WEBVTT

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Introduce yourself, please. Yeah. My name is

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Alexander Concepcion. I live in Austin, Texas.

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I run a real estate company called Taco Street

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Locating, where I help people move to Texas.

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And last year, I published a book called Survival

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First, The Rebel Entrepreneur's Guide to Risk,

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Riches, and Immortality, which is a Dante's Inferno,

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like Odyssey through darkness and light. for

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the small, independent, rebellious entrepreneur.

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Oh, my goodness. Was that really fun to write?

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Yeah. It was more like, it was spiritual. Yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah, I could see how that would be. Like,

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I've written books. I know it's like, what was

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your experience? Was it kind of like you get

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like this download, like, all right, here's the

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whole thing. Now go write it. Was it like that

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for you? No, not at all. It began with a question.

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which is why do businesses die? Because the pandemic

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began and I went from, I've lost all of my clients,

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everything is over and this is going to be awful

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to my business is exploding and I've doubled

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my revenue from last year. But at the same time,

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I'm watching so many businesses around, just

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around me. like my friends and local businesses

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just collapse everywhere and it just made me

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ask like why me why am i okay why am i not just

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doing okay but thriving and that question was

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the first domino that became a four -year book

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journey to understand risk and survival for small

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entrepreneurs wow that's amazing I mean, that

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is a labor of love then, you know, like that's

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like you had to go deep and it was dark. And,

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you know, this was like an existential exercise,

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really. Yeah. It led me into therapy midway through.

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I bet. Yeah. As any sufficient journey through

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darkness might do. What is your vision for the

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people that you're serving? So. The first three

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words of the book answer that, and it's through

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darkness, light. And what that is, is an invitation

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for entrepreneurs to look at risk and darkness

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and the reality that most of us don't make it.

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And if you don't survive, nothing else matters.

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So that's why the book is called Survival First.

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And the whole world of entrepreneurship discussions

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are usually successful people talking to other

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successful people about how they became successful.

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And they will brush over the turbulence and the

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times things got dark if they talk about it.

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And the people that just crashed and failed and

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burned. most of the time you will never hear

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their stories. And I think that is a tragedy

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because there's a lot of lessons and wisdom that

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can and should be learned from people who did

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not make it. Amazing. I mean, yeah, that's what

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the failure rate is, what, 96 % over some period

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of time? I don't think anyone actually knows

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the number. but everyone knows that it's really

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high and it's it's kind of like it's really annoying

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when you go through all these podcast feeds and

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all these gurus and all these people everyone's

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talking about like their success and which is

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great like there's a lot you can learn from other

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people's success but it creates a massive survivor's

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bias Because nobody is going on a podcast tour

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to talk about how they blew up their businesses.

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And there's a lot of stories that are hidden

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by trauma and humiliation and non -disclosure

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agreements. So there's this entire infinite graveyard

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that no one looks at. And I wanted to look at

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that. and see what lessons can we learn from

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this. That's so great. Yeah, it is like there's

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this dark underbelly of sentiment that, oh, everybody's

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just, you know, like you said, it's the survivor's

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bias. So we figure, oh, and how does it, like,

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what is the ripple effect? Do you think of that?

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You have a lot of people making the same mistakes

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as other people do. Because they don't know those

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are common mistakes. And what I discover in this

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book writing process, and just by looking at

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all these failures and collapses and stories

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of darkness, is there's just a pattern. There's

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a lot of ways to look at why businesses die.

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There's so many different layers to this. Because

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it's rarely one reason. It's usually a collection

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of reasons. And the way I break it down is there's

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the stuff you don't control, like your external

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risks, where I argue that you don't control the

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world around you, but you do control how you

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adapt. And then there's the internal risks inside

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your business that you do control, like your

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business model, your marketing, your operations,

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your so many different things. once we once we're

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done looking at your business it's looking at

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you the entrepreneur because you are the biggest

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risk to your business so then it's looking at

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the mirror me like oh i'm the problem slash solution

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of course because you always invert things yeah

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um but yeah that's the the general breakdown

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but i spend a lot of time effectively rebuilding

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the entire ecosystem of thought around risk.

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Because I think that the language we use with

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risk is not useful and often counterproductive.

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So the reason this took four years is I had to

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break down all of these ideas to the fundamental

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base forms and rebuild an entire ecosystem of

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thought with new forms. That could take some

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doing. Yeah. It took a long time. So this is

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kind of also a philosophy book. Yeah. And one

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radical shift I make to like make that less vague

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is when I think about risk, it's not just the

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money and time. that you lose when things go

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wrong it's the energy that it costs you specifically

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the emotional energy because energy is the main

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variable that we have that makes everything run

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because you can have money and time but if you

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don't have the energy then nothing happens so

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businesses die because Mostly because people

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just choose to stop putting energy into it. And

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there's a lot of people who may have profitable

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businesses, but it costs them so much in terms

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of stress, anxiety, their personal relationships,

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where on paper everything is fine, but in reality,

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the holistic reality, it's a disaster. So my

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fundamental reframe is about looking at risk

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and survival through a primarily human lens.

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That's amazing. So you have this book. Are you

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doing is there a follow on like somebody reads

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this book and they're like, oh, my gosh, you

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know, can they hire you as a coach? Is that a

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part of it or is this just like, nope, just wrote

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the book? yeah i mean if someone reads the book

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and they're like this is awesome like i want

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a guide um i prefer the the role of guide rather

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than coach i like that um because the the idea

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of a coach is usually telling someone what to

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do which is what i want when like i'm working

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out i'm at the gym i want someone to tell me

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what to do yeah but a guide is someone who can

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help someone navigate their own journey It's

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more about empowering someone that they have

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the resources, more like the mental resources

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and the ability to think about complex problems

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with more practical frames. Because everything

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we're doing is just a network of decisions. So

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this entire book is at its core about how to

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make better decisions. And better decisions involve...

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understanding risk and downside at the same time

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looking at opportunity and upside and how do

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you make decisions under unknown circumstances

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and being able to rationally and energetically

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understand both it's like what is your vision

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for like what you want to happen next with your

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business with my business what I've been doing

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actively is I wish I thought of this idea when

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I was writing the book. But what I'm doing is

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I'm building a sharper business. So what most

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people try to do is grow. And growing is great

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if you grow the good stuff. But a lot of people

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grow the bad stuff more than they grow the good

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stuff and call that success. And I don't call

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that success. For me, I want to grow the good

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stuff and shrink the bad stuff. So taking arbitrary

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numbers, say I make $200 ,000 in revenue working

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20 hours a week. Can I do the same thing, make

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$200 ,000 in revenue working 10 hours a week?

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So both are valid. Like, yeah, I could try to

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double my revenue to like 400 ,000 working the

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same hours. Ideally, I would like increase the

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revenue while decreasing my input. So it's looking

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at both sides of the equation. And that idea

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is mostly in service for me to like my business

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more. I think one of the most radical frames

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and questions an entrepreneur can ask is. Not

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necessarily how can I grow my business, but how

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can I like my business more? Because it puts

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you, the human, at the center of the decision

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making. Because I think a lot of people sacrifice

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themselves for the business. And personally,

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that's not how I want to engage as an entrepreneur.

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And I think a lot of people don't want to do

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that either, but they need a better frame of

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how to make decisions. Yeah. What would happen

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if, you know, like best case scenario, like your

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wildest dream for this book, right? Is there

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a number, like, is it, are you trying to have

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like a hundred million people, a million people,

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a hundred people, like, do you have anything

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like that? And what would happen if you hit that?

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I don't have numbers in mind. What I have is

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relationships in mind. I want this book to be

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a key to interesting doors. So I don't need a

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lot of people to read it. I just need the right

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people. Because core to my life is the quality

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of my life is the quality of my experiences and

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the quality of my relationships. If someone reads

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my book and believes that I can add a lot of

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value to their life and to their businesses,

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and I can build a strong quality relationship

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with someone doing amazing things, then yeah,

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there's business upside to that. But just in

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a holistic life, having more awesome relationships

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is kind of, it's very simple, but it's very ambitious

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in its own way. Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision

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Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your

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reactions as these episodes continue to move

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forward. This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision

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and becoming a vision pro yourself.