Founder's Story - Turning Adversity into Triumph and Living a Life of Purpose with Andrew Spira | S2: E51

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

In this episode, Daniel Robbins interviews Andrew Spira, an entrepreneur and motivational speaker dedicated to social good and philanthropy. Andrew shares his journey from a challenging childhood to becoming an entrepreneur, driven by a hunger for a better life. His experiences have shaped his approach to business and life, where he emphasizes the importance of resilience, relatability, and giving back.Andrew discusses his work in helping disadvantaged individuals learn basic life skills, through his foundation, andrewspira.me, and his commitment to philanthropy, particularly in regions like Vanuatu. He also shares insights on how different cultures approach business and the importance of confidence in achieving success.Key Points Discussed:Andrew’s challenging childhood and early entrepreneurial ventures.The importance of resilience and relatability in business.Overcoming adversity and the mindset required for success.The role of mentorship and seeking advice from experienced entrepreneurs.Cultural differences in business practices between developing and developed nations.Andrew’s commitment to social good and philanthropy.The founding of andrewspira.me and its mission to teach basic life skills.Andrew’s philanthropic work in Vanuatu includes providing clean water to communities.The value of happiness and family-oriented cultures in places like Vanuatu.How to connect with Andrew Spira and learn more about his work.Relevant Links:Andrew SpiraOur Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Are you a professional pillow fighter, or a 9-to-5 low-cost time travel agent? Or maybe real estate sales on Mars is your profession? It doesn't matter. Whatever it is you do, however complex or intricate, Monday.com can help you organize, orchestrate, and make it more efficient. Monday.com is the one centralized platform for everything work-related. And with Monday.com, work is just easier. Monday.com, for whatever you run. Go to Monday.com to learn more. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Founders Story. Today, we have Andrew Spira. He's a successful entrepreneur, motivational speaker. He's doing a lot of amazing things when it comes to social good, social impact, philanthropy. And we are all about that. But as you know, entrepreneurship, it's an up and down. Many times you have so many ups, but you're always going to have a down moment. And how you deal with that is critical if you're going to even continue.

But Andrew, we're going to dive into that, starting with your story. So what made you say, I want to be an entrepreneur? Yeah, okay. So it goes back to my early childhood years. I came from a household where my parents got divorced at a young age. My mother and father separated when I was four years old. Ended up living with my mom, very bad conditions, didn't feed us properly. Lots of boyfriends that have been in and out of jail. So quite a unfortunate household. I ended up living with my dad at the age of eight. That wasn't much better. So, you know, as soon as I got to 11, 12, I really wanted to, you know, work out how I could get away from home.

And that's when I started, you know, finding things to buy and sell. Now, what I used to do is I used to buy the generation one iPhones off Gumtree cheap and go and trade them in. Or, you know, I was really good with gym supplements, like bringing in like Jack 3D at the time. I was like 12 years old and then reshipping it on eBay. So, you know, I was doing that before I was even a teenager. And then, you know, fast forward to when I was like 13, I was like buying and selling phones a lending business, a fintech company, which I was really, really fortunate to get a job in a fintech company. I learned that I figured it out and then went out and started my own business when I was 18 and a half. So that's what's led me on my

entrepreneurialism journey. I guess you would say it's hunger for money and hunger for a better life. The amazing part about business, I feel like everyone starts with the skill of sales. If you ask anyone, like, what was the first thing that you sold? You ask that to any entrepreneur, they can tell you, they remember that first thing. So when it comes to the skill sets that you found have been critical, what is one or two skill sets that you found have been critical what is one or two skill sets that you're like without these i can never go into business yeah i remember the first thing i saw it was an ipad just so you know um the um the biggest thing is being able to relate to someone making someone trust you making someone feel comfortable with you. And I think that's a skill set I'm really good with. You know, obviously I've been rich, I've been poor, I've been on the street. I've been in a lot of different scenarios now and,

you know, I can relate to people at all levels. And I think, you know, the super wealthy people that I deal with respect that. And that's why they ask for my help when they're dealing with people from different backgrounds. And then people that are not so fortunate also ask me for advice and how to improve their lives. I think the same way in terms of being relatable. So I always used to learn like one or two words in as many languages as I could in case I meet people or I'm selling to somebody from a different place. And I just want to start the conversation or just following up in the news, like studying global news helps you relate. So I'm totally on that skill being so critical. As we know, and I know you've talked about this, adversity is a part of business.

Like there is no way that you're going about this, adversity is a part of business. Like there is no way that you're going to go through business at always an upswing. There's going to be downs, whether that's financial, mental health, all these things. But how do you deal with adversity? Adversity is just the norm for me. You know, when everything's going really well, I go, okay, I'm always scanning ahead for problems. And, you know, I've actually, I had an issue last week, you know, everything was going smoothly. I'm capital raising, money's coming in, deals are going out, no issues with anything. I go, all right, there's going to be

a problem next week. And it's just, it's by default as a business owner, you expect that. Particularly, you know, I'm in the early stages, I'm young, you know, I haven't been going for 20, 30 years. So there's always little problems. And then, you know, Monday'm in the early stages. I'm young. You know, I haven't been going for 20, 30 years. So there's always little problems. And then, you know, Monday I got into an argument with someone in the high level member of my team. So, you know, over a certain process. So now I'm dealing with that this week. But, you know, dealing with that, back to your question, dealing with adversity, you know, for people like us, adversity is just normal. You know, we just, it's part of our brain functionality. So we just deal with it as, you know, as a normal situation,

we expect it. Yeah, that's a good point. It's like, you have to expect, there's going to be a lion somewhere out there that's going to be coming for you. Like you're in like the jungle and there's like an anaconda waiting to eat you somewhere and you're always like scanning for that. So I know that. But there's a fine line with that. There's a fine line with that as well. You know, you've got to have a really positive mindset. And that's what I've sort of taught myself. You've really got to, you know, believe in yourself. That's the biggest thing, believe in yourself and think that you can get through these adverse situations. Hey, everyone. I'm not sure if you've heard,

but our show Founders Story is now available on the iHeartRadio app. So check that out. iHeartRadio online or you grab the app. It's super easy. You can listen to all of our episodes wherever you enjoy your podcast, whether that's iHeartRadio, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and many more. But check it out. I think if you tell someone that, I don't know if anyone would go into business. If you told them, look, you have to have the most negative mindset, but you also have to have the most positive mindset at the same time. I think most people would be like, I'll just get a job. I'll just work for somebody else. But when it comes to mentorship, you had said, you know,

you're not you haven't been in business 20 or 30 years yet. So do you look to other people who have in terms of getting their advice, or maybe even other people that are also in their younger phases of business? Yeah, now, you know, I built an enormous pool of wealth or a decent pool of wealth during COVID. I lost everything. And now everything I do, I'm overly cautious. I'm in the process of rebuilding my wealth. I probably rebuilt my wealth now on paper. Everything I do, I ask for advice. I've got a mentor who's also my business partner and I also have befriended a couple of very successful Sydney entrepreneurs who also give me advice on everything I do I always bounce something you know very important decisions off someone even if I don't listen to their advice now so being being in different places

around the world or visiting places or experiencing global people, are you finding that different cultures or countries look at business or entrepreneurship differently? That's a really good question. The answer to that is yes. I'm doing a lot of work in developing nations these days. And the core principles of business are very different than an Australia or New Zealand or America, a first world country, you know, where we're typically doing business. These countries, they operate on respect and face value. I'm talking, like I'm in the Philippines at the moment.

I know we spoke about that before. And then Australia and New Zealand, it's, it's a little bit different. The core values are more around trust and, you know, reputation is huge in Australia. These countries, they, it's more about respect and, you know, yeah, I'll leave that there. Yeah, I know. I've seen this in some countries you legitimately have to be in front of somebody to do business with them you have to like shake their hand in person where like at least in my experience in the us we do we rarely meet people we just do business with people through so the last few months I've been practicing how to learn Spanish because it is really a passion of mine. I've been using Rosetta Stone. Why? Because it immerses you

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by automating questionnaires and demonstrating your security posture with a customer-facing trust center all powered by Vanta AI. Over 8,000 global companies like Atlassian, Flow Health, and Quora use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. Our audience gets a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta at Vanta.com slash founders. That's V-A-N-T-A.com slash founders for $1,000 off. Now back to the show. We talk over Zoom or talk over the phone, but we rarely physically have to sit down. But in Asia specifically, I've seen that. You have to physically be there, sit down. It's the only way to build trust. So let's talk about social good, though.

What made you want to go into social good, philanthropy? Why do you want to impact people? When I lost my initial pool of wealth, I always said, if I rebuild, I'm going to divert, devote, you know, 20% of my time into giving back just because I feel like I feel extremely lucky and fortunate to be in the situation that I'm in and to have had these adversities, but being able to overcome them. And, you know, that's led me on to start my foundation, Andrew Spira.me, which is helping people that are disadvantaged learn basic life skills. You'd be surprised, you know, people that have come from poor upbringings, you know, they're out on the street, they're in and out of jail, they're in and out of mental health institutions. And that's generally only because they don't know that they can get employment and they don't know that they can get housing, you know. So, you know, my big thing was, you know, I was doing some work, charity work. I got asked to do some charity work last year with

some kids. And, you know, I spoke to them and I said, what do you want to be? And they all say, oh, we want to be drug dealers. And you know, it's just not worth it. The drug dealers, I told them, you know, you're earning like one, two grand a week and it's in cash. If you go and get a job on a construction site, I can find you a job for three or four grand a week. So anyway, I wrote some resumes up for these kids, got them a job, show them how to use flatmates.com and get their own accommodation. In some circumstances, they're earning enough to get their own rental property. And, you know, now, you know, I've got kids that are one year, two years drug free and living their best lives.

They've got girlfriends, they're playing sport. And that's, that led me to actually turn it into some, an organization, which is andrewspiro.me, which has opened up globally. And weekly, we're sending out emails just with basic tips, with basic skills. Because that's the biggest thing disadvantaged people struggle with. It's basic skills. Like I'm 25, I'll be honest,

I still don't know how to make a bed because no one ever taught me how to make a bed. I don't know how to fold clothes because no one taught me how to fold clothes. And doing that is harder for me than making a million dollars, you know, and I genuinely mean that. So it's just teaching people basic skills, how to be in routine, how to, you know, to have a shower before you go to bed. You'd be surprised what, you know, turning the lights off before you go to bed. That's a big one. You know, people are just so

unorganized. They just need some basic organizational skills yeah i mean i think you know we could talk at length about where educational systems in different places are lacking giving out these i think they in my opinion they teach subjects or things that we don't even need anymore you know we have technology to do a lot of that but they don't teach some of these basic skills. And I think we take that for granted. The fact that if you know, you know, I know how to make my bed, but I don't, I didn't know that Andrew doesn't know how to make his bed. So, you know, we, I think when we know something, we think everyone knows it. So what are you seeing? And I know you just mentioned with these kids, are you also mentoring. And, you know, it's just lack of understanding of, it's lack of confidence. You know what it is? It's lack of confidence. People

don't believe in themselves that they can get a job or they can have a better life. They're just so used to, you know, life being hard, they literally don't know any better. And you'd be surprised a couple of minor changes can make a huge difference, you know, it can get you some momentum. And, you know, I'm, I'm helping people with those minor changes. Yeah, I've seen some of the best athletes in the world say that confidence is like the thing that made them versus somebody else who has the same skills but had a lack in confidence i mean i'm thinking of the olympics i see these people who broke world records last year who are now failing in a lot of their things and i wonder how much of that is lack

of confidence or somebody else maybe younger who has the ultimate higher confidence. So I mean, it's crazy how much that can change. I'm curious about Vanuatu. I've never been there. I just recently heard about it. I've studied and seen online that it looks like beautiful oceans, amazing place. Can you talk about anything that you're doing there? And tell me more about the area? Yeah, so Vanuatu a an island country in the pacific region um i've had good friends there pretty much my whole life so i've been involved with the place heavily um my a business partner in a couple of my businesses um he's second generation there and um he's he's uh got a business there and you know i regularly

go and visit him and work from his offices and you know i i fell in love with the ni vanuatu people which is the the traditional owners of the land in vanuatu so um you know it started off with a netball tournament they asked me to sponsor it i said yeah i went off with a netball tournament. They asked me to sponsor it. I said, yeah, I went along to the netball tournament. I actually played in the tournament. I had a really good time. And, you know, the look on everyone's face of happiness that I sponsored their tournament, I made it happen. It sort of gave me that drive to help out more.

You know, I'm always in regular contact with people there that have opportunities for me to help parts of Vanuatu. Recently, I invested in a drill, a water drill for a community on Tanna Island, which has, I don't know, it's probably given like at least 20,000 people clean water. So yeah, Vanuatu needs as much help as it can get. I think it's a great country and it just needs more people that are proactive and positive there. And I think it'll, there'll be some major changes. It's always humbling when you go to these smaller islands and you see, you know, the indigenous people who have been there or people who have been there for a while and they don't have a lot. And I wonder, sometimes

they seem happier. Sometimes I feel like when you're from certain places and you always have access to things or you want more, I almost find like our mental health and happiness is not as good than I go to a very small island you know like for me it's more of like in asia and i see these people have they don't have a huge amount of stuff they're in their family they have enough food to eat and they seem almost happier you hit the nail on the head vanuatu is it's the happiest place on earth like it actually is the happiest place on earth and people aren't motivated by money there. They're very family orientated. And yeah, they're so happy. I love being in Vanuatu. I feel so comfortable and you know, it's the type of place you could

leave your a million dollars cash in your house, leave the door open, go to Asia for a month, come back, the money would still be there. And there would have been a lot of people that seen it. Yeah. That's how safe and happy it is. One day I have to visit. I'm going to Australia soon. So I'm excited about that. But if people want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more information, they want to see how they can help as well. How can they do so? You can go to my website, andrewspire.me. My email and WhatsApp information are there. You can email me, contact me via WhatsApp. And I'm pretty active, so I'll be in touch fairly quickly. Awesome, Andrew.

Thank you so much for joining us today. And all that you do, because we are all about social good, philanthropy. It's a huge part of what we do. So thank you for that as well. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story. Keep exploring. Keep dreaming. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story. Keep exploring, keep dreaming, and join us next time for more inspiring entrepreneurial journeys.