272 - Best of 2025! Sam Parr’s Million-Dollar Journey

21:02Sam Parr:But yeah, I literally will just sit there. And I'm just like in my head, and she'll know because I'll mumble. Like, you'll see my lips moving, because I'm like, asking myself a question. and then I'm answering it, my lips will move a little bit. It's very weird. Bro, you need more kids. You need more kids. If I sat down, we got four boys under 11, 11, 8, 5, and 3. If I sat down and was like, honey, I'm thinking. And the boys are fighting each other. There's a nerf war going on. They're trying to eat dinner. Someone's got a poopy diaper. And she's like, can you help? I'm like, I'm in the think zone, sweetie.

21:35I'm sorry. It just wouldn't work.

21:39Sam Parr:Yeah, it's weird. I'll just do it. I take a lot of road trips or I'll drive. But yeah, I'll just kind of sit still for a long period of time and just think. Yeah, I guess it's weird now that I say it out loud. Well, it's weird in the sense that nobody does that. People will be like, they sit and think on their phone. They're like, oh, I'm on Instagram. No, it's kind of hard. I think that Slack and Twitter has been almost a negative because it makes it really challenging to digest new information when you constantly have stuff coming at you. So like for this interview and for interviews that I'm like personally really excited to learn from them more so than like, oh, this will be cool content for somebody.

22:20Like I'm just excited to learn about it. I won't go on social media for 24 hours. I'll just like sit and think with their story, maybe some of their podcasts that they've been on or like research the business because I just like to let it marinate in the back of my mind and let that be there. because then I have opportunity to sort of draw on that reservoir. So I do understand it from that perspective. But I feel like if I built that time in every single day, I feel lazy or I feel like I'm not being productive if I were to sit for 30 minutes. And that's a me problem, right? But did you ever feel that way?

22:54Sam Parr:Yeah, I mean, I feel this way all the time. But basically, I'm at the point in my career where I'm a knowledge worker. I come up with ideas or I come up with an opinion. and I just say that and I don't always do the work. So I do do the work like when I'm first starting, like in order to get Hampton to like seven figures in revenue, it was just me and my partner, Joe, and we did 100 % of everything. But with a lot of stuff, my money comes from just coming up with insights and kind of talking about it. So I'm very fortunate I'm in that situation. I definitely get that perspective. That's kind of how I use AI, frankly, it's helping me work through things so like but like by the way i can't do anything like for example like we're building the software inside of our company and like i just like draw it out on a piece of paper and i send it to our tech team and i'm like what do you think about this like i can't actually make anything can you do anything at home can you like repair stuff and like are you a man you like fix a car yeah like one of my hobbies is like taking apart motorcycles and putting them together.

24:02Gosh, nephew, dude. You're rich. You're good looking. You're healthy. And you like know how to do manly things. Screw you.

24:09Sam Parr:Well, the way that I describe it to people is I can go really high. I can hang out with a billionaire and get along with them. Or I can go really low. I can go hang out with hoodlums on the street and get along. For example, this Saturday, I was at the skate park for an hour and a half. And just hanging out with the homeboys. Guys, I don't even know. just like you know street guys and i have so much joy doing it and so i feel comfortable being on different spectrums i heard this incredible story i was listening to the joe rogan podcast with bill murray and bill murray was telling he's like yeah i was driving lauren michael's volkswagen across the country and i just was hanging out and i stopped in aspen and i go to the lodge and i meet this guy at the bar and for like two days we're just hanging out and he tells this like whole story they're just getting into you know hood rat stuff and and joe's like do you know who this guy was he's like no and he didn't know my name either i don't think he knew who i was they just like connected they were just having fun and it turns out the guy was do you know who hunter s thompson is oh was it really yeah and so bill murray and hunter s thompson became like lifelong friends after that now hunter s thompson's so funny and he was an investigative journalist like anyways he was he was top notch but these two guys connected not because it was like oh you're a movie star oh and you're a journalist cool we're both successful they were just like at a bar and started chopping it up that's you know that's how i know tim ferris no way yeah tim ferris and i used to go to the park and walk our dogs like and he maybe he knew my first name maybe not even but we would like we were like a dog walking acquaintances really and yeah we were just talking about dogs and like the neighborhood.

25:55Sam Parr:She didn't know who I was, but of course I knew who he was, but I didn't want to like blow his cover. I wanted to make him feel comfortable. And then after doing this for a handful of weeks or months, she cold emailed me, asked about newsletters, and asked if he could get dinner. And I was like, yeah, yeah, let's get dinner. And I showed up to dinner. He's like, oh, wait, you're that guy?

26:16Sam Parr:That's so good. Hey, I don't know if you remember this, but when we started this podcast, we entered into a social contract. I would spend time, energy, and money producing this podcast, interviewing these individuals and giving you insights into how to build, buy, start, grow your business. And you would like subscribe and leave me five-star review. Now out of that, we both get to talk to really cool people and hear really cool insights. We both get a ton of value, but I just want to help you keep your word. So would you do me a favor? Will you go leave a five-star review for me on Apple or Spotify.

26:49It would really help. And if you want, even share this with a friend. So I grew up one of nine kids, obviously, because I'm a Mormon. My oldest brother, his name is Ian Pointe. He's a half brother. I have another brother who's a half brother. My oldest sister is half Chinese. I had a twin sister who was severely developmentally delayed. And then my two youngest sisters are actually my cousins. We adopted them because my aunt was a drug addict. So like my family is super close. Oh, and my dad is an immigrant. He grew up in brazil but he's full-blooded ukrainian he was a professional soccer player tons of latin american

27:17Sam Parr:friends it sounds like the un man you got a very dude it's amazing like tell me an accent i'll do it were you like negotiating like treaties and stuff like that in your household it sounds pretty much pretty much and i was the middle child so i was the you know the the problem solver but yeah it was like nicole what is your sister natasha i don't i don't know she's with with ian my mexican brother anyways i've always felt like i could connect with almost anybody because of that except for very, very wealthy people who were like, yes, we took the yacht out this weekend and went to St. Martha's Vineyard.

27:49And like, I still can connect with them, but there's just like, you have a life experience where I feel like I can connect with 95 % of people and it makes life way more enjoyable.

28:00Sam Parr:It's very strange. I think there's only like 2 ,000 or 3 ,000 or maybe 4 ,000 billionaires on earth. On MFM, we've had like 4 % of them on the podcast. And so I've been like crazy fortunate to like meet these people who are like tip top of their game. The majority, but not all, the majority of self-made entrepreneurial billionaires are fairly not like you're describing. Or maybe they do live that fancy life. Many of them do. They can snap out of it pretty quickly. You could be like, dude, get the leftovers and don't throw away the food at the restaurant. I've done that before. Yeah, that's a good idea.

28:34Sam Parr:What are we, what are we, crazy? We can't play. But the kids or the grandkids are definitely So my brother-in-law, he's going to be a billionaire. He's got a healthcare company,$500 million. He's grown in seven years. It's growing like crazy. And luckily, I've known him for 20 years, like well before he became what he is now. And we're still like, hey, man, I got to get a colonoscopy, and I need a colon cleanse. You want to take me to Taco Bell real quick? And we're like, oh, yeah, sure. Let's ride a Taco Bell. Let's get a Baja Blast while we're there. But it is that like second generation. You're like, mm.

29:07Sam Parr:so they've been worse than ever colonoscopies just how disrespectful to his doctor the next day that you're just gonna like taco bell i hope you never have to get a colonoscopy before you're 50 okay that's all i'm gonna say to you i have to get them regularly unfortunately my sister died of colon cancer so it's like they're like okay starting at 35 every every year let's stick and the nurses like when did all the nurses just get super young in these colonoscopy clinics They're all like 25-year-old new grads. I'm like, okay, I guess I'm just supposed to get naked. I'm so excited. I can't. Yeah, I don't know.

29:41Sam Parr:I can't speak to that. You could have that one. I kind of feel like you hit on something there. I kind of feel like My First Billion has become my first 10 million or almost like My First Billion. I think it's because it's a function of you wanting to talk to really interesting people. And it just so happens to be that the more well-known your podcast has become, the more access. No, it's not more access. We get a lot of criticism for that. And I will happily take that criticism because when we started the podcast, both of us were still kind of up and coming. And I don't care about making my first million.

30:15Sam Parr:I care about money a lot less nowadays than people think. But I care about, like I said, like steps that one takes to like achieve potential. But I definitely am more interested if I were to talk about money. it's more like, all right, tell me like about 100 million or or hundreds or billions. Like that's definitely a little bit more where I'm trying to go. Because that's a game you haven't played yet. Like that's the part you're curious about. Yeah, like I'm on my way. And I want to I want to like learn about that stuff. But also, I think life is a lot richer than just money. And so I actually tend to care about many non money things that MFM didn't used to discuss that now we do.

30:57So the adjective you use to describe money is richer. No, it was funny. Life's not richer without money.

31:05Sam Parr:No, I didn't say it. I said life's richer than just money. And so I like the idea of how do I make a rich life? Well, money's only one of a handful of parts to it. And so sometimes I'm interested in those other parts. Let me ask you this question. When was the last time that you thought to you that you were complaining about something that you thought to yourself oh my gosh I've become an out of touch a-hole I had to do laundry the other day for the first time in like three years really freaking hate folding my clothes that's like a chore that I cannot stand and I had to do it the other day and I hated it all right let me flip it the other way after talking to so many successful people and having experienced success yourself what's something that you might have viewed as an indulgence when you were younger that most successful people do that now knowing what you know now even if you were poor again you would still indulge on that does that make sense what i'm asking yeah yeah yeah having hiring service people around the house i think that yeah like cleaners handymen people to do my laundry people to cook things like that I think that you probably only need to spend anywhere from$1 ,000 to$2 ,000 per month to make your life three times easier and more convenient.

32:24Sam Parr:I remember however old I was when I was making, let's say,$100 ,000 a year, I dreaded laundry. I dreaded cooking. And so I would kind of eat poorly and get fat. And looking back, had I just spent roughly$1 ,000 per month, my life would have been a lot better and more convenient. it and I would have been able to spend money on the things that I hated. And I hate doing those things. So for you, what would that$1 ,000 have been spent on? You know, like right now I order these meals called eat clean, bro. So I like those. And then also that's what it's called. And then having someone come just picking up, like, come on, picking up my laundry, doing it and bringing it back.

33:05Sam Parr:Like, it's that simple. And I was too cheap to do it. And I don't know why. And like people are like in awe like that. I'm like, well, I don't do laundry. I don't cook. And they're like, oh, that's like a rich guy thing. I'm like, no, like you can do that for nothing. That's like you could spend$1 ,000 a month. Like you don't, if that's your thing, you don't, you can cut back on other things and indulge on that thing. And it all depends on what your money dials are, you know? And that that's my dial. When did you get okay with that? Because obviously back then you weren't okay with it, but like, when did you realize?

33:35Sam Parr:My financial situation was interesting. I paid myself very little when I ran my company. So I was cash poor, which was a huge mistake. I wouldn't suggest doing that. It's like because my business was making money and I should have paid myself more. And then the last year I paid myself a lot. And then also my wife was an early employee at Airbnb and she crushed it because of a IPO of Airbnb. And then like two months later, my company sold and that was like life changing overnight. So that was like it took me about two years to get used to what that felt like because I went very quickly from like making$50 ,000 a year to you know not a lot more and it took probably two years to get used to it maybe maybe honestly it took four years what did you think your superpowers were back then and like what do you think they are now back then was tenacity I was a dog like if I was gonna if I had my mindset on something I was going to get it or get close.

34:32Sam Parr:I would work really hard. I would think really hard and I'd be laser focused on that goal. So tenacity. My superpower now, I have like a pretty insatiable appetite for information. Like I just can't stop reading and learning. Like I'm incredibly curious. Like the most used app on my phone is Wikipedia. Like I'm just on Wikipedia all day. I just cannot. I love learning. I love history. I just love consuming information and learning about how things used to get done so I can hopefully predict the future. Have you not started using ChatGPT's voice mode where you can actually interact with it, ask it questions, have it give it answers?

35:14Sam Parr:The other day, me and ChatGPT just had a huge conversation on the origins of World War II. I'll have long conversations with it. My son, he's 11 now, and he'll be like, hey dad who was the first emperor of rome i'll be like i don't know and we'll like be on a car drive and then for the next 30 minutes we just have chat gpt up and we're just asking it questions like oh well then what happened to him where did caesar come from oh i didn't know that czar and russia is from caesar and kaiser and germany is from caesar like you're like whoa all these things are connected it's been actually really cool this sounds so stupid there's basically two guys on earth you know there's guys who are interested in the roman empire and guys who are interested in World War II.

35:53Sam Parr:I'm more of a World War II guy, but I understand the Roman Empire sentiment. It's interesting you didn't say the ability to connect with people as a superpower. I'm a little bit of an autist, man. I don't really connect with people that well. I like spending a lot of time by myself. We have a joke in my household. We say no new friends. I don't really want to like... I don't want that between new buddies. Oh my gosh. I like solitude. Let me paint the other side of the argument here. Can you tell me about your Airbnb experience? The one where I got fired? Yeah. In 2007? No, sorry. I don't remember.

36:34Sam Parr:Maybe 2010. So I was a track and field runner in college. And in 2010, I think it was, one of the most famous milers, a guy who ran the mile, he named Chris Lukasik, retired from running and joined a company called Air Bedding Breakfast. And I was like, what the heck? What's that about? That sounds so interesting. think, well, how'd this guy retire at this peak? And so that's what I learned about Airbnb. And I'd followed them forever. And then when I was a senior in college, I was like, all right, now's the time. I could email Brian and Joe, the founders, and I can impress them. And I did. And they weren't impressed by what I told them.

37:06Sam Parr:They were just impressed that I had the courage to follow up a ton and write a coherent email, whatever. And they were like, if you're in the Bay Area, come to my office on Monday. Of course, I was not in the Bay Area. I I didn't know what Bay Area even meant. I thought that meant LA. I was living in Tennessee at the time. Chesapeake Bay? Bay Area. Yeah, I didn't know. I thought that. I was like, is that San Diego? I literally had to Google. What is that? I had never been west of Colorado probably. And so I flew out there the next day and I interviewed with them and I got the job. I left school and I moved out there.

37:41Sam Parr:But around the same era, I was going through some stuff. I got a load of some demons in me a little bit and I had gotten arrested. I got arrested for fighting. I got arrested for DUI. Basically, it all stemmed from drugs and alcohol, alcohol. And I thought I was pulling a fast one because on the application, it said something like, have you been convicted of a misdemeanor? And at that time, I was actually, my court date was scheduled for a later period. And I was like, well, technically, I've not been convicted yet. it was some type of like gray area but like it was still like i was lying yeah you knew you were lying but it was also like well i mean technically i thought i could argue my way around it but basically that i moved out to san francisco and everything and the day before i was supposed to start they were like you know you lied so don't show up you don't have the job and so i never actually got a job there and then years later my wife started working there and i used to joke that it was like my alma mater and like my old stomping grounds but i never actually i never actually worked there and years later a handful of months ago i got to hang out with joe this the founder and he he remembered the the thing and so it worked out i've been curious though like was it hey piece of crap you lied no you can't work here or was it like dude sam we like you but come on man it was the second one they were very they were respectful and like i agree with their decision They were 100 % correct.

39:08Sam Parr:So it was all love. It was on me. I'm the one who made the mistake. Did you stay in touch with, obviously not Joe, but did you stay in touch with him? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, it was all good. They were in the right, I was in the wrong. There was no one to blame but me. So what I thought was interesting from that story is it brings you out to San Francisco, and then obviously there's a lot of series of events, but you started this thing called The Hustle. You had HustleCon. And I was going to go to SF anyway. I had been Googling where do internet companies start and stuff like that.

39:39Sam Parr:You just didn't know it was the bay? I didn't understand. I just thought San Francisco just met on the other side. And I wasn't sure. I didn't quite understand. So good. But I knew I was plotting. I remember I was like, I'm going to contact Uber. I'm going to contact this. I'm getting out there. There is some way in which I will be there. And yet I made it happen. From that, I just find it interesting. Like I said, you had the hustle, you had hustle con. It seems like you've always been able to build networks where you've played a connector role. And then you've also used those networks as leverage to identify kind of trends or like, hey, this is kind of the way that things are moving in the future.

40:21And you, I mean, you may not feel like you're a people person, but you're so freaking likable and you're relatable. And like you talk about your failures openly and there's something very endearing about that you wouldn't have been able to build these networks without the ability to get people to trust you and like you. Does that make sense what I'm saying? So like, for me, it's, it's interesting to hear you say like, I'm not really great with people when it feels like that was sort of the impetus or at least the, the, the thing that got the snowball rolling.

40:48Sam Parr:Yeah. I think that like, I remember being a kid and like, I grew up in an Italian neighborhood. We call it Italian. I grew up with the Italians in St. Louis and I was like the only non-Italian and, and, but like the funny thing about Italians is they love restaurants and like everyone owns a freaking restaurant. And I remember like as a kid going to the restaurant and like the owner of the restaurant, sometimes you wouldn't know who they were, but you just saw this guy walking around, putting his hand on people's back being like, how are you? How's everything? Everything good? And they like had the best energy and everyone like gravitated to them.

41:18Sam Parr:And I was like, I'm going to steal that. I'm going to have that wherever I go, where I'm just going to act like, you know, I'm like the guy in charge somehow. And so when I lived in San Francisco, But even before that, I remember I lived in Sydney, Australia for a little while. Whenever I would go to the new place, I just was like, if I can do the work of organizing people around something, I will eventually become the node or become like the center of it. And it will pay dividends. And so right when I moved out to San Francisco, I started a book club called the Anti-MBA. And that took off. That was like, it wasn't like a business.

41:50Sam Parr:I mean, I spent money on it. I didn't make any money. But like, I met so many amazing people. I learned early on that if I just become the center, I will benefit some way. And it didn't, it's not that hard to be the center. You just have to do work. You just have to like organize. And so that was like really important to me. But also like, I was like a pretty goofy kid, like in high school. And like, I wanted to meet girls. And like, I wanted like guys to like me, like my friend, I want to be like accepted. So I was always like, I just organize people, then like, girls will like me because they'll think I have power and guys will like rely on me because like, I'm the one doing the work.

42:23Sam Parr:So like, great, I got built in friends, and maybe I'll meet a girlfriend. So I was like really wanting like acceptance. I really love getting to know people and organizing things. But for me, it's been more selfish of like, I just really enjoy it and I don't want to feel left out. But what I've noticed is it totally increases your surface area of luck. Like you and I wouldn't be talking if like Kimmy and I hadn't connected, right? I didn't know she was a part of, say on the list or whatever, but just the more people that you know and the more you put yourself out there, the more opportunity kind of comes to you over time.

42:53I'm not going to say that you put out to the universe. I'm not going to say it, but it does apply here.

42:58Sam Parr:Yeah, I agree. I think when I remember being in like sixth grade, I read the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People because I was like desperate to like. Oh my gosh, you're like the oldest soul? Who in sixth grade reads freaking How to Win Friends and Influence People? It's a guy who's desperate to fit in. That's who. And so I've been, and I've also like, I've just always been obsessed with personalities. I've always been obsessed with the person who's brave enough to not fit in and been obsessed with like how this person attracts a following and gets other people to do stuff. That's just like, like, I remember as a kid, I'm like, isn't it crazy that the president, that this institution of America is just like a group of people who are like collectively buy into this?

43:40Sam Parr:Like, that's so strange to me. And that's so fascinating and cool. I wanted, I want to do that. and so I just was always interested in personality and what I learned early on was people were drawn to my curiosity and so if I do if I make my curiosity like public or as like a spectacle for others I just get to do what I enjoy and also it attracts other people there's that saying that like you'll help someone like if you see a guy holding his thumb out with a flat tire versus a guy like pushing his car like you're more likely to help the guy push in the car and so I was like okay I'm just gonna like push the car in front of everyone all the time here's my last like serious question then I have just a couple rapid fire questions what is your favorite way to see the signal through the noise like because trends obviously was a company that you had but you're still connected to a lot of people you see things early you probably get a lot of opportunities you make decisions to not invest in things or or to like Hampton you're like oh I'm going all on in Hampton.

44:42How do you look at things that are coming down the pipe that the general population may not be seeing right now? And where do you find them?

44:50Sam Parr:So generally speaking, hype is just hype. And the things that become popular in 10 years are the things that are not in the newspaper. Or if they are, they're on the hypothetical back pages. So for example, Bitcoin wasn't talked about in the news early on. It was with a bunch of freaks on a forum. And so, but like the things that were popular, like, like the things that were hype, they like tend to be fads, not trends. Because the thing that the weirdos are doing in their hobby, like as a hobby, that tends to be the stuff that actually tends to like become a thing in 10 years. And so I've always, we used to have a saying at the hustle where our company was where you let the freak flag fly.

45:37Sam Parr:Meaning you can be like a weirdo and like we'll accept you because I love weirdos and oddballs. And so I just am constantly seeking them, seeking them out. And I just will be relentless on pursuing them. So I'll give you an example. Do you know who Isaac French is? Yeah. Isaac French is a very successful guy. He's very young. I don't know how old he is, probably late 20s at this, mid 20s. So I found Isaac. Someone had told me about this guy who had an Airbnb that was interesting. But I randomly at the same time, like it all kind of worked out where I saw like his page for like his bed and breakfast.

46:15Sam Parr:And his about page said, I am an accountant. I am a Airbnb owner. But I really view myself as an artist because I love painting more than anything. and I was like, what? This freaking guy. What did he just say? I've never heard anyone say that in my life. You're an accountant, but also an artist? Huh? And I called him. I just called him. I go, hi, Isaac. My name's Sam. He didn't know I did who I was. I was like, your about page was incredibly fascinating. What's your story? And at the end of that phone call, I was like, I'm going to Idaho next week. Do you want to come with me? By the way, you should get a Twitter page because I'm going to write about you and I think you're going to get popular.

47:01Sam Parr:And Isaac, who many people listening know, he had no social media at that time. So Isaac is part of this religion called American Heritage, which I jokingly call him a Mennonite because if you don't know anything about religion, they're kind of like Mennonite-y. And when he told me all these things, I was like, oh, you're a freak. I love you. Let's become best friends. And that's sort of like what I've done many times. Like I'll meet someone and they're just an absolute strange person. or they have this weird combination of hobbies or interests that just, I've never met anyone like it. And whenever I meet people like that, I'm immediately drawn to them.

47:36Sam Parr:Like I'll give an example. Another example. I met this guy named Cliff. Cliff wanted to come to the Hustles office because he wanted to learn about, I don't even know why he wanted to. When he came to the office, I was like, so what's interesting about you? He's like, I can do a backflip. And I was like, what? He goes, I can backflip really good. I go, do it right now. and in the middle and in the middle of my office he did a backflip like it was so such a weird interaction and now clip so cliff has a company that does nine figures a year in revenue it's called speechify that's awesome i have speechify i love speech sorry yeah so cliff is just an example where he was 21 and he had the audacity to backflip in my office and i was like it just it went off again you're a freak i love you i want to follow you and like it was it's always been like a really good indicator of like is someone going to outperform as if they're like incredibly odd it's like that scene in stepbrothers where they're like what's your favorite dinosaur velociraptor what did we just become best friends yeah like if I can meet someone who like does weird shit like here's a weird thing about me on my feet and on my legs I have a bunch of homemade tattoos I just read that like you could give yourself a tattoo with a sewing needle and I found that to be incredibly fascinating If I meet someone that has another stick and poke homemade tattoo, I'm like, oh, you're very strange like me.

49:00Sam Parr:Tell me everything about you. And you could just find all these weird stories when someone has one or two odd or off things about them. Dude, I love that. I'm going to end with some rapid fire questions for you. My first million guests. Who has been your favorite guest? Rob Dierick. I've become friendly with him. He was pretty amazing. Was it the episode or was it the relationship you developed with him afterwards? The episode. He's a very unique human being. Jesse Itzler is pretty amazing. Jesse Itzler is one of the very few people who I admire all facets of his life. Which guest do you think your 80-year-old self would be most proud of if you had a life most similar to?

49:40And you might have just answered it with that previous...

49:42Sam Parr:I can give it Laird Hamilton, I think. Really? Why? Yeah. Laird Hamilton was the perfect amount of stubborn. I think that he has his values and he does not bend. And I think that he has the values that I love. What are the characteristics that you've seen across the successful people that you've interviewed that surprised you as being a commonality? Most of them do not have a significantly higher or lower IQ than I do. And I would say that I'm like a 75 to 80 percentile smart person. Like they oftentimes I'll meet someone who's a thousand times more successful than I am, but they were, we have the same intelligence.

50:23Sam Parr:We have similar characteristics other than they knew what they were trying to do and they got after it. There's not like financial situations that are significantly different. There's not, they're still afraid. They have insecurities. Like there's just not that much difference. and the only difference being they said this is where i'm going to go and i'm going to pursue it in spite of being fearful and having all these other issues well and there's like there's a thing where you have to be a certain level of smart and it's kind of like table stakes but everything past that it's kind of just nice to have there's a handful of people that are genuinely like their oven burns hotter like i can never get up with them so like darmesh is one of them max the guy who started grammarly like when i went around them i'm like well you just i will never compete with you in terms of like raw IQ.

51:11Sam Parr:You are just significantly smarter than me. But there's many, many, many other people that are as rich and wealthy and they're just more tenacious. What do you think that like they have one attribute that is off the charts? Like, okay, baseline level of intelligence is whatever. Yeah, stubbornness usually. A lot of stubbornness. Really? Yeah. Yeah. And like disagree. They're disagreeable. Okay, here's one that I like. Which of your guests, by the way, these are all real questions. This is not ChatGPT. Which of your guests, if you had to put your money in for the rest of your life, just like, all right, here's all my money.

51:47I'm betting on you. Who would you pick?

51:50Sam Parr:Like a young person? I mean, I guess relatively young. You're not putting it in one benefit at this point. If I had to give a less obvious answer, I've done 800 or 700 episodes. I don't remember all the guests. But a pretty young person who I think I would get an amazing return if they just controlled my net worth would be Austin Reif. Tell me more. Why? He makes wise decisions. I think he's got the perfect amount of aggressiveness and conservative attitude. He's conservative, conservative, conservative, and then he sees it's working and then he goes all in. And I think that that is a winning combination.

52:27That's interesting. Man, now I really want to talk to Austin Reif. Does it have anything to do with the space that he's in? I mean, he's in media as well, or is it, it's him?

52:36Sam Parr:No, he'll have the same outcome regardless. I mean, you put him in a bad situation, it'll be a good outcome. If you put him in a great situation, it's going to be a world-class outcome. Like, it's almost always going to be a winning situation. It's just the magnitude matters. Marc Andreessen has this quote about Sam Alton more of it's like, if I, if we left everybody on a desert island and I came back in a year, or it was a Paul Graham, sorry, and I came back in a year, like he'd be Lord of the Flies. Is it like, is that Austin? No, Austin, he's pretty mild-mannered, so I don't think that he's going to lead a bunch of savages, but he'll get a good return.

53:09Sam Parr:He just makes very good decisions. I think most people, like myself, I'm ruled by my emotions, which is a pro and a con. Yeah. He has a good combination where he'll be like, my emotions say this, my rational side says this, which one should I listen to? He does a very good job of being rational and emotional. I tend to be a lot more emotional. and but to be great you need both. The first part of that you like triggered something in my mind. Who do you think has the most potential upside of people that you've interviewed? They can be young, right? Like it could be Isaac French for all. No, Isaac French is too happy.

53:47Sam Parr:You need someone more disagreeable. The problem with Isaac is that he's like emotionally content. He seems like a very happy person. He's going to be incredibly successful. I'm just joking. Do you know Wade Foster? No. Wade Foster started Zapier. Oh, yeah. Wade lives in Jefferson, Jeff City, Missouri, which is, I'm from St. Louis, Missouri, and St. Louis is nothing. Jeff is, Jefferson City is definitely not happening. I think there's a world where Wade becomes like worth many, many tens of billions of dollars. He's probably already worth three or four billion. Wow. I would think, I don't know what Zapier is.

54:31Sam Parr:This is all just public information. So whatever Zapier is worth, I think they've mostly bootstrapped. And so, you know, whatever that is. But that guy reminded me a lot of Dharmesh. So Dharmesh is the CTO of HubSpot and a multi-billionaire. And I can't say all of the Dharmesh's stories because a lot of them have been off the record. That guy makes money. His hobbies make stupid, like little side things that he has done, has made so much money. And the reason is, is because he's got this weird combination of competitiveness, but also like, he's a hacker, like he like everything's a game to him and as a hobby.

55:09Sam Parr:And typically people who are like incredibly successful, one attribute many of them have is they they're gamers, like not like just video games, but board games, whatever. Wade Foster has that attitude to me, where he wants to win, but not at the point of he's going to bend on integrity and he also seems he seems like someone who loves games like if you taught him a board game he would like study it at night dude that's why so many mormons are successful in business settlers of katan you bust a settlers katan out at a mormon party gloves are off bro they're gonna be saying they're animals frick that'd be a problem and drinking tons of dutch bros and tons of dutch bros and other soda this was awesome.

55:53I appreciate you taking time. I want to be respectful to your time. All right.

55:57Sam Parr:God bless America. See you. All right. Hopefully you liked that episode. And if you've made it this far, you're either really committed or you're stuck doing yard work and you can't actually skip on your phone. So while I have you, the show is growing, but I have a favor to ask of you. Will you please help me grow the show? I want to reach more people. There's a couple of things that you can do. Like, and subscribe is the simplest thing. Obviously you want to get notifications for when the next episode is coming out. But if you go the next step, will you leave me a review? Five star on Spotify or Apple.

56:27What that does is it tells the algorithm that, oh, hey, this is a high value podcast because more people are leaving reviews for it and it then pushes it out to more people. So that's why when people are like, will you log and subscribe and put the five star rating? It's not just to make themselves feel better. It's actually to get more exposure for the show. So if you do that for me, I would greatly appreciate it. and I'll see you next time.