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When I was in my 20s, I wanted to be a millionaire, and when I was a millionaire,

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I wanted to be in my 20s. And so, the idea that my future self would trade all the money

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he had to be poor in 20 again, made me really reanalyze how I saw living life in the moment.

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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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customers, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons we have learned

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along the way. I hope you enjoy and subscribe. Now, what's the difference between someone who's

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selling all the time and someone who's never selling and doing a disservice because they don't

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offer someone to buy something? When they know like, okay, I have this coaching program with

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this course or this thing, where I know you can get value if you took action, but maybe they

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shy away from it because they want to focus on brand so much and not be the salesperson,

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but then it's actually doing a disservice because they're not in your program.

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So, I think it actually has less to do with the ratio of how much they're selling versus

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serving in their content, but more so, the ratio of selling and serving overall. Because most times,

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because of this, like we were talking before, there's about the Internet marketing space in general,

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is that most people's products are not serving. They're terrible. Right, they're terrible.

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So, what happens is like, it is the most right hook of right hooks possible because you just

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lose a ton of goodwill with the thing. Apple doesn't lose goodwill when they come out with an

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iPhone. Everyone's just excited about it and they use the iPhone, they tell their friends.

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So, the difference is in the goodwill that comes with the quality of the product. And so,

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I think that's where the issue is. It's not like, do I sell or do I not sell? It's just,

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it's the thing that I'm selling and the vast majority of people who are pitching all the time are

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natural promoters, not product people. Right. And so, like most times, the greatest product people,

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like Naval had this quote that I really like. He said, you're only selling because you don't know

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how to market. And you only market because you don't know how to build a product. Because, like,

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the best products market and sell themselves. Now, obviously, if you're Steve Jobs or Elon Musk,

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it's like you build amazing products and then you back them with unbelievable marketing and then you

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have an army of salespeople that are selling for you. So, it's like, then you have them all,

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and then you have, you know, a trillion arc of money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, just being

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exceptional, any of those will make you money. But you get the multiplicative, you know,

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compounding effect if you're good at two or three of them. Right. Were you always good at making

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money? Or was there a time where you were like, man, I'm just broke, struggling and trying to

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figure this thing out? To someone's own, like, how much were defining? You know what I mean? Like,

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right out of, I finished college in three years and then did the management consulting path. And

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so, like, out of college was making like 50,000. Right. Right. And I lived in Baltimore. So, like,

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my cost of living was like $5. And so, I was able to save a bunch of money. So, I saved 50,000

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dollars in two years living there. And that's what I was able to start my gym with. Did you

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understand money when you were in your teens or growing up? Or did you feel like you were scared of

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it or it was scarce? Or are you thinking, ah, this, I'm not really worried about money. It'll come

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when I'm ready. I was always, I've always been a saver. I've always been a saver, not a huge

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spender. I, I think part of this because I don't get a lot of like, when I pay a dollar, I feel

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something different. And most times, if I buy something, I don't feel any difference. I don't

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get a lot of utility. I'm spending, right. I just don't get a lot from it. I think I've been

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aware of that for a long time. And so, like, if you don't spend a lot and you make even a normal

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amount of money for a decent amount of time, you end up having a lot. And my, my income went up.

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I would say that there's definitely elements of scarcity that I believe did for a long time.

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Yeah. I mean, your own competition was one. Tell me about it. What was that about?

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So, like, when I had, you know, when I had my gyms, for example, this is, you know, almost a decade

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ago, you know, I was so concerned with the guy down the street was, well, who do his marketing?

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Is he copying my ads? It's like, I used to get so obsessed with this stuff and like, it just

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so doesn't matter. Like, at all, like, you, he could copy and we could both have really big

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successful gyms. It's not like there's a lack of people who need to get a change. Right.

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And then even then, it's like, we're only talking about a five mile radius, not like the rest of

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the world. Like, it's, there's just let, like, you know, orders of magnitude of thinking in terms

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of scale that I was just something like completely, like, aloof to what happens when we focus on

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competition so much? What happens to our ability to scale, grow our creativity, our money making

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abilities? I think you become emotionally reactive to the activities of the other person. And so

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you're truly focused on nothing that adds value. And so it's because of, it's not the competitive,

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like competitors don't put you out of business, but you obsessing over competitors.

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Right. What, what should people be doing instead of obsessing over competition?

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It's all customers. It's all just being, because like, if you can get, you know, there's a billionaire

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in my, in my building who, um, he was asked on a reason, like, if you had one thing that you could

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tell someone, uh, if they wanted to build, you know, a company like yours and he said,

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your customer must absolutely love your product. A lot of people just underestimate the amount of

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effort it takes to go from good to great, uh, in product or service. It's like, the difference

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between a five star restaurant and a four star restaurant, you know, looks like 20% but it's 10

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times the effort. You know what I mean? It's between like a one Michelin star and a two Michelin

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star restaurant is an ocean. Right. And so I think, like, I use the book as the example because it's

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an easy one to reference. Most people try and just write a book. And then once the final word is

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down, they're like, send it to the editor, edit it, cool, and let's ship it out. But like that book,

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I rewrote five times and to end the whole thing. And each time the goal was to make it short.

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It's like, how can I say this in fewer words? How can I say this in less words? And, um,

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and in doing that, and the same thing happened with Jim launched with that product,

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is that every time we created a 2.0 or 3.0 or 4.0, we made it shorter. How could we make it easier

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to consume? And then I was the reason we wrote the book about the value equation. It's like, what is

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value? Right. How do we define that? And so if we're customer focused, we can obsess on value and

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then have a very iterative approach. And I think that you came from the internet marketing world.

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Like, and I talked, I've given this in like a couple of like closed-door masterminds from

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my guys. Like, you all say that your product's amazing. I'm like, what's your CRC? What's your

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CHS? What's your NPS scores? What are your TTVs? And they're like, huh? I'm like, well, if I ask

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you your CPM, your CPL, your, your, your, your comfortable call, your cost of acquisition, like all

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of these things, you could rather lose off in two seconds. I'm like, so you guys say that your

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product's amazing. And yet you don't measure a single metric around product. Wow. It's focusing

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on that. Right. So they just, like, thing is like, we can get that part, right? Then you get so much,

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because if we can just get each customer to get one more customer, our return on ads has been

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doubles. Right. But then if you think about what your contribution margin is on that extra

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customer, if you don't have to spend the cost of acquisition, so much of that drops to the bottom

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line. And then the company just becomes so much more profitable. Yeah. Just by like tiny levers

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that we do here, like, how can we take, you know, with, I think we were talking earlier about our

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publishing business, we're like, okay, publishing is something that takes a long time to do.

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How can we figure out TTV is time to value? So how can we figure out some sort of experience or

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some sort of wins someone can have in the first seven days? Like, how can we get them a dollar?

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Is there anything that we can do to launch their block? Yeah, exactly. Like something,

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some proof of concept, and we were able to figure out how to, we're talking about mini, you know,

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mini book, get that going in a very short period of time so that people could just, and we're like,

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hey, guys, this is an MVP. This isn't your perfect product. We just want to prove to you that it

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works. And so then they get one dollar in their account, they're like, and we're like, you are now

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going to get some momentum. Yeah. And now you have that identity shift that happens. Just like,

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I just mean wanting the internet. Like, yeah, you did. Now, let's do a real book. That's like,

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really good. Like, we don't, this is not the product, but this is proof of concept. And so that

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was like a more creative one we had to do. But like, you know, other businesses, it's like, how

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can we always drag forward at least some sort of big win as we get the emotional buy into,

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then, you know, fall through like when we had the gyms way back in the day, I would run people

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through like a six week really aggressive diet in the beginning. And that was because even though

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the sustainable weight loss is, it takes a much longer period of time, you know, et cetera, the

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the slower you lose it, the longer it sticks off. But the faster you lose in the beginning,

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the more like they are to stick with it. Interesting. So you get this emotional buy in and you're like,

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cool, okay, we just did a lot of weight loss in six weeks. I need you to chill for six. Right.

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And then they're, but now they believed us because we had just delivered, you know, a big win

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kind of results. Exactly. Yeah. And so it's like, we know how to do it. But now we're,

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but like, you can trust that we do know how, but now let's just maintain for six weeks,

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get your hormones back, make sure everything's good, um, you do it, but a little more muscle because

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you lost them during this kind of aggressive cut. Yeah. And then kind of then we'll get into a

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more sustainable phase. Right. So it's just how can we drag that forward? And I think that

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level of obsession, the way people obsess about promotion, if they obsess the same way about

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product, the amount of profit they make as a result of that is just like, it's huge. And those

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are sellable businesses. The marketing driven businesses do not have nearly the enterprise value

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of the product driven businesses. So would you say the key to going from good to great is obsessing

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on product, great product greatness, 100%. What if someone, you know, they have any product,

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the physical product, didn't product coaching a software and they're watching or listening.

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What should they be thinking about to making the product that went better? They've put a lot

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of time and energy launching a building that got sales. Maybe they've had it for a year or two.

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How do they break it all down? And it says it is a 20 different factors. Is it like just do these

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three things and it's going to improve the quality of product? What should they think about?

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It's a really good question. So there's like three different angles I want to take.

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So one is like what I talked about in the book, which is like the value equation. So what is that?

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So there's four variables in the value equation. The first one is the dream outcome,

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which is is the thing that I'm delivering fundamentally valuable. And this is especially for people

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probably more so who are trying to like starting out in their entrepreneurial career.

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You want to map, draw it out for me if you want to. Sure. Well, I'll hold it up for people.

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Yeah. So you've got your dream outcome. So I just put dream here, right?

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You've got dream outcome, which is the first variable. The second variable is the perceived

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likelihood of achievement. And so the idea is, and I'll give you an example of this,

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if you have, let's say you wanted to get plastic surgery. And that would you do with your caps?

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Exactly. If you wanted to get plastic surgery and you had the option of two guys,

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we're going to do the surgery. One guy is on 10,000 surgeries and one guy is fresh out of medical

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school. This is his first surgery, which guy would you go with? Probably 10,000.

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He might even take this guy half the time to do the surgery as this guy.

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And double the price. Right. So we might. And it's double the price. Why? Because of the perceived

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likelihood of achievement, we believe that when we pay this man, we are more likely to achieve what

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we want. Even though the work is the same, probably longer on this side, but our perception of what

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we're going to get in a real way increases prior to purchase, which is the same reason that if you

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have like 20 people who told you that this restaurant is amazing, you're willing to pay way more

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even though you haven't experienced it yet. It's the perceived likelihood of getting the outcome

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to rewind on the dream outcome. This is more a commentary that how is it that you have a 50-thousand,

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you can solve the same problem, let's say weight loss because everybody understands

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that one. If I'm trying to help somebody lose weight, there's 50,000 dollar solutions and there's

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$5 solutions. There's three solutions, right? 50,000 dollar solutions, you can get liposuction

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and get a full body lift and whatever. Got a good day. Right. Or you can get an e-book for five

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bucks. So the question is, why are these two things more valuable and that again goes to perceived

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achievement? But if I went from the weight loss to, let's say, making money, if I had two things,

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in general, all the things in the making money category will be priced higher because there's a

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more direct ROI. So that's why between categories, dream outcome as a category can be higher lower.

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But then, once you're within a category, it's the other three variables. So perceive like that

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of achievement number one of the other three variables. The next variable is underneath, which is

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the time delay. So between when I pay and when I get, what's my delay there? So if I were to say

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using the weight loss example, if you swipe your credit card and you look down at your stomach and

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you just have abs, how valuable will pay a lot for that? Exactly. All we did was just decrease the

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time delay. So let's say in a B2B example, if you had a marketing agency, for example, and normally

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it's like, okay, you guys need to send me all this creative and we got to get everything spun up

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and it's going to take us, you know, 45 days to really get everything, you know, ramp,

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we got to build a funnel and have a lot of pull up, right? And then let's do a different example.

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We're on the same call. The guy says, cool, we're going to get you going and you hang up the phone

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and your phone rings with the prospect. It's pretty big. Even if it's the exact same thing,

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45 days from now, your phone rings with the prospect today, your phone rings with the prospect,

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how different is the perception of value, phenomenally different, which is why the time delay is

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such a huge piece, which is why time to value, we're referencing earlier is such a huge part of

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increasing the perceived value of the product. And so that's the time delay. That's the third.

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Yep. And then the fourth one is effort and sacrifice. And so effort and sacrifice are two

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sides at the same point. So effort, as I define it, are things that you must begin doing that you

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do not want to do that you did not have to do prior to the purchase. Give me an example.

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If I have to make up early to go to the gym, that would be effort. That is something that I now have to

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do. That I do. And so sacrifice, I use as the equal opposite, which is what do I have to stop doing

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that I want to do. Yeah. That I that I would continue to do it, continue to do it if I didn't have

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to stop eating milkshakes and midnight. Yes. And even in the B2B example with the marketing agency,

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well, now what do I have to do? I have to start making this content. I have to start hopping on

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meetings every week. We have to start looking over these metrics like the higher you lose bowl.

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Right. And so oftentimes, especially like businesses, they think that their price is the most

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expensive thing that they have in the cost and it's not. So think about this. If you've ever asked

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someone, hey, I'll give you my service for free. And they said, no, it's because there are other

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costs that you're not taking to consideration, which also means a lot of times your price

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has far more wiggle ribbon than you think it does. And if you can decrease a much bigger

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hidden cost by asking for more money and you can solve a hidden cost, you can make more money

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and improve their experience at the same time. Right. And that's when you just make

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oodles and oodles of money. When does someone know? So this is a good,

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degrade concept, right? Well, we should be focusing on this kind of these this mean analogy and factor.

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When does someone understand a lot of people talk about their worth? Like I'm worth this. I deserve

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this whether they're an employee or they're an entrepreneur and they want to price something. Yeah.

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When should they be thinking about their worth and increasing their rates, whether

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as an employee or as an entrepreneur? How do they know? Because you're only worth what people

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win a pay. So how do you get people to pay what you believe your worth? I think there's three

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variables that come into like how much you can charge, right? The first one is value or perceive

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value from the prospect value. Yeah. So perceive value. The second one is how good you aren't

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negotiating, which would become which which I put that are persuading you can probably put that

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as persuasion in general. That's a good if it's if it's a job you might be negotiating if it's

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a customer you might be negotiating to, but it's persuasion in general. That's a whole skill to

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develop on its own. 100% and the third one is how unique it is. So that there's no easy alternative.

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Right. And so if like for example, let's say I provide something that's really valuable, unbelievable

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at selling rare. And then another guy is willing to just do all the same stuff for just less.

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Right. Right. And so it's being decommoditized what we're talking about in the book too is that

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people have to be able to they cannot and the goal should be with our our services that we have

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that no one can hold up our service and somebody else to say these two are similar enough.

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I'll pick the cheaper one. And so the goal is how can we differentiate ourselves in enough ways

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by looking at the value equation and thinking what are all the things that are making this take

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longer and how can I remove them? Where are all the efforts and sacrifices? Even these micro things,

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these nuances that make things more difficult. And so like the kings of this if you look at like

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Amazon, right? Like the biggest companies in the world are reversed. The small companies that are

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out there, they always focus on the first two things. Let me let me promise something really big.

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Let me show you all these testimonials. And that's all they do. Just promote these things. It's

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amazing. Listen to Sammy. It's amazing. Listen to Tommy. Right. That's all they do. But the biggest

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companies in the world focus on the bottom side of the equation, which is how can we make things faster

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and how can we make things more effortless? Like Netflix destroyed blockbuster, not because they

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fundamentally changed the product at all. All that it was they made it happen immediately and from

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the comfort of your home, right? And so they just dramatically decreased the cost and effort that

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was associated with watching movies and boom, they blew up. And so like Jason Fladley and his

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friend, he said, you know, one of the easiest business models in the world is just look at whatever

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anyone else is doing and do it in half the time. Right. Like that's the set. Like people like,

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what do I do for business? Just look what it like if someone cut, you know, like can cut your

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lawn in whatever month hours, you clean houses. So you can clean houses in less time because it's

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just less inconvenience when when people when you're there in their house. Less time and less money

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are same money. Same money. Yeah. Or more money. You know, like it depends on what are the what are

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the hidden costs? So like probably like with cleaning, what are the hidden? Where are all the things

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that people hate? Scheduling is probably a pain, right? Hearing the noise is probably a pain

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like silent cleaners. Right. Like what are like you you list this out and that's we outline the book

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of like the process of thinking through this. But what are all the pains and problems that your

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customers complained you about? And so like the goal is always in in the support tickets. So when

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you talk about like obsessing about a customer, right? It's let's go through all the comments on

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the videos, right? Let's go through all of the support tickets that are coming in and those

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complaints inside of the complaints, sure. Like what you don't want to do is say like, well,

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these guys are all victims because then you lose all the power as a business owner by just blaming

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that. So if you just accept all of it is like these are all like as long as the thing that they're

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saying is not false, if it's unreasonable, then let's see if we can figure it out. Maybe no one

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else has figured out it is, but we might as well try. Yeah. Right. And so I think if if you if you can

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approach it with like a very open hands of like when you accept the feedback, it gives you the

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goal to really create huge breakthroughs and products and services. Were you always open to the

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feedback from customers? No. But why don't you learn to be like, why don't you learn to be like,

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okay, this sounds like a victim conversation, but there's something here where this person

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struggling and if I can make it more effortless, it's going to be a better product for that person.

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I think it's just taken time and I think it's because I think a lot of it I think is is really

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beating down your ego and I think like in a lot of ways with business in my opinion ego is the

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enemy because it gives us too much confidence when we don't deserve it. When did you start beating

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down your ego? I mean, I've been trying to do it since I was 19. It's just been a very slow process.

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I just I just realized that it was the root of all the unhappiness and like everything that I

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have was in comparison to other people with for no reason and like, you know, I've obviously adopted

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some perspectives we'll probably get into later but that are contrary and in nature in terms of

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like how we live just there's no benefit to ego. There's just none and then I have a different

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thing that I've been thinking about recently. I'm excited to share it with you share. So there's

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you've probably heard this but there's a lot of evidence that points to with mitochondrial DNA

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that we go back to like one one woman birth like the mitochondrial DNA of all humans this comes

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like tracks back to one one woman, right? And so I think that that's interesting within the context

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of legacy because people talk about legacy and they want to like like leave something for their

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progeny and we we love our sideways family members, right? What do you mean? Like, like, yeah,

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you're trying to make it. Yeah, exactly. But like if we all came from the same mitochondrial DNA,

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right? Then we like not to be like weird and and huggy, huggy lovey, but like a family member,

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a hundred percent. Yeah, of course. I find that really fascinating. It's just like it's like a

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super-distant cousin and you can. This is why when I met you for the first time. Yeah,

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what did I do when I met you? Deep long hug. Deep long hug. Oh, yeah. And I do this with that.

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There's a triple hug. With a triple hug. Yeah. I broke it. I broke it twice. I was like,

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bring it in, bruh. It's the only thing you're just surrendering.

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So the reason I do that is because oh, that's the thing. I didn't know those. Well, I mean,

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I mean, that's the unless it's someone where it's like maybe someone who's older that doesn't

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want to be hugged or you know, you're white. I'm going to get my quicker hug. I'm not going to

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be grabbing. So yeah, but it's, you know, it's a respectful, you know, understanding the

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human being in front of you doing your best respect it. But with you, I knew I could just hug

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you and it's going to make you uncomfortable. Oh, and it's going to make you uncomfortable. But

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but for me, I don't know if I'm ever going to see you again. I don't know if I want to see you

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tomorrow or or anyone tomorrow. And so why not embrace people with, you know, a three to five,

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10 second awkward hug and let people know that you really appreciate the moment in your present.

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Yeah. That's what I try to do. It's what I try to focus on. But you know, and if we're all

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distant cousins, then why not treat each other that way? The best way possible, you know. And I

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didn't mean to launch all the way there because I'll go way back to ego. Yeah. Yeah.

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Other parts will come in that direction. But yeah, so I think because all this comparison,

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I was like, well, if our comparing myself to a family, I'm going to feel the same way. And if

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if all these people were on the same side as me, because we're all family, when I still feel like

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I was, because I've just tried to attack you from a logic perspective of like, how many different

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ways can I try and diffuse this bomb? And I think there's a lot of keys and you just unlock tiny

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pizza fit. And you can just untry, you know, piece by piece. I don't think anyone ever conquers it,

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but yeah, or, you know, just hopefully I can over time get better. I used to be very competitive

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as well as an athlete. That's all I thought about was winning. It's like I had to win to feel like

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I was worthy or I was good enough where I was talented enough for it. And if I didn't win,

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then I wasn't reaching my goal of winning the championship or the prize or whatever it was.

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And I took that into business for many years. And I felt like I needed to compete with other

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people. And then it's funny when I started this show almost 10 years ago, I was like, it can't

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be about me. It needs to be about collaboration. Yeah. In order for this to really grow and scale

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and change lives. And in fact, people can't just be the Lewis House show all day long. Yeah.

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One, I'm not smart enough. I don't know how the answers. I'm not as talented as you.

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Short of guys are way smarter. That's why you're so more brilliant. You know, and I was like,

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I got to bring on the smart people and create a state of space. I can bring all the tall guys up,

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right? Now, I just can't catch you, right? Like everything. Oh, my audience will get taller as a result.

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Exactly. But it's funny because when I started to shift that, the ego goes back into

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still comparing and ranking and all these things. And I was like, okay, when I started to shift that,

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it's when I, you know, the platform and the community started to expand because I made it

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about shining the light on others. Yeah. You know, and doing my best to shine a light on others.

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And when you do that, when you shine the light on an idea or a mentor that taught you something,

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usually good things come back. So that's interesting. So when did you start to shed this ego mentality?

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I mean, I started tacking when I was 19. 19. And how old you now? 32.

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32. Yeah. And I think I have like 40% less ego than I do.

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And how do you have, how do you diminish the ego as you continue to scale and exit these big

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companies and build your brand and get more and more attention and known? How do you bring it back

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down to the humility? I think it's linking the two. So it's trying to link these good things

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or happening because I'm decreasing this thing. That's smart. And so that way I can assist,

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I can have a positive reinforcing association with the success that actually that would normally

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amplify the wrong character. Yeah. What do you think would happen if your ego was at the highest

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level right now? I think a lot of people would, I mean, a lot more people would not like it. Like,

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I mean, I don't think the message would get across because to be fair, I think the message would

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stop. It would, the spread would happen much slower or not at all because the message would change

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because the message wouldn't be about the message it would be about me. And I think that,

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I think that probably the reason that this has grown so much is because you've, you've tried to

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quiet yourself in so that the message and the idea can spread to as many people as possible.

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And you put the message on the pedestal rather than Lewis on the pedestal. Yeah, of course.

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And I think your audience realizes. Yeah, that's interesting. So what do you think you were making 50K

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of the first couple of years out of college? You saved 50K within two years, which is amazing.

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You were disciplined. What was the, the habit or the switch from one year to the next that started

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to bring in more abundance financially, not in the incremental 20% but it was like, boom, this was

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5X 10X. What was that habit or mindset shift for you that started to develop more income?

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So there's like the, the science and the art kind of both sides. So like the science side is just

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the leverage. So the amount of money you make is proportionally amount of leverage you employ

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in your life. And so, you know, four types of leverage is not mine. This is normal Robocons,

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but I'll just say that. Yeah. So you've got labor. I call, I use four C's because these are

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for me to remember. He says labor. I say collaboration. So funny that you said that. But it's just

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getting other people to basically use their time, right? For your cause. The second level of leverage

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is other people's money is getting people to invest in your thing. And then the next two are,

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so these two are permissionless. The first one's like, you need to get someone's permission

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to work for you and you get someone's permission to get you to give you their money. The other two are

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permissionless. So you can do them on your own. One is media, which is what you have here because

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the cost of making one video and having one person see it versus a million people see it is the

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same cost, right? And then the other is code, right? So I say content and code. So there's my four C's,

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the collaboration capital content code. And both of them, those are not binaries. It's not am I

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using other people? Am I not using other people? It's to what extent am I using other people? Am I,

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do I use other people's money? Yes or no? No, it's how much of other people's money am I using? And

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so each of these are continuums, not binaries. So like somebody could just use other people's money

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and be a billionaire because of the extent they use it. But those are the types of leverage that

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exist. And so as my income went up, it was by proportion of the amount of leverage I was employing.

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Really? How are you, what of these four were you leveraging the most? So in the beginning,

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I had no leverage because I was an employee, right? I was using my own time. The next thing that I

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started doing was I became self-employed, right? So I had a little online training business that I

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started in between my quitting my job and and starting the gym. And so when I started the gym,

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I started getting labor was the first. Other people? Yeah. Not a lot of it, but I got some of it.

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And so that gave me that first next year I went for a meeting. For a part-time intern? Yeah,

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yeah, yeah, yeah. I went from five thousand dollars a month to I think about thirty thousand

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dollars a month. So that was the that was the big job. But it's just I had a team, you know,

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I mean, a small team, but I had a team, right? Now that's overall in revenue. That's not your

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take-home, that's like sales. You might have been losing money or whatever. Yeah, right.

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We made, I mean, I mean, I was probably making twenty thousand a month at that point. For yourself,

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yes, after expenses, a team and everything. Yeah, that was then. And then one of that

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feel like going from five to twenty. Did that make you feel something different? Was there a shift

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inside of you when you took that action? Because for me, when I started this, it was all about

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vanquishing my father. So it was all about I was Middle Eastern father only child. So like I was raised

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by a single dad. It's just me and him. That was it for the vast majority of my life. And so he's

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Middle Eastern came here, the thousand dollars became a dot or he was a doctor, came here, learned

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English from watching television. You know what I mean? Has the American success story? Absolutely.

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That's amazing. And so I was born here, though. Speaking of the language, too.

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Friends was my first, actually, there's a whole story around it, but anyways, but yeah.

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Friends, how many languages do you speak? That's the best one. I'll just leave it at that.

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But all of it was about making him proud, right? That's what you did. You set out to do that.

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I was trying to do. And then I think that throughout my like adolescence, I realized that it was

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something that was always going to be withheld from me. So it didn't matter what it was. The

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goalpost would always move so that he would never be proud enough. Right. And it was just,

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and it was because he wanted the most out of me. And so like, if I got, let's say, you know,

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a 99 on a test, it wasn't congratulations. It's what you get wrong. Oh, man. Right. And that was

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always what it was. That's okay. Like I, yeah, we're cool. I'm very happy with my life. Yeah.

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And I realized that. And so this desire to gain approval turned into a very deep anger.

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And so towards the world, him, yourself, other people, mostly him, mostly him,

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and most like him and myself probably split probably 50, 50, you know,

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and so it was like my earlier, I'll say, quote, success was purely fueled by rage.

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Like it wasn't, it wasn't like it was rage. You know what I mean?

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I was in the same boat. Yeah. And it was like, and I, but there was probably some element of me

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that's like almost enjoyed the suffering because in it, like I just would get in the space

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when you ask, like, how did I feel by getting the extra 20,000 a month? First, my goal was,

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to make as much as my dad. And then it was to make more than my dad. And then it was to make

370
00:27:05.280 --> 00:27:09.440
more than my dad had ever made his whole life. Oh, wow. And so once I had done that, the,

371
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:15.760
I wanted this success to be unquestionable. Like, yeah, it couldn't, there couldn't be a,

372
00:27:15.760 --> 00:27:21.440
but there couldn't be an asterisk. It had to be so undeniable that when vanquishing was the word.

373
00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:26.320
Right. And so for a five year period after I quit my job, my dad did not support. He didn't

374
00:27:26.320 --> 00:27:30.560
support me quitting my job. Why not? Because I was going on money and building a business. And

375
00:27:30.560 --> 00:27:34.560
because he didn't, he's like, you're, what are you a gym owner? Like, he's like, you went to Vanderbilt,

376
00:27:34.560 --> 00:27:37.840
you were on a management consulting, correct? You like, you got, you know, you got above Harvard's

377
00:27:37.840 --> 00:27:41.520
midscore for your, you could have had a incredible career. Of course. Right. Right.

378
00:27:41.520 --> 00:27:45.200
Gym owner doesn't set cell long cocktail parties. Right. What do you say? What do you say? You

379
00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:48.720
know, he's, he's figuring himself out. You know, let's do this little gym as a side. Yeah.

380
00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:52.640
No, we'll step out. Right. And so, I mean, I made plenty of mistakes too when I had the gym.

381
00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:56.000
So it wasn't like all, you know, sunshine and rainbows for me. Like, I had a lot of mess-ups

382
00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:59.280
that I did. I got in bad partnerships. I mean, like, all the things that you could possibly do.

383
00:27:59.280 --> 00:28:04.160
And over that five year period of me scaling to six locations with my, with my facilities,

384
00:28:04.880 --> 00:28:09.680
at the end of that whole thing, I ended up losing. Really? Yeah. Lost everything.

385
00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:13.840
Six locations lost the whole business. Yeah. Well, I sold it. I sold five of them. I shut one of them

386
00:28:13.840 --> 00:28:17.840
down because I wanted to start doing this gym lunch thing, which would be like flying around doing

387
00:28:17.840 --> 00:28:22.240
turn-arounds because I started doing, that's what I meant, Leila. You find a gym that's kind of like

388
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:27.200
not succeeding in trying to fly it. Yeah. When you do a makeover. Hold the exactly bar rescue,

389
00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:33.440
sink, like same exact thing. Yeah. Kind of TV show. I believe me. The many regrets I have.

390
00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:36.960
Right. That would have been an awesome one. We did 32 turn-arounds. Wow. It was almost two years.

391
00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:43.040
Yeah. And so we, we started doing that. Anyways, I lost everything because I took all the sale

392
00:28:43.040 --> 00:28:47.040
money and I put it into my last location. And then the partner that I had there, siphoned the money

393
00:28:47.760 --> 00:28:50.880
because I was like, yeah, like, well, I'll put all the money from the sale of these gyms into this

394
00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:55.280
thing. It doesn't matter. It was my own mistake. It was only even then it was, you know, we'll see,

395
00:28:55.280 --> 00:28:59.920
you know, we'll see how like this isn't real. And then once I started, once gym lunch really

396
00:28:59.920 --> 00:29:05.040
started taking off, it wasn't until I think we did like 17 million in EBITDA, like profit take home.

397
00:29:06.080 --> 00:29:13.600
And one year. And one year that my dad, I was 27. That's crazy. My dad called me and he's like,

398
00:29:13.600 --> 00:29:17.360
are you sitting down? I remember like at this point, we were like not talking too much. You know,

399
00:29:17.360 --> 00:29:22.160
maybe every few months, it'd be like a five minute phone call. And so I was like, sure, yeah,

400
00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:26.080
I got time. What's up? He's like, you're going to want to hear this. And I was like, okay,

401
00:29:26.080 --> 00:29:31.040
what? He's like, I'm sorry. And it was the first time he'd ever apologize to me in my life. And

402
00:29:31.040 --> 00:29:35.520
what's interesting to me though is that it didn't feel like anything. I didn't care. Why not?

403
00:29:35.520 --> 00:29:39.120
Because I had stopped caring about what he thought about me a long time ago. And it was like when I

404
00:29:39.120 --> 00:29:44.560
quit my job was the day that like I accepted dying to my father. Because very much to me at that

405
00:29:44.560 --> 00:29:47.840
point was I was I was I was really, really sad at that point in my life when I had the job because

406
00:29:47.840 --> 00:29:52.240
I had really done everything that he had wanted me to finish Vanderbilt in three years as president

407
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:57.200
fraternity. I had had one writing awards. I had done like a bunch of like I'd done everything.

408
00:29:57.200 --> 00:30:01.760
You know what I mean? I was in I was vice president of powerlifting theme. Like I read all the stuff

409
00:30:01.760 --> 00:30:06.240
I was doing. Yes, yeah. While while still being president and did it in three years, right?

410
00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:10.640
Ain't got a management consulting job that was like good job had all the credibility. And it just

411
00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:16.080
I knew it wasn't enough. And I knew that. And so I knew that the choice for me was that I either

412
00:30:16.080 --> 00:30:20.880
had to die to him or I had to die to myself. Wow. And that was ultimately like the choice that I

413
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:25.360
put in front of myself. And that was whenever I was like maybe I should just get I was like

414
00:30:25.360 --> 00:30:31.440
die to him or die to you. And so that was what gave me the confidence to break that. And then I

415
00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:35.760
physically moved because I couldn't be in the same area. Wow. So I actually. You know what 23

416
00:30:35.760 --> 00:30:40.320
at this point. Yeah. So I called my dad when I was like in Ohio. And I'm from Baltimore.

417
00:30:40.320 --> 00:30:44.400
So I'm like how? Yeah. It was for you. I called him when I was there. And I was like,

418
00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:48.560
Hey, by the way, I'm doing the gym thing. He was like, okay. He's like, what should come over?

419
00:30:48.560 --> 00:30:52.560
We'll talk about because he knew because he knew that if he came over with enough battering,

420
00:30:52.560 --> 00:30:57.760
I would be like fine. I know this is a smart thing. I'll dig the you know, I'll apply to you know

421
00:30:57.760 --> 00:31:01.200
booth and Harvard, whatever. And I'll get the I'll do that whole thing. And that because I was a

422
00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:04.960
cycle. I just kept doing it. And I was just like, no, I'm not going to do it. So I was like, well,

423
00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:08.240
I can't let me know how he was like, what do you mean? And then the tone totally shifted. And he was

424
00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:12.240
like, you always do these crazy things. And you're like, he's like, you're never balanced. It's always

425
00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:17.520
extreme with you. There's no middle path. And so anyways, I, you know, I did that five years

426
00:31:17.520 --> 00:31:21.680
gyms, lost it all anyways. And then started and it started gym lunch. And then that's one. And then

427
00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:26.160
that really took off. Sure. And then, but when he called me and he apologized. And this is where I,

428
00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:31.040
like, you know, I'm ashamed of myself. But like, I could have just let it lie and been like,

429
00:31:31.040 --> 00:31:37.120
thanks. Appreciate it. You know, instead, I said, I was like, you know, when people get up on stage

430
00:31:37.120 --> 00:31:40.240
and they're like, hey, you know, they get awards. And they're like, hey, mom and dad, I just want

431
00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:44.400
to say, thanks so much for always believing me. I was like, I won't say that. Oh my gosh. I was

432
00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:47.760
like, because you never did. I was like, the only time you accepted me. I was like, was once every

433
00:31:47.760 --> 00:31:53.440
other person on this planet had accepted it too. Oh my gosh, man. And so that's so I said,

434
00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:57.200
that's intense on the phone. He said that. What do you say to that? He said, well, we'll see how

435
00:31:57.200 --> 00:32:03.120
long it lasts. Oh my gosh. So that was still kind of a competition with. Yeah. And to be fair,

436
00:32:03.120 --> 00:32:07.280
when he apologized, he said, you know, I'm sorry. He said, but in my defense, if it had been in my

437
00:32:07.280 --> 00:32:11.280
time, I would have been right. And so, you know, but all that to say, like, I should have just said,

438
00:32:11.280 --> 00:32:15.280
like, appreciate the apology. You know, thank you. Because, you know, Tony Robinson,

439
00:32:15.280 --> 00:32:19.120
something that I thought was really impactful was like for the vast majority of my life, it's been

440
00:32:19.120 --> 00:32:25.760
like how my father shaped me or whatever, but rather than thinking like, what can I use from

441
00:32:25.760 --> 00:32:30.560
this dynamic? Like what gift do I have? Yeah, like for this mother. Yeah. Kind of like beating hammer

442
00:32:30.560 --> 00:32:34.080
or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Like, what do I, like, what do I, you know, the blame for the good,

443
00:32:34.080 --> 00:32:38.160
right? And so like, I have so many things to blame for good from that. And I'm very, very happy with

444
00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:42.320
my life. That is why $20,000 a month didn't feel significant to me because the goal that I had,

445
00:32:42.320 --> 00:32:48.080
my expectations weren't to make money. My expectation was that I had to make more than he had ever made.

446
00:32:48.080 --> 00:32:53.360
And so I had a very big vacuum to drive towards, which I think in a lot of ways was a gift because,

447
00:32:53.360 --> 00:32:57.680
like, I blew past $100,000, $500,000, $1,000 billion a month. Like, I blew past those things because,

448
00:32:57.680 --> 00:33:03.600
like, it was never about having enough money for me. It was about feeding this monster. But once I got

449
00:33:03.600 --> 00:33:08.880
there, I realized that what I had done was set up a game to win by my father's rules. And so,

450
00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:13.600
then I, and you could never win. Right. And to be fair, what I want to win a game that I wasn't

451
00:33:14.080 --> 00:33:17.920
for me. And it was making you suffer. Sure. You're playing the wrong game. I'm playing his game.

452
00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:21.840
And so I did win. But I won at his game. Right. Right. And so that was kind of what I think,

453
00:33:21.840 --> 00:33:26.240
making that realization was it was kind of the slow shift that happened from there. So when you

454
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:31.280
want the financial game or the game of like, I've made more than you in a month or a year than you

455
00:33:31.280 --> 00:33:37.840
made your whole lifetime. Yeah. We'll go, guys. You guys already know that I don't run any ads on this

456
00:33:37.840 --> 00:33:41.840
and I don't sell anything. And so the only ask that I can ever have are you guys that you help me

457
00:33:41.840 --> 00:33:45.520
spread the word so we can have more entrepreneurs, make more money, feed their families,

458
00:33:45.520 --> 00:33:49.520
make better products and have better experiences for their employees and customers.

459
00:33:49.520 --> 00:33:54.000
And the only way we do that is if you can rate and review and share this podcast.

460
00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:56.480
So the single thing that I asked you to do is you can just leave review,

461
00:33:56.480 --> 00:34:00.640
let's take 10 seconds or one type of the thumb. It means the absolute will to me. And more importantly,

462
00:34:00.640 --> 00:34:06.400
it may change the world for someone else. How did that make you feel? And we need to realize

463
00:34:06.400 --> 00:34:09.520
you need to start playing a different game. And what would that game become?

464
00:34:09.600 --> 00:34:13.280
Okay, there's three questions there. What was the first one? How did it make you feel the moment you

465
00:34:13.280 --> 00:34:18.640
crossed the finish line of the game of making so much more than he'd ever made in a short amount of

466
00:34:18.640 --> 00:34:23.440
time? Relief, because we actually got a relationship that, not like, you know, I wouldn't say we're

467
00:34:23.440 --> 00:34:27.840
have like a son-toned array, but like we have a functioning relationship. I would say it's role-based,

468
00:34:27.840 --> 00:34:33.920
like I'm a, you know, but what happened was we are both very like strong personalities. And it wasn't

469
00:34:33.920 --> 00:34:38.880
until I think that he accepted me as often our relationship that we were able to kind of like move

470
00:34:38.880 --> 00:34:44.960
forward again. Because before that, my, because my dad's, he's a doctor. So he's always had, you know,

471
00:34:44.960 --> 00:34:50.480
like decent money. And I wanted to be beholden to no one, including him, like I didn't want his

472
00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:56.160
money. I didn't want anything. And so I think I had to establish my own, I had to like really plant

473
00:34:56.160 --> 00:35:01.360
my own flag to be seen as a man in his eyes. And so I think once that happened, I think I thought

474
00:35:01.440 --> 00:35:05.680
there was some level of like, there's no conflict here anymore. Like, this is undeniable.

475
00:35:06.880 --> 00:35:12.720
This is beyond reproach. Yes. I have a attractive wife who's really nice and awesome. I have a

476
00:35:12.720 --> 00:35:17.120
business wife. And if you think about it, like the way that I mean, I'm just being really

477
00:35:17.120 --> 00:35:21.440
real with you, I blame my father for the many things that that I have become in a lot of ways,

478
00:35:21.440 --> 00:35:27.520
right? Because everything that was not perfect was criticized, right? And so like, I've had six

479
00:35:27.520 --> 00:35:31.760
backs since I was 15. Wow. And it was because he used to always criticize everyone who was overweight

480
00:35:31.760 --> 00:35:36.080
and being that they're undisciplined and they don't, they don't try. Right? And then I've, you know,

481
00:35:36.080 --> 00:35:40.880
like, and then it was like about having pretty good, nice, everything, perfect women, right?

482
00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:44.560
Yes. Not just pretty, but like everything has to be perfect, right? And then, and then making

483
00:35:44.560 --> 00:35:49.920
lots and lots of money. And so it's like all of these elements I had to max out to again win it

484
00:35:49.920 --> 00:35:54.560
that game. And but my whole life was designed to be bulletproof was that so that I just wouldn't

485
00:35:54.560 --> 00:35:59.520
be criticized. And so that was, because that was what I just, I knew that if I could criticize

486
00:35:59.520 --> 00:36:04.960
myself harder than anyone could, then if they did say anything, it was never as mean as what I would

487
00:36:04.960 --> 00:36:09.440
say to me. What's the meanest thing you say to yourself? Oh, like it's all around just not being

488
00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:15.280
good enough. Right now. And oh, not now. Not now. But I was 100% and it was about being, to be

489
00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:20.240
fair, the actual thing would just be being weak. And so is all about strength, mentally, emotionally,

490
00:36:20.240 --> 00:36:25.360
physically, mentally, financially, everything, just weak. That's how you felt. Yes. You felt

491
00:36:25.360 --> 00:36:30.960
polished for your most of your 20, teens and 20s for sure. And so everything that I did was to

492
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:35.600
counteract that, right? Like, what can I do? Which is big and strong. I can get, yeah,

493
00:36:35.600 --> 00:36:39.280
when I make it as much money as possible. I have all the way. I mean, I did get, yeah, 100%

494
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:44.240
and that was, and so I pushed against that to try and to, to, to call that, you know, that,

495
00:36:44.240 --> 00:36:49.200
that need or that desire that feeling. Did it satiate that need when you had all those things?

496
00:36:49.200 --> 00:36:53.520
Yes, and no. Yes, because when I got there, it forced me to change my perspective.

497
00:36:53.520 --> 00:36:56.960
Perspective is what changed the way I felt, basically realizing that those things were never

498
00:36:56.960 --> 00:37:01.360
going to solve anything is what allowed me to. But in less browns, I think says this,

499
00:37:01.360 --> 00:37:04.720
where he says like, everyone knows that money doesn't, money doesn't make happiness,

500
00:37:04.720 --> 00:37:08.640
but everyone's like, I'll see for myself. Yeah. And so I think it was one of those like,

501
00:37:08.640 --> 00:37:12.880
I had to cross all the like, and I'd say this not as a, as a slight to anyone else, but like,

502
00:37:12.880 --> 00:37:16.000
I had to check off the easy ones from the list, which is like from getting in shape,

503
00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:19.120
getting the good wife, getting the money in the business, all that stuff. Like, those are

504
00:37:19.680 --> 00:37:23.360
circumstantial. That means I can push with enough effort. I can change my conditions. I can

505
00:37:23.360 --> 00:37:26.880
change my surroundings in my environment. And if I can change those things, will they make me

506
00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:30.720
feel better? And so I think once I knew, be on a shout out of it out, that that couldn't, that

507
00:37:30.720 --> 00:37:36.000
didn't work. Right. Maybe they helped me. Maybe they helped in some ways, but not the internal

508
00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:40.640
ways. So what did you have to shift your perspective or what was that shift where you could still have

509
00:37:40.640 --> 00:37:45.280
it all and then have it all internally as well? I think that the whole ego death concept that we

510
00:37:45.280 --> 00:37:48.320
were talking about at the very beginning, I try not to talk about this too much because I think it's

511
00:37:48.320 --> 00:37:53.040
it's a lot of people find take offense to it and I don't mean it that way. I sure this is just

512
00:37:53.040 --> 00:37:58.880
what worked for me and not as a criticism of anyone else's beliefs. For me, the idea that there

513
00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:04.400
wasn't such thing as legacy that when I died eventually, everything that I had would become dust

514
00:38:04.400 --> 00:38:08.800
and that anything expanded over a long enough time horizon disappears, right? Which if you are,

515
00:38:08.800 --> 00:38:12.320
like Christian, for example, it's the whole book of Ecclesiastes and I think the realization of

516
00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:19.280
that allowed me to quiet my ego a lot so that I could be more present in the idea that like this

517
00:38:19.280 --> 00:38:27.120
moment will only be here in my mind and anything that I do here will not last. And so it shifted how I

518
00:38:27.120 --> 00:38:32.560
worked, it shifted how I saw relationships and a lot of my thinking is around like my 85

519
00:38:32.560 --> 00:38:36.960
year old self. I feel like my number one mentor is like my fictitious 85 year old self because it's

520
00:38:36.960 --> 00:38:41.440
the only person that I really believe has my best interest at heart and is no alternative motive.

521
00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:46.400
And so there's this tweet that I had that went pretty viral but it was like listening to a

522
00:38:46.400 --> 00:38:52.160
billionaire or a millionaire, I'll just use that. Like when I was in my 20s, I wanted to be a millionaire

523
00:38:52.160 --> 00:39:00.160
and when I was a millionaire, I wanted to be in my 20s. And so the idea that my future self would trade

524
00:39:00.240 --> 00:39:08.000
all the money he had to be poor in 20 again, made me really reanalyze how I saw living life

525
00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:11.920
in the moment. If I literally in the future will value my present moment more than the achievement

526
00:39:11.920 --> 00:39:17.440
of the thing that I'm seeking right now in the present, then something's off because even my future

527
00:39:17.440 --> 00:39:20.400
self knows that because right now I would pay all the money I have to get 10 years back.

528
00:39:20.400 --> 00:39:24.400
That's just thinking about it. And so then all of what I'm going to achieve in the next 10 years,

529
00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:28.400
I would happily give up to be right where I am right now. And so I think thinking about that

530
00:39:28.400 --> 00:39:33.040
really shifted a lot for me because it helped me quiet. I'm not saying eliminate but quiet,

531
00:39:33.040 --> 00:39:37.600
some of the thoughts that are more ego driven because the ego always wants to like separate and

532
00:39:37.600 --> 00:39:43.680
isolate from others and prove that it's better. And if I know that it will all be dust, there is

533
00:39:43.680 --> 00:39:47.440
no better because we're all going to be dust. And so in that same way, if we're all going to be

534
00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:52.240
dust and we're all siblings, like two very strong frames for me at least, it helped me quiet that

535
00:39:52.240 --> 00:39:57.440
aspect. And I think in that way I was able, I think, asked my people, but like I think I was able

536
00:39:57.440 --> 00:40:00.640
to show up better as a leader. I was able to show up better as a husband. Show up better,

537
00:40:00.640 --> 00:40:04.480
like to make content, things like that. Like I don't think I could have made the stuff we make now

538
00:40:04.480 --> 00:40:08.240
five years ago because I still think it would have been more, it would have been to

539
00:40:08.240 --> 00:40:12.000
proving something. Yes, perfect. Not worth proving.

540
00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:16.160
A hundred percent have been proving, proving someone, proving a fictitious foe wrong.

541
00:40:16.160 --> 00:40:21.760
Right. Right. They're all talking about right. No one cares exactly. And so that was really,

542
00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:26.000
it's like I had to shift from like no one cares about you to I really want to have a shirt that says

543
00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:31.840
no lives matter, but I feel like it would be way too. No one cares about you. But I feel,

544
00:40:31.840 --> 00:40:35.840
but I think there's like a lot of like meat to that where it's like if we can, because in that

545
00:40:35.840 --> 00:40:41.440
way, we are all equal. And so I think it's almost the most egalitarian perspective is that like in

546
00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:45.840
the end, we will all be dust. And so I think in that way that's like we have these exchanges that

547
00:40:45.840 --> 00:40:49.440
we have. And in some ways, it makes it more beautiful. Why do you think so many people care about

548
00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:55.360
power and respect so much? It usually was withheld from them. I think the things that we're that

549
00:40:55.360 --> 00:40:59.600
were withheld from us are the things that usually we seek the most. I think how many, how many

550
00:40:59.600 --> 00:41:05.840
really successful guys have daddy issues? You know what I mean? So many. And so it's like, okay,

551
00:41:05.840 --> 00:41:09.680
well, I didn't get his respect. So I'm going to have to compensate with my circumstances,

552
00:41:09.680 --> 00:41:14.240
with my environment, so that everyone respects me. And some people do that through fear,

553
00:41:14.240 --> 00:41:17.120
some people do that for violence, some people do that through success. It really just depends

554
00:41:17.120 --> 00:41:21.520
what vehicle you choose. But like I feel like the deep need is the same. Yeah, there's something like,

555
00:41:21.520 --> 00:41:26.640
I can't remember the statistic, but the a number of US presidents, a big number of them like

556
00:41:26.640 --> 00:41:31.440
grew up without a father or their father died early in their life. And there was, I can't

557
00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:37.040
remember the status like 30 or 40% or something of like the US presidents lost their father. I didn't

558
00:41:37.040 --> 00:41:41.440
have a father or something like that early on. And it's like, well, you know, now they're going to

559
00:41:41.440 --> 00:41:47.600
go prove something or go to be something and out to what about the habits that you learned of

560
00:41:47.680 --> 00:41:53.280
the wealthy people when you started to really earn and scale your wealth. Were you studying wealth

561
00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:57.200
or were you just fixated? I like, how do I get one more customer and increase my prices,

562
00:41:57.200 --> 00:42:00.480
make better product? What did you learn about the habits of the rich? I haven't learned much

563
00:42:00.480 --> 00:42:04.160
about the habits of the rich at all to be very candid with you. I think that maybe there are some

564
00:42:04.160 --> 00:42:07.680
beliefs that, because like my dad was a doctor, I wouldn't say he was like, you know, ultra wealthy,

565
00:42:07.680 --> 00:42:11.760
but like we lived in upper middle class, you know, lifestyle. But in terms of like wealth is,

566
00:42:11.760 --> 00:42:14.960
I think you and I would probably understand it. I didn't know anything about that. And I don't

567
00:42:14.960 --> 00:42:19.360
think I've ever really studied it very much. I would say that my heroes now, like I started studying

568
00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:23.200
wealth after I became wealthy. So like, what did you learn about it afterwards? And what do

569
00:42:23.200 --> 00:42:27.600
wealthy people do that you think poor people don't do? They pick higher leverage opportunities

570
00:42:27.600 --> 00:42:33.280
in a sentence. So like rich debt, poor dad, like poor dad says get a job, poor dad says get a higher

571
00:42:33.280 --> 00:42:37.760
paying job. Like rich debt says like, and the thing is there's so many innate beliefs that seem

572
00:42:37.760 --> 00:42:42.400
commonplace. Like, well, of course, you know, well, of course, you know, you buy some real estate

573
00:42:42.480 --> 00:42:46.320
and you know, it'll appreciate over time before you invest in some stocks. Like, yeah, of course,

574
00:42:46.320 --> 00:42:51.120
but like poor dad just don't say that. And so you have to like learn that, I think, and I didn't,

575
00:42:51.120 --> 00:42:55.440
so I'm grateful in that I didn't have to learn that because I heard that just was, of course,

576
00:42:55.440 --> 00:42:59.040
yeah, once you have some money, like, of course, you don't spend your whole income. Of course,

577
00:42:59.040 --> 00:43:03.280
you don't. And so there's a lot of, of course, you don't that I think I, I inherited just by

578
00:43:03.280 --> 00:43:07.200
being like a saving father. But there's also some upper middle class people who don't save anything.

579
00:43:07.200 --> 00:43:12.080
So like, but I think my dad did a lot of, I think he helped a lot with like money hygiene.

580
00:43:12.080 --> 00:43:15.760
I think I've had a lot of really good money hygiene from my dad. The big, the big breakthrough

581
00:43:15.760 --> 00:43:19.760
that I had for me was when I stopped focusing on, and this is going to sound backwards, but when I

582
00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:24.320
started my gyms, I was all about building the business, right? And when I built the biggest

583
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:28.960
companies that I've had and now recently sold and now we have our portfolio, it was about how do we

584
00:43:28.960 --> 00:43:32.960
make the most money? And I know that sounds completely backwards, but the only way that you can make

585
00:43:32.960 --> 00:43:38.800
the most money is to provide an exceptional valued service and charge a ton of money for it. And

586
00:43:38.880 --> 00:43:45.040
because I optimized around making money, I started going through for low capital expense businesses,

587
00:43:45.040 --> 00:43:49.440
because I had lost everything after that five years. And so I said, never again am I going to

588
00:43:49.440 --> 00:43:54.880
reinvest every dollar from the business back into the business because I've lost it before.

589
00:43:54.880 --> 00:43:58.480
When I started the next business and every business I've had thereafter, like we take

590
00:43:58.480 --> 00:44:02.480
dividends every month. And we do that because you don't wait till there's an accident ten years later.

591
00:44:02.480 --> 00:44:06.720
I mean, put on your money and I love to do both. Yeah, yeah. Why not both? Sure. Right? And so that was

592
00:44:06.720 --> 00:44:11.440
take a dividend and get a bigger price, but not just put money in and wait and get no money back.

593
00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:15.680
100% and the thing is, and this was a fallacy I had because people always talk about reinvesting

594
00:44:15.680 --> 00:44:19.440
in their business, but I realized that that just meant that they were making profit. And so

595
00:44:20.320 --> 00:44:24.000
and so the vast majority of businesses, even the software world is somewhat shifting in this,

596
00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:27.600
but they want to see profit. And then even better is if you have net free cash flow, which is just a

597
00:44:27.600 --> 00:44:30.880
fancy word for the amount of money that you can take out every month after making necessary

598
00:44:30.880 --> 00:44:36.400
investments in the business. And so I wanted to have businesses that pumped cash flow because I'd

599
00:44:36.400 --> 00:44:40.320
lost it all before. And so I think there's a lot of like every every one of my business seasons,

600
00:44:40.320 --> 00:44:46.800
I would say I've had three business seasons. I had my gym ownership period. I had my turn around

601
00:44:46.800 --> 00:44:51.840
and early gym one day period. And then I had prestigious labs, the licensing business in Allen.

602
00:44:51.840 --> 00:44:56.080
That was like my last season. Were you exited? Yeah. All of them. Yeah. And then I've say like

603
00:44:56.080 --> 00:45:01.840
now we're in where in our this third season, I guess. So brick and mortar gyms licensing

604
00:45:01.840 --> 00:45:07.360
supplements and software. And then, you know, third season is what we have now. And each of those

605
00:45:07.360 --> 00:45:13.120
has a huge, huge magnitude of leverage that was added to it. And so, you know, this is like gym

606
00:45:13.120 --> 00:45:16.720
launch was started on accident in that I was like, this might be a way that I can make money.

607
00:45:16.720 --> 00:45:20.000
Because people are like, hey, you're doing this pretty well for your own gyms. Can you help me turn around?

608
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:21.920
Exactly. Yeah. Like, can you teach me what you've done?

609
00:45:22.640 --> 00:45:26.800
It's like, all right, let me go in here and I'll just help them double their revenue in 60 days.

610
00:45:26.800 --> 00:45:29.840
Yeah, I'm good at this. I'll go. People paying me more for that than they'll pay me to help them

611
00:45:29.840 --> 00:45:33.840
is 20 pounds. Right. And so that was the big, that was when I went from B to B to C to B to B.

612
00:45:33.840 --> 00:45:39.600
Yes. And then from there, to be honest, it was just going up another, another order of magnitude

613
00:45:39.600 --> 00:45:43.840
because now instead of just building the one business, now we're building lots of businesses at the

614
00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:49.360
same time. And so that's kind of like why acquisition.com, I think has a much higher, you know,

615
00:45:49.360 --> 00:45:53.760
has bigger feet for lack of budget. Right. And so what do you look for when you're,

616
00:45:53.760 --> 00:45:58.800
you're acquiring a business or investing in a business that has cash flow? And what businesses have

617
00:45:58.800 --> 00:46:02.880
the best cash flow? So this will be relevant for everybody in the audience and also hits on what

618
00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:06.320
we were talking about with the wealth thing like wealthy people choose higher leverage opportunities

619
00:46:06.320 --> 00:46:09.680
and we went over what leverage was earlier. The best businesses, especially in an inflationary

620
00:46:09.680 --> 00:46:14.720
period, are businesses that have low capital expenses. Okay. And that's because if you have a little

621
00:46:14.720 --> 00:46:18.720
example. Yeah. So like, I'll give you opposite examples to make it and then I'll drive it. So

622
00:46:18.720 --> 00:46:22.800
the something that does have high capital expense, which is what you would not want to get into would

623
00:46:22.800 --> 00:46:27.280
be like, stuff that has lots of inventory, stuff that has lots of supply chain, lots of manufacturing,

624
00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:32.080
heavy equipment, things where you have to constantly buy more stuff in order to increase capacity.

625
00:46:32.080 --> 00:46:35.680
Right. A low capital expense business, there are things like services, right. Services,

626
00:46:36.320 --> 00:46:40.880
you know, digital businesses, software is mixed because sometimes the development team can be

627
00:46:40.880 --> 00:46:45.280
considered as happensments. It really depends on how you build the dev team. But the idea is that

628
00:46:45.280 --> 00:46:52.800
if you can produce 10 times more units without phenomenally changing the cost basis, then you

629
00:46:53.440 --> 00:46:57.280
will have a business that has lower capital expenses. And so that's what you, like,

630
00:46:57.280 --> 00:47:01.600
and most of those types of businesses produce more cash flow, have more pricing power. And so,

631
00:47:01.600 --> 00:47:05.280
I mean, that's what Warren Buffett invests them, right. It's high cap, you know, like insurance,

632
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:10.800
guyco, right. There's no capital. It's risk. They're literally assessing risk. It's, it's math.

633
00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:15.120
Like the business is math. Like if you really think it's just math, it's the entire business of

634
00:47:15.120 --> 00:47:19.600
insurance. And what's crazy to this side though is that a great way of figuring out the highest

635
00:47:19.600 --> 00:47:22.960
leverage businesses that exist is looking at the business that have been here the longest.

636
00:47:22.960 --> 00:47:26.080
Insurance has been here since before World War Wars.

637
00:47:26.080 --> 00:47:30.560
Right. Bank banks have been around forever. Right. JP Morgan was around 1800s.

638
00:47:30.560 --> 00:47:35.440
Wow. Right. The biggest insurance companies, they're all 100 plus years old. They're found

639
00:47:35.440 --> 00:47:39.840
in the 1800s. And so when you have a business that's lasted that long, to me, that's a great

640
00:47:39.840 --> 00:47:43.840
breadcrumb of like this thing has to print money because it means that they were able to still

641
00:47:43.840 --> 00:47:48.560
keep making money through wars, through families, the pressures, all of it. And they were still able

642
00:47:48.560 --> 00:47:52.880
to keep going. And so I think that when people are like, when you look at all the, like many of the

643
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:57.840
biggest businesses that exist, they have phenomenal gross margins. I don't want to get to like, you

644
00:47:57.840 --> 00:48:02.720
know, business term here. But like the gross margin is how much incremental cost it is to make a new,

645
00:48:02.720 --> 00:48:07.520
an extra widget. Right. And so like a pill, for example, cost a hundred million dollars to make

646
00:48:07.520 --> 00:48:12.400
the first pill. And then every pill after that costs a penny. Right. Sure. And so the gross margin

647
00:48:12.400 --> 00:48:16.000
of the pill is very high because if they sell each pill for $10, they cost them a penny. That

648
00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:19.600
was a great margin. And most people who are small business owners or people were trying to get into

649
00:48:19.600 --> 00:48:24.240
small business, price like small business owners, they say, well, it cost me a dollar. I'll

650
00:48:24.240 --> 00:48:28.640
sell it for three or I'll sell it for two. But if you're already starting on like a 50% gross

651
00:48:28.640 --> 00:48:32.720
margin, it's very, very hard to make money because they're like, that's at 100 you're already at half.

652
00:48:32.720 --> 00:48:37.600
And then you have the rest of everyone else you have to pay off that extra 50. Very hard to do. And

653
00:48:37.600 --> 00:48:40.960
so like, I'll give a couple of rules of thumb if anyone wants to. But like if you're, if you're

654
00:48:40.960 --> 00:48:45.520
building a service based business for us, by all means, I have to get gross margins above 80%

655
00:48:45.520 --> 00:48:49.680
which means five times the cost of goods that cost me $100 a month. The minimum amount

656
00:48:49.680 --> 00:48:54.160
charge is 500. Right. And so that also gets you to think about business differently, which is

657
00:48:54.160 --> 00:48:58.320
not necessarily even how much can I charge. But how can I provide value and make it cost this little

658
00:48:58.320 --> 00:49:02.720
to me? How can I be as efficient as possible? And if you think about what technology does over time,

659
00:49:02.720 --> 00:49:07.760
this technology takes something that's valuable and makes the cost to delivering it less. And so

660
00:49:07.760 --> 00:49:11.760
that's what happens is a lot of people are able to have access to things that were once only for

661
00:49:11.760 --> 00:49:16.320
the wealthy, but now become for the common men because the cost basis decreases as a result of

662
00:49:16.320 --> 00:49:20.400
technology. And so technology as we see it, you know, like we can create technology, but you can

663
00:49:20.400 --> 00:49:25.600
also have technological breakthroughs just through process in your own business. It's like, and that's

664
00:49:25.600 --> 00:49:29.680
we're niching down and being very specific about the avatar becomes important, especially when you're

665
00:49:29.680 --> 00:49:33.360
starting because then you can productize the service because if you're doing everything custom,

666
00:49:33.360 --> 00:49:36.480
which most people in their starting out do, it becomes really difficult to become efficient.

667
00:49:36.480 --> 00:49:39.520
And it's really difficult to be efficient. You have a little margin, right? Or you have to charge

668
00:49:39.520 --> 00:49:44.320
huge fees, which most people are too afraid to do. And so the flip side is if I do the same thing

669
00:49:44.320 --> 00:49:47.760
over and over and over again, I will get better and more efficient at it. And I will know how to do

670
00:49:47.760 --> 00:49:53.120
it faster and quicker and cheaper. And I specifically choose this type of customer so that I can have more

671
00:49:53.120 --> 00:49:59.120
margin because there are millions of even this one specific type of avatar. And then from there,

672
00:49:59.120 --> 00:50:03.280
I can take the gross margin that extra cash that I have and I can hire the best people. I can invest

673
00:50:03.280 --> 00:50:07.120
in marketing. But when you have such little margin to work off of, it's very difficult to make money.

674
00:50:07.120 --> 00:50:11.920
Yes, so hard to grow. That's interesting. Do you think it's going to be harder or easier

675
00:50:11.920 --> 00:50:16.240
to become wealthy and start businesses over the next few years with everything that's happened

676
00:50:16.240 --> 00:50:21.520
in the last couple of years and where this whole great 20, 30 agendas coming and all these

677
00:50:21.520 --> 00:50:24.880
different things are happening. The war and all the, you know, there might be another pandemic,

678
00:50:24.880 --> 00:50:28.480
whatever it might be. Do you think it's going to be easier or harder to make money?

679
00:50:28.480 --> 00:50:32.640
I think technology in general makes things easier for most people. I mean, because at the end of

680
00:50:32.640 --> 00:50:38.960
the day, it's increased access for more people. And so I think to reach more people at any moment.

681
00:50:38.960 --> 00:50:44.240
Yeah. If I were just to use history as a guide, businesses only got easier to get into.

682
00:50:44.240 --> 00:50:48.240
More competitive and easier to get into. And so I think that what happens is just the arena gets

683
00:50:48.240 --> 00:50:52.960
bigger. So you got more glad haters. So it's more competitive, but more people can walk in. And so I

684
00:50:52.960 --> 00:50:58.400
think, but for the world in general, the more people you have fighting to make amazing products and

685
00:50:58.400 --> 00:51:03.920
services, the better it is for society. Yeah. But downstream effect of that is that in a capitalist

686
00:51:03.920 --> 00:51:08.960
system, it is a winner take all for most for for many, not all, but for many businesses. And

687
00:51:08.960 --> 00:51:13.600
just by the nature of it, that does create social disarray. And it's just, but the thing is,

688
00:51:13.600 --> 00:51:17.120
is like, it's still the best system that we have. We don't have a perfect system because the other

689
00:51:17.120 --> 00:51:21.440
systems remove incentive and he might be different by incentive. Yeah. Even the survivorship bias,

690
00:51:21.440 --> 00:51:25.760
like every MLM in the world exists off the fact that there's that one guy who makes 500,000

691
00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:29.920
months selling shake mix and the other five million shake mix producers are like someday.

692
00:51:29.920 --> 00:51:33.600
They get there. Yeah. It's just survivorship bias, right? But that's why the whole capitalist

693
00:51:33.600 --> 00:51:39.920
machine works. So I think they're like figuring out some sort of a creative way like my I put this

694
00:51:39.920 --> 00:51:44.800
in my on my YouTube channel. But like the idea of having 100% death tax, I thought was like

695
00:51:44.800 --> 00:51:49.040
take down like the income taxes and all this stuff. But like the thing that creates the conglomerate

696
00:51:49.040 --> 00:51:53.840
at the top is that if let's say, let's say I have a hundred billion dollars, right? That's

697
00:51:53.840 --> 00:51:57.200
interesting. And if I have a hundred billion, I'm probably pretty good at managing it because that's

698
00:51:57.200 --> 00:52:02.160
why I have a hundred billion. So let's say I gain 15% holding it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's say I

699
00:52:02.160 --> 00:52:09.440
gain 15% on my assets. So like 15 billion dollars, right? On my assets, it is so hard for anyone to

700
00:52:10.240 --> 00:52:15.760
to make that up in a lifetime with just the one and like that might be my kid who gains 15.

701
00:52:15.760 --> 00:52:20.480
And the next year he gains 20 like and so it the compounding effect of the wealth is a cross

702
00:52:20.480 --> 00:52:26.480
generational is where I think it gets crazy. But if there were a hundred percent death tax because

703
00:52:26.480 --> 00:52:31.360
obviously this is aligned with my belief that all of it disappears anyways. So this is obviously

704
00:52:31.360 --> 00:52:37.440
out of the world. But it's just basically dramatically lower the income income taxes. I think

705
00:52:37.440 --> 00:52:41.280
income taxes should be like as close to zero as possible. And then make the capital gains taxes

706
00:52:41.280 --> 00:52:43.440
are because that's only going to really affect the wall. If you really want to think about it,

707
00:52:43.440 --> 00:52:47.280
right? Because people who if you make with your hands, awesome. Right. If you make on your assets,

708
00:52:47.280 --> 00:52:51.920
that's just what that has has infinite leverage with time. So if you trade the most expensive thing

709
00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:55.920
for your money, then I feel like you should get taxed less. And if you trade no time for your money.

710
00:52:55.920 --> 00:52:58.960
Sure. This is like a weird thought experiment. What do you think would happen if it was a hundred

711
00:52:58.960 --> 00:53:02.560
percent of death tax? I think that billionaires would become far more giving. And as they approach

712
00:53:02.560 --> 00:53:05.520
the end, they know they can't keep it. And I also think it would change the way the game has played.

713
00:53:05.520 --> 00:53:09.920
Because if you know, because this is the analogy that I like I haven't heard it anywhere else.

714
00:53:09.920 --> 00:53:14.480
I think it's mine. But if you were to imagine life as a poker game, right? And we everybody,

715
00:53:14.480 --> 00:53:17.920
you know, grows up, they can 18 years old, they can go into the casino, they get a chip or 21,

716
00:53:17.920 --> 00:53:21.360
whatever age you can be. And then you get it, you get a chip and then you sit down to the table

717
00:53:21.360 --> 00:53:24.720
and your dealt cards, right? And there's all the other players around the table. And depending on

718
00:53:24.720 --> 00:53:29.040
the cards or dealt and the skill you have, you used to begin to a mass chips, right? And the

719
00:53:29.040 --> 00:53:34.560
difference between this fictitious, you know, casino and the casino of life is that in the real world,

720
00:53:34.560 --> 00:53:38.720
you can a mass chips, you cash out, you have a big lot of money, you walk out the door, but in the

721
00:53:38.880 --> 00:53:43.360
casino of life, when the Green River Taps you and tells you it's time, you have to get out from

722
00:53:43.360 --> 00:53:46.720
the table, but your chips stay on the table and they push them to the middle to be distributed by

723
00:53:46.720 --> 00:53:50.240
everybody else and continue to get played for it. And that's when you realize that it was a fake

724
00:53:50.240 --> 00:53:54.320
game with rules that never mattered to be in with. And so I bought this piece on land in Austin,

725
00:53:54.320 --> 00:53:59.200
it was just huge, it was like a big, really, really nice lot. And I remember thinking to myself,

726
00:53:59.200 --> 00:54:04.080
like, this is, yeah, I got me some land, right? Oh, yeah, I have that trade to that.

727
00:54:05.040 --> 00:54:09.760
My, all right. And then I thought to myself, I was like, well, the guy before me thought the same

728
00:54:09.760 --> 00:54:15.360
thing and the guy before him thought the same thing and the guy before him thought the same thing.

729
00:54:15.360 --> 00:54:18.800
And I was like, and we've literally still been looking at the exact same piece of dirt. And it's

730
00:54:18.800 --> 00:54:23.200
just been psyched. Even if it was father to son, even if it was family to whatever, like death

731
00:54:23.200 --> 00:54:29.360
taxes, everyone 100%, like, even if the government doesn't, death taxes, everybody 100% and then time

732
00:54:29.360 --> 00:54:33.920
taxes, your money to infinity because like, people are like, I want to build a legacy. It's like,

733
00:54:33.920 --> 00:54:38.240
that's even just with like, within Americana, you know, within the times of America. But like,

734
00:54:38.240 --> 00:54:41.600
you go a thousand years and there's never been the same superpower over a thousand year period.

735
00:54:41.600 --> 00:54:44.720
And so we're like, I'm going to leave a legacy. It's like, but that would be like, you know,

736
00:54:44.720 --> 00:54:49.040
let's say an ancient Greek saying, I'm going to leave a legacy for my kids when like, they might

737
00:54:49.040 --> 00:54:54.400
change their currency by, you know, XYZ year. And there's so many things and I've had a real

738
00:54:54.400 --> 00:54:59.440
experience with this because my great, great grandfather was a ruler in Iran, which is where we're

739
00:54:59.440 --> 00:55:05.040
from. We got kicked out because we were low to the shop back in the day, which is why my dad came

740
00:55:05.040 --> 00:55:11.680
to us. And so despite that, my great-grand, great-grandfather had like 400 wives ruler. Very,

741
00:55:11.680 --> 00:55:15.840
very well. Yeah, very, very wealthy. Different time, different culture. Very, very well. He's a ruler,

742
00:55:15.840 --> 00:55:21.040
right? Yeah, yeah. All the money, all the women, everything. Literally a ruler, right? And

743
00:55:21.120 --> 00:55:24.800
it doesn't matter. And here I am. I'm not even that many generations separated from it, right?

744
00:55:24.800 --> 00:55:28.320
Even that. Because you don't have all that wealth. You don't have that land, yeah. Right.

745
00:55:28.320 --> 00:55:33.280
And so like, the idea that we're going to somehow is like, because the desire for legacies,

746
00:55:33.280 --> 00:55:37.520
the desire to cheat death, like that's what it's done. We don't want to die. We want to last forever.

747
00:55:37.520 --> 00:55:41.760
So we want to make something that is impermanent. And so we fool ourselves into thinking that the

748
00:55:41.760 --> 00:55:45.920
accolades and the material success and the books we write, whatever, are going to last forever.

749
00:55:45.920 --> 00:55:50.400
And they're probably not, right? And so like, I mean, the sun's going to disappear at some point,

750
00:55:50.400 --> 00:55:55.360
right? If we don't do anything before then, at the very least, that's going to happen. And so

751
00:55:55.360 --> 00:56:00.480
if that is the inevitable outcome, I think it shifts the way people think. And I think that's

752
00:56:00.480 --> 00:56:03.920
when you start changing, I mean, Tony Rob is talking about like global, global belief systems.

753
00:56:03.920 --> 00:56:07.200
And that's why I have someone like adopts new religious belief, like everything changes,

754
00:56:07.200 --> 00:56:12.000
because the reasons they do and the way they believe the world works changes. And so I think that

755
00:56:12.000 --> 00:56:15.920
if they did do a 100% death tax, it would be a really interesting way to see the downstream

756
00:56:15.920 --> 00:56:19.680
effects of how it changed the way the players played the game. What do you think would happen

757
00:56:19.680 --> 00:56:23.840
if all the billionaires started distributing their wealth sooner? I think what would they be

758
00:56:23.840 --> 00:56:30.320
as hungry to be and driven to push and build and innovate to generate the wealth if they knew,

759
00:56:30.320 --> 00:56:33.920
I got to give this away anyway as quickly. I think they would. Why? I think it's because it's,

760
00:56:33.920 --> 00:56:37.840
I think it's, I think I'm going to say something that may sound bad, but I think winners win

761
00:56:37.840 --> 00:56:42.240
because of who they are. And so I think it's like sales guys. Like you can have an incentive or

762
00:56:42.240 --> 00:56:47.040
a cup plan. They just want to win. But they are salespeople. And if I get on the phone, I want to

763
00:56:47.040 --> 00:56:51.040
sell because of who I am, not because the comp. The comp is the ticket to get me to say yes to the

764
00:56:51.040 --> 00:56:56.080
deal, but it will not change in my activity. I will do it because I love to sell, right? And so I

765
00:56:56.080 --> 00:56:59.200
think billionaires get there because they love the game. Like you don't get to a billion without

766
00:56:59.200 --> 00:57:02.800
just because you obviously don't need it for you. You stop needing it for you millions and millions

767
00:57:02.800 --> 00:57:06.480
ago, right? And so you do it just because you love the game. What I do think of the reason that I

768
00:57:06.480 --> 00:57:13.120
like that solution is because Elon Musk said this, but private enterprises 10 times as efficient

769
00:57:13.200 --> 00:57:17.680
capital allocation compared to the government, right? So every dollar that private enterprise spends

770
00:57:17.680 --> 00:57:22.480
is 10 times more efficient. And so it is like if if we were to death tax 100%. So whatever you accumulate

771
00:57:22.480 --> 00:57:26.320
while you're alive, it just goes back like and the thing is is it's not that it would go back into

772
00:57:26.320 --> 00:57:29.920
the system through the government. It would if you were lazy. But most people knowing the government

773
00:57:29.920 --> 00:57:33.680
was going to take it the less efficient vehicle at the end of your life, you would then start thinking

774
00:57:33.680 --> 00:57:37.760
about how can I allocate this money efficiently? And so what I think what would happen is you'd create

775
00:57:37.760 --> 00:57:42.640
far more ingenuity and innovation around social enterprise before they die solving problems.

776
00:57:42.640 --> 00:57:47.680
Knowing that the wealth would eventually disappear. So like it's more there's this backstop that

777
00:57:47.680 --> 00:57:51.600
no one wants to hit. And so I think what happened is it would change their behavior before

778
00:57:51.600 --> 00:57:53.680
hitting the backstop. I don't think a lot of people would just be dumping their billion to the

779
00:57:53.680 --> 00:57:58.480
government. I think just knowing that they had to would then distribute it into. Yeah, yeah. That

780
00:57:58.480 --> 00:58:02.080
would be, you know, hey, that's Alex's two cents of the world, which is obviously different.

781
00:58:02.080 --> 00:58:07.920
What's, you just had a big exit, right? What's here? What was that for? How much? It was 46.46

782
00:58:07.920 --> 00:58:13.600
million. So when that enters your account, what did you expect would happen? What did happen?

783
00:58:13.600 --> 00:58:17.600
And what, can you teach other people about what they should expect to happen when they have a big

784
00:58:17.600 --> 00:58:23.040
exit? So I will say that I did not feel the money. I did feel the loss of cash flow because I had

785
00:58:23.040 --> 00:58:28.160
this, you know, I measured myself off cash flow for since now you don't have any, right? You got a

786
00:58:28.160 --> 00:58:33.520
big chunk. Yeah. But then no money coming in every month. So I actually fell and I probably still

787
00:58:33.520 --> 00:58:39.440
feel horror now that I did before the exit. That's interesting because the cash flow is going

788
00:58:39.440 --> 00:58:44.480
now. Now, I, I know that acquisition.com is going to be, I think, significantly bigger than

789
00:58:44.480 --> 00:58:49.920
it. Sure. And those companies were. But in the interim, I definitely did not feel any better

790
00:58:49.920 --> 00:58:55.360
after that. I am happy that I did it because I do think I'm in the right, you know, vehicle doing

791
00:58:55.360 --> 00:58:59.760
what we're doing now, making the books, making the YouTube channels, the winners, the social

792
00:58:59.760 --> 00:59:04.400
media is all of them. But the cash flow is what I felt. And because I had taken dividends my whole

793
00:59:04.400 --> 00:59:08.160
life, the amount of money that we got out was pretty much about what we already had anyways.

794
00:59:08.160 --> 00:59:12.640
Right. So it was not life changing in any way. It didn't change how I lived at all.

795
00:59:13.840 --> 00:59:17.920
Like not at all. We didn't, we didn't have any big like, what are you going to buy? I was like,

796
00:59:17.920 --> 00:59:21.440
well, I could, you know, I'm happy already. Yeah, I could buy a hundred lambo's before the sale.

797
00:59:21.440 --> 00:59:24.720
You know what I mean? Like that wasn't, and I'd never bought them it. And I never did. So like,

798
00:59:25.200 --> 00:59:30.560
you know, because I, I don't get a lot of out of that. What else was different? Losing, losing the

799
00:59:30.560 --> 00:59:35.120
team is hard because when you sell a company, you sell the, you sell the people. Like that's something

800
00:59:35.120 --> 00:59:40.960
that people talk about. Yeah, but you sell, you sell the organism, you sell the, the system, the

801
00:59:40.960 --> 00:59:46.240
people, the process and everything. And so that was, that was hard because there's definitely times

802
00:59:46.240 --> 00:59:50.640
now that we're building up, was there's not come where I'm like, man, I wish I had sound. So I

803
00:59:50.880 --> 00:59:55.200
already taught this person everything I like to have to do it again. So there is a, but there's

804
00:59:55.200 --> 01:00:01.520
also some level of beauty to it because now that I'm doing, I was just not calm. I have a different

805
01:00:01.520 --> 01:00:06.720
appreciation for what I'm doing because every other time that I've started something, it has been

806
01:00:06.720 --> 01:00:11.680
from a place of lack. It has been from like, well, this is what's going to not make me poor. You know

807
01:00:11.680 --> 01:00:15.840
what I mean? Like the gyms was all about that. And then I lost it all. So the second time was all

808
01:00:15.840 --> 01:00:21.520
about that again. So this time I'm starting not like that. And I know what it got like before we

809
01:00:21.520 --> 01:00:25.440
sold the company's last year, I spent basically 12 months not doing anything because I wasn't

810
01:00:25.440 --> 01:00:30.560
required in the business. Like it truly ran. And so I had a lot like it was very impressive. Exactly.

811
01:00:30.560 --> 01:00:35.520
It was very depressing for me. What happens if we don't have a purpose? I mean, you find one.

812
01:00:36.400 --> 01:00:39.920
Yeah, you know what I mean? And so for me, but you're in a depressed state, even though you have,

813
01:00:39.920 --> 01:00:44.160
I mean, I'm sure you're fine, but you are emotionally mentally like what am I doing every day? Exactly.

814
01:00:44.160 --> 01:00:48.240
I've not gone to the gym for so long. Right. Can I go out to dinner? Yeah. And we're like,

815
01:00:48.240 --> 01:00:52.160
what else are you going to do every meal I want? I can travel. Okay. Now what? After three months of

816
01:00:52.160 --> 01:00:56.640
that, you've got to have some mission. You have some purpose, right? Even though you have the money,

817
01:00:56.640 --> 01:01:02.240
you're safety, you have everything. Yeah. Security, but it wasn't fulfilling 100%. And so that was

818
01:01:02.240 --> 01:01:06.320
that was 12 straight months. And it was because we were going through a sales process. So you can't

819
01:01:06.320 --> 01:01:09.840
start new initiatives because I'm in the middle of a sale. And you don't want to like make any

820
01:01:09.840 --> 01:01:14.480
massive new hires. And so you just basically have to just like maintain. And the whole time,

821
01:01:14.480 --> 01:01:18.000
you're wondering, I hope this deal goes through. Because if it doesn't, then you just wasted a

822
01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:22.080
year just doing all that. And then you might have to do it again. So it was this, it was, it was a

823
01:01:22.080 --> 01:01:27.760
super, super, it was one of the most emotionally tiring years of my life because it's always like,

824
01:01:27.760 --> 01:01:30.800
this is about to happen. It's not going to happen. The deals on the table, the deals off the tape,

825
01:01:30.800 --> 01:01:36.240
like there's all of this drama that's happening constantly. And I also, one of the things that sucked

826
01:01:36.320 --> 01:01:40.720
that I didn't like was as soon as I made the decision to sell or that I was going to entertain

827
01:01:40.720 --> 01:01:45.600
the idea of selling, and this is a mistake I made. Everything became about satisfying a

828
01:01:45.600 --> 01:01:50.400
fictitious overlord of like, well, what will they think about this move? Well, how will they value

829
01:01:50.400 --> 01:01:56.640
this? And I started thinking, hey, whatever acquireer, whatever private equity was going to buy

830
01:01:56.640 --> 01:02:00.080
the company, like how are they going to see this? Are they going to value this? Or is this a waste?

831
01:02:00.080 --> 01:02:04.560
And so what happened was I started making the private equity buyerway customer. And that was a

832
01:02:04.560 --> 01:02:08.960
mistake. And so I think that like, at the end of the day, and now that, and what happened was

833
01:02:08.960 --> 01:02:13.120
interestingly, we started the sales process because my wife and our beat down, like we were just very

834
01:02:13.120 --> 01:02:17.040
tired of, you know, we've been in Jim's room, was 10 years, you know, at that point, not to say that

835
01:02:17.040 --> 01:02:20.960
that's not a good thing, but like, whatever we, we run, of course, we were ready. We were ready.

836
01:02:20.960 --> 01:02:24.560
But in order for us to sell it and make it a sell business, we had to fix all the things

837
01:02:24.560 --> 01:02:30.000
that were wrong with it, right? And so we took a year before the year. So it's like,

838
01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.720
two years, one year, exactly. Yeah. So it took two years, basically, one year to like fix everything,

839
01:02:34.720 --> 01:02:38.160
and then one year to sell it. The thing is, it's just like when you have a house that you like,

840
01:02:38.160 --> 01:02:41.440
fix up before you get ready to sell it, by the time you're about to say, you're like, I love this.

841
01:02:41.440 --> 01:02:45.520
This is amazing. I just fixed all these, all the problems I fixed. Now, we've got more cash flow,

842
01:02:45.520 --> 01:02:51.280
it's perfection, you know, we've got a lot of the talks going, yes. And so it was, again, a very

843
01:02:51.280 --> 01:02:54.720
like mind-trip experience where I'm like, well, maybe I should just hold as an asset that

844
01:02:54.720 --> 01:02:59.280
just produces cash flow. Yeah, over Uncle Warren never sells anything like selling is what makes you

845
01:02:59.280 --> 01:03:02.800
rich, keeping is what makes you wealthy. Like, you know, I'm like, I've got all these kind of things

846
01:03:02.800 --> 01:03:06.720
in the back of my mind, but I think ultimately, like, I think no matter what we had done, we would have

847
01:03:06.720 --> 01:03:10.640
been fine. But I think for me right now, I think the likelihood that the choice, if I had two

848
01:03:10.640 --> 01:03:14.800
alternate realities, which I don't have to play in, I think that the choice will ultimately yield more

849
01:03:14.800 --> 01:03:18.880
impact for more people. I would not have the attention to do acquisition.com and the media stuff

850
01:03:18.880 --> 01:03:22.080
that we're doing right now. I wouldn't be here just straight. I wouldn't be focused on your

851
01:03:22.080 --> 01:03:26.640
gems. Yeah, or the, yeah, exactly on those companies that were in that portfolio. And acquisition.com

852
01:03:26.640 --> 01:03:31.360
would still be a side thing, but it probably wouldn't be the main thing. Whereas now it is

853
01:03:31.360 --> 01:03:41.760
100% of my attention and the companies are killing it. I feel renewed.