Embrace Your Crazy Ideas: The Key to Entrepreneurial Success

Embrace your crazy ideas. So as entrepreneurs, we come up with crazy ideas. It's kind of what we do. If you're not coming up with crazy ideas as an entrepreneur, I don't know if you are an entrepreneur, right? It's— we have this vision for a greater world, something that doesn't exist. We want to will something into fruition. That's what we do as entrepreneurs, and we come up with crazy ideas. The challenge is though that not all of us act on our crazy ideas. You get this crazy idea at 1 in the morning, and then the next day, you know, you promise yourself that night, the next day I'm gonna go out and work on it, and I'm gonna go out and make something of it. And the next day you wake up and it just, it doesn't happen. You're not taking action on it. Why is that? And for me, it comes back still to your environment. You have an environment that holds you where you are, that keeps you doing what you're doing now. And if you want to bust out and create something bigger, then you have to break free of your environment. Environment. And the crazy idea is a moment of boldness. It's a moment of boldness where for one, one second or one hour, you know, you're thinking, man, I could make this crazy thing happen. You suddenly believe in yourself. You believe you have the resources, the resourcefulness, the knowledge, the experience, the training, the perseverance, the ability to actually go out and do it. And the important thing, in my mind at least, is to go out and actually take some kind of action on it. Don't wait till tomorrow. Don't write it down. Don't tell yourself the next day you're gonna do it, because in reality, you're probably not going to go out and do it when you're in In that moment of boldness, you have to take some kind of action and ideally commit to somebody else. And so the next time you come up with some crazy idea, what I'd love for you to do is write an email to somebody, call somebody up, take somebody out to lunch, tweet somebody out. Commit to somebody else to get the momentum started. Because it's so much easier to continue the momentum the next day and the next week than it is to start building it from scratch from the beginning because you never actually took any action. The second thing is also it's important to apply your crazy ideas to other people as well. Touchy subject. One of the things that, uh, that I've been trying to do more and more is whenever I get a crazy idea for somebody else, I try to let them know. And it's touchy because they may not be open to it, right? They may not want to make a big crazy change in their life. They may be comfortable in their environment, and changing that is painful. One of the things that I'm really good at, and, uh, one of the things that I think is one of my biggest strengths, is that I believe in people, right? It's my one word, it's believe. And so I can't help but to think when I see somebody they could be more than what they're currently doing. It's just something that I see in everybody. I see greatness in everybody almost that I meet, and I see them having abilities to be able to do more than what they're doing right now. And sometimes that's all people need is a little kickstart. They need somebody else to believe in them because they don't believe in themselves, and nobody around them believes that they could do more than what they're doing right now. And so even though my crazy ideas might not be accepted, might not be acted on, I still try to get myself into the habit of when I come up with a crazy idea for somebody else, I let them know about it. I share it, and I do it because the thing that helped me was knowing that it's coming from a good place. It's coming with good intention, and it's never attacking them and saying, "You should be doing this because you suck," and, you know, harping on them for some negative reason. It's always coming from a place of love, and every single time it's been appreciated. It doesn't mean it's always gonna get acted on. It doesn't mean they're actually gonna make a change in their life, but you now get to be the person who is trying to be a force for good in somebody's life. And you know if you're trying to build a new habit, you're trying to change your environment, you know how painful that can be. And so you could be the one spark that helps somebody start to take positive action in their lives. So as much as possible, when I have a crazy idea for somebody else, I try to share it. It happened to me this morning. I was on a call with somebody, a group call, and it just— I wasn't feeling right about it. I wasn't feeling right about the advice that he was being given. And I said, hey, listen, do you have a few minutes after to talk about it? Because I have a few ideas for you. You may not like them, but I want to share. It's just been bugging me. And so we stayed on for another half an hour just chatting and me giving him my ideas. Now again, whether he uses them or not, you know, he appreciated enough to stay on for longer than 2 minutes, and hopefully it sparks a positive change in his life. And I didn't want to go on the rest of my day wondering, "Oh man, I really wish I told him what I was really thinking." Not to tell him off, right? Not like, "Oh, I should have told him what I was thinking," right? That's something else. But I wish that I would, would have told them what I was thinking. I try to live my life without regret, and so that's part of it now. So when you have a crazy idea, I want you to do something in that immediate moment. Take action towards its fulfillment in some way, ideally by committing to somebody else. And then when you have crazy ideas for other people and it's coming from a place of love and a desire to see them do more with their lives, don't be afraid to share it. Be sensitive about how you share it, but don't be afraid to share it because I don't want you living with regret for yourself too. So how does this relate to my book? The other night I was writing up my book, and it was 1 in the morning, and I was, I was coming up with an idea because I just did a word count on my book. And the initial deal that I've made with my publisher was they wanted 50,000 words. Sure, 50,000 words, I can do that. I did a word count, and I'm at 112,000 words. Man, 112,000 words! Initially, there was supposed to be 5 sections to the book. I cut section 4 and 5 out because I didn't have enough time to go out and do all the research that'd be required, and those could be future books. And so we're down to 3 sections, which are all awesome, and it's 112,000 words still. And my thought was was, man, I don't want to lose half of my book, and I could use that a lot for bonus content and surprises and stuff for you guys. But I thought maybe it'd be better to split this thing up, split it up into 2 or 3 different books so we have the awesome content and we can build momentum into the next book, into the series. And I pitched that to my publisher and my agent at 1 in the morning because that's when I came up with the crazy idea. And I don't know how it's going to be received, you know. I don't know if that's something that they're going to want to do. It wasn't what was in our contract, and, you know, I don't have as much experience obviously in the industry as they do. So we'll see we'll see what happens, but that's where I am at with the book. I'm kind of excited about that path, but again, we'll see what direction we take. The point there being is though that it's a crazy idea that I had 1 in the morning, and instead of sleeping on it and waiting till tomorrow to wake up and send that email, I sent it in the moment, and we'll see what happens. Don't live life with regret. Embrace your crazy ideas now. Okay, let's get to the questions. First up, Tamara Weeks: The suspense of chapter 6. Thanks a lot, Evan. Will you share something about it? So last week I was talking about how JRise had a special surprise for me in chapter 6. I'm not ready to share. No, not ready to share. Not ready to share. There's some— it's gonna be exciting. There's gonna be lots to share. Timing just isn't right quite yet. I know, I know I'm setting you guys up. It's not intentional to make you guys— what's the word? I'm struggling for the word. I don't know. I love you guys. There's a reason for everything. It's coming out soon. I will have details to share, I promise. Just hang tight with me a little bit longer. I have a question about the topic on this video. Is it okay to hire somebody good in the beginning of your company but they aren't great because of your budget? Then it's okay to hire great later on when your budget allows? So that's an interesting question, and I think also shows a limiting personal belief in that you don't need to have a lot of money to be able to hire great people. There is some correlation where that, you know, having money helps, but money isn't the number one factor. That people want to go work at a company. You look at what makes people happy at a company that they're working at, money is never the number one issue. It's the number one issue that employers— interesting enough, it's the number one thing that employers think is important, but it's never the number one thing that employees actually care about. And so yes, people need to be able to survive, and I'm not suggesting you pay insanely low wages, but it doesn't have to be— you don't have to have a huge salary to be able to get great people on board. What's way more important is that people feel recognized and that people feel like you're on to something big. They have opportunities for growth, for learning, they love your mission, they love the people they're helping. You know, why do people go and volunteer at organizations? They're not getting paid any money to do it. They do it because they want to give back, they want to help, they want to provide, they want to feel like they're nourishing their soul. And there are great people who become volunteers. I would say if you can't afford somebody, that's not the biggest hurdle. It's gonna be more about, are you doing something that people would want to join? Are you doing something people want to volunteer for? Do you stand for something insanely powerful and impactful that people can't wait to join your movement? That's what you need to build on. That'll help you attract great people. And as you can afford to start to pay them and pay them more, that's great too, but it's not the most important thing. Daniel, you have to do more Periscopes, at least for me. You are the man. Another shot of espresso wake me up in the morning, keeps me going. Appreciate that, Daniel. You know, Periscope's been a funny one for me. I've done a few. I had it in my morning routine where there's extra a gap that I would do some Periscope. I don't know, just haven't found the lift or the buzz from it that I was looking for or needed. I might get back into it. It's one of those things that is on my nice-to-have list, and you know, we don't really get to our nice-to-have list that often, so I might get back to it. I'm curious to know how many of you guys are on Periscope and use it. You know, for me, if I had an option between investing into making a video for Periscope or investing into making a better video on my YouTube channel, I'd pick YouTube every day of the week. I make time for YouTube. I'm supposed to be writing my book, I'm walking I'm on my way to Whole Foods and I make time to make this video happen, or I don't make the time for Periscope because it's just a nice-to-have. You might see a return. I might change my mind in a couple weeks. I don't know, but for now, it's not on my list of priorities. But I'm feeling the love. Thank you, Daniel. Next up, Elias. Elias is a long-time fan of the channel, left tons of comments. All caps: I freaking passed all exams! First time in 3 years. They said I couldn't do it. My own parents started doubting me after my third try. I freaking passed my load of exams, man. Thank you so much, Believe Nation. Elias, congrats, man! Feeling the love. I love it. I love it. Thank you for— it's interesting that, you know, you wanted to come to the YouTube channel to share that news. It makes you feel like you guys really value the channel and make it an important part of your life that you want to kind of share your big announcements. So that, that means a lot to me, even though there's no question there for me. It really means a lot that you would come here to want to share that news, and we believe in you, man. Third time's a charm. Congratulations. Good luck. Can't wait to see what you do with the rest of your life in the years ahead. And believe me, If you want to give Elias a shout out and a congrats, leave it in the comments below and share in the celebration. Chloe, man, this hit home for me. Once again, I've hit a hiring slump. I've had the right people, thought I had the right people, and was completely excited, but it's been 3 days and I haven't heard from my partner. I work at my business every single day and I don't understand. When I told that it would take this much time, I don't know why they don't get it. Feeling hopeless yet again. Forgot to post a comment yesterday. BTA53. So this is a super common problem with a lot of entrepreneurs. Finding the right people is tough, and I think A big reason is because you're hiring for skills and not necessarily for values. You want a web designer, so you hire somebody who looks like they have great web design skills, but they don't share the same values as you do. They don't like to work hard. They don't like to wake up in the morning and get to work. They may not believe in others. They may not play nice. They may not, you know, whatever things that you value deeply, that's more important than the skills that they have. And so I think too many people as entrepreneurs, and I get it, you know, when you start, you're doing so many things, you're wearing so many hats, you need somebody just to do that job, to take it off your plate, and it feels so good where you can say, "Oh, okay, all of that stuff now I don't have to deal with, it can go to that person." And then it sucks when they don't deliver, right? Where they're not performing, where they're not giving you the work that you need. And so, one, make sure you're hiring people who have the same values as you. I make that really important. It should be in all your job postings, it should be upfront when you're talking to them, not just about how you're gonna split up the work, but how you're gonna actually run the business, right? Like what you care about deeply and what you will and will not accept. In terms of bringing somebody on, I would say always start on a trial basis first, especially if you're talking bringing on a partner. It's so easy to jump into, jump into bed with somebody who looks good on paper, right? It's easy to get excited at the start of any project. You're all pumped up, you all have this vision, and then once the work starts, once the crap starts, that's when you see what people are really made of. And so before bringing anybody on as a partner partner, I would say test them first. Try out a small job first, see how well you work together. See if it's somebody that you can imagine spending, you know, potentially every day of your next 5 years of your life with. Do you want to be with this person? And if not, then move on and find somebody else. And then the third point I would say is you need to have standards. I know it sucks that you lost this person, but they weren't the right fit for you anyway. And you need to have high standards for yourself and the people that you bring on board your team. It's mandatory if you want to build a great business that has a impact, you need great people who are great at what they do, who are aligned together, right? If that doesn't happen, if you have people who aren't working the same amount, you have people who aren't, uh, great at what they do or have ambitions to be great at what they do, then you're never going to build anything great. And I think it happens so much in terms of partnerships where almost always you find somebody working harder than somebody else. Life gets in the way, excuses get in the way, something gets in the way, and it ends up leading to a complicated situation. It doesn't mean you don't form partnerships because partnerships can be great. I just think too many People rush into partnerships too soon without knowing if that person is going to be a good fit for them or not. Parham, are you walking in North York? I am, Parham. I am walking towards Yonge and Sheppard. That's where I do my book writing in the great city of Toronto. And city— North York is a section of Toronto. It's where I call home. So that's it. Proud Torontonian. It's getting cold here. Got the hat on. And excited to go write. Venkat: Evan, thanks for the insight. My question is how to involve great people and how can we surround ourselves with great minds? a good fit for you, but as soon as you settle on that person, then you stop looking for somebody else, right? At least most people do. Most people do. You should. And that happens a lot, I think, in the friends and the people in your circle. Good is the enemy of great. If things are just good enough, you're never gonna make a change. So if your friends, the people who you're around, the people who are at your business, if they're just good, then they're good, you know, that's fine, and you don't have any frustration to want to make a change. If they were bad, if they were terrible, you know, if they were abusive, if they didn't get their job done, if they didn't support you, it's a lot easier to walk away from that. The people who are just good means that you're never gonna actually go out and seek somebody else who's greater. And so I think that's the biggest thing. Don't settle. Keep searching. If you keep searching, you'll eventually find it. If you stop the search, then you'll never find it. So that's it for my book update. I might have an answer to my crazy idea by the time next week rolls around. We'll see. I'd love to know what you think. I'd love to know how you embrace your crazy ideas. Leave it in the comments below. And if you have a question about my book, your book, the book writing process, anything relating to books, let me know in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer for you next week. Thank you guys for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.