The big picture
Chad Earwood encouraged UTEP students to give their lives the same attention they would give a business plan.
The founder and CEO of eShipping, a transportation and logistics company, invited students to ask about any part of his experience. Their questions covered scaling a business, working with private equity, raising children, and continuing after personal loss.
His answers often returned to defining personal values and developing the discipline to act on them.
“They’re going to say, ‘Do you have a business plan?’” Earwood said. “Well, do you have a life plan?”
He encouraged students to write down their priorities and decide what success would mean for them, rather than adopting the version they saw on social media.
Learning to keep going
Earwood grew up on an Iowa farm, where family life and business were closely connected. His father died in a farm accident when Earwood was 16, leaving him feeling responsible for his younger brother and sister.
He enrolled at the University of South Dakota to play football but left after a semester. A coach who had recruited him out of high school learned he was no longer attending college and kept encouraging him to return.
Earwood eventually went back to school. During that return, he lived rent-free in a horse stable and cleaned it each morning before driving to campus. He said he still thanks the coach when they speak.
He encouraged students facing setbacks to adjust their approach and keep going.
“Find another way, take a break, take a deep breath, reroute a little bit,” Earwood said.
Building a business around personal values
Earwood later moved from Des Moines to Missouri and began knocking on doors, selling overnight shipping services to office managers. He said his company’s values grew out of questions he was already asking about his own life, including the importance of family and faith.
“You are the business unit, plain and simple,” he said. “Invest in yourself there.”
For students considering entrepreneurship, that investment included learning how to earn a dollar, and work through difficult periods.
He cautioned that outside funding could allow a business to grow faster than its founder’s experience and ability to lead.
Preparing for the next challenge
Earwood described an entrepreneurial spirit as something students could develop regardless of whether they planned to own a company.
He encouraged them to seek new experiences, read beyond business books, and take action on the interests they wanted to pursue.
He also urged students to build their capacity to handle difficult circumstances before those moments arrived. Drawing on his experience in sports, he compared that preparation to the work athletes do between games.
“You don’t get ready for game day on game day,” Earwood said. “You get ready for game day in the offseason.”
