60 April 18 • 2019
jn

E

very business or idea started 
with a watershed moment. A 
moment in time where you as 
the leader became 
inspired to do what 
you do. By recogniz-
ing your watershed 
moment, you’
ll have a 
foundation built that 
will help to build a 
resilient attitude and 
perspective to defend 
against any negative 
situation that may arise. 
You must remember your water-
shed moments. Ruth Zuckerman, 
founder of SoulCycle and Flywheel, 
knows all about these watershed 
moments and the way hers created 
resiliency to chase her passion. She 
went from dreaming of dancing for 
a living to a desperate position after 
letting that dream die. It was in this 
moment she felt a push to join a daily 
spin class that led to her starting 
SoulCycle. 
She recalls her watershed moment 
this way: “I feel that I was so desper-
ate for something at that juncture 
in my life … it was traumatic, and I 
wasn’
t really experiencing much plea-
sure. And there was something, there 
was a kind of an energy I felt from the 
spinning room, from looking from 
the outside in … it felt very intense 
and focused, and there was a group 
energy and community.”
She eventually joined the class, 
which led to her becoming the 
instructor of the class, which in turn 
led to her starting SoulCycle — an all 
spinning fitness center. Her water-
shed became her passion. “My main 

motivation in wanting to bring this 
to a bigger audience was to simply be 
able to spread the wealth and let other 
people experience this, too,” she said. 

FROM WATERSHED TO RESILIENT
For all business leaders, it should look 
very similar to this. Our watershed 
moment begins our journey to chase 
our passion. And when the bumps 
come, that watershed becomes a 
source of resiliency.
 Zuckerman defines resiliency in 
this way: “Resilience means not giv-
ing up, sticking to your core passion 
and beliefs and trying to maintain a 
certain hopefulness when things feel 
really bad or are feeling hopeless. It’
s 
having faith and, at the end of the day, 
having faith in yourself.”
Resilience is a choice, but even 
more, it’
s a sign of preparedness and 
good planning. If you have used your 
watershed moment to chase a passion, 
then you can always return to that 
place to draw strength and re-center 
your soul to take on the challenges 
you face. It will mark you as a good 
leader if you can take in stride the 
twists and turns that business will 
bring and, through them, prove your 
stalwart can-do attitude as a living 
example to your company. 
Resiliency is something that every 
CEO-minded person needs to have. 
Zuckerman is a great example and 
her story radiates from watershed to 
resilient. But, it also goes a step fur-
ther. When we have that watershed 
moment, even through the resiliency, 
we still have one thing that must hap-
pen to grow our business: We must 
take risks. 

BE RESILIENT AND TAKE RISKS
Risk-taking is second nature to some 
and scares the daylights out of others. 
But risks are a natural part of growing 
a business. Feeling the nudge from the 
universe to move our company in a 
different direction requires that we be 
in tune with our soul and the soul of 
our company. 
This connectedness will allow us to 
analyze decisions in light of the pas-
sions behind our watershed moment. 
Risk shouldn’
t be shied away from, 
but rather celebrated as a way to take 
our business 
to newer heights. 
The nature of risk means there will 
be moments where you won’
t reach 
the mountain top; this is where your 
resiliency comes back to the fore-
front. But, by nature, risk also means 
that there will be celebratory moun-
tain-top experiences — moments 
where you step back and think, Wow, 
we did it! 
If we are to grow our businesses in 
sustainable ways, we have to be able to 
handle and experience each of these 
moments in stride. Learning from 
the lower moments and celebrating 
the high mountain-top moments — 
always striving to better ourselves. 
Our watershed moment is the 
reason we do what we do. It powers 
everything. It also permits us to take 
risks. Remember: Take risks. Try 
something new. Be resilient. Why? 
Because your business matters! ■

Jon Dwoskin is a business coach and exec-
utive adviser who grows businesses. He is 
the author of “The Think Big Movement.” Visit 
jondwoskin.com for more or email him at jon@
jondwoskin.com.

Jon Dwoskin

Use Your Watershed 
Moment to Create 
Resiliency and 
Take Risks
D

etroit Popcorn Co. has a 
new owner: Evan Singer 
purchased the 95-year-
old Detroit Popcorn Company for 
approximately $1 million from 
co-owner David Farber. Singer started 
at Detroit Popcorn Company 15 years 
ago as general manager and has been 
half owner the past four years.
The company has annual revenues 
of approximately $4 million per year. 
Farber purchased the business in 2006 
and moved it to Telegraph and Five 
Mile Road in Redford four years later. 
The company has had steady growth 
of 5 to 7 percent per year since the 
purchase and Singer plans to increase 
that to between 10 to 20 percent by 
2020. 
Singer plans on making some 
significant changes to the company’
s 
business model, including taking 
on three-to-five franchises, possible 
satellite locations, new fully printed 
packaging for convenience stores or 
“grab-and-go” bags, and adding more 
products that customers request. The 
company’
s popular holiday gift tins 
will also be available.
What started as a small popcorn 
business in 1923 has blossomed into a 
multi-million dollar company under 
Singer’
s leadership and specializes in 
variety of ready-to-eat snack foods, 
and a broad range of concession 
equipment and supplies for all types 
of fun foods, including popcorn, 
cotton candy, nachos, frozen drinks, 
corn dogs, candy apples and more. 
“My uncle was from the retail 
business and he taught me a lot about 
how I need wholesale and retail cus-
tomers,
” Singer says. “He also taught 
me that the secret to a successful busi-
ness is to listen to your customer base 
and have happy employees. I now 
have a new motto — listen to every-
one, watch everyone and learn.
” ■

Evan Singer

Detroit Popcorn 
Detroit Popcorn 
Company Gets 
Company Gets 
New Owner
New Owner

