100 Episodes Later - Reflecting on the Journey of The Quest For Success

In this special milestone episode of The Quest For Success Podcast, we take a moment to pause, reflect and look back on the incredible journey that has brought us to our 100th episode.

Over the past two years, we have had the privilege of sitting down with inspiring individuals from different walks of life at our home studio, across various states in Australia and even in different countries around the world. Each conversation has been unique, authentic and deeply personal, shaped by the experiences, struggles and successes of our guests.

In this episode, we revisit some of those memorable moments and reflect on what we have learned by truly listening and seeking to understand. Through these honest conversations, we have gained valuable insights into resilience, purpose, leadership, relationships and the many different paths people take to define success.

This podcast has never been about traditional advice or textbook strategies. Instead, it has always been about real journeys; stories of individuals who have navigated challenges, embraced growth and found their own version of success. We are grateful to have documented these conversations on YouTube, creating a space where listeners can return to these stories for inspiration even years from now.

As hosts, this journey has also shaped us personally. Every episode has taught us something new about people, about perspective and about the power of meaningful dialogue. Our hope is that these conversations continue to inspire our viewers to reflect on their own paths, stay curious and find strength in their own journeys.

Thank you for being part of The Quest For Success.

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Transcript

speaker-0 (00:13.39)
Alright, welcome back to the Quest for Success podcast and thanks for tuning in once again. Wow, that's my hundredth time saying that. Jam, we made it to episode 100. Amazing achievement, right? We thought if we can make it to the 20th episode, we would have an awesome achievement. Now we are talking the 100th episode. Yeah, I mean, most podcasts don't make it past episode 20.

And here we are at episode 100. So massive milestone. you know, it's also a huge testament to, to you guys for listening a week in week out. you know, all the messages that we get from people really keeps us motivated to keep doing this, keep sharing the stories of people who, who we admire. Yeah. Can we call it a number one father son podcast? I'm not sure we can, we can get that yet, but hopefully, hopefully one day. And I suppose like jam for, for today.

Episode 100, that's a big milestone. I really wanted this to be a look back on the journey that we've had so far because it has been an incredible journey. From when we first started that long weekend, nearly two years ago, which is crazy to think about as just a fun little side project to now we've gotten to speak to billionaires, we've gotten to speak to sports stars, authors, musicians.

The caliber of people that we've gotten to speak to has been incredible and the learnings that we've got out of it. Unbelievable, right? You know, I mean, that's what I said to Dylan every time. Even no one actually listened to this. We want to continue to do this because what we learned over the last two years, it's like doing an MBA because what we heard from everyone, their stories, their learnings for over the years, right? Like reading a book.

Every time we spoke to someone and an amazing experience, right? And also not just learning and we also build amazing relationship with these people. Yeah, 100%. And even people that we thought that we knew really well, like we're going to go through some of the episodes, but you know, people that we were really close to, you sit down and you have a deep conversation with them. And then it's like, Whoa, I didn't know that about you. Like even your own father, for example, you know, when we did that episode.

speaker-0 (02:39.658)
There was stuff that neither of us knew about and so it's always great to build those deep connections. So Dylan, two years, what can you, in summary, what's the one thing you learned? I mean, I know we learned so many things, but if you can highlight one thing, what is that? Yeah, and it's a big question, right? Because there's been so much.

But I think for me and maybe the stage of life that I'm at and the conversations that I'm having with people, I think for me, the biggest takeaway so far has been the importance of relationships. there's been so many discussions where, whether it's been an opportunity that's been opened up by curating or developing a relationship. then years down the line, you go in,

developing a relationship with zero expectations. But then years down the line, you there's been examples where an opportunity has come up because of that relationship. And, you know, even, even not just for opportunities sake, but at the end of the day, what are we all doing here? Right? We're tribe animals. We want to feel belonging and connection. And so at the end of the day, it's all about those relationships that we build throughout our life.

For me, think that's probably been the biggest one. I like, I love that. I love that. And I mean, there's so many things, right? For me, I mean, talking to so many people, one thing make those people apart from average person is taking action. we heard over and over again, some people went outside their comfort zone to take, know, like they never thought

Like a possible right to make it work and I mean I always tell you right like ideas cheap unless you actually execute them so and and this whole podcast over the two years actually confirmed that to me right like It doesn't matter how great you are. You can read books hundreds of books every every day like, you know every year and listen to so many podcasts But if you don't take action, yeah means nothing

speaker-0 (05:00.654)
Yeah, you can learn everything in the world, but there's no point in having that knowledge if you don't do something with it. Yeah. So that's a big, big takeaway for me. I am but saying that it's so many takeaways and probably one thing we saw in common, like, you know, we probably interviewed more than 98, 97 people, right? Over that 100 episode is continuous learning. Do you agree? 100%. Yeah.

And I think it's been in like so many different aspects and facets of their life as well. Like I think coming into this, that was the traditional, you know, definition of learning as, you know, going to school, going to uni, know, people going and doing these degrees, which, you know, we've seen a lot of throughout our conversations. But I think for me, the big takeaway on learning is being able to learn from a multitude of different places.

you know, whether that's books, that's conversations, you know, it's people that even you don't like. think, you know, that was one thing that I loved is, there was a quote that I read and it was, you I don't need to like someone to learn from them. And, I think that's a great mindset to have is that, you know, curiosity, that open-mindedness to always be on the lookout for new information, to really craft your own opinion on something rather than just taking, you know, for granted what society says about something. Learning.

And you have a great quote. I mean, I don't think it's my quote, but, you know, I always tell this to Dylan. It's about listen to understand, not to respond. Right. I'm sure this is not my quote. I've heard somewhere, you know, this is a big mistake that we do. Right. We always listen, you know, thinking, OK, we're to answer to

this, this what we are listening, you know, you're actually you're actually listening with your bucket other way round. Right. So you're actually not feeling anything. Yeah. You're just responding. You're not gaining anything. So if you listen to understand, you actually you're listening deeply. You're a deep listener and you're taking in all that information. Absolutely. That's such a powerful thing. Right. And

speaker-0 (07:22.254)
Yeah, it's, it's something that I always tell you, right? Yeah, for sure. And I think, yeah, going back to that learning piece, think learning and curiosity we've seen have been so interesting. Yeah. Um, and you know, a lot of the people we speak to, they could be in, you know, one particular niche field, that doesn't mean that's all that they're looking at. You know, they could be looking at free. great example is, you know, Jim's from Jim's Mowing. Yeah.

Everyone knows him as the lawn mowing guy. You know, he's a historian. He's learning about all these different, different industries. And I think that's really important because, you know, having that holistic worldview really, really helps you to understand people coming from different avenues and also look for opportunities that maybe other people haven't seen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, overall, it's a great experience. I mean, over the last two years, we learned so much and I think we

grown over last two years as well. Not just our learning, our communication and everything that we sat on this chair and again we've been around the world. We went to US, we went to Sri Lanka, we went to few states in Australia around the country and we spoke to amazing people. you know the lessons are great and experience is great and we're not finished yet, right?

No, absolutely not. And one of the things that I'd like to add on as well is the most valuable part of this podcast for me is that we are collecting people's stories and holding them somewhere in an archive for people to listen to for generations to come. And so if you're a new listener to the podcast, we've built up a backlog of a hundred episodes with incredible people. So I'd urge you to go back through and listen.

Yes, it hurts me, you know, the cringy episode, you know, one, two, three, four, five, when we weren't that great. But, you know, go back and listen to some of those because, you know, there's gems of wisdom in everyone's story. And maybe that's another lesson is everyone has a story to tell. Absolutely. Absolutely. It doesn't really matter. And when you're talking about we are recording one thing, I mean, if you look at all the people that we interviewed.

speaker-0 (09:41.58)
We interviewed half of the people actually from my Harvard OPM class. even we stayed together for three years, we knew each other, we never had the opportunity to kind of understand their story. So most of my Harvard friends thank me for and you obviously for what we are doing. And the stories are amazing because we know these are very successful people.

and they have amazing stories to tell. And we had the opportunity to listen to their stories and share those stories. And we will continue to do that, right? So what's next for us? So much in the pipeline, you know, definitely want to continue this and continue to expand and also want to get feedback from you guys as to who you want us to get on the show. You know, at the moment, we're really just following our curiosity and people that, you know, we have access to. But, you know, if we could ask one favor, it'd be to drop down.

the comments someone that you would love for us to get on the show and we'll do our very best. And I mean obviously we probably can see right like I mean we sometimes you know do one or two podcasts a week and sometimes we do three or four and sometimes we don't do like we don't really actually prepared for these sessions. Yeah I mean we do very very like you know we don't really spend hours and we like to

keep it very authentic. We want to talk to a conversation from our heart. And one feedback that we got from our guest, what Dylan's doing at the end, like summarizing, because what Dylan's, if you haven't seen any of our podcasts, please listen till at the end, Dylan's doing a summary of what he saw the key takeaways, key.

traits of that person and all our guests really liked that and they thought like they never even thought of those things. I think that's probably one of the uniqueness in our podcasts. And speaking about those traits, you know, that's really kind of why we're doing this. We want to build up the database of what are the traits that build incredibly successful people. Because then it's not only something that you can identify, but then it's something that, you know, all of us can work towards and implement.

speaker-0 (12:08.174)
You don't have to be looking for business success or traditional success, but if you just want to be more successful by your own definition, I think these traits will help you get there. And that's leads us to our next point is in celebration of 100 episodes, we kind of wanted to take a look back down memory lane and pull apart some of our favorite episodes or favorite moments from some episodes, which really highlight some of those core traits.

Yeah, that doesn't mean that we be able to cover the whole lot because every single episode guaranteed we learn something. Right. 100%. And so this is maybe a few episodes like randomly we select and we will probably share. if you never had the opportunity to go through and listen to any of these podcasts, highly recommend. Yeah. These are a great starting point. Yeah. Just have a look and support what we're doing. This is the

the world's number one father to son podcast. mean, we love to say that, you know, and again, for me, the great thing about this podcast, Dylan, be able to spend some time with you, right? Like, you know, it's not, it's quite rare, right? Like father son to sit down and do something together. And I really enjoy it and probably learn a few things from you too. Absolutely. Likewise. It goes both ways. And with that, Jam, let's jump into some of our favorite moments.

from the past 100 episodes. It's good. First up, we have your ability to go outside of your comfort zone and really do hard things. So here are a few of our favorite clips that really emphasize that. This time last year, I was up in trying to get to the North Pole again out this time out of Norway that got canceled. So I flew across to Northern Norway to do some ice diving.

Now, I hadn't actually done... I was a paddling instructor, so I've done the scuba diving area, but I was like, this would be cool. What's exactly ice diving So diving under the ice. So I've got this project, this thing in Antarctica that I found by talking to somebody and I think it's like, I can go scuba diving in Antarctica. Coming from Australia is really hard. I'm near the Arctic, I'll go up the Arctic, I'll go ice diving in this place, we're in ice diving in the place.

speaker-0 (14:32.878)
and, and learn, but turns out it's a place called Plura Valley, which I didn't know at the time because I was just really focused on ice diving course. It's actually also called death cave. so we ended up diving under the ice. go under the ice and we're pushing out into a cave, but I suddenly had a double tank failure. So you have two tanks and both started bubbling. They all froze. And in Australia, if you get stuff in your regulator, it's

speaker-2 (14:42.606)
There's more people who have died there than anywhere else.

speaker-2 (14:57.388)
and he purged it, but under under so.

speaker-0 (14:59.33)
Nicely cold. just freezes solid. So the thing just froze like vampire out of my regulator. And it was just, it just goes to something. Nothing. It's just the whole thing. It's just frozen. And, and my mask, it blew off. And so I'm in this cave with a double tank. I couldn't see all the bubbles. The guy in front of me, he, you know, he was there, but I couldn't see him and I couldn't see, he would have had, have his regulator, but I couldn't see it.

speaker-2 (15:04.944)
things

speaker-2 (15:08.47)
Take away some total breathing.

speaker-2 (15:19.448)
Failure. No,

speaker-0 (15:28.846)
the stuff. But I saw this, I saw this little, you know, out of the cave, I thought I can see light. And this is where, you know, idiot James having never done or cave diving, you know, I was doing the call, I can swim out to the light.

speaker-2 (15:39.086)
done ice diving before. I. Right, so I swam out to the.

speaker-0 (15:47.406)
light. thought I'll just get, you know, I'm just going to exit. You're not getting any oxygen. No oxygen, but not too deep. I'm 17 meters, 16 meters, something like that. It's still reasonably deep, but I'm not like 30, 40 minutes. So I swim out the cave. I'm like, I'm swimming out the cave, free breathing up. And I get up to where I think is the hole. And I think, and I'm kind of, you know, when you're underwater for long time, you think, ah, relief. And so you sort of let yourself surrender and I'm going to be there. And I go slam into the ice.

speaker-2 (16:15.21)
shit.

speaker-0 (16:15.694)
You know, and we didn't have a, we didn't have a cable going up to the hole because with a mask on you could see it. So I then was like, and I could see myself in this out of body at the time. I remember thinking, this is an outer body moment with we've all seen this.

speaker-2 (16:27.65)
movies where there's looking down like this under the eyes and I'm like that's me I'm that person.

speaker-0 (16:33.272)
Then I decided that I didn't have enough oxygen to or not inside me. saw the hole. I could see the ray of light coming to it, but I realized it was too far for me to get to. And I was not going to make it. I was going to drown. So I remember thinking, do I drown close to the hole so they can drag me out? But I thought, no, that's I've got so much kit on a big dry suit. It's going to be hard for one person to actually drag me out. And so I turned.

and I started swimming back down to try to find my buddy, because I knew he would be looking for me, but I would have gone up quickly. So turned around and started swimming down on the last bit of my breath. And then out of the side, he was behind this sort of rock thing that had gone through. I just saw this regulator in front of me and I just chucked it in my mouth and was like... Swam up the top and he said, dude, that was close. I went, yeah, that was fairly close. So we dusted off and we went back down again. He said, do want to go back down? said...

speaker-2 (17:20.573)
was good.

speaker-0 (17:29.196)
Too right. need to go straight back down that hole and we need to do that exercise again. So just let's fill the tanks and go back again. But yeah, so that was like a year ago, I guess there's lots of stuff like that, that, you know, you make you believe, but if I hadn't done a lot of experiences, I would have probably gone for the hole. There's sometimes in life. You've I've realized you've got to stop and the there's always an answer. There's an answer for every single problem, no matter how hard it is.

You just got to control your busy mind and actually stop and think. And sometimes the answer isn't going for the obvious hole. Sometimes the answer is to go back and find support or have belief in the system that your friend's going to be there to support you. know, that can manifest its way in finding funding for your, for your, your project. You can be manifest its way in belief and educate when you're at school, that you've gone through a process, you will know the end product is going to happen.

I moved to a Brazilian favela, the slums, to a Brazilian slum, and I say, okay, now I'm gonna start from scratch as my family. It was something very strong inside me. My dad didn't like the idea, so he spent one year without talking to me. And I started from scratch as a salesman in a shopping center in a mall in Brazil, and then starting my career. After that, I went as a trainee of a...

big consultancy firm and I started to grow my career. So selling is something that even as an entrepreneur, I think we're selling all the time. So it changed my life to learn how to sell. And the second one to being comfortable in being uncomfortable. I think this is a skill that everyone should learn. Even last year after sold my company for some million dollars.

A lot of money I've been to after selling the company to Thailand to spend one year fighting Muay Thai, living in the camps with no luxury. Yeah, for example, I was very introvert and while I trying to find my first job, I did a mediocre job in the interviews because I was ashamed, I couldn't talk about myself. So what I did, I didn't have to conquer.

speaker-0 (19:45.678)
school to teach me how to speak in that time. So I scheduled a hundred interviews in one month in Brazil. So I got the bus, go to one side to another side of the city doing interviews in places I didn't want to work in things you can't even imagine. But when I was in the 50 interview, I already knew what they gonna ask, how's it gonna be, how's it not gonna be. And I was comfortable making the interviews.

So I could enter in a job I really wanted to work. So I developed by putting myself to a very uncomfortable place until it got comfortable.

speaker-1 (20:27.278)
We came to US I Had maths my son who is now 36. He was one year old So we've been here for five years and I had $500 And they didn't speak a word of English not a single word. Oh, this was so amazing. Um Well, first of all, I think That America that that US that country that I came to The fact that it enabled me to go through

you know, from nothing, from $500 to probably more successful than my father. But you know, the immigrants that come, like I did, with $500 that have to make life in a new country where you don't speak the language. We say that you have to eat 45 pounds of shit being an immigrant. And until you do,

Until you do you're not gonna pass through that experience. You just have to go through that experience And we all did and why now always? Yep in our own ways My father worked like for other people and clean their apartments and his wife did too. They're both engineers You know, they have to go through that shit. I have to go through mine, whatever it was So so we did that and if you eat fast, you just have to eat facts and pedal fast

You eat fast, you get to that point, you pass that, you're good. So I did that. In all meaning, like learning the language, becoming American, understanding tradition, in that sense. a lot of learning, a lot of learning.

speaker-0 (22:14.222)
Another thing that we found was this ability to really develop your self belief and almost push to the side this conformity and expectations of what other people want from you. So here are a few examples.

speaker-2 (22:30.99)
There was a lot of me that didn't think I was really worthwhile. you know, like you get your... When you get told you're a little bastard and stuff like that, well, when you're a kid, you start to believe it. And to me, books and writing were an escape. And I had to escape from what a reality I wasn't enjoying. To me...

success was giving my children a childhood that I wanted. giving them what I felt that I'd missed out on. And that they are well adjusted and were able to go to university and were never felt that their opinions were worthless or that they were worthless. And that to me is the highest mark of success. And that healed

a lot of things with me from there. It's funny when I say that I was thinking these things when I was eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. And yet I was, I guess because what was happening externally, I wasn't too keen on participating in. So I went...

into books to find a better reality for myself, I suppose. I loved the characters. I spoke about Watership Down, the character in there, Hazel. He's not the best fighter. He's not the smartest, but he has a vision and he sees a way forward and he brings others along with him.

Something like that to me really spoke to me. The characters of David Gemmell, although I started reading him when I was a little bit older, again, that really sort of blew my mind that the character in his first book, Wreck, he's a berserker, but when he's not going crazy, he's bit of a coward.

speaker-2 (24:53.358)
And he's not a typical hero. he's like that again, that was to me that was wow, you can have a hero who isn't heroic all the time. yeah, it just, each one of those things sort of opened my mind, I guess, a little bit more and made me think, well, there's hope there for me that I can change myself and build myself.

into something because I didn't have a lot of self-worth and it's been a long journey.

speaker-1 (25:35.758)
I had a rough childhood so I grew up in Egypt. Egyptian. Unfortunately, we were struggling financially a lot. So my parents were very young when they got married. My mom had me when she was, I don't know, not even 19. And do know what happens when two people get married at such an early age? The probabilities are low, I wouldn't say impossible. So unfortunately, they eventually got divorced and I had to take care of the family.

And I was 11. So I was the one taking care of everything, cleaning, cooking, taking care of the siblings, my dad. So that wasn't fun. As you can imagine, it was hard. Now I talk about it like this, but as you can imagine, you know, like 20 years ago, that was not an easy conversation for me. So I started, I started the, I was good in school. Like I was a good student. And this is when I by accident met a coach and that coach helped me change my life.

challenge my self-belief, deal with saboteurs, go and focus on my career and change it completely, like to go from just a young administrator to a CEO, the Harvard grad and the Ted speaker and all of that. At the time that was, who are you talking about? Not only I made the biggest bonus that helped me to start investing and like I'm now a

an investor and entrepreneur as well. That was my very first investment. But to also apply and win the distinguished employee of Dubai award that I received from His Highness Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum personally as the first Egyptian to ever win this award in one year. Wow. And I think to answer your question that that was a confirmation to the change that I could do more, that I could be more, that I don't need to believe in what I was told that

speaker-0 (27:21.688)
Wow.

speaker-1 (27:34.08)
If you come from this humble beginning, this is your ceiling. No, there's no ceiling. You make your own future, but you have to be also willing to pay the price. There is a price. I always say, all my keynote speeches, everywhere I say there is a price. If you're willing to pay it, good. Just make sure you're actually pursuing the right thing because it feels so bad to pursue a dream. And then at the end realize it wasn't really yours. It's a good run. And I actually have it in my notebook. Like I keep looking at my notebook and say,

not just a good run, make it a heck of a run. So I'm trying.

speaker-0 (28:07.544)
The next few clips really highlight the importance of being action oriented and just rather than overthinking, just go out there and get things done.

speaker-1 (28:17.878)
I wanted to make a lot of money so could fund my research. And I thought, well, I'll just do the lawn mowing until something comes along that's my real future. I tried all kinds of stuff. I actually tried Amway at one time. I was hopeless about it.

speaker-2 (28:31.223)
risk.

speaker-0 (28:31.47)
I remember him being gay,

speaker-1 (28:33.452)
Yeah, I tried, I had one time a small computer shop which I was pathetically bad at. I tried the mower shop. I tried to get a tourist. I did all kinds of things. I just did a lot of different sorts of stuff. All of it failed, the real mowing business just kept on going.

speaker-0 (28:50.126)
And why do you think that is? Why do think the Moline business survived and thrived?

speaker-1 (28:55.118)
Well, it's what I know. This is one great secret that I've learned from business. Think that you know best is usually the best opportunity. Because all the other things look very, they look very entertaining, know. Computers are just opening up, how you open up a computer shop. But I don't know anything about computers. I'm not a programmer. I've got no background, no experience. I just knew one thing.

better than anybody else, which was how to mow lawns efficiently and then how to find work and then how to sell lawn mowing grounds. And I just developed skills in that area. One thing that's hard lesson, it's taken me decades to learn it, is stick to what you know, develop what you know, don't go rushing off into something that looks where you've got no expertise, no matter how entrancing and exciting it looks, it's better to stick to what you know. And fortunately, I guess I picked an area

where there's tremendous opportunity and not a lot of really serious competition. And I was like, okay, I'm finishing my masters and then now what do I do? And that's two options. One whole option is stay in Australia, settle down, do a job, do a corporate job was the one part. The other part was go back to Sri Lanka, start completely new in music, start with...

playing pubs for 5-6 hours and slowly building my catalogue and all of that. I actually did a cost benefit analysis of both.

speaker-0 (30:24.728)
Typical accountant,

speaker-1 (30:26.342)
I did that. I probably shouldn't have written somewhere, I don't know. And then I called a few who were the producers that I knew. I just googled some people on Instagram. I knew some producers who were doing music in Sri Lanka. So I just texted them. I was like, you know what, if I was to just come back to Sri Lanka and do music, would it work? That was my question. Some were like, yes, it's going to probably work out. Some were like,

You never know. You can never say. That's when I was like, okay, I just kept telling myself, just give it two years. I think you do what you like to do if you want. I mean, not just music, right? If you want to do accounting, just go for it. Do accounting. I think you have to take that. If you don't try, you'll never know. So I think if you don't like it after you tried it, just do something else. You know, just take a risk and try it out.

But I would say whatever you do, just keep learning and developing your skill because there's so much every day you can learn.

speaker-0 (31:28.366)
The next few clips are really just about having that hustle mentality and that drive to get into the weeds and get things done. Like, you know, everything comes with a price. Right? So, but you got to work for the money to create the experience that you're after. I think that's what success drives for me is because some people or some haters would be like, why everything has to do about money? Because everything is about money.

You know what mean? So I think people misunderstood, which I don't really care. I think being from no money, being from $10 an hour cash in hand, being abused in the kitchens, in the cafe, you sort of understand.

I don't want this for the rest of my life. I want a better future for me and my family. So, so that's what really gave me the driven to push. had a certain amount of eyeballs, right? It didn't matter what if the person bought didn't buy, but if they had eyeballs and they took those eyeballs and they multiplied them and they created this fictitious number and therefore, you know, based on this number, your evaluation is, you know, such and such. So what we decided was we found, we went to Hong Kong to China. We went to Pearl farm.

And we found it was right before Mother's Day. And we found a strand of pearls that Kevin Costner gave someone in the movie Tin Cup. And in the industry, it was called the Tin Cup necklace. was a Renee Russo wore it in the movie. It was like a pearl and a string and a pearl and a string. And we found a pearl farm that was able to make it for us for nothing. And we knew the challenge was to get someone to believe in this medium. That was the challenge. So we started

Our first campaign, we did something called a roadblock where we bought every single ad on the internet at that time on the big sites, Yahoo, AOL, know, Ask Jeeves. mean, I don't know. People don't know about all the difference that were then, but we bought all the ads. We created a roadblock and the ad said as follows, free pearl necklace and big. We had a banner free pearl necklace. And on the bottom in small, says shipping and handling 495. So.

speaker-0 (33:44.334)
From the customer perspective, it was free. From our perspective, we got a credit card. So we launched the campaign and it goes live and suddenly we're waiting, we're waiting. We just had put the finishing touches on the website. The checkout started to work and suddenly we created a bell that made a sound every time we got an order. Suddenly we hear 12, the ads go live, 1207, suddenly we hear ping.

And then 12.10 we hear ping. And then 12.13 we hear ping. And then suddenly the pings started getting closer and closer together until we started to hear... And in this 24 hours we sold over 100,000 of this necklace. Now from the customer perspective it was free. From our perspective, suddenly now our company ice.com had 100,000 credit cards.

The next few clips are about really trying to focus on what's within your circle of influence and only focusing on those things that you can actually control. born and raised in Brazil and I start driving go-karts when I was seven years old, seven, eight. I raced all my life when I was 18. As soon as I joined university, after one year I dropped out to continue my career in racing and I moved to the UK. Then I did a normal path. I did formula four, formula three.

Formula Formula I was world champion, Formula 2 I was vice world champion, then I did Formula 1 for one year with Virgin Racing. Richard Branson had a team there. And then after that I raced in long endurance races, so 24-hour races like Le Mans. I have the best result in the history of Brazil in Le Mans with three podiums overall. And then after Le Mans I started Formula E, which is the Formula 1 electric. Back in 2012 I was the first driver and...

I was not the founder, but one of the co-founders in a way, because I was the first employee. Then I've been racing Formula E now for 11 years. Won the, in the third season, I won the championship and I have the most amount of podiums and victories in the series at the moment. Wow. That's a, it's an amazing story. They pretty much halved the program every year. So if you don't get the results, you don't get the next season. And I managed just to go through from the year one to year two, but then year two I did

speaker-0 (36:06.914)
very good. So I got year three and then year four and I stayed for six years and everybody that stayed there ended up in Formula One. So it was very hard for me to cope with this pressure. Right. And the way I coped with this pressure was back then I had no way how to cope it. was just like, I was just not sleeping for a week when stuff like this happens. I was very young, not experienced.

But as you get more experience, the way I learned to cope with this is number one, again, to focus on what you can control. If the engine is going to break in the middle of the race, why worry about it? You can't do anything about it. It's something you have to take out of your mind. Say look, people can leave it to God or can pray or whatever thing, whatever is good for you to relax and take that responsibility out of your hands because it's not in your hands. So just kind of just take it off.

And then focus on have a long-term strategies where I need to improve. I need to improve my reflexes. Okay. So if I need to improve my reflexes, what do I need to do today to become one better, 1 % better in my reflexes? I need to train in that machine. need to do concentration work. need to do this. And then every day, a little bit, every day, a little bit following that long-term strategy. So define a long-term strategy and then bring it back to the present where I want to get there. What do I need to do today?

and then focus on these short-term goals. So losing everything is not easy. It was the hardest experience that I've ever had to go through. But actually, after a couple of years after this happened, having nothing at one point, it's the freest I've ever felt because, and we grew up in a country that I think has a...

think the percentage is like 60 % Buddhist, right? So in Buddhism, the Buddha teaches you that attachment is the way to suffering. And so we're attached to all this stuff. We're attached to it. And I thought about it, right? I thought about it at that point. I'm like, okay, I was attached to my car, but then I was thinking about, okay, got to service my car, I've got to keep it clean, got to make the repayments, got to fill it up.

speaker-0 (38:27.926)
I was attached to my apartment at the time. I okay, go to vacuum cleaning, go to keep the furniture clean, go to pay the bills. I was attached to my clothes. I was attached to all these things. But then I lost it all. And suddenly I had nothing to worry about. There was no petrol. There was no rent. There was no nothing. And so you're free. Like I was so free. So it was very hard to let go of that because it's attachment, right?

Attachment is a painful thing. But if if we can get to the point where it's cut or is in my case It was ripped away from me Eventually, I felt so free And when I got to that point where I was not attached to anything except for my mum to be honest When I was not attached to anything that was the opportunity to rebuild myself and I promised that I would become a better better man

Risk taking was another core trait that we saw and it's almost that ability to take opportunities, grab them by the horns and just get in and get them done. So let's take a look at a few of our favorite examples.

speaker-1 (39:40.268)
During those years, I felt that I was overworked, underpaid, and I was really frustrated because I couldn't really leave my job or pursue any of my passions. So that got me really, really determined to change my life. So in 2011, the day I got my green card, I decided to quit my job, and that was a huge risk because I didn't...

make a lot of money, but we decided to quit my job and start my first business. The first business I started was a company called Saris and Things, which was an e-commerce website to rent Indian clothing. At that time, that was the only idea I had. when I started that business, I was told that who's going to rent Indian clothing. But for me, that was the only idea I had. So I thought that if I don't do this, I'll be stuck at my job forever.

So I decided to make that move and that's when I started my business and I became an entrepreneur. But when you scale rapidly, you have to be able to take risk. And I believe that risk and opportunity are two sides of the same coin. Behind every risk, there is an opportunity. And some of these are risky. Sometimes it's a risk because let's say I ordered a container of product and then there was no demand after it reached here. So how do you navigate that risk is important, but we have to...

know, have to, entrepreneurs need to keep taking those calculated risks. Every risk, you take risk, but it's not a rash. You are calculating it, right? You're so calculated risk because you have to weigh it, like which is the bigger risk? The bigger risk is losing the opportunity when there's orders and you don't have inventory because you don't want to order it because, know, or is it risky to.

put the money in and get the, so you're always balancing the risk, but sometimes in order to have massive success, you need to be able to take massive risk. But there's always some fear in my life that, you know, what's going to happen. The fear of unknown was.

speaker-1 (41:39.69)
always very prevalent in my mind. At the same time, I always knew that I'm an entrepreneur. I believe in creating jobs. I need to do that. So I got a opportunity to do an internship in US India Business Council during my masters and they said, hey, we can't pay you because we don't pay interns. And I was a student. was living off, you know, working on campus and paying my own bills. So like, okay, okay, it's okay. Don't pay me, but give me an opportunity that that can really shape me as an entrepreneur that can really give me the next way.

that you know I can ride upon.

and they're like, okay, come over. And that is where I got to meet a lot of people. There was a lot of delegation, industry delegations that came upon. I met with people. understood that offshoring and IT is the new wave that India is going to catch up upon. And then I started a company in the US as a student on campus. I started networking, going to conferences, which were very expensive. I did not have the money to attend those conferences, but I would go ahead and request the people over there, hey, I'm a student, please let me in, please let me in. And sometimes

feel sympathy towards me like okay take him in you know and and I met a few people I back my first contract and then I bought a ticket to come back home with that money and again this is good

and let me learn the business that's how I built it and since then it's been growing. Of course I've had the entrepreneurial challenges in between, I defocused but coming back again and again to what I need to do is an ongoing journey and I'm still exploring that. You know I knew a couple of years back that AI is going to come and disrupt my business. So like instead of you know having the fear of AI can I embrace AI and create more opportunities out of it and that is really paying off now.

speaker-0 (43:22.648)
For me, I'm a person I always believe the process rather than the outcomes because when you follow the process, then you can go by step by steps. But when you considering those step by steps, always there will be challenges like up and downs, rough period, you know, there are things which you don't like. But when you think about getting to the success, so always you need to see those challenges or up and downs as a...

possibilities. So that's how I thought more than that. Actually, I always believe that people who has the gritty mindset, that encouraging mindset. So those are the people get there, get not easily, but they will get there somehow. Because when you have that gritty mindset, you don't see any other challenges or up and downs in their life. So for me, it's kind of following those processes. It's very important rather than the focus on.

Another maybe less spoken about trait was really being impact driven and I think as people progress through their life it became more and more important to focus on impact and Here are a few great examples. actually do remember being at my desk at Amix at 200 Vessi Street in Westside here Those in in Manhattan would would know what I'm talking about. I think I do remember writing down

that I never want to be at a big company again. And I just, I feel like at that moment that I realized why I don't function at big companies. And I know it's like for, I just, are the words I used. I was like, I never want to work at a big company again. And because I really hated not seeing the fruits of my labor. I think I've had just gotten a big project done and it feels like it goes into a void. You're not able to see the fruits of And that's, that's where I get my energy. I genuinely care about my work.

and I want to see the fruits of my labor. I want to see the impact of the work that I do. And I wasn't sure how to solve for that. I love the company, great people, learned a ton. They gave me a promotion right before I leave. They said, you know what, you're to stay, you can do this, you can do that. I wanted to see the impact of my work and the fruits of my labor. So I kept going smaller and smaller until I realized, let me just go to zero. That's the point zero is where I'm going to get my energy. But along the way you learn and you build relationships and sort of build impact, but

speaker-1 (45:31.694)
But I...

speaker-0 (45:47.374)
Now that I think about it, I think the problem is, it's a learning journey. And I've always been an entrepreneur at heart. I tried a few things on the side while I was there too. And I'm like constantly trying these different projects and different things. But I've always been an entrepreneur at heart and a problem solver. And I think in big companies, think the problem, I have to be able to see the problem end to end to be engaged, to be able to join a big machine again.

speaker-1 (46:16.782)
I think everything happened for my good future, good life. For a reason. Yeah, good reason because I started my social service from my house, my home. One day, one lady came. She was pregnant and she came to commit suicide. But I knew her. She was coming and having tea. My husband's friend.

So she said she is pregnant, then I thought, okay, anybody can be pregnant. And I said, okay, please come, come into the house, come and sit. No, no, I came to take my last decision was to finish this problem. What is the problem? I asked her, why you are so upset? And then this child's father is your husband. Then I...

speaker-0 (47:13.184)
Okay.

speaker-1 (47:15.852)
I don't know the big release inside me. I think that is Nirvana. Thanks all the Gods.

speaker-0 (47:28.078)
you say relief,

speaker-1 (47:30.272)
Like something came, something became empty in a being inside. I was very free, something very free. I knew Dhamma very well and I knew what is human life, everything at that time. And I jumped and took that bottle. I don't know what is poison at that time. Ran ratto ran baka.

because at that time came to my mind I must save these two lives, baby and mother.

speaker-0 (48:09.294)
So simply she just came to kill herself.

speaker-1 (48:11.402)
She came, I don't know what was in her mind, but that day is her last, maybe last day. So then I asked, don't worry, I am there for you. She was surprised and, yes, come and sit, we will talk. You can have my husband, no problem. I am not going against you. Don't kill yourself, you don't commit suicide, don't think, because you have...

Beautiful baby inside you and I also pregnant. I didn't tell you. My third one. My third one. They are same age. Then my husband tried to chase her away. Don't believe her and all this. But I knew. I knew him very well. So then I said don't touch her. Don't try to chase her away. Now we must start. We both together.

Help her. Help. So then that lady, when I gave my ring also, she put it nicely and I said all my clothes are there, don't worry, you stay here. Like that. So she also, I think got very good gut to be there because I am there. And I came to my parents and then I thought I must use my life, my human body.

For others, no need to commit suicide anybody in this world because one day we will die. Until then we can use our talents, our skills, our life because there are so many blind people, deaf and dumb people, disabled people. So I selected this path. That's how I started my service. But on the first month of operating the company,

We started receiving messages from like small time creators during the middle of Brazil that are in the northeast of Brazil that are like small cities across the country saying that campaign helped me pay for for the school of my kid this month and I and I didn't know how I was gonna do it that that campaign helped me buy medicine that I that I needed and I and I was cash strapped for

speaker-1 (50:33.282)
And I started receiving that, I get the goosebumps when I talk about this, but I started receiving those messages and something else struck me, which was the impact portion of a business. I had never been in contact with that in my life. And today I'd say it's a huge portion of what drives me.

speaker-0 (50:50.454)
Next up, we have a few examples of the importance of staying curious and always continuing to learn. me, you know, some friend of mine, they already asked me, do you really work? Because I think you just study and do a course essay. You know, for me, every moment or every course that I did helped me to solve some challenge in my life. Every time that I decided to read a book, every time that I decided to do a course or read or...

watching someone, always I ask me first, what I want to solve now, what I need to solve now, what I did to, what's challenging that I need to solve, you know? Then I can't, you know, I can't keep on growing. I can't look to myself and keep growing without course or without studying because it's just because if you have a company and if you are investing in business, you need to every time to renew yourself.

And for me, when you think about your continuous learning, I think it's the best chance that you keep in being better in business in your life because you are keeping learning. Not just think about you, it's important for your mind, your body, but also maybe it's the best strategy that you have to be better and to over like the over it the the other players, you know.

speaker-1 (52:11.296)
of vital importance because first of all the world is changing. So what you thought you knew last year may not be able to compare with what the knowledge that is actually available today. Second reason is that in the process of going for programs like the one at Harvard, you meet fantastic people like Jam and you don't know.

how they're gonna impact your life and contribute to your success. And thirdly is that it inspires confidence in those who are engaging with you to know that you have put in all that effort to develop yourself.

speaker-0 (52:49.836)
Next up, one of my favorites is really being people or relationship driven. And Jocelyn is a great example. I'm more of a motherly figure. So I treat the people here in the company as family. Us Filipinos are, you know, we're very family oriented. We're, we, and, they're, they're people who would, when you treat them well.

they would acknowledge it and put it in their heart and treat you with respect and they would always have that gratitude. Initially, there were only few people. I can do it. I can take care of people. I can ask people, how are you guys today? When I meet, by the way, I always try to make it the point when the company was in a smaller place.

Every day, I would walk to all department and try to say hi to everyone, you know. So that because when the people, they have a problem and you're far, far away, they won't be able to reach you. But when you walk, they would see you. So if they have really some concerns, they would approach you. So that's what I always did before. But right now, this place is a bit bigger. So I did two things. One is I try at least once or twice a week to go roam around.

Another one is I told my managers to do the same thing as what I did. You know, you have to walk around and talk to your people and then check out how they are doing. It's a simple thing, but our people would appreciate it. They would feel the concern of our company towards them. The reality that everybody wants to know what's in it for them. If you can tap into the individual's motivations.

and really care about what that is. So not just say it, but actually your actions match that you truly, genuinely care about every employee that reports to you and what matters to them, and then help them get there, whatever that looks like. Nobody cares how old you are. Nobody will care at that point because if you're authentic and you come every day as your authentic self and you genuinely care what matters to them, that's where the magic happens in terms of

speaker-0 (55:16.558)
collaboration, leadership, and ultimately the reason what all of those people do is an environment of trust. And when your peers, your manager, your direct reports, that whole ecosystem trusts, when there's trust developed, mean, the sky's the limit. And so I would just, my only two cents on that is I think it all comes from genuinely caring about the people on your team. Last but not least is authenticity.

all about really showing up as your true self and not trying to pretend to be someone else. And let's hear from Ruffo about

speaker-1 (55:56.024)
I think I'm too authentic and I lose business because of it. But at the end of the day, of the things that I, one of the truths that I made this with that I don't need 100 % of the market and the trade off for me of being less authentic to capture those additional dollars, just not worth it. I prefer to be who I am and I prefer to do business with people that jam with me, people that like the way I talk, that like the way I expose my ideas that aren't.

not offended by it and so on and so forth. I have never traded more dollars for the need to be less authentic. And I think that's one of the things that actually drive a lot of growth because people, we like to think that people are stupid and we can manipulate people, but I think that's far from the truth. People have a great bullshit raider.

People can smell a boo-sheeter from afar. So if you're authentic, if you talk your own way, if people see that you're not choosing a lot of the words, people see that you engage in topics that other people wouldn't, people vibe with it and people connect with it. And I think long-term it ends up bringing more business.

speaker-0 (57:13.038)
There you go. Well that's wrap. Really hope you guys enjoyed that little walk down memory lane. I mean it's been an incredible incredible journey so far. Yeah thank you so much for again your support and please continue to provide your feedback you know. We can only grow this show with your feedback and your support and I mean we want to continue as Dylan mentioned and we can only get encouraged

by the support that you can provide us. And thank you again. So on that one ask for us, drop a comment on this video if you enjoyed it and share it around to people in your network. The more ears, the more eyes that we can get on our content, the more chance we have of spreading these incredible stories to more and more people. And that's ultimately the goal. And don't forget to subscribe. It's a huge, huge encouragement for us because more

subscribers that we have, we can get a bigger, bigger guests. and yeah, so continue to support what we're doing and much appreciated. And so Jam, here's to a hundred more episodes and may there be many, many more. Cheers. Thanks so much for listening and we'll catch you guys in the next episode. See ya.

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