If you're ambitious and in your 20s or 30s, please watch this.

Give me the next 30 minutes and I'll help you make the most of your 20s and your 30s. So, I made my first million

your 30s. So, I made my first million when I was 26. A decade later, my portfolio companies generated last year over $250 million in aggregate revenue.

And I'm 36 now. And so, in this video, I'm going to give you the real world advice that I wish someone had told me much earlier. So, number one is you want

much earlier. So, number one is you want to take asymmetric bets. If you're under 30, you have no reason not to go 100% allin on your goals. The downside is

nothing and the upside is everything. If

you think about life as giving you kind of lottery tickets, right? You can

scratch off a ticket and if you don't win, then what did you lose? The

scratchoff ticket. But the thing is is that when you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to lose and you only have things to gain. And so the objective when you have as little as you can is to

take as many shots as possible because your downside is zero, right? And so

it's the only time in your career where you can take more shots than anyone else. And so the reason or the fact that

else. And so the reason or the fact that people don't take shots and myself included when I was younger, I was so afraid to take a shot. But the only reason that was holding me back was the belief that other people who I don't

even talk to anymore would somehow judge me as a quote failure. You never

actually start from scratch ever again because every time after the first time you start from scratch, you start with an experience. So you still always net a

an experience. So you still always net a positive. And so that's the beautiful

positive. And so that's the beautiful thing about taking shots is that you either get the big win or more likely you learn something and then that learning compounds. And so the thing is

learning compounds. And so the thing is is that I had a misunderstanding of how success worked which is that it's far more stacking many things on top of each

other than it is nothing nothing and then something works. Right? And so if you imagine success like a bridge, right? So you're over here and you've

right? So you're over here and you've got this chasm that you have to get across. Right? This is, you know, let's

across. Right? This is, you know, let's say there's alligators here and lava and all sorts of stuff, right? And then

there's you over here who's got, you know, your big smiley face and you're happy and you're doing all the stuff you want. The thing is is that I thought

want. The thing is is that I thought that I just kept wanting to jump over this gap over and over again and think like if I just jumped hard enough or if I had the right opportunity, that's what would do it. But more likely than not,

it's really like you install these these bricks on the path and you keep you keep walking and it's like, okay, well, I fall here. Okay, well, I'll fix this one

fall here. Okay, well, I'll fix this one later. And then you take a and then you

later. And then you take a and then you you start again and then you fall here and then you fix this and you keep going and you fall here and then you fix this and then all of a sudden you make it all the way across. And that's what it looks

like or what the experience of kind of becoming the overnight success is and that's why so many people talk about it where uh it doesn't happen at all and then it happens all at once. It's not

that it happens all at once. The actual

outcome of getting a system to work all the way through that is binary, but the process of building the system is actually very linear. I'm also not saying this from a position of um like even though I I you know I saw some

success early in my career, I also started pretty early. And so I had nine failed businesses, nine before I had one that really worked. And so I bring this up to say that like I don't know what

failure you're on right now. Maybe

you're on zero failures, you're on one failure or two failures, but you have way more failures in you at the end of the day. Like one of the big

the day. Like one of the big realizations I had is that since life is an infinite game and what that means is that there are there are games where you have a defined time period and at the end you count the score, right? And then

there's infinite games where the only point of the game is to keep playing the game. And so like the point of marriage

game. And so like the point of marriage is not to get married, it's to stay married. The point of health is not to

married. The point of health is not to get healthy, it's to stay healthy. And

the point of business is not to get into business, but to stay in business. And

so basically the only thing that you have to do to stay in business is to choose to continue to fight. And so once you realize that, then you realize that you become a success the moment you decide you are. Because being successful

is far more about being in the game, about being in the arena. And so when you're in your 20s, what you lack in experience, you have to make up for in effort and hours. And believing

otherwise leads to a life of honestly well-deserved mediocrity. So if you're

well-deserved mediocrity. So if you're hearing this, you're like, "Okay, I got it. I need to take more bets and I need

it. I need to take more bets and I need to take maybe riskier bets because my downside is nothing. All right. Well,

which bets do I take? So number two, don't follow your passion. So passion is vague and so it's very difficult to say I like this thing more than this thing.

But what you can say is I'm better at this than that. And so passion usually then comes from competence, not creates competence. And so we usually like

competence. And so we usually like things that we get good at rather than getting good at things that we like, right? And so this is the thing like

right? And so this is the thing like that I think confuses a lot of people.

And so the other flip side of this is that enjoying something doesn't even guarantee that you're good at it or that you're going to be able to make money from it. And I remember my dad used to

from it. And I remember my dad used to tell me when I was much younger, he said, "Listen, if I were following my passion, I'd be a bartender at a ski slope, right?" He said, "If you can just

slope, right?" He said, "If you can just make money," he said, "The rest of your life, you can do whatever you want." And

I actually think it was very practical advice for me. And I'm very grateful that I got that. But the thing is is that getting good at anything, you have to slog through this period where you're probably not going to be passionate about it because it's very boring. It's

very monotonous. It's very repetitive.

Right? It's it's one thing to say, "Oh, I like ping pong." It's another thing to say like I hit 500 forehands and 500 backhands every morning and every night, right? It's a different level of

right? It's a different level of dedication that you have to have to it.

And that isn't going to be something you're passionate about. You might like playing the game, but getting good at the game are two very different things, right? And so it sets this false

right? And so it sets this false expectation that I think ultimately harms more people. And I think one of the biggest reasons of not following your passion is that your passions will change as you age. I promise you, the

things that I was passionate about when I was 20 is not things I'm passionate about now. And I'm sure the things I'm

about now. And I'm sure the things I'm passionate about when I'm in my mid and late 40s are going to be different than things I am now. Same as 50s and 60s.

And so this idea that like I have to find this one thing, it puts a ton of pressure on that thing that it has to be perfect forever. And if it's not going

perfect forever. And if it's not going to be perfect forever, then why don't we be practical now so that we can give ourselves options later. So

fundamentally, all we're going to look for are things that you're good at that people already spend money on because that creates a very high likelihood outcome of you creating something that you can exchange in the marketplace.

Once you've decided on something that you want to get better at. You're

already good at it. You want to get better at it, which is hopefully, you know, maybe it is your passion, which be amazing, but a lot of times it's not.

The next thing is you have to get good at one thing.

Think about the equal opposite of this.

How would I get someone to be poor? I

would get them to keep starting new things rather than getting good at one thing. And so, do you remember that guy

thing. And so, do you remember that guy who got rich dropshipping, day trading, buying crypto, and wholesaling all at the same time? Yeah. Me neither. You

have to focus. And it's arrogant to think that you could do multiple things at once and beat someone who does one thing with all their effort. You have to pick one thing and go allin and then you become the one who's hard to beat. So I

told you earlier that I had nine failed businesses. Now here's the part that a

businesses. Now here's the part that a lot of people don't know. Six of those I had at the same time. And so I like to tell people, oh yeah, I'm a CEO. I've

got multiple companies, right? Like kind

of the way I do now. But it's very different now because the thing is is that I actually have CEOs who run those businesses, right? Not me. because you

businesses, right? Not me. because you

can only be CEO of one thing. You can

only drive one thing. Now, I drive acquisition.com, right? But CEOs of each of the divisions

right? But CEOs of each of the divisions of each of the portfolio companies, like those are people who run their own profit and loss statements, and I didn't understand that. And so, I had a

understand that. And so, I had a chiropractor agency, a dental agency, a gym launch business where we did turnarounds. I And then I also had five

turnarounds. I And then I also had five gyms of my own at the time. All right?

Depending on how you want to describe it, I had five locations plus the three.

So, I had eight. It's a lot. All right?

It was too much. And because of that, I was stressed out of my mind. I was so spread thin and basically I had lots of things that generated revenue and I didn't make any money. The only thing that it fed was my ego, not my bank

account. When did this big turnaround

account. When did this big turnaround happen for me? Leila came into my life and she was like, "Hey, you're clearly really good at this one thing. Why don't

we just cut everything else?" And that's exactly what I did. It was the hardest period of my life cuz I had to shut down all the other businesses but one, which also meant that I had to end partnerships with all these different other people that were relying on me.

And that was hard. I'm not going to lie.

Like it was not fun. Like these are people that I liked. But I had to make this decision. I had to cut off the life

this decision. I had to cut off the life that I didn't want to have the life I wanted. If you want to impress people

wanted. If you want to impress people who are poor, talk about how many things you do. If you want to impress people

you do. If you want to impress people who are rich, talk about how good you are at one thing. Like, at the end of the day, your ability to demonstrate excellence is going to be the only thing that someone who is ahead of you will

look at. And so, you only fool the

look at. And so, you only fool the people who have no idea. And I'll be real, there's a lot of people who have no idea. So the thing is is that this is

no idea. So the thing is is that this is where the whole imposttor syndrome will start creeping up on you because you're like man I you know I kind of feel like a little bit of imposter because you are you're misrepresenting yourself. You

know you're not as successful as you pretend to be. And so if you want to eliminate imposter syndrome just stop lying. When I say lying people like I

lying. When I say lying people like I don't lie. If you present something in a

don't lie. If you present something in a way that you know is going to be perceived differently than what reality is posturing in my opinion lying. You're

misrepresenting. What you want to be able to do is state the facts and tell the truth. Period. And then if those

the truth. Period. And then if those facts and truth are not compelling and do not get you status, then change the facts and change the truth. Meaning not

that you lie about them, but you work so hard that the truth is compelling. And

sometimes that takes time. But I promise you, the people who are who are all in on the imposture stuff, the guys that I knew that are that were, you know, when I was in my 20s who were kind of like hustle bros, whatever, a lot of those guys faded, you know, and or they're

still like jumping from thing to thing to thing, kind of like pretending to be successful, but like I know that they're barely able to afford their house. At

the end of the day, it's a choice that you have to make. Do I want to pretend to be rich? Do I want to pretend to be successful? Do I want to look like I'm

successful? Do I want to look like I'm successful? Or do I want to be

successful? Or do I want to be successful, which more likely is do the things that success requires, which today do not look like success. It looks

like a very long string of failures.

Because you will be rewarded far more in life for your determination than your intelligence. But the problem with

intelligence. But the problem with determination is is that in the short term, it looks like a long string of failures until it works. Okay? So,

you're like, "Got it. I'm going to focus." Now, let me give you something

focus." Now, let me give you something that's going to help you stay focused.

Number four, stop networking. All right,

now this is a really, really important point. Now, it's not that I even have

point. Now, it's not that I even have some big problem with networking overall. That's actually not my point.

overall. That's actually not my point.

It's more that there are there are seasons of life, right? In the

beginning, you're in exploration. I

grabbed this from Nval and I really love it. Later on, you get into exploitation,

it. Later on, you get into exploitation, which is where you go allin, right? And

so, the thing is is that in the beginning, you're tasting lots of stuff.

you're trying to figure out what you are good at or have some proclivity towards.

When you have that proclivity, then it becomes very clear now is the time to cut everything else so that we can focus and go deep. Right? So, you go broad in the beginning so that you can figure out

what you to go deep on. The broad period that you're in is never the period where you're going to make money. Like this is the part you have to get. I'd say from the beginning of when I started until I really graduated from it was about 5

years. It's less of a binary, more of a

years. It's less of a binary, more of a continuum. In the beginning, you taste

continuum. In the beginning, you taste lots of stuff and then you just have to because in the beginning, you have to say yes to things. You have to say yes because you're so bad. You're so scared.

You never want to say yes. But you learn to say yes a little bit and then you say yes more and then you say yes more. And

then very quickly you learn to say yes and get overwhelmed. And so the only way out of this yes trap is you have to start practicing to say no. And if

you're like, wait a second, that means that I have to change what I do. Welcome

to entrepreneurship. Like you have to learn, you have to evolve, you have to grow. So let me give you a very tactical

grow. So let me give you a very tactical example. So, if you're debating between

example. So, if you're debating between going to a networking event, right, or like a lunch with some dude who's like, "Hey, we should collaborate. We should

synergize. We should maybe trade ideas.

Let me pick your brain, whatever, right?

And if you're picking between any of those things and working, choose the work because when the work works out, the people will still be there to take your call. But if you never do the work,

your call. But if you never do the work, no amount of networking will get the work done for you." And the bonus or negative bonus here is that if you don't get the work done, they're not going to take your call in the future. And so

they're willing to take the call today with whatever small amount of success that you have. But if you lose that success because you get distracted, they're not going to take the call in the future. That door will be open. I

the future. That door will be open. I

promise. And not only will that door be open, a hundred other doors will open for you if you win. During this season, losers congregate. Winners isolate. If

losers congregate. Winners isolate. If

everyone was supposed to win, they would have made podiums bigger. The top of the mountain isn't supposed to fit a lot of people. It's normal. The air is harder

people. It's normal. The air is harder to breathe. And the thing is is if all

to breathe. And the thing is is if all of this seems antithetical or different than what you've heard or what other people around you are experiencing, ask yourself, is that do those people have the lives you want? A great way to make

a mistake is to ask someone else's idea about your idea who has no idea. When

you make this transition from going from the exploration period to the exploitation phase, you go from many looser connections to a very few tight ones. I tend to be very transactional as

ones. I tend to be very transactional as a person, but I think we all are and some people are just open about it.

Everybody on some level does some sort of math in their head of like the person, this person in my life, I get more benefits than I have costs. But the

thing is is that if you want to raise the standard of your life, you have to raise the standard of the people who you surround yourself with. Because the

fastest way to change your life is to change who you're friends with. Because

that reference group is ultimately going to be what you compare yourself to. And

so if you change who you compare yourself to, all of a sudden you will create deprivation around the difference between where they're at and where you're at. The only way that people let

you're at. The only way that people let you into circles that you don't deserve to be in is work ethic. There is no other way. It is the universal currency

other way. It is the universal currency of respect across cultures, across time periods, across cohorts, across generations. An old man will respect a

generations. An old man will respect a young man who hustles and they will always be willing to give time to somebody who they think will execute.

Like this is that was my secret and it still is my secret. Like I I network with people who are above who you know I punch above my weight class in terms of the people that I'm connected with because they know that I'll do the work and so they don't feel like they're wasting their time by helping because

the thing is a lot of people are actually very happy to help you. What

they aren't happy to do is waste their time helping you when you actually don't help yourself. And so I've shed friends

help yourself. And so I've shed friends at every season of my life and my close circle has always been very small like very small. The thing is is that I think

very small. The thing is is that I think of my life in kind of seasons, right?

And so you're going to have friends for this season and maybe you keep them for life but maybe you don't. And I think giving yourself permission to say like that was that season and they were amazing friends for the objectives that I had then and then my objectives change

and it's not really fair to them to say hey I'm completely changing all the things that I'm doing. You have to still be friends with me. It might not make sense for them. And so not keeping this expectation over them has helped me kind of like free myself of that so that I

can reinvest the time that I have in friends that I think will help me get to where I'm trying to go next. Okay. So,

if we're taking these big bets and we're we're following something that we're good at rather than that we're passionate about and we're not going to get distracted and we're doubling down on one thing and we're turning off these other things that in the beginning we're

exploring the the little lunches, the little networking because we know that if we just succeed at this one thing, all of those doors will be open. What do

we do to make money? So, let me give you a money rule. Money loves speed. And

this will relate back to the asymmetric bets. By the time you have all the

bets. By the time you have all the information, the opportunity is gone.

Sometimes you just have to make your bet. And it's almost always faster to

bet. And it's almost always faster to make a decision, then make a mistake, and then correct that mistake than it is to painstakingly deliberate on the decision. If you know how long it would

decision. If you know how long it would take you to fix something, if you're wrong, then just make your best bet because you can always fix it later. And

so, said differently, if it takes you five minutes to decide and then 10 minutes to fix something, don't take two hours to decide because you could just do it and if you're right, you immediately are moving forward five minutes later. And if you're wrong,

minutes later. And if you're wrong, you're moving forward 15 minutes later.

But either way, it's going to take you less time than trying to assume that you're going to know everything because you're just not. You have to get a grip with uncertainty. Like uncertainty is

with uncertainty. Like uncertainty is the job. Like, if you want certainty,

the job. Like, if you want certainty, don't try and go after your dreams. Because the thing is is that the only way to go after a certain dream is to go after an old dream. And if you go after an old dream that's already happened, you're trying to fulfill something that will not happen again. And so, you're

either going to do the work or you're going to sit around wishing you'd done the work. And one of the things that

the work. And one of the things that took me a very long time to to understand was that the things that dragged me down were not the things that I thought they were. Because the

heaviest things in life aren't iron or gold, but they are unmade decisions.

They're the things that weigh us down.

They take up all of our attention, all of our brain power. And so, right now, there's probably a handful of decisions that you know you need to make that you're just not. If you want to feel

yourself go so much faster than you ever have, just decide. So few decisions in life actually are irreversible. Even the

ones that people pretend are irreversible. What if I should I buy

irreversible. What if I should I buy this car? Should I buy this car? You

this car? Should I buy this car? You

could buy it and then flip it. It's not

like you can't sell it again, right? And

so the real cost of the decision is the delta between what I could buy for what I could sell it for. Okay. Well, how

much does it cost me waiting 6 months to do this? Probably a lot. And if I need

do this? Probably a lot. And if I need that car to to, you know, or a truck so that I can like go to job sites or pick up clients or whatever it is, then like I am losing all of the time that I'm

waiting to decide. And I'm telling you where people slow down is at the decision process more than at the doing process. Doing usually takes very little

process. Doing usually takes very little time. It's the deciding that people that

time. It's the deciding that people that bogs people down in quagmire, right?

They just get stuck. They they feel like they're trudging through mud because they just hit these walls and all of a sudden there's no action because they're just thinking. They're planning. And I

just thinking. They're planning. And I

think I had to get comfortable with the idea that there's so many variables that I do not know. That I actually have to get comfortable with the idea that I just should test and learn and I'll learn way faster than if I try and

deliberate. And that has happened more

deliberate. And that has happened more times in my life than not. I would say that approach has served me with bigger and bigger decisions in life. Like I

have I've made monster mistakes. But the

bigger mistake that I would have made is just not being able to make decisions to begin with. And so you can move through

begin with. And so you can move through life at seven times the rate of other people by simply changing when you say you're going to make a decision from the end of the week to the end of the day.

And if you want to move even faster than that, you can decide at the end of the hour. And if you move faster than that,

hour. And if you move faster than that, guess what you could do? Decide now. And

so sometimes like my team has seen me do this. Well, we're like, "Okay, so um you

this. Well, we're like, "Okay, so um you know, we've got to we got to make this decision." And people are always like,

decision." And people are always like, "Yeah, let's kick that to next, you know, meeting or let's let's circle back. Let's let's go offline for that."

back. Let's let's go offline for that."

It's like, "No, let's confront. Let's

just choose. Let's pick which vendor are we going with? Which website design do we like? What headline are we going to

we like? What headline are we going to use? What's the ad hook that we're going

use? What's the ad hook that we're going to go with? Just pick. That's why all of this stuff comes down to bets. If you

want to have a future that you want, you have to get comfortable with risk. So,

if money loves speed, where are some of the money potholes? So, number six, pay off your debt. Now, I'm going to hit you with something you probably haven't thought of before, which is there are many kinds of debt. There's obviously

financial debt, but the biggest and most expensive debt is ignorance debt. It's

the cost of what you do not know but should. And to be clear, I still pay off

should. And to be clear, I still pay off ignorance debt every day. It's the debt in skills and knowledge that I should know to get faster and further to where I'm trying to go, but I don't. And so, I

have to just fail until I get this knowledge. But the thing is is that if I

knowledge. But the thing is is that if I don't fail, I will never get it. I am

willing to pay in looking bad, in money lost, in time lost, in people judging me to make bets. And so I like this perspective on experts, which is that an expert is just somebody who's made all

the mistakes you can make in a very narrow field. You have to learn how to

narrow field. You have to learn how to lose before you can learn how to win.

And the first rule of losing is that you didn't lose, you just learned. You paid

down the most expensive debt. So then

the question is, if you know that you have to pay this debt off, why aren't you? And I think it's because you don't

you? And I think it's because you don't realize how expensive not paying it off really is. And so know the price of

really is. And so know the price of inaction. Do you think that the reason

inaction. Do you think that the reason that you're in the situation you're in right now is because you struggled to decide in the past that you've gotten all the way up to the edge, you've gotten all the way up to the precipice, all the way to the front of the line, and then you choose not to. And so the

question is, how many times have you run that cycle? How many times have you

that cycle? How many times have you thought through this decision and then not done something about it? And is the life you have you want as a result of those actions? Because maybe the best

those actions? Because maybe the best thing you can possibly do is maybe see this and then just choose to make that call because not making that call has gotten you where you're at. If you

genuinely believe that you're going to do this sooner or later, right, make this bet, make this call, whatever, sooner or later, then you might as well do it sooner so you can start enjoying the benefits now cuz you're going to enjoy the benefits either way. But why

would you want to delay the benefits of taking action? The real real is because

taking action? The real real is because you want to delay the costs of potential failure. Let's say you have a reason why

failure. Let's say you have a reason why you haven't taken action, whatever that is, right? Just imagine in your mind

is, right? Just imagine in your mind like it's some visual thing.

Realistically, it's probably one or two voices in your head. And it you can probably think about whose voice that is. And it might not be yours. And so,

is. And it might not be yours. And so,

who is the person that you're choosing to not live your entire life for? Whose

judgment do you care that much about?

And so, I will tell you the story. I

almost didn't sell Gym Launch because I thought that $46 million was not enough to impress a specific colleague of mine.

Real talk. I was very, very hesitant to sell the company. And the main reason is because I thought that they would think that that wasn't that that impressive.

And when I thought about that, I was like, "Wow." I was like, "And this is

like, "Wow." I was like, "And this is this wasn't family. This wasn't friends.

This was just kind of a colleague that I respected." When I was able to really

respected." When I was able to really listen to the voice, whose voice does this belong to? And what are they saying? And most importantly, is that

saying? And most importantly, is that the person who I want to give control over my entire life? And once I saw that, I was like, "Well, that's ridiculous. I don't care about this."

ridiculous. I don't care about this."

They're usually subconscious. Like you

don't notice them unless you listen for the voice, unless you name the voice. Am

I really going to let John be the reason that I don't get married to this girl?

Is Joe really going to be the reason that I don't raise my prices? Is Sarah

really the reason why I'm not going to sell this thing? Ridiculous. But people

do it, myself included, every day. And

look, this isn't going to be easy, right? Building these skills, losing

right? Building these skills, losing friends, taking bets, taking losses, you might find yourself stuck and then blaming your previous experiences. Which

is why number eight, get over yourself.

Everyone's childhood was difficult. Get

over it. And if you want to win the award for hardest childhood, congratulations. I'll give it to you.

congratulations. I'll give it to you.

You have the hardest childhood. You win.

Feel better, right? No one cares about what happened to you then. Only what you can make happen now. And so the only person that's satisfied with whatever that reason is is you. And the everyone else calls that reason an excuse. And at

the end of the day, do you want to get to your life and have everyone be like, you know what, he wasn't successful, but he had a lot of really good reasons.

Wouldn't it be so much more powerful to say he had all these reasons he shouldn't have been successful but was anyways? Like those reasons actually

anyways? Like those reasons actually give you even more fuel because you become a stronger story to everyone else. Like no one cares when the silver

else. Like no one cares when the silver spoon kid succeeds really. And so all of the reasons that you can normally tell yourself of why you shouldn't do it are sometimes the best reasons of why you should. If you had disadvantages, I

should. If you had disadvantages, I agree with you. Like you're right. It's

harder to be successful if this thing happened to you or if you're born with X or you're in this gender or this race or you have this birth deformity or you speak a different language or you're born in a different country or you had

abuse whatever. So the main point is

abuse whatever. So the main point is despite the disadvantage, you only have one choice. What are you going to do?

one choice. What are you going to do?

You can take action anyway and become proof to other people like you, your people who are also born into your situation, whether it was abuse, whether it was your gender, whether it was your your race, whe your country. And you can

prove to them or prove to yourself that you can overcome it and that they can overcome it too. Or you can do what the vast majority of people do is that they protect their ego and blame and complain. And to be clear, this is not a

complain. And to be clear, this is not a pulpit. You can do whatever you want. I

pulpit. You can do whatever you want. I

support your choice. Go you. But only

one of those decisions is going to make you better. And likely only one of those

you better. And likely only one of those decisions is going to get you closer to where you want to go. Because at the end of the day, here's the TLDDR. Losers define themselves by what has happened to them. Winners define themselves by

to them. Winners define themselves by what they can make happen despite what's happened to them. And so where some person sees an excuse, another person sees an origin story. Like you look at every every champion, every hero, every

comic book, they all have hard pasts.

And so you having a hard past, whatever that is for you or some disadvantage, just makes you like every other superhero who ends up, you know, changing their lives. And I actually love this. I heard this from Joe Rogan,

love this. I heard this from Joe Rogan, so this is not mine. Every single one of us can today wake up like it's the first day of a video game. Like you just like got transported into this body and you're like, "Okay, look around. I have

a wife. I have some kids. I have a job I hate. Or I have a business I don't like.

hate. Or I have a business I don't like.

Or I have some bet that I I have this thing inside of me that I I know I can do more, but I'm not. You have all this stuff that's around you. And now you can choose like everything else behind you.

You can just have today be your spawn point. And so when you're in a video

point. And so when you're in a video game, it's easy to just forsake all that stuff because you don't have this emotional connection to it. But the

thing is is that like the action needs to be taken either way. So whatever

frame of mind you need to be in in order to do it, then do that. All right. All

right. So, once we have this head trash out of the way, then we have to get back to back to business, if you will. So,

what's the next thing that we have to do? We have to solve bigger problems.

do? We have to solve bigger problems. If you want to make more money in your 20s and 30s, solve bigger problems, right? If you want to make a million

right? If you want to make a million dollars, you have to be willing to endure a million dollar worth of pain.

If you want to make $10 million, you have to endure $10 million worth of pain. And here's the thing is that most

pain. And here's the thing is that most people have never endured that. And so,

when they start getting into it, the thing is is that the nature of the pain changes. And so in the beginning the

changes. And so in the beginning the pain is I don't know what I'm doing.

Later the pain is people judging me and later the pain is lawsuits and a lot of the pain is just not knowing what the hell you're doing at whatever stage of business you're at because that never

goes away. And so not knowing is a

goes away. And so not knowing is a constant. So trying to solve for not

constant. So trying to solve for not knowing is silly because it's never going to happen. And so this is why you have to get comfortable with uncertainty. You have to make

uncertainty. You have to make uncertainty your friend. If we're going to solve problems, right, we might as well pick big ones. And I'll give you a great a great analogy that I got from Stephen Schwarzman who's the founder of

Blackstone. He said big goals and small

Blackstone. He said big goals and small goals are usually just about as hard. A

common VC saying is that having a really successful restaurant, you might have to work 80 hours a week and manage all these different people to have a really successful local restaurant. And you

might also have to manage all these people and do all this other stuff if you want to build a billion-dollar unicorn. Both those things are hard. And

unicorn. Both those things are hard. And

so if it's going to be hard regardless, you might as well go big. And actually

it's been a very like that is a very helpful frame for me because one of the beliefs that I have about business and life is that suffering is a constant like I have to remind myself this on a regular basis which is that if we are

growing I am in pain. If we are plateaued I am in pain and if we are declining I'm in pain which means that I am pretty much always in pain. And so to think that there's something wrong with

pain misses the point of how this works.

It is a constant and if it's a constant we don't even need to think about it. It

shouldn't be a reason to do something or not do something because it's just always there. Competition for big goals,

always there. Competition for big goals, believe it or not, is actually much rarer. It's thinner air. People believe

rarer. It's thinner air. People believe

that it's so unrealistic that they don't shoot for it, which actually makes fewer people there to compete against. And so,

it is probably harder in some ways to have a local restaurant that is really successful than it is to have a, you know, big business. And what I found is that most problems are solvable, which

means that most things are knowable. And

the reason that you probably haven't gotten to where you want to go is cuz you haven't actually started trying it.

And so you're going to have to be obsessive about it. And I think one of the big things that I didn't understand was just how obsessive I was going to have to be. Is normal to not be like your other normal friends if you want to

have extraordinary outcomes. If you

think about the reverse, it wouldn't make sense if we do the same things as our normal friends and somehow get something different. It's a positive

something different. It's a positive indicator. It's a green flag that you're

indicator. It's a green flag that you're living a different life than everyone around you. Like I had a conversation

around you. Like I had a conversation with my EAS this morning. They were

like, "Man, I feel like if you were a normal person," that's what they said to me. They're like, "I feel like if you

me. They're like, "I feel like if you were a normal person, you would drive this kind of car." I like looked at them and I was like, "So basically, if I were not me, I would do things that not me would do. Right now, it would make sense

would do. Right now, it would make sense that you're going to do things that normal people won't do because you're trying to not have the same outcome as

them." 10. Obsession is the ticket of

them." 10. Obsession is the ticket of entry. It's the price of entry. And the

entry. It's the price of entry. And the

thing is is that obsession isn't really obsession. It's actually just trying and

obsession. It's actually just trying and no one else tries. Like that's the real real is that normal people call what I consider sane people to be obsessed. But

sane people, which is what I consider myself, consider everyone else insane because they do nothing and waste their lives. And so we have to be comfortable

lives. And so we have to be comfortable with reasoning from first principles of like I am only going to live here for not that long and I'm only going to have a certain amount of hours to do the

stuff that I want to do. Why on earth would I not do it because of some face noise that some person some other, you know, advanced ape is going to say to me

about them having a preference about how I'm living my life. And so you can boil almost all insults or judgments down to this statement. And I think like I hear

this statement. And I think like I hear this, I translate it when I hear hate.

You do not live your life in a way that I would prefer. So they're like, you know, you shouldn't. I do not live my life in a way that you would prefer. And

that's okay because that's why you live a life that you prefer and not a life that I would prefer. And that's why you live your life and I live my life. And

so people just get so triggered by this.

So when people hate on you, it usually means that they're jealous and believe that you are undeserving of some part of your life. And so to be clear, it's not

your life. And so to be clear, it's not that they're jealous of your whole life.

They might be jealous of the attention you get. They might be jealous of maybe

you get. They might be jealous of maybe just the money you make but not the way you look. Or they might be jealous of

you look. Or they might be jealous of the the body you have, right? And

they're going to be like, "Ah, you're chewing to that food, right?" Or, you know, "You work too much." Or whatever the whatever the little snide remark is, right? But what they basically think is

right? But what they basically think is that life has unjustly given you the benefits that they believe they rightfully deserve. And they might be

rightfully deserve. And they might be right, but life isn't fair. Here's the

thing. People who obsess about work life balance are typically mediocre at both.

And so obsessed people apply their obsession to everything and just call it life. And they also don't consider

life. And they also don't consider themselves obsessed. They just consider

themselves obsessed. They just consider everyone else unobsessed and just plain and banal. And so I get criticized all

and banal. And so I get criticized all the time for work life balance. People

say like, Alex, you don't have any hobbies, right? I don't want any. I

hobbies, right? I don't want any. I

don't want any. They're basically saying yet again, you live your life in a way that I would not prefer. If I were in your position, I would live life differently. Right? And that's why

differently. Right? And that's why you're not in my position. So why should I sacrifice the things that I prefer to do in order to do the things that I don't want to do? Right? just to make your definition of work life balance happy, which I don't accept. So, like

work life balance is a wonderful goal. I

have no hate for it. It's not going to happen if you want to be the best. Like,

you've probably heard the, you know, work smart, not hard, right? That only

works when you're competing against people who are not smart. If you compete against other smart people, the only thing you will have left is to work hard. If you work smart, not hard, you

hard. If you work smart, not hard, you will get beaten by someone who works smart and hard. And if I don't know about you, I would rather be that person because at the end of the day, I would like to just win. And that is point 11,

which is work hard and smart. If you

extrapolate out what a normal life is like, right? Maybe someone makes, you

like, right? Maybe someone makes, you know, a million dollars or $2 million over the span of their entire career, right? 40 years plus, I think there's

right? 40 years plus, I think there's just a certain amount of work that must be done to generate income. And so what I would rather do is just take that 40 years and just cram it into four and then have the other 36 years of my life

to do whatever I want with resources far beyond what I would be able to do there.

And so I remember Ila uh had this very early conversation with me because I think it was our first date. She said

she's like I just want to help people right like that was her whole thing. And

I was like do you think it'd be possible for you to help people and to make money? And she was like well yeah and I

money? And she was like well yeah and I was like okay do you think you could help more people if you made more money?

And she was like yeah. And in that conversation she shifted from being what I would consider a bleeding heart of just like doing everything like just trying to just just help every single person. But the thing is is you're li

person. But the thing is is you're li your resources are so limited. You can't

do much. And so if you want to help a lot of people, it's like you got to learn the game. And the thing is to win that game, it's like you probably have to outwork people, a lot of people, and you have to be called names by people who live lives that you don't like. I

want to be very clear about this. When I

say work hard and smart, it doesn't mean it's going to be exciting. So 12 here is accept boredom.

Like if you want to be creative, you must first learn to be bored. If you

want to achieve a goal, you'll either have to accept boredom or pain. And the

bigger the goal, the more of both you're going to get. I have this great visual in my head about how winning works, right? And so you imagine you have this

right? And so you imagine you have this this marathon, right, that you're running. So you've got this starting

running. So you've got this starting line here, right? Start. And then you've got this big race, right? And then

you've got a finish line over here.

Tada. Finish. Now, when you've seen a race, where do people gather? They

gather here and they gather here. So

here's the question. Where does the winning happen on your own? Because no

one cheers for you not drinking for a day or not smoking, you know, on a lawn drive if you're trying to quit or not overeating for one night or skipping out on going to the club with the boys. No

one cheers for that. No workout or meal is ever impressive on its own. And so

the reason so few people understand success or at least achieve it in my opinion is that consistency never looks impressive in the moment only at the end. Because if you think about how

end. Because if you think about how consist like it's very difficult to visualize consistency because you can only see someone do something once, right? You see a snapshot of someone

right? You see a snapshot of someone take a shot or hit a backhand. The only

way that you can actually witness consistency is working with people who are consistent because the thing that you have to see is that person show up every single day. Like someone can show a workout of me working out and someone

else might be like, "Okay, well I mean that's a workout. Maybe I should kind of work out like that." Sure, there's a level of intensity that might be there or form and things like that, whatever.

But the thing that people won't see is it's very hard to witness 20 years because you have to be there for 20 years. And this is why I think so few

years. And this is why I think so few people are able to internalize consistency, which is the most important success trait because it's very hard to lose if you show up every day. It's very

hard and showing up every day is boring.

And so, if we're willing to accept boredom, the next thing that we're going to have to be willing to accept is sacrifice.

We have to give up some things to get others. And so like at the end of the

others. And so like at the end of the day like all we have are trade-offs. We

have what we have and what we want. And

the question is what are the things that you currently have? Are you willing to trade for the things you want? And I

think this such a perfect way of thinking about it. Like you have everything in your life right now that you're going to have to trade. Like

everyone trades. Everyone starts even when you had at zero. You have things in your life and you have to trade those things for things that you currently want but don't have. There's no perfect way to live your 20s or your 30s, right?

You either live them up and become an underskilled 30 or 40-year-old or you work them up and become an underlived 30 or 40-year-old. You just have to figure

or 40-year-old. You just have to figure out which you'd rather be and accept the trade-offs and know that there are no doovers. And that's okay. And when we're

doovers. And that's okay. And when we're really thinking about sacrifice right now, no human will ever get more than 24 hours per day. We all have that, right?

And so fundamentally, everything that you spend your time on that is not you pursuing your goal, you are determining is more important than your goal. And so

if you look at what you did every single one of these hours and then you actually surface it and say, you know what, watching Netflix, you know, doom scrolling Tik Tok and Instagram, hanging around, doing nothing, surfing the web

or whatever it is that people do these days, that is what's actually more important to you based on your behavior.

And so, is it really a sacrifice to give that up for what you want? Because the

thing is is that a year from now, you're not going to look back on today and be like, man, I'm so glad like those clips that I watched really changed things for me. they you probably won't even

me. they you probably won't even remember any of the clips that you saw.

They did a great research study on this where they did short form versus long form even and people remember like 11% like 24 hours later it was a tiny percentage. And so we have to accept

percentage. And so we have to accept that the things that we spending our time on most of the time is just wasting our time on. And so I think Senica said this, it's not that we don't have enough time, it's that we waste the time we

have. I come back to this which is like

have. I come back to this which is like is it really a sacrifice or are you finally just saying I believe this is my priority and therefore all of these things that are not helping me pursue

that I'm now going to trade out for things that will help me get this priority. That's it. And to me if you

priority. That's it. And to me if you like what you're going to get why would you not make the trade? And so I had this clip that went super viral from a podcast that I did yesterday. And the

host asked me, "If all my books and all my tweets and all my emails and all my YouTube videos were all deleted and I had to compress all of my stuff uh into into 60 seconds, what would I say for

somebody who's in their 20s and 30s?"

This is what I said. Figure out what you want. Ignore the opinions of others and

want. Ignore the opinions of others and do so much volume that it would be unreasonable to not be successful.