A New Breed of GOATL Serial Entrepreneur
Being the greatest of all time is all about competing. But what if winning at business is really about a higher calling of serving the world and reducing human suffering? If that’s the case, what does this new breed of GOAT entrepreneur look like? Serial entrepreneur Scott Donnell gives us a window inside the mind of this new kind of entrepreneurial GOAT.
Some serial entrepreneurs like Sir Richard Branson or Elon Musk captivate the collective imagination and rise to achieve celebrity status. What’s that about?
As a society, we’re fascinated by those who are able to constantly build businesses or products yet the well never seems to dry up — somehow these entrepreneurs just keep on creating. Certainly, these sorts of people have ambition, intelligence, and charisma. But what cauldron of experience and beliefs drives an entrepreneur who wants to be the greatest of all time?
Scott Donnell is a serial entrepreneur with many businesses and projects. Currently, his ventures range from Hapbee, which creates and sells a device that can help uplevel a person’s moods; to Baby Stack, an app that helps educate kids on finances; to HeroMaker Studios, a decentralized comic’s universe. And just recently, Scott sold off Apex Education, a company that helps kids with their fitness. But simply selling his companies isn’t the goal. No, Scott’s ambitions go far beyond an impressive exit.
“I want to be the GOAT,” Donnell said. “I want to be the best entrepreneur, but also the best husband and father.”
Donnell is aiming to become a new breed of GOAT — a well-rounded GOAT who wins in business but is equally successful in terms of faith and health and family. He comes from a family that has entrepreneurship in their blood, but initially, Donnell had a different vision for himself. From an initial passion and goal of being a minister, a trusted mentor helped him to realize there could be a different path for him to serve others through entrepreneurship.
“I have two simple goals, serve a billion people a year to reduce their suffering and then give away a billion dollars in a way that actually does the same thing to help people,” Donnell said.
Service was the connection between the businesses that he founded and co-founded. But with so many ball in the air, even food the GOAT, it’s difficult to maintain focus and passion for everything. But how did he stick to this path of service through business development and not burn out?
“I was wearing 10 hats, I was doing everything,” Donnell said. “I was so perfectionist about every little detail that my hair was on fire, and I was burning out and it was terrible, man. And so, I was literally about to drop the business like a couple million bucks and just get out and be like I’m done. I’m going to go to a cave in Africa or something.”
A good friend’s intervention and guidance ended up being Scott’s saving grace. He found strategic coach Dan Sullivan, who taught him the power of letting go.
“I have to be very, very careful that these businesses don’t own me,” Donnell said. “They are a tool for me to have the freedom of time and freedom of money, freedom of relationship and freedom of purpose. Those four freedoms that strategic coach talks about, they are my tool. I own them. And I want to make sure that they’re helping me reach what actual success means.”
To find out how Donnell realized that his businesses did not own him, how he learned to step back and how he is trying to reach his vision of a holistic goat hanging out high on the mountain… tune into Business X factors.
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