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Hey, Rob here. 
Here we are with emergency, 

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emergency Friday recording. 
If anybody was, hopefully we 

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haven't just ruined everybody's 
Friday. 

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And by everybody I mean listener
or three listeners, whatever it 

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were. 
Three people were waiting for 

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this podcast and they're like, 
what the heck is going on? 

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I'd. 
Be out of Yeah. 

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My whole Friday's ruined. 
Yeah, well, anyways, we had a 

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plan. 
We recorded something and then 

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we scratched it and and Rob put 
together a an interesting. 

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I would say we're back in like 
this almost the spiritual realm 

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of entrepreneurship with this 
fun bet. 

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Why don't you the the post is 
called the reward is harder 

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work. 
If you think pre PMF ain't easy 

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dot dot dot Rob, why don't you 
give us the context on this one?

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Yeah. 
So this is, this is actually 

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something that I've been 
thinking about for a while, 

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specifically as I keep lifting 
heavier and heavier weights and 

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just not looking forward to it 
and not. 

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And then I just have the voice 
in the back of my head, which 

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is, which is the, the trainer's 
voice, Mark Ripatella, who's 

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just like, you have to do the 
5th Rep, you must do the 5th. 

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And so I just have that in the 
back of my head, like, all 

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right, well, that that's 
terrible. 

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And so that's been in the back 
of my mind and it's a super, 

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it's a, it's the, the process of
lifting increasingly awful 

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weights has just, we talked 
about this last year about the 

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simple thing about hard things 
or the hard thing about simple 

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things or something like that. 
And it's, it's just been this 

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like interesting thing of just 
how much of what we need to do 

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is actually quite simple and it 
is exceptionally difficult to 

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do. 
And So what I observe is like 

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we, we create a lot of, we 
create a lot of useless work to 

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avoid doing the simple hard 
things. 

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And then once stuff starts 
working, we kind of think it's 

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going to get easier. 
And it doesn't. 

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And I, it was really it like 
came I, I, it came to a head 

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this week when I was at 
breakfast with a, with a founder

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friend who who we both know and 
he, he's been through the 

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program, he's gone through it. 
He'd like been trying to push an

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HR tool onto a market that 
didn't care. 

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And he just been grinding it out
for years on this. 

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And then kind of randomly in 
February, things turn. 

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He like he just kind of found 
pole in an adjacent space with 

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kind of the same product, but 
kind of a different product. 

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And he's gone from, from like 
bootstrapped was like he's like 

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drained his retirement account 
with like very little revenue 

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to, you know, like a million run
rate now, like 90 days later or 

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whatever. 
And so the growth has been 

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awesome. 
But, but I was like, OK, cool. 

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And I I knew what the answer was
going to be but but I was like 

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but I asked him. 
Was it the the bags under his 

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eyes or like what told you what 
that? 

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Yeah, yeah, I know it was. 
So I knew what the answer was 

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going to be because I know the 
answer to this question and 

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it's, it's always the same 
answer. 

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But I was like, Oh yeah, it's 
I'm sure it's a lot easier now, 

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isn't it? 
And he's like, no, it's so much 

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worse than before. 
And I thought it was bad then. 

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And so like, we, we talked about
this and I was like, you know 

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what? 
Given that I'm writing this on a

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plane last minute, why not just 
write about this? 

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Yeah, and let's let's hit two of
those things. 

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One, what happened? 
How did in case the listener is 

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in the the February version or 
the January version of that 

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startup where it's like, I don't
know, there's like some revenue 

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or something like that. 
You mentioned he found an 

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adjacent vertical or an 
adjacent. 

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Is it like a category or a 
sector or something like that? 

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Like, how did he, how did he 
take a product that wasn't 

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really working? 
And then what changed? 

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Like, how did he find the pool 
that led him to take off? 

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Yeah, So it was just from a 
couple of anecdotes. 

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So one of his like kind of 
customers, one of his customers 

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had bought and was using it, but
they weren't they, they like 

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they kind of needed something 
slightly different. 

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They liked it, they were really 
good. 

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And he's trying to sell it to 
other people, but it wasn't 

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quite right. 
And then he got into a 

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conversation with, you know, 
like a CHRO of AI think it was 

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like a plumbing or HVAC company 
who is like, oh, no, you're 

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thinking about it totally wrong.
It's not about X, it's about Y. 

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And then he was he was also 
trying to sell outside of 

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plumbing and HVAC into, you 
know, all sorts of HR 

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departments in different places.
And it's like a recruiting tool,

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hiring tool. 
And in all of those other places

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they didn't, they work like 
structurally understaffed in 

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plumbing and HVAC, they are 
structurally understaffed. 

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So if you if you sell anywhere 
else, there's like a significant

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chance that they were kind of OK
as it with what they were doing 

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in the plumbing, HVAC space. 
They were definitely not OK with

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what they were doing, but they 
didn't have good enough options.

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And so so there he had the fit, 
but he was just until he talked 

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with that chro and got slapped 
basically into into like, it's 

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not X, it's actually Y Yeah. 
Like until then it just didn't 

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work. 
It it kind of like it was, it 

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was all grinding. 
It was, you know, some people 

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weren't prioritizing it, others 
were prioritizing X and he was 

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pitching Y. 
And so it wasn't landing. 

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Yeah. 
Is there, is there a 

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generalizable lesson about that 
in terms of the either the way 

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he had the conversation or the 
outreach and how specific the 

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outreach is or something like 
that? 

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Like what do you take away from 
that So. 

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I take, so I take away that you 
have to find somebody who's 

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going to tell you the truth. 
And so most of the way that we 

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sell and approach sales and 
approach sales conversations, 

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they don't feel comfortable 
telling you the truth. 

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And so you have to find somebody
who's willing to tell you the 

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truth, what the real project is,
what they're really trying to 

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do. 
And and that person actually has

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to have pull because someone, 
anyone else who tells you the 

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truth, it's just, yeah, I don't 
have any. 

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I don't have pull, which is 
useful, but it's not going to. 

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It's not going to cause you to 
take off. 

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Yeah, yeah, let's hit the 
transition. 

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So you wrote about the reward is
harder work. 

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What is it? 
Why does it get harder? 

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Like as somebody that hasn't 
gone to 1,000,000 ARR in in 90 

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days, what what happens? 
Like what's the? 

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It's just like you, you go from 
a you go from where like only 

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one thing matters and that thing
is existential and terrifying to

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where like a bunch of things 
feel like they matter. 

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You have to keep customers 
happy. 

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You have a bunch of feature 
requests. 

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You have to understand, you have
to bring on new team members. 

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You have to figure out, oh, 
crap, do we need to fundraise 

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now? 
And you got to probably talk to 

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VCs, which is always fun. 
And then you got to do you just 

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like all like all of these. 
And there's like a bunch of 

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fires. 
And on top of that, you have 

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that fear that like, oh gosh, we
could go, we could go back to 0 

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or I could take a load bearing 
wall and this could all come 

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grumbling down. 
And so like all of that is 

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happening and it's, and it's 
compounded by like, oh, I could 

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lose a customer. 
I could do that at it, right? 

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Like this, something could break
here. 

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And so there's all of these 
reasons why it just gets harder 

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that it goes from there being an
obvious constraint to the 

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constraint isn't necessarily 
super obvious and could be a 

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bunch of different things. 
And you could approach it a 

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bunch of different ways. 
And so yeah. 

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And it basically it's, it is 
universally the experience of at

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least of like, like people like 
us, where when it takes off, it 

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gets more stress. 
It gets just increasingly more 

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stressful. 
Interesting. 

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And was that I'm guessing that 
was your experience at? 

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It was, it was, and you don't 
think it's possible for it to 

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get harder? 
Yeah, I remember talking to you 

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and that, I don't know, it was 
like 2021 or something. 

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I think it was in the middle of 
a pandemic and you were like 

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bloodshot eyes. 
Like I think you were living at 

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the at your wifes family's lake 
house or something like that. 

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But it was like it was like 15 
hours a day of back-to-back 

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calls. 
Like it was something crazy like

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that. 
And it was just, you know, just 

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think things just like keep not 
working. 

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You can't fix them. 
You can't figure out why they're

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not working. 
And it's, and it's just, it's 

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just like this constant and you,
you're like, you're there are 

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fires burning everywhere. 
And when you actually like hit 

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from a market fit and it's it's 
so difficult. 

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Do you, do you advise founders 
when they hit that point or how 

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do you do you work with them? 
Like what do you how do you help

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them with that? 
So it's basically there's a 

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really good quote, I don't know 
where it's from, but it's called

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Let Small Fires Burn. 
And So what you what you need to

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do is you need to have a 
conceptual model of your 

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business. 
I use the case study factory as 

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that model. 
And so you just have to figure 

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out what the constraint is. 
Because if you attack the 

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constraint and just kind of keep
everything else steady, like 

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don't drop any balls but attack 
the constraint, then the 

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business will improve. 
If you don't attack the 

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constraint, then you can do a 
bunch of stuff. 

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You can work 80 hour weeks and 
the business doesn't get that 

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much better. 
Yeah. 

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And So what do? 
You what's an example of a 

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constraint that you attacked. 
Yeah. 

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So, so an example was we had a 
bottleneck around onboarding 

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customers. 
It was basically like we would 

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send over a link for them to 
sell it onboard and then they 

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wouldn't. 
And it would be like going on 

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for weeks and weeks and we'd 
kind of keep following up and 

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keep following up. 
And so that was the because if 

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they didn't onboard, they were 
going to churn by default. 

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And and so and so that OK, 
that's the constraint. 

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Question is, how do we make it 
such that they, it would be 

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weird if they didn't 
successfully on board. 

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Turns out we had to add an on 
boarding session where not only 

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like we had to take over their 
computer on board them, set them

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up with all the defaults, launch
the product with them in that on

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boarding session and then and 
like and then that bottleneck 

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was solved. 
If we had done anything else 

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other than that, that that it 
would have just, we would have 

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just kind of run off a Cliff. 
There, Yeah. 

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And how did you know that was 
the fire that like because there

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were what were what were other 
fires that were burning at the 

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time? 
There's just so many other fires

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kind of hiring. 
It's just I, I can't, I don't 

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think I can art. 
There's so many product fires 

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product like which couldn't ship
a product they could log into 

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like we didn't have a website. 
The guy we could, I could go 

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down the list of other things 
that were were not working. 

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It was we, we had like one 
person doing sales and that 

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person was leaving. 
That person had quit like like 

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it was, it was all of those 
things all at once. 

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And I was like, OK, cool. 
This is the, if we don't solve 

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this, everything else breaks. 
And and then it was like, OK, 

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cool, we need to immediately 
ship a fix to this. 

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Then we need to immediately move
to the next thing. 

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And then it's, it's just like 
whack A mole with constraints. 

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And now, now the good thing is 
we had found pole. 

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So basically, once you've found 
pole, attacking the constraints 

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is a matter of roughly getting 
out of your own way so that you 

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can actually serve the pole 
you've found versus, right? 

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Like what I've seen is a lot of 
people, they don't really find 

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pull. 
And so everything they do has to

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be perfect. 
It has to like, I have to 

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perfectly convince this person 
to buy. 

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I have to write like I have to 
wrangle all of this. 

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And so you don't really have the
chance to do this. 

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Yeah. 
That's that's super interesting 

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00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:51,800
and it ties to the way that you 
talk about in sales, describing 

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your product as small as 
possible like that should be a 

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line to pull and then delivering
on such a smaller surface area 

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that in maintaining that 
developing, it ends up like the 

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the worst case scenario is you. 
You describe something big, 

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something in the big is where 
pull is, but you don't actually 

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know it. 
And so maintaining the entire 

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thing becomes the work. 
Yes, yeah. 

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And and you're pushing them to 
adopt it and implement it and 

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you're not sure if they right. 
And you're not sure are they not

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using it because they don't like
it, because they don't need it, 

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because they don't value it or 
even if they are using it, will 

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they renew on it? 
And so you have all and you're 

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getting feature requests, but 
you're not sure why and they're 

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different feature requests from 
different customers. 

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So yeah, you just like if you, 
if you're not super clear on 

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what pull is, yeah, this phase 
when you're getting traction is 

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horrible. 
Unless you're an idiot, in which

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case you're like, yeah, I'm 
kidding, which I have been an 

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idiot and and I'm like, yeah, 
I'm killing it. 

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They're lovingly. 
Fondly with appreciation and a 

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certain degree of envy for for 
not over complicating the 

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business, but well, I, I love 
it, Rob, but we're going to keep

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this one relatively tight. 
Anything else you wanted to add?

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You know, there's the to the 
spiritual part of it. 

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You write about just loving the 
work and what what was it like? 

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The reward for the reward is 
harder work, but if you love the

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work that it is, then actually 
is a reward in in some ways. 

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00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:31,640
Yeah, so this might actually 
wind up being next weeks post 

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the so that the analogy I use in
here, there's a couple of 

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different things that I think 
the deadlift analogy I think is 

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00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:43,560
a really, really useful one, 
which is that like when you 

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00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:48,720
deadlift 405 lbs your your 
personal record, you get to 

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celebrate that for exactly 3 
seconds random. 

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00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:54,000
Random, random. 
We're just going to choose a 

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00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,880
random number. 
I don't know, like 405 lbs. 

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Four plates when when you do 
that, you used to get to 

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celebrate for 30 seconds and 
then you get to dread because 

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the next weight you're going to 
lift is £410. 

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Now the interest. 
And, and so like, that's kind of

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how it's like when whenever you 
do something in a start up, 

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whenever you like achieve some 
level of success, it seems like 

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the next step is always harder 
and that it's just, it's just 

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like stepping up in in weights, 
right? 

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00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:38,240
That, and in the same exact way 
you are stronger now, you have 

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adapted to be able to handle the
heavier weights. 

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And in the exact same way, the 
more success you find, the 

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heavier weights you lift, the 
more excuses you have to not 

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00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:57,040
lift the heavier weights, to not
do the harder work, to just go 

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on autopilot, to just coast. 
And so I think that's, that's an

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interesting thing that I have 
observed and in my view, so I 

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don't know how this, I have yet 
to figure out how to enjoy this 

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00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:16,760
in, in weights and deadlifts. 
I I I go to bed worried. 

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00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:23,480
Sweat. 
Your wife is like, why are you 

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00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:26,280
drenched in sweat and you're 
just like shaking? 

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00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:27,960
Staring at this. 
Are you having nightmares? 

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00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:31,200
No, I just don't wanna. 
Go like a kind of nightmare. 

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00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:36,440
Yeah, I'm. 
Not asleep yet, but but what I 

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00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:43,680
know in start-ups is that if 
you're just thinking about the 

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00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:47,880
financial outcome, the strain 
will crush you. 

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00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:53,240
A lot of founders who build 
really suitable companies like 

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00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:56,680
have this massive chip on their 
shoulder which is also probably 

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00:16:56,680 --> 00:17:01,040
not super helpful or like like 
mental quite helpful for 

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00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:05,119
building a a successful company.
What I've found is the thing in 

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00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:12,520
start-ups that causes you to 
enjoy the harder and harder work

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00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:18,960
is the desire to build something
awesome that serves the customer

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00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:26,359
perfectly. 
And it's that aspiration that 

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00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:30,560
makes it worth it. 
And like there are other things 

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00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:32,160
too. 
I want to build a great team. 

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00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,920
I want to do that like those 
things, but those are downstream

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00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:38,600
of the main thing. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

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00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:40,880
As somebody who has put the I 
want to build a great team 

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00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:44,160
before that I want to serve the 
customer, that's a really bad 

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00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:46,960
mistake that you eventually you 
eventually end up paying for 

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00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:51,120
anything else. 
Rob, we want to add on this. 

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00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,000
Though they said the last thing,
I didn't write this in this one,

300
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,560
but like when you think of it 
this way, then there are 

301
00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:01,280
basically only two constraints 
in the business. 

302
00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:04,400
There are two, there's whatever 
the the active constraint is in 

303
00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:06,840
the business. 
Is is a is a real constraint, 

304
00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:09,040
right? 
The onboarding process is a real

305
00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,800
constraint, but the there's an 
ultimate constraint. 

306
00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:13,320
There are two ultimate 
constraints. 

307
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:16,840
First one is pull, just like 
that's an external constraint. 

308
00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:19,280
To what extent is their demand 
in the market? 

309
00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:21,680
And guess what the second 
constraint is? 

310
00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:27,960
It's the founders willingness to
attack the constraint, the 

311
00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:31,600
founders ability to attack the 
current constraint, just those 

312
00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:34,920
two things. 
And by attack the current 

313
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:38,360
constraint you. 
I mean whatever the constraint 

314
00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:40,800
is in the business if it's. 
On board in the factory. 

315
00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:44,080
That in the factory, Yep, Yep. 
There's the external constraint,

316
00:18:44,080 --> 00:18:47,320
which is pull, yeah. 
And then there's just the 

317
00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:52,000
founders. 
The founders ability to get back

318
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,040
under the bar. 
Yeah, that's fascinating. 

319
00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:59,200
That actually reminds me of like
the Elon Musk in mythology or 

320
00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:01,200
like the real stuff. 
I, I don't know, I haven't 

321
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,760
worked for SpaceX or Tesla or, 
or Starlink or any of this. 

322
00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:07,520
But you know what they say is as
soon as he identifies the 

323
00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:08,800
constraint, he just goes and 
does that. 

324
00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:12,280
He sits there with the person on
the, you know, at the computer 

325
00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:15,880
or on the floor, and it's like 
he's just moving constraint to 

326
00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:19,800
constraint across massively 
valuable and. 

327
00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:22,360
He does this at like some, he 
just like does it. 

328
00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:25,440
I'm not the kind of person who's
going to be an Elon Musk. 

329
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:30,560
Like I've already I'm accepted. 
And everyone's like, yeah, we 

330
00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,560
know. 
Breaking breaking news, 

331
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:37,320
everybody. 
But but you, if you, if you look

332
00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:39,760
at him, you're like, I just, I 
don't think I could physically 

333
00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:43,600
work 120 hours every week. 
Look, you don't have to. 

334
00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:46,520
I don't think you need to grind 
that. 

335
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:49,800
If you're building 7 different 
companies that are all trillion 

336
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,760
dollar companies. 
Maybe you do, but like you for 

337
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:56,360
me, we don't need all, but we 
just like if. 

338
00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,240
If you think about it in terms 
of how often do I actually 

339
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:05,720
attack the main constraint in my
business and how doggedly do I 

340
00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:10,080
attack that constraint, The 
answer is not like once every 

341
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:14,360
three hours in or once every two
hours in a 8 hour working day or

342
00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:17,320
a 10 hour working day. 
It's like if we're really honest

343
00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:20,040
and we look in the mirror, it's 
like once every two weeks, maybe

344
00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:22,440
once every week. 
And so simmer, yeah. 

345
00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,040
Yeah, you just let it simmer. 
You kind of delay it. 

346
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:28,880
And so you don't have to be Elon
Musk level crazy. 

347
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:33,200
You just have to be willing to 
attack the current constraint. 

348
00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:36,400
Why, why do you think founders 
do that? 

349
00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:38,680
Like I'm reflecting on me and 
thinking like, why do I? 

350
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:43,880
Why is my instincts not to? 
Because at the experience of it 

351
00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:47,720
is after you've attacked it, 
it's so obvious that you should 

352
00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:50,160
have been doing that. 
And like, it's such a relief. 

353
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,360
But beforehand, there's some 
amount of procrastination. 

354
00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:54,760
I'm not really, I'm not really 
sure. 

355
00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:58,680
Like what is it the uncertainty?
Like why do you think founders 

356
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:02,280
have this kind of like block? 
I don't, I we could probably 

357
00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:06,120
apply the pull frame like you. 
You don't do it because you 

358
00:21:06,120 --> 00:21:09,840
don't have to. 
You, you can, you can delay it 

359
00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:14,560
or you, you, you perceive that 
you cannot do it, you can delay 

360
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:17,000
it or that something else, 
something else will come and 

361
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,720
save you or something like that.
And so that's how, that's how I 

362
00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:25,640
feel like it is with me where 
it's like, it's OK if I don't do

363
00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,320
this right now. 
And I think like Elon again, is 

364
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:32,600
just psychologically incapable 
of not attacking the thing right

365
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:34,520
now. 
And it's like, you know, that's 

366
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,080
that comes that comes with his 
own baggage, but it's quite 

367
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:41,840
effective. 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, mine, mine 

368
00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:43,920
for, you know, the one easy one 
that comes to mind for me, it 

369
00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:46,920
was like the thing I needed to 
be doing was fixing my outbound 

370
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:48,680
back. 
And I put that off for two 

371
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:50,920
months. 
Like I, I knew it early November

372
00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:53,680
and I put it off until January. 
And everything that's going on 

373
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:56,400
in my business is because I 
actually figured that out. 

374
00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:59,880
Not, not haven't totally figured
it out, but like got it 

375
00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:02,160
somewhere closer to that not 
being the constraint. 

376
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:04,360
And it's like, golly, I wish I 
would have started that earlier.

377
00:22:04,360 --> 00:22:08,320
So anyways, I imagine listener 
can has like something on their 

378
00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:11,960
mind that they like kind of know
like this is the constraint in 

379
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:14,000
my business and I haven't I 
haven't figured it out. 

380
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:17,880
Yet or the business. 
The business won't improve 

381
00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:20,760
unless you find pull and you 
attack your constraint. 

382
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:24,840
Yeah, awesome. 
Well, a quick reminder that 

383
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:28,120
Rob's got a book coming up here 
in six, six weeks. 

384
00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:32,280
Is that published? 
A7 weeks, 7 weeks and we'll 

385
00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,440
leave the link to pre-order. 
There's in the next, I don't 

386
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:37,600
know, week or two. 
We're going to come out with 

387
00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:41,280
like some cool pre-order stuff 
that we've got packaged. 

388
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:44,120
Rob, anything we want to add on 
that now or we we leave folks 

389
00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:49,280
hanging for a week. 
Pre-order it and save your 

390
00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:54,120
receipt or go. 
You can just get the receipt off

391
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:55,720
Amazon or Barnes and Noble or 
whatever. 

392
00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:58,120
Yeah. 
Don't do not pre-order and then 

393
00:22:58,120 --> 00:23:01,200
immediately delete your Barnes 
and Noble account and and I'll 

394
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:04,400
request that they permanently 
remove it from the Internet. 

395
00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:09,040
Yeah, cool. 
And then yeah, well, awesome. 

396
00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:11,640
Maybe we leave it at that, Rob. 
Sounds good. 

397
00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:13,520
All right. 
Take care, everybody.

