Am Anfang zählt harte Arbeit, nicht Strategie

0:00for the people that are at zero. >> Yeah. >> What is it that they're typically coming to you to help them with? So, if you were one of them, >> Yeah. >> what is it that they want from Alex or Mizie? >> I think it's um there's what they think they want and what they actually need. Um which are two different things. And so, I think what they think they want is uh some tactic that's going to immediately help them start a business.

0:26um what they typically actually need is um the courage to be willing to be wrong and to be willing to have shame by failing at things in front of people whose opinions they care about. And I think that's like if I re rewind the clock for me, it was probably one of the hardest things that I had to get over. And so I think that's why maybe my message resonates with a lot of people is because it was so hard for me um to get over. And [snorts] what's interesting is basically anybody who's listening, the harder it is for you to break free of whatever kind of mental prison you've made for yourself, whether that's real or just in in your head, the more compelling your story will be when you break through it. Um because it will resonate with even more people. uh for the people that it was easy that their story doesn't have doesn't have a lot of like I was immediately an entrepreneur like I wasn't like that. I had a job when I was in high school. I had a job immediately out of college. Some people like I was selling lemonade out of the back of my you know thing when I was 13.

1:27I didn't do any of that. Like I school failed me. I actually was pretty good at school. Uh I didn't have any of those issues. You know what I mean? And so I had a a pretty clear career path. And so I had what many would consider like I had a real opportunity cost. So, I had a white collar job and I had uh a GMAT score above Harvard's midcore. And so, I had a a really clear path of what my life would could look like in the next 2030 years. And it was fairly well defined like I'll go to Harvard or Stanford or one of the top business schools and then I will either go back into management consulting or I'll go into investment banking and then eventually end up in private equity. Um, and that would be the path, right? And then all the flowers would be set at my feet and you know, everyone would say we approve of you, you're an excellent person. But when I saw the people who were 20 years ahead of me, I really didn't want their life. And then it started making me look at my life and I was like, I don't even know if I really want my life. Um, and so the the big decisions that I've made in my life, unfortunately, um, have almost always come at the at the the doorstep of a parent death. Um, and I think maybe in some ways that makes me a coward, uh, for having needed death to make decisions. And so operationalizing that has been something that has helped me move faster to make decisions that I know I need to make but don't. And so like the first big kind of like what felt like a death decision was um I was a consultant 22ish years old. I had a paid for you know condo that I bought uh overlooking the city and I remember thinking like I really hope I don't wake up tomorrow and that and I don't mean that to be melodramatic. I just I just for a period of time I just always just like hoped every night I was like I just really hope I don't wake up tomorrow like I just don't want to do this. And what was difficult about that was that at that time was when my father was most proud of me. Uh because I was doing everything that was according to plan.

3:19You know he could talk about like his son who graduated in three years from Vanderbilt had the had the good job like everything was we're following the plan. Um, and it was upon realizing that my ultimate expression of living out his dream was me feeling like I didn't want to be alive. And so in and it took me time to get to that point to even articulate that cuz obviously you never want to kind of like admit failure of like I have really messed something up here. Um, but I was living my life to win someone else's game. And when I realized that, I realized that one of our dreams had to die. Either his or mine. And when I realized that his dream must die in order for mine to live was a a statement that I kind of crystallized when I was at that point in my life, like I had to keep repeating that like his dream has to die in order for mine to live. And so to put this in perspective of like how afraid of my father's judgment I was, I left the state and drove across the country halfway through before calling him to tell him that I was gone. And so I I bring this up because I don't try I'm not trying to be dramatic here, but I'm saying that if you feel a lot of pressure, I get it. Like I tried to leave the job that I was at to pursue just literally anything that wasn't that just I wanted to start a business at some point. I didn't know how I was going to do it. I just knew that what I was doing was not the path I wanted to be on. and everybody around me wanted me to be on that path and so I went to go be like hey I'm thinking about doing something else and you know it would always be that ah you know don't later later like everything's good later you know and um I remember when I called my dad and I told him that he said understand why don't you come like come home we'll uh well I didn't tell him that I was I was gone yet like I said hey I you know I want to go pursue this fitness thing um he said cool come over for lunch we'll talk about it you know and and he and I was like I'm I'm already gone on and then obviously his tone changed a lot. Um and um and you know our relationship struggled for you know years after that. And I I also bring that up because sometimes there's this illusion that like you know you get on the on the Oscar stage or whatever it is and you're like hey I just want to thank you know my mom, my dad, my friends for always supporting me. And um I can't say that and I wish I could and you might not be able to say that either. And I also don't think that's a reason not to do it. And so, um, we did struggle for years after that to kind of like because I was basically living as what was once his prodical son, uh, goes and takes a minimum wage job as a personal trainer at a gym. Uh, like you know, cleaning floors and stuff to learn just to learn the gym business. Um, but that was ultimately like how I broke free literally, you know, physically, uh, leaving the area and, you know, mentally. But I think that I had to accept that there was a there was a timeline where my father would never talk to me again and I had to be okay with that um to pursue what I wanted.

6:12And I think that when you asked the original question, what are the people from 0 to1 really looking for? I read tons of business books at that time. But I couldn't use any of them because I was so afraid. And what's crazy is that like I think about it now in retrospect and it's like it's crazy how large the perceived monsters can appear. And Leila has this quote that I love, but it's um fear is a mile wide and an inch deep.

6:38And so you look at it, it looks like this ocean and then you take the first step and you realize you don't drown because it's like, oh, there's ground underneath of this, right? There's other people who are more on my path. And the friends you lose, you gain new friends, right? And so, um, that fear was the hardest decision that I've had to overcome in my entrepreneurial career. And I think of all the of all the the split paths in my life, that was the one that if I had many timelines or many universes that existed, that was probably the one that is the most likely that I would not have parted from. So I think in like 90% of universes that Alexi exists, I'm just a consultant somewhere. And so um I would encourage you if you do feel that you're not going to die like you won't die and you might just live.

7:24It's so interesting because I think everything you've said is just absolutely spot on. But you're right in where you say that if you'd asked an audience member listening now why they haven't started yet, >> they wouldn't say fear. >> They would say, "I haven't got the X. I haven't got the Y." But actually, it is such an emotional thing and we don't talk about that enough because uncertainty is humans seem to be allergic to uncertainty and they'd rather the certain misery of their current situation typically than uncertainty. And I think um and I and I used what I consider a very non-palatable word of coward purposefully because no one wants to say they're afraid because if you say you're afraid then it means you're a coward.

8:04And I think that it only means you're a coward if you don't if you allow that fear to change your behavior in an aversive way as in it not towards what you want. And so you know the inverse of that many people have heard it courage is not acting um without fear but despite fear. Um and I think that um when you act when you allow fear to change your behavior the wrong way that is when you can give yourself that title of coward.

8:34And I think that that is a title that I have feared my whole life. And that label is almost I'm more afraid of that label >> than the label of failure. >> I'd rather be a failure than a coward. Real quick, I'm going to show you the exact 10-stage road map from zero to 100 million plus that less than 1% of companies finish I've now done multiple times. And so I can say with a lot of confidence that these are the stages as headcount increases that you need to get through. And I broke each of these down by eight different functions of the business, what the constraint feels like, like what are the symptoms of it when you're going through it, and then what steps we actually took to graduate.

9:08And we've done this across software, physical products, uh, service businesses, brick and mortar, all of this, and it works. And it's my gift to you. It's absolutely free. And so the link's in the description, but you just go acquisition.comroadmap. Just enter your info and it'll spit it right back to you. Offering.