It seems many entrepreneurs have two things in common. One of them is there is some entrepreneurial background in their family, which is probably the risk factor. Most people are afraid to start their own business, there are the questions of too many securities and comforts. And I think if you were brought up in a family that took risk everyday and were entrepreneurs you wouldn't look at risk the same way as somebody that was brought up in a coal mining family or a corporate executive family of whatever. There is just too much security there.

The other thing is, I think many entrepreneurs think differently. When they get the picture with all the dots and they go to connect them they go to make the drawing into whatever they want it to be, they think different.

I think two things have to happen with success. The first thing is you have to have a comfort level, there has to be some level of security. That might surprise you that I said that but there has to be some level of that. There are a lot of people who do what they love but they have very little security and I think that you need to have both.

I think with security, financial is part of it. There are other things though. For example, it could mean if you have support, to have family that believe in you and trust you. That's a different form of security, that's not financial. There is security in family there is security in friends, there's security in where your heads's at.

The second thing is you have to have passion. I woke up this morning at 4:30. I just did. Today is opening day of Gulley season. In the world of whitewater today is where it's happening, literally. No where else in the world is there a bigger event than here this day. But even after 21 years, I got up at 4:30 this morning. There is still that passion.

That is what success is, some level of security and an amazing amount of passion. I think if you have those two you are successful.

I believe goals are met when you state them with conviction and passion. In other words, I think people that say with conviction they're going to be a baseball player and all their energy is focused in that direction they will become that. I think if you set a goal you will become what you want to become. I think the key is that you have to do it with passion. I really believe that if I wanted to learn to play the piano, and I'm totally musically ignorant at present, then I could learn to play the piano.

I think the other thing, and this may seem somewhat negative, but if you were asking for advice I think the sooner you do that [follow your passions], the easier it is. You can be whatever you want, declare it, claim it. You want to be an astronaut then don't give up on it. You keep saying that all you're life. Don't ever let it go.

I think one of the problems with people today, people who are wandering on where they want to go, is they spend too much time trying to decide what that is. I think there is a point where you just have to say "this is what I'm going to do."

If you look around you will see this multi-million dollar facility. We were in this exact same place 21 years ago. I now live in a really beautiful home but I lived in a tent with my wife here for the first year. We had a 1956 Safeway trailer as our headquarters, our extent of office reception, retail, everything. My point is that that [way of living] was easier when I was 21 years old. The conviction, the passion hasn't ended . It's still here but it would be harder to do it all over again. If I were giving advice, the advice would be that this is something that really has to happen in an early age. Though this doesn't mean it can't happen later, it just may be a lot harder. But there are millions of success stories at age 70. You've heard them, some old lady who basically did nothing her whole life and then at age 70 decided to sail around the world. We hear these stories all the time and it is possible, but it's a lot more difficult the older you get.