What began as a desire to leave the corporate world to launch his own IT business a year ago quickly morphed into a completely different career path for newly minted author and Fort Collins resident Brian Schwartz.

Schwartz' "50 Interviews: Entrepreneurs" will be officially released on Feb. 19 at a party from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Reader's Cove, 1001 E. Harmony Road, Fort Collins. The book is a collection of interviews - 52 actually - conducted with entrepreneurs from various industries and backgrounds. Schwartz asked each person, including himself, essentially the same questions about starting and growing his or her businesses.

His fact-finding mission has evolved into a self-publishing movement. Schwartz is enlisting others in the search for enlightenment to produce an entire series of books with interview subjects ranging from cancer survivors to racecar drivers to yogis.

Schwartz agreed to reverse roles and go from interviewer to interviewee in a discussion with the Business Report:



NCBR: What was the catalyst for this project?

Schwartz: It was my wife's idea. I told her that I was sick of making other people rich. I'd been in sales for 10 years. What happens in sales is that as you start making more money and bring more revenue for the company, they start to cut your commissions. There is a ceiling in sales.

I thought I could do what I was doing for these other companies on my own using mercenaries to come in and do IT support because there are a lot of free agents. Then I get to set the price and no one dictates to me what I earn.

I told my wife I was getting ready to quit and go off on my own, and she was very nervous. She told me that before she would give me her blessing, she wanted me to go out and talk to entrepreneurs - people doing it. She said, 'Why don't you talk to 50 and then come back and we'll talk about this again.' She didn't think I would ever make it to 50.

NCBR: So she was setting a bar?

Schwartz: Yeah, she didn't expect me to stick with it that long. It really became the passion for me when I realized that what I was so attracted to was the fulfillment factor that entrepreneurs have. That fulfillment, I was always trying to find it in my work ever since college, and it always eluded me. I was starting to give up. I saw this fulfillment in the people I interviewed, and I was really drawn to that. So, it really fueled me to get to the next interview, and talk to people. It's what I looked forward to every week.

I integrated it with my sales job a little bit, but at a certain point it just wasn't going to work. There wasn't enough time. I left that job, and found another job that is far fewer hours. It allows me to pursue this more. It's a huge pay cut, but it's more important that I have an opportunity to follow this through.

NCBR: When did you decide these interviews should be compiled into a book?

Schwartz: It was at about the fourth or fifth interview. Everyone was asking me what I was doing with the interviews. I said, 'Nothing, I just want to see if I'm cut out for this.' Everyone kept saying that I was collecting some great information and that they were great questions - 'There are a lot of people who probably want to know these answers; have you considered putting these in a book?'

Writing is a big part of what I like to do. When I read a book, I usually have a book next to it full of my notes. It's the way I digest information. I guess it never dawned on me that it was something I could do for a business. The reason I enjoy sales is the interaction with the other people and the interviewing process of the sales call. That's really what a sales call is - it's an interview.

NCBR: How did you choose the people to interview?

Schwartz: I started with the people I knew. My massage therapist, my dentist, my chiropractor. After the interview was complete, I'd ask them if there was anyone else they thought I should interview. I always got two or three names. In no time at all, I had 150 people to interview.

NCBR: What did you learn from the interviews?

Schwartz: It was after the 30th or 40th interview that it became really clear to me. The two attributes that make for a fulfilled, successful entrepreneur are (first) a really strong passion. It's a passion that consumes you. If someone offered you a $1 million to stop doing what you're doing now and you could never go back to doing it, would you be able to? If you're like 'absolutely' then you're in the wrong place.

The other piece is an impersonal goal. What I mean by that is it's not about you. It ties back to a purpose bigger than yourself. So, when you discover something that fulfills a goal that's bigger than yourself, and you have that passion for it, you've got the fuel you need to get through anything.

NCBR: Has the '50 Interviews' process changed your goals?

Schwartz: If you asked me now who I would aspire to become, it would be Jack Canfield from 'Chicken Soup for the Soul.' He's making a difference.

Earlier this month, I spoke at DaVinci (Institute) in front of 150 people. If I could do that for the rest of my life, I would never work another day in my life. I don't enjoy the editing, and I don't really enjoy the Internet marketing piece. To me, I'd much rather be out in front of people, talking to people.

NCBR: How does the rest of the series play into it?

Schwartz: The biggest high I get is from the other people who are doing the other books. I have someone doing '50 Spiritual Awakenings.' She's done 10 interviews already, and to see her get lit up by this framework and see how far she's come and how far her circle has expanded. She's trying to get Michael Beckwith (founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center) to interview.

There are a lot of things I learned about the book business over the last six months that I know would stop a lot of people. I want to take that knowledge and help them get their books out there.

My dream is that you walk into a bookstore or a career center and there is a whole rack of career CliffsNotes - that's what the '50 Interviews' are.

NCBR: You're working on a second volume right now?

Schwartz: Volume 2 is going to be learning from the big players on what they are doing - maybe new questions that go in even deeper. I've got a Jake Jabs (American Furniture Warehouse) interview and an interview set up with Bob Parsons, and hopefully Kim Jordan. I hope by the end of the year to have a Volume 2, but I am very eager to do a different book. I want to find the secrets behind successful professional speakers. It's probably a year or two away. The whole key is to get to a point where I can do this full time, because there is no end to the things I'd like to do. What I should have done was '50 Self-published Authors.'

NCBR: What stands out about '50 Interviews'?

Schwartz: It's not that this is a concept that no one has ever thought of before. But, what I've found in the books out there is the author took the interview and spun it themselves. They interpret it. The difference with this is they are the raw interviews. There is no filter. In fact, some people have told me they're a little blunt. That's the whole point.

You may not like what you read in this book. You might not want to hear what it actually takes to be a successful entrepreneur. You might not want to hear how much work it actually is. People don't want to hear those things.

Most of the books tell you what you want to hear. These business seminars tell you it's cheap, it's easy, it's free, anybody can do it. I'm really trying to focus on the fact that there is a lot of fuel you have to have to pull this off. If you can't first find the fuel, you're not even going to make it 10 miles down the road.