The core theme is that achieving significant success in business and life requires making deliberate trade-offs, embracing uncertainty, and overcoming the fear of potential downsides, as the perceived risks are often exaggerated compared to the actual outcomes.
Mind Map
คลิกเพื่อขยาย
คลิกเพื่อสำรวจ Mind Map แบบอินเตอร์แอคทีฟฉบับเต็ม
You're not getting what you want out of
your business or your life because you
want too many things at the same time.
You're not willing to make tradeoffs.
And I will prove it to you. And so, in
this video, I will break down the core
problem and the way to frame the trades
that you make at different seasons in
your life. And so, if you don't know who
I am, my name's Oxbow Rozi. I own an
acquisition.com. It's a portfolio
companies that did $250 million in
aggreate revenue last year. Uh just a
few weeks ago I broke the Guinness Book
World Record of fastest selling
non-fiction book of all time and doing
$106 million in sales who sold 3.6
million books in just under three days.
And I've only gotten there by making
trade-offs. And so everything in life
has trade-offs. And people just need to
determine the price versus the value.
Like anything,
there's going to be both of these
things. And so when people say, "I can't
believe he did this." It's because
they're only looking at the cost and not
the payout. Now, if you say, "Hey, that
guy made this trade. I wouldn't have
made that trade." Awesome. And that's
why you don't have to make that trade,
right? And so, let me give you kind of
like a a frame of mind for this. I was
thinking about this because we were
Leila and I were looking at uh home
stuff lately and we're thinking about uh
you know, buying homes and all that kind
of jazz. And one of the things that was
such a striking example is that you
cannot have it all. There are many
examples in life where it is this is not
a I'm sure you've seen it like you can
have it all. You can't. Let me give you
the example. If I say I want to have a
house that's in a ski town, but I also
want it to be near the beach, and I also
want it to be secluded, but I also want
to have uh town and shopping and walking
distance. And I also want it to be cozy
and not too busy, but I also want it to
have lots of space for activities and a
yard. I can't have all those things.
They are literally structurally
impossible for them to all be in the
same thing. One, the beach and the and
the snow mountain, probably not going to
exist in the same house. If I want to
have something cozy versus lots of uh
land and space, probably not going to
happen. If I want somebody to be in
walking distance, but also have a great
aerial view, might not happen, right?
And so each of these things, that one
could happen in a high-rise downtown.
Okay, that one maybe. All right, but but
there's going to be some of these that
you have to make trades. And I think
basically like confronting that is like
the core element of what you have to do
in life to move forward. And so many
people stay in decision limbo. They stay
in purgatory. And purgatory translated
into realities that they don't achieve
what they want. They don't get what they
want out of life because they never make
a trade to begin with. Right? And so
I'll give you a couple more common ones
like should I get married versus should
I not get married. This not should I.
It's just am I willing to make the
trade, right? Should I have kids versus
not having kids? Should I sacrifice my
20s versus sacrificing your 30s? There
are always tradeoffs. Like if you
sacrifice your 20s, you will miss out on
some of the kind of youthful fun
experiences that some people have. Like
that's a trade. That's real. you will
give up on some of that stuff. The
question is, what are you trading it
for? Now, the worst trades of all are
the trades that we don't consciously
make but still trade anyways, right?
Like, you didn't get the fun experience
of your 20s, but you also didn't build
the nest egg. You didn't build the reps.
You didn't build the experience so that
you could set yourself up in your 30s,
right? And so, a lot of like your 30s is
a is a reflection of how you lived your
20s, just kind of taken forward. Now,
some people I meet love their 20s. They
backpacked across Europe. They had all
these different experiences. They got
culturally enriched. And I love that for
them. That wasn't the trade that I
wanted to make. And so, it would be
ridiculous for me to say like, I I want
that. And I want to develop this very
deep well of skill set that I can use
for the rest of my life. Now, those
people for sure build skills. Are those
skills as marketable? Maybe, maybe not.
I don't know. Some people like, well, I
could travel and learn. Maybe I don't
know. I mean, I haven't like Zuck didn't
do that. Bill Gates didn't do that. Elon
didn't do that.
So, again, it's there's also to what
degree, right? How big do you want to
go? And so, I think like you can't
expect a 1% outcome without having a 1%
tradeoff, right? And I'll give you a
different kind of like I give you a
house example. Let me go really really
small. You walk into a store, there's a
pair of shoes you like. Okay? A pair of
shoes you like. You look at the price
tag, it says $500.
At that point, you make the decision. Is
it worth the trade? That's all it is,
right? And then if you see somebody else
make the trade, this is how dumb the
internet is. They will then say like,
that guy's an idiot. That guy's a
But the thing is is that if that guy's a
billionaire, who cares what he traded?
Like for him, it made sense. And if
you're on food stamps and minimum wage,
$500 shoes probably doesn't make sense
for you. Probably not worth the trade.
And so, is the trade inherently good or
bad? No, it's it's dependent on the
person and their context. All right, all
of these are examples of trade-offs,
right? And so the question is, what are
the trades and are they worth it? The
reason people struggle so much with
making trades is because they know what
they stand to lose, but not what they
stand to gain. So the cost is guaranteed
and fixed, but the upside is not, which
is why it's so hard for so many people
to make bets, especially on themselves.
And so if you had a single belief that I
could transfer to you is that you will
figure it out if hits the fan. And
when hits the fan, if it does, and
it will, the reality is it's not going
to be as bad as you think it is. And so
you have this fixed cost that you
believe that will happen, but isn't
actually real because it's a fear inside
of your mind. You think if this bet
doesn't work, I will go homeless, lose
all my friends, and die. But that's not
reality. The worst case scenario for
most people who are social, as in like
just are functioning members of society,
is that you crash on someone's couch for
a while. That's the actual worstc case
scenario. And I only say this because um
if you look at homelessness, right, the
vast majority of homelessness, not all,
the vast majority of homelessness um is
due to addiction and mental health
issues. So my point is most people have
this fear. Now, even the people who are
I'll say I'll be politically the
unhoused, right? The unhoused, even the
unhoused, uh, it's hard to say. It's so
funny. Anyways, um, even those folks
still have food, still keep living,
still have access to medical attention,
okay? At least in the US, in the develop
world. Okay? And so, I say this because
the worst case scenario is that you have
no boss, you have food, right? You have
medical attention if you need it, and
you walk on the streets doing whatever
the hell you want. That's the worst case scenario.
scenario.
Some people might say that's better than
their current scenario. And so when I
when I think about this, I I think I
think about this in in order to matter.
I'll say that to be honest with you,
which is that like your level of
subjective well-being doesn't change a
dramatic amount throughout your life. A
lot of it is inherited, right? Like your
your demeanor, your disposition. And
I'll give you a a simple example that
makes people uncomfortable. So think
about how how were dogs created, right?
So there were wolves, right? And then
there were some wolves that were a
little nicer than the other wolves. And
they were like, "Let's breed the nice
wolves." And then nicer wolves, breeding
nicer wolves, breeding nicer wolves.
Eventually you get a Labradoodle. Okay,
take it enough times. And so people
don't like to think about humans in that
same way. But like fundamentally, if
you've got breeding
they tend to make more And if
you've got nice guys and nice gals, they
tend to make more nice people. Of
course, there's genetic variety that
happens there, but over time that does
happen. And so that also happens with
happy people. and unhappy people,
believe it or not. And so a lot of that
like of course you operate within your
genetic potential of like you can move
things like you can have genetics for
muscle and never work out and you're not
going to have the same level of muscle,
right? Period. And so you might have
genetics for more happiness or genetics
for less happiness. Sure. And you want
to maximize those things. But I only
bring this up to say we have this idea
that we're going to like I'll do this
thing and then I will be happy. I will
do this thing and then all my problems
will be solved. But our brains are only
meant and evolved to keep us alive. And
most of that is about finding problems
and potential threats within our
environment which tend to keep us
stressed out and unhappy. And that core
unhappiness, that core anxiety tends to
move humans forward because we continue
to innovate. We continue to try to solve
problems because we all think that when
we solve that problem, we're going to be
happier. And we're not. But we do move
civilization forward. And so I bring all
of this up to say that the downside of
your bets are not as bad as you think
they are. And the upside of you making
it all work is also not as good as you
think it is. And so it's really what do
we want to do with our time?
And so the people who are rewarded most
in life are the ones who are willing to
simply embrace uncertainty and just
embracing the idea that you do not know
what will happen. And so big picture,
zooming back out, if we were to quantify
the trades that we're willing to make,
right, in terms of I know I'm going to
lose these years, but I will probably
look back on this time and not be upset
by it because of what I got in return.
And a lot of this comes down to the
framing of life happening for you, not
to you. And I think that you can live a
life without regret as long as you
always believe that you had to go
through that to get to where you are now.
now.
Period. So as much as you say like and
believe me I can go back and say if I
had known this at this time my god I'd
be so much further.
But how could I have known that at that
time? I had to go through this to know this.
this.
Right? And played out the other way.
Let's say that I did know it at that
time and then I I was better off now.
Now what? I'm just better off and I'm
still going to be probably about as
dissatisfied and satisfied as I am right now.
now.
And so
some of you guys are sitting on the edge
in decision purgatory. You're trading
the time you have. You're trading the
years of life, but you're not getting
anything for it. And so the only thing
that I would encourage you to do is be
number one conscious of what you're
trading. And number two, be conscious of
what you're trading it for. And as much
as the people around you will decry or
speak down or speak against you
for making trades, the question is, do
you want their life?
Because I have yet to receive criticism
from somebody who is ahead of me on in
any domain. I have not had people who
are bigger than me say that I sucked at
fitness and that I shouldn't work out. I
haven't had people who are richer than
me say that I shouldn't work as hard as
I do. I haven't had people who were
married longer than me tell me that I'm
doing something wrong with my marriage.
The only people who have to say are
the people who have time to say it
because they're on the sidelines doing
as in jack
And so I only say this because like it I
really struggled for a long time to get
over what other people thought. It was
very hard for me. Um and then I think
like at some level
like at some point you just have to
prove to yourself that you will survive
that you will not die. And I'll tell you
a very weird version of this story but I
think it it could wrap us up which is
this. So, believe it or not, um, when I
was in up until 8th grade, I was a
germaphobe. And, uh, that seems probably
maybe weird for you to see now. I mean,
mind you, it was a long time ago. Eighth
grade was a while ago for me. Um, but
before that point, I like like I would
hold my breath if someone was walking in
front of me because I didn't want to
breathe in their germs. If someone hit a
doororknob that I saw, I would like, you
know, use my arm and work my way around
and do all sorts of crazy, you know,
canoodling. Um, I would do all sorts of craziness.
