My New Friend George

Last month, I drank from the fire hydrant of entrepreneurial knowledge.

I am part of an organization called EO – The Entrepreneurs Organization (http://www.eonetwork.org/). It’s a place for us manic entrepreneurs to learn, grow and bond with other kindred spirits of the same ilk.

EO puts on a program called The MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program (formally called The Birthing of Giants).

It was fours days of intense learning from great speakers. They brought in top business consultants like Verne Harnish (the founder of EO and now founder/top dog of Gazelles, Inc. http://www.gazelles.com/), other business book authors, entrepreneurs and my new friend, George.

George is George Naddaff. He’s a legend. They call him “The Franchise Guru.”

You may have heard of some of his businesses – Boston Chicken, Sylvan Learning Centers, Mulberry Child Care Centers/Living and Learning Schools (now Kindercare) and many more.

George is now taking on the obesity problem in the US.

He started a new franchise called KnowFat - http://www.knowfat.com/ (they are changing the name to UFood Grill.) It’s a healthy lifestyle grill aimed at providing good food that Americans are now used to, but in a healthy way. For instance, instead of deep frying their french fries, they "air cook" them with hot air.

He had more energy than all 60 of us combined in the classroom. I loved this guy!

Oh, and by the way, George is 77.

I felt so inspired by his presentation that I called him about an hour after his presentation. He works in Boston, so I figured he would be back in his office by then. :-) I really wanted to meet with him.

And I did. I flew back to Boston about two weeks later we met for more than three hours.

I learned more from George in three hours than most learn in a two year MBA program.

I turned on my recorder and just listened. He gave me such great energy and inspiration – energy that I needed. You see, I am actually getting restless with the day to day operations of Next Step. I don’t want to sell, but I don’t want to continue on my current course either. I need some drugs, and my drug of choice is building business ideas….

More to come on that in my next blog entry…

But back to George.

I have made a new friend. I gave George a big hug when I left and felt like a met a soul that I once knew in a past life.

We will keep in touch and I will hopefully continue to learn from the master.

My question to you – where do you go to learn and get energy? Do you have a George?