[Music]
now is the time to take risk you don’t
have kids as you get older your
obligations increase so your thirst and
once you have a family you start taking
risk not just for yourself but for your
family as well it gets much harder to do
things that might not work out so now is
the time to do that before you before
you have those obligations so I would
encourage you to take risks now to do
something bold you won’t regret it
you know person I think every time is
the perfect time to start a business
there’s no bad time if you do the work
if you do the preparation you’ll know
when it’s time and it doesn’t mean that
it won’t be a little bit scary but you
know it’s you’ll know and you don’t have
to quit the daytime job if you don’t
feel that all that comfortable and you
can give it a run at night but whatever
works for you now with the internet
you’ve got all the choices in the world
and you can just go out there do your
own thing and and you know set up the
business part-time
[Music]
so many things go wrong when you’re
starting a company and often I think
people ask you know what mistakes should
you avoid making and you know my answer
the question is don’t even bother trying
to avoid mistakes because you’re going
to make tons of mistakes right and the
the important thing is actually learning
quickly from whatever mistakes you make
and not giving up right and I mean there
are things every single year of
Facebook’s existence that could have
killed us there made it so that it just
seemed like moving forward and making a
lot of progress just seemed intractable
but you just kind of bounce back and you
learn and nothing is impossible you just
have to kind of keep running through the
walls
[Music]
you gotta have a plan everybody’s got a
dream
everybody’s got a goal what’s the plan
and your plan is got to have something I
call the c5 complex your plan is got to
be clear concise compelling consistent
and committed you’ve got to have a plan
and when you’re trying to do something
that you are truly passionate about
there is no plan B okay Plan B so think
about that for a second she’s three
examples Michael Jordan was six NBA
championships with the Chicago Bulls
because he was committed to plan a not
plan B Oprah Woodford became the queen
of all media because she was committed
to plan a not Plan B whatever your
politics are Barack Obama is sitting in
the White House because he was committed
to plan a not plan B
[Music]
if you’re going to start a company it
takes so much energy that you know you
get better overcome your your feeling of
risk I don’t think that you necessarily
if you’re going to start a company
should do it at the start of your career
I think there’s a lot to be said for
working for company learning how they do
things really liking what you do
whatever area that you get into given
that you know even if you if you’re the
best the best there’s always a chance of
failure so I think it’s important that
you really like whatever you’re doing if
you don’t like it
life is too short if you like what
you’re doing you think about it even
when you’re not working I mean it’ll
just it’s something that your mind is
drawn to and and if you don’t like it
you just really can’t make it work I
think
the key point there is you’ve got to
enjoy what you do every day and for me
that’s working with very smart people
it’s working on new problems you know
every time we think hey we’ve got a
little bit of success we’re pretty
careful not to dwell on it too much
because the bar gets raised
you find your passion I was very very
lucky to find him you know when I was
seven or eight years old and you know
and fortunately my children have found
their passion might you know one son
loves farming like nothing else one son
was music like everything else and all
three of them left philanthropy and what
they get to do you’re lucky in life when
you find it and you can’t guarantee
you’re going to find it in your first
job out but I always told college
students who come on Icee take the job
that you would take if you were
independently wealthy
you know that’s you’re going to do well
at it
[Music]
many many kids and many grown-ups do
figure out over time what their passions
are and sometimes we let our I don’t
think it’s that hard I think what
happens though sometimes is that we let
our intellectual selves overrule those
passions and so that’s what needs to be
guarded against
[Music]
what stops your back is restored to the
story stop you from getting honest and
if you can’t get honest with yourself
there’s no way you can go what mod you
like that success in sales in life it’s
like a road map right you know where you
want to go and have this perfect
strategy with straight line to get there
to perfect strategy it’s going to get
you there every single time but if you
don’t know your starting point if you’re
not getting odds where you actually are
it doesn’t matter how powerful the
strategy if you’re creating company or
if you’re joining companies the most
important thing is to I attract great
people the either of you would join a
group that’s amazing that you really
respect or keep building a company
you’ve got to gather great people I mean
all the company is is a group of people
that have gathered together to create a
product or service and so depending upon
how talented and hardworking back group
is and the greeter which they are
focused cohesively in a good direction
that will determine the success of the
company
so do everything you can to to gather
great people if you’re creating a
company
[Music]
the passion i’ve always had for business
and being an entrepreneur the trend that
transfers into the map i’ve always been
passionate some people thought you know
like more OCD than anything else which i
think is a great trade for an
entrepreneur um well you know I
mentioned the stamp business I would
stay up till 3:00 4:00 in the morning
even though I had to get up and go to
school and read Lin stamp news and Scott
stamp journals and have them all
memorized and and use that to get myself
an edge even when I was in college I’d
be in lives in the library reading
business books and just looking for
business biographies and just reading
all I could about business um when I had
Micro solutions and you know I started
with no money
you know I pull all-nighters in front of
borrowed computers teaching myself
software and how the program
I made in my mind as a young guy I
wanted to become world-class and
something I just had to find out what
that something was going to be and the
very first time that I walked into a
Wall Street trading room I knew this is
it the ticker tape is rolling
the phones are ringing off the hook
people are screaming and shouting out
orders bodies are flying all over the
place it would look like chaos to
anybody else I could see the natural
rhythm in it it was like I was reading a
sheet of music and I knew this is where
I’m supposed to be I kept coming back I
wore one branch manager down to the
point that he says to me Gardner based
on persistence alone we go give you a
shot man I quit my job that was all I
wanted I went home and I told my ex you
know what you said I couldn’t do it but
guess what I started two weeks
[Music]
my message this is only one way get rich
and that’s quick that’s not a
get-rich-quick scheme though save your
world to obsession to get rich slowly
what I mean by getting rich quick is
that there are certain things you have
to know on the inner game of wealth how
you manage your emotional state your
beliefs your standards your focus in the
outer game entrepreneurship sales
marketing at adult multiple streams
income once you it takes time that’s
where the hard works a lot of hard work
those are getting this lines up in that
window but once you have it all once
you’ve done the work then you can make
money very very quickly it’s not a
scheme but you gotta get richer with and
you have to put the work in I said you
don’t work hard good luck I mean I don’t
know any rich people it don’t work
really really I
[Music]
there’s a very thin dividing line
between success and failure when you
start a business from scratch and you
know if you don’t have enough money to
pay the bills you go the wrong side of
that dividing line and if you can
somehow get enough money to pay the
bills you pay the right side of that
dividing line you know I’ve always been
running running running faster than
perhaps I shouldn’t and I’ve had great
difficulty saying those two things so
keep on taking on new things and we’ve
just managed to stay the right side of
the dividing line over the last 50 years
in business but but equally in those
early days when you when you’re starting
a business without any financial backing
it’s easy to slip the wrong side and in
fact even most entrepreneurs do suits
with the wrong side and of course the
important English then justice you pick
yourself up and you know start again and
if it doesn’t work at that time keep
keep going until you do succeed and not
to give up so many people try to talk me
out of starting a road company which it
was crazy
one good friend of mine collected a
whole series of videos of rockets
blowing up and maybe watch those she’s
been let me lose all my money to many of
us for a long time they’ve confused our
network and our self-worth your network
is going to fluctuate it’s going to go
up and down that’s what money does but
your self-worth
not who you are what’s important to you
how you live your values should never be
negotiable compromised and should never
settle again we have gotten to this
point what we’ve got to say to ourselves
my net worth is not my self-worth
[Music]
and
I’m going to put the vast majority of my
energy attention and dollars into
building a great product or service and
put a smaller amount into shouting about
it marketing it because I know if I
build a great product or service my
customers will tell each other I mean
you have to mix in some patients with
that the reason that most people are not
successful and not wealthy is not
because they set their goals too high
and miss them because they set them to
goal low and hit them get that not the
core should set your goals too high and
mix set your goals too low and efficient
and get caught up in the average daily
struggle of averages and mediocrity
that’s what kills people
lots of people do not have the courage
to try to start a business and all I
would say that I’ve written a book
called screw it distance and it
basically is trying to say to people
just give it a try actually sometimes a
very very small amount of money is
always needed to start a company and my
mother founded a bracelet on the street
that she had audacity station and after
three months the street had to sell it
and you know the see a couple of hundred
dollars was really critical at the
critical time in the development of our
business so all those places
give it give it a go and good luck mmm
if anyone how well you want to do a
particular starting a company you need
to work super hard so what is super hard
means well when my brother and I were
studying our first company instead of
getting an apartment we just rented a
small office and we slept on the couch
and we showered so at the YMCA and we’re
so hot up we had one computer so the
consistent says the website was up
during the day and I was coding at night
seven days a week all the time and I
really had a gopher in that period and
in order to be with me she has to sleep
in the office so I work hard like it
means every waking hour that’s that’s
the thing I would I would say if you
particularly if you’re starting a
company and I mean if you do simple math
say like okay if somebody else is
working 50 hours and you’re working 100
you’ll get twice as done as much done in
the course of a year as the other
company
you
you basically get what you spend your
time doing right I mean I want the
company to build three products this
year and we’re going to work on a few
others because people are interested in
them but those are the three things that
I’m spending my product time on right
you get what you put into it if you
spend a third of your time trying to
make the people around you better
through getting better people mentoring
getting them to be better getting the
best people in your organization you’re
known to more in factual roles and I
think over time not just accrues and you
get a better organization
the most important the most important
thing about running a company is to
remember all the time what a company is
a company is simply a group of people
and as a leader of people you have to be
a great listener and you have to be a
great motivator you have to be very good
at praising and looking for the best in
people and you know people are no
different from flowers if you water
flowers they flourish if you praise
people they flourish and and that’s a
critical attribute of a leader
you got to make sure that whatever
you’re doing is a great product or
service but it has to be really great
and I go back to what I think earlier
where if you anew company I mean let’s
just like some new industry or new
market but if it’s an untapped market or
then then you have more ability to you
this is the standard is lower for your
Park Service but if you’re entering
anything where there’s an existing
market place against Lodge and French
competitors then your product or service
needs to be much better than that it
can’t be a little bit better because
then you put yourself in the shoes of
the consumer and they say why would you
buy it as a consumer or you can apply
the trusted brand unless there’s a big
difference so a lot of times you know
entrepreneurial and what was something
which is only slightly better and it
can’t just be slightly better so to be a
lot better
focus on on signal over noise a lot of
companies get to get confused that they
spend money on things that don’t
actually make the product better for
example at Tesla which we’ve never spent
any money on advertising we put all the
money into R&D and manufacturing and
design to try to make the car as good as
possible and I think that’s that’s
that’s the way to go before for any
given company just keep thinking about
are these efforts that people are
expending are their resulting in a
better product or service if they’re not
self those efforts
you
now is the time to take risk you don’t
have kids as you get older your
obligations increase so your thirst and
once you have a family you start taking
risk not just for yourself but for your
family as well it gets much harder to do
things that might not work out so now is
the time to do that before you before
you have those obligations so I would
encourage you to take risks now to do
something bold you won’t regret it
you know person I think every time is
the perfect time to start a business
there’s no bad time if you do the work
if you do the preparation you’ll know
when it’s time and it doesn’t mean that
it won’t be a little bit scary but you
know it’s you’ll know and you don’t have
to quit the daytime job if you don’t
feel that all that comfortable and you
can give it a run at night but whatever
works for you now with the internet
you’ve got all the choices in the world
and you can just go out there do your
own thing and and you know set up the
business part-time
[Music]
so many things go wrong when you’re
starting a company and often I think
people ask you know what mistakes should
you avoid making and you know my answer
the question is don’t even bother trying
to avoid mistakes because you’re going
to make tons of mistakes right and the
the important thing is actually learning
quickly from whatever mistakes you make
and not giving up right and I mean there
are things every single year of
Facebook’s existence that could have
killed us there made it so that it just
seemed like moving forward and making a
lot of progress just seemed intractable
but you just kind of bounce back and you
learn and nothing is impossible you just
have to kind of keep running through the
walls
[Music]
you gotta have a plan everybody’s got a
dream
everybody’s got a goal what’s the plan
and your plan is got to have something I
call the c5 complex your plan is got to
be clear concise compelling consistent
and committed you’ve got to have a plan
and when you’re trying to do something
that you are truly passionate about
there is no plan B okay Plan B so think
about that for a second she’s three
examples Michael Jordan was six NBA
championships with the Chicago Bulls
because he was committed to plan a not
plan B Oprah Woodford became the queen
of all media because she was committed
to plan a not Plan B whatever your
politics are Barack Obama is sitting in
the White House because he was committed
to plan a not plan B
[Music]
if you’re going to start a company it
takes so much energy that you know you
get better overcome your your feeling of
risk I don’t think that you necessarily
if you’re going to start a company
should do it at the start of your career
I think there’s a lot to be said for
working for company learning how they do
things really liking what you do
whatever area that you get into given
that you know even if you if you’re the
best the best there’s always a chance of
failure so I think it’s important that
you really like whatever you’re doing if
you don’t like it
life is too short if you like what
you’re doing you think about it even
when you’re not working I mean it’ll
just it’s something that your mind is
drawn to and and if you don’t like it
you just really can’t make it work I
think
the key point there is you’ve got to
enjoy what you do every day and for me
that’s working with very smart people
it’s working on new problems you know
every time we think hey we’ve got a
little bit of success we’re pretty
careful not to dwell on it too much
because the bar gets raised
you find your passion I was very very
lucky to find him you know when I was
seven or eight years old and you know
and fortunately my children have found
their passion might you know one son
loves farming like nothing else one son
was music like everything else and all
three of them left philanthropy and what
they get to do you’re lucky in life when
you find it and you can’t guarantee
you’re going to find it in your first
job out but I always told college
students who come on Icee take the job
that you would take if you were
independently wealthy
you know that’s you’re going to do well
at it
[Music]
many many kids and many grown-ups do
figure out over time what their passions
are and sometimes we let our I don’t
think it’s that hard I think what
happens though sometimes is that we let
our intellectual selves overrule those
passions and so that’s what needs to be
guarded against
[Music]
what stops your back is restored to the
story stop you from getting honest and
if you can’t get honest with yourself
there’s no way you can go what mod you
like that success in sales in life it’s
like a road map right you know where you
want to go and have this perfect
strategy with straight line to get there
to perfect strategy it’s going to get
you there every single time but if you
don’t know your starting point if you’re
not getting odds where you actually are
it doesn’t matter how powerful the
strategy if you’re creating company or
if you’re joining companies the most
important thing is to I attract great
people the either of you would join a
group that’s amazing that you really
respect or keep building a company
you’ve got to gather great people I mean
all the company is is a group of people
that have gathered together to create a
product or service and so depending upon
how talented and hardworking back group
is and the greeter which they are
focused cohesively in a good direction
that will determine the success of the
company
so do everything you can to to gather
great people if you’re creating a
company
[Music]
the passion i’ve always had for business
and being an entrepreneur the trend that
transfers into the map i’ve always been
passionate some people thought you know
like more OCD than anything else which i
think is a great trade for an
entrepreneur um well you know I
mentioned the stamp business I would
stay up till 3:00 4:00 in the morning
even though I had to get up and go to
school and read Lin stamp news and Scott
stamp journals and have them all
memorized and and use that to get myself
an edge even when I was in college I’d
be in lives in the library reading
business books and just looking for
business biographies and just reading
all I could about business um when I had
Micro solutions and you know I started
with no money
you know I pull all-nighters in front of
borrowed computers teaching myself
software and how the program
I made in my mind as a young guy I
wanted to become world-class and
something I just had to find out what
that something was going to be and the
very first time that I walked into a
Wall Street trading room I knew this is
it the ticker tape is rolling
the phones are ringing off the hook
people are screaming and shouting out
orders bodies are flying all over the
place it would look like chaos to
anybody else I could see the natural
rhythm in it it was like I was reading a
sheet of music and I knew this is where
I’m supposed to be I kept coming back I
wore one branch manager down to the
point that he says to me Gardner based
on persistence alone we go give you a
shot man I quit my job that was all I
wanted I went home and I told my ex you
know what you said I couldn’t do it but
guess what I started two weeks
[Music]
my message this is only one way get rich
and that’s quick that’s not a
get-rich-quick scheme though save your
world to obsession to get rich slowly
what I mean by getting rich quick is
that there are certain things you have
to know on the inner game of wealth how
you manage your emotional state your
beliefs your standards your focus in the
outer game entrepreneurship sales
marketing at adult multiple streams
income once you it takes time that’s
where the hard works a lot of hard work
those are getting this lines up in that
window but once you have it all once
you’ve done the work then you can make
money very very quickly it’s not a
scheme but you gotta get richer with and
you have to put the work in I said you
don’t work hard good luck I mean I don’t
know any rich people it don’t work
really really I
[Music]
there’s a very thin dividing line
between success and failure when you
start a business from scratch and you
know if you don’t have enough money to
pay the bills you go the wrong side of
that dividing line and if you can
somehow get enough money to pay the
bills you pay the right side of that
dividing line you know I’ve always been
running running running faster than
perhaps I shouldn’t and I’ve had great
difficulty saying those two things so
keep on taking on new things and we’ve
just managed to stay the right side of
the dividing line over the last 50 years
in business but but equally in those
early days when you when you’re starting
a business without any financial backing
it’s easy to slip the wrong side and in
fact even most entrepreneurs do suits
with the wrong side and of course the
important English then justice you pick
yourself up and you know start again and
if it doesn’t work at that time keep
keep going until you do succeed and not
to give up so many people try to talk me
out of starting a road company which it
was crazy
one good friend of mine collected a
whole series of videos of rockets
blowing up and maybe watch those she’s
been let me lose all my money to many of
us for a long time they’ve confused our
network and our self-worth your network
is going to fluctuate it’s going to go
up and down that’s what money does but
your self-worth
not who you are what’s important to you
how you live your values should never be
negotiable compromised and should never
settle again we have gotten to this
point what we’ve got to say to ourselves
my net worth is not my self-worth
[Music]
and
I’m going to put the vast majority of my
energy attention and dollars into
building a great product or service and
put a smaller amount into shouting about
it marketing it because I know if I
build a great product or service my
customers will tell each other I mean
you have to mix in some patients with
that the reason that most people are not
successful and not wealthy is not
because they set their goals too high
and miss them because they set them to
goal low and hit them get that not the
core should set your goals too high and
mix set your goals too low and efficient
and get caught up in the average daily
struggle of averages and mediocrity
that’s what kills people
lots of people do not have the courage
to try to start a business and all I
would say that I’ve written a book
called screw it distance and it
basically is trying to say to people
just give it a try actually sometimes a
very very small amount of money is
always needed to start a company and my
mother founded a bracelet on the street
that she had audacity station and after
three months the street had to sell it
and you know the see a couple of hundred
dollars was really critical at the
critical time in the development of our
business so all those places
give it give it a go and good luck mmm
if anyone how well you want to do a
particular starting a company you need
to work super hard so what is super hard
means well when my brother and I were
studying our first company instead of
getting an apartment we just rented a
small office and we slept on the couch
and we showered so at the YMCA and we’re
so hot up we had one computer so the
consistent says the website was up
during the day and I was coding at night
seven days a week all the time and I
really had a gopher in that period and
in order to be with me she has to sleep
in the office so I work hard like it
means every waking hour that’s that’s
the thing I would I would say if you
particularly if you’re starting a
company and I mean if you do simple math
say like okay if somebody else is
working 50 hours and you’re working 100
you’ll get twice as done as much done in
the course of a year as the other
company
you
you basically get what you spend your
time doing right I mean I want the
company to build three products this
year and we’re going to work on a few
others because people are interested in
them but those are the three things that
I’m spending my product time on right
you get what you put into it if you
spend a third of your time trying to
make the people around you better
through getting better people mentoring
getting them to be better getting the
best people in your organization you’re
known to more in factual roles and I
think over time not just accrues and you
get a better organization
the most important the most important
thing about running a company is to
remember all the time what a company is
a company is simply a group of people
and as a leader of people you have to be
a great listener and you have to be a
great motivator you have to be very good
at praising and looking for the best in
people and you know people are no
different from flowers if you water
flowers they flourish if you praise
people they flourish and and that’s a
critical attribute of a leader
you got to make sure that whatever
you’re doing is a great product or
service but it has to be really great
and I go back to what I think earlier
where if you anew company I mean let’s
just like some new industry or new
market but if it’s an untapped market or
then then you have more ability to you
this is the standard is lower for your
Park Service but if you’re entering
anything where there’s an existing
market place against Lodge and French
competitors then your product or service
needs to be much better than that it
can’t be a little bit better because
then you put yourself in the shoes of
the consumer and they say why would you
buy it as a consumer or you can apply
the trusted brand unless there’s a big
difference so a lot of times you know
entrepreneurial and what was something
which is only slightly better and it
can’t just be slightly better so to be a
lot better
focus on on signal over noise a lot of
companies get to get confused that they
spend money on things that don’t
actually make the product better for
example at Tesla which we’ve never spent
any money on advertising we put all the
money into R&D and manufacturing and
design to try to make the car as good as
possible and I think that’s that’s
that’s the way to go before for any
given company just keep thinking about
are these efforts that people are
expending are their resulting in a
better product or service if they’re not
self those efforts
you
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