WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.560 I felt very confident that I would either get what I wanted or die because I was just in a 2 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:09.120 tremendous amount of pain in the need of validation from exterior that that pain was motivation 3 00:00:09.120 --> 00:00:13.520 enough for me to just continue to drive no matter what happened until I got where I wanted to be. 4 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:19.840 Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more 5 00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:23.040 per customer and how to keep them longer and the many failures and lessons we have learned 6 00:00:23.040 --> 00:00:25.040 along the way. I hope you enjoy and subscribe. 7 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:33.200 Alex, what is a view that you have that got you to where you are at today that most people 8 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:37.280 would disagree with? I guess the more commonly held views, I'll answer the question in a round 9 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:42.240 about why. The more commonly held view is that things should be fast and they are just missing 10 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:47.600 this one thing. If they had that one thing, they would be successful. But the reality is it isn't 11 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:51.440 one thing. It's a hundred small things and if you can accept that it's a hundred small things, 12 00:00:51.440 --> 00:00:55.760 then you don't expect something to happen overnight and you don't expect some secret that you're 13 00:00:55.760 --> 00:01:02.000 going to find. You don't put your hope in a mentor or to be a savior for you and you realize that 14 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.600 you were the only person who's going to have complete control over your own life, 15 00:01:06.240 --> 00:01:10.800 you're the only one who can at least influence it. And so if you shift to that mentality, 16 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:14.240 then everything's your fault and then you actually can start making progress. 17 00:01:14.800 --> 00:01:17.920 And what did it take for you to realize that? I think I always thought that. 18 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:23.920 I think I always thought that I had Middle Eastern father, immigrant, came here with nothing. 19 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:31.360 So there was never an illusion that work was not required to get to where you wanted to go. 20 00:01:31.360 --> 00:01:36.160 I think that the moment we really shifted those, probably in college, was about 19. 21 00:01:36.160 --> 00:01:42.160 And everything had come easy to me. Like, school wise, I did really well. I was president of 22 00:01:42.240 --> 00:01:51.360 the newspaper and the literary magazine, the creative magazine. And so I did really well with 23 00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:55.280 those things. I was in three varsity sports, like all that stuff. But in college, I went to Vanderbilt 24 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:59.600 and everyone there was really smart. I was like, okay, so I just always expected I could just not 25 00:01:59.600 --> 00:02:04.000 save for anything and like, I would ace it and I didn't have that happen. And so I ended up going 26 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:11.040 fall break with like a 1-0 GPA, which is bad. And so he was like, hey, I'm just not going to keep 27 00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:15.520 you in school if this is what's going to happen. So I didn't go out, didn't do anything for the 28 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:19.920 remainder of the semester. And I think I finished with a 3-2. So I basically had an A on every 29 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:22.560 single assignment from that point going forward. And he said, cool. So now that we know what you're 30 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:28.880 capable of, that's the expectation. And so bar was set. And that was probably the moment that 31 00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:34.640 where I tied hours of work to outcome. And then that just became my amount. Like everyone knew it was 32 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:41.440 for Moses in class, at the library, at the gym, or at the cafeteria. There's the four things 33 00:02:41.440 --> 00:02:46.240 from 9 to 9 every day. And so I started seeking being a student like a job. And so I was 9 to 9 34 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:50.720 every day. And I pretty much worked 12 hours a day since then. But it was just being okay with the 35 00:02:50.720 --> 00:02:55.920 fact that things were going to take time. And I had to do them for an inordinate period of time 36 00:02:55.920 --> 00:03:01.200 without convincing myself how smarter than I was. And let time have its moment. 37 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:05.920 Yeah. And after college, you went to this very traditional route of going into management 38 00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:14.640 consulting. And you eventually quit that to start the gyms. Yes. Can you talk about that moment 39 00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:18.160 where you decided that I'm going to quit? I'm going to try something different. That's not on 40 00:03:18.160 --> 00:03:23.360 that standard path. Yeah, that still is to date the most terrifying decision I made in my entire 41 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:28.320 life. And so for anybody who's on that, on that edge or that precipice, like I can only promise 42 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:33.520 you that it actually just gets easier. Because once you burn the boats there, you know, I had to do 43 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:40.240 this risk analysis, which was, okay, if I continue down this path, I am guaranteed to not go what I 44 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:45.920 want. On this other path, I'm not guaranteed to get it, but I have a shot at getting it. And so 45 00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:50.720 from a risk adjusted basis, it made more sense for me to risk it because it was the only chance I had 46 00:03:50.720 --> 00:03:54.800 at getting what I wanted, which for me, my mental math at the time was I wanted to make a million 47 00:03:54.880 --> 00:03:58.720 dollars a year. And I wanted to not work that much. That was at least my like thought process at the 48 00:03:58.720 --> 00:04:03.520 time. And I figured that if any company would pay me a million dollars here, because it's really 49 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:06.560 at least at that point, I only saw two main tracks for that, which would be investment banking, 50 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:11.200 finance, slash management, there's kind of like the only two paths that I could see in front of me 51 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:14.320 that would pay me that kind of money. But I knew that if I was going to get paid a million dollars a year, 52 00:04:14.320 --> 00:04:18.080 they're going to be ripping ten million dollars out of my soul every year. And so that didn't seem 53 00:04:18.080 --> 00:04:26.560 like an acceptable outcome. And so I, seeing that, I decided to quit the really prestigious job 54 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:30.000 that looked great on LinkedIn and Facebook and all my college friends and all that stuff, 55 00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:35.360 to start a gym, which, you know, my parents were thrilled about with my Vanderbilt education, 56 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:41.680 that that's where I was choosing to go. But again, it was, it was from a risk standpoint. I knew a lot 57 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:46.240 of people say like, I want to be a business owner someday. But I thought, well, what would I have 58 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:50.320 to use as qualifiers for what someday would look like? Like, what would that day have to look like 59 00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:57.680 in order for it to happen? And I reasoned at least that the later I got in my life, the harder it 60 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:01.440 would be to change because I would be making more money in the future than I was today. I would have 61 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:05.920 more responsibilities than I do today. I would have wives, kids, et cetera. I'd also probably have 62 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:10.560 more asset. I'd probably have a house, bigger, you know, car, whatever. And so it seemed to me that 63 00:05:10.640 --> 00:05:16.640 the lowest first time that I would be able to course cracked if I failed was in my 20s. And so that 64 00:05:16.640 --> 00:05:21.040 plus what I was saying earlier about guarantee to not get what I wanted to go. For those two reasons, 65 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:25.040 I took the jump. It still took me six months to make the jump. And I talked to like my closest friend 66 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:30.320 at the time, pretty much every day for like an hour, just heying and hawing and heying and hawing. 67 00:05:30.320 --> 00:05:36.320 Until finally, I called him when I was like, you know, high up, and I'm from Maryland. And I 68 00:05:36.320 --> 00:05:39.520 didn't want to let anybody know that I had left because I didn't want anyone to talk me out of it. 69 00:05:39.520 --> 00:05:44.160 And so that was what ended up, you know, being the breaking point to get there. 70 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:48.720 Are you typically very calculated in your decisions like all of your decisions take those six 71 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:53.280 months? Or do you go with your gut now where you make a decision in a spur of moment? 72 00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:56.080 It's not a gut thing. I think I'm pretty cocky with decisions, but I don't think that decisions 73 00:05:56.080 --> 00:06:01.360 need to take a long time. And I think that I would say that as we've progressed in business, 74 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:05.760 our speed of decision making has decreased. You know what I mean? Because I'm also, I can accept 75 00:06:05.760 --> 00:06:13.120 mistakes much more easily now and realize that most of the biggest mistakes have come from delay, 76 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:17.760 more than actual wrong doings because a lot of times it's like happy to glad decisions. 77 00:06:17.760 --> 00:06:21.840 It's like, okay, should we rent or should we buy the building? But like, well, either of them have 78 00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:29.200 like a material like change in our lives? No. So I just basically put decisions in two buckets, 79 00:06:29.200 --> 00:06:34.000 which is, is it a reversible decision or an irreversible decision? And then if it is irreversible, 80 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:39.360 to what degree is it irreversible? So like having a kid, very irreversible, marriage less 81 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:44.560 irreversible, but also, but still pretty, pretty irreversible, tough, right? To get out of there. 82 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:49.440 You know, where we're going to go for lunch today? It's like irreversible, but very low stake. 83 00:06:49.440 --> 00:06:52.800 You know what I mean? So it's like, yeah, that's, it's irreversible, which I think is why 84 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:55.680 partially all people struggle with it so much because it is an irreversible decision, but it also 85 00:06:55.680 --> 00:07:01.200 doesn't matter. Yeah. Which I do think as a hack is just knowing what you eat for most of the meals 86 00:07:01.200 --> 00:07:04.960 that you have just makes life so much easier and waste so much less time. But on the reversible 87 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:09.440 decision side, then those ones we just say, I like using the term, what's my best bad guess? 88 00:07:09.440 --> 00:07:13.040 Okay, it was probably heard me say this a hundred times. I'm like, this is my best bad idea. 89 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:17.600 This is my best bad guess. And so it just, it, it sets the bar lower for the expectation of 90 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:21.520 yourself and others. Not to say they don't have high, you know, high expectations of yourself, 91 00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:26.480 but in terms of like having a way to put language around decreasing your action threshold to do 92 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:32.240 something, just saying, Hey, this is my best bad idea. And we only commit to one thesis at 93 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:35.760 acquisition.com and everything we do, which is test and iterate. So that's what we commit to. 94 00:07:35.760 --> 00:07:38.960 We're not committing to this path. We're committing to test and iterate. And this is just the first 95 00:07:38.960 --> 00:07:44.240 test. And so seeing it that way, then it makes it just a tiny test on a much bigger process that 96 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:47.600 we're all aligned with always. So it's just the only decisions of which tests we're going to run 97 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:52.640 first, which is just less. I know when I saw as a corporate lawyer, I left this very prestigious law 98 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:56.400 firm. And when I was going through that decision, similar to you, I was just thinking, what is the 99 00:07:56.400 --> 00:08:00.160 best case scenario? What is the worst case scenario? And for me, the worst case scenario was like, 100 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:04.960 maybe I would fail, but I would go back to find a law job. Like it's a degree that you can 101 00:08:04.960 --> 00:08:09.440 typically find a job with. When you were going through that decision, what was your best case 102 00:08:09.440 --> 00:08:12.800 scenario? What was the outcome you wanted? And then what, what, what would have been the worst case 103 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:19.680 scenario? So best case scenario is what I'm doing now. Worst case scenario was I would have a really 104 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:24.800 good essay for business school because I already took the GMAT to because I wanted to like really 105 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:29.040 short my options. I already applied to get a master's in count and C2 because I figured if I had that 106 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:33.120 plus my two years of management resulting, I would be positioned to do finance or management 107 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:38.240 consulting really well going into B school. And I'd read that they liked having some entrepreneurial 108 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:43.040 experience if you have that. And so to me, it was just that was actually a really big point from 109 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:50.160 the downside protection. It's like, best case, I actually succeed and I'll zoom out for a second. 110 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:58.720 When I looked at business school, for me, it was 200 grand in like opportunity cost, like hard 111 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:03.200 cost plus what I wasn't going to make, probably more than that 250. And then at the end of that, 112 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:07.920 the median salary I think was like one 10 or 120 from Harvard somewhere in there, right? And so 113 00:09:08.560 --> 00:09:13.920 I figured if I took $250,000 and I took two years, I thought I could get close to making what 114 00:09:13.920 --> 00:09:18.080 my median was except I would already be living my, I'll be a business owner someday. And then I could 115 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:21.840 you know, scale pass that. And so that was kind of like the reasoning on that side. But to your point 116 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:27.120 about the knowing that I could use it in an essay, which sounds so silly, to increase my 117 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:32.160 likelihood of getting into a good school actually was one of the major factors of me being okay 118 00:09:32.160 --> 00:09:35.920 of taking the job. It's interesting because I went through the same process. I wanted to go to 119 00:09:35.920 --> 00:09:41.680 business school too. When I was already a lawyer, JDMBA. Yeah. So I took the GMAT while I was 120 00:09:41.680 --> 00:09:46.640 working these 100 hour weeks. And I think looking back at it, I think I wanted the Harvard or the 121 00:09:46.640 --> 00:09:52.240 Stanford as a crutch to validate that I was a good entrepreneur. Like I'm so glad that I didn't 122 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:55.520 end up going that path because I think it would have been a two year waste of my time and a lot of 123 00:09:55.520 --> 00:10:01.600 money. Yeah. It's you know, I'll say the one thing with like the super high tier schools. 124 00:10:02.560 --> 00:10:06.880 It's just the network. I mean, you're paying for a mastermind of sorts for you know, 125 00:10:06.880 --> 00:10:11.760 200 grand or 250 grand for them to screen. High likelihood people who you're going to want to do 126 00:10:11.760 --> 00:10:16.640 business with in the future. And so I think in that way, that's that's the main value. Besides that, 127 00:10:16.640 --> 00:10:20.240 you know, I think the rest of it is like, I mean, most of the half of it's like socializing. Like, 128 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:23.600 they even build that in because they know that's the value. Isn't it funny though? Now that we have 129 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:28.160 social media followers, we can DM people. It's like the same network effect as an MBA. Oh yeah, 130 00:10:28.160 --> 00:10:32.800 you could post a story and just be like, anybody know an amazing commercial real estate 131 00:10:32.800 --> 00:10:37.360 attorney who does deals over 50 million and then like you'll get like 60 ends. You're like perfect. 132 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:41.040 Yeah, easy. You just tap in. You know, it's funny because this was a topic that Caleb and I've 133 00:10:41.040 --> 00:10:44.480 had a lot of talks about because I'm sure because you're you see the TikTok world and the 134 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:49.040 shortest world and we're just barely getting into it. The amount of guruism around like networking, 135 00:10:49.040 --> 00:10:52.880 like networking trip tips and tricks and hacks and stuff. And networking has never been an issue 136 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:59.040 for me because at least my perspective on it has been if I provide sufficient value to everyone 137 00:10:59.040 --> 00:11:03.520 in my network by extension have access to everyone who I've already provided value to. And so it's 138 00:11:03.520 --> 00:11:07.600 like Joe Rogan doesn't need to go to networking events like he's Joe Rogan. There was a neighbor 139 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:11.760 I had who had a little kid who was eight years old. We were driving somewhere, just got nice 140 00:11:11.760 --> 00:11:16.160 cream kids in the back and she was saying you've got to know the store owners. So like these are the 141 00:11:16.160 --> 00:11:19.200 and she said it and then she like turned around because she wanted a teacher kid a lesson and she 142 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:22.880 was like these are the types of people you have to know you have to know these people all right 143 00:11:22.880 --> 00:11:26.160 because you have to stay in contact and you have to know the stuff and we're hearing that 144 00:11:26.800 --> 00:11:33.280 and thinking to myself I was like no I was like I'm the person that everyone needs to be in contact 145 00:11:33.280 --> 00:11:39.120 with and it was just a difference in world view like it was fun and she and she was a super 146 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:43.600 networker like but she had not she'd never seen herself as the person to provide value it was 147 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:48.240 always like how do I manage all of these hundreds of acquaintances and she's amazing networker 148 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:52.800 but it was just a different view and I feel like I mean they're both fine I just for me it was 149 00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:58.640 better suited my personality that way real quick guys you guys already know that I don't run any 150 00:11:58.640 --> 00:12:02.800 ads on this and I don't sell anything and so the only ask that I can ever have if you guys 151 00:12:02.800 --> 00:12:07.120 that you help me spread the words we can out more entrepreneurs make more money feed their families 152 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:11.440 make better products and have better experiences for their employees and customers and the only 153 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:16.480 way we do that is if you can rate and review and share this podcast so the single thing that I 154 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:20.240 asked you to do is you can just leave review but take 10 seconds or one type of a thug that 155 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:23.840 means the absolute will to me and more importantly it may change the world for someone else 156 00:12:25.680 --> 00:12:30.560 you mentioned earlier that when you quit your job your best case scenario is where 157 00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:34.400 where you're at right now what you're doing how would you describe that and did you really 158 00:12:34.400 --> 00:12:41.360 anticipate that that's that would have been your best case scenario yes and no ultra success yes 159 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:49.440 path no I felt very confident that I would either get what I wanted or die and I mean that genuinely 160 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:53.520 so I knew that I was I was just going to continue you know I mean because I was just in a 161 00:12:53.520 --> 00:12:59.280 tremendous amount of pain in the need of validation from exterior that that pain was motivation 162 00:12:59.280 --> 00:13:04.160 enough for me to just continue to drive no matter what happened until I got where I wanted to be 163 00:13:04.160 --> 00:13:06.800 now obviously I have new goals now but in their motivate a little bit differently but 164 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:10.880 by and large yes I did think that I was going to be successful did I think it was going to be 165 00:13:10.880 --> 00:13:15.520 necessarily through gyms and then gym tour on business and then like no I didn't think that was 166 00:13:15.520 --> 00:13:19.680 and I think that's kind of the the push and pull of being opportunistic when when things open up 167 00:13:19.680 --> 00:13:24.640 but also being dedicated to the long-term path do you still feel like you need the validation probably 168 00:13:24.640 --> 00:13:29.680 do a degree yeah I think a lot of even just comes from internal validation like I want to prove it 169 00:13:29.680 --> 00:13:35.120 to me like I want to prove it to me and so I think that's where a lot of it comes from now I'm sure 170 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:38.480 that I'm sure there is some external stuff because humans are social preachers and like if 171 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:42.160 everyone hated me tomorrow I'm sure I'd have a bad day but I think it I would just say it shifted 172 00:13:42.160 --> 00:13:49.920 in percentage I'd say you know when I when I was 19 it was 99.99 99 everybody else and 0.001 percent 173 00:13:49.920 --> 00:13:57.120 may and maybe now I'm 60 40 you know maybe 70 30 if I'm lucky I'm having a good day but you know 174 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:01.280 my goal is just to just increase that percentage over time and maybe die close to 90ish 175 00:14:01.280 --> 00:14:08.160 so after you quit what was the first taste of success you had that gave you validation that 176 00:14:08.160 --> 00:14:12.560 maybe that was the right decision to quit and leave my job I actually saw pretty rapid success 177 00:14:12.560 --> 00:14:17.920 with the gym so I was fortunate in that way I made profit every month well the first month I broke 178 00:14:17.920 --> 00:14:22.400 even the second second month I made five thousand dollars which was what I was making the consulting 179 00:14:22.400 --> 00:14:26.640 job more or less the next month I made 10,000 next month I made 15 20 I kind of went from there 180 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:31.280 and so I had a media validation I would say I didn't feel secure I felt like it was going to be 181 00:14:31.280 --> 00:14:36.800 over tomorrow always I would say that that feeling has taken a long time to get rid of 182 00:14:37.520 --> 00:14:41.920 and I would say that truthfully right now I don't have that feeling but I have certainly had that 183 00:14:42.640 --> 00:14:46.720 at times with gym lunch in the earlier days prestige labs in the earlier days the gym's 184 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:50.880 absolutely when I was running those I was like tomorrow everything could go away you know so I 185 00:14:50.880 --> 00:14:56.320 think that that that has diminished but yeah from from the get go and that's probably not the 186 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:02.080 the standard entrepreneur story but I slept at the gym I mean I people here the sleeping in the gym 187 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:07.040 heart and they're like oh like he went through the grind and I did but I was also like stacking 188 00:15:07.040 --> 00:15:10.800 every single dollar that came in and just plowing it in my bank I was I had no employees and the only 189 00:15:10.800 --> 00:15:16.240 thing I paid for every month was the rent for the facility I did everything to run an entire gym 190 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:21.120 as what like imagine a gym you walk into and there's no employees there's one guy and I did that 191 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:28.000 for like six months what is now to you is now what you're doing hard or are you an easy phase hard 192 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:34.640 changes like the like the way the heart feels is different so like when I was when I was starting out 193 00:15:34.640 --> 00:15:40.800 the heart was just sheer exhaustion and fatigue of just like my first session was started 430 my last 194 00:15:40.800 --> 00:15:45.760 sales consult on it at 10 o'clock at night and then I would do all the billing and process all the 195 00:15:45.760 --> 00:15:50.560 contracts and whatnot which ended 11 30 and then I would sleep right there like on the floor 196 00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:54.640 and then I did that because I didn't have to save the commute time and then I would just wake up 197 00:15:54.640 --> 00:15:59.120 at a cold terror of stress and I would be up and my shirt would be clinging to me because it's 198 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:05.200 soaked in stress sweat so that was that that's what it felt like then when like when we started 199 00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:11.920 doing gym launch the stress was more around like money it was cash flow issues of okay we're launching 200 00:16:11.920 --> 00:16:16.080 all these you know we're launching eight gyms next month I've got a front hotels airfare rental 201 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:22.480 car per diems ad spend get all those you know campaigns up and running and I had a front all that cash 202 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:26.560 off of last month set like so it was more like a managing the cash that was coming into the business 203 00:16:26.560 --> 00:16:34.080 thing which was super stressful but that was the different kind of stress gym launches hard was 204 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:39.280 well one it was realizing that there was an opportunity in licensing and just called digital 205 00:16:39.280 --> 00:16:44.640 products or need to be services that weren't like in person like that was the huge that was the big 206 00:16:44.640 --> 00:16:47.040 unlock when we went from a few hundred thousand dollars a month I think we're like three or four 207 00:16:47.040 --> 00:16:53.120 hundred when we were doing like turnarounds in person to you know two or three when we ended 208 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:59.760 like four and a half million a month just riding that but there the issues were me and so it was 209 00:16:59.760 --> 00:17:03.600 my character traits that were the deficiency at that point so I feel like I had to change now I'm 210 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:08.240 sure I had to grow at all these stages but like my ability to handle stress in general my focus had 211 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:12.000 to increase because when you were a small business owner you can you can shift the ship really you 212 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:16.000 know quickly you can turn you can pivot and all that kind of stuff but when you have hundreds of 213 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:20.880 families that are if just on the employees side but thousands if you include the customer base 214 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:24.720 that are relying on you it's like you can't make these snap decisions anymore and so it's like I 215 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:29.120 had to calm down and become less erratic and that's where the stress and emotional tolerance 216 00:17:29.120 --> 00:17:33.040 fed into okay we have a bad day it doesn't mean we need to change the strategy it just means 217 00:17:33.040 --> 00:17:37.760 yet a bad day and then what do you do nothing that's all it is so one of the things that it's 218 00:17:37.760 --> 00:17:42.320 been a huge epiphany for me as we've gone through this journey is that because I talk about 219 00:17:42.320 --> 00:17:45.200 character traits a lot because when we look at portfolio companies for the most time we're betting 220 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:48.480 on the jockey I mean like we understand the fundamentals of the business and we you know we're 221 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:53.920 betting on this market etc but like the number one thing 80 percent of our scorecard is basically 222 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:59.760 entrepreneur and so when we're looking at that a lot of people at least myself include when I was 223 00:17:59.840 --> 00:18:04.160 coming up I thought like I'm impatient I would speak that over myself like I'm an impatient person 224 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:08.880 you know and I wanted to be more patient so the difference between somebody who's loyal to 225 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:13.360 their wife and somebody who is not is not the fact that they might have their eye get caught 226 00:18:13.360 --> 00:18:18.880 because that happens they're human you're going to have emotions right but the difference between 227 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:23.280 somebody who's loyal not as whether they cheat right and so I think that it's the same thing with 228 00:18:23.280 --> 00:18:28.240 patience it's the same thing with honesty it's not do you want to lie it's do you choose not to 229 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:32.240 despite wanting to lie right and it's just like courage to the you know the famous one with like 230 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:35.520 it's not the absence of fear but taking action to spite it and so I think a lot of those 231 00:18:35.520 --> 00:18:38.800 character traits a lot of people it feels like these are more fist things that we want to have and 232 00:18:38.800 --> 00:18:42.960 like take off the shelf and put inside of ourselves and so we think that we need to feel a certain 233 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:47.920 way in order to be a patient person or be a kind person or whatever when at least in my experience 234 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:53.440 it's been you don't feel that way and you take the action that a patient or kind or courageous 235 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:58.160 or loyal or honest person would take despite the feeling and that's but that was it that was a 236 00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:02.400 huge unlock for me in terms of understanding my stress levels in terms of decision making within 237 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:08.160 the company like if I want to be a long-term thinker then I have to despite not wanting to act in 238 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:13.040 the interest of a long term and I think when I started doing that the compounding of the businesses 239 00:19:13.040 --> 00:19:18.000 in general started to really unlock I think it comes down to discipline probably yeah short term 240 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:21.600 yeah being able to be uncomfortable in the short term for whatever you want the long term 241 00:19:21.600 --> 00:19:26.400 absolutely but yeah in the final chapter which you can see with acquisition not come to close 242 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:31.920 the loop on the the hard now is just I would say it's it's those character traits that I just 243 00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:37.760 went over but just more it's just the the standard of patience is higher the standard of discipline 244 00:19:37.760 --> 00:19:43.440 is higher the standard of focus is higher and so it's not and and even to further this point 245 00:19:44.080 --> 00:19:48.160 character traits are not binary right they're not you are patient you are not patient it's how 246 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:52.320 patient are you it's not your just honest honest it's how honest are you and so I think that 247 00:19:52.320 --> 00:19:57.520 maybe what was able to get me through gym launch prestige labs in Alan was maybe like a seven out 248 00:19:57.520 --> 00:20:04.080 of 10 and like to get to a billion plus which is what we're on the path to do now I gotta be a nine 249 00:20:04.080 --> 00:20:07.520 you know what I mean and maybe to get to 10 billion I gotta be a nine and a half and so at least 250 00:20:07.520 --> 00:20:12.400 that's my that's that's what hard feels like is choosing the actions that I know is aligned with 251 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:17.840 the person that I need to be in order to do the thing I want to do despite not feeling one 252 00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:25.760 feeling like it what types of books or podcasts or media are you consuming to help you to develop 253 00:20:25.760 --> 00:20:32.400 these views not many I'm not super heavy on consumption to be honest with you I would say the 254 00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:38.240 degree of my consumption is mostly silly as the sounds are stuff just to make sure that it's like 255 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:43.920 looking okay it's like I'd say like proofing our own stuff is like I would say 70% which sounds 256 00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:47.520 ridiculous but it is that's also because it's a very small percentage just to be fair it's a small 257 00:20:47.520 --> 00:20:51.600 percentage of my time and then the other 30% is like if you looked at my Twitter the the best 258 00:20:51.600 --> 00:20:56.960 majority of the people that I follow are is just philosophy stuff so that's like you know what I mean 259 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.240 if you look at my Instagram the only people that are really following are people that I want to just 260 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:04.000 see what they're doing rather than consuming their content I just want to see like understand their 261 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:08.960 strategy their cadence have a caption stuff are they doing anything new because I'm new into that 262 00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:13.520 world in the content world and so I just I'm just trying to learn and so that's but I don't 263 00:21:13.520 --> 00:21:18.400 have any specific people that I consume a lot from I mean most of my learning comes from 264 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.880 doing I had this myth that I used to believe that like if I read a book I would somehow have a 265 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:29.760 skill and I feel like when you read a book you have like a general idea of like the big outline 266 00:21:29.760 --> 00:21:35.600 of what the skill might be right and so like you you learn so much more from your first hundred 267 00:21:35.600 --> 00:21:40.640 sales calls than you will from reading every single book in the library on sales yeah and so I 268 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:44.960 think that that belief shifted actually when I was doing when I was in that six month terrible 269 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:50.480 period of my life where I was like deciding whether to stay or go I read I think like 10 or 15 270 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:56.320 self-help books and I realized that my life hadn't changed and so then I almost like to cry at all 271 00:21:56.320 --> 00:22:01.280 of the hopefully it's not too graphic like the mental masturbation of just like I'm learning I'm 272 00:22:01.280 --> 00:22:04.880 learning I'm learning but like I wasn't really learning because it didn't actually affect my behavior 273 00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:08.080 and if you look at behavioral conditioning they say the definition of learning is that what you 274 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:14.480 you put the same condition and you have a different behavior and so if someone does something 275 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:18.080 in a condition and then they learn something and then you present the same condition if their 276 00:22:18.080 --> 00:22:21.760 behavior changes they have learned something right which either happens to reinforcement or 277 00:22:21.760 --> 00:22:26.640 punishment that's it and so I was consuming all the stuff and in the same condition which means 278 00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:31.280 that I had learned nothing despite consuming a lot of content and so once I realized that I realized 279 00:22:31.280 --> 00:22:36.080 that behavior and action was the thing that actually got me to learn and so I biased all of my 280 00:22:36.080 --> 00:22:41.520 activity towards that rather than massive consumption of information and I figured I would learn more 281 00:22:41.520 --> 00:22:57.680 from doing than from learning how to do and that ended up being true.