Fear, Envy, and Barriers to One Billion (on Driven CH with Albert Preciado) Pt. 1 May '22 Ep 422

In a candid conversation on the Driven channel with host Albert Presciado, entrepreneur Alex Hormozi discusses the journey to substantial business success and the lessons learned along the way. Hormozi emphasizes the importance of focusing on a single high-leverage opportunity for an extended period, which he believes is key to achieving seemingly unreasonable goals. He delves into the concept that hardship reveals character rather than creating it, providing a foundation for future resilience. Additionally, Hormozi touches on the significance of selecting the right business opportunities, the power of partnership dynamics, as exemplified by his relationship with his wife Layla, and the necessity of sharing success to maximize the potential of a business. He also shares personal insights on maintaining health and well-being, including his fitness regime and minimalistic approach to alcohol, which contributes to his overall business acumen and life philosophy.

• Alex Hormozi and Albert Presciado introduce the podcast.
• They discuss the theme of achieving $100 million in sales by age 30.
• The podcast is part one of a two-part series.

Mosey Nation, what's going on? We got a special podcast for you today. This is part one of the zero to $100 million in sales by age 30 podcast I did with Albert Presciado from Driven.

This quote introduces the podcast and sets the stage for the discussion on achieving significant sales milestones at a young age.

• The concept of using fear as motivation is explored.
• The discussion revolves around whether fears control us or we control them.
• The importance of focusing on one path to achieve "unreasonable" goals.

The three points that we hit on this one was the dark side of motivation. The things that we're afraid of and whether they use us or we use them, and how to focus on one path for an extended period of time to achieve the goals that are unreasonable in everyone else's eyes, but not your own.

The quote highlights the key themes of the podcast: the dark side of motivation, the role of fear, and the singular focus needed to achieve ambitious goals.

• Alex Hormozi discusses whether suffering is necessary for success.
• He suggests that hard times reveal character rather than create it.
• The value of past experiences is emphasized for future resilience.

Yes and no. So I don't think that suffering is a requisite for success. But I do think that it is very likely. And I think what it does is it gives us evidence. Like, when you get into hard times, it doesn't change who you are. It gives you evidence of who you are.

Alex Hormozi expresses his view that suffering is not required for success but is common and serves as a testament to one's character.

• The difference between having experience and having an opinion is discussed.
• Experience provides a "soul hardness" and evidence of past endurance.
• The quote from L. H. Hardwick is used to illustrate the value of experience.

And so somebody could be like, oh, man, 2008 wasn't that bad. Like, somebody who's younger hasn't gone through it. But man with an opinion, man with an experience who went through it, he's never at that guy's mercy.

This quote emphasizes the superiority of experience over opinion, particularly in the context of having endured difficult times.

• Alex Hormozi discusses using past difficulties as a shield against new challenges.
• He talks about extrapolating past experiences onto current situations.
• The Morpheus quote from The Matrix is used to convey the power of overcoming past adversity.

So it's like, I'll give you a different example. Let's say you're new to business, which a lot of people maybe listen to this are. Yeah, but you might have had a tough upbringing, which a lot of people listen this probably have, right? Because a lot of people suffer because we're kids, right?

Alex Hormozi uses an example to explain how past hardships, such as a tough upbringing, can provide context and resilience for new business challenges.

• The dynamic between Alex Hormozi and his wife, Layla, is compared to that of Albert Presciado and his wife.
• The complementary skill sets between partners are highlighted as crucial for business success.
• The hypothetical scenario of a partner's absence is discussed in terms of business continuity.

Totally. It's the same dynamic. We have the identical dynamic between Layla and I.

Alex Hormozi acknowledges the similarity in partnership dynamics between himself and Layla, and Albert Presciado and his wife, emphasizing the importance of complementary skills.

• Y Combinator's research on the ideal number of founders for a business is mentioned.
• The challenges of being a solo founder and the benefits of having multiple owners are discussed.
• The necessity of having a team that cares deeply about the business is highlighted.

And so I think that's why it gets so hard for people to get going, because especially if you're a solo, you own 100%, et cetera. If it's just you. We both have the advantage of two owners just right off the bat.

This quote discusses the difficulties solo founders face and the advantages of having multiple owners who are deeply invested in the business from the beginning.

• The importance of a founding team with complementary skill sets.
• The three critical areas in a business: acquisition, operations (product side), and compliance (HR, finance, legal, IT, taxes, accounting).
• The concept of having a competitive advantage by having a strong team.

"With every business competitive space, I thought, I was like, it's two one. We always come with an advantage."

This quote emphasizes the strategic advantage of having a solid founding team where members support each other, creating a competitive edge in the business landscape.

• Learning to focus on one opportunity is crucial.
• The challenge of choosing the right opportunities and ignoring distractions.
• The significance of pursuing a single high-leverage opportunity over an extended period.

"It took me five years to learn focus."

Alex Hormozi indicates that mastering focus was a significant lesson that took considerable time to understand, suggesting it is a critical factor in achieving success.

• The concept of scaling opportunities through leverage.
• Examples of ascending levels of opportunity from working in a dry cleaning store to owning a franchise.
• The idea of associating brands with media to further leverage opportunity.
• Warren Buffett's quote on the importance of being in the right 'boat' or opportunity for substantial returns.

"And that's when I learned that it wasn't about how hard you row, but what boat you're in."

Alex Hormozi relays Warren Buffett's insight that hard work is less important than the quality of the opportunity one is pursuing, emphasizing the need for strategic selection of opportunities.

• The value of depth over breadth in business expertise.
• The concept of compounding returns through deep experience and repetition.
• The idea that focus and persistence in a high-leverage opportunity can lead to outsized returns.

"And so understanding the leverage of the opportunity, and then from a character perspective, understanding that I have to pick a high leverage opportunity and I must stick with it for an unreasonable amount of time, I have to just keep doing it."

Alex Hormozi discusses the necessity of committing to a high-leverage opportunity for a prolonged period to achieve significant returns, highlighting the importance of both recognizing leverage and having the character to persist.

• The challenge of staying focused amidst numerous opportunities.
• The personal discipline required to reject potential distractions in favor of the primary goal.
• The clarity of vision in knowing that sticking to one path can lead to reaching a billion-dollar goal.

"But if I do nothing else besides this one thing that I am focused on, I will get to a billion. And so everything that is not that is a distraction from that."

Alex Hormozi explains his strategy of ignoring other ventures to concentrate on a singular goal, illustrating the importance of maintaining focus to achieve one's highest ambitions.

• The mention of Alex Hormozi's book as a significant contribution to the community.
• The strategic use of giving to the community as a way to build relationships and potential future partnerships.

"It's my very shameless way of trying to get you to like me more and ultimately make more dollars so that later on in your business career I can potentially partner with you."

Alex Hormozi openly discusses his intention behind promoting his book, which is to provide value to the community while also fostering goodwill that may lead to beneficial partnerships in the future.

• Individuals often prioritize immediate gratification over long-term benefits.
• The concept of local vs. global benefit explains why people choose short-term rewards over long-term gains.
• Local benefits are immediate and tangible, whereas global benefits are systemic and compound over time.
• People who optimize for global benefits achieve greater compounding returns in the long run.
• In a business context, employees may avoid tasks like note-taking in CRM due to the immediate inconvenience, despite the long-term benefits for customer service and business metrics.

"And so humans in general will tend to optimize for local benefit rather than global."

This quote illustrates the tendency of people to focus on immediate rewards rather than long-term advantages.

"Why don't the sales guys leave notes in the CRM so that when the customer service rep or the onboarding rep can see the notes to have a way better experience, have way better ascension rates, way less churn dropout, all these other great metrics that would improve the overall business, because the local pain of writing the notes in is harder than not doing it, but doing it gives the global benefit that is worth it, right?"

This quote provides a specific example of how choosing short-term convenience can negatively impact long-term business outcomes.

• Effort in multiple endeavors often leads to diminished returns compared to concentrated effort in a single area.
• The concept of diminishing marginal return with outsized absolute return explains why the last bit of effort can yield the most significant rewards.
• In competitive fields, being marginally better can be the difference between average and top performance.
• The absolute return for being the best in a field can be exponentially greater than being just good.

"And so it's a diminishing marginal return with an outsized absolute return."

This quote summarizes the concept that while additional effort may yield smaller incremental gains, the overall impact of these gains can be substantial.

"The last 2 hours compared to the first 2 hours, I might get this much extra, but this much extra is the difference between first and fourth."

This quote illustrates how in competitive situations, small improvements can lead to significant differences in outcomes.

• Success can breed envy and imitation among colleagues and employees.
• Former employees may attempt to start similar businesses, driven by various motivations, including envy or the desire for self-improvement.
• Sharing success with others can be beneficial, as demonstrated by major entrepreneurs who own only a portion of their companies but still achieve immense wealth.

"I think that giving more slices of the pie to people, you get so much more like, Jeff Bezos right now owns 10% of Amazon. Right? Elon owns 17% of Tesla. Warren Buffett owns 38% of Berkshire."

This quote emphasizes the idea that owning a smaller percentage of a larger, successful enterprise can be more profitable than owning all of a smaller one.

"So, yes to that question, in terms of envy, I don't know. I don't know what their primary motivation was."

This quote acknowledges the presence of envy and imitation but also suggests that motivations can be complex and not solely driven by envy.

• The concept of minimum effective dose (MED) and maximal recoverable volume (MRV) applies to physical training.
• MED refers to the least amount of exercise needed to maintain or achieve results.
• MRV is the maximum amount of training from which one can recover.
• These concepts suggest that it's possible to achieve fitness goals with an efficient approach to exercise and diet.

"It's the end. So it's the end of the day mostly, but there's minimum effective dose, right? And then there's MRv, which is maximal recoverable volume."

This quote introduces the concepts of MED and MRV, which are critical to understanding how to train efficiently.

(Note: The transcript was cut off, so the last point is incomplete and only reflects the information provided up to that point.)

• Individuals often overestimate the amount of muscle mass they have and underestimate the volume needed for muscle growth.
• There is a threshold for muscle maintenance and a higher threshold for adaptation; many people fall between these two, leading to stagnation.
• To force muscle growth, high-volume training is necessary, such as 90 minutes to 2 hours a day, six days a week.
• Excessive training volume can lead to joint pain, so exercise selection is crucial to avoid injury.
• Rotating between a few select exercises can provide variety and reduce stress on joints while maintaining high volume.

"And the amount that it takes to grow and to get an adaptation, and then the maximum amount that you can do and recover from is usually much further down the volume spectrum than people expect."

This quote emphasizes the misconception about the required training volume for muscle growth and adaptation, pointing out that more volume is often needed than people assume.

"Like, you will either break or you will grow, because there's no way you can stay the same given the amount of punishment I'm putting on this muscle, right?"

Alex Hormozi is highlighting the necessity of pushing muscles beyond their comfort zone to induce growth, suggesting an all-or-nothing approach to training intensity.

• Alex Hormozi discusses the simplicity of nutrition for muscle growth, focusing on calories and protein intake.
• He mentions enjoying desserts like ice cream sundaes, indicating a preference for enjoyable foods within his dietary requirements.
• Alex and his partner Layla do not drink much alcohol, and when they do, it is not with the intention of getting drunk.
• The decision to stop drinking was a conscious choice to confront stress and unresolved issues directly.

"The food side is. I know that you've alluded to the video that I had was just calories and protein is pretty much all you have to do, which is why we dessert every night, we do that because if you could have rice and potatoes or just like a big ice cream sundae. I'd rather have a big ice cream sundae."

Alex Hormozi simplifies the concept of nutrition for muscle growth to a focus on calories and protein, and he expresses his preference for indulging in desserts while meeting these nutritional goals.

• Abstaining from alcohol led Alex to address underlying stressors and make necessary life changes.
• Resolving these issues decreased his desire to drink and allowed him to enjoy alcohol without using it as an escape.
• He believes that drinking in moderation is acceptable as long as it is not used to avoid confronting problems.

"And then what happened is, for the next six months, I would feel this itch whenever I was stressed. Like, man, I could really use a drink, but I couldn't. And so it forced me to confront the things that I wasn't confronting."

Alex Hormozi explains how not drinking forced him to deal with stressors head-on, leading to personal growth and a healthier relationship with alcohol.

• Alex acknowledges common human fears, such as the fear of failure, but suggests that his past successes have mitigated these concerns.
• He believes that even if he were to lose everything, he would still be okay, indicating a sense of resilience and confidence in his abilities.

"Probably lots. I haven't thought about them lately. Probably the main human ones. Fear of failure, I suppose."

This quote from Alex Hormozi reflects on the universal nature of fear and his own experiences with it, suggesting that success has lessened his fear of failure.

• Alex and Layla live a simple lifestyle by choice, focusing on what they value, such as dining out and flying private.
• They sold their luxury possessions, like a Bentley, realizing that such items did not contribute to their happiness.
• Alex emphasizes the importance of having options and the ability to choose how to live, rather than being bound by possessions or societal expectations.

"I think that the point of money is to buy us options and so I want to have the option to work because if I can't work it's just as bad as having to work and if I want to go fly private I want to have that option to do it."

Alex Hormozi articulates his view that money should provide the freedom to make choices, such as working or traveling, based on desire rather than necessity.

• The podcast concludes the first part, teasing the audience with an upcoming second part described as "a banger."

"And that concludes part one of the Albert Presciado driven podcast. Stay tuned for part two which is a banger I hope you enjoyed as much as we enjoyed making it for."

This final statement wraps up the first part of the podcast, setting expectations for the next installment and expressing enthusiasm for the content shared.