
In this episode, Scott Becker answers two questions from a fellow entrepreneur about balancing rest and generating business ideas, sharing how strong teams, incremental growth, and adaptability have shaped his ventures.
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This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business podcast, the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Today's discussion is this two questions that was asked recently. So I was asked two questions recently by a burgeoning and growing entrepreneur, brilliant person. And he basically asked me these two questions. One, you know, do you ever sleep? And second, the question of do you ever sleep? But how did you come up with these ideas for these companies that you've built and so forth and so on and what have you. So anyways, here is the take that I'll give you on all this stuff. Do I ever sleep? Yes, I sleep. Not well anyways. But the sleep, the poor sleep is due more towards probably being wound up, anxiety ridden, nervous head going in a billion different places than to not have enough time to sleep. I budget lots of time to sleep. I just don't always sleep, sleep well. And the real answer to that is in anything you're building. We talk about this constantly and often we'll talk about in our next book coming out, is that building teams of people that you rely on is everything. I'll give an example. This podcast, all I have to do for this particular podcast is get on the phone for a few minutes and talk into the mic with my magnificent producer. And then Chanel, the magnificent producer takes everything from there. She edits it, Edits it. She lays it out, she posts it, she makes sure it's getting published. She literally does everything. So I have time to sleep because everything I do is built around great teammates and teams. But do I sleep? Is a different question. I sleep okay. The second question is, how did you come up with the idea for Becker's healthcare, how did you grow that, those kinds of things, etc. And again, the thing that I remind everybody is there are no geniuses here. There just are none. There are some, but I'm not one of them. Went to law school with a few people. One of them was named Hack Wiegman, who lived with eight of us. And Hack thought way ahead of us on everything he did. He was a genius. He would write an eighth draft while the rest of us were writing draft after draft after draft after draft to get to where his eighth draft would be. For some of my closest friends, like William Crawford, it might take 12 or 13 or 14 drafts to get to where Heck was. But I'd say for that, for most of us, it was seven or eight drafts. Now, for anybody that knows me, William Crawford is one of my closest friends. In the reality, he might get there in six drafts when it took me eight drafts So I don't want to inadvertently mess up his professional reputation, because he's actually brilliant. Just Hack was playing a different game than we were. We were also in law school with future President Barack Obama, who was also bringing a different intellectual game than us and Eric Posner. And everybody knows Eric Posner, but he's the son of Richard Posner, a famous judge. And Eric himself was just flat out brilliant. Brilliant. So when you look at it, how did I decide what to do with Becker's health? These other things, they were all incremental. It wasn't. I started with one thing, it grew into the next thing. We kept our eye on the ball, we kept on pivoting, kept on growing. We. But it wasn't like I had a final vision for what we were going to be. It was an incremental game to take us back to the intellect thing. I didn't have the intellect of a Hack Wigman, a Barack Obama, the intellect of Eric Posner. I did have the intellect of my close friend and housemate, William Crawford, back in the day, but not of these other people. So we thought of these things incrementally and grow them incrementally. They weren't sort of like we started it and knew where we were going. That evolved over time. And I think for most of us, most entrepreneurs, that's how it is. There are people that are so brilliant that they could see it way out in front of themselves. I was not that person. Thank you for listening to the Becker Business Podcast, the Becker Private Equity Podcast. We hope you enjoy this episode. We sure enjoy talking about these things. Thank you very much for listening.
Host: Scott Becker
Date: August 16, 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker answers two candid questions from a listener—a growing entrepreneur—about his personal work habits and the origin of his business ideas. The conversation centers on themes of entrepreneurial anxiety, teamwork, and the often incremental nature of building companies. Through personal stories and honest reflection, Becker demystifies the entrepreneurial path and highlights the value of collaboration over solo genius.
Timestamp: 00:15 – 02:15
Timestamp: 02:16 – 06:03
Scott Becker’s style is approachable, humble, and conversational. He balances personal storytelling with actionable insight, occasionally using dry humor and self-deprecation to keep the tone light and relatable. The episode offers encouragement for entrepreneurs who value persistence and teamwork over flashes of inspiration or individual brilliance.
In this concise, insightful episode, Scott Becker opens up about the realities of entrepreneurial work, refuting myths of sleeplessness and solitary genius. He stresses the value of reliance on great teams and the evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) nature of building a business. Through stories of his own career and reflections on outstanding peers, Becker delivers encouragement and honesty—essential listening for current and aspiring entrepreneurs.