Kind: captions
Language: en
the reality is when i started my life
nobody thought i was going to be
successful
my own mother
quietly assumed i was going to fail
my best friend said oh i just assumed
you were going to marshmallow your way
through life
my father-in-law when i asked for his
blessing to marry his daughter he said
no
they were right
i was wrong
i go on to build a billion dollar
business
but i start laying in bed five hours a
day not knowing how the [ __ ] i'm going
to make my dreams come true so the
question is and how did i become
successful and the only honest answer is
the very reason you're here which is the
only thing that matters
is skill set
[Music]
what's up everybody
[Applause]
[ __ ] is about to get really real
so here is what we're gonna do i'm gonna
put myself on a high wire act which is
that very shortly you guys are gonna get
access to a microphone and i want you to
ask the hardest [ __ ] question you can
think of and we're gonna solve that [ __ ]
in real time
now
one clap one [ __ ] here to
change their life
whoever that one
lonely clap was you better break an
ankle getting to that microphone
but here's the reality
you guys are all here because you want
to do something great with your life
that's why you come to a conference
called the 10 billion dollar
conference something called driven
but the difference between wanting to do
something and knowing how to do it is a
massive chasm
and what i want to do in the next 60
minutes is teach you how to cross that
chasm because it is possible the reality
is when i started my life i was
literally just talking about this behind
stage nobody thought i was going to be
successful okay you were looking at the
after picture
now
let's talk about the before picture
my own mother
when i left for college
quietly assumed i was going to fail
my best friend said oh i just assumed
you were going to marshmallow your way
through life
my father-in-law now father-in-law then
just extraordinarily intimidating person
when i asked for his blessing to marry
his daughter he said no
and he said tom look i've become very
successful in my life
my daughter has become used to a certain
way of life
how do you plan to take care of her
and i said sir
i know what you're seeing right now
is a broke unemployed under educated kid
but i'm telling you right now i'm the
most ambitious person you've ever met
and one day i'm gonna make your daughter
a wealthy woman
the problem was
he knew something that i didn't
these were the three people closest to
me in the world
that believed i was going to fail
and they had not
misidentified me
they were right
i was wrong
now i say there's three things that i
look for in anybody that wants to come
work with me number one i look for grand
ambition because if you don't have grand
ambition i'm gonna seem like a crazy
person
because i really believe that i can do
anything i set my mind to
number two
is drive and number three is compassion
now compassion is beyond the scope of
what we're going to talk about today
but drive isn't
most of you unless you already have a
business that's going you're what i call
an empty dreamer
you have a dream and that's really
important you've got the ambition you
want to do something great just as i did
but the
very next day after telling my
soon-to-be father-in-law that i was the
most ambitious person he'd ever met i
laid in bed for five hours
now i laid in bed
four to five hours every single day and
the only thing that got me out of bed
was the shame of knowing that my then
fiance was coming home because she was
the only one with a job she was going to
come home and i was supposed to have a
sandwich made for her by the time she
got there and if i didn't finally get
out of bed and stop watching music
videos i wasn't gonna have the sandwich
ready on time and then i would have to
confess that i'd just been laying in bed
okay that's where i started i go on to
build a billion dollar business but i
start laying in bed five hours a day not
knowing how the [ __ ] i'm going to make
my dreams come true
now if you make the mistake of thinking
that somehow i have something in me that
is special that is different that
allowed me to be successful you would be
wrong and you will let yourself off the
hook
by making me extraordinary
don't make me extraordinary because i'm
not so the question is then how did i
become successful and the only honest
answer is the very reason you're here
which is the only thing that matters is
skill set
the reason that i was marshmallowing my
way through life the reason that i was
laying in bed for four to five hours a
day was i didn't have skills and i
didn't realize that i could get skills
i don't have an entrepreneurial instinct
in me
how many born entrepreneurs do we have
here
six
man guys you're not gonna [ __ ] make
it you're not gonna make it
how many born entrepreneurs do we have
here
all right
i am not one of you i am not a born
entrepreneur i have had to cobble myself
together one brick at a time
now the great news is
because i have done it
and i've learned everything the hard way
i know how to explain it to people
and i've always believed that the only
people that should be able to write the
manuals
an instruction manual is somebody that
struggled to build that thing because if
it came easily to you you're not going
to know where the problems are and you
have to understand the problems the
things that are going to trip people up
i know the things that are going to trip
you up i know the things that are
tripping you up right now whether you
have a seven figure business that you're
trying to scale
to be the billion dollar business or
whether you're trying to start your
first company or whether you're just
trying not to go out of business i know
all the things you're going to encounter
because i encountered them all and
struggled with them
and had to put together tools and
tactics
now i always love it when jim quick goes
before me because he focuses people on
the brain
what i'm going to convince you of by the
end of this talk
is that you're having
a biological experience
now
it won't be clear why that matters until
we get to the end
but those of you that begin to
understand why you have to understand
how your brain actually functions that
your brain is the result of millions of
years of evolution and quite frankly
your brain
is [ __ ] with you
and if there's a god god put you in this
body to [ __ ] with you
because otherwise why would you have a
negative voice in your head that tells
you that you're not going to make it
that tells you that you're a loser that
tells you that you're not smart enough
it might be okay for the other person
but it's not going to be okay for you
that was certainly
what i had a voice inside my head
telling me every day
and i remember
laying on the floor face down
by the way of my unfurnished apartment
feeling the cheap nylon fabric pushing
into my skin
and wondering
how am i ever going to make anything in
my life
i don't know how to do this and i
remember lamenting to god
and i said why make me just smart enough
to realize how dumb i am
why not either make me so dumb that i
don't understand it and i'm just blind
to how dumb i am
or make me smart enough that i can
actually do something with my life but
to put me in this weird gray area where
it's like hey guess what you're dumb
that was ruthless emotionally and i
spent so many years there and it wasn't
until i started reading about the brain
and learning about this thing called
brain plasticity
which basically
every species has a
choice interesting that we're in the
equestrian center right now because the
example i always use of choice number
one
is horses
the species of horse chose
to just know everything
when you come out so 20 minutes after
being born a horse can do all the things
that a horse is going to do
20 minutes after coming out a baby can't
be left alone it'll vomit on itself
it'll poo in its diapers it can't hold
its own head up now that was a choice
and it's an incredible choice
and the result of that choice is
something that if you're taking notes i
want you to write it down because this
is going to become the most important
idea in your life
humans
are
the ultimate
adaptation machine
you are
by design
created to learn
and that choice
because while we are not blank slates as
a species we are the blankest of slates
we are the most determined by our
choices than any other creature that has
ever come along
now that matters
because no matter where you're at in
your business journey today the punch
line is going to be if you want your
business to grow if you want to get to
the next level you have to learn
something that you don't already know
you have to get better at something
tomorrow than you are today whether
that's reading the moves in the
marketplace like let me tell you if you
don't understand what nfts are already
you're missing out it's going to change
the world and don't say that i didn't
tell you it's as important if not more
important than the internet and most
people in this room have never bought
one nor have they ever created one
okay this is 1997 and nfts
are the internet
you now know now maybe it's that you
have to understand the moves of the
market maybe it's that you need to get
better at operations maybe you need to
understand finance better maybe you need
to understand psychology better
in fact
who thinks they know the hardest problem
in business
just raise your hand if you know what
the hardest problem in business is we
got one guy everybody better go see him
afterwards because damn
i'm going to tell you right now and the
funny thing is as soon as i say it
you're going to be like [ __ ] that's what
i think it is too but i didn't want to
say it cause i don't want to be a dick
the hardest thing in business is people
look to your left look to your right
whether they're the people you work with
or your customer
damn
it gets frustrating
who has ever had the impulse to shake
one of their employees real hard
just me
if you don't understand psychology
you're not going to make it
there's so many elements to this game
when somebody asks like have you ever
asked yourself this question what is
money
like what is money
oh my god somebody actually knows the
answer or they're real close i want you
to shout that [ __ ] out
it's the ability to get energy
secured across time and space
so you go do something really hard you
need a way to
store the value of that time and energy
and that thing we call money but you'll
notice
only she either knew it or had the
courage to shout it out now
pick it up pick it up pick it up
i teach a course called business
decision making
it's for six figure and up entrepreneurs
and as with everything i do i always
tell people if you didn't think that you
got 10 times your value from that get
your money back i'll give it to you
and i had one guy get a refund he took
the whole course and he asked for a
refund
and
his reasoning was that it was too
simplistic
and i wanted to
hang my head and weep for him
because here's what we're going to spend
i'm going to wrap this up and then we're
going to spend the next whatever 30 40
minutes doing this in real time so you
see why this is so critical to
understand
i could come up here and teach you sales
which everybody is going to tell you is
important than it is i could stand up
here and teach you marketing and
everybody's going to tell you that it's
important and it is
i could teach you funnels i could teach
you copywriting these are all valuable i
could teach you hr how to hire better
how to talk to your employees these are
all going to be critical things and if
you don't figure them out your business
is going to fail
but all of those things you can hire
somebody else to do
there is only one thing
that you have to do
nobody else is going to be able to do it
for you
and that's make the right decision
business is standing in a room with a
thousand doors none of you are going to
die from lack of opportunity
unless you have picked the wrong
industry
assuming you're at least in the right
industry your business won't fail
because of lack of opportunity your
business will fail because you pursue
the wrong opportunity
or you dilute your attention across too
many things so everybody in this room i
want you from now and forever to imagine
yourself standing in a room with a
thousand doors and your job is to know
better than anyone else in the company
better than anyone else on the planet
which
999 of those doors to
close that's business
rule number one of business and if you
think this is too simplistic
you're never going to make it
rule number one a business avoid a
mortality event
don't do things that if they fail you go
out of business
why
because business is a loop that i call
the physics of progress
now why do i call it the physics of
progress
because everything in this world has a
nature
things that are inescapable
gravity we're all familiar with that
that's inescapable that's the physics
the way
large bodies interact gravitational pull
the way all of that we're used to
hearing about newtonian physics and
things like that we all accept it nobody
thinks that maybe tomorrow morning they
could step off the building and they
would float gently to the ground right
we all get you're gonna [ __ ]
slap down real hard on the ground
and we just accept it but we never take
the time to ask what are the physics of
business
what does it take hey tom you're in a
new industry in fact let me walk you
through
my past
company number one technology
we made security software turned it into
a multi-million dollar company company
number two
nutrition say what you went from
software to manufacturing
and you had three thousand employees
three hundred thousand square feet a lot
of equipment but what did you know about
it i didn't know anything about it
company number three oh and by the way
quest became a billion dollar company
thank you
company number three is a media company
already a multi-million dollar company
well on its way to bigger and better
things but i won't call the b word till
we actually get there
all three
extraordinarily different industries
security software
nutrition and manufacturing and now
media
and yet i've been able to build
multi-million dollar companies in all
three divergent industries without
learning about it before i got into it
so now the question is how and the
answer is the physics of progress if
you're taking notes write this down
because i'm going to walk you through
the actual [ __ ] steps
and then
i'm going to reinforce the idea that the
physics of progress is all about
thinking from first principles
understanding the physics of a situation
not thinking from analogy we're not
going to say this is like this we're
going to say this is the nature of this
thing
this is necessarily true
and once you know what is necessarily
true you can go into any industry face
any problem and know how to think your
way through it know how to make good
business decisions there is a physics to
this and it goes like this
the physics of progress is the
scientific method recontextualized for
business
it is the quest for what is true it is
how you make progress if you don't do
this you won't make progress i promise
you because it is the nature of progress
itself
step number one
have a clear goal
there is a gentleman backstage that's
very familiar with my work
and i always tell people hey everybody
you think you're clear on what your goal
is
you really believe it
but you're not clear
step number one is get clarity and this
i hear a version of this all the time
tom already know what i want
in fact maybe you already have a
business your business is already doing
great you're making 10 million dollars a
year you're [ __ ] killing it but you
can't figure out why you can't get to
the next level and i will tell you it's
one of two things either you're not
clear enough or you're not running the
physics of progress which is just a loop
so here's what people will say when they
think they have clarity
i want to win a gold medal tom
that's amazing
in what
the olympics
yes tom the olympics fantastic summer or
winter
summer
my man
swimming or tennis
swimming fantastic
backstroke freestyle medley what are we
doing
until you have so much clarity this is
another one burn into your soul until
you have so much clarity that you know
what to do with the next 15 minutes
you're lost
if the next 15 minutes isn't self
evident to you you're lost
so whenever you're like you know i'm not
sure what the next move is it's because
you don't have enough clarity
goals
demand
certain actions
let me give you an example
you kobe bryant
you want to be the best that ever lived
might and you want to pick up a
basketball
maybe you should practice can we agree
that's self-evident
maybe you should practice more than the
next person maybe you should study game
film more than the next person maybe you
should understand the psychology of the
game and how to get inside other
people's heads
once you know exactly what you want
now your goals will tell you what you
need to do they will tell you what the
demands are and the way it works is this
i know what my goal is i have hyper
clarity i know what when and how much
i have my goal i've written it down it
has a date attached to it hyper-specific
then i have to identify what the
impediment is between where i'm at
and where my goal is
hopefully you guys have all heard of the
second law of thermodynamics the second
law of thermodynamics is one of the most
applicable applicable to business ever
and it states in any closed system that
system will move towards entropy which
is just a fancy word for chaos
unless you inject energy
that is the truth of a business so when
you think hey my goal is there and i'm
here why won't i just automatically get
to my goal that's the question okay
literally in that sentence i just gave
you everything you ever need to know
i know you don't think i did
but 10 years when it clicks
and you hit me up and you stop me
somewhere and you're like tom yo
when i finally realized my whole [ __ ]
job as the decision maker of this
company is to understand why if we keep
doing what we're doing now why we will
not get to our goal and the answer is
entropy you will have to put energy into
the system in order to get to a specific
outcome so let me give you an example
back in 1961 if you were able to get
onto the s p 500 which is a list of the
500 most
profitable stable biggest companies
if you got on that list you would stay
for an average of 61 years
as of today that number is approaching
12 years with no signs of stopping the
shrinkage
because the world changes at an insanely
fast pace
my whole thing in business decision
making is aimed at one thing
to teach you
how to think from first principles to
solve a novel problem
my goal is here i'm standing here and in
between me and that goal because this
world is changing so fast because things
like nfts have come up and i don't even
know what the [ __ ] that is
i have to be able to think from first
principles
to figure out how i get around this
problem that nobody can tell me is a
problem
if you can't solve a novel problem
all you can ever do is copy
i'm going to say that again and if it
doesn't give you the chills you're not
listening close enough
if you can't solve a novel problem all
you can do is copy
now you can make a career out of being a
fast follower
but the only way to get where you want
to go is to be able to solve a novel
problem
so back to the physics of progress
step number one i know what my goal is
step number two i've identified
the novel problem that stands between me
and achieving my goal
step number three
i'm going to come up with a hypothesis
now a hypothesis is just a fancy way of
saying best guess
i'm going to come up with my best guess
as to how i'm going to solve that
problem
then
step four i'm going to run that test
and i'm going to see how well it worked
now here is the truth that decimates
most upcoming entrepreneurs
you're going to fail a lot
failure says nothing about you
failure is a part of the physics of
progress
failure
is the most information rich data stream
that exists
failure does not make you a failure
failure is the most information rich
data stream that exists but you must get
your ego out of the way when you fail so
that you can pay attention and read the
data i can't tell you how often i see
entrepreneurs not wanting to be wrong
not wanting to be embarrassed not
wanting to lose the faith of their team
finding ways to justify why that failure
wasn't really a failure or it was
something outside of their control or
whatever [ __ ] that noise everything is
your fault you have to own everything if
you didn't get the result you wanted by
definition you failed
cool
tom told me that failure is the most
information rich data stream that exists
so all i need to do now is look at the
data and figure out what i learn
you get that learning and then the
physics of progress begins anew you've
assessed
however much it failed and you begin
again
henry ford said that failure is simply
the ability to start again this time
more intelligently
so now we go we have our goal here's the
problem
here's my hypothesis on how to overcome
that problem i try it i failed to some
degree i learned from that and i try
again more intelligently i failed to
some degree i learned from that i try
again more intelligently that's the
physics of progress
now grab a microphone because we're
going to go through this in real time
don't give me easy problems and don't
let me off the hook if i did not solve
your [ __ ] problem say tom you haven't
solved my problem now here's rule number
one
you're gonna be real [ __ ] tempted to
do what the british call waffling
you're gonna you think i need eight
months of real-time context to
understand your problem i promise you i
do not
if i need context i will ask for it your
job
to be a good citizen of this time
is to ask your question
in a single sentence with no commas or
run-ons
i assume everybody's heard of einstein
yes
einstein said if you can't explain a
problem simply you don't understand it
very well what did i say is
number one clarity clarity clarity if
you can't give me your problem in a
single sentence you don't have clarity
so what do i know is the answer to your
problem get [ __ ] clarity
it's just the way that it has to be and
this is how people die in these really
simple [ __ ] loops they're not forcing
themselves to get clear now why aren't
they getting clear because they have
emotion emotions make dots feel like
they connect when they don't
all right now we've got a line go for it
keep it short
hey tom how do i present
a 60 000 proposal
in person
you're gonna have to give me your
problem what's your problem you're not
good at presenting
no i am i the problem
is i've never
done this announce a consulting group
i'm jeff the entrepreneur by the way i
love you by the way you've got me
through some dark times to be where i'm
at right now i'm honored i'm serious
your your thing and everything dude
you've helped everybody here
so right now i have a consulting group
uh the company's actually here so it's
actually the c the ceo is not here today
is that his thing but i'm gonna be
presenting this to him uh tomorrow a lot
of words these feel like context
um so yeah just the psychological is
what it is a presenting
so here here it is guys you always start
with the problem okay remember i just
walked you through the physics of
progress it is the [ __ ] nature of
progress there is no way to sidestep
this so we all already know before he
even speaks the answer is going to be
what's your goal what's the thing that
stands between you and your goal and
then what is our best guess as to what
we would need to do to get over that
goal so now i don't know if you're a bad
presenter i don't know if you have a bad
product so you have to come at this from
why am i asking this question because
i'm nervous i'm uneasy because the
answer is that you need to figure out
what problem you solve for them and in
the meeting you don't have to be slick
or cool you just have to show them how
beyond a shadow of a doubt that thing
that keeps you awake at night dear buyer
my product actually makes that go away
and then here's the the thing about
business that i wish weren't true
because secretly i just want to talk
about like
how to feel good about yourself
right like if we're not in business to
help other people and to do rat [ __ ] to
help our family and to make money like
what the [ __ ] are we doing this for so
this ultimately comes down to this
emotional thing and i just want to talk
about that but the reality is to get
there we have to understand the nature
of things and this one is you have to
solve a problem for them and
the part that i wish wasn't true you
actually have to be better at solving
that than anybody else
[Applause]
now i'm so fascinated by that's the one
that got sort of a tepid but it was
better than all the other reactions so
we'll take it
but
all i said was what should be
self-evident is that you actually have
to be good at your business
now what i find is the thing that people
are always if somebody's going to
compliment me the thing that they're
going to compliment me on is tom you
always seem so prepared for your
interviews
and my thing is like
the only way to win in life
is to be more prepared than everybody
else if you want to win a gold medal in
the olympics you actually have to be
better at that sport than any other
human being on planet earth
that's [ __ ] business
you're going here's another one this
drives me nuts
people will say tom if i because i
always tell people you have to work hard
smart
and long hours
and the inevitable question that i get
is
tom
if i work hard and smart
why do i need to work long hours
because [ __ ] you're going
against me and i'm willing to do all
three
so now what
there there's no arbiter other than
being better right if your game is to be
stronger you better be able to lift more
weight
if your product solves xyz problem it
better actually [ __ ] solve it and
better than anything else so the
presentation is hey look guys i'm a
nervous wreck i hate giving
presentations but the one thing that i
know about my product it will outperform
and i invite you now to put me in
whatever circumstance you need to and
i'm going to show you that it
outperforms this is why trust me if
albert would let me i would stay here on
this [ __ ] stage and answer every
single question i would let people push
me and say no but tom you haven't solved
my problem i will keep going until we
solve your problem now i don't mind
doing that because it's first principles
thinking it applies to everything i know
my product is better so i will just
stand here and [ __ ] do this moment
after moment after moment
when you get as confident in your
product as i am in my ability to solve
business problems
presenting will be very easy
perfect thank you i'm going to use that
opening thank you for sure
let's go over here
thank you very much for being here today
uh have a couple well actually it's one
question in a single sentence right you
know what in a single sentence in a
single sentence yes my man my goal is to
have fifty thousand laws in centuries by
2029. 50 000 what licensed agents i mean
the life insurance business so 50 000
licenses by 2029. how to know
if it's a company to sell or a company
to keep
that's an emotional decision because
there is no right answer but they will
take you on wildly divergent paths so
everybody in life what is the number one
thing you know in my mind right i've
walked you through the physics of
progress he asked that question everyone
should have been able to scream one word
all at the same time and that word is
clarity
there you go guys
here unfortunately i've learned one
immutable truth
i can't want it for you
now in my own life i'm a [ __ ]
psychopath because i am going to win and
that's just that and i'm willing to
suffer and get kicked in the face as
many times as it takes to get good
enough because that's what this is all
about in order to be able to solve the
problems better than anybody else and
win
so
when we get to the
participation part
show me what you got for your own sake
it doesn't [ __ ] matter to me i'm
going to go win whether you guys want to
win or not
so this is about you this is about it's
what's called self-signaling you're
going to remind yourself how badly you
want this [ __ ] all right
you feel me you've got to have clarity
no one can ask that it's emotional
so
you have to pick one path and go down it
now here's the great news about whatever
path if you start running a thousand
miles an hour in that direction and
realize oh i made a mistake
amazing
failure is the most information rich
data stream that exists so by taking
action you're learning more we now and
it's not like you have to run all the
way back and start over you just [ __ ]
cut a line across
and then start going on the right path
so you can always change direction right
you close 999 doors realize the one that
you went through sucks you can always
come back out open a new one and go
through that
learn learn iterate you have to start
with clarity
all right next
tom super quick
[Applause]
con context hello context right um
i only been in the united states for 11
years
i
i managed to own 23 properties and
had three companies that are successful
my question to you since you
excel at scaling
you obviously
found an industry and it proved it
proves that you know it's successful
when i mean you've done this through
placing systems to placing systems right
systems in place that's all
so
these companies my companies they proved
to be successful right but
when do you stop injecting money
or when you continue to inject more
money
to take it to a level like you right
like this thing what's your goal
everything starts with a goal
but
and my goal is no but yeah no no goal i
mean no no but right
no goal uh
i want to take you to a billion dollars
so why when
five years
word right
so
you've got to have
just a freakish amount of clarity on
what you're trying to do and how you
plan to get there because the answer
about injecting money is actually a
totally separate question that's about
where do you feel safe where do you feel
secure you know what's that number so
when i started impact theory i picked a
number and i said i'm not going to burn
more than this and if we get to that
point in the capital i either raise
outside capital or i fold the company
and i just i picked a number and i went
after it now of course as you start
having success and you start seeing how
much faster you could go if you injected
a little more capital then maybe you
change your mind but you have to set a
number go after it have very clear
metrics here's another one people often
don't know what success looks like so
you don't know whether you failed or not
because you didn't set a metric
so for instance you could set a metric
that said if i'm not growing at this
rate with this profit percentage i won't
invest any more money
but here write this down [ __ ] write
this down this one's big
if it can be turned into math
it should be turned into math so we're
going to make a math equation around
this it's
velocity of sales it's profit margin
percentage it's going to take in some
amount of like where is the industry
going and we're going to find out
also
what number you're comfortable with
where do you feel overextended right
because number one avoid a mortality
event so you've got the business
mortality you've got your lifestyle
mortality and so you want to be very
thoughtful of hey i can blow 30 million
dollars if i lose that i'm fine but 31
million dollars starts to be
uncomfortable cool then we know it's 30
million and we better be hyper
disciplined and not act like a vc funded
company and be like yo 30 million it's
like you really have to be
really specific
but there's no right or wrong answer
it's up to your tolerances and it all
comes from clarity and i know it haunts
you
several
numberless some industries right very
profitable i know it hunts you you why
am i not in that space why don't i take
my systems and go to that space why
don't i take my system and do with this
other industry i
shiny object syndrome all the time
when does it stop for you it'll never
stop you just have to be disciplined i
know what my goal is because i know what
my goal is i just
sift every opportunity through is this
really the most effective way to
overcome the problem that i have to
achieve the goal that's good all right
hit me up
okay i don't know if anybody has this
issue but uh
why am i so good and i'm trying to try
this in one sentence so why am i so good
at the things i hate and horrible at the
things i love
i have a feeling that if we were to
actually audit that it what's happened
is because that's such a clever way to
think of it you've told yourself that
story but that it's probably not
actually true so there are going to be a
lot of things that you excel at that
you're like oh i don't want to be doing
this and fair enough and you can either
do those or find somebody else that can
do those
and then the other thing is just because
you currently aren't good at something
you love go get good right when i
started in business and i promise
everyone's going to think i'm lying and
i'm not exaggerating in the slightest i
know it's hard to believe but my first
year maybe 18 months in business
the only contribution that i would make
to a conference call was to say goodbye
and i would actually get excited
so my business partners right i was just
an employee at the time and my business
partners were like these high-level
entrepreneurs and i looked up to them so
much and they'd run the whole call and
i'd be like whoa like this is crazy but
i didn't have anything to add because i
felt really stupid and i didn't know
what i was talking about then i could
feel oh we're about to wrap up i get to
say it here we go goodbye
and that felt amazing
but then i've gotten good right i've
gotten so good that people pay me a lot
of money to come up and explain what i
do so remember your goals demand the
skill set that's required so now it's
just a question of whether you get
disproportionate returns or not okay so
all of us get either subpar performance
par performance or
above par and you're getting a
disproportionate return
so and i have a friend backstage who
knows golf and he's horrified because i
just did that backwards but you get the
idea because subpar is good right
somebody that knows golf
uh
so
you have to figure out what are the
things i'm going to put energy into so
for me i don't [ __ ] with finance i learn
as much as i need to learn to make sure
i can't be stolen from and then that's
it and i bring other people in to handle
that does not speak to my personality or
my desire
verbal ability on the other hand to get
disproportionate returns so every unit
of energy i put into getting better at
speaking i get better than somebody else
who's putting the same amount of time
and energy and so
you pick
those things that are useful and you get
disproportionate returns and you lean in
on those things and then you remember
that
you can learn anything
but you can also hire almost everything
so the only thing that you must get good
at is decision making if you're not good
at decision making you work for somebody
else
thems are the facts
you feel me
all right
by the way i want to be clear nobody's
even hit me with a business problem yet
i'm game for the like i have a business
plan i'm trying to scale into paraguay
and what the [ __ ]
hey tom hello
so uh i have a company that's doing
eight figures in revenue
and it's been sitting in that range
and i've tried a few different things
when with your first company what did
you have to do to get it to nine figures
and what did you have to sacrifice
whether personal or in business so in
the first company to get to nine figures
we had to sell it and move into a
totally different company so this is
where are you in the right industry are
you solving the right problem and you
really have to look at that because the
reality is some businesses are just
eight-figure businesses
and so is this an eight-figure business
and what we need to be doing is pivoting
and finding something that opens us up
to a much larger vista or are we doing
something wrong so we run the physics of
progress we start with our goal our goal
is hyper specific then and this is the
art we have what is that problem are
there people in your industry that are
doing it are there nine figure
businesses in your industry if there are
nine figures in fact this is a really
useful life tool
who is doing it well
okay you're trying to do something who's
doing it well
who's ahead of you right so i decide
that i'm going to try to make sure that
nobody gets to the age of 15 without
encountering a growth mindset that's my
mission in life okay everything i do is
about that
thank you
so now you work backwards my first
attempt was to just look into a camera
and say think like this act like this
and i realize two percent of people will
respond to it but 98 don't you will
never hear me say as long as i help one
person i'm not that guy i want to
[ __ ] help everybody
and at scale as much as humanly possible
so i start thinking about the 98 and i
realized okay i'm going to be
doing something in media
either
music which sways culture video games
movies tv whatever that's going to be
and so i decide given my passions and my
skill set that i'm going to be on the
film tv video game side
so who's done it well
who has told only one kind of story
right because that's i can only make one
kind of story if i'm trying to give you
a growth mindset
every story has to tell a growth mindset
so i was like has anybody ever told one
kind of story and built a really
successful
media company and the answer is
god damn right
disney told one kind of story over and
over and over from a thousand different
angles and in doing so he has swayed
culture to give you an idea my sister
went to disneyland 72 times in 12 months
pre-covet obviously
and i thought whoa like this place
really means something to her so if
disney can build the most magical place
on earth can i build the most empowering
place on earth now i don't just go copy
disney but i see a lot of the cues that
i need about what they did how they
swayed the psychology of the world and
so you want to find somebody that's
doing it and that's going to give you
those first clues you have to take
ownership of everything say everything
is my fault
and get real good at identifying that
problem whether it's we don't have
enough capital we don't have the right
product
i'm not the right sales person whatever
but you have to figure out what that
problem is do you have a guess what
holds you back
well uh there's well there is uh
nine and ten figure businesses in my
industry and what they do is once a
company gets to eight figures they look
at buying them so that's the end goal so
what's the problem
uh
trying to figure it out trying to figure
out that's vague
trying to figure out how to
i have to multiply the revenue by five
times to get to eight figures are you
saying though that you don't understand
which companies to buy
no uh
in my company when it gets to eight
figures nine and ten figure companies in
my industry buy them which is the goal
okay but so are you a seven figure
trying to be an eight or an eight trying
to be a nine no eight trying to be a
nine okay so if we know that people go
from eight to nine remember you said
this
if we know that eights go to nines by
acquiring other companies the goal
is already obvious we have to go buy
companies at least that's one path true
or false
uh true but sorry what i meant
what i meant is when you go from eight
figures to nine figures
the nine figure ten figure companies buy
buy you at that point uh and you're
afraid you'll get purchased no i wanna
sell i wanna get to
tell me the problem in a single sentence
um
because just just to be clear when you
started unless i misunderstood you said
tom i'm an eight and i want to become a
nine how do i do it
and the answer is sitting right in front
of us but now when i say that's the
answer you say no no that's not the
problem
well what i was asking is what you
specifically did in your first company
to get from eight to nine we exited that
company and started a new one from
scratch because that was a market that
was never going to take us to nine
figures so so that's an option to look
at that then absolutely yeah
everything's on the table we're thinking
from first principles i didn't look at
that option so but it also sounds i'm a
little confused we'll move on but i'm a
little confused because you gave us the
answer which is to acquire other
companies so there's and now i'm going
to speak to everybody else about your
problem forgive me but like do you guys
see how
the answer he was able to articulate the
answer but there's something that
doesn't satisfy him in that answer
oh this is so important so if we've been
on sort of the 101 101 we're now in the
master's degree
this is where i see entrepreneurs get
tripped up all the time
there is a gap between what you feel
and what you can articulate
if you're living in a feeling
and you cannot say the problem in a
single sentence
your emotions
are making something feel obvious that
actually isn't obvious
hey everyone this episode is brought to
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enjoy
oh god this is so important you're
having a biological experience this is
one of those where i would need a full
week to walk you through why it is so
important to understand i'm going to
give it to you real fast i've got still
a little over 15 minutes okay
this is really important you're going to
think i'm not talking about business but
i swear to god
i am
the conscious mind uses language
the subconscious mind
uses emotion
the conscious mind can process very
little data
the subconscious mind can process what
they call
faster
and vaster
so your subconscious mind can take in
all this information from the world
and it can't speak to you in language
so it's processing a lot of data a lot
of data all the data that's necessary
but
it can't communicate to you in words for
two reasons one we pass through infancy
and from an evolutionary perspective we
pass through millions of years of not
having sophisticated language but even
now
we
go through an extended period where we
cannot speak
but we have to have a way to communicate
so anybody that has kids know the way
the kids communicate is they have all
this data coming from their body they
get stressed and they just scream and so
it's this really simple feedback loop
and what i'm trying to get people to
understand is that you're existing in
that same feedback loop right now in
your business
so subconscious will speak to an emotion
you must learn to translate that emotion
into words a very simple conscious
thought that you can say in a single
sentence with no commas no run-ons no
parentheticals so there's nowhere to
hide
now
you're having a biological experience i
started by saying your brain is [ __ ]
with you you ready for a true story
who's ready for a true story
okay if this doesn't freak you out and
the story i'm about to tell you is going
to explain eighty percent of the
problems that you have as a business
owner this is so true and you're not
going to believe me but i'm only ever
going to say what is true
this is a real study
you can read about it in very famous
textbooks there is a region of the brain
that you can damage
that will eliminate your ability to form
long-term memories
so you can form short-term memories but
if we meet and your this area of your
brain is damaged and i leave the room
and come back three minutes later you
won't remember me it's real okay it's
not just the movie momento it's a real
condition
so they would test this guy
and one time they had a doctor walk in
with a pin
in his hand
so when he reached out to shake the
guy's hand it poked him and the guy
pulled his hand back and was like whoa
doctor leaves the room waits three
minutes comes back in remember this
guy's not faking it
he does not know who this doctor is the
region of his brain that forms long-term
memories has been destroyed and so he
meets this doctor new
the doctor sticks out his hand
if he doesn't know who he is
he should reach out and just get pricked
over and over and over right
would you not assume that to be true
but he'll refuse to reach out they've
tested this on multiple people
now
and this is the important part
open your minds for me i want you to
hear what actually happens because this
is what's happening to you
right now and you don't realize it
when asked
why won't you shake this doctor's hand
what the guy said was
i've always had a long-standing problem
of shaking the hand of someone in a
white lab coat
that's a lie
has nothing to do with that it has to do
with a region of his brain stored a tie
between this guy
and pain
that can't articulate into the conscious
mind because of the memory storage
problem
but
the brain
will not
allow there to be no answer
the brain
will not allow there to be no answer
so
when we run into a problem hey i'm an
eight-figure business i'm trying to
become a nine-figure business you feel
like you know why
well it's because of this that or the
other
it's almost certainly true
that that narrative
is the version of your brain connecting
some pain
you feel an emotion something doesn't
feel right you put it into words and
feel like cool i've got the words i can
use when somebody asks me about this
maybe 90
percent of the problems you face in your
business
you have an emotional understanding of
but you never take the time to question
the narrative that you've layered on top
of that and until you can pierce that
narrative and figure out what's really
going on using the physics of progress
you're never going to figure it out
so know
that you lie to yourself all the time
and it's the only way to get through
life we all do it you have to do it it's
actually a great strategy but to grow
your business you have to figure out how
to get through that and get to the other
side
because there's some emotion stopping
you
okay i'm gonna stay on this for one more
second because i want to see if we can
break through i can tell by your face
that my answer isn't landing with you
you think i'm off the mark
and we're about to see if that's true
what do you think i'm missing
uh no i'm actually trying to take in
what you're saying so i just changed
your life forever
and six months from now it's going to be
a nine figure business because you know
you just need to go acquire
exactly i kept thinking about being
acquired and not one second that it
crossed my mind to acquire so i can get
to that number instead of just waiting
for sales to grow
it's amazing thank you
guys first principles will solve every
problem in your business okay i don't
know his industry yeah
i'm just trying to ask questions what's
your goal
what's the problem
who's doing it well
what can we learn from that
if no one what experiment can we run
i promise you
there is not a single problem
in any business anywhere
where the right set of questions won't
lead you to the right answer and now one
gift i want to give you because this
one's important
please
please i'm begging you
don't for one second value yourself for
being the one that comes up with the
answers
because then it becomes uh can you
think of the solution to all these
questions can you come up with all the
right questions and all the right
answers and i can already give you the
answer to that and it's no
that's why we build teams
now i could do a whole another class
about how what you need to be is the
soil
in which other amazing people grow
because that's really how you get
somewhere
but at the same time you've got to be
the baddest [ __ ] in the room
so it's this weird dichotomy of like yay
i'm the sun that feeds you and nourishes
you and lifts you up and i'm also the
biggest baddest tree in the forest
it's a whole thing we'll move on
hey tom um
i'm in the mortgage industry i
check i manage a team of 21 people and i
want to grow my specific goals to grow
to 100 people by january 2023 so why
because more people equals more revenue
and that's do you know where the
breaking point is
no
so this i'm always fascinated by people
who start with people first because the
people isn't your goal the revenue is
your goal
you just know one path to the revenue is
people
but if the real goal is revenue let's
just jump right to it because there
might be 30 solutions and one of them is
that we hire these people to get there
but you don't need it to be people do
you
well we're in a in a one-to-one sales
environment and more salespeople in my
business equals more sale equals world
revenue
i hear you
but do you like if you brought in 100
people and they ended up bringing in
less revenue would you still want to
bring on 100 people no
and if i could come in and coach
everybody for six months and bringing on
50 people instead of 100 people bought a
more revenue than you were expecting
from 50 people would that be a better
solution for you absolutely can we now
agree that the revenue is what you care
about 100 okay so now that we know the
revenue is what we care about now the
goal will dictate what we do but the
crazy thing is in all these brokerage
type businesses whether it's real estate
whether it's insurance mortgages
whatever everybody thinks they want
headcount and i get it because there's a
math equation and hey tom said anything
that can be made math should be made
math and i know if i bring on a person
they account for this much revenue but
they also it gets more complex the more
peop