WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.360
What we're doing here is we're trying to decrease the anxieties and the stressors and

2
00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:10.080
the noise that normally will confound the decision making process because they'll start

3
00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:14.200
triggering the motions that will then force you to start finding and nitpicking different

4
00:00:14.200 --> 00:00:20.800
data points to then make a supposedly rational decision that is wrong.

5
00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.120
The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game.

6
00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:26.560
This podcast, the game, is my attempt at documenting the lessons I've learned on my way to building

7
00:00:26.560 --> 00:00:29.160
acquisition.com into a billion dollar portfolio.

8
00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:32.000
I hope is that you use the lessons to grow your business and maybe someday soon partner

9
00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:33.640
with us to get to a hundred million dollars in beyond.

10
00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:39.840
I hope you share and enjoy.

11
00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:45.040
I've had to make a number of decisions that had a nine-figure ramification on my personal

12
00:00:45.040 --> 00:00:46.560
net worth.

13
00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:50.440
What I want to walk you through is the actual decision making framework or process that

14
00:00:50.440 --> 00:00:53.840
I use to create those.

15
00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:56.680
The most important things that we have in our lives are our decisions.

16
00:00:56.680 --> 00:00:59.360
One of the things that I live by is that we're one decision away from changing our life

17
00:00:59.360 --> 00:01:00.360
forever.

18
00:01:00.360 --> 00:01:02.880
You're one decision away from drinking and getting killed in a car accident.

19
00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:06.600
You're one decision away from cheating on your spouse and destroying your marriage.

20
00:01:06.600 --> 00:01:10.560
You're one terrible comment away from destroying your child.

21
00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:14.040
You're also one decision away from destroying your business if you so chose.

22
00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:19.680
Decisions are the wellspring of life or at least the train track splits of where we're going

23
00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:21.800
to end up.

24
00:01:21.800 --> 00:01:25.520
Learning to make the decisions is an important concept, but believe it or not, for this

25
00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:31.080
video, what I want to focus on is actually the environment under which to make the decision.

26
00:01:31.080 --> 00:01:34.480
During this process, one of the things that was very frustrating for me and this decision

27
00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:39.760
took me about 12 months to make and I'll explain what the decision was in the future, but

28
00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:44.800
it's safe to say it was a hugely impactful decision in my life financially and otherwise.

29
00:01:44.800 --> 00:01:48.920
One of the difficulties that I was having is that the information that I had was not changing

30
00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:52.840
and yet my decision of which way to go continued to falter.

31
00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:57.440
So I kept ping ponging you back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.

32
00:01:57.440 --> 00:02:04.280
And so I was like, it's not my decision making process and the data that I have to make

33
00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:10.520
this decision is unchanging and yet at different days, I would have different outcomes, which

34
00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:16.920
to me is a big red flag danger alert in terms of a leading indicator of a bad decision.

35
00:02:16.920 --> 00:02:21.280
And so mind you, as a quick caveat to this, this is not how you need to make all the decisions

36
00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:22.280
in your life.

37
00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:26.280
I would say that you should find and use this process for the most important decisions

38
00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:27.280
you make in your life.

39
00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:28.280
All right.

40
00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:29.280
Who are you going to marry?

41
00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:30.280
Where are you going to live?

42
00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:32.280
What are you going to work on?

43
00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:33.280
Right?

44
00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:35.600
What are you going to, like, those are the decisions, are we going to make this big strategic

45
00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:36.960
change in our business?

46
00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:40.720
Those are big irreversible decisions.

47
00:02:40.720 --> 00:02:46.400
And that's the key for me is that if a decision is irreversible, comma, and has downstream

48
00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:50.560
consequences, then those are the ones that take more time to analyze.

49
00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:51.560
All right.

50
00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:56.160
Now, here's the piece that I was missing in my equation for making these decisions, which

51
00:02:56.160 --> 00:02:59.840
I want to share with you, all right.

52
00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:04.200
One of the key pieces of how we decide is the brain chemistry that is going on.

53
00:03:04.200 --> 00:03:07.880
And so whether you have lots of dopamine, lots of serotonin that are circling around in

54
00:03:07.880 --> 00:03:10.560
your brain, we'll ultimately find how you make decisions.

55
00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:13.960
Believe it or not, we are 100% emotional decision makers.

56
00:03:13.960 --> 00:03:18.040
The thing is is what we want to do is control the extent to which the emotions control our

57
00:03:18.040 --> 00:03:19.040
decisions.

58
00:03:19.040 --> 00:03:20.040
All right.

59
00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:23.760
If you don't acknowledge that emotions weigh into all of your decisions, even your

60
00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:26.080
quote rational ones, you are lost.

61
00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:27.080
All right.

62
00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:31.760
So what you can do is first identify when you are feeling emotional.

63
00:03:31.760 --> 00:03:35.080
And a lot of guys feel like this is like a food food turn.

64
00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:36.360
If you're angry, it's emotional.

65
00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:37.680
If you're insecure, that's emotional.

66
00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:40.880
Like there are other emotions besides being a pansy, right?

67
00:03:40.880 --> 00:03:44.360
If you have emotions, I have emotions right now, right?

68
00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:49.400
Which for whatever reason, anyways, back to the point is if you have emotions,

69
00:03:50.440 --> 00:03:53.720
it decreases the speed with which you make decisions.

70
00:03:53.720 --> 00:03:56.240
And mistakes love a rush decision.

71
00:03:56.240 --> 00:03:58.920
You can say it with me, mistakes love a rush decision.

72
00:03:58.920 --> 00:04:02.000
It's one of the credos that Layla and I live by, all right?

73
00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.600
So the environment under which we make this decision is important.

74
00:04:05.600 --> 00:04:08.400
Now, we have to acknowledge the biases that we have.

75
00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:11.080
Here's where emotions get even worse.

76
00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:13.320
You have two biases that you have to fight against.

77
00:04:13.320 --> 00:04:18.080
One is confirmation bias, which is your emotional soup in your brain is going to say,

78
00:04:18.080 --> 00:04:20.480
this is what I want because this is how I feel safe.

79
00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:26.520
Then your logical brain will search out reasons or data to support that thing, right?

80
00:04:26.520 --> 00:04:28.400
It's like making an argument to yourself.

81
00:04:28.400 --> 00:04:30.920
The problem is you may change your argument,

82
00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:32.520
but it's not going to change reality,

83
00:04:32.520 --> 00:04:37.000
which means that the decision can be good or bad based on the soup that we started

84
00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.840
as the predisposition towards how we were going to gather data.

85
00:04:40.840 --> 00:04:43.040
The second is conviction bias,

86
00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:47.000
which is how convicted am I in this thing or this decision?

87
00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.720
The more you believe in it or the more you want the positive outcome to occur,

88
00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:54.760
the more you will purposefully blind yourself because you want to save your ego

89
00:04:54.760 --> 00:05:01.080
and how you feel about yourself because it makes you feel good to think about this positive outcome.

90
00:05:01.080 --> 00:05:05.160
But it does not affect the percentage likely that it actually occurs in the real world.

91
00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:09.560
Just why you see other people because you can be rational about others, right?

92
00:05:09.560 --> 00:05:12.000
You see other people make these terrible decisions and you think yourself,

93
00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.200
why on God's earth would they make those decisions?

94
00:05:14.200 --> 00:05:17.960
When in reality, that person is you and it's other people who are looking at you, right?

95
00:05:17.960 --> 00:05:18.760
Real talk.

96
00:05:20.760 --> 00:05:25.240
Real quick wise, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this and I don't sell anything.

97
00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:28.480
And so the only ask that I can ever have are you guys that you help me spread the words

98
00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:31.680
so we can have more entrepreneurs, make more money, feed their families,

99
00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:35.680
make better products and have better experiences for their employees and customers.

100
00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:40.120
And the only way we do that is if you can rate and review and share this podcast.

101
00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:42.720
So the single thing that I asked you to do is you can just leave review

102
00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:46.760
for 10 seconds or one type of a thumb to the absolute world to me and more importantly,

103
00:05:46.760 --> 00:05:48.480
it may change the world for someone else.

104
00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:57.760
So this is how I have learned to help mitigate or decrease the emotional impact,

105
00:05:57.760 --> 00:06:00.960
or the impact that my emotions have on my decision making process

106
00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:06.480
so that I can at least be as rational as I can possibly be and operate from the stance

107
00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:10.640
that will benefit myself in the highest degree in a long run, all right?

108
00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:12.200
So here's what it is.

109
00:06:12.200 --> 00:06:16.760
Number one is that I make sure that I am well rested when I make the decision.

110
00:06:16.760 --> 00:06:21.360
So if I didn't have like a really good night's sleep, like everybody knows like there's like normal sleep,

111
00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:23.800
there's bad sleep, there's like decent sleep,

112
00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.400
but I'm talking like you wake up like a newborn child.

113
00:06:26.400 --> 00:06:30.160
I recognize those days and I joke with Layla about it.

114
00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:32.480
So I'm like, man, I slept like a cherub last night.

115
00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:37.800
Like if you've got so many big decisions, I'm like, let's make them now because I feel completely clear, all right?

116
00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:42.040
So number one is very, very good sleep.

117
00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:45.560
Number two, and this may sound fucking obvious, but people don't do this, all right?

118
00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:48.360
Number two is to be well fed, all right?

119
00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:52.680
When we are well fed, our serotonin levels, our w levels, et cetera,

120
00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:55.080
all get elevated in our body, all right?

121
00:06:55.080 --> 00:06:59.760
Like you feel better after you eat and here's a fun one for you.

122
00:06:59.760 --> 00:07:03.640
Your body interprets stress, both physical and emotional the same way.

123
00:07:03.640 --> 00:07:05.160
It's a cortisol response.

124
00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:10.600
And so you in a very real way, when you eat more are more stress tolerant.

125
00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:11.760
It's why people do it.

126
00:07:11.760 --> 00:07:16.480
It's why people stressing because you do cope and make yourself more resilient,

127
00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:18.600
to stress when you eat more.

128
00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:20.480
So I'm not saying you do this all the time,

129
00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:22.160
but if you're going to make a big decision,

130
00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:26.200
you want to make sure that you are well fed and well rested, all right?

131
00:07:26.200 --> 00:07:31.440
And what we're doing here is we're trying to decrease the anxieties and the stressors

132
00:07:31.440 --> 00:07:35.760
and the noise that normally will confound the decision making process

133
00:07:35.760 --> 00:07:38.960
because they'll start triggering emotions that will then force you to start

134
00:07:38.960 --> 00:07:41.160
finding and nitpicking different data points

135
00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:45.000
to then make a supposedly rational decision that is wrong, right?

136
00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:46.800
And that it's there to protect your ego

137
00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:50.040
rather than what is going to serve you best in the long run.

138
00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:54.160
And the third piece of the environment that I try and create is if I can,

139
00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:57.880
I try and get space away from the day-to-day activities that I have.

140
00:07:57.880 --> 00:08:03.840
So be that a vacation or literally just removing yourself from the normal space where you operate.

141
00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:08.960
And because those spaces have anchors in your mind that you have made decisions in the past,

142
00:08:08.960 --> 00:08:12.920
you have emotional occurrences that have happened in the room or at the desk that you work at, right?

143
00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:15.040
And so you have these anchorings that are around you

144
00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:21.120
and you want to remove yourself from those things so that you can have as few outside influences

145
00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:23.640
on the decision as you possibly can, all right?

146
00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:25.080
Now, here's the trick.

147
00:08:25.080 --> 00:08:29.760
Is that once you create this environment, right?

148
00:08:29.760 --> 00:08:35.320
You want to make the decision from a place of needing nothing.

149
00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:38.840
And so the definition of abundance is having everything you need,

150
00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:43.520
which the corollary or the reverse of that is to need nothing else, is to have enough.

151
00:08:43.520 --> 00:08:52.120
And so when you have enough, you will not need this decision to get you anything at all.

152
00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:57.880
And so the key to make as rational of a decision as you possibly can is to not care about the outcome either way

153
00:08:57.880 --> 00:09:04.600
and to realize that you already have everything you need or want key point.

154
00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:08.080
And so if you have everything you want and you're well rested and you're well fed

155
00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:13.720
and you're surrounded by the people that you love and you realize the things that are important in life, right?

156
00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:19.560
All of a sudden, it will help you appropriately weigh the decision that you were trying to make.

157
00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:23.800
And so I don't know if anyone here who's listening to this has an important decision that they must make.

158
00:09:23.800 --> 00:09:26.160
But these are the four steps.

159
00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:28.480
Number one, rest.

160
00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:30.560
Number two, eat.

161
00:09:30.560 --> 00:09:32.760
Number three, separate.

162
00:09:32.760 --> 00:09:36.360
Number four, operate from a place of needing nothing.

163
00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:39.840
And when you have those four frames that are stacked on top of each other,

164
00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:43.560
they can disenhibit to a great degree,

165
00:09:43.560 --> 00:09:45.760
the extent to which your emotions will influence your decisions.

166
00:09:45.760 --> 00:09:53.160
They still will, but ideally secondarily so or at a lower percentage of influence.

167
00:09:53.160 --> 00:09:58.040
And so it gives us just enough room to peak our heads and get above our emotional cloud

168
00:09:58.040 --> 00:10:00.560
and make a decision that's truly rational.

169
00:10:00.560 --> 00:10:05.000
And when we make more rational decisions, we live a much easier life.

170
00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:06.560
All right, I'll say that firsthand.

171
00:10:06.560 --> 00:10:09.760
A lot of the decisions I made in my past, they were based on emotions,

172
00:10:09.760 --> 00:10:11.440
ended up really budding in the ass,

173
00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:13.400
especially when I had lots of emotions,

174
00:10:13.400 --> 00:10:17.320
and I acted really quickly in large ways against irreversible decisions,

175
00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:19.480
great recipe for a terrible life.

176
00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:23.120
And so the opposite of that, if we're trying to use Charlie Munger's inversion process,

177
00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:25.640
is how would I make a terrible decision?

178
00:10:25.640 --> 00:10:29.800
I wouldn't be arrested, I'd be hungry, I'd be rushed, right?

179
00:10:29.800 --> 00:10:32.560
I'd be anchored around all the things that stress me out.

180
00:10:32.560 --> 00:10:36.400
And I would make sure that it's operating from place of having to have the thing.

181
00:10:36.400 --> 00:10:39.120
So we look at those things and we reverse them all

182
00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:41.840
to stack in our favor so that we can have the best possible decision.