The Exchanges

Q Tell me, how was it for you? How hard was the process of not drinking anymore after, you know, a few decades of it being a very effective tool?

A It was much less difficult than previous times when I had tried to stop drinking as much. I tried to slow it down previously a lot, like many times. And I tried to, I was like, okay, I need to like drink one drink only, or like only drink beer or only drink on weekends or whatever it was. But like that never worked for me. And then I, there were times when I was like, okay, I need to dry out. I got like way too fucked up this month. I need to like dry out. So I'm going to like, Take 30 days off or like a hundred days off or whatever. And every time I'd be white knuckling it because I was kind of like looking to get to the end of that sounds like a very addicted, uh, situation. And so I quit. I just said, I'll, I'll, I'll just put on Twitter, I'll quit and tell all my friends. And then like the, the peer pressure will keep me on the path. And that was part of it. But the part of it, I think more of it was just like knowing that there was no, like, Something to wait for at the end of the tunnel. Like it was just like, oh, this is the way it is the new normal for the rest of my life. That was my commitment made it way easier. So after like a month or something, I didn't, you know, I stopped thinking about it. And after two months, it was like, it's fine, you know, and then I haven't really thought about it since then. So it was, it was pretty easy for me in a lot of ways.

AI assessment note: “It was much less difficult than previous times when I had tried to stop”

Q Is there anything that, that's surprising to you that as you entered sobriety that you've learned or you noticed that you weren't expecting by being sober?

A Um, well, there's a lot more hours in the day than I thought there were. Like, I, you know, now I can, I like work out every day. I can, I have, you know, spend time with my family every day. I have like, uh, a lot of productive hours, like much more, many more productive hours. And I think that's like, you know, before I didn't realize I was like wiping out like a pretty substantial hours of my week drinking. So that's one thing. You know, you can go out at night and then have a productive day the next day, which is incredible to me. You know, I never thought that was like possible. And then also like, I, you know, I just learning, like I can go and like do stuff, like have fun and like dance sober, which I never thought it'd be like, you know, it's like a confidence builder to be able to just like be out there in the world and like not need this crutch, you know? So for me, I think all those things were very surprising.

AI assessment note: “well, there's a lot more hours in the day than I thought there were.”

Q build another business because you genuinely want to? Or are you going to build one because that's just what people want you to do? And how do you know if people want you to do it or if that's what you actually enjoy doing? For Justin, when he starts to ask these questions of himself, there are things that he falls back on to guide him on his next steps.

A I think a lot of it is just thinking about like, what is, what is my joy every day? Like, what's the, what are the things that I'd love to do? And if no one was watching and it made me no money, you know, and like, how do I just do those things every day as much as possible? And the ironic thing is like, for me, a lot of things are the same things I was doing before. People saw me like building companies and investing in companies. And it's like, well, before I was doing them from a scarcity mindset, I was like, oh, if I don't, I need to, Be somebody and make this company successful because if I don't, and I'm like, no, one's going to love me. And today it's more from a, it's the same activities mostly, although maybe I focus a little bit more on the things that I like to do, but same types of activities. And it's like, well, I love to mentor people. I love to learn new things. I love to do deals. Uh, I love to learn about new spaces, you know, and industries. So For me, kind of incubating companies, investing in companies, that's like a vehicle to do that, and if I just focus on the reason, you know, coming from a place of joy instead of coming from a place of scarcity, life's a lot better.

AI assessment note: “what is my joy every day? Like, what's the, what are the things that I'd love to do?”

Q that was connected to my experience, and like being sober and dancing, I didn't equate as like, that wouldn't be fun. Just tell me, from your experience, what it's been like to like, Go out, whether it's with people from work, whether it's like Fractal, or Goat, or Quest, or any of your other businesses, or just like personally, and engage in social situations without alcohol. What is it like?

A I mean, it's, it's fine for me. Like, it's great. Like, I, I, I don't get peer pressured into drink. I mean, I'm old now. So like, I don't get peer pressured into drinking, right? Like people aren't trying to be like, oh, you gotta take a shot or whatever. Um, but then it's also just like, instead of leaning into, like, I've got to get twisted to like, enjoy myself. I kind of just like lean into like, oh, what are the things that are enjoyable about this moment? You know, I think I connect with people a lot more deeply and more genuinely, you know, I'm more curious about people. I like to learn about people. Like that's one of the reasons I like entrepreneurship, you know, I love to learn about people. And so, you know, I just like really lean into that and that's, that's great.

AI assessment note: “it's fine for me. Like, it's great. Like, I don't get peer pressured”

Q really enjoy. You're actively investing, and you're starting this, you co-ended this new gaming NFT business, Fractal, which the product hasn't come out yet, but there's a ton of appetite and a huge community around it. Do you think in kind of this part of your life where you are now sober, where you haven't drank in two years, that you are significantly better equipped to, to build this thing?

A Yeah, I think so. I think I'm more, it's, it's ironic because like being able to be more like in the state of like, I don't need the world to show up any kind of way. Like I'm just accepting of whatever's happening. You'd think like, I have a lot of friends who are like, oh, well, you're going to lose your edge and you're not going to work as hard. You're not going to care as much. I think it's different. It's more like in that state, I'm less reactive to the world instead of the world coming in and being like, you know, like something happening, like I don't discord server goes down. We can't add people to the server or something like that. Or like the product breaks the first day we go out instead of like the old Justin would have been like screaming at the world and then like, Fuck. This is like, everything's breaking. It's not going to work. And like spitting myself up about like how I'm doing the wrong thing or I'm not good enough or quit or whatever. And today I think I can just be like, oh, well, that's interesting. You know, that's obviously a detriment to us being successful, but like, what can we do to make it successful? And we're just going to try our best and maybe it won't work. I don't know. Maybe it won't work, but like, we're going to try our best and see what happens. And it's a lot calmer. And I think it's like, it makes me want to give up, let's put myself i…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I think so. I think I'm more... less reactive to the world”

Q to be able to reconcile. And then there was the part that was just like, this is how the people that you wanted to surround yourself were behaving. So why not behave in that manner? So given it was serving you, right? Like while there were trade-offs of it, it was serving you for a while. At what point in time did you decide it was no longer serving you?

A Well, so, you know, alcohol, uh, It was interesting. It's kind of like alcohol is like both, it was like celebratory and like when things were bad, right? Like I was just watching this documentary with juice world. I don't know if you see that on HBO and like at, at the end of it, like one of his friends is like, well, on a good day, we would like drink lean, pop pills and smoke weed. And on a bad day, we drink lean, pop pills and smoke weed. And I felt like kind of the same thing. It was like on a good day, I'm drinking And celebrating on a bad day. I'm drinking and I feel like shit in the morning. I'm like, it's kind of like knocking out a substantial amount of my productivity. Although I'm like pretty functional as a human being. Like I'm, I was like, you know, I'm a high functioning person. I think I'd like learn to adapt and be able to execute pretty well considering, you know, and I wasn't getting like fucked up at work during work hours or something like that.

AI assessment note: “it's kind of like knocking out a substantial amount of my productivity.”