Entrepreneur Ryan Leonard’s Advice for Overcoming Adversity

Written in partnership with Authority Tech

Ryan Leonard has been through his share of hardship. Before he started his successful global manufacturing company, NJF Worldwide, he served his country in the US Army. In the Army, he learned the values of loyalty, courage, and selfless service and put these into action as he led his peers through the difficult conditions they faced.

When he returned home, he vowed to continue serving his country through his entrepreneurial endeavours. As he was going through the difficult process of re-adjusting to civilian life, he decided to take the skills he had learned in the Army and start NJF. He began the business as a custom clothing company in Neptune City, New Jersey.

His difficulties weren’t behind him, however. While he was still in the early stages of starting his business, he lost his younger brother in a car accident, just six days after he had already lost his grandfather to cancer. Now he had to relearn life without one of his greatest role models, and his biggest fan. He was determined not to crumble and instead used his heartache as fuel to begin building his empire.

Ten years later, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Leonard saw it as an opportunity to help protect his country against a new enemy. He began assisting local, state, and federal governments, filling gaps that these administrations had neglected by supplying communities with masks, gloves, rapid tests, and other PPE equipment. By this time, NJF Worldwide had grown into a global manufacturing company with overseas partners totalling over $100 billion in yearly revenue in sales. With the help of NJF’s Shanghai division, the company was able to keep millions of people safe.

NJF has continued to serve communities around the country throughout the last two years of the pandemic. Recently, they completed an order of 26 million Rapid Tests totalling over $160 million to help all of the school systems in New York City remain open. They completed the order in only 7 weeks’ time, about half the time expected, and were able to help the kids get the access to education they deserve.

When asked how he was able to build the resilience to step up in times of crisis, Leonard pointed to his core values as the key to his success.

“By remaining true to your values, you hold yourself to the highest standards,” he said. “In turn, there will be growth both personally and professionally. For me personally, I don’t just remain true to my values within business, but in everything I do, so that these habits carry over into my personal life.”

He also noted that when you remain true to your values, you can support the growth of your business and serve your community at the same time.

“I value selfless service,” he said “So I’m always trying to figure out how my next business move can benefit my community. For example, when an opportunity presented itself to me to submit a bid to provide testing kits to the state of New York to allow kids to attend school, it was an easy decision for me. Because I stayed true to this value, I landed that huge deal, which made my company double and allowed me to expand other streams of my business as well. By staying true to your values, you also represent consistency and there is plenty of reward in consistency, which also leads to the growth of your business.”