Why Your Pursuit of Work-Life Balance is KILLING Your Success

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

0:31history, and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo. The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr.

1:08It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead up to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bowen. Hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt. Hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie. Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway. We are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears.

1:48Listen to Two Guys Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think it's important to really talk about balance and what does it really mean. So very rarely in life are you going to have balance. I think that the whole goal of life is to be unbalanced so you can achieve balance. But you have to be unbalanced at a certain point to achieve balance. So this isn't theory. In 2015, I was on the couch in my parents' house. Things wasn't going good for me. but that was an opportunity for me to stay up to two o 'clock three o 'clock in the morning and really master social media taught myself how to edit a variety of different things where i was just playing around with apps mike would give me a suggestion about this app and then i would take three hours to learn the app and then make content and then do this i had a career as a financial advisor that I had to do from nine to five or longer.

2:52And then from nine o 'clock to two o 'clock in the morning when everybody was asleep and it was cemetery silence, I could close the blinds and I would work. That was extremely unbalanced and continued that even now. Right. But these are sacrifices that were made eight years ago to get me to the point where I am now. So I think that the idea or the fairy tale of a balanced life is something that is unrealistic for anybody that's trying to achieve greatness Especially if you're an entrepreneur or you're a business owner So it's your responsibility to be able to communicate this to your wife, significant other, children And they have to understand how to deal with disappointment because the sacrifices that you're making are luxuries that they're provided so this is an unbalanced life that i've never seen anybody that has had any level of balance that have achieved a high level of success when we met robert smith it was seven o 'clock in the morning on a friday he was already working and he told us that he was flying out that next day and he flies out all the time steve stout every single person same story flying there in different countries different continents, that may seem like it's a lavish life that they're living, but there's sacrifices that's made.

4:14They're not with their families all the time. They're not with their children all the time. They're not with their spouse all the time. They're not listening to music. They're not playing poker all the time. So it's something that we can't always sugarcoat something and make it okay. No, there is no level of successful balance, especially in the beginning stages that you have to make sacrifices. This is why everybody won't achieve success. This is why it's called a sacrifice. You have to sacrifice things like playing video games. You have to sacrifice things like going to the movies. You have to sacrifice things like random nonsense on social media for hours at a time.

4:51If you're not willing to make those sacrifices, that's okay. But you'll also probably will not be able to be a high level of success. And that's okay too. So I think that, you know, at some point in time, we just have to be honest. You can't always sugarcoat things and you can't always paint a fairy tale. This is things that I personally went through and have still gone through. And these are things that I've seen other people going through. And every single person has the same story. It's an extremely unbalanced life to hopefully one day achieve balance. So I just think that that's important to keep in mind because, like I said, we live in a day and age where everybody has an opinion.

5:26But very few people have any level of expertise to speak on that opinion. If you haven't become successful, how can you teach me about success? So when you're on your journey to be successful, understand that there's going to be sacrifices that you have to make. And if you're not willing to make those sacrifices, then that's okay. But just understand your life will still be unbalanced because when you're at the bottom and you have all the time in the world to spend with your family, then they're going to complain because you don't have enough money to provide for them. or you're going to at a certain point be unhappy because you can't provide a certain lifestyle for yourself or for your family.

6:05So there's still unbalance even when you think that you have unbalance. Today's monologue was brought to you by Assets of Reliabilities and Red Panda Stock Club. No, I agree. Balance is an illusion. But when I'm with my child, I'm fully with him. But I've also began to teach him since he was young. and it's not like you're all working all the time and you never see your family like losing your family is not something that we're aiming for but to be done at three and I've always said if you think that like every time I leave and I'm at a tropical place if you think I'm just laying on the beach and getting grapes fed to me that's not it like even the shows and travel are work but the goal is to get to a place of financial freedom so that you're able to help yourself your family and I'm going to be very honest.

6:56Like you said, like if you don't have, if you have a preponderance of time available for your family, at some point they're going to get bored or they're going to be disappointed that you didn't work hard enough to get to where you want it to be. So I know it's, you know, books like the four hour work week and all these life hacks, but none of the people that are at the top of the food chain captive of industry are doing any of those things. Please be mindful about the information that is given to you for clicks versus the information that actually works it's a real spill it's a real spill and that sacrifice part i'm glad you said it because it happens to us every day like i posted something yesterday my son scored his first touchdown yeah you know what was absent from the video me i had to get a clip from somebody that taped it and that you know i mean does it hurt yeah it hurts i mean we spent hours in the front yard playing catch for him to get to that point where he could catch the ball and run with the ball all these things that we worked on to see it all uh accumulate to him actually scoring a touchdown and you not being there to see it nobody worries about that part but the explanation when i get home is like yo i'm so proud of you i'm so proud of you i missed it but he gets it he understands that i have to do work he understands there's the benefits that come with it that's why I said, even in relationships with your spouse, communication is important.

8:17Communication with your children is important as well, so they can understand it, and they get to watch it. That's why I always say, we're going to lead by demonstration, first and foremost. How we conduct ourselves as men, how we conduct ourselves as fathers, how we conduct ourselves as sons, because our mothers, we're fortunate to have our parents. All these things are being taken in, and they're going to shape the next generation that we're providing for and that we're upbringing right now. It gets overlooked all the time. Yeah, even at Troy's birthday party. They're about to go out, got a show the next day.

8:50I'm like, I want to go out. I got to prepare for the show. Disinvest fest. This is the first year I was out. And even a promoter was like, bro, I know you ain't going to show up, but if you can just see your people. I'm like, no, you're paying me to come. I'm going to come. I'm not going to just flake out on you. I think we have to put, even when I make the comment on Zo's show, hey, stay in the house five years. Like, man, no way in hell I can do that. the choices you can either sacrifice i ask them all the time whenever we out hey man i don't even know how you do this because a lot of times the you get to see the end product you don't get to see the build-up that it takes it just even do this show um every time i'm getting out of the uber like what do you have in here a body i'm like i gotta take the equipment just in case something happens and they're like hey gotta record something on wednesday or schedule change You never know.

9:39Always be prepared. But I notice the people that are most prepared are the ones that end up taking advantage. We're about to be in 2024. Technically, the market has been down since 2019. I ask them every week how many people started the show and the show fell off just because they wouldn't be consistent. Yeah. And then also it's like one of these things where, like I said, your goal might not be to be a millionaire or to have financial freedom. that's okay but just understand that you still it's not a balance i don't i never you can't say well i just want to i'm just providing for my family like somebody at some point in time somebody's gonna argue somebody's not gonna be happy because i've seen it financial hardship causes issues this is not a debatable fact it causes resentment it causes issues it causes internal problems so just understand that you're choosing a certain level of imbalance you might have all the time in the world.

10:35You might have all of the, you're playing all the video games. You're going to every game. You're going to all the soccer games. You're coaching. That's a blessing. It's going to come a time when the money is going to be an issue. Money is going to be an issue. Here's a test. Tell your girl right now, I lost all my money. Listen to Ian. And you got to pay all the bills for the next eight months and see what the response is. And she'll do it. And like There's a lot of women that Are paying bills That's the head of the Household and they'll do it Watch how They talk to the man Watch how you talk to You This is factual Watch how they Talk to you And watch how the roles Will reverse as far as watch how they talk To a man that is providing everything for them I'm not saying that you have to provide everything.

11:34I'm just saying, I'm just using this as a case study because I've seen both sides of it. I've seen how men get talked to that provide everything. I see how men get talked to that provide nothing. I see it. There's always exceptions to the rules. I get it. But I'm telling you, this is a 100 % fact. So it just gives them what it is. And say, What you want me to lie to you? That's what I'm saying. At some point in time, we just heard Matty John shout to Magic. He's 65 years old. Damn near probably on his way to become a billionaire. He took my heat wakes up at 4 o 'clock in the morning. Now. 4 o 'clock in the morning goes to bed at 10 o 'clock.

12:19An hour of lifting weights, an hour of cardio, takes a shower, eat breakfast, then he's in the office. Day segment, and he said, you know, my wife understands. I'm not home. I'm not. I'm on the road. I'm doing this is somebody who is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. One of the greatest entrepreneurs of our generation. Definitely. Absolutely. From our culture has done tremendous things. Like I said, probably up around five hundred million dollars, something like that. Yeah. Keep going. And this is this is the this is the level of discipline that he is displaying. This is the work ethic that he's displaying.

12:53Michael Jordan. I tell this story all the time. I met a guy and he was like when Michael Jordan was on the Wizards mind you this is the end of Michael Jordan's career after he's already been established as the greatest of all time and all of these different things and there was a rumor that the building that the guy was staying in Michael Jordan would go there to train in the morning so the guy comes at 7 o 'clock in the morning with his son because he was like I want to just I want to see Michael Jordan and he waited for 15 minutes he didn't see Michael so he asked the guy I heard Michael Jordan comes trains here.

13:25I wanted to come early with my son. Do you know what time he'll be coming? He said he left. He was here for three hours and he left. This is the level of discipline, dedication, determination, and unbalanced. When I saw Floyd Mayweather running at 12 o 'clock at night, this is not balanced. It's not normal. This is what I'm saying. This is a real conversation that we got to have because people have false expectations of success. Oh, I'm just going to work the weekends and I'm going to be successful. Oh, I'm going to take this. Oh, I want to have balance. I want to go to every single concert I can.

14:03I want to play every single video game I can because life is about balance. Okay. Well, you're not going to be successful in it. That's okay. But don't expect to reach the highest levels of success and not be unbalanced. You got to be an extremely unbalanced person to reach this level of success. You think that Elon Musk got this from being balanced or Mark Zuckerberg got this from being balanced or Jay-Z got that level from being balanced. This is the harsh reality. This is the harsh reality of business and entrepreneurship. It's not fun. You got to be out of your mind to want to work all the time.

14:40You can't be a normal person. Your brain can't be normal, to never want to stop working. This is why there's very few people that have ever achieved that level of success. And for everyone who says, I'm going to work smart, all the smartest people on earth, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Neil Tyson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Charlamagne, everybody's up at 3, 4, 5, and 6 o 'clock in the morning, getting to it seven days a week. With automation, you notice every billionaire that you got, and I love Tim Ferriss dearly, you notice every billionaire that we've ever talked to, no one's ever mentioned a four-hour work week, they would have bought every company associated in that book to free up all the time.

15:28It's not possible. I know he's going up to tomorrow. HQ, Zuckerberg being at four o 'clock in the morning. He's mega rich. So much so him and his wife said, hey man, let's put a database for all the diseases together. And even the people that make it look cool. You know who everybody... I heard this from a variety of different people. The hardest working person in music, Future. The Future doesn't stop working. This is somebody who you probably wouldn't think. You look at Future, you're not thinking that he's a workaholic. Like they said, the guy stays in the studio for 10 hours. Non-stop. Christmas, birthdays.

16:09Yep. little wayne another one this guy was staying in the studio since he was 12 years old had no had no life like literally in the studio every single night these are the things you're not you're not you wouldn't expect these type of people to have that level of work ethic but once again they don't nobody reaches this level of success by accident doesn't happen really doesn't it doesn't that's what i want everybody to understand so it's like the pushback of we got to have a balanced life is you are perpetrating ideas that have never been said by anybody at the level. Like you said, I read Steve Jobs' book.

16:52This guy wasn't even a debut to his own kid. I'm not advocating for that, but I'm just saying I've never I read a lot of these autobiographies. Ted Turner. I've never heard any person at that level of success that said they got there by working five hours a day. It does not work. I haven't heard it yet. Just haven't heard it. I wish it did. It doesn't work on any level. I wish you well. I wish you well. In order to get to the freedom you want, gotta be on balance for a few years. Yeah. I was going to touch on the magic thing because I had this conversation after we heard him speak and it kind of goes into that theory of like, why do we keep putting a cap on how successful are the elite in our community are.

17:37Magic's been at the$500,$600 million mark for the past five to ten years. All he's done is added more acquisitions to his portfolio, whether it was LaGuardia, whether it was now with the Washington Commanders. Magic has to be a billionaire at this point. He's acquired ownership in the Dodgers. I don't care if he has 1%. He's acquired ownership in the Dodgers. he has the MLS team and there's things that we don't even know about that he's working on he's been at the same spot he's the largest owner of Starbucks outside of Starbucks he has 120 of them but then he also keeps going and he's not stopping I put a clip up from Rich Paul today and that's the last thing I'll say about this like I said I routinely still sleep on the couch either at my parents place or I slept on the couch at my own place yesterday I never want to get comfortable.

18:36You never make it. You never make it. Because there's always a different level to go to. And it's like, once you start to feel comfortable, you start to be complacent. And once you get complacent, things start to fall apart. This is how empires fall. Empires fall because, now I say kings get dethroned because of their negligence. Once you start to feel like you made it and you could just go on a holiday every single week and you could sleep in and you got such a nice mattress.

19:11They said hard times lead to great men. Soft times lead to soft men. It's not meant. You have to keep that edge. Everybody keeps edged differently. But I just want to just encourage that to entrepreneurs. When you get to the point where you can buy a Rolex, when you get to the point where you can have a luxury car, don't let your foot off the gas once you let your foot off the gas you might you might not get an opportunity again it's the step one step marbury said that he's like it's the second i'm not working on my craft somebody is watching me and trying to take my spot so you gotta wake up with that right every day that i'm not working somebody else is because it's the truth somebody right now is watching i can do this better than them In fact, they did it first Here's how I can make it better That is the mentality of the people that are watching you So you have to wake up with that type of mindset If I'm not working, somebody's trying to get better I gotta get better Profit margin on everybody copying Not going that well though How do I get better?

20:21How do I get better today? Hello We used to wake up every day I would walk into school and be like Good morning today's going to be a great day. How do you know? Because we have the opportunity to be better than we were yesterday. That's how I know. We're here. We should be. We're alive. We got a chance. Yeah. Even with this show, that wrestling was sold for my granddad. I remember my granddad was like, you get to play on the computer and make money. I worked in a factory. You have no bad days as a black person. Black people couldn't talk in 1950. so we get to talk and be on a computer inside of our house like we had like you said we have to go create harsh environments to keep that edge but like you said a lot of times when people get comfortable and we saw with meta last year you can see the fervor and excitement that he has and he's pouring that back into the product for all of my entrepreneurs all of my creatives find your edge in your market for me it's reading second book my baby was reading this book last night.

21:27Susanna did a book report on this book, Bold, by P.O.D. Mandis. Third book, Narconomics, How to Run a Drug Cartel. It's a great book to understand how pharmaceutical companies are. Let's go. What is Narconomics? Do they use a specific cartel as an example? Yes. Kudos to all of those. I got to go to Mexico, so shout out to all of them. Thank you for letting me be safe. Definitely can't shout none of them out. Woo! No trouble. We don't want no trouble. Narconomics. I'm interested in that. It's a great book. Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by Black people because of what happened in Alabama?

22:07After Montgomery Brawl. This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks Black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo. The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. At a Morehouse College, the students make their move.

22:42These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to the A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead up to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bud. Hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt.

23:19Hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie. Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway, and we are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys, Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

23:38When segregation was a law, one mysterious black club owner, Charlie Fitzgerald, had his own rules. Segregation in the day, integration at night. It was like stepping in another world. Was he a businessman? A criminal? A hero? Charlie was an example of power. They had to crush him. Charlie's Place, from Atlas Obscura and Visit Myrtle Beach. Listen to Charlie's Place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.