Why Did Reading So Many Books Change Nothing? — Transcript

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1. 0:00it. Um, many people know this, but I got
2. 0:02fired. And so you'd be like, "Who would
3. 0:04fire Hermosi, the hard-working maniac?"
4. 0:07Well, I just wasn't that good of an
5. 0:08employee.
6. 0:09Um,
7. 0:10and so I basically just read books all
8. 0:12day instead of working.
9. 0:14Um,
10. 0:15and I read most of the self-help books
11. 0:17that you've heard of. Um, 100 million
12. 0:19dollar offers, 100 million dollar leads.
13. 0:21Those are the books I was I'm kidding. I
14. 0:22wasn't reading those.
15. 0:23>> [laughter]
16. 0:26[gasps]
17. 0:27>> No, but I was reading, you know, and and
18. 0:28to be fair, I don't think any one of
19. 0:30them I say like I can I can say
20. 0:34a handful of them
21. 0:36phrases in entire books stuck with me.
22. 0:39Um, one phrase I heard in a book, I
23. 0:41can't remember which one it was, was
24. 0:42wantrepreneur.
25. 0:44And the phrase disgusted me so much
26. 0:46because it was like, "Oh yeah, all those
27. 0:48people who just want to be
28. 0:49entrepreneurs." And it just said it
29. 0:50flippantly. It wasn't even decrying the
30. 0:51term. It just said like, "Oh yeah, this
31. 0:52is how we define these people who are
32. 0:53like not there, but like business
33. 0:55interested."
34. 0:56>> Yeah.
35. 0:57But the nonchalance is even more
36. 0:58insulting.
37. 0:59>> And that's why I know I was like, "I'm
38. 1:01that. I am this disgusting thing. I
39. 1:04don't want to be this." But that still
40. 1:06wasn't enough to motivate. It was a
41. 1:07negative operating, you know, it was
42. 1:08negative, but it still wasn't enough.
43. 1:10Um, I listened to Arnold's ladder of
44. 1:14success speech that he gave. This is
45. 1:16obviously 15, 16 years ago. Um,
46. 1:20it was this speech. I found it on
47. 1:21YouTube and I listened to it like every
48. 1:23morning before I go to work.
49. 1:25Um, you cannot climb the ladder of
50. 1:27success with your hands in your pockets,
51. 1:29you know,
52. 1:30um,
53. 1:31and I listened to that every morning. I,
54. 1:34um,
55. 1:35I read Relentless by Tim Grover and it
56. 1:37was basically the first book that I
57. 1:39think gave me permission to use, call it
58. 1:41the dark side, to get things done. And
59. 1:43I'd be like, I would say now, I don't
60. 1:45necessarily operate 100% from that same
61. 1:46perspective, but it was what I needed at
62. 1:48the time.
63. 1:49And
64. 1:51I called a friend of mine, his name was
65. 1:52Victor. He was considering quitting his
66. 1:54job, too. And so every night we
67. 1:55basically just like planned and schemed
68. 1:57about how we're going to our exit plan
69. 1:59of how we were going to
70. 2:00we just mentally masturbated the idea of
71. 2:02like what freedom would be like if we
72. 2:03actually left. And I would have this I
73. 2:06you know I had to have an early
74. 2:07Bluetooth thing which is a piece of
75. 2:09now.
76. 2:10And I remember I had this cowhide
77. 2:12carpet in my apartment that I got from
78. 2:14IKEA that the path that I would walk on
79. 2:16while he and I would talk started
80. 2:17getting treaded.
81. 2:19So there's this line in the middle of
82. 2:20where I would pace.
83. 2:22And
84. 2:24and the
85. 2:25And so the things that that and I and I
86. 2:28and I would have the lunch with my dad
87. 2:30the like hey I'm going to I'm going to
88. 2:32quit my job and do my own thing. I
89. 2:34didn't have that lunch one time. I had
90. 2:35that lunch many times. And each time he
91. 2:38would reasonably talk me off the cliff
92. 2:40and say listen this is the boring
93. 2:42chapter. You're just going to do your
94. 2:43few years and then you're going to go to
95. 2:44business school and like this is the
96. 2:46plan.
97. 2:47Um
98. 2:48And so it was very clear that I was
99. 2:49following a path that was trod upon. And
100. 2:51to be fair my dad absolutely did what he
101. 2:53believed was best and I think his
102. 2:54intentions are perfect. Um
103. 2:57And so
104. 2:59all of these things were happening with
105. 3:01me for me during that period of time and
106. 3:03I just remember
107. 3:05having read as many self-help books as I
108. 3:07could you know get my hands on and then
109. 3:08I looked around my room and apartment
110. 3:10and realized that my life hadn't changed
111. 3:11at all.
112. 3:13And
113. 3:15that was when
114. 3:17I
115. 3:18Googled online and decided that I was
116. 3:20going to start a business. I narrowed it
117. 3:22down to three and then one guy got back
118. 3:24to me who had a gym.
119. 3:26And even then when I had my first
120. 3:28conversation with him I was like I
121. 3:31really want to start a gym. He's like so
122. 3:32you don't have a gym. I was like no.
123. 3:33He's like okay. Well basically uh
124. 3:36you're going to need to like do
125. 3:37something before I can help you.
126. 3:39And he says you need to make a serious
127. 3:40commitment. Make a decision.
128. 3:42So I I thought about this for a while
129. 3:45and then
130. 3:46a few weeks later I texted him and said
131. 3:48like I'm ready.
132. 3:49And so I called him back up again he's
133. 3:50like well okay great so you have a
134. 3:52lease. What's the you know, what's the
135. 3:53you know, it's just like Oh, oh, no, no,
136. 3:55no, I don't have that. And he was and he
137. 3:57was disgusted. He was like, lose my
138. 3:58number, dude. Like
139. 4:00And he was disgusted by how little I had
140. 4:03done in that meantime.
141. 4:05And so, all of these things happened. It
142. 4:07wasn't one of them. And so, as much as I
143. 4:09can say like, I just read this one book
144. 4:11and my life changed. Like
145. 4:13sometimes you have to hear it a hundred
146. 4:15times before it either sinks in or
147. 4:17there's enough negative or enough
148. 4:19positive or both that it gets you over
149. 4:21whatever perceived threshold of action
150. 4:23that you have. And so, it was only when
151. 4:25all of those things happened and I came
152. 4:28to the realization
153. 4:30and I also applied to business school
154. 4:31cuz I was like, what do I do in the
155. 4:32meantime? So, I
156. 4:33was doing four hours of GMAT uh problems
157. 4:35every day because I
158. 4:37I I was still violent then. Um so, that
159. 4:39I could ace the GMAT. And then I got
160. 4:41above Harvard's mid score and then I was
161. 4:42started I was doing all the applications
162. 4:44cuz it's something else that that you
163. 4:45can do that you can procrastinate with.
164. 4:46And so, I did all the applications into
165. 4:47business school and one of the questions
166. 4:49that came up was how will uh a Harvard
167. 4:53MBA or a Booth MBA, I can't remember,
168. 4:55help your short and long-term goals. And
169. 4:57I remember
170. 4:58belaboring over this this question for
171. 5:00three days and I answered all the other
172. 5:01questions and I was thinking about it
173. 5:02and I was like,
174. 5:04I don't think it is going to help my
175. 5:05long-term goals because I looked at the
176. 5:07math of like, okay, it's going to cost
177. 5:08me a hundred twenty thousand dollars.
178. 5:09This is at the time. Um
179. 5:11and I won't be able to make money for
180. 5:12two years. So, I'm going to stop making
181. 5:13money and it's going to cost me one
182. 5:15twenty and then the starting salary was
183. 5:16one twenty or like average starting
184. 5:18salary post business school.
185. 5:20And so, I thought to myself,
186. 5:21could I take two years,
187. 5:24a hundred twenty thousand dollars, and
188. 5:26within that period of time believe that
189. 5:28I could get to the point where I could
190. 5:29make ten thousand dollars a month, but I
191. 5:30would own a business rather than having
192. 5:32a job to then maybe someday own a
193. 5:33business? And I believe that that bet
194. 5:35felt reasonable.
195. 5:37And so, even then you're like, okay, so
196. 5:38that's when he quit and did it.
197. 5:40No. And so, it was all of those things
198. 5:43and then finally the realization that
199. 5:46I
200. 5:47that it was never going to get easier.
201. 5:49And so then the fear that I was never
202. 5:51going to start the business that I said
203. 5:52I wanted to someday start.
204. 5:55The fact that that that I actually had
205. 5:57an exploding offer from life, which is
206. 6:00that it was only going to get harder,
207. 6:01and that I realized how hard it had been
208. 6:03for me to that point to still not have
209. 6:04made a decision. And it was the fear
210. 6:06that I was never going to make it, which
211. 6:08compelled me to make it.
212. 6:11And that's what got me to pack all my
213. 6:13drive my car halfway across the
214. 6:15country, and then then and only then
215. 6:17call everyone and tell them that I had
216. 6:18left so they couldn't talk me out of it.
217. 6:20And so if anyone is like, man, the so
218. 6:23decisive Hermosi or whatever, like it
219. 6:26took a Herculean effort and
220. 6:30to to suspend a load of doubt and
221. 6:32risk aversion. And also in terms of when
222. 6:34I talk about the stuff with
223. 6:36caring about what other people thought,
224. 6:38I cared so much about every other people
225. 6:40thought that I I knew that I cared so
226. 6:42much about what other people thought
227. 6:43that I wasn't even willing to hear them
228. 6:45because I knew if I did hear them, they
229. 6:46would talk me out of it.
230. 6:47>> That's how fragile your conviction was.
231. 6:49>> Yes.
232. 6:50>> That one
233. 6:51sentence from the wrong person moving
234. 6:54you back in that past direction would
235. 6:56have pulled you.
236. 6:56>> I needed to physically create so much
237. 6:59space that even if they had talked me
238. 7:01out of it, it would still take me a day
239. 7:02and a half to drive back. And so
240. 7:05the reason I think you you wrote one of
241. 7:07the quotes earlier, like if you want to
242. 7:09change your life, change your
243. 7:10environment, is so powerful, is that
244. 7:14your environment as it currently stands
245. 7:15right now, the combination of where you
246. 7:17live, where your friends are, the
247. 7:19routines that you have, the places you
248. 7:20go, have created loops of behavior for
249. 7:22you. And so the best way to change what
250. 7:26you're doing is change the entire
251. 7:27environment. Like there's the the
252. 7:29Vietnam War vets, they did this research
253. 7:31study, you probably heard of it, but um
254. 7:32all these guys did heroin when they were
255. 7:34in Vietnam. It was like 25%. It was a
256. 7:35gigantic percentage. And then weirdly,
257. 7:39when they came I think Clear talks about
258. 7:40this in his book. Uh when they came
259. 7:42back, only 10% of the heroin users uh
260. 7:46relapsed into heroin. Only. I mean, but
261. 7:48still, it's it's small. Compared to Yes,
262. 7:51the success rate of or the failure rate
263. 7:53of rehab institutions like 78%.
264. 7:57So, it had a 8x, you know, a difference
265. 8:00in in in relapse rate.
266. 8:02But, there wasn't even rehab that
267. 8:04happened. The only thing that happened
268. 8:05was that every single environmental cue
269. 8:07was changed.
270. 8:09And so, if you are having trouble
271. 8:11getting out of your current condition,
272. 8:12then get out of your current condition.
273. 8:15Move. Go to a different city. Even if
274. 8:18you can't move to a different city, move
275. 8:19across town. Move 30 minutes away.
276. 8:21>> Train at a different gym. Go to a
277. 8:22different coffee shop to work.
278. 8:23>> Yeah, make different friends for the
279. 8:24short period. And realistically, you
280. 8:26probably won't make different friends,
281. 8:27but just stop hanging out with the
282. 8:28friends you got for period. And if you
283. 8:30decide that once you've gone through
284. 8:31that session, that series, that chapter,
285. 8:34you still want to be friends, if they
286. 8:35are really your friends, they will
287. 8:36welcome you back with open arms. If they
288. 8:38only were friends with that version of
289. 8:39you, then that's not the version of you
290. 8:41that you want to be.
291. 8:42And that's not where you want to go back
292. 8:43to anyways. And so, if you like this
293. 8:45video and you're a business owner who
294. 8:46wants to break through your current
295. 8:47revenue ceiling, I just distilled every
296. 8:49lesson from scaling 10 businesses past
297. 8:5010 million and three businesses past 100
298. 8:52million into a completely free scaling
299. 8:54roadmap that I've used to go from zero
300. 8:56to one, zero to 10, and zero to 100
301. 8:58plus. And so, you can click here and you
302. 9:00can check it out. Again, absolutely
303. 9:01free. And since you're a business owner,
304. 9:03I appreciate you and uh enjoy.