Play video: Enjoy the Ride: Dan Tzotzis on Entrepreneurship, Persistence and Perspective (opens in modal)
For Dan Tzotzis (BBA ’02, MBA ’10), entrepreneurship started long before he co-founded AWAKE Chocolate.
It began with his parents.
“My parents are my heroes,” says Tzotzis. Both came to Canada with little and worked tirelessly to build a life for their family. Watching his father build his own business taught Tzotzis the value of hard work and sparked what he calls his “entrepreneurial itch.”
That ambition followed him to Schulich. After completing his BBA, Tzotzis set his sights on becoming a general manager, drawn to the opportunity to work across different areas of a business. He later returned for his MBA and says his experiences at Schulich confirmed something he already suspected: his entrepreneurial dream was worth pursuing.
The opportunity eventually arrived in an unlikely setting: a burrito lunch with the two people who would become his business partners.
What followed wasn’t one enormous leap, and success didn’t arrive in a single breakthrough. Before launching AWAKE, the trio moved through a series of milestones: agreeing on the idea, creating a viable product, developing a business plan and raising $1.1 million before generating revenue. Each step strengthened their confidence that they were ready to take the next one.
Building the company required patience, too. Even as AWAKE reached milestones including Dragons’ Den and expansion into the United States, Tzotzis and his partners kept pursuing the next opportunity, sometimes for years.
“It took 11 years to get our first rotation [with Costco], so we definitely needed to toast that one,” he says. But Tzotzis admits that stopping to celebrate doesn’t always come naturally. “Like most entrepreneurs, we aren’t very good about taking a minute to reflect on our achievements. We’re onto conquering the next major milestone.”
Today, Tzotzis is also bringing what he has learned back to Schulich as an instructor, mentor and speaker. His motivation is simple: “I have always believed in helping others learn from the mistakes that I made, so that they don’t make the same mistakes themselves.”
It’s an idea that extends to his approach to leadership. Rather than making himself indispensable, Tzotzis wants to equip others with the skills and confidence to succeed without him, whether he’s working with students, colleagues or members of his community.
More than two decades into his career, Tzotzis’s perspective on success extends well beyond the business he has built. For all the milestones, growth and achievements, the measure that matters most to him is much closer to home.
“My family is my reason for being,” he says. “My parents are my heroes. My wife is my rock. My kids are my purpose.” No level of professional success, he adds, would be worth sacrificing that foundation.
After years of building, learning and looking toward the next milestone, Tzotzis’s advice is fittingly simple.
“Enjoy the ride. Smile,” he says. “We get one kick at this life.”
For Tzotzis, success is about more than what you build or achieve. It’s about working hard for what matters most.
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