Leadership according to a Dragon – Inspiration from Bruce Croxon

Back in May Sage proudly presented the Toronto Sage Inspire Tour! And inspiring it was! Keynote speaker Bruce Croxon (of the CBC’s Dragon’s Den fame) kicked things off in a big way. Known as the digital maven in the Dragon’s Den, Bruce shared his experience of growing Lavalife.com, his reflection on the life of an entrepreneur and what it’s really like on Dragon’s Den. Here are a few nuggets we took away for ourselves and for other growing Small and Medium Sized Companies. Like Bruce, we believe our team is our biggest asset and working alongside “like valued” people is an entrepreneur’s dream come true!

There are two main elements that contributed to Bruce’s successes – Staying true to his vision and values.

Disciplined Vision
Bruce shared that he would sit down once a year to visualize his life 3 years from now (different from the usual 5 years, as he believes things move a lot faster now). After visualizing, he would build specific goals and steps to achieve 2-3 parts of his vision. “If I am not tied to anything, I shall never be free.”

Shared Values
For all those involved in a company it really matters that their values match. Bruce shared that when he was growing Lavalife he focused on recruiting others that had a solid match of values. He particularly looked for values of “being a good team player” and “open mindedness”. 3 key elements that he talked about were:

1) Teamwork – more people make better decisions together

2) You cannot change a person.

3) Open mindedness – employees beliefs should line up with your company’s beliefs

On Entrepreneurship
To be a serious entrepreneur and business owner, there’s no such thing as relaxation and work-life balance within the first years of starting a business. You’ve got to do whatever it takes and fight to take your business to the next level. Bruce talked about how he works hard for a dozen years, takes a year off and then repeats. “Don’t get attached to the ups and downs of your life’s roller coaster. Focus on how you deal with them.”

Last tip from Bruce – go out and buy / read “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by Jim Collins.

Mantralogix was very proud to be a part of the Toronto Sage Inspire Tour and we would like to thank all of our customers that attended. For those that were not able to join us we hope this summary gives you a feel for the roar of the dragon! Mantralogix is also very proud to focus on the value alignment that Bruce referred to!