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The Really Rich Journal

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The Weekly Tone

All the "book people" out there (I can safely assume you're one) will be interested to know that I've been hard at work boiling-down the lessons of the Really Rich Guy into a real-world, actionable toolkit. In a year or so (that's how long traditional publishing takes), you'll be able to comb through the various strategies that my character, Mr. Crown, uses on a daily basis to live a happier and richer life in a fancy hardcover, paperback, or e-reader. Glass of accompanying Oaxacan mezcal sold separately.

I'm going to argue, in detail, how my skits are a lot closer to reality than most people would believe. Particularly, why kindness and maintaining a giving attitude is a cheat code to getting what you want out of life effortlessly via helping other people. The general idea is: give first, then watch what comes back to you at a multiple much to your surprise.

This is the definition of a real-world win-win. It works almost every time. Not understanding this phenomenon is a rapid way to handicap your personal and professional growth.

During the process of cataloging Mr. Crown's (the character) main strategies (there are approximately ten), I didn't have a clear word for what he does subtly in each skit. I knew he was a giving person, and that it was a powerful attribute, but I had no idea just how powerful it was. After cracking into Influence by Caldini, I learned that this behavior is what social scientists refer to as "reciprocity".

Good news: you don't need to wait a year to learn more about reciprocity. I'll break it down here. As it turns out, the desire to return simple favors is burned into our cultural DNA and perhaps into our actual DNA - we may have evolved with it.

Groups that practice reciprocity have an advantage over groups that don't, because they can "give things away" without losing anything. Magic! In fact, it's baked into the words for "thank you" in many languages such as Portuguese and Japanese, translating to "an obligation" to "this will never end" respectively.

In several studies, as Caldini showcases, reciprocity is so strong that it outweighs likability. Meaning, you don't even need to like the person to feel a need to reciprocate a kind action.

Holy crizzap!

Caldini discusses a simple study where a plant (an actor within a controlled experiment) gifts a test subject a soft drink before asking to buy a raffle ticket versus simply asking (without a soft drink freebie). The little gift caused raffle ticket sales to more than double as test subjects almost instinctively felt the need to reciprocate the random act of kindness. To push the data further, whether the test subject liked the soda gifter had nothing to do with their willingness to buy a raffle ticket.

This phenomenon is subconscious and brutally powerful. It's almost impossible not to feel its pull even once you've become aware of it. Many people will go out of their way not to appear as a "freeloader", which many would agree could be the most despicable label of them all.

Understanding this concept should cause a rapid shift for those who struggle to adopt a more abundant mindset. In short, you're not saving anything from hoarding, penny-pinching, and gate-keeping! In fact, you're losing more than you can ever imagine. And every day you continue to lack a giving mindset, you're pushing yourself further and further away from your goals.

I recall a story from an early Tony Robbins book where he gifted his last ten bucks (he was flat broke at this time) to a kid at a buffet restaurant. It was a breaking point for him where he entered true abundance for the first time. He argues that you need to be willing to give your last penny to truly embrace the phenomenon. Perhaps.

Now, for the majority of us, we're not probably going to find ourselves giving out our last buck. So, beyond just being a cool person, you might be curious as to how you could employ this principle on a daily basis in business.

To illustrate, I'll list a few ways to responsibly leverage this principle:

• Brick and mortar: hand a cold bottle of water (or fresh coffee) to each customer on the way in

• Digital: share a free, highly-valuable resource before a purchase decision

• Interpersonal: be the guy that buys the coffee, beers, or sandwiches in a networking setting

These simple, affordable gestures might actually set you up for receiving a great deal back. Especially, if you make this practice a habit. And you'll feel good taking care of people.

I would go as far as to say as this is as close to proof for the existence of abundance as we're going to get. You almost can't give without getting something in return - it's hardwired into our species.

Going against this principle, and becoming a damn Scrooge, is simply going against nature.

Suggestion: A lack of generosity isn't saving you anything.

This week, I’m taking meetings from Miami, FL

Global Markets: A few words on contagion

The safest place in a risky, flawed market is still risky. Similarly, moving away from a big-ass tree in a lightning storm still means you're standing exposed in a lightning storm.

What we see is a classic example of contagion or the interconnectedness and rapid spread of risk in crypto markets with the impending collapse of Genesis following FTX's demise. Billion-dollar companies are seemingly tumbling one by one in crypto.

Remember, the biggest risk is the risk that we don't know. In the world of risk assets, you should know you're accepting a high level of risk for the potential of commensurate upside. Don't be so shocked when you lose it all.

In times of a shitshow (scientific term), all correlations go to 1 and you get screwed no matter what coin or crypto savings deposit you've plopped grandma's money into.

Therefore, here's how you should act with this type of asset class.

1. Limit highly-risky assets to a small percentage of your portfolio (like 5%). This will keep you from experiencing total ruin that can occur from contagion.

2. In a basket of interconnected, illiquid assets (as compared to the US Treasury market, for example), like crypto, diversification isn't "buy lots of different coins" it's buying "something else entirely".

In short, that's asset allocation and diversification.

*This isn't investment advice.

Entrepreneurship: It's gonna break anyway.

Last month, I wrote a piece about getting started on your big idea. I approached it from a perfectionist's viewpoint where a great deal of fear stems from not getting it just right and delaying the launch indefinitely. This is deadly.

Challenges are inevitable and are the only source of true learning (or wisdom, if you prefer). So if you don't start, you don't make mistakes. And if you don't make mistakes, you don't learn. And if you don't learn, you'll never get anywhere meaningful.

Someone else will eat your pumpkin pie before you pick up the damn fork.

From a recent launch and relaunch and now a pretty successful early scaling-up, I can assure you that it doesn't matter when (or how) you start because you'll need to change it on-the-fly anyway. Whatever breaks, it's going to be the thing you didn't anticipate breaking (or even a thing you knew existed).

When I first "launched" FastOutreach.ai, I knew things were going to break, confuse people, or blow up spectacularly. It was just a matter of time. But, I accepted this as a natural reality of getting started.

We decided to use a free trial model early on, so no one would actually get "hurt" if things turned buggy and we needed more time to fix them. It's a risk mitigation strategy and a decent pricing model.

But before you pat me on the back - this isn't my first rodeo in the world of mistakes. In fact, so many things I've built broke from day one, I'm not even scared anymore. It's more of a feeling of "bring it on".

Mistakes are a scarecrow in a Metallica tank top. Nothing to be afraid of up close.

In the words of Jimmy Iovine (co-founder of Beats), I turned fear into a tailwind.

It's taken years to adopt this mindset and I urge you to do the same, even if it feels uncomfortable.

Just this weekend, we rolled out a suite of updates, changes, and improvements to meet new feedback from power users. We fixed the stuff that broke! But remember, we had to launch and enjoy a little egg on our faces to get this feedback in the first place.

In fact, the faster things break, the quicker you can fix them. And people will thank you when you fix them because you built a great product that improves with feedback.

Our culture tells us to avoid errors. Our physiology tells us to hide our flaws. It's a toxic mindset. If you're not making mistakes you're not learning.

This leads me to share three strategies I've used to continue growing new products:

• Launch it fast and pay attention - don't worry about perfecting anything, let your users tell you what they like (or dislike)

• Improve when people ask ASAP - if someone points out something broken (everyone else already noticed it), you better fix it fast

• Realize it's never done - you've never completed your masterpiece, your product should be always evolving

So please, get on with whatever it is you want to do and anticipate the inevitable fireworks and weekend marathon coding sprint.

🤝 How I can help you:

1. The Entrepreneur’s Field Guide (Book) - learn the rules for entrepreneurship and how to blaze your own path.

2. The Guided Journey (Course) - I’ll be your personal guide on your path to success in my comprehensive digital lecture course

3. The Really Rich Podcast (Free) - a weekly deep dive into business, finance, and wealth mindset.