Eight years in the nightlife business taught Rich Santo that sometimes when you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This lesson has served him well as an entrepreneur.

Rich wanted to disrupt the less-than-exciting garment decorating industry, so he founded Culture Studio, a state-of-the-art screen-printing company that services clients in the fashion, promotional, and music industries.

Judging from Culture Studio’s explosive growth, we’re pretty sure Rich is doing something right—what began as a one-off t-shirt business is now a 50,000 square foot facility with eighty employees.

Rich shares 5 values from the nightlife industry that he applies as a CEO:

1. Grit. Leaders have to paint their company’s vision, but what good is a spectacular vision if you don’t wake up every day ready to do whatever it takes to make it real?

2. Tenacity. Replace words like “frustrated” and “overwhelmed” with words like “challenge” and “overcome.”

3. Impact. Why are you getting into an industry if you’re not trying to leave your own thumbprint on it?

4. Innovation. “That’s how we’ve always done things” is not a reason. It’s an excuse.

5. Customer service. It’s not just a value to put on the wall. It’s a process to be perfected.

For more about Culture Studio, click here.

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FIVEinSIXTY is our web series with thought leaders whose stories provide insights and inspiration for the next generation of go getters—our own little brainchild outside the wide variety of videos we produce for our clients.