From selling ACs to becoming the tourism king of Jamaica

0:00 If you're like me, you're gonna get inspired by this story. A white dude from Jamaica Who built An incredible, you know, multi-billion dollar business and lived life on his own terms. That's the headline. I feel like I could rule the world of nowhere. But I want to

0:14 I put my law in it like my day song on the roadless travel never listening. This is my billy of the week. So this is a guy who created something called sandals. Now let me tell you let me tell you the story. First. We just gotta look at this picture because I'll be damned. If this doesn't look.

0:31 Like a young Sam Par. Look at this guy. Is this not you? Yeah. This guy's here. Is he actually he's Jamaican?

0:38 So he he lived in Jamaica. Okay, so here's here's the story. So his name's Gordon Stewart. And he's Uh born in Jamaica, white kid born in Jamaica. His mom calls him Butch because he was chubby.

0:49 So he becomes known as Butch for the rest of his life, which is amazing. As a young kid, he does all kinds of odd job little hustles. So he's like Helping out the fisherman that he buys a boat. Then he starts making m money boating the fishermen around and repairing boats. And uh he would skip school altogether. He was like um he's like I just want to be on the water.

1:09 And he goes, uh he he said later, I didn't want to be a businessman, I want to be a fisherman. Just a rich fisherman. That led him into business. So I love this guy. So he's like Along the way, he's living in Jamaica. Obviously Jamaica's super hot. And uh he realizes as air conditioning becomes a bigger and bigger thing that yo, air conditioning's gonna be huge in Jim in the Caribbean. You know it Things take time to diffuse, right?

1:33 different places and so maybe it was normal. in the States, but it wasn't as normal in the Caribbean yet. And so he saves up three thousand dollars. And he starts a company called Appliance Traders Limited. And the idea is he's gonna import AC from the US, A C units, and he's gonna go door to door selling them himself.

1:50 And he decides I'm gonna do this B to B. I'm gonna convince business owners that they should have A C because For them, it's not just about their own comfort, but like they're gonna have more sales. If their store has AC and the other store doesn't, customers are gonna wanna spend time in their stores. So Great idea. Now he's like, How do I differentiate myself? So he tries selling door to door. He so he makes some progress just hustling.

2:11 And he hires some other island boys to come like help him sell. But he's going up against General Electric, right? So he's going up against like Westinghouse. He's going up against these huge companies that have. much bigger sales forces than him. So he's like he asked himself a better question. Instead of How do I outcompete them on sales where they're excellent and have more resources? How do I do something they would not dare to do?

2:33 So he goes, um, what what can the big guy not do? Speed. And what does the big company not care about? Service. So he decides to differentiate his offering. So he says

2:43 If you call me I'll have A C installed within eight hours. It just starts with that vision and he like works backwards to figure out operations. Like how would how could I possibly do that? Well, I guess I need boys over here. I need a call dispatcher. I need to prioritize the the most recent call, not the oldest call. And deliver this eight hour service.

3:01 And then the second thing he says is Look, these ACs they break, they're running'em all the time. Uh, here's the deal. We will fix all the ACs, no extra charge. Like if it breaks, we fix it and we fix it fast and nobody else is gonna offer you this. And because of these two things, speed and service, he dominates the Caribbean market. He takes over Jamaica. He builds a powerhouse.

3:22 And so out of this, he makes, you know, that's his first kind of fortune that he makes. How much did it make? Uh, I don't know about his net worth at this time, but it's enough where he could go. To Montego Bay and buy a run down hotel that everybody else Uh ignored. And so nineteen eighty one. He buys this resort called Bay Rock. And at the time people think he's crazy because tourism is not that popular in Jamaica at the time. Crime was super high.

3:46 The this hotel was run down, had a bad rep. And so he was buying kind of like a run down distressed asset. Uh but he has his vision. So he's like I love it here. I think people will love it here. I just have to find a positioning for this. And this is where

4:00 Butch, the marketing genius starts to inspire me. What's Montego Bay? I I'm not feel I mean, I uh it's a city in Jamaica. I think it's a c it's a pl it's a area. I don't know if it's a city or town or whatever you call it. But yeah. My sister got married there. I should probably know this, but it's in Jamaica. It's a Jamaica thing. Got it. Okay. So he has this vision. He's like, I want to give Americans a carefree luxury.

4:20 Caribbean vacation. And so he's like Uh, what's the worst thing about like a vacation? He's like, you know, you you don't know where to go, you don't know what you're gonna get, and then you sort of the costs add up and you get nickel and dime, and people feel like they may not be able to afford it and that will stop some people from coming. So he's like, Let me do it instead this way. Up front, you get one price and everything is included. And I'm gonna standardize

4:42 Luxury. So he's like, um there wasn't luxury in this area. So first thing he does he rebrands the Bayrock to sandals. 'Cause he's like That already sandals like embodies relaxation and like being on the beach.

4:55 Then he goes and he starts studying. So he's a he's a A a shameless copycat. So he's like, I'm gonna go study All the other hotels. In this area plus other other islands, um And I'm gonna steal the best ideas from each. So he goes and he sees Club Med.

5:08 And he's like, Ooh, it's good, but it's a little too Spartan. I like I feel like I'm gonna like make a mess here and I'm in trouble if I do that. So like I want luxury But still you should feel like you're here you can have a good time here. And then he's like, Ooh, I like the way they serve this champagne. Ooh, what is this thing? A whirlpool? We're gonna get one of those over here. So he starts importing innovation. From all these different places.

5:29 Wait, really quick, have you seen that meme where it's like you know if you're going up against a deal or you know if you're going up against this guy in a deal, you're gonna get screwed. And it's like a glass with a fat wallet wearing like, you know, Wrangler blue jeans and he's kinda fat and chubby and with a fat watch. You know that meme? And new watch. Yeah. Yeah, New Balance. Bush Stewart looks like this guy, and I could see him like doing research where he's like at a bar and he sees something interesting and goes Hey. Miss. You know, you've been a lovely waitress. Can you bring over that song, bitch? Let me let me let me look at that margarita maker. What is that? Tell me about that thing.

6:02 Hey, can you do me a favor, Diel? Go ahead and order me about twenty of them, will you please, darling? Exactly. It's the famous Sam Walton story, um, where Sam Walton did the same thing. He would study every other retailer, uh Sam Walton who created Walmart, of course. But on the way, on the rise, what helped make Walmart so great is that he stole anything good any other retailer did, he would steal it. So there's this great story of Sam Walton, uh In in Brazil.

6:28 And uh someone is walking down the aisles of a store and they see a man dead on the ground. And they were like, Oh my God, it it helps. This guy's dead here. He's just passed out on the ground. And that man was Sam Walton and he was not dead. He was measuring the distance between aisles using his body length. 'Cause he didn't have a like a ruler with him, but he's like, I like I like this spacing. What is this? So he laid down and used his body to measure it. It's about from shoulder to knee. They didn't understand what he was doing. And so

6:56 Um so Butch was basically doing this. He decides to rebrand it as couples only.'Cause one of the things he realizes is that like A lot of these resorts, it's like you look around, you see the people who are here, the lovebirds who are here, then you got the families who are here. And they're kind of interrupting, you know, the the families don't want to see these two making out and the make outs don't want the kids running around. So he decides What if I just made it instead of um

7:18 Just okay for everybody. What if I made it great for one One killer use case. So he rebrands it as couples only. It's adults, it's romance, it's no kids. And this was a radical positioning at the time. Nobody was really doing this, but it gave it a cledity. And um and then he pours millions of dollars into advertising, which again

7:36 most people would not do. He had not proven out the concept. It's not like he was taking profits. And reinvesting them. He was reinvesting because he just had a belief. Well, had he raised money for this? No, this is the m money he made from the A C company. And so he's like, spend bigger to earn bigger. And later he had this great line which he goes

7:53 'Cause he build he ends up building I don't know. thirty resorts or something like that in Jamaica. And he's done all you know, he's you know, millions of square feet. And he says uh the most valuable real estate and the hardest real estate to build. is the one in the consumer's mind. And that's always where I start.

8:08 And I was like oh I love this guy. Just an old school adman. Just a c just a classic adman. Like the type of guy he's like never read a book in his life. On advertising, but like listen to one TED talk and that how that's what he bases his entire education on. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

8:25 All right. So a lot of people watch it, listen to the show because they want to hear us just tell them exactly what to do when it comes to starting or growing a business. Now a lot of people message Sean and I and they say, All right, I want to start something on the side. Is this a good idea? Is that a good idea? And Again, what they're really just saying is just give me the ideas. Well, my friends

8:44 Are in luck. So my old company, The Hustle, they put together a hundred different side hustle ideas, and they have appropriately called it the side hustle idea. database. It's a list of a hundred Pretty good ideas, frankly. I went through'em. They're awesome. And it gives you

8:59 How to start them, how to grow'em, things like that. Gives you a little bit of inspiration. So check it out. It's called the Side Hustle Idea Database. It's in the description below. You'll see the link. Click it. Check it out. Let me know in the comments what you think. And the other thing cool thing he does is he basically revitalizes Jamaica. So he ends up employing like 10,000 Jamaicans. He's like loved in Jamaica for what he did for the local economy, how he treated people. There was a a a a a big change that happened when he brought tourism and So he goes on on a buying spree, basically, as as this happens, and he starts buying more and more failing hotels across the Caribbean. He would

9:34 Be super hands on. So he'd go stay there, he'd eat the food, he'd sleep in the bed, he'd check the pillows and basically Make detailed notes about anything that needed to change. So like if a customer complained about The temperature of the champagne, it wasn't chilled enough. He would make sure by the next day, like all the fridges are recalibrated to the right temperature. And he would let the customer know, like, you know, thank you, we you know, we changed it for you.

9:57 So he was always tweaking. It was and that was one of his core philosophies. It's like I'm not gonna get it right right away, but I'm gonna tweak it, tweak it, tweak until I get it there. And you know, this kinda works, so hotels are known for their repeat rate. So like You could tell the quality of hotel not by the the number of stars. That it's rated.

10:13 But by how many guests come back and stay again. And sandals would have like for decades like a fifty percent repeat rate, which was like unheard of in the industry. People loved going there. And so this guy would just take all these crazy measures to make it to to build this business. So he would He's like, I I after he ran out of buying the like distressed hotels that already existed, he's like, I need to buy new great properties on beachfronts. And so one thing he realized is that

10:39 There's so many beaches that people don't even really know about. So he would rent a helicopter and fly over the island and look for undiscovered beaches. And then find them, scout them, buy the land, and then build the hotel on on that, which is just like Again, just a sort of a brute force first principles approach. to building, you know, a luxury hotel.

10:56 And now his kids running it. So is it in it is it an independent business? Yeah, he passed away in twenty twenty one. I'm not sure so sure what's going on with the business since then. But yeah, he he kinda left that that's his legacy, basically, in uh in Jamaica. And his kids like they said, like, you know, all these wonderful things about him, which is Another great test, uh, you know. How great of a man are you, sort of like you know.

11:19 Do your kids w do your kids want to be around you? What do they have to say about you? And you know, it it seems like, at least from the outside. That he did a good job there. He also did this crazy thing with the airlines. Do you know the story? Well, I on his Wikipedia it says that he owned Jamaican Air. Exactly. So he realizes at a certain point he's like it's pretty he's like I'm telling you this is paradise.

11:41 But The experience to get to paradise is hell. Right. This is heaven? Well that's hell. So he's like Air Jamaica was this failing airline. Uh the brand sucked, the service sucked.

11:51 And so, you know, you you sign up for this vacation, I give you these glossy ads. He was buying ads in Playboy and Cosmo and like anywhere that he could sell. The idea. That If you're in love, you go to Sandals. So not just like it's a nice vacation. It's a symbol of How much you love each other is that you do a sandals vacation. And like, you know, the way that sort of

12:12 Diamonds are a girl's best friend or like diamonds are forever. Diamonds became the symbol for Do you commit? You know, are you are you all in on this? He did that with basically the vacation. So he's doing this, but he's like The airline uh experience sucks. Getting here and going home sucks. That's kind of the first impression and the last impression.

12:28 That the consumer is gonna have. So what does he do? He buys the airline, takes full control, like vertically integrates the experience. And he's like, Look, the airline was a tough business. It's a bad business. But he had an advantage, which is he owned the resorts.

12:41 So he basically used the airline as a giant flying billboard. to the resort. And he's like, I will just market my resorts. I'll bundle flights and hotels. I will use it to advertise my resort so that you want to stay there. I will do service and kinda like lose a little money or break even on the airline as long as I give you a first class experience down to my resorts where you're gonna spend a lot of money.

13:04 He's like if they get off the plane angry Um, you know, then it doesn't matter. I've already lost the game before they step foot on the beach. Again, I love this guy. Brian Cheske, my wife used to work at Airbnb and Brian Cheske would give this talks about like I think he called it

13:19 A ten star experience where he was like he has this famous like Way of art. Yeah. Is it twelve star? Where he was like, Well, what's like a one star experience? One star experience is like you book, you do a booking and we leave the key under the mat and it's just fine. And there's rats and it doesn't look like the pictures. Yeah, that's one star. And a five stars like Michelin restaurant like style service. He's like, but what's six stars? And like people start getting creative. They're like you get picked up in a limo and whatever. But what's eight stars? What's ten stars? Then he goes all the way up to twelve stars.

13:48 And for him it was it's a really cool exercise to think about what's like extreme hospitality. And he made this argument, and this was pre-COVID, and COVID changed everything at Airbnb because they had to focus on different stuff. Uh,'cause they were you know, it was an existential uh existential crisis. But he used to say That he wants to launch an airline. Uh and I was thinking, I was like, what could the tagline be for that? And that it would be like

14:11 Um when you fly with us, the vacation starts at the airport. Right. And I was like, Oh, that's so interesting. Like we could actually make that a thing. Like uh like'cause when you if you're if you're flying, or he said that. I said that. Not to him. I was just like thinking it might that Airbnb job offer might come back around twenty years later. That's a good one, right?'Cause I was thinking about like when you know, if you fly first class or fly in the or go to the lounge or like It's pretty cool. The vacation started now. So like I just got and if you sometimes get there early and you gotta wait three or four hours'cause I'm a I'm an early early arriver at the airport. Uh like it's kinda like four hours early? Like three hours.

14:48 But like if there's a delay. Dude, I get there early. Are you crazy? What are you doing? I've never missed a flight in my life. The time with you was the closest I've ever gotten. Um but no, I don't miss flights. How f how early do you get there? Now I guess I get there. I've t TSA I'll kind of change things, but uh Yeah, I'm I'm always a d at least a two hour early guy.

15:08 slide in at fifty minutes before the flight. And uh See if I can get to T S A in the next twenty to thirty, that leaves me another twenty to thirty to get on the plane. Easy. But if I have lounge access, I'm like, look, I'm just gonna eat there. I'll eat my lunch or dinner there, and then we'll get on the plane and so But that's my slogan. The the the the uh the vacation should start at the airport.

15:29 Um trademark we need to trademark on that. That's pretty good, right? That's really good. Yeah, uh that that that that has a ring to it. I uh I enjoy reading about hotel businesses. Uh you know, there was a I I had a fling with uh my own little hospitality business. Uh it was called an Airbnb that went horrible. Uh But I read a bunch of books on this. Have you ever heard about Hare's Entertainment?

15:51 It was a it was um. Harris was a um A casino. And this was like in Vegas? Yeah, so it was a casino, but this was before like kinda casinos became hotels, but

16:03 Uh, I was reading this book called The Uh Caesar Palace Coup And uh in about two thousand and eighteen, all these hedge funds had owned little bits and pieces of Caesar Palace, which I think was the largest casino hotel management company in the world. And it's about like the greed and all the stuff of like what it took to bike buy it and how like the uh downfall of it. But they talk about the founding of it. And it was founded as Hare's Entertainment. And then there was another hotel. They merged, they created Caesars Entertainment. But up until like the nineteen nineties or early two thousands, um, hotels were just ba like the hotel and casinos were just like really simple businesses. But then Harris and thus Caesar, when it merged.

16:39 uh hired a guy who is a forty year old mathematician from Harvard. He had no management experience, no experience running a company. His name is Gary Loveman. And he comes in and he just makes this his math playground and he dials it into the f within two years of him being CEO. They dialed this in, I think, in like the year two thousand and one before the internet was like super popular to where when you called and booked a hotel based off of all types of math and uh math, they would know to offer you uh an upgrade or offer you fifty bucks in free gambling because it was all math to them. And they knew that if they get you a free room, they got you hooked up in gambling. It was all like a s statistical thing, and he basically invented this idea of um

17:20 Of I I actually don't know what the phrase would be, but this idea of like using data and math like a money ball type of way for hotel guests. Mm. Dude, this is sick. I've never heard of this guy. Gary Loveland. So he's uh After nine years at the faculty of hard business school, he left to become CO of Harris.

17:38 Uh, then became the CEO of Caesars. For twelve years, uh That's crazy. He owns a minor he's a minority owner of the Boston Celtics. The use of analytics to influence customer behavior.

17:51 Yeah, up until him it had never been done. But he was a famous faculty member at Harvard and he would teach all this methodology. And then one day Harris was like Hey. We will like hook you up big time. We'll give you access to the private jet. So you could fly down on a Monday, come home on a Friday. You know, we're gonna roll out the red carpet for you. Just do what you want. And he did what you wanted and eventually they go. All right, brother. You're now CEO. It works great.

18:13 And so he like it was crazy. Like within three months of him joining the company, they saw massive improvements. And then within like a year or two, he implemented it was all data driven. He's like Cherries in the vodka. We're gonna put cherries in the vodka. And everyone's like, We don't we don't know. The data says put cherries in the vodka, slot machine sales are gonna go up by three point three percent, right? Like they're I mean a casino is th one of the most like you know well optimized

18:39 Mm. It's like you you are the sponge. And the casino is ringing you out. Well he's the guy who did that. And so now I think he's chairman or VP chairman, something like that, of Aetna. One of the largest insurance companies in the world. Yeah, yeah. Perfect. Just what we need. It's the same it's the same uh like math where it's like it's just a m like

18:58 If your goal is just maximize profits, like you do this math equation. This is like when I learned uh The tobacco companies like own craft food or whatever. It's like oh The children's food. It's own by the cigarette company. Oh, great. Yeah. Like Annie's goldfish is owned by the same guy who's like making a making uh cigarellos.

19:17 Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Today's episode is brought to you by HubSpot. Did you know that most businesses only use 20% of their data? That's like reading a book, but then tearing out four fifths of the pages. Point is, you miss a lot. And unless you're using HubSpot, the customer platform that gives you access to the data you need to grow your business. The insights that are trapped in emails, call logs, transcripts, all that unstructured data makes all the difference because when you know more, you grow more. And so if you want to read the whole book, instead of just reading part of it.

19:45 Visit hubspot.com. So th so this guy is kind of a genius. I wanna tell you about this genius thing that I've been thinking about. Okay. Let me just tell you a story here. I'm gonna read from I think this is a Financial Times article, but I'm just gonna read you a couple of the intro here because it's amazing.

20:06 All right, Sam, I want you to imagine. You are Stacey Tang. A Chinese woman. Like you've always wanted to be a manager at a pharmaceutical company. In Beijing, and you receive a phone call.

20:18 on some squid game shit. An unknown number calls you. And says. We like your son. You have a fifteen year old son.

20:26 says we believe that he might be qualified for the Genius program. And we'd like to t give'em a test. Now it's also COVID. It's peak Covid twenty twenty two. People can't meet in person, so they said, Stacey. I know you might be concerned about covet. You're a you're a good mom.

20:42 Fear not. We're gonna put'em in the back of this van and we're gonna drive around the city. And he's gonna do math problems in the back of this van, and we'll know by the end of the ride if he's qualified or not, and we'll dump him off on the street. Um if he's not. And if he is You'll see him in a couple years.

20:59 And like Stacey, uh would feel, you might be I would say What color's the van and what corner should I leave them at? Exactly. That's exactly how Stacey Felt. She says I wasn't worried about an abduction plot. In any other country I would, but not here. She goes, I was weeping. I was not mid-COVID. Not mid-COVID. Who full tra full trust in China, mid Covid.

21:22 I was weeping with joy and I sent my boy right away because I knew this what I knew what this was, a golden ticket to the best educational resources of China. So Stacey's a very is a very optimistic woman. So Stacey and her son were part of this program that China's China's running right now where they have a hundred thousand kids that they've identified as like possible geniuses. And they put them through what they call the genius program. Wha that they do is that at a young age, they sort of identify certain aptitude for

21:49 Math. For science, et cetera. And they say, We'd like to invite you to the genius program. Um the RSVP says yes or yes and then you go, you send your kid and it's a Few year intensive study program. You get to skip all your normal school.

22:04 You could just skip the college entrance exams. You don't have to take any of those. But you're in Basically math boot camp. And you are gonna be studying with the brightest and the best Um and they are trying to produce incredible talent in China. And so you might be wondering, well, like how does that work? Is it is it working?

22:22 Right. Natural question isn't working. Sam, do you like TikTok? Genius program. Sam, you ever heard about Tao Bau, which is their uh you know, essentially their like PayPal?

22:31 Genius program. Have you heard about their Groupon Genius program? Have you heard about their super app? Genius program. Have you heard about The brothers who are behind their big NVIDIA competitor genius program. You ever heard of Deep Seek? They were in the news recently.

22:44 Created that big algorithm. Didn't even have access to the best chips and somehow outperformed all of the uh open AI models. Genius program. It's like a teal fellowship run by the government. Exactly. So China already has this incredible like population advantage. Where

23:00 They produce Um Five million graduates in math, computer science, and engineering. compared to I think we have like half a million that are in technology, the the technology and science fields in the US. So ten to one

23:15 Already they're ten to one, uh us just in in in normal college graduates. But now they're looking for the cream of the crop. And they are basically Trying to uh create this talent pipeline home grown talent pipeline Uh

23:29 uh math geniuses, computer science geniuses, et cetera. And it's working. So They started this program many years ago. And At the time China didn't have a very notable

23:40 Um math or science uh like achievement record at at the international level. So there's these things called the math Olympiad. It's sort of like the Olympics for math. And so the first year they sent a team of three And they got like the bronze and they're like, Yes. And then they the next year they sent like six teams.

23:57 And they got two metals. And now basically they just sweep. all the medals every year. They just dominate these programs. They send like the most they have the most players and the most wins. Um And the their AI program like you know, if you go walk into an open AI office, you're gonna see tons of Chinese PhD AI researchers who now work in the US, but there's For everyone that you see here. You know, there's a hundred that are still in China working at the Chinese companies, the Chinese labs.

24:22 And I was just pretty inspired by this whole thing. The there's one anecdote. Um in the In the story where it says that like if you go into a normal Chinese public school There's a blunt slogan on the wall. This is not even the genius program. This is just a normal

24:37 elementary school public school. And it's a reminder for the teachers and staff there. And it just says Produce talent quickly and early. And I thought about that'cause I send my kids to school. And

24:50 The teachers in the s staff do not have a philosophy about Producing talent quickly and early. It what's our slogan? No child left behind. Right. That was the the famous education program that we launched, I don't know, ten tw when Bush was president or something like that. It's the exact opposite. It's about don't discriminate, don't make anyone feel left out. In s in San Francisco they were doing this thing where they were getting rid of the gifted in honors programs because it was like

25:16 Uh made the other people feel bad. And we basically are taking the exact opposite with the sort of inclusion focus. And the like no child left behind focus. Whereas If other countries are taking this idea of like your job is to produce talent quickly and early.

25:32 And that like It's the the goal is greatness. And let's be competitive about it. Like what's gonna happen over a twenty year arc, right? Like you're gonna get more and more it's they're gonna win. And so I just thought this was pretty interesting. I wanted to hear your thoughts on this. It kinda begs the question, like why doesn't Facebook have like um

25:50 What's it called the what's what's it well yes, but what's it called? The D League for MBA up at D league, yeah. The G League or what's um like the minor leagues? Like you know, uh, yeah. Like why doesn't Google and Facebook And the top two hundred schools have Like a farm team. where they identify fourteen year olds that are promising and they go, Hey, would you like to come to school here f forever or for free? And

26:14 You can choose to work at us, w at our company afterwards, but just so you know you have like a job here, if you choose to, and we will educate you and get you up to date, up to speed on all the stuff. Totally. Uh I actually when I first moved to San Francisco, this was the thing I was pitching investors. I was like I think I should go create Google You. And my dream would be th to be the dean of Google U. I was like I can't I think it's crazy that these Giant companies don't have their own talent. Arms.

26:39 Right. Why wouldn't they try to produce talent? We we wrote a story at the hustle about this kid named Michael Praisman. Michael, if you hear this, what's up? And he was like a fifteen year old who had this rag to riches story where He somehow got Mark Zuckerberg's attention at the age of fourteen because he wrote like a viral app. And he made the news because Zuck was like, Hey, do you want to like an internship here? And then that led to a full time job when he was only sixteen. And now I think he's doing I think he's on the um The AI, what's it called? The super team, the superintelligence.

27:08 Uh Facebook. Team. Which is like the Hundred million dollar year salaries, insane stuff. And it was like we wrote a story because of how remarkable it was that Facebook hired a high school kid. We need more doogie houser shit, right? Like why don't we do it? Where's our competitiveness? So you have the Teal Fellowship, right? That's like a thing.

27:25 Uh, and obviously there's like little programs all around. Dude, I remember when I was in seventh grade. Duke University did what I didn't realize was essentially just a marketing campaign, but they had created something called the Duke Tip program, and it was called the Talent Identification Program. And I didn't I lived in Texas. And suddenly Duke University did this thing where My school in Texas had us all go to the cafeteria and take a little test. And then you got like a little merch bag with it of like Duke gear.

27:50 And then the results came back and was like, We think you're talented. And bro, that I think I rode that for like seven years and then I went to Duke. That thing really influenced me in some weird Subliminal way that like Maybe I am special. And maybe I can do this.

28:06 And maybe I should go pay Duke$200,000 to go to school there. And I did all those things. And I I'm surprised that more of that shit doesn't exist. Uh I kinda wanna create something like this because I think it actually creates inflection place. Now the China one is more like boarding school. Right. And there's been other countries that do that, but like I feel like we need our own versions of these. Like where what is the

28:27 What does the American talent pipeline look like? And where are we identifying the best and the brightest on some Enders game shit and inviting them to the academy and then letting them, you know, duel and compete in like a pretty hardcore way? Cause Look, hardcore's not for everybody. But there's some people that only thrive on hardcore situations. They want to play the game at the competitive level. Basically what we do with like youth sports with AAU and travel ball and shit like that.

28:51 But Do that for the genius kids. Do that for the makers, right? Like I think That is maybe it exists and I d I'm just not aware of it, but Have you heard of birthright? I love birthright.

29:01 Crazy. So for those listening, I um Well, I learned about it because I was dating a girl who went on birthright. I don't remember what age I was, like twenty one years old. Do you remember when she told you about it? D what your reaction to you were like, What? Yeah, and she wasn't even Jewish. Like she was like ethnically Jewish, I guess, but like basically Uh Birthright is a program. It's funded, I think it's funded

29:23 Uh a little bit by the government. But a lot of it is uh wealthy Jewish people, but also I think a lot of wealthy Christian people who believe that w when the end of the world according to the Bible, when the end of the world happens, The Jews need to rise first, then the Christians go behind them. That's like what uh the book of Revelation says. And so they believe For a variety of reasons that we need to keep Israel strong.

29:46 I don't care about the politics, I'm just telling you guys the facts. And so a lot of Christians, I think, but also like Bernie Madoff was a huge funder, a lot of people are funders. It says sixty seven percent of the funding for birthright is individuals. Thirty uh twenty seven percent. Is the government and then there's like a couple percent of other things. And it's basically a free trip. To anyone who could prove you'll have to tell me the exact measurement, but I think it's like if you have Like a great grandpa great grandparent who's Jewish. So you could be like Not

30:13 Jewish at all. Does it say what the requirements are? Well, I just asked, does it count if I have a Jewish friend? And it said, No. Um that does that's not gonna get me there. Like do you identify as Jewish. But basically it's like a very small percentage and they bring you on something like a three week all paid expenses trip. Uh all expenses paid trip. And they basically at least one Jewish birth parent or a recognized conversion.

30:36 Okay. So just a pa just a parent. They bring you for like two or three weeks. I forget how long it is. But they like yeah. But they give you a tour. And you see all the type of stuff. But they basically like I remember when she was when I was dating this girl, we broke up afterwards but she was like, They introduce us to all these Israeli soldiers and like and I was like Alright. Uh like this guy's really ripped. Uh why did he take his shirt off? Like you know, like why do you photo anyway?

31:03 And like It t it like a small percentage of them then, you know, become like our good buddy Sieva, like become more in touch with the Judaism and in touch with Israel and thus support Israel more. last through generations, right? Is cultural experiences and exposure. Any culture can do this. They've just systematized it. In this really like

31:25 Cool like opportunity for people. Yeah, it's awesome. And like it's pretty great. Like I would'cause I think you have to be like eighteen between it's there's an age limit. I think it's like eighteen to twenty five, I forget what it is. When you're like primed to like want to go on a free trip, you're like, Yeah, fuck it, I'll go. And then you like it's free trip. Hell yeah. And then you get there and you're like, Okay, I actually do like this or like that. And so it's pretty cool. And I think that's kind of a good example. The world's best timeshare presentation. Yeah, and I think that's like a really good way, and this sounds bad, I don't mean to bad, to indoctrinate someone into like a cause and get them long term bought in. And it is kind of like an interesting model. Yeah, I love that. What do you do with the money once you've already made it?

32:04 This is a question Sean and I ask our successful guests all the time. And the reason we ask it is because if you are successful, if you do have a little bit of money, information on how to spend or invest your money, it's actually really hard to come by. And I know this because inside of Hampton, which is my community of founders, people ask this question all the time. People have made ten or fifty million dollars. How do you spend it? How do you invest it? And so to help solve this problem and answer this question, I actually interviewed eighty plus founders, guys like Scott Galloway, Alex Ramosi, Brian Johnson, people who are worth fifty, a hundred, even billions of dollars. And we got them to reveal everything. So their net worth, how much they pay themselves, their monthly expenses, their portfolio, things like that. And we turn these eighty interviews into one document. And I don't think you can find this type of information literally anywhere on the internet. And it's completely free. So if you want to see behind the net worth of people who are worth billions of dollars and their portfolios, their expenses, everything, you go to joinhampton.com slash reveal. Again. Joinhampton.com slash reveal. Check it out.

32:57 So what are you saying? We need our own birthright? Well no, what what I'm saying is um two, I actually do think that America should have uh mandatory uh I think Scott Galloway said this. I've agreed with this for a long time, we should have mandatory service for uh American military. I think that would be great. But number two, I think that's a really good example of how you have like whatever we're calling this, like a farm league of like getting in with people at a young age. Like it is I wonder like It worked really well with Duke and you. I mean, I didn't go to a good school. I was from Missouri. I didn't go to a good college. But like it is interesting why you aren't promoted to a little bit earlier on. To like

33:32 buy into like a certain movement like going to a good university or joining like an interesting company. Well, we're kinda saying three different ways that you can produce this like talent farm. So the first one was the China one, which is you identify promise and potential early. And then you invest in that. And They do deliberate intensive practice and you know, you y the um those people who had potential

33:54 they build the skills in a more intense way in a more hardcore environment. Okay, that's one way you could do things. Second thing we talked about, let's say the Duke example is Sometimes just creating a test or something like that just to t uh do talent identification, if nothing else. makes people feel like they're special and that they're talented. And literally that self belief is worth something.

34:14 It's not the same value as going to an intensive boot camp and capitalizing on it, but it's not nothing either. And then the third one is How do you get that sense of pride? cultural like ties and uh Enthusiasm.

34:28 And one idea is like, you know, birthright or something like that. So there's like all these different ways you could do it. I I was sort of studying. I was like, who else has done things like this? And so there's the Have you seen the story of the Soviet, like or have you are you familiar with the story of like the Soviet Olympic program basically, how they did this? Yeah, and how they're just like The shit and well they also like drugged'em. That's why they like want all the uh uh like uh a ton of the women track and field records are from the USSR in the eighties, like still it's like the longest standing records.

34:56 So so the uh I didn't I didn't know the whole story, so I was kinda looking into this. It's pretty interesting. So Soviets were kind of famously independent. They were kinda like, We don't need to be part of the Olympics. So they actually had their own Kind of like fitness games. They had what they called physical culture, which is like fitz cultura. And then they had their own thing called like Sparta something, Sparta Kyatis. That was like their Olympics. But at a certain point it was kind of like the Olympics had the network effect. It had the brand, it had the prestige. So even if we were winning our local thing.

35:24 It kinda didn't hold. We couldn't do this. And so They basically uh built a machine. So they decide, all right, we're gonna enter the Olympics. But the way they did it was Just so Russian. So incredible. They built an incredible machine and uh that I I respect. So what they did, they did same thing, talent identification. So they go at

35:43 Age six to ten, they start measuring How long are your arms? How big is your um your wingspan? Yeah, uh what's your reaction time? What does your body composition look like? What's your flexibility like for gymnastics? And they basically didn't wait for greatness to appear. They went on a talent search and they searched for greatness.

36:01 And once they did the hat they they basically hacked the system. So at the time, I think until like Nineteen eighty eight or something like that, eighty six or something like that. Um The Olympic charter said that you couldn't be a professional athlete.

36:15 One of our past uh topics. Deep Fontaine was one of the biggest advocates uh to abolish that. Okay, so great. So so the the Russians basically just worked around it. So they're like This gymnast she's a student. This guy, this hockey player, he's a officer. And like, you know, they had these job titles that were only on paper, but actually there's training full time for this. Whereas the US would be like

36:37 I'm juggling school and my training. And obviously somebody who's only training is gonna get further ahead. Well, you remember Mirko Crokop? The one of the best UFC. Yeah. Yeah. He was supposed to be an ex police officer. That was like the shtick. He was a but he was really trained uh I think as in cro I forget where a former USSR state. Uh as a

36:57 Fighter. That's and then train full time. He's like, I'm the can man. Anybody can get it right now. Different boxers. So they do that. Then they start drugging, right? So they're like, okay, what else can we do? PEDs. So that became obviously a thing. They also did like world class in you know, I guess like progress and innovation in calisthenics and h training programs and regimens that were like progressive loads and D loads and How do you peek at the right times? Stuff that's they standardized, they invented and st and like kind of created, and then we had to go steal it from them, basically, of like.

37:33 How are they doing this? In running, there's called periodization, which is like you start with heavy miles and then you uh slowly taper off or you go to speed. They helped invent that. They also helped invent the idea of training lifting weight in cold uh atmos uh with the AC down to like sixty and fifty five. What does that do? It just m makes you stronger. I I don't know the science behind it, but that was like one of their theories. I love how I ask as if that's my problem. Ah, it's been the temperature this whole time. No, they just like came up with like all these like really weird I mean, they were lab rats and so they came up with like a bunch of stuff or like volume training for weightlifting, like they were the best weightlifters. And so like

38:08 Uh a lot of the best uh they're now old guys, but a lot of the fathers of like bodybuilding in the nineties and uh two thousands. They're all in their eighties now were USSR guys. Right. And so they they ended up dominating the Olympics. They were either, you know, first or second in metal count and then You know, th it just sort of like there was a period of time where they really dominated

38:28 Um and I it was also cool, like why did they care so much? And it was basically Let's send a message. It's like physical dominance was like a signal for dominance in other things. So this is why I thought the China thing's so interesting because it's the exact opposite. It's it's brain. It's brain dominance, but even even more s but there's more stakes. Like this was symbolic. It's like we'll show the world what we're capable of. And there's always been these symbolic victories, like the first to climb Everest or

38:54 The North Pole or the South Pole. Things were There's objectively no value to be gained by being the first guys to reach the South Pole. Aside from Bragging rights. And countries cared a lot about these branding rights.

39:06 And now with the AI thing, it's like It's not just a symbolic victory, it's actual like total domination of the world's most powerful technology and will probably create the next global power. So it's like All of the Uh, same national pride bravado stuff from the Olympics.

39:23 Mul multiplied by actual real world tangible benefits and dominance. Dude, I think it's great. Like like blue angels. Bravado stuff. Like this is like the gr like the greatest thing ever. Like I think it's wonderful. Sam's all in on Bravado. I well, I just think that like having a common enemy is really good for uh um bringing people together. Like I I remember post nine eleven Like I remember like there wasn't a lot of cr I remember I distinctly remember the week after. I remember walking around the street and I was like, There's something about this that I just feel like a bond with strangers. Do you remember that feeling? Well, a little different as a brown guy, but yeah. Yeah, you actually had the exact opposite of experience. I forgot about that. Oh, I'm the common enemy. You are the enemy. You are the other. I was the us and you were the them. Uh

40:09 But have you heard of this thing? Um Uh this is related to what you were saying about planting a seed uh and someone that they're good. Have you heard of this thing called the m uh the Michelangelo um A fact. Michelangelo in fact. It's just like psychological phenomenon where

40:22 Basically it's a There's been a bunch of tests that proven it to be true. And we use this phrase with Hampton all the time. It's like a gift from the gods, this this phrase. So the Michelangelo effect, it basically just says that if you have two roman romantic partners or a peer group or friend group. Um They, if they as long as they affirm each other and plant the seed in you, like for example, if I'm like Sean, like you are the man, you will be fit, you will achieve this, you will do it whatever you want. And we keep affirming each other. Every time you say that to one another, uh, it's as if uh when Michelangelo was doing the statue of David, someone said, How did you make this amazing statue? He says The statue was there. I just chipped away at all the stuff covering that beautiful statue. And so it's as if like the greatness is in you because I have put that label on you. And each time I affirm or congratulate or say how you're amazing, I'm chipping away at the stone that's going to unveil this uh beautiful like thing inside of you, which is whatever the goal is that you want to become.

41:17 And they have found that basically like If you are raised around fat people, you are more likely to be fat. If you are raised around depressed people, you are more likely to be depressed. If you're raised around rich people, you're more likely to be rich. And it's not just because of um Like you know, what your parents do. It's just like you become what you are affirmed and what you are told. And um it's called the Michelangelo effect and it's a really cool idea and like this has been studied by psychologists. Like there was a where they looked at like a a group of fifty thousand people and they were like, What words are you using to um to talk to this person and how do they end up and where do they become? And it's like really telling. And so uh it's a really cool idea that if I uh tell you at a young age that you are special.

41:56 That you work hard, that you're gonna be great, that you belong in this category. you are more likely to actually become that simply of me like telling you That you are. That's amazing. Uh my dad told me the story. About something his dad did for him that's alwa stuck with me.

42:12 And so this is a little dead. I don't want to cry. No, no, it's emotional too. But maybe you're in that phase where Yeah.

42:23 I feel like I wanna like tear up all the time. So my dad was telling me, um so my dad grows up in India, right? Like And i if you look at you know, today he lives in San Francisco and he's had this great life, but like you know it's kind of Unheard of from a village in India, right? It's like hard to imagine starting there and ending here in one lifetime.

42:42 Um, so he he tells me the story and he's like uh He's like, you know, there's one thing my dad always did for me. And he goes, My dad always He's like he planted the seed in me. That I was special.

42:54 That I was different, that I was gonna go do great things. And he goes, It didn't make any sense because I was not doing anything. I we lived in this little dirt village, right? We'd nobody in our family had ever done anything. So his dad worked at a factory. And he told me the story of how he his dad would bring him to the factory. And the boss would be there, like, Oh, hey, kiddo, like

43:14 You know, who's the kid? Um, you know, and he put a hard hat on him. And be like, you know, one day like you can you know, you can be here with us, you know, when you grow up. And then his dad to his boss. Was like Are you kidding me?

43:27 He's like uh No, this boy this boy's special. This boy's not gonna be here. He would take the hat off, the hard hat off of him. Like he's not gonna be here, he's not gonna be in a factory, he's gonna be in America. This boy's special. You don't know. This guy's really special. He's really smart.

43:42 He's really special. He's gonna do something amazing in America. And he told him that since he was like age four, five years old, six years old, seven years old. He's like He put this in me that like I was special. I was gonna do something. I was gonna go to America. He's like my dad d had never been to America. He doesn't even know what America is at the time. He never been on a flight, never been on an airplane.

44:01 But he had this idea and he put it he just said it so matter of factly and he said it in front of other people to his boss. And he's like, I g I just had to take that as like this must be serious. Uh he wasn't even telling me. I just overheard it. I eavesdropped on that. And um I thought that was great. I was like for my kids. How great is that?

44:20 Is that the best? That's the best. I do that my kids all the time. We do daily affirmations at the morning and we say, I'm bold, I'm tough, I'm smart. Yeah, we we do this. I'm brave, I'm strong, I'm happy and I can do anything. Yeah, it's uh we we we run that all the time. I can I tell you about the tennis little victory I had with my k my son? When he would go into new classes, he would always get scared. So like New soccer class, new tennis class, anything.

44:43 And as a parent, it's very frustrating, right? You pay You drive through traffic, you go there. And then your kid doesn't go in. And then in front of you all the other kids are like doing it happily, blah blah blah. I'm like bartering and bribing and threatening and then ignoring and then trying again and then

44:59 I'll go in with you and then I'll do the I'll jump on the trampoline like let me let's do this together and then the Teachers like, Hey, can you leave? Like the parents aren't really allowed to be in here. So it's been this situation over and over and over again. So We go to a tennis class, new tennis class, and um Sure enough. Doesn't want to go in.

45:15 And uh like okay. Decide all right, I'm gonna try this a little differently. So we just um We hang out. And we're talk we're just talking. I decided we're gonna stay here. We're not I'm not gonna try to force you to go in. We're just gonna sit here and talk. And I start telling them, I'm like, you know, um

45:31 You know, I get a I get pretty afraid at doing new things too, actually. So I totally get that. And um You know I realize that it's other people aren't It's not that the other people aren't afraid, like they have the scared they have the scared in them too, right here, right in your chest.

45:46 And I was like, but you get to decide like does this scared win? I was like and sometimes the scared wins. And like today the scared won, but it doesn't always have to win. Sometimes you get to win. So tell them this, I forget about it. Uh, he doesn't really even really give you know, kids don't always like verbally affirm like. What a wonderful lesson. Like he's just like Yeah.

46:03 Looking at his like car that he's playing with or whatever. So three weeks later we go uh and we go to class and my wife takes him and he goes in. She's like, Oh, he went into tennis, no problem this time. After you know, three weeks. And then afterwards is like uh you know, what what good job. Like, you know, so proud of you. How'd you do it? And he was like

46:22 I didn't want to let the scared win today. Азай, єс. Total and complete victory in life. I did it. I did it. I'm not a terrible dad. Uh I I actually taught him something. So it's like this huge like You know, great moment of my life that ha that was just hearing that that that little seed

46:40 Watered enough, like eventually did bloom in his own words, and I had actually forgotten about that whole thing, and he remembered it. What a wholesome episode. Yeah. Right. That's that fires me on. Thank you for Dad Corner. Yeah, I wanna go and hug my my kids. Um

46:54 Alright, that's it. That's the pod. I feel like I can rule the world, I know I can be what I want to I put my all in it like a day song on the road, less travel, never looking back. Alright, my friends, I have a new podcast for you guys to check out. It's called Content Is Profit. And it's hosted by Luis and Fonzi Cameo. After years of building content teams and frameworks for companies like Red Bull and Orange Theory Fitness, Louise and Fonzi are on a mission to bridge the gap between content and revenue. In each episode, you're gonna hear from top entrepreneurs and creators, and you're gonna hear them share their secret and strategies to turn their content into profit.

47:32 So you can check out content is profit wherever you get your podcasts.

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