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business has only gotten easier to get into. It's gotten more competitive and easier to get into.

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And so I think that what happens is just the arena gets bigger. So you've got more glad

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haters, so it's more competitive, but more people can walk in.

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The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game. This podcast, the game is my attempt

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at documenting the lessons I've learned on my way to building acquisition.com into a billion

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dollar portfolio. My hope is that you use the lessons to grow your business and maybe someday soon

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partner with us to get to $200 million in beyond. I hope you share and enjoy.

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You said you want to be a billionaire in five to seven years, so you can see the math playing out

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that way. Yeah. Let's say you were forced to do it in half the time. Yeah. Three years you were

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forced to be a billionaire. Yeah. Or some catastrophic event would happen. Yeah. What would it take

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from you to reach the billion dollar goal in half the time? What would you need to do differently?

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And how would you need to think and act differently? I would probably on board more operators faster.

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That being said, the current plan gets us there in like three years. I say five to seven publicly

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because I want to give myself a little buffer. I tend to be, though, because I probably

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a little bit different approach with goals. I want to hit every goal. I don't like missing goals.

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And so for me, I don't like teaching myself or teaching other people that if I say something's

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going to happen, it doesn't happen. Because some people like shoot for the moon, think really,

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like, I think you absolutely should think really big. But then like, okay, how do I make a goal

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that like and then once I have that goal, do the activities that make it unreasonable not to hit it?

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Like, if I hadn't hit this goal to your point, what level of activity would I have to do that it would

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be unreasonable? It would be unacceptable based on how I see reality that I would not achieve it.

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If you're like, I want to learn sales, I would say it's unreasonable that if you get on 10,000

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sales calls, you will not be good at sales. The unreasonable. Okay. How long will it take me to

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get on 10,000 sales call? Right? A lot of time. Yeah. A couple of years. Yeah. A couple of years

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you could do it. Okay. So then that's a goal. You know what I mean? Like, and I could set that,

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and if I do the activities, it would be unreasonable that I'm not now realistically, you probably get

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there in half the time, right? Because you're probably pretty good at sales even after first two,

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three thousand calls, right? You're probably pretty good. And so, I mean, what we're doing now is

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the only thing I could probably do is take on bigger companies. That would be the shortest path.

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But I feel, I feel confidently like in terms of how much we're stretching, I feel good about it.

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Like, it would take, I would feel like I'd be taking on more risk to hit that, if that makes sense.

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If you had to do it in half the time with less risk, yeah, with less risk, what would you need?

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That's a good question. What would need to happen? What would need to shift inside of you?

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Yeah. I would, I would need more people faster. I mean, it would just be, how many people would you

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know? I would spend more aggressively on talent acquisition. So I would basically go into like,

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from the debt perspective, right? So rather than think of the businesses, like the portfolio

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companies that's cash flowing towards me, I would probably take all of the excess that is there,

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and plow it into talent earlier. So right now, I live on a certain amount of cash flow,

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et cetera, from, you know, just from the portfolio companies. And I probably have gotten accustomed

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to that. And so I don't like cutting below that. So if I had to, then I would say all of that money,

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rather than going to Alex is going to go into more talent, bigger, faster, yeah, exactly.

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And then they would amplify, and then they would be able to, we would increase our rate.

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You would have less money in the short term over the couple of years, but then you would have

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way more money in the long term. Totally. So it's a, so it's a comfort level. Yeah, it is,

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it is. And as we're talking about, you know, you're knowing that you like to have a certain amount

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of cash flow every month, but you've got a bunch of cash in the bank too. I know. It's totally,

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it's a, it's a hundred percent illogical. If you had to do it, though, let's say you had to do

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in two and a half years, say we had to do it tomorrow, you know, you had to do it two and a half

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years, because you need time too. Yeah, yeah. You know, five, you know, five to seventy other

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and two and a half, and you had to stretch and get extremely uncomfortable where you're not

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going broke. Yeah. So you got money. How many people would you need to hire? Yeah.

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And how much less cash flow would you need to have? I mean, I would limit my cash flow.

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All your cash. Yeah, I mean, if I was, if I was really going, I mean, I was going ham on it,

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I would just, I would have no cash flow to me. I mean, I don't need, you have money.

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Yes, I would eliminate all the cash flow to me. And it would, a hundred percent of the money

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would go into the team. The only thing that would go faster than that is that I drain my own

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network to further fund. Yeah, exactly. Go at your, I would be incurring financial debt to

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more quickly build the enterprise value of the asset. So I'd be transferring money into the asset

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fast. It's like you incur different types of debt. Like if you incur no debt when you start a

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business, you do always incur debt. You incur management debt, you incur technical debt, time debt,

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a hundred percent. And so people like all businesses start with debt. It just depends on what type of

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debt you're dealing with, right? And so if you don't have money, then that's fine. You just

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incur other debt. Like even when we think about how we built, how we're building the whole

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code right now at acquisition.com. Like I am building more fixed cost in the infrastructure right now

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because of what I want it to be in a year, two years. And so if I wanted to run it, like we

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already do reinvest, obviously a big percentage, but I would just reinvest more to be okay with it.

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Yeah, I just, I've just grown accustomed to this and it's funny because a buddy of mine had

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done it with last night. It's always coming for $250 million. And we're talking about how cash flow

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is a very regular reinforcer from a from a behavioral standpoint. Like you get this feedback

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directly every month of how you're doing, right? And so you as entrepreneurs or at least for me,

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I've been always a high cash flow entrepreneur. Like I've never been like a reinvest every

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dollar into the business. I like making money for my businesses. But I've that has become a trait

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that I have learned to look at as my barometer every month. Like how am I doing? How am I doing?

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How am I doing? And so it would have to, so to the question of like what would have to change in me,

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I would have to change how I measure success and then I'd have to reinforce the behavior in a

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different way. I have to measure it differently. Right. And so it was the cash flow coming from all

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the businesses you guys are in partnership with. You get a percentage of cash flow. They get a

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percentage of the business as well. So you have a certain amount of cash flow every month that's

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coming in from all these businesses, right? But you also have a ton of money in the bank. Yeah.

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So one of them, you could, yeah, I could take some money out somewhere. You could still keep the

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cash flow coming and take the money from the the same. I'm so security driven. It's funny because

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I was having this conversation with this guy. And so the guy sold his company for $2 and $15 million.

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For the last 10 years, he's lived on 70,000 a year, 70,000 a year. And so he was staying at the

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Marriott. And I was staying at a nicer hotel. And I was like, dude, you got money now. Yeah, you got

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money now. And he's like, I know, he's like, but I just isn't that funny. For years, I would sit

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middle seat, you know, back of the airplane cheapest flights for years. Even when I had seven figures

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in a year coming in. But because I was so used to, I was like, I don't want to lose my mind.

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You know, I was like, I want to make sure that I can live like this. I was still sleeping up

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friends, couches when I traveled to events. I was like, anyway, to save money. And it's not until

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the last couple of years, I was like, okay, my back hurts. I need to like have some leg room.

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I know a big guy. But for years, I was just like, how do I save and use that money to reinvest

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in going to the event, buying the ticket to the conference or investing in coaching that will

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accelerate the revenue long term? Yeah, it's so funny. You say that because I think, and this

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is just off the cuff here, but many of the people that I know who have tremendous amounts of money

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have huge fears around being poor. And so as just as an interesting thought, like a lot of people

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who don't have money see people who have money as thinking differently, and they might in that

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they are more uncomfortable being poor than you are. Like it is more painful for them than it is

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for you. It might be, I'm just being really weird. There might be why someone more stingy too

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with the money. Of course. I'm going to spend this five dollars. I'm going to keep it. You know,

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they're very stingy with all of it. Two nights ago, we were out to dinner with a guy who just got

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valued at a billion, right? And it's also cash flow. It's not one of these software things. Like

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it's off, like he's getting, yeah, like he's making real money, crazy money. And he's like, I'm

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not going to that, Jimmy's like for for equal and I said, I'm not paying $200 a month for a gym

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membership. It's it's a different perspective. No, I'm not saying I'm that way. You know what I mean?

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Like I'm okay spending on gym membership. Like that's fine for me. But like everyone has their

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own things and like there are these behaviors like he got the other guy who had the 250. He got

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to that point because he squeezed everything out of his business, which made the business so valuable

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and then he was able to sell it. But like the billion dollar guy was saying he's like, you know what,

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they don't tell you about when you sell your business because he's sitting next to the guy with the

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250, right? And he's like, the moment you sell your business, he's like, you have no cash flow.

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And so he thought that too. He's like, what are you going to do? He's like, you're going to take

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the money and then what are you going to do? You're going to try and buy more cash flow because you

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got to replace the cash flow with the business. He's like, I'll just keep it. And so he doesn't

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have any intentions of selling. And so it was an interesting lesson for me too because like we

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obviously got rid of our cash flow asset when we sold all three last year. You got a lot more

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money, but you don't have the money cash coming. Right. Because then it looks like this to this

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finite asset. The business goes on forever in your mind at least, right? And so it gives you

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the illusion of control, the solution of security. And me personally, most people wouldn't believe

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this money here, but like, I'm very risk averse. And so I probably need like, what's the core

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changes that I need to have? I probably need to be a little bit more of a risk taker than I am.

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Like I tend to always take the lowest risk path when I can't even even the idea of like when

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I quit entrepreneurship or so when I quit my job to start entrepreneurship, it was because I knew

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that the path that I was on was guaranteed not to get to me where I want. So I had a zero outcome.

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So this one, even though it was lower, like I had a low chance of success, the other one at 100%

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failure guarantee. So it felt like the lower risk option for my long-term goals to quit my job

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and become an entrepreneur for that reason. And so, you know, people are like, I'm really

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risk averse. I'm like, so am I. Like, I afford money. I do. I do. You must get any of the money from

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the exits. No, it's not just sitting in the bank. Yeah, we started working the next day. We didn't

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take it. We didn't take a day off. Yeah. We literally sold wire hit and we started working

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at acquisition outcome the next day. Let's say you had to start putting that cash flow every month

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into other things, team resources, whatever it is. And that wasn't coming in. And you know,

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maybe let's call it a hundred grand a month. It was coming in the cash flow. I don't know how

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much it is. But to say that is going into hiring team and other things to support you getting

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to the billion in two and a half years. What would need to shift inside of you after three months

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of feeling no cash flow come in to stack your bank account in order for you to be okay with it

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to get to that billion quicker. I would just have to be more secure just realistically. Like,

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I use what does that mean? Is that an eternal I use cash flow from businesses as evidence to

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the fact that I'm not a failure. And so I use I've always like it has been easier for me to change

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my conditions than to change who I am. And so I have used my material success and accolades to

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quiet the voices of not being good enough. And so for that like me having that what if I have

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that little voice that peeps up, it's like hey, look at that. I'm like, okay, no, no, I'm okay.

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I'm not, I'm not that bad. This money just came in. Yeah, no, I'm not that bad. Right. And so,

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so I have to, I'd really have to re-engineer the conversation I have with myself around how I value

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myself. Because then people are like, well, if you, you know, if everything disappeared, you know,

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how would you feel about yourself? I like to think that I would be uncomfortable and then I would

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change my views, but I haven't needed to do that yet. And so my effort goes elsewhere. But that's

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what probably would have to happen in order for me to make that change. Is it a, what is the thing

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that is you're afraid of inside of yourself? Is it a self worth thing? Is it a, a self love thing?

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Is it a belief that you're not good enough? Yeah, it's maybe a good enough thing for me. Yeah,

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it's just like maybe not as good as I think I am. Maybe, maybe everything that I've been putting

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on media, maybe my book, maybe all these things are actually not true. And I don't know what I'm

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talking about, right? Because clearly I don't know what I'm talking about because I'm not making any

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money. Like, so these things have been, that's why acquisition.com is the other half, like the actual

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businesses of acquisition.com compared to the media of acquisition.com. It is the other half

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because it's the evidence of the fact that the things that I say are true. Because those are getting

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results 100% they're growing. Right. And so that way I feel bullet proof when I make, when I make

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the content, when I make the book, when I write the stuff, like, you know, there's a zillion people

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who are like, you suck, none of this is true, whatever. And for me, it rolls off my back because I

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have evidence. Right. And like, no, no, it is true. And here's how. But if I didn't have that,

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I would probably have to, it's because I don't know what the right call is there because I didn't

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have the evidence. It would be hard for me to say, you're wrong because I don't have any proof

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that they're wrong. But you have evidence now. Right. And so I have this evidence. So how do you

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change the belief inside that you're good enough with the years of evidence now? The question is,

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like, have I built a billion dollar thing yet? You know what I mean? And suddenly 10 billion.

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Yeah. Of course. No, but like, it's a fun, it's a, it's a fun convo. And it's great because I,

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this is just wonderful, though, because I get to see my own limiting beliefs. And just for everybody's

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listening, like, everyone deals with this. You know what I mean? Like at every, at every level,

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you're dealing with this of like feeling of inadequacy, you know, feeling not good enough,

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feeling you're not smart, feeling like you don't work hard, whatever it is, like, I have that

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stuff all the time because you think that the external circumstances is going to, is going to solve

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that. And I would say that it does to a degree. It becomes a crutch. Right. But then you have this

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crutch. And then you just tie yourself worth to the, to the acclator of the thing,

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rather than still yourself. And maybe I need to do more if I'm not who knows.

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If you could overcome one thing or eliminate one thing internally to become a better leader

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to yourself, to quiet the noise, to help you take a risk in a different way and not talking

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about lose all your money. But take the risk to help you accelerate this. Yeah. And you don't have

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to bind away. But I just believe that it's possible for you to do that. Yeah. I believe you can

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be a billionaire in two and a half years. I appreciate it. If you, if you shift, whatever

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inside of you is holding you back to get to that space, what would be that one thing to eliminate

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or overcome internally to make it happen? It's need for external validation, 100%. The need for

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external validation. Why do you need external validation? I mean, I think part of it's so ingrained

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in us if you think about us as kids, right? Like how do you, how do you orient yourself

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of the world? You get reinforced or punished at all phases directly and directly, but you get

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reinforced or punished and the things that you get reinforced, you do more of the things you get

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punished, you do less of, right? Like that's just how, how we, how we learn behavior, how we learn

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to function society, right? Touch the thing. Ah, it hurts. It's, that's, we got punished. Okay. You

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know, you, uh, your parent tells you to sit down and be quiet and eat and you learn to sit down

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and shut up and eat. And then we wonder why adults don't move because we're told to sit when

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we're running around, right? We learn at school, sit down and be quiet. 100% and we, and we wonder

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why we eat so much when the rewards for everything we did when we were a kid was food, right? We

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wanted these things. So the reason external validation is so hard, at least for me is because it's how

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I learned everything is because external validation gave, you know, gave me the, the directional

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guidance of what's good and what's not. And then as you get older, it's where am I going to get

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that validation from? And so I would say that my external validation is still 100% there. It just

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comes from different sources. So I'm more selective on whose validation I want. So how much external

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validation do you need in order to overcome this belief to go all in and do it and have to do it?

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Yeah. But I think I, I just, I need to be able to validate myself. And that's fundamentally,

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I think having tea to said this, you said like, if you need someone else's, if you need, he has this

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quote, it's so good, but it's basically like, you need to be able to give, you don't need to

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swear it up somebody else. You should be able to swear to yourself and bear witness to yourself

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because your word should be good enough. So you need to eliminate external validation from you

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feeling good enough? Probably. Yeah. It's probably that. Like obviously, you need, it's good to

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have feedback in life here. And so I think that's why it's, it's also difficult for some in general

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because it's not eliminate or have more of it's to what degree and from home and about what

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and so then it gets a little bit more complex. But even using those different lenses, I think it's,

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it's good to unpack it for anyone who's listening, which is like, okay,

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restate this earlier on a mic like when we were together, five years ago, she was like, and she

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like made me name the person that wasn't my dad or somebody else for this particular thing. She's

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like, are you going to let this guy stop us from getting what we want? Wow. And it was like when I saw

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it, it was like, looking in front of me, it was like, she's like, what if this guy hates you and

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thinks you're terrible? Is that a worthy enough reason to still keep going? And I was like, yeah,

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she's like, let's go. You know what I mean? And so she's very good with that. What do you need to say

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to yourself every day to believe you're good enough? If you could say one thing to you that no one

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else needed to hear, but you needed to hear it from you, what would that be? I don't know if it

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would be a saying thing. I don't think it'd be like an affirmation. I think it's just a belief.

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What would the belief be? Yeah, I mean, fundamentally, the belief would just have to shift that,

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the doing this is enough validation for me. Not the results. Right. And that's all, I mean,

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fundamentally, that's always the goal is that you can, you can detach that the doingness from the

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result. I think what I've been able to do has been to extend the time horizon between the doingness

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and the result, but not necessarily fully eliminated. I'm patient in that I can continue to do things

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for very long periods of time before seeing a payoff. But if I were able to truly eliminate it,

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I think that would be kind of like a next step. Then again, this that borderline on insanity,

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because if you never get feedback on sometimes, you're like, maybe I should change direction.

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You'll keep getting feedback though, because you're creating, you're taking action. You know,

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the more you do that, you'll have more businesses. You'll be acquiring. You'll be creating more

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content and everything to be growing at the same time. Yeah. All right. I love seeing you, you know,

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go through this process internally, because I think I'm open to it. I just want to win. You know,

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I mean, like, I just want to be better. What does winning look like? It's achieving the potential.

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It's taking all this raw potential. The line in the Bible that always scared me the most was to

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who much has given much is expected. And so for me, I always felt like I was given a lot. You know,

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what I mean? Like I was born in America right off the bat. It's born as a guy. I have insane genetics,

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like from from that perspective, I was six back when I was 15. I've a pretty high processing load.

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Like I can usually I do okay with complex problems. I was bilingual at basically at birth,

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because parents talk to me different language. So that gave me good language abilities. And so

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it's like these are all things that were given me, right? And and I was born to like a deep,

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you know, from a from a money standpoint, a decently wealthy family, right? Not, you know,

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ultra-billion, but like never worried about food or shelter or anything like that, right? And so

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these are all the things that were given to me. And so it's me and I'm like, man, much is expected,

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right? And not necessarily that's, you know, God, whatever, just I expect a lot of myself,

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because I see so much potential. By the time I die, I would like to have nothing left in my potential

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tank. And it just all have been transformed into into my reality. Yeah. So that's what winning looks like.

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What do you feel like it's missing in your life? Not a lot. I'm just like really rough,

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but like I really like, I'm am for right now. I'm super pumped. I love what we're doing. I love

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the businesses that we're helping. I love the mission. I like doing this. Not a lot. I mean, though,

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if I got into things that were missing, it would be like super tactical. Like I want, I want these

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rolls or ones that I won't fill in the company. You know, I mean, like it'd be stuff like that. It

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wouldn't be anything else. Right.

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Most of the nation real quick, if you are a business owner that has a big, old business and wants

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to get to a much bigger business, going to $50, $100,000 plus, we would love to talk to you.

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And if you like that, we'd like to hear more about it. Go to acquisition.com and you can plan

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anywhere on the page and talk to one of our team and see if we can help you get there.

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And so what do you look for when you're you're acquiring a business or investing in a business

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that has cash flow and what businesses have the best cash flow?

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So this will be relevant for everybody in the audience and also hits on what we were talking

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about with the wealth thing like wealthy people choose higher leverage opportunities and we went

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over what leverage was earlier. The best businesses, especially in an inflationary period,

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are businesses that have low capital expenses. Okay. And that's because if you have some examples.

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Yeah. So I'll give you opposite examples to make and then I'll drive it. So something that

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does have high capital expense, which is what you would not want to get into would be like

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stuff that has lots of inventory, stuff that has lots of supply chain, lots of manufacturing,

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heavy equipment, things where you have to constantly buy more stuff in order to increase capacity.

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Right. A low capital expense business, there are things like services, right services,

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you know, digital businesses, software is mixed because sometimes the development team can be

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considerate of expense, it really depends on how you build the dev team. But the idea is that

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if you can produce 10 times more units without phenomenally changing the cost basis,

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then you will have a business that has lower capital expenses. And so that's what you,

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like, and most of those types of businesses produce more cash flow, have more pricing power.

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And so I mean, that's what Warren Buffett invests them, right? It's high cat, you know, like

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insurance, guyco, right? There's no capital. It's risk. They're literally assessing risk,

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air, it's, it's math, like the business is math. Like if you really think it's just math,

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it's the entire business of insurance. And what's crazy to this side note is that a great way of

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figuring out the highest leverage businesses that exist is looking at the business that

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have been here the longest. Insurance has been here since before the World Wars.

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Right. Thank you. The banks have been around forever, right? JPMorgan was around 1800s,

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right? The biggest insurance companies, they're all 100 plus years old. They're,

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they're found in the 1800s. And so when you have a business that's lasted that long,

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to me, that's a great breadcrumb of like this thing has to print money because it means that

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they were able to still keep making money through wars, through famous, the pressures,

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all of it. And they were still able to keep going. And so I think that when people were like,

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when you look at all the like many of the biggest businesses that exist, they have phenomenal

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gross margins. I don't want to get to like, you know, business term here, but like

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the gross margin is how much incremental cost it is to make a new, an extra widget, right? And

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so like a pill, for example, costs $100 million to make the first pill. And then every pill after

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that costs a penny, right? Sure. And so the gross margin on the pill is very high because if they

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sell each pill for $10, they cost them a penny. That was a great margin. And most people who are

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small business owners or people were trying to get into small business, price like small business

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owners, they say, well, it cost me a dollar. I'll sell it for three or I'll sell it for two.

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But if you're already starting on like a 50% gross margin, it's very, very hard to make money

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because they were like, that's at 100, you're already at half. And then you have the rest of

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everyone else, you have to pay off an extra 50. Yes. Very hard to do. And so like, I'll give a

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couple of rules of thumb if anyone wants to. But like if you're building a service-based business

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for us, by all means, I have to get gross margins about 80%, which means five times the cost of

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good, so if the cost me $100 a month, the minimum amount of charge is 500, right? And so that also

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gets you to think about business differently, which is not necessarily even how much can I charge,

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but how can I provide value and make it cost this little to me? How can I be as efficient as possible?

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And if you think about what technology does over time, it's technology takes something that's

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valuable and makes the cost to delivering it less. And so that's what happens is a lot of people

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are able to have access to things that were once only for the wealthy, but now become for the

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common men because the cost cases decreases as a result of technology. And so technology is we see

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it, you know, like we can create technology, but you can also have technological breakthroughs just

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through process in your own business. It's like, and that's where niching down and being very

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specific about the avatar becomes important, especially when you're starting because then

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you can productize the service because if you're doing everything custom, which most people

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in their starting out do, it becomes really difficult to become efficient. And it's really

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difficult to become efficient, you have a little margin, right? Or you have to charge huge fees,

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which most people are too afraid to do. And so the flip side is if I do the same thing over and

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over and over again, I will get better and more efficient at it. And I'll know how to do it faster

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and quicker and cheaper. And I specifically choose this type of customer so that I can have more margin

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because there are millions of even this one specific type of avatar. And then from there,

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I can take the gross margin, the extra cash that I have and I can hire the best people. I can

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invest in marketing. But when you have such little margin to work off of, it's very difficult to

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make money. Yeah, it's so hard to grow. That's interesting. What do you think is going to be

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harder or easier to become wealthy and start businesses over the next few years

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with everything that's happened in the last couple years and where this whole great, you know,

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2030 agendas coming. All these different things are happening. The war and all the, you know,

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there might be another pandemic, whatever it might be. Do you think it's going to be easier or

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harder to make money? I think technology in general makes things easier for most people. I mean,

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because at the end of the day, it's increased access for more people. And so I think to reach more

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people at any moment. Yeah. If I were just to use history as a guide, businesses only got an

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easier to get into. It's got more competitive and easier to get into. And so I think that what

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happens is just the arena gets bigger. So you got more glad haters. So it's more competitive,

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but more people can walk it. And so I think, but for the world in general, the more people you have

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fighting to make amazing products and services, the better it is for society. Yeah. But the downstream

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effect of that is that in a capitalist system, it is a winner-take-all for most, for many, not all,

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but for many businesses. And just by the nature of it, that does create social disarray. And it's just,

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but the thing is, it's still the best system that we have. We don't have a perfect system.

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Because the other systems were moved incentive. And he might be different by incentive.

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Even the survivorship bias, like every MLM in the world exists off the fact that there's that one

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guy who makes 500,000 dollars a month selling shake mix. And the other five million shake mix

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producers are like, someday, they'll make it there. Yeah. And it's just survivorship bias,

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right? But that's why the whole capitalist machine works. So I think they're like figuring out some

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sort of a, you know, creative way, like I put this in mind on my YouTube channel. But like the idea

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of having 100% death tax, I thought was like, take down like the income taxes and all this stuff,

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but like the thing that creates the conglomerate at the top is that if, let's say, let's say,

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I have 100 billion dollars, right? That's interesting. And if I have 500 billion, I'm probably

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pretty good at managing it because that's why I have 100 billion. So let's say again, 15% holding it.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's say I gain 15% on my assets. So like 15 billion dollars,

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right? On my assets, it is so hard for anyone to make that up in a lifetime with just the one.

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And like that might be my kid who gains 15 and the next year he gains 20 like. And so the compounding

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effect of the wealth is across generational is where I think it gets crazy. But if there were a

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100% death tax because obviously this is aligned with my belief that all of it disappears anyways.

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So this is obviously Alex. But it's just basically dramatically lower the income income taxes.

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I think income taxes should be like as close to zero as possible. And then make the capital gains

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taxes are because that's only going to really affect the wealth. You really want to think about it,

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right? Because people who, if you make with your hands,

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awesome. Right. If you make on your assets, that's just what that has has infinite leverage

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with time. So if you trade the most expensive thing for your money, then I feel like you should

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get taxed the past. And if you trade no time for your money, sure. Just like a weird thought

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experiment. What do you think would happen if it was 100% death tax? I think that billionaires

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would become far more giving. And as they approach the end, they know they can't keep it. And I also

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think it would change the way the game has played. Because if you know, because this is the analogy

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that I like, I haven't heard it anywhere else. So I think it's mine. But if you were to imagine

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life as a poker game, right? We, everybody, you know, grows up, they can 18 years old,

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they can go into the casino, they get a chip or 21, whatever age you can be. And then you get

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it, you get a chip and then you sit out of the table and your dealt cards, right? There's all the

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other players around the table. And depending on cards or dealt and the skill you have, you

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begin to amass chips, right? And the difference between this fictitious, you know, casino and the

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casino of life is that in the real world, you can amass chips, you cash out, you have a big lot of

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money, you walk out the door. But in the casino of life, when the Grim Reaper taps you and says

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you, it tells you it's time, you have to get out from the table, but your chips stay on the table.

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And they push them to the middle to be distributed by everybody else and continue to get played for.

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And that's when you realize that it was a fake game with rules that never mattered to be

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in with. And so I bought this piece of land in Austin. It was like a big, really, really nice lot.

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And I'm not thinking to myself like, this is, yeah, I got me some land, right? I have that

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tree to that thing in my mind. And then I thought to myself, I was like, well, the guy before me

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thought the same thing. And the guy before him thought the same thing. And the guy before him

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thought the same thing. And I was like, and we've literally still been looking at the exact same

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piece of dirt. And it's just been psyched. Even if it was father to son, even if it was

369
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family to whatever, like, like death taxes, everyone 100%. Like, even if the government doesn't

370
00:28:44.960 --> 00:28:50.480
death taxes everybody 100% and then time taxes your money to infinity because like people are like,

371
00:28:50.480 --> 00:28:54.080
I want to build a legacy. It's like, that's even just within Americana, you know, I mean,

372
00:28:54.080 --> 00:28:57.760
within the times of America, but like you go a thousand years and there's never been the same

373
00:28:57.760 --> 00:29:01.040
superpower over a thousand year period. And so we're like, I'm going to leave a legacy. It's like,

374
00:29:01.040 --> 00:29:05.440
but that would be like, you know, let's say an ancient Greek saying I'm going to leave a legacy

375
00:29:05.440 --> 00:29:10.080
for my kids when like, they might change their currency by, you know, XYZ year. And there's

376
00:29:10.080 --> 00:29:15.680
so many things and I've had a real experience with this because my great, great grandfather was a

377
00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:20.880
ruler in Iran, which is where we're from. We got kicked out because we were low to the shop

378
00:29:20.880 --> 00:29:26.960
back in the day, which is why my dad came to us. And so despite that, my great, great, great

379
00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:32.560
grandfather had like 400 wives ruler. Very, very well. Yeah, very, very wealthy. Different time,

380
00:29:32.560 --> 00:29:36.320
different culture. Very, very well. He's a ruler, right? Yeah, yeah. All the money,

381
00:29:36.320 --> 00:29:42.560
all the women, all the everything, literally a ruler, right? And it doesn't matter. And here I am,

382
00:29:42.560 --> 00:29:46.640
I'm not even that many generations separated from him, right? Even that. You don't have all that

383
00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:51.600
wealth. You don't have that man. Yeah. Right. And so like the idea that we're going to somehow,

384
00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:56.480
because the desire for legacy is the desire to cheat death. I think that's what it's

385
00:29:56.480 --> 00:29:59.840
like. We don't want to die. We want to last forever. It's we want to make something that is

386
00:29:59.840 --> 00:30:04.480
impermanent. And so we fool ourselves into thinking that the accolades and the material success

387
00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:08.960
and the books we write, whatever are going to last forever. And they're probably not, right?

388
00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:14.000
And so like, I mean, the sun's going to disappear at some point, right? If we don't do anything

389
00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:18.160
before then, like at the very least, that's going to happen. And so if that is the inevitable

390
00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:22.880
outcome, I think it shifts the way people think. And I think that's when you start changing,

391
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:26.480
I mean, Tony Robbins talks about like global, global belief systems. And that's why if someone

392
00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:30.880
like adopts a new religious belief, like everything changes, because the reasons they do in the way

393
00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:35.600
they believe the world works changes. And so I think that if they did do a 100% death tax,

394
00:30:35.600 --> 00:30:39.520
it would be a really interesting way to see the downstream effects of how it changed the way

395
00:30:39.520 --> 00:30:42.640
the players played the game. What do you think would happen if all the billionaires started

396
00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:48.320
distributing their wealth sooner? I think, well, would they be as hungry to be and driven to

397
00:30:48.320 --> 00:30:53.520
push and build and innovate to generate the wealth? If they knew, I got to give this away

398
00:30:53.600 --> 00:30:58.160
anyways, quickly, I think they would. I think it's because it's, I think it's, I think I'm

399
00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:02.560
going to say something that may sound bad, but I think winners win because of who they are.

400
00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:07.120
And so I think it's like sales guys, like you can have an incentive or a comp plan.

401
00:31:07.120 --> 00:31:12.160
They just want to win, but they are salespeople. And if I get on the phone, I want to sell.

402
00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:16.400
Because of who I am, not because the comp, the comp is the ticket to get me to say yes to the deal,

403
00:31:16.400 --> 00:31:21.040
but it will not change in my activity. I will do it because I love to sell, right? And so I think

404
00:31:21.040 --> 00:31:24.480
billionaires get there because they love the game. You don't get to a billion without just,

405
00:31:24.480 --> 00:31:27.600
because you obviously don't need it for you. You stop needing it for you millions and millions

406
00:31:27.600 --> 00:31:31.760
ago, right? And so you do it just because you love the game. What I do think of the reason that I

407
00:31:31.760 --> 00:31:37.600
like that solution is because Elon Musk said this, private enterprise is 10 times as efficient

408
00:31:37.600 --> 00:31:42.240
a capital allocation compared to the government. So every dollar that private enterprise spends

409
00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:47.360
is 10 times more efficient. And so it is like if we were to death tax 100%. So whatever you accumulate

410
00:31:47.360 --> 00:31:51.440
while you're alive, it just goes back. And the thing is, it's not that it would go back into the

411
00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:55.360
system through the government. It would, if you were lazy. But most people knowing the government

412
00:31:55.360 --> 00:31:59.520
was going to take it the less efficient vehicle at the end of your life, you would then start thinking

413
00:31:59.520 --> 00:32:03.920
about how can I allocate this money efficiently? And so what I think what would happen is you'd create

414
00:32:03.920 --> 00:32:08.880
far more ingenuity and innovation around social enterprise before they die, solving problems,

415
00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:13.920
knowing that the wealth would eventually disappear. So like it's more, there's this backstop that

416
00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:18.240
no one wants to hit. And so I think what happened is there would change their behavior before

417
00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:20.320
hitting the backstop. I don't think a lot of people would just be dumping their billion to the

418
00:32:20.320 --> 00:32:25.440
government. I think just knowing that they had to would then distribute it down to, yeah, yeah,

419
00:32:25.440 --> 00:32:29.200
that would be, you know, hey, that's Alex's two cents of the world, which is obviously different.

420
00:32:29.200 --> 00:32:34.320
What's, you just had a big exit, right? Last year, what was that for? How much? It was 46.46

421
00:32:34.320 --> 00:32:40.480
points. 46 million. So when that enters your account, what, did you expect what happened?

422
00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:46.160
What did happen? And what, can you teach other people about what they should expect to happen when

423
00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:52.160
they have a big exit? So I will say that I did not feel the money. I did feel the loss of cash flow

424
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:57.840
because I had this, you know, I measured myself off cash flow for, since now you don't have any,

425
00:32:57.840 --> 00:33:02.240
right? You got a big chunk. Yeah. But then no money coming in every month. So I actually felt

426
00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:09.040
interesting and I probably still feel horror now that I did before the exit. That's interesting.

427
00:33:09.040 --> 00:33:13.840
Because the cash flow is going down. Now, I, I know that the acquisition.com is going to be,

428
00:33:13.840 --> 00:33:18.800
I think, significantly bigger than, sure, than those companies were. But in the interim,

429
00:33:18.800 --> 00:33:24.880
I definitely did not feel any better after that. I am happy that I did it because I do think

430
00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:28.560
I'm in the right, you know, vehicle doing what we're doing now, making the books, making the YouTube

431
00:33:28.560 --> 00:33:34.480
channels, the, the Twitter's, the social media is all of them. But the cash flow is what I felt.

432
00:33:35.280 --> 00:33:39.200
And because I had taken dividends my whole life, the amount of money that we got out was

433
00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:43.440
pretty much about what we already had anyways. So it was not life changing in any way. It didn't

434
00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:48.240
change how I lived at all, like not at all. We didn't, we didn't have any big like, what do you

435
00:33:48.240 --> 00:33:52.000
gonna buy? I was like, well, I could, you know, I'm happy already. I could buy a hundred lambs

436
00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:55.120
before the sale. You know what I mean? Like that wasn't, and I'd never bought them in and I never

437
00:33:55.120 --> 00:33:59.920
did. So like, you know, because I, I don't get a lot of out of that. What else was different?

438
00:33:59.920 --> 00:34:03.760
Losing, losing the team is hard because when you sell a company, you sell the, you sell

439
00:34:03.760 --> 00:34:08.400
the people. Like that's something that people talk about. Yeah, but you sell, you sell the

440
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:14.560
organism, you sell the, the system, the people, the process, everything. And so that was,

441
00:34:14.560 --> 00:34:18.400
that was hard because there's definitely times now that we're building acquisition.com where

442
00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:22.720
I'm like, man, I wish I had seven, so I already taught this person everything I'd like to have to do

443
00:34:22.720 --> 00:34:27.920
it again. So there is a, but there's also some level of beauty to it because now that I'm doing

444
00:34:28.080 --> 00:34:34.960
acquisition.com, I have a different appreciation for what I'm doing because every other time that I've

445
00:34:34.960 --> 00:34:40.560
started something, it has been from a place of lack. It has been from like, well, this is what's

446
00:34:40.560 --> 00:34:45.040
going to not make me poor. You know what I mean? Like the gyms was all about that. And then I lost it

447
00:34:45.040 --> 00:34:50.880
all. So the second time was all about that again. So this time I'm starting not like that. And I know

448
00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:55.440
what it got like before we sold the companies last year. I spent basically 12 months not doing

449
00:34:55.760 --> 00:35:00.800
anything because I wasn't required in the business. Like it truly, it ran. And so I had a lot,

450
00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:05.360
like it was very depressing. Exactly. It was very depressing for me. What happens if we don't have

451
00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:11.760
a purpose? I mean, you find one. You know what I mean? And so for me, but you're in a depressed

452
00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:15.600
state, even though you have, I mean, I'm sure you're fine, but you are emotionally mentally like,

453
00:35:15.600 --> 00:35:20.880
what am I doing every day? Exactly. I've known the gym for so long. Right. Can I go to dinner? Yeah.

454
00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:24.880
What else are you going to eat every meal I want? I can travel. Okay. Now what? After three months

455
00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:29.680
of that, you've got to have some mission. You have some purpose, right? Even though you have the

456
00:35:29.680 --> 00:35:34.960
money, your safety, you have everything, security, but it wasn't fulfilling a hundred percent.

457
00:35:35.680 --> 00:35:39.840
And so that was that was 12 straight months. And it was because we were going through a sales process.

458
00:35:39.840 --> 00:35:44.400
So you can't start new initiatives because I'm in the middle of a sale. And you don't want to

459
00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:50.320
like make any massive new hires. And so you just basically have to just like maintain. And the whole

460
00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:54.000
time you're wondering, I hope this deal goes through. Because if it doesn't, then you just wasted

461
00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:58.720
a year just doing a thing and then you might have to do it again. So it was one of the most emotionally

462
00:35:58.720 --> 00:36:03.120
tiring years of my life because it's always like, this is about to happen. It's not going to happen.

463
00:36:03.120 --> 00:36:06.720
The deal's on the table. The deal's off the table. Like there's all of this drama that's happening

464
00:36:06.720 --> 00:36:12.960
constantly. And I also, one of the things that sucked that I didn't like was as soon as I had made

465
00:36:12.960 --> 00:36:19.520
the decision to sell or that I was going to entertain the idea of selling. And this is a mistake I made.

466
00:36:20.320 --> 00:36:25.520
Everything became about satisfying fictitious overlord of like, well, what will they think about

467
00:36:25.520 --> 00:36:31.120
this move? Well, how will they value this? And I started thinking today, whatever acquire room,

468
00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:34.960
whatever private equity was going to buy the company. Like how are they going to see this? Are they

469
00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:39.600
going to value this? Or is this a waste? And so what happened was I started making the private equity

470
00:36:39.600 --> 00:36:45.600
buyer my customer. And that was a mistake. And so I think that like, and what happened was

471
00:36:45.600 --> 00:36:49.760
interestingly, we started the sales process because my wife and our beat down, like we were just very

472
00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:53.520
tired of, you know, we've been in Jim's room was 10 years, you know, at that point, not to say that

473
00:36:54.160 --> 00:36:58.960
that's not a good thing. But like, whatever we, we were ready. We were ready. But in order for us to

474
00:36:58.960 --> 00:37:04.640
sell it and make it a sell business, we had to fix all the things. Right. And so we took a year

475
00:37:04.640 --> 00:37:12.320
before the year. So it took two years, basically, one year to like fix everything. And then one

476
00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:15.760
year to sell it. But the thing is, it's just like when you have a house that you like fix up

477
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:18.800
before you get ready to sell it by the time you're about to say, you're like, I love this. This is

478
00:37:18.800 --> 00:37:22.960
amazing. I just fixed all these, all the problems I fixed. I've got more cash flow. It's more

479
00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:30.480
fish and, you know, again, it was again, a very like mine trip experience where I'm like, well, maybe

480
00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:35.200
I should just hold as an asset that just produces cash flow over Uncle Warren never sells anything.

481
00:37:35.200 --> 00:37:38.640
Like selling is what makes you rich, keeping is what makes you wealthy. Like, you know, I'm like,

482
00:37:38.640 --> 00:37:42.720
I've got all these kind of things in the back of my mind. But I think ultimately, like, I think

483
00:37:42.720 --> 00:37:45.840
no matter what we had done, we would have been fine. But I think for me right now, I think the

484
00:37:45.840 --> 00:37:49.920
likelihood that the choice, if I had two alternate realities, which I don't have to play in,

485
00:37:49.920 --> 00:37:54.240
I think that the choice will ultimately yield more impact for more people. I would not have the

486
00:37:54.240 --> 00:37:58.000
attention to do acquisition.com and the media stuff that we're doing right now. I wouldn't be here

487
00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:01.920
just right. I wouldn't. I mean folks on your gems. Yeah. Or the yeah, exactly on those companies

488
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:05.840
that were in that portfolio. And acquisition.com would still be a side thing, but it probably

489
00:38:05.840 --> 00:38:11.440
wouldn't be the main thing. Whereas now it is 100% of my attention and the companies are killing it.

490
00:38:12.400 --> 00:38:17.920
I feel renewed. When I launched School of Greatness 10 years ago, I remember saying, I'm going to do

491
00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:23.280
this for one year because I wish I had access to this. I wish this was a thing that I could go this

492
00:38:23.280 --> 00:38:28.240
into in the world to teach me. Yeah. And I'm not going to try to make money. Yeah. Like, I'm going

493
00:38:28.240 --> 00:38:33.360
to do it for a year all in, but I'm not going to try to make money. I don't want to make money.

494
00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:38.160
I mean, if the money came great, but it wasn't my intention. It was just to how can I create the best

495
00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:42.480
content to serve people on the things that I wish I would have learned in school growing up.

496
00:38:42.480 --> 00:38:47.600
Yes. School of Greatness. Yeah. And after one year, I was like, man, this thing is really starting

497
00:38:47.600 --> 00:38:52.320
to take off. Yeah. You know, but it wasn't based on how I make as much money. Totally.

498
00:38:52.320 --> 00:38:56.880
There's how do I create something that can really make a lasting change? Yeah. And that

499
00:38:56.880 --> 00:39:03.360
intention is what's made me sustainable for 10 years, loving the process. Totally. So when people

500
00:39:03.360 --> 00:39:07.680
come from a place, when I'm here, you see when they come from a place of that intention of service

501
00:39:07.680 --> 00:39:12.560
or because this needs to be in the world, art, art exists not to do something. It exists to exist.

502
00:39:12.560 --> 00:39:16.800
Right. That's like, no one says, why did you paint that? It's like, it's like needed to come out.

503
00:39:16.800 --> 00:39:21.520
I mean, it's actually express it. Exactly. And so I think that if people chose their businesses that

504
00:39:21.520 --> 00:39:26.320
way, I think, and no, no, no, I'm wrong. I'm all about making money. Like, by all means, go get

505
00:39:26.320 --> 00:39:30.720
your back. Yeah. Yeah. By all means. But I think that what it does is it ends up freeing you to

506
00:39:30.720 --> 00:39:35.760
then make your real impact because then you can start the whatever the next thing. And hopefully

507
00:39:35.760 --> 00:39:38.800
your first thing is that thing. But realistically, it probably isn't. And all I have to do is look at

508
00:39:38.800 --> 00:39:42.400
every entrepreneur that's really wealthy. The amount of graveyard businesses they have in their

509
00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:46.160
back. Right. Right. Right. And so like, right now, if you're listening, and you're like, I'm not sure

510
00:39:46.160 --> 00:39:49.680
if this is the perfect business idea. Let me just save you the time. It's not because look at

511
00:39:49.680 --> 00:39:53.680
every other person who has been ultra successful. They have 10 failed business ideas. So just like

512
00:39:53.680 --> 00:40:00.000
just start. So you can just start notching off the badness. But extending the time horizon,

513
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:05.120
I think only happens if you do shift the intention through Richard building it. Or you're just

514
00:40:05.120 --> 00:40:10.480
unbelievably self-disciplined. But I think it's easier to just like start at it with the right heart

515
00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:15.040
because it's a small tangent, but I think it'll be worth it. Is that the reason that most people

516
00:40:15.040 --> 00:40:19.280
aren't successful in my opinion is that they sacrifice global benefit for local benefit.

517
00:40:19.280 --> 00:40:23.120
And that happens in all areas of life. You eat the piece of cake because you have an acute

518
00:40:23.120 --> 00:40:27.440
local benefit versus the global benefit of a six pack that lasts for a very long time or better

519
00:40:27.440 --> 00:40:32.560
health, et cetera, right? The instant gratification is opposed to delayed gratification.

520
00:40:32.560 --> 00:40:39.040
Exactly. And I just like saying local versus global because it happens in an organization,

521
00:40:39.040 --> 00:40:43.120
for example, sales guys don't want to put the notes in the thing because it's a pain in the

522
00:40:43.120 --> 00:40:47.760
butt to put the notes in the CRM. But finance needs the notes. Customer service needs the

523
00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:52.160
boats. Success needs to know like all of these other departments need those notes for all the

524
00:40:52.160 --> 00:40:56.560
other things that we're going to do. And so it's a local cost but for a global benefit. And so

525
00:40:57.360 --> 00:41:01.520
I think if people were able to delay that immediate gratification, which is like this is the

526
00:41:01.520 --> 00:41:05.760
nature of successes. I think it was funny, man. There was this study that was done. I can't

527
00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:10.720
remember it. But it's a marshmallow test or the other. Okay. I can talk about the marshmallow test.

528
00:41:10.720 --> 00:41:17.840
Okay. So fun, fun one with that with the marshmallow test is measuring how long they delay

529
00:41:17.840 --> 00:41:23.440
for the marshmallow. Uh-huh. So at what point does it not make sense? If they say you can get one

530
00:41:23.440 --> 00:41:27.920
because because they like everyone simplifies the experiment, which is like if I give you a marshmallow

531
00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:32.400
one now or you can get two later, right? But what if two is in a year? Yeah, you're like, I don't

532
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:37.360
care. I'll take the one now. Right. So then the next question I would have is like if you were to

533
00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:42.640
test kids and then say at what point the global versus local crosses would be and then track

534
00:41:42.640 --> 00:41:47.520
the kids who had the longest marshmallow waiting period. Because then you could measure how long

535
00:41:47.520 --> 00:41:51.760
they were successful. Probably a light. Yeah. Really interesting. Just total side note. Uh-huh.

536
00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:56.480
The three things I think were in common of the ultra successful were inflated sense of self

537
00:41:57.200 --> 00:42:00.480
as in they thought that they like they deserve big things. They wanted to go after big things.

538
00:42:00.480 --> 00:42:04.240
They believed in themselves, right? In theory already, never being good enough.

539
00:42:04.800 --> 00:42:09.760
Hmm. In impulse control. Those are the three factors of the most successful. They're like when

540
00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:13.520
they did a common factors now. So it's like these people think they believe that they can achieve

541
00:42:13.520 --> 00:42:18.480
all this amazing stuff and then it's just it's an amazing paradox because at the same time they

542
00:42:18.480 --> 00:42:23.280
think they're not good enough and they are insecure about whether they they can achieve it. And

543
00:42:23.920 --> 00:42:28.720
they have impulse control. And so it's like if you have a plan. Yeah. Right. And they just they

544
00:42:28.720 --> 00:42:33.280
and they stay focused on the thing. I see the biggest breakthroughs that I've had I think that

545
00:42:33.280 --> 00:42:39.280
will create a lot of the wealth that we will have in the future is is really a deep understanding

546
00:42:39.280 --> 00:42:45.120
of how long long is and shooting with the intention of like I'm only bringing this up because

547
00:42:45.120 --> 00:42:48.400
my YouTube guy said it because like I've never had somebody who actually started that I was like

548
00:42:48.480 --> 00:42:53.840
we'll see what we do in five years. I was like we'll measure that and he was like no one has

549
00:42:53.840 --> 00:42:57.600
literally ever said that to me. I was like as long as I see progress I'm good because like what's

550
00:42:57.600 --> 00:43:02.560
results in like two months. Yeah. Yeah. Like if we're making if we're going this way I'm cool. I don't

551
00:43:02.560 --> 00:43:07.600
need to say like that's good enough for most people if if they could extend the time horizon because

552
00:43:07.600 --> 00:43:12.160
like I'll give you another hack. You can know how wealthy someone is based on the time horizons they

553
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speaking. Give me an example. So if someone's talking about how they're trying to make you know

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make money this today I hate let me hold 20 for today. You know how poor they are. I have to say

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poor like you know how poor they are right. If someone's talking about what they're going to make

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this week or this month or this quarter or this year or this decade you know how different the

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people are who are talking in those time horizons. And so I think that if we can shift the time

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horizon that we think in then we gain more leverage over our time which we then know we will

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compound into money because I think if you can master the time you master.