36 Years to Realize — Passion Means Suffering

• Channel: Alex Hormozi
• Video: Watch on YouTube
• Tags: alex hormozi passion means suffering

Overview

Alex Hormozi reframes ‘passion’ — rooted in Latin for suffering — as finding something worth suffering for, and accepting suffering as the toll on every path worth taking.

Key Takeaways

• People in a father passion, but don’t even know what it actually means. so the root of the word, paseo, is latin for suffering. so it’s not about doing what you love. it’s about finding something that you love enough
• It’s interesting that this has been bastardized into following your passion means doing what you love. and the reason i’m making this video is because i had a young man stop me, say that he quit his job, went on
• Loving every second of it. so here’s the big problem. your passion only exists in the vague, not in the specific. so even if you start a business around what you believe to be your passion, 95% of what you
• Kind of like passion window is very short lived or it’s only possible as an employee where you actually stick to doing the same thing every single day within kind of a larger machine or a solo printer that chooses
• Very end. if you keep doing the thing that you are that you suffer for a long period of time, eventually you can get to true ownership where something, you know, operate on its own and then you have all
• So usually the average business owner around 10,000,000 and we meet in a group of 10. and i meet with them. and it’s something that i absolutely love doing. i look forward to the days, whenever they’re coming up. but
• Like, well, i love there’s a certain pizza place that i love going to once or twice a year. it’s amazing. so i’m going to eat it every single meal. i wouldn’t like it as much. and so we have
• What makes you love it. and if it stays rare, then it means that the vast majority of your time, not really doing it. and so it’s just a complete myth. and i understand why people tell younger people or
• Of time. right? and so let me reframe how i think through this is that you want moments. you want good days, not a neverending work state of this jolly thing that you love because eventually you’d adapt and you
• To have something that you do find meaningful have happened real quick. i’m going to show you the exact 10 stage roadmap from zero to 100 million plus that less than 1% of companies finish, i’ve now done multiple times.
• Constraint feels like? like what are the symptoms of it when you’re going through it? and then what steps we actually took to graduate and we’ve done this across software, physical products, service businesses, brick and mortar, all of this,
• And so this is what actually happens the role role, right? so unless you get very good at your passion, you will have to do things that you like, like you like less to pay your bills, period, like that’s
• Do to support the thing you love, which you may indeed not love. and so the 5% of your passion that’s left over will only be there if your passion doesn’t change, which it also will, which means the vast
• Playing a video game and day one, i said, enter this cheat code. you have max life, max strength, max money, max good looks. and then you go through the whole game and it’s incredibly easy. what would you do?
• I’m really ambitious. i won the lottery. that’s the ambition and the passion go hand-in-hand in that you were stating to the world and more importantly to yourself that you were willing to suffer for this thing because you have

Transcript

People in a father passion, but don’t even know what it actually means. So the root of the word, Paseo, is Latin for suffering. So it’s not about doing what you love. It’s about finding something that you love enough that it’s worth suffering for. It’s a pick something worth suffering for. And what’s interesting about this is that the first usage of the word passion came from Passion of Price, which was literally Jesus Christ crucifixion story. And so it’s interesting that this has been bastardized into following your passion means doing what you love. And the reason I’m making this video is because I had a young man stop me, say that he quit his job, went on an entrepreneurship, but then he didn’t like what his life looked like. And so he asked me what he should do. And the reality was that he quit because he thought that he was doing something wrong because he wasn’t loving every second of it. So here’s the big problem. Your passion only exists in the vague, not in the specific. So even if you start a business around what you believe to be your passion, 95% of what you do every day if you’re successful will not be your passion. You’ll just have very brief moments where you’ll do that specific thing if at all. And then assuming that that thing never changes, which it will. And so this kind of like passion window is very short lived or it’s only possible as an employee where you actually stick to doing the same thing every single day within kind of a larger machine or a solo printer that chooses not to scale. Not a business owner unless you choose to love business ownership as the thing you’re quote passionate about, which means that you’re willing to suffer for it. Right? And the ultimate version of this comes at the very end. If you keep doing the thing that you are that you suffer for a long period of time, eventually you can get to true ownership where something, you know, operate on its own and then you have all your time back, right? And so let me give you an example. So I run every month, I meet with 10 entrepreneurs. It’s the most expensive quote, service that we sell. It’s obviously unscalabable, but I meet with bigger businesses. So usually the average business owner around 10,000,000 and we meet in a group of 10. And I meet with them. And it’s something that I absolutely love doing. I look forward to the days, whenever they’re coming up. But I would absolutely hate it if I had to do it every day. And so how can that be true, right? How can I love something? But if I did a lot of it, I would hate it. Well, it’s like, well, I love there’s a certain pizza place that I love going to once or twice a year. It’s amazing. So I’m going to eat it every single meal. I wouldn’t like it as much. And so we have this misconception about falling your passion and in both scenarios, if you do the same thing all the time that you quote love, you’ll stop loving it because you’ll get so much of it. The fact that it’s rare is what makes you love it. And if it stays rare, then it means that the vast majority of your time, not really doing it. And so it’s just a complete myth. And I understand why people tell younger people or other newer entrepreneurs like, oh, follow your passion. It’s just because it’s politically correct and it’s easy to say, but it’s not the truth. And so you’re not going to have the perfect amount of sunshine for the perfect amount of time. Right? And so let me reframe how I think through this is that you want moments. You want good days, not a neverending work state of this jolly thing that you love because eventually you’d adapt and you would get bored, just like everything else. And so here’s the underlying. We’re using the excuse of a lack of passion to disguise your inability to handle difficulty, to handle being able to repeatedly do things that you don’t enjoy to have something that you do find meaningful have happened real quick. I’m going to show you the exact 10 stage roadmap from zero to 100 million plus that less than 1% of companies finish, I’ve now done multiple times. And so I can say with a lot of confidence that these are the stages as headcount increases that you need to get through and I broke each of these down by eight different functions of the business, what the constraint feels like? Like what are the symptoms of it when you’re going through it? And then what steps we actually took to graduate and we’ve done this across software, physical products, service businesses, brick and mortar, all of this, and it works. And it’s my gift to you. It’s aptly free. And so the links in the description, but you just go acquisition.com for slash roadmap, just enter info and you’ll spit it right back to you all free. And so this is what actually happens the role role, right? So unless you get very good at your passion, you will have to do things that you like, like you like less to pay your bills, period, like that’s real, right? And then number two, as soon as you are good at your passion, your demand will outstrip your supply of time and 95% of what you do will not be the thing you love, but stuff that you do to support the thing you love, which you may indeed not love. And so the 5% of your passion that’s left over will only be there if your passion doesn’t change, which it also will, which means the vast majority of your life you will not be doing things that you are passionate about. And in the tiny instance you do, it’s likely short-lived. And so let me frame why I think this is so important. If you were playing a video game and day one, I said, enter this cheat code. You have max life, max strength, max money, max good looks. And then you go through the whole game and it’s incredibly easy. What would you do? You’d just never play the game. It wouldn’t even be fun, right? And so we on some level know that we have to suffer. It’s not about winning the lottery, right? It’s not about the outcome. We can’t say, oh, I’m really ambitious. I won the lottery. That’s the ambition and the passion go hand-in-hand in that you were stating to the world and more importantly to yourself that you were willing to suffer for this thing because you have deemed it important enough to suffer for, which is why the striving, suffering is quintessentially human and not something to be avoided. Growing a business is really painful in sucks. Being a plateaued business is really painful in sucks. Being in a decaying business is really painful in it sucks. Entrepreneurship is hard. Being an employee is hard. Being broke is hard. Being rich is hard. Married people want to be single. Single people want to be married. I’m not saying all the time. But I’m saying, they’re suffering in every path of life. And so I see that the core issue, especially with entrepreneurs, especially new coming entrepreneurs, is that they look at their existing state and think, I am suffering and therefore there’s something wrong with this. I need to change this because if I change this, I would no longer suffer. But change will also call suffering. And so it’s the fact that you claim there’s a problem with suffering that’s creating even more suffering, and also sacrificing the thing that you said you would suffer for. Because you’re not going to achieve it because you never walk down the path. It’s one of my favorite sayings around this. It’s of myself. It’s my own saying. So it’s a bit self-aggrandizing. But success and failure are on the same path failure is just an earlier exit. That’s it. To that younger entrepreneur who I was talking to, no matter what path you choose, it will be hard. And so pick one that pays better. If that’s what you think is worth it. And so suffering is a fixed cost. The suffering on all paths is a fixed cost. And so the secret to getting what you want is doing lots of things that you don’t want. And so no matter what you do, it will suck. And so pick the things that pay better. The goal is to reframe reality. So that bad things are good. Not to try and only experience good things. I’m going to say that again. The goal is to reframe your living experience so that bad things are good. Not to try and only experience good things. It would be like looking outside and saying every day that it rains, I will be upset. Rather than there are benefits to rain and there are benefits to sunshine. And so you have to change your frame, not your conditions. Your perceptions not reality. And so let me give you a hypothetical. What if I told you you had two options and both rides cost 10 bucks, right? And one ride is one that you want and the other one is one that which one would you pick? They both cost 10 bucks. The thing you hate and the thing you love. Well, you’d pick the thing that you love. Now, let me say let me give you another option, a third option. Let me give you the option that’s the thing that you love unbelievably, like huge love. It’s so it’s so unbelievable that you’re not even sure you want to try to ride the ride because you’re not even sure if it’s going to finish the way you want. But it’s still cost 10 bucks. Which one would you do now? You probably pick the one that you really, really love, right? So then what if I told you that you’re going to suffer the same amount in all three paths that you pick in life? The thing that you hate, the thing that you think is a moderate or reasonable goal, or the thing that you really want to swing for the feds is for. All three have the same amount of suffering. Like think about it. You will suffer the same. You’ll suffer regret more here. You’ll suffer difficulty more here. But you’ll suffer the same. It’s a fixed cost. And so this is why this is why gaming biggest so is so real for me. Is that like what’s the alternative? Aiming small and also still suffering? Like the fears that we have on the downside are not true. They’re just suffering. And so I say all this to say delaying your pursuit because you’re waiting to find your passion is a fool’s errand. Find something that people value. Do that thing even though it sucks. Realize there is no greener grass on the other side. It all sucks on both side. When my favorite, one of my favorite CEOs that I’ve ever had, Susanne, used to say, it’s greener on the other side of the fence because it’s fertilized with shit. And so there are shit on both sides of the fence. You just haven’t gotten over in stepped in yet. And when my favorite Chinese proverb says, everything must be hard before it can be easy. And so my two senses do not try to be passionate about what you do, but try to be passionate about why and how you do it. But reason for that

(Transcript truncated — full length available on YouTube)