538. The Courage of an Entrepreneur

Adam Hudson

Adam was on top of the world when he took his company public at age 30. But the economic slide hit and as hard as he tried, he eventually found himself selling text services to small businesses door-to-door. He wondered if he would ever have the courage to be an entrepreneur again.

Adam Hudson is a serial entrepreneur who has built several multi-million dollar companies in both Australia and the United States. He currently owns an Amazon marketing service firm, a homewares brand that sells its products exclusively through Amazon into more than 30 countries, and Reliable Education, an online education company which teaches students across the globe how to build profitable Amazon businesses which generate reliable income streams. Adam is considered an Amazon thought leader and has been featured in: Sky Business News, the Brian Tracy show, Eventual Millionaire, ABC News, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, WebRetailer.com, Inc.com, and Newsweek.

How Did You Start Using Your Talents?

Adam was creating companies by his early 20s. “At 30, I had a company which I took public. I was on top of the world. This was in the years leading up to 2008. The company had a nice valuation, and I had eight figures worth of stock in escrow. Then 2008 happened. Overnight, I lost millions of dollars in net worth and real estate all over the place, which I had to fire sale and pump the money into the company to save it.” He managed to save the company, but had to fire more than 70 percent of the employees and work for free for a year-and-a-half.

The Most Impactful Turning Point?

After the 2008 crash, I had been completely broken. “It came down to digging really deeply to realize I was much stronger than I knew. I went door-to-door selling a text messaging marketing service, signing up small businesses to send text messages out to their customers. Walking down a shop-lined street, I would look into a shop and convince myself that the owner was too busy and go to the next one. Within 20 minutes I had basically made an excuse for every business on the street! I got back in my car and was about to turn the key when I had an overwhelming sense that time, fate and circumstance were watching me to see whether I had what it takes to be an entrepreneur. If I turned the key in the ignition, I probably would never go back to owning a business again. I said, ‘Adam, this is it. This is where you are at. You have to overcome your fears. Get out of the car, go in and actually ask for the order!’ Within an hour, I had signed up two coffee shops at $300 a month retainer. I was on a new course.”

The Most Powerful Lessons Learned?

Adam was going out for a cup of coffee a couple of years ago, when suddenly he knew something was wrong. “The street started to fall away from me. I got dizzy, and I said, ‘I’ve got to go back to the office.’ But I collapsed and was taken to the hospital, where they diagnosed me with acute anxiety and panic attacks.” He’d never experienced anything like it in his life. Afterwards, at a yoga meditation retreat, he was asked to write down things that bring him joy, moments of authentic happiness. And then he was told to write how he spends his day. What he learned was what he was doing every day, and what brought him joy, were completely different things.