This is the artificial intelligence voice of Shaan Puri narrating this pod slice summary of the My First Million Podcast.

In this part of the My First Million podcast, Shaan Puri has an insightful discussion with self-made entrepreneur Jess Mah. Already assessing a business portfolio holding a valuation just south of a billion dollars, Jess is highlighted as a hidden gem, largely unknown to wider audiences yet deemed one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs by industry aficionados such as Paul Graham and Sam Alman.

As the founder of 10 companies, including a multi-million-dollar financial SaaS operation called Indinero, Mah’s journey has been anything but straightforward. Labeling herself a born misfit, finding her groove in school was challenging. In the face of these adversities, however, she discovered entrepreneurship and began to find her path. As a teenager, Jess ran a server business, which was initially birthed to fund her own video games and later morphed into her first venture into wealth generation.

Part of what seems to have driven Mah’s success is her resilience and adaptability. Although she self-admittedly “got a C minus in biology,” she now spearheads multiple companies in the biotech sector. This transition, she explains, was fueled by a desire to “do the big bold crazy, change the world thing,” a sentiment she believes many of us suppress due to insecurity. She details her journey from confusion and depression to establishing a life she desired. She shares her experience meeting scientists, seeking funding, and learning how to believe in her capabilities.

Another major theme in this part of the interview revolves around Jess Mah’s openness about wealth and the lifestyle it affords. She doesn’t shy away from discussing details of her lifestyle, including private jet usage and associated tax benefits. The hosts highlight these insights, expressing appreciation for Jess’s straightforwardness regarding her financial situation, which is a break from the typical billionaire who downplays their wealth.

Mah describes herself as shy and modest, indicating that she typically feels like the least intelligent and successful person in the room, an astonishing admission given her achievements. Notwithstanding, she reveals that she managed to grow Indinero without the need for traditional venture funding. Despite the financial scares coming from running a lean organization, Indinero ultimately became a cash-positive business. Through these experiences, Mah found that she didn’t need to occupy the CEO’s role to be part of successful ventures. By studying billionaires’ ways of acquiring and managing their wealth, she realized that a diversified holding company strategy became a better fit for her entrepreneurial aspirations.

In the midst of the podcast, Jess Mah reveals that she faced a major life crisis a few years back when her boyfriend, with whom she lived, died unexpectedly. Filled with grief and depression, she found it difficult to focus on work. She toyed with the idea, ‘What if this was my last year here?’ At this low point, she decided to step down from active roles and let others take charge. This gave birth to a diverse portfolio of ventures, run by the experts she hired, thus paving her journey from an active entrepreneur to a more strategic role of an investor.

In a twist of irony, she found herself attracted to biotech despite her confessed ‘C minus in biology.’ The motivation behind this transition rooted in her newfound perspective on mortality and failure post her boyfriend’s demise.

The discussion takes a personal turn as issues about learning, insecurity and facing one’s fears are explored. Recognizing the challenges of abandoning your comfort zone and the inherent anxiety of starting from scratch, both Jess and Shaan share instances about feeling like beginners in a completely alien field. Yet it’s evident that the fear hasn’t stopped them, with Jess stressing that being happy in the process and learning outweighs the outcome.

The conversation veers towards examining what one would do with a billion dollars and no obligation to stick to their current job. Jess uses this question as a gauge for understanding people’s true desires and motivations.

She touches upon a recurring nightmare featuring her struggles at school, and her profound fear of failure in the biotech industry, augmented by the cautionary tale of Elizabeth Holmes. Yet, recognizing these fears and insecurities failed to quell her ambition. Determination kicked in; a biology tutor was hired, TED talks scrutinized, scientists met, and experienced biotech industry veterans brought on board. She leveled up the playing field, not by herself being the expert, but by surrounding herself with them.

In a lighter vein, they discuss the strange dynamic of accomplished billionaires meticulously downplaying their wealth and success. Drawing from personal experiences, Shaan offers insights into the psychology of a successful entrepreneur when presented with a 100 million dollars, addressing the fascinating paradox. Do they stay because they love the work or are they simply entangled in the charm of a corporate Kool-Aid?

Shaan Puri shares an honest conversation about career choices, aspirations and honesty in a professional environment during his podcast with Jess Mah. He begins by challenging the idea of waiting for ideal circumstances to pursue one’s true desires. Shaan emphasizes that a great part of his life, such as hosting his podcast, is exactly what he’d be doing irrespective of the wealth he possesses. He then contrasts with another part of his life, linking to a company they’d recently established. Shaan admits that this venture was purely opportunistic and far from being an ongoing passion project. Despite recognizing its financial success potential, Shaan confesses he wouldn’t commit to it if his economic needs were entirely met.

As the conversation continues, the hosts circle back to the idea of what they’d choose to do if they could disassociate themselves from the necessities of earning. Shaan reveals that he’d dedicate his life to teaching, either via the mediums he currently uses for communication like podcasting, writing books, or by creating a learning campus for individuals sharing his curiosity and drive.

Jess, resonating with Shaan’s idea, suggests that many of their ambitions don’t necessarily require waiting until they’ve amassed huge wealth. Sharing the common interest in bio ventures, she illustrates her point by stating that even if they don’t have the capital, they know people who do, hence the venture can still come to life.

The discussion intensifies as Jess raises several intriguing points about life priorities changing over time, the risk of getting stuck in comfort zones and allowing dreams to remain dreams forever. She warns about the dangers of waiting, reflecting on how life slips by while ambitions remain unfulfilled. Shaan adds how choosing to wait may actually lead one further away from their goals, as this gap of waiting often gets filled with other activities, adding more responsibilities, and diverting one from the path to their true desires.

Shaan further illustrates this point by sharing an experience from his time at Twitch. During a meeting with his boss, Dan, Shaan was asked about his career goals. He decided to be honest, expressing his interest in becoming independent and building something of his own rather than craving promotions within the company. He was then told bluntly to just go ahead with what he truly wanted to do instead of accumulating wealth or resources first. This conversation resonated with Shaan, who later cites Tony Robbin’s TED Talk emphasizing the same idea.

Tony Robbins argues that people often consider a lack of a resource (like money, time, or material resources) as a barrier to their desires. But the reality is that what they lack is resourcefulness. He argues that if one is determined, passionate, and committed enough, they can acquire almost anything.

The conversation eventually steers towards how one can create their own opportunities by utilizing the right people and making connections with those who can fund their ideas. They discuss creating a “manifestation co,” a concept coined by Jess that facilitates bringing the ideas of entrepreneurs to life. Finally, the conversation touches on the future scope and implications of technology like synthetic biology, including the creation of test-tube babies. They conclude with the notion that many seemingly impossible dreams could be very feasible in the near future.

During the podcast, the speaker, Jess Mah, begins by diving into some future-forward ideas. She discusses the scientific advancements that could lead to extending human life expectancy by 30%, suggesting we should prepare for a future where we live to be 120 years old or longer. Jess mentioned how she had been talking to many longevity scientists and after seeing data she feels strongly that humankind will indeed live longer and that there needs to be a plan for that future. When asked about how this would be achieved, she suggested it would be a combination of factors, but didn’t provide a specific answer.

Jess then introduces the term “bold science”. For her, Bold Science refers to scientific endeavors aiming for a step-change and a fresh approach in function or quality of life rather a small or incremental improvement. Jess gives a sincere example of cancer treatment where the present focus is to kill cancer cells but there might be a possibility of a different approach. Rather than killing the cancerous cells, if we could coach them or get them to integrate back in with their surroundings, that could potentially be a cure for cancer.

Shortly after, Jess goes in depth about her belief that physical meet-ups and personal interactions are invaluable particularly in the entrepreneurial world. Speaking from personal experience, she tells how she often flies to different locations to have one-on-one meetings which leaves a deep impact and impression on the invited guests. Jess mentions how personal meetings, or her preferred term, “belly to belly” meetings, instill trust, build strong relationships, and are vital for business. The value of these meetings is so high that Jess says she started doing this since she was 16, hustling her way by cold-emailing successful entrepreneurs.

The conversation takes a reflective turn when Jess shares her journey growing up. As a passionate gamer, Jess started a dedicated server and collocation business at the age of 13 with the hope of making some money to offset her gaming expenses. However, the business grew much larger than she expected, and she was soon making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, more than her teachers. This early experience in entrepreneurship allowed her to understand what she wanted to do in life and the conventional school system wasn’t aiding her progress. This led her to drop out of high school and get into a college program called Simon’s Rock.

Jess’s journey reflects her drive and persistence. The conversation ends with the hosts planning to meet and discuss their shared idea of creating a school for individuals driven by the same motivations and curiosity. They plan to manifest this concept without waiting until they gather immense wealth, another nod to their shared belief of taking immediate action towards their desires.

In this insightful chunk of the podcast, Jess Mah continues to share her journey and some of the key learnings that shaped her entrepreneurial path. Early meetings with successful entrepreneurs such as Justin Khan and Steve Huffman inspired her to start her entrepreneurial journey in her teens, disproving the notion that success requires age and wealth. She emphasised mindset as being crucial over tactics when interacting with these influential figures.

Jess then illustrated the significance of tax optimisation, stating that it’s a big factor when it comes to wealth accumulation. Her strategy involves employing top tax strategists who’ve saved billionaires huge sums of money, and thereby creating a network of tax professionals whose advice she can consolidate for her advantage. She argues against the hesitancy some people have in changing their tax professionals and suggests that a continual quest for the best advice should be a priority.

Recognising the impact of mental acuity on her success, Jess relies on multiple coaches to maintain an optimal mindset, regardless of how well she thinks she’s doing. She likens these practices to regular personal hygiene routines – necessary and impactful. She’s also part of a CEO group which functions as a peer-support forum, equating it to an ‘Alcoholics Anonymous for CEOs’. Jess insists on the significance of making time for such interactions as they provide a much-needed perspective and support.

Moving onto health optimisation, Jess utilises the services of five ‘corner doctors’ to develop a personalised plan involving nutrition, nootropics, and IVs to enhance both her longevity and mental acuity. She also mentioned experimenting with exosome IVs, which are believed to lower biological age and increase energy by infusing the body with stem cells.

Highlighting the use of peptides, supplements, and nootropics, Jess revealed her approach involves having their effects compounded into a few pills to ease consumption. She’s planning on working with a friend to offer these compounded supplements to friends at a reasonable cost, as a service for their wellbeing.

Ultimately, the topics discussed here serve as a testament to Jess’s commitment to personal development and a reminder of the importance of leveraging resources and relationships in achieving success.

In this discussion, Jess Mah expands her insights into the billionaire mindset through further exploration of tax optimization, health strategies, asset management, and perception of wealth.

Jess emphasized the concept of being non-operational. She explains that creating a vehicle that engenders other opportunities and recruiting talent to assemble the pieces is the route many billionaires take. This eliminates the necessity of investing oneself entirely into a single business.

Addressing the expenditure of billionaires, Jess noted that many high-cost assets such as yachts, airplanes and exotic cars can also serve as tax benefits, turning them from luxury assets to strategic financial tools. For instance, she shared about a friend who purchased a $30 million yacht only to charter it out, thus making it a tax-deductible asset. Similarly, she mentioned how her airplane purchase resulted in substantial tax deductions for her.

Further to this, Jess drew attention to high-value cars often seen as symbols of wealth. She explained that some high-end cars can be resold at the same cost or even at a profit, due to the rarity and waiting list associated with such vehicles. This approach mirrors a characteristic of how the affluent use strategic asset management to bolster wealth growth.

In terms of perception of wealth, Jess states that billionaires view expensive assets not as wastage or excess, but as investment and strategy. She encourages people not to perceive this as unfair, but to see it as a learning opportunity.

A key point touched upon is the importance of mindset and self-awareness. Jess describes the journey from jealousy to aspiration, and the importance of surrounding oneself with successful individuals. From her personal experience as a young entrepreneur, she learnt the value of being inspired, rather than envious, of successful professionals.

Lastly, Jess highlighted the importance of traits like grit, the willingness to pursue unconventional paths, and determination in one’s journey to success. These elements, she believes, are major factors in the making of an individual destined for greatness.

In this part of the discussion, Jess Mah delves into her venture into cutting-edge biotech research, emphasizing her interest in creating something new and significant by synthesizing ideas from distinct domains. She talks about biotech venture creation, focused on the scientific work of Mike Levin. Mike, who PhD in genetics at Harvard and is now studying bioelectricity, believes that how long we live, whether or not we get cancer, and our bodies’ form depends more on bioelectricity than genetics. This perspective challenged Jess’s preconceived notions about genetics and inspired her to explore this field further.

Jess explains her approach towards biotech. She founded a company named St. Ju and another company named Anthrobots. St. Ju is about overcoming drug resistance for diseases such as leukemia. Cancer treatment often works in the early stages, then abruptly stops working. They aim to tackle this problem. Anthrobots, on the other hand, is working on developing programmable human biobots.

Furthermore, Jess expresses her futuristic thoughts about reproduction. She envisions a future where babies could be grown without the need for an egg or sperm. Instead, raw genetic material could be used, somewhat like what we see in science fiction movies such as Avatar. Although this ambitious vision might not be realized soon, her mindset is to conceive a grand vision for what the world could become one day, just as Elon Musk has done.

Shaan Puri compares her ambition to Mark Zuckerberg’s and Google’s public offerings where they focused on building great products first, figuring that making money would follow. Jess echoes this sentiment, saying that she is more focused on funding bold science that might change everything, even if it entails high investment and risk of failure.

Lastly, they discuss how cultivating a broader field of knowledge and interests allows them to thrive in various situations, such as dinner parties or working with a team. They both believe that having diverse interests and learning from different sectors can help you succeed in your career or business.

During the conversation, Shaan Puri defines Jess Mah’s approach to business as one driven by passion, curiosity, and the aspiration to make a difference in the world rather than monetary gain. Drawing comparisons with the initial strategies adopted by Mark Zuckerberg and Google, Shaan suggests that prioritizing the production of excellent products and impactful science holds greater long-term value than immediate profit. This philosophy resonated with Jess Mah who agrees that the pursuit of ground-breaking science, despite the high financial risk, is more rewarding and aligns with her own objectives.

Jess connects this aspect of her work philosophy with her feelings of dissatisfaction when working in fields that don’t push the limits of her capabilities. She felt like her time was being wasted and she needed to switch gears. Her aspiration to pursue things that fuel her intellectual curiosity and drive for innovation underlines her perspective on career and ambition.

Next, Jess shares insights into her personal reinforcement of the profit versus purpose debate. In her opinion, the pursuit of wealth often comes from insecurity, and very few people would feel satisfied devoting their entire life to just making money. She believes individuals get the most satisfaction from work that excites them, is intellectually stimulating, and has the potential to bring about significant change.

In the end, they discuss how to reach Jess for further interactions. She has a website, ma.com, and is present on Twitter and Instagram. Interestingly, she encourages those who want to contact her via email to exercise some ingenuity and guess her email address, explaining how she herself used this method to reach out to Mark Benioff, thus showcasing her resourceful mindset. She believes that such an approach is a good filter to determine who is genuinely interested in reaching out.

In an engaging and insightful exchange, Shaan and Jess explore the confluence of passion, curiosity, and business, ultimately affirming the importance of purpose-driven work.