26 Harsh Lessons I Learned in 2025

My companies did over $250 million in revenue last year. I broke a Guinness World Record for the fastest selling non-fiction book of all time. I did $106 million in sales in under three days. My mother also died last year.

And I want to compress everything that I learned this last year into this video for you. For 8 years, I've had the habit of texting myself lessons as they came

for you. For 8 years, I've had the habit of texting myself lessons as they came up so I wouldn't forget them. And every year, I make one video like this. And

every year, it is my most listened to podcast that I have. And so this is 2025 lessons and failures. The first is that fear exists in the fig. And so if you're afraid to take the risk, write it down in excruciating detail what you're

actually afraid of having happen. Like really step by step what happens next when you fail. You'll often find it's not that bad when you spell it out

because it only exists when it's hazy, not when it's crisp. Because when you actually play it out, okay, maybe you do go back home. And what does going back home really mean? It means that you go back in your old room or maybe you sleep

on a couch or maybe you sleep on a friend's couch. And so besides the rules that you believe other people have on your life that you think you're breaking, that is all made up cuz they don't really care that much because no one really cares that much about anyone besides themselves. It's all make

believe. And I think that when you get as specific as humanly possible, but

believe. And I think that when you get as specific as humanly possible, but like I don't want to I don't want to post this content. What? because you're

afraid that some unnamed account or some named account will write words on a screen that will read that you'll read that will make your your feelings go away. Like that's that is what will stop you from achieving your goal. Having a

away. Like that's that is what will stop you from achieving your goal. Having a

stranger tell you to [ __ ] off because you reached out is is the reason. That's

it. Like you're like I didn't achieve my goals because I was afraid that somebody I don't know would tell me that I suck. When you say it like that, you're like [ __ ] Now let's say a different version. I didn't achieve my potential. I never

pursued any of my goals because someone I know, I was afraid that they would say that they didn't approve of my behavior anymore. Maybe you shouldn't a care what they think or b have them in your life. And so when I decided to launch this

book, $100 million Money Models, the goal was to do $100 million in the weekend. And I made that goal public within the company so everybody knew.

weekend. And I made that goal public within the company so everybody knew.

And one of the people on my team said, "Well, what if we don't hit it?" And I remember almost being like disgusted. Like that was like my my physical reaction to to when that person said that. And I remember just looking at him

and I was like, "Dare greatly, motherfucker." Like what's the point?

Like if we if we [ __ ] up, we die trying. You know what I mean? Like so what? But

like we're going to still fight like hell to try and make it happen. And so

the fact that he asked that really just made me think like what does he think I'm afraid of? If I if I said, "Hey guys, we're gonna hit we're gonna try and hit 100 million." We hit 80 or we hit 70, whatever. I'm like, "Okay, boohoo. We made a bunch of money. We got a ton of people books in their hands

boohoo. We made a bunch of money. We got a ton of people books in their hands that can help them. What are we going to do? We'll try again next year." Like,

well, what what if people don't take you seriously? I don't think people are going to not take me seriously because people will take you as serious as you take yourself. And if you are serious about your goals and your commitment to

take yourself. And if you are serious about your goals and your commitment to those goals, people can visibly observe. There is no one that will fault you for daring greatly. Period. And anyone who does doesn't matter. And one of my

daring greatly. Period. And anyone who does doesn't matter. And one of my favorite quotes, like man, it's probably like a top 10 quote for me all time, which I have a lot of quotes, is from Marcus Aurelius. He said, "What are you

so afraid of losing when nothing in this world belongs to you?" And so it's like we're here on borrowed time to acquire borrowed assets and borrowed resources and at the end of the game, you're just going to push your chips to the middle

and somebody else is going to take your chair. That's it. Out of coins. And so

it's like we're just we're just in the game. Like we're just here. We're we're

renting. We're leasers, right? None of this is permanent. And so the idea that we'd fear some permanent outcome from an impermanent existence, the longer I've been in the game, the more disgusted I am by that feeling and by someone

questioning that. And so I share that with you because when that when that uh

questioning that. And so I share that with you because when that when that uh young man said that to me, it was just a great reminder of like we ended up hitting the 100 million. We did 106. But like you have to you have to you have to

believe on some level that you can hit it. And you also have to believe even more that you will die trying. And I think that your commitment has to be to the effort that you're willing to put forth. And completely divorced of the outcome. I believed that we could hit it because all the math made sense.

outcome. I believed that we could hit it because all the math made sense.

But could I ultimately control whether ads got delivered or you know an account gets shut down or or you know the the internet doesn't work or there's a storm that day and all the power gener of course there are things that could

happen. So in no way I just want to make sure that I put 100% effort on all the

happen. So in no way I just want to make sure that I put 100% effort on all the things that I can control and then after that you roll the [ __ ] dice and you stack as many chips as you can in your favor. And then after that you let the

cards fall where they will. And so that was a very big reminder for me this year was that like nothing great was ever accomplished by someone who was afraid

to try because of what they thought other people would think or say about them. So that was number one. The second one is that I feel like the longer that

them. So that was number one. The second one is that I feel like the longer that I've been in this game, the more I feel like mental toughness matters more than motivation. And so mental toughness comes down to four things which

motivation. And so mental toughness comes down to four things which obviously when my mother died I had to think through like how am I going to respond to this obviously negative event in my life and that she died all of a

sudden no one thought it was going to happen it was just very fast which in some ways I can be very grateful for right she didn't have like a long suffering period and so there are four things that I think happen when any negative event occurs something against your preferences something bad is that

the first level is how much bad stuff can happen before you force it to change the way you live. The second component is okay something rattles you enough that you start you change the way you behave. Once you change the way you

behave basically how upset do you get? How low do you go? Somebody who's more mentally tough would take longer to get upset and then if they do get do get upset they do snap. They only change their behavior a tiny bit. That's it.

So, they're not like, "Oh, I'm going to go start taking heroin and I'm going to go cheat on my wife and I'm going to go, you know, drive drunk." They're like, "I might have some ice cream tonight." Right? And then once they're on that

negative path, the next level of our element of mental toughness is how fast do you come back, which is resiliency. How fast do you rebound back to where you were? Are you somebody who, you know, someone says a cross word to you,

you were? Are you somebody who, you know, someone says a cross word to you, old school cross, right? bet something mean to you and then you let it bother you for a week, you let it bother you for two weeks, a month before you rebound. Even if it was a small thing and a small change of behavior, if you

rebound. Even if it was a small thing and a small change of behavior, if you have low resiliency, it just takes you a long time to get to baseline. And then

the fourth element is when you do rebound, how much do you rebound? Do you

just rebound below where you were? Did it per by the way, that's a traumatic event. It permanently changed you your behavior. Do you get back to baseline?

event. It permanently changed you your behavior. Do you get back to baseline?

So it didn't permanently change you. Was not traumatic. or you go above baseline.

You adapt. You're better than you were before the bad thing happened. Which, by

the way, also traumatizes you. Because for those of you who hear this all over social media, translate the word trauma into a permanent change in behavior from

an aversive bad stimulus thing that happened. So trauma means that you just change. You permanently change the way you act when something bad happens. Is

change. You permanently change the way you act when something bad happens. Is

there a world where you can change how you act permanently? Where you behave better than you did before? Yeah. Many of you, many humans, not the current generation, let's say a generation or two back, were traumatized by your

parents many times. Sometimes with a belt, sometimes with a hanger, sometimes with a spoon, sometimes with a hand, sometimes with a shoe or a slipper, sometimes at your head. Who knows? The point is is that you did something, you

got smacked, and then you permanently stopped doing that. They traumatized

you. Was trauma bad in that situation? No. It's only bad if it permanently changes your behavior in a way that is against the type of person that you want to be or the types of behaviors that you prefer to to act in or do. And so when I

thought about those things and I was forced this year to like actually define like what is mental toughness? People throw this out a lot. like how can I measure this? And then if I can measure it, then it means that I can improve it.

measure this? And then if I can measure it, then it means that I can improve it.

And so when someone says, "Hey man, toughen up or get mentally tougher."

Now, at least you have four variables that you can think of in your mind. I

want to take longer for something to change the way I act. If it does change the way I act, I want it to change it as little as possible. And if I notice that my behavior has changed, I want to rebound as quickly as I can. As soon as I notice that it changes, and then not only that, I want to be better for it,

not worse. And then that's what happens. And the shift that occurs is that life

not worse. And then that's what happens. And the shift that occurs is that life starts happening for you, not to you. You become the victor of your circumstances rather than the victim. You become the person who's in the

driver's seat. And the reason that so many people are aversive to that concept

driver's seat. And the reason that so many people are aversive to that concept is because it is so much easier to cast blame outwards. Right? Your power

follows the direction of where you point blame. So if you say, "I'm this way because my mom didn't hug me enough. I'm this way because my dad didn't hug me enough." Then guess who actually has complete control over your life? Them or

enough." Then guess who actually has complete control over your life? Them or

your perception of them. But if you said, "I am this way because I am not resilient enough. I was not adaptive enough. I was not I didn't have enough

resilient enough. I was not adaptive enough. I was not I didn't have enough tolerance to be able to handle that level of stress." Well, then guess what you can now do? You can do something about it because you admitted at least

you were in charge. You were the one in control or you have some control, some influence over the outcome of how you act. And so defining this was really helpful for me. Obviously going through my mother's my mother's death and accident and thinking like what kind of man do I want to be? How do I want to

show up to my family? How do I want to be there for everyone else who's going to be at this, you know, at this funeral, extended family, the people from my mom's church who are going to be there? Like how do I want to present myself? And to be clear, I'm not saying that you that you shouldn't suffer, that

myself? And to be clear, I'm not saying that you that you shouldn't suffer, that you shouldn't mourn. I think that people mourn in 100% unique ways that are entirely of their own. And for anybody to say that you somehow think someone should mourn the way you think they should mourn, [ __ ] you. Real talk.

People can mourn however they want to mourn. And your choices in those harder times can serve as evidence of the type of person that you want to be. So that

when hard times come again, you can look back and say, "I know I can get through this because I got through that." And then it becomes the stack of undeniable proof that you're not just saying you are this way. You can prove that you are this way. And it's not that you do this to the external world because the

this way. And it's not that you do this to the external world because the external world doesn't give [ __ ] and they're not taking track anyways. But

it's for you because you're the one with the tally marks. You're the one who's got the scars to show for it. You're the one who gets to say, "I know I can get through this because I have been through worse." And what's really interesting

that I'll share is that the younger you are in my opinion, the harder life is because you have the same hard things that occur to you. 10 out of 10 bad thing is a 10 out of 10 bad thing. Maybe your 10 out of 10 is different than

somebody else's, but everyone has a maxed out pain scale. The difference is that when you're younger, you don't have the tools to protect yourself. You don't

have the tools to respond, and you don't know how to make sense of the world yet.

And so no matter what you go through now as an adult, I always think to myself, there is something for sure that I went through when I was younger that was harder than this. And every time I look for it, I find it. And it reminds me

that one, this two shall pass. And two, I'm still [ __ ] here. And so this year had a lot of hardship, not just my my mother's death, but it served as a

reminder of the things that I can put in my backpack on my checklist of things that I can say I have also survived this. So the third thing that I wrote down for myself was record-breaking outcomes take record-breaking work. And

so when I was kind of in the in the thick of preparing for the book launch, this launch, the Guinness World Record-breaking launch, right, the guy who owned the record before that, Prince Harry, had almost doubled the guy who

ran who owned the record before that, which is President Obama. All right, so Obama was at 800 something thousand. Prince Harry was at 1.4 million. And I'm

thinking these guys have tremendous resources at their advantage and they wanted to have a, you know, tons of book sales and show, you know, show that they had lots of people who love them and all that stuff. And I was like, how am I

going to try and outsell these monarchs literally, right? And it's like, well, what are the things that are controllable is the work that we put into it. And I was like, well, I don't know how Hard Prince Harry works. I have

into it. And I was like, well, I don't know how Hard Prince Harry works. I have

no idea. I've never met him. But I was like, I know that I can work four years on something without anyone knowing about it before revealing it. And I

think about it a lot like the Olympics. So people will train for four years to have 10 seconds where the world sees them. And what's interesting is that people see those 10 seconds and assume, okay, 10 seconds when they ran, maybe

it's, you know, a hundred times that for how much they worked. It's just not really fathomable for somebody who doesn't even know how to work long and hard to think about how much effort that really takes. And so when I was in the thick of it, I just kept thinking to myself like, man, this is so much work.

And then I thought to myself like, yeah, no one has ever done this before. So, no

one has ever done this before. Of course, it will take that much work. Did

I expect to do something that no one had ever done before with a level of effort that had been repeated many, many times? Of course not. The amount of times I had to doublech checkck every single email flow from every single potential

combination. It was 400 pages of copy. There was more copy written just in the

combination. It was 400 pages of copy. There was more copy written just in the emails than words in the book. And then every single VSSL, so video sales letter, I had six of them. Every single one of them painstakingly crafted where I have to say, I got to get it shorter. I got to get it shorter. But I have to

stuff more in here. I got to get it shorter. How can I put more visuals? How

can I put more narrative in it? How can I How can I minimize the downside? going

to express more of the of the upside potential of this particular thing. And

then as I was creating the slides, right, for for the webinar, I wrote out every single word first and then went through multiple passes of editing. And

then after editing the actual words, every single word that was said was prepared. And then those words had to get on the slides. How many? 1,700

prepared. And then those words had to get on the slides. How many? 1,700

slides. How much AI was used in the making of those slides? Zero. Me.

Because as of right now, there's nothing that makes slides like me as of yet.

Maybe there will be. Currently it doesn't not the style I like. And so I'm there pasting these things. I was like, "Holy [ __ ] this and then I was like, "Okay, well, I also have to have a visual on every single slide." I did use AI for the visuals, but I had to go through that and you're like, you're

like 300 slides in and you're like, "Oh my god, this was 2 days." And you're like, "I have I have another four I have another 1,400 slides to make." And

that's just for the that's just for the webinar. That's just for the first part of day one. And then I've got I've got the prep that I have to do for every one of the interviews. And then I got to talk to every one of those guys and tell them what I'm going to say and then make sure I can steer the conversation way that's interesting to the audience and then also still promotes the book and

the other stuff. And so with each of these things and even when I when I when I had the the playbooks, right, when I explained those, I practiced being able to walk, say the slide, and position the props at the same time. You think, oh,

well, that that just looked normal. It was like I had to do it 50 times, a hundred times so that I knew that when the the screen would come on, I would pull I would reverse order. So I'd put the the letter in my pocket. I'd take my

hat from underneath my arm. I'd pull it back up. And then I would say, "Business owners, money makers, ballers, can't remember what it was. I made this for you." And then I transition to the second part. Right? And so at every

you." And then I transition to the second part. Right? And so at every single one of these points, I had to practice all of it over and over again.

And I was just like I just kept thinking. I was like, "No one will do this." I was like, "No one will do this." And the reality is that you will

this." I was like, "No one will do this." And the reality is that you will not get credit for the work you do. You We have this desire, at least I do, maybe on some level, that I want someone to stand next to me when I'm working and

just be like, "Great job. Great job today, Alex. You worked super hard." No,

you don't get that. Like, you have to be that person. And so it comes down to and I and I say this a lot but it's because it's like it's what gets me through this is I always ask myself I'm like what kind of man do I want to be? And so when I'm in that I'm like am I the man who will cut the corner? And I'm like no I'm

going to [ __ ] do it right. And it's like right get back to it. That's it.

There's no parade. There's no applause. There's no confetti. It's like the work needs doing and it's either me or somebody else. And this was a a project of love. I was like, this is something that I had wor I mean the first all

of love. I was like, this is something that I had wor I mean the first all three of my books were actually written at once. So you you want to talk about a long-term plan. I began writing these four plus years ago and it was one Mondo

long-term plan. I began writing these four plus years ago and it was one Mondo book and then I thought wouldn't it be amazing if I could culminate the $100 million series with $100 million launch but each of the three books had to had

to represent what the concept of the book was about. And so I have had this waiting for four years before I could share it. And so I think like I like telling yourself in your mind the story that you're going to be able to someday

tell when you're going through the rocky cut scene allows you to take the licks that you're going to take during that period where no one is watching because the winning always happens when you're alone. People only get to see it when

you when you when you demonstrate it. But the demonstration, the 10-second race, the one fight, the me getting on stage and doing the presentation, that is a microcosm of what it actually takes. And it is one of those

unfortunate things that no one will ever be able to observe it because the amount of time it would take to observe it would be the amount of time it took to do it. Unless someone else is going to wait for four years just to see that,

do it. Unless someone else is going to wait for four years just to see that, you just have to guess. And so, no one will ever know how hard you worked and no one will ever care. And so you have to create another game or another story

that allows you to succeed even when no one else cares. Which is why you have to be the one who who cheers for you when no one else is watching. Just know that no one will understand. And that's okay because you know and you're the only

person whose respect you need to earn. And you're also the hardest person's respect to earn because you know when you're bullshitting you. And so this is also me talking to the winners right now. you being the best one in your state, the best one in your high school, the best one in your in your in your

company, in your division, in your department. That's a low bar. I can't

remember where this quote is, but I think I think Leonard Vinc Da Vinci said this actually. I think he said something to the degree of like the curse of the

this actually. I think he said something to the degree of like the curse of the winner is not that he he aims too high and misses, but that he shoots too low and he achieves his go his goal. And I think that you can't have your own

respect if you know that you left some in the tank. Which is why going bigger and asking yourself, am I capable of this? Is the only way that you can ever truly see? And you can only do that if you're willing to fail. Hey, and real

truly see? And you can only do that if you're willing to fail. Hey, and real quick, I spent 200 hours this year just making this one project for you, which is the $und00 million scaling road map. And I broke up the stages of business

into 10 stages. And you can identify where you're at by simply just putting in your business information. You go to acquisition.com/roadmap

and it'll spit out this custom report that tells you what the constraints are at that current level and what you need to do to graduate and get to the next level. This is our gift to you absolutely free. On the thank you page,

level. This is our gift to you absolutely free. On the thank you page, you can book a call with our team and we'd love to help you uh figure that out and ideally get past it. So number four, you have to take care of people who work

in your company's personal life so that they can succeed in their professional life. So, I'll tell you what how this manifests in reality. The biggest one is

life. So, I'll tell you what how this manifests in reality. The biggest one is if someone's spouse or significant other is not a fan or supportive of the job or the work that they have, they will never achieve their potential. And it's it's

sad. It's unfortunate, but and it may be controversial for some of you, but I

sad. It's unfortunate, but and it may be controversial for some of you, but I have yet to see it. If you have a spouse or a significant other, somebody you live with, someone who's like your other person, and they're they're not like even if they're neutral, you will not achieve your potential. Honestly, I

don't even think close, not even close to your potential because I think at least I'll just speak for men, being good on the home front allows you to have full access to your brain so that you can go after the hunt. Right? If

you're worried about what's happening at home because you know that when you come back there's going to be bitching and moaning or like, "Why are you working?"

Oh, it's just it's always another another tough season. It's always going to be it's always going to be busy. If you have that in the back of your mind or in your ear, it's like you start pulling your punches. You start cutting out early. You start you start avoiding taking on the bigger projects to take

out early. You start you start avoiding taking on the bigger projects to take the slightly smaller project. You don't set the bigger goal because you know the effort that it's going to take to hit it. And so you just say, "Well, this is an adequate goal." And I want to be clear, nothing wrong with that if you

don't want to see how far you can go. And not everyone does, and that's fine.

But when I think about the people in this organization, I have taken more and more attention to making sure that their personal lives are supportive, their environment is conducive to them doing the best work they possibly can because

I want people to be able to do their life's work at acquisition.com. I want

like think about the record I just talked about. When someone is 85 years old and looking back on their life, there are very few moments that you actually remember, right? Like you don't remember the vast majority of life. you

just a couple moments that spit out and like when you get I'm sure when you're much older you might only remember like one moment from a year. Think how crazy that is, right? And so I got to say truthfully to the team when you're looking back on this part of your life, you will be able to say that you made

history and there's not that many days that you get to do that. And so making history though only happens when you've got every single thing aligned and luck.

And so to think to be arrogant enough to believe that you're going to overcome your your conditions that you've set up for yourself and you've got somebody who's not supportive versus somebody who does, good luck. But that was just it was a it was a big it was a big lesson for me and that I'm paying attention to

that from a team perspective of who's got supportive uh environments at home, who's got supportive spouses, and is there ways that I can help them get the support of their spouse so that I can unlock their discretionary effort towards the goal. And I will say that making sure that if you do have super

hard workers in your team, hard workers will run themselves into the ground when the goal is big enough. And so they will usually look to you to see when to rest.

And so you have to be willing to be like, "Take the day, dude. Take the

weekend, unplug." And then usually, I've just seen, this is me personally saying this, I think that when they see it from above or see it from the person who they're quote rolling into or responsible for, getting managed by, getting led by, they can actually unplug for a couple days cuz they're like,

"Hey, he asked me to chill out. I'm going to chill out, right?" And I think that it's it's your responsibility to have a gauge on where people are getting close to cracking and and doullling those out. Number five, think for

yourself or the world will think for you. So this is one I thought a lot about which is to be unique you need to have high agency. And so agency is

essentially being able to reason for yourself from the things that you can observe or have observed. And so at the lowest levels it's being able to say that you like a person, a show, a movie that most people don't like. It's

thinking for yourself. Most people, and here's where it gets really interesting, most people pick their identities off the shelf, right? They come they come with pre-anned beliefs. They have a set of apparel that they wear. That's that's

the fashion of this guy. Oh, I'm a hipster, which means I have to have gauges. I have to have one of those beanie hats. That's a small thing. I

gauges. I have to have one of those beanie hats. That's a small thing. I

wear black combat boots, you know, black things with a chain, whatever. Cuz I'm a hipster. And all my beliefs are going to be what hipsters believe. And or I'm a

hipster. And all my beliefs are going to be what hipsters believe. And or I'm a I'm a redneck. And so I'm going to have flannel and I'm going to wear a trucker hat and I'm going to have jeans and I'm going to have super conservative views

on X, Y, and Z and whatever. I'm going to live in the country and I want a ranch. All right, there's nothing wrong with doing that. It's just that most of

ranch. All right, there's nothing wrong with doing that. It's just that most of the time when you pick your belief set and you pick your personality off the shelf, the reason that you do that is because you didn't actually reason for

yourself. Meaning there's probably not a 100% of hipster world views that you

yourself. Meaning there's probably not a 100% of hipster world views that you agree with. There's not a 100% of redneck worldviews that you believe with

agree with. There's not a 100% of redneck worldviews that you believe with if if you believe in that that if that's you, right? And so if you actively think about all the components of your life, which is like what shoes will I wear?

Why do I pick these shoes? What makes a good shoe for me? Why do I wear these shorts? What makes a good short for me? Why do I wear this shirt? As silly as

shorts? What makes a good short for me? Why do I wear this shirt? As silly as that may sound, you choose every single component of your life. And you either choose to live it by default or live it deliberately. And the people that are

interesting typically have multiple components that they reason for themselves that get put into one box. And so then when people see them, they double take because they're like, "Wait a second. These pieces don't go

together." And what does that do? It makes you interested. And so let's say

together." And what does that do? It makes you interested. And so let's say that you have the body of a meatthead and you dress like a redneck, but you

quote ancient philosophers and you're also extraordinarily wealthy. That's

weird, right? That's odd. And so if that's you, then you will probably attract attention. And so a lot of people want to live a unique life, but

attract attention. And so a lot of people want to live a unique life, but they take all their decisions from pre-anned boxes off the shelf, out of

the box. And so I think that asking yourself, what do I want? And does this

the box. And so I think that asking yourself, what do I want? And does this thing help me get it? Are the questions that begin to lead down the path of agency? Because if you approach every component of your life with that lens,

agency? Because if you approach every component of your life with that lens, you'll often find that the things that you took off the shelf don't. the

politics you you vote for, the people that you the the the sports teams that you root for, all of this stuff that you've built your life around, not at all. And so having high agency is higher cost in the short term because you

all. And so having high agency is higher cost in the short term because you actually have to make these decisions and also suffer the rejection of decisions that other people who might all dress like hipster not agree with

because you didn't take the same belief out of the box or off the shelf as they did. But it's lower cost long-term because you don't find yourself 10 years

did. But it's lower cost long-term because you don't find yourself 10 years down the road wondering how you got here. How did I marry this person? How

did I start this business? Why am I dressed this way? Do I even care about this stuff? Why do I vote like that? You got here because you never questioned

this stuff? Why do I vote like that? You got here because you never questioned your decisions and just went with the flow. You went with what everyone else was doing. But everyone else is unhappy, mediocre, overweight, in debt, and

was doing. But everyone else is unhappy, mediocre, overweight, in debt, and divorced. Why would you be like them? And so the only way out is by turning in

divorced. Why would you be like them? And so the only way out is by turning in words and saying, "What do I want? And does this thing help me get it?" And if the conclusion that you come to is different than everyone else's, great,

because you don't want to be like them. So you should hope to find discrepancies between what you decide and what other people decide because it means you have begun the path of thinking for yourself. Maybe you like a movie that your friends don't like. Instead of saying, "Oh, I mean, it's okay." Don't hold back. Be

don't like. Instead of saying, "Oh, I mean, it's okay." Don't hold back. Be

like, "I think it's a great movie." They're like, "Well, you're an idiot."

You're like, "Okay, I like that show. That show's trash. Okay, don't watch it.

Like, that's it, right? Oh, why do you wear such lame shoes? Why do you wear jean shorts, Alex? Why did you wear the little sandals for two years that I wore that were really weird because at the time that those shoes served what I wanted. I wanted cuz I was at the beach a lot cuz Leila and I were traveling and

wanted. I wanted cuz I was at the beach a lot cuz Leila and I were traveling and so I was like, I want something to go to the gym. I want something to go to the pool. I want something to go to the beach. I want something that can climb.

pool. I want something to go to the beach. I want something that can climb.

I want something to go to a restaurant. That's why I was close to close to shoes. It gets me everything I want. Great. Alex, it doesn't look cool to

shoes. It gets me everything I want. Great. Alex, it doesn't look cool to who? Who does that look not cool to? Girls, I'm married. I don't give a [ __ ]

who? Who does that look not cool to? Girls, I'm married. I don't give a [ __ ] Who does that not look cool to? GUYS, WHY DO I CARE WHAT THEY THINK, RIGHT? I

I don't even know how to say it any different. Like, why would I care about any of that? They're not walking in my shoes. Quite literally, these are comfortable. And if you don't like them, wear whatever shoes you want, right? And

comfortable. And if you don't like them, wear whatever shoes you want, right? And

so I think that when and this actually has a tie into marketing which I think is important which is like if you want to make content you want to you want to build a brand of some kind the brand has to get built from the bottom up. You

have to reason from that perspective. What do I want? Does this help me get it? And when you think that way you'll actually be able to build a unique brand

it? And when you think that way you'll actually be able to build a unique brand because no one will have the same exact life experience as you. And when you do that is what creates the unique combination and you'll be able to defend why you believe what you believe. Because if you cannot explain why you believe what you believe you believe what someone else told you to believe.

and you never questioned it. Number six, a hard conversation up front can save you millions of dollars and years of life. So Rockefeller said this, which is a friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on

friendship. So the big thing here is I used to say I used to hear people say I

friendship. So the big thing here is I used to say I used to hear people say I only can do business with people via handshake. And people that I just met when I was really young were like oh if we have to draw a contract I don't want

to do a deal. And I was pressured into doing handshake deals when I was younger with people that were quote more experienced because I didn't want to seem, you know, disintegrous or unintent, right? A dishonest person. Oh,

I need a contract. And then I just realized they were complete scoundrels and full of [ __ ] And so then I went the other extreme, which was like everything has to be in contracts, which I think by and large would serve you really well for anybody who's starting out your first 10 years in business. If you do 10

years of business with someone, you will be able to get to the point where you can have handshake agreements. But you do not extend trust to someone who has not earned it. And I think that there's different levels of this. If an employee

comes to the business, of course, like you you have to extend trust, right? But

if we're talking a business partnership, well then like we should have a track record here. We should have a a large data set of behavior that I can look at

record here. We should have a a large data set of behavior that I can look at in different circumstances where I know that you will behave in this way. And so

for me, trust is believing that the person will act in ways that are that are similar to the way they have continued to act in the past, right?

They are consistent. And I want to be real with you for a second. So I said this year was a tough year. I had eight lawsuits this year, right? And most of them were at the very beginning of the year and I dealt with almost all of

them. And here's the part that people won't tell you. All my lawsuits have

them. And here's the part that people won't tell you. All my lawsuits have been with people who were friends of mine or friendly. And if you're like, "Huh? Well, I can't believe that he would get in arguments over his friend.

"Huh? Well, I can't believe that he would get in arguments over his friend.

What do you think divorces are? Right? Like, we humans think that we're somehow immune of like, "No, I'm really cool with this guy. We're best friends. I

don't think we're ever going to get an argument." Okay. Well, consider this.

People who sleep with each other for extended periods of time make life commitments to each other half the time end it. So, if you think the most important relationship in your life where you're sharing everything with this person, you're committing to forever, half the time it ends, maybe,

just maybe, write down a [ __ ] contract. And the reason that I I honestly had a lot of these lawsuits is because, and the thing is is it takes years for these things to come due, right? Like you have a business thing that was 6 years ago and then the thing finally really starts to make money and

then you have a conflict, right? And so, you have to deal with all the uncomfortable stuff upfront. And I just so strongly encouraged you to like those contracts. I avoided hard conversations and was like, "Ah, we'll figure it out

contracts. I avoided hard conversations and was like, "Ah, we'll figure it out when it gets to that." And we both didn't want to talk about those things.

We didn't want to we didn't want to mess up the friendship. It's like, bro, if you think you can't have a hard conversation when there's no money on the line, just just assume that you will be in a lawsuit for many years. Just

assume it. And if you're not willing to have that hard conversation up front and you willingly will go into having multiple years of lawsuits on the back end, then you deserve it, right? And it's so avoidable and it's likely that it's not going to work out because one or both of you can't have hard

conversations, which is required for success. And so I unfortunately have the scars for this one. The contracts that I've done in the last couple years are significantly better than the ones that I did six, seven years ago, but those are the ones that are coming due now. And so the time that you should have

great agreements was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. So just start with the frame of like, hey, I want everything in in writing just so we have no misunderstanding so there's no unspoken expectations because the last thing in the world that I would want is that I would disappoint you because you

expect me to do something that I was unwilling to do or that I didn't know you wanted me to do. And so you can approach from that perspective and then you have to say, "Hey, what happens if you don't want to be a partner with me anymore? What happens if I don't want to be a partner with you anymore? What

anymore? What happens if I don't want to be a partner with you anymore? What

happens if you die? What happens if I die?" Right? Right? What happens if we disagree on where we're going to put the money? Right? What happens if we disagree if we're going to sell? These are all things you have to talk about.

And so, you either do it now when there's low stakes or you do it at the end when you both have high stakes. And I can promise you it's much better when there's low stakes. So, there's a really cool concept. I think Shiron said this and I really like it. He said, you can you can see what level of friend you

have by the things that you talk about with them. So, he had five levels of friends. I really love this. And I would use this as a litmus test for thinking

friends. I really love this. And I would use this as a litmus test for thinking through the quality of the friendships that you have in your life. The lowest

level of friend is someone that you can only talk about the past with. Oh, the

good times we used to have. Oh, remember high school past, right? The next level friend is somebody who just talk about other people with. Oh, how's so and so doing? How's Let's talk about that person. Let's talk about that person.

doing? How's Let's talk about that person. Let's talk about that person.

Aka kind of gossiping. But that's what it is. Level two. Level three friend is someone that you can talk about ideas with. Oh, wouldn't it be cool if Oh, isn't it amazing? You can dream, right? ideas, concepts. The fourth level of friend is how you can tr somebody you can do stuff with, you can talk those

ideas and actually execute, you can take action, you can do things together, etc. Fourth, and then fifth is friends that you can make, lose, and spend money with. And I believe that because for whatever reason, money is just one of

with. And I believe that because for whatever reason, money is just one of those subjects that I think it just shows how I mean, it shows how someone behaves around a reinforcer and what someone values. It just kind of cuts

through the crap of everything. And so like Shiron for example is our president. Shiron and I have done deals together for like five plus years and we

president. Shiron and I have done deals together for like five plus years and we really started almost as to use the Rockefeller quote like we are a friendship founded on business and it has worked out great compared to most of the businesses I founded on friendship. And so we've just done lots and lots of

deals together. We've had ups, we've had downs. We've made big calls and I just

deals together. We've had ups, we've had downs. We've made big calls and I just have seen him in all the ups and downs of those years and he's seen me and we've been like let's do more stuff together because it's so rare. And so at this point, could I have a handshake agreement with Chiron? Yes, totally. And

we do have them on lots of different deals. On the really big stuff, we still write it out. Why? Just so we're on this literally the same page. And so I was just reminded of that this year, and it would be I'd be remiss to not say what I learned from the eight lawsuits that I got in this year. Those are my big

takeaways is that know what level of friend you're with. Make sure that you put everything in writing, and you want to frontload the discomfort. Number

seven, do more than what is required. So I said this was a legal year and so part of this was looking into compliance and other things that are kind of risks for any business as you get over a certain size because the bigger you are the bigger the target that's on your back and so if you wish for success you also

wish for the pains that come with success and as much as many people want to say like ah champagne problems or rich people problems they are problems nonetheless and I promise you they are still painful and so I would say you want to go above and beyond. So what's interesting is you also want to become

educated right ignorance is not defense real if you don't know a law exists it does not exclude you from the consequences of it and so in realizing that you have to be proactive in learning the laws of everything that

applies to you which is there are a lot of them and now with AI they can summarize some of these things but like I almost I got like a a law degree this year on public private I just had a lot of law that I had to go through and what I will say is that as much as people might you know poo poo it I think buying

By and large, most laws are written with one, good intent, and two, when you really follow the letter of the law, it kind of makes sense. And so, I want to crush everyone and play by the rules. And so, once you know the rules, then

you can you can almost play with more freedom because you just know where to avoid, right? Or what to what to basically you have to know what the

avoid, right? Or what to what to basically you have to know what the rules are. I don't want to say so you can bend them or break them because

rules are. I don't want to say so you can bend them or break them because obviously that's we're talking about law. So, just leave it there. But you

got to know the rules of the game that you're playing and the law as far as we're talking about business. Those are the rules of the game. And so, how can we get into the game and try and win? We don't even know the rules we're playing by. And so, that would say that to me it was like a a big thing that happened

by. And so, that would say that to me it was like a a big thing that happened this year that I would encourage you to just look at the laws that apply to your specific business or industry or partnerships and be very well acquainted with them to the same degree. Also, rereading the contracts that you have in

like your employment agreements, your partnership agreements. It's just good to know like what what what tools do I have at my disposal right now and what expectations are do I do other people have of me that I'm unaware of and that was hugely enlightening and also that has just allowed me to sleep so much

better and knowing these things has allowed me to take what would otherwise be very stressful I mean imagine eight lawsuits a lot of lawsuits right something that would have otherwise been very stressful and say okay I understand the variables we will take these actions I don't need to have any more cycles on

this next thing cuz that's where the lawyer the lawyer stuff will eat up your bandwidth It eats up your shower time. It eats up your dinner time. It eats up when you're staring out the window, when you're driving in the car. That's the

cost of being in legal battles. But if you can minimize the cost of that by saying, "I understand where the conflict is, and I know what steps I'm going to take and I have documentation to provide these things, you can you can actually

circumvent the vast majority of the pain and suffering that goes along with, which gives you a significant strategic advantage when you're in extended conflicts." All right, so next one. This one is probably a little bit more around

conflicts." All right, so next one. This one is probably a little bit more around my current stage of life, but this is um I mean that's what this is about. Right

now, I'm shifting the way that I'm doing work, which is pretty significant. And

so, I will first put the disclaimer out there that you want to model the rise, not the you know the the the peak part. So, to use an example that people can understand, you're not like, "Oh, I want to get rich, so I should fly private."

Don't fly private to get rich. It's something that people do once they are rich, right? If you want to get tall, don't play basketball. It's just that

rich, right? If you want to get tall, don't play basketball. It's just that tall people play basketball. Very big difference. All right? And so this is the first year in my life where I hit I hit my financial goals. Acquisition.com

crushed it. Portfolio companies crushed it. Launch crushed it. Like we did really well this year. This was the biggest financial year that I've had in my career, including the years I've had exits. And in light of that, I actually feel for the first time in my life that I have enough. And I know that sounds

ridiculous to some people. How could this now be the enough number? But I

would say that I have always had bigger goals than most people. But I also feel like I know when enough is enough for me. They just happen to be bigger than most people's goals. I do not have a permanently moving goal coast goalpost.

Like for example, I tend to be a little bit more muscular than most people are.

But I got to a point where I was at 245 and I was like, "This is a bit much.

This is pretty big. I don't need to do more than this." Now, some people are like, "Oh, he's got to get bigger. Always got to get bigger. I don't have that." I was like, "There, this is enough. This is I'm more muscular than

that." I was like, "There, this is enough. This is I'm more muscular than most people even want to be, but I am muscular enough. And so to the same degree, I probably have bigger financial goals than most people have, but I have finally achieved the things that I wanted to. Now, what am I going to do with the business? It's not like I'm going to end them. It's just that the

way that I'm playing the game is changing. And so, I'm I'm relaying this, so this may seem like flashing news, but I am now shifting to planning my personal life first and allowing business to fill in the cracks. And I

have such strong reinforcement cycles of having worked for so long, so many hours that I just I have to unlearn how to work all the hours of the day. I wish I could say it's discipline and all that stuff. It's like I've been rewarded and reinforced for doing this for so long, but it really is less effort for me to

work all day than it is to stop working. And so that's kind of the the path that I'm in right now. And when I observe the people who are going from you know a billion to 10 billion or 10 billion and beyond you get past a point where you will be compensated for the quality of your judgment not the quantity of your

work. And so I feel like for the first time my life I have crossed that

work. And so I feel like for the first time my life I have crossed that threshold for me is that there there is significantly higher leverage in my ability to pick and make correct bets. And if that becomes the highest leverage

work that I have, then I have to reorient my life in a way that maximizes the quality of my decision-m which means that I probably will travel more. Why

would traveling help the quality of my decision-making? Well, I'll gain more perspectives, more filters, more positions to consider a decision through. I will probably see more people than I have seen in the past because

through. I will probably see more people than I have seen in the past because their perspectives will also help color and shade in the edges, give more dimension to the decisions that I'm trying to make. Me, I'll probably try and I'm trying to prioritize sleep a little bit more. Now, I've I've never

not prioritized sleep. I just like I sleep until I can and then I work, right? But I will probably be more proactive in doing some of those sleep

right? But I will probably be more proactive in doing some of those sleep hygiene things that are a little bit of a pain in the ass that can get you that 10% or 20% more. I'm going to be doing that now. I will probably have more time that I will unplug on the weekend so that I can let my mind wander so that I

can think of kind of out of the box ideas. And this happened just recently, like two weeks ago. I I had my EA team, they've they've changed my schedule a little bit so that there's even more free time than there was before, which

there was already a lot of free time. But free time for me does not mean that nothing's happening. It just means there's nothing planned. And so because

nothing's happening. It just means there's nothing planned. And so because I had two days like back toback, I believe having an empty schedule allows me to do that which matters most. And I believe that the time of the CEO or the time of the founder is the most valuable asset or resource in the business. And

so why would I not want the best allocator of the most expensive asset to be me? And so that's how that's how they have blocked for me so that I maximize

be me? And so that's how that's how they have blocked for me so that I maximize my free time. Now in that free time, put together a deal that will make us more than we probably did in entire revenue this year. And I did it in basically one day with six and a half hours on the phone calling different people just

because I had slept well. I had the high I had the lowest resting heart rate I ever had. And I had the best like sleep score I gotten in it was a record in my

ever had. And I had the best like sleep score I gotten in it was a record in my entire life. It was the best. Well, the score would only go to 100, but like my

entire life. It was the best. Well, the score would only go to 100, but like my resting heart rate and my HRV were the highest and lowest respectively they'd ever been. And I was like, I feel like I can see color today. And that quality of

ever been. And I was like, I feel like I can see color today. And that quality of decision-m at this point is the best strategic decision for me. And so in some ways, maybe I still have the same objectives and I'm now just orienting my life to now do the next version of what success looks like or what I have to

change in order to become the person who can lead this company to where where I think it can be to help the most people. And so that is what you will see kind of going forward. And I have not I have been in the stage that I was at from how

going forward. And I have not I have been in the stage that I was at from how I worked for the last 14 years. So this is a pretty significant change for me.

But I will be putting my I'll be planning my life first and then business will fill in the cracks. So really powerful frame that I've been thinking about a lot has been what do you want to have happen and what increases the

chances of that happening. So here's the next lesson. Two frames for reconsidering the hard decisions and conversations that you have to have. So

let's say someone does something that you don't want them to do. They say

something bad, something happens, right? something that I you have an innate reaction which is that typically it's something called it's a it's a countermeasure right so if someone punishes you in some way you want to counter punch them back you want to counter control you want to punish them

so that you want to punish them even more so that they dare not punish you right but when we think about these two questions which is what I want to have happen what do I want to have happen and number two what increases the odds of

that happening often times your initial reaction to what you want to do is almost antithetical to what you want to occur and what increases the chances of that happening. And so, for example, if someone says something bad to me online,

that happening. And so, for example, if someone says something bad to me online, I might have the immediate desire to go punish them publicly, right? What do I want to have happen? I would like this person to move on with their lives and forget that I exist. That would be what I would want to have happen, right?

Realistically, what increases the odds of that happening? Does me interacting with them, reinforcing the fact that they said that increase those odds? No.

I increase the likelihood that that person hates me even more and does even more to try and damage me. So that would make my problem worse, not better. And

so that is just a two-step decision frame that I continue to use more and more and more, especially with interpersonal relationships. Hey, this

employee is doing a bad job. I want to yell at them. What do I want to have happen? I want them to do a good job. Do I think yelling at them will increase

happen? I want them to do a good job. Do I think yelling at them will increase the likelihood of that happening? No. I think they'll have more anxiety and they'll probably decrease their performance. Okay, so that's not going to work. What do I want to have happen? Okay. Can I reward or publicly give them

to work. What do I want to have happen? Okay. Can I reward or publicly give them status for the one thing they've done well so that they can see some positive loop and then maybe they will do more of that thing? That probably does increase those odds. So, I'll do that instead even though I want to punish them for

those odds. So, I'll do that instead even though I want to punish them for being a [ __ ] right? And so, what's interesting is that when I ask myself those questions, the thing that increases the odds of me getting what I

ultimately want rarely is what I want to do or at least is rarely my initial gut reaction. And when I look at how most people live their lives, they live their

reaction. And when I look at how most people live their lives, they live their lives from gut reaction to gut reaction to gut reaction and then counterreaction. And they're just responsive. All they're doing is just like they're like seaweed in the ocean.

responsive. All they're doing is just like they're like seaweed in the ocean.

They're just moving and they have no direction. They're just constantly going back and forth, right? And they're never getting what they want. And they think that life is chaotic. But when you actually ask yourself those questions, you typically can guess, no, I don't think that's actually going to increase

the likelihood that happens. I think that person is going to hate me more if I do that. Right? Then why will you do it? Right? And so often times when you have those when you use those two razors, one of the most common things that comes up and it's now become an inside joke for for me and some of my

friends is doing nothing at all is often the most productive thing to do in those situations. And so it has now taken on this inside joke of the heavyweight

situations. And so it has now taken on this inside joke of the heavyweight champion of the world, which is that there's all these different potential actions and the heavyweight champion of the world is do nothing. And that one almost always wins because what should I probably do? Keep doing what I'm doing.

keep on my business, focus on my marriage, focus on doing good work, and ignore the rest. And what's interesting is that it is physically efficient but emotionally painful. And so that is one of the I would say one of the one of the

emotionally painful. And so that is one of the I would say one of the one of the the artifacts that I've collected this year. So number 10, more better, new.

Now, this isn't going to be a new concept for anyone who's listening to my stuff, but I will have a slightly different take on this. New is

incredibly risky. And so this is the best analogy that I've I I visualized this year that I'm probably going to take with me for the rest of my life, which is I want you to imagine here we go. Actually, look at this. If I have

these these candies, all right, and I throw them all over the place. If I keep doing this, how likely is it that all of them are going to end up in the exact position, separated by color and stacked together? Very unlikely. I would have to

hit refresh and keep doing that many many times until eventually all of these are lined up, stacked up on on each other super nicely in a way that's organized. Right? This would take a lot like could it happen? Of course it

organized. Right? This would take a lot like could it happen? Of course it could. It is statistically possible. Is it likely? No. And so when you think

could. It is statistically possible. Is it likely? No. And so when you think about this, this is six pieces of candy, right? There are variables within your business that create the business that works, right? And so when you have your

business and it is stacked, it is working, it is generating revenue, the likelihood that you changing one of these variables makes the building or makes the stack or the business better goes down. And the taller the stack is,

the more evolved your business is, the more bricks in that building have been properly placed. And so the higher the likelihood the next move is the wrong

properly placed. And so the higher the likelihood the next move is the wrong move if it's something different. So I'll give you a marketing version of this. If you have something called a control and you have a variant when you

this. If you have something called a control and you have a variant when you run a split test, AB split test. If you have a control that you've run 36 split tests on and it has won 36 of those, it is the number one control. The

likelihood that you changing that resulting in an improvement is low. And

so if you think about your business as it currently stands is there's many different ways to align these variables. Almost all of them are not profitable businesses. You happen to have one that actually works. And so if you have that

businesses. You happen to have one that actually works. And so if you have that then the highest risk adjusted move that you can make is that you do more of the thing that already works. I will keep doing more bricks in this order because

that has worked before. Right? You might try and do better which is a tiny variation off of what you're currently doing. But something truly new rarely works. And so and it also usually takes the most resources. And so for us, if

works. And so and it also usually takes the most resources. And so for us, if we're going to do something new, I give myself one new thing a year. One. So

what was the one new thing this year? It was the book launch. That was this year.

Next year, you'll find out what it is, right? But I get one. And it's because I know what the tremendous drain of resources is. One big thing, one new thing. And so I would say that the bigger the companies that we have, the

thing. And so I would say that the bigger the companies that we have, the more resources we have, the fewer new things we're doing. Because when you when nothing works, you want to hit refresh as many times as you can. You

want to do lots of new [ __ ] cuz nothing's working. But as soon as something works, then you start to have direction. You want to have less and less deviation from that, unless you really believe there's an existential risk that would require you to change everything, which is significantly less

likely than you really think it is. In fact, I would say many business owners will destroy their businesses in reality for problems that they have manufactured artificially. Problems that have not even yet occurred because they are

artificially. Problems that have not even yet occurred because they are afraid of them happening when in reality when that problem happens, it's not going to happen overnight. And you're going to have some some some heads up probably. And for those of you who are old enough to have businesses during co

probably. And for those of you who are old enough to have businesses during co so if you had business at least for at least for five years, right, or six years, you know that you'll survive. you'll adapt just like you always have.

And so do not try and change the business to solve problems that do not exist because there is more than enough problems that absolutely do exist today that you should be solving. And so going back to more and this has been something that's been just I feel like I've got another layer of paint on the more

better new is that often times the highest return question is why can't I do more of the thing that's working? Now, there's usually a much deeper, harder problem that you have to solve once you do the easy moores, but there's always a way to do more than you currently are. And it's just that once

you realize that the level of difficulty of what it takes to do the next more is harder than doing something better or new. So, instead of you bucking up and and and saying, "I'm going to focus on this very hard problem," you then distract yourself with reasonable problems that no one will blame you for

solving. Because the biggest risk to the business is not like a stupid decision

solving. Because the biggest risk to the business is not like a stupid decision because those are unlikely to actually occur. The real risk to your business is the second, third, and fourth most profitable things that you could do rather than the most valuable thing that you can do. This was a very important

lesson for me this year. And so when you get clear on what the harder question is that you need to ask of why can't I do more and now it's getting hard for me to do it. Then we have to remove every distraction that you have that makes you

do it. Then we have to remove every distraction that you have that makes you think about anything besides solving that problem. That's it. And sometimes

the answer to that hard problem isn't a one week, a 4 week or 4 month solution.

Sometimes you realize that your culture is [ __ ] and you have to fix the culture and that's going to take you 18 months. And when you're 6 months into it, things will feel worse than they did when you started. But it doesn't make it any less of the correct decision for the business. It just means that your

reinforcing event or the reward for the work that you're going to have is far in the future. And it doesn't mean that 6 months in you should now change course

the future. And it doesn't mean that 6 months in you should now change course because it hasn't started working yet because you knew when you started and you realized that this was the true constraint of the business that this was going to be a long and painful road ahead of you. And so you do not want to

then solve try and come up with a new solution when the first solution never had time to bear fruit because sometimes the most productive thing you can do in the business is give time time. Let the solution actually work. This has been a

very hard lesson for me many times as an entrepreneur and I just want to pass it to you because many of you guys have many half-built bridges. You you had a way to get across but you knew it would take four months but one month in you were still suffering. You thought well maybe I'll do this but it's like you

never let the first bridge get finished. And so in a real way for me, I realized that I needed to build a brand. I've had I'll give you two examples of this. So

one early days of gym launch, Leila and I realized that we had an entire tier of directors that were not competent enough. And so over the next 12 months, we had to turn 11 out of 11 directors. Very painful. And when you turn

directors, what do you think you also have to do? Sometimes you have to turn the teams underneath because they had a low bar. And so they brought in a lot of low bar people. There was obviously some good people they brought into, but like very very painful process. Kind of killed morale for that whole year. But

we knew that we weren't going to be able to grow the business because the level of skill of that team was not sufficient and we our bar was too low and unfortunately we can't fire ourselves and so we had to do the next natural thing. That was very painful. 6 months into that culture is worse and we

thing. That was very painful. 6 months into that culture is worse and we haven't turned the whole leadership team. Was it the wrong course of action?

No. Should we change course? No. But it means that you have to learn to suffer because sometimes the correct growth is the most painful path because the highest leverage move often is the hardest problem that you're not choosing to allocate attention towards solving. In a more recent one, I was at 30 to 40

million a year for 3 years for gym launch. And the big aha that I had was that I needed to build a brand and that took years. And so when I went into it, I was like this I will have to keep doing this for many years before I'm

going to bear any fruit from this. And my income when I made that call went down for the first two years by a lot. And so I think you have to be willing to stomach that period of time or you will never be able to do the real solutions that are really going to move the needle because most business owners will do the

second, third, fourth thing, the incremental improvements rather than the order of magnitude changes that typically take order of magnitudes in terms of time and effort. So number 11, it's okay to just make money. So hear me out. There's something that I like to call the third marshmallow fallacy. And

out. There's something that I like to call the third marshmallow fallacy. And

so it goes like this. So many of you guys have probably heard about the research study of like, okay, we they videotaped kids and they said, we'll put one marshmallow in front of you and then if you wait, you know, whatever, 10 minutes, we'll give you a second marshmallow. And the kids that wait, you know, 10 minutes, they're more successful in life because it's, you

know, proxy for your ability to delay gratification. Okay. What's interesting

about that is that people then assume that delaying gratification is always the best course of action. And this is why this is a very interesting lesson.

If you delay gratification indefinitely, then you will work your entire life for nothing because you have delayed gratification and then you will die.

Said differently, if you were the ant that always saves up your money for the winter and you keep saving and keep saving, keep saving and then you die, you have a big stack of crumbs that you will never have done anything with. And

so the question is no longer like once you have learned to delay gratification.

So this will be me talking a little bit more to the winners in the room. Once

you have learned to delay gratification, you then have to learn the even harder task of the appropriate time to accept gratification. Real. So this is incredibly difficult especially for winners because in the earlier part of

your career you be you get reinforced you get rewarded for delaying gratification. And often times it is there is a dose relationship as in the

gratification. And often times it is there is a dose relationship as in the longer you delay the bigger the outcome. So you just continue to learn to delay more and more and more. But there is a time where it comes to reap because you cannot sew forever. And so I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who

was like, "Hey, I don't want to do this thing because it's not going to add enterprise value." But the amount of money that we were talking about for

enterprise value." But the amount of money that we were talking about for this particular deal was like hundreds of millions of dollars. And I wasn't even that confident that the the other thing was going to happen and it would

be like 10 years in the future from now. And so we need to allow some risk adjustment for outcomes to make their way into the decision. If you can get

paid today versus getting paid in 5 years, there is a value to that money because you have five more years of being able to use those resources to acquire more resources. And so I would say that something that has shifted in

me particularly was that it's okay to make money. Like you can also just make money for the sake of making money. And I think that's fine. And I'll say this differently, which is like in a business perspective, let's say that you have a

service based business or you have a software business, whatever. And you

don't want to sell your own time one-on-one. Totally okay. And you you don't want to do it because you do not want to get any revenue that doesn't have a high multiple. Okay, that's fine. Well, let me tell you the story. So,

when I started my first gym, I had one personal training client who paid me in cash every month. He paid me about $4,000 a month in cash for personal training. I did it was like 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week. So, it was a lot of

training. I did it was like 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week. So, it was a lot of personal training. But that guy giving me that cash every single month, even

personal training. But that guy giving me that cash every single month, even though it was not scalable, it was not something that I could sell someday.

That money paid for me to eat, right? And it allowed me to delay gratification on the rest of the business. But somebody who would be a purist of like, well, you shouldn't you should eat even more [ __ ] you should, you know, you should suffer even more during that period of time would have said you shouldn't have taken that distraction. You should have just worked even more in

the business. But I just I don't I don't think that's true. And so I I say this

the business. But I just I don't I don't think that's true. And so I I say this only to the winners. If you're somebody who's never learned to grat delay gratification, you've never learned to save up for the winner, you can't you still overspend your income, ignore this entirely. But for those of you who are

the savers, who do always live under me of your means, who are willing to delay thing one year, 5 years, 10 years, you have to then also be able to make the decision when do I ask, when do I reap? And I'll give you one more example and

then I'll move to the next point, which is this is super common in content creators, and I think this is why I ended up writing this. I've seen a number of creators, I remember I had a conversation with a guy who who said, "Hey, I have this Twitter following that I've built over the last however many

years." And I said, "Okay." And he said, "I would like to better monetize my

years." And I said, "Okay." And he said, "I would like to better monetize my following." And I said, "All right. Well, how many times do you like do you

following." And I said, "All right. Well, how many times do you like do you do you like what CTAs do you have? Do you you know what do you what do you tell them to do?" And he's like, "Oh, nothing. I never want to sacrifice the goodwill I have with my audience." And I was like, "Okay, why did you build this

brand to begin with?" He said, "Well, I wanted to make money." And I said, "Okay, how do you expect to make money if you never ask for it?" Because he had been taught, I have to delay. I have to delay. And to be fair, of course you have to delay. But at some point you have to make the decision now is the

time. And to be clear, it doesn't mean that like now he has to ask every single

time. And to be clear, it doesn't mean that like now he has to ask every single day. It just means we have to begin the process of reaping. And so for you

day. It just means we have to begin the process of reaping. And so for you forever seers, and I put myself in that bucket of always wanting to under under spend and and always delay to the future, there is a line that you need to be able to draw for yourself for today's the day. I will begin reaping now. And I

think that is it is a it is a entirely personal question because it's also fundamentally answering the question how much do I invest versus how much do I consume. I think the answer to that question is entirely individual but I

consume. I think the answer to that question is entirely individual but I think most of us can agree that invest forever consume nothing is probably not the way and consume everything invest nothing is also probably not the way and

so it's somewhere in the middle where you will have to pick what's right for you but it is in the middle somewhere which means you will have to consume at some point you will have to reap and you need to know that it is okay you might also die and so you know there's that too lesson 12 this is a small tactical

one just a great reminder for me from uh from business which is the book launch.

Clear beats clever in all things, right? You will need to repeat yourself until you die. No one cares. No one is listening. And so I had so many people

you die. No one cares. No one is listening. And so I had so many people were like asking like what was the the secret behind the launch. It's like I made 5,000 ads that pretty much said the same thing. Like that was it. And still

most people didn't attend the launch, right, of the book. And we still broke the records and and and and did all the sales and donated all the book. We did

all that stuff. And still the vast majority of the people that I have in my audience, one, didn't even find out about it. and two even if they did find out about it didn't come didn't even register and the few that registered still most of them didn't come so like you have to think about this in terms of

percentages if I if I have a 100 people who register for something less than half will show up if I have a thousand people who find out of something on an ad less than 2% of them will even click right so you you're you're dealing with

such small percentages that the idea that you want to be clever in any way is ridiculous and I would say that the longer I've been in business the more I I emphasize clarity over cleverness I take I I emphasize simplicity over

complexity. How do I make this as simple and as clear as humanly possible? And I

complexity. How do I make this as simple and as clear as humanly possible? And I

think that is that effort of continuing to learn to compress what you're saying and get it simpler and simpler. And that is where it becomes elegant and that is where it becomes effective. And I would say like that that is just a great it was a lesson that I was reminded of. I had a friend of mine we were talking we

were jamming back and forth. He had a massive campaign for his company. He

spent a day out here with me and we were going through everything and his team had this had this really complex marketing structure. He's a phenomenal marketer. And uh he's like, you know, Alex, what do you think? And I was like,

marketer. And uh he's like, you know, Alex, what do you think? And I was like, I think instead of having 10 things you're selling, I think you should have one thing and give 10 reasons for it. And he was like, yeah, I agree. And so

he simplified everything down to one big benefit and 10 reasons for that thing and had the highest converting campaign he had ever done uh in the history of his company. And he has a very successful company and it's been very

his company. And he has a very successful company and it's been very big. He's done it for a very long time. And after the day, he came up to me and

big. He's done it for a very long time. And after the day, he came up to me and was like, he's like, "Listen, I wanted I wanted to bring He's like, "My team has heard me say this so many times. They needed somebody from the outside to say it." He's like, "And I didn't want." He's like, "You got to be the bearer of

it." He's like, "And I didn't want." He's like, "You got to be the bearer of bad news instead of me." And so, but like just just as a little moniker that you can remember for yourself in terms of writing copy, in terms of making sales pitches, in terms of writing emails, making content, whatever it is,

one big idea with 10 reasons rather than 10 big idea with reason, one reason each. I'll leave it at that. Which this segus naturally in to lesson 13, which

each. I'll leave it at that. Which this segus naturally in to lesson 13, which is this year the offer is still king, just like it was last year, just like it was the year before that. The offer still matters more than everything. And

so we um have begun the process of donating um a lot of the books from the launch and we basically made the offer pretty simple. One of the variations that we've test, we're testing a bunch of different variations, but one of the

variations was like, hey, just pay for the shipping of three books and you'll get all three books and uh just pay for the shipping of them. And so, right now, I actually lose money, like literally lose money on that, even with the books

being prepaid. And still, and what's what's crazy though is that the metrics

being prepaid. And still, and what's what's crazy though is that the metrics that I've seen from that offer in that funnel are better than any that I've ever seen in my entire career in marketing. And the reason I find that to

be so interesting is that like we we whip that together so quickly and it's working because it's the offer stupid. Like how do you make an offer so good people feel stupid saying no? It's in the [ __ ] sub headline, right? And so

I'll give you a couple more tidbits that I've I've kind of like gathered together for myself. The reason we're able to break the record is because the bundle

for myself. The reason we're able to break the record is because the bundle for donating 200 books were so strong and so compelling which I spent two years building. The next thing is that whenever you have components of an offer

years building. The next thing is that whenever you have components of an offer or bonuses that you're going to include in any kind of offer, any service, any anything, right? Each bonus should be worth more than the entire value of the

anything, right? Each bonus should be worth more than the entire value of the thing you sell. I believe that most buyers are single issue buyers, like singleisssue voters, is that they keep listening until they have that one

light, that one key, that one unlock, that one reason why that say that was worth it. And so if you ever try and put an offer together where you think, oh,

worth it. And so if you ever try and put an offer together where you think, oh, the aggregate of these things is worth more, you have already lost. And if the bonus itself is complex enough that you have to explain it, delete it. Because

the most expensive part about you explaining different components of the offer is the mental real estate it takes up to actually explain it. And so if something is worth saying, make sure that it's worth saying. And when you

also build offers in this way, it forces you to think even more about how can I make this more compelling? How can I make it simpler? How can I make it more compelling? And each one of them has to has to carry their weight. And by doing

compelling? And each one of them has to has to carry their weight. And by doing that, you'll create a more operationally efficient business. Number one, and your offer, I like to use this as my kind of um my like razor for making a good offer

is that the offer should be textable. Can I text to someone? And then them say, "Yeah, I'm in." And that's just a great way like you you've got this much screen and that many words to to say the essence of the entire offer and if you

can't fit it there, it needs to be better or it's too long. And so that has just been really valuable for me. And I've had that I've had that reinforced this year several times. Obviously, we had the the the offer at the launch. We

we're donating the books on the back end, but even within the portfolio companies, I mean, the reason I think that the offers book will always outsell the other books in general. I think money models out selling now cuz it's new, but like I think long longterm offers while it sell is because like if

you nail the offer in a lot of ways, nothing else matters. It's just getting it right is so hard. But there's nothing that you can do that can make your business have a have a bigger step change in your business's revenue and

profit than really making the offer better. And it's like again, I think on some level people have an understanding of like what things cost. And the reason that I think that book bundle works so well was because they know it cost me

they know I'm losing money. Like people can they know that three hardbacks cost more than $15. They know that. And so shipped, right? Like even one $15 is a crazy deal. Three is absurd, right? And so they know that. And so it's like

crazy deal. Three is absurd, right? And so they know that. And so it's like people assume that like I think Ogulvie said this. He said people think they're, you know, the the prospect is an idiot, but she's your wife. And it's like we we

we talk to these amorphous masses, but it's like they're real people who are intelligent who can make decisions and they know when something smells off and they know when something is a good deal. And so like you can only do so much dressing up with the copy and the words and the persuasive elements because at

the end of the day, you should be able to make the pitch by just stating the offer and shutting the [ __ ] up and pointing to how to pay and people should buy. The rest of it is just is dressing, right? It's just tweaks. It's just

buy. The rest of it is just is dressing, right? It's just tweaks. It's just

improvements. But the biggest improvement overall is going to be what the thing you sell is. So sometimes we need to be reminded more than we need to be taught. And this year was a a wonderful reminder for me of like can

be taught. And this year was a a wonderful reminder for me of like can like it's the offer stupid like make it better. A nice little reminder for me for how to make ads work. So this is a little bit more tactical artifact. Right

now it's about volume of different creative. We did you know a,000 or 2,000 ads I think before we even started. I think it was 3,000 by the time the launch happened. I can't remember. It was in the thousands. and the way that

launch happened. I can't remember. It was in the thousands. and the way that advertising is moving in general, it's going to be about hyperpersonalization.

So with AI, you can create way more permutations much faster. And so I think we're going to have personalization at scale and that's 2026. That's I mean right now it's end of 25, but like I'm just calling this right now. I've

already seen crazy returns that we're seeing in the portfolio with this across all the companies. Like this is the future. like you need you need to be able to create lots of creative and what's more important is you need to be

able to create the machine that consistently self proliferates the creative. So it's like how do I get the customers to make creative that gets us

creative. So it's like how do I get the customers to make creative that gets us more customers then make more creative. That's the that's the process you want to install in the business rather think oh I have to just keep building the team. I mean, there's elements of that for sure, but this is like it was a

team. I mean, there's elements of that for sure, but this is like it was a great lesson for me this year and what I'm taking into next year is like we have to build the self-licking ice cream cone and hyperpersonalization is going to be I mean I mean I'm saying 2026 but I don't think I don't think it's going

to go back. So I think that's going to be the future. So less 15 side quests can make the main quest. So what do I mean by that? So, if you were a very like I hate even using this term, but like visionary founder, if you're somebody who like has lots of big ideas, big dreams, you're always like thinking

shiny objects, you have a little bit of ADD, little touch of the of the ad, right? Sometimes you have to find things for yourself to keep distracted to not

right? Sometimes you have to find things for yourself to keep distracted to not break your main business. And because sometimes, especially the bigger your business gets, when you're smaller, literally ignore this advice. But if

you're bigger, it just takes like it might take a year for a big initiative to happen because it's it's turning the Titanic versus turning a rowboat, right?

And so I have found it useful for me like the books for me are obviously they're I find a way to make them additive to my overall, you know, business acquisition.com, but they take time from me, but that time I think

gives me thinking space and also allows my team to just continue to get better without me like blowing things up. And so I tend to prefer large change from a emotional level, from a logical level, I prefer, you know, incremental, etc. But

it's like how can I how can I have these how can I scratch my new itch? Well, I

have to do things that don't drain, this is the key, that cannot drain resources from the main thing. The side quest only helps if it allows the main quest to succeed even more, not if it distracts from the main quest or pulls any resources from it. And so for me, writing books is that thing. For you, it

might be something else. But I think I've I've grown more and more okay with the idea that like some things will take time within the business and me having something to do in the meantime can actually increase the likelihood that those things succeed and in some ways it's a way of passing the time while things are painful and uncomfortable. So the next one which was a great lesson

for me this year was um delegation is the price of scaling loss of control right and so I believe that the the the spiritual path of entrepreneurship is a consistent relinquishing of control and so we were employees at some time likely

for many people and then you stop doing that and then you decide to start a business and you typically do that because you want to quote have freedom and so then you say I will have complete control but in order to have true freedom you actually can have no control you have to accept that's true freedom

Right? And so at every level, in the very beginning, you do everything and

Right? And so at every level, in the very beginning, you do everything and then you say, "I'm going to have somebody who helps you with this." So

you give a little control and then the next level it's like, "Okay, well the doing I've I've delegated, but the management, no one can manage like I can manage." And then you give the management away. And you're like, "Okay,

manage." And then you give the management away. And you're like, "Okay, well no one can direct or lead like I can lead." Then eventually you give the leadership away. And then it's like, "Well, no one can think of the vision of

leadership away. And then it's like, "Well, no one can think of the vision of the future like I can." And then eventually maybe there is somebody Steve Jobs wasn't able to be replaced, but many of us aren't Steve Jobs and are replaceable. And so delegation is the price of scaling, losing that control.

replaceable. And so delegation is the price of scaling, losing that control.

And so hardworking people, and this is what's really interesting about this, hardworking people have a hard time coming up with non-h hardworking solutions. And so this has been particularly difficult for me because like I I will look at problems and say, "Oh, I wonder if I can outwork this problem." When Bill Gates talked about

this saying, "It's really good to have lazy executives because they will try and think of non high energy ways to solve problems." And so the hard worker won't feel like delegating because they want to feel useful. And it's incredibly

difficult. But if you draw the line, you have to say that you will not do

difficult. But if you draw the line, you have to say that you will not do anything in order for it to scale because otherwise you will absolutely be the limiter of your own growth. And I don't think we are as special as we

think we are. And so you might kind of just have to give up some profit in the short term, but you'll make more in the long term. And so this has been kind of like a thingy process for me, which is at this point the razor I have is if it

requires me, it doesn't work. That's how I think about it now. And so I use the term internally from my head and Leila and I talked about this scale zero. Like

we have to scale me down to zero so we can scale it up to infinity. Otherwise I

will always be the limiter. And so this is kind of just like a a a great reminder or artifact that I've gotten from the year is scale zero. And I've

been reminded this at at at this level now is that nothing can rely on me because the business is just too big. The other little little tidbit I'll I'll add in there as well is if you're at equilibrium within your business, that means that like your supply and your demand are fixed. Like I can't I can't

take in more customers because my supplies like I my team can't handle it, but I also don't have more demand, right? So it's like what do you do when you're at equilibrium? When I was in my earlier part of my career, I would have said increase demand and then force the team to, you know, pull from the cracks

and then with the ex extra cash flow, you'll be able to afford, you know, the the next person you need to hire. That was what I would have said probably the first 10 years of my career, 12 years of my career. And I would say that I have flipped that thinking probably this year, which is that I would say increase

supply. And I'll explain why. When you're at equilibrium, whatever your

supply. And I'll explain why. When you're at equilibrium, whatever your next step is, you're going to have to bear a cost. And the cost will either be your reputation or your profit. And so if I increase demand, the cost of that increase will be my reputation because my team will probably not be able to

deliver at the same quality they otherwise would have because they are overextended. If I increase supply first, then the bandwidth of my team

overextended. If I increase supply first, then the bandwidth of my team will improve and in the short term they will have to train this new person up which will be a cost in the business. So I'm going to almost have a double cost.

They have to train this person up and I have to bear the cost of the person to begin as well. But once that's done, I will have dramatically increased the capacity of the business which will then give bandwidth back which will then

allow us to push to fill up the demand side. And so the reason that we were even able to do the book launch this year, we actually originally were going to do it in February, couldn't do it because we didn't have the bandwidth and then were able to do it in August because 90 days prior we hired four

directors and leaders in the business which expanded the capacity of the business so that we could do the launch. So that was the that was just some of the lessons of this year from that. So next one was just real estate in general. So I you know Sean and I have done a lot of real estate deals together

general. So I you know Sean and I have done a lot of real estate deals together for the last 5 years. I would say we will buy a few hundred million in real estate this year. I'll get the exact number probably in a future video because we have a couple deals pending as the as the year ends. But what was

very interesting is that I have a much better understanding of the tax uh laws around it. So this was a big W for us. I haven't talked about real estate in

around it. So this was a big W for us. I haven't talked about real estate in general despite having done a lot of deals over the last 5 years with Chiron because I didn't feel like I had the credibility. And so I will probably and Shiron will probably as well next year will probably talk more about ACQRE. So,

ACQ Real Estate because we have now gathered a significant amount of resources there that I think you guys would probably like that and I certainly have enjoyed it because it was something that I felt like was a deficiency in my skill set in terms of investing that I wanted to rectify. And so, I've talked

about it in many, you know, many years ago. I've talked about in some videos of like very tiny deals that I did, $50,000 deals that, you know, didn't work out as well. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. And so, that is when I

well. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. And so, that is when I basically enlisted help and I got people who were more experienced and I did what I always do and just try to learn from them. And it has been incredibly enlightening and I very much understand the appeal of it now. And so it was a it

was a huge deal, huge W for us this year and look and I think will be a compounding vehicle for us in the future. I mean this is a a lessons video for the year for me and so I'm grateful that we we took all the steps that we did this year in order to do it. Next one. Best ROI in business. All right,

pay attention to this one. Best ROI is still talent. So the cost and return on talent. So let me get deep on this. you have how much does it cost you to get

talent. So let me get deep on this. you have how much does it cost you to get the talent and then how much will that talent make you and so I had a dentist who came and was like hey I have the specialy dentist they're really hard to find blah blah blah and I say okay well how much does a dentist make you in

gross profit per year and at his facility he made $700,000 in gross profit per year per special dentist I was like okay that's gross profit I said okay fine and I said so if you just had and I think he was doing $4 or $5

million a year in profit something like that and I said okay so what's the problem he said well I can't find any of these dentists? And I said, okay, well, how much money are you spending, you know, with on recruiting or marketing?

And he was like, I don't know, like 2500 bucks. And I was like, okay, so let's hear me out. I said, if I had an investment that that I said would cash flow $700,000 a year, what would you be willing to to pay one time to buy into that investment? He was like, I mean, if I knew it was going to be 700 grand a

that investment? He was like, I mean, if I knew it was going to be 700 grand a year, I mean, 700. And I was like, "Right, so you should be more than happy to spend 50, right, on a head hunter or 150 on a head hunter to go this get this

level of talent." And if you and he needed four to hit his next goal, which he had, which is like to double the business or something. And so I said, "All right, let me ask you this." I think he had 4.6 million I think was his profit. I said, "This year, if instead of making 4.6 6 million in profit. You

profit. I said, "This year, if instead of making 4.6 6 million in profit. You

made 4 million and then you got you spent the 600 to get four guys at 150 each for head hunter to go get that talent and maybe have relocation bonuses, whatever. Would that be worth it? And he was like, "Well, when you say

bonuses, whatever. Would that be worth it? And he was like, "Well, when you say it like that," I'm like, "Right." And so I still to this day believe that especially in the age of AI where every star employee who can use technology

gets even more leverage, the return on talent is is even better than it's ever been. And so when you see Meta paying these hundred million dollar bonuses and

been. And so when you see Meta paying these hundred million dollar bonuses and stuff for these single individuals, you're like, they're crazy. Or they know something we don't know, which is that they might still get a billion or two

billion or five billion in value from this one person if they can unlock it.

And so I think about this from two angles, like a micro and a macro perspective. So on a micro level, when you bring someone in, you get time back.

perspective. So on a micro level, when you bring someone in, you get time back.

It's work that you don't have to do that you now get back. Phenomenal. On the

macro level, the higher the level of talent, the more it's impossible for you to have their lifetime of experience. I can't live an AI coder's last 20 years, right? Or last 10 years. I can't go do that. So, all I can do is spend money to

right? Or last 10 years. I can't go do that. So, all I can do is spend money to go buy that lifetime of experience and then apply it into my business. And so,

fundamentally, the the bigger the business gets, the more it's about assembling the talent that then builds the business than it is about building the business. And your rate of business growth will be limited by your ability

the business. And your rate of business growth will be limited by your ability to learn because no one will come work for you who is better than you. And let

me put my caveat on this. No one will work for you who is better than you at everything. For sure, many people work for me who are better than me at their

everything. For sure, many people work for me who are better than me at their specific functions. But they know that I have depth in some things that my depth

specific functions. But they know that I have depth in some things that my depth is as good or better than their depth in their specific thing. And so excellence attracts excellence. And so if you want more A players, you need to become an

attracts excellence. And so if you want more A players, you need to become an even deeper A player. Because at the at at the most simple level, if you had the five best teammates in the entire world, you would have one of the most valuable

businesses in the entire world. That would be that would be reality. Elon's

superstar skill is that he's so good at engineering that he can attract the best engineers and as a result, he can build the best engineering based companies.

That's his secret. And so he's not actually running six different companies. I mean, he obviously makes his key decisions in those areas, but a

companies. I mean, he obviously makes his key decisions in those areas, but a huge amount of decisions, I would argue the vast majority of the decisions physically couldn't be made by one man because of the size of all six of the companies. And so, the only way that's accomplished is by having such a strong

companies. And so, the only way that's accomplished is by having such a strong brand by being so good at what you do that the best in the world want to work for you. The problem is that you're not the best in the world. And so, they

for you. The problem is that you're not the best in the world. And so, they don't want to work for you, which means, as always, we are the problem. We are

the limiter of the business. next set of lessons for me from this year. So, A

players will make you rich, but here's the downside or the hard part about A player culture. A players cost more per headcount, but not not in actuality. So,

player culture. A players cost more per headcount, but not not in actuality. So,

let me give you an example. If you had five eights and five sixes on a team, what really happens is that the sixes pull down the eights, and now you just have a bunch of six sevens. Anyways, the smart move is to fire all five sixes,

and what happens is your eights become nines, and you never needed the sixes to begin with. And that is something that I've seen over and over and over again.

begin with. And that is something that I've seen over and over and over again.

I had a team of 14 sales guys at one point and we had a cancerous there was a one guy was stealing some other guys knew about it. It was bad. And so we ended up cutting I think from 14 to six. And those six guys closed more deals than the 14 real. I've also had to do this on the on the media. I mean I've

had to do this in a lot of different teams over the years where I have to just massively take an axe because culture runs a muck. There's a bad leader. they lower those standards and then you got eights with sixes and then

leader. they lower those standards and then you got eights with sixes and then the eights start acting like sixes too. But then when you get all the bad ones out then all of a sudden these eights rise to the occasion and they're like we just only want to play with A players because A players will self-manage but

everyone has to be an A player otherwise they'll say oh that's accepted and either they'll lower the bar or they'll leave. And one of the difficulties of this is that your definition of an A player will change as you get better.

what I thought was an A player when I was in, you know, when I owned a gym was somebody who was making $50,000 a year. And I was like, "This is the [ __ ] This guy is the man. This is a player." And then I had my first $75,000 year play, then my first $100,000 year, and then first 200, and my first 400, then my

first million, then first multi-million. And at each level, I'm like, I didn't even know they made people like this. Right? And so, your definition of what good looks like will always be better. And this is a quote from Shiron. He

said, "The best talent is always in the future." And so, we always want to make room. We want to build a business that has a vision that's big enough that

room. We want to build a business that has a vision that's big enough that their big dreams can also fit inside of it. And I'll just say on a tactical level, I I this has just almost become my razor. I have yet to find an A player that I don't immediately know as an A player within the first 14 days. It just

hasn't happened. And so I I think what's really happening for me now is that like my tolerance for not A players has just gone down. I just I can just say like I'm sure they're okay and I'm sure we could give them time and I'm sure they

could become a seven and so what? it's they're not going to be an A. Why

bother? And that that is a hard culture to enforce because people don't want to let other people go. Hey, this person just changed their jobs, etc. And some people might say, "Oh, you're not giving them a chance." I want to be clear here.

It depends on the level of who you're hiring. If you're hiring very low low wage employees, um, and the training is really fast, that can be different than maybe somebody who has to ramp up. There are elements of this, but you can still see leading indicators in terms of character and work ethic almost

immediately. And those are the reasons that most people get fired, not because

immediately. And those are the reasons that most people get fired, not because of kind of the day-to-day skill stuff, which leads us to the next one, which is money attracts talent. Culture keeps talent. And so, hear me out. You need to

be able to pay enough that a players will will ride the ride, right? You must

be this tall to ride this ride. But whether they'll want to keep riding the ride will depend on how good the ride is, right? And so financial incentives are absolutely important for attracting them, but in my opinion, not very

important at all for getting the most out of them. The non-financial

incentives will become significantly stronger than the financial ones because the financial ones are too infrequent. So if we think about how behavior works, behavior is reinforced in the moment. Latency beats intensity every day and

twice on Sunday. The reason that that one drug is more addictive than another is purely based on how quickly you feel good after you take it. That is how addiction works. Why are inhalants so addictive? Because you it's immediately

addiction works. Why are inhalants so addictive? Because you it's immediately in your bloodstream. Why is Facebook or these social media things so addictive?

Because the red light happens immediately. It's not because a red light is inherently this crazy thing. And to the same degree, nicotine is not a super strong drug, but it's immediate. That's why it's so addictive. And so if we think about addiction as a way of changing behavior, then we think, how

can I get someone addicted to the right behaviors in my business? And the way that that addiction would happen is you have to have reinforcers within the way the business works that happen in real time. And are any of those financial?

No. And so we have to be this high to ride this ride. You have to have you have to pay well enough that A-level people are there, but you still might not get true A-level performance unless you have an A culture. And so when you

have a team of A's, they will self-manage and they will continue to reinforce each other for being A's. And if you've ever been on a winning team, it's more fun than being paid well. And on a losing team, if you have to ask

somebody when they're in the Super Bowl, how much do you have to pay to try hard to win this game? No one. They would do it for free because winners want to win more than they want to make money. And that's what makes them winners. Money is

what will get them in the door, but winning is what keeps them there. So

next little tactical lesson, decentralization wins. So we are we are big advocates of decentralization. I would say that we've taken this as a as a Warren Buffett, you know, a feather out of his his hat. I believe that people need to stay focused shared resources, split resources. And so our

goal, especially in terms of how we're running the company, is that as fast as possible, we want to allow functions to be self-sustaining and ideally from day one, right? And if not, we need to look at that investment from holdco.

one, right? And if not, we need to look at that investment from holdco.

Something that has to get paid back as fast as possible so they can become independent. And so this is a little bit more of an operational thing. But the

independent. And so this is a little bit more of an operational thing. But the

way that I think about this is like kind of like revenue lines. So I do not like centralization. I want I want independent leaders who own their own

centralization. I want I want independent leaders who own their own P&Ls so that they can stay completely focused on making that thing win. And

the times in my career where I have quote gotten distracted has actually been I distracted my own team from winning because I told I took resources from here and said oh we're going to also pursue this opportunity but I didn't increase infrastructure. And so I think this is honestly like this will

this is one of the big reasons why I finally feel like I figured out how do we go from a few hundred million to a billion a year in sales. Like this is like this is for the more advanced business owners. This is the big unlock

is that you have to think of business of businesses. You have to think a team of teams, right? And so it's not like, oh, Amazon is this one business. Amazon has

teams, right? And so it's not like, oh, Amazon is this one business. Amazon has

many revenue lines and they function as basically just many businesses under the brand of Amazon. They have the same culture. They have the same ideals. They

strive for the same ultimate outcome and they're aligned in that way, but the actual doingness of AWS versus the logistics business versus the private label business of Amazon, all of those are very different. And so each of them

has CEOs in their own right. And so Acquisition.com now we have two two revenue lines outside or three revenue lines outside of outside of the portfolio. And I guess that's not even true. There's more than that. Well, each

portfolio. And I guess that's not even true. There's more than that. Well, each

of them to that point each of them has their own presidents and leadership team. And so that is the big mistake that I kept trying to make is I kept

team. And so that is the big mistake that I kept trying to make is I kept thinking I had to make this business bigger when in reality like humans can only manage so many humans, right? And so things eventually split off and

become their own units of business. And it's very difficult for a CFO of a holding company to know how much frontline customer service person needs to spend at this particular company. They're too far away. And so that's why

I don't like centralization if you're building a very large business. And I

would say that with with with the this the exception of software from a shared services perspective because basically the operations of that scale, you know, better than just about any other kind of business. But the way that revenue lines are are imagined within the software world is basically feature sets. And so

you have a team that's in charge of these features and it's kind of like a director, a CEO of this feature, a CEO of this feature. So it still more or less works the same way even if the revenue is consolidated with one membership or something like that. But if you have a service business, typically the revenue will not be consolidating that way. You'll have

different lines of of services and different pricing associated with that, different sales teams, different marketing, but it's still brand will still be the same, but the leaders and what they're selling and how they deliver will be different. And so that is a huge unlock for me. And it is like

I feel like we're finally I mean we've been doing this now, but this is me kind distilling down that crystal so that future me can be like what was I thinking right then? That's what I was thinking. And that I think was the the big um the big W. I'll give you a couple tidbits on the leaders to do that. You

need leaders who can who can drive the revenue lines and are incentivized on bottom line. And if they need you, they don't deserve the incentive. If they

bottom line. And if they need you, they don't deserve the incentive. If they

need you to drive the revenue, then they are not the driver. You are still the driver. If you really want to build something big, you have to be able to

driver. If you really want to build something big, you have to be able to find people who are exceptional, compensate them well, and get out of their way. Now, you've heard people say that. I've heard people say that, and I

their way. Now, you've heard people say that. I've heard people say that, and I I I want to say this in a way that somehow I can like make it real because it's real for me now. It's the the thing that I was missing was the was a pattern recognition on what high quality talent looks like. That was what I was missing.

If that person actually here's a different way to think about it. Here's

a good one. If you have a $100 million business, you might have one or two founders or three founders who have nine figure founder, you know, skill sets.

But the people who are going to run within that is the next tier of people are all call it eight figure or multi-figure entrepreneurs. And so in order to create the $und00 million business, you might have two $25 million entrepreneurs and then and then five $10 million entrepreneurs who run the next

tier. And then underneath of them, you've got many sevenfigure

tier. And then underneath of them, you've got many sevenfigure entrepreneurs, right? And so it's almost like the aggregate of the the aggregate

entrepreneurs, right? And so it's almost like the aggregate of the the aggregate revenue in the business is the added up potential of all the skill of all the players within it. And that was just a bit like if if you don't think that your

head of sales could go do sales and like if your if your person in marketing couldn't start a marketing agency, then they're probably not that good at marketing, right? And so that's that's kind of the thinking process is like if

marketing, right? And so that's that's kind of the thinking process is like if none of the people that you have could go do it on their own, then you probably don't have good enough people. And that's the thing because you have this fear of like, oh, what if I if I bring somebody in who can do it on their own, they'll just steal my stuff. It's like or if you don't bring them in, you will

literally do it for the rest of your life. We have to create the vision and the opportunities that are big enough and this is where the design this is your job. How to create the opportunities are such that it still

your job. How to create the opportunities are such that it still makes more sense for the person to work here because they can have uncapped earnings. So there's a difference between like somebody needs to own the

earnings. So there's a difference between like somebody needs to own the whole business, which the biggest business in the world, no one owns the whole business. Well, I mean to my knowledge, right? The biggest I'm

whole business. Well, I mean to my knowledge, right? The biggest I'm thinking like okay, publicly traded, whatever. I'm sure there's some secret Arabian oil factory that I don't know about, right, that one guy owns. But

like for the vast majority of businesses, many people own them, right?

But what's more key is that someone has unlimited earning capacity. And I think that's the key. That's how you can get the A players. And if they are true A's, they'll [ __ ] light up because the thing is is it makes sense because the return on effort is higher because of the aggregate infrastructure that has

already been built from the brand recognition, from uh the reputation, from the the delivery mechanisms that you might have in place. that person

it's like they're like I don't even want like let me just let me cook let me crush what I'm really good at and be able to do that at a higher level than I could do if I did it on my own because I couldn't even use my whole superpower to the greatest degree that I can because I would get bottlenecked much lower along

the line doing something else that I don't want to do. So huge unlock for me and for the bigger business owners that part was probably the most valable for you. Lesson 22. So I'm 0 for 12 on executive assistance but I'm hoping to

you. Lesson 22. So I'm 0 for 12 on executive assistance but I'm hoping to be one for 13. Maybe should be lucky number 13. I I had my first kind of like world class EA and so I will just do my very best to describe it. I'm early so I'm almost I'm almost hesitant to make this because I'm like this is like oh

I'm in love and and then you're like you're like how's that girlfriend of yours? It's like oh you broke up you know whatever it's terrible. So take

yours? It's like oh you broke up you know whatever it's terrible. So take

this with a gigantic grain of salt but I I do think that this one work out and I'll and I'll tell you why. She's a psychopath and I think I had normal people and I'm not normal. And so I needed I needed a psychopath and I realized that the number one thing that I mean I we've said this in the

interviews but I still I still wasn't I had never actually experienced on the other side. I knew it in theory but I hadn't experienced it which is speed

other side. I knew it in theory but I hadn't experienced it which is speed over everything. I needed someone who will always respond to me within 60

over everything. I needed someone who will always respond to me within 60 seconds no matter when I message and I will go for hours and hours and hours with nothing and then the moment I message you I need full resources full

attention because in that moment you are my constraint and I needed someone who had more competence general horsepower. So I will say this for for all of you guys who are who are founders who who who you know have schedules and whatnot.

One, I think you should be the one who manages your time. In terms of who's doing the blocking and tackling, that's separate. I think you can outsource that. But who makes decisions on your time? If your time is your most valuable

that. But who makes decisions on your time? If your time is your most valuable resource, why would you want anyone but the person who's the best allocator of resources, aka you, to be the person who's who's choosing how that time gets

spent. So thing number one. Two, I think speed above everything. Now, also above

spent. So thing number one. Two, I think speed above everything. Now, also above everything is general intelligence. And I think this is something that I I did not I did not appreciate. I did not screen for as much and it was a mistake

and I found this by accident. My current is very intelligent. And so as a result I trust her decision-m to a much higher degree and I feel like my ability to actually give true tasks that I do that come up that require horsepower. I can

actually give them and be like just do a first draft and I can get 80% of that done and then I can tweak rather than having to just truly do everything to Novo. So the next piece that I think has been really helpful is whether you are a

Novo. So the next piece that I think has been really helpful is whether you are a maker or manager, plan your time accordingly and live and die by that.

I've had some of the most productive weeks of my life by finally for the first time in so long. I actually feel like I'm ahead, which I've I haven't felt that in such a long time where I'm I'm actually proactively time blocking my time. That's all the free time that I have, but blocking it for what project

my time. That's all the free time that I have, but blocking it for what project is being worked on each of these time slots. and she's keeping track of all my ongoing projects and knowing what loops of like, hey, when are you going to close the loop on this? When are you going to Hey, by the way, this this

followed up. And so, I'm sharing this so that for those of you who are like, man,

followed up. And so, I'm sharing this so that for those of you who are like, man, I really need executive assistant. Pay more than you expect, look for someone who's more intelligent and say speed is non-negotiable and have them watch the maker manager video because I think that will give a huge amount of context to

how you work your life. And so, for me, that that was a huge a huge learning for this year. Next one is if there's ever a problem in an organization or a

this year. Next one is if there's ever a problem in an organization or a department or a line of revenue, look at the leader. And here's the here's the

rule. The leader is always the problem. Not sometimes. The leader is always the

rule. The leader is always the problem. Not sometimes. The leader is always the problem. So if a function is mediocre, it's because the leader is mediocre.

problem. So if a function is mediocre, it's because the leader is mediocre.

Period. Full stop. No questions. So it's either the leader and the team or just the leader. But it's never just the team. So, if the leader is mediocre and

the leader. But it's never just the team. So, if the leader is mediocre and then they brought in mediocre people, it's the leader and the team. If the

leader is mediocre and you've got a great team, the leader will turn the great team into a mediocre team. And so, I had a conversation with a business owner the other day and he had four locations. Two of them were doing well, two of them were doing poorly. I asked a zillion questions to finally get the the

the the fun fact, which is that he had somebody in the company who was running them, who was a longtime friend, and also, we'll just say an addict. I'll

just say that. and every day was coming up to work messed up, inebriated, whatever you want to say. And he was asking me for tactical business advice when I was like, there is no tactical business advice. There is nothing that

will matter because every no one will listen to somebody who they're like, well, why don't you show up to work sober? Why don't we start there, right?

No one will respect. Imagine that guy coming in and being like, hey guys, let's pick up the pace. What? Like what are we talking about? And so it's like all these questions about like pricing and sales. Dude, none of this matters until we fix the leader problem, right? But the thing is is that's obviously an

extreme example, but it happens at every level. If your your media team's not working well, the leader, if the if if your sales team isn't good, the leader, the question is after you pull the leader out, is the team also screwed?

Got a 50/50 shot there. If they had a low bar and brought in low bar people, that sucks. Now, if you have, now it's like, well, what happens if you had a

that sucks. Now, if you have, now it's like, well, what happens if you had a bad team and you put a good leader in place? Have you ever seen a good coach turn around a bad team? Pretty sure there's a ton of movies about it. Yes.

If you have a great leader, they can turn a great they can turn a mediocre team into a great team. So I I think I spent too much time early on my career trying to find pinpoint problems. Straight up there's a problem with a

function leader the issue. Just solves it. This is so much faster. So there's a razor for you. Lesson 24. In the world of AI, your brand is your mode. All

right. Now this is not going to be news to some of you and for some of you this hopefully hopefully it's news to none of you. Um, but if it is news, welcome to 2026. So if if if that's the case, because services and and and products

2026. So if if if that's the case, because services and and and products can become increasingly commoditized and listed goals and content, things like that are are easy to reproduce, how can you build a brand, right? So branding,

the act of it is who and what you associate with that is what will matter.

And so in a world of AI, you have to be thinking about this. And so if you're a local business, for example, your brand will be mostly word of mouth and the reviews about you online. That's what the reality is. But just about every

other business, it's that plus all of the content that you're making publicly, right? And so this is just the the the most to the point version of this that I

right? And so this is just the the the most to the point version of this that I can give you, which is as always, give away the secrets, sell the implementation. People do not want to do the work for whatever it is that you're

implementation. People do not want to do the work for whatever it is that you're showing. Whether you're showing them how to fix toilets, they'll just call you to

showing. Whether you're showing them how to fix toilets, they'll just call you to do their plumbing. If you're telling them how to fix relationships, they're still going to call you to help them fix their relationship. If you tell them how to fix their business, they'll call you to help them fix their business. Right?

People do not want to do the work or they don't want to do it alone. Key,

myself included. I will always pay to go faster and decrease risk so they don't have to do backtracks. Like I get the DIY. I will consume something and be like, "This person clearly knows what they're talking about. I will pay to go faster and I will pay to have you take this generic thing, make sure it's

applied to my business so that it's right because I don't want to pay the tax of ignorance." And so if you know this to be true, then the question is if I want to build a brand in 2026, I want to think about what are the curated

associations that I want to make that will reinforce the position that I want to have in my prospect's minds. What things do they like that I want them to think of me when they think of that? And so that's what we want to do. So what do you think we're going to do? I'm going to do a lot more business fixing next

year and I have to build a lot more infrastructure in order to do that. But

it's going to be demonstration of skill, right? What's something that very few people can do in your market that you can demonstrate better than anyone else?

Do that. Do as much of it as you possibly can. Do it until your eyes bleed because the market won't even know you exist by the time you're getting tired of it. So on the on the the talk track of brand, brand has to be

constantly reinforced. So you need to keep pushing the envelope to stay

constantly reinforced. So you need to keep pushing the envelope to stay relevant. Something is only a big deal if you make it one. No one knew about

relevant. Something is only a big deal if you make it one. No one knew about the launch. No one. I have almost 20 million or 17 I don't even know what it

the launch. No one. I have almost 20 million or 17 I don't even know what it is. Between 16 17 between 16 and 20 I haven't checked in a while. 16 and 20

is. Between 16 17 between 16 and 20 I haven't checked in a while. 16 and 20 million followers or subscribers across all different channels or whatever. The

vast majority of people did not know about the launch. Didn't even know about it. And I tried really really hard. And in order to stay relevant, you still

it. And I tried really really hard. And in order to stay relevant, you still have to keep going bigger and bigger. Like why would I do the launch? It's

like well I got to like it's like just because like Chris Bumpstead when he won the first Olympia, it doesn't mean he's done. It's like we got to win the Olympia again. You got to maintain the title. You gota It's like that's why

Olympia again. You got to maintain the title. You gota It's like that's why it's defending the title, right? So, you have to continue to and I think this is what's lost in some people's like it's like, man, the climbing the climb is so tough. It's like, no, man, holding the tops way harder than climbing it, right?

tough. It's like, no, man, holding the tops way harder than climbing it, right?

And there's always levels to the game. And so, it's like once you once you get your title, whatever your title is for you, it's like you have to keep taking on new title bouts to keep defending the belt. And maybe the stages keep getting bigger, right? In business that like the stages can only keep getting bigger.

bigger, right? In business that like the stages can only keep getting bigger.

I'll tell you a failure that I had around the launch. I think on the PR front, I had planned for a big PR kind of blastoff on the back end of that and basically that that fell flat. Not basically the the PR firm that I had I

didn't have really any attention to put towards it and I saw it as it was a miss. It was a miss. Like how many articles did you see about some like

miss. It was a miss. Like how many articles did you see about some like some internet person doubling the world record? Not that many. and that like that would totally have been fixable if I had just had queued up a bunch of PR

and I just I just didn't. So that was a miss. That was a miss for me. We'll do

better next time. Next one. The greatest risk to the business is that you don't feel like doing it anymore. This is super real. So the reason that people like most businesses don't actually run out of money. The founder runs out of

will. And so like you have to you have to get you have to have the frame shift

will. And so like you have to you have to get you have to have the frame shift to it has to be worth suffering for. And I do think that making money is a component of it. Like I had somebody the other day who was like, "Hey, I'm thinking about switching this business." And that's how most businesses die,

right? The entrepreneur just switches and says, "It's not worth it for me

right? The entrepreneur just switches and says, "It's not worth it for me anymore." I said, "If this thing made 10 times the money, would you keep doing

anymore." I said, "If this thing made 10 times the money, would you keep doing it?" And they're like, "Hell yeah." I'm like, "Would you look at this other

it?" And they're like, "Hell yeah." I'm like, "Would you look at this other business?" They're like, "No." I'm like, "Well, then dude, let's just fix the

business?" They're like, "No." I'm like, "Well, then dude, let's just fix the business." Right? So, making more money can help, but I will say kind of like

business." Right? So, making more money can help, but I will say kind of like the electroshock therapy. If it made 10 times the money, it will help in the short term, but not forever because plateaus are often the ones that stay in

it the longest. So, what do I mean by that? Like they it's like the shrinking and the growing are the ones that are I think the most painful. The plateaus,

people can just stay in them for years because it's just like not painful enough to quit, but still very painful. So the ones that grow fast are in lots of pain and eventually they don't need the money anymore at all. And so those

are very like if you've grown a lot and made a lot of money really quickly, you then stop wanting to be in all the pain that this tremendous growth provides you because you're like I don't need to do this anymore. And so on the flip side, the ones who are shrinking or are very volatile deal with the most pain

obviously. So you have the same volatility and pain of the of the growth

obviously. So you have the same volatility and pain of the of the growth guy except you also aren't making money. So that is the most pain that you will be in business. And so what we're solving for as entrepreneurs is

something worth doing, right? Having something and I think that the most powerful thing that has helped me is having something outside of yourself that the business acts as a vehicle that you drive towards. And so some of so for

some people that's like some societal impact that you want to make. That's

some problem that you want to solve. For me it's the person that I want to become. But like that's very easy to say and I've heard many people say it. Their

become. But like that's very easy to say and I've heard many people say it. Their

actions don't align with that. So whatever that thing is for you and it might not be that you want to become this person, but whatever that thing is for you, it's like it has to be real because and you have to you have to fix the business to allow you to to achieve that thing because once you make all the

money that you want to make, you have to have another reason to do it. And so

that is why entrepreneurs not wanting to do it is the greatest risk to the business. And I think that like I have to always keep that front of mind like

business. And I think that like I have to always keep that front of mind like the thing that will like I have to be willing at this point for acquisition.com to do some things that I just want to do even if it's not in the

business's best interest because it's in my best interest and if it's in my best interest I will keep doing the This.