#16 AMA- One Quote That Changed My Life Forever

Welcome to a special episode. Today is an AMA episode which is an ask me anything episode. And I have a list of about eight to 10 questions that I'm going to be answering today. And that way you know, I can answer your guys top questions. And I'm really excited about this because I've never done this before, but I'm looking forward to it. And all the books and all the questions that I have here are incredible questions and I'm really thankful for all the questions that you guys have asked and I will get to the rest of the questions in future AMA episodes. But before we do that, I want to announce Read Wise as an official sponsor of the podcast. And also there's another thing I'm going to announce that's going to be big, big news in the next couple weeks. But Read Wise is official sponsor of the podcast. A great app, amazing app. You can sign up using my link below. I use it every single day. I read a ton of like I, I'm reading constantly and so one thing that I want to do is retain that information. And what I do is I use Readwise to basically keep my knowledge in a database. And this database gives me five quotes a day. Not only can I have the five quotes a day or quotes for my books, I can set, you know, what books I want to take quotes from. And I also get to chat with the highlights as they're called, or the quotes. And if you sign up now, you get two months for free using my link below. And I promise you will not regret it. It is one of the things I've used day in and day out. I'm about 250 days into using it nonstop. Just, it has a little street counter that like it counts every single day. And I'm 256 days into using this thing. One of the most incredible things that you can get to change your life. So sign up using my link and you'll get two months for free. So let's get into this podcast episode because I can't wait to answer your guys questions and something that I've been just thinking about. So the first question is, what is one quote that will change your life forever? Now everyone is different, right? Because you know, everyone is custom, they're, they're built a certain way. But one quote that would change, will change your life forever is you know, and this idea is a non negotiable. But Charlie Munger once said, I am a ferocious reader. I'm convinced the single most important thing you can do is to read and think the more you read, the more you know and the better decisions you make. So it's a logical thing. And that's the, you know, that's the end of the quote. But that, that quote honestly changed my life. That's why I have it on my podcast player, like on Spotify. You can see it on my website, you can see it on Apple Podcasts. You can see it. That's because it is honestly true. And this quote, I think it captures the essence of what I'm getting at, is trying to read every single day, waking up and, you know, just being able to learn every single day. And so obsessively learning, whether that's through books, podcasts, or even conversations, it's the most most important thing you can be doing right now. And one of the things, and I think Ben Greenfield mentioned this, but he. When he was growing up, books were his mentors. And I think that that's a, like, definitely true. Books are mentors. And the more you read, the more your world expands. And just to kind of hover in on this or hover on this for a second, you know, if you're interested in health and wellness or you're interested in podcasting, or you're interested in, you know, science or just anything. I mean, Elon Musk is a great example. He had no experience in the space industry. This was before he started SpaceX. And he wanted to, like, launch rocket ships. And so what he did was he started this and he basically made a company that was ultra well. He just read a ton of books, and that's how he knew most of his stuff. And then he hired really, really good A players. So this is interesting because if you're reading through books or you're learning through podcasts from experts or just having conversations with these people, it is the most. It's the single most important thing you can be doing right now. And I think Charlie Munger hit it on the head. Charlie Munger, amazing guy. Berkshire Hathaway, co CEO or co founder with Warren Buffett, worth billions of billions of dollars. But Charlie Munger is exactly right in what he said and that that was the quote that changed my life. And kind of. It wasn't even just that quote, it was the idea of the quote, like reading, obsessively learning, just constantly learning, no matter what it is, no matter what you're doing. And of course, do it for the things that you love to do. And so you know that that's ultimately the. The biggest thing. The next question that you guys had was how Long does it take to make an episode? And how long do you prepare? This is a great question. Each episode takes around three to five hours to record, slash, edit. And I prep days before this. So I spend, I literally spend weeks reading and researching the book. What I do is I read the book. I. So yeah, I sit down, read the book. I'm like constantly tearing apart sticky notes, putting them in. I. I'm not joking. In the Naval Ravicant book, which I'm still reading it as of right now, I have little sticky notes. And I'm not joking. I'm like 175 pages through. I probably have like 200 sticky notes. Well, yeah, yeah, probably around 200 sticky notes because I have like three or four on one page and then like little notes everywhere. But I also have like a journal where I also have all the notes and all the things that I have in terms of all that. And so it, it takes days to edit or, sorry, days to record and research. But ultimately it's one of the best things that I can do, and that's what I love doing. And it, it pulls out, it helps me pull out the most powerful lessons and build detailed notes that I use while recording for you guys. And that's how I really ensure that each episode is definitely worth your time. And something that I want to make sure I don't waste any of your guys's time. And so that, that's one of the biggest things that I do. I spend, you know, weeks researching and reading these books every week. And, you know, I, I sit here and record, you know, I've. I've sat down and like, put notes together for like hours on end. And then I'll like, sit down, record, edit, get it out. But ultimately, I want this to be a podcast where I like it just as much as you guys do. So I want to make sure I'm providing as best of quality that I would like it enough to listen to it. So that's ultimately my answer to that wonderful question. The next question that you guys had was, where do you start when developing habits? So I really have two parts to this because I think habit building is one of the most important things that you can do. Something that I actually want to do more of because I have loose habits, but something that I'm actually like, dedicated and strict on. So there are two parts really to this idea of developing habits. But first, I would say focus on the 1%. Don't try to overhaul your life in a day. It's really easy. I've done this before where you get this news like, oh, maybe I should like change my life or change the way I look at this or the way I live or the way I eat or the way I do this. The thing is, the most important thing is to not like over obsess or to over do it to the point where it's so much that you don't do it at all. And so one of the biggest things is just showing up. And I know James Clear and Atomic Habits. He talks about this. If you want to build a habit, like instead of just like doing every single workout at the gym, just show up to the gym. Then the next workout, just show up to the gym for like five minutes and then increase that time every, you know, single time. Or with reading, you know, just read a page or just look at the book, open the book. All right, you read the intro. Now read one page a day, right? It will take you a while, but ultimately the foundation is there. And that's why that's the 1%. I saw this graph the other day that you see with James Clear and Atomic Habits. And the biggest thing that I noticed in that graph was if you get 1% better every day for 365 days, you will be 30%.08% better than when you first started. But if you don't get better and you actually get worse 1% worse every day, you will end up 3.03% worse off than you were when you started. So it's just a big encouragement for you guys where just focus on the 1%. You don't need to go 100%. You don't need to go that 37%. You will ultimately, over time get better and better. And that's ultimately one of the biggest things that you can do. But that's just the first part. So that's like focus on the 1%. Now. The second is I use something called habit stacking. And this is again from Atomic Habits. James Clear, one of the best habit books probably ever created. But the idea of habit stacking is when you pair something you want to do with something you really love to do. So let's say this is like the formula. After I do this current habit, I will do this new habit. Example of this would be after I make coffee, I'll open my book and read two pages. It's simple but really powerful and something that you really can't underestimate in terms of value. And that's something that, you know, I want to focus on and you should focus on if you want to build better habits. And ultimately that's something that you would want to do. And I love James Clear. I would. So if I could recommend anything, get Atomic Habits by James Clear. That will really help you start on your journey. For. For habit stacking. That is one of the best books. And again, it's. It's definitely the habit stacking. So do something that you want to do or you don't like to do with something that you love to do. So if you go to the gym and then you love eating protein bars, which I don't know who would want to do that, probably me. But you go to the gym and then afterwards you reward yourself with a protein bar, or you reward yourself by listening to music, or you reward yourself by doing certain things. And that way you're pairing something that you love to do with something you don't like to do. And ultimately the thing that you love to do will give you enough, like dopamine to override that, and you actually start to want to go. But you. You will need accountability with that. But it is something that you can train yourself to do, and it's easier than just doing the thing and stepping in at 100%. So again, start at 1% and then that next thing. So another question that you guys had was, what was the moment that lit the fire for what you're building now? This is a great question. What was the moment that lit the fire for you when. For what you're building right now? So what I'm building right now is uncommon excellence. I have a ton of different things that I want to do with uncommon excellence. My email list, my premium features. I'm. I'm going to be announcing some new feature. It's not even a feature. It's like a lifestyle. It's a mentality. It's something that I would. I'm going to use all the time. But it's something that I think will change the podcast for the future of listening. And I think it's something that would provide thousands of thousands of dollars worth of value only for $10 a month or $50 a month. Something that I truly believe in, and I think that we could easily just, you know, look forward to. But now we go back to the question, what was the fire that. Or what was the moment that lit the fire for what you're building right now? So I would say it starts two years ago at the point where I read Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor dad. And that really took me on a Rabbit trail. That was not what you would think it was in the terms of. It didn't actually lead me to uncommon excellence, but it opened the door to learning more. And so I listened to that, and it was kind of an unconventional way of thinking because most of the people that I talked to love Dave Ramsey, and that's their biggest thing, right? Dave Ramsey, get out of Debt. And Robert Kiyosaki introduced this idea that was very controversial 30, 40, 40 years ago and still is now. That debt is actually not bad. There's bad debt. There's a thing called bad debt. And there's debt, there's good debt. And good debt is basically taking the bank's money, getting that loan, investing that loan, and then paying back the bank or like paying back the bank. And then that way you own an asset and you paid off that debt, so you just gained an asset. So there. There's that idea. And that's what really opened me up to the Rich Dad, Poor dad podcast, the Rich Dad, Poor dad book, the book series. And then I kind of went down this tribute or this rabbit trail of, you know, what to read Next. Then in 2024, I read the whole Elon Musk book by Walter Isaacson. Incredible book. Really shows you who Elon is as a person. 615 pages was, which is probably the biggest book I've ever read and one of the best books I've ever read in terms of, like, seeing what a real founder is. And that was really kind of the moment that lit the fire, even though I didn't know it. And then that. That was something that, you know, really, really sparked. You know, it was just a little, little flame. It was like a. A little flame, but then it ultimately grew into this big fire. The next question that there is is. Or this next question is a great question. Was there a specific person, book or experience that permanently changed the way you saw the world? So besides Robert Kiyosaki, which I still keep up to date with him, but I'm not, like, fully invested anymore. I really love his ideas, but I'm not, you know, I don't obsess over listening to his stuff. But there is one person, he has a podcast, one of the best podcasts besides mine that I've ever listened to. And I'm going to be 100 honest. You know, he is very, you know, honest too. And he. He'd probably, you know, try to. We'd definitely be competition in some ways. But his name is David Sinner. He started the founders podcast. I obsessed over that Podcast for a year actually. Still. I still obsess about it a little bit. I just listen to like three episodes in the last two days. But the biggest thing is I've listened to over 160 hours of that podcast over like 150 episodes. One of the best podcasts I've ever listened to, besides mine, and truly changed the way I was thinking. And it, I think that's permanently changed the way I've, I've seen the world since. I'm obsessed with founders, entrepreneurs, biographies, business books, ideas, discipline, ownership, all like, just everything business. That's the books that I love to read. And that's something that really helped enforce this idea. And this is actually the next question. When did you realize you were different? What was the moment you stopped hiding it? So kind of a two part in there, but when did you realize you were different? I would say I realized when I was. I realized I was different when I accepted these ideas and I realized, oh, you know, I'm not like everyone else because I want to be like these people. And most of these people that I want to be like, most people don't want to be like them. You know, Elon Musk, most people don't want to have his life. Most people don't want to be Mr. Beast, most people don't want to be Sam Walton or all these founders that you see, right. Because they live tumultuous lives. And I don't want to live a tumultuous life. I just want to be successful in what I'm doing and I want to have that drive and ambition and I want to study these people that had that too. That's why I'm reading, that's why I have this podcast that's ultimately my whole goal in life. And so when I saw this, you know, when did I realize I was different? I realized I was different once I started, you know, listening to these episodes and then I started actually reading the books like Elon Musk. It really enforced this idea that I wanted to be different. And I actually think different than most people. And what was the moment you stopped hiding it? That's a really good question. I don't think I ever hid it. I think I discovered it. Yeah, I definitely think I discovered it. I don't think I ever hid it from people, but I definitely think I discovered who I was in the last couple years and focused on, you know, being different. And that's something that I've embraced. Kobe was different. Michael Jordan was different. Phil Knight's different. Phil Knight's the founder of Nike. You go down the list and all these people are different. But what people don't know is with overnight success, they think, I love this quote from Sam Walton's book. It he says, just like over any overnight success, it took us 20 years. And what most people don't see is that the focus and the work that these people put in. Just finished Todd Graves episode by David Sinner on the founders podcast. And he said that one of the biggest things that he with Todd Graves is that Todd Graves has been running raising canes for 40 years. This is a company restaurant chain with 800 restaurants down in the south of, you know, the US and basically hundreds. It has like 800 stores or 800 restaurants. And he became really successful. But he did that and he put so much blood, sweat and tears into it that, you know, he risked his life actually to make that, to make it successful and to have that restaurant. But he's been doing it for so long. And that's something that people, they over. They always want to have that overnight success. They always want to have that company that can make a million dollars, but they don't want to actually be in it for the long haul. And some of the most, the best people and the most successful people that ever lived have been doing their business or their thing for about, you know, 20, you know, 20 plus years. Over a decade. Like, like 50, you know, 50 years. You know, those are the really top people you just saw. Hopefully you saw Warren Buffett just retired at 94. At 94, you know, I mean, and Charlie Munger died and he was still working and he was like 96. So the, these ideas are very prevalent within the culture of entrepreneurs, founders. But these are the top of the top, and that's who I like to study. The next question, how do you measure if a day was truly successful? The interesting thing about this is I, I actually subscribe to what Charlie Munger says, or I have the same philosophy as Charlie Munger. If you can learn something that you didn't already know from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, I think that's that. I think that's successful. I think that's something that has true success. Success. Because anyone can do this. They can wake up, learn something new about life, about business, about anything, and go to sleep and feel like they had a successful day. You know, people can say anything. You made a million dollars a day, or you did this or you did that. But I truly think it's the learning and the Knowledge. The next question is, what do you do regularly? What do you do regularly that compounds better than most people realize? Wow, that's a great question. I would say knowledge. I read a ton. I try to read about two books a month. Lately it's been like three. I read four books in a month. But something that has really been compounding is this idea of knowledge. And I know that some people like, you know, Daniel Priestley will say, well, AI has all the knowledge, but all you got to do is productize it and monetize it. And I totally agree with that. But. But I think something that will really elevate your game because AI is great and it's a great tool. But, you know, getting that knowledge and then being able to apply it, if you have that knowledge, it's going to be far better than someone that doesn't have the knowledge asks AI for it, you know, and so there's things like that. I think ultimately going back to the question, what do you do regularly that compounds better than most people realize? I would say one, read wise, I read highlights every. I read quotes every single day, refreshing the books in my mind. I order, you know, I buy books, I keep the ideas fresh in my mind. I read the books and now I'm creating certain things that will keep that in place. But I think ultimately it goes back to knowledge, learning and reading. So if you just read a lot and you take a ton of knowledge in and you study these greats who came before us historically, I think that will set you far better off. And if you have an intense work ethic, I think that will set you far better off than, you know, what most people realize. And I think that's really helped me. And I definitely think that will make you successful in what you do. And so ultimately I think that's what I would be aiming for if I were in your shoes. And you will see in the future a big announcement from me about the podcast and hopefully future developments of the podcast and actually being able to talk with. Being able to talk with me. So if you've enjoyed this episode, I'd love to hear you guys questions. If you enjoyed this episode, please share this with other people or you know, just go listen to other episodes. I will be getting out another episode on naval soon, but thank you again for listening to this AMA episode. This is the first one, first AMA episode that I've ever done and really great experience. So thank you so much for listening to this and I will talk to you guys again soon.