Tony De Gouveia is more than just the founder of his highly successful personal business brand, The Ultimate Business (TUB). He is also a forerunner in disruptive entrepreneurship and servant leadership. Moreover, he has been prominent in the network marketing landscape for years and brings not only a wealth of experience but also an unparalleled path to success. There is no overshadowing De Gouveia’s unique perspective, steadfast innovation, and tireless commitment to his craft and the subsequent journey he has traveled. So we sat down with the one-of-a-kind mind to gain an understanding of the road that led him here.

Q: Any insights about your journey into the world of business you can share?

De Gouveia: “I started my profession 13 years ago in 2010. After [being] in retail for 22 years, and after taking a sabbatical for a year, [I] decided that I wanted to do online business, and I wanted to do business all over the world, but as effectively as possible. The best industry for me to do that was network marketing… So when I started, I still didn’t have the skill sets as a network marketer, and so the first five years was [a] struggle for me as I had to learn that it’s not about telling people what to do, but about showing people what should be done… In network marketing, nobody works for you. You’ve got a volunteer army that goes with you to the battlefield. So you need to create core team leaders who are with you and a whole field of support, as well as customers and other leaders who follow you and will go [with] you to the battlefield.”

Q: It’s been a long road. Can you summarize your path to success?

De Gouveia: “[I] started as an entrepreneur at a very early stage when I took over the family business… for nearly 20 years. After retail, [I] went into network marketing, fell in love with this industry, and chose to do it full-time as a profession. I just love traveling and having the time freedom. The freedom of choice, freedom of time, and freedom of just doing whatever you want to do, whenever you want… So, I’ve put a name to that business model of mine, which is TUB. TUB stands for The Ultimate Business.”

Q: No business hits the ground running without striking a few potholes along the way. Can you share some struggles you faced along your journey?

De Gouveia: “My struggle, in the beginning, was creating other leaders and developing other leaders and skill sets that I had to learn because I thought I was going to be the superstar all the time. But if you are the only superstar, then you’re the one doing all the work. And I [had] to realize that. So, I had to learn to delegate. I had to learn to start creating and developing other leaders [to] start understanding that to get people [who are] better than me at levels that I am not good at, and make sure they become part of my team, and some of those lessons are the hardest I had to learn in this industry: to drop my ego.”

Q: What about now? What is your story after finding so much success?

De Gouveia: “For me, it’s all about identifying the next ‘co-leader’ on my team and then mentoring them to go to the next level, the next tier, the next income level… I used to do things for other people, [but] that’s not empowering them, that’s dis-empowering them. So, I had to learn how to help people by empowering them with their skill set so that they can do it for themselves… I love that part of the industry, where I become like the fire, the seed, the inspiration, [and] the igniting of the fire. And I can get them going again and get them to the next level. So, I’ve been successfully doing that over and over and over again.