Don't Listen to Your Parents if You Want to Be Successful

About this video

Martell recounts quitting his job at age 20 and leaving Moncton, New Brunswick, as the biggest decision of his life, despite his father’s opposition. He says he was earning $60,000 a year at OAO Technologies, which he describes as his only conventional job, and quit after nine months because he wanted to see and do more. His father told him on the phone that it was probably the worst decision he had ever made. Martell packed his 1987 Volkswagen Jetta and left on September 7, 2001; after September 11, the job opportunities he expected out west dried up. He says he had saved $5,000, ran out of money, and slept on his friend Dan Hansen’s couch for weeks after asking for help. He later worked as a contractor at Syncrude, had to incorporate to do so, learned enterprise portals and Plumtree software over two years, and says that experience laid the foundation, three years later, for Spheric Technologies. From that period he draws three lessons: the world rewards courageous decisions, ask for help instead of struggling silently, and adventure is rewarded and compounds, illustrated also by later moves to Australia, San Francisco and Kelowna and by people he met only because he moved.

Key takeaways

• Parental advice is filtered by a desire to protect you from hurt, so seek mentors who have done what you want to do
• Courageous, self-directed moves can create opportunities that staying in a secure job would not
• Ask for help when you are struggling — Martell credits a friend’s couch for giving him time to find work
• Treat adventure as a compounding investment that changes how you see the world and who you meet
• Foundational skills from an unexpected contractor role became the basis for his later company Spheric Technologies

Episode details: published May 9, 2022 · 13:30 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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