From paper boy to big-time hotel developer: Eric Lund offers oadvice to young entrepreneurs
ENVISION Magazine, Winter 2007
UW-Whitewater alum Eric Lund, a Letters and Sciences graduate from 1991, might have been just a young boy in the 1970s, but he was already well on his way to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Throughout grade school, middle school and high school, Lund delivered the Capital Times and eventually the Wisconsin State Journal like a fiend. He started out with 47 papers, waking up early to use his "paper route bike" before school. He continued until college, when he was delivering nearly 300 papers a day and making about $20,000 a year.
"I did it for both the exercise and the income," Lund laughed. "I always looked at it like they were paying me to exercise."
Lund's business drive and determination back then paid off for him later as he snagged an important internship at a hotel in New Jersey and then back in Wisconsin for the Howard Johnson chain.
In the 1990s after graduating from UW-Whitewater, Lund helped form The Great Lakes Companies, a real estate company that specializes in development of hotels and land.
Today, that company is known as Great Wolf Resorts, the largest owner, operator and developer in North America of drive-to family resorts featuring water parks. It's even carved a place for itself on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
But now, Lund is busy with a new venture. He and business partner Craig Stark have combined forces to create S&L Hospitality, a development and management real estate company that showcases seven hotels and boasts about 300 employees. Currently, the group is busy with the construction of four hotels in Oconomowoc, and Illinois, Florida and Mississippi.
Lund said that while both his education and work experience have been important in his rise to the top, he's also gleaned some advice that others may find helpful as they navigate entrepreneurial terrain.
"I've learned to always be positive," Lund said. "There's so much negative in the world that goes on, so remain positive and have a positive outlook."
"Don't burn bridges," Lund continued. "People you do business with… may circle back."
Lund said entrepreneurs should remember to always hire people smarter than themselves.
"So when you need what you brought them on for, they're going to succeed," he said. "You're helping each other then; you're always learning and growing."
Lund said entrepreneurs need to understand the intricacies of "pumping" people up and getting them excited about how to sell. Taking care of your employees is critical, he said. Treating those who work for you with respect also means offering them a solid livelihood for their work.
Around the time that Lund's Great Lakes Companies went public, about 15 key employees became millionaires, he said. And, he hopes he can work some of the same magic for the employees he and Stark have at S&L Hospitality.
"We're here to help build them up now," he said. "(They're) getting pieces of ownership in these hotels we develop. We're going to create a portfolio for these people who are going to have a nice little nest egg."
When he's not working, Lund spends time with his wife, Yael, and his two children. He's been working out with a personal trainer at home and stays involved with his children's sports activities.
"Our family loves to travel together," he said. "I love to play golf and we're huge basketball and UW-Whitewater athletic fans, so we go to sporting events."
But not surprisingly, Lund said work is still one of his deepest loves.
"On Sundays I look forward to Monday morning… waking up and going to work," he said. "Not many people can say that."
"It's not that I don't like being with my family," he teased. "I just have so much fun at work – it's just fun." – Amanda Kramer