Books provided foundational knowledge and insights that were not obvious to him at the time, helping him understand how the world works and increasing his leverage.
He worked the night shift at a Red Roof Inn, earning $3.65 an hour.
He allocated time and money to reading books, attending seminars, and investing in skills that would increase his value over time, rather than just working more hours.
His manager told him, 'If you're not making steel, shipping steel, transporting steel, or selling steel, you're overhead.' This taught him the importance of being close to value creation.
His second startup, Captivo, a web-based CRM tool for small businesses, failed to gain traction and ultimately shut down after he invested around $2 million.
He emphasizes that negotiation is not adversarial but about identifying mutual needs and finding solutions that benefit both parties, as outlined in the book 'Getting to Yes.'
He believes agents are the new apps, capable of accomplishing high-level goals requiring multiple steps, and will become a major part of hybrid teams consisting of humans and AI.
He realized OpenAI was turning ChatGPT into a platform, making it unwise to compete with them. He also suspected other bidders might have been competitors he didn't want to see acquire the domain.
His mission is to help millions grow better, aiming to have a positive impact on the most number of people possible through his work.
RaaS is about selling outcomes rather than software, where companies provide specific results to customers without them needing to use the software directly.
Episode 655: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr) ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP) ) talk to Dharmesh Shah ( https://x.com/dharmesh) ) about how to increase the odds of hitting your first million and your next million.
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Show Notes:
(0:00) Intro
(3:33) Lesson 1: Get leverage
(9:26) Lesson 2: Be an asset, not a liability
(13:40) Lesson 3: Get even closer to the value creation
(19:42) Mini Masterclass on Power Negotiating
(24:35) Dharmesh's little-known $2M failure
(29:35) Lesson: Insight compression
(34:08) Dharmesh sells Chat.com
(41:06) Agents are the new apps
(44:51) The future is hybrid teams
(49:23) Agents Dharmesh uses today
(53:20) Dharmesh's next big thing
(1:02:58) Uncomfortable company values
(1:05:33) Local maximum vs global maximum
(1:06:57) RaaS: Results-as-a-Service
(1:09:59) Being a first time billionaire
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Links:
• Agent AI - https://agent.ai/)
• Harvey MacKay books - https://harveymackay.com/books/)
• Getting To Yes - https://tinyurl.com/43ne6v97)
• Connecting Dots - https://connectingdots.com/)
• MFM Vault - https://frontend-production-f8b7.up.railway.app/)
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Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it’s called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd)
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Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/)
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/)
• Copy That - https://copythat.com)
• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth)
• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/)
My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano