SPEAKER_02
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SPEAKER_01
Hello and welcome to My First Million, best of the week edition. This is Ben Wilson. Best of the week brings you some of the best clips from this week's episodes, no new content, just highlighting some of the great moments we've had over the past few days.
We have some great clips for you today. To start off with, we've got Sam and Sean recapping the Mr. Beast interview on Joe Rogan and talking about the power of betting on yourself.
SPEAKER_03
You saw Mr. Beast one on Joe Rogan? I don't know if you caught the episode at all.
SPEAKER_02
I didn't. Just a couple of the clips where they said, like, what do you do with your money? And he's like, not much. He goes, I used to have a roommate up until recently and we split our place for $700.
But I got a fancier place because someone broke into my house. So I needed some security. But it's still pretty normal of a house.
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, I didn't see that. So I've only seen one clip. And it was basically the clip of, like, how did you make it on YouTube? It's a great clip, right? Like, it's a.
What's he say? So he goes, so he's 23 now. And he goes, I started doing this when I was 11. And Joe's like, what? 11? He's like, yeah.
He's like, I came home. And he's like, I started doing this when I was 11. And he's like, I sucked, obviously, at the beginning.
He's like, so he's like, he's like, look at me now. I don't look cool now. Like, imagine me at like 12.
Like, I was like, you know, pimply, you know, pimply face, scrawny, awkward, mumbly kind of guy. And like, here I am trying to like make videos. And he's like, back then also YouTube really, there wasn't a thing like YouTubers wasn't like a thing 12, 13 years ago, you know? So it's like, he's like, yeah, I just was doing it because I liked it.
He goes, I hated school. He's I never, in high school, I just never even brought a book home. Like, he's like, I remember doing zero studying.
My parents got so mad at me. He's like, and then like when I turned 18, he's like, he's like, basically, so he's went in three phases. He goes, from 11 to 13, I was trying to make videos, but I was like super embarrassed because it was so bad.
And Joe's like, do they still exist? He goes, no, I deleted my channel when I turned 13 because like, I got like, I don't know, like bullied in school a little bit. I felt embarrassed. So I deleted all those videos, but I like started fresh again at 13 and like, whatever, kept going.
He's like, so then from 13 to like 17 or 18, I was just trying to make like videos all the time because my first video randomly got like 20,000 views. He's like, that was the best thing that ever happened to me. I got like this instant hit and I was hooked.
And then like, it didn't happen again for a while, but like that first one, which was about like, he like hacked some video game. Like here's how to beat this level in a video game or whatever. He's like some obscure game and it just like people wanted to know how to do that hack.
So that's how I got popular right away. Or he's like, that's how that video got popular. And then I got, I wanted to chase that feeling again.
So he's like, I wasn't making any money. He's like, finally I got to the point where I was making a dollar a day. And he's like, yes.
And he's like, so I saved up for like a few months and I bought a microphone and I was like, yeah, like now I sound good. Like here we go. And he's like, I just kept doing that.
I kept like making a couple bucks, saving it. And then like buy a camera or buy like, you know, like a better computer so I could like edit the videos or screen record or whatever. And so he just kept doing that for like six years.
He's like, my whole goal was that by the time I graduate from high school, can I like just make enough money doing this? Because I don't want to do anything else. Always his number. So it did not happen.
He's like, by the time I he's like, by the time I graduated high school, I was making like 400 bucks a month or something like that. And he's like, you know, it's the 300 or 400 bucks. He's like, so my mom gave me this ultimatum.
She's like, you know, you're moving out or you're like going to community college. Like you're not going to do this video thing. And so he's like, fuck, OK.
He's like, I didn't want to go to community college. He's like, it's like the worst thing in the world just sitting there and listening to this lecture. Like it's not what I wanted to do.
He's like, so I started skipping. He's like, every day I would just go to my car. And instead of going to community college, I would just edit videos in my car.
He's like, I do that all day and I come home and my mom thought I went to school. He's like, and he's like, that created a clock because now she was going to find out by the end of the semester, I had zeros as my grades. Like she was going to know that I did not go to community college.
So I had to like I bought myself like one semester more of time. He's like, and in that time, I pulled it off. Like I got to the point where I could like self sustain.
I just moved out and then I could like do this like full time moving on my own. He's like, and so that's kind of like the progression of how I did it. And I was like, how awesome is that?
SPEAKER_00
How awesome is that?
SPEAKER_03
Exactly. Like a bet on yourself story where burn the bridge behind you, right? So, you know, you we say burn the bridge. I don't know why we say that.
It's burn the boats. Like if you want to take the island, you got to burn the boats. And so he burned the boats when he when he did that and and knew what he wanted to do, right? Because like school is great, but school is not for everybody.
If you if you kind of know what you want to do, you're much better off, I think, competing in the free market on that thing than like competing for your teachers, like love and affection, you know, with writing the essay, they want to grade as an A plus, right? Like writing the thing they want you to write about in the format that they want you to write in a way that will get them to give you the grade, right? Like that's like that's like not a real market. Whereas you make videos on YouTube, you're competing in like a real market or you want to be an athlete.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it's just that most people think that they're like going to do something for life and they aren't willing to or they don't actually want to. I think I think the the rarity here is not is someone 18 and capable. It's do they actually love what they're saying they love enough that they're willing to dedicate 10 or 20 years to it? Right.
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, like do you know what I mean? Are you actually do you actually have a thing you love? Most people do not. I remember my sister when she was going to college, my dad was like, all right, well, like, what do you want to major in? She's like, I don't know. He's like, well, what's your favorite subject? Like, what do you love to study? She's like lunch, like, you know, I just I'm not I don't have anything against any of them, but like, do any of them make me happy? Not really.
So what now what? And like, I think that's almost people's careers go. It's like, all right, well, I don't hate it, but I don't love it. But now what? What am I supposed to?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah. So I think that's the rarity here is that he actually that he liked something enough. But anyway, that's a good story.
I'll have to go and watch this podcast.
SPEAKER_01
All right, next up, we've got a segment from the Kanye West episode where Sam and Sean are recapping the new Kanye documentary on Netflix. And by the way, if you haven't listened to that episode, you need to go back and listen to it. If for no other reason than to hear Sean's incredible impression of Don DeWest, Kanye's mom, it's just spot on.
It's incredible. But on this clip, they're actually talking about knowing who you are and what you want to do and how that enables you to achieve more.
SPEAKER_02
Which which, by the way, a lot of people forget, do you realize how much he produced before he actually got famous? That's kind of crazy. It's pretty crazy. Like the big one was H of the Iso.
Right. And there was like, there's like dozens more. I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but there was dozen more where you like, wait, you did that and he did it before he had his own thing.
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And he was great at it.
And then he's like, he talks about it. He's like, yeah, people want my B. He said, oh, I want, OK, can I get one? Can I get I need a beat? Give me a beat.
He's like, and then they then they hear my song. They're like, you know, I heard this. Where'd you get this? He goes, that's my shit.
I use that for me. And he's like, he's like trying to like on one hand, he needs to sell beats to pay for life. But every time he does, it's a step away from where he wants to be in a way.
Like to be a rapper. And so he's in this hallway and this guy's trying to hype him up because he's like, oh, you got the documentary crew. So he puts his arm around him.
It's like the the the managing director at Rockefeller Records. And he's like, you know, this right here, Kanye West. He's the best rapper producer in the game.
Best rapper producer in the game period. And then he's like kind of like upset. And he's like, what? And he goes, well, you guys say that, man.
It's like saying I'm the best kid rapper in the game. He's like, what? I said, you're the best rapper producer in the game. He goes, I'm just a rapper.
If I'm the 50th best rapper, just say he's the 50th best rapper. Don't call me the best rapper producer in the game. That's whack.
All them are whack. I'm not that I'm a rapper. And like think about what's going on that moment, right? He's like fighting to get a record deal where most people are in desperation mode, like they'll take what they can get.
And instead, he's got this identity and the whole world is trying to pull him to just be a producer because that's what's in it for them. Like that's proven and that helps, you know, helps them make hits. And, you know, why aren't you just happy? Pat you on your head and say you're a great producer.
And he had this identity in his head so strong that I think 99 people out of 100 in his position would just become a producer because the whole world is pulling him in that direction. And it was a faster, cleaner path to success. And the money was there and the success was there.
And he didn't have to grind as hard as he did to try to prove himself as a rapper. But he had it in his head. No, I'm a rapper.
And if I'm the 50th best rapper, I'd rather be the 50th best rapper than the best rapper producer. And I just it was such an example to me of like people will stay consistent with their identity. And so you kind of got to ask yourself, like, what is my identity? Like if I said, what's your job, Sam? What do you do?
SPEAKER_02
Right now, my job is I do podcasts.
SPEAKER_03
If I just say, what like who are you? What do you do for work? What do you do for a living? I'm a business person. OK. You're a business person. So if all of a sudden it doesn't matter what HubSpot offers you, right? Like, OK, you're vesting out your deal.
That's great. But let's say any company comes to you and say, Sam, we'd like to make you the vice president of marketing operations at biggest company in the world and you're going to get this and that. You're not going to do it because it's not consistent with your identity.
You're like, I'm a business person. I'm an entrepreneur. Yeah. So entrepreneur, I can't be an employee if I'm an entrepreneur. There's just not they're two separate things.
And like in the same way, you know, you're not going to do heroin because you're not you're somebody who doesn't do heroin. You don't even have to weigh the pros and cons of it. It's just really not a discussion for you.
It's not part of who you are. It's not like I'm trying not to do it. It's no, I just I don't do that.
I do do this and I don't do that. And so those lines you draw for yourself are so important on identity.
SPEAKER_02
And I would argue so there's this book called 48 Laws of Power. Have you read it? No, but I've heard of it. All right.
It's awesome. So he's got this one chapter where he says you always have to reinvent yourself and he gives a bunch of examples about that. And the reason why you want to reinvent yourself is the person who you can't peg down typically can become the most powerful because there's something about changing yourself that it does a couple of things.
First, this whole act as if thing, it's real. So if you act like you're going to be an expert artist or something and you work hard, you can eventually become that. But you kind of got to act as if second, it kind of reinforces habits.
So you say, no, I'm a healthy person. Therefore, I don't do unhealthy things. And third, it gives you this aura of mystery and people who have mystery surrounding them typically are powerful.
And and there's a ton of good examples about this, like a really interesting and easy one because she does it so clearly as Lady Gaga. So like oftentimes she'll reinvent herself. So at first she was this like kind of just normal, like white lady playing on the piano.
If you see her like when she's a little bit younger, then she becomes like this weirdo person where she like puts meat on her body. Then she transforms and becomes. She starts playing jazz with Tony Bennett.
You're like, what the heck Lady Gaga's doing that? What the hell is that? Now she's like just got done doing some acting and she was a great actor. So constantly reinventing themselves. I think Arnold Schwarzenegger has done a really good job at that.
We just can't. Yeah, you just you've got to reinvent yourself consistently. And Kanye has done that where he's actually changed himself.
And I think inventing reinventing yourself. You actually need to make the decision. You got to be like, I am this.
Now I am this. Exactly. That's something you're going to choose that identity.
And after a while, then you could be like, all right, great. That season was this season had a beginning in the middle and now it's come to the end. What's the next season of me? And you can actually pick and choose what those inventions are.
And when I read that when I was a little bit younger, that kind of changed my perspective on things.
SPEAKER_01
Last up, we've got a clip from the Andrew Wilkinson episode. That's another legendary episode. I know I sound like a broken record, but another one you should go back and listen to.
And on this one, Andrew, Sam and Sean are talking about why some people are able to have just success after success, hit after hit and what enables that and what it takes to get to that place.
SPEAKER_03
Andrew, I feel like you've reached this point. And I used to be like, how did these motherfuckers do this? Where I remember I was doing a startup and it was so hard to get my one thing to work. And then I would meet people who were like, oh, yeah, so I have that past success.
Then I have my current success. And then here's my three side successes that I had this idea. And then we just started doing it.
And then guess what? The lines out the door and then this other one, it's like kind of cool. We just started it, you know, like I accidentally, you know, my hand just fell on my keyboard. And I accidentally wrote this app.
It was amazing. It went viral. And then there's other thing that I just tweeted about.
And then this all coming together nicely. And I just remember being like, what do they know something I don't know? Is there just like extreme luck component? And I felt that way for many years, five, six years straight when I was pushing the bolder up the hill with my startup. And then I now have experienced exactly what the thing that I was most jealous of.
And I have no idea what switched in between where like the last five things I've tried have all worked and all worked pretty much immediately. And that doesn't matter how big or small, like, you know, whether it's like, the podcast or the course or, you know, my e-commerce business or my the new Milk Road newsletter business, like each of these has just worked straight away in a bigger way than anything I've ever done before with less work and less stress than like the old stuff I used to do. And I have no idea what changed.
Well, I have a kind of an inkling, but I don't really know. Sam, have you thought about this or you know what I'm talking about? And what do you think?
SPEAKER_02
I know exactly what you're talking about. And I completely agree. You're on a roll right now.
And what's your inkling? I have a feeling of my my my answer is it's kind of like a shitty. It's like a mindset, like abundance attitude and being on being on offense versus defense. But what's your what's your what's your inkling?
SPEAKER_03
So my inkling is that I switched up my situation. So like I was in one situation for a very long time, like it was a nice situation, it was a very nice situation. But it was like I was going to this office every day, working with these people in this hierarchy, with this boundary box of like what projects or projects we can work on and like what success might look like.
And as soon as I got out of that, and I was just me, I was like, oh, OK, so now that it's just me that I have to look out for, I guess I could just do a podcast. I didn't have to have like this big venture billion dollar outcome. I didn't have 20 engineers to go tell what to do.
I had no engineers. So I just did what I could do with no engineers, which was like, I'll do a podcast. I'll do a course.
I'll do I'll just try to get big on Twitter. Let's see what happens. And oh, you know, like five tweets go viral and boom, got 200,000 followers.
It's like there's these things that I just wasn't doing before because I think before I had a really set thing of like, here's what I need to do. Like here's the only way to win. And I had like almost too much ammo.
I had like too many people at my disposal, too much funding, too much everything. And because of that, I had a very narrow window of what to do. I had a very narrow window of what could work.
And so I was just trying to come up with ideas that might work versus, oh, let me just try this because I'm I just kind of want to try it. And then when once I got into, I just kind of want to try it. And I didn't have it.
I didn't have to worry about what other people thought or I didn't have to come in and manage anybody in that day and tell them what to do. I didn't have like investors to go pitch to. I just did the thing.
And then all of a sudden I feel like, you know, sort of like all the talents that in skills that I had been building up over the past 10 years, like finally got to just do them.
SPEAKER_00
You think it's like dating or something, though, where it's like, you know, you date a couple of crazy girls and it's really exhilarating. And then over time, you're like, wow, that was horrible. And there's pattern matching.
You're like, OK, when I go to a restaurant and a girl's rude to the waiter, that's a no, right? And in the same way with business, you go, oh, OK, like I used to think I wanted to build all these kinds of businesses, but those were 10 foot hurdles. I don't want to jump 10 foot hurdles. I want to jump one foot hurdles.
And so if you think about it, all the stuff you're doing, they're in your, you know, circle of competence and they're relatively simple to execute. They don't require a lot of people. They don't require funding.
I think learning that is like a 15 year overnight success kind of thing where it just clicks suddenly. Right. And I'll catch myself occasionally getting pulled down rabbit trails of like, oh, what if I did this crazy, you know, drone, AI startup, whatever. But then I always go back to base hits.
SPEAKER_02
And there's this third component of confidence. And so I think that because of like my work, I've been more confident and I understand like, well, if I invest a dollar here, I think I can make at least $3 the next two years. So like just understanding how machines like money making machines work investments.
But then also I think Sean, because we get to hang out with we hang out with each other, we hang out with Andrew, we hang out with our circle of friends, we hang out with all the people we've had speak at our events. We hang out with our podcast guests. It becomes more normal.
Like succeeding has become far more normal than not succeeding, actually. And not succeeding is just like, oh, yeah, it's going to happen. But then you just move on and you do the next thing.
And it's like, and then inevitably it works. So it's not if it's or it's not when it's if. And I think that confidence has actually helped a ton where so, for example, now if someone wants to like real estate is an easy one because it's so predictable.
But with real estate, you're like, oh, man, putting $100,000 down on this house is a lot of money. That's a, you know, that's six figures. It's like, well, dude, but it's going to make 12 percent.
It's like, well, I don't know that. And I'm like, yeah, I know, but it's going to do that. So you actually want to invest more.
So like that confidence of just knowing the motions and knowing the routine and process has actually helped a lot.
SPEAKER_01
All right, that's it for this week. Thanks very much for tuning in and have a great weekend.