When Money Stopped Mattering

Summary

• Happiness comes from matching wants with needs; I lived off $30K while having a million in the bank.
• I love contributing to others' success; it brings me joy, like hearing about Peter's updates and Karen Patrick's progress.
• Redefine 'happiness' as 'joy,' focusing on internal satisfaction rather than external circumstances.
• External achievements are temporary and don't have a lasting impact, so wealth accumulation alone won't bring long-term fulfillment.
• Life can be seen as a casino game; we leave with nothing, so we should focus on what brings us internal joy rather than external chips.
• Find joy in activities you inherently enjoy; for me, it's learning and teaching.
• Dedicate your life to eternal values that will outlast physical existence, leading to a feeling of alignment with your identity.
• Align your actions, words, and beliefs to avoid dissonance in life.
• Define your values and live by them without cutting corners. Doing so aligns your life with what you truly believe in.
• Try to match your beliefs with your actions in business and personal life, which will reflect integrity and courage, two values that resonate with me.
• Consider why hard work is lauded when the goal should be finding joy and meaning in what we do, regardless of the amount of work.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest that true happiness doesn't come from how much money you make, but from matching your wants and needs. Even though I had lots of money, I realized that living modestly was enough for me. This showed me you don't need to spend a lot to be happy.

A good way of finding joy is to do things that matter to you. For me, that's helping others, like hearing about Peter's progress or Karen Patrick's growth. You could try this too. Find something that gives you that spark of joy and do more of it.

To feel happy on the inside and not just because of things happening around you, redefine happiness as 'joy.' Look for what fills you up from within, not from the outside world.

Remember, money and fame are temporary. To feel fulfilled for a long time, you should connect your life to what you really value, stuff that will last even after we're gone. This could be kindness, honesty, or creativity.

Make sure what you say, believe, and do all line up. This way, there's no confusion in your life, and you feel good because you're being true to yourself. Think about what's important to you and try not to cut corners. When your life shows what you truly believe in, you'll feel more at peace.

Lastly, work isn't just about working hard. It's about finding joy and meaning in what we do, whether it's a lot of work or a little. So think about that. Choose work that means something to you, that makes you feel good inside, and that helps other people. That's the kind of work that'll make you happiest.

Quotes by Alex Hormozi

"Joy comes from within, which means that I can be sad and sorrowful and filled with joy"

– Alex Hormozi

"Ephemeral… literally only exists on the physical plane and that physical plane is temporary"

– Alex Hormozi

"The wealth that you accumulate will eventually disappear"

– Alex Hormozi

"What shovel do you want to use to dig your hole"

– Alex Hormozi

"If you can shift your decision-making process from outcome-based to value-based… you'll always feel in alignment with your identity"

– Alex Hormozi

Full Transcript

the floor up to ask you guys because i'm sure because it's been it's been 30 days since last time we spoke so if you guys have questions in the chat burning burning things decisions that are impending things you are unsure about strategies that you need to validate or even just a a verbal high five please put in the chat i'll go i'll go from top to bottom and then we'll rock and roll from there mr pittman question that leans on philosophical meaning of lifestyle what's sure let's uh let's let's rock it let's do it so in your podcast you talk a lot about the um like how happiness is like the equation of like warrants versus needs and like i had a million cash in the bank but i was living off of 30 grand or something like that and so like were you have you always just been predisposed to wanting less or is that like a skill that you learn because most people are like yo i want to make millions and millions of dollars so that i can get more at least that's kind of like where i was the direction i was going until i like started listening to you and now i'm thinking like um you know and so i'm just curious to know like if that was just like a natural like predisposition that you had or you like got to a certain point to where you're like okay now that i've experienced more i want less like how did that all kind of play out because i think it would help me become more happy man that's a loaded question it has probably been what that question has been the the primary thing that's occupied my myspace in the last 18 months and so for context i don't talk as much publicly about what we do but like between our all of the companies that we own we're doing just under two million a week like i don't need to take these calls right i do these things because like they're the few things that i drive joy from like i love you know like i like hearing peter's updates i like karen patrick knowing that he's he's he's moving you know for the chiropractor business and jason's finally getting his [ __ ] legion uh is set up and mack you're doing your own dance thing which is sick you know what i mean and michael i know i remember your first sale like that that is where i find meaning and so i think first off if you redefine the term from happiness which is which is based on outside circumstances you are happy as a reaction joy comes from within which means that i can be sad and sorrowful and filled with joy you can mourn and be joyful because joyful as an ex is how you choose to experience the circumstances so first i would redefine the word that you're shooting for right the second thing is is asking like but why right and so a lot of us want to make money because we're like i want to you know and and then and then when we talk publicly it's like i want to leave a legacy i want to leave an impact blah blah blah right all that stuff i want to help people but the reality is that everything that you do that is external achievement is ephemeral and what it means is it literally only exists on the physical plane and that physical claim is temporary which means it will end which means that all of the achievements and all the things that you're doing on this plane literally by definition will have no lasting impact and so if it means that nothing that you do any all the things that you accomplish and all the things or rather the wealth that you accumulate will eventually disappear it changes the perspective somewhat and so the way that i like to think about it is the analogy of a casino and so i think all of us are given a token when we're you know when we come of age and start to get into the game and we sit down at a table and we play and we play and we play and we play and the players around the table are bragging about how their how big their chips are some players win some players lose and more more chips get stacked right but the difference between that casino and the casino of life is that at the end of the day you leave the table with your chips still on it and you don't cash out and then everyone takes the chips that you had there so you're playing a fake game with fake money and so i think when you realize that like you can buy a castle you can buy a house and there's a person in india who has no shoes who has more joy in their life you realize that none of the things that we do to accomplish serve any real meaning whatsoever they really just act as the shovel that we use to dig the holes that we're going to fill back up at the end of the day when we die and so it's like what shovel do you want to use to dig your hole and so i like to think of those things as what things do i inherently find joy in and so for me i enjoy learning and i learn through teaching and so that is how i derive meaning and the only thing that i can dedicate my life to that is eternal are things that will last past the physical plane which are values and so if you can shift your decision-making process from outcome-based decision-making process to value-based decision-making process you'll always feel in alignment with your identity and so for me when i experience alignment between what i truly believe what i say and what i do i feel like i'm acting in the way that i that is in alignment with who i am and so i think that a lot of us have made decisions or say things that are contrary to what we believe or we do things that are contrary to what we say we do things contrary to what we think and we experience dissonance and that's most of our lives and so i think that if you can free yourself into thinking i can i believe these things to be true i say them with certainty and my life is a reflection of those things which i believe to be to be meaningful and i can dedicate my life to that eternal value and that value will exist after i die and so that for me is is is kind of where i derive meaning from work that was helpful um yeah i was real big how have you defined your values though you know like did you like sit on a stone say like i value integrity and courage and like what does what does that look like and how does that play i mean obviously if you do business you're doing it with integrity and courage or whatever your values are but like how do you make if you think about it there's a lot of times where where we we sacrifice we cut a small corner right and so where we cut the small corners a lot of times it's not anything that anyone else would notice it's just that we know it like you make the email campaign and you just know you didn't do your best you just wanted to get it done right you made the ad and you didn't really go through the process that you know you should be going through right you made the the vsl and you just tried to knock it out because it was on your to-do list rather than thinking like i'm going to make this truly excellent and so every time you do that you live outside of the values that you have for yourself and so i think that like you you feel like you live in alignment when what you say to others about what you believe is actually what you do and so yes sure we all believe in being honest sure we all believe in trying hard sure we all believe in doing your best but no one [ __ ] does man i out work everyone was like go to [ __ ] china where they work six days a week 12 hours a day and that is their 40 hour work week and tell me how hard you work i work the weekend you're so hardcore right and then why is working even considered something that's laudable right laudable like why is it why is that even anything because like we're supposed to be doing things that we enjoy that we derive meaning from so why should we be louded for doing things that we find joy like that we derive joy from just interesting thoughts but um anyways michael that's um that's my that's my two cents on it