If I Wanted to Get Ahead of 99% of People, I'd Do This — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Many people say they want to be in the
2. 0:01top 1% or 0.1% or even 0.01%
3. 0:05but saying that has zero bearing on
4. 0:07whether it happens. Achievement comes
5. 0:09from actions not aspirations. So, let's
6. 0:11get real. To be the top 1% you need to
7. 0:15enter a room of a hundred people and
8. 0:17leave number one.
9. 0:19To be the top 0.1% you need to enter
10. 0:21room of a thousand people like a local
11. 0:23high school and leave number one.
12. 0:26To be the top 0.01%
13. 0:28you need to enter an arena of 10,000
14. 0:31people and leave number one. Think about
15. 0:33it, a stadium. And in a battle to the
16. 0:35death in that stadium you have to come
17. 0:38out on top.
18. 0:39You beat everyone, not almost everyone.
19. 0:42Everyone.
20. 0:44And so, if you have the goal to be in
21. 0:46the top 0.01%
22. 0:48do you think that you can live a normal
23. 0:50life?
24. 0:51Do you think that you can keep the same
25. 0:53friends? Do you think that you can keep
26. 0:54the same hobbies? Do you think you can
27. 0:56stay up late and sleeping on weekends?
28. 0:58Do you think that you don't have to
29. 1:00sacrifice what average people care
30. 1:02about? Do you think that they will
31. 1:03support you when you start to pass them?
32. 1:06Do you think anyone will think this is
33. 1:08healthy, balanced, or logical?
34. 1:10No.
35. 1:11And they're right.
36. 1:13But it doesn't matter.
37. 1:15When you want to be the 0.01% there's no
38. 1:17greater waste of time than explaining
39. 1:19yourself to people who actively don't
40. 1:20support you. It's normal for people to
41. 1:22not understand why you do what you do.
42. 1:26I say this because you cannot make
43. 1:27yourself exceptional and live a normal
44. 1:29life. To make yourself exceptional you
45. 1:32must live an exceptional life. And an
46. 1:34exceptional life does not always mean
47. 1:36better.
48. 1:37It just means that it's so different
49. 1:39that most people will reject it and you.
50. 1:43And when that happens you must reject
51. 1:45them as well. Oil and water do not mix.
52. 1:48That is what it really means to be
53. 1:50exceptional. You must become the
54. 1:52exception.
55. 1:54And so, So, is how we how we um
56. 1:58how we welcome the new guy. Actually,
57. 1:59there's another page, so I'll I'll
58. 2:01finish it up. So, I routinely get asked
59. 2:03the secret to success. And it just comes
60. 2:06down to this. Number one, get better.
61. 2:08Number two, never stop.
62. 2:11If you do only those two things, you
63. 2:12will win on a long enough time horizon.
64. 2:14The problem is people convince
65. 2:16themselves they no longer want something
66. 2:17once they see the experience of how hard
67. 2:19it really is.
68. 2:21So, I want to set this expectation for
69. 2:22you as you head off to practice scripts,
70. 2:24mark your calendar, and set your alarms.
71. 2:26The work begins when your motivation
72. 2:28ends.
73. 2:29Just win.
74. 2:30And so, um that's from our that's from
75. 2:32our internal handbook that we have at
76. 2:34ACQ uh for our sales guys, and it's one
77. 2:36of the ways that we
78. 2:37we welcome guys on. And I and I and I I
79. 2:40want to read that to you because I want
80. 2:41to frame what I'm talking about today.
81. 2:42It seems like a very simple thing, just
82. 2:44saying just do more. But like it's
83. 2:46almost become an art form and something
84. 2:48that I have like a deep passion about,
85. 2:49which is very odd to say.
86. 2:51But more actually has the highest
87. 2:54risk-adjusted return move that you can
88. 2:55possibly make within the business.
89. 2:58Keep my notes a little lower cuz I it
90. 2:59cuts off the top. Um
91. 3:02and so, it has the highest risk-adjusted
92. 3:04return move. Give me 2 seconds, guys.
93. 3:05I'm going to adjust this because this
94. 3:06drives me [ __ ] nuts. Hold on.
95. 3:09So, let's move this up. Can I do that?
96. 3:12All right.
97. 3:14I prepared some notes for you guys to
98. 3:16keep it nice and you know, violent.
99. 3:19Okay. So,
100. 3:21the reason more has the highest
101. 3:23risk-adjusted return for a business or
102. 3:25for you is that it's so hard to to get
103. 3:28something to work, right? Many of you
104. 3:29guys have tried anything. You've been in
105. 3:30marketing channel, a new sales script, a
106. 3:32new offer. You try a bunch of things,
107. 3:35and then finally something works. The
108. 3:37likelihood that you changing that thing
109. 3:38and that next thing working is actually
110. 3:41statistically very low. Think about how
111. 3:42many different things you had to try
112. 3:44before something actually worked. And
113. 3:46so, the idea is, okay, I have these
114. 3:48limited resources. I can allocate them
115. 3:50to take a risk and roll the dice or I
116. 3:53have this thing that I know works and I
117. 3:55need to jam more into that machine,
118. 3:57which is why it's the risk of the
119. 3:58highest risk adjusted return move. Now,
120. 4:01one of the other misconceptions that I
121. 4:02think is that there's a huge
122. 4:03preponderance of people who talk about
123. 4:05optimization, getting as much as you can
124. 4:07for as little as you can. And I don't
125. 4:09think there's anything wrong with that.
126. 4:10The difference is that there are
127. 4:11optimizers and there are maximizers.
128. 4:14Maximizers try to ask the question, "How
129. 4:16do I get as much as I possibly can?"
130. 4:19Optimizers ask, "How much How do I get
131. 4:21as much as I can out of as little as I
132. 4:22can?" But, when you're looking at
133. 4:25returns, maximizers win. So, what's the
134. 4:28difference between
135. 4:30first place, you know, gold in the
136. 4:31Olympics and second in the in the
137. 4:32Olympics, silver, right? A tenth of a
138. 4:34second in a race. But, what is the
139. 4:37realistic difference, the real world or
140. 4:39pragmatic difference between between
141. 4:41being the best in the world and second
142. 4:43best?
143. 4:44Everything.
144. 4:45And so, when you're talking to an
145. 4:46Olympian, you're talking to somebody who
146. 4:47be wants to be the top 1% 0.01%
147. 4:490.00001%.
148. 4:53Diminishing returns are still returns.
149. 4:56It's You need to do more because you're
150. 4:58trying to win, not be cute about saying
151. 5:01that you had great return. And I I say
152. 5:03this as somebody who was a converted
153. 5:04optimizer. So, in the earlier part of my
154. 5:07life,
155. 5:08I really prided myself on doing school
156. 5:11with as little work as possible. I was
157. 5:13like, "You You nerds." I was like, "You
158. 5:15guys needed to study. I can walk in and
159. 5:17hit a 91 with no studying." And I'll
160. 5:20tell you the story that really really
161. 5:22changed my life. So, there's a guy named
162. 5:23Kempnott, um and he was like and
163. 5:27hopefully Kemp, you know, maybe he'll
164. 5:28see this. Um
165. 5:30he like I I I gave I gave Kemp a hard
166. 5:33time. I did when I was in high school.
167. 5:35And um
168. 5:37and he was a kid who didn't catch on to
169. 5:38stuff as fast. And you know what, Kemp's
170. 5:40successful guy now, he's done great. And
171. 5:43but this thing happened. So, all of high
172. 5:45high I I kind of gave this guy a hard
173. 5:47time.
174. 5:47And when we went to go apply to
175. 5:50colleges,
176. 5:51uh I wanted to go to Duke. So, Duke's a
177. 5:53top five school in the US,
178. 5:55um and I didn't get into Duke.
179. 5:57I ended up going to Vanderbilt, which is
180. 5:58also obviously a great school, but I
181. 6:00wanted to go to Duke.
182. 6:01And guess who got into Duke?
183. 6:04Kemp not.
184. 6:05And so, what was really interesting is
185. 6:06that this whole time, like Kemp would go
186. 6:08to study hall, he'd be like, "Teacher,
187. 6:09you forgot to assign us homework." Like,
188. 6:11he was that guy, right? And I I honestly
189. 6:14just really disliked him.
190. 6:16Uh but mostly cuz it probably just
191. 6:18reminded me of my own inadequacies of
192. 6:20like I was just unwilling to do the
193. 6:22amount of work that he was. And I And I
194. 6:23I shamed him for doing the amount of
195. 6:25work that he did. I was like, "You have
196. 6:27to work so hard just to try and just try
197. 6:29to try and come close to me, right?" But
198. 6:32in the end,
199. 6:33uh he got into the better college.
200. 6:35And so, it was this really humbling
201. 6:36lesson for me that it was like
202. 6:40none of the colleges cared that I worked
203. 6:42less than him.
204. 6:44They just cared about who had the best
205. 6:45applications and who had the best
206. 6:47grades.
207. 6:48And it was this really like very
208. 6:50eye-opening experience. And so, when I
209. 6:51went to college, I had a different frame
210. 6:53that I was like, "Well, I'm not going to
211. 6:55lose. I want to go here, and I want to
212. 6:57maximize. I want to study all the hours
213. 6:59of the day that I'm that I'm not in
214. 7:01class, at the gym, or at the cafeteria,
215. 7:03I'm in the library." And you can ask
216. 7:05anyone that I ever went to school with
217. 7:06if you ever meet them. Like, that's
218. 7:07where I was. I was in the library 12
219. 7:09hours a day cuz I was like, "Well, if I
220. 7:10just study more than everyone, I'll get
221. 7:13good grades." And that worked out pretty
222. 7:15good. Right? And so,
223. 7:18that's just kind of a just a little bit
224. 7:19of framing around why I have such a such
225. 7:21a strong um
226. 7:22uh
227. 7:24affinity for more. Now, I'll give you a
228. 7:26second kind of a little bit more heady
229. 7:27reason. So, I talked about how more is
230. 7:29the highest risk-adjusted return. I
231. 7:30talked about how diminishing returns are
232. 7:32still returns. They're still at the end
233. 7:34of the They're still output, right? The
234. 7:36next piece though is that ch- change has
235. 7:40a fixed cost.
236. 7:42All right? And a variable reward. All
237. 7:44right, so let me explain what that
238. 7:45means. So, if we have this thing that's
239. 7:48working, right? And I'll Let me see if I
240. 7:50can draw this for you guys cuz I think
241. 7:51this would be This is a good visual.
242. 7:53Okay. So,
243. 7:55one moment, please. You guys digging
244. 7:56this?
245. 8:00You guys enjoying this?
246. 8:01All right.
247. 8:03So, I want you guys to imagine for a
248. 8:05second.
249. 8:07There we go.
250. 8:08So, I want you to imagine that this line
251. 8:10right here. Ooh, nice and wet. How I
252. 8:11like it. My markers, calm down, guys.
253. 8:14Okay. So, I've got this line. This
254. 8:16represents your revenue or whatever your
255. 8:19current level of activity or output is.
256. 8:21Okay, this is output. Whatever your
257. 8:23thing is. Okay.
258. 8:24Now, what happens is most entrepreneurs,
259. 8:27they say, "You know what? I'm going to
260. 8:28change something." All right? And guess
261. 8:30what happens? They think they're going
262. 8:31to change something and things are going
263. 8:32to get better, right? You tweak
264. 8:33something, you mess around, you change
265. 8:34your page, change your script, change
266. 8:35your onboarding process, whatever,
267. 8:36right? So, then what happens?
268. 8:39Well, if there's people involved,
269. 8:40typically output will go down. You have
270. 8:42to retrain the team, they have to
271. 8:43practice, you know, this variable
272. 8:45affected two other variables you didn't
273. 8:46know about. And so, you get And this is
274. 8:48completely based on my observation,
275. 8:51you typically get about a 20% decrement
276. 8:53or decrease in performance. Okay?
277. 8:57And so, what this has created for me is
278. 9:01my minimum rule of 20% which is that
279. 9:05if something is going to give me a
280. 9:07guaranteed 20% decrease in output by me
281. 9:10changing it. Now, this is initial. What
282. 9:12ends up happening after that is it might
283. 9:15not work and then you stay here, or it
284. 9:16might be worse and it goes here, or it
285. 9:18might get better and it comes back up
286. 9:20eventually, right? And then maybe you
287. 9:21have a 5% higher output here and now
288. 9:24this is now your new baseline and it's a
289. 9:25little bit higher than it was before.
290. 9:27Now, here's the thing.
291. 9:29If you have a 20% guaranteed decrease
292. 9:32and you have the potential for a 5%
293. 9:34increase, do you take that bet?
294. 9:37No.
295. 9:38But I see entrepreneurs every day,
296. 9:40myself included for many years, taking
297. 9:42that bet over and over again cuz I was
298. 9:43like, "I just have to get it better. I
299. 9:44just have to get it better."
300. 9:46But it was a fallacy. It's not true.
301. 9:49Sometimes like your business will never
302. 9:50be perfect and you have to accept that
303. 9:52fact. It will not be perfect. You will
304. 9:53always see things that you could And the
305. 9:55thing is is you don't even know if it's
306. 9:57going to get better. You just aren't
307. 9:58sure if it's quote good enough and so
308. 10:00you just want to change it. You want to
309. 10:01mess with it. Right? But the magic is
310. 10:03the compounding returns you get when you
311. 10:06do the same thing over and over again.
312. 10:07You get this this depth of
313. 10:09understanding, this depth of skill that
314. 10:11happens with repetition, right? If If If
315. 10:13If necessity is the mother of invention,
316. 10:15repetition is the father of skill.
317. 10:18All right? And so
318. 10:20So coming back to our 20% here, right?
319. 10:23This is This is cute, right? But let's
320. 10:25look at what entrepreneurs will normally
321. 10:26do. Maybe they'll start seeing some
322. 10:28increase here, but what do they do next?
323. 10:30They say, "You know what? I've got this
324. 10:31other idea I have." And so then they get
325. 10:33another 20% decrease. And so they're
326. 10:35constantly living significantly below
327. 10:37their output means or your revenue or
328. 10:39whatever your thing is below what your
329. 10:41potential is because you're constantly
330. 10:43changing stuff. And I want to be real
331. 10:45with you for a second. If you're a small
332. 10:47business owner, you've got, you know,
333. 10:49maybe 10, maybe 20 employees or if
334. 10:51you're anything less than that, then
335. 10:53like hear me right now.
336. 10:55The amount of resources that you have to
337. 10:57implement change are so limited.
338. 11:00I like they're so limited. I pick like
339. 11:03one big thing a year that I do. Like
340. 11:06one.
341. 11:07And what happens is when you realize how
342. 11:10limited your resources are in order to
343. 11:12deploy successfully a new change or a
344. 11:15new experiment, what happens is it
345. 11:17forces prioritization. It forces you to
346. 11:20focus on what things if I only had one
347. 11:22thing that I could do this year, what
348. 11:24one thing would I be like, "This is the
349. 11:25bet I'm going to take."
350. 11:27Well, it certainly wouldn't be a 5%
351. 11:29thing, right? Well, maybe we do right
352. 11:30hand written cards, we'll get a 5%
353. 11:31increase in referrals. Maybe. Right? But
354. 11:34given those resources, what else could
355. 11:36you do?
356. 11:37Right? And so when you look at the whole
357. 11:39thing, the whole spectrum, and this is
358. 11:40how I want to I want to frame strategy
359. 11:42for you around this.
360. 11:44So, most people think about business
361. 11:46strat. I got this from Shirone. I love
362. 11:47this. I'm using it all the time. So
363. 11:48good.
364. 11:50Most people think about business
365. 11:51strategy like they think about making
366. 11:52dinner. So, they go to their kitchen,
367. 11:55they open up the fridge, they look
368. 11:56what's inside, say what what what am I
369. 11:57going to whip up. Right? That's how they
370. 11:59think about business strategy.
371. 12:01But the question that we should be
372. 12:02asking isn't what am I going to whip up
373. 12:04from what's inside the fridge. We should
374. 12:05ask the question, what the [ __ ] do I
375. 12:07want to eat?
376. 12:09And then go get the ingredients and go
377. 12:11make it happen. And so when you when you
378. 12:13have when you're saying, "I'm only going
379. 12:15to take one bet or two bets this year
380. 12:17that are going to be material," then it
381. 12:19forces you to be like, "It's got to be
382. 12:20worth it." Because here's the part that
383. 12:22no one else knows. Is assuming this this
384. 12:24is still the same output, right? You've
385. 12:25got your output. What happens is that if
386. 12:27you change nothing, believe it or not,
387. 12:29people get better at their jobs.
388. 12:32That people just keep getting better.
389. 12:33They get more skilled. And so you'll
390. 12:35typically have 1 2 3% increases that
391. 12:38happen kind of month over month from you
392. 12:39just not changing anything. From just
393. 12:42leaving it alone. And so this has taken
394. 12:44me so much time because I'm a natural
395. 12:46I'm a yes hinge, right? I'm like, "Let's
396. 12:48do it. Let's shake it up. Let's change
397. 12:50things." Like because the thing is this,
398. 12:53I have this need for my business I I
399. 12:55like earlier days, the business
400. 12:57satisfied multiple needs and I didn't
401. 13:00satisfy the business's needs. Meaning, I
402. 13:03had cravings for novelty. I wanted to do
403. 13:05new things. I would get bored of doing
404. 13:07the same thing over again. And so
405. 13:08because of that boredom, I'd say, "Let's
406. 13:10shake it up."
407. 13:12But why? Cuz the times I've made the
408. 13:14most money in my life have not been when
409. 13:16I've been changing the most. It's
410. 13:17actually when the business has been
411. 13:18really boring and we're just blocking
412. 13:19tackling and doing it over and over
413. 13:20again. And so this is something that
414. 13:22some people never learn. Honestly, a lot
415. 13:24of entrepreneurs never learn this. And
416. 13:27the hard question, the hard problem to
417. 13:29solve is not the new idea that you want
418. 13:32to try. It's how can I do more once I've
419. 13:35already exhausted my existing way of
420. 13:37doing more?