The Exchanges

Q So good. So a lot of people, I think, have friends that tell them the opposite of that all the time, right? They say, why would you have somebody else do that? Um, aren't you scared? You know, do you think you're better than that? When did your mindset shift to start giving yourself permission for even ideas like that?

A I guess it was, you know, Kind of through osmosis and seeing a lot of books that I read about effective allocation of resources, and so one of the things you have to effectively allocate is your own resource, and I don't think people think of themselves that way as a resource for my family. Does, do my, does my family think I should be working my hours doing that? Do my future kids think that I should be working that way? No, they want to maximize the return. How about the charities that I donate to? They basically get a percentage of what I earn, right? Like, did I make this much this year? This is my taxes. This is a percent. I ship it out. I can tell you right now, they're all sitting there. I mean, they don't know, but they're thinking if they could have a lens like, no, Bill Perkins, don't work on that. Spend your neurons and your time working on this business or this multi-million dollar idea. Don't make the bed. Don't clean the sheets. Don't do whatever. Please pay somebody to do that. And so I have an obligation to others to effectively allocate my time to my goals, to my ambitions. And so I don't look at it as like I'm better than somebody. I just think that I'm better suited doing certain things, and other people are better suited, suited doing other things, and plus, you know, they get to save their money, learn, and move up the chain. You know, I once swept floors a…

AI assessment note: “Kind of through osmosis and seeing a lot of books that I read”

Q Yeah. Do you think you're hard to work for?

A I, I think, uh, there's this, at first people think there's this idea that I'm not approachable, but I'm, like, very approachable. Like, I, I come in looking like the pizza delivery boy. I come in jeans and ball cap, you know, I'll talk about anything, um, and once they realize, like, wow, I, I'm, I have all this freedom. I have all this structure. I can push back. Like, I like, they think I want to debate because, um, um, you know, I'm right. I'm like, no, I'm debating to come to a consensus to get to the answer. I'm just as curious as you are. Probably more curious. And so, um, I think it's easy. I'm pretty like, you know, a lot of times they're like, oh, I want, I want to raise or I want to do this. And I'm like, I really don't know. Let's see what market is. Like, I'm not like, you should get paid this. I'm like, what is the market? And then I pay at the top of the market.

AI assessment note: “And so, um, I think it's easy.”

Q Yeah. What about when you do it for companies that you, for types of companies you haven't run before? Like, you've put operators in tech companies, right? That I've seen, SaaS companies obviously inside of your actual, uh, commodities funds. Um, is there a common thread, or is there a different type of human you're looking for, depending on industry?

A Usually it's a self-made, self-motivated, uh, fire and forget missile. Like, I'm always trying to find fire and forget missiles. Like, I just want to, that's where I want to go. I want to hit that target. Shoot it up in the air, and they boom, and they hit the target. I don't have to tell them, I tell them what I want, Not how to do it, right? And so, having, had a hedge fund, and having, you know, uh, Eric, my CTO, was like, this guy self-taught up, taught him machine learning, and OCR, and built a whole model, uh, for tracking LNG ships in this display. We used it. I was like, ok, this is a, this is the type of person I want. And so, in your universe, Of people that you run into, you're gonna, you're gonna find them, right? You're gonna see them, and my goal is, like, to convince them to be on my vision, and pay them, and, and just don't, don't go, right? Like, and, and, you know, so that, going back to friends, like, when I find a good person, interesting, integrity, fun, open, vulnerable, I don't let go.

AI assessment note: “Usually it's a self-made, self-motivated, uh, fire and forget missile.”

Q Can you talk about how you found him, why, how you figured out that was the person you needed for this specific role?

A Yes, um, so I think it's around 2008, 2009 when, um, all the banks were laying off everybody, right? The world was ending. No more was in New York, and trying to convince somebody from New York at that time to move to Texas is kind of crazy. And, you know, I really had to enroll him on the vision of what he can get out of life and the things he can do here that is different from a bank. And so, And what I wrote the most on the risk and the ability to execute in his area of expertise, right? If you're in a bank, you're way up in a bank, you're like high up in IBM or a bank, et cetera, you can't do a 50,000 dollar experiment. Your budget is so tight. You can't go, you can't go, hmm, I think this might work. Let's, uh, it's going to take 50,000 dollars to find out the answer. May work, may not. I'm like, okay, let's FAFO. Fuck around to find out, you know. That does not exist in these organizations, right? And so, the freedom to be himself, to, to execute on his area of expertise, for me to step back and let him be, be us to debate and figure things out, that was very appealing. You know, it's a little scary, like, that doesn't exist, right? Like, even in our companies, we're like, if we're not failing, we're not trying.

AI assessment note: “I really had to enroll him on the vision of what he can get out”

Q ago, and I was sort of laughing because I said, well, I had the exact same thing happen with me and my husband, and I was annoyed, jealous, angry. She was like, well, you know, I might have felt that way. I was like, God, you're so enlightened about the way that you communicate. Were you guys like that when you first met? Is that why she became year one?

A Like, I was in a situation where I was like, I'll never get married again, you know what I mean? Like the, the hot stuff, the My back was still burning, you know, from falling down on the hot coals of my own doing. Fortunately, Lara was in a field where she had free time. I was in a mode of like, I just want to go hang out and travel and we got to spend a lot of time together. Despite the wild and crazy times, we were hanging out and getting to know each other and, you know, I saw it, right? Like I saw, you know what I mean? If something that I needed, that I wanted, you know, I became, you know, obviously physically attractive, but I became attracted to her soul, her way of being, her kindness, you know, the whole package and I was like, okay, I want to Get closer. I want to be partners with you. Like, even running around the world as a madman, I want you to be my part, my wingman, wingwoman, as running around the world as a mad person. And then like, when I'm hanging out with my kids, I want you with me, and I went out here. And it was like, I always just wanted her around all the time. And then I realized like, even beneath it just being her is like, oh, I, I really crave and love partnership. And it took a while for me to figure that out. Because I was just like, no, being freedom is number one, you know. I was like, I was, and freedom is like, you know, it's intoxicating. …

AI assessment note: “I became attracted to her soul, her way of being, her kindness”

Q Uh, we've talked about speed before. Right. And how important speed is to making money, and the faster you move in many ways, the more money you make. Um, but I'd like to, I've never gone further with you into that question. How do you think about speed and moving fast, and how do you know if you're moving fast enough on the decisions you want to make in life?

A Um, well first I want to say, you know, not a dream crusher. I just want to hold you accountable to your best self, right? Like you, you, you definitely had all the ingredients to, as somebody I would want to bet on. And your, your dreams, your ideas were much bigger than that. You weren't thinking bigger. Um, and you know, I told you at the time, I said, the money is easy. It's having an idea that you can execute on. There's tons of money. There's tons of rich guys that don't want to work. They just want to invest in somebody and make a good return. Question is, how do we find these executors? And when we find them, they dump cash into them and they go golfing or flying or doing whatever they want to do. And so I wanted you to think big because it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be hard for you to raise money, right? Like after you went around, you were like trying to cram me down because these other guys want to come in, this guy want to come in. I'm like, no, that guy can't get in, right?

AI assessment note: “the money is easy. It's having an idea that you can execute on.”