More often than not we don't need to be taught new stuff. We just need to be reminded of the same thing over and over and over again. We don't give enough credit to reminders.
Sam Parr
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According to Aristotle, you only need 1-3 true friends.
A Harvard Study backs this up. The longest study of adult life ever conducted — 85 years, hundreds of people tracked from youth to old age — found that the number one predictor of long-term health and happiness wasn't money, fame, power, or exercise. It was the quality of close relationships. Even just one person you can count on through thick or thin.
A grown man calling another grown man his best friend, and me telling them I love him... Make fun of me all you want, but knowing that these guys have my back and have my best interest in mind, it makes me sleep like a baby.
Sam Parr
Psychologist Dan Gilbert ran an experiment at a college campus. Two groups of students chose artwork to hang in their dorm rooms.
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Group 1 could come back a week later and swap it out.
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Group 2 have to lock in — whatever they picked, they kept.
Group 1 got less happy with their choice over time. Group 2 got happier.
The brain manufactures satisfaction from commitment. Once a decision is made, it makes peace with it. But when the door stays open, so does the doubt.-2.png?width=567&height=502&name=LP%20Image%20Editor%20(38)-2.png)
Sam's advice:
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Figure out how to tiptoe and try before you buy.
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Test a city with an Airbnb before signing a lease.
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Run experiments before writing a business plan.
And give every decision a deadline — because more often than not, acting leads to happiness faster than thinking does.
"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. So get out and get busy now."
— Dale Carnegie
At 16, John D. Rockefeller wanted to be rich. His first move wasn't starting a business. It was opening a ledger and writing down every dollar that came in and went out. He called it Ledger A. Sam stole the idea.
At 23, Sam wanted to save $50k. To do it, he had to get his monthly expenses down to $2k. For six months, he tracked every single cent by hand. Just the act of tracking made it easier to hit the number.
Sam's goal at 23 was $20M liquid by 30. He reverse-engineered it:
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Build a newsletter business to $15M in revenue
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Sell it for $30M, walk away with $20M after taxes
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Then he broke it down further: grow subscribers 3% every single week.
That was it. Every Monday through Friday, he only asked one question — did the list grow 3%?
This is the most common trap Sam sees in ambitious people. They don't stick around long enough to see the payoff.
The reason is structural. Anything worth doing requires paying a known cost today — time, money, energy — for an unknown payoff in the future. That gap between cost and reward is where most people quit. The pain shows up daily. The results don't show up for months, sometimes years.
The founder of Eight Sleep, a billion-dollar company, told Sam that his company nearly died five different times. The most recent was just a couple years ago. If he'd quit after failure number two, none of it exists.
There are basically four ways to get really rich
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Get lucky
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Go into sales
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Start a business
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Good salary, live below your means, and invest all your extra money into index funds
If you're listening to MFM, you're probably interested in the third one. But the fourth is the most reliable — and the one most ambitious people ignore because it feels too boring.
Over the last 10 years, 97% of active fund managers underperformed the index. These are Harvard MBAs with teams of analysts, Bloomberg terminals, and thousands of employees. They still can't beat it.
The math
Over the past 20 years, staying fully invested would have returned roughly 10% per year. Miss the best 10 days out of 3,650, and your returns drop to around 5%. Miss the best 20 days, and your gains are nearly zero. Picking those days is nearly impossible. Almost no one does it.
After selling The Hustle in 2021, Sam put almost everything into a basic Vanguard index fund. Five years later, it's up 71%. He did nothing.
It's not about timing the market. It's about time IN the market.
Sam Parr
Step 1
Create Your "Company Values"
Just like companies need values that everyone can remember and repeat, you need personal principles that are:
- Memorable: Use frameworks like "the three Cs" or alliteration
- Specific: Not just "work hard" but "Max Effort" (like Shaan's basketball team)
- Testable: You should be able to pass/fail against them daily
Step 2
Install Repetition Mechanisms
If you only say something once, you haven't installed it. Here's the math:
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Your sales team needs to hear the script 50 times before it becomes natural
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Shaan's basketball team had to hear "play off two feet" until they heard it in their dreams
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You know you've succeeded when they're saying it to each other
Your move: Don't just decide on a principle once. Build it into your morning routine, your calendar, your environment. Write it on your bathroom mirror. Make it unavoidable.
Step 3
Market to Yourself
Your personal values need to be:
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Catchy: Use campaign slogans, not boring statements
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Emotional: Connect to identity ("I'm bold, I'm tough, I won't conform")
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Visible: Put them where you'll see them constantly
Sam's Family Example: Sam and his wife created family values and traditions: "What collectively should we care about so we could teach our kids?" He does daily affirmations with his daughter: "I'm bold, I'm tough, and I won't conform to anyone."
You can't optimize for a goal without a goal. And we spend most of our time worrying about the optimization.
Sam Parr
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