If I Woke Up In 2026 With $0… This Is What I’d Do

It's 2026. You're 20 again and you've got no money. With all that you know now, what would you do?

>> This is Brian Scootermore. At 19, he dropped out of college and started a business with a single pickup truck.

Fast forward to today and that same business is valued at over $700 million.

In this episode, Brian's going to break down what he would do to get rich if he had to start again at 20 with absolutely nothing, including the one move he says most young entrepreneurs miss. Let's go.

>> So, I would start with mindset. If

you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Get into the right room. Make sure that you are the

right room. Make sure that you are the person that knows the least where you can start to be a sponge and learn from others. Join an entrepreneur

others. Join an entrepreneur organization. Go out and meet

organization. Go out and meet entrepreneurs and talk to them. And so

what you said earlier that it gave me chills. It was absolutely so powerful.

chills. It was absolutely so powerful.

You started your garden gardening business and you found your passion.

Your passion wasn't gardening. My

passion wasn't junk removal. But by

starting something, you get in that mindset of, oh wow, now I know what I love to do. And I think that's where most entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs who want to start get tripped up. They

don't have the confidence, but I don't think they truly understand and realize that if you just start a business, assume it's going to fail. You're going

to learn something that will take you to your f to your passion. So, I would start with mindset. And then the first thing I would do is I would develop a vision and try and connect with which is hard at 20, but what do you really want

in life? Starting with your why. You and

in life? Starting with your why. You and

I talked off camera and we sent a video to our mutual friend Simon Synynic who says starts with why. Why are you building what you're building? I think

so many people in their 20s say I want to build something cuz I want to get rich. Studies have shown that that is

rich. Studies have shown that that is not the most important thing at the end of a life.

>> It won't keep you going cuz you're selling you know the most valuable thing you got which is time >> for money.

>> You want to have freedom. You want to be able to enjoy life and have fun. But

what I've realized especially from others friends of mine who've sold their businesses you talk to people who sell their businesses too s too soon have some regret because they go oh my gosh it was so fun. A lot of people moan

don't real much fun it is but you know you got to enjoy the journey basically right so >> enjoy the journey it isn't the pot of gold at the end at all that can be an important milestone for people but start with your why and go what do you really

want to do my favorite quote in the world is Walt Disney it's kind of fun to do the impossible what motivates me what's my why is impossible thinking if you open your mind up to big possibilities you never know they might

actually happen so I start with a dream in my mind I would do this again at 20 what's my biggest dream what do I want to see happen in this world and no matter how far-fetched is it, I write it

down as an idea on paper.

>> What else would you do as a 20-year-old now, you know, wanting to start a business with no money?

>> I would figure out, first of all, how to find some money. Now, some of the most powerful, largest businesses on the planet, take Apple as an example, right?

Everyone loves Apple. They started with $1,000 out of a garage. You know, 1800 got junk starts with under a,000. Find

$1,000. It's a lot of money to a lot of people, but figure out you have an aunt, an uncle, >> clean cars at the weekend, you'd make half of that. Exactly. Like I I think people Yeah, I agree with you. Learn

learn to do the the stuff you don't want to do so you can make the money you need to do the thing you want to do >> and go start something. So as a kid, 12 years old, I go start a car wash in my neighborhood.

>> Okay. I didn't know that, but that makes sense.

>> I'm on one corner. My neighbor who another kid of similar age thought, what a great idea. He started a car wash on his corner. We were in this busy

his corner. We were in this busy intersection competing. We had a price

intersection competing. We had a price war. We went from two bucks down to 175.

war. We went from two bucks down to 175.

You know, >> merge cent just merge.

>> I know, but we didn't think about that.

We weren't smart enough.

>> But it was amazing. We were washing all these cars, making a ton of money, having a ton of fun. But again, starting something with no money helped to teach me that like my passion is people,

finding people, having fun, building meaning, making money. I discovered that when I was 12. So my my advice is find something. and someone goes, "How can I

something. and someone goes, "How can I find an idea?" You know what you can do?

You can put into chat GPT, talk to it for 5 minutes on on a voice dictation and say, "My name is so and so. Here are

the things I've always loved to do in life. I love to play rugby. I've loved

life. I love to play rugby. I've loved

trading baseball cards." It doesn't matter what it is. Give it your ideas and say, "Please help me with five ideas of something I can look at starting today with no money." It will give you inspiration. It will give you things

inspiration. It will give you things that you can get out and start today.

>> How did you discover what you're good at? Cuz sometimes people don't know

at? Cuz sometimes people don't know they're bad at something. That's the

other thing.

>> So, I love marketing. I love branding.

And for me, it was getting out there at a a young age and just trying things.

So, the car wash, when I got out there and did this big sign, my sign was bigger than the neighbor's car wash sign. I brought two girls who were

sign. I brought two girls who were friends of mine in the neighborhood to stand out with signs with me. How do we outmarket the guy, the kid next door?

When I started 1800 Got Junk, we were the rubbish boys. Our phone number was 738 junk. So, we painted it. I painted

738 junk. So, we painted it. I painted

it on the side of the truck. And I'm

like, people need to see this. So, I

parked it at a highprofile intersection in a busy area of town. We still do that today, except we have 3,000 trucks, >> big mobile billboards.

>> We've just been talking about making your first $1,000. And this is where most people get stuck. You say you need to start when you have time, money, or the perfect idea, and you don't. The

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>> The other thing I think that I think I have seen this play out for many people.

There was uh two young guys that came to us. They're twins, identical twins. And

us. They're twins, identical twins. And

they said to me their dream was to start a cleaning business. They called them Macka twins. And instead of moaning

Macka twins. And instead of moaning about cleaning, they kind of get excited about it. And they do this line which is

about it. And they do this line which is like, "We clean places no one else wants to clean." And they go into parts of

to clean." And they go into parts of different parts of the world, but London, for example, find a place that no one's cleaned. It's really

disgusting. And they a bin in Camden, right, that's just not been cleaned in 10 years. And they clean it. And they've

10 years. And they clean it. And they've

had videos go massively viral. And

that's meant they get a lot of bookings for their for their cleaning business.

The thing I take away from it is like I see this in your business too.

>> Your business does not sound sexy. You

were 18 years old when you started it.

You did it really just to make a bit of money to pay for university. These

unsexy businesses.

>> This is I want people to real unsexy businesses are really quite sexy.

>> You can make them sexy. Just like those twins. Yeah.

twins. Yeah.

>> They've got these viral videos. They're

connecting with the world. You can make it sexy. What's sexy about 1800 Got Junk

it sexy. What's sexy about 1800 Got Junk is the marketing, the branding, the getting on Ellen and CNN and Wall Street Journal, New York Times or being enthusiastic about something that no one else is enthusiastic about. Again, if I

was building a business in 2026, I'd look in those niches. There's people, a friend of mine uh in Hong Kong who just bought a lingerette and she's turned it into like a really cool cafe and sell plants and you do laundry. She was

telling me that there's people actually going to that lingerette to wash their clothes that have a washing machine at home. you know, like you think lawn

home. you know, like you think lawn dress, >> they want the experience. They

>> say, you take a boring business and you you give it that kind of excitement. I

think it's important for people to think about not being the bottleneck in their business and have you had experience in that?

>> Yeah. So, I was the bottleneck when we hit about 100 million in revenue and I realized and my people helped me realize I was not the right leader to take it further. My own people were saying,

further. My own people were saying, "Brian, you're not the CEO that we need you to be."

>> Interesting. So I went out there and tried to find one. I found an ex-S Starbucks executive who had 30,000 people in their employee. Brought this

person in in. And in 14 months, we almost bankrupted the company together.

And what went wrong is I didn't have the right person for me. So when a founder goes out and finds someone to help them, there needs to be this yin andyang alignment that is just so good that together two heads are better than one.

So got rid of that person and then found Eric Church who's been with me for 13 14 years. and it's been incredible. So,

years. and it's been incredible. So,

what I did is I did I took a sheet of paper and on one side I drew all the things I wrote down all the things in business that I love to do and that I'm good at on the other side. What are all the things the business needs that I

can't give it that I'm not good at. In

fact, I don't like to do. I said, I need someone on that side. And that's where I started sharing that list of all the things I'm bad at that I don't like to do with other potential COOs, a chief

operating officer. and I found Eric and

operating officer. and I found Eric and he goes, "I'm not just saying this, but everything on this list I love to do and I'm great at and the stuff on your side I actually don't ever want to even

learn." So, we found this fit and it's

learn." So, we found this fit and it's been 13 14 years of awesomeness. We've

gone from a $100 million to $700 million. I've been able to live my

million. I've been able to live my exciting marketing idea thinking energy because of the rigor and discipline and support that I get from Eric. What again

I noticed sitting with you which I'd love the audience to have. How old are you?

>> I'm 55.

>> If you focus on the things you love to do and you get good at them, they give you energy. I see a lot of people that

you energy. I see a lot of people that are tired at 55 because they've spent their whole life doing the things that don't give them energy. So you get excited about ideas, right? You get

excited about seeing the idea get implemented in the world and the effect that it can have. To some people that would be draining. So I think people have to know what gives them energy and what takes them energy and people don't spend enough time actually thinking

about that. So when you know your why,

about that. So when you know your why, the business just like goes crazy. Like

we've made more money than I could ever imagine, could ever need, could ever want. And it happened once I really

want. And it happened once I really understood my why of imagine big possibilities. So if I can imagine big

possibilities. So if I can imagine big possibilities and share them with other entrepreneurs outside of our business or franchise owners in it, that's what

that's where I get excited. So if I I think it the the the thought to share with your audience from me. How do you understand what makes you enjoy the journey?

>> Don't think about the jets and the big houses and whatever you want if that's important to you. Think about what do you love about the journey of everyday life. It's another thing I'm taking from

life. It's another thing I'm taking from this chat today and again take this home for yourself which is take risk. I think

I think risk isn't a negative word. I I

think it's a word that gives you a chance to learn.

>> You've got it in your title. How failure

can be your key to success. I think it's so important that people learn to enjoy failure and almost see it as a great story to tell. Right? You can't write a book unless you've got some failure in you.

>> Most learning comes from failure, right?

>> So, I think I think I kind of wish it on people, which I I don't want anyone to fail, but I kind of want people to take the risk to fail. A lot of people listening will be scared to take a risk, right? because if they're in a middle

right? because if they're in a middle class trap, maybe they've got an okay job, they've got an idea, they're scared to do it, there's downside for them. How

do you mitigate risk?

>> I'll give you a specific real life example of how I tackle failure. So, for

me, risk, I say I just have to risk. I

have to take chances to continue to live my why and enjoy my life. Not taking

stupid risks, stupid financial risks, or anything that's going to harm people, but I'm still trying things outside my comfort zone and putting myself out there. So 20 years ago, I got asked to

there. So 20 years ago, I got asked to audition for the first season of Dragon's Den. Starts in the UK. BBC does

Dragon's Den. Starts in the UK. BBC does

incredible things with it. Canada then

brings it and I got asked to audition. I

was like, "Wow, this is really cool."

Holy, I'm flattered. I failed miserably.

They didn't like me. They said, "No, this isn't going to work out." And I asked, "What can I learn from this situation?" The show started to take

situation?" The show started to take off, started to grow. 10 years later, they said, "We're looking for a new dragon. We think you could be it." And

dragon. We think you could be it." And

I'm like, "Okay." They come into my office, they film me, invest all this time, I invest time, I'm like, "Okay, I got it this time." Nope. Sorry, you're

not the right fit. And I'm discouraged and I'm like, "What is this all about?"

But every time I fail, I take out a sheet of paper >> and I say, "What can I learn from this failure? Why has it been two times now

failure? Why has it been two times now that I haven't gotten the dragon spot?"

In reflection, I looked back. If I got it that first time, it would have killed my business cuz I didn't have time to spend on two things. The second time I was going through absolute crisis in my business and couldn't have taken a

moment to focus on that. So opportunity

came up again years later. 3 years ago I heard there was going to be another audition for a new dragon. And I'm like I've done it twice. I'm going to do three times. Like I'll keep doing it cuz

three times. Like I'll keep doing it cuz I want to use that as a platform to share my passion for choose the most amazing career set you could ever find being an entrepreneur. I get to the

studio. There's 19 other potential

studio. There's 19 other potential dragons. And there were some really

dragons. And there were some really famous Canadians in that room. And I'm

like, "Oh my gosh, I can't do this." And

I thought, "Okay, what's my why? Why am

I here? Do I see this and feel it?" And

I just channeled my energy into if this is important to me and I really want it, go in and be my awesome self. And if

they like me, great. If they don't, they don't. And I got it

don't. And I got it >> nice.

>> And it has been so much fun and impactful. But we fail. And that's okay.

impactful. But we fail. And that's okay.

It's more than okay. Most people would not have tried an audition a second time. M you've got to fail because you

time. M you've got to fail because you don't know when you're going to catch the wave, do you? You know what I mean?

Like you don't know when that wave is going to actually hit. So, you've got to keep surfing.

>> Failure is preparation.

>> Brian, thanks for giving us time today to share, guys. I really recommend you go buy this book. We'll put the link down below. If you're interested in

down below. If you're interested in entrepreneurship, you you should read it. You should read it. It will help

it. You should read it. It will help you. There's a step-by-step insight here

you. There's a step-by-step insight here and how to make it all happen. It's

inspirational and I think a lot of people can learn from it. So, thank you for taking the time.

>> Thank you. I hope your audience is challenged to get out there and write down where are you going to fail and go fail today. Let us know down below what

fail today. Let us know down below what you going to start, right? Let us know where you're going to start.