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How to Get Ahead of 99% of People
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one in every 250 businesses does over 10
million dollars a year in sales and that
means that 99 of entrepreneurs never hit
it every business that I've started
since I was 25 has crossed 10 million
B2B services with Jim launch b2c
consumer products with Prestige Labs or
supplement company Allen our B2B
software and acquisition.com which is an
investment firm for all of the money
that we made during those businesses to
invest in other ones I feel really
confident that I can talk to the points
of helping you go from zero to a million
a million to 10 million and Beyond and
so this is just a visual put this in
context ninety percent of businesses
never hit
a million dollars a year in sales
90 doesn't look that way on Instagram
but this is the this is the vast
majority of businesses right now nine
percent of businesses cross this million dollar
dollar
threshold right and then only point four
percent which is one in
250 do 10 million plus it's so rare and
so the nice thing is that success does
leave Clues I want to kind of separate
this into two major categories one is
the entrepreneur and the other is the
opportunity vehicle they're pursuing
you'll notice I said leverage rather
than opportunity vehicle but
fundamentally leverages the difference
between what you put in and what you get
out and so you want to have the best
entrepreneur getting the most out of
what they put in and so if you have
those two things together then you
create a 10 million dollar plus business
and if you've consumed any of my other
content I used to talk about how
entrepreneurs does three main things
you've got skills you've got character
traits you've got beliefs I've thought
about this more and I've actually
simplified it to one degree which is I
think you just have skills
and beliefs character traits if you
think about this you're like I want to
become patient patient is just a general
term for lots of little skills and so if
you want to become more patient you want
to do things that patient people do and
that means that if I can train someone
to become more patient then patience is
a skill and so as a total side quest on
this what's interesting about this is
that you've probably heard people say
soft skills and like hard skills in my
opinion hard skills are just skills that
are easy to measure soft skills are just
hard to measure but they're both 100
skills that you can train and improve
and so if we say man I wish that guy had
better people skills what we mean is a
hundred micro skills that are like I
wish you would smile when someone walked
in the room can I train someone to do
that absolutely if I said hey I wish you
would greet someone by their first name
immediately every time they walk in the
door right boom that's trainable I wish
someone wouldn't interrupt it's like
okay well we can just give someone a
cookie every time they don't interrupt
someone and let someone finish their
statement and then we train them and so
all of these soft skills are just soft
because they're hard to measure doesn't
mean that they're not skills or they're
not important and oftentimes most of us
know that like within an organization
like the way that you gain influences
these soft skills that are hard to
measure but incredibly important so
if we're talking about how do we make
the highest leverage entrepreneur we
want somebody who has lots and lots of
skills and really it's about beliefs
that don't limit them if someone had no
limits in terms of what they believed
they could achieve then the only thing
that would limit them was their skills
but most of the times the beliefs that
we have are things that just decrease
our potential and it's not really our
fault because most the people that were
around us we grew up just by statistics
were poorer than you might want to be
and so they told you how they see the
world if there's ever something that's
going to be on my Tombstone it's this
quote which is
we question all of our beliefs except
for those that we truly believe and
those who never think to question and so
like the things that you actually
believe they're so invisible to you
because that's just your lens The Roots
you see the world whereas when you're
like I want to debate this point it's
like you don't really believe that you
just have an opinion on it or you have
some assumptions that you're willing to
back right but the true beliefs of like
well no one would be willing to pay for
something like that or like that doesn't
exist I didn't know that was possible
you don't even question those things
because they weren't even in your mind
to begin with it's the unknown unknowns
that are the things that limit us the
question is how do we up level someone's
beliefs so let me give you a a quick
example here so there was an
entrepreneur that I know who had a
fitness app he was a super high level
CrossFit games competitor and he started
this app and he didn't want to tell
anybody about it because he never plays
top three he plays fourth place in
multiple competitions which is insane
um but he had a belief that if he wasn't
the winner he didn't deserve to have an
app like think about how crazy it is but
he he didn't question that that was just
what he believed reality to be like well
of course of course I wouldn't want it
and so he built this app for himself and
just the members of his gym but the app
was so good that people started sharing
it and finally a client of his was a
marketer and said you need to start
marketing this you need to start posting
about it and he wouldn't post and
finally she convinced him to just make
one post and he like doubled his Revenue
he'd gone from like 20 000 a month to a
hundred thousand dollars a month with
his app simply because he changed his
beliefs and so like fundamentally he had
all the skills like he was already a
really good CrossFit games competitor he
already had the product that was really
good and he already had the skills to be
able to Market it he was just choosing
not to unchaining an entrepreneur is
figuring out the reasons they give for
why they can't do something those are known
known
limits right well I can't do it because
of X that's the things that you know
because you can even explain it I can't
do it because I'm not number one I can't
do it because I'm not in good enough
shape I can't do it because the app
doesn't load well enough I can't do it
because it's only on one platform I
can't do it because insert whatever
right now the dangerous ones are the
unknown unknowns all right
that's an N my whole goal when I started
my chain of gyms was that I wanted to be
America's next gym so I bought the
trademark United Fitness I was really
proud of it I had six locations I joined
this group of Internet entrepreneurs now
mind you this reason I think this is
funny is because I was sold by the sales
guy that there was other gym owners in
the room and they were all like doing
well and doing stuff uh on the internet
too got in the room not only were there
no gym owners there weren't even any
brick and mortar business owners in the
room and so I was like wow this is a
shock and so everybody's going up there
explaining their like ads and their
funnels and their upsell prices and all
this stuff and I get up there and I'm
like I own six gyms and I was like but
these are the ads I run to get members
into my gyms the thing is I gave this
whole breakdown of everything I did and
how open every location at full capacity
on the first day without taking cash out
of pocket all the stuff
and I remember the uh the guy who's
running the the whole the whole group
and I really looked up to this guy at
that time because he was the first
person who's like way more successful
than me that I actually had access to
and so I think at that point he was
doing a million dollars a month and I
remember thinking like whoa like and so
I go through this whole presentation I'm
talking as fast as I can explaining all
the stuff that I do and uh he stops and
he's like Alex um
I don't think you should be in the gym business
business
and I remember hearing that it was like
time slowed down because I felt like you
like punched me in the gut because this
was like my whole plan my whole dream
this is what I was going towards
um but I like paused and just like hurt
him out he said
you have a level 10 skill set and a
level two opportunity I don't think you
should be running gyms I think you
should be teaching people how to do what
you just walked through
and I had to believe and I still do that
if someone's further along in the game
of business you always have things that
you can learn from them and if I paid to
be in this room if I don't take the
advice it's the closest thing to me
burning all the money that I paid to be
here and so
when he told me that to me that was an
unknown unknown I didn't know that there
was another opportunity vehicle outside
of me just owning gyms like I didn't
know it was possible so I hadn't thought
like I didn't know how franchises worked
I didn't know how licensing worked I
didn't know how how any of I didn't know
how to B2B National any of that stuff
worked now there were some skills that I
would have to learn in order to enable
it but I couldn't even start on that
skill path or see the deficiency of
skills that I had because I didn't even
think I could pursue it and so these are
the ones that in my opinion are the most
powerful to overcome it's the things
that you didn't know were possible I'll
give you a different example in Chain of
fairies which is one of our portfolio
company's amazing business super
successful single location and the
founder had an agency when he approached
me saying like hey I want to do what you
did with Jim launchpot with photography
studios and so we talked and we talked
and we talked and his model was so good
I was like I don't know man I think like
one of the things that I didn't have
with Jim launches they're like I
couldn't control delivery with
photography you can control delivery and
so that means that we could actually
centralize a lot of stuff I was like
what if we just owned all of them with
like a hybrid model we actually took the
agency from what it was doing which for
most people watching this would be a
very good business for you to zero
to start this next thing we had such
good rapport that he's like if you
really think so and we walk through the
math and he's like I mean this makes
sense but like I'm going to kill
something that makes a lot of money I
was like yeah but I think it's going to
be for something that's going to make
way more and then for the next six
months we worked and tweaked the
original model to get this new model off
the ground
and 30 months later that business is two
and a half million a month with 30 plus
locations because I said let's just Own
It All he didn't think that that was a
model that was really available and then
as soon as we made that switch
everything took off even in my own
personal story when I switched from
having my gyms to doing a done for you
fly around the country model that took
the same skills that I had as an
entrepreneur and put them in a better
vehicle and then even from doing the gym
turnaround business for two years I
accidentally fell into the licensing
model because I didn't want to fly out
somebody asked me if I could show them
all the stuff that I did so they could
do it for themselves and then at that
point he bought it and it was all margin
and I was like holy cow this is insane
that's when everything took off like a
rocket and so I had my brick and mortar
gyms and then I scaled to a done-for-you
turn around business and then I scaled
to licensing and each of those were
higher leverage opportunities and it was
because I didn't know it was possible
and so once I learned that it was
possible that unlocked all of the
potential value that my skills could
have because fundamentally in every one
of those examples I knew how to do the
same stuff I knew how to Market and sell
for a local gym I knew how to build them
more profitably create the workouts the
meal plans all that kind of stuff that
got people results that's what I knew
how to do but at each level when I went
from gyms
The Leverage increased from each of
these things and so the same skill set
put into a new bucket or a new vehicle
unlocked huge value
and that's why a lot of entrepreneurs
don't get past a million or even get to
10 million that they're in the wrong
vehicle so I talk about leverage a lot
and it's actually one of the Core
Concepts in our logo so we have a supply
demand curve and then we have the
fulcrum which is the acquisition.com
logo and it's because it's cord
everything we do if you think about Leverage
Leverage
you've ever heard Archimedes you said
give me a long enough lever and I can
move the world
this is our lever and we'll put our
little our little hand here that's my
arm if we grab the lever here we have
the most leverage on something that is here
here
if we grab the lever here we still have
the most leverage on something here but
we have less leverage overall compared
to how much we have on this side and the
main difference here is how much force
goes up the other side all right and so
Leverage is the difference between what
you put in
and what you get out
that's it so let me give you an example
in the real world if you are really
skilled at cold calling skill itself is
leverage because if somebody who doesn't
have the skill makes 100 phone calls
that's their input
and somebody who does have the skill
puts a hundred calls down and the guy
who has doesn't have the skill gets zero
appointment set and the guy who's
amazing at it gets 10 appointments set
he has well let's just say the first guy
had one for sake of math he has 10 times
The Leverage on that skill compared to
the Newbie getting and acquiring skills
gives you more leverage because it gets
you more for what you put in and so if
you're more skilled entrepreneur being a
skilled entrepreneur is a is a big
bucket for hundreds of smaller skills
underneath of it because it means that
you know how to prioritize what to do
next and so one of my favorite quotes
about leverage comes from Warren Buffett
Uncle Warren he and one of his closest
friends graduated Columbia business
school at the same time same year and he
said that guy was smarter and harder
working than him now they then went
their separate ways Warren ended up
getting into investing with Ben Graham
and his friend goes into the steel
business because that was back in the
day when like American Steel was like a
thing which it really no longer is what
he learned from that experience is that
you fast forward 30 40 50 years and he
said his friend you know did okay and he
said mind you this is a guy who was
smarter and harder working than him he
said he did okay he did pretty well but
not close to what Warren did and he said
his biggest lesson from that was it's
not about how hard you row it's about
What boat you're in and I love that
because it really encompasses the
concept of Leverage which is Warren got
more out
for what he put in than his buddy in the
steel business because the steel
business had a lot of headwinds a lot of
things going against them they had
globalizations that started started
happening you had other imported steel
that was cheaper from China blah blah
and so those forces he had to grow
harder Against the Wind than Warren did
while riding one of the best growth
curves of the US economy overall and so
he got higher returns and so over my
career I make more now than I did before
because I've moved further back along
this lever so I have more leverage now
on what I put in than what I did before
when I was selling one-on-one in person
and I was doing 20 consoles a day I was
working more hours probably than I do
now but I get so much more for what I
put in so I'm going to show you two
triangles that show increasing amounts
of Leverage all right now one of these I
have stolen ruthlessly from Naval
ravacon all right and so he talks about
the four types of Leverage I've renamed
them so they're C's and it's mostly just
so I remember them more easily but but
you've got collaboration which just
means other people working for you all
right then you've got Capital which
means other people worked for you and
gave you the fruit of their work so that
you can invest it on their behalf so for
example if I get people to give me a
billion dollars which I could do just
raise the money and then I invest that
money and I say I get 20 of the gain I
didn't have to work all the time to make
a billion dollars but I still get 20 of
it right that's the idea of using
leverage of other people's money so
Capital so you've got collaboration
Capital you've got code and content if
I'm a genius coder and I could build one
piece of software I can build it once
and people a million people can use that
same piece of software with content Joe
Rogan can make one podcast episode and
millions of people can listen to it and
so he gets more for what he puts in
right so if you think about each of
these things it's like you have the
influence on someone else I trade me
selling for 40 hours a week to me
managing a Salesman for two hours who
then sells for two for 40 hours a week
or higher leverage I spend a week or two
weeks recruiting the best sales
recruiter and then I do that one time in
my life for two weeks and then that
sales recruiter Works 40 hours a week to
get new sales people in every single
week on my behalf and then those sales
people on my behalf then sell every
single day and so I did two weeks of
work for a hundred sales people over the
lifetime of that one hire more leverage
I get more for what I put in compare
that to me taking 20 consults a day
higher leverage skill but same concept
done at scale Capital we went over code
content those are the four types of
Leverage now this is where this gets
interesting because like once I learned
this I was able to put words to what I
kind of knew intrinsically and I can now
explain it so if you look at my career trajectory
trajectory
see if I can draw a triangle here
all right and one of the key points here
is that you can actually just max out
one of these things so you don't need to
have all four now if you have all four
cool but if you think about what
leverages in general it's just you get
more for what you put in and so if you
get a thousand X on any of these it's
still a thousand X so somebody can just
be an amazing private Equity guy or
amazing at raising money and become a
billionaire they don't need to do any of
these other things right so it could be
amazing at galvanizing people and
creating movements and they wouldn't
need any of these other things if
someone's amazing at writing software
they don't need anyone else's capital
and the software does the collaboration
on their behalf right and so all of
these things like even though they're
structured like this you don't have to
have all of them if you do have all of
them well you look at Facebook that is
code about content you raise other
people's money and you have people
working for it but let me show you how
this changed for me
so in the beginning
it was dark I was an employee right
and I made
four figures a month
then I became self-employed I gained a
little bit of Leverage just over my own
time so I went from having someone else
control my time to me controlling my
time which was leverage all right I got
more for what I put in and I went to
five figures a month all right then I
went to employing other people
right which is then I would say the
first level is me now having the first
level of Leverage so into six figures a
month all right and this is right as I I
would say first when I started my my
gyms and I had multiple gyms and then
when I transitioned that to turnarounds
I still stayed at six figures a month
but fundamentally because I actually
didn't change leverage I changed how I
was structuring it but fundamentally
like it was people doing the same work
so this was both me being a gym owner
with six locations and
me doing the turnaround business with
other people
you're like how do you go from six
figures a month to seven figures a month then
then
you started licensing
now what is that
I made content fundamentally and then I
made it once and then many people could
have access to it
and so when I did that I went to seven
figures a month
now the question is how do I get from
Seven figures a month today figures a
month because that's what we have at
acquisition.com what did I add into it capital
capital
so now we buy into companies that have
other people working for them I use
content to attract those businesses now
I don't have any code right now I have
one software investment maybe two I
think that are major Investments but the
rest of my stuff really if we're talking
about it is that I made content I had
capital from the things that I'd done
before and we had the ability to get
other people to help us get our get to
our goals
and so this is acquisition.com
acquisition.com
and that's eight figures a month now
what do I need to do to get to nine
figures a month I may just need to add
time to the existing thing that I'm
doing key point is that Leverage is
about getting more for what you put in
people who move faster in life don't
actually move faster they get more for
their inputs they get more for every
step right I'm not like frenetically
moving to move faster you just get more
out of every move and so that means that
if you're getting more out of every move
it's a function of time
and so if I had for example maybe some
code that was implemented within
everything that I do at acquisition.com
I might be able to get to nine figures a
month faster than I currently am
but I feel confident with these three
that we'll get to nine figures a month eventually
eventually
and so you might say Alex that might be
a limiting belief it might be but that's
that's kind of how I'm choosing to play
it and so and let me let me like reverse
the clock here if I had just kept my
gyms from the time I started my gyms
until now
I might have a hundred locations
and I might also already be doing
nine figure not nine figure I'd probably
be doing eight figures a month from the
gyms and so you're like well wait a
second so was it the best move
I can't go back and replay time I don't
know but that's where to me this is why
the game gets interesting is that every
time you switch vehicles you start at
zero again so the pace that the leverage
affords you for each step you take has
to be disproportionate because you're
four of a business you'll typically grow
more than year one of a new business and
so that's we're doing the same thing for
a longer and longer period of time you
still get more leverage the guy who owns
Panda Express opens 600 new locations
this year because he he has done this
because now he has enough Capital he has
enough collaboration that he's Max no he
doesn't do any content and he doesn't
have any code right but he has these two
at such a high degree that when he adds
600 locations and each location does
three million dollars a year right or it
might even be I don't know it's a lot
and just to give you context Panda
Express in 2021 to 3.7 billion in Top
Line Sales and he owns 100 of it no
outside investors with his wife Peggy and
and
they took home 27 net margins on brick
and mortar food all right so let's do
the math that's 935 million in income
like that was his distributions from
owning this thing now if you're like
wait but did he pay taxes on it sure
didn't why because he owns all the land
in the dirt for most of the locations
that he had that are freestanding so
you'd appreciated all of that against
his income so you took all of that
tax-free so point being he did this and
you're like well how did he do it he's
been making chicken and orange chicken
and kung pao chicken for 45 years
so even though he might not have been in
the highest leverage vehicle
he was able to stick with that vehicle
for 45 years and being able to stick
with something for 45 years makes it
really hard to suck
and when you do that you start unlocking
multipliers on The Leverage you have
rather than thinking I need more
leverage in terms of more types of
Leverage maybe you just need more of the
one that you've been using since you
started with remember I gave the little
phone call example of like two people
doing the same thing one person has more
leverage well each of these things are
big buckets with many smaller skills
underneath of it so collaboration is I
have to know how to recruit talent I
have to know how to recognize talent I
have to know how to onboard I have to
know how to train I have to know how to
manage I have to know how to grow talent
and I have to know how to run meetings
and I have to know how to have
one-on-ones and I have to like you know
what I'm saying here like all of those
micro skills chunk up to collaboration
for Capital it's like you have to be
good at math being bad at math is
probably not like it'd be tough to raise
Capital if you really can't do math
right it's like okay well that's a skill
you need to know well what else do you
need to know it's like well you need to
be able to reach out to people and get
rejected why because when you try and
raise Capital you get rejected a lot
more times than you get checks right
from there it's like you also probably
have to have an understanding of legal
because you have to learn how to set up
a fun structure you also have to know
how to negotiate because every single
person writes your check is going to
want different terms you then have to
structure it in a way and negotiate so
that you can get mutually beneficial
terms for both parties so these are all
other skills that go into raising
Capital right making content it's like
you have to understand the different
platforms you have to understand how to
sell stories you have to understand how
to have I mean and even understanding
here it's just like you might even have
to just do the work to have credibility
to make the content about whatever
you're making it on and you know what
I'm gonna side quest this real quick a
lot of people make content right now and
they're trying to hit it big but what
they do is like in my opinion you've got
entertainers and you've got educators
the thing is is that a lot of people who
haven't done [ __ ] are trying to educate
on things they haven't done
and so they have no credibility and so
the thing is is that like the reason Mr
Beast was able to get so big is that
when he was 15 years old he wasn't
teaching people about business
he was being funny and being cool people
are like oh I want to be like him and so
then they say oh I'm going to educate
people on house flipping
but they're 22 years old and they
haven't flipped that many houses
and so they have no credibility in their
content and so in my opinion when you're
doing this content thing if you're gonna
do it then make sure that you have the
backing of experience and proof because
then I promise you like when you get
[ __ ] on from the public because you will
because they don't know who you are and
most people are lying you'll be able to
know that what you're saying is true
because you lived it and so then you
won't second guess yourself the people
who like tank and self-employed because
they're like they can't handle the hate
is because on some level they believe it
so if you want to be an educator then I
think that the middle ground the
pre-education stage is the documentation
stage where you just say this is what
I'm doing now check it out like right
now I can't educate really on nine
figure not really excuse me I can't
educate on nine figures a month haven't
been there I know what eight figures a
month is don't know how to get to nine
figures a month I have my theory which
is that I just have to add time to this equation
equation
the math spells that out but I just
gotta wait once I get there then I can
talk about how to build a billion dollar
portfolio and you can imagine how my
content might change right and so if
you're making six figures a year and
trying to talk about how to make seven
you've never made seven
then you're full of [ __ ] and you right
Felicia get the hate that you do right
and so these are skills that you have to
learn how to acquire to make content and
to make code you have to learn how to go
code and this is how little I know about
coding this is it so I would even give
you examples of micro skills but like
you have to learn HTML and JavaScript
and Ruby and python that's about it
that's all I know and data architecture
and uh
yep that's it that's all I got and so
you have to learn these these these
smaller skills to then say I'm very
excellent at code so that I can then
have more leverage on the things that I
do and then you can walk yourself up
this income ladder with more leverage
right and again Leverage is about speed
any of these vehicles that I had done if
I had done it for 45 years like Mr panda
you could get there
because my n on input is so high
if I spend 45 years doing something I
might not have the strongest arm but
I've done it 45 times more so I still
get more out than the guy that's over
here that does it two times
this is where strategy comes into play
is making sure that you're picking the
right vehicle Chris for example made
less money in the first nine months
scaling Enchanted ferries than he did
before but at month 10 he matched it at
month 24. it was it was like so small in
comparison that didn't even matter but I
can tell you this
really easy to say this really hard to
do that for nine months eat [ __ ] and
feel like you're losing and always
knowing that you could always go back
and that's the hard part go back to what
you were doing before that was
comfortable and made you X versus
staying the path and I can tell you it
was I mean it's hard for me I mean my
team does that like going from making
what I was making a gym launch to doing
acquisition.com the first year I was
like this sucks
like I'm used to being able to run any
personal expense for this business and
not even blink I'm like I actually have
to look at cash flow right and so like
these are things that you have to like
take in but I do believe genuinely year
10 of acquisition.com I think is bigger
than your 15 of gym launch to make the
Apples to Apples comparison because the
thing is is that you actually never get
an Apples to Apples comparison because
you can't go back in time and so you
have to look at what your ten of one
business is compared to your three of
another and so if you're at your sixth year
year
maybe you should just keep writing it
out because whatever you started with is
the thing that you have the longest
lever on number of times that you got
reps in and people want to change
Industries and I'll give you a little
tidbit from y combinator one is they
don't take solo Founders as a side note
now mind you they're only interested in
billion dollar companies so if that's
not you then you could totally be a
single founder but it's just harder to
be successful with one person skills
versus three
the second interesting thing that they
have they have many things they select
for but one of them is industry
experience and so if someone says Hey I
want to get into this industry if you
don't have any experience in that
industry and then second to that is
personal experience like you suffered
from whatever problem you're trying to solve
solve
then they're not interested
and so you might have six years of
experience in the mortgage business I
wouldn't recommend getting into weight
loss I would say maybe you take a half
pivot so you're in the same industry
because it's so hard to make up those
six years this hopefully gives you more
nuanced view to making the right picks
to making the most money by the way if
you guys like the Whiteboard and me
drawing on uh with markers this is a
throwback to what I used to do I finally
got another board because uh I love
these things uh but if you like this
style like let me know I love this style
but I just try and do the things that
that the data suggests that you like the
most I'll do what you guys want so that
I can hopefully transfer the skills that
I have to you faster I said earlier that
the unknown unknowns are the most
expensive thing in business right
because you don't know what you don't
know and so I want to give you a
quantifiable example I remember the
first time I heard this it changed my
life and so it was actually a whiteboard
just like this so you get to like I'm
getting Goosebumps you'll you'll have
the same experience I did so a guy was
on stage and gave this whole
presentation about about learning skills
and about how you have to invest in
yourself to get better right and he
called somebody in the audience and he
said ma'am and as he's saying this he's
doing what I'm doing he says ma'am
how much money do you make right now per
year she stood up and she said fifty
thousand dollars a year he was like okay
so what would be the the main reason
that you wouldn't want to invest today
right so he was closing this is actually
a close but as a side note I think the
reason I like sales so much is because
many of the obstacle overcomes that you
learn to overcome are actually self
[ __ ] and so in a way like learning
how to sell other people for me was
learning how to sell myself because I
had so much head trash of like why I
couldn't do things or why it shouldn't
start now or why I had to think about or
why I needed permission from someone
else or why the universe was stacked
against me to be successful like these
are all things that I had to learn the
arguments against to convince myself to
do stuff and so he asked the lady he
says okay so what would make you not
want to invest in this and she says well
and he said
well it's probably you probably don't
have the money because you've been
paying a really expensive bill every
single year and she's like what do you
mean he's like well right now you've
not knowing how to make a million dollars
dollars
he said this is the cost of your ignorance
this is the debt that you carry
for the rest of your life until you
learn how to make a million dollars
and so
the reason I'm so heavy on learning
skills and becoming educated is that
right now I'm paying down ignorance debt
I'm tamed down
950 million dollars a year not knowing
how to make a billion
it's dead I'm paying right like we all
paying her instead and so the idea is
how quickly can I pay this down so that
I can have more cash flow to continue to
pay this down faster now strategy like I
said earlier is about how you allocate
limited resources against unlimited
options that's the fancy word of just
saying prioritizing all right and so
right now you have limited resources you
have time and you have money now you
might have more time than money but
either way you have some limit on what
you have and so for you to move faster
you have to identify prioritize the
thing that you're going to allocate your
time and money towards right and you
want the thing that gets you the most
for it remember the input output that we
had over really The Leverage so you want
the thing that gives you the most
leverage now one of the one of the the
tough Parts about reality is that the
things that you have access to when you
have fewer resources are less than the
things you have access to when you have
more resources like Mr Panda can go buy
a building for a billion dollars and
flip it for two billion dollars in a
year or two
and make a billion dollars because he
has more resources than you do and you
can't do that right not right now
but you do have things that could get
you there which is why Charlie Munger
talks about how
do whatever you can do big borrow steel
eat ramen walk with your lunch pail both
directions do whatever you have to do to
make your first hundred thousand it's
because he understands and mind you him
saying a hundred thousand is probably
like a million dollars today because he
knows that once you get that you can
actually get a little bit more leverage
in terms you get way more for what you
put in because you can't only put your
time in because it's so limited in terms
of how much you can do all right so
this is why
I talk about having investing in the SME
500 more than the S P 500 so if you
don't know this is standard and Poor 500
companies uh on the stock exchange it's
probably like the gold standard index
that we track how the US economy is
doing it's really just the stock market
in general is doing all right and so if
you dollar cost average in the S P 500
you'd get nine to ten percent a year
for for life at least that's what it's
done historically all right so the
question is
rather than investing in this we just
have to say can we do anything that gets
us more than ten percent back
great now we can quantify this and so if
I have let's say a thousand dollars
right and here's the magic of this is
that when you invest a thousand dollars
into the s p you have no you have
nothing else
that you add to that thousand like you
can't juice the Thousand you bind the
same valuation that every other investor
Buys in at and so I'll tell you one of
the magic so I'm going to open open up
the curtain here for a second one of the
magic what we do at acquisition.com is
that we pair Capital with know-how and
so we can buy a company at a decent
valuation and have a big margin of
safety because of our skill set so we
know that we can triple or 10x the
business when we invest in it so we
don't have to pick amazingly like Warren
Buffett the better picker always will be
than I am right at picking businesses
but Warren Buffett doesn't work in the
business right so that's the advance
that's my advantage over Warren Buffett
right now mind you he has way more
advantages over me I made 90 billion on
his Apple trade but
but this is the game that I'm supposed
to play right now because here's the
leverage that I have on him
I have 60 more years of life than he does
does
right he's 93 I'm 33. so I have a lot
more of these left on my on my move set
okay now we have our thousand dollars
we get 10 meaning at the end of the year
we're at 1100
roughly okay or let's say you buy a
sales training course they teach you how
to sell and you get implementation from
that where they review some of your
calls so that you can improve and all of
a sudden you take your income from forty
thousand a year
to 220 000 a year
okay what does that mean that means that
that thousand think about this return
all right in scenario one you have
eleven hundred dollars in scenario two
and here's the crazy part you have an extra
extra
180 000 all right so compare this to that
that
but here's the crazy part
because once you have the skill
you only get better from there and so
one of the things my dad used to tell me
that um when I was growing up
was that he was always really big on
education because he came here a
thousand dollars didn't speak the
language and he learned English like
that was a skill he didn't have like we
take so many skills for granted like the
man didn't he couldn't even speak the
language of the country right in a
thousand bucks and he was able to take
his medical school education and apply
it here in the U.S because he fled
during the revolution in Iran and he
said the one thing that no government
can take from you and no wife can steal
from you in a divorce
and you can't get sued out of
is your education
they can't take it from you and he had
relatives who actually really well off
who actually owned the lottery in Iran
so he was a private company so they made
a lot of money but they were like second
third generation and they hadn't learned
the skills and so when they fled during
the revolution
they could only take what they could
carry because all of their assets got
seized by the government
and they never were able to go back to
what they had because they didn't have
the skills because the government could
take their assets but they didn't have
the education right and the guys who
were who were businessmen from Iran
straight to La became businessmen in in
LA and crushed it there too because they
understood the game right and so this is
why like if you think about it from
actually an investment perspective like
education can't go down it can't be
taxed it can't be taken from you and
only gets better over time right and it
compounds unto itself because when you
learn the next skill so let's say this
is this is what the lift we got from
from sales then you learn lead gen
and then all of a sudden this because
then you 5x the demand on your sales skills
skills [Applause]
[Applause]
and you just paid down your ignorance debt
debt
with two Investments and so like is that
worth it more
than putting the money in the s p in my
opinion every [ __ ] time
is going from 40 to 220 realistic if
you're a killer and you're part of Mosey
Nation absolute [ __ ] luly if you do
it the way we tell you to do it which is
you look at the top guy on whatever
company whatever team and you do twice
what they do because you know why
because they're going to be better than
you and so you've got to make up with
you got to make it up in inputs it's
like but Alex does that mean I'm going
to have to work harder in longer hours
welcome to the world like because think
about it if you work the same hours as
that guy that guy always has the
advantage because he's already better
than you and so if he puts a month in
and you put a month and he's gonna get
further ahead than you because he
already has skills through which to to
judge his own performance and improve
and so you have to put way more inputs
in to get the same output than that guy
and so that's why Kobe spent five
Summers doing two days when everyone
else was doing one a day because he knew
he had to make up for the guys who were
way better than him naturally and so
like I would like to think everybody
knows the nation as many black mambas
from that perspective is that we're
willing to put in twice the work three
times to work four times the work
despite the natural Talent deficiencies
to make up for it because on a five year
or a 10 year or 25 year timeline you
become unbeatable do I think you can get
to 220
hell yeah
but if you were to just look at average
which I don't want you to be but if you
were to look at average you might make a
hundred a year or 120 a year
it would still triple what you were
making before and if you don't adjust
your living from what you're making at
40 Mr Smart Cookie
then now you have even at 120
if this was 120. you have 80k a year
extra that you can then invest in more
skills to pay down your ignorance debt a
key Point here is I said that there was
an advantage that I have for Warren
Buffett which is I got money
and time
slash effort right if you go spend the money
money
but you don't put this in
then you lose your advantage
and so it's not just about spending the
money because here's an interesting fact
to it for you when you sell someone you
understand that the moment someone buys
they actually feel like they've solved
the problem emotionally
and so you can sell that because you
learn how to sell
but the reality is that that just gives
them the license to begin solving the
problem of whatever it is especially if
it's a skill or it's education based
here's my ask for you guys one of the
beliefs that I think has served me well
is that whenever I joined a group or I
joined a community or a free or paid or otherwise
otherwise
I always want to become number one
and the way that I thought about that
was and I always wanted to join groups
of people who are all ahead of me like
when I joined the internet group that I
was talking about earlier everybody
there was making more money than me how
do I get status in this group and the
way I did that was like be good you know
I mean make more money and so what I did
was I talked to every single person in
the group and I had only my small skill
set and I gave it to them for free and I
want to [ __ ] hit on this because I
get DMS every day about this
guy this morning even said it he said
Alex I want to make you a hundred videos
for free if
if
the amount of times that I get this
request whether it's I want to make you
this website in exchange for a job the
point of mosination the point of
everything they do acquisition.com that
I hope to live by example is that you
give first without asking
you're doing it wrong right you think
because like in the prayers like hey in
the spirit of monster it's like you're
not doing in the spirit motivation
you're doing the spirit of John are you
doing the spirit of you
the way that you do it is that you give
and then you give and then you give and
then you give and you keep on giving
until that person is like dude what can
I do for you and then you make your ask
like whenever I get frustrated and I
think like why do I even bother doing
this like I think about giving up I just think
think
this is where most people stop and this
is why they don't win
it transitions into one of my my most
used sayings to myself I don't say a lot
out loud but to myself it's like I won't
do my best I'll do what's required and
so right now what is required for you to
win or get a job or get the skill might
be better than your best and so it just
means that your best just needs to get better
better
all right so you might be riled up and
be like I'm gonna go do this and take
over the world and make all the money so
but you're like [ __ ] I got to pay bills
so how do we take this and then put it
into reality number one is like and this
is how you transfer any skills in
general by the way a little sneak peek
from the book that's coming up all right
coming soon
is it you have
the person who's teaching you documents
the skill that's step one step two is
that they do it in front of you so they
demonstrate it and the third piece is
duplicate you do it in front of them so
document demonstrate duplicate now
I can do this and I can do this
but you have to do this
I can't duplicate it for you you have to
take the stuff and actually execute on
it and so if you're like okay Alex
what does that actually look like in my life
life
I'm actually a big big proponent of
having jobs and I think that's probably
taboo nowadays but uh yeah why not get
paid to learn [ __ ]
and if you're like well the place that I
work at doesn't teach me anything then
you should absolutely go apply for other jobs
jobs
like change your conditions all right so
I'm all about
get paid
to learn and as an aside the reason that
keeping your living expenses low is so
important is because if let's say you
make a hundred thousand dollars a year
now you're like Alex I got a pretty good
white collar job right now but I really
want to get into this then it might mean
that you have to go from a hundred
thousand dollars a year to thirty
thousand dollars a year to learn the
skill because right now you go from
earning to learning all right and like I
want to I want to tell you like I walk
this walk so I was a Management
Consultant at a boutique strategy firm
in DC like we did like I had a top
secret clearance I was 20 like I did I
did [ __ ] that people could brag about
all right and then I went and became a
personal trainer at a gym for 14 an hour
think about that I went from a high-rise
condo that I owned to renting someone's
bedroom for 400 a month in their house
all right and I went from having you
know Hugo Boss suits to wearing beast
mode engaged t-shirts all right and
showing up at 4am like ready to teach
Nancy how to lose the last five you know
what I mean and so like
I had to swallow my pride on this
because I wanted to
I wanted to get learned
all right and so you have to be willing
to relinquish getting paid for getting
learned all right once you get yourself
in an environment where you actually
have a business that is investing in you
and it doesn't mean that they actually
have to write checks to be clear now if
you have a company that's willing to do
that awesome level one is
you communicate to them this is the
skill that I would like to learn upon
working for you and so you're like these
are the skills that I bring to the table
this is what I would like to learn is
this a place that I can do that
any business owner loves clear
communication it's like if you want to
learn that and if they're a good
business owner they'll be like let me
help you support now if they're like my
job isn't to teach you wrong place and
I'll be real a lot of business owners
are like that and so if you're like well
how man it's not fair it's like well I
mean getting paid to learn is a pretty
good deal it's just that that's not
always what happens and so I would say
switch your conditions but let's say you
finally get into a business that teaches
you stuff and you feel like you're
getting better you're moving faster I'd
say once you feel like and this is a big
once you have nothing left to learn from
the current position you communicate to
them that you feel like you're learning
is slowed down
and then they may give you another
opportunity to learn more and if they
feel like they can't actually teach you
internally they might say I'll pay ten
thousand dollars a year for you to go
through these programs or workshops or
seminars or whatever so you can wear
certifications so you can continue to
level up your skill a good employer will
do that and if you look at big Corporate
America as much people should own them
they usually have pretty strong
corporate reinvestment programs like
they why because they want their their
human capital to appreciate and so if
you can pay ten thousand dollars because
they do the same SME 500 except the snu
500 right they invest in you ten
thousand dollars and they get a three
times more valuable person like one of
the biggest Arbitrage opportunities I
know this is me talking to business
owners that's out there in the
marketplace is that you can pay 25 more
for an a player versus a b player and
you get five times the output so like
you think about value Arbitrage like
instead of paying 100 a year if that's
the market pay 125 and get five times
the output why would you never make that
trade once you've done this here are the
three steps that you can transition from
getting learned back to getting paid all
right number one is that you live below
your needs
the less risk you take in your personal
life the more risks you take in your
business life let's say that I own a
business that does 10 million dollars a
year in profit okay if my living
expenses are eight hundred thousand
dollars a month
then I'm not leaving much for the
business to weather a storm and let's
say that it's all fixed it's like
mortgages and cars and jets and all the
other stuff that I do well if there's a
hiccup the business might go under but
if I live on 400 000 a year then I have
9.6 million every year that I can go on
the offensive and I can take huge swings
I can be like I want to buy this company
even though it's risky but it might 10x
right and that offense is what you have
to do as an entrepreneur because you
have to take calculated risk but you
don't want to introduce multiple risks
if you can control it and this is
controllable risk okay so you live below
your mean so you can stack cash okay
level two is that you take this cash and
I want to be clear I'm actually kind of
against side hustles as a long-term
thing I'm Pro them as a way to
transition again this is how I play the
game I'm a maximizer like I want to win
big and so I think if you follow my
stuff that you probably wouldn't win big
too and so if you're doing a side hustle
it's because you want it to eventually
become your main hustle not because
you're just looking for side income I'm
just not that guy there's other guys who
will talk about that it's just not me
all right and so you stack the cash you
can start your side hustle and you keep
doing this until
so you start your side hustle and you
keep doing it until you match your
current income
and if you're like wait a second for me
to match my current income I'm gonna
have to work 40 hours a week in my job
and then work another 40 hours a week at
this thing yep and the thing is and this
is just you know one man's caveat
there's many different different takes
on this if you're not making more money
on 40 hours a week of the new thing
you're still not doing it right remember
I went from employed to self-employed
you have a level of Leverage so those 40
hours you have more leverage than the 40
hours that you're working for someone
else and if you're not making more there
then you're like you still need to keep
doing it until you've matched at least
at least matched your income and then
once you've matched the income I would
say sustain it for six months two
reasons one is because now you're going
to be making double time you're gonna be
making money on the job you're gonna be
making up money on earnings you're going
to be doubling your actual income which
means you might be like three or four x
in your savings and the second is so
that you don't just quit on the one good
month you had because you sent out three
clients okay we want to make sure that
it's not seasonal we want to make sure
that we can like it's not just normal
volatility because really small
businesses super volatile right if
you're selling two customers a month if
all of a sudden you sell zero your
income goes to zero right unless you
retain the people et cetera et cetera
and then
cut bait cut the cord and go out on your
own spread those wings get a beautiful
butterfly and a lot of people look at
this thing the side hustle and they're
like but this isn't Facebook like this
isn't sure it's not but I think a lot of
people put undue pressure on themselves
by expecting their next thing to be a
trillion dollar company and the likely
that it happens super super super super
super super small but again it's like
what are your goals if your goals are
just like get out of poverty get above
the middle class get above get into the
upper class like a lot of businesses can
get you there if you want to be a
trillionaire there's only a few and also
what we don't see is the zillions of not
zuckerbergs who put everything into
their social media thing and it didn't
work I'm a big fan of service businesses
because it costs you nothing to start
it's just your time you have no overhead
in the beginning those ones are harder
to scale but you'll usually learn a lot
of other skills during that part like I
learned more from running a gym that
allowed me to do gym launch like if I
hadn't run the gyms I don't think I
would have been able to do gym launch
and so think of whatever this is is as
the stepping stone and again we're still
trying to get learned like that doesn't
change we're just going to also get paid
as we do it and that's one of the
beautiful things about entrepreneurship
is that like once you get past a certain
level you get to get paid to learn more
and I think that's like for me why I
love the game so much is that you just
keep getting better and get paid to get
better don't judge yourself on the side
hustle and especially don't listen to
other people's judgment on your side
hustle you many people like I was like
Vanderbilt magna [ __ ] laude you know
white collar consultant job like head up
above Harvard you know GMAT score
say like and you want to become a trainer
trainer
like the amount of people that like I
used to compete against Frenemies
whatever you want to call it they were
like oh great he's he's out of the race
you know what I mean like he's he's
doing stuff to make himself happy right
you know I was younger and I probably
had more [ __ ] up [ __ ] in my head than
I do now but like I used to just think
about them all the time when I'd be
sleeping on the floor and I'd be selling
I was like they're not willing to do
this they're not willing to do this
they're not willing to do this and then
you come from behind
right and you do Kobe and you work twice
a day and while they're working their
job and they have their 3 Series BMW and
they're you know going out to dinner and
they have the the football on the
weekends in their fantasy league and you
have none of that
just know that you're doing your two
days during the summer or your three
days during the summer but because your
rate of input is so much higher than
theirs is you will catch up and you will
surpass them and that's if you want to compare
compare
and the main reason I don't think you
should judge yourself on whatever you do
is because in my opinion like I'm
married to the game right more than
anything like I'm going to keep playing
the game because I love the game and so
if you want to play the game a long time
then it's the game itself that you want
to stick with rather than the vehicle
you're in right most entrepreneurs start
more than one business over their career
you are above the business the problem
is that people identify so closely like
their identity is their business but you
have to just think about it and this is
me just trying to give you like a you
know Big Brother what do you want to
call it piece of advice but like the
further you can separate your identity
and your self-worth from the worth of
the business the better off you'll be as
an entrepreneur because you also start
to see as an asset that can be sold can
create value in the asset you can make
hard decisions whereas if it's you
you're like what will people think it's
like I made a decision about a business
that I own
that's okay Simon to neck is a great
piece on this but when I learned the
difference between infinite and finite
games it really changed my perspective
the infinite frame will always beat the
finite frame and there are finite games
within every infinite game and so you
have quarters you have years you have
goals these are all fine games that we
play in an infinite game and so when the
US invaded Vietnam we lost why did we
lose we lost a war of attrition which
was that they were willing to play the
game longer than we were all right and
so the difference between a finite
infinite game is that a finite game has
known players agreed upon rules and an outcome
outcome
and an end that's why it's finite an
infant game has known and unknown
players has no agreed-upon rules and the
point of the game is to keep the game
going and so the problem that most
entrepreneurs have is they approach an
infinite game with a finite frame they
are the United States trying to invade
Vietnam and you will lose every time
because there will be players who are
playing with an infinite frame and so
let me give you two more examples of
this if you want to get healthy right
you don't win at Health there's no end
goal to being held you're like okay I'm
done working out I did it I've achieved
it right of course not right same thing
with marriage right like you're not the
point isn't to uh get married the point
is to stay married the point is to stay
in the game to keep the game going most
of the game's worth playing are infinite
games not finite games which means the
point is to just play and so business
you don't win the point isn't to finish
because even if you're trying to say
Finish First it's like by what metric on
what time period
is there anyone who's been the richest
no of course not
which means that anybody who would try
to do that is is coming from a finite
frame and so but there have been people
who've won the game of business in my
perspective because they played their
whole lives if you want to be a stronger
player and be somebody who can succeed
as an entrepreneur then the day you
start playing is the day you win and the
day you stop playing is the day you lose
and so the goal is to find games that
you don't want to quit that's where
learning what you are into
from executing is the the mega win here
so for me I found out that I actually
liked business more than I liked Fitness
which was crazy because I loved Fitness
getting into fitness but like the day I
started my gym was the day my love for
business outpace my love for Fitness I
was like this is amazing this is so cool
and so you have to find whatever that
thing is and I'll be clear like business
sucks all the time but it's just that if
you're willing to play and like there's
plenty of times marriage sucks there's
plenty of time you don't want to work
out but it doesn't mean that I'm going
to stop working out doesn't mean I'm
going to stop being married doesn't mean
I'm gonna stop being in business and so
I think if you can unlock that frame
that you want to play until the day you die
die
even if the vehicle changes even the
players that you're playing with on the
court change
then you'll be the guy who stays on the
court the longest you might think oh I
don't like video editing or oh I don't
like you know dry cleaning or I don't
like mowing lawns I don't like washing
cars or whatever it is right but the
higher up you get in business the more
all businesses are the same right you're
going to have marketing you're gonna
have sales you're going to have product
you're gonna have customer success or
customer support you're gonna have it
you're gonna have Finance you're gonna
have legal like all these departments
are gonna these functions will more or
less exist in every business
and so my advice is like a lot of people
quit Industries when they really
actually just quit a function of a job
and so like they're like oh
entertainment wasn't for me it's like do
you know how many jobs there are in
entertainment like you might love sales
like sales in entertainment and you were
in enter the actual like product side
right or the production side or the
support side and so again remember I
said earlier that like if you stay in
the same game longer you'll you'll be
likely to get more reps in and you'll do
better well then maybe stay in the same
industry but switch roles now in a micro
business like your side hustle you'll
get to taste all the roles and you'll
find out the things that you like more
and that's where you can shift some of
your attention there and then you
backfill people who are because you have
a little bit of context good enough to
do what you do better you demonstrate
sorry you document you demonstrate you
duplicate they duplicate and then they
run with it right
and so
today for example my what I do looks
very different than what I did 10 years
ago right like what I did 10 years ago
was the highest value skill I had done
which was just closing that's all I did
I had consults all day because I got
trainers to train for me I knew how to
run the ads and that didn't take me that
long took me two three hours a week to
run the ads make make them and manage
them the rest of my time was sitting in
appointments and closing and I had
somebody else make the phone calls and
text for me so I would just sit there
and close because that was the highest
value thing I could do at the time but
the thing is is that your Baseline skill
will continue to level up if I lost
everything then like if I lost
everything I knew that I would sell cars
during the day and I would strip at
night right once I had that skill before
I had the skill of sales I would drive
Uber during the day and strip at night
because I had the skill be in shape
right and so your Baseline continues to
grow like being the best car sales when
you make 400 500 maybe even a million a
year at some of the best dealerships
like if you're an absolute Savage and I
would consider myself an absolute Savage
if I was going to do that right if I
lost it all I'd be there 12 hours a day
for sure and then once I learned how to
Market marketing and sales together my
new minimum was a million bucks a year
because I knew that I could sit in front
of any brick and mortar business and I
could get him leads and I could close
them once you have that you can make a
million two million three like I can't
go below that because I have skills that
are above that right you keep learning
these skills as you keep doing your
business and you might you'll start
ping-ponging in different directions
until you hone in on the things that
you're best at and so I think if you can
find that game make it the metascale of
continuing to learn
then you won't stop and then at that
point it means you win by default so we
talked about a lot of stuff right but
the question is like what's the next
thing you're going to do and so I'm just
going to give you advice that I followed
which is like what was the first thing I
did to get myself out of this million
dollar or below million dollar category
to the above million dollar category and
then to eventually the point four
percent 10 million category and it was
actually just learning how to sell
because if you can't sell anything you
can't make money it's the first part of
the equation number of sales times if
you have no sales doesn't matter how
good the lifetime values if no one buys
it zero so I have what we call the best
sales training on the Internet it's a
long keynote that I did that people
really dig and I think you'll hopefully
like it and get as much from it as it
took me years to consolidate it for you
it's a good bargain on your time to get
10 years of sales training into an hour
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