From Mormon To Owning a Billion Dollar Company

Bryan Johnson was from a small town in Springville, Utah. His parents had divorced and he began his journey, when he was practicing the tradition of a missionary as a Mormon, and spent 2 years in Ecuador with his cheap suit. A journey that changed his perspective, and turned him into a true Entrepreneur.

During his early endeavors that started in 1999, he had multiple companies that sold cell phones and real estate, but it didn’t prosper and he folded up the business. He maintained his drive to own a business because he wanted to use his creativity to prosper. It’s amazing to see a man be so passionate, because back in the days during the early 2000s, internet usage was barely happening, and Bryan kept pursuing businesses, and find resources without internet to make his image possible. Just the thought of that, makes me wonder how much time it took to find something as simple as a manufacturer without the help of the internet. Fast forward few years later, he founded Braintree, which is now known as Venmo.

Successful But Dead inside

Despite being financially successful, Bryan did not feel that way. As strange as it sounds, he didn’t enjoy his wealth like most people would fantasize themselves enjoying. He felt his life had no purpose and he was missing out on family time. He would spend majority of his free time on managing and scaling his business, making sure his company is able to combat the regulations involve with finance and transactions. His daily routine would be just work, and he would sleep about 4-6 hours a day. He didn’t cared about what he like to do, he just powered through and invested all his free time into the company and dealing with regulations that involves money and the government. It was new technology to direct money so fast from C2C.

So he spent his time dealing with chaos. He didn’t care what he wanted, he has a successful company and he want to make the most out of it, instead of pursuing his true passions.

A Different Route

Bryan made the decision to pivot to something that was foreign to him, which is to pursue happiness. He acknowledge that he destroyed his body working long hours, and neglected his family. So he pursued a new passion that revolves around health and self-improvement, called Project Blueprint.

Happiness At Last

Bryan finally found his calling, he used his new project to improve his physical health, build the relationship with his son, and finally pursue his true passion. He’s actually happy, and happier than he has ever been. His current dream may no be possible as Project Blueprint cost 2 million dollars a year to maintain. He is grateful to his past self and credit his work ethics in the past. This goes to show that you can do something you despise, and still be successful.

Key Takeaways

You don’t be passion, you need to build a habit, Bryan didn’t liked what he did, when he worked at Braintree building Venmo, he was miserable, and powered through his work. There was nothing fancy, like working smart and abusing loopholes, it was all hard work and luck.

keep trying been trying his heart out since 1999 and he finally found success in 2007, 8 years of searching for VC’s and working on a fixed budget, and not a stable source of income. I don’t condone people quitting their jobs to pursue a dream, but if you have no talent, you have to rely on giving your time and effort to building what you need for freedom.