LongCut logo

If You Only Watch One Money Video, Make It This

By Sharran Srivatsaa

Summary

Topics Covered

  • Money Loves Speed, Wealth Loves Time
  • Givers Control Outcomes
  • Leverage Multiplies Returns
  • Cash Flow Funds Life, Equity Builds Freedom
  • Diversify Only Against Ignorance

Full Transcript

You can follow all the right money rules and still feel like you're never getting ahead. You can save more and invest

ahead. You can save more and invest early and work hard and still that scoreboard never moves. I went from being a janitor to building two billion-dollar companies and managing billions of dollars at Goldman Sachs.

And what I learned is that money doesn't follow rules. It actually follows laws.

follow rules. It actually follows laws.

So here are the seven laws that will help you understand how money actually works. So here's a system to make more

works. So here's a system to make more money. It has three parts. The three

money. It has three parts. The three

parts are momentum, structure, and asymmetry. So what does this mean? The

asymmetry. So what does this mean? The

job of momentum is to figure out how you can actually compound money more. The

job of structure is to figure out who controls the money and what outcomes you get. And the job of asymmetry is to

get. And the job of asymmetry is to maximize the upside and minimize the downside. Starting with law number one,

downside. Starting with law number one, money loves speed, but wealth loves time. When I first got into real estate,

time. When I first got into real estate, I had access to several real estate agents who handed me offmarket deals and I became a flipper, meaning I would get the deal, I would rehab the property,

and I would sell it. I would flip the asset. And this entire 5 years, I got

asset. And this entire 5 years, I got the deal, I put money in, and I flipped it. I got more deals from our agents, I

it. I got more deals from our agents, I put money in, and I flipped it. At that

same time, in that same 5-year period, my friend did something different. He

started off with one single family property. A couple years later, he

property. A couple years later, he bought a forplex, meaning four units. He

waited for a couple more years. He

recapped money from it and he bought a 20unit complex. He didn't do any

20unit complex. He didn't do any flipping. He went from one property to

flipping. He went from one property to four units to then 20 units. At the end of those 5 years, I had flipped a 100 homes and made some cash, but he owned 20 units. His net worth was five times

20 units. His net worth was five times that of mine because I was working on speed and he was working on time. So, if

money loves speed and wealth loves time, well, what is speed? And what is time?

Speed is when you see an opportunity and you act on the opportunity. It is the shortest distance between seeing and acting on an opportunity. The faster we

can shorten this distance, the faster money moves. Well, what does wealth love

money moves. Well, what does wealth love time mean? Wealth of time means you make

time mean? Wealth of time means you make a good decision and you hold on to it for a long period of time. But the crazy part is for the first period that actually looks like an okay decision.

You don't even know if something's happening. As the time passes by, you

happening. As the time passes by, you see the value of that decision. Often

times what most people do is they confuse fast action with fast results.

Fast action is not equal to fast results. You want to get the speed right

results. You want to get the speed right and you want to get the time right.

Warren Buffett at Burch Hathway completely flipped this idea of holding on to something for a long period of time. He bought highquality companies

time. He bought highquality companies and he held them forever. From 1965 to 2024, Berkshire compounded at almost 20% annually. They beat the S&P 500 by

annually. They beat the S&P 500 by double. Their total return hit 5

double. Their total return hit 5 million%. So remember, speed is about

million%. So remember, speed is about the shortest distance between seeing an opportunity and taking action. Time is

about making a good decision and allowing the time for it to compound.

There's one important reason for this because the best partner that you have in wealth creation is time. Once you

understand that wealth is built by time, the next question is who actually benefits from that time? Because in the money game, the person who gives the money controls the outcome. Which brings

us to law number two. He who gives the money has the power. I've sold five companies in the last 20 years. And the

buyers of all my companies made 10 to 100x more than I did because buyers and builders have an unfair advantage. If we

analyze the Forbes 400 list, there seem to be three types of people who make it on the list. The first are people that have made it on earned income, meaning with their salary. The second are people

that have actually sold a business to get on the list. And third, the people who are buyers and builders who continuously buy and build companies and opportunities. Well, let's look at the

opportunities. Well, let's look at the people who have made it on the list because of earned income. Well, spoiler

alert, there's zero people that made it on the Forbes 400 list on earned income or on their salary alone. But what about people who sold their business? There

are a few like Mark Lure sold jet.com to Walmart and he made it on the list. Dan

Gilbert sold Quick and Loans and made it on the list. But the folks that buy and build are the vast majority. Take Elon

Musk or Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffett or Mark Zuckerberg or Don Brent at the Irvine Company. All of those who buy and

Irvine Company. All of those who buy and build constantly make it on the list. In

fact, Dan Gilbert who sold Quick and Loans, he actually bought it back and then he built it to take it public again. So, he was an example who got on

again. So, he was an example who got on the list for selling the business, but then made it even more powerful by buying and building overall because he who actually gives the money has the

power. Facebook bought Instagram for a

power. Facebook bought Instagram for a billion dollars and it's worth over $45 billion today. Google bought YouTube for

billion today. Google bought YouTube for $1.6 $6 billion and it's the core part of Google's business and the second most valuable search engine. Take Elon. Elon

bought Twitter for $44 billion. It is

about buying and building. This is even more prevalent in the sports franchise realm. Henry Samuel Elli, the owner of

realm. Henry Samuel Elli, the owner of Broadcom, gave $70 million to the Anaheim Ducks in 2005. And today, the Anaheim Ducks franchise is worth over

$1.6 billion. Mark Cuban gave $285

$1.6 billion. Mark Cuban gave $285 million to the Dallas Mavericks in 2000 and eventually sold 73% of it for 3.5 billion in 2023. Even if you take

something as simple as the real estate market, if there are no buyers, there is no market. And the main reason for this

no market. And the main reason for this is because buyers unlock value. And

however you slice it in economics, buyers wield the power because they give the money and they control the terms. Let me break down what we do at acquisition.com. We are a business that

acquisition.com. We are a business that builds businesses. We have a flywheel of

builds businesses. We have a flywheel of building more companies. We use our brand to attract more businesses. That

business drives the advisory business.

It drives our education business. It

drives our ventures business. It drives

our private equity business. It drives

our real estate business. We have no plans of selling acquisition.com. Our

goal is to buy and build for years to come. And you know, whenever someone

come. And you know, whenever someone says buy and build, you must be thinking, man, I don't have all the cash to go buy companies or buy real estate or invest in private equity. What do I do? This does not mean you need to have

do? This does not mean you need to have all the cash. It just means you need to understand the strategy. The massive

wealth is created by buying and building. So just understanding the

building. So just understanding the strategy and being so obsessed with buying and building will create massive momentum for you. And when you are the one giving the money, you'll notice something immediately. The biggest

something immediately. The biggest players aren't just using more effort, they're using better tools. And the most misunderstood tool of them all is leverage. Next up is law number three.

leverage. Next up is law number three.

Leverage multiplies everything. Let me

give you four examples of how leverage plays a massive role in our daily lives.

Let's say you bought a house for all cash for a million and in 3 years that home went up 10% to $1.1 million. Well,

you got a 10% return on your million.

Yay, good job. But instead, if you actually got a loan and that loan was for $800,000 and you put $200,000 down, it was the same exact house and it grew

by 10%. Now, compared to the $200,000

by 10%. Now, compared to the $200,000 that you put down, you got a 50% increase in your return. And that was only possible because of leverage.

Because leverage multiplies everything.

Leverage actually introduced an entire industry for us. Private equity is where investors can invest in companies that you and I know about, the laundromat,

the restaurant, or the roofing company, and actually unlock value in the company for them. So what these investors do is

for them. So what these investors do is that they bring cash to buying this business but own just like you would buying a house and then they get the bank to finance the rest of the debt as leverage and because of that the company

gets to grow and also the founders and the owners get to take some money off the table. This entire trillion dollar

the table. This entire trillion dollar industry would not even exist without the existence of leverage because leverage multiplies everything. This

also happens in the commercial real estate world. So if you think about

estate world. So if you think about buying a 20 unit multif family apartment building there's multiple things that happen there. The first is you only

happen there. The first is you only probably have to bring a third in equity or cash to close a deal. The rest can be used in bank financing, which is leverage. And there's two amazing things

leverage. And there's two amazing things that happen with it. Number one, because this is a commercial property and it's a business, the leverage is based entirely on the value of the collateral, which is the building. And you don't even have to

the building. And you don't even have to do a personal guarantee to it. But the

most important part of all of this is you get so many tax advantages for doing this big a deal. So this leverage not only unlocks several personal advantages but it also gives you tax advantages which is why it is such a active

strategy for many investors. But I will tell you the one strategy that many people use that don't realize the leverage behind it. Let me show you how billionaires save money on taxes by using leverage. Take Elon Musk for

using leverage. Take Elon Musk for example. Elon recently bought Twitter

example. Elon recently bought Twitter and instead of just selling all his equity holdings in Tesla or any other company and buying Twitter, he borrowed against his Tesla stock. And when you borrow against your Tesla stock, your

Tesla stock became the collateral. So

the bank tell him, "Sure, go ahead and borrow against his Tesla stock because if you default, we'll just take your stock." And he was then able to take

stock." And he was then able to take billions of dollars of his Tesla stock and then go and buy Twitter. He was able to do two things. He was able to leverage his existing position in Tesla without kicking off any taxes for

himself and then use that to buy an asset that was significantly bigger over time. What you're seeing is examples in

time. What you're seeing is examples in our daily lives of how leverage multiplies everything. A lot of people

multiplies everything. A lot of people talk about how debt and leverage are bad, but there is a wrong way to do it and a right way to do it. I want to give you four ways to think about how you can use leverage to multiply everything.

Number one, you have to know that leverage is the number one economic growth engine because if leverage stopped in the world, everything would stop in the world. Number two, you have to educate yourself on what kind of risk

is available to you. Number three,

leverage is a game of collateral. When

you get a mortgage, your house is the collateral. When you borrow against a

collateral. When you borrow against a stock, your stock is a collateral. When

you're investing in a building, the building is a collateral. And that makes the leverage much more manageable. And

number four, since we know that taxes are the number one drug on wealth creation, leverage does not provide any income. And since there's no income,

income. And since there's no income, there are no taxes as well. So, it gives you a massive tax advantage. But

leverage by itself doesn't make you wealthy. It just magnifies what you've

wealthy. It just magnifies what you've already built. Which is why we have to

already built. Which is why we have to understand the difference between cash flow and equity. Law number four, cash flow keeps you alive and equity makes you free. Cash flow helps fund your

you free. Cash flow helps fund your current lifestyle. It pays your bills,

current lifestyle. It pays your bills, it pays your house, it pays your car, and it pays your vacations. It is the money that you need today. But equity is the wealth that you create tomorrow. So

you may say, well Chiron, what is the best way to own equity? Well, the best way to own equity is to own your business. But that may not be a strategy

business. But that may not be a strategy for every one of us. There has to be a second best way. And the second best way is to own a piece of someone else's business. Now, what does that mean?

business. Now, what does that mean?

There's a lot of companies in the world right now that are publicly traded.

You're talking Amazon, Tesla, Google.

They're all companies you can buy shares in. So, the job there becomes how can

in. So, the job there becomes how can you use your cash flow to buy a piece of someone else's company? Because at the end of the day, you either have to own your own business and the equity in your

business or you have to own a piece of someone else's business. Either way, we need the equity to make you free. Let me

tell you how McDonald's makes all its money. Most people only think that

money. Most people only think that McDonald's sells burgers and fries, but there's a lot more to it. Their burgers

and fry business makes a lot of cash, but their real wealth comes from a different part of their business, which is the royalties that account for $1.6 billion of McDonald's franchises all

around the world. And even more is their real estate, which accounts for nearly $45 billion. While the cash flow makes you

billion. While the cash flow makes you rich, the equity makes you wealthy.

Here's where most high earners still get stuck. They chase the stability and they

stuck. They chase the stability and they call it wealth. But real wealth shows up when you understand that risk and reward don't scale evenly. Law number five is

that risk and reward are nonlinear. Most

companies that are backed by venture capital actually never make it. So let's

say you take a venture capital firm and it's making five investments. It puts

$100,000 each into each of the five investments. That is the maximum amount

investments. That is the maximum amount of money it can lose, $500,000. But

let's say the first investments goes to zero. The second investment goes to

zero. The second investment goes to zero. The third investment just breaks

zero. The third investment just breaks even. The fourth investment goes 10x.

even. The fourth investment goes 10x.

And the fifth investment goes 100x. Just

by these two investments, they recapture all the profits that is necessary for the portfolio from a $500,000 investment. So they invest $500,000 and

investment. So they invest $500,000 and they make 100x that amount. This is

called portfolio theory where you have asymmetric riskreward where the risk and reward are not linear. They are not betting $500,000 to gain $500,000.

They're betting $500,000 to get 10 to 100x more. It's easy to think that risk

100x more. It's easy to think that risk and reward are linear, meaning you put $100 in and you may only get $100 worth of return. But we want to be in a game

of return. But we want to be in a game where you can put $100 in and you can get $10,000 worth of return. Our job is to maximize the upside, which is the reward, and to cap the risk, which is

the downside. That's exactly what they

the downside. That's exactly what they do in venture capital. That's exactly

what you do with leverage. That's

exactly what you do when you buy a home with a loan. So, if you hear asymmetric upside and think go allin, that's how people blow up. The goal isn't to win one big time. The goal is to never lose

the game. That brings us to law number

the game. That brings us to law number six. Don't bet the empire for a pot of

six. Don't bet the empire for a pot of gold. My friend bet his entire life

gold. My friend bet his entire life savings on one deal and lost everything.

He and his wife had systematically saved a little over $700,000 in life savings.

And then they got introduced to an oil and natural gas deal. Every part of the deal was extremely attractive. It had

tax advantages. It had great return profile. And his friend was actually

profile. And his friend was actually promoting the deal. It was almost a no-brainer. He took his entire life

no-brainer. He took his entire life savings, almost $700,000, and he invested it in this deal. As you can imagine, the deal did not go well. And 2

years later, the entire investment collapsed. over 15 years of savings

collapsed. over 15 years of savings instantly vanished. There's a lesson

instantly vanished. There's a lesson here to be learned. It's not about evaluating the investment or evaluating the friend that brought it to them or evaluating what they should have done or not done differently. It's about sizing

the bet. You don't risk the empire for a

the bet. You don't risk the empire for a pot of gold. You don't risk 15 plus years of savings all on one deal. And

that is the sizing investment that we should learn today. So, if this was your entire empire, our job is to size our investments correctly. We need to size

investments correctly. We need to size our bets and sizing bets is a very important part of investing. The best

lesson I learned about sizing bets was to manage risk because the entire idea of doing this is to manage risk. I

learned this idea of managing risk from Ray Dalio and I want to break it down for you. He talked about risk

for you. He talked about risk and return because every investment has some risk and every investment has a return. Let's say you have an investment

return. Let's say you have an investment that has a risk of 150, which is a random number, and it gave you a 15% return. Or you had an investment that

return. Or you had an investment that gave you a risk of 100 and a 12% return.

Now, what Ray Dalio says is our job is to keep this return the same, but reduce the risk. What if you could then get to

the risk. What if you could then get to a risk of 80, but still get a 12% return? Or get to a risk of 70, but

return? Or get to a risk of 70, but still get to a 12% return? or get to a risk of 60 and maybe get to 11.5% of return. This becomes the best

return. This becomes the best investment. Our job is to figure out how

investment. Our job is to figure out how we can reduce the risk and keep the return exactly the same. The number one mistake that people make is that they try to increase the return without paying any attention to the risk. The

best of the best, the greatest of the greats figure out how to reduce the risk while keeping the return exactly the same. There are two big learnings here.

same. There are two big learnings here.

Number one, protect the machine that produces the opportunities, which is your empire. And number two, swing for

your empire. And number two, swing for the upside when your downside is capped.

And once you size the bets to survive, the next protection is really simple.

You diversify only where you don't know.

Law number seven, diversification is a hedge against ignorance. Wall Street

tells you to spread your money across everything. But every wealthy person I

everything. But every wealthy person I know does the exact opposite. Here's

why. Because when you don't understand something or you don't control something, then you're just hoping that it works out. Here's a formula for investing in companies and it has two vectors. Number one, risk and the second

vectors. Number one, risk and the second is control. When you understand risk and

is control. When you understand risk and you have control, it tells you whether you can concentrate or diversify. So in

this case, when you understand risk and you have control, you get to put all your eggs in one basket because you know everything about the business, which is your business. But what if you

your business. But what if you understand the risk, but you don't have control. It's Apple or Google or some

control. It's Apple or Google or some other company. That means it's okay, but

other company. That means it's okay, but you still invest in the business because you understand the risk. If you don't understand the risk, but you have control, you have ownership control, then it just means you're missing a key

operator. So, all you need to do is get

operator. So, all you need to do is get a key operator in the business. But

last, but not least, if you neither understand the risk nor you have control, that's the time where you actually spread your bets out. That's

the time where you completely diversify.

This is why most entrepreneurs and investors have their entire net worth in their business. Take Bill Gates or Elon

their business. Take Bill Gates or Elon Musk. And if you remove their equity

Musk. And if you remove their equity from Microsoft and Tesla, they dramatically drop in the Forbes 400 list. That's why operators like Elon

list. That's why operators like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg understand the risk so deeply in their business that they don't diversify from it. They own all their stock and all

it. They own all their stock and all their equity because they have the insider information. They have the

insider information. They have the insider plans. Then they have the future

insider plans. Then they have the future control and influence of the risk to build and grow their business. Now,

knowing these laws isn't enough. You

have to know how to use them as a system to make you money. Here are the five questions to ask before investing in anything. Number one, can this compound?

anything. Number one, can this compound?

Meaning, is this a good long-term investment? Number two, who has control?

investment? Number two, who has control?

Is it you or someone else? Number three,

what happens if it fails? Do you get some or all of your money back? Number

four, is the upside meaningful and larger than the downside? And number

five, do you understand the risks?

Meaning, can you clearly explain how the business works and what could go wrong?

Now that you understand the laws that decide whether money compounds or disappears, the next step is knowing how to apply them in real decisions. Watch

this next video and I'll show you the exact decision system that tells you what to do even when the answer is not obvious.

Loading...

Loading video analysis...