Willy Walker: Real-World Risk-Taker
Livelihood Show
William “Willy” Walker is the chairman, president and CEO of Walker & Dunlop, a 76-year-old company that is the tenth largest commercial mortgage lender in the United States. The company was co-founded by his grandfather in 1937. For most people, joining the family business right after college would have been the automatic choice. But when Willy received his MBA from Harvard, he took a daring, unexpected detour.
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Trina Sargalski: Cooking up a Path to a New Career
Livelihood Show
Trina Sargalski grew up in Miami. She transitioned from a career in education to a career as a freelance writer and radio producer/reporter. She shares with us the personal career path she’s developed that incorporates her passions for “good food and good stories.”
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Danny Scheurer and Kurt Walchle on Livelihood Show
Livelihood Show
This week our 1st guest Danny Scheurer founded Save-A-Vet after returning home to Illinois with disabilities sustained while serving in Iraq.
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Miami International Bookfair: Author MJ Rose
Livelihood Show
Our guest is PR expert MJ Rose, who left advertising to become a novelist– only to find that the key to her success as as a successful writer would draw upon the corporate skills she thought she was leaving behind.
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Dr. Gaby Cora: Well-Being Psychiatrist and Wellness Coach
Livelihood Show
Livelihood guest Dr. Gaby Cora believes that people can avoid burn out by anticipating stress and building daily reserves by continually recharging our energy.
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Michelle Villalobos and the “Uh Oh” Experience
Livelihood Show
Uh oh is the sound of waking up, and realizing that something unexpected is happening. It’s not really welcome, and not wholly unexpected. Opportunity doesn’t just knock- it blows down doors.
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Dorie Clark: Strategic Communications
Livelihood Show
If you can imagine your future, you can create it. Dorie Clark, who writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review, describes the essential elements for this process: insightful self-inventory; awareness of your unique and essential values; crafting a new narrative.
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Dr. Dan Lobovits: Finding inspiration and optimism from trauma, illness and ageing
Livelihood Show
Psychologist Dan Lobovits wasn’t seeking change. He had a satisfying career helping people and communities deal with the emotional impact of trauma. An accomplished marathoner, his Twitter profile describes him as “ loving my work wife, kids, dog, gardening, bread making, beachwalks, and of course, yoga”.
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Trisha Torrey - Patient Advocate*
Livelihood Show
When a medical crisis happens to us, to or to someone we love, we find ourselves literally in a fight for our lives with little time for preparation or negotiation. We struggle to come up to speed on a disturbing new vocabulary, a complex set of decisions with unpredictable outcomes, decisions about the costs of health care that can bankrupt a family.
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Paul Tieger Shows Us How to ‘Do What You Are’
Livelihood Show
How do you make your Livelihood decisions? It’s a decision that affects everything in our future, not just how we spend 50 weeks a year, but often the neighborhood in which we choose to live, how much money we’ll get to make and who our friends are going to be.
info_outlineWilliam “Willy” Walker is the chairman, president and CEO of Walker & Dunlop, a 76-year-old company that is the tenth largest commercial mortgage lender in the United States. The company was co-founded by his grandfather in 1937. For most people, joining the family business right after college would have been the automatic choice. But when Willy received his MBA from Harvard, he took a daring, unexpected detour.
In true entrepreneurial fashion, Willy by-passed apprenticeship, refused great offers from several top American firms, and instead flew south: first to Chile to work for a venture capital firm, then to Argentina, where he drafted a plan for a startup airline – knowing very little about aviation. The advice given to him by a mentor was a guiding principle: “Accumulate as many scars as quickly as possible.”
In conversation with ENTREPRENEURradio, Willy illustrates the advantages of taking risks and confronting failure early on. His experiences in South America (where cultural differences sometimes led him into tough spots) taught him how to balance his idealism with the realities of being out in the field. He says: “You need to be prepared to accept failure, and you need to understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Put your head down and keep pushing forward.”
The ability to push forward served him well when, after more than ten years in Latin America Europe, he returned to Washington to lead Walker & Dunlop through the difficult 2008 real estate crisis. The risks he took- and the triumphs he achieved- earned him the 2011 Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award for his category in the Washington area. How willing are you to take risks as you navigate the realities of business? Download this podcast at ENTREPRENEURradio.org for more.