0:02

What is up you sexy bastards? It

0:05

is your boy Chocolate Chip Cookie aka

0:07

Rabbi Can't Lose aka Noah Kagan. Today

0:10

I'm going all the way back to

0:12

the future and hopping in my Miata

0:14

shaped time machine to give my younger

0:16

self the Business Almanac Playbook which

0:18

has all of the advice I'll ever need

0:20

to be successful today. This is for you

0:22

too. In this episode you're going to be

0:24

hearing 21 pieces of

0:27

brutally honest, invaluable career advice from

0:29

the importance of being okay with

0:31

the uncertainty to the power

0:33

of compounding to the magic of

0:36

persistence. Everything I've learned

0:38

about all my professional highs and lows to

0:40

help you navigate your own business journey whether

0:42

you're just getting started or you're far along

0:44

on that path. In this episode

0:46

you're going to enjoy three gigantic things. Number

0:49

one, how do you build your network? This

0:52

is something that has literally been an eight figure thing for me

0:54

so how exactly did I do it? Number

0:56

two, what's up with content creation? It is actually an

0:58

opportunity magnet so let me help break down how you

1:00

guys can get more into that. Number

1:02

three, how do you balance all this and your

1:04

positive mindset all along the way? You're going to

1:06

enjoy those three ear nuggets plus 18 more

1:09

of them. If you enjoy this and you

1:11

want to hear more advice for someone who's an up

1:13

and coming startup go back and listen to our episode

1:15

with Leaf Rasmussen where he asks me questions about how

1:18

to succeed as a young entrepreneur. That is

1:20

episode 291 in this feed. You

1:22

want to save money on software? Of course

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you do friend. I hate when people do

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that friend thing. Find what you

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need on appsumo.com. Pay

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1:41

and join the newsletter. Next grab a

1:43

copy of my book. If you have not gotten

1:45

Million Dollar Weekend to change your own life in

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the next 48 hours, I promise you building a

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business is the best way for you to build

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your confidence. Go grab the book at milliondollarweekend.com and

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exclusive email each and every week to help you

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2:00

emails as much as I can.

2:02

that's at know what kagan.com and

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Weight Kg a chemist.com. Also

2:07

special pre show set up the listener

2:09

Gavin Simpson. Know. His podcast

2:11

excellent. Great. Marketing tips

2:13

excellent, business advice excellent, and

2:15

mother's enthusiasm excellent. Cabin

2:17

do What are we gonna come over and have a

2:19

hot pot dinner? I love you man I love every

2:22

other one is gorgeous This I'll be know that. Like.

2:24

As I'm trying to massage or her loved. Crop

2:28

of a Massage or I love You and

2:30

I want to shout you out in your

2:32

business or Euros or to say thank you

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in a future episodes. So if you're on

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your phone right now on I tunes if

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you're on Spotify river with the show to

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leave a quick review checked every single one

2:42

of them. Brutally.

2:47

Honest advice to my younger self.

2:49

So. Sick A setback where my today and

2:52

forty two years old I'm a dinosaur of

2:54

the you tube. I'm blogging twenty plus years

2:56

actually was blogging for the resume wordpress because

2:58

you know where process. First. Ten

3:00

years of my career rejected by Microsoft.

3:03

Project. By google. Twice. Pre

3:05

ipo posts that you. Fired. By faced

3:07

with after nine months. Fire. By mint.com After

3:09

ten months and then I built around twenty

3:11

different sort of that never made it from.

3:13

You've never heard about. I've made

3:16

a lot of mistakes and I've learned a

3:18

lot of things along these twenty plus years

3:20

of entrepreneurship and and living in my adult

3:22

years and today I want to share with

3:25

you some brutally honest advice I give to

3:27

my younger self so that you in short

3:29

cut our this. And avoid a lot

3:31

of my mistakes. So. At eighteen

3:33

I was at U C Berkeley.

3:36

I was living in the extension

3:38

dorms called How House or Been

3:40

change things around Channing Avenue. And.

3:42

Berkeley. I. Was

3:44

just excited to be in college. I was uncertain

3:46

of Howard get Rich but I thought I'm gonna

3:49

be an entrepreneur iron of really know how anyone

3:51

does it Have read rich dad poor dad are

3:53

like my want the rich dad had I find

3:55

one of those. But. It wasn't really ever

3:57

clear with that path look like. I. Was.

4:00

I was reading as many books as I could, and

4:02

in college in these years, I just started trying

4:05

things. It wasn't really necessarily any playbook or thing

4:07

to follow. I was confused and

4:09

jealous how people figured out their lies at

4:11

that point. I was confused how

4:13

people knew where to go, and what I realize

4:15

now 20 years later in that, they

4:17

didn't know where they wanted to go. They were just following other people, and

4:20

I don't think they were really thinking deeply about

4:22

how they actually wanted to live their life. They were choosing the

4:24

safe path, which doesn't necessarily mean it's

4:26

bad, but I don't think they were being intentional

4:29

about how they wanted to live, and that took me maybe

4:32

a decade to really figure out. In

4:35

college, it's funny, even to this

4:37

day, I don't really have any friends from college. I don't think

4:39

I was a loner, and I knew everyone

4:41

in college, but I didn't really connect with anyone super deep

4:44

that I really benefited from. I think people say that in

4:46

college, like, oh, you mean great network. I did not. It's

4:49

me and Marty. Shout out to my boy, Marty Moriyama. But

4:51

for me, it was a great opportunity to

4:53

really explore a lot of different

4:55

things, and really the buffet of life. I ran

4:58

for student government. I

5:00

got to meet Max Levchkin and disappoint him. I told

5:02

him I would follow up with him after he spoke

5:04

at Berkeley, and I never followed up. I tried to

5:06

talk to him later, and he never forgot that I

5:08

didn't follow up. I still remember how important following up

5:10

is from that lesson. I learned a lot of lessons

5:13

there. I started different businesses. One

5:15

of the first businesses, I don't think I've

5:17

talked about, was I started flipping laptops. This

5:20

is the early days of Craigslist and eBay, 2003. I

5:24

mean, super old school stuff. I would buy

5:26

laptops on Craigslist, fix them up, sell them on eBay,

5:28

and vice versa. I was making good money at that.

5:30

I even remember I got one of the first flip

5:32

phones that had a camera, and people couldn't, lost their

5:35

shit. They're like, dude, you have a camera on your

5:37

phone. Dude, you're so weird. I

5:39

remember when the Trejo came out, one of the

5:41

Palm 640s, something like that, and I was able

5:43

to respond to emails on my phone. No one else was doing

5:45

that. People were like, dude, how are you responding to these things?

5:48

I ultimately got scammed. I sent a laptop to the

5:50

Philippines via PayPal, said that was a scam, and I

5:52

was like, are you sure? They're like, yes. So I

5:54

lost the money in the laptop, and I ended up

5:56

actually giving up that business. But another, you know, a

5:59

lot of people, a lot of really great lessons

6:01

that I was able to learn along the way

6:03

around this age of 18. Also

6:05

about partnerships, also about starting things. I started

6:07

a book exchange called Come Get Used that

6:10

we actually merged with another guy and we ended up all

6:12

not getting along. And this is something I've really

6:14

noticed from my know-it- all

6:17

these random things, as long as you're trying and you're trying

6:19

to learn from each of them, they ultimately will

6:21

add up. And each of these experiences really keeps getting you to

6:23

the place that you really want to go. And it's very hard

6:25

to get there sitting on the sideline. So that's where I

6:28

was around the age of 18, I

6:30

would say lost, but more just curious and not really

6:32

clear on how all these things worked out. And I

6:35

wouldn't say I was as optimistic as I really would

6:37

have liked to be. And this is what I'm seeing

6:39

a lot now. Things have just always worked out for

6:41

everyone. They really, really, really do. And

6:43

maybe let's not be so frustrated ourselves along the

6:46

way. So I'm gonna break down

6:48

the brutally honest things to myself in

6:50

eight categories, career, business,

6:53

relationships, health and

6:55

fitness, productivity, mindset,

6:57

happiness, content, miscellaneous,

7:00

spicy. So here's some brutally honest

7:02

things that, if you're 20, you

7:05

can listen to this advice. And if you're 40 and above,

7:07

you can listen to this advice. Nothing with things that I've

7:09

recognized. I was at my kitchen table last week

7:12

and I thought, man, I've started more businesses and

7:14

I'm running $100 million a year business. And I've

7:16

worked for some of the smartest and interviewed literally

7:18

the billionaires on the planet. I've interviewed 1% of

7:20

them. I still don't know a lot of things

7:22

and I'm still making a lot of mistakes. I thought, how cool

7:25

is that? I'm still willing to

7:27

and I'm still open-minded enough enough. So

7:29

whether you're 700, whether you're 70, whether

7:31

you're 17, there's still things that

7:33

we could be learning and improving. And I see that from a

7:35

lot of the people I admire that are more, not even more,

7:37

but just successful in their own ways. So let

7:40

me break down a few things around my career. Number

7:42

one is career. So be okay

7:44

not knowing what you wanna do with your career would probably

7:47

be one of the key things I would be thinking about.

7:49

I had no clue and all the people around me at

7:51

Cal went to be accountants,

7:54

auditors, consultants, bankers.

7:57

And I was like, all those sound like horrible

7:59

lies. And so. So be okay being lost. In

8:02

your career, I would say especially

8:04

early on, it's very great to take high

8:06

risk things because you have low risk. Let's

8:09

say that one more time. Especially during your career, you don't have

8:11

much to risk. There's not, like you don't have a lot of

8:13

money to risk. You have a shit ton of

8:15

time. Be as crazy risky as possible.

8:18

Go abroad if you have that chance. Take

8:20

some free work if you have that chance. If

8:23

you have to fly to get a meeting with someone, do it. If you can

8:25

reach out to the person and you didn't think of a reply or you show

8:27

up at a conference just sitting there, they'll talk to you, do it. Take

8:30

as much high risk activities because the rewards

8:32

are disproportionate specifically with that. A

8:34

few other key things about careers, be

8:37

a hub especially early on. It's

8:39

still paying eight figure dividends to me. I

8:41

don't know how much I'm worth, who cares? But a lot of

8:44

that is because I was very early in my career a

8:46

hub. I had Entrepreneur 27 which

8:48

was, I created a networking group where you could

8:50

meet other entrepreneurs under 27. I

8:52

asked people I knew, Clara Shih, who's now I think

8:55

a CEO at Salesforce, I met her at my internship

8:57

and she was insanely smart, way smarter than me. I

9:00

had messaged her and I said, Clara, this is via

9:02

email. I said, hey, who's one smart person in the

9:04

Bay Area that you know from college? And she's

9:06

like, oh, you gotta meet this guy, Ramit Sethi. So

9:08

I met Ramit and he was nuts then, he's still nuts now

9:10

and I loved it and that was literally 2003, so 21 years

9:13

ago. And

9:15

then I started creating conferences. I never created conferences,

9:18

I never even been to a conference. But it's

9:20

being a hub and whether you're an introvert or

9:22

extrovert, just being an intentional hub on an ongoing

9:24

basis. You can check out Nick Gray's book,

9:26

The Two Hour Cocktail Party, it's a good one to do it. You

9:29

can read the book as well, I have it in the background

9:31

here in the video, Never Eat Alone, that's another fire book. Shout

9:33

out to my boy, Tal Ross, so be the hub. Number

9:35

two, document your learning online. So go put yourself

9:37

out there and you don't have to put your

9:39

face out there. But what

9:42

people miss about document your learning online is you can,

9:44

one, learn how to write. That's a

9:46

really underrated skill. You learn how to write,

9:49

learn how to communicate. And all of life, as I

9:51

talk about in Million Dollar Weekend Chapter Two, is asking.

9:53

And what doesn't ask? It's communication. So the more that you

9:55

document yourself and the more you put it out there, you learn about

9:57

how to document. You also get to look back on yourself.

10:00

and be appreciative of how far you've come. And

10:02

I've noticed that documenting myself that helps me became a magnet

10:04

in my hub. So as I was putting out articles and

10:06

things and not all of them got there, but

10:08

it was people were reaching out to me and I was like,

10:10

oh, this is cool. By me putting out other people that speak

10:13

my love language and connect with the way

10:15

I'm presenting myself and live my life are connecting with

10:17

me. And lastly, I got to learn a lot about marketing.

10:20

So I was blogging on my site. It was

10:22

called OKDork now, it's called noahkagan.com. And

10:24

I learned, how do

10:26

I get this article read? Huh, okay, that's

10:28

a fun thing to practice. I never

10:30

went to marketing class at Berkeley or Suck.

10:32

There wasn't anything I actually learned from that.

10:35

But by blogging on my site and documenting

10:37

my learning, it helped me learn how to

10:39

do marketing, which now I'm using Mandala Weekend,

10:41

I'm using at tidycal.com, using with absuma.com, I

10:43

used it at Mint. Next, I wanna

10:45

go a little deeper on learning how to write. I've done

10:47

thousands of blog posts in those

10:50

20 plus years and only four have gone viral. Tony

10:52

Robbins, Million Dollar Weekend, Ayahuasca,

10:55

Fire by Facebook. I'm talking like super

10:57

viral. And that's in 20 years of 1000 article

11:00

plus writing. Writing is a skill that

11:02

you can get better and better at and you will

11:04

only get better if you practice. So

11:06

the Gary Halbert letters are a classic. Shout out

11:08

to my boy Neville from Copywriting Course. You

11:10

will never be disappointed in proving your

11:13

communication skills. So if you've gotten

11:15

emails from me, if you've talked with me, you

11:17

probably will see that I'm very short, probably

11:19

sometimes too short. That's not a

11:21

joke, like the rapper. I'm just very direct in

11:24

my communication. The two easiest ways you

11:26

can improve your writing is read out the things

11:28

you're writing after you write them and see

11:30

how it sounds out loud, because that's how you talk. And

11:33

then secondly, get edited. Not only

11:35

by yourself, but one person that you appreciate their

11:37

writing approach or you respect them as a person,

11:40

send them your writing and say, hey, I'd love for you to edit

11:42

this. I was talking with someone recently and

11:44

I said, hey, do you listen to your own podcast? He's like,

11:46

never. I listened to almost all of

11:48

my podcasts and especially early on, I even hired an

11:50

NPR editor to edit my podcast so I could see

11:52

how they edit. And the same thing goes with your

11:55

writing. If you look in the mirror, is

11:57

how you're gonna actually see ways to improve. This

12:00

is a spicy one, learn how to cold email. Yeah,

12:02

so if you're writing, how do you actually

12:05

get people to respond to you? I literally have

12:07

these guys from Scale Up, some YouTube podcast, come

12:09

over to my house yesterday, which I'm very

12:11

sensitive about my privacy, and we did a

12:14

45 minute show on their podcast. Now the question is,

12:16

how did they cold email me? They don't know me,

12:18

they're from Serbia and Croatia. So shout out to my

12:20

Eastern European bros and girls. How the hell do

12:22

they get a hold of me? I reward persistence, because

12:25

I want to reward the behaviors that I admire, the

12:27

behavior that I like in myself. They

12:29

sent me an email and saying, hey, I think we've got Jason

12:31

Cohen and this other person, we'd love to feature you. We're

12:34

gonna come out, we're only gonna be here for a

12:36

few days. You're one of the dream people we have,

12:38

we like your stuff. So I ignored their communication, rightfully

12:40

so. I know that's not what you're expecting me to

12:42

say, but I ignored it. I'm getting so many messages

12:45

these days, and my priority is my family, and it's

12:47

absumo, and then it's my content stuff. I

12:49

want to respond to everybody, I really do. It's just, I only have so

12:51

much life to live. And same as you, and so I

12:53

ignored it. Then they came to my speech, and

12:56

they bought a book. So now they're showing me they're

12:58

willing to do a little bit of extra work

13:00

more than most people, which most people send one email and stop. So

13:03

then they show up at the thing, I'm like, okay, that's good.

13:05

Then they wait in line 30 minutes to get it signed. Like,

13:07

hey man, really love it. If we could do it, I know

13:09

you're busy, we're leaving tomorrow night. If you have any time, they

13:11

weren't annoying about it. They were just persistent, and there is a

13:14

difference between the two. And then they followed

13:16

up, most people never do, the next morning and said,

13:18

hey, whenever you have time today, we'll work around your

13:20

schedule. I was like, all right, I have from four to 4.45. Here's

13:24

my address. We came, recorded, and made

13:26

an episode. Now, the coolest thing about

13:28

that is that that was all cold. And

13:31

I think that in the way I teach a million dollar weekend is do things warm,

13:33

you don't have to do it like that. But if you

13:35

shoot 100 shots, you will get one hit, I promise you, it's

13:37

the same thing of how I've done my YouTube content. Where you

13:39

see me do these billionaire videos? Literally this

13:41

morning, I'm getting rejected. Rejected, rejected, rejected. Oh

13:43

wow, that person's, yes. Rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected,

13:45

rejected. And all those people is just not

13:48

yet to me. They're all not yet. But

13:50

you have to get going, you have to keep trying, you have

13:52

to be persistent in following up. In terms

13:54

of learning to cold email, the easiest two things I would approach

13:57

it as is what's in it for them? So

13:59

do they have a charity? Do they have a book? Do

14:01

they have a product? Do they have a course?

14:03

Do they have something they're selling? Do they have something

14:05

they care about? And the second thing is following

14:07

up with them in a timely and respectful manner forever

14:10

until you're able to actually accomplish it or until they tell

14:12

you please stop. I never found early on

14:14

in life this mentorship thing, I found it overrated because no

14:16

one ever really cared. And I tried to ask a lady

14:18

to get people to be my mentors, like please be my

14:21

mentor. And I think it's one of these things we use

14:23

as excuses to avoid doing some of the work ourselves. And

14:25

we think people like Noah or someone who could be

14:27

a mentor will give them the secrets. And

14:30

it's not secrets, but they give you experience.

14:33

Making that your excuse from not doing things

14:35

is what people need to be avoiding. And

14:37

so what I would be curious about and

14:39

brutally honest advice is just go try to

14:41

talk to a lot of fucking people that

14:43

look rich or doing rich shit and just

14:45

ask them how they got there. I

14:47

have people come over to my house for different things,

14:49

whether it's cleaning, whether it's boxing coach, whether it's the

14:51

pool cleaner. No one asked me what the fuck

14:53

I do. And when I was younger and I'm still

14:55

doing this today and I do it on my content, like, hey, what'd you do

14:58

to get rich? Tell me about that. So ask

15:00

the people around you. And what you're looking

15:02

for in that is someone who shares a

15:04

version of it that you actually care about.

15:07

And maybe they'll take an interest in you by you helping

15:09

them. So for instance, today, I

15:11

have a guy Moody Glasgow, who I pay. He's

15:14

a former CEO of Zapier, former CEO

15:16

of Glassdoor, who's a VP at Electronic

15:18

Arts. And we connected with him to

15:20

help with our marketing. He was really

15:22

critical. He was really, really, really critical.

15:25

So critical about all that stuff. I was like, damn, Moody, you're

15:27

kind of mean to us. And I was like, I fucking love

15:29

it. That's what I was thinking inside. I was like, I love

15:31

that he's actually willing to say the real shit and challenge me.

15:34

And so I appreciated that about him. And that's

15:36

where I would say Moody is finding a mentor.

15:39

And so the thing that people can adjust in

15:41

their mentorship approach, one, ask a

15:43

lot more people, but potentially find mentors in specific

15:45

categories is what I've actually found to be more

15:47

effective. So find an email marketing

15:49

mentor, find a business operation mentor, find a marketing

15:52

mentor, find someone who's a good husband mentor.

15:54

I think a lot of times, especially as I'm

15:56

becoming a father, I really look at

15:58

like, who says they want to be. good father and

16:00

who is actually being good father, and then go spend

16:02

more time with that kind of person. And so look

16:04

for the civic categories versus one person to be all

16:06

of it. A few other things

16:09

is asking, especially early on, like

16:11

you have people are much more

16:13

generous to your age, but

16:15

even as you're older, like I have people now like, I'm 65,

16:17

I'd love to know like, damn, I wanna help this person too.

16:19

So just ask and ask and ask and ask

16:22

and ask and ask and ask and ask and ask and ask

16:24

and ask and ask and ask and ask and ask and

16:26

ask and ask and ask and ask. Ask and ask

16:28

and ask, keep asking, just ask. The

16:30

business deal I did is because I was renting a parking spot from a guy and

16:32

I said, how do you afford a parking spot? He's like,

16:34

oh, I sold a software company, really? Can I treat

16:37

you to lunch wherever you wanna go and we'll talk about it? That

16:39

was pretty cool. Or right now, even

16:41

as an ask, trying to find the Adula,

16:44

which is baby stuff. I'm asking

16:46

people, hey, do you like your Adula? What'd you

16:48

like about it? What'd you not like about it? Can you

16:50

introduce me? Or even in marketing hiring, I'm still asking, oh,

16:52

you're not interested in working for us? Who's the one person

16:54

that you think we should hire that I can talk to?

16:57

It's an ask. And the last thing, this is

16:59

not advice you're ever gonna hear anywhere else, is like, go

17:01

get fired. It's

17:04

not bad to be an employee. And I've always said

17:06

this, there's four things about being an employee or an

17:08

entrepreneur. They both start with E, but there's four things

17:10

that everyone cares about regardless of it. It's how much

17:12

you get paid, it's what you work on, like does

17:14

that give you meaning? It's who you work on and

17:16

it's the conditions you're working in. If

17:18

you can get paid stupid fat, let's just say

17:21

10 mil, if you can work on

17:23

something you find really meaningful, if you

17:25

can work with hella cool, smart people, and if you can work

17:27

remote, do you care if you're an entrepreneur or an employee? No,

17:30

I promise you don't. And most people actually

17:32

can like their jobs, they don't necessarily need to quit them, or

17:34

they can have a job and a side hustle. I think

17:36

entrepreneurship is the best way to learn about yourself. And

17:39

for me getting fired though, I will say, it

17:41

was a very good lesson of that one person

17:43

can control my livelihood and the reality

17:45

that maybe I'm not meant to have a job.

17:48

And as well, I would say that I learned that everyone

17:50

is replaceable. That was a tough one to really

17:52

fucking take. That I thought I was so fucking

17:54

special. I thought, hey, I've made all

17:56

these businesses in college, and they've done kind of well,

17:58

and I have a blog. and now I'm wearing

18:00

a Facebook, I'm the coolest fucking kid. And then I

18:03

was like, literally like that in

18:05

an instant was taken. You could also,

18:07

I'm sure some optimistic annoying person would be like, they

18:09

gave you the future. No, they took my identity and

18:11

they took my self worth, which I would say took

18:13

a long time, even though they still I struggle with.

18:16

I think a lot of people, oh man, I'd love to copy

18:18

his life and there's definitely challenges along

18:20

that path. And I'm here to share those

18:22

with you so that you could skip around them. But

18:25

also maybe some of these problems and hard things you're

18:27

facing are not necessarily always just a bad thing. Maybe

18:29

it's there to teach you something. I'm

18:31

gonna just jump in the next one. And then if you

18:33

guys like this type of content and you want me to

18:35

do more brutally honest advice to my younger self, let

18:38

me know. And we'll explore more

18:40

of it. But the number one regret I have

18:42

in my 20s, the number one regret, is

18:45

not being intentional about my dating. Number

18:47

one regret, because life is all about opportunity

18:49

costs. And if you're dating someone, it means

18:51

you're not dating someone else. And

18:54

then when you actually find someone that you really

18:56

enjoy dating and it's great, I didn't

18:58

realize how much of a game changer it is. I

19:01

just had no fucking clue.

19:03

And finding someone like my wife now,

19:05

who just got married, it's just

19:07

so obvious. Like this is the number one life decision

19:10

you have to make. And so the

19:12

question then becomes, how can you approach it more

19:14

effectively if you're a younger person? Because

19:16

you don't wanna get married and then be like, fuck, this

19:18

sucks. Or fuck, I have like 40 more years of this.

19:20

Because I've definitely felt that. And I would say

19:22

a lot of my dating in my 20s was more, and this

19:24

is literally what I teach in Million Dollar Weekend. I was getting

19:26

what I was getting, I was not getting what

19:29

I wanted. And so how can you

19:31

approach it better? Great question. Number one, you have to

19:33

work on yourself. Fuck, no, give

19:35

me a secret, dude, that's your secret. There's a

19:37

book, Mark Manson's book called Models. Not the first, not

19:39

the book you think of, Models. It's the first book. And

19:41

I think it's actually one of the best dating books

19:43

I've ever read. And it's all about how do you

19:45

just become a person that you like, so

19:47

that you can also attract a person not like you.

19:50

Because it's hard to have someone else like you if you don't like yourself. And

19:52

that's how I felt for a lot of the time. And

19:54

it's not that I didn't have a good life. I was out

19:56

and I was partying and I'm dating and I'm hooking up and all that stuff.

19:59

I wasn't. I wasn't doing it intentionally, I wasn't trying to

20:01

commit, and I didn't realize, and again, if I was

20:03

listening to this, I'd be like, I'm gonna

20:05

go hook up with other people, I don't give a shit, dude.

20:08

Cool, you're married with a kid, sounds boring. Like

20:10

going to 6th Street in Austin, Texas, which is our party street,

20:12

and going to a bar, and getting

20:14

drunk in some bar, and then having to try to get home, and

20:17

then maybe talking to someone is like the most

20:19

empty thing I could ever imagine right now. Like

20:22

that would be like the last thing I'd ever wanna do. You'd have to

20:24

pay me a million dollars. Okay, I would do

20:26

it then. No, that just sucks, it just feels

20:28

empty, it feels shallow now, where going out and

20:31

we're getting an Oreo milkshake tonight, and

20:33

then we're gonna talk about different marriage things, it's just like

20:35

super cool to me. Or like hey, we're

20:37

talking about our honeymoon, we're doing an RV trip, and I'm

20:39

like, damn, that sounds fun, with my wife? I

20:41

even look at it, I'm like, you're my wife, I can't believe it.

20:44

And so, a few things around dating better in

20:46

your 20s. One, just keep working on yourself. So

20:48

what does working on yourself mean? Just

20:50

like yourself. So the simplest question that can really

20:52

encompass all of yourself is are you doing things

20:54

you're proud of? That's it.

20:56

Just be the person that you are proud of.

20:59

Are you proud of how your health is? Are you proud

21:01

of your behavior? Are you proud of how you're showing up at work?

21:04

Are you proud of how you're showing up to your parents? A

21:07

lot of times in my dating now, I was just like asking

21:09

women, I was like, tell me about how your relationship is with

21:11

your parents. And that was almost like

21:13

the number one thing that would clarify who they

21:15

are themselves. And that would show how their pride

21:17

is. So for yourself, are you proud? It's

21:19

just like business, like when you hire someone, it's almost never the

21:21

first person you hire that ends up working out. One

21:24

thing surprisingly about the career is

21:26

give way less fucks about all

21:29

these other people. And

21:32

I'm still giving fucks about other people. I'm not

21:34

gonna try to front, like I don't care. I

21:36

don't like the subs or whatever they're called and

21:38

all these different things. But how can you

21:41

just keep doing more things, especially earlier in

21:43

your career that you can just be proud

21:45

of yourself? Oh,

21:47

keep the montage music. But

21:49

no, for reals, it's how do I just

21:51

do these things? Yes, maybe it's okay to

21:53

get some external recognition, external validation, but

21:56

think about the things that you, within your control,

21:58

that'll make you feel proud of yourself, Noah. and

22:00

all these other people, wherever you are in your life. And

22:03

the more that you can do that, the more you're

22:05

gonna feel proud of your accomplishments for yourself, and you're

22:07

probably gonna start accomplishing cool shit, because when you say,

22:09

hey, I'm gonna do something I'm proud of, it's gonna

22:11

be great. And it's been funny in these past 20

22:13

years of entrepreneurship and failure and success as wanting fame.

22:15

I even looked at my old site if you go

22:17

to the archive.org, it's like, I wanna be famous, and

22:19

I'm gonna be rich. And now

22:21

that I'm low famous and mid-level rich,

22:24

some of these things that I thought I needed to feel good

22:26

about myself is just never satisfying.

22:29

And there's no amount of money, and there's no amount

22:31

of followers, there's no amount of acknowledgement that makes you

22:33

feel good except about who you are, and how you

22:35

can feel good for yourself with those things. And so,

22:38

spend more time really thinking about what's the things that

22:40

I'm proud of, and get feedback,

22:42

that's definitely one of them, I'll talk in a second,

22:44

but thinking about really for yourself, you know,

22:46

I've been doing blogging, and I did conferences, and I

22:48

did all these things to prove others wrong, and

22:51

as I've gotten older, it's just more about proving myself

22:53

right. Other things in the career

22:55

that are really important would be have

22:57

a lot more patience, and

23:00

that's a huge thing in my 20s where I was

23:02

very impatient for rich, and I was impatient for fame,

23:04

and I was impatient for recognition, and I was impatient.

23:06

If you're doing the reps, and you're

23:09

trying to get better over time, the results

23:11

will pay off. If you're following Million Dollar

23:13

Weekend, or if you're following any process in

23:15

your career, you're at least

23:17

working on these things, it will work out.

23:19

And I remember I was staying at

23:21

my friend Shavani's couch, this is the year I

23:23

lived on floors and couches, and I drink a

23:25

bottle of 2 Buck Chuck from Charles Shaw, it's

23:27

a $2 bottle of wine from Charles Shaw, and

23:29

I was just so fucking sad about all these

23:31

things. I looked back, and very sadly,

23:33

on my 20s, and the

23:36

frustrations and the challenges that I

23:38

experienced, and that's my story I'm telling. I

23:40

really could have just had a better story I

23:42

could have experienced, I didn't have to make it so hard

23:44

on myself. And that's just being a little

23:46

bit more patient that when you do something the first time,

23:48

and you're not a millionaire, you do a YouTube video the first

23:51

time, and you don't have a million subs, or you do

23:53

anything the first time, and you're not a perfectionist, realize that the

23:55

second time is where it gets better, and then the third

23:57

time, that same thing goes for business, it's a

23:59

skill that you develop. develop and get better at

24:01

and wealth and understanding yourself. And so

24:03

being patient with myself is just

24:05

not talked about. Like wealth comes from

24:08

compounded time. Wealth comes from compounded

24:10

time and what that exactly means is you find

24:12

something, maybe it's writing, maybe it's speaking,

24:14

maybe it's software, maybe it's selling, maybe it's greeting cards,

24:16

maybe it's a service. And then you just kind of

24:18

keep doing it and doing it. And you can keep

24:20

better over and over in time and if you can

24:22

embrace patience, and impatience, I literally have a book

24:24

that's about how to get rich in a weekend, but

24:27

it's about to launch something in a weekend with

24:29

patience is how you really get to enjoy the

24:31

fruits of your harvest. Damn, that's some analogy shit

24:33

right there. The other part that

24:35

really pairs nicely with these grapes is

24:38

just positive self-talk. And

24:40

the whole thing with the positive self-talk within

24:42

the career was just not really accepting myself

24:44

and accepting who I am. So each of

24:47

us could be introvert, could be a writer,

24:49

you could be a musician, you could be

24:51

someone like me who's a starter. Like I

24:53

would say world class is starting. In

24:55

the past three years I've really developed how to be

24:57

more consistent and how to lead. So instead of just

24:59

zero to one, I'm trying to go from one to

25:01

10. And that's something I've really worked

25:03

on and focused on and it's a struggle. But there's a

25:05

lot of things that maybe in the future a piece of

25:07

content will talk about that. But just

25:09

having a lot more positive self-talk about like, hey

25:12

man, you got fired, great. Start again, hey you

25:14

got fired, great. Something wasn't great about that. And

25:16

how along this way, of course being patient with

25:18

somewhat of a journey, but being nicer

25:21

to myself along with it. Like think about yourself

25:23

today, start in the morning and so start to

25:25

where you've consumed this content or gotten here in

25:27

this episode. What have you talked to yourself about?

25:30

You literally spend the most time with yourself. And

25:32

so if you're your own best friend, how are

25:34

you actually talking to yourself during this experience? And

25:37

the more that you start thinking of that in

25:39

a, really like this is my best friend on

25:41

the planet and how cool it would be if

25:43

your best friend's always cheering you on, always thinking

25:45

you're the best, always thinking you can improve, always

25:47

recognizing who you are, that's just powerful. That

25:50

is really, really powerful and something that if you just

25:52

kind of start practicing it, it's literally a practice right

25:54

now. I'll say something nice about yourself. For

25:56

me it was, I went biking and I felt strong and I'm glad I

25:59

still showed up to do. to finish this episode, even though you don't

26:01

want to watch a movie, you don't want to shower, actually I hate showers,

26:03

but I had things I wanted to do, but I was like, no, let's

26:05

finish this, and I'm proud of myself for showing up

26:07

and doing this, and I'm proud of myself for

26:09

saying, hey, maybe let's not do a show about

26:11

everything brutal, honest advice to my whole 20-year-old self,

26:13

but just career, and that's okay, let's just do

26:15

that. What's your positive self-talk? We

26:17

talked about asking, and we talked about being

26:20

lost. I think there's something there about really

26:22

trying all of it, and

26:24

I know I talked about taking asymmetric risks.

26:27

I just want to share some stories that I think are

26:29

brutally honest advice, I think I made good decisions on. I

26:31

made a lot of good decisions to try a lot of

26:33

businesses when I didn't have money, I had

26:36

a lot of time, and it didn't really matter if they

26:38

failed or not. I was lucky that I

26:40

just was taking a lot of swings, building

26:43

building a consulting company, building ninjacard.com, selling

26:45

discount cards and having a discount card

26:47

website. 20 years later, I'm still doing discounts

26:50

and deals. And so

26:52

I was swinging a lot. Maybe that's the, this

26:54

one is just take a lot of freaking swings.

26:56

I showed up at a Microsoft. for

26:59

engineers, and I harassed the recruiter

27:02

on campus, and I said, hey, I'd love to

27:04

get internships, I'd know, and I was like, what

27:06

about an internship, no, and I stayed in touch

27:08

with her until eventually, somehow an internship got created.

27:10

And the same thing goes with running for student government.

27:12

I was just, alright, I'll try being a student government

27:15

person, that sucked, never doing government again. And

27:17

then I said, alright, let me try to do this

27:19

RA thing, means resident assistant, where I was helping supervise

27:21

the dorms, tried that, loved it, first year it

27:23

sucked, I was in an all-guys dorm, they hated me, second year I was

27:25

in co-ed, and they loved me. And

27:28

I was just really willing to take

27:30

swings, and all these swings added different

27:32

skills and understandings and learnings about myself.

27:34

I kept stacking, alright, we're gonna talk

27:36

about stack to deck in your favor in a second,

27:38

but really it's about these swings, or these sparks, or

27:40

these things that each time really, really added up for

27:43

me, that was a great thing that happened in my 20s, career-wise,

27:46

even how I got the job at Intel. So, you know, I

27:48

didn't get the job at Google, which I was really sad about,

27:51

because I knew I was gonna get rich, but

27:53

the only reason I got this job at Intel, and I knew

27:55

I wanted to be in tech, I didn't know

27:57

how it was gonna all work out. I Kinda think there's something

27:59

there about... If like me in the stadium be

28:01

in the arena. And. As long as you're

28:04

there something can happen. I was just want biking and

28:06

I was thing and just as I was biking and

28:08

I knew I wanted to be jump on the jury

28:10

and I saw my was like holy shit that was

28:12

help others right let me go see if I can

28:15

talk to him and that alone created million view plus

28:17

video with having an impact a lot of people in

28:19

a really special for me to meet him as a

28:21

person in my lifetime but after them swinging amount of

28:23

them swinging swinging and same thing with intel I knew

28:26

I wanted to have this kind of job and so

28:28

when I was in the government I helped. It's called

28:30

Sw he Society of Women Engineers. I just helped them

28:32

get some funding. for one of their projects and because

28:34

of that they put me on email list. And.

28:36

Because of that, there was an email

28:38

that came out that said hey, Insoles

28:41

Hiring operational analysts. And. It was for

28:43

females. Read this as it was directors who

28:45

a female engineering group. I still applied

28:47

and that's how I got the job into. They're

28:49

like you're not female or like know it can

28:51

be a female Hey as two thousand four. And

28:54

that that led me to be at Intel would then kind of

28:56

put me in happening in the bay which is great when I

28:58

wanted to do in. That led me and always of things because

29:00

I was it into all and and have the work at all.

29:02

I had a lot of time to me other people to

29:05

create more side hustle to put on conferences which eventually led

29:07

me than deceased but and so that are having to those

29:09

swinging and like our limits try this out Let me to

29:11

try this out. A started a club at Berkeley, a certain

29:13

A magazine. But. A swing a lot and

29:15

then what I would encourage myself as when

29:17

you find the some net worth stick with

29:20

it. I definitely in my twenties with not

29:22

accepting. We talked about earlier with patients accepting.

29:24

Maybe if I found something it works like

29:26

find a system or person or way to

29:28

make that keep going like a had this

29:30

conference business called community next.com I just wanted

29:32

it. That was it. You know I think

29:34

in terms of career you know the best

29:36

job you can get is the one that

29:38

is something you're excited to spend every single

29:40

day on. Rights. A look at what you're

29:42

spending your time on our look at what things you'd you.

29:44

It's to be excited to spend every day on as a

29:46

career for or like I'd love to do to save for

29:48

thing and so I built this conference because I was after

29:51

a fire know the guy got nothing to do he now

29:53

I'm living at home mother had Johnny's couch and and in

29:55

a going back moved on my mom's house. Now

29:57

they got there's no conferences. Every kind of cool. The.

30:00

My Idols and see if I could have a

30:02

convert so I like I called him on my

30:04

Idols. I knew some kids at Stanford you nine

30:06

go there and said hey gimme gimme free rooms

30:08

at a room coding of Ali's idols, ask them

30:10

for referrals to their friends and ended up hosting

30:12

Community Next which I met like literally the crime

30:14

to a crime of all a Silicon Valley. and

30:16

I mean fifty thousand dollars with that one event.

30:18

Even though I wasn't my intent, I just wanted

30:20

to do something that I liked and I wanted.

30:22

and I can't say how many businesses. My.

30:24

I just met across Hutchins from all the hacks and he'd

30:27

let I was saying hey yeah had a day job as

30:29

good but I would try to put a podcast that all

30:31

these hacks I'm learning that let him to make a new

30:33

almost seven figure business or without showing left his job. Sending.

30:36

With this conferences. but the caviar with the conferences and

30:38

this is a really common thing for lot of people

30:40

out there is once I found something working he gets

30:42

boring when she finds me working on a glider. Want

30:44

to be this person? Would. I would have

30:47

done differently career wise and like hey, this is

30:49

working, Find someone to just keep running it. If

30:51

you don't want to be that person committing, want to be

30:53

a network or some the guy you're looking to network a

30:55

person I have. No, no, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a crater.

30:57

You know it's a debate on you know you could be

30:59

an entrepreneur with a networking. Point. Being know

31:01

that I regret not finding someone taxi to

31:03

keep it going. So. That was a

31:05

great thing this really accepting who your if

31:07

your starter and finding that are but also

31:09

if you finding this funny working system person

31:12

Software to Kentucky running a business Charlie Hudson

31:14

set up to this guy. He copied my

31:16

exact formula for doing is conferences didn't for

31:18

the next two to three years and ended

31:20

up selling up dozens for multimillion dollars so

31:22

that was it. In one of the stores

31:24

are you are like has seen the light

31:26

other life A could have lived. Really?

31:28

Other honest advice from my career of

31:30

the going about. This guy J. Yang

31:32

who's helping us at As Cantonese even

31:34

know listen to this game is approaching

31:36

the career the where I would have

31:38

liked where he was doing less social

31:40

media. He reached out with a pitch

31:42

deck to me about potentially working the

31:44

other he's internet for companies he's putting

31:46

himself out there is getting paid fairly

31:48

disgusting pig literally more than teachers by

31:51

working with me and he still concerned

31:53

going to college and I think that's

31:55

just a really cool thing for him

31:57

to be so. Immersed in experienced.

32:00

The only thing career wise I would really encourage

32:02

a to think about, you know, it's funded you're

32:04

the worst that but also have. I know

32:06

the southern whites like yeah, I know it's like yes,

32:08

sacrifice, suffer, work your ass off, make a lot of

32:10

money, and he's doing all these things and I think

32:12

he really enjoys that. It's obvious with the the results.

32:14

Go work in Japan! And.

32:16

Go get some brand new experiences. I

32:19

think part of especially youth is just

32:21

about diversity and of experiences and making

32:23

sure you're enjoying things outside of just

32:25

the work. Rather go play basketball, go

32:28

get seats at about we go interview

32:30

a Gm of the basketball team, answer

32:32

podcast and sell ads Make money com

32:34

decongestant of. The Gold. Make sure

32:36

you're having fun. His whole life experiences not only

32:38

about the work, but I believe you can find

32:41

out who you can really be counter entrepreneurship and

32:43

it's just such a cool thing where I can't

32:45

imagine a career of having a day job. I

32:47

just. Don't thing

32:49

i could ever do it specially know this point

32:52

but it is a balance of like jealous co

32:54

worker asses off and let's try to find some

32:56

balance of working on of in a new gone

32:58

in and enjoying the flies. Other things

33:01

in career. You. Can get rich with

33:03

a day job known. Really recognizes that I became

33:05

a millionaire thirty mostly for my day job. So

33:07

I got about half a million dollars from two

33:09

companies which was gamut, the payments company and these

33:12

conferences. And the other half? A million with

33:14

could literally I just saved everything. I put

33:16

about half in cash and half in

33:18

despair. Stock market and Vanguard and a

33:20

just insane anything. And. So you can

33:22

get rid of these day jobs and by having

33:24

this capital it gives you the power to choose

33:26

how you wanna spend your time which that is

33:28

really we're we're all aiming for which is so

33:30

have about having job. It's bad being in a

33:32

lot of meetings are being at the city boss

33:34

are being a comedian like and not one to

33:36

actually do that says within a ten year span

33:38

you can easily I would say in are you

33:40

try few businesses are you get that any keep

33:42

your job and you save like thirty your live

33:44

in a very optionality be five. So. That's

33:46

something that in your career to to be mindful of. I

33:49

wish I would have jobs added more in college. Just

33:51

like hate go. Kind of like see what you do

33:53

for day. Or. Interview more people on

33:55

podcast. I had no fucking clue. I

33:57

wish there is Milly other weekend and I really wish out.

34:00

I'm like alright here's ten different careers. I'm gonna go

34:02

spend two hours talking be a different. People really limit

34:04

what they do. all they are like one of the

34:06

lawyer do. Dude. Stephen To this

34:08

day I banker What Do you

34:10

Do. What's. The I. Investment

34:12

Bank or the Investing Banking in.

34:15

And. I think that would have been on a really cool concept

34:17

were at a lot of people I think going become doctors

34:19

and regret it when they're actually doctor. And. On

34:21

people that have done that and I just wish I

34:23

would a had more of a spectrum of tasting different

34:25

careers out. There's. A Poll Bronson book that I

34:27

was feeling good about this which is like what should I do

34:29

with my wife. Yeah, what should I do with

34:32

my life? Literally As early on as an older but I

34:34

read but is still a good one so would have done

34:36

that. Seventy. Seven. Just obvious. Like I think

34:38

being in the Bay was just such an advantage for

34:40

me. Like he was just such a cheap. Literally

34:43

having a density of just amazing people and

34:45

so online or offline there is a cheat

34:47

about density. Like who's in your what's have

34:49

group, who's not slackers putting your tax group,

34:51

whose in your like Twitter, Dm and geographically

34:54

are virtually like how are you really surrounding

34:56

yourself With that in what I would say

34:58

that I did well in my career that

35:00

was surrounded myself with exceptional people before. I

35:03

guess they are famous, are super rich, right?

35:05

So like working for Zuckerberg, connecting with Tim

35:07

Ferris connecting with Andrew Chan connecting with Max

35:09

Levchin connecting James on connecting with see through

35:11

Boy connect with Mark Pincus. Those are all

35:13

view I met in my twenties and so

35:15

how do you be either in a geographical

35:17

or in the industry and think that's an

35:19

that you have people don't think about. Which

35:21

is how are you choosing an industry where

35:24

you gonna be surrounded with other in some

35:26

people like even with Bitcoin Outsiders Mp promptly

35:28

on our Joe Kelly from Unchained are Com

35:30

And that's it because if he around that

35:32

spacer you're bound to be deceitful and I

35:34

think you can either be. Creating a business

35:36

or be documenting industry that's kind of the

35:38

two purchase a team have success and and

35:40

just being immersed in these different areas. So.

35:43

I would if I think about how do you

35:45

immerse yourself either geographically or industry wise within your

35:48

career. Other thing for have a stable house. That

35:51

was something where you know my mom's william

35:53

and flinging basement living so cheap. I think

35:55

I wish I would have just had a

35:57

more stable foundation of a home of a

35:59

nest like a bird. I wanted Airbus and

36:01

she like you're living on couches and your

36:03

move in every month and it's hard to

36:05

build with the a rocky foundation. And.

36:07

So the next year actually for two more

36:09

years I really didn't get a house. only

36:12

one us about thirty of rented my first

36:14

apartment really in Austin. Subsume. Even

36:16

things out lot more stable relatively. So.

36:18

If you don't have a stable home, how do you

36:20

create a stable? My name. Talk about living. Return to

36:22

think stability. We. Have a place that you know you can show

36:25

up on the regular. Reader. Shit hundreds or bio

36:27

books I think those are always cheat codes. You can

36:29

really get inspired of a help you are living. You.

36:31

Know I read so many like the three, the

36:33

Dalai Lama's and Bill Gates and to Steve Jobs

36:35

in a lot of the icons. And. Just

36:37

like such a plethora. Nanci do it for free at

36:40

the library an arm and authors of Tie to go

36:42

buy books and stores making it for free bed online.

36:44

Be. Ago Real autobiographies as such as

36:47

a way to see how successful

36:49

people in different areas have a

36:51

press their life. By. The way keep

36:53

a journal of all the stuff you know when I got

36:55

far but facebook and have looked back at blog a private

36:57

one. Keep. A diary don't shared

36:59

online. But. It's something that's gonna documenting how

37:02

you're thinking about your life. That's just a

37:04

really cool thing that you'll wish you had more. like.

37:06

Now have some photos so that that's typical, we didn't

37:08

have that for an old school. But. Having

37:10

a diary. Can I help you understand how you're thinking

37:12

at different times? Maybe will be more proud of it.

37:14

Or maybe a we like our neon you're telling story

37:16

now but he actually a journal. I. Look at

37:18

my journal and million put up here. In.

37:21

My journal still have that which is crazy.

37:23

Looking. Back at some of the the

37:25

older days of being at Facebook it

37:27

was like whoa. I. Think were was

37:30

interesting the some of my older not from

37:32

facebook and and writing about the stuff was

37:34

it was an all like roses and my

37:36

field a look back on that. Other

37:38

brutally honest advice. And fucking

37:40

okay man. Enjoy! This goddamn party won a

37:42

planet. The. Said career advice: Find fucking

37:44

optimistic people to be around. As

37:47

think of my career I just did a good

37:49

job over time to really honing and like finding

37:51

people pre influencers which I've talked about monday weekend

37:53

and just like for optimistic people in your life.

37:55

The A of us have no different than I'm which book with

37:57

like we keep on lot of older people to because we. The

38:00

abdomen. Heard. Of you go really dislike

38:02

or the you'd do Gustafsson are positive and

38:04

or how their cars can inspire you. Your.

38:06

The inspiration of the people at surround

38:09

you and so go do inspiring thing

38:11

that you're proud of and find other

38:13

people around you and I would say

38:15

with with my brutally honest career advice

38:18

that it's all gonna work out. You.

38:20

Might be fucking angry. You might your side you my silly.

38:22

You don't know what to do, but what if where you're

38:25

at is actually the right place? And maybe to

38:27

smile at that. That.

38:32

Is a rap. Hope to love the episode

38:34

as much as we did. Make it for

38:36

you. Go check out teddycal.com It is a

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cowardly alternative. People are making six figures a

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read million Dollar Weekend, go grab tidy Callback

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text of any eleven: your dog was pussy

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a movie together. Watch C moans

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but Venezuela rooted and for you.

38:59

but I'm audience at know taken

39:01

and let me know he thought

39:03

of this episode follicles as the

39:05

amazing team who make all this

39:07

happened. think it adjacent podcast tech.com

39:09

because a guy is hydrated on

39:12

making these podcasts on so damn

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good. Drink it A Jeremy Cam,

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Tommy Sylvie, Jake, Metal and our

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brand new ea Go from the

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