I’m Facing A Billion Dollar Decision
Video
Summary
- My advice is to avoid irreversible decisions that could damage your reputation because you only get one reputation, and once it's damaged, it can't be salvaged.
- When faced with multiple good paths in entrepreneurship, take your time to gather data to make the right decision. Changing your environment can help, as it does for me, especially when flying which offers few distractions and the opportunity for perspective.
- In decision-making, consider the potential upside and downside, including risks to your net worth and reputation. My friend Shan once said, "Never bet the empire for a pot of gold." Wise bets have minimal risk to your reputation and finances.
- Time is your most valuable resource, and every choice carries an opportunity cost. Make trades of your time that maximize return.
- Look for investments or bets that offer high returns with low risk.
- When presenting or selling, it's better to commit fully to either delivering value or making the sale. Don't mix the two or do things in half measures. It's essential to go all in or not at all.
- Addressing people by their name can be powerful as everyone's favorite word is their own name. It creates leverage and makes others more receptive to what you're offering or asking for.
- When giving talks, don't attempt to outdo others in their field of expertise. Instead, focus on sharing actionable insights based on your strengths.
- After providing actionable advice, ensure to commit to taking significant, calculated actions. Making a more significant bet requires commitment without looking back.
- Humor and positivity can be effective in sales and persuasion. People are more inclined to help when they are in a good mood.
- When deciding between paths, if it's an early decision in your career, opt for the lower risk with a higher chance of success. If you're set on taking a more significant risk, don't hold back—fully commit to the decision and burn the boats.
- Maintain a clear separation between entertainment and work for maximum productivity.
- Lastly, from a personal note, some of my favorite movies include "The Matrix," "The Dark Knight," and "Gladiator," and I appreciate comedies like "40-Year-Old Virgin," "Wedding Crashers," and "Bridesmaids."
How To Take Action
I would suggest starting with small actions to improve the way you make decisions and handle your business or personal growth. First, always think about the impact of your choices on your reputation. You don't want to make a mistake you can't fix later. Second, take your time making big choices. It's okay to change where you are, like going on a plane ride, to help you think better.
When deciding between two good options, look at the risks and rewards. Listen to the wise words, "Never bet the empire for a pot of gold." This means don't risk everything you've worked for on one big chance. Spend your time on things that will give you the best return. Always try to find chances that give high rewards without too much risk.
When you're in a presentation or trying to sell something, either focus on giving value or making the sale. Don't mix them up. Go all in. Also, using someone's name can be a powerful tool. It can help make them listen to you because people like hearing their own names.
Humor and being positive can help you persuade people, too. When they're in a good mood, they might want to help you more. When you're just starting, it's better to choose a path that’s lower risk and has a better chance of success. And, when you decide to make a big move, don't look back. Really commit to your decision.
Finally, keep work and fun separate to stay focused and productive. If you like movies and comedies for relaxation, that's fine, just make sure it doesn't get in the way of your work.
Remember, action is key. After learning something, put it into practice to make a real difference in your life.
Quotes by Alex Hormozi
"The hardest part about growth is that the better you get, the bigger you get, the bigger the opportunities are, and the better they are"
– Alex Hormozi
"You measure your success by whether you completed the actions that would make it unreasonable that you will not fail"
– Alex Hormozi
"If we want to make commitments in anything or you're trying to go all in on a decision, one of the best ways to do that is to eliminate the possibility of going back on it"
– Alex Hormozi
"Never want to bet the empire for a pot of gold"
– Alex Hormozi
"People do nice things when they're in nice moods so it's like get them in a good mood first then ask for the nice thing"
– Alex Hormozi
Full Transcript
and so right now I have2 billion do paths what's the worst case scenario if you do it anything that damages your reputation is irreversible cuz you only get one reputation and you literally can't bankrupt yourself out [ __ ] it one of the hardest decisions in entrepreneurship is deciding which path to follow especially when you have two or multiple good paths I'm at a point in my career where I do have a very large decision that I need to commit to for multiple years and I've been spending basically every waking hour trying to gather more data to make the right decision one of my favorite things to do when I do have big decisions is to change my environment and I think it happens multiple times my favorite place to think is actually on planes I often have very few distractions when I'm on planes and I quite literally get perspective like I'm flying up and I'm looking down at the earth I feel like I always make really good decisions when I'm in the air and uh it's actually something that I like really look forward to you know what I've been waiting for since I've been married going to Chili's bonda chilies I had like a seizure honestly I would go because I don't mind I don't care about the style of the restaurant but I do not like their food I think they have amazing chips great salsa and the fajitas are strong I hate that you go hard on this in front of people because then behind the closed doors you're like yeah it's not that good if there's any time like in the fine establishments that I go to that we Bunch you now like five times like we'll go and she'll be like it sucks right it sucks say it say it it's not as good as the finest dining in the world just say it I'll be like yes it's not as good she's like see see and then that's it for the rest of my life your chil [ __ ] and you get like a stomach ache from it and then you're like who are you talking about here yeah who are we talking about I think you're telling me your story so we just landed in San Diego and we are going to reals event which is a big publicly traded brokerage for real estate agents our really close friend Chiron svat is the president of the company he invited us out we're probably going to have dinner with him we're going to speak there tomorrow I will be making a presentation to help real estate agents sell more houses but it will not be about real estate it'll uh either soccer be great or somewhere in between Le's like I'm just how do I how do I stop doing all these routines I'm like I can't even start I like tried to smoke cigarettes to get addicted to them and I was like I just it was too hard it was just too hard to stick with it it's like every morning it's like whatever I [Music] forgot the hardest part about growth is that the better you get the bigger you get the bigger the opportunities are and the better they are I think the easiest slip Miss test is to determine how big of the opportunity is worth your attention so right now 10x is kind of my my lpness text like we're at 100 it's got to be a billion or more for it to be something that I want to dedicate time to and so right now I have what I would consider to be2 billion doll paths they're very different relatively irreversible one has potentially more upside but more risk the other one is more certain but has lower upside there's lots of things that can make a decision you're reversible there if it's a certain percentage of your net worth or capital I don't like making those kinds of bets this is a quote from Shan svat buddy of mine he said never want to bet the empire for a pot of gold you bet what you have and need for something you don't have and don't need it's never a good bet anything that damages your reputation is irreversible cuz you only get one reputation and you literally can't bankrupt yourself out of a bad reputation you can't make take reputational risk where there's only downside now if I were to say like I want to support this cause I might piss off some people but it'll move me towards a different group of people so then in that case that's that's a trade-off more than it's a risk and so that's it's different than what I'm talking about here and then you just have time you know time that you can't get back now every every like moment you spend always has the opportunity cost of what you could have done with that time to get a higher return I think the number presentation I have on YouTube is about that concept is the only base thing we have is time and we make trades for stuff and so the people who are better at trading it for more stuff get more stuff there is this story that Tony Robbins told that I really like that just kind of Illustrated this image is that like rich people make bets where they can't lose on either way like so there's this guy who knows that nickels nowaday are made with nickel or whatever the the material they make nickel with is more valuable than the cost of a nickel this billionaire he knows has taken the nickel he's putting it in storage as an investment because the day that they change or remove that nickel from currency cuz it makes no sense he'll melt it and get 40% on his money but there are investments that are high return low risk you want to find those bets how's it going I don't want to you're good man what's up I I'm a treasury founder we just find banks in the US that literally pay the highest rates on cash well give me your card I don't have a card I I got L here take a picture of me and message me and then the guy who managed my linkon will get it there you go oh we got to get a good lighting there it is do it right now so I can tell him I'll do it right now yeah if we can get more C more return on our cash we're in a Hot Zone a Hot Zone of recognition what's all like entrepreneurial people looks like it this gentleman no half measures that's right he knows I'll tell you that story man we're running gym launch making a lot of money I got asked to speak at this like personal trainer conference and I was like yeah sure I'll I'll talk like I wasn't being asked to speak I wasn't making content like this so like it wasn't like a normal I was like sure I'll come talk and I was like so what do you want to do he's like well I figur you just like give a lot of value and then you can you know present your thing or whatever and I was like okay cool cool I I made this really long presentation that was just like very very good and then at the end I had the full presentation webinar of how to how to sell like that I used to sell it before and I was like You guys probably don't need to see all this stuff right like okay you get it like personal training you know it's important you got to know how to sell got to understand the systems uh at the end I was like yeah and here's the price and I dropped it and I was like you I just I just went as fast as I could through it and I didn't even I said it like I'm saying it right now I didn't like actually say it and so then I revealed the price and so I did what would have been a 90-minute presentation pitch in like 15 minutes after giving 3 hours plus of value so I was like this should make sense I give a shitload of value and then I'll just soft toss it right and I got so much resistance from the crowd it was the biggest flop of a pration I've ever G my entire life I don't even think I think I made two sales I it was nothing right now I had done a half measure and so it's either sell or don't sell don't be in between you either give value or you sell [ __ ] don't try and mix them if we want to make commitments in anything or you're trying to go all in on a decision one of the best ways to do that is to eliminate the possibility of going back on it a lot of people spend most of their lives being half in half out which to me is just not in at all it just gives them an excuse to feel like they're making progress when they really aren't there's a lot of books that talk about going pro going all in burning the boats and I think they all kind of go along the same point which is that sometimes you have to make a bet and be willing to be wrong knowing that if you make no bet you're guaranteed to be wrong but yeah for tomorrow everybody there knows more about selling houses than I do and my proof point of that is that they have all sold more houses than I have so what am I going to teach them about selling houses right I think it would be silly for me to try and compete on that cuz there's other speakers who've both done it and been there more than me so I feel like that' be a terrible position to take what I am going to do is say if I were to start here's how I would win but if Selling Houses means winning it'll apply here's my girlfriend Riley how's it going Michael Michael nice to meet you sorry my hands are cold appreciate it dude you're killing the game man very nice to meet you night nice meeting you too Riley right see you guys when I was in high school I read this book called how to make friends and influence people and I think I think the second chapter or something is call people by their name it's their favorite word in the whole language and I was like oh that's interesting your favorite word in the entire language is your own name so you love hearing that word more than any other word why should say that a lot of times if somebody likes that word think about this from a leverage perspective if you haven't seen somebody in a year and then you show up at a conference and you're like Steve and he doesn't remember your name he loses all aage you're the good guy and so you have so much more leverage in the conversation for remember thank you for calling reservation center got to see if I can get in there with a tank top and Water Sandals thank you for calling Steak House Amy speaking how can we help you Amy how are you today hello am I'm doing okay how are you I'm good quick question for you I have reservation at 7:30 what's the dress code we don't turn anyone away unless you're wearing the following board shorts swimsuits and tank tops for well if you've never turned anyone away before then I might just have to risk it cuz I can't go back to my hotel in time no okay I'm going to say Amy said it was okay yeah no problem I'll get that sent over though and let them know he should be okay thank you so much Amy you're a lifesaver you're like that with the ice cream so we're on our way to an ice cream shop and it's it's closing like at the time we're about to get there leelo she was like we should call to make sure that like we can get in and I was like hey how's it going my wife needs ice cream I'm going to be in the dog house I was like what are the chances one in a million that you guys can stay up 5 minutes later so I can get some ice cream I was like I'll be in and out I'll be the fastest ice cream man you've ever seen and they were like okay but you just can't tell anyone I like it I will take you to the Grave except for this content that I'm making right now and she let us in and we got the Sundays I've done a lot of phone sales and I've done a lot of inperson sales and there's a lot of mini skills that you learn in sales that are useful in every other environment where you need to get people to do something that you want them to do the ideal way of doing is getting them to want to do the thing that you want them to do rather than and having them feel like they are doing you a favor the way that you ask the tone that you ask the laughs that you make the jokes that you make all of those micro things I do those things so that the person on the other end feels like if they see me in person it will be a positive experience and they want to have that reward and so they are willing to push or bend the rules a little bit so that I can do whatever it is that I'm trying to do or get in a restaurant or dessert or whatever it is people do nice things when they're in nice moods so it's like get them in a good mood first then ask for the nice [Music] thing said you made half the presentation last night yeah I kind of have this like process that sort of works I'll like outline what I'm going to say like far in advance and then the day before I'll change half of it oh we get the we get the VIP entrance okay and then we noticed at your presentation about 300 plus slides yeah I finished it like 20 minutes ago yeah it looks good oh looks good yeah and if it doesn't I'll survive okay usually I get more of my adrenaline now and by the time I get on stage it's like I'm done with it kind of thing it's always directly proportional to the prep yeah this will be the first time I've talked about any of the stuff that I'm talking about in a keyo so I like I love this tall boy D this is great get a little bit of sugar a little bit of caffeine a little bit of delicious and a little bit of uh [ __ ] it how many people 350 I had 100 slides he has 220 I have 300 oh my God 300 slides I'm looking forward to it oh thank you have you ever done a real estate audience no I don't think so I'm not I don't talk to real estate agents it's going to be useless for them they'll be like what a waste of an hour [ __ ] talk up from my friend Alex [Applause] horos a lot of you guys already know how to win because you know how to lose so flip it you guys know how to win better than I could ever tell you you measure your success by whether you completed the actions that would make it unreasonable that you will not fail and then you succeed by default and everyone here has things that they've written down from many of the talks of things that you want to do or want to think about or whatever I would encourage you to make that list of things that you will do and then when you go back to the same condition your same home your same house your same Market your same whatever you change your behavior and then that will show that you learned and you took one step to becoming the person that you ultimately want to be this stuff is all top of mine in terms of making actions that would make it unreasonable that I fail with a billion dollar decision is because that's actually a decision I'm making right now I'm at a point in my career where I have enough what I would consider singles doubles triples that I have decided to take a bigger swing I'll either win or I'll learn same as you so from the bottom of our heart Alex you impacted our life thank you man we appreciate you thank you guys thank you thank you thank you all I want to do when I up 01 of you at all you can be dude dude you can be 100x you stop it thank you Alex you're good Chris very nice to meet you appreciate you Katie appreciate you photo with you and Katie yeah sure it's still tra bro I followed you since you had about 50,000 subscribers I still back here to see you I'm going to earn that hat I bought one I'll go wear it someday thank God I love seeing mosy nation of the wild I love the hustle I love everyone coming up and and and sharing their their stories like that always makes my day I would say though do it in a place where you won't you know get put in handcuffs for sneaking in come up when you see me in public if you can I'm happy to say hi take pictures whatever don't go into areas where you're not supposed to go in order to try and hang out because it usually just doesn't end well the crowd is loving you very nice to meet you thank you so much appreciate it so that was that was great I did my keynote earlier in the day I think people liked it they may not have I think they sat through regardless and I think we're probably going to have the afternoon probably a couple hours probably walk around and then we'll head back to Las Vegas can see that see I almost content [Music] yep back in the day when I had one-on ones there was a one guy who I was like so like what have you done for personal Improvement like what do you you know have you he's like yeah you know it was so crazy like I realized if I if I don't watch Netflix as much while I'm working I get like so much more done I was like there's so many things wrong with that statement you were telling me probably just like just level one of idsc level two of idsc is that like you mentioned that you're doing that you were watching nflix in general while you were working point three is that you didn't actually say you were going to stop you just said that you cut back on how much Netflix you were watching while you were working and I just like there's so many stupidities interwoven into so few words I was flabbergasted so you're more productive when you don't watch Netflix movies all not as much yeah yeah okay as much as many shows in a row while you're being paid at your job yeah it's been [Music] great that's pretty that is pretty oh damn so if you're at the crossroads between one decision that you're trying to choose between two different paths if it's the first go round I would encourage you to take the lower risk path that has a higher chance of success if it's a business there are stories of just unbelievable entrepreneurs but what you don't he is the tens of thousands of entrepreneurs who make that massive bet and then lose everything and lose five eight years of their lives if you are going to make the big swing and kudos to you it's an absolutely personal decision burn the boats go all in fully commit eliminate Alternatives no half measures because what I can guarantee you is that if you are going after the big swing the way to guarantee that it does not work is to go half in so if you're going to win make it unreasonable that anything that was in your control was not controlled for and then only lose for things that were not under your control what do you think top five for me I go Matrix all time I'd be willing to put Dark Knight is number two it's just like he's such a good villain it's just like he was just the perfect villain the intro scene is just like one of the alltime best scenes ever I really like old but I do like Gladiator Russell Pro do you have one that's not like action heavy probably my favorite comedy [ __ ] no it's too hard 40 Old Virgin Wedding Crashers super bad and surprise uh bridesmaides I cried during bridesmaides it's like I couldn't breathe I was dying yeah I mean I went cuz a buddy of mine at the job that I was at was like let's go see it and I was like fine so I like had a couple drinks and like went to the movie theater and I like was hyperventilating cuz I couldn't [ __ ] stop laughing