Were giving away all our money

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We’re giving away all our money.

Summary

  • Last week, Layla and I decided to donate our entire estate to charity upon our passing.
  • This decision reflects our belief that handing down large sums of money can be detrimental, as seen in others' experiences where inherited wealth ruined lives.
  • We chose not to pursue a family trust for the sake of legacy, as we recognize the fleeting nature of impact and existence over generations.
  • Biological dilution over time means our genetic legacy is insubstantial in the long run.
  • We acknowledge that our successes in business may be influenced by innate aptitudes, similar to how Shaquille O’Neal’s physical traits predispose him to success in basketball.
  • Giving back after death seems a minimal gesture compared to the importance of sharing skills, experiences, and lessons now.
  • Acquisition.com, our portfolio holding company, is one mechanism through which we share lessons to provide value while we are still alive, comprising seven companies with yearly revenue around $85 million.
  • Our approach to business has evolved from scarcity-driven motives to a focus on sharing and imparting knowledge to others through writing books and creating free courses.
  • Reframing money as a scorecard can be misleading; more money beyond a certain point does not fundamentally change one's life or solve non-financial problems.
  • Instead of leaving wealth to individuals, directing it towards causes ensures it is used skillfully and allows others the chance to earn their own success.
  • We plan to maximize our wealth by effective capital allocation, aiming for a larger impact through charitable donations upon our death.
  • I encourage not to sacrifice today for an uncertain future, as highlighted by Naval Ravikant's view on retirement.
  • We are deliberate in our engagements, focusing on larger businesses and growth rather than consulting or selling courses for incremental income.
  • Lastly, we emphasize the importance of giving and not being misled by fraudulent requests pretending to be me, as we do not sell anything or solicit money.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest looking at what truly matters to you in life and your business. Start by sharing skills and knowledge to help others while you are still here. This can be through making videos, writing blogs or mentoring – any way that you can help without spending a lot of money. Also, think about the future; what you are going to do with your wealth? Maybe plan to give to charity or causes you believe in, but also use your money smartly now. Focus on causing a big, good change, not just making a lot of cash.

Here's how you can begin:

  1. Share Knowledge: You already know a lot about your business or personal growth. Why not make simple videos or write down what you’ve learned and share it online? It costs nothing but your time and can help someone else a lot.

  2. Plan Your Future: Think about what will happen to your money when you're no longer here. Do you want to leave it to family, or to help others through charity? Start making those plans now.

  3. Live for Now: Don't just work hard for a future you're not sure of. Find balance and make sure to enjoy life today while planning for tomorrow.

  1. Grow Wisely: If you've got a business and if it's doing well, consider focusing on bigger opportunities instead of small side-gigs that just add a little income. Put your effort into what has the most potential.

  2. Give Back: If you can, donate to charities or causes you feel strongly about. Even small amounts can make a big difference.

  3. Ignore Scams: Be careful of people pretending to be you or someone else, especially online. Don't let them fool you into giving away your money.

Remember, it's not just about making more money. It's about using what you have to make a difference now and in the future.

Quotes by Alex Hormozi

"Desire is a contract we make with ourselves to be unhappy until we get what we want"

– Alex Hormozi

"Money only solves money problems"

– Alex Hormozi

"Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for a hypothetical tomorrow"

– Alex Hormozi

"She wished for a weapon, but not for the skill to wield it"

– Alex Hormozi

"We don't get to keep any of it"

– Alex Hormozi

Full Transcript

last week layla and i signed our wills donating our entire estate to charity more or less that obviously happens after we die so it's not now but it was a really interesting experience for me to go through because it put a lot of things into perspective within life and so um i wanted to share some of the thoughts around that because i made an instagram post about it and it's gotten the most like likes and comments and interaction out of any post i've made to date and so i figured uh it was a point of interest the reasoning behind kind of that decision is um is is multi-fold and so i'll share that with you so the first is we are of the belief that i mean one we don't have kids and so we would have we have no like direct descendants we'd pass it to second even if we did have kids or have kids in the future i don't think that giving people a lot of money when they do not earn it is good for them all the people that i know who were given money um it ended up ruining their lives and so i would not wish that on any of the descendants that i have next piece is kind of the concept of legacy which is like why don't you want to do something like the rockefellers and have some big trust and it feeds every all of your generations from here on out i think there's these ideas that we all strive for of imper impermanence excuse me permanence because we want to live on after we die but i think it's just a human condition thing and it's just not reality you know if you think about like the sumerians civilizations from 5 000 years ago there's no one that we even know about we just know that they existed and that's about it and we don't know about the rich people and the poor people we don't know who started schools and who didn't we just know that they existed and i think that that may be the americans in you know 5 000 years from now and so there's the biological component of all right so when we die uh our kids are going to marry people and they're gonna have kids and those kids are gonna marry people and then you do that a hundred times and it's taking a 50 and then raising it to the hundredth power you know sorry a half and then just doing it over and over and over and over again right and so basically the amount of our genetic pool um if you want to look at it from a biological perspective of what 10 or 100 generations from now is is basically nothing right we're not really there and then the other piece of it is like will they know who we were or any of the character traits that we had will be passed on unlikely and so um for us uh it felt kind of like the right thing because we also feel like we've been given a lot and not just from being born in america and all that kind of stuff but um from a from a broader context i've shifted my perspective on i think business success over time and so like let me give you a visual example if you were to look at shaquille o'neal versus let's say a tiny asian lady right you could see a huge amount of genetic diversity just in that visualization and i think the same visualization appears mentally it's just not visual and so think about that for perspective so like it's like why is he so good at basketball well it's like if you look at him you'd be like well geez he's so naturally inclined for that i'm not to say that every person who has his genetic makeup would be you know as good as he was but they would have an inclination to be pretty good right and so i think that the same exists within your mental capacity and your character traits but predispositions for business like i wonder what if we were to look through that same visual lens what jeff bezos would look like mentally or what bill gates would look like mentally or what warren buffett would look like mentally and all of a sudden we might be like well it makes sense because he's seven eight you know what i mean of course he's good at investing or of course he's good at business or whatever and so i think that my perspective on this has shifted because if you had asked me when i was younger what made me you know successful or whatever i'm using quotes here i'm not saying we're the most successful people in the world or anything or far from it but i think that i would have said hard work sacrifice and all of that stuff but i think as i've gotten more perspective i think that we're just naturally good at it you know and i think that obviously work and sacrifice and those things hone the skill just like shaquille o'neal still has to go to practice but i think some people get disproportionate returns on their time and effort and so to give back after we are dead is not really asking that much beyond that um it also gave me another huge conclusion about my own life which is if i'm going to be donating all of this stuff when i die anyways then it makes more sense for me to start giving away while i am alive and i think that you know the first level of giving is obviously you can give money and layla and i have probably donated about a million dollars to the last few years to various charities that we believe in but i think what has what is more valuable is the skills um and the experiences and the the traits and the lessons that we have gathered along our journey that i think is more valuable and so the reasoning behind acquisition.com which for those who don't know us is our portfolio holding company right now it holds uh up seven companies are in entirety and then also percentages of and um that does about 85 million a year point behind you know this channel is to to hopefully transfer those lessons while we are alive to other people um because if we're going to give it all when we would die why not start now at least that's the that's the thought process behind it and so that's why um for those of you ask questions like that's why we are writing the books that's why i'm making the courses that's why i'm doing all that stuff and we're giving them away for free what's interesting is that i think that there's a shift that occurs and i'm just i guess noting this because my first businesses were created out of scarcity and so what i mean by that is they were created out of an insecurity they were created out of a deficiency they were created out of a deficit a need for something right one of my favorite quotes from naval ravicon is desire is a contract we make with ourselves to be unhappy until we get what we want and i and i candidly us building those businesses was not like a happy experience for me it was very like grindy dark rage filled like just outwork out sacrifice type thing and what's interesting is when i look at the people who make a lot more money than me now they don't kind of act that way and i think it's because the motivation has to shift because if you are this at least for me it's like if i'm only trying to satisfy my own personal needs at 10 million or 20 million or 30 million whatever it is whatever your number is you know when you cross it maybe it's a million whatever it is when you when you cross that number in the bank all of a sudden you'll feel the the energy or the drive towards that satisfying that goal will diminish because you somewhat do right and so i think at that point there are two directions that you can kind of go in one direction is to make money the ultimate scorecard um which i'll give you an analogy of why i think that's silly in a second and the other is that you can change the driver all right and so for the first one the reason that i've never really been a big you know i've never espoused that or never been a big believer in that one is that i see the entrepreneurial journey as a casino and so bear with me for a second so imagine every one of us is given a token right as we you know come of age whatever that age is maybe it's 12 maybe it's 14 whatever it ages that you decide that you want to get in the game right and so we get a token and we go into the casino and we get a seat at the table and we continue to play we continue to play and we have the other players right and what's interesting is that everyone's playing for the chips that are on the table the difference is that you might amass this big amount of chips right but the thing is is that we don't get to cash out we literally just have to leave the table and then someone else takes our seat and all of our chips get pushed back into the middle of the table for other people to play with again and the other people you could say is your family the other people you could say is your competitors the other people you could see it's just the marketplace your community as a whole but either way we don't get to leave the casino alive and we don't get to leave with our chips and so having that perspective for me just really reinforces that it's just a game because we don't get to keep any of it and so once you've satisfied like once you can eat steak dinners every single night and it doesn't change anything and once you can buy private jets and once you can do all that stuff like nothing changes like more money changes literally nothing because money can only solve money problems and that was one of the lessons that i've learned as we've you know gained more of it is that money only solves money problems and once you've run out of money uh problems for money to solve there's really not a lot of utility for it that's why for me the the money scoreboard concept has never really resonated me dying a billionaire so what you know what i mean like i'm just going to take this big lump of money and then this is going to get handed to somebody else and so that is also why i don't think we want to give it to somebody else because you know an individual person because i think it would ruin them and one of my favorite cards in magic the gathering which is a game i played all the time when i was a kid it was burning wish and the the flavor text on that card was she wished for a weapon but not for the skill to wield it and that's very much how layla and i both see money is that it's just this raw power and the more that you get uh the more skill you must have in order to wield it effectively and so i think that that is why we don't we wouldn't want to quote ruin our descendants in that way or ruin anyone in that way because i think it's too much for one person to have and so that is why we're pushing it towards causes rather than individuals because i also think that when you give it to individuals you rob them of the opportunity to earn for themselves and you rob them of the opportunity to to to achieve in that way because i can tell you i remember when i was a kid and i thought about this really deeply when i was uh in college i thought to myself if i won the powerball right because i bought a ticket because it got like all you know all the guys that i knew all got one ticket because it was like a billion dollars or something at one point for the powerball and it's more just for the conversation that that that comes as a result of that that we bought it it's not because i thought there was like a chance or anything but what was interesting is that i realized that during the drawing i actually had this feeling of dread because i really didn't want to win because i realized that if i won then it would kind of make everything that i was wanting to do meaningless which was really weird for me to think about i was like if i just got a billion dollars then it would mean that i never even got to play the game or get the credit for earning whatever i would end up having because i wanted to have and this is probably my ego or my insecurities i wanted to have people give me status for having earned this right but i think again as i've gotten older my my thinking around that has changed because like there are so many things that i've been fortunate with you know what i was born with genetically you know what i mean i think that i have decent reasoning powers and i don't know how much of that is is learnable you know what i mean um i think you know i was born in the united states i was born a white male um i was born to um you know a doctor uh as a as a parent and so like there's lots of things that i have that already gave me a leg up and so anyways just to to bring this home for you the reason that we have acquisition.com and the reason that we are pushing far more towards giving away everything that we have is while we are alive and the most valuable assets we have which is the value that we can provide in terms of the lessons and skills is because i just have no more marginal utility for money now that being said it would be it would behoove me to kind of follow in uncle warren's footsteps which is i think that i will be a better allocator and multiplier of capital so that when i when we die we will be able to pass on and make a larger impact um on you know whoever you know whatever causes we donate our stuff to then if i were to donate it now and we do donate stuff now because you know i think about this where it's like i've given away two million dollars in the last two years and i think about two million dollars in 40 years and how if i you know allocated it well it would probably be like 100 million dollars right and i'm giving away all that money now but i think there's always the trade-off between consumption and investment that you know kind of all entrepreneurs make and the consumption investment trade-off happens kind of for everything it's like investing in your relationship versus consuming your relationship investing in the business versus consuming the benefits of the money and that kind of happens with everything right and so that is kind of the the thought process and the thinking behind the books and the courses and all that stuff behind acquisition.com for those of you asked um the big impetus behind this was uh you know donating what will you know just our current estate is probably valued between 60 and 80 million depending on who's valuing the equity slices we have in the businesses we own i know that if i were to do nothing and just wait you know 40 or 50 years hopefully i live that long it would be a very big number right even at ten percent it'll be over a billion dollars at that point and that's if we earn no more money between now and then and so i think that it changes the game and i'll leave you this with this one quote from naval rava cop that i think is really valuable you said retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for a hypothetical tomorrow and i think that what that will gave me was the permission to stop doing that because if i know that i'm not going to be i'm not going to be taking anything that i'm making now with me anyways and i'm going to be giving it a while all the way to begin with it pretty much eliminates the desire to trade time for money in any meaningful way besides things that that i you know enjoy and think that i can provide value with and so for the many of you that reach out i want to also say a couple things real quick one we don't sell time so i get probably like 100 dams a day asking if we do one-on-one consulting we do not we take on companies that are um i say three to ten million but closer to like the five to ten million plus mark just fyi unless you have something that's really interesting um and so we you know we invest and we take positions in those companies and help them grow for context at the time of this video the smallest business that we have in the portfolio is eight million a year um so just like i said four contacts that says three to ten but we're really skewing towards the heart the larger side of that and that is why um i don't consult for dollars that's also why we're not selling courses we're not selling masterminds we're not selling coaching and if you see comments in the thread that are replies from fake alex ramoses right now we have we're getting like targeted um and it's probably because i think there's a lot of goodwill on the channel because we don't sell anything i will never ask you for a whatsapp all right so like please like do not respond to any of the comments that have a picture of me and like some weird decimals afterwards to make it look like it's uh me i will never ask you for whatsapp i will never text you for money all right so please please please please do not respond to those people do not feed uh feed that um but anyways love you all um hope you're amazing uh this felt like the right time to make this video in the parking lot before i go to the gym and keep being awesome and uh if you enjoyed this video click subscribe for a lot more tactical stuff that we do about growing businesses um and growing wealth the point of this channel is there's a lot of people who are broke and i don't want you to be one of them so without further ado akshamosi hit subscribe see you next vic

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