WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.760
That's fair. This is equal. Both are ideals, and yet somehow they're not the same thing,

2
00:00:05.760 --> 00:00:10.080
and yet both are right. And so because of that, we will always have this conflict. It's the same

3
00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:16.480
thing between justice and mercy. Both of them are ideals, both of them are right, and yet somehow

4
00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:22.800
they're conflicting. The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game. This podcast,

5
00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:26.640
the game is my attempt at documenting the lessons I've learned on my way to building acquisition.com

6
00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:30.000
into a billion dollar portfolio. My hope is that you use the lessons to grow your business,

7
00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:33.920
and maybe someday soon partner with us to get $200 million in beyond. I hope you share and enjoy.

8
00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:42.160
When I was in the beginning of my entrepreneurial career, I would read a book on delegation,

9
00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:46.960
and as soon as I read the book, I was like, okay, this is a delegate. And then I would come back to

10
00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:50.240
the team and be like, all right, delegate, delegate, delegate, delegate, delegate. And I'd be like,

11
00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:54.640
all right, y'all are good. And then I would dip out. And then we all kind of know how the story is

12
00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:59.520
probably going to go. Me being super excited about business and thinking that things are going to,

13
00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:03.040
you know, things are going to run themselves right now that I've delegated everything. I'm

14
00:01:03.040 --> 00:01:06.320
a big boss man. And then of course, I would check in a few weeks later, and then things weren't

15
00:01:06.320 --> 00:01:12.320
done the way I wanted to. And then of course, you know, I read super, you know, a bunch of books on

16
00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:16.320
management, et cetera. And then I dive super far ahead and start micromanaging everyone,

17
00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:21.440
trying to control everything. And then yet again, the problem would arise where people were not

18
00:01:21.440 --> 00:01:24.800
doing what I wanted them to do. But for different reasons, because they felt completely stifled,

19
00:01:24.800 --> 00:01:27.760
they wouldn't take initiative because they felt like they needed my sign off and everything. And then

20
00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:32.800
I'm basically a huge bottleneck in the business yet again, but in a different way. And so I say that

21
00:01:33.440 --> 00:01:38.320
to illustrate one of the thinking frameworks that has served me well. And I'm actually really excited

22
00:01:38.320 --> 00:01:42.240
to talk about this because when I talk to people, I think a lot of people think that I'm told that

23
00:01:42.240 --> 00:01:47.600
sometimes I communicate some ideas well. And so what I wanted to do was provide you the frameworks

24
00:01:47.600 --> 00:01:51.360
for thinking through thoughts. And I know that sounds crazy, but I'm going to give you four different

25
00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:55.840
frameworks that work really well for me. And I'll try to give you examples of each one of them.

26
00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:00.960
So the example that I started with that little story, right, is an example of something where most

27
00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:08.080
people try and solve how much management first should I delegate or should I manage, right?

28
00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:14.000
And instead of thinking of it as a problem to be solved, it is instead a dichotomy to be managed.

29
00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:20.000
As in, micro-managing is not good on this extreme and complete delegation on this side is not good

30
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:25.200
either way, right, abdication. And so there's a middle ground. And so what's interesting about this is

31
00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:32.080
that there are a lot of different things that come up in the business world where I will see people

32
00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:37.920
conflate or mistake what thing they are solving, right? And most times when I'm talking to a new

33
00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:42.240
entrepreneur or even a more established entrepreneur and they reach out for help or guidance or whatever,

34
00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:47.920
or it's one of our portfolio companies, most times they'll start talking really fast about all

35
00:02:47.920 --> 00:02:51.680
this stuff to try and provide context. And I'll just usually pause them and be like, what problem

36
00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:56.480
are we solving? It usually gets them to stop, right? And I would highly advise you, if you're

37
00:02:56.480 --> 00:03:00.720
if you're dealing with, if you have subordinates or you have direct reports who roll into you and

38
00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:05.200
they have a whole bunch of decisions, a lot of times you can get caught. And sometimes ourselves too,

39
00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:10.640
we can get caught in the day-to-day, the minutiae and just simply pause and say, what problem are we

40
00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:13.760
solving? There's so many pieces of this that I want to unpack that I think are going to be really

41
00:03:13.760 --> 00:03:17.680
interesting for you. But the first one is when you define what problems you are solving, you

42
00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:21.680
may even have to ask the question, is that a problem? When some people are like, well, hey,

43
00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:26.640
we're getting customer service complaints. It's like, okay, understood. Is this something that we

44
00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:30.640
believe that we can reasonably eliminate? Is this something that is catastrophic to the business

45
00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:34.400
or is this something that we can kind of try and improve over time through systems and process?

46
00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:39.440
Right? And so a lot of times people misprioritize problems because they perceive them as

47
00:03:39.440 --> 00:03:44.080
as threats to existence when in reality they are a course of doing business and things that

48
00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:47.680
we can constantly improve, right? Especially if you're newer. You're starting out, of course,

49
00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:51.360
your product's not going to be perfect yet, right? You're just getting going. But you improve

50
00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:55.120
these things rather than thinking, I have to stop everything to fix this problem, right? And so

51
00:03:55.120 --> 00:04:00.480
the first frame shift is that most people think in terms of like, I have a problem to solve,

52
00:04:00.480 --> 00:04:04.960
rather than a dichotomy to be managed. As in, these are two things that will always exist. All right,

53
00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:10.240
I'll give you a different example of this. Actually, this will be a fun one. The reason we will

54
00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:15.920
probably never have people who are all happy about a tax code is because you cannot have both fairness

55
00:04:16.640 --> 00:04:22.080
and equality. Equality means everyone pays 10%. Fairness means the rich people pay more than the

56
00:04:22.080 --> 00:04:28.480
poor people. That's fair. This is equal. Both are ideals and yet somehow they're not the same

57
00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:32.960
thing and yet both are right. And so because of that, we will always have this conflict. It's the

58
00:04:32.960 --> 00:04:39.680
same thing between justice and mercy. Both of them are ideals. Both of them are right. And yet somehow

59
00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:45.040
they're conflicting. And so we see these situations. And this is why I'm trying to hopefully give

60
00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:49.840
this to you because the more I started to recognize these patterns, the more quickly I could recognize

61
00:04:49.840 --> 00:04:53.920
them and then identify them and then either dismiss them or say, oh, it's another one of those,

62
00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:57.440
right? It's a pattern recognition. It's like, oh, you guys are spending all this effort,

63
00:04:57.440 --> 00:05:01.280
trying to solve a problem that is unsolvable. This is a dichotomy that must be managed and will

64
00:05:01.280 --> 00:05:06.480
never be eliminated. And so I think what my goal with this is if I can help you get out of these

65
00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:13.520
little mental hamster wheels, it's been incredibly valuable for me. All right. So that's the dichotomy.

66
00:05:13.520 --> 00:05:16.960
That's like one of the things that people will mistake. The mistake a dichotomy for a problem

67
00:05:16.960 --> 00:05:22.960
that needs to be solved. All right. Amos and Asian quick break just to let you know that we've

68
00:05:22.960 --> 00:05:26.800
been starting to post on LinkedIn and want to connect with you. All right. So send me a

69
00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.400
connection request and note letting me know that you listened to the show and I will accept it.

70
00:05:30.400 --> 00:05:34.880
There's anyone you think that we should be connected with, tag them in one of my or Lailess posts.

71
00:05:34.880 --> 00:05:38.080
And I will give you all the love in the world. All right. So let's get back to the show.

72
00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:50.000
Another framework that I find immensely valuable is the concept of a continuum versus a binary.

73
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.720
All right. This is probably one of the biggest mental errors that people make when they're

74
00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:59.840
trying to identify things. And this is what I mean by that. So for example, I might say,

75
00:05:59.840 --> 00:06:06.160
I'll use a weight loss example. So people will say something like I am off my diet or I'm on my

76
00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:10.640
diet, right? It's a very simple thing. And that's because psychologically we like to be binary.

77
00:06:10.640 --> 00:06:17.040
We like to label things as yes or no. But biology and reality exists on continuums as in to what

78
00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:22.560
extent did you go off of your diet, right? Did you go 200 calories over? Do you go 500 calories over?

79
00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:28.560
And as even though it is more difficult to think in this way, it is also more accurate. And so our

80
00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:34.560
brain uses binaries as placeholders for decision making to store data, right? When in reality,

81
00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:38.640
when you start storing all these binary decisions, they start adding up and you start getting more and

82
00:06:38.640 --> 00:06:43.200
more inaccurate. That's a word on your decision making process because you're actually basing your

83
00:06:43.200 --> 00:06:49.760
decisions not on facts, but based on binary shorthand that your brain saves. And so that is one of the

84
00:06:49.760 --> 00:06:54.560
biggest mistakes that I see all the time in thinking in entrepreneurs and really in anything in

85
00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:59.040
general because we like to have that shorthand, it is easier, right? It's easier to say I fell

86
00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:04.080
off my diet or I am diabetic. When the reality is it's not whether you are diabetic, it's how

87
00:07:04.080 --> 00:07:08.800
diabetic are you, right? Kind of interesting. I stole that from Dr. Cashy, but I just love that.

88
00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:11.680
Who's my closest friend? He's a biochemist and we talk about this stuff all the time.

89
00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:17.040
Point being, if you can think about this within, I'll give you a business example. So if we have a

90
00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:23.680
a binary where people are saying yes or no, which is let's say Facebook doesn't work, marketing

91
00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:26.720
doesn't work. I hear these statements all the time and you may laugh at this, right? But I get

92
00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:30.960
DMs like this all the time. Facebook doesn't work for me. Marketing doesn't work for me.

93
00:07:30.960 --> 00:07:36.160
Like you can't sell this way in my business, right? And so people want to shorten a problem into

94
00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:41.600
yes, it works. No, it doesn't work when so much of business and problem solving is understanding

95
00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:45.760
the nuance between where we're starting and where we're going. And it's to what extent

96
00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:51.760
has Facebook not worked, right? Where is the fall off, right? It is not that it doesn't work. It is

97
00:07:51.760 --> 00:07:56.400
just we only got it to work this percent, right? Now we need to get all the way over the hump

98
00:07:56.400 --> 00:08:00.960
to get there, but it's to what extent. And I think that when I, if you can ask the right

99
00:08:00.960 --> 00:08:05.360
questions, if you can see the problems as they truly are, they become far more solvable.

100
00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:12.240
And so this has been probably, I just give you two of my best frames that I think with all the time.

101
00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:18.240
All right, so I'll say these again. So the first mental lapse I'll say that I see all the time

102
00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:24.080
is mistaking a dichotomy that needs to be managed for a problem that needs to be solved.

103
00:08:24.080 --> 00:08:28.480
People do this in their marriages as well, right? So you look at your wife, right?

104
00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:33.600
You look at your wife and you're like, I need more variety, right? But later you're like, I need

105
00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:37.760
more consistency. And you're like, we have to figure this out. We need variety. We need consistency.

106
00:08:37.760 --> 00:08:41.920
It's like, yes, you need both, right? And so it's not a problem to be solved to dichotomy to be

107
00:08:41.920 --> 00:08:46.720
managed. So that's framework number one. The second framework between two things that I see

108
00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:52.000
as a problem that most people make is that they use a psychological binary to make a judgment

109
00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:55.600
and say, yes, this works. No, this doesn't work. Or yes, this is this way or no,

110
00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.480
this not this way so that I can apply this arbitrary label that was made up.

111
00:08:59.280 --> 00:09:05.680
When instead, it is to what extent, right? It is a continuum. I did not go off my diet or stay

112
00:09:05.680 --> 00:09:11.520
on my diet. It is how far off did I go? And a lot of times when we do that, we also can stop the

113
00:09:11.520 --> 00:09:15.040
the mental judgment of being terrible people because we can actually approach reality,

114
00:09:15.040 --> 00:09:20.560
which is I was 10% over yesterday. So I can go 10% under today and be fine and be on track with

115
00:09:20.560 --> 00:09:26.240
my goal rather than, oh, I was off. I might as well eat 19 pizzas because I'm off because that's

116
00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:33.040
the psychological shorthand, the psychological binary of yes or no. And so those two understandings

117
00:09:33.040 --> 00:09:37.520
have underpinned a lot of the breakthroughs in terms of how I think through things that have

118
00:09:37.520 --> 00:09:42.320
served me well. And also, when talking to entrepreneurs and they're trying to figure out what is

119
00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:48.480
wrong, quote, wrong with their business, when in reality, even naming it as a problem might

120
00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:53.040
actually not be the case when it is actually a dichotomy that needs to be managed or they're

121
00:09:53.040 --> 00:09:57.280
labeling a binary when it really is a continuum. All right. And so if you look at the problems that

122
00:09:57.280 --> 00:10:00.000
come up in your life, whether they're personal, whether they're physical, whether they're

123
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:05.920
with their business wise, if you look at just with those two lenses first and me sharing this,

124
00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:10.320
like these are the things that like Charlie Mugger talks about having a lattice work of mental

125
00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:13.920
models. Like, how are the, you know, any checks through decisions with mental models? And so I

126
00:10:13.920 --> 00:10:18.880
want to share as many of those as I possibly can with you guys because I think if we can think,

127
00:10:18.880 --> 00:10:22.400
if we can be precise with our language, we can prove precise with our thinking. If we can ask

128
00:10:22.400 --> 00:10:26.320
the right questions, we will get the right answers. If you ask stupid questions, you get stupid

129
00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:29.920
answers. If you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. And so my goal for everyone here in

130
00:10:29.920 --> 00:10:35.600
Mosination is that we do not play stupid games and not win stupid prizes, but instead get exactly

131
00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:45.600
what we desire so that we can then ask the bigger questions of life.