Lucy Guo: The Fastest Way to Build a Business Today (The #1 Strategy That Saves You Months of Wasted Work)

19:48Jay Shetty:What's the difference between a good risk and a bad risk? I mean, I think it's all a function of like, what are the consequences, right? I generally believe that a lot of products could not have been created without taking risks. So for example, I think Uber obviously didn't really listen to anyone and they became so big that now it just exists. I was actually talking to Stripe founders and I don't remember what rule they broke, but even Stripe apparently broke some rules and then they just became too big to fail and like they just had to make it work. So yeah, it's a function of just consequences.

20:27Jay Shetty:But how do you evaluate that when you don't know? Because I guess we all start thinking, oh God, if I do this, then the opportunity cost is this, or this is the risk level. I generally evaluate just based on like two criteria, which is like, is this going to be life-changing for me? And am I optimizing for learning? Because if I'm not optimizing for learning, I'm just not going to do it. Because I think that the knowledge I gain doing the next thing, even if I lost a few million at Snap, for example. I was going to learn enough being a founder that I can take those skill sets and either go get a new job that pays me better and I'll be more successful in my role or build another company.

21:03And then the life-changing money thing was also just kind of that where I was like, okay, this doesn't necessarily change my life, so it's not worth my time.

21:10Jay Shetty:There's something that we can all use in pretty much any decision. Always optimize for learning. That's such a big one because it's almost like we want to optimize for success, but you're saying optimize for learning and that will lead to success. Yeah, like everyone always complains like, oh, it's such a big risk to like, you know, quit college or it's such a big risk to like quit this job to build a company. But it's not like you are losing your knowledge and skill sets, right? If anything, you come out the other side and you have more skill sets. Like, yeah, you might have given up, let's call it like a$10 million a year job, but guess what?

21:41You'll probably get a$20 million a year job. And I also think that people underestimate how much people want talent, which obviously we saw with Meta, right? Paying nine figures for AI employees. I think that even if your company fails, if you hire talented people and you yourself are talented, there will be someone that will buy your company for more than your investors invested in a valuation because they know you want to make your investors whole and they know that you want money. And for the talent, they'll overpay.

22:12Jay Shetty:I keep thinking about my life and it was much smaller than that. Like I said, the amount I was making, but making a pivot, companies were so good at making you feel like, no, but you built a network here. You should stay here. Like there's such a culture of making you feel like you're going to fail if you move on. And I think people believe that people buy into that. How do we break out of buying into the fact that we actually think if we lose a$100 ,000 a year job, then we're going to end up with a$70 ,000 a year job. We don't think we're going to be able to triple it or quadruple it. Yeah, I mean, I think that is just, again, your network is your net worth and you are the average of the people that you hang around with.

22:52So I was really lucky to hang out with founders that have done it before. So I knew like how it actually went. I was lucky enough to hang out with investors who, you know, they would give exploding term sheets, but they would also tell me, oh, exploding term sheets aren't a thing. Like if the founder came back, we would just give them the term sheet again. People's fear is overcoming their logic. Yeah. Yeah. Because logically, it's like, why would I not be able to get this job back? Like if I was valuable to the company, they're going to want me again. And let's say for whatever reason, the role is filled.

23:23I mean, companies find roles for people all the time when they think the person is a Swiss army knife and like smart and will be able to help the company. They'll like make a role for that person. Right. But also there's so many companies out there that will hire you based off of the fact that like you did a great job at like company A, like company B is going to want you and company B will fight for you and like understand that now you have more knowledge and more skill sets. So they'll pay you more. This is really people's fear overriding their logic.

23:51Jay Shetty:Everyone says find your passion. What's your take? I think you should do what you're best at to have the highest impact on your passion. So for example, like I really like nonprofits and supporting charities. But at one point in time, I thought like I'm going to start my own nonprofit and charity and foundation. And, you know, that might still happen. But I also realized like at this age, in this state of my life, I'm really good at making money. So my time is probably best spent making money and in donating to causes I care about and being run by people that actually know how to run an organization or a foundation.

24:24I don't know how to run a charity. And like I had actually looked into this where I was like, I'm going to start a foundation. I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. And I realized how much work it is, right? And like how it's like quite literally another full-time job. Like maybe when I'm older, I'll like learn all those skill sets and I'll decide like my time is best spent doing that as my passion. But I think optimize for fun. Fun doesn't necessarily need to be your passion, but like optimize for like how you can make an impact in whatever you're passionate about.

24:51Jay Shetty:But that feels hard, right? Because people are like, for example, when I was growing up, I was passionate about soccer. What do I do with that? Because I can't be a soccer player because I'm not good enough. So then what do I do? But you can make enough money to buy a soccer team. And then you can have a soccer game and have so much fun. Right. So you're saying that it doesn't have to be your career, but you may go build a career doing something else, but then use the fruits of that labor to then be closer to your passion. Exactly. Because if you're able to experience your passion, that's what's going to make you happy, right?

25:19Like it doesn't have to be your full-time job. Well, I guess now music is my career-ish, my side quest, but I just used everything that I had succeeded in and like, you know, the money I had created to go experience music and like live events. And that made me extremely happy. I use like what I've been able to create that helps support causes that I care about, which has made me extremely happy. I don't think that needs to be your full-time career. And like for most people, it's not going to be their full-time career because like in certain fields like even no matter how talented you are some of it is just luck right like I'll never really understand the music industry or the acting industry because I have so many talented friends in it and it just for whatever reason they're not making it and I really do think it's because there's other factors like network luck etc in

26:03Jay Shetty:that yeah but I like what you're saying that people often say pursue your passion or make it your work but actually what you're saying is just go work do the thing and then connect to your passion. And that feels much more realistic for most people. Like I think for the majority of people, there are very few people who can do what they love and it makes money, but actually being free to the idea that you can do something, not hopefully that you don't hate, hopefully that you don't hate, but you do something and that something gets you to be able to be closer to all of these things that you love, which I think is a, is a much more genuine, authentic path for most people.

26:40Jay Shetty:like people can aspire to live that way exactly and like you said now you're closer to music charities what were you passionate about like if you could have done something like for me i could i would have been a soccer player if i could have like if i was good enough what would you have done if you could have well it's changed over the years so when i was younger i want to be a singer but i realized i'm basically tone deaf and i can't sing for my life so that was out the window and then i remember when i was like you know choosing colleges etc i was like it would be really cool to like be an FBI Asian, like fight the bad guys.

27:09But then that's unrealistic because I like this tiny woman and, you know, maybe I can learn, you know, some skills, but like overall, let's call it unrealistic. Right. And I got really passionate about music. And I finally learned I can actually DJ. You don't need to be able to sing or play the instruments, et cetera, to be able to DJ. So it's been like a very cool thing that I've been able to do.

27:32Jay Shetty:How do you at this stage in your career, how do you separate self-worth from net worth? This is really interesting. So I was not a confident person until I went to Miami. And when I went to Miami, I just became friends with all these people because they just like my energy, right? Like I would just see standing in an elevator and people would come in and be like, well, I felt your energy from far away, blah, blah, blah. It was the first time in my life where like I met people that were just like Mikasa Tsukasa with no questions. There's no agenda. And I think in the past, like in LA, San Francisco, New York, there's always like some sort of agenda.

28:03People were like, they want to know who I was. It's like, oh, you're a teal fellow. Let me be friends with you. Or you're a founder. Oh, you have fun. Miami was the first time in my life where no one asked what I did and they just wanted to vibe with me because I gave off good energy. So I became extremely happy there. And I think my self-worth is based off of that, where I have a close relationship with my family again. I'm close with my friends. And every time I meet someone like that's a stranger, that has no idea who I am. They're just like, wow, your energy is so vivy. Let's dance. And that makes me happy.

28:35It shows people like me for me versus my net worth. Versus I don't think I had that purity before I had experienced it in Miami.

28:46Jay Shetty:Entrepreneurially and professionally, what's something that you thought would go your way but turned into a rejection or a failure? Honestly, I'm not someone that sits and weeps. I've never really sat and felt sad. so unless you know like a close friend is hurt like I hear bad news from a close friend but like for myself whenever I face rejection I'm like okay cool on to the next so I've never like felt extremely hurt one of the more like sad ones might have just been when I was so close to like my top VC choice like I was like I'm a hundred percent gonna get a term sheet like they're whining and dining me they just flew out to meet me and then it was just like out of nowhere it was a no right and i was like what in the world happened yeah i was just like i felt a little bit led on but also like i didn't really sit and feel bad about it i was like okay cool on to the next let's find a new lead do you think that mindset's integral and important at that level like i think being an extremely positive person that's constantly optimistic is what has gotten me to where i am today i think the worst thing you can do is think like oh like the world is unfair um why did this happened to me.

29:58Stop thinking that way. Like everyone is born with advantages and disadvantages. You kind of just have to take what you have and go forwards. And if you face rejection, just learn from it and immediately like go and fix.

30:12Jay Shetty:That mindset obviously worked for you. You've made so much money. You've become such a success story. What problems did money take away and what problems stayed or got worse? When I first started out before I had any money, I was like couch surfing all the time. But I didn't have anything to pair with. I actually love couch surfing. It was fun. You get to meet a lot of people. I found couches extremely comfy. It was to the point where I had an apartment, I had a bed, and I would sleep on the couch. So that was nothing but any stresses of money went away, right? But I also think that what it can cause is you become a little bit too comfortable, which isn't great.

30:50Jay Shetty:You've been in so many rooms now with so many successful people, incredible entrepreneurs, people that you've worked with early days at Snap. What do you think is the most surprising thing you've noticed about the people at the top? Something that we'd be surprised or shocked to know. I think the people at the top are actually not the smartest people in the world at all. I think that they lack frameworks and because they lack frameworks, they don't understand a concept of like how the world works, which is actually very good because startups are built when you break frameworks because you innovate, right?

31:23Which is why when you take someone in an industry that's been in industry for decades and hire them in, oftentimes they don't innovate because they're like, things have to be done this way because things have always been done this way. And again, Airbnb, Uber, great examples of this. They weren't transport experts. They weren't real estate experts. So they didn't have a framework of how things are supposed to be. I think the people at the top completely lack frameworks because they didn't have decades of experience. And because of that, they were able to innovate, but also they tell their employees.

31:53Like their employees might be like, that's impossible. And they're like, I don't care. And their employees might be PhDs. And they're like, no, literally, I've been doing this for 20 years. I have multiple PhDs. This is impossible. And they'll just like, no, it's not. Go do it. And they will say things like, okay, whoever does it gets this like giant bonus. Whoever does this gets promoted, et cetera. And when people see that prize, that's when people like really force themselves to break the framework that they know because they're so desperate to like get that thing that was offered to them. I would say like, when you look at the people at the top, they're not the most educated really.

32:27I think that in general, they have high EQ. Some of them don't have high EQ, but they forced the impossible to be possible.

32:33Jay Shetty:You're reminding me of that great conversation between Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. It's as Steve Wozniak goes up to Steve Jobs and he goes, what do you even do? You're not a coder, you're not a marketer, you're not a salesperson, and you're not an engineer, what do you even do? And Steve Jobs replies, he says, musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra. And it's such a powerful statement because he doesn't know how to do all the bits and bobs. He just, he's like, all I know how to do is put it all together and get it to all work in harmony. But I don't really know everything. And I think people, when they're on their journey, they feel like I'm not smart enough.

33:09Jay Shetty:I don't know enough. I should be more experienced. So what's that balance then with you know nothing about an industry, which is a not having a framework is a positive thing. But then what is different about that entrepreneur that you don't know anything about the industry? You break all the rules. That's what makes you successful. I think it's also being visionary. Like, I think Steve Jobs is actually a great example of this, where he told his team, like, I don't care if it's impossible, you're going to figure it out. Right. I think Elon Musk has told his team this, et cetera, et cetera, because they lack the frameworks to like really understand like this is impossible and it might have been impossible at the time but obviously like innovations do happen in technology and they force their employees to innovate and break those frameworks to make their vision possible but I think it's being open to the possibility of things like lacking frameworks and then just I don't want to say you like they had knowledge in like technology in general right but they might not have been an expert in like real estate, in transportation, in industrial design.

34:15But I think that you need just enough knowledge and then just enough grit, just enough persuasion to get the smartest people in the room, convince them to innovate.

34:26Jay Shetty:It's almost like having that undeniable belief that we can find a way. Exactly. And it's almost like we have to find a way. Yeah. Because I'm not going to accept anything less. Exactly. And I can literally tell you like this did happen at Apple. Obviously, this happened at SpaceX and look at like Elon now. Where does the kind of that leadership zeal or approach can often burn a lot of people as well? All leaders are extremely controversial and polarizing. Like there is no leader out there where like everyone loves, right? But I think that being polarizing makes you interesting and the people that are on your side are going to work their hardest to make you happy and like to bring that product idea that you have to life.

35:10Jay Shetty:What were the biggest challenges you had? Did you, did you have any friction when you were rising up the ranks and building your company? And like, where, where were the points that you hit difficulties? This comes down to hiring the right people. And again, like all leaders are polarizing. Um, but we were like all hands on deck. I think that every single company I've been at, it's been all hands on deck where you're not just going to be doing what your job description is. So at scale, we had like, you know, the engineers labeling data. I had my engineers talking to creators and doing customer support because I think that when you are deep in the weeds, you're going to really understand, especially like when you're working with customers, you're going to understand like what needs to be built, what bugs there are, like what's critical, what's not.

35:52So I think it's extremely important to be in the weeds, especially early stage and talk to customers and do things outside your job description. Even our investors were doing things outside their job description where they were on LinkedIn helping us find new employees to hire. They were cleaning our office for us when we didn't have time to because we were constantly on sales calls. You can imagine that that can create a very polarizing environment because people are like, I didn't get hired to do this. But the right people that you hire are going to be willing to be all hands on deck.

36:38right now in this ai world that we're living in what are three skills that humans should develop

36:45Jay Shetty:knowing that ai is gonna be able to do pretty much everything so i think the number one skill they should develop is human connection like being able to like have high eq being able to do sales et cetera, because that's never going to disappear. AI might be able to like, you know, reach out to agents, like negotiate a contract for you, write the contract for you. But how you're going to close a deal is through human connection and how you are able to even like win over deals is through human connection, right? Like so much of it, and this goes back to your network is your net worth, is that like things are emotional sales, emotional retention, like even extending a contract, for example.

37:24So I think that's definitely the number one skill in the AI world. Number two is I think develop really good taste in like whatever you are doing. Like for example, like AI is going to replace a lot of designers, but the designers with the best taste are going to be able to pick out, okay, like this is the best design that this AI has generated. So let's go with this. And then I think three, like figure out how to scale your time with AI. and if you're able to do this sooner than everyone else, like let's say you have an idea and you decide to make an app with AI or like you create these bots and like that helps you scale your time and be like 10x more efficient than everyone else and then you sell that bot to help other people in your role be 10x more efficient than everyone else.

38:05You're going to be able to create that wealth before, I don't want to say it's too late, but like I do think that AI is going to make a lot of people rich, but the people that fall behind, it's not going to be great for them.

38:15Jay Shetty:Are you a chat GPT, Claude, Perplexity? What are you using? I use different tools depending on the use case. I think anything, I want to say like consumer related, and this can be anything from like helping me think of like music ideas to researching like the best hotels out there. I use chat. And then for anything enterprise business focus, I use Claude. Nothing really beats out Claude code and Claude's new design tool is absolutely phenomenal. And what's cool is that like, you know, you could literally design something in Claude design and and import it into Cloud code, which is great. Even like little details, like Cloud is really good at designing like full-scale applications.

38:58So like UX, UI, et cetera. But if I want like a simple graphic edit that I would normally use Photoshop to do, chat's actually better at that. There's different reasons to use different tools.

39:07Jay Shetty:How has AI changed the way you're hiring for your new companies versus your old one? I actually include AI questions in every single role right now. and right now I am actually asking my entire team to give take-homes to non-technical roles. So for example, with their AE roles, so sales, it's like, I want you to figure out how to use cursor, replet, like cloud code to create a bot where it's like you take an Instagram profile and guesstimate like how much a person will earn because A, like that's extremely simple to do using AI tools. And B, I can see kind of how you think based on how you prompt it.

39:42Like what metrics are you looking at? What are you scraping on the internet, et cetera? to get this number out there. I think that every employee needs to be using AI to be a 10X employee now. So if they haven't taken the proactiveness to actually do that themselves, I want to see how quickly they can learn over a weekend. Because I do think that like some people just like, you know, haven't just haven't decided, haven't been in a role where they're like, let me learn, but it's so quick to learn. Like I think learning trajectory is everything. So if someone can learn quickly, they can easily become a 10X employee versus someone that like might have had more experience, but stagnant and resistant to learning.

40:18So I think take-home challenges are really great for this because within 48 hours, you can see like, okay, cool, like how much did you do?

40:23Jay Shetty:What job do you think looks safe today but won't exist in 10 years? I think that there are certain creative jobs that look safe today that won't exist in the future. Let's call it like being a like videographer, photographer. That is a very human job. That's not very analytical. It's very artistic, et cetera. But I actually think that most models are going to be AI generated. Like a lot of humans are going to license out their likeness. So AI is going to generate a bunch of different videos and photos. Editors might still exist, right? Like, or like the tastemakers will go in and choose the right one and edit it to be what it should have been.

41:05Certain jobs like that, like even writers, right? AI is going to get extremely good at writing, but editing will still exist.

41:14Jay Shetty:What's the biggest mistake people are making with AI right now? The biggest mistake would probably just be assuming that AI works really well. They're just assuming everything outputted is true, right? AI is really only as good as the data that you give it. So if you feed a model, the sky is red. It's going to output. The sky is red. This happens everywhere, even with engineering, right? Like if AI makes one mistake and then it continues to create more and more bugs, but you trust the AI to code for you, that's not great. Which is why right now, like if you take a great engineer and give it AI, like it becomes 100x engineer.

41:47But if you take like a mid-level or entry-level engineer and give it AI, you're just going to actually end up with a lot of tech debt because they're not fixing the problems that AI is generating. And I think this exists across the spectrum. When did you first start learning about AI? I mean, I would say probably started with scale. Scale is the picks and shovels of the AI industry, right? We weren't creating these like innovative new foundation models. We were literally labeling the data. So like we would have self-driving car companies send us lighter data, images, videos, and we had labelers around the world say like, that's a car, that's a pedestrian, that's a stop sign on the road.

42:22Like that was what we were extremely good at. And that's always going to be needed because it goes back to like your model is only as good as the data that you feed it. That was when I really started learning like how important data is because even like with generative AI, like if it generates something wrong and it thinks it's correct, like you're going to get more wrong generations. And that's not great, which is why like reinforcement learning is always going to be a thing. But yeah, like I would say like that was probably so back in 2016 was when I first started like understanding AI.

42:50Jay Shetty:You learned about AI in 2016. 50 to 60 percent of the current US population have used AI at least once. And that shows that we just feel like AI just came around two years ago. What's the thing that people like yourself are talking about right now that the world is only going to catch up with in 10 years? You were talking about AI 10 years ago and the average person was not talking about AI. They didn't even know it was coming. Yeah. I mean, 10 years is a really long time, but I think that right now what I'm thinking about constantly is what's going to happen to college students. Because like I said, AI can make someone exceptional, really, really great.

43:29But when you take someone entry level, AI does their job better. Like Claude just shut down Fable, so it's no longer accessible. But Fable is as good as a staff engineer. It's absolutely incredible. So if you're a really great engineer, holy crap, you're going to be like a thousand X engineer. And the better you are, the more useful AI is. But again, if you're like, you know, entry level and you're using it, like you're not going going to be able to utilize it in the same way and it's not great. I think in general with new technologies, new jobs are created. Like prompt engineering is a new job, right?

44:03And it's an extremely important new job. So I'm like now we have a bunch of people labeling data because that's a new job and that's a huge industry.

44:10Jay Shetty:For people who don't know, what does a prompt engineer do? They basically prompt the AI to output what you want it to output. Okay. So having somebody who's so good at writing a prompt. Yeah. So good at writing prompts that like you get the output that you want. Because everyone's just putting in these average prompts. Exactly. Yeah. My best guess is that like AI has actually democratized being able to start companies and be an entrepreneur. So I think more people are going to become entrepreneurs because before you would need to raise a ton of money, then hire engineers and a huge team and then go build the product.

44:36And now AI is building products like that for free, really, or extremely cheap. So I think ideas people are actually going to be able to execute way better than before. Like in the past, like it was like, okay, cool. Like if you're not an engineer, I don't want to invest in you. But now someone that's an ideas person can literally use AI to generate something and get traction on it and then be able to fundraise. And you can now raise significantly less money to get to metrics that you would need to get to before you can raise a series A. So because it's a lot cheaper to start companies and run companies, I do think it's going to democratize the access to being an entrepreneur.

45:13And like that is going to be a middle ground people are going to take when like, you know, students realize like, oh, shit, what do I do? Like, I can't get a job. they're going to figure out how to use AI to start their own companies.

45:23Jay Shetty:Did you always know you were going to be this successful? I always knew I was going to start companies. And the reason why is because when I was younger, I was always just figuring out how to make money and build things. I really enjoyed building things and seeing people use my products. What would you build as a kid? So I built a virtual pet site. I don't know how. I convinced a bunch of engineers, designers, artists to work for me for free. So I built a virtual pet site. I think I was in fifth grade or something. Wow. Yeah, fifth, sixth grade. Really, really young. I built like arcade game websites.

45:50I built like Twitter bots, internet marketing tools. But what was really exciting to me was just like, it could be like a really crappy website, like based off of WordPress, but I would submit it on StumblePod. And I'd be like, oh my God, there's 10 ,000 people on my website. Like I just love seeing people use my products. And then I would say like in college when I discovered hackathons, which is very early on, like my freshman year, I was like, I'm going to build a company. Because my first time seeing that there was like so much more to the world than just building internet marketing tools, I was like, wow, I can build extremely impactful companies that really change how someone lives their day-to-day life.

46:21But in terms of being successful, I think that it goes back to like, probably after I joined the Teal Fellowship, I didn't necessarily think like, oh, I'm gonna be a billionaire. But I looked around and everyone around me was raising tens of millions of dollars. They were like shooting to really change the world with their companies. And obviously like, I think valuation is a direct measure of how impactful your product and your idea has been to the world. So did I think I was going to impact the world? Like, I guess, yes. I didn't know to what scale. How does it feel to be the youngest female billionaire in the world?

46:56Jay Shetty:Like, how does that feel? I'm still the same person as I was when I was younger, right? Like, I think the difference is like when I was maybe 20 years old, I was literally skateboarding to Barry's Bootcamp. And now I have someone that drives me to Barry's Bootcamp. But you're still at Barry's Bootcamp. But I'm still at Barry's Bootcamp every single day at 6 a.m. I still wake up at 5.30 a.m. every day. I'm still in the office like until late. Like I always try to be like one of the first people in the office and one of the last people to leave. Although Brittany might have me beat here. Went to be the first, not the last to leave.

47:27Jay Shetty:What do you think you had that was different about you that made you design sites when you were in fifth grade or what did you have that people around you didn't have? I didn't have friends. Sorry, I have to say that. That was like you were feeding it to me. But no, I had extremely strict Asian parents, right? so my parents didn't really let me have sleepovers and then I wasn't allowed to do like sports etc so for me I didn't really have friends I was not cool right I was just no one wanted to be my friend and I wasn't a lot of pets either so I think it all started really with neopets I started like you know messing around with the internet and then I was like wait this is really cool I want my own version of this as for like why I wanted my own version why I love building things like I learned how to use Photoshop pretty early on.

48:11Like I was learning PHP, like how to build WordPress sites and edit them. I don't really know like why I had that desire. That was almost like innate in me, I want to say. I would have been a professional athlete if I didn't have Asian parents. I think that was really it. What sport? I was really good at swim. I had a lot of medals. I was very good at basketball. And then right now I have Olympic qualifying times on the treadmill on like a very good day. But not in the US. I'd have to like go move to Singapore and compete for Singapore where I have no competition. But I think one of those three.

48:46Jay Shetty:Wow. Still any dreams? Are we going to see an Olympic run in the future? I have Olympic friends that are very upset I'm not side questing to be an Olympian. Because they've seen me work out and they're like, you should absolutely train for the Olympics. I've been recruited actually by Olympic training groups. Really? Yeah. But no, my side quest is currently DJing. yeah i love that i don't know if you decide or plan on being a parent ever but like how do you feel about that you had strict asian parents do you agree with that did it work would you do it the same way what would you change yes i think the thing i would change is that like i wouldn't force my kids into a passion um and my parents actually didn't force me into like my passion um per se like they actually wanted me to be a pharmacist because they're like oh you can work three days a week like you'll be able to like find a good husband get married and i was like that sounds like my worst nightmare working three days a week.

49:37I would be so bored. I don't know what I would do. So clearly that didn't happen. But I think that prodigies are made and I would want to throw everything at my kids and find what they're passionate about. And I think people are generally passionate about what they're good at. So I would figure out what they're good at and what they seem to enjoy and then really accelerate their development in that one thing, whether it's math, whether it's like being an F1 tracer, because if you're able to get like a multi-year head start, you're just going to be above everyone else. Right. So I don't want to force them into passion, but once I find it, like I want to be the very best in their passion.

50:14Jay Shetty:Lucy, honestly, whenever we spend time together, I laugh a lot. I learn a lot. You're exceptionally sharp and smart. I mean, I could tell just how much you thought about the questions that you gave me answers that surprised me or ones that I've definitely not heard before. Oh, I'm glad. Thank you. We end every episode of On Purpose with a final five. These have to be answered in one sentence maximum. Okay. So, Lucy Guo, these are your final five. The first question is, what is the best advice you've ever heard or received? I mean, this is pretty simple, but I would say the best piece of advice I've ever received is just ask, because the worst thing that can happen is that you get a no.

50:48And I do this for really everything in my life still. And you have to be able to handle rejection. So be able to handle rejection and just ask.

50:56Jay Shetty:Perfect. So question number two, what is the worst advice you've ever heard or received? So I think the worst piece of advice I've ever received is that you need to hire executives with decades-long experience to have like an adult in the company. Because especially early stage, when you have an adult in the company, what they end up doing is bloating your team up. And that's not great for early stage, obviously, because you end up earning a lot more money. Yeah, it's so interesting, isn't it? Because you always go through this, like, do you need a young team? Do you have to bring an adult in?

51:24Jay Shetty:You want a young team. Yeah. Very, very impactful. trouble. You're very emphatic. Question number three, what's something that you learned at 30 that you wish you knew at 20? I think when people believe that you're wealthy, it is a lot easier to move around in this world. And I say this as someone that used to take pride in dressing in like Shein, Walmart, et cetera. I realized how much easier life gets if I just present myself nicer. It opens a lot more doors. And this goes back to like your network is your net worth, but you actually do want those doors open oftentimes. And what if people say things like, oh, but that doesn't feel authentic to me and that's not real.

52:05Jay Shetty:And what's your take when people say something like that? I think there is a way to be presentable and still feel authentic. But it also depends on like, are you down to have that trade-off, right? But I just remembered the change and how much easier life got and the connections I've been able to make since I stopped taking pride and dressing like a hobo. Yeah. And like, those are great connections. I've opened a lot of doors for me. Question number four, who are your entrepreneurial heroes? I actually really admire Whitney Wolf because we all know the story of how she was kicked out of Tinder, right?

52:40But instead of, you know, sitting and having victim mentality and being sad. She literally went for you and created a direct competitor that's doing better, which is just awesome. I love that mentality of a fighter.

52:52Jay Shetty:Fifth and final question. We ask this to every guest who's ever been on the show. Lucy, if you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be? I mean, this is so basic, but I think just be nice to every human being, right? I think kindness makes the world go around. Lucy Guo, thank you so much. As I said, I've learned so much. Look forward to spending lots more time together. Excited to see what you're going to go build next. Yeah, lots of things. Thank you. And this is such a joy. Thank you so much for giving my audience so much of your time, your guidance and your energy.

53:24Jay Shetty:I'm so grateful. Thank you for having me. Thank you. If you love this episode, you'll love my conversation with Airbnb founder, Brian Chesky, on how to tap into your creative potential and the number one thing people get wrong about success. The best people in your life will be people who see potential in you that you didn't see in yourself. And I often wonder,