108 Jay Samit: Future Proofing You - Creating Opportunity & Maximizing Wealth in an Uncertain World

My next guest is the international bestselling author and serial entrepreneur, Jay Samit:

He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for startups,
He has partnered with the whos who of our time: Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs, Reid Hoffman, David Geffen, Richard Branson, Paul Allen, and Pierre Omidyar.
A former NASDAQ company CEO and Independent Vice Chairman of Deloitte
The author of Future Proofing You (Wiley 2021) where he made a case study of taking someone who was on welfare to a million dollars in revenue in 1 year.

Jay dropped more than 30 knowledge bombs. Here is a small sample:

After you change the voice in your head, changing the world of business is easy
How will your past mistakes inform your future decisions is a better use of your mental cycles?
When rejected, they are not saying I can't do it; they are saying they can't do it with me. It's their loss
Being happy creates the best conditions for success - your brain, mood, appearance, sales, decision-making, and creativity.
A million a year is a mental 4-minute mile. Break it.
There is 2 axis to select a problem that is suitable for the soul-impact fit: 1) total addressable market for the possible impact. 2) the passion you have about the problem for your own fulfillment.
By watching where the 800-pound gorillas are spending big, bucks, you'll see where the wave is being created.
Find your niche by pairing the problem with the buzzword of the day
His number 1 hack to get connected with the industry leaders who are impossible to connect
Find a big company with the existing audience you want to reach; your can offer your product/service as a way for them to be hip and cool again

Here is my favorite: only a small % of your decisions are going to be home runs, so make more decisions.

Wisdom Quotes

"The employer pay you just enough not to quit, but not enough to care. Today you traded a day at your job. I've learned that day turns into a week. That week turns into a month. That turns into a year that turns into you're an old person."

"After you change the voice in your head, change the world of business is easy"

"Had i only...' is a waste of mental cycles on something you can't change; better question is how will it inform your next decision"

"Whenever I'm rejected, they are not saying i can't do it, they are saying that i can't do it with them. it's their loss not mine"

"When you're in a positive state of mind, you release serotonin. It puts you in a good mood. It makes you more attractive, more sexually attractive, better to complete sales. It makes you comprehend better and it makes you see opportunity, not obstacles."

"Today can be better than yesterday and I have the power to make it so."

"If we don't teach people how to create businesses and jobs, we won't have a democracy."

"You don't get to live forever, but the things that you create can have an impact the last forever. we're here to repair the earth. we're here to make the world better."

"Either be the best of what you do or the only one doing it, because if you're the only one doing it, then you're the best."

"When the 800 pound gorillas are spending big bucks, it's like super bowl weekend at a strip club. They're just reeling off money and I'm happy to be that stripper."

"Big ideas will attract others around you. And that's how you build a company and the impact you'll have on your employees. The impact you'll have on the community. That's where the joy comes from. Money is just a tool."

"99% of the decisions you'll have to make in business or imperfect data to make a permanent decision. So any decision is better than random. There's the big mistake is NOT making quick decisions. Many of them will be wrong. So any decision is always better than random."

"I've taken stakes and probably a hundred companies, most weren't worth my time. They turned out to be worth zero at the end of the day. So do I go, wow, most of my decisions were wrong. I really suck. Or do I say, wow, I picked a half a dozen that billions of people use every day that they can't live without, that have made me wealthy."

"I will be accused and go to my grave as the guy who always sells out too early. you're the center of the universe for a moment. The second it gets noticed your best offer of all time may come in that very first day."

"If offered cash or equity, what do you think I did that money? I took half. It's a win I've made money, but just in case I took schmuck insurance. It's like playing in Vegas. If you constantly bet all your winnings, you're going to lose. If you take half the money off the table and you lose what's on the table, you still left a winner."

"I wanted to be a great father. So many people think a better life is giving your kids something that you didn't have when in fact, a better life is teaching your children things that you didn't learn."