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And when we make these choices, I think just as important, if not more important, is the

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story that we are telling ourselves about why we made the choices and what that tells us about who we are.

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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 bring your business and maybe someday soon partner with us to get to a hundred million dollars

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in beyond. I hope you share and enjoy.

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I want to tell you a story that may be applicable to you if you are an existing entrepreneur,

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a new entrepreneur, or somebody's about to make a big decision in life. Yesterday, I had a

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conversation that transpired between me and an 18-year-old who's now a freshman in college.

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And I think there, I wish I could have recorded it, but there were a lot of kind of decision points

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and lessons and thought processes that we walk through together that I think will be valuable

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for many because it's honestly the same decision making process whether you're making a

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multi-million dollar decision or you're making a relationship decision or whatever it is.

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And so this 18-year-old kid is my neighbor. I think I've referenced him before.

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And he's entrepreneurial. He did a little car washing business. He's done a little e-commerce

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business that he started on his own and it's worked out pretty decently well for him.

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But because of the pressures that he's had on himself and from outside, he decided he had to do

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college. And so he started his first semester in college and to make a long story short,

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he did something he wasn't supposed to do and now he's in trouble and that may jeopardize his

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future in college. And so he's obviously really wrecked about this.

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And so I said, hey, let's go for a walk. And so on this walk, I said, you know, what's your plan?

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He said, well, I think I'm going to try and fight this thing and give college another shot.

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And I wanted to walk him through this because I wanted him to make any decision for the right reasons.

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Right? And so I said, you know, do you think like what's the outcome you want to have from

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giving another shot at college, right? Because he didn't really like high school that much.

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He's like, well, you know, I just want to give it a try. And I was like, okay, again,

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what do you want to have happen or what do you think is going to happen?

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What is the positive outcome that you're potentially looking for? It's the negative outcome

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that you think could happen. And he's like, well,

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honestly, I don't know. And I was like, okay, now we're getting somewhere. So do you think that taking,

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you know, gender's literature studies and history of Aztec culture, whatever,

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is going to be more interesting to you now than the stuff that you studied in high school,

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which was again, general literature. Is that going to be interesting to you? It's like,

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well, probably not. And I was like, okay, then what's the real reason that you want to go to college?

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It's like, well, you know, I feel like I, you know, I'm a kid and I should experience,

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you know, having fun and all that kind of stuff. And I was like, okay, having funds, fine.

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Do you feel like you can have fun without going to college? Do you think that you could not spend

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200,000 dollars in four years of your life and still have fun in that same period of time if you

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weren't at college, but still with other people who are your age. He's like, well, yeah, I guess so.

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And I was like, okay, cool. Then I'm assuming that's not the only reason you want to go to college.

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What else is there? You started thinking he's like, honestly, I don't really know. And so,

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to give you a little bit more context before what I told him next, I asked him, what do you think,

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because he's doing his, he's starting a new archmer thing right now with real estate and he hasn't.

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He hasn't cracked it yet, right? And so I said, do you think it's possible that you want to go to college

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because it's a socially acceptable shield for you not being successful at entrepreneurship?

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Do you think that that might be a reason? Because if you're in college, then you're not seen as a

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failure if you're not winning at the thing that you're doing, right? It's your side hustle,

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it's your side gig. He's like, well, maybe, yeah. And I think first off, you know,

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kudos to him for being able to realize and admit that. But I think that that was such a core issue

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for many of us is that we present these socially acceptable solutions to ourselves when deep down

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the reason that we're doing them is not for the right reason. And so in this instance, he's using

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it as a foil to protect himself against having to confront the realities of life, of business,

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of the marketplace, of not being good enough, right? Yet. And so I said, all right, well, what do you

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want to have happen in your life? Do you think you want to have a job? And he was like, no, I don't want

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to have a job. I was like, what do you want to do? He's like, I want to have my own business. And I was

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like, what do you think business school looks like in the real world? He was like, well, probably

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doing business. I was like, okay. So if you have four years and $200,000, if you invest that in

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college versus investing $200,000 and four years into learning and to trying to start your own

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business, which of them after four years do you think we'll get you closer to your goal?

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He was like, well, probably the business one. And I was like, okay. So then right now, what you have

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is a clear logical, logical outcome in terms of which decision path to make. But then now we have

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to start looking at what's the emotional driver that's preventing you from doing it, right? And so

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for him, going all in means making the first real tradeoff he's ever made in life, right? Because if

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you're newer or you have a job or you're, you know, it doesn't matter where you're at in your life,

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there, a lot of times, especially when we're younger, there's, there's fewer big branch points,

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right? But as we get older, we have to commit and trade off something else, right? It's this for

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that. And I think, excuse me. Sorry. I think that a lot of times we have to frame these things in

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terms of the things that we're willing to sacrifice. And so I told him the story of when I was starting

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my gym, the mindset that I approached it with was I will not outwork everyone. But instead,

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I will out-sacrifice anyone. And so what I meant by that is I'm willing to put everything and

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anything that I have on the altar of my success. And that's what I started from a mindset standpoint.

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So I wasn't like, I'm going to be smarter. I'm going to do something else. I just knew that

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anytime my competitors or other people were going out or they were, you know, seeing friends or

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playing video games or watching football games, they used to do all the time before I started a

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business or sleeping in or just the many things, you know, even honestly, my fitness even suffered

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during that period of time. I'm not saying it's perfect. But I'm saying I was willing to do,

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I was willing to sacrifice anything to get to where I wanted to go. And I introduced that kind of

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concept to him of like, you tell me you want these things. And yet when it comes time to sacrifice

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to pay the piper to make the trade-offs that are necessary to have that outcome,

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that's when you're faltering. And so, are you willing to sacrifice for the things that you

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want in the long run? And I was like, because he's my neighbor and we live in a nice neighborhood.

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I said, like, I'm the H.I.M. and we live here. I was like, I sacrifice my 20s straight up,

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I sacrifice them. And I'm not saying it's the right path. But I want to make sure that whatever

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decision you make, you make it for the right reasons. If you want to go for four years in college,

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do it by all means. But understand the reason you're doing it is because you believe that four years

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of college and spending $200,000 is the best use of your time. And then having the

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story that you'll have to tell yourself about the type of person who makes these types of decisions,

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and then you'll have to live with that because the thing is is the stories that we tell ourselves

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are create the identity that we have, right? When my favorite scenes in matrix is in the third one,

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I know people don't like the second and third, I like all three, is when Morpheus is

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standing in front of all of humanity. And he says, I can tell you that I are staying here truthfully

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unafraid, not because of the path that lies before us, but because of the path that lies behind me.

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And I think that's such a deep message because where we are is because of the stories that we have

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that have led us to be who we've become. And when we make these choices, I think just as important,

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if not more important, is the story that we are telling ourselves about why we made the choices

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and what that tells us about who we are. Real quick, guys, if you can think about how you found

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this podcast, somebody probably tweeted it, told you about it, shared it on Instagram, or something

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like that. The only way this grows is through word of mouth. And so I don't run ads, I don't do

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sponsorships, I don't sell anything. My only ask is that you continue to pay it forward. Do

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whoever showed you or however you found out about this podcast that you do the exact same thing.

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So if it was a review, if it was a post, if you do that, it would mean the world to me and you'll

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throw some good karma out there for another entrepreneur. And so I wanted to clarify to the

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decision for him in terms of is this what you want, yes or no, of these two paths, which one will

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get you closer to that thing, yes, like this one or this one. Cool. Now, why are you not making it,

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which now goes from logic to emotion. And then at that point saying, okay, I think we've

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had discovered the root issue, which is that you're afraid it's being seen as a failure if you're

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not immediately successful. And so what I wanted to give to him was if you fail, it does not make

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you a failure, it means that you failed. And part of entrepreneurship is failure and being able to

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deal with failure and how you come back from failure. And I said, right now, you're in this instance

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where this is the first real big hit life has ever given you, right? Everything's relative. But in

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his life, at this moment, this is the biggest thing, worst things ever happened, right? This bad

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issue that he had it with his school. And so I said, the story that you now get to tell is what

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you do from here, right? Do you use this as the catalyst to realize that you actually don't aren't

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interested in the school stuff and you never have been and have always wanted to do the entrepreneur

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thing, but it's been a side hustle and you've never fully committed to it. I was like, is that,

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is that the story you want to tell? Or do you want to go and try and fight this thing and try and

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beat it and then spend, you know, another three and a half years spending more money and then

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be another 3.1 student that graduates from Pepperdine, right? Which one is the story that you want to

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tell? And so I think I wanted to share that story with you because I don't know where you're at

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or what decisions you're facing, but I think there was a lot of many things that we kind of covered

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in that conversation and unearthed. And so many of us know what we need to do, but have some

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emotional trigger that's stopping us from doing it. And I think digging deep and saying, like,

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what am I afraid of happening? What's my biggest fear? Because if I know this is what I need to do,

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then why am I not doing it? And I think if you can simply name the fear of what you are afraid of,

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it allows you to face it and it removes the power it has over you because then you you have clarity.

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And then it's simply, am I willing to let my fear of failure stop me from having what I want to

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eventually have in my life? Or would I rather let that have me walk down a path that never actually

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helps me realize my potential? And so when you think about a maybe versus a never,

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then I'll take a maybe over a never any day of the week. And so like I said, I don't know where you're

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at. I don't know what trade-offs you're facing. I don't know what sacrifices you may have to make

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in order to get to where you want to go. But I think literally listing those things out of what

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you are willing to give up. There was a point in my life where I wrote down all the things that I

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had to additionally give up because I was at a point of just rubber meeting the road and I had to

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push harder. And this is probably three or four years in my entrepreneurial journey. And I remember

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making this video about that where I actively gave up football on Sundays, which was like a thing

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that I enjoyed, you know, watching. I know that I gave up all TV of all kinds, even like the

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wind down TV. I gave up any kind of going out. And I'm not saying that you have to do that. I'm

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just saying that that's what I did. And I know that this kid's father was like, hey, you need to

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have balance. You need to be able to enjoy life. You're still young. And my father, when I was

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younger, really hit on that really hard. And I really pushed back. And I still pretty much do

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because I don't believe that anything great was ever accomplished by someone who was balanced.

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I think that it takes extremes. It takes extreme effort. It takes unreasonable sacrifice in

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order to achieve things that are unreasonable. And so, you know, and I was telling him yesterday,

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the kid, not my dad, if you were competing against someone else who was a coder, you guys

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were both coding software, right? I was like, and you're going to college, you're having fun,

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you're going out on weekends, and you know, you code a couple hours a day versus the kid who drops

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out of college code 16 hours a day, doesn't go out, doesn't see his friends just codes for three and a

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half years. I was like, who do you think will be further along? He was like, well, the other kid.

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And I was like, right, I was like, how much further along? He was like, probably a lot further.

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And I was like, right, do you think it's reasonable or unreasonable that he would be further

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head than you? He was like, reasonable. And I was like, so why would you not want to take the

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reasonable bet that you will be so much further ahead by making that choice? And so,

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all that to say, I don't know any people who are really successful, who don't approach things in

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an unbalanced way. And I think that there's a differentiation between seasons and your entire life.

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What you do for a season of life doesn't have to be forever, but sometimes it does have to be

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for that season. And sometimes you are uneven. And so sometimes it's difficult to look, you know,

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at what I do now versus what I did to get here, right? If I, you know, I sacrificed my fitness

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for periods of time, right? I'm not saying it was good. I'm just saying I did. There were times

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where I did not sleep as much as I probably should have. There were times where I did not see,

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I didn't do anything social at all for a month. I'm not saying it was right. I'm just saying

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that's what ended up happening. And when I hear stories of many people who kind of go through

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the shit, who go through their Rocky Balboa period, the Rocky cutscene, almost every hyper-successful

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person that I've seen goes through a three to five year period where they just get hit in the

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face day after day after day after day. You know, some of the some of the great marketers, some of

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you guys may have heard of, you know, Russell Brunson pitched for five straight years on stages,

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unknown before he became Russell Brunson. You know, Billie Jean did cold calling for two, three years.

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Dan Kennedy did face-to-face, door-to-door sales for three years, right? I did 4,000 one-on-one

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consultations over a four year period selling fitness, doing 15, 20 appointments a day, right?

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And the thing is is like, I wasn't Alex Ramosi then. I was just a dude who was selling and just

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getting better and better. And the thing is that there's this unreasonable amount of effort,

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this unreasonable amount of sacrifice that usually has to go in to get the unreasonable goal,

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and yet people are not willing to make the sacrifice to do it. And so I think if we can simply

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look at what is the decision that's going to get me to where I want to go, which of these do I

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think will be better? And then what is the sacrifice that's required? And am I willing to make that

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sacrifice? Then I think it makes much simpler decisions, and we know why we're making

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decisions we are so that decisions are not made for us by life.