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Why More Money Doesn't Actually Buy You Freedom - EP026 · Freedom Flip

• 0:00
  40 years of your life, and then you're gonna retire and you're gonna be happy and you're gonna be free. I knew that I was living in misalignment because it felt wrong. There was some disconnect. If I stay in this job, what is the game plan here that this society is proposing to me? Okay, let me just check if this is true. And then I go and I see all the retirees in Argentina, they are all f***ed up, there's no freedom. Okay, how can I feel if I do this for the next 40 years? Oh my gosh, it feels terrible. Okay, I need to get the f*** out of this place. Most people can never figure out how to make money and the other half can never figure out how to stop.
• 0:29
  I knew at an early age I was probably going to be the other half, meaning the group that never knew how to stop. So the $10 million was actually not a way as a goal to go up the mountain. It was a goal to stop. If I was addicted to this money game, to stop. I just knew I didn't want to be a father person that was addicted to this money game, selling their life to just gain more money.
• 0:48
  And it's not that they are really working on a mission, a transformational venture. It's just more money. The reason why you are doing it has to be bigger than money. Very similar, I would say, to Messi and Ronaldo. They don't need to keep playing football. They don't need the money. They are doing it because of the love of the game. But what are you about? What do you really enjoy when nobody's watching? What are you passionate about?
• 1:10
  I think that you're going to be way happier doing that, even if that means you live in a one-bedroom apartment, rather than going to Wall Street and then making a lot of money and then losing yourself. All right, Peter. I hope you brought the goodies. Always bring the goodies. It's a key to life. Late, but at least they come.
• 1:29
  Hey, you know what? Doesn't matter. God determines the timelines. That's pretty humble of yourself calling yourself God. Peter, you determine the timelines. We start whenever you show up. I'm a simple man. You show up whenever you want. So thank God. Thank you, God, for being here with us.
• 1:50
  Not me. Simple man. What are you talking about? Not me. What are you saying? Not God. I don't deserve that title. Well. I think we all have a little spark of God in us now. You for sure. You have the God complex of showing up whenever you want and making normal mere humans, mortal humans just wait for your presence. It's fascinating. You think about it. I don't have anything that I do need to show up for on time. Except this. My entire life.
• 2:18
  There you go. That's very God complex. Yeah. I guess you're right. There's truth in that. I know. Or it's just realizing why it's not that serious. Sure, yeah. You can also say that. Why are you drinking that? Why are you not drinking Coca-Cola? Coca-Cola. Why are you not drinking beer? Why are you not drinking plastic bottle after three hours of sun? Why? I love it all. It's not so serious, Peter. Come on. We're all going to get it. And this is very easy for you to say because, you know, you're a trust fund baby, so...
• 2:48
  If we're healthy, we're a trust fund baby. That's the real wealth. Easy, easy for you to say with all your millions. But you have to think about the mother, single mother in Rwanda that has to walk 50 miles to get water. She's an amazing woman. You have no idea because you didn't meet her in your high horse and your high ivory tower with your mountain valley water, spring water. Our Kenyans and the Kenyans were the least in Africa. Seriously, just the happiest people ever.
• 3:13
  Well, why don't you quit your citizenship and go there? I don't feel the need or the urge. It's just an observation. It's a great country, though.
• 3:20
  I was watching a little short video. It's like three minutes video of this guy. He's a foreigner. And he has an accent. And he's talking with these, whatever, students. I don't know. University students. And all these people are like super woke and very left-hard. Meaning zero critical thinking. And they are talking about this is a stolen land. And all this nonsense, right? Of a person that never studied history and doesn't understand that everything is stolen land, if you want to put it like that. And we all come from slaves, if you want to put it like that. It's just a matter of like,
• 3:50
  how far into the chain your relatives were slaves. And so they are doing all this speech about like, oh, this place is terrible. And they're like, OK, here you have. I am willing to give you a one way ticket to whatever you want. You need to quit your citizenship. Oh, well, you know, I have family here. Yeah, exactly. Shut up. To summarize America after 250 years, they had an Internet vote. What line summarizes it? Did I tell you this already? I don't think so.
• 4:16
  America in 250 years is summarized as the country where its biggest haters choose to stay. The biggest haters choose to stay. Mic drop. The biggest haters with the most possibilities, financial possibilities to move somewhere else, they decide to stay. Yeah. You cannot beat your McDonald's and your Starbucks.
• 4:37
  Pablo, how do you think the 1% performers manage their time, their calendar, their day? I think that it depends. Because it depends on what stage they are. And are they...
• 4:49
  working on something 10 hours a day? Are they working five hours a day? Do they have one thing that they are working on? Do they have 12 things that they are working on? I think that is going to depend a lot. Also, maybe we need to define, like, what is the top 1%? What does that even mean? In their field, it could be business. Let's focus on business. Top 1% of business leaders, professionals, builders. How do they spend their time?
• 5:18
  Okay. So what will be your answer? How can we talk about these different stages that a successful person could be in their lives? I really like the framing of, I think Dan Martel had it. And I think about my own life, there's three stages. There's entrepreneur, or there's employee, the base, where you're selling your time to get money. There's a entrepreneur where you're using your money to buy back time. And then there's empire builder.
• 5:45
  where you're taking money to invest to make even more money. And those are the three stages. So employee, you are selling time for money. Then entrepreneur, you are using money to buy back time. Is that what I said? Exactly. Okay. And then the last one? You're using that money to buy even more money or wealth via investments, buying businesses, buying shares, buying additional assets.
• 6:07
  Okay, and whose is that? This is a Dan Martell framework. There's another framework that's similar that talks about the four quadrants, and you have kind of self-employed business owner, and you go through these different quadrants. So this is interesting. It's going to depend who is your God. Say more.
• 6:23
  Well, right now, what are you just the employee entrepreneur empire builder, the way that you describe it, again, there might be much more about this. This is all about money. My God is money. Money is my number one thing. So on employee level, what about time? We are all selling our time.
• 6:41
  We are all doing this. Another way of saying it, we are all investing our time. It might be investing like shit. We might be totally misinvesting our time, investing like... But we are all allocating our time somewhere every single day, knowing or not knowing.
• 6:57
  It can be from, as an employee, you are saying, I am selling my time to get money. Well, as an entrepreneur, I can be selling my time to get money. In fact, I've done that. Sometimes I do that and then I regret it. And then the last one is you use that money to make more money. So another way of saying is all this is energy. What is building an empire? Just the word, empire building. Okay, great. What are you building? Why are you building it? For whom are you building this? Yeah.
• 7:25
  Again, I don't know Dan Martel. I know that he has a book that a lot of people like. I've seen him in social media a couple of times. I have nothing in favor or against him. Zero. I have no idea. I just think that we have to be careful with the hustle culture, which is all about money, money, money, money, money. I think that for people that become extremely successful, I'm talking about decamillionaires, I am very intrigued to understand what are they after now.
• 7:50
  Are they after more money? Are they after fame, recognition, validation, mission, purpose, service, combination of all of them, some of them?
• 8:02
  Do you find this more fascinating? I mean, because I'm thinking also about almost everyone is not in that camp of Deca Millionaire. People viewing, kids, everybody. So to me, there's two stages. How many people watching this want to be there? Most. Okay. That's an important distinction. So they are not there, but they want to be there. Yes. Continue. I look at it as in two stages. And I think it's ignorant or it's not helpful to not hear the first stage in frameworks that help and then talking about the second stage.
• 8:32
  But a freedom flip for me is a lot of people are so fearful about money, they're not willing to invest it to save their time. And that's why I like the framework, because it shows a counterbalance. And it forces people to intellectualize or think about their own time. Because what I notice, whether it's wealthy people, poor people, somewhere on the grind, is they don't recognize the value of their time correctly. They're not using that in a measure, in a logical way.
• 9:00
  Even me, when I was building my business, you know, we were going after small accounts that now I look back and I was like, man, we just wasted so much of our resources getting these tiny headache accounts. And that was all fear. That was worry around money for me, rather than thinking really clearly, how do I?
• 9:17
  allocate our time, our value as a team, as me as the leader of the company or co-founder, me as an employee, the whole organization of, you know, a couple hundred people, how am I allocating their time and energy? And where do I put the bar, the level of saying, this is too small for us?
• 9:34
  One of my good friends who just did his first real estate deal, he hadn't done any. And he got pulled into one that was a $9, $10 million acquisition. Now it's worth $16 million. They made really good money in a year. Now they had to do a little bit of refurbish, had to fill a vacancy. And he looked at me and he goes, Peter, I will never do a small deal again. I mentioned some random thing. He's like, never. Never.
• 9:57
  The big deals are just as hard as the small deals. There's just much bigger dollars at stake and upside. I think that's what gets me excited when you think for someone who's still on the grind for the majority of people is just reframing, flipping their perspective to see their actions in a different way. And I see this with high school kids with my own hustles that failed and then succeeded. I see this with 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds in the way in which they're applying the scope to their own professional endeavor.
• 10:25
  Let's pause on the second stage. Let's save that for people that have become decamillionaires. Let's just think about Pablo the Hustler. Pablo's starting his business, starting a business today. How do you look at time? If I have to go back when I started, let's say, my first entrepreneurial endeavor, buying and selling t-shirts in Argentina like 22 years ago, early internet.
• 10:46
  I was doing everything. Everything I mean from buying the cardboard box, tape, pictures, going to the post office, queuing for one hour to be able to deliver one packet. At the same time that I was going to university, working in an office job, I was not using money at all as leverage. Zero. And I think that for me, I did not understand that that was even possible.
• 11:10
  I did not see other examples. I did not have any kind of mentor. And I don't mean in-person live mentors because those are maybe the most difficult to find, but not even online. There was no online, right, to consume. So when I was starting, I was doing everything. And looking back, I'm like, oh, yeah, I was just wasting so much time. But I think that it's important to recognize where are we starting, right?
• 11:34
  And I was starting from a place of trauma around money, where for me it was way more valuable to walk for one hour and save the coins of the bus rather than taking the bus. Dude, that's deep. So it's a whole different reality. And I think that it's very important to understand
• 11:50
  where each person is starting, where are you starting that you're watching this, where are you starting, what are your current limitations, and then look around. What are the possibilities? So as an example, one friend of mine, one time I was living in Uruguay at some point, and then he's like, why do you keep taking the bus rather than going on taxi everywhere? I'm like, literally, I'm like, I don't understand the question. Like, what are you talking about? What are you saying? Yeah.
• 12:17
  There's only one option. It's like, what do you mean? Taxi? That is for rich people. And he's like, yeah, exactly. It's like, what are you saying? No. And I had the money. And it would have been way better to take a taxi. But I didn't do the math. I didn't even think like, oh yeah, this makes sense. This makes so much more sense that me going on a taxi with a taxi everywhere is going to create way more leverage in my life. So for me, it was a step by step. I think that from now on, I don't need to cook ever again.
• 12:47
  I personally don't enjoy cooking. So if you enjoy it, go for it. Go at it. Amazing. You can buy the best food now and you can cook with the best utensils if you have the money. But for me, it was step by step that I realized, oh, wait a second, I can do this. And then, oh, I can do this.
• 13:02
  And then I slowly and steadily, I started realizing the leverage that money could bring into my life. I had the same experience a year ago. I don't like cooking, didn't want my wife to have to cook all the time. And in my mind, it was like only rich people can have people meal prep. And then I was like, well, why don't I just check it?
• 13:20
  you know, put out listings, find people at 20 bucks, 25 bucks an hour that want to go meal prep for three, four hours and get a bunch of the lunches done for the week. That was an unlock for me. And this is it where I can financially do that. No question. It's these mental blocks. And I'm trying to think of, so how would I want to tell Peter or Pablo when, before they start their business, before they sell businesses, think about this. And it's really, it's a flip, right? To where you said, if I had more money, what would I do to save my time?
• 13:50
  Yeah. And this is why I said at the beginning, yeah, people here that are watching most likely are not decamillionaires, but they want to be. Great. Why? Why are you going to change when you are a decamillionaire or a millionaire? You get your first million or second million, your first hundred thousand. I don't know, whatever goal you have, like, what are you going to change in your life? What's going to change in your life?
• 14:12
  Because if you're going to keep living like the current version of yourself, it's a little bit dumb, most likely. Something needs to change in your life. And I am not saying needs to change, oh, you need to buy a better car or you need to stop traveling like this and start traveling like that. I'm saying something around you needs to change rather than just storing that money in the bank account and looking at grow and saying, okay, maybe when I hit this number, I'm going to be happy. Maybe after hitting this other number, I will be able to do this or that.
• 14:39
  Or also looking at your current life and say, why am I not spending $200 to delegate this thing that I really hate and it's really a waste of my time? And I can put that time to do something else. I think this is the powerful piece that I'm most excited about as I think about
• 14:57
  I have a friend who's got a business. He was in school into his 30s, became a professional, was able to buy a business with that degree in his field. He's now generating, let's just say, half a million in profit. He still has trouble spending $100, $200 to save his time. This is now when someone has kids and has a business and has demands, but it's not unwiring those. Well, so let's go deep on that. Give the example without naming names. Give the example of where do you see that he's stuck?
• 15:26
  I think he's stuck with the examples of family members that he saw and grew up with. And he's running their playbook. What is the opportunity that you are seeing that he could use money to do? Cutting the lawn. So he's cutting the lawn himself. He's cutting the lawn. He had a babysitter messed up his plumbing and then suddenly it had like literally everything from the plumbing pipes came up all over his bathroom. He chose to spend an entire Saturday cleaning that up himself.
• 15:51
  Or not Saturday, a Friday. He could have been working or taking the day off. It was a Friday that he hadn't planned to be working on his business. He instead was cleaning the bathroom. What is the limitation? I think it is important to understand what is the limitation. Because for him, it's not money. He has the money. So money is not a limitation. Okay. Disagree. It's mentally thinking you don't have the money. One second. He has the money. Correct.
• 16:12
  Okay, not perception. Facts. He has the money. Great. Okay. Problem solved. Let's move to see what is the real problem. Because it could be that he perceives that he is spending $200 in a plumber. It's going to put him out of business. Could be that. I don't know if that's the problem. Or it could be that for whatever reason, he has an aversion to hire people. He doesn't trust hiring. I don't know. But I think you need to understand what is the real issue. And I'm saying this to you, Peter, now, but I'm speaking to everyone. What is the real block?
• 16:41
  that you have? Is it that you never hire anyone? Is it that you don't know? Is it that you don't trust? Is it that you got screwed in the past? Is it that you believe that you don't have the money? Is it that you believe that you are not worth it? Some people say, oh, this is what? $500? This is not worth it. It's like, well, you are not worth it. Is that what you mean? Yeah, that's the deep line. And I think, as I think about us looking in the mirror, we have to look to, am I not worth it?
• 17:03
  20, 30 bucks for someone else to cut my lawn. Am I not worth this action? And if I am worth it, let's flip it, let's do a freedom flip. If I am worth it, what can I do with that time? What is the mental barrier, the opportunity I can break through with that time, with that opportunity, with that energy?
• 17:18
  It's interesting. For me, I don't think in the level of, okay, instead of me cleaning the house, I can go and with that time, I'm going to go and do this. And therefore, I'm going to make 20 times more. I don't think like that. For me, it's much more, I don't like doing this thing, or I really, really dislike doing this thing. I don't want to do this thing whatsoever. Okay, I'm going to pay someone to do it. But I am not thinking of, okay, now finally, I have my free time that I didn't have. Because nowadays, I have the freedom of time.
• 17:47
  I get to choose what goes in my calendar. Not always, but most of the time, I would say. When do you not choose what's on your calendar? Let me look at the calendar. So the correct way of saying it is I am always choosing what goes in my calendar. Even if I am not choosing it, I am always choosing it because I'm not a slave. So whatever is in my calendar is my choice, conscious or unconscious. Now looking at my calendar. So let me give you an example, right? So we have a leadership team meeting with my team, which is once a quarter.
• 18:17
  I am not choosing those dates, but I am accepting the invitation. It's something that is important. It's something that is relevant. It's something, it is work. So I, on one sense, I would say it's not like, for example, me and a friend say like, hey, let's go to play pickleball at 3 p.m. Oh, 3 p.m. Yeah, let's do it. It's a different, it's a little bit different on the choice. Here is much more a responsibility that I choose to take. That's the only one that I can see here in my calendar.
• 18:45
  And that's once a quarter, so four times a year for a business you own. That's the time you've committed to it. I don't agree with the word commit because for me, it's a responsibility that I chose to take. I don't like saying I commit to meet with you guys four times a year. No, I took on the responsibility to play this role in this business to solve these problems, whatever it takes. I just don't really like recurring meetings.
• 19:11
  that usually they end up in nonsense. So let's think about, I'm Pablo, I've got a t-shirt business. What would you say to yourself to accelerate it, to get through faster? I didn't have a goal. I was not aiming for anything specifically. I was not aiming for sell 100 t-shirts a month, sell 2,000. I was not, I knew that I wanted to make money. I had no idea where what, because I also had no reference.
• 19:38
  oh, with a million dollars, you can do this. Or with a hundred thousand dollars, you can do this. So I didn't have a goal. So would you say you just got lucky? And because you kept saying, here's a goal slightly more than another, what would you say if you had a son that was in Argentina selling t-shirts? Like, how would you approach it with him?
• 19:55
  I would be like, so do you like this? Oh, yeah, I love it. Okay, great. What do you like about this? Oh, I like this, this, this, this, this. Okay, great. Why are you doing this? Oh, because of this. Okay, let's go one layer deeper. Let's go another layer deeper. Let's go. I want to understand why. What's the reason? Oh, okay, got it. Oh, okay. So you don't want to be poor. Got it. Okay, that's your real why.
• 20:15
  Okay, because you grew up in a place where lack of money meant fights, discussions, problems, stress, anxiety. Okay, very valid. Great. Now let's just talk numbers. Because you want money. Money is numbers. So how much money do you want? Well, I don't know.
• 20:31
  Well, there we go. Let's go deep. How much money you want? And then I would just keep going at it to really get clarity or help the person get clarity of like, why that amount of money? What do you think that this amount of money will get you? Not saying that is wrong. Choose whatever number you want. Got it. Choose your journey and you're helping them understand what the mountaintop is of their journey.
• 20:56
  Whatever they want. I don't care. The only thing that I am helping with the questions is what is your goal? What is the top? Which mountain? There's a trillion mountains that you can climb. What is the mountain that you want? Why do you want that mountain? And then what are you expecting that is going to happen when you get to the top of that mountain? Just to make sure that you are climbing the right mountain, because it might be another one that you should be climbing.
• 21:18
  Okay, so let's flip it to me. So I was 20s doing investment banking job, ready, working 100 hours a week. And my mountain was, okay, I graduated college. I was 23, had to do a victory lap in kindergarten. So 23 and a half. So I'm 23 and a half. And I thought when I'm 30, I want to have a million dollars liquid. That was my arbitrary goal. This was back in. So that was my goal at that time. How much money you had? You were what, 25, you said? Yeah, I was 23 and a half when I graduated college. I maybe had, I don't know, 5,000 bucks. Okay. And you want to have a million bucks. Correct.
• 21:48
  Okay. Which, by the way, it's what I have seen is that it's very common that if you are adding, if you have, let's say, four figures in your net worth, adding two or three more zeros becomes like a number that is like, I definitely, I want that. I want that. You have no clue, no possibility to understand what that even means.
• 22:07
  So you have 5,000 and you say, I want to have a million dollars or half a million dollars, right? I want to have this number. Got it. First indication is most likely you have no idea what that buys you. It's just a random number. Nothing wrong with this. Nothing wrong. That's a great start. But yeah, continue. The only other rule I had was, you know, I had a dad experiencing trouble with a business in 2008 and I watched workaholic dads that never saw their kids. So I told myself when I get 10 million liquids,
• 22:35
  I'm not doing anything I don't want to do. Wait, 10 million? You went from 1 million to 10 million or it's a different age? These are two separate goals. Okay. One of them was the goal I wanted to have when I was 30. The other one was the any time in life at any age that I have 10 million liquid, I can spit off, you know, 10% of that. I'm just going to live my life and not be anyone's slave or not do stuff I don't want to do. Got it. So you did that math at the age of 23? Yeah.
• 23:01
  The 10 million was at 16, 16 years old. 23, I came up with the 1 million. So you were way more advanced than me. You have to understand, I grew up in Argentina. There is no, I have a brokerage account and I invest in stocks. That doesn't exist.
• 23:16
  That doesn't exist, period. The bank said, okay, you can buy $200 a month. So I grew up in a whole different universe. So for me, this concept of I invest in this and I can get 10% and I can live out of this. For me, this is a new concept that I heard in the last, whatever, six years. Before that, I've never heard that before. It was just survival. It was just you got to get enough to buy food or pay the bills.
• 23:43
  Well, I think that I am past that. In Argentina. In Argentina, that's what you understood as this is the way of life. There's no other option. Yeah, you make money and then you sell the pesos and you buy dollars in the black market. And then you store it in your house hidden somewhere and you never give it to the banks.
• 24:00
  That's it. Because if you do, they just steal it. I wouldn't say that they steal it, but I would say they already stole it before. I don't trust them anymore. Yeah, they already stole everything. So why would you do it again? I won't. So a little bit different. But what I would say to you, you said, OK, I want to have a million bucks. I'm 23. I want to have a million bucks by the age of 30. Which, by the way, on one side, I like the idea of put a random number,
• 24:26
  and then put a date. And I think that those things, you start attracting things in your life when you have these audacious goals. So I don't think that if there's anything wrong, let's call it, I'm trying to super simplify this. I'm sure that there are nuances and special cases, but in your 20s, just put whatever number you want. Just go for it. Now, I think the problem could be when you are in your 30s now and you still have a random number. And forget about if you're in your 40s and you still have a random number. That is a much more serious conversation to have.
• 24:55
  And let's go through those. So I'm, let's do 20s, 30s. So if I'm 20s, what would you tell little Pablo selling t-shirts, hasn't built or sold a business? How should he see it? Come up with a random number? Come up with his goal and back into it? Yeah, I would be like, hey, what do you want to achieve with this?
• 25:13
  Well, I want most likely stupid answers, right? Oh, I want to keep selling this. Okay. Yeah, but how many do you want to sell? Okay. How much money are you making? And how much money do you want to make? And why? Why that number? Why not one zero more? Why not two zeros more? Why not three zeros more?
• 25:28
  Why are you thinking in pesos rather than a different currency? Why are you not thinking in British pounds or dollars or euros? Why do you keep thinking in pesos? So I would go through a lot of these kind of questions. And speaking, let's say, with Peter, 23 years old, that has a million bucks as a goal, I would be like, okay, why 30 years old?
• 25:47
  Wouldn't you want to achieve it by the age of 29? And then most likely young Peter would smile like, yeah. I'm like, great. What about 28? Wouldn't you want to? And I would push it until the smile disappears and becomes like uncomfortable. I'm like, okay, great. I think that we are reaching something here that it's not too much and it's not too little. Why a million dollars? And then to go again with the same exercise. Why not two? You don't want two? You don't want three? You don't want 10? You don't want 100? And then what about 100,000? What are you planning to do with this?
• 26:17
  Peter, I'm 23. I got a couple thousand dollars. I say, well, I really want to be able to be free to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want. Okay, let's do the math. There has to be a math behind that. So let's just put the categories you are going to be spending that equals to that kind of life. Because I don't know what that means. Do what I want, whenever I want. We all have different wants on that. Okay, let's just get clear on that. Because maybe you need 10 million, maybe you need 100 million, maybe you need 100,000.
• 26:46
  Yeah, at that time I was interested in business and I think I generally understood, you know, hey, at that point I can invest this money. I created a little brokerage account when I was 10 years old and started buying stocks with my 500 bucks, you know, that I'd save for my life. I think a thousand dollars when I opened it.
• 27:03
  So I had an understanding, and in my mind, it was always kind of 10% of what I have I could spend. And stock market over a couple hundred years, 150 years, 8% to 10%. Okay, that's a ballpark. So it's kind of like, man, if I had $100,000, a million dollars at the time, $100,000, wow, that's 10%. I can live a really dope life doing the stuff I want.
• 27:29
  which may still be building businesses, may be doing whatever art, I don't know, but I have freedom. That was the intention or the goal. 10 million was actually, there's a really great phrase. It says some people, most people can never figure out how to make money and the other half can never figure out how to stop.
• 27:47
  I knew at an early age I was probably going to be in the other half, meaning the group that never knew how to stop. So the $10 million was actually not a way as a goal to go up the mountain. It was a goal to stop climbing the mountain. If I was addicted to this money game, to stop. Now, I was super ambitious, super hardworking. I did all the hustles. I had met wealthy people. I could tell how I saw the world, that I would find ways to add value and solve people's problems and be paid for that.
• 28:11
  So that was at a very young age. I just knew I didn't want to be a father, a person that was addicted to this money game and selling their life to just gain more money.
• 28:22
  That's perfect. And I would say there is also a place, I would call it more in the middle, where it's not I am fully addicted and I cannot stop, which there's a lot of examples to that. And then the other one is, that's it, I got to 10. I think that there is a place where you can learn the game. So you can keep making money to keep advancing your vision and your dreams without being a slave. We see this
• 28:49
  over and over again in all these communities that we are part or were part of. People with $20 million, $30 million, $50 million, $100 million plus of net worth. And we're like, why are you an slave of this? What's going on here? It's pretty sad. Prison is locked from the inside. And it's not that they are really working on a mission, a transformational venture. It's just more money. It's kind of pretty sad. Yeah.
• 29:19
  And I guess that the problem is that nowadays it's very, you can hide, especially very financially successful people. You can hide in, well, business is my game. So therefore that's what I do. Okay. Yeah, maybe. Or maybe you're just hiding that. I think this hits a deep point. I know my father, Tony Robbins, who never has pointed out that I'm his son. I love that he pushes this whole statement.
• 29:45
  of I've worked harder on myself than anyone, and that's how I find success. And it ties actually to, if you look at Elon Musk, he says the factory is the product. Not what comes out of the factory, but it's actually the factory. And to me, if you take both of those, what is our factory? Our factory is our mind. The products, the ideas, the solutions that come out of our mind, out of our mouth,
• 30:05
  They're all a function of how our factory is running. How is our mind running? And our mind, because we're human, because we had daddy issues, mommy issues, problems, poor, challenges, all these things that come in life, the result is we have limiting beliefs. And those limiting beliefs prevent us, they become the prison that's locked from the inside.
• 30:25
  We're holding the key. We're looking at the doors and the bars all around us, but we're not willing to put the key in the hole, unlock the door and walk out. And how does that show up? That shows up when a friend of yours says, hey, man, have you noticed you do X and I get defensive and push back, right? And really, if you do a freedom flip, whenever somebody says something, you're getting defensive. That's probably a point where I'm in prison and I've got the key and I'm locking myself in there and I don't want to come out.
• 30:49
  too uncomfortable, I'm too scared, I don't want to face that thing. And realizing these show up in our calendar, these show up in our schedule, these show up in our conversations. But it's the more you're working through these, the more the limitations go away and your product, your factory, right, pumps out these amazing products in terms of the ideas, the thoughts, the paths, the ways to operate. Yeah, I not only think that we have the key, but also we build our own prison or our own field to play and to live.
• 31:18
  Okay, let's dig in on this. I want to flip into the time for a moment. So pre-selling a business, building a business, spitting off cash flow, pre-somebody being a deca-millionaire, the time is really you have to strip everything else away and focus on one thing. This is mostly what I've seen of that should be your priority. Well, you are talking about entrepreneurs. You're talking about people that have the belief that they can create something very unique and therefore get rewarded because of that, right? Completely. Yeah.
• 31:46
  Let's focus on just them, those that either already believe that or think they might be that. They might be on that journey. And what you are saying is just focus on that. Just do that all the time. If you have faith in this path, now there's some tricks you can use, right? So like commit to the timeline, I'm going to be here in six months or 12 months. If I'm not, I kill it. So you don't get sunk cost fallacy and keep doing it even though it's failing miserably.
• 32:09
  And I think that's a big issue. There's plenty of books that go in this. Annie Duke has a bunch of these books on this topic of thinking of bets and basically how to stop or how to prevent yourself from going too far on a path that's bad. Oh, man, but I don't know because Dana White, he should have stopped, right, with that framework when he was building UFC because it was not taking off. And I don't know. I don't know. I would flip it the following. I would say that the reason why you are doing it
• 32:36
  has to be bigger than money. Ooh, that's deep. If it's just money, then, okay, whatever. It's just something that is soulless, has no soul, has no, okay, go for it. But it has to be bigger than money. And this is why, in my opinion, without knowing Dana, but he was building something that was bigger than just making money. Give context on Dana and the story, because I'm not familiar with it.
• 33:01
  So Dana White grew up dirt poor, working normal jobs, and he just loves fight. He just loves it. And somehow he got the opportunity to buy the UFC for a couple million bucks, I believe, with two brothers. These two brothers, I think that they are the people that put the money and Dana runs the show. And nobody liked the UFC.
• 33:22
  UFC was banned everywhere. Nobody was really, it was dying. It was a business. And then he was able to build it in a way. And eventually, I don't know what happened, but it just took off and it kept taking off and kept taking off. And I think that they sold their part. Dana stayed. I don't know if they sold two times, but Dana has like maybe a half a billion bucks. So he doesn't need to work. But you can see that the guy just loves it so much.
• 33:48
  Very similar, I would say, to Messi and Ronaldo, right? They don't need to keep playing football. They don't need the money. They are doing it because of the love of the game. They just love it. They were born, I would say, to do it. So I think that this is the most important part. This is the most important part, which coming back to when we were growing up, it's like, okay, yeah, the money thing is cool. Yeah, cool story, bro. I get it. Yeah, you want to stop being poor. I get it. But what are you about? Yeah.
• 34:13
  What do you really enjoy? What do you really like? What do you do when nobody's watching? I'm not talking about jerking off. I'm just talking about what are you passionate about? And I think that that...
• 34:26
  is critical. Finding what's that, even if that means playing the guitar and just being, just creating my art. I think that you're going to be way happier doing that all time, even if that means you live in a one-bedroom apartment, rather than going to Wall Street and then making a lot of money and then losing yourself.
• 34:48
  It's a deep question, man, or a deep point. Just for fun, I'll flip it and challenge it. Or I'll start with where I agree. I look at my mom who works with dyslexic students, incredible, does amazing work, changes their lives. Like fuels her, gives her purpose, passion. It's not a money thing. It's like she would do this all day, every day. She does, she works 60 hours a week and she's in her 70s just because she loves it. I love that.
• 35:10
  I also, and maybe this is just such the fear I had around money, was I started my business at a college and university. I didn't care at all about transportation software and hardware. I just wanted to build something cool. And if it failed, I'd build something else. And it would build towards potentially creating more of a freedom. And then I fell in love with the industry. I fell in love with mobility and transportation. And we started having Uber and peer-to-peer and driverless cars and all this cool stuff suddenly hit the industry.
• 35:38
  And then it actually grew into this passion that I had for this industry that I really loved working in it. I think that's to your earlier point, sometimes you don't know your path. I will challenge something there. Yeah. I don't think that it's you felt in love with transportation. I think that you felt in love
• 35:54
  with the systems and with all the things that you were able to implement and to do around that industry. And this is why you keep falling in love with new things, which at the end of the day is a new, it's new makeup, but it's the same thing underneath. And I'm making it super simple, creating the systems, but me, that is you understanding what are you passionate about?
• 36:16
  Oh, I'm passionate about, I am very curious. I have no problem going against the grain. And I love understanding how can I make a system so things keep going and scaling. Well, guess what? You can do that almost everywhere. Now, all of a sudden, your limitation is not, oh, yeah, I sold my business.
• 36:39
  on transportation, I need to start another transportation thing because that's what made me happy. Well, no, that was the makeup, dude. What made you happy is the thing underneath that you really enjoyed. Great. So understanding that, that is why I just go back to growing up. And this is what I think that this is the thing that should be taught in schools. Like 90% of the time should be spent on this. Figure out what are you about?
• 37:05
  What did you come here to do? Then everything else is just makeup. One day it's going to look like this. Another day it's going to look like this. The next decade it's going to look that. Doesn't matter. But you know the fuel. You know your fuel. It's forever principles. And I think that's right. I do think the fuel is key. And it comes back to know thyself at no time.
• 37:23
  I'm in a bunch of the personality tests. You obviously like the one our friend Anastasia has created of architect, artist, and allocator or investor. I think those systems, if you can learn those to help understand yourself and how you see the world uniquely, the goggles you're looking through that give you unique perspective. I was thinking back to Van Gogh. Van Gogh was colorblind. He did not see colors the same way as us. So when he made Starry Night,
• 37:49
  if you look at it through his own eyes, it was a boring, starry night that was kind of dreary. Only because he was colorblind did he create this poppy, crazy, alive vision that we all love, right? That picture was not meant to be
• 38:06
  what it is, right? It's because of the goggles he sees the world that he saw it differently. And I think figuring out where you see the world differently in a way that can help people help the world, you know, help you fuel your passion. It's a great path. It's a great plan. I will say there's a guy, I do like his book. Again, I want to flip it and challenge. It's called The Sweaty Startup. His name is Nick Huber.
• 38:29
  I've actually emailed with him a bunch of times. I helped him learn how to hire overseas and then he'd get destroyed for it when he'd post about it, which always, he'd just get his head ripped off. His whole pitch is that the pure follow your passions, he would say your passions should be a hobby. And he would say your professional obligation as a man, as a father, et cetera, is to provide, which I think there's a compelling, especially for those people that don't have the itch to be an entrepreneur,
• 38:56
  It's a real challenge around this urge, this need to provide and find your passion. And it almost comes down to if you don't know, you hate your job, you hate what you're doing, you're not sure what you should do, you're in this no man's land. And most people feel they're stuck there. Like 67% of people hate their job. Let's define passion. What does he mean when he says passion? He loves to push people controversially or say things that get a lot of pushback. He would just say these things you enjoy doing.
• 39:24
  Yeah, that's not passion. I enjoy eating cake. That's a fucking stupid definition. That makes no sense. Maybe I'm misrepresenting. Of course, you should not eat cake all day long. Of course. Just because you enjoy it. Let's use the guitar thing. He would say like, yeah, you like playing the guitar. Great. Make that your weekend fun thing. Say that to Jimi Hendrix. Yeah. Go for it. Idiot.
• 39:43
  I think this is the challenge in that when you look at numbers like sports, so like today, especially in America, I see this huge push for sports. These kids that will never play sports professionally or push, they won't even play it in college, are doing all summer, two-a-day summer sports in whatever sport they play. That does not make sense to me to be pushing them with all this effort into something that they're going to fall off a cliff. At 18 or 22, they'll never play it again. It's like 1% of all those college athletes actually play the sport in college.
• 40:12
  And like 1% of them become professionals. This is a numbers game that is very, very unlikely. If you are aiming for, okay, you only can be Michael Jordan or something like that, or Messi or Ronaldo, that's a different conversation. There is tons of people.
• 40:29
  playing sports that are not any of these massive stars. There are no goats and they love the game and they have a great time for the rest of their lives being involved with that sport. Doesn't necessarily mean that they make hundreds of millions of dollars, but maybe they make some. So I just keep going back to
• 40:50
  For me, I don't call it passion, and this is why I wanted to check what he means with that. Making a profession and your life out of something that you like or enjoy may work out, may not work out. All I'm saying is I think that understanding who you are and how you roll is fundamental to live a successful life.
• 41:15
  I want to push back on a little bit. I think a lot of us assume how we roll is just how we're operating today. What I've realized on myself is a lot of how we roll is just what we saw on TV, is what our parents did, is what we learned in school. Yes, good point. You have to unprogram those. I don't mean how we roll out of our conditionings. I mean, finding our true nature. Yeah. Discover your true nature and act accordingly. That's deep. Know yourself and act accordingly.
• 41:42
  Yeah, the true nature is the deep part, right? Because once you get rid of these layers, you can get to really interesting things. I'm thinking about for those that are lost right now. So I sold a business. You know, I had exceeded my financial goals. I was thinking all my problems would be solved. They weren't.
• 42:00
  And I think in the same way when I was stuck in a job that I hated and I was doing investment banking, I love the people around me. I just hated the work. It wasn't, didn't fit me, skills, knowledge, everything. And I actually felt both after selling a business and while being an investment banker stuck.
• 42:16
  And I felt like I was in the prison. I think the tendency that I think about, we get pulled into video games, pornography, social media, getting hammered with your buddies or doing drugs or alcohol, whatever it is. And this kind of comes back to not knowing yourself. This comes back to not knowing your true nature. These are all distractions that are pulling you away from the decision, right?
• 42:40
  They're all prisons that you're walking into, shutting the door and holding the key in your hand and refusing to leave. And if we don't address those and remove those, a lot of times they don't allow us to find our true nature. They don't allow us to find these paths that Paulo was talking about. And even now, it's something I struggle with to this day. If I download, I don't have social media, but like an app like YouTube.
• 43:00
  I may go spend four hours on a weekend, five hours. I feel terrible. It was just dopamine hits on a, and then I just need to delete it. And I think really starting to tightening up all of these excuses and these things that are pulling us away. Well, I get really hammered and then I can't really do much on the weekend. You know, even though I love playing guitar, I want to work on this startup. It's like, you've got to unplug from these things.
• 43:20
  Oh, well, but it's always, I'm with my buddies I've known since I was five and that's kind of all they really like to do. Okay. Unplug. Unplug the drinking. Well, if I'm unplugging the drinking, why do I drink? Well, it's because of those guys. Okay. Unplug that group of friends. For me, unplug YouTube. Maybe unplug social media, TikTok, whatever social media exists in the future. Unplug it. Test it for 30 days. See how you feel. See how you're doing. Because without those, they're all just creating a fog, a haze.
• 43:45
  that doesn't allow you to look in the mirror and see your true nature, see your strengths, see your weaknesses, see what you're interested in. None of that becomes apparent in that haze. I think it's huge, and I think this is what spans 23-year-old Peter, 22-year-old Pablo, with a thousand bucks in our bank account, to somebody with 10, $15 million. You're getting, we're under attack with these distractions. And I think about calendars, I think about managing your calendar, it is,
• 44:15
  I really hate hearing someone go, it just takes five minutes, right? All this stuff that just takes five minutes ends up taking your whole life. It robs you of your life. Versus saying, I love your statement. I am worthy of spending the five bucks, the 10 bucks, the 20 bucks to automate this. In the age of AI, in the age of good services, in the age of Amazon, whatever it is, just create a system, move on from it, separate yourself. Pablo, are you a master of your cell phone or flip it? Does your cell phone master you?
• 44:44
  Define master. Do you feel in control? Are you in the driver's seat or are you in the passenger seat? For people in the future, we used to drive cars because we were monkeys driving two-ton cars while we're texting on cell phones. Obviously, that's dumb and we don't do that anymore. It's a rotation. Sometimes I am in the driver's seat, sometimes I'm not. I think that I use it very good as a tool most of the time, but I also see that it's very addictive and it's a never-ending source of things to do things.
• 45:14
  Using the phone as a place where I can learn things, Spotify, YouTube, audiobooks, whatever. That's great. That's phenomenal. But the problem that I find is that I end up having almost no time without the phone. This is why the best times for me are spent when we are doing something, some physical activity outside. What about you?
• 45:37
  Same thing. I love the freedom flip. You said, I'm good at using it as a tool. And the flip would be, sometimes I am the cell phone's tool. So sometimes I'm the tool for the cell phone. And I think that's powerful to actually, you have the self-awareness to say,
• 45:53
  That's the case. I'm the same. I think for me, and I think this is a flip that I, a couple of different topics that we had mentioned as ideas are, you know, one, it's like TV, right? It's like, maybe you can get it as a bonding experience to watch a game. Maybe not. Maybe to watch a show. But when you go binge watch, I have kind of an addictive personality. I'll go binge watch like three seasons if I like the show. So I realized I couldn't watch these shows because I became the tool. I became the consumer. You know, I go watch 10 seasons straight over a couple of weeks.
• 46:22
  So I just, I had to clean cut it. Okay, let me just challenge that. Why is that a problem to watch three seasons? Just to be clear, I wasn't, I didn't, I watched one of these shows in like a weekend, two seasons. Like I just go watch for like six hours. Okay, why is that a problem? I don't feel good afterwards. Like I can just feel how horrible my body feels, my mind feels. I've just been consuming rather than creating. I feel great when I'm creating stuff. When I'm just in the consumer seat, I feel terrible.
• 46:48
  That feels... I'm not saying that is wrong. I just want to understand. When you are watching something, when you are more in a passive role, let's say, you are, quote-unquote, not creating. Let's say for your friend that is fixing the pipe full of shit, he's creating. And you may say, well, no, why don't you hire someone so that way you can rest, you can recover, you can sleep. His is even stronger. He left his office.
• 47:14
  Okay, I don't want to go there, but my point is why watching a season of something is bad for you at least? Because I understand that it's not for everyone, just for you. Why is it bad for you? Besides, I am not creating. Well, what if you are recovering and that recovery is part of the creative process?
• 47:34
  It's a great challenge. I've thought a lot about this. I'll say my statements to let some keyboard warriors or people disagree with me, which most will. And I love that. For me, watching the TV, watching someone win in the fake world on television or maybe reality television on television. Wait, what are you watching, Peter? I don't watch it. But when you say you've been watching two seasons, like what are you watching?
• 47:58
  It was five, six years ago. It was a show where the president of the United States with Kevin Spacey. Oh, I see. I forget the name of it. It was super popular for a year or two. But you didn't learn anything. You didn't, it was not entertaining. Extremely entertaining. Extremely. And? No? No. You are against doing entertaining things? No.
• 48:17
  Two thumbs down on it. Five thumbs down on it. But you don't feel it in the moment? Feel what? Okay, this is not serving me. This is really... It's addicting. It's great. It feels awesome. It's exciting. It's interesting. The episode ends and I'm going, what's going to happen next? Got to click the button to watch the next. Yeah.
• 48:33
  I don't fall for the thinking I'm strong enough to stop. This is the flip. Most people are like, I can decide that this is too much. Like, I can only have one drink an hour. I can go watch the game or the TV show and be done. Here's my real answer is as I look into it, I feel that watching the people obsess over sports, the people obsess over the TV show, they are watching someone win on the field or on the TV while losing in their own life.
• 48:59
  What if they are winning also in their lives? Some are. I don't think that's the majority. I think the majority of people are optimizing without. They're sacrificing the important things they should be doing. They're deferring or running away from them to be focused on the game. There's a famous quote from back in Gladiator times that said, give the people bread and circus and they will not uprise against you. Keep them distracted with shiny objects, noisy events. And you look at literally the Gladiator Stadium and then the sports stadium today. To me, the televisions.
• 49:28
  When you say that they are losing, I can understand the assumption, but do you have data to back that up? Or is it like your friends or your ex-friends or who are these people? Yeah, great question. Let's go to data. It's somewhere in the 60 or 70% of people hate their job. Like use the word hate. Where? In which country? United States. Okay. What were the options to choose in the quiz? I don't know. We can go audit it, some keyboard where we can destroy it. Let's assume that's correct. Okay, let's assume that's correct.
• 49:55
  The SSRI anti-anxiety pills are all-time highs. What's wrong with that, Peter? That means someone has so much fear and discomfort with the future or challenge looking back at the past that they can't be present. Maybe the companies are very good at advertising. Maybe the companies are good at advertising. Why are you giving the credit, not the credit to them and just putting the blame on the person? I didn't put blame on the person. Coming to data around whether or not they're winning in their life.
• 50:20
  So your statement is most people are not winning in their lives. Okay, great. Let's just run with that. What is the reason? What is the origin? The real, not the symptom, but the real fundamental ground truth of why this is happening? I think this is a good topic to go back and forth on. The two reasons that come to mind initially for me of that you do the challenge, go why five times? Why are you not liking your life? Well, why, why, why, why?
• 50:44
  Okay, when you get down to the bottom, in my mind, it's, I don't love myself enough. I'm just so mad. I should have been, could have been, should have done, should have been. And I'm just so pissed. I've got this tension because, and I felt this at many times in my life, still do in certain ways. Working through this like self-hatred, this I should have done, could have won, would have done. So that self-love is one. And part of that, I think, is this fear.
• 51:07
  Fear to actually love yourself, fear to actually do something you want to do, fear to actually take the big leap. Because then if you do it and you fail, it just further crushes your rationale or adds your rationale to hate yourself. I think those, to me, are drivers of staying in your cocoon, right? Staying locked in your prison from the inside.
• 51:25
  I would say that for me, the real truth is the real reason, the fundamental reason of why people are not happy with their lives, let's just call it like that, is because deeply inside they can feel that they are not living the life that they came here to live. They are not doing the thing that they came here to this planet to do. They are not living at their true potential.
• 51:51
  Totally. I think those are all kind of trying, circling around the same root, right? Of we have all these other layers on us. Yes. So then I go then to thinking, well, but how many people know what they came here to do? And I would say almost nobody.
• 52:07
  So what are we supposed to do? And we find ourselves not doing that. We feel a deep disconnect. We feel misaligned, which makes us feel not good. Therefore, what can I watch, eat, drink, consume that is going to make me feel better? To run away from it. Yeah. It's deep, man. It's a good mic drop comment. I would add, I think this is heavy stuff. So if you're sitting here going, ah.
• 52:32
  Yeah, a lot of this is right. This is how I'm feeling. To me, the first step is to look at something like your cell phone and look at this cell phone, right? And I always love the example, if you go to the Bible and, you know, Adam and Eve, and you think about what happened, you know, in Adam and Eve, they took a bite of the apple. And it just always blows my mind when you think about my broken phone on the back. It's an apple with a bite out of it.
• 52:59
  Right. Our phone, right, is this thing that takes us so much farther away from who we are, how we really are, and finding our true self, our true purpose, our true mission. As I think about part of kind of a mission or why the heck are we even doing this podcast? It's not for money. It's not for ads. Wait. Wait, what? What? What? So I look at it as if you're listening to this, go find a buddy, a girl, a guy, a whoever, that's your challenge buddy.
• 53:26
  and make a cell phone challenge. Say, hey, we're gonna send every day how much usage we were on our phone. And you can subtract stuff that's good, like let's go, whatever, reading a book or something, but hold each other accountable and play this game and make fun of each other. Bring back bullying, bully each other about it, right?
• 53:44
  of like using the wrong stuff and try and get your life under control. And if it's Netflix, okay, how much of my time was I watching Netflix this week and share those numbers? Show the Netflix or the Amazon or the TV or whatever this thing is that is your prison that's locked from the inside. Go tell your friend who has that or another problem and then bully each other about it. Have fun with it, make fun of each other, enjoy it. To mess with each other until it's solved and find that friend that's on the path. And if you don't have a friend on that path, you've got a bigger problem.
• 54:14
  You need to go find some awesome friends. And that's your number one problem. I think that being surrounded by the right people is very important. Removed from your life, the wrong people is very important. I agree. But I also think that the challenge, cell phone challenge or whatever challenge, those are very worthless aspirins. An aspirin is not going to solve the root issue. Totally.
• 54:35
  It's going to make you feel a little bit better. But if every time that you have a headache, you keep taking aspirin and you have a headache 90% of the time, that's not going to solve your headache. Great challenge. If you don't know yourself, if you are not even in the path of understanding yourself...
• 54:51
  Getting a 15-day challenge, a 20-day challenge, a 30-day challenge is most likely an aspirin. If you don't pair it with starting walking in the journey of knowing yourself. Three steps. You have awareness. That's the step number one. If you are not aware, you cannot change anything. So becoming aware, develop the awareness. Step number two is coming up with ideas. Okay, what can I do about this thing?
• 55:14
  How can I improve in this area? How can I solve this problem? And then the other one is taking action. So, yeah, I am addicted to the cell phone. I am addicted to sports. I am addicted to porn. I'm addicted to whatever. Great. You are developing some awareness. Fantastic. Coming up with ideas. Fantastic. Great. Execute. Fantastic. But,
• 55:30
  Why are we doing that? Go even deeper to understand what's happening there. And most likely it's going to come to what you mentioned before. I am deeply dissatisfied because I am living a life that is not aligned with my true nature. Okay, what is your true nature? I don't know. Well, yeah, think about that.
• 55:47
  I really like this three steps, awareness, ideas, then action. Because if you aren't even aware, then you don't have the knowledge of the root problem or the issue, or even that there is an issue. Once you realize there's an issue with awareness, then you can come up with ideas. Then it's, boom, let's go do action.
• 56:03
  Just to add one more thing, the awareness is not only, oh, I have an addiction to the cell phone or I have an addiction to sports. But the awareness, the real awareness is, why do I have this addiction? It's one or two or three layers deep. Your pushback or your flip on the original point around cell phones or, you know, TV, social media, porn, whatever it is. I agree with it. The way I want to clarify is by removing some of those things.
• 56:29
  If you're working a 40, 50 hour a week job, you've got kids, you've got other demands on your time, you just have so little time. And the excuse I hear most often is, I don't have any time. Peter, I don't have any time. And all that first step is, is to free up time. And by freeing up time, by shaving off an hour on social media, an hour on porn, an hour on whatever, you're going to be able to do that.
• 56:49
  All that does is that cracks open a door for you to go know yourself deeper, to go understand purpose, passion, business opportunities, what's out there. Because if you don't crack that door open and then go push it open to go through and really dig in on that, you're just going to go replace it with a new addiction, a new distraction, a new, and you're going to go back to drowning, right? I think about, you know, friends, family, people I know and love. It's like they're barely, their mouth's out of the water and they're just like kind of drowning and they're just barely getting enough air.
• 57:19
  Well, if you can get off the phone, if you can get off the video games, the porn, whatever, okay, now your head's above water. You can at least look around a little bit. You have the chance for a little bit, right, to go look for that raft, look for the boat. And if you don't, if you don't focus that energy the right way, you're going to go back to drowning. It's just going to be a new distraction in this world that has so many dopamine distractions. And that's the point that is totally right. That's only a step around awareness. And you don't want to go back down to drowning, to that prison.
• 57:47
  I have a slightly different take when you say people tell you they don't have time. What they really mean, but they don't have the balls to say it, is this is not my priority. Totally. So to me, you are one more time, you might be fixing the wrong thing. Oh, I don't have time for this. Or, oh, I wish, but I don't have time for this. Okay, this is not your priority. It's just a nice excuse that now everyone say and everyone's like, oh, okay, you are very busy. Okay, that makes sense. That's good.
• 58:15
  I love that, Paula, because again, coming back to bringing bullying back, I think it's good, especially among, I've noticed with my buddies, my guy friends, it's way more effective when I challenge them with a spar. You know, you're right. You don't have time or it's just not a priority actually. Yeah. You're just not prioritizing. Like I think challenging people with those can fire them up, you know, and sometimes no way it just gets them more, you know, rejected or they're, they're want to go deeper down their hole or deeper into their prison.
• 58:44
  For me, when people do it to me, it helps so much because it's like it challenges me in a deeper way rather than allowing me to make up these random excuses and victim mindset that put me farther down the hole. Yeah. Bingo. Do you call people out on that? Is that something you'd be willing to say if somebody says I don't have time?
• 59:00
  For me, it's like, no, this is not your priority. And maybe it's not your priority because you don't see the value or you don't believe that the value is going to be there or you are not willing to do things to create the value. Totally fine. I just hear bulls**t when I hear I don't have time. So it's going to depend what kind of conversation I am having with the person.
• 59:18
  Yeah, that's good. So when someone, if I am speaking, let's say, and this happened not long ago, not many people really tell me in my face, I don't have time. They see the kick in the face coming. So I don't think that maybe that's the reason. But when I hear that someone is struggling with this, I'm like, okay, let's open your calendar.
• 59:34
  Wow. I can see the problem right away. I'm going to double down on this, Pablo. So when someone says, I don't have time, this fires me up because now I'm going to take this from you. Don't worry, I'll patent that copyright the Pablo. This is what I would say. If someone says to you, I don't have time, the first thing that I would say is like, oh, you mean that this is not a priority? I would say just that. And they may say like, yeah, you know what? It's not a priority. Great. I prefer that you tell me that. You're not a priority? Great. Because it is my priority. It's not your priority. Then let's just stop talking about this.
• 1:00:02
  I don't want to convince you in and I don't want that you convince me out. Well, I want to make a million dollars, but I don't have time. Okay. You're saying that it's not your priority. No, it is my priority. I swear of God, it is my priority. Okay. So what's the problem that you have? Oh, that I don't have enough time. Okay. Show me your calendar. Dude, what a killer. You're just, you're like fishing and you're throwing out this fishing line. Go ahead, nipple on it. You don't have time?
• 1:00:24
  oh okay just reel them in just just you're pulling in the fishing line like oh okay you don't have time are you sure it's time so step two or it's just not your priority of something that's actually important to you oh i really want to get this i really want to see this change and get this done i really want to prioritize i mean i even hear my own mind on certain things pushing back and saying this and then they're like yeah it's not right okay cool let's let's open your calendar and look look through
• 1:00:49
  See what the structure is. That is a banger. One, two punch. And then you just hook, line, and sinker. You're a fisherman. You just pull them up, pull them out. They bid on a heart. I see ours here, here, here. The answer can be, this is not my priority. Or, oh, this is not your priority. But also it can be, they don't see the value out of it.
• 1:01:08
  Or it can be they don't have enough pain if they don't do this. There is no enough consequence if they don't do this thing. That they say that they would want to have it, but they don't. Yeah. And I would say we are victims, all of us, we do this thing.
• 1:01:25
  I love the not enough pain. I did that with a friend recently where they need to hire a key person in their business. They've got a great business. We were talking about it. It's generating millions of dollars. If they're not at a million bucks in profit, they will be. And they just have one key role they need to hire. And I was pushing it. And I looked at my friend and I said, you just don't have enough pain yet with this. And he was like completely flabbergasted. And he's like, what? Yeah, this is bad. I was like, no, I think you're going to get more pain and then you're
• 1:01:53
  hiring this person and getting rid of the one that doesn't work. And without that pain, most of us don't. Because we don't see the importance. And because we don't see the importance, it's not a priority. And because it's not a priority, we don't invest the time to make that happen. Tell...
• 1:02:09
  The example of how you create more importance by seeing more pain in your own decisions. How do you cast that forward, you know, days, weeks, months, years, and then pull it, discount it back? It's actually a financial model. That's what in the financially modeling world they would do.
• 1:02:25
  is you project it forward, you accumulate the entire gain of revenue or profit, and then you discount it back to today's value because of inflation to see that today's present value is what you call it. And that's what you're, I've never made that connection, but this is what you're doing. Mention this idea. Well, I've done this, let's say in Argentina, when I decided to quit my office job. This was 2008. That is like 18 years? Yeah. Jesus. Yeah.
• 1:02:53
  That's a long time ago. So 18 years ago, before YouTube, before Instagram, before the smartphone, at least in Argentina, I knew that I was living in misalignment. I knew it. Why? Because it felt wrong. I don't know how else to explain it. It felt that it didn't match. I felt that it didn't connect. There was some disconnect.
• 1:03:16
  Yeah. So what I did is I said, okay, if I stay in this job, what is the system? What is the game plan here that the society is proposing to me? Just keep doing this for the next 40 years of your life, and then you're going to retire and you're going to be happy and you're going to be free.
• 1:03:36
  So it's like, okay, let me just check if this is true. And then I go and I see all the retirees in Argentina. They are all f***ed up, right? There's no freedom. There's no nothing. But in turn, I'm like, okay, how can I feel if I do this for the next 40 years? Like, oh my gosh, it feels terrible. Okay, I need to get the f*** out of this place.
• 1:03:53
  So I just draw the line. It's not that complicated for me, I would say. I just try to relieve, re-experience what I have experienced doing XYZ for whatever amount of time. And then I say, okay, now let's project this for the next 10 years, the next 20 years, the next 50 years. And that's when I can start to see the fork.
• 1:04:14
  Because we all experience forks in our path throughout our lives and in different areas of our lives. But when I project that fork into the future, that's when I can see the separation between where I would land if I continue in this path and how horrendous it feels and it looks if I don't take the path that I need to take because it's aligned with myself.
• 1:04:41
  Dude, I love that. You've never described it to me as the fork, but I love the visualization of the fork. Because by projecting 40 years out and looking backwards, you can just see the two scenarios. And you can imagine yourself like gray-haired, wrinkled, retired, going, what if I did that other fork? And imagining that pain of thinking about that every day, every week, every month, every year for 40 years, horrifyingly.
• 1:05:06
  And then bringing that back to today, it's like it adds this burden that really makes you clear on deciding the fourth path. When I try to sell something to a person that I love. So, for example, I'm trying to sell an experience. A great example is 2018, me and my best friend Ezekiel, we went to Russia to watch the World Cup, which for me was a dream come true. Go on to watch all the games of Argentina in the World Cup.
• 1:05:32
  And it was almost impossible to sell this. Not because, I mean, it's super easy to sell, but the amount of limitations. Like, but I need to work. Yeah, don't worry. I can help you how to work online. What you are doing, you can do it online. It's fine. In fact, most of the days you work from your house. So this is the same shit. And don't worry. We're going to work in the morning and then in the afternoon we go and we watch the games and we go and around Russia. It's going to be fantastic. Yeah, don't worry about the money. I can take care of the whole thing. This is my gift to you because...
• 1:06:01
  You have done so many things for me. So this is a way of saying thank you. And it was just so hard, so hard. And a very good way that I found was the following. Is to say, there are two options here. Very easy to put. One is, you don't go to the World Cup for one month. We don't go together. Or the other one is, you go and we go together for one month to the World Cup. These are the only two options.
• 1:06:26
  Now, here's what I would say. In 10 years, in 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, if you come to the World Cup, I can say, what did you do in June, July 2018? And you will, it's going to be embedded in your psyche and in your body. What you did that summer of 2018 because we went together to Russia. If you don't go, I would say, hey, what did you do?
• 1:06:54
  those 30 days of 2018, you will be like, no clue, no idea. No idea. So you get to choose. Do you want to do something that you will remember for the rest of your life?
• 1:07:06
  Or you just want to do something that you will forget for the rest of your life? Which one do you choose? Dude, I love it because it's a freedom flip. You flip to the future 30 years later, 20 years later, rather than today. And you said, hey, in 20 years, and somebody says, what were you doing in 2018? You have no idea. I can't remember what job you were in, like what company you worked for. Or you had a life-changing experience. Did it work? Did you change his mind? Of course. Let's go. Of course. Yeah, we went to Russia for the whole tournament. It was incredible.
• 1:07:35
  I heard the same idea on parenting.
• 1:07:37
  It was a mom that was figuring out how to not be stressed with her kids. And she kept saying when she was an 80 or 90 year old woman looking back, she's going to wish she could be in those moments. And that instantly diffused the stress, you know, by flipping from the moment to the future looking back. I was thinking about everything you said. Think about the Amazon tribes. There's still these tribes where people are living like naked, just like catching some fish, grilling it, probably living a pretty happy life, to be honest. And yeah.
• 1:08:06
  But I think about, man, what if one of those guys was like, you know what? Screw the tribe. I saw this smoke off in the field. I'm going to go check it out. Oh, I found the village. You know what? Screw this country, Brazil. Like I started doing well here. I'm going to go to Europe, then America. And boom, suddenly they're just like doing something that they're obsessed with. Maybe there's a different fork and they're depressed and, you know, on drugs and whatever. Okay, let's go to the positive fork there. Okay.
• 1:08:32
  They like have these opportunities that the mind would just explode when they see a car, then they see a driverless car. And it's, I think about, we're kind of all the Amazon guy in some way of life. In some area of life, I am like this guy stuck in the Amazon. And it's, I have so much room to grow if I'd only open up and challenge these limiting beliefs, challenge these structures, challenge when I was raised as a kid, whatever it was. And that's up to us to figure that out.
• 1:09:00
  Where in your life you feel misaligned, you feel that you are not being the person that you came here to be. We all have that. Just yesterday I had a group that I've been a part of, really incredible people, just felt like it wasn't, each time I was there, I didn't feel it was aligned. I had a conversation, the person was like, I was like, hey, I don't think this is right, fit for me right now, maybe in the future. And you know, I gave the time, right? I'm focused on these other things, which is true. I wanna open up more time for them.
• 1:09:29
  But then, you know, this person asked, hey, I just want to hear the complete authenticity. I was like, you gave the dance a little bit. I gave that these are the three biggest priorities. And this is not one of the top three. But the final one, I thought about it deeply. And I said, I thought about this deeply. And it's like, this group is passionate about this topic. And that's great. Which is? In this particular group, I think it's more there's a passion for the investing industry.
• 1:09:50
  and financial planning and where to allocate capital and resources and where the market's going and interest rates and things. And which is just not something that excites me right now. Like, there's just not an area I want to allocate any time or energy. So it's like, wait, I was able to look at me like, this is an awesome group that's enjoying that part. I am not...
• 1:10:08
  I'm a bad member. Like, I'm not a good fit. I don't feel like a good fit for that. And when someone asks me, you know, I'm challenging myself to lean into the discomfort. So first, it's like, hey, if you're going to drop out of a friend circle, like, let's say it's a group of friends that you've known since high school and you're doing this talk about investments or something. One way is send a text message. Nah, loser, right? Peter, you're being a loser. The other way is to do a proper call or just show up.
• 1:10:33
  and say, hey guys, this has been great. I want to recognize, I appreciate you all. It's time for me to go a different direction. And when I feel uncomfortable thinking about doing it, that's when I know I have to do it. And I was talking to my daughter today. She's only five and she's super into dance.
• 1:10:49
  And she was scared because she's got like a performance audition. And she heard this and she got really intimidated because there's all the coaches and they're kind of picking you. And she goes, I don't want to do it. And I just saw this amazing summary of the word fear, right? Fear is so powerful to me, right? Because so much of her brain runs off fear. And fear is an acronym for two different paths. A fork in the road, as Pablo would say. One way is you forget everything and you run.
• 1:11:16
  I'm uncomfortable. Lion's coming. Audition. Hard conversation. Leave in a group of buddies. I'm just going to forget everything and run. That's F-E-A-R. Forget everything and run. The other one is face everything and rise. Right? So the fork on the road is...
• 1:11:33
  You turn, you face it directly, honestly, and you say, hey, this is the situation. And you actually can feel yourself rise up. Later that night, you look in the mirror and you say, I faced everything and I rose. I'm stronger. I'm more myself. I'm more in alignment. I know I'm not lying to myself or others. And I just thought, man, that's so true. And I told my daughter this. I was like, you have a choice. You can fear this and run away from the audition or you can face it.
• 1:12:00
  And rise up and feel yourself get this confidence. And I've watched this little girl dance in front of 100 people at a wedding. Like, she doesn't have fear of getting up and dancing. She's great. And she loves it. The challenge is it's the games we play in our own head. It's the stories we tell ourselves. And if we can remember in those moments, we're at a fork in the road. The fork in the road is fear everything and run, run away, or face everything and you rise up to the occasion. You rise up in the future. Boom. And that's a flip. There you go.