The Prophetic Entrepreneur 

 It’s great. Being here on the complete entrepreneur. I must admit this is one of my favorite times of the week. And if you haven’t been to the complete entrepreneur before, then I think you’re in for a real treat today. This is a session which is scheduled one hour at 5:00 PM Eastern time, every single Thursday, and my fellow moderators and I, we have a great time, but more than that, we have a great time with people like you in the audience.

And, uh, we’d love to hear from you get your feedback on the topic. And we’re going to take a look at a really interesting topic today. It’s the prophetic entrepreneur. Now I’ve got to ask the question guys. When I sit this topic, what did you think of, um, um, call them? When Michael called whenever the prophetic entrepreneur, um, I’m, I’m insulted, [00:01:00] we’re here in startup club.

And you’re talking about the pathetic entrepreneur, of course not. It’s the entrepreneur, not pathetic,

but I, I liked the joke though, Jack. So call it. What did you think when you saw this topic of what is Mike Alondra back now?

It looks like the red dots to be there. Well, I think, well, you know, I have some inside information because you shared your, your notes with me beforehand, but I think, you know, prophetic in this instance is talking about kind of seeing or living in the future, you know, to be an entrepreneur, you need to be thinking ahead, Uh, of things in many cases that haven’t really come to fruition yet.

That’s [00:02:00] exactly right. And that’s one of the interesting things is that, um, uh, one of the things I’ve found is that more often than not entrepreneurs see problems and opportunities that other people do do not see. And with the right skillset, the prophetic insight is a gift that can propel you and your bluntness in the future that you foresee.

Um, this is more than just dreaming this procedure in the future. Um, and, and how you can then go and create that. Sorry, I interrupted you there. No, no, I just wanna let you know, I have my technical problems solved here on my headphones. Uh, I think you were asking me a question about prophetic. Um, yeah.

What did you think? Well, before I went to Google to define it, cause you know, it’s pretty complicated work for me. Uh, no, I just, I actually. I think that a lot of tech entrepreneurs, um, have the ability to identify [00:03:00] coming trends and opportunities. I have a saying a personal saying that I live by it’s called live in the future.

And what do I mean by that? I always try to buy, uh, and use technologies of the future and try to understand those implicit implications. And I believe, and by the way, this is what we’re talking about tomorrow with Jeffrey Moore, uh, from inside the tornado, crossing the chasm, uh, you know, one of the most famous tech authors in the world, um, in regards to the technology adoption curve, this is what we’re talking about.

And I think if we can figure things out, we can benefit. And I personally have benefited from many of the. Technologies and, uh, platforms that I’ve built over my career because I’ve anticipated certain technological shifts. No, I don’t know if that’s similar to what you’re looking for here. Cause I’m, you know, I’m not [00:04:00] quite, I don’t think anyone can be, anyone can, can tell the future, you know, obviously, but I think we can try to anticipate, uh, different opportunities in the future.

And on that note, I was literally five minutes ago trying to buy and I hope I don’t, I didn’t mess it up. I think I got it. Startup club dot ETH. And uh, I was going through a wallet and cause you know, Dottie, T H has really got some staying power and I wanted to see if I could pick up that domain name.

Yeah. Well I want a great domain name, but I want to come back to that. But what does it mean to be a prophetic into entrepreneur in a second? You just mentioned almost in passing and that you’ve got, uh, was it, uh, Jeffrey Moore coming tomorrow? Is that exactly. That is correct. And, you know, he’s considered to be one of the top business authors of all time.

He’s one of the top. He is the top tech, um, uh, uh, entrepreneur author of all time we believe. And, uh, he’s coming in tomorrow. It was a very funny story. [00:05:00] Um, I have known him for about six years, uh, not personally, but through LinkedIn. And we’ve been communicating over the years on articles and things. And I tried to convince him to do it a year ago.

He says, I’m not going to my getting involved in this another clubhouse. And you know, I’m not doing that. Um, and then I finally, after he heard Elon Musk went on, I tried to convince him again in the summer. He said he would do it. And we have finally agreed on a date. And, uh, what’s interesting is I had them on Monday and I was trying to get them on zoom.

And I was trying to get them to download the software and install it. And if you’ve read his books in the past, you’ll know that he’s actually a technology laggard. He is not someone who embraces technology, but yet he studied it so well. And he knows all the implications. Of each stage and the technology adoption curve.

And I just, it was just a fascinating story to get him on clubhouse. And if you actually searched Jeffrey Moore, if you want him to be one of the first people to follow Jeffrey Moore, you could search him on club S now and actually follow him. [00:06:00] Yeah. So what, what time exactly is it tomorrow? It’s at two o’clock Eastern.

What else is going on in clubhouse? Yeah, absolutely. Um, other than the fact that we just registered a start-up club, Dotty T H uh, his session is tomorrow at two o’clock, uh, Eastern and, uh, you know, come on in and if you want to get on stage and meet him, you know, he’s, he’s got, he sold over a million copies of this book.

He’s best-selling author. It’s going to be. Well, what a privilege to go along and hear someone of that caliber, um, on the stage. So that’s going to be at 2:00 PM Eastern time tomorrow, and it’s coming, coming on, um, startup.club. And it’s going to be one of those, not to me, Mr. Vince. That’s fantastic. It really is to be able to get someone like that.

Yeah. And we also, Michael, we also have fattier who helps run clubhouse. She’s going to [00:07:00] be chair. She’s got, um, I think she’s got 4.1 million followers and she’s actually coming on to the session, uh, because in our Instagram she had posted that her favorite book was, uh, inside the tornado. And so we sent her an invite and she responded and she’s so excited to come to the show.

I think it’s going to be one of those shows that it’s going to be not to be missed. I know it here in Australia, that’ll be like 6:00 AM my time and on a Saturday and I’m thinking, wow, you know what? I think it’s something. It really is like, there’s one thing I’ve learned about being an entrepreneur like last 40 years in that is your business will go as far as you go.

That’s as far as we’ll go. And if you don’t input into yourself, then you’re not likely to go along, have your business really go forward as well. And having events like this is key. So you can get some insights of what other people have done that people have been there, done that. [00:08:00] And, uh, it’s something that I’ve done.

All my entrepreneurial life is really taking advantage of these types of things or continually read books on that sort of stuff. It’s really been helpful. So 2:00 PM or 2:00 PM tomorrow, make sure you don’t miss out on that. Go to start up the club and, um, make sure you don’t miss out on any further advance by signing up for their email list.

And one of the great things is I I’ve signed up to the email is calling and I’m getting regular emails. And so I don’t, I don’t miss out.

Yeah, no, absolutely. We’ve uh, we just, last week we had Procter and gamble ventures. We did a whole series with them. We actually moved CES, uh, from physical to online on clubhouse and we had an exciting week and, uh, we are going to continue to bring in great authors, great speakers. We’ve got a lineup coming.

Uh, and probably our, I think our number one [00:09:00] show, uh, for audience listeners is, uh, the serial entrepreneur club, our, uh, which is also a podcast now. And you can get it on. Um, apple and that’s the one that we do every Friday at two o’clock Eastern, but this is still my favorite show, Michael. Um, of course it is calling.

I appreciate you saying that. I must admit when I took a look at this topic of the prophetic entrepreneur and, and I, and I came up, the idea is before Christmas, and I began to think, really think about this. I began to think of my own journey and, um, as an entrepreneur and there’s one particular instance, it would have been back in 96.

And I remember working in my business. I had an ISP at the time, um, internet service, providing business and, and we had a web development company as well. And, and things are going really well. And it was working late at night and I suddenly got this [00:10:00] blinding flash of inspiration and I saw the future. And that’s the only way I can describe it.

I suddenly thought, oh my God, This is amazing. And, and I re I remember coming up with that idea and I drew it out on a piece of paper. I wish I kept that piece of paper. I really do. I should’ve framed and put on the wall and I drew up this piece of paper and what it was, was it a picture of the future for a particular technologies and online marketing technology, which I just, I just developed it, like, within, it really took probably, I don’t know, three minutes to draw it, all that.

And I thought, oh my gosh, this is nominal. And off the back of that piece of paper and whole lot of research and everything like that, um, I built another company and we raised $4 million with a multinational corporation. And what it was is that it was a [00:11:00] picture of the future. And entrepreneurs can get that picture of the future.

They can get that blinding flash where they know where things are headed. The challenges for entrepreneurs there sometimes is that sometimes we have a picture of the future was 50 years in advance. And it’s way ahead of where the, where the market is, or it could be this picture of the future. And it’s like five weeks in advance and it’s, it’s too close.

She can’t react to the time, but it’s looking at the future. And where are those things? My wife always says to me, Michael, is you’re always living in the future. And my challenge is how far in the future I live. And, uh, it’s always a really, really big challenge, I think for entrepreneurs because you’re dreaming, you’re seeing things, other people don’t see, and you’re, you’re traveling through life and where other people see problems, you see opportunities.[00:12:00] 

And it quite often stems from the creator of imaginative insights and you get this prophetic blinding flash and you go, oh my gosh, I see it. I see that thing. And, uh, it’s not like you can foresee the future, but you see, you see a future that you could possibly create, which is absolutely phenomenal. And when you look at your own businesses, call it, did you have those times where you thought I know what I need to do now?

I see that it’s, it’s almost an actuality before it exists. Well, I, I didn’t quite understand what was happening to me when I first started my businesses in the nineties, we started internet service provider in Canada and, um, and I did it right out of college when there were only a few, uh, geeks who are not even myself, I had never even used the.

Um, I had used something called [00:13:00] bulletin board services, uh, but we saw the, um, the saw the internet take off in college amongst a very small group of people, uh, and, uh, decided to launch an internet access company, just leaving college. And what we experienced with Jeffrey Moore talks about is inside the tornado, where we had unlimited demands.

It exploded in 2000, we launched a web hosting email platform based on the concept of cloud computing. At the time they call it software as a service. And although we struggled in the first couple of years due to technical challenges, uh, it began to thrive. It went public and we sold that to a fortune 500 company.

Um, and then with.club, which is another one that just recently occurred, we bought, um, the rights to the domain name.club, uh, registered over a million domain names and sold that to GoDaddy. And so each of these, um, Each of these companies were based [00:14:00] on the concept or idea of a trend, an up-and-coming, a change, or what, what, um, again, Jeffrey Moore and others call it is a paradigm shift.

Um, I call it like a macro trend or a major change in the way that technology works or regulation. So when we, as entrepreneurs, we see these opportunities to go into a new technology or to launch a new service. Um, you know, today we, we see NFTs. We see, I mean, I was just ready to get dot ETH name. Uh, we know about self-driving we know about augmented reality.

There are massive changes in technology and user behavior that are occurring right now that entrepreneurs can seize upon. Uh, one of the ones that Jeff and I have been involved in is the one I named the rise of the micro brand. Uh, Amazon popularized the idea, the concept that people can purchase products online, but now we’re finding out that [00:15:00] customers want a relationship with the manufacturer.

So we’ve been involved in a number of companies. E-commerce companies like pod.com. Um, I’m involved in a company called hip optical, which is like a Warby Parker competitor and, uh, and some other e-commerce companies, because it’s never been an easier time in history to launch an e-commerce business. So all of these things, what do they all have in common is that there have been changes in human behavior and technology shifts.

And, um, because of those changes, opportunity exists. Now, the big question would be why would we not see big corporations seize upon those opportunities? And after working for a fortune 500, 500 company for three years, we saw what happens there. I understand the way they’ve made money and succeeded in the past and change for them is dangerous.

They would rather acquire those companies that startups and entrepreneurs set, set [00:16:00] about launching instead of, uh, innovating them and innovating them within their own organization. There’s a few exceptions like Google and apple and Tesla and whatnot, but for the most part, big company companies lack innovation.

And, uh, that’s pretty much been the, my, my past and going forward. I’m going to continue to live in the future. Yeah, I I’m right there with you calling. I must admit like you take a look at. As a hall and, um, society moves forward at a glacial pace, but you sort of say, well, why does it move forward at all?

Why doesn’t it just stagnate? And when you really look at societies, the reason why they don’t a society doesn’t stagnate is because you’ve got this handful of individuals they’re living in the future, which are driving things along. The reason why some of these technological changes are occurring is because you’ve got a handful of [00:17:00] people that are out there at the very cutting edge and say, you know what, there’s a better way of doing this.

Or, you know what I think 3d printing is pretty cool. Or, you know what I think, like you mentioned augmented reality or quantum mechanics or graphite batteries or nanotechnology or whatever it is they’re driving things for society then is like a way it’s coming in behind. And, but it’s these individuals that are having a prophetic insight to, you know, what, we can do something else.

Yeah. We, we can, we can do some really interesting, cool things and they more often than not, they don’t do necessarily because they’re gonna make a whole lot of money. And usually they do it because it’s cool. The money comes later on when they realize, yeah, I need to make this thing sustainable, but there’s that key, Jim, that key, prophetic insight, there are [00:18:00] so many trends.

And I completely agree with you on that is that there’s so many mega trends happening right now, which are huge, massive opportunities for entrepreneurs. And one of the challenges I find myself in, and I bet you, Jeff and yourself, Colin have this problem is that there’s so many opportunities out there.

The challenge is to work out which one to choose. And I think it was Steve jobs said is a successful opportunity. A successful entrepreneur says no to a thousand opportunities and yes. To one. Yeah. And it’s really, what is that one that you get a sense of that there’s a number of tsunamis right now about ticket.

Um, Colin, J yeah. I mean, look, entrepreneurs have the disease of optimism. Right. And we just get so excited. I actually believe there’s a, there’s a, there’s something that goes off in our brains [00:19:00] when we pick a new business idea because you get so excited. So high. So honestly, it’s, it’s dopamine. It’s, it’s like, it’s like a casino, you’re in a casino and you come up with this idea and you’re like, it was like me 10 minutes before the show started, I’m getting startup plugged on ETH.

And I’m so excited about this. It’s like, right. It’s like those who registered domain names, we’ve seen it, seen it before where people will register a hundred domain names. And they’ve got a hundred different ideas and they’re gonna register every domain name around that idea. You’re getting a hit every time you do that or whatever you get in to hit one more, one more shot in the arm with another drug.

Exactly, exactly. So, but ultimately it does take a, you know, you do have to have enough discipline to say, okay, I’m going to focus on this one, uh, right now. And, uh, or one or two of them and, and see which ones gain. Yeah, absolutely. Like you’re listening to the complete entrepreneur and we’re talking about [00:20:00] an unusual topic.

It is that the prophetic entrepreneur of how entrepreneurs don’t just see the future or see trends or opportunities, but they also create their future, which is very different from a lot of people. Um, and entrepreneurs have that gift. And if you are in the audience saying, you know what, dang, this is really resonating with me.

Please stick your hand up. We’d love to hear from you and we’re going to be coming to happiness second, but, um, love to hear from you on your thoughts. So what was that crystallizing for when you went and started your business, or you may have something you’re thinking, you know what, Michael, I’m so excited.

Whenever I talk about this particular thing, I’m so excited what’s going on internally inside yourself. What’s caused you to see that future, whatever it is, that idea that you’ve had, then it’d be great to see you on the stage. Welcome to the stage or the complete entrepreneur love to hear for you and your thoughts on this topic of the prophetic entrepreneur.

Welcome to the stage. [00:21:00] Thank you. My name is Adam happy, Zachary Weiss. And now every time you’re happy. I hope you think of me. I want to wish Colin and Jeffrey, a happy clubhouse birthday as well. We have to give them the flowers they deserve for putting in the time work and well-deserved stage presence.

You know, I’ve definitely been keeping up with you guys as Shire’s, uh, everyone’s been keeping up with everyone in their little microcosms that are actually bigger than they ever imagined. So I to Collin had to go online and Google prophetic. I was like, Hmm, what does this word mean? I wanted to know what the subject is, so I have to go Google it.

And then you guys explained it. And for me personally, the crystallizing moment was when I started. Believing in myself more than anything, I became my own best friend. That’s when it crystallized that I could be whatever it is I want to be. And I gave myself the [00:22:00] ability to fail and pat myself on the back for saying, oh, good job.

You failed. You know, it’s okay. We’ll, we’ll get it right next time. We’ll get a little better next time. So there’s a lot been said, and I love the ability I have to actively listen and use a teleprompter in the forefront of my mind. That removes words that no longer serve me anything that carries a negative connotation.

So there’s a lot of steps involved with this. Self-talk this positive attitude, the, the self-improvement that everyone preaches, but I really hear, I really hear it. And it resonates with me when I see it in people. And I see it in their actions and their words and their movement. And with, you know, respect to everyone’s stage time.

Thank you for the stage. Thank you for the opportunity to show Adam weiss.club, because I love that. And I got on board with it immediately through a friend of mine and it resonated with me and I pulled the trigger. So when you have that, self-confidence [00:23:00] what I’ve always establishing myself as I’m snapping my fingers.

If I move forward and my energy starts moving forward, I actually take a physical step or I take an action. I trust myself without equivocation of a doubt. That’s the right step. Go for it. Go for it, go for it, go for it. If I hesitate before I move, then that’s where I go into introspective. That’s where I’m like, Hmm.

Maybe I need to talk to somebody. Maybe there’s something I’m missing maybe, but it’s the action. It’s the movement. It’s the self trust. It’s that self best friend that you have. And then what happens is. People that is your vibe. That is your tribe will start walking beside you. And then the walk turns into a run and then it’s a marathon to see not what can be finished when we’re done, but what can be done as we all accomplish as one.

So with that, happy out over to the next person, uh, happy. It’s great to hear from you on that and really [00:24:00] appreciate your thoughts. I’ll tell you what, and I must admit, I love the fact that your name is happy. I wrote a science fiction book a number of years ago and pointed the characters in it was called happy.

But anyway, it’s great to have you here, Michael. I just wanted to say, to pour into the crowd, the only reason that I’m up here and you’re not is because I raised my hand. This is a open stage. These gentlemen and women that are all in here. You’re welcome up here. These people are. Arms the olive branches, outreach sideways, not downwards, not upwards.

We’re all on the same yet different frequencies. So with that, just raise your hand and get up here and just say, hi, I’m nervous. And I’m enjoying being here. Happy out. Thank you. Happy. I just wanted to thank you for letting us know what the balloon means calling. It was a year ago yesterday. Actually, I meant to tell you that, that we ran to the store, got our I-phones and signed up for clubhouse.

Cause at the time it was only available on iOS. So I think that red balloon [00:25:00] represents our clubhouse anniversary. So thanks. Happy for pointing that out and real quick. Happy you made me also think of something. You know, a number of years ago, I worked with the cartoonist humor cloud, um, known as gaping void.

Some of you may have heard of him and one of his most popular cartoons. Says, I’m not delusional, I’m an entrepreneur. And I think the kind of looking into the future and the kind of self-confidence happy that you were talking about, has to do with that. That as entrepreneurs, you have to be a little bit delusional, not in a negative way, but in a positive way, you have to be so delusional that you believe that your vision for that future product or service is going to happen.

You have to be delusional enough to know that all the naysayers are wrong and that what you believe is going to come to fruition and you’re going to make it happen. So I always love that cartoon and that phrase, I’m not delusional. I’m an entrepreneur and happy you made me think of it. So I thought I’d share that.[00:26:00] 

I love that delusional. I’m an entrepreneur.

So we’ll come to you shortly Armada. And, um, w we’ll just talk to Chris right now and then Roberta, and then we’ll come down to Amad, but Chris, it’s great to have you, once again, on the complete entrepreneur, we’re talking about the prophetic entrepreneur this time. So Chris love to get your thoughts on this topic.

Thank you. And it’s great to be here. I would love the tough thoughts that have been shared so far. It just automatic call. And I had messaged you. I said, I, I had a balloon a couple of weeks ago, and I don’t know why it sound fun, anything online about it. And then it just dawned on me right before you guys mentioned that it’s probably the one year anniversary of being on clubhouse.

So I think you’re right about that. Um, yeah, I had no idea. Yeah. So I [00:27:00] know what prophetic entrepreneur means to me. It’s very interesting. The conversations you had. I do believe that. Was it, you Michael that said that entrepreneurs sometimes have this snapshot or vision of the future? Um, what I think is very interesting is yes, we can’t predict, uh, what’s going to happen.

Like, you know, nobody could predict that COVID was going to come or other things like that. There are certainly things we can’t predict, but there’s a lot of things we can if we actually think about it, because one of the things that I dig dug deep into over the last year is cause and effect relationships.

And if you understand properly what that means, that means that you can know in the future. But if I do this right now and then this, and then the next day, and then the next thing, then that will have a certain outcome and it’s not guesswork. It is a fact because it is the law of nature with, cause of. [00:28:00] A lot of times though, we don’t take the time to actually develop those structures and see what those are like.

So that when we have an idea, we just kind of go for it. And a lot of times that works a lot of times, it doesn’t, if it would take us a little bit of extra time and actually looked at the real problem, how you flip that poor problem on its head, am the cause and effect relationships that need to happen.

And the actions that need to be the accompanied with that to make it happen, then you can actually fairly accurately predict a future for at least your cost or a Dion and what you’re doing in your business. I mean,

Yeah, I agree with you. It’s, it’s, it’s basically like a there’s there’s some laws like the law of gravity, but there’s also a business of laws where you’re looking at that cause and effect relationship. And I agree with you on [00:29:00] that, Chris, is that when you can see into the future, you know, that if you do X, Y, and Z, you’re going to get outcomes a, B and C, and it’s, it could be quite a challenge though, is to be able to see what X, Y, and Z, and for some reason entrepreneurs have that gift.

Yeah. Um, I think entrepreneurs do, but I think also there, there is actually, I’ve learned one of the things I’ve learned in the last year, uh, from a mentor that I engage with is to actually systematically approach it that way. So you can actually draw. Um, you know, current situation, what’s the root cause of that situation.

What are you, what is the injection that changes it to a positive situation and what are the elements that are related to that to create a better future? Um, and kind of the opposite of the current, [00:30:00] you know, negative, negative situation, if you want, because a lot of times sort of build businesses around solving problems.

And so, you know, how do you take that problem? How do you flip it on its head and make it something positive, but there is actually a way to systematically do that, which is really, really cool once you kind of understand that. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs figure that out somehow, uh, sometimes by trial and error, sometimes they’re just wired that way.

Um, but every everybody can learn. Like I said, there is an approach to what that. Yeah, I’ll start a lot of companies, but this approach now is definitely very different than anything I’ve done before, as far as being part of, um, new ventures and so forth and applying this methodology to what? So, um, I think, I think Chris, what it’s like entrepreneurs when they develop their financial models, [00:31:00] playing them and using Excel or some other Rebecca in the old days using Lotus 1, 2, 3, and there’s looking at the financial model and we’re doing a cashflow projection across a few years or something.

And there’ll be a tab in your spreadsheet is called assumptions. And, uh, and a good entrepreneur will have this tab in the spreadsheet assumptions, and that’ll be old, their assumptions that they’re foreseen into the future and they’ll be able to list them and then to manage the risk around each one of those assumptions.

But the fact that they can identify the assumptions is a part of that prophetic. Uh, to be able to say, okay, I can see this into the future, and this is the assumption. That’s just how it’s going to affect my financial or marketing models and so forth. Um, do you, do you find that’s the case, Chris?

Absolutely. Um, although a lot of times we also deal with false assumptions. So you gotta be able to ask yourself, and this is kind of where, [00:32:00] where it comes into a cause and effect relationship is if I do this, will I really get that? Like if I do a, will I get beat or do I also need C a and C combined to cause B because sometimes we, we think a little too quickly to through things.

And so we do highlight the assumptions, but we don’t always verify if those assumptions are correct. And by, uh, quite I agree with that, then you can filter away the noise, the incorrectness. And you’re more to the point, uh, in, in your approach. Yeah. I think one of the things you’re highlighting here also is the difference between intelligence and wisdom.

I’ve seen some really smart entrepreneurs out there who show unwise. And, and so [00:33:00] what they do is they’re like bulls in a China shop. They just crash into everything and all that sort of stuff. And it’s a miracle. If they can get anything off the ground, because they don’t have to execute to get their vision.

On the other hand, those are a wise, quite often, they’ll get a team of people or a team of advisors around them. And it could be their lawyer could be their accountant and so forth, or it could be like, um, uh, a, uh, uh, a coach, a business coach or something, which will. A bit of their enthusiasm and passion for the vision that they see in the future.

They’ll temperate and that’s called wisdom. And, uh, like I said, I’ve seen many entrepreneurs that lack wisdom because they believe they’re right all the time. And I’m just the way it’s going to go in no matter what. And there’s an element of each entrepreneur needs to have this sort of, we are headed here, but there’s also an [00:34:00] aspect of that’s great.

But are you prepared to change course a little bit? Because, uh, have an input of some wisdom from a trusted person who is that trusted person, that joy allowing to speak into your life to help guide you on the journey so that you can develop something that’s sustainable, that’s profitable. That’s going to grow into the future.

And that’s, that’s really all the challenges. Like I know Colin, you yourself. You’ve, you’ve had a business coach for many, many years, despite all your successes. You’ve had a business coach. That’s correct. That’s right. I’ve had business coach since 2006. So why did you get a business coach? Like you are smart, incredibly successful person.

Why is that you out of all the people, who’ve done incredible things from having very profitable companies and selling them to [00:35:00] multi-nationals to public listings, all that sort of stuff. But you yourself humble yourself to get a business coach. I, I think it’s, you know, you, why do gold medal winners or contenders in the Olympics and a coach?

I mean, let’s be realistic. Um, the coach is trying to bring out the best in all of us and, uh, you know, that’s why I have a coach and that’s why I have a coach for CrossFit as well, a private coach. And they, you know, it, it, it takes you to a higher level. Um, now let me say this, Chris, your thesis around this idea that if you follow sort of an organized way.

Um, or organized, uh, direction in setting up your company and, uh, a proven path I’ll say, and you do the right things. And then an outcome occurs of success. That is the question that we have been [00:36:00] asking on the serial entrepreneur hour every week for the last year. Is, is it, you know, is there actually a formula or is this simply random, you know, entrepreneurs succeed by luck or hard work or is it formulaic?

And we believe it is formulaic. And there’ve been a number of studies that have come out that have shown that serial entrepreneurs have a higher chance of success than first time entrepreneurs, which means you can learn it, which means there are a set of rules that if you do follow those rules, you will increase your chances of success.

I don’t think that’s prophetic. I simply think that’s learning. Um, that the trade learning, the entrepreneurial trait. Yeah. But is that like, like any sort of, any sort of trade where you are learning something like an, and if you’ve, you’ve had a bad experience of an entrepreneur and say one of your companies went down, you there’s a time when you can learn an enormous [00:37:00] amount.

And so when you do another company, you can bring those learnings to bear on the new company to help it become more likely to be successful in the future. Um, I think people that who believe that entrepreneurship is something that you don’t have to learn, uh, quite naive, um, in that it doesn’t change the prophetic insight.

You, you still make, have a vision of the future and things like that for the, for any company you may launch, but executing to get to that future. And being successful and getting to that future is going to depend upon things like wisdom, understanding learnings, and watch your stuff. I know myself, like, um, over the, over the years, uh, I’ve bought many, many companies and every time I launch a company, I hate to say it, but I get smarter.

And I look back at my early days in my twenties when I was launching company, I think you’d, I Eve [00:38:00] stupid idiot of a major. Didn’t have the thing blow up like a hand grenade in your face. Yeah. And, um, compared to nowadays, and you got a bit of a few gray hairs here and it gets that wisdom or talk about yeah.

Um, and understanding, it’s not just though the wisdom, Michael. The hands-on experience and the scars, you know, you can study entrepreneurship in school, but you need the practical experience of starting and running a business to really learn and grow. You know, if you want to be a medical doctor, you study a lot of stuff in textbooks, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to go in and cut, open a cadaver and, and actually practice one something that is almost real in the case of a cadaver.

Well, in entrepreneurship, we have our cadavers, our cadavers are the failed attempts at businesses because there’s not a single successful entrepreneur who hasn’t experienced some levels of [00:39:00] failure. And those are our cadavers along the way. And that’s how we learn. That’s how we train. So, you know, we have to get out there and do it.

That’s why I call them. Focus on serial entrepreneurship is so important because it’s not one and done, you know, entrepreneurship is a life journey. Uh, and you’re going to experience the ups and downs along the way, but that’s how we learn. That’s how we get trained to be an elite entrepreneur. I just wanted to say a seasoned sailor isn’t made on calm waters.

And I just wanted to say that a, you know, entrepreneurship is more of a tree. We don’t think of it like that. We think of entrepreneurs as being prophetic visionaries, like Steve jobs and Elon Musk. But the fact of the matter is 99.9% of the entrepreneurs that succeed do it because they learned the trade and they figured things out.

Am I making the case? It’s not prophetic, Michael? No, no. I think what you’re making the case for here is that it it’s, it’s a mixture of both. [00:40:00] Is that it sort of like, um, uh, it’s 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. And it’s the perspiration is how do you work more effectively? How do you, how do you solve these problems in a better way?

And you’re right. Jeff, you could read from books and lecture stop. There’s nothing like some scars along the road of life to teach a good lessons. You can read a book and yeah, that’s great. And I’d highly recommend that by the way. Or you can come on the complete entrepreneur and I highly recommend that, but, but there’s nothing like having someone slap you over around the face with, with, uh, uh, with a foreclosure notice to do you realize, yeah, I’ve made a mistake with this company.

That’s for sure. I’m not going to do that particular decision again anyway. Sorry, Chris, you were trying to give it. I, I, you know, I, I hear what you’re saying. Call and I do kind of partially agree there. [00:41:00] You certainly have the moments where you’re, you’re seeing somebody, something that’s quote unquote, nobody else is seeing, and that’s a vision of the future and it’s something different.

However, I would also say that, you know, we’ve all seen glimpses of the future. And let me give you a very practical example. Um, and Tonya and agency in this, and we can, we can look at different situations and I’m going to give a very simple one. I’d probably, most people recognize the kid is walking over to the STO to a campfire and they’re stretching forward their hands.

You know, it’s only a couple of seconds in advance, but it’s still, you can see the outcome. You can see the future, what’s going to happen. That kid is going to get hurt, you know, We know that because we have some [00:42:00] experience, we are seeing a vision of what is going to happen with this kid. We may know the kid, if it’s our own, we know exactly how they’re going to react from it and everything like that.

We are seeing these events happening in the future. Yet the reason why we’re seeing it is because we have earned some experience, some scars like Jeffrey said. So I do think it is to some extent, um, a mix.

Yeah, I agree with it. It is a, it is a big mix there. Chris, you are listening to the complete entrepreneur. We’re tackling a really interesting topic and pulled the prophetic entrepreneur and Roberto. It’s great to have you on the stage of the complete entrepreneur. What’s your thoughts on this particular topic?

What’s going on, guys. Thank you for hosting this room. I really enjoy this topic. Um, firstly, I want to make a comment to the business coach, uh, having somebody there to root for [00:43:00] you and tell you that you’re making a mistake because they’ve lived through those foreclosures. They’ve lived through those. Um, you owe us a lot of money and you can not go on, um, type of letters in the mail.

Uh, so they have all of the upfront knowledge that you don’t have yet. Uh, and I’ve personally benefited from having my own, uh, business coaches. So, you know, I, I can vouch for that a million times over and over again, go and find somebody finding an entrepreneur group that will help you. Um, those, those are, you know, low cost to entry.

They are very worth, uh, the, the small capital you have to put up. Uh, and they will align you to the place that you need to be. Um, but from, from my perspective, I also have, you know, this, uh, interest in community. And I think that every entrepreneur, no matter, [00:44:00] uh, where they are in their, in their storyline, I think a lot of people with great ideas, lack the ability to design and build a community behind their idea.

And I think a lot of failures come from that alone. You know, you might have a great setup and you might have the right, uh, coaches and the right product at the right time, but not enough people know about your product and the marketing doesn’t do it because like we pointed out earlier how these micro brands are succeeding now is that they have a ton of people that enjoy the personality behind the.

It’s not so much that this makeup is better than the big brand makeup. They probably are equal. Um, but it’s, it’s the person that they’re buying, right? It’s the brand, uh, and, and the person who’s [00:45:00] selling that product to them that they really purchased because we purchased with emotion and the best way to, to bring about that type of change and, and, and drive for what we’re doing is to get a bunch of people behind us.

Uh, I think you guys have a ton of experience with this, uh, in developing this, this, uh, this room and having your followers come in. Every time you guys host the room, uh, you guys see the, the benefit of having a community that are, you know, that will say, um, you know, uh, joining the complete entrepreneur is an awesome experience.

I like to go every week. Um, and, and that means. And you guys aren’t selling a product per se, but if you were, it would mean something to the person who is on the fence about buying and it would most likely lead them to that, that purchase and then become that, uh, [00:46:00] uh, raving client, uh, your raving fan, really.

So that’s, that’s what I think about entrepreneurs and how, how we are dreamers and we build, uh, but we forget a lot of times that we are not actually profits like the Bible. Um, and even though we want to scream from the top of Mount Sinai about what we’re doing and how important it is, um, not everybody’s just going to listen right away.

We have to really cultivate that, that connection. Yeah, look, I agree with your Roberta and I thought you, um, you brought some really interesting thoughts there, particularly around the benefit of having like a coach. And that’s the question I wonder the times is, are the entrepreneurs, the, the biblical, um, [00:47:00] profits, um, from the Bible, they give you an idea.

Many people don’t know this about me is that I was fully a church minister. In fact, I used to run, uh, over 80 youth groups, um, across my state here in Victoria, Australia. And I used to coordinate them and all that sort of stuff. One of the things I have found is there’s tremendous. Um, uh, hasn’t, there’s tremendous wisdom in looking at something like that.

Like the Bible from a, from a business perspective, I’ll give an example of this and we’re going to go through some learning. We talked about the learning mindset last week. So you guys can bear with me now, look at learning mindset in Ephesians four 11 talks about the past, the teacher parcel vantage and some profit.

And we need to go through that. The pastor in a church sense, because I look at the church as a business it’s been around for 2000 years. Um, and it’s [00:48:00] probably one of the wealthiest businesses on this planet as a whole incredibly successful. Yeah. So if you look at the pastor is the HR department, they manage the peer, make sure everything’s going well.

You look at the teacher, they’re the operations part of the business. You look at the evangelist and they’re the sales they’re out there doing sales work. And you look at the apostle, there are business development and governments, and you look at the profit and they’re the entrepreneur. And I know I look at all the different aspects of what you could learn, um, from, from things like the Bible or books like that.

And there’s incredible insights. When you read them with the mindset of an entrepreneur, you go, oh my gosh, right back 2000 years ago, there was the model for setting up a business. They wish the model [00:49:00] right there and right at the very beginning. So you had the profit at them is the person that is governed at SPAC.

That means side. And they’re also quite often the managers as well of bringing products to the, to the, to market and. In our courage, you, if you’re an entrepreneur, um, don’t dismiss organizations that have stood the test of time, whether it’s a religious organization, whether it is a community organization, like the lions club or some, or that you will find, they have such amazing insights embedded into them, which will help you on your journey.

And the idea is to look at them with the eyes of an entrepreneur, and you’ll find a lot of that sort of thing out there. And it’s, and it’s, it’s really quite exciting when you begin to do that. Um, let me, let me [00:50:00] share with you a, um, a simple parable, a simple story. There was a, some VC, he invested $5 million with one guy, $3 million with another and $1 million with another one.

And uh, the 5 million and he went away and he came back and they had their board room meeting and the guy had given $5 million to, and the, the person, the company that the CEO of the company sort of said, guess what? I took 5 million bucks and the space of the short time you’ve been away, I turned it into another $5 million and the VC was like this, et cetera, man, you did a great job.

Well, fantastic. So then there, the VC had a meeting with the guy who had invested $3 million in with and, uh, and the $3 million guy said, I took $3 million that you gave me. And I turned to another $3 million. [00:51:00] And the thing CCing, my gosh, this is just. This is awesome. Well done. Yeah. Like this is great. We can really go on places.

That’s what we gonna do next to grow the business. Then he went to the guy, invested $1 million in two and sat down around the boardroom table. And, uh, th th th the guy said, look, I know you, I know you invest in my company the million dollars, but when you did, so I really got nervous. And I was really concerned.

I was going to lose the money in a lecture stuff. And so what I did was I dug a hole in my backyard and I put the million bucks in there and here’s a million dollars back. And the seed was what I could have put it in the bank myself, you know, and I can earn some interest on it. Like, forget it. Give me a money, closing your business down.

And, uh, so he got the money and he said to the guy with the $5 million, here’s the middle, [00:52:00] here’s the million from the other guy. Uh, I want you, cause you can much as being given more will be given in that respect. Yeah. And it’s a really, it’s an interesting insight this parable instead, every one of us, every one of us has a, a series of talents.

And with those talents, we can take them to the marketplace. The challenge is whether we bury our talents, whether we go along, put them in the ground, the backyard, whether it’s money, whether it’s that skillset, whether it is, um, whether it’s sitting in a meeting and try to look wise by saying. And I’ve been at many meetings like that.

And they drive me crazy where people say nothing and they said, they’re intimidated. Really your reason why you be you’re invited to the meetings because you need to contribute to contribute. Don’t bury your talent. Don’t put your $1 million in the, in the ground. Don’t [00:53:00] hide your talents. And one of the things I find about entrepreneurs is, is, is when you look at your talents, every single person I know of, not just entrepreneurs, they have a series of talents that they can go along and express.

Like I talked to a guy, um, and he was going backwards personally. And, uh, and I said, what are your talents? What towns do you have? And he said to me, well, I don’t, I don’t have any talents. I said, come on, everyone’s got something, everyone’s got something. He said, well, I can play. And I said, well, when you get home from where I want you to want to set up a little business, which is teach people how to play a good time.

And so he did that. He didn’t bury his talent. He used his talent. And you may say, well, that’s an interesting story, but you see that’s actually from Matthew 25, 14 to 30, [00:54:00] um, that particular story. And there’s a lot of these stories, whether it’s the Bible or other, um, great books from, uh, it was a Dale Carnegie’s book, how to win friends and influence people too.

There’s lots of these great stories that as entrepreneurs, we can take on board and learn and we can learn the principles behind them. This is what you’re talking about. Chris learning those principles, um, of is there’s an Abe, uh, ABC, which follows an XYZ. Yeah, and there’s lots of them out there. And the thing as entrepreneurs we need to do is get a diversity of inputs so that we can get that PR that prophetic insight.

And I must admit one of the things I do a lot in my life every morning is I read. And, um, I particularly put aside some time to get a diversity of input, but [00:55:00] anyway, I just want to share that to you and challenge some of you in your own thinking of, you know, what I didn’t realize some of these things were in some of these ancient texts or then another one was the richest man in Babylon.

Take a look at the richest man in Babylon, great book sold hundreds of millions of copies. I normally have about three or four of them on my shelf that give them why to people. The richest man, apple is amazing. And particularly the way it’s, that starts off great book to read. But anyway, I just want to come across the armor.

Do you mean very patient? There are like, thank you very much for being your microphone after this point. It’s great to have you on the stage and all the complete entrepreneurial. Yeah. So hello guys. I am from Ethiopia. So, uh, it’s really interesting. And today we had, uh, Evan here in ADIs and, um, the, a lot of gas bottles came back to Ethiopia, the, [00:56:00] from the tech industry and they were, uh, like though you’re from the tech industry and some of them were investors.

So. Um, the, we, I see, uh, um, the ecosystem is actually different here in, uh, in Africa. So, and kinda anybody tell me what you hear about African startups, Ethiopian startups. Do you have any info?

I mean, I know that there’s been startups that I’ve read about in Africa, in the mobile space and they were very early and, um, micropayments, and even you might sell loans and micro investments leveraging mobile phones. Cause that was the primary access to the internet that most people had. You know, that then some interesting startups in that space if I read correctly.

Yeah. So, uh, Uh, [00:57:00] okay, go ahead. Go ahead. What was the most connected city is the capital. It it’s going to be in the Capitol. Um, and I I’m hearing what Jeff, Jeff has just related is that Africa in many respects is, uh, is, um, uh, leaping over some of the technology the west has gone through. So it’s going really like straight to mobile and straight to payments by phone and things like that.

And there’s tremendous opportunities in Africa, um, that are available. Okay. So now let me tell you my, my story and what, what, what is going on now. So, uh, I started, uh, with my last time, I think I told you I was working on, I’m still working on that, uh, startup application. I developed the desk system that you can learn any language within 2021.

[00:58:00] So, if you want to try out, I am trying out, uh, I’m Herrick, uh, Somali, uh, for English speakers. This is what I am testing right now. So I have, uh, developed the system. I have tasted some, uh, people from the NGO sector, people who work at the United nations. I have been testing this up and, uh, it’s, uh, sexist full, but, uh, here in Africa, the problem is what we do is we, we do our side work and, um, we try to inject with our own money and that’s difficult.

So what I have learned so far is you need investment to scale it up and to do things quickly. If you don’t go quickly, someone is going to do it. So this is actually, uh, what is happening. And I want to tell you something. Uh, in Africa as the, the, the, the environment as the working environment is really [00:59:00] different here, here in Africa problems, our business.

So you’re going to go and solve problems. So if you solve that problem, a lot of people are going to be out of jobs and they gonna like it’s survival. So, so why, why, why startups fail in Africa than any other place in the milkweed galaxy? You know, because the problems are businesses. So some you want it for, I can tell you, for example, there was this guy, if you have heard of him, his, uh, name was Christian.

He was doing a, he developed an application and amazing. He, the marketing strategy, everything was actually great, but the problem was. What he was trying to do was he was trying to connect the farmer to the, uh, directly to the customer. So what he was planning was he collect [01:00:00] and, uh, vegetables and, uh, products that we consume every day.

So, uh, agricultural products. So he, he, he exactly bring it to the market, to the restaurant, to the, um, directly to the customer. So that’s what he was trying to do. But the problem is the chain is very long. So from, we don’t have a large scale farming places here in Africa in especially immediately, we have small scale farmers.

So there are, uh, this UN, um, middlemen. So what they do is they collect the various tables. There is another middleman. They can organize it. They going to have to label it. They can have to price it. Then again, there are another guy, the big guy, so they’re going to decide the price. So the people who control the specific agricultural.

And [01:01:00] so, yeah. And yeah. Um, I, I hate to say it I’m at, I think like, let me tell you one thing for certain is that if you’re, um, technology you developed a 21 day training course learning any language has helped you with. In, in your English, it’s done a fantastic job. Like it really is. And, uh, if you’re a person in the audience right now, and you’re saying, look, I need to go along and learn a new language.

Maybe you’re looking at your market. Hey, Rick, go and go. And DM, um, Amad and ask him what’s his technology is developed and it can help you in that. That’d be great. Thank you for your time Ahmed. I really do appreciate it. There’s there’s a word. The complete entrepreneur has run out of time. Um, it’s that time of the hour.

We’ve got a great conversation, Mike, Michael, sorry. Michael, can I just, just, I just wanted to just really, really quick, just, just bring home [01:02:00] something that I think Ahmed was trying to say, which I thought was very interesting. I think he was trying to say that in, in Africa, if you come up with a great idea for a startup that’s effective, you’re actually putting a lot of people out of work because the workforce is there to, to solve the problem.

So if you solve it at scale, you’re putting people out of work, which is. Make people turn against you. And I think he was probably leading to the fact that the people who control the distribution of vegetables would probably have put a stop to that. Great start-up but it’s, uh, it reminded me of the Uber story, right?

Because that’s what Uber kind of face. And now it’s turned into one of the most successful unicorns in recent memory, but they had the same issue in that the taxi industry wanted to stop them because if they were successful, they were going to put the taxi industry under. And I think this is a challenge that comes up in entrepreneurship all the time.

So even though that may be the reality today in your country, um, you know, I would still say that that’s kind of the [01:03:00] nature of growth and expansion and entrepreneurship, you know, things get pushed to the side, uh, and things you’ve all been changed. You know, we don’t, we don’t go around in a horse-drawn buggies anymore and pretty soon we won’t be going around in combustible.

Well powered cars anymore. So, um, stay with it. Be persistent. Thank you for sharing that story. Sorry, Michael. I just wanted to sort of bring that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, really appreciate you summarizing that so well, and it is, it’s a challenge in many, many different jurisdictions, different countries and things like that.

There’s different challenges in many different industries, the different challenges that businesses need to overcome, um, that entrepreneurs need to overcome. And I think entrepreneurs are the modern day profits that see profit, where others see problems. And I think that’s the really interesting thing that I love hearing from the Ahmed’s the happies the Christians, the Roberto’s, [01:04:00] the Colin’s and the Jess, because they have a insight where there’s.

F R I T from their profit P H E T. Yeah. And it’s, it’s a, an exciting world we live in. But anyway, um, so what’s going on next week? Um, tomorrow we got 2:00 PM. Is that correct? Eastern time calling with, yeah, that’s correct. And, uh, you know, if you liked today’s show and we talked about, you know, identifying or coming up with visions of ideas, you know, based on technology shifts or paradigm shifts tomorrow, we have Jeffrey Moore who wrote the book, crossing the chasm inside the tornado, and a number of other books.

And he’s considered to be the top tech entrepreneur author, I guess of all time in that, in that he reinvented the technology adoption curve. And, uh, I can tell you I’ve lived by a lot of his philosophies and they’ve helped me run my businesses. So if we really want to figure out how you can, [01:05:00] uh, survive a chasm.

How you can, uh, thrive in a tornado or an early majority and expansionary period for an adoption of a technology. This is the guy like this is happening tomorrow, live he’s coming, you know, basically pulled him out of retirement to get them on clubhouse and he’s done it. He’s coming on tomorrow. And, uh, we’re looking forward to at two o’clock Eastern, the serial entrepreneur hour, if you haven’t already done.

So check out startup.club, this episode, and probably about 20 or 30 episodes from the complete entrepreneur have already been recorded and we’ve recorded a hundred, 200 episodes, uh, great material, great shows on everything from starting a company to exiting the company. And I tell you, if you listened to some of those episodes, enough of them you’ll get an MBA in entrepreneurship.

It’s a great website. Also enter your email address in, so you get to know about events like Jeffrey Moore and other speakers that we have coming on to the plan. [01:06:00] Thank you very much, Michael. Great. Oh, look, I must admit you’re calling. You’re forced me to get up at 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning and to be able to listen to that show.

And it’s something that I’m on. I’m actually really looking forward to. That’s fantastic. But next week on the complete entrepreneur boy, we got a treat for you. We’re talking about launching a business. You love not just launch a business, but one that you absolutely love entrepreneurs are passionate about their businesses, but what is their real, what does it really feel like to give birth to your own business?

Come to hear some real stories, what it’s like to launch your own business from people that have been there and done that. And that’s something which I think is going to just be absolutely awesome. So it will be at 5:00 PM Thursday next week. That’s 5:00 PM Eastern time. I look forward to seeing you all there and bring your friends along as well.

Um, fellow entrepreneurs. So we all need an injection of [01:07:00] enthusiasm and the complete. Going to be doing that anyway. Thank you very much for this week. I really fortunate. Sorry, Michael. I just want to say one thing. I just checked out your followers. You have 991 followers. Uh, look, I follow you, Michael. If anyone in the audience here loves the show, Michael will never ask, but I will ask on his behalf, give him a fall.

Let’s bump them over a thousand before we close the show. All right, I’m already, I’m already following him. He’s just not following me. I just don’t take it personally, but

I really do. And you’re right. I I’ve never asked for people if people were to follow me than that, say, it’s a privilege. And for me, that people are willing to go along and follow me. And, uh, uh, I just want to thank all those people that already do follow me and happy. I will have to go along and reciprocate.

I do apologize for that. I think there’s something [01:08:00] in the fact that I was humbled as well. And I didn’t want to ask for it the room resets where it’s like, you know, follow the mods, follow this. I came to a new realization that it’s people are so caught up in the golden nuggets. And when the conversation is good, they’re so immersed that those little resets and like, Hey, if you resonate with something that somebody’s saying, go ahead and give them a follow, use that social currency.

That way you can catch them. Speaking next time, hit the bell. If they’re really impactful and sorry, my dog’s out. Yeah, I agree.

I’ve just followed you. So, um, it’s, it’s really great. And anyway, thank you very much for that shout at calling and I look forward to seeing everyone next week on launching a business you love, and it’s going to be a great time. Fantastic. Anyway, take care. Goodbye.