WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 This video is for all my friends who are doing, you know, $1 million, $3 million, $5 million a year and who come to me and are always like, 2 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:11.000 Man, I want to challenge this is so boring. I want to do something new and exciting. 3 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.000 And so let me tell you a story. 4 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:17.000 Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more progress, 5 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.000 how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way. 6 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.000 I hope you enjoy and subscribe. 7 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:23.000 About my neighbor. 8 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:26.000 And so my neighbor had a trash business. 9 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.000 Alright, trash collection business. I was boring as I got to. 10 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:32.000 And he sold his business a few years back for a lot of money. 11 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:33.000 I'll just put it that way. 12 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:38.000 And I was walking one day and he was like watering his lawn and I was like, 13 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.000 Hey, man, you know, what's going on? 14 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.000 And he said, I just got out of my non-compete and I was like, oh, that's awesome. 15 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:49.000 So, you know, what do you plan on doing? He was like, well, I plan on doing the exact same thing again. 16 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:51.000 And I was like, wait, what do you mean? 17 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:57.000 And he was like, well, I plan on starting another trash business and selling it right back to the guys who bought my last one. 18 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.000 And I was like, what? 19 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:01.000 And like, he could tell that I was kind of like confused by this. 20 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:03.000 And he was like, he's like, why would I learn something new? 21 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.000 He's like, I already know everything about the trash business. 22 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:07.000 He's like, I'll just do it again. 23 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:12.000 It just really hit me because I was like, so many entrepreneurs, myself included, right? 24 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:15.000 And I made this mistake so many times early on in my career. 25 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.000 We desire novelty. We desire challenges. We want growth, right? 26 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:22.000 But the thing is, is that we think growth means new. 27 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:30.000 When I think that a lot of times we could redefine growth as meaning we develop the character traits to be able to persist and continue to do the same things over and over again. 28 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:35.000 You don't see these real estate moguls, for example, being like, man, I've built, you know, $20 million in real estate. 29 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:40.000 I kind of just need a challenge. I'm going to start, I'm going to start a restaurant, right? They don't do that. 30 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000 I mean, think about how stupid that would sound to you. You're like, dude, you're so good at real estate. 31 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.000 Just keep doing real estate, right? 32 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.000 But I see this, especially in the marketing community more than anything. 33 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:54.000 It's this need for constant change and growth and challenge, right? 34 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:56.000 But I think you need to redefine the challenges. 35 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:59.000 This is becoming hard for you because you're getting bored. 36 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:04.000 So the challenge is learning to A, be comfortable with boredom, or B, not need it. 37 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:10.000 Because the business doesn't exist to satisfy our internal deficiencies, right? 38 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:13.000 That's usually the most of us build it. We're insecure. We need connection. 39 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.000 We need, we want status, right? These are all the things that we build our business to solve. 40 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:19.000 But our business doesn't actually need to solve any of those things. 41 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:21.000 It just needs to provide value to the customer. 42 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.000 And then we try and extrapolate our, or project our own needs onto the business. 43 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.000 And in so doing, break our businesses and make the wrong decision. 44 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.000 And so let me tell you a different story. 45 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:37.000 So I've had one, two, three different guys tell me in the internet marketing space 46 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.000 who I say one's doing 15 to 20 million. 47 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.000 Another's doing about 10 million, another's doing about 10 million a year. 48 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:47.000 Probably in the neighborhood of like three-ish million profit per year around there. 49 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:48.000 Three to five. 50 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:51.000 And so each of them on their own reached out to me and said, 51 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:57.000 hey man, I think I'm going to start a software company because I'm not challenged enough doing this anymore. 52 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:00.000 Right? And I thought about that. 53 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.000 And I just thought how kind of hilarious it was. 54 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:04.000 It's like, I've risen to the top of my game. 55 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.000 I'm bored doing what I'm doing. And so I'm going to stop doing this. 56 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:10.000 And then I'm going to enter a new arena where everyone else has been doing that for 10 years. 57 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:12.000 And there are other kingpins in that arena. 58 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.000 And I'm going to try and relearn everything from ground zero. 59 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.000 And then try and beat them. 60 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.000 Now here's what's interesting, right? 61 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:21.000 Here's what's crazy. 62 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:25.000 If you were to, let's say, make $100,000 a year in your business. 63 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.000 And you decide that you're going to be a true entrepreneur. 64 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:28.000 And it means you're never going to quit. 65 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:33.000 And it means that you're going to continue to do business for, you know, 40 years or whatever. 66 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:34.000 Right? 67 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.000 If you were to gain at the same pace as the marketplace, which by the way, when you're smaller is really easy, right? 68 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:39.000 It's 10% a year. 69 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:44.000 If you were to grow by 10% a year, by the end of the 40 years, you would have a gazillion dollars, right? 70 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:49.000 But most people are always trying to beat the market when in reality, if you just match the market, 71 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:54.000 you would become extraordinarily crazy wealthy at the end of this game. 72 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:02.000 But because we are so frenetic and we have these insecurities that we project on our business and then force our business to solve our own personal issues, 73 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:07.000 we end up breaking the thing that is actually working just fine because we have these interpersonal needs that we're trying to satisfy. 74 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.000 And this was very hard for me to learn. 75 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:14.000 I'm saying this because for me, this was a mistake that I made over and over again, probably for the first four years of business for me, 76 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:19.000 I tried to make my business solve my personal problems when it really just needed to solve my clients problems. 77 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:22.000 And I needed to do with my own personal stuff, right? 78 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:30.000 One of the things that I wanted to give you was the ways that I create challenges for myself within the business without destroying the business. 79 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:35.000 So let me give you two different things that have been complete lifesavers for me. 80 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:39.000 So I have desires for innovation, I have desires for new things, right? 81 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:43.000 And so where to channel that is not to create new businesses. 82 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:47.000 Where to channel that is to create new friends or new back-ends. 83 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:55.000 So meaning like how can I change the hooks, how can I change the creative, how can I change the ad ideas, the marketing, the front ends that bring people in, 84 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:59.000 because the more variety I have there, the more different types of avatars I'm going to attract and ultimately grow the business. 85 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:07.000 So you can use that entrepreneurial ADD, but use it in a way that's going to serve you and serve the business without rather than breaking the business, right? 86 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:14.000 Whereas if you start creating more businesses to satisfy your ADD, then what ends up happening is, well, you know, you have lots of businesses and you don't have any money. 87 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:15.000 That's the first thing. 88 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.000 The second thing that I do that I want to walk you through is understanding constraints. 89 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:24.000 One of the lessons that I've learned over the last 12 months is multiple metrics for success. 90 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 And so I'll dive more into that in another video. 91 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:34.000 But basically for a very long time of my life, the only metric for success that I had was how much profit and how much increase in net worth I had at the end of the year. 92 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:35.000 That was it. So I cared about it. 93 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:46.000 And I think that as we've gotten to the point where like an increase in net worth, the marginal utility of more money, meaning like the amount of extra good that I can purchase or that more money can purchase me is very, very little. 94 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:53.000 There's nothing that an extra $10 million or an extra $50 million is going to purchase me that the first 50 is a money. 95 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:54.000 There's nothing. 96 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.000 There's nothing that I can't already get. 97 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:04.000 And so when you think about things like that, what it forces you to do is create different ways to win. 98 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:05.000 Because it's a game. 99 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.000 If you're entrepreneurial, then you should, especially if you become more successful, you'll see it as a game. 100 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:16.000 And so you have this game that we're playing and we have these metrics for success that originally are just increasing net worth. 101 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.000 But then you could say, can I increase my net worth and have a good marriage? 102 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:22.000 Can I increase my net worth and be in shape? 103 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:33.000 And so one of the constraints that I'd like to offer you is a challenge to give to yourself so that you don't get bored in the business that you have is a constraint around time. 104 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:41.000 Aimos and Asian quick break just to let you know that we've been starting to post on LinkedIn and want to connect with you. 105 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:45.000 So send me a connection request and let me know that you listen to the show and I will accept it. 106 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:52.000 There's anyone you think that we should be connected with, tag them in one of my or Layless posts and I will give you all the love in the world. 107 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:53.000 So let's get back to the show. 108 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:06.000 Right. And so that was one of the things that I did over the last 12 months was like, OK, I want to build something that does a billion dollars a year in revenue, which is the goal for the portfolio. 109 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:11.000 And transparently we're not there. You know, we're at about $85 million a year across our portfolio. 110 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:15.000 We're still a little short, but it's a good thing to focus on. 111 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:23.000 Now, the thing is is that I don't want to make the way that I have to make that is I can't not get out work to get to a billion, right. 112 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:33.000 You have to make good decisions and you have to let compounding work in your favor, right, because if we have the 85 million and we grow by 10% a year in, you know, 20 years will probably be there, right. 113 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:41.000 And so, well, let's see, a doubling would happen every seven years. So 21 years would be double, double, double. So that would be two, four, eight. 114 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:51.000 So eight times 85. No, we'd still be so we need another doubling. So we'd have like 28 years from now, we could be it if we just grow at the market rate, which is pretty encouraging, I think, because I think we can beat the market. 115 00:07:51.000 --> 00:08:05.000 But anyways, the point is adding constraints makes the goals far more interesting, because I think the first level of achieving any goal is learning how to sacrifice everything to achieve the goal, which I think candidly, I don't know many people who are super successful who haven't done that. 116 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:12.000 You have to be able to put everything you have on the altar of success and sacrifice it for what you want. Some people may not like that idea, and that's fine. 117 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:25.000 I don't I just don't know people who are ultra successful who have done that. And the reason they are willing to sacrifice everything is because the deficiency they have in their soul is so great that the pain they're suffering from is like for not having the thing is so great that they're put everything else on the altar for their success. 118 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:34.000 And I know that I did that firsthand. And so I remember even when I when I was growing growing into this entrepreneurial role that I didn't tell myself, I'm going to outwork everyone because I didn't even think that was realistic. 119 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:43.000 I said, I will out sacrifice everyone. So one of my competitors are going up to dinner, one of my competitors are hanging out with their kids, my competitors are hanging out with their wives are being good husbands, I was like, I will get ahead. 120 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:57.000 That was what I told myself and it worked. But at a certain point, and this is why multiple metrics of success are important, the new goals that I'm setting have constraints on it because anyone can just sacrifice everything to get what they want. 121 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:11.000 But the question is, can I build a billion dollar a year revenue portfolio working two or three days a week? And can I do that also while being in competitive shape physically and working out one to two hours a day because I like it? 122 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:19.000 Can I do all of those things? And so this is kind of the new levels of challenge I'm doing rather than trying to break what I have and going doing ten other new things. 123 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:30.000 It's like, can I add constraints to the existing game to make the game more fun for me without breaking the machine because ultimately the machine doesn't exist to serve me, it exists to serve the customer. 124 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:42.000 And making sure that I don't conflate those two things has been a very valuable lesson. In the very beginning for me, I'll tell you this story, when I started the first time where I really saw success was when I learned how to sacrifice. 125 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:53.000 So I'll tell you how I actually learned how to do this. So when I was in college, I ended up pledging a fraternity and it was a very hard, pledging process, hard being like time consuming. 126 00:09:53.000 --> 00:10:05.000 And I think we had to basically every hour of the day minus three hours and minus class time. So we had three hours study hall and we had whatever our class time was, all the rest of the time we had during the day, we had to be at the house and doing chores and stuff. 127 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:15.000 And so that was pretty miserable and that wasn't like, you know, a ton of fun. But what ended up happening was I ended up getting really good grades that semester in college. 128 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:28.000 And it was because they forced me to do three hours a day every single day of homework. And if you do three hours a day of work every day, and this is what I realized in college, there's the days that you don't have work to do, if you still work three hours, you get ahead on a future work. 129 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:43.000 And so I realized that for only three hours a day, if I just did that, I would, I think that that semester got like a three, eight, three or something like that. What I did after I finished pledging was I realized that all these extra hours of the day were mine. And so what I did was I was like, well, if I can just study all the rest of the hours, then I should do really, really well. 130 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:57.000 And that ended up being a really good methodology was I just sacrificed all of my day. So I basically went to the gym, went to the library and went to class. And that was it. And I, that was it. I never worked past 9 p.m. And I went out almost the nights of the week. 131 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:10.000 But by always doing it that way and not wasting my time, I ended up doing really well. It was the first time I ever learned how to sacrifice everything, which was everything else. I just didn't do anything besides work, work out and go to class. Like that was it, throw on day. 132 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:19.000 And so when I started applying that same kind of concept to business, it was actually fairly easy for me because I was so used to sacrificing everything. I just switched over what I was sacrificing for. 133 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:31.000 And I think that you have to learn how to sacrifice first in order to learn how not to sacrifice later, right? Because a lot of people were like, why would I want to achieve the success you have or whatever, but I don't want to sacrifice X, Y and Z. 134 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:41.000 I just, I think you can say that. I just don't know anyone who's done it. It's kind of like saying, I want to get over the, the whole that money has on my life, except I haven't made any money. 135 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:53.000 I think you have to achieve something before you can give it up, right? I mean, Buddha, who, who gave up his, his worldly riches, like he talks, you know, he, he walked the middle path because he had been extremely wealthy in a prince. 136 00:11:53.000 --> 00:12:06.000 And then given it all up and lived as a poor person and then walked the middle path. And so I think that in order for us to walk the middle path in life, we have to have achieved the thing in order, we have to achieve mastery over the thing before we can truly master it and mean and give it away, right? 137 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:14.000 And that's how we can eliminate the desire, desire for the thing because we truly know what it's like to have it, right? And then that means we can truly know why we don't need it. 138 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:22.000 And so I think that's, I know it didn't mean to get 100% of business floss for on you, but that's, that's kind of where I think this goes full circle. 139 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:35.000 So big picture here. Multiple metrics of success. Don't change your business just to challenge yourself. Find new ways to either create front ends or new product lines or things like that within your business that can satisfy your ADD. 140 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:44.000 And if neither of those things are what you want to do, then just use constraints to create challenges in your own business that improve your life in other ways, right? 141 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:57.000 And you can always go back to my neighbor, the guy who sold his business for trash, his trash business for a lot of money. And, and just say, he's like, why would I learn another business when I'm already really good at this one? 142 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:06.000 He's like, I'd have to learn everything from ground one. He's like, that just sounds hard and stupid. And I couldn't really argue with the wisdom of that advice because he doesn't use his business to satisfy his interpersonal desires. 143 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:16.000 He uses business to create wealth, which was the whole point. So anyways, I hope you found value in this video. Click subscribe if you did more videos like this to help you make more money. 144 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.000 Most of you nation keep playing awesome and I'll catch you guys on flip side.