Veteran entrepreneur Phillip Cantrell distills four decades of hard-won business wisdom into his newly released book, “Failing My Way to Success: Lessons from 42 Years of Winning (and Losing) in Business,” which officially launched July 15.
The founder and CEO of Benchmark Realty — who sold the company to United Real Estate in 2020 — says the inspiration for writing the book stemmed from a desire to give back.
“You know, there’s a whole raft of younger entrepreneurs coming along behind us, and if I take that knowledge and those experiences and the blood, sweat and tears that I’ve invested in various businesses over the years — if I just took that money and went to the farm, that would be a quasi immoral act to me,” Cantrell said. “I think people in this position who have achieved this level of success owe it to those that are coming behind.
“We should help them avoid the landmines that we stepped on. I have stepped on them with both feet.”
Four cornerstones of success
Cantrell’s book centers on what he calls “the four cornerstones” of business: delegation, observation, working smart, and compassion.
“Delegation is learning that you can’t do everything yourself, you just cannot. You will die as an entrepreneur,” he said. “Observation is realizing all you have to do is observe and watch and be able to see what others have done in their business and bring that into your business.
“Working smart means you can’t bludgeon your way through a bad decision. You can’t outwork a bad model. Can’t outwork a bad plan.”
With the compassion cornerstone, Cantrell said he drew inspiration from Earl Nightingale — an author and radio personality best known for his work on personal development, motivation and the pursuit of a meaningful life.
“One of the lessons I learned from (Nightingale) is you can have everything you want if you help enough other people get what they want,” he said. “Focus on serving others. What you’re seeking will naturally follow. It’s a universal principle that cannot be stopped.”
Industry disruption, resistance to change
When asked to comment on the current real estate industry, Cantrell was candid in his criticism of traditional models — warning that many brokerages are failing to adapt to market realities.
“The biggest problem we have in this industry is we’re stuck in a rut, and a rut is nothing but a grave with the end kicked out,” he said. “We are stuck in such a traditional mindset of, ‘It has to always operate in this fashion. It has to always go in this way,’ that we don’t understand that the market parameters and what our agents are dealing with on a daily basis requires us as leaders to offer different services.
“We need to offer different guidance, different compensation models, and the fact that most traditional brokers are still stuck in that rut and refusing to modify and adapt to the changing environment means that their agents are restricted in what they’re offering is to the consumer.”
Advice for first-time homebuyers
Cantrell expressed empathy for first-time buyers — citing inflated home prices and lingering impact of government fiscal policies during COVID-19.
“We artificially inflated the home prices. And those home prices must come down. They absolutely must come down,” he said.
Cantrell said there a 100% price increase in immediate home prices in the greater Nashville, Tenn., metro area between 2018 and 2023.
“That’s completely unsustainable and unreal,” he said. “We’re going to have to give some of that back. Otherwise, we’ve got an entire generation of first time homebuyers that’s gone for a long time.”
Cantrell also said that large corporate landlords and private equity firms potentially letting go of some housing stock could help with ongoing inventory shortages.
“Private equity has a life lifespan on each fund of five to seven years. So they’re going to begin rolling out of those properties, probably in the next couple of years and that will help with inventory,” he said. “There are some corporate entities that buy and hold forever. I get it. It just is what it is. They took advantage of a market situation they could capitalize on.”
A personal chapter still being written
Cantrell said he plans to remain involved in supporting young entrepreneurs for a long time.
“Don’t be afraid to step outside the box of what everybody expects you to do in your industry or in your genre,” he said. “Then, you’re going to be attacked. You have to have the resilience and the perseverance to get through that. I call it in the book, ‘the attack of the naysayers.’ Never, ever let the naysayers win.”