Valuetainment - Episode 300 - Best Alternative To Entrepreneurship

00:00:00.000 30 seconds, one time for the underdog, ignition sequence start, let me see you put them up,

00:00:09.000 reach the sky, touch the stars up above, cause it's one time for the underdog, one time for

00:00:16.040 the underdog. I'm Patrick, we're the host of Value Team, and today we're going to take a

00:00:19.440 completely different direction and talk about the best alternative to entrepreneurship. So

00:00:23.640 before I get into the episode, I want to tell you the story about what happened yesterday

00:00:26.300 that has everything to do with today's episode. Yesterday, Kai from Norway asked me a question,

00:00:31.940 say, Pat, what do you think has more influence, nature or nurture? Meaning, were you born with it

00:00:38.240 or were you raised and developed with it, right? And I said, look, there's probably got to be a

00:00:42.760 little bit of both, but there's probably more on this side than this side. However,

00:00:46.240 I think a lot of people are forced into situations. Let me explain to you. Yes, I'm living in Germany

00:00:51.440 and my mom has no money and my dad is in Iran trying to go to US and we're broke. You know,

00:00:57.580 we're living at a refugee camp and I have to figure out a way to make money because I want to buy the

00:01:01.340 Super Nintendo because I like this girl who's from Czechoslovakia. And so I figure out a way to make 1.00

00:01:05.980 it work by going to a local pool and I make my 250 marks. So I go to Kaufhof and I buy the Super

00:01:11.220 Nintendo. Yes, that could be a sign of a person saying, you know, that's nature, Pat, but it also could

00:01:17.360 be I was forced to do it because I didn't have any alternatives. If my mother had the money to buy 0.83

00:01:22.380 it, maybe I don't go to the swimming pool to collect a beer bottle. So I can't answer that

00:01:26.300 question for you, but I can tell you what happened later on, on me deciding to start my own insurance

00:01:31.100 agency, my own financial firm. I'm part of a company and I'm growing in this company and I never

00:01:36.180 really had plans of being an entrepreneur. Meaning, I'm going to put all my money and start a company and

00:01:41.400 doing all this other stuff. My idea was, let me figure out a way to go make my money,

00:01:46.080 become a CEO within a company, own a piece of this company, and then I can invest in other companies

00:01:51.820 and we can raise and make other types of investments where that becomes into money and

00:01:57.060 millions and billions and all this other stuff, opportunities. But one day I sent a 16 page

00:02:02.260 letter, nine points to this company that I wanted them to consider making some adjustments. I sent it

00:02:06.880 to the president, all these other guys, and nobody responded back. Then I sent it to the parent company.

00:02:11.960 It's a 400 billion dollar company. And within 30 minutes, a guy named Jack, very nice man, responds

00:02:17.300 back. And Susan, who would never respond back, she set up a meeting in Irvine and I told them,

00:02:22.940 one by one by one my ideas, right? I'm an intrapreneur. I'm sharing these ideas with them. They come back

00:02:29.580 and they try to do some of it, but the lady Susan shuts the entire thing down, right? 0.85

00:02:34.360 Susan forced this intrapreneur to become an entrepreneur. She forced me because she cornered 0.99

00:02:42.720 me and then I went and became an entrepreneur. I had no idea or no desire to want to go put all my

00:02:48.660 savings and become an entrepreneur and get sued late nights, 100 hour work week for three, four,

00:02:53.360 five years. No desire forced. Now, some of you may be watching and saying, well, Pat, I'm an 18 year old

00:02:58.140 kid. I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur because I've been following your content for four years.

00:03:02.040 Well, you are inspired. Maybe you watched Founder, McDonald's, and I want to be the next Ray Kroc.

00:03:09.220 I want to be the next Jobs. I want to be the next whoever because you were inspired. But I want to

00:03:13.580 go a little bit deeper here with you as well. $42.3 billion is the net worth of the richest

00:03:19.000 intrapreneur in the world, Steve Ballmer. Steve Ballmer went and worked at Microsoft, became the CEO

00:03:26.380 through stocks, bonuses. He's now worth $42.3 billion, the richest intrapreneur in the world.

00:03:33.620 And now he owns multiple different teams, businesses, companies, stocks, shares, all this

00:03:38.240 other stuff. Steve Jobs, who is a very famous entrepreneur, starts Apple with Wozniak, then

00:03:45.380 gets fired in 1985. He's worth $250 million, sells every single one of his shares, which at the time

00:03:52.460 he owns 20% of the company, keeps only one share so he can get all the updates of what's going on

00:03:57.580 with Apple. Leaves, becomes an entrepreneur again, starts a couple ventures. Next, Pixar. Pixar ends

00:04:04.740 up blowing up. Pixar ends up being bought by Disney after Eisner leaves. The new CEO comes, buys Pixar from

00:04:11.800 him for $7.4 billion. The $7.4 billion that he gets paid, obviously not all of the shares he owned.

00:04:18.120 He owned 138 million shares of the company. And then he gets back to Apple and he becomes an

00:04:25.360 intrapreneur. And when he goes back to Apple, he negotiates a deal for them to give him 5.5

00:04:31.260 million shares of Apple. And that 5.5 million shares of Apple is how he made other ways of billions of

00:04:38.740 dollars. By the way, he ended up being the biggest shareholders of Disney in the world because of

00:04:44.800 Pixar. What's the moral of the story? Even Jobs became an intrapreneur, even though he was an

00:04:50.100 entrepreneur. He ended up becoming an intrapreneur. And he wanted to be an intrapreneur because where

00:04:54.700 he worked at before Apple, he had so many ideas, but they forced him out. So having said that, I'm

00:05:00.040 going to explain to you a couple things. One, what are qualities of intrapreneurs and whether you are

00:05:05.260 part of a company that breeds and attracts intrapreneurs and what kind of companies to look for

00:05:11.320 that do? And this is why intrapreneurship is the number one alternative to entrepreneurship. So

00:05:16.500 having said that, let me get right into it. Number one, intrapreneurs, great entrepreneurs,

00:05:19.560 they think like an entrepreneur. Very simple. They work like an entrepreneur. They're not 9 to 5,

00:05:23.920 I can't wait to go home. I got to go party. They can't. They're working 9 to, they're working

00:05:28.100 80, 100 hours a week because they're always thinking, what about this? What about that? What

00:05:31.740 about this? Their wiring is very similar. They're urgent like an entrepreneur. We got to figure out a way

00:05:35.780 to get this thing now. Who is this? Can we get ahold of them? I don't want to get on the phone with

00:05:39.840 them now. We got to get a meeting with this person. We got to go get this thing on. When can we get

00:05:43.260 the product? Can we get it up by Q1? To them, they still have the same level of urgency. They're

00:05:47.780 innovative, always thinking about ways to be innovative. Number five, they push the envelope.

00:05:52.380 They're kind of uncomfortable sometimes to be around because they're always pushing the envelope.

00:05:55.220 Can we do this? Why can't we do this? This, Pat, this doesn't make any sense. I get it, but why can't

00:05:59.020 we do it? We got to figure out a way. The intrapreneurs push the envelope, which means people,

00:06:03.620 companies who don't like intrapreneurs, don't like intrapreneurs that push the envelope.

00:06:09.840 But intrapreneurs push the envelope. Number six, they're protective of the brand. They speak

00:06:14.600 a different language. They don't say you, your company. They say our, we, us, I, we. It's

00:06:22.780 our brand. It's my brand. It's our company. The language is a different language than a

00:06:27.480 your company, your business, your deal. That's not an intrapreneur. This is my company. Somebody

00:06:32.960 that says your, your, your, they're saying to you that soon I'm leaving to another company

00:06:36.940 and they go from company to company, to company, to company, to company. Intrapreneurs, this is my

00:06:40.980 brand. I own it. I'm a part of it. You don't know it, but I'm a part of this brand myself. Number

00:06:45.140 seven, they treat the resources like their own. They don't take the money. Oh, let's just throw it

00:06:49.720 here, throw it in here. They're very protective of the money because the one thing you need to realize

00:06:53.900 about an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur that puts their own money up. They're more protective of

00:06:58.400 $22 than anybody else will ever be. But intrapreneurs, they also understand how hard it is to make the

00:07:05.420 money and they're that protective about the cash and the resource that the company has. The one

00:07:10.260 thing that's different about intrapreneurs that end up going to the top, they're typically diplomatic

00:07:15.220 with the founder and the entrepreneur of the company because they have that respect to say,

00:07:21.140 look, I think like you, I work like you, I'm wired like you. I got to tell you, I'm innovative. I

00:07:25.760 protect the money. I believe in a brand, you know, everything you got going. I'm the same as you,

00:07:30.620 but you put up the money. You took all the risk. You lost those nights. You put up all those hours.

00:07:36.980 I have so much respect for you. This is why I'm diplomatic with you and I give you that respect

00:07:41.020 because without you, I can't be an intrapreneur because you were the founder. That is the only

00:07:45.240 real difference between the intrapreneur and the entrepreneur on the way they think because

00:07:49.760 the entrepreneur founded the company, but the intrapreneur found the company. Big difference. I

00:07:56.200 found it. I found you. Big difference. Make sense? It's not one is more important than the other.

00:08:01.720 There's just a level of respect that takes place, right? So now having said that, you're saying, Pat,

00:08:06.580 I kind of feel like I'm still an entrepreneur. I'm not an intrapreneur. Totally fine. But you may be

00:08:11.700 saying, dang, this kind of makes sense. I think I am an intrapreneur. So Pat, where can I go to find

00:08:17.940 something like this where a company breeds intrapreneurs? Let me give you a perfect example. Companies who

00:08:23.420 attract intrapreneurs, okay? Number one, they foster intrapreneurs internally. It's a language. It's a

00:08:30.940 language of saying, hey, we within the company are looking for X, Y, Z. We within the company are looking

00:08:37.100 for dot, dot, dot. We within the company are looking for this. We within the company. And so people are

00:08:42.960 saying, man, I want to be an intrapreneur. Man, I love this kind of an environment. Oh my gosh, you mean to tell me

00:08:48.280 I can go out there and do such one? Yes. Wow. This is, I can come out of committee and come up

00:08:53.980 with ideas. Yes, I love this. This is exactly what I want it to be. So the idea I had of leaving the

00:08:59.200 company and going and starting my own deal, gone. Because I can already do all that stuff here without

00:09:03.940 having to risk putting up my savings, without having to risk three years of all these issues I

00:09:09.420 went through, I'm all in. Good to go. Perfect. Number two, they're comfortable with a level of risk and

00:09:15.520 creativity. Look, I'm negotiating with a carrier recently. And while I'm in a room and they start

00:09:22.420 talking, I just lost it for like two minutes and I went into La La Land. Okay. And here's all I

00:09:28.620 started thinking about. They're saying what they're saying in the boardroom. And it's a very big company,

00:09:33.680 very big company. They're saying what they're saying in the boardroom. And what they're saying,

00:09:39.100 they're indirectly sharing their frustration of the guy at the top of the company who, whatever

00:09:46.200 they say, he rejects. So because he rejects, these guys are just playing defense. They're not playing

00:09:53.820 offense because the guy at the top is afraid of risk and creativity. So that's why they've been flat

00:09:59.420 like this for a while as a company. Okay. They've been flat like this for a while in the company.

00:10:03.800 And I'm sitting there saying, wow, none of you are entrepreneurs. You're just, you know,

00:10:07.280 clipping coupons and can't wait for your retirement come in and just to be gone and play golf and hang

00:10:12.160 out with your grandkids. That's all you're thinking about. And I said, I have sympathy for you guys.

00:10:16.880 I respect you guys. You've been in this, you make it work, but you don't have a guy at the top that

00:10:20.920 believes, that believes in breeding entrepreneurs. Terrible environment. If you're an entrepreneur

00:10:25.060 wanting to go and work with the company and be an entrepreneur, terrible, but because they didn't

00:10:28.840 believe in risk and creativity. Number three, not afraid of creating linchpins. Let me explain to you

00:10:33.800 what's a linchpin. You put the pin that holds it so that things don't fall out, right?

00:10:37.080 Let's put an image of it so people know what a linchpin is. So what's a linchpin? Without a linchpin,

00:10:41.180 everything falls apart, right? Some companies are afraid of linchpins. Who's the author that wrote

00:10:47.500 the book, Linchpin, by the way? Seth Golden wrote the book, Linchpin, right? Some companies are afraid

00:10:51.520 of linchpins because they don't like people that are irreplaceable. So meaning if you, all of a sudden,

00:10:57.740 a company become way too powerful, some companies like, oh my gosh, we better fire this guy before him.

00:11:02.480 No, no, no, no, no, no. You like that guy to stay around. You like that person that have a lot of

00:11:08.640 influence. We have so many people here in the company that at this point, they have so much

00:11:13.520 influence over the field, so much influence over the company, so much influence over our carriers,

00:11:18.940 our technology. I'm like, awesome, because they lock in those relationships. But some companies are

00:11:25.140 afraid of linchpins. They're like, wait a minute, that guy's a threat. One day he could take over my

00:11:29.020 position. Fire this guy. This guy's a threat. Fire this guy. It's almost like back in the days 0.60

00:11:34.440 when Claudius was one of the emperors, Rome, and he marries Agrippina, I think is her name,

00:11:40.740 who was his niece. Weird story. And she has a son named Nero, and she secretly doesn't like

00:11:48.320 Claudius, because Claudius was crippled. He had some health issues. She secretly knows Claudius has a son,

00:11:53.560 and she wants Nero to be the emperor, so what does she do? She eliminates her son, kills the son, 0.74

00:11:58.640 kills the husband. Then Nero becomes the emperor, and then the entire time Claudius introduces Seneca 0.81

00:12:06.260 to Nero to teach him Stoicism, so Nero becomes a leader and a voice for this country, but Nero starts

00:12:12.800 realizing the two people that have a lot of influence over them, the linchpins are his mom 0.99

00:12:17.280 and Seneca, so he kills his mom. I mean, you got to go read the story, and he goes and eliminates

00:12:22.560 Seneca, because these are linchpins. And then he's all by himself, and guess what happens to him at

00:12:27.180 the end? He's so afraid of linchpins that eventually he has to get eliminated. So these stories about

00:12:31.880 linchpins is nothing new. This has been going on for a while, but a company that breeds and fosters

00:12:37.060 entrepreneurs loves linchpins, because they look at a linchpin and say, my gosh, this guy one day could

00:12:43.060 run this entire company. He's a we person, not a you person. He sees this brand like his own.

00:12:48.660 And number four, last one, their comp structure is created in a way to breed entrepreneurs. Let

00:12:54.580 me explain. If I'm an entrepreneur, an entrepreneur may come to the company and say, listen,

00:12:58.920 you guys are this much. If I personally bring the company, I bring the company $60 million this year

00:13:06.260 of my own money, can I get this? Yes. Do you understand what I'm saying? The comp structure has

00:13:12.640 to be built for an entrepreneur to make that potential of money so he can go out there and

00:13:18.440 think, work, act, innovate, treat the money like his own, like an entrepreneur, but stay as an

00:13:24.300 entrepreneur within the company, and he can still make that kind of money. An entrepreneur,

00:13:28.560 a certain comp plan structure set up within the company where the entrepreneur can make more than

00:13:34.200 just six figures because he brought that kind of money to the company. So hopefully a lot of this

00:13:39.020 stuff makes sense. I know I've never talked about entrepreneurship before, but so many of you guys have

00:13:42.040 been asking about it, especially the professional community on LinkedIn, I said, let me make this

00:13:47.720 up. Some of the younger people, you may say, well, I don't really know if I like it because, Pat,

00:13:51.560 you've been talking so much about entrepreneur. I just want to be an entrepreneur. This is for an

00:13:55.420 audience of people that are sitting there saying, there's got to be a different alternative to

00:13:59.320 entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship with the right company who fosters entrepreneurs is a great

00:14:04.560 combination for you as an alternative. Okay, so having said all of that stuff, you're sitting here saying,

00:14:08.660 okay, Pat, I got it. Now what? Okay, the one thing you got to know is before you become a CEO,

00:14:13.460 you got to kind of think like a CEO, right? If you don't think like, you don't become a CEO and say,

00:14:17.520 okay, now that I'm a CEO, let me start thinking like a CEO. I want you to start thinking about what

00:14:22.640 a CEO thinks about. These are nine, there's a video I did titled 19 qualities of a great CEO that breaks

00:14:28.680 down how a CEO's brain is wired. So whether you're going to be an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur,

00:14:34.240 you got to learn how to think like a CEO regardless of what happens. Thanks everybody for listening. And

00:14:38.680 by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so. Give us a

00:14:43.700 five star, write a review if you haven't already. And if you have any questions for me that you may have,

00:14:48.300 you can always find me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. Just search my name,

00:14:53.060 Patrick MidDavid. And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.

00:14:59.080 With that being said, have a great day today. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye.

00:15:04.240 Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - May 10, 2019

Episode 300 - Best Alternative To Entrepreneurship

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