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As we kind of reach another quote mountaintop or whatever you want to call it as we've kind of

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succeeded in business and whatnot, I created another happiness placeholder, right, which I now

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call it meaning or fulfillment. The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game.

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This podcast, the game, is my attempt at documenting the lessons I've learned on my way to

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building acquisition.com into a billion dollar portfolio. My hope is that you use the lessons

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to grow your business and maybe someday soon partner with us to get 200 million dollars in

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beyond. I hope you share and enjoy. I gave away two million dollars personally donated to

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after school all stars in the form of cash and an actual physical product. So we gave 250,000

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bands like workout bands, like digital ones, you know what I mean, like Fitbits, 250,000 kind of Fitbits

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to kids in under privilege city so we can encourage them to get fit and healthy. And we donated

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1.2 million to fund the staffing. And I can truthfully tell you that when I did that,

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I did it because I wanted to feel better and I can tell you now that it didn't actually make me

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feel that much better. And I share that because I don't know how many people would say that and I

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just want to keep this keep this channel 100% real. I think a lot of times at least for me like I

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want to do things because I want to find meaning and I had a really, really interesting conversation.

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And so the other day I had a four-hour conversation with I'll say a friend of mine but

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I consider him a friend, hopefully he considers me a friend. Dr. John Barardi and he sold his

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company or the majority stake in his company for overnight figures and he doesn't do anything right

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now actively. And I've had two unbelievable conversations with John and I'm always very grateful

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for my time with him. And there were two statements that he made through that four hours that have

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stuck with me since then and one from the former conversation that I had with him that really kind

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of changed my life and my outlook. And from the first conversation what he talked about was how

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he said you need to look at things and consume content for people who are outside of the matrix.

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And I was like what do you mean by that? He was like everyone's inside of the matrix. Everyone

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is trying to make money, right? Everyone's trying to make money. They're operating from a

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place of scarcity. They're operating from a place of desire of wanting something more than what

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they currently have. And whenever they're doing that, they're operating from a different energy

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level. And I don't think you use that exact word but that's kind of how I perceive it. And that was

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like my big takeaway from the first one. And I think that between my first conversation my

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second was about six or nine months. And I'm feeling this kind of shift that's happening within us,

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you know, Leila and I as we as we start this channel and you know we write the book.

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Would you guys, if you haven't heard of it? It's really dollar offers. It's got a lot of good reviews.

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It's $0.99. I made it $0.99 because I want everybody to be able to afford it. And that's

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as cheap as Jeffy B will let me do it. And so yeah, I'm still true to the true the cause of

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having nothing to sell you. All right. And anyway, so I had this conversation with John.

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And the first question I asked him when I shifted the conversation to kind of personal stuff,

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I said now that you know, you've made what you have, you made your exit. I was like, you know,

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how do you create and destroy meaning? And he was like, huh, that's an interesting question.

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And I was like, like in work, like how do you create and destroy meaning in the things that you

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work on? And he paused and he looked at me and I felt like he was staring at my soul and he was like,

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why do you think work needs to be meaningful? And I was like, oh, okay. And this is why I love

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talking to people who are outside of the matrix, right? There's just so much perspective.

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And later in the conversation, I was like, well, then outside of work, you know, like how do you

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gain meaning? And he's like, why do you think life needs to be meaningful? And he's like, just hold

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for a second. So if you say that life has to be meaningful, then what happens is you create this

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desire, right? That life must be a certain way, which means we're not accepting life as it

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currently is. And as soon as we say that life has to be a certain way, it must be meaningful. Then

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we create this deficit, this deficiency between where we are, where we want to be. And so in so

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doing, we create the deficiency that we're trying to avoid by saying it must be a certain way.

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God, my first book was a jim book. And I think the opening passage says, we question all of our

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beliefs, except for those, it's from Orson Scott, we question all of our beliefs, except for those

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that we truly believe and those we never think to question at all. And I always take that to heart

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because the beliefs that we truly hold dear, the ones that we don't need, they operate in the

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background of our minds. There are assumptions that we make on how the world is and how it's supposed

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to be, how it must be, how it should be, right? What we have to do, right? I'm like, I must create

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meaning. I should, work should be meaningful. But by creating that, I end up creating an equation

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of deficiency, which then ends up making or forcing myself to not experience that, right? And so

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I'll tell you a quick story. So when I was in college, I dated a girl who was really, really

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obsessed with happiness. And she might be completely over this chapter in her life, which she is,

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but at the time she was really into happiness and positive psychology, she even majored in positive

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psychology. So everything was always like, does this make me happy? Does this make me happy?

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Does this make me happy? Right? So it's like we're studying for things. Like, does this make me

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happy? And so for me, I ended up actually getting really sick of that concept because I felt like I was

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always analyzing and being like, no, like this doesn't make me happy, right? And I got so frustrated

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with it. I got so in my head about like happiness, happiness, happiness that I remember that I came

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gave myself the mantra, fuck happiness. And so as soon as I said, this is how I'm going to live,

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I was like, fuck happiness. I'm just going to get shit done and I'm going to move forward.

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I feel like I ended up actually experiencing more joy in the work that I was doing. And I didn't

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realize this, but as we kind of reached another quote mountaintop or whatever you want to call it,

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as we've kind of succeeded in business and whatnot, I created another happiness placeholder,

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right? Which I now called me or fulfillment. And by doing that, I created yet another equation

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of deficiency in my own life, which is always analyzing my work and saying, is this meaningful?

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Do I get fulfillment from this and all of that kind of jazz? But for me, what ends up happening

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is like, if I go donate all this money and I feel nothing, I feel like I failed, right? And then

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the question is like, when you donate, are you, should you feel better? I don't know. I assumed that

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I was supposed to feel better, right? Feel good. But I didn't. And this has been kind of the thing

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that I am doing right now, or at least this is what I'm thinking through, so I'm sharing this

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with the channel. And it has been, I use the word, it's been meaningful for me to give myself the

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excuse or give myself permission, rather, to not find meaning in things. And that has been

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unbelievably free, which is just giving myself permission to work on things that I may or may not

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find meaningful, but to simply do the thing. And I think that for me, giving myself permission

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to not find meaning has allowed me to accept reality as it currently is. And by accepting it as

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it currently is, I do not have a deficiency that I must resolve between where I am and where I

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think it should be. And by doing that, I have enjoyed the process more. So I'll put it that way.

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I have less, less anxiety around those things. Not to see that anxiety is bad. It is a human

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condition or part of the human condition, but it has been something that I have experienced by

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first saying, fuck happiness earlier in my life and then creating meaning as the new happiness

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thing that I should be striving for. And again, I think now it's removing meaning or destroying

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the idea that something should be meaningful or should not be meaningful. And that has been

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very, very valuable for me. And so, simply focusing on the work at hand and doing it well

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according to my values, which is whether this is meaningful or not, the way that I choose to live

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is according to these values. And is the way that I am completing this work? Is the way that I am

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showing up on this meeting? Is the way that I am conducting myself? Is the way that I am making

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this decision in alignment with those values? And in thinking like that, I feel like I am able to

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do it in the present rather than in the future. I'm able to walk with the values that I choose

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rather than try and pursue meaning in and of itself, which created a deficit between where I was

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and where I wanted to go, which created a negative experience. Again, not that negative experience

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are bad, but I have a preference of not having them if I can avoid them.

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Real quick guys, if you can think about how you found this podcast, somebody probably tweeted it,

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told you about it, shared it on Instagram or something like that. The only way this grows

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is through word of mouth. And so I don't run ads. I don't do sponsorships. I don't sell anything.

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My only ask is that you continue to pay it forward. Do whoever showed you or however you found out

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about this podcast that you do the exact same thing. So if it was a review, if it was a post,

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if you do that, it would mean the world to me and you'll throw some good karma out there for another

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entrepreneur. And so I show you this. I know this is a little bit more heady than more of my

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natural stuff. Talk about money. But I guess I make this because I know a lot of entrepreneurs

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are like me, hopefully, maybe not, not hopefully like me, hopefully they're just like themselves.

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But if you were like me in that you strive for these things, I can tell you that I got no more

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meaning from giving lots of money away at all. And just thinking about taking the actions that I

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am taking with the intention of being in alignment with the values that I find meaningful

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has been the thing that has been truly freeing for me mentally. And I make this channel because

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it feels in alignment with my values. I wrote the book and the books because they're in alignment

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with my values. And building acquisition.com and taking interest in the companies that we do in

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our portfolio has been in alignment with the values rather than saying, is this company meaningful?

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Is my work with this company meaningful? Because here's the one that really gets me tricked up.

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And this is also something that John brought up, which is like admitting that, and again,

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this may be contrary to a lot of people's religious beliefs. I don't mean to offend anyone that

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is not my intention here. But my belief, my viewpoint of the world is that when we die, nothing

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happens. And when you and legacy is a myth. And so when the idea of taking money and then having

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my kids, right, then have something. I think that ruins people. I think wealth, without the skill

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of acquiring the wealth, is like my favorite magic card of all time. I take the gathering.

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There's a card called Burning Wish. The flavor text on the card is, she wished for a weapon,

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but for not the skill to wield it. And I always thought that was so profound because I feel like

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money is power, right? It's this raw energy that you can either, you know, you create hospitals,

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you can build bombs with it, whatever you want, you can do it with money. But if you don't have

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the skill of learning how to master and wield money, which is in, which is really just learning how

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to get it to flow to you, if you don't have that skill, that those traits, right? If you get it,

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it's like having all this raw power and I think it ruins people. And so I already knew,

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Layla and I already decided and we signed our will. When we did that, I realized that we don't have

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kids and everything that I've amassed and was probably going to become a pretty big fortune when

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we die. I'm just donating anyways because I believe that even if I did have kids, one, I wouldn't

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give it to him. And if I did choose to give it to him, here's how I think how crazy this is from

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a legacy standpoint. A hundred generations from now, you're deluding your gene pool, you know,

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a hundred multiplied, like factored, right? And so it's like, you know, cutting by half,

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cutting by half, cutting by half, cutting by half, times a hundred, right? And that's assuming

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that humans are still around a hundred generations from now. But if they were, I'm still not even

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any way related to these people and I kind of ruined them anyways because I'm giving them wealth

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that they don't control and don't understand how it was generated, right? And they definitely

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don't remember who I was, not that that's that I need that, but like just being real. And the other

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alternative is that in a hundred generations, there won't be any humans, right? And in that case,

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then the legacy doesn't matter either. And so that was what was kind of like my ultimate wrap around

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with this of meaning is that nothing inherently has meaning, which also gives us the power to create

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and destroy meaning as we see fit. But more importantly, to rise above meaning and say,

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why am I saying that thing should or should not be meaningful? And answering and examining that

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question has been very valuable for me as an entrepreneur because in some ways it's freed up a lot

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of my attention because of this continued obsession I had or that I have tendencies towards

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towards only doing things that are meaningful. When in fact, I feel like my an easier thing that

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has been useful for me has been am I doing things that are in alignment with my values and those

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values to me are meaningful in and of themselves and that is all and they don't have to be that way.

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They shouldn't be that way. But for me, doing actions in that way rather than putting it and casting

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in the future has been a useful mental exercise. And so I don't know where you're at in your journey.

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Well, my name's Alex Mosey. I'm going to portfolio of companies that do about $85 million

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a year. I have absolutely nothing to sell you. My goal with acquisition.com is to help entrepreneurs

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build their businesses and get financial freedom. The way that we structured everything is I give

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away everything. So the course is the books. This book you can get for 99 cents. I have this the

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first of a big series of volumes that I'm making of the real stuff that actually help us build these

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companies. And then with the hopes that we can help invest in some of the bigger ones that

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succeed using those materials. So anyways, lots of love. Keep being amazing. Bye!