10 Years of Money Wisdom in Under 28 Minutes

foreign [Music] for the past 10 years I've been keeping this little notebook with a scratch pad that I call you see that money wisdom reminders to self and these are basically just anytime I heard something I read something or I learned something that was wise about wealth I would write it down and I put all the notes here and today I'm going to read you a bunch of the things that are in this notebook and um you know I feel like I could do that because in most places you can't really talk about money money is sort of this tacky taboo thing you're not supposed to

everybody has to pretend they don't care about money but we all do which is weird um but you know you just have to treat it like this the silent fart in the room you gotta pretend pretend you didn't care about it pretend it's not there uh but it's there and this channel luckily is different there's a channel where we come we talk about business talk about money you're talking about mindset we talk about a bunch of different things that are interesting to us and really the only people who click on this channel are people that care about those things and so it's like when you go to the gym you can flex and talk about your

pecs because the other people there care about that sort of stuff and uh so you know it's understood so this is the money wisdom Channel I think in the next 15 minutes I don't think this will be long I'll be able to go through a bunch of the Nuggets I call Golden nuggets that I had written down in this so the first one I'll start with this the rich aren't just lucky so pretend we took all the money that existed and we redistributed it out everybody got the same you know let's say a hundred thousand dollars to start with ten years later I think that most of the rich people would be rich again because

wealth building is a skill and it can be learned and uh for most people you want to learn this skill but you don't really know where to start and I'll give the uh I write down these sort of three shifts these big big small shifts that you can make what is a big small shift so I'll give you a quick story um a man wants to learn golf so he goes out and he buys a you know set of golf clubs and he goes to the driving range starts hitting some balls and you know it's going left it's going right some are going to the center you can't really control it doesn't know how to doesn't know how to do it he just started and um

so he's like okay I need to build this skill but uh I don't know how you know I don't know what I'm doing to be honest and so he sees like you know in the in the right next to him in the driving range there's a coach teaching a kid so he walks over he tells the coach hey I'd love to learn coach says happy to work with you first lessons tomorrow morning okay so he shows up again tomorrow morning you know this coach teaches them a few things another coach you know he's sort of a you know he's maybe 24 years old he's he himself just graduated from college you know he's not the best in the world he's just the guy standing next to him

um but still it helps he's hitting it a bit better but not much the ball's still going left and right and you know the man thinks to himself yeah this coach sucks I don't want this crappy this guy's a kid's coach I need a real Coach and so he says you know what I'm gonna hire the best who is the best coach he goes and finds a professional golfer to be his coach this coach gives us some instructions within a few minutes he's hitting the ball straight it's going great um and so he says all right I'm ready to go play tomorrow I'm playing a full 18 holes of golf let's do this shows up the next day and he's ready to hit the ball

straight again but today things are going different today it's slicing left it's slicing right and he's getting frustrated and the worst part the thing that's frustrating him the most is that the coach's not saying anything he sort of expects the coach to jump in and fix it but he coaches just watching so finally he turns around he says hey coach are you gonna you're gonna do something you're just gonna stand there all right like look at me I'm way off I gotta do so I gotta change something and the coach Just Smiles coach says you know you think you're way off but you're really only two millimeters off

he said coach no offense I know you're the expert here but pretty sure I'm off by more than two millimeters the ball's gone 100 yards into the lake here and the coach says yeah yeah I understand that the outcome might be far off but all you you're only off by two millimeters you just need a two millimeter shift you see because when your golf club hits the ball if it's two millimeters angled in the wrong direction it will completely change the trajectory of where a ball is going right a small shift in the angle here is going to take us in a completely different direction and so he just shows him a couple tweaks

watch where you're where you're hitting the ball look at the face of the of the club so he makes the adjustment takes a swing Nails it and um you know I heard this story first from Tony Robbins and um I don't know I don't know if it's real or fake or whatever but I love the idea because it really rang true to me most things in life even if you're far off in your outcome you're actually just only a small shift in your approach away because that's what changes your trajectory so here's the small two millimeter shifts that I think most people need to make um this was after all the money wisdom I

collected they all kind of bucketed into these three shifts that you can make shift number one hard work to Smart work uh growing up we're all pretty much told hard work is the key to success our teachers tell us this our parents tell us this but we gotta ask is this really true because I look outside I see the lawn guy mowing the lawn and working in the summer heat he's working hard or you go into any restaurant go to the back of the kitchen look at the line Cooks those guys are working hard they're working crazy hours it's hot out there it's difficult they're on their feet all day they work

you know Saturdays and Sundays because the restaurant doesn't stop they work hard and you know you start to think about it like well if hard work equals success then why doesn't my janitor driving a Bentley right because what you work on and who you work with is what matters it matters a lot more than how hard you work so again what you work on the thing you actually choose to do and who you work with will make a far bigger impact in your trajectory than just hard work in fact there is hard work does help but it's maybe the fifth or sixth most important factor in my opinion uh I do think there's sort of a

minimum like you need to work hard enough but beyond hard enough there's not really like a maximum you should be chasing the goal is not to work as hard as you possibly can okay so what should you actually work on right I said that's the most important thing well uh Naval ravacott says it best he says you want to find the thing that feels like play to you and work to others and you should keep dabbling until you find that because at first you might say well what feels like play to me is watching Netflix okay cool that feels like play to you but it doesn't look like work to others and so you have to find the thing that is play to you work to others for

me for example it's business stuff so I am a nerd I love reading about learning about businesses I like to go you know if a stock is if a company's gonna go public I'll go read the S1 I want to read all about the inner workings of the business to most people they see this 100 page PDF it's like you're digging through to find the balance sheet or the p l statement for for what dude you're is your boss telling you to do this no I actually enjoy doing that but to others it would seem like work and so that's a kind of a sweet spot you want to identify and really lean into those

types of moments or this podcast some people get really nervous about public speaking or it seems like a lot of work or wow you gotta you gotta come up with something you know an hour worth of stuff to say every two days about business and don't you feel a lot of pressure no no this feels like play to me and so if it feels like work to others but it feels like play to you those are the That's The Sweet Spot that's what you're looking for for some people that's programming programming could be you know a joy to some people and it's a pain to others for some people it's writing like I love writing other people hate writing they

think writing is just they still have Trauma from school they can't stand writing um you know for my trainer it's exercise after he trains me and you know four other people he's been in the gym for six hours straight where does he go when he's done to the gym because he wants to get his workout in it's crazy like that you know for him exercise and being in the gym feels like play whereas to others it would feel exhausting it feel like work hell Marie condo loves cleaning she made that her thing she loves cleaning uh but that feels like work to me and many others so you gotta find that thing uh why does

this matter because when it feels like play you'll do it a lot not just nine to five you'll do it from five to nine too you'll just do it all the time any available moment you have your brain will go in that direction because it's something you enjoy doing so much and because you enjoy doing it you'll keep doing it you can do it for a long period of time even if you're not getting immediate results right there's many things that we will do if we get immediate results it's the things you're willing to do even without immediate results that lead to these big wins in the end and uh you know you know what they call the guy who practices all the

time and never gives up right so somebody who does it all the time and can do it for for a long period of time the best that's what they call the guy they call him the best and the best always gets paid in any field the best plumber gets paid the best then he gets paid the best whatever you are gets paid and so you want to find the thing that feels like play to you because it will help you become the best shift number two so we've gone from hard work to Smart work and that's finding the thing that feels like play to you and work to others now shift number two is you want to go from being far away from

money to hanging out with money so let's pretend you want to get a six-pack to get a six-pack to get abs you need to start thinking and acting like somebody who already has a six-pack right like they make certain choices about how they eat they make certain choices about with like you know if you travel with somebody who's fit they got in their bags and protein powder resistance bands they'll pick a hotel based on the gym they make decisions you don't make because they have a certain set of priorities and habits that you don't have so you got to sort of think like a fit person to act like a fit person then

you become a fit person same goes for wealth you gotta think like a wealthy person act like a wealthy person and then you become a wealthy person most people get this wrong they laugh about this like oh so I should just that guy Rich guys by you know Ferrari so I should go buy Ferrari not really you want to find their habits not their extravagances right not their indulgences you want to find their habits you want to hang around with them so that you understand what their habits are the small things they do on a day-to-day basis that make them who they are and you need to start doing them so you need to shift your way of thinking

to match the type of person that you want to become all right so how do you how do you start thinking like a wealthy person well you got to hang out with them but how do you hang out with them right like um you know you they may not be around you you know what if you don't know anybody so there's three ways the first is peers so you want to find you know five people with the same dream as you right do you know five people who have the same dream as you who are taking it as seriously as you or more seriously you want to find those people you need to create a group chat you need to create a weekly dinner hell move into a house together do

whatever it takes when I wanted to get good at poker I literally lived with a bunch of other people who are trying to get good at poker and all day we're all playing poker we're all talking poker over our meals we're thinking about poker we're asking each other for questions we're getting inspired by somebody else's success we're getting bitter about that guy's success but it makes us work harder you want to immerse yourself in an immersive environment where you're going to get better and so get as close to it as you can living together is the best if you can't do living together get dinners together if you get dinners

you're getting a group chat together do whatever it takes um the second one is mentors so you got your peers now you want your mentors this is somebody who's already done it you can learn from them the trick here is really simple what most people do wrong is they go and ask for you to be their Mentor here's what you actually want to do you want to find somebody who's already done it you want to ask them a specific question hey I'm dealing with this situation right now I needed it I need to decide between A and B here's what I'm thinking um could you give me any uh you know advice

on this decision between A and B how would you think about this then whatever they say you go take Massive Action on it and then you follow up you say hey you tell me that thing here's how here's what happened you know it either really worked or really didn't work here's what I'm doing next is you repeat it you do that three times with somebody they're kind of informally your Mentor anyways you never need to ask them to sort of like you know be in a relationship with you it'll just happen naturally by being somebody who asks to ask specific questions so don't ask them for their time ask them for their specific advice then actually take action on it and then

the key follow up if you repeat that you'll have mentors okay the next way you hang out with money you got to change your information diet so if you're already listening to this podcast or watching this video on YouTube congratulations you're already doing it but you need to ask people who have achieved what you want what do you listen to what do you follow what do you read uh what are your favorite YouTube channels uh you know my greatest teachers are people I've never met this is people that I follow from Twitter and books and podcasts and YouTube they've made the biggest impact on me you don't

you don't need to actually physically necessarily hang out with everybody for them to make an impact but like let's say you listen to this podcast we released two maybe three episodes a week each episode's about an hour so you're hearing us for two or three hours a week that's more than most people talk to their mom that's more than most people talk to their friends that's more than most people talk to anybody so you bringing this conversation into your world is changing the type of conversations that you're having you start to change your conversations it'll change your thinking change your thinking it'll change your actions

change your actions you change your results that's how it goes so um these are the three ways that you can hang out start to hang out with wealth um there's one other one that I didn't mention here which is when you hang out with wealth literally you get around people who've done what you did it gives your imagination more food so when you like I remember the first time I went to a really rich person's house and I'm like wow he's got a chef and he's got like oh this this guy just came over just did that for them oh interesting oh they're saying that they travel once a month to go do this thing and this charity thing that they do that sounds

really fulfilling you know those stories sounded awesome it taught me like how to how to figure out what to even want and what's possible what's achievable because when you see it it's a lot more realistic than just thinking about it or hearing about it like you know beliefs are good but an experience is always better and so just hanging out with people who already have wealth gives you a sort of these all these like subconscious cues it makes things feel more realistic it gives you different things that you dream about maybe you don't care about a car like for me I never cared about cars but maybe I wanted uh like I always thought I wanted

courtside seats at an NBA game then I saw a rich person with a chef and I was like screw the game I want a chef that seems awesome right healthy tasty food that's being made by somebody else saves you time that's that's unbelievable so that's you know that's the one other thing about hanging out with money all right shift number three going from small swings to Fat pitches and I love saying fat pitches all right so common mistake most people make they take small swings like uh they take the first good offer that comes their way the first good job or the first good deal they start too many projects at once I've definitely been guilty of that

before uh they chase shiny objects so oh I'm doing this thing oh there's a new thing go over there um you can do anything but you just can't do everything this is a hard lesson to learn in life you can do anything but you can't do everything you know um and the beauty of this is you don't have to do everything so Warren Buffett one of the wealthiest men in the world one of the best investors in the world he missed the whole internet wave like the last 20 years has basically been dominated by the tech industry they missed it that's all right he still ended up doing great why because he

understands Coke and Geico his fat pitch was companies like that that were in his zone of competence things he understood that he was able to act on and he you can get rich anyway right the beauty of it is you only got to get rich one way you don't have to get everything right you just gotta get one thing right to be rich um Ted Williams one of the greatest baseball hitters ever he was famous for waiting for the fat pitch he would sort of map out the strike zone he said all right all these are strikes but you notice that you know when it's dead center I hit 400 but if I try to hit on the edge of the strike zone I'm only

hitting 230. and so what made the difference between Ted the greatest hitter ever and you know the average or even above average hitter was that they would swing at the two you know the the pitches where they would average 230 whereas he would only swing at the pitches where he'd average 400 right that was his attempt uh to to wait for the fat pitch and only focus on hitting those and Warren Buffett takes this even further for investing so he says unlike baseball there's no called strikes and investing you can literally sit there and pass on 50 opportunities straight just waiting for your fat pitch and um and you know somebody asked him

you know what does a fat pitch look like here's what here's what Warren had to say about that he says if you look at the stock exchange it's high you know for the last 12 months will be you know maybe 150 higher than the low uh the lowest you know you know the low part of the stock market he says all you have to do is sit there and wait until there's something really attractive that you understand and you can forget about everything else that's a wonderful game to play in there's almost nothing where the game is stacked in your favor like the stock market but the problem is people start listening to everybody on TV or whatever talking or they may read

the paper whatever and they take this advantage that you can wait for something you really like that you really understand and pounce and they turn it into a disadvantage there's no easier game than stocks but you just have to be sure you don't play it too often and that's the mistake that people make they play too often they swing too many times they don't wait for the fat pitch and that's why their returns go down uh you know the first 10 years of your career you probably don't even know what a fat pitch looks like even if it was to hit you in the face so my advice for most people is the first 10 years just

go work this with the smartest highest energy most resourceful people you can find go into Emerging Markets or exciting fields and just try to do exciting work work with exciting people because doing that is what's going to train your gut to actually notice fat pitches if you're doing that you're reflecting consistently you're looking back you're saying all right what did I learn last year what looking back what should I have actually been focused on last year you'll start to learn oh wow there was all these like opportunities that were coming my way that I actually didn't recognize to be as good of an opportunity as they were

um and so you got to spend those first 10 years like that to hone your gut and then after that you'll be able to notice those fat Pages some common things about like what is a fat pitch what does that mean so like a platform shift like when the iPhone first came out there's an app store all of a sudden there was this new computer in everyone's pocket and nobody had built apps yet that was a fat pitch waiting to happen anybody who jumped on that like Instagram back then they were able to do very well Law changes uh so anytime there's a rule of regulatory change that creates opportunity uh if there's a new tech you know technological breakthrough like AI

right now um you know what people are doing building on top of chat GPT or gpt4 uh that's a fat pitch uh Market panics so anytime the market just panics and sells everything well everything's on sale that's a good opportunity to buy great companies another one is working at a generational company early on so if you saw Facebook in 2004 to 2008 you could go in and be like look it doesn't even matter that this is uh and how much I'm gonna make off this you just want to be on that rocket ship and so there's one of these you know one or two of these every decade and being a

part of them is you know that's a fat pitch the other one is when somebody owns something but they don't realize what it's worth you know they they have an asset but they don't really understand it fully or they don't have the right lens but you do you know what you can do with it this happens on real estate all the time somebody's sitting on a building uh it's only rented out for this much so they sell it at a fair price for what it's worth but another guy comes in and says I know that I can get a new permit to Zone this for multi-family and I can build more units on top and so he's selling it at what he

thinks is a fair price but to me it's actually a steal because I have asymmetric information um that word asymmetric matters asymmetric information is when you know things that others don't asymmetric uh upside is when let's say you invest in a startup and a startup you know you invest a hundred dollars the most it can lose is your hundred dollars but startups when they win they could be 100x or thousand extra turns that's asymmetric upside you can win a lot more than you can lose and so you want to look for opportunities where you have either asymmetric information or asymmetric upside as a general rule of

thumb for how you how you invest now of course the likelihood of success matters right like every startup's not going to 100x or thousand X so you want to find those where the probability of them working and the upside make it worth doing okay uh the other part about fat pitches you got to swing hard most people take weak half swings uh they make a couple of calls or they uh you know they send you one email but they don't follow up or you even give them an opportunity they don't follow through um you know don't just sit there and just look or just bunt right you gotta

really swing and so winners follow up winners double down on what's working winners uh get on the next flight out to go meet you in person and the way I say it is intensity is the strategy most people want the magic strategy the magic formula but unfortunately the hard thing to understand is actually intensity is the strategy most of the time the strategy is pretty obvious it's pretty Cut and Clear it's the intensity you take to it that makes a big difference and so uh once you find a good strategy you want to execute it just violently versus trying to wait for the The Perfect magic formula Perfect magic solution uh

perfect strategy that that doesn't exist um here's an example of a hard swing so there's a guy Taylor offer I don't know why he comes to mind but this is the first one that came to mind uh Taylor he's the founder of a clothing company called feet now but back then he had a merch business I think he was trying to sell socks or something and it was going okay but he wanted to double down so turns up the intensity he's like I'm selling merch I need distribution what if I had the distribution of some of the most famous fine and YouTube stars that existed and the top Vine in YouTube Stars at the time were guys like Logan Paul and

a king batch and stuff like that he says how do I get them to work with me right I don't even know these guys how do I get them to work are they so he's watching their videos and he notices that all the doors in the background of their videos like the apartment doors had the same handle and he's like three of the viners have the same they must live in the same building so he hunts down he finds a building moves across the country moves into the building and he knows how they like to work out so he starts just working out twice a day he's like this increases my odds of crossing paths with him and they do

cross paths he tells them what he's doing they get to know each other eventually they become friends they partner with him he becomes the first guy to do merch with Logan Paul said sells millions of dollars of merch you know right off the bat he basically leapfrogged where he would have been with lower intensity without being willing to Double Down um and so I love that story because this is a it's an example of of all the things I mentioned right um working smarter not harder uh of moving towards the people you want being near the people you want versus being far away and when you see a fat pitch

Double Down swing hard at that thing um so if you remember one thing from this section it's intensity is a strategy winners don't usually have a better strategy is that they do the obvious things with more intensity than you do and the reality is you don't even know what Max intensity looks like until you see it you need to go work with people who are real winners just to see oh that's how they attack when they see an opportunity or they have a problem how they how they go and approach things you got to kind of what I say I always say is like you think the knob of the volume goes only up to 10. and then you beat somebody and they

actually the volume theirs turned up to 15. and you're like oh now I know what level 15 looks like as you have to see it once and then it'll just imprint in your brain and so those are the three ships find what feels like play to you and looks like work to others find a way to hang out with people who either have what you want or are chasing it as hard as you are and then take a simple strategy and turn up the intensity yeah this book probably has 50 other nuggets like that but that's all for today if you like this on YouTube leave a comment I'd love to read them I'll respond to all of them