We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Austin Fink. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Austin below.
Hi Austin, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
There is one person I can thank for my work ethic….my dad. Before I dig into it, first I owe a huge thank you to Voyage for giving me this opportunity. Second, as important as your work ethic is, I have to say balance is important and I have to thank my mom for expressing the importance of a strong work ethic but not being a work-a-holic.
I owe my parents everything for the life they worked so hard to provide. Both of my parents work so I have learned from them both. Growing up I remember my dad always worked long hours, sometimes Saturdays or Sundays. He has worked harder than anybody else I know to provide our family with everything we needed and wanted. His work ethic is something I have always admired, and he takes pride in how hard he works.
From a young age I always wanted to make more money than him…. which will be difficult to do. He is not the type of person I could see starting a business, but I know where he is working is very grateful to have him as the Director of Supply Chain. He is the reason I chose Supply Chain as my major. Seeing how hard he works and the value he brings to the table, played a role in my mindset of wanting to be a business owner. My dad always pushed me to be the best student, best player in basketball, just to be the best in everything we do no matter what it is.
The way I can describe my dad’s work ethic in one sentence is :
“We will never be the smartest in the room, but I can guarantee we will work the hardest”.
I am thankful for the work ethic my dad instilled in me, because you have to have a very strong work ethic as a business owner. I would admit I am probably a work-a-holic but you know what they say it isn’t work if you love what you do.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I was born in Akron, Ohio and started my clothing brand, Create Your Own Wave Apparel in August of 2021 during the pandemic when I was 24. I’ve had a big dream since I was young as I began a crazy obsession with Air Jordan’s. As I got older, my passion moved towards clothing. I am a very introverted person if I do not know you. During my young teen years, was when Create Your Own Wave was thought of and as I went to the University of Akron, I began designing and sketching logos. It was still just an idea until my junior year of college. This year was the toughest time in my life, not only did I lose some family that I was very close to, but I also lost 3 friends all a month or less apart. That was when it hit me, they all knew my dream was to have a clothing brand but to them it was still a dream. I had to make it a reality and stop talking about how I am starting this brand.
These times I took very hard but made me think you never know when your time is up, so I knew I had to follow through and start the process. I began the research on how to get an LLC, vendors, manufacturing, literally everything. I did this for 2 years and I am still doing research on the Streetwear Industry all the time. Being a student for life is just as important as your work ethic. The bottom line is your mindset.
Create Your Own Wave is a streetwear brand that is more than just one of your regular brands. Our message of following your dreams and inspiring others around you is what we are about. At the core is family because without family CYOW would have never happened. I am most excited about taking my passion, creating something special and inspiring as many people as I can. I really want to make an impact in my community as well as all over the world.
Clothing for me was how I expressed myself and I want this brand to be that for anybody that feels the same. I always had a unique style that always turned heads.
Please check out our site at www.cyowapparel.myshopify.
I have another interview that will be on www.CanvasRebel.com soon. Please make sure you check it out. Also follow the brand on Instagram @createyourownwave2021. On our Instagram and subscribing with your email is how you will stay up with new releases, events, discounts, all the good stuff.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1 ) Willing to learn and actions speak louder than words – I feel you are a student for life. Understanding you don’t know it all, is how you will be able to overcome adversity.
– my advice is surround yourself with people more knowledgeable, financially ahead of you. They say the easiest way to be a millionaire is surrounding yourself with millionaires. The way I value myself and the vision I have, once people I used to be around were around long enough they got sick of me talking about CYOW all the time. I was popular in high school being a starter for Varsity Basketball and always was an athlete so making friends wasn’t hard. I learned early that not everyone is truly your friend and the people you need to have around you need to uplift at the right times, but also need to be real with you. I can count my real friends using both hands, none are similar in the way of being materialistic like I am, all keep it real with me, but they have shown real support. You will learn to go after a dream that SO MANY people told you they will buy your clothes, repost your stuff, all of that but I can promise you that MOST will not actually follow through. When you get to filing for your LLC and really seeing your dream come to life, you will see that taking action and getting that ball rolling will pick up momentum. Getting it started and staying disciplined is your biggest sub-qualities that are so important and I feel those are very difficult to develop as there are plenty of people that were blessed with all the athleticism but lacked the mindset that at some point people will catch up to your ability, someone is out there working harder than you and a person who you can get the quality advice and guidance from is listening to Kobe Bryant or others talk about him as nothing can explain it better than ‘Mamba Mentality’.
2 ) Work Ethic
– This quality goes unsaid and I have talked about it more than anything else. You want to do the things that only the 1% do…then you must do everything different than the 99%. Knowledge and smarts will get you far, but your work ethic will do more for you, especially in the business world.
3 ) Discipline/Consistency
– You want to know why Kobe, MJ, LeBron are the best to ever do it?! All players practice every day and stay after practice, putting more hours into their craft than just 40 hours. When Kobe was in high school, he didn’t just shoot before and after practice, he was up at 4am working out, at the school working on his own game by 6am and school at 8am. On travel days for away games, Kobe didn’t just have a light practice before breakfast and then practice with the team, he was up 2 hours before that going full go when everyone was still sleeping, and a player thought he was doing good because he was first at breakfast with Kobe, but Kobe was drenched in sweat because he already was going at it for 2 hours. When MJ played in the NBA, he didn’t just go to shoot-around before the game or do walk throughs with the team..he did a full work out. No that wasn’t light weight and high reps, he worked out as hard as he played the game.
Those days you don’t want to work at all, you are so tired, those are the days you work the hardest. When you create a habit of being discipline and staying consistent when times are tough, those qualities get you through it.
My advice and find a mentor, surround yourself with people that can elevate you, read books, and last BELIEVE YOU CAN DO IT AND NEVER GIVE UP. Someone I like to listen to and get motivated, inspired is Nipsey Hussle. In an interview he says, ‘the difference between me making it and someone else not achieving it, is I just didn’t quit’.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
The most impactful thing my parents have done is give me the opportunity to go after my dreams. I definitely grew up privileged, not worrying about food, housing, or education. That right there made me set up for success. But growing up middle-class I feel there is also a ‘trap’ that is not thought about or is misunderstood/misinterpreted. To me, you are pushed to go to college and work you way up to a director or some type of upper management position which people who grew up less privileged may look at that as not a trap since it is positive. I feel that conforms you to just living comfortably and I always wanted more. I didn’t want to work as hard as my dad, all those hours for it to really be the most beneficial for the owners. He loves what he does and is happy just instilled a different mindset for me. My parents paved the way, now my vision is to create an impactful, inspiring brand that starts the road to generational wealth because at the end of the day, that is what I am truly working so hard for. I want to be inspiring for others and generationally wealthy for myself, my family, and for generations after.
With a clothing brand being such a different route taken than my parents ever imagined, my mom supported and told me years back the time is going to come quick where this dream becomes less possible. Although statistically speaking, it is a very slim chance but when you believe, manifest, work harder than you can even put into words, you can achieve it. My dad showed me tough love. It was hard to accept but I am someone that once I am alone, I think about those conversations and know he means well. Just under a year and a half since the start of CYOW, my dad finally saw a hoodie I designed that he liked. I know it is my father and his purchase doesn’t make me successful, but from my perspective I wasn’t going to give up on proving to my dad how much I truly wanted this. I wanted to show this wasn’t just a short term thing, it wasn’t something after a year I was going to be bored of or give up on. When he said he was buying a hoodie, it felt like I made a sale to a celebrity because you would think no matter what your parents would buy something just because they are your kid. It took me a while to understand it, and I still don’t even know if this is the case but to me it seemed he wanted to see how serious I was about this. People you love most will tell you it is good to have a dream but have a back up plan. As much as my parents truly support me, to actually believe that this is achievable is not easy to understand as they want the best for you. At the start you have to be the one you believes it, no one else will really believe in you. You have to see it for yourself because if you can tell me someone who has achieved being a huge clothing brand owner, a pro athlete, a lawyer, anything on that level that did NOT already see it for themselves. You don’t get rich by accident (lottery doesn’t count). I am not saying everyone who says they will be rich, will be rich but no one that said they want to be average and was rich. When you have big dreams, you have to be all in. You can’t be one foot in and one foot out, you have to put all your eggs in one basket. I truly believe even having a back up plan, something to fall back on, a plan B, or anything EXCEPT IT IS THIS AND I WILL DO ANYTHING TO ACHIEVE IT. Once you have a plan B if your dream stays a dream, I feel that moment your mindset is not what it needs to be for achieving the vision I have for Create Your Own Wave Apparel. Everything I have done since I was about 12, has all been for my bigger picture, my end goal for CYOW. Any similar hustle, music, personal training, and many others will start as a side hustle (for 99.9% of us) but sacrificing the time after your office job, or whatever it is, for your side hustle instead of watching Netflix is a big step and these small sacrifices you wonder why is it such a big deal…because the next person doesn’t even have Netflix they watch TedTalks on their hustle and you won’t even choose watching a video on your hustle because you want to watch the next Game of Thrones episode. Don’t take this as you should only work, nothing else but my mind is always on my passion and even when I may not be sitting in front of my laptop, my eyes are always looking and observing people, objects and this constant mindset and talking about my brand has definitely made people annoyed, not want to be around, a lot of things but one major thing is trusting God and I thank my parents for putting God in my life.
I owe my parents everything. I am blessed to have parents that have given me the opportunity to follow my dreams and I will work as hard as I can to make my vision a reality in their lifetime. That is my ultimate goal although I know they are proud of me already, I am far from satisfied and won’t be until I can look at them both and say…’Thanks to you guys for everything up to this point because NOTHING would be possible if it weren’t for both of them’!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cyowapparel.myshopify.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/createyourownwave2021/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/createyourownwave2021
Image Credits
First Picture from 2 pages ago is me (Austin Fink) From the Top (reading Left to Right) for the group of 8 pictures : 1. Troy 2. Cody 3. Eirini 4. Eirini 5. Austin (Co-Founder) 6. Austin (Co-Founder) 7. Austin (Co-Founder) 8. Austin, mother, and grandma
