My First Million - I Spent 7 Days With The Richest Men In Texas | 10 Things I Learned

Starting point is 00:00:00 He was showing us around his house. He's like, that's my nap room. And I was like, you're a nap guy. I'm a nap guy. And he's like, oh, yeah. I take a nap every day for last 30 years. Do you want to nap together? I feel like I can rule the world.

Starting point is 00:00:14 I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like no days off on. All right. You're back from Austin. You were there for seven days. How was it? It was great. Dude, I had one conversation.

Starting point is 00:00:25 I got to ask you this. I got put on the spot. So I was talking to, I did an episode with Tim Ferriss. And he said something in the middle of the interview. He goes, he goes, I wanted to ask you this. What do you say, what do you think is the brand of your podcast? He goes, what I mean is if you're not in the room and someone was just telling their friend about it, how would they describe it?

Starting point is 00:00:45 Ideally, to you, how would they describe it? You actually did this before and I actually thought it was great. You said, hey, look, we're doing these meetups. And if you are the type of person who goes to a restaurant and you wonder, how can they make this a little bit more efficient? Or how much money do they make per meal or how much profit do they make and how can they expand this? And you also like to joke around. You're perfect for MFM. And that's sort of the person who I would describe is into it.

Starting point is 00:01:07 I would say that we're this weird combination of making silly, dumb jokes and deconstructing interesting companies and pointing out different trends. Okay, that's pretty good. Yeah, I like the restaurant thing where it's like, if you went to a restaurant with four friends and three of them would be looking at the menu trying to figure out what to order and you'd be looking around counting the tabletops and trying to figure out how much money this place makes, that's us. We are that friend.

Starting point is 00:01:29 Why? What did you say on the air? Well, luckily he let me off the hook because he asked it. He's like, I want to ask you this. I mean, you don't have to answer, but you can do the end. He just kind of kept going. And in my head, I was like, okay, the master of podcasting asking me, what is my podcast about? And it's sort of like, you know, if Leonardo Caprio comes up to you and he asks you what your name is and you're like, I have one. I just don't know what it is right now. You know, the panic ensues. I had to go out of town. So it was a weird time. I wasn't able to make it. But you interviewed four or three people, but you hung out. with a ton of people. How was Tim, for one? You also interviewed Joe Lansdale. How were these guys? So I took notes. I always take notes when I go. I take a little journal with me. And basically,

Starting point is 00:02:10 I'm not taking notes on what happened. I'm only taking notes on what are the new epiphanies. What are the new golden nuggets? What's the one phrase somebody said that I'm going to remember? And I'm looking for a high rate of revelation. I think that's also, by the way, a good move for the podcast. What is the rate of revelation? Per minute, how many interest? things are coming out to you. RPM, baby, RPM. Yeah, yeah, exactly. This is a very high RPM trip for me. I wrote down a bunch of names on our dock. And for each one, I had one, one big revelation. And so you can prompt me and go for whichever one looks interesting to you, not an order person. So, Manish, from what I know, he is a, what's his book called,

Starting point is 00:02:53 the Dando investor? Basically, what I know about him is that he started maybe in the 80s, investing in companies because I think he made some money through his own business. And then he's sort of like an Indian Warren Buffett and he's got this huge following. And he seems really fascinating type of guy. Yeah. So exactly. I wanted to talk to him because my mentors consider him a mentor. Right. Like if you like this podcast and you like either Andrew Wilkinson or Syed Balke, like both of them look up to and learn from Munish. When I was going out there, I texted Andrew. I was like, hey, what should I ask him? I was like, you know him, right? And he's like, dude, he was my first value investing man crush. And like, you know, somebody who's brain you got really attracted to because he has very interesting philosophies and thoughts. If you Google his net worth, it says like, you know, almost two billion. I don't know, you know, Googling net worth is not an exact science, but he's up there. More like a bee than an M. And he's an interesting guy. Like his story is basically, he's working out of a company. His dad is like, son, it's time to. quit. And he's like, his dad was an entrepreneur. He's like, dad, I don't want to do what you did,

Starting point is 00:04:01 man. Your life was crazy. Like, it was ups and down. Don't you remember as a kid? We were being brought into the living room when we were 12, 13 years old trying to figure out how to like let the business survive one more day. He's like, I'm traumatized for that. I just want to work here, save money in my 401k every year. And in 35 years, I'll be set. And his dad was like, okay, you're not wrong, but you took the wrong lesson away from what you learned. But you actually got a crash course in how to do business and how to not do business. Maybe you should just take that and actually learn from it and do it right. Do it better than I could do it.

Starting point is 00:04:32 And he told him, he's like, you know, at this company, there's 2,000 people here, you're just a cog in the machine. Like, you could die tomorrow and no one would even know. And so he's like, you know, you'll never reach your potential just sitting there. So he's like, all right, shit, he's right. Go starts a company. It was the IT like consulting company. So this was like during the dot com boom run up when the internet was really exciting,

Starting point is 00:04:53 computers are really exciting. He creates an IT consulting business. And so crazy, Mark Cuban also had an IT services business that he sold for $6 million. I bet around the same time. So it was enough to be comfortable, but not enough to do nothing. Exactly, exactly. And so what he did was he takes that money and he starts investing his own money and he compounds his own money, his own money, he turns like whatever. I think at first he had sold a million dollars a secondary. He turns a million dollars into $13 million. So he knew the Indian tech scene pretty well because he had his consulting company had, you know, overseas staff. So he's paying attention to it. So he invested in one and it was 140x. And so he's like, wow, that's insane. I should get out. He pulled out like a million

Starting point is 00:05:36 or two million bucks from that. That's how he made his first million, million bucks. And he just reinvested. And along the way of, you know, he's giving his friends like stock tips. He's like, oh, I'm buying this for this reason. I'm buying this for this reason. They're doing really well. But they're like, you know, we can't just listen to your tips because you're not telling us when to sell. We don't know what you're not telling us. Can we just give you the money? And so he takes him he takes a million bucks from his friends. He's like, okay, I'll just, if I'm investing in my shit, I'll just put their money in the same thing. But he's like, that was the side thing. He's like, I had 13 million. That was one million. I didn't really care about it. He proceeds to basically

Starting point is 00:06:06 over the last whatever, 20 years, 30 years, whatever, run that million dollars up. He now has like about just under a billion dollars of assets under management of the compounding of that plus people bringing more assets in, obviously along the way. So, okay, that's a long, story about Minish, but that's not what was interesting about him. Well, it's interesting about him is I call him the relaxed billionaire because I go to this guy's house. He's just chilling. He's in his basketball shorts, no, no shoes, just walking around. He's like, all right, um, it's up. Like, and we were, because I went the day before to hang out with him. I was like, we're going to do the podcast tomorrow, but I want to get to know you a little bit. Let's hang. Can I swing by for,

Starting point is 00:06:44 you know, let's just have some, some, some, some, some tea. So I go over to have, have a tea at his house. He calls it chai with Pabri. And he's like, he's like, yeah, I do this from time of time. I just have, I make, I make a really good chai. I'll just have it with random, interesting people. One out of every 10 proves to be like someone really compelling. I want to hang out with more. And, you know, nine out of 10, no problem. I just had some chai. And he just moved to Austin, right? He's been there for a little bit. Yeah. So he relocated from, I think, LA or something. So I was like, so what are you doing today? Because like, he's hanging out with us for like an hour. and I was like, what's, you don't, there's nobody here.

Starting point is 00:07:21 Where's your team? Where's your schedule? Where's your assistant coming, tapping? You'd be like, you have a call. And he's like, I don't have any of those things. He told me a couple interesting. He goes, investing is not a team sport. He goes, I have a few folks, analysts type people and they'll do specific things that

Starting point is 00:07:38 I need them to do, but they don't make decisions. They don't make investment decisions. I make the investment decisions. He goes, why? He goes, to be a great investor, you need to make a great investor, you need to make a contrarian bet, meaning you have to believe something's good when other people believe that it's bad. Fundamentally, that's how it works, right? If you think it's good, but everybody thinks it's good, you'll never make any money. The price is too high. If it's bad and you think

Starting point is 00:08:01 it's good, you'll never make them right. The only way to make money is you think it's good and other people think it's bad. He calls it, I look for things that are hated and unloved. He's like, last year, I made one big bet, or whatever last two years, like on coal. Cole. He's like, man, Cole. Nothing is more hated and unloved than coal. He's like, and before that, it was this. Before that, it was this. And so he's like, I look for the hated and love things. He goes, if you have a team, everybody just centers around the safe picks that we can all agree on. And he's like, you know, you'll never find the truly, truly contrary and hated and

Starting point is 00:08:30 unloved things if he invest as a team. He goes, number two, he goes, he's the strongest around his house. He's like, that's my nap room. And I was like, you're a nap guy. I'm a nap guy. And he's like, oh, yeah, I take a nap every day for the last 30 years. Do you want to nap together? Yeah, he's like, he's like, every 30 years. For 30 years, I've been napping every day. He's like, I love it. Just knock out in the afternoon. 20, 30 minutes, an hour, whatever it is. He's like, it's good for my brain. He's like, I don't make good decisions if I'm not, if I'm not well, well, rest. He's like, I don't need. Did you guys like, a high five and hug over there? Yeah, I was like, finally, this guy's my people. And he's like, oh, yeah, he's like, I used to

Starting point is 00:09:04 live in Dubai. That's how they do. It's too hot during the day. You just nap. And he's like, it's a no brainer. But overall, he was like, you know, I have a clear schedule. I spend my time. I read, I think. Maybe I'll go teach or talk to somebody. He goes, I teach not because I want to be a teacher. He goes, because if I want to learn something, the best way is to go try to teach it. Where does he teach at like a school or online? He'll go give a talk at a university or like to some group of, you know, aspiring investors or whatever.

Starting point is 00:09:31 And so I was just fascinated by this guy. I was like, this is the Relash Bill. And I love this guy's style. I love his MO. I go to his library. He's got just thousands of books. And he's like, yeah, this is my like biology and science section. This is my investing book section.

Starting point is 00:09:43 This is my business book section. And he's like, you know, just recommending different books to me. I thought it was pretty fascinating to see this guy because it's high contrast to all the other people I've met on this trip who are like, go, go, go. You know? So I've heard this so often where people say, for one, people will say like Warren Buffett. They're like, I read like 500 pages a day. And then I'll talk to our friend Andrew Wilkinson and a few others. He goes, I just want to read all day.

Starting point is 00:10:08 And in my head, I'm like, okay, reading because that like, like, I just read this like awesome. some science fiction book about like aliens like is that counting like what what do they read I wonder all day like is it only work related is it like the equivalent of you and I skimming Twitter is it no no I think it's less Twitter but I do think it's you know some percentage of that is company's annual reports right like going in and diving in and looking at a company or looking at an industry trying to understand it some of it is understanding the macro the psychology of humans and about business and about whatever. He's got business books, psychology books, all that. Some of it's about science and he's reading about that. And some of it's just for fun just to kind of

Starting point is 00:10:49 like expand the brain. Like science fiction is actually quite quite interesting as an example because a lot of the things that are happening today were predicted by science fiction, you know, 20, 30 years ago, everything from cryptocurrency to, you know, video calls to things like that. That at the time seemed far-fetched, you know, predicting video calls where you don't even have a cell phone, right? It's like it took some thinking there. So, yeah, I do think it's a wider breadth. It's not just reading, you know, 10 queues. Yeah, that's what I was worrying. I'm like, is he just reading, is he just reading those all day? 10Ks, I think, by the way. We don't want to look like a total full. I'll give you a couple of takeaways from Joe Lonsdale. So for those people who don't know, Joe created Palantir.

Starting point is 00:11:28 He's a co-founder of Palantir, which is a 50 billion dollar company. But his actual claim to fame when I was talking to him. He said something. He goes, I've created more billion dollar companies than anyone else in America. What that's thinking? Bald. And I was like, cool, cool, cool. I got a podcast. What's up? I've created more episodes than most podcasters. I thought that was a really amazing, amazing, you know, achievement. And it's true. He's done like at least five billion dollar companies. And these were all like in the last, you know, like short period of time. his background is I think he went to Stanford and he somehow got into Peter Thiel's orbit when Joe was just like 21 or 20 or still in college.

Starting point is 00:12:09 He kind of like right hand Peter and was almost like an intert and was his protege. Yeah, was his protege intern, whatever at his hedge fund, I think. But the story's really hilarious because he's like somebody asked him in an interview when I was doing my research. They were like, what were you like as a kid? And everybody like if I asked you, successful person gets asked what it was like growing up. What's the typical response? selling stuff. It's usually humble origins of some kind. I grew up middle class. Maybe I had a reading impediment, but that led me to really working on something.

Starting point is 00:12:42 There's usually some rags to riches. The guy asked Joe, and he goes, yeah, I grew up, had great parents, great family. I was, stuff came pretty easy to me. I was, basically, I just was really good. I just aced all my tests. I was 99 percentile math, 99 percentile science. I was a programmer. He's like, you know, they were smarter. kids than me, but like, you know, school was pretty easy. I focused on it. I did well. I got it to Stanford. It's like, that was his story, which I found to be hilariously candid because there, of course that exists, but most of people don't want to say that. They're so busy virtue signaling that they'll, like, they'll try to bend their awesome upbringing to be in to focus on some one bad

Starting point is 00:13:19 thing where he's like, no, my parents love me and they really put me in a position to succeed. And I was super competitive and I fucking won. That was his story. And then he, you know, he got in Peter Teal's orbit and he did, he was probably was wildly successful just as an employee at PayPal, but then he spun off and they created Palantir together. And then off the backs of that or off the success of that, he created like eight or six other companies, right, that he like, quote, co-founded, which I don't understand what co-founded means, uh, within his case because he's done it so often that I don't even understand the logistics of how like he has time to do that. Yeah, he like seeds them basically. So he's like, okay, I have, you know, the idea. I'll bring the team together.

Starting point is 00:13:58 I'll have the initial strategy. I'll recruit the initial talent. I'll recruit the initial capital. And then, you know, over time, he either is CEO or not CEO of these different companies. So he's done at a par. He did Palantir. He's done Epirus. He's done like a whole bunch of different things in different spaces. One is financial, you know, software for wealth managers. Another one is like software for spies for the government. Another one is, you know, it's like Androl. They're making like a weapon for the government. You know, like they do different things in totally different spaces like trucking and logistics. They've done all kinds of shit.

Starting point is 00:14:31 Let me show the viewer. If you're on iTunes or whatever, go to YouTube to see this. I get this text message from Ben. All right. So Joe has, I don't know what his home is like, but the room that he's in is elaborate. When you think of like old money and like the boys club of men smoking cigars and like you're just surrounded by encyclopedias, there's a picture of Joe. And he's sitting there.

Starting point is 00:14:55 He's got a suit with a high collar. He looks like a hedge fund guy. It looks like the president. And we had an awesome, awesome interview. He was like, that was the best podcast I think I've ever done. He said that. He said that. His right hand man, who's like his media guy said that.

Starting point is 00:15:08 I don't know if they're just being nice, but I'll take it either way. What did he, what was like the one revelation you got from him? I'll give you five points. I'm just going to read them fast. Number one. Some people actually just want to save the world. So I am very, very suspicious when people talk about, you know, they want to, just really help people. They want to improve society. They want to fix America, all those things.

Starting point is 00:15:32 Joe is that guy. He actually is that guy. That is actually what drives him. I went back and read his early blog posts and choral post stuff, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, stuff he wrote when he was in school. He's been saying the same thing the whole time. And that's usually the giveaway is not somebody who's, you know, changing their tune once they make it, but somebody who's saying that before they make it. And, and I think he looks through everything through that lens of like, what are the biggest gaps? And then how do I fill them? When we were on our way out, it was like, oh, dude, we've been hanging out all day. Like, we hung out. We went there in the morning, which was my hack. We went and did his workout, oh, did a workout with him at 8 a.m.

Starting point is 00:16:13 And then we, was he fit? Yeah, of course. He's super fit. And so we worked out together. We cold plunge together. We got breakfast together. We hung out. Then we did the interview. So by the time we do the interview, we were totally like, you know, in high rapport, I guess. And so I'm hanging out and I'm like, dude, I could hang here all day. But I could tell like, I think that's my time to leave now after this thing is done. He's got to go do other shit today. And we're walking out and freaking Elon Musk is walking in. That's what was going on in that moment.

Starting point is 00:16:39 So pretty insane. And all right, what were the other ones? He's still wrestling with the idea of focus. So one of the things he said I thought was really interesting. He's created more billion dollar companies than any of the other. else in America, let's say, I take his claim at face value. And he brought up, honestly, he was like, you know, but I'm not sure if that was right. He goes, one of the lessons I learned from Peter Thiel is that you should be really, really careful putting effort into new things.

Starting point is 00:17:08 Almost always it's a better idea to put money into your main compounding thing that's got a lot more room to run. Like, there's more area under the curve to kind of like fill of something that's really working than to go take that same. unit of effort onto something that's starting from zero. And he's like, honestly, I probably, if I had just done one of those companies, I probably would have built a bigger thing than all five combined or all six combined or whatever it is, which is a pretty interesting thought. And that makes me feel good to know that people I admire or look up to or who are ahead of me struggle with the same stuff that everyone else struggles with. I think he was at peace with it because

Starting point is 00:17:43 he was like, but at the same time, that would be if I was optimizing just for money and valuation, but that's not what I'm optimizing for. Like, I thought these companies needed to exist. So I built them. I'm glad I did. It's more fun to do multiple things. And those were problems that needed to be solved. So I'm glad I did it. But just do the math here for a second.

Starting point is 00:17:59 So it's Palantir, now $50 billion company market cap-wise. Even if you take at a par, which I think a $3 billion company or OpenGov, which you just sold for $1.8 billion, it's like those are, let's say, let's say, let's say, those two together. Each one took, you know, seven, eight years, 10 years to kind of build, let's say. average company, let's say take seven years to do. And even if he totally wins and he gets to a $3 billion outcome or $2 billion outcome, if he had just put that same energy into Palantir, like taking Palantir from $50 billion to $53 billion is a hell of a lot easier. And he probably would have taken it to $70 or $80 billion if he had put all of his

Starting point is 00:18:37 same entrepreneurial energy into that versus starting these new things. I think he's actually kind of right on the math, but I think he's also right in how he decided to do it. He had an interesting rule, which he's like, I only do six things. And that was like his definition of focus. He's like, I can only do six things. He's like, they're not all equal. I have like my main one or two things like eight BC and starting one company.

Starting point is 00:18:55 But he's like, I can only do six. He's like, I think for his team, his like general managers or his partners in his company, like the high level exec people, like there's like some number where like they're only allowed to have three or they're only allowed to have six things on their plate at any given time. And I think three was the number for them and six was the number for him because he's not, he's not operational. the CEO. By the way, his rule was, if you're the CEO, you have one thing. And it's your company. That's it. This is awesome. You know, he's only 41. This guy's a, he's a machine. Like so prolific.

Starting point is 00:19:26 He's a machine. I'm so excited to listen to that. Also, by the way, just next level awesome in terms of lifestyle, like baller house, full staff, chef, all the good, all the good shit. All the shit you would want. Like for me, as somebody who's like, you know, you do play the money game. It's interesting to see, like, what does the final level of the money game look like for these people? Like, oh, that's interesting. It's cool to get to sample it. What do you think was worth it of what he spent on? He's got a basketball court in his house. I thought that was pretty awesome. He's got a, he likes to, he's like, oh, I like gaming. So I got a game, like a gaming room,

Starting point is 00:20:00 like a land room where he's got like six computers. And it's like, you know, me and my cousins all come here and play or whatever. I think like I've always been a big proponent of like a chef. Like I think it's the, to me, it's the number one wealth luxury is to have a, private chef because of the amount of time it saves, the health benefits for you and your family and the taste like all three. It's a win-win-win. And so, yeah, I thought that was pretty cool, too. And then you got to hang out with Nick Gray. Nick Gray is one of my favorite people on Earth. And you got to see his magic, what he does with his parties. That was, it's pretty cool, right? Yeah. So when we, the end here is, you know, we do all the interviews. We do all the one-on-one

Starting point is 00:20:41 meetings. And at the end, it was like, dude, there's like a list of 100 people that are interesting and Austin. We would want to hang out with, but there's just no time. So we were like, let's just do a small house party. So we did like a small 15 person house party. And we asked Nick to organize. So I got to see Nick Gray, the legend, run one of his famous two hour cocktail parties. Go buy his book, two hour cocktail party. This guy is so, he is such a legend in just his vibe. It's awesome, right? He makes he feel good. I'm going to tell you this hilarious story. So he does all the normal Nick Gray things. I walk in. He puts a name tag on my shirt. The name tag is yellow. So that after

Starting point is 00:21:15 we all do our kind of intro, he's like, we're just chatting. And, you know, like, normally, you're just kind of chatting. You're mixing and mingling. And like, everybody, our own social prowess is somewhat limited. Some people are really good at it. Some people feel awkward. You don't know how to exit conversations. Nick makes that easy because it'll be like, great, harmonica. He plays the harmonica. He's like, we're going to do a structured activity. Look at the color of your name tag. Join that group. And I want you to talk to those people now. And so he like, mix, he like, he like, will stir the pot basically to mix you up. So he's doing his thing. And then he's like, Like, at the end, he's like, we're trying to leave.

Starting point is 00:21:49 And he's like, he's like, hey, Sean, can you call my phone? I want to do a gag. And I'm like, what do you want to do? He's like, I have a gag. Call my phone. And I call his phone. And he reaches into his bag and he pulls out this giant like handle of a butcher knife, but it's a phone case and his phone is on the other end of it.

Starting point is 00:22:09 And he's like, hello? This is my gag. I thought this was really funny. And I was like, not only was that funny. I've never heard someone say, hey, hold on. I want to do a gag. Dude, he's great, right?

Starting point is 00:22:21 Nick's a special person. And he makes his party's fun. Did you guys, like, do the introductions? And then he, like, cuts people off if they talk for more than 10 seconds. Yeah, he's, he's awesome. We did a thing at the end where I guess he had been just, like, slinking around the party to, like, listen for interesting things. So he pulls out his notebook, notebook.

Starting point is 00:22:37 He's like, gets everyone in a circle. He's like, all right. Sean, you were saying, you discovered this amazing hack for your, business and it was just like it was so effective. What was that? And it gets you to share the things. Like you mentioned you were doing an art show. Can you tell us about the art show? You had four or five people just like do a thing. It's definitely like I feel like I'm in second grade and my teacher's like, it's, you know, put up your bunny ears and like, you know, just everybody quiet now. We're going to do a structured activity. But honestly, it's such a relief because I hate social gatherings. I don't even

Starting point is 00:23:12 leave my house most times. And when I do, it's kind of an exhausting thing, but he's, uh, he's really got this shit down to a science. I kind of love it. But your takeaway in Austin, it's a pretty special place, isn't it? Fishing for a compliment. Yeah, sure. It's a very special place. It's, it's, it's like there's, there's, there's a lot of cool people there. And you, I didn't know you this. You hung out with one other person, Hassan, uh, Hassan, uh, Hasan Minhaj. Dude, I do not like hanging out with him because he is so smart and so funny that I get, I get intimidated being around him. Do you not feel that way? No, I had the, opposite reaction. I walked away and I was like, dude, Ben, like, that is one of my favorite people on

Starting point is 00:23:47 earth to hang out with. Like, if you said, hey, and it was perfect, it was like a breakfast before I caught my flight. I basically missed my flight because I was having so much fun at the breakfast. I was like, fuck it. It's worth it. He is so great. And I'll give you the kind of three reasons what showed out to me. Number one, obviously humor. Like, it's unfair. He's a ringer. Like, hanging out with anybody who's funny is great. But hanging out of professional comedian, it's sort of like, you know, he brought a gun to a knife fight. It's intimidating when you hang out with them or when I hung out with them because he just makes little small comments and I'm like, you're just so much, you're so much quicker and funnier than me. He's so much quicker, dude. He's so much quicker. He's so fast. He's so

Starting point is 00:24:23 fast. It's like a JV athlete hanging out with a pro where it's like, I don't even want to play with you. This isn't, this isn't fun. That's how fast he is. I love seeing it. It was amazing. He's so quick. And then number two, present. He is so present when you hang out, which is great, Like not looking at his phone, not thinking about what to do next, not, you know, eyeing the room, fully locked in, fully present, which I thought was really great. And the other thing is he asked a ton of questions. So we had a different hangout with a, we did a breakfast thing with a different billionaire type of guy. Nice guy, had a great time.

Starting point is 00:24:57 But I shit you not, dude. This guy literally asked one question in a two and a half hour hangout. And it was not difficult because I had tons of questions for him. so it was no problem, but it was difficult to sit there and be like, is this person just really just doesn't give a fuck about being here? Like, do they not want to be here? Because they could leave. I don't need to do this if they just don't want to be here. Here's what I think it is. I think that so when you and I host like MFM meetups, I go there and I'm like, I'm just going to get peppered with questions. And I'm going to ask other people questions to be cordial and everything.

Starting point is 00:25:26 But I feel like, you know, there's like a status like game here. They're here to see me. So I'm going to be answering the questions. And then you go hang out with someone who's above you in status. And it's like, I'm, I'm the one who. who is the mentee in this situation. I'm going to be asking you all the questions. And I think when you're as successful as this person who you went and hung out with, you're just used to being the, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:25:46 not particularly wise one, but you're the one that's supposed to have a lot more answers. You have what others are seeking. And so you're used to just being the one who's, I'm going to be an open book. I'm going to answer, what do you got? You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:25:57 And that shift, it's like an alpha shift. It is kind of, it is really uncomfortable. But I understand. I think it's totally understandable. but I also think, you know, I kind of wish, I almost wish I had said it, but like, I kind of wish people are aware what that makes the other person feel like. It's a good reminder to self of like, never make other people feel that way. I think Hussein was the opposite where he asked so many questions. His cup is not full, right? Like, he's here and he's like, pour some water into me,

Starting point is 00:26:24 like give me some something to think about, something to learn, something to whatever. And he's asking tons of questions. And I think that's such an attractive trait in people. And it was just a good reminder of that. On this trip, I was, you know, got to be in both positions. Some places where, you know, the status game was sort of shifted one way and others where it was totally shifted the other way. It was a great reminder of what it feels like and how easy it is to just make somebody feel amazing. Like, I think Hudson does that, you know, really, really well. I have a couple others. Can I give you two others real quick? Yeah. Do you know this guy, the Pitchie Babies guy? No. You haven't met this guy? Okay, so he's an awesome. I thought you might have met him.

Starting point is 00:27:00 his name's Tyler. So there's this company called Peachy Babies, and they sell slime on the internet. Not just a little slime on the internet. They sell a lot of slimy on the internet. Tens of millions of dollars worth of slime gets sold from these guys. They got like, if you go to their TikTok, they have 10 million followers on TikTok. And the reason why is because they create awesome content. The content drives sales.

Starting point is 00:27:24 It's just like this great engine. So anyways, I was pretty fascinating. I'm talking to this guy. And I'm like, he was at the house party. So I was like, what's the story? And he told me a pretty fascinating story. He's like, well, I, he's like, I was, he's like, before doing this, I was a poker player, pro poker player.

Starting point is 00:27:41 I was looking to transition out. And he said, before I was poker player, I was the best Yu-Gi-O player in the country. So he goes from the top, like Yu-Gi-O player to one of the top poker players. What's Yu-Gio? Is Yu-Gi-O like Pokemon? Yeah, it's like a Pokemon type thing. And then he comes, he meets this girl, and she's telling him about this slime business. she used to have, but she shut down.

Starting point is 00:28:01 And as he asked some questions, he was like, hmm, that actually sounds kind of promising. What if we revived that? Which I thought was just like a pretty impressive to take a business that somebody else shut down and be like, I don't know, seems like there might be legs there. Let's try it. And they tried it and they ended up, you know, crushing with it. And the only takeaway I have from this guy was he totally pattern matches to what I've

Starting point is 00:28:22 been saying so many times on this podcast, which is that people who have a background as a competitive either gamer or in some competitive niche, spelling bee, hugio, poker, whatever, those people who know, who learn how to win that game, learn how to win at League of Legends or, you know, they're the number one sneaker flipper in California or something shit like that. As soon as they just pick a better game, they're going to win that too. And that really gets me to like something I really want to do and it's a call to action I have for anybody that's in the audiences, I really want to organize some kind of event that

Starting point is 00:28:55 pulls together the people that are young and doing those types of things. The mathletes, the best Pokemon players, the best League of Legends players, you know, whatever, best Fortnite players. Because it's just a matter of time until they get the spark to shift their game. And I want to do two things. I want to invite other people who have that backgrounds. For example, Joe Lonsdale, he was a competitive math fleet. And that's what he was doing, right? Super dork at that age. But like those types of people are always going to make it. You know, the founder of this company called Traba. He's the Spelling Bee Kid, right? We talked about that on the Pomp episode.

Starting point is 00:29:28 As soon as they decided to play a better game, they have a great ability to do, you know, like excellent things. I'm sure some percentages never shift games. They kind of stick in that world too long or they just become a coach in that world. They never really start to apply it to the world of business. But if they did, they would do phenomenal. So I want to organize some event. What's that channel or the show you like?

Starting point is 00:29:46 Something 100. Physical 100. Yeah, exactly. You got to, you get what would be the unphysical 100? The laptop 100. Yeah. And so what are you going to do? You're going to like host like a like so I need a name and a frame, right? Like I need a name and a frame for the thing. And then I want somebody to organize it. I'll put up a hundred grand to like pay for all the event stuff. And I, um, I just really want to for those people, I want to give them exposure to, hey, here's 20 people who have the same background as you that then shifted their game and now do amazing things in the world. So I want to, I want to have them meet. And then I want to scout that talent and be like, hey, whenever you're ready to go do something. And I'm going to do something. And I'm going to, new, I'll be your first investor. And so that's what I want to create. You can get like a cargo short company as a sponsor or like a risk guard company as a sponsor.

Starting point is 00:30:35 Yeah. Yeah. You make fun of these nerds. Watch, Sam. Watch. You'll be groveling to them years from now. Hey, I acknowledge that they're all going to be the big shots, but I'm still going to tease them. What was the last person? All right. I'll give you a quick one and then I have a little bit long one. So a quick one is a little lesson. So I was talking to a guy who, also is doing, you know, tens of millions this year on, on TikTok shops. And so they're crushing on TikTok. Not a, not a game I play, but it's a, it's a very lucrative game for those who cracked it. And I said something in passing. I was like, oh, yeah, I saw this TikTok that I had this hook, the hook being like, you know, the first three seconds of the video. I was like, oh, I thought

Starting point is 00:31:18 that was a great hook. And like, I had been talking to this guy for three hours. I thought I had said 50 interesting things by then. It didn't make, he didn't flinch at any of the 49. But on this 50th one, he immediately goes, wait, wait, what was that again? And he takes out his notebook and he writes it down. And he's like, and he goes, he's like, did you tell your friend that they should do this? You should definitely tell your friend that they should do this. And I was like, no, I just, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:31:42 I just thought it was just a silly TikTok. And he's like, no, no, no. That's not a silly TikTok. He goes, one hook like that can make your whole company. And it was a great lesson that actually I saw five. times during the trip, which was when you meet a really interesting or successful person, pay attention to what they pay attention to. So like, he leaned into that. And, you know, maybe Monish would not have leaned into that, but he would have leaned into something else that I said.

Starting point is 00:32:09 And if you start to pay attention to what people lean into, it teaches you a lot about what matters in their game and in their world and how their brain works. And maybe something to you just looks like, you know, rubbish, but to them it's gold. And so it just was a good reminder of pay attention to what other people pay attention to. Like, if somebody was talking to you, what would they see you whip out your phone to write down or notes that you would want to take? That's a good question. Well, something related to my current business, but yeah, like, like, you know, if someone says something about retention or something or how to create a breakthrough amongst a group of people who don't know each other. Right, right. Or before for you, it might have been

Starting point is 00:32:49 something in writing. Oh, I love the way he phrased that. Yeah, or like a really good ad for acquiring newsletter subscribers. You had a note or a doc that was like a swipe file of awesome ways that people phrase things, beautiful writing, little phrases. Most people don't pay attention to those things. They don't collect those. Well, it makes sense that you ended up being a guy who's known for writing and wrote a newsletter that millions of people read, right? It kind of like makes sense once you add, once you connect the two. And so I just thought, that was really, really indicative. Last one, I got to watch Ben Cook. So Ben Levy, my business partner,

Starting point is 00:33:25 who is the secret to anything that I'm able to do. Ben's superpower is connecting with people. And I wanted to just share with you one little thing that he does. So every time we would go to a meeting, because imagine our schedule is basically like we meet with somebody for, let's say, two hours. There's like a 10-minute Uber ride before we're going to meet somebody else. And we were just doing that nonstop for four days. And, you know, I got to feel like the president because it would be like, who are we meeting now? I don't even know the schedule. And he'd be like, we're meeting this guy. And he's like, and then he would always have his one thing. And I'm like, because I'd be like, oh, what are we going to talk about? Maybe we tell them about what we're doing with this.

Starting point is 00:34:03 But Ben's focus was always, what's the one thing we could connect with them on? And so he was just really good at this. Anytime we would go meet with somebody. Ben would have his like one thing that he would bring up. And the person would immediately crack open like a, you know, a pistachio shell. And it'd be like all of a sudden they're excited, they're talking and like it would open it up. And Ben probably wouldn't even say anything else for the rest of the meeting. It's like Ben talks less than 10% of the time where we go to these things. But it's the one thing he says, which like cracks the person open. So what's an example of one thing? So we will meet with somebody who's known for X. Let's say they're a YouTuber with 10 million subscribers. But what Ben knows is that they started

Starting point is 00:34:42 this side channel that's just starting and it's getting, it's not that popular yet, but it's one thing, you know, like their hobby, their interest in this one area. He'll be like, oh, you're really into that, right? And it won't even phrase it as some like profound question. But he'll just ask him, he'll just try to connect with them about the one thing where clearly their passion is, they have some passion around it, but it's not the thing they're famous for. I noticed he would do that over and over again. Oh, you know, we, we hung out with Joe Gabia. And he's known because he's the creator of Airbnb. And so we're hanging out. And instead of asking about Airbnb, he would say, you're really into like microplastics, right?

Starting point is 00:35:21 Like, aren't you like really trying to figure out a way to not have, you know, microploid? What's that about? And then all of a sudden, Joe, who's told the Airbnb story a million times. And every time I was asking about Airbnb, it was like, I'm forcing him to play his greatest hits. All of a sudden, he lights up because he's like really into this right now. He's learning things. It's like more of a more of an area he's really into right now. So he would just find that one thing. And then afterwards, he had his one thing too, which was after the meeting, I'm like, okay, where are we going to go eat? Like, that's where my brain goes.

Starting point is 00:35:49 Whereas Ben's like, oh, we should connect him with this one person or we should send him a link to this or we should send him that example we have of the thing he said he wanted to do. Or like, oh, you have, you've talked about that. You should send him a note about that thing. And it really, I was like, what are you doing? And he's like, oh, I'm just trying to be useful. And then when we talked to Munish, he talked about, you know, he was really good friends

Starting point is 00:36:08 with Charlie Munger. He said when Charlie Munger died, I think on his tombstone, it is written or he wanted to have it written. like, you know, Charlie Munger, you know, he tried to be useful. And to me, I'm like, that's what Ben does. He just tries to be useful for people. Like, oh, we can help this person with this one little thing. He just keeps doing that.

Starting point is 00:36:25 And then that's how he builds these amazing connections with people just by trying to be useful to them in a way that I am so bad at it. Ben has this other quality to him, which is he's always like mostly happy. I've never seen Ben not like, I've never really seen him in a bad mood. You know, he's always, and so when he asks these things, it's, uh, sometimes he'll ask me that are like pretty private. But because he's always so happy about it, I'm like, oh, yeah, whatever. We can talk. You know, this is a safe space. He is a safe space. Um, the last thing that's hilarious. So he does is he never turns it off. Like, we will be playing

Starting point is 00:36:56 in a pickup basketball game and it's like, we're going to 11. It's 10, 9. It's game point. And he'll be guarding some guy. And he'll be like, he'll just be like, so what was revenue last month? Or he's just like, oh, I heard you. I saw you tweeted about this thing. And the guys like so thrown off like now still and like it's just like so endearing he's like dude he's just so curious he just can't turn it off he's always he never turns it off even midgame which is so funny to me i was with ben at a family's birthday party and he he was it on mode and i was like ben let's ask this freaking 12 year old we are with we are with a friend who was dating a new woman and she brought her daughter around and i go ben ask the daughter like about school or

Starting point is 00:37:40 something. I was like, I don't know. Like, engage the kid. Don't, I'm not talking about my revenue in front of this new lady. It was so funny. He was like, it's like, so what's churn like, how much money do you have? I'm like, man. Well, it's not always personal. Like, sometimes it's just like, um, how was Austin, right? But it's like, dude, now's not the time for the how was Austin conversation. It's like, it's not even that it's always personal questions. It's just that the curiosity, there is no, you go, he was in on mode. There's no off mode. I've never seen him in awful and I hang out with the guy

Starting point is 00:38:11 24 7 it's amazing All right You had a good trip I mean I could actually listen to these stories all day And I'm gonna listen to the podcast I never listen to our podcast I don't know if you do

Starting point is 00:38:20 Or you do When I'm not on it I'll listen to it Yeah I do listen to it I listen to yours as well But if I'm on it I'll never listen to it I'm incredibly excited about Joe Lonsdale

Starting point is 00:38:30 I know you talked to Tim Ferriss I know Tim Ferriss I know Tim a little bit So I'm less excited about that Just because I know him already But I'm excited about Monish I'm excited about his and Joe Lonsdale.

Starting point is 00:38:40 So I'm happy that you got to hang out with them. It seemed pretty good for you personally to be able to experience that. Yeah. The funny thing is it's like most things in life, you think the payoff is over here, but actually it's over here. Like I think every time I go into these episodes, I think the payoff is, oh, I'm going to make a great episode. But it's like by the time I've done the research on these fascinating people,

Starting point is 00:38:58 gotten to know them, gotten to hang out with them at their house. Like that was all the value. The episode itself is gravy for me. And I hope they turn out great. And, you know, I think that these ones did. but the reality is like, and I think it's a principle of most things in life. Like you have some goal, you have some idea, you think is the reason you should do it. But it's like, you know, something along the journey is actually the valuable thing.

Starting point is 00:39:20 You just couldn't have known that. You just have to go pursue it full force and then it happened. So hopefully this episode was me sharing some of the random nuggets along the way besides the episodes that you'll get to see when they come out. All right. That's a part. I feel like I can rule the world. I could be what I want to I put my all in it like no days off

Starting point is 00:39:42 On the road, let's travel, never looking back

My First Million - I Spent 7 Days With The Richest Men In Texas | 10 Things I Learned

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