The Game with Alex Hormozi - What I Realized about Mentorships | Ep 694

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

“A great mentor will make sure you’ll move ahead in the path, even if he gets left behind.” Today, Alex (@AlexHormozi) shares with us an eye-opening perspective about mentors and mentees, what the purpose of mentors are in our lives, and the true meaning of “passing it on”. Is there a mentor in your life that comes to mind?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:(1:31) - Mentorship dynamics: Elevating each other(6:17) - The legacy of mentors and the path to success(10:28) - Sharing knowledge and building a better world(13:18) - Reflections and gratitude: The impact of mentorshipFollow Alex Hormozi’s Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition(This episode is a re-run. Original airdate was on October 6, 2022)

If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go Fargo together. And so I think that if the narrative changes and the mentors realize that the mentees are supposed to beat them and that if they beat them, it's a sign that the mentor was a success, not a failure. Like, that's the mark of the good mentor is that all the people they teach rise above them. 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 see this thing that happens all the time. And in different lenses, people approach them differently. So, like, when you're a kid and you learn arithmetic, first you learn your numbers and then you learn how to add. And then, you know, you level up and you learn how to multiply. And then you level up from there and you learn, you know, how to do algebra. When you get to algebra, you don't think, man, my arithmetic teacher was a fucking idiot. I can't believe they didn't teach me this stuff.

It's like, dude, you weren't ready. And you had to have the arithmetic in order to get to the multiplication. And it's not that that teacher was an idiot. it's that that was the sequence. And so when you have a first teacher that teaches you the basics and you have a more advanced teacher later, it doesn't mean you should shit on your first teacher. It's like that person got you ready to receive the next thing. And I think that when I was earlier on in my career, I definitely did the other way. You know what I mean? I was just like, this guy didn't know anything. This guy is the guy. Rather than seeing it like you would see any other thing that

you'd have in school, right? And so that was the first point that I wanted to cover. The next point is this is more to the mentors, which is like I've had the opportunity and the, you know, the gift of being able to mentor, whatever you want to say, you know, provide advice, counsel, share my experiences, and a lot of people consume those things. And a lot of people hold me in a regard. And most people who are winners are competitive. It's just like who you are, right? You want to win. You want to beat everybody because that's part of the competitive drive. But I think there's like a, there's a comma there that needs to get put in, which is that you have to accept two things. One is that you are going to die and no one is going to remember. Like real, real, like 10,000 years from now,

no one's going to remember at all. Number two is that when you're at the end of your life, the people who are going to be your buyer betts are not the people who you vanquished, but the people that you helped. And so when I think about that, and I know that I have passed a lot of the mentors that I've had in my career in terms of financials, et cetera, and I really earlier on used to think that made me better than them. It's better at the game of business, I was better at whatever. But I think that as I've had a couple more years and some more scars, I've realized something different, which is that I was only able to get better than them because they gave me the head start. They were like, hey, man, step on my shoulder and you can, you can reach

that next branch. And I think that if the mentees and the mentors both see it that way, then the mentees will stop shitting on the mentors that help them. And the mentors will stop trying to hold back secrets that have propelled them further because the point is not that you're going to beat everyone. You're going to get really old and then you're going to die. And as you're getting older, there are going to be people who are younger who had a head start when you're like, man, these guys got it so easy. That's the point of progress as a civilization. And so rather than lamenting that the next generation has it easier, I thought that what we all say is I want my kids to have it better than I did or I want to make the world a better

place. Well, that's what making the world a better place looks like is that they have a head start. And so we say that this is our mission with our business. We want to make the world a better place. We want to make an impact. We want to make positive impact in people's lives. And then when it actually happens, we resent the kids for the fact that they didn't have it as hard as us. It's like, that was the point. And so I think if we can shift the perspective from the mentor side of like, my point is not to beat the progeny. The point is to forge as far as I can, look back and be like, hey, watch out for that hole, watch out for that rock, keep going, keep going. And the thing is, they move through the path that I did that we tread three times

faster than we did because we already cleared all the trees. And then they get to the next non-clearing and they have to start hacking away and hacking away and hacking away to forge the next path. And then they become the mentors turn around and the next generation move six times as fast to cover my distance and their distance. Right. And so like we really do stand on the shoulders of the giants, the stand on the shoulders of the people who came before us. And so when I think about like the gratitude that I have for, you know, the Gary V's who like he's, you know, whatever, 11 years, 12 years older than I am. And he's forged so much of this path that like I didn't have to think about how am I going to create this whole thing. It's like, no, I just, he already had a

blueprint and I can just start laying that out immediately execute rather than having to spend six years figuring it out, right? And the same degree, there are guys who we have in our portfolio right now who are in their 20s who are making twice what I was making total in their 20s than what I was making at 30. And so like, I could either be like, fuck these guys, I'm going to hold my secrets because I want to be better than them, right? Or, and they could also be like, I'm better than he is, right but if they came to me below and then now they're above then like that was the point like they should and like I'm not going to be number one but I'm going to still fucking repeat you know what I mean I'm still going to go after I'm going to go for gold because I got

guys who are ahead of me and I'm still going to go there you know what I mean and so I think that that's the that's that's the beauty of being a human you know what I mean like you're going to live you're going to die you're going to learn some things and you want to teach you the next guy And as long as the next guy honors the fact that that guy died on the battlefield to give him these lessons and come back. And they have to recognize that they're going to die on the battlefield too for the next generation to pass them. Then I think that it makes the conversation in the community much more productive and much more collaborative rather than the shit talking of like, I'm better. This guy had it easier. Man, if I had that kind of advantage, of course you didn't.

That was why we did what we did was to have it to pass on the advantage to make a world a better place, make an impact. If people had to start, that was the point. So, like, they have it easier than us. Mission accomplished. If you look at some of the greatest success stories, a lot of them talk about their mentors. So, like, Warren Buffett had Paul Graham, who is his mentor early on. So he wanted to work for him. The quick story on that was that he said, I'll work for you for free.

And Paul Graham told him, you're overpriced. Because he recognized that he was the one who's going to be giving far more to this relationship. Even if Warren gave him his time, he still was going to be on the losing side. But he still did it anyways because he recognized that Warren had a gift, right? And Warren passed him in his career. And you'll notice that Warren isn't like, man, I'm so much better than Paul Graham. Like, I passed that dude in my like 40s. He doesn't talk like that because he honors the fact that Paul Graham got him to this point.

And when he and Charlie Munger talk about it, they talk about what they learned for Paul Graham. And then what they then had to learn on their own is the next evolution in investing. And if Paul Graham had Paul Graham, he might have been Warren Buffett. But he didn't. only Warren got Paul Graham, right? And so Gary V didn't have Gary V to mentor him on his career. I did. I do right now. We all do. And so many of us will pass Gary. And I don't think Gary minds. But Gary didn't have Gary. I've got Gary. But you know what's different? Is that there's a 20-year-old and might be you? And you've got me. And I'm accomplishing things at a pretty fast pace. And you're going to do it faster than me. And I love it. Real quick, guys, if you can think about how you found this podcast, somebody probably tweeted it, told you about it, shared it on Instagram or something like that. The only way this grows is through word of mouth.

And so I don't run ads. I don't do sponsorships. I don't sell anything. My only ask is that you continue to pay it forward to whoever showed you or however you found out about this podcast that you do the exact same thing. So if it was a review, if it was a post, if you do that, it would mean the world to me and you'll throw some good karma out there for another entrepreneur. That's the point.

I'm still going to be hustling and trying to beat you. Don't get me wrong. But it's surface level, not deep down. You know what I mean? And I say this because I had this narrative and it really impacted the way I saw mentors and how I saw other content creators and how I saw, you know, people giving advice. And when I see guys who are in their 60s, I'm like, man, by the time I'm 60, I'm going to be 10 times as wealthy as them. I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to have 10 times the real estate. I'm 10 times the other things, right? Yeah. But if they had themselves as mentors, they would too. And so it's like, I'm trying to like rub it in someone's face who has literally been doing nothing but feed me and help me. Right. And so they say if you,

if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together. And so I think that if the narrative changes and the mentors realize that the mentees are supposed to beat them and that if they beat them, it's a sign that the mentor was a success, not a failure. Like, that's the mark of the good mentor, is that all the people they teach rise above them. If your mentees and the students that you have and the people that you help and the people that you teach don't move above you, it means that you're a bad teacher, not a good one. It doesn't mean you're so much better than everyone else. It means you're so bad at transferring the skill

because everyone should be able to move up from your experiences faster than it took you to get there. Think about that. So for everyone who's got an education business, as a side note, if you've got an education business and no one's doing better than you, it's because you're not willing to give the secrets that you know are really the things that are driving.

You're not some superhuman. You're not, I promise you. There are so many smarter people on Wall Street than you. Promise. Like, there are. And so if none of those people are moving ahead, it's because you're not really teaching. It's not because you're better, even though your ego wants to say that. So, like, that's the goal.

And so I think that if we make that the new definition of success of a teacher is that the students surpass the teacher. It's not that the student no longer needs the teacher, the student, whatever, is that, like, they should move faster through those careers and then gets the point where they're both looking together with his experience and his raw talent looking at the new landscape saying, all right, what do you think we should do? Yeah, I think we go, ah, you know, I tried that other thing over here that I haven't shared with you. That might still, and then we can both march together, right?

And so I just think it's a, it shifted my perspective in terms of how I saw my mentors and the how much they serve me and how much I would rather honor them now rather than rub it in their face that I'm younger and I'm making more money than them. Of course I am. They help me. I get asked a lot of times because I have this quote, give away the secret, sell the implementation with your business, right? And that's what we do, right? I mean, selling the implementation, we're going to sell it. We buy the implementation because we buy, you. minority interest in business. By the way, if you're doing $3 million or more in your business,

and you want to have help go to Acquisition.com. But the reason that I make this stuff is that, like, I say this all the time. Like, I'm going to die. And the only thing that will be left will be the, the documented stuff that I've been able to share. The books that I write, the courses that I make, and realistically, the courses will probably fade. So the books might be the only things that are left with given enough time. Right. And so I also do this because I forget this stuff. Like when I'm in the, when I'm in it is when I want to be making it because if I'm looking back, you forget the nuance, you forget the details. And so I'm, I'm, I'm trying to do both things, which is build a bigger business while documenting.

And this is one thing that I want to explain to everybody. I spent about half my day now writing the books and outlining the books and making the framework so that I can communicate it in a really simple way. If I wanted to make more money, I would get half my time back and just double down on building my business faster. I wouldn't be doing this. So like inherently, I'm giving up my future upside to have more people have the opportunity to crush me.

Or I can see it as you have the opportunity. need to help way more people at scale make the world a better place. And I think that when I'm 85 and I look back, I'll rather have lived that life. Because I don't think that I'll have a difference between being worth 10 billion and 20 billion when I'm 85. But I do think there'll be a big difference if I tried to get there by hoarding everything and making one guy's life better rather than everyone's life better. I think I experienced a lot of joy knowing that other people don't have to suffer as much, which is the funny thing of like, they didn't have it as hard as us. It's like, I thought that was the point, right? And so when I hear somebody's like, dude, you help me get my

business from 10,000 a month to 50,000 a month. They're like, dude, we're walking around outside yesterday and someone's like, dude, I did everything you have and we're doing four million a year now. Like, he was like emotional when you just saw us like walking around. And like, I can't meet everyone and I don't have the emotional tie, but just knowing that it's happening. It makes stomaching the hard times easier. And for me that, you know, I find meeting in that. because it feels worth it. It feels like it's not just me trying to do this for myself. It's me trying to do this for a lot of people.

And so like if I'm failing over and over again at this thing, I know that once I figured out, I'll be able to help 100 people cheat code their way through it and not spend five months figuring something out or two years figuring something out. Like I was stuck at mid-30 million for three years, which to everyone watching, they're like, boo-hoo. That's not the point is that there's another guy

who's going to get to that point and he's going to move right past it, like in a blink of an eye because I've had the right advice that I didn't have, right, or didn't have the context. And so the amount of scale that that person would be able to help immediately at 100, a year later, or two years later, because of that, is the point. And so then I can get more leverage in terms of, like, making myself feel better that all these other people are doing well. So when I go through the hard time, I can think about that, and it gets me through it. If this change your mind about some of the shit talking that you've done to a teacher or to a mentor who was earlier on in your career because you passed them or they taught you

part of the way and then somebody else taught you more of the way, like my only ask now is just like shoot that guy text and be like hey like respect i appreciate you because i can't tell you one how much it means to the mentor when they get that text and i also think too it'll help you spit out the poison that you had about the hate that you had that wasn't real it was only made up in her head so helip and i were talking about gary and how gary forged the way for so many people and how some people will get further than gary did by the end of gary's life and it's not that gary that doesn't say that gary's bad it shows that Gary's really good because the point of a good teacher is that the student does pass the teacher. And so I wanted to break down that concept because it was something that really has shifted my perspective

and the mentors that I've had in my life and how I saw them before, during and after my experiences with them and on ongoing basis. And if you have mentors, you have teachers in your life, I guarantee you that in 10 minutes or whatever this ends up being, it will forever shift how you see that relationship for the benefit of both of you.