From Homeless Teen To Millionaire Founder: Simon Squibb Reveals How To Change Your Life Fast

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Today we are joined by Simon Squibb. From a homeless teen to a multimillionaire entrepreneur, bestselling author and mentor to millions, Simon has truly lived every single part of the entrepreneurial journey.

After selling his agency fluid to PwC, he launched Help bank and the hashtag GiveWithoutTakeMovement to help over 10 million people start businesses. Now one of the most followed voices in entrepreneurship, he's known for his viral street interview series and has over 17 million followers. Simon, welcome to the Burnouts.

Hi, I am Simon Squibb and this is the Burnouts.

Simon, welcome to the Burnouts. We're so happy to have you here.

I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for having me, guys.

Okay, I want to walk back for our audience who might not know you to, you know, growing up 15 years old. What was that experience like? And how do you think that formed you as such an incredible, you know, business icon and entrepreneur today?

So my father passed away when I was 15 years old. Uh, he suddenly died of a heart attack. A very shocking moment. He died in front of me, which still blows my mind when I think about that, that moment in my life. I thought he was joking, you know, like he was having a heart attack. I thought he was joking. And so eight minutes later, he's dead. So he's gone forever out my life crazy. And then my mum and I, we were having friction anyway, and then the pain of my father dying after a couple of days of misery, of course, we just argued all the time. I was 15, I want to be out trying to like, deal, deal with it with my friends. And my mom wanted me home and we just argued and then. And at one point, she snapped. It's like, get out of my house. And I left and never went back. I was homeless for eight weeks. But there's different types of homelessness, right? There's like, institutionally homeless. You're, you know, you're on drugs or whatever, you've got a problem, you're in the street, you are homeless. That's one type. There's, of course, people that get kicked out of their house. Like, they haven't paid their rent or the, or the mortgage house, and they're kicked out, they got debt, they get kicked out and they're forced into the street because they can't afford accommodation. And they. And then there was this structure that I had, which is literally like an argument with my mum. And then I was stubborn, she was stubborn. I just, I left because she told me to. And then I couldn't go back. As I got older, I realized that, you know, she's a narcissist, but she's still alive today. She sees herself as a great mom, and she was for the first 15 years of my life. And then that moment, we just broke. Our relationship broke forever. I then experienced homelessness and a combination of, like, sleeping in the street and living at friends houses for a while, sleeping on couches. I learned actually, like, for example, I slept in the street. I didn't have a blanket or anything. This homeless person gave me her blanket. You know, like someone who's got nothing will help me, you see, I mean, like. And I. And I think for years as a kid, you walk past homeless people, you don't really register it, and parents try to protect you from it. Right? Don't I come here, it's fine, you know, human lying in the street. Okay. And then I found out what, what these people are really like and how kind, frankly, a lot of them are. And how drugs. Sometimes. I used to think homeless person was a drug addict and went into the street because they were a drug addict. It turns out sometimes they're in the street and it's so miserable, so hard. They take drugs to numb the pain. I learned a lot of the truth about how homelessness works. Now. I was only homeless for eight weeks, and I did eventually start a business which allowed me to pay rent for a small, crappy room. That experience changed me forever, as you'd expect. And that was the start of my life.

First, I'm so sorry that happened, and that's incredible that, to be honest, I.

I now, I'm now grateful for it. I Know that sounds crazy, but bad luck can turn into good luck over time. It that experience showed me the real world.

Just the way that you talk about people, it's so clear. Like you always assume the best of people and I think that's really beautiful. And your early experiences, obviously being a young person really shape you. And that's why I'm curious, what, when did it change from you being angry and upset and having this falling out with your mom to actually starting your own entrepreneurial endeavors to start to pay your own rent? How did that happen along the way?

By the way, angry didn't really happen to me until like 20 years later.

Wow.

So at 15 I just hit fight or flight. I just hit survival mode. I didn't feel pain. It's a miserable story. But I actually had like an experience. If that sounds weird to people, but. But it wasn't until 20 years later, like when I eventually had money and I was comfortable and I'm like, why am I like this? Why am I so driven? Like too driven, like, why? And then I went, got psychiatric help, which I think everyone should do by the way, because it allowed me to understand how my brain had got rewired in that time. Right. Because I had to shut off emotions at 15, right. And I just had to like, figure out a way to survive. I started a business because I couldn't get a job. I was too young, no one would give me a job. Social services, the benefit system in England, told me to go away because I was a man, a 15 year old man. They didn't have accommodation for women with babies. They were like, you are like number 85 in the queue in this area. So you're very unlikely to get accommodation. But of course as a 15 year old, okay, I can't.

The child.

Yeah. I didn't think I was a child, but I look back now, I've got a kid who's 8. I can't even imagine. He's nearly 15. In my head, you know, I think it taught me the bad luck in your life turns into good luck. Sometimes your good luck in life turns, can turn into bad luck. Like when I saw my company, the opposite. Wow, I'm so lucky. I've made all this money. I built a business, I think for a week I was like, I was in, oh my God, this is it. I'm financially free forever. And then slowly I'm like, but what do I do? Am I, I don't need money now. Why do I go to work? What's the point? You know? And Suddenly, all that excitement I've had in my life of building things and doing things was taken away from me. And that. That was a negative. I kind of look at my homelessness stage and that stage where I was in that difficult situation as the thing that's made me who I am today. And I don't want to change. I love it. I love what my life is. But making lots of money kind of destroyed me for a while. It took all the wind out my sails, like, and my purpose was gone, my mission was gone.

And I want to also better understand, you obviously took a really unfortunate situation and turned it into something incredible. You built all these businesses with. What was the first step? Were you mowing lawns? How did you make your first paycheck?

So I think the thing I would say as a kind of quick headline is everyone should learn sales. And so at school, it's almost like a dirty word, like car salesman, right? Everyone sees sales as a negative thing. It's something every human can learn. Introvert or extrovert, there's just different approaches, different tools, different ways to do it. But sales is like, you want to convince someone to fall in love with you, you want someone to join your company, you want to join someone's company, you need to learn to. To sell. I think the number one thing that I did was I knocked on someone's door and said, you've got a messy garden. I can tidy it up for you. And they said, yes, that's it. I didn't have any tools, I didn't have any gardening experience in our website. I just tried my luck. Now I was scared and I was nervous, but I didn't just want to be successful. I needed to be successful. And that was the key. You'll push through fear if you need it. And needing it is. It's just a mindset thing, right? If you need it, you will push yourself through pain. But if you can tell yourself you don't really need it, you'll default to human laziness. Which is like, by the way, I see a lot of people in America trapped in this way. They kind of got an easy life. Like, they're paying all the bills, they're off at the weekends, they're drifting. They're not fulfilling their petition because they don't need it. They're not fulfilling their potential because they don't need it. They just want it. Everybody wants it. It's those that need it that succeed. And I needed it because, like, social services wouldn't give me anything and I couldn't get a job. So I didn't want to be an entrepreneur. I wanted a job. That's what school had taught me to do, ask for a job. So. But this thing woke up in my brain. I call it the entrepreneur muscle. It's a thing that makes you think about an idea and make it real and apply it. And they don't teach you it at school on purpose, in my opinion. Because if you understand how money works and you understand how to create something from your mind and make it real, you don't need to work for someone else. Bosses would have to beg you to work for them. They'd have to give you equity. They have to give you upside in the business. They'd have to give you a percentage of the outcome, not hours. Most people are selling hours, right? Which is ridiculous. So this woke up in my brain, and I realized, hey, I don't need a job. I can create one for myself.

I find that so interesting because still, in the US, 2% of VC funding goes towards women. And that, to me, is an absolute crime because we don't teach enough young women. Okay? You know, starting a business, having equity, you're not taxed the same. You're not getting, you know, 15, 50, 50% salary tax. If you're living in New York state or you're living in California, it's a completely different ballgame. And the worst thing that happens, hey, you go start a company, you raise money, you fail, you can go get a job somewhere else. Because people are looking for people who've started companies before. And still we don't have enough, you know, women allocating capital to make those decisions to invest in other female businesses. We don't have enough women, you know, starting companies. Even as, you know, the number of women in CS and hard sciences like chemistry, biology are going up. We still don't have enough women that are starting companies. And I think a huge chunk of that is due to education.

First of all, when I hear that stat, it's a business opportunity for someone listening. But if only 2% goes to women, then does that mean that there should be more capital going to women or more women starting businesses? There's a business opportunity in both. Right? So the way I look at it, honestly, as an investor, I've invested in 81 companies. As an investor, I'm looking for great people and great ideas. I'm genuinely not looking for only men or only women. What I see in the market now is fun. Starting with only women. I kind of think that's a mistake. I agree Best in class. Right. And you want to say, I promise you, if you are a woman with a good idea, we will invest.

I agree. But the funny thing is now, even as so graduating classes now are like 50, 50 in terms of gender split of graduating with computer science or graduating with, like, chemistry degrees, et cetera, the gender split has gotten way, way better. And those are mostly, we see people, you know, the. The companies that truly raise, you know, giant amounts of venture capital funding are typically tech. You know, there's exceptions or like a science business. But we're still not seeing the uptick in women starting businesses the same way that we're seeing, okay, the uptick in those, you know, classes being equal gender split. And so I do think that there's an issue of. I think it is some bias. I don't think we're teaching enough young women this hack about the difference of what equity looks like over time versus what a salary looks like over time.

I don'. That's being taught in general. The education system is broken in general. Men too, by the way. You know, I know men are working in companies and building brands, and they don't own that company. They're giving up their life, their time, the most valuable thing they've got, and they don't own equity. It's insane. And even when I suggest that, oh, I don't think my boss will give that. Have you asked, like, why wouldn't you have equity? Everybody who's made lots of money had equity in a business. Everybody who's successful owns equity in a company. Fact, I think everybody that works somewhere should either get equity where they work, and then if you can't get that, go start your own business and have equity. Now. Starting your own business is hard at the beginning. I think it gets easier over time. Working for someone else is easy at the beginning, gets harder over time. But I know people at Facebook work there 10 years, recently got laid off. They don't own equity in the business. They don't even have shares. Like, it's insane to me. Why would you build a company up, make it worth trillions, and not have a piece of your work?

That's crazy to me.

Insane. And they get fired. They're like, AIs replaced you. 10 years. You built that company up. Thank you. You've given us so much money at Meta. Now we're can just employ AI to remove you. Thank you. Goodbye.

Well, there's a lot of things that, to your point, really just aren't taught in school. And what I would be really curious about is to understand, let's say a typical venture capital fund. I would be curious how many people pitching them are actually women.

Right.

I think the biggest issue that to.

Know that would be great to know.

Yeah. Is it that you have an equal amount of men and women who are pitching, but then the majority of capital is going to mention that's something to look into. I would be really curious to understand, is it just that over 90% of the people who are creating the companies and pitching are they men? Then you can peel that back another layer and understand how can we get more women to feel confident and also to understand the resources available to them so that they feel empowered to start a business and then go and raise money for that business? That's definitely not taught in school at all. I mean, until we decided to go and start our company, it was, it was the first time I had ever even understood what venture capital was, understood how to set up a business. And to your point, and I really want to talk about this for, for me, I would say the number one best skill I have ever learned in my life is sales. Being able to pitch yourself. Understanding how to sell yourself like that is just an invaluable thing. Everyone needs to know for whatever you do. And it's shocking to me that, that that is not taught in school because that's, that's how you get money, that's how you get a job, is by being able to properly articul. And I want to ask you, because you're so good at this, what advice would you give to people just like Sales Fundamentals 101 what is the best way to present yourself?

Be authentic.

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That is. You wouldn't normally think that in sales, it's like, you know, you gotta fake it, you gotta sell something that people don't need and make them buy it, you know? No, the opposite. Identify your person that's going to buy it and then explain the product to them. That's it. You don't have to be faking it, lying, doing tricks. I see a lot of people teaching sales online and they'll be like, you know, create fomo or if you don't buy it now, it's going to be gone. You know, no, you don't need to do that. So this is what's available and you make a relationship with people. Sales is actually just another form of relationships. Twenty years ago I sold to a guy, a partnership and 20 years later he's a billionaire now and he invested in Help Bank. You know, like this relationship is 20 years old and I didn't go to him, hey, would you want to buy my digital product? It's going to make your life so much better. I'm going to save your business. And then he signs and I don't do any of those things and I get the money. Too many people are thinking of sales that way. No, I over delivered. And then he was like, my God, you said what? You're going to do something and then you did it. Let's do more stuff together, Simon. And then for the next 20 years, we were working together every chance we got, you know, like it's relationship. But there's three steps to sales that everyone needs to know. I think this is it. You don't need to go on a course, don't need to pay for a course. You don't need to go to university. You learn by doing right. And sales is very simple. The first principle is know the person you're selling to, like the company and their mission and the purpose of that person's job, role, right? So if you're trying to sell them a pen, they don't need a pen. You're wasting your time. No salesperson in the world, no matter how good you are is going to be able to force that person to buy a pen unless you trick them. And that's not a relationship build. The second part is, do they need what you're selling? I've done a deal with every Fortune 500 company at least once in my career. And what I discovered is if you like the person you're selling to and they like you and you trust each other and you understand. Second, they need you and you need them, then the third one, finances has always worked out. I've never had a problem figuring out the economics because we need each other and we like each other. I did a deal with the Wall Street Journal and one of the. I remember it so clearly because I spent maybe four months getting to know the person at the Wall Street Journal. And they said, simon, we got this tender to build a new digital product for the Wall Street Journal. So I submitted my tender for it, right? And he came back and he said to me, simon, double it. He said, you're undercharging for this. You know, you deserve to earn more from it. I want you to be well paid because I want a good supplier, you know, I want you to make money so that you are good, a good solid company to service this need. Whereas most people's experiences, or can you get the price down and you make it a bit cheaper because they didn't do the groundwork and building the relationships with people and then they didn't over deliver. And that's what sales is. Sales is, you know, initially an intro. Build a relationship, provide what you promised, deliver what you said, and then over time, it's actually about relationships, right? That's, that's the key that people forget. And that's it. Sales, whole thing you need to know, don't pay for a course because now it's, go out there and apply that knowledge, right? And then, and you'll be brilliant at sales. And if you, if you're an introvert, use email marketing, for example, right? There's. Use social media. If you're, if you're an extrovert, go knock on doors, you know.

Well, have you heard the saying? It's like, ask for money and you'll get advice. Yes, ask for advice and you'll get money 100%.

Again, why is that saying so prevalent if you're looking to raise money? That is such a relevant saying. I tell you why. If you ask someone for money, of course their instant reaction is to just wait and then they want to find out more about you, right? They want to know Will my money be wasted? There's a relationship dynamic that they have the power now, and they're going to wait and find out about you. But if you ask someone a question, not for money, you, you're doing due diligence on them. This is why, by the way, I hate Shark Tank and I hate Dragon's Den, right? Because as much as I like them and shows, at least there's some business education going out in the world. It's made people, everybody think that you got to go beg someone for money to start a business. Because you don't need money to start a business. You do not need any money. But those programs have taught you. Hi, Shark. Here's my business, not my face. Money has no value, right? Unless it's applied in the world.

And I want to talk about when you move to Hong Kong at 22. What did you learn?

Now, when I went to Hong Kong, it was when Hong Kong was about to be handed back to the Chinese by the British, which is a really fascinating piece of history, but it's a really profitable place. Huge wealth, and Britain peacefully handed it back to China, right? So as I'm going there, everybody in England, I'm saying, I'm going to go try out Hong Kong, they're like, oh, it's going to turn communism. It's about to become a communist country. I'm like, okay, what does that mean? Oh, you know, they just don't want wealthy people. They don't, they don't want you to be independently wealthy. I'm like, okay, all right. But all this preconception, and I went there and I sat on the skyline of Hong Kong and watched this city skyline. And I realized this city, Hong Kong in particular, there's no natural resources in Hong Kong. It's all based on brain power. You have an idea in your head, you can make it real. Woke me up to also what hard work looks like. I was there a week and I met a billionaire. And he said, oh, come on my, my dad's yacht on Sunday. I'm like, okay, so Sunday, sure. Your dad wants me there. It's like we just met. It's like, yeah, come on, be fun. So I went on this yacht and what I was like, why is there a billionaire on a Sunday? Like, not just with his family. It's kind of the England mindset, right? With his family. And he's. I realized there is no work life balance. He doesn't need work life balance. He loves his work, you see. So it's work life integration and that was a revelation to me, like, because I'd always been taught, like, again, the school system. Monday to Friday I go to school. Saturday, Sunday I can have some fun. And I was so trained by the school system to think that way. Hong Kong woke me up to a different way of thinking. And I was like, actually, yeah, why am I separating my work and life now? I integrate it. My wife was my business partner. My son's involved in my content. The people I work with are my friends. And fuck it, I don't care if it's on PC. I don't care. They're my friends. I care about the people I work with. You know, I haven't tried to separate.

The two things I want to better understand. I love this concept of work life integration. And it's something a lot of people who've come on the podcast have said to us. And I really think it disputes this notion of the traditional nine to five that people are really accustomed to believing is how you should live your life. Really. You can live a life where work is a huge part of your life and you really enjoy it and it folds into your life. How do you. How do you think people can build a career where they're able to live in that way, where they actually feel fulfilled and excited to go to work?

I just think people need to realize, don't see this as a privileged thing. Don't make yourself a victim. Make yourself realize that if you apply yourself to something you love, work can be fun. And it should be. Now, maybe you have to do that job that's crap for now. Work on the thing you're good at. Get so good at it that eventually it makes money and you can flip it and you can get rid of the crap job and make money from something you enjoy doing. 85% of people in America don't enjoy their work. And I would argue that 85% are therefore caught in fight or flight, which is. Which basically means you don't have your creative brain switched on. You're so focused on survival, your creative brain isn't coming on and you're running so fast. That brain doesn't let you stop and have a dream, right? So people need to come out of fight or flight, and they can do it by just imagining for one second they've got all the money they need. It's the abundance thing, right? It's like, just imagine you've got it all just. Just to get yourself out of fight or flight for five minutes, and then try tomorrow to get yourself out of flight for 10 minutes and slowly your imagination will kick in and you'll start to realize what your skills are and how you can apply them, and then you can enjoy your work. So I would warn people not to be victims, because if you have a victim mentality, you instantly default to, well, it's all right for them, they've got money. And you don't realize it's a mindset thing that ultimately leads to you having money. I was poor when I had this mindset. Now I'm rich with this mindset.

So I want to touch on the topic, though, of happiness.

Yes.

You were broke when you had this mindset. You've been rich and you've had this mindset. How do you think that your experiences through your career have also influenced your personal happiness? Do you think there's a correlation with money?

Yeah. So money only brings you happiness if you're already happy. So I know a lot of people that have made money and they're miserable. It's extended their misery. So. But money is important. We all know the stats around, like, if you need a base, I think it's a hundred thousand US a year to cover all your bills because. And they haven't said this in the stats, but I know this is true. That can take you out of fight or flight. Because if basic human needs like accommodation and food are not easily available, if you're worrying about eating today, of course you're going to be miserable. But happiness is a dangerous pursuit. I don't think people should pursue happiness because happiness is fleeting. And so there's a thing called submersion, right? I remember the first time I went on a plane, I was so happy. I was in economy. It was awesome. The plane's taking off. I'm seeing the sky. Oh, my God, it's amazing. About two years later, I'm sitting on the plane. Like, sit in economy, food's crap, you know, like, so that happiness is gone. It's being replaced with this submersion. And now I want to be in business class, right? And then this has happened for me. I've gone into business class. I'm like, oh, my God, business class. It's amazing. Recline bed. I can lie down. And then suddenly I'm like, oh. People keep coming up and asking for pictures and I'm trying to relax, you know, like, I just need to be in first class. If you pursue happiness, you will eventually be unhappy no matter what. What you want to pursue is purpose. I'm willing to have pain because there's something more important than me. If you ask me, am I happy? I'd say yes. Am I always happy? No. Do I always want to be happy? No. You know, you need highs and lows, right? You need rejection. So you appreciate being accepted. You need it. You need failure. No one wants to live a life with no failure. Boring. That's what I see a lot of people living. They're trying to not have failure. The quickest way to learn is fail or something.

Yeah, that's. That's honestly really, really good advice. I think so many people are afraid of trying because they think that they'll fail without realizing. It's about what you're learning in the process of doing these things. And that's why I want to go back to Hong Kong and when you were there, because that's when you started your first business that you ended up selling. Selling. That made you a multimillionaire. Can you tell us more about what happened during those few formative years?

Yeah. I went to Hong Kong and I met someone who was beautiful and she was smart. And she told me her dream. I didn't ask her what her dream was, but then I didn't have that catchphrase, but I just like, what is it you love to do? She's like, I'm a graphic designer. And I'm like, oh, amazing. And then she showed me some of her work, and I was like, oh, that's so cool. And then she told me how much she was charging for the work. I was like, you're under charging. This is so. This is so good. And you're only charging X. I'm like, why? Because I just love to do it like this. And I, you know, you're an entrepreneur. She goes, no, I'm a creative. I'm like, no, no, you're an entrepreneur. Because artists, designers, they don't think they're entrepreneurs. They are. They're often. If they don't think they're entrepreneurs, they're undercharging artists or undercharging creators. So I'm like, listen, you're undercharging. I was motivated by the fact that she was beautiful and she was. I actually fell in love with her, like. And I said, I'm going to invest in you. I'm going to invest in your graphic design business. And she said to me, simon, I don't want to do the sales, so I want to do the graphic design, so I'll do the sales for you then. And she said, okay, all right, that's great. So then we started the company together, a company called Fluid And I did the sales and marketing and she did the graphic design. And it turned into one of the biggest agencies in Asia, in the world. And then we got married and then we had a baby. So it worked out, right? I really. But I, I think my motivation was a combination of like I just thought she was amazing, human being, talented. I could help her with my skill set. And I didn't realize in helping her it would eventually help me. And this is something I've learned. If you want to be successful in life, if you want your dream to come true, help someone else's dream come true. That's how your dream comes true. Karma. Call it what you like, but I helped Helen with her skill, get paid properly, not have to do the things she didn't want to do. She could do sales, by the way. And by the way, in meetings later on as we build the company up, if Helen was in a meeting, we'd get the sale more likely than just me on my own. But she didn't think she was a salesperson. But of course, just by explaining her creative process, clients would buy into that more than me saying she's brilliant, you should hire her. You see what I mean? But she didn't think she was a salesperson. So I took that away from her at the beginning. Eventually she became the best salesperson in the company. Company.

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I'm curious for you. Of the 19 businesses you started which do you think tested you the most?

So I. I built a company that lost me a million US Dollars. It was called devashard. First company was in. In Hong Kong was called Fluid. So I built that company up, and it was very successful. But it was a service company, that business. So I never initially thought I'd ever sell it because service business is quite. Traditionally quite difficult to sell. How I sold it was kind of a miracle. Another story for another time. But that business to me was a cash flow business.

And.

And I loved it. You go into CNN and they'd be like, we want to get into Asia. How should we do it? And then we come up with a plan. But like this how you should do it, get into hotels, but. And I love. I just love the whole, like, coming up with big ideas for companies, but I never thought it was a sellable business. I thought it was just really good cash flow. So then I started investing the cash flow into businesses that I thought could be scalable. So one of them, for example, was this product called devashard, which. The idea, the basic premise was, what if Superman landed in China? It's really interesting when you ask people to be like, oh, is it. Is Superman evil then? Like, why would he be evil? Just because he lands in China, it's communist country. But like, well, you'll still be good, Connie. And trying to help people. You know, I find that culturally really interesting. And like, we had this whole Batman lands in India, like Batman is in. Really? Wow. I. I find the whole thing fascinating. So anyway, that was the premise of the comic book business we want to create, and I invested heavily in it. Anyway, long story short, I got the wrong co founder who didn't put their money in. So I ended up putting a lot more in than I was expecting. Plus, turns out, wasn't my dream. I wasn't passionate about it, but I, for some reason invested heavily in it, was trying to run it. So I learned a big mistake. It wasn't my passion. So now after that example where I lost that money, it didn't work. I invest in other people's passions and support them, but I don't run it. And now I run things that I'm passionate about. Two different things. So I think if you're. If you're passionate about something, you will follow through. If you're not, you won't. But that was a really hard lesson for me to learn because I put so much money into it. I put so much time into it. I had sunken cost fallacy. The hardest thing is to shut a business down after you've done all that, that was a really hard thing for me to do. And also I had to like I'd had a lot of successes up to that point. Probably my first big failure and the whole market knew about it because we made a big noise. We were on the front of the papers like the next big thing. So it was really embarrassing for me as a business guru to have a failure and I self inflicted because I said I'm shutting it down, it's not working. So that was hard. I think accepting that isn't for you and a lot of people listening with a business they don't love, get someone else to run it that will love it or change what you do in it and bring a co founder in or shut it down and do something you love. Too many people get sold this concept of like start a business to fill a market niche. Most of them fail. You want to start a business you're really passionate about and hopefully also fills a market niche. Different thing.

I'm really glad you said that because I read something recently that was saying that businesses don't fail because they run out of money. They fail because people run out of motivation. And if you really care about something, right, that's why you can just keep going and going and going and you're not going to quit and eventually it's going to end up working out. But you can't keep going if you don't genuinely care and if you're not actually passionate.

100% I have businesses that aren't working and for years is kind of on ice until it works. So you only really fail when you stop. So I have a failed comic book business, however I still own all the IP to that and one day I might meet someone that's really passionate about it and they can run it. So it is dead. I accept the loss. But it's also could one day come back. You see what I mean? Like it's only dead if I let it be dead.

It's not that because the lessons you.

Learn from it 100% and I had a really lucky escape in that business, someone really famous that turned out to be a scumbag try to invest in that business and luckily I said no and it failed. I would have been in business with someone really bad. So bad luck, the company failing turned into good luck.

I'm curious for you, did you ever have a mentor throughout your journey in business? And then number two for our audience listening, what advice would you give for them to find a Mentor.

I think this whole mentor thing is so overrated. Like, again, disagree. Let's have a little debate about it. People are always asking me to be their mentor and I say to them, look, people that are good mentors don't really have time now. I think these days, let's say you admire someone, they've probably got a load of content you can just go learn from. Don't wait for them to say yes, just go dig into their story, even historical figures that you know you can go get thanks to AI these days anyway, their whole, like life lesson insights. So go do the work. You know, too many people want to sit with someone and get all the knowledge, right? I think a lot of people are waiting for that to happen instead of just going and grabbing the knowledge. Because mentorship has changed. It doesn't need to be, you sit with that person, but people will do that. The other thing I think about mentorship like I think about myself. I haven't had a mentor, but what I have done very successfully is figure out the questions and who might have the answer. So, for example, I might send a message to Casey Neistat and I'll say, how do I make this video better? He can be reply if I send a message to Casey Neistat and say, hey, mate, can you come spend, you know, weeks with me being my mentor and then teach me everything you know? And like, it's like, no, you know, like people need to ask a question of the person that might have the answer and that that can lead to a deeper relationship. Call it mentorship if you want. I call it friendship. Right? So I have not had mentors, but I've got friends that I respect that know things I don't. And they've shared them with me over time. But like we said earlier, I brought them value first, often for years, sometimes decades before they brought anything back to me. Right. So this is the thing. I worry when people hear this mentor line that they're sitting there waiting for the perfect mentor. Instead of going out there and getting the knowledge, it's free, keeping it simple. For those that might have the answer, just ask one question that that person might have the answer to. Also, only take advice from people whose life you want. A lot of people are too busy chasing the wrong sort of mentors and not thinking about that life that that person has. I can think of a few people that I wouldn't want their life. Including your parents. Might be people listening with parents. Parents will give you advice. Do you want their life? Then take their advice. Because you're going to have their life if you take their advice.

The reason I argue on the mentor piece is I do think that there's a way that kind of gets around all of this, which is another thing that I think people don't teach people about business is that advisors are so key. So like for example, there was a woman we really look up to, Joanne Bradford, who, you know, helped sell Honey this browser extension. She was, you know, the head of partnerships at Pinterest. She had a long career at Microsoft and we give her, you know, a tiny slice of equity and she comes on as an advisor. She's now, you know, our mentor and we're able to call her and she has stake in the equity as well.

You're right. But it's advisor, not mentor really. It's important to understand these terminologies. So you didn't go to that person, say, be our mentor, please.

We did though, in the beginning, and then she became an advisor for the company.

Okay, that's interesting. Well, I'm going to partly say sometimes reputation name these do all count? I'm pretty sure if a normal person goes and says be my mentor, they're going to say no. So that's why I want normal people to realize like, you know, if I go ask them to be my mentor now, they probably say yes because I got a big following and you know, yeah, but if I, if I'm no, no, nobody yet. The best thing, advice I can give to people is go and ask them to be your advisor. That's actually not a bad idea. Like you can ask someone who's successful, I'm going to give you equity. Would you be my advisor? It's two hours a month and that's it. Would you be up for it? That they might say yes to. But this whole time is the most valuable thing for successful people. So if you ask people for the most valuable thing they've got without a clear structure, it often fails. There's so many people that are asking for mentors that get no reply, no reply at all. And then they, I just need a mentor. They get so hung up on that. But what you've just described there to me is, is, is more an advisor structure. So you've got a business, you've got, you know, people that could help you with that business. You give them equity and you ask, there'll be an advisor and you make the framework really clear. There's a lot of people that could get an advisor and then they can turn into a mentor. That that's what normally happens, I think.

That'S the biggest hack that no one teaches you because you can take, you know, a chunk of it and be like, hey, if I am successful, you'll.

Get a chunk of it 100%.

I mean, wouldn't you take. If someone reached out to you, is like, oh, my company, I'm doing my company. I'll give you X shares if you will be an advisor for.

That's what happened at Lovable. Yeah, that's how it. I'm. I'm now a shareholder in the fastest growing company in the world. I'm an investor in it. And partly it's like part advisory, part support and marketing. Absolutely. That's how they approach me.

And for our audience, like wrapping up in terms of, you know, key advice for them. For someone who's in their early 20s, who's thinking about, you know, taking a leap, whether that's a new career path, starting a business, how do you know when it's the right time?

Just start. Like, the gardening company was not my dream. I just started. And then I figured out myself as I started. I figured out I wasn't good at gardening. I figured out I wasn't particularly good at managing people at that time either. But I was good at knocking on doors and pushing through the pain. So I did that. So I think sometimes people got to figure out. I split it into two things. There are some people that know exactly what their mission is, what their dream is, what their purpose is. Very rare, though, especially if you're in your 20s. Very rare. But if you know it, you've got to double down on what you're good at and not double down on what you're bad at. The school system tells you to double down on what you're bad at. Do the opposite. What the school system tells you, double down on what you're good at and what you're bad at. You're going to outsource it. Don't worry. But I think the other side of it is like, I think the education system asks the wrong question. What will you do when you grow up? Is the most dangerous question for the human brain ever. It was designed to make you think, I'm going to work in a factory, I'm going to work in a job. I'm going to become a doctor, I'm going to become a lawyer. Then you want to treadmill right to that job. How many lawyers and doctors, or definitely bankers. I meet people that hate their job. They followed that whole trajectory. They got sunken costs, are stuck on their job. The right question to ask if you're young is, what problem do you want to solve now? It opens up your mind. You might not know the answer. If you're listening, then you're 20. I say to you, what problem do you want to solve in the world? You might not know it yet, but now you've opened up your mind not to a particular career, but to a particular mission. And until that mission becomes clear to you, focus on what you love to do. Figure out how to make money from doing what you love. If you love walking dogs, walk dogs and figure out how to make money from it. Maybe put ads on dogs. Come up creative ways to making the dog walking business fun and interesting. I like walking. No, I can say base it in what you enjoy doing. You know what I mean? Like, if you like watching Netflix, maybe do a Netflix directory. I can't tell you how many times I go on Netflix. I don't know what to watch. Do it. Do a directory of, like, a business guy, you know, middle age. What should he watch today? You know you like watching Netflix. Make it a business. Like, literally. That's what people should do. Make it not feel like work. Too many people are forcing themselves to go do something that feels like work. Like, work to me is a positive word. So if you're 20, I say to you, like, double down on what you love to do, even if it sounds silly. You like to dance, double down on it. You like to write double down on it. You like to walk dogs, Double down on it, you know? And then eventually your dream will become clear. Maybe you're meant to open up a dog rescue. Maybe you're meant to save dogs that aren't getting adopted. You know? Do you know what I mean? It will come to you if you just do what you love every day.

Simon, thank you so much for coming on the Burnouts. I personally have learned so much today.

Thank you for having me, guys. Really appreciate it.

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