Episode 43 · October 1, 2026
THEY CAN'T SEE IT, THAT'S NOT YOUR PROBLEM
About this episode
Belief, mentorship, and the courage to keep building when nobody around you can see the vision anchor this solo monologue from Ben Beeri, who reframes rejection with the line, "If the vice principal could be Elon Musk, then he would have been Elon Musk." The reflection starts with a memory of being a 12-year-old entrepreneur who didn't fit in, and extends into a practical argument for buying 20 cups of lemonade from the kid on the corner just so he knows he has a customer. Beeri argues that when a teacher or counselor says they can't see your idea working, they're telling the truth about their own vision, not yours, and that self-belief is "the fuel you need to launch your rocket." He makes the case for mentors you'll never meet, citing Marcus Aurelius's Meditations and Kobe Bryant's work ethic as examples of one-way mentorship through books, podcasts, and observation. The episode closes on peer selection, core values like authenticity, and the idea that most support in life, including marriage, is temporary — the only person you keep for the full run is yourself. Relevant themes include entrepreneurship mindset, personal development, and mentorship.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the episode recording, so it may contain small transcription errors.
Ben BeeriWhat do I actually wanna do? Like, what's the long term goal here? Right? It's like being the 12 year old entrepreneur kid who didn't fit into anything and wished he had some support and wished he had some understanding, I almost feel like that's who I'm trying to build. I feel like that's who I'm working on becoming. Whether it's by leading by example in my business and being the best CEO I can be and helping my team reach their highest destiny or taking the time to spend with a young entrepreneur when I see one. Like, if I see a kid buying a lemonade stand, I fucking love that kid right off the bat. I wanna support that kid right off the bat. I wanna buy like 20 cups of lemonade from the kid. I don't even want the lemonade. I just want the kid to know that he has a customer. I want him to be encouraged to be an entrepreneur.
I want you to feel like you could do it. There's so many of us that feel like we can't do it. It's okay, like you can do it. You 12 year old out there that's trying to like make something out of yourself. Whether you're trying to be an entrepreneur, you're trying to go in a direction where somebody doesn't believe in you. It's not valid. Them not believing in you doesn't actually matter. Them not believing in you really ultimately reflects on them, not on you. It really doesn't matter what they think. If you think something, like you deserve to see it through, you deserve to try it, and you deserve to see where it can lead to. There's going to be people out there that tell you that the idea that you're chasing is crazy, and that they can't see it, and that it can't work. But they're not telling you that because it can't work.
They're just telling you that because they can't see it. They're telling you the truth. They can't see it working. And that's okay. Because not everybody sees things the same way. Maybe you can see it working, but they can't. That's why they're your teacher. That's why they're your school counselor. That's why they're the vice principal. That's okay. If the vice principal could be Elon Musk, then he would have been Elon Musk. It's okay when somebody tells you that they can't see something working out for you.
You don't have to take it personally, you don't have to let it discourage you, you just have to keep going on your path, and allowing yourself to really look around you and see it's like, hey, like, where can I find the small openings where support is available? Where can I find some belief? Most of it's gonna be self belief. Most of it's gonna be belief that you have for yourself. But there can be people out there that believe in you. Find those people. Find the people that believe in you. I feel like that can help in your path. Like, finding the people that believe in you can get you into a place where you believe in yourself so much more than you did before. And I believe that that's the fuel that you need to launch your rocket, like, off the ground. Get yourself into outer space.
Getting that level of self belief, like having that fuel that you can work off of is really your path to your highest destiny. Find a mentor, like go find someone that you can look up to. And the cool thing about the mentor that you can find, you don't ever have to talk to them, or they don't have to even know you exist. Like, Marcus Aurelius wrote meditations a very long time ago. He could be a mentor of yours. Read books, listen to podcasts, listen to people's conversations. People give good nuggets of advice.
Good life experiences every single day. People share what they've been through every single day. And you can consume that, you can learn from that, and you can consider a person that you look up to a mentor. You can sit there and say, hey, like for me, I always looked at somebody like Kobe Bryant and said, hey, this guy works so hard regardless of the situation. I admire this person. Kobe Bryant is a mentor of mine. Kobe Bryant didn't even know I existed. It's like, who can you find in your life that you can consider to be a mentor of yours? And we talk about your peers.
Start defining what the criteria is for somebody to be your peer. Who are they? What are they working towards? What do they like to do? What do you guys have in common? Is there any support that you guys can share with each other? It's like who becomes your peer? Why are they your peer? And once you can get clear on who your peers are, then you can really build a supportive circle of peers around you. What are your core values? At the end of the day, it's like, that's so important. For me, I know, it's like authenticity is like number one. I want to be around people that are authentic to who they are as a person. There may be some things about you that you and I don't have in common. But as long as you're being you, that's like number one for me. Like, be you. Sometimes we just need to widen our horizon of what we're actually looking at, and what we deem is possible to be available to us.
And once you realize that there's more available to you, you can go and utilize that for your greater good. The other thing to remember is not everything is permanent. Nothing is permanent. Most of the connections you make, most of the support you come across, most of the people you're going to be around, most of your peers, it's temporary. When you get married, they say till death do us part. Unless you die on a plane crash with somebody, you guys are going to part ways at a certain point in time, even your significant other. So the person that you have for your entire life is you.
And I think it's really important to realize that there's so many other people in life that come and go, and it's okay to let them come and go. And it's okay to realize that somebody who supports you in one season of life can be appreciated and honored for that season in life that they supported you in. And for you to realize that, hey, this next season of life is for you to support somebody else, or this next season of life is for you to step up and realize that you need support, and to look around for it, and to make yourself available to receive that support.
Where in your life can you step forward and receive some support, or offer support? Let us know below in the comments.