We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Zak Mbereko. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Zak below.
Hi Zak, 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?
Close your eyes and imagine being 8 years old. You’ve just been cut from a sports team, audition, whatever applies to you, being young that event was probably accompanied by tears, anger, confusion, etc. Being in that moment was the turning point for me. I grew up in a family that had achieved a lot of cool things (to me) and with that, I put a lot of high expectations on myself. I of course wanted to be like those in my family and the moment that I was truly crushed turned in a moment that led to hours of work and time on myself. Learning to push myself and devote myself to the goals that I had. I was luckily mentored by my parents and those around me but really it took that moment of failure to learn that if I can work hard enough I will make something out of a situation that previously, well, sucked.
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?
Ever since I was a little kid I was a person that was looking to make a dollar for myself. This put me through several business ideas from selling Rice Krispie treats at the bus stop by my house, to making duct tape wallets for my classmates, to stringing lacrosse sticks for the kids on my team. The more I aged I found myself heavily invested in athletics and for roughly 13 years of my life I became a person that was consumed by competition, in sports, and getting the most out of myself. Unfortunately that came to an end due to injury which left me reeling a bit. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do but upon deciding where to go for college I formed the goal of starting a business. What it would be, I had no idea at the time, but I began building a list of problems/ideas and trying to add 3 to that list a day until I settled on an idea that I liked. In the process of doing that I found myself at the University of Denver, a school that had been a dream school of mine from a young age, although to be a D1 hockey player there. In any case, I stepped into my first class in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Living and Learning Community and that was the beginning of This is Art? LLC. In that class I was taught the “Lean Start-Up” process and was able to meet like-minded people to collaborate with and that pushed me everyday. Out of the relationships built in that class and the trials and tribulations that accompany starting a business the business you see today is the work in progress result.
What This is Art? LLC does is paint custom shoes with the goal of taking an already important part of fashion and culture and giving it more meaning to people and organizations by allowing them to show what is important and make it fashionable, or “wear your heart on your sole” as we like to say. Since inception the company has experienced several amazing moments like painting shoes for Deion Sanders and his family, along with athletic staff at CU, the gymnastics team at DU, campaign shoes for Jeremy Haefner (Chancellor of the University of Denver) and more. If it sounds like you won’t be able to get a pair, don’t worry, there is an Etsy where you can get a pair for yourself (tiallc)!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back on the journey, I would say the that the most important aspects are having a willingness to fail (and by association learn), being comfortable networking, and, last but not least, make problem solving a top skill of yours.
I mention willingness to fail because in everything you do, you will make mistakes, fail, lose, miss an opportunity, etc. but you have to know that those things will happen and simply be prepared to analyze what happened and how to avoid taking that identical path in the future. The two ways I get better at this is knowing that something will be harder than expected at some point but not necessarily speaking it into existence, and just trying to dive into opportunities staying open minded because something will eventually fall short or happen so maintaining an open mind allows for that growth.
Being comfortable networking is a skill or quality that is beyond important and frankly is not easy for many people. It can often produce a feeling of imposter syndrome, fear, etc. but the thing I often hear and repeat is that the worst you can hear back is no, probably in more words, but still. Every networking opportunity is a way to learn about how to do it better the next time. Maybe start off researching the person or company ahead of time, to find out what is important to them, talk about them for a while, don’t just ask for things right away, start by building relationships, etc. The way I like to get better at this is look for places I can grow the company and just attend them. Don’t be afraid to speak about what you do and who you are, and most importantly listen to other people, because I find that the best listeners get the best opportunities.
Last is problem solving being a top 3 skill or quality. This could encapsulate the prior two points but being able to think, through, around, under, over a problem will be crucial to your success. The cool thing about this at least the way I interpret it, is that problem solving could be finding a person that is more equipped to handle the problem than you are. Still you need to find a way to get that person on board. In any case, finding ways to become more efficient, more knowledgable in any way you can will be huge. From an individual perspective, getting better at this is simply experiencing issues and learning from them.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
When I was about 11 I heard one of my favorite hockey players at the time, Steven Stamkos, say something like “you should work on your strengths 60-70% of the time as they are what make you special and work on your weaknesses 30-40% so that they are are if nothing else, close to average.” This guy, scored 60 goals that year (a very impressive feat). I have since followed a similar philosophy. It would be stupid to not work on all those things but it is up to the individual to realize what sets them apart, if that can be maintained, or if a pivot is necessary. In any case, I find that maintaining a similar split will allow you to be a great business person as it is going to be one thing that gets you to the top of the mountain and from there you can diversify.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TiALLC?ref=dashboard-header
- Instagram: This.is.art.llc
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/isaac-mbereko
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