Why you should NEVER listen to your parents at any age...

How I got here…

21: Graduated Vanderbilt in 3 years Magna Cum Laude, and took a fancy consulting job.
23 yrs old: Left my fancy consulting job to start a business (a gym).
24 yrs old: Opened 5 gym locations.
26 yrs old: Closed down 6th gym. Lost everything.
26 yrs old: Got back to launching gyms (launched 33). Then, lost everything for a 2nd time.
26 yrs old: In desperation, started licensing model as a hail mary. It worked.
27 yrs old: "Gym Launch" does $3M profit the next 6 months. Then $17M profit next 12 months.
28 yrs old: Started Prestige Labs. $20M the first year.
29 yrs old: Launched ALAN, a software company for agencies to work leads for customers. Scaled to $1.7mmo within 6 months.
31 yrs old: Sold 75% of UseAlan to a strategic buyer in an all stock deal.
31 yrs old: Sold 66% of Gym Launch & Prestige Labs at $46.2M valuation in all-cash deal to American Pacific Group. (you can google it)
32 yrs old: Started making free content showing how we grow companies to make real business education accessible to everyone (and) to attract business owners to invest or scale their businesses.

Today: Our portfolio now does $200M/yr between 10 companies. The largest doing $100M/yr the smallest doing $5M per year. Our ownership varies between 20% and 100% ownership of the companies. Many of them we invested in early and helped grow (which is how we make our money - not youtube videos).

To all the gladiators in the arena, we’re all in the middle of writing our own stories. The worse the monsters, the more epic the story.

You either get an epic outcome or an epic story. Both mean you win.

Keep crushing. May your desires be greater than your obstacles.

Never quit,

Alex

*FULL DISCLOSURE*
I make content to make money - just - on a longer time horizon than most. I want to build trust with business owners so we can find the best ones and help them scale. And if they’re awesome, write them a check and go all the way as partners.

[paddygalloway]

I love my mother, but she wanted me to take a job in a tech company instead of doing YouTube (when I had 70k subs), I didn't listen and last month I made the same amount through my youtube business as I would in a whole year at that job. Listen to Alex kids.

[mattpiccirillo]

“Most people only need to make 4-5 good decisions in their life.” -Warren Buffet

[fellow]

Wish I heard this 10 years ago. I only realized this at 27. My gut always told me they were wrong, but I was programmed by them to think they were always right which wasted a lot of time in my life. Being a good kid that always listened to his parents cost me. I'll be turning 30 soon and have since changed things for the better ever since I realized this. I'm on track to consistently make at least 3 times the amount I've ever been able to make annually soon. Some people love being right because it feeds their ego, but the thing is it's so easy to be right about what doesn't work, and it's extremely difficult to be right about what does work. People, in general, are very selective with how they present their failures if they present them at all, and by default will only talk about the times they are right about stuff that is often inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. I subscribed recently. This channel is a godsend!

[mattpiccirillo]

-You get paid for what you do, you get returns on what you own
-The biggest risk is not risking
-Mistakes love a rushed decision

[guitaro]

I just found this channel today. Lemme tell you something, You are WINNING the title and thumbnail game. You will eventually be a huge YouTuber.

[dracsharp]

Great advice. It's important to realize that parents can't teach you everything, and are unlikely to be even the best at anything. They simply want you to succeed.

[aamerg.]

A person in your position could literally do anything with their time.
It's generous of you to give back and help to lift up others. Thank you

[johnwillsail]

My mother tried to get me on safe 9 to 5 route, my hardest critic no matter how much success i get. Its sad but her doubt drives me to success

[SlayNetwork]

Never listen to anyone Dear to your heart, because you are Dear to their heart too so they don’t want to see you get Hurt….but you must get hurt BAD to WIN BIG

[domoxxoox]

Coming from a long history of listening to my parents, it took me many years to realize their advice was what held me back the most. Not to say it was bad but it was the wrong advice for me and what I wanted. And Just as you said it was based around what's perceived as the safer bet, they doubted ideas around starting a business. I can relate to this, glad I found your channel thanks man.

[firerabbit]

When I was 18 I skipped school to start a SAAS company in Fintech... Everybody in my family told me to go back to school and build a career.

I struggled with different startups until I was around 28 years old, but i lived so frugally that my family just assumed that I was still nearly broke. Many of them honestly reveled in how their playing it safe led to them doing better than me.

Then, I finally had my first real liquidity event and I made a life-changing amount of money.

I moved away and started living like someone in my tax bracket... And guess what?

Nobody ever congratulated me or said they were proud. People actually grew to resent me and made up reasons why we couldn't talk or hangout... Because I was living so far beyond their means that it made my life seem out of touch.

Entrepreneurship is a lonely endeavor, you'll only ever truly be understood by other entrepreneurs.

[fotismichael]

My folks have done and are still doing well. I look up to them a great deal. But, to your point, they still want me to take the most careful, "safe" route possible. Definitely risk-averse for their kids, even though the best decisions of their lives came from taking risk.

[JUDALIONNN]

this is literally the conversation I had with my parents this morning as I told them I am leaving a job to start a company. Their response: isn't it too risky to do so? Perfect response is in this video 🔥

[BrandonWilliamyt]

Yeah this is great stuff, straight value the entire video and no bs.

[ritasjourney]

Very few in my life criticize my decisions but it's the "voices in my head"...what I think they are thinking, that can hold me back

[JackTN]

By far the most underrated channel on YouTube.

[TalesofGamerKnight]

I have parents who never listen to me even as an adult. Every time I try to give them advice, they just threw it in my face. I wish I had a different family.

[akol]

"But I learned the skills that one by one I was able to assemble and assemble on a belief standpoint of the world with the character traits to reinforce them to eventually yield the success that some people think is cool"... This is one of the best business related "quotes" I have ever heard...Deserving of my 1st comment on YouTube

[ArlinMoore]

alex you’re like Polo g - you never put out a weak verse. i had to rewatch this multiple times.

[chrislin]

Thanks Alex, I needed to hear this today. I listened to my dad and joined the family business, it's getting toxic and dad's leading me down a similar path he did. Dad sacrificed his relationship with mum for his business. I'd love the money but wouldn't give up the love of my life for it, I'd find another way to make money without doing so. Keep up the good fight brother.