We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP 075 : The Davos World Economic Forum and The One Thing by Gary Keller (Business Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 We study billionaires, and this is episode 74 of The Investors Podcast. Broadcasting from Bel Air, Maryland. This is the Investors Podcast. They'll read the books and summarize the lessons. They'll test the waters and tell you when it's cold. They'll give you actionable investing strategies. Your host, Preston Pish, and Stig Broderson. Hey, how's it going out there, everybody?

Starting point is 00:00:31 This is Preston Pish, and I'm your host for this. The Investors podcast. And as usual, I'm accompanied by my co-host Stig Broderson out in Denmark. And today we've got a book that we're going to be talking about. And also we're going to be talking about the current market conditions at the start of the show. The book that we're going to be covering is called The One Thing, a surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results. It was a very good book.

Starting point is 00:00:53 I have some things that I like, some things that I didn't like. I'm really curious to hear Stig's thoughts because I haven't even talked to him yet on what he thought about this book. So I'm interested to see how that conversation. goes, because we might have some varying points. Stig, did you like the book, first of all? Yeah, I definitely like the book. It's one of those books that I think that you need to read,

Starting point is 00:01:12 even though they're all like common sense. But you really kind of needed to read it because you just realize how inefficient you might be in your daily life. So if you're in a good mood, that might be a good book to read. I thoroughly enjoy it. And it's one of those books I should probably read, I don't know, once a year and improve my efficiency, I'd say. Yeah, I think it's going to depend on the person's personality for this one, whether it's an important read for them or not.

Starting point is 00:01:39 So we'll talk about that later in the show. It seems like Stig and I kind of have a similar opinion on this. But to start off the show, I want to talk about something that I really look forward to each year. And that's the Davos Economic Forum that they have annually out in Switzerland. They typically have it in January. And there's just such a wealth of information that comes out of this event. And so what's really nice in the modern age, they post all these videos on YouTube and you can watch the interviews where they bring in these billion dollar panels. These people that are billionaires, they all sit on these panels.

Starting point is 00:02:13 For example, the one that I was watching was on China. And they brought in some experts from China that are tied to their central bank. They had Ray Dalio, who's the billionaire hedge fund manager. They had the IMF. They had the managing director of the IMF there. We also had Gary Kahn there, who's the president and chief operations officer for Goldman Sachs. So just to kind of give you an idea of the firepower that they had sitting on this panel. So this was just an interesting conversation when they're talking about China.

Starting point is 00:02:44 And there were some key takeaways that I got out of this discussion, and it's something that I want to highlight to the audience here. So the first thing that I got away from this discussion was this idea of a standoff between the United States and China with recent. to the central bank and the valuation of their currencies. So my impression before this interview, and maybe it was just my lack of reading and staying current with things, but my impression before watching this was that the bank of China was pegging their currency to the U.S. dollar. So if the U.S. dollar eased, the Chinese currency would ease. And so that there was just this fixed peg.

Starting point is 00:03:24 And I think for many years that was actually the case. But it seems like there's a change in strategy. and this is what one of the panel members had said was that China, and he was from the Central Bank of China, I believe. He said China is now pegging their currency to the basket of currencies around the world globally. So very similar to the same model that the IMF has. So this is a really interesting idea. And the reason why this is interesting is because as Japan or as Europe or any one of these other major organizations or countries are devaluing their currency, that's effectively giving China the license to devalue their currency more.

Starting point is 00:04:05 And so this is the point that I think is just critical for people to understand. If the United States Federal Reserve does not raise interest rates higher than a quarter of a percent on the federal funds rate, if they just keep it where it's at and every other bank around the world devalues their currency, that is the same thing as the U.S. Fed raising rates. and I think people really need to understand that concept because that's going to make the dollar stronger and stronger and stronger as everyone else would continue to devalue their currency. And so that's what you have happening right now. That's exactly what you have happening. And there's a lot of people out there.

Starting point is 00:04:43 And it was kind of interesting to see the conversation because Ray Dalio goes, and you know, there's a lot of people when he was smirking as he said this that says that China is going to have to devalue their currency even more. Kyle Bass is betting big, and I mean big, on a China devaluation. I think his estimates are that China is going to have to devalue their currency by 30% or more, which would just be crazy the impact that that would have on the U.S. dollar as far as strength goes. The U.S. dollar are getting stronger and stronger and stronger and not necessarily a good thing for the global economy. Now, if you're living in the states and the value of your dollar and you're holding cash is getting stronger, That's a fantastic thing. It's a wonderful thing at the moment.

Starting point is 00:05:28 But the bigger picture here is that that strong dollar is what's really crushing this commodities complex. Whenever I think about why is oil getting pummeled down to really low levels and why is every other commodity except for gold at this point just getting crushed? It's because of the strong dollar. I think that is much more of the critical variable here than anything else. I'm curious to know if Stig would agree with that. Do you think that the dollar is really driving the price of the commodities down just because

Starting point is 00:05:59 as you're sitting in all these other foreign countries, that dollar is just getting harder and harder to repay. It's getting tighter and tighter as far as the valuation. So if there's less of those dollars, there's less to basically value the commodities buy. Is that how you're seeing this as well, Stig? Yeah, Preston. I definitely agree with you. So since all commodities are basically traded in dollars, especially when I'm seeing here in euro, I would say, okay, so the price of a bearable oil, that's not just $30 or is like an American would look at. Because I will also have to include, so what's the exchange rate? And so if they say that the dollar is appreciated by 20%, well, it's suddenly 20% more expensive for me to buy that barrel of oil. So I completely

Starting point is 00:06:43 agree with you, President. It's definitely something that's crossing the commodities market at the moment. Yeah, and I think a lot of people that are domestically in the U.S., they're not looking at it through that lens that you just described it, which is really awesome for people to be able to hear that because that's what's not just happening in Denmark. That's what's happening every other country around the world. That's what they're experiencing. So it's just a very, very important point to highlight. And it's just not oil. It's not just oil. It's every other commodity. And so when you look at a business, any business that produces a good instead of a service, there's some type of commodity tied to that business across the globe.

Starting point is 00:07:24 So this is a very big idea. And this is something that I think people really need to wrap their head around and understand that the dollar getting stronger and stronger and stronger. That squeeze that you're getting on the dollar with respect to its value, it is going to have some implications in the long run. Because whenever things get out of balance, and that's what's happening here, things are getting drastically out of balance. when there is that movement that occurs, that shifts this back, the thing that I think about

Starting point is 00:07:52 whenever I think about low oil prices and the Fed, just allowing this tightening to occur on the dollar versus every other currency in the world, this is how I kind of view this. If you're familiar with a hurricane and a hurricane comes on shore, when at first, let's just say the eye of the storm goes through a town X, we'll call it. So as this storm approaches town X, the winds are blowing in one direction, let's say 100 miles an hour to the east. Then as the eye of the storm passes through and it's going through the town, now you've got the winds actually going to the west. They're actually going back the exact opposite way after it passes through. And here's my concern with this. And I'm not saying that this

Starting point is 00:08:32 is a hurricane. Everything's going to just explode, even though it's in the realm of possible. We don't know. We're not rolling anything out. I'm just using this as an analogy to demonstrate something to you. And what I'm trying to demonstrate is after the U.S., and I think it's going to be the on the U.S., devaluing the dollar in order to bring it back into the realm of reality compared to every other currency. What you're going to have is you're going to have commodities, in my opinion, commodity, the price of the commodities really go up a lot, okay, in a very rapid and quick manner. And the concern that I have at that point, think about it from a United States consumer

Starting point is 00:09:11 standpoint, I'm driving down the road and I'm used to $2 a gallon of gas. And I've become accustomed to that lifestyle of being able to buy commodities at these ridiculously cheap prices. And now the eye of the storm, it's in the Fed devalues the currency in order to just, you know, spark the economy. There is an issue there because now instead of $2 a gallon gasoline, I'm paying $4 in a quick time frame. And that adjustment is going to not be fun for a lot of people.

Starting point is 00:09:43 And so that's my concern. And as we move forward, this is something that I think you will. really need to pay close attention to is this relationship between the Bank of China and the United States Fed and who's devaluing and whatnot. Every time you've seen the Chinese currency, the Yuan devalue, you've seen a horrible day on the U.S. stock market. And that is the reason why is because that's their way of actually tightening monetary policy in the United States indirectly. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. All right. I want you guys to imagine spending three days in Oslo at the height of the summer. You've got long days of daylight, incredible

Starting point is 00:10:20 food, floating saunas on the Oslo Fjord, and every conversation you have is with people who are actually shaping the future. That's what the Oslo Freedom Forum is. From June 1st through the 3rd, 2026, the Oslo Freedom Forum is entering its 18th year bringing together activists, technologists, journalists, investors, and builders from all over the world, many of them operating on the front lines of history. This is where you hear firsthand stories from people using Bitcoin to survive currency collapse, using AI to expose human rights abuses, and building technology under censorship and authoritarian pressures. These aren't abstract ideas. These are tools real people are using right now. You'll be in the room with about 2,000 extraordinary individuals, dissidents,

Starting point is 00:11:06 founders, philanthropists, policymakers, the kind of people you don't just listen to but end up having dinner with. Over three days, you'll experience powerful mainstage talks, hands-on workshops on freedom tech, and financial sovereignty, immersive art installations, and conversations that continue long after the sessions end. And it's all happening in Oslo in June. If this sounds like your kind of room, well, you're in luck because you can attend in person. Standard and patron passes are available at Osloof Freedom Forum.com with patron passes offering deep access, private events, and small group time with the speakers. The Oslo Freedom Forum isn't just a conference.

Starting point is 00:11:46 It's a place where ideas meet reality and where the future is being built by people living it. If you run a business, you've probably had the same thought lately. How do we make AI useful in the real world? Because the upside is huge, but guessing your way into it is a risky move. With NetSuite by Oracle, you can put AI to work today. NetSuite is the number one AI Cloud ERP,

Starting point is 00:12:09 trusted by over 43,000 businesses. It pulls your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into one unified system. And that connected data is what makes your AI smarter. It can automate routine work, surface actionable insights, and help you cut costs while making fast AI-powered decisions with confidence. And now with the Netsuite AI connector, you can use the AI of your choice to connect directly to your real business data. This isn't some add-on. It's AI built into the system that runs your business. And whether your company does millions or even hundreds of millions, Netsuite helps you stay ahead. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get their free business guide demystifying AI at Netsuite.com slash study. The guide is free to you at

Starting point is 00:12:57 Netsuite.com slash study. When I started my own side business, It suddenly felt like I had to become 10 different people overnight wearing many different hats. Starting something from scratch can feel exciting, but also incredibly overwhelming and lonely. That's why having the right tools matters. For millions of businesses, that tool is Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all ecommerce in the U.S. from brands just getting started to household names. It gives you everything you need in one place, from Amazon,

Starting point is 00:13:34 inventory to payments to analytics. So you're not juggling a bunch of different platforms. You can build a beautiful online store with hundreds of ready-to-use templates, and Shopify is packed with helpful AI tools that write product descriptions and even enhance your product photography. Plus, if you ever get stuck, they've got award-winning 24-7 customer support. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash WSB. Go to Shopify.com slash WSB. That's Shopify.com slash WSB.

Starting point is 00:14:16 All right. Back to the show. So really it's important to understand that China is not just China. So basically, think about what happens whenever China devalues the currencies. That means that the Chinese will buy less in Europe. means that they were buy less in Japan. Guess what? Then the Europeans will buy less American goods

Starting point is 00:14:38 and the Japanese will buy less American goods. And I really think that the discussion about China was one of the most interesting ones here of the day was meaning. And China is really going through a transformation and I found this really, really fascinating because when we usually think of China, we think of this as either a country in the primary sector. and when I say primary sector, it's something like mining, agriculture, fishing.

Starting point is 00:15:07 At least that is what we used to in the previous decades. And today it's more perceived as a secondary sector type of country. So we would think of China in terms of industry, really cheap labor. And what's happening these years is that that was one of the main topics here at the Davis meeting is that that's really not the truth anymore, at least not the whole truth. China is growing more and more in the third sector. This is the service sector. And that's usually what you would see in Western Europe.

Starting point is 00:15:38 And that's what you see in the States. You know, they have this huge service sector. And it's growing rapidly in China. It's growing more than the overall economy. And I think it's important for people to understand that the Chinese are looking less at the states and they're looking less in Europe. They're actually looking more domestically right now. because they have this growing meat class, they have more and more money.

Starting point is 00:16:02 And just to give you some numbers. So the states, they usually know for being pretty big in consumption. So I'd say around 70% of GDP, that's consumption. In China, it's just grown from 44% to 51%. I mean, it's a huge factor in China, but also the world economy. So really good points that Stigs bringing up here. And what he's potentially talking about is a shift. and global power is what's really this is coming down to.

Starting point is 00:16:32 And my opinion on this is when you don't have the wealth across the domestic country, let's take the U.S. as an example, okay? If you don't have that wealth distributed equally across all the participants, it's very hard to have sound spending habits or uniform spending habits across the country. So as we look at the United States, the wealth has truly never been more focused on, with a few select people at this high of a level since really kind of the 1930 time frame or the late 1920s. That's when we've seen wealth focused on such a few amount of the population. And now you're seeing again at an equal level, I think I have a chart somewhere I could pull up that shows the percentage of the wealth distribution and the population. the focus on just a few wealthy. So when you have that happen, this is in my mind how I understand

Starting point is 00:17:30 this. So let me just describe it to the audience and you guys can make up your own mind whether you agree or not. But let's say we have 100 people in a room and that represents the U.S. population. If all that money is focused literally on one or two people in the room and everyone else has a much, much lower income level, when you're talking about things from a spending and consumption level between all those participants in the room, if a person has a person has a much, as an inordinate amount of money, one person in that room, they're still spending at a level that's, you know, what it costs to live every day. They're just paying for meals or paying for transportation. Now, yeah, they might have a little bit more excesses. But imagine if that money was

Starting point is 00:18:09 distributed. And I'm not saying that this is what I want to happen, so please don't take this in a political direction. I'm just describing things from a spending standpoint. If that money was spread across everybody in the room, what I think you would see is you would see an elevating and overall spending of everybody in the room. But because it's focused on, call it one or two people, those people are living their normal lives just like everyone else in the room. But you know what they're doing with all the extra money? They're buying financial assets.

Starting point is 00:18:40 Okay. And guess what? A financial asset doesn't necessarily consume like a person consumes. It might be a bond that that rich person in the corner of the room is buying. And so that's really what you have going on, in my personal opinion here, domestically in the U.S., you have this happening in Europe, you have this happening in Japan. You don't necessarily have this happening in China, in my personal opinion. And so from the distribution of wealth, when you have that uniformly distributed more than,

Starting point is 00:19:08 let's say, something that's more focused, you, I think, get more conducive spending to occur. And we're obviously talking about the long term because China right now is a mess. Okay, don't get me wrong. We're talking like 10, 20 year picture here. So they've got some levers to play with here. And they also got a reserve of $2 trillion in the green on their People's Bank of China balance sheet. They've got like in their treasury or whatever they call their treasury over there.

Starting point is 00:19:35 It's like $2 trillion surplus. Yeah, President, I really like your point that where you're saying it's really the middle class that's driving the economy, especially in the type of economy like the states where 70% is consumption. And just for a fun fact, or I'll know if it's a fun fact. And again, I don't want to be political or anything. But if we look at the states, the median wage, not the average wage, but the median wage is the same in the States as it were in the 1970s. And we still work more and more. More and more women are in the labor market.

Starting point is 00:20:03 So I really don't want to say if it's right or wrong. I'm just saying that that is what we're seeing right now. So what we see here also in China when we have more and more people, you know, be part of that middle class. You know what the middle class does? And it's amazing for the economy. They spend all the money. The middle class, they buy meals, clothes. Just enough to get by that month.

Starting point is 00:20:25 Yeah. So, yeah, this is a very real conversation that I think a lot of people need to think about. And really, a lot of this comes down to the focus of wealth, just the obliteration of the middle class and the inability for people to spend beyond just their daily income. And I think a lot of people out there don't have a savings. They're living paycheck to paycheck, and I think that that would be a majority of the population if you did a study and looked into this. All right, so enough of all that talk. Let's talk about this book. The name of the book is the one thing.

Starting point is 00:21:00 This book was written by Gary Keller and Jay Papason, and in general, this was a very good book. I think that this book is fantastic for the person out there that is just overwhelmed in their daily work. Let's just say you have a lot of things going on and you just feel like you can't ever focus on the thing that's really important. Go out and get this book. This book is for you, busy person that's having trouble prioritizing what's important. Go get this book, read it through, and I think that it's going to help you out tremendously. If you're kind of like a scatterbrain kind of person and you've got to know yourself, unfortunately, if you're the type of person that starts one thing that moves off to another thing and then goes over to something else and don't really have that follow thing,

Starting point is 00:21:45 or that finish with what you're doing, this book is also for you. This book is not for a person that is very focused. If you would describe yourself as a very focused person, you work very good and follow through and all that stuff. This probably wouldn't be the best read. I like this book. I think it was good. With that said, this is kind of like the love, hate relationship I have with this book. I'm listening to the book each day. And each time I'm listening to it, I was like, okay, yeah, I got that last time, got that. Okay, I need to be focused on the one thing. add value and really just nothing else. And so it got very repetitive.

Starting point is 00:22:20 But with that said, this is the love part that I had for the book is it did cause me to focus on the stuff that's really important and stopped doing a lot of the minutiae, which I loved because I feel like the last two weeks have been extremely productive for me as I've been reading this book. So that's, I guess, my assessment of this book. And make no doubt about it. This book is all about focus. This book is all about what is that one thing that's going to add the most value to whatever you're working on right now.

Starting point is 00:22:51 And when you're working on a bunch of different things, you know what you need to be doing. I know, at least I do. And I know Stig when we're talking about building this podcast or whatever. We know what we need to do next. And a lot of the times we don't do it. We do something else. Maybe we're, you know, sending out Twitter messages or whatever, which obviously is not the most important thing that we need to be working on. But this book will help you focus and this book will help tell you what the most important thing is that you need to be working on.

Starting point is 00:23:19 Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. No, it's not your imagination. Risk and regulation are ramping up and customers now expect proof of security just to do business. That's why VANTA is a game changer. VANTA automates your compliance process and brings compliance, risk, and customer trust together on one AI-powered platform. So whether you're prepping for a SOC 2 or running an enterprise GRC program, VANTA keeps you secure and keeps your deals moving. Instead of chasing spreadsheets and screenshots, VANTA gives you continuous automation across

Starting point is 00:23:54 more than 35 security and privacy frameworks. Companies like Ramp and Ryder spend 82% less time on audits with Vantza. That's not just faster compliance, it's more time for growth. If I were running a startup or scaling a team today, this is exactly the type of platform I'd one place. Get started at vanta.com slash billionaires. That's vanta.com slash billionaires. Ever wanted to explore the world of online trading, but haven't dared try? The futures market is more active now than ever before, and plus 500 futures is the perfect place to start. Plus 500 gives you access to a wide range of instruments, the S&P 500,

Starting point is 00:24:38 NASDAQ, Bitcoin, gas, and much more. Explore equity indices, energy, metals, 4X, crypto, and beyond. With a simple and intuitive platform, you can trade from anywhere, right from your phone. Deposit with a minimum of $100 and experience the fast, accessible futures trading you've been waiting for. See a trading opportunity. You'll be able to trade it in just two clicks once your account is open. Not sure if you're ready, not a problem. Plus 500 gives you an unlimited, risk-free demo account with charts and analytics.

Starting point is 00:25:11 analytic tools for you to practice on. With over 20 years of experience, Plus 500 is your gateway to the markets. Visit Plus500.com to learn more. Trading in futures involves risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. Not all applicants will qualify. Plus 500, it's trading with a plus. Billion dollar investors don't typically park their cash in high yield savings accounts. Instead, they often use one of the premier passive income strategies for institutional investors, private credit. Now, the same passive income strategy is available to investors of all sizes, thanks to the Fundrise Income Fund, which has more than $600 million invested in a 7.97% distribution rate.

Starting point is 00:25:58 With traditional savings yields falling, it's no wonder private credit has grown to be a trillion dollar asset class in the last few years. Visit fundrise.com slash WSB to invest in the Fundrise Income Fund in just minutes. The fund's total return in 2025 was 8%, and the average annual total return since inception is 7.8%. Past performance does not guarantee future results, current distribution rate as of 1231, 2025. Carefully consider the investment material before investing, including objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. This and other information can be found in the income fund's perspective. at fundrise.com

Starting point is 00:26:37 slash income. This is a paid advertisement. All right. Back to the show. Yeah, I completely agree with your president that everyone always knows what they should be doing, but for some reason, we just don't do it. If I look at myself in my day job,

Starting point is 00:26:52 I should usually be preparing for the next semester or now the semester's start. I should be preparing for the next lecture. But you know what? It's really not that funny. And it requires a lot of concentration and requires me sitting down and really not be doing anything else than that. And for some reason, it's just not easy for me to do.

Starting point is 00:27:12 Let me give you another example. So right now we're in the middle of changing our platform. Now, so for the podcast, and Preston and I, we've been discussing this for a long time, and we both know that this is extremely important. If we have to change our platform, then we have to speak to experts. We also have to do something we're not completely comfortable with. It's just easier just to postpone that, that kind of. a job, at least for me. And I can just see it. And that's also why Preston is smiling right now

Starting point is 00:27:39 and saying that, well, we've been really productive what we did the last two weeks, that probably because we read this book, like, we know what's important, but we just don't do it. There's no doubt. The reason that I've been so productive is because I read this book. But I didn't like the book. I think at the end of the day, I didn't like it, but I liked it in a weird way. So it's, I don't really even know how to describe it. The book helped me be more productive, so that's why I liked it. But as far as the repetitiveness in it, I was like, oh, geez, okay, I got it. I need to be focused. One of the things I really liked, that one of the takeaways is that I shouldn't be busy. At least that was how I looked at it might sound

Starting point is 00:28:17 extremely weird, like, why shouldn't you be busy? And one thing that I really started to realize is that in corporate Denmark and in corporate America, it's almost like a bats of honor if you keep telling people, I'm so busy. I don't have any time to do whatever. But one of the things in the book is that you shouldn't be busy because if you are busy, you are not creative. You don't have the bandwidth to really do what's important. Instead, you're just running around in a loop. And I can just see that from myself. I feel like one of those hamsters, you know, that's just keeping on running because I have this schedule set out and I'm also a very organized person. So I kind of like to know what I'm doing next Tuesday at 2.15. I really like all these plans, but it's also very bad for me because

Starting point is 00:29:01 I don't set aside time to be creative and to do what's most important. Instead, I just do what's in my calendar. So I try not to be busy. That's one of my takeaways from this book. So one of the things that I want to highlight, I think that if you're a project manager or you're somebody that really is in charge of a really big project, this book is probably going to be a little frustrating for you. So let me put this into some context. I really had an amazing experience being an assistant project manager for the government. And believe it or not, the government, because they're making such large acquisitions, these are huge purchases.

Starting point is 00:29:41 They put people like me at a young age in charge of, you know, potentially some really large programs. Well, this was a couple years back. I was in charge of a portfolio of about $1.3 billion of acquisition. So all that money, I was in charge of building and constructing stuff, if you will, different pieces of equipment, new and developmental projects. I was in charge of spending that much money and basically creating and adding value and working with industry and putting them on contract and all that stuff. So when you're dealing with a project size and scope of that magnitude, you can't just do one thing. Okay.

Starting point is 00:30:20 And it briefs really well from this book. But let me tell you, you might have up to a thousand parallel tasks that are all happening at the exact same time. So what this book is really getting at is what's your critical path? If you have an end state, let's say you're going to build an iPhone. That would be a perfect example. They do this at Apple. So if you're going to build an iPhone and you're a project manager, you have to lay out

Starting point is 00:30:44 all the steps. And I mean every single solitary step from the start and to the finish of how that's all going to take place. So you've got to develop the circuit board. Well, inside the circuit board, there's, you know, 10 other tasks. Inside of one of those tasks, there's another 10 tasks. These things are all happening in parallel. And some of them are happening, not in parallel. They're happening in series, meaning one thing can't happen before the next. And what this is, is this is how you accomplish really, really big things. You're an expert in managing all of these things happening all at the same time and happening in series. What I would tell you is reading a

Starting point is 00:31:24 book like this is great for the beginner. This is fantastic for that person as maybe trying to manage a small project or something that's not really all that complicated because it gets you to focus on the critical path. What's really important? As you get more advanced, you know, for like somebody who's a systems engineer and does this every day, let me tell you, I don't think that this is probably a book that you're really going to enjoy that much because it's really quite basic and it's got a simple message. But what it is saying is when you line up all those things that you're doing, when I look at our podcast and the brand that we're trying to create and everything else, there are critical path items that need to take place. And there's other things

Starting point is 00:31:59 that are happening in parallel. And what it's telling you is focus on the critical path. We refer to it in project management land as beat down the critical path. Focus on the critical path. Make sure you don't slip the critical path. And that's that one thing that is going to hold. hold up your timeline, which turns into cost in the long run. Just some thoughts for people out there that have maybe never managed a big program like that and kind of how that all works and how that's all fit together. A very recent example of how this book has actually been helpful for us. And I know that we keep saying that there's a lot of things we don't like from the book. And then we keep saying, but there have been like thousands of things that have held us with

Starting point is 00:32:37 just the last two weeks. But as an example, I have had many inquiries of people that want to build apps for us. I don't know why, but recently it's just been like a ton of people wanted to build apps for us. I was really excited about this because, wow, it sounds cool to have an app. So prior to the podcast, not this episode, but I asked Preston about that. He was like, you know, Stick, I think it sounds cool to have an app, but what should we really use it for? And I was like, I have no clue. I had no clue what we should use an app for. And it was really just going to be an extraction, especially for an entrepreneurial type like me, new shiny things. It's awesome.

Starting point is 00:33:16 I just said like five minutes ago, we should be changing our platform. That's the most important thing. And it is. And here I'm thinking, you know, start talking about how we should build an app, which I have no clue how to do instead of focusing on that one important thing. And your story, you make it sound like I'm the focused one and you're the scatterbrain. And in reality, folks, it's the opposite way around, I assure you. in any case

Starting point is 00:33:40 this is definitely one of the good things about having a partner because you can get so much sucked into like one thing that you just think it's the most billion thing you ever thought of and then it's really good

Starting point is 00:33:50 to speaking with Preston Hughes for instance for the app and say so why which is like the most horrible question you can ask for an entrepreneur right because you just have this

Starting point is 00:34:01 voice screaming and head saying it's just cool but you know guys if that's the only thing you can come up with you should probably not be doing that. Oh my, Stig. If you could really hear all the other conversations with my scatterbrain ideas.

Starting point is 00:34:16 All right. Well, there's a lot of points. So here's the main point. We wrote an executive summary of this. And we go chapter by chapter for all the main points. And there's a lot of things that we really didn't talk about with this book. But there's one thing. There's one main thing with this book.

Starting point is 00:34:30 And that's that you need to focus on that one thing that's going to add the most value. 80-20 principle, all that kind of stuff. stuff we've talked about in the past. But really, if you get the executive summary from us, we've got every chapter, there's 18 chapters that are outlined here in the executive summary. So just download that if you guys want to learn more. Maybe you just read that because it gets the point. But I think the main value with this book was me having to listen to it every day. And it just basically saying half hour at a clip, you need to be focused. You need to be focused. And so when I heard that for the entire day, it actually made me focus more. So the name

Starting point is 00:35:06 of the book is the one thing. If you guys go to our website, you click on our link for Audible, you can download this book completely for free. So we highly recommend that any book. You can use this one. You can get any other book. But that first book is completely free. So if the book is 30 bucks, free gift from Stig and I for you to download that, that free book. We really appreciate everything that everyone in our audience does for us. The comments that we get are just phenomenal. You guys are steering the show. You might not feel like it, but you guys are really steering the direction of this show because of the comments that we receive and what you guys want us to focus on. So keep sending those messages. Go to AsktheInvesters.com, record your

Starting point is 00:35:45 questions so we can play them on the show. I think what Stig and I are going to do is kind of consolidate the questions into one episode every month or whatever, and then we'll do that. We'll send out our free book to anybody that records the question and gets it played on the show. So that's all we have for you guys. I hope you guys enjoyed the conversation and just continue to watch your finances very closely. Realize that there's a lot of risks out there in the market. I have no idea how deep this could go or if it'll even go deeper. I don't know. The Fed could come out and ease tomorrow. You know, you never know. But I think that the main thing that people need to understand is that there are risks in the market and you just need to be prepared for those

Starting point is 00:36:23 and a lot of downside risk exposure for you. So great chatting with you guys and we'll see you next week. Thanks for listening to The Investors podcast. To listen to more shows or access to the tools discussed on the show, be sure to visit www.theinvestorspodcast.com. Submit your questions or request a guest appearance to the investors podcast by going to www.w.com. If your question is answered during the show, you will receive a free autographed copy of the Warren Buffett Accounting Book. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. This material is copyrighted by the TIP Network and must have written approval before a commercial application. Thank you.

We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP 075 : The Davos World Economic Forum and The One Thing by Gary Keller (Business Podcast)

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.