Embrace The Cringe | Ep 961

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Embrace The Cringe" | The Game w/Alex Hormozi | Ep 961

Release Date: April 14, 2026
Host: Alex Hormozi
Episode Focus: The necessity and power of embracing discomfort and "cringe" moments on the path to mastery, especially as a creator or entrepreneur.

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Alex Hormozi explores the idea that growth is inevitably "cringe." Drawing from examples in his own journey—from humble, awkward beginnings to his current success—Alex urges listeners not to be deterred by embarrassment, judgment, or fear of looking amateurish. It's a call to “embrace the cringe” inherent in starting anything new, documenting your process, and caring deeply—even when others dismiss it.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Everyone Starts as a Beginner (00:00–01:15)

• Alex begins by sharing his humble origins with content creation—a single awkward ad—and contrasts that with his current volume and success.
• "Fast forward. Today we make 450 pieces per week. I broke the Guinness World record with the fastest selling nonfiction of all time…" (00:11)

2. Defining Shame, Guilt, and Cringe (01:15–02:18)

• Shame = breaking someone else’s rules; guilt = breaking your own.
• Cringe is “supposed secondhand embarrassment”—often wielded as a “defensive status play.”
• Key Insight: Being called "cringe" is proof you’re on the right path, as you’re changing your status.
• Quote: “If someone says, ‘oh, that’s cringe,’ … it means I’m beginning to change my status relative to other people or relative to them, and therefore I’m on the right path." (01:40)

3. The Social Stigma of Caring Deeply (02:18–03:28)

• People mock others for taking things “too seriously,” but Alex argues that not caring is the real failure.
• Example of someone “bragging” about not trying hard with their content, but it “shows.”
• Key Insight: The only people who think caring is uncool are “in high school, or people who got older but never grew up.”
• Quote: "You can make anything cringe by just caring about it." (03:14)

4. How Anything Can Be Made Cringe (03:28–04:00)

• Alex gives examples:
  • Bodybuilders “oiling up and posing in tiny trunks”
  • Chess players “obsessing over wooden pieces”
  • Content creators talking “to your little camera”
  • Writers “pouring your soul into words that most people will never read”
• Quote: “Anyone can make anything cringe... because anyone who cares about anything is cringe.” (03:45)
• Cites Dom Mazzetti: “The cringiest thing of all is to be scared about looking cringe.”

5. Document Your Journey (04:00–05:25)

• Alex reflects on his regret for not documenting more of his early, difficult days out of shame.
• Encourages listeners to record and save their early efforts, even if they feel embarrassing at the time.
• Quote: "If you believe that you’re going to win, this will be part of the story you tell." (05:09)
• Cites Kanye West’s early documentation as a form of strong belief.

6. The Importance of Starting and Overcoming ‘Cringe’ (05:25–06:40)

• Shares stories of his own “cringe” early ads and posts.
• Describes losing everything and restarting, using documentation as motivation and to leave a trail for others.
• Cites Charlie Munger: "The world is too rational of a place to reward the undeserving. In order to get what you want, you must deserve what you want. Which really means that you’ve got to be good. And the only way to get good is to be willing to be bad for a very long time." (06:22)
• Key Point: “This is my promise to you, is that you will be cringe.” (06:28)

7. “Cringe” is Part of the Process (06:40–07:35)

• Reiterates: your first podcast, product, piece of content will all be “super cringe.”
• What matters is starting, taking feedback, and not quitting.
• Suggests watching a separate video on his iterative process for improvement.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Judgment:
  “Don’t judge your first chapter by someone else’s 25th or thousandth chapter.” (00:27)

• On the Status Game:_
  “Cringe… is a defensive status play, which means you should interpret it as: if someone says, ‘That’s cringe,’ … I’m on the right path.” (01:40)

• On Being a Try-hard:
  “Is it cringe to care? Yes, of course it’s cringe. You can make anything cringe by just caring about it.” (03:14)

• On Documentation:
  “Document more. Like, I would say, I don’t have many regrets in life, but one of them is that I didn’t document the struggle. I didn’t document the journey because I was ashamed of it.” (04:47)

• On Growth:_
  “The only way to get good is to be willing to be bad for a very long time.” (06:24)

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• 00:00–01:15 — Opening story, then vs. now.
• 01:15–02:18 — Defining shame, guilt, and cringe.
• 02:18–03:28 — Social attitudes toward “trying hard.”
• 03:28–04:00 — How anything can be made to seem “cringe.”
• 04:00–05:25 — Documenting your journey; importance and regret.
• 05:25–06:40 — Embracing early failures; sharing “cringe” firsts.
• 06:40–07:35 — Final thoughts on the iterative process and embracing cringe.

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Don’t fear looking foolish: It’s necessary to be awkward and “cringe” before you become great.
• Document your process: What feels embarrassing now can powerfully inspire others (and yourself) later.
• Caring deeply is a strength: Indifference is not a virtue; passion and commitment are.
• The only way out is through: Embrace being bad, iterate, improve, and never quit.

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Episode conclusion: Alex’s direct, unscripted tone and willingness to share old, embarrassing work makes a compelling case for aspiring creators and entrepreneurs: the only way to mastery is through embarrassment, failure, and “cringe.” Embrace it.

Transcript

[A]

This is the first piece of content I ever made. This is the first ad I ever made. Fast forward. Today we make 450 pieces per week. I broke the Guinness World record with the fastest selling nonfiction of all time with $106 million in sales in a weekend. We own a portfolio of companies that did north of $250 million in aggregate revenue last year. In this video, I want to show you just how far anyone can come. And not to judge your first chapter by someone else's 25th or thousandth chapter. Here's one promise I can make to you. You will be cringe. And so let's define these terms real quick. Shame is breaking someone else's rules. Guilt is breaking your own rules. Cringe is supposed secondhand embarrassment. Someone saying, oh, that's cringe. Saying, I'm embarrassed for them. But in reality, it's a defensive status play, which means you should interpret it as if someone says, oh, that's cringe. They said that to you? It means I'm beginning to change my status relative to other people or relative to them, and therefore, I'm on the right path. And so we have to ask the question, like, whose rules are we breaking? Did we agree to their rules? If we set the rules, what outcome did those rules optimize? For a rule is an if, then statement. Is that true? How do we know that? And why does that matter? People seeing you try hard will say, why are you taking this so seriously? Why do you even care? But the truth is, they've never cared about anything in their lives. Like, when's the last time they took anything seriously? Of course, never. And it shows. And so I had a guy once come up to me and tell me that he saw how hard I was trying with content. And then he said he'd almost outsourced all of it down to two hours a week. And he was. And he was like, yeah, like, bragging about it. And I said, yeah, it shows. And he just, like, looked at me, and I was like, yeah, it shows. Right? He was trying to be cool about the fact that he didn't try hard, but all it looked like was that he was losing. But back to point. Is it cringe to care? Yes, of course it's cringe. You can make anything cringe by just caring about it. And the only people who think caring isn't cool are people in high school or people who got older but never grew up. So be real about this for a second. Just changing how I talk about something can make it sound cringe. So in the fitness world where I came from, right, bodybuilding, you could be obsessed over muscles oiling up and posing in tiny trunks on a stage for strangers, right? Maybe competitive chess, right? Staring at a board for hours in dead silence. Obsessing over wooden pieces like your life depends on it. Making YouTube videos cringe. Setting up light. You're gonna set up your little lights and talk to your little camera like an idiot, like no one's listening, right? Editing for hours just for a couple views and comments. Ooh, writing a book that's cringe. Locking yourself away for months or years. Pouring your soul into words that most people will never read. Like, you just go sit away. Type at your keyboard, right? Anyone can make anything cringe, right? Because anyone who cares about anything is cringe. But the worst, and I think Dom Mazzetti said this, and I love this, the cringiest thing of all is, is to be scared about looking cringe. So why are you hating on someone else who actually has a passion or an interest or actually tries? Like, do we really want a world where people care less? Because when you make that claim, like, who do you really hate? Who does the person who says that's cringe really hate? Do you hate them for committing to something or yourself for lacking the guts to commit to anything? I want to show this in the realest form I possibly could. I went through the archives. I scrolled all the way back, and I am. I'm a weirdo about, Like, I try to keep everything. So I have, like, my lifelong text and videos and pictures, and I'm very grateful for that. So I'll give you a tiny piece of advice to anybody who's on the journey right now. Document more. Like, I would say, I don't have many regrets in life, but one of them is that I didn't document the struggle. I didn't document the journey because I was ashamed of it. I didn't want anyone to know. It's kind of like the people who, like, when they're overweight, they don't want to take pictures of themselves because they're ashamed. But it's like, one, you got to face reality. And two, if you believe that you're going to win, this will be part of the story you tell. And so, like, Kanye was documenting in the very early days because he believed so hardcore that he was going to win, right? And I'm grateful because I knew the first. The moment that I actually started documenting purposefully was the day that I had $1,000 in my life in my bank account. After I lost everything, I was like, I will never let this happen again. And this will be the beginning of my comeback story. Hey, guys, real quick. Many of you guys are getting started in business and don't know, but other entrepreneurs have already tried to help. And so 3.3.6 million copies were donated by other entrepreneurs in my book launch. And I'm donating these books as well. And so if you're starting in business and you would like the ultimate business backpack, all three books, this one shows you how to figure out what to sell. This shows you how to get people to find out about it. And this one shows you how to make money from it. When you have all three, you can actually get started.

[B]

All right?

[A]

On top of that, you have 30 days of school that you can get absolutely free. And all of this, including the books, including school, including shipping, is 16 bucks. Yeah, like, we lose money on this, so go grab it. It's the ultimate thing. I can give you my gift. Enjoy. If you go there and it's shut down, it's because we ran out. But as long as the link still works, there's books. And so I want to show you some real stuff that's. It's tough, but I hope you enjoy it because I think everyone, you know, many people will compare their current chapter to, like, my chapter, somebody else's chapter, whoever your person is, but it's not real. It's made up. Like, compare it to this. This is the first ad I ever made. Now compare that to my first professional ad that I ever made. It's super cringe. Okay, here's my cringy first post where I was trying to get people to give me money, right? I'm just like, hey, I started this thing. Please, please give me money, right? Here's my first content piece that I ever made. Hey, guys, Alex here. Welcome back. Sounds very dialed, right? There's a strong hook, strong meat, strong payoff. No, it's horrible, right? And this is the first YouTube video that I made when I started making YouTube content. And this is my first IG post. Now, 90 days after that first ad that I showed you, I lost everything for the second time. And that's when I made my first podcast. And so my goal was to document the lessons so that I had something to look back to as I moved up in my career. And I thought it'd be really cool if Buffett or Bezos or Musk had dumped some sort of, like, video diaries of the come up. Not just the top, right? As something that, like an artifact for us to learn from that we could follow in their footsteps. Unfortunately, the world is too rational of a place to reward the undeserving. That's a Charlie Munger quote. In order to get what you want, you must deserve what you want. Which really means that you've got to be good. And the only way to get good is to be willing to be bad for a very long time. And so this is my promise to you, is that you will be cringe. These videos, these, these pieces of content, your first product, they will be cringe. But you will also not be alone. And so the point is this, you'll figure it out. As long as you start, take feedback to get better and never stop. And if this motivated you to stop judging yourself. Cause hopefully these are super cringe. I made an entire video on the iterative process that I followed to get here, which you can watch.

[B]

Let's see what this is. Hey, guys. And in your next installment of the Mind Game series, I just want to talk about love versus discipline. And it's a topic that I feel like gets totally misconstrued within the fitness industry because.

[A]

Hey, guys. Welcome. Okay, so measuring yourself is a really

[B]

important thing for tracking progress so that

[A]

you can make adjustments to your meal plan. Makes sense. You want to track as many variables as you possibly can.

[B]

The reason for that is not because

[A]

you want to see who was the recording. I don't know. A trainer? Like, I have no idea. Hi, guys.

[B]

I'm Alex and I'm the owner of United Fitness. So welcome to our family. Thank you for the opportunity to earn your business. So I just want to tell you a little bit more about what we do. United Fitness, we strive to be the leading body and life transformation business out there.

[A]

Are you tired of fitness places that don't make you have fun or give you the results you want? But United Fitness is ready to change that. And you know how we're going to have you lifting weights?