'Shark Tank' Judge Herjavec on Living the Pursuit of happiness

“When I was younger, I didn’t know that people could start a business, and I always say now that if I knew what I know now, I would have dreamed bigger,” said Herjavec, CEO of Canadian-based information technology company The Herjavec Group, his most recent venture.

“When I was younger, I didn’t know that people could start a business, and I always say now that if I knew what I know now, I would have dreamed bigger,” said Herjavec, CEO of Canadian-based information technology company The Herjavec Group, his most recent venture. I remember when I wanted to start a business; everybody said to me, ‘you can’t do it.’ Fundamentally, I owe my success in business to the fact that I really love what I do.”

That passion helped Herjavec lead two multimillion-dollar technology companies. The Herjavec Group has grown from three employees and $400,000 in sales to nearly 200 employees and $125 million in sales in just nine years. “When people ask me what I do, I say I am in a very complicated technology business, which is incredibly boring to anybody that isn’t in it, but I love it,” said Herjavec.

“I am not even a first-generation immigrant, I am a guy off the boat,” said Herjavec, who was born in Zbjeg, Croatia. Herjavec also had a hard time coming to grips with the new way of life in North America, where for the first time he experienced a difference in economic classes. “It was really interesting because, where I came from, we lived on a farm and my grandmother raised me and everybody lived like us,” said Herjavec.

Besides paying the bills, those experiences were crucial for Herjavec later in his business career. “The most important relationship in business is the one between you and your customers. When I was delivering newspapers, you used to have to collect the money,” Herjavec said.

At that time, Herjavec also got his start in a technology company that was just starting, after he was able to convince the founder to let him work for free. Herjavec turned that experience into the foundation for his first technology company BRAK Systems, which he later sold to AT&T. “The reason I started The Herjavec Group was that I was at home for three years,” said Herjavec.

After starting the Herjavec Group, Robert’s business prowess led him to television where he starred on the hit Canadian show, “Dragons’ Den,” which is now in its seventh season. While Herjavec has achieved a level of success that most people dream of, he credits the passion he has in business as the reason for that success.

“The best advice I would give to somebody is, don’t ever start a business that you are not incredibly and deeply passionate about,” said Herjavec. “The biggest mistake I see people do is they start a business to make money,” said Herjavec. For me, it is impossible to expend the effort required to start a great business because you want to make more money.”

Aside from passion, Herjavec also believes that those looking to start a business must be just as comfortable with failures as they are with successes. “People ask me if there is a quality or characteristic for entrepreneurs, are they born or made?” said Herjavec. “The one characteristic that I find in most people who start a business is, they are very comfortable and adaptable to change. 

While adaptability may be a crucial factor in the ultimate success of a business, Herjavec also credits his success to being able to work in a field in which he is very knowledgeable. “The other thing I notice is that lots of other entrepreneurs make the mistake of changing fields all the time and start businesses where their knowledge level isn’t very high,” said Herjavec.

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