I fell in love with Ryan Reynolds as an actor.  He has this ease that he provides the parts he plays.  Whether it’s Deadpool, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, Woman in Gold, Safe House- you name it.

And, then I had the opportunity to see him up close and personal thanks to TriNet.  They sponsor an annual program, People Force, with a panoply of interesting folks who share their stories with entrepreneurs, who come to Downtown Brooklyn (across the street from where Brooklyn Poly [my alma mater]  is situated) for three days of interactions.

Among the things I learned about Ryan from that meeting was he really is irreverent.  For example, he explained that when he bought Mint Mobile, he needed to fix it up.  It was an essential service (a David in a sea of Goliaths).  Because he wanted no one to have a problem and declare “that fucking Ryan Reynolds”.  (His 25% investment made him yet another fortune when T Mobile bought the startup for $ 1.35 billion in year four of his ownership.)

And, the other endearing fact is that he walks his children to school each morning.   Simply amazing.

But, that’s not all I learned.  He used the largesse he developed from making Deadpool (that no one wanted to make with him) to start his entrepreneurial and not-for-profit ventures.  (His marketing company is ’Maximum Effort’- the website is simply a logo.)

He recognizes the need for good storytelling.  He uses that to share the emotional investment in each of his ideas (Aviation Gin is among them, which he sold for $ 600 million to Diageo), promoting the brand and its financial investment.  And, he makes it his business to know everyone in his firms.

The key to his success is that he knows what he knows- and knows what he doesn’t.  But, not knowing everything about the business or venture doesn’t scare him away.  He knows that learning from mistakes made will make him and his ventures more worthy. {“You can’t really be good at something unless you are willing to be bad.”)

Problems are not obstacles- they are opportunities to develop creative solutions, to inspire ideas and ways to create.

And, those sports teams he bought?   He feels privileged that the town (Wrexham)  with which they are associated (and live or die by those teams) accepted him and his business team.  And, that association of the team with the sport is the magic that brought him to become the owner.

We can all learn and profit from following his attitude!

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