This episode is brought to you by Shopify.Forget the frustration of picking commerce platforms when you switch your business to Shopify, the global commerce platform that supercharges your selling wherever you sell.
With Shopify, you'll harness the same intuitive features, trusted apps, and powerful analytics used by the world's leading brands.Sign up today for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash tech, all lowercase.That's shopify.com slash tech.
Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial.No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these.I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month.
How are there still people paying two or three times that much?I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here.Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash save whenever you're ready.
$45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month.New customers on first three month plan only.Taxes and fees extra.Speed slower above 40 gigabytes.See details.
This episode is brought to you by GlobalX.Since 2008, GlobalX ETFs has been committed to empowering investors with unexplored intelligence solutions.
GlobalX specializes in exchange-traded funds that offer exposure to the artificial intelligence ecosystem, including themes like data centers, robotics, semiconductors, and cloud computing.
To learn more about GlobalX's entire suite of ETFs, from covered calls, fixed income, emerging markets, and more, visit GlobalXETFs.com.
This episode is brought to you by Merrill.Join one of the most iconic names in wealth management, Merrill.You'll be part of a dynamic team of advisors and specialists working hard every day to grow their clients' wealth.
And with the support of best-in-class research, advanced digital tools, and the resources of a global institution, it's truly an opportunity you can be bullish about.Learn more at careers.bankofamerica.com.Copyright 2024, Bank of America Corporation.
What's 2FA security on Kraken?Let's say I'm captaining my soccer team and we're up by a goal against, I don't know, Soda Springs FC.Do we relax?No way.Time to create an extra line of defense and protect that lead.
That's like 2FA on Kraken, a surefire way to keep what you already have safe and sound.Go to kraken.com and see what crypto can be.Non-investment advice.Crypto trading involves risk of loss.Cryptocurrency services are provided to U.S.and U.S.
territory customers by Payword Interactive Inc., PWI, DBA Kraken.View PWI's disclosures at kraken.com slash legal slash disclosures.
Do something you're very passionate about and don't try to chase what is kind of the hot passion of the day.
People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you're doing and it's totally true and the reason is because it's so hard that if you don't any rational person would give up.
It's really hard and you have to do it over a sustained period of time.So if you don't love it, if you're not having fun doing it, you don't really love it, you're going to give up.
So just go and do it, try, learn from it.You'll fail at some things, that's a learning experience that you need so that you can take that on to the next experience.
And don't let people who you may respect and who you believe know what they're talking about, don't let them tell you it can't be done.Because often they will tell you it can't be done, and it's just because they don't have the courage to try it.
I think people that look for great ideas to make money aren't nearly as successful as those who say, OK, what do I really love to do?What am I excited about?
What do I know something about?It's very rewarding when you work on something you think is going to make a big difference.
And yeah, it's a little bit harder, but I think the passion that one might bring with it brings so much more energy to that, that you're more likely to succeed.
You have to have an emotional investment in what you're doing.If you don't love what you're doing, failure is pretty much guaranteed.Success is not guaranteed by any means, but failure is much more likely if you don't love what you're doing.
If you know exactly what you want to be, you need to spend as much time with people that are actually that already.
One of the things that I do is I question a lot of things.
And you can do that in a good way and a bad way, but hopefully, if you try to get people to motivate why they're doing something and their way of thinking, the worst thing you can end up with is a situation where you get told, well, this is the way it's always been.
That's the worst ever.That's a non-answer.Instead, ask yourself, you know, given everything we have today, is there a way we can make this better?
And so, when we're coming up with ideas, you know, we always ask ourselves, what kind of new market is this creating?And then also, what part of my day and what problem is it solving?
And so I've gone as far as taking an entire catalog of my day from the moment I like open my eyes and writing down every single thing I do and then asking myself like, is there something here?
If you're not coming up with 10 ideas a day, that's why I have this thing.If I'm not coming up, when I'm filling up this page every single day, then my idea muscle will atrophy.And I started this in 2001 and I still do it every single day.
Like you have to come up with ideas every single day or the idea muscle atrophies. The good news is, after about six months of doing that, you're like a machine.Like people get surprised at how many ideas you could just have anywhere.
When it comes to changing the world, what I learned from Steve Jobs is, if you believe in a Macintosh, if you believe in iPhone, iPod, iPad, if you believe enough, then you will see it.Because other people will believe in it.
Other people will create software.Other people will create products. So you need to foster the belief in what you are dreaming so that it becomes a reality.Which is very different than saying, I don't expect anybody to believe it until I see it.
You need people to believe it before they can see it.
don't necessarily think that you have to have the home run and the huge Apple computer on your first start.I spent a long time in my life with skills just building little devices for fun.
For fun is one of the key things because that drives you to think and think and think and make it better and better and better than you ever would if you're doing it for a company.Build things at first for yourself that you would want.
For somebody aspiring to you know, take things to the next level or to even surpass their wildest dreams.
There's always going to have to be an element of luck, but I think more important is putting yourself in a business that can be ubiquitous, that really doesn't have limits. Because otherwise, there's always going to be a grind to it.
But if it can't be something that you can visualize every business using or every consumer using, it's going to be tough to scale to be big enough or to have the perceived value. You want an idea about what you can say.
I know it sounds like a bad idea, but here's specifically why it's actually a great one.You want to sound crazy, but you want to actually be right.
Because when you're trying to differentiate, when you're trying to do something different, there's going to be that gut moment, that gut sense.Is this right?Is this not right?
If you're not, if you're not having doubt, you're not pushing the boundaries far enough.
Don't think about how do I get big fast.That will happen if you actually build something super meaningful and super important.So don't think about what is the quickest way to success.
Think about what is the best way to building something important that the world really needs.
This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren't.Let me define the terms really quickly.Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do 100%.
Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiating value proposition, or your proprietary process, or your USP.But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do.And by why, I don't mean to make a profit.
That's a result.It's always a result.By why, I mean what's your purpose, what's your cause, what's your belief. Why does your organization exist?
So when we see a kid with a lemonade stand, it's different than when we see a vending machine selling lemonade.Even if it's exactly the same product.Because the story around it is what people are paying for.So when I meet small business people,
All I ask them is not what's their balance sheet, but what's their story.Why should I pick you?Why do I care about what you're doing?
And if you start giving me all this inside baseball statistics about why you're 2% better than some other competitor, I'm already glazed over.Because that's not part of the way I see the world.
I have to want this to exist in the world.I have to not, so it's a similar rule to just say, if this was successful and I had nothing and I got no, and I was not involved and I got no money off it or wasn't, would I want it to do well?
And that's a great check, I think, to know if you really feel good about the idea and can be passionate about it.
One of the things I advise entrepreneurs to do is when you have an idea, a classic entrepreneurial impulse is to hold the idea close to you and not go tell people because, oh, the idea is so special.That's almost always a mistake.
Why is that a mistake?It's a mistake because your actual real competitive advantage is not that you have this idea that you have locked away in your closet, which may or may not be accurate and you have no idea which it is.
Your actual competitive advantage is if you're assembling the intelligence around does this idea work, what is the right team, what is the right learnings, and we're essentially in motion.
The hardest thing to do is start. You have all these ideas and everyone has an idea, but it's really about executing the idea and building the idea and attracting other people to help you work on the idea.That is the biggest challenge.
But the way to begin is to get the idea out of your head, draw it out, talk about it, program it, if you're a programmer, or make it if you're building something.
You don't have to be the best, but you have to be dangerous, right? You have to learn just enough to be dangerous to build an idea, concept it, and show it to the world.
And then it turns out there are lots of other people, including all 170 employees that work at Instagram, who are much better at doing all that stuff than I am.
But you need to find people who can, you know, be drawn to the idea that you build, and then they end up taking it and making it even better.
You know, one way to conceptualize what makes a good product is, you know, good engineering is part of it, good design is part of it, but really it's
One way I think about it, at least, is maximizing the probability that someone shows up at the front door of your store or your website or whatever it is and ends up with a solved problem.
And oftentimes, the best methodology is to start with the perfect experience with just one person, get that right, and then figure out how to scale something great, instead of scaling something not so great, and then trying to improve it.
That's really hard to do.
And so I think when you are starting a new business, you don't want to go after giant markets.You want to go after small markets, and you want to take over those markets quickly.
Constantly seek criticism.A well-thought-out critique of whatever you're doing is as valuable as gold. And you should seek that from everyone you can, but particularly your friends.
If you're not utilizing an online community, then you're at a disadvantage to those who are.You can be asking online communities what they think about your ideas, or if they have any advice with what you're working on.
Not only will you hear from people who are passionate about the subject, but you'll be hearing from people all around the world, each with their own experiences and stories that can help you.
And there are a lot of people from whom we can learn a lot.And I think like, you know, the one piece of advice is like, don't underestimate anyone you come across.Right.
Like whether they're, you know, a blue collar worker waiting for the bus, or they're, you know, helping you at your, they're the server or bartender at the restaurant, or they're a lower ranking employee.
I mean, the smartest leaders I've ever seen have always gone around the room and asked for everybody's opinion.
Most startups that fail do it, ultimately, because they did not make something that people wanted.
They made something that they thought people would want, but they were either in denial about it, about whether it was actually any good, or somebody else came along and made something that people wanted even more.
Sign in
