The Game with Alex Hormozi - Balancing Work and Public Life as a CEO (on Don’t Be Sour) Pt. 2 - Feb. ‘23 | Ep 542

Episode Date: May 27, 2023

"I would just say that if what you're currently doing is not working, consider an alternative." Today, join Alex (@AlexHormozi) as he guests on Don’t Be Sour to talk about the balance between running multiple companies and being a public figure. He also discusses the importance of finding a partner who shares your business mindset and how he prioritizes creating content. This is part 2 of the interview.Welcome to The Game w/Alex Hormozi, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, investor, author, public speaker, and content creator Alex Hormozi. On this podcast you’ll hear how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons Alex has learned on his path from $100M to $1B in net worth.Check out the episode on Don't Be Sour's YouTube Channel!Timestamps:(6:23) - Partner Compatibility: Goals, Pitfalls(13:55) - Smart Finances, AI in Life/Business(24:11) - Implications of AI, Task Delegation(35:24) - Journey to Success, Mundane Middle(41:39) - Powerlifting, Insulin Theory, Muscle Mass(48:30) - Potential for Superhuman Abilities, NeuralinkFollow Alex Hormozi’s Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition

This is a clear example of the tragedy of the commons. So like global warming, that whole thing is tragedy of the commons. So everybody has to agree that we're all going to long term do this thing. And if we don't and any player can individually like benefit themselves, but players will benefit themselves. Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more per customer and how to keep them longer and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way.

I hope you enjoy and subscribe. With the angle of your like mass production of content that, is teaching people. Was there a point like when you made the, uh, the idea to become popular, you know, more popular than you, than you were at the time. Right. Yeah. Um, did you have to make a shift in your, because obviously running a bunch of companies is completely different in the time it takes to running a bunch of companies. And now I need to be a public figure and produce content and be active and all those things. How did that, how did that shift of balance of work happen? where you just like delegate this now and now I'm I'm a Instagrammer,

YouTuber guy. Well, the team's great. So honestly, I get a ton of leverage from, from them. You still have to sit down for hours and whatnot to make all these videos. I understand you're not editing them.

But, you know, to sit down. Or do this. Yeah. And yeah, you go on a lot of podcasts, which I'm like,

a lot of people would maybe think of like, I'm a business owner. Like, I can't do anything. How is this guy so successful? And he can go on two hour podcast every week. Yeah, I think the nature.

work looks different. So I think the biggest misconception is like there's, you know, there's, you know, people talk about like there's in the business, there's on the business, and then there's above the business. And so like the portfolio companies have CEOs. Like they have people running, you know, their company day to day. And then, you know, at Holdco, Acquisition.com, like Layla is actually the CEO. So Layla has a much harder time of balancing it than I do. My job is more so get deal flow. Like that is. that's always been my hat in any business that we've owned is just make sure that we have the phones ringing and then people are knocking on the door. And so this is a way of doing that.

So this is in some ways my primary responsibility. But in terms of time right now, I would say probably one to one and a half days a week right now. And that's up from what it was last year. And so my goal is to do more of this. So I would like to continue to increase that percentage, which is different than like Gary. Gary's like I'm running all day long and people are going to capture it, we're going to be more purposeful about curated content. Like I'm going to, we will put more time into our videos, into our shorts, into blog posts, into things like that. And I honestly the big reason is because like I actually like it. I enjoy it a lot. And so that's what we do more of. Do the ideas that like all your videos of, you know, do this to make a thousand dollars a day,

whatever is that, do you have like a notes in your phone of like when you think I've cool ideas? And then when you go to film them, is it I'm going to bang out 12 videos and change my shirt or not change my shirt or something? Or is it I'm going to film one, have another idea. you have like days where you do it or is it sporadic? Yeah. So how many video ideas do you have in your phone right now or in your brain? So my video, you can look at my video idea board. It's public. Oh really? My Twitter. Okay. Okay. So Twitter is my is my home page. So that's like, it's so funny because some people were like, I thought you had a ghost road. It's like, that's me all day long, just tweeting ideas of like things that I think are interesting or funny or whatever. And then the

team grabs from that is like, I think this will be a banger video. I think this would be a great short. I think this would be a great whatever post. And so all my, like my Instagram posts and the short videos come from Twitter. For me, that's my easy brain dump. In terms of recording, we've been doing every other week one day, and that's where we do a few longs and shorts. Like today is a recording day.

So I was recording before this, and I'll be recording after this. Fridays are usually my day. And so that's how we do it now. Now, I would like to get to, you know, once a week. So when I said a day and a half, part of that's like the mental headspace of like, okay, game planning things,

like conversations I'm having around the media. Right. And if you include the book, then it's even more than that. Because the book takes probably a day and a half a week, too. The book? So $100 million offers is the book that I put out. But I have a second book that's coming out after that, $100 million leads. Well, you have the gym launch book and the $100 million offer.

So this is the third book. Those books aren't related. How do you have so much time in the day, dude? You're a machine. Layla. Okay. Layla. Like Layla, like Layla run shit.

Like Layla, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a travesty. if Layla were a guy and we were just business partners and not married, she would be more popular than I am by a mile. She just doesn't get the credit because she's a girl. Why do you think that is? Because there aren't many girls who are successful. I mean, like, if you look at the Forbes list of female billionaires, like the top girls like, I don't know, 12 billion. No, she's not even close. Yeah. The top girl is like an old lady who has a roofing company. What? Yeah. Um, But like to be on the top, on the Forbes, on the top 100 self-made, self-made, because you can marry, you know, McKinsey basis is number one, you know, technically, whatever.

But self-made female entrepreneurs to be on that list is 250 million. To be on the guys list of top 400. So four times as many. Like to get on the list, you got to be at like $3 billion. What? There's just not as many. And who, you know, nature, nurture, whatever. But like, Lela was a player.

You're like, Lela was a gang. And the reason that my income, you know, catapulted as soon as she and I hooked up, it was her. You know what I mean? Like I had six gyms, but like I, you know, I wasn't raking it. And I, you know, we made probably a few million bucks a year. Top line, but not bottom line. You know, it's a, it's a low margin business. And I know, I'll tell you this, I never felt like I had money. And then when she and I got together, it was like, she just, she was just willing to do whatever it's. took. Like I told her, I was like the number one thing that she's just fucking down. Like I was like, we're going to go and not sleep for a month and like walk on fire. She's like, all right, I'm in. Damn, you didn't sleep for a month and you walked on fire? Yep. That's crazy. And she was down. That's like a ride or die, you know? Yeah, 100%. That's why in the first book, she's, that's the, that's the thank you. Um, she is my rider die. So, um, I think you got to find that person,

if you can, because most people marry people who are constantly making compromises with them of like, you can only work this much, you can only pursue this much of your dream. And either you create a super distant marriage where one person just resents the other and is like whatever, or one, or they both compromise, you know, and I've been fortunate that I have a partner who wants to do just as much as I do. And so we get two times the output rather than half of my output or just one X in my output. Do you think that, you know, and we're not going to live in like an alternate universe here, but do you think that if you found someone that wasn't as business savvy focused, determined, driven as your current wife, do you think it would have completely changed you?

Or do you think that you could still do the things you're due and maybe have someone who wants to live that casual second part of like the day, the life, the evening type of thing rather than business focused? Like, do you think it's important for people who are trying to be that grind entrepreneur, that they have to find this other half that's like them with the same business mindset? Yeah, I won't speak in half-to's. I can say for me, this, now that I have this, I don't know how I would not have this. Yeah. I had relationships in the past and I have all the love and respect for those people.

But the dynamic was much more kind of what you're saying, which is like, hey, stop working. Let's go, you know, be social and do that. And I could definitely rationalize the fact that it's like, hey, it's good to have some balance in my life and whatever. But like, in some ways, balance is silly. Because like, in a different, saying it a different way, it's like, hey, stop doing the thing you like the most and do something you like less.

that's balance. I'm like, why? Why don't I just do more of the thing I like more of? Like a lot of it is just taking external judgments on what we're supposed to do based on some arbitrary societal rule and projecting it on our lives and saying what we're doing is good or bad. And I just fundamentally reject that. Like, we do what we want to do.

And if we want to work for 30 days straight, then we work for 30 days straight. And we want to take three days off. We take three days off. Like, I just, it just is. So do you think that people, I think there's a lot of the mindset, especially with the whole, you know, like, you know, especially when you're trying to build your... I'm not super familiar with that. Okay.

Well, I guess the best phrase to say would be, especially when people are coming up, it'd be like, disregard women acquire wealth. Acquire currency. You know, it's like that kind of mindset of like, I don't, I can't get a partner or like significant other until I get to this point or do you think people can build something with it or like, how's your thought on people who maybe are single? And want to build a business, do you think they should only focus on themselves and not try to have that relationship balance or wait until they find the. Yeah.

I won't. I won't should because I don't believe in shoulds. But I will say, if you make more money sooner, you will attract more attractive women. That being said, they may be more attractive physically, but then if they came to you because you have money, then why do you think they're there? And so it really just depends on what kind of relationship you want to have. And so, you know, there's a reason that they have like the stories of like the pauper and the prince or, you know, where the guy pretends like he doesn't have money to find a girl who actually likes him. Because, I mean, it's great for Instagram to have the model next to you or whatever it is so that you can gain status from that. But like, when you're alone at night and the person that's in bed with you, you like have no shared reality and everything that they believe about the world you hate.

Is it worth it? That's some deep shit. For me, it's not. You know, my, just to give you a little insight on my, my relationships, I've been, I was single for seven, eight years. And I was very transparent with that on YouTube. And I was like the single guy for just, it was like, I was going to be the single. I was going to be the cool uncle. I was me the cool, you know, whatever. And I, you know, started building businesses and became, you know, on a relative, very successful at what I'm doing. And when I found my current girlfriend who were a year in and

it's the best thing that's ever happened to me, you know, we got a lot of, you know, we got a lot of, or I got a lot of, you know, this person's only with you now because you're successful. And I think a lot of people where you say, you know, hey, build, you know, get to yourself, get to a point where, you know, you're successful and then the higher level of women or partners like will be there. A lot of people will just assume that when you get there, the only people that you're going to be able to find are people that are going to want you for your money. So I want to add a, it's like how to successful people find women.

I want to, I want to put a really important caveat. I think this is really good. you want somebody who's attracted to you because of your character, not because of your assets. And so if the character is the thing that created the assets and that's what they're attracted to, then if you lose the assets, they still love you. If they are attracted to you because of the assets and what those assets can do for them and you are just a part of that package, then that is something that I would run the other way from. But again, that's me.

There are people that I know who have that relationship and from everything that I can see are very content. And they have clear expectations. They know that it's a transactional relationship. And this isn't guy, girl, you know, the guy where the guy's making it. The girl knows that when, you know, daddy has to work, daddy's going to work. You know what I mean? And then she understands that her lifestyle is a result of the fact that he works.

And she's less demanding because he says, I can't have you demanding. And if I'm here and we only see each other for two hours a week and it's when we go to the pool thing and you have your girlfriends around, that's how he unplugs. I think it's really not about the should. It's about like what works for you. For me, I want, I want a partner who I can share my. life with the battles, the scars, the things that we're going through. And for me, if I don't have somebody that I can share that with, I feel very alone. And I don't like that. And so, or rather lonely. And so I've been in relationships where I feel unbelievably lonely because I just

feel like I'm the only person going through this. And so having her as my partner, we can have, we can talk about business all day, which is what all I want to do anyways. And so she wants do. And it's great. You know what I mean? Again, this is just what works for me. Some people don't function that way. And that's fine. You know what I mean? I would just say that if what you're currently doing is not working, consider an alternative. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And with building yourself up and building maybe to get to this point where again, you know, relationships and you're super happy in life. And you talked about the Forbes lists. Is there a number that you have in your head that, I mean, you're clearly someone who enjoys building, enjoys creating, enjoys

the grind, right? Whether you have internal, I'm proving myself, I can do this, I can get to this number. Is there like a number that will hit to that will, you know, satisfy you? Well, I'm satisfied playing the game. And so it's like the person who loves walking

versus the person who loves the destination. I'm walking, so I'm good. And because of that, I'll probably keep walking. And so if I keep walking, we'll start, you know, knocking over milestones, but I'm walking because I like walking. And the milestones just happen the mile markers just continue as you just keep walking.

So, you know, the tangent, you know, the, the hard goals are just milestones that you hit. But like, it doesn't matter. And you're not, well, yeah, because at a certain point, more money is not going to do anything for you, right? And, you know, an interesting thing is always like, I want to create wealth for the next generation, the next generation. And you're not so much of a tangible, Bugatti, you know, Lamborghini guy. I know you went through a phase

where you sold everything. I mean, I know you were, I watched a bunch of your videos and your mindset on how you spend your money is very interesting to me about, you know, the place where you live rather than having a house where you had to, you know,

maintain the house and have all the cleaners. Yeah. And even your opinion on food, what is your, like, why don't you feel like you want to have a fancy car, big fancy house? I don't know. Yeah?

Do you have any fancy watches or anything? No. What's the dumbest thing you have? ever spent your money on. Bentley. How much was that? $3.50, I think. And then when you got it, were you like, this is sick or are you like, I hate myself?

It just, it, it, it was nothing. Yeah. I was like, this is another car. You know what I mean? And it conferred no incremental benefit to my life. So, like, I spend tons of money on gym equipment because I love gym equipment. You know what I mean? Like, I love, I have too much of it and I still want to buy more.

And it's fun. And it's one of the few things that I derive a lot of joy from in my life. Where do you put your gym equipment? It will be in our office that we're building. Okay. But I mean, before that, it was in my house. I had a full commercial gym in my house. And your big, you spend your money on, I guess you could say experiences, but like food.

Like your take on food is very, I agree with a lot of it. Can you explain your? I only eat sour, sour candies. Specifically sour strips, everyone. That's been my diet the past couple of days. But your, I saw something on Instagram recently. And it got, the comments made me one like, smash my face against the table because I feel like people take certain things for exactly the face

value and they're not like extrapolating it. You said about like cooking food is dumb, buy all your food. Explain that. Yeah. I mean, it's just opportunity cost. So like if you are, if you are something, I said, if you were if you're making $15 an hour or more, then the amount of time that it cost, at least for me, when I went to the grocery store, like I made my list, checked it twice, went to Costco, bought all the food, came back, unpacked it, prepped it, cooked it, boxed it, put it in the fridge. And then every time I would eat it, I would take it out. I would eat the food.

I would clean my dishes. Like all of that cost me more time than just working that period and then eating out like the incremental cost difference as a single guy. With families, it's a little bit, but as a single guy, if you only need to make for one, oftentimes you have to cook twice anyways because like by the sixth day, the chicken starts looking weird. Yeah. It starts to spread in a third, third leg. And you're like, where the fuck is the top of my tubberware container? Yeah, there's an eyeball growing in there. And so, so now it's like, now I'm cooking twice a week, right? And so when I started adding up the math,

I was like, the math didn't pencil out. And to be fair, I made more than $15 an hour. And so for me, I was, I've, I've been selling since I've been an entrepreneur. And so I knew that if I just worked my leads for a day, I would make an extra grant. So there was just, there was never, it just never made sense. And so my, the, the message of that is do the math. Like, if you make $2 an hour, by all means, you know, go, like go to the grocery, you know, do, do all that stuff. But if you, if you make, just pencil out how long it actually cost you in all the costs, clean, prep, cook, grocery shop, plant, all of that cost. For most people, it's like 10 hours a week. Yeah. 10 hours a week. I'm like, that's a, that's a quarter of a work week. If I had a quarter to my income and then how much

is the incremental cost compared to the groceries, that delta, is it more than 25% of my income? That's probably the easiest equation. If it's more than 25% of my income, that delta, then I shouldn't, I shouldn't do it. Is that how your brain works whenever you go to like, do you go to like, do you want to swing into Chipotle? Be like, well, I did the math on how it would take to sit in that line over there. And I believe that McDonald's would give me more valuable time if I go through that. It's cheaper. Is that how you're like brain works? Yeah, 100%. I want to hear with, with optimizing your time. in optimizing efficiency.

Yeah. I want to dive a little bit into AI because that's going to change the world. And I watched your video. And what is, why are you so bullish on AI? I mean, I don't think we're going to stop AI.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the only, so interesting, I think, so there's two things, it's like,

I don't even know if government intervention could stop AI. Like, it's just the wheels of progress don't stop turning. They never have in the history of humanity, to my knowledge,

like they don't really stop turning. unless it's super niche and there's tons of money that can squash a tiny invention, like a light bulb that lasts forever and then like Phillips and all the other companies, like buy the company and then don't produce the product because it cuts into their margins or whatever. But this, it's already too big, in my opinion. And the wealth that can be generated from AI is too large for any person to stop. And very transparently, I'm very afraid of it. Because every other innovation to this point has been around a specific,

improvement in human productivity. So the industrial revolution, the agriculture revolution, these were all improvements in how we did things and we became more productive and the people just moved up a level in productivity. This is an invention

that can undermine the human institution. Because if a robot can human better than humans can, then what is left for humans to do? I'm scared at AI too because I've seen I robot and I know what happens in the fucking movie. Yeah, exactly.

It's just you and a dog. And so, it's not a bad life. But yeah, so I think that there may, in a very weird way, you might actually see people moving out of really developed countries into undeveloped countries because they don't have AI and they might be like back to normal. That's like a weird like potential prediction all throughout there. Some black mirror shit. Yeah, you might see people moving to Africa because like AI hasn't taken over yet. Do you, I think one of, I mean, there's a lot of people's opinions on that.

One of the large ones I would say is like, you know, the South Park like they took her jerbs, you know, like they're taking the jobs of the people. And what's interesting is, People really want to fight it because, you know, we want to get, I understand, like, we want to give jobs to people. But then they're, when they go to the grocery store, they hate standing in the line for the one checkout person, but they're like, they love the self-checkout because it's so fast. Like, they're starting to do it. Like, well, that's okay because it's really fast for me to get in and out of my groceries. But like, it, like, when it affects them in a certain way, they allow it or like, don't mind it. Yeah. But they hate how, you know, at McDonald's instead of needing a person to take your order. Yeah.

You can just tap on the machine. So this is a clear example of the tragedy of the commons. So like global warming, that whole thing is tragedy of the commons. So everybody has to agree that we're all going to long term do this thing. And if we don't, and any player can individually like benefit themselves, players will benefit themselves. And so the example you gave with McDonald's, it's like no one, like most people don't want global warming.

Most people don't want AI to take their job. but they're okay with it taking someone else's job. And the thing is, is that we're going to vote with our dollars in the way that's most convenient for us. And so we will vote locally for the thing that's convenient for us, but in so doing,

invest globally in the thing that will put us out of business. And so for that reason, I don't think it will be stopped because you said, I think people are going to vote with their dollars that they're fine with an AI checkout person and they're going to have an entirely automated Starbucks. I think that they will vote that way

because they'll get cheaper coffee, they'll get it faster, and they won't mess up the order. I think it just shifts, you know, instead of the people working, you know, that the machines replaced, now they will need people to build the machines or make the machines until they have machines that make the machines. But then they'll need machines to build those machines that build the machines. How do you think it's like, when do you think it'll stop in terms of the cutting? Like I guess like what is the future for the jobs for basic entry level jobs when machines and AI can do all of the, you know, the things for you, the chat. GPT. Yeah, it's like things like that of write, write a website, write a code, create a, you know, thing of, you know, where is the shift of where jobs you think are secure?

Because people need to get there. We'll go there. Real quick, guys, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this and I don't sell anything. And so the only ask that I can ever have of you guys is that you help me spread the words so we can out more entrepreneurs, make more money, feed their families, make better products and have better experiences for their employees and customers. The only way we do that is if you can rate and review and share this podcast.

So the single thing that I ask you do is you can just leave a review, but take you 10 seconds or one type of the thumb. It would mean the absolute world to me. And more importantly, it may change the world with someone else. I've stumped them. I've stumped them, everyone. I don't know. Because, again, as soon as AI can human better than a human can, it's tough.

Like right now, the knowledge-based skills are going to go first, which is reverse of what people thought. They expected it to be blue collar. Like if you had asked people two years ago, what's a guy going to fix first, they're going to be like, well, all the low-scale jobs, all the labor, that's going to get replaced first. And then it'll be the slightly lower-skilled white-collar jobs. And then the higher-skilled white-collar jobs, like programmers and things like that.

And then finally, maybe the creatives. But it's been the exact opposite of that. It started with the most creative things, like making images and paintings and pictures and essays and words, like most of human communication in a creative venue. Like, it can do that first. and robotics is already there in terms of being able to do better than what a human can. It just hasn't become cost efficient. But we know on any time horizon that technology becomes more efficient over time.

And when that AI brain meets this robot body, it can now do what humans can do in the real world. And so like where do humans go? That's fundamentally the issue. They have a four and a half year UBI study that's being undertaken by open AI because they, I'm pretty sure know what's going to happen, which is that many, many. And like even if there are like to your point, like even if there are. jobs that like some humans can do most humans can't and so like chat gbt writes better than like 60% of americans in 15 seconds as well right and that's today the question is what chat gbt 100 can do maybe writes better than all humans because

there's something called the drift which is right now a i is learning from humans right it's learning from the stuff we do and it's mimicking that but in a future iteration it will learn from itself. It'll be AI learning from AI. And then at that point, it starts to drift away from what we know to what is purely AI generated. And I mean, I've been very transparent. Like I'm, I'm very worried about what will happen for the vast majority of people. You know, I'm a competitive person. We absolutely have embraced AI within our company. And it's because we don't have a choice. As far as I see it. You know, Elon has far more clout than I do. And he lobbied with the government for years to get AI regulated and they refuse to hear him out at all. And the thing is,

even if the U.S. regulated it, China won't. And we need to stay competitive because if they use that against us, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's tough. It's super tough. And, you know, like, what about education and things in schools like, you know, they're like no school technology can use chat TVT? It's like, yeah, the kids don't have phones. That's like saying, everyone, don't use your TI83s to cheat on this essay and you're like, that's fine. I'm going to my notes right now. And I got all the formulas written out. Yeah. So it's, it has really profound implications. And I think humans are really bad at predicting things. That's what I can say. Like the fact that AI two years ago, people would have said blue collar jobs and it's literally the last thing that's

being replaced to show you how bad we are predicting. Yeah. So my predictions are weary at best to go. I hope it ushers in a golden era for humanity. I hope more than anything. We, you know, we, we do nuclear fusion and we, you know, we cure all diseases and we can reverse aging. Like, I hope we can figure all that stuff out. But if you can get your logo designed in five seconds and get 10 different versions, who gets fired? Yeah. And get the designer. Alternate versions, alternate colors in a millisecond. In the short term, and I said this in the video, the short term, the people who are going to do quality assurance on the stuff that chat cheapy t spits out will be the opportunity. They'll actually be have an outsized opportunity. So like if you know how to write

code, then what happens is now you can write 10 times the code. So the execution has been delegated, but you still have to think is, you validate that the code is correct or is good or does the job that it needs to. If it can write code, if I were to ask you to write code, I don't know how to read code. So it doesn't matter that it can write code for me because I don't know how to judge it. So I still need a human to do that. And that human can now check 10 times as much code or 100 times as much code, which means the value of an expert increases in the short term. Long term, once the AI can check itself and can do it better than a human can and can check millions of lines of code.

Outside of business related things, just to go a little nerdy or deep on that. Neurlink. Yeah. Are you, what do you think the future of, you know, we have essentially what like Petri dish babies now. I can choose the eye color, the hair color, what gender they're going to be. And with the neuralink, we might be able to, was it you that was watching a video that was, you know, some people can do certain tasks that with a neural link, maybe everyone can have these

attributes to them, you know? There are some people with photographic memory. Now, what if everyone has access to photographic memory? Everyone becomes super humans. What do you think of the future race if everyone's just perfect? I mean, they'd be better than the current race. Damn. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, survival of the fittest means the survival of the most adaptable.

And so if you have a, you know, if you go from bioflesh that can get diseased, it can get hurt, it ages, it decays, right? and you have a robot that's, you know, a hundred times as strong can upgrade itself. You can, like no one gets old because you literally can just upgrade yourself as you're going. I know, we're bordering into, you know,

science fiction here, but point is, in our lifetimes, some of the stuff is possible, you know, and if AI can start innovating on its own, then there was a futurist who said, like,

AI will be the last invention, humanity every needs to make. Because then it will make all innovations after that faster, better, stronger than we can. And if the future race is emerged between humans and AI and cyborg, then that would be interesting.

The question is why they would need us. Robots are going to take over. It's an interesting take, but I will say, though, I disagree that robots, like, how, like, strong they can be because, I mean, I can deadlift 650 pounds. There's no way a robot's going to be stronger than me, period. With the whole AI thing, look, I do a lot of dumb jokes here. What do you think about that? Just you're cranes, man.

With AI, the whole idea is that you're offloading tasks you don't need to do. Back to kind of business, what is your, a lot of people you always hear about outsource, outsource, delegate, delegate. When do you think people need to get to the point where they are doing it? Like, like, what are things that people shouldn't let go of and things that people should let go of immediately that generally they hold on too long? So again, I won't say should and shouldn't. I would say if you're optimizing towards making the most money, then you have to trade up in higher leverage activities. So it's what do I?

So leverage is just defined as the difference between inputs and outputs in a system. So if I do this, then I get this output. And so the leverage is the discrepancy between that. So if I have a one to one ratio, I have low leverage. If I have a one to 10 ratio, I have higher leverage, right? And so when we are leveling up as entrepreneurs, we need to trade out the things that we get one to two on and trade in things that we get one to 20 on. And you just keep trading the whole way up and you just keep going.

And that's the kind of unending infinite game of business. What do you think is like the number one thing that people shouldn't delegate? Like when you start a company, right? You have a passion behind it. There's still something like, what's the point you get to when you're just like, it's, you're not even, you just collect a check and you don't even like live in the world of that business anymore. Like, do you think everyone should get to that or like even with acquisition.com or some of your stuff? Like, do you think there would be a point where you're like, I don't literally do anything.

I just own it. I don't need to look at it ever. Like, do you lose the. interest and the passion for it when it gets to that point, though. Well, if you get to that point, then you're probably inherently disinterested. So if you like, so again, I won't do shoulds. If you, if you like doing something, then by all means do it. If you're optimizing for how much money can I make, then it's theoretically, if you can get someone to do the same thing that you're doing and do it for less than 100% of your equity, then you trade up. And if you get

lots of people to do that, then you make more money. So the idea is to actually is solve for zero. So if you solve for no time, no energy, then you have infinite leverage on that thing. And so if you have lots of zeros, then you have all your time and you have checks that are coming in. In terms of life fulfillment, that's a totally different question. But if you have no commitments and you have cash flow that's going in, then if you want to, you could pursue the next business. You know, if that's what you were interested in or if you like painting or whatever, you know what I mean? So what are the things that people should not source?

nothing. You should be able to, you know, you can outsource whatever you want. I think it's just what goals, you know, what goals do you have? If you love painting and your whole business is painting, as soon as you hire painters, you're no longer painting anymore. Is that what you want it? Yeah. Some people, yes, some people know. Because the difference is if a painter wants to make money painting, that is different than somebody wanting to start a painting business. And so one is a business career. The other is a technician career. And a lot of people, and that's actually a really big one. A lot of people who are technicians love the craft and hate the business. And they need to decide whether they want to be business people or they want to be technicians. And I don't think

there's a right or wrong answer. They just need to decide for themselves and then stop their expectations about having both because the businessman wishes he could paint all day. The painter wishes you could make the money of the businessman. You know, a relative thing of that is I have a buddy who is a leather crafter, I guess you will. He makes leather. Leather goods by wallet is made by him, right? And we've done a lot of clabs and he has to make them in this high quantity. He's physically doing everything to make these wallets. And at some point, he's like, oh, like, there's crazy amount of hours in here and I can't create out, but, but he wants to continue to grow the business. I'm like, well, well, bro, like, why don't you just hire people to

make the wallets with you or to do it? And he's like, well, then I'm not going to be, it's not going to be like handmaid by me. And then, you know, he wanted to create double bags, but he's like, I can't create these. And he outsourced them. You know, and it starts losing touch. But he's so, like, obsessed with him needing to like make the wallets. But I'm like, are you trying to make wallets or build a business. Yeah. It's, it's interesting. And having passion in your work, would you, would you say that most people should find a business that they're passionate about? I don't think people should or shouldn't do anything. I think they, if you want to no, I don't like shit. Um, I think people can, if they, if they want to make more money,

then you optimize for the vehicle that will make you the most money and then you do that. The, the whole passion piece teases at the psychology of humans. Because if you're just looking at first principles of like what has to happen, like build the business that has the highest leverage that has the highest total adjustable market that has highest potential gross profit per customer and do that. That's what you would need to do if you wanted to make the most money. If you're, but if you, as soon as you add in the psychology of humans, it's like when do you get tired of this? When do you lose interest in it? And so the big thing for me at least is that I love business. And so as long as I'm doing business, is I'm good. And so the nature of the business doesn't matter as much. And I would say a lot of

entrepreneurs are that way. And so the big decision is, do I want to be a technician or do I want to be an entrepreneur? And they are very different paths. And I just don't, it's very difficult to have both. Like if your buddy, like he needs to make that decision of like, okay, I have more demand for my wallets than I can fulfill. So he has two options. He can hire and train other people or buy a machine that can do the same quality thing as he can. And he becomes a business owner of a wallet or leather company. Or he raises the price of his wallets because he has more demand than he has time. And so over time, his business does grow, but based on quality and based on the fact that it's handmade and it's, you know, blah, blah, blah, and his special touch and he kisses it and he sings

it's on, you know, sleep every night. And so, but like, that's the, that, if he wants to keep making wallets and he wants to keep making money, he will have to do that. And his profits are actually going going to go up. He's probably not going to build a billion dollar wallet company, but he could make a few million dollars a year. So it's just like, what does you want? And I actually think that teases to the core issue, which is most people don't know what they want. Are you, would you say you're a passion business at entrepreneur? I love business. Would you do, would you do things that, for example, I had a friend approach me years ago and was saying how much money he was making from, it was really super popular. It probably still is to do the Amazon drop shipping thing. And he was telling

about all the money that he's making. And I'm like, oh, that that sounds really cool, man. Like, like, what are you selling? He's like, plastic shower caddies to put your soap on that I get from China. I'm like, what? You're interested in making shower caddies? He's like, no, no, no, no. Like, I just get them from China. I don't give a fuck about the shower caddies.

But I was making, I was like, why do you care to sell shower caddies? Like, I'm making money. Like, I guess it's just different strokes for different folks of, you know, do you like making money? There's a balance of the passion and it's not necessary to make it out. Or the passion is around. Like, I like the game. I want to, like, said differently, I love.

I love looking at a marketplace and finding where there's a supply demand mismatch. And I know and I love talking to, you know, to, and negotiating with these third party, you know, manufacturers and getting the stuff over here for as low as I can. And I love marketing it so that I can get all these people to buy it. But he's, he's passionate about finding the opportunity rather than the opportunity itself. Like it's the hunt that he's passionate about rather than the product that he's passionate about, which is fine. It's all fine.

You can do whatever, you know, like there's a million ways to make money or really a million ways to live. It's just, and that's not good or bad, in my opinion. Yeah. But the guys who, the guys who are super passionate about the product and become evangelist for it, in my opinion, they go the biggest, the furthest. Because they really are, and the only reason for that, not only reason. My, my bet for why one of the biggest contributors is people who think that way think in an infinite time horizon. And if you can play on an infinite time horizon, it's hard to beat you. It's hard to beat an infinite player because you never went because they never stop.

I agree. What, everything that you, you've said is a very, like, you go so in depth with it and it seems like your knowledge is of infinite expansion, right? And it's cool to hear you talk. Say words my face. You probably, you probably like hearing yourself talk with the headphones on. It's a trip. I'm still, like, I feel like I'm echoing. First ever podcast that you've done with these.

First ever. What do you think your biggest single trait is that has allowed you to get to where you are now? Man. You know the first thing that came to mind? Chipotle. Luck. I mean, a little bit of luck.

I mean, there's the luck skill. I got a lot of luck. Yeah? Yeah. Why do you think you're lucky? I was born in America. I was born to a higher SES income family.

My dad was a doctor. And I was an only child. So I got personal training from a doctor on how to human. A lot of people don't have that. I was born genetically gifted for muscle. I put muscle on really easily. I can tell. I had a bilingual family.

So French was my first language. English was my second language. When you're born, like I didn't pick that. I just got that, but it develops better language centers. So you're able to take on more languages faster, more easily.

You have better vocabulary. if you're bilingual or more. I mean, and if the average person around me was a physician, then the words that they're using are higher. You know, I mean, it's just higher grade level in general. And so, like, all of those things together, like, I think the stars were already aligned for me. And so, yeah, the single greatest thing was luck. I already was, like, at the five-yard line.

That's like a really, that's not the answer that I would expect. fairly from anyone, what would you tell the people who don't have the luck, which would be the majority of people, right? And, no, there's a lot of people and even individuals that I know of what was me, everything bad happens to me. There's this black cloud following me. I'm, I can't be successful because of this, because of where I live, because of the, like, what words do you tell people who have the complete opposite upbringing as you? Well, you, that want to have, that want to be, be you. Well, you, you stay in poverty until you learn all the, lessons that poverty has to teach you. And the first two words that get you out of that is my fault.

And so even though it may be true that you were not born in America and your parents hated you and you were born with one language and everything was stacked against you, as long as you keep your finger pointed outwards to all the reasons that you can't be successful, you will guarantee that you are not. But until you say like, well, what things are under my control and the fact that I'm not doing at least those things is my fault. Because those are the only controllables. And then just piece by piece, brick by brick, going from there. Damn. What an answer. Didn't expect to get so deep on this podcast. This is good, man. Well, I don't want to, I want to kind of wrap it up because I know you're a busy man. You got to make 800 pieces of

content after this. Yeah, millions. Why not to spend any money cooking your food? And I just want to say It's been an honor to meet you, man. And again, I'm a relatively new follower of your content. And it's really cool to see what you've done, what you've built. Is there anything like what's next for Mr. Alex? We're going to continue mastering the mundane middle, you know, the starts fun, the finish is fun. But the middle is the part that no one wants to do. And that's what we will do.

We will do the work. And you're going to, are you going to get to the, I don't, I don't want to disrespect and say the $100 million man, obviously. Do you think you're going to, you're going to get to the billion dollar man? Yeah. I mean, unless I die.

I mean, that could definitely happen. I mean, fucking AI robot comes in smacks and dude. I could die. I mean, very, I mean,

but I think a lot of high horizon like, because the thing is, it's like, we're, on a conservative estimate, we're worth probably about $100 million bucks now. You know, if I valued the other things more,

then it'd be hard than it. But like, conservatively, it's about $100 million bucks. If I do nothing, uh, if I put all of, of that just in the S&P and did nothing, at 30 years from now, we would be worth over a billion.

So if I do nothing, we'll get there. And so as long as I don't lose money and do something really boneheaded. So it's like, I can't die and I can't do something to get me to zero. So those are kind of my two big risks. And so as long as I don't make bets that would get me to zero and I don't die, I think there's a high probability that we'll get to a billion. Wait, wait, wait, you said something there. You said you're going to put all your money in stocks and you're going to be worth a lot more. That's not what's happening to me because I put all my money in the stocks and I have less money. You got to put it in now.

You got to buy the fucking dip, man. It's just the never-ending day. Eight months later, it's like 40% down. You've got to buy more of the debt. And you're like, I don't have any fucking money. Yeah, there's no more tip to buy. The dip keeps dipping, man. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Hopefully, my jokes didn't come off too stupid. I mean, dude, you can deadlift more than a crane. So, I mean, that's all that matters. That was my biggest takeaway. I really can. You're telling me a crane can deadlift over six and a- Dude, you should do a YouTube video. of you versus a crane.

It's the old John Henry story, you know? You should do it. You versus a crane. Well, I would win. I know. That's why I would be a viral video. Actually, one more question. Do you, you're a Jack, dude,

what are your three max lists? What are your bench squat and deadlift? I haven't maxed out in years. That's someone who doesn't have a high max would say. I don't know. I did 475 for 20 or 17. Wait, on what? Oh, deadlift.

475 for 20? 17, I think. I've tried to count the reps in the video. It was a lot. Tap and go? Yeah. Strapes? Strapes, yeah.

Okay, you did about five reps. That's all right. No, I, I think I, I bench 390. I, God, 4.05. I'd be, 4.5 is like so close. Yeah, I know. Yeah, bench 390. I squatted a 4 or 5 for 20.

4.05 for 20? Mm-hmm. I was bigger, though. They're big. Those legs? They're big. Those Birkenstocks? Yeah.

Did you squat in the Birkenstocks? No. No, no, no, no. No, but I was bigger then. I was 2.35. How much do you wait now? Like 2.15-ish. Never in my...

What's it like to be over 200 pounds? Because I will never in my life be over to... You could totally be over 200 pounds. No. I promise you, man. Do you see these legs? You think the mass is going to go here? It's not going here.

I can squat... I've squat 501 pounds in competition with these little fucking hamhawks. It's amazing. The mass doesn't apply to me. I don't gain weight. Well, I, so not eating enough to take whatever you want. But, you know, I had this thing where I couldn't get over 200 for a really long time. So, like, I had trained for, guess what was I?

I was 23. I've been training for eight years at that point. And so that was the last time I had power lift. So when I was 181 and I was 21 was the last powerlifting competition I did. And that's when I was at 181, I did, I think, 470-ish for squat and deadlift. and then I benched 340 when I was 20 or 21, whatever that was. And I just, I was like, I'm a hard gainer. And I looked, honestly, I had a very similar build deal.

Sounds like an excuse, right? Yeah, it was. And I was like, I've been training for eight years. I'm already passed on my new begins. Like, this is all I can achieve naturally. And then I read this thing by John Meadows about insulin. And I was like, huh, okay, not injecting it, just like eating more carbs. And so I started eating more carbs.

carbs. And then I started living with a guy named Greg Knuckles. If you're familiar with him, if you're in the powerlifting world. He's friends with Sonic, right? Yeah. That was a good joke, right? Yeah. Greg strong is shit. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Greg's... Can he deadlift more to crane? He can, you can deadlift more than you. Um, he's very strong. Uh, and he basically reframed my whole thinking around a lot of stuff worth of volume. And so he got me going on way more volume than I was used to from the powerlifting days. And so, you know, I used to only train pretty much like six and under you know like anything over six is cardio you know what I mean. Um, my reps. Yeah, there you go. And yeah, reps. Right. And so I started training 10s, 15s,

20s, 20s, 20s, 30s, you know, in terms of reps. And I just blew up. Sounds miserable. Oh, it was horrible. Um, and I started eating like a tank and, um, eating a lot. And I, I grew. And I had been after almost a decade. And I, you know, I was an advanced, you know, lifter at that point. And I competed and, and, and then, and then I just started doing all this volume. And I never really went back to powerlifting. That's why like those rep, the rep ranges when I was like 17, 20, all that stuff. That was because I just never needed to max out anymore. I just didn't, I didn't care. I remember like, I would hit a PR and I would look around in the gym and no one gave a shit. No, I make sure to, I have like a deadlift ritual. I jump around and kind of go,

I make sure that everyone in the gym is watch when I'm deadlifting. That's, that's good. I've always had, most of the time I've had private gyms. So like, I haven't had people around me. So it's just been like a silent victory of myself. And then I'm like, you know, my Did anyone see that? Yeah, my hips kind of hurt and no one cares. And so I just, I was like, you know what? For me, what was more functional was looking jacked. And so I transitioned like that like, I remember because earlier on, I was like,

that's not functional like blah, blah, blah. And all my piloting buddies used to make fun of me because I would stay afterwards and like do delts. You know what I mean? And like do my calves and stuff like that. They'd be like, uh, he's got a good speech party. You know, whatever. Um, but it was way more functional for me to look jacked in my life. Every video I use it versus, you know, whether I can, you know,

wait 12 weeks, do a shitload of joint stress, and then like add another, you know, 15, 20 pounds to my deadlift. I mean, to be honest, it's kind of, I've been powerlifting for a long, long time. And it's like, what's the point of being so strong while looking like this? You've motivated me, dude.

2023, we're going to 200 pounds, ladies and gentlemen. You could do it. I'm gonna, I'm dead fucking serious. The amount of, the amount of food that I would have to eat is like a, it's not enjoyable. It sounds like you're saying it's hard. No, it's, versus I can't do it. No, no.

No, no. I'm saying like back in college days, I would do the, you know, cup of oats, milk, peanut butter, you know, olive oil, all that shit. I'm like, I don't want to fucking drink that anymore. So it's just wasn't, so getting to 200 is not enjoyable for you. Correct. Okay. Yeah. So it's not that you can't do it. And I would, the process of going from like 175 to 200 and 200 and to look good at 200 would the process to get there. I would hate the way I look on a daily basis. You could do it slow. So, 2022. We're getting a 200 pounds, ladies and gentlemen. I've been inspired. That will wrap up this episode. Thank you so much, man.