Burt's Modest Exit

A story about Burt, the real person behind Burt's Bees, who was content with a modest payout despite the company's massive success.

"Burt was a beekeeper, this mountain man type of guy who lived in the woods somewhere up east, maybe New Hampshire or Rhode Island. He tended bees and this entrepreneurial woman met him and said 'I'm going to turn your beeswax into chapstick.'

Eventually she sold the company for $173 million, but Burt only got $4 million from the deal. The company that bought it would ship him around to Japan and Europe as a spokesperson because people wanted to see who Burt was.

In the documentary, they asked him if he was upset about the money. He said 'No, I don't want that money. I just want to go to bed when the sun goes down, wake up when the sun comes up, and do whatever I want in between and not talk to anyone. I'm happy.'

The company is now worth over a billion dollars. They still paid him an undisclosed amount for his likeness and name until his death in 2015."

46:35 - 48:11
Full video: 51:16
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Sam Parr

Host of MFM and fitness influencer

Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.

In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.

Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.

After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.

Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.

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