E59: Luke Belmar: Buy Bitcoin To Escape The Matrix!

25:17It's really interesting that we talk about that because I wrote a bunch of things around that. Public rewards versus private practice. So I think it's today or two days ago there was Tony Robbins on a podcast called My First Million Podcast which we all know and he talked about the concept of it's what you do in the dark that puts you in the light and then he gives the example you gave some example, he gives the example of Stephen Curry, 500 shots a day, 3 ,500 shots a week. 180 ,000 shots a year, 2.7 million shots in 15 years of practice. Out of 16 ,000 game shots with 3 ,500 makes, he's one of the best of all time.

26:05Less than one-tenth of one percent of his shots are seen in a game. Can you give some personal examples that show that success all comes down to obsession, sacrifices, practicing day in and day out, being consistent, patient, and persistent? Yes. I would probably attribute it at the beginning of my career. I would say e-commerce, building an e-commerce business has taught me foundational skills that then translate into everything else that you do. So people say, well, I'm going to go do one job like sales, or I'm going to go do e-commerce. I'm going to go build a digital marketing agency, or I'm going to build a data analytics company, but what are the skills that you're learning?

26:48No, you're not just building a data analytics company. You're learning how to become a CEO. You're learning how to become a leader. You're learning how to become a well-polished individual. You're learning how to balance a checkbook. You're learning how to balance emotions. You're learning how to balance your employees' emotions. So what e-commerce taught me was a few foundational skills. One is that marketing and distribution are more important than the product. So if you have a great product, but nobody sees it, you're fucked. It doesn't matter what business you're in. It doesn't matter if you're in crypto.

27:18It doesn't matter if you're in finance. If nobody knows what you have to sell, nobody's going to see it. So one of the essential skills that I learned is I need to learn how to garner, manage, and distribute my product. Number one. Number two, sales, right? So if you want to make money, you have to sell. You have to sell. Now, in order to make money and sell, there's three areas that you need to master. Number one, you need to be the best at what you do. You don't want to get hired for being cheap. You want to get hired for being the best. Number two is what you do in sales needs to be in high demand.

27:50You don't want to be selling Eskimo, you know, an Eskimo ice. People are like, I can sell anything to anybody. Yeah, yeah, but that necessarily doesn't mean that you're going to be able to make a ton of money. So what you need to do is needs to be in high demand. You need to be the best at what you do. And then finally, you need to be irreplaceable, right? Can you be replaced by AI? Can you be replaced by somebody else? That's a question that needs to be answered. So I figured out in sales, I need to be the best at what I do. So if I'm selling a product or a service, people need to see me as a person of reputable standards.

28:22I need to be in high demand. So what I'm going to be selling needs to be in an evergreen niche. We saw so many hype niches or themes come up in crypto over the last couple years, all sorts of shit, but they were just fads, right? It wasn't sustainable because it wasn't in high demand. And then finally, you need to be, like I said, the best at what you do in high demand, and you need to be irreplaceable. So can somebody replace you? So when you look at your skill sets, you need to ask yourself, well, what now can AI not replace? So what are you building today that AI can't replace? I was telling recently another podcast host, I had the privilege to ask a couple of questions to one of the co-founders of OpenAI many years ago before I launched Capital Club.

29:08And he told me, I asked him, hey, should I build an AI company? He's like, no, no, don't build an AI company. Build an AI-proof company. Build something that AI will never be able to replace. Because he's like, you're going to go building AI with who against all the MIT kids, Stanford kids, against all these nerds, all these think tanks. So you're going to have a very hard time. But if you can establish a moat as to what is something that AI cannot replace, like self-development, community, personal growth. Then you have the ability to sell in a way that AI can't replace. So marketing, distribution, and sales are the two kind of beacons and pillars that I've established as essential necessities for winning in business.

29:48And on top of that, authenticity. For sure, bro. Because a lot of people think that being good at sale is being good at bullshitting, right? The thing is, if you do that, you'll get people for the first round, but they'll never come back. And you're going to grow in your reputation. What I tell people, just to follow that, is if you sell something to somebody that they don't need, you're not a good salesman. You're a con artist. So when you sell, you need to sell ethically and you need to sell understanding that you're there to serve people. Absolutely. Basically, how can I provide you as much value as possible?

30:27and that's my problem. Not ask for anything because you make the assumption that, but the smart people, they'll understand like, oh man, you're giving me something, I'll give you something back, right? It's all about providing so much value and doing it, you know, just I'm not asking you for anything. Like ideally you're in a position where you don't even need, you're like, oh, this is all bonus, right? And again, I mean, I don't want to talk about Naval too much, but he's talking about using authenticity to escape competition. He's saying basically if you use authenticity, you're never going to have anyone that you're competing with because no one can compete with yourself.

31:01I agree. I mean, most people compete instead of creating, but that's because most people don't want to become the best version of themselves. They want to become what they perceive is a better version than themselves, which is what they see in somebody else be or what somebody else supposed to be. When you have the same capabilities, you have the same potential, you just have to work for it extremely, extremely hard. And what I like about the internet is that the internet doesn't take bullshit, right? So now as the creator economy begins to develop and as people spend time online, things become more transparent.

31:36So people will be able to identify authenticity, they'll be able to identify truth and then they'll be able to identify bullshitters.

31:45Probably blockchain will help in that because you have all these AI. For sure. Because one of the key problem now is like AI, we don't even realize most of us, but just for, we're in 2024, there is US elections this year. And there was, I think it was Raoul Pal saying, during the US elections, you're going to have crazy arguments with your neighbors, your family members, people you love, just because of AI piece of contents that are going to be targeted at you to make you go crazy, right? And one thing where blockchain can really help is to prove whether all these pieces of contents are actually true or not.

32:25The only issue with that, bro, is when you start playing with the humanization and the digitalization of personal identities. So it's like, oh, well, now we need to make sure that whoever's on Instagram or whoever's on Twitter is actually a real human. So now you have to submit your ID. And that's where shit gets kind of crazy. But I look forward to this future, bro. It's going to be fucking wild because now you don't even know who's commenting. For all you know, Zuckerberg's got all these motherfucking profiles running 24 seven, just blasting comments to cause engagement, cause triggers. And for all you know, it's just a troll farm.

33:01It's wild. And it's happening. It's happening. I mean, it happens all the time. I think there was an intelligence company out of Israel called Project Judas and they had 30 ,000 Twitter accounts and they would kind of control narratives through those Twitter accounts. And they're not real people. it's just a couple individuals now with ai it's going to be super powered and i agree with you bro it's going to fucking break a lot of people's minds bro it's going to be crazy dude fuck i didn't even think that i didn't even take that into perspective for the election bro it's going to be crazy it's going to be wild it was already i mean trump won like thanks to data and social media but it was not like advanced ai like that so now it's going to be this but on steroids wow bro

33:43so we talk about how much you need sacrifices patience consistency persistence to make it right when you're starting to build a company the problem is millennials and gen z they're impatient as fuck because we live in a in a world where we have everything at our fingertips right Coffee, food, dates, porn, anything we want just at the click of a button. But there are really good things in life, a career, a relationship, a business, good health, wealth. They all come from daily compounding, right? Of small actions. What's your message to our impatient generation today if they want to be truly successful tomorrow?

34:34Be impatient towards the good things. Be impatient towards doing the good things every single day. Be impatient towards waking up and going to the gym. Be impatient to get on your sales calls and close those clients. Be impatient to pick up that book and read. Instead of being impatient about the results, be impatient about the input. Because you can't control the output. You can control how many seeds you plant. You can't figure out which seed is going to grow and how many apples are going to come from that apple tree. You can't control that. You can't control the day you're going to become a millionaire.

35:05If you say I'm going to become a millionaire in one year, good luck, motherfucker, because if that year rolls around and you're not a millionaire, you're going to feel like shit. You're going to feel unsuccessful. But if you're like my success is determined by my input and not my output, dude, be impatient as a motherfucker. Getting that input, grinding, understanding that money, success is a lagging indicator. So hustle, do what you have to do on the input. and then by natural law, which is a principle that applies to the universe, action causes reaction, input causes output, focus on what you can control, be impatient about becoming great and the rest will play out.

35:41It's essentially what Gary Vee says when he says micro speed, macro patience. It's exactly that. That's very good. I'm Swiss. In Switzerland, we don't talk about money. we don't even know or dare to ask our parents how much how much they make really you don't do that no wow that's how much taboo the topic of money is in switzerland at least might have changed now but i mean i'm not old but like you know i don't know how much my father makes or how much he made like and you don't ask that right you talk a lot about money and there is a lot of hate towards men who preach about making money. Why do you think openly talking about money and about making money is so important?

36:34Because money is just a tool. So I talk about money just like I talk about health, just like I talk about self-development and picking up a book and learning topics that you enjoy. Money is just a tool. Money is just the weapon that you utilize to accomplish your goals, but it's essential. And most people have no literacy when it comes to money. I was doing some research as to how the Bible was translated into English. When John Wycliffe began translating the Bible, he was persecuted. He was persecuted by the clergymen that had the Bible in Latin, and he was persecuted by the Pope, and he was persecuted by the religious political powers.

37:16Why? Because at that time, religion was the language of the elite. And it's what kept people in slavery. It's what kept people in bondage and in fear. Today, now that these spiritual texts have been translated and anybody can digest them, the tool of suppression is no longer religion, it's finance. So finance has now become the language of the elite. There's a reason the tax code is so complicated. There's a reason why they don't teach you money in school. There's a reason why these things are complicated. And it's not because they have to be complicated. It's because they're designed to keep you away from understanding that there are valuable parts of life that you need to master.

37:54So when you understand that language is also correlated to your ability to understand what my goal is to simplify these concepts so that people don't fear them and that they can understand them in a very basic way so that they don't have to depend on a tax accountant so they don't have to depend on somebody to tell them how to make money a banker exactly that takes money they're all they're all the middlemen they're all the middlemen to god and god we trust absolutely but go through me motherfucker that's what they tell you that's a really compelling one because i'm in the i mean in the banking sector it's if you start to for me like the the the journey was since I was probably 21 and 22 when I started the first company I wanted to retire before 30 right whatever that means a certain number so I was like how do I retire before 30 and then we had some employees and we had you know a pension because you have to invest in a pension for your employees so I was like how do I with my pension and with other people's pension invest this money to retire as quickly as possible and then you start from there to understand how the entire system is made that every pension it's fucked I mean in the UK you have this self-investment pension plan I know the government the government invested on your behalf so so then you understand the whole thing which is you read you're like okay what how do I start I'm gonna start about reading about timeless principle of investing.

39:26There's not, they all say the same, right? The Little Common Sense of Investing, the, obviously, the, I mean, a bunch of these books. Also, Tony Robbins, he wrote a really good one, which is Money Master the Game and Unshakeable, very simple ones after the great financial crisis to help millennials invest and to make them understand that it's actually not hard. It's just made harder by the ones who need to take a fees, right? and so you just you need the middleman to god exactly and and the person that can be the middleman to god will charge you you know in order to get to heaven and when you realize that you don't need a middleman in order to talk to god and you don't need a middleman in order to learn finance and you don't need a middleman in order to do anything the middleman gets upset and now the middleman not only controls finance but they also control the school system because they're the ones that fund the school system and they're the ones that fund the universities and they're the ones that fund pharma and they're the ones that fund food.

40:25So now the entire narrative is controlled by this centralized group of people. That's why I call individuals nowadays no longer peasants. They're fiat slaves because you're a slave to something that was created imaginarily by another person that controls you and is expending your life force energy and putting a little dollar sign carrot in front of you, dingling and saying, by the age of 65, you'll be able to retire and you'll be happy, but give me 40 years of your life. It's fucked. So if I can, in some way, shape or form, kind of at least trigger these conversations for people and be like, hmm, maybe let me look at the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

41:03Maybe let me figure out why we got off the gold standard and who was actually involved in this process. Let me figure out why Satoshi's narrative of immutable money is actually compelling. And yeah, maybe I don't have to become a scholar when it comes to finances. Maybe I don't have to become somebody that actually understands the ins and outs of everything. But the last thing you want to be is ignorant, because in ignorance, you can get fooled. And most people are ignorant. And what I think sometimes people get upset at is the fact that you're showcasing their ignorance. And sometimes the truth hurts, but I'm willing to offend in order to save a few.

41:42What do you think is the single biggest limiting factor that prevents most people from taking full control of their finance and their future? Most people blame others. Most people fear the consequences of being responsible for the good things and the bad things of their life. I often tell people, everyone is self-made, but only the successful will admit it because the unsuccessful person, they're self-made, but they won't admit it. They'll blame somebody else. They'll blame the imaginary thumb of the government. They'll blame the race. They'll blame the color of their skin, but they'll never look at themselves and be like, what did you not do?

42:28Because everybody's quick to be like, oh, well, I am successful. I built this company. But what about when you fucked up? What about when you were inferior when you were a loser? Did you take accountability for those things? And most people, I think, are just not comfortable with assuming that responsibility. So creating an ethos where we can be vulnerable, creating an ethos where it's okay to fuck up, where it's okay to fail, is going to revolutionize and change through authenticity how people interact and how people talk. And what I often tell people is this fear of failure is induced into us.

43:03It's not natural. if you go to the school system bro imagine how fucked it is to go to a first grader and give them an f and tell them you're you failed or you know what because you didn't apply this this and this you have to stay back with you know younger kids and you shame them bro that's fucking degrading so from the beginning you're conditioned to not try because if you try there's a chance that you're going to be penalized and you don't want to be penalized nobody wants to be penalized And then that translates to high school, that translates to university, that translates to the workplace, that translates to your interaction in your entire life.

43:38You just want to play it safe. And in that safety, it's all elusive because at the end of the day, you're going to die. So we all end up being in the same situation because we all are going to end up dead. So there isn't any safety because we're all going to end up six feet under. So if you're going to end up six feet under, there's nothing to stress about. There's nothing to worry. Yeah. I think it's called equanimity, no? Equanimity. That's it, right? With the concept of like, don't look at the tree, look at the forest, right? Take a step back and then realize, man, why are we even stressing?

44:10I mean, easier said than done, right? Well, it can't even be said and it can't be done. It needs to be felt. And the equanimity is the calmness of the soul. Equanimity means the calmness of the soul. So when you, like Miyamoto Musashi famously said with your spirit as high as Mount Fuji you will see all things clearly and when you can elevate your perspective and you can see that what people are doing what people think about you your failures and your wins they're insignificant when you can see it nobody cares but for that to go through the big failures and realize that nothing happened which people will not go through because they're scared.

44:55Yes. And you're saying that one of the reasons or the main reason they're scared is the education system where from young, so early on, it's basically black or white, right? It's failure or success. Gold star or red marker with an F.

45:16Would you go as far as saying that let's go into the education one because it's a very interesting one. the education system was created by the rockefeller foundation under the perusian school system which was the idea of creating factory working bots that don't question they don't do anything except obey that's why the school system resembles the industrial era you raise your hand in order to use the bathroom there's an assembly line the bell rings therefore that's your break that's your cue You have to be operating just within your little dynamic. You can't explore. You're not supposed to collaborate.

45:55You're within your little area of work. This is what you do. But it not only resembles the industrial kind of era, but it also resembles the prison complex, right? So you have the fluorescent lights. You have the locked rooms. You walk in a line. You go to the yard one hour of the day. And you only do it when the bell rings. Dude, can I just, when everybody clips it, All you have to do is look at what a cafeteria looks like in the United States school and look at a cafeteria prison. They look the same. So everything is conditioned from the moment you're young to absolutely create and prune you into being a fiat slave.

46:36Which we all follow, right? We even getting out of this mindset of, and again, my Swiss side will be like, you don't have to be an entrepreneur to be like it's not only about being entrepreneur right you can be a consultant and be happy you can be you can even be an employee it's not even it's not even about that it's it's about understanding that what you've been conditioned to believe is a bullshit what you've been conditioned to to feel about reality what you've been conditioned to understand is true is not true and that the systems the beliefs that you've been given are not yours and that you're not bound and limited to these things in order to become an individual that achieves greatness.

47:16Greatness isn't what Luke Belmar tells you greatness is. Success isn't what Luke Belmar tells you success is. What is your symphony of success? When you hear success, right, what does that mean to you? What does that look like for you? It looks different for you. It looks different for me, but pursue that path. Most people know, hey, I want to pursue something. I want to become somebody, but then because of the fear of failure, the fear of judgment, the fear of insecurities and shame on all these motherfuckers online that talk shit because the last thing you want to be doing is criticizing and insulting somebody for trying absolutely when we're all just trying to make it so why are you trying to hold the brother down you know what i mean what about crazy what about your parents because obviously your parents i mean i'm saying when i say you, I mean like people's parents, right?

48:07My belief is that most parents only, even if they don't know how to communicate it, they truly love their kids and they want the best for their kids, right? But just because they want what's best for them, they don't know what is best, right? Just because somebody loves you doesn't necessarily mean they know what's best for you. And what I always tell people is when, with your parents, people that have invested their life force energy into nurturing and raising you, especially if they love you. If they don't love you and they treat you like shit, fuck them, right? That's my point of view. But if they've actually empowered you, they've worked hard to help you elevate, they want to see what's best for you, prove them wrong, right?

48:44If they don't want to see you elevate, prove them wrong with your actions. Your parents aren't going to be upset if they see you waking up early, if they see you pursuing your dreams, if they see you being productive. If you're not doing anything, you're just playing Fortnite all day, being a lazy piece of shit, they're going to go, they're going to start questioning, well, what is this person doing with their life? And rightfully so. But I think when parents also understand, and a lot of them do, that you're actually being productive and you're putting forth a plan towards success, a lot of them will support it.

49:13Yeah. Because ultimately, they just want you to be happy and they'll feel it and they'll see if you're happy in whatever you're trying. And you have to sell them on it. It goes back to what we talked about. You have to sell them, just like you have to sell your girl on staying with you, just like you have to sell your customers on hanging around. You have to sell sometimes your parents on them allowing you and blessing you to pursue different areas of life. And worst case, if they still don't want it, there is still the possibility of saying, hey, I'll find a whatever shit job or just to not depend on you financially anymore so I can do my own thing and you don't have a say anymore.

49:50You know what's funny? It was the Thanksgiving of 2017 and I was, remember in 2017, I think everybody was talking about crypto or Bitcoin and it went up and then it tanked or some shit. I think that's where like the entire culture of, hey, during Thanksgiving, everybody talks about crypto and everybody tells their grandma to buy. I think it came from the 2017 bull run, but we were going around the table and my mother asked me, she said, what are you grateful for? My mother always asks that during Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for? And I said, I'm thankful for Bitcoin. And they laughed at me, right?

50:24They scoffed me. But last week I sent my mother a Bitcoin, right? And she no longer cares about whether she scoffed me or whether she thought Bitcoin or my gratitude towards it was a good thing or that I'm being thankful for it. She's just happy now that I'm successful. And now she gets to partake in that success. So sometimes you have to eat some shit. Sometimes you have to understand that your vision is your vision. And it was given to you. It wasn't given to your parents. So you don't need their validation. You don't need their approval. But if you're still in their household and you still want their blessing, then prove them wrong through your actions and be diplomatic through a process of selling them into your vision through action, dedication, and respect.

51:08Applies again, this applies a lot to actually sales in business, right? Yes. Because let's say your clients are big corporations, so there's a lot of politics in there. sometimes you know exactly what they need but if you tell them what they need they'll tell you to fuck off yes so you will sell them what they want to hear and once you got the project then you come and say forget all the shit that i told you now we're going to do the real deal right and it's always it's it's sales it's just sales like everything is sales it's true it's crazy and if you can't if you can't sell your mama on letting you start an e-com store then how are you going to sell anybody i'm giving you a million dollar check to go start a business are you going to how are you going to go sell something that's high ticket?

51:49How are you going to sell anybody on anything else? Everything starts in the basics, right? Everything starts in the beginning. And if you can be diplomatic with your family and bring them onto your vision, so be it. But at the same time, the path of success and the path of entrepreneurship and the path of greatness is lonely. And you have to be willing to be alone in the process to getting to the top. and I realized in my life and my pursuit, my pursuit, my main perspective in life wasn't to become successful. My perspective of life has become to pursue truth. And when I told God, hey, I will sacrifice my family, my relationships, even my life for the pursuit of truth, then that commitment and that dedication carried me through any insecurities, any doubt, any loneliness and eventually all these things played out well so you would say that you're still lonely no often i am i'm because i can i can be alone and not be lonely because i'm with myself how do you get to that stage because for me spend a lot of when you're in the car turn off that radio be in your thoughts ask yourself why is it that you do what you do ask yourself why do you wake up in the morning and do what you do, why is it that you pursue the goals and the dreams that you pursue?

53:09Have these conversations, be comfortable in your own skin. If you're uncomfortable, ask yourself, why is it that you're experiencing these things? Why is it that you are in a situation where you don't like to be by yourself? Because if you are with yourself, it doesn't mean you have to be lonely. You don't need other people. Because when you're on your deathbed, dude, nobody's going to be there. It's just you, yourself, figuring out, did I live a successful life. Did I do what I say I was going to do? You can't point fingers. You can't say, oh, because this person said this or this person said that.

53:40No, no, no, no. You're fully accountable for your life. And when it's all said and done, it's all up to you. So why not live that way?

53:52What do you do concretely with that? Do you meditate? Do you pray? I spend a lot of time just thinking. So you have like in your agenda or calendar, which is probably crazy full. No, it's empty. You have some, it's empty. It's so empty, bro. There's like nothing on my calendar because that was like, that was like my perspective. Like I just have like my regular calls for the week, which is like my regular calls. But besides that, as the creative in the business, I can't have a schedule. I need to be able to create an environment where I can just free flow. And it's not for everybody. But in my space, it's just like empty schedule and just spend as much time thinking, as much time in my thoughts and as much time as possible questioning my actions so that I understand why I'm actually doing what I'm doing.

54:42You talked about pursuing truth and thinking basically back to what you've done. You went to college? No. Briefly? Dropped out. Dropped out, right? I went to multiple universities tested different things one quarter here, one quarter there but it never suited me because the teachers were kind of losers and I sensed that from the get go I'll tell you bro, I had two teachers two teachers convinced me that school was shit my first one was a communications teacher didn't know how to fucking talk so I was like, how is this person going to teach me communication and then the second one was at the second university an international business professor that had never been overseas please so like how are you going to teach me how to be how to become an international entrepreneur you're talking about macroeconomics microeconomics but are you telling me about culture are you telling me about how to interact with with chinese people when i actually go to china and how how to broker a deal you can't learn that unless you're there so i was like fuck this i gotta go learn this actually get in the trenches yeah complete i mean for me i was kind of also the motherfucker in And I completed the whole like bachelor, but I was always thinking, especially when I did my master's, I did two internships, three months each in between bachelor and master.

55:58I go to my master and I realized that I have more work experience after six months of internship than the PhD professor in front. And we had an entrepreneurship class, 14 sessions. and at the very end of this entrepreneurship class 14 session she she's like hey anyone has questions and i'm like she had done a ph in entrepreneurship never built a business and she was an entrepreneurship professor i'm like do you really believe we can teach entrepreneurship like and same i always thought man so fuck bro like i i don't disrespect you maybe because of my Swiss values, but I'm like, how can you teach me something when you've never freaking done it before?

56:43Yes. Right? And if you think about it, the education system is completely outdated today, right? Yes. And so there is a, I mean, different takes on that. Do you think university is a scam? Absolutely. Because it's a business, right? The university is a business. so in certain countries you have public university but somebody's paying for it maybe it's the government but somebody's paying for it in the u.s university is expensive as fuck imagine being in a scenario where i'm a business right and i have convinced my entire population right that in order to get a job you have to go through me once again it's the middleman to the job to the job to the workforce it's the middleman so now you're like well i can't develop skills i need a degree and You have all these motherfuckers that have more degrees than a thermostat and have no real experience.

57:39So then they go and you hire all these super intelligent dudes, quote unquote, but have no values. They have no self-esteem because they haven't actually accomplished anything. Not only that, they're super inexperienced and they're not even worth having around. They're entitled. They're arrogant. That's true. They think that because you took a couple of tests in school. That's true. Bro, the marketplace will fuck you up, dude. actually because you're being told at university you are the leaders of tomorrow you are the leaders of tomorrow and then you end up with so many people with papers right with university papers that we have this thing called academic inflation where you've gone through all these studies you might have taken a loan and then it's hard to find a job and if you find a job the job is going to pay you like shit no one will give a fuck about you right so yeah it's true like i mean i would also argue that when you start your first company, especially if you're young, like no one gives a fuck either.

58:34Right. And it's hard, but, but why, and it depends, right? Like you have, you have certain things that are, that are, that are worth learning, but here's the thing, even bro, even medicine, let me talk to you about this medicine shit. Sometimes I would go into these lecture halls. I went to, I went to this veterinary school once to kind of have an understanding as to their nutrition because I was very curious as to who ran the nutrition classes. And I figured out that Purina, right, the food, the dog food company, which is basically poison for animals, they were sponsoring all of the university's food supply in exchange for running their nutrition class.

59:13So they're conditioning all the doctors to say, hey, if you're going to sell food to your dog, make sure it's our brand. So they're being brainwashed into one, feeling like they're sources of authority. Two, not realizing that information is tailored and curated by the person that is funding that university. And three, just look at the statistics. There's a reason why the second or third leading cause in the United States of mortality is medical malpractice. It's doctors not knowing what they're doing. And that's not even getting into COVID. which would probably be like a three-hour podcast on its own, but linked to the medicine.

59:56Oh, one second. Going back to the medicine with the veterinary nutrition class that I snuck into, the Purina professor told, there was, I think, about 250 veterinary students, all white jackets, proud of their jobs, recite the following animals don't need new food they need nutrients and our food gives them nutrients and they told them chant this chant this so now you have all these highly educated kids kids being told what is true what is not true and once again the source is controlled by the few it's so fucked yeah and like i mean we talked about it before but I got massively fucked by the yeah pharmaceutical industry and it's basically just I mean I was 23 starting to like lose a bit of hair you know very entrepreneurial so problem solution I'm building my first company I don't have time for this shit right ah there's this advertisement everywhere about like these pills that you can take that's just gonna make you thousands of success stories probably works like I can trust you know it's been it's a pharma industry it's proven it's a pharma industry the studies are the studies are legit I mean actually it works right but you go to these pharma these centers and then you have this woman with white clothes right and you're like 22 i'll trust them like they're doctors and then they sell you these freaking pills which for me like completely destroyed me like completely i'd like cognitive impairment visual problem crazy anxiety crazy depression i became suicidal it was horrible like and i mean an amazing learning because then as i said before like how do you get out of that when the entire first industry is kind of like rigged against you because you're just trying to sell recurring revenue right bro pharmaceutical is just how do i it's a business how do i hope people forever on pills whether antidepressant sleeping pills hair loss pills birth control birth control absolutely crazy crazy shit with the birth control what's your take on birth control i mean and a woman who tell you for example in asia women will are very against that and i always tell them I completely understand you because my experience with these pills is what I, the reason I got fucked is because it acts on your hormones, right?

1:02:24Yes. And so if you think like logically the birth control is actually acting on your hormones. So like, I would never ask you to take this shit because it can only be bad. I even heard some story where there were women who would get married to someone when they're on the pill, right? and because the pill is acting on their hormones so they are attracted to a certain type of men but the day they're off the pill to get kids, they lose attraction. It's insane, dude. It's insane. Yeah. But hey, hey, your little 13-year-old daughter has acne. Let's put her on birth control to regulate her emotions and regulate her hormones and regulate her mood and now you put 100 million women in the United States on birth control and now what happens?

1:03:11it's usually a pill which means what 90 plus of it doesn't get digested it goes to your urine that estrogen goes into the water now you have now you have now you have 100 million women urinating highly estrogenated urine into the water supply and water is just a recycled commodity but the treatment plants they don't treat for estrogen neither do they treat for testosterone So now you have all these feminized men drinking this tap water, and you're asking why Alex Jones is realizing that the frogs are gay. And it all comes down to the fact that it's a big chemical warfare through the water and through the monthly recurring revenue of human beings.

1:03:55It's so insane. You tweeted, I loved a lot, but it makes so much sense. We're drinking bottled water, right? You said tap water is for NPCs. no tap water, no porn, no devil music. Can you elaborate? I mean, they're the three things that attack your mind, right? So you're going to be attacked your mind through your eyes because it scars your memory. You're going to be attacked through the vibrational frequencies of music. So the messages that are being propagated, and then finally through the chemical warfare that attacks your mind. So calcifying your pineal gland, we can talk about vaccinations, crossing the blood brain barrier and adding heavy metal toxicity to your brain.

1:04:40Everything is designed to impair your ability to think, impair your ability to reason, and impair your ability to develop cognitive thought that actually questions the system. That's why people are just walking around like NPCs. They're walking around by default. They're walking around slow. And then sometimes I don't judge them. You know, it's like, okay, you're just so intoxicated with porn. It's fucking up your brain, frying your brain. You're so intoxicated with tap water and fluoridation. I completely get it. And now you're adding all this demonic, super controlled narrative music that is now conditioning to fuck bitches, take drugs and hoe around because that just happens to be the cool narrative.

1:05:25So no devil music, no porn, and no tap water to me are the essentials of living a very good, clean, healthy life. Do you think there is an actual agenda behind all of that? Absolutely. Or do you think that because we live in a world where profits at any cost, companies make decisions without kind of even understanding? the consequences. All controlled. All controlled. Even look at the example of, for example, you look at these big companies like Pornhub. They were doing like secret like spy interviews with some of the executives. And for example, they would every now and then on the main feed or however these things work, they would add a transgender video.

1:06:15Just simply to add that in case, you know, people want to test or experience a new thing. So they're controlling even sexuality at that narrative. Water? Well, water and food have always been utilized to control people, whether it's by limiting the water supply or by poisoning the water supply. So if you can dump people down to control them, why wouldn't you? And you begin to realize we have all the shootings. We have all the initiations to gangs. We have the murders. We have families that are being broken apart because of people that cheat. Where are they getting their source of information? Who are they archons?

1:06:51Who are their role models? musicians celebrities celebrities are some of the most useful motherfuckers in the entire planet but they're being used as puppets for the narrative so one of the ways to get out of all of that is one way or another would you say freedom of thought bro freedom of thought asking yourself why is it that you're doing what you're doing questioning everything dude you have to question everything even if it's uncomfortable why am I listening to this music out of all the songs in the world that I could pick Why am I listening to fuck bitches, fuck hoes out of everything? If I could drink clean water, why do I choose to drink the tap water that the government is telling me is healthy?

1:07:31So you can look at this commercial of the mayor of New York City drinking tap water. And he's like, New York City has some of the best tap water in the world. And he runs it like an ad or a commercial. I'm like, dude, this is so weird. So fucked. and then you look at the music industry and a lot of artists and record companies they actually have contracts with prison complexes because most prisons are private companies that actually monetize uh and they have quotas of how many inmates they're supposed to have so now you're pushing gang music now you're pushing violent music and all these things have real world consequences that are just filling up the prison that's why america is supposed to be the land of the free, but we have 2.5 million people in prison.

1:08:19That's not normal. One of the things that's really worth questioning, the fiat system. Crazy. Obviously, it's a crypto podcast. I mean, very crypto focused. So we have to talk about that. But before talking about crypto, more generally, one of the ways that people who don't like crypto can kind of escape the fiat system is, I mean, not really the fiat system, but at least their nine to five and the rat race is investing, right? And I saw you publicly said you were investing about 10 % of your net worth in Meta around October, 2022. So near the bottom, basically, which obviously in hindsight is the bottom, but you know crazy high fear every time there is a market crash or we think oh maybe it's 2001 happening all over again like the mega bubble everything's going down 90 % it's the end of the world so you did that today the S &P 500 is about near all time high NASDAQ not too far Meta all time high Meta all time high so your call was definitely the right one and for me the really interesting fear important concept for people to understand is And crypto will come into that, but it's the concept of being a contrarian investor, which is the most important concept in investing, right?

1:09:46If you want to make money. Obviously, it's easier said than done. How can someone become a contrarian investor? Develop your own investing thesis and understanding that investing isn't gambling. So when I bought Meta at 80, 90,$100, that was I averaged within that price range. I wanted those prices. I knew that it was a fair value for the company. So I said, okay, I'm willing to buy it at this price. It's not because I'm a genius, but I looked at the fact that Meta was at 2016 prices. They're not the company that they were in 2016. so why wouldn't I pick up a fuck ton of meta stock I'm looking at MSRT I'm like okay MicroStrategy is absolutely going to skyrocket because this guy is going to buy we're talking about Michael Saylor he's going to he's all in on Bitcoin and we know that Bitcoin is going to go out to all-time highs maybe not today maybe not tomorrow but eventually yeah so all you're basically buying is a leverage play right there and then you look at Carlos Salinas who's one of the richest guys from Mexico.

1:10:53And he said, he was asked, where's your liquidity right now? He said, not too. He said, microstrategy. He said, Bitcoin. So I said, who am I to oppose this guy's thoughts? That was my thesis for there. And now my next thesis, which is going to play true eventually, is PayPal. PayPal is at a 2017 price point. They generate a billion dollars net every single year. One of every four e-commerce companies processes through PayPal. And it's still absolutely a behemoth, but it's at 2017-2016 prices. So why wouldn't I pick it up? The risk reward ratio just happens to be so much higher. So, you know, in 2000-2023, I only made 11 investments.

1:11:32I only made 11 trades. I don't trade like a savage. I'm not out here on the charts every single day. I want to make few high sizable bets that have long term plays attached to it. So I don't want to be day trading because everybody knows that day traders lose. Absolutely. Everybody knows this. And once again, we talk about the productivity, the lagging indicator. I'm willing to sit on a position one, two, three, four, 10 years for one very simple factor. Swing trades. Yeah, for one very simple factor. I don't need the money. Yeah. Right? So when you don't overspend and you don't operate out of a place of greed or operate out of a place of need, you can start making better value-based decisions.

1:12:13and once again i once again i could have picked any stock but it was something that i'm familiar with i'm familiar with meta i'm familiar with shopify why because i come from e-commerce background so q q4 is rolling around i know everybody's spending money on facebook ads so i know that q1 reporting about q4 is going to be absolutely phenomenal they're going to crush their their reports and they did because they did every single year prior so why wouldn't they do it this year and it happened. Shopify took off. PayPal took off. PayPal didn't take off. Shopify took off. Meta took off. Microsoft took off.

1:12:49I made a massive$4 million purchase of Microsoft stock the same day that Microsoft announced a$10 billion investment to open AI. I said, well, I can't invest in open AI, but$10 billion is a lot of fucking money. So they're not just paying for whatever it is that they're investing in. They're probably investing in infrastructure, teams scalability operations so I was like this is a very good proxy right for me to invest into open AI because they technically own it now and once again Microsoft strategy or excuse me Microsoft passed Apple for a couple days as the most valued company in the world and that V reversal was absolutely savage and what's really interesting is it's not rocket science.

1:13:40And we talked about that the other day. I was with Alex Van Evick here for two hours and we talked about, it was more applied to crypto investing, but essentially being a good investor is, you rely on a few pretty simple heuristics, which is, hey, we're back to the same price as a few years ago, but probably like they've been doing a lot of work. So they're probably much more advanced. So it's a good opportunity. And then, as you said, if you are experienced or an expert in a certain industry, you obviously, because you spend that much time, going to have conviction. And once you have the simple heuristic couple with your conviction, then it makes the whole thing much easier.

1:14:22And that's why for us, for both of us, Bitcoin and crypto is such a no-brainer, right? It's, hey, look, I mean, it was more like a year-ish ago, like, oh man, it went back below previous all-time high or like even like, you know, the all time high of 2017, we were below that. Crazy. You're like, what the fuck? Or like a$900 ETH. Exactly. You're like, this is crazy. So it's just, yeah, it's basically that. It's some simple heuristics and the conviction. The conviction is the most important thing. And again. And not just that, but it's understanding that first of all, you're not always going to catch the bottom and you're not always going to sell the top.

1:15:02and I don't make my, I don't work or invest in order to pay for my bills, right? I invest to multiply my money. I have businesses, I'm making money in the real world that I get to deploy. So if my investment goes down 10%, 20%, 30%, I can stomach the drawdown. I can stomach certain losses just for the simple fact that I don't depend on trading in order to pay the bills. And if you're going to trade out of a place of desperation, you're always going to get fucked. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So you said you're doing this sort of swing trade, right? One, two, three years in the crypto context, probably is going to be like a year and a half, two years trade.

1:15:41And that's a really interesting one, because you said, I think it was on a podcast I saw. You said, I bought crypto, I made my money, I sold, right? Which sounds so simplistic. But most people in crypto in their first cycle, they make shitload of money, and then they roundtrip everything and they get wrecked, right? And so you have this very simplistic, almost cold, rational approach to crypto instead of following the traditional, you know, we're all going to make it, huddle, and then you get fucked. Can you tell us more about your approach, how you approach the crypto cycles to minimize the chances of round tripping all the money you made and get wrecked?

1:16:23Well, I got round tripped in 2017, right? So I did 160 or 180x. and I lost it all. And at the top, I was out here pulling loans. I went savage, right? And I did it the wrong way. And I was like, I'm not doing this again, but crypto is going to come back. So what do I have to do? I just have to have more money in order to deploy it. So I bought Ethereum during the COVID crash. It just made complete sense. I bought Bitcoin during the COVID crash. And then I started playing because I was involved in DeFi summer of 2019. I said, bro, DeFi is going to go crazy because I was part of the ETH ICO or the ICOs on the Ethereum chain in 2017, where basically you had the MetaMask and you would have to send ETH to an address and you would get their tokens in return.

1:17:09That was kind of how ICOs worked. So when, you know, smart contracts started rolling out, DeFi started rolling out, I'm like, whoa, I'm gonna pay attention to this thing. And then obviously I just happened to be on and Clubhouse when CZ was talking about PancakeSwap and the Binance Smart Chain and how he was wanted to compete with Ethereum. And then this motherfucker had beef with the founder of Uniswap. And I'm like, bro, when CZ's got beef with somebody, he's going to try and take them down. And what vehicle was the competition to Uniswap? PancakeSwap. So I just made a very big purchase of PancakeSwap, purchased 1 % of the supply, and it worked well.

1:17:47And so that's interesting, the strategy. Because a lot of people, they think, I can put like a thousand bucks in crypto and make a thousand X. or I'll put like 500 or 100 bucks in like 50 different crypto and I'll become rich, right? But this never works. The strategy is more yours and it was the same with me. You round trip once. Then you're like, I need more cash. So I need to build a business or have a job to get this cash to then once I have the right conviction and the right timing, luck is when preparation meets opportunity, right? I'm going to invest at that moment. and then like I'm going to wait two years and make a shitload of money.

1:18:27But because I invested a good amount of money, right, it's probably a better solution rather than what most people think, which is, oh, I'm just going to make, you know, become a millionaire overnight with like a random meme coin. I mean, obviously you can make a lot of money with meme coins, but like it's, there is a few really huge success stories, but there is thousands that are not talked about, which is people who lost everything. Whereas like you can have a more rational approach, which is, hey, how do I have a business generating cash? And I reinvest that. It's traditional investing applied to crypto, except it's kind of like on steroids, right?

1:19:04Yes. And in my view, it's, you know, the first bull run, you get kind of round trip. The second one, you're following the calls on Twitter, but you're a little bit more clever. and then my third one which is the one that we're coming into right now I'm not even going to like looking at the charts trading view looking at coin get-go I'm not even doing that now I'm building right absolutely so that's so you realize that that the upper side and the leverage in reducing your risk is in being involved in the ecosystem so I went from being a gambler to being somebody I was like hey like I can invest in this I got some money I'm doing well to now being like okay but the infinite upside is to actually be involved in the ecosystem, be involved with the projects.

1:19:47And I think that that's like the natural progression of a crypto journey. Absolutely. And it, bro, but here's the thing. The thing I love about crypto is that the upside is so good for the amount of effort and work that people put in because… It's the highest leverage. The leverage is unbelievable, dude. You could be a VA on a Discord server and be absolutely loving your job, making money, getting alpha, getting calls, getting integrated with communities, getting exposed to new projects. The upside is so great when the time is right. Now the time is right. I've been telling people, dude, get in the crypto space, start building, get involved, meet founders, understand the future trends.

1:20:32So a couple of the future trends are the enhancement of the Ethereum virtual machine. So basically building layer ones on top of Ethereum because now Ethereum is kind of monolithic. It's kind of like your settlement layer. So you have like Monad and different projects that are in that ecosystem. They're absolutely going to skyrocket. I see Monad going to like 30 to$50 billion valuation. It's going to be absolutely nutty prediction, but that'll happen. What do you think about the project? It's top tier. Why? The founders, bro. They understand what people want in crypto. People want high-frequency trading with no fees, with low fees.

1:21:10So they created an ecosystem where they can bundle all of that and then deploy it to your settlement layer. And now instead of having everybody pay, what, fucking$100 worth of ETH in order to have a transaction go through, now you create an experience that is actually nice. That's why Solana has become so popular. It's because it allows high-frequency trading. and one of the founders of Solana was very specific. He said, we built this product specifically for people that want to trade$5 on a specific trade or$2 or$10. You can't do that on Ethereum. That's why Binance Smart Chain became popular, but Binance Smart Chain is centralized.

1:21:53Now Binance has this government oversight. So that's kind of dwindling. The BUSD is no longer a thing. So now you have Solana taking over. Solana is absolutely crushing, not only because of Solana, but because they've done really good at building products around it, like the Phantom Wallet, which is the best wallet that exists right now. You have Jupiter Exchange, which is kind of like your ability to trade in the best DeFi format possible. So now you see a lot of people that are building, making crypto relevant to what people actually want. The reason Robinhood was dope was because you could hop in there on your phone and in 10 minutes buy a stock.

1:22:38Absolutely. User experience, which in crypto is so bad. But it's getting better. It's getting better. It's getting super good. On Solana, you said you had dinner with the founder of Jupiter, right? What do you think of the exchange? Do you think it's going to take over Uniswap? Do you think it's just for other kind of people? Yeah. Jupiter Exchange is going to absolutely demolish. I was talking with him about his future plans and I can't go into it, but the vision is beyond just your traditional, hey, I'm going to be out here buying and selling shit coins. The dude wants to introduce foreign exchange remittance.

1:23:18He wants to basically put all tokenized assets on and inside through the Jupiter exchange. NFTs, DEX, it's going to be a behemoth. Uniswap will not be able to compete. No chance.

1:23:40Today's another project we have to talk about. Tell me. You wrote, the e-comm kids came into crypto and took over Web3 in one year. Stop fading the penguins. We, I mean, obviously I had Luca on the podcast. I also had James Wu, who is one of the key investors during the bear market in the equity of Pudgy Penguin. We had Alex, who is an advisor. Alex Vanewik, the founder of CEO of Nansen, who is an advisor. Mega Pudgy Penguin fan. I'm a big fan. he also said there is no second best regarding there is no second best and when you meet the dude like you I mean it's so obvious right and also because most projects are shit there is nothing behind it so if there is one who is like hey let's build something let's create actual revenue that is not crypto geek related but it's real world related it's going to make a massive difference you and Luca share similar backgrounds also kind of a difficult childhood dropshipping e-com crypto and you live in the same place Miami I live in Puerto Rico he told me he told me go to he told me to go to Miami but he was one of the first guys to move to Miami before it was cool I just decided to go a little bit more south for tax purposes why are you so bullish on Pudgy Penguins I mean I'm an equity shareholder in Pudgy it was not an investment in the project.

1:25:11It was me betting on Luca. So Luca used to run a lot of e-commerce for a lot of top tier influencers out in LA. And he was, you know, making multiple six figures every single day. And I was able to meet a couple of the influencers that he was interacting with, talk about their e-commerce and eventually connected with Luca. We had a, in 2019, we had the DeFi summer. And then I remember in 2020, we were sitting in the Ritz-Carlton and we didn't know anything about Uniswap, right? So we were out here figuring out DeFi, shit coins. And we've been in the crypto journey since the beginning. It was February of 2021, I believe.

1:25:51My dates kind of get confused at this point. It's been so long. When PancakeSwap first hit$20, that's when I got, I think, is it my tattoo on this side or is it on the other side? Okay, yeah. so i got the pancake swap tattoo yeah those motherfuckers they blessed me uh but we were we had gotten a house we'd rented a house in miami after the ritz carlton uh we bought our first nfts there and then we created a group chat called crypto island with guys from the cayman islands and just ballers and in crypto and we started talking about nfts and shit like that before it kind of became hot. And Luca posted this photo of a pudgy penguin.

1:26:33And he said one thing he posted, this is when I just launched. It was point one ETH. He posted and he said, the Asian community is going to love this. And that was the thesis for him buying it. At that point, the entire crypto NFT bull run took place, things went up, things went down. And then I get a message one day, I'm in Croatia. I get a message one day and I'm like, and it's Luca says, let's buy Pudgy. And I'm like, wait, what? He's like, yeah, I just put out a tweet, 750 ETH. And I'm like, okay, sounds good. I messaged Cole as well through one of my accounts. And long story short, thankfully through one of the Capital Club members who helped us broker the deal, we got the deal.

1:27:16And Luca just spearheaded the project. So I gave him some cash. So you bought Pudgy Penguin with him? Yeah, I think I put in half a million dollars out of the 2.5 and because there wasn't a lot of liquidity providers and we went to a lot of founders of the top projects and they didn't give a rat's ass about luca they didn't bet on this guy but luca has a background of taking ip that is undervalued and absolutely blowing it up so uh tossed a little bit of coin there said luca take it and he absolutely demolished it but had the project gone to what i believe it's going to go to it's a multi-billion dollar company or would have gone to zero It didn't really make a difference to me.

1:27:56My bet was with Luca Nets and I'll continue betting on him as an individual. Because like you said, it's not the IP that matters necessarily. It's not just the NFTs. It's not even the community alone. It's the people that are carrying it, right? It's the individuals that are running the project. And when you have somebody that, once again, understands sales and understands marketing and distribution, which are the two keys, you win. He said the exact same during the podcast. So before, when you said that, you know, if you can have the best project, if you don't understand distribution, marketing, and sales, it's not going to, he said the exact same, right?

1:28:30It was the absolute most important. And no one understood that in crypto, basically. Because, like I said, you can have a great product, but if nobody sees it, it doesn't really make a difference. So the e-com kid came in and just absolutely took over, and it just made absolute sense. Where do you think Pudgy is going? 100Eth. 100Eth. Yeah. This cycle? The cycle. I mean, you can no longer value it as an NFT company. Absolutely agree. It'll compete with the likes of Hello Kitty. It'll compete with the likes of Mickey Mouse. It'll compete with the likes of the highest IPs in the world. And you have the premium of crypto on the top, which is like all the speculation part, if you're like, because there's a bull run, there's NFT bull run.

1:29:13So we benefit in the good times from the actual premium, crypto premium, which is pretty amazing. Is there another crypto project or community that you're super bullish on? That's out there today, right? Not something like super private. Yeah, I mean, that's out there today. My four bets are very straightforward. Pudgy Penguins, Monad, and Jupiter Exchange. To me, those three are just absolutely leading firehorses. They're just going to trail the path for what it means to build high-quality, decentralized finance projects, what it's going to be to rebuild on top of Ethereum, a good user experience for Monad.

1:29:54And then Pudgy Penguins, like I talked about my predictions for 2024, Pudgy Penguins will not only flip board Ape Yacht Club, it'll make the acquisition of Artifact Studios look like a peanut when it's all said and done.

1:30:11So in crypto, we have these crazy booms and busts, right? And when everything bursts, everything burst like 2022 was really bad and so even for me i was complete i had like i was a big luna holder i had like seven million that turned into five dollars in two days and so when something like that happened and i have some friends like one who had 250 mil turned into like probably 500 when things like that happen i mean obviously you feel fucking stupid and you start to wonder like Like, hey, like, was it all just luck, all my businesses, all my investing, all that?

1:30:47So you need to kind of feel the pain, right?

1:30:53But there is something that's really important when you're about to kind of like leave or abandon to understand. It's kind of the concept. John Adams said, every problem is an opportunity in these guys. you said every problem is an opportunity and opportunity is there all the time. Can you give me an inspiring example of a moment in your life where you thought that things were over for you but then you doubled down on working your ass off and later on, in hindsight, realized that in pain and problems lie the biggest opportunities? I remember when I was poor in the pocket, not the mind. I went to a Walmart and I had to call my bank because my bank account had overdrafted by$16 in order to buy groceries.

1:31:48And it was the lowest time in my life because I felt ashamed that I couldn't even afford groceries. And at that time, I could have gotten a regular job at that time I could have said fuck the shit I'm gonna quit I could have said oh this is another person's fault but I looked at that situation and I said I never want to experience this ever again and the first thing that I did was buy the book reminiscence of a stock operator and I said I'm gonna learn about the markets and ever since then it's been an upside And it was that situation that made me feel disgusted with my current living conditions that instead of complaining led me to change.

1:32:37And, you know, I would be in the bus. I would take the bus for about an hour to work and then I would take the train for about another hour. And every single day just learning the basis of psychology of trading. I don't do technical analysis. I'm purely a value-based investor and I bet on people, right? So if you look at my investment plays, it's me betting on people, dude. I don't take credit for anything. I don't take credit for any sort of investment that I make. I just bet on winning horses, and sometimes they play off. So I bet on CZ, I bet on Luka, I bet on Mark Zuckerberg, and they don't disappoint.

1:33:16So in those really hard moments, how do you take the pain and turn it into fire in the belly, basically? You don't have a choice, bro. When you're at the bottom, what do you have to lose? When you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to lose. How many, you're going to live 80 years of your life. How many years of that life are you going to live broke? I want to experience wealth. I want to experience a good life. Now, I've already experienced this side of reality, the shitty stuff. Having to eat ramen noodles, sleeping on couches, sleeping in my car, pressure washing basketball courts, cleaning toilets.

1:33:54I've done this shit. I don't want to do it for the rest of my life. I experienced it. I'm grateful for it. I'm thankful that life gave me the opportunity to learn these things. But it doesn't mean that that's what I want to live for the rest of my life. So it's not, oh, me, poor me, dude. My life has been just blessings on blessings on blessings. I'm glad I wasn't born in some country in the middle of Africa or in the Congo where I have to mine lithium out of the ground or that I'm getting bombed in the middle of nowhere because of my beliefs. or because the United States decided that they wanted to free my country, right?

1:34:29So just the fact that I have the opportunity to wake up, I'm healthy, it's a blessing. And I think that the fundamental shift is two things. One is a good attitude. Wherever you see productivity, you're going to see a person with a good attitude. And the second one is gratitude. Being super grateful for what I have. When you're grateful, life is going to continue blessing you. when you're ungrateful, when you are selfish, when you are blaming others, when you're negative, pessimistic, life will simply project what you give it. So I wanted to be positive and I always believed in myself and it worked out.

1:35:08And in those moments that are really hard, actually, that's when you kind of, because as you said, you don't have the choice. That's when you're actually the best, like the better version of yourself because I'm not sure about the expression in English, but in French we say you basically...

1:35:27Say it in French. Le dormur. You have basically your back against the wall, right? Which means you have no other option. And so when you have no other option, because there is no other option, you make it work. And that's why I really encourage my friends who are like, hey, I have this job, but I want to start this company. Just take the leap. Because when you take the leap, you have no other option. And like as long as you keep your job and you have this money coming in, like you have the option, right, of failure. Whereas when you start, it's like, okay, now I, we always say take the leap and the net will appear.

1:36:02You have to build your plane while you're falling, right? Otherwise you're going to crash on the floor. And it's really in those moments that the best shit happens. In those moments that you turn these really bad moments and where the opportunity, where the problem is an opportunity in these guys. It's exactly that. And, you know, I was talking with the former president, the son of the former president of Singapore, last name Ong, and obviously he comes from wealth. He comes from a family that has been able to really educate him. And he said every problem is an opportunity. and it's how you see the situation that determines the action that you're going to attach to it.

1:36:50Are you going to see a problem and be like, well, I can't change? Are you going to see it and be like, hmm, I can do something about it. Where there is problems, there's profit. And where there's problems, there's business. And if you can identify that, you can make a whole lot of money.

1:37:10We talk about business, making a lot of money. obviously we need to talk about women.

1:37:19Because you have really interesting takes on women. So the first question is, in relation to making money, are women a hindrance for men to become rich? The wrong woman, yes. The right woman will empower you. She will feel you, she will inspire you, and she will push you towards becoming a better version of yourself. I've only been with one woman my entire life. I'm still with her. I've been over 10 years. She was with me when I had nothing. She would drive me to work. I had no car. So when I started having things or, you know, I got everything that I wanted and I became somebody, how could I let her go?

1:38:05You know, so she believed in me. She trusted me when I had nothing and she valued me when I was poor and insignificant. And now that I've achieved some sort of success and in some way, shape or form, it's only fair that I bring her along for the journey. So my perspective is very simple. Find individuals that will empower you. And if you can find a partner that loves you for who you are, but also empowers you to become a better version of yourself, stick close to that person, be loyal, be honest, be kind, be authentic, and keep those people around because there's not too many people in life that are gonna want the best for you.

1:38:47And if you can't find a good woman, if you can't find a good partner, it's usually a reflection of you. Because you attract people. And if you attract poor people, well it's most likely a condition of you if you attract hoes it's most likely a reflection of you so if you need to or you can't find somebody of high caliber of high quality that that polishes you stay away from it i it's funny i was i was going back to meow he was like he i was asking me today he's like should i be dating a ton of girls i'm like no just like find find one person that just empowers you and elevates you and stick true to that individual.

1:39:28Now, it's different philosophies for different people. Anybody can do whatever they want. But for me, it worked out extremely well. And it all comes down, and I'm not married, but it all comes down by one thesis. There's a verse in the Bible that says, he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing. Not he that findeth a woman that has the potential to be a good wife. but he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing and finds pleasure or finds honor in the eyes of God. So you also begin to study wise men throughout history and most of them were corrupted by women. So I understand how tempting it can be but I also understand that if you find people that can empower you it can take you to the top.

1:40:19So what was your advice to Miu? Because especially in today's world, and that's something that Andrew talks about, which is as a man, right? The game is very different. As a woman, you can... I wouldn't say as a woman, the dating game is easier. It's much easier to get the guys you want, but then it's not easy to keep them and to see who is full of shit or who is really serious, right? As a man, it's kind of harder because most of the women, they go for the top 5 % or 10%, 1 % men. and so for a man it's more about how you build kind of respect right how do you build your personal brand and how do you build your life so that women respect you and you attract them instead of the opposite having to chase them i agree uh especially if you're building things you don't have time to date like crazy it's impossible like yeah i agree it's just two time it's a job in itself just dating around yeah i mean it's it's imagine imagine you have to entertain 10 women like that's a that's a lot of maintenance it's not it's like it's like having to entertain a 10 multiple different things it's it can be for you like if you can handle it so be it that's your cup of tea that's when you enjoy it perfect but for me it's just not it's not an ethos that I've operated or that I've enjoyed and I've talked to Andrew about it we haven't talked in a while but I've talked to him about it I was like hey when are you gonna settle with one girl and we chuckled about it we laughed about it when I was out in Romania but um yeah he has a different perspective about it.

1:41:45It's totally fair. He's become highly successful with his philosophy of life. So mine just is a little bit different, but to each their own. Yeah. What should be the priority for a man? Taking care of your family, wife and children, or pursuing your mission at the cost of not seeing the ones you love and care for?

1:42:08Live a life of balance. Why not both? Why not both? Why not, you know, divide your time into the things, all the things that you enjoy? Why not divide your time and your attention into multiple areas of life that are valuable to you? If, you know, you didn't have a good father, well, you have the opportunity to become a good father. You know, if you had siblings that took care of you and empowered you when you had nothing, bring them along for the journey, right? If your mom is not retired, what the fuck are you doing driving a Lamborghini? So it's all about perspective. There's priorities and different people have different priorities.

1:42:51But I think that there's a novelty in finding balance and understanding that there's a beauty of sharing success with your family. There's a beauty of seeing your family winning with you. and even though they may not help in the sense of your business they took care of you for fucking so long you owe it to them to give them a great life and yeah i think you can have both that's that and i and i'm a living testament of it you know i my parents did i i pay their salary you know my my parents work within my organization they're basically retired i'm not going to retire them oh just go do go play bingo all day they don't want that they want to be involved in in what we do.

1:43:33They want to be involved in the ecosystem. They want to see us develop. So why not take care of them? And I think that there is a beautiful balance in taking care of your friends, taking care of your family, taking care of your loved ones and still pursuing your dreams and your goals. I don't think that you have to sacrifice one or the other to have the other. What do you think about the more kind of materialistic side of things? Watches. I mean, I know you like watches. cars, all that stuff. Do you think it's a moment that everyone who kind of like builds with has to go through to realize, oh man, Luca was saying the same actually, he was like, oh man, I'm so fucking stupid, I bought this car there, it made no sense.

1:44:15Like, what's your view on that? it all depends on what you enjoy. You know, I, I kind of went into the watch game after NFTs because I was like, Oh, cool. Like I can start collecting. I got interested in the space. I, I kind of had some boys that were reselling watches. So I built a$1.25 million watch collection, but I only wear two of the watches. So it's like, I'm there sitting and I'm like, it was it a little bit of a waste that I, that I have all these watches sitting in the vault? Did I like, okay, it's a good investment. Yeah, that's cool. But do I need these things? And then I have a million dollar Pokemon collection.

1:44:53I'm like, okay, like what the fuck am I doing with the Pokemon collection? And then I bought a$4 million house and I'm like, there's people coming into my house every single day and I have gardeners and I have cleaners and it feels like a hotel. So I sold the house and then I was like, I want to be light in baggage. I want to be able to move. I want to have that flexibility. So I started getting rid of a lot of my material possessions to simply be able to free up my mental real estate. Because when I had a small fleet of cars, I got rid of them because maintenance, focusing on making sure that they're taken care of.

1:45:30Same thing with the real estate. I think real estate is a great investment vehicle, but I don't want to manage properties. I don't want to have to worry about maintenance. Yeah, other people can do that for sure. But it's just not my cup of tea. I want to be light of baggage. I want to be able to be free flowing. I like to travel the world. I like to stay in hotels. Like I like to be free. And that means that sometimes material possessions hold you down from achieving great things. So I want to stay away from things that I really don't need. Miyamoto Musashi famously said, get rid of things that are of no use.

1:46:09So if something doesn't serve you anymore and maybe it served you in the past you don't have to be attached to that thing and so if he says and he he's he's a great samurai philosopher but he says don't do things that are of no use and I begin to explore that philosophy and I begin to only do the things that are useful and I begin to not realize that my success is attached to materialistic things they don't determine me they don't determine my identity yeah I understand the perspective of playing the game you know you You sit down, you have a$50 ,000 watch. Somebody may look at you in a different way.

1:46:45But I've never sat across from a billionaire, and I've sat down across six, and they look at my watch and be like, ah, I want to listen to this guy because of what he's wearing or what he's doing. Most of them, you could see him walking down the street, and you wouldn't even recognize him as billionaires. Very low-key. The most successful people, super low-key. Because they have nothing to prove. Absolutely. You know, one of my business partners, we have a crypto fund, and he invested in Bitcoin sub$1 2011. But he dresses like a bum, you know, and he's my boy, but he has nothing to prove. And you look how he travels, very light, very simple, easygoing.

1:47:24And that just shows a level of confidence that money does buy. Absolutely. It's a level of confidence that money actually buys, but you see it exemplified through the simplicity of life. and Leonardo da Vinci famously said, which is one of my favorite quotes of all time, he said, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Being able to simplify your life in such an incredible way that it's so easy to live. I think there is this meme that I saw the other day. It's so funny. It's basically poor, no car, middle class, average car. rich, limbo, wealthy, no car. Basically, it's exactly that, right?

1:48:15And so you kind of, and the common topic that I have with most people who come on this podcast who made, most of them, they made hundreds of millions or billions. And they're super humble, super chill. And most of them, they went through this kind of like entire loop, right? Or this kind of like life round tripping or happiness round tripping, which is, hey, I thought I needed all that stuff. I'm building towards that. I'm making all this money just to realize that it's back to like the basic things. And it might sound like a cliche or, oh yeah, the basic things make you happy. But if you can't be happy with a coffee, you're not going to be happy with a jet, right?

1:48:58So it's just like all these people making the same realization that at the end of the day, yes obviously you want to have a minimum amount of money which we talked about before we all have goals based on our lifestyle and all that stuff right but there is a threshold or a certain amount above which doesn't make any difference and happiness will never come from that yeah and also understanding that it's not just happiness but your identity isn't attached to those to those things and you know sometimes i talk about like my crypto losses you know but my identity isn't even attached to my crypto losses.

1:49:34It's not attached to my crypto wins. It's not attached to my investment wins or my investment losses, what I have, what I don't have. It's simply, am I pursuing my fullest potential? Am I being authentic with myself? Am I an actual person that is true to my values? And it goes back to what I said in the beginning, when it's all said and done, I'm laying on my deathbed. Can I look at myself individually and say, you did well, you succeeded, you didn't compromise your values. there's a verse that says what does a man prosper if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul nothing so I don't want to gain everything and lose myself in the process and I think that there's a massive virtue in accomplishing that and that's why I don't attach my identity to my wins to my losses I'm just trying to experience life I'm trying to learn like everybody else we're all on this we're all on this planet trying to figure things out and if we can be authentic that none of us have it all figured out.

1:50:30We're all just trying to play this game the best we can. Then you can walk with a little bit more graciousness, a little bit more truth, and be light of baggage and focus on pursuing your fullest potential. Maybe as a good wrap-up, what's your biggest fuck-up? In crypto or in life? I'd say life fuck-up.

1:50:56There's so many. they keep flashing i'm like i'm like i'm like i could i could have bought bitcoin at cheaper price i could have not sold the bitcoin i got fucked with this play i yeah but at the end of the day bro it's i'm just happy to be alive thank you for having me on the podcast um i'm grateful to be here and i look forward to part two somewhere around the world thank you so much man You're not just an entrepreneur, but you're a role model for many. And our generation obviously needs more role models like you. So from all of them and from our listeners, I'd like to thank you for what you're doing, for putting yourself out there.

1:51:37As you said before, you know, talking truth comes with a lot of criticism and even maybe some threats. And you still do it, right? without caring about all the threats and criticism that come with it. Because it's the price, brother. All of them. Aristotle's, Plato. All the greats were once revered as fools. They were burned at the stake. They were laughed at. They were even crucified. And that's the price you have to pay for the exploration of truth. And that's the price you have to pay to unplug people from the bullshit system. and if I got to take a couple arrows for the team, so fucking be it.

1:52:19Wow. Thank you for reading this tonight, man. It was an absolute hell of a conversation. Absolutely, bro. Thank you. Awesome. Cool.