Podcast are a thing these days. I have done 6 or 8 of them as a guest. The Forward Obsessed podcast is one that I love and I think it captures a lot of how I think these days.
One guy, Noah Kagan called and wanted to do an audio podcast. We did it and he called back a few months later and said it was quite popular and he wanted to come back and do a video podcast. I said yes. The link to it is here. I wasn’t going to send this out on Think Daily but it has over two million views in a few weeks so I figured I couldn’t hide it anyway.
Noah tailors his shows for people who want to see how other got rich. There’s a lot of talk about how much money you make and how fast you made it. I don’t like that – at least not as the lead attraction. I know why he does it, because everyone is looking for a shortcut.
Making money is a result of value creation. The more value you create for people, or the more people you create value for, you can be rewarded for it in a free market. To me, it’s immature to seek to make a lot of money without having a strong sense of your relationships, contributions to others, and being the best person you are capable of. (Yes, I was once immature. And yes, I am still maturing.) Money is an effect, not a cause.
If you go into something just for the money, you are in it for the wrong reasons.
This is the first time anyone has called me a billionaire, and I am not sure how I feel about that. It’s a label. I don’t want the first thing people to know about me is that I am a billionaire. I am not a billionaire. Not in my mind. (I am the guy who is still doing the things to serve more people well.) If I was broke, I wouldn’t want to be introduced as “the broke guy”. So why should I be introduced as “the billionaire”? Should people treat a person different based on how much money he has or does not have? I don’t think so.
Respect and admire someone for their contributions to others, yes, but not by their balance sheet.
Noah made a mistake and did not let me see the podcast before he published it. I think that is wrong. I would never do that again. By the time I saw it, it had 500,000 views. And the title – “How I made 650 million a year…”? I wish. Sales are not profits. He knows that, but he wants clicks. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
We had three hours of content which they edited down. To his credit, he left some important points in that shows that his questions were not the right ones for me.
I hope you can learn something. Here it is –
Trust! That’s what I get! It’s not always what I want to hear , but it’s what I need to hear. Thanks Larry
I disagree with you re your dehumidifier .
They are expensive and don’t last.
Hey Larry, I was surprised when youtube served up the interview you are referencing here. Business people know that $650m per year does not = net earnings. It was interesting and good to see you. Success is a slow burn; congratulations on yours!
This was GREAT!! Thank you for sharing!
You can’t accumulate if you don’t speculate. Merry Christmas, Larry! 🎄
Maybe it would be ok to be a self made Billionaire
I saw that Podcast a good while ago and really enjoyed it. I agree with you that only focusing on earning money will not ultimately lead to success. I actually did exactly that when I first started my business and even made it to the Inc500 list but it was an empty accomplishment. We were doing great in sales and growing our business but it was unsustainable and we weren’t actually seeing ANY net profit! After that experience and the eventual failure of our business in the great recession we refocused our efforts on providing the best services possible for our customers. We did things no one else would/could do and did them well. We put the customer’s needs first and we worked our tails off. The customers noticed, they told their friends, the rewarded us with good pay and our business began growing organically, consistently and sustainably. The absolute truth is that if you do good work and provide good products/services that fill a real need for your customers then they will keep coming back and the money will naturally flow in.
I am currently scaling our fencing business into a franchise model. I really appreciated the interview as it grounded me in reality again. I see the importance of family, growing a great team or individuals who carry the load and never giving up. Thank you for you wisdom and knowledge I look forward to hearing more of what you have to say.