Throwback: Most Business Owners Have a Focus Problem | Ep 934 - The Game with Alex Hormozi

Summary

Summary of "Throwback: Most Business Owners Have a Focus Problem | Ep 934"

Podcast Title: The Game with Alex Hormozi
Host: Alex Hormozi
Episode: Throwback: Most Business Owners Have a Focus Problem | Ep 934
Release Date: August 6, 2025

In Episode 934 of "The Game with Alex Hormozi," Alex delves deep into one of the most critical challenges faced by entrepreneurs: maintaining focus. Drawing from his extensive entrepreneurial journey, Hormozi shares personal anecdotes, strategic insights, and actionable advice on how business owners can overcome focus-related obstacles to achieve sustained success.

1. Alex’s Entrepreneurial Journey and Early Mistakes

The episode commences with Alex reflecting on his early ventures and the mistakes that shaped his understanding of business focus.

Initial Ventures:
Alex began his entrepreneurial path with an online fitness coaching business named The Free Training Project, which later transitioned into a for-profit model. Subsequently, he opened a gym, a move that proved to be a smart decision as the gym business flourished.
Expansion and Overextension:
As success followed, Alex ventured into multiple businesses simultaneously, including a dental agency, a chiropractic agency, and a turnaround business centered around gyms. Managing multiple enterprises stretched his capacity, leading to operational challenges.
Turning Point:
A personal crisis—a DUI incident—served as a wake-up call. Mentored advice highlighted his inability to make decisive choices, prompting him to streamline his business focus.

“[05:30] …you have to learn to say no. And I actually think focus just comes down to saying no to everything.”
— Alex Hormozi

2. The Crucial Role of Focus and the Power of Saying No

Alex emphasizes that true focus is achieved not by accumulating endeavors but by strategically eliminating them.

Eliminating Non-Core Businesses:
Within a week, Alex systematically dissolved partnerships across his various businesses, retaining only the turnaround business. This consolidation allowed him to channel his resources and attention effectively.

“[07:45] …focus just comes down to saying no to everything. That is not what you said you would do. That's it.”
— Alex Hormozi
Gradual Growth Through Focus:
Post-consolidation, the turnaround business experienced exponential growth, eventually leading Alex to establish Prestige Labs and Allen, each contributing significantly to his portfolio. However, managing multiple companies eventually diluted his focus once more, resulting in the decline of Prestige Labs and Gym Launch until strategic divestments restored momentum.

3. Lessons from Industry Leaders: Steve Jobs and Justine Musk

Alex draws parallels between his experiences and the philosophies of renowned figures like Steve Jobs and Justine Musk regarding focus and decision-making.

Steve Jobs’ Approach to Saying No:
Steve Jobs was notorious for his relentless pursuit of excellence by saying no to numerous good ideas to focus on the great ones.

“[16:20] …Steve Jobs, you've got to say no, no, no.”
— Alex Hormozi

Additionally, Jobs would initiate meetings with a focus on what had been declined, reinforcing the importance of selective commitment.
Justine Musk on Protecting Resources:
Justine Musk highlighted Elon Musk’s ability to say no in a manner that safeguarded his resources, allowing him to concentrate on his primary objectives.

“[11:10] …he said no in a way that protected his resources so that he could channel them towards his own goal.”
— Alex Hormozi

4. The Strategic Art of Saying No

Alex delves into the nuanced strategy behind declining opportunities to reinforce focus.

Deeper Yes Through Selective No:
Every refusal is a commitment to a more significant goal. By saying no to certain opportunities, entrepreneurs effectively say yes to their prioritized objectives.

“[14:50] …behind every no is a deeper yes to whatever it is that you do.”
— Alex Hormozi
Personal Mantra for Sustained Focus:
Alex shares his personal saying: “I'm not going to sacrifice my first billion for my second.” This mantra underscores the importance of solidifying the initial success before pursuing further growth.

5. Volume vs. Leverage: Maximizing Business Output

A pivotal part of the discussion revolves around understanding the balance between volume and leverage to enhance business productivity.

Volume and Skill Development:
In the initial stages, high volume compensates for low proficiency. As one engages more, skills improve, increasing leverage and output quality.
Pottery Class Analogy:
Alex presents a compelling analogy involving two pottery classes to illustrate the interplay between volume and quality.

“[20:15] …one group was tasked to make one perfect pot, while the other was to make as many pots as possible that met basic requirements. Surprisingly, the group focusing on volume produced better-rounded, functional pots due to repeated practice.”
— Alex Hormozi

This analogy emphasizes that consistent effort and repetition can lead to mastery and superior results over time.

6. The Superpower of Entrepreneurs: Strategic Focus

Concluding the episode, Alex posits that the ability to focus strategically is the ultimate superpower for entrepreneurs.

Filtering Opportunities:
Entrepreneurs must rigorously evaluate opportunities, discerning which ones align with their core objectives and which ones detract from their primary mission.
Sacrifices for Success:
Success often requires significant sacrifices. By forgoing numerous opportunities, entrepreneurs can concentrate their efforts on endeavors that offer the most substantial returns.

“[24:40] …the meaningful ones are the sacrifices that you put on the altar of the success that you want to have.”
— Alex Hormozi
Final Takeaway:
Focus is not merely about concentrating on a single task but about making intentional choices to decline what doesn't align with overarching goals, thereby paving the way for sustained and meaningful success.

Key Takeaways:

Focus Through Elimination: Success often requires stripping down ventures to core essentials, allowing for concentrated effort and resource allocation.
Strategic 'No's: Learning to say no is crucial. Each refusal should align with reinforcing primary business objectives.
Role Models: Insights from leaders like Steve Jobs and Justine Musk highlight the universal importance of selective focus across different industries.
Volume Leads to Mastery: Embracing high volume initially can enhance skills and leverage, ultimately leading to higher quality outcomes.
Entrepreneurial Superpower: The ability to filter and prioritize opportunities stands as a defining trait for successful entrepreneurs.

By internalizing these principles, business owners can navigate the myriad of opportunities and challenges with greater clarity, ensuring that their focus remains steadfast on the pathways that yield the most significant impact and growth.

Transcript

A (0:00)

The biggest mistake that I have done in my entrepreneurial career, I'm going to walk through and then I'll explain kind of the meta concept that I think is why we are doing better now than we've ever done before. The very beginning of my business, I started an online fitness coaching business called the Free Training Project, which then flipped to for profit. I then started a gym. Now I did a smart move and said I'm going to focus on only one of them, which was the gym. And the gym grew. I kept doing this gym thing because that kept working. And then all of a sudden as I kept opening locations, I was like, man, I'm pretty good at this marketing and sales stuff. Then all these people started being like, hey, can I give you money to do other stuff? And I was like, well, I accept money and I can do other things. So that sounds great. Within the next 12 months, I had a dental agency, a chiro agency and a business that was the turnaround business, which was me flying out to gyms. And so I tried to grow four businesses at the same time where I was CEO of all of them. It took me getting into a head on collision in a DUI where I had a mentor of mine, whatever you want to call it, who's like, you're lack of ability to make decisions will kill you. After that, over the next seven days, I broke up with, it's probably the best term because some of you guys are in terrible partnerships and won't admit it. I broke up with my partner that I had with a couple of gyms, not all of them, but a couple of them. I broke up with a partner I had for dental, broke up with a partner I had for Cairo, and then broke up with another business that was related to tangentially with the launch thing. And it sucked. But finally after all of those conversations, I was able to just do the turnaround business. And then within the next however many months, you guys know that story story, it exploded. We made a whole bunch of money and then we switched to licensing and then we did three something, then 480, then 780, then a million, then one two, then one five, then two, and then we kept going straight line all the way to four. At that point I was like, huh, you know what we could do? Start another business. That was when I started prestige. And prestige obviously helped the top line and the bottom line as well. But the day that I started prestige was the day that Jim launch stopped growing. So gym launch maintained and then I grew prestige because then prestige got all my rain. Then I was like, okay, well, I split my attention. We went up in revenue. Well, I'm going to create this ecosystem for gyms. And so then I started Allen. And so I'm now here with three companies. I just have more money to do things now. And so I'm CEO of Allen, CEO of Prestige Labs, and CEO of Gym Launch. And as soon as that happened, Prestige Labs went down slowly, and Jim Launch went down very, very, very slowly. And that continued until I sold Alan. And then after I sold Alan, Gym Launch straight line up. And that was what allowed us to actually eventually exit the company. I bring this up because it's been the hardest lesson of my entrepreneurial career. You have to learn to say no. And I actually think focus just comes down to saying no to everything. That is not what you said you would do. That's it. That's all it is. And so if we want to be focused, then you can run that filter through your brain, which is, this is something that is not what I said I would do. Which means if I want to be focused, the answer is no. Now, how focused you are determines the extent to which and across domains that you say no to. So on one level, you say no to business opportunities. Even more focused would be a person who says no to business opportunities and new friend opportunities. Even more focused would be somebody who does no new friend opportunities, no new business opportunities, no networking opportunities. And the list can keep going, Right? If somebody did literally nothing else, then they'd be the most focused person. And so it's not a, am I focused or not? It's how focused are you? There's this quote that I heard from Justine Musk, which is Elon Musk's, like, seventh wife removed or whatever. Elon, if you ever see this, I love you. She said, he said no in a way that protected his resources so that he could channel them towards his own goal. And I realized that behind every no is a deeper yes to whatever it is that you do. And so I just think about it that way, which is like, the focus feels bad on the outside because no one likes saying no. But what it really is is saying yes again to the thing you said you would do. And the reason this is so near and dear to my heart is because it's been the struggle of my life. It's been so hard for me. And the opportunities that I get presented now are insane. They're nuts. And I recently had to turn down an opportunity that was absolutely absurd. And now the opportunities are all billion dollar Opportunities, Everything's now, which is cool. But I also have acquisition.com, which will for sure be a billion dollar plus company in the next 36 months. We will be there. We need to not do anything else. I can just not mess it up. And it's still hard. And so I gave myself this saying, which was, and you can scale it up or down whatever way you want, which is, I'm not going to sacrifice my first billion for my second. And so right now, some of you have your first million or 10 million or 100 million or whatever the number is for you, and you get excited about your second hundred million or your second ten million or your second million and you forget to make your first one. And I have so much content on this specific topic because it's something I struggle with so much. And that's why I wanted to hit on this. So you're going to hear another quote so you guys can tell me who this is. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you focus on, you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to a hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things. Steve Jobs, you've got to say no, no, no. And when you say no, you piss people off. Also, Steve Jobs, I was listening to an interview from one of his executives when they were building the. I can't remember if it was the ipod or the iPhone. And so they were like, so what was it like to work with Steve? And he said Steve would start meetings and just say, what have you said no to lately? He would just start with that because he figured out that that's what focus really meant, is what you say no to. And he said, I would sometimes, like have some nos ready for the meeting so I could like throw them out. But he's like, he wouldn't be satisfied if I gave him like obvious no's. He said, it had to be no to something that you deeply wanted. It had to be like a juicy no. And some of you guys right now have juicy no's that are sitting there. And you just have to get the credit from Steve Jobs for saying a real no. Because the other nos aren't actually no's, they're obvious no's. And if you actually pursued them, you'd be an idiot. The ones that really are the meaningful ones that propel you, in your career are also these sacrifices that you put on the altar of the success that you want to have. And so in some ways, it's like it's all the opportunities that you turn away because you really thought about the one thing that you that meant, that meant the most to you. And so I got this from a mentor. He said, if you don't say no to good opportunities, you'll never have the time to pursue the great opportunities. And once in a lifetime opportunities come about twice a year. So let me explain why this concept matters and why it's going to make you more money and why I think it's the greatest superpower of entrepreneurs. So fundamentally, you can do more stuff or get more for the stuff you do. That's it. Which is fundamentally volume times leverage. And within the context of a business, it's the amount of stuff you do and what you get for every repetition which yields your ultimate output. So in the beginning, when you're really shitty at making cold calls, you have to do a lot of them to get, and you don't have a lot of leverage because you're bad at it to get some level of output. But here's the really interesting thing about leverage and volume. The more you do, the better you get at doing. I've told this story before, and there's a lot of different analogies for it, but two classes start in university for pottery making. One class, the professor says, you have to make the perfect pot by the end of the semester. It's the only assignment. You make one pot, and at the end, I'll grade you on how good that pot is. The other group, he said, I don't care how good the pots are, make as many pots as you possibly can. And I'm just going to measure it. And the pot has to be round and it has to be able to hold water. And that's it. Those are the requirements of the pot, as many as you can. And at the end of the semester, everyone assumed that the person who had the quality pot was gonna be one who had the best pot and the volume pots had the most volume pots. But something interesting happened, which is real quick, guys, I have a special, special gift for you for being loyal listeners of the podcast. Layla and I spent probably an entire quarter putting together our scaling roadmap. It's breaking, scaling into 10 stages and across all eight functions of the business. So you've got marketing, you've got sales, you've got product, you got customer success, you've got it, you've got recruiting, hr, you've got finance, and we show the problems that emerge at every level of scale and how to graduate to the next level. It's all free, and you can get it personalized to you. So it's about 30ish pages for each of the stages. Once you enter the questions, it will tell you exactly where you're at and what you need to do to grow. It's about 14 hours of stuff, but it's narrowed down so that you only have to watch the part that's relevant to you, which will probably be about 90 minutes. And so if that's at all interesting, you can go to acquisition.com roadmap R O A D map roadmap.