It's Not About Talent

It's Not About Talent

The founder of Chuck E. Cheese says entrepreneurs are successful not because of high IQs. It's all about passion and drive.

By David Wexler

Staff Writer

If you want to change the world, you don't necessarily need a lot of money, talent or a high IQ.

Dr. Gene Landrum, a high-tech startup specialist who created the Chuck E. Cheese family-oriented restaurant chain, told that to members of Sarasota's Argus Foundation March 15 at the Sarasota Quay. Speaking at an Argus luncheon, Landrum said that to be successful, there are several essential psychological traits that are required:

× Drive

× Passion

× A willingness to fail

× A focus on perfectionism

× Self confidence

× Charisma

"In my opinion, there are three things that it really takes to become innovative, wherever you are working," Landrum says. "You have to have the ability to see it, the confidence to deal with it and guts to implement it."

Landrum provided each of the 65 guests at the Argus luncheon with an autographed copy of his ninth and latest book, "Entrepreneurial Genius: The Power of Passion." The book includes a self-test assessment exercise to help determine one's propensity for entrepreneurship.

The book reveals 12 psychological traits needed to succeed in starting a new business. Landrum chose 12 famous entrepreneurs from the 20th century, including Sam Walton, Martha Stewart, Henry Ford, Coco Chanel, Donald Trump and Ross Perot, to illustrate his own 12 laws for success (see box).

These laws have more to do with how you think and function than what you know, Landrum says.

"All the people in my book, they were willing to bet it all," Landrum says. "They never questioned it. When Ted Turner started CNN, he bet everything - $100 million. You have to be so passionately driven to want it that there's nothing you wouldn't do to go make it happen."

But don't expect success to occur overnight, Landrum cautions.

"It takes about 10 years to get good, it takes another 10 years to get great," Landrum says. "You need to recognize that it's not going to be an overnight success. Sam Walton didn't open the first Wal-Mart until he was 44 years old. The media kept saying, 'Sam, you're an instant success.' Sam said, "Yeah, it only took me 20 years to figure out how to do it.' "

Landrum used Henry Ford as an example of Landrum Law No. 1: Be willing to fail.

Landrum said it cost Ford $400 to build a Model T - and he sold it for $340. When he reduced the price of his cars below their costs, his chief financial officer quit and filed a lawsuit, announcing to the media that Ford had gone mad.

"Within five years, Mad Henry was building 40% of the world's cars, costs dropped by over 100%, and he was a billionaire," Landrum says.

Landrum used oil producer J. Paul Getty as an example to illustrate the rewards of pushing the limits, Landrum Law No. 4. When Getty was 60 years old, he invested his entire fortune in the Middle East Neutral Zone oil reserves. Getty had an intuition that there was a lot of oil in the area and that he would be able to get it out and to a refinery.

"Two years later, he was the richest man in the universe," Landrum says. "You have to be willing to bet it all."

Landrum, currently a professor of entrepreneurship and management at the International College in Naples, speaks from experience. Before serving as president and chief executive of Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater Inc., the Cincinnati native was general manager of National Semiconductor Corp.'s consumer products division.

In the mid-1970s, Landrum was launched the home consumer division of Atari in 1976 and oversaw the development and commercial release of the Atari 2600 video game system.

Noland Bushnell, founder of Atari, pulled Landrum from the project and asked him to focus on Chuck E. Cheese. The restaurant combined fast food with high-technology and robot animals. (The original version featured Chuck E. Cheese as a rat, often with a cane.)

"When I was doing the research, I found out there was not a place for a family as a unit - mom, dad, the kids - to go together to eat, have fun, and enjoy," Landrum says. "There was a void, and I set out to fill that void. Within three years, we were doing $150 million a year."

Despite not having any experience in the restaurant business, Landrum's visions proved to be a hit. He credits the success to taking risks and not worrying about failure.

"I didn't know enough to know what I couldn't do, so I did things that I shouldn't have," he says. "Somebody told me, 'Hey Gene, you can't put a rat in a restaurant while serving pizza at a birthday party. A rat is the antithesis of a restaurant.' I didn't know enough to know I couldn't do it."

Landrum has researched the creative process of entrepreneurs for 15 years. He observed it first-hand while spending 20 years in Silicon Valley. During this time, he interacted with numerous prominent "creative geniuses," such as Steve Jobs, Bill Hewlett and Bob Noyce.

He ended up returning to graduate school, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the personality characteristics of creative and entrepreneurial genius, titled, "The Innovator Personality." He said he studied 125 of the greatest geniuses that ever lived.

"What I found was that the people in Silicon Valley - they were different," he says. "All the people I met who were changing the world were different. But they were different in very similar ways. So when I went back and got my doctorate, I tried to figure out what was going on. It has nothing to with growing up on a country club, having money, getting a high IQ. It has nothing to do with it. I thought for so many reasons, that was the answer. It is not."

Landrum recanted a conversation he had with comedian and musician Steve Allen several years ago at the Los Angeles Convention Center. At the time, Landrum just finished his second book, "Profiles of Female Genius - 13 Women Who Changed The World." The book's cover included a picture of Margaret Thatcher under the word "genius." Next to Thatcher picture was one of Madonna.

"Steve turned to me and said, 'Landrum, what in the world are you doing? You've got this no-talent slut in your book about geniuses. I'm trying to get her thrown out of this town. Here you are writing a book about her.' I said, 'Steve, you're right. She's a mediocre singer, a mediocre dancer and in 1993, she was voted the world's worst actress. But she has $200 million in the bank. She didn't marry it. She didn't inherit it. She made every nickel. How does a no-talent do that? Do you know why? It ain't got a lot to do with talent. She had everything that I have found. Tenacity, passion, risk-taking. All the things I talk about in this book and many of my books, she's got it. And that's what got her there."

LANDRUM'S LAWS

To learn how to succeed, fail. Breakdown leads to breakthrough and crises to creativity.

Synthesize to success by attacking weakness. To be the best you can be, be what you're not.

Test the limits: Big wins demand big risks. Fear is the mortal enemy of the entrepreneur.

Chase a vision, never money. Execute elegantly, and money will be delivered in trucks.

If it ain't broke, break it. Creative destruction - the secret of creative genius.

Start with the answer - real or fantasy. Intuitive insight is magic.

Believe and the world will follow you - anywhere. Identify a market void, whether real or imagined and fill it.

Passionate perfection is the path to power. Energy emanates from a driven person on a mission.

To be big, think big - real big. To be big, dream big and in full color using the full spectrum.

Image is everything in branding. Charisma and hype are catalysts for building brand equity.

Avoid instant gratification. Sacrifice the present for the future, and you'll own the future.

Avoid convention and traditional dogmas. They are self-serving and too steeped in mediocrity.