Matt Higgins is the CEO and Co-Founder at RSE Ventures. He is also an operator and investor and was once a co-shark on ABC’s The Shark Tank. Matt has worked with some of the top names in business, entertainment, and even politics. He started his career at 16 after dropping out of high school and grinded until he was personally selected by Rudy Giuliani to become the youngest press secretary in the history of New York City.
Not long after, the tragic events of 9/11 unraveled, and Higgins was thrust into the position of coordinating the global press response in the coming months. Since then, Matt has worked on the reconstruction efforts at the World Trade Center, held executive seats with the New York Jets and currently with the Miami Dolphins, founded RSE Ventures investment firm and partnered with Gary Vaynerchuk on the Vaynermedia empire.
This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s:
A big inspiration for his new book Burn the Boats was Matt’s mother and the extremely difficult upbringing he had growing up as she was chronically ill and trying her best to raise him. He had to face the self-worth issues that his mom had, which he himself inherited.
Matt says that his own autobiographical details are only in the book in so far as they can be a case study and frame of reference to a point that he’s making.
For Matt, the crisis actually creates a sense of clarity in decision-making. Not only that, but he says there’s also a resulting feeling of pride after overcoming that crisis.
The safest bet you can make is on yourself. You know yourself the best, and you can control the inputs, so Matt says why not double or triple down on yourself?
A tip that Matt has come up with to deal with anxiety is to write down all the things that you’re worried about at the beginning of the week and then revisit it at the end of the week. 9 out of 10 times, Matt says that we overestimate what could go wrong and unnerve ourselves for no good reason.
Grab your copy of Matt's book, Burn The Boats here: https://www.burntheboatsbook.com/
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2:55 - Matt Higgin's Book
4:28 - Why did Matt write this book?
5:44 - Regrets and Difficult Moments
7:35 - Autobiography and Life Lessons
9:35 - Battle with Depression
11:24 - First moment in the classroom
14:32 - Hot take on Self Reliance
15:46 - Self Awareness
16:56 - Matt's view on Tenacity
18:44 - Evaluation of Founders
19:25 - Lauren's Example in the Book
21:26 - Embracing crisis
24:03 - Fun Story by Adam
25:11 - Lesson from Steven
26:34 - Burn the Boats
28:11 - Survival on the bad days
29:50 - Mediocre Player
31:33 - Consolidate your gains
32:44 - Job Pivots
33:14 - Q&A Sessions
40:19 - View on Web3
43:14 - One Chapter to choose