鈥淚鈥檓 not here to tell you about how wonderful I am,鈥� said Brett Heffes 鈥�89, CEO of聽. 鈥淭hat would be a pretty short talk.鈥�
Heffes鈥檚 self-effacing remarks clashed with the graph projected on a wall screen in a small classroom in Cushing Hall, where he spoke to about 20 Boston College students one Thursday afternoon last month. With a thick line tracing a jagged but steep mountain climb to the right, the chart showed the up-and-upward trend of Winmark鈥檚 stock over the past 16 years, since Heffes joined the company as chief financial officer and treasurer in 2002. (He was named CEO in 2016.)
Winmark is a franchisor of used-goods stores. What started as hardly more than a garage sale in the 1980s is now second only to Goodwill Industries in its share of the used-goods market, and ahead of the Salvation Army. The company owns several chains, including Play It Again Sports, specializing in sports equipment, and Style Encore, specializing in women鈥檚 clothing. And Winmark has done very well under Heffes鈥檚 leadership.
鈥淭his slide looks great,鈥� Heffes said. 鈥淏ut it ignores all the trouble that happened along the way.鈥� Not so much in his time at Winmark as in the overall arc of Heffes鈥檚 career. The twists and turns a business professional encounters in real life鈥攁nd more important, how he or she deals with them鈥攚as the theme of Heffes鈥檚 talk, 鈥淥n the Brink of Failure.鈥�
Heffes was one of more than a dozen entrepreneurs to visit campus this past fall for the聽Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship鈥檚 Lunch with an Entrepreneur series. For example,聽聽鈥�07, talked about her rise to head of partnerships in business development at Google. Priscilla Tyler talked about fellowship opportunities at her investment firm,聽. Sam Spector 鈥�85, M.B.A.鈥�97, vice president and partner of the global聽聽practice at IBM, spoke candidly about how 鈥渘obody is entitled to anything, at any point in their career,鈥� imparting lessons on hard work and adding value daily.
鈥淚 learn something new every time,鈥� said Chanwoo Lee, an exchange student from Seoul University who is studying computer science at Boston College this year. During the fall, he attended most of the Shea Center lunches, which are held in Cushing Hall and began with the center鈥檚 founding in 2015.
A series of setbacks
Part of the value of a Lunch with an Entrepreneur is that current students hear firsthand from a now-successful executive who once walked in their shoes. When Heffes spoke, as students sat around the room鈥檚 boardroom-style table and munched on thick half-sandwiches of cold chicken or tomato and mozzarella, he showed them a clipping from聽, the BC student newspaper, of September 26, 1988. The story concerned 鈥渢wo typical college students鈥濃�擧effes and a friend from his hometown in New Jersey鈥斺�渟itting around, watching the Tyson-Spinks fight and taking it easy, when they began talking about how they could make some money.鈥�
The pals鈥� idea turned into a business, Campus Care Package. The pair sent catalogues to addresses in wealthy neighborhoods and assembled care packages for parents to send to their kids at college.
鈥淚t didn鈥檛 work out well,鈥� the now-51-year-old Heffes revealed at the Shea Center lunch. In fact, 鈥渋t was an unmitigated disaster.
鈥淭hen I didn鈥檛 get the job I wanted鈥� on Wall Street, Heffes went on. 鈥淭hen I applied to grad school鈥攋ust one grad school鈥攁nd didn鈥檛 get in.
鈥淪o I had setbacks,鈥� he continued. 鈥淚 got an early dose of humility. . . .But this created in me some resiliency.鈥�
That resiliency served him well during later setbacks, which he attributed to his own mistakes.
鈥淚 had a position at Smith Barney, which is now Citi, in investment banking,鈥� Heffes related. 鈥淢eeting with CEOs, flying around the country鈥攁 high-level job for a young person. But I was burnt out on New York City. So I made a bad decision.鈥� Heffes traveled to Newport Beach, California, for a job interview.
鈥淚 saw the beach out the window,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd then didn鈥檛 hear a word about the job from the interviewer. I just said yes. I didn鈥檛 perform due diligence. And it was a disaster.鈥�
Lesson learned? 鈥淩un toward good opportunities, not away from bad situations,鈥� said Heffes. 鈥淵ou can always leave a job or a school鈥攂ut make sure you鈥檙e being thoughtful and doing it for the right reasons.鈥�
A few months later, in 1992, Heffes landed a job back in investment banking, but in Minneapolis, where he鈥檚 lived ever since. When he started a family, Heffes left that industry and soon became the chief financial officer for a technology startup.
鈥淲e were valued at $600 million,鈥� Heffes remembered. 鈥淭hen came the crash in 2000. Our value plummeted down to $175 million.鈥�
But while that experience was not a financial success, Heffes said, it was a professional success. 鈥淚 got my first experience as a CFO.鈥�
Real talk
One more bit of turbulence was still in store for Heffes before his run of success with Winmark. He was hired as the CFO for another technology startup, then quit after 45 days. 鈥淭here were things I didn鈥檛 like from an ethics standpoint,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 had ignored all the warning signs about the management team.鈥�
An M.B.A. student in the Cushing classroom pressed Heffes for more details, and he obliged. 鈥淭he CEO asked me to do a cash flow projection, and we realized we鈥檇 be out of money 11 months sooner than we thought,鈥� Heffes recalled. 鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 comfortable with the business plan he was putting forward.鈥�
鈥淭hat must have been a hard conversation,鈥� the student suggested.
鈥泪迟听飞补蝉听hard,鈥� agreed Heffes. 鈥淏ut I couldn鈥檛 do what he was asking鈥攇o to people I knew and try to raise money with a business plan I didn鈥檛 believe in.鈥�
The takeaway: 鈥淟earn how to properly evaluate risk.鈥� Heffes hadn鈥檛 fully weighed the risks inherent in ignoring those warning signs while considering taking the job, he said.
鈥淗ow do you know if you鈥檝e properly evaluated risk?鈥� another student asked.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 know until it鈥檚 over!鈥� Heffes answered with a laugh. 鈥淚f you never commit, you鈥檙e over-evaluating. If you jump into everything, you鈥檙e underevaluating.鈥�
A pro鈥檚 take
It can help to find a mentor, Heffes added. 鈥淢ake connections with people older than you鈥攏on-family professionals. Say, 鈥楬ey, I鈥檝e got this job offer,鈥� or 鈥榯his business plan,鈥� and ask their advice. Ultimately, you have to own the decision, but get some data first.鈥�
As is customary with Lunch with an Entrepreneur guests, after Heffes concluded his talk and Q&A, he stuck around and met with any and all students who wanted to introduce themselves or ask him questions not for public consumption. (Some of the speakers this fall even held official 鈥渙ffice hours鈥� the day of the luncheon.)
As the crowd trickled out, Chanwoo reflected on the various Lunch speakers he鈥檇 heard this semester. 鈥淭here are so many different paths to success,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥渙f course, we know this in theory. You can read this kind of stuff in self-help books. But it鈥檚 a totally different feel when you hear it in person from someone with real experience in industry.鈥�
鈥淚 feel it鈥檚 my responsibility to give back,鈥� Heffes said earlier, when asked why he returned to the Heights to speak with students. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to give money; it鈥檚 more important to give of your time and resources. And if I can help one student, it鈥檚 all worth it.鈥�
Patrick L. Kennedy, Morrissey College 鈥�99, is a writer in Boston and the co-author of聽Bricklayer Bill: The Untold Story of the Workingman鈥檚 Boston Marathon.