Built to Finish: Lessons in Entrepreneurship and Endurance from Steven Pivnik -

In this episode, Adam sits down with serial entrepreneur and endurance athlete Steven Pivnik. Steven has built an incredibly successful career in both business and sports, overcoming tremendous challenges along the way.

Steven built a successful tech company from the ground up over 26 years, selling it for $4 billion, all while training for grueling endurance races like Ironman. Listen and learn how he translated the grit and determination from entrepreneurship into achieving ultra feats.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Immigrating to the US as a child from Eastern Europe
Building a tech company from scratch and selling it for $4 billion
Achieving feats like Ironman World Championship and ultra marathons
Lessons on overcoming fear, planning, execution and visualization

Episode Highlights:

[06:10] The Transition from Doing it All to Delegating Effectively

Steven discusses both the importance of grinding and hard work to get a new business or goal off the ground, as well as the critical need for delegation as things scale. While grinding builds character and is necessary initially, Steven acknowledges that as a company grows, there comes a time when delegation becomes even more important than personally doing everything yourself. He notes it can be difficult for CEOs and founders to let go and trust others, but determining when to delegate more is key to allowing scalability beyond one person’s capacity. Steven enjoys helping entrepreneurs through his advisory work to identify the right moment to shift more towards delegation as their growth necessitates.

[21:33] From Startup to $4 Billion Exit: Building a Successful Tech Company from Scratch

Steven shared his journey building tech company Binary Tree from the ground up over 26 years through relentless hard work. He also grew the custom application development business to provide enterprise email migration software and services. The company achieved consecutive annual growth despite challenges until culminating in a $4 billion acquisition that validated the tremendous success and scale the business reached from its humble origins.

[28:43] Lessons from the Ironman Grind

Steven highlighted how achieving this goal demonstrated his incredible grit, determination and commitment to endurance sports. Finishing 12 Ironman races, each one a grueling physical and mental challenge, shows the type of relentless dedication it took for Steven to achieve his goal of racing at the Ironman World Championship level. It serves as an inspiring example of the grind it sometimes requires to accomplish what at first seems impossible through perseverance and hard work over time.

[39:07] The Power of Visualization

Steven envisioned racing at the Ironman World Championship in Kona so many times through dedicated meditation. By the time he achieved that goal, the actual experience matched what he had previously imagined down to the smallest details. This demonstrates how effective visualization can be to program the mind and body to help achieve big goals, as the mind cannot differentiate between vividly envisioning something and it truly happening.

Resources Mentioned:

Steven’s book: Built to Finish

Loveability by Robert Holden, Ph.D.

www.beginnertriathlete.com

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Transcript

[06:10] The Transition from Doing it All to Delegating Effectively
Steven discusses both the importance of grinding and hard work to get a new business or goal off the ground, as well as the critical need for delegation as things scale. While grinding builds character and is necessary initially, Steven acknowledges that as a company grows, there comes a time when delegation becomes even more important than personally doing everything yourself. He notes it can be difficult for CEOs and founders to let go and trust others, but determining when to delegate more is key to allowing scalability beyond one person’s capacity. Steven enjoys helping entrepreneurs through his advisory work to identify the right moment to shift more towards delegation as their growth necessitates.
[21:33] From Startup to $4 Billion Exit: Building a Successful Tech Company from Scratch
Steven shared his journey building tech company Binary Tree from the ground up over 26 years through relentless hard work. He also grew the custom application development business to provide enterprise email migration software and services. The company achieved consecutive annual growth despite challenges until culminating in a $4 billion acquisition that validated the tremendous success and scale the business reached from its humble origins.
[28:43] Lessons from the Ironman Grind
Steven highlighted how achieving this goal demonstrated his incredible grit, determination and commitment to endurance sports. Finishing 12 Ironman races, each one a grueling physical and mental challenge, shows the type of relentless dedication it took for Steven to achieve his goal of racing at the Ironman World Championship level. It serves as an inspiring example of the grind it sometimes requires to accomplish what at first seems impossible through perseverance and hard work over time.
[39:07] The Power of Visualization
Steven envisioned racing at the Ironman World Championship in Kona so many times through dedicated meditation. By the time he achieved that goal, the actual experience matched what he had previously imagined down to the smallest details. This demonstrates how effective visualization can be to program the mind and body to help achieve big goals, as the mind cannot differentiate between vividly envisioning something and it truly happening.