My friend Amar’s book taught me that most billion-dollar ideas come from ordinary people. They just succeed on a much larger scale.
The founder of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, is a great example. In one of those rare interviews where the host finally asks about the person’s story rather than their latest takes on the industry, the man behind the world’s largest crypto exchange turned out to be…a pretty normal dude.
CZ’s family left China for Canada when he was young. He grew up, went to college, almost graduated but then got pulled into one of his early jobs at a programmer. He worked in Canada, Japan, then New York, coding order book algorithms for financial exchanges. CZ joined and built several startups with friends doing much of the same: IT for financial services. He discovered Bitcoin in 2013, sensed it was an opportunity and got several jobs in the industry. In 2017, at 40 years old, he founded Binance. His skills and experiences came together at the right time, and voilà, you have a man worth nearly 80 billion dollars.
When asked about how his parents helped set him up for a successful career, CZ shared a basic if somewhat “un-Chinese” philosophy: “My parents didn’t pressure me to be this and that. My parents said: ‘Don’t hurt yourself. Don’t hurt other people.’ So don’t do drugs. Don’t get into crime. And then don’t hurt other people. That’s as simple as I got [it] from my parents.”
What does he now want for his kids? Pretty much the same, CZ says. Whether they want to pursue art, build large companies, or work a normal job, it’s all great for him. “I want them to live a healthy and happy life, however they define it.”
It doesn’t work for everybody, but a lack of expectations can have more power than even the strongest pressure to follow a certain path. When we give people space, they tend to become just who they’re meant to be.
Don’t hurt yourself. Don’t hurt others. It might not end up being your ultimate formula for fulfillment, but it sure is a strong start.
