In this series, WeWork’s director of digital community selects a WeWork member to get to know better, sharing her fun findings with the rest of the community.
Peter Jumrukovski’s energy and enthusiasm are absolutely contagious. With a motto like “dreams don’t work unless you do,” I wanted to learn more about the origin of the WeWork Promenade member’s empowering business I Love Success. We discussed his new book The Goal Book, as well as moving from Sweden to Los Angeles, being a martial arts champion, and the big role Post-its played in creating his business.
Where did the business name I Love Success come from?
The business was started in Sweden, where I lived my entire life. I just moved to the U.S. a few months ago. It was always my dream to move to L.A. since I was a kid. I was doing martial arts, and I loved movies with Bruce Lee, and I always wanted to move to L.A.! I’ve been here a few times studying at Santa Monica College, and the last time I was here, I met my girlfriend, and now I got this opportunity to come here and start my business in the U.S. So I want to go hard or go home! I’ve only been here four months.
I was working in sales, marketing, and I was fired from my job because even though I was very good in sales, the product we were marketing was not profitable. I was fired after five years. And I always wanted to have my own business helping people accomplish their goals. So I thought to myself, “I want to inspire other people.” I started thinking about what my business should be, and I wrote all these Post-its on my window at home. And one Post-it said “love,” and another said “success,” and I thought, “I Love Success is a cool name!”
What inspires you?
For me, I’m inspired by people that aren’t afraid to go after what they want. That’s why I love working at WeWork. There are so many inspiring people here that have gone against society and actually are creating something they have a passion for. That inspires me. Doesn’t matter if it’s an athlete, or an entrepreneur, or a small business owner—everybody that actually has the guts to go after what they want.
Speaking of athletics, what are you a world medalist in?
Shotokan karate. I last competed in 2012, which was my very last competition. As an athlete, I never wanted to end up competing too much, until you are injured. I wanted to make a good run, do my best, and then end when I peaked, so to speak. That’s why I stopped competing early, at age 27. But I wanted to move on to other things. I still train in karate every day and teach—that is a passion I will never give up. But I don’t have to compete anymore.
When you wrote The Goal Book, what were your inspirations behind it?
The thing was, with The Goal Book, was I lost my job, and I wanted to start lecturing and keynoting about goal setting. I was an accomplished athlete, but I figured all good public speakers wrote a book, so they sound smart. So I figured I needed to write a book, and I wanted to do it in 40 days, to show that the strategies I discuss in the book actually work on an area if you’ve never done it before.
I started planning out the book, which is about goal setting across many areas of your life—relationships, work, and more—and how to find balance between them, because as an athlete, I was very good at karate, but bad at other things in life, and I’ve seen that in a lot of other successful people. I believe we all deserve to have a good life, so that was my inspiration.
I went to the local library in my hometown in Sweden, called Halmstad, and I went there daily for 40 days and wrote my book. I had Googled that if you write 100 pages in Microsoft Word, that’s 160 pages. So I knew I had to write two to three pages every day. So I went to the library and did that. Some days it went fast, other days it took quite some time, but my cappuccino helped me.
What does your average morning look like?
I try to have a good morning routine. Almost every day, I wake up at 6, and either I go surfing or I train with some of my clients. After that, I’ll grab a cappuccino, and I’ll go into the office. Since I came here to California, I try to go to the beach every morning just to get some energy and get inspired. Because it’s a lot of work being in a new country— sometimes you get overwhelmed—but I try to always start the day positively.
Photos: Tony Prince