There are four main categories of entrepreneurship that companies fall under; small business entrepreneurship, scalable startup, large company and social entrepreneurship. McCarthy works mainly in small business entrepreneurship as he enjoys creating something new. From apparel brand Wicked Smart, to sporting goods stores BreakAway sports and 3D Lacrosse, McCarthy loves the grind of starting something new.
As a coach of 25 years and a player for even longer, McCarthy places a large emphasis on lessons learned throughout athletics.
“As an athlete, I learned that there is a certain approach to levelling up…and what I learned is that the drive, the way you compete is the same,” McCarthy detailed.
Lessons such as “you need positives or successes to be repeatable,” or “don’t think you got it when you when, because the opposite side is that you don’t have it when you lose,” came from McCarthy’s experiences.
There are other pivotal moments that shaped McCarthy’s approach to business.
“23 years old, after a lifetime of finding confidence and success as an athlete with my body, my body’s function was taken away from me, overnight” McCarthy described waking up paralyzed a few weeks before he was due to finish his MBA. A rare birth defect called arteriovenous malformation (AVM) restricted blood flow to his brain until a bleed developed and he awoke unable to move. He endured brain surgery the following day. An athlete his whole life, McCarthy had to change his focus from playing to recovery.
McCarthy persevered and finished his exams in a brain unit recovery center in Albany, N.Y., even walking at graduation with the assistance of a cane. According to McCarthy, this taught him the importance of absorbing experiences rather than just engaging in interactions.
“[Experiences like this] teach you to absorb experiences, because when you’re in retail and you have 10,000 interactions with customers. If you just interact, sell or don’t sell, you learn one thing…How you absorb situations and then act upon them matters as an entrepreneur. Because it’s pattern recognition which then allows for smart pivots,” elaborated McCarthy.
McCarthy completed his undergraduate degree in economics at Hobart and Williams College and completed his MBA at Clarkson College in New York in a year saving time and money. After graduation McCarthy pursued what he believes to be the first step in becoming an entrepreneur.
He went to Wall Street to work as a Financial Trader for Speer, Leeds & Kellogg. This was only temporary, the most important thing for an entrepreneur is to get all personal finances in line first, and figure out your “burn rate”.
“So I’m starting to add up the ingredients of what an entrepreneur is; can get through a setback – emotional and physical, it’s huge,” he explained.
McCarthy shortly after becoming stable founded Breakaway Sports in 1996, he proceeded to grow this company for two decades until it became a national competitor in lacrosse and hockey sporting goods. This is all of course is no easy feat, by constantly pivoting and having the ability to take calculated risks, McCarthy was able to become extremely successful.
As the result of McCarthy’s early successes, he launched Wicked Smart apparel, an athletic wear brand meant to rival retailers like Nike and Adidas and be sold in his stores. McCarthy notes that some of his success is due to the reliance on brick-and-mortar stores as well as his ability to innovate and know his competitors.
There is no such thing as a typical day for an entrepreneur but most tasks come down to putting out fires to ensure smooth operation of business. McCarthy discussed how as an entrepreneur you cannot only be reactionary, it is important to observe markets and competitors closely in order to pivot successfully.
For anyone looking to become an entrepreneur like Andrew Yang, Elon Musk or Mr. McCarthy himself, he had this to say “get your own finances in line first…once you’re in a break-even situation you can launch the business of you,”.
The future of entrepreneurship seems to be infinite, in today’s gig economy people are becoming their own bosses more and more often. But for college students the prospect of creating a business can seem daunting, if not downright impossible.
“In our economy we’re hitting all-time highs for asset values of companies…the real estate market has had tremendous growth as well. This is a risky time for you guys to invest in stocks and in real estate but it is not a risky time to start your own business. Interest rates are low, access to capital is high, technology is challenging incumbent companies to find new solutions, and competing against them, it’s just making a lot sense for you guys to be entrepreneurs right now,” said McCarthy.
According to Career Trend, entrepreneurs make on average $63,000 annually but there is notably a lot of variation. At the top one could be making millions while on the bottom, bankruptcy is a very real possibility.
“If it doesn’t take off, you know what the alternative is, go get a job,” concluded McCarthy.
The MFJS Reporter -- Winter 2020 T-R 