Chapter Content
Okay, so like, hey everyone. Um, I wanted to talk about, you know, figuring out what's important and really focusing on those things. Because, I've definitely had my share of, like, setbacks along the way, you know? Like, I lost my first bit of savings in the stock market, like, *poof*, gone. And then, my second pile of cash, I got swindled out of it by a business partner. Seriously! But hey, third time's the charm, right? So I finally made *something*.
But even then, you know, building wealth was still, like, really slow, and I always had to work super hard. I never just got like, a huge windfall, you know? It was always, like, a little bit here, a little bit there. More from constantly starting businesses, creating opportunities, doing investments, than, like, one big score, you know? My wealth, it wasn't built up in one, like, amazing year, but more like, drop by drop, you know? Creating more options, more businesses, more investments, exploring anything that was kinda within my reach.
And now with the internet, I mean, come on, there's so many possibilities! Honestly, I have so many ways to make money now, it's just... I don't have enough time! Like, the ideas are just bursting out of my head, but, you know, not enough hours in the day to do them all. There are just so many ways to build wealth, create products, start companies, and, like, getting paid by society is really just, like, a side effect of all of that. I just don't have the time or energy to do it all, you know?
Okay, so here's a big one: Put a price on your time. Calculate its value hourly, right? And if spending money saves you time that's worth more than that money, then just spend the money! Don't even hesitate. To actually make money, you gotta believe you're worth a lot.
Seriously, no one values you more than you value yourself. So, what you gotta do is give yourself a crazy high hourly rate, and stick to it! Even when I was younger, I always thought my time was worth more than the market price, and I’ve always kept that in mind.
When you're making decisions, you always gotta think about the time involved. How long will this take? Like, if you have to drive an hour to get something, and you value your time at, like, 100 bucks an hour, then that trip is basically costing you a hundred bucks, right? Do you really need to go get it yourself?
Now, fast forward to, like, the future, you're financially free, okay? You should pick an hourly rate for yourself *now* that's somewhere in between, you know? Like, okay, you probably can't afford my rate *now*, but even when I was, like, younger, you know, 10, 20 years ago, when I didn't really have much money, you still couldn't afford me! I would tell myself, over and over, "My hourly rate is five thousand dollars!" Looking back now, it was probably more like a thousand bucks, but still.
Of course, I did some dumb stuff back then too, like arguing with the electrician, trying to return a broken speaker, you know? I shouldn't have wasted my time on that stuff at all! Although, I think my friends wasted even more time, honestly. I should have just thrown the thing away, or donated it, instead of trying to get my money back. Or I should have just paid someone to fix it instead of trying to fix it myself, you know?
Whether I was dating or, you know, married now, I would always argue with my partner, "I'm not doing that! That's not my job." Even if my mom asked me to do something small, I'd argue with her! There are just a lot of things I won’t do. I would rather pay somebody else. Even when I didn’t have a lot of money, I was still doing that.
You gotta make decisions based on the cost of your time. If it's cheaper to outsource something than your hourly rate, then outsource it! If the loss of *not* doing it is less than your hourly rate, then don't do it! If it’s cheaper to pay someone to do it than your hourly rate, just pay them! Even cooking is the same thing. You might want healthy, home-cooked meals, but, hey, if you can outsource it, outsource it!
So, boldly set yourself a really high hourly rate, and stick with it. An ideal rate should be almost ridiculously high. If it's not, then it's not high enough! Whatever rate you choose, I suggest you raise it even more. Like I said, even when I was broke, I still used five thousand dollars as my hourly rate for a long time. That’s millions of dollars a year, if you think about it.
And the funny thing is, now I actually think I’m making more than that! I’m actually pretty lazy, you know? I'm not the hardest worker, but when I'm interested in something, I just get a burst of energy and I go all in. So, if you calculate my income based on the actual time I put in, my hourly rate is way higher than those numbers.
Someone once asked, "You said, 'If you look down on wealth creation, wealth will avoid you.' Can you explain that?"
Yeah, it's like, if you're vain, if you're always comparing yourself to others, and you see someone who's better than you, you're gonna feel, like, resentment, even hatred. And if you're doing business with someone, and you have, like, any negative thoughts about them, they're gonna feel it. Humans can just sense what's going on deep down inside someone else. So, you gotta get rid of that comparative mindset.
Seriously, being jealous of rich people, it's going to stop you from becoming rich, because you don't have the right mindset, you don't have the right attitude, and you can't connect with people in the right way. You gotta be optimistic, positive, you know? It's really important. Optimists tend to do better in the long run.
In the business world, most people are playing a zero-sum game, but there are some people playing a positive-sum game, and those people are looking for others who think like them.
There are really only two kinds of games in the world. The first one is the money game. Money doesn’t solve every problem, but it does solve every problem that's related to money. Everyone knows that, so everyone wants to make money.
But at the same time, a lot of people deep down feel like they just can't make money, so they don’t like seeing stories about wealth creation. They attack the whole business system, saying, “Making money is evil. You shouldn't make money.”
But really, they're playing a different game. They're playing what's called a status game. They're saying, "Oh, I don't need money. I don't want money," because they're trying to climb up the social ladder and get people to look up to them. Status is just a person's position in a social hierarchy.
In human history, wealth creation is a fairly recent thing, and it's a positive-sum game. But the status game has been around forever, and it's a zero-sum game. The people who are attacking wealth creation are usually just trying to improve their status.
This zero-sum status game is really old. Monkeys were playing it before they even evolved into humans. It’s all about hierarchy. Who's number one? Who's number two? Who's number three? If the third person wants to be number two, the second person has to get out of the way. So, status games are zero-sum.
Politics is one kind of status game. Sports competitions are also status games. There has to be a winner, which means there has to be a loser. I don't really like status games that much, to be honest. They play an important role in society, because we need to know who's in charge. But, people play them mostly because they're a necessary evil for social development.
The thing is, to win a status game, you have to beat other people. That's why you should try to avoid playing status games in your life, because it's a cutthroat, selfish game that makes you unbalanced, angry, and combative. You're always trying to put down your opponents and beat other people so you and the people you care about can rise to the top.
Status games are always going to be around. There's no getting away from that. So when you're trying to create wealth, you might get attacked by other people. You just have to realize that, most of the time, they're just trying to sacrifice you to improve their own status. They're playing a different game, and it's not a good game, because it's a zero-sum game, not a positive-sum game.
If you play a stupid game, you only win stupid prizes.
So, what's the most important thing for young people starting out?
I think, it's spending more time on the really big decisions. There are, like, three big decisions you make early in life: Where to live, who to be with, and what to do for a career.
We often don’t spend enough time really thinking about a relationship before jumping in. We spend a ton of time at work, but we don’t really think about what kind of work we should be doing. Where you live can completely change your life trajectory, but we rarely spend much time thinking about which city is right for us.
I had a young engineer who was thinking about moving to San Francisco, and I asked him, "Do you want to leave your friends? Do you want to be lonely?"
If you're going to live in a city for ten years, work at a job for five years, or be with someone for ten years, then you should spend a year or two really thinking about it before you make a decision. Those are really big decisions, the three most important decisions in your life.
For really important problems, you should put everything else aside and really take the time to think them through. And those might be the three most important ones.
What's the most important thing to do to hang out with successful people?
Find something you're good at, and then use those skills to help other people. Give away free products or services, and spread kindness to the world. What goes around comes around. If you're consistent, eventually, you'll get rewarded for your efforts. But don't keep track of how much you're giving. If you start counting, you'll lose patience real fast.
I had a boss once who told me, "You're never going to get super rich. Because you're so smart and it's so obvious, people will always offer you just-good-enough job opportunities that you don't want to pass up."
And how did I decide to start my first company?
Well, I was working at this tech company called HomeNet, and I kept telling my boss, my coworkers, my friends, everyone around me, “Everyone in Silicon Valley is starting companies, and it looks like they’re succeeding. I’m going to start a company too! I’m just working here temporarily. I’m actually an entrepreneur.”
It wasn't a strategy or anything. I didn’t really plan it out.
I was just being honest with them, saying what I really thought, out loud. But I didn’t actually do anything! That was in 1996, and starting a company was a lot harder back then. It took a lot of courage. But then, everyone started asking me, "Why are you still working here? I thought you were going to start a company!" "Oh my god, are you still here?!" I was so embarrassed, I had to quit and start a company.
Yeah, I know some people never even think about starting their own business. The common belief is that working for someone else is the normal, smart thing to do. But if you really think about it, how did that long-held idea even come about? It’s based on a clear hierarchy.