WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.920 The most expensive thing that's costing you 2 00:00:01.920 --> 00:00:04.560 the most money in your business right now is ignorance. 3 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:07.320 Right now, not knowing how to make a billion dollars a year 4 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:09.240 cost you a billion dollars a year, 5 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:11.000 which is why the biggest debt you have to pay down 6 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.560 as fast as possible is what you're paying to the universe, 7 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:14.360 what you're paying to other people, 8 00:00:14.360 --> 00:00:16.800 what you're paying yourself to not know how. 9 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:19.840 Welcome to the game where we talk about how to sell more stuff 10 00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:22.800 to more people in more ways and build businesses worth owning. 11 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:24.240 I'm trying to build a billion dollar thing 12 00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:25.480 with acquisition.com. 13 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:27.160 I always wish pesos, musking Buffett, 14 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:28.360 had documented their journey, 15 00:00:28.360 --> 00:00:29.680 so I'm doing it for the rest of us. 16 00:00:29.680 --> 00:00:30.720 Please share and enjoy. 17 00:00:32.080 --> 00:00:34.200 At acquisition.com, my private equity firm, 18 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:38.480 we talk to 600 entrepreneurs doing over a million dollars a year 19 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:42.520 every single month and 300 of them are over $3 million a year 20 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:45.400 and 100 of them are over $10 million a year. 21 00:00:45.400 --> 00:00:47.520 And so we talk to a lot of entrepreneurs every day 22 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:49.840 and over time, we've developed kind of a rubric 23 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:54.120 or framework for how we analyze the skill of an entrepreneur. 24 00:00:54.120 --> 00:00:56.440 And so what I'm going to do today is break down 25 00:00:56.440 --> 00:00:59.480 how you can think through yourself as an entrepreneur 26 00:00:59.480 --> 00:01:01.640 and the four elements that we look at 27 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:03.840 to say how good of an entrepreneur this person is 28 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:05.840 and how much we're willing to bet on the fact 29 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:07.000 that they're going to be successful. 30 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.760 And if you're the person who's going to be successful for yourself, 31 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:11.840 then it's about how do I increase the likelihood 32 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:14.880 that I'm successful by looking through these four frameworks? 33 00:01:14.880 --> 00:01:17.600 So every entrepreneur isn't successful 34 00:01:17.600 --> 00:01:19.960 because they don't know how to do one of four things. 35 00:01:19.960 --> 00:01:23.680 They either don't know that something is possible altogether. 36 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:27.440 Number two, they don't know how to do something. 37 00:01:27.440 --> 00:01:30.960 Three, they don't know how to get other people to do something. 38 00:01:30.960 --> 00:01:33.640 And four, they don't know how to get themselves to do something. 39 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:35.840 And so we'll break down each one of these. 40 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:37.960 When I had my chain of brick and mortar gyms 41 00:01:37.960 --> 00:01:40.920 and I was transitioning to flying across the country 42 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:42.440 and helping other people do gym turn around. 43 00:01:42.440 --> 00:01:44.000 So I had six gyms of my own 44 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:45.840 and then I started doing that as a service. 45 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:48.760 I would actually fly out, get someone's gym to full capacity 46 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:49.600 and go to the next gym. 47 00:01:49.600 --> 00:01:50.800 And I did that for almost two years. 48 00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:53.320 We did 30 plus turnarounds of gyms, right? 49 00:01:53.320 --> 00:01:55.360 Do it, fill the gym up in less than 30 days, 50 00:01:55.440 --> 00:01:57.480 collect all the cash and move on. 51 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:00.320 And it was only when I talked to a mentor of mine 52 00:02:00.320 --> 00:02:03.760 that he said, Alex, you're too good at this stuff. 53 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:05.840 You need to be showing other people how to do it. 54 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:07.840 And he introduced me to the concept of licensing. 55 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:10.120 I didn't know that that was possible. 56 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:12.240 So for me, my deficiency was number one. 57 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:15.120 It was an ignorance around what is possible in the universe. 58 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:16.200 And so that's the same degree. 59 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:19.240 If you have, like, it's the biggest threat most entrepreneurs have 60 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:21.560 is they don't even know what they can do. 61 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:24.680 And that's because, and this is the biggest handicap 62 00:02:24.720 --> 00:02:29.040 for poor people or people who are born in lower socioeconomic status 63 00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:30.440 or their parents didn't make a lot of money. 64 00:02:30.440 --> 00:02:32.720 So if that's you, listen up. 65 00:02:32.720 --> 00:02:35.160 The way that you do that is by getting around people 66 00:02:35.160 --> 00:02:37.400 who make more money and watching and consuming the content 67 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:38.800 of people who are wealthier than you. 68 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:40.120 And wealthier than your parents 69 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:41.640 and wealthier than your parents have ever been. 70 00:02:41.640 --> 00:02:43.240 And ideally, as wealthier as you want to become 71 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:46.880 or beyond that, because they will tell you 72 00:02:46.880 --> 00:02:49.320 the things that are possible that you didn't know were. 73 00:02:49.320 --> 00:02:50.880 Like you probably didn't know that insurance 74 00:02:50.880 --> 00:02:52.400 isn't a taxable thing. 75 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:54.520 Huh, you didn't know that was possible. 76 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.600 You didn't know that the guy who sells your mortgage 77 00:02:56.600 --> 00:03:00.160 makes five to $20,000 on the mortgage itself. 78 00:03:00.160 --> 00:03:03.760 Really, just for selling and interest rate, you bet they do. 79 00:03:03.760 --> 00:03:04.840 You didn't know that on average, 80 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:06.480 35% of the average American income 81 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:08.680 goes towards interest expenses to banks. 82 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:10.560 So people don't know, why do banks sell in the world? 83 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:13.840 Because they have a rev share on everyone's paycheck of 35%. 84 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:15.800 Because when they get you to take a loan out for a car 85 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:18.160 or a house or a boat or whatever, 86 00:03:18.160 --> 00:03:20.880 most of what you're paying is not principal, 87 00:03:20.880 --> 00:03:24.400 but interest and interest is just a fancy word for fee. 88 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.280 And you know what, what it costs them 89 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:29.400 to actually give you the money, one click of a button 90 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:30.840 and all of that is margin. 91 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:34.040 So even though it looks like 1%, or 2%, 3%, 92 00:03:34.040 --> 00:03:37.080 the actual gross margin on it is very high. 93 00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:38.960 And so as I'm saying these things, 94 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:41.280 you might be like, wow, I didn't know that was possible. 95 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:43.280 And that is the ignorance that all entrepreneurs 96 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:46.960 have to pay down, especially if you were born poor. 97 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:49.960 The second thing is they don't know how to do something. 98 00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:51.720 All right, so these are the tactical skills 99 00:03:51.720 --> 00:03:52.960 that people don't understand. 100 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:55.240 So they don't know how to build a website. 101 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:58.080 They don't know how to integrate a payment processor 102 00:03:58.080 --> 00:03:59.040 into their site. 103 00:03:59.040 --> 00:04:01.320 They don't know how to set up an entity. 104 00:04:01.320 --> 00:04:05.120 They don't know how to send an email to a list. 105 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:07.280 They don't know how to do many different things. 106 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:08.440 They don't know how to build a product. 107 00:04:08.440 --> 00:04:10.760 They don't know how to source things from China. 108 00:04:10.760 --> 00:04:12.920 They don't know how to set up things for drop shipping. 109 00:04:12.920 --> 00:04:15.840 They don't know how to click buttons to run a Facebook ad. 110 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:17.800 They don't know how to do something. 111 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:20.640 The good news is that stuff is actually 112 00:04:20.640 --> 00:04:22.240 the easiest thing to solve. 113 00:04:22.280 --> 00:04:23.720 And I'll tell you the most technical thing 114 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:25.120 that I learned and how I learned it. 115 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:28.240 So when I was transitioning to my turnaround business, 116 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:29.680 I realized I needed to learn more about ads. 117 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:31.160 I had done a workshop for two days 118 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:32.840 and learned the basics of running Facebook ads 119 00:04:32.840 --> 00:04:33.680 in a local market. 120 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:34.680 But I knew I needed to level up my skill 121 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:35.720 that I've been a few years earlier 122 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:37.320 and I hadn't learned anything since. 123 00:04:37.320 --> 00:04:38.840 And so I talked to a couple of friends and said, 124 00:04:38.840 --> 00:04:40.240 hey, do you know anybody who's really good at Facebook ads? 125 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:42.400 Mind you, this is six years ago or seven years ago, 126 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:43.680 something like that. 127 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:45.280 And they said, well, I've got these agencies 128 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:46.200 that did a pretty good job. 129 00:04:46.200 --> 00:04:47.040 Maybe you could talk to them. 130 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:48.200 So talk to the agency owners and they're like, 131 00:04:48.200 --> 00:04:50.240 I don't do fee for service. 132 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:52.200 Like, I'm only an agency and that's 133 00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:53.040 that you can become a client. 134 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:54.600 And I was like, well, I don't really want you to run my ads. 135 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:56.760 I want you to teach me how to run ads. 136 00:04:56.760 --> 00:04:58.600 And they were like, I don't do that. 137 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:00.480 I said, well, it's America, everything's for sale. 138 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:01.960 So just name a number. 139 00:05:01.960 --> 00:05:04.560 And finally, one guy said, I'll do it for 7.50 an hour. 140 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:06.760 I was like $750 an hour and he was like, yeah, 141 00:05:06.760 --> 00:05:08.720 I was like, all right, just, you know, just making sure. 142 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:11.520 And so I said, sure, sign me up. 143 00:05:11.520 --> 00:05:13.280 I said, every week, I'll meet you for an hour 144 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:14.680 and you can show me how to do that. 145 00:05:14.680 --> 00:05:16.000 Now, if you're doing the math here, 146 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:17.000 that was $3,000 a month. 147 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:18.560 So like, pretty penny. 148 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:19.640 But guess what? 149 00:05:19.640 --> 00:05:22.520 Within eight weeks, I knew everything 150 00:05:22.520 --> 00:05:24.640 that he was going to do on my ad account. 151 00:05:24.640 --> 00:05:28.840 And so the terms that I had were, you can't control the mouse. 152 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:29.880 I control the mouse. 153 00:05:29.880 --> 00:05:31.600 You tell me where to click and why you're 154 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:32.800 clicking it that way. 155 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:35.160 And then very quickly, I learned how he was doing what 156 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:36.280 he was doing in about four weeks. 157 00:05:36.280 --> 00:05:37.800 And the next four weeks, I was like, okay. 158 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:39.160 So this is what I'm doing. 159 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:40.000 This is why I'm doing it. 160 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:40.840 Does that make sense? 161 00:05:40.840 --> 00:05:41.360 He said, yes. 162 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:42.880 And then eventually, I was like, I don't need you anymore. 163 00:05:42.880 --> 00:05:45.320 And so all in all, it cost me about $6,000 164 00:05:45.320 --> 00:05:47.520 to learn how to run Facebook ads, just by paying someone 165 00:05:47.520 --> 00:05:48.520 for one-on-one tutoring. 166 00:05:48.520 --> 00:05:50.840 And I have done this over and over and over again 167 00:05:50.840 --> 00:05:52.160 to acquire skills in my life. 168 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:53.960 Now mind you, again, you two didn't really exist 169 00:05:53.960 --> 00:05:54.800 that much then. 170 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.720 Or like, not nearly to the extent that is now, 171 00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:58.080 we can learn just about anything 172 00:05:58.080 --> 00:05:59.680 by looking online for free. 173 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:02.880 But if you still need help, just offering to pay people 174 00:06:02.880 --> 00:06:05.520 way above market in order to have them stand over your shoulder 175 00:06:05.520 --> 00:06:06.800 and show you how to do something, 176 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:08.560 is one of the easiest and fastest ways 177 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:10.680 that I've learned any skill in my life. 178 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:12.600 So if you don't know how to do something, 179 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:15.120 phrase what you don't know how to do as a deficit 180 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:17.800 of, I don't know how to insert problem. 181 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:19.160 And then that's what you Google, 182 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:21.880 and that's what you can try and find a business owner 183 00:06:21.880 --> 00:06:23.600 who knows how to do that thing and sells it, 184 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:25.040 pay them two times or three times 185 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:26.880 that they would normally make to show you 186 00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:27.920 and transfer the skill. 187 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:30.440 The third type, and I've done these 188 00:06:30.440 --> 00:06:32.280 in reverse order of difficulty. 189 00:06:32.280 --> 00:06:33.560 The third type of difficulties, 190 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:35.840 they don't know how to get other people to do stuff. 191 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:38.280 So they don't know how to get other people to give them money. 192 00:06:38.280 --> 00:06:40.160 They don't know how to get other people to work for them. 193 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:41.320 They don't know how to get other people 194 00:06:41.320 --> 00:06:43.760 to continue to work hard on their behalf. 195 00:06:43.760 --> 00:06:44.880 And so we have different words for that. 196 00:06:44.880 --> 00:06:47.200 There's recruiting, there's sales, there's leadership, 197 00:06:47.200 --> 00:06:49.240 there's management, all of these words 198 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:50.600 are fundamentally about one thing, 199 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:52.920 which is getting other people to do something. 200 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:56.600 And so if you think about that as a meta skill, 201 00:06:56.600 --> 00:06:58.720 if you know how to get people to do stuff, 202 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.560 you could actually only learn that one skill 203 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:04.800 and get everything else in your life done for you. 204 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:06.160 Because if you could get somebody else 205 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:07.280 to figure out how to do the website 206 00:07:07.280 --> 00:07:08.720 and someone else to figure out how to do the LLC 207 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:10.680 and someone to figure out how to do your finances 208 00:07:10.680 --> 00:07:11.960 and someone else to figure out how to market, 209 00:07:11.960 --> 00:07:14.000 and someone else to figure out how to do the product 210 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:15.680 and get people or experts and all that stuff 211 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:18.040 because you had the meta skill of being able to lead 212 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:20.920 and cast a vision to get people to want to work, 213 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:23.200 then you would have the highest leverage 214 00:07:23.200 --> 00:07:25.120 of the ones that we just talked about. 215 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:27.200 And so when we're looking at an entrepreneur, 216 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:29.520 we think to ourselves, will this person be able 217 00:07:29.520 --> 00:07:31.120 to attract high level talent? 218 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:33.560 Will this person be able to manage an enterprise 219 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:36.480 that continues to grow with higher and higher level skills 220 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:37.800 at people? 221 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:40.440 And many times you can see the cap of the entrepreneur 222 00:07:40.440 --> 00:07:42.000 by their character traits, right? 223 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:44.440 This character trait is a amorphous word, 224 00:07:44.440 --> 00:07:46.400 but it's really just personal and interpersonal skills, 225 00:07:46.400 --> 00:07:47.240 all right? 226 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:48.280 Now I'll get to the personal skills in a second. 227 00:07:48.280 --> 00:07:50.160 But interpersonal skills, which is how to get other people 228 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:52.320 to do stuff, oftentimes become the limiter. 229 00:07:52.320 --> 00:07:56.280 And so usually we have to find operators to complement 230 00:07:56.280 --> 00:07:58.840 the entrepreneur to help continue to scale the business. 231 00:07:58.840 --> 00:08:01.920 Now, they not be able to get that type of talent, 232 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:03.560 which is why we have a private equity firm 233 00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:06.280 so we can attract talent that otherwise wouldn't be available 234 00:08:06.280 --> 00:08:08.160 to the types of businesses that we work with. 235 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:11.160 So many entrepreneurs who've done a hundred million dollar exit 236 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:12.360 don't want to come work at something 237 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:13.960 that's doing $10 million a year. 238 00:08:13.960 --> 00:08:16.760 But if we cast the vision that we've done many exits like this, 239 00:08:16.760 --> 00:08:19.040 then they'll be far more likely to do it. 240 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:21.560 Now, that's where we transfer our skill of getting people 241 00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:24.480 to do things to the entrepreneur or on their behalf. 242 00:08:26.280 --> 00:08:28.520 Real quick guys, you guys already know that I don't run 243 00:08:28.520 --> 00:08:30.760 any ads on this and I don't sell anything. 244 00:08:30.760 --> 00:08:32.600 And so the only ask that I can ever have 245 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:34.000 if you guys said that you helped me spread the words 246 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.160 so we could not more entrepreneurs, make more money, 247 00:08:36.160 --> 00:08:38.160 feed their families, make better products, 248 00:08:38.160 --> 00:08:40.280 and have better experiences for their employees 249 00:08:40.280 --> 00:08:41.200 and customers. 250 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:44.200 And the only way we do that is if you can rate and review 251 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:45.640 and share this podcast. 252 00:08:45.640 --> 00:08:48.200 So the single thing that I have to do is you can just leave a review 253 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:50.160 but take 10 seconds or one type of the thumb 254 00:08:50.160 --> 00:08:52.280 that it means the absolute will to me and more importantly, 255 00:08:52.280 --> 00:08:54.200 it may change the world or someone else. 256 00:08:56.200 --> 00:08:59.040 The final deficiency is getting themselves to do something. 257 00:08:59.040 --> 00:09:01.960 And this is both the hardest and the ongoing one 258 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:03.320 that goes for the rest of your life 259 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:05.520 because in the beginning you can't get yourself to do anything. 260 00:09:05.520 --> 00:09:07.360 And then you get yourself to do something. 261 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:09.760 But over time, the things that you have to get yourself to do 262 00:09:09.760 --> 00:09:11.960 is over and over again gets harder and harder 263 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:13.360 to resist your impulse. 264 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:14.760 And so if you've ever heard of character traits 265 00:09:14.760 --> 00:09:18.120 like honesty or loyalty or patience or focus, 266 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:21.680 those are just fancy words for a bucket of activities 267 00:09:21.680 --> 00:09:25.480 or behaviors that exhibit or manifest themselves 268 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:28.040 in a certain circumstance or condition. 269 00:09:28.040 --> 00:09:30.880 And so if you have a loyal person, 270 00:09:30.880 --> 00:09:32.240 you know that they are loyal. 271 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:35.160 If when presented the opportunity to betray you, 272 00:09:35.160 --> 00:09:36.840 they don't do it. 273 00:09:36.920 --> 00:09:40.480 And so if you want to practice loyalty 274 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:43.040 or develop the trait of loyalty, which is just a skill 275 00:09:43.040 --> 00:09:44.840 like everything else, which can be learned, 276 00:09:44.840 --> 00:09:48.160 then you go into environments or you wait for the environment 277 00:09:48.160 --> 00:09:50.720 that presents itself with the opportunity 278 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:54.080 to prove that you have the skill and then you exhibit it. 279 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:55.000 You show it. 280 00:09:56.080 --> 00:09:58.920 And what happens is if you do that over and over and over again, 281 00:09:58.920 --> 00:10:01.000 eventually you develop a reputation 282 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.920 as the type of person who does this type of thing. 283 00:10:03.960 --> 00:10:06.920 And so when you're looking at yourself as the entrepreneur 284 00:10:06.920 --> 00:10:09.160 and you have these four categories, 285 00:10:09.160 --> 00:10:11.680 the hardest one to determine that you're lacking 286 00:10:11.680 --> 00:10:13.440 is that you don't believe something is possible 287 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:15.560 because the hardest thing to know is what you don't know. 288 00:10:15.560 --> 00:10:17.840 That's an unknown unknown, right? 289 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.640 The rest of these for the most part are known unknowns. 290 00:10:20.640 --> 00:10:23.080 And so these are the ones that are mostly under our control. 291 00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:25.480 The unknown unknowns are to a degree under our control 292 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:27.480 because we can go seek out other people who are further ahead 293 00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:30.120 of us to have them break our beliefs about what's possible. 294 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:32.240 But the rest of these are under your control 295 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:35.080 in that you go find the skill tactically. 296 00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:38.320 You go figure out how to persuade the people tactically 297 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:41.600 or you figure out how to get to persuade yourself tactically 298 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:44.200 to do things the way you want them to be done. 299 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:47.240 And that's how you can develop humility, develop focus, 300 00:10:47.240 --> 00:10:49.520 develop loyalty, develop honesty. 301 00:10:49.520 --> 00:10:51.320 All of those things are skills. 302 00:10:51.320 --> 00:10:52.720 And as soon as you make them that way, 303 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:55.280 they become things that you can learn and develop. 304 00:10:55.280 --> 00:10:57.640 Otherwise, it's like I wasn't born that way. 305 00:10:57.640 --> 00:10:59.080 This is just how I am. 306 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:02.080 And that's how if I hear a founder talking like that, 307 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:04.200 I know that they will be significantly less coachable, 308 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:05.760 they will not be able to develop that skill set, 309 00:11:05.760 --> 00:11:08.440 which I know automatically will cap their business. 310 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:11.960 And so if you can look at yourself as the person 311 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:13.680 or the asset that runs the bigger asset, 312 00:11:13.680 --> 00:11:15.920 which is your business, you can figure out, 313 00:11:15.920 --> 00:11:18.680 do I have a problem of not knowing what to do 314 00:11:18.680 --> 00:11:19.680 or how to do it? 315 00:11:19.680 --> 00:11:22.280 Do I not know how to get other people to do this stuff 316 00:11:22.280 --> 00:11:24.800 or do I continue to exhibit erratic behavior? 317 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:25.960 Am I unfocused? 318 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:27.280 Am I undisciplined? 319 00:11:27.280 --> 00:11:30.440 And then you define the circumstance 320 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:33.560 where you exhibit the thing you don't like 321 00:11:33.560 --> 00:11:35.800 on Saturday mornings when I should be working? 322 00:11:35.800 --> 00:11:37.120 I don't. 323 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:39.720 So then you say, okay, if I worked on Saturday mornings, 324 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:42.520 then I would tell myself that I had exhibited discipline 325 00:11:42.520 --> 00:11:43.360 that day. 326 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.160 If you're stringing enough of those days in a row, 327 00:11:45.160 --> 00:11:46.840 you are a disciplined person. 328 00:11:46.840 --> 00:11:49.360 And so it's really about stacking up that proof for yourself 329 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:51.440 that you have the trait from what you've done 330 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:53.440 rather than claiming some amorphous thing. 331 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:55.760 Because that breaks this amorphous idea of focus 332 00:11:55.760 --> 00:11:57.760 down into what can I do today to develop it. 333 00:11:57.760 --> 00:11:59.320 And that is what everyone else will notice 334 00:11:59.400 --> 00:12:01.040 and that's how you can attract better talent, 335 00:12:01.040 --> 00:12:02.240 who can do better things, 336 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.440 who can accomplish things that are impossible. 337 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:07.040 And the craziest thing is that the most expensive thing 338 00:12:07.040 --> 00:12:08.760 that's costing you the most money in your business 339 00:12:08.760 --> 00:12:10.320 right now is ignorance. 340 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:11.840 It's ignorance around four things. 341 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:13.560 But before I tell you what they are, 342 00:12:13.560 --> 00:12:15.600 the reason that it's costing you so much money 343 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:18.200 is that right now, not knowing how to make a billion dollars 344 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:20.440 a year, cost you a billion dollars a year. 345 00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:22.240 Which is why the biggest debt you have to pay down 346 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:24.760 as fast as possible is what you're paying to the universe, 347 00:12:24.760 --> 00:12:25.600 what you're paying to other people, 348 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:28.320 what you're paying to yourself, to not know how. 349 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:30.960 Which is why knowledge is the number one asset 350 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:32.480 that you have in your business. 351 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:34.960 Because what happens is your business can disappear 352 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:36.280 and a billionaire can make it again 353 00:12:36.280 --> 00:12:37.280 because they have the knowledge. 354 00:12:37.280 --> 00:12:39.680 They know how to do all of the things. 355 00:12:39.680 --> 00:12:42.000 If the government comes and takes all of your assets, 356 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.320 which happened to my family and the revolution of Iran, 357 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:45.760 the only thing they were able to take with them 358 00:12:45.760 --> 00:12:46.640 was their knowledge. 359 00:12:46.640 --> 00:12:48.960 They were to come to the United States and rebuild again. 360 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:50.040 And within two generations, 361 00:12:50.040 --> 00:12:52.160 we had the same wealth as we did when we were in Iran 362 00:12:52.160 --> 00:12:52.960 through knowledge. 363 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:56.320 If you don't pass knowledge to the next generation, 364 00:12:56.320 --> 00:12:58.480 then they will eventually, statistically, 365 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:00.560 squander all of the wealth. 366 00:13:00.560 --> 00:13:03.120 Because what wasn't passed was the knowledge 367 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:06.160 to keep the asset rather than the asset itself. 368 00:13:06.160 --> 00:13:09.080 So there are two ways to figure out what's possible. 369 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:11.040 The hard way and the easy way. 370 00:13:11.040 --> 00:13:13.960 The easy way is to find people who are way ahead of you, 371 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:16.240 talk to as many of them as you possibly can 372 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:19.040 and cross-collaborate the things that they are setting. 373 00:13:19.040 --> 00:13:20.360 Meaning, listen to this guy, listen to this guy. 374 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:21.640 Look at the things they have in common and say, 375 00:13:21.640 --> 00:13:23.720 this is the thing that the most people think is true. 376 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:26.360 And so that has the highest likelihood of being true. 377 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:29.120 If you talk to 20 people, you may get 20 pieces of advice, 378 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:31.480 but there are maybe threads that all of them share. 379 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:32.840 And there will be fewer of those, 380 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:35.600 but those few threads are the things that you can count on. 381 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:38.880 That's the easy way to figure out what's possible. 382 00:13:38.880 --> 00:13:40.680 The hard way to figure out what's possible 383 00:13:40.680 --> 00:13:42.760 is using Aristotelian thinking, 384 00:13:42.760 --> 00:13:44.160 which is called first principles thinking, 385 00:13:44.160 --> 00:13:45.720 which is basically you break it down 386 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:47.360 and was foundational unit of physics 387 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:49.800 and think why isn't this possible? 388 00:13:49.800 --> 00:13:52.160 And if it is possible, then it is believable. 389 00:13:52.160 --> 00:13:53.960 That being said, many people have a hard time 390 00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:54.960 with first principles thinking. 391 00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:57.160 And so in my opinion, for most people, 392 00:13:57.160 --> 00:14:00.720 go to other people who are further ahead than you want to be 393 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:02.400 and further ahead than all the people you are. 394 00:14:02.400 --> 00:14:03.560 And if you don't have access to them, 395 00:14:03.560 --> 00:14:05.360 get that indirect access, consume their content, 396 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:06.360 read their stuff. 397 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:08.480 That is the education that will break your beliefs 398 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:10.960 about what you can do in this universe. 399 00:14:11.880 --> 00:14:15.160 The beliefs tell you what direction to take your action in. 400 00:14:15.160 --> 00:14:16.360 Once you have a belief, 401 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:20.320 it now orients your direction into a higher leverage opportunity. 402 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:21.960 A belief will change your action 403 00:14:21.960 --> 00:14:23.200 because it will orient it 404 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:25.840 rather than changing what you necessarily do. 405 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:27.520 So if you have the correct belief, 406 00:14:27.520 --> 00:14:30.360 then you'll be headed in the highest leverage opportunity boat 407 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:32.040 or direction in your career. 408 00:14:32.040 --> 00:14:33.560 And then the other three frameworks 409 00:14:33.560 --> 00:14:36.440 will apply to that with more outcome.