The Uncomfortable Truth About Simon Squibb’s Advice (This Is Where People Get Hurt)

0:00Do you guys have a dream? Molly, Molly, Molly! Go on Molly. Do you have a dream? No dream? What's your dream? I want to become a jeweler in Hatton Garden. A jeweler? I like that. That's a good dream. Why should they buy your jewelry? Make them look nice. Has anyone taught you business before? Yeah, my brother. Oh yeah, you taught your business? Yeah, my brother owns a company in Hatton Garden. How much are you going to charge for a bit of jewelry? Well I don't know, because obviously I've got to do a three year course at college. That's a big waste of time. This is the time you can take chance.

0:26You have an idea already in your head. Make one item and sell it. I want to buy something for my wife. So I'm willing to spend money with you. You just need to draw something, design something, and put it up online for people to buy. Don't need to go spend three years at some shitty thing learning that. You understand what I mean? I'm your first customer then. Don't waste time in education when you don't need it. Has anyone ever taught you business before?

0:50It's a great question though, isn't it? Has anyone ever taught you business before? Can the answer ever be yes to that? You have learned business. yeah like yeah what me and business it's a bit uh in between isn't it yeah yeah i've done business studies business completed it mate yeah yeah uh ed just edu education is a scam i get the the i get the get the idea i think that what what simon's probably very good at is like taking big scary ideas and simplifying them down but i think for a lot of people we've been talking about this a little bit recently of like what might be obvious to one person isn't necessarily obvious to a lot but just saying draw draw something like make something and then sell it online okay i could i could now using ai i could go and draw a nice necklace if i've got like the creative ideas but i think like the the education piece is probably confident in you've got a trade like you know what you're doing and i also think that sometimes the the way people learn isn't just like sitting watching youtube it's not to say that youtube and podcasts aren't a great way to learn but i also don't think that the the mission should be let's get rid of any kind of education and just like that's it just everyone should be this like mini business i don't know that there's a lot to unpack with that what where do you go with it well the the critique i've heard from people about simon is that it's giving kind of problematically oversimplified advice to people you know so i know there's probably nuances probably other questions that he asked but my brother owns a business in hatton garden and i want to be a jeweler in hatton garden there's probably something in that um and then this idea i think i've told this story on the podcast before when i was at school a guy got up with a business idea at the front of the class it's one of my favorites he got up at the front of the class and he was absolutely buzzing to share this and he went in you know the northwestern chavvy voice he went right my idea is you can make money from selling things and he looked up really proud of himself and everyone burst out laughing i know that sounds cruel but that's a little bit like what what he just said of it is it is make an item and sell it that that that is missing quite a lot of the actual advice in that is missing quite a lot because you can make something and sell it isn't an argument that education is a scam i like that's one of my favorite stories and we can't we obviously we can't say that guy's name on the podcast because i don't know if he still is but as a 14 year old he was very hard you wouldn't mess with it he's really hard there was a story about that he punched her in the eye and their eyeball exploded, which I now think can't be true.

3:47See, that's weird that you had that version because I had a similar story, but he punched one in the eye and there was a pigeon that was near him and the pigeon exploded. That's the version of the story I've heard. Anyway, right. Next clip. Next clip. It's how to quit your job and start a business. Okay, let's see if it's simple. Excuse me, would you ever start a business of your own? Yep. Wonderful, what would you do? I would start logistics. And what's stopping you doing it right now? Well, right now, I don't have enough money to open the business. How much do you need? Well, I would need to buy a van, insurances, everything, maybe something like£25 ,000.

4:27You don't need£25 ,000, by the way. You can rent a van to get things going. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I think we just brought the cost down to probably about£1 ,000, right? Yeah, maybe. There's five ways to basically raise money for a business, right? One of them is crowdfunding. so we could put this video up about you wanting to start your logistics firm and I reckon a thousand people might invest if you can give them a pitch as to why your company and no one else's what's special about your company be polite be on time be efficient basically you got me a people like to be honest I think that would be a great differential straight away you're working really hard right now right at least you're building your own brand if you start doing it for yourself I'm gonna give you a hundred pounds right now as your first customer congratulations we just

5:13it's it's it's very uh it's very alan partridge i don't know if it means to be it's i mean there's definitely there was definitely a simon squib shaped hole in in the business world like it's it's done something i'm not saying whether it's positive or negative but it's done something for entrepreneurship it's i'm gonna give you under a pound right now i think i read i read maybe one of his blog posts or something the other day that was just like you don't need money to start a business which i get is a great is a great idea of like you can just use other people's money which is also great in like reality but i think the lesson should be like do do do things slowly you know what i mean and the crowdfunding idea was like i used to crowdfund when i was in a band it's so hard you forget that that is like a job in itself like if you have no marketing experience you're not good at like getting people's attention getting people's interest just because you have an idea that's wanting to be polite it may look great on a tiktok short form people forget afterwards they're not thinking oh yeah i'm going to use is the logistics company straight away it's like you're building a house you have to start the foundation you don't need this you don't need that what what about the confidence to get people to start these businesses that's probably what a lot of people are lacking and and saying just do it that's not necessarily like the bit i don't think no and i don't know him sam squib so i've I've got to play fair a bit here.

6:52I'd love to like, it was very Alan Partridge, but that's besides the point. I think because the medium of a YouTube short is that, it's really short, have to make things quite sort of simple and catchy and whatever. Obviously, like going up to one and being like, what do you want to do? Well, I'm here. I work for a logistics business, but I'd love to have my own logistics business. Okay. it's not just a matter of as we all know renting a van and having a thousand pounds and then away you go and everything works there's there's quite a lot more to do than that around getting a customer base in how do you get repeat customers from that how do you win maybe large clients so you've got repeat business from them as well how do you get word out there he kind of said give me pitch and the guy sort of gave some values and again if maybe the video is longer there's an argument there to be like keep going like how would how would someone be honest was like the first thing he said okay so give me an example where in logistics be honest is something that is a differentiator like getting sort of think that through a bit more so it becomes the symptom to an actual problem there's loads more to it the funny i don't know how we ended up under his 100 pound that was quite funny you went from 25 grand so you know you need a thousand pounds to is 100 pound i don't know how did we get there oh and you know what like we've done a lot of sales training and it makes me think of like back in the early days of the business we do like one-on-one sales training for business owners i remember training one guy that had a solution i won't say what it was but he didn't have any customers and he was working a job alongside it and he was like i'm just trying to win a customer and he was like doing the bit the marketing bit and for love for for love nor money he could he could not get a customer i think it's like lead generation as we know finding people that are interested it's not as easy it's not as easy as you make out like i know there's like going knocking on doors stopping people in the street picking up the phone writing letters but there there is a science to it and if you've never done that before and Your science comes in fulfillment.

9:03I know fulfillment like the back of my hand. It doesn't always come naturally to just go and win clients. Anyway, let's watch this next one. This next one's called Giving Strangers Ice Cream.

9:17Does anyone want free ice cream? I'm giving away ice creams just to be kind to people. They're in the box. Nothing wrong with them. Anyone want one? I just feel like I'm not being kind enough. You'd like one. Oh, awesome. Makes me so happy to be kind to strangers. There you go. We had to be nice to each other a bit more, like just help each other. Neither one's a scary murderer in a lift.

9:40Have a good day, everybody. I mean, I agree with the message. We do need to be kinder to each other. It's a bit, again, it's very Partridge, isn't it? It's look at me being nice to strangers. On camera. On camera and here's, and actually I'll tell you why I picked that. clip i couldn't find the clip that would go with it but a while ago he did this clip where these students were giving away energy drinks outside of a train station as some sort of free thing and he goes up to him and he's like what ingredients are in this and one of them goes caffeine and he looked on the back and he named some ingredient he goes what does that do to the human body and i and i don't know because i'm just a student just working trying to get some money together he's like so you're peddling sugar and you're shit on the street and then he gets the can he slams it on the floor and then he's just got a clip there of him giving away ice cream so i don't really get it i don't really get the bit like what is that who is the which one of those is the real simon is it like giving away ice creams in the lift or is it slamming energy drinks but either way giving away ice creams in a lift is also peddling sugar and shit he got a lot of backlash for that didn't he there was that why i can't find it i think so maybe it's been deleted because it was very just like all right what what about that bloke that's just like a student just trying to make some money on the side like your your whole thing is like let's help people that like working or grafting and like it's not his business there's another there's another really really funny one there's already guys like he's in a restaurant it's when his book came out and he goes uh do you want a thousand dollar tip or do you want my book but my book's got more advice than a thousand pounds is worth the guy's looking at his book and he goes i'll have a thousand i'll have a thousand dollars please so he like gives him a thousand dollars and he starts telling him like relationships are more important than money and all this sort of stuff anyway what you're gonna do with the money he just goes probably buy your book now that that is an entrepreneur that's entrepreneur yeah right we've got one more we've got one more oh here's another regular to the pod simon squibb meets gary v millionaire advice will change your life it's all very good with the uh the fonts isn't it makes me want to click it it's very gen z gary how are you my friend what's your dream buddy that everyone realizes that they were not born for a long time and that they'll be dead for a very long time.

12:21That's a dream. Start living their life mitigating regret. I just wish people would wake the fuck up. How come you know this? Pure luck. This is why I live with only humility. Everything you just heard and the reason you did that follow-up question, that's the luck of the draw of DNA. Great parenting. Circumstance, I was born in the Soviet Union, came to America, grew up with dick shit. It just worked out for me. Good luck and bad luck are both still luck. Yeah, like I don't think all the things that suck for me is bad luck. I have the best life today. I have a son I love, appreciate him, spend every minute I can with him, and have a life I love where I help people with their dreams.

12:57And I think I have all of that because my father left me early. You went through one of the most adverse things. You're very clearly aware that had you not gone through that adversity, your path would have been different. Wow. Gary Vee still humble. I don't know. He's still humble. That's it. He's got humility. We were wondering if he was humble.

13:21It's again like, is it just me? Or is it all just a bit like nothing? Like, if I went, what was I like before that video and what was I like after it? I was just the same. I didn't really get anything out of that. It's very different than like a Daniel Priestley video that's like, here's how to become a key person of influence. And that's the thing. he's like become a key person of influence in your area and then here's like the steps and we actually interviewed someone the other week who did the daniel priestly thing didn't we he was like i got the book out came to keep his influence had a waiting list launched products in this way like there was like a real key and it worked he told me to this i did the bit it worked it's repeatable i think that there is a great example of two blokes who don't really sound like sound not to be true two ladies don't really sound like they know what they're talking about and maybe if the camera wasn't on might have had a little kiss i i i think i think the science behind it is it's like it is it's mainstream advice and i think like actually the daniel priest advice is is very very good for like the right people but is that is that gonna give the dopamine hit to a 15 year old that's doing it yeah maybe not probably not and i think they fall into this like this mainstream like what what is what is the bit and what i'd be curious to know we've interviewed people like this before and we've kind of had some conversations about simon squibb and gary v off there with guests on the podcast but it's like what what's the true version what's the authentic version is if if we met simon squibb would it be a case of, yeah, this is a version of me.

15:08I do give a shit about people, and I do want to know their dream, but actually, in front of the camera, I have to turn it up because it's a performance. And we know sometimes, like, from on the podcast, the way that we'll talk. Yeah, exactly. And it's like, you play the game, but then it's a case of at what cost. So, like, I don't know, Simon, so I can't comment on that enough. No. And look, not judging fairly, probably, we're just picking on some shorts, but I've been watching a bit of Alan Partridge at the minute. It's very similar to this new series of Alan Partridge called How Are You? Where he's going around talking about very broad topics.

15:48It's just very funny. But the bit in that video with Gary Vee that made me like, what's your dream? You weren't here for a long time. It's just a really strange way to start. I would have been surprised. Yeah, yeah, I wasn't here for a long time. What? I reckon 20 years, we're going to find out. Simon Squibb, Gary Vee, it's all AI. It was a social experiment, and we fell for it. Well, it does fit into the simulation theory, doesn't it? So I don't know if you've got this for what you've learned from this, but I can tell you what I've learned. Absolutely nothing. I have a dream. I have a dream. I've been Jack Framson.

16:32Thank you all. I've been Zach Thompson.