idabel, Oklahoma, is really far south. It's as far south in Oklahoma as you can get. 

How did your dad ever get to meet some gal from way up north in northern Wisconsin? Well, the story is this. Both of my parents, being Native American, were actually taken from their families and stuck in Indian boarding schools. A lot of people think, well, that's the type of stuff that happened in Abraham Lincoln's day. No. This generation, my parents taken from the families and stuck in boarding schools. Now, fortunately for me, they met at Haskell Institute for Indians in Lawrence, Kansas. 

They got married. At that time, the only jobs that were available were in major cities, so the Bureau of Indian Affairs shipped them off to Chicago. Now, fortunately for me, this is where the love for food gets started, because my dad being from the South, loved his southern home cooking. He missed those southern meals. My dad used to drive my mom down south almost every other weekend while she learned how to cook southern. 

That's how important great-tasting barbecue, great-tasting southern home cooking was in my family. But like I said, growing up on the west side of Chicago, I never had some of the hopes and dreams that maybe some of you had. I never probably have the family life that some of you have, or maybe some of you have struggled, and you're working your butts off to succeed, and in your mind, you're going to make that dream come true. 

But as a little kid, I can remember in the late 1950s, how hot it would be. We used to have days on end, like ten days in a row where the temperatures would be up over 100 degrees. I can remember looking out of our third floor apartment with no air conditioning, and it was just so hot, and looking down on the streets of Chicago, and see that heat rising off of the cars, see the heat rising off of the asphalt and the concrete. 

My mom, to get out of that excruciating heat, would stick us on the C Line railroad, and we would travel through Wisconsin up to Hayward, overnight. It seemed like we'd stop at every stop along the way. Once we got to Spooner, somebody would pick us up in an old truck, and we would go down dusty gravel roads to get to my grandmother's house, which was nothing more than a three-room shack with no running water, no electricity, and an all-wood stove. 

What I remember most those days was laying in my grandmother's bed and looking out into the northern sky. Being from the city, I never saw a northern sky that was just so black, where the stars just stood out so brightly. It was like you could almost reach up and grab one of those stars. As a little kid, when I would look into that northern sky, and I would see those billions and billions of stars, I saw some stars that shone bright. 

And I wondered if my life would ever be like one of those stars that shone bright. Or if my life would be like one of those other billions of stars, that just kind of faded off into the vastness of space. Every one of you has to think about your future. 

How are you going to stand up and stand out against all of the other millions and millions of kids that are taking the same type of courses you are taking? This is why it's so important that every day of your life you're not standing around with your hands in your pockets, arms folded, and wondering what other people are going to think. You've got to be enthusiastic. You've got to be passionate. 

If you can't do it here in school, when are you going to do it in the work place? Because if you're taking entrepreneurship, or whatever your driving desire to be in life, or whatever it is. You have to be passionate about it. You have to be enthusiastic about it, because that's one of the rules of success.

You'll hear a lot of people talk about that. If you're going to be successful, you've got to think about your passion. You've got to think about it all the time. You've got to eat, drink and sleep whatever turns your crank, whatever turns you on. The first time I heard this, I was a kid. This is what I thought. 

[laughter]

 You mean, I'm going to turn into a blonde? 

[laughter]

 Well, one of the things, the other lesson, is that life is about change. You cannot achieve your greatest dream being the person you are right now. I want you to remember that. There's a lot of people that go through life, and a lot of you know these type of people. You hear them whine and complain, wondering how come they never achieved anything in life. It's because they keep doing the same thing day in and day out. There's three lessons I'm going to talk about today. 

I am going to talk about change. I'm going to talk about lifelong learning. Then I'm going to share with you what I believe to be the secret to all success in life. But one of the things that you really have to take a hold of is that life is about change, that there's things that you don't like doing now. You've got to overcome those fears. And for me, learning was a tough thing. I was in the bottom half of the class that made the top half possible. I had like a 2.

 grade average all through high school. I was the person everybody thought would never succeed. And a lot of times when I'm going around and I'm sharing my entrepreneurship story, kids will come up to me afterwards, or when I'm in a community, grown people will come up to me, and they'll say, Dave, that's very easy for you to do, because you can stand up there, you can get all excited, and gosh, I could never do that.

I just can't put myself out there like that. And then I surprise them when I tell them, well, would you ever believe that I was the shyest kid in class? I was so shy I couldn't lead a group in silent prayer. 

[laughs]

 Go ahead and laugh, you know, but that was my story. But then I realized that learning could free me up. And if you guys think you're studying hard now, you have no idea. Because today, I still study three hours a day. And what you're looking at is my garage. These are all the books that are in my garage. I read on average three books a day, or three books a week I read about four newspapers a week, or four newspapers a day. I read about 50 to 60 magazines a month. 

I'm not reading those magazines to see what Tiger Woods or Britney Spears is up to. I read those magazines to look at trends, to see what people are eating, to see what people are wearing. How many of you know what profession you already want to go after, what you're striving for? Can I see you raise your hands? How many of you have subscribed to the industry magazines? Can I see you raise your hands? Good for you. Those of you who have you can find some amazing things. 

You will find the companies that are making it happen. You will read about the newest innovations in technology. You will read about the people who are getting promoted. And if you were smart, I'd be writing those people and saying, congratulations. I'm a student at UW, and I'm taking these courses, and I admire what you're doing. They will remember you, and you'll never know when that'll come in handy when you're out sending your resumes out there. 

There's a lot you can learn from your industry magazines. I read every single one of them. How many of you go to your industry conferences? Can I see you raise your hands? That's probably the number one-- congratulations. That's probably one of the number one things that you can be doing right now is finding out where these industry conferences are, because you will find the movers and shakers in your industry attending those conferences. 

And what you're looking at is a passion to learn and a passion to succeed. Once I found out that I wasn't just the dumbest kid in class, and seriously I thought I was. I never answered a teacher's question, and I was a back row seater, because I didn't have the confidence to sit up in front. I was afraid of being called on, of being called on by the teacher. 

But then I realized that my life had to change, and one of the things about change is that people always think that change happens out there. If we had a different president, things would change. We'd have a better economy. Well, that's what Obama ran on last time, right? Change? And it really hasn't changed. Now I have some thoughts on that, because actually I served as an assistant secretary in the US Department of Interior. 

I have a presidential appointment that required a full Senate confirmation. I understand what it takes to be in those type of situations, and change is very difficult. But if your life is going to change, it isn't because you were born on the right side of the tracks. It isn't because you were born in a family that had means. Change really doesn't happen out there. And all of your life you're going to be in situations where you wish things would change. 

And if you're an entrepreneur, guess what? Change has to happen in your own backyard. And it doesn't happen out in the marketplace. In fact, I believe that Mahatma Gandhi said it best when he said, "Become the change that you want to see in the world." "Become the change that you want to see in the world."

It was years later that I found out I had Attention Deficit Disorder, which explained a lot of things. Because when I was sitting in class, and I was daydreaming, the teachers would get mad at me, and they would say, Anderson, quit looking out the window. Quit daydreaming. And one of the things I want to share with you-- and write this down-- always turn your adversities into your greatest strengths. Turn your challenges into your greatest opportunities.

Turn your toughest problems into your greatest solutions. And so today, I've learned that my daydreaming is now called visioning. 

[laughter]

 And then when I couldn't stay focused, and the teachers would say, Anderson, stay focused. You've got to stay focused on this one thing. Today I've learned that's called multitasking. Now, I've been successful because I've been able to surround myself with very highly organized people, and I've learned that just because I'm not organized doesn't mean I can't be very creative. 

I think it was Mark Twain who said something like, it's unfortunate that we may think a fish is stupid, because he can't climb a tree.

And that really hit home for me, because there's some things I can't do, and I'll never be able to do them, but the things that I can do are the things that I'm passionate about.

And here's a picture just to prove that without an undergraduate degree with a 2.0 grade point average in high school, in 1986, I got my master's degree from Harvard University, and today, another school gave me a doctorate degree for my life's work. Who would have ever known that some school would say, Anderson, we think you've done great work. Here's a doctorate. So again, it just goes to prove that in this great country that we live in that anything is possible. 

Now everybody will tell you about following your passion, and yet there's a lot of young people that have no idea yet really what profession or what your passion is all about or what it's going to be in life. What are you going to devote the rest of your life to? How many of you really know, without a doubt, you know what you're going to do for the rest of your life? A few. Now I have an idea for you, the rest of you, when somebody asks you, what do you study, you tell them this. 

I'm going to UW and I'm studying how to be successful and how to achieve. That's your answer. Don't give an answer, well, I'm going to UW and I'm kind of playing out my options. You know, once I get through, once I get done with the stuff I have to take, then hopefully I'll figure it out by then. You don't want to ever, ever give the impression you don't know what you're doing. 

So you're number one answer is, I'm going to UW, and I'm studying how to be successful, and I'm starting a life of achievement. And that's probably the best answer that you can give. Now for me, I love barbecue. There is no doubt about it. I love barbecue. And I can remember the first time I ever tasted a barbecue rib. I was coming home from school. I was just a little kid. 

And the moment I walked into the family's living room from the outside, I could smell the whole house smelled like hickory wood. It just had just a wonderful tasty smell. I went running into the kitchen, and there was my dad unwrapping these whole spare ribs that had been smoked, and they were wrapped up in newspaper. You could tell how long ago, because today you could never get away with doing that. But nobody ever died from that, and it's amazing what we get allergic to today. 

But I had a chance to taste some of the best tasting barbecue as a little kid.

And right then and there I made up my mind I was going to be the best rib cook in America. I was going to learn how to cook the best ribs. And I've had this amazing journey before I ever opened up my first barbecue joint in 1994. I had spent 25 years traveling the country, discovering the best barbecue, working on my barbecue recipes, going into restaurants and taking pictures, and doing R&D, rob and deceive. 

[laughter]

 Now I don't admit this always, but I would steal the menus. I've got one of the biggest collections of menus, and if ever I don't get into heaven, it's probably because Saint Peter was at the pearly gates, and he said, Anderson, I've got to talk to you about all those menus that you absconded with. Now today, I share this story at the National Restaurant Association, so all the restaurateurs know to check my coat when I leave. But I love barbecue. There's no doubt about what I love. 

This is the first restaurant that I built in Hayward, Wisconsin. And when I was building my first restaurant, people would drive by, and they would say, Dave, what are you doing? And I would tell them that I am building the world's best rib restaurant. I'm going to have the best barbecue in the world. I'm going to have the best barbecue in America. I'm going to have the best tasting ribs in America. 

I'm going to have the best tasting barbecue sauce, the best homemade country roasted chicken, and the best honey buttered cornbread, the best tasty creamy coleslaw, the best barbecued baked beans, the best fall-off-the-bone tender Texas beef brisket, and I'm going to have the best smoky pork butts and pork sandwiches, and the best homemade bread pudding. I'm going to have the best barbecue in the world! 

[laughter]

 It's okay to clap. 

[scattered applause]

There's a reason why I wanted you to do that. Any time you have somebody that comes and shares with you, don't do this. 

[claps weakly]

 Give them a rousing applause. Show your appreciation. I didn't need to be here today. I'm not being paid to do this, but somebody came into my life, they gave me some ideas that changed my life forever. And if I share one idea that changes your life, I don't think this is appropriate. 

And wouldn't it be amazing that every class that we were in, that every professor, that when they share with you amazing things that you guys recognize them for that, or maybe even a standing ovation? How would you feel if you went out on a date, and somebody asked the person you went out on the date with, and they said, how was your date? And they said, oh, it was okay. Or the person said, oh my god, I had the most amazing date. That's what you really want, right? Again, it's all about passion. 

It's showing people that you care, and as an entrepreneur, when I said that I had the best barbecue, it was because I care. I don't want to give people good enough. And you cannot succeed in today's economic environment, which is now global, with good enough. Every one of you has to have the desire to be the best. Now I'm going to share with you something you'll never hear anywhere else, and I want you to write this down. It's called creating my best of the best list. 

There's a lot of people that will come and talk to you about how to be successful in life, and they will talk to you about having goals and dreams, and how important it is to write down your goals. But how many has ever shared with you that you need to create your best of the best list? So when I started Famous Dave's, I decided that I was going to have the best ribs, the best barbecue sauce, the best training program, the best decor, the best takeout menu, the best menu, the best music. 

Now to give you an idea how every single thing-- what I call moments of truth, of what your customers remember. Moments of truth, how you connect. And if you're able to connect with all five senses with whatever you do-- and at Famous Dave's we connect with all five senses, from the smell, the taste, the feel, the hearing, the touch. We touch all five senses. 

And so when I was putting together the music for Famous Dave's, I actually hand-picked every single song that's played at a Famous Dave's restaurant. There's four songs to a set. Three songs have 125 to 135 beats per minute. The fourth song's about 115 to 125 beats per minute. You'll never hear two instrumentals back to back. There's two sets to a rotation. Every second set I'll put in a Cajun Zydeco song. But that's how important attention to detail is. 

That's how important that every single thing that you do in your business is taken to the next level, that you're striving to always get to the next level, that good enough is no longer good enough. You cannot succeed in today's global marketplace being good enough. You have to get up every day and even here in college every day that you come to school, that you're striving to be excellent in what you're doing. 

You want to have that passion to have the best grades, to have your teacher know who you are. You know that past one, two, three, four, past the fifth row, I cannot really see anybody in the back.

And there's going to come a time when you're going to want to come to a teacher and you're going to say, could you write me a job recommendation?

So you may have a lot of reasons why you want to sit in the back, but I will tell you that you should have a strategy for always sitting in front. And always be marketing. Don't be afraid to learn how to sell. How many of you have ever taken a course called sales, any type of sales course? Congratulations. I will tell you that whether you are a teacher, an artist, a political major, or whatever your driving ambition to be in life, business, whatever it is, you need to be selling yourself. 

You'll always be selling yourself either to your stakeholders, to your fellow employees, to the people that you need to have believe in your dreams or your ambition. Learn how to sell. It should be the number one course taken in this university. How many of you ever heard of Toastmasters? When I tell people that I couldn't lead a group in silent prayer, I'm dead serious. In fact, the first speech I ever gave was a complete disaster. 

I was speaking to a group of 300 at the University of Illinois, and the people who asked me, I think, were so embarrassed, because I got up there, and I never once looked at my audience. I was sweating so profusely that my notes were just dissolving in front of me. The suit coat that I was wearing was wringing wet in the armpits, and I was really a sad sight. 

And my 45 minute speech lasted all of 10 minutes, and I ran out that side door, and I swore to myself that I would never ever get up in front of another group the rest of my life. But I also realized that if I was going to be an entrepreneur that I had to be able to tell the world about my product, about who I am. I needed to be able to share my dreams. And, by the way, I have been able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars on Wall Street. I've helped take three companies public. 

I wrote the first check to get Rainforest Cafe started.

I literally have created over 20,000 jobs in my career.

And I would never have been able to do that if I didn't learn how to speak in front of a group. Probably one of the greatest things that you could do for yourself is take a class in debate, or join the local Toastmasters group, because you will need to sell yourself. You will need to be able to get people passionate about the things that you believe in. And let me tell you something else, it's all about the numbers. And it's unfortunate we don't teach financial literacy in our schools. 

And somebody will say, well, wait a second. We have financial management. We have accounting. That's not financial literacy.

By the way, you never become wealthy by what you earn. Wealth only comes from the size of your investment portfolio. In America's free enterprise system, capitalism is based upon people's ability to save and invest. So when I was building my first restaurant up in Minneapolis-- or my first restaurant in Hayward, Wisconsin-- this is what the first restaurant looks like. This is me in front of my pork, and it is today probably one of the most photographed restaurants in all of Wisconsin. 

Every governor since we opened has brought his staff up there. We've even had visiting governors come and eat there. And I believe that one of the keys to my success is that I've learned long ago that it's not about me. Your success is not about your ability to go out and get, or your ability to go out and achieve. But your success in life is really about creating value into the lives of other people. 

And I really think that our education system is archaic, because all your life when you were growing up, and your parents told you, you've got to study hard. Why did they tell you to study hard? Anybody?

And why did you need to get to college? Come on. 

- To get a job. 

- To get a job. Right. And I believe that is why most of America-- probably 95% of America-- struggles their entire lifetime living paycheck to paycheck, because all their life they believed that their education was about getting a job and not creating value. You could change your whole career this day, this week, by thinking about everything that you study is not about getting a job. But everything that you are studying is all about your ability to create value into the life of somebody else. 

Wouldn't that change our education system? Think about that. Everything that you were studying is for the sole purpose of being able to create a better life for somebody else and not just to get a job. Because I will tell you, if there's one thing that you learn about entrepreneurship, it's not about what you get. It's about what you give. 

And at Famous Dave's, we strive to give not only the best ribs, but also the best opportunity for young people to come into our restaurants and be able to learn how to obsessively devote themselves to making people happy once they come into our restaurants. Your success in life will be determined by your obsessive devotion to making the life of somebody else better, and I would write that down. 

Your success in life-- whatever your profession is, your success in life will come from your obsessive devotion to creating value into the life of somebody else, making their lives better. You know, when people talk about profits, and they talk about entrepreneurship, sometimes people think that profit is a dirty word. And especially today, we've got people protesting about profit. And what they don't understand is that profit is nothing more than creating added value. 

Profit is the difference between the expenses and the added value. And every one of you should have an ambition that every day of your life that you create added value, that you're not living in the negative, or you're just not coasting along.

How are we doing? I've got a lot to go.

Creating added value is a good thing. You can make the world a better place through your influence, your creativity, your innovation, your hard work, by making other people's lives blessed.

Creating added value. Think of this. If you have $100 and you spend $10, what do you think about? Anybody. This is a bright class, I'm told. If you have $100 and you spend $10, what's the first thought that comes into your mind? You have $90 left. That is called lack thinking, and you want to go from lack to abundance. And so how to never ever live in lack the rest of your life is by thinking abundantly and thinking about creating value. So here's how I think. 

If I have $100 and I spend $10, the thing that goes through my mind is I now have to create something worth $30. How am I going to replace that $10? Not that I have $90 left, but the first thing that goes in my mind is that I have to create $30 more. And there's a reason. Some of it is expenses, some is labor, and then what's left is profit.

Could you imagine where your finances would be, that instead of always thinking, well, I've got this much left, that your immediate thoughts are, I have to replace this by creating more value.

That's the secret to success. Not the real secret, because I'm not going to give that yet.

Here I am on Wall Street. Actually, Times Square, because the NASDAQ building-- this was two years ago. NASDAQ said, Dave, we've got to have Famous Dave's come and light up our building and ring the bell. March of '09 our stock was at $2. And we were faced with one of the worst economic meltdowns, and our companies still face, just like any other business today, dealing with the economic meltdowns. But we realized that if things were going to turn around was that we had to transform our company. 

Everything from starting at the top, we retrained everybody in our business. And that's another thing that I want to share with you. We used to think that education was a one time learning thing. If you went to high school and college that that education would last you the rest of your life. It doesn't. And that's why I study every day of my life. I'm always learning. So we realized we had to retrain everybody in our company. 

And one of the key things that we did was we realized our people in our restaurants are getting beat up. Everything that they listened to or watched on TV would say the economy has caused businesses to go out of business. The economy has caused people to lose their jobs. The economy has caused sales to go soft. And again, it was one of those things that was out there. You know, when I talk about change, this is a great definition. 

If you always did what you always did, you're always going to get what you always got. Or the definition of insanity. How many have heard the definition of insanity? And what is it? 

- Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. 

- Exactly. A lot of businesses were doing the same thing day in and day out and expecting different results. And at Famous Dave's, we could not approach the marketplace in the same way. And the number one thing that we did was from now on we're never calling it the economy. We're going to start calling it my economy. And guess what? When you start saying, my economy, you've got to jump up and take responsibility for what's happening in your own backyard. So that's key. 

Those of you that want to be entrepreneurs, it's never the economy. It's always my economy, and you should write that down. Because if you're going to be an entrepreneur, you are also going to be a leader, and you've got to be able to get people to buy into that philosophy that you can't blame the economy. You can't blame what happens out there, because every time you point a finger, you've got three more fingers pointing right back at yourself. 

You make the difference with what's going to happen in this country. You make the difference what's going to happen in this world economy that we are living in. So by training everybody, by coming up with an attitude-- and, by the way, the number one thing that makes people successful in life is their attitude. And by addressing the attitude in all our restaurants that we are going to hug up and love up everybody that comes into our restaurant-- March of '09 our stock was at $2. 

By December, our stock was at $9.

And we've taken our company and three of the worst years of this nation's economy in recent history, took our stock from $2, and now I think it's still right around $8. It's been as high as $12. Because we took a position that we weren't going to let the economy and whatever is happening out there control our destiny. And one of the things as an entrepreneur-- like I said before, entrepreneurship is not a profession. It's a lifestyle. 

And when it's a lifestyle, it's that you are taking control of your destiny. You are the architect of your destiny and not the victim of the marketplace.

This is me just giving back. We have work that we do with at-risk kids. And by the way, I have some books with me. I share in here how to meet all the movers and shakers in your community. 

How many of you want to get hired when you get out of school, find a job? How many have heard about students that still haven't found a job that graduated years ago and have sent out thousands of resumes? In this book I share street smart strategies, how to meet the movers and shakers in your community that are making things happen. And now this book is full of tips like this, and I'm going to share with you. 

How many of you would like to meet the movers and shakers that do the hiring in your community? Let me see a raise of hands. Or even if you're starting a business, and you want to meet the movers and shakers in your community, here's how easy it is. Get involved with your local chamber of commerce, because that's where you're going to find the owners of businesses that are making it happen. But more than that, also community groups that are making it happen. 

And the other interesting thing was my first loan, when I started my first business, was on my signature alone for $10,000 in 1973. And those of you who are finance majors that would be a lot of money today, right? A lot of money. And I met this banker at a chamber of commerce meeting. Not the loan officers, and that's a great thing about chamber meetings. The loan officers don't go to chamber meetings. Only presidents of banks do. Now here's the key. 

You go to the chamber of commerce, and you volunteer to help set up every day, or whenever the meetings are. And then you be the one to pass out the name tags and greet people when they come in. And if you're bright, cheerful, and you've got the biggest smile, you're going to meet the movers and shakers. And then you tell them, I'm going to UW and I'm in Entrepreneurship or whatever your class is. They will remember you. And then you meet them after the meeting and shake hands with them. 

This book is full of strategies like this. I also list five of the most important documents that you should leave school with, and none of them are your diploma. I was up at University of Minnesota Duluth campus, and our CFO had just won a very prestigious award in the financial community. And we had another group like this, and one of the students asked, how important is grades to somebody getting hired in your company? And she said, they're important, but it's not what we look at. 

What we look at is that person's ability to be a contributing team member and help build our business. I'm not saying you guys shouldn't strive for grades, because what it does it shows your hard work, it shows your ambition, it shows you're not wanting to be living a life of mediocrity but a life of excellence.

But I list the 19 character traits that every company is looking for. I would recommend getting this. I have another one called Recipes For Success, all the street smart strategies that I've learned being an entrepreneur, creating jobs, creating value. Typically, I sell these for $15 each. You can have both of them. They're $10 today or two for $20. Always be marketing. Write that down. Whatever you're doing always be selling. This is entrepreneurship. This is getting out there. 

And those of you, if you ain't got the dollars, I'd borrow it, because these books are worth it. And if not, I'll buy it back from you. That's a guarantee. 

But seriously, I would not bring these books here today if I didn't think Report Cards to Paychecks, Get Fired Up Strategies for Succeeding in College and Life, and my Recipes For Success, Get Fired Up, Be Famous, and Smoke the Competition weren't books that could really change your life and how you approach entrepreneurship or just succeeding in life. That's me receiving my award from Oprah Winfrey. 

And now I want to get to the last thing which is really-- how many of you want to hear the real secret to succeeding in life in anything you do? Let me see you raise your hands. All right. Here it is. It's called problems! Now isn't that amazing? And you're thinking, I came here to listen to this guy talk, and he wants to tell me that the secret to all success in life is problems? I want to share with you what we do as entrepreneurs. We take away the problems of the world. 

We make the lives of other people happy. We delight them beyond expectation. You see, when you are going up that ladder of success, you are not going up that ladder of success because you are working harder, or you are working smarter. If you are already working 60, 80 hours a week, it's not fair to ask you to work 80 more hours to be more successful. And then people will say, well, you've got to work smarter. Well, that's not true, because in my case that was almost impossible. 

But yet I have succeeded. You see, when you go up that ladder of success, you are going up that ladder of success because you have made a conscious decision that this day you are going to stand up and shoulder your share of the adversities, your share of the problems. And there's a lot of people that live frustrated lives, because all their lives they've been running away, and they've been saying, that's Joe's problem. Go talk to him. Or this one...

They ain't paying me enough to have those problems. How many of you have heard that one? How many have used that one? I know I have until I understood that problems are my greatest opportunity. Adversity is your problem. But how many of you have never wanted to get up the next day, and you want to just lay in bed because you thought your whole world was caving in on you? Even at your young age that you've had some adversity. 

Some challenge, some gut wrenching problems that are just tearing you apart. Have you been there? Let me see you raise your hands. Don't be bashful, because this really should be a course that you should have Problems 101. How many of you have ever taken a course called Success 101? Let me see you raise your hands. 

What's the matter with this university? How come we don't have a course called Success 101? Because I will tell you the things that you would learn in Success 101 are not the things that you're learning at school today. Sure, your courses are important. The ability to think and have logical thinking is important. But the success skills-- I'm going to give you one of the success skills. 

I believe that I am where I'm at today, because every day in my life when I get in my car I'm listening to a book on CD. It used to be on cassette tapes when I was growing up. And here's the thing. Never look at your car as transportation. Always look at your car as your university on wheels. And I really believe that because every day in my life, when I get in my car, I'm listening to something that is edifying. 

I'm putting the pure, the clean, the powerful into my mind, that I'm readying myself for success. And you can go to any Barnes & Noble, and go to the audio book section, and you'll see all kinds of great stuff that you can be playing in your car. Now granted, after I get done with that, I turn on the tunes. But look at your car as a university of success. And all this kind of stuff is in these books, so that's why I urge you to get them. 

But problems, life's adversity, that's where your challenge is and your ability to turn the weaknesses and the adversities into your opportunities get forged. And today, I believe that you cannot be a leader unless you have gone through the depths of adversity, because that's where character gets forged. 

And so many of us, we want to quit when we're dealing with these adversities, and the good Lord is looking down at you, but yet you're praying to the almighty God, and you're saying, Lord, in your good book it says that blessings and abundance are mine, but it seems like all I've been getting is adversity. What's with the adversities, Lord? And the good Lord is looking down, and he says, don't you get it? You wanted opportunity. 

It's in the adversity, because when you don't give up, and you get to the other side, you are going to become wiser. You're going to become stronger. And people in your community are going to step up behind you, and they're going to say, we've got to support this young person. They're dealing with adversity, but look at how optimistic they are. Look at their forward looking, the hope that they have. Instead a lot of people whine and complain. 

And, you know what? When you're whining and complaining, the people with the ideas, the people with the financing, they don't want to come near you. They want to be around people who are making it happen in the throes of adversity. They want to support those type of people. And when you're about ready to quit, the good Lord is looking down at you, and he's saying, don't give up on that adversity. I made this one just for you, and I worked a long time on hat one, and it's a doozy.

Hopefully, you will never look at your challenges, the things that tear you up, ever again as problems that hold you back. In fact, write this down. Never let your problems become your excuses. Never let your problems become your excuses. Now my time is coming up and I want to leave you with one thought. It's a poem called "The Builder." I saw a gang of men from my hometown, a gang of men tearing a building down. With a heave and a ho and a yes, yes yell, they swung a beam and a sidewalk fell. 

And I went up to the foreman. I said, Foreman, are these men skilled as the ones you'd use if you had to build? And he looked at me, and he laughed, and he said, no, no indeed. He said, common labor is all I need for I can destroy in a day what it's taken a builder 10 years to build. 

And I asked myself as I went my way, which one of these roles am I playing? Am I one who is constantly tearing things down as I carelessly make my way around? Or am I one whose community will be a little bit better just because I was there? And it's my hope and prayer that as you leave today, or when you leave this school that someday your family or your community will come back to you and say, thank you for never ever giving up on your dreams. 

Thank you for staying in there when you were faced with adversities. Because of you, not only have you touched my life, but you have touched my family's life, and you have made this community stronger. And that's what we need today, students. We need every one of you to be able to stand up, to share what's on your heart. And don't ever forget this. Every one of you has the seeds of greatness within you. Thank you and God bless. 

[applause]

- I know the students join me in thanking join me in thanking you, Dave. And I know we have a few minutes in the event that students have questions for you. Are you willing to take some questions? 

- Absolutely. 

- All right. So the students just raise their hands, and they let me know who wants to ask first. You know, I hear from students all the time who are finding their way over the four years that they're here and trying to figure out what it is that they can be passionate about. What would you recommend? 

- Actually, I have 18 questions in here on how you figure that out. But let me just share with you one quick thing. I believe that the universe tests you, and if you're going to find your passion, every day you get up you have to give every day over 100% every single thing you do. You see, if you go about life casually, you're only going to get casualness back. 

And so when you are passionate about everything you do, even though it may not be the one thing that you want to do the rest your life, at some point, when you are passionate, and you're giving everything you've got every single day of your life, the universe will reveal to you that one thing you should be doing in life. And the universe may be saying, hey, you're just going through life casually. There's no purpose to really give you that gift. You're untested. 

I don't think you deserve finding out what your passion should be.

- Hi, Dave, I'm Perry. I was wondering. You said that you traveled for 25 years to do research all across the country or whatever. Where did you get the funding to travel, if you weren't working during that time? 

- It came out of my own pocket. You know what? I've never worked for a paycheck. I've always worked to create value. And once you do that, you'll never have to worry about money coming your way. Seriously.

And believe me, I've been broke. I know what it means to have to go to my wife and ask her for the jewelry she's wearing so I could take it to a pawnshop, because I pawned everything else in the house. I've been so broke I've dug through seat cushions to find change so I could go and buy milk for my kids. I know how embarrassing it is to see the repo guy come and haul away the family car. 

But even more embarrassing to watch all the window shades up and down the block go up, because everybody's watching your car being hauled away. I should have been dead three times. My story is, though, never ever give up. And even during those times, I was always investing in myself. Never be afraid to invest in yourself.

A lot of what I do today I'm still investing back into the stuff I'm learning. 

- Dave, we have a question over here. 

- Yes. 

- Hi, my name is Abby, and I'm from south Minneapolis. And your uptown location has salsa dancing and live bands and music, and I was just wondering how this idea came to mind, and how it has impacted your business? 

- We have one of the nation's best, it's like the best kept secret in America, but we have one of the hottest barbecue and blues clubs in Minneapolis. I had hired the movie set people from Grumpy Old Men, and they actually made me a street in Chicago complete with-- It looks like a warehouse where the band plays. So if you ever get up to Minneapolis, you've got to check it out. 

But we were noticing that when we hired a salsa band, a lot of people didn't know how to dance it, and the ones that did, I mean, they really got out there, and they were really spinning around. And we could see that people wanted to do the same thing. So we decided that-- like some of the things like swing dance, salsa-- we would bring instructors in, and it really has kept us busy seven days a week. 

- You mentioned some tremendous growth in your business over the course of the last several years when my economy seemed to be faltering. What do you attribute to that growth? Why? 

- We retrained everybody. We recommitted ourselves to be more passionate in our restaurants, and realizing it's not about us, but people that were coming into Famous Dave's restaurants wanted to be appreciated. And so we got everybody to hug them up, love them up, and let them know that we were happy to see them there. And sometimes just that makes a whole lot of difference. When people are spending their hard earned money, they want to feel like they're being appreciated. 

- I have one final question for you, because it was such a main theme of what you had to share with us, which is giving back. You have a very defined focus on at-risk youth. Is there a reason for that? 

- Well, primarily because I was an at-risk youth. I'm sober today. I'm very open that God has changed my life, and I will tell you, if you don't have some type of worship or spiritualness in your life, there are times when you are an entrepreneur that you have no idea how you're going to make it through the next day, and you don't get million-dollar answers to ten-cent prayers, I'll tell you that. 

- Well, I know the students join me in thanking you very much, Dave Anderson. 

[applause]