In this interview Sam Parr talks with entrepreneur Alex Hormozi (and occasional input from Sean) about the intense work habits that helped Hormozi build multiple businesses and reach $100 million in revenue. Hormozi explains that his wife is a true 50/50 partner who runs the operational side of the business while he focuses on ideas and execution, allowing them to work 10‑12 hour days with gym sessions woven in. He traces his relentless drive to early‑life insecurity and the positive feedback loops that conditioned him to grind, noting that he now feels about 30 % less insecure thanks to financial success. Hormozi describes deliberately taking a year off—traveling, dining out nightly, and feeling a sense of emptiness—to test his dependence on work. Both he and Sam discuss the concept of “seasons” or time‑boxing as a mental framework for shifting focus, treating breaks as distinct output phases rather than loss of productivity. The conversation highlights the balance (or lack thereof) between relentless work, personal health, and relational dynamics, and underscores Hormozi’s belief that his love of work is a personal choice, not a societal standard.
Chapters
You seem like a grinder when you were building these businesses. Were you just like doing 80-hour, 100-hour work weeks? And what about now? Because you're like yoked, you're huge, you're like a bodybuilder. So, so like, how did you balance like being fit and getting married And you— but I don't know you well, but you seem like you'd be grinding hard.
So my wife works in the business with me, so we are true 50/50 partners. Like, it's very rare. I like— I recognize how rare it is. She actually is 100% matched with me and like should just as much be on this call because she runs the other half. Like, she— from a work standpoint, she has more output than I do. Um, she is the operator, so she builds the infrastructure, she does the recruiting, she sets the the HR stuff. She does the culture. She like, she does, I mean, she runs everything. I just, you know, occasionally come up with a good idea and try and stick with it long enough to see it come true. But in terms of grinding, we, this is what we like. I love business. Like, I love this and there's nothing that really stimulates me like this. And so I do as much of it as I can. And if we want to go out to dinner, we go out to dinner, you know, but like, we're, we're, I was just saying, we're single, so we don't have kids. And so we work from like 5-ish to 4-ish, you know, um, and then, you know, usually in the middle of the day, we'll probably go to the gym for an hour or two and then come back and keep working and go out to dinner at night. And that's, that's kind of our lives.
You seem pretty, um, this isn't, I would say I'm a little bit, I'm definitely this. Sean has a little bit of it too. Like, Manic's not the right word, but like neurotic maybe is a better word. Um, where it's like, uh, you're, you're, there's something that's deep rooted inside of you. That's kind of, it's not like you want to do something necessarily. It feels like you're, it's more compulsive, um, or obsessed. You're obsessed about stuff, which I am as well. Um, where, if that's true, what's that rooted in? What are you trying to get done?
So I think originally the drive was from just crippling insecurity and needing approval, right? Um, and then I think from like a behavioral conditioning standpoint, I got immediate feedback that was positive, and then I was conditioned to continue those actions. Now, uh, I continue to do them without the original catalyst that got them going to begin with. So I don't, I don't think I suffer, you know, from the insecurities as much as I used to. I'd say I'm probably 30% better. Than I was at the beginning. And it might just be because I have this massive big pile of money that I can use as an emotional crutch to why I'm not a piece of shit.
That would help.
I'm just being like, I mean, if it were all disappeared, I'd find out how much actual growth I had or if I just compensated by circumstance and, you know, compensate for the deficiency. I don't know.
You can send it to me and we'll find out. We'll see.
I just run the experiment I like. So there's the compulsion and like this last year I pretty much took off. Like I did not work that much. Um, and so I saw the difference, and like, I have, I have come to accept that I love working and I don't need to judge myself for that or, or take in other people's judgment on how much I should, quote, do. Like, this is my life and this is what I like doing, and their ideals that they've arbitrarily made up as what they define as balance are irrelevant to me.
You said you took last year off. What'd you do? What'd you get up to?
We went out to dinner every single night to a 5-star restaurant for 7 straight months. We went to— I mean, we moved to Vegas temporarily. We traveled a lot, went to Cabo, went to Scottsdale, went to Sedona, went to Flagstaff, traveled all over, went out, did stuff, felt honestly pretty empty. Like you can only eat so many times. Like there's just not a lot to do.
It feels good having that rest though. I mean, when I sold my company, which was, uh, a year ago last week, the first 6, 6 months, I was like, I need to decompress. It felt good to have it. And then, and then I was like, and I'm in that phase now where I'm like, all right, now I'm ready for war again. You, you can't, like, I, I like, you can't be in the trenches, I think, like, or rather you need breaks from, from being in the, from being at war.
I think, and, and maybe even phrasing it, I'm just throwing this out there, like phrasing it as instead of a, like a break is a shift in how you're thinking. Cuz like, it's really like it's going from dirt to clouds, but I still think it's high leverage activity, you know what I mean? Or like output. It's just a different type of output.
You said something on one of your videos that, um, you're one of the only other people that I have heard say this phrase. I use it a lot, which is, yeah, I had a season like, or this season I'm doing this, or I had a season where I was really just focusing on X. And that's been like a game changer for me. My personal trainer and kind of coach, she's like my mindset coach plus trainer. Trainer, he does this all the time where he's like, he's like, I'm, I'm in a season right now where I'm, I'm just, uh, and he'll be like, you know, I'm, I'm practicing not waiting. And then he's like, hey, he comes up with these little themes or he'll be like, right now I'm in a season where I'm gonna eat whatever I want. And it's kind of like in the entrepreneurial world, it's like time boxing. It's like, all right, I'm gonna give myself 2 hours to get this shit, shit done. Or I'm gonna launch in the next 2 weeks no matter what. Right? Like we, I've used time boxing for productivity and now this seasons thing, it makes every like decision you're making less heavy of a commit because you're like, it's okay. Yeah, because there's, yeah, there's beginnings and ends and this season is going to feel a little different, just like winter feels different than summer. That's how I use it. Do you, do you use it like that? I just noticed you said that phrase.
100%. Yeah. And maybe it's a fitness thing. I have no idea. Um, I, I've, yeah, I, I have no ownership over it. Yeah.
It's like bulking season. Yeah.
I mean, I, I think about it in terms of entrepreneurial seasons. And I, at least for me, might have been like 5-year chunks. And so this is going to be my 4th season and they've roughly been about the same length. So I think that it probably takes me like 3-ish years to like really see something through and then 2 years to figure out how I'm going to transition from that thing or realize or, you know, whatever. That's what I— it's kind of like a PE cycle almost.
