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The Weekly Tone

This weekend, I was in Austin, Texas. It’s a city that’s speed of change is rapid enough to cause whiplash. Only a few years ago, you’d be more likely to meet a stoned rhythm guitarist, rather than machine learning PhD at the local coffee shop shooting the shit with the barista. The juxtaposition of acid cowboy and bleeding-edge tech is downright startling.

But rather than kicking back at the old dives or roadside taco joints, I was a here to film a trio of podcasts with amazingly successful guests. My first stop was to Noah Kagan’s house, founder of AppSumo and longtime YouTuber (full pod below). No need to elaborate on how awesome that was; you’ll see soon enough in this week’s videos.

Next, I was at a local studio with Habib Bakshi to talk e-commerce and emotional intelligence (I can’t wait for this one to drop next week). He broke my mind with what’s possible with his “Habib in a Box” multimedia presentation tool that he mailed to prospective clients during the Pandemic (netting him millions, naturally). This was one of those magical conversations where you feel like you’re playing jazz the whole damn time.

On the next day, I was called a distant studio in West Austin to meet a quantum computing entrepreneur who had pulled down hundreds of millions throughout multiple, high-profile exits. This was to be the most well-known and successful (in dollar terms) guest on the pod so far.

While I sound-checked with the engineer, a friendly videographer wandered into the room in a full leg brace; he'd just taken a pretty bad spill. He was here to kill time before a gig; muscling through it. We exchanged smiles. I sat waiting for my guest.

Being the helpful sort, the videographer plopped down into the guest chair, leg brace and all, (where my billionaire was uncommonly absent, now over 15 minutes late) so our engineer could train the camera on a real, live human (rather than empty chair) and adjust sound levels to make up time in the session.

But our renowned billionaire never showed up. Not an email, text, memo from his assistant. Nothing. That's a first.

At this point the friendly videographer (you’ll know him by name later) and I were in a heated dialogue about what it means to stay true to yourself when chasing your passion. As an artist, he felt compelled to always follow his creative principles. We sparred on what that meant. We were having fun now.

I told the engineer to press record to confused looks from both the engineer and my new, videographer guest. Why would I want to capture a casual conversation with a non-billionaire, an Average Joe, I could see them thinking.

Of course, nobody could tell what I was thinking.

My new guest, with a light nudge, went on to tell me that his music career was a failure (as was mine!), and that he found videography to be the next best thing. But lurking in the back of his mind was a dream to create a school for young musicians that not only helped them rip on their instruments but also helped them build confidence, stand up to bullying, and grow into young adults. I could see him envisioning the entire operation in his mind’s eye.

We both entered a flow state. I listened on: it was a brilliant mission. Because I want a world with more healthy, musical kids that grow into healthy, musical adults I wanted to lend a helping hand.

So, I took a few moments to do what I do best: break complex "impossible" challenges into simple steps. And that’s exactly what I did.

As I chopped things into bite-sized steps, tears welled up into my new friend’s eyes. He realized his dream might be far more possible to accomplish than he thought. No one took the time to break down the steps with him.

He thanked me as if I was a genie who had just escaped a bottle to answer his one wish. But, he had also answered mine in the process.

My own dreams clarified in the mist. So did my vision of humanity.

We really are all the same, I’ve always known. But, now I really knew it. People are people.

So, who do some end up on the cover of Time Magazine?

Here's the separator:

• The size of their dreams

• The decisive choice to go chase the dream until they catch it

You see the thing is, there’s no difference between the billionaire and my new friend other than these two bullet points.

One had a dream and went for it, the other had a dream and hasn’t yet. But, I believe he will someday soon. And I believe there will be a celebration for him in Austin for what he’s about to do for young people.

If there’s a difference, it would be their place along a timeline.

Or as I’ll call them, the "haves" and the "have not yets".

The only thing that seemed silly when interviewing a local videographer is that I thought I’d learn more from the billionaire in the first place.

This podcast will be released, in full, in two weeks.

To all who have a dream, tucked in the back of their minds, I urge you to take a look at it one last time.

Perhaps the best thing to have happened to me this weekend was this no-show.

This week, I'm taking meetings in Miami, Fl.

R/RR

Rich: You should only take risk when...

Really Rich: It's better to take risk now than later.

This Week On The Really Rich Podcast

In episode 12 of The Really Rich Podcast, I sit down with Founder, Chief Sumo, & YouTuber, Noah Kagan, of AppSumo. Noah is no stranger to content, he started blogging in 2000 and has been hooked ever since. His company, AppSumo, is straight from the world of Really Rich, delivering massive value upfront while allowing entrepreneurs to carve their own path by getting exposure to their SaaS with a wider audience of growing companies.

We talk about the stress of Wall Street, how to pick winners when hiring, and what the Really Rich invest in.

Podcast available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

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