Why George Kruis Walked Away From Rugby at 32

0:00Alex Chisnall:You went out on your own terms. It must be a really small percentage of athletes you can actually say that. It's taken me a long time to decide whether I wanted to pull the trigger this year, the following year or the year after. I'm 32, I could definitely do three or four more years. I've never wanted to be someone who just declined and then gone into people questioning whether you're good or bad or whether you're worth the money that you're on, those sort of things. So I wanted to leave the party a touch early. It really is so simple. It's like school on steroids. It's just so easy. I think coming away from that, where you've got to organise meetings, emails, team members, they absolutely killed it for vaping.

0:36We were like, we're onto something here, we could set these up. And we were like, one sale a day. So basically we took about 40 grand and just lobbed out the window. You can't just have an idea which suddenly three or four people go, that's a good idea. And then that's validation, like that's not how stuff works.

0:51Alex Chisnall:And difficult question maybe, but any regrets coming up to a year, I suppose, He's actually finished the last contract.

1:03Alex Chisnall:What stops founders from building something meaningful isn't the lack of ideas. It's the fear of getting started. I'm Alex Chisnell, and this is Screw It, Just Do It. The podcast for people who are ready to stop waiting, take action, and make things happen. What the Screw It, Just Do It moment was that led them to where they are today. So interested to know like your aha moments, your eureka moments when it comes to like finishing your career as a professional Sportsman and venturing into the world of entrepreneurship and starting 4.5 your your CBD and vitamin brand both myself and Dom the other co-founder both sitting on Physio beds again after I don't know between up between us, but maybe had 14 or 15 operations and both sitting, both had one within a week of each other and kind of just like, right, let's figure out what we do from here.

1:59I guess the first step was, well, how can we recover better? What's out there at the moment? Dom will go push the boundaries, obviously legally, in terms of as a tested athlete, but definitely he's searching for what's the best thing and at the time CBD in America and Canada was pretty hot especially for athletes and yeah I think we just both right let's get down to the local shop and see how if this works for us got a really good benefit out of it and then off the back of that I guess like sportsman we've got probably an obsession with trying to get better quicker trying to you know trying to get back on field and those like smaller marginal things really make big differences at the end so that That was, I guess, the process of how we got into it.

2:47But again, sitting there a few weeks later going, right, well, we're still going to be out for a few months. Could we? Should we? We took on the task of creating our own company, really.

2:59Alex Chisnall:Screw it just a moment when it comes to rugby. Watching my brother get into the local county team, I just thought, that is not acceptable. You see all the kudos, but the enjoyment he got out of it and I thought, right, I've got two brothers, so it gets quite competitive. So I thought we'd just try and one-up him. Yeah, and you did. Yes, true, true, to be fair. What I didn't realise was that you were already business partners with Dom but in a property business. Did you start that when you were both still playing as well? Yeah, so I started that both at Saracens probably a year or so before setting up 4.5.

3:47Yeah, just kind of buying some commercial property, some garages, all those sort of bits, and then just finding other people to put money in and co-investing, really.

3:58Alex Chisnall:You went out on your own terms. It must be a really small percentage of athletes who can actually say that, right? Yeah.

4:08It was a ballsy call. But I think it's kind of very pre-planned. It's not like a reaction or anything. It was, you know, this has taken me a long time to decide whether I wanted to pull the trigger this year, the following year, or the year after. Like, I'm 32. I could definitely do, you know, three or four more years, especially in my position.

4:30Alex Chisnall:Could be a Tom Brady and you've been getting like 46. Give me some Super Bowl medals, yeah, or rings. I'll take that. But I think for me, the opportunity, you know, like those sigma curves or the crossovers, like I've never wanted to be someone who just declined and then gone into people questioning whether you're good or bad or whether you're worth the money that you're on, those sort of things. So for me, it was like I wanted to leave the party a touch early, but I could only do that when the next thing is at a state where it's ready to kick on. And I think with 4.5, we're hitting up some really decent retailers now and we're in a nice position to push forward.

5:16And I think that's when it was amongst a number of other things like the sacrifices you have for giving up weddings, all those sort of things.

5:24Alex Chisnall:Difficult question maybe, but any regrets coming up to a year, I suppose since you finished your last contracts? Not at the moment. I go to the games. I watch the games. Do you? Okay. Yeah. I enjoy, I really enjoy rugby still. I enjoy watching it. Yeah. Like obviously it's tough seeing, you know, seeing the people singing the national anthem and playing and running out in front of 20 ,000, what, 80 ,000. Do you stop yourself from running onto the pitch and joining and singing the anthem? No. No. I can't run anymore. but I think like that is a huge privilege it's unbelievable and to like maybe possibly have the opportunity to still have been in that position you know you question some bits but because of the I think the plan that I put in place it was pretty easy to go like nah I'm happy because I've done this I'm doing this I'm content it's so simple it's like school on steroids it's just so easy and all you've got to do is just like properly apply yourself and train and work as hard as you can I think I think coming away from that you know where you've got to organize meetings emails team team members like that management pit is it's like a coach going from being a like a single skill like a defense coach to being a team manager you sometimes see them like just not not work you know it's like you could they could be the best coach in the world at a certain thing but then they have to go and manage a team it's just yeah so i think that sort of like understanding um almost like off delegation is a huge thing because we're quite proud people we're quite like let's take this on take this on um yeah i'd say that the organization bit of sorting yourself out sorting your life out so you're not then um you know if you're setting up a meeting and you're late or something like that affects other people if you're not on track yeah so i think that yeah a hard fast track learning curve in those 10 months of like right this is actually these are business standards because you don't know what bit of business standard you know like you could turn up five minutes later you know that that would annoy someone it annoys people in sport as well but that's probably a poor example but you know yeah there's a lot of different areas which are completely different to uh from sport to business but people you know you've got to do everything at once at the beginning and then you know as you grow you section out different things i think that's our next one which I think will make a huge difference because like we've got good contacts we you know and love speaking to people and you know and selling as well so it's so so don't has a friend in Ireland who um who set up um these um they're like you know in like shopping malls and they'll have like little stands yeah yeah like the like you set you set that one they absolutely killed it for vaping okay yeah we're like we're onto something here we could set these up all over england in uh in like you know westfield all those sort of things uh and put cbd in and obviously the market just wasn't there but right but we didn't test that or sense check it and we bought like through it for you know pricey numbers um for these like big counter things you know leds on and sort of you know we got people down there into uh into we hired people to god this project took so long we hired people to you know man the force there and and do all the promo yeah exactly and and we was like it was like one sale a day i think within like three weeks we're like cut it couldn't really sell the units because it we was going into lockdown and like it was so basically just like we took about 40 grand and just lobbed out the window but you know we live and learn.

9:08We don't tell the investors that. No, I'm joking, they know, they know. That was a good learning curve where we just sat back and went, we've got to do more research on stuff we do. You can't just have an idea which suddenly three or four people go, that's a good idea. And then that's validation. That's not how stuff works. It's got to be a bit more data driven and uh yeah it can't just be because four people say it sounds good that

9:37Alex Chisnall:that's what we'll do thanks for listening and if today's episode has inspired you to take action why not take the next step come and meet me at the festival entrepreneurs this november at the nec in birmingham you'll be able to meet many of the founders you've heard on this podcast along with hundreds of ambitious entrepreneurs from across the uk i'd love to see you there So just go to festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk to register for your free, yes, free ticket.