This is a YouTube video titled "Navigating the Bureaucracy of Big Government with Shaahin Cheyene | Dave Asprey" featuring a discussion between Dave Asprey and another speaker about challenges faced with government regulations, legal battles, and entrepreneurial lessons. The conversation covers topics such as government bureaucracy, legal strategies, and personal reflections on dealing with authority. The content was created on November 28, 2023.
Chapters
It's all good on paper until you realize the bureaucracy of big government and then it stops working because you've got a lot of lawyers that are given a directive. And now, as opposed to doing what's better for humanity and for the public, they're just trying to, trying to meet their directive. And that was the problem with this. We weren't hurting anybody. Still to this day, a billion dollars sold. Not a single report of an adverse reaction with Herbalaxy ever. And I, and I challenge him. We had lawsuits. None of them stuck. Nobody proved anything because the product was safe. So what happened is all these agencies came after us with the directive of getting rid of this key ingredient and, you know, really with the directive of getting rid of us because nobody had ever used plants recreationally in a, in a, in a product. So they're all going like, dude, we've got supplements here, we've got drugs here. How do we get this guy? This is, this is not even on our radar and he's making hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Yeah, they didn't get their cut.
They didn't get their. Well, this.
Okay, so you think of just paying them their cut, just like, like, and food coupons.
I don't know how you do when you're a rebellious teenager. You don't think that in retrospect, the thing of it is this. When these agencies come after you, they usually just ask for money and you can pay them and then it goes away. Which I thought, what the fuck? And my lawyers came to me and they're like, dude, just pay them. You're not going to beat the government. This is how aggressive things were. I had on staff close to a dozen attorneys on staff. I mean, I'm not talking outside firms, I'm talking just my staff of attorneys.
Yeah, you were definitely the young, testosterone fueled kid. And this is a lesson learned for you. If you're an entrepreneur, there's a lot of entrepreneurs listening to the show. It's a bad idea to get in a fight with your government because they have a monopoly on guns. Unless you live in Texas. But even then, they have more than you. Seriously, Governments have a monopoly on violence. They can take anything they want from you. At the end of the day, even if you think it's not legal, if a judge says that they can do it, they will. So you should be respectful of them and recognize the actual game you're playing.
Yeah. Yeah. So they came after me. I should have. You were absolutely right. And no one's ever said that to me. So I appreciate you for saying that, because I really think that way. I'm like, dude, if I was smarter, I would have kept a lot more of my money and I would have just paid them off. You just pay them. But I was so rebellious, Dave. And so, you know, I was the.
Same in my 30s. I had ODD, like, oppositional defiant disorder and OCD. It's like, never mind. Dead body. Which is just a lack of wisdom. And also, some people say, without selling out, well, you're in a system, and there are some things where if it's unethical, you just don't do it. I don't lie, for instance. And if there's two paths forward, one of them is a better path that allows your work in the world to reach what it's doing and it's not harming others. Okay? That's how the game is played. 48 laws of power actually got me to think differently. That changed my whole life. But I read that when I was 26. That explained how tech VCs work. So just in terms of coaching our listeners and learning, sharing some knowledge, it doesn't feel good to realize, oh, my God, I'm up against a power that's greater than me and it's not fair. And the sense of injustice is what is. Actually, you can heal your sense of injustice and just recognize the world is quite often unjust. And once you do that and you don't have to roll on the ground screaming and whining and asking someone to change your diaper or whatever, you'll probably be a happier person and the amount of injustice in the world won't change at all.
Now you're talking like a hacker. And I love that about you because I'll tell you why. Because what I'm hearing you say is you don't always have to go through a brick wall. Sometimes you can just stop and go around.
You're listening to the Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey.
