My Billion Dollar Visit: Lessons I’ve Learned From Billionaires (and Millionaires) After Talking to Them

This month, I received the chance to travel to California for an entrepreneurship workshop in various cities such as Santa Clara, San Francisco, and many more. During my travels, I had meetings with the largest technical and software companies in the world, like Intel and Adobe. During the time of my workshop, I received the chance to meet with Jawed Karim, the co-founder of YouTube, Kelly Berger, the founder of Tiny Prints, and billionaire Thomas Siebel, who is the founder of Siebel Systems and of C3.ai, an artificial intelligence software company. In these past few days, I've learned valuable lessons, industry insight, and how to create and maintain the best version of yourself in the pursuit of your endeavors, business, or personal.

From the 18 companies and founders I've talked to, here are the four most important takeaways.

The one thing that was most common among the entrepreneurs and CEOs, was their emphasis on the importance of a strong team. The assembly of a team of individuals requires each person to have a different strength. The unique expertise derived from each individual leads to a connection that reciprocates indubitability and trust because of the great reliance on your team’s counsel on specific subjects.

Teams that have solid foundations built on indubitability and syndication will always prevail in a time of hardship and will also never forget to honor their wins.

What does it mean to have the right people? It is as simple as evaluating your context: analyze what your specific needs are and ask, “Is this individual qualified enough to guide me into this idea?”

Let me give you an example: if you have an idea for a business that specializes in the snack industry, specifically focusing on chips, who would you hire to help run your company?

To assist with this, you would need an R&D (research and development) person, which means that you would need a chemist, or someone who specializes in food science, maybe even a chef, to help develop the actual product. What type of chef would you choose? That would be based on what type of chip you would like to create. If you wanted to create tortilla chips, you would more than likely seek counsel from a chef who specializes in Hispanic or Latin foods. If you wanted a potato chip, maybe you would choose a chef who specializes in American foods, or maybe you wouldn't choose a chef, maybe you would choose a potato farmer, instead.

Next, you would need to seek guidance from a nutritionist, to help provide accurate information about the ingredients and health benefits (if any) of your product. Then, you would need a marketing expert to assist in targeting your audience, perhaps a marketing expert who is thoroughly informed about the chip/snack market. Subsequently, an advertising director should create a campaign that makes your product project into the market. Furthermore, you would need an accountant to help track your expenses, perhaps an accountant who has a background in the food industry, and a head of finance to help you manage your financials and turn a profit.

The list of different examples could be extensive, but the message is clear: without veracious people around you who truly recognize the market and your objective, you won’t succeed because you can’t develop and maintain alone.

Humans thrive with community and syndication, and it is with great responsibility to find the fitting tribe for you. Support is amazing, but specific, specialized support will extend the longevity of your ambitions.

The reason why you will fail is because of you.

It's because you didn't try hard enough.

It's because you tried too hard, and you didn't know when to stop.

In each scenario, there is a common denominator: you.

Most people are already informed about if they should continue to attempt a goal or when the lifespan of a goal has ended. They know these answers because of their subconscious. Ignorance forms surrounding their subconscious when doubt casts upon themselves because they lack internal trust and clarity due to the introduction of irrelevant outside sources.

When presenting your ideas, the most important question that people will always ask is:

"There are other people who do the same thing that you do. Why is yours different? Why should someone invest in you?"

Never deny, or denounce your competition—if anything, recognize and take ownership of them, but sell yourself. Honor yourself during these times and place recognition on why this idea will be the best idea because you are in control of it. People ask questions about competitors because they want to know if you can endorse yourself, and self-endorsement can only be successful if you believe what you are saying about yourself.

The belief in yourself (or lack of it) stems from your subconscious, which is only created and sustained on the basis of internal trust and clarity about who you are.

External competition is none of your concern, only internal competition is. No one wants to trust a founder who is unsure of themselves.

Competition is similar to headlights on a car: you can see in front of you, yet you can also see on the side of you. But it shines the brightest ahead of you.

Here’s another example:

Do people ask Spirit Airlines why they continue to operate despite Frontier Airlines being a budget airline as well?

Two different airlines, with many of the same destinations, yet they both have a share of the market that allows them to thrive because they do different things well.

Brands don't question the existence of other brands because each brand has the same mission, the way they execute the shared mission is the reason for success.

Study your competitor, but never become too immersed in competition as to where you forget your purpose as an entrepreneur.

Find your purpose, execute it, and execute it wonderfully.

The successful people that I talked to never really had the plan to be successful, but they knew that their success was inevitable.

Upon reflection, there are many quotes and tidbits that each entrepreneur gave. But there were also quotes that contradicted the next entrepreneur.

For example, some entrepreneurs stated that the best time to create a startup was in college, while others have said to wait until post-college after experience is gained working with another company.

Some entrepreneurs said that you should study the market and attempt to become a solutionist for problems, while others have said to never rely on trends and to have original ideas.

The great thing about these pieces of advice is that they give different perspectives based on the respective journeys of the entrepreneurs.

The bad thing about this is if you don't read in-between the lines and understand that the fact that each entrepreneur gave different advice is the advice, then you will be misled for the rest of your life.

These entrepreneurs made calculated decisions based on their expeditions and what they perceived was good for them during a specific time in their life. The execution of these decisions relied on the subconscious, which is derived from the amount of internal trust and confidence one has. When people give suggestions, it is important to know that there is a difference between taking advice and understanding the concept of judgment and decision-making skills when individuals are challenged with problems and there is a necessity to gather upon a decision.

Decisions are not always correct, and they are often complex to decide upon, but having proactive judgment within yourself is an important factor when there is a calling for a decision to be made. Listening to the reasoning behind decisions is more important than the actual “advice” itself because it provides insight into a person's perception of themselves and how they evaluate problems.

Everyone's perspective on things is different, but the determining factor is you.

With peace and love, C ❤️

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