The Resilient Mind - You Don’t Escape Poverty, You Outgrow It - Robert Herjavec

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

Robert Herjavec is a Croatian-Canadian entrepreneur, investor, and television personality best known as a “Shark” on Shark Tank. After immigrating to Canada as a child with little more than a single suitcase and $20, he founded BRAK Systems and sold it to AT&T Canada in 2000 for $30.2 million before launching The Herjavec Group in 2003, which grew into one of Canada’s leading cybersecurity firms. In 2021, Apax Partners acquired a majority stake in the company, and in 2024 he stepped down as CEO to focus on family, investing, and mentoring.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠Special thanks to Lewis Howes, subscribe to his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/lewishowesWatch the full interview on Lewis's page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2e0WeBCYIs&t=8s🌍 The Resilient Mind Podcast is a proud member of 1% for the Planet — building resilient minds and a resilient planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to, You Don't Escape Poverty, you outgrow it, with Robert Hergevek. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. So how do you learn to go from, I guess, a poverty situation and turn it into an abundance mindset? Like, when does that learn switch for you of like, we're in poverty, whether you knew it or not, but you've got a poverty mindset?

or maybe you didn't, but you're in experiencing poverty. When does that switch on to abundance of wealth mindset? It's a great question. And that's a great question. Somebody asked me yesterday because they knew my story. I went for a medical and the nurse was like, oh my God, I read about your story and you came to Canada with nothing. Blah, blah, blah.

It must have been so hard. And the truth is it wasn't. I mean, it was my mom and dad escaping from a country coming to, can on a boat with one suitcase and I'm the only child. Wow. So for them absolutely horrifically hard. Didn't speak the language, had no money, my dad was in jail, could never go back, the whole nine yards. Wow. Comes to a country, doesn't know anybody, doesn't speak the language. Now, I'm eight years old, first time on a boat. It's an adventure. It's an adventure. It's just been. Poverty wasn't my.

mindset. And I think that's a big difference. I think people that are born into poverty or encompassed in poverty, it's harder to get out of. My mindset was joy. Really? So I grew up on a small village with my grandma. Like the traditional vision of poverty, we had dirt floors, we didn't have a phone, like it was one of those, like it was a village. There was one phone. But if you want to get a hold of my grandmother, you called the guy with the phone. Right. And he came on me, like, but I didn't know we were poor because everybody around me lived like we lived. So enjoy. Oh, I mean, everyone allowed you to live the same. The same. So it wasn't you were rich. I was poor. We all lived in a little dirt floor, outhouse.

It was fine. But as a child, we had animals and it was joy. I didn't realize that we were poor until we came to Canada. And when I went to school, I remember this so clear. I don't remember the journey. I don't remember any of it. My mom thinks I blocked it all out. But I remember the first day of school and kids picking on me and making fun of me and telling me I'm a poor immigrant.

Wow. First day of school. First day of school. Because you don't speak English either at this point, right? And there was no English class. So they just threw you in. And that must have been kind of terrifying also. Terrifying.

I don't know. What's his teacher saying? I don't know anything. Yeah. And I came from an environment where I was really a lot of fun. My dad was the youngest of 15, tons of cousins. And I go into an environment where I literally don't speak the language and kids are making fun to me. I really don't know why they're making fun.

So I learned poverty and I learned poor. as a situation. So I never thought I was poor. I just thought the situation we were in is poor. And I know it's a very subtle difference, but I think you learn your mindset. And I think poverty is a learned mindset. And I think abundance is a learned mindset. I didn't learn a wealth mindset until later on. And I always think if I would have learned an abundance mindset sooner, I would be much wealthier today. The beginning for me is a poverty mindset is when you believe you're poor, or you believe that you are the cause of the situation you're in, or you believe that external circumstances have made you what you are. I never,

believed I was poor, I just believed our current situation was poor. Really? So I just, I got to a point where I don't want to be in that situation anymore. But there was nothing wrong with me. My mom loved me. I was a good human being. I just had to get out of this situation. So how do you learn then to get out of a situation of, I guess, poverty or not having a lot? How do you learn is it a skill? Is it a shift of energy? Is it a shift in thinking that allows you to get out of that situation? Is it a shift of I need to act in a different way? I need to become something different in order to create abundance. What does that shift look like? Yeah, that's a great question too. I think. And how old were you when you were like, okay, I'm not poor personally, but I'm in an environment

that isn't thriving? Probably around 12. Okay. Because it was just such a crappy environment. And we had no money. And at that point, I'd been poor in my mind for four years. And we constantly moved schools. So, you know, when you're an immigrant, you make a little bit of money.

You live in a crappy apartment. You make a little bit of money. You live in a better apartment. And so on. So by 12, I'd gone to like three different high schools. And my dad worked unbelievable amount of hours, like two shifts. Manual labor, I was saying. Yeah, a contractor.

Yeah, a little collar, factory, swept floors. I mean, eventually he became a millwright, taught himself. Somebody gave him an opportunity. And, you know, they paid off their house, which was, you know, the immigrant dream. Right. But I think at 12, I'd been living like that. that for four years. And we went to a better high school.

And every time we went to a better school, the kids around me had more. The richer. Yeah, yeah. You're like, I've got a little more, but they've got a lot more. So I'd be like, I'd be in this high school, and we'd make a little bit of money.

And I was poor, but the other kids weren't that much better off. And then we moved to a better house, and now the kids were way better off. And I was just like, wow, this is, I'm never gonna get out of this cycle. How do you get out of this cycle? And I think, do you feel like you've gotten out of that cycle at this season of your life? Because now as you start to generate wealth, you're around people that have million dollars, then $100 million, then billions.

And you're like, do you find yourself kind of still in that at some time? Very, very true. You know, there's an, what's the saying? You are the net result of five people you hang out with. And I think it's really true. I think that you are, it's very, very, very rare and hard to raise yourself up on your own. I think if your environment, your parents, your friends are constantly pulling you back, it's hard to keep going. Like I think back and I think none of my friends I grew up with ever made it.

And it would have been so easy to stay there. But I think as you do more and you get more, your circle influence and your friends becomes wider. For me, it was an energy shift. Now, I've always been pretty high energy, right? So I've always been like, go, go, go. What I didn't realize at the time was I was looking for external things. to make me better. It took me a long time to realize I can't,

I can't take external things to make me better until I become better. You know, I always say, show me a small business in trouble, and I'll show you an entrepreneur in trouble. Wow. It's very, very difficult to disassociate a lazy, unmotivated entrepreneur with a highly successful business and vice versa. And that was me at 12. I was just pure energy bouncing off the walls, you know, like we talked about.

I wanted to be a detective. I wanted to join the FBI. I wanted to be an actor because immigrants think if you're on TV, you're rich. I'm not to be poor, but I didn't know how to be rich. Interesting. And I understand that mindset. And as corny as it sounds, it always starts with you. It always starts with discipline.

It starts with habit. It starts with learning. So what did you start learning to support you from going to poor to abundance mindset? Sales. Really? Yeah. Sales. People always think I'm wealthy because I'm really good at computers.

And I am. I'm probably one of a handful of the top cyber. people in the world. But I'm not wealthy because of my knowledge of a task. I'm wealthy because of my knowledge of sales and how to get, how to sell what I'm doing to other people. What was the first lesson you learned in sales or the first sale you ever made in life? You can't force somebody to buy something they fundamentally don't need. And I was very lucky that way because if I would have been taught the used car sales mini schlocky way,

I mean, I was just hungry for knowledge. Like I would have gone any way. Like I always think if somebody would have taken me under their wing and they were like a con man, I would have been a con man. I was just very lucky. Like you and I talked about it, I got to learn from a guy named, Harry Rosen, who was a legend in Canada,

owned the biggest men's, and he was just a nice human being. So I went there to buy a suit, and it was like, this is a long time, it was like $1,200. And you're like, this is crazy. And I'm like, oh my God, I can't afford $1,200. It's more money than I'll make this month, kind of. Wow. And the salesman said to me, you know, if you work here,

you get to buy one suit every six months at 50% I'm not. So I was like, great. So I got a part-time job there. And I got a job there. And a guy who owns the place called Harry Rosen. Now it's a multi-billion dollar company. But Harry used to teach on Saturdays.

If you showed up an hour before the store opened, he would teach you how to dress. That's cool. You'll love this. So, like, the guy's a legend. It was like, even then it was like the biggest shop in Canada. and he says show up at 7, 30, because there's a store open at 9, and I'll teach you everything you need to know about dressing love, and how to sell to men. And I'm like, I'm so excited.

I leave. It was like a Wednesday. I show up on Saturday. Nobody there. Nobody there. So it's just him and I. Wow. No one else shows up.

No one else shows up. So later in the day, I say to my buddy, hey, how come nobody showed up? You know what he says? No one's paying me to show up. Oh. Interesting. Isn't that interesting? Your friend.

My friend. Yeah. I guess I'm getting paid. I go show up at nine because I get paid at nine. Yeah. I don't get paid. Interesting. I don't get paid.

What I heard is I don't get paid. He said, I don't get paid. to learn. And I always thought, man, I don't need to get paid to learn. I'll learn for free. I'll pay to learn. Yeah. I'm the best. Like I thought I would have paid him to teach me. It was great. He taught me everything. He got me everything how to dress, how to spot someone with money. So I've always been lucky that kind of found that I worked for Warren Avis, who started Avis rent a car. Wow. And like I've just been really fortunate to have great role models who were good human beings.

I mean, those two, I guess, mentors and people you worked for, they both have a billion-dollar brands now, right? Multiple billion-dollar brands? Yes. That's kind of rare that when you're in your teens, early 20s, you randomly, is it a random thing? Or do you just know, oh, this guy could be something one day. That's pretty impressive.

I just, I could have worked anywhere. I could have worked anywhere. could have worked at a local restaurant or a barbershopper that wouldn't have been this, you know, mega billion dollar business, but you worked for these two jobs. I think, how did I end up there, right? Because I think back and I think none of my buddies got a job in a men's clear. Like what, and so if I think about it, what I've always been good at is not lying to myself. I think I've always been brutally honest with.

myself. Like I told you, I went on my first sales call and went to see a customer and the customer said to me, you dress like crap. I've never had an ego for success. So if somebody said something to me and there's even an ounce of truth to it, I would take it in. I would leave my ego at the door. So when somebody said to me, you dress like crap, it wasn't like, oh, I'm so offended. What are they talking about? It was like, oh, do I dress like crap? And then you go home and you look And you're like, yeah, I dress like crap. How do I get better? And then it just looked up the best men's store. Wow. So I've always had an ability, I think, to be honest with myself. There's a saying that the biggest lies in life we tell are the ones we tell ourselves. What's been the biggest lie you've

been telling yourself lately? That I'm the biggest lie I've been telling myself lately. That I'm the biggest lie I've been telling myself lately is that I've made it. I got to a point where I felt like I've kind of made it. And just in the last few months, I've been thinking, hang on a sec. Because you tend to, you know, like I'm older now, I'm 62, and you think, oh, I'm kind of at the end of the road, because I know a lot of older people who are super successful and they're like kind of encosting and it begins to affect me. And I kind of went a few months where I'm like, yeah. And then when I'm like, hang on a sec. Like age is a number and there's lots of people that can start something at this age and

I have more capital than I've ever had. So yeah, I think I can still do it again. Interesting. So you've the live and telling yourselves, yourself as you've made it. But what is making it? You know, when have you made it? If someone looks at you or watches this and they're like,

if Robert doesn't think he's made it with all the money he has, all this success from multiple industries, from TV to personal brand to social media, everything you touch has blown up. If he doesn't think he's made it, I have no chance of making it. That's such a great question because you think about that. When you're starting out,

always think, oh, if I had a bigger house. Yeah. Like, you know, you live here and you drive by Bel Air. Sure. And you think, oh, if I had a house over there, I made it. Or you have a, I don't know, a corvette. You think, oh, if I had a friarier, and you think, oh, if I had a jet. And then you have a jet.

And then you think, what if I have a bigger jet? Like when I sold my last company in my mind, I had, what did I have? I had a G4. Right. Right. And I used to think, I mean, this is how shallow it was. I used to think, oh, if I had a G6. Come on.

Then I've made it. I've made it. Because my G4 or my G5. And so I sold the business and literally within two weeks, I bought a G6. And this is a long time ago. Now I think, I don't think in terms of things, of making it, I think in terms of potential. So when I think I haven't made it, I don't think I've reached my potential.

So I don't, there is no car I want to buy or no jet I need to buy or no home I need to buy to fulfill me. What I need is I need to feel like I've drained every part of my potential. I want to feel like when I'm my mind, death bet that I say I couldn't have done more. Wow. And whatever that is, because I think it's different for everybody. Yeah. So for me right now, it's really about getting super fit. It's about starting another business. It's just about taking everything I've learned and applying it. If you could share the top three lessons you've learned from billionaires, what would those

three lessons be? While number one knee jerk is absolute obstinate obsession about their skill stuff. Not about the world in general, but about that one thing. Do you know what I mean? Like it's not all the billionaires I know would struggle on jeopardy. Right. General knowledge doesn't get rewarded. Just a specific knowledge.

And so that's the first thing that comes to mind. I don't know a single billionaire that isn't a world-class expert at a very narrow singular task. I think the second one would be curiosity. It's hard to be abundant if you're not curious. I love to learn. I love to, you know, how did you start the podcast? How did you, like, I'm fast. fascinated. And I think that comes into because people of great wealth tend to be problem solvers.

You know, we tend to like problems. And I think the third one would be discipline. Now, discipline is different, right? Like, discipline to me is fit body, fit mind. fit business. But I have billionaire friends who are slops. Sloppy, right? Yeah. You know, they're, they don't, they eat like crap, they're overweight, they don't care, but they're extremely disciplined about their business. Like, I think the discipline applies to who you are and everybody can be different. I think those are the three. Here's a, here's a question for you that I think a lot of people, because I have a lot of fit people in my audience, a lot of fitness professionals and people in the health and wellness industry who struggle

at making money. They're really good at taking care of their health and they're jacked or they're fit or they eat all the right foods, but they haven't unlocked how to create financial abundance. So if someone is healthy physically, emotionally, spiritually, but financially hasn't cracked that code yet. What is missing from them to create that financial abundance? It's a great question. I think it's the same reason why people who are wealthy aren't fit.

What is that reason? They look at the superficial, easy ways to do it. So people that have a lot of wealth think that they can get fit by taking a drug. Or surgery or surgery. Or they look for placebo-type band-aids. I think anything hard. is discipline and habit. So people that are super fit have discipline and habit,

but they're like me when I was a teen. They don't know where to apply. You know, interesting story for you years ago, because I've always been a pretty fit guy. So years ago, the Army Rangers reached out to me and asked if I'd like to go to a training camp. And, you know, I think I'm pretty fit. So I was like, yeah, rah.

Anyway, long story, I went, completely kick my ass, huge amount of respect for people in the military, the discipline. When it was done, I sat down with the guy who ran the training program. And the kind of did analysis of over the last couple of weeks, which you did well, which you didn't. And I said to him, people in the military must be great of business. Because think about it. Discipline, habit.

Like, no one has that more than Army Rangers or most people in the military. He said something very interesting, which was, it's very rare that people in the military do well in distance. Why is that? Why do you think? I think because there used to be following the rules and taking orders probably in saying, what do I need to do to make sure that my boss is happy and staying in line with the team? That's part of it. And that was my answer.

Because you can't break the military mold of how things are done. This is the way it's done. We're not going to change because you have a different opinion about how to run our unit. So I said the same thing. Okay. And that's part of it. But he said there's a bigger reason. Tell me, yeah.

And the bigger reason is purpose. People join the military because they have a need to do something greater than themselves. Think about that. You're willing to lay your life down for our country. Like, think about that commitment. Like, that's not, gee, do I, you know, am I kind of into it or not? Like, that is an all-in, passionate commitment. I am willing to die, wow, for my cause.

So then they leave the military, they get a job in sales, and their boss says, If you don't make your number, we're not going to make it for the quarter. And they struggle with that. They're a void of purpose. When you have that great a purpose and that leaves you, it's very hard to replace it with a different purpose. You would think they could, but he said that was the reason. Wow. And so I think it's both.

Yeah, yeah. Right? Like I think people with great wealth don't have a purpose. to get fit and people that are super fit, really at the core. Show me somebody who's done great things, and I'll show you somebody with unbelievable purpose. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.