The Man Who Tracks Every Second Of His Life - Rob Dyrdek

1. 0:00 – 0:25

   Intro

   1. RDRob Dyrdek0:00

      How do you make every bit of you better and better and better and better over time? Then you grow into the ideal version of yourself on an ongoing basis, because you're expanding into new levels. You see further, "Oh, that's where I can go." You expand further, "Wow, man, look at this, but look where I can go."

   2. CWChris Williamson0:24

      (wind blows) I've heard

2. 0:25 – 16:59

   How to Become the Ideal Version of Yourself

   1. CWChris Williamson0:25

      you say that you've become the ideal version of yourself.

   2. RDRob Dyrdek0:29

      Mm-hmm.

   3. CWChris Williamson0:29

      What does that look like?

   4. RDRob Dyrdek0:31

      I, I mean, look, the, the beauty of the ideal version of yourself is it continually evolves as you evolve and the world evolves around you, you know? And who I am today, um, I'm, like, overwhelmed with gratitude, super thankful that I even get to live this human experience, know that I live almost every day and have an amazing day almost every day, know that I have built my life into a place where I, I intuitively can begin to feel friction and then eliminate it, where I'm continually optimizing my today for a better tomorrow. And now understand that the person I've evolved and grown into is just the beginning of what's possible, and excited about continually being a better version of myself on an ongoing basis till the day I die, which is currently, uh, one million hours of life and 114 days and, uh, 114 years and 54 days. But that is the state. But as you can hear in my energy, growing into your ideal life, uh, as you envisioned it, um, is a surreal experience, 'cause most people never actually get to it and then be get, get beyond it. And I've moved beyond it, right, and realizing that it's actually just this continuous process that you get to enjoy life while growing on an ongoing basis.

   5. CWChris Williamson1:57

      What was the inflection point, then, from going from a normal, relatively normal guy, like most of the people that are gonna be listening, to a person who has this much more well-defined goal broken down into steps to achieve that goal? What was the inflection point, and what did that consist of?

   6. RDRob Dyrdek2:15

      I, I, it was a, it was a series of events and a lot of complexity, right? And, and it was all parts of me, right? It wasn't just, um, you know, a financial situation or a career situation or a physical injury or a sickness. It was like, it was every single thing to do with my entire being, right? And, and, but specifically, it was sort of this awakening that I wasn't the person that I thought I was, that I portrayed myself to be through the lens of sort of lying to myself of what I was, right? And, and I say that in the sense of I really pic- pictured myself as this very intellectual and very advanced entrepreneur and businessperson, because I had built all these companies and I had television shows and I was a professional skateboarder and I had this multi-platform universe of brands and media and I was making millions of dollars. And, and so I'm, I looked at myself as, you know, to become this, you've got to have some sort of secret sauce, you know, to even get there. And then I thought that was the fact that you just boom and bust and work really hard, party really hard, like, you know, like spend a lot of money, lose a lot of money, make a lot of money, invest. Like, I thought that chaos was, in fact, why I was so successful, you know? And, and I felt if I didn't, you know, work 18 hours straight for like five days and then go party for three days and like, and then get all, like go on a fitness run and like, uh, I just didn't think I would be able to achieve the levels that I was able to, to achieve without that. And in 2012, I was approached by, like, a big private equity group about doing a 360 deal of, uh, everything that I do, essentially owning half of everything that I do for the rest of my life. And they would invest in my professional skateboarding league, my cartoons, my clothing lines, like, uh, h- be part of my television, uh, programs, everything. And, uh, when they did the diligence on me, they basically exposed me to me, and essentially showed me how poorly all of my investments were, how bad my financial management was, and ultimately deemed me as uninvestable. And, and so for me, I knew like, "Man, not only am I uninvestable, but I'm not happy. Like, I can't keep doing this. I can't sustain this level of energy hoping that one thing that I do ends up being the one big thing that makes me the money that, uh, you know, then allows me to find happiness, find the relationship, all of that in one, one big moment." I realized that I needed, uh, to change who I was, uh, and become the person that I knew I could become. And that, that almost, if you can imagine, then started the universe to work, right? And then, then I asked the question to the universe essentially like, "Hey, I've got to figure this whole thing out. What, where should I start?" And I just really started looking at consultants and different people that could help me on the business side, and I found a book, uh, called Start at the End, which was essentially a business book that was, if you wanna create a business, decide exactly what you want out of it from the very beginning. Do you want it to be a three million dollar business that makes 500,000 in profit that you live off of every year? Is it a business you wanna build to 20 million and sell it for, you know, three times revenue, for 60 million? And how much capital do you need? Build your plan, then, backwards to achieve that.And it was just this, like, mind-blowing sort of like, man, that's how I need to approach business, but that's really how I should approach life. I, I need to design the life that I want. How do I wanna live? What does it look like? Where do I live? Who am I with? What is it? What, what is money to me in the first place? And, and what are all the things that I really need to be happy? And then start the journey to go achieve that. I started at the end, in that era of, of what I wanted my life to look like, not just my business. I designed them both together so that when I found success in business, I would find success in life at the same time, you know.

   7. CWChris Williamson7:00

      Can you remember what you wanted out of life at that point?

   8. RDRob Dyrdek7:04

      Yeah. You know, it was, it was I want- I knew I wanted to be married and have kids, right? Like, I knew I was always meant to-

   9. CWChris Williamson7:10

      How old were you at this point? 2022.

   10. RDRob Dyrdek7:11

       Uh, I was 38, 30, going on 39, right? So it's like, you know, older than you. You know what I mean? Think about that. Like, I was like in no man's land. And, and think about this. I had, you know, made millions and millions of dollars and was basically at dead even. I was at dead even. Why they were saying I was uninvestable is like, man, you basically spend as much as you make, and none of your assets have any values. You personally don't even have any investments or saved money. Like, it was this like, "Man, you, you worked so hard all these years and you're basically starting from zero again," you know? And so for me, I knew I didn't understand money, right? And, and no sooner did I, like, begin to, like, map out like, "Hey, I wanna understand money," and it's, like, the consistency of, of, of income and the ability to create value in companies and, and build and sell them is something that I really wanna learn. Like, I really connect with the idea of being able to follow an entire arc of creating an idea, uh, building the idea, and then selling the idea with a liquidity, liquidity goal in the very beginning. This really resonated with me, so I immediately set a strategy of, "I'm going to build and sell 30 to 50 companies and own 50 to 70% of them and sell them for between, uh, 15 and 50 million, and do that 30 to 50 times and make a billion dollars in liquidity." That, I figured that out at the very beginning before I'd ever sold a company in my life, right? Then I said, "Okay, what am I gonna do with that money?" And I, I... A- and of course what happens, I'm trying to figure out what money means to me. I got rid of my, all my stock portfolios, I got rid of all my assets and went to cash, all the cash that I had, and then I get a random, uh, phone call from Tony Robbins people, right? And so I just started dating this girl, um, who I was convinced I was meant to marry, who I was trying to convince her this is our destiny, because no sooner do I feel like I want forever than the universe provides, um, the girl that I believe is that, right? And so she's into personal development and is really into Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins, like, reaches out to me and I'm like, "Oh man, I'm gonna impress this girl so heavily." And 'cause Tony Robbins is reaching out to me. Now, he reached out to me to help promote his book, MONEY Master the Game, uh, because of my audience at the time, but when I got that book, it changed my life. It made me realize like, man, I don't even understand money at all, and like, I just kept making and, and, and spending money and just going for it, but I didn't understand money. Then I met a guy through him, an advisor, that, that I shared my strategy of like why I would like to create, like use my money to earn money, and then he, he walked me into, uh, multifamily investing. So then the stage was set, you know? Here's, here's the girl of my dreams that I've just got to convince that we're meant to be together forever, and then I've got my strategy of I'm gonna create a venture studio where I build and sell companies, uh, you know, and make 15 to thir- to 50 million off of them and do it 30 to 50 times and make a billion in liquidity. Then I'm gonna take that liquidity and I'm gonna invest it into multifamily real estate that then I live off the cashflow, and then I'm gonna do all of that while rebuilding my body and getting super healthy and, and now balancing and designing my time into a rhythm rather than, uh ... and, and get, stop going through this high and low lifestyle and, and use my opportunity in the TV space to use that capital to now invest into strategies for my, uh, venture business that then goes into, um, this multifamily strategy, and then do all of that by beginning to, mm, you know, balance my time and stop going from highs and lows, and I would build this balanced life and I would be happy forever. And boy, it was clear. It was clear. But in the beginning, it's so difficult, and at, there was points where I didn't know if it was, it was going to happen, right? And, and then over those first beginning of years, it's why I like to say that like everything go- the cycle of success is the same for everything. In the I- ideation stage, it's amazing. It's gonna be amazing, it's brilliant, there's so much energy in it. When you launch it, you're so excited, "I'm launching the machine. I'm gonna invest in all these buildings, I'm gonna..." This is like, you know, my wife, I'm gonna get all this going and then-And then what happens when it becomes real, you begin to learn how difficult it actually is, and how much more you have to learn, and what it's actually going to take to ever get there. And this is where everybody quits, right? So then in those first couple years, and the companies that I was building to sell, and they weren't working, and- and some things were working, not working, and- and- and then, like, you know, I'm not even getting the money to deploy it into these buildings. And then, like, you don't even know. Then in 2018, it's like, "Oh, like, the show may not come back." It's like, you know, after- after two years of launching it, it was like, "I don't even know if this is going to work." But then it's, my knowledge began to build, I began to expand into life, and then it all began to happen in 2019. And then boom, the entire thing realized and began to accelerate from that point forward. But- but, you know, back to the question at hand, is I took the time to get super clear on what that design looked like, and then got better and better at living that life as I grew into it, and- and learned, and trial and error of getting better at- at achieving the goals that I set. But I had the clarity from the very beginning. You know, like, you do gotta set- set the stage for yourself so you at least know the direction you want to go, and then the- the more you understand it along the way, you can evolve into it and adjust it and gain more cl- clarity and knowledge on how long it may take you. And in some cases for people, like, where you may not even be able to do it, and you may need to adjust course, you know?

   11. CWChris Williamson14:06

       Was there a framework that you followed for working out those goals?

   12. RDRob Dyrdek14:10

       You know, I- I didn't. I- I think I just wanted to get incredibly specific, right? 'Cause I think there's so many different ways to approach goals, but I- I always like to refer to them as evolution goals, right? Where, okay, you were really specific, but now when you say, "Okay, I want to build and sell a company and own 50 to 70% and sell it for between a 50 and 100 million," and- and, you know, or 15 to, uh, you know, 70%, sell it for 50 to 100 million, now- now in lies the complication in that. What you don't know is like, okay, well, then you've got to co-find that business. You can't invest in a business that's at a later stage, at a five million, seven million valuation and ever get that type of return, right? Then if you co-found a business and now you have founder shares and now you want to invest, um, you know, a few hundred thousand into it, now you've got to be- raise capital. Now you've got to be caref- careful of dilution, right? So if the company doesn't work, now you started out with 30% that if it sold for 100 million, you get 30 million, but by the time it creates the value to be sold for 100 million, it's raised so much money, uh, you now get 500 grand. You get, like, barely a return on your money. It's like all these things I had to even learn on, like- like, hey, there's a lot more X factors in this, and- and okay, you did all this research and built a- a great strategy for an opportunity. Then the market turns on you, like, "Oh, the research was worthless, like, once you got to market." There's all of these things that are so unpredictable that are part of any process. That's- that's sort of the idea of like when you choose venture creation, because you got to understand, I set my life goal of creating a billion dollars in liquidity and I had never sold a company in my life. I've just decided like, "Hey, I'm gonna, this is what I'm gonna do." You know? And it wasn't till I sold the first one where I was like, "Man, I can really do this." You know what I mean? And then, like, and then when the second one, the third one, then when you sell one and make $130 million off of one, then it changes you. And then you're like, "Wow, okay, that actually is way more fun than trying to sell, uh, trying to get 30 million." Right? Like, it- you just continue to evolve as you build the confidence and the understanding in this, but it started with the clarity of what was possible, then I continued to evolve and learn, deeply learn on what I needed to do to continually adjust in order to find the success that I was able to find in a pretty short amount of time, you know?

   13. CWChris Williamson16:58

       So if

3. 16:59 – 21:28

   A Framework for Thinking About Time

   1. CWChris Williamson16:59

      you've got that as the grand goal, what is the story or the framework of how you've come to think about time in life?

   2. RDRob Dyrdek17:07

      Yeah, and- and look, and I think what- what had sort of, uh, transpired along the way is, as I was, like, really learning how to, like, build operatio- the operational side of a business, I was introduced to this concept of the rhythm of company. And it was, uh, basically the year-long cadence of how the company would operate, right? There's a certain amount of financial meetings, marketing meetings, brand meetings, product meetings, um, all this stuff went into sort of a weekly rhythm that included Christmas parties and holidays and vacations and weekends, and- and I'm like, "Man, this is... Forget rhythm of company. I- I want to plan all this stuff into my company, but I want them to integrate my life into this. I want the rhythm of existence." So I took the same group that- that helped me build the rhythm of company, and they built me the rhythm of existence, which essentially became the operating, uh, system for my life. And so what naturally occurred there is you begin to design your time for the whole year.... right? Because you know when birthdays are and holidays are, and you begin to look out of when, when do I wanna have vacation and this, and this and that. So, you begin to see time as a canvas, where it's like, okay, you're, this is what you wanna do the entire time, this is how much time you actually get to do it. And then over the years, I just went from, you know, being more intentional with my, uh, planning of time, but then seeing, well, you need a ton of adaptability in there based off of how you're feeling and how things are changing, right? 'Cause you never wanna be rigid with time design. You wanna use time design as the basis of your discipline, but you don't wanna be, um, like controlled by your calendar. You still need, like, to, to adjust your time design based off of how you feel, which sometimes means blowing a whole day out and just spending the day with your wife in order to just recover and regroup and, and fight for another day, right? And, and over time, then I began to, "Okay, well, shoot. Let me just start filling in the gaps and logging what I did the previous day so that I can begin to understand where I'm using time." Then I hired somebody to write a script and pull all that data and put it into a dashboard, and it was like mind-numbing. Because it's like for the first time, now you see exactly where you spent all of your time for a week and for a month and for a year, and it became so insightful, uh, of beginning to understand like where you actually enjoy life the most and where the rhythm of life feels the best. And you begin to see where time is wasted and where you actually have a lot more time, um, to spend with your wife and your family, that the amount of time that you're dedicating to meetings and work isn't as necessary as you think they are, and you can begin to optimize those. And, and, and it was sort of, you know, again, something that I grew into over time, um, and got better and better at to where now, it's like, man, I, I'm, you know, since I look at it in time and percentages of like an hour a day is 4% of your life and you begin to look at, you see the world through that lens, uh, you just, you, you, you understand the value of time so specifically that you, when you think about planning something, you think about the first, second, and third order consequences of taking on a project, not about like what it's gonna take, uh, to get it off the ground, but how many hours is it gonna take and then how long is it gonna take those hours? And ultimately, i- it's why I, I push to drive everything, uh, to automation or ultimately the least amount of time that I dedicate to it, uh, to never allow myself to be overwhelmed by the things that I choose to do is another process of, of sort of time mastery. But it's something you've got to, again, start with intent and then get better and better at it over time in order to ultimately even know how to optimize it in the first place, you know?

   3. CWChris Williamson21:26

      What are some of the most

4. 21:28 – 28:37

   Biggest Ways Rob Has Saved Time

   1. CWChris Williamson21:28

      extreme ways that you've become efficient or effective with the way that you spend your time?

   2. RDRob Dyrdek21:33

      You know, I, you know, like, you know, when you say extreme, like, um, you know, I-

   3. CWChris Williamson21:38

      Highest gains, perhaps.

   4. RDRob Dyrdek21:40

      Yeah, it's, it's, it's funny. Like I'm, you know, the latest thing that I've really done is I've broken down all of my income, you know, into how much money I am making per hour post-tax dollar, right? So I, I shoot 336 episodes of television a year. It's 4% of my time, right? The... And so how, how does that happen? Well, that happens by, you know, driving automation into your entire production team, your entire development team, your writing teams, and every single part of your company to where you've optimized shooting to where now you can shoot a 22-minute episode in 25 minutes with 10 minutes of prep, right? And then you can block those and shoot four times a month and get eight episodes done in five hours, right? That's how I was able to do it in a very extreme way. But I then back that out and then, well, that's ordinary income that I've gotta pay these fees against and then pay a full boat of 50% tax, so I still take those hours and run those hours into like, how much did I make post-tax per hour? Then when I look at my venture business and how much time did I spend there, okay, now I make a significant amount of income that's more in a long-term capital gains, and then I run that by hour. Wham, that's, that number's not as nice, 'cause I'm putting a lot of work, uh, into those companies and that effort's a lot more extreme versus when you look at my passive income assets and the amount of money they generate and then you put that per hour on a tax basis, you know, it's like 20 times anything else that I do, right? And so as it relates to now being able to take your understanding of time to the way that you spend it to earn money and then to, for that to make real sense-... a- all of that is only 22% of my time and a nine-to-five job is 27% of your time, right? That's how little I work, right? To manage all of my assets, to build all the companies and, uh, shoot television, podcasts, all of it. Everything that I do as it relates to, um, everything with my work side is about, you know, you know, some- some months it's like 25, 26%, but on average it's, it's around 22%. You know? And- and that's- that's to show the- the scale of what I'm able to accomplish with the minimum amount of hours each day because I've just gotten every aspect of it so automated and efficient, right? And- and then you look at every bit of your life through the lens of automation. How can I create a system for it or how can I automate it to drive it to energy neutral so I don't have to think about or dedica- dedicate mindshare to it? And- and that's everything from meal delivery to, you know, supplement subscriptions to the way that I- my- my- the- you know, my chief of staff and my assistants, like, manage every single aspect of- of my- my calendar and my time and my life and- and all aspects of my hou- how, uh, of my house and how I travel. All of these things are built around saving time and energy and have protocols and systems so I don't ever have to think about it again, you know? So that I can leave and go spend an hour in the afternoon picking up both my kids from school, uh, before I have one more meeting, before I take my wife, uh, to- to the movies that night, right? Like, I'm really prioritizing living a harmonious life and a fully balanced existence on an ongoing basis, and the only way that that really can happen is if you drive, um, everything that's complex to a more simple automated state. Otherwise, I would just be overwhelmed all the time and continually needing to like, "Oh, let's... Okay, what do we go- what am I gonna eat right now? Oh, what am I gonna like? Okay, what do I gotta do to try to like, like figure out a hotel or travel?" Or whatever it may be. All of these things that- that you think about that take mindshare, I've just eliminated, you know?

   5. CWChris Williamson25:53

      When it comes to getting tactical, what were the most important first steps that you took when building this system? Who were the first hires? Who were the most important hires that you brought onboard?

   6. RDRob Dyrdek26:06

      Y- here's the thing about like, everybody in their own personal system, right? It's- it's the, you know, when it comes to hiring, not everybody can hire an assistant, but you better believe that's the number one, uh, hire that anybody's going to make, right? And it's- it's your- and you can call it whatever you want, you know, but you're trying now to invest in a body that's essentially now taking care of things that gives you back time and energy, right? And in- and for the beginning stage of people, that's like helping with, uh, errands and- and all these sort of mundane things that- that happen on an ongoing basis. There's a water leak in your apartment, your house, whatever it is. It's like, these unexpected things that continually steal time and mindshare is sort of what that, um, that type of hire can really do. And- and again, it will be how efficient they are going to be for you is the way that you design what they do for you. You know? And the more systems that you can create for them that you know is going d- is going to make them more consistent for you is then going to make sure that you're not now working to give them work. You know, I think-

   7. CWChris Williamson27:17

      What's an example of a good system?

   8. RDRob Dyrdek27:19

      You know, I think, I think for me, it's like I'm... I keep a live document between me and my assistant and then we, every single day, all, everything that I wanna talk about the following morning, we meet every single morning, that I will then list out everything inside that document throughout the day that I wanna discuss the following day. And then in the morning, we meet every single morning and then go through all of that, then go through the entire calendar and everything that needs to- to be adjusted or be added to the calendar- in calendar to make sure that all of that is in order. Um, we go through all of the- the un- the- the emails I haven't responded yet together to make sure that I go through and knock that out first thing in the morning, uh, y- you know, all the data that I collect, making sure that like, hey, I collected all the data. Uh, did I ask my wife how she feels about our relationship that I add into my qualitative data, like everything collected. Like, it's- it's almost like, you know, all of these different aspects, um, that are important on keeping me disciplined and in my rhythm, I've added to our system that we do every single day, except for the weekends in order to- to- to continually to keep the whole thing flowing, you know?

   9. CWChris Williamson28:36

      I've heard

5. 28:37 – 39:07

   Building Effortless Discipline

   1. CWChris Williamson28:37

      you say that you're at peak top now.

   2. RDRob Dyrdek28:40

      Yeah. (laughs) Yeah.

   3. CWChris Williamson28:41

      What have been the longest levers? What have been the biggest changes, the biggest step changes you've seen? Was it quitting alcohol? Was it brain training? What was it?

   4. RDRob Dyrdek28:53

      I- look, and- and think about it more from this- this lens, right? And I'll ask you, like, how disciplined are you versus how disciplined do you think you can be in- in your daily life today?

   5. CWChris Williamson29:04

      I've got a lot of headroom to fill.

   6. RDRob Dyrdek29:07

      Okay, right. So- so it- it's like, and then do you go in discipline streaks, like, where it's like, "Okay, I'm in the gym five days a week. Okay. And then I've been eating clea- oh, I fell off for like a little bit." Like, what-

   7. CWChris Williamson29:18

      It's feast and famine usually, yeah, that would be right.

   8. RDRob Dyrdek29:19

      Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So- so if even the most successful, driven, disciplined people...... ih, eh, kind of live in a rhythm, a feast and fathom rhythm, right? And for me, by beginning to track my discipline on an ongoing basis, like in deciding, like, you know, this is my core seven. Uh, did I get up at 5:00? Did I brain train? Did I meditate? Did I get in the gym? Did I eat clean? Uh, did I not drink? And did I take supplements, right? By tracking that every day, that began to at least gamify and put a number to how disciplined I was, um, and, and so over the years, I would just, you know, I would, I would get more and more disciplined over time. And it was so clear in the data, right? At least, especially from the qualitative standpoint, right? Because I also track how I feel about my life, work, and health, zero to 10 every single day. So I have this qualitative measurement of the quality of my life, right? Then I have sleep scores with the Oura Ring and a readiness score, and then I have my body composition. So I have this core set of data that's, you know, basically collected together as my quality of life. So I've gamified it, and now I have insight, uh, to how I'm really feeling, right? And I know over the, over the years that I'm getting healthier and happier, right? And if you tie that to money, I'm getting healthier, happier and wealthier, right? And so seeing all of it work together and continually, um, learning and growing, you finally get to a point like ... and that, that's kind of why I refer to it as peak top is it's the, as, eh, I was trying to figure out a way to describe the psychological feeling of s- like when you finally, like, hit a place where, like, y- a permanent change happens in you, and it's similar to rock bottom, right? Where it's like when you finally, like, you've ... it doesn't matter how many times that you tried to quit, like, like, you finally ... something psychologically shifts in you where, like, you're drug-free for the rest of your life, right? And from some rock bottom moment. But the difference was it was on the other side for me, where I kept getting more and more disciplined, where finally one day it was like, "Why would I just never not feel amazing for the rest of my life?" And then from that point forward, I have never once missed one day of doing any of those, of brain training, meditating, getting up at 5:00, eating clean, not drinking, uh, having supplements, like getting in the gym, like I, it ... like not once. And, and so to me, when you transition to that level of commitment where you are just 100% and then, like the quality of my life, the s- like the depth of my thinking, the, the complete transition and evolution of who I've become over the last six months of finally getting to that level was only possible by slowly getting more and more disciplined over years and then being able to quantify both how disciplined I was in a percentage and then how that percentage affect my actual quality of life in qualitative data. If I wasn't seeing that data and I wasn't getting the proof that I was actua- the more disciplined I would get, the happier I would become, and then getting more disciplined and happier over time, gave me fi- it finally drove me to the point where I was, you know, um, like just landed in a place of "Why would you ever want to not feel, like, amazing every single day?" And that's a difficult (laughs) place to get to because now it's like I can't even fathom if I'll ever eat sugar or a snack ever again. I can't even fathom if I'll ever have a drink, uh, ever again. I can't ... It doesn't even make sense to me six months in.

   9. CWChris Williamson33:38

      You need to have that relationship between discipline and felt sense though.

   10. RDRob Dyrdek33:42

       Mm-hmm.

   11. CWChris Williamson33:42

       Because without that, the reinforcement mechanism for the discipline is always going to be fighting a losing battle. Because right now it's always going to be easier to be undisciplined, unless you can somehow front load the feeling of benefit that you're going to get in future. So that is the correlation between the qualitative sense related to the discipline that you have. And then when it comes to it's 4:55 in the morning and the alarm goes off and you think, "Fuck, why should I get up?" Well, the reason that I should get up is because I know that if I don't get up, I'm going to feel this much worse. Why shouldn't I eat sugar? I know that if I eat sugar, I'm going to feel this much worse. This is why I should train. This is why I should do all the rest of it. So I think ... I, I spoke to Ryan Holiday about his new book, which was Discipline is Destiny, last year, and without a goal, there is nothing that you can measure your discipline up against, right? If you don't have something that you're aiming for, there is always a, a justification to not go and do the thing. But in terms of motivation to do the thing or reinforcement to do the thing, you also need a backwards l- or an internal-looking. Like the goal is the forward and external-looking and the internal-looking is how does this discipline make me feel and how can I front load that from the future, which will be better, to the now to offset the discomfort of doing the hard thing?

   12. RDRob Dyrdek34:58

       This is right. But here's the thing you're missing. I'm not disciplined anymore, right? This is just how I live. I can't even li- I don't even try. I don't think about it. I don't even ... no, no part do I ever think like, "Oh, I shouldn't be doing this." It's the opposite.... if I can't do these things, I'll, I'll move my schedule around. I'm not gonna go a day without doing it. You know what I mean? It's the, it's the... it, it goes from, uh, it's you gotta get disciplined, right? And create all these devices and ways and motivations in order to actually do it. Then that's gotta become a habit that reduces the effort. And then once it becomes intuitive or a way of being, that's when everything really changes, right? That's when you're no longer even, like... it's the opposite, where before you had to get yourself to do it. Now, now you would be, like... you can't even fathom not doing it.

   13. CWChris Williamson35:53

       You would have to get yourself to not do it. Yeah, exactly.

   14. RDRob Dyrdek35:55

       Yeah, like, it is the, the-

   15. CWChris Williamson35:57

       So I, I've got it-

   16. RDRob Dyrdek35:57

       ... which is a very difficult place to get to, you know?

   17. CWChris Williamson36:00

       I've got it in my head that it's almost like we struggle to work out what life is going to be like over a longer time horizon and especially if you're doing something now, morning ice bath, getting up on time, not eating sugar, doing whatever, it's difficult. And the reason that it's difficult is because there is a huge activation energy for you to start rolling that ball up the hill. But if we were able to see investment in discipline as almost like paying into or, or, or maybe stepping on some sort of a seesaw that over time it's not gonna move, it's not gonna move and you're just piling up little rocks and little rocks and little rocks, then every so often it's gonna start to even out. And then before you know it, look, the discipline is an investment in the future where discipline will no longer be needed. And I think that's a really nice way to reframe it.

   18. RDRob Dyrdek36:48

       That's it. That's it. And, and I think, you know, um, discipline is destiny is pure in its wor-... in its... like, one of the most beautiful statements there is, right? But the problem is discipline is, is a difficult word. Discipline means hard, it means not what you wanna do, it's like doing what you don't, you don't, like, feel like doing but you know you gotta do. There's just all... it's just this, like, har- harsh and it's, like, like, you want to know that you just have to be disciplined. And, and at the core of it, what is discipline? Discipline is just being intentional, right? Like, it's just being intentional and, and you want to get it to a place where it's no longer even something you even consider, you know? And, and... but, but how do you do that without having some sort of frame of reference? And I didn't have a goal. I understood through the data, this is when you feel the best, this is when your body has the best composition, this is when you are the lightest, this is when you're the happiest, you're sharper, you're deeper, like, you're, you're more present, right? You don't, uh, find yourself drifting into, uh, dwelling in the past or worrying about the future. You're, you're living in the present and you're creating a better future or rectifying the past. You're always living in a state of action and experience. Like, when, when you think about all of these payoffs from a qualitative standpoint that are hard to see and feel when you're just being pulled from all of these different directions on an ongoing basis, trying to make one part of your life disciplined, when the truth is, you've got to make all of your lives diffi-... you've got to make all of your life disciplined to make any of it disciplined. We just, for some reason, think that we can pick isolated things to work on or improve and that our lives will be better when every single part of us, every thought, every action, everything we do integrates together to make the whole. And we have got to design the whole with intention and live the whole with discipline for anything to turn into an intuitive way of being, you know?

6. 39:07 – 42:36

   How to Avoid Small Errors Becoming Big Errors

   1. RDRob Dyrdek39:07

   2. CWChris Williamson39:07

      How do you avoid catastrophic thinking if you fall off, if that's the case? If everything is interlinked and one small error has a cascading effect across the entire global world that is you, how do you avoid small errors becoming big errors?

   3. RDRob Dyrdek39:23

      Well, well, I think the, the, the construct and the framework that you present no longer exists, right? Everything is integrated, but not one thing can disrupt the whole, right? When you have harmony in the whole, these, these disruptions are hardly felt, right? And then they're, they're so isolated and, and you just immediately take action on that friction and eliminate it and get back into harmony. When you're, when you're operating from a harmonious state and continually evolving and expanding into a better version of yourself, you're now looking out into the future and predicting the f-... the, the future outcomes with a much more consistency, but you can also see po- produce po- potential trouble down the road that you can avoid. And then when you get hit with the unexpected, you're not being hit from a place of balance. Where the catastrophic thinking comes from is when you're teetering on all these edges and finally it's the straw that breaks the camel's back and collapses. Because think about it, when you feel catastrophic, it's when your mind collapses, right? Because we're never doing too much unless we feel overwhelmed. And then the moment we feel overwhelmed, it's our mind's way of basically going into, like, full fight mode where it's, like, overreact. "You've got to stop doing this, stop doing this, stop doing..." Your mind's trying to get back to this level state when it gets overwhelmed. And most of the time we're going from... like, we're balancing all of these things, trying to improve different things and get this, and I'm, I'm working on this deal to get this. And then when, when one thing's collapsed, they all collapse in at once and then we question everything.... then we're like, "Should've never moved to Austin. Shoulda never moved to Austin." It's like, it's like I- I really discovered that my mind lived in this range of neutral, and I could take it or leave it, like didn't feel overly positive, but wasn't negative. Half full, which if half full, man, I could get hit by something, but I'm still believing in the future and what it's gonna be, or half empty. And half empty, when I- when I felt half empty, I could pick apart anything. Your decision-making doesn't make sense, you wish you wouldn't have bought a couch, you know? You're like, "Oh, why did I- why did I even invest in that, like, five years ago?" Like, your mind, like, is trying to find back to that place of order and it's very difficult if there's not intention in the whole and balance in the whole to be in a perpetual state of- of having a balanced mind because we just compartmentalize and- and have too many- too many things, that if one- one or two go wrong, the whole thing collapses. And that's what I learned over the years through the process of- of using that qualitative data and developing that qualitative self-awareness, that here are the things that overwhelm you, here's when you're over capacity and you get overwhelmed so that makes you think even further when you take on something new. How much capacity does my mind have? And if I take on something new, what risk do I have that that's going to be the one- the one too many thing that begins to overwhelm me and my flow, you

7. 42:36 – 53:03

   Will Rob Release His System to the Public?

   1. RDRob Dyrdek42:36

      know?

   2. CWChris Williamson42:36

      Have you ever considered opening up your API or whatever this system is for other people to use?

   3. RDRob Dyrdek42:43

      Yeah. No, I'm developing an- an entire, like, super intuitive way for people to apply exactly what I do and sort of, you know, guide them on how to grow into it, right? Because it's not something that, like, you can, uh, do overnight. The first, uh, bit of s- discipline you've got to develop is logging the data. You know what I mean? The first thing you gotta do is, uh, b- begin to, like, believe that, like, putting in the qualitative data and asking yourself how you feel zero to ten about your work, your life, your health, whatever you want to be, that qualitative marker of your quality of life, the first step is collecting that data, right? And-

   4. CWChris Williamson43:24

      How effortful is that for you? How long does it take per day? How much does it feel like homework? How much did it feel like homework when you first started?

   5. RDRob Dyrdek43:32

      I- You know, I- I don't- I don't know that it ever felt like homework, and it really changed for me when I could see it in a dashboard. Man, when you- when you can see h- where you spent your time that day and then, like, how you felt about that day and h- and all, how disciplined you were that day, that week, that month, it gets exciting, right? And you become motivated. And it's, you know, it takes a few minutes in the morning to do it. It's really, really effortless. It's when you get overwhelmed and you got a lot going on and then you- you sleep late, but you gotta get to these emails. It's the, like- like, you know, the idea of life, uh, we- we tend to, you know, live life a- on this pace of, uh, never getting to do the things that we wanna do because we're always doing the things we have to do and- and that's sort of that idea of time design. When you begin to time block and, like, "Hey, I'm always gonna get up and do these things, and then I'm always going to work out at this time because I know that's where I'm gonna be more consistent." Like, "I'm gonna brain train and meditate here 'cause I know I'm gonna be more consistent." Like, when you begin to do it that way, then- then it becomes more part of your rhythm and you've designed it around, um, your ability for it to become consistent, right? Like, and- and for me, that's just, um, where it went from, "Hey, I gotta get the data," to, like, "No, instead of getting up at 6:00, I'll get up at 5:00 so I have time to log the data, get the email in there, meditate, and brain train before, um, I start my day at 6:00." You know?

   6. CWChris Williamson45:11

      I mean, I'm interested-

   7. RDRob Dyrdek45:12

      A type of flow.

   8. CWChris Williamson45:12

      ... by this brain training. Uh, it's-

   9. RDRob Dyrdek45:14

      Yeah.

   10. CWChris Williamson45:14

       ... the one thing out of your core seven that I, if you'd said in advance what do you think's going to be in there that I probably wouldn't have predicted. What-

   11. RDRob Dyrdek45:21

       Yeah.

   12. CWChris Williamson45:22

       ... what- what- what is the process? You've evidently looked at the data and seen that when you do it, you feel better. So from a felt sense, it must be effective.

   13. RDRob Dyrdek45:31

       Yeah, look, I- I- I think even, um, from- from a, what it's doing for my brain, I have zero data. What it's even doing to me, I have zero data. What I liked about it was I don't necessarily need the science behind it to know that I want some cognitive work in the morning, right? So it's a super simple sort of, like, series of games each day, right? So, um, it was the hardest thing to stay disciplined at, right? Like, for some, because it was like, okay, you gotta now focus, right? And for me, who's like, "Oh, let me just work on stuff. I love creating stuff," and what, you know, like, whatever, whatever. And so, um, it was in the first couple years the one that had the lowest percentage. And now- now that I do it every single day, this year I use it as a gauge to how sharp my mind is working every day. So now I qualitatively rate how well I brain trained.... how sharp I felt. And it's fascinating because like, man, sleep eight hours, get a 95 sleep score. You know, obviously, I'm not drinking, not eating sugar, like intermittent fasting, like I'm just as, like lean and mean as you can be. Like, you know, every last thing highly balanced, beautiful existence, super happy, like everything. But like, I will get a 95 sleep score and get up and brain train and my brain is just barely firing. I just can't even... it's like, you know, I would give it like a four. And then some days I'll, you know, sleep six and a half hours and get up at 3:30 in the morning and, and then I'll be like, boom, firing at like a nine. I have not been able to find a correlation in all my data on what is keeping my... what will be a, a, a reason that my mind will fire sharper yet. And, and it's super fascinating because I've been experimenting with all types of stuff like drinking salt water and doing red light therapy when I first get up to see, like, "Okay, what will li- light on the eyes and salt water, uh, do to, like, brain function in the morning?" And-

   14. CWChris Williamson47:45

       Any change?

   15. RDRob Dyrdek47:46

       ... nothing. Nothing.

   16. CWChris Williamson47:46

       (laughs)

   17. RDRob Dyrdek47:46

       Like I have not been able to like (laughs) like... And, and here's the beauty of like being so highly optimized and so disciplined. You can, you can bring things in and out and see how they feel. You know what I mean? Like-

   18. CWChris Williamson48:01

       Yeah, you have a control, right? Everything is gonna stay the same.

   19. RDRob Dyrdek48:03

       Yeah, it's like you're so consistent that you can introduce things and, and really understand their effect, you know, ex- especially in diet. And, and then the other thing that's really amazing for me since I sh- I ba- since I shoot like the, the five-hour block of shooting eight episodes back to back to back to back, like that's this thing that really tests, like m- my stamina and my sharpness for big, long periods, especially as it relates to, um, uh, the type of sleep that I need, what I eat and when I eat, uh, throughout the day to, to be as sharp as possible. It, it, it's another super interesting gauge that I have, introducing nootropics into that to see how they affect it, like all different types of stuff is really fascinating. But that's, that's one of the, the joys of, of sitting at that level is then everything you introduce, like you don't have to... There's so much variability in stuff that you could choose to do to optimize, uh, all aspects of your life. And the problem is when you're... when even when you're slightly inconsistent with diet or sleep or alcohol or anything you put in your body, stress that you may have, like all of these things that would ever disrupt your rhythm are going to give you misreads in that personal data to understand if this really is making an effect and has a quali- a quality on, on you, you know? And that, that's something that, that's really amazing that I get to have for the rest of my life, you know? Because it's like you just keep getting healthier and healthier and you keep in a... Now, like in... I don't just like, um, work out. I work out and test every muscle in the body to make sure no muscles in the body ever fire hypertonic, right? So it's like... and build any compensation patterns, right? Because I had to basically unwind an entire dysfunctional, uh, muscle and skeletal structure from, uh, having a, a, um, you know, essentially a, a weak upper trap muscle when I was a kid that led to a hypertonic, uh, pec minor that led to a hypertonic QL and a glute medi that got a cluneal nerve that destabilized my ankle. And then I built this professional skateboarding and athletic structure on that for, for 35 years. And then had to go through the process of learning everything about my body, including eventually learning how to test every muscle and how it's firing to then reprogram my neurology so that my entire skeletal and muscle structure fires flawlessly. To take you on a rabbit hole of like how deep even how I look at the human functionality and how easy it is to even get yourself into a position of being disciplined with diet when you spent all the years to learn all the muscles of your body and got your body to fire correctly, and now really see a pathway to living healthy and stronger deep into your hundreds, you know, in a very healthy and happy way, you get even more motivated as all... you keep adding all of this depth to your overall being, you get more motivated to be happier, to learn more, to do more. But it's in all aspects of my life. It's my relationship with my wife, my... the way that I treat my body and my health, the way that I understand money and my finances, the way that I build companies, all of it together is how do you make all... every bit of you better and better and better and better over time? Then you grow into the ideal version of yourself on an ongoing basis because you're expanding into new levels. You see further, "Oh, that's where I can go." You expand further. "Wow, man, look at this, but look where I can go." That is what I realized is the actual output of this deeply intentional, holistically designed, uh, being and, and creating sort of milestones and measurements to all of it and then just getting better and better at being a human. Over time you realize the actual joy of life is living in a balanced, harmonious state and continually and perpetually evolving into your limitless potential.... that's actually the joy of life. And it's like a dopamine drip because you get so excited about, man, what y- the future's going to be, then you pass a milestone, then you celebrate that for the day of like, "Wow, that's amazing, but look at what the future's going to be." It's this continual, uh, dopamine experience that's generated through yourself on an ongoing basis, you know.

8. 53:03 – 1:08:01

   How Rob Met His Playboy Wife

   1. RDRob Dyrdek53:03

   2. CWChris Williamson53:03

      You mentioned your wife a couple of times today. You're married to a, a Playboy model who won Queen of the Earth or something.

   3. RDRob Dyrdek53:10

      Queen of the World.

   4. CWChris Williamson53:11

      Queen of the World.

   5. RDRob Dyrdek53:12

      Mrs., Mrs. Queen of the World. I could cry-

   6. CWChris Williamson53:14

      Mrs.-

   7. RDRob Dyrdek53:14

      I could cry thinking about it again.

   8. CWChris Williamson53:16

      ... Mrs. Queen of the World. What's the story of how you started dating her?

   9. RDRob Dyrdek53:20

      Yeah, I mean, look, you know, I'm, for me, it was, you know, I had, you know, in that beginning moment of, like, really living with intention and I decided, like, "Okay, I, I am someone that believes they are meant to be with someone forever, build a family," um, and so for me, I truly, like, um, decided what I needed to do was change who I was. But in this era, you know, like, I decided, like, you have to become the person that, uh, the person you wanna be with forever will, will respect and be with who... Become the person that they would wanna be with, essentially. And then, man, and then I went on, like, a journey of absolutely, like, like, not hooking up with chicks, telling all my friends, like, "Hey," like, "I'm just waiting, I'm just waiting. When I, um, when, when she appears, I'm gonna be ready. Like, I'm gonna be able to tell her I've been waiting, haven't hooked up with anybody." Like, waiting and then at the nine-month mark, like, like, I'm... Like, saw her Playboy, uh, thing and was like, "This is my wife," right? And of course you're saying, "Well, of course," you know, kind of, like, everybody says that when they, they see, uh, you know, they see this beautiful, stunning girl and, and, and, uh, play with her, like, "Oh, of course," right? So I was immediately, "This is my wife," right? And when I pictured, like, "Okay, this is perfection from a beauty standpoint," but she had this interview where she talked about, um, she wanted to swim with sharks, she wanted to pet a tiger, and, um, I thought to myself, "Well, shoot, I've been attacked by both of those. Um, this, this right here, this is destiny," right? So, I DM her, right? And we start, uh, talking in DM and I say, "Hey, you know, I think I could be a great life coach for you, uh, because you want to, um, swim with sharks and pet a tiger. I've actually been attacked by both of them on purpose." And so, we, we begin to talk and, you know, I'm already... I, I haven't even talked on the phone, we're just now moved to text and, and so I'm already convinced, like, this is my wife. Like, I'd, I did it, like, I, I changed myself, I (laughs) look, I changed myself, um, like, I was patient and now nine months later, we are here, right? Let all my friends know, I met her at work. The universe provided. Um, later that week, okay, we're just texting, she tweets about Dayton, Ohio, right? And I'm like, "W- who, w- why did you tweet about Dayton, Ohio?" She's like, "Oh, my, my brother and mother live there," right? Now, of course, Dayton, Ohio is where I was born and raised, and my whole family lives, right? So now I'm like, "What? Her mother and brother live in Dayton, Ohio?" This is my wife, okay? And so still haven't even spoke, still have never even spoke on the phone. This is just over text. And, um, so we decide, like, "Okay, let's, let's, uh, get together." I say, "You wanna get together on Friday?" She's like, "Sure, what do you wanna do?" I gotta be impressive. This is my wife. I gotta take it to another level. She had just tweeted, um, you know, about this kennel that was essentially shutting down and they were, you know, getting all the puppies away, and all the puppies that, that people didn't adopt would end up, like, getting euthanized potentially, right? And so I, I said, you know, um... So my idea was, like, "Hey, let's go and look at some puppies as a first date," right? Is sort of what I wanted to do. But it turns out that was two and a half hours away, and I'm like, "Oh man, we can't drive to go do that." So as a joke, I said, "What do you think about grabbing a helicopter and flying out to the kennel and rescuing some puppies?" And, like, a half hour later, she's like, "Great," and I'm like, "What?" And so I had to go figure out, sort through, and get a helicopter, still never spoke to her on the phone. And so I'm, I was convinced now, "Okay, this is my wife." And, and for some reason o- for the last 15 years, every person that I, like, was sort of connected with always had a connection to Hawaii. And so I was convinced I was meant to marry somebody with a connection to Hawaii. And so as I was driving to pick her up, hoping that this wasn't an episode of Catfish since we never FaceTimed, never even talked on the phone, nothing, um, I kept telling myself, "Forget about Hawaii. Forget about Hawaii. Why do you care?" Like, "She's, she's gorgeous," like, you know, "she, her parents are from Ohio," like, "this is meant to be." Uh, picked her up. It wasn't a catfish. She got in the car. First question I asked, "Do you have any connection to Hawaii?" And she's like, "Well, uh, you know, my grandmother lives there. Uh, right now my sister lives there with her," and I'm like-... perfect. This is my wife, right? So now, I'm like, I mean, I don't even, I don't, I'm like, you know, it's not like the deep connection I had hoped for, but good enough. And so we take off, we go and get in this helicopter, and we're flying across California on our way to rescue some puppies. And we just start talking. You know, I'm trying to be impressive and, like, you know, but also, like, you know, I'm like, you know, "I got my stuff together." You know, "I've really been working on myself to, like, really..." You know, you know, whatever. Just trying to, you know, like, not blow it, you know what I mean? But, you know, be cool, but not too cool. And she begins to tell me her background, her story, and, you know, we're just talking, and then she shares with me, um, that she was a Make-A-Wish child, that she had a rare blood disease when she was 10 years old and was given six months to live. And so Make-A-Wish granted her a wish, and her final wish was to swim with dolphins. And Make-A-Wish granted her wish and flew her to Hawaii, where she swam with dolphins. And when she, um, swam with those dolphins, she told herself, "I'm not gonna let myself die." Like, "I want to experience stuff like this for the rest of my life." They went back, they offered her an experimental treatment which ended up putting her in remission and curing her indefinitely, right? And so for me, right then, then I was like, "Whoa, this is my wife." You know? And so as incredible and beautiful as that is, right, you know, got all the makings of an am- a, a, a storybook and an episode of Bachelor all in one, the reality of our relationship and what she gave me is so beyond, so beyond just that magical story. Because w-what we became and what she gave me was forever. She, I shifted from looking at, like, what was next and, "How do I build this business and li-" But like, "What does forever look like?" Because now I really see, like, who I'm going to build a life with and why I want to realize my potential, to realize it for us and, like, wanna have a family with. And that became the anchor of what really allowed me to begin to evolve and, and, and find the success that I was able to, to find. And I, I have never once, you know, in this, you know, 10 years and 8 years of marriage, even, like, wavered on ever trying to continuously do everything to, to continue to make our relationship better and better and put our lives at the forefront of everything. And our f- when we had kids, put the kids at the front. Like, every continue with kids to put our relationship at the front and, you know, not only have a movie tonight and, and a breakfast date tomorrow and, uh, a Friday night, uh, pasta, and Saturday with the kids, and karate, and going to the fair, and then, uh, martial arts with the kids on Sunday, and going to the movie again. Like, it's just my whole life is, is built around keeping our family and home and relationship at the highest level. And part of that is, like, um, qualitatively asking her, having a conversation every day how she feels, um, about the relationship. And yesterday I got a three. Yesterday I got a three (laughs) , you know what I mean? And like, I, it's still, like, a conversation, and I know, like, it, it was because I shot that day, then I had these y-you know, some, a couple of heavy, big business meetings that, or business calls that were more ad hoc than part of the rhythm, right? Because every day I send her my schedule of what I'm doing that entire day, with a love quote, so she has complete visibility on what my day flow is and where, where we will spend time together, and then ultimately, um, so I don't choose something over her, i.e. when we're supposed to be watching, uh, a show together and then I go do this call for 30 minutes, uh, because I have to, gets me a three. You know? But I'm, you know, deeply aware that I'm, I'm treading on disrupting the flow of what it is. But, you know, it's, it's ... I've trailed off into how we, how I s- support that relationship, but again, it's a beautiful beginning, but ultimately, you know, you don't have an extraordinary relationship and an amazing family and home by just doing it in between all of the other stuff you do. Like, you have to design it with intention, and then you have to continually optimize it, because you're changing, your wife's changing, your kids are changing, your needs are changing. All of this stuff is a- is moving and evolving on this continuous basis, so you have to continually be setting and resetting and optimizing it towards energy, right? Because that, you just want that high energy in your house, between you and your spouse, the people you work with. Every interaction that you have, that's really what you're chasing, and on all levels of your life, that requires a continual assessment and optimization, because everything is changing, always.

   10. CWChris Williamson1:04:20

       How did you get your wife to buy into this very optimized, objective metrics of a relationship process? Was there ever any issues with trying to get this so operationalized?

   11. RDRob Dyrdek1:04:33

       Well, I, I think she sees the benefits of it, right? Like, we're especially the rhythm of existence and how we even run our household with, and how we, you know, each week, we have a family sync with all the assistants and everything, and the rhythm of the house, and how we run grocery systems in here, and, and just sort of the, you know, at first it was two days a week, and then that wasn't enough. Like, she felt ... like, and she's seen the system, like, slowly get optimized to where she's happier and, and feeling more loved and feeling, feeling that energy and balance in herself. So she's just seen the output of it, and, and, and now the belief has been built, right? And, and think about it. You don't necessarily ha- I'm not asking her to, "Hey, send me your rating today." We have a conversation about it, right? So, so it's like I used to try all different types of things, of, of asking her, and, and then I, I would email and, "Email me any notes." Like, then it's like, "I don't wanna email you." Then it was like, then it was a (laughs) ... It was really funny. Like, one year, it was like, I, w- w- we started the conversation, and then she would feel that, like, I ... "It's been a bad streak for, like, two weeks." And I'd be like, "No, it's actually only been, like, three days. It feels like two weeks." And then she would be like, "That data's ..." Like, "You skewed the data." You know what I mean? (laughs) Like, you know, it was like ... And so then I had to, like, then send an email of the number so that it was validated. So that, like, you ... So that there was no even more-

   12. CWChris Williamson1:06:10

       An independent record of what happened.

   13. RDRob Dyrdek1:06:11

       That's it. And so, you know, to me, all that did was continue to build belief in the system. But when you think about the beauty of qualitative data, it's just, it's just a higher level of awareness, because you've got to, you've got to spend the time to reflect and ask yourself how you feel about anything in order to pull the insights that you need in order to make it better and evolve it, right? Because if you just hope it happens naturally, you're never going to guide it or control it. You want to control your evolution, and, and every part of you and every relationship and everything in your life is evolving. And that's where just asking yourself and using that qualitative awareness allows you to reflect, 'cause you have to reflect in order to even assess something to decide what should I change or evolve to even make it better, right? And most people forget about, like, being disciplined to work out or eat right. Now, you haven't worked out for a week. You feel terrible. You, you look at yourself in the mirror. You're mad at yourself, so you have a glass of wine because you had a long, crazy day and end up w- binging Netflix till 10:30, then get a bad night's sleep, then wake up late. "Now, now I gotta get all this stuff done." It's like, you're just fighting through all of that, uh, let alone trying to get to some reflective insight that's going to evolve you and make you better. You never even take the time to be like, "Okay, what can I do to get out of this rut?" You know what I mean? What, what can I change in my overall life? That has to be the core operating, uh, sort of piece of your flow in order to continually r- and rapidly get better and better and becoming the ideal version of yourself.

   14. CWChris Williamson1:08:00

       Have you ever felt

9. 1:08:01 – 1:20:12

   Advice to People Who Aren’t Present

   1. CWChris Williamson1:08:01

      like you're connected, or you experience your life, but you're not connected to it? Like, you sort of ... Things are, are happening and they're washing over you, and you're an active participant, but you're also kind of passive. Like, things don't really ... They don't connect with you on the way that they should. It's something that I'm seeing a lot more people talk about on the internet, and there's this sort of culture of cynicism that I've become very intimately familiar with. And I, I tweeted about how pissed off I was yesterday, uh, basically saying that I'm sick of all of these people who see hope as the problem, and that, uh, there is a culture of cynicism on the internet that I absolutely hate, so I wanted to start a toxic positivity movement. And, um ...

   2. RDRob Dyrdek1:08:48

      (laughs)

   3. CWChris Williamson1:08:48

      ... um, it seems to me that you're incredibly connected to your life.

   4. RDRob Dyrdek1:08:51

      Yeah.

   5. CWChris Williamson1:08:52

      It, it makes sense because if you do anything with intention, the outcomes end up being very aligned with what you intended to happen, presuming that they don't get perturbed on the way, and after all of these iterations, what you intend to happen is often what does happen. You're also afforded this by having, you know, more resources and, and, and a team around you that can help it to happen. But there is still a big chunk of people out there for whom experiences in their life happen, but they don't feel connected to them. What would you say to those people that are feeling a little bit detached?

   6. RDRob Dyrdek1:09:23

      Yeah, look, I, I, I'm, I can't relate, right? Because think about, like, I love my life at a deep, deep level. I, I am in awe of my life. You know what I mean? Like, I continuously, like, like, I don't practice gratitude. I'm overwhelmed by it. Like, I'll be in my shower and be like, "Look at this life you have. This is like nuts that you get to do this." Like, even the chaos yesterday of these big, like, ad hoc business calls, it's like, "Look at this. Look at how crazy your life is, that you get to, like, pull these levers. How fun is this?" Right? It's the, the disconnection in life as, as a whole is when, like, you ... There's zero intention, right? And then if you have zero intention, then you don't like wha- anything that, that you have in your life. You don't like your job. Like, you, you ... Your friends. You, you, you know, you end up talking about how your friends are so toxic. You have one good friend that you basically, uh, don't let ... You can confide in all the hate you wanna share with all of your other friends. Like, you just end up in this world where ... But every now and again, you have a pocket of motivation. You try to be healthy for a bit. You try to do this for a bit, like, and, and you can't help but feel hopeless.Right? And then, like, God forbid, you begin to build a case of the world being against you, and, and then think ab- think about the mindset of, and the way that the mind works, you know? 'Cause again, you're, you're in, in an action state. You're experiencing the present. You're enjoying the present. You can only really judge how you feel about anything in the present moment and its purity. It's like you're either then creating a, a, a better future and excited about what the possibilities, or you go past that and you're worrying about the future, right? And then, like, you go the other way. That's the past, and then it's like, okay, something happened and you're just dealing with it and handling it and getting it done. Or you're, you're pushing all the way back down now to worry. And, and again, people that are hopeless live in what I like to consider the sorrow triangle, right? Where you are just swinging between, like, reactive and inactive and worrying and dwelling, right? So you're just constantly blaming the past or wishing this or, or worrying about the future not becoming, but you're sitting in this state where you're dealing with everything as it comes or doing nothing. There's zero proactivity in creating a better future, designing a better future, and going through the process that it takes to get there. And, and again, you're, you're basically a system of systems that all integrate together that naturally, um, go into an intuitive subconscious state, and if you have a bad system that just keeps you in this state, it's almost impossible to get out. And then you think, "Man, if I just got in the relationship, that would get me out." Then you get in the relationship and it's you're just, it's chaos and adds a new level of chaos to you. Then it's like, "Man, if I could just get this job." Then the job isn't what you thought. You always think you're one thing away. "Man, if I go to this, uh, Tony Robbins seminar, that's gonna be what does it." You know, if you get some motivation and you- you just looking for one thing, and, and again, I, I, I believe this as an absolute truth, that you can't change one part of you without changing all of you. Like you have to, you have to take a look at all of you and design with intention the whole if you ever wanna get there. But I do believe, as it relates to being, uh, emotionally affected by this group of the internet that lives in this constant state of, you know, bitterness, if you will, um, and they could literally... (laughs) They could, you know, e- they could pick apart anything that there possibly is. You know what I mean? It's like I don't believe that there's so much depth in dysfunction in the overall system that like, they almost only get energy from taking shots and firing and getting a reaction. It's almost like they need to watch something that fires them up and then they, they need to have a deep conversation about how, like, the world's gonna fall apart and, like, this is the beginning. They've, they g- they get that energy from this deep negative sort of almost thought experiments and contemplation, right? Is where their energy is derived from, and, and that's what a toxic person is, and, and it takes a depth, a depth of awareness to ever get there, and I think most people, if they're going to do it, do it much later in life where they, they settle down into, like, "Okay, my expectations are never going to be met. Where am I at and what can I do to just make it a little bit better?" I've seen some of the most bitter friends I have, like, get into, like, you know, what I'd call a mild personal development, right? Where they're, they're like people that hate all things personal development and so they would never, like, call it that. They'd just be like, "Oh, I've just been, like, getting up ear- I've been starting to work out," you know, just adding little things to better themselves, like, but they would never, like, read a book on, like, you know, h- like how to build a life design or framework or even, like, assess yourself. They just wouldn't even, they would never bother, but seeing it sort of crack in and seeing them get way happier, but you're 47. You know what I mean? It's like, and you're already, like, I can see your body. I can see, like, your mind and already see that, like, you're going to be in sort of this rhythm of hopelessness till the day that you die, and, and you've seen many a people, uh, go through it and what, what, how do you ex- how do you look at them? I just look at them as like, man, it's like, it's the, the simulation is yours to design and yours to ultimately, um, learn to control and ultimately guide it towards your wants and needs, and you either believe that or you believe that the world is controlling you and you have no choice so what's the use? And those of us that believe that they actually have control and someone like me who actually took complete control and then now controls it almost, uh, completely and now is guiding it and, and watching the magic happen, and being in awe of being able to experience it, I look at life as incredible. I don't contemplate, uh, a recession. I don't contemplate, like, uh, what's going to happen to, uh, the currency reserve of the United States and how it's going to affect me. I know, like, whatever happens in this world, who's elected, whatever it is, that sure, it may affect some aspects of my existence, but not, uh, very little because I've built so much defenses around my quality of life and my happiness that almost no outside effect is ever going to affect it.

   7. CWChris Williamson1:16:55

      Do you think that you would have the same mindset without all of the money?

   8. RDRob Dyrdek1:17:00

      It, it's, it's interesting, right? Because I'm ... You know, I'm ... W- when I see, like, you know, if I, you know, post something related to money and time and sort of how it all works together, "Oh, easy for you with all that money," and I, I think to myself, um, "Maybe." Right? Maybe. But money's relative, right? In the sense of I've, I've been able to rapidly evolve and cr- and create a very big, complex life that is very effortless to operate. And I've used money to buy back time. I used money to, um, be able to scale what I'm able to do beyond myself, still limiting it- using a limited amount of time. But I don't think it's money, um, only would have got me here. But I do believe money design and growing money is a cornerstone of a high-quality life. Right? Because at the end of the day, like, it's really will always be about how much money you spend versus how much money you earn, uh, versus the taxes you paid, and then how much you have saved. That balance right there is always going to be where your peace of mind is, because you don't need hundreds of millions like I have, but if you have, um, you know ... If you spend 50 grand instead of spending, uh, 80 grand a year and end up now saving after 15 years and have 800 grand saved and you're spending 50, well, boy, you're gonna feel real secure. And if something happens, you're gonna be like, "Well, you know, I'm good to go, like, until I got some time to figure it out," or, "Now that I don't necessarily need to, uh, earn any more income, I can go fly-fish or whatever it is that I really am passionate and wish that I could do." Because make no mistake, your ability to use your time to do what you want will be dictated on the amount of money you need to live the life that you want to live. And so you can't have high expectations on a lifestyle and, and not have a clear path to how to earn the money or a strategy on where to invest that money so that you eventually don't have to continue to earn it. You can live off the money that you've earned and saved that's now growing so that you can live the life that you can make. And if you don't design that, you will never get there. Yet it is what everybody needs to do in order to live a high-quality life. And what are you going to do right now? "Well, I'm gonna work a job I don't like and retire at 65, and now at 65, I finally get to do the things that I want." You know what I mean? And, and that's, like, sort of the worker construct that we've put in, sort of, society, th- that I would call from the, you know, the World War era that sort of has evolved over time, and the iteration of that is a better job at college and better 401Ks and different in- in, uh, different investment tax, efficient investments for retirees so that when you f- get to 60, 65, now you can spend the time doing what

10. 1:20:12 – 1:30:13

    The Importance of Delaying Gratification

    1. RDRob Dyrdek1:20:12

       you wanna do.

    2. CWChris Williamson1:20:13

       Have you read Die With Zero?

    3. RDRob Dyrdek1:20:15

       I have not, no.

    4. CWChris Williamson1:20:16

       You would absolutely adore it. I'm not one for dishing out book advice.

    5. RDRob Dyrdek1:20:22

       Mm-mm.

    6. CWChris Williamson1:20:22

       I'm not sure that I've r- I've come across a book that is closer aligned with your philosophy. It's a guy called Bill Perkins. He's coming on the show in a week and a bit. I think his daughter, perhaps, comes to UT, so he's gonna come through town. I'm gonna record with him. I, I believe that this book's going to be one of the seminal personal development books, and it's gonna have a real long tail to it. So it'll be an Atomic Habits, and The Obstacle Is The Way, or whatever.

    7. RDRob Dyrdek1:20:46

       Mm. Mm.

    8. CWChris Williamson1:20:46

       Uh, and his, his, his entire concept, Die With Zero. I mean, th- the book kind of says it itself. Um, and he talks about the memory dividend, about front-loading particular experiences. There are certain experiences you can only have at certain periods of your life, which means that it is important for you to do it now, presuming that you're going to increase your earning capacity over time. Most people spend, they underspend their current earning potential. What you actually want to do is front-load your future earning potential to now when you have more freedom, more r- robustness in your body, more optionality, more availability, because that experience allows you to then think about it, and you get a little titrated dose of the memory that you had. As opposed to if you wait until you're 60 to try and go skiing, if you can go 60, if your knees can take it when you're 60, you've spent all of that time not paying yourself the memory dividend. So I think, I think, um, a lot of different people are converging on the same idea, which is this slow life strategy which encourages people to delay gratification, because if you delay gratification to the extreme, there's no gratification, right?

    9. RDRob Dyrdek1:21:54

       Right. Yeah.

    10. CWChris Williamson1:21:54

        And yet we've applauded this, you know, marshmallow test world, and, and, and quite rightly so, because willpower and, and conscientiousness and industriousness, they're predictors of success and they're things that people rely on. But we take the philosophy that we use to be successful in business, and we then try and apply it to fun in our lives. And you go, no, like, the ... I don't, I don't think that necessarily those are, uh, uh, things that should be mapped onto each other. I don't think that not spending time having fun outside of work makes you more effective or more virtuous when it comes to your success within work. I don't think that that's the way it should, it should operate.

    11. RDRob Dyrdek1:22:33

        But, but again, I don't ... I still look at that as a little bit too binary. Now you're saying, "Don't do it when you're old. Do it now." Right? And to me, it's like, like, no, do it with intention. Do it with an understanding. Do it with purpose, right? Do it today and every day for the rest of your life, right? Y- there, there is no, "Do it now while you can so you don't have to do it later." Do, do it all.... right? But you've got to do it with intention. And if you don't learn money and understand money, it's like you're ... What are you going to do? You're gonna, like, "Oh, I'll spend it all now 'cause I can make it later because, like, I can't ski 'cause I'm gonna be on that ski trip." But, well, if you understood money and understood that, like, "Well, no, actually, if I do half of it now, like, and, and, and work harder for two years and invest that, I can actually ski in-"

    12. CWChris Williamson1:23:26

        One month of the year for the rest of my life.

    13. RDRob Dyrdek1:23:28

        That's it, right? So, like, to me ... And, and again, I don't ... What I prescribe to is, you don't ever wanna get somewhere, you wanna be there always, right? And, and when it comes to money, you just wanna create a system that you understand and believe in, that over time, when it ... it will grow into giving you more security, peace of mind, and ability to use your time differently to do more of what you'd like to do. But don't try to get to a place where you're not sacrificing to get there, right? Where you're doing it from a harmonious way, and that you're enjoying life while still planning and preparing for a better future, a better tomorrow. And perhaps sometimes you sacrifice to accelerate that, and sometimes it ends up being, "Oh, I thought I'd be able to save that money in 20 years, and now it's 30 years." Or in other cases, "Man, if I just really focus on this company, I could sell this thing in two years, and then now invest into my plan and be able to do whatever I want for the next 15 years," right? There's ... It's having the clarity about money nobody ever seeks, right? It's just, what do you need to spend? How much do you earn? And how much of that do you need to, to, to invest and where do you want to invest it? It, it's just pick a lane. Make an index fund that's 10% and it doubles every seven years. Cool. You know what I mean? Pick a lane. For me, that's why I just picked, like, syndicated multifamily real estate 'cause I loved it, 'cause it's like you get cash and it's tax-free. Okay. Let's do it, right? And I had zero. You know? I had zero. And, and then I just started adding one at a time. And then when I sold the first company, I didn't ... What was I gonna do with the money? I didn't, like ... Oh, should I d- get a diverse, like, portfolio of equities and, like ... Oh, no. I put it all into the strategy. One strategy, right? And then when I got to, you know, over 50 million in just those buildings, and now, like, my way of living is now never going to be compromised. I get to fly private, live in a house, have Ferraris, live this life for the rest of my life.

Episode duration: 1:37:37