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BigDeal by Codie Sanchez

The Mindset Shift That Made Me Millions | Robert Herjavec

My new book, Own Or Be Owned, is all about building a business so good it doesn't need you.

Robert HerjavecguestCodie Sanchezhost

Jul 22, 20261h 9mWatch on YouTube

Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.

CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

Fear, laziness, and the long grind behind “overnight” success
Robert Herjavec says fear—not money—is what holds most people back, including fear of failure, embarrassment, rejection, and even hard work. He explains that many people will work hard only when results are immediate, but real progress often takes years without visible payoff. He frames lasting motivation as coming from purpose, not flippant goals.
- •Fear shows up as fear of failure, embarrassment, rejection, and uncertainty about whether effort will pay off
- •Many people avoid sustained effort when results aren’t immediate, even though outcomes take months and years
- •He describes spending 10 years working toward buying an old Ferrari as an example of long-term grind
- •He connects his drive to a purpose: justifying his parents’ sacrifice as immigrants
- •He prefers hiring people with military service because they understand a greater purpose beyond themselves
A-players vs B-players: adaptability and not “wallowing in misery”
Codie Sanchez and Robert define A-player traits like follow-through, direct communication, and adaptability. Robert emphasizes that successful people still have bad days—the difference is how quickly they move through them. He shares a lesson he attributes to a conversation with Barbara Corcoran about limiting the time spent in misery.
- •Codie lists A-player traits: high signal-to-noise communication, follow-through, proactive updates, and liking hard things
- •Robert adds adaptability and progress as core markers—A-players move the needle forward
- •He says B-players get stuck in repetition and “wallow in misery”
- •He recalls Barbara Corcoran’s point that the key difference is how long people allow themselves to wallow in misery
- •He notes he keeps bad days short and believes “nobody cares,” so you move on and work
The “fast no” and keeping perspective on bad days
Codie and Robert talk about how slow maybes waste time and how a fast “no” is a gift. Robert admits he used to be a “maybe-er” because he didn’t like letting people down, but Shark Tank forced him to get clearer. He then shifts to perspective, saying even a bad day can be someone else’s dream, and he describes learning joy and quick emotional recovery from his kids.
- •Codie describes frustration with being ghosted and argues a fast “no” saves time for everyone
- •Robert says he used to struggle saying no because he wanted to please people, not because he wanted to mislead them
- •He credits years of hearing pitches with forcing him to build the muscle of clear decisions
- •He shares a quote: “your bad day today is somebody’s dream,” and gives an example of complaining about a pool leak
- •He says his kids model “purity of joy” and the ability to get upset and then reset quickly
Build expertise in your 20s and don’t confuse “stuff” with vision
Robert argues that a young person’s best use of time is to become excellent at something and treat their 20s as foundational education. He warns against chasing the fast path and emphasizes learning over higher pay early on. He and Codie discuss how social media can distort success into cars and houses, and Robert says “stuff” isn’t the point once you’re above debt—building something of value is.
- •Robert says the key early-career focus is expertise; he describes becoming a top person in cybersecurity within a decade
- •He says today’s opportunity is even bigger, mentioning AI as a field many older people don’t understand
- •He tells people not to choose jobs for money early; choose for learning and avoid obligations that block big risks
- •Codie explains how constant exposure to luxury online pushes young people toward “fast money” plays
- •Robert says “the fast path” is overrated and argues that once you’re above debt, you need a desire to build something valuable and coherent
How rare extreme wealth is—and why money doesn’t change who you are
They discuss how social media can make huge wealth look easy, while Robert stresses how difficult it is in reality. Codie asks whether wealth changes people, and Robert argues it reveals who you already are. He also says you can get rich without caring much about money, but you can’t succeed if you hate other people’s success.
- •Robert cites how few billionaires there are worldwide and uses a spending example to illustrate how large a billion is
- •He describes how events can create many millionaires at once, which can make wealth seem “overnight” even when it wasn’t
- •Codie shares a warning she heard about losing a sense of reality at high wealth; Robert disagrees that money inherently changes character
- •Robert says grounded people stay grounded at higher wealth, while unappreciative people act badly even with far less
- •He says you can dislike money or not care about it, but you can’t build ambition if you despise others’ success
Small business as accessible capitalism—and why that message matters
Robert praises Codie’s focus on small business ownership as something “anybody has access to,” contrasting it with fixation on billionaires. He shares a story from his father about capitalism versus communism and argues people shouldn’t give up just because they can’t become a trillionaire. The conversation highlights everyday businesses—car washes, donut shops, bakeries—as viable paths to a good life.
- •Robert says Codie’s message is timely: small business ownership is accessible without “magic” talent
- •He tells a story about asking his father the difference between communism and capitalism, and his father’s humorous Cadillac answer
- •He argues people lose sight of achievable success by comparing themselves to trillionaires and billionaires
- •He names ordinary consumer businesses as real opportunities (car wash, donut shop, bakery, dry cleaning)
- •He frames small business as aligned with democracy, capitalism, and building a family living
Urgency vs patience: moving fast, acting today, and failing quickly
Robert says urgency was his biggest advantage when he had no money—he used speed to win business and escape poverty. He then explains that patience is what gets you to wealth, especially as companies scale. He gives a practical approach for moving faster: design experiments that reach acceptance or failure quickly, ideally with paying customers.
- •Robert: “Urgency gets you out of poverty. Patience gets you to wealth,” and he had to learn the balance
- •He describes hand-delivering quotes to customers and outworking slower competitors as a speed advantage
- •Codie and Robert agree that action today often beats a perfect plan tomorrow, especially early
- •Robert says to “fail quickly” by testing at 20% completion with paying customers rather than finishing 100% and beta testing with non-paying users
- •He describes the “magic” of commerce when money is exchanged and the importance of getting to acceptance or rejection fast
$10B+ in sales: selling value, and what makes a pitch work on Shark Tank
Robert shares lessons from doing over $10 billion in sales, emphasizing that great salespeople solve problems and sell value rather than pushing a product. They then break down Shark Tank pitch dynamics: leverage shifts based on how many sharks are left, and the best pitches work on a subconscious level. Robert stresses the importance of alignment, humility, and making people listen before trying to be heard.
- •Robert says great salespeople sell value and solutions; bad salespeople sell something tangible without context
- •He argues great salespeople don’t “ask for the order” but guide the client to believe it’s the right solution
- •He explains Shark Tank leverage: when only one shark remains, the shark has leverage; with great pitches, leverage shifts to the entrepreneur
- •He describes subconscious pitch failures like mismatched presentation (e.g., attire not fitting what’s being sold)
- •He quotes his rule: it’s not the listener’s job to listen—it’s the pitcher’s job to be heard, starting by earning attention and diagnosing the need
Valuing a business: the few numbers you must know and industry multiples
Codie asks what numbers matter most if you want investors to take you seriously. Robert says the biggest mistake is valuing a business based on what you want rather than what it’s worth. He emphasizes knowing how your industry is valued—like multiples of EBITDA or ARR—and being able to justify where you fall within a market range.
- •Robert says founders often set valuations based on personal desire (e.g., “we need $10 million”) instead of market reality
- •He stresses that every industry has common valuation metrics and ranges that buyers expect
- •He names examples of valuation frameworks like EBITDA multiples and ARR multiples (depending on the industry)
- •He says you must explain why your company is at the top (or not) of the industry valuation range
- •He compares selling a business to selling a house: use comparable sales, not emotional attachment
Scale as a double-edged sword: becoming the bottleneck and learning cashflow
Robert says many business owners don’t understand scale and mistakenly treat their personal involvement as strength when it becomes a weakness. He explains that as you grow, you must replace yourself in key functions and build systems that run without you. He shares that a major turning point was realizing he didn’t understand finance well enough and hiring a world-class CFO, then setting simple “heartbeat” metrics like daily cash position and weekly receivables aging.
- •Robert calls scale a two-edged sword: professional managers can scale, but they often can’t take a business from zero to something
- •He says owners of $5–10M businesses often don’t see that being integral is a weakness, not a strength
- •He suggests a test: take a week off without calling in and list what broke—those failures reveal bottlenecks holding you back
- •He describes hitting a growth plateau and realizing he didn’t understand cashflow and finance well enough
- •He explains basic receivables and payment terms (net 30 often becoming 60/90) and says he tracked daily cash and weekly receivables aging
Buying businesses without money: earnouts, seller trust, and the “knowledge gap”
Robert challenges the common excuse “I don’t have the money,” saying lack of knowledge is the real constraint. He explains how he bought 13–14 businesses without outside funding by structuring earnouts—paying part upfront and the rest over time using business performance. They connect this to a broader problem: many older owners have no exit plan, creating opportunities for buyers to structure win-win deals.
- •Robert says most non-entrepreneurs cite “I don’t have the money” as the reason they don’t start or buy businesses
- •He describes buying early acquisitions via earnouts after banks wouldn’t lend him the purchase price
- •He defines EBITDA simply and explains the idea of paying a multiple and earning it back over time
- •Codie frames it as: you never suffer from lack of money, you suffer from lack of knowledge to get money
- •Robert highlights owners in their 50s/60s with no succession plan; without buyers, they may close and destroy value that could be transferred via seller help
Credibility, deal reps, and when raising capital helps—or hurts
Robert explains that once he successfully paid one earnout seller, the next deals became easier because people could verify his track record. He calls this “third-party verification,” arguing people trust what others say more than what you say about yourself. They also discuss deal volume, and Robert reflects on building nearly $400 million in revenue with no outside capital—while also acknowledging that raising money earlier might have allowed better systems and a stronger product.
- •Robert says later acquisitions got easier because sellers could talk to prior sellers he paid—proof beats promises
- •He names “third-party verification” as a key trust mechanism: others’ words carry more weight than your own
- •He estimates doing 50+ Shark Tank deals over time and about 30 business deals
- •He says he’s proud he built a business to nearly $400M in revenue with his own money and kept 100% of the profit until selling
- •He acknowledges hindsight: raising capital earlier might have enabled building better systems/software and a better product, though it also could have increased risk
Decisive leadership: certainty-seeking, “team not family,” and the mindset shift to wealth
Robert argues many tech businesses fail because they can’t make decisions fast enough, and he describes moments where his conviction helped him push the right direction. He discusses leadership as balancing being good with people and having an edge—what Codie calls being a “benevolent dictator”—and rejects the idea that a company is a family. He closes with a mentor lesson he attributes to his father: it’s great to dream, but better to pay your bills, and he describes shifting from a “poverty mindset” focused on paychecks to a “wealth mindset” focused on building a life.
- •Robert says tech requires a specific cadence: sometimes leadership means “we’re going left,” and dissenters should leave if they’re not all-in
- •He tells a story about a stuck accelerator incident to underline how precarious life is, contrasting that with people’s desire for certainty
- •He says great leadership requires caring about people up to a point—and then not needing approval, only commitment to follow the mission
- •He criticizes the phrase “we’re a family,” saying a business is a team aligned on a mission and respect matters more than friendship
- •He describes shifting from paycheck survival to building wealth, sharing his father’s saying: “It’s great to dream. It’s better to pay your bills.”

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