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We desire novelty. We desire challenges. We want growth, right? But the thing is, is that we think growth means new.

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Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more

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per customer, and how to keep them longer in the many failures and lessons we have learned

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along the way. I hope you enjoy and subscribe.

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This video is for all my friends who are doing, you know, $1 million, $3 million, $5 million

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a year, and who come to me and are always like, man, I want to challenge. This is so boring.

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I want to do something new and exciting. And so let me tell you a story about my neighbor.

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And so my neighbor had a trash business, a trash collection business, about as boring as it gets.

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And he sold his business a few years back for a lot of money. I'll just put it that way.

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And I was walking one day and he was like watering his lawn and I was like, hey, man,

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you know, what's going on? And he said, I just got out of my non-compete and I was like, oh, that's

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awesome. So, you know, what do you plan on doing? He's like, well, I plan on doing the exact

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same thing again. And I was like, wait, what do you mean? He was like, well, I plan on starting

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another trash business and selling it right back to the guys who bought my last one. And I was like,

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what? And like, he could tell that I was kind of like confused by this. And he was like, he's like,

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why would I learn something new? He's like, I already know everything about the trash business.

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He's like, I'll just do it again. And I just, it just really hit me because I was like,

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so many entrepreneurs, myself included, right? And I made this mistake so many times early

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on in my career. We desire novelty. We desire challenges. We want growth, right? But the thing

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is is that we think growth means new. When I think that a lot of times we could redefine growth as

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meaning we develop the character traits to be able to persist and continue to do the same things

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over and over again, right? You don't, you don't see these real estate moguls, for example, being like,

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man, I've built, you know, $20 million in real estate. I kind of just need a challenge. I'm going to

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start, I'm going to start a restaurant, right? They don't do that. I mean, think about how stupid

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that would sound to you. You're like, dude, you're so good at real estate. Just keep doing real estate,

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right? But I see this, especially in the marketing community more than anything, is this,

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this need for constant change and growth and challenge, right? But I think you need to redefine

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the challenges. This is becoming hard for you because you're getting bored. So the challenge is

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learning to be comfortable with boredom or be not needed because the business doesn't exist to

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satisfy our internal deficiencies, right? That's usually what most of us build it. We're insecure,

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we need connection, we need, we want status, right? These are the things that we build our business

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to solve, but our business doesn't actually need to solve any of those things. It just needs to

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provide value to the customer. And then we try and extrapolate our project, our own needs on

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the business and in so doing, break our businesses and make the wrong decision. And so let me tell

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you a different story. So I've had one, two, three different guys tell me in the internet marketing

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space who I say one's doing 15 to 20 million, another's doing about 10 million, another's doing

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about 10 million a year, probably in the neighborhood of like three-ish million and profit per year

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around there, three to five. And so each of them on their own reached out to me and said, hey man,

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I think I'm going to start a software company because I'm not challenged enough doing this anymore,

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right? And I thought about that and I just thought how kind of hilarious it was. It's like I've

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risen to the top of my game. I'm bored doing what I'm doing. And so I'm going to stop doing this

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and then I'm going to enter a new arena where everyone else has been doing that for 10 years.

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And there are other kingpins in that arena. And I'm going to try and relearn everything from

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ground zero and then try and beat them. Now here's what's interesting, right? Here's what's crazy.

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If you were to let's say make $100,000 a year in your business and you decide that you're going

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to be a true entrepreneur and it means you're never going to quit and it means that you're going to

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continue to do business for you know 40 years or whatever, right? If you were to gain at the same

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pace as the marketplace which by the way when you're smaller is really easy, right? It's 10% a year.

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If you were to grow by 10% a year by the end of the 40 years you would have a gazillion dollars,

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right? But most people are always trying to beat the market when in reality if you just match

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the market you would become extraordinarily crazy wealthy at the end of this game. But because we

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are so frenetic and we have these insecurities that we project on our business and then force our

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business to solve our own personal issues we end up breaking the thing that is actually working

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just fine because we have these interpersonal needs that we're trying to satisfy. And this was

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very hard for me to learn. I'm saying this because for me this was a mistake that I made over and

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over again probably for the first four years of business for me I tried to make my business solve

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my personal problems when it really just needed to solve my clients problems and I needed to do with

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my own personal stuff, right? And so one of the things that I wanted to give you was the ways that

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I create challenges for myself within the business without destroying the business, all right?

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So let me give you two different things that have been complete lifesavers for me. So I have desires

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for innovation. I have desires for new things, right? And so where to channel that is not to create

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new businesses. Where to channel that is to create new friends or new back-ends. So meaning like

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how can I change the hooks? How can I change the creative? How can I change the ad ideas? The marketing,

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the the front ends that bring people in because the more variety I have there, the more different

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types of avatars I'm going to attract and ultimately grow the business. So you can use that entrepreneur

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ADD but use it in a way that's going to serve you and serve the business without rather than

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breaking the business, right? Whereas if you start creating more businesses to satisfy your ADD

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then what ends up happening is well you know you have lots of businesses and you don't have any money.

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And so that's the first thing. The second thing that I do that I'm walking through is understanding

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constraints, all right? And so one of the lessons that I've learned over the last 12 months is

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multiple metrics for success and so I'll dive more into that in another video but basically for a

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very long time of my life the only metric for success that I had was how much profit and how much

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increase in net worth I had at the end of the year. That was it. So I cared about. And I think that

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as we've gotten to the point where like an increase in net worth the marginal utility of more money

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meaning like the amount of extra good that I can purchase or that more money can purchase me is

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very very little, right? There's nothing that an extra 10 million dollars or an extra 50 million

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dollars is going to purchase me that the first 50 is a Miami, right? There's nothing, right?

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That there's nothing that I can't already get, right? And so when you think about things like that,

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right? What it forces you to do is create different ways to win, right? Because it's a game, right?

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If you're entrepreneurial then you should, especially if you become more successful you'll see it as a game,

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right? And so you have this game that we're playing and we have these metrics for success that

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originally are just increasing net worth, right? But then you can say can I increase my net worth and

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have a good marriage? Can I increase my net worth and and be in shape, right? And so one of the

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constraints that I'd like to offer you is a challenge to gift yourself so that you don't get bored in

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the business that you have is a constraint around time, right? And so that was one of the things that I

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did over the last 12 months was like, okay, I want to build something that does a billion dollars

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a year in revenue, which is the goal for the portfolio. And transparently we're not there,

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you know, we're at about $85 million a year across our portfolio. So we're still a little short,

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but it's a good thing to focus on.

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Aimosonation, quick break, just to let you know that we've been starting to post on LinkedIn and

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want to connect with you. All right, so send me a connection request and let me know that you listen

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to the show and I will accept it. There's anyone you think that we should be connected with,

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tag them in one of my related posts and I will give you all the love in the world. All right,

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so let's get back to the show. Now, the thing is is that I don't want to make, and the way that I

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have to make that is I can't, I'm not going to outwork to get to a billion, right? You have to

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make good decisions and you have to let company work in your favor, right? Because if we have

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the 85 million and we grow by 10% a year in, you know, 20 years will probably be there, right?

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And so, well, let's see, a doubling would happen every seven years. So 21 years would be double,

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double, double. So that would be two, four, eight. So eight times 85, no, we'd still be,

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so we need another doubling. So we'd have to, like, 28 years from now, we could be it. If we just

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grow at the market rate, which is pretty encouraging, I think, because I think we can beat the market,

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right? But anyways, the point is adding constraints makes the goals far more interesting,

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because I think the first level of achieving any goal is learning how to sacrifice everything

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to achieve the goal, which I think candidly, I don't know many people who are super successful,

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who haven't done that. You have to be able to put everything you have on the altar of success

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and sacrifice it for what you want. Some people may not like that idea and that's fine. I just don't

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know people who are ultra successful who have done that. And the reason they are willing to sacrifice

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everything is because the deficiency they have in their soul is so great that the pain they're

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suffering from is like for not having the thing is so great that they're put everything else

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on the altar for their success. And I know that I did that firsthand. And so I remember even when I

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was growing, growing into this entrepreneurial role that I didn't tell myself, I'm going to outwork

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everyone because I didn't even think that was realistic. I said, I will out-sacrifice everyone.

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So one of my competitors are going out to dinner, one of my competitors are hanging out with their

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kids, my competitors are hanging out with their wives or being good husbands. I was like, I will

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get ahead. That was what I told myself. And it worked. But at a certain point, and this is why

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multiple metrics of success are important, the new goals that I'm setting have constraints on

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it because anyone can just sacrifice everything to get what they want. But the question is, can I

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build a billion dollar a year revenue portfolio working two or three days a week, right? And can I do

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that also while being in competitive shape physically, right? And working out one to two hours a day

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because I like it. Can I do all of those things? And so this is kind of the new levels of challenge

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I'm doing rather than trying to break what I have and going doing 10 other new things. It's like,

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can I add constraints to the existing game to make the game more fun for me without breaking the

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machine because ultimately like the machine doesn't exist to serve me, it exists to serve the

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customer and making sure that I don't conflate those two things has been a very valuable lesson.

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And so in the very beginning for me, I'll tell you this story, when I started the first time

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where I really saw success was when I learned how to sacrifice. I was saying sacrifice earlier.

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So I'll tell you how I actually learned how to do this. So when I was in college,

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I ended up pledging a fraternity and it was a very hard pledging process, hard being like time

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consuming, right? And I think we had to basically every hour of the day minus three hours and

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minus class time. So we had three hours study hall and we had whatever our class time was all the

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rest of the time we had during the day, we had to be at the house and doing chores and stuff.

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And so that was pretty miserable and that wasn't like, you know, a ton of fun. But what ended up

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happening was I ended up getting really good grades that semester in college and it was because

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they forced me to do three hours a day every single day of homework. And if you do three hours a day

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of work every day, and this is what I realized in college, there's the days that you don't have

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work to do. If you still work three hours, you get ahead on a future work. And so I realized that

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for only three hours a day, if I just did that, I would, I think that that semester got like a

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three eight, three or something like that. And so what I did after I finished pledging was I

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realized that all these extra hours of the day were mine. And so what I did was I was like, well,

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if I can just study all the rest of the hours, then I should do really, really well. And that ended

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up being a really good, a really good methodology was I just sacrificed all of my day. So I basically

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went to the gym, went to the library and went to class. And that was it. And I, that was it. I never

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worked past 9 p.m. and I went out almost the nights of the week. But by always doing it that way,

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and not wasting my time, I ended up doing really well. And it was the first time I ever learned

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how to sacrifice everything, which was everything else. I just didn't do anything besides work,

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work out, and that, you know, and go to class. Like that was it, throw on day. And so when I started

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applying that same kind of concept to business, it was actually fairly easy for me because I was so

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used to sacrificing everything. I just switched over what I was sacrificing for. And I think that you

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have to learn how to sacrifice first in order to learn how not to sacrifice later, right? Because a lot

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of people were like, why would I want to achieve the success you have or whatever? But I don't want to

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sacrifice X, Y and Z. I just, I think you can say that. I just don't know anyone who's done it.

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It's kind of like saying, I want to get over the whole that money has on my life, except I haven't

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made any money. I think you have to achieve something before you can give it up, right? I mean, Buddha

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who, who gave up his, his worldly riches, like he talks, you know, he, he walked the middle path

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because he had been extremely wealthy in a prince and then given it all up and lived as a poor

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person and then walked the middle path. And so I think that in order for us to walk the middle path

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in life, we have to have achieved the thing in order. We have to achieve mastery over the thing

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before we can truly master it and mean and give it away, right? And that's how we can eliminate

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the desire, desire for the thing because we truly know what it's like to have it, right? And then

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that means we can truly know why we don't need it. And so I think that's, I know it didn't mean to get

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100% business philosophy on you, but that's, that's kind of where I think this goes full circle.

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So big picture here. Multiple metrics of success. Don't change your business just to challenge

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yourself. Find new ways to either create front ends or new product lines or things like that

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within your business that can satisfy your ADD. And if neither of those things are what you want to do,

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then just use constraints to create challenges in your own business that improve your life in other

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ways, right? And you can always go back to my neighbor, the guy who sold his business for trash,

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his trash business for a lot of money and, and just say, he's like, why would I learn another

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business when I'm already really good at this one? He's like, I'd have to learn everything from

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ground one. He's like, that just sounds hard and stupid. And I couldn't really argue with the

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wisdom of that advice because he doesn't use his business to satisfy his interpersonal desires. He

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used his business to create wealth, which was the whole point. So anyways, I hope you found value in

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this video. Click subscribe if you did more videos like this to help you make more money.

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Most of you nation keep being awesome and I'll see you guys on flip side. Bye.