1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:02,550 Welcome back to another episode of the Startup Therapy Podcast. 2 00:00:02,550 --> 00:00:04,140 This is Ryan Rutan joint, as always by my 3 00:00:04,140 --> 00:00:06,990 friend, the founder, and CEO of startups.com. 4 00:00:06,990 --> 00:00:10,080 Will, Schroeder will, it's no secret I don't think to 5 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:12,060 anybody listen to the podcast that you've, you've said 6 00:00:12,060 --> 00:00:14,040 many times that, you know, entrepreneurship was what kind 7 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:18,420 of yanked you out of being a, a kid with nothing to founder 8 00:00:18,420 --> 00:00:20,580 with full control over their destiny to the extent that 9 00:00:20,580 --> 00:00:22,620 we have full control over our destinies as founders or anyone. 10 00:00:22,980 --> 00:00:25,110 But here's the question, man, like I, I want 11 00:00:25,110 --> 00:00:25,890 you to back into that. 12 00:00:25,890 --> 00:00:27,930 I want you to talk about how that worked for you 13 00:00:27,930 --> 00:00:29,910 and, and I think today we wanna talk about like. 14 00:00:30,314 --> 00:00:33,165 Can that same ladder be climbed by millions of other people? 15 00:00:33,195 --> 00:00:35,535 Who, who, who start where you did or start anywhere 16 00:00:35,535 --> 00:00:36,375 on a relative scale? 17 00:00:36,705 --> 00:00:40,485 And can it be used to, to alleviate or eliminate poverty? 18 00:00:40,890 --> 00:00:42,060 It's, it's interesting. 19 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:44,910 I don't think it, it can be used universally, like pull 20 00:00:44,910 --> 00:00:45,930 everybody out of poverty. 21 00:00:46,290 --> 00:00:46,620 Sure. 22 00:00:46,650 --> 00:00:48,840 I think what it can do, and I know, I know you feel the same. 23 00:00:49,350 --> 00:00:52,470 I feel like what entrepreneurship can do is 24 00:00:52,470 --> 00:00:56,040 it can create a flywheel that starts things going right. 25 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:58,230 It's, you know, if we look at, it's how America was 26 00:00:58,230 --> 00:00:59,160 built on that flywheel. 27 00:00:59,519 --> 00:01:00,930 You know, where these industrialists, you know, 28 00:01:00,930 --> 00:01:03,989 started to build what became Modern Day America 29 00:01:04,349 --> 00:01:05,489 by planting those seeds. 30 00:01:05,489 --> 00:01:07,500 And in most cases, they came from nothing. 31 00:01:07,949 --> 00:01:10,470 And they were able to use what became the American 32 00:01:10,470 --> 00:01:13,920 dream in order to build this next generation 33 00:01:14,100 --> 00:01:15,509 of wealth and success. 34 00:01:15,750 --> 00:01:17,670 And I think about this a lot. 35 00:01:17,699 --> 00:01:18,899 This was my story. 36 00:01:18,899 --> 00:01:20,759 I was the kid that, that came from nothing, you 37 00:01:20,759 --> 00:01:23,280 know, and, and worked really hard and, you know, 38 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:24,360 pursued the American dream. 39 00:01:24,630 --> 00:01:28,710 I genuinely believe that that is accessible to a lot of people. 40 00:01:29,414 --> 00:01:32,205 Now when I explain my story and I say, Hey, you know, I lived 41 00:01:32,205 --> 00:01:34,395 the American dream, here's typically what I get in, in 42 00:01:34,395 --> 00:01:35,955 today's environment, right? 43 00:01:36,285 --> 00:01:39,044 I get, look, you're a middle-aged white guy. 44 00:01:39,164 --> 00:01:40,845 Of course you had the American dream, right? 45 00:01:40,845 --> 00:01:42,104 Like, and, and I get it. 46 00:01:42,104 --> 00:01:42,854 I get it, right. 47 00:01:43,125 --> 00:01:46,335 Um, yeah, it wasn't quite that easy. 48 00:01:46,455 --> 00:01:48,945 And so, you know, I came from a, a very difficult 49 00:01:48,945 --> 00:01:50,205 childhood in a very. 50 00:01:51,265 --> 00:01:54,175 Ed environment, and I guarantee you, by the time I was 51 00:01:54,175 --> 00:01:57,145 graduating bottom, my class in high school, no one was like, 52 00:01:57,175 --> 00:01:58,825 oh, smooth sailing for that guy. 53 00:01:59,274 --> 00:02:03,205 They were like 18 months before he's in jail tops. 54 00:02:03,804 --> 00:02:06,235 Like there's, there's nobody who was betting on, on my horse, 55 00:02:06,655 --> 00:02:07,795 at least of all me by the way. 56 00:02:08,695 --> 00:02:13,405 But what I discovered almost inadvertently was that I 57 00:02:13,405 --> 00:02:16,465 had the ability through no one else's help by the way. 58 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:19,470 I think this is the most important part, and by no one 59 00:02:19,470 --> 00:02:22,290 else's help, but also no one else stopping me either, right? 60 00:02:22,500 --> 00:02:22,650 Yep. 61 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:26,550 To be able to create and develop a life for myself through 62 00:02:26,550 --> 00:02:29,610 entrepreneurship, um, I would've been a terrible employee. 63 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:32,640 That would've not gone well for me, just not the way I'm built. 64 00:02:33,090 --> 00:02:34,205 But it turns out I was a pretty good entrepreneur. 65 00:02:34,980 --> 00:02:40,020 Ryan, I think when we look at the opportunities of planting 66 00:02:40,020 --> 00:02:42,510 that seed, someone you know, early in their life, not that 67 00:02:42,510 --> 00:02:45,690 it's the only time they could do it, I do think it is one 68 00:02:45,690 --> 00:02:49,080 of the most valuable things we can teach a generation that 69 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:51,450 is underprivileged, that is in poverty all around the world. 70 00:02:51,540 --> 00:02:53,160 This isn't just, you know, United States or 71 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:53,910 anything else like that. 72 00:02:53,915 --> 00:02:54,095 Yeah. 73 00:02:54,115 --> 00:02:54,335 Go. 74 00:02:54,340 --> 00:02:56,760 I think teaching people to fish, you know, the, the old, the 75 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,750 old, um, uh, adage that if, if you want to, uh, uh, beat a man 76 00:03:00,750 --> 00:03:01,740 for a day, you give him a fish. 77 00:03:01,740 --> 00:03:03,180 If you want to feed him for the rest of his life, 78 00:03:03,180 --> 00:03:03,990 you teach him to fish. 79 00:03:04,410 --> 00:03:08,519 And I genuinely believe that entrepreneurship is that 80 00:03:08,519 --> 00:03:11,910 fishing pole, that ability for you to earn for yourself, but 81 00:03:11,910 --> 00:03:16,649 more importantly, to create a flywheel in your community and 82 00:03:16,649 --> 00:03:17,730 pull more people around it. 83 00:03:17,730 --> 00:03:18,299 What do you think? 84 00:03:18,450 --> 00:03:19,140 Yeah, I agree. 85 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:21,359 I think, I think that the flywheel concept is super 86 00:03:21,359 --> 00:03:23,940 important and you know, we've, we've seen it, you 87 00:03:23,940 --> 00:03:26,459 and I have seen it, it can change communities, it can 88 00:03:26,459 --> 00:03:29,579 change families, it can change entire countries. 89 00:03:29,640 --> 00:03:29,910 Absolutely. 90 00:03:29,910 --> 00:03:30,000 Right? 91 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,709 When, when the entrepreneurial spark starts. 92 00:03:32,385 --> 00:03:34,665 I mean, like you said, that is sort of what, what created 93 00:03:34,725 --> 00:03:35,835 the, the United States. 94 00:03:35,925 --> 00:03:36,135 Yeah. 95 00:03:36,165 --> 00:03:38,385 And I think we can't overlook that, right? 96 00:03:38,385 --> 00:03:40,455 It doesn't mean that entrepreneurship is for 97 00:03:40,455 --> 00:03:42,765 everyone, meaning that not everybody has to be a founder. 98 00:03:42,765 --> 00:03:43,695 Everybody has to start their own business. 99 00:03:44,310 --> 00:03:46,380 But in some of these communities, in some of 100 00:03:46,380 --> 00:03:48,720 these situations, when someone does that right, and 101 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:50,910 then all of a sudden you're creating employment, you're 102 00:03:50,910 --> 00:03:54,119 creating opportunities, you're creating secondary economies 103 00:03:54,119 --> 00:03:55,649 that flow down into that. 104 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:56,220 Right? 105 00:03:56,579 --> 00:03:56,820 Right. 106 00:03:56,820 --> 00:03:59,429 Like, you know, coming, you know, having recently left, 107 00:03:59,489 --> 00:04:02,429 uh, Latin America and, and Guatemala in particular 108 00:04:02,429 --> 00:04:06,179 where there were a ton of impoverished people, right. 109 00:04:06,269 --> 00:04:08,700 It's also a massive hustle culture, right? 110 00:04:08,700 --> 00:04:10,679 People didn't sit around and go, ah, impoverished 111 00:04:10,679 --> 00:04:11,339 dunno what to do. 112 00:04:11,339 --> 00:04:11,581 They were like. 113 00:04:12,180 --> 00:04:13,410 What am I gonna go do today? 114 00:04:13,410 --> 00:04:14,280 What am I gonna sell? 115 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:15,030 How am I gonna do this? 116 00:04:15,420 --> 00:04:17,640 Somebody would start a business, business would 117 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:18,719 start to grow, right? 118 00:04:18,719 --> 00:04:22,075 We saw, we saw somebody build, uh, little things like a, a, a 119 00:04:22,079 --> 00:04:23,820 very local restaurant, right? 120 00:04:24,150 --> 00:04:26,219 Well, the local restaurant creates a secondary economy 121 00:04:26,460 --> 00:04:28,350 because you've got some people that work there, you. 122 00:04:29,055 --> 00:04:31,484 They're buying from the local farmers, right? 123 00:04:31,484 --> 00:04:33,195 The local farmers bring up, local farmers start 124 00:04:33,195 --> 00:04:33,765 to make more money. 125 00:04:33,765 --> 00:04:35,055 They start to feed more money into the economy, 126 00:04:35,055 --> 00:04:36,854 and you get it, like the, the whole thing snowballs. 127 00:04:36,854 --> 00:04:39,375 It's economic development as it's supposed to work, right? 128 00:04:39,375 --> 00:04:41,715 Somebody generates economic opportunity. 129 00:04:41,775 --> 00:04:44,325 There's trickle over, trickle down, and all of 130 00:04:44,325 --> 00:04:46,875 a sudden you start to see things, things blossom. 131 00:04:46,935 --> 00:04:50,055 And I think the other thing that gets lost in the mix in a lot 132 00:04:50,055 --> 00:04:52,515 of cases, and we start saying like, yes, entrepreneurship can 133 00:04:52,515 --> 00:04:53,414 solve some of these problems. 134 00:04:53,414 --> 00:04:55,935 People go like, yeah, of course you guys think that way. 135 00:04:55,965 --> 00:04:56,385 'cause it's what? 136 00:04:56,385 --> 00:04:56,990 It's what you've done. 137 00:04:57,870 --> 00:04:58,620 Yes and no. 138 00:04:58,620 --> 00:05:00,390 But I also think that, and this is what the piece that I think 139 00:05:00,390 --> 00:05:04,770 gets lost is that it's such an extensible set of skills. 140 00:05:05,190 --> 00:05:06,750 Like it, it's at its core. 141 00:05:06,750 --> 00:05:08,370 And I think you said this, like you learned that you 142 00:05:08,370 --> 00:05:09,930 could do this on your own. 143 00:05:10,260 --> 00:05:10,770 On your own. 144 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:11,310 Yep. 145 00:05:11,310 --> 00:05:11,460 Right? 146 00:05:11,460 --> 00:05:13,080 With nobody else's help and nobody else getting in your way. 147 00:05:13,650 --> 00:05:13,800 Right. 148 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:15,870 It teaches you a lot about self-reliance, which is 149 00:05:15,870 --> 00:05:18,030 gonna be useful no matter what you end up doing. 150 00:05:18,030 --> 00:05:20,730 So I think we're not saying, you know, entrepreneurship at 151 00:05:20,730 --> 00:05:21,780 the expense of everything else. 152 00:05:22,830 --> 00:05:25,740 But we're saying it's a set of skills that if you, 153 00:05:25,770 --> 00:05:28,890 if you master them or even just learn them, understand 154 00:05:28,890 --> 00:05:29,580 'em, intellectualize them. 155 00:05:30,315 --> 00:05:32,325 It can impact a lot of what you do in life. 156 00:05:32,445 --> 00:05:35,895 Well, also it has this massive germinating effect 157 00:05:35,895 --> 00:05:36,975 of everybody around you. 158 00:05:37,155 --> 00:05:37,425 Okay? 159 00:05:37,425 --> 00:05:37,485 Yeah. 160 00:05:37,485 --> 00:05:40,485 So if you think about this, it wasn't that Will 161 00:05:40,485 --> 00:05:41,955 started a company earlier. 162 00:05:41,955 --> 00:05:43,575 You know, the company did, did well. 163 00:05:43,785 --> 00:05:47,595 It was that while he was doing that, how many other people 164 00:05:47,595 --> 00:05:49,335 did will impact along the way? 165 00:05:49,575 --> 00:05:51,945 How many other people did he employ? 166 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:56,120 At an un unreasonably young age, not mine, but theirs, 167 00:05:56,359 --> 00:05:59,599 it incentivize in condition that they could do it. 168 00:05:59,810 --> 00:06:02,419 I've told you this before, in my lifetime, I've 169 00:06:02,419 --> 00:06:03,650 hired thousands of people. 170 00:06:03,650 --> 00:06:03,710 Yeah. 171 00:06:04,159 --> 00:06:07,219 Within that group, I keep a list a, a summary, if 172 00:06:07,219 --> 00:06:08,210 you will, a spreadsheet. 173 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:09,430 Call it what it is. 174 00:06:09,670 --> 00:06:12,580 Of all the people that I've employed that have gone 175 00:06:12,580 --> 00:06:15,370 on to become CEOs, right, it's well over a hundred 176 00:06:15,370 --> 00:06:16,480 people that I've employed. 177 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:17,710 Just me, little old me. 178 00:06:17,710 --> 00:06:18,789 I'm not like that important. 179 00:06:18,789 --> 00:06:19,480 I'm not being modest. 180 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:21,730 I'm just like, I'm not freaking Steve Jobs. 181 00:06:21,789 --> 00:06:22,180 Right? 182 00:06:22,270 --> 00:06:22,510 Right. 183 00:06:22,719 --> 00:06:25,480 A hundred people that I've employed have gone on 184 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:27,460 to become CEOs, not VPs. 185 00:06:27,460 --> 00:06:28,450 I'm not counting anybody. 186 00:06:28,450 --> 00:06:30,490 That was also great job, by the way, right? 187 00:06:30,490 --> 00:06:30,789 Like Right. 188 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:32,562 Other C levels, I mean specifically, these are 189 00:06:32,562 --> 00:06:32,950 specifically the ones that 190 00:06:32,950 --> 00:06:34,000 made it to top seat 191 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:36,400 the CEO E in, in most cases, founders, right. 192 00:06:36,810 --> 00:06:38,969 Um, in some cases of, of massive companies like 193 00:06:38,969 --> 00:06:40,860 representing billions and billions of dollars. 194 00:06:41,130 --> 00:06:43,289 And so what we're really talking about and we're 195 00:06:43,289 --> 00:06:44,400 saying alleviate poverty. 196 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:47,250 It's not making everybody a founder, it's making 197 00:06:47,250 --> 00:06:49,500 enough people, founders Yep. 198 00:06:49,500 --> 00:06:51,990 At that flywheel and their community and the people 199 00:06:51,990 --> 00:06:53,849 around them elevates. 200 00:06:54,030 --> 00:06:56,940 And I think it's incredibly powerful and wildly 201 00:06:56,940 --> 00:06:58,289 misunderstood about how we get there. 202 00:06:58,530 --> 00:06:59,099 Oh, a hundred percent. 203 00:06:59,400 --> 00:06:59,550 Yeah. 204 00:06:59,550 --> 00:07:00,659 It'd be funny to look at that list. 205 00:07:00,659 --> 00:07:02,490 I mean, fun, interesting to look at that list now 206 00:07:02,490 --> 00:07:04,710 and to see like how many people have they employed? 207 00:07:05,475 --> 00:07:05,655 That's 208 00:07:05,655 --> 00:07:05,805 what I'm 209 00:07:05,805 --> 00:07:05,985 saying. 210 00:07:05,985 --> 00:07:06,225 Right. 211 00:07:06,315 --> 00:07:07,070 That's what I mean. 212 00:07:07,070 --> 00:07:07,230 Right. 213 00:07:07,245 --> 00:07:07,575 What is, 214 00:07:07,575 --> 00:07:08,865 what does that spread look like? 215 00:07:08,925 --> 00:07:09,436 Right, right. 216 00:07:09,525 --> 00:07:11,505 You know, it's funny, I I, let me, let me give you the 217 00:07:11,505 --> 00:07:12,525 other end of that spectrum. 218 00:07:12,525 --> 00:07:14,295 These were, these were not CEOs, but it's, it goes back 219 00:07:14,295 --> 00:07:16,155 to just like how a little bit of entrepreneurial 220 00:07:16,155 --> 00:07:17,325 spark can go a long way. 221 00:07:17,775 --> 00:07:20,145 When I was a kid, we used to do like when, when there'd 222 00:07:20,145 --> 00:07:21,555 be snow days, I think I've told you this story before. 223 00:07:21,555 --> 00:07:25,034 When there were snow days, I got so excited, not because 224 00:07:25,034 --> 00:07:25,995 we had the day off of school. 225 00:07:26,415 --> 00:07:29,565 Because I knew I could go shovel snow. 226 00:07:29,570 --> 00:07:29,660 Right? 227 00:07:29,665 --> 00:07:29,985 Right. 228 00:07:29,985 --> 00:07:30,375 Make money. 229 00:07:30,375 --> 00:07:32,505 I didn't just shovel, show shovel snow. 230 00:07:32,505 --> 00:07:33,585 I had a tractor. 231 00:07:33,705 --> 00:07:34,725 I would drag driveways. 232 00:07:34,725 --> 00:07:35,955 I would bring friends along. 233 00:07:36,015 --> 00:07:37,605 I would, I had a group of friends who then on 234 00:07:37,605 --> 00:07:38,385 Sundays they would call me. 235 00:07:38,385 --> 00:07:38,955 They're like, are we going? 236 00:07:38,955 --> 00:07:39,345 Are we going? 237 00:07:39,705 --> 00:07:41,415 Because they knew we were gonna make hundreds 238 00:07:41,415 --> 00:07:42,255 of dollars that day. 239 00:07:42,315 --> 00:07:45,405 As you know, 13, 14, 15 year olds, we would go out 240 00:07:45,405 --> 00:07:46,995 and we were all doing other entrepreneurial stuff too. 241 00:07:47,790 --> 00:07:50,520 It was super fun to see that, like, because I had figured this 242 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:52,950 thing out and I had the drive to do it, all of a sudden people 243 00:07:52,950 --> 00:07:54,870 would flock around that and they were like, we want to go too. 244 00:07:55,230 --> 00:07:57,270 Let a bunch of guys into the, into the tractor, and we'd 245 00:07:57,270 --> 00:07:59,640 go out, I'd drag driveways, shovel the sidewalks, 246 00:07:59,970 --> 00:08:00,720 and everybody made money. 247 00:08:00,725 --> 00:08:01,065 Right? 248 00:08:01,070 --> 00:08:01,380 Right. 249 00:08:01,620 --> 00:08:03,660 And it was super motivational and it was fun because. 250 00:08:04,100 --> 00:08:07,160 At least a couple of those guys went on to be entrepreneurial. 251 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:09,980 Now, I don't think I caused it, but I was certainly part 252 00:08:09,980 --> 00:08:13,250 of that journey where they were like, Hey, I can just go out and 253 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:14,600 find my own way, make my money. 254 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:15,950 I don't need to go get a job. 255 00:08:15,950 --> 00:08:18,800 I can just go find ways to hustle and make money. 256 00:08:19,010 --> 00:08:19,220 Right? 257 00:08:19,220 --> 00:08:20,870 Which I think is super powerful to teach people. 258 00:08:20,990 --> 00:08:24,320 You planted the seed of hope and I think this is where it 259 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,440 starts, my own story that, that I've given to you before. 260 00:08:28,099 --> 00:08:30,560 When the seed of hope was planted for me, 261 00:08:30,739 --> 00:08:31,520 I'm eight years old. 262 00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:33,409 I'm a kid who couldn't even afford lunch. 263 00:08:33,439 --> 00:08:35,120 Incredibly poor, generally didn't know where my 264 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:36,500 parents were every day. 265 00:08:36,740 --> 00:08:39,949 Uh, before I would go to school, I'd be at the bus stop and 266 00:08:39,949 --> 00:08:42,890 one day I had scrounged up a quarter for whatever reason. 267 00:08:42,919 --> 00:08:44,240 Lunch was a dollar at the time. 268 00:08:44,270 --> 00:08:48,050 'cause I went to school in the stone Age and uh, I go across 269 00:08:48,050 --> 00:08:49,520 the street and I buy some no. 270 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:50,030 And later candies. 271 00:08:50,305 --> 00:08:51,685 With my quarter, because that's what I was 272 00:08:51,685 --> 00:08:52,375 gonna eat for the day. 273 00:08:52,375 --> 00:08:54,714 Like, that was my, my meal provision. 274 00:08:55,015 --> 00:08:57,984 I hop on the bus and a kid asked me if he can, uh, have one. 275 00:08:57,984 --> 00:08:59,785 I'm like, I can't, really can't, I'm not trying to 276 00:08:59,785 --> 00:09:01,885 be a jerk, but like, I literally, that was my lunch. 277 00:09:01,885 --> 00:09:04,285 And it's, it's, by the way, being poor is humiliating 278 00:09:04,614 --> 00:09:05,785 and one of things that, you know, they don't put 279 00:09:05,785 --> 00:09:06,564 in the, in the brochure. 280 00:09:06,714 --> 00:09:07,555 And so I was like, can't. 281 00:09:07,555 --> 00:09:09,594 He's like, well, what if I give you a quarter for one? 282 00:09:09,895 --> 00:09:10,224 Right? 283 00:09:10,285 --> 00:09:11,905 And I was like, fine. 284 00:09:12,444 --> 00:09:14,364 He gives me a quarter, I give him the liters, 285 00:09:14,364 --> 00:09:15,535 he hands 'em all back. 286 00:09:15,685 --> 00:09:16,555 It only takes one. 287 00:09:16,805 --> 00:09:18,845 And what he meant was I'll buy one of them for a quarter. 288 00:09:18,875 --> 00:09:19,415 One of them. 289 00:09:19,535 --> 00:09:19,655 Yeah. 290 00:09:19,655 --> 00:09:21,875 And somebody else overhears gonna say, Hey, can I buy one? 291 00:09:21,995 --> 00:09:24,155 And I'm like, yeah, he gives me a quarter and 292 00:09:24,155 --> 00:09:25,115 like my head explodes. 293 00:09:25,115 --> 00:09:27,095 Like I had no idea how commerce worked. 294 00:09:27,155 --> 00:09:29,645 The concept of arbitrage is born in Will's mind. 295 00:09:29,705 --> 00:09:30,095 But that was 296 00:09:30,095 --> 00:09:30,485 the moment. 297 00:09:30,515 --> 00:09:30,845 Right. 298 00:09:30,845 --> 00:09:33,485 And, and, and I, and I told you this before at lunch that day. 299 00:09:34,155 --> 00:09:37,185 I went to the lunch lady and I gave her the first dollar I'd 300 00:09:37,185 --> 00:09:38,925 ever earned to buy my own food. 301 00:09:38,925 --> 00:09:40,695 I mean, very appropriate for what we opened up with, 302 00:09:40,695 --> 00:09:43,755 which was Teach A Men to Fish, and it was game on 303 00:09:43,755 --> 00:09:44,925 from that point on, right? 304 00:09:44,925 --> 00:09:47,505 It was the first time I realized without anybody teaching me, 305 00:09:47,505 --> 00:09:50,775 I just fell into it that I could create my own outcome, 306 00:09:51,405 --> 00:09:52,665 and that is an incredibly. 307 00:09:53,250 --> 00:09:53,760 Powerful. 308 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:54,510 Incredibly. 309 00:09:54,510 --> 00:09:56,939 I mean, transformational changed my whole life on a 310 00:09:56,939 --> 00:09:58,770 random Tuesday that you'd have never guessed, right? 311 00:09:59,069 --> 00:10:02,490 And I realized at that moment that my condition in 312 00:10:02,490 --> 00:10:07,020 life didn't determine what I was allowed to do, and 313 00:10:07,260 --> 00:10:08,881 that created a seed of hope. 314 00:10:09,555 --> 00:10:10,305 That's all it did. 315 00:10:10,365 --> 00:10:11,475 It created a Seed of Hope. 316 00:10:11,895 --> 00:10:15,495 And Ryan, how many founders do we talk to that sold candy 317 00:10:15,495 --> 00:10:17,745 in school that, that shovel driveways, like literally 318 00:10:17,745 --> 00:10:19,454 had the, I had the lemonade wagon. 319 00:10:19,454 --> 00:10:20,265 Not the lemonade stand. 320 00:10:20,265 --> 00:10:20,355 Right. 321 00:10:20,355 --> 00:10:20,714 We all did. 322 00:10:20,714 --> 00:10:21,615 Same damn thing. 323 00:10:21,615 --> 00:10:21,915 Right. 324 00:10:21,944 --> 00:10:24,435 It's such a funny thing that it's, it's a, it's a lesson 325 00:10:24,435 --> 00:10:27,194 that gets learned so early in life, and again, just a seed. 326 00:10:27,194 --> 00:10:28,155 Not even necessarily a lesson. 327 00:10:28,275 --> 00:10:29,954 It's a lesson of sorts, but. 328 00:10:30,285 --> 00:10:32,355 I think that there's, there's something really interesting too 329 00:10:32,355 --> 00:10:35,595 that it, it tends to start early and it starts small, right? 330 00:10:35,595 --> 00:10:36,555 It doesn't take much. 331 00:10:36,555 --> 00:10:37,995 I think that's the thing, that's the point. 332 00:10:37,995 --> 00:10:39,314 It's so encouraging about this. 333 00:10:39,314 --> 00:10:40,935 It was a dollar like for somebody else who's listening 334 00:10:40,935 --> 00:10:42,645 and is saying like, yeah, I don't really buy into this. 335 00:10:42,645 --> 00:10:44,745 Like, it can start super small, right? 336 00:10:44,745 --> 00:10:45,314 That's the whole point. 337 00:10:45,314 --> 00:10:47,835 We're not saying turn somebody who's in, in what other words? 338 00:10:47,835 --> 00:10:50,715 Like a hopeless situation, resourceful situation into 339 00:10:50,715 --> 00:10:53,324 the next, you know, tech founder of, of a unicorn. 340 00:10:53,655 --> 00:10:54,824 Doesn't have to be that either. 341 00:10:54,824 --> 00:10:54,915 Right? 342 00:10:55,530 --> 00:10:58,560 You know, it was, it was selling candy, it was shoveling snow 343 00:10:58,980 --> 00:10:59,580 and that was the other thing. 344 00:10:59,580 --> 00:11:03,300 So going, going back to hope, I don't remember exactly. 345 00:11:03,540 --> 00:11:04,470 I do remember that. 346 00:11:04,470 --> 00:11:06,390 It wasn't like the first time I went out and I was 347 00:11:06,390 --> 00:11:08,370 like, Hey, does anybody wanna go shovel snow with me? 348 00:11:08,700 --> 00:11:10,320 And everybody's like, yeah, we'd love to. 349 00:11:10,470 --> 00:11:10,830 Right, right. 350 00:11:10,830 --> 00:11:13,680 It was after like the third or fourth time that I had gone 351 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:16,440 out and made a couple hundred dollars and they were like. 352 00:11:17,160 --> 00:11:18,420 There's some hope, right? 353 00:11:18,420 --> 00:11:21,329 Some hope was created like, I hope I make some money too. 354 00:11:21,329 --> 00:11:22,319 Like I will go do that. 355 00:11:22,680 --> 00:11:24,990 And, and again, it was just a little, little seed got planted 356 00:11:24,990 --> 00:11:27,480 and then that's where it starts to spread to others as well. 357 00:11:27,630 --> 00:11:27,990 It's where 358 00:11:27,990 --> 00:11:28,590 it spreads. 359 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:31,620 There's something called jealousy that is also a 360 00:11:31,620 --> 00:11:32,704 very powerful motivator. 361 00:11:33,630 --> 00:11:34,020 Super. 362 00:11:34,110 --> 00:11:34,800 We always see it. 363 00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:37,680 Now we see it like in the startup world where you see 364 00:11:37,680 --> 00:11:40,380 one of your, what we'd call your idiot friends get funded 365 00:11:40,740 --> 00:11:43,110 and you're like, dude, if that guy can do it, that guy's 366 00:11:43,110 --> 00:11:44,160 got idiot got funded, right? 367 00:11:44,220 --> 00:11:45,720 This can't be that hard, right? 368 00:11:46,230 --> 00:11:48,959 I always joke that the reason there's a hundred people on 369 00:11:48,959 --> 00:11:52,350 that list of CEOs was because of me, because they were all 370 00:11:52,350 --> 00:11:55,740 like, dude, if that guy can be a CEO, I can absolutely. 371 00:11:55,785 --> 00:11:57,885 I got this, I set the bar so low. 372 00:11:57,890 --> 00:11:58,935 What's, what's after CEO? 373 00:11:58,935 --> 00:11:59,324 I'm gonna do that, 374 00:12:01,334 --> 00:12:03,704 but I wanna talk about, you know, three different legs that 375 00:12:03,704 --> 00:12:04,814 this thing needs to stand on. 376 00:12:04,814 --> 00:12:07,005 But, but, but I don't wanna lose sight of the hope component. 377 00:12:07,185 --> 00:12:11,084 The reason, hope is so fundamental before everything 378 00:12:11,084 --> 00:12:14,204 else as a requirement is actually because. 379 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,280 We deal in the business of hope. 380 00:12:17,910 --> 00:12:19,949 And I don't mean that like in a greeting card way. 381 00:12:20,339 --> 00:12:24,569 I mean, if it weren't for hope, we wouldn't go pursue 382 00:12:24,569 --> 00:12:25,800 things that pay no money. 383 00:12:26,010 --> 00:12:26,189 Right? 384 00:12:26,189 --> 00:12:27,959 That would make no sense whatsoever. 385 00:12:28,170 --> 00:12:28,349 Right? 386 00:12:28,349 --> 00:12:30,689 Let me go build something that's never existed before to see 387 00:12:30,689 --> 00:12:33,089 if people want to buy it and make it enough fun that I want 388 00:12:33,089 --> 00:12:35,280 keep doing this for a long time until it's finally successful. 389 00:12:35,459 --> 00:12:36,030 Absolutely. 390 00:12:36,055 --> 00:12:36,275 No, 391 00:12:36,555 --> 00:12:38,040 um, there's no hope 392 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:38,640 behind that. 393 00:12:38,790 --> 00:12:38,969 Correct? 394 00:12:38,969 --> 00:12:39,479 It's very quickly. 395 00:12:40,020 --> 00:12:41,640 If we take away hope and reward. 396 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:42,150 Okay? 397 00:12:42,270 --> 00:12:44,219 Reward is kind of a given that if you do 398 00:12:44,219 --> 00:12:46,290 something extraordinary, that that's reward. 399 00:12:46,349 --> 00:12:48,510 Now, that doesn't exist everywhere, right? 400 00:12:48,569 --> 00:12:51,599 If you're in a society that fundamentally doesn't reward 401 00:12:51,599 --> 00:12:55,050 risk, or a culture that doesn't reward risk, you know, for 402 00:12:55,319 --> 00:12:58,500 a lot of cultures they are culturally biased against 403 00:12:58,500 --> 00:13:00,839 entrepreneurship because they don't believe in risk. 404 00:13:01,020 --> 00:13:03,839 I talk a, uh, to this, uh, a lot of my friends who 405 00:13:03,839 --> 00:13:06,510 are coming from like an Indian family or a nation 406 00:13:06,510 --> 00:13:07,800 family, they're like, risk. 407 00:13:07,829 --> 00:13:08,435 Risk is not. 408 00:13:09,275 --> 00:13:11,315 Like celebrated the way you guys celebrate 409 00:13:11,315 --> 00:13:16,625 it, you follow the, the most likely path with the shortest 410 00:13:16,625 --> 00:13:18,155 distance to the largest reward. 411 00:13:18,395 --> 00:13:18,605 Right. 412 00:13:18,605 --> 00:13:19,055 Hundred percent. 413 00:13:19,385 --> 00:13:19,595 Right. 414 00:13:19,595 --> 00:13:21,905 You follow the educational path and you become doctor, 415 00:13:22,025 --> 00:13:23,375 lawyer, engineer, right? 416 00:13:23,375 --> 00:13:23,855 And that's it. 417 00:13:24,005 --> 00:13:27,215 And to be fair, that's a hundred percent logical. 418 00:13:27,755 --> 00:13:29,165 Yeah, that's a hundred percent logical. 419 00:13:29,165 --> 00:13:29,800 That is a very. 420 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:34,829 Obvious and logical path to go, which is the problem, right? 421 00:13:34,890 --> 00:13:38,189 The problem being, in order to go down this path, you 422 00:13:38,189 --> 00:13:41,189 have to have the hope of doing the illogical and having 423 00:13:41,189 --> 00:13:42,180 that have a better outcome. 424 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:45,360 If you're not inspired, if you don't have that hope that 425 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:48,360 something better is gonna happen, you won't even try. 426 00:13:48,510 --> 00:13:52,020 We look at it and we say someone has to feel so 427 00:13:52,020 --> 00:13:56,280 good, so confident, if you will, or hopeful hope and 428 00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:58,860 confidence aren't, aren't the same thing, so hopeful. 429 00:13:59,415 --> 00:14:02,055 That what they're about to embark on, however small 430 00:14:02,235 --> 00:14:04,755 will have the reward they expect it to, that they're 431 00:14:04,755 --> 00:14:05,714 willing to do it at all. 432 00:14:05,954 --> 00:14:09,464 And given we're in the business of hope, that is, that is 433 00:14:09,464 --> 00:14:12,765 a form of capital that when you take it off the table, 434 00:14:12,885 --> 00:14:14,055 nothing even gets started. 435 00:14:14,115 --> 00:14:15,314 We don't even get to the parts where you need like 436 00:14:15,375 --> 00:14:16,635 dollar capital, right? 437 00:14:16,790 --> 00:14:21,225 If, if in a society, if in a community, if in a family hope 438 00:14:21,225 --> 00:14:23,490 has been withdrawn, you will never see entrepreneurship. 439 00:14:24,135 --> 00:14:24,555 Correct. 440 00:14:24,704 --> 00:14:24,915 Yeah. 441 00:14:24,915 --> 00:14:27,074 And, and I think again, like it's, as you said, it's, 442 00:14:27,074 --> 00:14:30,885 it is, it is a currency in the entrepreneurial space. 443 00:14:31,334 --> 00:14:33,465 Hope isn't fairy dust, it's fuel. 444 00:14:34,125 --> 00:14:34,305 Correct. 445 00:14:34,305 --> 00:14:36,465 It is literally what drives it at certain points, right? 446 00:14:36,675 --> 00:14:40,605 It is all we have right at the earliest stages and sometimes 447 00:14:40,665 --> 00:14:42,885 in the later stages when things aren't going well, it's all 448 00:14:42,885 --> 00:14:46,485 we've got and we have to be able to rely on that as a propellant. 449 00:14:47,415 --> 00:14:47,984 It's a powerful 450 00:14:47,984 --> 00:14:48,165 one. 451 00:14:48,255 --> 00:14:51,584 There's a line in the Matrix that, uh, Larry Fishburne 452 00:14:51,584 --> 00:14:55,484 gives as Morpheus Uhhuh, and he says, uh, or maybe it's 453 00:14:55,484 --> 00:14:57,555 not, I, I, I actually, I think it's, it's whoever the 454 00:14:57,555 --> 00:14:58,665 bad guy was, was at the time. 455 00:14:58,814 --> 00:15:02,204 And he says, uh, hope it's your, as a human race, it's 456 00:15:02,204 --> 00:15:03,285 your greatest weakness. 457 00:15:03,435 --> 00:15:04,484 It's your greatest strength. 458 00:15:04,604 --> 00:15:04,875 Right? 459 00:15:04,875 --> 00:15:06,314 And I, I thought that was, that was such a 460 00:15:06,555 --> 00:15:07,574 perfectly delivered line. 461 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:08,580 Yep. 462 00:15:08,790 --> 00:15:09,960 And it's so true. 463 00:15:10,260 --> 00:15:12,480 As founders, it's our greatest strength and weakness. 464 00:15:12,870 --> 00:15:14,520 It's our greatest strength for all the obvious reasons 465 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:17,010 we just described, and it's our greatest weakness because 466 00:15:17,010 --> 00:15:20,430 it makes us do dumb shit with a smile on our face. 467 00:15:20,670 --> 00:15:20,910 Right? 468 00:15:20,910 --> 00:15:21,060 Yeah. 469 00:15:21,060 --> 00:15:23,790 It makes us take ridiculous amounts of risk that can 470 00:15:23,790 --> 00:15:25,560 ruin us with excitement. 471 00:15:26,220 --> 00:15:29,340 And again, that is such a powerful component. 472 00:15:29,550 --> 00:15:31,470 Now let's talk about how you, you, you get 473 00:15:31,470 --> 00:15:32,400 that flywheel going. 474 00:15:32,850 --> 00:15:33,120 Yeah. 475 00:15:33,390 --> 00:15:34,950 So I think that's, I think that's super important because 476 00:15:34,950 --> 00:15:36,510 I think as, as people are listening now, they're like, 477 00:15:36,510 --> 00:15:39,540 okay, a great, but like, where does it come from? 478 00:15:39,780 --> 00:15:40,050 Right. 479 00:15:40,170 --> 00:15:40,771 It comes in in. 480 00:15:41,485 --> 00:15:43,525 Tiny, tiny, uh, successes. 481 00:15:43,735 --> 00:15:43,885 Yep. 482 00:15:43,885 --> 00:15:46,795 It's that kid selling candy as that, that, that expands. 483 00:15:46,795 --> 00:15:50,995 And so I, I say, look for very tiny wins as early as possible 484 00:15:51,145 --> 00:15:53,425 tied to your own outcome. 485 00:15:53,425 --> 00:15:53,665 Yes. 486 00:15:53,875 --> 00:15:54,145 Okay. 487 00:15:54,355 --> 00:15:56,755 So if I say, Hey, you got a job and you got paid. 488 00:15:56,935 --> 00:15:59,605 Nothing wrong with that, but let's say you, you're 489 00:15:59,605 --> 00:16:00,595 15 years old, right? 490 00:16:00,595 --> 00:16:02,365 You get a job and you get paid, and you understand the 491 00:16:02,365 --> 00:16:03,714 value of work and reward. 492 00:16:03,805 --> 00:16:04,765 Incredibly powerful. 493 00:16:05,125 --> 00:16:08,694 But it's different than you created that work. 494 00:16:09,660 --> 00:16:09,900 Yep. 495 00:16:10,170 --> 00:16:12,390 In your case, it, uh, it, it would've been in, in 496 00:16:12,390 --> 00:16:14,850 looking for an opportunity to shovel a driveway, right? 497 00:16:14,850 --> 00:16:15,000 Yeah. 498 00:16:15,060 --> 00:16:17,280 That you could get paid for, and then doing it on your own 499 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:19,560 accord, you know, deliver, developing customers, having 500 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:20,850 a product, pricing, et cetera. 501 00:16:21,180 --> 00:16:23,310 I just thought one of the funniest examples of, of 502 00:16:23,310 --> 00:16:26,730 earliest early, early, early entrepreneurship, we carried 503 00:16:26,730 --> 00:16:30,300 our canoe, three quarters of the mile down state, route 504 00:16:30,305 --> 00:16:32,670 42 to get to Deer Creek. 505 00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:35,790 We throw it in Deer Creek to float inside. 506 00:16:35,850 --> 00:16:39,420 At the local golf course and we filled that thing 507 00:16:39,420 --> 00:16:42,060 with, I think it was like, I dunno, it was like 1800 508 00:16:42,060 --> 00:16:44,670 or 2000 golf balls that had been hit into the river. 509 00:16:44,670 --> 00:16:47,010 We just dredged the river for hours on end. 510 00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:47,520 I love it. 511 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:49,860 Filled this thing up and then we had to call my dad. 512 00:16:50,010 --> 00:16:51,000 Actually one walked home. 513 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:51,810 There was no way to call dad. 514 00:16:51,810 --> 00:16:54,660 I had to walk home, ask my dad to come and bring the pickup. 515 00:16:55,185 --> 00:16:56,715 So we could haul it back because we were like, we 516 00:16:56,715 --> 00:16:59,835 carried the canoe over when it had 2000 golf balls in it. 517 00:16:59,835 --> 00:17:00,945 We could no longer carry it anywhere. 518 00:17:01,905 --> 00:17:04,275 Now we've got, we've got all the gold, we can't get it home. 519 00:17:04,365 --> 00:17:07,095 But it's so funny like where you just go looking for 520 00:17:07,095 --> 00:17:08,355 these things and, and Right. 521 00:17:08,355 --> 00:17:10,785 I think there's something fun there because like that one was 522 00:17:10,785 --> 00:17:13,905 pure hope we did all of that work to go find out if there 523 00:17:13,905 --> 00:17:15,105 were even golf balls in there. 524 00:17:15,105 --> 00:17:16,575 Mean, yeah, we'd seen some bad golfers. 525 00:17:16,575 --> 00:17:18,555 We knew there was gonna be some balls in there, but like. 526 00:17:19,094 --> 00:17:22,304 Out in the middle of nowhere at London, Ohio, and we are 527 00:17:22,304 --> 00:17:24,224 carrying a canoe down a highway. 528 00:17:24,464 --> 00:17:25,574 Hope was heavily involved there. 529 00:17:25,574 --> 00:17:27,135 Like, I hope we go find some stuff. 530 00:17:27,464 --> 00:17:27,645 Right? 531 00:17:27,645 --> 00:17:31,935 It's that mix of like hope and adventure and that to some 532 00:17:31,935 --> 00:17:32,770 degree, like a little bit of. 533 00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:36,389 Childlike naivete just to say like, let's just go do this. 534 00:17:36,389 --> 00:17:37,080 Let's try it. 535 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:37,169 Right? 536 00:17:37,169 --> 00:17:39,719 I hope it'll work out, but let's try it either way. 537 00:17:39,870 --> 00:17:41,429 There's something really powerful about 538 00:17:41,429 --> 00:17:41,610 that. 539 00:17:41,669 --> 00:17:45,060 And the trick there is you just need to inspire one 540 00:17:45,060 --> 00:17:49,170 Ryan, who then ins, inspires and, and cajoles and. 541 00:17:49,310 --> 00:17:50,659 10 of his friends. 542 00:17:50,750 --> 00:17:51,470 That's how Yep. 543 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:54,080 I inspired one Joey and one Nick, and that's correct. 544 00:17:54,230 --> 00:17:54,649 That's it. 545 00:17:54,770 --> 00:17:55,129 Right. 546 00:17:55,370 --> 00:17:58,070 Um, I think the mistake is that like, you know, we 547 00:17:58,070 --> 00:18:00,409 have a hundred kids in a, in a classroom, for example, 548 00:18:00,470 --> 00:18:02,480 and all a hundred kids have to become entrepreneurs. 549 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:02,840 No. 550 00:18:02,899 --> 00:18:04,490 They technically you just have to get it right with 551 00:18:04,490 --> 00:18:06,050 one or two if that Yep. 552 00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:09,590 And they will pull enough other people along that that's how 553 00:18:09,590 --> 00:18:11,090 the flywheel, uh, gets created. 554 00:18:11,389 --> 00:18:13,250 Now the other thing that, that, that, uh, you know, 555 00:18:13,310 --> 00:18:17,000 happens when we, when we create that flywheel, is those 556 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:18,290 people go on to have kids. 557 00:18:18,975 --> 00:18:22,785 Who are now inspired and educated with that hope you 558 00:18:22,785 --> 00:18:25,545 know, our children, Ryan, are inspired and educated 559 00:18:25,545 --> 00:18:30,105 with that hope, which has so much value because 560 00:18:30,135 --> 00:18:30,795 you're literally grooming. 561 00:18:31,965 --> 00:18:34,455 The next group of founders from Day Zero. 562 00:18:34,785 --> 00:18:36,015 Incredibly powerful. 563 00:18:36,375 --> 00:18:39,435 And, and what I love about this, this mission, and again, 564 00:18:39,435 --> 00:18:43,215 this is very ingrained in what we do@startups.com, is that 565 00:18:43,245 --> 00:18:46,305 you're basically saying, I only need to be right as far 566 00:18:46,305 --> 00:18:48,315 as, you know, grooming this next ground one in a hundred 567 00:18:48,315 --> 00:18:49,425 times, but when I'm right. 568 00:18:49,455 --> 00:18:49,575 Yep. 569 00:18:49,785 --> 00:18:51,440 It'll create a thousand people behind it. 570 00:18:52,260 --> 00:18:53,880 That's the part that I think people miss. 571 00:18:53,970 --> 00:18:54,180 Right? 572 00:18:54,180 --> 00:18:55,590 It's a germinating effect. 573 00:18:55,830 --> 00:18:57,450 But we, we need to start early. 574 00:18:57,660 --> 00:19:00,450 We need to get those early wins, you know, with with kids early. 575 00:19:00,450 --> 00:19:02,520 It doesn't have to be kids, but it's a great way to start. 576 00:19:02,665 --> 00:19:02,985 I understand. 577 00:19:02,985 --> 00:19:06,840 And even small wins are big wins, even the small wins. 578 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:09,390 You know, Ryan, you and I were talking a while back, you were 579 00:19:09,390 --> 00:19:12,060 saying how like it's the person in Guatemala with a food cart 580 00:19:12,330 --> 00:19:14,520 and then all of a sudden they come home and they had more 581 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,160 money than they had yesterday or income at all and people go, 582 00:19:17,220 --> 00:19:19,980 uh huh Food cart, not Microsoft. 583 00:19:20,639 --> 00:19:20,820 Nope. 584 00:19:20,820 --> 00:19:21,210 Fucking food 585 00:19:21,210 --> 00:19:21,540 cart. 586 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:21,780 Right. 587 00:19:22,745 --> 00:19:24,235 It's, it's the, it's amazing the fence. 588 00:19:24,235 --> 00:19:24,395 Right. 589 00:19:24,450 --> 00:19:28,110 Figure out what's gonna take me from where I am now to a place 590 00:19:28,110 --> 00:19:29,280 that's significantly better. 591 00:19:29,550 --> 00:19:29,730 Right. 592 00:19:29,730 --> 00:19:29,909 Right. 593 00:19:30,524 --> 00:19:32,774 It's not a life of luxury, but it's a life where there 594 00:19:32,774 --> 00:19:35,294 was steady income and they could put food on the table 595 00:19:35,355 --> 00:19:36,645 every day without question. 596 00:19:36,855 --> 00:19:37,485 That's a big deal. 597 00:19:37,635 --> 00:19:39,554 There are two very different paychecks. 598 00:19:39,554 --> 00:19:41,925 There's a paycheck you get from your employer and there's a 599 00:19:41,925 --> 00:19:43,365 paycheck you get from yourself. 600 00:19:43,425 --> 00:19:43,814 Okay? 601 00:19:43,875 --> 00:19:47,205 There's a pride that comes with the paycheck that 602 00:19:47,205 --> 00:19:48,615 you create for yourself. 603 00:19:48,735 --> 00:19:51,435 Exactly how you felt when you came home from a long day of 604 00:19:51,435 --> 00:19:53,145 being a kid shoveling driveways. 605 00:19:53,294 --> 00:19:56,264 You were tired, but that money in your pocket was money. 606 00:19:56,580 --> 00:19:57,000 Correct. 607 00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:57,360 Right. 608 00:19:57,570 --> 00:19:57,659 Yeah. 609 00:19:57,659 --> 00:19:58,591 But it was money you created. 610 00:19:58,591 --> 00:19:59,790 Still wake up the next morning hoping it's 611 00:19:59,790 --> 00:20:01,020 gonna snow again, dude. 612 00:20:01,020 --> 00:20:01,320 Right. 613 00:20:01,470 --> 00:20:04,139 That dollar I gave to the lunch lady was the best dollar 614 00:20:04,139 --> 00:20:05,190 I've ever spent in my life. 615 00:20:05,220 --> 00:20:05,429 Right? 616 00:20:05,490 --> 00:20:06,480 Not 'cause I could get lunch. 617 00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:07,889 That was actually pretty cool too. 618 00:20:07,980 --> 00:20:10,169 But because it, it was my dollar and I knew I could 619 00:20:10,169 --> 00:20:11,340 do, I could make another one. 620 00:20:11,399 --> 00:20:11,760 Remember 621 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:11,879 that 622 00:20:11,879 --> 00:20:12,000 used 623 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,820 to be a thing like you would see the first dollar, right? 624 00:20:15,179 --> 00:20:15,780 In businesses. 625 00:20:15,780 --> 00:20:16,315 You'd go into a business. 626 00:20:16,315 --> 00:20:16,475 Yeah. 627 00:20:16,475 --> 00:20:18,330 You'd sit up on the, on the wall behind, right? 628 00:20:18,330 --> 00:20:19,740 There would be the first doll on the wall. 629 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:20,370 Why? 630 00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:23,490 Because it took a lot of work to get to that first dollar 631 00:20:23,490 --> 00:20:25,230 and getting it felt amazing. 632 00:20:25,230 --> 00:20:25,410 Right? 633 00:20:25,410 --> 00:20:26,970 And it wasn't that it was a dollar, right? 634 00:20:26,970 --> 00:20:28,680 It's not about the amount, it's not about the right. 635 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:32,790 It, it's such a symbolic thing, um, that goes, goes so 636 00:20:32,790 --> 00:20:36,600 deep into the, the experience that that individual had 637 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:37,770 to get to that point. 638 00:20:37,770 --> 00:20:37,980 Right. 639 00:20:37,980 --> 00:20:40,440 And then to know, because it's, it's a fundamental 640 00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:41,640 representation of that hope. 641 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:43,200 We converted hope to pride. 642 00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:44,250 We converted, 643 00:20:44,310 --> 00:20:44,940 converted hope 644 00:20:44,940 --> 00:20:45,270 to 645 00:20:45,630 --> 00:20:47,580 when somebody framed that dollar. 646 00:20:48,105 --> 00:20:50,295 They, they were proud of their accomplishment as 647 00:20:50,295 --> 00:20:51,165 they should be, by the way. 648 00:20:51,165 --> 00:20:51,255 Yes. 649 00:20:51,645 --> 00:20:52,665 Proud of the accomplishment. 650 00:20:53,145 --> 00:20:55,215 And it had been recognized by someone else, right? 651 00:20:55,215 --> 00:20:56,415 Someone gave them that dollar. 652 00:20:56,415 --> 00:20:58,275 Someone said, you've done something of enough 653 00:20:58,275 --> 00:20:59,085 value on your own. 654 00:20:59,909 --> 00:21:01,139 I'm gonna compensate you for it. 655 00:21:01,350 --> 00:21:01,860 And if 656 00:21:01,860 --> 00:21:06,179 hope is contagious, pride is the bazooka cannon of contagion 657 00:21:06,209 --> 00:21:08,909 because it shows everyone else that it can be done 658 00:21:09,090 --> 00:21:11,639 and that it should be done, which is incredibly powerful. 659 00:21:11,669 --> 00:21:15,030 So let's say that that hope is the first leg, if, if not the 660 00:21:15,030 --> 00:21:18,719 first phase, that if we don't have hope, nothing gets started. 661 00:21:18,719 --> 00:21:20,040 Like that is the beginning of the flywheel. 662 00:21:20,100 --> 00:21:20,310 Okay. 663 00:21:20,610 --> 00:21:22,110 But the other side of it I thought was kind of 664 00:21:22,110 --> 00:21:26,504 interesting was this idea of a willingness to fail. 665 00:21:28,365 --> 00:21:30,825 Let's say that this is a second lick and people say, well, 666 00:21:30,825 --> 00:21:32,565 obviously in entrepreneurship it's not like just taking 667 00:21:32,565 --> 00:21:34,815 a job where you are going to get paid, you're gonna 668 00:21:34,815 --> 00:21:37,605 do a lot of work and you may fail and not get paid. 669 00:21:38,055 --> 00:21:40,905 But I think what people miss when they, they hear about 670 00:21:40,905 --> 00:21:43,485 that is people who are broke. 671 00:21:44,010 --> 00:21:45,690 Can't afford to fail. 672 00:21:45,810 --> 00:21:46,050 Yeah. 673 00:21:46,050 --> 00:21:47,460 They, they don't realize that the reason a lot of people 674 00:21:47,460 --> 00:21:49,889 can't get into entrepreneurship, you know, folks that, that are 675 00:21:49,889 --> 00:21:53,010 in some level of poverty or low income, uh, situation is 676 00:21:53,010 --> 00:21:54,780 that failure is not an option. 677 00:21:55,230 --> 00:21:55,290 Yeah. 678 00:21:55,290 --> 00:21:58,230 And people used to say to me all the time, this is weird for 679 00:21:58,230 --> 00:22:01,590 me to even say this is actually on a magazine cover where I'm 680 00:22:01,590 --> 00:22:02,850 on the cover of the magazine. 681 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:03,389 Right. 682 00:22:03,750 --> 00:22:07,470 And it said, um, something to the effect of like, something. 683 00:22:08,230 --> 00:22:09,640 Two, something to fail. 684 00:22:09,790 --> 00:22:12,520 Uh, I I, I can't remember what, what the, the phrase was. 685 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:12,910 I should know. 686 00:22:12,910 --> 00:22:14,290 'cause it was on like the cover of this magazine 687 00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:15,760 wasn't nothing to lose. 688 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:16,690 Nothing to lose. 689 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:16,990 Right. 690 00:22:16,990 --> 00:22:17,860 You know, something like that. 691 00:22:17,860 --> 00:22:18,070 Right. 692 00:22:18,100 --> 00:22:18,340 Yep. 693 00:22:18,670 --> 00:22:22,150 And I think the idea was that I was so young and I was so broke 694 00:22:22,210 --> 00:22:23,620 that I had nothing to lose. 695 00:22:24,190 --> 00:22:24,310 Yeah. 696 00:22:24,340 --> 00:22:27,370 I think that is such a gross misunderstanding. 697 00:22:28,455 --> 00:22:30,945 Of what being underprivileged means. 698 00:22:30,975 --> 00:22:31,455 Yeah. 699 00:22:31,485 --> 00:22:35,385 Dude, if I failed, I could not pay for rent. 700 00:22:35,415 --> 00:22:36,315 I had no home. 701 00:22:36,495 --> 00:22:36,796 Right, right. 702 00:22:36,810 --> 00:22:37,889 I can't pay for food. 703 00:22:37,889 --> 00:22:38,235 I couldn't buy food. 704 00:22:38,235 --> 00:22:38,774 I can't. 705 00:22:38,774 --> 00:22:39,730 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 706 00:22:40,575 --> 00:22:40,875 Like, 707 00:22:40,995 --> 00:22:42,645 yeah, there's a lot to lose. 708 00:22:42,705 --> 00:22:43,456 There's, there's a lot to lose. 709 00:22:43,462 --> 00:22:43,810 There's way more 710 00:22:43,995 --> 00:22:44,535 to lose. 711 00:22:44,985 --> 00:22:47,264 And I think what's missing, and again, this, this kind 712 00:22:47,264 --> 00:22:48,285 of second leg in the thing. 713 00:22:49,140 --> 00:22:52,740 Is understanding that folks who are broke, I'm just gonna 714 00:22:52,740 --> 00:22:55,140 You use, use that as, as the, the, uh, overall term. 715 00:22:55,140 --> 00:22:55,230 Yep. 716 00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:56,430 Cannot afford to fail. 717 00:22:56,430 --> 00:22:56,520 Right. 718 00:22:57,030 --> 00:22:58,470 And therefore they can't afford to try. 719 00:22:58,890 --> 00:22:59,460 That's the thing. 720 00:22:59,700 --> 00:23:00,000 Right. 721 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,700 Without any kind of gap between you and the ground. 722 00:23:02,940 --> 00:23:06,510 Like it's there, there's no room for risk there really, 723 00:23:06,510 --> 00:23:09,270 there's, there's just no space for risk at that point. 724 00:23:09,690 --> 00:23:11,010 And, and that's a tough one to get around. 725 00:23:11,925 --> 00:23:12,945 It's a very tough one to get around. 726 00:23:13,305 --> 00:23:15,975 You know, something that's really funny about everything 727 00:23:15,975 --> 00:23:19,455 we talk about here is that none of it is new. 728 00:23:19,695 --> 00:23:22,275 Everything you're dealing with right now has been done a 729 00:23:22,275 --> 00:23:26,115 thousand times before you, which means the answer already exists. 730 00:23:26,115 --> 00:23:28,005 You may just not know it, but that's okay. 731 00:23:28,325 --> 00:23:30,185 That's kind of what we're here to do. 732 00:23:30,185 --> 00:23:32,825 We talk about this stuff on the show, but we actually 733 00:23:32,825 --> 00:23:36,965 solve these problems all dayLong@groups.startups.com. 734 00:23:37,025 --> 00:23:40,325 So if any of this sounds familiar, stop guessing 735 00:23:40,385 --> 00:23:43,355 about what to do, let us just give you the answers to the 736 00:23:43,355 --> 00:23:44,705 test and be done with it. 737 00:23:45,425 --> 00:23:47,585 You could go back and you could say, well, hold on a 738 00:23:47,585 --> 00:23:49,775 sec. That doesn't all hold up, because many of the 739 00:23:49,775 --> 00:23:53,045 immigrants that came to America, um, came with nothing and 740 00:23:53,045 --> 00:23:54,305 started phenomenal companies. 741 00:23:55,005 --> 00:23:57,285 And it's like, yes, there is a version where you can 742 00:23:57,285 --> 00:24:00,105 say, I have no choice to be suc, but to be successful. 743 00:24:00,345 --> 00:24:02,115 But you didn't have that choice. 744 00:24:02,355 --> 00:24:04,125 It's not like I chose to fail. 745 00:24:04,500 --> 00:24:04,800 Right. 746 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:07,470 So saying you, you didn't have any choice but to be successful. 747 00:24:07,740 --> 00:24:11,040 The implication, which isn't entirely wrong, is that I 748 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:12,690 just had to keep grinding. 749 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:15,630 Like I, I, I just couldn't stop, uh, stop myself. 750 00:24:15,630 --> 00:24:18,390 I couldn't give up because I didn't have anywhere else to go. 751 00:24:18,750 --> 00:24:20,760 Now there's some truth to that, but that doesn't 752 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:21,930 guarantee success. 753 00:24:22,170 --> 00:24:24,780 You couldn't have that same condition and fail being at rock 754 00:24:24,780 --> 00:24:27,360 bottom where there's nowhere to go but up, doesn't 755 00:24:27,360 --> 00:24:28,530 guarantee that you go up. 756 00:24:28,620 --> 00:24:31,950 You can also just risk and stay at rock bottom, right? 757 00:24:31,950 --> 00:24:32,100 Correct. 758 00:24:32,100 --> 00:24:33,660 You can just, you can if nothing else. 759 00:24:34,380 --> 00:24:37,245 Risking in that sense, when there's no safety net it, 760 00:24:37,250 --> 00:24:39,300 it can actually absolutely make a bad situation worse. 761 00:24:39,300 --> 00:24:41,040 Let's just say it's already wor as bad as it could 762 00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:43,800 possibly be, it's also gonna guarantee that you stay there. 763 00:24:44,100 --> 00:24:44,610 Correct? 764 00:24:44,940 --> 00:24:45,210 Right. 765 00:24:45,210 --> 00:24:46,530 I, I'll give you some examples. 766 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:51,270 I had so little money that a meaningful capital cost, and 767 00:24:51,270 --> 00:24:54,900 I'm talking like a hundred dollars, was inaccessible to me. 768 00:24:55,544 --> 00:24:58,695 I remember going to the ATM to, to the Chase Bankers Bank one 769 00:24:58,695 --> 00:25:00,524 back then, uh, ATM on campus. 770 00:25:00,764 --> 00:25:03,764 And I needed to get like $16 'cause I knew that 771 00:25:03,764 --> 00:25:05,564 that's exactly how much I had in my bank account. 772 00:25:05,715 --> 00:25:08,415 But the ATM only dispensed $20 bills and I could 773 00:25:08,415 --> 00:25:09,165 not get my money. 774 00:25:09,165 --> 00:25:10,335 I was so pissed off. 775 00:25:10,335 --> 00:25:13,125 I I couldn't get my $16 out, you know, out of 776 00:25:13,125 --> 00:25:14,925 the bank that I needed keeping my fortune from me. 777 00:25:15,524 --> 00:25:15,735 Correct. 778 00:25:16,095 --> 00:25:16,365 Right. 779 00:25:16,570 --> 00:25:18,284 And, and so I guess what I'm saying is, at 780 00:25:18,284 --> 00:25:20,054 that level, you are so. 781 00:25:20,590 --> 00:25:22,330 Fundamentally constrained. 782 00:25:22,330 --> 00:25:22,390 Yeah. 783 00:25:22,750 --> 00:25:25,390 That it's actually just way hard to be successful. 784 00:25:25,390 --> 00:25:28,210 Yeah, because like, you can't go without a paycheck. 785 00:25:28,390 --> 00:25:29,170 I'll give you an example. 786 00:25:29,470 --> 00:25:31,510 You know, I'm building a house and all of the different 787 00:25:31,510 --> 00:25:33,970 trades that, that are, that are working, like the electricians, 788 00:25:33,970 --> 00:25:37,000 the, um, concrete guys, whatever, are all floating 789 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,430 some payroll capital with their, with their crews, 790 00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:43,120 some, uh, capital for the, the supplies, materials until the 791 00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:44,770 job is done and they get paid. 792 00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:46,420 Well, that's a luxury. 793 00:25:46,754 --> 00:25:48,885 To be able to have access to enough credit. 794 00:25:48,885 --> 00:25:48,975 Yep. 795 00:25:48,979 --> 00:25:49,110 Yep. 796 00:25:49,115 --> 00:25:51,435 That you can pay someone this week, even though 797 00:25:51,435 --> 00:25:52,635 you're gonna get paid later. 798 00:25:52,844 --> 00:25:55,905 Poor people don't have those fundamental luxuries, right? 799 00:25:55,909 --> 00:25:58,094 They, they don't have access to credit, they don't have access 800 00:25:58,094 --> 00:26:01,514 to capital, and by virtue of that, they don't have that 801 00:26:01,514 --> 00:26:03,435 pad, that luxury of failure. 802 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,840 Which prevents them, fundamentally prevents them 803 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,570 not only from, from uh, getting started, but from being 804 00:26:09,570 --> 00:26:12,600 successful, even if they are started, I think it's very 805 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:14,760 misunderstood when folks are saying, nah, let's just, let's 806 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:15,780 help these poor people out. 807 00:26:15,780 --> 00:26:18,450 You know, like, like in, in a very like, kind of sardonic way. 808 00:26:18,450 --> 00:26:21,360 Like, yes, you want to help them, but dude, if you don't 809 00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:24,930 understand their condition, you're not being very helpful. 810 00:26:25,230 --> 00:26:25,410 Right. 811 00:26:25,410 --> 00:26:25,980 What I'd say. 812 00:26:26,385 --> 00:26:28,845 If you give, you can give people, like, let's say the 813 00:26:28,845 --> 00:26:31,665 understanding, the motivation, the hope, all of that stuff. 814 00:26:32,295 --> 00:26:34,725 But if they're still in a position where risk is a 815 00:26:34,725 --> 00:26:36,465 luxury they can't afford. 816 00:26:36,675 --> 00:26:36,765 Yeah. 817 00:26:36,765 --> 00:26:38,445 Especially if family can move forward, right? 818 00:26:38,445 --> 00:26:38,565 Yeah. 819 00:26:38,565 --> 00:26:40,035 It's, it's a hell of an anchor. 820 00:26:40,485 --> 00:26:43,095 And so, you know, when we talk about what do you do 821 00:26:43,095 --> 00:26:44,055 in that situation, right? 822 00:26:44,085 --> 00:26:48,165 Okay, you wanna help these folks out, but they actually 823 00:26:48,165 --> 00:26:50,055 don't have the luxury of doing what you're asking 824 00:26:50,055 --> 00:26:51,120 them to do, which is mm-hmm. 825 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:52,035 Which is assumed risk. 826 00:26:52,395 --> 00:26:54,585 You've gotta provide some level of cushion. 827 00:26:54,585 --> 00:26:56,325 That's usually where capital comes in. 828 00:26:56,565 --> 00:26:59,235 Ryan, I've been banging my head against the wall 829 00:26:59,235 --> 00:27:01,665 for decades thinking about what this looks like. 830 00:27:01,665 --> 00:27:03,465 So I, I wanna beat this up a little bit with you. 831 00:27:03,765 --> 00:27:06,975 There's kind of two schools of thought on this one. 832 00:27:07,155 --> 00:27:07,455 Okay. 833 00:27:07,460 --> 00:27:09,435 A, a as I've seen it, and I'm sure there are others, 834 00:27:09,585 --> 00:27:12,375 one is some form of, of entrepreneur welfare. 835 00:27:13,230 --> 00:27:15,630 Vis-a-vis, you know, some sort of grant program or 836 00:27:15,630 --> 00:27:18,840 some like universal basic income, uh, which I know 837 00:27:19,020 --> 00:27:22,950 is a, is a KG topic, but UBI for entrepreneurship. 838 00:27:23,100 --> 00:27:23,640 Okay, sure. 839 00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:28,050 So some sort of like, Hey, let's, let's give that person 840 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:29,400 just a little bit more net. 841 00:27:29,605 --> 00:27:31,135 In order for them to get further. 842 00:27:31,315 --> 00:27:31,465 Yep. 843 00:27:31,465 --> 00:27:33,295 I don't think a lot of people would argue if, if they could 844 00:27:33,295 --> 00:27:34,405 see it being used properly. 845 00:27:34,465 --> 00:27:34,765 Okay. 846 00:27:34,885 --> 00:27:38,455 The other side of it, of course, is just straight up like venture 847 00:27:38,455 --> 00:27:39,985 capital for, for low income. 848 00:27:40,255 --> 00:27:40,525 Right. 849 00:27:40,525 --> 00:27:42,895 Like, um, this isn't a grant, this isn't like, you 850 00:27:42,895 --> 00:27:43,735 know, you don't pay it back. 851 00:27:43,735 --> 00:27:44,995 It's, it's not welfare. 852 00:27:45,740 --> 00:27:48,530 Is an actual investment and you have to pay it 853 00:27:48,530 --> 00:27:49,790 back or said differently. 854 00:27:49,970 --> 00:27:51,680 Like people don't pay venture capitalists back 855 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:53,000 unless there's a, an upside. 856 00:27:53,270 --> 00:27:55,760 But you'd have to see enough return. 857 00:27:55,820 --> 00:27:57,110 You know, it's kinda where like social impact 858 00:27:57,110 --> 00:27:57,980 investing comes on debt. 859 00:27:57,980 --> 00:27:59,330 It could go venture debt to be able to make that work, right? 860 00:27:59,390 --> 00:28:00,530 It could do something debt, venture debt kind of, it 861 00:28:00,530 --> 00:28:02,091 could be the form of loan, could be Right, right. 862 00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:04,880 When you look at those two versions, like, I hate to 863 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:06,860 use the term welfare 'cause that's got such a stink to 864 00:28:06,860 --> 00:28:09,740 it, but, you know, some sort of support program, social 865 00:28:09,740 --> 00:28:12,320 safety net or you know, social, and I'm not trying to just 866 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:14,240 rebrand it, I'm just saying we aren't just talking about. 867 00:28:14,580 --> 00:28:15,720 Paying people to not work. 868 00:28:15,899 --> 00:28:17,430 We're paying people to work like hell. 869 00:28:17,790 --> 00:28:20,129 And then the other side of it is, uh, an investment with 870 00:28:20,129 --> 00:28:21,360 an expectation or return. 871 00:28:21,870 --> 00:28:23,430 How do you see those two camps? 872 00:28:23,430 --> 00:28:25,500 Like, you know, which one kind of appeals to you differently? 873 00:28:25,500 --> 00:28:27,240 Like, you know, where do you see them, them working differently? 874 00:28:27,750 --> 00:28:29,310 Challenge is because we're trying to talk about, 875 00:28:29,315 --> 00:28:30,780 we're, we're trying to talk about how to elevate people 876 00:28:30,780 --> 00:28:32,040 out of the risk component 877 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:32,190 of it, 878 00:28:32,220 --> 00:28:32,430 right. 879 00:28:32,435 --> 00:28:35,129 How you, how to capitalize them so that they can pay the, 880 00:28:35,190 --> 00:28:38,010 the, the workers and materials on the concrete job so they 881 00:28:38,010 --> 00:28:39,060 can do the next concrete job. 882 00:28:39,090 --> 00:28:40,985 And again, I'm, I'm being very simple, but like Yeah, yeah. 883 00:28:40,990 --> 00:28:43,500 If it's something that like, so if it's that specific, right? 884 00:28:43,500 --> 00:28:45,840 So if you can get into a situation where like they're, 885 00:28:46,350 --> 00:28:48,300 let's not say there's a guarantee, but like, it, 886 00:28:48,300 --> 00:28:50,460 it's almost factor financing at that point, right? 887 00:28:50,465 --> 00:28:50,745 Mm-hmm. 888 00:28:50,830 --> 00:28:52,740 Like you're, you're just essentially saying like. 889 00:28:53,129 --> 00:28:55,710 We're gonna, we're gonna be able to give you money, uh, 890 00:28:55,710 --> 00:28:57,149 to, to overcome cashflow gaps. 891 00:28:57,149 --> 00:28:57,720 That's one thing. 892 00:28:58,169 --> 00:29:01,020 If you're saying venture debt at a larger level, where it's 893 00:29:01,020 --> 00:29:05,159 gonna be based on some further down the road, possibly type 894 00:29:05,159 --> 00:29:07,409 outcome, that still feels like, depending on how it's 895 00:29:07,409 --> 00:29:10,409 structured, that could still have some, some risk to it. 896 00:29:10,830 --> 00:29:11,190 Right. 897 00:29:11,310 --> 00:29:11,460 Right. 898 00:29:11,460 --> 00:29:13,020 For the fact that may not be looked at as, 899 00:29:13,020 --> 00:29:14,040 as completely unrisky. 900 00:29:14,399 --> 00:29:16,980 Maybe I'm just becoming more of a socialist as I, 901 00:29:16,980 --> 00:29:21,090 as I get older, but like I do feel like providing some 902 00:29:21,090 --> 00:29:25,365 sort of a. Minimum basic income for, for founders. 903 00:29:25,544 --> 00:29:28,034 Again, minimum basic income for founders based on other 904 00:29:28,034 --> 00:29:29,120 socioeconomic factors, right? 905 00:29:29,125 --> 00:29:29,145 Right. 906 00:29:29,145 --> 00:29:31,095 The same thing you have to do to go through like fafsa, right? 907 00:29:31,095 --> 00:29:32,774 You have to go through and, and, and file your federal 908 00:29:32,774 --> 00:29:34,185 form for financial aid, right? 909 00:29:34,185 --> 00:29:35,865 If you qualify, you get this much, and here, 910 00:29:35,865 --> 00:29:36,554 here are the terms. 911 00:29:37,125 --> 00:29:39,435 Something like that feels fairly interesting to me. 912 00:29:39,525 --> 00:29:40,275 Actually, hold on, pause. 913 00:29:40,575 --> 00:29:42,285 You know, Ryan, I never drew that parallel. 914 00:29:42,285 --> 00:29:44,205 I'm so glad you said and, and I'm gonna hand this back 915 00:29:44,205 --> 00:29:46,095 to you in a second, but I want you to build on that 916 00:29:46,215 --> 00:29:48,045 we have exactly this welfare 917 00:29:48,045 --> 00:29:48,435 program 918 00:29:48,435 --> 00:29:48,615 for 919 00:29:48,615 --> 00:29:49,155 education. 920 00:29:49,305 --> 00:29:49,455 Yes. 921 00:29:49,460 --> 00:29:52,245 But, but it, it implies going to get some capabilities 922 00:29:52,245 --> 00:29:54,345 to work instead of just actually going to work. 923 00:29:54,405 --> 00:29:54,585 Right. 924 00:29:54,585 --> 00:29:56,805 So to me, if that's what we're trying to create 925 00:29:57,135 --> 00:29:58,215 is employable people. 926 00:29:58,560 --> 00:29:59,820 Employ them right directly. 927 00:29:59,820 --> 00:30:02,370 Let them employ themselves, uh, let them put whatever 928 00:30:02,370 --> 00:30:02,940 skills they have to work. 929 00:30:02,940 --> 00:30:05,160 And again, there could be some, you know, the, the FAFSA in this 930 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:06,150 case would look a bit different. 931 00:30:06,150 --> 00:30:08,340 You would, you'd have to show some capabilities. 932 00:30:08,340 --> 00:30:10,770 You'd have to show some, uh, not, not just need, right? 933 00:30:10,770 --> 00:30:11,850 It's not just need based. 934 00:30:12,270 --> 00:30:14,340 Um, but in the same way, like even, even with fafsa, 935 00:30:14,340 --> 00:30:16,650 really, you're passing two tests at, at the same time. 936 00:30:17,100 --> 00:30:19,920 You're passing the entrance exam to the university and you're 937 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:22,080 passing the, the requirements from a financial standpoint. 938 00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:23,879 So if you could do both of those things at the entrepreneurship 939 00:30:23,879 --> 00:30:25,470 level, I'd be all for that. 940 00:30:26,385 --> 00:30:28,095 There's gonna be metrics you have to keep hitting. 941 00:30:28,185 --> 00:30:30,645 Just actually the parallel's beautiful, because in the 942 00:30:30,645 --> 00:30:33,345 same way, if you start getting garbage grades, you're out. 943 00:30:34,035 --> 00:30:36,345 If you don't hit your metrics that this set aside for that 944 00:30:36,345 --> 00:30:38,085 business, whatever that is, like you gotta hit revenue 945 00:30:38,085 --> 00:30:40,725 by by month two, you have to start employing people 946 00:30:40,725 --> 00:30:42,855 by month five, whatever it is, like we can come up with 947 00:30:42,855 --> 00:30:46,005 the criteria for, it doesn't feel that hard to manage. 948 00:30:46,379 --> 00:30:48,810 It has a much more direct and measurable outcome 949 00:30:48,810 --> 00:30:49,830 than an education. 950 00:30:50,010 --> 00:30:51,060 It's got a very 951 00:30:51,060 --> 00:30:54,000 powerful, almost like self-direction, 952 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,280 self-motivation, self-interest. 953 00:30:56,399 --> 00:30:59,550 Like one of the problems I have with paying into the 954 00:30:59,550 --> 00:31:03,570 university kind of scheme, if you will, is that there 955 00:31:03,570 --> 00:31:05,220 are really no guarantees. 956 00:31:05,460 --> 00:31:06,600 It's like, oh, you'll get a job. 957 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:06,899 Maybe. 958 00:31:07,139 --> 00:31:08,639 Who knows how I was gonna get that job anyway? 959 00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:09,000 Right? 960 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:09,899 Like it's really hard. 961 00:31:09,899 --> 00:31:10,740 Ask recent graduates 962 00:31:10,740 --> 00:31:10,919 right 963 00:31:10,919 --> 00:31:12,120 now, how guaranteed that is. 964 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:12,209 Yep. 965 00:31:13,139 --> 00:31:15,030 I guarantee they feel, but, but I guess what I'm saying 966 00:31:15,030 --> 00:31:17,879 is there's something really fascinating about this idea 967 00:31:17,879 --> 00:31:20,729 that the government, as an example, as these main funding 968 00:31:20,729 --> 00:31:23,639 entity, feels very confident that if we send more people 969 00:31:23,639 --> 00:31:26,219 through this, this amorphous thing called education higher 970 00:31:26,219 --> 00:31:27,629 ed, that will get payouts. 971 00:31:27,629 --> 00:31:30,300 So we should heavily subsidize at both the state and federal 972 00:31:30,300 --> 00:31:33,360 level families feel that way, that we should save for college. 973 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:35,189 Because you know, that is the thing, and this 974 00:31:35,189 --> 00:31:36,179 isn't being anti college. 975 00:31:36,890 --> 00:31:39,890 Dude, if we already have this program and it's very 976 00:31:39,890 --> 00:31:43,040 well understood and like imagine if we call that 977 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:44,480 a welfare program, right? 978 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:46,610 An educational welfare program, which it is. 979 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:48,950 But here, here's what's interesting about it. 980 00:31:49,130 --> 00:31:51,980 Nearly every student loan is a non collateralized loan, 981 00:31:52,310 --> 00:31:54,980 which is damn near impossible. 982 00:31:55,485 --> 00:31:59,565 For a founder to get said differently if I say I want 983 00:31:59,565 --> 00:32:01,665 a non collateralized loan because I'm gonna become a 984 00:32:01,665 --> 00:32:04,935 theater major, which I was, so I did make that ask. 985 00:32:04,935 --> 00:32:05,205 Right? 986 00:32:05,475 --> 00:32:07,935 We're like, dude, red carpet, here's all the 987 00:32:07,935 --> 00:32:09,195 oppor opportunities for you. 988 00:32:09,225 --> 00:32:09,405 Yep. 989 00:32:09,525 --> 00:32:12,045 But if I wanna take the same amount of capital and I want 990 00:32:12,045 --> 00:32:14,895 to go build what became a $700 million company, they're 991 00:32:14,895 --> 00:32:16,425 like, outta luck, no interest. 992 00:32:16,425 --> 00:32:16,485 Yeah. 993 00:32:16,545 --> 00:32:16,845 Right. 994 00:32:16,875 --> 00:32:17,115 None. 995 00:32:17,115 --> 00:32:17,595 Get outta here. 996 00:32:17,595 --> 00:32:18,406 None whatsoever, whatsoever. 997 00:32:18,411 --> 00:32:18,825 Go away. 998 00:32:18,825 --> 00:32:19,365 Theater program. 999 00:32:19,785 --> 00:32:20,025 Yes. 1000 00:32:20,900 --> 00:32:22,935 And, and so, uh, the 1001 00:32:22,935 --> 00:32:23,325 irony, right? 1002 00:32:24,065 --> 00:32:26,825 The irony, but, but the parallel there is beautiful. 1003 00:32:27,125 --> 00:32:27,335 Yeah. 1004 00:32:27,335 --> 00:32:28,985 I mean, like, it's literally staring at the face. 1005 00:32:28,985 --> 00:32:31,055 It's, it's sitting there that, that is the, the framework 1006 00:32:31,055 --> 00:32:33,545 that you could easily just sort of copy, paste over top 1007 00:32:33,545 --> 00:32:36,395 of entrepreneurship, couple little tweaks, and you're 1008 00:32:36,395 --> 00:32:37,625 retrofit and ready to go. 1009 00:32:37,835 --> 00:32:38,075 Right? 1010 00:32:38,075 --> 00:32:39,335 And we have no issues with that. 1011 00:32:39,845 --> 00:32:42,695 And the other side of that is think about the scale at which 1012 00:32:42,695 --> 00:32:46,175 that operates, and think about the scale at which you would 1013 00:32:46,175 --> 00:32:46,985 need this for entrepreneurship. 1014 00:32:46,985 --> 00:32:49,625 There's not going to be nearly as many people that would want 1015 00:32:49,625 --> 00:32:50,945 to do this as that, right? 1016 00:32:50,945 --> 00:32:52,355 So it it's also an infrastructure to be 1017 00:32:52,355 --> 00:32:53,105 far easier to manage. 1018 00:32:53,835 --> 00:32:56,235 Think about when you end up giving money to college 1019 00:32:56,235 --> 00:32:58,155 students, it goes to one place. 1020 00:32:58,365 --> 00:32:59,295 Well, two places. 1021 00:32:59,415 --> 00:33:01,305 The local beer hall and the university. 1022 00:33:01,455 --> 00:33:01,725 Right. 1023 00:33:03,465 --> 00:33:04,695 But it goes to the university, right? 1024 00:33:04,695 --> 00:33:06,975 When you give money to entrepreneurs, where does it go? 1025 00:33:07,215 --> 00:33:08,055 It doesn't go in their pocket. 1026 00:33:08,055 --> 00:33:08,925 'cause Yes, yes. 1027 00:33:08,925 --> 00:33:11,295 We can create some sort of minimum livable thing, right? 1028 00:33:11,295 --> 00:33:12,975 But also it's gonna go to. 1029 00:33:13,350 --> 00:33:16,110 Local suppliers, it's gonna go to their employees, it's gonna 1030 00:33:16,110 --> 00:33:17,280 go to other service providers. 1031 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:18,060 Literally it's go 1032 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:19,800 drive the economy right back into the economy. 1033 00:33:20,010 --> 00:33:20,129 Yeah. 1034 00:33:20,129 --> 00:33:21,270 You directly drive the economy. 1035 00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:22,680 Now here's what's also interesting. 1036 00:33:22,980 --> 00:33:25,409 You put somebody through four years of, of undergrad, 1037 00:33:25,590 --> 00:33:27,600 okay, and they go on to become middle manager. 1038 00:33:27,750 --> 00:33:30,240 They're gonna generate a tiny amount of payroll taxes, you 1039 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,340 know, by virtue of, of what they kick into the system, social 1040 00:33:32,340 --> 00:33:35,550 security, what have you in the us, but you create an employer. 1041 00:33:35,780 --> 00:33:38,179 They're gonna pay payroll taxes, which a lot of people, 1042 00:33:38,209 --> 00:33:40,459 like, a lot of people actually, our, our listeners definitely 1043 00:33:40,459 --> 00:33:42,770 know this, but a lot of people don't know that employers 1044 00:33:42,830 --> 00:33:45,919 match the amount that, you know, in payroll taxes that 1045 00:33:45,919 --> 00:33:48,439 they pay directly in addition to what you're paying, right? 1046 00:33:48,439 --> 00:33:48,560 Yeah. 1047 00:33:48,590 --> 00:33:51,799 So like, like I love when people say, uh, Jeff Bezos 1048 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:53,959 or Elon Musk doesn't, don't, doesn't pay their taxes. 1049 00:33:54,275 --> 00:33:57,875 Dude, do you have any idea how much Tesla or Amazon has 1050 00:33:57,875 --> 00:34:00,095 paid in payroll taxes, right? 1051 00:34:00,185 --> 00:34:00,335 Yeah. 1052 00:34:00,395 --> 00:34:03,125 More than any human will ever pay in a million lifetime. 1053 00:34:03,125 --> 00:34:03,185 No 1054 00:34:03,185 --> 00:34:04,145 loopholes for those. 1055 00:34:04,205 --> 00:34:04,625 Zero. 1056 00:34:04,625 --> 00:34:05,465 Loopholes for those. 1057 00:34:05,465 --> 00:34:05,885 It doesn't matter. 1058 00:34:05,885 --> 00:34:06,155 Come on. 1059 00:34:06,155 --> 00:34:06,245 Right? 1060 00:34:06,245 --> 00:34:07,715 There's a loophole for everything when you're wealthy. 1061 00:34:07,805 --> 00:34:08,465 Nope. 1062 00:34:09,495 --> 00:34:11,145 Taxes get paid every single time. 1063 00:34:11,324 --> 00:34:13,935 As business owners, do you have any idea how many taxes we pay? 1064 00:34:14,085 --> 00:34:14,234 Right? 1065 00:34:14,234 --> 00:34:14,295 Yeah. 1066 00:34:14,295 --> 00:34:15,944 Like, you know, like without even trying. 1067 00:34:16,304 --> 00:34:20,384 And so my point is, you give this money directly to the, 1068 00:34:20,384 --> 00:34:22,605 the right individual, meaning just somebody who has, has an 1069 00:34:22,605 --> 00:34:23,774 affinity for entrepreneurship. 1070 00:34:23,864 --> 00:34:26,054 You're not only, you know, quote, quote, like paying for 1071 00:34:26,054 --> 00:34:29,835 an education, but you're also paying exponential amounts 1072 00:34:29,835 --> 00:34:31,125 of givebacks and taxes. 1073 00:34:31,274 --> 00:34:34,034 You're then creating jobs, you're then inspiring 1074 00:34:34,034 --> 00:34:34,694 more people, I mean. 1075 00:34:35,199 --> 00:34:39,130 The investment on an ROI basis, we're gonna take Pell, you know, 1076 00:34:39,130 --> 00:34:41,170 in everything you, you pick up through fafsa, et cetera. 1077 00:34:41,230 --> 00:34:41,409 Yep. 1078 00:34:41,529 --> 00:34:45,520 And instead, pour 10% of that specifically 1079 00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:46,569 into entrepreneurship. 1080 00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:48,340 Dude, the ROI on that. 1081 00:34:48,370 --> 00:34:48,610 Yeah. 1082 00:34:48,759 --> 00:34:49,989 Would be, it feels pretty hefty. 1083 00:34:50,290 --> 00:34:51,340 It feels pretty hefty. 1084 00:34:51,449 --> 00:34:54,569 I feel like we need to call somebody will, if 1085 00:34:54,569 --> 00:34:55,770 only there was a platform. 1086 00:34:55,770 --> 00:34:55,980 Right. 1087 00:34:56,159 --> 00:34:57,149 But I look at that as well. 1088 00:34:57,149 --> 00:34:58,410 Just going back to the, you know, failure of, 1089 00:34:58,439 --> 00:34:59,580 you know, being a luxury. 1090 00:34:59,850 --> 00:35:02,490 That's essentially what we've done in education. 1091 00:35:02,790 --> 00:35:06,240 If people had to pay outta their own pocket, right? 1092 00:35:06,750 --> 00:35:08,609 There was no loan program, there was no subsidy. 1093 00:35:08,730 --> 00:35:11,189 You had to pay with your extra cash, which I did. 1094 00:35:11,220 --> 00:35:12,509 'cause I worked my way through college. 1095 00:35:12,810 --> 00:35:13,680 You'd never do it. 1096 00:35:13,859 --> 00:35:15,390 I was making 10 bucks an hour. 1097 00:35:15,905 --> 00:35:17,645 Like trying to pay for, for education and 1098 00:35:17,645 --> 00:35:18,395 everything else like that. 1099 00:35:18,725 --> 00:35:19,925 And it was brutal. 1100 00:35:20,045 --> 00:35:21,725 And I was paying cash on the barrel head 'cause I 1101 00:35:21,725 --> 00:35:22,745 didn't have access to debt. 1102 00:35:23,195 --> 00:35:26,225 And I guess what I'm saying is like we have a program now that 1103 00:35:26,255 --> 00:35:27,575 honestly doesn't work that well. 1104 00:35:27,725 --> 00:35:30,365 You know, being higher ed where we are already 1105 00:35:30,365 --> 00:35:31,715 deferring failure. 1106 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:33,690 We are saying, look, we get it. 1107 00:35:33,990 --> 00:35:37,320 You, you can't live, uh, and go to school at the same time 1108 00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:38,640 and, you know, afford to fail. 1109 00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:41,730 So for four or five, sometimes six years, uh, not counting 1110 00:35:41,730 --> 00:35:44,460 grad school, we're gonna, we're gonna fund you, we're gonna 1111 00:35:44,460 --> 00:35:46,590 make sure your, your bills are taken care of, that your 1112 00:35:46,590 --> 00:35:48,030 necessary expenses are covered. 1113 00:35:48,060 --> 00:35:48,240 Yeah. 1114 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,120 So, so that you can, that, that you can have this pad 1115 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:53,130 in order to do this thing, to 1116 00:35:53,130 --> 00:35:53,430 go do it. 1117 00:35:53,430 --> 00:35:54,015 That's it in entrepreneurship. 1118 00:35:54,015 --> 00:35:54,455 That's it. 1119 00:35:54,460 --> 00:35:56,370 We have one program, it's called Go Fuck Yourself. 1120 00:35:56,625 --> 00:35:56,835 Yeah. 1121 00:35:57,880 --> 00:35:58,230 Right. 1122 00:35:58,610 --> 00:36:00,270 And you still have to pay to employ at every level. 1123 00:36:00,950 --> 00:36:02,085 Yeah, exactly. 1124 00:36:02,085 --> 00:36:04,065 That's our fafsa and it's brutal. 1125 00:36:04,065 --> 00:36:08,430 I, I genuinely believe that creating a safety net, and, 1126 00:36:08,435 --> 00:36:12,225 and I mean this in a, the most productive way possible, would 1127 00:36:12,225 --> 00:36:16,005 have a massive impact on a lower income or impoverished 1128 00:36:16,725 --> 00:36:18,795 community that would allow them to do things that 1129 00:36:18,795 --> 00:36:20,415 they just simply can't do. 1130 00:36:20,415 --> 00:36:22,365 I think that's, that's the second leg. 1131 00:36:22,605 --> 00:36:23,505 Give people. 1132 00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:27,240 Just enough pad to allow them to, to, um, absorb some 1133 00:36:27,240 --> 00:36:28,830 failure to create success. 1134 00:36:28,890 --> 00:36:31,440 Well, man, just hold on that for a second and think 1135 00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:33,540 about, think about how that impacts the first leg. 1136 00:36:34,020 --> 00:36:36,029 Think about how knowing that you have that, think 1137 00:36:36,029 --> 00:36:37,470 about how that changes. 1138 00:36:38,055 --> 00:36:41,085 The hope dynamic because there is that line you have to draw 1139 00:36:41,085 --> 00:36:44,715 with like, am I being, is this hope or is this delusion? 1140 00:36:45,705 --> 00:36:45,945 Right. 1141 00:36:46,635 --> 00:36:48,885 I mean, fine line because I, it depends with the outcome I want, 1142 00:36:48,885 --> 00:36:51,525 but I'm held back by, if I'm held back by the risk component. 1143 00:36:51,525 --> 00:36:53,535 If I can't risk, then hope is just delusion. 1144 00:36:53,535 --> 00:36:56,415 If I, if I actually can't go do the thing, it is just delusion. 1145 00:36:56,835 --> 00:36:59,955 And so if we can have hope, but if hope can be built on 1146 00:36:59,955 --> 00:37:00,915 a foundation of, of what? 1147 00:37:01,065 --> 00:37:02,265 Just basic security. 1148 00:37:02,535 --> 00:37:02,685 Right? 1149 00:37:02,685 --> 00:37:02,985 Right. 1150 00:37:03,020 --> 00:37:03,240 Yes. 1151 00:37:03,240 --> 00:37:03,720 Basic security. 1152 00:37:03,825 --> 00:37:04,125 Yes. 1153 00:37:04,215 --> 00:37:05,925 I'm not going to starve to death. 1154 00:37:06,405 --> 00:37:09,705 By trying to do this, then I can actually put my hope to work. 1155 00:37:10,065 --> 00:37:10,875 So if we're talking about 1156 00:37:10,875 --> 00:37:13,245 fafsa, we're talking about education, that leads us to 1157 00:37:13,245 --> 00:37:17,895 the third leg, which is the idea of a bunch of people in 1158 00:37:17,895 --> 00:37:20,835 any community, impoverished or or whatever, going out 1159 00:37:20,835 --> 00:37:23,925 and building successful startups with no access to the 1160 00:37:23,925 --> 00:37:26,535 education of what this takes, the mentorship, et cetera. 1161 00:37:26,535 --> 00:37:26,715 Yeah. 1162 00:37:26,895 --> 00:37:29,685 It's the equivalent of saying we want more doctors, but we 1163 00:37:29,685 --> 00:37:30,825 won't have any medical schools. 1164 00:37:31,170 --> 00:37:31,560 Right. 1165 00:37:31,710 --> 00:37:33,960 In order to become a doctor, you sort of have to go out 1166 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,540 there on your own, get some surgeries under your belt, 1167 00:37:36,540 --> 00:37:37,560 kind of figure it out. 1168 00:37:37,650 --> 00:37:40,770 And if people don't die in the process, you know, you get a 1169 00:37:40,770 --> 00:37:41,910 high five, you become a doctor. 1170 00:37:41,910 --> 00:37:43,710 That's literally what entrepreneurship is. 1171 00:37:43,980 --> 00:37:45,750 It's go out there, figure it out. 1172 00:37:45,930 --> 00:37:47,970 You we're gonna give you no education, we're gonna 1173 00:37:47,970 --> 00:37:49,020 give you no guidance. 1174 00:37:49,425 --> 00:37:52,845 And if you somehow figure out one of the most complex 1175 00:37:52,845 --> 00:37:55,035 possibilities that you could possibly encounter, then 1176 00:37:55,035 --> 00:37:55,905 we'll tax the hell out of you. 1177 00:37:56,385 --> 00:37:56,745 Yeah, yeah. 1178 00:37:56,745 --> 00:37:57,795 Then we'll then we'll tax you. 1179 00:37:57,915 --> 00:37:58,095 Yeah. 1180 00:37:58,185 --> 00:37:58,395 Yeah. 1181 00:37:58,545 --> 00:38:02,085 I think that, I teach this, this class in middle school, 1182 00:38:02,325 --> 00:38:05,295 uh, at my kids' school on entrepreneurship, and what 1183 00:38:05,295 --> 00:38:08,475 I tell the kids in the first day of, of class is that what 1184 00:38:08,475 --> 00:38:10,605 I'm going to teach you, I'm, I'm gonna teach you what's 1185 00:38:10,605 --> 00:38:11,865 possible, essentially hope. 1186 00:38:12,399 --> 00:38:12,730 Right. 1187 00:38:13,060 --> 00:38:15,040 But I'm also gonna give you the tools, the 1188 00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:17,200 specific tools to go do it. 1189 00:38:17,470 --> 00:38:17,709 Do it. 1190 00:38:17,709 --> 00:38:17,830 Yeah. 1191 00:38:17,834 --> 00:38:20,350 And I, and I call that agency the ability to, to 1192 00:38:20,350 --> 00:38:24,100 recognize that you can be your own, um, governance in the 1193 00:38:24,100 --> 00:38:25,330 tools to make that happen. 1194 00:38:25,540 --> 00:38:28,359 What we do@startups.com is funda, it's literally 1195 00:38:28,359 --> 00:38:29,410 what we do all day long. 1196 00:38:29,410 --> 00:38:32,620 We teach 1.3 million companies and the founders within them, 1197 00:38:32,799 --> 00:38:35,649 that agency, those tools, we give them that mentorship to 1198 00:38:35,649 --> 00:38:37,330 say, here's what to go do next. 1199 00:38:37,359 --> 00:38:37,419 Yeah. 1200 00:38:37,419 --> 00:38:39,069 And they're like, damn, I didn't know I was supposed to do that. 1201 00:38:39,069 --> 00:38:40,209 And I was like, how could you? 1202 00:38:40,605 --> 00:38:40,815 Yeah. 1203 00:38:40,820 --> 00:38:42,360 How would you, how would you know, why would you doing this, 1204 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:42,640 right? 1205 00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:42,641 Yeah. 1206 00:38:42,645 --> 00:38:42,655 Right. 1207 00:38:42,765 --> 00:38:43,755 You're not in medical 1208 00:38:43,755 --> 00:38:45,705 school, you're in entrepreneurship where there, 1209 00:38:45,705 --> 00:38:46,785 there is no one to tell you. 1210 00:38:46,845 --> 00:38:47,055 Yeah. 1211 00:38:47,325 --> 00:38:47,865 Correct. 1212 00:38:47,925 --> 00:38:51,315 I think what we're missing, um, and again, this is directly 1213 00:38:51,315 --> 00:38:54,075 part of what we, what you and I do, what we're missing 1214 00:38:54,135 --> 00:38:55,875 is a very structured way. 1215 00:38:56,310 --> 00:38:59,580 To say here are like the 20 things that you need to know, 1216 00:38:59,759 --> 00:39:02,759 whether it's fundraising, uh, getting customers, 1217 00:39:02,759 --> 00:39:05,009 you know, you name it, but here's how to actually do it. 1218 00:39:05,430 --> 00:39:05,490 Yeah. 1219 00:39:05,490 --> 00:39:08,549 Because the chances are that wherever you came from, you 1220 00:39:08,549 --> 00:39:11,460 actually know how to do all of these different things. 1221 00:39:11,825 --> 00:39:15,064 All at the same time, all related to a product that 1222 00:39:15,064 --> 00:39:16,924 you just invented five seconds ago with a team 1223 00:39:16,924 --> 00:39:19,384 that never existed, um, in a market that probably doesn't 1224 00:39:19,384 --> 00:39:21,080 exist yet is zero, right? 1225 00:39:21,365 --> 00:39:21,604 Right. 1226 00:39:21,709 --> 00:39:22,774 It's zero, right? 1227 00:39:22,774 --> 00:39:22,924 Zero. 1228 00:39:23,134 --> 00:39:27,604 And yet the fundamental programs and access and fabric of 1229 00:39:27,904 --> 00:39:29,040 teaching people how to do this. 1230 00:39:29,750 --> 00:39:31,280 Is so fucked up. 1231 00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:31,340 Yeah. 1232 00:39:31,490 --> 00:39:32,960 Like it's so bad. 1233 00:39:33,170 --> 00:39:37,370 It blows my mind that we have as many successful founders 1234 00:39:37,370 --> 00:39:42,740 as we have given how insanely broken the education and 1235 00:39:42,740 --> 00:39:44,300 mentorship component is. 1236 00:39:44,540 --> 00:39:44,810 Yeah. 1237 00:39:44,870 --> 00:39:45,440 Worldwide 1238 00:39:45,740 --> 00:39:46,635 goes back to that hope component. 1239 00:39:47,315 --> 00:39:49,745 And look, hope doesn't always come from, from a position 1240 00:39:49,745 --> 00:39:52,025 of like, I have nothing, so I hope I'll get something right. 1241 00:39:52,025 --> 00:39:54,395 Hope comes from like seeing that problem you wanna solve. 1242 00:39:54,455 --> 00:39:56,375 It comes from, you know, wanting to make that 1243 00:39:56,375 --> 00:39:57,005 dent in the universe. 1244 00:39:57,005 --> 00:39:58,985 It comes from not wanting to suffer anymore, from 1245 00:39:58,985 --> 00:40:00,245 something you've suffered from, or not wanting 1246 00:40:00,245 --> 00:40:01,505 someone else to, to suffer. 1247 00:40:01,895 --> 00:40:02,826 And so I, you know. 1248 00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:04,820 It does, it makes a lot of people do 1249 00:40:04,820 --> 00:40:06,980 really crazy shit down. 1250 00:40:06,980 --> 00:40:07,310 Do it right. 1251 00:40:07,580 --> 00:40:07,759 No, 1252 00:40:08,115 --> 00:40:08,990 I, I agree. 1253 00:40:09,259 --> 00:40:11,900 What's crazy to me, okay, imagine a founder checked 1254 00:40:11,900 --> 00:40:12,770 the first two boxes. 1255 00:40:12,770 --> 00:40:14,780 They said, you know, I've got the hope I, I actually, I 1256 00:40:14,780 --> 00:40:18,350 genuinely believe in, in myself or my opportunity, or I even 1257 00:40:18,350 --> 00:40:21,200 believe that the world exists in a way that, that, that 1258 00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:22,280 could potentially benefit me. 1259 00:40:22,340 --> 00:40:23,210 Not everybody feels that way. 1260 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:26,480 Second, I've got a tiny bit of capital. 1261 00:40:26,509 --> 00:40:27,530 Forget how I got it right. 1262 00:40:27,530 --> 00:40:27,620 Yep. 1263 00:40:27,620 --> 00:40:28,910 Just I have a tiny bit of capital. 1264 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:31,280 Or I live with my parents and a safety net 1265 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:32,270 keep feeding me right? 1266 00:40:32,270 --> 00:40:33,200 Some sort of safety net. 1267 00:40:33,500 --> 00:40:35,540 So I got those two things covered, but I still know 1268 00:40:35,540 --> 00:40:36,290 what the hell I'm doing. 1269 00:40:36,710 --> 00:40:39,680 That is the given no matter where you're coming from, 1270 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:43,130 we have people coming to us from all walks of life, from 1271 00:40:43,130 --> 00:40:45,560 the most impoverished to, to the most, uh, privileged. 1272 00:40:45,710 --> 00:40:48,110 But the one thing that they share is they've never done 1273 00:40:48,110 --> 00:40:50,690 this before and they have no idea what they're doing 1274 00:40:50,690 --> 00:40:51,500 and they're terrified. 1275 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:53,759 What a massive impediment. 1276 00:40:53,820 --> 00:40:56,340 I go back to again, I, I always use the, the, if 1277 00:40:56,340 --> 00:40:58,529 everybody wanted to become doctors, but med school didn't 1278 00:40:58,529 --> 00:41:01,350 exist and you just all had to figure it out as you go. 1279 00:41:01,529 --> 00:41:03,690 First off, think of how many doctors we'd have that 1280 00:41:03,690 --> 00:41:05,430 are the most terrifying doctors of all time. 1281 00:41:05,730 --> 00:41:05,940 Yeah. 1282 00:41:05,940 --> 00:41:08,070 In second, think about how many, how few doctors we've have. 1283 00:41:08,070 --> 00:41:09,509 ' cause they would've gone through, uh, you know, 1284 00:41:11,310 --> 00:41:12,755 but think of how doctors we have. 1285 00:41:13,725 --> 00:41:15,345 We'd have, we wouldn't have hospitals. 1286 00:41:15,345 --> 00:41:16,155 We you have it now, right? 1287 00:41:16,155 --> 00:41:18,915 Like it would be so unheard of that that would 1288 00:41:18,915 --> 00:41:19,935 even be a career path. 1289 00:41:19,995 --> 00:41:20,205 Right. 1290 00:41:20,205 --> 00:41:22,665 You know, that that would be the, the child of an Indian 1291 00:41:22,665 --> 00:41:25,425 family being like, Hey, a mom, dad, I wanna become a doctor. 1292 00:41:25,425 --> 00:41:26,235 Like, oh God, no. 1293 00:41:26,235 --> 00:41:27,045 Don't do that. 1294 00:41:27,225 --> 00:41:27,735 Right, right. 1295 00:41:27,855 --> 00:41:28,905 We're just gonna go figure 1296 00:41:28,905 --> 00:41:31,335 stuff out and maybe like not kill people. 1297 00:41:31,485 --> 00:41:33,765 It is funny because when we look at like how much 1298 00:41:33,765 --> 00:41:35,955 entrepreneurship drives the economy, right? 1299 00:41:35,955 --> 00:41:35,956 Yeah. 1300 00:41:35,961 --> 00:41:38,115 Like when we look around, like a lot of the businesses 1301 00:41:38,115 --> 00:41:39,510 that we engage with, most of the things that we do. 1302 00:41:40,245 --> 00:41:41,955 Had some level of entrepreneurial 1303 00:41:41,955 --> 00:41:42,705 beginnings, right? 1304 00:41:42,705 --> 00:41:43,455 Like Correct. 1305 00:41:44,145 --> 00:41:47,535 Even hospitals to some degree had an entrepreneurial element 1306 00:41:47,535 --> 00:41:50,384 to them because we used to just have yes doctors, and we had 1307 00:41:51,105 --> 00:41:53,895 offices and we had surgeons, but we didn't have hospitals, right? 1308 00:41:53,895 --> 00:41:55,815 Hospitals really the business side of medicine. 1309 00:41:56,445 --> 00:42:01,695 And so despite that, we haven't created this sort of certain 1310 00:42:01,695 --> 00:42:03,615 pathway around becoming. 1311 00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:06,810 An entrepreneur that we have around these, 1312 00:42:06,810 --> 00:42:07,230 these other things. 1313 00:42:07,230 --> 00:42:09,419 And of course we've, we've right done some things right, 1314 00:42:09,419 --> 00:42:12,359 like there, you know, there are university programs to teach 1315 00:42:12,359 --> 00:42:13,770 you how to be an entrepreneur. 1316 00:42:13,770 --> 00:42:15,134 I think you and I would both kinda. 1317 00:42:15,825 --> 00:42:18,135 Shake our heads a little bit at the outcomes there, but like 1318 00:42:18,135 --> 00:42:20,655 there's some stuff has happened, but not, not nearly as much. 1319 00:42:20,865 --> 00:42:21,105 Right. 1320 00:42:21,285 --> 00:42:21,945 I think for a 1321 00:42:21,945 --> 00:42:25,215 lot of people, Ryan, I, I think the part that they want to do 1322 00:42:25,215 --> 00:42:26,415 it, but they have no access. 1323 00:42:26,415 --> 00:42:29,205 Or even if they had access, like I can get into Harvard, 1324 00:42:29,205 --> 00:42:31,695 I can get into their education or their, their entrepreneurial 1325 00:42:31,695 --> 00:42:32,565 education program. 1326 00:42:32,715 --> 00:42:33,405 I don't even if they have one. 1327 00:42:33,735 --> 00:42:36,345 Um, but assuming they did it still probably isn't 1328 00:42:36,345 --> 00:42:38,205 gonna teach me most of the things I need to know. 1329 00:42:38,205 --> 00:42:40,875 Like, in other words, the places people would fundamentally 1330 00:42:40,875 --> 00:42:43,580 go generally just don't work well intentioned. 1331 00:42:44,525 --> 00:42:47,435 Always well intentioned, but fairly ineffective. 1332 00:42:47,825 --> 00:42:50,705 And so I look at it and I say, damn, dude, that seems like a 1333 00:42:50,705 --> 00:42:53,735 pretty big problem if what you just said a moment ago, which 1334 00:42:53,735 --> 00:42:57,634 is so true, that in the United States alone, it literally is 1335 00:42:57,634 --> 00:42:58,895 the definition of a startup. 1336 00:42:58,985 --> 00:43:01,985 You know, it was started by a bunch of of founders who then 1337 00:43:01,985 --> 00:43:04,625 had a crazy idea to go into an unproven market, right? 1338 00:43:04,625 --> 00:43:06,935 And we're willing to fight for it quite literally, and 1339 00:43:06,935 --> 00:43:11,015 created an atmosphere where hope was its greatest asset. 1340 00:43:11,340 --> 00:43:13,140 You know, people come to the United States because 1341 00:43:13,140 --> 00:43:15,090 they believe that their lives can be better. 1342 00:43:15,090 --> 00:43:15,330 Yes. 1343 00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:18,840 There aren't a lot of countries that have that universal 1344 00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:22,470 calling card that says, your life will likely be better 1345 00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:23,850 if you come to this country. 1346 00:43:23,970 --> 00:43:25,380 Uh, incredibly powerful asset. 1347 00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:25,800 Right? 1348 00:43:25,860 --> 00:43:26,040 Yeah. 1349 00:43:26,070 --> 00:43:27,690 One questionably that maybe we're trying to 1350 00:43:27,690 --> 00:43:30,030 destroy right now, but I'm not gonna be political 1351 00:43:30,030 --> 00:43:30,875 about it, but that said. 1352 00:43:32,010 --> 00:43:34,800 We then have this ability, um, for people to come here and 1353 00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:38,460 say, damn, dude, there's enough wealth here, generationally, 1354 00:43:38,460 --> 00:43:41,760 et cetera, that there's enough people out there that can make 1355 00:43:41,790 --> 00:43:45,330 these sacrifices and we have enough of a social safety net. 1356 00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:47,820 Again, that's even coming down to there's people that 1357 00:43:47,820 --> 00:43:49,290 can live with their parents 'cause their parents can 1358 00:43:49,290 --> 00:43:51,750 afford to support them in order to take some chances. 1359 00:43:52,020 --> 00:43:54,090 There are many countries, many parts of the world 1360 00:43:54,090 --> 00:43:54,990 that's not even an option. 1361 00:43:55,530 --> 00:43:55,950 Right, right. 1362 00:43:55,950 --> 00:43:58,680 Like, uh, if you don't work in, in bring in money this 1363 00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:00,180 week, we're all screwed. 1364 00:44:00,270 --> 00:44:02,790 So of course you can't not work and not bring in money 1365 00:44:02,790 --> 00:44:05,190 this week 'cause you might bring in more else, uh, later. 1366 00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:09,150 But then if you think we built a country this big and this 1367 00:44:09,150 --> 00:44:12,720 powerful as far as an economic engine without ever having 1368 00:44:12,720 --> 00:44:15,780 any formality as to how we did it, it's kind of mind blowing. 1369 00:44:15,835 --> 00:44:16,055 It 1370 00:44:16,055 --> 00:44:16,175 is. 1371 00:44:16,470 --> 00:44:17,669 Like, how the hell did we 1372 00:44:17,669 --> 00:44:18,270 even get here? 1373 00:44:18,750 --> 00:44:20,430 People that were willing to take the risks. 1374 00:44:20,490 --> 00:44:20,790 Right. 1375 00:44:20,790 --> 00:44:21,899 We got here despite ourselves. 1376 00:44:22,230 --> 00:44:22,560 Yeah. 1377 00:44:22,859 --> 00:44:24,270 Despite, despite the odds. 1378 00:44:24,450 --> 00:44:26,850 Look, it, it, it did cost a lot of people. 1379 00:44:26,850 --> 00:44:27,359 Everything. 1380 00:44:27,569 --> 00:44:29,399 And there's plenty of stories and, and Right. 1381 00:44:29,399 --> 00:44:30,450 So it's, it is not, yeah. 1382 00:44:30,450 --> 00:44:32,609 The, the, the, the road to entrepreneurial success is 1383 00:44:32,609 --> 00:44:34,290 paved with the failures of others in a lot of ways. 1384 00:44:34,649 --> 00:44:35,220 It, it is. 1385 00:44:35,220 --> 00:44:37,200 And I think one of the questions we're asking is, 1386 00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:38,939 does it have to be Right? 1387 00:44:38,939 --> 00:44:39,359 Does Correct. 1388 00:44:39,540 --> 00:44:40,384 Does it have to be. 1389 00:44:41,174 --> 00:44:43,575 Massive success versus abject failure. 1390 00:44:43,725 --> 00:44:44,540 Why are we right? 1391 00:44:44,545 --> 00:44:46,485 Why are we drawing this hard line? 1392 00:44:46,875 --> 00:44:49,485 Um, and why are we, why are we not creating better 1393 00:44:49,485 --> 00:44:53,295 conditions such that, you know, the outcomes could be 1394 00:44:53,745 --> 00:44:56,415 better defined, the outcomes could be more reasonably 1395 00:44:56,415 --> 00:44:59,444 achieved, uh, de-risk it for people a bit like, I, I think 1396 00:44:59,444 --> 00:45:01,634 it would be amazing to be able to do that and correct. 1397 00:45:02,055 --> 00:45:02,415 Amazing. 1398 00:45:02,415 --> 00:45:03,705 At a lot of levels, not just to say so. 1399 00:45:03,705 --> 00:45:06,795 Oh, so people can try it, but like when it starts to work 1400 00:45:06,944 --> 00:45:08,835 and I guess it's, you sort of have to look at that and go. 1401 00:45:09,165 --> 00:45:11,295 If it's already worked to any degree, and we can look 1402 00:45:11,295 --> 00:45:14,115 around and go, it's actually worked a hell of a lot where 1403 00:45:14,115 --> 00:45:15,015 you and I sit right now. 1404 00:45:15,015 --> 00:45:15,855 We're in two different places. 1405 00:45:15,855 --> 00:45:17,655 We're using a tool right now that was built by 1406 00:45:17,655 --> 00:45:20,235 someone, uh, an entrepreneur to facilitate this type 1407 00:45:20,235 --> 00:45:21,105 of video communication. 1408 00:45:21,405 --> 00:45:23,835 I'm using an an iPhone started by, you know, built 1409 00:45:23,835 --> 00:45:25,695 by one of the most famous entrepreneurs of our, our, our 1410 00:45:25,695 --> 00:45:27,255 generation to film this thing. 1411 00:45:27,255 --> 00:45:29,115 And just like all the stuff that's surround us, like 1412 00:45:29,295 --> 00:45:32,175 we're surrounded by this stuff, clearly it works. 1413 00:45:32,445 --> 00:45:34,575 So the fact that we're not doing more. 1414 00:45:35,055 --> 00:45:38,895 As a society, as a nation, as, as, as a community, just 1415 00:45:38,895 --> 00:45:42,255 even global entrepreneurs, to provide a better pathway for 1416 00:45:42,255 --> 00:45:43,990 this feels kind of bananas. 1417 00:45:44,655 --> 00:45:46,035 Well here, here's what I would say. 1418 00:45:46,095 --> 00:45:48,375 You know, the initial question, can entrepreneurship 1419 00:45:48,435 --> 00:45:49,965 help alleviate poverty? 1420 00:45:50,145 --> 00:45:50,925 It already has. 1421 00:45:50,925 --> 00:45:51,015 Yes. 1422 00:45:51,225 --> 00:45:53,055 It didn't make all poverty go away, right? 1423 00:45:53,235 --> 00:45:53,295 No. 1424 00:45:53,355 --> 00:45:55,725 But if, if you had any question about whether 1425 00:45:55,725 --> 00:45:59,115 entrepreneurship can have the transformative effect of 1426 00:45:59,265 --> 00:46:02,295 transforming communities, it did for an entire country. 1427 00:46:02,475 --> 00:46:02,685 Yes. 1428 00:46:02,715 --> 00:46:02,895 Right. 1429 00:46:03,610 --> 00:46:06,100 Entrepreneurship, like the America is a case 1430 00:46:06,100 --> 00:46:07,330 study of entrepreneurship. 1431 00:46:07,540 --> 00:46:07,630 Yeah. 1432 00:46:07,660 --> 00:46:08,770 At so many levels. 1433 00:46:09,070 --> 00:46:11,830 And so to your point, just a moment ago, the fact that 1434 00:46:11,830 --> 00:46:15,970 we haven't said, oh, I know let's go all in on this 1435 00:46:15,970 --> 00:46:20,170 thing, in a very deliberate manner, to inspire hope, to 1436 00:46:20,170 --> 00:46:23,350 create that, that safety net to, to get more people to be 1437 00:46:23,350 --> 00:46:24,520 able to, to make that leap. 1438 00:46:24,850 --> 00:46:26,560 And this is everywhere by the way, you know, globally. 1439 00:46:26,620 --> 00:46:26,920 Yeah. 1440 00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:26,921 Yeah. 1441 00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:30,630 To be able to provide the tools to say, and here's how to do it. 1442 00:46:30,930 --> 00:46:35,100 It blows me away that it hasn't been done formally and 1443 00:46:35,100 --> 00:46:37,620 deliberately on a global scale. 1444 00:46:37,890 --> 00:46:42,390 What's so exciting about it is the fact that as we head 1445 00:46:42,390 --> 00:46:44,730 toward this path, toward this goal, everything we just 1446 00:46:44,730 --> 00:46:48,840 described, of inspiring hope, of creating a a, an environment 1447 00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:51,720 where you can try in creating the tools to teach you how to 1448 00:46:51,720 --> 00:46:55,770 do it, we actually don't even need to get it that right. 1449 00:46:56,145 --> 00:46:59,025 Success compounds, success compounds. 1450 00:46:59,235 --> 00:47:01,845 We need to be right one in a hundred times because 1451 00:47:01,845 --> 00:47:05,865 when we are, that one is going to exponentially 1452 00:47:06,045 --> 00:47:08,260 blow up this flywheel that we're trying to create. 1453 00:47:09,135 --> 00:47:13,305 So all we need to do a, as a society globally isn't to try to 1454 00:47:13,305 --> 00:47:14,295 make everybody an entrepreneur. 1455 00:47:14,715 --> 00:47:17,625 It's to try to plant the seeds so that we get a few 1456 00:47:17,835 --> 00:47:20,415 and those few plant the seeds to get even more. 1457 00:47:20,595 --> 00:47:20,655 Yeah. 1458 00:47:20,655 --> 00:47:24,495 And we make entrepreneurship a fundamental part of the 1459 00:47:24,495 --> 00:47:27,585 fabric of our society globally, which gives everyone the 1460 00:47:27,585 --> 00:47:30,375 opportunity and the hope to build something and build their 1461 00:47:30,375 --> 00:47:33,225 own life on their own terms, exactly how they wanna live. 1462 00:47:34,575 --> 00:47:36,435 Overthinking your startup because you're going it alone. 1463 00:47:36,825 --> 00:47:39,705 You don't have to, and honestly, you shouldn't because instead, 1464 00:47:39,735 --> 00:47:42,825 you can learn directly from peers who've been in your shoes. 1465 00:47:42,915 --> 00:47:45,225 Connect with bootstrap founders and the advisors 1466 00:47:45,225 --> 00:47:47,685 helping them win in the startups.com community. 1467 00:47:47,835 --> 00:47:52,455 Check out the startups.com community@www.startups.com 1468 00:47:52,575 --> 00:47:53,475 to see if it's for you. 1469 00:47:53,715 --> 00:47:54,795 Could be just the thing you need. 1470 00:47:54,975 --> 00:47:55,965 I hope to see you inside.