My First Million - Announcing This Year's Episode of the Year: Camp MFM Recap

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

Episode 403: After an extensive process of intense research and rigorous evaluation (we ran one Twitter poll) we have determined the episode of the year: The Camp MFM Recap episode. So as we gear up to bring you tons of new and improved content this year, please enjoy this (now award winning!) episode from the vaults. ----- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto * #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

Hello and welcome to My First Million. This is producer Ben here with the episode of the year. We ran a highly unscientific poll on Twitter and the people have spoken. And you chose the Camp MFM recap episode as the episode of the year. Shout out to our runner-ups and honorable mentions. A lot of people said that their favorite episodes were the Palmer Lucky episode, the recent newsletter deep dive that we did with Austin Reef, the Peter Levels interview, Sam's Unpopular Opinions Episode,

the Saw Hill Bloom episode. Michael Girdley nominated himself. Andrew Wilkinson got a few shoutouts, the inside story of Ligma Johnson, the episode where Sam and Sean went super deep on AI, the Stonk's Demo Day collaboration, and the University of Michigan Pitch competition. All got shoutouts.

And I agree. Those were some great episodes, but there can only be one winner. Vox Populi Vox Day, as Elon Musk is fond of saying. So here we are. If you're really upset about the winner, you can stop the episode,

Right now, hit pause, go back and play one of those episodes and pretend like it won episode of the year. But to be clear, it didn't. The winner was the MFM recap episode. So that's what we're playing. We'll be back to your normally scheduled programming on Thursday. But until then, please enjoy this episode of the year winner, the Camp MFM recap episode. So Sean and I did a podcast with Mr. Beaz's his real name is Jimmy. And Hassan made a joke like, you want to go play ball?

And he goes, yeah, let's go right now. And as he said that, his two coworkers that were with him. started getting on the phone calling high schools, principals of schools. And once someone said something like, well, what if they don't let us for insurance reason? He goes, well, just tell him we'll give him a million dollars if someone gets hurt.

He goes, that usually does the trick. I was like, how many times have you done this, bro? I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like no days off. On a road,

let's travel, never looking back. All right. So I guess we're all going to, we all want to talk about the same thing, right? Yeah, this is going to be the Camp MFM recap episode. I have a lot of things to say. Let me set the background because you're the one who organized it.

So I think you need a third party here. So basically a month ago, Sean said, I'm going to organize a basketball weekend. And I want you to come and I'm going to invite some other people. Please, Venmo me $1,800 and show up at this address at this time. That's pretty much all I knew about. I didn't know anything else. And I think it was three weeks in advance, right? Yeah, something like that. So basically three weeks out, it just says, hey, come to North Carolina in Raleigh near Duke and we're going to have a basketball camp and just show up. That's all I knew. And then I get an email. I booked my flight. I sent you $1,800. A day before you sent out who's coming. And it was like me and you, both Ben's, a couple HubSpot people like Jonathan. And then it was like Hassan Minhaj. It was Mr. Beast. And it was like 20 other really amazing entrepreneurs. And you rented out this farm, basically.

It's like a vinery, yeah. Yeah, with like a lake and a zip line going into the lake. And it was like 24 entrepreneurs. And you hired this amazing basketball trainer who was also an entrepreneur. So he like fit in and was really insightful. You kind of half-assed the incredibly unimportant things. Like there was like, when we went and played basketball, I was like, hey, is there any food here? And you're like, well, there's just a bunch of boxes of cliff bars.

And like, oh, okay, that's okay. I'm okay with half-ass on that thing. So anyway, we all stayed in these two Airbnbs and just played like board games. and acted like 12-year-olds for like two nights. And it was amazing. It was so cool. Yeah, it was basically a summer camp for grownups. And the origin of it is pretty simple.

I love meeting new people. I actually genuinely love meeting new people. In fact, the podcast was originally started as a excuse to just get to talk to really fascinating, interesting people. But I hate most of the traditional ways to do it. I don't like going to conferences. I don't like going to networking events. I hate just being like, hey, you want to go.

grab coffee. So I basically was like, look, there's a bunch of people who I think are dope. I would love to hang out with them, get to know them. And then finally, I was like, what if I just did it instead of a networking event or a conference? Like, what if we just did it with something that it would be dope no matter who came? And so we had this idea for a basketball getaway. And we're like, all right, here's the criteria. They love basketball. Number two, they're a great hang, just great hang out with. And number three, that they can teach us something because they're a baller in their own craft, whatever that craft is. And so that's why we had people in the house that had built billion dollar companies. We had people who bootstrapped their way into, you know,

tens of millions and millions of millions, and that's where they were. We had people that were entertainers like Mr. Beast or Hussein who had millions of millions of fans and were creative talents. We had people that used to be in the NSA. We had a bunch of people from different backgrounds come up and join this thing. So that was the criteria. And that's basically how it played out. And I'm pretty sure, by the way, that it was the best weekend of Ben's life. I want to talk about Ben, I want to talk about Ben in the middle or the end, but I have a feeling, I told Ben before we recorded, I go, Ben, the next six months in your life are I think are going to have the most change who've ever experienced in your life. Totally agree. Totally agree with that. In fact, I was going to text you something very, very similar, which is like, I don't know if you realize this yet, but your life is about to change because you can't just be surrounded by wildly ambitious people who like and believe in you and spend time, you know, seeing other people who have realized. their dream come true and not go back to your house and look at yourself a little differently in the mirror. Like, you're going to look at yourself and be like, all right, let's turn that ambition

knob up two notches, right? Let's turn that faith and belief in myself up because I saw that these people are no smarter better than me. They're just people like me. They just went for it. All those quote, smarter, quote, better quote, more successful people were looking up to Ben. Did you notice that? Yeah. Well, there was just a feeling of, I wouldn't even say looking up necessarily is more like equals. I think everybody there viewed themselves as an equal to everybody else. I'm sure everybody there had a moment where they were like, dude, I'm way out of place. Some people are like at the basketball. They're like, oh, you know, I play basketball, but I'm not really like that into basketball. So some people maybe fell out of place there a little bit. Some people

fell out of place in the house because they didn't know anybody. And then some people I bet fell out of place because they said, wow, I'm talking to this guy who's, you know, leaps and bounds further ahead in their business career. But everybody had to deal with that and then come to terms of that. I think that's, you know, part of the challenge. There's just so much to say. It was one of the best weekends in my life. It was so amazing. Sean, I just, I guess I would ask. There's like a really special feeling that is very difficult to convey throughout the entire weekend. You guys touched on it a little bit of just like no egos, even though people are at very different places. Like, there was just this really feeling of openness and connection. And like, even though there were these

really, really successful people in all these different domains, like everyone just on the same level learning from each other. It was very cool. Sean, like, what do you think it was that went into this weekend that created that environment where people were able to, like, feel that way and be that way with each other? I think it's three things. You actually mentioned two of them. First was the weekend felt very special. And I think that when people feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves, when people have a little bit of awe or intrigue or curiosity or fear even, they're out of their comfort zone. And so part of it was if you make sense, if you make something that feels special, that feels different, that inspires some awe or some, they don't know

what's coming next, it brings everybody back to sort of like an equal footing of the sort of a childlike thing. I remember when, so we invited Alex Basil, who's a trainer to, to a bunch of NBA stars like Kyrie Irving and Trey Young. And this guy's like, you know, he's like the top of his craft. He trains like, he came from training like, you know, Kevin Durant to us. He sent us a clip. He's like, here's what I was doing today. Tomorrow I'll be seeing you schmucks. And like, right, like, you know, but that first five minutes, I would say, when he had us doing very simple drills. Everybody was spread throughout this whole private gym that we had rented. And we're all literally dribbling the ball almost accidentally in unison like that old Nike commercial. There was little pockets,

little moments like that where it just felt special. And, you know, so I think that's the first piece is you got to give people a feeling that they're part of something bigger than themselves. Number two, you invite people who are inherently curious. So everybody there, I would say, actually has an ego. Everybody there has an ego, otherwise they wouldn't get to where they were. But bigger than their ego is their curiosity. And so as long as you can create the curiosity factor where who's this person? Oh, they're interesting. Oh, they're interesting. They're interesting. Then again, the attention go, they're so used to attention being on them. They're so used to being the most interesting person in the room. So you want people who are naturally curious about the people

around them. So even the sort of quote quote, quote, celebrities or kind of the big hitters that we had in the house that were maybe the wealthiest or the most popular people that were. there. I picked specifically people that in my limited interaction with them, they were very curious. Like for example, when you had first met Mr. Beas, you met him before we did, you were like, yeah, he just called me. And he was like, yeah, I'm on this walk. I do this every night. I just call somebody and say, you know, teach me something. And already I know everything I need to know about this person. Same thing. When Hussein came on the podcast, he asked me more questions that I asked him. I felt bad afterwards. I was like, dude, I just blew the podcast because he was asking

me questions. I'm supposed to ask him. Nobody gives a shit about me. They wanted to know from him. but that showed me like he would fit into this group because he would be curious about, oh, what's this real estate guy doing? What's this guy doing who's rolling up like those claw machines at amusement parks and pinball machines? And like, that's what this guy does. And he's building a little mini empire doing that, right? You need somebody who's curious.

Otherwise, they would just be like, that's weird. I don't know. Stay away from me. Right? You're different. I would say the third was the immersion. So it wasn't like a, you couldn't get away for better or for worse. Like normally you go to a dinner.

You sit there for three hours. It's sort of a safe space. You know the routine. And then you leave and you get to go back to your place. So you can stay surface level with a lot of people. With this, it's like, dude, I'm sleeping in the same room as somebody else sometimes. Definitely under one roof for the house. We're eating breakfast together, lunch together, dinner together.

We're figuring out logistics. You want to shower first from me. And at some point, you're going to just be your real self. Because you can only fake the funk for so long. You can do it for two hours, three hours, four hours. By hour five, you're just going to be sitting there, you know, tired and cranky. and you're going to be your real self. And like, that's just the way it was.

So I think those are the three things I would say that, like, created that environment. Well, and I was going to say it started from the top down. I mean, I would say mostly it was your brand. Partially it was the brand you and I have created together, which is actually similar to both our personalities. But basically, like, you're a casual person. You're a relatively low ego person as in like you're easy to be around. And it kind of stemmed from from that.

So I think that actually matters a lot. And it was like the house we were in was kind of like gross, but in a cool way. Like people on my Twitter were like, dude, that's a sick set. You made it look like a grandma's house. I'm like, oh, no, that's just like this woman's bedroom. It just looked like that. All right.

So if you're under 35 and you maybe don't know who Mr. Beas is, he's a YouTuber who's only 24. Maybe he's got 100 million subscribers, really big business that makes nine figures a year. And he just makes tons of videos that gets viewed by a lot of the world. So I have an interesting story about him. So we were in a car. And I was talking about like a popular band or politics or something. I think we were even talking about a movie like Harry Potter. And I could tell he wasn't registering what we were talking about.

He was trying to partake in the conversation and be polite. But I could tell that he didn't, he didn't like know what I was saying. And I said something to him. I go, hey, have you ever heard about this thing? And I think it was like Harry Potter or something. Or it was like something like mainstream. And he goes, no, I really, I just don't know anything about that. I've never seen that.

And I could tell that he didn't know this about a lot of things. And I said, what's going on? How do you not know about this? And he goes, when I was young, I made a goal when I was 15, to be the most popular YouTuber in the world. And I pretty much stopped paying attention to everything else. So if whatever you're talking about is not part of like YouTube culture, I don't know what it is.

And that was incredibly interesting to me. And he said a few other things that showed his intensity. The second thing was he said, I've gotten so big and I've like studied it and gotten great at my craft that I can't really learn too much from other YouTubers. So I talked to a lot of experts on human behavior and researchers in order to improve my craft. And also, I don't really have work weeks.

So I just kind of work and I get obsessed over stuff and I roll out of bed at 10 or 8 a.m. or whenever it is. And my team like tells me what I have to do. And then I just work all night until I get tired and then go to bed and I work seven days a week. And then occasionally I get burnt out and I take a couple days or however long I need to recharge. And then I do it again. I don't pay attention to the normal work week. The third thing that he did was he didn't care about rules. So Sean and I did a podcast with him at about it ended at like 11 p.m.

And Hassan made a joke like, you want to go play ball? And Jimmy was like, Mr. Beaser's real name is Jimmy. He goes, yeah, let's go right now. And as he said that, his two co-workers that were with him started getting on the phone, calling high schools, principals of schools, like all these people in order to get a basketball court. And we couldn't make it happen. But he was like really, really going after that to make that happen. And I thought that was crazy interesting.

And once someone said something to him, someone said something like, well, what if they like, don't let us for insurance reason? And he goes, well, just tell him we'll give him a million dollars if someone gets hurt. And it was just so funny that he wasn't. that usually does the trick. I was like, how many times have you done this, bro? He just didn't pay attention to rules. I thought that was interesting.

Now, I'm going to contrast that with this other person. I'm not going to say his name, but he might have been the wealthiest person there, and he wholly owned a business that was worth probably $500 to $800 million, and it made tens of millions a year in profit. And he basically told me that he worked really hard to get it going, but now he works one week a month. And then the other week a month, he likes to travel.

and then the other two weeks of the month, he's just kind of searching. So his company, he owns a bunch of companies. The other two weeks, he's just online searching for other deals and companies to buy, but at a fairly casual pace. And I thought this was interesting because these two guys were the exact opposite of when you meant them. One guy, you'd be like, oh, you're easy to be around. You're well-balanced. The other guy, Jimmy, not well-balanced at all.

But both of them had this laser-focused intensity of when they're on, they're on. And they played their game at a really, really, really, high, highly levered. So lots of leverage and that type of scale where it was just like anytime, if I make a decision, the outcome is potentially big and I don't always have to make a lot of decisions. I agree with everything you just said. And in fact, I think we could probably do a two episode series literally just on Mr. Beast. And I don't mean that because I'm a fan. Like in fact, I've watched a couple of his videos. It's not like I went in being like, ooh, this guy's my favorite, you know, like it's not that. Right. Like I've watched a couple of those videos.

It's like, oh, okay, I get it. That's cool. I get why that works. It's good, good fun. And so it's not that, but I am now a much bigger fan of him after seeing how he operates. I'm going to tell you a couple stories. So you didn't go for this, but a couple of us who arrived the day before, we got to go visit his studios. And we got to go tour his production facility, which is like, I don't know, Ben, how big is that place? Like 50,000 square feet or something like that. Basically an airplane hanger, right? Imagine a giant airplane hanger.

And on one end, they're like, oh, we're building this set over here. It's like a Hollywood production thing. So there's four production teams. And you're like in rural North Carolina. we're in yeah like people make this pilgrimage out to go see warren buffett and they call them the oracle of omaha but i was like where are we and where are we going for this pilgrimage and so we get out there but it's like had that same thing very special you go there and it's like this group of people who are all singularly focused on one mission which was to create the best videos possible to create the best

videos that get the biggest reactions that you know like and that's all they were all doing 24-7 they were all just working on that so i'm going to tell you a couple of of kind of amazing stories from that. We were like, so what is your, like, what's your model, dude? And his model is basically this. He started off making videos with no money, just him and his bedroom doing dumb stuff. Like, I'm going to say Logan Paul's name 100,000 times. I'm going to take this plastic knife and I'm going to cut through.

I'm going to saw through this plastic table in the next 48 hours. He just sat there. He would just do stuff like that. No budget, no whatever. But he knew he understood even at that time like, okay, what? would get somebody's attention, what would make them laugh, what would make them watch? What's a bit of a spectacle? Low budget spectacles.

Now he's doing high budget spectacles. Like we get there, there's a camera flying above us. There's fireworks and smoke bombs and there's crazy stuff going on, right? Because now he's investing, I think on average, Ben, what is it? Like half a million or a million dollars per video or something like that? I think he said 1.5. 1.5, yeah. $1.5 million per video just on the production.

That's kind of insane. And so the thing I admired the most about him, was, okay, in that house, there was, let's say, 25, all, everybody there was entrepreneurial. So if I said, who here is entrepreneurial, how many out of, let's just pretend, out of 100%, how many people would raise their hand? Almost all. Okay, 100, we're at 100 out of 100. I said, who here has a clear vision of what they want?

Now, how many people do you think are raising their hand? 60. Okay. I say, who here can think about that vision and can honestly say, that it is wildly ambitious. Like Mr. B's ambition is to be, you know, a billionaire YouTube creator to get to a billion followers and make billions of dollars.

He has told me that he wants to be one of the richest men on the planet, the most famous person on the planet and president. So, okay, that's his ambition. What's yours, right? So how many could just say, in their own right, that I'm thinking really big. I'm thinking wildly ambitious. So we're at 60% where are we at now?

Maybe 20. Okay, we're down to 20%. And now if I ask the last question, the most important question of them all. I said, who here is truly and totally obsessed? Meaning, you are willing to give every hour of your day, every dollar you create, you're willing to reinvest back into your thing. You don't take anything off the table.

You don't hedge. You don't buy that nice house. You don't buy those fancy cars. You don't put it away for your kids. You wake up, you do your thing until you pass out, and you are getting every hour, every dollar, and every ounce of your soul to that ambition. How many people are left?

What percent are left raising their hand? How many people? He might be the only one. And I would say, well, it's also because he was the youngest. But that could just, you know, it could play out where even if he's not the youngest, he still would have behaved that way. He would be the only one. And that's not just about that house.

I could go down into San Francisco. I could say, hey, gather around every venture backed founder here. I could go into every, I can go into a gymnasium full of people who all say they want to be a big YouTuber or all say they want to be a comedian or an athlete. Which, by the way, this isn't. necessarily a good thing. It could be a good thing. It could also, I think, be his downfall. There's a reason most of people don't do it, I think, is what you're saying, which is like, there's a price that comes with that. And that price is a price that most of us will not pay.

What do you think, think better? I just think there's a couple things he said throughout the weekend that I was like, oh, this guy is so successful. But to Sam's point, like, he's on a nice edge. If you play out his life a hundred times, I think in like 25 or 30 of him, he literally ends up on the street as just like an addict because he does have that obsessive personality. And if he had ended up, for whatever reason, obsessed with not the right thing, that's the way it would have gone. I have a list of like three things that might be his downfall. Keep in mind, the guy is like 24. So he's going to evolve quickly. But one, he was incredibly naive about business, which is actually a pro, I think, at a lot of cases. But in his case, I think that like, you have to get a little

bit less naive and learn a little bit more about business. You know, the thing you said about him cutting through a table with a plastic knife, that's kind of how he's done his life. He's just like, you know what I mean? Like, he's just like brute force his way. And I think that's great. That can get you a long way. But in order to last and be as big as he wants to be, like a Bezos, you've got to have a little bit more sophistication as you grow. He's got plenty of time, though.

The second thing is hiring. I think that he kind of told stories that it made me seem, it made it seem like he just hired his friends. And it's like, hey, you're fun. You want to do this? I don't think that's going to cut it either. And then the third thing is company building. We asked him on the pod about like work hours and about like meetings.

And he, I actually don't remember if he did it. I don't think he did a great job of answering it. But the vibe that I got was it was like a little bit like just whatever Jimmy wants, Jimmy gets. And I think that's okay for a little while. But in order to be as big as he wants to be, you got to have a little bit more company building, a little more process oriented, things like that that are kind of the antithesis of like being a cool YouTuber in many regards.

So I'll disagree with you on a couple of those. I think that, first of all, I think he's 24. So I remember when I was 24, 24, I became a C. for the first time of like a real company, a company that had revenue and employees that were not like my two best friends from college. And where he's at at 24 and where I was at 24 is like if me and Usain Bolt go and run a race,

it's like there is such a, like on one hand, he's sitting in a room. I think the oldest person in our group was maybe 43 and I would say the average age was maybe like 34, 35, something like that, probably something like that. Yeah, by the way, I'm not insulting him. I'm incredibly impressed. Right. So I just think where he's at on the learning curve, like, yeah, there is no shortcut to the learning curve. You've got to learn all these lessons. But where he's at is actually pretty far along. And the brute force approach actually works. Like you said, there is a strength to that. And I think that if you're doing what he's doing what he's doing, which is you're just like, F it, I'm holding nothing back. I'm going to go all in. And I'm going to repeatedly go all in until this like just, I just find a way to make this work. I think that overcomes a lot of the mistakes you're going to make. Right. Maybe for the first, maybe for the first. Maybe for the first.

billion or two. Yeah, exactly. I think that that is a great attitude. And what he proved is that you could have that attitude for like late stage in your career, even though he's 24, like he's got late stage in terms of results, even though he's probably in 10%, 100%. In most cases, he's late stage. But in order to get as big as he wants, he said he wanted to build multiple 10 billion, even I think he said a hundred billion dollar company. You know, we're talking Walmart. You know, like you, you can't always bet the farm at that size. And I'm going to be honest with you. I had an initial reaction to him that was sort of, there was a part of me that was like,

ah, fuck this guy. Right. And not because he did anything bad. He's totally nice. But his ambition is almost uncomfortable to where you're like, where you're like, I'm not talking to somebody who's, who they don't live in the same reality that I live in. And so my initial reaction was like, okay, you're saying things that don't either they

don't make sense or it's like two like one sided or it's like just like pure unadulterated, like raw ambition. And there's something uncomfortable about that because I kind of like people that are like, like one of the things I admire is people who are well balanced. So I told him this when I was talking to him. I was like, he was basically like I admire Elon,

Steve Jobs, like, these are the people that I admire. I'm like them. I'm wired like them. And I like to hang out with people like them. And I go, yeah,

I'm not like them. And we're on the phone. And now there's like a, you know, like a 10 second uncomfortable silence. Because it was true. I was like, what am I going to do?

Pretend I am. No. I could just, you know, I'm going to say what's real. And I was like, you know, I was like, that doesn't mean I'm not ambitious. I just point my ambition at a different outcome. Those guys all became the wealthiest men on earth. They created like, you know, world changing like spectacles, like landing rockets on, you know, self-landing rockets, self-driving cars, electric cars, all this crazy stuff, right?

Created the iPhone. So those people, they were wildly ambitious in that way. There are other people that are wildly ambitious in other ways. I said, you know, like somebody I look up to, I model myself after is like Naval. I think he's really successful in business, but also he's revered, because of his wisdom, not because he created the iPhone, right? Like, you know, he hasn't gone through five marriages and breakups and like, you know, he hasn't like been bankrupt and then back to the top and then he's depressed, but he's super successful. It's like, to me, that's not

winning. But I get it. For other people, there is winning. I'm glad there's people who think that's winning because they're the ones who are going to create the next iPhone and create the next Tesla. But I just was explaining that to him. And I think that that was the only, I don't actually think he's naive about business. I don't actually think about anything. I just think like, when you, when you have your play style, it's very sexy. to be like, my play style is the play style. My play style is the cool one and all the other ones are weak for these other reasons. And I think as people get older, they really start to respect other people's play styles.

I think this has happened for most of the people I really get along with where they're like, they can admire a billionaire as much as they can admire a single mother because they're like, dude, these are just different games, but I really, I can, I can admire and not in like a token just saying the right thing kind of way. like they truly feel it in their heart. Like, like, you know, they truly feel that, wow, what you're doing is your Super Bowl. And I respect the way you approach your Super Bowl. And your Super Bowl is just as valid as my Super Bowl, even if they're totally different.

That's a great way to put it. The way that I also put it is I say, I don't care about money. I care about people who, like, actualize their dreams. And their dream could be to be the best parent. The dream could be to be a billionaire. It could be to be an athlete, to be strong, to be skinny. I don't care what exactly your dream is. I just want to see you achieve it.

And that makes me happy when I see someone going places. And it just so happens that money and traditional success is a very practical way to measure that or to achieve it. Like it just says like, well, I just do this business thing as opposed to being the best parents, a little bit more challenging. But yeah, I completely agree with you. We have another friend or I have a friend. You've met him. I don't know if you love the guy or hate the guy because he also is uncomfortably ambitious. Remember he came to a dinner with us.

I don't want to say his name. but I came to a dinner with us once and you could describe your impression of him, but he's also this type of him. I was embarrassed to be around him. I met him when he was 19, 20, something like that. And he at that time was basically like, yeah, I'm like, I'm going to be a billionaire, multi-billionaire, just a matter of like, you know, is it at 25 or 26, 27, but I don't know when. And I was like, so do you date?

He's like, no, I'm just going to wait until I'm a billionaire that I'm going to date like, you know, the hottest woman on earth who's also like, you know, loves me and is like the heir to the throne somewhere, right? Like he just, I'm just going for a 12. And he's like, you know, so first I'm going to be a multi-billionaire, then I'm going to date this 12 and marry her. And then I'm going to have like all these children and then my children are going to do this. And like, if somebody else was like really excited about their thing that's like kind of small, he'd be like, well, that's kind of a waste of time, right? Like, you could just, why not just do something bigger that would make you more money? And like, he's just so matter of fact, so black

or white about it. Like, not in a way that's not in a way that's rude. Like he's not trying to be rude, but he just genuinely only obsesses over his thing, which is in his case, like, investing and being like a better invest in the Warren Buffett. He's like, you know, I've, I've watched every video, read every book by Warren Buffett, Ray Dalio, all the greatest investors. I've studied them. I'm just as good as them. Yeah, I'm younger than them, but I'm just as good at them. In fact, I think I'll be better than them. But, you know, by the time I'm, they're 90. I'll be better than them by now. How's it going? I mean, who knows? I can only, I literally can only check in with them so often because,

if you talk to them too much, it's just like, oh, dude, like, I get my, I get a headache. Like, A, I feel insecure because I'm not as ambitious. And then B, I just get frustrated because I'm like, dude, come back to reality. Like, you're floating away in your own bubble somewhere. But I like people like that. Those people also are like, they serve a real place in my life. Can I, can we, can I bring up a different topic that was subtle, but crazy fascinating? Yeah. So Ben Levy invited this guy whose Twitter handle is comment. Commodore. And Commodore is famous, I guess, because he started a Dow and he's trying to buy an NBA team and he's raised tens of millions of dollars to do it. And I started talking to this guy and we started talking about, you know, just all types of stuff. And I go, what's your name by the way? And he goes, Commodore. I go, oh, that's a sick name. Like, why did your parents name you Commodore Wilson? I forget what it was. But he goes, oh, that's not my real name. I'm anonymous this weekend. I go, what? He goes, yeah. So like, in order to get rid of

in order not to have like some legal implications, and I don't actually know what all the implications were. He goes, I'm just anonymous. And I go, does anyone here know who you are? He goes, no, no one here knows my real name. Ben Levy, the guy who invited me, he has no idea who I am or my name. And I was like, what? That's interesting. So I just called him Commodore. And we talked about like family. We talked about his wife and children where he lived and how like, you know, I am maybe familiar with that area. We talked about all these things. And we got like 30 minutes to do a really deep conversation. And I was like, what would you do? What were you doing before this? He was like, oh, I was doing this, this and, oh, wow,

that's amazing. What was it called? He goes, oh, I can't tell you. I'll docks myself. And I was like, oh, and I got back. And I like remembered, we are anonymous. And I thought that was fascinating. What did you think about that? I don't know. I didn't find it that fascinating. But now that you say it, I'm like, yeah, that was kind of crazy. Like, you see people that have crazy. It didn't feel crazy. You see people who have their, like, you see people who have their, like, you see people who have their, like, you're right. I've never actually just met one of those people in real life and have them just be like, yeah, that's just, that's my identity. I've just given a, like, I don't use my, my birth identity, my, my legal identity.

I use my online identity as my main identity. And everybody was like, all right, what's up, Commodore? I called them Commodore the whole time. I thought that was his real day for the first 24 hours. Every time you walked in room, people like, ah, Commodore, hey, where's Commodore? Is he ready to go? And it's like, that's not, like, who is this guy? Nobody here knows who this guy is and we're all okay with it.

That was kind of, right. That was kind of amazing. And I was like, can I just take a picture of? you and like reverse search this. He goes, you can, but you won't. I was like, you're right. I'm not going to. Yeah, yeah. There was sort of a respect at some point. It's like, I'm not going to try to know this because you're cool. And I don't need to, why would I do something you don't, you're not comfortable with? You don't want that? All right, I'm, I'm, I'm your friend. I'm not going to do that to you. Dude, that was, it was so weird at first. And then it became completely normal.

And now, now I, I totally get this an on thing. And I asked him, I go, do your friends know who you are? And he's, no, he's like they, a lot of them just don't know what I do for work. So there was a group of people there that are pretty interesting. So one guy who we both loved, who we did a pod with. So I guess I'll explain the rest of the setup. So we did a couple other cool things, I thought. We had a chef who was there at the house just making all the meals. That was great. So nobody had to think about anything. And then we had Kevin Durant basically sent us like 30 pairs of his shoe. So everybody, that was so baller. I can't believe you did that. A pair of his shoes. We got a custom like shirt, jersey.

that said Camp MFM with your name on the back of your number. So people kind of had their like jersey for the weekend. We got like, they also sent like Nike sent bags for us. So there was a couple of things that were like cool. You know, I was talking about the moments in between the moments. We tried to have some moments in between the moments.

It felt like Christmas morning like with all these shoes here. And we all like got there and like unwrapped them. It was really cool. Yeah. We all turned into little kids. We're like unboxing our thing. And be like, oh, yeah,

I got it. Like, you know, all these people could afford a thousand shoes a thousand times over. But like it just, it's still great to just get a free, cool thing that somebody sends you. Can I say one cool thing you did, Sean, is that it wasn't all KDs. It was like KDs and a couple Kyrie's and some LeBron's. So it was fun to open up to be like, oh, which shoes did I get? Yeah, that was true. Some other great moments. So we had gotten

connected with the guys at Duke because we're in North Carolina and we had said, hey, can we come, like, get a tour of the place? They did. So basically some of the former players who are now coaches, some of the current players basically came together and they took us on a tour of the practice facility. What did you think of that, by the way? You're not like a, like, I went to Duke. That to me was obviously cool. Dude, it was so cool. It was so awesome.

So I don't know anything about basketball. I even made a joke when we walked in. I go, Ben, who's that dude? And it was Coach Kay. I was like, yeah. So like, I don't really know anything about basketball. But it was inspirational because the assistant coaches now, I think they are. They told stories about working with Coach Kay, who's like known for, you know, 30 years of

excellence and tradition and, like, perfection. And they told some amazing stories. And it felt I did feel like I was. in a, I don't know, holy place when I was there. So I want to say something about that too. So one of the players there, Emil Jefferson, who he was on the championship team, maybe seven years ago or so. Was he like the coach, like the guy leading the tour?

Yeah, he was the guy kind of telling the most stories. And I just want to give him shout out because basically they didn't know what the hell was going on. Neither did our group. All of a sudden, 30 people are standing face to face in this practice facility. It's like, so, okay, who are you guys? And like, what am I supposed to show you? What are we doing here?

And like, I don't think anybody really did. totally winged it. He did good. It also helped that we had Mr. Beast here and Husson. So everyone thought that like, oh, everyone else here must be famous too. I just don't recognize. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like they didn't know we're all just prolific newsletter creators, you know? Yeah. Podcasts and newsletter creators and a couple actually famous people. Yeah, they ball. We blog. Yeah, exactly. So he tells the story. And I just got to give him credit. Like, that was like a make or break moment. Do you have a story or do you not? And I just want to encourage everybody to like,

Like, have a story in your back pocket. Like, whatever the most common question you get, which is like in this case, what's Coach Kay like? You know, what was it like playing here? What's it like, you know, whatever? And don't just be like, it was good, man, really cool, really special to be here. Yeah, I mean, it's just been awesome. I've learned so much.

It's like, that's what I would say nine out of ten people would have done. He's like, you know, when I first got here, I thought it was hot shit, blah, blah, blah. And then Coach Kay was just yelling at me, yelling at me, man. I didn't know what to do. he's like later on I realize that once he stops chilling at you that's what it's bad because that he's given up on you but like you know for that moment he's like in some practices and then you say he's at a counterintuitive things he's like some practices he just sat there man he didn't say anything and the whole practice he wouldn't say a word and you just think oh man he's just checked out like he's not

doing anything like I don't know it's weird I guess he doesn't care right now but then three weeks later he would reference something that he was observing that day and you're like dude you've been watching everything you got like cameras in the walls and microphones like how do you know all this stuff and he tells the story he's like you know we have this one little film room And the secret, like, he's like, see that wall right there. There's like a secret door. You go in there. There's a film room right next to the practice gym.

He's like, and he took me in there. He's like, come here. And I go in there. And I haven't been playing that well. And he takes me in. And there's like all these screens in there. He's like, and on all of the screens is just a picture of me. Like various pictures of me, all doing the same pose where I'm just sitting there like this.

I'm like, I'm exasperate. I'm like mad at the ref or my teammates or the coaches. My hands are out. My hands are up. My palms are up. I'm like, it's like the why type of like expression. And already everybody's on the edge of their seat in the story because we're like, yeah,

hey, this is cool. This is interesting. I want to know what was this about. He's like, he said, look at this son. You're one of the leaders of this team. You look like a beggar. You're sitting there with your palms out begging for a call from the referee,

begging for the coaches to help you, begging for your teammates to do something. He's like, you're a leader. I don't ever want to see you look like a beggar again. He's like, don't do that. This is not the body language of a leader.

my, look at your face, look at your hands. And then I was like, A, such a good story. He's like, for the rest of the season, you'll watch me. If something happens, I'm like this. He's like, you know, does a totally different pose. He's like, you'll never catch me doing that pose again. And I thought, a great way to connect with the group, right? Like we're all like kind of CEO leader type.

So you tell a leadership story. You tell a counterintuitive one, entertaining one. And it's a happy ending, right? And I just thought, man, he just killed it with that moment. And I just felt for myself, if I look at how I was hosting that weekend, I felt like if I was going to level up how these things go, that's one thing I want to work on is in those moments where you need to either make the toast, welcome everybody in, tell the story, get people primed for what we're about to do. Like the difference in the whole experience can just be in that like two minute story right before you start. And that's what I want to get great at.

I told you this like three times. You pulled this off perfectly and you nailed the important stuff and you failed and ignored the non-important. The non-important stuff is the nice to have that, but here's the thing. Most people would spend time on that. So you had no website. You had no like invitation. You just DM people. You said Venmo me money. And I didn't know what I was getting into, but I just trusted you. You last minute sent us the address. So basically like on the way to the airport, you told me the address of where I had to go to. I didn't know what time dinner was. I just know I just sometime throughout the day, hopefully I show up at this address and I and I and like hopefully there's a place to sleep. All I did was. I did was. I sent you money and I told you my shoe size. That's all I did. And I showed up and there was all these amazing people there. And you nailed it and you did it quickly. And the Airbnb was perfect.

We had a chef there. That was perfect. The house pretty messy. Kind of just not messy horribly, but almost but borderline. Like this is disgusting. We go and play basketball a day and you had this amazing trainer at this awesome high school gym that was also perfect. But I'm like, all right, is there any like drinks here? Like, what do we do?

It's like, well, there's just a water fountain and some clip bars. And I was like, okay, that's less than ideal. But you know what? That doesn't matter because I appreciate that you just like, you just ordered this shit on Amazon. You go, but that's not the important shit. We're going to focus on the important stuff. We had a podcast studio there that was already set up an important thing that we needed. And it was like kind of like a little hoodie, a little hood rat set up.

And it was fucking perfect. It was exactly what we needed. What like the people that you selected were awesome. We didn't do any like real introductions. we just hung out and you just you did I think if you're executing on a project what you did this weekend was a perfect example of just getting the main things right now in the future maybe you'll know or maybe you'll want to like all right you know we should actually have like people didn't like eat this type of food we should not do that this time and like that's the unimportant stuff though

and it was perfect what do you what did you think of Sean's execution did I nail it yeah yeah I think you were 100% right nailed execution just everything about it was perfect Sean do you think it's something could you just copy and paste it, or does it need to be different every time in order to create that feeling of it being special? I think you could copy paste 80% of it and you would change 20. And so I think that that would be the plan. I want to basically, so I just bought a domain. I'm putting up a website today, Mfmcamp.com. And I'm going to put the pictures from this one. I just kind of want to make a blog of where this was, but I'm also going to put a form on there for people who want to come to the future. Because half the people who came to this, I didn't know. They had reached out when I had first said the idea. I think you should let people apply. But I don't think you got to keep it just like 20. 20, 25 people in like, you know, unfortunately, really exclusive. I'm going to do two versions. I'm going to do the exclusive one, which is like basically it's, it's hitters only, right? No small boy stuff there.

That's what this one was like, right? 20, 25 people in the room. Everybody had their claim to fame, whatever it may be, right? Like we had one guy, Al, who's built the biggest quilt company in the world. They do over $100 million a year selling quilt, you know, patches and accessories and stuff like that. And it's like, that's his, that's his, and he bought a town. and he's making it like the quilting like the quilting hub of America

like a tourist destination for quilters everywhere like the guy's crazy but he's totally different than the next guy who's done it in a different area right so I'm going to do one or two of these a year that are the small 20 person type of events I might even go smaller I might even go 15 I think this was too many people and then I also want to do one that's like one notch less

the D league yeah it's not the D it's more like the B the B league right it's like that I want to do like a thousand person or 500 person or something bigger maybe not five maybe not that big maybe it's 200 but that'll be like a retreat somewhere it's less intimate less exclusive but it's still people who are they're all entrepreneurs they're all they've all made their first million right according to the pocket they all listen to the pod they get the jokes they get the humor they get the style so when they show up they know the vibe the vibe should be immaculate from day one and that's what i that's what i want to do so that's what i'm thinking of doing out of this what do you think of that idea yeah i told kip the

CMO of HubSpot. I go, Sean just did this on his own. Like, you got to carve out some budget. Just let us let him have this money. And we got to make this happen. This was magical. And he's like, dude, I followed all your guys's picture and Instagram from this. This is amazing. We're in. And yeah, I think it's a really good idea. You should do a bigger one. That bigger one, the bigger one will be freaking exhausting, but it'd be fun. Yeah, totally. I hate events, but the fact I still want to do this, even though I hate events, shows me that it's like a good thing to do. Okay, so those were a couple of the things. Can I share a couple of the other kind of like takeaways or anecdotes?

So one takeaway, a lot of people there were pretty, I'll call it like straight narrow now. Like it's like a lot of the conversations were like about their kids. So Nick, who's sweaty startup on Twitter, he goes, he wrote a blog post. Did you read this thing? He goes, I spent the weekend with multimillionaires. Here's what I learned. And he goes, we organized this thing, blah, blah. And he goes, he texted his wife after he put a screen shut up.

He goes, I'm very inspired by a lot of the guys here, had some incredible deep conversations with some spectacular people. A few things I'm ready to change right away. Number one, I want a therapist. Number two, I want to bring energy to the kids. I think I need to disconnect from the phone to do that. Number three, I want to drink less alcohol. Number four, I'm ready to bring a positive mindset to being a family man and a dad and

nurture that garden in the same way that I've nurtured business and social. Number five, I want to start honoring you like treating like the queen that you are. I'm so lucky to have you. Right. It's like, whoa. Like, you know, those are some, you know, come to Jesus sort of thoughts. and I'm glad that, you know, he had that impression. And so he said something, he goes, here's my takeaways.

He goes, we're all dorks. He goes, I was expecting a room full of giants, people with charisma, blah, blah, blah. He's like, don't get me wrong. Some people could tell great stories. But for the most part, everybody was just normal and had like overcome odds. They were just smart storytellers who were really obsessed with their thing. Now, number two, he goes, we all suffer with insecurity, fear, or failure, and a general emptiness at times. He goes, I talked to a few guys who enjoyed their success more than five years ago,

have been worth 20 plus million for a long time. and they spoke about business as an unhealthy addiction, how it leaves them searching for more and empty feeling after an exit. Others talked about their nagging ego and need for more and bigger. Others discussed a constant fear about their career, that they weren't worthy or didn't have what it took and just general insecurity. Another one. They had lots of kids.

A lot of guys spent a lot of time talking about their kids and how they spend a lot of energy in this area. Most of the folks spent a lot of time talking about how they're trying to raise good kids and how they're trying to help their kids embrace the struggle rather than protecting them from it. He goes, very few of them had new groundbreaking businesses. Most started normal businesses that already existed, not revolutionary technologies. They saw a need and just went after it better than anyone else.

Good old fashioned boring stuff. He talked about the humility is astounding. Most of the people, money has not turned these people into jerks. They're still mentally tough, still willing to slum it. They are humble. They're searching for ways to improve, blah, blah, blah. Most didn't drink alcohol. A couple of us had one or two drinks, but I'm surprised that, you know, this many people

were able to, you know, socialize, hang out without using alcohol. It inspired me to do more. Yeah, basically he's like the big question for most people in the room is, what am I going to do with my life? He goes, one last quote. He goes, I talk to somebody who said this. I walk around my house in my office sometimes, just acting like I'm doing things. Then I just go outside, walk around or I cut wood. He's like, everybody is kind of, you know, on some kind of search.

So I thought it was a really good recap. To add to that, most people were really transparent. And so like, we would be like, if we would ask them money questions, like, and they would just say, this is what I have. This is where I put it. This is what I do. and they would be fairly specific. Or they would say, no, like, I don't have enough to do this, this and this.

Like, we're talking about flying private. Like, no, I'm not wealthy enough. I can't do that. I can't afford it. And it was like, oh, or I am wealthy enough to do that. And here's how much I spend. But I didn't do it until I hit this number. Or, you know, like my wife and I argue about X, Y, and Z.

Or I'm nervous about my children for these reasons. Or, like, people were really transparent. Can I tell you a few more of Mr. Beast Nuggets real quick? because I think he was the most like alien of, he was the alien amongst aliens, basically. Yeah. So he's got a runner. Do you know what I mean when I say this?

No, wait, what? No. There is somebody 24 hours a day. He's two people that do 12 hour shifts. Basically, he's got a dude outside the house at all times, just sitting in his car, 24 hours a day. It's a personal door dash. So if he ever needed something,

I don't know if you noticed. He was like, oh, I want to play settlers of Katan. So he's like, hey, can you go get Katan? And the guy would just run to the store, go get Katan and bring it back within 15 minutes. What? he was outside our house? The whole time.

And he's outside the studio. Wherever he goes, these two people are there, 12-hour shift seats. So 24 hours a day, he's got somebody just watching his back, ready to go do anything. Like, that's a real,

that's like, A, really funny. And so he's talking to me, he's like, he's like, I don't get it. He's like, all these people here are wealthy, but like, nobody here had that.

He's like, why don't you guys do that? It's a waste of your time to go do those things, right? Like, if you value your time, why would you? And I was like, I was like, he's like, like, why do you think that is? And I was like, honestly, I don't think any of us had even thought about it.

Like, I was like, I was like, I had never considered this possibility. I didn't know that was a thing. And so it's actually like a trait commonly found with greatness, which is a very matter of fact, simple way of looking at things that is unafraid of like how that looks, how that sounds or like what it costs. So for example, he reinvest everything into every video. And I was like, okay, so, you know, what's the game plan here? He's like, well, just, you know, like make the best video as possible. put it all in, keep growing it, make this the biggest thing ever. And like, you know, that's my goal. And I was like, okay, but like, you know, what about XYZ? It's like, I told you my goal. So why would I consider XYZ? Like, yeah, where you're not listening to the first part where I said. So I call it, I started to

think about this. Because again, the stunning thing for me was I had never really met anybody who puts every hour, every dollar, and every ounce of their soul into their wild ambition. That's what I took away from him. It doesn't matter if he was a YouTuber or an athlete. In fact, the trainer there used to train with Kobe and Kobe's daughter, Gigi before they passed away. And I was, you know, I was like, dude, I hate to be the guy who asks you for a Kobe story, but like, you got to tell me a Kobe Bryant story. Like, what you got? And he started telling me, I was like, you know, is the work ethic thing legit? Because like, I don't know if you follow this, but like on Reddit, there's these stories where it's like. No, dude. Yeah, I sat and

listened to that guy talk. He was, he was, that was probably the best storytelling. So there's these stories about Kobe that you don't know if they're marketing or if they're real where it's like Kobe would wake up. Like, there's a story like, there's a story. like Dwayne Wade, who's another Hall of Fame basketball player. He's like, yeah, we went to the Olympics. That's my first time I got to see how Kobe works because he was a competitor before that. Now we're on the same Olympic team. He's like, we got to the gym at 6 a.m.

Kobe was already there like fully sweating. We're like, what are you doing? We just got here for the 6 a.m. practice. What are you doing? And he's like, oh, this is like, yeah, yeah, I'll be ready in a minute. They're like, well, why are you sweating so much? He's like, oh, I had my first working at four. I'm just finishing up.

I'm going to join you guys in a second. I'm going to go get my ankles re-taped and then go back. And the guys, so he's got this legendary work, I think. So I was asking the guy, I was like, is it real? He's like, he's like, dude, I thought it was bullshit too. He's like, so I started texting him at four. He's like, he hit me back right away. The guy was awake.

He was at the gym. He's like, it was insane. He's like, and then I was like, okay, so he's got the crazy work ethic. What else? He's like, he had this ability where if you were in the room with him, he's like, most of the guys I work with the famous athletes, they're like kind of like ADD. They're like, if they don't know, if you're not like a bullseye of what they're interested in, they don't think that they don't look at you

as someone they can learn something from always. Yeah, just normal people. He's like, so, you know, they'll check their phone, they'll look around, they'll talk to you, they'll talk to their manager, they'll talk to this person, they're just, whatever, they're all over the place. He said, Kobe, if he got in a room with you, you'd feel like there's only you in the room.

He would lock eyes, he would not look at his phone. He would not move away. He would ask you questions. He would remember your name. And the name thing was fascinating. Did you hear that story? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other guy Luke tells the story.

So he goes, we're at the gym. And he's like this first time I ever met Kobe. He's like, we're playing pickup. And I was playing with, I jumped in. He's like, I jumped in the game and I missed like six or seven shots. And Kobe just doesn't say anything mean. He's like, after the game, he goes, damn, damn, man, you come make a shot or what? And the guy goes, I'm a volume shooter, bro.

Like, you should know. And Kobe like, he tried to like kind of basically make fun of Kobe. Kobe's like, how the only volume I know is five, like five rings. He's like, whatever. They have that one interaction. It takes five seconds. They just laugh, move on with life. Three weeks later, he comes back.

to the gym and the guy walks into the gym and Kobe goes, what up volume? And just like, remembered who he was. Kate remembered his nickname. And so then the guy was like, already impressed with that. He's like, but I, he's like, I had never talked to him. Besides, I never told him my name. Nothing. He had asked somebody what my name is.

So that three weeks later, he goes, he's like, I was leaving. And Kobe goes, damn, Luke, you're not going to say bye? And he's like, you know my name. And secondly, you're stopping. I just didn't want to bother you. And the guy was like sneaking out, like just casually trying to leave. And Kobe just saw him walking around. I was like, dude, what the hell?

Aren't you going to say goodbye to me? And so he knew his name. He's like, he's like, he remembers everybody's name. And I asked him once I go, Kobe, like, why do you? Like, is that easy for you? He's like, no, it's not that easy. I just make an effort. He's like, why do you care?

Like to learn all these people's names? He goes, because for most people, this is the only time they're ever going to interact with me. And if I remember their name is something so simple. And they, not only will they remember it forever, they'll tell everybody they know about this. He goes, so I'm not just remember. I'm not just like making an impression on them.

I'm making an impression on a thousand people throughout their lifetime that they're going to tell this Kobe Bryant story too. And I thought that was so baller. And that was the same thing I was admiring about Mr. East. I admired about Kobe in that same way. He did an even crazier story where Alex had mentioned like a few weeks prior that his mom's birthday was on a particular date. And on that particular date, Kobe texted Alex, the trainer, goes,

what's your mom's cell number? And he FaceTime to the mom goes, what's up, mom? You know, I just want to say, I hope you have a wonderful birthday today. and Alex is like, I didn't even FaceTime my mom, but Dell her happy birthday. Yeah, exactly. So those stories were amazing. Again, those are the moments in between the moments, right?

You can't plan for that, but you put a bunch of people in the room and serendipity like that can happen. But the other story that was like that, so the trait, the thing I was calling Mr. Beast, I was like, he has a level of commitment that I call kamikaze commitment. He has a kamikaze level commitment to winning.

Kobe had that too. That's our new phrase, bro. That's a good job. The manifest cowboys and the people who got that kamikaze commitment, the dogs. And so I was like, how do you compete with a YouTuber like Mr. Beast? I thought about this. I was like, because I was like literally, I was like, could I fund somebody? Could I just give someone like $5 million to become Mr. Beast?

And I was like, I don't think it would actually work because not just the talent. There's like, he's not the best looking dude. He's not the funniest guy. He's not. Honestly, all the things he knows about YouTube you could learn. I could tell you everything he, you know, you need to know about. YouTube, then 85% that you would need to know to get pretty far ahead, right? There's the last 15% that will you accrue over time, but like, dude, you need a great clickable

title and thumbnail. Here's what makes it clickable. The first 10 seconds, you need to hook people and tell them what they're going to get out of this video and then you need to visually stimulate them and then you need to use these cuts. And then you need to introduce a twist in order to keep their attention and here's the metric you need to hear about, right? Like you could train that. What you can't train is the guy is willing to put all the money he makes back into the next

videos. So like imagine competing in a business with somebody who's willing to take no, like they're going to beat you on price. They're going to beat you on value because they're willing to lower their price or they're willing to reinvest all of their profits into building a better product. So he's willing to reinvest all of his money and all of his time into this. And then that compound. So at first that was really cheap. That was, you know, the first brand that gave him a $10,000. The first brand tried to give him a $5,000 sponsorship.

I don't know if you know the story. They quit, tried to give him $5,000 for the video. He was like, I talked to the guy on the phone for like an hour being like, dude, make a 10,000. More people will click. She's like 10,000, just that number 10 grand in the title is going to get way more clicks than five. I don't know why. It just five is not the same as 10 in the title. And so it's like, just give me 10.

They're like, dude, we just, our budget. He's like, I'm not even going to keep the 10. I'm going to give all 10 away. So they said yes to 10. He immediately went and gave 10 grand to a homeless guy. And then that video gets like a million views and all the stuff that pays the video off. The advertiser is happy. so then they get 20 grand, 30 grand, 50 grand, 100 grand,

and eventually advertisers are willing to pay nearly a million dollars for to be a part of these videos. But he's willing to take that and pour all back in. So how do you compete with somebody who's willing to spend all of their creative energy in time and all of their money? I think that is like just kind of all inspiring to see somebody execute the like sort of kamikaze commitment strategy. I know I'm not willing to do it.

Maybe because I'm older. I'm not willing to do it. I got kids. I don't know what it is. I don't know what the factors are. It's really that I just, I don't need to, it's like I said before, like I think being Olympian, being an Olympian is a trap. Like, I don't need to be a gold medalist.

I don't want to be Michael Phelps and give up like 20 years of my life to train every single moment of every single day to become that. Like, that's okay. I don't think, I don't think his lifestyle is fitting for happiness and maybe, maybe even being fulfilled. And by the way, he would agree. Like he said that himself. Yeah. And he said that. And I'm happy that he exists.

And I know I am not that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Those are the two certainties that I have on that. You know, before we went on that trip. You are real. And I, and I, and I am not it. Face tattoos and cornrows, right?

Yeah. Face tattoos and cornrows. I'm cool. Other people have them. Not for me. Yeah. Before I went there, I was like, maybe we should really like double down on you.

Maybe we should triple down on YouTube. I was like, I think I can become like the biggest business creator. on YouTube. Do I want that? I don't know. And then I, when we were there, there was like a 30 minute shoot where he was like a photo shoot for the thumbnail of one of his videos. And I was like, yeah, I don't think I want to do this. Like I don't think in my day, these are the things I want to spend my energy on. I think I think somebody is willing to do that. Of course somebody's willing to do that. Many people are willing to do that to win that game. And I was like, I'd rather do a game where I'm

willing to pay the price that it takes to get the outcome that I want rather than try not to do it. You and we, we could play that game, but you don't have to play it his way. You know, his way is a reckless way, and it works. There are lots of different examples of people succeeding in different ways. You know, the wealthiest guy there, keep in mind, was basically, he was the wealthiest guy there by a lot, I think. And he played the game totally different than Jimmy did. Yeah, but I think the YouTube game that, you know, like there is a, I think there is a default path. And you'd have to really be saying, I'm going to go try to be an outlier, right?

I'm not going to be on, I'm not going to do X, Y, Z. If you want to be. To be the top. If you want to be. Yes, if you wanted to be the top mainstream type of guy, I agree. Right. But there's like lots of games. If we wanted a sweet lifestyle where we're making a few million dollars of you here doing it, like you're right.

There's many ways to do that. But if you want to be the top, right? And that's the question I was asking. Yeah, I agree. Do I want to try to go for that? No, I don't. But I would, I would, I'd be okay with pretty good. And doesn't that feel weird when you spend time with people who, who are like, they

hear that sentence and they're sort of repulsed. Isn't there a part of you that's sort of like embarrassed to say I'm okay with just good enough? There's a part of me that's for sure embarrassed to feel that way. Yeah. And I used to feel so I used to feel embarrassed about that. And then I realized I started like renal about stoicism and I got went into this Ryan holiday like deep rabbit hole and I'm like, oh yeah, we're all going to die and we're all going to be bullshit and like just ashes like I'm not going to play other people's games. But here's the thing I want to wrap up with as I left that weekend. little angry at myself because I've experienced envy pretty hardcore and I experienced like inadequacy

of like, you know, a lot of places where I go, I'm the big shot. There, we were the low, we were probably below average in terms of traditional success. For sure. And I remember being there and I'm like, I am nothing and I should want more and I should achieve more. And I remember feeling that way and I felt guilty that I felt that way. I was like, why, why am I like, you know, why am I feeling envy. This is, envy is like the one of the worst feelings you should, you can have. Envies, in some regards, worse than hate. Right. And so, like, I remember feeling envy and I was like, I'm falling down the traps. I'm falling, I'm doing it. I'm doing what everyone says you do. And we all know you're not supposed to do. And I said forever, I wouldn't feel that way.

I made the number that I made. And I thought I won't want any more after that. And I am wanting more. And I'm, I'm giving into it. And I felt really guilty about that. I know exactly what you mean. I'll tell you what worked for me to like, it's like a hunger pang, right? You can't prevent yourself from feeling hungry, but you can choose how you're going to satisfy that, right? How you're going to address it. And I told, I had come on the pod before when I had visited that person's house that like, they had like a $20 million house.

And I was like, wow, this is just incredible. And I wasted the first two days just kind of like being envious and or like bullshitting about why this like, yeah, but you know, I want to focus a family. You know, coming up with these, like, other things. I was like, yeah, this is, this is actually bad for these reasons. Yeah, just cognitive distance. Yeah, just like trying to convince myself that I was good. And so, you know, and what I had come away with there was like, actually the right way to handle that moment is to just reframe it like, oh, this is sick.

I'm getting to sample a set of options to see which one I want. Oh, okay, you have this and you live this lifestyle. Tell me about that. I want to hear about that. I want to just, this is just the person walking around at the party with the tray. Oh, yeah, I'll try the brachetta. Okay, do I like brachetta? Is that what I want?

Okay, now let me try the shrimp. Okay, is that what I want? Is that what I like? So that's how I, that's at this place. I didn't feel the envy per se because as soon as it came up, I was like, oh, this is cool. I'm getting, this guy lives in Puerto Rico and does this, this isn't this? Instead of feeling jealous, I pay so much in taxes and he doesn't, let me learn about that. This person has this wild success and they kind of work this one one week out of a month.

All right. Is that what I want? What's that like? tell me about that. You know, like I was getting this sample, which just helps me figure out what I really want.

And I get more broad exposure. But I definitely know what you mean to. When it was like, okay, let's go around the circle and like tell what's your story. What's your, what's your thing? I'm like,

damn, my little like, you know, cricket level of success compared to the whales. You know, like there is a moment where you panic. I've always had this in any group setting when they're like, say your name and,

you know, an interesting thing about you. It's like, you know, for a moment, my initial reaction is like, there's nothing interesting about me.

Not one Iode. of me is interesting. I should just leave the room. How far away is the fire alarm? What happens if I vomit? Do I have to do this? Like, you know, like, there's that, that happens in three seconds. And then my body's like, oh, wait, what do you do? What are you talking about? Like, and then I come back to normal. But I, that reaction happens to me in these group settings for sure. Yeah, I, I remember, I felt the exact same way. And I was like, I am nothing. It's, so, it kind of made me feel better when people who I didn't know told me about my life. And I'm like, fucker you listen got you like you know what I mean

I tell you this story that felt a little better totally unrelated story but you just remind me of it it's so hilarious back of the day me and my buddies used to go gamble a lot we didn't have much money we were fresh out of college we basically had won a business plan competition and we were like extending the runway by going and playing poker and like trying to like win a few extra thousand dollars doing it but sometimes we would lose and so who knows we probably net it out you know slightly down anyways one of the guys he would play table games where you have no edge

you're going to lose and so he'd go play craps whatever and when he would lose we'd be like all right man like we should cut it off and he's like hold on let me just go get a coffee to go to the ATM and get more money and come back and we're like ah dude he's a degenerate we got to stop him but we didn't so we came back up to the hotel room and he's gone for like another five hours 5 a.m. he comes back into the room and I wake up because I hear the noise and he doesn't know that I'm awake we're asleep he doesn't know that I'm awake

and he comes up to the, he stands in front of the mirror in the hotel room. Actually, first he goes to the bathroom, changes into the robe, which is always the sign of somebody trying to get their value out of the hotel room because they lost a bunch of money in the casino. This is a little tip for degenerates.

It's when they start using all the shampoos and stuff, they're trying to get back at the casino. So he comes out in a robe, he's looking at the mirror, and he just goes, you suck. You suck. And he just goes, you fat fuck. You suck. And he's just dissing him up, and he just goes,

and he just holds up his head. He goes, five. five iPhones. You lost five iPhones. He's telling him something. And dude, I started laughing so hard. He realizes that we're awake. And then it was like, it totally lightened the mood just because of how funny the situation was. And we always reference five iPhone. We always like, if I go gambling, he's like how many iPhones? I'm like three iPhones. I lost three. I lost three iPhones. Like, you know, rappers use like, racks. Like how many racks did you lose or how many racks do you win? We use iPhones. And, dude, I'll never forget that story. It was so funny. And that's what I was telling myself. A million subscribers. You only have a million subscribers. You delete your account. That weekend, you and I, this channel, we hit 100,000 subscribers.

And then I went and looked at Jimmy's numbers. And I think he was adding a million a week. Sorry, a million a month. I forget what it was. Or sorry, 100,000 a day. It's what he was adding. Yeah, we were like, we just hit 100,000. He goes, nice, today.

Yeah. I remember that's how I thought. I was like, oh, we suck. We suck so hard. I felt that way. Ben, are people, is this, is this going to be a great episode? I got so much energy from this. This is definitely self-indelgent, but like, who cares?

I needed to debrief this. And I would say like, me too. You know, some parts are patting ourselves at the back. Some parts were making fun of us ourselves, sometimes making fun of other people. I hope we weren't harder on anybody. you know, that was a lot of fun. And yeah, let's do it again. All right.

That's the up. I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like no days off. On a road, let's travel, never looking back.