Archives for 2024

If you ever want to sell a company for a very high multiple, here’s some qualities of that company:
– It owns a niche.
– It has recurring revenue.
– It has tech at its core.
– It is international.
– It has defensive IP.

There was a fantastic episode with Scott Galloway on the My First Million Podcast about building wealth in your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s so you can relax later in life:

Here’s a raw dump of my notes (sorry for poor spelling/grammar all taken on my phone):

————MY NOTES————

The sexier the business the lower return unless you’re top .001%. Find your talent and become good at that in a fields with a 90% employment rate.

Less sexy the business the higher the return. Where can you be great?

Why some people can sell for high multiples: -They own a niche -They have recurring revenue -Tech is at their core -They are international -They have defensive IP

Consulting: “pay me $250,000/yr and I’ll answer all your questions.”

He spent $17m to build scraping tools. Was focused on exit right away.

Started L2. Sold for $160m. Started it at ~44 years old.

Build a small business by high retention of good employees. If a person has a friend at work they’re less likely to leave. I don’t try to be their friend, I try to be their dad.

Sometimes in the world of media the whole world just stops advertising.

Was in his early 40s and flailing and his takeover the New York Times went very poorly and lost a lot of peoples money and people were not advertising anymore and he was just figuring out a way to be able to afford living in New York.

Sold Prohet for $33m 2010 started L2. Sold for $160m.

Be humble when you have wins bc a lot of times it isn’t you.

You can’t control what happens in your life but you can control how you respond to it.

You’re never more prone to making a big mistake than right after big win.

Need to be more aggressive and have your sails up so when the winds kick up you catch it.

Some people get stuck, they can’t forgive themselves and they lose their mojo, and 7 years later their confidence and skills start atrophying. Put a statute of limitations on it and move forward. Might be time to mourn and move on. Be around people who want more.

“I surround myself with smart younger people because they have a different take on life.”

Opportunity is a function of density. Be in something that has a high density of success. Who becomes wealthy: Be in a big city like San Fran or New York.

Find people you want to be like. You rise or fall to the level of your peer group.

“My 40’s I grinded my ass off, but I delegate a lot.”

America is best country in the world to make money, Europe is best place to spend it.

1% is $750,000/yr. You generally won’t have total balance if you get to 1%. Expect to go all in on your career or scale back expectations. You can control how hard you work when you work. Don’t work so hard you sacrifice your health but enough it takes a toll. Then you can have more balance later in life.

1 source of divorce is money. When a man loses status as a provider he’s more likely to get divorce. Sometimes it’s get out of the way and help other partner.

The more money generally the happier in terms of lower income to middle class to upper class.

If you have lots of money you can relax and exhale.

We’ll all be dead soon, it’ll go by very fast, you should try to have fun and a good time. “I’m going to a country music festival and wear boots and take an edible and just have fun.”

Wealth is about how much you spend. If you consume less than you make you are good. Develop a “savings muscle.”

Take advantage of time by saving and investing and let compounding do its thing. Every 21 years your investments go up 8x.

Yes you can maybe sell a company or something but maybe not, so show some discipline and maturity by slowly getting rich.

Book: The Algebra of Wealth

Wealth = Focus + Stoicism x Time x Diversification

Focus: If you have a side hustle you need to have a better main hustle. The way you get wealthy is by getting really great at one thing. Find it in an industry that’s not very sexy. If you’re top 10% of installing HVAC, you can make a really good living.

Your passion is not your hobby. It’s what you’re really great at.

When wealthy spending time time with kids and parents and people you care about.

Make more than you spend is step 1.

Went from vc to consulting, found out consulting was too hard as he got older and moved to teaching. Had to revamp his life and career and skills several times.

Lost everything twice; in 2000 and 2008. Started diversifying to prevent this.

Started saving a lot of money in his 40’s.

“I deployed an army of Capital in my 40s for my family to go kill and grow while I was asleep.”

Viewed his stack of capital like an army: Here’s a tank, I’ll sacrifice the awesome apartment to grow the army

————MY NOTES————

My buddy Noah Kagan just had a baby shower for upcoming baby, checkout my “Noah Shirt” 😂

Here’s a super cool informative graphic from Lenny about how company pivots happened:

• What their original idea was.
• Why they pivoted.
• How they found their new idea

Super cool to read through and see how companies pivoted and eventually found the right successful idea!

Here’s a cool set of charts showing your age versus how much time you spend with:
– Family
– Friends
– Partner
– Children
– Coworkers
– Yourself Alone

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Here’s all of them together. Some of these charts are sobering, and a reminder to enjoy life while it lasts 😬

Charts Sources: American Time Use Survey (2009-2019)
Charts Credit: @tjpower

I saw another “Our Designer Quit” style ad out in the wild!

This variation is “Our Designer Is On Vacation” but it’s still the same hilarious concept 😂

One way to get attention is by going the exact opposite of everyone else, so instead of a nice ad you have a crappy add.

Here’s some more fun examples that make heads turn:

My buddy Noah Kagan moved his YouTube studio to a different room, and this is the barebones V1 getting it setup.

I can’t wait to see progress and final result! Seeing behind-the-scenes of video studios is fun.