From: alexhormozi
Winning in your 20s and beyond, as someone who made their first million at 26 and crossed a $100 million net worth at 31, involves a roadmap centered on brutal honesty and consistent effort [00:00:02].
The Foundation of Hard Work
A normalized 6-day, 12-hour work week is recommended for men between 16 and 28 [00:00:13]. Your value is based on your utility, and when young, you have abundant energy to trade for experience points, thus becoming useful [00:00:22].
Resourcefulness Over Resources
The first rule of entrepreneurship is to use what you’ve got [00:00:34]. Many people delay starting due to perceived lack of capital, connections, or other resources [00:00:41]. However, it’s about resourcefulness, not just having resources [00:00:54]. Use your energy, the resource you possess, to gain experience and prove your capability in a skill [00:00:57].
Skill Development Through Repetition
You only get good at a skill by starting not good at it, repeating it, failing, and making incremental improvements through many repetitions [00:01:06]. This means checking your ego at the door and not caring what others think, as they won’t be around in ten years when you’ve formed a new, better peer group [00:01:34].
Practical Steps for Financial Growth
For those with less than $100,000 in savings, practical steps include:
- Stop eating out; use discount groceries [00:01:44].
- Stop buying new clothes; shop at Goodwill [00:03:46].
- Only attend free friend events [00:03:48]. Friends who don’t support your goals may be enemies [00:04:04].
- Dedicate time to:
- Apply for higher-paying jobs [00:04:26].
- Pick up side hustle work [00:04:30].
- Learn skills for a higher hourly rate [00:04:32].
- Find the hardest worker and double their input [00:04:45]. This leads to faster improvement [00:05:06].
Financial Discipline for Future Bets
Building a significant financial stockpile allows for patience and long-term thinking [00:02:48]. If you’re in survival mode, focusing on daily needs, long-term strategy is impossible [00:03:07]. The goal is to minimize survival costs to enter “thrive mode” [00:03:10].
Personal Growth Through Action
Provide Value and Gain Skills
To make money, you must provide value to an employer or customers, exchanging utility for money [00:06:11]. Increasing your usefulness leads to developing ancillary skills that generalize across life domains [00:06:27]. Sales skills, for instance, are applicable in conversations, negotiations, and various aspects of life [00:06:34].
Volume and Feedback Loop
Skill development occurs through volume and a feedback loop: the number of repetitions multiplied by the amount of improvement between repetitions [00:07:56]. It’s not enough to simply produce; you must analyze what worked and what didn’t, then refine your approach [00:08:20]. This iterative process of doing, analyzing, and adjusting leads to significant gains [00:21:00].
Patience with Outputs, Impatience with Inputs
This principle means being patient for results but relentless with your actions [00:16:02]. You control the “doing something” part (inputs), not the “money happening” part (outputs) [00:16:29]. Action alleviates anxiety [00:17:36]. When impatience arises, use action as a coping mechanism [00:17:23]. Work with the intention to improve, not just for work’s sake [00:17:57].
Learning from Others
Humble yourself and learn from those ahead of you [00:22:58]. This willingness to learn and ask questions can provide thousands of dollars worth of advice and years of saved time for free [00:23:05]. Investing in your own learning and skills is the ultimate asset [00:23:40]. Skills compound; knowing two critical skills (e.g., sales and finance, or coding and marketing) can disproportionately increase your potential [00:23:56].
Physical Discipline and Avoiding Stupidity
Many problems can be avoided by maintaining physical discipline [00:24:34]. Going to bed on time, for example, eliminates many issues that derail young men [00:24:41]. Avoiding stupidity is easier than trying to be intelligent [00:25:07]. Being in shape provides more energy, focus, and improves outcomes in various aspects of life [00:25:59]. Getting in shape costs time, not money, and time is cheaper when you’re young and have fewer responsibilities [00:26:44].
The Power of Compounding
Your actions now amplify throughout your career and life [00:28:45]. Stacking advantages like sleeping on time, not drinking, getting in shape, doing many repetitions, and humbling yourself to experienced individuals, compounds success over time [00:28:52]. While your brain’s processing power peaks in your 20s, experience and learning make older individuals “smarter” [00:29:12].
The Battle Against Distraction
Your reference group significantly influences your goals [00:32:09]. Sometimes, you must value your goals more than your friends [00:32:38]. The journey to exceptional achievement is often lonely [00:32:48]. Your goals will serve you longer than many current relationships, which are often based on convenience [00:34:23]. To be exceptional means being the exception, stepping out of the “in-group” comfort [00:35:48].
Entertainment, including social media and “motivation porn,” distracts you from what truly matters in the long term [00:44:36]. Every minute spent on distraction is a minute not spent advancing your goals [00:44:49].
Delaying Gratification
The overarching “meta skill” is your ability to delay gratification [00:45:10]. Pushing through the initial period without immediate reward until you get that first, outsized reinforcement is key [00:45:20].
Consistency and Self-Improvement
Great salespeople never get cold; they maintain discipline and consistency [00:55:04]. This involves understanding how to consistently treat every interaction with the same intensity as when you’re “on fire” [00:55:06]. These behaviors are skills that can be learned [00:55:25].
Reframing Challenges: “Demons” as Skill Deficiencies
When facing perceived “demons,” “self-sabotage,” or “mom/dad issues,” it often translates to a lack of skills in how to behave under certain conditions [00:53:40].
- Logic: Define the “demon” in terms of observable behavior [00:59:20].
- Evidence: Provide data or instances that prove this behavior [00:59:31].
- Utility: Ask “who cares?” or “why does this matter?” in relation to your goals [01:00:38]. This framework removes mysticism and focuses on actionable behavioral changes [00:58:40].
The “Last Man Standing” Game
Entrepreneurship is not a game of “best man wins,” but “last man standing” [01:09:36]. This “infinite game” perspective emphasizes endurance and persistence [01:09:44].
The Only Wrong Answer: Doing Nothing
It’s never been easier to start a business, but also never been easier to do nothing [00:42:51]. Most people already know what they need to do to get in shape or achieve goals but delay action under the guise of finding a “better plan” [00:43:31]. Reality often has many right answers, with the only wrong one being inaction [00:47:48]. Fear of failure or disapproval are the primary obstacles [00:48:40].
You need three things to win:
- The balls to start [00:42:18].
- The brains to learn [00:42:21].
- The heart to never quit [00:42:21].
Conclusion: The Choice to Be Exceptional
Balance in life is often a myth for those who achieve great things; they focus intensely on one area to gain leverage [00:50:13]. Hardship is not a tragedy but an opportunity to prove your resilience and become the “savage hero” of your own story [01:03:03]. Most things can be learned in 20 hours of focused effort, but most people delay those initial hours for years [01:07:37]. Your actions are the only thing that matters, not desire, deservingness, or effort [01:07:50]. Work ethic is the currency of respect, and a man is judged by what he can do [01:09:22].