Meet Russell Springsteen

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Russell Springsteen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Russell , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience comes from failure. I started wrestling competitively as a six year old, and continued through high school. I was a four-time state qualifier, runner-up my junior year, and placed 3rd in the state my senior year. I finished 48-2 my junior year in high school, and finished 2nd in the state. First place loser. The next year I got beat by the same person and ended up third. I lost because I did not innovate and prepare better. I got complacent. I was awarded a wrestling scholarship to college, but that did not last long. I was coming off of injuries from wrestling in Germany during the summer, and my coach told me I had to cut down to another weight class. I could not mentally or emotionally do it, so I basically retired from competitive wrestling.

Having to drop the one credit I was getting for wrestling required that I pick up another college credit. This lead to my experience taking a career-decision test. My result showed that I should be either a TV anchorman or a hairstylist. I chose to go back to Flint and the Flint Institute of Barbering, where I earned my barber license and the skills to make a living for the next 18 years or so.

My need to compete drove me as I opened Salon Saloon in May of 2006, and Right Brain Brewery a year later in November of 2007–two months after the financial crisis of 2007. We were in the right spot at the right time, doing something that did not make sense to most. It got me a lot of positive press in a time where there was only doom bring reported.

My competitiveness keeps driving me, especially when business is tough. Cutting weight is challenging, but managing money in a seasonal town in the winter takes an immense amount of discipline, focus, and commitment. I got my early confidence from wrestling, and when you are winning and having success, self esteem comes with it. Learning to persevere after failure is an even better lesson.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I consider myself a brewer. My goal is to make beverages that people enjoy. I have created a beer with custom blends of peanut butter, Thai chili peppers, and coconut (Thai Peanut). I also brew a beer with smoked pig head and bones. It’s called Pig Porter, and it won us a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival, garnering national attention. We make Spear Beer (with roasted asparagus) for the Empire Asparagus Festival every spring. I have also been making soda pop using all natural ingredients. My latest creative test was to develop a long drink. I now have two long drinks: a grapefruit Michigan Long Drink, and Traverse City Cherry Long Drink, which has been the fastest-selling product in our 18-year history. Pretty darn tasty. I am glad I was asked by my distribution partner to try and develop this new product to be able to compete.

I enjoy the chemistry, even though I failed it in high school Failure drives me. I enjoy making beverages with flavors that make you raise your eyebrows, but also make you want to have a taste. The best compliments are “That is really good,” and, “That was not so bad– better than I thought it would be.”

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

My parents instilled in me the importance of having a strong work ethic. That’s the first thing you need for creating a business, because you will be putting in many, many hours. Persistence, especially in the face of adversity, is another quality that’s required. If you tell me I am not capable of something, I will go to the ends of the Earth to prove you wrong. Anyone is capable of just about anything if they really want to accomplish something. I spent 12 years working on a business plan, writing, putting numbers together, and researching the brewing industry and equipment. Knowledge comes from life experience and putting the time in. I now have knowledge in cooling systems, brewing techniques, yeast propagation and management, and–most challenging of all–managing people. I can also cut a sweet bob haircut and make your hair color be awesome.

Follow your dream. Filter out the negativity and stay focused on your aspirations. If you don’t know how to do it or how it works, find people with that knowledge and ask questions. Watch, listen and learn.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

My parents worked hard and instilled that same work ethic into their kids. We always had chores to do and had to have them done before our parents came home from work. We were not allowed to start a sport or activity and quit if we didn’t like it or didn’t want to finish it. The message was: Do your best, finish what you start, and move on. As teenagers, if we wanted spending money, we were expected to get a job to earn it ourselves. That attitude has served me very well over the years.

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