The Secret to Being Great | My First Million #199

I had this thought, oh, this is what it would have been like to talk to Bill Gates at 21.

Yeah, I feel like I could rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like no days off on the road. Let's travel, never looking back.

So this episode is going to be— it might be shorter than normal, right?

Yeah, I think so.

Okay. I want to— I just drove like 30 hours and I listened to a ton of content. I want to tell you, Sean, about some of the stuff that I listened to and why it's interesting. Is that what you want to do for this entire episode?

Yeah, let's do it.

And I'm sure you'll have some stuff that you've consumed. Okay. The first one, I found this podcast that has like— actually, let's see how many reviews. I think like no reviews. I think I emailed the guy. He's amazing, but it's called How to Take Over the World.

We should just have this guy. We should just absorb this guy's podcast. We need to acquire this guy's podcast. This should just be on our feed.

Wait, did you, did you listen to it?

No, I'm just looking at the description of it and then the gems that you just told me, and I'm like, this should be part of MFM. This is great.

It's amazing. This guy, he, uh, he— it's like his hobby, and he really— he— they're so in-depth. So it's called How to Take Over the World. What I think he's doing is, you know, a lot of biographies of great people like Napoleon, uh, Julius Caesar, the Rothschilds, they're like 800 to 1,000 pages. So it's like a real commitment to read it. So he just reads it and he takes notes. In one episode he did one on Napoleon. He goes, I have 60 pages— or Thomas Edison. He goes, I have 60 pages of notes. And he just reads the book and takes notes and then just explains and tells stories from the book and does it in chronological, chronological order. And it's basically turns— if you listen to a 1,000-page book on audio on Audible, it's something like 40 or 50 hours. But with him, I just listened to this 2-hour podcast and I feel like I've just read most of the book. It's pretty amazing. But he also gives his analysis about it. And so I listened to a few of them. I listened to one on Edison, one on Napoleon, and one on the Rothschilds. Rothschilds. And there's 3 commonalities that I want to tell you about these guys. So do you know who Rothschild is? Rothschild. Am I saying it right?

Yeah.

So basically it was started by this guy named Amschel Rothschild in the 1700s. He basically built like the Amazon of, of this, his little ghetto in Germany. Where he would sell, like, he would mail you an item, and if you wanted it, you would send him money. And it wasn't like that big, but eventually he started— he grew that over 50 years and started investing in stuff. And then his kids started the Goldman Sachs of, of Europe. So it was like a long, uh, slow build up to building this family business. So I'm going to tell you 3 things that I've noticed that these folks had in common. The first, all of them enjoyed their work. So there's a story where Nathan Rothschild this, this one woman was talking to him and he's like, you know, I hope you better hope that your kids aren't addicted to work like you are. And he goes, oh no, I hope they are because I love what I'm doing and I don't ever want to stop. Same with Napoleon. Someone said, Napoleon, what, what's your heritage? What race are you? He goes, I'm of the race of men who found empires. Like they're addicted to it. Like they love it. They can't. They can't not do it. Same with Edison. Edison, he was like nice to his kids and nice to his wife, but he was really never around. And they called— he called his, his studio, which was in Menlo Park, I believe it's called Menlo Park in New Jersey. And they said that it looked like a homeless encampment because there's these men in suits, but they were just like laying around on the floor and sleeping there because they would do their best work from midnight to 6 a.m. and they would just sleep below under their desk. And they're like, well, why are you doing this? He's like, because there's so much to do and we love it. Like, we can't not do this. So they all enjoyed their work. The second thing, crazy, crazy high energy. So super high energy. So Napoleon, he went to Egypt to go conquer something, and on his way he stopped in like some island where he like reorganized the government in 3 weeks and he, and he changed their currency. Just, they all have crazy high energy. And that's something that I didn't actually think was a big deal, but they all had crazy high energy. Now here's the third thing that I found to be kind of interesting. A lot of the successful people that I'm learning about on this podcast, they eat very, very, very little. So like Edison would only drink milk sometimes for months. Steve Jobs— For months? For months. What the fuck? Milk. Steve, dude, do you remember Steve Jobs, how he had a fruit?

A fruit? Yeah, I was gonna say he's a fruitarian or whatever. It was the same thing. He used to only eat like lunch and it was just fruit, you know, or something like that for a period of time.

Rockefeller and Vanderbilt were this way too. When they're all described, they're like, "Look, he ate very little. Typically didn't eat breakfast, ate very little." They're all physically hungry, and that physical hunger, it does actually seem like it leads to some type of success. Does that—?

Yeah. Okay. So let me give you my take on all three of these. So you said they really enjoy their work, their work feels like play is the way I would describe it where they didn't feel like they were forcing themselves to do something. They just couldn't wait to go keep doing it.

I would also say there's an obsession there now. Like, it's like I'm obsessed with stuff. Like, is that— do I enjoy it? I don't know if I enjoy it, but like, the OCD forces you. There's an obsession.

So there's a Conor McGregor fight this Saturday, and he has this great kind of like monologue from back when he was a nobody, but he was talking about it. He goes, he goes, I've lost my mind to this game. He goes, I think you must do that. I think you must become obsessed. You want to lose your mind to your craft. And I've seen that as like a common thing for a lot of people. And that actually relates to the 8, very little. A lot of time you get so engrossed in what you're doing that you just forget to eat. You forget to go to the restroom. You forget what time it is. You forget, you know, you should sleep or you forget to pay that bill because you become completely obsessed and engrossed in what you're doing and you get in a flow state, really. And in a flow state, you sort of block out a lot of the other stuff that's going on. And so I think that's— those two sort of go hand in hand. And then the high energy, I'm curious what that means to you.

So that's like— It doesn't mean like you're bouncing off the walls. Right.

Yeah, that's what I imagined. What did you mean?

No, it doesn't mean that you're bouncing off the walls. But for example, when I go and when I'm at a conference, like let's say it's my conference or let's say it's at our talk that we did the other day. How did you feel at the end of that?

The live shows? Yeah.

I felt kind of drained. I felt drained. I felt exhausted. Yeah. But what I think, like, what I think high energy means is I felt just so worn out then. But I think that some people, they would feel good and they'd be like, all right, let's go like get some more deals done. Let's go and like, like, like I invest a little bit of money, but if I was a full-time investor, you're doing deals all day and for me, by like 4 or 5 o'clock, I'm like, oh, I can't talk to another person. I'm exhausted. I can't think about this anymore. But I've seen some people that can do it all day and they just aren't worn out and they just keep going and going and going and going. Right. That's what I mean.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. Yeah. Okay. I think this is cool. And I like the study of the sort of study of greatness. And what I've also found is that like we've talked about this before, it's like, would you want to be Elon Musk? Would you want to be like basically this stuff comes at a pretty big sacrifice. For other things in life, family, often, you know, relationships. It's hard to relate to people or spend time with friends or anything like that if you're doing this. So when you— so I'm like you. I like digesting these. I like knowing it. But then over time, I've learned that, like, the goal is not to be Steve Jobs or act like Steve Jobs or anything. I just kind of am fascinated by it in the same way that, like, I'm fascinated about how, you know, a rhinoceros moves and eats. And I don't necessarily want to be a rhinoceros. I just find it interesting that it's an extreme creature. I love freaks.

I like the freak show. And these guys are freak shows. I also love bold people. I admire anyone who's bold. So, for example, I was reading a book about Steve McQueen. He was just an actor. Like, he didn't change the world. He probably didn't work that hard, but he was like known for like saying his opinion and he like lived a very like free life. And it's like in the same field. I like these people. I like men who will who do what they say and they say like things that are different than other people. But then also I love these freak shows like Napoleon. Now let's actually talk about each of these. Thomas Edison, like Elon, a bunch of divorces. One of his wives died from a morphine overdose. His kids didn't really like him or get to know him that well, even though he was like a kind guy, but he was never around. Napoleon died on an island because they kicked him out and he died basically with nothing, alone on an island off the coast of Africa. Rothschild, he— the— I mean, they were okay. They actually had good ideals. But with a lot of successful people like this, yeah, you don't actually want to be them necessarily. Yeah. Okay.

So what else? What else you got? So you consume that. What else you consume?

Okay. Have you read Naval's Almanac?

Yeah. Shout out to Jack Butcher. No, no, no. Erik, right? Erik, I think Jorgensen is the last name.

Yeah, he was the main guy and Jack animated it. Yeah. Oh, there it is. So Naval has— so it's a two-part I actually don't know how it came to be. Did Naval just do a bunch of podcasts and interviews and he summarized Naval's feelings?

Yeah, basically. So Naval had been putting out his content for years, different podcasts and stuff like that. And a lot of people like me and Eric and others were big fans of it. And what he did was he said, all right, I don't know if you've ever bought the book or have the book Poor Charlie's Almanac. I think that's what this is riffed off of, which is Charlie Munger, who's Warren Buffett's business partner. It was like about Charlie Munger. And so he tried to make, you know, if Naval is one of the good, great thinkers of our time, then he tried to make the compilation of all the shit Naval said. He took it from all the times Naval talked about wealth and they pulled it all together and put it all in one place and distilled it down.

And this book is broken into two parts. The first is wealth. The second is happiness. I found the wealth stuff to be a little bit boring. I don't even remember. I actually skipped over a lot of it. I don't even remember what he said about wealth.

Do you? Yeah. I mean, I think it's the same thing that we've talked about on here, but he has this tweetstorm that went ultra, ultra viral, like maybe, I don't know, 50 to 100 million people have seen it by now. And it's called How to Get Rich Without Getting Lucky. And he talks about these 4 things. I can go into it or I can skip it if you want to talk about it a little bit. Yeah. Basically, his summary is like, you know, here's some of the principles that over, you know, Naval has become very wealthy and over time he sort of learned for himself. He wanted to be wealthy as a kid because he grew up pretty poor and he wanted to be wealthy and he wanted to be wealthy, not in a way that required outlier luck. And he says this great thing, which is like, you know, I want to— if I lived life 100 times, I want to end up wealthy, you know, 98, 99 times. Or like, if you took away all my wealth now and you dropped me, you know, butt naked in the streets of Bangalore, I want to be able to again in 5, 10 years end up rich again. And so that means I actually understand the principles of how this is done, and I'm not relying on luck. And so he talks about those principles, and he basically says, you want to have these 3 or 4 things. So first, stop renting out your time. You'll never get rich renting out your time, which is 90-something percent of people are employees somewhere. You are basically renting your time to an employer, and you'll never become wealthy, or you rarely become wealthy with that path. You become wealthy by owning a piece of a business, either as an investor or as a business owner or as an employee who has shares, like employees at Google or Facebook who have seen, you know, gotten a lot of wealth by the appreciation of those shares. And so then he talks about, you know, how do you, how do you get to that point? Well, you need a few things. You want, you know, what he calls specific knowledge, which is basically like Like Sam, you know how to grow a newsletter, you know how to write content, you know copywriting, right? You know certain things, and so you need specific knowledge. Then you pair that with accountability. So you want to do it in the name of The Hustle or Sam or some brand that accrues that reputation. So you want to put your name on the line and say, I'm going to do this thing, and so that when you do it, you get paid for it. You know, the people at The Hustle who write your daily newsletter but are less well-known. They actually have certain skills. They have certain unique knowledge, specific knowledge, but they don't have the account— they're not putting up the accountability. They're not living and dying by the sword of this news that are working or not. Maybe inside the company they are, but not externally. And then you have leverage. So, you know, back in the day, if you wrote something, you would maybe distribute it locally on your newspaper or on a flyer or something like that. But with the internet, you have leverage where you can put this in an email and you can send it You could put the same amount of work in to write the email once. You could send it to 100,000 people, a million people, or 10 million people. It's the same amount of work because you have tremendous leverage through technology. And so basically he talks about like, use these three things. Get specific knowledge, be accountable, put your name on the line. That way you get the risk and the reward. And lastly, apply leverage to maximize the, the value that you get out of the thing.

That's kind of the, the basic formula. And the whole book basically is broken down to this idea of life is about health, wealth, and happiness— or sorry, wealth, health, happiness. And he says we actually pursue it. We go, we pursue wealth, then we do health, then we do happiness. And he's like, that's actually a fine way to pursue it. It's— that's a very practical and fine way to pursue it. The reality is, is that it's the reverse is true, like in terms of importance. So it's what matters most. Yeah. Happiness, health, wealth, but it's whatever. It's fine to pursue that way. And he has this beautiful line in the book where he said something like, of course, once you get the wealth, you're going to see that it's actually not nearly as important as you thought, but you're not going to listen to me and you have to pretty much discover it on your own.

Yeah, you're not going to listen to me. I wouldn't have listened to me. You know, the type of person who's attracted to this content, you know, they're going to go through the same thing. You have to learn that the hard way.

And so that was pretty interesting. So I liked that. But the second half is all about happiness. And there was a few things that kind of stuck out, stuck out to me. The first is that he basically acknowledged— he was like, look, don't worry. Well, let me preface this by saying Naval interests me because he's like— I mean, he's probably a billionaire. I have to imagine he started AngelList, which is a multibillion-dollar company. He's an investor. Like, he's in the game. And he acknowledges that I'm in the game. And so like, this is a little bit hypocritical, but basically he was like, what I have found is that a happiness must be a choice. Like I've been unhappy for decades. And then I decided, you know, I'm going to be happy. And he steals a lot of philosophy from Stoicism and he steals a lot of it from Buddha Buddhism. And the idea here is that like your past is unimportant and the future is unimportant and to say that you want to do X, Y, and Z for legacy, that's bullshit. Because what's going to happen is when you die, it's going to be as if you were, you know, if it's the same feeling that you had before you were born, which is like nothing. So like, who cares about some bullshit legacy? Which is like hard to fight against, right? Uh, but, and he's like, it only matters about the, about the present and where you are now. And that gets a little bit fluffy, but I still thought it was really useful. And oddly, Did you— if you read the book, he talks about not working hard. He was like, you actually should only do work that feels like play. Yeah. And I thought that was kind of cool. And he's like, life's too short, by the way, just to grind and work your ass off. Which again, I'm like, but Naval, you're like a billionaire. Like, is this like what, you know, how do you— I have to like kind of come to grasp with this a little bit, but I thought it was cool. He also talks about, very oddly gives diet advice. He's like, just don't eat sugar. Stay away from sugar, do high-intensity interval training, and stretch a lot. Yeah.

And he even says, he goes, I try not to— he's like, you know, I don't talk too much about health because I'm pretty good at health. I'm okay, but I'm not self-actualized in that. Meaning like in wealth, he's done better than 99.9% of people. So, you know, for him to talk about it, well, he's self-actualized it. He has actually done it for himself and seen it done by many other people. And so he feels comfortable putting out his whole philosophy on it. He's like, in terms of health, like, I'll say some general things that you, you know, it's hard to argue against, but I try not to talk too much about it, even though it's very important, because I myself, you know, for many years didn't have an exercise routine or wasn't, you know, the best eater. And now I'm better, but I'm still not the best. I'm not world-class at that. I'm not 99.9% at that one. I could tell one story.

So I called a friend and This is almost like stuff I've read or listened to in the last like 4 days, which is a lot. But I had a friend and this is all related to what we're— this is related to what we were talking about earlier about crazy people. I love freaks and I had a friend call and tell me about their best friend. And let me tell you this story. So there's this guy. I'm going to change some details. I don't want to reveal it. He was an accountant. And on some large deals that he was working on at the age of like 30, he was able to save up $1 to $2 million. I think it was $2 million at the age of 30. He was single. He lived relatively frugally, but he worked on some— he worked at a big company. He was just an employee, but he worked on such a deal that he was able to capture like some of the commissions and he made like $2 million. With that $2 million, he angel invested a little bit and one of his angel investments made like half a million dollars. And so here he is sitting with like $2.5 to $3 million at the age of mid-30s.

30s.

Okay. So about last 20 months ago, when was Bitcoin $6,000?

Yeah, about, about a year and a half, 2 years ago.

Or no, sorry, when it was $3,000, whatever it was. He put $3 million into Bitcoin. Everything he had. Everything. 100% of everything he had to the point of like, I think he like saved like $10,000 or $20,000 for living expenses. He put most everything he had. And also he borrowed money. I don't— he was able to borrow money somehow, like through, like, like as simple as like Robinhood gives you a little bit of margin. But he was able to borrow money to the point of like he was in debt a significant amount of money and he bought a ton of Bitcoin. Well, last December when it hit $65,000 or $63,000, his $3 million turned into around $100 million and he sold about half of it. So he's got like this cushion and then he up and left and moved to another country and he lives there because he's like, you know, I'm just— I believe that like this country is the future. And the point of the story is I'm not like this crazy person. I don't think you are either. You have a family, you're not going to up and move them, although you will take interesting bets. But, and I recognize I'm not this human being. I am so thankful that crazy people like this exist. For our amusement. Not for our amusement necessarily, but like the world need— like his boldness was like rooted in some type of selfishness. He wants to get risk, get rich. But that type of boldness, even though this may not be the best example, but that personality type is what pushes society forward. And actually does weird, crazy stuff that ends up becoming normal and common for us, right?

Dude, I don't know if— I don't think this is uncommon, but I feel special the way I feel special that I'm this way. But I know this is actually most people, I think. But I fucking love greatness in any field. Like, you could just be like, hey, you play billiards? Like, no. Check this out. This person's the best in the world at billiards. Tell me more. I start watching them. I'll watch them for 8 hours straight. I'll then go watch the documentary about them and then I'll go find like, you know, the book about them and I'll just keep going deep because there's something about greatness that is just so like attractive to me. And so recently, do you watch the TV show Dave? Of course.

I like, what's the guy's name?

The rapper? Lil Dicky.

Yeah. Lil Dicky. So Dave is a show that I started watching and I love Dave. Dave is like a hilarious show to me and it's like a very unique show, right? And it's not like most TV shows. It's not made like most TV shows. It uses like everybody's real names. It's like kind of set in Hollywood. It's this guy's story of trying to be a big rapper, which is his real story. And then it's kind of like he's not like— it's not Entourage where he's just like cool and cool shit keeps happening. Models keep throwing themselves at him. It's like the opposite. He's kind of like a nerdy Jewish guy who happens to be an aspiring rapper. And, you know, things happen to him that are not so great all the time. And so I just love this dude. This dude is like, he's so talented. He's very talented as a rapper. If you haven't listened to the Lil Dicky Sway freestyle, we should put that whole freestyle at the end of this episode. Dan, do that. Just grab the whole audio for that freestyle and put it at the end of this episode.

The one where he gives the girl flowers?

Where he gives her flowers, exactly. Dude, he's so good. That freestyle is amazing. Although, I mean, obviously it's not an actual freestyle. And then, you know, to be— to then go into like how he marketed himself. So he's a former ad agency guy who got his job at an agency and was like writing a rap song for like Doritos to like win the client, win the gig, win the account, then leaves to go become an actual rapper. He— his story is kind of like he— he works for a long time on his album, doesn't show anyone, has no results to show for it, kind of like runs out of time and money doing this. And then like launches his first music video and it like goes viral. And because he had put so much work into his craft of like making this work and he's completely authentic, right? So like back to a Navalism, escape competition through authenticity. Most of the things you want occur in very competitive spaces. And the answer is not to try to outcompete everybody by being better because everybody's trying to be better. The way to do it is to be different. The way to be different, the easiest way to be different is to be completely you. Because nobody can be better at you than you. You've been you your whole life. You have a lifetime of experience at it. And so similarly for Dave, he— his niche in rapping is like being, you know, an awkward white guy rapper, just kind of growing through life, trying to get with women and failing sometimes and sometimes succeeding and etc., etc. And so I think this guy is so impressive to me. And so I love finding these like, you know, whether it's in the UFC. That's why I love Conor McGregor and his rise, because early on I was like, this guy seems like he's full of greatness. And then you see it play out and you're like, wow, that was amazing. Dave in the rap scene. So this, and you're talking about this with Edison and some of the books that you're— Naval, like some of the content you're consuming. I don't know, like, what do you think? Are we kind of like, are we unique in this or is this— I feel like everybody loves greatness, right?

But is there something different about the way we approach it? I think that, I think it's because we have a privilege. We've been privileged in that you and I have seen people who have, we have seen like dozens of people accomplish things that most people like, like hear rumors about or movies about. Like, like, no, I know this person. They, and a lot of them it's financial, but you know, they sold their company, they made $500 million. Like we know many people have done that. And so we like, We firsthand know like, man, greatness is real and you could self-actualize. We know it's real. The second thing is we know people that have created or invented or worked on things that everyone else takes for granted. And you're like, dude, you have no idea what it takes to like, uh, to have like made that a reality. It just, it's so impressive. And I think that, um, because of that, yeah, we like appreciate bold people who are also capable. Right. And so I, I think a lot of people are like that, but not that many people. For example, when I go to a convenience store and there's like a sign taped to the door, I'm like, do you have any fucking pride? Fix that shit. Like, put a proper frame. Like, do this the right way. It like, be the best.

That's why you detest lack of greatness.

I can't stand that. But like, but you know, there's a reason why, like, we're not the only ones. There's a reason why Jiro— what's that? Jiro loves sushi or sushi.

Yeah, yeah. Like, or like Nike. Nike's whole marketing is not about the rubber in their shoes. It's about like great athletes because everybody loves great athletes. Oh, that's an easy one.

That everybody loves. No, I, I, but I like it. Like, when I look at, like, I don't care about weightlifting, but I look at weightlifter, I'm like, dude, the gay— look how this guy's like weighing his food every single day and getting up at 5:30. Like, just for the— like, I just, I, I love that. Um, so we'll, um, let me move on to one more thing. But yeah, I do, I love greatness. And I'll tell you these last two things that I've read. Can I leave one point on that?

I would say definitely a lot of good has come— it has come from being a fan of greatness But I would say try to be a fan of greatness, not a fan of the people. And the reason I say that is because what often happens is when people get really into greatness, they go study these people, and then their net conclusion is, "Wow, they're great, and they're different than me." And they sort of like separate— it's almost like, "Oh, that's a different species." And there's a way to do this that's better, which is basically you get entertainment and inspiration from them. And education from them of the things that they do. But like, don't count yourself as something different. Treat yourself like that's, that's you. You're them. You are no different than them. They are just like you. They are just, you know, made of the same things as you, had the same doubts as you, had the same insecurities as you, had the same struggles as you. And, and so like, don't like create this divide of the great people and then you, because then it's counterproductive. Then every time you, you learn about their greatness, it reinforces this kind of like negative perception of yourself. Instead, if you think about yourself just like them, then every time you learn about them, it creates a positive reinforcement about what you can also do.

And I'll tell you just the last few things that I consumed this week that made a difference. The first is not— or the last couple— Nonviolent Communication. It's real touchy-feely. You know what nonviolent communication is? I've never read it, but I've heard about it.

Yeah. Yeah. So basically, uh, in a way, I guess, I don't know, how would you explain it?

Basically, I have a problem. Like, I suck at dealing with people. Like, my emotions get the best of me. I get angry at people and I communicate stuff and I'm like, why am I getting angry? Like, this is so counterproductive. I do this with Sarah. I've done it with you before. I've done it with all my coworkers. I just communicate horribly. So I'm actually trying to learn a better way to communicate, a more effective way to communicate. And this is like giving you a toolkit. So it's basically like, it just gives you like a better way to talk to people.

So you give us a one nugget from it. So what's, what's one tweak?

Dude, it's really hard. It's like, like, it's so opposite of how I do things. So for example, like, like there's like a, like a, okay. So the, there's a lot, someone who's an expert on this is going to like criticize me on how am I explaining it, but it's quite complicated for me because it's so not normal. But basically the idea here is like, look, I'm not going to judge you for you telling me this. I'm not going to get angry. I'm not going to judge you, but I actually just want to clarify. Like, so you feel like this, correct? Okay. Well, what I need from you is X, Y, and Z. Are you able to like, Are we able to, can I get that from you or no? And then it's like that type of like very like crystal clear. And then like, you'll say things like, look, can you repeat back what you thought I said? So for example, um, I'll tell you to do something and I'll say, and you'll say, okay, fine. I'll be like, can you repeat back? Well, you said if you don't do this, you're gonna yell at, or you, let me find a better example. Okay. Uh, my wife and I, we got into like an argument over, uh, I forget what we got into an argument over. But I said, can you repeat back to me what you thought I said? Well, you said it's going to piss you off if you— if I do this again. And I was like, no, I actually didn't mean to express the idea of I'm going to be angry at you. It was just like, it hurts my feelings when this happens, right? You know what I mean? So it's a different— it's a different way to communicate. I'm not good at it. This is why I'm reading this fucking book. Clearly I can barely describe the damn thing. The last thing, or the second to last thing The Courage to Be Disliked. Great book. I started getting into it because after Naval and it's just like there's a few takeaways here. I'll read my 4 takeaways. The first is it's dangerous to believe that your past determines your future. I know it's fluffy. If you focus on what's wrong with you, you might be looking for reasons to hate yourself on purpose. Again, fluffy. Third, most of what we think is competition is just made up and is hurting your happiness. And 4, this is like crazy woo-woo. Basically, life is just a bunch of like sounds and lights and like the emotion— we assign emotion to it. And so you don't actually— like, you can assign a happy emotion or not. So that's the last one. And then the last article I read that made a big difference, there's this New Yorker article written in 2014 about Sam Altman. Have you ever read this? Maybe.

I, I like to study Sam Altman, but I haven't— I don't remember this one.

It's written in 2016. 2015 on The New Yorker. It's called Sam Altman's Manifest Destiny. And I was rereading this and I want to tell you a few reasons. First, in 2016, he talks about this. They ask him what his hobbies are and what he does when he's not working. He goes, I like racing cars. I like renting planes and flying them. Oh, and I've got one odd thing that I like. I like to prep for survival. Seeing their bewilderment, he explained my problem. Sorry, I'm Butchering this. The problem is when my friends get drunk, they talk about ways the world will end. After a Dutch lab modified H5N1 bird flu viruses 5 years ago, making it super contagious, the chance of lethal virus being released in the next 20 years will become, well, non-zero. So I have a plot of land in Big Sur that I can fly to. I have antibiotics. Batteries, water, gas masks made by Israel Defense Force, all ready to go. This was in 2016. That's kind of cool, right? He also talks about basically he sold his company and he, he goes, he profited $5 million and he invested all of it in startups, which I thought was pretty crazy because we're talking about like crazy freaks. It's just a really good article. I think people should read this because Sam Altman is like a freak weirdo and that's like a compliment. Because we're talking about extreme personalities. And I think it's like a really cool insight and it's one of the only article— long-form articles I've ever seen written about him. So I've been rereading that this week.

That's a cool one. I'm going to check that out. I remember Paul Graham had once said something, and Paul Graham is obviously a fan of Sam Altman because he— Paul Graham started Y Combinator and then he put Sam Altman in charge of it. And Sam Altman was by no means the most successful YC alumni at the time. I think his company sold for $30 million, but it was kind of like many ways a failure.

It didn't succeed. It raised $40 million and it sold for $30 million. Yeah, exactly.

And so I think he got some out of it, but, you know, whatever. But Paul Graham once said, like, he's like, when I was talking to Sam Altman, I think maybe for the first time or second time, he's like, I had this thought, oh, this is what it would have been like to talk to Bill Gates at 21. And like, that's like pretty high praise for somebody. So I thought that was like pretty cool. I know, pretty cool description. Pretty cool. Yeah.

And there's a lot of weird things about Altman that I love. I should come up with a better word than weird, but peculiar things. So, for example, listen to this sentence. In a class that Altman taught at Stanford in 2014— so which, by the way, in 2014 he must have been like 28— he remarked that the formula for estimating a startup's chance of success is something like idea times product times execution times team times luck, where luck is a random number between 0 and 10,000. And like, like little lines like that. I just think it's crazy that someone thinks like that. And it's just— it's peculiar. It's exciting. It's really neat. There's another story where he— he's working with Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, and they're about to pitch in front of everyone at YC. And there's this great line where he says— Brian Chesky goes, I attribute a lot of our success to Sam Altman and YC. And they're like, well, why? He was like, well, Right before our deck, they— we had a limited project. We had our deck. It was all built out. We had limited our projected revenue on the deck to $30 million, Chesky said. Sam stopped us and looked at us and goes, do me a favor, take all those Ms, you know, the $30 million, and change them to Bs. Altman recalls telling them, either you don't believe everything you said in the rest of the deck about how big this is going to be, or you're ashamed, or I just can't do math. Yeah. And he just said, change all the M's to B's. And I think like that weird type of thinking is actually pretty interesting.

Yeah. People who can cut through the noise and just like get straight to the heart of it. All right. This is cool. This is kind of like stuff that Sam's been reading and listening to, stuff we've been consuming. I don't know.

Is this interesting? Is this going to be good?

I enjoy the conversation. Dan, what do you think? Is this going to be a good pod? Yeah, I think it's cool. I think it'd be a fun thing to check in every couple of weeks or a month.

All right, well, let's see. But that's the episode. Lil Dicky, it's your turn to rock.

Wonder, drop a beat on him. Ah, Sway in the Morning, shame. Turn that beat up on your headphones. Get the headphones, okay? Turn it up, turn it up. Oh, Q, I'm not gonna dance.

Okay, you're not gonna get serious.

There we go. Lil old dick and I'm back in this bitch. I know y'all know when I rap what it is, all facts, don't fib. Got a gang full of hits, in touch with the kids like a pedo. Oh, I'm a jam like Shaq, I'm a bang when I wish. Up in this bitch like a fetus, ain't no timelines when New Time list. Hold up, MJ '96, meaning I'm back on my bullshit. You know I come hard like a full dick. Suburban and white. Stay with the bread like some Cool Whip though. Look how it spread. Cool Whip flow. I can make them write with an IG Live. And my girl got bombs on her body hot. And between her legs is looking right hypotenuse. Bring it all down. Hold up, Sway, let me bring it all down. Been out here. Citizenship. Look at how I got everybody tuned in right now. They'll probably watch this for an hour. Tracy, I brought you flowers. Gas out the ass like flatulence. I was slept on like mattresses. I got my head right aspirin. I'm cashing in, I'm cashing in. I'm not about to hold a paper and display it like a thumbtack. No touchback, they about to run us back. And if you ever met me, you root for me. Sharp shit coming out my dome, I'm a unicorn. Pardon my breath, only perk he said I fuck with his breasts. Elevator kissing hoes at the Ritz. Freaky Friday, I get in, I'm like, "Chris, wait." Sway, pass me the rock. Get it. Post, jab, up fake. Pump, jumping in them. Two shots at the line. I got 'em like a mime. Oh, Del, beg a mic, cut on a dime. Glow in the dark, see me anytime. Used to put the Xbox controller on my dick and let it vibrate, how I jerked off as a child. Came a long way. Now I'm like, "Hey, girl, you, me, fuck," and the shit work. Hey, her brother looking at me like, "Hey, fuck her, bro." Sway, her brother looking at me like, "Hey, fuck her, bro." I'm like Kareem Abdul, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. These hooks got me scoring. See me coming from afar. Rapping in France, I never need an advance. I'm switching it up like I'm trans. Although I'm the Trojan man, I'm eating the pussy like cervical cancer. I know where I'm going, but shit, if my GPS died, I'd sleep in my sedan. I can't do the Schmurda dance. I get caught up in all—

Does it work for you?

Sometimes I'll catch it for a minute. OJ with it, y'all wonder how I did it. My mom hit me once, she lucked in sue, but I'll stomp y'all out like in Dominican Sue. All the shoe brands wanted me to sign. I remember they thought I was Lonely Island. There will not be another like me. I could go viral if I put out a snippet. I'm sick like a coldie, you really could get it. I'll always be playing just like I'm embedded. I got a leg up like Ottomans though, and my television show is coming, but that is irrelevant. Right now I'm rapping like present skit. How did I get here? I got big rapping like Diddy. I'm prevalent. Hold up, let me find the melody. All my fans are getting mad at me. They just want to hear me spazzing now, but I just had to put a couple smashes out. How is this shit a pop star? Rap name is a dick joke. How did he make it that far? Good pussy at the crib like a house cat. They waiting on my buzz like the Outback. In and out with the bag like I make tea when I do shopping sprees. Eyebrows on like AD. Girls get wet like Navy. I'm stepping in shoe cream. Players in the NBA text me if I want a Diet Coke. Someone brings me Diet Coke. All my live shows nuts like I expose testicles. Hold up, wait, let me ad-lib my shit. Oh yeah, yeah, look at my penmanship. I'm a Carl's Jr. model for real. Just on the side like soccer moms. I could have sold you stock and bonds. Happen so fast like Ramadan, the Autobahn, the shaman running down the bomb from Carson's arm. I'm off the farm, I'm on the court, the Jumbotron is on the boy. They playing my song, LeBron is not in there. Am I James Worthy? Look at my bars, I'm made up like Bernie. Oh, we having fun. Girls see me and start blushing just because I'm around. I used to always get a boner at my physical sway. If this is cultural appropriation, what can I say? What would you have me do? You know I gotta rap. But the times now are scary. Hold up, wait, take a step back, Dave. Think about this shit. Internet is a permanent place. This is gonna live forever. Breathe, analyze, think about everything. I'm such an idiot, I used to cover R. Kelly songs at my shows without even knowing it was problematic. I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny. What I do? Act more Jewishly. Come on, Sway, write my eulogy. Am I looking like I need to get a job or looking like I need a bodyguard? I play tennis with Leonardo. How y'all train on track like cargo? I go dumb, don't dumb it up. Don't fuck on planes, but I'm coming up. Add up my views to sum it up. I was just on SportsCenter, dun-na-da. I think this is good, I've done enough. My haters look mad like son of a. Now let me go and finish on my album, Jussie Smollett. You know I'mma fuck it up. Oh! And I'm out. That's it? And I'm out.

You just gonna end on that? And I'm out. You just gonna walk out? And I'm out.

You gonna drop out and walk out? Gone.

And I gotta catch a flight. Thank you.

Give it up for Lil Dicky, ladies and gentlemen. Oh!

Dicky! Yo!

One done and out, Kel.

You see how that man did that right there? That last line. He always does a line that gets to me, man. Oh my God. Ended it on Jesse. The one and only Lil Dicky, ladies and gentlemen. You a man of your word.

Thank you for the flowers.

Road less travel, never looking back.