HOW TO SUCCEED: Billionaire INSIGHTS in 12 Minutes

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in people more than they believe in themselves. And I want some of that to rub off onto you so you can take that thing that's in here and unleash it into the world. So to help you on your journey today, we're continuing the How Billionaires Think: Success Advice from the Top series, volume 4. And as always, guys, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, make sure to put it in quotes and leave it in the comments below. It will inspire other people, but as you write it down, it's much more likely to stick with yourself as well. Enjoy.

Every time is a perfect time to start a business. There's no bad times. If, if you do the work, if you do the preparation, you'll know when it's time. And it doesn't mean that it won't be a little bit scary, but you know, it, it's— you'll know. And you don't have to quit the daytime job if you, if you don't feel all that comfortable, and you can give it a run at night. But whatever works for you now with the internet, you've got all the choices in the world and you can just go out there and do your own thing and, and, you know, set up a business part-time.

We've had this tradition for, I don't know, probably 7 or 8 years at the company where every week we have a Q&A. Where our employees can come and ask me any question that they want about what's going on and what the direction of the company is, or questions or things that they read about in the press, or that their friends who use the product, what they're asking them. And it's been this really important tradition for us, both because we really believe in openness and communication, and that's kind of what Facebook is all about. But it's also really important for me and for running the company to be able to get feedback, right? And to be able to learn what's on people's minds, what our employees and folks who are part of our team are thinking about. And just kind of a lot of the time there are good questions that people ask that change the way that we think about what we're building and what we're here to do in the world, and that often make us go think and reevaluate how we should be approaching different problems.

You know, there is a very thin dividing line between success and failure when you start a business from scratch. And, you know, if you don't have enough money to pay the bills, you go the wrong side of that dividing line. And if you can somehow get enough money to pay the bills, you stay the right side of that dividing line. And I've always been running faster than perhaps I should, and I have great difficulty saying no to things, so keep on taking on new things. And we've just managed to stay the right side of the dividing line over the last 50 years in business, but equally, in those early days, when you're starting a business without any financial backing, It's easy to slip the wrong side, and in fact, you know, most entrepreneurs do slip the wrong side, and the important thing is then just to pick yourself up and start again, and if it doesn't work out that time, keep going until you do succeed and not to give up.

I have young filmmakers come up to me and say, you know, "Give me some advice for doing this." And I say, "Don't put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you. Don't do it to yourself. Don't bet against yourself. And take risks." NASA has this phrase that they like: "Failure is not an option." But failure has to be an option in art and in exploration, because it's a leap of faith. And no important endeavor that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks. So that's the thought I would leave you with, is that in whatever you're doing, failure is an option, but fear is not.

There's a Latin expression which I think is great. I love it. It was in a now very old movie called The Dead Poets Society, but the line of the movie was carpe diem, seize the day. The opportunities are there, but you gotta reach out and pick 'em up. You've gotta grab at 'em. Some of you may have already done that at the U in your classes, in other students that you met, in your extracurricular activities, but grab them. Don't be afraid to make a mistake 'cause you know what you can do if you grab the wrong one? Drop it and pick up another one. It's okay. Seize the day. I think back of all of the luck, but also the times that were in front of me to seize the day. I don't know what got me to drop out of business school and come to Microsoft. My parents thought I was a whack job. Neither one of them graduated college, and they thought this was really a wild idea. I was lucky, I seized the day. Microsoft, one day some guys fly in from IBM and all of a sudden we figure out we could actually provide all the software they need for this thing that became the personal computer. People, Bill, Paul, they had the wisdom to seize the day when that opportunity presented itself. Yet, when you think of all the opportunities, when I think back of all the opportunities I've had, the one that was most important was an opportunity I got in 1969. Sitting in my junior high school class, I was in a public junior high, not very stimulated at the time, and over the loudspeaker they said that a private high school in our area that I'd never heard of was giving scholarship tests that weekend. I told my mother I wanted to take them. She said, that's fine as long as you get a scholarship because we can't afford to send you there. But that's really where I got switched on. Switched on in math, switched on personally, energized in a way that never, never could be turned back. And I am very thankful for that opportunity. Yes, there's a lot of luck in opportunity, but there's a lot of seizing the day. And I encourage you all to reach out and carpe diem, really seize the opportunities that are in front of you.

I don't wish to alienate people here about what I'm about to say. But you know, your destiny is in your hands. And I succeeded because I had to. No one sorted anything out for me. I didn't ask to go to any government and said, "Pretty please, find me some work, please, and do something for me," because it was a waste of bloody time. Simply that, a waste of time. And if I was going to do something, I had to do it myself. That's it. And I would say to every one of you here, don't sit around relying upon magically some government going to create an environment that's going to make it easy for you to find work and find jobs. You've got to go out there and fight for it yourself. I'm sorry to say I can't give you any other any other form of advice. If you want something bad enough, you do it. And if you look at some of these wannabes that make themselves television stars or, and pop stars and all that type of stuff, they have a desire to want to be famous and they don't stop until they're recognized. And they do. And half the people that you see on television these days in the entertainment industry are those that added determination that wanted to do it. And I'll add a little rider to that, none of them can bloody sing. Not helpful, right? I mean, you didn't find that helpful answer, but you're going to control your destiny. I'm telling you, no one else is going to do it. Not unless you've got a rich dad. Have you got a rich dad? A rich uncle? No? Well then that's it, you're going to have to do it yourself.

The funny thing is, with enough persistence, most things that seem impossible become possible. I'm always amazed at how often you can turn things around, and people take no for an answer too easily. You know, it's whether you're trying to achieve a goal like get into business school or my green card was the same way. I left the job that had sponsored me, but I still got my green card even though no lawyer would take me. I became my own lawyer, got my green card without working for while I was at business school. And I did it perfectly legally. My strategy there was if I couldn't convince immigration, I'd confuse them. And I did. And they gave me my green card.

Trust your gut. It's so important to trust your gut. You know, I saw a man speak one time and he said, "I'll prove to you in 4 words there's no such thing as a bad idea." And he said, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." So I'm here today to prove to you in 2 words there's no such thing as a bad idea, and that's footless pantyhose. So no matter what your ideas are, you're doing something better than your competitors. That's why you're in business. You've thought of an idea. That's why you're here. And then be prepared for the opportunity.

When you go out into the world, you should try to stand up against the trend, even though it might— I mean, literally, it might cost your job, it might cost your promotion. But in the end, think for yourself. Be innovative. I mean, I'm not telling you go in and tell them what to do. You've got to be careful about that, obviously. But, but if you have ideas, go slam the table. Don't worry about it. Come up with your own imagination.

To be serious, if you want to be the next Dangote, is that you have to have a very big heart. You have to take quite a lot of risk. Calculated risk. First of all, you have to make sure that you are honest. You must make sure that you don't destroy the name, you know, because your name is very important. That's the most valuable asset that you have going forward. Because if you don't have a good name, even the banks, it doesn't matter how big you are, they're not going to touch you at all. So you must make sure that you have a very, very good name. And number 3, you have to make sure that You say that, look, nothing is impossible. Once you say that, yes, nothing is impossible, it means that you can actually achieve that target.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video. I'd love to know what did you think of it? What was the piece of advice that you're going to take some kind of immediate action on somehow in your life or in your business? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm really curious to find out. Thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.