In this episode, the host of "The Game" podcast shares 13 valuable lessons learned post-college that he wishes he knew earlier, aimed at guiding listeners in their business and personal growth. He emphasizes the importance of humility, listening more than speaking, and the power of goodwill compounding faster than money. He also discusses the significance of focusing on a few worthy tasks and doing them well, the impact of sacrificing for success, and the cyclical nature of entrepreneurial growth. Additionally, he touches on the concept of ignorance tax and the benefit of paying for knowledge to accelerate success. Throughout the conversation, he reflects on personal anecdotes and mindset shifts that have shaped his journey to building acquisition.com into a billion-dollar portfolio.
"The ocean between good work and great work is vast. It's five times, ten times the work to go from something good to something great."
This quote emphasizes the magnitude of effort and dedication required to elevate work from good to great, suggesting that achieving greatness is not merely a step up but a vast leap in commitment and quality.
"The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game. This podcast, the game, is my attempt at documenting the lessons I've learned on my way to building acquisition.com into a billion dollar portfolio."
The quote reveals the speaker's mindset that business is a game to be played with strategy and skill, and the podcast serves as a medium to share insights from their journey in building a significant business portfolio.
"You make better decisions and you learn more by assuming that you're dumber than everyone else."
This quote captures the essence of a learning mindset that values humility and open-mindedness over the need to prove one's intelligence, leading to more effective decision-making and personal growth.
"If you talk less and listen more, which is why this is somewhat of a platitude, it's easy to understand and hard to do."
This quote highlights the common understanding that listening is important yet difficult to practice, especially for those accustomed to dominating conversations.
"The hardest respect to earn is one's own."
This quote underscores the idea that self-respect is foundational and often the most challenging to achieve, but it is critical for personal transformation and external recognition.
"If you want to control what people think, control what they say."
This quote encapsulates the strategy of influencing public perception by shaping the narrative through accessible and relatable language.
"You get more out of reading one book that's great, five times than out of reading five mediocre books."
This quote suggests that depth of understanding and repeated study of a great work can be more beneficial than a superficial reading of multiple lesser works, advocating for a focus on quality in learning materials.
Because they want to convey knowledge to the next generation, those tend to be better books, in my experience, because the intent is to actually teach, not to persuade.
This quote emphasizes the distinction between books written to educate versus those written to convince, suggesting that the former are generally of higher quality.
And so I will read a book two times, three times, four times, five times, until I can teach the book when I feel like it is worth learning.
This quote reflects the speaker's belief in repetition as a method for mastering the material in a book.
If your behavior doesn't change as a result of reading a book, then it means you've learned nothing, which means it was a waste of time.
This quote suggests that the true value of reading lies in its impact on one's actions and habits.
What most champions have is singular focus, and they are willing to say no to everything else.
The quote highlights the importance of focus and the ability to decline certain opportunities to achieve success.
Goodwill compounds faster than money. And the reason for that is if you actually think about what goodwill is, it's that you have positive sentiment and you have a degree of influence over a person's behavior.
This quote explains how goodwill can increase rapidly due to its relational nature and can later be converted into financial success.
You're going to die. And two weeks after you die, most people will have forgotten about you.
This quote serves as a reminder of the fleeting nature of life and why others' opinions should not overly influence one's life choices.
Extraordinary accomplishments come from doing ordinary things for extraordinary periods of time.
The quote encapsulates the concept that persistence and dedication in seemingly mundane activities can lead to significant achievements.
If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well.
This quote underlines the speaker's philosophy that quality and thoughtful consideration should be applied to all endeavors.
"And so for me, I spent so much of my energy... I make way more money than younger me did, and it's because I do fewer things and I do different things than I did then."
The quote highlights the speaker's personal experience with energy allocation and how doing fewer, more focused tasks has led to greater financial success.
"Because if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well."
This quote encapsulates the philosophy that tasks deemed valuable should be executed with a high level of quality and attention to detail.
"And so there were so many things when I was coming up... I always just took things at face value."
The speaker reflects on their past approach to negotiation, which was more passive and accepting of initial offers without question.
"Because the thing is, if you really think about it, I negotiated everything in that second example, including my values..."
This quote conveys the speaker's realization that in their pursuit of negotiation, they had inadvertently compromised their values, which was contrary to their desired way of conducting business.
"And so this is especially true for guys... But in a group, especially an all male group, if you want to gain status, the way you do it is by sacrificing more for the group than everyone else does."
The speaker shares insights into group dynamics, suggesting that contributing to the group's well-being can lead to increased status within the group.
"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking more about other people and increasing your regard for their needs."
This quote provides the speaker's adopted definition of humility, which emphasizes the importance of valuing others and their needs.
"The happy man has a thousand wishes the sad man has one."
This proverbial statement contrasts the broad aspirations of a content individual with the focused desire of an unhappy person to simply overcome their sadness.
"And so when I think about things that I used to think people were wronging me... I use a different frame now, which is they just wanted to feel better."
The speaker shares a personal revelation that reinterpreting others' actions as self-motivated attempts to feel better has led to greater peace and reduced anger.
"But in choosing not to admit the deficiency between my current state and the future state of what I desired to be, I was able to accept where I was."
This quote highlights the speaker's decision to accept their current situation rather than focusing on the gap between their present and desired states, which led to personal acceptance and progress.
"Failure leads to learning. Learning leads to success. Success leads to complacency. Complacency leads to failure."
This quote outlines a cycle that the speaker believes is inherent in entrepreneurship, highlighting the importance of learning from failure to achieve success and avoid complacency.
"If you see these business people who are super far ahead, and all of a sudden, it's like they can lose it and then they can get it all back again. And things seem so seamless for them. It's because they have a more accurate view of reality than you do."
This quote suggests that successful entrepreneurs can recover from losses and thrive because they have a more accurate understanding of reality, which allows them to navigate challenges more effectively.
"I will pay any amount of money to speed that process up to see the world more clearly in a way that is true."
This quote emphasizes the speaker's willingness to invest in gaining a clearer and truer understanding of the world, seeing it as a valuable investment in their future success.