Embracing change and leveraging technology such as AI could lead to unparalleled advancements in various fields, including healthcare, agriculture, and management of resources.
Guest: ✨ Sid Mohasseb, The Entrepreneur Philosopher
On Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohasseb/
Website | http://www.mohasseb.com/
Books | https://www.caterpillaredge.com/
____________________________
Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
_____________________________
This Episode’s Sponsors
BlackCloak 👉 https://itspm.ag/itspbcweb
Bugcrowd 👉 https://itspm.ag/itspbgcweb
Episode Introduction
In a compelling episode of the Redefining Society podcast, Marco Ciappelli engages in an enlightening conversation with Sid Mohasseb, exploring the intricate relationship between humans, machines, and the future that lies ahead. As technology continues to advance at an unprecedented pace, the dialogue between Ciappelli and Mohasseb dives into the philosophical depths of human and machine interaction, offering a fresh perspective on the societal implications of such advancements.
The Journey of AI: Fear, Optimism, and the Human Element
One of the pivotal themes discussed is the general apprehension surrounding AI and its potential to disrupt the conventional dynamics of human society. Mohasseb eloquently addresses these concerns by comparing AI to a simple knife – an object that, while potentially dangerous, is indispensable in everyday life. This analogy underpins a broader message: technology in itself is not to be feared but rather understood and harnessed for the betterment of society.
Redefining Entrepreneurship in the Age of AI
Mohasseb's recount of his personal journey from immigrant to entrepreneur and venture investor serves as a powerful testament to the enduring spirit of entrepreneurship. He reframes the concept of entrepreneurship, suggesting that anyone who endeavors to exchange something of value, whether it be ideas, time, or resources, for something better, embodies the true essence of an entrepreneur. This perspective encourages listeners to view their interaction with technology and AI through the lens of innovation and opportunity.
The AI-Driven Evolution of Society
As the conversation unfolds, Ciappelli and Mohasseb discuss the transformative potential of AI to redefine societal norms and values. They envision a future where AI not only augments human capabilities but also catalyzes a new era of mental and creative evolution. In this future, the mundane tasks that currently occupy much of our time and energy could be delegated to machines, freeing humans to pursue more creative, meaningful, and fulfilling endeavors.
Towards an Optimistic Future
Both guests share a deeply optimistic outlook on the future, grounded in the belief that humanity is on the cusp of a significant evolution. They argue that embracing change and leveraging technology such as AI could lead to unparalleled advancements in various fields, including healthcare, agriculture, and management of resources. This optimism, however, is tempered with a call to action: society must engage actively with these technologies, educate themselves, and participate in shaping a future where technology serves the greater good.
In *Redefining Society*, Ciappelli and Mohasseb invite us to ponder the immense possibilities that lie ahead and to approach the future of AI and technology with open minds and hearts. It's a call to embrace change as our best friend and to view the future with optimism, curiosity, and a willingness to redefine society for the better.
_____________________________
Resources
Tedx Talk: Are you an Artist, An Art or An entrepreneur: https://www.ted.com/talks/sid_mohasseb_are_you_the_art_the_artist_or_the_entrepreneur?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
You Are not Them (Book): https://www.youarenotthem.com/
The Caterpillar's Edge (Book): https://www.caterpillaredge.com/
____________________________
To see and hear more Redefining Society stories on ITSPmagazine, visit:
https://www.itspmagazine.com/redefining-society-podcast
Watch the webcast version on-demand on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTUoWMGGQHlGVZA575VtGr9
Are you interested in sponsoring an ITSPmagazine Channel?
👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/advertise-on-itspmagazine-podcast
People Versus Machines? Embracing Change to Navigating the Future of AI and Society with Optimism | A Conversation with Sid Mohasseb | Redefining Society with Marco Ciappelli
Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording, as errors may exist. At this time, we provide it “as it is,” and we hope it can be helpful for our audience.
_________________________________________
[00:00:00] Marco Ciappelli: Hello, everybody. This is Marco Ciappelli. Welcome to another episode of Redefining Society podcast. And, uh, as you know, we always redefining society. That's, uh, that's the name. And when I finished to redefine it, I got to start all over again because we're moving really, really fast, especially lately. And especially I like to say in the past year, since when we had, you know, we, everybody have discovered.
That there is a generative AI and a lot of people are playing with it and somebody is scared of it. Somebody is a little bit more excited. So we'll see where we go today because our conversation is going to be, I think, a little bit philosophical in terms of humanity and machines and maybe we'll go into robotics, maybe we'll go into personalization of A little bit of this and a little bit of that because at this point, as you know, everything, it's technology.
And we're going to do this with my guest today, Sid Mohseb. I don't know if I italianized enough your last name, but I tried. Um, And I'm excited about having this conversation. I love your, your pitch, the point that you, that you are interested in talking about. So I am looking forward about this conversation, and I want to start with you introducing yourself, because I'm not good at reading other people's bio.
So, and nobody knows yourself better than You, I guess, I don't know. You can go as philosophical as you, as you'd like to, to define yourself too. , let's get it started. The meaning of life. Who is it?
[00:01:43] Sid Mohasseb: So, uh, so good morning and, uh, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. as, as they say. Yep. Uh, I'm, I'm an immigrant in, in U.
S. I came to the States in, uh, about 40 some odd years ago. And, uh, at the age of 16, um, and, uh, and started, uh, and started a business while I was in college. That was my first business. Um, and after I sold that business, I started a consulting career and I helped, uh, really large organizations, uh, the types of, uh, IBMs and Motorola's and, uh, Federal Reserve Banks and others with strategy and operations.
So I think, uh, uh, and then I became a partner of that firm and, uh, kind of, uh, felt, Hey, I'm on this side, uh, making money on an hourly basis. Maybe I should, uh, I, I could do better. So I got into turnarounds of companies and leverage buyouts. And, uh, that kind of started the whole new carrier of building companies and selling companies.
And I did that, uh, for quite a while, uh, with some successes and some failures, uh, and eventually I became a venture investor, uh, making investments in early stage companies. Now, that's, uh, kind of me in, in, in the context of, uh, what others would call success. And, uh, uh, and you know, there's, I say there's success is what others define you by satisfaction is what, uh, what really drives you.
Um, so from a satisfaction perspective, if you would, uh, I believe, uh, and I have a couple of books and stuff like that, that I talk about like entrepreneurship and I define entrepreneurship in a different way. Um, the first time. Entrepreneur was defined as a word, uh, was by a Frenchman, uh, and, uh, he said that, uh, entrepreneur is a person who has something and exchanges it something, for something better.
Uh, 50 years later, somebody added, uh, an Irishman added, uh, uh, an element of risk and says somebody who has something, this could be an idea, this could be your time, this could be your, uh, your product, whatever it is, and you exchange it with something better knowing that there is risk. So I like to think of myself as an entrepreneur, not because I started companies, but because, um, I was an entrepreneur when I came to the U.
S. by myself at 16. I had something. And I wanted to exchange it for something better. Uh, I love that. I love that. And, and I think we all do that. We are, we're all entrepreneurs. Uh, if we really truly go to the roots of the, of the definition of what an entrepreneur is, I think Martin Luther King is an entrepreneur because he exchanged his ideas and his resources and his capabilities with, uh, in pursuit of something bigger.
I think Mother Teresa was an entrepreneur. I think Michelangelo was an entrepreneur, uh, and so is, uh, Elon Musk, uh, but they are all exchanging their time and, and interest and, uh, and, and creativity, innovation or money with something else.
[00:05:17] Marco Ciappelli: I love that. I love that because it's a little bit what we talked about before starting the recording.
Like, everybody has somebody to sell. That's what we're talking. And that's okay because every time that we interact with someone, we are Selling our opinion. Maybe we're selling herself. We're showing that we're capable of something. So your definition of interpret being an interpreter, it's definitely a lot more satisfying, I guess, than, than base success on money, which is something unfortunately in our modern society.
We do. How, how did you get, uh, I mean, I'm assuming it's because just investing in company, um, every company now is a technology company. So my question is, um, where does your passion for technology come from?
[00:06:11] Sid Mohasseb: So, uh, I guess I was, uh, you know, for years before my father passed away, uh, I went to USC. I now teach there.
Uh, but I went to USC, University of Southern California, again a long time ago. And I studied something called operations research. And for years, my father said, I don't understand what the hell you were, you studied. But nowadays it's pretty sexy because it's called data science. In those days, it was just this confused thing.
Uh, so. It's still confusing for a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, well I guess that's the mystique, that's how you position it so you can ask for more money. I don't know. Uh, but, uh, so I got into, uh, operations research, uh, and then later on I've built a number of companies, uh, based in technology. The last company that I sold, uh, was a few years back to KPMG, as you know, it's a big firm, uh, which, uh, which did, uh, analytics on, uh, text and, uh, what's called unstructured data.
And that place is now That company was the seed of, uh, KPMG's Lighthouse, which is now about 2, 000 people, and I joined them. And so, uh, all of my companies, everything that I've done has had an element of technology in it. So I wouldn't say, in the past 20, 30 years, I haven't coded one line of code. So I wouldn't say I am a technologist, but I am fascinated with whatever can make our life.
Uh, and technology is something that can make our life better, uh, if we use it right. I, I, I use the analogy nowadays, this CHAT GPT and AI and all the hoopla that's going on. And people, people are afraid, you know, when you look at some of the statistics, somewhere around 60 some percent of people are absolutely afraid.
And another 17, 18% are kind of afraid. That makes 78 percent of the population that they're afraid of AI. Um, if we could do the same thing and be afraid of a knife, because It could cut us, but can you imagine how life would be without a knife?
[00:08:49] Marco Ciappelli: It would be difficult. You have to hammer stuff to cut it, to break it.
Yeah,
[00:08:52] Sid Mohasseb: it would be difficult. So the key is, everything could be very scary if our perspective and our ability to use that, uh, is, uh, is questioned.
[00:09:08] Marco Ciappelli: I agree. Let me, let me, uh Let me get to that. So your, your title idea for our conversation is AI and the future people versus machine. So, I mean, what you just said that just right there, is it a people versus machine or is it people with machines and augmented version of ourself and, you know, diving to that.
[00:09:37] Sid Mohasseb: Yes. So if you listen to The media today is people versus machine because it gets clicks because if you're, you know, fear is a motivator for people to click and then that adds to advertising and blah, blah. And, and, you know, let's be honest, people don't have the patience for an intellectual conversation about what is this and how is that, you know, we read 10 second things.
And Google has taught us that in eight seconds, we have to be satisfied. Yeah,
[00:10:09] Marco Ciappelli: the headline is enough.
[00:10:11] Sid Mohasseb: You know? So, uh, So basically, uh, it is, uh, I wrote a book in 2017 it was published. So that's seven years ago. And, uh, one of the chapters is, uh, be a partner with the machine. And where I talked about, hey, this is AI thing coming.
Here's what's gonna happen. We can't, so what do we do? So we are afraid, should we not cure cancer because, uh, we're scared of, uh, machines and because we can, I mean, we can now process things significantly faster than we could before. So some processing things with quantum computing can be done in seconds that would have taken years.
So we should not do it because then what's going to happen if we use it? Imagine how many people are in the healthcare business. How many of them are going to be out of a job? So should we preserve those jobs and not cure diseases? To some people that may be an answer. And some people say, hey, I just care about the next few years that I'm alive.
I don't care after that. Whatever they do, they do. So it becomes a very selfish perspective, if you would.
[00:11:36] Marco Ciappelli: It's the same thing about the environment, for example, right? I mean, do we want to lose this job, or do we want to save the planet that we, by the way, contributed to screw up? So really good point right there.
[00:11:51] Sid Mohasseb: So the fear is, Marco, the fear is very Personal and selective and selfish. And that is because our domain of, uh, our view is often limited. Uh, meaning that I care about, I have a wife, I have kids, I have to buy, uh, you know, go to grocery store and buy things and feed them and pay for the rent and all that.
And hey, if I'm a writer now at the, uh, at some, uh, uh, Show and on TV, or I'm working with a member of a UAW and working for a car company. What do I do if all of this stuff happens and I'm out of a job? It's, it's real. It's, it's personal. Um, but the key is that, Hey, if you step back, uh, and you look at it as, Hey.
What would, what would have happened if there wasn't every knife? What would have happened if there wasn't any calculator? What would have happened if there was, all of those stuff have made our life, uh, easier, better, more productive. I mean, the fact that we have a great life, for example, in the United States, a lot of it is due to automation, where productivity went up, we could earn more, we could do more, and all that.
So, uh, What we lose is perspective of time and perspective of, of what we have versus what we gain in short term and long term. Is the fear real? Absolutely, it's real. Uh, but it's partly because, um, it's positioned that way, partly because, uh, we're unprepared. So let me ask you something. Let's, let's fast forward something.
We're 30 years from now, 40 years from now, and cars are all, uh, self driving. Okay? You're in your car. Um, a lot of the jobs that you were doing is being done by AI. So what do you do? You sit. In the back of your car and what, play with Facebook or Instagram all the time? Everybody is a influencer pushing some sort of a product.
What do we do? How do we fill our time? So, my point is, and this is where you said I may get philosophical, I believe that we are at a, at a cusp, at a very early stages of fundamental evolution in humankind. Because we don't have to deal with the mundane. We don't have to deal with a lot of stuff that took a lot of time out of us.
We are entering an area where our mind is going. So up to this point, we have physically evolved our, our body, our way. Now it's another era where we can mentally evolve, where we have to be more creative, more innovative. The AI stuff is all about machine learning in the past. Our creativity is all about the future and what we can do.
Are we ready for that? Yeah, that's the question. Will we get ready for it? Likely the world would force us to do that.
[00:15:15] Marco Ciappelli: Well, you know, so I love where you're going. I mean, I wrote pieces newsletter about this and how I can see the future being an augmented future. And, you know, we leave as long as we leave, we cure, as you said at the beginning, the diseases that we cure.
And you look at CS just ended, the consumer technology. There are stuff this year. That it's incredible in every field, I mean, people that can walk again, because as a skeleton, there is optimization of agriculture, all using AI, which may be a little bit of a buzzword, but it is a big revolution, a big innovation is probably as big as the invention of the computer itself in terms of, you know, Digital revolution, and then now it's the fourth, the fifth revolution, whatever they want to call it, the industrial revolution was the first one.
I, I am with you from a, from a sociological and philosophical level that I don't think we're ready. I'm just going to be provocative here. Like, our educational system, our new system, the example that you made, if you're writing and presenting and starting with fear, it's not going to work. If you say, no, I don't want to use AI, you know, I don't want my student to use, you're also a professor, I don't want my student to use CHAT GPT.
Well, they're going to use it anyway. Just teach them how to use it, right? So, my fear is And it was your first point, it's who should we fear more, people or AI?
[00:16:56] Sid Mohasseb: So let me, let's, let's drill down into that. So, so one thing, for example, we have a lot of places in the Congress, in the United States, at the Senate, at people introducing, these are our Congress people.
These are our senators introducing bills that we should not let kids be exposed to the CHAT GPT or AI. Now, on the other side of the world, in Hong Kong, there are 420 schools and they are all providing CHAT GPT and AI education. Okay, so if you want to nationalize this, our perspective and oh, they may be exposed to a lot of stuff.
So I want to, I want to ask you one other thing, let's dig deeper on who should be afraid of. So we have these things in our social media. You are a conservative. I'm a liberal. I am a conservative. You're a liberal. I have one perspective. I am about environment. You are against environment. You think it's a hoax.
I think it's a whatever, whatever your position is.
[00:18:08] Marco Ciappelli: Pardon me? The planet is flat.
[00:18:10] Sid Mohasseb: Yeah. Yeah. So, so we go to our social media circle. It's an Instagram or it's a, uh, or it's a Facebook or whatever your Twitter, whatever your choice is. And we have these friends. And as we click. We find people that are like minded.
So, what we've done is, I talk to some people, for example, they say, Everybody thinks like that. Why do they think everybody thinks like that? Because we don't have the patience to read anything. We don't see anything from anybody else. We are in this environment. And your news that's delivered to you is the same news that you clicked 17 times.
If you hate Trump, the news that comes to you is about that.
[00:18:54] Marco Ciappelli: It's an echo chamber of
[00:18:56] Sid Mohasseb: So let's fast forward this. Let's fast forward. We're clicking on these things and as human beings We have this perspective. We see the world from this set of glasses. This is how we see it. And that's what we're going to teach our children.
So we are essentially, by our choices of clicking and choosing and closing, we are creating a world that is polarized, that is compartmentalized. We think we are educating people. We think that the internet, who should we be more afraid of? The machine is just responding to what we want. We are training it to behave this way.
And then we say, it's the machine. No, it's us.
[00:19:45] Marco Ciappelli: Absolutely.
[00:19:46] Sid Mohasseb: Now here's the other thing. Can we blame Facebook for doing it? No, they're, they're an entity that's trying to make money. We do it. Okay. Let's go click on a lot of other things. Let's, let's, let's be open to learn other things. They'll still make money.
They don't care what you click on. They do not care if you look at this ad or that ad. If you look at this or that, they don't care.
[00:20:14] Marco Ciappelli: The way I see Facebook, which I'm not a big fan because of, yeah, they're a company need to make money and, but they also been leveraging, you know, sure advertising been doing that all along, leveraging psychology and weakness or people or, you know, like if we do social engineering in cyber security where we're kind of Taking advantage of flaw that we have in our, you know, in our mind, in our brains.
Um, but the fact that they've been doing this to the extreme that They've created a world for many people that I've heard people say that their internet is Facebook I mean they their entire internet Facebook. That's the problem.
[00:21:05] Sid Mohasseb: This is a sense of responsibility That we as society we do two things One is we are a how to society somebody tells us this do this this way.
So we've limited. Okay, everything is a how to Yeah. Right. Black or white. Yeah. It's the last book I wrote, I said, please, if you're looking for a how to, this is not it. Close this. This book is not for you. I want you to think, I want you to be, uh, be, uh, you know, provoke yourself. I want you to motivate yourself.
Nobody can motivate you. It's not a two minute, uh, you know, uh, some guy getting up and say, Hey, look what I've done. I've done. Look what you can do. That's not, that comes from you, within you. You are not them, you are you. So, what we have done is, one is this how to thing, and the other is the culture of blame.
We claim, we blame our parents, we claim our wherever, Man, we are using these things. Don't click on the same thing. Be prepared to learn more, and it's okay. But we don't like to do that. I say, why are they doing that? Or, this is the other thing, this idea of privacy and this is my data. Marco, we don't have any problem clicking and getting something for free from Google.
We have no problem. We have no problem. How many of us are paying Google a monthly fee about Facebook, about Instagram, about all the other things that are for free? There is a cost for that. You're exchanging something. Why should the company give you something for free? Would you do that to somebody else?
So, there's something you're giving. We give our data to Google, instead they give us an 8 second satisfaction of something that we search. And we're perfectly fine with it. We're fine with getting it, but when they say, Oh, this is your data. Let's get with it. The other thing that, now you got me going. So the other thing about this.
[00:23:05] Marco Ciappelli: I did my job right. If I got you going.
[00:23:08] Sid Mohasseb: So let's go, let's take a look at this data privacy thing. AI is about machine learning. Okay. Machine learning requires something to learn from. Okay? Which is data. So if we don't give it data, it can learn. It cannot learn anything. And if it cannot learn anything, it's dumb.
Okay? So look at the Chinese government and the Chinese approach. They get all the data companies share. In Japan, 10 a hundred manufacturing companies decided to share their data. They're sharing their data. What that means is they're learning. As they learn, they have the material. You want to build a building?
You need concrete. You need iron. You want to build an AI machine? You need data. We are so afraid, so fast forward, we're gonna lose competitiveness because all of our stuff that we're doing, all the rules and the regulations, are don't use our data. So, so somebody knows that, uh, I have, uh, hemophilia. So, so, so what?
So what's gonna happen? So, so what? Somebody knows that I went to this site. So, so, so, so I did. So what do you want to do with it?
[00:24:45] Marco Ciappelli: So I talk a lot about this. With, let's say, European or where, you know, the GDPR and the story that I listen all the time, they are here all the time. This is from, you know, privacy lawyer for big companies.
And they're like, yeah, you know, in Europe. We, I say we, being, you know, partially European, we have a history where privacy was abused before, so we're more sensitive about it. The feeling of privacy is different compared with the United States, where it's still more based on privacy. Property maybe than privacy.
So but I think in the end we'll come down to being Having the same emotion and feelings, right? And and I do feel to go back to and somebody may disagree with this I'm sure a lot of people will but I go back to what you said To the media are creating sometimes a problem where a problem there isn't they're creating a difference Where a difference the reason maybe we're freaking out so much about privacy because The media want us to freak out about it And so they can click and sell and and all of that and I said many times We need to redefine privacy and when I said that I noticed that even the expert of privacy They don't really know what they're doing How to define privacy anymore.
[00:26:11] Sid Mohasseb: So have you read this laws that the european just passed? Have you looked at it?
[00:26:17] Marco Ciappelli: The GPR or?
[00:26:19] Sid Mohasseb: The new, the new AI regulation. Oh, the, the
[00:26:22] Marco Ciappelli: AI act.
[00:26:23] Sid Mohasseb: Yeah. AI Responsibility Act. Yeah. This is, this is absolutely heaven for attorneys. This is like the act of let's give as much money to attorneys as possible.
[00:26:35] Marco Ciappelli: The three levels of, uh, Involvement and, and in risk.
Yeah. It's pretty.
[00:26:42] Sid Mohasseb: And, and you have a loan, you, somebody doesn't give you a loan. You can go question the bank and say, why did you open up your entire thing? Show me all of your, uh, property in terms of AI and your machines and your machine learning and your data and who would do that? Nobody. So that's a legal action.
You're gonna have hundreds if not thousands and thousands of lawsuits. So they tell you, You can't measure emotion. It's illegal for you to measure face, uh, recognition. Why? Right? Because this, this illusion of, of privacy. Now, I have a solution for it. Whoever uses my data, pay me. I'm perfectly fine. I know.
Let's create the bank. That's the best. Anybody, this isn't not the best solution. You want my data? I click over here as of tomorrow morning. Okay. I'm old. You pay me a penny. You are young and a better consumer. You get 10. I'm perfectly fine.
[00:27:43] Marco Ciappelli: You know what I heard? I want, I want your opinion on this and then I have a very important question.
Um, but so I heard this, you know when I give you discount on insurance? Yeah. Because. They are tracking you how fast you're going on the car when they are
[00:27:58] Sid Mohasseb: paying you for your data. That's what they're doing,
[00:28:00] Marco Ciappelli: right? They're giving a discount, but then they want to try to keep tracking you even when you're not driving So eventually they'll know you go to the mall or whatever.
They already that's not their business anymore But if they partner with another company, maybe with the mall itself, and they give me a discount, maybe, maybe I'm okay with that.
[00:28:22] Sid Mohasseb: Since you got me there, there is an article, a white paper I wrote almost, uh, Jesus, I'm old, 10, 12 years ago. You're not that old.
It's called, uh, I mean, 12 years ago, nobody was thinking about this stuff. Yeah. Uh, it's, it's called, um, uh, framing, uh, framing, uh, a data monetization strategy. Okay. And I define different ways that you can monetize your data and how you as a company and how do you partner, how do you syndicate and how, and that is one of the cases that I've said, okay, here's the company you do this.
Okay. Then you could actually, here's the thing. If I know where you're going with your car, not only I can profile you from your risk perspective, and I have insurance, so I've got the Toyota data, and I've got the, uh, Tesla data, and I've got, because I'm, I'm covering all of them, so I know exactly how the engine, the brakes, the, the, the acceleration, the deceleration of all of these different cars work.
Is that valuable for improvement for other cars? Of course it is. It is valuable to me when I want to buy a car. Of course it is.
[00:29:38] Marco Ciappelli: In the long run, certainly, you get a more secure car.
[00:29:41] Sid Mohasseb: When you aggregate it, now you have data machine learning and you can learn from it. So my, my point is this. My point is, there is There is a redefining of what we have doing, we are redefining society.
By the way, one time I want to talk to you about redefining, uh, the business models that we operate in. It's, we, we have to go from, from profit to reason. Because companies, companies are on the wrong track and it has always worked like that, but we've been trained to say it's about profit. It's about the reason that people act.
Okay. Here's the thing. Do I sell you something or do you buy from me? Who has the decision? The buyer has the decision. You make the decision and you make it based on some reasoning. So, it's not about me building this massive sales force and this and that. It's about you.
[00:30:42] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, unless it's a monopoly that, that you have to.
[00:30:46] Sid Mohasseb: It's, it's about, it's about the buyer. It's about the employee who wants to accept a job.
[00:30:51] Marco Ciappelli: So he, he, I knew this was gonna go along and yes, you, you will definitely come back now that we are in the business. So there's definitely the element of trust, right? Yeah. I mean, I, I understand, and I, we talk a lot about this.
If I want an AI assistant that works well for me. I have to give it my, my knowledge. I have to give my taste the thing I like to do the, the, the disease that I have, the whatever, if I wanted to do a good job. So I need to trust that the company. that I give this information and they give me a service, they're going to keep it for themselves maybe without reselling this data, right?
So you had a point in, in the things that you exchanged with me that were possible conversation that kind of got me thinking the, the size of the companies that we're dealing with. So I got the feeling and, and that's the question that You may be on that side, and I am kind of that side too, where if we had more competition and less big company, we could have the market taking care a little bit more of itself.
And you know, it's the capitalist dream, let's say, let, let the market fix itself. But when you got so big, like Facebook big, Google big, Telecom big. Then, you know, you need the regulation to step in. And I don't know if they're doing a good job at it, trying, maybe European are doing a little bit better of a job, but this idea of smaller company in tech that compete in a more ethical way Ideally, that would be a nice, a nice piece of utopia, but how?
[00:32:46] Sid Mohasseb: So, so as, as I started explaining, I've advised many companies at their executive levels, big companies. I've also started and make investments in very small companies. What I think, and I've got articles about this in Time and in Newsweek and stuff, I think we've gone from capitalism to elitism. So let's, let's think of it this way.
You have a donut shop, you have a restaurant, you have a small shop somewhere, selling, uh, I don't know, TV, whatever, whatever it is. Uh, if you make a bad decision, you, your business would not do well. You go into your, you tap into your, uh, uh, your savings and as an, as an owner and you pay for it and you, there is a consequence.
So entrepreneurship and, and, and, uh, and capitalism is about. Owning your decisions. You make a decision, you win, you take a risk, you lose. Now, if you get big, for example, Delta. We had an issue with Delta. All of a sudden, we, the taxpayers, have to pay them Because they made a bad decision. Why? Can I, would you, would the citizen of this thing, I have a donut shop, I made a bad decision, come and give me money?
No, that's not the case. They're not going to bail you out. Nobody would bail me out. Okay. So this is, so you've got the big problem is that we are going through this elitism. The second thing is our system of government is more, and this is where I like the Europeans a little better, in America we are more and more money driven.
You cannot get into a senate from California unless you have a hundred million dollars. What, is this government of the people for the people? No! What people have a hundred million dollars to get into senate? You want to get the president? You have to pay, spend about three billion dollars with a B. 3 billion to get into, uh, the White House.
That's a lot of money. So, it's gotta come from somewhere. And guess what? I, as the donut shop guy, don't have the money to give them. But the Facebook does. And nobody gives something without an expectation of something in return. So, because the system is based on money, the bigger you get, you can inject that money.
And when you inject that money, you can expect some privileges. You become the elite. Right? So, uh, this is, the system is, is, is kind of messed up. Now, do I believe that smaller companies are going to be coming? There is a cycle and I think we're in the cycle of new generation of small companies to come up.
Why? Because all of those people who made half a million dollars at Facebook, the 12, 000 at Google that got laid off, the people at different places that are getting laid off, these are smart people. They didn't get to be dumb when they left. They are the ones who make the products for all these big companies.
And then they come, they, when they come out and this time to have money, they've been making half a million dollars, a million dollars, 300, 000 a year. All of their stock options have worked something.
[00:36:12] Marco Ciappelli: But what if, and you know that as an investor, if your strategy, your out strategy is to be bought. You're getting out from the big company, you build a company, and then you want the bigger company to get and incorporate you again, so the big fish just get bigger and bigger and bigger.
[00:36:34] Sid Mohasseb: Again, let's go back to why that is, because we are in a society that we want big money, and that's everybody wants to be Mark Zuckerberg. But there are other options that structurally you can, you can develop. Here's the thing. Why is it that Elon Musk has got somewhere around 2 billion worth of subsidies?
Now if you have a business, can you get that? Nope. You can't get that. So the structure of helping, and if you go to a bank and you want to get a business loan, they, they, they undress you and they, you know, somebody says they want your great great grandfather to come in and vote a vouch for you. But if you take, uh, Donald Trump or, uh, uh, the, the Kennedy family or the Rockefeller family, they could go in there without anything and get loans over nothing.
That's it.
[00:37:27] Marco Ciappelli: Sid, you know what my grandfather used to say, the bank give you the umbrella when it doesn't rain.
[00:37:33] Sid Mohasseb: Yes, that's exactly true. But to you and I, they give the umbrella when it's not raining. To the people that can move the stuff, they give the umbrella anytime. Because they know they can manipulate the system to do that.
Now, again, I'm not trying to be political, but if you take our president, he has bankruptcy four times. Okay? And they gave him 800 million dollars. And the argument by the bank is, I can bet on this guy, he's too big to fail, and he's gonna come back. You as an owner of a 7 Eleven, you're not too big to fail, so why would I give it to you?
There is logic there. There's nothing wrong with Trump getting it, or the likes of Trump and others, there's nothing wrong with the banks making that argument. The 7 Eleven. System is designed like that. Yeah.
[00:38:33] Marco Ciappelli: And ag and again, I mean, this is not a political position 'cause we can do the same conversation if you're looking at somebody on, on the left.
I mean, the, the amount of money that you take to run for president is the same for both. So, but, but it's important that we point out this thing.
[00:38:49] Sid Mohasseb: What I'm the system Just to, just, just to double down on what you said. Yeah. This, what I'm, what I'm describing is if you are running for. The senator in California needed 100 million.
All of the candidates are almost all Democrats. Where are they getting these 100 million? How many of these people do we have?
[00:39:11] Marco Ciappelli: It's a system. It's a system problem.
[00:39:12] Sid Mohasseb: It's the system. That's exactly what I'm saying. Now, the system is designed this way. So there's a problem with the system.
[00:39:19] Marco Ciappelli: So this is where we're going to do the last few minutes, because we're already at the end.
39 and that's cool. Again, I want you back because I want to have this conversation more. Do we see with your transition from physical to mental to improving everybody's in a very idealistic society, whatever it is, utopian, whatever you want to call it, that with the right education, the right redefinition, who knows when, who knows how, we could get to that level of I don't know, uh, become enlightened.
Like I'm gonna go back to renaissance or anything like that where where we can put again instead of the money, the well being of people and we all make decision based on that because that's the real value. and not actually the money. Because money, as they say, doesn't necessarily buy happiness. So what, what is happiness?
Having the bank full or being healthy and happy?
[00:40:31] Sid Mohasseb: So I have a very good friend of mine, uh, Marty Cooper. He is the, literally, the inventor of cell phones. He's 90 some odd years old, and he and I have these interesting conversations. I mean, I say that it's like talking to Einstein, and he says, Sid, you and I are too optimistic, but we like it this way.
I am optimistic because I like to be optimistic as opposed to pessimistic. It feels better to be optimistic. Yeah. I am optimistic that we've gone through all these generations and all these tens of thousands of years, and we are here because at some point We evolved in a certain direction. Could we have made some better decisions?
Would we have been in a better place? Perhaps, but we are at the edge, at the, at the, at the very beginning of a new era, I believe that this new era is also going to be an evolutionary era for us. It's not just technology. This is not an issue of technology. This is like, we had fire. And then we didn't have fire.
It changed the way we eat. It changed the way we lived. It changed the way it changed a lot of stuff. We now have realized that the life could be a lot better and we're realizing it more and more. We can use this tools and these technologies to make our life better. The first time an AI is used in some form or shape to cure cancer, One type of a cancer, guess what?
Everybody is going to be, hallelujah!
[00:42:08] Marco Ciappelli: And he's already doing it.
[00:42:10] Sid Mohasseb: You know? There is something. So, the point is this. I am optimistic about the direction. I am not today optimistic about people realizing that direction and being on board for the same fear reasons that we discussed. And for all the, all the other media and corporates and all of those things that surrounds the discussions, the controlling, our mindset, our privacy laws, our regulations, all of that sort of stuff are impediments to the speed at which Thank you very much.
We are going to, uh, to get to a to a place. I think it's a hundred year cycle. I don't think this is going to happen within my lifetime. Now, you asked me if I have something to sell or why am I here? Why do I do these podcasts and why do I write these articles and why do I write books? Because I want to help provoke people.
I don't want to motivate them. Nobody can motivate anybody to do anything That's nonsense. Mm-Hmm. , because I'm not you I, but I like to provoke you to, to say, Hey, do you want your kids to live in a better life? Get with it. Do you want to be able to buy that home and that comfort in 5 10 years? The boat, the train is leaving the station.
Get on board now. This is the time not to be afraid. You may have been afraid to get married at some point, but you did. You got on the train. Hey, this is, this is, you gotta accept this change because change is our best friend. Change is what provides us with options. Marco, if there was no change You would be eating the same thing every day, doing the same thing every day.
If you have a kid that five year old would always stay five year old, never get married, never go
[00:44:15] Marco Ciappelli: anywhere. And probably we will have a lifespan of, I don't know, 18 years instead of whatever we have. Change
[00:44:23] Sid Mohasseb: is your best friend. Let me leave it with that. And
[00:44:26] Marco Ciappelli: I'm going to take that and I'm going to finish connecting the fact that I share your, you know, your objective because Redefining society, even in the name, if people haven't get it, it's optimistic.
It's asking a lot of questions, make people think and see if we can. I'm not gonna, I don't have answer, but I have a lot of questions. I think people need to question a little bit more what they read. Uh, what they've been told and use their brain and common sense. So I hope that people listening to this, uh, longer than usual episode will be leaving with some questions, leave some comments if they want to, and hopefully subscribe and stay tuned because, Sid, if you would like to, I would love to talk more with you, uh, in the future.
And if you want to come back, we can see you soon. Pick another topic or just go from where we left it here. Sure. Be happy to. All right. Thank you so much for your time and thanks everybody for following. Stay tuned for, uh, I guess other interesting conversations. So if you like that, this is the place.
Take care, everybody. Bye. Take care, Sid.