On Purpose with Jay Shetty - Guy Raz ON: Safely Quitting Your Job & Building the Business of Your Dreams

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

You can order my new book 8 RULES OF LOVE at 8rulesoflove.com or at a retail store near you. You can also get the chance to see me live on my first ever world tour. This is a 90 minute interactive sho...w where I will take you on a journey of finding, keeping and even letting go of love. Head to jayshettytour.com and find out if I'll be in a city near you. Thank you so much for all your support - I hope to see you soon.Guy Raz talks with Jay Shetty about the risks of being an entrepreneur, the motivation behind every successful entrepreneurship, and finding the right co-founder who shares your ideals and beliefs.Guy Raz is an acclaimed radio and podcast personality, described by The New York Times as “one of the most popular podcasters in history.” Perhaps his best-known show, How I Built This, features in-depth interviews with the world’s greatest innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.Sign up for Jay Shetty’s free “Pursuit of Purpose” Live Masterclass at www.jayshettypurpose.comWhat We Discuss with Guy:00:00 Intro02:15 First thing Guy ever built as a kid05:11 “Journalism gave me a psychological pass to talk to anybody” - Guy10:13 The way we come across an idea is when we have a problem to solve17:25 Motivation comes from solving a problem or fixing something23:03 Chapter 3: Leave your safety zone, but do it safely27:56 Risks taken and experiences gained while building a career33:09 Master the skill to understand what you’re good at37:04 Having a business partner is crucial when you almost want to give up41:44 Give yourself time and opportunity to decide if the partnership is right for you44:26 The common myths surrounding fundraising50:20 Be an active listener to learn more information about the real story53:50 The most outlandish story or pain out of 400 interviews done59:55 What you’re missing out on when you think you’re not cut to be an entrepreneur01:03:42 Guy on Fast FiveLike this show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps! Post a screenshot of you listening on Instagram & tag us so we can thank you personally!Episode Resources:Guy Raz | WebsiteGuy Raz | PodcastsGuy Raz | TwitterGuy Raz | FacebookGuy Raz | InstagramGuy Raz | LinkedInGuy Raz | YouTubeAchieve success in every area of your life with Jay Shetty’s Genius Community. Join over 10,000 members taking their holistic well-being to the next level today, at https://shetty.cc/OnPurposeGeniusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Conquer your New Year's resolution to be more productive with the Before Breakfast Podcast. In each bite-sized daily episode, time management and productivity expert, Laura Vandercam, teaches you how to make the most of your time, both at work and at home. These are the practical suggestions you need to get more done with your day. Just as lifting weights keeps our bodies strong as we age, learning new skills is the mental equivalent of pumping iron. Listen to Before Breakfast on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Eva Longoria and I'm Maite Gomes-Rachon. We're so excited to introduce you to our new
Starting point is 00:00:35 podcast hungry for history. On every episode we're exploring some of our favorite dishes, ingredients, beverages from our Mexican culture. We'll share personal memories and family stories, decode culinary customs, and even provide a recipe or two for you to try at home. Listen to Hungry for History on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I am Dr. Romani and I am back with season two of my podcast, Navigating Narcissism.
Starting point is 00:01:06 This season we dive deeper into highlighting red flags and spotting a narcissist before they spot you. Each week you'll hear stories from survivors who have navigated through toxic relationships, gaslighting, love bombing and their process of healing. Listen to Navigating Narcissism on the I heart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. There will come a time where you will want to give up, where you will run into a roadblock and you will say, is this worth fighting for? And you will say to yourself, it's not.
Starting point is 00:01:39 It's better for me to just move on, give up. But the person who you co-founded the company with will say, we got this, we can get through this. And there will be other times where those rules are reversed, where you are the person with the optimism. I have experienced that hundreds of times. [♪ Music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every single one of you that come back every week to listen, learn, and grow.
Starting point is 00:02:13 And I am so excited to be talking to you today. I can't believe it. My new book, Eight Rules of Love, is out. And I cannot wait to share it with you. I am so, so excited for you to read this book. For you to listen to this book, I read the audiobook. If you haven't got it already, make sure you go to 8rulesoflove.com.
Starting point is 00:02:33 It's dedicated to anyone who's trying to find, keep, or let go of love. So if you've got friends that are dating, broken up, or struggling with love, make sure you grab this book. And I'd love to invite you to come and see me for my global tour. that are dating, broken up, or struggling with love, make sure you grab this book. And I'd love to invite you to come and see me for my global tour. Love rules.
Starting point is 00:02:50 Go to jsheddytour.com to learn more information about tickets, VIP experiences, and more. I can't wait to see you this year. Now today we have an extremely special guest because his ability to understand, simulate, and synthesize knowledge insights and information about building successful businesses, about finding our calling and following that calling are just second to none. Now, I'm talking about none other than Guy Razz, the author of the new book, How I Built This, and the host of the NPR podcast of the same name. He's a connoisseur of entrepreneurs having interviewed hundreds of successful self-starters and researched what makes them successful.
Starting point is 00:03:33 For years, Guy was a foreign correspondent for NPR and was the youngest bureau chief ever at the age of just 25. I can't wait to speak to Guy today and share this conversation with all of you. Guy, welcome to the podcast. It's so great to be here, Jay. Thanks so much for having me. No, thank you. I remember just, I think it was a few months ago when we were just DMing on Instagram and you kindly invited me to do your live event for how I built this, which was unbelievable and I'm so grateful for that opportunity. But I've been more excited about today because I want to hear from you. I was so excited to have you on. It was so fun.
Starting point is 00:04:09 We got incredible feedback. And I mean, I love your book. So I love what you do. And so it was great when you reached out. I'm so glad that now we know each other. We're going to be friends. Absolutely. I love it. I want to actually start off with a different question than you get asked often. What was the first thing you ever built as a child? How did your family,
Starting point is 00:04:37 friends, parents respond to your first ever thing that you built? I grew up in a fairly traditional, I'm not religious these days. I have a lot of respect and immense respect for people who are observant and practice religion, but I grew up in a kind of an observant Jewish home as a kid. My parents were immigrants and it was really important for especially my mom to keep traditions. And so Friday nights were very important in my home as a kid That's the the Friday to sundown. It's the Jewish Sabbath and Saturday you kind of take a day of rest foreshadowing I do that today, but for different reasons and
Starting point is 00:05:17 As a kid, it was really important that our house was clean and and and bright and ready for the Sabbath. It was just part of our tradition growing up. And so I was expected to clean my room and tidy it up. And every Friday afternoon after school, I would spend hours building these elaborate villages out of Lincoln logs. Lincoln logs, are you familiar with Lincoln logs? It was a, they're still around, but it was a classic American toy, Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln. You know, the myth was that he was born in a log cabin,
Starting point is 00:05:52 which is kind of true. And so they were these logs that had little grooves and niches in them and you could build these elaborate homes and structures out of them. And I would build these villages in my bedroom as a kid for my dad when he would come home from work. Who was not my dad was not particularly observant.
Starting point is 00:06:10 It was my mom really. But this was part of our tradition at home when I was a kid. And so I would spend hours building these elaborate villages out of Lincoln logs and then eventually Legos. And I loved it. It was like a wonderful creative outlet. out of Lincoln logs and then eventually Legos. And I loved it. It was like a wonderful creative outlet. Of course, you don't think about that
Starting point is 00:06:29 when you're eight or nine years old, but it was a way for me to kind of express myself and also show my parents something I was proud of and then feel pride when they were excited about it. Yeah, that sounds awesome. I remember doing similar. I used just played a lot with Lego and Play Mobile and some of this similar style of toys and I remember creating lots of villages and castles and boats and I actually miss it now that I'm talking to you about it. I know.
Starting point is 00:06:59 Yeah. I'm like, I want to go build a train track. That's right. Yeah. I need to go and get back into it. It was so, it was so interesting building it out. And I feel when I go to places like, I don't know if you have that in the US. We have in the UK, we have Legoland, which is like, there are a few in the US. Yeah, there's one San Diego, yeah. Yeah, and whenever I go to those,
Starting point is 00:07:18 I'm like, oh, this is so cool. Like there's just such a fascination towards building a city or a town out of something very small. So I love that. Thank you for sharing that story. And I noticed recently also on Instagram, you posted an old press pass from your high school newspaper. And so you've been a journalist and a reporter and a interviewer for a very long time.
Starting point is 00:07:40 Do you remember the first story you ever covered? Yeah. It was my Hebrew school newspaper. Again, I grew up having to go to Hebrew school. It's like going to Catholic school, you know, you start off something that you do and then some people kind of, but it was really an important thing when I was a kid
Starting point is 00:07:58 and I was the reporter for the Hebrew school newsletter. So it was about some, it was like some one of the classes, did a performance and sang songs, and I wrote about that. I was a journalist, kind of a journalist. I was interested in journalism from a very young age and I don't
Starting point is 00:08:26 say that to sound like, you know, some kind of, you know, precocious kid, it's not that I was precocious. What it was, Jay, was that I am, have always been, as a kid I was, I still am, even though I do these very public jobs now, I am, and I think you have a lot of this too, I'm super introverted and actually quite shy. I'm not the kind of person that can easily go into a room and just start shaking hands. You know, it's a very, it's a very American characteristic, by the way, the charisma, which is something that I can find and have found over time as I've had to do public things, but it doesn't come naturally to me.
Starting point is 00:09:10 What journalism gave me was a pass. Was this kind of psychological pass in my mind to talk to anybody. You know, naturally, I'm not the kind of person that would just go up and say, hey, I'm Guy Ross. Can I? How are you? When I used to meet you and make small talk? It doesn't come easily to me. But when I had a notepad in my hand, and this was going back in all over high school, I
Starting point is 00:09:33 could. I felt like as a high school kid, I could go up to other kids in high school and ask them questions because it was for the newspaper. I was a reporter. And so I was doing a job on behalf of something bigger than me. And that was what attracted me to it. It was this idea that it was like open to world to me that I couldn't access without that note pad, that safety net. I love that answer. That is such a brilliant way of thinking about it. And I couldn't agree with you more.
Starting point is 00:10:05 We definitely have that in common. I feel like when I told you about how my parents forced me to go to public speaking classes, it wasn't that after I finished the classes, I was just happy being a public speaker. It was not until I actually discovered the buggered Gita and the Vedas and the spiritual texts that I studied that I felt like I was speaking about something more than me
Starting point is 00:10:24 and beyond me and far more fascinating and interesting than I was. And so then I had the confidence to share it because I felt I'd come across this treasure mind of wisdom. And I had to share that wisdom with the world. And so I can identify very closely with that. Yeah. Yeah. It's this thing that it's like there's no explanation to it because why did I
Starting point is 00:10:50 feel empowered with a notepad and then eventually a microphone in my hand. I mean, it's just something in my brain clicked and it enabled me to feel safe and comfortable approaching people and having conversations and not being worried about being judged because I was gathering information. And that, that, that was a strong gravitational pull for me. It's what attracted me initially to this profession. Later on, it would evolve and I would do it for other reasons. But that was really the beginning. So yeah, I mean, I've got, I've got my high school press pass still to this day. I just happen to have it, you know, but it really is what I eventually would do with my life. Yeah, you've encouraged me to go dig up some old things from my life. I think it's always fun looking back. For anyone who's listening and watching right now, I'm talking to Guy Rars, how I built this, the unexpected paths to success from the world's most inspiring entrepreneurs.
Starting point is 00:11:45 Here is the book. We've got the link in the description so you can go and grab a copy anytime while we're listening, while you're listening. Guy, what I'm fascinated by, and I was saying this to you earlier, I think you've done a phenomenal job of breaking down the entrepreneur journey. I mean, you've done so many interviews with so many incredible people and I can't imagine how you'd even start to write this book. But I do want to honestly say that I thought everything
Starting point is 00:12:12 from the titles to the chapters to the structure was just wonderful to see. And I'm honestly, and I'm not joking at all, I'm thinking about pursuing a new business venture. And I'm gonna follow your book while I do that. And I can't wait to tell you how it goes. So that's a side note. But one of the first things I wanted to talk to you about is question, I get asked a lot.
Starting point is 00:12:33 And it's about this idea of like, how do I know if this is the thing I should be doing? And I think we hear this a lot. And I'm sure you hear a million times. And people are like, well, what do I start with? Like, how do I know if this is what I love? How do I know if this is my passion? How do I know if this is the idea? And you start off the book by telling people to be open to ideas. Tell us about how someone finds the answer to that question. Probably the question that people ask the most, I'm sure you get this question the most
Starting point is 00:13:02 of almost any question, which is, how do I know? How do I find an idea? The answer is, you don't always know right away, right? And the reality is that most of the time, the way we come across an idea is because we have a problem, ourselves, a problem we need to solve for ourselves. And as we begin to interrogate how to solve that problem for ourselves, a problem we need to solve for ourselves. And as we begin to interrogate how to solve that problem for ourselves, it starts to crystallize in our mind that maybe that problem is a problem other people have and could solve other people's problems.
Starting point is 00:13:39 So, a great example of this is my friend Tristan Walker who was on how I built this. Tristan is an entrepreneur, a brilliant entrepreneur, and he is a black man, and he knew and knows that razors were not designed for most black men because most black men have curly hair. And when they shave, oftentimes the hair and their beard grows back into their skin. And most razors in the United States and sold around the world by Gillette and other companies have four or five blades that are designed to cut the hair under the skin. The problem is, is when it grows out, it grows back into the skin, especially for men with very curly hair, and it affects mainly men of color.
Starting point is 00:14:28 And he knew that this was a problem for him, and he knew it was a problem for his friends, but nobody was addressing this problem. And in his mind, he thought, why isn't there a beautiful product as good as a Gillette razor, as beautifully packaged packaged available in the same aisle Where Gillette razors are available. Why doesn't that exist? And that was the genesis of the Bevel razor, which is now part of the Procter and Gamble Company One of the biggest multinationals in the world. They bought they bought the company interesting as a CEO But it's a great example of a problem that he needed to solve and that solved a problem
Starting point is 00:15:05 for millions of men whose day-to-day routine was, you know, in many cases pain, it was not just painful, but it was also psychologically painful because of the scarring that occurred and just the physical pain of dealing with that. And that is how you begin to come up with ideas. You begin by interrogating your own problems, the things that bother you or that need to be improved. And we see these all the time, Jay, how many times have you been somewhere? And I know anyone listening to this is experiencing this.
Starting point is 00:15:39 You're waiting in line somewhere for a coffee or you're at a restaurant or you're in a shop and you think to yourself, God, they could do X so much better if they did it like this way. Or, man, if they'd just tweaked that, then the outcome would be so much better for the customer. That's when you start to kind of connect the dots
Starting point is 00:16:01 and say, wait a minute, maybe I can do that. Howard Schultz loved coffee, kind of connect the dots and say, wait a minute, maybe I can do that. Howard Schultz loved coffee and he loved this one little coffee place called Starbucks in Seattle. But guess what? They didn't sell coffee. They only sold coffee beans. They sold great coffee beans, but you had to go brew it at home.
Starting point is 00:16:20 But he wanted to have the coffee there. And so when he bought this little shop, he decided to turn it into something much, much bigger, which today is I think the second biggest food company in the world. And it was all because he saw a problem that needed to be solved. I think that's such a great place to start for anyone who's listening or watching right now, because it's something you experience. It's not something you have to think about.
Starting point is 00:16:47 You don't have to do a brainstorm. You don't have to get a pen and paper out. You don't have to be reading lots of books. It's something that we do almost intuitively. I think my biggest problem that I would love to solve right now is me and my wife never know what to watch on any of the streaming platforms. And I spend every night like flicking through
Starting point is 00:17:06 like, do we want to watch this show? Oh, what's this trailer? What do you think? Oh, no. All right, do we want to watch this? And it's, we spend the whole night and I'm not coming up with a solution for this. But it is interesting that that would be a great starting place.
Starting point is 00:17:22 Exactly. If I wanted to, because it's something that calls me a lot of pain on a daily basis, I'm sure it causes a lot of people a lot of pain on a daily basis, at least friends that I know. And therefore, it would be a good thing to start on. This is a huge challenge, discoverability, not just with video content, but with audio content too.
Starting point is 00:17:40 And so many people are trying to figure out how to solve this problem because I think from most of us, we go by recommendations from friends. You know, in my case watching things is really challenging Jay because I'm, I am, I am sort of a weirdo when it comes to watch like I don't like anything violent. I don't love things. I mean, I'm personally very open and to the world and to ideas. But I've got two little kids, so it's hard to watch things with a lot of sexual content or violence or not only because they're around, but I don't really wanna see that. It's hard for me to see it. I can't, I appreciate Quentin Tarantino's a genius, but it's hard for me to watch his movies
Starting point is 00:18:30 because they're so violent, even though they're sort of cartoonish violence, breaking bad, I stopped watching it after three or four episodes. It was too violent, even though it's amazing. So I agree with you, I hear you. I have a really hard time figuring out what to watch. I end up watching like a Wes Anderson movie or something that's fairly innocuous. Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:18:56 The closest I've got to a solution is I really trust votes on IMDB. So I believe that if anything is above eight on IMDB, it's going to be epic and it always I believe that if anything is above eight on IMDB, it's gonna be epic and it always fits. And if anything's above seven on IMDB, it's usually a good watch. If it's a six, I'm setting myself up for a bit of disappointment at the end of the night. And if it's anything lower than a six,
Starting point is 00:19:16 it is gonna be the biggest waste of my time. But I love your answer of starting with a problem. And that takes us inward straight away. It stops you from worrying about, like, will this be successful? How much money will this make? Will I be able to exit this company? You know, all the things that, with the people you spoke to,
Starting point is 00:19:34 and obviously they all went from a problem point of view with a couple of examples that you've so beautifully shared with us and so many more in the book. How many people were really thinking or vocalizing or verbalizing their focus on the result? How many people started with anything to do with the result? Almost done.
Starting point is 00:19:55 I mean, the reality is that in virtually every case, for virtually every entrepreneur I've interviewed, they had a vision and an idea and that vision and idea became something slightly or extremely different from from how it started out. I mean, you know, one of my favorite stories is a story of slack, right? And by the way, Jay, I will add to that. I have never interviewed anybody
Starting point is 00:20:27 who is purely motivated by money because if you're purely motivated by money, you're probably better off going into finance or getting a job as a lawyer because you will eventually make good money. Being an entrepreneur is super risky in terms of going for the gold. I mean, yes, you can make a lot of money. But virtually everybody I've interviewed is motivated by a problem and solving a problem and trying to fix something and or build something and the best evidence for that is,
Starting point is 00:20:58 the vast majority of people who sell their businesses, after 10 or 15 years go and start something else or continue to work for the company that bought them out because it's not the goal they're chasing, it's the challenge and it's the team, it's the collaborative part of it, it's going into the office every day. I've interviewed people who have sold their businesses and then were kind of pushed out of the companies and they became very, very miserable because they lost that connection
Starting point is 00:21:32 to the people around them, right? Yes. So in terms of like thinking of an idea and it becoming something entirely different, I mean, one of the best examples of this is Slack. I mean, this is a product now that is used by so many people, especially in the pandemic era, right? My team uses it to communicate. Slack began as a multiplayer, multiplayer, massive, massive multiplayer online game.
Starting point is 00:21:58 It was called glitch. Stuart Butterfield wanted to create a game, a video game. He is a gamer. He's a friend of mine, he's a wonderful person, and he loves games. And he brought a team together. He had already had a successful business called Flicker that he sold to Yahoo. So we had a track record. He got investors.
Starting point is 00:22:16 He brought this amazing team. They built this amazing game. And it wasn't successful. Nobody wanted to play it. Even though it was a beautiful game, it was way ahead of its time. And this is 2012. So they had to shutter the company. But what they realized, very late in the game, was that they actually built something entirely different, which was an internal
Starting point is 00:22:39 communicating communications network that allowed the software developers and the sales reps, communications network that allowed the software developers and the sales reps and the development people and the backend people and the business people to communicate just a internal but a friend of Stuart's from outside of the company saw and he was like this is amazing can we use it for my companies like how sure here it is here you go that became the product they they did not realize that the the revolution or anything they were making was was that didn't even have a That became the product. They did not realize that the revolutionary thing they were making was that. Didn't even have a name.
Starting point is 00:23:10 They were trying to build this game. But once they realized that they built something completely different that was really useful, that was the revolutionary product. So sometimes the idea sneaks up on you, and you have to kind of go through the other stages to get there. We just did a story about,
Starting point is 00:23:31 and I can talk on and on about these stories. We did this story about the largest Mexican-American paleo food company in America called Siete Foods. It was started several years, great company. It started several years ago by a brother and sister from Laredo, Texas. Miguel and Veronica Garza, now it's the whole family's involved. They had no money.
Starting point is 00:23:54 They really started this out because they built a crossfit gym in Laredo, Texas. The family ran it and the crossfit gym basically ran it a money in the end. They couldn't keep it going. But Miguel's sister Veronica used to make tortillas for the customers of the CrossFit gym, out of cassava flour and almond flour, because if you do CrossFit, there's a good chance you're eating a paleo diet, you're not eating grains.
Starting point is 00:24:24 But you're in Laredo, Texas, which is like one of the capitals of Tex-Mex food and if you love Mexican food You're gonna eat wheat and corn and beans. Well She was going to these crossfitters at their cross-fetchive and saying hey Do you want to have a paleo tortilla? You want to buy some and that's how their business began? So it began as a cross-fetchive, which eventually morphed into a food business. I am Yonla, and on my podcast, The R-Spot, we're having inspirational, educational, and sometimes difficult and challenging conversations about relationships.
Starting point is 00:24:59 They may not have the capacity to give you what you need. And insisting means that you are abusing yourself now. You human! That means that you're crazy as hell, just like the rest of us. When a relationship breaks down, I take copious notes and I want to share them with you. Anybody with two eyes and a brain knows that too much Alfredo sauce is just no good for you. But if you're going to eat it, they're not going to stop you.
Starting point is 00:25:33 So he's going to continue to give you the Alfredo sauce and put it even on your grits if you don't stop him. Listen to the R-Spot on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. Our 20s are seen as this golden decade. Our time to be carefree, full in love, make mistakes and decide what we want from our life. But what can psychology really teach us about this decade? I'm Gemma Spake, the host of the psychology of your 20s. Each week we take a deep dive into a unique aspect of our 20s, from career anxiety, mental health, heartbreak, money, friendships, and
Starting point is 00:26:16 much more to explore the science and the psychology behind our experiences, incredible guests, fascinating topics, important science, and a bit of my own personal experience. Audrey, I honestly have no idea what's going on with my life. Hahaha! Join me as we explore what our 20s are really all about from the good, the bad, and the ugly, and listen along as we uncover how everything is psychology,
Starting point is 00:26:44 including our 20s. The psychology of your 20s hosted by me, Gemis Begg, now streaming on the iHot Radio app, Apple podcasts or whatever you get your podcasts. Not too long ago, in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, this explorer stumbled upon something that would change his life. I saw it and I saw, oh wow, this is a very unusual situation. It was cacao. The tree that gives us chocolate. But this cacao was unlike anything experts had seen.
Starting point is 00:27:12 Poor tasted. I've never wanted us to have a gun fight. I mean, you saw this tax of cash in our office. Chocolate sort of forms this vortex. It sucks you in. It's like I can be the queen of wild chocolate. We're all lost, it was madness. It was a game changer.
Starting point is 00:27:26 People quit their jobs. They left their lives behind, so they could search for more of this stuff. I wanted to tell their stories, so I followed them deep into the jungle, and it wasn't always pretty. Basically, this like disgruntled guy and his family surrounded the building arm with machetes.
Starting point is 00:27:42 And we've heard all sorts of things that, you know, somebody got shot over this. Sometimes I think all these for a damn bar of chocolate. Listen to obsessions, wild chocolate, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I had no idea about that, and I loved that brand. Me and my wife love their sources and their dips
Starting point is 00:28:06 and their chips and like, they're incredible. Yeah, they're really tasty and we love them too when we don't wanna eat grains or exactly what you're saying. Like paleo diets, like it's a great brand. I had no idea that was their story and I love how you've shared that point about the pivot and the discovery of a product is not how you expect it. One of my favorite chapter titles that you have in here, which in and of itself
Starting point is 00:28:32 answers the question, but I really want to dive deep into it. It's chapter three and it's called, leave your safety zone, but do it safely. I just thought that that was just told perfectly because whether it's in being in my own journey or when I'm speaking to people and again, another one question is, well, when do I know to quit my job? Like, should I quit my job and go all in? Is it because I'm not all in that it's not working? Or when do you know that, you know, now it's time to bootstrap and get stuck in? And when you wrote that chapter, leave your safety zone, but do it safely, I wanted to understand how does someone practice that?
Starting point is 00:29:11 How does someone bring that into reality? Because I think, I want for another, everyone gets to, okay, I know what my problem I'm trying to solve is, I've started the process, we've started to create something, but now it needs momentum, it needs money, it needs investment, whatever else it needs. How do you leave your safety zone, but do it safely? You know, there's a myth about entrepreneurs that they're all these kind of kamikazis that
Starting point is 00:29:39 they jump out of an airplane with no parachute. And the reality is that's just not true. The vast majority of entrepreneurs, as you know, Jay, mitigate their their risks. I mean, look at your own story. You didn't just one day wake up and start making videos based on the teachings and learnings that you had assimilated as a younger man. You didn't just go off and start doing that. You were working for a bigger company and you were making content for the company and through that experience that content was recognized by somebody else, then you got a job at the Huffington Post, you built an audience and then you had the confidence to go out
Starting point is 00:30:21 on your own because you knew by that point you had amassed, this experience, and you had built a platform on which to stand. Yes. This idea of leaving your safety zone, but doing it safely comes from Jim Cook, who is the founder of Boston Beer Company, the company that makes Samuel Adams Beer. And Jim Cook was a, he had a very safe job. He had a career at Boston Consulting Group, but he wasn't happy. He wanted to do something else with his life.
Starting point is 00:30:51 And he thought about creating a great American craft beer. This was in the early 80s, when American beer, I mean, Monty Python was making jokes about American beer at the time, right? It was a joke. I mean, today it's crazy to think about because American craft beer is the envy of the world and and and loved and loved in Europe, but at the time in the early 80s, it wasn't. So he started to experiment and research this idea on the side, but he kept
Starting point is 00:31:17 his job and he kept his job for a long time. And he kept working on this side project for a long time as well until he started to dip First one toe and then two toes and then five toes and then the whole foot and then a leg and then Eventually he became comfortable and confident enough and it saved some money from his job that he gave himself the permission to To leap and to take the leap and to try it always knowing by the way But he could go back to his old job if it didn't work. Now, that doesn't mean that, you know, it's an excuse not to try hard. It just means that there are ways to take risks and to take the leap, but to do it in a way that if it all falls apart, it's not going to be catastrophic. You know, we, there's a fetish around failure, especially in Silicon Valley.
Starting point is 00:32:06 There's a fetish, fetishization of failure. People say fail big, fail fast, fail. The reality is that when people talk about failure, especially at a place like Google or Facebook, they can talk about it because those companies are already successful. The people working inside them have already had some successes. Failure is really important for all of us to experience, but failure can happen in small ways and medium ways, and even in big ways, but it doesn't have to be catastrophic. Failure should always be something that you can bounce back from, even if it's painful,
Starting point is 00:32:42 it's super important to experience failure, failure. But it's almost never a good idea to put absolutely all your chips on the table without some kind of mitigation plan. Not to say it's not important to take risks. You have to take big risks, but you also want to take those risks in a safe way. Guy, tell us about some of the risks you took in a safe way because you like you were sharing about me, you're sort of, you've been a reporter, a journalist, you've been an interviewer and so, you know, today you're obviously known for being the incredible brand
Starting point is 00:33:17 and the incredible host and of how I built this and the name of the book and just, you have all these amazing relationships where people open up to you and interviews and share their stories very vulnerably. Tell us about some of the risks you took to get to that stage as well because I think often it gets forgotten that you've had to live all of this in your journey too even though you're telling the stories of others. Yeah, I mean, look, most of my career, I was, I mean, look, most of my career, I worked for one or two organizations, NPR and CNN, and I was a reporter, and it was a wonderful life and a wonderful career. But through those experiences, I was able to gain
Starting point is 00:33:55 more and more experience. I was a foreign correspondent for seven years. I covered four wars. I was based in three different countries. I reported from 50, 60 different countries. I was able to go to places I could never have imagined and meet people who were in desperate circumstances, but we're also so incredibly generous. I know you've seen that in places like India. You find that in the most deprived places in the world, people are actually most the most generous. Those are the most generous places in the world, people are actually most the most generous. Those are the most generous people and the kindest people.
Starting point is 00:34:30 And, you know, at a certain point in my career, I had to decide whether I was gonna pursue this life as a news person and pursue the life of maybe becoming a news presenter. And there's a lot of prestige that goes with that. But about 10 years ago, it began to occur to me that if I was going to do something that was more meaningful to me, it had to be different.
Starting point is 00:34:57 It couldn't just be about reporting the news. It had to be something that people connected to on a visceral level. And that was really the beginning of a journey that I started where I wanted to tell stories about human experiences and not stories about things that happened just at the moment. But stories that were evergreen, that were long lasting. And it was very scary for me to leap outside of the safe comfortable job that I had and to start production companies and and try this on my own, but by that point I
Starting point is 00:35:35 already had developed the experience and a Platform and I I did this later in life. I didn't do this when I was in my 20s I did this in my you know my my't do this one. I was in my 20s. I did this in my, you know, my late 30s, early 40s. And by the way, most first time entrepreneurs are like 42 years old. There's another myth that it's all people in their 20s. It's not true. And there's a lot of reasons why it can often make sense to gain some experience before you leap out on your own. But that was a scary thing to do, not just to leave the news,
Starting point is 00:36:09 but to kind of go off on my own and eventually to start programs and then make a career to a kids company that I now have with two amazing friends. We run a kids media company, we make children's shows and we do live shows and we're making all kinds of content and we've got books and so on. And it's scary because you're on your own, you're sort of out there in the world without the safety net.
Starting point is 00:36:40 But there comes a time and I can't quite articulate it in words, but I think it's like you know it, you just kind of know it. There comes a time in your life and I know you had this experience where you say to yourself, I can do this, I got this. And I am not a risk taker, I am not a kamikaze. I am somebody who really needs that assurance.
Starting point is 00:37:04 I didn't grow up with a lot of, I didn't grow up with family money. I financial safety was always important to me, having health insurance, those kinds of things. But there came a point in my life where I felt like I could do it. And I can't explain why, but I think it's because I had spent so much time in the trenches learning the craft and getting, trying to get better at it. And I continued to get to try and get better at it every single day. And so it was very intuitive.
Starting point is 00:37:40 It was like there's this little angel that landed on my shoulder and says, you got, now it's a time. you can do this. And I think that's, it's not a very scientific answer, but it's something inside of us that just says, gives ourselves permission to make the leap. Yeah. Well, I think you did answer, actually, really well. And it's something I think a lot about.
Starting point is 00:38:01 And I think it's something that's not talked enough about. And that's partly because of humility and modesty of some of the people we sit down with, even yourself today. I mean, you're, what you just said of like mastering the craft, I think that it's such an untold story of repetition and actually building a skill. Like you developed skills, you developed a craft. And when you do that, your self-worth and confidence is natural. And it's effortless in one sense. And it becomes something that you can share with others.
Starting point is 00:38:38 And it becomes contagious. I find that one of the biggest things missing in the journey of entrepreneurship today, at least in how it's being shared, is the point that at one point, you have to actually have a skill. You actually have to master whatever it is. And your skill may be knowing how to iterate the best. Your skill may be, the skill doesn't need to be you know coding inside out. Like, that's not the point.
Starting point is 00:39:03 The skill could be you know how to bring together a coder and a creative to make magic. And I think that that's just being so undervalued today. You were a phenomenal reporter with lots of experience that therefore meant when you went out, you had confidence. And I think that's where that intuitive feeling calling comes from. I agree. I mean, by the way, I'm not a businessman, you know, that's not my core competency. I, and, and you're exactly right. Like your skill might be you are a great people person or you develop the ability to identify really smart people who can make things happen or you get really good at getting people
Starting point is 00:39:41 to do things for you because they believe in you. I recently interviewed Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, and his descriptions of Steve Jobs really brought that home because Steve Jobs's talent was, of course, he had an incredible eye and an incredible sensibility of what would work, what was it beautiful and he had a sense of beauty and also functionality you know he didn't invent the Apple too, he didn't invent the Mac, he didn't invent the iPod or the iPad, but he they wouldn't have happened without him.
Starting point is 00:40:15 You know, Steve Wise in the act created the the Apple 2 computer and all the software, but Steve Jobs looked at that thing and said, let's make a beautiful case for it. Let's make this really easy to plug in. Let's make this really simple to use. And he couldn't code it, but he understood what people wanted. And he could direct people to make that happen. And that was his genius.
Starting point is 00:40:43 He was not going in there with a soldering iron or tapping the keys with his fingers. His genius was he was conducting an orchestra. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And there's that, there's that beautiful part, I believe it's in Walter Isaacson's book or maybe in one of the other stories of Steve Wozniak looking at Steve Jobs. And he's saying, what do you even do? You're not a coder, you're not a marketer, you're not an engineer, what do you even do? And Steve Jobs supposedly replied, musicians play their instruments, I play the orchestra. And you know, that idea of he wasn't a musician, he didn't know how to play the instrument, but he knew how to bring it together. Speaking of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, you have a whole chapter on here in the book called Finding Your Co-Founder.
Starting point is 00:41:31 And it's so interesting because that's actually a stage at which I'm at right now in something I'm wanting to pursue. And I like you, as you said, I don't consider myself a business person. That's not my core competency or skill set. It's not the part I find interesting or fascinating. It's something I've had to learn, but it's people that I've surrounded myself by to support me in that space. When you think about finding a co-founder, tell me about some of the biggest mistakes people may have shared, and tell me about the solutions to finding a good co-founder. Because I think we're also living at a time where, and I'll be open, when I was launching my businesses, a lot of people said to me,
Starting point is 00:42:10 they said, Jay, why would you have a co-founder? You could have 100% of 100% and you have a brand, so you should protect that. And I was always like, hey, I'd much rather have more people involved and get excited and have more energy and more enthusiasm and build more things because we have more people involved and get excited and have like, you know, more energy and more enthusiasm and build more things because we have other people. And so I've always had that mindset, but I think we live in a mindset today where it's like, no, only 100% of 100% and don't trust anyone. What are some of the mistakes we make and what are the solutions?
Starting point is 00:42:38 I mean, there's a famous investor in Paul Graham and his rule for investing in a startup. I mean, this guy is the founder of Y Combinator. He's an investor in Airbnb and, you know, all the companies that came out of Y Combinator. His rule of thumb is he only invests when there are co-founders. Now, not every business has more than one founder and some work just fine with one founder. What I have found in interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs who have co-founders who started with who have businesses that they created with another founder or more than one is,
Starting point is 00:43:13 it is going to be extremely hard. Starting a business, it doesn't matter what business it is. It will be very hard. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter if you're a celebrity. You know, LeBron James, by the way, has Madfracarter. They have a partnership and they created a business around LeBron James, which is a billion dollar business. Having a business partner or partners is crucial for the one
Starting point is 00:43:38 simple reason, which is there will come a time on any journey where you will want to give up where you will run into a roadblock and you will say, is this worth fighting for? Is this worth trying to get around? And you will say to yourself, it's not. It's better for me to just move on, give up. But the person who you co-founded the company with will say, we got this. We can get through this. And there will be other times where those roles are reversed, where you are the person with the optimism. I have experienced that hundreds of times with my children's media company, I have two
Starting point is 00:44:17 partners, Meredith Halpern, Ranzer and Mindy Thomas. We make kids content and we make, we have live shows and we do all kinds and we're about to enter into a phenomenal partnership. There have been so many times on that journey over the last four years where one of us is just feeling so dejected or low or we had a setback or we tried to raise money and it didn't, we got a term sheet and then it was pulled. It's all these things have happened. And at every step of the way, there was one out of the three of us who was like, we got
Starting point is 00:44:53 this guys. We've had really low points and really incredible high points. That is absolutely crucial. You need somebody in your life who can reassure you because you will have moments where you want to give it all up. How you find that person is Part partly luck and but partly it's about finding of course somebody who has complimentary skills somebody who can do things that you cannot do, who has competencies
Starting point is 00:45:25 that you don't have. But most importantly, you have to find somebody you like, you trust, respect, and can get along with. Because ultimately, the thing that breaks partnerships up in every case, professional partnerships is the same thing that breaks up romantic relationships up. It's differences of outlook. It's an inability to communicate. It's an inability to work through tension. There will always be tension with partners. But when you have a partner with whom you have agreed that you will be transparent, open, and communicative with.
Starting point is 00:46:07 You will be able to work through that. We did an episode about seventh generation, the non-toxic cleaning products company. That was started by two partners, Alan Newman and Jeffrey Hollander, and within three years they had a falling out, a very bitter falling out, but they began as intense friends, fast friends, but they didn't do the hard work before they came to realize that they should be partners, which was to really interrogate what each person was
Starting point is 00:46:39 wanted out of this and why. And I think that was the mistake, but on balance, I believe having a partner gives you more, creates a higher probability that you will succeed. Yeah. I love that you compared a business partnership to a romantic relationship or a marriage. I think that's such a great way of looking at it because in the same way as we have a honeymoon period in our relationship, so we get carried away with chemistry and not really forming a real connection or compatibility, we do the same in business.
Starting point is 00:47:17 Like you said, when you become fast friends and you fall for each other and things seem to be going perfectly and then all of a sudden, you're met with that moment where you realize that you don't have the same values and you haven't communicated effectively. And I think what you said, doing that mature work of setting your values in the beginning, setting your systems and standards, I think we all want to trust people more.
Starting point is 00:47:40 Like we all want to love and trust and have this open relationship, but actually doing that hard work up front seems to be the long-term sustainable option. And by the way, you know, it's really important to give yourself that time and to give yourself the opportunity to decide that maybe the partnership isn't right. I mean, I've been in the process of developing a partnership with a friend, well, somebody who's now really a friend,
Starting point is 00:48:09 become a friend, but somebody I knew over the last year and it's regular calls, it's weekly conversations and also developing the idea. And that has been absolutely crucial because you will be tested. There will be so many moments on that journey where you will be tested. And you're going to need to know that the person with you is a person of integrity, and a person who is in this with you, in the trenches with you.
Starting point is 00:48:40 And it's, as I say, there's an element of luck there too, but you can also control that control for that by really taking the time to interrogate that relationship and to understand that this is the right person. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. This is so helpful, guy. I'm enjoying this conversation so much, so far. We've got so many more questions I want to ask you, but I did want to take a quick pause because I, I just want to let you know that your ability to share these stories of people you've interviewed with your ability to share your own experiences is just,
Starting point is 00:49:14 it's magical it, honestly is. And I know that you've had a lot on this week and last week with your summits and the live event. And, but you're just so present right now right here with these stories. And I want to thank you for that. And I applaud you for being able to share these stories in such a practical way that everyone who's listening and watching right now.
Starting point is 00:49:33 I hope you're all taking notes, by the way, because I'm taking mental notes. And I honestly believe that you've given us the pathway to building a business in a book, which is actually really, really difficult to do. So one of the things that I think you shed a lot of light on, and I'm sure a lot of your guests have also spoken about, is that there seems to be a lot of mysticism around fundraising. Right, there's a lot of mysticism about how much money you need to actually get started, and then when you need a certain amount of money, I remember being one of those people who would sit and dream with my friends in London
Starting point is 00:50:08 and would be like, oh, you need like a million dollars to do that. Or you need like five million dollars to do that. And then you always postpone it in your head. And it's always like, everyone's always like, when you see a app idea launch, you look, oh, I had that idea like seven years ago. Like, oh, they're just, you know,
Starting point is 00:50:23 there's a big difference between the idea of a company, actually fundraising, how much you need. Can you, what are some of the myths around fundraising that you think we have in society today? And what did you actually learn from speaking to the people that actually did it? Effectively. I mean, I think the biggest myth is that you need it, right?
Starting point is 00:50:44 And by the way, sometimes you do. But I think there's an assumption that you have to go out and find money now because that has been the path for several of these billion-dollar unicorns. The reality is building a business is not about building a billion dollar unicorn. Building a business is about building something that is sustainable and gives you fulfillment and might actually provide employment for other people. I mean, look at your own life. You didn't have any money to make videos
Starting point is 00:51:20 but you had a friend who shot weddings and he said, I'll help you out. And he happened to be really good. And at two in the morning, four to five in the morning, six in the morning, he went around London and he got these great shots because nobody was out there and he didn't get permits to do it because he were just in and out quickly filming. And you built that up slowly.
Starting point is 00:51:41 And then you got to a point with such a huge audience, you have mass, such a huge audience, you'll mass such a huge audience, that you could then muster the resources in the capital to deploy for better, larger scale productions. And so you built it up like a pyramid. And that actually is a very simple way of thinking about any business, right? It starts here, and then you kind of progressively move up.
Starting point is 00:52:08 Now there are some businesses that are pretty much impossible to do that way. I don't think you could build Tesla without going to investors. But the reality is that Elon Musk, when he started out building x.com, which was his payment company, he didn out building x.com, which was his payment company. He didn't have funding. He had to start on his own for several months, and then eventually had to find people who were willing to give them a thousand bucks here, a thousand bucks there. Now, here's a thing.
Starting point is 00:52:37 Most people don't have access to Sand Hill Road venture capitalists. They can't just walk into Sequoia Capital and say, hey, here's my idea and I want a million dollars. The vast majority of people don't have those networks. By the way, the vast majority of people don't just have a rich uncle or a rich parent who can write them a $10,000 check. So the idea that capital is accessible to everyone
Starting point is 00:53:03 is just not true. But I do believe that virtually all of us, if we need to amass some capital, do have access to some of it and ways to get it. So one of the things I talk about in the book is the concentric circles that we all inhabit. We are at the center of our own circle, right? We're sort of ego maniac maniacal, selfish creatures.
Starting point is 00:53:27 That's not really fair to say. But we all have our own, we're all living our own movie. That's our consciousness. It's our own movie. And we're at the center of our own world. But around us, there are these circles of close and loose ties. So imagine you want to start a business and you start to talk to your friends and you start to tell them the idea. And one friend might say, you know, my boss actually might be interested in hearing this. Or another friend says, somebody I go to, you know, I'm in a bowling league with or whatever it might be. The way to kind of build those circles is by really testing your idea out on people, talking with people, and trying to get feedback from people and asking people, do you know anybody?
Starting point is 00:54:18 Is there anybody you think I should meet with? One of the best ways that founders that I've interviewed have raised money is by going to a meeting with somebody and not going with the intention of getting money from them, even though, in many cases, they would love that outcome. But saying to them, who should I talk to? Who should I go see? Can you give me three or four names? And you very quickly build this network of people that you have a connection to and a tie to. And that is really how
Starting point is 00:54:46 many founders who don't have access to venture capital or big money is how they start to build the funding to create their businesses. And so it's a very, it's very possible. It's just requires a commitment and work and time and a willingness to put yourself out there. I'm Eva Longoria. I'm Maite Gomes-Rajón. We're so excited to introduce you to our new podcast, Hungry for History. On every episode, we're exploring some of our favorite dishes,
Starting point is 00:55:19 ingredients, beverages from our Mexican culture. We'll share personal memories and family stories, decode culinary customs, and even provide a recipe or two for you to try at home. Corner flower. Both. Oh, you can't decide.
Starting point is 00:55:32 I can't decide. I love both. You know, I'm a flower, tortilla flower. Your team flower? I'm team flower. I need a shirt. Team flower, team core. Join us as we explore surprising and lesser known corners
Starting point is 00:55:43 of Latinx culinary history and tradition. I mean, these are these legends, right? Apparently, this guy Juan Mendes. He was making these tacos wrapped in these huge tortillas to keep it warm, and he was transporting them in Avurro, hence the name the burritos. Listen to Hungary for History with Ivalongoria and Maite Gómez Rejón as part of the Mycultura Podcast Network available on the I Heartio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How's that New Year's resolution coming along? You know, the one you made about paying off your pesky credit card debt and finally starting to save your retirement? Well, you're not alone if you haven't made progress yet, roughly four in five New Year's resolutions fail within the first month or two.
Starting point is 00:56:22 But that doesn't have to be the case for you and your goals. Our podcast How to Money can Help. That's right, we're two best buds who've been at it for more than five years now, and we want to see you achieve your money goals, and it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement you need to do it. We keep the show fresh by answering list of our questions, interviewing experts, and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about. Our show is Chock Full of the Personal Finance Knowledge that you need with guidance three
Starting point is 00:56:47 times a week and we talk about debt payoff. If, let's say you've had a particularly spend thrift holiday season, we also talk about building up your savings, intelligent investing, and growing your income, no matter where you are on your financial journey, how do money's got your back? Millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals. Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress. Listen to how to money on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:57:13 Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart. I'm a neuroscientist and an author at Stanford University, and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. On my new podcast, I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions so we can better understand our lives and our realities. Like, does time really run in slow motion when you're in a car accident? Or, can we create new senses for humans? Or, what does dreaming have to do with the rotation of the planet? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain
Starting point is 00:57:58 steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Intercosmos with David Eagelman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your reality. Listen to Intercosmos with David Eagleman on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I love that question though because it puts yourself out there without having to put yourself out there. So when you ask some of the question of saying, Hey, do you know anyone that I should speak to about raising funds for this or introducing for this kind of manufacturer or product designer? You give that personally opportunity to say, oh, I want to be involved.
Starting point is 00:58:31 Let me know. And if they don't, that's fine. They introduce you to their friends or their network. And so I feel like it's such a healthy way of being able to ask for help and put yourself out there without actually feeling that kind of awkwardness or weakness or feeling like you don't have it figured out. You have a great knack of asking good questions. You've developed the art of asking fantastic questions.
Starting point is 00:58:56 What has been your favorite question to ask people that has given you the answer that was most fascinating? The reason I asked this is a few years ago, I used to say to people, I was like, if you see someone you admire, go up to them and don't ask them for a picture, ask them for a question, ask them a question. Because that picture will last a moment, but the question will give you a story to tell, forever.
Starting point is 00:59:21 And what question do you think people should ask people that they admire and people that they admire and people that they respect? I think it's more about a tone rather than a question. I'll give you two answers to this because I will give you a question. I love it. I think it's more about listening to somebody. I actually get much more information by just being an active listener to what somebody is saying. And there's a wonderful book actually. It came out about 30 years ago. It's called, how to talk to your kids so they'll listen to you, something like that.
Starting point is 00:59:56 I can't remember the name of the book. And it's basically designed, it's a parenting guide. And it basically says, when your kid comes to you and says, I'm so mad, you know, at school today, Johnny was so mean to me, you shouldn't say, well, you know, don't worry about Johnny. Go find another friend. Like that's the instinct that a parent has. This book said, no, he parents, you got it all wrong. When your kid comes to you and says, Johnny made me so mad today, I'm so angry. Just listen and say, oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Don't give advice, just listen. And what you find is that your kid will give you more and more information. That principle applies to adults too. If you are talking to me and you are telling me your story, Jay, and I'm with you on that journey.
Starting point is 01:00:42 And I am not just with you, but I'm expressing empathy. I'm like, I feel you. I'm really like, God, that must have been so hard. That's sometimes my response to somebody. I don't say, and then what happened? I'll say, and it's not a strategic thing. I'm not doing this in a calculated way. It's just, I'm just saying, that must have been so hard.
Starting point is 01:01:11 I can't imagine how hard that was. And the person says, and then they go on and I continue to tell you their story. So a big part of it is active listening, but if you have one shot, you find somebody you admire and you just, you've got one question for them. I think you can always ask a person, what is something if you could go back in time to the younger version of you? What would you tell yourself now? What would you
Starting point is 01:01:38 say? You will almost always get an interesting answer from somebody. Yeah, that's beautiful. I love that. And I'm so glad you raised the point about tone and listening because it's, it's so refreshing to hear that as well, because you also get a different, you can ask the same question with a different tone and get a completely different answer. And you can almost feel it when it's a technique versus when it's a true seeking of individuals like heart and mind and like, you can tell when they're obsessed with that question versus when they think it's a good question to ask. And I think that applies to the listener, the receiver who's going to answer the question as well.
Starting point is 01:02:25 Tell me about when you are putting this book together and you're obviously trying to compile, I mean, I didn't know how many interviews you've done. How many is it? Do you have a number? Do you know? We've done for how I built this total about 400 in-depth interviews with founders. Incrombinors. Incredible. Okay, so 400 interviews, you're trying to compile it. total about 400 in-depth interviews with founders. And entrepreneurs. Incredible. Okay, so 400 interviews, you're trying to compile it. What do you think has been the craziest, most outlandish story or pain that you came across
Starting point is 01:02:58 in these 400 interviews that has stayed with you so strongly that you just think, this is almost like a movie. Like, I can't believe this was someone's actual life. I try and think of every episode in a cinematic way. I really do, because I'm trying to unfold that story and create a visual experience for people. I want people to go to just completely get lost in the story. I think of what I do is, and by the way, you're right.
Starting point is 01:03:30 I mean, tone and listening is such an important part of it because how you talk to somebody, how you ask questions. It's not what you ask. It's how you ask it, right? That's not how you elicit information. It's not the actual words, it's how you ask it, right? That's not how you elicit information. It's not the actual words you used to ask a question because if it was so simple,
Starting point is 01:03:51 you could just give people a list of questions. Sometimes questions are very effective, but it's how you ask them. I think that for me, I'm always looking to help somebody tell their story in a way that you could imagine as a movie. You could imagine in a, because our human stories are movies. We, every single one of us as a movie.
Starting point is 01:04:14 Many people think, I'm not that interesting, or my life isn't that dramatic. And what they don't realize is that it is. My job is to show you that, is to know so much about you ahead of time that I can pull that out of you, because I know that. I can see that. That's the advantage we have as outsiders. We can see other people in ways they can't see themselves.
Starting point is 01:04:37 And it gives all of us a superpower. I think, you know, a story that sticks into my mind is a recent one we did about a company called the McBride Sisters Collection. It's the largest black owned wine business in the United States and one of the largest in the world. And it was started by two sisters, Robin and Andre McBride. They both share the same father. He was African-American and they both had different mothers. They both share the same father. He was African-American and they both had different mothers. Neither of these women knew the other existed until they were in their 20s. Their father died and they were informed by relatives that the other one, each sister
Starting point is 01:05:18 was informed that they had a sister. Andrea was raised in New Zealand. Her mother was Kiwi. She had met Andre's father in Los Angeles and then emigrated to New Zealand. Robyn's mother was from Monterey, California and raised also a white woman raised her daughter in Monterey, California. And these two women did not know the existence
Starting point is 01:05:41 of the other until they were in their 20s. And the story of the reunion is so emotional, it's so powerful. We were all crying when we were recording the interview because it's almost impossible to believe that it's true that it happened, that they threw just a random miracle. Not only did they come together, not only did they love each other from the moment they saw each other, but they both grew up in wine-growing parts of the world, Monterey, California, and New Zealand. And they both had this incredible passion for wine. And they both decided that they were never going to be a part again. And Andrea
Starting point is 01:06:22 moved to the United States to be with her sister. And they went on to create this business. They started it 15, 16 years ago. Very small, with no money, with no connections. In a world dominated by mainly by white men, and they created this incredible business. You can find McBride sister's wine in virtually every grocery store, every
Starting point is 01:06:45 Walmart, you know, around the United States today. And how they got there is, it's an epic. It's a hero's journey. It's as good as any movie you've ever seen. And it's all true. That's incredible. I need to go back and listen to that. I've not, I've not, not heard that one. So definitely excited to dive back into it. And I hope everyone who's listening will go off and listen to that episode as well. It sounds absolutely phenomenal on how I built this. Guy, I want to, coming towards the end of our conversation here, I want to talk a bit about how this book and your work
Starting point is 01:07:21 massively helps people who don't want to be entrepreneurs. Because I think that all the lessons you've shared today, all the lessons in the book, are applicable to each and every person, whether they're an entrepreneur inside their organization or whether they work at their parents' business or whether they are just working a regular job and going out there and doing it. I think what you're sharing and the things that me and you care about are things that are applicable and useful to anyone and everyone in a skill set.
Starting point is 01:07:51 And often the entrepreneurship journey has today been made very sexy and like attractive and it's almost like everyone feels the pressure that they have to be an entrepreneur. I remember with one of my mentors who I absolutely love, and he was a mentor for me when I was at Accenture, and he would always tell me, he'd be like, Jay, you're an entrepreneur. And I'd be like, no, I'm not.
Starting point is 01:08:14 I was like, I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm like, you're like working for people. I just want to make videos. I just want to make content. Like, I'm more of a reporter journalist, kind of person. I don't want to, and he's like, no, no, no, you're an entrepreneur. And he keeps saying it, and I go home and be like, this guy just doesn't understand me.
Starting point is 01:08:27 And now I'm like, oh, you were right, you were right. But if someone's sitting here listening and they're like, oh, Guy and Jay, I don't really wanna be an entrepreneur. I don't think I have it in me. It sounds too scary. Yeah. What can they take away from these conversations
Starting point is 01:08:41 you're podcasting this book? Because I think there's so much for them to take away. And I don't want people to miss out just because they don't want to be an entrepreneur. Yeah. So probably only about 15 or 20% of our audience are actually traditional entrepreneurs. People of a brick and mortar store or an online store who have a hungish, single outside and are running a business. The vast majority of people who listen to how I built this may not think of
Starting point is 01:09:07 themselves as traditional entrepreneurs, but they are. The reality is that entrepreneurial thinking happens all of the time. It happens every single day of our lives. If you are a parent with kids trying to think of creative ways to manage your household. If you are a parent with kids trying to think of creative ways to manage your household, if you are a single person thinking entrepreneurially about how to fill your time, one of the most innovative products in modern human history is the iPhone that was invented by Johnny Ive inside of Apple. Would you not say that was entrepreneurial? That whole product was developed by people within Apple who wanted to connect people through a handheld device.
Starting point is 01:09:53 There was no dictator mandate from above that said, let's do this now. It was part of a process that developed and created these amazing products. Entrepreneurial is a mindset. It's not about hanging a shingle outside of your door. It's about thinking creatively. It's about thinking collaboratively. It's about trying to do different and new things and improve ways of working within your own team. It might be coming up with a whole new system for how you hold each other accountable.
Starting point is 01:10:31 It might be a small nudge or twist or change in how you approach your own role or how your team is organized. It's the same thing as leadership. Leadership can be a title, but having a title alone doesn't make you a leader. What makes you a leader is when you share your experience with others. We do this on our teams, especially on how I built this. It's a small team of producers, but from the very beginning, and we really work to promote people from within, from our interns eventually become producers. And we have a system where we encourage
Starting point is 01:11:18 the sort of the lowest level person from a title perspective, we encourage that person to take a leadership role. So we have an intern. The intern gets guidance from the previous intern who's now a producer and other producers who may have been interns two or three years earlier, but who are now leaders. We now have a former intern who is mentoring a current intern. That's a leadership position. That is a leader. Once you start to behave as a mentor to other people and you don't have to be much older than them, you might be a year or two ahead of them. You are a leader, you are an innovator and you are an entrepreneur. That is what it's about. It's
Starting point is 01:11:54 a way of thinking and operating. It's not about selling a product and venting a product and hanging a shingle. It's a mindset And everybody has the potential to adopt that mindset. I love that guy. Thank you so much for sharing that. So clearly, both through this interview and in the book and in all of your podcast episodes, we end every episode of on purpose with a final five, a fast five. So these answers have to be in one word or one sentence maximum. I break my own rules all the time, so be ready for me deviating, but guy, if you're ready, we'll get going. Okay. All right,
Starting point is 01:12:33 so question one is, what is the best piece of advice you've ever received? It's hard to give one answer, but it's a variation of dance like no one's watching, which means be open to all kinds of experiences. Don't limit yourself. I love that great piece of advice. What's the worst piece of advice you've ever heard? Stay in your lane. Interesting. Interesting. Okay. Question number three, Interesting. Interesting. Okay. Question number three, what is your metric for success, your personal metric?
Starting point is 01:13:10 It's very simple to create kind, responsible, warm, and loving humans. I'm a parent. I have one job to do. It's to pass on my values as best I can to my children and hope that they become good, kind, loving people who contribute to the world. It's that simple for me. I really, it really is. It's that's it. I love that. That's my purpose. Yeah, it's beautiful. Question number four, if you could have invested in a company or person Aligned with your values at the beginning that you've now got to know or that you've interviewed now who would it been?
Starting point is 01:13:54 It would have been Sal Khan even though he runs a nonprofit. I just he's he inspires me in runs a nonprofit. I just, he inspires me in infinite ways. I mean, what he has created with Khan Academy is life changing. It educates 30 million people a month for free. And I, and anybody listening or watching, if you do use it, please contribute to Khan Academy because it is a gift to the world. That's beautiful. And the fifth and final question guy is, if you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be? You must visit another country.
Starting point is 01:14:34 I love that. It's a great answer. And we've never had it before. So it's also unique in a return answer. I love it. Everyone, Guy Rars, the author of How I Built This, the unexpected paths to success from the world's most inspiring entrepreneurs.
Starting point is 01:14:49 Go and grab your copy, we've put the link in the description below as well. I hope that all of you read this, use it. Don't just read it, use this book. Use it if you're someone who's stuck, if you're trying to find a pivot, if you're struggling to figure out which is the right idea, if you're trying to find a pivot, if you're struggling to figure out which is the right idea, if you're trying to find your co-founder,
Starting point is 01:15:07 having issues with your co-founder, literally this book covers the whole gamut of the journey of an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur. And I couldn't recommend it more. Guy, it's been so much fun spending so much time with you over the last couple of weeks. I honestly want us to turn this into a real friendship. I can't wait to hang out and spend time together
Starting point is 01:15:28 and get to know each other's families as well. Is there anything that I haven't asked you to share that you'd love to share right now? I would love to hear it from you. No, but I just, I can't even begin to thank you for your generosity. And also, I'm a little bit uncomfortable with how kind you, in generous you've been about
Starting point is 01:15:46 what I do and the show. I really, I have one really simple rule, which is I never wanna do anything. I never wanna appear anywhere. I never wanna make content or a show if I feel like it weighs someone's time. I always want, if somebody is giving me their time, if someone's listening to this somebody is giving me their time, if someone's listening
Starting point is 01:16:05 to this interview right now on your show, and they're giving me something extremely valuable which is their time, and I never want to waste that time. I always want to be able to give somebody something that is valuable or useful. And so that's why I do what I do. That's what I aim to do. And you know, you're just so generous and and and the things that you said about the show and what I do. It means a lot. I mean, that's, that's why I do it. Absolutely, Guy. Thank you so much for coming on on purpose and I meant everywhere I said. Thank you so much for coming on on purpose and I meant everywhere I said. Everyone go and follow Guy on Instagram as well. If you don't already to find out more about how I built this and all the incredible work he's doing, he's also giving away thousands of dollars to help people start their businesses
Starting point is 01:16:55 and companies too. So please, please, please go and check out for more details. Guy, thank you again for doing this. I'm so grateful for your time and And I hope we can connect soon. Me too, thank you. Thank you, man. Thanks, Guy. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
Starting point is 01:17:13 Let's get real. Most people either don't like their jobs, feel unfulfilled in their jobs, or realize their day jobs are no longer stable. But what's required in a fulfilling career? You need to feel like you're good at what you do, and that your job allows you to serve the world their day jobs are no longer stable. But what's required in a fulfilling career, you need to feel like you're good at what you do and that your job allows you to serve the world through your greater purpose in some capacity. If you feel like you haven't achieved this
Starting point is 01:17:33 yet in life, the important thing to remember is that it's never too late. It's never too late to start over and choose to really go after what you're meant to do. Join me on July 1st for my brand new live masterclass pursuit of purpose. We'll discuss the ways in which you can create a career that fulfills your soul and how you can serve the world by living out your values, passions, and purpose. To register, just go to jshetipurpose.com.
Starting point is 01:18:00 Again, that's jshetipurpose.com. The only way you're going to feel satisfied in your career is if you choose to honor your greatest values. It's time to find what makes you come alive. I'm so grateful and so excited for you to join your pursuit of purpose. See you on July 1st. Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on I Heart.
Starting point is 01:18:22 I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions. Like, can we create new senses for humans? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to inner cosmos with David Eagleman on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your reality. Listen to Intercosmos with David Eagleman on the IHART Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 01:18:49 Our 20s are often seen as this golden decade. Our time to be carefree, make mistakes and figure out our lives. But what can psychology teach us about this time? I'm Jermis Beg, the host of the Psychology of your 20s. Each week we take a deep dive into a unique aspect of our 20s, from career anxiety, mental health, heartbreak, money and much more to explore the science behind our experiences. The Psychology of your 20s hosted by me, Gemma Speg. Listen now on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Getting better with money is a great goal for 2023. But how are you going to make it happen?
Starting point is 01:19:32 Ordering a book that lingers on your nightstand isn't going to do the trick. Instead, check out our podcast How to Money. That's right, we're two best buds offering all the helpful personal finance information you need without putting you to sleep. We offer guidance three times a week and we talk about debt payoff, saving more, intelligent investing, and increasing your earnings. Millions of listeners have trusted us
Starting point is 01:19:53 to help them make progress with their financial goals. You can listen to how to money on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. you get your podcasts.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.