Todd Wilkowski didn’t set out to become an entrepreneur. “I’m a physical therapist by trade,” he says. “Entrepreneurship wasn’t even on the radar when I went to physical therapy school 30 years ago. I was just focused on being an excellent orthopedic therapist.”
But when he was offered the opportunity to launch his own business, he seized it. He was running a physical therapy unit inside a multispecialty medical practice in New York City, and when the owners of the practice asked Wilkowski if he’d like to buy the physical therapy portion and launch his own endeavor, he didn’t hesitate. This willingness to take a calculated risk, he said, is what sets entrepreneurs apart. “It’s all how people are wired. You’re either wired to take a risk or you’re not.”
Yet he makes a distinction between risk-taking and gambling. “I’m a calculated risk-taker,” he says. “I analyze an opportunity first. You’ll hear that from most entrepreneurs.”
Wilkowski launched his first location of Performance Optimal Health in Manhattan in 2002. He expanded to six locations in Connecticut and now two in Naples. While he’s been running his business, he’s also taken time to complete a management program at the Wharton School, where he learned the theory behind what he’d been practicing in his day-to-day operations for 20 years. “I’m always looking for how I can make myself better,” he says. “I’m a lifelong learner.”
Between his experiences at Wharton and his hands-on approach to his own business, Wilkowski has seen the path to successful entrepreneurship firsthand. What’s the secret ingredient? “It’s never just one thing,” he says. “If it were, then there’d be a lot more success. It’s not easy to put all the pieces together.”
Those pieces include a variety of elements—a strategy aligned with the business’ operations, the nuts and bolts of finance and accounting and a team of people committed to a company’s mission. It’s also important to have a group of trusted advisers, Wilkowski said. “Look for people who have had success as entrepreneurs,” he suggests. “They’ll see what you’re going through, and they’ll want to help. But you have to be willing to listen.”
The most essential element in entrepreneurship, Wilkowski said, is communication. Yet communication is not everyone’s strong suit, nor is entrepreneurship.
Wilkowski spent his early years deeply involved in team sports—football, basketball and track in high school, and he continued with football in college. “People in team-oriented sports just get it,” he says. “They know how to work hard and practice as a team, and they’re good at setting long-term goals, like when the coach says, ‘The goal for this year is to win a championship.’”
But not everyone can be the coach, Wilkowski points out. “There are certain people who have the necessary inspiration and vision to guide a team. They know how to see the possibilities, how to communicate and how to lead. I think these same qualities are innate in entrepreneurs. At least, the successful ones.”
