Went from sleeping on the floor, now my jewelry box froze. Fuck up boat, fuck up stove, counted millions in the cold. Bad bitch, booty swole, got her own bankroll, can't fold. That's a no, headshot, case closed. What is up guys? It's Andy Frisella and this is the show for the realists. Say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality, guys. Today, As always, on Mondays we have Q&A. That's where you submit the questions and we give you the answers. If you want to submit some questions to be answered on the show, you could do so. DJ, I'll tell you how, guys.
You can email your questions into askandy@andyforsella.com. You can also click the link in the description below and submit them there, or just drop them in the comments section of the Q&A videos on YouTube.
Tomorrow you're going to hear CTI. That's Cruise the Internet. That's where we put topics of the day up on the screen. We talk about what's going on. We speculate on what we think is actually going on. And then we talk about how we the people have to solve these problems going on in the world. Other times we'll have Real Talk. This is 5 to 20 minutes of me giving you a little rant and then we'll have 75 Hard Versus. 75 Hard Versus is where people who have completed the 75 Hard program come on the show. They talk about how they were before, how they are now, and how they use the 75 Hard program to fix their shit. All right, if you're unfamiliar with 75 Hard, it is the initial phase of the Live Hard program. Which is the world's most famous mental transformation program in history. Okay. You can get that entire program for free at episode 208 on the audio feed. Again, it's 208 on the audio feed. You can also go to AndyParsella.com and buy the book on mental toughness. The book on mental toughness has the entire Live Hard program plus a whole bunch of other content.
About mental toughness, how to cultivate it, why it's important, and how to use it to become the best version of yourself. All right, now one thing about this show, we are the biggest show in the world that doesn't run ads, period. All right, the reason we don't run ads is because I'm not for sale. Everything I say is what I think. It is very authentic, and I don't want anybody saying this or that or thinking that I'm getting paid to not say or say anything. So basically, I do whatever I want, and I ask very simply that you help us grow the show if you like it. All right, so if it makes you think, if it makes you laugh, it gives you new perspective, if you learn some shit, which you absolutely will, especially on Q&As, do us a favor and don't be a hoe, share the show. All right, what's up, man?
Buenos días. Yes. Yep. I'm, you know, I'm going to try to speak a different language every episode.
Oh yeah.
See how that goes.
You should start with English.
All right. I think that this would be my last. No more.
All right.
Damn, dog. How you doing?
You all right? I'm just— I'm good. So you just laid that one up there.
It's just desk popping over there, dog.
Come on, man.
You shot me.
You fucking served that up pretty easy. I mean, you know. Yeah, you got it.
You got to do that. I was defensive. I was typing something else, something up earlier. Mike looked at me, he's like, they're not going to think you wrote that. I'm like, why? He's like, because everything's spelled right. Yeah, you know. So listen, you know, I might still be a little sensitive on that subject, you know, but it's fine, man. Everything is good. It's a big week, man. Yeah, it is. Got a big week, dude. It's—
we're rolling, bro.
Yeah, that's going to be a good time. It's going to be a great time, dude.
Yes.
It's so crazy to like, you know, people don't understand this, but like, if you want shit to be right and like fucking perfect because you can't get there, bro. Yeah. The amount of planning and prep that has to go into that, like people think you can—
Oh shit, dude, we start planning this. We start planning next year's Summer Smash the week after Summer Smash.
100%.
Yeah. The first thing we do is we sit down and we talk about debrief everything that happened, how it went, what we liked, what we didn't like, and how we're going to make it better next year. That way the ideas are all fresh right away. So we start working on that immediately. Yeah, like actively, literally next week on Monday or Tuesday, we will sit down and we will debrief the entire thing and we'll make the plan for next year. Yeah. Then we'll start working on it.
And you got people out here thinking this shit just happens.
Yeah, of course. How's everything else?
Yeah. And it's weird too, dude, because there's like a—
there's like, we just keep getting lucky, man. Don't you know? That's what it is. Yeah, yeah, that's what you get lucky for damn near 30 fucking years.
You know, that's what it is. Yeah. No, but you have— so you have those people who think it needs— requires no preparation.
Yeah.
Then you have the other group of people who feels like it's all preparation and no execution, dude.
Yeah.
What the fuck is that about?
Well, I think, you know, it's two different mindsets, right? The person who prepares and consumes and plans and consume some more, they're lacking courage. Okay? And courage is a massive, massive, massive requirement to succeed. You cannot win. You cannot build. You cannot create. You cannot become unless you go. And so a lot of people will overplan, overprepare, and tell themselves, well, I'm just making sure I got everything set up, you know, and I'm just making sure I know what I need to know. Most of what you know, you're going to learn doing it. This is no different than working at Burger King, bro. You can read the manual, but you're going to know how to make a fucking Whopper until you're making them. All right. That's the same with anything. You know, these guys go to flight school to be fighter pilots. They read the manual. They don't learn shit until they're in the plane.
Right. Okay.
Like, this is— this is how it works.
Yeah.
So you have to be willing to go. And so when people over-prepare, it's, it's to compensate for their lack of courage. Um, and then when people don't prepare at all, that's an ego problem. Those people have some sort of belief that comes from somewhere that they believe that they are better than everybody else by just existing, and that's an arrogance and an ego problem. And those people lose as well. And we see that a lot, especially after someone has had a few wins. Yeah, right. People get what I call the Midas touch. They believe because they've had a few wins and they've done a few things that everything they do and everything that they're going to do is going to win because of who they are now. And that's just not reality. It's arrogance. And that'll get you killed just as much as the guy who never goes. So it's a problem on both ends.
Yeah, it's so crazy. But yeah, dude, it's going to be a great fucking week. I'm excited for it. Excited to see some of you guys there as well.
Yeah, it's gonna be awesome.
And hell yeah, man. But yeah, so let's get this week kicked off with a bang.
Let's do it.
With a shebang.
Yeah.
Yeah, man, let's have, we got a long week ahead of us. Yeah. So let's make some people better today. Guys, Andy, I got 3 good ones for you. Question number 1, Andy, recently I have been struggling with transferring momentum from one day to another. I've heard you talk about how successful people will do anything to keep the momentum, and I'm wondering how big of a problem this is if I can't keep it going. Need some advice.
Uh, you haven't built it yet. Momentum carries you. If you have a problem going from one day to the next day, that means you don't have momentum. That's the definition of fucking momentum. You've created energy that is pushing you and you catch it and it makes things feel like they're effortless. Okay. Momentum is not something that you catch accidentally. It's not something that just happens. Okay. If you look at every single time in your life where everything has become nearly effortless, where you're in the zone, you're locked in, you're kicking ass, everything seems to be working. That is a result of you forcing the execution for so many days before that. All right. Usually for people, it's about 10 to 12 days of force before the momentum kicks in. And when I say 10 to 12 days of force, I mean you're going to have to force it.
Yeah.
All right. If you get to a point and you think like after 2 days you're supposed to have this momentum, you haven't been doing it long enough. You don't have the momentum, so you got to build it. In order to keep it. And the reason that you don't feel like that is because you haven't built it yet. It's not some magical force that shows up after 2 days, bro.
Yeah, here you go, Billy.
Yeah. And by the way, the less disciplined you are, the longer it takes to build. So in the beginning, let's just say you're an undisciplined human and you're going to start to work out and train. That could take you, you know, 20, 30-something days to really get locked in.. But if you're someone who has a high level of discipline that has been developed, that just needs to be sharpened up because it's a perishable skill and we need to make sure that we're— that could be 3 days, it could be 4 days. Like for me, it's about 10 days. Okay. But it used to be like 30, 40 days. All right. So I'm talking like 10 years ago. Yeah. All right. So when you have that discipline muscle developed to a certain level and you know what it is and you know how to utilize it, you know how to leverage it. The amount of time it takes to create the locked-in momentum that you're looking for is much shorter. Here's the reality, dude. You don't have it. That's it. You don't have it. You got to do it longer than what you're doing it. And those days where you're like, oh man, I don't feel like doing it.
That's the important day. That's the most important day. Okay. The most important day is the day that you don't feel like doing it, that you actually do it, because that's where the growth comes from. That's where the extra discipline muscle comes from. All right. So when you like say, oh, and by the way, it's not going to be just easy when you have the momentum. You're still going to have to apply yourself. It's not like— I think the way the question's framed, and maybe it's framed wrong, I don't know, but it sounds like this person thinks it's like magic. Like, oh man, I got trouble. No shit, man. Like, you don't think that I have trouble doing what the fuck I need to do 27 years into this game? There's days when I have, you know, 100 days of wins in a row and then a day shows up and I'm like, fuck, I don't want to do this, man. But then I think, well, I got 100 days in a row and that adds extra pressure for me to force that through. And that's what I'm talking about, what people do when they've created that momentum because, dude, it only takes 2 or 3 days to get totally washed out of that.
Yeah.
So, and that's why in 75 Hard, the rule, the rule is that if you fail, you start over the next day. All right. But a lot of people seem to forget that because they say, oh, I'm going to start again after this or after that or after this. That's why you are where you are, because you're telling yourself some bullshit. Okay. You're justifying it. You're making a negotiation. You're trying to make it convenient. You fucking fail. You pick up right after that. And there's a lesson in that. It's designed that way for a reason. Because if you are living your life and you have 100 days in a row of kicking ass and you have one bad day, you don't want that one bad day to turn into 7 and then you'd be totally downhill from there. All right. So you got to pick right back up. But, you know, a lot of people seem to ignore that.
Yeah. Yeah. Dude, I'm a very visual learner, right?
If you think about it, just so we're clear, when you pick up that day, okay, let's say you're, let's say you're 300 pounds and you want to be 220 or you want to be 215. Okay. You're probably not going to lose that much weight in 75 days. I would say the chances are you're not, but let's say you get to day 40 and then you have a bad day and then you start right back over the next day. What happened? Now you've got another 75 days. And like, real talk, you could probably hit that goal if you do that. That's what it's teaching you, okay? It's teaching you that when you have one bad day, that's not an excuse to turn into 2 or 3 or 4 and then lose control of your entire shit. And a lot of people fail to understand that there's a really strong lesson in starting right back over. Because dude, when you become aware of your own discipline and your own skill set of discipline and where it's at and where it stands and how sharp it is in the moment, you, you become aware of how easy it is to lose.
And that's what part of that reason is. So, you know, you, dude, if you follow the program the way that it's designed, you really can't fuck it up. Like, you can't fail. It's going to build you into a fucking weapon.
Yeah. Yeah, dude. I'm a very visual learner. Right. And so when you were explaining the momentum process, I started picturing like, like having to push a car. Right, the car is in neutral, it's just sitting there, right? You gotta start pushing it, and then when you start pushing it though, it starts coasting a little bit. But if you stop pushing it, it stops again, right?
It's a lot of effort to get it going.
So it's a fair—
an object's in motion tends to stay in motion. That's right, it's physics, it's a law.
Yeah, no, that's real, bro. And so I guess my point is, like, you know, you would say it's true that your momentum is directly just tied to the constant inputs, like it has to constantly be there.
Yes.
This whole like, why? So why do people get so tied in with this momentum thing then?
Like, what do you mean?
Because like, it's not like you said, dude.
First of all, everybody has the wrong idea about it. Yeah, they think you catch it. Yeah. Okay. But every time you've caught it in your life, if you went back and audited what you did the days before you caught that, you would see how you created it. Yeah. So it's not something that you catch. It's something you create. That's the point. Yeah. Most people completely misunderstand it. Just like they misunderstand discipline as being a trait that someone's born with instead of being a skill set that you have to develop.
Yeah.
All right. So it's just a misunderstanding of what it is. Yeah.
And, you know, they also think, too, it's just going to continue to carry them like— well, that's like, you know what I'm saying?
Like, no, you still have to do the work. It just makes the work a little bit easier.
Yeah.
But yeah, man, you have to keep pushing. And that's the reality. And you know what? That translates into every area of your life. That's not just your fitness. It's literally a mentality. That's why Live Hard is a mental fucking program. It is not a weight loss program. It's not a fitness challenge. It is a mental development, mental toughness program. Because if you pay attention to what's happening, you become aware. And like we've been talking about a lot more lately, that awareness allows you to know where you are at any given time. I know when my discipline's getting rounded off. I know when I'm not sharp. I can feel it. I may not be like Fat Andy way off the reservation, okay? But like, I can start to see it and I could start to feel it. And the idea is, is that you want to close the gap before it gets out of hand, right? So once you understand how all these things actually work versus what we're kind of led to believe how they work, how most people think they work, it becomes easier to understand why it's so important to, you know, on that 5th day to push through that because you've already got 4 days going, dude.
You know what I mean?
100%, dude. 100%. Uh, guys, Andy, question number 2. Andy, I run a small business and one thing nobody prepared me for is how often you have to make decisions without knowing if they're right. Hire a person, fire the person, take the contract, expand, wait. I always assumed successful people became confident because they had better answers. Now I'm wondering if they just became comfortable making decisions without that level of certainty. So how did you learn to trust yourself when there was no guarantee that you were making the right call?
Oh, that's tough. No, it's not tough. There's just a lot to it. First of all, you have to understand there's always going to be risk. That's the reality of the game of being an entrepreneur. Yeah, there's going to be risk, but the risk is on both sides. All right. There's a risk. What happens if I make this decision and it doesn't work? What happens if I don't make the decision and it was the right one? All right. So you have to weigh both sides. Most people spend 10 times as much energy weighing the— if I make the wrong decision, what's going to happen? And the way you fix this is by understanding that the only way to actually understand what the right decisions are is to make the wrong ones. All right. So the wrong decisions that you make along the way are actually what adds to your understanding of what the right decisions are down the road. And when you're in the beginning, you want to make the wrong decisions because the repercussions, while they may feel heavy because you're just getting started, they're nothing compared to what you're going to be when you're doing $10, $20, $30, $50, $100, $1 billion in sales.
Okay. So if I was making the same mistakes that I made in, you know, the early days back in, you know, 1999 through 2005 or 6, now we'd be out of business and nobody saw those mistakes because I wasn't relevant. Okay, that's the other thing. You're not making the mistakes in front of the whole world because, dude, nobody knows who you are anyway.
That's right. So you fall on your face.
Yeah, man. Yeah, it's okay. That's part of the process. And if you just reframe how you look at what the outcome of the decision, it's really a win either way because I get it right or I learned quickly that it was the wrong decision. I don't do that again. And like I talk about, there's really only two things that you need to have to be successful, man. You got to be able to understand that when you make the wrong decision, don't make it again. Okay? Certainly don't make it three times because you are going to make some twice. And then the other thing is you have to develop the grit and toughness to continue on when everybody else quits. And if you can do those two things, man, you're going to win. You can't beat someone like that. So the, you know, when we really talk about like what we're You know, there's no certainty, man. Like, even when you've made the mistake before and then that same thing comes up again, you've just minimized the risk. It's still not— still not 100%.
Yeah.
Okay. So you have to be willing to understand that we're living with some risk. That's part of the game. And you have to learn how to evaluate it properly, which is what we're talking about right now. The other thing is that based on those decisions, you develop a better vision for the playing field. Okay, you kind of know that, like, just in baseball, right? Like, you know, a guy who is a left-handed hitter who pulls 85% of the balls that he hits, you know that you could put a shift and run 3 infielders to the right side of the infield because you've seen it so many times. That's a calculated bet. Now he may fucking, you know, he may go the opposite way and hit it right through the hole where the shortstop is.
My bunt.
But he's only done that 15% of the time. So you kind of know, you see what I'm saying? Yeah. So it's, it's about allowing yourself to learn the lessons that then develop the skill of being able to see down the field and understand what's about to happen. All right. The reason that my vision is so good and I can be 2, 3 years ahead of everybody else in almost everything including what we talk about in politics and all this shit, is because I've been doing this for so long, dude. It's not a gift. It's a, it's a skill that I've developed by looking ahead. Right.
It's a sharp fucking knife.
Yeah. And I look at it, you know, in, in business where I've been, you know, fortunately very successful, I always have to look ahead. That's my job. My job is to be at the top of the mast we're all in a boat together, dude. And, you know, everybody's down there and they're fucking rowing. And my job is to stand at the top of the fucking lookout and be like, all right, guys, we got to go left right now or we're going to drift into this iceberg. Okay? And then we got to make a sharp right and we got to go over there. That's my job. Okay? So, and then when I'm not, when there's open seas, I get down and row the fucking boat.
That's right.
That's what a good leader does. All right? But the vision part of it is an acquired skill set that you just don't have yet. So it makes it real scary, dude. But the only way that you develop it is by having the courage to make the decision based upon the risk assessment that you can, that you can make at the time. And this is where like having and being surrounded by good mentors is super important. And when I say mentors, I don't necessarily mean go pay someone. I mean like, find dudes that are older than you, find ladies that are older than you that have been through this journey, you know, make friends with them, you know, pay attention to them, like watch them. Like one of the things that I think I've done very well that has helped me is like I watch other entrepreneurs that are ahead of me and how they move and how they operate and how they think. And then when they make moves, I try to evaluate like, why do they do that? Or why do they think that? I don't ever assume that these guys are stupid. I always assume this person knows what they're doing.
And even if I think it's stupid, there's a reason for it. So what is that reason? Yeah, you see what I'm saying? 100%. So it's— there's— you have to have humility about your own skill set. But dude, like when you're just getting started, man, you know, it's— it all seems like magic. Like if you can't see behind the curtain.
Yeah.
You figure like it's all magic, but it's not, man. It just comes from having the courage to make a decision that you— if you can't make a decision that you don't know the outcome of, you can't be an entrepreneur because it's literally— that's, that's the fucking game.
Yeah.
Now, as you get more experience and as you make more mistakes and as you add to that skill set and understanding of the game that you're playing, it becomes easier to make the right decision with certainty. But there's still always risk and you've got to be able to to tolerate that.
Yeah.
And you've got to have the courage, you know, to do that. And the thing is, is, you know, any entrepreneur— you show me an entrepreneur that says this for sure is going to work every single time, I'm going to show you guys about to lose.
Yeah, real talk. Is that real?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. They— there's— the game is always changing, dude. Look, you got to understand, you're— look, man, I like to use the analogy of being in a boat because it's very accurate. Because like there, it's, it's one thing to row a boat when the lake's smooth and the, and the water's glass and everything's easy. It's a completely another thing to row the boat when there's a fucking hurricane.
That's right.
Okay. It's a completely another thing to row the boat in the wintertime as it is the summertime. The, one of my point is, is that the environment is always changing and it's always changing in business. There are fundamental rules that stay the same. But if you think that what you did 3 years ago or 5 years ago or last week is going to work the same 2 years from now just because you won then, that's, that's, that's not right. That's not, it's not going to work. That's no different than being in a football game and saying, oh man, we did a, you know, we did a toss sweep to the left at the 20-yard line one time and it went 80 yards, so it's going to work right now. Like, that's not how it works. You have to evaluate the, the environment. And by the way, just so you know, it's never smooth water and the sun is never shining and things are never perfect, which is also why the Live Hard program and the 75 Hard program is so important because it's not convenient. You have to learn to operate when things are not convenient, especially because that's when other people quit, dude.
Other people, they're in their boat and they're like in the boat. See, you're all in a boat. You just don't fucking realize it. Okay, they're, they're in their boat and they're like, man, I'm just going to wait to start rowing until the fucking weather's perfect. But the weather ain't ever perfect. So conditions are never perfect and you have to be able to evaluate. This is why, like, old sea dog captains are so good because it's not because, you know, there's some genius.
It's because they've been through all the shit, man, without all the fancy tools and equipment.
Yeah, dude. And then if you're an entrepreneur like myself, who has been through— and I've run successful companies before the internet, I've run them after the internet and before social media, I've run them after social media. Dude, I fucking know the game, okay? And one of the game— one of the biggest things about entrepreneurship is you have to be able to adapt to the environment. That's what's going to be conducive to you winning currently. Yeah. So like when people say, you know, like when guys get real confident because they won once, or, you know, like, dude, there's There's dudes, you know, like, oh, my fucking uncle worked at Target and I got my product all over the country. Oh, you don't know shit. You don't know anything. You hit— you got up to the first— you got up at batting practice and the first pitch you hit a home run. You think you're fucking Babe Ruth. That's right. Right. Like, there's people like that.
The game is long too. Yeah. Fuck, dude.
And this is also why— this is also why when guys get to be like my age and they've gone through all this shit, built all this shit, done all these things, and then they get resources and they're able to maintain that hunger and that they've built relationships and they've got some money and they've got— bro, they become super fucking dangerous because, dude, now they know like all this shit and now they have resources behind it. Now, now you're dealing with a fucking problem.
You're cooking with some gas there.
I'm just saying.
Yeah.
Entrepreneurship is the only sport that you can play where the older guys are far more dangerous than the younger guys. Yeah, they just are.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've also heard you talk too about, you know, just decision-making in business. It's like, you know, you— I can't remember which one you were talking about, but there was a decision that you made and it wasn't that it was just— it wasn't that it was the wrong decision. It just wasn't the right time. Because like it had— now you implemented it years later, it was like, oh, it fucking worked. It wasn't ready. Time, the environment, the market.
That's another thing is you can get— you, your vision can get so fucking sharp that like, dude, like look at how we handle CTI. Okay. Like let's just use that as an example. The shit that people are talking about today, you could go back and I was talking about 5 years ago, 100% legitimately, 100%. Okay. And the shit I'm talking about today, Nobody's going to be talking about for 2 or 3 years. Like, it's just what it is, man. And so, like, I'm, I'm ahead and it makes you sometimes it makes you look like you're wrong, but you're not wrong. You're just way ahead. Yeah.
And I don't know yet. That's all it is.
Yeah, dude. And, you know, that's a whole nother— that opens a whole nother problem because in business that can become a problem too, right? Like you can, you could kind of see what's forming and position yourself too quickly to where you actually go backwards before you go forwards. So there's a lot here, dude. So like when you said, you know, it's a hard question, it's not hard, but like we could talk about this one thing for literally like 2 days. Yeah. You know, like this is, this is, it's a fluid environment, man. And you have to be able to recognize what's happening. You have to be able to recognize the changes that are happening in the environment. You have to be able to make decisions today that are going to put you in the spot when all those things converge to push you forward. I'll give you an example. 4 years ago, 5 years ago, 6 years ago now, I was telling everybody, I said, Pro-America's coming back. People are going to be patriotic. People aren't— people are going to get their fuck you back and they're going to want to support companies that didn't go with all this woke bullshit.
And look what's happened. Everybody at that time was like, Andy, but if I do that, they're going to fucking hate me. No. Now everybody knows who the real people are and who the fucking fake people are. And that's a big problem with influencers. It's a big problem with companies right now. How do you unwoke your company?
You see what I'm saying?
I mean, bro, look, Harley-Davidson is going through right now. They're getting fucking destroyed because they didn't understand that They needed to be America's brand when it wasn't cool to be America's brand. Okay. And now they're paying the price for it because they're getting called out by everybody. And you know who's benefiting?
Indian.
Yep. Because an Indian makes great shit.
They make great bikes. So now you got a competitor who would say faster off the, off the floor.
I mean, look, bro, now you got a competitor.
Yeah.
That you gave the fucking ground up to because you didn't have the foresight or the balls to stand on who the fuck you are. All right. But I said that years ago. And, you know, a lot of you guys who are entrepreneurs, you know, you guys were hesitant to do that. And, and now you have a problem. So, and this goes back to what we talked about with Ferrari. Okay. On the last show, you got to know what your core brand structure is and you have to fucking stick to that framework. What this is, why core values and living by them and standing by them knowing who you are are so much more important than trying to be the thing that is popular at the time. Yeah. Okay. And getting back to the point I was making, we were that way before all the woke shit. We were that way during all the woke shit, and now we're being rewarded for it.
Yeah.
You see what I'm saying? So our brand's exploding again. And the reason it is, is because people know that we don't fucking bend the knee to this bullshit. We are who the fuck we say we are. We've always been that. And that's what you're going to get. And people like that. So, yeah, so like, dude, when you, you know, there's an art to this, okay? It's not a science. Science is for sure. Art is like an educated guess almost.
Yeah.
You know what I mean? In a different way.
Yeah. Takes some finesse.
It does. That maybe is a better word than art, but it's more artistically creative than it is science. Yeah. You know what I mean? Maybe it's like a hypothesis, right? But it's certainly not a definitive, for sure proven thing.
Yeah.
And, you know, that's what makes business fun, I think. Yeah, that's what I enjoy about it most. There's nothing more rewarding to me in business. Well, there's two things that I— going back to what I said a minute ago about the older guys, that only applies if they maintain their hunger. Okay, a lot of older guys get fucking lazy, they get comfortable, and they become easy to beat because of that. The younger guys eat them up. But that older guy who knows all this shit is able to maintain that drive by expanding the vision, that motherfucker's hard to beat.
Can't fuck with it. It's hard.
Okay. You're going to have to hit some fucking unscheduled home runs.
That's right.
Okay. But over the long haul, that guy, you can't really catch that guy because they've got the years on you and the experience and the environment and they've been through the bad weather and all these things. But dude, the, the reason is a lot of these old guys, what they do is they get in their 40s and shit, they sell their business and then they kind of lose the plug-in of them paying attention to the environment. They're not really And then like when you try to get back in, it's like learning a whole new language because like you forgot it, you know what I mean? Yeah. But there's two things that I really love at this point in my life. And one is I love helping people change their lives, whether that be through, you know, the Live Hard program or whether that be losing weight or whether that be transforming their personal lives. And the other thing, and whether that be an employee here that we're trying to develop, I love that shit. And then the other thing is I love, I love coming up with a concept, building it out, putting it out into the market, and then seeing how right I was or wrong I was, and then learning that process.
Like that whole thing. Now when you're, when you're young and your ass is on the fucking line literally every day, that's a scary thing.. But that's also like what becomes the most fun once you know some shit. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?
So can I ask you one last piece on this? Just the entrepreneur owner, you know, making these decisions. What, what's the level of transparency do you recommend an entrepreneur who's leading a small team, whatever it is, in making these decisions? How transparent should you be during this process?
In what regard?
So there's a decision that has to be made that, you know, you feel like I got to go left or right, right? Like, and you have people that, you know, are answering to you or you're answering to them, however you're looking at it. How transparent are you in the process about the decision you're making, how you made it, why you're making it?
There's a lot to that. Yeah. Okay.
Depends on decision.
I mean, yeah. No, look, part of what you're asking is how to build a strong culture too. You just don't know that you're asking it. Okay. All right. Because like, when you don't know, you don't fucking know. All right. And so as a leader, you got to know what the fuck you don't know, which means you got to listen to the guys to get their input on the things that they may see differently. There's a big difference between a guy calling in, you know, airstrikes in the fucking tent from the guys that are on the fucking ground. And if you can't listen to those guys and hear what they're saying and trust them, then it makes it impossible to make the right decision. Also, if you just make decisions autonomously all the time, these people don't really feel like they're part of it. Mm-hmm. Okay? So if you wanna build a strong culture, you have to show the humility to take their input. Now, some people will take this to the extreme, and the extreme is they start making decisions by committee,, which is how you end up with a piece of shit like Ferrari just came out.
Ferrari making an EV. That's right.
That's, that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about hearing people out. And then you as the leader taking responsibility for the decision that is right for the team and the outcome that we're after, even if it's not your idea. Okay. Cause you're not always going to have the best idea. A lot of people that are shitty leaders feel like they have to make the call and have it be theirs because it discredits them if they do this, when in reality, dude, that's what bonds the team. All right. So how transparent do you need to be? Does that all make sense?
Yeah, 100%.
Okay. Because, because what happens here is you end up getting buy-in. All right. These guys on the ground They understand that they can talk to you. They understand you're going to evaluate the information and they understand that you're going to make what you think is the best decision, even if it's not your decision, like meaning your idea. Okay. That's a hard thing for leaders to do because they want to flex their authority. That's right. Flexing the authority. I don't know if you guys understand this, but flexing the authority is not the outcome here. We're trying to win. That's right. Okay. It's like that's what we're trying to do.
You know what popped up is like, like football coaches, you know what I'm saying? It's like fucking you got 5 seconds on the clock and the coach is usually like the quarterback. What play do you want to run? And the coach lets the fucking quarterback.
Maybe, you know, maybe the quarterback. It depends on what he's saying. Yeah. You know, like there's other times, like there's— dude, this is where the experience comes into play because sometimes you're going to end up hearing things from certain people that work with you that aren't actually the reality, but they are saying those things in their best interest to make their job easier. So you have, as a leader, you have to be able to evaluate why is this person saying this? Are they saying this because they're on the team? Are they saying this because they want to work less?
Yeah.
The, the way that you get them to make decisions about what's best for the outcome is by cultivating what I'm talking about here, this back and forth, and then a decision making that you make. And then if it's wrong, you take responsibility. You don't say, Steve is the one that came up with that idea. I just fucking thought it would, you know. Yeah, no, it's your fucking fault. You made a fucking decision. It didn't work. Now we're going to do this. And you— there's no ego involved. All right. And when, when, when you think about like how to get people to not make those, those decisions about making their job easier, it's by giving them buy-in to what the overall mission is. So this whole process helps a eliminate a lot of that. You see what I'm saying?
100%.
So, so then when we talk about how transparent you're going to be as your operation gets bigger, right, you're, you're, you're not going to go to the entry-level dude.
He's right.
And say, look, you're going to keep your core circle that's tight. This is why they have boards of directors or you have executive teams.
C-suite.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
These are people that you can trust. These are people whose outcome and their incentives are tied to the accomplishment of the mission. And you keep it tight there and you let them do the other part that we're talking about. You have to coach them on how to do that. Yeah, because, dude, like, if we're being real, the worst fucking leaders in the world are middle management leaders.
Really? Fuck. Why is that?
Because they think that that's some sort of fucking title. It's the first time they've ever had leadership. They think it's about flexing on people and, you know, telling people what to do when in reality it's about developing people and accomplishing the mission. So, so when you say how transparent should I be, it depends on where you are in the business journey. Yeah, right. Like in the beginning and you've got fucking 10 people, you know, they're probably going to know most of the shit. When you have 1,000 people, They're not— people, people aren't going to know, but that's why you're going to have a meeting or say, this is the general direction what we're trying to do. We need you to do this. Do you do this? Do you do this? The guys on the inside, those guys are going to know the exact details of why, what, how, what the key, the key moves are. And, and, you know, those people are always— you're always going to want to be fucking mega transparent with those people. And, um, you know, your job as the leader of a bigger organization is to paint the vision and get everybody organized to move down what the solution is and protect them from worrying about the other outcomes that are possibilities.
Right.
Like, because those can be distractions.
Distractions. That's your job. Your job as a leader is to put that shit on your back.
And that's a trade-off.
And fucking let them do their thing. No different than being at the head of your household. Okay, if you're a man and you go home and you unload all your shit onto your family, you're being a fucking bitch. Okay?
And 1,000%.
That's the truth. Yeah. So you've got to learn that your part, your role on the team, whether it be in your family or whether it be in your business or whether it be this, is to protect the people who are doing the work from the stress of what could go wrong so that they can do their work in a well-focused manner, right? This is why being an entrepreneur and leader is so tough, dude. I mean, there's lots of things that make it tough, but, um, but yeah, man, uh, you know, transparency is mega important, dude, because transparency creates trust, which creates buy-in, which creates better work.
So I love it. I love it, man. Guys, Andy, Third and final question, Andy. Question number 3. Andy, I had a buddy pass away unexpectedly last year. Since then, I can't stop thinking about time. Not in a depressing way, but in a very real way. It made me realize how many things I've been putting off because I'd assume I'd get to them later. I'm 42 going through this now. Was there ever a moment in your life that made time feel real? To you and how did it change how you operated afterward?
Yeah. When I got stabbed in the face, almost fucking died, I realized that my life could have been over and it installed a whole new sense of urgency. And I'm very fortunate that happened to me when it did. It happened to me when I was 23 years old. Okay. I understood after I got over my self-pity that holy shit, this could have been over. All right. And then it happened again when I was in 2011-12 when I was misdiagnosed with a fucking brain tumor and it ended up being a benign cyst that, you know, was nothing.
Did he tell you had like 2 weeks to live?
No, he said no. He said it was inoperable, though.
Oh, fuck.
But, you know, the point is, is, yeah, dude, those things and like your friend and, you know, these things happen and most people fail to see the other side of the gift of that happening, right? Like, you know, your life changes when your own mortality comes into question. You know, everybody lives as if they have forever to do everything they want and you simply don't. And then you wake up one day and you're 50 years old and you're like, holy shit, I haven't been taking care of myself. I've not lived the life I want to live. I've not lived the life I want to live with the people I want to live it. I— and now I'm like way behind. And then they just give up because they're like, fuck, I can't do anything about it. So, which is total bullshit, by the way. Yeah, you can always do something about it. Even if you're 70, you can change things. But the younger you are when this question comes into play and this realization happens, the better for you. I was very fortunate for that to happen to me when I was 23.
Yeah.
All right. Because then I started moving. I started realizing, well, if I'm going to do this, I got to go now. And a lot of people don't have any of these moments come into their lives until they are so far down the pipe that they've wasted a lot of their life. Or when these things do happen, they just refuse to look at the other side of the coin. Right. They, they will just say, man, this happened and it's horrible. And they will never acknowledge the lesson to be learned out of that situation.
Yeah.
And that's the importance. That's the important point of perspective. Okay. Depending on how you look at things, most things, there's almost everything there's a lesson in, and that lesson can apply to you. And if you refuse to acknowledge those lessons, you're going to have a hard life. If you're able to be truthful and honest and be a realist about it. Hey, my friend Steve, man, he's 40 years old and he's dead. And fuck, dude, that could have been me. And I better get my shit together. That's a powerful thing. Yeah, but how many people actually get to that point instead of just saying, oh, my friend Steve died, right?
Yeah.
Like, it's, it's not it. And I think a lot of people don't look at those things because they're so comfortable in the situation that they're in that they don't want to do the work required to change it. Right? They know, they could see it. They know it's there. They understand it, but then they act like they don't so they can pretend to live in ignorance. But the truth of the matter is, is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. So if you've had that realization and you're trying to bury it, you're going to be miserable your whole life because you're really knowing that you're actively wasting your own opportunities. So it's, you know, going through these things, they're, you know, they're bad, but it's the bad things that allow you to realize that you have opportunities that you should, you know, take advantage of while you're here, whether that be traveling, whether that be, uh, you know, building a business, whether that be, uh, whatever it is that you're into, man.
Yeah.
You know, like, that's real shit.
Yeah. Is there a way— because, you know, you mentioned like not everybody's gonna have those type of moments or experiences that kind of wake— that push that selective urgency, I guess, is what it is. So is there a way to always learn from other people? I was about to say, like, I mean, how do you do that? You know what I'm saying? Like, how do you create that sense of urgency then?
I mean, you don't think anybody listening here knows someone that's died when they were 30 years old, right? Right. Freakishly. I know you do.
I do. Yeah, 100%.
You know, you have a situation in your family where a young man died at what, 9 years old? Yeah. Okay. Did that change you? Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
Right. So these things, if we're willing to acknowledge them, instead of being bad things, they become things that drive us. And it depends on how you look at it, right? Like, it would be very easy for me to this— it would have been very easy for me when I got stabbed to just quit everything and like become this piece of shit and then hang on to that story my whole life. And really, dude, nobody would have blamed me.
No, I'm gonna say, yeah, you probably would have. I mean, yeah, justifiably. Yeah. It's a fucked up situation.
Yeah, but I mean, bro, like, and there's people that had it way worse than me. Like, dude, people that have lost their legs or whatever, and they become champions at something new, you know. Um, a guy that just passed away, Alex Zanardi, he was a famous F1 driver. He got in a car wreck and he lost his legs, and they said, oh, you're never gonna do— he became a wheelchair, uh, race champion. Then he got back in a race car and he became a champion again. Like, You either allow these things to move you forward or you allow these things to be the reason, which is bullshit, that you don't do anything. So are you going to be full of shit your whole life? Are you actually going to become what it is you're supposed to become? And that's what it always comes down to, man. So at the end of the day, for you, the guy that wrote this, you know, I don't want to sit here and say it was a blessing that your friend died., but you should look for the blessing in that. And the blessing in that you've already identified, which is I've realized that I don't have all the time that I thought I once had.
And that is a blessing. That's not a curse. Some people never have that. So your job now is to figure out what it is you want, figure it out, who you want to become, what you want to create, and go do those things before the same shit happens to you.
That's fucking real, man. That's fucking real, man. Guys, Andy, that was 3, bro.
Yep, that's 3. All right, guys, let's get out there. Let's have a good week. Uh, don't be a hoe.
Shut the show.
On today's episode, Andy answers your questions on how to keep your momentum going, how to trust yourself to make the right decisions in business, and how to build the skill of urgency instead of putting things off.