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
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
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.
craziness.
you're like, "Where is this going? I
promise there's a point." And it was it
it got to the point where it started to
become a little bit debilitating. It
started to get in the way of like how I
live my life. And so we had to go on
this trip back in the day called
Expedition 8. So you did an eighth
grade. It was like you went camping. It
was like a field trip. And so we had to
go five days uh in the middle of the
woods with like our grade. And so we
went out camping. Um and I committed
that it was going to be impossible for
me to like be a germaphobe in the
forest. I was like, "This is like I this
is not going to work. I'm not able to
eat, right? And so I basically was like,
I'm just going to not wash my hands and
I'm just going to eat everything that's
there and just just not worry about any
cleanliness. And if I die, I die.
And so the craziest thing happened. I
did the five days. I had dirt on my
hands while I was eating the food. I
didn't wash my hands once. And then at
the end of the trip, I was still alive.
And then I waited another week to see if
all of the maladies that were probably
inside of me were going to come to
fruition. And none of them did. And then
at that point, I was like, so all of the
energy that I had been putting into all
of this concern around germs amounted to nothing.
nothing.
That was a hu it was actually a very big
moment for me. And I I have maintained
that viewpoint um you know for the rest
of my life. like just don't sweat about
that stuff. And so other people's
opinions are a lot like those germs.
You think the whole time like you know
what if they like you're holding your
breath. What if they say this? What if
this happens? It's like well what if and
let's play it out. And then you realize
that not only did you not die, no one
cared to begin with and no one's even
thinking about you. And so like and as
somebody who has had a fair amount of
like different people try to take shots
at me. Nothing's changed in my life.
Nothing. People make hit videos. People
take stuff out of that I said out of
context. Um that's okay. It's the
internet. If I expect to be completely
understood, that is a that is a that is
a silly goal to have. And I'll give you
another story that really drove this
home for me. So I was on TikTok. I think
this is this is a a while ago. And I saw
this really old white dude, just normal
generic white dude, just giving like
financial advice, talk about the economy
or whatever. And he was getting roasted
in the comments, like, you know,
grifter, like old man go home, like all
sorts of craziness, just telling like he
was a, you know, fake guru, whatever.
The guy was Ray Dallio.
He's worth $30 billion and he's like 79
and he's just trying to like help
people. He's like on TikTok trying to
like help the younger generation. And
when I saw that, I realized that you
cannot save like you will never be
legitimate to the ignorant
and to and and that
to be hated by a bad person is a good thing.
thing.
Think about that. Many of us want to
avoid being hated in general. And I
understand why. It makes sense. No one
wants to get hated when they're when
you're growing up, etc. But think about
the worst person in the world, right?
Right?
Like we should judge, we should judge
our character by the quality of our enemies.
And so if somebody who's completely
ignorant, who has no context, wants to
speak ill of you or your goals, your way
of life,
take it as a compliment
or at the very least just feel bad for
the fact that they don't know any
better. But in no way should put weight
on what they say in the the scales of
how you decide how to live.
And so, anyways, I just say this because
like I had I've had too many voices that
were too loud for too long in my life
that prevented me from doing the things
that I wanted to do. And so, I share
that little story about Expedition 8 and
the dirt under the fingernails, if you
will. Um, that those germs,
you think that they're going to kill you
and then nothing happens. They're just
germs. Real quick, I'm going to show you
the exact 10-stage road map from zero to
100 million plus that less than 1% of
companies finish I've now done multiple
times. And so I can say with a lot of
confidence that these are the stages as
headcount increases that you need to get
through. And I broke each of these down
by eight different functions of the
business, what the constraint feels
like, like what are the symptoms of it
when you're going through it, and then
what steps we actually took to graduate.
And we've done this across software,
physical products, uh, service
businesses, brick-andmortar, all of
this, and it works. And it's my gift to
you. It's absolutely free. And so the
link's in the description, but you just
go acquisition.com/roadmap.
Just enter your info and it'll spit it
right back to you. All free. The biggest
gains come from the unknown.
So that unknown upside. And so
functionally, like you can only go to
zero, right? And if we really play it
out, the likelihood of you going to zero
as a regular person is almost zero, right?
right?
But Baso said this best which is uh
humans underestimate the upside and
overestimate the downside is one of the
fundamental psychological biases that
humans suffer from. And it's because
there's no real benefit for humans
besides avoiding death. And so it makes
sense that we'd have cognitive biases
that disproportionately represent
downside because if you didn't do that,
your genes would not have proliferated
and come down generations, right? The
guy who thought, hey, maybe there's some
upside if I eat the the berries, it's
like, well, then they die, right? And
then that's that's the end of that guy,
right? And the end of his line. And so
all the optimists are dead, right? All
those genes ended. And so all that's
left is the pessimists that continued to
believe that the worst was happening and
the world and the sky was falling. But
it's like the world has changed. Our
genetics haven't. And so it's like we
have to make these conscious decisions
to realizing that all of the upside is
in the uncertainty. And the fact that
you were uncertain, so is everyone else.
But that is where the arbitrage lies.
The arbitrage lies in the uncertain and
the delayed. I'm going to say this
again. All the upside that you want in
your life is on the other side of
uncertainty and delay. Everything. And
it's because those the two things that
people are unwilling to to bear the
price of. They will not pay that price
because it feels like too much because
they don't know how much they have to
pay and they don't know how long they
have to pay it for. But I'm telling you
that it is it is faster than you think
it is and it is not as scary. But you
have to take the first step. And this
again apply it scales all the way up,
right? Like we're taking some huge bets
at acquisition.com. And there's a lot of
stuff that I don't know how we're going
to do it yet. But I believe that we have
the ability to figure it out because if
somebody else can figure it out, so can
you. It's not like they're made of
different tissue than you. It's not like
they spend different money than you do.
Every like these things are solvable.
And at the very least, there's somebody
who knows how to solve it. And you can
figure out how to do something for that
person so they can help you. Whether
that's money, whether it's a favor,
whether that's relational capital,
whatever you have to do. And so like if
I I want to transfer this to the
greatest degree possible because I had
so much fear. I was like, "What if I
don't figure it out?" You keep trying.
If you don't figure it out, of course,
like you just you didn't figure it out
that time. You'll just figure it out the
next time, right? Like unless you die,
right? And this a jock will quote, which
I I'm so angry that it's his quote
because I love it so much. But basically,
basically,
all failure besides death is psychological.
Did you die? No. Did you figure it out?
No. Guess what? You're not dead. Try again.
And I just wish I could pass it on
because like that's the worst case and
everyone's so afraid. What if it doesn't
Because if it doesn't work, it'll change
nothing. But if it does work, it'll
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
