Cédric Waldburger - Essentialism - Living on 64 Things

In this episode, Dave interviews Cédric Waldburger, a serial startup expert who travels around the world to work with different startups. Cédric calls himself a world citizen and an essentialist as he carries only 64 items in his bag. Cédric studied electrical engineering at ETH Zurich and is the co-founder of Media Sign and CEO of Send Task and Tenderloin Ventures. Listen as Cédric shares what an essentialist is and how he decides what is worth keeping in his life—from a toothbrush to a relationship with a friend. Cédric also discusses the value of creating and following your own processes to maximize your productivity.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:05 – Entrepreneurs Organization proudly presents Virtual Learning Podcast 00:33 – Dave welcomes Cédric Waldburger 00:41 – Dave is fascinated by the fact that Cédric is an essentialist, a startup coach and entrepreneur 01:19 – Dave introduces Cédric 01:33 – Over the past two years, Cédric has been travelling around the world with just 64 items in his bag 01:55 – Cédric’s travel statistics is posted on his Facebook page 02:38 – Cédric started his first company, Media Sign, when he was just 14 years old and found that he was most passionate about the work in the first few months of the business 03:36 – Three years ago, Cédric started investing and coaching startups around Europe 04:13 – Cédric felt his material possessions were holding him back from doing what he wanted to do 04:39 – Cédric started to reduce his belongings and he eventually gave up his apartment 05:17 – Cédric did not want to be dependent on physical constraints when thinking about doing work with different companies 06:04 – Cédric does not own things that have sentimental value to him 06:46– Cédric digitized a lot of his pictures and uploaded them to Google Photos 07:22 – Cédric does not call Zurich his home anymore, as he is always travelling and sleeps at friend’s houses to catch up with them 08:30 – In places where he does not have friends, Cédric uses Airbnb or stays in hotels 09:27 – Dave asks Cédric where he gets the money for his travels 10:35 – The flight cost is almost the same as maintaining his own apartment 10:53 – Some of Cédric’s trips are sponsored by the company he is working with 11:15 – Cédric is working with 14 different companies right now and is earning enough for him to not worry about money 12:34 – Cédric’s 64 things that he owns is posted online 13:20 – Dave asks about the bow tie and suit vest 14:11 – Cédric says he needs those items for important events such as weddings or gala dinners 15:10 – During cold weather, Cédric layers his merino wool shirts or borrows a jacket from his friends 16:38 – Cédric follows a strict daily routine which includes exercise 17:16 – Every morning and before sleeping, Cédric exercises and takes a cold shower 18:33 – Cédric’s toiletries are not included in the list as he does not include the things that he recycles within 4-6 weeks 19:05 – Cédric’s technology list includes his Apple laptop, iPhone, FitBit and noise-cancelling headphones 20:17 – Minimalism is about keeping the least amount of stuff while essentialism is keeping the things that give you value and make you happy 21:08 – Cédric thinks it is okay to own more than a hundred things, as long as it gives you value 22:07 – Dave asks Cédric for advice on how to purge the things he owns 22:42 – Cédric has a system and process on how he determines what is essential to him 22:56 – The first question is: does it bother you to have so much stuff? 23:11 – Cédric does the 90-90 rule every 3 months: have I used this item in the last 90 days and will I use this item in the next 90 days? 24:03 – Store the items that you said “no” to and go back to it after 3 months to see if you have used any of those items 24:20 – Cédric found that it was emotionally easier to not purge things right away 25:23 – Dave says the 90-90 rule is a great approach for deciding what stays 25:47 – Dave talks about Tim Ferriss’ podcast with Cal Fussman 26:28 – Cal went to Europe and travelled for 10 years—he slept at the people’s houses whom he met during his train rides 27:14 – Cal met a beautiful woman in South America while on a train ride and they ended up getting married 28:01 – Dave asks Cédric a hypothetical question about settling down 28:51 – Cédric says he also has a process for reassessing what he wants for his life 29:05 – Cédric has a list of 12 areas and sends an e-mail to himself for the future 30:09 – The practice is to make him conscious of what he wants 30:55 – Cédric says when he meets someone, he makes adjustments and makes ways to be with that person more 31:17 – In this phase of his life, Cédric knows that it would not work out to be with someone who wants to spend more time at home 31:53 – Dave shares Ari Meisel’s books Less Doing, More Living and The Art of Less Doing 32:05 – Cédric’s latest startup is Send Task 32:54 – Cédric is a huge fan of productivity tools 33:52 – Cédric wanted a tool that would send tasks rather than emails 34:45 – Send Task allows users to track tasks between people who do not have an account on their site; all you need is their email address 35:18 – The main goal, for now, is making a great product rather than revenue 36:15 – Cédric is the CEO of Send Task 37:07 – Dave is currently building Prop Fuel and talks about the importance of technology and marketing 38:01 – Cédric is planning on creating content that talks about the 21st century work flexibility and the second channel is allowing users to share it with other people 39:10 – The company is hoping that the built-in share functionality will drive customers in 40:29 – Cédric has a virtual assistant who books his flights for him 41:12 – Cédric documents a lot of what he is doing as part of creating his own system 42:02 – Get Leverage is where Ari and Nick talk about productivity 42:17 – In looking for an employee, Cédric has a 5-step hiring process 43:18 – Cédric inserts a one-liner somewhere in the document and this cuts the applicants to about 15-20%, as it shows who read his job description thoroughly 43:35 – Applicants also respond to a document discussing applicant’s skills and attitudes 44:14 – Cédric’s virtual assistant will check the attitudes section while the skills section will be checked by someone in the same field 45:03 – The top three will receive a call from Cédric 45:53 – The Van Halen contract says they only want green m&m’s in their dressing room 46:19 – The mentality behind this was to ensure that the people were actually reading the contract 47:17 – Dave shares the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo 47:42 – Dave thanks Cédric for coming on the show 48:08 – Dave closes the episode and encourages you to visit his website 

3 Key Points:

Essentialism is keeping the things in your life that give you value. Your productivity relies on creating your processes and following them through. Be conscious of what you want for your life and in your life by having that conversation with yourself.

Resources Mentioned:

Entrepreneur's Organization – The EO Network Cédric Waldburger – Cédric’s website The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – Book referred by Dave Media Sign, Tenderloin Ventures, Send Task – Cédric’s companies List – Cédric’s list of items owned Get Leverage – Ari and Nick’s website that discusses productivity Less Doing, More Living and The Art of Less Doing – Books written by Ari Meisel