-Guy, thank you so much
for coming back to the show and coming on.
-Thank you for having me. It's great to see you.
Seeing you is like -- it's like going back in time
to a better time.
'Cause the last time I saw you was a better time.
-It actually was.
But you still continue to crush it.
I want to get into your shows, but also congrats on the book.
Number one. Not too shabby, buddy.
-Thank you. -I don't know how you
had time to write a book, but you're putting out new episodes
of "How I Built This" and you started a live version
I want to talk about, the "Resilience" series.
How did this come about? Was it your idea?
Did you go like, "Hey this is a perfect time to talk to
these entrepreneurs and CEOs
about what they're doing during COVID?
-Once the pandemic hit, it was clear that
our community needed a gathering place,
because a lot of people who listen to the show are
entrepreneurs, or they have small businesses.
And people were and still are freaking out.
And so we wanted to create a place where
we could bring on well-known entrepreneurs,
from like Airbnb and Lyft and, you know, and Slack,
and talk to our audience and basically describe
the challenges they're facing, too.
So in a way we wanted to sort of say, "Look, you know,
you're not the only one, and here's how other people
are building resilience, and here are some of
the creative ways they're actually keeping
their businesses alive, and it's been amazing.
We're doing a video podcast twice a week.
We've done it since early April.
And it's been so fun. And we take live questions.
It's been amazing. -Yeah.
Let's talk about your new book. It just announced that it's
on the "New York Times" bestseller's list,
and hit number one on "The Wall Street Journal's"
best-selling business books. Congrats, buddy.
-Thank you. -I love it.
I don't want it to end.
I'm thanking you for autographing it for me,
by the way.
I appreciate that. Here. I have it right here.
-You're welcome.
-"Jimmy, hope you like book. Guy."
I mean, your handwriting is different
than what I thought it would be, but interesting.
"Hope you like book." Well, that's interesting.
Uh... [ Laughter ]
When you're putting this together, did you go back
and listen to all the interviews you've done?
I mean, it seems intense.
-Yeah, I mean, I interview people for three or four
or sometimes five hours.
We only put an hour on the show.
But really what was amazing,
and the insight I really walked away from
after really trying to put the book together,
was that entrepreneurship is actually a mindset.
It's a way of thinking. It's a way of operating.
It's a series of skills that you can learn.
It's solving problems. It's overcoming obstacles.
It's dealing with the fear of rejection.
And the only difference between the people that I profile
in the book and, you know, the rest of us,
is that they walked into the phone booth and put on the cape,
and the idea behind the book, really,
is to be the phone booth for people who are ready
to put on the cape. -Yeah. Anyone can do it.
It's just -- they didn't have any special skills
that you don't have.
You know, you talk about something in the book
called the founder's dilemma, which I find very interesting.
This is when a company becomes a success,
and the founder has to choose between
having his company, having control of the company,
or selling it for a lot of money.
-Right.
-But you say that there's a third option.
-There is, right?
And it sounds very simple, but it's happiness.
Like, here's the thing, Jimmy.
The vast majority, I would say virtually every person
who's been on "How I Built This,"
whether it's Howard Schultz of Starbucks
or Payal Kadakia who founded Classpass,
they don't go into starting a business to become rich.
They go in to solve a problem.
Because a business essentially, that's what it is.
It's, there's a problem, and I'm going to solve it
with a product or service.
Right? -Yeah.
-So Howard Schultz wanted to solve it
by brewing better coffee and Payal Kadakia
wanted to solve it by creating a more efficient way
to sign up for fitness classes.
The reality is many of the founders I've interviewed
who have sold their businesses too early
have walked away with a lot of money,
but in many cases it hasn't left them happier
because what really motivates them is the camaraderie
of a team, is a sense of purpose, is a mission, right?
And so that's what gets us out of bed in the morning.
It's not having piles of money. It's having a mission.
It's having a sense of purpose.
It's having a reason to take on the world.
And I found that again and again with founders,
and I think that's really what makes
entrepreneurship so special
is that the vast majority of people who go into it
don't do it for the money.
-Who is the founder of Dropbox?
-Drew Houston is a great example.
He's going to be on the show in a couple weeks.
I mean, he is worth billions of dollars.
-Yeah. -He didn't go into it
wanting to, knowing he was ever going to be a billionaire.
And to him it's just a number on paper.
But I asked him in my interview recently, you know,
"What do you think --" He is only 37 years old.
"What do you think about the future?
Do you think you'd want to sell and walk away
and, you know, kind of just live your life
sipping margaritas on the beach?"
And he said, "You know, there's no way I would want to do that,"
for the exact reasons I just described --
because there's a mission, there's a team,
there's a reason, there are problems to solve.
And that's what motivates him. That's what gets him excited.
-I just want to say please keep doing what you're doing
because we need it right now more than ever.
Guy Raz, everybody. His book "How I Built This"
is available now, and when you come back
I really want an actual signed copy if you don't mind.
-I promise. -Guy Raz, everybody.
We'll be right back with a performance
from Lele Pons and Guaynaa. Stick around.
♪♪