Building success over time

From: alexhormozi

To achieve significant success, it is crucial to focus on working diligently over extended periods without expecting immediate rewards. This approach can help individuals surpass 99% of others [00:00:01].

The Nature of Hard Work

True hard work involves losing sleep, experiencing doubt, stressing over finances, constantly having an unfinished to-do list, and not knowing if decisions were right for years [00:00:08]. The more one engages in hard work, the more they realize their previous understanding of “hard work” was limited [00:00:20].

Work Ethic and Time

The most potent combination for making money is work ethic and time [00:00:27]. Achieving greatness means realizing it takes significantly more effort to move from “good” to “great,” forcing focus on a select few areas and ignoring the rest [00:00:31]. Attempting to be good at too many things negates the ability to be great at one or two [00:00:37]. The work simply needs to be done, without cutting corners [00:00:49].

Redefining Effort

• No Weekends: It is acceptable to work on weekends [00:00:50]. The concept of weekends is a modern invention, barely 100 years old [00:01:15]. Instead of thinking about work-life balance on a 7-day work week, consider it over a 7-year time horizon, with seasons of intense work and less work [00:09:21]. Success can be achieved much faster by not losing ground on weekends [00:10:03]. Weekends can be a time to generate income or get ahead, as neglecting work on these days creates a deficit that needs to be made up for [00:11:13].
• Counting in Hundreds: A shift in perspective from counting work in days to counting in hundreds of minutes, hours, or days towards a specific goal automatically pushes for a significantly larger volume of effort [00:01:14].
• Quantity Leading to Quality: A parable from an art class illustrates this: one group was told to make the best possible pot, while another was told to make as many pots as possible. The group that focused on quantity not only made more pots but also ended up making better ones [00:01:26]. This suggests that permission to create many “shitty first drafts” can facilitate harder work [00:01:49].
• Focus on Output: Unlike traditional employment where one is paid for being present, working for oneself means payment is tied directly to output [00:02:26]. A workday is defined by clear output or forward movement [00:02:40].

The Power of Delayed Gratification

The longer one can delay the need for immediate reward for their work, the greater the potential outcome [00:02:46]. This can be likened to a plane taking off: a longer runway allows for a bigger plane [00:02:51]. A short attention span and the need for instant gratification can prevent even small successes [00:03:00].

Embracing Uncertainty

Entrepreneurship is inherently characterized by uncertainty, sleepless nights, concerns about making payroll, and not knowing if years of effort will yield results [00:03:10]. This feeling is normal and indicates one is on the right path [00:03:10]. The greatest internal shift during difficult times is realizing that “I am the output of my work” and that the effort itself, which creates the person one desires to become, serves as the daily reward [00:03:28].

Avoiding the Rush

Many entrepreneurs fail because they are in a rush, leading to poor decisions and constantly jumping from one endeavor to another in search of a faster path [00:03:52]. This behavior guarantees they will never reach their goals [00:04:02]. While culture often rewards speed, ease, and guaranteed outcomes, entrepreneurship is the opposite: not guaranteed, incredibly hard, and time-consuming [00:04:22].

Long-Term Vision and Foundation

Building a successful business, especially a large one, requires a long-term perspective.

• Brand Reputation: Success, particularly in building brand value over time, involves establishing a reputation over a long period, not just with the immediate intent to transact, but to associate oneself with positive attributes [00:05:10]. This takes time for people to discover, develop affinity, and make strong associations [00:05:21]. An example is a content creator spending five years building an audience before launching a product that becomes highly successful; the success isn’t overnight but the result of years of “roots going down” [00:05:29].
• Product Development: For product-based businesses, significant time is required for coding, regulatory compliance (e.g., banking), manufacturing, prototyping, beta testing, and capital investment [00:05:40].
• Sharpening the Axe: The analogy of sharpening an axe illustrates the importance of preparation. Spending a year or more preparing and “sharpening the axe” (building foundational skills or systems) can lead to vastly superior results over the long term compared to immediately “hacking away” with a dull axe [00:06:16].
• Changing Your Measuring Stick: When transitioning from an employee mindset to an entrepreneurial one, one’s measurement of success and time horizons must change [00:06:47]. What might be the fastest way to a million dollars per year might not be the fastest path to $10millionor$100 million [00:06:59].
• Impact vs. Effort: The effort and stress involved in running a local restaurant might be similar to building a multi-billion dollar application, yet the potential payout differs significantly [00:07:07]. Many people gravitate towards pursuits with smaller, faster payouts, neglecting those with larger, delayed rewards [00:07:30].

Developing Skills as Income Insurance

Losing everything financially can reveal that true assets are not physical possessions or initial capital, but the skills one has built [00:08:29]. Skills are “income insurance,” guaranteeing the ability to generate money regardless of external circumstances [00:08:54]. Investing in skills is essentially investing in one’s retirement, as they can always be traded for value [00:09:00].

Navigating Social Dynamics

• Perception of Early Entrepreneurship: Initially, people may seem happy for someone starting a business, especially if it involves a step down in income or status (e.g., from a white-collar job to a personal trainer) [00:15:04]. This is often because it counts the entrepreneur out of the “race” in their minds, and their own relative standing increases [00:15:12]. However, as the entrepreneur succeeds, their success can remind others of their own unpursued dreams, leading to resentment [00:15:40].
• Ignoring External Opinions: There is no greater waste of time than justifying one’s actions to people whose lives one does not want [00:12:02]. Unless someone is demonstrably ahead, their “hate” should be disregarded as envy [00:16:39].
• Competition as Feedback: While a major mistake in one’s career can stem from focusing on competitors [00:12:47], winners focus on their own goals and customers, while losers focus on winners or competitors [00:13:01]. If people are copying your work, it indicates you’ve already won because they need you, and it’s a positive sign you’re on the right path [00:13:17]. Hate should be viewed as feedback, just data to consider for its validity [00:17:08].
• Abundance Mentality: The “pie” of opportunity is much larger than most people perceive [00:14:00].
• Embracing Challenges: Competition and adversity are beneficial for personal growth and becoming the desired version of oneself [00:14:09]. No one looks back and wishes they had faced no challenges [00:14:15].

Understanding Emotions

• Sadness vs. Anxiety: Sadness arises from a perceived lack of options, leading to hopelessness [00:18:19]. Anxiety stems from too many options coupled with a lack of priorities, resulting in paralysis [00:18:22]. Sadness can be resolved with knowledge (gaining options), and anxiety with a clear decision [00:18:29].
• Disappointment: Disappointment occurs when an expectation is unmet [00:19:53]. One can either change expectations or change reality [00:19:54]. Imagining worse scenarios or the same event happening a thousand times can help adjust expectations and reduce disappointment [00:19:57].
• Self-Identity as a Goal: Pursuing “being” (what type of person one wants to be) is a powerful goal because it is 100% under one’s control [00:19:33]. In disappointing situations, asking “what type of person do I want to be in this instance?” and mapping behavior to that ideal can lead to greater joy [00:19:38].

Weighing Advice

• Self-Reliance: Often, individuals already know what they “should” do, but fear hypothetical punishment for taking action [00:16:01]. Following one’s own advice can lead to significant progress [00:19:57].
• Future Self as Guide: Dialogue with a future, hopefully wiser, version of oneself can provide valuable guidance and approval for current situations [00:20:11].
• Fear of Failure: People are often more afraid of what others will think of them when they fail than they are of failure itself [00:20:31]. However, if those people do not possess what you desire, their opinions are irrelevant [00:20:43].
• Hierarchy of Advice: A system for weighing advice, from lowest to highest validity:
  1. Comments from strangers on social media [00:21:17].
  2. People who know you but don’t have what you want [00:21:24].
  3. Someone who knows you and knows someone who went where you’re trying to go [00:21:27].
  4. Someone who has been there themselves [00:21:32].
  5. Someone who took someone else there [00:21:34].
  6. Someone who took someone just like you to exactly where you want to go [00:21:36].
  7. Someone who has been there, and took someone just like you, multiple times [00:21:41]. The most valuable advice comes from those who have successfully guided others, as this demonstrates teachability and repeatable success [00:21:45].

Giving Value and Charging

• Give Until They Ask: Especially when starting out, provide significant value for free [00:22:06]. This allows one to improve, gain experience, secure testimonials and referrals, and potentially attract paying customers [00:22:13].
• Progressive Pricing: Once demand for free value is high, gradually increase pricing (e.g., 20%, then 40%, 60%, 100%, and even 500% of desired price) [00:22:28].
• Focus on Giving, Not Trading: Instead of offering value “in exchange for” something, simply give it without expectation [00:22:47]. While often nothing may happen, sometimes the recipient will recognize the hard work and offer an opportunity, or even hire you [00:23:36].
• Volume of Giving: Rolling the dice once by providing value to one person is insufficient. Giving tremendous value to 100 people significantly increases the likelihood of receiving paying work or job offers [00:24:14].
• Personal Example: The speaker initially started a non-profit where people donated to charity to receive his training [00:24:32]. After 12 weeks, some clients chose to pay him directly to continue their training [00:24:42].