Creating vs. Working: Crafting And Enjoying The Literal 4 Hour Work Week w/ Alex Huditan #TheOnePercent

I believe I am enough. Without the bling, the millions, Amazon, business, whatever. I am enough. And if I change my name and move to Costa Rica, I am sure I can be happy and good.

It takes one free person to create change. This is the show for them. We are the creators of the free world. This is capitalism.com and we are the one person.

Hey, everybody, this is Ryan Daniel Moran. Welcome to the 1%. On today's show, I'm going to be welcoming my friend Alex Houditan. We call him Hooty. And if you ever see me in a stressful situation, you will see me move my right hand up and down in a wave pattern in a dance that we call the Hootie. If you have seen any of the YouTube videos I've done with Alex over the last year, you might see me pulling out the Hootie. And I make reference to that here on today's episode. Alex is someone that I look up to and wants to be like. Because Alex is an Internet entrepreneur who fully enjoys his life, he seems to have more fun than anyone else that I know. And as I have said on previous episodes, I have felt as though I spent more than 10 years building up the money side, the financial side, the business side, the hustle side, the discipline part of my life. I can be more disciplined than most people that I know, and I have gone through periods of burnout as a result of being so disciplined and so dedicated to growing a business and growing my wealth. Alex has a full, abundant life with lots of creative free time and loads of fun, and that's something that I need more of in my life. It's something that I have struggled with in my life, which we talk a lot about on this episode. I brought in Alex to be the mentor on this topic, and the conversation went in ways that I did not expect. Probably my biggest takeaway from today's episode was the language around fun being a struggle, fun being a challenge. When I say things like having fun and creative free time is a real challenge for me. Alex points out that, well, what do I expect when I describe it like that? Alex prioritizes his lifestyle and his fun and the way that he goes about it is different than what I expected when I came into this discussion. And as a result, I expected for him to give me, Ryan, do this in order to have more creative time and have more fun. But I came out with a much simpler answer, and we'll go through it on today's episode. What you're gonna get out of this time with Alex first of all, is how he manages his life so that he literally works when he wants and makes millions of dollars. It's not about time management. It was about intentionality. So we're gonna cover that in the first part of this episode about how he accomplishes so much while what he calls not working. He even says, I don't work. Don't tell my mother, but I don't work. So we talk about that in the first part of this episode. We then go into the stories and the narratives that we often tell ourselves as entrepreneurs about what work is supposed to be like, about how much we're supposed to hustle, about how hard it is supposed to be. And we talk about coming from a place of ease and how work should be a joy rather than a grind. And we talk a little bit about how to do that and how to structure that. And we end by going into the enjoyment of it all. Because I think the conversation in our world is so often about how hard we work and how much we produce. I mean, go to any meetup or any event that is not the capitalism conference and hear people talk about what they're working on, what project they're hustling, how they're crushing it. We talk about that, and we talk about how we're all pursuing the enjoyment of it all. And so we wrap up by discussing that. For me, this was probably one of the most tangible episodes that I've recorded in a long time in terms of how to create and structure a life that I love that makes me fabulously successful. But as a byproduct, Alex has done that. And just as a result of intentionally spending this hour with him, I feel like I personally had a lot of meaningful shifts, and I hope that you experience them as well in this discussion with Hootie.

Alex Houditan.

People around the world are doing the Hootie with their right hand right now. It's the Hooty dance. Hooty. Thanks for hanging out with me, man. What's going on?

Hey, Ryan. Thank you for having me. Well, you know, life is happening.

I'm stoked to be doing life with you for the next hour or so. And just for context, I could tell the story about how we know each other and the adventures we've gone on. But would you share for those who don't know what the heck you do? Because that's going to frame the context over what we're going to talk about and how the heck we know each other.

Right. Well, like I said before, I do my best at Living, I think this is what that I think defines me in my head at least then by other standards. I think I'm a seller on Amazon. I do quite well. I'm a seven figure seller on Amazon. That's my lifestyle business. That was actually a thing I got from you, that I can detach myself somehow from the business and call it like that, like a lifestyle business. And for the last two years, me and my friend Claus have been teaching this business model, the fba, the selling of physical products on Amazon to my fellow Romanians. I'm Romanian. That's maybe my. How you can spot my accent. And we've been teaching this thing now to the community. Grew to over 3,000 people.

All Romanians, either Romania or Romanians living abroad. Very, very exciting from a greedy, capitalist.

Founder of capitalism.com perspective. There was something you said to me that really gave me a. It made me want to just hug you. I think I probably did. And it was when you told me what the average income was in Romania and what some of your sellers in your community were doing. Would you retell that data point for me?

The average salary in Romania as a whole is about maybe 400, $500. And when we started to promote the whole course, we said, you can make at least four salaries per month. That was the promise. And we have, I would say, tens of guys of students that are making 100,000 per month. We have hundreds doing tens of thousands, and we have a lot of them that are making just a few thousands.

What does that mean for them in their lifestyle?

Oh, man, that's very hard to go in my head and tell you about that, because I'm thinking about the messages that I get with their gratitude, with how their life has changed and things they couldn't imagine that now are possible. That's very emotional for me to think about it. Yeah. It has changed lives indeed.

That's great. Alex, congratulations. Thanks for all you're doing around the world, my man.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

You're also a hero across the pond here, specifically in my little circle, because you live a lifestyle that actually stretches me and inspires me and some of my peers as well. Because there's a little bit of a perception around here is like, how does Alex have so much free time and is so happy, you know, because there's some people who get into entrepreneurship because they can do nothing else, and to some extent, that is me. And then there are some people who get into this world because they want a better life, but they get stuck in that gap of not really having the better life, you seem to have an amazing life. You are wise, you have fun, you travel the world. I don't know when you get any work done. So would you please let me in behind the curtain a little bit? Are you amazing at time management or do you just prioritize the having fun piece?

Well, thank you for saying that. I don't think I'm that good at time management. I think I'm good at creating my life, my lifestyle. And I remember now a quote from Wayne Dyer and he said, you don't get what you want, you get what you are. And my focus for the last five years or so has been to get better at being me. And I think I attracted on this path people around me that have helped me where I lacked skills. For example, my ex girlfriend is running my Amazon business and a very good friend I'm doing the courses with. These things just happened. I didn't plan for them to be like this. It's just that they help me how they can and I don't actually work. Don't tell my mother this, but I don't actually work.

Yes, my. I don't really like the word work. And what I focus more is on I think maybe helping in the community. I focus on helping them and focus on the other parts of life. It's not all about work.

You mentioned the partnerships that you've created with people that you know. Do you intentionally seek those out or do you wait for them to show up before you move forward?

I think I like to invest in all the relationships I have. It's not just the intimate relationships. I mean, in all my relationships I like to give and it happens that I get stuff back. Like somehow the universe gives me back from one person or from others. So, for example, I never planned that my ex girlfriend would run the Amazon business would help me do that. It was just the thing that happened. And I attracted her in my life and I knew she had the skills and she was good at it. She was a manager before, so it fit perfectly.

So just to summarize this, what I'm hearing you say is you have your business, but you prioritize your lifestyle first and then you partner with people who you like hanging out with anyway to run other aspects of the business and you go live your life. Is that a fair summary? Would you add anything to that?

Yes. And then I never really planned to have the courses. The courses just came. It was a great conversation I had with Klaus and we started doing it. It was Just like that. It wasn't really something like, okay, I need to find the business partner for this and I'm going to search on Craigslist for somebody or it wasn't like that, it just happened.

So, Alex, we've had lots of conversations about life, about meaning, about lifestyle, and this has been a struggle point for me as an entrepreneur for more than a dozen years of being used to working 12 hour days plus six days a week. I often have moments, especially I remember the last time we saw each other and we were sitting around eating dessert, which was a stretch for me, just put it, you know, letting myself eat sugar. You were challenging me on the amount of enjoyment that I allow into my life. And I think this is a common challenge for entrepreneurs because we're so used to the grind of it all. So I'm curious if you've had to make this transition for yourself, if you've helped any of the people in your sphere make that transition or if you have just always been a fun and life first person. Could you comment on that?

I think I prioritized fun for the most of my life. I used to work in a five star hotel and I was in concierge and reception and I used to work like a lot, lot, lot. But it was also fun because I was meeting a lot of people and I felt like I was growing myself. All these interactions were like a class I was in and I was always learning something new from all these high class people I was interacting with. I also had a real estate agency with a good friend of mine and like I was the guy getting the clients and he would get the real estate to sell them. It was like a perfect match. And the recession came and all our deals fell. Like I thought I was going to be a millionaire. But nothing like that happened then. And I took a safe job. I worked at hp, Hewlett Packard and I had like a cubicle job and I was working there a lot, but quickly found that it's not about work, it's about relationships. And we had people in India doing all the work. And instead of doing all the work myself, I was getting a better relationship with the guys in India. Well, in short, I don't want to get too much in detail of this. I always found ways to find free time in this job. And after I quit, I always prioritized learning, growing, not thinking about work so much. Even when I started the Amazon business, it was more about everything I learned before from marketing and psychology and integrating them in the Amazon business. I didn't really grind. Like what you told me before, like going for eight hours and working and 12 hours and yeah, I gotta do this. And that was my friend Vlad. He would go home and in two days he would say, I got the website done. But you don't know anything about websites. Yes, but I studied and I did it and I worked all night and I did it. I wasn't like that. I was kind of a slacker. I needed these guys around me so I can get some stuff done. Even now, I prioritize life. I can say I don't like the word work because in my head it means doing something you don't like. I have kind of a weird association and that's why I try not to use work to describe what I do. I do study a lot, I do talk with people a lot, but it's not really work. How would you define work for yourself?

I would not have agreed with that assessment a year ago, but I am coming to understand it more and more recently. And as I have worked more on myself and as I have cleared capacity, I have noticed that when things are right, they're easy and, and they don't have to be that you are draining the tank. It can be a creative pursuit. For example, you can be creating energy while you are, quote, working or getting things done. I was listening to a colleague of mine, Todd White, who runs Dry Farm Wines, talk about. He doesn't call it work, they call it creating or creating value. That's a different way of describing it. So I agree with your assessment. I just know that I am trained or have a habit of going into grind mode or forcing myself to do things against my will in order to achieve some sort of result. So I know you have prioritized self development, personal growth as part of your lifestyle. So how would you speak to the millions of entrepreneurs who are in that kind of a trap?

I think as an entrepreneur, and I start not to like that word too. And I'm with you. I'll tell you about that. Yeah, I'll tell you about that too. But I think we start to get good at something and then we start seeing results.

And then we're seeing like money coming in and we're so excited that we are good at that thing and then we want to be better at that thing. But there's not one thing in the world, and I mean, that can be work that you mentioned. Like you get so good at creating the perfect product and launching it, and it's got sales from the first week and you're so Good. And then you launch another one and then another one, and you have a brand, and it's so cool. But really, there are other things you can do in life. That's my point. There's no need to focus only on one thing. And I know that comes kind of in the opposite direction with what one of your mentors, Dan Sullivan, is saying. You should focus on one thing, get the best on that thing, and that's it. I'm more in the opposite direction. I like more things.

So just to be clear, Dan's point is more you have one skill that energizes you the most, that if you focused on, you would become a master at. It's not an in spite of how you feel or going in and draining the tank to get better at it. So for me, that's writing, speaking, creating content. All right. I'm more energized at the end of it than I am at the beginning. And I could spend my life being fascinated by that, just for clarity. I'm curious for you, though. I'm trying to find this. There's a nut I'm trying to crack, and it's somewhere around this idea of I know that I have in me the habit of working and burning the candle at both ends, and I'm of the opinion that I probably do that because I don't have another compelling option, meaning there's no other thing outside of work that I have regularly practiced that gives me the same meaning, excitement, personal pleasure than I get out of work, even though I can only do it for a short amount of time because I feel drained at the end. That's called workaholism. And most of us who are Internet entrepreneurs have it. And I think we are sold the idea that once you solve the money problem, that all of the happiness and joy and lifestyle comes on the other side. I have found that to not be the case unless you already have the lifestyle happiness piece dialed in. Otherwise, it just amplifies all your junk, which I've talked very openly about here. So I'm going to the other side of the chasm to somebody who I feel like has it dialed in and I'm looking for help. How would you speak to me? Or I'd say most of the people who consider themselves, quote, entrepreneurs? How would you speak to somebody who already has that lifestyle and happiness piece dialed in? How would you make the pivot for.

Everybody listening to this podcast, I urge you to go listen to the one. He put up an episode that I think it's the best and and he talks about him being enough. Ryan, you may help me with the number of the episode or people, where can people can find it. I think that is 90% of what my understanding is of the world. Because I believe I am enough. Without the bling, the millions, Amazon business, whatever. I am enough. And if I change my name and move to Costa Rica, I am sure I can be happy and good and fulfilled and I can leave everything behind and I'm not attached to it. It doesn't define me if all the listeners now really don't like my message and stuff, which I wouldn't really like, but it doesn't define me. I don't live for this.

You and I were sitting in Kiev, Ukraine together and we recorded it. It's on my YouTube channel if you want to search for it. But you and I were sitting there, we were talking about the idea of presence. And we're talking about the idea that at the end of the day, what we're looking for is presence. And I made the analogy to you that I feel like if you were really connected to your presence, to the present moment, I could lose everything and go work at a smoothie bar here in Austin, Texas, if I'm truly enjoying that moment of one. And I've won just as much as if I'm flying in my own private jet, going to a speaking engagement. We're all looking for that connection to happiness with what is, gratefulness for what is. And that's what I'm hearing. You say that if you gave it all up and you moved to Costa Rica and changed your name, that you could find joy regardless of the lack of attachment to all the things that you have now. Is that what you're saying?

Yes. Yes. I was reading a lot before I founded the Amazon business or anything after that. And I could understand it first intellectually, like, oh, yeah, presence. Yeah, yeah, that's good. I was reading Eckhart Tolle and I. I was really impacted. My thinking, but it was only after I felt it on my own skin, after I went on a meditation retreat. And I got to experience what that presence meant, like, what it really was like. You say in your podcast about the realization you had at Burning Man. I had that myself in. In a different environment. And I think that helped me a lot to understand what it means to be present.

I've heard you tell this story and I didn't quite get it and so I was hoping you could retell it. I remember you telling me that you were at a Vipassana retreat and you were about to quit until you felt your body. That's how I remember. Would you clarify?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's something very similar to that. It was my first vipassana retreat five years ago. When I first went there, I thought I'm the rebel. I thought I'm the guy that is going to break the rules and they're not going to tell me what I can do because I can do whatever I want. And when I got there, the guru guy, the guy that was there, he said, guys, we're not going to give you a diploma when you finish this, you're doing all this for yourself. So if you want to cheat or you don't want to listen to what we say here at the end, you will know that you cheated your way and it's going to be all with you. We won't know about this. You're doing this for yourself. I had this crazy like, I decided that I want to be disciplined and by the sixth day they've already introduced in the course something that you should be feeling and I didn't feel any of that. Like my body, like sensations in my body and you cannot talk. It's a silent retreat. I was looking around and everybody seemed like they're, they're getting it. And I was like, fuck, this is, I'm not getting this. I went to sleep, I woke up in the, in the morning and I decided I want to quit, I'm going home. But I told myself, okay, it's very early in the morning, the next day path might leave later. So let's just go to the first meditation of the day that was the first two hours from 5am and I got there and I had no expectation, I had no, like I was just lying there and I said okay, let, let me try this again, this Vipassana meditation. And like lightning it struck me and I started to feel my body. It's weird to talk about this with people that don't know vipassana or are not really in contact with their body. But it's an incredible thing just to put your attention maybe on your 2 inches of your skin and feel exactly what is going on there or on top of your head or anywhere. It's just incredible to be in touch with what you're feeling and what your body is experiencing in that moment.

So explain this to me. What are you sensing that is so profound?

It's not profound actually. It's just sensations. It's like seeing for the first time. It's not something science fiction, it's not something Spectacular. I used a lot of wow words to describe this, but actually it's like.

It'S a better use of your attention. Instead of going outward, you're going just on top of your skin to see how the wind feels when it touches your skin. It may be weird to say, but it's incredible. We usually put all our attention outside and by putting the attention on yourself and seeing the reactions, it's a different world, it's a different experience. You're like Superman.

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The way that I am interpreting this is it's basically resetting the amount of joy that you can experience at a base level. For example, I can experience an amazing meal with friends and think it was the greatest night of my life. But if I do that every meal for the next year, there's like a. Your brain changes its expectations of how great it's going to be. But what I'm hearing you say is that this is kind of like you reset back to base level to where everything can have that same amount of joy with what is.

Is that kind of what you're saying.

Go have the Vipassana Sunday meditation retreat and we'll talk after. And that's for everybody listening to this. It's like, alex, Alex, please describe us. The orgasm. Well, you know, it's very interesting and go do it. If you feel the calling, if you feel interested by this idea, search more about Vipassana meditation and go experience it for yourself. It's not really something to describe, really.

I understand that. I'll explain it in story then. I was with my daughter at a bookstore after I had kind of my version of an awakening, if you will, which I talked about in the podcast that Alex referenced, which is called you are Enough. And I was at Barnes and Noble with Esther and Pam, her mom was with me. And we're sitting down and I'm looking up at the lights and she said, what are you thinking about over there? And I said, I'm just thinking about how many times I've come into this Barnes and Noble and not realize what a beautiful experience it is to be in this bookstore with my daughter, with all this knowledge and this just brand new appreciation of this moment at a bookstore, which seems so mundane and boring to me for 31 years of my life. And I was really enjoying watching my daughter play in the play area, being around these books at a level that I could not describe to you. And there was almost a sense of like I was now living my life for the first time after missing 31 years of it. And everything had this intense joy to it. The way that I'm interpreting your experience at Vipassana is somewhat similar to where you're realizing how much joy there is in noticing the 2 inches of your skin or the top of your head or feeling the wind against your skin. And that's how I'm interpreting it is a similar experience or similar awakening.

I think the word awakening is very good here because from what you said, I think this is what you have been experiencing, an awakening. And yes, I think it's similar to what I had there. My realizations lately have been that all these things are just a narrative in our head and we don't actually need to go to the Vipassana retreat. We don't actually need to take the ayahuasca. We don't actually need to take the magic mushrooms. We don't need to jump off airplanes with a parachute or anything like that to change our life. We can go now. Listening to this or stopping this podcast and going to the mirror in the bathroom, looking at yourself and saying, that's it, I'm changing. That's it. From now on I'm a new me. This is it. And these things can happen. I mean people can change like that. But it's the narrative in our head that usually doesn't let us. It's like something extraordinary has to happen so you can have your change. If it's only like this, then people only in their head cannot when they talk to other people also in their head and when they talk to other people cannot really justify their change. There needs to be something extraordinary that happens. Like, oh yes, I went to Vipassana and when I came back I was a better man. Or in your case I went to Burning man and when I came back I was a better man. I think these changes can happen anytime. Anytime. And that's what I was saying that you don't have to wait, you don't have to plan for this. You can do it anytime. You can just make the shift in your perspective that's needed.

Explain to me more of what you mean by it's just a narrative in your head that prevents that change from happening.

It's a story. It's the. It's how the story sounds to yourself, how it makes you feel. Like I take myself for the example. I like this story. When I went to Vipassana and I changed these things about myself and when I got out of there I was a changed man. That was the interpretation of the experience that I had there. It's not like everybody had the same memory of what happened in Vipassana. It's not the experience itself. It's just my interpretation of what happened there. So this is true for anything in our lives. It's our interpretation of the experience. It's not the real experience. If you ask five people at a dinner table how was their night and what impacted them most, you would get different answers. And that's what I'm referring to here.

You're basically saying that most people want the story about how a change existed. But that's just a narrative in our head. We can initiate whatever change we want with a decision.

Yes, I don't think the extraordinary is needed. I think it's just our want for this extraordinary things. And we look for extraordinary things to happen in our life to justify the change that is already kind of on the way. Or we really want that change but we don't decide to to do it unless we have this extraordinary event or thing happen to our life.

So Alex, I came into this discussion because I wanted to be challenged in the sense of I'm Curious if I ask Alex, give me a challenge of pursuing fun, which has been kind of a weakness of mine. Every time I sit down to think, you know, what do I think is fun besides work? I'm like, crap. And I have a hard time with that one. But the lesson that I'm kind of getting from hearing you talk is that part of your approach, and maybe a healthier approach for me, is relaxing the need for it to be a pursuit in the first place and just allowing it to be.

Yes.

Can you comment on that for that?

Let it be. Try new experiences. Try and see how they make you feel. And try maybe more than once. I'm thinking about maybe dancing or something that you would not be very comfortable at first. And you can go in with the mindset, like, I don't know how to dance. So I'm going in this club and Alex told me to go in the club, but I don't like clubs. So I'm going to quit this. I don't like it. Going in with the right mindset, going with being open. I think it's more important than what experience you have. You can be washing dishes and really wanting to wash those dishes. You can be in a club, like I said, or you can be driving a fast car. You can be saying, I don't like fast cars. I don't. But that's just a story that you tell yourself. That's what I'm putting the spotlight on, the story. The story that we make ourselves believe about the things that define us. I am like this because I was. I like. I took a ride on the train. And that's why I don't like trains now. So fuck trains. But really, have you ever been on a train in Japan? Have you felt the speed? I don't know. I'm just giving a random example or anything, you know, it can be anything. It's just how you go into it. It's not really what you do.

Yeah, I have experienced this just recently where I have decided that I want to have more fun in my life. And so I. My typical approach to that is to sit down and write in my journal all the things that I think are fun. And this is. I beat myself up over. I don't have things that I think are fun. And at one point, during kind of the practice of it, I felt this feeling of want. And it wasn't want for anything, but it was that pleasurable, wanting feeling. And the thought that I created out of that was, it's the feeling of wanting. It's the Feeling of excitement I'm after. I don't actually want to do any of these things. It's the feeling of fun and excitement that I'm after. And kind of the realization that I'm getting from you is. It's the prioritization of that. And certain things can help you get into that state of being. It's not so much about the activities or the experiences as much as it is about this state in which we are going into them or experiencing even without them. Is that what you're saying?

Right? Yes. Yes, that's what I'm saying. And now that you mentioned journaling and making the list of what is fun, I remembered the exercise that my friend David taught me and I think had a big impact on my life. The exercise is called Perfect Day. The idea is you are God on another planet and you can do whatever you want from beginning of the day until the end of the day on this planet that you created. And you can have anything you want, and you can do whatever you want. And you can bring things from our reality, but not by saying what they are, by describing them. For example, you cannot say, I'm with Nastya in my bed and we're making love and the sun is shining on our house in Malibu and blah, blah, blah. You can describe the feeling that you have and also all your senses, like, what does it taste like? Not only this experience, all experience throughout the day, what you're seeing, what you're hearing, everything. And from the moment you wake up, how does the perfect they look like? And this is an exercise to get you deeper and what you really want. And the woo part is that going deeper and deeper and really finding what you want, you'll be very, very excited. But also the outside reality will change according to this, because you're putting feeling in what you are searching. You're putting feeling in that one. You are experiencing those things already. They're in your imagination, but your mind doesn't know the difference. So soon enough, you'll have those experiences actually in your life.

Are you saying that from like a law of attraction perspective where you bring the. Or is it.

Yeah.

Is it actually an internal. I'm of the opinion that it's more of an internal perspective shift that happens, which is just as valuable. From which perspective are you making that?

I think semantics don't matter here. Okay, you can describe this from the law of Attraction, from a scientific point of view that once it's in your head, then you start to see more often and you start to see those opportunities and so on. It doesn't matter. What matters most is that it works.

Fair enough.

Well, Alex. Yeah.

I wanted to give you the opportunity. We've had lengthy conversations about this privately about this topic and my struggles previously of being in that fun, happy light state. I wanted to give you the option to give me a challenge or not. But the big takeaway I've had from this is I'm realizing how much in my own story I have put on the idea of to have fun is a challenge. Well, of course it's going to be a challenge if I believe that it is a challenge. And what I'm hearing from you is if it's really easy, it happens. So if you want to give me a challenge, I will give you that option. Or if you want to reframe it, I'll give you that option as well. But I at least wanted to put the ball on your court. In that case.

When you mentioned the challenge.

My mind went to the words that we speak. And I think the words that we speak create our reality. That's another woo woo thing that I think it's true for me. And I would challenge you to notice what words you use. Like you said, when you talk about the fun things and see how it makes you feel, watch your emotions, see how your body feels during anything. It doesn't have to be only about fun throughout the day. Just pay attention more to your body. See where you're feeling the tension, if you're feeling anything, if you have any reactions. Now that I'm giving this advice in my head, there's another contradiction, saying maybe he hasn't been on the same road like you haven't seen or you haven't heard everything that I've heard so far, like the vipassana, what they teach you there, or anything like that. So maybe it's better to go, go have that experience first or try to see how it is with meditation or how to develop this connection with yourself and then try to put it in your. In your life.

Damn.

I don't think I'm good with challenges.

I'm hearing everything that you're saying and I have found that when I'm in a daily meditation practice, it helps me stay in that state a great deal. I'm totally with you on that. And I'll just take it as my challenge then to keep that as a daily practice so that I'm in the opportunity to notice how I feel around certain experiences.

Yes.

I wanted to shift gears here for a second. So if there's anything you want to put a bow on. On this topic, I'll let you.

I was gonna mention the people you surround yourself with. If everybody's an entrepreneur and everybody's on the grind and everybody's thinking about the next target in their business or their life, maybe it's time to change your tribe. Maybe it's changed to make small changes or big changes, as comfortable as you are, and getting more people that you want to be around that you see that have already made these changes in their life and, yeah, maybe be around them.

Yeah. Thank you for that. And that leads me to my final question for you, Alex, which is, please, you work with a lot of entrepreneurs. And we mentioned. I want to come back to why we don't like that word. But you work with a lot of entrepreneurs. You are surrounded with a lot of entrepreneurs. Often we both network in kind of the same circles of entrepreneurs. I don't see this as a rare challenge for entrepreneurs. I think most of us are workaholics, probably because of some sort of trauma in our lives where we get our needs met through producing and showing that we're better than everyone else. And so I would like for you to speak to the tens of thousands of people who listen, who are like me, that have struggled to find the lifestyle after the business is already there. What advice would you give them? And why do you hate the word entrepreneur?

When you tell me about advice or challenge, it's like I have to think about other people. It's more easy for me to talk about myself. And maybe people can feel inspired by those things and they can do what they want by interpreting what I'm doing with my own life. The idea is to start as soon as possible. I mean, there's no reason to postpone this to later. We start this entrepreneurial path by thinking those guys that are working so much are only going to get enjoyment at the end of their life when there's retirement. How stupid are they? But we are kind of trapped at the beginning, or you never know how long on the same path. You're, like, working towards the next goal and towards the next goal and towards the next goal. And you're kind of the same like people that are employed. Wow.

Yeah.

So my advice is to start as soon as possible by trying to either delegate or even sooner than that is by going inside. And by going inside, I mean anything you can do from meditation, taking a break and going somewhere new and really.

Putting yourself into new situations, Even your algorithm in Facebook or any media you consume is made so you have the same Things over and over again because those things are always on your mind and they're making you feel the same way. But if you go outside in a new place, if you meet with new people, if you go in a new environment or I mean in a group, in a new tribe, try going in a new group and see how it is and being open minded about it. That's key. Go somewhere, do something new with an open mind.

And the word entrepreneur.

I listened to a lot of Gary Vee. I see a lot of quotes on pictures about people telling you to grind to hustle 24 7. You got it. No, stop. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. And that became my definition of the entrepreneur. And now I don't really like to use that when I describe myself, at least in my head. Like if you say alex are entrepreneur, I'll say yes. But in my head I don't like to use that word to describe myself, especially because of this, because I don't want to have something describe me. That means working. That means grinding. Grinding is such an awful word, man. Like grinding. What, your soul? What is happening? You're grinding your soul. What is going on? Like, why would you grind anyway? I like to describe myself in my head with other words than entrepreneur only because of this stuff.

I dislike it because it's become a point of comparison. It's a label that we put on ourselves in order to compare ourselves to one another. I have found entrepreneur is like this thing that you just assume and now it becomes a way through which you judge yourself or judge other people. And so I have kind of shifted over. Obviously I still don't use the word too, but I like to think of myself more as a creator or a creative. I am just creating value in the world. I am simply in a place of creating as much as possible. I create businesses when it's from a place of something I want to create. I create content when it's from a place that I want to create, rather than it being a outside goal that now I have to force myself to try to pursue. And that has been a really healthy shift for me. I think Alex would be very proud.

Yes, it's beautiful, Creator. I like that a lot. Yes. I use that for myself as well. Yes, creator, yes.

Alex, you have been an outside guide for me, even though we only see each other two or three times a year. And you're someone that I really look up to because I think you actually model the life that people desire. Whereas many people look at the flashiness of entrepreneurship and think that's what they want. What they really want is to be in full enjoyment of their life. And I think you model that. So thank you for inspiring those of us who are still making that transition.

Thank you for those kind words. Thank you. It's been great to be here. A quote that I read said you should never say you're afraid to talk in public and never admit it or something like this. And I want to admit that I'm not very comfortable about talking in public or on a podcast or anything like this. So I'm glad.

I was able to get to the end of this. And thank you very much again.

Alex, where can people follow you if they want to follow your thoughts?

I think Facebook is the best. I'm at Facebook Houditan. That's my last name, alexhouditan. But it's Facebook who Ditan. And they can follow my stuff there.

All right, Medium, I want you to know, you know, you taught me your little hand dance, which I referenced at the beginning of the call, and I do it daily. I find myself doing the booty to remind myself to just ride the wave of life. So, yes, thank you for all.

You're riding the wave, riding the wave, and loving the flow.

All right, Alex, keep on changing the world, buddy. Appreciate you.

Thank you very much.

If you made it all the way through this episode, I would love to hear your thoughts. You can DM me on Instagram, I'm ryandaniel Moran. Or you can hit me on Twitter, I'm Ryan Moran. And one selfish plug before I go. Alex and I met for the first time at the Capitalism Conference, which is my yearly event for entrepreneurs like you. Entrepreneurs like us, entrepreneurs who have a big vision and a commitment to enjoying the most out of life. Entrepreneurs who want to build the empire and to do it in a way that makes them really happy and in a way that they're really proud of what they've built. Entrepreneurs who aren't following what all of their peers are doing, but are following what gives them true scale and can do it with a sense of ease along the way. One shift, one insight changes everything, and you get several of them over these three days. So if you're the type of person that enjoys these types of conversations in a context of scaling business growth, then you're going to get a lot out of these three days in January. That's where Alex and I met, and it's where a lot of deep relationships that I have really enjoyed over the last several years have started. My relationship with mentors, my relationships with colleagues. My relationships with business partners have all started at events and particularly the Capitalism Conference. So I would love to meet you or spend time with you and have this conversation with you January 21st through the 23rd in Dallas, Texas. I want to publicly thank those of you who have reached out and expressed the connection and the enjoyment over the last few episodes of the show. As you know, I took the show in a different direction a few months ago and it has really meant a lot to me when for those of you who have have reached out and said what you're getting out of it. So thank you for all the kind words. Thank you for passing the show on. It has meant a lot to me over the last several months. I appreciate you, I'm rooting for you and I'm so thankful to be doing this journey of life and business together. I'll talk to you soon.

I get a lot of questions about what I think of some of Tony Robbins investment strategies, especially the ones where he talks about assets that can go up in value over time but don't participate in any downside. I don't agree with all of Tony's investment recommendations, but I do participate in investing in insurance, which is one of the things that he's describing in that strategy. Now I want to give you a warning. When I went into that investment strategy, I got schmoozed over by a slick salesman and I wish that I had used a sophisticated firm that was actually dedicated to that. That's why I had Wealth Point on the podcast recently. And I'd encourage you to go listen to that episode about Infinite Banking. Now, Infinite Banking isn't the proper term to describe what they do. They actually use a modified version which is called capital warehousing. But what it basically allows you to do is park cash like you would put it into a bank, participate in the growth of the market without participating in any downside, and you still get access to that capital so that you can put it into other investments. So if you've got money sitting on the sidelines, you might want to use capital warehousing as part of your strategy. So you can go over to gowealthpoint.com freedom to learn how the strategy works. Or you can just listen to the episode that we had with Sam Prentice from wealthpoint here on the podcast. It's called how the Rich Use Infinite Banking for Tax Free Wealth.