Sara Sheehan’s guest in this episode is Sid Mohasseb, the “Entrepreneur Philosopher.” Sid is a twice-bestselling author of two books: ‘You Are Not Them: The Authentic Entrepreneur’s Way,’ and The Caterpillar’s Edge: Evolve, Evolve Again and Thrive in Business.’ He is also a university professor at both engineering and business schools. A two-time TED speaker, an advisor to Fortune 500 leaders, and an innovation thought leader who has built multiple companies and invested in many more.
Sid and Sara Sheehan explore and discuss many interesting mindset issues facing entrepreneurs today, both in business and in life in general. Using the analogy of a caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly, Sid illustrates how gradual evolution is the key to personal and professional growth—change doesn’t happen overnight. Sid also explores the employer-employee relationship and the novel approach called the “whole life balance”, where understanding the reasons behind employees’ decisions takes precedence over a narrow focus on outcomes. His insights highlight how the mindset shapes how we define success, approach risks, and navigate leadership challenges. Sara Sheehan and Sid also emphasize the importance of self-awareness, trust, and listening as foundations for success in all areas of life.
Sid also shares his plans to launch an academy aimed at fostering personal development and entrepreneurial growth. This new venture will feature short videos on topics like fear, resilience, and finding one’s reasons, designed to provoke thought and inspire continuous improvement. Sid invites listeners to join him on this journey of transformation and to stay connected for future updates on the academy’s progress.
About Sid Mohasseb
From a very young age, Sid learned not to leave change to chance. At 7, he learned to be self-sufficient in treating the genetic blood disorder (Hemophilia) he suffered from. At 14, he learned to balance intellect and humility and published his first book of poetry. At 16, he convinced his parents that his future must be shaped in America and migrated to the US without his family. Working through engineering school, he learned that self-sufficiency begins with selflessness; to succeed one must be able to continually deliver value to friends, family and society.
Embracing his entrepreneurial talents, at 21, Sid started and exited his first company while at college. Pursuing his curiosity about the purpose of life, he explored various spiritual and philosophical schools of thought. At 25, he taught comparative Eastern and Western philosophy. Sid’s professional career was built on being a trusted advisor. At 27, he became the youngest partner of a national management consulting firm serving Fortune 500 clients.
Early in his career, Sid realized that trust, flexibility, agility and authenticity are the cornerstones of progress. During the next three decades, he supported large-scale acquisitions, and acted as the principal investor and operator in company turnarounds. As a serial entrepreneur, Sid founded and led several early-stage and hyper-growth companies from inception to acquisition. Many times over, he shouldered the responsibility for meeting payroll and wrote checks to acquire or invest in companies; learning to think both like an investor and a founder; facing, accepting, and overcoming his share of failures and successes in ideas and ventures. Along the way, Sid learned that the wounds of failures are the pathways to our next best version.
Resources discussed in this episode:
- You Are Not Them: The Authentic Entrepreneur’s Way by Sid Mohasseb
- The Caterpillar’s Edge by Sid Mohasseb
- “From Reason to Profit” Forbes Article by Sid Mohasseb
—
Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:
Sid Mohasseb | The Entrepreneur Philosopher:
—
Transcript
Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Hi there. I’m Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I’m joined by Sid Mohasseb, who is known as the Entrepreneur Philosopher. Sid is a twice bestselling author of two books: ‘You Are Not Them: The Authentic Entrepreneur’s Way’, and The Caterpillar’s Edge: Evolve, Evolve Again and Thrive in Business’. He is a university professor at both engineering and business schools. A two time TED speaker, an advisor to Fortune 500 leaders, and an innovation thought leader who has built multiple companies and invested in many more. He is a frequent contributor to Forbes, Time, Newsweek, USA Today, Fox, Independent, Foreign Policy, Globe, London School of Economics and Harvard Business Review. Thank you so much, Sid, for joining me today and being willing to invest your valuable time in a fruitful discussion.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:01:19] I’m happy to be here, and I’m happy to also thank the folks that are going to be listening to us to have invested their time in listening to both of us.
Sara Sheehan: [00:01:30] Excellent. And so, Sid, where I’d like to start today is with your book, ‘You are Not Them: The Authentic Entrepreneurs Way’. Such an interesting read. One of the most important things to do in exploring the book is to create your personal entrepreneurship philosophy and have a self-aware, growth oriented mindset, like a sculptor that’s shaping a great work of art in yourself. Mindset really is key in all we do in business and in life. Can you tell me, Sid, how has mindset helped you create your businesses?
Sid Mohasseb: [00:02:21] Sara, what we don’t realize when we’re doing what we’re doing is that it is really our mindset that’s directing us. We often think it may be the environment, the situation, the education, luck, but it’s truly on the back. What drives us, what positions us to be successful or to accomplish things is how we think about things. What do we define as success? What do we define as satisfaction? How do we look at risk? How do we look at building an ecosystem that involves others? All of those things. How do we lead? How do we follow? How do we create trust? All of those things are part of our mindset and our approach to things. And while we’re not necessarily aware of it, we are applying our mindset and the way we think and the way we look at ourselves and our future and what we can accomplish or what we cannot accomplish is involved in our progress. A few things become important. For example, if I believe that I can be LeBron James and I’m five foot three, that is a foolish belief. I cannot. I’m not tall enough, I’m not strong enough, I’m not young enough. So when we talk about mindset and how it helps us evolve is, one of the elements is being anchored in reality.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:03:58] That doesn’t mean that I can’t own a basketball team. It doesn’t mean that I can’t have enough money to bring in LeBron James to sit in my living room or play in my court back there. We can, it just doesn’t mean that I can accomplish things that are not accomplishable. So the mindset that we talk about is based on an analysis of the realities of life, the probabilities of success, and our ability to evolve. I use the analogy of caterpillars a lot because they turn into butterflies. Now, if a caterpillar thinks that, first of all, it can sleep overnight and, boom, it’s going to be a butterfly, it doesn’t happen. Some caterpillars, it takes 14 years for them to become, in the amazon and some part of the world, usually they go through 4 or 5 stages of growth to become what it is. So if I am a caterpillar and I imagine that, first, overnight I can become a butterfly, it’s a foolish thing for me to believe. Second, if I think that I can sleep and tomorrow morning I’ll be a racehorse or I’ll be an eagle, that’s also foolish to believe. We evolve in certain ways, in mindset, in actions and structure. And that’s what makes us, as you mentioned, the sculptor and the sculpture. We are both the art and the artist. And none of us are without flaw. So the idea of an artist is, sometimes you draw something, it just doesn’t look good. So it’s okay. We sculpt something and it’s our next best version that we thought. It may not be the best version, there’s always a better version. So we’re always in this pursuit of creating the next best version of ourselves.
Sara Sheehan: [00:06:06] If you’re willing to sharpen the saw and continue to refine that work of art.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:06:12] And that doesn’t mean that the previous art was bad. This is not an admission of guilt. We are exploring. We are an artist. We draw things, we sculpt things, and as we do it, sometimes it’s a little bit crooked and we fix it. And sometimes that crookedness becomes part of who we are. And that’s the beauty of it. That’s what makes us, us. Those are the things that makes us unique. The key is, if you are aware that it is your mindset that drives you places, now a lot more things are in your control.
Sara Sheehan: [00:06:53] Being self-aware is the first step, because if you realize how you’re interacting and affecting others, you can fine tune what you’re doing.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:07:07] You can, it’s in your control. I use an analogy, I’ll say, hey, if you take two points, any two points, and you draw a line from point A to point B, mathematically, between these two points, there are infinite points. If you draw a line, on this line there are infinite points. Now, if I move the lines and I say, okay, here’s A, here’s B, let’s have a point C in between, there’s still infinite lines between A and C, and C and B. If you take those A and B points, and you say that’s the time we’re born and that’s the time we die, there are infinite points in between. At any point, 8 years old, 18 years old, or 80 years old, we have an equal number of instances behind us, infinite, than we have ahead of us, infinite. And each one of those allows us to make a decision to change, to evolve, to take a path. Now, our options may be different, but there are infinite options. There are infinite instances at any given time, at any age, in front of us, that we can make a choice. We are the artist that can, at any given point, change the direction of their art. You don’t like classic? Go a different direction. You’re completely in charge. There is nothing stopping us from being who we can be.
Sara Sheehan: [00:08:40] That is absolutely beautiful, Sid. I’d like to pivot, if we can, from talking about ‘You Are Not Them’, to chat about the concept of ‘From Reason to Profit’, which you’ve written about this concept, particularly in an article that I read on The Hill. There’s an excerpt from the article that I would like to ground our conversation on before I pose a question, if I may. “By focusing on reasons, motivations and causes that lead to consequences, effects, and eventually profits, businesses shift their focus from controlling outcomes to aligning with world class talent and opportunities. They learn to embrace the give and take of value exchanges and understand the nuances each relationship requires. Sid also proposes that we should ditch the concept of work-life balance, and embrace whole life balance, in recognition of the great importance employees have on an enterprise’s success.” Sid, can you elaborate on the reason to profit framework and why whole life balance is so very important today?
Sid Mohasseb: [00:10:05] The the article you’re referring to is focused on one of the five pillars, which is the employees. The other four pillars that hold up an organization, any organization, are customers, partners, investors, and society. And the fifth one is the employees. Each one of those pillars involve people, and they make decisions based on the exchange that they receive. Somebody makes an investment in a situation, it may be because they like the owner, it may be they like the cause. Maybe they like the dividends, or maybe they like that it has the opportunity of giving them ten x money. A partner, a supply chain place, works with the company because they think you pay on time, because they think that you give them enough business, because they like you, because they’re the same affiliation politically as you are. They give you the stuff because your brand is important, they can put it on their sign. The same thing happens to customers. Customers actually make the decision of buying things from you. We are fooled to think, as companies, that we sell. In reality, they buy. As a company, we have zero decision. Zero. No decision at all in a purchase. So if we have no decision, we are not generating revenue. They are generating revenue. We are not generating, they are giving us revenue. So what that means is, it’s the decision that they make that drives an outcome which is our revenue. So the thing to focus on, is their decision. The same thing happens with employees and it’s often ignored. Companies believe that they give people a job. Here’s $100,000. Here’s $80,000. Here’s $27.50 an hour, something. And here’s your job, you clean this and that, you quote this and that, you manage these five people, there’s a job description.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:12:19] The assumption is that we have made a pack, but the employee who accepts that $100,000 or $50,000, or whatever the number and job description is, in their mind, have a series of reasonings for accepting that. ‘Rent is due.’ ‘I want to move to California and this gives me the opportunity to do that.’ ‘Oh, they have options, maybe the options would turn out to be something interesting.’ ‘This is a good company to have on my resume.’ ‘They have good benefits and I have a son who is sick.’ They, in their mind, accept what that employment term is based on their reasonings, not based on our reasoning. They never said, ‘I’m going to bring my best creativity and innovation to the table at 3:00 in the morning.’ We may accept that. We may expect it as an employer, but that’s not why they did it. They did it based on their own terms. The idea is that there are decisions outside of a company’s control that are really driving the revenue and the profit that the company makes. They are driving the innovation within the company. They’re driving the revenue and the profit that comes in. Every ask, they’re driving the quality of the company because of the supply chain folks. They’re driving how they can get more investments and grow the company. It is the reasons that drive our success. So the idea is, we need to focus on those reasons. When you focus on revenue and profit, you’re focusing on an outcome that happens in a quarter. You’re not focusing on what drives that profit or revenue. It is the cause that we have to focus on, not the effect. If the decision of revenue, if the decision of creativity, productivity is in the hands of the employee, we can measure that they were not productive at the end of a quarter, but then that’s an outcome. We’re not focusing on the reason that drives that outcome. And if we focus on the reasons, we would be able to do a much better job. That actually drives what our culture may be. We can’t satisfy everybody’s reasons. So we are able to drive, we are able to satisfy certain types of people with the certain types of reasons. This is a place good for people who look for stability and benefits. This is a place where people who are looking for massive growth through options. If we can harmonize those kind of reasons by people, we then automatically have a culture of people that think alike.
Sara Sheehan: [00:15:12] That’s right. Whole life balance, for you, it sounds like you’re really taking your employees’ desires and wants into consideration, and you are motivating everyone to be part of the results and outcomes equation.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:15:37] Let me correct a few things, by the way. I want to go back to your pivot comment that you made, because that’s a pet peeve of mine. Let’s look at this. I am not motivating anybody. They are motivating themselves because of who they are. This notion that I am empowering people to do something, I am not. Who am I to have the power? They have the entire creativity power. It’s in their mind. It’s in their ability. I just have to, as a company, facilitate their growth. The notion that the company drives innovation, the company doesn’t. There is one thing that people say, ‘you have to belong to the company.’ That’s how the culture is built. Have a sense of belonging. You can’t belong to a company, the company has to belong to a series of people. And that puts the power of creativity and innovation where it belongs, which is in the hands of the people who are creative, who at 3:00 in the morning, get up, think of things, do things, believe things, drive things, accomplish things. The notion that we believe as a company is something that’s been driven to us because we look at profits at the end of the year, and Wall Street has pushed that to us. That’s nonsense. If you look at all great companies, they were built on people being creative. Here’s the other thing. Let’s talk about this whole-life and balanced life. By saying that I have to have balance, you are saying that these are two equal part things, and you’re telling me that I, at home, I am a different person, than I am at work. So you’re actually promoting bipolar behavior? I’ve got to be this at home, and I’ve got to be this at work, and I’m two different people? Nonsense. I’m the same person. I’m as much creative when I’m having breakfast at home, that I could be thinking about my wife having a problem when I’m at work?
Sara Sheehan: [00:17:47] That’s very fair.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:17:50] I am one person. And if you force me, and you say there’s equal parts to my life, that’s nonsense. What I have to do is look at it as a harmonized process. If I don’t like what I’m doing, let’s search for something that I belong to and I like to do it. It’s like, let’s have people not pass red lights when they’re driving. So as opposed to having people not pass red lights and we create a culture of people not passing red lights, we’re putting a cop on every corner to catch them. We’re saying, hey, let’s have a work-life balance. This is this and this is this because people can’t harmonize. Well, let’s create an environment where they can harmonize and they’re much better at what they would do. We work to exchange what we do to have our kids happy. So now, let’s keep the kids away, and this is what I do over here. And this is what happens after 20 years, they say, hey, I haven’t seen my father because they didn’t know what their father was doing, because they were balancing and separating the pieces of life. We are one person, every one of us. Part of us is work, part of us is home, part of us is our parents, part of us is our failure, part of us is accomplishments. All of that makes us, us. Not the outcome. Success isn’t that I had two homes or three of these or four of these. That’s a nonsensical thing that we have developed, that’s been embedded in us. That success. Success is a social defined element. What is important is satisfaction. Satisfaction is when you and I are satisfied.
Sara Sheehan: [00:19:42] And it’s the process.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:19:44] Success is when somebody says, do you have a PhD? Then you’re successful. Do you have $1 million? $2 million? Do you live on this street? Do you have a Louis Vuitton bag? Do you have a Mercedes Benz? Then they define your success. They are defining your success. But satisfaction is what you feel, what you create, what you build.
Sara Sheehan: [00:20:03] So you are focusing on the process by which people are engaging, in being creative, and not compartmentalizing that, and looking at your entire life as a canvas and trying to create the scenario where the any employee can be their most productive because they choose to, and the company then reaps benefits from them.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:20:44] They choose to be productive. It’s not mandatory. It’s not, I’ve chosen. We’ve created. We’ve hired based on their reason. And yeah, we can’t hire anybody and everybody because then we don’t have a culture. A culture is built after a group of people come together that are like-minded, and when they’re like-minded they have this cohesiveness and they create things and they build things. So we can’t get a bunch of people because we put a statement on top of the door, or the CEO emailed something, or we have a 4th of July barbecue that makes us cohesive and have the same vision, mission and culture. It doesn’t work. It’s nonsensical change management stuff.
Sara Sheehan: [00:21:34] I understand where you’re headed, though. You’re headed in a direction that no one is really talking about this from. That when you’re thinking about the whole-life and you’re thinking about what your self-aware, growth oriented mindset is, you’re going to be a much more productive person in general. And so I think that’s a very deep and valuable lesson learned.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:22:08] And you think that’s an unreasonable place to go?
Sara Sheehan: [00:22:11] No, I don’t. I think it’s a great place to go.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:22:14] It is what we’re built for.
Sara Sheehan: [00:22:16] It’s a great place to go. And I think with having a growth oriented mindset in general is the only way I can manage life, because that’s the way I think. I always want to be improving and growing.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:22:39] And sometimes we make mistakes. Because whatever we do helps in our growth. It doesn’t mean that whatever we do, the outcome is better than what we had before. It may not. As an artist, I put a little yellow over here and I thought it would be good, but it’s not good. Okay, so I change it. I mix it up with red and I get blue. It’s okay. We’re not expected to have created perfection every time.
Sara Sheehan: [00:23:09] That’s right.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:23:11] Now, there’s one thing you mentioned. There is a section in the book that you mentioned, that deals with this notion of pivoting. You said ‘let’s pivot to a different discussion.’ A lot of people use pivot in their businesses and companies and what they do. I am super against pivoting. Let me explain. Pivot is when you hit a dead end, and then you make a right turn or a left turn. We have to be a dancer. That is, a dancer plays with the rhythm of the music, sometimes choreographed, sometimes improvised. If you look at the timing of change, you don’t wait until you hit a block and then you pivot. If you’re reading the market, you don’t let your ego drive you. By the time you are at the end of the road and have to pivot, your resources are depleted. Your time to market has been changed. The fact that you are pivoting means that you are bull headed, you’re not accepting, you’re not listening. You don’t see the timing of the market, you don’t see the value. You’re just saying, it’s either me or death. If you don’t fear, that means you’re not really evolving. If you’re not nervous, you’re doing exactly what-and if you say, I am fearless, I don’t have any fear in doing this, you’re ignoring the dangers ahead, and that’s not a good thing. That’s being bullheaded, that is nonsensical. Oh, he is fearless, you should have no fear. No, you should have fear. You just should learn how to deal with it. Because fear is signals that there is something, not necessarily, and I need to know, okay, this is a winding road. There’s dangers and I should be aware of it, be fearful of it, and then push through it.
Sara Sheehan: [00:25:18] And so, Sid, you’re speaking to developing courage through fear by listening and being self-aware. That’s beautiful. I think that we all need to listen more and be self-aware so that we can make great choices.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:25:41] Listening is, I think, key. And what I found, and I tell this to my wife, she says, oh, there you go again. What I found is, most people don’t listen. They hear, they don’t listen. They’re planning on their response. Here’s the thing, this is a fact. If you don’t listen, not to me, to everything and everybody. To the guy who’s pumping the gas, to the guy who’s at the gas station 7-Eleven store, to your teachers, to your boss, to your colleagues. If you’re not listening, you are ignoring the knowledge that could be added to you, some things. So whatever decision you make next is compromised because it is the knowledge that you have that improves your decision. By not listening, you are simply compromising your future decisions because you have less than enough knowledge. You are making a decision based on a historical set of knowledge that you had a year ago or two years ago, not what happened today.
Sara Sheehan: [00:26:56] Yes, and I think we have a major issue on listening. There are a lot of people that are not listening, and there are a lot of people that don’t know how to take new information and assimilate it into their next best action.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:27:18] And it’s partly a culture of how-to, it’s a culture of combativeness. It’s a culture of embedding in the past, it’s the culture of ‘my way or the highway’. It’s this notion that an entrepreneur or a leader should be strong and bullheaded. It’s a combination of things that has led us to not be receptive, not accepting. The article you refer to on Hill, originally when it came out, at 8:00 in the morning, I believe California time or something like that, 5:00 California time, 8:00 eastern time. I looked at it because I get these Google notices that you’ve been published somewhere. So I get it, and I clicked on it, and I went there. There’s 352 comments on it in three hours.
Sara Sheehan: [00:28:12] That’s impressive.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:28:14] I said, ooh, look at me. People actually care. And then I read the comments. Only out of the 350 comments, only two people had actually read the article. Only two. The rest of them were on this gobbledygook conversation. They’ve read the title and they’ve gone on to their own argument. They didn’t even read what I wrote.
Sara Sheehan: [00:28:39] That just proves exactly what I said to a tee, Sid. Let’s talk a little bit about what lessons you’ve learned in building and scaling your four businesses.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:28:54] Lessons that I’ve learned, I think some of them, is quite obvious in the way I think. Listening is important. Trust is hugely important. Trust is earned, and there is a three-way trust. First, I have to trust in myself, then I have to trust in my employees, then they would give me their trust. I can’t expect their trust before I give them my trust. When you do that, that creates a compounding effect of benefits. That trust leads you to, for people to do things, to accomplish things, for investors to believe in you, for markets to believe in you. The self-trust goes back to having being grounded in what reality is. There’s another element which is the element of, I have learned that certainty is a foolish game. There is no certainty, everything is probabilistic. Certainty does not exist. If you go to companies, they have a ‘here’s a best case and worst case.’ No, there’s a shade of gray in between. And it has to do with what we do and the decisions we make. Life is probabilistic. The more I understand the probabilities and the options, the better my decisions would be. So don’t look at life as a probabilistic, as a certain outcome driven. I can’t sit here with the knowledge that-let’s do this. A lot of people have these vision boards, and they put that together when they’re 24 years old or 18 or 30. I don’t trust the 18 year old of me to be creating a vision for me. That 18 year old was naive.
Sara Sheehan: [00:30:50] Yes, you definitely grow and change quite a bit over time.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:30:54] So the thing that I believe, the knowledge that I had at a certain point, I have the right to change my mind. At 18 I wanted to be a gold medalist or whatever, that was foolish. Now I know I can’t, and that’s not a failure. That’s not changing my goal. That’s just adjusting based on what I see as a better alternative. Now, some people stick to that and they say it’s either that or nothing, and if I don’t do it, it’s failure. No, it’s not failure.
Sara Sheehan: [00:31:26] And that definitely mirrors your thoughts about self-awareness, growth oriented mindset, you’re continuing to refine what that vision is for your life based on your goals and aspirations at that time.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:31:43] And you have the ability and every right to change your goals. Now, there is there is something, though. I know your program is about transformational minds. People confuse transformation, as I mentioned like the caterpillar and the butterfly, with instantaneous achievement. Transformation takes time. It’s assumed that transformation is somehow outside of some level that we can think, outside of the box. The box is an imaginary line you and I create. There is no box. Where is the box? The box is wherever I’m afraid of thinking about something, then I call it the box because I don’t want to say, oh, think outside of the box. Which box? Who drew this box? There is no box. It’s an imaginary line that we have to go above it or below it. I’ve said about, you’re able to change your vision, you’re able to change your goals, but I want to emphasize on this. A caterpillar stays the course over stages and stages of growth and change in order to become a butterfly. If you become fascinated by change and every shiny new object that comes to you, you will never transform into the next being because you’re not committed to the path. If you plant a seed, you have to water the seed and you have to give it the fertilization that it needs, and you have to make sure it gets enough sun to grow, and you have to take care of it. We’re not saying that this is your only flower that you can grow. You can grow other flowers. But if you leave this one and all of a sudden are fascinated by some other thing, this will die.
Sara Sheehan: [00:33:58] And so, Sid, you’re saying that we all need to make sure that we’re continuing on the right path so that we transform the way we’re supposed to.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:34:11] The way we want to. In the interest of change, you can’t be tempted by the devil that the change offers you. The devil is the shiny new object. There’s always a lot of things to do. Without change, there wouldn’t be any options. Change provides you infinite options. And hey, if there wasn’t change, everything would be so boring, would be exactly the same, there wouldn’t be any progress. So change provides you with this ability to choose between options. But if you get dazed and confused with the devil that the change offers you, which is all these shiny new objects, and you jump from this thing to that thing, to that thing, to that thing because you think you’re transforming, you’re just confusing yourself.
Sara Sheehan: [00:34:57] Right, and you’re not actually making progress.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:35:01] And you’re actually not making progress. And you say, well, I saw an opportunity, I jumped on it. I see entrepreneurs today, they’re doing this, oh, there’s a better thing over there. They go buy this software and before it produces anything there is a better software. So they abandoned this one and go to the next one and then, oh, there’s a better way of doing this. Oh, I don’t know why we don’t make any progress, these people are idiots. No, the people are not idiots. We’re just changing for the sake of change. Not for the sake of creating the next best version of ourselves.
Sara Sheehan: [00:35:35] And that is a very valuable point. We need to keep our eye on the ball so that we are transforming and growing each and every day. And so, Sid, what big goals and aspirations are you working on accomplishing right now?
Sid Mohasseb: [00:35:50] Big goals and aspirations. I’m going to tell you something that, frankly, it’s been between me and a couple of a couple of people, including my wife, brainstorming. We’ll get there. I’m thinking about creating what I call an Academy, where we would have a series of maybe 4 or 5 minute videos that belong to a collection. A collection maybe around fear, around resilience, around reasons, and build a community of members and people. Could be students, could be people who are in startup mode or could be managers and so forth. One thing that you have to understand is my view of entrepreneurship. I believe we are all entrepreneurs and it is in our genes. 500,000 years ago, a gene was developed in us to thrive. Not survive, thrive. To look for something better. The definition of an entrepreneur is someone who has something and likes to exchange it with something of higher value, has something, and wants to exchange it with something of higher value, knowing that there is risk. Now, the ‘something’ is not defined. It could be your ideas, it could be your time, it could be a product, it could be a service, it could be anything. And what you exchange is of higher value, the higher value is also your decision. Are you curing cancer? Are you solving poverty? Or you want to be Elon Musk and have a lot of money? That’s your choice, and knowing that there is a risk. With that mentality, we are all entrepreneurs, wherever we are. If you have a job somewhere, you’re an entrepreneur. Because you want to get a better job, you want to excel, you want to exchange what you have with something better. Or, you get that $22, $27 or $127 an hour and you take it home and you take your kids to Disneyland, and you’re exchanging your time for something of higher value, which is the happiness of your kids.
Sara Sheehan: [00:38:06] I think that could be of tremendous value. You’re talking about an academy that essentially would provide key learning opportunities around personal development and transformation. That’s amazing.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:38:25] And it’s quick. It’s examples, just like what we’re talking about in terms of, let’s get to the roots. What is this nonsense about big words and making life complicated to prove to people that you’re smart and all this stuff. Life is pretty simple if you think about simple ways of approaching it. Trust is trust. We all know what it is. Listening is easy.
Sara Sheehan: [00:38:53] It is the hard stuff, though, too. It’s easy but it’s hard, too.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:39:01] It is hard, but they are not hard ideas or concepts.
Sara Sheehan: [00:39:04] No, they are not. It’s hard for people to practice them, I think. I think that’s where the struggle might be.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:39:13] The other thing that I’ve been thinking about, this academy thing, is we are filled with ideas and things that have to do with how-tos. We are bombarded with how to do this and how to do that. Life is like Ikea, you go buy a bookcase and then they say how to put screw number 17 into hole number 72. That’s not life. Life is filled with all sorts of different things. So my notion of this is, this is not a how-to thing. I just want to provoke you, you can find the how-tos.
Sara Sheehan: [00:39:50] You’re trying to get people to refine the way they think, and that is priceless because I don’t think enough people are doing that in the world.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:40:04] That’s the thing. And if in your audience anybody is interested, drop me an email when we get it up and running. It would be in a few months, it’s not tomorrow. If I don’t derail off of it, it would happen and I’d be happy to include them in the process.
Sara Sheehan: [00:40:20] Fantastic, Sid. Maybe we can stay in touch about how things are going and maybe I could provide an update to my audience about your academy and how they might be able to explore it. Sid, can you tell me what being a transformational thinker means to you?
Sid Mohasseb: [00:40:42] I think we talked about it a little before. Transformational thinker is somebody who is not satisfied with their past version. They were satisfied, but they believe that there is more satisfaction in evolving that and being more satisfied. I’m saying, they are not unhappy with who they were before because they built it. Remember, every version that we build, it’s our art. Every artist loves his or her own art. We make it, so we love it. But we also know that there is more in us. So a transformational thinker believes that there is more in us. More to build, more to create, more to give.
Sara Sheehan: [00:41:35] That is beautiful. There is more to become, for sure.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:41:44] There is more to become.
Sara Sheehan: [00:41:45] That is so beautiful, Sid. And so, Sid, how would our listeners find you?
Sid Mohasseb: [00:41:52] My name is Sid Mohasseb, and my email is sid@mohasseb.com. Very simple. And they can find, as you mentioned, I have lots and lots of articles all over the place. Yes, you can blame that I am old and opinionated, I do express my opinions in a lot of different places and it’s easy to find me if you Google me.
Sara Sheehan: [00:42:22] Well, I can’t thank you enough for your time today and illuminating the concept of, maybe there’s more work that we have to do on ourselves, and we need to continue to think about where our mindset is and how we can improve it each and every day. Thank you so much.
Sid Mohasseb: [00:42:45] Great to be with you, thank you.
Sara Sheehan: [00:42:47] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today we were joined by the visionary Sid Mohasseb, who’s known as the entrepreneur philosopher, and brings his vast experience as a best selling author, TED speaker, professor, and advisor to Fortune 500 leaders. Key takeaways from our discussion today include: the crucial role of mindset in defining success and satisfaction, the power of self-awareness and continuous evolution, embracing a whole-life balance over the traditional work life dichotomy, and finally viewing life as an artist’s canvas filled with infinite possibilities. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or looking to ignite your inner innovator, this episode is packed with insights to inspire and challenge your thinking. As always, please subscribe and never miss an episode, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
