Entrepreneur David Shands is living the American dream. He went from being a restaurant employee to a successful businessman with a multimillion-dollar podcast and The Creators Clubhouse, the $750,000 media space for creators to make content.
Recently, he spoke to rolling out about embracing the entrepreneurship lifestyle.
Why do you make taking breaks and focusing on your humanity a priority?
I don’t think your grind, or the project you’re working on, will be OK if you aren’t. I think the more healthy you are, the more personally developed you are, the better the thing you are working on becomes. So, I think it’s important to have conversations that aren’t about business because it’s not the business that grows the business, it’s the people.
What role do you think existentialism plays in the pursuit of entrepreneurship?
What’s that?
It’s a philosophy that focuses on existence. For example, thinking, “I only have 100 years in life to leave a legacy. How can I make my life matter?”
I do not believe that we will be here another 100 years, if I’m being honest. If you talk to any scientist, they will tell you the world is not really going to be able to sustain itself much longer and maybe this world wasn’t designed to do all the things that are happening right now.
What are five wealth-building tips you can give the Black community for 2023?
One, don’t spend everything you make.
Two, monitor where the money goes. Take a look at the end of the month, don’t just be like “Oh. Where did the money go?” You get a paycheck Friday, and by Wednesday, you’re waiting for the next Friday check, but you don’t know where that check went. Just be mindful of watching where your money goes.
Three, make more. I think that’ll be important to find a way to make more than what you’re making. Not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur, although I encourage that, there’s a way to have a job and make more. You should be thinking, “When’s the next promotion? What is the next step?” Or, if that next promotion is going to be too much for your own mental sanity, we need to figure out what I can do in my current position to make more. Or, we take the money and put it into something to make more. I don’t know, but you need to consider making more.
Four, I don’t think any of this works if we’re not personally developing, reading books on finances or reading books on understanding how money works or how we can make some more money. We just have to develop ourselves.
Five, identify your bad habits because there are probably some things you do on a regular basis with your money that is toxic. Or just noticing that every Friday, you go out to have drinks with your friends [and it] doesn’t make your life any better. It might be cool, it might be a fun time, but you’re literally drinking your wealth.
