I interviewed 5 billionaires this week

I asked them to share their lessons learned on startups, life and entrepreneurship:

Here's what they told me:

A startup idea isn't "one" idea

It's a 10000 ideas, 100,000 decisions and 1,000,000 headaches

You will lose some friends. Kiss most of your high school friends goodbye

Certainties of life:

- Death
- Taxes
- Losing friends

A sign of wealth:

No longer needing an alarm clock to wake up

When in doubt, please don't send that angry email response

Wait 24h. Go for a walk

Angriness makes you drunk. Send emails sobers

THREAD: 10 significant things that the best startup founders get right.

(From my notes helping 400+ founders grow their startups.)

The smartest people I’ve met:

They retrain their minds to enjoy being wrong.

They get a dopamine hit when proven wrong because they’re excited to be closer to the truth. The truth is addictive.

In contrast, if you refuse to lose a debate, your brain keeps running old firmware.

I don’t know one highly effective person who isn’t strongly biased toward taking action.

They defer the stuff that doesn’t matter, and they always finish the stuff that does.

It's about rate of iteration and persistence, not brilliance.

The successful people I know have mastered delayed gratification:

They let themselves feel a dopamine hit when they do something that makes their future selves better.

They've learned to value their future self as much as their present self.

Success in life really appears to be two things:

1. Point yourself in the right direction.

2. Do the work even when you're not in the mood to.

(And privilege.)

THREAD: Most advice is garbage

Here's some advice you shouldn’t listen to on startups, careers and life:

“90% of startups fail”

If you’re building a startup for the money, please quit

You’re probably better off working for FB or AMZN and rising the ranks

A successful startup isn't just about the valuation. It's about impact on your team, the world and yourself

The journey is 🔥

“You'll sleep when you’re dead”

If you don't sleep, you'll BE dead

Sleep is crucial to a happy mind and body

Without sleep, you become "foggy drunk", unable to take control of your life, startup or career

Beware of hustle culture and sleepless nights

“Become a doctor, lawyer etc”

This is probably some of the most undercover toxic advice parents can give to their children

The internet has opened the doors for anyone to become anything

Discover WHO you want to become before you decide on WHAT you want to become

“Don’t talk to strangers”

- You can't make lifelong friends if you don't talk to strangers
- You can't really discover who you are if you don't talk to strangers
- You can't get the benefits of the internet without talking to strangers

BE CAREFUL, but please talk to strangers

STEP BY-STEP

How to make a $10k/mon agency in less than 3 months

Thread:

The easiest way to start an online business is to make a service-based agency.

Let's get right into it.

1. You need to have some skills.

VALUE THAT YOU CAN PROVIDE TO YOUR CLIENTS SO THEY PAY YOU EVERY MONTH.

YOU NEED TO TARGET RETAINER BASED SERVICES TO GET TO $10k/mon fast.

Now, what can you charge a retainer for?

Not web design.
Not logo design/branding.

Try to sell a service which they need every month.

- Lead generation
- Email Marketing
- High ticket sales
- Cold email

Choose one and watch 25 hours of content about it on youtube dot com

Then buy a good course if you can

MARKET RESEARCH:

Don't sell anything to anyone

SEE WHAT'S WORKING

Cold email 50 people asking for a call
Pay 3 of them $20/hr and get to know all their pain points and problems

TODAY I WILL BE SHOWING YOU HOW TO CONVERT YOUR PHYSICAL SKILL TO A DIGITAL PRODUCT. part A

People ask me one question over and over: What is a digital product? And why should an entrepreneur focus on digital products instead of just their physical counterparts?

What Is a Product?

A product is any item that you can sell to someone else in exchange for cash or barter. It could be a piece of produce, an electronic gadget, or a comfy couch.
Until the Internet altered commerce for the better, a product was always a physical object or item.

The virtual world has opened up a new category of products (which will get into later).
The point, however, is that a product is something you sell. Most often, you ask. for money in exchange for the product. That’s how you earn a living.

What Is a Digital Product?

A digital product is any product you sell online that doesn’t have a physical form or substance. You can’t hold a website theme in your hand, smell an e-book, or taste a software program — Uber eats does come close though ; ).

Why Are Digital Products Preferable to Physical Products?

You might wonder why you would offer digital products instead of creating your own physical product. After all, physical products dominated commerce for hundreds of thousands of years.

How I went from being a broke college student making $1000/month to making multiple 6 figures online

Buckle in, it gets bumpy

My story - a thread:

Let's start way back

When I was 16 I was super into fitness

After school weights

Would sneak into the community 18+ gym

Had a garage bench press where my buddy and I would blast music and max out every day (lol)

This leads into my first online biz venture

2 years later, freshman year of college my other friend and I started a YouTube channel

We shot vids in the gym, did talking head vids on different topics, and did eating challenges

The most notable was a 10k calorie challenge that I have unlisted on my account

I'll show it to people at parties/get togethers because it is hilarious

Imagine stuffing your face with 10k calories

Super cringe, but hilarious

Safe to say that our YouTube channel venture died out pretty quickly

We didn't see a penny from it in the ~6 months that we did it

In my 2nd year of college I got into photography

I had the camera from when we filmed videos and decided to put it to good use

(I also took a few photo classes in high school so I wasn't diving in cold)

Why should you start your own business instead of becoming an employee?

Well, being a business owner isn't for everyone.
But it may be exactly the change you need!

Let me give you some great reasons to quit your job and become self-employed.

🧵👇

1️⃣ You become free and independent

You get the ability to steer the direction of your life in any way you want, instead of working for the whims of others.

You also get to manage your own time and schedule.
Who wants to ask for permission to spend time with your loved ones?

2️⃣ You get to follow your passion

In your own business, you get to do what excites you.
Not only does a passion make your job fulfilling, but it also unlocks hidden powers in you!

Why do you work?

❌ Because my boss wants this done by tomorrow.
✅ Because I love what I do!

3️⃣ You can make a lot of money

Of course, wealth isn't everything.
But let's be real, it's important!

By freelancing, you can triple your income.
I take home more than $300K/y on consulting alone.
So can you 🔥

Combine that with selling products!
Only the sky is the limit.

4️⃣ You pay way less in taxes

Earned income (salary) is the type of income that is taxed the highest.
By being an employee, you're a 50/50 partner with the government.

By incorporating your business, you can lower taxes by reinvesting in assets such as stocks or property.