@google Presents Randall Macon

[Applause] >> Randall Macon: I'm kind of a nervous presenter so I tend to walk around a lot. So I apologize if it gets distracting. Am I on? Sounds like it. [adjusting mic] How's that? Is that better? Oh, there we go. Excellent. How are you guys doing? >> Audience: Good. >> Randall: Excellent. I got my clicker thing here. So I was working on this presentation. It was actually an interesting little exercise for me. I was telling Dave that the program that we have -- one of the exercises is you have to give a life giving speech. And so I said, you know, what? I need to eat my little dog food a little bit if I'm going to be the CEO of this organization. I should start doing some of the exercises I'm expecting our customers to do. And so, this is what I'll refer to as a minimum viable presentation. If it's a little bit bumpy. If it doesn't completely click, then you guys can ask me questions at the end and we'll fill in gaps. The thing I wanted to talk about today is a question that's really core to a lot of what we focus on with the company and also a lot of what's important to me. And it's a really simple question. And it seems like, "Hey, I can answer that question." What do I really want? And it's interesting. What I'm gonna do is use my story, my journey what I've gone through as a bit of a framework to think about what is it you really want. And hopefully this is an opportunity for you to be thinking about that in a different way. And thinking about that in a way that will get you further than where you are whether it's here at Google or some place else. I think as part of the invitation there's also a optional exercise that's called eulogy and epitaph. How many of you guys got a chance to read that. One, two. Okay, you guys get called on just so you know. [laughter] So let's start out with this interesting quote. It says "as for those considering taking the time some day to plan their final weeks and months, three words of advice, Move it up." Now this was a gentleman -- anybody recognize that quote first of all? Sound familiar? It's a guy named Eugene O'Kelly. Ringing any bells yet? No, not yet? Well, he's actually the CEO of KPMG. Was at KPMG for 30 years. And is an award winning author. And why that is a compelling statement or quote is that he actually wrote that in a book called Chasing Daylight. He found out he had basically three months to live. Had brain cancer. And he wrote a book about what it was that was really important. And so, what I wanted as we go through this, I want to try and give that same kind of context. Because what's really powerful for him, yet at the same time really unfortunate for him was, he gained a lot of clarity and focus and a real sense of urgency at the end of his life. And it was interesting -- I was reading an article about Steve Jobs' book just came out. And he was -- the person who wrote it said that the reason that Steve Jobs wanted to write the book was because he wanted to tell his children why he wasn't there. And that becomes a really -- for me becomes a really poignant question. Because I have a two and a five-year-old. And it's also really important because are you going to wait till the last 100 days and look at it and say, "okay. Now I'm going to cram everything that I really wanted into that last 100 days? Or are you going to start doing things now that will empower you to think about what it is you really want. So when I was graduated from college in 93. So I was getting the tour from Veronica and she was walking around talking about old school music. I [chuckles] was kind of sad to realize I'm now old school. [laughter] Slightly depressing. But I try to get my street cred up by naming rappers that were a little unknown. Guru. Anyone a Guru fan? Nice. Nice. It's how my wife and I met actually. But it's interesting. When I got out of college, I wasn't really sure what it was that I wanted. But it was a lot about me. And so, what I thought that I wanted -- it's not me. This is actually a friend of mine. A really close friend of mine. John Sore and Mack Dog. Probably one of my best friends in the world. We lived together for awhile. We were rock climbers and we had a really amazing time going on trips together. Rock climbers? Yes. You all get called on, too. But at that point when I was asking that question what do I really want? What I wanted was to go hang out with John and Mack Dog. I wanted to go climbing. I wanted to figure out how I could have more fun in my life. And so, I was part-time rock climber and part-time start up guy. Not starting things up but working in startups because apparently those were the only people who were going to let let me go rock climb part-time and get paid some amount of money. And when I say startup, keep in mind at that time it was a dial up, start up. We were offering 14.4 dial up service when you could actually do that. It was weird. But that was a part of my life that was -- it was really important to me. John, as amazing as he is, he moved away. He moved to Seattle and ultimately to New Zealand. And he's doing amazing things at Weta Studios where he's doing animation design for King Kong and I, Robot and doing amazing things. And I had to ask myself that question again, "what is it that I really want?" And I had to reevaluate that. And at that time, my now wife and girlfriend, we were thinking about it and we were saying, "okay, what is it we want?" Our friends, the lifestyle we thought we were building is not there anymore. So how do we go about figuring that out again. And so, at that time, that was in the late 90s. I was like, "I have an idea." I've been in start-ups. I'm going to find a start up and I'm going to get some of that IPO money. I'm gonna figure that out. My plan was get rich and go rock climbing. That was my grand plan. Very, very thorough, deep thought -- thinking that I was doing. At that moment in time. And I had actually planned it all out. I was going to find a company. They were actually going to build a company that their whole exit strategy was they were going to get bought out by somebody really soon so I only had to work really hard for a couple years then I'd get some of that IPO money. Well, that didn't really work out. I did end up working for an Internet consultancy that I won't name. And I kind of had an IPO. It's more in the form of a severance package and they asked me to leave. [laughter] But I got a little bit of money. It wasn't anything I was going to retire on. Kind of made me pause and say hey I got a little opportunity and a little space. What is it I really want? That question over and over. You emphasize each word differently. You say "what do you really want? What do I really want? What do I really want? What do I really want?" Start flipping those phrases over and over and it starts meaning something different, depending on where you are in your life. But, if you don't start asking yourself that question, then it becomes very difficult to even get on track. And what I find myself doing even at this point, I'm just kind of meandering. I thought I was going to be climbing a lot. I thought, at this point, I'd have all the money I needed; wanted. I wouldn't have to worry about it. It wasn't what I really wanted. About that time, after I was offered my own personal IPO, the severance package, the Lance Armstrong Foundation was in its early stages and there I think ten employees at the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It was out of a house. I happen to know was introduced because some of the board members of the Internet consultancy I was at were also board members on the Lance Armstrong Foundation. So I had a bit of an "in." And it was also the topic of cancer was something that was pretty important for me and my family. Because my mother-in-law had been -- is is a cancer survivor. She had breast cancer; last year had bladder cancer. Hopefully when I -- I didn't tell her I was going to do this so hopefully when she sees this on YouTube, she won't be too annoyed with me. But she's an amazing woman and she does some amazing things. She's very much an inspiration for me. So cancer was important not only because of her but my grandfather, my grandmother, my aunt, all passed away because of cancer. And so, this was like, "hey", that question, "what do I really want?" It's like I want to make an impact. I want to have an opportunity to e able to impact people's lives. And so, I think that was a really a big part of what was motivating. It was motivating me to say, "what is it that I can do that's going to have an impact?" Didn't have a lot of clarity around that. Didn't really have a lot of urgency. And the thing that happened with LiveStrong, even though we put a lot of effort into it, it was something that was really meaningful. At the end of the day, I did a quick search on Google images and this is what I found when I typed in LiveStrong. And at first it kind of made me sad, because I was looking at it and it was like, "you know, it's awesome that they raised all this money. They have this amazing database of millions of potential people who can be advocates on their behalf. And it started and I was like, "man, was all that just about merchandising? Did I just kind of throw myself at something just so I could say that I was a participant in something like that?" Then I started kind of digging through my own files and also digging online a little bit and I couldn't find this image, but I did find this particular image which, there's a story that goes with this that's pretty powerful. Not this guy in particular, but what -- in the early days of when we were selling wristbands and it got really crazy where we were selling 100,000 wristbands. It seemed like we were paying more attention to whether or not we could get OS Commerce to actually handle the load or whether or not it was about the people who we were supposedly doing this for. And this guy sent in a picture. And he, in these gang Gothic letters, put LiveStrong across his back. Similar to what this guy did. And it made me stop and I was like, "that's why I did it." I did it because this gives somebody an opportunity to express a perspective that they have and allows them to connect. There's another interesting story that at, one point I was -- this was back in like 2004 -- I was at an airport and very few people knew what the yellow wristband was. And quite honestly we were looking at it and going -- Nike had come to us and said, "we're going to make these 5 million wristbands and sell them." And we're like, "Sure, that seemed like a ridiculous idea." But when I was in an airport, there were two people in that airport who were wearing wristbands who didn't know each other. Then they came and started talking to one another. Then they started sharing their own stories. They provided that opportunity for connection. And that to me was like, "that's something that I really want. I want to see something like that. I want to have that ability to affect that kind of change." Not necessarily change but affect that kind of relationship and connection in people's lives. And that worked out for awhile. But then I kind of got antsy. Tell my wife. She agrees. We go on these two year cycles where it's like" hey yeah this is great" to "not satisfied". Gotta kind of figure it out. Had to ask that question again what is it that I really want? Well, by this time I had had my daughter, Lila, who my father refers to as Lila the amazing. And my son who is the antithesis. His name is Boon. But he refuses to use only Boon and he's just Boon Macon. And my favorite story -- this is actually just going to turn into a story about family. But my favorite story is he got pushed in school. He's two years old. He got pushed in school and he turned around and looked at the kid and got dead panned serious, "Don't push Boone Macon." [laughter] So apparently they wanted to make T-shirts out of it that said "Don't Push Boone Macon." [laughter] He's turned into Napoleon Dynamite at age 2. [laughter] The the point of that was these people are enormously important to me. My family is enormously important to me and I have to stop and ask that question what do I really want? What is it I want. More importantly how is that going to impact my children. And I have a tendency to think way over the horizon. I started to ask that question, what's the world going to be like in 20 years for them? Is it going to look like it looks today? I don't know. So this is an important question. And since not everybody got a chance to go through and do eulogy and epitaph exercise. I want to do this exercise. I want everybody to just close your eyes for a second. We're just going to go through this and I'm going to talk through a couple of thing. But I want you to fast forward into the future a little bit. And visualize that you're at a church or you're at a cemetery. It looks like your friends and family are gathered. You take a closer look. It's actually your own funeral. The question that I should ask yourself is, "who steps forward?" Who's the first person to speak? Is it your wife? Your girlfriend? Your parents? Your children? What is it they're going to say about you? What is it that you want them to say? Now, hold on to that. Come back just a little bit. When you're there, you might have seen a grave stone. Might have had your epitaph on it. What did you see? You can open your eyes. I want to hear from you guys. What did you see? Be completely honest. Lived fully, loved openly. Who else? I'll call on people. People who raised their hand said that they got it. I'll call on you. Who else? One more. C'mon. One more. [pause] Awesome [laughing] Who had trouble seeing anything? Yeah. Why do you think that is? No sense of urgency? No sense of "hey, I've got to pay attention to this?" It's an important question to ask yourself. You have to stop and think whether you are 55 or whether you're 20, what are people going to say about you? Got to just -- it's a basic question that, if you don't ask those kinds of questions of yourself and they're simple questions, but they're hard. They're really hard questions. That's what's going to give you the power. One of the things that we talk about at our new venture is that we're about building the individual before we build the business. And that's one of the fundamental questions you've got to ask yourself. What is it that you really want? And doing an exercise like that brings it into focus. You just sit down take an hour or so to ask that kind of profound question about where it is your life's going to be. And it sounds morbid. But it's also deeply freeing. So I did this exercise. And one of the things that I read to my children. And let's see if I can actually get it to work out for me. But Oh the Places You'll Go. I don't have it all here, but starts out with congratulations. Today is your day. You're off to great places. You're off in a way. You have brains in your head. You have shoes in your feet. And I can't see the rest. Hopefully you get the gist of it. Is that you've got an opportunity. You've got a grand journey ahead of you. And asking that question, "what do you really want?" Emphasizing those words. I ask that question right after I left LiveStrong. And I spent probably about two years trying to explore some kind of way that I could shape the future for my children. What is it going to look like in 20 years and started talking to as many people as I could talk to. And I started thinking through all these ideas of how we can create this social impact. And how you can create this fancy ecosystem of conscious consumers and social entrepreneurs. And, you know, social venture capitalists who are going to come together, "hey, this is going to be a utopia." And it was ambitious and probably substantially naīve. But I did that. And it's the thinking of that that then led me to a couple of folks who I met. Actually friend of mine Ed Perry who then introduced me to another guy, Jeff Sandefer. You guys don't know Jeff, he is the founder of the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence here in Austin. They have the Acton MBA program which if you haven't seen it you should check it out. It's an amazing program. That's where we spun off of. But as I was talking to these guys and I was showing them this. They were just kind of looking at me and being really polite to me at the same time [chuckles] and just kind of shaking their heads. My question was like where am I going to fit in? I've got this big grandiose. I've gone through thinking what I want. How am I going to get started? Where is that first step? And for me, that first step actually became -- came with thinking about the individual. And I started thinking about it and this idea of entrepreneurship -- not necessarily social entrepreneurship, because that has a lot of people fixated on what that means and trying to define entrepreneurship. For me it started looking like how can I start impacting the lives of people who are entrepreneurs who are going to be entrepreneurs and what is it I could do to provide them something that's going to accelerate where it is they're going to be. They're not going to kind of meander around. And as Jeff put it, they're not going to make the same kind of mistakes. And so, it starts with the individual. Building the individual before building the business. And then, the framework that we use and we think about -- it's based on a framework that's in the MBA program called a Life of Meaning. And it's starting with the individual. What is it that you really want? Then layering in what are the people around you. So if you think about on a day-to-day basis, who are the people around you that are really most important? And how do you do things to support and empower one another? And then, finally, how are you going to start creating some action around that? What are those milestones? What we do is we actually set it up so our program goes through and you talk to people. This is not a sales pitch. It's a good exercise to start talking to people who are ten, 20, 30, 40 years older than you. Start trying to understand where are they? What regrets did they have? What did they do well? And what is it that you want to do and where do you want to be? Just asking yourself that question, "who am I going to interview?" When I started doing that, that's a hard question. Because then I started saying, "I want to interview this guy. I don't want to interview that guy 'cause he's not in the industry. Or I'll interview this guy but not that guy" But you got to start. Time's precious. You got to make sure that you don't waste the opportunity you have. And you guys -- I mean, obviously working at Google, you're enormously intelligent individuals. Don't waste the time. Ask yourself, "what is it that you really want?" If you can ask yourself that fundamental question, you start moving down the path of getting to where you really want to be. So apparently we've got questions. Oh, that was a cheering ending wasn't it? [laughter] So thanks. >>Male Interviewer: Ooh, this is really loud. Lower this. Better. >> Randall: Oh, we're sitting in chairs. >> Interviewer: Sure. >> Randall: Are you Oprah or Phil Donahue. >> Interviewer: Neither. You haven't my bank account. >> Interviewer: Okay, so if you still want to submit questions on the DORY, it's go slash Randall. We have some great questions here so far. I can pull them up. [pause] Okay. What are the top five mistakes that an entrepreneur makes. >> Randall: Top one? Not asking questions. I think that that sounds my presentation solved the question. I think it's a lot about trying to figure out where you're going to be and how you're going to get there. Making sure, that if money is what you want, that's fine. But be honest with yourself that's what you want. But try and think about what are the things I want to do. Where do I want to be in my life. If you can start connecting what you are passionate about. The idea of identifying what's your calling. What is it that your unique gifts are that you do better than anybody else? Most passionate about. Then what's that need in the world that you could fulfill? If you could figure that, that's still. But if you could figure the intersection of those, that's something that becomes I think pretty powerful. And you start being able to then move forward in very deliberate way as opposed to being driven by what investors say or what employees say. And you start trying to give yourself some kind of a compass that allows you . >> Interviewer: I do want to open it up because I'm sure people have thought of questions. But the next question is a good segue. That's great, fine and dandy; you've figured out what you want. But, what if, the window has passed. So what about us old folks who are old school and you have mortgages to pay and children to feed. I can't just take that risk and follow my dream. What advice would you give then. >> Randall: It goes back to just kind of explore. I'm 40. So I qualify for the old school record collection. And it's -- I don't think that it's ever late. I mean, my dad who was Southern Baptist preacher and now is an entrepreneur himself. The cycle that he went through is, he was in the military. He went and became a preacher. They he went to a start up. Then he went to Fidelity Investments. And he's got his own thing that he started five, ten years ago. I don't think it's ever too late. I think it's about making sure where it is that you want to be. If you can identify that, then I don't think it's ever too late. >> Interviewer: Any questions in the audience? >>Male#1: If you use this mic, the we can get it on the YouTube channel. >> Male #2: Thanks. Are the kind of some of the answers that you're figuring out now could you come up to those answers without those experiences you had as a 20 year old rock climbing? Is that something, that if you had asked those questions earlier, you would have come to a different place? >> Randall: Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. I think that when I look at this -- because there are questions that are still really valuable and important to me as well. But I think it's about the intentionality. Part of what our mission is that we really want to inspire, equip, and connect purposeful and passionate entrepreneurs. And you know, I think you can get there. I mean, there's tons of examples of people who have gotten there without the questions. And it's not like the questions are rocket science. But it's a matter of just sitting down and having a habit of asking yourself those questions. And that becomes enormously valuable in and of itself. Especially if you start asking yourself those questions in connection with other people that are either essential business partners or close friends. You start thinking about the quality that those relationships start to change. And you start kind of asking yourself the questions that maybe don't have -- there isn't a real sense of urgency around them. I mean, not everybody is Eugene O'Kelly. But if you start spending some of that time, it provides at least an accelerant. As one of the guys who went through our program was actually telling Dave, and I use because he's our shining rock star. But he just opened up a business down in Westgate that it's called TreeHouse. You guys go check it out. Evan. That's like free advertising here. But he went through the program. This guy -- Rick is smart. I look up to him in a lot of ways. He was doing M and A, mergers and acquisitions, at Citibank and he decided he was going to go start something up. While he was raising his series A, he decided to go through our program because somebody recommended it. And the way he described it was rocket fuel. And I think that that's -- that's the way you've got to view it. Whether it's our program or something else. You got to ask yourself, "where's that rocket fuel?" Where am I going to find that material that's going to allow me to get there faster and sooner. Does that answer your question. >> Female #1: What happens when you figure out what you really want to do but it conflicts what your friends and family want for you. Do you pursue that and do you sacrifice those relationships. >> Randall: Wow. [laughing] I don't know. That's a personal question. I think that you've got to -- you've got to ask them -- those folks -- what is it that they really want for you. And if that's something that you're passionate about -- I don't know. That's a tough one. I've had the luxury of having highly supportive people. But I think that it may be a question of can you go and start seeing, are there other people who share that same kind of passion. And are there ways of cultivating those kinds of relationships so that you can really ferret that out. And, you know, understand why is it that they don't want? Is it -- like, my person who heads up my product department decided to go to Kenya for the next two weeks. Why is she going to do that? But it's a passion of hers. I didn't want her to do that, but it's something that she needed to do. All cross our fingers she doesn't get killed. Did that answer your question? Sorry. >> Interviewer: I said something earlier. I'm going to kind of mix something you said with the question here. You said something earlier about asking someone five years older than you. Ten years older than you; twenty years older, to see what they think. And I've heard something similar to that where when you were five, you're left to your own devices, you will surely kill yourself. And ten years later when you're 15, you ask yourself were you an idiot when you were five, you say, yes. But reality is at least half of the students who make it to 15 the rest probably end up killing themselves. 25 year, your target rate gets a little better. But when you ask yourself when you're 25 if you were an idiot when you were 15. The answer is yes. So when you're 45, 55-year-old says "you're an idiot now". >> Randall: [laughter] That's my operating assumption on every. I don't have the answers. That's a qualifier. >> Interviewer: If you can look back on the questions. What's been the most difficult thing you learned throughout the time being in your own start up. And the question I'd add to that what do you think you're doing now that might be a mistake. >> Randall: Oh. I think that -- wow, when I look back at the things that -- and the startups that I worked at. I think there were a lot of people who were really focused on getting rich. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with making money. Please, do not ever interpret it that I think you should go into poverty [chuckles] in order to really find out what you want. But it ends up driving a lot of decisions. Especially when you get into a situation where, you know, when I was working at a company that was public and it was during the Internet start up. The decisions became more about how do you make those quarterly numbers and less about what's the long-term value. And so, those decisions get truncated and a lot of times they start making -- and I'm guilty of this as well -- start making decisions that are good for what's going to happen in the next month but horrible for what you're going to be doing in two, five, ten years from now. And that's a big mistake. I think the mistake in terms of what we're doing right now is, I don't think you can ever get enough of talking to your customers. I think the thing that we're probably haven't done an effective job yet is really understanding them. The deep passionate needs of what our customers want. I think we've got a little bit and we've got people who are excited about it, but we've got to have more. We've got to connect with people. So if anybody wants to participate with any research effort, I'll sign you up. >> Male #3: So what did you learn from working with a guy like Lance Armstrong? And why did you leave LiveStrong? I heard it's doing really well. >> Randall: I think one of the biggest values of working with and around somebody like Lance as well as a lot of the other folks at LiveStrong is that there's a constant sense of dissatisfaction. That you aren't doing enough, you can do more. And that constantly pushes the boundaries. And it's nice to have that. And also, in that kind of business, there is a sense of urgency because it is about people's lives. That becomes poignant. I think the reason that I left the LAF was I think it was more about when I started asking myself the question, "what kind of impact can I have?" And "am I able to still contribute and make that impact at LiveStrong?" Or "had I kind of contributed what I was going to contribute?" And I think I contributed what I was going to contribute to that. Could I have stayed there longer? Probably. Could I have done some other interesting things? Without a doubt. But I think the stuff I'm doing now energizes me as much if not more to think about what is it that I can do to impact and bring what I saw as urgency in individuals who were cancer survivors, -- urgency they had in their lives and try and kind of create that urgency for individuals who are entrepreneurs or becoming entrepreneurs. That gets me up in the morning. Hey, 20 years from now am I potentially going to be planting a seed that my children are going to be able to benefit from. That's what's driving me more than anything. >> Female #2: Okay. So I know a lot of us here are recently college graduates. And some people are further into their careers. But if you were were where we are sitting now, what would be the strongest advice you would wish when you were here someone would give you. >> Randall: First of all, you're probably light years ahead of where I was [chuckles]at that point, because I was rock climbing. [laughter] For people who know, rock climbers -- they're not the most ambitious folks. Really fun to hang out with. But that's a big question. What's the biggest piece of advice? I think it's don't be afraid to make mistakes. Take risks. I was talking about my father and the best piece of advice he's ever given me was 'life's forgiving'. And he's proof positive of that. He restarted what he was doing in his life so many times and he's doing great. He loves what he's doing. And he's got a lot to show for that. But it was being able to take those risks. And I think you've got to sit down and assess along with that is a question of how well you can deal with ambiguity. You probably deal with ambiguity a lot better when you're younger. But I'm trying to understand how comfortable are you being in a place where nobody's telling you what you should be doing. You've got to figure it out. And getting to that point comfort with that kind of ambiguity. Then I think you become, whether you're at Google or you're somewhere starting your own, you become a lot more powerful and focused however you can make it in life. Whatever it is. >> Interviewer: Let's take a question on DORY and then go back to the audience. You mentioned something I really liked earlier. Building the individual before you build business. And so, this question is similar to that. It says, "what attributes do you look for in a partner? What're your feelings about partnership versus going solo?" >> Randall: Partnerships versus going solo. It's funny. I actually asked that question of somebody yesterday I was meeting with. He said -- it becomes a question of -- with a partnership how -- so part of what we do is, when we're going out we try to identify potential customers. we have kind of the direct to consumer but then we're also partnering with universities. And part of what we're asking ourselves is do they share that philosophy? If they don't care about the individual and they don't really care about building that individual, then that's probably not a good partnership. And so, as long as it's something that allows us to stay focused on what our mission is and really creating those passionate and purposeful entrepreneurs, then I think we're more than open to that. But, if it's not, then we have to probably take a pass. And we've passed -- we've actually fired customers because of that. It's a hard one. >> Male #4: Well, I guess I have a 2-part question. First one being I don't think, maybe I just wasn't hearing well --. What is it that you really want or are you still figuring it out? >> Randall: Yeah, I think what I really want is a world for my children that isn't caught up with the things that we're dealing with right now. Like, European debt crisis. Or a world where people on Wall Street are calling each other and giggling about how they screwed a grandmother out of her pension. And that -- I mean, that's a big chunk of this new venture is, you know, my bigger kind of 20-year desire is I want to change the business culture. I mean, I think Google does a good job of doing that as well. We need, there needs to be a systemic change how people think about what they're doing in business and how it impacts people. And that, you know, people can define that as social entrepreneurship. But I think that's just being a good person. And so, that's what I would do. >> Male #4: And I guess it helps if you said you want to change the world for your kids. But before you had kids, what you really wanted would have been something else. You just changed ten, 15 years down the line and you figure you want something else, how do you deal with that? >> Randall: Part of when I was putting together this presentation that was -- I started realizing is that what I really want -- it's going to change. Change is constant. You have to ask yourself constantly, "am I doing what I really want? And is it getting me to where I want to be?" As long as I can continue to say, "well, at the end of my life I want my children to say that I was there for them and that I did everything within my power to create a better world for them." If they say that, and what I'm doing today, I can kind of see a line of sight and I think see milestones getting to that, then I feel like I'm on the right track. But yeah -- I mean having kids provided a lot of clarity. I clearly didn't have that in my 20s. [chuckles] Say, a good chunk of my 30s as well. But yeah. It's a hard question. It's a hard question. >> Interviewer: We have another question here from the moderator. >> Interviewer: If you don't necessarily consider yourself to be a Visionary entrepreneur, what are some of the ways to try to get involved with entrepreneurs to try to create a business plan [inaudible]. >> Randall: Yeah, I think there's plenty of -- I'm sure you guys know tech stars -- start up weekend. All the seed accelerators that are out there. Those seem to be like the low-hanging fruit for everybody. And it's something we really struggled with because it's a question of, people can go there and get engaged and have this really coding marathon and do some pretty amazing stuff. But I think that when you start trying to figure out what kind of team -- something I definitely struggle with, too, is trying to hire people is making sure there's a shared passion and a shared vision. And the way you can do that is by making sure that you kind of ask those folks, partners, team that you're working with, "hey, does this all connect up with what everybody wants longer term?" If everybody just wants to get rich, great. But make sure everybody on the team wants to get rich. Otherwise people are going to get really annoyed and they're going to walk away. You're going to have trouble keeping people together. But if you can have a shared vision of what that business is and that connects with what people really want, then I think that that becomes pretty powerful way of approaching it. And I think that to a certain extent the idea of being a visionary that you have to be a visionary to be an entrepreneur -- I don't subscribe to that. Because I'm far from being a visionary. [chuckles] And -- but I feel like that I can still classify myself as an entrepreneur. >> Interviewer: You mention something earlier you were kind of showing [inaudible]. I'm hearing that consistently from entrepreneurs. They say as part of the ingredient of somebody successful. You have to break it up in a pie how much of it is luck, how much of it is capital, how much of it [inaudible]-- what would you break it into. >> Randall: Wow. I'm not really good with math. So I may not come up with 100 percent. It may be a mis-shaped pie. [laughs] I think that -- what were the options again? This is like a math problem -- word problem. >> Interviewer: Well, you can make up your pieces -- luck, capital, being educated. >> Randall: Oh I can make them up? I think that a lot of it has to do -- there's timing. I mean, people call it "luck," but I think you make your own luck. You constantly are trying to push forward. Like, the concept model that I sketched up -- well, I think people could say, "well, you're lucky that you were introduced to Jeff Sandefer because he's now funding this new venture that you're doing." And my argument would be, "well, yeah, but I spent three years." I mean, I did that sketch in 2009. And I was thinking about it for a good year, year and a half before that. And it's -- you're going to create your own luck. I think that that -- it's more about putting some kind of stake in the ground and moving forward. One of the concept you're asking about -- like, this Idea of advice being able to put that stake in the ground, the sense of ambiguity. That's going to have to change. And really saying, "okay, I'll have to, you know, move when it comes there." Like, a big part of it is just say, 50 percent is, you know, having the right plan and team in place. And 50 percent is being comfortable with all that comes along with that. And with all the people who tell you it's not going to work. That you're too naīve. All the employees that tell you that you're not doing the right thing. That's always fun. >> Male #5: What about the 'why' behind -- I mean, I think it's such an important question what do you really want. Breaking it out like that is really powerful. What about the 'why' that's behind that; how do you answer that? And second, who is your mentor now? Who are they and how important is that? >> Randall: Yeah. Not sure clearly understand so I'll try the why question. But I think embedded in that question of what do you really want, there is a why in that. Because if you want -- if you want to be -- interesting we've been doing, running ads. Doing AV Testing on ads. And the people -- one of the things we were testing -- we've got this message of, "well, we can help you make money and be a successful entrepreneur and we can also help you discover what you're passionate about." People want passion. So we started running these ads. And one of the test ads was "discover your real passion." Another one was "be a millionaire by 30." And we had this simple little quiz that we would send them to. Almost everybody -- the vast majority of everybody clicked on millionaire. But then the quiz was actually broken down so that the output would say, "well, you know, you really want to kind of discover your passion." Or "no, you're all about money." What was interesting, everybody clicked on I want to be a millionaire by 30 or 35 and then they answered this question and 70 percent of them said, "I want to follow my passion." And so, I think the why -- you can say "I want to be a millionaire by 30,," but is that what you really want or is being the master of your own destiny what you really want. So peeling back those layers and getting beyond the initial gut reaction is important. What was the other question? There was another one. Mentors -- yeah, I've got quite a few people who I would consider my mentors. And some of them are actually pretty close in age to me, because they've done things that I wish that I was skilled and talented enough to be able to do. Evan is highly -- I don't get a chance to talk to him as much, but he's definitely. He's a mentor in the sense that he's doing things that I wish I had the discipline that he has. And there's other people who are mentors -- I think a lot of the way I look at it is, I can't find that one mentor that does everything. And so, I end up trying to take this design-thinking approach to mentors. Where I'm going to get a multi-disciplined panel of mentors. [chuckles] Get somebody over here who's really focused in design and design thinking. And somebody over here who's, you know, really much more about the spiritual aspects of it. Somebody over here who is a lot more the nuts and bolts and gets it done. And, you know -- yeah, I actually never really thought of it that way, but that's kind of the approach. I have a Frankenstein mentor that I go to different parts of them [chuckles] depending on what's going on. >> Male #6: Do you have any advice for your -- like about social entrepreneurs you work with balancing what they want and then also with the needs of the communities they're working in. Like, concrete advice in terms of how they can address those--. >> Randall: When you talk about the communities that they're working in what do you mean by >>Male #6: Well it seems like the social entrepreneurship you're trying to have some impact on community, right? What add And that's part of your goal. So I mean what advice do you give your budding social entrepreneurs in terms of finding how to balance their needs and passions and finding ways to fit the needs of the community. >> Randall: Yeah, it's -- when probably about a year ago we started going through the exercise of -- the standard exercise of the mission, vision, core values -- those kinds of questions. And I totally got called to the carpet by Jeff who's practically the chairman of my organization. And he was like -- I started I was putting in my grandiose " hey, I'm going to create an ecosystem. I'm going to change the world." And he's like, "yeah, that's cool. That doesn't really talk about your customers." And I think that that's the question. Because I don't view us as trying to create social entrepreneurs. We're trying to create some kind of social impact per se. We want to have an impact on individual's life and allow them to define what it is they want to do. Everything is, you know -- we don't profess to have any kind of magical answer. And I think anybody who does is probably lying to you. And so, you've got to go back and make sure that what you're doing, what you're passionate about is actually connects with those people who are your customers and that it's something that they really both need and want. And there's a delineation. That's one of the things we struggled with was the need versus want question. Do people want money or do they need, you know, a mechanism that and frameworks that allow them to become much more effective entrepreneurs. >> Female #2: I have a question. What are some of the books that have been Most influential in your life in defining I guess both your personal life as well as what you really want and your passion. >> Randall: I have to admit I am the slowest reader in the world I'm pretty sure. I tried to do the speed reading thing. It inhibits my ability to get through a lot of books. When you said that first one that jumped into my mind was Jonathan Livingston's Seagull. Short little powerful kind of inspirational piece. I think that Letters to a Young Poet is another one that I think has shaped the way I think about a lot of things. And so, that's kind of the touchy-feely side. The one that actually kind of turned on the light bulb for me which we use in our program is called E-myth. It's by Michael Gerber. And it talks about this idea of -- I don't want to give it it away, but thinking about what it is you -- what kind of entrepreneur you're going to be. And making sure you don't put yourself into a position where you are basically in a self-employment trap. And so, it's -- I think that one becomes like, "yeah, duh." But sometimes it's like the really simple things. [chuckles] "wow, probably should have read that a long time ago.." >> Interviewer: We're out of time, so we're going to ask a question off the Dory. Since I'm up here, I'm going to ad lib it a little bit. You had mentioned the exercise and you mentioned your goal was to make a better world for your children. A lot of changes to that. And so, it sounds like greed. And you also mentioned bottom line. [inaudible] Effectively. >> Randall: Now, I think I -- yeah, it gets important to say -- and this is actually something I've kind of come to a conclusion on over the past probably year or two. I definitely think was of this mind set of yeah social entrepreneurship. Money shouldn't be your bottom line. That's just not -- that's not realistic. I think that it's important that, if the idea of money being the only criteria by which you measure success -- I think is very risky. Because it's -- that's going to drive -- that's going to become more important. And then that then creates the incentive structure for everybody in your entire organization. We look at our core metrics or what we pay attention to, is both sales -- because we can't stick around. Otherwise, we're just giving it away for free. We should just do that. But sales are really important as well as what's the experience that our customers are having? How are they telling us it's good or it sucks? And being able to understand those pieces. So since our mission is about really empowering those individuals, then we have to use -- we have to balance those things. It can't be one or the other. >> Interviewer: Well, that was the question. Because earlier you had also said that if money was what you really want, then that's OK [inaudible]. >> Randall: Sure, no -- I mean -- yeah, I think that that -- and this is also important is, this is my decision. This is the way that I'm viewing it and that I -- my perspective. But if you don't share that perspective, that's completely legitimate. And I shouldn't -- I think it's way arrogant for me or for anybody else to say, "well, since you only value money, you're a horrible person." That's not to say. I think that -- if I implied that, then that's wrong. >> Interviewer: Well, we're out of time. Thank you so much for. >> Randall: Yeah, thanks, guys. [Applause]