How Great Leaders Put People First Every Time - Guy Peixoto

In this episode of The Quest for Success Podcast, we sit down with Guy Peixoto, a serial entrepreneur from Brazil whose story is as much about resilience as it is about achievement. From a challenging childhood to building and scaling multiple businesses, Guy’s journey highlights the true meaning of success: freedom, quality of life, and leaving a legacy.

Guy reflects on the early family influences that shaped his entrepreneurial spirit, the hard lessons learned from starting businesses, and the vital role of failure as a stepping stone to growth. He shares his insights on scaling companies, emphasising the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, practising humility as a leader, and committing to continuous learning to stay relevant in a changing world.

Beyond business, Guy speaks passionately about education as the foundation for transforming individuals, communities, and entire countries. His aspiration is to give back through mentoring and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, ensuring his legacy goes beyond profit and into creating real impact.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in entrepreneurship, leadership, or redefining success as freedom, growth, and contribution.

Key Takeaways

• Success means having the freedom to choose how you spend your time.
• Quality of life is an essential measure of true success.
• Early influences shape entrepreneurial drive.
• Building and scaling businesses requires the right people.
• Failure is an opportunity to learn and grow.
• Continuous education keeps you relevant.
• Great leadership is grounded in humility and listening.
• Education has the power to transform societies.
• Creating a legacy means giving back to others.

Connect with Guy Peixoto
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guy-r-peixoto-neto-40965030

Resources
Scaling Up (Book): https://scalingup.com/

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Transcript

Dylan Pathirana (02:04.844)
Welcome back to the quest for success podcast and thanks for tuning in once again today on the show. We're incredibly lucky to be joined by Guy Peixoto, who is a serial entrepreneur from Brazil and he's currently the CSO at Bravu scaling. again, once again, I had the opportunity to know G from OPM, Harvard program.

Guy Peixoto (02:22.945)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (02:30.934)
And I was actually sitting with him over the last three years, very close to him because we had the same surnames, like start with P. And we had a here and there chats, but I feel like I need to know, get to know him more and understand his journey. And he recently wrote a book about entrepreneurship and we want to, we want to deep dive to that and understand all the, all the things that he learned over the years. So

Guy Peixoto (02:31.031)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (02:51.17)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (03:00.546)
Guy, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, we're looking forward to having this chat.

Guy Peixoto (03:06.914)
Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. And we had an amazing journey in Harvard. And unfortunately, in Harvard, always are talking with different people from different places. And most of time, don't have. You can talk and understand more the history for everyone because everyone is special. But of course, Jan, I'm so excited to have the opportunity to meet you and to have the opportunity to talk and interact with you in Harvard.

and also I'm excited to be here with Dylan and yeah I'm loving talking about entrepreneurship. It's one of purpose that I'm living in my journey and yeah I'm glad to share a little bit my experience and of course learning from you also.

Dylan Pathirana (03:53.865)
Awesome. So again, to kind of really start this podcast, it's all about success. So we need to ask a really fundamental question. And that is what does success mean to you?

Guy Peixoto (03:59.299)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (04:05.373)
man, the one billion dollars question

Yeah, love this first congrats for the this initiative that you're doing to talk with a lot of entrepreneurs. And I can imagine that you already heard of about different ways about what success means for me. You know, I already I already did a lot of things in my journey as an entrepreneur today. I'm running some different kind of business transportation company, gas station, restaurants,

Bed and breakfast and yes a lot of things I'm loving to do all of these But one of things that I learning and no matter if you achieve all of these if you don't have the freedom

to share your time or celebrate with your family and friends. And for me, for all the entrepreneurs, all the time we are trying to achieve the next steps, the next business, the next way to sell companies or invest in different companies.

But now I'm 30, 80 years old now and for me, okay, I wanted to still invest in. But if the investment or the new company that I'm trying to be involved in not give me the chance to have more time that I can share with, to be involved with my family and friends, no, for me that's not, it's not make me happy and for me it's not.

Guy Peixoto (05:41.354)
related with success, know, and then for me, freedom is one of, and quality to live your life fully, and this one of criteria for me, till you have success in your life.

Dylan Pathirana (05:54.173)
So it's like freedom to do whatever you want to do whenever you feel like it's a good way to

Guy Peixoto (06:00.374)
Yeah, sometimes it's freedom for you can choose the somethings normal, for example, sometimes I wanna, for example, my Tuesday or my Wednesday, if I don't want to...

Dylan Pathirana (06:09.431)
Mm-mm.

Guy Peixoto (06:17.864)
have no meetings if you don't want to make or have some lunch with clients. When you have the choice, when you just have the choice, you decide what you want to do. Even not in the biggest things, but even the normal things or routine things, for me, it's one of the ways that I'd like to define freedom. It's not just about travel around the world, but

Tom's just about to decide to wake up and okay I'll take my children to the school I have a lunch with my friends but man it's freedom because who has yeah yeah little things

Dylan Pathirana (06:57.621)
Yeah. Enjoy the little things. Little things, but it's got huge meanings though. Yeah. Little things with big meanings. So G for us to understand the man you've become today, we need to understand a little bit about your early life and your context. Can you walk us through, you know, your childhood and how you think you were shaped, especially by your parents?

Guy Peixoto (07:03.959)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (07:19.832)
Yeah, amazing. You know, I'm originally from a city called Belém. Belém, it's the north of Brazil. It's part of the Amazon, the forest, you know? Yeah, I grew up in a different part of Brazil because São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro. Normally, it's the place for who everyone knows, but Belém, it's amazing place, but I had a lot of challenges like when I was a kid.

But, you know, I had the... I think I was a lucky guy because I had the opportunity to grow involved with my My grandfather and my dad, they were entrepreneurs and I always, you know, look for the entrepreneurship in a ways or in the opportunity that you have to gain money, generate money for you, help your family.

For example, when I was 13, 12 years old, my mom, she couldn't give us everything that we need or some, it's normal for children or someone that could to...

needed to live, my mom, she couldn't give us everything you need. And thanks God, I had my grandfather and my dad and my uncle. They were entrepreneurs. he can give us, for example, they were responsible for paying the school and gave us the opportunity to travel and do something. Then for me, entrepreneurs, I thought about my past and I think this kind of...

Dylan Pathirana (09:07.447)
Mm.

Guy Peixoto (09:08.479)
of people in my journey, for me it was important to become entrepreneur because I'd like to give the chance for the family and give the chance for my family to have the opportunity that I couldn't have before and I just couldn't have because entrepreneurs in my life. When I was 16 years old, decided to go to Belém, I decided to live in a different place in Brazil.

It was a good opportunity because I had the chance to start working. I started to work when I was six, 17, 18 years old. But since the beginning of my life, I wanted to become a entrepreneur. All the time I was questioning, asking myself, always like, when are you start? I decided to start to work with my dad.

It was amazing, the beginning was amazing, but my dad, told me that I wanted to command his company more than him. Of course, it's not true. But yeah, and once one of the clients that my dad...

My dad started his company offering his services and I had the opportunity to find one client and I started a transportation company offering service distribution transfers. In the beginning my dad, he didn't support me, of course, because he wanted me work with him.

But it was the first moment that I had the chance to prove myself and to prove to my dad that I could do something different and independent of him. Then, yeah, I decided to get out of my city early. I started to open my own company early. And all of these make difference in my journey as an entrepreneur.

Dylan Pathirana (10:58.231)
So your first business, you started very early days, like when you were like 22, is that right? Yeah. And what was the idea behind it?

Guy Peixoto (11:06.809)
22? 22? Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (11:12.977)
good question. I love to talk with entrepreneurs because the question is, how you had your first idea to become successful. But for me, I just decided to look...

for my environment, you know? Because I like, I used to say that if my dad, had a restaurant, probably my first company would to be a restaurant. If my dad, had a hotel, probably my first company would be a hotel. Because different of someone of people, someone, a lot of guys, a lot of entrepreneurs, he went...

They decided to prove to your family they don't need the family. They don't need the debt. In my case, I don't say I don't need my dad. No, I want to take the opportunity that my dad, he's entrepreneurs. Then of course, I ask for your help. And because my dad, started the transportation company. I say, no, okay, let me learn how to manage a transportation company. And the first client of my dad had, it was

was bean bath, know, the beverage company, you know, then the first client of my dad was a bean bath. my God, I had the opportunity to work with my dad, learn with him and work inside of one of the most...

Dylan Pathirana (12:33.143)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (12:47.585)
biggest beverage factor of beverage of the world. And then for me it was a major opportunity then. That's what makes me start my own business. know, take the opportunity and take a look for your environment and enjoy the opportunity that your family can give you. But that was just my beginning. In current little days I have my business in the

without involving with directly with my dad but always for me it's important to say that without my dad without the decision that I made in the past of course I want to be here then I think it's about you look to your past and honor the principles of your family then that's how I start my business

Dylan Pathirana (13:39.509)
Yeah. Were there any core values that you think you learned from either of your parents? Were there any core values or traits that you think you learned from your parents?

Guy Peixoto (13:44.579)
Sorry?

Guy Peixoto (13:49.115)
You know, there is a curious about my family by my dad, he played in the national, he was player, he played basketball, you know, and he played, he was, but he played also in the mainly national team of Brazil, you know.

Dylan Pathirana (14:02.486)
Alright.

Dylan Pathirana (14:11.189)
Wow.

Guy Peixoto (14:12.058)
Then it was, yeah, then I grew up with this idea about competition. It's about, it's not easy, you know, it's about that you need training a lot. Then I think one of the things that I learned from my dad, it's about you can become wherever you want, you can become who you want, you know, but you need training hard. Then...

For me, that's when I was, I started to work with him when I was 16, 17 years old. And yeah, when you have this age, you don't know exactly what you want or exactly who you be. But when I look to my dad,

and I saw a guy that he was a basketball player and he turned. Imagine this, it's so rare in Brazil or around the world you find someone that played, which was like played basketball and turned his life and now he's successful also as an entrepreneur. And for me, it was important to learn with him and say, okay, if he could do this, I want to do this, but I need to train.

I need to train hard as my dad trained in the past and as an entrepreneur. It makes sense.

Dylan Pathirana (15:33.847)
Absolutely. I mean they have a very good basketball team in Brazil. So to be able to play, that's pretty good.

Guy Peixoto (15:38.851)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And recently my dad, he was also the president of the Confederation of Basketball also in Brazil. Yeah, then man, if you have a dad, like with all of these achievements, yeah, you need to at least prove yourself that you can at least keep, maintain his value on his principles.

Dylan Pathirana (15:48.651)
Wow.

Dylan Pathirana (15:52.535)
You

Dylan Pathirana (15:58.699)
Yeah.

Yeah. But do you ever felt like, you know, pressured having your dad achieve so much great things, you have to prove to him that, yeah, you know what I mean?

Guy Peixoto (16:17.178)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and oh, for example, I have the same name of my dad.

And my dad, wants also he invests me a lot in me to become basketball player also. Man, for me it's a little bit hard when I was 16, 17 years old, said, no, but I don't want to be a basketball player. For me, it was hard to say this to my dad. But on the other hand, I decided to become an entrepreneur. But oh my God, my dad also he has success as an entrepreneur. Oh my God, that's no way.

Dylan Pathirana (16:28.289)
All right.

Guy Peixoto (16:52.964)
For me, in the beginning, it was a little bit hard when I started to work with my dad because I was the son of the boss. I was the son of the boss, you know? It's a different experience. It's not everyone that has the experience. But in the beginning, I... In the beginning, I was to prove to me that, way, I'm not the son of the boss. No, that's not make sense. I have my identity.

But when I was starting to become more mature and have more knowledge, no, yes, I am the son of the boss. And I'm proud of this. And because I'm the son of the boss, I wanted to enjoy the most that I can, the opportunity that my dad just gave me. Because sometimes friend of mine already told me, Guy, you had the chance, you have the chance to be, to do nothing. Why you are working? Why you are, why you are,

Dylan Pathirana (17:43.146)
Yeah

Guy Peixoto (17:45.08)
decided to create a company. No, no, just become the son of the boss and enjoy him. I never could do this. Then that's one of the reasons that I decided to start my company.

Dylan Pathirana (17:53.089)
Yep.

Yeah. And you've scaled over 11 companies and you started in this transport business. I want to understand how you went from the single business to so many.

Guy Peixoto (18:01.371)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (18:07.195)
You know, there is a funny story because first, think in current days, it's easy to find a lot of entrepreneurs that want to scale, that want to create a lot of different business. For me, I took 10 years, you know, it wasn't like, my God. No, I think for me, it was hard. I start to offer my service to a client, but it was funny story because...

Two years after I started my company, the same client of my dad, he was trying to find and hire an address transportation company. And I asked to my dad, dad, I don't know if you mind about this, but can I also offer my service to your client also? And my dad say, okay, if you lose to someone, it's better to lose for my son.

Dylan Pathirana (18:58.913)
Ha ha!

Guy Peixoto (18:59.483)
And I became a competitor of my dad. It was a funny story because, and I again, I took the opportunity to, why are you focusing different things? Let me enjoy the opportunity to work as a partner with my dad. And that's one of the most reason that I...

could grow faster in my company, because I could close that biggest deal and I focused. I decided to, no matter, I wanted to, when I started my company, my dream was to have a company, 100 million, 100 million reais. It's almost, I don't know, million dollars per year, something like that.

Yeah, and I decided to do this. I dream in with the idea and I achieved this not in 10 years, but nine years You know when you do the your first millions and you started to grow and achieve these results you learn a lot and

Dylan Pathirana (19:58.999)
Nice.

Guy Peixoto (20:09.603)
different off my dad, I didn't want to work just for one company. I really wanted to invest in different companies. I really want to become entrepreneurs. And I asked it to my dad if he would like to, like, let's do some synergy or something like that, or a merge. And then I convinced my dad to buy my, not the whole company, but the contract of my clients.

And then I started with my dad helping and I finished this first company, negotiated with my dad and tried to convince him to buy the contract. my God, this was an amazing history. But after this, I learned how to scale. I started to understand about it's about people, it's about strategy, it's about execution and it's about cash.

And after this, I started new companies, new business, GuyStation. But I think the most important reason for me when I think about scale company always starts and ends with people. Because, for example, for me, it's impossible you scale up different business if you don't have people better than you.

For example, all the time what I'm trying to do is, okay, I wanted to open a transportation company. Okay, who knows about transportation company more than me? know, ego, it's the, I think ego, it's the man but here, the most problem for entrepreneurs who wants to scale. Because before you scale the company, you need to scale yourself. But when you scale yourself, you need to understand that you can't be involved in 100 % of the things. Then...

For me, try to answer what Dylan asked. I think my journey as entrepreneur is, okay, focus. And first and one thing that you can really become better than your competitor. And after, now that you already have your methodology, now you already have your way to grow a company, try to be specialized and find people better than you. That's what I did in all my companies, the restaurants, the...

Guy Peixoto (22:29.409)
always about who can be better than you. my purpose and my role in this journey is how I can inspire this guy who is better than me and how I can help him to become a millionaire or how I help him achieve his purpose. And it's always about to find the best and inspire him to continue giving his best.

Dylan Pathirana (22:41.271)
Mm-hmm.

Guy Peixoto (22:58.843)
Does make sense?

Dylan Pathirana (22:59.829)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you mentioned that it was about really finding the methodology of scaling a company and you've worked across so many different industries. I want to understand, does the same methodology work across all those industries?

Guy Peixoto (23:06.65)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (23:14.235)
Yeah, man, you know, maybe there's a lot of people, different people that is listeners, then they could have the different opinion, but yeah, man, I think it's almost the same because, you know, there is a book that I love it, that the name is Kaylee Up, who writes the book, was Vanish Harnish. And also he developed an entrepreneur organization, it's an organization that I'm part of.

And you know, if you read the book, you can find different companies, different sectors also. But the funny thing is no one suggests me the book. No one gives me like, say, Guy, you need to read this clip. No, I just was as the entrepreneur, the roots entrepreneur. I was just trying to find, my God, I need to find a methodology. And I found the book, Scaling Up, and I decided to read.

just by myself, I start to read scaling up people and cash and execution and I convince my partner to read with me. Like, guys, I find a book, let's read together. It's funny because there is a lot of CEOs, lot of executives, you know, maybe they think that they don't need to read the book with the team. No way. I love to do this. Then I start to create a routine to make my partners

and make my executives understand and read the scale up. And I use the methodology, the scale up as a strategist, you know, as the main tools to help me to scale up my business. Then everything that's the new business that I start, that I want to think, for example, Gene Collins, he used to say that first, you need to find the right people. Then no matter the business that I want to invest to try, the first question is who is involved and who is the need to be

to be inside of the boats or the buzz, you know?

Dylan Pathirana (25:16.215)
Yeah, we are also a scaling up organization. So I actually read that book. We have a one page strategic plan. you yeah. So what other like I know, apart from the book, you actually involved in the scale up business as a mentor or a coach, right?

Guy Peixoto (25:22.468)
Nice!

Amazing!

Guy Peixoto (25:33.851)
Yeah, man, you know, six years ago...

When I started to read the book I decided no I need to find some coach to help me to implement and okay I opened the the website I tried scaling up and I saw one guy in whole Brazil The he's scaling up coach and the other guys is Alfonso in Chile and the whole America Latin America is two guys. I said, my god, it's not impossible Okay, I closed the site the website and I started to implement the scaling up in my zip

business. Seven years after, I did the same thing in the beginning of this year. my God, it's the same, the two guys are no way. And I decided to apply to become coach of Scalia Up. Yeah, and I applied, I did the training, I participated in all of these, they mentored the process. And now if you go to the website of Scalia Up, now it's three guys. And I am one of them.

Dylan Pathirana (26:35.607)
That's amazing. Maybe we need to get your advice, get you as our coach. And one of the most important things that we hear from entrepreneurs is they learn the most from failure. Has that been the case for you as well? Have there been some failures in those 11 companies or more that have taught you something?

Guy Peixoto (26:39.836)
Oh man, please, it would be amazing.

Guy Peixoto (26:48.938)
yeah.

Guy Peixoto (26:52.814)
Yeah, Yeah, man. my God. Yeah. You know, before talk about failure with business, I already had a lot of failure with people also. Because, for example, one of the investment that I had in the past was it was a restaurant. I invested in restaurant and I did a promise to myself I never would invest in a restaurant again. And I did. Okay. But...

But you know, when I decided to be part of a business, when I think about this, I love to think about who will be involved. Because I swear, I don't know if you believe this or not, but 100 % of the business that I was directly involved in, they were a success.

than when I was involved in the transportation company, when involved in gas station company. Yeah, because as entrepreneur, you don't accept failure. You want to be involved and make the decisions. But I learned that...

because of my failure, I did some investment in the restaurant, in a franchise company that I wasn't involved directly and I chose the wrong people to be involved in the business. But you know, that's what gave me, every time, for example, I love to use, but you lost money? That's some kind of, how many you lost? And I say, no, I didn't lose money.

I've invested in the best course in my life, you know? Then I have a lot of course, you know? But I swear, because when you fail in your business, there is a feeling that you, you know, there is a feeling that you start to understand that the only way that you...

Guy Peixoto (28:46.331)
contact or assess this feeling is if you pass, if you live in the failure. But yeah, then, but for me, the worst failure is not about the business, about the people that I really, that I create confidence, but this person or the people that are entrepreneurs that invest in, they prove...

they proved to me they were positive, I couldn't have confidence with the people. But I swear, imagine if I found in my journey 10 people, 7 people fell with me because they made a lot of promises to me. But the 2 or people that I chose right, you know...

Dylan Pathirana (29:33.079)
Mm.

Guy Peixoto (29:41.278)
it makes everything, how to say this, like, it's worth it. Yeah, it's worth it. Yeah, it's worth it. know, doesn't matter if you find 10, if you find just two three, and all this, it's enough that you need to find and understand where it sucks at. So then for me, was how I look, I understand the failure, you know?

Dylan Pathirana (29:47.167)
make it work worthwhile. Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (29:56.502)
Absolutely.

Dylan Pathirana (30:03.319)
Yeah. So, Guy, one of the biggest challenges as an entrepreneur, like, you know, we always find a lot of great ideas, right? So, and you want to go and invest in one idea and then you see another idea, you see problems and you see opportunities, right? And to solve those problems. knowing you, like, you got, you're working on so many different things. How do you kind of manage

Guy Peixoto (30:11.761)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (30:30.057)
like you know not to get into too many things I mean already you have a lot of things on your on your plate right and and again you mentioned your definition of success having that time available for important things how do do that how do you really

Guy Peixoto (30:43.345)
Yeah. great. First, you know, probably you heard of about Gino Wickman also, the traction EOS system, entrepreneur. You heard of about this. I love this methodology also because Gino, he, I learned with Gino in the books about two roles, the visionary and the integrator. You know, it's amazing because I, you know, I,

I think in my business, I'm the visionary. I love to think about, what is the next business? What's the next opportunities? But I swear, if I hadn't my integrators, the people that say no to me or stop to me, oh my God, everything will be... I don't know if I'll be here to talk about success, you know? Because... But one of the things that I learned in my journey is I love to create ideas. I love to create ideas. And...

A lot of people that I read find out in my journey, say, you can't be creative, you can't have a lot of ideas, you need to execute. I think I found it, for me, I found a strategy, a methodology that worked for me. I keep going this guy, I keep being this guy that thinks about ideas, creativity, but I have some rituals, like I have some meetings.

Dylan Pathirana (32:03.223)
Creative,

Guy Peixoto (32:09.618)
that I don't make decisions alone. I hate to make some decisions alone. I know that's time to be creative and also there's time to make decisions. And when I...

Dylan Pathirana (32:13.441)
Mm-hmm.

Guy Peixoto (32:23.324)
make a decision, I take a decision about my business or my investment, I have people better than me, help me to choose what ideas I need to implement first or second. Then it helped me a lot because when I didn't understand this before, my God, it's a lot of things happen at the same time. But now with a committee, with people better than me, think about numbers, I found a good way to be invested.

I found a great way to invest. And also you asked about how I can imagine all of this. You know, first, I created the first business by myself. It was hard. The second business, I said, no, now I want to...

Dylan Pathirana (33:05.1)
Mm-hmm.

Guy Peixoto (33:08.83)
develop someone better than me. And for example, in my transportation company, I have a CEO. He's incredible. He can execute the plan. He's amazing. The gas station, when I opened, the first moment that I opened, I say, okay, I opened, but in three years, in four years, who'll be here in my place, in my role, doing what I'm doing? Then every time that I look to business now, as I said before, it's about, okay, who is better than me? Then how I organize my

my time.

For example, in my transportation company, I just needed to have two meetings per month. It's enough. It's amazing. In my gas station, okay, now I need to have meetings weekly, but I'm already prepared. I already prepared the CEO for me just have meetings two times per month maximum. And the auditors investment that I have, they already start with CEO and people better than

me, know, we, and also you ask, it's the same methodology, you know, it's not exactly the same, but one thing it's important as a pillar, people motivate people better than you, people doing things better than you can then, yeah, that's the way that I organize my time now.

Dylan Pathirana (34:17.409)
Yep, yep.

Dylan Pathirana (34:29.687)
That's fantastic. And also you had very successful exits from business, right? During your, you know, last few years. And when you're starting a business, do you always think of exit or what are you looking at?

Guy Peixoto (34:37.138)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (34:47.71)
Good. In the beginning, know, when I started my first company, I said, no, that's my company. want it to become bigger than my dad. Like, no. And sometimes I say, no, no, no, I don't want it bigger than my dad. want it just, I want it just not bigger. I think just the half of my dad is, but the double of the profits. And I say, I think it's better.

You know, but the first time that I had the experience to sold a company, it's amazing. You know, because it means that someone look at your journey and look at what you create and see value, look at value for about your red creates. Then, of course, my first deal, it was my dad. And please, to negotiate with my dad, I preferred a private company, a private company because...

At least I had the chance to negotiate with my dad. No chance to negotiate, you know? But my older ex, it started to negotiate also part of my company. And also, I never did 100 % aux-exit of my companies. Always I tried to negotiate to keep with some percentage of the company, you know?

because my ideas, it's always, okay, I wanted to sell to someone that came by my company and create a better results. Then that was the reason that, for example, I used to say that I'm involved with more than 10 business because when I decided to sell, I sell one part, but I decided to have some percentage. And also...

Mike, for example, the other company that I have, you know, I love the philosophy to think that you are management company to sell. I love this as a philosophy because, for example, I used to say this to my team.

Guy Peixoto (36:54.942)
You know, if someone wants to buy us, it's because you are creating amazing management, amazing company. Then, yeah, for example, the Scaly Up, one of the things that I love Scaly Up, when you think to future, you put the, okay, the revenue, you put the profits, but also you put the value of your company. Then, for example, there is company that I don't think about to sell now.

But the way that I'm running this business is to think as I was thinking about to sell. Because I looked at numbers, I looked at the balance sheet, I tried to organize everything in the margins, in the place, but the place in who wants to buy in the future, you know? Oh, I see what's going on here.

Dylan Pathirana (37:43.829)
Yeah. Like creating value on every, everything that you do. Yeah. Awesome. And I want to understand because you've, you've not only started a company, but you've also scaled companies as well to, you know, tens or hundreds of millions of high eyes. want to understand from your experience, what's the difference between zero and one and then one to 10.

Guy Peixoto (38:07.802)
0 to 1 it's hard you know oh my god but you know everyone needs to experience the 0 to 1 because the 0 to 1 oh my god for example imagine that I start a company I was 22 years old and the first operation that I had I had just four trucks

Dylan Pathirana (38:11.371)
Yeah

Guy Peixoto (38:29.911)
and I needed to hire the first employees. Everyone, they are older than me. I was just, my God, almost a teenager, like, know, tried to create a company and tried to prove to my dad that I could do something better than him and I was with this.

The problem is not the problems, but the challenge is zero to one because everything is new. Everything is new. Then in the beginning, you need to learn everything at the same time because as entrepreneur, when you are small, you need to be the HR, you need to be the technology guy, you need to be finance, you need to do everything. And I need to do all of this.

But when you started to achieve some maturity as an entrepreneur, you already know the way that you can generate value. But I think the most challenging when you come from zero is to understand that your role

as entrepreneur need to change with time, you know, because in the beginning I needed to execute the things. After, I need to understand how to lead people to things that I couldn't do anymore, you know. And I think this transition, it's the hard thing that all entrepreneurs need to do. And I think there is a lot of entrepreneurs that never did this. They had the biggest company, but they never

understood that they need to stop to be the protagonist. It's right to say protagonist. They need to stop to become the protagonist and they need to create a company with protagonist. Then I think when you can't make this, like understand that you need to train your role, then you understand that the one...

Dylan Pathirana (40:20.679)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (40:36.689)
to five, one to ten, it started to become easier because you already know how to do the things, you already know how run the company, you already know how to lead and it becomes easier because you know what the company needs more than you. It's your knowledge, your strategy, your vision and not your operational efforts, you know, but for sure the zero to one, you have a lot of challenge.

Dylan Pathirana (40:40.791)
Mm.

Dylan Pathirana (41:05.559)
And you mentioned that, you know, one of the key differences is really about leadership. I want to understand from your perspective, what's the difference between a good leader and a great leader?

Guy Peixoto (41:16.951)
good, mean, just good, amazing question, I love it. You know, I love the subject about leader, you know, because I think in, and because the AI, a lot of things, it's happening, we need to find, always you need to find a new way to become better leader, you know? But for me, I think the difference between...

a leader grade or no, I think it's all involved in being humble. I wrote my book, 101 essential principles of entrepreneurship. The last principle, the 101, it's a relation with being humble.

Because I think leaders, they need you every time to be learning and listening. For example, there is a book, five, I think, Patrick Lassione, it's the five challenge of teams, something like that. I don't know exactly how to it to English. But the beginning of to create high performance teams, it's confidence. You know, and if you want to create...

Dylan Pathirana (42:27.063)
Tidal.

Guy Peixoto (42:36.528)
a team with performance, you need to the basics of leaders can do, it's listening. It's know that it's normal, it's normal failure in your process. Then when you look to be a leader, think these leaders need to create one of the principles that guides him, it's be humble.

know, humble to learn, listen, to open and to training. And I think that's the difference between the great and not the great leader, you know.

Dylan Pathirana (43:06.647)
Mm.

Dylan Pathirana (43:15.499)
Yeah, Guy, you briefly mentioned about your book and we really want to talk a little bit more about your book. What's the motivation? What's the reason that you decided that you should write a book about entrepreneurship?

Guy Peixoto (43:28.64)
Good. You know, a friend of mine, he asked me, it started like that, Guy, why you don't write a book or something like that? I say, why man? What I have? Always entrepreneurs like this, why? What I have? You're like, oh, what I have that the people want to know because you use it to not value our own journey, right? But my friend, convinced me because he...

Dylan Pathirana (43:44.555)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (43:57.761)
I ask him, okay, why do need to give? Because I think you can combine two things that is not so, it's a little bit hard because you have the experience as an entrepreneur, but also you have like the theory, you have the knowledge, you study a lot about entrepreneurship. And it's right because you know about OPM, when I was 22 years old, I was start my journey as an entrepreneur, I wrote a book.

The book was wrote, the book, the author of the book, they are the founders of ABIMBED. They are successful guy. And I was reading the book, they did the OPM and I say, what this guy have that I don't have? know, in Japanese it's about this. And I said to me like, in 10 years, are you being an OPM? In 10 years, man.

Dylan Pathirana (44:43.223)
You

Dylan Pathirana (44:46.945)
Yeah, yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (44:53.057)
Wow.

Guy Peixoto (44:54.108)
It's happened in years, I swear. When I was 22, I thought I was approved in OPM. Then, all in my journey, my mom said, you need to study, and my dad said, you need to work. I decided to do both. Then, for example, OPM was one of the courses that I did, but also I did Stanford. I almost finished the Wharton. That is a financial program at Wharton, that's amazing.

Dylan Pathirana (45:16.203)
Yep. Yep.

Guy Peixoto (45:23.934)
almost finished now, the last model, but also I did catalogs. Then it's not common, not just in Brazil, but around the world, you find someone that's worked hard as entrepreneur, but also decided to study hard, like I did. And that's what confused me. He told me, Guy, I think your journey and what I think you can share with entrepreneur, I think your book can help a lot of entrepreneurs. And yeah, and I decided to start my book.

You know, be a writer is not easy because, okay, you can write a book, it's amazing, it be the best book of the world. But people, if people don't know that you wrote a book and you're not sure, I mean, stop it. It's not... You are not changing the life that you want because the people never heard of about your book.

Dylan Pathirana (46:19.767)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (46:20.801)
That's what the decision that I made almost six months ago, I started the Bravo scaling. That's not a business. I swear that is my purpose as an entrepreneur because in Brazil, have probably United States and around the world, you have a lot of personal who say that they are entrepreneurs, but they don't have the skin, the game.

you know, but they are perfect marketing people, you know. And now I decided to stop to say the guy that complained, why this guy sell this course? Why do guys sell the course? But they don't have the experience that I have because there's a lot of entrepreneurs. We didn't have the time to be specialized in marketing or specialized in social media. I didn't have time to do this. Then someone...

had time to do this, they create, they brand, they are teaching for a lot of people, die, but they never achieve what I as an entrepreneur, know? But I stopped to complain, I said, Guy, complain, know, stop to complain. Then six months I started to say, okay, I stopped to complain, I still have my business, I have CEOs, but part of my time, yeah, I decided to create my mentoring, I decided to become...

Dylan Pathirana (47:32.119)
You

Dylan Pathirana (47:47.575)
amazing.

Guy Peixoto (47:48.616)
speaker, for example, two, two week, two weekends ago, I was in GSA global speaker Academy in Cancun. And also it's an event created from by entrepreneur organization, you know, then, you know, man, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, how can imagine that I was OPM, Harvard running business. But I think that is one of good things to decide to become an entrepreneur.

Dylan Pathirana (47:56.065)
Wow. wow.

Dylan Pathirana (48:04.311)
Alright.

Guy Peixoto (48:18.054)
Nothing is a limit for you, you know?

Dylan Pathirana (48:21.109)
Yeah. And if you could, I know this is going to be super challenging, but if you could pull out your top three rules from your 101 pieces of advice that you think would most entrepreneurs would, would miss that, like the key three pieces of advice for entrepreneurs. Yep.

Guy Peixoto (48:41.697)
For sure, be humble. For sure, be I know, I can understand until now why the people can't be humble. They decided to be the ego to prove and be humble. The second one is faith. Faith, you know, faith. Yeah, faith.

Dylan Pathirana (48:53.567)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (49:00.737)
Yeah. Believe.

Guy Peixoto (49:02.901)
Believe, yeah, because man, I already have a lot of people in my life say, first with my dad, you know, because it's normal. A lot of people don't understand this. But in the beginning, the people who most love you, it's of course the people that most try to convince you to not to become an entrepreneur. Yeah, that's normal. That's what I live in with my family, with my dad. But when you have faith and you think, I can do this,

and nothing can stop you. And I'm not talking about religion. I wrote this in my book because my book advisor in the beginning, he told me, don't talk about faith. It's about polemic. Imagine someone. But I said, man, but I couldn't be successful. I could have been organized or open my company without faith. And I'm not talking about...

Religion, I'm talking about a power inside of you that you can describe, that can make you achieve things that you never thought would be possible. Then the second is faith. Maybe the third one is courage. Because, okay, you have faith, you are humble, but you don't have courage to give the first step. Then I think that's the third, maybe the third, the three roles that I think it's helping to

Dylan Pathirana (50:15.639)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Pathirana (50:23.105)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's all pretty much like personal, right? Like it's something that comes within you. And also you mentioned four stages of business growth in your book. Can you take us through quickly?

Guy Peixoto (50:40.715)
Yeah

Yeah, you know, because for me, the first stage is the foundation. You know, you need your foundation. If you don't have foundation, you can't release nothing. The second step is direction. Okay, you need to have direction for you to think, okay, why you want to create a business? That's what the reason. The third one is the path. Okay, you have the foundation, now you have the direction for you want to...

or start your business, you have the path and the fourth stage is, okay, start, like now, let's skin the game now. Because when I decided to create the road to the 100 principles, for me, it was important to show to someone to decide to read the reader, write the book. In different stage, you need different principles. There is principle, depending of the stage.

you need to be more involved and execute more, you know? That's the first stage.

Dylan Pathirana (51:46.263)
Awesome. And Guy, you mentioned like briefly there about, you have not only executed, but you've also focused a lot on education. And you mentioned you've been to, you know, Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, you know, some of the most prestigious institutions around the globe. How important has that continuous education been to your success?

Guy Peixoto (52:13.42)
Yeah, for me, know, some friend of mine, they already asked me, do you really work? Because I think you just study and do a course. I yeah, man, I decided to be specialized in course. But, you know, for me, every moment or every course that I did helped me to solve some challenge in my life.

Every time that I decided to read a book, every time that I decided to do a course or read or watch someone, always I ask me first, what I want to solve now, what I need to solve now, what I did to, what's challenging that I need to solve, you know? Then I can't, you know, I can't keep it growing.

I can't look to myself and keep growing without course or without studying because it's just because if you have a company and if you are investing in business, you need to every time to renew yourself. And for me, when you think about your continuous learning, I think it's the best chance that you keep in being better in business in your life because you are keeping learning. Not just think about you.

It's important for your mind, your body, but also maybe it's the best strategy that you have to be better and to overrate the other players, you know?

Dylan Pathirana (53:44.117)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you if you had the chance to go back when you were 22, when you started your first business and give advice or you want to do it differently, what would you do differently?

Guy Peixoto (54:01.198)
The advice, I think, for sure, I would say to me in the past, like I said it, I would say to me in my past is believe in yourself even with everyone not believing in you. Because sometime in your life, you're just looking to other people and ask why they don't believe in me, why they don't believe No, it's not about if they don't believe you or not. It's about if you believe in you or not.

Dylan Pathirana (54:14.903)
Hehehe.

Guy Peixoto (54:28.419)
Maybe what I decided to change is, you know, I used to say like, okay, believe yourself and please stop to listen people that don't believe in you. That's what I decided to make differently. But, you know, when I looked some question, I think I just changed, the only change or the only change that I...

that maybe I decided to do my best, it just stopped listening. But I love it, what I create, what I did in the journey that I live in. And for sure, what I'm living now, I just, now I'm just living what I, my success now, just living the success because all the mistakes and the decision that I made today, I just stop it to listen to people that don't want to.

Dylan Pathirana (54:58.366)
do it.

Guy Peixoto (55:23.555)
They are not happy to see me successful, you know?

Dylan Pathirana (55:27.273)
Yeah. Yeah. And we've spoken a lot about, you know, your business and your career, but you know, success to you was a lot about family. So I want to understand what values or what traits are you trying to teach to your kids?

Guy Peixoto (55:45.06)
Oh, good question, man. I him. I have a daughter, she's nine years old, and my wife, she's pregnant now, she's a boy. I'm so excited about this. But when you're asking this, of course I start to think about what my dad taught me, what my mom taught me, but...

Dylan Pathirana (55:46.945)
Yeah

Dylan Pathirana (55:57.911)
So congratulations.

Guy Peixoto (56:12.931)
You know, I think what I try to teach to my children is more about not depending on anyone.

I know that to be dependent of something is not like try to create your own journey. Don't depend on me. Don't depend on my money. Don't depend on... know what I really want to give to my children is the knowledge that they need to not depend on no one. Because if you have dependence, if you are dependent on material things, if you are dependent on other people, you don't have freedom. You know?

And I think if my children want to be entrepreneurial, okay, become entrepreneurial, but because also when you think about the value of company, when the company depends on the supplier, depends on the client, value, the dependence decreases the value of the company.

But I think also to be dependent on someone decreases the value of life also, you know, because you don't have freedom to do whatever you want. Then I think, yeah, no one never ask him this. And thank you for asking this because I'm more worried about what I could learn.

Dylan Pathirana (57:23.127)
Yep.

Dylan Pathirana (57:29.523)
Now you start thinking. yeah. So, Guy, you're still only like 38 years old, still young, quite young. So long, long way ahead. Right. And what are your plans next five to 10 years? What's next for Guy?

Guy Peixoto (57:46.62)
man, good question, love this. You know, because I'm applying the, me and my partners, are in renewal like to planning, creating our strategy for the next 10 years, then the question is perfect in this moment also. You know, I...

I don't want to, you know, when you think about 10 companies, 11 companies, yeah, it's amazing. It's a good result, but I think it's, of course, it's not enough when you think about legacy, you know. I really want to create a platform that I'm doing now to help others, entrepreneurs, find...

I want to help him to find their freedom. I think what I really want to be involved in in 10 years, think, I think it'll be probably I will still invest in different companies. But I want not to invest in companies. I don't want to invest in companies alone, you know, I love it to invest in companies with different entrepreneurs and help them make different companies to become successful that the way that I'm looking. And I think in 10 years,

I want to...

not to create, not to leave this legacy just in Brazil, I wanted to leave the legacy around, abroad, also for me I think it's important. And I wanted to be remembered, not just as an entrepreneur, I wanted to be someone looking to them and see me as an educator, that's how I educate others in entrepreneur. For me, that's what's the full world, that's what's make me

Guy Peixoto (59:31.622)
wake up every day and probably that's for my 10 years ahead that I'll be for sure be involved.

Dylan Pathirana (59:40.897)
Amazing. And Guy, you've written that entrepreneurship is transforming ideas into impact and that above all, building a legacy. What do want your legacy to be?

Guy Peixoto (59:51.139)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (59:55.108)
Probably.

You know, I think education, it's the only thing that can transform countries, know. That is, we are living a lot of things. Brazil, it's not easy. Also, political, economic, it's... But I think I really want to...

You know, I wanted to help entrepreneurs, but more than help entrepreneurs, I wanted to create like education that can be accessed for everyone or anyone, you know, because if you ask me, of course, what's...

For example, I went to Harvard, I did OPM, we did OPM, we had the chance to do OPM. But there's a lot of things that you learn in Harvard that you can easily teach to people that can be in Harvard. Then I think...

Dylan Pathirana (01:00:50.923)
Mm.

Guy Peixoto (01:00:54.208)
I really want to take all of the knowledge that I can, that I had the opportunity and I create the opportunity to access. But I really want to create like a platform to kind of to give, to share high level education to people that can access high level education. Because I think the high level education or knowledge, that's the only thing that can change people, lives and countries, you know. But it's a little bit hard because it's not just

about you give the access. It's also you need to find a way to motivate and give a reason for these people to get and to access this knowledge. It's not so easy but legacy don't you don't you be easy, right?

Dylan Pathirana (01:01:38.604)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:01:43.457)
That's it. I suppose, Guy, given your success, your definition of success was largely about freedom and having time to, to spend time with family and friends, looking back on this journey that we've spoken about today. Do you feel successful?

Guy Peixoto (01:01:45.57)
Don't eat too.

Guy Peixoto (01:02:01.741)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, and it was amazing because you know that I ensure quickly, but I ensure quickly because every time you dealing and Jen make...

Dylan Pathirana (01:02:03.041)
Hehehe.

Guy Peixoto (01:02:19.717)
a lot of a good question. And sometimes you just don't stop and reflect if you are successful or not. And when I combine all of these that I'm sharing with you, that the chance that I have to leave my freedom or leave the routine with my family, how cannot this be a success, right?

Dylan Pathirana (01:02:38.391)
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Guy Peixoto (01:02:40.803)
But every time you are just, no, but I need more, I need more, I need more. No, I'm so excited with I did in my business. And now I just wanted to spend more of my time to help other entrepreneurs find some roads or the same way to be successful.

Dylan Pathirana (01:02:59.607)
Well, Guy, we could easily talk to you all day long. It's been a fantastic conversation. But throughout our conversation, I've been trying to jot down what I think are the core traits which you embody that have been crucial to your successful life. And I'd like to share them with you. The first one is you're always very curious and open to opportunities. So I think, you know, that first foot in the door that you got in that logistics company.

Guy Peixoto (01:03:03.609)
Yeah, that's so confusing.

Dylan Pathirana (01:03:27.915)
You were always just scanning for opportunities and you saw one through your dad's business to go into this logistics space. And I'm sure that's come up time and time again with all of these different industries you're in now. You always keep your eyes open and looking for those opportunities. And that's something we've seen across a lot of the guests that we've had on. The next is your people driven. You mentioned in this discussion, you look for people who are better than you.

And that's again, such a core trait of having the humility to say, I don't know this space. So I need to find someone who's better than me, bring them in and utilize their knowledge and their expertise. And I think that's really fundamental for your success, given it's across so many industries. I don't think one person can be an expert at all those different industries. So, so being people driven is definitely a core part. And then the final one I want to touch on is

Guy Peixoto (01:04:16.726)
And first.

Dylan Pathirana (01:04:25.483)
you're a continuous learner. And I think that's potentially the biggest one because, you know, all of these methodologies that you've learned, you know, you've been reading books, you've been going to courses, you've been part of organizations, which are all centered around continuous learning, educating yourself, not just through even these institutions, but also through your experience as a business owner and operator, you're learning from so many different sources. And then I think more than that,

Now that you've become an educator, a teacher, I think that really forces you to think even harder and learn even harder because you need to make sure before you can teach it, you have to really understand it yourself. And so I think all of these traits have definitely been fundamental to your success. first thing you mentioned, your dad warned you to become a basketball player. Maybe you didn't turn up to be a basketball player, but you are a great team player.

Guy Peixoto (01:05:04.453)
Yeah.

Guy Peixoto (01:05:13.445)
using.

Guy Peixoto (01:05:21.317)
great. my god.

Dylan Pathirana (01:05:22.837)
So throughout this conversation, think one of the traits that we saw in you, you build that team, right? the team to with the great players, you know, mean, knowing, right, you can captain the team, but you can't just win the games without having the right players. And that's your real talent that I see throughout this conversation. And really keen to read your book. mean, we just did some research, but

Now your book 101 Principles, it's in English, right? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Excellent. So where can we find this book? Amazon. All right. Awesome. We'll drop the link down below in the show notes. Yeah. It's a fascinating conversation. We really, really enjoy having this chat with you and thank you so much for your time. Really, really enjoyed it.

Guy Peixoto (01:05:53.85)
Yeah, I translate? Yeah, of course! Very good. Amazon, Amazon. yeah. Very good. Yeah, please, it amazing. Yeah, I swear!

Guy Peixoto (01:06:15.372)
I love him.

Thank you so much. Thanks so much and I hope to see you. I don't know where you're living now. Sorry?

Dylan Pathirana (01:06:23.575)
in Sydney.

Sydney, Australia.

Guy Peixoto (01:06:28.283)
okay, man. I need to organize my time and be with you because you are amazing, great guys. Thank you so much for being here. are the summer that you've been... my God, you summarized my life and I love it to listen and it's very... Participating here is energizing. I'm feeling very organized after talking with you. Thank you so much. If you are invited, please come to Brazil and please send a message. It would be a pleasure to be with you here.

Dylan Pathirana (01:06:57.771)
Thank you so much, Guy. And with that, if you guys have learned something from today's episode, it would mean the world if you could like and subscribe. It helps us share the content with other listeners. And you can see all of our inspirational content over on our website, thequestforsuccesspodcast.com. And with that, we'll catch you guys in the next episode. Thanks for listening. Thanks, Guy. It was awesome, man. It was really good conversation.

Guy Peixoto (01:06:57.927)
Thank you so much.

Guy Peixoto (01:07:18.31)
Thank you so much. It was amazing. Yeah, it was amazing. Thank you so much.