The Game with Alex Hormozi - The Single Hardest Entrepreneurial Habit | Ep 658

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

“You can't have any kind of habitual habits or output if the one thing that starts or ends your day is variable.” Today, Alex (@AlexHormozi) emphasizes the importance of maintaining a stable sleep routine for entrepreneurs to optimize their energy levels, make better judgments, and increase productivity. Despite the personal sacrifices and trade-offs involved, developing habits that ensure restful sleep and consistent patterns can lead to long-term success. This episode encourages entrepreneurs to prioritize sleep as an effective and underrated secret to achieving success in their endeavors.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.Timestamps:(1:00) - The role of energy in entrepreneurship(2:59) - The consequences of neglecting sleep(3:40) - The power of consistent sleep schedules(5:36) - The trade-offs of prioritizing sleep(6:49) - The impact of sleep on success(8:12) - The struggles and rewards of discipline(10:19) - The power of trade-offsFollow Alex Hormozi’s Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition(This episode is a re-run. Original airdate was August 21, 2020)

And so I think that if you can make that piece a foundation, a cornerstone of how you live, then you will always have as much energy and clear clarity and you will be able to make better judgment and better decisions. Welcome to the game where we talk about how to sell more stuff to more people in more ways and build businesses worth owning. I'm trying to build a billion dollar thing with Acquisition.com. I always wished Bezos, Musk, and Buffett had documented their journey. So I'm doing it for the rest of us. Please share and enjoy. I wanted to bring up a habit that I think is central to being successful.

And it's really, really, really, really, really not sexy. And the more I think about it, there's so many other pieces that flow into this single habit. And when I observe people who are doing better than I am and whatnot, they usually have this really dialed in. And the reason that no one does it is because it's so freaking hard. all right and it all revolves around energy and so what i mean by that is how to maximize your output as an entrepreneur at the end of the day like all we have is ourselves and so that's why so many entrepreneurs are obsessed with increasing their their personal throughput like how much they can produce right you know myself included and probably you and a lot of us started on this path and wanted to

increase our our output by you know getting in shape and so when we were younger or whatever you know whatever we had that moment in our lives and we're like, you know what, I'm going to start taking control of my life. I'm going to start controlling what I eat. I'm going to start working out, drinking water, all that kind of stuff, right? And I think that there are levels to creating clear output. And so an easy example of this is like if you've, if you've been on a workout kick, right, for a while or you've been training for a long time, if you ever stop training and stop eating the way that you've now grown accustomed, all of a sudden, you feel sluggish and foggy and unclear, right? And you're like, man, I feel terrible, right? And I also think that as we get older, and I'm not saying I'm old,

but just as I personally have gotten older, my margin for error continues to shrink, right? Like, the amount of my wiggle room on fucking this up has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller, which is why I think very genuinely, the reason people many times drink less and less as they get older is because they simply can't recover from it. I think that people would drink as much as much as they did in college as adults if they could bounce back from it like they did when they were 18, right? That's just a pure theory of mine, but I don't think that humans fundamentally change. I think that the equation of cost and benefit changes, and that is what changes their behavior, right? And so the single habit or the single routine, and I'm going to get to it,

it changes and affects everything in your life, which is why it's so hard, right? It's one singular habit that affects how you eat, who you see, where you go, all of that into one thing. And that habit is sleep. And I'm, and I know that's like, man, is that anti-climactic? Is Alex going to talk about sleep? I am. And I think it's because as entrepreneurs, we need to be able to monitor our energy levels in order to succeed. And I know this sounds like a really boring topic, but I'm telling you every single person who makes a ton of money that I know has a, super dialed in sleep system. So it's not about like everybody talks about daily routines and all the shit. I've seen a zillion routines. I personally don't really have one. Like I've seen all,

some people attribute their success to the fact that they do X, Y, and Z. Like, I just think it comes down to being able to have energy and be maximal in your output. Now, the reason this trickles to everything is because if you always like to sleep well, you have to pretty much go to sleep at the same time every day and you have to wake up at pretty much the same time every day. And you also can't do things to impair your sleep. And so here's the trickle-down effects of that. It means that when you travel, you change time zones, it fucks with you, right? If you drink and go out, it fucks with you.

If you normally go to sleep during the week at 9 and go to sleep on the weekends at 1130, it fucks with you. Your body doesn't know about weekends or weekdays. It just knows about how your body's supposed to feel, right? And so I think what a single thing that we can, like for me that has helped because I'm I'm really bad at doing things repeatedly. I'm really bad at it. But one thing that has helped me is having a bedtime more than a wake-up time.

When I screenshot my wake-ups at 4 o'clock in the morning, it's not because I have an alarm that goes off. It's just because I wake up, right? And so I think it's much better. Like, it's not worth trying to cut your sleep to five hours so that you can wake up at four. Like, that's not the game. It's not sustainable.

And you're also going to be stupider. Like there's all the data in the world shows that when you don't sleep much, you are dumber, right? You get fatter, you're hungrier, you're dumber, you're slower, you have lower processing power, you have worse short-term memory, all of those things are affected. And as entrepreneurs, if the only thing that we have is our brains and the decisions we make, like it stacks all the chips against you, right? You're also more emotionally reactive, right? You have less control in that your prefrontal cortex because you don't have enough sleep, right?

I'm sure there are some times that you've woken up, or me at least, where I've woken up and I'm like, man, there's literally nothing that could bother it to death. Like, I feel awesome, right? And I think it's really about how can we recreate that environment, that mental soup of feeling on a consistent basis. And what are the prerequisites for that? And this is why it's hard. And this is why it's so hard because there are so many things that I do not do simply because of my sleep, right? People invite me out all the time for dinner at seven. Well, I'm in bed by 8.30 or not. So it's not going to work. And if it's a 30 minute drive there, you know, that means that I'd have to leave the dinner at pretty much eight, right? It's like, you go there, I might drive 30 minutes to get there

for one hour dinner, drive 30, like, I'm not going to do that, right? And so there's a lot of social occasions that I can't go to or I have to leave early from, right? And it seems lame and it's hard. Right. It's hard to do that. It's hard to do to not go out on the weekends and change my schedule because everyone else does. Right. And even a lot of entrepreneurs do. It doesn't mean that they're bad. It's just they're different. Right. 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.

And the only way we do that is if you can rate and review and share this podcast. So the single thing that I has to do is you can just leave a review. It'll 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. And so a couple of takeaways around this, at least for me, is that every entrepreneur that I know that's super successful has dedicated time where they're uninterrupted every day. And that to me means you're either staying up really late or you're waking up really early. I actually, if you think about it from a lifestyle standpoint, I think it might be easier to stay up really late because it allows you to have a little bit more of a social life.

And then you can still have your work time afterwards if you're disciplined enough to do that. I wish I could do that. Even in college, I never worked past 9 p.m. I didn't. I'm just like, I'm shot. Like, that's how I function personally. And so I always, I was always the guy who would be like, you know, I'd be stopped working at nine and then I would wake up at three or four and then I would start working again because

I just knew I was useless, right? And so for me, because of how my body works, it's kind of less convenient for me, which has been, it's taken a toll on a lot of things in my life. And that's why it's a big tradeoff. And most people aren't willing to make it with their actions, right? Like the tradeoff of not drinking, right? Because it impairs my sleep most of the time is hard. Right.

Now there's tradeoffs. You know, if you go to a wedding or it's your wedding or, you know, whatever it's like then just understand the tradeoff. But the thing is, the lower the barrier is for when you make that tradeoffs, the more likely it is to happen all the time. Right. And then all of a sudden, you're drinking because it's Taco Tuesday, right? And so, you know, it's kind of like the weight loss client is like, well,

it was a special occasion. Donuts are on Wednesday. It's like, you know, at some point you have to draw a line. And for most people, they don't have the discipline. and so they have to go all or nothing, and myself included, I spent two and a half years where I didn't drink anything, right?

We've started to drink a little bit more now to try and balance things. I think that the ultimate goal is to be able to have things and not be to use things and not be used by them, right? And so to bring this all to ahead, right? Weekends, right? Not changing your schedule on the weekends. Huge, incredibly difficult.

Not going out during the weekdays at all on social events that I know are going to get me jacked up emotionally or adrenaline or whatever so that when I get home, I have to spend another hour unwinding to get to bed at a later time. Right. And so I think the single habit, at least for me that's been game changing, has been always allowing myself to sleep as much as necessary or as much as my body needs, but focusing more on my bed time.

Right. And by doing that, it does rule out a lot of activities in my life. And that is hard. Like, it's really hard for me. Like, I'm a sofa person. like seeing people, but I can't a lot of times. And it also means that I can't travel as much as I would normally like to because when I go across time zones, it really messes with me. And so a lot of times when I go across time zones, I try and keep the same sleep schedule.

So when I was in Southern California, I was waking up at like 2 o'clock, 2.30 in the morning because it was two hours behind, or sorry, two hours, yes, two hours behind my Austin time. So I tried to change as little as I could, which means that I was like going to sleep at like seven or seven 30. It was nuts. And that means all the people that were in Southern California were like, well, dude, let's hang out. I'm like, ah, I'm in bed. And they're like, seriously, it's seven. And I'm like, I don't study it.

And that's hard. It's shitty. And I'm not saying it's the best way. I'm just saying, I think that when I look at a lot of people who are really successful, they have this one aspect dialed in and it has so many ramifications the rest of their lives. Because you can't have any kind of habitual habits or output if the one thing that starts or end your day is variable. Right?

And so I think that if you can make that piece a foundation, a cornerstone of how you live, then you will always have as much energy and clear clarity and you will be able to make better judgment and better decisions. And I know this is definitely not like a, hey, here's how to close a credit card over the phone and three minutes type of tactic. But I can't tell you how important I really truly think it is and how I can witness this character trait or rather, you know, human habit in the people who are successful, than people who don't. And I think it's because it requires other character traits. You have to have

discipline. You have to be able to to make tradeoffs. You have to really be able to prioritize the things that are important in your life. And those are all skills that some people don't have. And so if you can do that, then you have to ask yourself, is this thing worth the tradeoff of me being at 100% tomorrow versus 80%? And I think that that 20% extra is what compounds over time and what separates Kobe Bryant from the rest of the NBA because he always took that 20% again and again and again and again. And then within five years, the difference is, the gap is so wide that no one can catch up with you. So I know this was less of a tactic one. I just, it's so important to me because it's changed the way I live my life. And when people who do know me are like, oh, yeah, all my friends are like, oh, past your bedtime,

right? And I take those, you know, I take those slags and, you know, I take those body punches because it's true. You know what I mean? And it's a tradeoff and it hurts because I don't, you know, I'd like to see people and they're like, well, I can't do anything before that. And I'm like, well, then I guess we can't hang out. And so, and like I have those real conversations, honestly, all the time. And so I guess I'm saying this to say, if you have been struggling with maintaining, you know, a routine or a specific habit because everyone around you is not in support of it, I think it's welcome to the club. And I think it's just, are you willing to make that tradeoff for what you want. And I just never want to look back on my life and be like, well, I'm glad I went to

talk about Tuesdays rather than getting what I wanted out of life. So anyways, I thought I'd share that with you so that if you are struggling with it, I don't think it gets easier. I think it's still just as hard for me now as it was before. But I think I'm just more used to it. And I've, I've kind of trained my surroundings, the people who are around me in my life, they just know that this is a trade off I'm not willing to make when 99% of humanity is willing to make that trade. And I think that separates the 1% from everyone else.