Tom Szaky has created a new form of capitalism, eco-capitalism, in which waste is re-conceptualized as a raw material and becomes an economic driver. In his new book, “Revolution in a Bottle,” Szaky reveals the secrets to TerraCycle’s success as well as its twists and turns along the way to becoming a national consumer products company, renowned for creating products from — and packaged in — waste.
I first learned of TerraCycle when reading “Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World” by CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, Gary Hirshberg. I was so intrigued by the company, I requested an interview with Szaky and to my astonishment he agreed (this was at the very start of my still fresh blogging career — you can read that article here). And, full disclosure here, as a result of what I learned, I decided to invest in the company.
Here are 10 pieces of advice I gleaned from Szaky’s new book, which will be of interest to entrepreneurs, environmentalists, business people and TerraCycle-fans alike:
- “You can’t study to be an entrepreneur, you learn by fire.” Szaky is the ultimate American Dream success story. He dropped out of Princeton in his second year to found TerraCycle and has since been named the No. 1 CEO under 30 by Inc. magazine in addition to many other accolades. But he never went to business school, nor completed his undergraduate degree. He learned everything on the job.
- When something isn’t working, try something new. This sounds intuitive, but many business leaders will run their heads into the same wall time and time again without considering the option of changing. In Szaky’s case, TerraCycle was originally envisioned as a food waste hauler — they would be paid to haul waste and feed it to worms. The worm poop fertilizer was just a nice byproduct. When waste-hauling wasn’t scaling, they shifted focus to the worm poop itself. TerraCycle Plant Food became a huge hit.
- “Never dismiss an opportunity.” Throughout the history of TerraCycle, Szaky has followed this piece of advice. His sitting down with me for an interview is an example. Our conversation ended up being the basis for four blogs and, as noted above, I also became an investor in the company. So it was worthwhile for him to give a brand new blogger 30 minutes of his time, but he had no way of knowing this at the time.
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