Shortening the Experience Curve: Franchising's Superpower

A quick story—one that shaped my entire career. I once found myself as the only person in the office with the CEO, a leader who would go on to have the greatest impact on my professional growth. At the time, I was a VP, eager to learn and move up, so when he asked if I’d like to grab lunch, I jumped at the chance. Over that meal, he shared some of the most valuable career advice I’ve ever received.

1. Sit next to me in meetings. He wanted me to see his thought process in action—to watch what he was writing down, track the logic behind his notes, and learn the pattern recognition that took him years to master. His exact words? “Cheat off me.” He encouraged me to steal his insights and absorb them as fast as possible.
2. Read and stay educated beyond your own industry. He pushed me to develop a broader perspective, one that would allow me to bring new ideas, strategies, and solutions into my own field.

Both of these pieces of advice were about one thing: shortcutting the experience curve. Instead of waiting for exposure to come naturally over time, he challenged me to actively seek it out, to place myself in environments where I could absorb knowledge faster, and to surround myself with people who were willing to share their wisdom. That experience reinforced something crucial: the best leaders don’t hoard knowledge—they pass it down. I was fortunate to work for someone who believed in sharing wisdom, and it’s a quality I always look for in mentors, leaders, and career opportunities.

It’s also important to acknowledge our individual role in having a mentor invest in you. That happens through hard work, a positive attitude, and, maybe most importantly, being intellectually inquisitive. How This Ties Back to Franchising Franchising, at its core, is built on this exact principle. A franchise system is a structured way to gain exposure instantly—without having to wait years to figure things out on your own. Just like I was able to “cheat off” my CEO and accelerate my learning, franchisees get to do the same by following the proven systems and strategies laid out by the franchisor. In a traditional career or independent business, exposure often takes years to develop, and many people never get the chance to learn from the best. But in franchising, you skip that wait—you immediately gain access to the experiences, insights, and battle-tested strategies of those who have already walked the path. When franchisees fully engage with the system—following the model, learning from those ahead of them, and leveraging the mentorship available—they compress decades of learning into months or years. The magic of franchising isn’t just in the brand or the playbook; it’s in the shortcut to exposure that allows entrepreneurs to operate at a high level much faster than they ever could alone.

I regularly meet with franchise owners, often in the same meeting, whose performance varies dramatically year-over-year. In the majority of cases, it’s about the person. This group of owners, with mixed performance, has the same system, same website, same product/service, same go-to-market strategy, and so on.

Take one of our most successful owners, Mr. Electric’s Keith Pinkerton - he’ll gladly tell other owners that his success came from attending every Dwyer/Neighborly meeting, listening in on every call, and using nuggets that aligned with his business, shortening the experience curve.

It’s true “entrepreneurial crime” to not use the paths paved by so many founders and franchise owners before you!

That’s why franchising works. It’s why royalties are worth it, if YOU leverage it! And it’s why those who fully embrace the system win—and win big.

Published by Franchising World on August 4, 2025.