Bob Parsons ON: How to Be Present & Not Fear the Future

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1:21Trust me. Discover more at chase.com forward slash sapphire reserve. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA Member FDIC Subject to credit approval, terms apply Amazon has everything for everyone on your list Like my wife Radhi, who somehow nails every holiday photo While I look like I got caught mid-sneeze I'm getting something new to wear in our holiday photos But here's the thing Even if you wait until the very last minute Amazon has you covered Fitness, toys, home, decor, electronics, even fashion delivered fast enough to skip the parking lot panic and still show up with gifts that feel thoughtful.

2:05Shop gifts for everyone. Amazon, everything for everyone on your list. Worry belongs to tomorrow. Regret belongs to yesterday. Happiness is here and now. I learned during the war how to think. I learned to quantify the worst thing and quite often the worst thing, but it's not so bad. The best-selling author and host. The number one health and wellness podcast. On Purpose with Jay Shetty. Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every one of you that come back every week to listen, learn and grow. And I'm so excited to be talking to you today.

2:43I can't believe it. My new book, Eight Rules of Love is out and I cannot wait to share it with you. I am so, so excited for you to read this book, for you to listen to this book. I read the audio book. If you haven't got it already, make sure you go to 8rulesoflove.com. It's dedicated to anyone who's trying to find, keep, or let go of love. So if you've got friends that are dating, broken up, or struggling with love, make sure you grab this book. And I'd love to invite you to come and see me for my global tour, Love Rules. Go to jshedytour.com to learn more information about tickets, VIP experiences, and more.

3:25I can't wait to see you this year. Now, you know, my mission here is to introduce you to a vast array of individuals, people who've lived really unique lives, had incredible experiences, who can then share with us their guidance, their insight, their wisdom that they've gained along that path. And today's guest is Bob Parsons. Best known for being the founder of GoDaddy, Bob sold a majority stake in 2011 in a deal that valued the company at$2.3 billion. Currently, Bob is the CEO and founder of Yam Worldwide, which is home to his entrepreneurial ventures in the fields of motorcycles, golf, real estate, finance, marketing, innovation, and philanthropy.

4:10Yam Worldwide includes companies such as PXG and Scottsdale National Golf Club. Bob is also a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, which we'll dive into his story today. And Bob is also widely recognized for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic efforts. Please welcome to the show, Bob Parsons. Bob, it is great to have you here. Real pleasure to be here, Jay, I got to tell you. Yeah. And I remember meeting you and it was at your beautiful facility at PXG in Scottsdale. And it was a really fine evening. It was myself. You were there having dinner. I was traveling with Will Smith at the time. Nick Jonas was there.

4:48We all kind of just bumped into each other over dinner. And I remember just how gracious you were, how kind you were, what a beautiful interaction we all had that evening. It's a really special place. I remember meeting you guys and, you know, and Will and Nick are two of my absolute favorite people. And I knew a little bit about you. And, you know, just to meet you is just you're an easy guy to be around, Jay. Well, thank you. That's very kind of you. And I was just saying to your team outside that that was the first time I'd ever actually played golf. So I don't play, but that was the first time I'd ever played golf.

5:24I had one of your coaches that was working with me for a couple of days. I came back to LA and I started looking for a coach because I got really into it that weekend Will got me a really nice set of clubs from the from the course too that were fitted for me and made for me and I couldn't find a coach as good as the ones you had at PXT so now I need to come back more often to get some lessons well we're there thank you well Bob I want to dive straight in to your journey and to really dive into your work that you're doing today. And I think I was really blown away to hear about your time as a Marine.

5:59And I'd like to start there. Well, you know, when I enlisted in the Marine Corps, I did so mostly because I had two friends of mine ask me to join them. We were in our senior year of high school, and they were going to visit with the Marine Corps recruiter and asked me if I'd go along with them. And I did. You know, as we spent time with the Marine Corps recruiter, he eventually had us in the palm of his hands. I mean, this was during the height of the Vietnam War in 1968. I lasted one month. And walking through a village at night, I was on the point team. And the point man, he stepped over a tripwire, missed it, and I hit it.

6:44And that thing blew and I got shrapnel on both my legs and my left elbow and I was medevaced out. I left on a stretcher. So, you know, the thoughts that I took back from that is I think I learned to think one day at a time. And I looked to quantify the worst thing that could possibly happen. That's got me through a number of businesses. I built three businesses now, and I'm working on the third all from scratch. And, you know, when you do a startup, a startup, you have a lot of good days and a lot of bad days. And sometimes, you know, the good days are euphoric and the bad days look like Armageddon.

7:29So, you know, how you think really matters. And I learned during the war how to think. I learned to quantify the worst thing. And quite often the worst thing, when you sit down and you quantify, it's not so bad. But if you look at the worst thing as this big dark room full of bad things that could happen, then it looks like far worse than it actually is. And then it becomes debilitating. Yeah, I mean, that's such a powerful reflection hearing that from you based on the experiences that you went through. Often we hear that idea, but sitting with you here today, listening to in person, I can feel just how real that idea is for you.

8:13I love what you said about facing one day at a time. I think a lot of our anxiety, a lot of our pain, a lot of our stress is based on what could happen in 12 months. or what happened 12 months ago. And what you're saying is, well, actually, when you take one day at a time, that feels manageable and solvable, even in such extreme situations. Well, you know, one day at a time is something you can do something about, right? Because it's there, you know, to be worried about a year from now. There's not much you can do until it's a year from now. And then it becomes one day at a time. I often thought that worry belongs to tomorrow, regret belongs to yesterday, happiness is here and now.

9:03That's so powerful. Wow. And then when you came back and you come back and you're experiencing depression, you're experiencing, of course, all the stress, the trauma that comes from living in that way for a month. I mean, how did your parents react to that before we get on to how you reacted to it? I mean, how did your parents feel? I grew up in a different kind of house. I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood in East Baltimore, and mom and dad were both compulsive gamblers, and they weren't very good at it. Now, I wouldn't trade my mom and dad for any two on the planet. I loved them to pieces, but they didn't pay a lot of attention to me, and I wasn't actually home that much, so they never noticed.

9:47They never noticed. And a lot of it, which a lot of veterans, I just kept to myself. You know, my symptoms were, and as I was home, they got worse and they got worse and they got worse. And when I say that, I mean over 49 years. The symptoms with me was I didn't want to go places. I didn't want to be with groups, you know. No matter who the group was, I never felt like I belonged because I'd be there and I'd have just this picture of the stuff that we did. I mean, and it just never leaves you. And of course, nobody else is dealing with that kind of stuff. So you definitely are different, right?

10:27So that's one of the things. A quick temper is another thing. People would describe me as being one of the most intense people they've ever met. Now, the crying, when I got into that, it was always by myself. Nobody would be around. But there was good things too. And the good things were when I went to college, when I came back, I worked as a laborer in a steel mill, Bethlehem Steel. And I did that for a year. And then the University of Baltimore had a special deal for veterans where my high school grades didn't matter, thank goodness. I didn't have to take the entrance exams, right? And I could go on the GI Bill, which I did.

11:08I went, studied accounting. Literally, I mean, as fate would have it, it was the first major in the book. what is this? They said, you good with math? I said, yeah, as good as anything. You interested in business? Yeah. You should try accounting. And I did. And I wound up graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, magna cum laude. Wow. Congratulations. I'd have never done that without the Marine Corps. Never, ever, ever. I took the CPA exam, passed it the first time, got a job where I would travel. I mean, My life is full of just coincidences, you know, where I was working for a commercial credit leasing corp.

11:50And this is back in 1975. They send me to Redwood City to schedule the assets to this leasing company they want to buy. I finish. I have 12 hours until the flight. I wind up on Stanford campus at the bookstore because I always like to read and so forth. and I buy a book on programming in the basic language. And I read enough of that during the layover and on the flight, wrote my first programs and then got good at it. And the company that I worked for had a dumb terminal that happened to run the basic computer language. Wow. And then I taught myself Pascal and then C and then C++. Plus, and I started my first business, which was parts of technology, and I wrote all the code for that.

12:45And when I was working there, I worked 40 hours, no, 60 hours at a time. I'd come to work Monday morning, work through Tuesday morning, work through Wednesday morning, and then about eight o 'clock at night, I'd start to hallucinate after about 60 hours. I'd hear stuff that wasn't there, maybe see something move that I know didn't. And I'd go back, go to sleep, come back, you know, after eight hours and a shower and a little workout, do it again. And that's how that company got off the ground. I put$40 ,000 into that company and I sold it to Intuit for 64 million. That was my first business. Wow.

13:32Yeah. You know, most people like just reintegrating into society, like just kind of surviving seems to be a natural challenge because of the extreme events that people go through. How did you navigate that when you were talking about some of the challenges you had when you came back? Like, how did you even just start finding your way again? Because it can be so disassociating. It can be so disconnected. Well, you know, using that term, disassociating, there was a time when I'd seen a psychiatrist for a good while, and she told me one of the things that has helped me get through the war and also helped me in business, she says, you have a remarkable ability to disassociate.

14:21And where I developed that, I don't know. One of the blessings that I have is I don't worry about anything at all. I just don't worry. And that has been one of the things that, to me, has helped bring out the joy in my life, you know, what joy there was. I mean, that's beautiful to hear. That's what an incredible gift to have, to not worry. That's very special. When you started learning and teaching yourself these coding languages and you started building this company, what was your level of business experience at the time or technology experience at the time? And how did you even figure out what you wanted to build?

15:05I think there's so many people today. I just, I literally was just at the Tech University in Monterrey, Mexico. 50 % of the people from that university go on to become entrepreneurs. And so it's a really phenomenal institution. But one of the biggest questions I saw that young people have is, Jay how do I know if I'm doing the right thing or I don't know what I'm building or what should I focus on I feel like now there's so much choice that people feel paralyzed by the amount of options they have. Radhi you know how much we value mindful living and personal growth but finding the perfect gift that reflects that can be tough.

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18:17I had a degree in accountancy, so I understood the record keeping of business. I started a little business, which was more of a bookkeeping business than anything, where I'd work with these small businesses. Some were taverns, one was a flower shop. One of my favorites was pest control, Phil's pest control. The guy's name was Fat Willie. I learned a lot from him, the way he would keep track of things. And it got to the point where over a few years, I could start doing the records of a business, and I could tell you if they'd succeed or not. And anyhow, using those little things that I learned there, you know, that's what I did when I launched my business.

19:08And then plus I learned. You know, I learned, like, for example, I read during the Civil War, right? During the Civil War in the Union, there was General McClellan who really trained and organized the Union Army. But he could not move them into battle, just couldn't do it, right? And then so Lincoln fired him and put Grant there. and Grant didn't care how they were organized. The enemy's over there. Go there, right? That's what he did. And actually, the right way is a mix of the two, right? So I learned that from them. I learned from John D. Rockefeller that the guy who knows the most about his business, he kept exceptional records.

19:51They were all manual, but he knew everything about his business at a time when very few people did. the guy who knows the most about his business quite often is the guy that wins because, as you know, knowledge truly is power and especially specific and pertinent knowledge. So, I mean, I learned from people in history, right? And then beyond that, I just powered through. Yeah, I love those examples. I think what I love about them is I often say to people that you can be mentored by people you've never met. When we study history, when we look at patterns, when we look at connections and start connecting the dots between events that have happened before us, you can actually garner so much wisdom and so much insight, even if you never asked Rockefeller the question yourself.

20:43Exactly. I mean, you know, and somebody got, Julius Caesar's another one. You know what he was able to do in Gaul and how he was able to, you know, lead his army and one time he was attacked by a vastly larger force and the battlements that he built was just brilliant, right? Nobody showed him how to do that. He figured it out. So, I mean, we have that ability as long as you believe in yourself and you give yourself a chance. If there's someone right now who's listening who's thinking about starting a business, what would be the top three things you think they should think about if they're thinking about starting something?

21:21Well, the first thing is they should do something that they love, that is fun, that is something that they're really interested in. And the reason for that, my father used to tell me, he used to say, Robert, when you love something, it tells you all its secrets. That's beautiful. And basically, if you love what you're doing, it's going to, well, you're going to work harder. and that all translates to success. And then let's see here, what would be the second? You have to not be doing it for the money. If you start a business and you're doing it just to turn a buck, I don't think you'll be successful.

22:07You got to start it to be special. And the businesses that I started, and none of them, even GoDaddy, did I do it to make money. I did it to make a difference. You know, when you work to make a difference, you know, you do things that on the surface from a business standpoint, it doesn't make sense. But when it comes to really doing something special and getting your idea across and taking care of your customers and so forth, that's what you need to do. And you will never do that if you're just doing it for a dollar. The third thing is there's two groups of people that you have to energize. The first group is your employees.

22:56And your employees, they need to believe in what you're doing. And you need to structure it so they can believe in what you're doing, that it's special. And again, if you're doing it for money, they're going to have a difficult time doing that. But if you have a higher purpose, right? People always do want to aspire to a higher purpose, I believe. So what happens is when you do that with them, it creates enthusiasm. And what do we know about enthusiasm? It's contagious. And those, the employees then fire up the customers and then the customers fire up each other. So it'd be those three things.

23:36Yeah, those are great answers. I love those three things. They're such great points. what was something that you were passionate about with GoDaddy like when you said that I fully agree with you that we should never start business to make money there has to be a greater goal with it what was that goal with GoDaddy when it started out like the part we don't see well when I started GoDaddy I had it had been after I sold Parsons Technology which was the name of my first business and I signed a non-compete with Intuit not that I couldn't compete with them I couldn't work for money. Yeah. Right. For a few years.

24:11And they held back a few million dollars. And when it was up, I just wanted to be back in action again. But I didn't know what I wanted to do. This was back when the internet was just getting going, like 97. So I named this business Joe Max Technologies. I had like$36 million. I had gotten divorced. I mean, I don't blame her. PTSD, I'm lucky. She kept me around that long. So I wanted to do something in the internet. So what I did was, I thought I would hire some pretty sharp people and we would start trying things on the internet. And when we did, if it worked, we would continue. And if it didn't, we'd move on.

25:02And so I named it Jomax Technologies after a dirt road that I drove by on the way to work. I mean, it didn't matter. I mean, we didn't do anything. So our employees would go to chamber of commerce meetings and people would ask them, what are you doing? I go, well, we don't know. You know, he says, I've never had a business. Tell me that. And then eventually, as time went on, we decided to start doing websites for people. And these are way early, really fundamental websites. And we noticed that the website's business would generate cash, but it couldn't scale because it was just your efforts there that you were tied to.

25:48I have a rule that if you got the right business, you can make money while you're sleeping. Your business can be successful while you're sleeping. So we then wrote software that would build a website for people. They could do it themselves. We had so many requirements. And then eventually in 99 and 2000, we became a domain name registrar, renamed the company GoDaddy. And I did that at first as a joke, but it stuck. and never did we dream that we'd make our bread on domain names. And then there's a further story going back. Okay, I would keep track of how much money I had and tie that to how successful the business is doing.

26:45Now, you remember, that were the days of cash burn, right? And so I would start it, and when I first started, I said, I'm not going to worry about this business until I get down to 30 million and then 25 and then 20, 20, and then 18, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6. And, you know, we get down to$6 million. And this is about. So you never raised. It was all your own money you put into it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It was always only my own money. I've never really borrowed much from the first business. None. Wow. And GoDaddy, none, and no partners. Oh, incredible. Wow. Yeah. So I get down to$6 million. And one of the things I learned from reading about General Grant, he kept his own counsel.

27:34I kept my own counsel. So I decided to shut GoDaddy down while I still had some money. And the reason I had to is the dot-com boom was so loud that you couldn't buy advertising. I mean, people were paying$100 for a customer, and the customer might generate two bucks. Well, you're going to burn up a lot of cash that way. Yeah, absolutely. And I don't care how big your truck is, you're not going to be able to make wages. Yeah. That's what I did. So I go to Hawaii, and I went there to first pay my bills, pay my employees, and sell the assets. Figured out how I'm going to do that. And then, so I'm there by myself for a week, and I started thinking about, I don't want to shut it down.

28:26I just had this feeling I just didn't want to shut it down. The epiphany for me happened when this guy is parking cars, and he comes up to me, and he goes, Hey, no, Mr. Parsons, this guy's a little older than me, throwing his keys up in the air, happy as a lark, right? I'm thinking, what's wrong with this picture? This guy has probably got nothing. and he's parking cars for a living. Look how happy and free he is. I got$6 million and I'm miserable, right? And so I decided then that I would go back and not shut the company down. And I just would ride it out. And if the company sunk, I'd go down with the ship.