How I Built My Dream Life (in 5 min)
Summary
- I had to learn independence from a young age due to my family situation, teaching me to lead and manage myself.
- Struggling with weight in my upper teens, I took control of my life through fitness, losing 85 pounds.
- I learned that the discipline required for a fitness transformation is similar to what's needed for business success.
- Disillusioned by my college experience, I self-educated and moved to California to seek opportunities.
- I accepted a job at 24 Hour Fitness and learned sales and business operation skills.
- When starting a career, prioritize learning over earning.
- Realizing that the effort to build a big business is similar to a small business, I sought to work for a gym with a strong leader who could teach me more.
- I actively looked for a relationship with someone equally or more dominant, leading me to Alex, who matched my ambition and drive.
- Start working together on business ventures early in a relationship if you share the same passion and vision.
- Gym Launch, the business Alex and I started, succeeded after rethinking our model 18 months in.
- Identifying complementary skill sets within a team is crucial—Alex handled marketing while I focused on the remaining aspects like operations and strategy.
- Creating a culture with a clear mission, vision, and values attracts employees with high standards.
- With acquisition.com, I aim to lead the company to a billion-dollar valuation and evolve as a person and leader.
- Embracing challenges and setting ambitious goals encourages personal growth and maintains excitement and drive in my team.
Video
How To Take Action
- I would suggest getting fit physically as a foundation for discipline to be successful in business. Start small, just move more every day and make healthier food choices. Losing weight isn't just good for the body, but it teaches you about setting goals and working hard.
- To learn independence, take on responsibilities step by step. Practice making decisions and managing time well. Even kids can start with simple things like doing chores without being asked.
- Prioritize learning over earning, especially at the beginning of a career. You can find a job that teaches you skills you want, like I did at the gym. Even if the job doesn't pay much at first, the education is worth it.
- If you want to work with your partner, first make sure you both are really passionate about the same business. Talk about your business ideas early on to see if you have the same vision.
- Find out what skills you're good at, and what others are good at too. Like my partner Alex is amazing at marketing, and I handle operations and strategy. This way, everyone does what they're best at.
- Make sure your company has a clear mission, vision, and values. This will pull in people who really care and want to work hard, just like you.
- Challenge yourself and set big, juicy goals. It makes you grow as a person, and it keeps your team excited and driven. Even if the goal seems really big, like a billion-dollar company, it's the journey that changes you.
Quotes by Leila Hormozi
"I never wanted to be a victim of circumstance. I'm going to use this, I'm gonna make my life awesome"
– Leila Hormozi
"Work to learn, not to make money, when you're young"
– Leila Hormozi
"It's almost harder to have small business because there's less opportunity for people"
– Leila Hormozi
"Most people that have very big businesses are just people of like Elite character"
– Leila Hormozi
"I don't need to be the smartest person in the room, but I need to be competent enough that the smartest person in the room wants to work for me"
– Leila Hormozi
Full Transcript
was like I don't remember eight or nine and so I essentially had to raise myself until I was 15 so funny to say he's like I love my dad so much now and he's we're really close but I didn't know him super well back then I don't know if I would have learned how to lead myself learned how to manage myself learn how to manage my emotions had I not been exposed to it young I was always overweight as a kid I let myself go my upper teens it was bad I just drank a ton and then would eat out and I went from having some weight to like I was fat and I was like screw this I never wanted to be a victim of circumstance I'm going to use this I'm gonna make my life awesome started getting into fitness I pursued figuring out food working out I started going to the gym and like lifting by myself I end up losing like 85 pounds I think going through a fitness transformation is really similar to becoming someone who's successful in business and so then I went to college for exercise science two years in I realized this is not going to do anything for me I didn't take it seriously I wasn't like a bad student but I also wasn't like super good I just thought it was useless and I was like I can learn more on my own it was in that moment that I was like I want to invest in myself and I started looking Tony Robbins numeral and all that stuff I lived in Michigan at that point in time it wasn't a lot of opportunity so I packed up my Prius it was two days after I graduated college I just drove out to California and got some disgusting apartment as cheap as I could find oh this is in the ghetto great this is good for a single like 21 year old girl I moved there and then I was like okay I need to get a job within walking distance because I don't want to pay for gas too much so I went I applied at every gym nearby and I was like I'll show are working at a gym at first I'll learn sales for the gym and then eventually I'll learn more about business and have my own business I end up getting a job at all the places I applied and I ended up staying with 24 Hour Fitness I really like the manager there he was really encouraging and he was like dude I can train you so much there's 20 other people that they hired around the same time be like you need to go out and get referrals and I had no idea at the time that it was even hard to do that I just moved there I was like I have nothing to lose these people don't know me I have no reputation here what am I gonna do fail and that's there was two girls that were like crying outside the building I was like why are you crying they're like I don't want to go talk to strangers I'm just gonna go up and I'm just gonna be like hey my name is Layla I'm new here I'm curious if you have any friends that are interested in joining the gym work to learn not to make money when you're young and so I was like okay I have learned enough here I get how this works I don't want to move up the corporate ladder I heard about this guy who had this really great gym he's like a fantastic leader and he really knows how to run a business I want to go learn from that guy and so I went and worked at his gym what it allowed me to see was that the same effort it takes to build a small business it's the same effort to take a big business it's almost harder to have small business because there's less opportunity for people people have a big vision for themselves they don't want to work in a small business I'd been dating when I was in Michigan when I went to California I was like I just want to build up my career like I want to be successful and that was all I really cared about I always knew I was like I want someone that's equally as powerful in every relationship before I met Alex I was always like the dominant one in a relationship and I realized I was like I don't really want that I want someone who's almost more dominant than me or at least could be equally powerful I swiped on Alex I messaged him because it was Bumble and so the girl smashes the guy first he called me and we talked for 20 minutes and he was like I consider this to be like our first date so then we went for Froyo the next day which I tried to get out of and he was like no I said I was sick or something I think I was hungover we didn't talk about like relationships at all we actually just talked about business all the time so we like walked for four hours basically on the first day we should work together I want to start this new business you seem like you can sell and you understand business and you like all this you should do it with me and I was like we just met I just feel like like we both didn't have a ton of friends at that point in time so it was like are we gone three days as well basically we started a gym launch six weeks into US knowing each other 18 months in we changed the model and then it just took off we realized that we have really great compliment entry skill sets we wrote everything on a whiteboard that happens with the business and it was like Marketing sales Finance HR op success and then one of our friends just circled marketing and like this is Alex and then all the rest is Layla it's building the team doing that and aligning it with the strategy of the business is something I feel really good at doing most people that have very big businesses are just people of like Elite character I don't need to be the smartest person in the room but I need to be competent enough that the smartest person in the room wants to work for me and that I've created a big enough Vision that their Vision can fit within mine and the culture is really just the mission and the vision and the values the founder nobody will work for you that has better values than you they will go find somebody else who has better values with acquisition.com it's sincere Candor unimpeachable character and then competitive greatness these are the principles that we use to make decisions for the company I want to be the CEO of acquisition.com when it hits a billion I have to become a different person in order to hit a billion or to hit 10 billion what propels me now is more of a desire to honestly just meet my future self and and see what's possible I could do anything that anyone else's worth has done and I think that's really freaking cool now it's more of a desire to see what that looks like and to meet the person I have to become when I put myself in situations where there's more pressure to become that kind of person setting a goal so big that I am forced to change and evolve in a positive way as a human in order to get there and that other people within it also have to do the same because that's what keeps people excited foreign