Show Notes:

John Morgan
Lions and sloths. “In the jungle today, a lion will be born. And that lion is the king of the jungle, just because he or she is a lion. The same day, a sloth will be born. Same day, same jungle, same deal. That sloth is so f*cked he can’t even describe it. All he can do is barely muster up enough energy to come down the tree, grab some berries, go to the bathroom, go back up, and go to sleep.”

Jessica Mogill
The right kind of right-hand woman. “You have to find someone who is okay challenging you. I think that is a big thing that we’ve seen with a lot of people who come in from a leadership perspective. It’s very easy for a visionary to say, ‘I’ve got all these ideas. Let’s run with them.’ But I would say one of my biggest strengths is actually being able to poke holes in things and being able to say, ‘No, this is not good,’ or, ‘What if this happens?’ I know all you visionaries are probably thinking, ‘No, those people are going to slow me down. Those people are going to be so defensive, and they’re not going to want to make any progress’ — but it is not defensiveness. I just look at every scenario that could go wrong before we implement it. I’m not saying don’t do it. I just want to have every potential cage — a barrier everywhere to protect it.”

Mark Manson
What is worth caring about? “What ‘not giving a f*ck’ is, or essentially the question of, ‘What do you give a f*ck about?’ is a question of values and priorities. I strongly believe that the core question of our day and age is, ‘What is worth caring about?’ or, ‘What is worth focusing on?’ We live in an age where we are constantly overwhelmed with information and opportunity, and so the biggest struggle for most of us is to figure out where to delegate our limited time and attention. What is worth focusing on? What is worth caring about? It’s a really, really hard thing to figure out. I think five years ago, when the book came out, people were very unaware that struggle was going on within themselves. I think today people are generally aware that it is a struggle, but as a culture we still haven’t really figured out how to tackle it.”

Andre Norman
Defining true success. “Success is not a success without a successor. So if you’re not helping someone else become successful, you’re not successful either. You’re just lucky. My goal is to help people be successful. Whatever they hope to accomplish isn’t relevant to me; I just want them to get there. Stay alive and get there.”

Jan Dils
The power of advertising. “My dad was big on advertising his car dealership, so I saw the value in doing it. I was familiar with the traditional advertisers, such as the television, newspapers, and radio. I purchased the backside of the phonebook back in ’94, and after that, I cut my first commercial. That’s when I truly realized the power of advertising.”

David Goggins
Your own worst enemy — and your own hero. “I was the one holding me back. I was the one looking for the scapegoat. I was the one looking for all these ways to tell myself it was going to be okay. I was hoping my dad was going to give me that confirmation and he was a loser himself. But at the end of the day when I left my home, I realized, ‘Well sh*t man, this is all me. I’m the loser. My dad’s f*cked up. My mom’s f*cked up. The people around me are f*cked up. They’re not going to save me.’ I needed to save myself. So that’s when all that reality hit me. When I went to Buffalo to see my dad, the entire drive home I told myself that the rest of my life is going to suck. There’s no way around it. But it’s not going to suck because of me being a loser, but because of me finally being a winner — and winning is not easy, my friend.”

Alex Hormozi
The one trait all great leaders have in common. “If you have humility, you can do a lot. If somebody’s humbled and they can accept feedback, then they can change. It’s very difficult to do, because if someone doesn’t have humility, then it means that whoever they are on day one has to be the person that they need to be at day 1000. If they can’t admit there’s a deficit that they can’t improve, they’re already screwed. So humility is by far the biggest thing when it comes to being a successful founder. Beyond that, they have to have drive and determination — their fuel.”

Dan Martell
Build a business you don’t hate. “Most people have these beliefs that the bigger the business gets, the harder it gets, and that doesn’t have to be the case. I proved that I think very clearly in my book using first principles and math: that you can literally build an empire. For me, an empire is a life of unlimited creation you never have to retire from. A lot of people have a hard time with that word. It’s a big word. I wrote it for all the entrepreneurs out there: for my brother who’s a home builder, for my wife who runs an agency, to all my best friends that run HVAC companies and sign companies. I just wanted to kind of write a process that I’ve been using that’s blessed my life and share it with the world, so that’s the movement I’m out there to create: to teach people how to use the buyback principle to build meaningful companies that they don’t hate.”

Ross Pomerantz
How to stand out on social media. “Try to figure out what your voice is. Who are you? Don’t try to be someone you’re not because it’s just never going to work. Figure out what your little differentiator is and just hammer that. Again, everyone knows this, but people buy from people, and as much as you can infuse your own voice and humanity into it, it’s going to feel different and it’s going to feel truer. I obviously love comedy, and I know the legal world isn’t exactly funny all the time, but take a risk. See what happens. Do something crazy.”

Chris Voss
Cognitive vs. Tactical Empathy. “Cognitive empathy is about an accurate reading of the other side. And the reason why sociopaths are best at it is because they don’t get in their own way. They don’t think about how you should feel or how you should react. I’ll ask somebody, ‘How does the other side see this?’ and they’ll go, ‘This is how they should see it,’ which means, ‘That ain’t how I see it.’ It’s how they actually see it. And your sense of right and wrong, your sense of justice, your moral compass is going to get in your way of recognizing how the other side sees it.”

Codie Sanchez
Stick with it. “I’ve met very few entrepreneurs who ever go back and get a job. So what does that tell me? We like to b*tch about it being hard, but being in charge is almost always better than not being in charge. When you talk to other entrepreneurs, we like to bemoan the difficulty and say, ‘God, our f*cking employees don’t get it’ — which is true often, but simultaneously, the only reason that some people can’t run a business is because they’re lazy. They don’t want to actually do the work or they don’t have a high pain tolerance. It’s rarely incompetence. The stuff that we deal with, I don’t think is that difficult. I run laundromats and car washes and a media business, and none of this stuff is rocket science. I’m not creating robots. I’m not saving the world. What they key thing here though is, can you keep going after it gets hard? Now, can everybody run a business that does seven figures, eight figures, nine figures? No. Mathematically, it’s not possible, but can a lot more people have ownership or actually have skin in the game? Yes, and I think it’d be pretty cool and better for all of us if more people did it.”

Morgan Housel
Expect the unexpected. “When you realize how fragile the world is and how much hangs by a thread, it tempers your willingness to predict what’s going to happen over the next five years. You have no idea. Financially, the best way to handle unforeseen events is to maintain a level of liquidity and conservatism that feels excessive. If you’re only saving for risks you can imagine or expenses you know are coming, you’re not prepared for the surprises you can’t see. Many people and businesses only save enough cash for foreseeable needs — like building a structure next month or buying a car in the next year. When an unexpected shock hits, they find themselves completely unprepared. Therefore, the amount of cash you should have on hand should feel like it’s too much. If it feels like it’s excessive, then you at least have a fighting chance to deal with the risks that you cannot even envision.”