Every Business Sucks. Pick the One You Like

0:00seeking. >> Right. >> It seems like in Silicon Valley, there's often uh you know, Naval talks about this. Like there's value >> Silicon Valley. >> Yeah, well well that well that's what I want to know. Uh in Silicon Valley, there's a lot of trend chasing, there's a lot of status seeking, and there's value in like doing low status activities. And I'm wondering in in mid-market entrepreneurship, small businesses, like what is the shape of that? Is it different than Silicon Valley? Is it less pronounced, more pronounced? Like what is the version of look, you just need to run a series of golf courses and be happy with that that type of thing or whatever

0:31>> Whatever the equivalent is. >> I think it depends on who they compare themselves to. I think it just comes down to that. I think tech guys compare themselves to tech guys, and they want approval from tech guys, and so they do the the activities that tech guys approve of. If you're an HVAC guy, then it's going to be you're going to do the activities that HVAC people uh think are cool if they're the peer group that you actually uh compare yourself to, which they might not be. Um and to be fair, >> I love the tech guys that that sell their business for nine figures and then they're like, I need a cash flowing lifestyle business ASAP.

0:58I know a lot of them. A lot. >> Like a crazy amount. Like buying gas stations. Like it's a lot. >> How how bad is that? >> Bad, what do you mean? >> Like because I I imagine it's a grass is greener on the other other other side thing, where they enjoyed building their business, they sold it, they have all this cash, but they want cash flow, they want the stability of the cash flow. And so they want the idea of [snorts] of running a small business. And they don't exactly, but they don't think about what it means to like at 2:00 a.m. your gas station got robbed, and you got to go down there and sort it out with the cops or something like that. And so I'm wondering about like what is the actual lesson there for someone who's like about to get over their skis?

1:35>> Yeah. I think humans are inherently dissatisfied. >> Okay. >> [laughter] >> And I think whatever you have, you want what you don't have. And so if you're married, you're like, "Ah, what what life would be different if I was single?" If you're a parent, you're like, "Ah, can you remember when we didn't have kids?" And when you don't have kids, you're like, "I wish I had kids." If you're an employee, you're like, "Man, I wish I was an entrepreneur." And somebody who's an entrepreneur, you're like, "Man, it would be so nice to just show up and clock out at 5:00 and not have to think about it and get a check." Like we just always we want to make we want the benefits of a trade-off without the negatives of the trade-off. >> Sure. Yeah. >> And so when guys are in the cash flow business cuz I'll I'll cuz I that's who I talk to the majority of the time is like what they're thinking about all the time is like it's hard to sell this business.

2:08Um I'm not really building my net worth. The multiples that I'm going to get on this aren't going to necessarily be that high. Um I'm dealing with people all day. I've dealt with low-skilled labor and I've got, you know, churn issues or finding techs that aren't going to show up drunk on the job. Like there's like my one of my favorite quotes of all time I'm going to try not to cuss on this one, but um >> Go on. >> My CFO was uh deep South Texas when we were when we were in Texas when we were building Gym Launch. Um Suzanne Scheflett, shout-out to Suzanne. Um she was the reason we were able to sell Gym Launch. Um she's she had been she had been a CFO for four companies from one to 100 million plus.

2:42I had done a $5 million exit and I think she'd she'd been either buy side or sell side over 20 times. >> Wow. >> She was just like she was like she's so weathered in a good way, right? Um and she said, "You know what, Alex?" >> She's like "It's all shit." >> [laughter] >> She's like, "It's all Every business is It's all shit." And I and it was but it was like she said it with so much sincerity cuz I was like at the time I was like, "Man, it'd be cool if we got this kind of multiple blah blah blah." And she was like, "It just doesn't It's It It all sucks. And it's just different type of suck, but it all sucks."

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