CEO Says Grit, Work Ethic Are Keys to Success

When Ken Lear was coming out of college and looking for his first job, his brother would offer some sage advice: If you find a job you love to do, you never work a day in your life.

Lear believes he’s done that as the founder and CEO of 2313 Inc., which specializes in direct marketing and consultative sales, representing some of the nation’s most recognizable brands and handling both the strategic and tactical work of customer acquisition within the retail sector.

“Happiness … is when you have the freedom to choose to do what you want to do,” Lear said. “I choose to work to live, not live to work. Thankfully, I feel like I’ve done that. It’s the neat part about being an entrepreneur and making the changes I needed to make, because there was a time in my life where I couldn’t do that kind of stuff.”

He’s been doing it since he founded the organization 21 years ago, and now many of his clients, in industries around the country, are Fortune 100 companies who utilize his company’s skills and marketing expertise.

Lear started his career in sales as an outside salesperson, going out and meeting small companies and interacting with CEOs, interacting with office managers.

He’s always tried to stay true to those roots, and encourage other people – including the folks who work for him – to do the same.

And that’s the “difference maker” in business today, he said – the people.

“People work with people that they know. people work with people that they like, and a lot of major decisions get made that way,” he said. “If we’re going to land the Google account or the Amazon account, we’re not going to do it over an email. We’re not going to do it over a phone call.

“It’s going to be a team of people who build relationships, not just at the conference table, but at a dinner,” he added. “It’s in other events, networking team, team-type events. And so that that’s what makes us different.”

Lear, who earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and international studies from Penn State University in 2001, talked about 2313 Inc., his career and a variety of other business issues during the most recent episode of “CEO Thought Leadership Series on LinkedIn Live,” the discussion series hosted by the National Association for Business Resources.

Produced in conjunction with the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For and Corp! Magazine, the series is hosted by NABR CEO Jennifer Kluge and features business leaders from around the country.

Jennifer Kluge: Can you give a brief overview of your company?

Ken Lear: If you asked one of my employees  “What do you do for a living?” they’d probably tell you they work in a sales company. They do retail sales and big box stores. But if you ask them, “Why do you work there? What is it about that organization?” I believe they would tell you a lot about our corporate values. Just to point out two of them were “people before profit” and “people helping people.”

The core of that is that we focus on our people. we know that people who are learning about life and business and skills are happy people, and happy people are performing.

Kluge: The world has changed. Getting people’s attention is very, very difficult … and a lot of CEOs are frustrated. What advice would you give to an organization trying to grow and trying to get people’s attention right now?

Lear: My advice is watch the masses and do the opposite. I’m all about being unique. I’m all about doing things differently. I believe that if you want to make a difference and you should be in person, you should shake someone’s hand, you should have a smile, or you have that personal connection.

Kluge: There’s an entire generation of people who have entered the workforce in the last five or six years who have no clue what you’re talking about. It’s old school, but I do think it’s making a comeback. Would you agree with that?

Lear: I agree 100%. You know, I’ll tell you in the industry that that we’re in, and you’re seeing the trends and the new opportunities … one thing you’re going to see over the next six, 12, 18 months, is in the space that we’re in with the big box retailer, the Targets, the Costcos, the Sam’s Clubs … these organizations, you already kind of seeing it with, like Starbucks being in a Target, and Walmart having a Subway.

These organizations are looking at these big box retailers are moving towards becoming the one-stop shop for everything that a consumer needs.

Kluge: Why lead? Why did you start your own organized session? We love to hear founders’ stories. Tell us your founder’s story.

Lear: I grew up in South Florida. I went to Penn State. I played college soccer, graduated with a business and marketing degree. I graduated three months after 9/11. I thought I was going to be in pharmaceutical sales. That was what my degree kind of prepared me for.

But … there weren’t a lot of opportunities for recent grads. Companies are saying get two years of sales experience, get experience, and we’ll look at your resume and I was kind of caught in that world of, well, how am I supposed to get that experience if you’re not willing to offer the experience?

So I fell into a small company in New Jersey. The owner was in his late 20s and he was doing outside sales. He’s like, “I’m looking for salespeople.” I said, “I’m looking for a job. And so he gave me a shot.

Kluge: How would you advise young people now versus when you started?

Lear: I like to do a breakfast or a dinner in the first 30 days when somebody joins my company. I’m all about relationship and building that connection and having the open door, but I tell people every time the same three things, that I’ve learned over my career. And the first thing I tell someone is, be careful who you take advice from.

Secondly, I tell people about how being a humble student and having a humble swagger, humble confidence will serve you in your life, and serve you as you are, learning new skills and getting your foot in the door and a career. and, you know, obviously, if you if you back that up with a strong work ethic, you know, and especially in sales, you know, efforts equals rewards.

Lastly, you know, I just kind of let the new staff know if it was easy to be successful, then everyone would do it. and so there’s got to be a challenge. There’s got to be some toughness. There’s got to be some grit that, people have to put into their career if they want to accomplish goals and they want to get ahead.

Kluge: I think that’s something that has been lacking in the last five years, defining grit and defining work ethic. Do you want to expand on that?

Lear: I think my role as a coach and a leader is to help people get what they want. So whatever it is they want, whatever their goal is, whatever their vision is, wherever they want to go, I think people need to start there and then take a few steps backwards, like begin with the end in mind and then take steps backwards and ask themselves, okay, what is it going to take to get there?

There are some people who have goals. And you know, when I sit with them, I say, tell me about life in 15 years, like paint a picture for me. If you hit the ball out of the park, you know, grand slam, World Series walk off.

I try to get a feel for where they want to go. And then I do my best to tell them what it takes. At the end of the day the work ethic has to match the goal.