Startup mentor Erik Voss shares principles from his McDonald's days and 2,250 books read: the "always another bus" mindset for resilience, "never explain, never complain" for communication, and knowing whether you're a cat or a dog. He defines happiness as a daily routine doing what you love.
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All right everyone, welcome back to the Business Blast podcast. This is your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have a pretty incredible guest. His name is Eric Voss. He's a startup mentor. He's worked in 91 countries and presents in 8 different languages, and he's also the author of 6 books that have been translated 51 times. So welcome to the show, Eric.
Oh, thanks.
Yes, we'll dive right in. The first question I have for you, Eric, is what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Oh, the best story of my life is when I got hired at McDonald's when I was 14. And I was hired for the French fry department and I was for about $1 an hour. And I thought I was grossly underpaid and I worked really hard. And at the end of the day, I went to my manager and said, "I want to have a word with you." He said, "Oh, good. I want to have a word with you too." And then he said his word before I said my word. He says, "Listen." Really appreciate you appreciating McDonald's, but you don't have the talent for this type of work. So, so please don't come back tomorrow. Now, the fun thing is I worked much harder at McDonald's than I worked at my school where I got good grades. So the, the most important thing to, to learn is what you're not good at.
Yes. Uh, what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
The most valuable information is there's always another bus. Like, in other words, do things that don't work next.
And what's your— sorry, go ahead.
Yeah, and that's— there's always a next bus. So people do things, and they do things, they think it's the only bus, and then they miss it, and they think their life is over. There's always a next bus.
And it might tie in, but what's your best piece of overall business advice that's not necessarily like industry specific?
Oh, it's a quote by one of my favorite authors, Benjamin Disraeli. You can look him up at BrainyQuotes, and he says, "Never explain, never complain." Like, in other words, whatever there is, if you need to explain it, they won't get it anyway. And if you complain, they don't care. So just never explain, never complain.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Um, younger, not, not so much. I mean, just, uh, well, basically you want to do what you want to do. There's, uh, so the oldest law in psychology is you cannot change character, and that includes your own. So you are the way you are, and that's— this is neither good nor bad. Find out if you're a cat or a dog and act accordingly.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
The key to happiness, I guess I'd like to quote Bob Dylan on that, is going to bed, waking up in the morning, going to bed, and in between do things you like to do. I love that.
And what's the best book you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
Well, I've read 2,250 books, mostly biographies. So that's a little bit, that's a bit of a difficult question because I have a habit, I read a book and then I write down at least 10, 15 things that I learned from it, right? So it's asking for a lot, but let's say it's Warren Buffett's "The Snowball," And basically, he gives good advice on picking stock. See, a stock is just— stock does not care on who owns it. But once people own the stock, say, of General Motors or Apple, like he does, then people have this connection with the stock. And then they start making irrational decisions. That's just human. So I'm working very hard to— still very much not accomplished, it's a work in progress— to make sure that the autistic stuff that Warren Buffett comes up with, that it seeps through to my brain. And it's a constant battle.
And I just want to clarify real quick too. So how many books did you say you've read? 2,250. That is awesome.
It's a lot of work. My wife doesn't— we don't have a dining room table.
The next question I have is, what's your favorite quote and why?
It's still, "Never explain, never complain," but I know about 15,000 quotes. In my head, I collect quotes, right? So, but it's still never explain, never complain, because if you have never explain, never complain, you don't need all the other quotes.
And, well, I thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
Oh, they can find me on my website, ericwaspoint.org, or just type Eric Voss and, uh, uh, for, uh, on LinkedIn.
Perfect, man. Thank you again for coming on. We really appreciate this.
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