Why Some Stupid People Are Successful... Even If You’re Smarter Than Them

So I just got out of this meeting with some colleagues, if you will, some people that I've worked with in the past here in Austin, Texas who just had a major braingasm. And it's the same major braingasm that I had about six or eight months ago, which has really adjusted the course of my career. And so my hope is in this video that somewhere, somewhere it shifts for you as well. Or maybe it'll take a couple days for it to really kick in for you. But when you've got it, when you have the same shift that I did, when you have the same braingasm that I did, I want you to comment braingasm in the comments of this video. And the brain gasm looked something like this. We were talking about the difficulty, the grind, the effort, the time that it takes to build a successful business. And we were talking about how so many people want to be entrepreneurs and get kind of stuck in the grind or they're spending all of their energy getting the business off the ground. And then we started to talk about the people that we knew that were really, really successful. And I mean, not just the people who were, you know, I've run a $10 million company.

I've had eight figure exits and that's all great, but what I'm talking about is like the people who run hundred million dollar businesses or people who are billionaires and you look at what they're doing, they work hard.

But they don't work that much harder than me. In fact, they probably don't work any harder than me. In fact, some of them seem to work less hard than me. They seem to have a lot less stress. And you know, probably part of that is because they've got $50 million laying around. I'm sure that helps. But we started to think about, the only thing that's really different is the strategy that they are following. And what happened for the people that I was sitting with and myself is both of us went through acquisitions, both of us had businesses that were perfect purchased. So you know, I, that's how I made the most of my money was I built a successful physical products brand. I sold that business in 2017, or at least a majority stake. I still own 20% of that company. And they had something similar. They had a, it was not a physical products company, but they had a nice business that went through an acquisition process. And as we were looking at the, the way that the acquirers.

Came about and made offers on our businesses, we were like, huh, what they're doing isn't all that complex, it might feel complex to us because it's a world that we don't know, you know, raising money and dealing with private equity groups and. But once you kind of get your head around it, you're like, oh, this totally makes sense. I totally get how this works. It kind of reminds me of the time. Wow. Way back in, like, 2009 or 10, I had just graduated college. I was living back in Lakewood, Ohio. It's just right outside of Cleveland. And I had a buddy of mine or like, a business contact who was just getting started in his business career. His name was Jason. Still is Jason, as far as I know. We haven't talked in a few years, but Jason lived about two hours east of Cleveland. And so he asked if he could make the drive to Cleveland and hang out with me for the day. And we were talking about business. We were talking about, you know, how I made money on the Internet. And after, like, two hours, he goes, this isn't all that complex. I was like, no, dude, it's not like, it's just. It's a lot of hard work, but it is, I guess, not all that difficult. And he sat down and kind of mapped out a plan. And about a year later, he was doing over $10,000 a month in kind of the same exact strategy that I was doing, just with different products and in different markets. And what I think I've realized, the braingasm I've had is that the people at the top, the people that we admire, aren't any different than you or me. What's different is the habits and the strategies that we follow. It's the work that we put in. And I'm not just talking about hustle and working harder. I mean, specifically just following the work that leads to a strategy and an outcome. It's kind of like you could spend all of. All of your time.

Doing things that don't matter, which is what most people do. Working a construction job is honorable and hard work and sweaty. And it takes just as much time.

To put together a physical products company. Just as much time. Some would say one is easier than the other, and other people might disagree. The person is no more or less valuable. The person is. Is sometimes no more or less talented than the person, than the other person, but they get very different results. They produce different happiness levels. Some might say the construction job is happier. Some people might say that the putting together the eight figure business is happier. Doesn't matter. These are all subjective. But the objective truth is that there's not all that much different between the two individuals. It's just the things we think about and the habits that we practice. So how do we hack this? Like, what's the takeaway that you could do? I have found that our habits and our strategies are the product of our thoughts. Not necessarily in a law of attraction or woo woo kind of way. I just mean specifically. The things that we.

Come to understand become very natural for us. The things that we don't understand seem mysterious or hard. So when you look at somebody who's really successful, or you think of somebody that you want to be like, or you think about somebody that you could never be like, I could never be like that girl or that guy. Right. The truth is that the reason you feel that way is because there's some sort of a knowledge gap, there's some sort of an understanding gap. And once it becomes understood, it's what we call demystified. This is one of the reasons why I started doing an event. We do several events throughout the year now, but we do an event called the Capitalism Conference where we bring in some of the richest and most successful people in the world and we put them into one room. And the reason is because when you meet them, you realize they're just like me. It's demystified. Their habits, their thought patterns, their strategies become demystified. They're now clear, which frees you up. You realize you're just as good as them, which is the big takeaway. You're just as good as them. You can have whatever results you want. Your past failures, your genetic makeup, with the exception of what they found, is intelligence. And really relative intelligence. Kind of like the movie Idiocracy, relative intelligence, your intelligence compared to other people, and conscientiousness, work ethic giving to other people.

Now, the way we hack this, the way we change this, because we have found that intelligence and conscientiousness are both hackable. The way that we change this is we change two things. Who we spend time with and when we put into our brain. Because those are the things that actually change our thoughts. These are the things that literally change our brain's makeup and change the things that we focus on. So if you are.

Reading books that stretch you and give you different understanding, if you're listening to podcasts that stretch you and give you a different understanding, if you're downloading the habits and the thought patterns of Warren Buffett versus someone else, that is going to change how you approach life. It's one of the reasons why success continues to compound Success continues to grow because thoughts become normal. And when they're normalized, we can act on them almost automatically. When things are normal to us, they become easy. I'm at a point in my career right now where my focus is. I think I'm going to get my Cleveland Indians money by putting together a private equity group. And my assets and my knowledge complement someone else who comes from that world very well. And that seems really scary and weird to me. And so everything in me wants to force it, I want to make it happen. But I know that when it's normal to me, it will be easy. And when I meet the right people, it will be automatic and easy. Because when my world is mysterious to someone else and it's really hard for someone else, I have, I have deal flow with amazing entrepreneurs, connections with amazing entrepreneurs. I have a very unique set of skills that complement someone else's set of skills perfectly. And when it is natural, that's when it's, when it's right, it is natural and easy and will flow and it won't have to be forced. And so when you become the type of person that you need to be in order to have success, the success comes almost automatically. It becomes effortless. Now it doesn't mean, doesn't take a whack ton of work, it does, doesn't mean it takes overcoming doubts and fears, it so does. But when you become that type of person, the success doesn't feel hard or mysterious. And you can hack that, change that by changing who you spend time with. And the things, your inputs, the things you read, the podcasts you listen to, the audiobooks that you put into your brain, these are things that fundamentally change who we are. Because your brain is a normalizing machine. You are not all that different from them. They have different habits, they have different sets of knowledge, they have a different network. And these are all things that can and will change if you step into the habits that are necessary in order to get the same results. For me, I know I've reached a certain level. And in order for me to get the Cleveland Indians, which is my goal, I'll need a different set of skills, a different set of habits, a different strategy, a different network. And that requires me to think about and practice and network with different people, which is what I'm doing now, which is why I can't force it. Like I can't, I can't build billion dollar equity group right now. I have to become the type of person that can do that. And then it becomes natural and easy and it will happen. And when it's right, it will feel easy and natural and normal. And that's how you know you're ready. You aren't all that different from them. You just need a new normal. And you get your normal by changing who you hang out with and the things you put into your brain. And a lot of freaking hard work that opens up new opportunities and more new people to hang out with. It's why going to events is so spectacularly impactful on your success. Going around other people who are ahead of you or even at your level keeps you on the path. And the more you succeed, there's a compounding effect. The more you succeed, the bigger opportunities that open up, the more people that you meet. And we want to figure out, we want to see the other side of it before we take the action. It doesn't happen that way. You go through one door, it opens up the next relationship the next. It clears the next knowledge gap. And that's how success continues to compound and compound and compound. But you can start by changing the books you read. They're everywhere. And the podcast you listen to, I have a podcast called Freedom Fast Lane if you need a good one to start with. The books you read and listen to the people you hang out with, those are the things that force you to become the person that is just like them because you're not so different from them. Besides, the habits that we practice. Hope you found this value. Put brain gasm in the comments if you had that shift. Just like I had where I realized that the people were 10 times as successful as me. They're no different than me. They're no smarter than me. They just know different people. And there's a knowledge gap that allows them to follow a strategy that's different than the one I've been practicing. Let me know what you thought. Talk to you soon.