Want to scale your business? Click here.Welcome to The Game w/ Alex Hormozi, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, investor, author, public speaker, and content creator Alex Hormozi. On this podcast you’ll hear how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons Alex has learned and will learn on his path from $100M to $1B in net worth.Follow Alex Hormozi’s Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition Mentioned in this episode:Get access to the free $100M Scaling Roadmap at www.acquisition.com/roadmap
Chapter 1: What drives you to take action?
Fear and anger are what drove me to take action. Like I didn't have a lot of faith. I had a lot of anger and that's what I had. And so that's what I used. And it took me years, like years, not like a year, like six to like, I would say even switch to not always being driven by anger and trying to prove people wrong and make the point that I was right. You know what I mean? Um,
Chapter 2: How can you transition from fear to faith in your business?
And I wouldn't say that I'm purely faith-driven now. I would say that I have elements of it. And so I just don't know if it's a binary for me. I would just say that over time, I have less of that and I have more of some other stuff. Like I enjoy what I do now a lot. And so I do a lot of it. And so, you know, trying to find what the fuel is now, I don't think about it much.
I just do the things that I enjoy and that I've been rewarded for doing in the past. And so like, I work hard on things because the harder I work on things, the better things tend to work out for me. And so the projects that I work on now, I have a way longer time horizon than I did.
Like gym launch was just like, I mean, I told Layla when we started making like, I'll say crazy money in quotes here, but we were taking home like a million a month dish and we're in our twenties. Like, like, I didn't think it was going to last. So I was like, we need to live so cheap and take every dollar we possibly can. I told her as soon as it started working, I was like, we have 18 months.
Chapter 3: What was the vision behind Gym Launch?
I told her, I sat her down. I was like, we have 18 months before this is going to not work. So like, we need to just make this work. And here, Jim watches six years later, still crushing it. You know what I mean? But like, I didn't know that. Right. And so there was no faith. Zero faith. Like people were like, what was the vision of gym launch? I was like, the vision was don't be broke.
Like that was it. That was the whole vision. And so I think what happens is like you have to get your head above water so that you can even breathe and like look around. But like if it's kind of like the air mass scenario, which is overused.
But like if you're looking at how you're going to pay rent and how you're going to make payroll and all that stuff, like it's very hard to make strategic decisions. Like in some ways it's like, I do like having the idea of some entrepreneurs who have saved up enough from a job or career that like, they're not worried about shelter. They're not worried about food.
Chapter 4: How do you manage financial stress as an entrepreneur?
So they can actually think on a 10 year time horizon. Like it's easy for me to stand here and be like, guys, be more long-term thinking, except you're like, well rent's fucking due tomorrow. So what do I do now, right? And like the reality is you decrease your liabilities. You decrease all of the things that stress you out.
And so if the things that stress you out are the things that you spend money on a regular basis, then it's like decrease those to the absolute greatest degree possible so that you're not in fight or flight every month. So that you can breathe and then you can actually make the better decisions.
Because like if you're in that state, it's so hard to win because other people who are competing against you aren't there.
Chapter 5: Why is long-term thinking crucial for entrepreneurs?
You're sleeping on the gym floor where you're fully in that state, I assume. Yeah. Take me through that scenario and also like wanting to be seen as the person who was sleeping on the gym floor.
So that was not external. So that was more... Okay, so I'll unpack this. So for everyone who's listening, so I quit my job, drove across the country, mentored with a guy for three months, then opened my own gym. And I didn't have enough money for two rents. My rent was $5,000 a month, which... I was 20, like it was all, I couldn't even, I mean, it was insane. Like it was 5,000.
I was like, that, that was more than, that was like my salary. You know what I mean? I was like, what am I going to live on for everything else? Right. And so I moved out of the place that I was at, which was just a spare bedroom.
Um, and I slept at the gym and I remember like, you know, I would read the Instagram motivation manifesto when it was just like stock images of girls that were like, chase your dreams, you know, like whatever. And I'd be like, like, you know, uh, And the thing is, is that like, I had a very different idea of what that suffering would feel like, right?
Like it was very praised and lauded, L-A-U-D-E-D, by Instagram and the world and Motivation Manifesto. But like when I was alone, in a city I didn't know, in a dark warehouse that was underneath of a parking garage. And people would drive over the metal cracks in the concrete on the ceiling six, seven times a night. And it was like this gunshot.
And there'd be kids my age partying on the roof illegally. And I'm trying to wake up at four o'clock in the morning to do the first sessions. It wasn't fun. There was no... The Rocky cutscene lasts 30 seconds in the movie and lasts five years in your life.
It's powerful. That's powerful.
And so you have to find ways to win in the meantime. And that's where the patience comes in. It's like... I didn't... I've said this before, but... I didn't know if I was going to win, but I did know I wasn't going to stop. And that was the only thing that I felt okay committing to.
Because when we talk about fuel, it was like, when it got back down to it, the wall that my back was against was going home, a failure. And to me, I would have rather died. And so that was it. So like, I love this quote, which is, it's amazing what you can accomplish when you have no choice.
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Chapter 6: How do you become passionate about your work?
Mm-hmm.
Should we print more money or should we reel things back? Well, short term, this one's better. That's what we'll do. It's near impossible. It's hard for one person to do it for themselves. It's almost impossible for a group. And so groups will always optimize for the short term until eventually they run out and another group wins.
It almost seems like there's a heaviness within you when you're speaking about it. Is that accurate? Because your mood and complexion change completely.
I don't like getting into this because it gets off the beaten path of... It's just a bummer. And I would get more into it, but I don't like getting into the politics around things. I've never been in it ever. I've just never gotten involved. Because I try to play games... That I have variables that I have control over. And so I got this from my dad, actually.
But he said, I only play games if I know I'm going to win. And people might take that and take a lot of different things from it. But I'll tell you what he meant by that was that. he wanted to do all the preparation and have all the unfair advantages he possibly could before taking the first step into a game.
And I would say that that's probably the biggest difference between people who are big time winners and everyone else is that like, once you learn the rules of the game, then you learn how to stack the deck and you can do it ethically and you can do it legally, right? Like easy way to stack the deck, wait longer than your competition.
You can come in with unfair advantages simply by measuring success on different time horizons or measuring a different metric for success. Right now, what am I optimizing for? I'm optimizing for brand. I'm not optimizing for money. So I'm measuring something different than somebody else might be.
And so someone who maybe started making content at the same time as me might be making more money than me today. But are they winning? I don't know. We're playing different games. And so... I think that that lens can be used by most people. And most people don't do that because they don't even know the rules of the game that they're trying to play. And so they are pawns in someone else's game.
And so I think that's where the heaviness of this whole thing comes from for me is that like I hate not feeling like I have an element of control over the outcomes in my life. And a lot of the stuff that's happening in the world, I don't feel like I have control over. And that annoys me. And so I focus on the few things that are controllable for me and I direct all of my attention there.
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Chapter 7: What are the dangers of modern society's approach to mental health?
I like my life a lot. And so like, I don't like, I'm, I'm good. Like, I like the path I'm on. I like what I'm doing. I like, I like the impact that, that, that we're making. I love, I love seeing the businesses that come in every day. I get stopped in the street from, you know, every day from most people being like, dude, I read your book. I quit my job and I'm doing a million dollars a year.
And I'm like, that, that might not have happened if I hadn't taken the extra 20 hours on that one page. It's true. And my editor said this to me, and it's been like, it's haunted me to a degree.
When things would get hard, right, in the editing process, like there are times where we, you know, I mean, we're the closest to friends, but we would really argue viciously over a point because we wanted to get to the truth. We wanted to get to the bottom of it. And he was like, Alex, he's like, there's a 16-year-old kid who's going to sleep with this book under his pillow.
He's like, you owe it to him, man. And I was like, fuck, he's right. He's right. So let's keep let's let's keep working through it. Let's make it simpler. Let's not cut the corner. Like, let's explain it. Let's define the term. Let's make a visual, you know, even though it's going to take me another five fucking hours.
Like I didn't, you know, like it's it's that's the hard part, you know, and it was during the writing process that I tweeted this tweet that went pretty whatever. It got a lot of lift. It was whenever I whenever I like it gets really hard and I just think to myself, like, why am I even bothering? Why should it why should I even keep doing this?
I just remind myself that this is where most people stop and this is why they don't win. And so that's a quote that has helped me get through some of those really tough times. It's like, well, do I want to win more than I want to fail? Yes. It's like, well, then this is a Trevor quote. He's my editor and my closest friend.
He said, well, whenever someone says they can't stand it anymore, he said, well, if you're alive, you have proof that you can stand it. And if you die, you won't have to stand it anymore. So you can always stand it. And I think that's a really powerful message. It's really simple. But like if you are going through it, then you are going through it. You may be uncomfortable. It may be painful.
You may hate it, but you're still here. And I think like to me, it reminds me of this, the Morpheus quote. I think it was in one of the Matrixes. And he says, I stand here truthfully and afraid, not because of the path that lies before me, but because of the path that lies behind me. And so I think that that's like the gift that we all have. It's like we all have stood life to this point.
And I think that's like all the proof you need that you can keep standing. Hey guys, real quick. This podcast only grows from word of mouth, quite literally. There's no other way to grow a podcast than word of mouth.
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Chapter 8: How can you maintain control over your life and decisions?
And the only way we do that is if you can rate and review and share this podcast. So the single thing that I ask you to do is you can just leave a review. It'll take you 10 seconds or one type of the thumb. It would mean the absolute world to me. And more importantly, it may change the world for someone else. Well done.
So this is something that I learned about later that stems from a psychological concept called the Solomon Paradox. And so the Solomon paradox, if you don't know who anyone's listening is, there was King Solomon who was known for being wise and he was one of the richest men of all time, et cetera. And so people, kings, rulers would come to him and ask for his advice.
The reason that it's a paradox is that he gave exceptional advice to everyone else, but his actual life was in ruins. His son was a terrible son and he had many wives and he cheated and he had this lust for money and all these things, but his advice to other people was amazing.
And so the Solomon Paradox, and it's been studied in multiple facets, that people give better advice than they follow themselves. And so they've studied this with relationships. They'll have somebody in a weird romantic relationship, tough setup, and they'll whitewash the names and say, hey, there's a lady and she's getting beat by her husband once a month. And It's happened for four years.
And this time she says that her husband says that it's not going to happen again. What do you think that that woman should do? And then the person would give advice. And it completely conflicts with how that woman actually lives her life, even though she's giving advice to somebody who's not her. Right. And they have postulated why this is. Now, you could say you've removed the emotions from it.
You've removed the tensions, whatever you want to say. But what we do know is that people give better advice than they follow. And so if you pair that concept with the idea that no one has more context on your life than you do, then you have a very powerful combo. And so one of the issues that I've had with like therapists and performance coaches and things like that is that I've done a hand.
I would say maybe I've spent like five, maybe 10 hours in total in a setting like that. I'm not very good at it. And it's because I usually feel like I'm spending the majority of my time trying to give them enough context in order to give me advice. Right. But they don't know every one of my skill sets. They don't know every one of my backgrounds.
They don't know how that business deal like he kind of looked a little dodgy, but I didn't have time to give more context to it so that they could give me the advice. Right. And so I have failed at most of those things. And so when I tried this experiment, it was because I was actually really stressed about a decision.
And so I said, OK, and this has been a mental practice of mine was just talking to my 85 year old self. But I was like, let me formalize this a little bit. I'm actually going to write it out in a document. And so I started talking to my future self. And it was kind of interesting is I could hear myself laughing at myself. So I'm like, this thing isn't happening fast enough.
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