Business, Life, and Baseball Are All A Game

The owner can't go in and hit a home run. But I, as an entrepreneur, spend so much energy going, no one's pitching. Well, I'll go in and pitch.

No, it's my job to be the owner. I went to the World Series, Indians were. Made it, you know, went seven games, lost to the Cubs. That game was amazing. And when I was sitting in game seven and Raje Davis hit a two run homer to tie it.

I've. First of all, I've never experienced a feeling like that in my life. Is it was a psychedelic trip, is basically, I've never, I have never experienced a feeling like that. And.

But that moment satisfied a lot of my desire for owning the team because I always had this dream of.

Being there when they win and celebrating. And that moment was like, oh, my goodness, we have a chance at winning. And this is. And they ultimately lost in extra innings. But it was this peek into, like a piece of that reality coming true. And so part of it, like a little piece of it was satisfied.

I love to hear you talk about this and see how excited you get. One, I. I don't know anything about baseball. And half of the initial story you told me, like, serious several.

What is it? The World Series?

World Series, Game 7. I have no idea what that means.

So imagine the World cup final game.

And I really love, I appreciate so much the diversity of this planet. So you really want something in this world that I have no idea idea it exists. Like, I, I didn't know this is relevant, this is important. This is not in my world. And you.

Love it. You, you want it so much. It's the most important. It's your Northern Star. It's your. Yeah, it's where you're going.

Yeah.

In my world, it doesn't exist.

That's so cool because like, as one of those, like, I'm from Cleveland and if I owned the team, it would be the ultimate status sy. And no one gives a fuck in Romania.

And I don't know if you know this, but there are more people in Romania than in Cleveland.

We are so interesting as humans.

But for the record, imagine World cup final game. Your team is down by two with three minutes left.

What sport are we talking here?

Soccer. Okay. World Cup. Okay. You don't follow soccer. Do you have a sport you follow?

Yeah, not so much anymore.

I don't have an analogy.

Left, right, right.

Yeah. Soccer is what I used to watch a lot.

So they're down by two, three minutes left. The other team has the best goalie in the sport. In the whole world. Best goalie, right? There's, like, no chance. And the defender.

Dribbles up to midfield, takes a miracle shot, and they score. And you're like, that was crazy. But they're still down by one. And then the.

Other defender does the exact same thing. And you're like, this doesn't happen. This is the most. This is. Is this gonna happen? Like, could my team. This is absurd.

That's basically what. That's basically what happened. O. It's like. It's just a miracle. A miracle to tie it. And then they lost in the shootout. It's a. It's the great. It was the greatest game of baseball. At the end, all the Cleveland fans are like, oh, lost again. I'm sitting there like, isn't this. This is. That was the most amazing baseball game I've ever seen in my life.

And you know what everyone said is the dumbest thing? If I hear one more person say that, well, if they would have won, the value would have gone up. It would have been harder for you to buy them. Oh, do you think I cared? Do you think I. Do you think in that moment, I'm like, I hope they don't win so that I can afford the team? What a ridiculous.

You know, I was telling you before that I'm thinking more about who I want to become rather than the money that I want to make. If that would apply to you, who do you think you need to become to own the Cleveland Indians? What switches?

Great question.

I don't know, but I know.

What.

How does the owner of the Indians.

How.

How easy. How does he be?

Great question. How does he be.

And not the owner? You as the owner. You're the owner.

How are you? What.

What's different between now and then.

Him?

That's a great question.

He has a lot more fun.

Getting some interesting music.

He has a lot more fun, and he's really excited about what he's doing, and he's just worried about putting a good product on the field. Those are the differences.

Great question.

He's having a great time. He's having a lot of fun. He's just worried about putting a good product into it.

I like how these.

Expressions, especially the one with the product.

Come from your already experience putting out a good product. That sounds to me a lot like Amazon stuff. And the fun.

Okay, maybe you can work well. What would you enjoy producing? Okay, that you could put a good product on the food.

That's. That's how it applied to Amazon.

Explain that to me, please.

I know so. So there's so many people who go out and try to sell things because the numbers make sense. But if they were. If they were building something they were excited about, they'd be more likely to keep going with it and put a product on the field that they were excited.

Where were you going with it?

I thought it meant something else, like the product. I thought it means that the players that are coming on the field are somehow.

You made the right investment.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, it sounds very similar to a product business, like.

The physical product.

Yeah.

That I'm comparing it to. So.

It'S right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. Okay.

What would you think of that? Why would that come to mind when you're thinking about how the owner can be. I was asking about the person can be. And you thought about the product that is going to be on the pitch. Why that connection?

Because the baseball team has a.

What is your involvement in the product?

Great question. So, one, there's a very defined goal in baseball, like to win the championship. Right. And in business, your goals are much less clear. Like, is it make money? Yeah. But at the stake of what? Is it to have a good time?

Is it to work? Like, we have to bring our own goals. The business world does not have its own preset set of goals. So in baseball, all he thinks about is, do I have the product on the field that will win the championship? So that's the first piece. But the other is the owner can't go in and pitch.

The owner can't go in and hit a home run. But I, as an entrepreneur, spend so much energy going, no one's pitching. Well, I'll go in and pitch.

No, it's my job to be the owner. And the owner never goes on the field and tries to show him how it's done.

The pitcher is better than him. The worst pitcher is better than him. It's his job with the best product on the field and get out of the field.

How does that feel to be the owner of.

What? My question, I think, has little to do with what you're doing, but more about the.

Well, no, I'm actually. You're challenging me quite a bit. Because.

It has a lot to do with what I'm doing now. Yes. Because I'm not acting like an owner. I'm acting like an owner, trying to play all the positions. I'm. I'm trying to. So if an owner bought a team and put himself in all the positions, it'd be the shittiest baseball team. Ever. And that's what I've done. I put myself and all the playing, all the positions.

Or being like, it's okay, third baseman, like, I'll fill in for you.

No, it's terror. It's terrible.

So the shift, like, the difference in being is that you.

Put people in place who are better than you and get out of the way. And the beingness of that is the.

Attraction of real talent or.

I know what you're asking in terms of, like, spirit and, like, internal.

Direction. And for me, it's probably letting go of the need or belief to have.

People who are better than me or.

Creating something bigger than myself so that I'm not needed. And I've had a hard time making that pivot.

What's different from being an entrepreneur and being the owner of the Cleveland Indians?

In ideal worlds, Not a whole lot.

Depending on what level you're playing or what type of entrepreneur you are. Why?

Why does it matter.

For this? For the same reasons stated earlier of.

An entrepreneur can put things on his back and run with it. He can do a lot of roles. Owner of the Indians can't go in and play left field, can't go hit, can't go pitch.

Is that all there is in that environment? I mean, I'm guessing. I don't know. But from other sports, the players are one thing, and then the owner deals with the manager, the accounting, the. All other things that are in the normal business. So I'm thinking that the entrepreneur has kind of the same issues. And then the products that we were talking about before are the players on the pitch. So it's not only the product that you're worried about. You're worried about all these other things that are going on. As the owner of, you know, you still have accounting, you still have these big sponsorship deals that are coming and ticket sales and all the stuff that you have to worry about and. Or not worry about from my point of view.

That's why.

Putting yourself into that being is, I think, a good exercise to see what is it that.

You think is strange now? Or why aren't you now the Cleveland Indians owner? Like, at least in your head, why aren't you now? Why isn't that normalized for you? Why isn't that a thing that you can do tomorrow? Why do you still think you need to prepare? Why is that a thing of the future? Like.

Yeah, what?

Well, I think you're right about the beingness. The havingness is they're not for sale, so that makes it harder.

They're worth About a billion dollars. And I used to say that I was a billion dollars short, and now that I've sold my business, I'm about a billion dollars short.

So there's that, too. But I get it from a beingness standpoint. Like, can you operate from that same zone that you would already be like.

I have a jacket, and if you put it on, you'll be the Cleveland owners. Now you're walking towards the st. So how does it feel? Is it comfortable that the jacket. Do you. Can you go there and be the owner, or are you feeling like a phony? And this is like, oh, my God. Anybody will notice that this is only the jacket that is making me be the owner. It's not. I'm not inside. Like, I'm inside. I'm not ready for this.

It feels totally comfortable. I imagine that, yes. Feels totally comfortable.

I think that's a good step.

Yeah. Like, I can. I can actually imagine that scenario and it feel totally normal.

Is it only the good scenario, or is it only the. The being on the stadium and that? Or is it also in the back negotiating something? Or.

Is it also bad stuff that you imagine that are happening? Not bad, but, like, challenges happening while you're the owner? Like, somebody.

I have no idea what baseball.

So a baseball problem would be. Teams compete in cycles. So you have good cycles and you have bad cycles. And when you're going through, at the end of your cycle, they often trade a lot of their good players, and then they rebuild. So there's three years of. It sucks.

Three years.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Crazy.

So, excuse me, do you have any dessert?

Yeah, of course.

Open the menu. Thank you very much.

I totally look forward to the bad stuff, too.

Okay, that's. That's awesome.