From: alexhormozi
Beyond the “Hard Work” Mantra
The idea that hard work alone leads to wealth is a misconception [00:00:00]. Many individuals are outworked by others yet still earn more money, indicating that there is something beyond sheer effort at play [00:00:09]. The mantra “no one can outwork me” is objectively false, as countless people outwork and have outworked others, and it doesn’t ultimately matter [00:00:18]. While putting in volume of activity is essential for improvement [00:00:42], bragging about work has little to do with achieving the highest levels of success [00:00:51].
For instance, Warren Buffett states that if he makes two good decisions a year, he considers it a good year [00:00:57]. He spends five or six hours a day reading, eats McDonald’s, and makes a couple of good decisions annually, yet he earns significantly more than those who boast about working extremely hard [00:01:07]. Everyone has the same number of hours in a day [00:01:14], and maximizing hours worked only results in a tie for “hardest working” [00:01:20].
Leverage as the Key to Output
Output is created by combining the volume of activity with the leverage of the activity being performed [00:01:26]. While some initial energy input is necessary [00:01:33], measuring success by the number of activities performed is a “newbie” approach [00:01:38]. Highly successful individuals like Warren Buffett or Jeff Bezos do not focus on activity metrics like sending a thousand emails or waking up at 4 AM [00:01:43]. What truly matters are the inputs that have the most leverage to generate the greatest output [00:02:00].
Once an individual reaches their capacity for work, the next step is to maximize the leverage of their activities [00:02:12]. For a CEO at acquisition.com, the focus shifts from working more hours (which is often impossible) to changing what they work on [00:02:31]. This involves analyzing calendars and organizational charts to identify low-leverage activities that can be delegated to others or to new hires [00:02:46].
The Entrepreneur as the Team’s Coach
There are many ways to achieve success [00:03:06]. When forming a “war party” to achieve a goal, it’s crucial to assemble individuals with complementary skills [00:03:28]. For example, a team needs a healer, a mage for damage, and a paladin for defense, not just ten paladins [00:03:17]. Similarly, in football, a team wouldn’t consist of only running backs [00:03:32].
The entrepreneur’s primary role should be that of the coach of the team [00:03:37]. Success depends on organizing the pieces and how well they play together, rather than individual heroics [00:03:39]. Often, teams with an “All-Star” but a poor supporting cast are defeated by a better overall team [00:03:44]. Many entrepreneurs try to be the star player, scoring all the points, but ultimately lose to well-rounded organizations like Apple, which operates as a team [00:03:51].
Specialized Roles in Business
To win, it’s more valuable to understand the various roles within a business and how individuals’ characteristics and skill sets map to those roles [00:04:12]. These roles include:
- Promoters/Marketers [00:04:29]: Understand how to make things known across platforms, tell stories, build brands, and provide value to an audience [00:04:30].
- Salespeople [00:04:38]: Convert attention into sales through direct response ads, sales pages, videos, or direct human-to-human interaction [00:04:39]. In the long term, they train and lead others in sales [00:04:53].
- Product Creators [00:05:05]: Focus on making something beautiful and effective, like the founder of Shopify, who excelled at product but wasn’t necessarily the CEO [00:05:07].
- Customer Experience/Success Managers [00:05:15]: Manage how customers engage, provide value, ensure an amazing experience, and help customers hit milestones [00:05:17].
These roles are distinct, and individuals who are brilliant marketers may struggle with sales, and vice-versa [00:05:00]. As an enterprise grows, skills become more specialized, and a deeper well of experience is required for each role [00:05:33].
Recruiting and Developing High-Performing Teams
The focus should shift from “no one can outwork me” to “no one can out-recruit me” or “no one can out-manage me” [00:05:40]. Building a unique culture that fosters high performance and leads effectively is a highly leveraged activity across an organization [00:05:47].
Coaches of top sports teams constantly headhunt and recruit the best players [00:06:28]. Companies like Google invest heavily in recruiting the best and brightest from universities and business schools, as well as top-level executives [00:06:32]. The parallels between sports and business in this regard are striking [00:06:47].
Moving up the levels of entrepreneurship means playing the right game and using the correct metrics for success [00:07:00]. Being the coach involves:
- Recruiting top-level executives [00:07:09].
- Creating a “farm system” to feed talent into the company for a sustained competitive advantage [00:07:11].
- Developing the “soft skills” of creating a high-performance culture to maximize output from every individual player [00:07:22].
The value of a coach or CEO is measured by the difference in player performance between having no coach and having the best coach [00:07:27]. The CEO must achieve the highest return on time within the organization, constantly solving the next problem and ensuring new activities build the business even more [00:07:40]. A CEO’s ability to turn around large businesses in a few years, based on the standards and values they set, demonstrates the immense leverage they can create across the entire organization [00:07:54].