The Identity That Helped Create a Billion-Dollar Company

Tom Bilyeu built and sold Quest Nutrition for $1 billion. You’d think someone like him would consider himself a smart guy, right? Wrong. Turns out he always thought of himself as “average”. So how does an average guy create a billion dollar company? 

Our identity is the collection of beliefs we have about ourselves and the social constructs we associate with (e.g. religion, nationality etc.). We tend to see our identity as fixed - it’s who we are, and of course we know ourselves.

Part of our identity is the things we do regularly and/or take pride in: “The life of the party”, “a problem solver” or “a good listener”. The same goes for our limiting beliefs about ourselves: “I’m not athletic”, “I have a terrible memory” etc. We constantly (and often unconsciously) reaffirm our identity in the way we show up in the world.

This can be detrimental to our growth even when it comes to our “positive” traits: If we think of ourselves as smart, research shows that we are less likely to take risks or want to learn new things, because we’re afraid to fail, potentially proving we’re not so smart after all. If being a problem solver is a big part of our identity (as it was for me), then in order to preserve it, our subconscious may pursue an obstacle course in life rather than looking for ease and flow.

Tom Bilyeu discovered that the best way to further our goals is to see our identity as malleable: Free ourselves from the parts of it that don’t serve us and adopt new aspects that move us towards the person we aspire to be, rather than who we think we are at present.

He credits his success to adopting the identity of a hard-working learner - someone who, with grit and determination, eventually learns everything he needs to know to succeed. If he fails at something or someone tells him he’s not good enough, he doesn’t take offense or feel defeated - he just thinks he’s not good at it… yet. Failure doesn’t break his identity - it reaffirms it. He just needs to try a bit longer or harder.

This is immediately applicable in our everyday life even if we're not starting billion dollar companies. For example, I know many people who work with engineers but think of themselves as “not technical”, since they don’t have the technical education or experience. They avoid conversations with engineers because they’re afraid to feel out of their depth. Now, this is not one of those completely false beliefs we sometimes adopt like “I’m not creative”: It may be true that they are not technical yet. However, If such a person starts thinking of themselves as a quick learner, a curious person, or someone who is always on the edge of growth rather than “not technical”, their technical knowledge will improve quickly. Engineers love it when a non-technical person is eager to learn technical concepts and can be some of the most patient and caring teachers I’ve seen.

Is there any part of your identity you might wish to rethink?

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