Welcome And Meet A Teen Founder

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Cut the Tie Podcast. Hello. I'm your host, Thomas Helfrick. I'm on a mission in life and I'm obsessed about success. I want you to own your success. And I am, you know, really excited to have uh our guest, Eshawn Patel, today. And I've learned something about the Patel cast. We're gonna talk about that because it's amazing. Um Eshawn, I yeah, you I'll introduce you in a minute, but he's young and he got perfect on his SATs and ACTs and any other test he's probably ever taken in life. And he's he's raised a little bit of money for his uh uh startup. And I are you even out of high school yet, Eshan? No, I'm a junior. He's a junior in high school here in Atlanta, Georgia. So uh you always talk about success and a perspective of it. Uh I'm so excited to have you on today. Uh, anybody who's listening, guys, I hope you you listen. You know, first of all, check out stuff we got at uh cutthetie.com. And I gotta thank my sponsor, instantlyrelevant.com, who produces all this cool stuff. So thank you so much for all that. Now, let's cut the tie and own the success.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Ishan Patel, how you doing? I'm doing good, sir. It's an honor to be on this podcast. Well, a little introduction about me. As you said, I am quite young, 17. But again, I I don't let that limit me, and that's based on what I do. So, what I've raised over$100,000 at the age of, well, I was 16 at the time, but I've raised over six figures at seed funding for my startup. And how I and why I did it is interesting. So before I dive in, yeah, again, huge shout out to Thomas for helping me get on this podcast and hosting this instantly relevant for sponsoring all of this. But yeah, let's specifically start on what we actually do.

Defining Success As Balanced Life

SPEAKER_01 1:36

So we're gonna get we're gonna let you do your pitch here in a minute, young man. First foremost, I need you to define something for me. You're 17. I think we met like a little over a year ago, and you were like you were just you're like, hey, what about this? And I was like, when you're ready, I'll have you on. Um, before we get into what you're doing, because this is about success, I want you to define what success means to you today.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Honestly, I could go and say a bunch of things about success, but I think the main one is that when you wake up in the morning, that you know that look, I'm doing good in this world and I'm happy, right? That's what success is. It doesn't matter if you have a trillion dollars, but you wake up with no family members or friends, it doesn't matter, right? I feel like success about having a balance in life, specifically with family, friends, money, your own health. Because if you just miss one of those, then I really don't feel like you're fully successful. Having a mix of balance of those things in your life really creates that success that everyone wants.

Foundora’s Mission For Young Builders

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah, you uh you're uh 17, I'm 50, and I will say it took me to about 50 to figure out, you know, the the you know it listen, I had to listen, I had to do a thousand or so interviews and run through AI before they came back and said that very similar what you said that most people who find themselves successful and they really aren't impacted by any one thing, uh, don't put it all into money. They don't they they they balance between money, their relationships, their health, and faith as well. So so there's a balance and they're and they are aligned around it. And in at 17, you are well on your way. So all right, take a moment. Introduce uh your company. What did you guys do? The product solar.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah. So again, as I said before, at the age of 16, I just felt like, look, everyone, everyone's limiting my ability. Like I'm 16, I have these ideas, I have things I want to do, things I want to accomplish, but people are like, oh, just wait till you're older. And that really, like, I guess that I took it personally. So I made a startup, I guess consulting in a way, but we basically help other like-minded students, kind of like consulting, help find their nonprofits, their startups, and things they want to succeed at this young age. Because again, no one gives young people guidance on how to start an LLC, on how to start a 501c3. So we took this initiative on to actually help these students actually actually build something at a young age, right? Like how you see on LinkedIn, all these college kids are building and having these AI startups and stuff like that, but no one's actually guiding them. They're leading blind. When you don't have a direction and you just have passion, it doesn't lead to anything, right? You need direction, you need actual passion to do something, and you need guidance. Because again, that's what you need to be successful. That's so that's exactly what Foundora solves. We solve the ideology that people think age limits, I guess, success. But in reality, it just opens up more opportunities. As you said, the younger you get started, the better you are, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Well, I I I mean, I I would just get started. Anybody who's listening listen here, and you're and you're wanting to find success, you're gonna need a mentor. I will tell you, I if I've struggled to find one that I, you know, I've found a few in my life, but I will tell you, I wish I was more proactive with it. And it sounds like you're providing a form of of mentorship for people, at least in a form of technology, to get to get from AV, but you gotta start. So the only guaranteed failure structure is never to go. And that's for sure. And you're you're gonna fail 5,000 times, probably, right? And you're gonna get successful on a handful of them, and you're gonna be like, I'm rich. Anyway, the point is um you're you're spot on with that. Now, in your in your product, so so uh you did it for good. So, so did you guys set up as like a as a for good company or uh LLC or how just I'm curious how you organize your company around the site.

India Volunteering And A New Perspective

From Student Consultants To Scalable Data

SPEAKER_00 5:20

So, okay, I'm based so okay, before I get into that, I want to I told you briefly why I want to start it, but really well, I didn't mention how I really like found upon this. So let's just go back a couple years. So freshman year, right? I went to India for the full year to volunteer. In the full year, I was volunteering because I don't know, I just felt like I needed a change in my life, right? So I went to India for all of freshman year. I was in India volunteering. And before this, I really had like I guess a very shallow level of thinking of what success is, what have I accomplished? Is it just numbers? Is it my SAT score? Is it money, right? And going here and seeing these kids, I guess just their actual like drive to do things in life, but no actual opportunities, right? Like, for example, in we're in Gudrath, where I'm from, like like you mentioned the Patel cast, right? Where I'm from, these some of these kids are so smart, Thomas, but they just have no guidance of what they want to do. They have so many like dreams and visions, and actually volunteering there and living there for a year compared to the states. I mean, it's hard, but like I guess I gained a much different perspective, and I kind of cut I cut the tie on my own like actual ego of what have I really done from this point and what do I really want to accomplish, right? Because I thought, man, I can go to an Ivy League and do all this. Is that really success? And I guess just coming there gave me a different perspective. And then when I came back to the States, I really that's what really drove me to start Foundora, right? Because again, I really don't believe people are limited by the ability. So, again, how my business model actually works, right? Is I have consultants, but all my consultants, I guess, are fellow students, but they're all top-of-the-not students. Like our median SAT is above 1500. Everyone's raised a successful venture or either sold it. We all have amazing, I guess, GPAs and actual internships and experience and genuine passion to help other people. And then again, I make my each of my content software, like each of my consultants could contract base. Whatever they bring in, they bring out, right? So it gives them more incentives. Like again, having someone giving someone a payroll or salary, it's great, right? But it limits their ability to expand, right? By giving them incentives and saying you get a certain percentage out of this many clients you, I guess, consult or you bring, I guess it makes your business model more expansive, right? And the thing about this business model, it's so lucrative. When you have a certain number of clients, they all bring you more, right? They all bring you, oh, they refer to a friend. And I guess it kind of makes the process more, I guess, just more expansive. It the growth does it itself. And you're asking, are we a for-profit? Yeah, we are for-profit. Because again, nothing, nothing is free. But we do offer very like, we do offer very student friendly pricing, right? Like if you go to these big consulting companies and ask, can I get consulting? You know what I mean? They're gonna throw out enormous like plans and prices. So we do work with all types of like plans, pricing, and incomes to determine like what's the best path of success for you, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:22

I I think you're onto something. Uh, and I'll I'll I'll throw a turd on the table, so to speak. Um I would take all this corpus of brilliance and make this an agentic solution that is you know crowdsourced fun. How do you want to do it so the people who contribute are gonna get something at some point? So they they have an upside money-wise, and I and by the way, if you can go to an Ivy League, you should, because the network of what it opens up and this and it matters in the branding, right? And it may not matter forever, but it matters in these stages of life and how people anyway. It gets you in certain clubs. So we'll take that off topic maybe, but you can get in an Ivy League, go to MIT. Anyway, um, the the truth is because like I look at this. Harvard's cool, he's a smart guy, but you can't succeed in MIT dumb. You can maybe in Harvard and Yale. I I don't know. I've I've just seen the sense of the presence and other anyway. You can't do that in my team. You gotta come out with like the guns. So um, but why not are you taking this corpus of thinking knowledge and putting it into an agentic state where the the company really building is starting on consulting, but it's based on brilliant minds? Or are you just are you thinking no, and that we're not doing that? What are you gonna do with that?

SPEAKER_00 9:30

So I guess like what are you what you're trying to say is what is our direction with this, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Well, no, like I mean, like you're getting you're getting access to the most brilliant people. Yes, and and and it's and it's a group that's coming out with new ideas, not influenced by a bunch of other things yet in life. If if you capture how they think to solve this problem, that same corpus of modeling and thinking can be applied to solve any problem.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Any problem. Exactly. That same again, the more the as you said, a mentor is very important. The more you surround yourself with like-minded people, with people who actually want to achieve growth and have genuine knowledge, the farther you're gonna succeed, right? Like I heard this saying, I've I read in a book, maybe the the most the five people you surround yourself the most with is who you're most like, right? So if you surround yourself with like-minded, high-growth, intelligent individuals, right? You're gonna you're gonna succeed, right? You have to. It's you're you're putting, as you said, in MIT, you don't have a choice. When you go to MIT, that that guns are blazing. Everyone in there is trying to solve cancer, right? So you're forced to, you know what? I gotta actually make a genuine, and that's the same thing with my business model, right? When you're provided with the best of the best, you only get the best outcomes, correct? Or no?

Money, Health, Relationships, Faith Over Time

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Because I think you're you're you're well, it's not guaranteed. You're more likely to get the outcome you want, right? Well, anybody you want that that was supposed to happen. Um, and this this is tied to maybe more philosophical or theological things of things happen because they're supposed to, and it's what you react or do it and how you respond. Um I think maybe you don't realize this. The harder problem is access to people, not the idea of what you can do with it. So you can have this idea, oh man, I want to take this great thinking and capture that in a way to solve problems in some kind of way. And well, this is the first use case, it might be young people how to do this because that's the world you live in. But as you get older, you're like, wow, we can. I'm telling you, just maybe from that, is that access to the people is more difficult. And since you have that, which you you take as, hey, that's normal. Most people don't get that access. So take advantage of that competitive advantage and go capture how they think to solve a specific problem and model that. Then you got something then then you're in the next uh uh you know, anthropic or open AI or AI. Honestly, because because that's the basis of how that stuff will evolve when it's just become fun in your life. Now you take the smartest people, you know, off topic. We'll take that off topic. The truth is that's amazing. All right, I'm gonna go back to the success piece. What do you think is gonna be the most important thing to you like four years from now from a success metric?

SPEAKER_00 12:05

See, honestly, right, I'll be turning maybe 22, 23 in four years, right? Because I'm 17, I'll be 18 again this year. I think in four years, what success is gonna be defined to me as is one. Again, as I said, money is still very important, right? That funds everyone you love in your life, right? Will I be at a level that I'm comfortable at and I can provide to, I guess, family members, uh, my brothers, my parents? Will I be at a like again? Because money, the world runs on money, right? Money is essentially very important. Will I will I have enough, I guess, financials to support my lifestyle? Do I have supportive people in my life, right? Because again, when you're when you're doing accomplishing big things by yourself, I guess it does take a toll, right? You have to have a good support system to, I guess, back you and catch you when you fall, like a safety net. Do I have a good support system? Is my health good, right? It doesn't matter if I have um, if I'm making a million dollars at the age of 21 years old and I have if my health is not good, mental and physical, then what can you do, right? You know what I mean? That's health, health is wealth, right? It's the same thing. If I don't have the necessity health in like mental-wise as well, right? You have to take care of your body, like your mind is your temple, right? Like again, taking care of both is essential to actual long-term success. And then also, yeah, pretty much relationships, money, health, and yeah, I mean, what else is there, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:36

The the I will tell the wedge that you don't realize until you need it is is going to be something, and I don't mean religion, faith, something believer and bigger than yourself. And uh it's something everyone ignores until you're older. Uh, I will tell the earlier you instill those principles, whatever that whatever that is. I'm not specific your own version of it, I don't even care, but something that ties to something bigger than you, and you and you have elements of it already. You're trying to help kids the ethics will be a glue that makes everything else work better because it it'll keep you grounded in the right place. And and I would tell you that make sure you don't leave that part zero. Because any one part that you leave zero, in my opinion, drags you, it it becomes a tie that holds you.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

It takes you down a slippery slope, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Well, it just pulls you away or it leaves you in place, and that's it. That's not how success works. Success works in a direction, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:24

You yeah, I agree. I think faith is honestly like very like again. I I'm young, I sometimes overlook it, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to work on that aspect of genuinely, because again, the ethical, moral side of it, and believing, I'm not you can be an atheist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, it doesn't matter. Just having a greater purpose in life, whether it be anything, it it tends to, if you look at like I guess, it tends to lead to better outcomes. Again, as you said, philosophically, nothing is nothing guaranteed in this world, right? But again, the more you try, the better it is, right? So just having a better, I guess, again, yeah, stance and support system and grounding with your own mental health as something bigger, powerful than you, that's I think again, yeah, that's success as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Well, it it it is. It it's um one of the concepts that I've kind of come on to lately is that you give away everything you need. Give away love, give away respect, give away an admiration, give away attention, and don't expect it back, especially if you want it, if you need it. Because what happens is you feel fulfilled by giving it to somebody else, and the energy that you surround yourself, people will be drawn to that with that kind of energy. And that's the person that will give you everything you need to receive. Including like, you know, give money, don't foolishly, but give it pointedly to solve things, to do things. Um, never be a fool. But that mindset, and and you're you're starting out with, I'm gonna solve this and make a billion. You're like, I want to help a bunch of kids in India that have no shot, right? Cool. I was at uh I don't remember this guy's name, but it was at uh Peter Diamondis who did SpaceX and or the uh whatever the whole thing was back when he has a group called A360. On stage, I came with this guy, but his thing was I'm gonna feed a billion people. That was his that was and and and they came on after and he said, Hey, listen, if you want to make a billion dollars, go help a billion people. So if you can help, and India's got about a billion that need help, at least, maybe more.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

By the way, side note, everybody, uh the people you meet who have many come here from India, there's like what a hundred one point five billion or so people in India. Their top 10% represent our entire adult workforce effectively. And then the top 1% of that are the people you get to come over here.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

And then they're smart, they're smarter than you.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Just just accept that when you know, I mean, I I I mean, look at the job market right now. You know how many people in India are so much everyone outsources, everyone outsources to Asian countries because the level of thinking capacity, just their the culture, their culture is a big thing. As you said, ethics. The culture like Indians and Asians are raised on, it's such a it's beautiful in like the work ethic sense, right? Of look, value your family, respect, work hard, do it righteously. I feel like that's some of the principles we need today, right? Just installing the again, they do represent. I mean, look at the GDP, Indians are the highest earning incomes in America, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:20

I mean I I I I tell people, you mean you're from India who's here, they're smarter than you, and just accept that and try to find a different advantage. Because you don't have it. And and and I'm okay, and and I think that's what people don't realize that it creates this kind of tension sometimes with with US Americans, natives, but if you will, and people who've come from other countries. I'm like for them to get here, they're smarter than you. Yeah, 100%. It's like likely. And if you and the only people who don't realize it are the people who aren't smart, like maybe we were okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

So I'm not saying there's not smart people, there's smart people everywhere, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yeah, I mean, specifically to get here from any other country, given even today's environment.

Mentorship Templates And Idea Reality Checks

SPEAKER_00 17:55

It's imagine it's like Indian, like it's imagine right now I decide, well, I'm gonna move to Japan or something. Like it's just a complete culture like difference, and being gonna thrive in a completely opposite, like it's like you know what I mean? It shows their level of I guess I guess work, I guess, work ethic and actual like add like drive to be successful.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

All right. You're gonna talk to now your uh now some high school followers. No, I'm this is a selfish play for me. No, I'm actually kind of fun. Uh talk to your audience. So, so let's do some, you know, I could say this to you because you're young, you understand sound bites and how social media works. Give you some 30, 60, and 90 second sound bites of what you want and what the value is of somebody who should be using your platform. Like, who is it? What should they do?

SPEAKER_00 18:42

What do you want to tell them? Okay, let's just start with students, right? Again, students are the most important. We value teenagers and young people because that, again, that's what shapes this next generation. Young people, right? And optimizing them, it's like we're shaping them. Optimizing them to the right path and right direction in their early ventures is a necessity. As you said, everything has to be meticulously planned in order to achieve success, right? You want to build a company. Everyone, everyone wants to become rich, right? Everyone in this world wants to become rich. No one knows actually how to, right? By giving, like laying out an actual template of this is what you need to do, this is when you need to do it, this is the pitch deck, these are the investors, these are the VCs, everything like that, and making it a compelling storyline is how you're gonna succeed.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Well, wait, that's how you'll get started. Like, that's like that half of one percent. Now what? Once you get the money, you're like, oh shit, what do I gotta do now? I mean, again, but that that's that's where that's where people need help. Is how do you go run a business and what kind of business is it? And that's where the mentoring really Okay, the mentorship.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Because if you don't have experience, the only way to succeed is find people with experience to help you, right? Because again, you instead of like, for example, you can do it two ways either you can go and fail a 5,000 times yourself and keep getting back up on your feet, or use other people who have failed 5,000 times to help you get up on your feet faster, right? Because learning from other people's mistakes and what they did wrong is ultimately gonna compel you and drive you to understand your business. For example, if I want to open up a company tomorrow, right? I have no clue how, but I have money, Foundora helped me get money to get started. Either I can go and experiment and lose a bunch of money, or I can go to people who actually have failed in real life and in the business. Because again, you can't fake experience. The only way to get really better at something is keep again, as you said, keep trying and failing. So again, going to people that have already failed, that's what actually creates promising growth. Because again, everyone has it. You've said you've only had a couple good mentors in this lifetime, right? Again, everyone needs a mentor, they just don't know who, how, and what they get from that. So, again, we provide a sort of platform for that mentorship, right? And again, all of our it's more and again, it's consulting, but again, our community, for example, our the companies that we work with, they become well connected with each other, right? So you're more like you're gaining access to an actual like platform kind of because again, you're gaining a valuable network, not just mentors, not just consultings, but other like-minded people that want to do the same thing as you, and as you said, the more like-minded people together that that creates ultimate success, right? Let me ask you a question What is Facebook? What is Facebook? I mean, I guess it's just a community of people coming together, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

I mean, isn't that isn't that I would just I would disagree. It is a data company. And so what you're building is a different form of a social community where people come together, where Facebook makes money, and why they're so good at targeting, is it is a data company. And if you take what you're learning and you think about I'm gonna bring people together and we're gonna capture this thinking and what works, and as you say, you are ca creating a brilliant data company. And I think. From you ask for advice, but you're getting it anyway, because you're on a podcast. That's how it works. Is the point is look, think of things in terms of, oh wow, what am I going to capture? Because how could I apply that at a million X, right? Not money like a million X that and you're in a position right now where uh you have access to people, and that's the hardest part, believe it or not. So that's so put that in the back of your head of how do I capture this in data? Then you got something that's you got something that's uh way beyond what you just you originally thought. What I have found, by the way, maybe you've seen this already, you have an initial idea, and you you kind of go there and then you're like maybe that's not the idea. You're uh do you see this in in in like these like when you see when you're mentoring people, like, oh, but that's you know, you're doing this way better than leaning out.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

100% people like you so many clients I meet, genuinely, second meeting. Wait, actually, should we switch this? I don't like it anymore, right? Again, but that's human nature, right? It's self-doubt yourself. But again, you we also look at the realistic, right? Say somebody tells me I want to build another Instagram, a social media, like I'll tell them straight up, look, I'm gonna be honest with you, right? This idea is not gonna work. Like, look how many big social media text guys there are, right? You're building another Instagram that it's just not like it's not like actually. I actually did have someone say something like that to me once, and I I could have just kept letting them on and getting more sessions and get more money. I was like, you know what? Cut this idea, let's make a new one, and let's just start somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Because again, but I'd say you could create uh some of the principles of Instagram, but you got you just gotta be applying it. What's different? Like, why would they is it a niche? Is it like uh Snapchat is like anything else to me, except they applied a different way to do filtering and filters, and it was their first to do it. So you just gotta what's new that no one does that's fun, and then build a community around that and let someone go buy you that can take that capability into it.

Snapchat, Hidden Apps, And Tech Street Smarts

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Okay, that's that's fine. That's more that's more of a should I take should I go into an existing market or should I take an idea from an existing market and create a new type of market? Example Snapchat, right? They create they made a new market by putting these dog filters and stuff. So they took, I guess they took from the social media market and they made their own, like now it's just called Snapchat. It's not really called a so like no one refers it to a Snapchat to social media, they just refer to a Snapchat, right? They made their own, I guess, branding. They made their own market. Like now every all all the teenagers and stuff all use Snapchat just because of its, I guess, iconicness.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

They don't no, they use it because the message is delete and parents can't see it. I I that's why. I have a kid, you don't have to sell it. Don't even, don't even lie here, okay? I will check your phone. What you don't know is that I can actually still get access to your phone and see these things if I really wanted to. But we're not gonna get into that. I'm that's why people so parents, if you're listening, don't let them have Snapchat. Just delay on that as long as possible. Make them use text message and they hate it and they will. Because it's tracked. Um here's I actually here. I need I need some advice for parents. You're gonna have to betray your kind here for this, though, okay? Your teenagers. What's the app I gotta look for that's hiding other apps? So my kids are getting around all these little controls we have. Okay, I I don't want to snitch, but this is the app. So you're snitching.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

You're saying if you were gonna allegedly if someone did this, if someone didn't do this, what they would do, well, again, certain apps like Snapchat, you can hide features like for even your hidden camera now, you can make it where it's hidden and it won't show up unless you go in settings and make it turn on. So you can do that, like literally. So again, there's everyone knows you have hidden photos, but you can turn so you can put stuff in hidden and then go into your settings and turn off the hidden setting so it doesn't show up anymore. Also, with apps, the we way you could hide apps is you take it off your home screen and you put it in like shortcuts and stuff so it doesn't appear as that, right? Oh, so I'm talking about is there a calculator app that's not actually a calculator? Oh yeah, you make so but again, you make it a shortcut. So you go in your widgets and you make Snapchat or Instagram or whatever you're not allowed to have, school homework, math, and you just put it as math, and then every time you open up math, it opens up TikTok. I mean, I feel like that's just I feel like that's just part of like technology and kids evolving, right? You can't get around that everywhere, yeah. Like back in y'all's days, you did different stuff like that, just not in the same sense. Gen X Gen X was worse than Gen Z, Thomas. I think Gen X was fine. There was no social media that you can't have.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

No, no, we we uh so my childhood was shooting BB guns at each other and throwing rocks at each other. That's that's how we yeah. Now if you go shoot a BB gun, it's you're gonna end up in the uh there's a reason why you just don't want to mouth off to a 50-year-old because we'll just punch you and be like, deal with it. I mean, you're right, because we're okay hitting 17-year-olds, 15-year-olds. I am. I actually I carry in my car what I call it a correctional behavioral stick, and it's uh the same thing Queeks carry that becomes a baton, and it it will correct behavior very quickly if you get a little too close. It's like an optimal behavioral stick. It helps you optimize your behavior around me and others. Um, it's very good for homeless people who get a little too aggressive at the gas station, ask for money, then call you a racist, and that may or may not happen. But I did wasn't a racist, I just said no, I don't have any money. And he's like, he anyway. You got out the behavior stick. Uh it was about to come out. Um, I was like, maybe you should back up away from this car before I lose patience. That's all I say to be. And I'll small. I'm a six to you know, 230-pound guy. Yeah, it was big. He he said some words as he backed up. I'm like, good job. Thank you. Um I know he wasn't armed, he couldn't afford it, no way. Anyway, uh sorry. I I have a morbid fear of being killed at a gas station. I don't know why. I haven't done no grounds.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

I think like I think everyone has a fear of like, because again, there's so much, like, I feel like gas stations are so sketchy in certain areas. Everyone uses that free trips.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

I go to quick trips. There's always cops at quick trips. There's substance, always.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Just need to. Guys, you'll only see Thomas at quick trips, so don't try going anywhere else.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

It is I'm a quick trip, maybe a racetrack, because they are also pretty good, but there's some racetracks get a little more Yahoo. We have gotten off talk to me. I find success uh filling my tank of gas up every week and being like, I can afford this. That's that's the basis for success.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

I mean, it's come, yeah. I I I wait I I wake up in the morning and like, wow, I have heat, right? Again, that's success, right? People, some people don't have heat.

Mindset, Hard Work, Atomic Habits, Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Being what's the one thing, what's the one thing you learned from being one year in India as a 14-year-old, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah, I was 14. I was by myself, by the way. I guess I guess I learned I guess I learned to at the like I the one thing I really like I want to like focus on, guys. Listen up, is no one cares except yourself. Like no one's gonna save you. Like you're it's your life, everyone else has their own stuff going on. At the end of the day, no one really cares except you. So if you're in a problem, if you're in a situation, the only way you can the only person that can get you out of it is yourself. Because again, that's that's the only person that you really have to rely on. Because I think I think mindset's a big thing, right? I believe genuinely 90% is all mindset. 90% if you really set your mind to do something in this world, I think we have a little bit of luck as well, but I think the chance of it becoming true if you really, really want it. So again, I think the biggest thing I learned is look, it's my life. If I want to change it, I have to do it. No one's gonna work hard for me, no one's gonna make a comp, no one's gonna get you into an there's nothing upset, no one cares. Everyone else, you like people have this like sense of I guess comfortableness, but the realist, the reality is you have to get out of your comfort zone. You have to do it all by yourself because again, no one's gonna help you in tough times upset yourself. And people realize that when they go into financial times, health crises, mental health, family problems. Again, the only real like at the end of the day, I I'm not saying have don't have family members, don't have a support system, a belief system. I'm saying you have to trust in your own ability and use your own work ethic to solve problems, to solve issues. And I think that's the biggest thing I took away.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

And create opportunities. I I'll challenge you a little on it, though. I I think if you go to a small village in the middle of, you know, India, the there's a few conditions are gonna have to happen to for them to break out of that cycle. One being is they're gonna have to have some type of intellect with work ethic, and then someone helped pull them out to give them the opportunity. Now, that might be like just get to school and manage it from there, but there's sometimes there's somebody that's gotta say, hey, there's more to this, and you're one of the few that are gonna get out. Because not everyone's going to. Uh, and so I think things like you did, volunteering, giving someone a uh an out uh a vision that I could always contact, you know, Ishawn and I think he'd help me if I I really do is how do I do this? That's helping yourself by asking, right? Um so it takes some people to come back to give someone the vision that they didn't know that they needed and what's possible. And I think at the same time, you still have to do the work to go chase it and not be afraid to ask. And and so yeah. I think it's somewhere in there, but like some some in the US, you can do you can get off your ass and go get some stuff done. You have plenty of opportunity you're already starting at 1%, right? You started there are third rate.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

The best country in the world. Like, if you're in America, there shouldn't be an expect there's you're in the best country in the world.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Like you can get it done.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Um, your own intellect and lack of preparedness will hold you back. Honestly, like I I agree to disagree with you, right? Because I honestly believe talent outworks or hard work outworks talent when talent isn't talenting. If people don't use their given talent, hard work will outwork it. And that's what we really promote. Like, some of not all of my clients have a 200 IQ. Some of them, they they admit they're below average intelligence, but still, it doesn't matter. They get stuff done, right? Because again, when you have a genuine passion and you have a work ethic to do something, a lot of times, like for example, there's a lot of rich people are not that smart, and there's a lot of smart people that are not that rich, right? Intellect-wise, right? It's actually often the case, to be fair. Often, yeah. You would, you would, you would, you would really like it's really hard to hear. See, by C students are always the richest, because I had to be. So many billionaires and millionaires that have the IQ of like 105. You know what I mean? Like they're not they're not solving cancer, but still, you know what I mean? Look at them, right? They're successful.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

So I think, yeah, that's I have one of the richest guys I ever met, and I'm pretty sure he's a billionaire, but i i I I don't I don't see his bank accounts to prove it. But I asked him, what do you do? And he goes, Well, I buy paper and then I fold it and I sell it to people. He owns a box company. And I go, Oh, that's it's so how'd you build build the business? Well, I bought it for like one price, and then I sold it for more. And then I went out and find found more people who buy it for that price. Later on, I figured out how to get it cheaper and make it faster. But then I could still sell it for that price, so I made a lot more that way. He's like, I I that's what I do. I got paper and I fold it. And he wasn't like being another guy was like, oh, I take wood and I just build the things that all those boxes sit on. Pallettes. And then when they're done, they can send them back or I buy them, or they or we throw them up. And he was like, it's that's that's what I do. I just I I buy things that for boxes to sit on. It's unbelievable. It was like the simplest thing, it's like not overcomplicated. No, I don't really do marketing, just call we we meet people. It's it was like, what? So intellect sometimes overthink things and just don't get stuff done. So go out. I I think the thing I heard uh I said one time was like, go don't raise money, go raise, you know, raise hell, go ring a cash register and go repeat it. You know, so anyway, I like Alex Ramosy. Buy something for this much, sell it for that much, and do it all much.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

I mean, I think it's really simple. Like, I think people overcomplicate what you need to do to be successful, right? Why?

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Why do you think it's overthinking an excuse by putting so much stuff in so they don't have to execute or fail? They get themselves busy as opposed to getting themselves effective. That's that's why.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Yeah, I honestly believe that it's just like in this in for example, especially people in America, because again, everyone's different. All the people in America, I feel like it they like do it to themselves, right? Like they have this self-like esteem that oh, I'm not smart as him, I'm not as wealthy as him, I can't do this, blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean? I feel like you put your own self at a disadvantage when really you gotta execute, right? Fail, attempt, keep on trying and keep on failing. And people are scared of failure, Thomas. I think that's a big thing. People are scared to fail right now. Like, for example, a lot of the clients up with, they're they're so scared of this idea of failing that they have they've grown so much attachment to it that once it does fail, because again, some things do fail, they they give up, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:46

They they just actually don't look at this failure. These are lessons that you learn from. So as an athlete, right? I I was I only learned when I lost. I rarely learned anything when I won a game because it's just like kind of you know it just ego boost to you. It's just well it's it's an ego boost, but also you don't learn why did I get beat? What do I need to go work on? And that's that's a learning. And in and I think if you're not feeling you're not taking enough risk, too. So you're not pushing it far enough. And uh if you find something that works, don't overcomplicate it. So like I think this is a mentoring thing. And I actually believe young younger people like your age, you still have enough tie back to the creative mind of a child. Like you can still have like you can still laugh and be stupid about things that like no one understands what you're talking about. That leaves when you get older uh because of whatever life is. But that's the time where you can just you can associate things completely differently and come up with ideas that are insane and go for it because it solves some problem that you see that no one else does. That's the one you don't know. That's the mentoring need, is that's a crazy good idea because someone was like, Oh, that's really brilliant. They just see it as like, oh, I just want to, you know, be able to throw a ping pong follower. I don't know. You're like, yeah, but that applies like if you did this and solve that, that would do anyway. Uh too many words, but that that's the point is I think you're enabling the right group. Um, just conscious of time. Listen, I want you to tell who tell the audience who who should get a hold of. Where should they go do that?

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Again, Fandora Consult.com. That's a great place, or even my LinkedIn, or even, you know, I even I even tend to reach out to people directly. Literally just email me or even my number. I try to text everyone back, right? Again, because I my approach is right, I'll deal with you directly. And like I won't just send you to one of my consultants and have you deal with them. You can come to read directly. Let's talk about your I'm a I'm a hands-on type of person, right? I like to interact with my clients directly and then guide them. I don't just want to, oh, let me just send you to him and he'll figure it out, right? I like I like to individually get to know each one of my clients and assess their skills, their strengths, what they need, and then move on from there, right? So, yeah, any of those works because again, I'm really I'm very inner. I mean, I'm a friendly person, I think. So I'm not scary.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Yeah, but you're definitely a friendly person. Um listen, hey, I appreciate you so coming on. Give me the one address though. If they had to pick one of them, where's the one place you want them to get?

SPEAKER_00 37:00

What's like maybe my LinkedIn, probably. Maybe my LinkedIn's probably the best, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:05

LinkedIn. All right, hit him on LinkedIn DM Eshan Patel. Like, you cannot make this an easier name for India. Yeah, I know, right? It's like my feet. This is like Tom Jones of India. Like, that's the Eshan Patel. Um, it thank you so much for coming on, Zay Man. You rock. This is right. I'm gonna have you back on. This is gonna be a you're gonna come on many times. So I'm gonna hear your progression, your success. Um, leave me with this last piece, right? Okay. If there was a question, I should ask you today, and I didn't. What was that question?

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Honestly, I think I think a good question is what book do you recommend? And I I would go with I, as you said before, small habits. Small uh I think Atomic Habits is one of the best books I've read in my life. Just smarting off people don't think just small, subtle changes in your life actually creates such a big difference that you have no idea how. Like just making little efforts, waking up a little early, going to the gym, uh spending time with your brothers, your siblings, your girlfriend, whatever, just working a little out, working a little more, staying a little late. You know what I mean? Just subtle, little productive changes honestly make the biggest impact in your health, your wealth, your friendships, your everything. It's just all connected. And I think that honestly ties back to success, right? Making small, subtle improvement changes in your life that eventually that that's the key point to success.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

So I I I'm gonna I'm gonna do the uh improv, yes, and so this is how the math works to some degree. And you can go put in GPT people if you if you want to figure it out. But if you get 1% better every day, you're over 37 times better than you were at the end of the year. And you'll see this specifically when people come out of high school to go to college, those who stop improving in all aspects of life at 1% or whatever, you see them five years ago, they're there, there's a giant margin for two people who are generally the same education, background, and smartness, but something happened, right? It's that. Because the reverse side of that is if you get 1% worse, that becomes like a multiplier of like hundreds of pounds. Yeah, it's it's like the other way. You're like, oh wow, I'm at 3% of what I was, and that other person's 37 times. So now you have this. That's what happens over time. And no one gets worse or better every day at 1%, typically. So it's it's not as noticeable. But over a three, five, four to your peers, you will see it. And that is exactly what happens. So if you can consciously say, listen, I can I am so tired today, I don't want to go to the gym. I'm gonna go and just do the my 100% is like at 30% capacity, but you still show up, it's a non-zero day. And if you say, listen, I'm gonna be kind to this person that I've normally been really not with, that's a that's a win. That's those things compound without you noticing it until you do. So you're spot on with it. I love atomic habits, great stuff. Thank you for coming on today. You rock. Thanks for listening. If you guys this is your first time here, I hope it's the first of many. Get out there, go own your success, cut the title, whatever's holding you back, is once you start moving towards that success, that uh that things holding you back will present themselves and you're gonna you know get rid of it. So thanks for listening. Thank you guys.