The Exchanges

Q billion dollars a dollar a day, you're not gonna love that deal, right? As much as a hundred million dollars in a week. So, Uh, when you do a deal, you've done, you know, you invested in 90 companies. I'm sure you've, you've done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of deals across your lifetime. What is like your number one philosophy or secret or tool to doing a great deal?

A For me, the way I think about it is if it's going to be a great deal for me, it's got to be a good to great deal for the other person. Very rarely do you get to a place where it's great for one side and poor for the other, and everyone's happy, right? And so for me, I come at it, I'm like, what do I think I need to do this deal? And will I do the deal under these terms? And what I always do is I kind of make a note. I'm a kind of a pencil and paper guy. What won't I do the deal at? And because what happens is emotion gets you very engaged. You, you know, the heat of the moment, the bidding stuff like that, that becomes a problem. Right. And so for me, I try to think about what am I willing to pay? And to your point, the terms, well, what's more important price or terms duration, if it's a real estate deal, like you, you name it. And then more importantly, who's the counterparty? Can I trust them to deliver the deal that they might say they're going to do? So to me, all of those things come into play. Your mentor is right.

AI assessment note: “if it's going to be a great deal for me, it's got to be a good to great deal”

Q Yeah. Do you almost not even care as much about the good news as the bad news as a leader?

A Yeah, it's a problem though, right? Because, like, I, you know, you feel bad because, like, The team wants to come celebrate all this great stuff. And you're like, yeah, well, what about these two things over here? And it's like this, it's like this. And like, the problem is I also tend to do that at home with my family. It's not good. Right? Like you, uh, so I, but I do think you get better that way. Like when I tour our properties, I still, you know, I don't do it as often as I'd like. I go in and I tour the fire escapes and the back of the house. Right. Because that's where, you know, like where the pride is, right? Your grounds can look great. But are the prides in the back of the house, right? And I can tell a really good property manager and maintenance supervisor by how clean the other areas are. How organized is the maintenance shop, which no consumer or customer is going to see, but I'm going to see it. And they're going to know, well, these guys are so organized that the maintenance team could come in and do whatever they need. So like, for me, that that's also, I told you, I have like ADD. I also have OCD. And so like all those little things out of place drive me nuts.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, it's a problem though, right? Because... The team wants to come celebrate”

Q And I wasn't thinking about asking about this, but I work with my husband. He's, ah, brilliant and amazing. And I think you said in the beginning, you really can't be successful if you don't have a successful partner. How did you, how do you find a partner that is going to back you?

A You know, I, I think I was pretty open and transparent with my wife when I met her that like, I love work and I love business and you know, this is a very important part of what I do. And so like, I, I, I felt like I, she might disagree, but I was like, I laid out the disclaimer, right? Like that this is really important to me and I love this. I can love you too. Okay. But like, this is my energy, right? And it does, it feeds me like, and I think I'm a better husband and a better dad and a better friend. To people when I'm like in action. And it's also because my mind won't settle down. So like, I, I just need that energy.

AI assessment note: “I think I was pretty open and transparent with my wife when I met her”

Q people think that becoming a billionaire or making a billion dollars in value is really easy, and then when you look at the math, it's actually incredibly difficult. What is the key to amassing that kind of wealth? Is it, uh, can you do that just with financial leverage? Do you have to have operational proficiency? And what do you think most people get wrong in trying to get rich?

A I think you need all of these things. I think you need a plan. You need to execute. You need to have good relationships for capital and you need to like do the right thing so you can rinse and repeat and grow. Right. So somebody gave you a thousand dollars. Now they'll give you 10,000 and they'll give you like, you need to be able to prove that trust and all of that. You know, I, I think, you know, people like, oh, you're a billionaire. Like I didn't set out and I was like, oh, I'm going to make a billion dollars. Like I just said, I'm going to set out on this journey. You know, I think it could be successful, but like you just keep going and you're in kind of the rat race and like, you know, it's not like, you know, there, there's some counter one day and it just went off and said, okay, here's a billion dollars, right? Like it, it doesn't work like that, or at least not for me. And, and so for me, like I'm working harder today than I did when I was 25. My mentor taught me that if you love what you do, it's not work. And so for me, like, I just love this action.

AI assessment note: “I think you need all of these things. I think you need a plan.”

Q the beginning. Like, how do you decide if a business is worth your time and attention or not? Um, because sometimes, yeah, maybe you could make another billion dollars, which sounds amazing, but it's gonna take every single moment with your family, tons of your personal guarantees and capital. Like, what is your, do you have some sort of framework for saying, like, this is worth it, this is not?

A Yeah, especially now, because I have too many businesses, right? Too many things I'm doing in time as a commodity. I continue to try and get better at saying no. But, like, I love the puzzle of business. And so for me, like, I am, my next frontier that I'm really getting involved in is, like, longevity, ok? Peptides, stem cells, all of that. Like, I think that is the wave of the future. Like, I think that is gonna change the scope of people's lives. And so, like, I'm intellectually interested in about in it. I'm learning about it and all of that, so then now I'm actively, like, putting capital in to try and really, you know, follow the lead there.

AI assessment note: “I'm intellectually interested in about in it. I'm learning about it”

Q Yeah, I think you're right. It's also pretty miserable running the place, you know, because when payroll isn't there, I mean, how many years in the beginning, you invested in your first deal, I believe, when you were 13, right? Yeah. I mean, how many years did you not pay yourself in order to just invest in deals instead?

A My mentor taught me a really great thing that I think about all the time. He's like, every dollar you spend on yourself is a dollar you have less to invest, and that is in my mind even today. Right. And it doesn't mean I haven't bought some really nice things and extravagant things, but I think about that. I'm like, oh, if I didn't buy a plane, I could buy that building. Right. If I didn't do this, you could do that. And so capital is like really important. I think it's, you know, you always hope it, you know, and my uncle used to say, he would be like, Hey, you know, you just hope after all this money comes in and you pay everyone that there's something left for yourself. Right. But in the beginning, capital allocation is really important, but it comes back to that risk. I was willing to take risk. I'm willing to fail. Um, I'm willing to fail every day. Like I, a lot of our startups fail, like that's okay. You know, but I'm also willing to like try and build new businesses.

AI assessment note: “every dollar you spend on yourself is a dollar you have less to invest”