84: What is a Net Positive Business and Why is it the Future with Chris Sukornyk

I am so excited to continue a conversation that I had a couple months ago in Costa Rica with serial tech entrepreneur, Chris Sukornyk. Originally from Canada with entrepreneurial parents, entrepreneurship was built into his DNA. With a passion for technology, Chris attended University, but felt the teachings were out of tune with reality. He left, just one credit shy of graduating (his parents still remind him) and built his first business.

Since that time, Chris has founded (and sold) four other businesses and is now focusing on his next endeavor, which is to help create more net positive businesses and help ecopreneurs. I love that he is intent on creating businesses that are in alignment with his passion as well as his core values around the environment and social responsibility.

Listen in to this enlightening episode to find out how net positive entrepreneurship is the up and coming trend to businesses everywhere and how you can make an impact by either creating one or being a part of one.

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Question Highlights:

• What's your best entrepreneurial lessons you learned from your parents?
• With your most recent advertising tech company, how did you go from zero to 170 employees in such a short amount of time?
• What was the conflict that came up with your advertising tech business?
• How did you become realigned with it?
• Do you think you would be this passionate about net positive businesses if you hadn't woken up in a business that wasn't net positive for you?
• What makes a net positive company different than the old way of doing business?
• How do you reconcile your dad's advice ("All that matters is sales.") with the impact the company is making?
• Does building a net positive business present a different set of hurdles than we've seen in the past?
• How do you want your children to grow up viewing entrepreneurship and money?
• How do you view money?
• Do you think it's a masculine trait to pursue wealth or can it be a feminine trait as well?
• Do you feel that your view of money has shifted since getting out of North America and moving down to Costa Rica?

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• How Chris came to be such a successful serial tech entrepreneur
• The importance of connecting with your partners/employees
• What having a net positive business means
• How Chris navigated his business when he had lost his passion for it
• What an ecopreneur is
• How businesses impact the environment and why they need to minimize it
• Why people want to hear about the founder or story behind a product
• Why it's crucial to find investors who are aligned with your passion
• Why we need socially minded startups who compete/challenge legacy businesses that are doing damage in the world
• How we can integrate giving back into our lives and the businesses we create
• And so much more…

Chris's Thoughts…

"The Zero to Hero Life of a Serial Entrepreneur: Either hit it out of the park or one day before the sale, everything could fall apart."

"If your business is aligned with your passion, you're never tired."

"There's nothing wrong with having nice things, but we have to be aware of the impact we're making."

"There has to be more – you have to give back."

"Money is just a vehicle that has value and it can be exchanged for different things."

"Good things are at the end of dirt roads."

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Chris is a serial entrepreneur having founded and sold five tech startups with combined exits of more than $250 million. In 2015, Chris was recognized by Ernst & Young as the provincial winner of the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

A lifelong environmentalist and father of four, Chris recently relocated from Toronto to Costa Rica and is now focused on investing and advising "ecopreneurs," founders with a vision to better the world through sustainable, mindful and socially conscious products and services.

Resources:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulstartupguy/
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissukornyk/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/csukornyk

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For more stories and tips on becoming unapologetically wealthy, follow me @Chriswharder on Instagram and check out fortheloveofmoney.com.