You Need to Act Like a Winner Before You Become One - Alex Hormozi
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Alex Hormozi argues that entrepreneurship and personal growth fundamentally require training oneself to respond effectively to hardship, noting that everything worth doing is inherently difficult with a payoff proportional to the struggle faced. He explains that in early stages, individuals often interpret difficulty as a warning sign or red flag prompting them to slow down or pivot, but this perspective must shift once one understands the competitive landscape clearly. By reframing obstacles like "rocks and dragons" not as deterrents but as necessary trials on the path to success, the hardship transforms from a personal burden into an indicator that no one else will follow the same route. This mental flip changes the narrative from feeling sorry for oneself to recognizing that others are being selected out by these very challenges, similar to participants in *The Hunger Games*, making the struggle more motivating because it signifies exclusivity rather than failure. A significant paradox highlighted is that starting a new endeavor requires far more energy and yields fewer rewards compared to continuing an established practice where efficiency has already been built up over time. Hormozi illustrates this with his own podcast's trajectory, noting that while they had accumulated hundreds of episodes by late 2022, the revenue generated in December alone surpassed the total earnings from the first three and a half years combined. He emphasizes the critical need to protect one's passion during these initial low-reward phases because once motivation fades due to lack of external validation or proper self-care, it becomes incredibly difficult to reignite that drive later when efficiency is highest but desire has diminished. The beginning represents burning through limited resources like time and energy without leverage, whereas later stages allow for allies, audience support, and greater capacity to overcome larger challenges with less relative effort. To navigate the painful early days where one feels isolated against a "bear" rather than equipped to slay dragons, Hormozi suggests drawing inspiration from *Slumdog Millionaire*, where random experiences seemingly meaningless at the time become crucial answers later in life. He points out that skills developed while living in the weeds, such as learning cinematography and lighting techniques for his podcast or mastering calligraphy before founding Apple, provide unique context and downstream advantages that beginners cannot replicate. Experts possess faster feedback loops within their domain; just as a master video editor sees immediate visual rewards with every change made during editing, entrepreneurs must find internal validation in the process itself rather than waiting solely for external outcomes like view counts or revenue to confirm progress. The most effective strategy for maintaining momentum is adopting the narrative frame of being the hero of one's own story, a concept Hormozi attributes to Jordan Peterson and which he applies by asking what action would create the "most epic story" in retrospect. This approach allows individuals to endure periods of extreme hardship, such as sleeping on gym floors or losing everything financially, because they are documenting their journey for future audiences who will appreciate the full saga rather than just the final success. By viewing every unit of work today as a contribution to becoming the type of person capable of enduring five years without reward, and by remembering that these struggles serve as arrows in one's quiver for fighting future battles, the lonely path becomes a deliberate choice to build an asset—the self—that will eventually tell a compelling tale of resilience. Ultimately, Hormozi concludes that expecting things to be easy only makes them harder; instead, embracing the nobility of earning one's stripes and trusting that if you can survive this hardest part where resources are scarce, everything else becomes downhill as your capabilities expand exponentially.
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you're going to lose sleep you'll doubt
whether it'll work you'll stress to make
ends meet you won't finish your to-do
list you'll wonder whether you made the
right call and have no way to know for
yours this is what hard feels like and
that's okay everything worth doing is
hard and the more worth doing it is the
harder it is the greater the payoff the
greater the hardship if it's hard good
it means no one else will do it more for
you
I think a lot of Entrepreneurship and
even personal growth is training
yourself on how you respond to
hard because in the early days hard was
ooh stop this isn't good I should I
should this is a warning sign this is a
red flag I should slow down or I should
stop you know I should pivot but the
more I think about it as a competitive
landscape as I'm clear on what this path
is supposed to look like and these rocks
and these dragons are things that I'm
going to have to slay along the way to
get the princess or get the
treasure I get happier about the harder
it is because I know that no one else
will follow it's a selection effect and
I think if you can if you can shift from
this is hard to no one else will be able
to do this then it it's it flips from
being this thing that you're like oh
poor me to oh poor everyone else who's
going to have to [ __ ] try and I think
that is so much more motivating as a
frame for the exact same circumstance
yeah that's
awesome I was
thinking a lot about the lonely chapter
that we talked about the last time that
was the best most powerful idea I think
that we came up with
and if you
see there basically being no shortcuts
toward getting the thing that you want
there are ways to be more and less
efficient there are ways to do things
with more and less of a positive
disposition which can actually make the
journey feel an awful lot easier but
ultimately if you assume that largely
everyone needs to go through the same
challenges that you're going through
every single difficult thing that you do
is kind of like a massive wall that you
need to get over and you go wow [ __ ] I'm
so glad that I've got over that wall and
think about how many people are going to
be selected out it's like the Hunger
Games you know think about how many
other people are going to fall that wall
there people only root for people who
don't need
it like the amount of times when I was
on my lonely path where I was too
different from the friends that I had
but not successful enough to be friends
with the people that I wanted to be
friends
with that's when that's when you want
people to root for you that's when you
want people to support you once you've
already won people are like he's amazing
he's so good but like that's the time
when you need it the least and
so you always have to be the person who
roots for you before everyone else does
and it's usually a single clap in the
auditorium for a very long period of
time it is a slow clap that's just you
rooting for you um and that visual I
think is one that you can kind of take
because it
is people struggle to do things
alone and the path of the exceptional
person is one of an exception which
means that you are not with other people
and rather than fighting that or boning
it see it as an indicator that you're on
the right path because if everyone else
were cheering you on then it means
you're not in the right place because it
means you're just like everyone else and
that's not where you want to
be it's an interesting Paradox
that the energy it requires to start
doing something is way more than the
energy required to continue doing the
thing and that the beginning of doing
anything results in the lowest amount of
reward both internal and external than
when you've been doing it for ages so I
think about this a lot with the show
that there was this stat that Spotify
told us 85% of the listeners of this
show found this in
2023 right and I thought at the end of
2022 remembering at that point I'd been
on Rogan we were at like 650k we've got
you know we've been doing 550 600
episodes deep like I'm I've got I've
done the thing like this is this is me
doing if this isn't [ __ ] doing the
thing I've moved to Austin Texas I've
got an 01 Visa I've got like the all the
rest of the stuff Jordan Peterson's been
on twice you've been
on and yet
the what everything up until that point
is two months of
growth yeah I mean we made we made more
money for just from a revenue
perspective we made more money and more
subs in one month December of last year
than we did in the entire first three
and a half years of the show so it's
this odd Paradox and one of the things
that you need to ensure I've had this
idea about protect your passion at all
costs because if you if you begin to
hate the thing that you do you
negatively change your trajectory and
that means that at the time when you can
benefit the most by every single unit of
work which is the later that you go
presuming that you continue to hit that
Upp trajectory if you've completely
killed any passion or desire to do the
work in the early stages because
you've you've not protected it
appropriately that can be by focusing on
the wrong things by not rewarding
yourself by not building it with people
that care about you by you know just not
not celebrating when you hit Milestones
all of the things that actually help to
keep you going being a
character by the time that you get to
the stage where each unit of effort
allows you to gain a thousand or a
million of each of the things that it
would have done at the very beginning
you've inverted the uh like the passion
equation
takes way more energy to start a thing
than to continue doing a thing and yet
in the beginning the rewards are way
lower than they are at the end but if
you don't protect your passion your
motivation is at its lowest when you are
at your highest amount of efficiency in
terms of returning your time put in I
think a hopeful message that anyone can
think about who's about who's in that
hard period or in that start period is
that it won't get harder like this is
the hardest part
and so if you can just make it through
this everything else is downhill it's
not that the things that you're the
dragons are going to slay aren't going
to get bigger they are but you become so
much more equipped to slay them back and
you have so many more allies you have
people in the stands cheering for you
you have the audience you have all of
these other things that are behind you
but in the beginning it's just you with
a stick against a bear and arguably that
fight is a harder fight to win than
beating a dragon when you have a nuclear
bomb and Six Nations behind you and so
it's not even like the the size of the
hardship it's just also the resources
and how few of them you have and how so
much of the beginning is literally
burning the one thing you have which is
time because you have no leverage you
don't have the money to pay other people
to help you you don't have the resources
to go like get someone to to you no one
can learn it for you it's like there's a
lot of the things that that we care
about a lot like no one can work out for
you doesn't matter how much money you
have no one can learn skills for you and
so in the early days like it feels so
painful cuz you're like you look around
to see who can help you and then you're
like [ __ ] it's me again and I think
getting comfortable with the idea that
each of these things kind of like Slum
Dog Millionaire if you've seen that
movie where he I'll give you the tldr he
goes through his entire life of
Randomness and he gets on Who Wants To
Be A Millionaire version in India and
has 12 questions to make a million
dollars and from only 12 random
experiences in his life that seemed
meaningless at the time was he able to
answer all of the questions and then
ultimately win the skills that you
develop along the way like Steve Jobs
learning calligraphy that then became
Apple fonts that you know transformed
how we
type those early days that little trench
winning in the
weeds often times gives you these huge
advantages later on because you have
more context than anyone else and so
rather than lament them and hate the
fact that you're going through it
remembering that these will be arrows
that you put in the quiver that you're
going to be using to slay the future
bigger dragons and
so
expecting it to be easy is what makes it
much harder than it ever
is I've always loved earning my stripes
with the things that I've done whether
it was with nlife or running the podcast
or doing whatever and I
think there's like a degree of nobility
to it but functionally that's kind of
that's just like it's a nothing like
what the where does the was the nobility
but I think the reason that you can feel
Noble about it and the reason that it
gives you a positive reward is you know
that you understand every single inch of
the things and that if you want to hold
a conversation we went out for dinner
with our new CFO and and accounts people
on Saturday they said you ask a lot of
questions most people don't ask very
many questions and I also don't care at
all about accounts really like I'm not
doing this for money but they said you
ask a lot of questions it's like well I
don't ever really want to walk into a
room and not be able to hold my own at
least just
competently if it's to do with something
that I care about the same thing goes
for this like I I started to learn about
focal lengths and frame rates and
negative Phill reverse contrast lighting
and then sure enough two years after we
started doing it a bunch of different I
sent you the Instagram thing like this
really awesome film Instagram that I've
been following for ages picked us up for
what we were doing and gave us props
independent of the talk thing which is
fundamentally what we're here for and we
created this entire new industry of like
cinematic podcasting which was
recognized by as far as I'm aware like
the best cinematic it's called film
lights at film lights people can go and
see it on Instagram like the best
decoder and analyzer of cinematography
and two years ago when we started I
remember thinking [ __ ] like I love the
way that they've broken down what
happens in adastra oh my God the whole
thing was shot on 35 Mill each different
scene's got two pairings of colors and
stuff like that and then but the reason
that we were able to get there at least
in some part is I can have a
conversation with people so each of the
things that you do when you not only win
in the weeds but live in the weeds then
allows you Downstream from that to see
the things that other people aren't
seeing there's a quote that I love from
Dr cash I'll probably butcher it
but
experts have more ways to win than
beginners do and so if an expert goes
into any setting that they're expert in
they have so many faster feedback loops
that reward them in the moment before
the ultimate outcome so if you're a
master video editor there's so many
things that you can do that while
editing you make one change and then it
looks right you have a positive feedback
loop and so I think when you're on the
start path you can't look at the outcome
as The only positive because you will
never make it and so the positive frame
that I've always used is sure you can
have the external on of like I like
thinking about my first videos had like
13 views and I'm like well if I had an
audience of 13 people I used to spend
years pitching you know weight loss
stuff to rims of 13 and that was fine
and so thinking about that way was
helpful but the the most helpful frame
was thinking about who I was becoming as
the asset that I was building so in real
time whenever I finished a Long Day's
Work I was becoming more like the type
of person who could work for 5 years
without reward and that would be part of
the story I would someday tell and some
some of the biggest reinforces I've had
in my life has been futurecasting the
story that I would tell about the shitty
period that I was in like I remember
when I was sleeping on the floor at my
gym because I didn't have enough money
for two rents and I was like I will
[ __ ] tell this story and when I lost
everything for the first time I like I
have the screenshot of the bank account
like when I show it people are like oh
look there's that thing but they forget
that there was a person who
screenshotted it to be like this won't
[ __ ] happen again and I think think
having a larger Narrative of where
you're ultimately going one gives you
the vision of where you're like the ru
like knows where he's going but it
allows the dragons that you have to slay
along the way the hard things that you
have to overcome to feed into the larger
Narrative of who of the story that
you'll someday tell and so like no one
ever tells stories about the hero who
made it all happen immediately and had
no hardships no one cares right like
okay you were born to a billionaire is
there a story there not not really but
everyone loves the story because we can
see ourselves in the character and how
much we hope to be like them and it's
the being like them not the having what
they have that we usually like and so
reframing ourselves as the hero of that
narrative in my harder times was what
really got me through that and
thinking I will tell this story someday
have you heard Rogan talk about the be
the hero of your own story thing M oh
dude it's is old now I think this is
maybe even 10 years old maybe 10 years
old um and he's in one of his old he's
in the LA podcast studio and he says
imagine that you're in a movie and
imagine the movie begins now and you're
the hero of the movie yeah what would
that guy do
yeah what would that guy do right now
yeah because you
are I just got into a business um so
actually just made the investment in
school um and I was talking to Sam the
founder and I said what sim sam Sim
what's Sim Sim that's the way he says
his own yeah um and I was and I was
talking to him and I said I want to give
you the single easiest razor to predict
my behavior and I said whatever will be
the most epic story is the thing that I
will most likely
do and so often times the most epic
story is not the shortest outcome to
Victory it's the long Saga that results
in this big thing later eventually and I
was like if you ever want to know if
you're like I'm not sure what he's going
to do in this situation just wonder what
the most epic story to tell would be and
that's usually what I will do
and I don't know if that's
self-aggrandizing but that's that's
genuinely my Razor for even making the
like the big decisions about okay I'm
going to sell gym launch I'm going to
I'm going to marry Lea I'm going to slum
it and live at the gym I'm going to fly
around and do turnarounds I'm going to
start this whole idea of a media company
that just gives exclusively like how do
like how do I put all these together
it's like well what would be the most
epic story and I thought of this idea of
just like when I think about who that
story I want to tell is is this
billionaire that documented the entire
thing the whole way and just gave
because I always thought I was like I
wish that Elon Musk and and Warren
Buffett and all these guys would have
like and Jeff basos like would have just
like I would love to have seen
1997 Amazon content and a lot of the
content in terms of like it it's getting
five views it's like it's okay because
when we make it they're going to come
back and watch this so I don't need them
to watch it today I want them to know
that it's here when I do and I think
that got me out of the the loop of it I
have to win right now and then every one
of them is just dropping uh a kernel or
a bread for future meat to refer back to
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