50 Realizations That Changed My Life

0:00I've started and sold three venture-backed companies before the age of 30 and here are 50 realizations that changed my life as an entrepreneur first is startup valuation is literally a madeup number what I mean by that is that you know Venture capitalists or people who want to buy your company in their early stages based on fear of losing the deal will literally make up a number that is you know valuation is more art than science and that was a big shock to me the second it's impossible to work with people who don't answer texts within 24 hours now this is a bit spicy I think that especially at the

0:40early stages you want to have people that are going to respond to you um and of course people have weekends and you know I totally get that and you want to respect people's weekends and time off but if you're texting someone obviously something is really really important maybe you know your app is down or your software is down or so I think having having your core crew uh being able to respond to text quickly uh is helpful the third the internet can be your lottery ticket or your prison sentence now uh for me the internet has been a lottery ticket you know especially social you know I've had

1:23tweets that have gotten 70,000 likes I've had Jeff Bezos follow me on Twitter it's gotten me into some crazy room but it can also be a prison sentence if you're scrolling Instagram and it's making you feel bad so how do you Orient it to to be more of a lottery ticket than a prison sentence that's a prompt for you number four if abomi and fit can Rebrand and their their stock is up 285 in 2023 then you can Rebrand too self-explanatory you could Rebrand at any time reinvent yourself at any time number five having an internet audio a is still wildly underpriced number six build products that no one ask for but

2:05everyone wants that's something that I've learned when you build a product that no one asks for but everyone wants it's it's they see the product and they're going to share that product with everyone number seven it's actually a good idea to be poor in your 20s and reinvest everything in yourself learnings Travel network figuring out who you are I think the your 20s is all about learning and it's about building assets and those assets could be not necessarily bank account assets they can be who you know you know your network it could be experiences it could be skills so I think you should look at your 20s

2:40as multiple Banks not just a financial bank number eight Google is probably not going to copy your startup build your startup and ignore the incumbents that are going to copy your startup number nine content is your sales person that works for you 24/7 number 10 look for opportunities that are low stat status now but probably high status in a few years so for example building a bootstrap startup a couple years ago was pretty low status you know cash flow was low status it was all about how do I raise hundreds of millions of dollars build a unicorn billion doll company um but now I would I would say that the tides are turning

3:20now having cash flowing internet businesses are becoming a bit more High status number 11 lifestyle businesses are still Mass ly underrated you can often turn them into non-li lifestyle businesses if you want so that's the thing you know what is a lifestyle business lifestyle business is generally a non-venture back business sometimes it's a service business maybe it's an agency and it's there to support your lifestyle but what people don't realize is that these lifestyle businesses could turn into larger outcome businesses businesses that you can eventually sell for large sums of money if you want so you have that option never forget it I'm give you an example you can start a

4:00service business learn about uh the problems that a particular group has your customers have and then maybe you build software or a physical product uh that you sell to them number 12 avoid dependency on anything social apps VCS Etc freedom is two words self- sustaining number 13 taking a break doesn't mean you're lazy burnout is real I've been burnt out uh a few times and it's tough to come back from it takes a long time so uh what I've learned is that now I take regular breaks um it could be taking a weekend off or just taking an afternoon off going into nature or something like that but you do

4:41need to recharge if you're going to last in the entrepreneurship world number 14 whatever you do don't me don't be mid curve basically don't be mediocre you know be exceptional at what you do number 15 the only things that should change your mood are things things that will change your life it is so easy for us to have our moods changed you know a client cancels out cancels on you uh you apply for a job and you don't get it but you really wanted it there's only a few things that will actually change your life and those are generally health related sometimes you know wealth related but very rarely so don't let

5:21things that are small like don't sweat this small stuff is basically what I'm saying number 16 copycats are a nuisance not killers they are usually mosquitoes not sharks if you're going to be building anything content a business and you are going to gain popularity people will see that and they will try to copy you it is the nature of human beings it's also nature of the internet but don't worry about it it's the cost of doing business um they are usually mosquitoes number 17 good design can't fix a poor product but good design can multiply a product that's working so you want to have your us user experience

6:01nailed and amazing before you layer on beautiful design number 18 people follow a journey not an account there's so many social accounts that people could be following and that's not really what people want they want to follow a journey they want to be along for the ride so how do you create content with that in mind number 19 if you're doing stuff you hate you aren't Rich if you're spending your days in a lot of meetings and you don't like meeting things then even if your bank account is showing you know a lot of money how rich are you how wealthy are you number 20 don't create a

6:38startup without a why now a why now basically means like why should this business exist right now what has changed in the world such that it's opened up an opportunity for this business so I'll give you an example you know Uber you download the Uber app you press a button and a car comes to you a lot of things in terms of why now had to align for that to make sense for example the mobile app store that didn't exist 4 years before Uber came out GPS on mobile phones people putting their credit cards on mobile phones so as the world changes take note because that'll help you with

7:15your why now and why this should exist number 21 strangers don't want to hear about you they want to talk about themselves or better themselves this was a realization just about people in general people want to talk about themselves so let them talk about themselves number 22 the best negotiators talk 10% of the time and listen 90% if you want to negotiate you sit at a table and what a lot of people do or what I used to do when I first started negotiating is I would just talk a lot here's all the reasons why I think I'm worth this amount and that's kind of a rookie move the move is to say your

7:53point say what you want really quickly and really Su succinctly and let the other side talk a lot as as they're talking you're taking notes and you're clarifying in your head what you're going to come back with and let them just sort of run on the more data that you're informed with the better you can be as a negotiator so you're just like equipping yourself with data number 23 good things happen when you add value to people's lives through content and Community you know I give a lot of content away for free free communities and and stuff like that and my strategy is basically earn trust and if you earn

8:29people's trust good things will happen it's worked for me it's going to work for you number 24 you can learn a lot about someone by their likes on Twitter or X sometimes when I want to learn about some someone I'll go to their Twitter account I'll look at if they're active and I'll look at their likes and you can kind of get a sense as to what people are thinking in that moment it's pretty interesting and underutilized by most people number 25 first find the niche then learn from the community then the startup idea will come to you A lot of people when they want to build a

9:04business they try to just come up with startup ideas the way to come up with startup ideas that actually work is you find a niche an underserved Niche and you build some Community you know e you maybe it's a private Community maybe it's a public Community but you build a community of people that have these problems needs wants desires and you just listen and take notes and over time you'll develop ideas to serve those people that's that's business in a nutshell number 26 on hiring if it isn't a hell yeah it's a hell no never compromise for fit this one is an important one because in earlier in my

9:42career I would hire people who might look like on paper that they're a perfect fit but there's just something off and in earlier my career i' would still hire them because on paper they're perfect um I'd rather hire someone who has less of the perfect fit went to the right schools worked at the right companies but is willing to learn and just has that grit to them and that's going to fit with uh the people and the culture of our company and our holding company so don't compromise on that number 27 startups never go according to plan there is no real plan for startups only a direction if you follow that

10:22you'll be a lot more calm when things happen because it's just par for the course when problems arise and they will arise number 28 the best businesses are the ones that look like a movement it needs to be an identity not a product so what do I mean by that an identity is something that people can really connect with for example I am a cold plunge person I do a keto diet I drive a Volvo now if you're you know one of these people maybe you're a Volvo person or keto person like it becomes a part of your identity so the best businesses look like these movements these life

11:01stages these this is me this is who I am so if you start with the movement and then you map out the customer Journey then the customer Journey becomes these products that you essentially could sell along the way so that people can become more intertwined with the movement those are the best businesses number 29 your identity is never your company ever your company is your business number 30 change scenery two to three times per day to extra creative I'm guilty of this a lot of time I'll just sit down in the mornings and basically not leave my desk except for grabbing a little bit of food

11:37and coffee it's good to switch up the scenery go for a walk if you work from home maybe you work from home in the morning and then you go work from a coffee shop in the afternoon changing the scenery is super super important and just makes you become a bit more of a productive person 31 people always want to see behind the scenes so if you create content the behind the scenes content is sometimes the most interesting you know if you watch a movie and then at the end you know you're watching the bloopers it's definitely something that is very memorable so people remember the behind

12:09the scenes content it's often worth the investment 32 number 32 the happiest people live pretty simple lives not chasing more and more in our culture it's always more money more followers more this more that but I've noticed some of the happiest people that I know aren't always on the chase aren't always on the honic treadmill in fact they're playing a completely different game number 33 if there's an active Community there's a business there there's probably a business worth creating number 34 digital businesses beats any laundromat self storage or vending machine business it's basically easier and better margins to build internet-based businesses so I know it's actually been a bit of a trend to focus

12:52on boring businesses like laundromats and stuff like that uh it's beyond me I don't really understand why but but uh I think that if you have a great digital business a wonderful internet business they're asset light doesn't take a lot to build especially now with things like Ai No code you can automate it really well you don't have to pay rent so there's a lot of Pros with building on the internet consider it number 35 only create 50% plus margin businesses like SAS paid communities Etc so when you're thinking about building your business uh and you're prioritizing how you're going to monetize think about high margin

13:28sounds obvious but you'd be surprised how few people do it and I've been guilty of this uh in the past too 36 cash flow over valuation any day of the week what I mean by that is who cares if a venture fund is going to say your business is worth a billion dollars it feels nice but building cash flowing businesses is ultimately a huge reward from a financial standpoint so prioritize cash flow don't prioritize valuation if you have to prioritize one 37 higher global Talent the world is bigger than New York City or Silicon Valley there's tons of incredible people all over the world so if you're building

14:05an internet business there's no reason why you'd limit yourself to a particular geography number 38 you create your own narrative narratives drives Word of Mouth which drives Revenue which is your oxygen number 39 if something is sold out customers want it 10 times more this is literally just human nature number 40 diversify cash flow every year multiple bets multiple products you know maybe you're a solo preneur maybe you built one cash flowing asset diversify you never know what's going to happen and the beauty is like I mentioned easier than ever to create products now so it's worth diversifying your Revenue with multiple products we're often creating

14:43one product per month just as an experiment think about what your Cadence might look like for building new products so you can diversify number 41 selling your first company is an emotional journey I remember selling my first company and boy it was ups and downs and it's always ups and downs when you're selling your company but you know first company definitely the most if you're preparing to sell your company or you think you're going to sell your company within the next year or two just note that it will take an emotional toll you will have ups and downs so buckle up number 42 designing rituals into your community

15:19is what brings people back remind them to see you tomorrow so many internet communities are zombie communities I think the you know 90 plus% of them are are basically dead the ones that work really well are the ones that have rituals like programming events a person who's reminding them to come back don't forget about rituals number 43 being around people who have a clear understanding of what they want from life is refreshing number 44 competitors can copy your products but they cannot copy your community so always be privatizing building your community building that identity fostering that build that brand connection it is worth it number 45 five make friends with

15:59people in your industry earn their trust and don't ask for anything for a long time overwhelm them with value it'll pay back number 46 listen to podcast take notes basically like you're sitting in the room with the world's greatest Founders and entrepreneurs now I'm not saying I'm the world's greatest entrepreneur I'm not but I have had you a unique set of experiences and I'm just telling you I've distilled everything I've learned in these like 50 little tidbits so that you can remember it and I'm just like riffing with you in real time and if you hear something that resonates with you write it down put it

16:34post it on a sticky note post it on your desk so you don't forget tweet about it write a blog post about it so it's drilled into your into your psyche so many people of us take in all this content and they're like oh that's such a good idea or I really dis even if you disagree with something I really disagree with that they don't write it down so they forget don't be that person 47 pick a niche and make a meme page if you understand understand the memes you understand the people don't build until you understand the memes you know what are memes memes are something that

17:05people will share it's something that they can they look at they get it often it's Visual and they'll share it I do this a lot you know go on Reddit or I'll go on Twitter or Instagram and when I'm looking at a movement that I'm trying to create I'll see like what are the memes that people are sharing and I'll sort of Bank it I'll have like a meme Bank see see what they're saying and from that try to create my own memes 48 the only audience you have is the audience you own email text Community if the algorithm changes uh or someone you know Elon Musk buys Twitter changes it to X

17:40and all of a sudden he's promoting images and videos and you only like to write text you learn firsthand that you don't own the audience so you know the best day to start an email newsletter the best day to you know collect text the best way is our community is soon is once you have a significant amount of internet audience you know usually it's in the few thousands and then you could start siphoning some of those to get their data and to get them know them more but yeah remember the only audience you have is the audience you own 49 there's a fine line between generalist

18:13and procrastinator number 50 the last but not least people expect opportunities to come to them they rarely do assume your loan and go after it and I think that's a perfect way to end opportunities won't come for you you have to go out there you have to send the DM you have to post on social you have to create the community you have to create the product you have to learn the skill you have to go to the events go get it and you'll be surprised what this internet could offer you it's pretty amazing and I hope you enjoyed some of my 50 realizations that I've learned as

18:47an entrepreneur and let me know if you do uh write in the comments in the YouTube comments which one was your favorite which one you hated if you have any to add that of your own realizations I'd love to hear it I read every single comment see you later

19:12bye