358: Shaan Puri on Building Companies & Riding Trends

For a while, I believed what society tells you, which is that you have to work really hard to be successful. Sure, it helps, but hey, I [became] successful, and I still didn't work that hard ... A far more important factor to success is project selection. Most people choose the wrong project.

Be really worried whenever your strategy is 'this and that' instead of 'this, not that.' I would always bet on an entrepreneur who's saying 'it's this, not that' — even if they're wrong, because they'll find out that they're wrong and be able to pivot. When it's 'this and that' they'll never know if they're wrong because everything will just be half-baked execution ... Was the problem the execution or the strategy?

You get all these good things with a startup studio. You get a bunch of at-bats—that's good. You have the ability to carry over learning, so when one project fails, you don't have to go get a job; you just start the next project. That's also really good. What you lose, though, is the critical thing that makes startups work, which is relentless focus and back against the wall — 'I have to make this work. I told my whole family. I told the whole world I'm doing this. I got to find a way.'

For startups or projects you're doing, you want to work on the projects where success is in your favor, not against you. Too many people try really hard things and then try to hard work their way out of it, and that's a terrible idea.

Religion is the most popular free IP in the world ... Where else can you get IP that is universally known and loved... and you don't have to pay a dollar for the rights. That's just an amazing premise for any business.

Anytime you see something that... universally, you'll get a pat on the back for saying, you should really question if it's true or if people say it because it signals a good thing for them.

Real estate has the highest percentage of dumb rich people.

It's very tempting to think you're smart when other people think you're smart.

Before I do something, I tell the whole world about it. Once something starts to work, I don't tell a soul about it.

Learning about plants cells rather than nutrition for humans—that's crazy that we do things this way.