A BILLIONAIRE taught me how to think like a BILLIONAIRE..

Summary

• When I started as an entrepreneur, I would read a book on delegation and immediately implement it, only to later realize things weren't being done correctly.
• I found myself swinging from extreme delegation to micromanaging, which stifled my team's initiative and turned me into a bottleneck for the business.
• I learned to recognize that instead of problems to be solved, some situations are dichotomies to be managed, like balancing management and delegation.
• By asking the question, "What problem are we solving?" I pause and clarify issues, which helps prioritize actions.
• I've realized that not all problems are catastrophic; some are incremental improvements over time, especially for newer businesses.
• I understand the challenge of creating a tax code that pleases everyone due to the competing ideals of fairness and equality, which is another example of a dichotomy that must be managed.
• I use the concept of continuums versus binaries to make more precise decisions; for example, thinking in terms of how far I strayed from a diet rather than a binary on/off.
• Binary thinking can lead to inaccurate decisions; reality is more complex and nuanced.
• By recognizing patterns, you can identify whether an issue is a dichotomy or a continuum, which then makes it more approachable and solvable.
• Understanding these frameworks has improved my decision-making and problem-solving in business and personal life.
• Accurate thinking and precise questioning lead to meaningful answers, avoiding "stupid games" and undesired outcomes.
• My aim is to share effective mental models that refine thinking and language to achieve desired results and address greater life questions.
• With Acquisition.com, we generate $85 million a year, and I strive to continue sharing valuable insights with the community.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest starting by understanding the importance of balance. For example, instead of choosing between delegation or micromanagement, find a middle way. Ask yourself how much control is needed without stopping your team from being creative. Here's what to do:

1. When you face a problem, first ask, "What problem are we solving?" This question helps focus on what's essential.

2. Realize not every issue is a big crisis. Some things get better little by little, especially in new businesses. Work on improving over time instead of stopping everything to fix a problem right away.

3. Think about how to manage dilemmas instead of trying to solve unfixable problems. Like with taxes—everyone can't be happy, but we can manage the arguments about fairness and equality.

4. Avoid thinking in just yes or no. Life isn't just on or off, like a diet. Think more about how far you are from where you want to be. For example, if you ate a little too much, don't give up—just eat a little less the next day.

5. Use patterns to recognize if you're facing a problem or just a situation to manage. If something seems unsolvable, maybe it's something to manage, not a problem with a clear solution.

6. Be precise in your thinking and questions. Avoid playing "stupid games." Instead, aim for clear answers that help you get what you want.

By following these steps, you can make better choices for your business and life. Remember, it's about balance and seeing things as they really are, not just how we want them to be. This way of thinking has helped me a lot, and it can help you too.

Quotes by Alex Hormozi

"What problem are we solving"

– Alex Hormozi

"It is not whether you are a diabetic, it's how diabetic are you"

– Alex Hormozi

"We like to label things as yes or no, but biology and reality exists on continuums"

– Alex Hormozi

"If you ask stupid questions, you get stupid answers"

– Alex Hormozi

"It's not a problem to be solved, it's a dichotomy to be managed"

– Alex Hormozi

Full Transcript

when i was in the beginning of my entrepreneurial career i would read a book on delegation right and as soon as i read the book i was like okay this is how you delegate and then i would come back to the team and be like all right delegate delegate delegate delegate delegate right and i'd be like all right y'all are good and then i would dip out and then you know we all kind of know how the story is probably going to go uh me being super excited about uh business and thinking that things are gonna you know auto things are gonna run themselves right now that i've delegated everything i'm a big boss man and then of course i check in a few weeks later and then things weren't done the way i wanted to and then of course you know i read super you know a bunch of books on management etc and then i dive super far and start micromanaging everyone trying to control everything and then yet again the problem would arise where people were not doing what i wanted them to do but for different reasons because they felt completely stifled they wouldn't take initiative because they felt like they needed my sign off and everything and then i'm basically a huge bottleneck in the business yet again but in a different way and so i say that um to illustrate uh one of the the thinking frameworks that has served me well and i'm actually really excited to talk about this because when i when i talk to people i think a lot of people think that i'm told that sometimes i communicate some ideas well and so what i wanted to do was provide you the frameworks for thinking through thoughts and i know that sounds crazy but i'm going to give you four different frameworks that work really well for me i'll try and give you examples of each one of them so the example that i started with that little story right is an example of something where most people try and solve how much management versus uh you know should i delegate or should i manage right and instead of thinking of it as a problem to be solved it is instead a dichotomy to be managed as in micromanaging is not good on this extreme and you know complete delegation on this side is not good either way right abdication and so there's a middle ground and so what's interesting about this is that um there are a lot of different things that come up in the business world where i will see people conflate or mistake what thing they are solving right and most times when i'm talking to a new entrepreneur or even a more established entrepreneur and they reach out for help or guidance or whatever right or it's one of our portfolio companies most times they'll start talking right really fast about all this stuff to try and provide context and i'll just usually pause them and be like what problem are we solving it usually gets them to stop right and i would highly advise you if you're if you're dealing with if you have subordinates or you have direct reports who roll into you and they have a whole bunch of decisions a lot of times they can get caught and sometimes ourselves too we can get caught in the in the day to day the minutia and just simply pause and say what problem are we solving there's so many pieces of this that i want to unpack that i think are going to be really interesting for you but the first one is when you define what problems you are solving you might even have to ask the question is that a problem when some people are like well hey we're getting you know customer service complaints it's like okay understood is this something that we believe that we can reasonably eliminate is this something that is catastrophic to the business or is this something that we can kind of try and improve over time you know through systems and process right and so a lot of times people misprioritize problems because they perceive them as as threats to existence when in reality they are a course of doing business and things that we can constantly improve right especially if you're newer you're starting out of course your product's not going to be perfect yet right you're just getting going but you improve these things rather than thinking i have to stop everything to fix this problem right and so the first frame shift is that most people think in terms of like i have a problem to solve rather than a dichotomy to be managed as in these are two things that will always exist all right i'll give you a different example of this um actually this will be a fun one the reason we will probably never have people who are all happy about a tax code is because you cannot have both fairness and equality equality means everyone pays 10 fairness means the rich people pay more than the poor people that's fair this is equal both are ideals and yet somehow they're not the same thing and yet both are right and so because of that we will always have this conflict it's the same thing between justice and mercy both of them are ideals both of them are right and yet somehow they're conflicting and so we we we see these situations and this is why i'm trying to hopefully give this to you because the more i started to recognize these patterns the more quickly i could recognize them and then identify them and then either dismiss them or say oh it's another one of those right it's a pattern recognition it's like oh you guys are spending all this effort trying to solve a problem that is unsolvable this is a dichotomy that must be managed and will never be eliminated and so i think what my goal with this video is if i can help you get out of these little mental hamster wheels uh it's been incredibly valuable for me all right so that's the dichotomy that's like one of the one of the things that people will mistake they'll mistake a dichotomy for a problem that needs to be solved all right another framework um that that i find immensely valuable is the concept of of of a continuum versus a binary all right this is probably one of the biggest mental errors that people make when they're trying to identify things this is what i mean by that so for example i might say i'll use a weight loss example so people will say something like uh i'm off my diet or i'm on my diet right it's a very simple thing and that's because psychologically we like to be binary we like to label things as yes or no but biology and reality exists on continuums as in to what extent did you go off of your diet right did you go 200 calories over overall you go 500 calories over and as even though it is quote more difficult to think in this way it is also more accurate and so our brain uses binaries as placeholders for decision making to store data right when in reality when you start storing all these binary decisions they start adding up and you start getting more and more unaccurate if that's a word on your decision-making process because you're actually basing your decisions not on facts but based on binary shorthand that your brain saves and so that is one of the biggest mistakes that i see all the time in thinking in entrepreneurs and really in anything in general because we like to have that shorthand it is easier right it's easier to say i fell off my diet or i am diabetic when the reality is it's not whether you are a diabetic it's how diabetic are you right kind of interesting i stole that from dr cashy but i just love that um who's my closest friend he's a biochemist and we talk about this stuff all the time point being if you can think about this within um i'll give you i'll give you a business example so if we have a a binary where people are saying yes or no which is let's say facebook doesn't work marketing doesn't work i hear these statements all the time and you may laugh at this right but i get dms like this all the time facebook doesn't work for me marketing doesn't work for me like you can't sell this way in my business right and so people want to shorten a problem into yes it works no it doesn't work when so much of business and problem solving is understanding the nuance between where we're starting and where we're going and it's to what extent has facebook not worked right where is the fall off right it is not that it doesn't work it is just we only got it to work this percent right now we need to get all the way over the hump to get there but it's to what extent and i think that when i when if you if you can ask the right questions if you can see the problems as they truly are they become far more solvable and so this has been probably i just gave you two of my my best frames that i think with all the time all right so i'll say these again so the first uh mental lapse i'll say that i see all the time is mistaking a dichotomy that needs to be managed for a problem that needs to be solved people do this in their marriages as well right so you look at your wife right you look at your wife and you're like i need more variety right but later you're like i need more consistency and you're like we have to figure this out we need variety we need consistency it's like yes you need both right and so it's not a problem to be solved the dichotomy to be managed so that's framework number one the second framework between two things that i see as a problem that most people make is that they use a psychological binary to make a judgment and say yes this works no this doesn't work or yes this is this way or no that's not this way so that i can apply this arbitrary label that was made up when instead it is to what extent right it is a continuum i did not go off my diet or stay on my diet it is how far off did i go and a lot of times when we do that we also can stop the the mental judgment of being terrible people because we can actually approach reality which is i was 10 over yesterday so i can go 10 under today and be fine and be on track with my goal rather than oh i was off i might as well eat 19 pizzas because i'm off because that's the psychological shorthand the psychological binary of yes or no and so those two understandings have underpinned a lot of the breakthroughs in terms of how i think through things that have served me well and also when talking to entrepreneurs and they're trying to figure out what is wrong quote wrong with their business when in reality even naming it as a problem might actually not be the case when it is actually a dichotomy that needs to be managed or they're labeling a binary when it really is a continuum all right and so if you look at the problems that come up in your life whether they're personal whether they're physical whether they're where they're business-wise if you look at just with those two lenses first and and me sharing this like these are the things that like charlie munger talks about having a latticework um of mental models like how are the you know and he checks through decisions with mental models and so i want to share as many of those as i possibly can with you guys because i think um if we can think if we can be precise with our language we can precise with our thinking if we can ask the right questions we will get the right answers if you ask stupid questions you get stupid answers if you play stupid games you win stupid prizes and so my goal for everyone here in mozi nation is that uh we do not play stupid games and not win super prizes but instead um get exactly what we desire so that we can then ask the bigger questions of life and so anyways my name is oxford mosey i own acquisition.com we do 85 million a year in portfolio revenue uh if you enjoyed this video hit the subscribe button if you didn't i still love you either way lots of love and i'll see in the next video bye