Into the Impossible With Brian Keating - Bill Pulte: Twitter Philanthropy! (#151)

Episode Date: May 25, 2021

Bill Pulte, a 30 something investor and entrepreneur coined the term “Twitter Philanthropy”. He has given away $800k+ via Cash App to those in need. Pulte’s grandfather (William Pulte) founded PulteGroup, one of America’s largest home construction and real estate development firms. Inspired by Bill, I'm giving away $100 to a science teacher to use to buy a piece of instructional equipment to inspire young people! Follow us on Twitter enter the competion. Tune in live at 11:30a Pacific Time | 2:30p ET on Friday 21 May 2021 when I'll choose the winner! https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating https://twitter.com/pulte Read more about Bill: https://thehustle.co/bill-pulte-q-and-a-trung-phan/ Thanks to our sponsors! https://magbreakthrough.com/impossible http://betterhelp.com/impossible Please join my mailing list to learn life lessons from the World's Smartest Billionaire, Jim Simons; just click here 👉 http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php 📝 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Out there into the impossible with a very, very special guest. This is Bill Pulte, who is the Twitter philanthropist extraordinaire, a fascinating character. He has inspired me to do something, which I had never really done before, thought about doing, how I could help people, how I could live vicariously. through the young people that I seek to influence. This is one of my jobs. My goal in life is to inspire a million minds to always be curious. Bill, ABC in the business world, always be closing. No, it stands for always be curious. So how are you doing today in Florida?

I'm doing great. Happy to be here. Thanks. I've been following your work now for a little while, and it's pretty cool stuff you do. Well, likewise, I really, I really, respected look up to what you do and the infectious enthusiasm that you have for making the world a better place. And the place that I wanted to start with is how you got this epic mission to affect millions of people worldwide. And I'm trying to emulate at the end of today's live stream, I'm going to give away to a lucky science teacher, $100 via cash apps, emulating you how you do it so effectively. I'm just trying to be like you. So everybody tried to get his money.

Everybody who's listening. Yeah, so go on Twitter. Tweet me your favorite idea for a scientific teaching tool. It could be a microscope, telescope, Petri did it, whatever you think of, something creative. I'll select it live. And Bill and I will choose the winner and we'll tweet it out and I'll send you 100 bucks via cash. But Bill, how did you get started with this epic mission?

Well, I basically had the idea to give away money on the internet. I don't know really where I came from. But as you know, when you have a good idea, it just kind of hits like lightning. And you just say, oh, my God, you know, maybe I should try this thing out. So people originally thought I was crazy for giving away money. People actually, some of my friends send me messages and they would say, hey, did your account get hacked? Because it's claiming to give away money on Twitter.

And it just didn't make any sense. And it really began a movement, I would say, of giving money to people on the Internet. And you see it now. it's widespread all over Twitter. I mean, obviously there's there's scams and people trying to scam people out of money and all this kind of stuff. But scams have been going on forever, whether it's with mail fraud or people robbing banks or whatever. It's just now we have technology. And so people are now able to send money to each other. Obviously, there's consequences that come with that. But it's really become, Brian, a very viral movement. And we couldn't be happier with

the success that we've had. I mean, it's exceeded my wildest sex. expectations. And tell me about your upbringing. Tell me about your story. What's your origin story? You know, I'm a cosmologist. I talk about the origin of the universe, the passion that I have, the curiosity that I have. What are you most curious about?

What were you like as a young person that, you know, you're doing something so unusual? What were you like as a kid that brought you to where you are now? Well, I didn't really understand the power of giving until I was older and until I had money. And even that, it was weird because when you, when you have money, is. you probably know you got the money by saying how do I get money and how do I keep money for myself and so it's a little bit counterintuitive you know okay I've been working to get money for myself and for my family and now I have the ability to give it to people so I think that that was something that was learned and I learned that from frankly my grandfather who was a very generous guy

and you know I didn't really learn it until an older age I wish I mean I was I like to think that I always kind and nice and giving when I was young, but, you know, really once I had resources and stuff that I start to give to people. Yeah, I mean, I like to think when people say, you know, for me personally, there's a religious commandment for me as a practicing Jew. It's a commandment to give away 10 percent, but there's also a maximum component. And I wonder, sometimes I think about you, Bill, and I worry, like, can you do too much? Not to, like, be too flattering or too egotistical, but, you know, there's a commandment that you shouldn't give more than 20% away in the Bible, in the Torah,

the Old Testament, because there's a certain sense that you could get too full of yourself. Like, you're doing too much, like, leave room for God. And I'm not going to proselytize. I never do that. It's actually forbidden in Judaism to proselytize. But I want to ask you, like, is there a danger you could do too much and start to think that, like, you know, it depends on you. Too much.

I actually say that Twitter philanthropy will never be successful so long as it is dependent on me. And what I try to do basically is try to get other people to donate and help people who are in critical need. I mean, nothing would make me happier, frankly, than to turn my account in, like, incognito mode and just watch everybody take care of each other. And that really happens. I mean, if you see on Twitter now, you'll often see somebody who's struggling with cancer or really having a hard time. And people will find that person. And, you know, nine times out to 10, if they're really hurting, somebody's going to come and give them a month. and take care of them. So to me, that is central to my mission is removing myself from me,

from Twitter philanthropy, and making it sustainable above and beyond me. So we'll see. It's going to take some time. And I think, you know, we continue to make progress with, you know, just the amount of people that are getting involved with Twitter philanthropy. I mean, Brian, I don't know if you know, but our average donation is about $14. And this is from people from all across the globe. So when I posted like yesterday, I think there was a four-year-old. who had cancer. And boom, I put it up four minutes later, you know, her whole family's rent and travel, I think, was paid for it. So when you think about the challenges that are inevitable, the hurdles that you face, you know, what kinds of barriers or challenges are still facing you

and what, you know, have been the surprising, you know, hurdles that you've overcome that you might have thought would be unrecoverable or impossible, as we say, in the Intimossible podcast. But because you overcame them, you know, you're sort of on the other side. Yeah, and you can hear me, right, because it's cracking up on my side. Yeah, it was a little bit crackly for a second there. Yeah. So can you say the last part of the question? I'm sorry.

Oh, I was going to say, what challenges, you know, did you anticipate, you know, in the beginning of your mission? Oh, it's still like really noisy. Is there like a keyboard or is that, is that you think, you know what's causing that? I'm not sure with that. I got a strong internet too. So today I do. Huh. I wonder what that sounds is.

You want me to restart? Yeah, maybe log. Let me take you out and I'll try to put you back in the room. Let me see here. I can take you off here. Let's see. How about that? And now, yeah, let's see.

Okay, now he's out of the room. Let's see if he'll come back in. I'm talking with Bill Pulte, the innovator behind Twitter philanthropy, who's given away millions of dollars to help millions of people in a mission to make the world a better place. And he's inspired me at the end of this live stream. We're going to give away $100 to a teacher because I believe teachers change the world more than any other individual. Let's see if he is there. Hey, Bell, can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you.

Great. Okay, that's better now. Yeah. I don't know what I'm there. I was asking about challenges. And so inevitably, a challenge makes someone stronger. But have there been kind of more challenges than you expected? Or has it been kind of getting easier with time or is it getting harder with time?

How have been the barriers to your mission? How have they been progressing? Yeah, I would say that it just continues to get easier and easier and easier in terms of doing it because I'm getting more fluency. you know, my family's background was in housing and my background was in housing supplies. So, you know, that's really my expertise, that in business. And so I'm starting to understand more of the viral network and the viral capabilities of how to get things to go viral, but viral in a way where especially you can help people and raise a lot of money and those type of things.

So it just continues to get easier and easier and God willing it will keep doing that. So people in the chat room are saying that you're their eyes. They want to make money to give it away. And you talked about one point, you know, Sam Walton was an idol, you know, of, of yours. He, you know, kind of prototypical founder of Walmart, you know, made, made tons of money. But we also see that there are, you know, kind of vilifications that people have of people that make great wealth. In your opinion, what is the purpose of wealth? What can wealth be good for?

Can it be used for purposes that aren't so pure? What is the purpose and the meaning of wealth to you, Bill? At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV! Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live.

There were thousands of movies and shows, and they were all free. The truth is out. It's just so beautiful. On Pluto TV, free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 NX files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials, no credit cards or alien encounters necessary.

Pluto TV, stream now pay. never. It's a great question. From my perspective, money is just resources and resources to do whatever somebody wishes. You know, somebody says, oh, you know, money is the root of all evil, and there may very well be truth to that. But in the hands of the right person or right people, I think that money can be a great influence. And instead of relying on the government, to your point, you know, this fancy word called philanthropist, I think, is just somebody who has money who has resources. You could put whatever label you want on it. And those people are the people, in my opinion, who've figured out a way to get money and in many cases can do things more

efficiently than the government. I mean, for example, my background was in business. And so when I looked at Twitter philanthropy, I didn't look at it in terms of anything other than, okay, why is commerce not being done through technology? We have Amazon.com, we have Google, we have these other things so why not why not reinvent charity with with technology and I think that that's really what is the big story of what we've done is using technology for good and I think that sometimes you can call it philanthropist you can put whatever label you want on it but sometimes business people or people who've you know innovated can bring innovation to something and and it really helps

people and I'd like to think that's what we've done now I mean we've really brought, we're bringing charity in the 21st century, I say, by what we're doing on Twitter. You know, no more, and I love corporate over, I love, you know, charitable overheads and charitable dinners, and Lord knows you and me have been to a lot of those things. But this totally gets rid of all the guts of all that cost and just connects it peer to peer. Yeah, that's the end of it. That's the decentralized philanthropy. So I call it D-5, P-H-I.

And speaking of government, people in the chat room are saying Pulte 2024. Can you say anything about those rumors, Bill? No. You're too young to be president, right? I guess so. You have to be, what, 35 or something? 35, yeah, a couple more years. He'll be there, my friend.

Talk to me about... Not happening. You're not happening. Okay, yeah, he denies those rumors right now. We've got people from all different backgrounds. And so I want to talk about education. Do you have an educator or somebody that taught you, you know, maybe in finance, maybe in philanthropy, because I am an educator. And that is an awesome responsibility.

I'll just tell you, as I say often the word scientists in the Russian language, and Russians are some of the best scientists in history, that means someone who was taught. It doesn't mean, you know, that you came from a special background. It just means you were taught. To me, that means you have an obligation to give back and you have to become a teacher. I feel like I have to teach and I have to give back. And if I can give back financially too, so be it. What did a teacher teach you? What lessons you take away from great teachers in your life?

Well, it's funny you ask that because what I try to do is not just give my money online, but is to inspire other people to give online. But frankly, the root of what I'm trying to do is teach people how to help themselves. And so in many ways, I think that, you know, that is really, you know, it's like, I think it was, I forget the exact part of the Bible, but, you know, where they said, you know, teach somebody how to fish instead of just giving them fish. Right. So, yeah, you know, there are definitely people who've educated me.

But I wouldn't say that in philanthropy, it's really been from the academic world. It was more from my grandfather who taught me, you know, that really to give is to receive and that people can get a lot of happiness counterintuitively by giving away stuff. And, you know, if ever I'm having a tough day or if I'm, you know, busy working or something like that, and I just want to breathe there, you know, there's nothing better than getting online and finding somebody who's really got it bad and taking care of them. So, you know, I'm not here to say, oh, I'm doing this because, you know, I'm a good guy or anything like that. In fact, I tell people, don't tell me that because it's not good for anybody's psychology.

And number two is I'm doing it in a way selfishly. And I believe it's kind of like when you're on an airplane. And they're saying things about, like, you know, how you need to get your, take the oxygen mask before you help others. I mean, that's kind of the way I view even charity is, you know, it's all right to be selfish, in my opinion, when you give. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's right. There's a kind of virtue and taking care of other people that you benefit yourself. It's the one thing that giving away makes you richer. And I think, you know, people are saying in the chat room, we got hundreds of people, leave a thumbs up if you're enjoying this live stream. If you like Bill's epic mission, if you've learned from Bill, if you've been inspired by Bill to give in your own way. Look, 10%. You can give 10% if you have a dollar. You can give 10% if you have a dollar. You can give 10% if you have nothing. You can give 10% if you have your time. We have that clicking. down again, Bill. I don't know if you want to jump back in again. I'll put you out and then maybe you want to log back in. Sure. Yeah, yeah, I'll try that one more time. Just a reminder, we've got

people tuning in from around the world. And this is really epic. I've never had so many people from around the world. I do ask you to subscribe to the channel. If you're new here, we talk out to the greatest minds in human history. I've had three billionaires, nine Nobel Prize winners, an astronaut while she was live aboard the International Space Station. We do these live streams quite frequently and we just really love to connect a million minds in a multiverse of the world's greatest talent and the world's greatest inspiring figures of which Bill is one. Bill, we're getting comments and questions from people from Kenya, from the Middle East, from all over the world.

It's so amazing the things that you do. So if you've been inspired by Bill, leave a thumbs up, leave a comment. Let me know your question. If a teacher made something, did something for you and any. case. So then the last thing I want to say is this, has Twitter reached out to you? Have you been, you know, contacted by Twitter? You're kind of doing some marvelous, you know, public relations for Twitter. Have they been supportive of your mission? They have been. And I've spoken with a few of the executives there. I think they really like it. I think one of the things that they

like is that number one in success. But I think, you know, I don't want to speak for them. But I think that they really like the organic nature of it. In other words, you know, this is not something that was paid by a corporation or this is not something, this is not some kind of ad campaign or something phony, right? This is straight from, you know, people wanting to help other people out. And, and it's a very viral movement. It's just people wanting to take care of people. And so I think when they see that, when they see the photos of the people with cancer, getting help and, you know, these other things, as I've understood from them, they very, very much enjoy it and encourage it. That's really wonderful.

And then you chose Twitter, of course. You could have chosen any of the different social media platforms, of course. The other thing that fascinates me, you've gotten interested in cryptocurrency. You've expressed support for past guests that I've had on my show, such as Michael Saylor and other folks. What is that, what do you like about that cryptocurrency as a modality? Not necessarily has to be related to philanthropy, but what does it mean to? It is related to philanthropy. Yeah, tell me about it.

It's very much related to philanthropy. And I think that, you know, one of the things that people are, because I get questions all the time about cryptocurrency and why I'm in favor of it and stuff. And I think that Bitcoin is really empowering the individual. It's really about, you know, the individual person taking control of their own. destiny. And you know, you have the government who, you know, Lord knows it's political and all these people do is fight and they hate each other and all this crap. And Bitcoin kind of cuts out all that crap. And I think that Bitcoin, frankly, can be a huge engine for, you know, as I said,

it's a fancy label called philanthropy. But, and I like the word, but I just, I think sometimes you make it too complicated, you know. And so Bitcoin, I think pierces through the philanthropy. And Anthropy label, and if we can get Bitcoin to more people, they as individuals can be empowered. And I think that an empowered individual is a very, very strong force. And I think individuals can actually take care of each other in a very viral way. And we're seeing that with Twitter. And I would predict, Brian, if we're sitting here 10, 20 years from now and we're doing an interview, which hopefully you and I are, we're around for a long time, I would predict in 10 or 20,

years you're going to see peer-to-peer people helping each other, people lending each other money to each other, of course, all legally, but in a way that gets at acute needs. Because this whole idea of waiting for bureaucratic, paper-oriented government systems to go and help people is just so 18th century. And I would expect that the 21st century really starts to pick up steam. Absolutely. Okay, Bill. We were really. reaching slowly to the end of the live stream before I have to teach my students about cosmology in the universe. But before we do, I just want to remind people to please follow Bill on Twitter and follow his epic mission. I'm also on Twitter at Dr. Brian Keating. And on YouTube, Dr.

Brian Keating, please subscribe. Everybody will follow. Yes, please do. I can use it. I can use the fans because I want to emulate Bill and the science community. I want to be the Bill Pulte of the science philanthropy community to inspire a million minds to learn about science because if we're ever going to become interplanetary, intergalactic, we're going to need a million scientific minds to be funded and educated, build just the same way. And we can do that with bits and bites as well. But we need funding to do that as well,

and I'm hoping to emulate you as much as possible. I ask all my guests who treasure I treasure so much. I've done it with billionaires. I've done it with Nobel Prize winners. I want to do it with you. And a quick rundown of what I call the thrilling three questions. These are existential questions. Then we'll give away $100 to the winner of the,

of the science Twitter giveaway, and that is, I want to ask you three questions, which is, what do you want when you reach the biblical age of 120 years old? What do you want to leave as a bit of ethical wisdom or wisdom that you've learned in general, not monetary, but purely wisdom, for future generations to know what is most important to you that future generations should know?

Just to give it to receive and to not be worried about it being selfish, because actually in some ways being selfish can actually be a great gift to other people. So to give us to receive and don't worry about doing it for purposes of, you know, wanting to feel good about yourself. Things can be a win-win. Charity doesn't need to be a zero-sum game. Okay, wonderful. Next question I have is about...

Is that fair? Yeah, that's wonderful. I love it. The next one has to do with going into the future as well, and that is if you could have a time capsule. that would last for a billion years and could kind of represent the pinnacle of what humankind has achieved or could achieve to kind of tell aliens about what we achieved on earth. What kind of represents to you the greatest accomplishment of all of humankind? That's a great question.

I would have to say the, at least, you know, from my vantage point, the invention of the internet and the invention of being able to have deflation, you know, back in the 1970s, for example, and who knows, we may have inflation in the coming months and stuff like that. But generally speaking, I think that technology has been very deflating for prices, and I think that that has actually lifted a lot of people out of poverty, or at least made progress for people easier to obtain. So I think that's probably the best thing that we've done is use technology, whether it's Amazon or what have you to really make things more affordable for people so more people

can be lifted out of poverty. That's awesome. Great. And then the final question that I ask all of my treasured guests who honor me with their presence on this show has to do with the past. So usually I'm asking 80-year-old Nobel Prize winners or billionaires like Jim Simons or whatever. Yeah, sorry. None of those. I want to ask you, what happened? Well, you know, the first billion is the hardest, they tell me. The first Nobel Prize is the hardest bill. So don't worry, you got plenty of time. But I want to ask you, as a 20-year-old or a 15-year-old, you're so young, what mysterious aspect of life perplexed you? But thanks to your courage, you had the courage to go into the impossible. That's the title of my podcast. It's a quote from Arthur C. Clark, who said,

the only way of knowing the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. That's how I chose the name of this podcast. So I want to ask you, what seemed impossible to you as a 20-year-old that now seems possible? You had the courage to go into the impossible. I think that I love the name, anything in the impossible, because I think that name, anything in the impossible, right? A lot of other people would have said even when we started giving away money on Twitter, oh, that's impossible. What the hell are you doing doing that? That's crazy talk. You shouldn't be giving away money. It's impossible. So I think that that is a huge one. one is, you know, not seeing limits and there's no such word as can't, thinking outside the

box. But in terms of, you know, my own life and past, like you were asking, is, like, I think, you know, and look, I don't, I'm not going to sit here and say I'm fine with death. Obviously, who wants to die? But I think that, you know, confronting death and confronting our own mortality in a certain way, too, that has helped really crystallize my thoughts on charity. Because, you know, at the end of the day, all of our clocks are going to run out. And so I think death is the great equalizer. And, you know, at least that's helped me quite a bit, punch through things that I would normally think were impossible, but death has a way of certainly, you know, in God, obviously. And, you know, you could argue those two things are related. You know, that has helped me

punch through things that I believe to be impossible. Wonderful, Bill. You're so deep. And you're a modern day philosopher yourself. I want to thank you for going into the impossible. I don't know about that. What you just said really echoes the words of Audrey Hepburn, the great actor. She said nothing is impossible. The very word itself says, I'm possible. I'm possible. Never forget that. Bill, okay, we're ready to give away $100 to one of my subscribers. So please subscribe to Bill and subscribe to me. Let's get Bill to three million subscribers. He needs it badly. He's only a couple of thousand away. Mr. Kyle Grant, at Mr. Kyle

Grant, he subscribed and he has requested a telescope. So that was my first scientific instrument. He sent me a suggestion that we should get a telescope as a scientific instrument. So that is the man

who won, the teacher that won the science Twitter giveaway. So congratulations to Kyle Grant. That was my first scientific instrument. I will send it to him via cash and I'm now connected to him. Thank you, Bill, for really inspiring me, inspiring millions of people around the world. I can't thank you enough.

I hope you'll come back and we'll do this again. Maybe we'll make this a tradition. And really, from the bottom of my heart, I hope we meet in person someday, my friend. That would be great. I would enjoy it. And my wife is a chemical engineer, so she would love to speak with you about everything that you're doing. Phenomenal. It will probably end up being you and her talking.

I would love it. That would be a treat for me. Bill Pulte, thank you so much. Subscribe to him, find out about his epic mission and contribute whatever way you can out there. And please join my mission to inspire a million minds in the multiverse to always be curious.

ABC, that's the mission of my life to teach and to be well out there in our beautiful, beautiful cosmos. And for now, I'm signing off. Subscribe to the channel for videos interviews with billionaires, brainiacs, and a host of the world's greatest minds. It's a privilege. It's an honor.

I'm so happy to share my life and my curiosity with great intellects and the greatest minds in history. So I want to thank you for sharing this incredibly rapid, brief amount of time with me before I go teach my children, not children, some of them are adults now, but I get to teach at UC San Diego, where I am the co-associate director of the Arthur. FSC Clark Center for Human Imagination. Check me out. Dr. Brian Keating, give me a comment. Let me know what you thought of this. If you'd like me to do it again, I will certainly try to raise another $100 from my piggy bank and try to support more great teachers out there.

For now, look at my playlist and enjoy some of the great interviews I've done. There's more with Jim Simons, a great philanthropist, Michael Saylor. I'm hoping to have Ray Dalio on the show very soon. Talk about his epic missions and his advice as a human being. as a philanthropist, as a father, and as a true philosopher as well. So with that, I bid you a wonderful rest of your day in this wonderful planet. And I wish you blessings wherever you are. I treasure my audience. And I thank you for going Into the Impossible with me.

Yours truly, Dr. Ryan Keating. My everybody. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Thanks for listening to Into the Impossible with Professor. Brian Keating. Please support the show by rating, commenting, sharing, and leaving reviews. We appreciate hearing from you and it really helps keep our universe expanding. Watch our YouTube channel at Dr. Brian Keating. That's DR. Brian Keating and join our premieres Tuesdays at 8 a.m. Pacific Time. Follow Brian on Twitter and Medium and support us on Patreon

at Dr. Brian Keating. For exclusive content, visit Brian Keating's website and sign up for his informative newsletter at Brian Keating.com. Into the Impossible is produced with the Arthur C. Clark Center for Human Imagination in the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. Produced by Stuart Volko and Brian Keating.