Bruce Lee said, “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” And Napoleon Hill said, “Think twice before you speak because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.”
I’m so excited about today’s guest, Ryan Smith. He is the CEO and co-founder of Qualtrics, one of the leading platforms that help gather and analyze data from customers and employees to use for market research — which he started out of his father’s basement with his brother and his father.
In this episode, we discuss why you should stop chasing money, how to balance priorities in the pursuit of success, how hitting rock bottom in a new country all by himself transformed Ryan’s life forever, the most underrated skill to have in life right now, and how he became the owner of the Utah Jazz NBA team, and so much more.
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Who Is Ryan Smith?
Ryan Smith is the CEO and co-founder of Qualtrics, one of the leading platforms that help gather and analyze data from customers and employees to use for market research, which he started out of a basement with his brother and father. He was included in Fortune’s “40 under 40” in 2016. Qualtrics was acquired for $8 Billion in 2019 and in 2020, he became the owner of the Utah Jazz NBA team. Ryan is also a philanthropist and co-founder of the 5 For the Fight, which is a global campaign to gather funds for cancer research by donating $5.
At the age of 17, Ryan moved to South Korea to teach English. It was here he reached rock bottom and had some tough decisions to make about where his path was going. It was also during this time that he decided to spend two years in Mexico as a missionary. Ryan credits these two years in Mexico as the birth of knowledge for his 20-year journey with Qualtrics.
In Mexico, Ryan had to operate successfully without everything being spelled out, and often due to language barriers felt like nothing was ever going right. Ryan was constantly challenged to level up because leaving before his time was up wasn’t an option.
This is a fascinating conversation with Ryan, so let’s jump right in!
The Journey To $1 Billion
It’s not every day you have the opportunity to speak to a billionaire, so I was curious to know what’s been harder for Ryan in his journey from his dad’s basement to now — scaling a business from zero to $1 million, $1 million to $10 million, $10 million to $100 million, or $100 million to a billion dollars.
“If I look at a company that’s gone from zero to $1 million, and then gone from a $100 million to $500 million — the company is like a band in the basement in high school [that compared to] the time they hit it big has only one person that’s the same. There’s a lot of people I know that are phenomenal, as Peter Thiel says the ‘zero to one phase,’ [but] maybe those aren’t the right people for [the] $100 million to $1 billion phase. I feel so incredibly blessed to have been there from the zero to the billion phase, but it took 20 years, and you’ve got to hold 20 years together.” – Ryan Smith
I love Ryan’s honesty saying that he probably wanted to quit 20 times too, but being able to build a company with his dad and brother gave extra special significance to success. After all, if you’re going to succeed, who do you want to do it with? A clear answer for Ryan is family.
That’s not to say working with family doesn’t come with its own unique set of challenges. Statistically speaking, the odds aren’t in your favor.
“I recruited my brother from Google, and we did not get along for the first year. We got to the point where I was like, ‘Is this the right thing?’ But then I [realized], ‘Whoa, this guy is the best co-founder in the world — he has to love me! He has to come back to work. He’s not going to quit me.’” – Ryan Smith
Ryan believes the nature of family relationships allowed them to dive deeper into problems and go past the usual pain thresholds that exist with colleagues — and that led to greater iterations of their product with better solutions because of their ability to push each other further as siblings.
Strategy To Build Wealth And Fulfillment
Having accumulated great wealth, Ryan remains grounded by putting his family and faith first. Ryan credits having balance in his life to his wife Ashley who calls him out on not being present quickly. Ryan has an interesting observation about why some people handle wealth, happiness, and fulfillment better than others.
“The ones that I admire the most are the ones who have [made money] over time. It’s really hard when someone has a life-changing moment — you see this in sports where you go from college and then boom — that’s hard. I did not come on that journey. It’s been little by little, and then you wake up in a different spot. That’s a little bit easier to get acclimated than someone who gets it all at once.” – Ryan Smith
When the big tech booms were happening in the Bay area, people became millionaires overnight. One of the best rules Ryan heard shared with people working at Google or Facebook was: Don’t do anything for a year.
“That’s pretty good advice. If you’ve liked something, write it down, and if you like it a year later, and then go do it. There’s a quote that I’ve always tried to live by, ‘Don’t use the people to help you get money — use the money to help the people.’” – Ryan Smith
Ryan gives an example about living this quote and seeing young families working for him paying off their houses and cars — which felt far more impactful than Qualtrics hitting another business milestone.
Where Ryan’s Philanthropy Developed
It seems every time I connect with someone who’s accumulated wealth, I always hear the same thing: “Give back as much as possible.” Not only that, but they tell me the more they give back, the more the money keeps coming to them. Because I know Ryan is heavily involved in multiple philanthropic projects, I’m curious if his generosity developed from having money or if his parents taught him.
“It wasn’t something that I was raised [with]. I was probably 18 years old [when I decided to give.] … I went to Seoul, Korea [with two friends] to teach English and it didn’t go the way I planned. [They] came home [early and] my dad’s like, ‘Hey, you’re up to no good anyway, if you’re over there by yourself and hit rock bottom, it’s probably a good thing.’ I met a couple of guys in the subway, and these are actually the type of people I want to be like, these are people who were having fun, and they were happy and witty. They were responsible and successful, and I decided, ‘I want to be like them.’ And that’s when I decided, ‘I’m going to go do a church mission.’ … I got called to Mexico City.” – Ryan Smith
As Ryan explains, Korea forced him to grow up quickly and decide what kind of life he wanted to live. Had he never been through the challenges he faced in Korea, he may never have made the life-changing decision to spend two years in Mexico serving as a missionary.
Imagine moving to a country where you don’t speak the language, they speak little English, and you’re trying to teach people. After two years of serving, Ryan changed his whole outlook, going from a high school dropout to wanting to get a college degree. At college, he started Qualtrics, met his wife, and his whole world changed. Even though he wasn’t making much in his twenties, his time in Mexico made him evaluate — why would he stop giving just because he was successful? Ryan decided then and there that sticking to the tithing principle of 10% meant his giving wouldn’t ever be tied to the amount of money being given.
“There’s a lot of different philosophies, and I’m never one to tell people how to live. I think everyone needs to go on their own path. There are some observations and learnings I’ve taken on my path. Number one is, ‘How do you know you’re going to be at that [level financially]?’ You may never get there. Many friends have never gotten there, and they are never giving back. Second, I think it makes you better on the path, and it’s much more habitual. We are creatures of habit. For me personally, I would struggle if I had to go develop the muscle later.” – Ryan Smith
Everyone’s got to go on their personal journey to discover what they deem is right for them. Ryan does suggest sacrificing to the point where it hurts a little — because if it doesn’t hurt you, then it’s not a sacrifice.
Ryan believes sacrifice becomes a good litmus test and that if you’re too comfortable all the time, you can lose your drive to achieve the next milestone. There’s always a level of uncomfortableness that we continue to put ourselves in that makes us grow.
