Noah Kagan: 48 Hours to Entrepreneurship — Your Million Dollar Weekend [GREATEST HITS WEEK]

Dec 25, 2024

In this engaging discussion, Noah Kagan, a serial entrepreneur and former Facebook employee #30, shares his journey from a billion-dollar setback to entrepreneurial success. He reveals how to start a business in just a weekend, emphasizing the power of asking for help and taking action. Kagan discusses overcoming fears, engaging customers, and learning from failures. He also highlights the importance of self-awareness in entrepreneurship and shares practical strategies, including selling before launching and the significance of networking to validate ideas.

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ADVICE

The Dollar Challenge

Ask people for a dollar to practice asking for things you want.
This builds confidence and helps overcome discomfort associated with asking.

ADVICE

Leverage Your Network

Identify three groups you can help when starting a business.
Ask your friends, family, and colleagues for support, as they want you to succeed.

INSIGHT

Dream and Freedom Number

Starting a business begins with identifying your dream and your freedom number.
A freedom number represents the income needed to pursue your dream without financial constraints.

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If you’ve ever thought: “I’d love a business BUT …“I don’t have TIME.”

“I don’t have MONEY.”

“I don’t have IDEAS.”

“I have TOO MANY ideas and I don’t know where to start.”

“I’m not technical.”

“I’m not creative or artistic.”

“I’m not good at sales.”

You’re not alone. Countless people don’t start businesses or side hustles for these reasons.

And they’re losing thousands — perhaps millions — in opportunity cost.

How much could you make if you started a side hustle that eventually scaled into a business? Possibly millions. Today’s guest, Noah Kagan, is living proof.

Noah was employee #30 at Facebook. His stock options, if fully vested, would be worth over $1 billion today.

(If you want to do the math — his stock options came to 0.1 percent of the company, which has a current market cap of $1 trillion.)

But Noah was fired just a couple months before his stock options vested. So rather than getting a billion-dollar payout, he got nothing.

He sank into a deep depression, eventually recovering with the help of a therapist who counseled him on how to reframe the experience.

Then he rolled up his sleeves and got to work. He became a serial entrepreneur, building multiple businesses. His most successful venture now makes $80 million in gross revenue, and his personal take-home is $3.3 million per year (which comes from a $200,000 annual salary and $3.1 million profit distribution.) His net worth is $36 million.

Not a billion, but still not too shabby.

Noah recently wrote a book called “Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours.”

He sits down with us (in person!) to share:

— how to find business ideas

— how to overcome objections and rejections

— how to scale

By the end of the episode, the common objections that you often hear — like “I don’t have time/money/ideas” — will be quashed.

Please enjoy!

We're sharing this as part of GREATEST HITS WEEK, a 5-day series in which we're sharing 5 episodes, across 5 days, that originally aired at the start of 2024 (January through March). You may have missed it then; enjoy it now.

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