Mike Konrad

Entrepreneur - CEO - Public Speaker - Podcast Host

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Journey to Success - My Journey as a “Reluctant Entrepreneur”

In 1992, Mike’s employer was near bankruptcy. The owner warned all of the employees that if the company didn't turn around soon, he would soon shut it down.

New environmental laws coming into effect soon threatened our industry. I had an idea that would turn those pending environmental restrictions into a business opportunity. I was convinced my idea had both merit and significant opportunity. Unfortunately, my employer disagreed and dismissed my idea in favor of an alternate product that would soon lead to the demise of the company.

While he had no desire to start his own company, he could not get that idea out of his head. Eventually, Mike determined that if his idea was truly good, why should he expect others to fund it. It became abundantly clear to Mike that he was the only person in the universe that believed strongly in the technology that lived in his head, gut, and heart. It was time to "put up or shut up". So, against all odds, Mike quit his job and started a company. That was 34 years ago.

While today, Mike’s company is thriving the journey was rife with obstacles and challenges. This is a story of Mike’s personal journey into entrepreneurship. It turns out the skills that benefited him as a start up nearly killed his business in its later years. Mike’s "no guts, no glory" bull-in-a-china-shop method of starting a company, while successful, proved counter productive in the company's later years. Mike had to either learn new skills or risk becoming one of the 75% of all companies that fail within the first 10 years.

This is Mike’s story of coming to realize he needed to either learn or acquire new skills, shed fear, and trust the process in order to both grow and sustain his company into the future.

People are Talking About Mike

About Mike:

Mike is passionate about entrepreneurship and is a regular speaker on the subject of Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth College. Mike has been a guest on many podcasts including ones produced by California State University San Bernardino.

Drawing from his experience founding a technology company in 1992, Mike describes himself as a “reluctant entrepreneur”, sharing his unique journey founding and building a company within the highly competitive electronics industry. Mike’s approach to business is unique and is frequently described as “counter-intuitive”. Mike’s presentations are inspiring, informative, and entertaining.

Mike is the host of the popular Reliability Matters Podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, and other popular podcast sites. Mike has been a guest on multiple business-related podcasts including The Sustainable Business Podcast, Cracking the Cash Flow Code, Mr. Biz Radio, Work From Your Happy Place, and many others.

Mike is an elected member of the SMTA global Board of Directors where he is Vice President of communications. Mike is also the Conference Chairman for the SMTA Pan Pacific Strategic Electronics Symposium.

Mike is an internationally known speaker and has been awarded “Distinguish Speaker Status” with SMTA and received the “Rich Freiberger Best of Conference Award”.

Mike is available to speak on the subject of entrepreneurship and share his unique and challenging journey in building his business, overcoming obstacles, and the process of learning new skills through shattering common status quos and breaking traditional and outdated business models.

For more information on booking Mike to speak live or virtually at your event, contact Mike at:

Mike Konrad
mike@mikekonrad.com
+1 (909) 957-6877

Podcast Interviews with Mike