WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.400 But my probably singular message is, use paint. 2 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.240 Because most entrepreneurs don't need to look very far 3 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:07.640 to find the pain in their lives. 4 00:00:07.640 --> 00:00:10.920 Anger, shame, fear, resentment, whatever it is, anxiety. 5 00:00:10.920 --> 00:00:13.320 Like, we have different things that if fueled us in our lives, 6 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:15.480 and I would rather have people just use what they have. 7 00:00:18.680 --> 00:00:20.920 Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, 8 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:22.920 how to make more customers, how to keep them longer, 9 00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:25.400 and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way. 10 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:26.920 I hope you enjoy and subscribe. 11 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:31.200 So my first podcast was June of 17. 12 00:00:31.200 --> 00:00:35.160 And then I think in September of 20, 13 00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:38.000 I did my first YouTube videos. 14 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:39.680 And then I did that first. 15 00:00:39.680 --> 00:00:43.040 And then I think probably one or two quarters later, 16 00:00:43.040 --> 00:00:45.600 we started with the short video stuff. 17 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:47.400 I'll tick tock at Instagram Reels. 18 00:00:47.400 --> 00:00:52.400 I picked up Twitter, I think in June of the next year of 21. 19 00:00:53.160 --> 00:00:56.720 And then that's been more or less the entire strategy. 20 00:00:56.720 --> 00:00:59.920 When I say strategy, we just posed on those five words. 21 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:01.440 So for my understanding, 22 00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:03.960 you kind of had an evolution of just your mindset 23 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:06.360 towards building brand and building personal brand. 24 00:01:06.360 --> 00:01:07.200 What led to that? 25 00:01:08.720 --> 00:01:14.040 Being wrong, my eighth episode of my podcast in 17 was stopped 26 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:16.600 branding as the eighth episode. 27 00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:19.720 I probably have the exact opposite perspective now. 28 00:01:20.920 --> 00:01:22.760 And I'm wealthier now, so hopefully I'm right. 29 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:24.560 And maybe in 10 years I'll change my mind again, 30 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:25.520 but I don't think I will. 31 00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:28.440 Fundamentally, brand is one of the ways 32 00:01:28.440 --> 00:01:30.920 that you can differentiate anything. 33 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:33.800 It's really just the goodwill that you have in the audience. 34 00:01:33.800 --> 00:01:38.360 And your ability to price above a commoditized version 35 00:01:38.360 --> 00:01:39.640 of whatever you offer, 36 00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:42.120 like that discrepancy between what a commodity sells at 37 00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:43.320 and what your sells at, 38 00:01:43.320 --> 00:01:46.600 like that is the pricing power that brand affords you. 39 00:01:46.600 --> 00:01:49.840 And so with price being the single strongest lever 40 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:52.000 on profits in any kind of business, 41 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:54.760 having a brand becomes incredibly important 42 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:57.760 if it is the strongest influencer on your ability to price. 43 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:00.280 That just fundamentally shifted how I saw it. 44 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:03.080 Because before then it was just direct response 45 00:02:03.080 --> 00:02:04.640 in terms of cold reach outs, like cold calls, 46 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:05.920 cold emails, et cetera. 47 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:08.760 And direct response adds in order to get customers. 48 00:02:08.760 --> 00:02:10.760 And so I was just a big advocate of like, 49 00:02:10.760 --> 00:02:13.440 just do cold calls and run ads and you will get customers. 50 00:02:13.440 --> 00:02:16.760 But the long, long play is building a brand 51 00:02:16.760 --> 00:02:17.840 that is worth something. 52 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:20.240 And then that can get transferred into any arena. 53 00:02:20.320 --> 00:02:22.880 So like if I were to start a mousy nation credit card 54 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:25.440 or I were start mousy nation apparel, 55 00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:26.440 both of them would be successful 56 00:02:26.440 --> 00:02:27.760 even though they're completely independent 57 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:29.000 because of the brand that's been built. 58 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:30.200 Not that I'm going to do either of those things, 59 00:02:30.200 --> 00:02:32.720 but I'm just saying like that, that's kind of the idea. 60 00:02:32.720 --> 00:02:35.400 Well, and I mean, so obviously your ventures have evolved 61 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:36.240 over the years. 62 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:38.080 I heard you mention on a podcast that the businesses 63 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:40.680 that most entrepreneurs start are often drastically different 64 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:42.560 from the ones that they eventually find themselves in 65 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:45.200 and you mention like Andy Purcello and yourself. 66 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:47.880 If you could briefly share just kind of your entrepreneurial 67 00:02:47.880 --> 00:02:49.320 journey and your evolution. 68 00:02:49.320 --> 00:02:51.080 Yeah, I'll do it by businesses. 69 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:52.400 So that would probably be easier. 70 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:55.440 So first thing I did was I started an online training 71 00:02:55.440 --> 00:02:56.880 charity business. 72 00:02:56.880 --> 00:02:58.920 So people would pay, but then I would donate the money. 73 00:02:58.920 --> 00:03:00.400 That was just kind of like getting my fee wet 74 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:02.120 with people giving me money even though I didn't take it 75 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:03.400 personally. 76 00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:05.720 Then I quit my job and asked the same people who were paying 77 00:03:05.720 --> 00:03:07.000 the charity if they would pay me instead 78 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:08.800 so that I could like, he was like, I'm the charity now 79 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:10.440 and they were all good with that. 80 00:03:10.440 --> 00:03:11.800 From there, I started my first gym. 81 00:03:11.800 --> 00:03:15.000 From that gym opened up five more. 82 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:16.960 From there, I had a mentor say that this, 83 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:18.520 he was like, you're really good at running gyms. 84 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:19.680 You shouldn't be owning more gyms. 85 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:22.360 You should teach other people to run gyms. 86 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:25.040 And so from there, we did turn rounds for two years. 87 00:03:25.040 --> 00:03:27.000 We'd fly out to brick and mortar gyms, 88 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:28.480 kind of put all of our systems in place 89 00:03:28.480 --> 00:03:29.680 and turn it around in 30 days. 90 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:31.040 That was kind of the offer. 91 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:32.840 And then from there, that became really logistically 92 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:33.680 painful. 93 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:35.680 We've got eight sales guys going out to eight different locations 94 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:37.240 across the nation every single month. 95 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:40.240 Away on the road, 21 to 24 days a month, 96 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:41.880 just tougher families, et cetera. 97 00:03:41.880 --> 00:03:45.920 By a stroke of luck, there's a million very sad stories 98 00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:46.440 between here. 99 00:03:46.440 --> 00:03:50.320 But by a stroke of luck, I was supposed to launch six 100 00:03:50.320 --> 00:03:51.480 or eight gyms the next month. 101 00:03:51.480 --> 00:03:53.320 And we had decided to pivot to go direct to consume. 102 00:03:53.320 --> 00:03:56.400 We're selling weight loss because we were familiar with that. 103 00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:58.840 And I told the gym owners that we were supposed to launch 104 00:03:58.840 --> 00:03:59.840 that I wasn't going to do it. 105 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:01.640 And one of the guys was like, hey, could you just 106 00:04:01.640 --> 00:04:03.920 show me what you're doing rather than flying out here? 107 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:06.240 And I was like, sure, how much? 108 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:07.680 And I just picked a really high number. 109 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:08.880 And he said, yes. 110 00:04:08.880 --> 00:04:10.840 And I was like, holy cow, that was pretty cool. 111 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:13.120 And so then I told all the other guys the same thing. 112 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:14.000 And they were like, how much? 113 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:15.080 And I just kept increasing the number. 114 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:16.080 And they all said it was fine. 115 00:04:16.080 --> 00:04:17.760 And then I called all the gyms I did the turn arounds for. 116 00:04:17.760 --> 00:04:18.800 And said, remember that thing I did? 117 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:20.720 Can I just license the model to you? 118 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:22.360 And they were like, yeah, that's fine. 119 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:24.040 And so that's when we got into licensing. 120 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:25.560 That was 2017. 121 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:28.840 That was like May, April, May of 2017. 122 00:04:28.840 --> 00:04:30.640 And then it took off like a rocket. 123 00:04:30.640 --> 00:04:33.440 And so then, you know, 5,000 locations later. 124 00:04:33.440 --> 00:04:34.440 That's where DreamLudges today. 125 00:04:34.440 --> 00:04:35.960 We started a sub-o company in between there 126 00:04:35.960 --> 00:04:37.080 to sell through that distribution base. 127 00:04:37.080 --> 00:04:38.360 That was e-commerce. 128 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:41.040 And then we started Allen, which is a software company 129 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:42.680 that worked leads for brick and mortar businesses. 130 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:45.040 That was the next year after that. 131 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:47.160 All similar to that same audience. 132 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:51.160 And then in 2021, in December, we sold two of those companies. 133 00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:53.760 So Jim Launch and Prestige Lab to American Pacific Group, 134 00:04:53.760 --> 00:04:56.720 which is a private equity group out of San Francisco. 135 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.480 And we sold that for 46.2. 136 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:01.240 And then we sold the software company 137 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:03.560 for an undisclosed amount to street cheap buyers. 138 00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:06.200 We sold 75% of that and it all stocked you. 139 00:05:06.200 --> 00:05:09.360 And so from there, we started our family office, 140 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:12.400 which is acquisition.com, which we started the day after we sold. 141 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:17.400 And now we have, I think, 11 portfolio companies. 142 00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:20.880 It's fascinating to me, because I mean, looking back 143 00:05:20.880 --> 00:05:23.160 at that journey, I know you mentioned that there's 144 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:25.200 several moments, and I mean, I've heard you describe 145 00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:26.800 some of them, some like the rock bottom moments 146 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:29.200 of the people that either did not operate with integrity, 147 00:05:29.200 --> 00:05:30.600 the people that you would partner with, 148 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:32.680 you know, running out of money, even the way you start, 149 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:35.000 you know, $100 million offers your book, 150 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:36.640 just talking about that scenario. 151 00:05:36.640 --> 00:05:37.800 I mean, you could speak to some of that, 152 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:40.840 just in the story of adversity, right? 153 00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:44.440 That was an unrelatable, re-cansic events. 154 00:05:44.440 --> 00:05:46.520 There were probably, I mean, there were many rock bottom moments, 155 00:05:46.520 --> 00:05:48.680 but you know, I would say the two most famous of them, 156 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:52.960 if stories can become famous, was when we switched out 157 00:05:52.960 --> 00:05:55.320 of the brick and mortar gyms and got into the turnaround 158 00:05:55.320 --> 00:05:59.280 business, you know, the reason I made that move was 159 00:05:59.280 --> 00:06:01.200 because I was supposed to be opening more and more locations 160 00:06:01.200 --> 00:06:02.040 with a new partner. 161 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:04.880 So I sold five and I opened a sixth with this kind of new model 162 00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:06.960 that was gonna be like a launch in GoMod. 163 00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:09.720 And so the guy that I partnered with was like, 164 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:11.000 hey, I'm really good at operating. 165 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:12.280 You should, instead of doing these turnaround, 166 00:06:12.280 --> 00:06:15.440 just open it, fill it, and then I'll just come behind you. 167 00:06:15.440 --> 00:06:17.640 And then every month you can open up one to two locations 168 00:06:17.640 --> 00:06:19.680 in an automobile and I was like, that sounds great. 169 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:21.920 He said, you know, but I have some financial, you know, 170 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:24.120 issues and my credit's not good. 171 00:06:24.120 --> 00:06:25.640 So of course, you, you know, of course, 172 00:06:25.640 --> 00:06:27.320 you'll personally guarantee the lease 173 00:06:27.320 --> 00:06:29.200 and funnel the money and I was like, of course, 174 00:06:29.200 --> 00:06:30.520 and I'll do the work, too, of course. 175 00:06:30.520 --> 00:06:32.880 I mean, that's any nice guy would do that. 176 00:06:32.880 --> 00:06:35.280 And so, you know, everyone already knows where this goes. 177 00:06:35.280 --> 00:06:38.320 It's six weeks later and I crushed the launch of this new gym 178 00:06:38.320 --> 00:06:40.480 and then I look at the bank account, bank account's empty 179 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:42.040 and I put all the money from selling my gyms 180 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:42.880 and that bank account, too, 181 00:06:42.880 --> 00:06:45.280 because I was young and I didn't understand how this worked. 182 00:06:45.280 --> 00:06:47.240 All the money that I'd had from the five years 183 00:06:47.240 --> 00:06:49.560 or four years of building my own gyms was gone. 184 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:51.320 And so I just had this gym and I was like, 185 00:06:51.320 --> 00:06:52.200 dude, what the hell? 186 00:06:52.200 --> 00:06:55.080 And he said, I know you've been skimming from the top 187 00:06:55.080 --> 00:06:57.600 of this business and so that was just my share. 188 00:06:57.600 --> 00:06:59.560 It hadn't, I'd never occurred to anything 189 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:00.640 like that had ever occurred to me. 190 00:07:00.640 --> 00:07:02.120 And so I went to a mentor and he's like, 191 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:04.000 just go line by line with him through the financials, 192 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:05.240 like maybe he's concerned or whatever. 193 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:07.160 And so it was, I went to him with all the financials 194 00:07:07.160 --> 00:07:08.840 highlighted line by line to like to show 195 00:07:08.840 --> 00:07:10.400 what every one of the expenses was. 196 00:07:10.400 --> 00:07:11.640 And then we brushed it off the table 197 00:07:11.640 --> 00:07:12.640 before we could even look at it. 198 00:07:12.640 --> 00:07:17.120 I was like, oh, okay, I just got completely scammed here. 199 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:19.040 And so yeah, I lost everything. 200 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:20.920 And so that was the first time I lost everything. 201 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:26.000 And then that was when my Chubi wife at the time 202 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:27.040 took me to her parents house, 203 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:29.000 which I got to meet her parents for the first time. 204 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:30.200 Hey, here's the guy from the internet 205 00:07:30.200 --> 00:07:32.120 that I just left everything for. 206 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:32.960 He's a real winner. 207 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:34.040 He has nothing to his name 208 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:35.960 and now we're gonna start the business together. 209 00:07:35.960 --> 00:07:37.320 And so she said, hey, 210 00:07:37.320 --> 00:07:38.400 we should keep doing this right around, 211 00:07:38.400 --> 00:07:39.680 even though that this one didn't work out, 212 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:40.520 the model's good. 213 00:07:40.520 --> 00:07:44.200 And so she got all of her friends to quit their jobs 214 00:07:44.200 --> 00:07:45.720 to do this with us. 215 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:48.360 And so we were supposed to start on the 26th of December, 216 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:50.600 which was 2016. 217 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:52.440 And on the 24th of December, 218 00:07:52.440 --> 00:07:54.320 I had done this big launch to kind of recoup money 219 00:07:54.320 --> 00:07:55.760 because that was how I knew how to make money. 220 00:07:55.760 --> 00:07:57.840 So I did a big launch and we had like $100,000 dollars 221 00:07:57.840 --> 00:07:59.520 that was supposed to come to us. 222 00:07:59.520 --> 00:08:01.400 And then before the reason the money wasn't coming, 223 00:08:01.400 --> 00:08:02.400 like we were processing the credit cards 224 00:08:02.400 --> 00:08:03.600 and it just wasn't getting deposited. 225 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:04.760 And it'd been almost like three weeks. 226 00:08:04.760 --> 00:08:06.000 I was like, what's going on? 227 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:08.560 So Christmas Eve, I get on the phone with the payment processor 228 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:10.240 and I was like, I'm not getting off the phone 229 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:11.360 until you guys send me the money. 230 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:14.120 And the launch story short, 231 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:17.680 they said, hey, because of that gym that you opened up 232 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:18.680 and you had, you know, 233 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:20.320 because I shut the gym down, that was with that guy. 234 00:08:20.320 --> 00:08:22.240 And I was doing watches in other locations. 235 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:25.040 So I was running everything through a Southern California 236 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:26.920 brick and mortar processor account, 237 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:28.200 which I didn't know how this works. 238 00:08:28.200 --> 00:08:29.040 I just figured, yeah, 239 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:31.080 I just processed money through the POS. 240 00:08:31.080 --> 00:08:32.640 And so I was making up memberships 241 00:08:32.640 --> 00:08:34.720 that didn't exist for a gym that wasn't at. 242 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:35.800 And they were like, this is a regular, 243 00:08:35.800 --> 00:08:38.280 we're just gonna hold on to this money for six months. 244 00:08:38.280 --> 00:08:41.000 And that was all of the money that I needed. 245 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:42.480 And two days later, all of her friends 246 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:43.400 was supposed to quit their job 247 00:08:43.400 --> 00:08:45.400 and start this new launch business with me. 248 00:08:45.400 --> 00:08:48.640 And so that was gonna cost me $3,300 a day 249 00:08:48.640 --> 00:08:50.840 in advertising, hotels, airfare, 250 00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:53.400 rental cars, per diems for food 251 00:08:53.400 --> 00:08:55.120 for this new launching go model. 252 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:56.840 I had a credit card from when I had my gyms 253 00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:59.800 that still hadn't been canceled by MX 254 00:08:59.800 --> 00:09:01.120 for a hundred thousand dollar limit on it. 255 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:03.600 And that's when I told Layla I was like, 256 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:04.960 hey, I think this could go really, 257 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:06.240 really terribly wrong. 258 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:07.680 And I think you would be justified 259 00:09:07.680 --> 00:09:08.960 in leaving me at this time. 260 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:10.840 I'm like sitting in her parents' basement, 261 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:12.600 or you're like, I'm like, 262 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:13.680 you really should leave me right now. 263 00:09:13.680 --> 00:09:15.400 I don't think this is going well for me. 264 00:09:15.400 --> 00:09:16.360 And she said, I would suit with you 265 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:17.720 and her bridge if it came to that. 266 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:19.680 And so when she said that to me, 267 00:09:19.680 --> 00:09:22.800 it gave me whatever confidence 268 00:09:22.800 --> 00:09:23.920 that we got I could use. 269 00:09:23.920 --> 00:09:25.560 And I started, you know, 270 00:09:25.560 --> 00:09:28.240 I spent $3,300 a day on a credit card that, 271 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:30.840 and meanwhile, I still didn't have a way to process money. 272 00:09:30.880 --> 00:09:32.880 So we're spending $3,000 plus a day, 273 00:09:32.880 --> 00:09:35.320 you know, selling 20 to 60, you know, 274 00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:38.800 packages of fitness per day with all these sales guys. 275 00:09:38.800 --> 00:09:40.240 And I couldn't process the money. 276 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:41.480 And so in the last day of the month, 277 00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:43.160 I finally got some processor to give me 278 00:09:43.160 --> 00:09:44.200 a $50,000 limit. 279 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:45.040 If you're doing the math here, 280 00:09:45.040 --> 00:09:48.200 a $3,300 a day does not add up to $50,000. 281 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:50.440 But the good news was I could process $50,000 a month, 282 00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:52.080 which meant that on the last day of January, 283 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:54.680 process 50, on the first day of February, process 50, 284 00:09:54.680 --> 00:09:55.720 I got two more running. 285 00:09:55.720 --> 00:09:57.840 And so the $50,000 and $50,000 my $100,000 286 00:09:57.840 --> 00:09:59.040 from the multiple four. 287 00:09:59.040 --> 00:10:00.920 And then I was still back at zero again. 288 00:10:00.920 --> 00:10:04.520 And so the next month, I made like $20,000 or $30,000 289 00:10:04.520 --> 00:10:05.920 in profit after costs. 290 00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:08.120 And so that kind of concluded the first rock bottom. 291 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:09.800 And then fast four or three months, 292 00:10:09.800 --> 00:10:11.840 all these gyms that we were doing these launches for 293 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:13.520 started selling the customers to refund 294 00:10:13.520 --> 00:10:16.040 and go through them instead at half the price 295 00:10:16.040 --> 00:10:17.200 after we would leave the location 296 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:18.880 because they had the relationship with them. 297 00:10:18.880 --> 00:10:20.360 But we owed the processing risk, 298 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:22.120 which ended up being a recurring thing. 299 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:23.800 So I lost everything again, 300 00:10:23.800 --> 00:10:25.720 the little nut that I had saved up. 301 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:28.360 And that was when I called the gym owners to say, 302 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:29.800 hey, we're going to sell direct to consumer. 303 00:10:29.800 --> 00:10:31.160 I think maybe, I still lay low. 304 00:10:31.160 --> 00:10:33.280 I was like, I think maybe I'm out on this gym thing, 305 00:10:33.280 --> 00:10:34.240 like something's not working 306 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:36.320 and I just need to switch gears. 307 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:38.480 But when I called the first guy up and I said, 308 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:39.880 I'm not doing it, he said, 309 00:10:39.880 --> 00:10:41.280 I put my life savings into this gym 310 00:10:41.280 --> 00:10:42.800 and I refund it to my house 311 00:10:42.800 --> 00:10:44.760 and I maxed out my cards like I need your help. 312 00:10:44.760 --> 00:10:48.480 And so push came to shove and I said, fine. 313 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:50.440 I'll show you how I filled gyms up 314 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:51.480 and how my whole system works. 315 00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:52.640 I was like, but I'm not flying out there 316 00:10:52.640 --> 00:10:53.640 to save grass if you can't sell. 317 00:10:53.640 --> 00:10:54.760 He said, no, it's fine. 318 00:10:54.760 --> 00:10:55.800 And so he said, well, how much? 319 00:10:55.800 --> 00:10:57.400 And I said $6,000, which at the time 320 00:10:57.480 --> 00:10:59.160 was the most money I could possibly imagine someone 321 00:10:59.160 --> 00:11:01.040 banging me and he said, yes, in like five seconds. 322 00:11:01.040 --> 00:11:02.880 And I was like, holy shit. 323 00:11:02.880 --> 00:11:04.080 And I just, I was dumbfounded. 324 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:06.160 And so then I just grabbed a piece of cardboard 325 00:11:06.160 --> 00:11:07.360 and I was like, oh, yeah, what card do you want to use? 326 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:09.560 And then I wrote it down and processed $6,000 327 00:11:09.560 --> 00:11:11.920 with one transaction and had seven more calls that day 328 00:11:11.920 --> 00:11:14.280 and ended up doing $60,000 in a single day. 329 00:11:14.280 --> 00:11:17.080 And Laila came back in from doing weight loss sales 330 00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:18.080 because I was going to be the new business 331 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:20.200 and I was like, hey, I think we're still in the gym business. 332 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:21.760 I think we were just doing it wrong. 333 00:11:21.760 --> 00:11:23.880 And she was like, wait, so we're back in gyms? 334 00:11:23.880 --> 00:11:25.120 It's like, yeah, we're back in gyms. 335 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:26.880 And so from there, I called all the old gyms 336 00:11:26.920 --> 00:11:28.880 that we'd done the launches for said, hey, remember that thing? 337 00:11:28.880 --> 00:11:30.840 I just ripped $100,000 out of your location for 338 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:32.480 wanting to show you how I did it. 339 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:33.320 And they said, sure. 340 00:11:33.320 --> 00:11:34.960 And then I sold them the thing. 341 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:37.960 So that's the slightly longer story of that 342 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:41.720 with many, many sadness is taken out of that. 343 00:11:41.720 --> 00:11:43.240 During the period of time, I also got to head on 344 00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:44.560 to religion and to DIY. 345 00:11:44.560 --> 00:11:45.720 My mother was in the hospital. 346 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:47.400 Like, there's a lot of other things that were going on too, 347 00:11:47.400 --> 00:11:49.480 but it was a tough time for me. 348 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:52.320 It's like the ultimate pitch for entrepreneurship. 349 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:53.400 You know, just now. 350 00:11:53.400 --> 00:11:55.240 And I mean, I gotta say, right, 351 00:11:55.240 --> 00:11:56.720 the ultimate pitch for entrepreneurship. 352 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:58.200 Like, beware. 353 00:11:58.200 --> 00:11:59.680 Yeah. 354 00:11:59.680 --> 00:12:02.040 It's like, well, the frustrations lead to breakters. 355 00:12:02.040 --> 00:12:03.680 And it seems like, I mean, every, every, 356 00:12:03.680 --> 00:12:05.120 every entrepreneur kind of has their own story, 357 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:07.720 but it's, it's very rare if ever that I hear anybody 358 00:12:07.720 --> 00:12:09.840 having a story where everything always went up, 359 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:10.760 you know, into the right. 360 00:12:10.760 --> 00:12:12.840 It was always, it screwed over. 361 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:14.240 There was always some rock bottom moment. 362 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:15.480 There was something that was a catalyst. 363 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:18.280 I mean, when you're, when you're taking these hits, 364 00:12:18.280 --> 00:12:20.160 I mean, obviously you're human as well. 365 00:12:20.160 --> 00:12:21.760 I mean, it's, it's easy to get discouraged. 366 00:12:21.760 --> 00:12:23.800 What, what keeps you going? 367 00:12:23.800 --> 00:12:26.120 I mean, for me at the time, it was very a way driven. 368 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:26.960 You know what I mean? 369 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:27.800 I didn't have like a lot of times 370 00:12:27.800 --> 00:12:29.960 you were very driven by like their mission or their purpose 371 00:12:29.960 --> 00:12:30.800 or their big vision. 372 00:12:30.800 --> 00:12:31.920 And I had none of those things. 373 00:12:31.920 --> 00:12:33.680 I mean, my vision was, 374 00:12:33.680 --> 00:12:34.760 A, don't be broke. 375 00:12:34.760 --> 00:12:36.720 B, don't let my dad be right. 376 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:38.480 Really be more than I. 377 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:40.680 But A was the facilitator of B. 378 00:12:40.680 --> 00:12:42.200 And so yeah, just the idea of going back 379 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:44.240 as a failure to Baltimore was just like, 380 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:45.680 I would rather have died than done that. 381 00:12:45.680 --> 00:12:48.360 And so as much pain as I was going through at the time, 382 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:50.280 it was better than they alternatively admitting to feed. 383 00:12:50.280 --> 00:12:53.320 And so for me, that was the thing that got me got me through it. 384 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:55.640 And I think, I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, 385 00:12:55.640 --> 00:12:57.000 one of the, if there's, if I, you know, 386 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:58.720 if there's a couple of key themes in the messages 387 00:12:58.720 --> 00:12:59.920 that I want to put out is that like, 388 00:12:59.920 --> 00:13:02.080 there's a lot of, there's a lot of positive jargon 389 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:03.040 that's put out by, you know, 390 00:13:03.040 --> 00:13:04.560 it's social media and influencers, et cetera, 391 00:13:04.560 --> 00:13:05.800 like follow your passion. 392 00:13:05.800 --> 00:13:06.800 But the thing is just like, 393 00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:09.600 when you're starting out, everything sucks. 394 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:11.280 Like everything sucks. 395 00:13:11.280 --> 00:13:12.680 And I was talking to a friend of mine 396 00:13:12.680 --> 00:13:16.440 and you, sadness comes from not knowing what to do, right? 397 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:17.400 It's feeling hopelessness. 398 00:13:17.400 --> 00:13:19.080 Like you don't know what steps to take, 399 00:13:19.080 --> 00:13:21.280 which really just means it comes from ignorance. 400 00:13:21.280 --> 00:13:23.360 And when you're new, you don't know anything. 401 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:24.200 So of course you're again, 402 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:25.360 of course you don't know what to do, 403 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:27.240 which leads to like, very deep depression 404 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:27.960 for a lot of entrepreneurs 405 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:29.440 at different times in their careers. 406 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:30.720 Most guys who are starting out 407 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:32.880 are thinking there's something wrong with them 408 00:13:32.880 --> 00:13:34.200 because they're not passionate. 409 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:38.360 Most of the nation real quick, 410 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:41.360 if you are a business owner that has a big, old business 411 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:43.480 and wants to get to a much bigger business, 412 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:46.960 going to $50, $100,000 plus we would love to talk to you. 413 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:48.160 And if you like that, 414 00:13:48.160 --> 00:13:49.160 and would like to hear more about it, 415 00:13:49.160 --> 00:13:50.880 go to acquisition.com and you can plan anywhere 416 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:53.320 on the page and talk to one of our team 417 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:54.920 and see if we can help you get there. 418 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:01.640 But my probably singular message is use pain 419 00:14:01.640 --> 00:14:03.480 because most entrepreneurs don't need to look very far 420 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:04.880 to find the pain in their lives. 421 00:14:04.880 --> 00:14:08.160 Anger, shame, fear, resentment, whatever it is, anxiety. 422 00:14:08.160 --> 00:14:10.560 Like we have different things that if fuel us in our lives 423 00:14:10.560 --> 00:14:12.560 and I would rather have people just use what they have 424 00:14:12.560 --> 00:14:14.440 because I think that is, in essence, 425 00:14:14.440 --> 00:14:16.880 what entrepreneurship is about as being resourceful. 426 00:14:16.880 --> 00:14:18.680 Not really necessarily about having resources. 427 00:14:18.680 --> 00:14:22.240 And if we consider passionate resource as a requirement 428 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:24.040 to be successful, I just don't think it's true. 429 00:14:24.040 --> 00:14:27.680 I think you need fuel and you should use whatever fuel you have. 430 00:14:27.680 --> 00:14:29.960 I think over time, if you get your head above water, 431 00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:32.560 you'll be able to find a different fuel. 432 00:14:32.560 --> 00:14:36.200 But I think that away from fuel is more powerful 433 00:14:36.200 --> 00:14:37.560 than towards fuel. 434 00:14:37.560 --> 00:14:39.560 It's not necessarily sustainable. 435 00:14:39.560 --> 00:14:41.920 But in the beginning, you should need to move. 436 00:14:41.920 --> 00:14:44.720 And so a lot of ways that can get you to move. 437 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:45.560 Yeah. 438 00:14:45.560 --> 00:14:46.880 How much do you believe, I mean, just, 439 00:14:46.880 --> 00:14:48.600 any mention this earlier, but just how much do you believe 440 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:51.560 in luck plays a role in success or does it play a role in success? 441 00:14:51.560 --> 00:14:53.560 I mean, for example, you meeting Leila. 442 00:14:53.560 --> 00:14:56.040 It's hard to tell the story of Alex without all the story of Leila, 443 00:14:56.040 --> 00:14:57.720 but at the same time, if you'd never met, 444 00:14:57.720 --> 00:14:58.800 I guess you'd eventually get there, 445 00:14:58.800 --> 00:15:01.560 but with the path of probably pretty different. 446 00:15:01.560 --> 00:15:03.360 I think luck is huge. 447 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:04.520 I think there are things you can do 448 00:15:04.520 --> 00:15:07.200 to increase the surface area of luck. 449 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:10.280 So I think luck is a massive factor. 450 00:15:10.280 --> 00:15:11.480 I mean, I was born in America. 451 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:13.640 I was born as a male, I was born to a doctor. 452 00:15:13.640 --> 00:15:16.560 So I mean, from that perspective, I already won. 453 00:15:16.560 --> 00:15:19.560 So like, yeah, do I think if I was born in Bangladesh as a girl 454 00:15:19.560 --> 00:15:21.960 that I would have been as successful as I am now? 455 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:23.000 Probably less likely. 456 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:26.040 A big part of who I am now is the upbringing I had. 457 00:15:26.040 --> 00:15:27.080 If I live someone else's life, 458 00:15:27.080 --> 00:15:28.480 I might be exactly the same way they are. 459 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:31.440 And so in that way, I think it's very much less driven. 460 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:35.040 I wonder when Leo stood by and she said, 461 00:15:35.040 --> 00:15:36.960 she's sleep under a bridge, I have a similar relationship 462 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:38.400 because my wife, you know, I've joked, 463 00:15:38.400 --> 00:15:40.360 we kind of have like a South Post story. 464 00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:41.760 When she met me, I'm a penny stock. 465 00:15:41.760 --> 00:15:42.640 I'm just starting the company. 466 00:15:42.640 --> 00:15:43.320 She's successful. 467 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:44.240 She knows what she's doing. 468 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:46.040 Then we kind of grown the business together. 469 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:47.760 And I've asked her a few times, like, 470 00:15:47.760 --> 00:15:49.760 hey, what did you see in me then? 471 00:15:49.760 --> 00:15:51.480 But I'm curious, what do you think? 472 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:53.640 Why do you think she stuck by you? 473 00:15:53.640 --> 00:15:56.080 I think Leo is an exceptional judge of people. 474 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:57.480 I think if there's like one skill 475 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:00.200 that Leo's world class at is that she just, 476 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:01.720 she just sees through people. 477 00:16:01.720 --> 00:16:04.560 Leo has never been wrong about a hire, 478 00:16:04.560 --> 00:16:07.480 about a partnership ever. 479 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:08.560 It's pretty impressive. 480 00:16:08.560 --> 00:16:12.080 And so I think she saw her, 481 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:14.440 she's, I'm giving her words here, 482 00:16:14.440 --> 00:16:16.080 but I mean, she saw up potential in me 483 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.200 and she felt like if I was able to shed some 484 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:22.080 of these bad partnerships and beliefs and relationships 485 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:23.560 and things like that, they were weighing me down, 486 00:16:23.560 --> 00:16:25.480 that there was something underneath that was good. 487 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:27.320 You know, a lot of ways that was kind of how both of it, 488 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:29.640 I think saw our relationship at the time was like, 489 00:16:29.640 --> 00:16:30.480 we're not good yet, 490 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:32.720 but I think that we could be good together. 491 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:35.720 And I mean, our relationship in the first two, three years 492 00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:38.640 was not like a Hollywood movie. 493 00:16:38.640 --> 00:16:39.480 You know what I mean? 494 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:40.960 Like, we were mostly business partners 495 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:42.240 and we got married 11 months in, 496 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:43.760 but like, we didn't have a wedding. 497 00:16:43.760 --> 00:16:46.120 We didn't have a marriage, we had a marriage, 498 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:48.480 but like we didn't have a party, we didn't have a honeymoon. 499 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:50.640 We worked the day of our, of our alobing 500 00:16:50.640 --> 00:16:51.920 and then we worked the next day. 501 00:16:51.920 --> 00:16:52.760 You know what I mean? 502 00:16:52.760 --> 00:16:53.680 It just, nothing happened. 503 00:16:53.680 --> 00:16:54.680 And we just worked straight through, 504 00:16:54.680 --> 00:16:55.880 but I think it was about three years in 505 00:16:55.880 --> 00:16:58.400 where we started to like really recognize 506 00:16:58.400 --> 00:17:00.360 one another and really find our groove kind of 507 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:01.640 even more basically. 508 00:17:01.640 --> 00:17:04.280 So we have definitely like an A typical story 509 00:17:04.280 --> 00:17:06.440 from that perspective, but it has worked out. 510 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:07.280 Yeah. 511 00:17:07.280 --> 00:17:09.320 And I heard you mentioned on, on a podcast, 512 00:17:09.320 --> 00:17:11.240 the importance of respect within a relationship, 513 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:13.320 sometimes respecting even more important than affection. 514 00:17:13.360 --> 00:17:14.200 I mean, it's good to have both, 515 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:17.000 but just to be able to respect one another. 516 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.080 Yeah, I think there's, if you look at, gosh, 517 00:17:19.080 --> 00:17:20.320 I wish I could quote this better, 518 00:17:20.320 --> 00:17:24.200 but there's like the full horsemen of divorce. 519 00:17:24.200 --> 00:17:26.120 They did, you know, sure, for this like Hallmark study, 520 00:17:26.120 --> 00:17:29.160 they like, they have couples bring up some subject 521 00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:32.000 that they argue about and they study how they argued 522 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.080 and they could predict with like a 91% success rate 523 00:17:34.080 --> 00:17:36.000 who is going to be divorced in 10 years. 524 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.400 And there's four horsemen of like divorce 525 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:41.040 and the one that was the highest predictor was contempt, 526 00:17:41.040 --> 00:17:43.480 which can be seen visually with an eye role, 527 00:17:43.480 --> 00:17:47.480 which is both a lack of respect for the other person 528 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:50.000 and also thinking you're better than them. 529 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:52.800 And so that like combination is deadly for relationships. 530 00:17:52.800 --> 00:17:54.280 And I think that if you were to reverse that 531 00:17:54.280 --> 00:17:55.600 and think that like the other person is better 532 00:17:55.600 --> 00:17:57.120 than you are and have ultimate respect for them, 533 00:17:57.120 --> 00:17:59.440 then you might have something that could safeguard 534 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:01.320 a merger relationship. 535 00:18:01.320 --> 00:18:02.920 You know, I know that the two of you work together. 536 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:04.720 I joke my wife and I say, you know, 537 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:06.560 we've been together, but it's like dog ears, right? 538 00:18:06.560 --> 00:18:08.280 Because you know, we wake up together, 539 00:18:08.280 --> 00:18:09.680 we go to the office and then we come home. 540 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:11.280 So it's just like multiply by seven. 541 00:18:11.280 --> 00:18:13.640 But like what advice do you have for other couples 542 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:14.880 whether they're considering working together, 543 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:15.880 if they're already working together, 544 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:18.160 how to keep that going? 545 00:18:19.120 --> 00:18:20.160 I have to put my disclaimer there, 546 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:21.480 like we've only been together seven years 547 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:22.920 and I think in decades. 548 00:18:22.920 --> 00:18:25.200 So when I come across our first decade, 549 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:25.920 I'll let everyone know. 550 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:27.960 But the only encouraging thing I can say 551 00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:31.320 is that for me time spent together the average marriage, 552 00:18:31.320 --> 00:18:33.280 people spend two hours day together. 553 00:18:33.280 --> 00:18:35.360 And 45 minutes of that is high quality 554 00:18:35.360 --> 00:18:37.240 and the other hour and 15 minutes 555 00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:39.320 is watching television or eating. 556 00:18:39.360 --> 00:18:41.600 And doing like household activities. 557 00:18:41.600 --> 00:18:43.640 And so the amount of time we spent together 558 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:44.960 compared to the average relationship is, 559 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.200 we've had like a 45 or 50 year marriage 560 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:49.360 comparatively in terms of hour spent. 561 00:18:49.360 --> 00:18:52.800 That being said, with that large caveat, 562 00:18:52.800 --> 00:18:56.000 I think that the biggest thing that has worked for us 563 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.360 is just acceptance, which is that Laila has never tried 564 00:18:58.360 --> 00:19:01.360 to change me and I've never really tried to change her. 565 00:19:01.360 --> 00:19:03.360 And I think I get a lot of messages, 566 00:19:03.360 --> 00:19:05.200 which is like, how do I find my Laila 567 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:06.200 or more specifically? 568 00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:08.040 How do I make my wife into Laila? 569 00:19:08.040 --> 00:19:09.840 Which is a weird message to get 570 00:19:09.840 --> 00:19:11.960 because it means that you don't accept 571 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:13.000 a part of who they are. 572 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:14.960 And so you're like, how do I get my wife into business? 573 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:16.080 I was like, if she's not already into business, 574 00:19:16.080 --> 00:19:16.960 she's not into business. 575 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:18.800 Like, you're not gonna make her into business. 576 00:19:18.800 --> 00:19:19.880 It should be like a woman saying, 577 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:21.120 like, how can I make my man taller? 578 00:19:21.120 --> 00:19:22.560 It's not gonna happen. 579 00:19:22.560 --> 00:19:24.800 So I think, and this is gonna probably 580 00:19:24.800 --> 00:19:25.840 be relatively controversial, 581 00:19:25.840 --> 00:19:28.680 but I think a lot of people lose in the draft. 582 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:29.520 It's a lot of people think about like, 583 00:19:29.520 --> 00:19:31.240 how do you coach a championship team? 584 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:33.920 I think a lot of teams lose in the draft. 585 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:34.800 They don't have the talent. 586 00:19:34.800 --> 00:19:36.840 And so again, that's probably a little bit contrary 587 00:19:36.840 --> 00:19:38.240 to like all marriages are favorable, 588 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:39.080 which maybe they are. 589 00:19:39.080 --> 00:19:41.000 The question is, are they ideal or the optimal 590 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:44.120 for both partners in terms of achieving their potential? 591 00:19:44.120 --> 00:19:45.240 And I think a lot of them aren't. 592 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:46.680 Because I think a lot of people mature over time 593 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:47.920 and probably wouldn't make the same decisions 594 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:49.320 as they did, you know, 20 years ago, 595 00:19:49.320 --> 00:19:51.760 which is one of the hardest parts about a lifelong decision 596 00:19:51.760 --> 00:19:52.600 in general. 597 00:19:52.600 --> 00:19:53.920 And so I think that making sure that you're picking 598 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:57.280 somebody who has the same long-term goal as you, 599 00:19:57.280 --> 00:19:58.840 has the same values as you. 600 00:19:58.840 --> 00:20:01.200 And I think the single greatest one is that they, 601 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:04.200 that if you want to grow, that they want to grow. 602 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:06.360 Because growth is also another word for change, 603 00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:08.480 which means that if you have two people who are changing 604 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:10.520 for a long period of time, you just better hope 605 00:20:10.520 --> 00:20:12.440 they'd be changing in the same direction. 606 00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:13.680 Yeah. 607 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:14.520 Yeah. 608 00:20:14.520 --> 00:20:16.400 And it's obviously like choice of spouse 609 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:18.080 or life partner or whatever, you know, 610 00:20:18.080 --> 00:20:19.760 obviously probably one of the most important decisions 611 00:20:19.760 --> 00:20:20.880 we make in our lives. 612 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:21.720 It's number one. 613 00:20:21.720 --> 00:20:23.160 So, okay, so on that note, then what would you say 614 00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:24.920 as like two and three? 615 00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:28.280 Well, I say that from measuring from subjective well-being. 616 00:20:28.280 --> 00:20:30.160 So it has a point-sevenual correlation to your subjective 617 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:31.440 well-being, it's the strength of your relationship 618 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:32.600 with your significant other. 619 00:20:32.600 --> 00:20:34.440 So there's nothing else that comes close to that. 620 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:36.160 So I would say from that perspective, 621 00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:37.920 it is the most important one. 622 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:39.840 And pretty much, if you think about this, 623 00:20:39.840 --> 00:20:41.600 everything else is impermanent. 624 00:20:41.600 --> 00:20:43.200 The business you start is impermanent. 625 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:45.720 You can change businesses, you can change markets, 626 00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:47.720 you can change where you live, you can change who you work with, 627 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:48.840 like all of these things are changeable. 628 00:20:48.840 --> 00:20:50.720 But if you are married and you believe in trying to stay 629 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:54.160 with that commitment, then like you're making a permanent, 630 00:20:54.160 --> 00:20:56.560 either detractor or addition to your life. 631 00:20:56.560 --> 00:20:58.120 And that person's gonna interact with you 632 00:20:58.120 --> 00:21:00.320 probably more than anyone else, it not probably. 633 00:21:00.320 --> 00:21:01.320 You will be interacting with that person 634 00:21:01.320 --> 00:21:03.840 probably more than anyone else, especially if you work together. 635 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:06.040 And so like, pick wisely. 636 00:21:06.040 --> 00:21:07.120 Yeah. 637 00:21:07.120 --> 00:21:10.080 But two or three, where you live, like the actual market 638 00:21:10.080 --> 00:21:12.080 that you're in, that's gonna be less and less important, 639 00:21:12.080 --> 00:21:14.360 but I think just the circles you run in are important. 640 00:21:14.360 --> 00:21:15.840 I think from a business perspective, 641 00:21:15.840 --> 00:21:18.080 the industries that you choose to get into 642 00:21:18.080 --> 00:21:19.600 have a huge influence on you. 643 00:21:19.600 --> 00:21:21.840 If you're getting into steel mills, 644 00:21:21.840 --> 00:21:24.160 as they were going out or you're getting in a newspapers 10 years ago, 645 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:25.480 probably wasn't the best call. 646 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:26.440 So it doesn't matter how much you worry, 647 00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:27.440 probably we're gonna win. 648 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:29.240 So those are kind of like some of the bigger marker 649 00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:31.880 or macro influencers on how successful you'll be. 650 00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:33.960 That's a little bit more of a business tangent. 651 00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:37.120 And I know you've worked with many, many different founders. 652 00:21:37.120 --> 00:21:38.720 I mean, in all sorts of different businesses, 653 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:40.480 services, businesses, software, 654 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:43.200 I mean, the full gamut, like, are there any particular traits 655 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:45.480 that you've seen in the most successful founders 656 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:46.800 that kind of separate the most successful 657 00:21:46.800 --> 00:21:48.200 from the least successful? 658 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:49.360 Yeah, they're humble. 659 00:21:50.920 --> 00:21:52.760 If you have humility, you can do a lot. 660 00:21:52.760 --> 00:21:53.720 Because if somebody's humbled, 661 00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:54.920 then they can accept feedback. 662 00:21:54.920 --> 00:21:57.160 If they can accept feedback, then they could change. 663 00:21:57.160 --> 00:21:58.240 I mean, it's very difficult. 664 00:21:58.240 --> 00:21:59.760 Basically, if someone does have humility, 665 00:21:59.760 --> 00:22:00.760 then it means that whoever they are, 666 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:04.200 one has to be the person that they need to be a day 1000. 667 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:05.320 Because if they can't admit a deficit, 668 00:22:05.320 --> 00:22:06.240 then they can't improve. 669 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:08.680 And so humility is by far the biggest one. 670 00:22:08.680 --> 00:22:10.840 Beyond that, they have to have drive. 671 00:22:10.840 --> 00:22:12.280 They have to have some reason that they're gonna do it, 672 00:22:12.280 --> 00:22:14.320 whether it's, you know, away from fuel or towards fuel, 673 00:22:14.320 --> 00:22:15.880 like they have to have some sort of drive. 674 00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:18.800 There's a big study on this that I've been quoted a lot 675 00:22:18.800 --> 00:22:20.400 for even though it's not my study. 676 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:22.760 But it's, you know, the three most common traits 677 00:22:22.760 --> 00:22:23.560 that they've seen, you know, 678 00:22:23.560 --> 00:22:24.800 it's not that early wake up time. 679 00:22:24.800 --> 00:22:27.880 It's not a lot of, you know, it's not the healthy eating. 680 00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:30.040 It's not that cold plunges or the affirmations, 681 00:22:30.040 --> 00:22:32.600 but the three common traits are that they had a superiority 682 00:22:32.600 --> 00:22:33.440 complex. 683 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:34.800 So they believe that they can do big things. 684 00:22:34.800 --> 00:22:36.480 They want to chase after big goals. 685 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:38.560 The second is that they have crippling insecurity 686 00:22:38.560 --> 00:22:40.360 and that they feel they'll never be enough 687 00:22:40.360 --> 00:22:42.040 and that they have impulse control. 688 00:22:43.040 --> 00:22:46.440 And so if you have a big goal and you have big fuel 689 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:47.760 and you don't stray the path 690 00:22:47.760 --> 00:22:49.120 and you do it for a very long period of time, 691 00:22:49.120 --> 00:22:50.800 you'll probably win. 692 00:22:50.800 --> 00:22:51.920 Yeah. 693 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:52.760 Yeah. 694 00:22:52.760 --> 00:22:54.000 It's almost like, I think there's a book 695 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:56.320 it's called like the manic edge, you know, to a degree. 696 00:22:56.320 --> 00:22:59.080 It's like you almost have to be crazy in a sense. 697 00:22:59.080 --> 00:23:01.960 You think about entrepreneur, the idea of starting a business, 698 00:23:01.960 --> 00:23:04.120 the risk that you take on, I mean, obviously, 699 00:23:04.120 --> 00:23:06.360 I think Shark Tank maybe has popularized this to an extent, 700 00:23:06.360 --> 00:23:07.520 but when you look at the reality of it, 701 00:23:07.520 --> 00:23:09.960 it's not always a great proposition. 702 00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:12.320 I mean, I think now with a lot of like social media culture, 703 00:23:12.320 --> 00:23:14.840 it's this idea of, you know, working remotely 704 00:23:14.840 --> 00:23:17.280 from your laptop, everybody's making 40 grand a month. 705 00:23:17.280 --> 00:23:18.800 I don't know why people get stuck on this number, 706 00:23:18.800 --> 00:23:21.200 but it's just, I don't know that it really depicts 707 00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:25.000 an accurate portrayal of what this journey is. 708 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:25.960 Yeah, well, I think the average, 709 00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:27.920 I mean, I think the average while a business 710 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:30.040 takes home like $50,000 a year. 711 00:23:30.040 --> 00:23:31.200 I mean, the average while a business owner 712 00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:33.080 makes the same as the median household income. 713 00:23:33.080 --> 00:23:34.520 So, you know, from that sense, 714 00:23:34.520 --> 00:23:35.960 it's one person versus a household. 715 00:23:35.960 --> 00:23:36.800 So I guess in that sense, 716 00:23:36.800 --> 00:23:37.960 they have to make a little bit more money. 717 00:23:37.960 --> 00:23:40.560 They also take on significantly more risk personally 718 00:23:40.560 --> 00:23:41.400 in order to do that. 719 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:42.240 So I agree with you. 720 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:44.360 I think that the, I think right now it's in vogue. 721 00:23:44.360 --> 00:23:45.200 It's cool. 722 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:46.880 I mean, it is the way to make the most money. 723 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:49.000 It's also the way to lose the most money. 724 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:52.600 Simbao, it is the, you know, at definition, 725 00:23:52.600 --> 00:23:54.760 the highest risk highest reward game, 726 00:23:54.760 --> 00:23:56.400 but, you know, it's quote more above it. 727 00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:58.120 I think the reason business is so risky 728 00:23:58.120 --> 00:23:59.400 is because people don't know what they're doing. 729 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:00.400 And that's kind of the nature of it 730 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:01.720 is that when you start your ignorance, 731 00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:04.360 biggest debt you pay is the tax of not knowing. 732 00:24:04.360 --> 00:24:06.040 Right, you're not knowing what you do. 733 00:24:06.040 --> 00:24:07.040 He also says that it's, 734 00:24:07.040 --> 00:24:08.640 it's only risky if you don't know what you're doing. 735 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:10.680 And so, once you do know what you're doing, 736 00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:13.320 then there's not nearly as much risk in business. 737 00:24:13.320 --> 00:24:14.680 But the only way to know what you're doing 738 00:24:14.680 --> 00:24:15.640 is to get in the game, 739 00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:17.720 which means you have to incur lots of risk to get in 740 00:24:17.720 --> 00:24:18.760 and then the more you play, 741 00:24:18.760 --> 00:24:21.720 the better you get unless risky it is in the higher reward list. 742 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:22.560 Yeah, yeah. 743 00:24:22.560 --> 00:24:24.320 It's like, in many cases, it's like the other, 744 00:24:24.320 --> 00:24:25.680 the solutions making good decisions, 745 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:26.580 how do you make good decisions, 746 00:24:26.580 --> 00:24:28.320 experience, how do you gain experience, 747 00:24:28.320 --> 00:24:31.120 bad decisions and the cycle repeats. 748 00:24:31.120 --> 00:24:32.760 Something you share before that, 749 00:24:32.760 --> 00:24:34.560 I thought was very interesting is just the differences 750 00:24:34.560 --> 00:24:37.200 between how the most successful people viewed time 751 00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:39.000 and their approach to time horizon, 752 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:41.080 if you could elaborate on that. 753 00:24:41.080 --> 00:24:45.880 You can pretty easily tell how successful an entrepreneur 754 00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:47.960 is by looking at two elements of time. 755 00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:51.680 One is the increments of time they speak in. 756 00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:53.040 So if they talk in decades, 757 00:24:53.040 --> 00:24:54.240 they talk in multiple decades, 758 00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:56.920 they talk in lifetimes, they talk in generations. 759 00:24:56.920 --> 00:24:57.760 I can almost care to you. 760 00:24:57.760 --> 00:24:59.440 It can be significantly more successful entrepreneur 761 00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:01.000 than the one he talks about next week, next month, 762 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:02.480 even next quarter. 763 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:05.600 And it's such a small thing, but it's pervasive. 764 00:25:05.600 --> 00:25:06.840 Like you can hear it in conversation, 765 00:25:06.840 --> 00:25:09.080 you can immediately know this guy's only doing this much 766 00:25:09.080 --> 00:25:11.680 because the only way to do really big things 767 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:13.680 is to think on a much lower time horizon. 768 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:16.880 The second component is how they manage the micro, 769 00:25:16.880 --> 00:25:19.600 which is if you look at someone's calendar 770 00:25:19.600 --> 00:25:22.360 and how they allocate their most scarce resource, 771 00:25:22.360 --> 00:25:24.600 which is time, you can see where they're going to be 772 00:25:24.600 --> 00:25:25.920 in six or 12 months. 773 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:29.480 So if you look at the calendar as the balance sheet 774 00:25:29.480 --> 00:25:33.240 of someone's time asset and how they allocate it, 775 00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:36.200 they're time budget, then you will see 776 00:25:36.200 --> 00:25:38.320 where they're going to get their returns. 777 00:25:38.320 --> 00:25:40.560 And so if we look at a founder and we look at their calendar, 778 00:25:40.560 --> 00:25:41.960 we can tell how the company's going, 779 00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:43.360 we can usually see how we need to fix it 780 00:25:43.360 --> 00:25:45.440 because fundamentally most entrepreneurs work 781 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.280 all the hours of the day, most of them do, right? 782 00:25:48.280 --> 00:25:50.320 And so if they're not making the amount of money 783 00:25:50.320 --> 00:25:52.840 that they want to make, it's because they're doing the wrong stuff. 784 00:25:52.840 --> 00:25:54.080 And that's usually the biggest issue. 785 00:25:54.080 --> 00:25:55.360 And they think they need to work harder 786 00:25:55.360 --> 00:25:56.680 but they've already maxed out their hours, 787 00:25:56.680 --> 00:25:58.480 which means fundamentally they're wrong. 788 00:25:58.480 --> 00:25:59.760 They're seeing a distorted reality. 789 00:25:59.760 --> 00:26:02.000 They think this is going to work and it is not.