It started with selling wastebaskets.
When Volcom Inc. Chief Executive Richard Woolcott was about 7 or 8, he started to really get into skateboarding and surfing.
He stumbled across a skateboard wheels ad in a magazine, something called the Cadillac wheels.
Like any kid, he excitedly told his mom he needed the wheels. She told him he needed to earn some money to pay for them himself.
So Woolcott created his own version of the childhood lemonade stand, except his involved 5 pound tubs of ice cream from Baskin Robbins.
Woolcott emptied them, cleaned them out and decorated them with magazine ads.
He then sold the custom wastebaskets on the curbs of Redondo Beach, where his family lived at the time.
“I’d made enough money for those skateboard wheels,” he said.
Those early entrepreneur moments led to Woolcott being honored Wednesday for his company, Costa Mesa-based Volcom, with the first Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Leatherby Entrepreneurship Center at Orange’s Chapman University.
“I’ve never received an award like this,” he said. “It was a surprise. I was like, ‘What is this?’ It’s a real honor, and I’m really stoked on it.”
“Wooly” as Volcom colleagues and friends call him, thanked his Volcom team, his parents, who he said “always supported me no matter what I do,” and his girlfriend, who he thanked for “putting up with the mad scientist over the years.”
She was in attendance along with his mom.
Volcom, which Woolcott and friend Tucker Hall started in Woolcott’s Newport Beach bedroom in 1991, has grown into a business with last year sales of about $280 million. It has a market value of $500 million.
Woolcott said he never really thought of himself as being an entrepreneur until the award.
“It got me thinking about my life,” he said.
He told of a second time as a kid when his entrepreneurial spirit came out. His family had moved to Anaheim Hills, across the way from a golf course.
At this point, “I was really into skateboarding and needed all the stuff,” he said.
Too young to work at the golf course and too short to drive the golf courts, he came up with his own idea.
He went around and picked up all the extra golf balls and set up a stand on the course, selling three to four balls for $1.
“These two experiences mean more to me now than ever,” he said. “They’re my lemonade stand type of experience.”
He spoke about his keys to being an entrepreneur: passion, education—if you can get it or go that route—dedication and discipline and that fight instinct, that “eye of the tiger” as he called it.
When his professional surfing career was cut short at 19 after a surf accident that broke his neck, Woolcott said he didn’t give up.
“I figured out how to get around that and get back into the industry on the business end,” Woolcott said.
As for success, Woolcott said that’s a whole other challenge.
“The minute you get successful, you can’t get lazy or complacent,” he said. “There’s a lot of good competition out there.”
He talked about the “road show” to going public in 2005, flying around in a fancy jet, being driven around in limos, meeting with investors, bankers and such.
When it came down to the night before the company was going public, he and a colleague were going crazy, giddy with excitement that they had done it.
They called his dad, René Woolcott, and told him the news.
In true fatherly and businessman-like fashion, the older Woolcott, “cracked the whip,” Richard said, telling his son that “that was great … now get back to work. Now you’ve got shareholders to answer to.”
“Success can play with your ego,” Richard Woolcott said. “You’ve got to remember your team and stay humble.”
Another highlight to the night: Woolcott’s mother, Eloise Woolcott, who was in attendance. She gave some impromptu words about her son.
“Like many mothers, I stand in awe of my son,” she said. “He’s a good guy, has lots of dedication and is very humble.”
She also did a bit of a “shout out” to the Volcom crew, saying “I love the Volcom team dearly.”
More than 150 people attended the event, including Chapman President James Doti and former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson.
Companies were nominated by a committee and voted on by the members. Woolcott came out on top, said Richard Sudek, a committee member and assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Chapman University.
Woolcott was surprised. He had no idea about the awards, that he was nominated and found out he was the recipient via e-mail.
He planned to celebrate the award and the Los Angeles Lakers’ win—he’s a big fan—with a good night sleep, a morning surf run and getting back to work.
As he gets older, Woolcott realizes he’s a role model as a businessman. He likes being able to give something back to young people in the industry.
He cited his team for the award, that it was really for them, too.
“It’s nice to be recognized for all of your hard work and to be acknowledged,” Woolcott said.