The argument in one line.
Winners are separated from everyone else by their willingness to work diligently at a high level after the initial excitement fades, while 98% of people quit the moment discomfort arrives.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You're 1-3 years into a business or goal and losing momentum after the initial excitement wore off, wondering if you picked the wrong path.
- A founder or operator scaling under pressure who suspects your team is quitting too early and needs a framework for pushing through the plateau.
- You've cycled through 3+ different ventures in the last 5-10 years and recognize the pattern of abandoning things before they work.
SKIP IF…
- You're looking for tactical how-tos on systems, funnels, or operational mechanics — this is philosophy and psychology, not playbooks.
- You've already spent 10+ years building one thing successfully and internalized commitment deeply — this is entry-level conviction work.
The full version, fast.
Winners separate themselves by doing the work diligently after the excitement fades, not by relying on motivation that inevitably dies. The mechanism is a stack of three skills: treat your mind and body as the weapons you fight with and train them constantly through programs like 75 Hard; expect to win rather than hope, which only happens after years of blind work produce repeatable inputs-to-outputs results; and break long-arc goals into daily critical tasks. Scaling shifts your purpose from yourself to the employees betting their families on you, which reignites drive when comfort threatens it. Starting broke is an advantage because resourced competitors never learn to fight. Nobody is coming. Obsession, not balance, builds the life you want.
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Create a free account →Who's talking.
01:05hostAndy Frisella
01:05cohostDJ Johnson
Where the time goes.
00:00 – 01:05
01 · Cold open -- the 18-year trap
Andy opens mid-monologue with the core thesis: people who keep restarting every 1-3 years waste 18 years and end up at 38 with nothing. Experts are defined by doing the work after the excitement fades.
01:05 – 05:40
02 · Intro + show format + no-ads deal
Andy and DJ intro the Q&AF format, explain word-of-mouth growth, and banter about a mystery energy drink they cannot name.
05:40 – 20:50
03 · Q1 -- Building long-arc goals (10+ years)
23-year-old female medical student asks how to lay groundwork for decade-long goals. Andy covers time compression via technology, the mind/body as weapon system, Live Hard as annual lifestyle practice, and his Operator Standard app.
20:50 – 38:00
04 · Q2 -- Scaling without losing your mind
Iowa roofing company owner with 8 employees and a 4-month backlog feeling nostalgic for simpler days. Andy reframes the backlog as a threat, comfort as the real danger, and the pivot from self to team-focused leadership.
38:00 – 47:42
05 · Q3 -- Nobody is coming. Now what?
Listener at 30 realizes no mentor or lucky break is arriving. Andy covers why starting broke is the advantage, why obsession is the only viable mode early on, and calls out feel-good predators who monetize victim mindsets.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- The danger of quitting is not the single quit — it is the six-times-over-eighteen-years pattern of switching that leaves you at 38 with no compounded skill.
- Elite performers like Bezos, Musk, and Jordan share one trait: they execute at a high level diligently after the excitement fades, which is when most people stop.
- Nothing is actually being produced before the excitement fades — production is a function of sustained work through the monotony, not inspired bursts.
- Goals that would have taken ten years in 1999 now take three to four because of technology acceleration — recalibrating your timeline upward is not arrogance, it is accuracy.
- A four-month backlog is a warning sign, not a win — it means you are at capacity and one order spike away from destroying the customer relationships you built.
- Starting broke as a founder is an advantage, not a handicap — you can't waste what you don't have, and frugality builds the operational discipline that survives scale.
- Andy Frisella runs the biggest ad-free show in the world by choice, because ad revenue would mean being told what he can and can't say.
- The Q&AF format works because it removes the guest variable — listener questions force Andy to apply his framework to real-world scenarios he didn't anticipate.
- Discipline built through programs like 75 Hard is not about the specific tasks but about proving to yourself that you can do hard things consistently across time.
- Most people treat their goals like options — things they might pursue if conditions improve — rather than commitments that get executed regardless of conditions.
- The monotony of doing the same right actions every day is not a problem to be solved by finding a more exciting path; it is the path.
- Building a company before the internet required more time, more capital, and more luck — today's founders are playing on the easiest difficulty setting that has ever existed.
Steal the hook-first structure.
RealAF playbook
Drop your best line cold -- before the intro -- and build the episode around earning it a second time.
- Open every Q&A episode with the most quotable answer from the body of the show -- no music, no warmup.
- The no-ads model is the brand. Andy's word-of-mouth ask is his only CTA. Build a CTA that costs the audience nothing but a share.
- The feel-good predators framing is your anti-SaaS parallel: influencers who monetize victim mindsets = SaaS that rents you tools you could own. Same energy.
- The Q&AF format is the lightest possible production footprint for deep value: two mics, one table, real questions. Steal it for Creator Hotline.
- Andy's Operator Standard (break big goals into daily tasks) maps directly to MCN+ positioning -- answer real listener problems live, then point to the tool.
Terms worth knowing.
- Q&AF
- A recurring show format where the host answers audience-submitted questions, short for Question and Answer Friday or similar listener-driven episodes.
- 75 Hard
- A structured 75-day mental toughness program with daily non-negotiable tasks like two workouts, a strict diet, water intake, reading, and a progress photo, designed to build discipline through rigid adherence.
- Live Hard
- A year-long mental transformation program built around 75 Hard as its initial phase, followed by additional phased challenges intended to be repeated annually as a lifestyle rather than a one-time event.
- CTI
- Short for Cruise the Internet, a show format where current events and online topics are pulled up on screen and discussed as they relate to broader cultural or political themes.
- Operator Standard
- A goal-execution software tool that takes a user's long-term objective and breaks it down backward into specific daily critical tasks meant to remove ambiguity about what to work on each day.
- MVP mode
- Short for minimum viable product, the early stage where a tool ships with only its core features to gather real-world feedback from initial users before broader release.
- Hockey stick
- A growth curve that stays flat for a long stretch before bending sharply upward, used to describe how results in a long project compound slowly at first then accelerate dramatically.
- Victim mindset
- A pattern of thinking that frames outcomes as the result of external circumstances or other people's advantages, removing personal responsibility and blocking the action needed to change one's situation.
- Feel-good predators
- A term for online creators and authors who deliberately tell underperforming audiences that staying comfortable is acceptable, knowing that validation sells better than challenging advice.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
00:47
“The real progress in life is not made when you're motivated. The real progress in life is made when you'd rather do anything else and you still do what it is you're trying to do at a high level.”
16:00
“98% of people, they quit the minute that it becomes inconvenient.”
30:00
“These people are betting their lives. They're betting their families. They're betting their futures on you.”
42:40
“Nobody's coming, bro. People have their own lives in mind.”
45:00
“Half the shit on the Internet is pacifying victim-minded bullshit that people post to make people feel better about them not doing the thing they're supposed to do.”
18:05
“Expecting to win is completely different than hoping to win.”
Where the conversation goes.
01:05 – 05:40sparseIntro + banter
05:40 – 20:50denseLong-arc goal building
20:50 – 38:00denseScaling and employee responsibility
38:00 – 47:42denseNobody is coming -- obsession -- feel-good predators
Word for word.
metaphoranalogystory
00:00What most people do their entire lives is they go for one or two or three years, and the thing doesn't work out. And they say, oh, this isn't for me.
00:09I'm gonna try something else. They go to the new thing. One, two, three years.
00:12It doesn't work out. They did repeat the process, and before you know it, you've done that six times and it's taken you, you know, uh, eighteen years of your life. You're 38 years old and you don't know what the fuck you're gonna do with your life.
00:25That is the danger of not pushing through the monotony of achieving anything.
00:32And there's not a single person on the planet. I don't care if it's Elon Musk. I don't care if it's Bezos.
00:39I don't care if it's Michael Jordan. I don't care if it's Tom Brady. It they're every single person.
00:45These people, they are experts at doing the work diligently at a high level after the excitement fades. Yeah.
00:54That's where things are really produced. You're not even producing anything before the excitement fades.
01:05What is up, guys? It's Andy Pucella, and this is the show for the realists. Say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness, delusions of modern society, and welcome to mother reality.
01:14Guys, today, we have q and a f. That is where you submit the questions, and we give you the answers. Now you could submit your questions a bunch of different ways.
01:22DJ's gonna tell you how. Guys, you can email your questions in to askAndy@80forseller.com.
01:28You can also click the link in the description right here and submit them online, or you can just drop them in the comments in the q and a half videos on the tube.
01:36Other times, we're gonna have shows within the show. Tomorrow, we're gonna have cruise the Internet.
01:42We call that CTI. That's where we put topics on the screen, current events. We speculate on what's really going on, and we talk about how we, the people, have to solve these problems going on.
01:52Other times, we're gonna have real talk. Real talk's just five, twenty minutes of me giving you some real talk. And then, occasionally, we're going to have 75 hard versus.
01:59That is where a person who has completed 75 hard comes on the show, talks about how they were before, how they are now, and how they use 75 hard to take back control of their life. If you're unfamiliar with 75 hard, it is the initial phase of the live hard program, which is the world's most popular mental transformation program in history.
02:19You can get that entire program for free at episode two zero eight on the audio feed. Again, that's two zero eight on the audio feed only, or you can go to andyfurcella.com and buy the book on mental toughness.
02:34It has the entire live hard program and a whole bunch of other info that's not on that free episode. Uh, if you're somebody who likes the ins and outs and the nuts and bolts and all the details, that's the that's the way to go. Uh, obviously, it's not free, but it is more in-depth.
02:48Let's see. We are the biggest show in the world that doesn't run ads. That is a fact.
02:53Alright? The reason we don't run ads is because I do not wanna be told what I can and can't say ever.
03:02So I make a little deal with you guys, and it goes like this. If you like the show, if it makes you laugh, if it makes you think, if it's something of value, realize that the only way our show grows, because we don't have a big network behind us and we don't have a big, uh, ad campaign, it only grows through word-of-mouth.
03:21And, uh, we just ask very simply that if you enjoy the show, the specific episode, share that bitch out. Alright?
03:27So don't be a hoe. Share the show. Alright.
03:30Dish episode. Yeah. I mean, some people think they could share one for the whole year and they've done their little deal.
03:36Like, that's not the deal, man. The deal is
03:38every episode. If if it gives you value. Yeah.
03:41If you think it sucks, fucking Yeah. Don't share it. Yeah.
03:44But they never suck. They don't suck. Yeah.
03:46That's right, man. What's going on, dawg?
03:49Nothing, dude. Yeah. I got a little you know, I don't I know we can't really talk about it, but I have some shit.
03:55I got some drink in my cup. Yeah. Gas.
03:59It's my favorite drink we've had so far. Absolute gas.
04:03Yeah. Yep.
04:05It's Let's just tell them what it is. No. I can't.
04:07No. No. I'm saying, like, we just beep it.
04:09You know what saying?
04:13Dude, this is fucking gas. Yeah. It is.
04:15Like, this is my summer drink. No doubt. Like, drink.
04:18Like, not drink. It's a drink.
04:21And what do you call it, though? Because, like, you're used to calling it, like, purple and pink.
04:27Give me some of the red. This is pink. No.
04:29But it's clear. What do you say?
04:33Because you guys you're gonna be confused. Just the drink, dog. Yeah.
04:35Just simply a drink. Give me the drink. I want the drink.
04:38Alright. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
04:39Then that now the yellow drink's good too. The yellow is good. I'll drink yellow juice all day long.
04:44Yeah.
04:46That's what I mean. That one golden shower. That
04:49that kinda sound like I'll drink urine, didn't Well, that enough of that.
04:56It's time to get better today. That is good, though, ain't it? Bro, it's fucking gas.
05:00Yeah. It's absolute gas. I know.
05:01Dude, fuck. I'm excited, dude. You know, just when I think, you know Yeah.
05:06It's there. Know what I'm saying? We're still learning.
05:09Yeah. We're still learning. Yeah.
05:10Dude, perspective is a powerful fucking thing, ain't it? Yeah. You know what I'm saying?
05:14Like like Yeah. You could see things
05:17many different ways. It's the exact same thing. And I think that how you choose to see anything is really gonna be
05:23responsible and dictate the quality of your life Yeah. Or the quality of your products. Yeah.
05:29Yeah. Or how shit your life is. Right.
05:31You're 100% there. Absolutely, man. Well, guys, it's q and a f.
05:35We got three good ones for you, bro. Cool. Let's get better, guys.
05:39Andy, question number one. Andy, with an exclamation point.
05:46Andy, I'm a 23 year old female medical student with a very clear vision for my life. I often feel misunderstood by my family and those around me because many people deemed the goals I've already set and achieved as impossible.
06:02I was and still am often ridiculed with people telling me I won't make it anyway. My long term goal is to immigrate, which is why I choose a field like medicine that isn't tied to a specific country.
06:15I'm already learning the language and immersing myself in the culture. I'm seeking advice on how to effectively build a foundation for long arc goals that span a decade or more.
06:26My question is, what is the best way to lay the groundwork for goals that are still far off? Ten years more in the future.
06:34How do you do that? Well,
06:37look. First of all, goals that took ten years ten years ago now take three years or four years because of the different technologies that we have.
06:45So it's hard to put a time frame because of the evolution and the speed at which technology is changing in the world. My ten year goals, when I started in 1999, that was a much different amount of ground to cover than a ten year goal now.
07:01Mhmm. And which is really great for for you guys. You know, we have a lot of talk about, you know, how hard it is to succeed and all these things, but it's always been hard.
07:12And I would honestly trade places with any of you at this current time, even considering what's going on in the world, to be 20 years old again and have the ability to cover way more ground in a much shorter period of time. Yeah.
07:25So let's be careful about how much we think we can accomplish in ten years because it's probably a whole lot more than you think at this point in time because that ability to to accelerate is only going to get more and more and more. So that's the first thing.
07:40The second thing is in order to achieve any goals, you have to understand that you are going into a battle.
07:48Okay? A metaphorical battle. And you cannot go into the battle with bad tools and bad weapons.
07:57If I if we were in a real battle and I sent you out there against people who were you know, had rocket launchers and machine guns and I gave you a little buck knife, you're gonna get killed. Alright? You're not gonna be successful no matter what you do, no matter how tough you are, no matter it doesn't matter.
08:15The tools that they have are better than the tools that you have, and for that reason, you don't have a chance. So we have to understand that our mind and our body is the tool.
08:28That is our weapon system. That is what allows us to accomplish the goals that we're going to accomplish. And far too many people don't realize this.
08:37They don't realize that if you're not finely tuned and you're not training your mind and you're not holding yourself into the best possible condition, you are in a situation where you are at a disadvantage against people who are. So how should you look at this?
08:52Well, the number one reason that most people can't achieve their goals isn't because they don't know how to achieve them. It's because they lack the ability to adhere to the steps of achieving the goal for a long enough period of time for those things to materialize.
09:09So you have to be able to cultivate and understand that the skills of resilience and fortitude and grit and mental toughness and the ability to endure and the ability to adhere, these are the things that, number one, give you the confidence to achieve these goals, but number two, give you the very practical ability to follow a plan for much longer than you might be excited about following it.
09:43Alright? So this is the purpose of the live hard and the 75 hard lifestyle. A lot of people don't understand that 75 hard and live hard are to be completed every single year.
09:55This is a lifestyle. This is not a one hit it, fix it type thing. These skill sets that I just mentioned, grit, fortitude, mental toughness, discipline, the ability to endure, resilience, all these things, they have to be trained all the time because they're perishable.
10:12It's no different than any other perishable skill. If you wanna learn how to play the guitar and you get pretty decent at guitar and you stop for a year, you're not gonna be as good.
10:25If you stop for five years, you're gonna be starting over. These are things that you have to understand about your own tools, your your mind, your body. So learning that at a young age, because you're very young, and being able to be conscious of that and become aware of that and keep that finely tuned will give you the ability to adhere to your plan much longer at a much higher level than everybody else.
10:56That is a huge advantage because 98% of people, they quit the minute that it becomes inconvenient.
11:04The minute that something happens that they don't like or the minute that they get bored with it, they're saying, you know, I've done a lot of reflection, and I've realized that this just isn't for me. Well, listen, dude.
11:16Nothing's gonna be for you because every single thing that you could possibly choose on the entire planet to do is going to get boring, and it's going to get monotonous, and it's going to get to a place where you don't feel like doing it.
11:29And if you don't have the ability to push through those times, you cannot get there. Yeah. If you start over every single time something starts to feel boring or monotonous or not exciting, you're never gonna get to the place you're trying to get.
11:42And this is the mistake that most people make. Most people start a thing. They have this amazing energy, quote, unquote, motivation.
11:52They let that motivation drive them to the point where it's no longer exciting. The motivation fades. They lose the fuel to move down the path.
12:01You have to operate on a on a different understanding. Is that the real progress in life is not made when you're motivated.
12:09The real progress in life is made when you'd rather do anything else and you still do what it is you're trying to do at a high level. That is the separator between those who do and those who don't. And if you can develop that and you can keep that in mind and you can keep that finely tuned, you will be at a massive advantage over everybody else.
12:30So that is the second thing. Understand. You have to control what you control.
12:35You have to always finely tune your mind. You have to keep your body in the best shape that it can be because these are your tools, your weapons that you're using to fight the life resistance that comes your way when you are an ambitious person.
12:49Okay? And number three, um, you need to get very specific.
12:53Okay? I wanna do this, and you break it down backwards into daily critical tasks that have to be done every single day that will eventually lead you to there. And guess what?
13:05I've built a piece of technology that actually does this for you. If you go to operator standard and get on the wait list, cause we're still in beta and we're still in the the MVP mode, we are gonna open that up very soon.
13:18Go get on the wait list for operator standard. Go on my website. Join the wait list.
13:23And when this launches, there's there's thousands of people in there already. They took advantage of jumping into it in, uh, December.
13:30Mhmm. And they've done an amazing job helping us find the holes and figure out what needs to be and how to do. But this technology is amazing because what it actually does is you get to tell it what you're trying to do, and it breaks down the critical task all the way down to today that helps you get to where you're trying to go.
13:49So you're not questioning what you actually need to do. Yeah.
13:52It takes that vagueness out. That's just one of the things it does. This this thing is like fucking Jarvis for winners.
13:58Okay? I can't even tell you all the shit that's gonna come out with it and what we're working on, but that it does that now. So you can either do that yourself or you can get that and fucking use that.
14:15Yep. And so those are the three things that you have to do. Let me ask you this, Andy, because I know like I said, man, we we talk, you know,
14:21oftentimes outside of this, just life shit, you know. And I remember asking this was years ago, dude. I asked her.
14:26I'm like, you know, did you know that you would be where you are today? And your answer because, you know, most people are like, oh, no. I didn't know.
14:33Just figured no. No. You're like, no.
14:34This is what I expected. That's right. Right?
14:37And and I think I guess my question is, and it may not even be the right word, but in 1999, 19 year old Andy, was there, like, a level of, like, blind confidence
14:48at that time? Like, you know what I'm saying? So it's so the answer is yes and no.
14:53Okay? Did I know we would be here specifically?
14:57Not exactly. Did I know that I would be in a position where I was winning? Yes.
15:03On an undeniable win? Undeniable winning. Yes.
15:05I expected that. That was not ever a doubt in my mind. I just kept moving, and that is, like, what faith is about.
15:12Right? Right. Like Yeah.
15:13I said blind confidence. Well, look, dude. The work's always gonna come before the belief.
15:19Yeah. Alright? People think that when they start out, they have to have this amazing belief in their ability to accomplish things.
15:27And because they don't, they think there's something wrong with them, but they've got the the order of operations backwards. Okay? The truth of the matter is is the only way that you start believing that you're actually gonna get there, like truly believing it.
15:39Like you said, at the at the beginning, you're like, I wanna be there. That's where I wanna be. I would like to be there.
15:44Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
15:45Yeah. And and because people lack confidence, goes back to the live hard program, they they they say, man, I don't really believe that.
15:54And what happens is that freezes them up in the beginning. And they're not realizing that you have to go and you have to do some of the work, and you've gotta do the work for a considerable amount of time.
16:04Not a month, not three months, not six months, not a year. We're talking years. Okay?
16:10And, eventually, you get to a point where it starts to produce results, and you're like, oh, shit. Okay.
16:16This makes sense. I work. I see some results.
16:20I get some more belief. Okay? And when that cycle happens two or three times where you start to really learn that your inputs equal a certain output, now confidence isn't a problem because you understand what the game is about.
16:33Yeah. So the the reality is is you have to do the work blindly the best that you can.
16:42And by the way, we have incredible tools like we talked about in the operator standard that will help you understand the things you should do when you may not know what to do.
16:52And as long as you do them and then they start to produce results, you'd learn that confidence, and that's where the expectation comes in. Yeah. So once you get to a point where you've, you know, you've put the ingredients in, you've baked the cake, the cake comes out as pretty good.
17:05You've put the ingredients in, you baked another cake, the cake comes out pretty good. You put the ingredients. You you bake another cake.
17:11The cake comes out better. And you continue that process. It doesn't take that long before you figure out, like, fuck, dude.
17:18I can do this. Mhmm. And this is great.
17:20So now you know what it takes to actually move forward, and you're in a position to move forward with confidence, understanding that you now expect to be successful.
17:31You're not hoping or wishing or doubting it. Right?
17:36You understand that if I put this work in, it will produce this result. And that's a very freeing feeling because it removes the things like doubt.
17:46It removes the things like uncertainty. It removes the lack of confidence. And now you understand that is is simply inputs and outputs.
17:54And that's what we have to understand. Dude, expecting to win is completely different than hoping to win.
18:01Yeah. Okay? Hoping to win is, man, you know, maybe if I do some of this work, a a lucky break will happen.
18:10I'll meet someone. Something will happen. People will like it.
18:13I'll go viral. I'll do this. I'll do that.
18:15That's hope. Expecting is I'm going to do whatever the fuck it takes no matter what to produce this result. And that result is going to fucking happen.
18:25And I don't give a shit if the fucking world ends. That result is still gonna fucking happen. That's a different thing.
18:31Okay? Totally different thing. And the only people who actually win are the people who eventually get to a point where they expect it.
18:39But you've gotta build that part by doing the work, not really understanding until you see the results a few times to gain that confidence of expectation.
18:48Yeah. Yeah. It's Yeah.
18:49Like it's like the hockey stick you talk about. You're gonna go for a minute without seeing anything. No no fruits at all.
18:54Yeah. Yeah. Most people will quit.
18:56I mean, dude, look, man. Most people are quitting their goal in six months. Yeah.
19:01Like, nothing happens in six months. Okay? And and that was not that's not a new thing, by the way.
19:07I mean, we could blame the Internet and say, oh, yeah. It's all these influencers. Time to change it.
19:12It it it's more in your face now. But even when you were younger, even when I I was younger, that's the same way people operated.
19:21Okay? They operated from a place of relying completely on their motivation and not on pushing past the point where the motivation fades.
19:31Yeah. Or working until something bad happens and then saying, oh, yeah.
19:36Well, something bad happened to me, and that's the story they tell for their whole life. You have to keep going through those things. And if you don't, you just have to accept that you're not gonna ever become what it is you're gonna become.
19:46What most people do their entire lives is they go for one or two or three years, and the thing doesn't work out. And they say, oh, this isn't for me.
19:55I'm gonna try something else. They go to the new thing. One, two, three years, it doesn't work out.
20:00They did repeat the process, and before you know it, you've done that six times, and it's taken you fucking, you know, uh, eighteen years of your life. You're 38 years old, and you don't know what the fuck you're gonna do with your life. That is the danger of not pushing through the monotony of achieving anything.
20:19And there's not a single person on the planet I don't care if it's Elon Musk. I don't care if it's Bezos. I don't care if it's Michael Jordan.
20:28I don't care if it's Tom Brady. It they're every single person, these people, they are experts at doing the work diligently at a high level after the excitement fades.
20:42Yeah. That's where things are really produced. You're not even producing anything before the excitement fades.
20:48Like
20:49Damn. Yeah. Brother, that's crazy to think about, dude.
20:52Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah.
20:54Yeah. Well, once the new car smell wears off, what are you doing then? Oh, I'm gonna get a new car.
20:59That's right. You know? That's right.
21:01Yeah. Dude, that's wild, man. That's how people think.
21:04Fuck, man. I love it, man. Let's keep moving, guys.
21:07Uh, guys, Andy, question number two. Andy, I own a small roofing company in Iowa. For the first few years, it was exciting because everything felt like growth.
21:17I've hired eight more guys full time. We are making more money than we ever have and are backed up almost four months, which is huge for us.
21:26Um, but lately, the pressure has started feeling different. Now I've got employees with families depending on these paychecks, customers are trusting us with big money, and mistakes cost way more than they used to.
21:39I still want to grow, but sometimes I honestly miss when it was smaller and simpler.
21:45How did you handle that place realizing that your decisions affect a lot more than just you now?
21:53I certainly leaned into it. I didn't run away from it. You know, for me, that happened about when I was thirteen or fourteen years into my business.
22:06You can only go so far when it's about you. Okay?
22:10When when your purpose is about you and you go out and you make enough money and you're able to, you know, pay your bills and, you know, maybe you have a couple toys and you're not in a financial position of stress the way that you were, comfort starts to set in.
22:27And when comfort starts to set in, that's when things get real dangerous. Because most of the time when comfort sets in, people stop going and doing the things that got them to that point.
22:38And while all of their competitors are still doing those things, and then they end up losing, and they can't figure out why they lost because they're like, well, you know, I was doing good, but now things are not good. Well, yeah, the reason things aren't good is because you're playing a game that runs on a sliding scale.
22:55You are actually competing against other human beings. And when the when everybody else is moving forward and you stand still, they're gonna pass you.
23:03It's no different than and say, man, you know what? I'm so far ahead. This is great.
23:11I'm at mile 19. I'm gonna chill. I'm gonna and then eventually, they pass you up.
23:15And then you you can't catch them because you have to start the momentum over again. Yeah. So so you have to understand that comfort is super dangerous.
23:23And the way you should be looking at this is this is a reignition of your responsibilities that will cause you to continue to progress, learn, work, grow, and create at a bigger scale level.
23:39What you should be doing right now by the way, the four month wait list is not good, just so you know. Yeah. Okay?
23:44No. You think that's good for you. Where you perspective.
23:47Good. It's perspective. You know why that's not good?
23:49Because those people that are made waiting for four months might hire someone that can do it tomorrow. Mhmm.
23:54Okay? So while you think it's good because we got all this business on the books, you're thinking about yourself. You're not thinking about your employees.
24:02And, dude, if you're an ethical business owner, you have to understand that you have a responsibility for the people who have bet on you for their livelihoods. Those men and those women have bet on you for their livelihoods. Understand that.
24:16And if you can't take that seriously, not only will you not win, you're kind of a shit shitty owner. Not even kinda.
24:23You are. Yeah. Alright?
24:24So this is a point in time where your intent naturally moves, and this happens to all entrepreneurs who scale.
24:34Okay? It naturally moves from what I need to do for me to a point where I have to grow because these people are betting on me, and they have families, and they have homes, and they have obligations.
24:48And if I don't grow the business, they're not gonna be able to pay those things. And that's a different kind of pressure.
24:54It's kinda like I imagine, like, when people have children and it's all about themselves. And then all of a sudden, there's this little fucking sack of meat that comes out, and you're like, holy shit, dude.
25:05If I don't do it, this kid's gonna fucking starve. Yeah. Okay.
25:08Now I've never experienced it in that way, but I imagine that's what it feels like. A 100%. Okay?
25:12Yeah. That's what I've been told. Yeah.
25:15But that same responsibility and obligation should be put on your employees as well.
25:24Okay? Because, like, dude, these people are betting on you, man. They're betting their lives.
25:28They're betting their families. They're betting their futures on you. And if you sit there because you have, you know, a couple bucks in the bank, you're a piece of shit.
25:37That's the truth. Okay? Because they're betting on you.
25:40You have to understand that. They are betting on you. Okay?
25:43And you a lot of people like to bitch. Nobody believes in me. Nobody what about all those employees that show up every day?
25:50Yeah. They fucking believe in you. That's right.
25:52Otherwise, they wouldn't fucking be there. Okay? So you well, how you should be looking at this now is to change the responsibility and the intent from yourself to them.
26:02Alright? And when you can do that and then you expand the vision of your growth to include their hopes and dreams and what they're trying to accomplish underneath that umbrella, now you start to create a really great company that solves the problem of overwhelm that you're currently experiencing.
26:23When you have people that understand that they're that they can actually achieve what they're trying to.
26:31They can make enough money. They can build what they want. They can live in a house they want.
26:35They could drive the car they want. They can do these things in your system. Now you're in a situation where they are willing to help you, uh, in a very proactive way to handle the minutiae and the overwhelm that comes with scaling.
26:51So your choices are this. Yeah.
26:54You could reminisce about the good old days, but remember, in the good old days, you were fucking broke. Okay? You didn't have the bass boat.
27:01You didn't have the Corvette. You didn't have the Escalade. You didn't have a nice house.
27:06You were starving, and you had to watch what the fuck you ordered at the restaurant. See, everybody likes to reminisce about the good old days, but they forget those things.
27:14Yeah. Okay? So let's be real about what you're talking about.
27:18And I would remove this idea from your head because there is a metaphysical, quantaphysical element to what you desire in your brain that the universe and God will provide for you. So if you start to think, man, I really would just like to live a simple life and all this shit, God's gonna find a way to deliver that to you, and you may not like the way he delivers it.
27:38Yeah. So you need to be thinking about the other people.
27:42You need to be thinking about their well-being. And when you can go from thinking about you to thinking about them, it unlocks a whole new level in entrepreneurs.
27:49Yeah. Well, dude, and and, like, again, we've we've talked about this before, man. It's like, you know, like, dude, you you said all like, you said, like, man, I I miss the store days.
27:57I I do miss it, but my job, my role is different now. It's changed. It's evolved.
28:01You know I'm saying? How many different hats have you worn? All of them.
28:04You know what I'm saying? Yeah. HR, fuck.
28:06Like Dude, all of them. I packed boxes. Dude, I remember whenever we we we first started shipping out, dude.
28:12At 04:00 in the afternoon, we would go out and literally pack the boxes. Okay?
28:17Before that, when it was just me and Chris, we would print shit out on a printer, and there'd be, like, five or six boxes, and we would pack them and order them. I mean, I've done everything here. Yeah.
28:27Everything from sweeping the floors to being the CEO to being chairman of the board. Like, ever everything. Everything.
28:34I've done everything. Yeah. Okay?
28:35You gotta you gotta get comfortable in what that role is now. Yes. And that role will evolve.
28:39And and when you get a new role, that's gonna come with different responsibilities. The reason that I like the, quote, unquote, good old days was because I got to deal more with customers face to face. That's not reality for me anymore.
28:52Not because it was easier. No. That's I just enjoyed it.
28:54Yeah. So I find other ways to do that. For example, how I do that now is instead of dealing with customers face to face, I will walk the floors, and I will talk to the people, and I will talk to them, and I will help them with what they are doing.
29:08And I get that same sort of reward in a different way. Yeah. So Yeah.
29:13Yeah, man. Look, dude.
29:16This is very simple. Stop thinking about yourself. Start understanding that you have a massive responsibility to take care of your employees, and that little fire that you feel like is getting a little, you know, small is gonna reignite in a way that's much bigger than it ever was.
29:31Because there's one it's one thing to worry about yourself. Okay? Like, I know how to survive being broke.
29:38Alright? It's I don't ever wanna go back there.
29:41But the reality is is if I had to, I could fucking do it, and it wouldn't it wouldn't be a deal. When I think of my employees in any company that I'm involved in or own, and I think about them having the obligation of children, and I think about their bills, and I think about the things that they have.
30:02These are serious obligations, dude. And I always think like, fuck, what what's going to happen if if they lose their job? Mhmm.
30:10Like, I I hate that. I don't want I don't want that to happen.
30:13Yeah. And and if I'm being honest, sometimes I care about that too much, which causes me to hang on to employees longer than I should.
30:21Oh, that's a whole Yeah. Motherfucking conversation. Because, dude, like, I am You got a good heart.
30:27I do. And sometimes it's fucked me, but the the overall result is still much better because of it.
30:36Yeah.
30:36I love it, man. Love it, guys. Andy, let's get to our third and final question.
30:42Guys, Andy, question number three. Andy, I think I spent most of my early twenties subconsciously waiting for someone to point me in the right direction.
30:53A mentor, an opportunity, a break, something. Now I'm 30, and I'm realizing nobody's coming.
31:02No shit. Andy, if if I want a different life, it's on me to build it. Yep.
31:08But was there a moment for you where that fully clicked? And once it did, how did you change the way you approach life? How did you move differently?
31:19Well, look. I started when I was 19.
31:25I didn't have any money. We had $12,000 that we used to pay the rent for our store for an entire year because nobody would rent to us because we didn't have credit, and we didn't have anything that would make them wanna rent to us.
31:41So then we had to finance the rest of everything on the credit cards, which put pressure on us and put debt on us. So I didn't have a choice. Alright?
31:49I had to go. And for a long time, we had smaller competitors who even at that level, you know, they're they came from a rich family.
32:08They had an inheritance. They had an investor. They had something.
32:12And I used to be really bitter about that. I used to get really mad about it.
32:18The first especially the first three or four years where, like, literally, we weren't making any money. It would really irritate me.
32:26I was like, why the fuck? You know, we gotta compete against all these people who have all this and that and this and this and this. But what I started to realize is that because those people had those resources, they weren't learning the lessons that they needed to learn that made them effective.
32:46And so by year four, five, six, I was being able to outmaneuver them, like, very easily, and they couldn't figure out why.
32:56Well, the reason why was because I started with nothing and I had to figure it out. And they started with the safety net, and they didn't have to figure it out. They could always go to just writing a check or going back to the investor or going to their trust fund or whatever they had to do.
33:09So I started to understand that I was learning these skills that they didn't learn. By year ten, I had put most of these people out of business. Okay?
33:17So I went through that in a little bit different way, but I did realize from the very beginning that it was on me and nobody else.
33:28Like, nobody was going to come and do any of the shit for us. Like, it wasn't even it it wasn't even, like, something that I really thought about.
33:42Was I bitter that other people had better advantages than me? Yeah. Until I understood that I was the one with the advantage.
33:49Because people who come with resources and they come with safety nets and they come those people never learn how to fucking fight. It's just like people who complain about how hard it was growing up.
34:02And they say, well, I I I grew up here, and I grew up with the trailer, and I did this, and I come from the hood, and nobody gives a fuck about me. Do you understand how big of a fucking advantage that actually is?
34:14Because you learn the skill of survival and fighting at a very young age. But because your perspective is based upon what people try to say is, you know, oh, that person got there because they had this, or that person was lucky, or that's that's what we hear our whole lives.
34:33We hear from other people around us our whole lives that literally everybody else that's made it did so because they had some sort of advantage that you don't have.
34:45That's not the way it really works. The way it really works is is that the people who build real shit, they actually come from the hardest situations early on in life because they had to learn how to survive and provide for themselves in a way that these other people didn't.
35:03You know? They learned how to fight young. And when you come from that and you look at it at the right perspective, which is what I'm telling you now, you are at a tremendous advantage over everybody else.
35:15Okay? But most people can't break free of that victim mindset, and they don't understand the reality that all of these people that they look at, the reason they have all these crazy stories about where they come from isn't because they make them up after they get there.
35:30It's because the people who had to go through the hardest shit are the people that are equipped to actually fight the battle of entrepreneurship. So this whole idea that is in society that is propagated by a bunch of fucking people who are victim mindset losers that everybody who's done everything is somehow, you know, grew up with a fucking golden spoon in their mouth is total bullshit.
35:54Alright? The best operators in the world came from the hardest situations. Every single operator that I know that's built anything relevant, those people came from shit.
36:03Mhmm. Okay? So if you come from shit, you should instead of like saying, oh, I come from all this bad stuff and I got PTSD t two type of c from fuck from when I grew up.
36:14Like, motherfucker, use that shit. Yeah. Okay?
36:18Lean into that. Understand that you are equipped with a set of skills that these other people don't have.
36:26And when you apply those skills and they continue to go down the path, eventually you get to a point where all of the people with the quote, unquote advantages have fallen off because they have a backup plan.
36:40They have comfort. They don't have to succeed. Otherwise, you know, they could go they have the ability to go back to mom and dad or go back and say, oh, I would try this other thing or do this other thing or do this other thing.
36:52That's that's something you don't have, and that's a blessing. That's not Yeah. That's not a handicap.
36:57And so, you know, I don't know if that really answers your question about, like, how do I realize that nobody's coming.
37:09Uh, the the only thing you gotta realize is that, like, that's the that's what it is. Like Yeah. Nobody's coming, bro.
37:16People have their own lives in mind. They are worried about themselves.
37:22This is why, like, all you fuckers that think everybody's talking about you all the time, bro. Bro, they're talking about you in a passing conversation one time. Their your your ego's so big.
37:31You think people just obsess over what you're doing? Like, fuck that. Yeah.
37:34You know what I'm saying? Like, they're worried about themselves.
37:37So go ahead. No. I mean, you know, you like, one of the things that I've always, like, had a hard time understanding is, like, that that whole thing of, like, oh, everybody else has got it, and I don't have it's like, well, first, like, you don't even know if they actually do have an advantage.
37:50Like, you don't know because you're just seeing the end result, not the not the work that went into that. Right. That's one.
37:54But then two, who gives a shit? It ain't you.
37:57It's not your situation. Right. Right.
37:58You know what I'm saying? It's like Coulda,
38:01shoulda, woulda been, coulda been, hope hope hope it was too fucking bad. Okay? It ain't.
38:06It just ain't. It is what it is. Now what?
38:09And if you that's right. That's right. Dude.
38:11You have to be dedicated to producing the end result. You have to be obsessed with it, dude.
38:18Like, that's the thing. It's like, you know, like these these idiots on the Internet who put out all this shit about balance and got a fucking work life there's no work life balance as an entrepreneur. That's not real, especially when you're get getting it going.
38:31It's not a real fucking thing. Okay? And anybody who says different hasn't built anything.
38:35You know, the whole problem with the Internet is it gave a voice to people who can talk real well and say nothing. Right? So that's the entire problem with the Internet.
38:44How many of these people saying, oh, you're gonna have work life balance have actually built anything significant? Okay? I promise you, they did not have work life balance in the first five to ten years.
38:55They didn't have it. You have to be obsessed, bro. That's the level of competition because you have to understand other people are obsessed.
39:01There are people that will eat a bowl of glass and eat a pile of shit every single day for as long as it takes to get where the fuck they wanna go. And if you're not one of them, they're gonna beat you. That's it.
39:12That is reality. So I had this kid met messaging me the other day and, like, I was showing something on my Instagram.
39:21Oh, I know what it was. I was showing the startup of my Carrera GT, and he could see all the other cars through the windshield. Mhmm.
39:27And he messaged me, and he's like, dude, I'm so sick of being where I'm at. Like, honestly, how do I acquire this level of wealth?
39:36Like, how do I do it? And I'm like, dude, how old are you? He's like, 22.
39:40I'm like, perfect. You're the perfect age. You have to become you have to become so obsessed with producing the outcome that literally nothing else fucking matters.
39:53Nothing. And people will say, oh, that's selfish. That's wrong.
39:56It is what the fuck it is. Yeah. That's what it takes.
39:59Okay? If you are not obsessed with producing that outcome, especially in the beginning, you're gonna get eaten alive.
40:06You're gonna get eaten the fuck alive. And it doesn't matter what Joe Schmo therapist or, you know, dude who never built anything on the Internet who's doing shit for likes, shares, views.
40:18Remember, half the shit on the Internet is pacifying victim minded bullshit that people post to make people feel better about them not doing the thing that they're supposed to do.
40:30Okay? Learn to take a step back and watch people's content. A lot of the things that are being said are not said because they're the truth.
40:39They're said because it makes the majority of the market, which is people who are not going to follow through, feel much better about not following through.
40:49Mhmm. Okay? It is it is prop it is giving them permission to stay where they are, and that's why it gets the like, shares, views.
40:57That's why when you see a clip of me saying what I just said, people are like, oh, well, are you happy? Yeah, motherfucker. I actually am happy.
41:04I walk into my garage every day and get to pick out a car like you pick out your fucking shoes. Okay? It's cool as fuck.
41:11I get to do whatever I want. If I wanna go to fucking Vegas today, I'd call up and there'll be an airplane in thirty fucking minutes and I can go there. I can do whatever the fuck I want anytime I want.
41:20If one of my family members or one of my friends or somebody I know, her house is about to get foreclosed on, I could fix that.
41:29Okay? If someone gets cancer, I could fucking pay for that, which I've done all those things. Okay?
41:35If our city gets hit by a tornado, I can fucking contribute to that. I can make differences because and those things make me happy.
41:43Yeah. So this whole idea of you you either get to be rich or you get to be happy is it's not either or, dude.
41:52It's how you get rich and what value system you have and what you do with the money that allows you to figure out what you're gonna do when you be happy. People have this lie in their mind. You know?
42:03Because I tell you, this is true too. After a while, when you own all the material shit, it stops mattering.
42:11Like, when I walk into my garage, you know this because you've been there, and we'd bring someone, even if they're famous, into the garage who's been around it. They're like, holy shit.
42:21Mhmm. To me, I don't even notice it.
42:24Yeah. Like, I'm walking in. I'm like, this is my life.
42:26This is what I do. Alright?
42:30I don't give a fuck about like, I know you guys see me post all the cars and shit. I'm posting that for fucking 18 year old, 19 year old, 20 year old Andy to say, hey, man. Look what the fuck you can do.
42:41How do I get that? Right. This this idea that you can buy all this shit, it's gonna make you happy.
42:48No. That's not that's not true. But it gives you far more ability to make impact on your friends, your family, your community, which makes you really happy.
43:00Okay? So, you know, you can't really listen to someone who says, oh, are you yeah.
43:06He's got all this shit, but is he happy? Uh, well, they don't know because they never had anything. Okay?
43:13You never hear someone who has made a bunch of money and worked their fucking ass off and worked for thirty years and build this incredible life.
43:23And then they say, oh, man. I wish I hadn't done that. Yeah.
43:25That's not what the you never hear them say that. That's right. You only hear people who haven't done motherfucking thing say that.
43:31And then you have these feel good predators on the Internet who could by the way, they understand what they're doing.
43:40Okay? This is why I call them predators. They know and are aware that most of their market is people who are going to not do the thing.
43:51So they curtail their content to make peep people feel great about not expanding their own human potential, which is ultimately the entire goal of being on this fucking planet.
44:03Listen, motherfuckers. These people are handicapping you, and not a single one of them has made any money outside of the the other outside of anything other than making people feel like it's okay to just be right where they are.
44:16And, dude, the reality is and then you have the Christians, I am one, who don't understand Christianity and think that being a very small little, you know, poor little me is somehow biblically the way you should be.
44:30The bible actually talks about you not wasting your fucking talents to become who it is you're supposed to become.
44:39God gives you gifts. He gives you something inside of you that is meant for you to pull out, develop, and give to the world, and there's no favor in in God's eyes to not use those things.
44:55It talks about it in the bible. So this whole idea of there's some sort of moral high ground of wasting your life being a nothing is a complete lie, and it is totally exploited by these feel good predators who know that their audience is a bunch of fucking victims.
45:15And if they say something like, hey. You have to be obsessed with your goals, and you have to, like, fucking basically for a period of time give up everything else.
45:27They know that those people don't wanna hear that. They wanna hear what they wanna fucking hear. It makes them feel good about how they are now.
45:32And that's that's why these people do that. They know. They fucking know what they're doing.
45:38That's the thing you don't understand. You know how I know they know what they're doing? Because I know these people and they've told me that and they said things like that.
45:45Okay? And it's disgusting shit.
45:47Imagine
45:49Oh, that's yeah. Bro, imagine
45:52your whole business as being some sort of therapist or some sort of influencer or some sort of author, and your whole business plan is to make people feel good about being way less than what they could be because you know that's what's gonna sell shit for you.
46:09That is fucking evil shit. That is predatory shit, And that is what you are listening to.
46:16And then furthermore, the rest of the people that post all this content about, you know, oh, you gotta have this and this and this and listen, man.
46:29They've never done anything. They don't know. Okay?
46:33People are good talkers. They're not just because they can get on a microphone and get in front of an interview and sound real smart doesn't mean they fucking know what the fuck they're talking about. Okay?
46:43There's these things. I don't know if you know them. They're called it's called acting.
46:48Okay? Like, you know Yeah.
46:50There's this other thing called lying. Right? And just because someone like, do you ever notice that the people who who seem to be the nicest are always the ones that lie the most?
46:59Yeah. No shit. Okay?
47:01Like How about they're so nice? Yeah.
47:03Right. And then we find out all this fucked up shit. I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm totally fucked up.
47:08Okay? So I don't ever pretend to not be, but I'm gonna tell you this. I know what I know about winning.
47:14And if you're not obsessed with winning and you don't realize that no one's fucking coming, you're not gonna get fucking anywhere. I love it, dude. I love it, man.
47:22Guys, Andy, dawg. That's a hell of a way to start a week, man. Alright, guys.
47:26Let's go out. Let's get better. We'll see you tomorrow on CTI.
47:29Do not be a hoe. Share the show.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Andy Frisella opens Ep 1027 mid-thought -- no music, no cold open -- just the 18-year trap: the slow-motion life sentence of quitting every 1-3 years and restarting until you're 38 and have nothing to show for it. The first minute is the whole thesis.
