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Transcript

If I Woke Up In 2026 With _0... This Is What I_d Do · The Empire of Wealth

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's 2026. You're 20 again and you've got no money.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: With all that you know now, what would you do?
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: This is Brian Scudamore. At 19, he dropped out of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: college and started a business with a single pickup truck.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Fast forward to today and that same business is valued
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: at over $ 700 million. In this episode, Brian's going to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: break down what he would do to get rich if
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: he had to start again at 20 with absolutely nothing,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: including the one move he says most young entrepreneurs miss.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Let's go.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: So I would start with mindset. If you're the smartest
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Get
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: into the right room. Make sure that you are the
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: person that knows the least where you can start to
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: be a sponge and learn from others. Join an entrepreneur organization.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Go out and meet entrepreneurs and talk to them. And
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: so what you said earlier that gave me chills, it
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: was absolutely so powerful. You started your gardening business. And
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: you found your passion. Your passion wasn't gardening. My passion
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: wasn't junk removal. But by starting something, you get in
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: that mindset of, oh, wow, now I know what I
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: love to do. And I think that's where most entrepreneurs,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: young entrepreneurs who want to start get tripped up. They
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: don't have the confidence. But I don't think they'd truly
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: understand and realize that if you just start a business,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: assume it's going to fail. You're going to learn something
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: that will take you to your passion. So I would
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: start with mindset. And then the first thing I would
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: do is I would develop a vision and try and
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: connect with, which is hard at 20. But what do
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: you really want in life starting with your why? You
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: and I talked off camera and we sent a video
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: to our mutual friend, Simon Sinek, who says starts with why.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Why are you building what you're building? I think so
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: many people in their 20s say everything. I want to
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: build something because I want to get rich. Studies have
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: shown that that is not the most important thing at
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: the end of a life.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: It won't keep you going because you're selling the most
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: valuable thing you've got, which is time. For money.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: You want to have freedom. You want to be able
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: to enjoy life and have fun. But what I've realized,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: especially from others, friends of mine who've sold their businesses,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: you talk to people who sell their businesses too soon,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: have some regret because they go, oh my gosh, it
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: was so fun.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: A lot of people moan, don't realize how much fun
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: it is, but you've got to enjoy the journey basically, right?
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So enjoy the journey. It isn't the pot of gold
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: at the end at all. That can be an important
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: milestone for people. But start with your why and go,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: what do you really want to do? My favorite quote
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: in the world is Walt Disney, it's kind of fun
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: to do the impossible. What motivates me, what's my why,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: is impossible thinking. If you open your mind up to
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: big possibilities, you never know they might actually happen. So
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I start with a dream in my mind. I would
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: do this again at 20. What's my biggest dream? What
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: do I want to see happen in this world? And
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: no matter how far-fetched is it, I write it down
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: as an idea on paper.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: What else would you do as a 20-year-old now wanting
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to start a business with no money?
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  Speaker 2: I would figure out, first of all, how to find
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: some money. Now, some of the most powerful, largest businesses
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: on the planet, take Apple as an example, right? Everyone
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: loves Apple. They started with $ 1, 000 out of a garage.
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  Speaker 2: You know, 1-800-GRAD-JUNK starts with under $ 1, 000. Find $ 1, 000. It's
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: a lot of money to a lot of people, but
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: figure out, do you have an aunt, an uncle?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Clean cars at the weekend, you'd make half of that.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
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  Speaker 1: I think people, yeah, I agree with you. Learn to
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: do the stuff you don't want to do so you
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  Speaker 1: can make the money you need to do the thing
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  Speaker 1: you want to do.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: And go start something. So as a kid, 12 years old,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: I go start a car wash in my neighborhood.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, I didn't know that, but that makes sense.
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  Speaker 2: I'm on one corner, my neighbor... Another kid of a
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  Speaker 2: similar age thought, what a great idea. He started a
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  Speaker 2: car wash on his corner. We were in this busy
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: intersection competing. We had a price war. We went from
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: $ 2 down to $ 1. 75. Merge.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Just merge.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I do. But we didn't think about that. We weren't
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  Speaker 2: smart enough. But it was amazing. We were washing all
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  Speaker 2: these cars, making a ton of money, having a ton
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  Speaker 2: of fun. But again, starting something with no money involved.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Help to teach me that like my passion is people.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Finding people, having fun, building meaning, making money. I discovered
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  Speaker 2: that when I was 12. So my advice is find
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: something and someone goes, how can I find an idea?
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: You know what you can do? You can put into
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: chat GPT, talk to it for five minutes on a
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: voice dictation and say, my name is so-and-so. Here are
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: the things I've always loved to do in life. I
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: love to play rugby. I've loved trading baseball cards. It
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: doesn't matter what it is. Give it your ideas and say,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: please help me with five ideas of something I can
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: look at starting today with no money. It will give
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: you inspiration. It will give you things that you can
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: get out and start today.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: How did you discover what you're good at? Because sometimes
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: people don't know they're bad at something. That's the other thing.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: So I love marketing. I love branding. And for me,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: it was getting out there at a young age and
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  Speaker 2: just trying things. So the car wash. When I got
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: out there and did this big sign, my sign was
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: bigger than the neighbor's car wash sign. I brought two
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: girls who were friends of mine in the neighborhood to
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  Speaker 2: stand out with signs with me. How do we out-market
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the kid next door? When I started 1-800-GOT-JUNK, we were
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the rubbish boys. Our phone number was 738 junk. So
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: we painted it. I painted it on the side of
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  Speaker 2: the truck. And I'm like, people need to see this.
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  Speaker 2: So I parked it at a high profile intersection in
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  Speaker 2: a busy area of town. We still do that today,
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  Speaker 2: except we have 3,000 trucks. Big mobile billboards.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: We've just been talking about making your first $ 1, 000. And
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: this is where most people get stuck. You say you
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: need to start when you have time, money, or the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: perfect idea. And you don't. The truth is, it doesn't
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: need to be perfect. It just.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: needs to be started.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: That's why I love Build Your Store. It removes all
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: those excuses. You can literally build a Shopify store in
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: just under two minutes completely for free. Just pick your niche,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: follow a few simple steps and you've got a store
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: ready to go. The AI does the heavy lifting. It
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: finds winning products, builds optimized pages and sets it all
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: up to sell. No coding, no design skills, no upfront costs.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: It's perfect for anyone who wants to start small, test
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: an idea, sell a product or build an extra income
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: stream That's why I'm telling you about it. It's not
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: just that they pay us to do it. I know
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: it's good for you. And we use the money they
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: give us to fund people's dreams. When the store is live,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: it can make sales 24-7, even when you're sleeping or
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: working on your next idea. Click the link below to
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: get your free AI-built store from Build Your Store. Less
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: time than it takes you to make a drink. You
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: could have your first online business ready to go. The
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: other thing I think that I think I have seen
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: this play out for many people. There was a two...
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: young guys that came to us they're twins identical twins
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and they said to me their dream was to start
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: a cleaning business they called them maca twins and instead
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: of moaning about cleaning they kind of get excited about
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  Speaker 1: it and they do this line which is like we
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: clean places no one else wants to clean and they
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: go into parts of different parts of the world but
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: london for example find a place that no one's cleaned
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: right it's really disgusting yeah and they clean a bin
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: in Camden, right, that's just not been cleaned in 10 years,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: and they clean it. And they've had videos go massively viral,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and that's meant they get a lot of bookings for
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: their cleaning business. The thing I take away from it
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: is like, I see this in your business too, Your
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: business does not sound sexy. You were 18 years old
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: when you started it. You did it really just to
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: make a bit of money to pay for university. It's
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: unsexy businesses. I want people to know unsexy businesses are
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: really quite sexy.
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  Speaker 2: You can make them sexy, just like those twins. They've
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: got these viral videos. They're connecting with the world. You
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: can make it sexy. What's sexy about 1-800-GOT-JUNK is the marketing,
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  Speaker 2: the branding, the getting on Ellen and CNN and Wall
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Street Journal, New York Times.
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  Speaker 1: Or being enthusiastic about something that no one else is
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: enthusiastic about. Again, if I was building a business in 2026,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I'd look in those niches. There's people, a friend of
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: mine in Hong Kong who just bought a laundrette and
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: she's turned it into like a really cool cafe and
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: sell plants and you do laundry. She was telling me
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: that there's people actually going to that laundrette to wash
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: their clothes that have a washing machine at home. You know,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: like you think laundrette, they want the experience. You take
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: a boring business and you give it that kind of excitement.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I think it's important for people to think about. not
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: being the bottleneck in their business. And have you experienced
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: in that? Yeah.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: So I was the bottleneck when we hit about a
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: hundred million in revenue and I realized, and my people
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: helped me realize I was not the right leader to
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: take it further. My own people were saying, Brian, you're
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: not the CEO that we need you to be. Interesting.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: So I went out there and tried to find one.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: I found an ex Starbucks executive who had 30,000 people
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: in their employee, brought this person in and in 14 months,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: we almost bankrupted the company together. And what went wrong
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: is I didn't have the right person for me. So
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: when a founder goes out and find someone to help them,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: there needs to be this yin and yang alignment that
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: is just so good that together two heads are better
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: than one. So got rid of that person. And then
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: found Eric Church, who's been with me for 13, 14 years,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: and it's been incredible. So what I did is I
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: took a sheet of paper, and on one side, I
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: wrote down all the things in business that I love
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: to do and that I'm good at. On the other side,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: what are all the things the business needs that I
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: can't give it, that I'm not good at, in fact,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I don't like to do? I said, I need someone
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: on that side. And that's where I started sharing that
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: list of all the things I'm bad at that I
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: don't like to do with other potential clients. COOs, a
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: chief operating officer. And I found Eric and he goes,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: I'm not just saying this, but everything on this list,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: I love to do. And I'm great at, and the
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: stuff on your side, I actually don't ever want to
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: even learn. So we found this fit and it's been 13,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: 14 years of awesomeness. We've gone from a hundred million
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: dollars to $ 700 million. I've been able to Live my
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: exciting marketing idea thinking energy because of the rigor and
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: discipline and support that I get from Eric.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Well, again, I noticed sitting with you, which I'd love
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the audience to have.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: How old are you? I'm 55.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: If you focus on the things you love to do
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and you get good at them, they give you energy.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I see a lot of people that are tired at
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: 55 because they've spent their whole life doing the things
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: that don't give them energy. So you get excited about ideas, right?
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: You get excited about seeing the idea get implemented in
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the world and the effect that it can have. To
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: some people, that would be draining. So I think people
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: have to know what gives them energy and what takes
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: them energy. And people don't spend enough time actually thinking
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: about that.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: So when you know your why, the business just like
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: goes crazy. We've made more money than I could ever imagine,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: could ever need, could ever want. And it happened once
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: I really understood my why of imagine big possibilities. So
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: if I can imagine big possibilities and share them with
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: other entrepreneurs outside of our business or franchise owners in it,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: that's where I get excited. So I think the thought
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: to share with your audience from me, how do you
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: understand what makes you enjoy the journey? Don't think about
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: the jets and the big houses and whatever you want
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: if that's important to you. Think about what do you
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: love about the journey of everyday life.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: So another thing I'm taking from this chat today, and again,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: take this home for yourself, which is take risk. I
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: think risk is... isn't a negative word. I think it's
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: a word that gives you a chance to learn. You've
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: got it in your title. How failure can be your
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: key to success. I think it's so important that people
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: learn to enjoy failure and almost see it as a
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: great story to tell, right? You can't write a book
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: unless you've got some failure in you. Most learning comes
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: from failure, right? So I think I kind of wish
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: it on people, which I don't want anyone to fail,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: but I kind of want people to take the risk
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to fail. A lot of people listening will be scared
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to take a risk, right? Because if they're in the
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: middle class trap, Maybe they've got an okay job. They've
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: got an idea. They're scared to do it. There's downside
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: for them. How do you mitigate risk?
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: I'll give you a specific real life example of how
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: I tackle failure. So for me, risk, I say, I
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: just have to risk. I have to take chances to
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: continue to live my why and enjoy my life. Not
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: taking stupid risks, stupid financial risks or anything that's going
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: to harm people. But I'm still trying things outside my
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: comfort zone and putting myself out there. So 20 years ago,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: I got asked to audition for the first season of
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Dragon's Den. Starts in the UK. BBC does incredible things
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: with it. Canada then brings it. And I got asked
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: to audition. I was like, wow, this is really cool.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I'm flattered. I failed miserably. They didn't like me. They said, no,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: this isn't going to work out. And I asked, what
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: can I learn from this situation? The show started to
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: take off, started to grow. 10 years later, they said,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: we're looking for a new dragon. We think you could
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: be it. I'm like, okay. They come into my office.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: They film me, invest all this time. I invest time.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, I got it this time. Nope, sorry,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: you're not the right fit. And I'm discouraged. And I'm like,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: what is this all about? But every time I fail,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: I take out a sheet of paper and I say,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: what can I learn from this failure? Why has it
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: been two times now that I haven't gotten the dragon spot?
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: In reflection, I looked back. If I got it that
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: first time, it would have killed my business because I
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: didn't have time to spend on two things. The second
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: time I was going through absolute crisis in my business
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: and couldn't have taken a moment to focus on that.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: So the opportunity came up again years later. Three years ago,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I heard there was going to be another audition for
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: a new dragon. And I'm like, I've done it twice.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do three times. I'll keep doing it
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: because I want to use that as a platform to
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: share my passion for choose the most amazing career set
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: you could ever find being an entrepreneur. I get to
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: the studio. There's 19 other potential dragons. And there were
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: some really famous Canadians in that room. And I'm like,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I can't do this. And I thought, okay,
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: what's my why? Why am I here? Do I see
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: this and feel it? And I just channeled my energy
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: into if this is important to me and I really
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: want it, go in and be my awesome self. And
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: if they like me, great. If they don't, they don't.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: And I got it. Nice. And it has been so
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: much fun and impactful. But we fail. And that's okay.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: It's more than okay. Most people would not have tried.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: And I auditioned a second time.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: You've got to fail because you don't know when you're
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: going to catch the wave, do you? You know what
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I mean? You don't know when that wave is going
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to actually hit. So you've got to keep surfing.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Failure is preparation.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Brian, thanks for giving us time today. Thank you. Guys,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: I really recommend you go buy this book. We'll put
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: the link down below. If you're interested in entrepreneurship, you
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: should read it. It will help you. This is step
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: by step. insight here and how to make it all
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: happen it's inspirational and i think a lot of people
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: can learn from.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: It so thank you for taking the time thank you
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: i hope your audience is challenged to get out there
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: and write down where are you going to fail and
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: go fail today
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Let us know down below what are you going to
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: start right let us know where you're going to start
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: let's go