How to Get Ahead of 99% of People

Entrepreneur’s Beliefs

• A high-level entrepreneur needs to have lots of skills and beliefs that don’t limit them.
• Soft skills and hard skills are both trainable and important for success.
• Soft skills, like people skills, can be improved through training.
• Beliefs that limit us are often ingrained by the people around us.

“We question all of our beliefs except for those that we truly believe and those who never think to question.”

Changing Beliefs

• Changing beliefs can have a significant impact on success.
• Beliefs that are limiting should be identified and challenged.
• A fitness app entrepreneur changed his belief that he didn’t deserve to have an app unless he won competitions.
• Once he changed his belief, his app’s revenue significantly increased.

“He built this app for himself and just the members of his gym. But the app was so good that people started sharing it and finally a client of his was a marketer and said you need to start marketing this you need to start posting about it and he wouldn’t post and finally she convinced him to just make one post and he like doubled his Revenue.”

Known Limits vs. Unknown Limits

• Known limits are the reasons entrepreneurs give for why they can’t do something.
• Unknown limits are the beliefs that limit someone without them even realizing it.
• Unknown unknowns are the most dangerous limits because they are invisible to us.
• Identifying and challenging both known and unknown limits is crucial for success.

“You don’t even question those things because they weren’t even in your mind to begin with. It’s the unknown unknowns that are the things that limit us.”

Discovering a Different Opportunity

• Alex had a whole plan and dream centered around owning gyms, but during a presentation, he was told that he should be teaching people how to do what he had just explained.
• This was an unknown unknown for Alex, as he didn’t know that there was another opportunity vehicle outside of owning gyms.
• He hadn’t considered franchises, licensing, or B2B national, as he didn’t know how these options worked.

“I didn’t know that there was another opportunity…like I didn’t know it was possible…I didn’t know how franchises worked…I didn’t know how licensing worked…I didn’t know how to B2B national any of that stuff worked.”

The Power of Leverage in Career Growth

• Leverage allows us to get more for what we put in, which can lead to significant career growth.
• By moving further back along the lever, we increase our leverage and get more value from our efforts.

“I make more now than I did before because I’ve moved further back along this lever so I have more leverage now on what I put in than what I did before.”

Four Types of Leverage: Collaboration, Capital, Code, and Content

• Collaboration refers to having other people work for you.
• Capital is the use of other people’s work, where they invest their efforts on your behalf.
• Code and content leverage your skills or creations to reach a wide audience.
• Each type of leverage allows you to maximize the value you receive for your efforts.

“You’ve got collaboration which just means other people working for you all right then you’ve got Capital which means other people worked for you and gave you the fruit of their work so that you can invest it on their behalf… With content, Joe Rogan can make one podcast episode and millions of people can listen to it and so he gets more for what he puts in.”

Examples of Leverage in Action

• Selling for 40 hours a week can be leveraged by managing a Salesman, who sells for 40 hours a week.
• Recruiting a skilled sales recruiter enables you to bring in new salespeople on a regular basis.
• The key is to find ways to amplify your efforts and achieve higher leverage.

“I trade me selling for 40 hours a week to me managing a Salesman for two hours who then sells for 40 hours a week… or higher leverage I spend a week or two weeks recruiting the best sales recruiter and then I do that one time in my life for two weeks and then that sales recruiter works 40 hours a week to get new salespeople in every single week on my behalf.”

Maximizing Leverage in Career Trajectory

• Building a successful career trajectory involves increasing leverage at different stages.
• Initially, gaining control over your own time can be a leverage point.
• Progressing to employing others allows for a higher level of leverage.

“In the beginning, it was dark…then I became self-employed…then I went to employing other people…and this is…the first level of leverage…into six figures a month.”

Adding Leverage through Licensing and Capital

• Creating content once and allowing many people to access it can be a significant leverage point.
• Utilizing capital to invest in companies with employees further increases leverage.
• Licensing and utilizing content and capital have allowed for substantial financial growth.

“I made content fundamentally and then I made it once and then many people could have access to it… now we buy into companies that have other people working for them… and that’s eight figures a month.”

Leveraging Time for Future Growth

• Continuing to add time and effort can further increase leverage.
• Each step forward in leveraging adds more value to every move.
• It is important to assess which levers can be maximized to achieve greater results.

“Leverage is about getting more for what you put in… people who move faster in life don’t actually move faster, they get more for their inputs.”

“If you’re getting more out of every move, it’s a function of time.”

The Interesting Nature of Leverage in Career Success

• Transitioning from one career to another resets the leverage level and requires starting from scratch.
• The pace of growth can be faster in established businesses due to accumulated leverage.
• Switching vehicles and starting anew can provide significant opportunities for growth.

“Every time you switch vehicles, you start at zero again… the pace that leverage affords you for each step you take has to be disproportionate… because your year four of a business will typically grow more than year one of a new business.”

Mr. Panda’s Success Story

• Mr. Panda has achieved great success this year.
• His success is attributed to his strategic approach and careful planning.

“He has done this because he now has enough capital and collaboration.”

Going back to what was comfortable and familiar

• It can be challenging to go back to something that was comfortable and familiar when trying to move ahead.
• The speaker gives the example of his own experience transitioning from running a gym to starting an acquisition company.
• He acknowledges that it was difficult for him because he was used to a certain level of financial freedom.
• It is necessary to make adjustments when transitioning to something new, such as being mindful of cash flow.

“Knowing that you could always go back and that’s the hard part go back to what you were doing before that was comfortable and made you X versus staying the path.”

Comparing the growth of different businesses

• The speaker suggests that comparing the growth of two businesses is not always straightforward.
• He argues that comparing year 10 of one business to year 15 of another may provide a more accurate assessment.
• It is important to consider the longer-term trajectory of a business rather than just short-term gains.

“I do believe genuinely year 10 of acquisition.com I think is bigger than your 15 of gym launch to make the Apples to Apples comparison because the thing is is that you actually never get an Apples to Apples comparison because you can’t go back in time.”

Consider industry experience and personal expertise

• Y Combinator, a startup accelerator, considers industry experience and personal expertise when evaluating potential founders.
• They prefer founders with industry knowledge and personal experience in the problem they are trying to solve.
• It may be challenging to enter a completely new industry without any relevant experience.
• The speaker suggests considering a half pivot or staying within the same industry to make use of existing experience.

“One of the interesting things that they have is they have many things they select for but one of them is industry experience and so if someone says Hey I want to get into this industry if you don’t have any experience in that industry and then second to that is personal experience like you suffered from whatever problem you’re trying to solve then they’re not interested.”

The cost of ignorance and the value of skills

• The speaker emphasizes the importance of investing in oneself to acquire valuable skills.
• He shares an anecdote about a person who was unaware of how to make a million dollars and the “ignorance debt” they paid by not investing in themselves.
• The goal is to quickly pay off this debt and gain more cash flow by acquiring the necessary skills.
• Skills provide leverage and can improve one’s ability to prioritize and allocate their limited resources effectively.

“The reason I’m so heavy on learning skills and becoming educated is that right now I’m paying down ignorance debt. I’m paying down 950 million dollars a year not knowing how to make a billion. It’s debt I’m paying right.”

Allocating limited resources effectively

• Strategy involves allocating limited resources, such as time and money, against unlimited options.
• Prioritization is crucial in moving faster towards goals.
• The speaker emphasizes the need to identify and prioritize the activities that provide the most leverage and the highest return on investment, considering the resources available.
• It is essential to focus on the things that offer the most significant impact and leverage over time.

“Now strategy like I said earlier is about how you allocate limited resources against unlimited options that’s the fancy word of just saying prioritizing. Right now you have limited resources: you have time and you have money. Now you might have more time than money but either way you have some limit on what you have. So for you to move faster, you have to identify, prioritize the thing that you’re going to allocate your time and money towards.”

Dollar cost averaging in the S&P 500

• Dollar cost averaging means consistently investing a fixed amount of money at regular intervals.
• Investing in the S&P 500 historically resulted in an average annual return of nine to ten percent.
• This strategy aims to provide long-term financial growth over a lifetime.

“You dollar cost average in the S&P 500. You’d get nine to ten percent a year for life, at least that’s what it’s done historically.”

Investing in acquiring knowledge and skills

• Instead of solely investing in the stock market, it is worth considering investments in personal education and skill development.
• Pairing capital with expertise can yield higher returns and a larger margin of safety.
• By continuously acquiring knowledge and skills, individuals can significantly grow their income and opportunities.

“Rather than investing, can we do anything that gets us more than ten percent back? The magic is that when you invest a thousand dollars into the S&P, you have nothing else that you add to that thousand. But when you invest in acquiring knowledge and skills, the returns can be significant.”

The leverage of education and skills

• Education and skills are powerful assets that cannot be taken away or diminished by external factors.
• Continual learning and improvement compound over time and result in higher returns.
• Education is an investment that pays off not only financially but also in personal growth and opportunities.

“Education can’t go down, it can’t be taxed, it can’t be taken from you, and only gets better over time. It compounds unto itself because when you learn the next skill, it 5x the demand on your sales skills, and you just paid down your ignorance debt with two investments.”

Putting in the effort to achieve exceptional results

• To surpass average outcomes and achieve exceptional results, one must be willing to put in more effort and work harder.
• Working on developing skills and putting in more inputs can compensate for natural talent deficiencies.
• Effort and dedication over a long-term timeline can lead to unbeatable success.

“If you were to look at average, you might make a hundred a year or 120 a year, which would still triple what you were making before. And if you don’t adjust your living from what you’re making at 40, now you have even at 120, 80k a year extra that you can then invest in more skills to pay down your ignorance debt.”

The advantage of time and effort

• Time and effort are advantageous factors when it comes to long-term success.
• Putting in the effort alongside investing money can yield even greater returns.
• Continuous improvement and investment in skills, combined with sustained effort, can lead to substantial growth and achievement.

“If you go spend the money, but you don’t put the time and effort in, then you lose your advantage. It’s not just about spending the money. Effort and continuous learning are essential components of achieving success.”

“I got money and time/slash effort. If you put the effort in and learn how to sell, you can make a significant impact. But you need to combine it with time and effort to fully realize the advantage.”

Importance of Joining Groups Ahead of You

• When joining a group or community, aim to become number one.
• Join groups where people are already ahead of you.
• Approach these groups with the mentality of wanting to learn and improve.
• Engage with members of the group and offer your skills for free.
• The goal is to gain status within the group by demonstrating your value.
• By interacting with people who are more advanced, you can learn from their experiences and knowledge.

“I always wanted to join groups of people who are all ahead of me…the way I did that was like be good…I mean make more money…I gave it to them for free”

Giving First Without Asking

• Emphasize the importance of giving before expecting anything in return.
• The spirit of motivation is to give selflessly.
• Help others without having an ulterior motive.
• Keep giving until the other person feels compelled to reciprocate.
• The key is to genuinely offer your assistance and support to others.

“The point of motivation, the point of everything they do…is that you give first without asking”

Going the Extra Mile

• Most people stop their efforts too soon, preventing them from achieving success.
• To surpass the majority, keep going beyond what is expected.
• Push through frustration and thoughts of quitting.
• Don’t settle for doing your best; strive to do what is required.
• Being willing to go above and beyond separates you from the pack.

“Whenever I get frustrated and I think like why do I even bother doing this…most people stop and this is why they don’t win”

Getting Paid to Learn

• Actively seek jobs that offer opportunities for learning and growth.
• Consider working for companies that invest in their employees’ development.
• Communicate your desire to learn specific skills during the hiring process.
• If your current job doesn’t provide learning opportunities, explore other options.
• Low living expenses can enable you to take a pay cut for the sake of learning.

“I’m actually a big proponent of having jobs…get paid to learn”

Continuing Growth in a Position

• Once you feel you have learned all you can at a particular job, communicate this to your employer.
• Properly emphasize that your learning has slowed down in your current role.
• A good employer will offer further learning opportunities or support for additional training.
• Consider external programs, workshops, or certifications to continue leveling up your skills.
• Demonstrating a commitment to ongoing growth makes you a more valuable asset.

“Once you have nothing left to learn from the current position…communicate to them that you feel like your learning has slowed down”

Value Arbitrage

• Value Arbitrage is when you pay more upfront to get more output or value in return.
• Instead of paying $100 a year for a service, you pay $125 and get five times the output.
• This trade-off is worth it because you are getting more value for a slightly higher cost.

“Why would you never make that trade once you’ve done this?”

Three Steps to Transition from Learning to Earning

1. Live below your needs:

• The less risk you take in your personal life, the more risks you can take in your business life.
• If your living expenses are high, your business might not have enough resources to weather a storm.
• By living below your means, you have more capital to invest in your business and take calculated risks.

“The less risk you take in your personal life, the more risks you take in your business life.”

1. Stack cash through a side hustle:

• Side hustles should be seen as a way to transition to your main hustle, not just for side income.
• Use the extra income from your side hustle to save and stack cash.
• Continue building your side hustle until it matches or exceeds your current income.

“If you’re not making more money on 40 hours a week of the new thing, you’re still not doing it right.”

1. Sustain your income for six months:

• Once your side hustle matches your current income, sustain it for six months.
• This ensures consistency and stability in your earnings.
• It also allows you to double your actual income and build up your savings.

“You want to make sure that it’s not seasonal and that you can sustain it.”

The Pressure of Success and Setting Realistic Goals

• Many people put undue pressure on themselves by expecting their next venture to be a billion-dollar company like Facebook.
• It’s important to set realistic goals based on your desired level of success.
• Service businesses are a cost-effective way to start because they require minimal overhead.
• These businesses may be harder to scale, but they provide valuable learning experiences.

“A lot of businesses can get you out of poverty, get you above the middle class, get you into the upper class.”

Playing the Long Game and Comparisons to Others

• Playing the game of entrepreneurship requires a long-term mindset.
• Focus on enjoying the game itself rather than comparing yourself to others.
• Success is not about becoming a trillionaire, but about personal fulfillment and growth.
• Don’t judge yourself based on external judgments or comparisons.

“Because your rate of input is so much higher than theirs, you will catch up and surpass them.”

Separating identity from the worth of the business

• Entrepreneurs often identify closely with their business, but it’s important to separate one’s identity and self-worth from the worth of the business.
• By separating one’s identity from the business, entrepreneurs can see it as an asset that can be sold and can make hard decisions without personal attachment.
• This is beneficial because it allows entrepreneurs to view business as an infinite game, where the goal is to keep the game going, rather than a finite game with a specific end goal.

“The further you can separate your identity and your self-worth from the worth of the business, the better off you’ll be as an entrepreneur.”

“The problem that most entrepreneurs have is they approach an infinite game with a finite frame. They are the United States trying to invade Vietnam, and you will lose every time.”

“Business is an infinite game. You don’t win. The point isn’t to finish, because even if you’re trying to say ‘Finish First,’ by what metric, on what time period? Is there anyone who’s been the richest man in the world for all time?”

Learning Skills to Get Ahead

• Once you have mastered essential skills, you can achieve significant results.
• Continuously learn and improve upon your skills to excel.
• Discover and focus on the areas where you excel the most.

“If you can find that game, make it the metascale of continuing to learn, then you won’t stop, and at that point, it means you win by default.”

Importance of Learning Sales

• Learning how to sell is crucial for financial success.
• Sales are an essential component of making money.
• No matter how good the product is, without sales, there is no revenue.

“The first thing I did to get myself out of this million-dollar or below million-dollar category to the above million-dollar category and eventually to the 0.4% 10-million category was actually just learning how to sell.”

The Best Sales Training on the Internet

• Access to the best sales training on the Internet can significantly impact your success.
• The speaker offers a long keynote presentation that provides valuable insights into sales.
• This training has been consolidated over years and is considered a valuable resource.

“I have what we call the best sales training on the Internet… It’s a good bargain on your time to get 10 years of sales training into an hour, so enjoy.”