The Trillionaire Era Has Begun

Delivered November 7, 2025 @ 12:00pm ET

Weather in Bloomington, IN - Cloudy, mild day, 17⁰ C / 62⁰ F 🍁 

Table of Contents

• The Trillionaire Era Has Begun

• The Power of Core Beliefs: Your Invisible Advantag …

  • You Can Only Build What You Believe

  • The Good News: Beliefs Aren’t Fixed

My name is Gerry Hays, Founder & CEO of Doriot® (pronounced “Doe-ree-oh”), named after French-born American U.S. General Georges Doriot, the father of Venture Capital. I’m also an author (First Time Founders’s Equity Bible), inventor (U.S. patents for ads on t-shirts, coat checking, and VentureStaking® - pending), and 21-year professor of venture capital and entrepreneurial finance at Indiana University.

Democratize Venture is my platform to explore the venture markets and share the insights, strategies, and frameworks I bring into the classroom. It’s also a way for me to share principles of prosperity — because at the end of the day, venture is a pathway to prosperity.

The Trillionaire Era Has Begun

On Thursday, Tesla shareholders approved a plan that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Yes — trillionaire. Not long ago, even a trillion-dollar company sounded delusional. Now, we’re talking about individuals reaching that mark.

To put it in perspective:

• $1 trillion = 1 million millionaires

• 170+ countries have GDPs below $1 trillion

It’s easy to focus on the eye-popping number, but the structure of the deal matters more than the headline. Tesla is currently valued at ~$1.5 trillion. For Musk to earn the full $1 trillion payout, the company must grow to at least $8.5 trillion in market cap. That’s a 1:8.5 return for shareholders — a massive upside if it’s achieved.

You could argue this is simply smart, incentive-aligned capitalism: pay $1 to get $8.50. Yet the public reaction mirrors the cultural moment — some see it as visionary leadership, others as late-stage capitalism on steroids.

Here’s the bigger insight:
We’re entering a financial era where individual wealth creation is tied to corporate dominance. As a small number of companies consolidate an outsized share of market cap (think the S&P 500’s top 10), we will see more trillion-dollar valuations — and yes, more trillionaires.

Expect 5–10 more within a generation. The economic implications are enormous:

• Power will increasingly concentrate in the hands of founder-CEOs

• Capital markets will reward scale and monopolies more than ever

• The public-private divide will keep blurring

Whether you think it's inspiring or insane, this is the world we’re building.

The Power of Core Beliefs: Your Invisible Advantage

Last week, I talked about a game Silicon Valley has mastered — the “Cloak of Credibility.” Through careful selection, storytelling, and branding, the Valley manufactures the next generation of founders and unicorns. If you can get selected — into YC, Sequoia’s Arc, A16Z SpeedRun, or the next hot startup fellowship — you can jump the line and gain credibility in the eyes of VCs.

But let’s do the math: over 50,000 applicants compete for fewer than 500 slots. That’s a 1% acceptance rate. For the other 99%, the question becomes: How do you succeed without the cloak?

The answer is old-fashioned, but still undefeated: your core belief system.

You Can Only Build What You Believe

Success doesn’t start in your pitch deck. It starts in your subconscious. You manifest your outcomes through the fusion of ideas + emotions — and your emotions are triggered by your core beliefs.

You are only capable of achieving what you believe is possible.

Limiting beliefs — like “I’m not smart enough,” “I’m not worthy,” “life is hard,” or “people are out to get me” — don’t just feel bad. They create a lens that distorts how you see the world. And that distortion eventually manifests outcomes that match the emotional state: rejection, burnout, frustration, self-sabotage.

The Good News: Beliefs Aren’t Fixed

Core beliefs are learned over time — but they can also be retrained. Here’s how to start:

1. Identify your core beliefs.
   What do you consistently believe about money, success, your potential, or how the world works? Write them down.

2. Audit them.
   Are they empowering? Or are they quietly capping your ambition?

3. Replace and reinforce.
   New beliefs need repetition. Speak them. Visualize them. Surround yourself with proof of possibility.

This is how you actually jump the line — by becoming the kind of founder whose internal game is stronger than external validation.

Change your beliefs. Change your emotional state. Change your outcomes.

Wishing you a focused and fulfilling weekend,