565: Noah Kagan - The Art of Asking For What You Want, Launching a Business, Handling Rejection, Working For Mark Zuckerberg, and Not Living a 'What-If' Life
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Order our new book, The Score That Matters https://amzn.to/47K2g4f Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com • "Rejection is a test if you really want something. The upside of asking is unlimited." • "People are afraid of asking. The people who make it happen are willing to ask, be rejected, and keep going." • One of the biggest lessons learned from working with Mark Zuckerberg? Pick one goal. Then focus relentlessly on reaching it. His was 1 billion users on Facebook. This is how Noah has grown App Sumo to $80m in revenue. Focus on one big goal and the system implemented to make it happen. • Noah's parental influence: • Fearlessness - Ask for everything. Set rejection goals. You learn that selling copiers door to door. • His mom is very disciplined. Always working out in the gym. She follows through. She's persistent. She grinds. His mom also hated her job. • "I don't want to live a 'what-if' life" • "Are we getting what we get or are we getting what we want?" • The law of 100 -- Do the thing 100 times before you quit. • Get going, get started. It's about now, not how. • Create an exciting vision: "What are we looking forward to?" • Million Dollar Weekend: • Start it • Build it • Grow it • Noah's philosophy on interviewing: • 1) Talk with people you're genuinely interested in • 2) Tell them how they've positively impacted your life. People love genuine compliments. And they loved to hear that they've helped others. • 3) Tell them what's in it for them. Create questions that make your guests excited to answer (set them up to tell interesting stories) • Entrepreneurship is not risky. Risky is spending your life at a job you hate, with people you don't like, working on problems you don't care about. • Freedom is about gaining control of your schedule. Money is the tool, not the goal. • This trip was one of my highlights of the fall. Nothing like biking across America. So much good time to think and reflect. Reminds me that whenever you're in a funk, just get moving. (Helps to be surrounded by beautiful landscapes) • The future of big business is small teams. One person. No employees. Everything automated. Solopreneurs are the future. • Acknowledgements: • Adam Gilbert for our bike ride ten-plus years ago where I shared a dream to put my knowledge into a book for other people. And for always always being my guardian angel. • Tahl Raz - I dreamed for years of the chance to work with you on a book. Thank you for taking a chance on me. Somehow you were magically able to take all my adventures/theories/ideas/antics and put them together in a helpful narrative better than I could have ever dreamed. Thank you! Also for being a mutual lover of schvitzing.