In this episode of the Business Blast Podcast, host Tyler Wagner interviews Mike Sherbakov, founder of the Greatness Foundation. Sherbakov shares a formative story from his time in the U.S. Marine Corps, emphasizing that people often operate at only a fraction of their true potential and encouraging self‑assessment in all life areas. He explains the Foundation’s mission—greatness is defined by what you give, not what you have—and urges immediate contribution in personal, professional, and community contexts. Drawing on advice from Tom Chi of Google X, he advocates rapid prototyping and a lean‑startup mindset: start with what you have, iterate, and improve. He stresses patience as the key lesson for his younger self, noting that success takes years of consistent effort. Sherbakov identifies giving as the core of happiness, recommends the book The One Thing by Gary Keller for focusing on the most impactful action, and shares his favorite Emerson quote, “What you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say,” to underline the importance of action over talk. The episode concludes with his social media handles and the website greatness.ngo, followed by a brief Anchor sponsorship plug.
Chapters
All right everyone, welcome back to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Mike Sherbakov with us. He is the founder at the Greatness Foundation. So welcome Mike, I'm pumped to have you here, man.
Yeah, thanks for having me on, brother.
Uh, the first question I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
You know, when I was 18 years old, I joined the United States Marine Corps And one of the first things that you learn being a Marine is when you're ready to quit, you're really at just a fraction of your actual potential. So that shows up physically, right? When you've done as many pushups as you think you can do, and they're telling you to do more, and you realize, oh my gosh, I'm only part of the way there. That was a huge lesson to me because all of a sudden I started asking myself, well, if this is happening physically, what other areas of my life is that showing up in? Where am I only showing up at a fraction of what I can actually do? So that was a pretty powerful message for me.
And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, you know, at the Greatness Foundation, our mission is to create a better world. And we believe that greatness isn't what we have, but what we give. So I would say the most important lesson in my industry and anyone else's is giving is not something that they have to wait until they reach a certain milestone for. Giving a contribution is something that they can tie into everything they're already doing, current business models, their personal and professional lives, how they show up as a father, as a son, as a husband, a wife, in their community. So, giving and contribution is something that they can implement right away.
And this, it might be the same answer, but what's your best piece of overall business advice? So, not like industry-specific.
You know, I'd say best overall business advice I got from Tom Chi, who's one of the founders, co-founders of Google X, and they're responsible for Google Glasses and self-driving car. They're just, you know, amazing. And he talked about this thing called rapid prototyping. And essentially it boils down to just getting started. So instead of sitting around trying to figure out the perfect plan and waiting months and months and spending all this capital trying to get something off the ground, he's a fan, and I am a fan of this kind of lean startup model of start with what you have, Do what you can and then iterate and continue to improve from there.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
I would say patience. At 18, I wanted everything that all these people that I admired in my life had. And, you know, success doesn't happen overnight. And we've all heard that quote that it takes 10 years to create an overnight success. Really trusting that putting in the work day in and day out and staying committed to that path is ultimately what's going to, you know, get the results that I was ultimately looking for.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
Giving.
Mm, I love it. Right through it. Next question is, what's the best book you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
I've read a lot of great books recently. I would say the one that stands out to me most is called The One Thing by Gary Keller. And the message, the lesson, and I hope anyone that's read it walks away with the same message, but it's ultimately to focus on the one thing that actually matters most. So I, you know, as a business owner, and I'm sure people listening can relate to this, the more you grow, the more opportunities there will be. You'll have people emailing and calling and potential business partnerships coming up all the time. And it comes down to discerning what is actually the thing, the action that's going to move the needle, the thing that matters, and not just the thing that's keeping me busy. So instead of just checking off a bunch of little things on the to-do list, am I actually prioritizing the thing that matters most, that's going to make the most impact, and actually implementing that and taking action on it?
And what's your favorite quote and why?
Ralph Waldo Emerson: What you do speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you say.
Hmm. And, well, why is that your favorite quote?
Well, I think it ties into everything I just shared earlier. To me, it's not about talking about our great ideas. Everyone's got great ideas. Everyone's got the next, you know, billion-dollar idea. I want to surround myself with people, and I want to be a person of action. Show me what it is that you do, right? Let your actions show me your values instead of just talking about it. Let's get it into action.
Perfect, man. Well, thanks for coming on. And the last question I have for you is where can people best connect with you online and your website and, you know, your socials and stuff?
Yeah, I'm Mike Sherbakov. Last name is S-H-E-R-B-A-K-O-V. Across the board, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, all that fun stuff. You can Google website, all of that. And then if they want to get involved with any of our global impact projects, we build homes, schools, and all that. They could just go to greatness.ngo.
Perfect. Thanks again for coming on, man. We really appreciate it.
All right, brother. Thanks for having me on.
The podcast you just heard was made using Anchor. Ever thought about making your own podcast? Anchor makes it really easy for anyone to get started. It's a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, and distributing podcasts. Best of all, it's 100% free. Sign up now at anchor.fm/new. That's anchor.fm/new to get started.
