Dan Martell - The Most Important Trait In Successful People

00:00:00.120 I left and I walked away from my earn out

00:00:02.560 and I decided to take a bet on me.

00:00:04.800 The bet was, can I create more value in the next year

00:00:08.600 working on my own company from scratch

00:00:11.800 than staying with the company with a predictable outcome?

00:00:14.680 This is millions of dollars on the line.

00:00:30.000 Hey there, I'm Dan Martell, serial entrepreneur, investor, and creator of SaaS Academy. In this

00:00:33.880 episode, I'm going to share with you some beliefs, some ideas around why I believe

00:00:38.500 that the world rewards courageous decisions. And I'm looking at you. I want you to make

00:00:45.200 courageous decisions because what I've discovered over my life is the moments where I could have

00:00:50.420 went left, but instead I went right, where it would have been safe, but instead I took some

00:00:54.320 where I could have taken the easy option,

00:00:57.160 but instead I went to the hard option

00:01:00.420 is where my life has progressed and I was rewarded for that.

00:01:04.020 Let me give you a real tangible example.

00:01:07.440 Back in the day, I think it was 2012,

00:01:10.320 I had just sold my company Flowtown.

00:01:12.460 I'm working at the acquirer and I'm enjoying it.

00:01:16.060 We're having a lot of fun.

00:01:16.960 We're building, we're integrating.

00:01:18.660 We've got the team there.

00:01:19.720 I'm getting them all set up.

00:01:21.000 and you know what happened was i came up with this idea at the time it was a productivity tools and

00:01:27.240 you know i ended up calling it clarity but it was a way for me to to make myself available over the

00:01:33.160 phone so it's like i send out a link people add themselves to like a call list and then i would

00:01:37.320 just call them and what happened was is that over the next two months while i was playing around

00:01:43.480 building this tool on the side it started to pick up steam it started to to become a thing there was

00:01:50.360 There was this moment where I went to the roof

00:01:52.380 of my condo building and I tweeted out this link said,

00:01:56.100 hey, if you need any advice, you know,

00:01:58.120 fill out this form and I'll give you a call.

00:02:01.120 And I posted it out on Twitter

00:02:02.780 and I had hundreds of people fill out this form

00:02:06.280 and I just sat there on the roof,

00:02:08.100 staring at San Francisco,

00:02:10.020 talking to these founders from all over the world,

00:02:12.660 people in Japan and Europe and that I'd never met,

00:02:16.380 that had been following me for two or three years.

00:02:18.520 And I had this epiphany moment where I was like,

00:02:21.220 what if you could take all the brilliance

00:02:24.080 that I'm looking out that exist

00:02:26.380 in this city of San Francisco,

00:02:27.820 what I could unlock all of that knowledge

00:02:30.580 and make it available to the rest of the world

00:02:32.580 through a simple platform, a simple network.

00:02:35.920 And that was when clarity.fm

00:02:38.740 kind of started becoming a thing.

00:02:41.140 It's a seed of an idea, but I had an issue.

00:02:45.540 I was working, I only had a 12 month earn out.

00:02:49.000 So my company got acquired a few months prior

00:02:51.080 and I had to stick around

00:02:53.280 to complete what's called the earn out.

00:02:55.460 So usually when a company gets acquired,

00:02:57.240 you get cash upfront, you get stock,

00:02:59.240 but then there's a portion of it that,

00:03:01.480 and sometimes it can be as much as 50%.

00:03:03.400 In our case, I think it was about 30%

00:03:05.420 that was held back to make sure that one,

00:03:08.600 we delivered on our commitments, that we stuck around,

00:03:10.940 that we hit certain numbers, et cetera.

00:03:14.080 And what happened for me is I came up

00:03:16.720 with this idea of clarity and I couldn't let it go.

00:03:19.780 I just kept thinking about it.

00:03:20.960 I remember one time I was working on the interface

00:03:23.340 of the product, I was redesigning the mobile experience.

00:03:26.880 And my fiance at the time, Renee,

00:03:29.140 maybe my girlfriend at the time, no fiance,

00:03:31.900 she came in the living room at like three in the morning

00:03:34.720 and she's like watching me, like, look at these screens.

00:03:37.580 She's like, what are you doing?

00:03:38.700 And I'm just like, I gotta, I gotta build this.

00:03:40.840 Like I just had this calling,

00:03:42.800 this vision for what it could be at that point.

00:03:45.540 I couldn't let it go.

00:03:46.500 And I remember talking to my lawyers

00:03:47.840 because I didn't wanna get in trouble building it

00:03:50.580 during work hours of the acquire

00:03:52.720 and then run into some IP issues

00:03:54.400 like the Winklevoss twins did with Mark Zuckerberg.

00:03:57.720 If you haven't seen The Social Dilemma,

00:03:59.280 the movie maps out everything.

00:04:01.620 So what happened was is that I needed to make a decision.

00:04:05.700 I had to make a decision.

00:04:07.020 do I wait 10 months, nine months

00:04:11.700 to go all in on this new crazy idea?

00:04:14.460 Or do I like take my own advice

00:04:20.620 and make a decision to jump in with both feet?

00:04:24.720 And I'm telling you, it was hard,

00:04:26.000 but I mean, at that point, you know, in my life,

00:04:28.400 I had been blogging and speaking at events

00:04:30.400 and talking about like, you know, entrepreneurship

00:04:32.920 and taking risks and, you know,

00:04:34.800 doing things that are uncomfortable

00:04:36.440 and not, you know, doing the easy stuff.

00:04:39.160 And there's one point I just, I got mad at myself.

00:04:42.420 I was like, okay, Dan,

00:04:43.640 like you keep giving everybody else this advice,

00:04:45.480 but here you are where, you know,

00:04:46.660 clearly there's an opportunity here

00:04:48.240 that you wanna go execute 0.78

00:04:49.200 that you're way more passionate about,

00:04:51.220 but instead you're taking the easy route.

00:04:52.960 You're taking the predictable.

00:04:53.980 You know what the outcome is gonna look like.

00:04:56.280 And one day I decided enough's enough, I'm leaving.

00:05:00.980 I'm making the decision, I'm going.

00:05:03.180 And I called my co-founder Ethan in and I told him

00:05:06.460 and he was like, oh no.

00:05:08.240 I'm like, dude, I can't, I can't help it.

00:05:10.220 I gotta do this.

00:05:11.060 I gotta make this decision.

00:05:12.500 I gotta go build this company.

00:05:13.840 I just feel like an imposter.

00:05:16.080 And he was like, whoo.

00:05:18.360 You know, I'm not gonna call it some names,

00:05:19.660 but he was like, he's not gonna take it well, right?

00:05:22.680 The CMO that kind of championed the deal

00:05:24.780 and then the CEO was gonna be super upset,

00:05:27.340 the acquiring company.

00:05:28.900 And I was like, all right.

00:05:29.780 And I still remember when I told the CMO,

00:05:33.540 like his response was like rage,

00:05:38.300 like almost wanted to physically attack me

00:05:41.180 because it's like, you lied to us.

00:05:43.580 You wanted to do this from the beginning.

00:05:45.260 You had no desire to stay

00:05:46.580 and all these like crazy statements and allegations.

00:05:49.100 And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:05:50.320 Hey, and I got a little upset.

00:05:51.500 Cause I'm like, no, I build this thing as a utility for me.

00:05:55.640 I had no plans on building a company,

00:05:57.740 But the truth is, is that what you guys said

00:06:00.420 we would be doing and what we're actually doing

00:06:01.840 is not exactly a hundred percent.

00:06:03.660 So let's just get clear on that.

00:06:04.800 And the other one is, is I want,

00:06:06.660 I can't sit here and not express myself creatively.

00:06:10.180 I've just, I wanna go build this thing.

00:06:12.960 And I left and I walked away from my earn out

00:06:16.080 and I decided to take a bet on me.

00:06:18.340 The bet was, can I create more value in the next year

00:06:22.120 working on my own company from scratch

00:06:25.300 than staying with the company with a predictable outcome.

00:06:28.200 This is millions of dollars on the line.

00:06:31.040 And I made the bet and I moved forward.

00:06:33.840 Now here's what's crazy.

00:06:35.460 Even though I got threatened,

00:06:38.100 I was walking away from millions of dollars.

00:06:40.180 I was upsetting a lot of people on my team

00:06:42.840 because they were like, hey man,

00:06:43.980 I thought we were all supposed to do this.

00:06:45.380 And I was like, I get it.

00:06:46.540 And I don't know how to explain it,

00:06:47.820 but just trust me, this is what I gotta go do.

00:06:50.760 Even though a lot of people were like,

00:06:52.000 I can't believe he's moving on so quickly.

00:06:55.300 I made the decision.

00:06:56.740 It was hard.

00:06:58.140 And I just kept plugging away.

00:07:00.000 And here's what's crazy.

00:07:01.660 Within two months, I ended up raising $1.7 million

00:07:06.500 from some of the top investors in the world.

00:07:08.980 You know, Freestyle Capital, Baseline Ventures,

00:07:11.780 Mark Cuban wrote a big check,

00:07:13.920 and a bunch of the best angel investors

00:07:16.440 valuing the company, I think,

00:07:18.040 at like six or $7 million pre-money.

00:07:20.980 So that was like a proof point.

00:07:24.080 but this is the crazy story

00:07:26.560 that a lot of people do not know.

00:07:27.820 I wanted to share it with all of you guys

00:07:29.300 is about a month after

00:07:32.800 or maybe a couple months

00:07:34.260 after I announced the fundraising,

00:07:37.080 I'm on vacation back East, okay?

00:07:40.420 Where I grew up in Eastern Canada

00:07:41.680 and my co-founder Ethan calls

00:07:43.840 and I remember where I was standing on the boat

00:07:46.500 out on the outside of Shidiak Bay

00:07:48.820 with my family or with my wife's parents,

00:07:51.900 they were there

00:07:52.380 and I take the call

00:07:53.720 and Ethan's like, yo, man, what's up?

00:07:55.720 And I was like, oh, nothing much.

00:07:56.680 Just on vacation, blah, blah, blah.

00:07:57.880 He's like, how's things?

00:07:58.660 I was like, good.

00:07:59.780 He goes, did you see the news?

00:08:01.260 And I said, what news?

00:08:03.540 He's like, you didn't see the news?

00:08:04.720 And I was like, no, man, I've been kind of on vacation.

00:08:06.700 I haven't been really plugged in.

00:08:07.560 He goes, demand force just got acquired by Intuit.

00:08:11.540 And I was like, no way.

00:08:12.900 I was like, for how much?

00:08:14.020 He's like 500 million or 300 million.

00:08:16.060 It was a lot, hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:08:18.000 And I was like, awesome.

00:08:19.780 Like, good.

00:08:20.600 Like I knew, I wanted people to do well, right?

00:08:23.340 Some of my investors had gotten some stock in the company.

00:08:26.040 So it was a win-win for everybody.

00:08:27.480 And Ethan goes, yeah, but you don't realize what that means.

00:08:30.000 And I say, what's that?

00:08:30.800 He goes, because we got acquired in our sales agreement,

00:08:36.740 there was essentially a clause that said

00:08:38.400 if there was a change of ownership,

00:08:39.820 all of our stock would accelerate.

00:08:42.420 And as long as I'm still working at the company

00:08:46.160 in 12 months from this date, Dan,

00:08:48.260 you get your stock from the earn out.

00:08:50.540 and I was like holy crap and I just thought to myself like how does how does the world work how

00:09:00.680 does the universe do this right and that's what I remember this quote I'd heard that you know the

00:09:06.520 world rewards those that make courageous decisions the world will reward you if you do what's hard

00:09:12.340 and and not as easy so what I want to share with you is like three beliefs that I've formed from

00:09:18.060 in that moment and many others.

00:09:19.440 So I gotta tell you, every time I've taken risk

00:09:22.700 on the other side of that, there was reward,

00:09:25.000 but it didn't come obviously.

00:09:26.220 So the first one is the idea that it has to serve

00:09:29.100 other people.

00:09:29.940 See, I was passionate about Clarity because I believe

00:09:32.300 that it had the opportunity to impact millions

00:09:34.700 of people's lives.

00:09:35.540 And it actually went on to do that.

00:09:37.700 You know, the company, we built it

00:09:38.740 over a two and a half year period.

00:09:40.200 We got acquired by startups.com.

00:09:41.980 It was an incredible journey and success.

00:09:45.240 but the premise was is that it served other people, right?

00:09:49.780 And I think that if you want the universe,

00:09:52.800 the world to support you and your crazy ideas,

00:09:55.400 it has to be to serve other people.

00:09:57.960 It can't be for your own ego, your own self-interest.

00:10:01.220 The other thing is that it has to scare you.

00:10:03.280 And a lot of you guys are saying, well, I take risk.

00:10:05.780 You know, I'm a risk taker,

00:10:06.960 and I'm here to tell you like, I don't think so.

00:10:09.740 Some of you guys have already made a million dollars

00:10:11.700 and your risk is 50K, okay?

00:10:14.220 No, no, no, no, no.

00:10:15.420 You remember back in the day

00:10:17.700 when you took the last 10K in your bank account

00:10:20.500 and you put it on the line to start your business.

00:10:22.680 The ratio of risk and fear starts to diminish over time

00:10:26.940 if you don't keep it in check.

00:10:28.000 And that's my, that's what I'm gonna challenge you

00:10:31.180 to think about is like all those things

00:10:33.520 that you think are risky, did it really scare you?

00:10:35.780 It's like, oftentimes when I look at founders

00:10:39.900 that like leave their job,

00:10:40.800 we're gonna Google, Facebook, et cetera.

00:10:42.120 And they're like, oh, I'm taking risks

00:10:43.140 to go join the startup at an accelerator.

00:10:44.900 It's like, not really, because worst case,

00:10:48.300 it doesn't work out and you just go get a job

00:10:49.740 back at the accelerator, right?

00:10:51.940 But to me, it has to make you feel uncomfortable.

00:10:56.180 It's gotta give you that inside your stomach feeling

00:10:59.180 of like, oh, it's scary.

00:11:01.440 But in that moment, you take action

00:11:03.520 and you go forward regardless.

00:11:05.580 That has to be present.

00:11:07.540 And the third one is that luck's gonna be involved, right?

00:11:12.540 Like at the end of the day, there is an element.

00:11:15.920 People say all the time,

00:11:16.700 the harder I work, the luckier I get.

00:11:18.440 But here's the truth.

00:11:19.920 I know a lot of founders that want things out of their life.

00:11:22.460 They like say, oh, I wanna like be successful.

00:11:24.480 I wanna grow my business.

00:11:25.700 I wanna hire great people.

00:11:27.080 And I see luck show up.

00:11:29.180 I see them knocking on the door.

00:11:32.120 They're outside the door.

00:11:33.160 Luck's like, hey, I found this great person.

00:11:34.740 You know what the person does?

00:11:36.160 They don't answer the door.

00:11:37.960 They drag their feet around making the decision.

00:11:40.160 They don't engage.

00:11:41.140 They don't bring their A game.

00:11:42.540 And they don't even realize they're like,

00:11:43.940 oh, I wish I was a little bit more luckier.

00:11:45.300 And I'm thinking there,

00:11:46.900 I seen luck show up and talk to you,

00:11:50.300 scream in your face and you still don't respond.

00:11:55.400 Like at the end of the day, 0.68

00:11:57.080 if I didn't take action to go put myself

00:12:01.300 in a lucky position to raise the capital,

00:12:04.200 to build the team, to do all these things,

00:12:07.240 then it doesn't matter what the outcome is gonna be.

00:12:09.740 Like luck has to be present.

00:12:11.860 And that to me is like part of it.

00:12:14.320 So if you feel on your soul,

00:12:17.380 if your heart is telling you to make a decision

00:12:21.200 and it's to serve other people and yes yourself,

00:12:24.400 to progress your career,

00:12:25.720 but also impact a lot of people's lives.

00:12:29.060 And it scares you inside, you got these butterflies,

00:12:33.440 but you're willing to put in the work,

00:12:35.580 trust that luck will show up.

00:12:37.240 And that is what I believe is the reason

00:12:39.900 why the world rewards courageous decision.

00:12:41.600 There's this great quote that's just gonna like

00:12:43.720 summarize the whole thing from a guy named Jack Canfield.

00:12:46.040 If you haven't heard of him,

00:12:46.880 he's the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

00:12:48.160 He's an incredible human.

00:12:50.320 And he says, everything you desire,

00:12:53.560 everything you want is on the other side of fear.

00:12:56.340 Okay, everything.

00:12:58.120 It's just the fact.

00:12:59.400 It's like people want things, they want goals,

00:13:02.400 they want money, they want health, they want whatever,

00:13:04.840 but it's gonna be on the other side of fear.

00:13:07.720 And if you learn to build that muscle,

00:13:09.880 because here's what's happened for me over the years,

00:13:11.320 I just, a lot of things I do today,

00:13:13.100 people are like, whoa, that must've been so scary.

00:13:14.700 And I'm like, nope.

00:13:16.580 And why?

00:13:17.580 Because you build the muscle, you make decisions,

00:13:19.720 you take action, you fall, you get a feedback loop,

00:13:22.820 you learn, you take actions, you make decisions, you fall.

00:13:25.580 And not all of them hit,

00:13:26.660 but eventually they start to hit

00:13:27.580 and then you like build this confidence loop, right?

00:13:29.160 So it's this competence, competence loop.

00:13:31.040 And that for me is the essence of it,

00:13:33.640 is everything you want is on the other side of the fear.

00:13:35.820 That is my message.

00:13:36.740 That is the belief that I wanna install into your mind.

00:13:39.560 It's what I have for you.

00:13:41.020 And with that, I hope this finds you incredible

00:13:44.500 and I wanna wish you an amazing rest of your day

00:13:47.660 and I'll see you next week.

Dan Martell - October 24, 2022

The Most Important Trait In Successful People

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