Hi everybody!
So how do you personally because you changed a lot in the last
couple of years I mean physically like you're working out a lot more things
like that.
-Yeah no I used to have hair
-yeah so what's going on how do you grow
personally how do you get better man it could be educationally wise we're
fitness-wise growth can come in a lot of different ways
I think growth comes when you start asking yourself am i growing and that's
probably because you're not growing and growth doesn't come when you're doing
the same thing over and over unfortunately you don't grow like the
thing it's really simple is your muscle if you do the same routine for the next
two years you're probably not gonna grow your muscle--why?--because there's no reason
for it to change nothing's changing to it that's where growth comes from so
number one if you're asking about it that's probably some indication that you
want to grow in something number two you probably have to put
yourself in uncomfortable places doesn't have to be like sexually like
uncomfortable but it has to be like hey I'm trying something new and I'm
transcend it's a little awkward that's probably where growth that that's where
growth happens I think 3 it's also who are you surrounding yourself with and
this is another one everyone's heard it you're the average of five horrible
people you're around we all know it but we don't live it and so how do you know
you're around great people because they're inspiring you to grow
they're doing things you're like oh sh*t that guy's doing video so like my buddy
JR was starting to do video so that's part of the reason I got into YouTube
because I'm like oh he's like yeah YouTube it's so fun it's a good interact
I was like oh I should try that so are you surrounding yourself with people
that are inspiring you I think as well you can try to set up what I do as I
said a bucket lists each year I don't do a bucket list for life I think
that's a little bit too long I don't know how long I'll live but each year I
have it all ready for 2018 like what are personal things I'm interested on
developing what are professional things and then what are like activities I want
to try.
-What are some examples?
-So for this year I do basically work workout
and personal so I do it on a yearly basis bucket list and I do it on and
then I'd do that weekly so my yearly stuff this year and the work stuff
certain revenue goal for the business certain amount of downloads for my
podcast and some of those I wanted my podcast school was a hundred thousand
downloads in episode I'm nowhere f***in near that on the workouts I wanted to go
to the gym, my goal for the gym was go to the gym three days a week and go bike
riding three days a week at least a thousand miles total I hit those and
then on the personal side I wanted to go to two business seminars just any it
didn't matter I wanted to go to Utah I wanted to foster a dog and I wanted to
play an instrument so I haven't played instrument yet so
that's the last one I got a few months left.
-So where's the framework for coming
up with all these ideas like going to Utah, for example. Where did that come from?
-Yeah so they come from I don't want to have too many things I think when you have
it's like in your business I think you have to have one clear goal and then
what are maybe three things that you can do to help get that goal and so I have
three categories and generally I want somewhere between three and five for the
whole year and that's it and then you kind of really it's really
interesting during this year I I started doing a lot of different things on
podcasts on YouTube I had software and app Sumo and Sumo and WordPress plugins I had
like some of my other shit and I just kind of came to this realization I had
two major realizations especially when I was in Israel number one if you're doing
more than one thing in general you can't be great at it like how many people like
only very few but how many people are great like basketball players that are
great football players? Almost none.
-Bo Jackson
-Bo Jackson, he's football and
baseball yeah so but almost none. How many people are like you know Elon Musk
is more of an anomaly but how many
people are great at running one company
or running two at the same time very few you know make jobs a little bit you must
with you know that there's a yeah so the point being is that like almost no one
else in the world can run do more than one thing great but for some reason
all these normal people who aren't being successful are like well why am I
not doing well it's like well
you're probably not doing one thing great that's one
thing so that was one thing that was a big takeaway so cut out a lot of the
bullshit you're doing your life maybe you have multiple businesses just focus
on the one that's working and say hey I'm gonna do the one that's working for
three months because it's hard to give up things but try for three months only
that and see how it goes so I basically was like I'm only gonna do
Sumo.com four days a week that's it and one day a week I fuck around with my
podcast in YouTube and I bring that stuff back into Sumo and that's what I
think has helped Sumo do better second thing that was a major realization I
think what people miss out on is that they're looking for all these
hacks and I think people need to say f**k the hacks right they're like oh what's
this productivity hack how do I if I drink cold tea with 1 cup 1 teaspoon of
semen in it I'll wake up in the morning I'm like that's bullshit right and most
of them aren't sustainable so in terms of personal growth I think what people
need to do is say where take a pie chart and be like where do I spend my time so
you spend your time at work you spend time on your bed and you probably spend
your time on one activity and so just spend time figuring out how to optimize
that so with work buy a better laptop learn how to type faster you're gonna
sleep eight hours a day that's a third of your life buy a better bed buy better
pillows buy better mattress buy better comforter go to SweetHome.com and find
which one's the best and just optimize around that and then with your hobby go
buy the best around that or optimize like for me it's mountain biking and
Hebrew they're my kind of two hobbies go do whatever it takes to be like get
major what so I think the point I'm trying to make in general is go focus on
major wins I think these people are like how do I take a cold shower
I'm like that's a like trivial shallow thing that won't really help you but if
you learn how to type faster you'll probably double the amount of things you
can able to do in a day.
-True, I actually stole that for you it's part of our
interview process now and whenever you score below 60 you're screwed.
-So, yeah typing speed your trackpad go make your track speed the
fastest for the first day you be like this is stupid the next day you'll
realize oh my god I was waiting an hour to f***king get my mouse up to that learn
how to use your keyboard learn major wins stop wasting time with minor wins I
think that's where I I spend a lot of time earlier this year
getting excited about minor wins when you know there's major ones are
actually a compound and make the magnitudes of difference yeah I
mean I think in terms of your original questions like what is growth I think
growth it's like what things you're already kind of scared of how are you
setting yourself up for growth in the beginning year who are you
surrounding yourself with and some of the things that have to have worked for me.
-You tend to surround yourself with great people from what I've seen and so
what do you do around that I mean how do you find these people you surround
yourself with.
-So I've thought about this and I feel very blessed and I when we
get to hang out I'm like oh my god I need to
hangout with Eric more so what do I do is that I
create in Evernote I have cities so I have San Francisco LA I
was just updating San Diego Boulder Seattle and Israel and I keep a list of
people in these cities.
-Smart.
-And then I delete people.
-He deleted me.
-No, your on I checked.
-And so what that means is that when I come to cities I
say oh I'm going to San Francisco
--like I'm going to San Francisco in two weeks--
so today at five o'clock in my calendar is San Francisco planning time so I'm gonna go
either I will or my assistant will help me contact those
people and we'll hang out and what I do in those cities then
I say hey we're gonna go to lunch bring one person that you like.
-So smart.
-I copy this from someone else
but they bring one person they like
and then I'm like yo Dawg that guy was cool now we're friends I did it in
Israel too which was a good one I got to Israel I knew one person really
well and I said hey I'm gonna give out I'm gonna buy unlimited wine and a
limited falafels come over to my house bring five friends so he brought six
people over and it was called falafels and wine and I started doing it
every Friday and out of that like I meant two guys then we became friends
and then two more people and then ended up actually getting to know a lot of the
tech scene in Israel because I was doing a falafel and wine which helped extend
the amount of people I was able to know I think with people in general one thing
I realized about life it's like to get the things you want you have to put in the
effort so if you actually want to expand the amount of people you know
or the people that you have access to how much effort are you putting in cuz I
think most people are like well I don't there it's like me waiting at my door
for my wife I've never had a hot girl just knock on my door except if it's a
food delivery but like they just don't it doesn't show up your door you have to
open the door get the f**k outside and go I want to find this alright go and
find it and then the last thing I would say especially from app Sumo and with
Sumo most people are going up to people and be like hey can I have a dollar
hey can I have a dollar hey can I have a dollar and we've heard these books give
give and take and then jab and then left I don't sound like bullshit to me I
think if you want to meet a bunch of people go and help them first without
any strings attached legitimately and I I'm it's hard for me cuz I want things
fast I want to go in like I want Thomas to email all of his customers
about Sumo.com and I want this now and everyone wants that though but the
more that literally and go experiment with it so I experiment with the
podcasts is pretty interesting it wasn't like trying to be sneaky
because I think people are getting smarter hey I wrote this article about
you check it out I think you'll like it it's like you know you just want me to
go share your shit yeah but you don't wanna say that and so I wanted to
get on other people's podcast for my podcast and for YouTube as well for Noah
Kagan on YouTube I wanted other people to just literally what I wanted was you
to make a dedicated video called the Noah Kagan presents and just have a link
to my show that's really what I want
but you don't want that because you have your own show that you're trying to go
after and so for the first two months I had one of the guys I
worked with create a list of people that I should be on their show and I would
email him and say hey I'm Noah Kagan I've done these three boring things I'm
basically trying to get on your show so that you could promote me but I'm gonna
really help you and have it be a great guest and it worked okay maybe like 20
percent we're like yeah sure come on fine
and some we're friends like you who were very generous about as well and I appreciate
that and then one night it was 1:00 a.m. and I'm like you know what I'm such a
f***ing taker let me just do a 180 where literally all I'll do is give I won't
ask for shit so I wrote it I deleted the emails and I wrote a new email it
was like--have I told you this story?
-No.
-So I wrote this new email and I was like yo, I was gonna email you
to fucking get on your show and be a little bitch.
-Oh look at that.
-Yeah this is literally what I wrote, not the bitch part, but it's like more or
less, "hey I just really want to be in your show"
but that was lame all I'm gonna do is promote one of your shows to my audience
what's one of your more favorite shows recently Noah no PS no strings
attached and there literally wasn't it wasn't like oh if they give me and then
I'll have this email sequence to do another thing there's no string attached
then people were like so two things happen on that one it's actually built
really good relationships like Rich Roll I guess is a popular guy now
me and him are talking and I just help them and promote their stuff and now they're
actually like hey do you want to come on the show I was like that's cool I wasn't
like there really wasn't a string attached to that but it was an
interesting reminder and it is an experiment of literally like all I did
was give without an expectation because people do that nowadays like hey I did
this for you now I'm gonna do this for me I'm like no so just doing that
genuinely it was an interesting thing about how to if you want to go meet
people go help them unconditionally and there's a good chance that you'll
probably end up building some type of relation with them.
-Huge, there so many nuggets and there is just
like a flurry of nuggets so final
question for you is there anything else you'd like to add for any aspiring
entrepreneurs or current entrepreneurs.
-Okay, a few different things number one
learn how to type faster number two increase your track speed
number three remove Facebook and Twitter from your phone there's no point to them
all right number four remove email from your phone there's nothing that urgent
so I don't have email on my phone so if you email me I can't check it until I
get to a computer because realize what I realize is that we're not like someone
said this to me recent that was so fascinating we used to get online to
like escape now we have to get offline to escape like when did it happen
so anyways remove a lot of the things that are distracting you because I think
the people who are gonna win in the future the ones who can focus longer
than 15 seconds if you can actually stay committed to
focusing on something and working something you'll get results lastly I
mean there's probably a bunch of other things but I'd say the last thing is like go
limit your amount of time that you're doing something and that will likely
increase your creativity I think most people as they're doing something like
I'm gonna try to do this in six months or in twelve months or in two years it's
not to say that you can't build something big but like Tesla where they
are today it's because they started out with that the Roadster and Apple started
out with like the iPod which was shitty and now they've evolved that so how can
you do something whatever you're thinking about doing within this weekend
and I think that's been part of my ethos or style or success that's
led me to good things because I get it done I see what works and doesn't
work and then I can evolve it to something great
-There you go, Parkinson's Law also Noah has done something on the Tim Ferris blog a
long time ago about how to build a million dollar business in a weekend so
check that out but Noah thanks so much for doing this.
-Alright bro.
-Namaste everyone
So after visiting the Sumo offices today
and getting to hangout with Noah
I learned a couple things. Probably the biggest
thing is that he is very goal-oriented, he's very process-oriented as well.
So a couple examples, right, he talked about when it comes to working out, when it comes to work
He has very specific goals for the year. So he wants to go to Utah, for example,
or he wants to do a thousand push-ups, he wants to bike up a mountain. Whatever it is exactly
he's very very targeted and process-oriented about it
Same thing with how he holds people accountable at the company. He gives people a goal,
and he keeps track if people are on track or not,
It's very simple at the end of the day
but people aren't able to simplify these things
because people over-complicate things.
So if you look at how appSumo, how he created it and then handed it off
and then now you look at Sumo and how he has very specific goals for it
and its the same thing, right. He has a playbook and a template
that he follows himself
and he follows it for his business as well
So if you can create a playbook for yourself, if find something that works for yourself personally
can you make it into something that applies to your business
as well as if you are looking to create a business or have a business already.
That's my key takeaway
for you and there a lot of other nuggets he left in there for you and I encourage you to
probably relisten to those a couple times
and you will get a helpful nugget each and everytime.