I Spent 7 Days With The Richest Men In Texas

Shaan Puri

He was showing us around his house. He's like, that's my nap room. And I was like, you're a nap guy? I'm a nap guy. And he's like, oh, yeah.

I take a nap every day for the last. Do you want a nap together?

Unknown

I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it, like a days off on a road. Let's. All right, you're back from Austin.

Sam Parr

You were there for seven days. How was it? It was great, dude. I had one conversation. I got to ask you this.

Shaan Puri

I got put on the spot. So I was talking to. I did an episode with Tim Ferriss, and he said something in the middle of the interview. He goes, he goes, I wanted to ask you this. What do you say?

What do you think is the brand of your podcast? He goes, what I mean is, if you're not in the room and someone was just telling their friend about it, how would they describe it? Ideally, to you, how would they describe it? You actually did this before, and I actually thought it was great. You said, hey, look, we're doing these meetups.

Sam Parr

And if you are the type of person who goes to a restaurant and you wonder, how could they make this a little bit more efficient? Or how much money do they make perfect per meal, or how much profit do they make and how can they expand this? And you also like to joke around. You're perfect for MFM. And that's sort of the person who I would describe is into it.

I would say that we're this weird combination of making silly, dumb jokes and deconstructing interesting companies and pointing out different trends. Okay, that's pretty good. Yeah. I like the restaurant thing where it's like, if you went to a restaurant with four friends and three of them would be looking at the menu trying to figure out what to order, and you'd be looking around, counting the tabletops and trying to figure out how much money this place makes. That's us.

Shaan Puri

We are that friend. All right, so here's the deal. Things are changing fast in the tech world and the Internet marketing world. And that's a big deal because you have to know which trends to stay on top of in order to market better, in order to acquire customers for. Cheap, and so you can run your.

Unknown

Business as efficiently as possible. Staying on top of all those trends is a pain in the butt, though. And so the folks at HubSpot had made this amazing report. It has a very official sounding name because it is a very official document. It's the 2024 State of Marketing report.

They've looked at millions, tens of millions of bits of data to find the top marketing trends that have the most immediate impact on your business. And so what HubSpot did was they surveyed over 1400 marketing pros from across the world, and they looked at what are people using effectively, what's not working, more importantly, and they've been able to compile it in a really easy to read document. So if you want to learn ways, how to optimize for social, or how to boost engagement, or how to strike the right balance between privacy but still being personal with your customers, go to HubSpot.com stateofmarketing to get the free copy. Or just Google HubSpot state of marketing. And it will come up.

Check it out. Why? What did you say on the air? Well, luckily he let me off the hook because he asked it. He's like, I want to ask you this, but you don't have to answer, but you could do that.

Shaan Puri

And he just kind of kept going. And in my head I was like, okay, the master of podcasting, asking me, what is my podcast about? And it's sort of like, you know, if Leonardo DiCaprio comes up to you and he asks you what your name is, and you're like, I have one. I just don't know what it is right now. You know, the panic ensues.

Sam Parr

I had to go out of town, so it was a weird timing. I wasn't able to make it. But you interviewed four or three people, but you hung out with a ton of people. How, how was, how was Tim for one? You also interviewed Joe Lansdale.

How were these guys? So I took notes. I always take notes when I go. I take a little journal with me, and basically, I'm not taking notes on what happened. I'm only taking notes on what are the new epiphanies?

Shaan Puri

What are the new Golden Nuggets? What's the one phrase somebody said that I'm gonna remember? And I'm looking for a high rate of revelation? I think that's also, by the way, a good move for the podcast. What is the rate of revelation per minute?

How many interesting things are coming out to you? RPM, baby. Rpm. Yeah, exactly. This is a very high RpM trip for me.

I wrote down a bunch of names on our doc, and for each one, I had one big revelation. And so you can prompt me and go for whichever one looks interesting to you, not in order. So Manish, from what I know, he is a what's this book called the DondO InvestoR. Basically what I know about him is that he started maybe in the eighties investing in companies because I think he made some money through his own business. And then he's sort of LIke an indian Warren BUffett, and he's got this huge Following AnD he seems really fascinating TyPe of Guy.

Yeah, so. Exactly. I wanted to talk to him because my mentors consider HIm a mentoR. Right. Like, if you like this podcast and you like, you know, either Andrew Wilkinson or Sayed Balki, like, both of them look up to and learn from Manish.

When I was going out there, I texted Andrew. I was like, hey, what should I ask him? Or I was like, you know him, right? And he's like, dude, he was my first value investing man crush. And like, you know, somebody who's, whose brain you got really attracted to because he has very interesting philosophies and thoughts.

If you google his net worth, it says, like, you know, almost 2 billion. I don't know. You know, googling net worth is not. Not an exact science, but he's up there more like a bee than an m. And he's an interesting guy.

His story is basically, he's working at a company. His dad is like, son, it's time to quit. And he's like, his dad was an entrepreneur. He's like, dad, I don't want to do what you did, man. Your life was crazy.

It was ups and downs. Don't you remember as a kid, we were being brought into the living room when we were 1213 years old, trying to figure out how to let the business survive one more day? He's like, I'm traumatized for that. I just want to work here, save money in my 401k every year, and in 35 years, I'll be set. And his dad was like, okay, you're not wrong, but you took the wrong lesson away from what you learned.

What you. You actually got a crash course in how to do business and how to not do business. Maybe you should just take that and actually learn from it and do it right. Do it better than I could do it. He told him, he's like, you know, at this company, use 2000 people here.

You're just a cog in the machine. Like, you could die tomorrow and no one would even know. And so he's like, you know, you're. You'll never reach your potential just sitting there. So he's like, all right, shit, he's right.

Go starts a company. It was an it, like, consulting company. So this was like, during the.com boom run up when the Internet was really exciting, computers really exciting. He creates a. An IT consulting business.

And so crazy mark, uh, mark Cuban. Also had an IT services business that he sold for 6 million, I bet, around the same time. So it was enough to be comfortable, but not enough to do nothing. Exactly. Exactly.

And so what he did was, um, he takes that money and he starts investing his own money, and he compounds his own money. His own money. He turns, like, whatever. I think at first he had sold a million dollars, a secondary, he turns a million dollars into $13 million. So he knew the indian tech scene pretty well because he had his consulting company, had overseas staff, so he's paying attention to it.

So he invested in one, and it was 140 x. And so he's like, wow, that's insane. I should get out. He pulled out like a million or $2 million from that. That's how he made his first million million bucks.

And he just reinvested. And along the way of, you know, he's giving his friends, like, stock tips. He's like, oh, I'm buying this for this reason. I'm buying this for this reason. They're doing really well, but they're like, manish, like, you know, we can't just listen to your tips because you're not telling us when to sell.

We don't know what you're not telling us. Can we just give you the money? And so he takes a million bucks from his friends. He's like, okay, I'll just. If I'm investing in my shit, I'll just put their money in the same thing.

But he's like, that was the side thing. He's like, I had 13 million. That was 1 million. I didn't really care about it. He proceeds to basically, over the last, whatever, 20 years, 30 years, whatever, run that million dollars up.

He now has, like, about just under a billion dollars of assets under management of the compounding of that, plus people bringing more assets in, obviously, along the way. So, okay, that's a long story about Manish, but that's not what was interesting about him. What's interesting about him is I call him the relaxed billionaire, because I go to this guy's house, he's just chilling. He's just there. He's in his basketball shorts, no shoes, just walking around.

He's like, all right, sup? Like, and we were. Because I went the day before to hang out with them. I was like, we're gonna do the podcast tomorrow, but I want to get to know you a little bit. Let's hang.

Let's. Can I swing by for, you know, let's just have some. Some tea. So I go over to have a tea at his house. He calls it chai with Pabrai.

And he's like. He's like, yeah, I do this from time to time. I just have. I make. I make a really good chai.

I'll just have it with random interesting people. One out of every ten proves to be like someone really compelling. I want to hang out with more. And nine out of ten, no problem. I just had some chaise and he.

Sam Parr

Just moved to Austin, right? He's been there for a little bit. Yeah. So he relocated from, I think, or something. So I was like, so what are you doing today?

Shaan Puri

Because, like, he's hanging out with us for, like, an hour. And I was like, what's. You don't. There's nobody here. Where's your team?

Where's your schedule? Where's your assistant coming? Tapping? You'd be like, you have a call. And he's like, I don't have any of those things.

He's told me a couple interesting. He goes, investing is not a team sport. He goes, I have a few folks, analyst type people, and they'll do specific things that I need them to do, but they don't make decisions. They don't make investment decisions. I make the investment decisions.

He goes, why? He goes, to be a great investor, you need to make a contrarian bet, meaning you have to believe something's good when other people believe that it's bad. Fundamentally, that's how it works. If you think it's good, but everybody thinks it's good, you'll never make any money. The price is too high.

If it's bad and you think it's good, you'll never make it, right? The only way to make money is you think it's good and other people think it's bad. He calls it. I look for things that are hated and unloved. He's like, last year, I made one big bet, or whatever.

Last two years, like, on coal. Coal. He's like, man, Cole, nothing is more hated and unloved than coal. He's like, and before that, it was this. Before that, it was this.

And so he's like, I look for the hated and unloved things. He goes, if you have a team, everybody just centers around the safe picks that we can all agree on. And he's like, you'll never find the truly, truly contrarian, hated and unloved things. If you. If you invest as a team, because it's not a team sport.

Number two, he goes, he's showing us around his house. He's like, that's my nap room. And I was like, you're a nap guy? I'm a nap guy. And he's like, oh, yeah.

I take a nap every day for the last 30 years. Do you want to nap together? Yeah. He's like, he's like, every 30 years, he's. For 30 years, I've been napping every day.

He's like, I love it. Just knock out in the afternoon, 2030 minutes an hour, whatever it is. He's like, it's good for my brain. He's like, I don't make good decisions if I'm not. If I'm not well rested.

He's like, I don't need. Did you guys, like, high five at hugs? Yeah. I was like, finally, this guy's my people. And he's like, oh, yeah.

He's like, I used to live in Dubai. That's how they do it. It's too hot during the day. You just nap. And he's like, it's a no brainer.

But overall, he was like, I have a clear schedule. I spend my time, I read. I think maybe I'll go teach or talk to somebody. He goes, I teach. Not because I want to be a teacher.

He goes, because if I want to learn something, the best way is to go try to teach it. Where does he teach? At, like, a school or. Yeah, he'll go give a talk at a university or, like, to some group of aspiring investors or whatever. And so I was just fascinated by this guy.

I was like, this is the relaxed building. I love this guy's style. I love his mo. I go to his library. He's got just thousands of books, and he's like, yeah, this is my biology and science section.

This is my investing book section. This is my business book section. And he's like, just recommending different books to me. I thought it was pretty fascinating to see this guy because it's high contrast to all the other people I've met on this trip who are like, go, go, go. So I've heard this so often where people say, for one, people will say, like, warren Buffett.

Sam Parr

They're like, I just. I read, like, 500 pages a day. And then I'll talk to our friend Andrew Wilkinson and a few others. He goes, I just want to read all day. And in my head, I'm like, okay, reading.

Because that, like, like, I just read this, like, awesome. Like science fiction book about like aliens. Like, is that counting? Like what? What do they read?

I wonder all day? Like, is it only work related? Is it like the equivalent of you and I skimming twitter? No, no, I think it's less twitter, but I do think it's, you know, some percentage of that is company's annual reports, right? Like going in and diving in and looking at a company, you're looking at an industry trying to understand it.

Shaan Puri

Some of it is understanding the macro, the psychology of humans and about business and about whatever. And he's got business books, psychology books, all that. Some of it's about science and he's reading about that. And some of it's just for fun, just to kind of like expand the brain. Like science fiction is actually quite, quite interesting as an example because a lot of the things that are happening today were predicted by science fiction 2030 years ago.

Everything from cryptocurrency to video calls to things like that at the time seemed far fetched. Predicting video calls when you dont even have a cell phone. Took some thinking there. I do think its a wider breadth. Its not just reading ten qs.

Sam Parr

Yeah, thats why I was worried. I'm just reading those all day. Ten ks. I think, by the way, we dont want to look like a total fool. I'll give you a couple of takeaways from Joe Lonsdale.

Shaan Puri

So for those people who don't know, Joe created Palantir. He's the co founder of Palantir, which is a $50 billion company. But his actual claim to fame, when I was talking to him, he said something, he goes, I've created more billion dollar companies than anyone else in America. That's in good bold. And I was like, cool, cool, cool.

I got a podcast. What's up? I've created more episodes than, than most podcasters. I thought that was a really amazing, amazing achievement. And it's true.

He's done like at least $5 billion companies. And those are all like in the last short period of time. His background is, I think he went to Stanford and he somehow got into Peter Thiel's orbit. When Joe was just like 21 or 20 or still in college, he kind of like right hand Peter and was almost like a protege. Yeah, was his protege intern, whatever, at his hedge fund.

Sam Parr

I think by the story is really. Hilarious because he's like, somebody asked him in an interview when I was doing my research, they were like, what were you like as a kid? And everybody like, if I asked you, successful person gets asked what it was like growing up, what's the typical response? Selling stuff. It's usually humble origins of some kind.

Shaan Puri

Like, I grew up middle class, you know, maybe I had a reading impediment, but that led me to, you know, really working on something. There's usually some rags to riches. The guy asked Joe, and he goes, yeah, I grew up, had great parents, great family. I was. Stuff came pretty easy to me.

I was basically. I just was really good. I aced all my tests. I was 99 percentile math, 99 percentile science. I was a programmer.

He's like, there were smarter kids than me, but school was pretty easy. I focused on it. I did well. I got into Stanford. It's like, that was his story, which I found to be hilariously candid because, of course that exists.

But most people don't want to say that. They're so busy virtue signaling that they'll, like, they'll try to bend their awesome upbringing to be able to focus on some one bad thing where he's like, no, my parents love me, and they really put me in a position to succeed, and I was super competitive, and I fucking won. That was his story. And then he, you know, he got in Peter Thiel's orbit, and he did. He was probably was wildly successful just as an employee at PayPal.

Sam Parr

But then he spun off and they created Palantir together. And then off the backs of that, or off the success of that, he created, like, eight or six other companies, right. That he, like, quote, co founded, which I don't understand what co founded means, uh, within his case, because he's done it so often that I don't even understand the logistics of how, like, he has time to do that. Yeah, he, like, seeds them, basically. So he's like, okay, I have, you know, either the idea, I'll bring the team together.

Shaan Puri

I'll have the initial strategy. I'll recruit the initial talent. I'll recruit the initial capital. And then, you know, over time, he either is CEO or not CEO of these different companies. So he's done Addepar, he did Palantir, he's done epper, he's done, like, a whole bunch of different things in different spaces.

One is financial software for wealth managers. Another one is like, software for spies, for the government. Another one is like, Andrew, they're making, like, a weapon for the government. They do different things in totally different spaces, like trucking and logistics. They've done all kinds of shit.

Sam Parr

Let me show the viewer. If you're on iTunes or whatever, go to YouTube to see this. I get this text message from Ben. All right, so Joe has, I don't know what his home is like, but the room that he's in is elaborate. When you think of, like, old money and, like, the boys club of men smoking cigars and, like, you're just surrounded by encyclopedias, there's a picture of Joe, and he's sitting there.

He's got a suit with a high collar. He looks like a hedge fund guy. Looks like the president. And we had an awesome, awesome interview. He was like, that was the best podcast I think I've, I've ever done.

He said that. He said that his, his right hand man, who's like, his media guy, said that. I don't know if they're just being nice, but I'll take it either way. What did he, what was, like, the one revelation you got from him? I'll give you five points.

Shaan Puri

I'm just gonna read them fast. Number one, some people actually just want to save the world. So I am very, very suspicious when people talk about, you know, they want to just really help people. They want to improve society, they want to fix America, all those things. Joe is that guy.

He actually is that guy. That is actually what drives him. I went back and read his early blog posts and quora posts, stuff ten years ago, 15 years ago, stuff he wrote when he was in school. He's been saying the same thing the whole time. And that's usually the giveaway, is not somebody who's changing their tune once they make it, but somebody who's saying that before they make it.

And, and I think he looks through everything through that lens of, like, what are the biggest gaps? And then how do I fill them? When we were on our way out, it was like, oh, dude, we've been hanging out all day. Like, we hung out. We went there in the morning, which was my hack.

We went and did his workout. Did a workout with him at 08:00 a.m. And then we fit. Yeah, of course, he's super fit. And so we, we worked out together.

We cold plunged together. We got breakfast together. We hung out. Then we did the interview. So by the time we do the interview, we were totally like, you know, in high rapport, I guess.

And so I'm hanging out, and I'm like, dude, I could hang here all day, but I could tell, like, I think it's my time to leave now. After this thing is done. He's got to go do other shit today. And we're walking out and frickin Elon Musk is walking in. That's what was going on in that moment.

So, pretty insane. And all right, what were the other number two? He's still wrestling with the idea of focus. So one of the things he said I thought was really interesting, like I said, he's created more billion dollar companies than anyone else in America. Let's say I take his claim at face value.

And he brought up honestly, he was like, but I'm not sure if that was right. He goes, one of the lessons I learned from Peter Thiel is that you should be really, really careful putting effort into new things. Almost always, it's a better idea to put money into your main compounding thing. That's got a lot more room to run. There's more area under the curve to kind of, like, fill of something that's really working than to go take that same unit of effort onto something that's starting from zero.

And he's like, honestly, I probably. If I had just done one of those companies, I probably would have built a bigger thing than all five combined, or all six combined, or whatever it is, which I thought is a pretty interesting thought. And that makes me feel good to know that people I admire or look up to or who are ahead of me struggle with the same stuff that everyone else struggles with. I think he was at peace with it because he was like. But at the same time, that would be if I was optimizing just for money and valuation.

But that's not what I'm optimizing for. I thought these companies needed to exist, so I built them. I'm glad I did. It's more fun to do multiple things, and those were problems that needed to be solved. So I'm glad I did it.

But just do the math here for a second. So it's Palantir now, $50 billion company market cap wise. Even if you take Addapar, which I think a $3 billion company, or Opengov, which you just sold for 1.8 billion, it's like those are, let's say those two together. Each one took seven, eight years, ten years to kind of build. Let's say our average company, let's say it takes seven years to do.

And even if he totally wins and he gets to a $3 billion outcome or $2 billion outcome, if he had just put that same energy into Palantir, like, taking Palantir from 50 billion to 53 billion is a hell of a lot easier. And he probably would have taken it to 70 or 80 billion if he had put all of his same entrepreneurial energy into that versus starting these new things. I think he's actually kind of right on the math, but I think he's also right in how he decided to do it. He had an interesting rule, which he's like, I only do six things. And that was, like, his definition of focus.

He's like, I can only do six things. He's like, and he's like, they're not all equal. I have, like, my main one or two things, like eight vc and starting, you know, one company, but he's like, I I can only do six. He's like, I think for his, his, like, team, his, like, general managers or his partners in his company, like, the high level exec people. Like, they are also.

There's, like, some number where, like, they're only allowed to have three or they're only allowed to have six things on their plate at any given time. And I think three was the number for them, and six was the number for him because he's not. He's not operational as the CEO, by the way. His rule was, if you're the CEO, you have one thing and it's your company. That's it.

Sam Parr

This is awesome. I'm so, you know, he's only 41. This guy's a machine. So prolific. He's a machine.

I'm so excited to listen to that. Also, by the way, just next level awesome in terms of lifestyle, like baller house, full staff, chef, all the good. All the good shit. All the shit you would want. Like, for me, as somebody who's like, you know, you do play the money game.

Shaan Puri

It's interesting to see, like, what does the final level of the money game look like for these people? Like, oh, that's interesting. It's cool to. It's cool to get to sample it. What do you think was worth it of what he spent on.

He's got a basketball court in his house. Thought that was pretty awesome. He's got a. He likes to. He's like, oh, I like gaming.

So I got a game like a gaming room, like a lan room where he's got, like, six computers, and he's like, yeah, me and my cousins all come here and play or whatever. I think, like, I've always been a big proponent of, like, a chef. Like, I think it's the. To me, it's the number one wealth. Luxury is to have a private chef because of the amount of time it saves, the health benefits for you and your family and the taste.

Like, all three, it's a win, win, win. And so, yeah, I thought that was pretty cool, too. And then you got to hang out with Nick Ray. Nick Ray is one of my favorite people on earth, and you got to see his magic, what he does with his parties. That was.

Sam Parr

It's pretty cool, right? Yeah. So when we. The end here is, you know, we do all the interviews, we do all the one on one meetings, and at the end it's like, dude, there's like a list of 100 people that are interesting in Austin we would want to hang out with, but there's just no time. So we were like, let's just do a small house party.

Shaan Puri

So we did, like a small 15 person house party, and we asked Nick to organize. So I got to see Nick Gray, the legend, run one of his famous two hour cocktail parties. Go buy his book. To our cocktail party. This guy is so.

He is such a legend in just his vibe. It's awesome, right? He makes you feel good. I tell you this hilarious story. So he does all the normal Nick Gray things.

I walk in, he puts a name tag on my shirt. The name tag is yellow. So that after we all do our kind of intro, he's like, we're just chatting and, you know, like, normally you're just kind of chatting. You're mixing and mingling and, like, everybody. Our own social prowess is somewhat limited.

Some people are really good at it. Some people feel awkward. You don't know how to exit conversations. Nick makes that easy because he'll be like, great harmonic. He plays the harmonica.

He's like, we're going to do a structured activity. Look at the color of your name tag. Join that group, and I want you to talk to those people now. And so he, like, makes it. He, like art.

He like, will stir the pot, basically, to mix you. Mix you up. So he's doing his thing and then he's like, at the end, he's like, we're trying to leave. And he's like. He's like, hey, Sean, can you call my phone?

I want to do a gag. And I'm like, what do you want to do? He's like, I have a gag. Call my phone. And I call his phone and he reaches into his bag and he pulls out this giant handle of a butcher knife.

But it's a phone case and his phone is on the other end of it. He's like, hello, this is my gag. I thought this was really funny. And I was like, not only was that funny, I've never heard someone say, hey, hold on, I want to do a gag. Dude, he's great.

Sam Parr

Right. Nick's a special person, and he makes his parties fun. Did you guys do the introductions? And then he cuts people off if they talk for more than 10 seconds. Yeah, he's awesome.

Shaan Puri

We did a thing at the end where I guess he had been just slinking around the party to listen for interesting things. So he pulls out his note notebook. He's like, gets everyone in a circle. He's like, all right, Sean, you were saying you discovered this amazing hack for your business, and it was just like. It was so effective.

What was that? And it gets you to share the thing. He's like, you mentioned you were doing an art show. Can you tell us about the art show? He had four or five people just, like, do a thing.

It's definitely, like, I feel like I'm in second grade, and my teacher's like. It's, you know, put up your bunny ears and, like, you know, just. Everybody quiet. Now we're gonna do a structured activity, but honestly, it's such a relief because I hate social gatherings. I don't even leave my house most times, and when I do, it's kind of an exhausting thing.

But he's. He's really got this shit down to a science. I kind of love it. But your takeaway in Austin, it's a pretty special place, isn't it? Fishing for a compliment?

Yeah, sure. It's a very special place. It's. It's cool. It's like, there's.

Sam Parr

There's. There's a lot of cool people there. And you. I didn't know you. This.

You hung out with one other person. Hassan, uh, Hasan Minhaj. Dude, I do not like hanging out with him because he is so smart and so funny that I get. I get intimidated being around him. Do you not feel that way?

Shaan Puri

I had the opposite reaction. I walked away, and I was like, dude, Ben. Like, that is one of my favorite people on earth to hang out with. Like, if you said, hey, and it was perfect. It was like a breakfast before I caught my flight.

I basically missed my flight because I was having so much fun at the breakfast. I was like, fuck it. It's worth it. Like, it was. He is so great.

And I'll give you the kind of three reasons why. What stood out to me? Number one, obviously, humor. Like, it's unfair. He's a ringer.

Like, hanging out with anybody who's funny is great, but hang on. A professional comedian, it's sort of like, you know, he brought a. Brought a gun to a knife fight. It's intimidating when you hang out with him or when I hung out with him, because he just makes little, small comments and I'm like, you're just so much, you're so much quicker and funnier than me. So much quicker, dude.

So much quicker. He's so fast. He's so fast. It's like a JV athlete hanging out with a, where it's like, I don't even want to play with you. This isn't, this isn't fun.

Sam Parr

That's how fast he is. I love seeing it. It was amazing. He's so quick. And then number two, present.

Shaan Puri

He is so present when you hang out, which is great. Not looking at his phone, not thinking about what to do next. Not eyeing the room, fully locked in, fully present, which I thought was really great. And the other thing is, he asked a ton of questions. We had a different hangout.

We did a breakfast thing with a different billionaire type of guy. Nice guy, had a great time. But I shit you not, dude. This guy literally asked one question in a two and a half hour hangout. And it was not difficult because I had tons of questions for him, so it was no problem.

But it was difficult to sit there and be like, is this person just really just doesn't give a fuck about being here? Do they not want to be here? Because they could leave. I don't need do this if they just don't want to be. Here's what I think it is.

Sam Parr

When you and I host MFM meetups, I go there and I'm like, I'm just going to get peppered with questions and I'm going to ask other people questions to be cordial and everything, but I feel like, you know, there's like a status like game here. They're here to see me, so I'm going to be answering the questions. And then you go hang out with someone who's above you in status, and it's like I'm, I'm the one who's the mentee in this situation. I'm going to be asking you all the questions. And I think when you're as successful as this person who you went and hung out with, you're just used to being the, I don't know, not particularly wise one, but you're the one that's supposed to have a lot more answers and you have what others are seeking, and so you're used to just being the one who's, I'm going to be an open book.

I'm going to answer, what do you got? You know what I mean? And that, that, that shift, it's like an alpha shift. It is kind of, it is really uncomfortable, but it's totally understandable. But I also think, you know, I kind of wish, I almost wish I had said it, but, like, I kind of wish people are aware what that makes the other person feel like.

Shaan Puri

It's a good reminder to self of, like, never make other people feel that way. I think Husson was the opposite where he asked so many questions. His cup is not full, right? Like, he's, he's here and he's like, pour some water into me, like, give me some. Something to think about, something to learn, something to whatever.

And he's asking tons of questions. And I think that's such an attractive trait in people. And it was just a good reminder of that. Like, on this trip, I was, you know, got to be in both positions. Some, some places where, you know, the, the status game was sort of shifted one way and others were totally shifted the other way.

It was a great reminder of what it feels like and how easy it is to just make somebody feel amazing. Like, um, I think Hudson does that, you know, really, really well. Um, I have a couple others. Can I give you two others real quick? Yeah.

Do you know this guy? The peachy babies guy? No. You ever met this guy? Okay, so he's an awesome.

I thought you might have met him. His name's Tyler. So there's this company called Peachy babies, and they sell slime on the Internet. Not just a little slime on the Internet. They sell a lot of slime on the Internet.

Tens of millions of dollars worth of slime gets sold from these guys. They got, like, if you go to their TikTok, they have 10 million followers on TikTok. And the reason why is because they create awesome content. The content drives sales. It's just this great engine.

So, anyways, I was pretty fascinated. I'm talking to this guy and I'm like, he was at the house party. So I was like, what's the story? And he told me a pretty fascinating story. He's like, well, he's like, before doing this, I was a poker player, pro poker player.

I was looking to transition out. And he said, before I was pro poker player, I was the best yugioh player in the country. So he goes from the top Yu Gi oh player to a, one of the top poker players. Yu gi oh is yu gi oh, like Pokemon. It's like a pokemon type thing.

And then he comes, he meets this girl, and she's telling him about this slime business she used to have, but she shut down. And as he asked some questions, he was like, hmm, that actually sounds kind of promising. What if we revived that? Which I thought was just like a pretty impressive to take a business that somebody else shut down and be like, I don't know, seems like there might be legs there. Let's try it.

And they tried it, and they ended up, you know, crushing with it. And the only takeaway I have from this guy was he totally pattern matches to what I've been saying so many times on this podcast, which is that people who have a background as a competitive either gamer or in some competitive niche, spelling Bee Yu Gi oh, poker, whatever. Those people who know, who learn how to win that game, learn how to win at League of Legends or, you know, they're the number one sneaker flipper in California or shit like that. As soon as they just pick a better game, they're gonna win that too. And that really gets me to like something I really want to do.

And it's a call to action I have for anybody that's in the audience is I really want to organize some kind of event that pulls together the people that are young and doing those types of things. The Mathletes, the best Pokemon players, the best league of Legends players, you know, whatever. Best fortnite players, because it's just a matter of time till they get the spark to shift their game. And I want to do two things. I want to invite other people who have that background.

For example, Joe Lonsdale. He was a competitive mathlete, and that's what he was doing, right? Super dork at that age. But, like, those types of people are always going to make it. You know, the founder of this company called Traba, he's the Spelling Bee Kid, right?

We talked about that on the pop episode. As soon as they decide to play. A Better game, they have a great ability to do excellent things. I'm sure some percentage of them never shift games. They kind of stick in that world too long, or they just become a coach in that world.

They never really start to apply it to the world of business, but if they did, they would do phenomenal. So I want to organize some event. What's that channel or the show you like? Something 100 physical 100 physical 100. Yeah, exactly.

Sam Parr

You gotta be the unphysical 100. The laptop 100. Yeah. And so what are you gonna do? You're gonna, like, host like a, like.

Shaan Puri

So I need a name and a frame, right? Like, I need a name and a frame for the thing. And then I want somebody to organize it. I'll put up a hundred grand to, like, pay for all the event stuff, and I just really want to. For those people, I want to give them exposure to, hey, here's 20 people who have the same background as you that then shifted their game and now do amazing things in the world.

So I want to have them meet, and then I want to scout that talent and be like, hey, whenever you're ready to go do something new, I'll be your first investor. And so that's what I want to create. You can get, like, a cargo short company as a sponsor or, like, a risk guard company as a purple tunnel shield. Yeah, you make fun of these nerds. Watch them.

Watch. You'll be groveling to them years from now. I, hey, I acknowledge that they're all going to be the big shots, but I'm still going to tease them. What was the last person? All right, I'll give you a quick one, and then I have a little bit longer one.

So quick one is a little lesson. So I was talking to a guy who also is doing tens of millions this year on TikTok shops, and so they're crushing on TikTok. Not. Not a game I play, but it's a. It's a very lucrative game for those who cracked it.

And I said something in passing. I was like, oh, yeah, I saw this TikTok that had this hook, the hook being like, you know, the first 3 seconds of the video, I was like, oh, I thought that was a great hook. And, like, I've been talking to this guy for 3 hours. I thought I had said 50 interesting things by then. It didn't make it in flinch at any of the 49.

But on this 50th one, he immediately goes, wait, wait, what was that again? And he takes out his notebook and he writes it down. He's like. And he goes, he's like, did you tell your friend that they should do this? You should definitely tell your friend that they should do this.

And I was like, no, I don't know. I just thought it was just a silly TikTok. And he's like, no, no, no. That's not a silly TikTok. He goes, one hook like that can make your whole company.

And it was a great lesson that actually I saw five times during the trip, which was when you meet a really interesting or successful person, pay attention to what they pay attention to. So, like, he leaned into that, and, you know, maybe Mohnish would not have leaned into that, but he would have leaned into something. Else that I said. And if you start to pay attention to what people lean into, it teaches you a lot about what matters in their game and in their world and how their brain works. And maybe something to you just looks like, you know, rubbish, but to them it's gold.

And so it just was a good reminder of pay attention to what other people pay attention to. Like, if somebody was talking to you, what would they see you whip out your phone to write down or notes that you would want to take? That's a good question. Well, something related to my current business, but, yeah. Like.

Sam Parr

Like, you know, if someone says something about retention or something or how to create a breakthrough amongst a group of people who don't know each other. Right, right. Or before for you, it might have been something in writing. Oh, I love the way he phrased that. It's like, yeah, or like a really good ad for acquiring newsletter subscribers.

Shaan Puri

You had a note or doc that was like a swipe file of awesome ways that people phrase things. Beautiful, writing little phrases. Most people don't pay attention to those things. They don't collect those. Well, it makes sense that you ended up being a guy who's known for writing and wrote a newsletter that millions of people read.

Right. It kind of like makes sense once you add, once you connect the two. And so I just thought that was really, really indicative. Last one I got to watch, Ben Cook. So Ben Levy, my business partner, who is the secret to anything that I'm able to do.

Ben's superpower is connecting with people, and I wanted to share with you one little thing that he does. So every time we would go to a meeting, because imagine our schedule is basically like, we meet with somebody for, let's say, 2 hours. There's like a ten minute Uber ride before we're going to meet somebody else. And we were just doing that nonstop for four days. And, you know, I got to feel like the president because I'd be like, who are we meeting now?

I don't even know the schedule. And he'd be like, we're meeting this guy and he's like. And then he would always have his one thing, and I'm like, because I'd be like, oh, what are we going to talk about? Maybe we tell him about what we're doing with this. But Ben's focus was always, what's the one thing we could connect with them on?

And so he was just really good at this. Any time we would go meet with somebody, Ben would have his, like, one thing that he would bring up and the person would immediately crack open, like, you know, a pistachio shell. And it'd be like, all of a sudden they're excited, they're talking, and, like, it would open it up. And Ben probably wouldn't even say anything else for the rest of the meeting. It's like Ben talks less than 10% of the time when we go to these things, but it's the one thing he says which cracks the person open.

Sam Parr

So what's an example of one thing? So we will meet with somebody who's known for x. Let's say they're a youtuber with 10 million subscribers. But what Ben knows is that they started this side channel that's just starting and it's not that popular yet, but it's about one thing, you know, like, their hobby, their interest in this one area. He'll be like, oh, you're really into that, right?

Shaan Puri

And he won't even phrase it as some, like, profound question, but he'll just ask him. He'll just try to connect with them about the one thing where clearly their passion is they have some passion around it, but it's not the thing they're famous for. I noticed he would do that over and over again. Oh, you know, we hung out with Joe Gabbie, and he's known because he's the creator of Airbnb, and so we're hanging out, and instead of asking about Airbnb, he would say, you're really into, like, microplastics, right? Like, aren't you?

Like, really trying to figure out a way to not have in a microplast. What's that about? And then all of a sudden, Joe, who's told the Airbnb story a million times, and every time I was asked about Airbnb, was like, I'm forcing him to play his greatest hits. All of a sudden he lights up because he's, like, really into this right now. He's learning things.

It's like more of a. More of an area he's really into right now. So he would just find that one thing, and then afterwards he had his one thing, too, which was after the meeting, I'm like, okay, where are we gonna go eat? Like, that's where my brain goes. Whereas Ben's like, oh, we should connect him with this one person, or we should send him a link to this, or we should send him that example we have of the thing he said he wanted to do.

Or like, oh, you have. You've talked about that. You should send him a note about that thing. And it really, I was like, what are you doing? And he's like, oh, I'm just trying to be useful.

And then when we talked to Mohnish, he talked about, you know, he was really good friends with Charlie Munger. He said when Charlie Munger died, I think on his tombstone it is written. Or he wanted to have it written. Like, you know, Charlie Munger, you know, he tried to be useful. And to me I'm like, that's what Ben does.

He just tries to be useful for people. Like, oh, we can help them with this. We can help this person with this one little thing. He just keeps doing that. And then that's how he builds these amazing connections with people, just by trying to be useful to them in a way that I am so bad at it.

Sam Parr

Ben has this other quality to him, which is he's always, like, mostly happy. I've never seen Ben. Not like I've never really seen him in a bad mood, you know, he's always. And so when he asks these things, it's. Sometimes he'll ask me that are like, pretty private.

But because he's always so happy about it, I'm like, yeah, whatever, we can talk, you know, this is a safe space. He is a safe space. The last thing that's hilarious he does is he never turns it off. Like, we will be playing in a pickup basketball game and it's like, we're going to eleven, it's ten, nine, it's game point. And he'll be guarding some guy and he'll be like, he'll just be like, so what was revenue last month?

Shaan Puri

Or asking him questions like, oh, I heard you. I saw you tweeted about this thing. And the guy's like, so thrown off. Like, dude, what now? Still?

And like, it's just like, so endearing. He's like, dude, he's just so curious. He just can't turn it off. He's always, he never turns it off, even mid game, which is so funny to me. I was with Ben at a family's birthday party and he was, it was in on mode.

Sam Parr

And I was like, ben, let's ask this freaking twelve year old. We were with a friend who was dating a new woman and she brought her daughter around. And I go, Ben, ask the daughter, like, about school or something. I was like, I don't know, like, engage the kid, don't. I'm not talking about my revenue in front of this new lady.

It was like, so what's churn? Like, yeah, how much money do. How much money do you have. I'm like, Ben. Well, it's not always personal.

Shaan Puri

Like, sometimes it's just like, how was Austin? Right? It's like, dude, now's not the time for the how was Austin? Conversation. It's like, it's not even that.

It's always personal questions. It's just that the curiosity. There is no, you go, he was in on mode. There's no off mode. I've never seen him enough.

I hang out with the guy 24/7 it's amazing. All right. You had a good trip? I mean, I could actually listen to these stories all day, and I'm going to listen to the podcast. I never listened to our podcast.

Sam Parr

I don't know if you do or you or what you do. When I'm. When I'm not on it, I'll listen to it. Yeah, I do listen. I listen to yours as well.

But if I'm on it, I will never listen to it. I'm incredibly excited about Joe Lonsdale. I know you talked to Tim Ferriss. I know Tim a little bit, so I'm less excited about that just because I know I'm already. But I'm excited about Monash.

I'm excited about his and Joe Lonsdale. So I'm happy that you got to hang out with them. It seemed pretty good for you, for you personally, to be able to experience that. Yeah. The funny thing is, it's like most things in life, you think the payoff is over here, but actually, it's over here.

Shaan Puri

I think every time I go into these episodes, I think the payoff is, oh, I'm gonna make a great episode. But it's like, by the time I've done the research on these fascinating people, gotten to know them, gotten to hang out with them at their house, like, that was all the value. The episode itself is gravy for me, and I hope they turn out great. And I think that these ones did. But the reality is, and I think there's a principle of most things in life, you have some goal, you have some idea you think is the reason you should do it.

But it's like, you know, something along the journey is actually the valuable thing. You just couldn't have known that. You just have to go. To go pursue it full force, and then it happens. So hopefully this episode was me sharing some of the random nuggets along the way, besides the episodes that you'll get to see when they come out.

Sam Parr

All right, that's a pie. I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like Dave, off on a road less travel, never looking back.

Unknown

I put my all in it like Dave, off on a road less travel, never looking back.

I Spent 7 Days With The Richest Men In Texas | 10 Things I Learned

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Episode Chapters

1: Introduction

2: Daily Routines

3: Investment Strategies

4: Learning from Failure

5: Balancing Life and Work

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