290. Million Dollar Weekend with Noah Kagan and Taylor Wallace (Part 2)

The Greg McKeown Podcast

Greg McKeown

Education, Business, Self-improvement

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

About the Guests: Noah Kagan is an accomplished entrepreneur, the founder, and CEO of AppSumo, a company aimed at enabling entrepreneurs by providing them with tools and resources to grow their businesses. He's a recognized leader in the field, renowned for his innovative approach to business and entrepreneurship. Noah is the author of the book "Million Dollar Weekend," where he shares insights on launching a successful business promptly. Taylor Wallace is an employee at AppSumo who brings a unique perspective to the entrepreneurial landscape. Rather than helming his own venture, he thrives within the structure of an established company, contributing his expertise and enjoying the security and dynamics that come with being part of a team. Episode Summary: In this "Restate Debate", we unpack the intricate dynamics between entrepreneurship and employment with guests Noah Kagan and Taylor Wallace. The dialogue delves into the compelling narrative of Noah's book "Million Dollar Weekend," an exploration of the initial steps to creating a thriving business and the exhilarating potential of a founding weekend. However, the conversation takes a fascinating twist, questioning not only how to launch a successful business but also the less-often considered – should you? In a candid and introspective exchange, Noah and Taylor navigate the dichotomies of their experiences within the workforce. They engage in a dialogue format that emphasizes empathy and understanding by having participants articulate each other's viewpoints before defending their own. With Noah advocating for the nuanced benefits of entrepreneurship and Taylor reflecting on the stability and growth opportunities found in employment, the discussion illuminates a spectrum of work and business ideologies. Key Takeaways: Starting a business carries unique creative gratification in manifesting an idea into existence and impacting lives. The stability, structure, and outlined expectations in an employee role can be as satisfying as the control and flexibility entrepreneurship affords. Personal seasons of life, risk tolerance, and lifestyle preferences play critical roles in one's choice between entrepreneurship and employment. Restate debates can foster deeper understanding and empathy by challenging individuals to fully comprehend and articulate opposing viewpoints. Entrepreneurship and employment are not binary options but rather points on a continuum of professional fulfillment and personal life choices. Notable Quotes: "The hardest part about starting a business is doing the work and starting." - Taylor "I like the structure of being an employee... They only owe me mentally till 05:00 p.m." - Noah "If you offered me Noah's salary, I would say yes. But if you offered me Noah's job, I would say no, thank you." - Taylor Resources: "Million Dollar Weekend" book by Noah Kagan AppSumo.com - Noah Kagan's platform for entrepreneurs Join my weekly newsletter. Learn more about my books and courses. Join The Essentialism Academy. Follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:21.6	Welcome back everybody. This is part two of a conversation with Noah Kogan and also with Taylor Wallace. We have in part one unpacked at least to some degree this new marvelous book Million Weekend, which is all about the first step, the first way of
0:29.8	working on launching a successful business, let's say a million dollar business.
0:35.0	What would you do in that first weekend, either literally in a first weekend or metaphorically
0:38.8	in a first weekend, where do you begin?
0:41.6	It's a great book, but it raises raises a question and that's what we're
0:44.3	going to wrestle with now which is should you do it? So many people are working in
0:49.8	jobs and they say they want to start their own business and don't.
0:53.0	And then there's so many people that have started businesses and find themselves going,
0:56.5	well, maybe that was worth it and maybe it wasn't.
0:59.0	And some that say, well, I'd never go back.
1:01.0	But it's so easy wherever you are on this side of the fence to be able to only
1:08.1	see the upsides of your own position.
1:11.2	I'm reminded now of Seinfeld who said when I'm talking with he said when I was
1:16.0	single I looked at my married friends with children and thought you're crazy. I mean look
1:21.6	at what you've given up. Look at all of the independence and the ability to do what you want to do in the world and
1:27.0	Then when I was married I looked at my single friends and I thought oh, but your life is so pointless and it's just lost meaning and you look at all of this
1:36.0	substance in my life he said I think I was right both times yeah that's sort of
1:42.2	of his conclusion to his own contradiction. And that's a little bit like this. So we're going to do something different.
1:49.0	Noah who has just written this book, advocating to you, who is listening or watching this right now
1:55.0	advocating to you that you should take a weekend and design your
1:59.6	million dollar business that you should take the leap outside of the corporate experience, create
2:05.9	your own financial destiny, all of that, but I'm going to switch it completely. So now
	...

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