The Secret to Being Great | My First Million #199

Shaan Puri

I had this thought oh this is what it would have been like to talk to bill gates at 21

Sam Parr

so this episode is gonna be it might be shorter than normal right

Shaan Puri

yeah I think so

Sam Parr

Okay, I wanted to share that I just drove for about 30 hours and listened to a ton of content. I wanted to tell you, Sean, about some of the stuff that I listened to and why it's interesting. Is that what you want to do for this entire episode?

Shaan Puri

yeah let's do it

Sam Parr

And I'm sure you'll have some stuff that you consume. Okay, the first one: I found this podcast that has, like, actually... let's see how many reviews. I think it has no reviews. I emailed the guy; he's amazing. But it's called "How to Take Over the World."

Shaan Puri

Is that we should just have this guy. We should just absorb this guy's podcast. We need to acquire this guy's podcast. This should just be on our feed.

Sam Parr

wait did you did you listen to it

Shaan Puri

No, I'm just looking at the description of it and then the gems that you just told me. I'm like, "This should be part of MFM. This is great!"

Sam Parr

it's amazing this guy he he it's like his his hobby and he he they're so in-depth so it's called how to take over the world what I think he's doing is you know a lot of biographies of great people like napoleon julius caesar the rothschild they're like 800 to a 1000 pages so it's like a real commitment to read it so he just reads it and he takes notes in one episode he did one on napoleon he goes I have 60 pay or thomas edison he goes I have 60 pages of notes and he just reads the book and takes notes and then just explains and tells stories from the book and does it in chronological order and it's basically turns if you listen to a 1,000 page book on audio on audible it's something like 40 or 50 hours but with him I just listened to this 2 hour podcast and I feel like I've just read most of the book it's pretty amazing but he also gives his analysis about it and so I listened to a few of them I listened to one on edison one on napoleon and one on the rothschild rothschilds and there's 3 commonalities that I wanna tell you about these guys so do you know who rothschild is rothschild am I saying it right yeah so basically it was started by this guy named anshul rothschild in the 1700 he basically built like the amazon of of this his little ghetto in in in germany where he would sell like he would mail you an item and if you wanted it you would send him money and it wasn't like that big but eventually he started he grew that over 50 years and started investing in stuff and then his kids started the goldman sachs of of europe so it was like a long slow build up to building this family business so I'm gonna tell you three things that I've noticed that these folks had in common the first all of them enjoyed their work so there's a story where nathan rossell this this one woman was talking to him and he was like you know I hope you better hope that your kids aren't addicted to work like you are and he goes oh no I hope they are because I love what I'm doing and I don't ever wanna stop same with napoleon someone said napoleon what what's your heritage what race are you he goes I'm of the race of men who found empires like they're addicted to it like they love it they they can't they can't not do it same with edison edison he was like nice to his kids and nice to his wife but he was really never around and they called he called his his studio which was in menlo park I believe it's called menlo park in new jersey and they said that it it it looked like a homeless encampment because there's these men in suits but they were just like laying around on the floor and sleeping there because they would do their best work from midnight to 6 am and they would just sleep below under their desk and they're like well why are you doing this he's like because there's so much to do and we love it like we can't not do this so they all enjoyed their work the second thing crazy crazy high energy so super high energy so so napoleon he went to egypt to go conquer something and on his way he stopped in like some island where he like reorganized the government in 3 weeks and he and he changed their currency just they all have crazy high energy and that's something that I didn't actually think was a big deal but they all had crazy high energy now here's the third thing that I found to be kind of interesting a lot of the successful people that I'm learning about on this podcast they eat very very very little so like edison would only drink milk sometimes for months steve jobs

Shaan Puri

for months

Sam Parr

for months

Lil Dicky

what's the milk

Sam Parr

steve dude do you remember steve jobs how he had a fruit of fruit

Shaan Puri

I was going to say he's a fruitarian or whatever. It was the same thing. He used to only eat lunch, and it was just fruit, you know? Or something like that for a period of time.

Sam Parr

Rockefeller or Vanderbilt were this way too. In their descriptions, it's noted that they typically ate very little. They often didn't eat breakfast and were physically hungry. That physical hunger does seem to lead to some type of success. Have you noticed that?

Shaan Puri

So, yeah, okay. Let me give you my take on all three of these. You said they really enjoy their work; like, their work feels like play. That's the way I would describe it. They didn't feel like they were forcing themselves to do something. They just couldn't wait to keep doing it.

Sam Parr

I would also say there's an obsession there now. Like, I'm obsessed with stuff. Do I enjoy it? I don't know if I enjoy it, but the OCD forces you. There's an obsession.

Shaan Puri

So, there's a Conor McGregor fight this Saturday, and he has this great kind of monologue from back when he was a nobody. He talks about it, saying, "I've lost my mind to this game." He goes on to say, "I think you must do that. I think you must become obsessed. You want to lose your mind to your craft." I've seen that as a common theme for a lot of people. That actually relates to the idea of being engrossed in what you're doing. A lot of the time, you get so absorbed that you forget to eat, forget to go to the restroom, forget what time it is, or even forget to sleep. You might forget to pay that bill because you become completely obsessed and engrossed in your work. You enter a flow state, where you block out a lot of the other stuff going on around you. I think those two concepts go hand in hand. I'm also curious about what "high energy" means to you. So, that's like...

Sam Parr

it doesn't mean like you're bouncing off the walls right

Shaan Puri

yeah that's what I imagine what did you mean

Sam Parr

No, it doesn't mean that you're bouncing off the walls. But, for example, when I go to a conference—like, let's say it's my conference or let's say it's at our talk that we did the other day—how did you feel at the end of that?

Shaan Puri

the live shows yeah I felt kinda drained

Sam Parr

I felt drained I felt exhausted

Shaan Puri

yeah

Sam Parr

But what I think high energy means is that I felt just so worn out then. I think that some people would feel good and they'd be like, "Alright, let's go get some more deals done! Let's go invest!" I invest a little bit of money, but if I were a full-time investor, I would be doing deals all day. For me, by like 4 or 5 o'clock, I'm like, "I can't talk to another person. I'm exhausted. I can't think about this anymore." But I've seen some people that can do it all day. They just aren't worn out, and they just keep going and going and going. Right? That's what I mean.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I’m with you on that. I think this is cool, and I like the study of greatness. What I've also found is that, like we've talked about before, it's like: would you want to be Elon Musk? This stuff comes at a pretty big sacrifice for other things in life, like family and relationships. It’s hard to relate to people or spend time with friends if you're doing this. So, I’m like you. I like digesting these ideas; I like knowing about them. But over time, I've learned that the goal is not to be Steve Jobs or act like him. I’m just kind of fascinated by it, in the same way that I’m fascinated by how a rhinoceros moves and eats. I don’t necessarily want to be a rhinoceros; I just find it interesting that it’s an extreme creature.

Sam Parr

I love freaks. I like the freak show, and these guys are freak shows. I also love bold people; I admire anyone who's bold. For example, I was reading a book about Steve McQueen. He was just an actor; he didn't change the world and probably didn't work that hard. But he was known for saying his opinion and living a very free life. In the same field, I like these people. I like men who will do what they say and say things that are different from other people. But then, I also love these freak shows, like Napoleon. Now, let's actually talk about each of these. Thomas Edison, like Elon Musk, had a bunch of divorces. One of his wives died from a morphine overdose. His kids didn't really like him or get to know him that well, even though he was a kind guy. But he was never around. Napoleon died on an island because they kicked him out, and he died basically with nothing, alone on an island off the coast of Africa. The Rothschilds, they were okay; they actually had good ideals. But with a lot of successful people like this, you don't necessarily want to be them.

Shaan Puri

yeah okay so what else what else you got so you consume that what else do you consume

Sam Parr

okay have you read naval's almanac

Shaan Puri

yeah shout out to

Sam Parr

jack butcher

Lil Dicky

no no

Shaan Puri

no eric right eric jorg I think jorgensen is the last name

Sam Parr

yeah he was the main guy and jack animated it

Shaan Puri

or whatever

Sam Parr

Yeah, oh, there it is. So, Naval has... it's a two-part [series]. I actually don't know how it came to be. Did Naval just do a bunch of podcasts and interviews and then summarize his feelings?

Shaan Puri

Yeah, basically, Naval had been putting out his content for years—different podcasts and stuff like that. A lot of people, like me, Eric, and others, were big fans of it. What he did was say, "Alright, I don't know if you've ever bought the book or have the book *Poor Charlie's Almanack*." I think that's what this riffed off of, which is about Charlie Munger, who's Warren Buffett's business partner. It was like about Charlie Munger, and so he tried to make... you know, if Naval is one of the great thinkers of our time, then he tried to compile all the insights Naval shared. He took it from all the times Naval talked about wealth, pulled it all together, and put it in one place, distilling it down.

Sam Parr

And this book is broken into two parts. The first is **wealth** and the second is **happiness**. I found the wealth stuff to be a little bit boring. I don't even remember; I actually skipped over a lot of it. I don't even remember what he said about wealth. Do you?

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I mean, I think it's the same thing that we've talked about here. He has this tweet storm that went ultra, ultra viral. Like, maybe I don't know, 50 to 100 million people have seen it by now. It's called "How to Get Rich Without Getting Lucky." He talks about these four things. I can go into it or I can skip it if you want to talk.

Sam Parr

about that talk about it a little bit

Shaan Puri

Yeah, basically his summary is like, you know, here are some of the principles that, over time, Naval has become very wealthy. He sort of learned for himself that he wanted to be wealthy as a kid because he grew up pretty poor. He wanted to be wealthy not in a way that required outlier luck. He says this great thing, which is like, "If I lived life a hundred times, I want to end up wealthy 98 or 99 times." Or, "If you took away all my wealth now and you dropped me, you know, butt naked in the streets of Bangalore, I want to be able to, again in 5 to 10 years, end up rich again." So that means I actually understand the principles of how this is done, and I'm not relying on luck. He talks about those principles and basically says you want to have these 3 or 4 things. First, stop renting out your time. You'll never get rich renting out your time. You know, 90-something percent of people are employees somewhere. You are basically renting your time to an employer, and you'll rarely become wealthy with that path. You become wealthy by owning a piece of a business, either as an investor, as a business owner, or as an employee who has shares—like employees at Google or Facebook who have seen a lot of wealth by the appreciation of those shares. And then he talks about, you know, how do you get to that?

Shaan Puri

Well, you need a few things. You want, you know, what he calls **specific knowledge**, which is basically like, Sam, you know how to grow a newsletter. You know how to write content; you know copywriting, right? You know certain things. So, you need specific knowledge. Then you pair that with **accountability**. You want to do it in the name of the hustle, or Sam, or some brand that accrues that reputation. You want to put your name on the line and say, "I'm gonna do this thing." That way, when you do it, you get paid for it. You know, the people at the hustle who write your daily newsletter but are less well-known actually have certain skills. They have certain unique knowledge—specific knowledge—but they don't have the accountability. They're not putting up the accountability; they're not living and dying by the sword of this newsletter working or not. Maybe inside the company they are, but not externally. Then you have **leverage**. Back in the day, if you wrote something, you would maybe distribute it locally on your newspaper or on a flyer or something like that. But with the internet, you have leverage. You can put this in an email and send it. You can put the same amount of work into writing the email once, and you can send it to 100,000 people, a million people, or 10 million people. It's the same amount of work because you have tremendous leverage through technology. So basically, he talks about using these three things: get specific knowledge, be accountable, and put your name on the line. That way, you get the risk and the reward. Lastly, apply leverage to maximize the value that you get out of the thing. That's kind of the basic formula.

Sam Parr

The whole book is basically broken down into this idea: life is about **wealth**, **health**, and **happiness**. He says we actually pursue it in this order: we pursue wealth, then health, and then happiness. He argues that this is a fine and practical way to pursue it. However, the reality is that the reverse is true in terms of importance. It's actually **happiness** that should come first.

Shaan Puri

the most yeah

Sam Parr

Happiness, health, wealth... but it's whatever, it's fine to pursue that way. He has this beautiful line in the book where he says something like, "Of course, once you get the wealth, you're gonna see that it's actually not nearly as important as you thought, but you're not gonna listen to me, and you have to pretty much discover it on your own."

Shaan Puri

Yeah, you're not going to listen to me. I wouldn't have listened to me either. You know the type of person who's attracted to this content. They're going to go through the same thing. You have to learn that the hard way.

Sam Parr

And so, that was pretty interesting. I liked that. The second half is all about happiness, and there were a few things that kind of stuck out to me. The first is that he basically acknowledged, "Look, don't worry." Let me preface this by saying Naval interests me because he's probably a billionaire. I would have to imagine he started AngelList, which is a multibillion-dollar company. He's an investor; he's in the game. He acknowledges, "I'm in the game," and so, like, this is a little bit hypocritical. But basically, he said, "What I found is that happiness must be a choice. I've been unhappy for decades, and then I decided, you know, I'm going to be happy." He steals a lot of philosophy from Stoicism and Buddhism. The idea here is that your past is unimportant, and the future is unimportant. To say that you want to do X, Y, and Z for legacy? That's bullshit. Because what's going to happen is when you die, it's going to be as if you had the same feeling that you had before you were born, which is like nothing. So, like, who cares about some bullshit legacy? He emphasizes that it only matters about the present and where you are now. That gets a little bit fluffy, but I still thought it was really useful. Oddly, if you read the book, he talks about not working hard. He said, "You actually should only do work that feels like play." I thought that was kind of cool. He's like, "Life's too short, by the way, just to grind and work your ass off." Which, again, I'm like, "But Naval, you're like a billionaire." There is this, like, what? You know, I have to kind of come to grips with this a little bit. But I thought it was cool. He also talks about, very oddly, giving diet advice. He said, "Just don't eat sugar, stay away from sugar, do high-intensity interval training, and stretch a lot."

Shaan Puri

Yeah, and he even says, "I try not to." He's like, "You know, I don't talk too much about health because I'm pretty good at health. I'm okay, but I'm not self-actualizing that." Meaning, in wealth, he's done better than 99.9% of people. So, for him to talk about it, well, he's self-actualized it. He has actually done it for himself and seen it done by many other people. Therefore, he feels comfortable putting out his whole philosophy on it. He's like, "In terms of health, I'll say some general things that you know it's hard to argue against, but I try not to talk too much about it, even though it's very important." Because I myself, you know, for many years, didn't have an exercise routine or wasn't, you know, the best eater. And now I'm better, but I'm still not the best. I'm not world-class at that. I'm not 99.9% at that one.

Sam Parr

I'll tell you a story. I called a friend, and this is almost like stuff I've read or listened to in the last four days, which is a lot. I had a friend call and tell me about their best friend. Let me tell you this story. There's this guy—I'm going to change some details because I don't want to reveal his identity. He was an accountant, and on some large deals that he was working on, at the age of about 30, he was able to save up $1 to $2 million. I think it was $2 million. At the age of 30, he was single and lived relatively frugally. He worked at a big company as just an employee, but he worked on such a deal that he was able to capture some of the commissions. He made around $2 million. With that $2 million, he angel invested a little bit, and one of his angel investments made about half a million dollars. So here he is, sitting with about $2.5 to $3 million at the age of his mid-thirties. Now, about 20 months ago, when was Bitcoin $6,000?

Shaan Puri

yeah about about a year and a half 2 years ago

Sam Parr

He put $3,000,000 into Bitcoin.

Shaan Puri

everything he had

Sam Parr

Everything... 100% of everything he had to the point of, like, I think he saved around $10,000 or $20,000 for living expenses. He put most of everything he had, and also he borrowed money. I don't know how, but he was able to borrow money somehow, like through something as simple as Robinhood giving you a little bit of margin. He was in debt a significant amount of money and he bought a ton of Bitcoin. Well, last December, when it hit $65,000 or $63,000, his $3,000,000 turned into around $100,000,000. He sold about half of it, so he's got this cushion. Then he up and left and moved to another country. He lives there because he's like, "You know, I believe that this country is the future." The moral of the story is I'm not like this crazy person. I don't think you are either. You have a family; you're not going to up and move them, although you will take interesting bets. But I recognize I'm not this human being. I am so thankful that crazy people like this exist.

Shaan Puri

and for our amusement

Sam Parr

Not for our amusement necessarily, but like the world needs... his boldness was rooted in some type of selfishness. He wants to get rich, yeah, get rich. But that type of boldness, even though this may not be the best example, that personality type is what pushes society forward. It actually does weird, crazy stuff that ends up becoming normal and common for us.

Shaan Puri

I don't know if I... I don't think this is uncommon, but I feel special in the way I feel. I feel special that I'm this way, but I know this is actually how most people think. I fucking love greatness in any field. Like, you could just be like, "Hey, you play billiards?" I'm like, "No, but check this out! This person's the best in the world at billiards. Tell me more!" I’ll stop what I’m doing and watch them for 8 hours straight. Then, I’ll go watch the documentary about them, and then I’ll go find, you know, the book about them. I’ll just keep going deep because there’s something about greatness that is just so attractive to me. So, recently, do you watch the TV show *Dave*?

Sam Parr

of course I like what's the guy's name the rapper

Shaan Puri

Yeah, Lil Dicky. So, *Dave* is a show that I started watching, and I love it. *Dave* is like a hilarious show to me, and it's very unique. It's not like most TV shows; it's not made like most TV shows. It uses everybody's real names. It's kind of set in Hollywood, and it's this guy's story of trying to be a big rapper, which is his real story. And then it's kind of like... he's not like in *Entourage*, where he's just cool and cool stuff keeps happening. Models keep throwing themselves at him. It's the opposite. He's kind of like a nerdy Jewish guy who happens to be an aspiring rapper. You know, things happen to him that are not so great all the time. I just love this dude. He's so talented. He's very talented as a rapper. If you haven't listened to the Lil Dicky Sway freestyle, we should put that whole freestyle at the end of this episode. Dan, do that. Just grab the whole audio for that freestyle and put it at the end.

Sam Parr

the end of this episode

Shaan Puri

Where he gives the girl flowers... where he gives her flowers! Exactly, dude. He's so good! That freestyle is amazing. Although, I mean, obviously it's not an actual freestyle. Then, you know, to then go into how he marketed himself. He's a former ad agency guy who got his job at an agency but was writing a rap song for like Doritos to win the client, win the gig, win the account. Then he leaves to become an actual rapper. His story is kind of like he works for a long time on his album, doesn't show anyone, has no results to show for it, kind of runs out of time and money doing this, and then launches his first music video. It goes viral because he had put so much work into his craft of making this work, and he's completely authentic. So, back to a Navalism: escape competition through authenticity. Most of the things you want occur in very competitive spaces, and the answer is not to try to outcompete everybody by being better because everybody's trying to be better. The way to do it is to be different. The easiest way to be different is to be completely you because nobody can be better at you than you. You've been you your whole life; you have a lifetime of experience at it. Similarly, for Dave, his niche in rapping is like being an awkward white guy rapper just kind of growing through life, trying to get with women and failing sometimes, and sometimes succeeding, etcetera, etcetera. I think this guy is so impressive to me, and I love finding these... you know, whether it's in the UFC. That's why I love Conor McGregor and his rise because early on I was like, "This guy seems like he's full of greatness." Then you see it play out, and you're like, "Wow, that was amazing!" Dave in the rap scene... so this, and you're talking about this with Edison and some of the books that you're consuming. I don't know, like, what do you think? Are we kind of like... are we unique in this? Or does... I feel like everybody loves greatness, right? But is there something different about it?

Sam Parr

The way we approach it... I think it's because we have been privileged. You and I have seen people who have accomplished things that most people only hear rumors about or see in movies. Like, I know this person who sold their company and made $500,000,000. We know many people who have done that. So, we firsthand know that greatness is real and that you can self-actualize. We know it's real. The second thing is, we know people who have created, invented, or worked on things that everyone else takes for granted. You're like, "Dude, you have no idea what it takes to have made that a reality." It's just so impressive. I think that because of that, we appreciate bold people who are also capable.

Lil Dicky

right

Sam Parr

And so, I think a lot of people are like that, but not that many people. For example, when I go to a convenience store and there's a sign taped to the door, I'm like, "Do you have any pride? Fix that!" Like, put a proper frame on it. Do this the right way and be the best. That's why you detest lack of greatness. I can't stand that. But, you know, there's a reason why we're not the only ones. There's a reason why Jiro... what's that? Jiro loves sushi or...

Shaan Puri

Jiro Sushi, yeah. Yeah, like Nike. Nike's whole marketing is not about the rubber in their shoes; it's about great athletes. Because everybody loves great athletes, that's an easy one that everybody loves.

Sam Parr

No, I... but I like it. When I look at it, I don't care about weightlifting, but I look at weightlifters and I'm like, "Dude, look how this guy's weighing his food every single day and getting up at 5:30 just for that." I just... I love that. So, let me move on to one more thing. But yeah, I do love greatness, and I'll tell you about these last two things that I've read.

Shaan Puri

Can I leave one? On that, I would say definitely a lot of good has come from being a fan of greatness. However, I would suggest trying to be a fan of greatness, not just a fan of the people. The reason I say that is because what often happens is when people get really into greatness, they study these individuals and their net conclusion is, "Wow, they're great and they're different than me." They sort of separate themselves, almost like saying, "Oh, that's a different species." There's a better way to approach this. You can take entertainment, inspiration, and education from them regarding the things they do. But don't count yourself as something different. Treat yourself like you are them. You're no different than they are. They are just like you, made of the same things, having the same doubts, insecurities, and struggles. So, don't create this divide between the great people and yourself. If you do, it becomes counterproductive. Every time you learn about their greatness, it reinforces a negative perception of yourself. Instead, if you think about yourself as just like them, then every time you learn about them, it creates positive reinforcement about what you can also achieve.

Sam Parr

And I'll tell you just the last few things that I consumed this week that made a difference. The first is... or the last couple, **Nonviolent Communication**. It's real touchy-feely. You know what **Nonviolent Communication** is?

Shaan Puri

I've never read it but I've heard about it yeah

Lil Dicky

it's a way

Shaan Puri

it's a way to speak in a way I guess I don't know how would you explain it

Sam Parr

Basically, I have a problem: I suck at dealing with people. My emotions get the best of me. I get angry at people and I communicate stuff, and I'm like, "Why am I getting angry? This is so counterproductive." I do this with Sarah, I've done it with you before, and I've done it with all my coworkers. I just communicate horribly. So, I'm actually trying to learn a better way to communicate—a more effective way to communicate. This is like giving you a toolkit. It just gives you a better way to talk to people. So you...

Shaan Puri

give us one nugget from it so what's what's one tweak

Sam Parr

Dude, it's really hard. It's like... it's so opposite of how I do things. For example, there's a lot... someone who's an expert on this is going to criticize me on how I'm explaining it, but it's quite complicated for me because it's so not normal. Basically, the idea here is: look, I'm not going to judge you for telling me this. I'm not going to get angry; I'm not going to judge you. But I actually just want to clarify. So, you feel like this, correct? Okay, well, what I need from you is X, Y, and Z. Are you able to... can I get that from you or no? It's that type of very crystal clear communication. Then, you'll say things like, "Look, can you repeat back what you thought I said?" For example, I'll tell you to do something, and I'll say... and you'll say, "Okay, fine." I'll be like, "Can you repeat back?" Well, you said, "If you don't do this, you're going to yell at me." Let me find a better example. Okay, my wife and I got into an argument over... I forget what we got into an argument over, but I said, "Can you repeat back to me what you thought I said?" Well, you said, "It's going to piss you off if I do this again." I was like, "No, I actually didn't mean to express the idea that I'm going to be angry at you. It was just that it hurts my feelings when this happens."

Lil Dicky

right you know

Sam Parr

What I mean is, it's a different way to communicate. I'm not good at it. This is why I'm reading this *fucking* book. Clearly, I could barely describe the damn thing. The last thing, or the second to last thing, is *The Courage to Be Disliked*. Great book! I started getting into it because of Naval, and there are a few takeaways here. I'll read my four takeaways: 1. It's dangerous to believe that your past determines your future. I know it's fluffy. 2. If you focus on what's wrong with you, you might be looking for reasons to hate yourself on purpose. Again, fluffy. 3. Most of what we think is competition is just made up and is hurting your happiness. 4. This is like crazy woo-woo: basically, life is just a bunch of sounds and lights, and we assign emotion to it. So, you can actually assign a happy emotion or not. So, that's the last one. There's also an article I read that made a big difference. It's a New Yorker article written in 2014 about Sam Altman. Have you ever read this?

Shaan Puri

maybe I I I like to study sam altman but I I don't remember this one

Sam Parr

It's written in 2016 in The New Yorker. It's called "Sam Altman's Manifest Destiny." I was rereading this, and I want to tell you a few reasons why. First, in 2016, they asked him what his hobbies are and what he does when he's not working. He said, "I like racing cars, I like renting planes and flying them. Oh, and I've got one odd thing that I like: I like to prep for survival." Seeing their bewilderment, he explained, "My problem... sorry, I'm butchering this. The problem is when my friends get drunk, they talk about ways the world will end after a Dutch lab modified H5N1 bird flu virus five years ago, making it super contagious. The chance of a lethal virus being released in the next 20 years will become, well, non-zero. So, I have a plot of land in Big Sur that I can fly to. I have antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks made by the Israel Defense Forces, all ready to go." This was in 2016. That's kind of cool, right? He also talks about how he sold his company and profited $5 million, investing all of it in startups, which I thought was pretty crazy because we're talking about crazy freaks. It's just a really good article. I think people should read this because Sam Altman is like a freak weirdo, and that's a compliment. We're talking about extreme personalities, and I think it's a really cool insight. It's one of the only long-form articles I've ever seen written about him, so I've been rereading that this week.

Shaan Puri

That's a cool one! I'm gonna check that out. I remember Paul Graham once said something, and Paul Graham's obviously a fan of Sam Altman because he started Y Combinator and then put Sam Altman in charge of it. Sam Altman was by no means the most successful YC alumni at the time. I think his company sold for $30 million, but it was kind of like, in many ways, a failure. It didn't succeed.

Sam Parr

it it raised 40 and it sold for 30

Shaan Puri

Yeah, exactly. I think he got something out of it, but you know, whatever. Paul Graham once said, "When I was talking to Sam Altman, I think maybe for the first or second time, I had this thought: Oh, this is what it would have been like to talk to Bill Gates at 21." That's pretty high praise for somebody. I thought that was a pretty cool description.

Sam Parr

And there are a lot of peculiar things about Altman that I love. I should come up with a better word than "weird," but "peculiar" fits. For example, listen to this sentence from a class that Altman taught at Stanford in 2014. By the way, in 2014, he must have been around 28. He remarked that the formula for estimating a startup's chance of success is something like: **Idea × Product × Execution × Team × Luck**, where luck is a random number between 10,000 and... little lines like that. I just think it's crazy that someone thinks like that. It's peculiar, it's exciting, and it's really neat. There's another story where he is working with Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb. They're about to pitch in front of everyone at Y Combinator, and there's this great line where Brian Chesky says, "I attribute a lot of our success to Sam Altman and YC." They ask him, "Well, why?" He replies, "Right before our deck, we had limited our projected revenue on the deck to $30 million." Chesky said Sam stopped them and looked at them, saying, "Do me a favor: take all those 'Ms'—you know, the $30 million—and change them to 'Bs'." Altman recalls telling them, "Either you don't believe everything you said in the rest of the deck about how big this is going to be, or you're ashamed, or I just can't do math." He just said, "Change all the 'Ms' to 'Bs'." I think that kind of thinking is actually pretty interesting.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, people who can cut through the noise and just get straight to the heart of it. Alright, this is cool. This is kind of like stuff that Sam's been reading and listening to, stuff we've been consuming.

Sam Parr

I don't know is this interesting is this gonna be good or is it true I

Shaan Puri

enjoyed the conversation I don't know dan what do you think is this gonna be a good pod

Sam Parr

Yeah, I think it's cool. I think it'd be a fun thing to check in every couple of weeks or a month. Alright, well, let's see. But that's the episode.

Lil Dicky

lil dicky don't turn the rock wonder drop a beat on him sway in the morning shave 5 turn the turn that beat up on your headphones get that headphones okay turn it up I'm gonna turn it up o q alright I'm not gonna dance I ain't gonna dance I'll tell you nothing to it's serious here we go little old dick and I'm back in this bitch I know y'all know when I rap what it is all facts don't fit got a gang full of hits and touch with the kids like a pedo oh I'm a jam like shaq I'm a bang when I wish I've been this bitch like a feeder ain't no timelines wearing you time list hold up mj 96 meeting I'm back on my bullshit you know I come hard like a full dick suburban and white stay with the red like some cool whip though look how it spreads cool whip flow I can make them right with a ig live and my girl got bombs and a ig hot and between her legs is looking right hypotenuse bring it all down hold up sway let me bring it all down I'm not about to hold the paper and display it like a thumbtack no touch back they're about to run his back and if you ever met me you root for me sharp shit coming I'm a dome I'm a unicorn part of my breath only perky said up fuck with his breast elevator kiss and hoes at your wrist freaky friday I get in I'm like chris wait sway pass me the rock get it pose jab up fake jumping in them 2 shots at the line I got them fuck her bro sway her brother looking at me like hey fuck her bro I'm like kareem abdul kareem abdul jabbar these hooks got me scoring see me coming from afar rapping in france I never need an advance I'm switching it up like I'm trans although I'm the trojan man I'm eating a pussy like cervical cancer I know where I'm going but shit if my gps died I sleep in my sedan I can't do the shmurda dance I I get caught up you take a shower that that that will work for you sometimes I'll catch it for a minute just like I'm embedded I got a leg of like ottomans though my television show is coming but that is irrelevant right now I'm rapping like presents get how did I get here I got big rapping like diddy I'm prevalent hold on let me find the melody all my fans are getting mad at me they just wanna hear me spazzing now but just had to put a couple smashes out how is this shit a pop star rap name is a dick joke how did he make it that far good pussy at the crib like a house cat they're waiting on my buzz like the outback in and out with the bag like I make tea when I do shopping squeeze eyebrows on like ad girls get wet like navy pull up like I'm steph and shoe cream players in the nba text me if I want a diet coke someone brings me diet coke all my life shows nuts like our expos tested coats hold up wait let me ad lib my shipper oh yeah yeah look at my penmanship write this I'm a carl's junior model just on the side like soccer moms I could've sold you stock and bond have it so fast like ramadan or autobonder shaman running down the bond from carson's arm I'm off the farm I'm on the court the jumbotron is on the board they playing my song lebron is nodding am I james worthy look at my bars I'm met up like bernie oh oh we having fun girls see me and start blushing just because I'm around I used to always get a boner at my physical sway if this is cultural appropriation what can I say what would you have me do you know I gotta rap but the times now are scary hold up wait take a step back dave think about the shit internet is a permanent place this is gonna live forever breathe analyze think about everything I'm I'm such an idiot I used to cover r kelly songs at my shows without even knowing it was problematic I feel the pressure I know more scrutiny what I do act more jewishly come on sway write my eulogy am I looking like I need to get a job or looking like I need a bodyguard I play tennis with leonardo how y'all train on track like cargo I go dumb don't dumb it up don't fuck on planes when I'm coming up add up my views to sum it up I was just on sportscenter I think this is good I've done enough my haters look mad like son of a now let me go and finish on my album jussie smollett you know I'm a fuck it up oh and I'm out that's it and I'm and I'm in on that and I'm out walk out and I'm out you gonna drop by to walk out gone and I gotta catch a flight thank you awesome little dicky ladies and gentlemen oh dicky yo yo one done and out kel you see how that man did that right now that last line he only does the line that gets to me man oh my god he did that on jesse the one and only lil dicky ladies and gentlemen you're a man of your word thank you for the flowers this man