you continue at night in people’s eyes
and then the more you do that for a long
enough period of time it starts to have
a bit of a ripple effect so I created a
Board of Directors a Board of Advisors
and I sought to surround myself with the
smartest people I could this business is
about a will will to win any business
entrepreneurship is about having a will
in you even if you’re down to the the
lowest financial lows you’re gonna wake
up alive the next day you have to set
your expectations and then you have to
be willing to deal with the results if
you don’t meet them when you have
nothing to lose here they’re backed into
a corner or and you cower and you submit
or you fight your way out and the real
conversation was really having people
come to me and say you changed my life
that were just customers he’s an
American entrepreneur and author he’s
the co-founder and CEO of a multi-level
marketing company Ernst & Young named
him as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012
he’s Ryan Blair and here’s my take on
his top 10 rules for success he
continued I died in people’s eyes and
then the more you do that for a long
enough period of time it starts to have
a bit of a ripple effect well if you
focus on that then you get like this
so but if you focus on this you never
get it and if you’re chasing money
you’ll be chasing your whole life but if
you’re trying to create value and the
more value that you create then you
figure out an economic engine around
creating that value then you can spend
your whole life just doing that you know
and then in that particular scenario
money you know it follows it doesn’t
leave after you start your business then
the next idea is to surround yourself
with great people
so I created a board of directors of
Board of Advisors and I sought to
surround myself with the smartest people
I could in my industry so that way I
could build a business you know
utilizing and really unifying their
collective strengths to really mitigate
my weaknesses so that’s tip number two
surround yourself with great people to
mitigate your weaknesses so that you can
work on your strengths now I apply that
in my business today today I own you
know I’m the CEO and founder of a
company that’s doing literally four
hundred million dollars a year in sales
significant profit also an investor a
number of other businesses and I still
utilize that same advice that I gave
myself and I learned literally from my
venture capitalists and my advisers
which was surround yourself with great
people and I do that every company
whether I’m an angel investor in it or
I’m running it myself I look to surround
myself with great people you know we
have a mantra advice Alice that we only
hire a players you know the reason why
isn’t a player will hire other a players
but a B player will tend to hire C
players and a C player will hire D
players so I look to hire the best of
the best the smartest people I possibly
can find and I really have a formula for
it it’s simple
I look for people that are passionate
that are smart and that want to win I’ll
repeat that passionate smart and want to
win meeting they have big hearts they
really love what they’re doing they love
the idea of the business that they’re in
they want to win meaning they have a
competitive drive in them and they’re
smart they’re gonna make smart decisions
along the way and that’s really my
hiring mantra and if you can’t afford to
hire people because you’re part of a
small business then give them equity or
give them some other form of
compensation that you can give them I’ve
always built every company utilizing
equity as my number one form of
compensation to
people around me they’re smarter than me
and many times much more expensive than
I was at the time this business is about
a will will to win any business
entrepreneurship is about having a will
in you a will to win one I’m tired too I
was on a red-eye three my son gave me a
cold for my mother’s in critical
condition there’s a million things that
I’m not happy about going on in my
physical energy you know I got stress on
me I got a deal closed and I got a book
launch I got the biggest event of you
know my company I got a mobile company
I’m rolling out that’s a big opportunity
for me you know you take all that stuff
and you say well you know what guys got
a lot of stress or you know he’s sick or
whatever it is it’s about your will the
show must go on and you you know when
you have a commitment you have a goal
and you want to win it’s really about a
will to win you’re a kid in the ghetto
you’re a kid with nothing your foster
homes how do you make it a hundred grand
a year is an interesting story I was in
youth camp and I found that in
preparation for coming on the show here
I found a letter that I wrote to my mom
in camp saying I’m gonna do better I’m
gonna get my life you know I’m gonna
make you proud one day and today I
started playing with computers and I
really think I want to do something in
the industry or in the field of
computers it wasn’t that quite
articulate but I have that letter that
moment I didn’t realize it at the time I
didn’t realize it I was about 14 years
old I was in camp for over a month and I
remember I really was fascinated by
computers and at the time if you recall
in the dot-com 1.0 era anyone who had
skills with regard to computers where
there were talent there was a high in
demand we were making absurd amounts of
money so I would get you know I’d sign
on to a company get a fifteen thousand
dollar signing bonus and three months
later I’d get a 30 percent raise and
sign on to another and what happened in
nineteen so in nineteen years old I I
just I got struck with the idea to be an
entrepreneur
I was afraid though I you know I’d had a
lot of things going you know right for
me making good income you know I bought
a car so I’d taken some risk got some
debt and I decide I want to be an
entrepreneur and I went to my my mentor
my stepdad and I said you know I’m
thinking about being an entrepreneur and
he said do it you have nothing to lose
you know so what but you know if you if
you fail and if you lose everything who
cares you’re still gonna be the same
person what people to understand our
society is you
even if you’re down to the the lowest
financial lows you’re gonna wake up
alive the next day you’re not gonna have
everything you know your life your body
your health cannot be taken from you if
you’re taking you know if you’re taking
control and and and taking care of it
I’ve learned a principle in business and
that is that you have to set your
expectations and then you have to be
willing to deal with the results if you
don’t meet them every once in a while
you get that euphoric feeling of having
your expectations exceeded and that’s a
wonderful thing but in business and in
life it’s about setting your
expectations accurately incorrectly and
if you set them correctly then you’ll
never be let down and most of the time
what an entrepreneur does or lies to do
in the past I so I’m gonna have 10,000
people there and you know I only had 440
or whatever it is and when you when you
set your expectations wrong you’re
crushed you know and and that’s the
that’s the trick is save your
expectations correctly the book is
titled nothing to lose everything to
gain what does that title mean to you
you know it’s a mindset so the mindset
that I had when I was on the streets and
when I lived you know in boys homes and
I was in juvenile hall
the essence is is when you have nothing
to lose you they’re backed into a corner
or and you cower and you submit or you
fight your way out and so I’ve been
backed into a corner a few times both
when I was a kid but then also in my
professional career when I decided to
become an entrepreneur when the
recession hit you know I had to apply
that same mindset now it’s your mantra
why do you think so many people don’t
live with that mindset today I mean
there’s a lot of fear out there afraid
of the unknown yeah you know what fear
is it’s a trap and people are
domesticated so to speak so you know
they’re comfortable and if they just
realize that they have nothing to lose
you know these middle-class folks that
are you know they think they have
something to lose they think that their
reputation with their neighbors or their
credit or their Louis Vuitton luggage
and whatever it is is worth holding on
to if they just ventured out there
started a business took action they’d
realize there’s a better life everybody
else in the world lined up to tell me
don’t do it right because everybody you
know the old day said right they said
that it entrepreneurship doesn’t work or
they said the industry you’re getting
into is is difficult so don’t listen to
these people that are telling you advice
unless they’re qualified to give it
people who have done it
lived it and then listened keenly one of
the things that you mentioned in the
book we’re gonna talk about your success
is that not everyone is built to be an
entrepreneur talking about that well you
know entrepreneurship is about ambition
it’s about problem solving and a lot of
people don’t care to solve problems so
you know as entrepreneurs we try to
solve problems and we have to have
ambition to do that and sometimes we
have to be crazy enough to think we can
and other people you know they’re so
employee programmed and so employee
minded that maybe that can’t break from
them in terms of you know they’re
thinking how do you parse that out so
you have all these ideas how do you know
where to start as an entrepreneur I’ve
raised millions upon millions of dollars
for my small business ventures and I
always start with my network who do you
know and who’ve within your friends your
family business associates and if your
network runs out then what events can
you go to whether it be fundraising
seminars or business venture capital
seminars or even charity related events
where these investors are where you can
talk to them but build rapport Mimas
friends and talk to them about the
subject of your investment and that’s
what I’ve always done is use your
network and grow your network if it if
it doesn’t have enough people in it to
help it was interesting when I started
this business I do idea that you know
what the real compensation was and the
real conversation was really having
people come to me and say you changed my
life that were just customers you know
you changed my life because I lost X
amount of weight or you know my husband
and I have a renewed sex life or a
renewed you know marriage because we’re
both you know feeling great about
ourselves have our peak energy we like
the way we look we have confidence you
know in ourselves again and I mean it’s
neat so it you to restore people’s
confidence you get to restore people’s
marriages in some cases you get to you
know get to really help people a lot
thank you guys so much for watching we
made this video because fjo asks us to
if there’s another entrepreneur you’d
like us to profile we have a comment
below we’d also love to know which of
Ryan’s top 10 rules had the biggest
impact in you that the biggest impact on
you and why leaving the comments below I
will join the discussion thank you so
much for watching
continue to believe and we’ll see you
soon
so how does a kid who’s 13 heading to
foster homes nothing a penny in the
world mom a minimum wage how does a guy
like that give us the secrets to buy 19
star in his own business by 30 having
six multi-million dollar businesses
right huh how’d you do it you know for
one eye to grow up very fast right so at
13 years old I kind of had to be an
adult I defend for myself and I’d to
take care of me first so I became you
know a person who took care of myself
first and foremost from a survival
standpoint so I kind of built these
instincts not realizing it they were
very suitable to entrepreneurship
because one’s what are those well you
know really not being afraid right so in
contrast to where I’d come from where I
was going was only gonna get better so I
was never gonna go back to the bad
neighborhood I was never gonna go back
to a one-bedroom Shack in the middle of
a you know gang grid and territory I’d
never go back there so starting a
business was real easy it was risky
though I left a job a career where I was
making close to a hundred thousand
dollars a year
I was 19 years old and I said I’m gonna
risk everything how out take me that man
who are my role models in life I have a
number of them my two and a half year
old son Reagan you know I know it’s
weird to call him a role model but he
teaches me how to laugh he and I just go
yelling and kicking and screaming and
and roll around on the floor and you
know and just know so my son is kind of
my my my role model to an extent coach
John Wooden mentored me coach Dale Brown
from LSU famous mentored me Bob gergan
my partner at blithe and the chair of
the the Wharton School of
entrepreneurship for the gergan School
of entrepreneurship at Wharton rather
you know I’ve got a lot of role models
out there so you know I look up to a lot
of people and you know Tony Hsieh for
example is a role model to me what he’s
done is a post and I’ve had the
privilege to be able to pick his brain a
few times and I can tell you there’s you
know there’s a lot of role models out
there you have to sell products that you
believe in and if you believe those
products that’ll be conveyed now there
is a science to it so if you have the
belief that’s great that’s probably in
my opinion 85 to 90% of the sale the
other 10% is knowing exactly how to
conduct yourself and the skill behind
selling which there’s books such as
Robert Cal Dinis that you know
demonstrates that skill
and then the more you do that for a long
enough period of time it starts to have
a bit of a ripple effect so I created a
Board of Directors a Board of Advisors
and I sought to surround myself with the
smartest people I could this business is
about a will will to win any business
entrepreneurship is about having a will
in you even if you’re down to the the
lowest financial lows you’re gonna wake
up alive the next day you have to set
your expectations and then you have to
be willing to deal with the results if
you don’t meet them when you have
nothing to lose here they’re backed into
a corner or and you cower and you submit
or you fight your way out and the real
conversation was really having people
come to me and say you changed my life
that were just customers he’s an
American entrepreneur and author he’s
the co-founder and CEO of a multi-level
marketing company Ernst & Young named
him as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012
he’s Ryan Blair and here’s my take on
his top 10 rules for success he
continued I died in people’s eyes and
then the more you do that for a long
enough period of time it starts to have
a bit of a ripple effect well if you
focus on that then you get like this
so but if you focus on this you never
get it and if you’re chasing money
you’ll be chasing your whole life but if
you’re trying to create value and the
more value that you create then you
figure out an economic engine around
creating that value then you can spend
your whole life just doing that you know
and then in that particular scenario
money you know it follows it doesn’t
leave after you start your business then
the next idea is to surround yourself
with great people
so I created a board of directors of
Board of Advisors and I sought to
surround myself with the smartest people
I could in my industry so that way I
could build a business you know
utilizing and really unifying their
collective strengths to really mitigate
my weaknesses so that’s tip number two
surround yourself with great people to
mitigate your weaknesses so that you can
work on your strengths now I apply that
in my business today today I own you
know I’m the CEO and founder of a
company that’s doing literally four
hundred million dollars a year in sales
significant profit also an investor a
number of other businesses and I still
utilize that same advice that I gave
myself and I learned literally from my
venture capitalists and my advisers
which was surround yourself with great
people and I do that every company
whether I’m an angel investor in it or
I’m running it myself I look to surround
myself with great people you know we
have a mantra advice Alice that we only
hire a players you know the reason why
isn’t a player will hire other a players
but a B player will tend to hire C
players and a C player will hire D
players so I look to hire the best of
the best the smartest people I possibly
can find and I really have a formula for
it it’s simple
I look for people that are passionate
that are smart and that want to win I’ll
repeat that passionate smart and want to
win meeting they have big hearts they
really love what they’re doing they love
the idea of the business that they’re in
they want to win meaning they have a
competitive drive in them and they’re
smart they’re gonna make smart decisions
along the way and that’s really my
hiring mantra and if you can’t afford to
hire people because you’re part of a
small business then give them equity or
give them some other form of
compensation that you can give them I’ve
always built every company utilizing
equity as my number one form of
compensation to
people around me they’re smarter than me
and many times much more expensive than
I was at the time this business is about
a will will to win any business
entrepreneurship is about having a will
in you a will to win one I’m tired too I
was on a red-eye three my son gave me a
cold for my mother’s in critical
condition there’s a million things that
I’m not happy about going on in my
physical energy you know I got stress on
me I got a deal closed and I got a book
launch I got the biggest event of you
know my company I got a mobile company
I’m rolling out that’s a big opportunity
for me you know you take all that stuff
and you say well you know what guys got
a lot of stress or you know he’s sick or
whatever it is it’s about your will the
show must go on and you you know when
you have a commitment you have a goal
and you want to win it’s really about a
will to win you’re a kid in the ghetto
you’re a kid with nothing your foster
homes how do you make it a hundred grand
a year is an interesting story I was in
youth camp and I found that in
preparation for coming on the show here
I found a letter that I wrote to my mom
in camp saying I’m gonna do better I’m
gonna get my life you know I’m gonna
make you proud one day and today I
started playing with computers and I
really think I want to do something in
the industry or in the field of
computers it wasn’t that quite
articulate but I have that letter that
moment I didn’t realize it at the time I
didn’t realize it I was about 14 years
old I was in camp for over a month and I
remember I really was fascinated by
computers and at the time if you recall
in the dot-com 1.0 era anyone who had
skills with regard to computers where
there were talent there was a high in
demand we were making absurd amounts of
money so I would get you know I’d sign
on to a company get a fifteen thousand
dollar signing bonus and three months
later I’d get a 30 percent raise and
sign on to another and what happened in
nineteen so in nineteen years old I I
just I got struck with the idea to be an
entrepreneur
I was afraid though I you know I’d had a
lot of things going you know right for
me making good income you know I bought
a car so I’d taken some risk got some
debt and I decide I want to be an
entrepreneur and I went to my my mentor
my stepdad and I said you know I’m
thinking about being an entrepreneur and
he said do it you have nothing to lose
you know so what but you know if you if
you fail and if you lose everything who
cares you’re still gonna be the same
person what people to understand our
society is you
even if you’re down to the the lowest
financial lows you’re gonna wake up
alive the next day you’re not gonna have
everything you know your life your body
your health cannot be taken from you if
you’re taking you know if you’re taking
control and and and taking care of it
I’ve learned a principle in business and
that is that you have to set your
expectations and then you have to be
willing to deal with the results if you
don’t meet them every once in a while
you get that euphoric feeling of having
your expectations exceeded and that’s a
wonderful thing but in business and in
life it’s about setting your
expectations accurately incorrectly and
if you set them correctly then you’ll
never be let down and most of the time
what an entrepreneur does or lies to do
in the past I so I’m gonna have 10,000
people there and you know I only had 440
or whatever it is and when you when you
set your expectations wrong you’re
crushed you know and and that’s the
that’s the trick is save your
expectations correctly the book is
titled nothing to lose everything to
gain what does that title mean to you
you know it’s a mindset so the mindset
that I had when I was on the streets and
when I lived you know in boys homes and
I was in juvenile hall
the essence is is when you have nothing
to lose you they’re backed into a corner
or and you cower and you submit or you
fight your way out and so I’ve been
backed into a corner a few times both
when I was a kid but then also in my
professional career when I decided to
become an entrepreneur when the
recession hit you know I had to apply
that same mindset now it’s your mantra
why do you think so many people don’t
live with that mindset today I mean
there’s a lot of fear out there afraid
of the unknown yeah you know what fear
is it’s a trap and people are
domesticated so to speak so you know
they’re comfortable and if they just
realize that they have nothing to lose
you know these middle-class folks that
are you know they think they have
something to lose they think that their
reputation with their neighbors or their
credit or their Louis Vuitton luggage
and whatever it is is worth holding on
to if they just ventured out there
started a business took action they’d
realize there’s a better life everybody
else in the world lined up to tell me
don’t do it right because everybody you
know the old day said right they said
that it entrepreneurship doesn’t work or
they said the industry you’re getting
into is is difficult so don’t listen to
these people that are telling you advice
unless they’re qualified to give it
people who have done it
lived it and then listened keenly one of
the things that you mentioned in the
book we’re gonna talk about your success
is that not everyone is built to be an
entrepreneur talking about that well you
know entrepreneurship is about ambition
it’s about problem solving and a lot of
people don’t care to solve problems so
you know as entrepreneurs we try to
solve problems and we have to have
ambition to do that and sometimes we
have to be crazy enough to think we can
and other people you know they’re so
employee programmed and so employee
minded that maybe that can’t break from
them in terms of you know they’re
thinking how do you parse that out so
you have all these ideas how do you know
where to start as an entrepreneur I’ve
raised millions upon millions of dollars
for my small business ventures and I
always start with my network who do you
know and who’ve within your friends your
family business associates and if your
network runs out then what events can
you go to whether it be fundraising
seminars or business venture capital
seminars or even charity related events
where these investors are where you can
talk to them but build rapport Mimas
friends and talk to them about the
subject of your investment and that’s
what I’ve always done is use your
network and grow your network if it if
it doesn’t have enough people in it to
help it was interesting when I started
this business I do idea that you know
what the real compensation was and the
real conversation was really having
people come to me and say you changed my
life that were just customers you know
you changed my life because I lost X
amount of weight or you know my husband
and I have a renewed sex life or a
renewed you know marriage because we’re
both you know feeling great about
ourselves have our peak energy we like
the way we look we have confidence you
know in ourselves again and I mean it’s
neat so it you to restore people’s
confidence you get to restore people’s
marriages in some cases you get to you
know get to really help people a lot
thank you guys so much for watching we
made this video because fjo asks us to
if there’s another entrepreneur you’d
like us to profile we have a comment
below we’d also love to know which of
Ryan’s top 10 rules had the biggest
impact in you that the biggest impact on
you and why leaving the comments below I
will join the discussion thank you so
much for watching
continue to believe and we’ll see you
soon
so how does a kid who’s 13 heading to
foster homes nothing a penny in the
world mom a minimum wage how does a guy
like that give us the secrets to buy 19
star in his own business by 30 having
six multi-million dollar businesses
right huh how’d you do it you know for
one eye to grow up very fast right so at
13 years old I kind of had to be an
adult I defend for myself and I’d to
take care of me first so I became you
know a person who took care of myself
first and foremost from a survival
standpoint so I kind of built these
instincts not realizing it they were
very suitable to entrepreneurship
because one’s what are those well you
know really not being afraid right so in
contrast to where I’d come from where I
was going was only gonna get better so I
was never gonna go back to the bad
neighborhood I was never gonna go back
to a one-bedroom Shack in the middle of
a you know gang grid and territory I’d
never go back there so starting a
business was real easy it was risky
though I left a job a career where I was
making close to a hundred thousand
dollars a year
I was 19 years old and I said I’m gonna
risk everything how out take me that man
who are my role models in life I have a
number of them my two and a half year
old son Reagan you know I know it’s
weird to call him a role model but he
teaches me how to laugh he and I just go
yelling and kicking and screaming and
and roll around on the floor and you
know and just know so my son is kind of
my my my role model to an extent coach
John Wooden mentored me coach Dale Brown
from LSU famous mentored me Bob gergan
my partner at blithe and the chair of
the the Wharton School of
entrepreneurship for the gergan School
of entrepreneurship at Wharton rather
you know I’ve got a lot of role models
out there so you know I look up to a lot
of people and you know Tony Hsieh for
example is a role model to me what he’s
done is a post and I’ve had the
privilege to be able to pick his brain a
few times and I can tell you there’s you
know there’s a lot of role models out
there you have to sell products that you
believe in and if you believe those
products that’ll be conveyed now there
is a science to it so if you have the
belief that’s great that’s probably in
my opinion 85 to 90% of the sale the
other 10% is knowing exactly how to
conduct yourself and the skill behind
selling which there’s books such as
Robert Cal Dinis that you know
demonstrates that skill
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