The Millionaire Morning Routine Ep 442

In this episode, the speakers, including the host of the podcast, delve into the concept of leverage in business and personal productivity. They challenge common misconceptions about success rituals, such as the overhyped "millionaire morning routine," debunking the idea that specific habits are universally essential for wealth. Instead, they argue that productivity hinges on maximizing output per unit of time through leverage—doing less to achieve more. The host emphasizes the importance of prioritizing high-leverage activities and eliminating non-essential tasks. They also critique the tendency to add unnecessary activities to one's schedule under the guise of productivity, suggesting that the true measure of effectiveness is the amount of work accomplished multiplied by the leverage applied. The discussion concludes with advice for entrepreneurs to focus on identifying and alleviating business constraints to facilitate growth, ultimately advocating for a direct and efficient approach to both work and business strategy.

• Finding people to help with tasks is considered a primary form of leverage.
• Utilizing capital, which is money raised from others, is a higher level of leverage, allowing one to allocate resources independently.

"One of the highest leverage opportunities that exist is finding people to help you do stuff, which is the first level of leverage. The next level of leverage is to compress other people's time as units of money that you raise from them, giving you money to then go allocate on your own, which is capital."

This quote emphasizes the concept of leverage in two forms: human and capital. The first form is about delegating tasks to increase efficiency, and the second form is about raising and managing funds to further one's financial objectives.

• The wealthiest individuals perceive business as a competitive and strategic game.
• The speaker shares insights from building a significant business portfolio, with the intention of educating others to grow their businesses.

"The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game. This podcast, the game, is my attempt at documenting the lessons I've learned on my way to building acquisition.com into a billion dollar portfolio."

The speaker is drawing a parallel between business and games, suggesting that business requires strategic thinking and is competitive by nature. The quote also introduces the purpose of the podcast, which is to document and share valuable business lessons.

• Morning routines of successful individuals are highly sought after and popular online.
• The speaker questions why people are so interested in these routines and suggests it's due to a lack of understanding of the right questions to ask.

"What's a billionaire morning routine? What's the millionaire morning routine? Right. A lot of people ask these questions. If you look on YouTube, you look on Instagram, you look on TikTok. It's some of the number one performing content is so and so's morning routine, XYZ's morning routine, the five things so and so does the moment he wakes up."

The quote highlights the public's fascination with the morning routines of highly successful individuals, suggesting that such content is popular across various social media platforms.

• Productivity is defined as the amount of work done per unit of time.
• The speaker criticizes the common approach of adding more non-productive activities in an attempt to become more productive.

"So, again, productivity more shit done per unit of time. And so their solution to that is add more stuff that's not getting work done. Doesn't make a lot of sense."

The quote defines productivity in simple terms and points out the illogical approach of increasing non-productive tasks to enhance productivity. It underlines the need for clarity in understanding what productivity truly means.

• The speaker outlines how an inefficient morning routine would look, which includes excessive length, complexity, and dependency on the routine.
• The aim is to highlight the counterproductive nature of overly complicated and rigid morning routines.

"All right, so how could I create a morning routine that would make me the least effective? [...] Number three is that I would become very, very reliant on that thing. So if I don't get this one thing in, then it means I cannot work, right."

This quote describes a hypothetical scenario where a morning routine is designed to be as ineffective as possible, suggesting that reliance on a rigid routine can be detrimental to productivity.

• The speaker differentiates between the symbolism of a task (like making a bed) and its actual impact on productivity.
• The focus is on the commitment to tasks rather than the tasks themselves.

"But it's not the making the bed that's the thing that's important. It's the fact that I'm committed to doing the things that I said I'm going to do."

The quote emphasizes that the value of a task in a routine lies in the psychological commitment it represents, not in the physical act itself.

• The speaker discusses the scientific method of disproving a theory by finding instances where the outcome occurs without the supposed causal factor.
• The myth of a universal "millionaire morning routine" is challenged by the fact that not all millionaires share a common routine.

"And so whenever the easiest way to disprove something is to say, let me find an instance where this doesn't exist and I still have the outcome. That's how you disprove something in science."

This quote explains a fundamental principle of scientific inquiry, which can be applied to debunking the myth that a specific morning routine is the key to becoming a millionaire.

• Millionaires do not necessarily adhere to common success tropes such as waking up early or having multiple streams of income.
• The concept of needing to invest in specific areas like real estate or the stock market to become a millionaire is challenged.
• There are examples of millionaires and wealthy individuals who have succeeded outside the commonly prescribed paths, such as a lawn care business owner or someone in janitorial services.

"You got to have a million bucks or something worth a million dollars in order to be a millionaire."

• This quote establishes the basic definition of a millionaire, emphasizing the necessity of possessing a net worth of at least one million dollars.

"Plenty of millionaires who don't wake up early."

• This quote refutes the stereotype that all successful people, including millionaires, wake up early, suggesting that success is not tied to a specific daily routine.

"All I have to do is find one person who doesn't have seven streams of income to show you. That's not true."

• The speaker is debunking the myth that having seven streams of income is essential to becoming a millionaire by pointing out exceptions.

"Are there millionaires who don't have that? Absolutely."

• This quote addresses the misconception that investing in the S&P 500 is a requirement for becoming a millionaire, indicating that there are millionaires who have not followed this investment strategy.

"You have to be in software. You have to be in web three if you want to be rich."

• The speaker challenges the notion that wealth is confined to trendy industries like software or web three by providing counterexamples of individuals who have achieved wealth in less glamorous sectors.

• Leverage is defined as getting more output for each unit of input; it is a measure of efficiency and effectiveness.
• Productivity is not about doing more work but about achieving more with less effort.
• The speaker encourages evaluating tasks and opportunities based on the degree of leverage they offer.

"The definition of leverage is you get more output per unit of input."

• This quote defines leverage in the context of productivity, emphasizing the importance of efficiency in achieving results.

"All it is is the act of doing less to get more."

• The speaker simplifies the concept of leverage to the fundamental principle of maximizing returns with minimal input, which is essential for increasing productivity.

• Time is the base unit for measuring input, and money or desired outcome is the unit for measuring output.
• The speaker suggests using leverage as a lens to assess the worthiness of tasks, focusing on the ratio of time invested to value or money gained.
• Even passive income streams, like real estate, require an initial investment of time and effort, which should be considered when calculating leverage.

"What is the degree of leverage that I have in this task? How much do I put in versus how much I get out?"

• The quote prompts individuals to assess their activities based on the leverage they provide, which is a key factor in determining productivity and effectiveness.

"Even if you just make you buy a bond on the Internet and it takes you 5 seconds, just the act of deciding which one to buy, logging in, figuring out and making the purchase is work."

• This quote illustrates that even seemingly passive activities involve work and time, and should be evaluated for their leverage to determine their true productivity value.

• The speaker offers assistance to business owners aiming to significantly grow their business and directs them to a resource for further information.
• Emphasizing the importance of prioritizing tasks that yield the highest output, the speaker promises to share their personal morning routine as an example of effective task management.

"If you are a business owner that has a big old business and wants to get to a much bigger business, going to 5100 million dollars plus, we would love to talk to you."

• This quote is an invitation to business owners looking to scale their operations, suggesting that the speaker has expertise in facilitating business growth.

"What are the tasks that get us the most output?"

• The speaker is highlighting the importance of focusing on tasks that offer the greatest returns, which is a strategic approach to productivity and business growth.

• Prioritizing tasks is based on the leverage they provide.
• Leverage is the ratio of effort put in to the results obtained.
• High leverage activities include recruiting a salesperson to replace direct sales efforts.
• Leveraging time involves trading tasks for time, but never completely eliminating tasks.
• The goal is to consistently reduce the time spent on tasks while maintaining or increasing output.

You order your tasks in order of the leverage that they have.

This quote emphasizes the importance of task prioritization based on the potential leverage each task offers.

So I gain back 20 hours a week of prospecting in exchange for two to 3 hours a week plus money.

Speaker A illustrates the concept of leverage by showing how recruiting a salesperson saves a significant amount of time that would otherwise be spent on direct sales.

• There is no absolute active or passive activity; it's a spectrum.
• The level of activity relates to the amount of leverage one has.
• The discrepancy between time invested and money earned is crucial.
• The spectrum ranges from personal effort to using capital and permissionless platforms for leverage.

They're not binaries. That's why there is no such thing as active versus passive. It's just how active is it versus how passive is it?

Speaker A explains that activities are not simply active or passive; they exist on a continuum based on how much leverage they provide.

• The first level of leverage is finding people to help with tasks.
• The second level involves compressing other people's time into units of money, then using that capital for one's own allocations.
• Social media and software offer permissionless leverage, allowing effort to be expended once for potentially limitless returns.
• Automation in business is a high-leverage activity that can save significant time in the long run.

What's the discrepancy between how much time I put in and how much money I get out?

Speaker A is discussing the importance of assessing the leverage in terms of time versus financial return, which is a key consideration in the act of entrepreneurship.

• Automating a task can provide a significant return on time invested.
• A wrong approach to leverage can be seen when the cost of automation does not justify the time saved.
• Business decisions should be made based on the return on investment, not just individual efficiency.
• The example of a costly software patch that would not provide a good return illustrates this point.

It would take me ten years to get a return on this.

Speaker A provides a concrete example where the cost of automation would not be justified by the time saved, highlighting the importance of calculating the return on investment.

• Productivity is a function of the amount of work done multiplied by the leverage on that work.
• Productive advice should not add non-work tasks to one's calendar.
• The perfect morning routine should maximize both the volume of work and the leverage obtained from it.

The fundamental equation of productivity of how much output you get is a function of how much you do multiplied by how much leverage you have on the stuff you do.

Speaker A defines the equation for productivity, emphasizing the role of leverage in increasing output without necessarily increasing effort.

• Importance of ordering tasks by leverage from highest to lowest.
• Elimination as a productivity hack; if a task is not work, it's equivalent to zero.
• Maximizing work by prioritizing and ordering tasks correctly.
• Personal habits like drinking coffee or spending time with loved ones can serve as leverage if they contribute positively to one's productivity.

"And so if you're thinking about what is the most productive way to get things done, you have to do the work rather than avoiding doing the work."

This quote emphasizes the necessity of engaging in actual work to be productive, rather than avoiding it.

"And think of elimination as the ultimate productivity hack, because anything that is not work is fundamentally not work."

Here, elimination is highlighted as a key strategy for productivity by removing non-work activities.

"And for me, I drink a cup of coffee because I like it, and I have time with my wife. And for me, that's leverage."

The speaker shares personal examples of activities that, while not work per se, provide leverage by enhancing overall productivity.

• Misunderstanding productivity by filling time with non-essential tasks.
• The example of a small business owner spending three hours on a morning routine that could be better spent prospecting.
• The influence of internet trends on people's perception of productivity.
• Defining productivity as units of work multiplied by leverage.

"So a lot of people inherit these things that they're hearing on the Internet, because realistically, it just procrastinates them from doing the work."

This quote suggests that many productivity tips found online can actually lead to procrastination rather than real work.

"But if you define productivity as units, work times leverage."

The speaker defines productivity as the amount of work done in a given time, multiplied by the leverage applied.

• The ideal routine involves starting work immediately upon waking.
• The challenge issued to listeners to start work right away without distractions.
• The effectiveness of diving straight into work without a lengthy morning routine.

"And eventually, the perfect routine would be you wake up and you immediately work because you have trained yourself to be able to do it."

The speaker describes the ideal routine as one where work commences immediately after waking up.

"Try waking up and walking straight over to begin work. Don't even check your phone."

This advice challenges listeners to bypass distractions and begin their workday immediately upon rising.

• The CEO's job is to identify and solve the single constraint in the business pipeline.
• The importance of discernment in seeing the whole system and identifying the true bottleneck.
• The counterproductive nature of reinforcing non-bottleneck parts of the business.
• The process of debottlenecking to stabilize the business and then focusing on increasing the front end.

"The job of the CEO is to identify properly what the constraint is. Step one. Step two, solve the constraint."

This quote outlines the two primary responsibilities of a CEO regarding business constraints.

"The moment I open up that bottleneck, it will then find another bottleneck, which will be the next restriction point or the next constraint."

The speaker explains that solving one bottleneck will reveal the next one, indicating an ongoing process of improvement.

"Once you have deep bottlenecks in the entire acquisition system...Then a business is stable."

The speaker describes the end goal of debottlenecking as achieving a stable business system, which then allows for scaling up the front end.