"Drive, vision, and resilience all play hand in hand with any successful entrepreneur."
Loren Howard
Loren Howard is the Founder and President of Prime Plus Mortgages, A Hard Money Lending, and a Mortgage Note Investing Company. He is a successful decorated college athlete turned serial entrepreneur who has launched companies in varying industries to the 7, and 8 figure marks. He holds a decorated football career and several world records for the indoor row for the 500M, 100M, and max distance in 1:00. Loren currently serves as the Co-Founder and President of the Valley Guardians, a 501c-3 charity that offers mentorship, leadership, and educational opportunities to underprivileged children in Phoenix, Arizona.
Let’s learn a little about you and really get to experience what makes us tick – starting at our beginnings. Where did your story begin?
Loren Howard: I was always a driven kid who had big dreams for his future. I learned along the way that if you can dream it you can do it, and picking yourself back up after you fall is necessary to be successful.
For the longest time, I had a dream of playing for the NFL. I had a natural talent for sports and paired with my drive it lead me to play college football. I wanted to be the biggest, fastest, and strongest player I could be, so I constantly pushed my limits. In my Freshman year of college, I was a Freshman All-American Defensive End and Big Ten Defensive Freshman of the year. Sophomore year, I was All-Conference Defensive End, and in Junior year Preseason Mel Kiper ranked me the second defensive end to go in the draft. The third pick went first in the draft (Mario Williams) and the 1st pick 10th that year in the draft. I learned that your ego can really hurt your success, and after I was injured and pushed it too far instead of recovering, I had to change paths.
Being tenacious I decided to start my business just to see if I could do it. I did not know what I did not know, and for business, there is a steep learning curve in order to get it right. While this first business did not succeed, I refer to my first business as my MBA because it taught me so much and I made valuable connections and experiences that would make me the success that I am today.
Picking myself up again, I tried again to hit my big break. success. It may have taken a few tries, but once I knew what needed to happen, had the right people to make it happen, and had the vision I was able to launch a successful company one after another. My one piece of advice would be to not let failure hold you back from your future success. Learn your lessons, pick yourself up, and try again.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Loren Howard: My business partner John Lewis has made a big influence on my success and taught me how to be a leader. He has a depth of knowledge but knows when to teach and when to coach. He has taught me a lot but also helped me gain confidence as an entrepreneur and leader. John’s mentorship has played a large role in my success, and how successful my ventures have been as well.
What are the most common mistakes you see entrepreneurs make and what would you suggest they do?
Loren Howard: When I was first starting out there was a lot I didn’t know. I was more focused on the small details than the big picture. My first company didn’t succeed since I focused more on the details than the sales and marketing and without clients, you don’t have a business. Knowledge is power, so make a habit of learning something new about business as quickly as you can, and ask lots of questions.
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Loren Howard: For me, resilience is picking yourself back up and keep trying again and again. Things can change quickly, and being able to bounce back and attack the day harder than ever shows the sign of a true leader. I think that resilience is so important for any entrepreneur as things often don’t work the first time around. It’s about finetuning processes to get the results you want.
What is most important to your organization—mission, vision, or values?
Loren Howard: The mission is the driving factor in our organization, as a mission will inspire the vision and values of a company. The goal of your business should always inspire and empower your employees to make the mission true and set the guiding framework for your company culture. Having a higher purpose is key to motivating those in your team to create the best version of your business that you can.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
Loren Howard: Drive, vision, and resilience all play hand in hand with any successful entrepreneur. First is vision, which is the unique driving factor for any entrepreneur. From personal to business I think the ability to dream big and see the future you want to create is why entrepreneurs do what they do. Drive then gets inspired by the vision to create it and inspires you to see it through. Resilience comes in to ensure that you can pick up the pieces and try again to ensure you can make your vision a reality. I think anyone who has these three traits will be successful as they feed into each other and all circle back to make a vision come to life.
How important do you think it is for a leader to be mindful of his own brand?
Loren Howard: I think it is important for leaders to know that their actions will define the company culture. Leaders’ brand whether intentional or not, will set the tone of your company and reputation to others. It is important to be mindful and make sure that you are sharing and engaging in your relationships in a positive way as your network will play a large role in your success had having a good reputation and brand is essential to that success.
How would you define “leadership”?
Loren Howard: I believe that leadership is best defined by this quote: ‘“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams.
I have been extremely fortunate to be inspired and be coached by some of the best, and I am constantly trying to pay it forward and help other people unlock their potential and make themselves the best person they can be! I truly believe to be a great leader is to inspire your team to grow and achieve. If you can inspire your team to be faster, better, and stronger than before you are a successful leader. Give your team the resources, time, and ability to grow and mentor them along the way so that they can continue to improve.
Do you think entrepreneurship is something that you’re born with or something that you can learn along the way?
Loren Howard: I think to be successful you need to have drive and resilience, but can learn business along the way. Some are born with the internal drive and resilience but I think life can also be the best teacher. We don’t know how tough we are until we fall, and we don’t know how driven we can be unless we have the right motivation. I think for entrepreneurs it is ideal to have the traits and learn the business along the way, but I think that with the right vision anything is possible.
What’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Loren Howard: “If The Wind Doesn’t Serve, Take The Oars.”
I’m not one to take the easy way out or be passive about my future. For me, this has affected my life as it reminds me that I am in charge of the direction and speed of my future through my hard work to get to any destination I want.
A great example of this is when I broke world records for indoor rowing. I use the rower as a cool down for my workout, and one day out of curiosity, I wanted to see how fast I could go. I saw that I was only about 10 seconds off from the current world record, which had been set over 20 years ago! I reached out to the record holder at the time and asked him how he did it. I meet with my trainer and we set a game plan to break the world record. I broke 3 other sprint records in the process and now I’m the number one for indoor rowing. The world records I hold are 100m – 12.6 seconds, 1 min – 430m, and 500m – 1:10.5. This quote echoes the drive and tenacity that I credit to my success!
This interview was originally published on ValiantCEO.
