We all know Mr. Wonderful. He’s the shrewd and sometimes insolent shark on ABC’s Shark Tank. Whether you love or hate him, there’s one thing we can agree on: he speaks the unfiltered truth. I recently met with Kevin O’Leary to talk about business, entrepreneurship and life. The best part of our meeting was that I left with five of the most memorable business mantras ever.

1. If it’s got rabies, kill it.

O’Leary says that he can’t stand when his fellow sharks endorse terrible business ideas. He notes that the other sharks don’t want to hurt the feelings of a budding entrepreneur so they will send them off the show with a pat on the back and kind words about their business idea. This type of coddling, O’Leary says, is an absolute disservice to that entrepreneur. 

Sure, the truth hurts sometimes, but O’Leary says he has no problem telling someone that their idea is bad and doomed to fail. He says that if an animal has rabies, you don’t send it off to get better, you kill it. He feels it’s his obligation to do that for contestants who come on the show with really awful business ideas.

2. Work for the white space.

O’Leary keeps a crazy schedule. He gives all credit to his assistant, Nancy, for keeping his life on track. She color codes his calendar based on what type of appointment it is. He says that the goal of every entrepreneur should be to control the space on your calendar. 

Some of the calendar should remain white each month, O’Leary insists. This is his time to do what he wants. He says that what every entrepreneur really wants is freedom, and so the goal should be to get to a point in business where you have plenty of white space on your calendar to do what you love.

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