Jumping of a Cliff and Assembling an Airplane on the Way Down (Reid Hoffman’s Take on Entrepreneurship)

Audio Transcription

Brunch in the world’s best business workshop, led by america’s number one business coach for free by subscribing on itunes and leaving us an objective review. Claim your tickets by emailing us proof that you did and your contact information to an for drivetime show.Com, all right right. The conversation we’re breaking down the words of wisdom from reid hoffman hoffman, reid hoffman is one of the founders of the company called paypal paypal that he teamed up with elon musk, the guy. You know from tesla and spacex and a solarcity tesla. This is the elon elon musk teamed up with him and peter teal were the initial funders of facebook. They speak through paypal, but he went on to start a company by the name of linkedin which he sold in 2016. Could you imagine what it would be like to sell a company for 26 billion dollars of cash. I told you that we’ve transferred the money over now? What would that feel like z26 what he says you know when you hit the eb bought all that stock and they made all that money to know money money’s. One less thing I have to worry about coming, so here is the notable quotable I want to break down. We get your take on this there. Mr. Charles cole all with colaw fitness hoffman says when you found a start up, your metaphorically jumping off a cliff and assembling a plane on the way down. If you’re going to jump off a cliff, you might as well try to assemble a great airplane. What do you agree with that quote that starting a business is a lot like jumping off a cliff? Did you ever feel like that? You were feel like that as an entrepreneur, yes, I’ve had times where I had a schedule where I know that I have to sell and to pay my bills, and so, when I was early on in my business, I had to sell certain amount of sessions just to pay my bills, so you assemble whatever you got to do it’s kind of like in that think and grow rich book the talk about burn the ships, your email, yes, burn, the boats yeah, it’s like you got to go all in and you got to just relentlessly push and what happens? Is it sooner or later things get out of your way and it? Actually you drop people to that, one that people see that your drive is so excited you’re, so driven, even though you don’t have all the stuff together. Yet people are excited that you’re excited.

They want to follow that. Go with that. If you want to try it out so I think it’s good I want to make sure that the business coach listeners we don’t leave. Anybody behind everybody gets this idea. Napoleon hill talks about the story of a guy by the name of cortez back in the day and burning the boats, and what happened was this guy legend? Has it was trying to lead his men, see into war in the right to take over and he’s so they’re attacking enemies, land they’re, not being attacked and the reason why they attacked and we’re not being attacked is because the leader thought we need to be on the offensive here and we don’t have we’re outnumbered 321. So the best thing we can do is attack the enemy cuz it they were crazy enough to do it and the guys were like okay. Well, it probably makes a lot of sense. There’s no, they decided to attack the enemy, so they get to the enemy’s shores and they’re not being bombarded by the enemy. Yet cuz. It kind of surprised him in the liter pulls the guys inside the captain. He says:hey, crazy, here’s the deal man. What we’re going to do is I want you to set those boats on fire, but but if we set the boat on that fire, we’re not going to be able to let you know how about escape route, but here’s an island, that’s what they want us to do. They want us to have it escape, that’s what they I’ve got. A meta plan. I’ve got out. I got a game-changing planets like a illuminati illuminati playing this plan. Z we do this plane you’re, not there. I can be ready for just shut the boats on fire 2 all make sense later, so we get all the stuff off the boat we set them on fire to the boat there, a blaze, not pull the guys excited gather. No guys is it in here to deal. Go. Tell the guys that now we have wear a permanent position to win, and you know why my man cuz we have to write in. So that is the story in the legend. Has it that they want-and this is what I would call the I’m on break gap example, just last wednesday I have an appointment that didn’t show up at a client that was unable to make the meeting and so I had about a 30-minute, gap and paul. You would probably appreciate this story. I noticed that one of our teammates was sitting on these chairs out front in the lobby, and so I asked hey. What’s going on what see what is going on? What’s up? What’s going on break and I thought to myself, I read that even told my wife about it. I’ve never been on break my entire life. It any job. I’ve ever had I’ve, never gonna break over to target they’re, like hey man, you can go on break now. I’ll, just clock out I’ll keep working on a pretzel method that once you once you get the idea because I am not target was like the ending of jackass ring. For me, it was when I first started the dj business and I first started at target.

The dj business wasn’t quite going yet, but the moment z that I started the dj business I wanted to use those precious minutes of break to call my leads sure. But previous dj business it was like I’m going to try to eat as many pretzels as possible. I’ll just sit here in the booth attorney that little boots and I’m just going to sit for exactly 31 minutes, maybe 3734, because there’s nothing to tell me:there’s no real lame. There’s a real mission, it’s kind of like I’m at target I’m, on break I’m, eating pretzels pretzels, and because we get one for business coach employee I noticed it’s allie did not have a pretzel. Have hers as well I know so. Kyle did i. Have one I’ll have one hit you i? Have you ever gone back? I know you had kind of a ever union tour of you went to that burger joint use to work up in minnesota and think you paid for all the all the burgers at yucaipa from them and then changed ownership, a lot it has and then I thought. Maybe did you ever go by super target to do not calculated that ate, probably a thousand pretzels and there a buck apiece? So here’s a thousand bucks I can’t say, there’s a couple:people that are at the super target now that we’re still are still there when I was there and occasionally making awkward eye contact because you’re done the super buckle man still I think this is a different cell. Does entreprenuer is burning his boat? They have no back-up plan, it got a credit card bill. They got to pay, they’ve got mouths to feed. They’ve got, do not have a cushion of like a year in the bank and what employees are thinking. Well, you know if I missed the mark today, it’s okay it’ll be another day, but I mean a lot of time and you don’t have that luxury. I know it scared. I, remember when I was I told the story before but work. You know building the auction I’m, you know putting all that cement down, build the buildings and I’m at you know we’re getting ready to wear 30 days from opening I got my team assembled I’m sitting down with some of the guys I’ve gone from hoping this works to this hands to work cuz all that cement, expensive and the buildings and all the stuff you know, and so you you you, you i, think a little bit of i, don’t want to say desperation, but I think I want to take that spray. Show me a little bit of that and knowing that you don’t have a plan, be if you’d have you burn the boats? You know you are the pig at breakfast you’re fully committed me to the pig gave his life. T

he chicken lays an egg and says, and I might lay another one tomorrow may not, and this is an ongoing thing, I think I think that’s what 1 reasons why there such a high feel right and start up to and in business, and because people are trying to stay up till midnight to get something done and so they’re running around without a sense of urgency and the entrepreneur doesn’t get comfortable with the fact that they need to operate with a sense of urgency until they’re out of business, and so this is the question. I would like to ask the poem hill. If he were here, he would instruct everybody out there to get rid of your back-up plan and then that will create the fire of desire and needed to succeed. I would ask you this ball. Hood you’re, a successful entrepreneur. Where do you get your fire of desire that you need to succeed as it come from? First then come from god. You know he’s giving me sir I believe the gods giving each and everyone of us some business coach talent, talent and abilities, and we honor him by how we use those talents. I believe you do drive you motivation from christ cuz. You feel like that. I wouldn’t joke about it front, but I did talk to you in a lot of ways. A christian I mean I’ve, seen a lot of them. They’re just hanging out or just what’s going on, is a pretzel yeah I grew up in a family where it like i, said:i was the first person to ever go to college. Only three of us graduate high school and I saw that lifestyle and I saw what they did and it’s you know it started off with that. I just don’t want that. You’ll sometime when you start off in business or in a fitness program running from something, but now I built a business. It’s very successful and I can see that the potential and I can see. I also can see that I’ve built a business with my family are involved. My kids are involved in so I know, they’re, depending on me and so, and plus I’m, just just arrogant enough to know that I just want to do better than the next guy. So. Let me ask you is charles:where do you derive your motivation to grind on a daily basis? You have three multimillion-dollar gems at colaw fitness that are now they’re doing well, they’re off of life support the prophets are coming in things are good. You have a house with a pool. You had a wife who loves. You got great family. Why not just hit the old deal coast, but never have a nice little ramen dinner pack on 20 or 30 lb quit, hitting the gym quit getting up early quit trying to grow the business when I just hang out man when I just relax, get up in a hammock, hang out just kind of get with our jake, maybe get a membership at a at a swanky little wine bar show up around noon everyday and I write poems before you fall asleep at 2.

What, if there’s two sides that I think that, like what paul said, I can totally agree with that I believe it I do believe that god has the unicorn I love, fitness, I love. What I do and I feel like god has called me to help people kind of make that transition I lost, 83 lb when I first got into fitness and I think that I can totally relate with certain people who feel like they’re, not comfortable in their own body, not comfortable in their own skin and there’s nothing more attractive than somebody that’s comfortable in their own skin, not even money, not even busy, but just having people feel comfortable in their own skin and I know. I can connect with people on the way cuz I felt that way before and I can help people like that. So within living that then going to do that in in bodybuilding and working out, and we need some types of awards of some sort, I thought I hate. Anybody can be this and I want to help. People do that took my genuine interest was cuz i. Believe god has called me and I’ve gone through things. I can help people at this. Like you helping businesses, that’s what you’ve been doing and that’s like a carling. So that’s not a big ass driver for me. That number one and number two is what I work out everyday in the morning at 5:36 in the morning, every every single day, even sundays, I love that business coach feeling I love, that adrenaline rush and I can actually get like the more i. Don’t do them like depressed i, get and then down on myself, so I think we’re body or bodies need to stay in motion. We need to get up, get it going and seeing the ocean. So for me, I think if I quit I’m actually just talking it like my life is much. Do I have to keep pushing myself everyday. You get that fire of desire that is required to do. You burn the boats around and making massive wagers.

Is it always just a very like high adrenaline rush for you or you always scared? You have a lion that chases you on the way to work every day. How do you stay motivated, i, keep a live, bear in my place and never know how it’s going to have to I have to hide from him and my days I go over his house in the morning in the bathroom right now, I think I love about being an entrepreneur, so you can look at it success and it manages fires you up it does you you you you have. If you hit a homerun, just fired you up, you know, and it was again for me-is knowing that I’m going the way that I did a large family, not a lot of resources and I thought to myself. Hey I think I might want to try to life whip like you know, time, freedom and financial freedom that be kind of a cool thing to do, and I I sat around and I thought to myself. I, don’t think you guys are going to walk up and handed to me. Why didn’t you just wait for a presidential election, because we all know that you all the free stuff, you want government grant loans and wanted more money than the guy stand on the corner. With the little signs you know generate and I’m sure they make a find living, you know panhandling, but I thought 8, bucks and I can have control of my destiny and that’s why I made the decisions I did and got into being on for newark. And that’s what drives me? That’s you find a new challenges, making new things, making creating new things, providing jobs and it’s not fun attend the world’s best business workshop led by america’s number one business coach for free by subscribing on itunes and leaving us an objective review senior tickets by emailing, his group that you didn’t and your contact information to info at drivetime, show.Com, alright, thrive business coach nation welcome back to the conversations they were breaking down, the notable quotable from reid hoffman. This is one of the founding partners of paypal online payment company paypal also also the founder of linkedin I also also see i. Don’t think a lot of people realize this. He started what mini call the first social media website called social net.Com and cj. Why most people haven’t heard about social net.Com because it never meant anything right so again, even though the guys had a hit after hit he’s done very very well now he’s a partner with greylock partners. We all go through some sort of struggle and it really is the sign of what kind of character you’re dealing with what kind of person with when you see how they deal with adversity and so reid hoffman now is an investor with greylock partners. Are they advised companies like gofundme or airbnb date? They help entreprenuers get the funding, they need to grow. Venture capital, huge, huge companies, hundreds of millions of dollars of a funding and one of the notable quotable reid hoffman says he says the only competitive differentiators that matter are 10 times greater. Is he said, the only competitive differentiations that matter are 10 times greater. So let’s say you are going into a crowded marketplace and you want your business to dominate reid hoffman would say it has to be ten times more different times:greater 10 * z break it down. Why does why do you have to be in today? As might be an exaggeration, but why do you have to really make your brand your products so much different than what’s the incumbent business? It’s already a dominating the market share, but there’s a very powerful force in business at first then, is a very position.

It’s worth, sending that you are not first, then right because you’re having to make it better than what’s already there. When you came into the market in tulsa, you weren’t the first optometrist correct, but anytime you can be the first in and someplace. What’s a you find a really cool franchise and you want to go to a city that doesn’t have that product or service. Then you view your first into it, a little bit different game, but if you’re not first, then then that means you have to stand out. You have to be your purple cow. You know you don’t want just another brown cow out there. You got to paint the hotel like purple. You know what that means. You have to make it so compelling that reduces a chance if you haven’t shut the doors down, shut up your business coach, you work with clients on a day-in day-out basis, help make this applicable for all the doctors. He just said the concept of the purple cow right and that comes from a guy named seth godin. Yes-and he has a quote that says: marketing is a contest for people’s attention, and so when you realize that you realize you got to dress your brand up, you got to have those signs out on the road you got to have attractive signage on your building. You got to have ads, you got have no. You got to separate yourself from the pack, so an action item, for you is to go out and find what the goats, the greatest in your industry, are doing and take those ideas and what happened. I want to give all the listeners a very visual example of a business that everybody should check out to little man ice cream, a, little, man, ice, cream I’ll, pull it up on the big screen, so you guys can see. This is in downtown denver, which I go too often, and you can see that it’s a downtown denver in the guy decided the founder decide you want to do. I am going to make my business stand out and so the baby ice cream shop itself is in the shape of a what they look like a milk container at the old old school milton.

Massive line of people that are constantly gathered around this ice cream shop now see they’re, not the only ice cream shop in the world. But if you go downtown denver, always full, it’s always busy and it’s small. It’s like a small small, almost at the mall kiosk, but it’s a massive high, a mess up. My message:we tall building and it’s kind of funny, because it’s kind of a yogi berra sang the famous baseball player. He says the place is so busy. No one goes there anymore and that’s what people joke about all the time and in denver is because that place always has a massive line around it. And it’s just it’s like it’s always been. They, don’t have a lock on ice cream. Then you say he owns it, though he puts like funny signs up. It’s like it’s not worth the wait around the whole culture. There is just very, very sweaty and he’s created a purple cows. I would encourage all the listeners out there to think hard. What can you do? That’s different from all the other business coach people in your space what. Can you do that? Will so dr. Z? What are you do differently than most optometrist, because you were not the first time that we’re open 7 days a week to get my book of optometry marketing and it says step one note:don’t advertise depp to be closed on fridays cuz lord knows that nobody has vision problems on a friday or saturday I mean who was carlos days, it’s family time and phantom time. Do you know my daughters are the last doctor that I hired and she and she works on weekends and you’re, really sometimes I like having a monday to job for tuesday wednesday, then you’ll get stuff done during the week open. Then I can get stuff done. So it’s open 7 days a week. What else? What I want I’ve threatened to burn or to destroy appointment books? Cuz?

All those do is limit things. You know until we take walk-in, that’s grounds for termination. If, if one of my boys turn down, walk in and so I try to make it easy, you know try to make it easy on you. You are a cpa hood. Cps.Com is a business, give location bartlesville you have one in claremore, you have one in tulsa free money out. There is looking for a proactive, cpa and that’s sort of your niche man. Is your tulsa’s number one proactive cpa? How are you different from the average cpa out there for the average cpa, just kind of takes historical dad and put it on a tax return or historical data? Put it’s puts it on there, yet financial statement and really they’re, not very success financially themselves, and we understand that your business coach numbers tell a story and help you guide your business and make decisions, and so we treat a tweet we kind of like the like, and you know, charles was standing here like the personal trainer of accounting. We we help people set goals and then design plans and then execute their plans and then help them measure the results so that they can get from point a to point z in about you 10% of the time that it would normally take them cds. Who is it from point a to point z? Do you see the subliminal marketing there? It’s an unbelievably pausa, a great a great marketer antegrade cpa he’s a great guy to trifecta I mean I’m, trying to get him to put one little feather tattoos and with z on him on his own.

I will do that. Is it too late to talk about brackets brackets I’m not opposed to it. I just I have it for probably don’t know two decades. Whenever you pick the team that you think will win or did you pick? Do you pick the team that you want to win both hey speaking of picking your bracket team? We come back to talk about how to boldly declare your business coach differentiator to the marketplace. You like those same way there as low as a nice little provision