The 2024 Milly Awards

Shaan Puri

Ladies and gentlemen, here we are — four years in a row: the end-of-year **Millie Awards**. We get together and recap the year. We make up a bunch of categories, we make up a bunch of answers, and we reflect on how the year has gone with our awards ceremony. So, Sam, are you ready?

Sam Parr

"I’m ready. I like your jacket. Are you going to start wearing this stuff more often? It feels like a *little suit of armor*."

Shaan Puri

"Yeah, I already got a compliment this morning inside the house. So I think maybe I should start *dressing well*. Maybe that's going to be my **change of the year**. We'll see."

Sam Parr

See, it's December 26. You got a compliment this year—*probably* the only compliment you got all year.

Shaan Puri

yeah the only looks compliment for sure

Sam Parr

men don't get compliments so you should wear jackets more alright where do we wanna start

Shaan Puri

Alright, we're gonna start the category. We have 11 awards to give out. We're gonna start with number 1: **Best Investment of the Year**. These are *personal*, by the way—these are our personal best investments, worst investments, that sort of thing. So, Sam, what was your best investment of the year? What do you...

Sam Parr

think I'm gonna say

Shaan Puri

the s and p 500

Sam Parr

The **S&P 500** was up 28%, but that one's boring. I don't want to just say that was the best investment we had this year. Do you remember Jason Cohen? We had him on the pod [podcast]. Jason Cohen started—what's it called—*WP Engine*. *WP Engine*.

Shaan Puri

love that guy

Sam Parr

No, I just couldn't remember the company. Anyway, he made a comment—I think after the pod—where he talked about tipping. I said, "I like to tip," and that I just hand out fives. He goes, "Fives? You should be handing out twenties." He said, "I tip like crazy." I started doing that after the pod. I carry around about $1,000 of twenties at any given time, and I am just dishing that shit out like crazy. If you want to know something, it's made me so happy, and that's been a great investment. I wanted to bring that up because my investment strategies are pretty boring, but man, I'll tell you what: I'll go to a restaurant and it'll be like $60 because we don't drink and it's cheap—cheap dates. I'll easily leave $100. </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

And then you stick around to wait for the reaction to it. You're like, "Did you—did you see that?" You just want to make sure you get things right under there.

Sam Parr

Listen. I thought it was tacky to do that, but I say **screw them** — I'm doing something nice. I want a compliment; it makes me feel good too. I'm doing this for selfish reasons: it makes me feel good, so I don't mind it as long as I'm not filming it. It's okay. That's what I think.

Shaan Puri

do you guys share these or is that all yours right there

Sam Parr

No. Alright, so, you— but seriously, **tipping** has made me happier. But *investment*... it's hard for me to say the **best investment**, because I am so boring. Although I do have one **angel investment**, and I figure that's going to pay a lot of money, so far on paper.

Shaan Puri

okay so sam's favorite ice cream is vanilla alright here we go what do you want me to say

Sam Parr

am I supposed to make something up

Shaan Puri

Alright. I will make up for your boring answer—I have two answers. I'll give you the first one, okay? So, Sam: best investment. When I think of the perfect investment, right, what's my type? *My type* would be—you know, some people like blondes, some people like brunettes. Here's my type: **my type is a passive investment that is tax-advantaged, that beats market returns, that is uncorrelated to the rest of my portfolio (tech/crypto has low downside), and I'm betting on a beast of an operator who has an unfair advantage.** </FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

it sounds like you're trying to sell me a timeshare

Shaan Puri

Alright, so—it's real estate, you got it. For the first time, I made some serious investments. I invested a few million dollars into real estate this year, and it was great. For a long time, I had thought I should probably be doing real estate. I should probably take this *magic internet money* and put it in real estate so that I have kind of both: real-world, tangible assets that pay cash flow, and then this kind of crazy upside tech stuff. I never could figure out the way to do it. I was like, do I buy my own and manage it? That seems like a pain. Do I use one of these funds or whatever? But they're all just fee monsters. The answer was sitting in my own wheelhouse. My brother-in-law is an amazing real estate operator—the guy's built like a $1 billion real estate portfolio for himself—so I just started giving him money and it's been amazing. I don't lift a finger, and I'm getting 30–40% returns with all the tax advantages. So that was my best investment, and I'll be doubling down there. *Bonus answer:* I made a couple of stock trades. I know you don't approve—you're not supposed to buy individual stocks—but I did. I did it in a very specific way that I think you might dig, which was I've just been trading against the "All-In" podcast for two years now.

Sam Parr

are you kidding me

Shaan Puri

and it has been phenomenal

Sam Parr

Give me an example. Also, is this casino gambling money, or is this... in my opinion, anything above **$100,000** is...

Shaan Puri

in general real bets then okay

Sam Parr

so you're gonna be real

Shaan Puri

*Basic bets*, but I just view them as safe. They're not obscure panic attacks.</FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

or something

Shaan Puri

So what will happen is: I'm all in on the **All-In Podcast**. I love listening to it—very entertaining guys, very smart guys. I just don't think they're right a lot, and they're not right in one specific way. They have one specific flaw, which is that they have an agenda, which is often either promoting their own book or being anti-woke, anti-left, or anti–big tech.

Sam Parr

they make

Shaan Puri

the money no they're not they like the making money part

Sam Parr

no anti getting good gains

Shaan Puri

So, like, you know, **Jason Calacanis** goes out and he says the most likely case is **Bitcoin zero**, and he tweets this out. Then on the **All-In Podcast** they're talking about crypto and all the problems with it. Well, guess what: I decided to buy **Bitcoin** that day. Then **Google** released its new **AI** model, and it had this problem where you say, "Show me a picture of **George Washington**," and it shows you a Black man.

Sam Parr

yeah

Shaan Puri

and they're like google's so woke it's going down the drain

Sam Parr

well your your year to date on Google is 41%

Shaan Puri

Yeah, exactly. The easiest, easiest money to make was just to trade against the *All-In podcast* [transcribed as "olive podcast"]. So here's an example: Chamath tweets out the growing short case against Facebook and he says, "regulation is a problem, tax is a problem, antitrust is a problem" — all this stuff. I bet on Facebook. I'm up 5x, so I made **500%** on that trade. Basically, they went anti-Bitcoin for a time, and then they swung back. They went anti-Meta and they made this case about why Zuck was being an idiot — that he was investing way too much capex into AR and VR, more money than had ever been invested in the development of the iPhone. This all sounds very, very smart, but my little simpleton brain went back to, like, no — I think Zuck's the man. I know I spend a shit... like, I have an e-commerce business. Every dollar I can spend on the Facebook ad engine, I spend...

Sam Parr

yeah you're like they eat them to take more money

Shaan Puri

Yeah. Oh, iOS 14 was a problem. No—no, I still spend more than I spent before that, and there's no better place to spend a dollar in advertising than on *Facebook*. The close second was *Google*, right? So when they went anti-Google for being "woke," I bought Google. When they went anti-Facebook, I bought Facebook. Anti-Bitcoin? I bought Bitcoin. And it's just been *very, very* profitable for me to do this.

Sam Parr

that's amazing that's really funny I think they

Shaan Puri

Like the "inverse Kramer" or "inverse Galloway" indexes, where they just—literally—whatever this popular figurehead says, they *bet the opposite*. I've basically been doing that for about two and a half years against the *All-In* podcast. Only now was I willing to say it.

Sam Parr

Dude, by the way—I had this guy on the pod [podcast] who'd become a great friend of mine, named **Val**. Him and I... he was the main guy; I was a very small investor. We bought a building in Brooklyn. I killed it on that. I think I had a 28% annual return, not including the tax stuff. But my worst investment this year... do you remember how I said I was—remember how I bought a ranch?

Shaan Puri

right

Sam Parr

I sold it this year. So stupid. Maybe I lost money because I could have used that money to invest in something that made a lot more, but I basically kind of broke even. It wasn't that huge of a loss, but it was so stressful. My learning is that I had this issue where I sold a company, I made money, and I thought I was on top of the world. I thought I could buy... so I fully bought three different pieces of real estate intending to turn them into projects. Not one of them was great: two were bad, one was breakeven. That's been my biggest failure—**hubris**, thinking that I'm amazing. Also, buying real estate that you have to operate is just like starting a small business: you have to work on it. *Ten hours a week* on it sucks. It's hard.

Shaan Puri

Yeah. My rule is: if it's **active**, it has to generate more than **50%**. The bar is way different if it's **passive**—it could be **7%**, and that's fine. But if it's active, it's gotta be more than **50%** if it's an active investment. That's why I gave you the traits. I said *passive*, *tax-advantaged*, *beats the market*, right? I had this list: if I could ever find an investment that does that... and I finally found one.

Sam Parr

I thought it would be cool. That's one of the *five* things that men love— they always say they want to own a lot of land. I did it, and I hated it. Dude, listen to this: I had a Tesla at the time. I would drive up to the country, and workers would come to bid to pave the driveway. I'd get a $70,000 quote and a $3,000 quote. That was the delta, and it was all because of the way I looked; they were like, "This guy doesn't know shit." It was crazy. I got taken advantage of so many times. It sucked, so I don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon.

Shaan Puri

and for that reason I'm out alright what about worst investment

Sam Parr

"That was my **worst investment**. Any fully owned real estate—any real estate that I was an investor in—I loved. Anything that I fully owned and wanted to make my thing because of pride, I failed miserably."

Shaan Puri

Hey — let's take a quick break to talk about our sponsor today. **HubSpot** has put together a list of **200 AI business ideas**. These are business ideas you could create using AI, and it's a list of 200 from a huge brainstorm. You can check it out — if you click the link below, you can get access to these 200 AI ideas. I'll give you an example of a couple of them. One is an AI dressing room: say you go to an e‑commerce site and you want to see what something would look like on you. You can use AI to take a picture of yourself and show what the clothes or makeup would look like on your face. It's pretty cool, right? Another example is AI tools for real estate brokers — something that takes their listings and makes them more polished and attractive to buyers. So check it out: it's a brainstorm of 200 possible AI ideas, brought to you by HubSpot. You can get it free via the link below. Alright — my worst investment. This was a little bit hard to pick. I did well this year, but if I stretch back a couple of years and ask what was the worst, I would say I made a general rookie mistake: I bought on the upswing and sold during panic. When COVID happened I thought, *oh my god, the whole economy is gonna shut down* — and I was right for a month. Right after that, stocks exploded, and I was sitting on the sidelines while the stocks I already owned started soaring. I had to buy back in at higher prices. Crypto crashed with FTX and other things, and when morale was at its lowest my conviction was at its lowest. I behaved — and I'm ashamed to say this — like a pleb. When things were bad my conviction went low; when things were good my conviction went high. This is the opposite way to make money. I kind of knew this, but in the moment it was a lot harder than I expected to actually master my own psychology as an investor.

Sam Parr

what is the word pleb are you thinking that means pleb

Shaan Puri

I say pleb you're saying pleb really

Sam Parr

"Which one of us is wrong? I don't know which one, though. *I don't have enough conviction...* But you might have taken another L there. [slang: *L* = loss]"

Shaan Puri

exactly such a pleb I don't even know how to say it

Sam Parr

Yeah, it *sucks* to be doing things that you know you would advise people not to do. </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

**In the moment. In the moment.** By the way, this is why information is not power; knowledge is not power.</FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

So when **COVID** happened, I think it was February in San Francisco. We were all in our apartment, sick, and the world was literally going to end. I remember — it's the only time I've ever done this — the market dropped, I think, **30%**. Literally the day it was at its lowest, I **sold 100% of everything I owned**.

Shaan Puri

yeah exactly

Sam Parr

I thought bodies were going to pile up in New York. I thought the world's ending. I had friends who did the opposite of me, and our returns were drastically different. That was the lesson that moment had to teach me: **do not do this**. You know when Warren Buffett says all these smart phrases and they sound cool, and you're like, "Yeah, I'm in. I'm in. When the tide goes low, you can see who's been swimming naked"? I'm in — that's all you gotta do; I'll be a billionaire. But when it actually happens, it's hard. It's scary. It's emotional. I fell victim to that, and it sounds like you did, too — at least once.

Shaan Puri

**100%.** Also, during that time I was picking — I remember choosing between two stocks. I was like, "Okay, I think the future is some version of *AI*, but also potentially *VR* and *AR*." I plowed a bunch of money into **Unity** instead of **NVIDIA**. I was looking at the two and thinking, "Is it Unity or NVIDIA?" I should have just bet on both, but instead I picked Unity, and Unity has done nothing while NVIDIA became the most valuable company in the world. So, you know, sometimes you do that too — that's also a way to lose.

Sam Parr

what did what did unity become

Shaan Puri

I've lost like 60% of my investment on unity unity has gone nowhere

Sam Parr

Is there a threshold for your trades? What's your lowest trade dollar amount — is it **$1,000**, or always above **$100,000**?

Shaan Puri

more like a 100,000

Sam Parr

got it so I

Shaan Puri

"I don't have an actual minimum, but I wouldn't— I mean, putting in $1,000 is not really that exciting; it's kind of a *waste of time*, right?"

Sam Parr

It depends how you look at it. For example, I think **stock picking is stupid**, but I also think, "Well, I spend $5 over a couple months just going to the casino—this could be an exciting thing." I remember when the *AMC* shit was going crazy. I thought it'd be fun. I was like, "Alright, I'll do the thing and I'll put only a grand in, just to play the game, and maybe I'll talk about it on here." It was dumb. It was stupid. It wasn't... </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

Even fun. I've done that with, like, *Dogecoin* and stuff like that. But yeah, **that's the true gambling budget.** Alright, let's do the next one: "Biggest L you took personally this year?"

Sam Parr

Dude, my daughter was born fifteen months ago. I gave myself four months to be kind of lazy and not be on top of my time management. You know how on Thanksgiving you tell yourself it's okay to splurge the night before because the cookies are being made, and then Friday you're eating leftovers, and by Sunday you're still picking at them? I basically did that for six months — I was pretty horrible with my time and wasted so much time this year. It really bothered me. So this year I've made some changes that I'll talk about when we get to the category of changes we're making next year. I wasted so much time when my daughter was born. And this isn't people telling me, "Well, you should have downtime to hang out with her" — yeah, I did that; I was *totally present*. But six months down the line, when she's with the nanny and I'm still kind of moving slow... you know what I mean — it was kind of rough.

Shaan Puri

so what what do you mean by wasting time what are what are you talking about here

Sam Parr

**I'll give you an example.** I shifted my workout schedule so I could be with her in the morning. That actually meant she wouldn't get out of bed until 7, and the nanny would come at 9. So between 7 and 9 I would hang out at home, then work out from 9:00 to 10:30 — which is a pretty lazy morning for me compared to when I used to work out at 7:30. Now the nanny comes at 8, and I thought, "Dude, I should've just switched — I can start my day a little bit earlier." But I didn't. I was still going to the gym later and just lounging around the house for hours. There were five things like that, and accumulated, it was about four to five hours a day just wasted.

Shaan Puri

It sounds like you've been hard on yourself. But okay — I'll accept your *L*. Each man's *L* is his own to carry. It's a burden he carries.

Sam Parr

you didn't have that where you wasted time when you had your kid like it's okay I think to like be lazy for a while

Shaan Puri

You just described your *unproductive day* as my *productive day*. So... I don't know — I don't know what you're talking about. I'm like, "Oh, wait: you took care of your kid and worked out in the morning? That sounds great. Sounds like a great morning. I don't know what you're talking about."

Sam Parr

It was just... I didn't get after it at all. I found myself being like— and also, when you have a kid, I experienced this: you're like, "nothing else matters." But you should still kinda pretend it does so you can be a little productive. I kind of acted like nothing else mattered. </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

Alright. The biggest *L* I took... there were so many to choose from, to be honest. From forgetting our anniversary, then trying to recover and guessing the date wrong—that was not great. By the way, she didn't even care, which was like, "Oh damn — I've lowered expectations to that level." Okay, gotcha. So that was a quick *L* I took. The whole... I don't know, if you guys... [trails off]

Sam Parr

"To get this shit on, can you solve this for me? Or should *anniversaries* be the first time you dated, or when you got married?"

Shaan Puri

once you get married it switches to the marriage anniversary is my official stance

Sam Parr

"I have been trying to say that it should be **dating** the whole time, because you know what I mean. Sometimes I'll date for five years."

Shaan Puri

you could do nothing for the marriage

Sam Parr

"Fuck that. It should be when you start—when you... I know, it should be your **first date**. That's what an anniversary should be, in my opinion."

Shaan Puri

The first time we kissed with tongue — that's it, right? Alright. So another L I took was: I was collateral damage to this whole... I don't know if you know about the *Elf on the Shelf* fucking insanity. I lost my wife, dude. </FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

is so crazy

Shaan Puri

This month, I went to, like, a widow thing. They were like, "What?" and I was like, "No, no—I just lost her to **Elf on the Shelf**." This has been crazy. She's up every night for four hours preparing this elaborate **Elf on the Shelf** setup. Then she sleeps; she has to sleep during the day. I don't know what's happening. I don't know who tricked women in America into doing this, but it is... it's like doing *75 Hard*, except you wake up at two in the morning to do it, and you do it for thirty days instead. </FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

"Is it... so it's like a doll that stares on the shelves and is *omnipresent*, watching your children so you could scare them into not doing bad stuff?"

Shaan Puri

So, okay. I think the original theory was: an elf comes to your house, it sits on a shelf, and in the morning it moves. You're like, "Oh my god, it moved—what's up with that?" But *women on the internet* have taken this to a whole new level. It doesn't just move; it creates schemes and plots and tricks and treats. Like, you know, my kids wake up, they come downstairs, and the entire living room has been turned into "the floor is lava"—there's fire on the ground everywhere. The tree is covered; it looks like a volcano now. The elves are hanging from the chandelier, doing crazy stuff. Or they take all of the underwear that was in every drawer in the house and put it all over the roof. You have to go outside and be like, "Oh my god, what did they do?" Every night they create a whole... Are we going to get our toilet replaced? They turned our toilet into a cereal bowl, and then somebody flushed, and now Fruit Loops clogged the toilet. We gotta get the toilet...

Sam Parr

you just break your shit

Shaan Puri

Yeah, you just do crazy stuff. Every night you come up with a giant episode of *Punk'd* by Ashton Kutcher. A huge prank happens that you have to invent every night, and you buy $1,000 worth of materials because the elves have their own-sized stuff that you're getting.

Sam Parr

If somebody had a gnawing rodent in their home causing havoc, they wouldn't put it on the shelf and say "hi" to it. They would *kill it*. </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

What exactly... If you don't know about this, you're just like, "What are you talking about? This is a weird, strange behavior." But if you're in it, there are people out there right now who are having PTSD-like shakes because they've also been experiencing this. I don't know if I'm in the minority — the slight minority — or the majority. I don't know how many people do this. I just know that my wife and her friends do this. She's in Facebook groups with hundreds of thousands of women, and every morning they post the elaborate things they set up. That spurs all of them to go even crazier with it. So I'm gonna say that "Elf on the Shelf" was one of mine.

Sam Parr

do you wanna do coolest moment

Shaan Puri

alright you give me yours

Sam Parr

So this year I had to go to LA for a Hampton thing where I had to interview **Rob Dyrdek** in front of a bunch of people. Very randomly, someone said, "Hey, I'm going back home to LA — I'm in Austin right now — I'm going tonight." Someone mentioned that in the morning: "You're going to LA? I'm with my wealthy, famous friend — who I'm not going to name — they actually have a jet and they're going to LA tonight." I got this text, but I had committed to putting my baby to sleep. This was in the first handful of months, and I was like, "I'm going to be here every night." I didn't want to sound like a douche, so I said, "I am so grateful you offered me, but I can't go because you want to leave at 6:00 and I said I'm going to be here till 8:30." He replied, "Oh, we'll go at 8:30," and I was like, "Awesome." I still felt conflicted — I didn't want to be a jerk — because my friend **Neville** was coming with me the next morning, which he was. I thought, "I could never bail on him." He said, "Great, we have room for him," and that totally accommodated me. So my best friend Neville and I flew to LA on this very wealthy, famous person's private jet. I got to spend about three hours learning from this guy. It was so fun and so awesome. It wasn't just about flying private — it was that I got to do this adventure with my friend. That was the **best moment I had all year**.

Shaan Puri

but if you flew southwest would it have been the coolest moment of the year

Sam Parr

On the way back, because we had to change our flights, we flew Southwest. We were seated next to the toilet. It was a very *yin and yang* situation, and it was still fantastic. </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

okay that one didn't win the award though

Sam Parr

That one didn't win the award, but it was fun. It's like... that meme of a guy in a hoodie that says, "Nobody here knows, but I invested in **Bitcoin** in 2012." That's how I felt in line at Southwest [Southwest Airlines] — they should ask me.

Shaan Puri

on the way here how'd you get here hey

Sam Parr

Want to know how I got here? On the way here, *that's how it felt.* I was like, "Somebody asked me..."

Shaan Puri

Oh, this is so different for me. Alright — love that one. Okay, I'll do a quick one. I kind of struggled with this one, but I'll give you a quick story. For Thanksgiving this year we were going to host it, but I decided to do a full family vacation. Kind of like, you know, if we've done well, we've had some success, how do I make sure that that makes everybody have a great time? That's what I cared about in my little economy. So I rented out this really cool house in **Tahoe**. I brought my whole family up to Tahoe and hired a personal chef who would cook us the Thanksgiving meal live. I just remember one morning when I woke up and it was the best morning. I took my dog out in the snow — my dog was like, mind-blown at what snow is. I took my dog for a walk early in the morning; it was crisp. I didn't have my phone; I didn't even know where my phone was. When I came inside, my kids were all playing with their cousins. That was so cool to see. Somebody was making breakfast in the other room and you could smell it. My brother-in-law and I played a game of "HORSE" on the little Nerf hoop that was in the house. I just had the best morning and I remember thinking, *this was bliss*. It ticked all of my boxes: whole family living under one roof, kids having a blast, me playing a silly game on a Nerf hoop. There wasn't a worry in the world — we weren't busy or rushing. It was just a wonderful feeling. So I'm going to give my Tahoe... [speaker says "Tahoe warning"; likely means "Tahoe win"] — my coolest moment of the year.

Sam Parr

**The takeaway, by the way:** I've done that for two years now. I did it the first time, I think, last year. When I was doing *best moments*, I was like — it was either what I just said or this: taking family and just paying for it. It sounds ridiculous, and it's very expensive and very challenging for a lot of people, but if you can pull it off it is almost always one of the best moments it feels like. The second takeaway is: the coolest moments that I think we've had for a lot of these things are always doing things that benefit other people somehow. You know what I mean? Accommodating other people into our lives is the best feeling. It's usually not some huge traditional career accomplishment — it's always doing something cool for other people. So I agree, that's a good one that you have.

Shaan Puri

although yours was somebody flying you private but the

Sam Parr

The best part was doing it with my friend — the fact that we had this shared experience together. That was great. Alright, I've got a quick one for a **life hack**. Do you want to know my biggest life hack? "Go for it." I started doing it, and this is so basic to people, but on **Thursday** — not on Friday — I print out everything that I have to do for the next week. Up top is my **Q1 focus and goals**. That's things like "tell my wife how much I appreciate her every day," but also traditional business goals and fitness goals. Then I have what I did last week and any reflections on it. I also have a category that says how my assistant can help me. My assistant every morning prints this off at my house, so it's ready for me on Monday morning. I carry this piece of paper with me everywhere during the workday, and that's what I use to make sure I'm getting shit done. I don't use Notion. I don't use Asana. I don't use any of that crap. Just having this printed out has been so much more helpful for me than any type of digital, complicated shit.

Shaan Puri

Totally. I have one over here on the ground. It's like—I bought these. If you go buy sketch pads like artists or architects have, it's really high-quality paper: large pads with nice pens. Such an easy win to go analog instead of digital with that stuff. By the way, I think you should level it up. You need, like, a **seal** of sorts or some sort of **coat of arms** for your family. I feel like you would like that—either a stamp or a wax seal. If you just made it more prestigious, honestly it would be kind of amusing and it would be fun, and I...

Sam Parr

do like a presidential briefing I completely agree

Shaan Puri

Exactly. I just give it a little stamp and be like, "**Hell yeah** — 'that's me. That's how I roll,'" and "'This is us.'" I completely agree. So I want you to do that too, but...

Sam Parr

that's a great idea I actually completely agree what's yours

Shaan Puri

okay life hack for me the highs and lows channel have I told you about this my highs and lows channel is that for work yeah kind of I mean it's for everything but I have a slack channel for every company I have a slack channel called highs and lows and in it anytime there's a high high in the moment of that business or a low low so you know for example on christmas eve the mexican government decided to ban all imports into mexico of textiles which effectively shut down my entire warehouse on christmas eve and we can no longer like operate because our warehouse is in mexico yeah like 2 days ago and so you're like ah here we are business cannot our ecommerce business has no inventory for the foreseeable future and I've got 1,000,000 of dollars of inventory sitting in a warehouse there that now is you know blockaded thank you mexican government and thank you new president of mexico for this christmas present and so in the moment where I'm feeling a low something bad happened a lawsuit or a big client gets lost or someone key quits or whatever it is right I go into that channel and I just type what happened but the beautiful thing is instead of addressing the current problem or basking in the glory of the current high what when I go to the channel I just see the last one that I had because it's right there scrolled up and I just see oh man I had a huge low then that feels like nothing now right or I had a huge high before that also feels like nothing now and it is this stoic trick of the brain to basically just write down I'm having a high or I'm having a low right now but in the place where I'm writing it I see my last high or low and my the one before that and the one before that and it just like thermoregulates my brain my brain says oh okay it's not as bad as it seems nor as good as it seems it humbles me or it keeps my morale high whatever I need in that moment and it's so effective just to have this little simple channel

Sam Parr

have you ever heard of negative visualization

Shaan Puri

yeah like sort of imagining what the worst that could happen is the worst case scenarios

Sam Parr

It's a tool that, I think, was popularized by the famous **Stoics**. Basically, you sit down for about *five minutes* and, instead of meditating, you imagine the *worst things on earth* are true. Your kid is dying of cancer, your wife has already died, you're broke — you're hurt, whatever. If you actually visualize that for about five minutes, it kind of feels weird. It's really strange. Then you wake up, open your eyes, and go, "Oh, sick — none of that's true; how grateful I feel right now." It's a pretty useful tool, and what you're describing is very similar to that.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, except these were real moments that I remember, and I have evidence of, versus trying to do this exercise. I mean, this is — I’m saving people thousands of dollars in therapy. If you just create a little *highs and lows* channel, you'll do therapy on yourself because you'll go in and remember, "I've been high before, I've been low before." Either way, I walk out... It's that Rudyard Kipling poem: "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors the same." This has been the fastest, most effective way to do it.

Sam Parr

Dude, that reminds me — you know, one of my... I think Conor McGregor has taken a fall from grace. I really don't like him anymore, but he has a lot of amazing things he says that I buy into. He's got this one thing. Do you remember—have you ever seen what he says about *"having the same attitude in victory or defeat"*? </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

yeah yeah exactly

Sam Parr

what what does what does he say would you know the exact line

Shaan Puri

He basically says, "I forgot what it was. It was like, '*humble in victory* and... *something in defeat*," which is, by the way, not what he does at all anymore. But no—yeah, that was his original original thesis.

Sam Parr

I'm gonna look it up. Yeah... I think last time he lost, in the octagon he was telling the opponent.

Shaan Puri

that humble in victory humble in defeat and and actually last time he lost

Sam Parr

he's telling the man's wife that he's like you know she was cheating on him

Shaan Puri

"Your—your wife is in my DMs. Your wife is in my DMs." So he says, "Dude, Conor McGregor—this is a cool quote, though."

Sam Parr

he should learn for some connor mcgregor quotes

Shaan Puri

I really want to create a compilation to just show it to him and be like, "Dude, you'll love this guy," and just see if it makes you... So, this is McGregor back when we both loved him: > "I am cocky in prediction. I am confident in preparation, but I am always humble in victory or defeat."

Sam Parr

it's the best right

Shaan Puri

There you go. Right, so we did *life hack*. Let's do now **number 8** — only four left. Number 8: **Billy of the Year**. Who is our Billy of the year? We do this segment called **Billy of the Week**, where we profile just a *big baller, shot caller* — somebody who is either a billionaire or just making big moves. Who do you think was making the biggest of the big moves this year? So, my pick — this is not gonna sound sexy, but I'll make a case. Do you know — I don't know if this ever happened to you, but in high school, sophomore year, everybody has their place in the social hierarchy. You know who the nerds are, you know who the jocks are, you know who the theater kids are, you know who the glue guys are — the ones who could fit in with everybody. Then you all leave for the summer, but there's always that one kid who leaves for the summer and they get that little second-puberty bump. They get that extra, you know, four inches of height. They start growing a little facial hair. They start working out all summer because their cousin came into town and taught them how to work out. They pick up a hobby — they learn the guitar, or they start doing MMA or something like that. They start dressing differently. You hear rumors that they hooked up with a college girl during the summer and they had a fling. Then they come back and they're just a whole new guy.

Sam Parr

and there's like a conversation it's like is is greg cool now

Shaan Puri

Yeah — and undeniably, **Greg is cool**. Mark Zuckerberg "pulled a Greg" this year. Here's the case for Zuck: his stock is up **5,500%** in the last 24 months. He's gained about **$100 billion** of net worth and is now the **third richest man in the world**. But more than that, he's not just one of the rich guys. That criteria would apply to Elon, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates — there are other guys who are super rich. He found a hobby that he loves and it got him into tremendous shape. Zuck started doing MMA, jiu-jitsu, and striking, and now he's fit — he's ripped. He has a hobby that takes his mind off work. He is playing the world's most competitive game: the **AI** game. I don't know how much you followed this, but Zuck had a judo flip — basically, he had a differentiated way to win. OpenAI was in front and Google had DeepMind, and Zuck came out and open-sourced their models and created an open-source competitor to compete in this market. He's doing extremely well there. He went from a robot to a cool guy. He dresses like a cool guy now and has a cool-guy haircut, so he did a personal style upgrade. He's not like, you know, Elon — on his third or fourth failed marriage, with 11 kids from three different women.

Sam Parr

woman since college

Shaan Puri

Zuck's got his college sweetheart, got his daughters... He appears to be a really great dad by all accounts. **I just respect that.** I just respect that he's had this all-around game.

Sam Parr

agreed

Shaan Puri

Right. He's had this really strong floor game, where he covered all the bases of what I consider to be a really good life. He's doing what he loves, on and off the court. And, you know, this is lame to say — *Mark Zuckerberg* — but I gotta say, *Mark Zuckerberg*.

Sam Parr

He—have you heard? You don't know about running, but he ran a 5K recently and finished in **19 minutes**. That's really fit; he's *really* fit. Did you see that post where he talked about his "Murph"—his Murph time?

Shaan Puri

yeah the murph he did an insane murph dude

Sam Parr

it was really fast

Shaan Puri

He's not one of those... you know, Vincent Mann is like 80 years old; he's weirdly old and jacked. Joe Rogan has this too, where they have this really strange body because they're taking **TRT** like crazy. It's like, "oh, these are some of these people who have these weird *Ozempic* bodies or **TRT** bodies."

Sam Parr

no he's he's

Shaan Puri

he just like worked out a lot and ate good

Sam Parr

Yeah, he eats an apple and chicken — he looks great, you know what I mean? He looks great. That's a great one. I really like his wife. She's turned into this kind of... I don't know, like a thought leader — *Michelle Obama–y*, you know? She's kind of hip and cool, and I care about her opinion a lot. She's a little bit of a **tastemaker**.

Shaan Puri

Even now — *what I love about her* is that she's not out there trying to get the limelight. She's not doing anything that's public, right? She does a lot of stuff privately with their foundation, but... </FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

I've seen her talk at conferences, and Zuck's been going to UFC events where they'll show her in the background. One of the fighters will say, "That choke was cool," and he'll ask, "Do you wanna learn it?" She'll say, "Yeah," and she comes over and puts the guy in a choke — she just kind of gets in it. She doesn't seem... you know, like how people loved Princess Diana because she was a "woman of the people." She kind of has that vibe a little bit, and I appreciate that.

Shaan Puri

I have not seen that, but I did see a recent interview where someone followed him around for the day. She was there—she was *down to earth and cool*, and she was playfully making fun of him. You could tell they have fun together, but you could also tell they don't hate each other. You can make fun of somebody without being really bitter on the inside.

Sam Parr

yeah yeah

Shaan Puri

I just thought... the *vibe* I got from that little clip was great.

Sam Parr

So mine was: "Do you remember Meetup.com's founder, **Scott Heiferman**?"

Shaan Puri

the heifer

Sam Parr

*Heifer* — let's call him the Heifer. So, the short of it is: the story is basically this guy named Scott. He started a digital ad company that he sold for $15,000,000 — enough to get very wealthy as a 28-year-old. He leaves tech and joins McDonald's, working there as, you know, a cashier or something like that. People actually noticed him. Someone wrote — I think Fast Company wrote an article — and they were like, "What the hell are you doing?" He's like, "Dude, I've been around ad executives for the last 10 years — or five years, you know — I've been around tech people. I needed to get out of my bubble, so I just went and worked at McDonald's. I learned it's really hard work, and I'm so thankful that I am where I am, and I'm gonna go back to the..."

Shaan Puri

"He didn't just do it for a day. This wasn't like a field trip. He *actually* worked there for **months — months**."

Sam Parr

Yeah, he worked there and then he left and he started **meetup.com**, which I think eventually was worth $100,000,000. He sold it. As of late, if you go to his LinkedIn, he has not made an ordeal out of this — this is all other people like us talking about it and making an ordeal of it. But now he's an **Amazon warehouse** worker; he's working in the Amazon warehouse, and he's kind of doing the exact same thing. I think that's so *baller* that he's doing that, and so *baller* that he is not doing it for PR. It's like some soul-searching thing, and I think it's fantastic. I think it's pretty badass. He wasn't actually a billionaire, but he's quite wealthy, I would imagine. </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

it's that bill it's that billy mindset

Sam Parr

it's that bill he's got that he's got b energy

Shaan Puri

*Living life on your own terms.* He is doing that. Love it. Okay, that's a good one. That's a good...

Sam Parr

pull alright what's next

Shaan Puri

**Frame-breaking person.** We should explain this one. Both you and I love one specific thing that I don't even think other people have a word for. We call it *"frame breaking."* Somebody who breaks your frame—Scott is a great example. It's somebody who lives their life or acts in a way that defies your expectations. They break your frame on what's normal, what's acceptable, what's possible, what's cool. It's somebody who just lives differently in a way that shatters your norm or worldview. I wanted to make a category for this because this is one of my favorite things when I meet somebody who's like this. So, frame-breaking person—who did you have this year?

Sam Parr

I'll say *frame-breaking* is this guy, Brian Johnson. Brian Johnson is the "wants to live forever" guy. He's frame-breaking—not just because he wants to live forever, which is definitely cool—but because I hung out with him. For those who don't know, Brian Johnson is the guy who started a company that kind of turned into Venmo and a bunch of other things. He sold it for $500,000,000 and now he's spending a lot of money to try to live forever. You see him on Instagram all the time. He said something to me and I was like, "Why are you doing this?" We were just talking and he goes, "You know, I read this book on Magellan. Magellan was a sailor and explorer in the 1500s. He basically sailed around the globe and proved all this amazing stuff, and I just thought it was so amazing. I was starting to— and I made a list of the top 10–15 people to ever live and what their contributions were: you know, the Wright brothers with flight, the person who discovered electricity, people like that." He said, "None of them were, like, rich. Money didn't impact people; it didn't impact the world as much. I just thought that if I could solve a really hard problem and contribute to the world, that would be a life worth living. I just decided I'm gonna try and do everything in my day to be renowned in the year 2500. In 2500, I hope to create and contribute to society in such a way that in 2500 they talk about me." I thought that was absolutely bananas. I don't know if I want to do that, but I thought it was so cool that he was like, "I don't care about money," because money—then he asks, "Who was the richest person 500 years ago?" I was like, "I don't know." He's like, "Yeah, that's my..."

Sam Parr

But you've heard of **Magellan**, and I thought it was such a frame‑breaking moment for me to hear his reasoning as to why he's trying to do what he's doing, which is *prolong death or solve for death*. He's like, "If I solve that, would you say that—well, I'll be remembered." I was like, "Yeah, yeah, you will." And he's like, "That's how I want to spend my day."

Shaan Puri

That's an amazing answer. I love that he did that. All the things you just said — making a list of the *15 most impactful or influential people ever* — what a list. I think I want to go do that just to even see what it was. He should.

Sam Parr

Probably look at it — it was like Orville, the Wright brothers, the Gutenberg press, Magellan. There were about ten of them. He was like, "These changed the world forever." And he's like, "Do you know how many of them are rich people? None. They were just inventors or something like that."

Shaan Puri

I thought you were going to say **Orville Redenbacher**, and I was like, "I'm not going to complain if he's on the list." Okay, so my answer for a *frame-breaking* person is **Nick Gray**... [sentence trails off]

Sam Parr

I could say that

Shaan Puri

This is gonna be an answer, but it's my *true answer*. This is *my truth*, and I'm gonna speak my truth. It's not Elon Musk; it's somebody I met. I hung out with him. I had a flight, so I went and spoke at this event. They were like, "Hey, we'll fly you private," and I was like, "Okay, cool." Nick was going to the same place as I was. He's like, "Hey, can I come with you?" and I was like, "Yeah, no problem—that'd be great." Nick was...

Sam Parr

the same in that situation

Shaan Puri

yeah exactly so I was like 1 on 1 with him for like 5 hours or something which is that's a long time that's a long conversation that's like more time than I spend talking to most people right and I walked away and I'm just gonna read you my text to my sister after I hung out with nick so I hung out with nick I tried to play cool and afterwards I get off the plane I go I just hang out with a guy who has has such a zest for life I go I've hung out with a lot of rich people but this guy's rich in a different way he is rich in social wealth he's got tons of friends he is rich in amusement I feel like everything he does in a way everything he does in a day amuses him and he's doing it on his terms I go he is corny and totally himself in the best way possible and I I just wanna tell you a couple of the things that just stood out to me like prolific things this guy did this year so we've talked about the tokyo blind date where he says I wanna go to tokyo but I don't wanna go alone I fill out this Google form and I wanna take 1 person on a blind date with me to tokyo and he gets thousands of responses he picks a girl he almost falls in love on this date he does the whole thing publicly and it goes viral this guy's having fun the next thing he does he goes to india he stays in india for like a month and I'm like what are you doing in india I'm indian I haven't been to india for a month in like 10 years and he's like oh I just love the culture I just wanted to go I know I have a couple of friends that I've met in other travels I just wanna go visit their hometown and so he goes to these like remote towns in india and he's learning their way of life and their foods and all this stuff and he's blogging about it and he knows that in india one of the ways that people like they don't have hinge or tinder in the same way like the the old school way in india is you run what's called a matrimonial ad in the newspaper so this is how my mom met my dad which was my dad runs an ad it says you know 21 years old 6 feet tall you know have a bachelor's degree in engineering you know good head of hair comes from a good family that sort of thing and nick finds this so amusing he's like I gotta do this so he runs a matrimonio ad and actually he starts av testing different matrimonio ads and he's showing them to me it's like 59 full set of teeth like you know you know like he was has a blog you know what I mean things like that?

Sam Parr

He was like, "How do I make sure that she's fit and not crazy overweight?" I was like, "We were like... could you put— I have to be able to lift you on my shoulders. I want to be able to lift you on my shoulders; I'm not strong."

Shaan Puri

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, he's running these ads, but he's not running them like a prank. He was genuinely curious and interested to see what we... He just—over and over again—had these little life experiments and followed them. I texted my sister and said, "I feel like he's just *taking the bounce of the ball of life* and he's just going with it." For example, I'm like, "Dude, you should start a **YouTube channel** or something." He goes, "Oh, I have one." I said, "What? I've never seen it," and he shows me his **YouTube** channel. Do you know what his YouTube channel is?

Sam Parr

I've watched the videos but what do you mean what it what it is

Shaan Puri

It's reviews of cruise ships—like which bedrooms he likes on cruise ships—because he likes cruises. And guess what: all his followers are older people who retire and go on cruises. They're like, "Thanks, I'm going on a cruise next year," or "I retired, I'm 74. I was wondering if the bathrooms come with the vanity kit." Sure enough, that's what they want. But he's so into it that he just—I've always said *the best product is you pushed out*, and that to me is Nick Gray. He just took himself, flipped himself inside out, and pushed himself out into the world. Whether you love it or hate it, he really couldn't care less, it seems. I found it... I don't know, very eye-opening to see someone who is their own corny self on full blast, and I really admire that. For example: I'm interested in stocks; he's interested in stocks, but the way he's interested is different. He is a huge fan of one stock— you know, *the one*.

Sam Parr

cloudflare

Shaan Puri

He hosts his birthday party at **Cloudflare**. He creates a WhatsApp group of other Cloudflare believers. Every earnings call he texts the group and says things like: > "I hope the earnings gods are with us today. I'm feeling lucky. I'm wearing this, and I'm just... I'm ready for all that this Q2 call brings us." And he's... dude. </FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

Listen to what he did. I met Nick Gray because we were all bloggers about ten years ago. There were, like, 30 of us friends who were bloggers. He went to each of us and said, "I noticed your website is hosted on GoDaddy. Would it be okay if my assistant transferred your account from GoDaddy to Cloudflare, or did it completely for free?" He explained, "The hosting provider you're using is charging you $100 a month. Cloudflare was going to charge you $40 a month. I went and got a deal." I asked, "Why are you doing this?" He said, "Because I'm a shareholder of Cloudflare and I need you guys to start using it, because I think you're going to love it even more." He switched my blog to Cloudflare for **free**, and now I'm **saving $600 a year**.

Shaan Puri

He's like a shareholder of his own life in a way that I am not. He's like an *activist shareholder*. He was like, "What are the best gyms that have swimming pools and saunas in New York?" and he found them, and they were super busy. What he realized was that all the gyms had poor SEO, and when he was googling "best gym and sauna," nothing was really coming up. So what he did was start writing blogs about other gyms as if they had the best pool and sauna — not the one that was near him that actually did — so that it would go down in the rankings and be less busy, and he would have it more to himself. These are just little life experiments he was doing. And he made **$1,000,000** doing this too, because he loved museums. He created a business about renegade museum tours where he would take you on his own tour because museums are boring and he's not boring. He would take you on his own tour unofficially, not as part of the museum, and ended up selling that for **$1,000,000**. We did the thing about his gag at the party where, on the way out, he's like, "Hey Sean, call my phone. I've got a gag." I'm like, "Gag?" He's like, "Yeah, I have a gag. I wanna do a little bit." I'm like, "A bit? Are you a comedian? What's going on?" Then I call his phone and he whips out this phone case that looks like a butcher's knife, like a machete, and he puts it up to his ear and goes, "Hello." He just wanted to make us laugh. I'm like, this guy just goes through life trying to make himself laugh. The last text I sent my sister I go, it's like he — you know the movie *Limitless*? It's like he took the *Limitless* pill but instead of it giving him superpowers, he just is using that pill to enjoy his life in a way that the rest of us are not. And so he broke my frame.

Sam Parr

Our friend **Sahil Bloom**—he's got this new shtick where he shares text. He's in these group chats and, I guess, he'll say some inspirational shit that he'll then tweet out. He's like, "Here's what I shared with this chat," and it's like...

Shaan Puri

like a realization this morning

Sam Parr

first of all

Shaan Puri

we have my highest enemy

Sam Parr

I have to say, I love **Sahil**, so I'm saying this with love, but he'll say something like, "Yeah, like, 'Live, Laugh, Love' — the 'for dudes' type of."

Shaan Puri

shit yeah and

Sam Parr

Like, you know... the thing about *Wizub* is that you only earn it through hardship. Like, you know... whatever. Then some guy retweeted and was like, "Bro—a dude said in my group chat, 'He's getting kicked out right away.'" And your sister's reply to that was like, "Yeah."

Shaan Puri

Exactly. She went to his blog and was just like, "He looks funny," and then moved on with life. I was like, "Yeah — I just typed, like, an essay about how this man changed my life," and she's like, "I googled him and searched him."

Sam Parr

So you're like, "Dude, do you like Oprah? Because I'm doing some *Oprah-level shit* right here," and she just dismissed you. That's pretty funny.

Shaan Puri

nick rae is the man

Sam Parr

nick rae is the man are we gonna do favorite guest now

Shaan Puri

Yeah, let's do **Best Guest**, and then we'll do **Best Idea** — best business idea that we had on the podcast. So let's do **Best Guest** first. Who you got?</FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

This is: I worked really hard not to have *recency bias*, but Amjad from Replit... We barely even talked about the financials of his business, but I'm pretty sure it's like a $1 billion company, right? Or like, in...

Shaan Puri

that yeah last last round was like right under $1,000,000,000

Sam Parr

So, right — you know, he built this huge company. I think he's only 36 or 37. Crazy smart. His blog is so good. He's not just smart; when you talk to him, he's prolific. He writes all this amazing stuff. He said one little, small line that I could have dismissed as a fortune-cookie thing, but he was explaining how he makes decisions based on what will make a better movie. He gave eight examples of that, and I totally bought in. I thought he was amazing, and one of the reasons was that idea: "live life to be a good movie." I thought it was fantastic.

Shaan Puri

"Yeah," he said, "whenever I'm at a fork in the road on a decision about what to do in life, I just ask, *'Which will make the better story?'* and then I just do that one."

Sam Parr

It was great — he was so fascinating in that episode. I saw it on **YouTube**; I think it has 200,000 views. It was a huge hit. It was one of those recordings where he's low-energy. Oftentimes, high-energy people will do better because that's just how people are, but I was enthralled by this podcast. A lot of times, if you spend an hour and a half on Zoom you get tired. I was totally excited at the end of that podcast. He was very mellow and low-energy, and I thought, "I don't know if this is going to hit or not, but I love it." It totally hit — a lot of people thought he was amazing as well.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, there's — there's **almost half a million downloads** across YouTube and audio on that one. "Oh, really? Wow." It's at 3:30 on YouTube. Alright, so mine: I have two. One is the **highest-viewed** episode of the year, and one is the **lowest-viewed** episode of the year. I'll start with the obvious one — the highest-viewed episode. This is the episode I did with Manish Prapay.

Sam Parr

does that have 2,000,000

Shaan Puri

I think it was at **2.5 million** on YouTube alone. Wow. So it's the first—first—first podcast episode. We've been doing this for four or five years now, and that was the first podcast episode that crossed a million on YouTube, so that was cool to see. In the moment I knew it was a banger. I felt like it was the **best, best, best** podcast I've ever done. I remember preparing for it for two weeks. I flew out there, we hired a film crew, we went to his house. I went to his house the day before and hung out with him to kinda warm up and prep him. I gave it my absolute all for that interview, and it paid off. He said two things... no, there are three things that stood out to me about him. He gave this story on the podcast and I was like, "So what? Alright—you've told me about Buffett, you've told me about yourself, you've told me about your friendship with Charlie Munger. What makes a great investor?" And he basically gave me the keys. He was like: > "You know, people think the money's made in the buying and the selling. It's made in the waiting." He then told the story about Seinfeld: > "You ever watched Seinfeld? You know that episode where Elaine gets a new boyfriend and it's going great—Elaine loves this guy, he seems so perfect. Then they go on vacation together. On the flight she's got snacks and a movie and all the stuff to entertain her, and he just sits there and he's staring at the seat in front of him—just 'raw dogging' it. She's like, 'Are you sure you don't want to watch this or read a book or have a snack?' He's like, 'No, I'm fine.' By the end of the flight she's like, 'I gotta break up with this guy.' Like, this guy's a maniac for just sitting there staring at the seatback in front of him."

Sam Parr

and what a brilliant a brilliant episode idea to just

Shaan Puri

I know right

Sam Parr

"How do you come up with that? Just like, **he's perfect**—except he stares at the seat in front of him on a flight."

Shaan Puri

Yeah. She's just like, "I can't do it. I can't do it." And he's like, "That guy would make a great investor — if you can have fun watching paint dry, you can be a great investor." My takeaway was, "Oh, I'm probably not going to be a great investor." "Got it, got it, stop me." But at least I knew what the formula was. The other thing was, I've — I've got the *life hack* of going to these people's houses for the podcast. Hold.

Sam Parr

Oh, that was a really good comment. I know what that — that ain't for me, but I know what the formula is. *That's actually pretty cool.*

Shaan Puri

Yes — you know, you know the answer. Same thing with Amjad. Amjad goes, "I've realized, you know, my *advantage* — my advantage is that I **persist**. I can push the boulder up the mountain for a long time. I'm just willing to endure." And I was like, "Oh, okay. Cool. Not gonna compete with you." Yeah, I can't do that.

Sam Parr

you're like I'm happy I know what it takes and I'm happy I don't have it

Shaan Puri

yeah exactly the girl oh she's really into a guy who's you know got these traits alright it's not me good nice to meet you see you later so going to these people's houses I think is just this life hack where you pick up so much of their energy and their lifestyle and their way of being like I did monish right before I did joe lonsdale joe lonsdale you go to his house it's this oh it's this elaborate mansion beautiful beautiful mansion you know backyard olympic sized swimming pool with statues that are shooting water out of their mouth and and he's got like an old gun from the victorian age and that's like what he's into he's got a full staff that's serving us breakfast and just like full staff that just operates in his house and he's like a high performance machine and right after we left elon musk was coming over for a a lunch with the you know the senators of of of of the area and I was like wow this is a lifestyle that I just it you know broke my frame then I go to manish's house and we're like hey can we come over he said yeah sure stop by I'm like is it okay if we come between 4 and 4:20 he's like yeah come whenever you want and we go over and he's hanging out he's wearing basketball shorts and his his flip flops and he just took a nap which he does every day and he shows us his nap room and he's like yeah like my whole job is to make you know a couple great decisions a year so I just read and I think and I just try to have a great calm state of mind and I meet interesting people and that's all I do I don't have to like go go go go go and I don't have to beat the senators and I don't have to have and he shows me his library where we record the podcast he's got thousands of books he's read all of them and it was just so interesting to see these different these different ways to win and then you see them up close in person and that's just a very different style that's shadowing them for a day like with joe lonsdale I went in the morning at 8 am and I did the morning workout with him and then I had breakfast with him then we jumped to the cold plunge all of that before the podcast hanging out with these people was the real win the podcast was just the cherry on top so that was that was my favorite and then I'll also give a shout out to the lowest viewed episode of the year that I thought was amazing which was the episode I did with mike posner also went to his house and this had the lowest views because you know he's a rapper musician maybe it's not a fit with our audience I think this guy was amazing he was he was an incredibly positive guy and he had all these little micro lessons that were amazing 2 of them that stood out to me 1 was he has this phrase where he was talking about how he he made this hit song his first song went like quadruple platinum and then he was always chasing that high in his twenties to do it again the next song went double platinum but it felt like a failure in comparison next song single platinum oh my god he's on this downswing and then the next one didn't even go platinum and he's like the mistake I was making was I would go to the studio try to make a hit and I went there to try to make a hit song and on my that wasn't how I made my first hit song first hit song I just did what I thought was dope and then then I just started trying to play the game too much trying to make hits and I all I succeeded was making something I hated and I just thought this is such a applicable thing for business especially for people out there who have not tasted their first big win and all they want is a big win or they have a big win and that they need they feel the need to top that with their next one and they start going to the studio to try to make a hit and he said at the end of the day I figured out I'm just gonna make what's cool to me and sometimes the whole world will agree and I just thought that was such a dope philosophy as a creator to to take which is I'm just gonna make what's dope for me and then once in a while the whole world will agree with me

Sam Parr

Which, by the way, a *very meta* example here: I don't know how the audio did, but the YouTube on this did *13,000* [views] — that's one of the lower totals in the past year. I listened to it and I loved it. I thought it was so good. Then the comments are: "This is the best episode ever." The second comment: "This was the best MFM episode ever." People loved it in the comments, and for some reason it didn't get views. That's insane. It's also good not to chase those views, I think, because this is — I thought it was fantastic. It's weird. Why do you think it didn't hit?

Shaan Puri

To take his approach doesn't matter. I just do *what's cool to me*, and sometimes the whole world agrees; sometimes they don't. Most of the time they don't — and that's okay. So, the two examples I gave: the Monish one gets 3 million plays. In that case, the whole world agreed. But I felt the same way about the Mike Posner one. I'm proud of both of them the same, because I thought they were both *dope*.

Sam Parr

alright last two categories best product what do you have

Shaan Puri

I have a lame answer I'll go quick it's just chat gpt

Sam Parr

yeah it's pretty dope

Shaan Puri

"It's the same product I would have picked last year, but it got way better — the same product, the same name, but a totally better product. I also found new ways to use it. It's almost like you got into Hogwarts and you're learning new... like, you're learning how to use your wand. It's like, "Oh wow—I could do that spell with it. I could do this with it." That's how *AI* feels to me, and I just wrote *ChatGPT* as my quick way of saying it."

Sam Parr

"*Dude,* I had a friend over—some family friends—yesterday for Christmas, and he's worked at **OpenAI** for four years. I cornered him."

Shaan Puri

strapped him down just cornered him turned him

Sam Parr

And he's a lot smarter than me. I had my hand on his shoulder and I was like, "Here you go — have a seat. Have a seat. Sit down. There's a computer and here's a list of questions. You want to start from the top. Let's get—let's get after it." "Yeah, we'll eat turkey later, but have a seat." I was just peppering him with questions. I think that was a... **ChatGPT** is a good one. </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

what was yours best product

Sam Parr

This thing, it says, "Well, the focus is... is it a brick? The focus is off. It's the brick." This is a $29 thing. It has some type of—I don't know what it's called—**RFID**, or whatever...

Shaan Puri

So, for the audio listener: Sam's holding up a little, tiny square—one inch by one inch. This is a thing that just *nukes* your phone.

Sam Parr

It's basically the size of an AirPod case and it's a piece of plastic with some type of chip in it. You download their app. I think this thing is $25. Every morning when I'm getting ready to go to the gym I walk by my door and I *"brick"* my phone, which means it's **completely unusable** other than making phone calls—so my wife can call me for an emergency, Spotify, and my workout app. I keep it like that until noon, usually. So I can't answer texts, I can't use Slack, can't use email, no Wikipedia, no Chrome. All I can use is **TrueCoach**, which is where I have my workouts, phone calls for emergency, and Spotify. It is awesome. It makes my life just a little bit better every morning. I've... I'm a big fan of these guys. Have you ever used one?

Shaan Puri

I have not used it maybe I should that's a good case

Sam Parr

It's awesome, man. You can set different modes. I have a **workout** setting, and you can have **driving** settings. You could just make it **YouTube** — I listen to podcasts on YouTube — so you could have **YouTube** and **Maps** available. That's it. It's pretty cool. I can't unbrick my phone unless I come home and scan it again, so it's pretty amazing. That's been my best product.

Shaan Puri

And is there, like, an emergency? Like, "Oh, for real — I need **Google Maps** right now." Is there a way to override it if you needed to?

Sam Parr

Yeah, but I think you only get **three times** to do that. The third time you do it, this brick that you've purchased is useless. So it's just like, "Oh, but I bought that thing for **$30** — I want it to work." That type of resistance is just enough.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I don't know if I'm built for that level of self-discipline. Back in the day I bought that wristband called **Pavlok**, which is basically like Pavlovian training for yourself. It's a wristband where you electrocute yourself—you get a small electric shock in your arm. It kind of hurt when you did something. I was using it for my diet. It was like, "Okay, I'm going to eat this piece of pizza," and then I'd have to voluntarily push the button to shock myself... and I just didn't. Instead, all I used it for was a conversation piece. I'd be somewhere and someone would ask, "What's that?" I'd say, "Oh, try this on—watch this." It became my *party trick*—to be cool instead of actually helping me change anything. "Check it out."

Sam Parr

I'm I'm a freak I'm unique

Shaan Puri

Yeah, exactly. Like, "so you use it?" I'm like, *"No, no, no, no."* Does it work? I have no idea — I don't even try.

Sam Parr

what's

Shaan Puri

what the hell if I know

Sam Parr

Yeah, you gotta— you should try this. It's pretty awesome. And then the change that you're gonna make next year... mine's fast — **I'm getting an office.** I'm sick of working from home all the time. Yeah, it's cool a few days a week, and it's fine when you have to do it, but... we're getting an office. I'm getting an office. I need to be around people. It's just like, you know, even when business is going well, you're like, "Yeah, let's get on a Zoom," and...

Shaan Puri

but your company is remote so you're gonna get an office and then there's local people or what do

Sam Parr

You think we have 20 employees, and 11 of them are in New York City, so we have enough. So we're gonna [not be] in New York.

Shaan Puri

so what are you gonna do

Sam Parr

I live an hour away so I'll just go 3 days a week

Shaan Puri

Oh my god — what a **horrible decision**. Do I have to talk my friend out of signing up for a voluntary two hours of commuting a day? Do I need to show him the statistics that show how much you hate your life during your commute?

Sam Parr

I feel like the alternative is that I'm just in my kitchen, and it's like I celebrate with an emoji, you know... *just playing.*

Shaan Puri

I let you break your phone. I let you care about dressing up. I let you do all these things — they're, you know, *self-harm* — but I let you do it because there's some *greater good*. Commuting two hours a day is a horrible idea. You go to your office.

Sam Parr

how often do you when was the last time you saw a coworker I guess you worked with your wife that doesn't count

Shaan Puri

Here's what I did, which was *way more genius*. Diego — who's on this call right now and helps me with all my content — lived in Baltimore until a month ago. I called Diego and said, "Hey Diego, how would you like to live within 10 minutes of me?" He was like, "Oh, I'd be down." I said, "Cool — how do we do that in the next two weeks?" He said, "I guess I'd have to figure out a way to transport my dog." He didn't quit his job — his wife quit her job. He broke his lease, rented an RV, and drove across the country in seven days. Now he lives within 10 minutes of me and we see each other every day. We transformed my garage into an office for ourselves, and it's great. That's the way to do it.

Sam Parr

Wait, so is the expectation that he's going to live in an RV for an extended time, or is he going to rent a house?

Shaan Puri

He got an apartment nearby and lives in a cool place. I told him, "Hey, you're moving to **California**, so here's a pay raise to cover the cost of your move and the higher cost of living out here. Come live in California—who wants to be in Baltimore, bro? Come hang out with me; it's gonna be way more fun." Yeah, that's a good idea—do it.

Sam Parr

was it weird after not doing that for 3 years or whatever

Shaan Puri

Well, the weird part is I realize how distracted my schedule is. He'll come over and we're supposed to work, and then it's like, "Oh, I have to drop my kid off at school." Then I come back, my trainer shows up, I work again, and then my kid wants to play Jenga for a second—so, "Be right back." I realize that when somebody else is there, you're acutely aware that you're taking a break right there, and I started to count how many of those mini-breaks I had. I had to kind of rejigger things to create more focused time. But honestly, it's just... it's all the times we would be doing calls versus being in person during those moments, even if it's not perfect. For example, sometimes he just comes and works out of the office even before I'm there. I'm dropping my keys off, but he's already there. He treats it like an office, and we just happen to be there together a bunch of times. **The key for me** is I don't have twenty people, so I can do this—because I have two people on my team, and that's all I need.

Sam Parr

Yeah, yeah. Well, I might do it in **Westport**, where I live. But, you know, where I work out most days is the library, dude. I'm in the library and it's just me and then, like, **16-year-old** girls exercising. No—like... [unclear phrase: "tap like type on mike and peter"]. It's like, I—I *freaking* love the library. I work at a library all the time and I'm like...

Shaan Puri

libraries have a great vibe

Sam Parr

Dude, it's so much better than a coffee shop or a WeWork. **Libraries are great.** Yeah — you and I were in Entrepreneur magazine last year. They have a copy of it; they have a magazine section. I definitely move that magazine to the front, and every once in a while I'll read it. I'm like, "But we're not on the cover, right?"

Shaan Puri

we're on the inside so you have to open it up

Sam Parr

I gotta open it up and when people walk by I gotta be like

Shaan Puri

who's that guy in the magazine is is he right there

Sam Parr

oh what

Shaan Puri

it's him for page 16 yeah

Sam Parr

Oh—did you, did you just ask me if I—? *Yeah, it is.* No, *I like the library.* What's yours?

Shaan Puri

okay library is a great one what category are we even on

Sam Parr

change you're making

Shaan Puri

Oh — a change I'm making. This is going to sound stupid, but it's not. For me, I'm **all in on music this year**. I decided that I want to do more music stuff, so I picked up the piano again. I basically hired somebody to come teach me piano because I played it in 7th grade, and I can play "Für Elise."

Sam Parr

and that's it how many

Shaan Puri

Lessons. "Are you in? I'm starting next week." The second one is: I hired a guy because I've always—like, you can now make most music on a computer. I'm like, "Oh yeah, I know computers, but I don't know how to make music on a computer, and I kinda want to see what's the latest and greatest of that." So I hired somebody who's, you know, one of those people who knows how to make songs on a computer. Are you?

Sam Parr

talking about like

Shaan Puri

so I'm hiring one of them

Sam Parr

like beats or like are you gonna like record a cover songs

Shaan Puri

whole songs

Sam Parr

you wanna write or you wanna cover original

Shaan Puri

**Start with covers** — yeah, start with covers always. Then learn to make an original song; that'll be really fun. The reason why is — well, first because it's fun, but there are two things happening. One, **AI** is making it easier and easier to make art and software. Things that were previously off-limits or would take a lot of skill to do something cool now only require a little coding skill, and a little music skill can go a long way using these new tools. Two, I treat creativity like a gym. I have a gym I go to for my physical body; I want a *creative gym* as well. I got this idea from Tim Ferriss. He talks about how one of the ways he keeps his mind right and stays in an awesome state of mind — and is able to produce great content and be really creative — is that he "works out his creativity." He says it doesn't have to be the exact thing he's doing. So if he's writing a book, it doesn't have to be just practice writing. He might paint, draw, do calligraphy, or even archery — anything that functions as a creative gym session. I do that in the morning. It's like when you go to the gym and suddenly you have more energy and you're performing better at work. Why not have the same thing with a creative gym session? I like that idea. I thought, "Oh yeah, this is something I could see more people doing in the future." It makes sense to me. I'm going to start doing this just the way I go to the gym in the morning: I'm going to go to the creative gym two or three times a week and start doing something that's highly creative.

Sam Parr

Dude, *that's so good*. I think *that's fantastic*. You know, you know, Sarah—my wife—she takes piano and singing lessons, and she's...

Shaan Puri

on top of it

Sam Parr

You guys can vibe out, but what I'm trying to encourage her to do is sign up for some type of *open mic night* or just something where it's a performance — you can have a recital.

Shaan Puri

Well, dude, I got inspired by my cousin—he did this, so I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna do this." Then it's so funny: when you put it out there, people start giving you clues on how to win. My sister was like, "Oh yeah—do you know our cousin Neil? He does that. He's hired a piano coach; he's doing it all the time." Then he went to an old-folks' home and performs there once a week as his recital. It gives them so much joy. I'm like, "Wow, what a great win—a **low-stakes** way to have a performance."

Sam Parr

yeah

Shaan Puri

that brings other people joy and it's just like so wholesome I was like why would

Sam Parr

You'd agree that — in my opinion — when you're doing these new things, you need a **capstone**. You need an **essay**. You need some type of beginning, middle, and end, like: "Alright, I have now achieved level one." It's kind of why karate is *kinda* cool, because there are belts. You need some type of ritual — like breaking a wood board — to mark that achievement. </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

at the end

Sam Parr

Well, there's, like, a—it's like a belt where it's like, "Alright, I am working towards this. Nice, I cross the threshold—next." That framework is, I think, very helpful. With writing, it's like, "I want to publish a book." It is published. Like, you know, there's some type of destination. I think that would be cool for you. And I think, by the way, it's great. You — and other people tease me for it — I like clothing. It's the same shit. It's just some type of creative thing. There's no money; it's about the journey. That kind of vibe. It is exciting. Beauty and art — that stuff feels good on the soul. I think it's great that you're doing this. I think it would be really fun if you had some type of *capstone project* thing.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, the other thing I'm doing is I'm taking the **Jesse Itzler 2025 "How to Plan Your Year"** program, and I'm actually doing it. Yesterday I was doing his "Get Light" part, where I'm cleaning out. I'm just getting rid of stuff—getting light before the end of the year and closing out the year properly. I did my "thanks" stuff and I started writing my thank-you notes. I'm buying in, and I'm actually doing it. So if you want to hear it, go listen to the Jesse Itzler episode. I was pretty inspired by that. I'll say this is... </FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

we have the calendar

Shaan Puri

a good idea

Sam Parr

We have the calendar. We use the calendar. I sit in our little area where we have the calendar, and I totally use it. I think it's *fantastic*. Isn't it crazy how some of these things—maybe 26–27‑year‑old Sam and Sean—would have made fun of these things as "whack"?

Shaan Puri

100%

Sam Parr

And now it's sort of like... you'd be like, "Who? What is this? This is stupid." Then, "It's awesome." *Isn't that funny how we're like...* </FormattedResponse>

Shaan Puri

"I'm like, **going to bed early is so awesome**. I used to tell myself all kinds of stories about why I was a night owl—how that was more fun, how, you know, it'd be lame to go to bed. If a friend was going to bed at 9:30, I'd be like, 'Lame.' Now I'm jealous. If I hear about a friend that goes to bed at 9:30 I'm like, 'Oh, fuck—how does he do that? I need... I need to learn.'"

Sam Parr

this is a great pod what do you think I think it's great it's one

Shaan Puri

Of my favorite traditions: thank you, everybody, for listening. Another great year in the books. **The greatest podcast ever created.**

Sam Parr

We did something—we had to do this, like, ad for Spotify. When we did it, Sean was like, "Spotify told us to thank you guys, but in actuality you should be thanking us because we're the ones who just did all the work to, like, make this content for you." But I am pretty *thankful* for everyone who works on the pod. I'm also thankful for the people who actually listen to this shit. It shocks me sometimes when people come up to me and say, "Yeah, you sent this thing and this thing, and it made a difference to me." I feel so much gratitude when people do those things, and I'm so happy that we're able to do this.

Shaan Puri

alright and on that note that's

Sam Parr

the 5