194: 5 Ways I Used My 20s to Have Success in My 30s

The way I work in my 30s looks different because of what I did in my 20s. In this episode, I break down five things that shaped that decade—from acting on the “what ifs” and pursuing genuine interests to ignoring the wrong opinions, embracing pressure, and learning from people who had already been where I wanted to go. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Why My 30s Look Different 02:30 Ask “What If?” 05:04 Put Action Behind the What If 08:49 Say Yes Before You’re Ready 12:41 Pursue Genuine Curiosity 16:27 Stop Outsourcing Your Interests 18:56 The Signal-to-Noise Ratio 21:19 Build Around What Won’t Change 24:04 Not Everyone’s Opinion Matters 26:29 “It’s All Cringe Until It Works” 27:50 Doubt Is Only Dangerous When It Becomes Yours 32:46 What Going All In Actually Feels Like 36:45 Risk, Reward and Uncertainty 38:31 Can You Do It for 10 Years? 41:24 Learn From People Who Have Done It 43:57 Look for Patterns Worth Adopting 45:56 Who Is Actually Worth Learning From? 47:34 Why I Started Reading in South Korea JOIN THE APP AND GET READY FOR UPDATES⁠https://www.nickbarefitness.app/⁠ ORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210⁠ FOLLOW:Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠⁠https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutrition⁠ IG:⁠ ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠⁠YT: ⁠⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitness This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice. This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) MB01XTE8XO9AONJ

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Nick Bare?

  Hey guys, before we dive into today's episode, I want to remind you that we have a subscribe and save program at BPN Subs. So if you go on our website and you sign up for a subscription, you save 25% off, which is significant. And you don't have to remember every month to go to the website to repurchase and reorder. It shows up consistently on a schedule that you set and you're saving money. So next time you go to bpnsubs.com, sign up for a subscription, save 25% off, which is like I said, significant. And stick to a consistent and committed schedule

• 0:45Nick Bare?

  to optimize your health and performance. Now into today's episode.

• 0:57Nick Bare?

  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's topic is five things I did in my twenties to set myself up for success in my thirties. And I want to note prior to going into these topics, the way that I work, the way that I approach work, my life in my thirties, it looks different than it did in my twenties, but it only looks different now in my thirties. I'm 36 years old now because of what I did in my twenties. I'm going to share that with you. And I did a lot of reflection on this. And I really put a lot of thought behind,

• 1:42Nick Bare?

  what did I, what did I do? How did I approach work? How did I structure my, my life in my days to build, to improve, to succeed, to win? So that now in my thirties, it's not that I don't work less, I just work differently. I can focus my time on different areas of focus. I can work on the business. I can work on projects as opposed to directly in the business in projects,

• 2:19Nick Bare?

  managing the day to day, turning dials, and screwing on screws and gears and trinkets and doing all the things I can focus bigger picture, strategy, vision, only because of what I did in my twenties to set myself up for success in my thirties. I used my twenties to absolutely just grind and work and invest as much time, energy, money into setting up my thirties to be able to

• 3:01Nick Bare?

  do what I'm doing right now. And I'm very grateful for that. So the first thing I'm going to talk about, first thing I did in my twenties to set myself up for my thirties, I started asking myself the question, what if?

• 3:23Nick Bare?

  If you're not familiar with Seth Godin, he has a blog. And on December 17th, 2019, he said, what if today, just for today, we didn't settle? What if we saw precisely the change we saw to make and sacrificed to make that change? What if we set aside urgencies and focus simply on what's important instead? What if we did the work that matters?

• 4:00Nick Bare?

  When I started my company, when I started BPN in 2012, it all started, it was initiated, there was a catalyst because I asked myself the question, what if? What if I started this company that I've been dreaming about? Yeah, you know, I shared this story many times before, but I got to college in 2009. And those first couple of years in college, I was obsessed with the bodybuilding industry, the gym, I was mixing up my own supplements. And there was this thought of, could I do this? Could I build my own supplement company?

• 4:46Nick Bare?

  What if I actually did it? What if I sourced a manufacturer? What if I took my, my formulas to that manufacturing partner? What if I, I applied for the loan that I needed to start this thing? What could it become? What if I actually did the things I said I wanted to do? What if I did the things that were required to become the person I said I wanted to be?

• 5:22Nick Bare?

  I started asking myself the question, what if? And then I did it. I, I put action behind the what if? The what if was a thought. And we have these thoughts on a frequent daily basis. I'm sure many of you do. I do. What if I did this? What if I tried this differently? What if I stopped doing X? So then I could do more of Y?

• 5:56Nick Bare?

  I asked myself these questions early on, and it changed the trajectory of my life. If I wouldn't have asked myself these questions and then had taken action on those questions, I wouldn't be sitting here doing what I'm doing right now. I don't know where I would be, to be honest. But taking action on the what ifs has changed my life forever in very meaningful ways.

• 6:26Nick Bare?

  What if I spent the last $500 to my name, bought a camera and started documenting my life online? I asked myself that question in 2014. And then I did it. What if I signed up to run my first marathon? I asked myself that question in 2017. And then I did it in 2018. What if I trained for a sub three hour marathon? I did it. What if I ran 100 miles to the Rocky Mountains of Leadville, Colorado? What if I trained for an Ironman triathlon? What if we

• 7:02Nick Bare?

  ran BPN like it was already worth $100 million? What if? We asked ourselves, I asked myself those questions, and then I went and did it. I took action on the what ifs.

• 7:23Nick Bare?

  There's a Forbes article from 2013 titled, "The Power of What If?" by Mike Myatt. And it says, "Change doesn't need to be complex. In fact, what's more simple than using the filter of what if? It doesn't require any special skills or ability, just the willingness to look beyond what presently exists. Utilizing what if thinking allows you to maximize the present while securing the future. The best leaders know how to attain desired outcomes while remaining discovery driven. It's clearly important to achieve short-term hurdles, but not at the expense of long-term

• 8:08Nick Bare?

  sustainability. Smart leaders understand the present is simply a springboard to the future.

• 8:17Nick Bare?

  Absent an aggressive forward-leaning bias, short-term wins will represent little more than Pyrrhic victories as the innovators, the what-if thinkers pass you by." So Pyrrhic, I had to define this because I didn't know what it meant. Pyrrhic victories most commonly describe a victory won at such a devastating cost that it is equal to a defeat.

• 8:49Nick Bare?

  After asking myself, what if? I began to embrace, search and invite change. I eliminated the fear of change after rising the springboard, springboard of which change had the opportunity to be. And I got really comfortable with saying yes before I was ready. I think too often, too many of us, we wait until the conditions are set, the environment is perfect.

• 9:27Nick Bare?

  We have crossed all Ts and dotted all Is to say, yes, I'm ready. Saying yes, even before you are ready to the what ifs is absolutely necessary, but also it's a springboard that embraces change before you are ready. As I was thinking about this, one of the things that I've done to initiate change in springboard forward movement is to say yes before I was ready.

• 10:09Nick Bare?

  And I can look back and see where I've applied that to so many areas of my life. I mean, I think an easy one that many people can relate to that have kids. You know, you want your life to be absolutely perfectly set up before having kids. You have the job you want, you have the amount of money set aside in savings or investments that you want, you have the house that's perfect, your relationship, your marriage is in a really good spot, you're living in the ideal location, you have family close by, okay, once all of these conditions are set, then we can say yes to starting a family. And it just doesn't work that way because the conditions aren't always perfect.

• 10:52Nick Bare?

  You're not going to feel ready, even when you are ready to start a family, to have kids, to transition to that next phase of life, shifting from success to significance, being a father, being a mother, being a parent, being a leader to your family. Having kids, starting a family requires you to say yes to the what ifs, even before you are ready. I look back at some of the physical accomplishments, the races, the competitions I've done. I said yes before I started the prep. I said yes before I was ready to toe the line, knowing that by saying yes, I was embracing

• 11:37Nick Bare?

  the opportunity and the responsibility of change. I had to change something to be able to toe the line for that race or competition to be ready. When we signed our first warehouse lease, it was well beyond the moment we were ready or able to even afford that first warehouse. Was it financially irresponsible? Yes, absolutely. But did it force us to adapt, to pivot, to make changes, to be able to own the responsibility of being in that warehouse with that financial burden? Yeah, it forced growth, it forced adaptation.

• 12:17Nick Bare?

  I'm a big advocate of really allowing yourself to sit with your what ifs and then immediately taking action on those what ifs, even when you aren't ready. There are things to consider, absolutely. There are consequences to poor decisions, for sure. But there's also a lot of ground to be made and momentum that can be initiated by saying yes to things before you are ready.

• 13:01Nick Bare?

  But it all starts with the what if, asking yourself the what if, and then taking action on those things. Number two, I pursued genuine passions, curiosities and interests regardless of what was popular or trending at the time. So Eleanor Roosevelt said, I think at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother

• 13:38Nick Bare?

  to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity. I pursued genuine passions, curiosities and interests regardless of what was popular or trending at the time. I think this is a skill, a characteristic, a trait of individuals that we are losing with the advancements of technology and specifically social media. Many people are pursuing things, passions, interests, not based off of what they are

• 14:19Nick Bare?

  genuinely and authentically curious and interested in anymore. But they're doing things based off of what everyone else is telling them to do, what they should be curious about, what they should be interested in. I did a podcast with Matt Boudreau a few years ago, and I actually included it in my book titled Go On More. And I want to read a section from my book that reinforces this subject right here.

• 14:58Nick Bare?

  So it's chapter seven, doubt is only dangerous when you start doubting yourself, page 185. A few years ago, I had Matt Boudreau on my podcast. He was once a professor at Stanford University until he realized that the education system was broken and he made it his life's mission to fix it. I asked him from his perspective, what mistake most parents make while raising children and young adults? He responded, they outsource everything, not just parents, everyone. We outsource our thoughts, ideas, opinions and perspectives to other people so we can

• 15:40Nick Bare?

  then adopt an inauthentic self that is a reflection of experts and gurus of who knows what. We don't have to outsource everything. Delegate parts, yes, absolutely, but outsource, no. When you are not pursuing genuine passions, curiosities and interests, and you are pursuing things based on what is popular or trending at the time, you're outsourcing your own curiosities, passions and interests.

• 16:18Nick Bare?

  That's a very dangerous place to be. You won't get anything done, anything meaningfully worth it done. If most of your time is distracted and consumed by things that are outsourced, considered the noise, we are surrounded, we are consumed by so much noise on a daily basis. Noise is external.

• 16:56Nick Bare?

  Like you might have noise internally in your brain, but it's only there because it was stimulated by an external force or factor. That's why I enjoy spending time by myself, I need time by myself. I by definition am an introvert and I truly believe this. You know, they say that introverts recharge on their own, alone time, solitude, silence.

• 17:36Nick Bare?

  Extroverts, by definition, I believe recharge, they gain energy by being surrounded by other people. I thoroughly enjoy my alone time. I like spending time with other people, but to reset, to recharge, I do that by myself alone. It's one of the reasons I love my morning routine. I love those two-ish hours before the family wakes up that I can just spend thinking, digesting,

• 18:16Nick Bare?

  considering, running, the silence, the solitude, the clarity. I personally need that because there is no noise, especially right when I wake up in the morning, when my mind is the most clear and the most sharp. That thinking is so powerful, that time is so powerful. Because as soon as the world wakes up and our phones turn on and emails are getting blasted and you're overhearing conversations at work, in the break room, all of that noise, that chatter, it is a distraction. I was listening to a podcast, it was the Diary of a CEO podcast with Kevin O'Leary,

• 19:01Nick Bare?

  who is, if you watch Shark Tank, Mr. Wonderful. And Kevin O'Leary was talking about something he learned from Steve Jobs in the 90s as he was working for Steve Jobs. And it's called the signal to noise ratio. Steve Jobs had what he considered the signal to noise ratio, and there's a few components to it. One, you identify the top three to five things you need to get done in the next 18 hours. You're not thinking, what do I have to get done this week? You're not thinking, what do I have to get done this month or this quarter or this year? You wake up and you write down and ask yourself, what are the top three to five things I need

• 19:45Nick Bare?

  to get done today before my head hits the pillow again? That is the signal. That is where you spend 80% of your time. Anything that stops you from getting those three to five things done is noise by definition.

• 20:06Nick Bare?

  He has the 80/20 rule. 80% of your time is focused on the signal, those three to five things. And allowing no more than 20% of your time to be distracted, to be distracted by the noise. If you can't harness this ratio, you will not be successful. The only way we can pursue genuine passions, curiosities and interests is by, I don't think we can eliminate, but reduce the noise. The noise is always going to be there. But it's our responsibility to put in place

• 20:49Nick Bare?

  habits and systems and boundaries. So we have less exposure to the noise or that we don't allow the noise to dictate what we do.

• 21:05Nick Bare?

  If and when you learn to ignore the noise, your life, chances of success and the joy you have in your day to day will improve exponentially.

• 21:19Nick Bare?

  One of the most famous things that Jeff Bezos from Amazon has said, "I am very frequently asked the question, what's going to change in the next 10 years?" And that is a very interesting question. It's a very common one. But I almost never get the question, what's not going to change in the next 10 years? And I submit to you that the second question is actually more important of the two because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.

• 21:56Nick Bare?

  We live in a world right now where technology is advancing at a rate faster than ever before. And it's mainly due to AI. I was recently listening to this podcast conversation talking about AI. And you can't directly quote me on this because it is a summarization based off what I remember while listening to a podcast while running. And they talked about how as long as they've been tracking human intelligence, like IQ, IQ tests, there has been a positive correlation with time.

• 22:38Nick Bare?

  With each incremental year, five years, decade, we as in people have become smarter. We get smarter over time. In the last 10 years, it's the first time in the history of the world since being recorded and measured that IQ is decreasing. Why? Technology, now AI, we can get everything we need with very little effort or work. And we as in a human population, a society, a community, we are doing things that we actually don't care about anymore. We're doing things, we're pursuing passions and curiosities and interests

• 23:23Nick Bare?

  based off what the world says and tells us we should be interested in. What we should create, what we should consume, what we should wear, what we should enjoy. There's so much power in pursuing genuine passions, curiosities and interests. This is something I did in my twenties. I removed so much noise and I still to this day remove so much noise. It's not rare for someone to approach me and be like, "Do you hear what's going on with X, Y and Z in this country, in politics, in the world, in these sports with a celebrity?" No, I didn't. No, I don't.

• 24:08Nick Bare?

  Because that's all noise to me. There are certain things I choose to allow to occupy my brain, but so much other stuff is just noise. Because if I give the noise too much attention, too much bandwidth, I can't focus on the signal. Those three to five things that need to get done before my head hits the pillow at the end of this day, at night. Number three, I ignored the doubt from other people whose opinions, input and advice didn't matter to me.

• 24:54Nick Bare?

  And I don't feel bad about saying that. I don't feel bad about saying that not everyone's opinion, input and advice matters. And you shouldn't feel bad about saying that either. I think people deserve the respect to be heard and listened to and their opinions and input and advice considered. But it doesn't mean you have to take it.

• 25:32Nick Bare?

  I put this post up on Instagram today. I was on my YouTube channel and I'll occasionally go back and watch old videos and just, you know, relive some of those earlier days, reminisce, but also just reflect on where we started and how far we've come over time. And I pulled this one clip from the first video that I published in 2014. I believe it was like October 22nd, 2014. And at the time I was at Fort Benning, Georgia. I was getting ready to move to my first duty assignment, Fort Hood, Texas.

• 26:17Nick Bare?

  And it was a full day of eating video. And I was awkward on camera. I was in my military uniform for half the video. I was vlogging in my, my truck. So I ripped that clip off of YouTube and I wrote on the caption, "It's all cringe until it works."

• 26:42Nick Bare?

  You know, people will doubt you. They will criticize you. And sometimes they will even hate you for what you are doing or pursuing. And they will call you cringe. And that's just part of the process. And they will call you cringe until it works. And then they will praise you. And they will celebrate you. And they will act like they were along and supportive for the entire journey. But if you can't get past and ignore the doubt of other people, you will never make it

• 27:27Nick Bare?

  to the other side. You will never achieve the things you set out for. Because you're letting and allowing the disbelief of someone else who has no power over you to erode and crumble your aspirations and dreams.

• 27:50Nick Bare?

  Doubt is only dangerous when you start doubting yourself. I don't know how that popped in my head a few years ago and, you know, eventually made its way into the book or the chapter. I've had a lot of doubt from a lot of people along the way. I've been called cringe. I've been called embarrassing. I've been criticized. I've been hated for over a decade now. And that's part of the process.

• 28:24Nick Bare?

  And that's okay. Allow people to doubt you. Allow people to criticize you. Allow people to hate you. But until that doubt moves from them to you, it doesn't affect you. It is no power over you. But as soon as you start doubting yourself, that is a weakness that will tear you apart. I'm not going to sit here and tell you there haven't been moments where I doubted myself. There absolutely have. There absolutely have.

• 29:02Nick Bare?

  But if I look back over these last 14 years of building this company, if I would have allowed that doubt from other people, the criticism, the opinions of other people to discourage me to keep going, I wouldn't be sitting in this seat right now doing what I'm doing.

• 29:29Nick Bare?

  There's a book that I've read multiple times that I highly recommend. It's called The Courage to Be Disliked.

• 29:40Nick Bare?

  And there's some key takeaways in this book. One, all problems are interpersonal relationship problems. Two, people can change and be happy from this moment onward. And three, the problem is not one of ability, but one of courage.

• 30:01Nick Bare?

  Those are the three key takeaways from that book.

• 30:05Nick Bare?

  One of the quotes is, "Freedom is being disliked by other people."

• 30:14Nick Bare?

  It's that you are disliked by someone. It is proof that you are exercising your freedom and living in freedom. And a sign that you're living in accordance with your own principles.

• 30:29Nick Bare?

  When you are living in accordance with your own principles, you are pursuing genuine curiosities and interests and passions. There will always be someone else who is against what you are doing. Always. Accept that. Accept it and move on. It's much easier said than done, but you gotta write that down somewhere as a mantra that you see daily. There will always be someone who hates what you're doing, who wants to discourage you from what you are doing. Accept that and move on.

• 31:05Nick Bare?

  Without ignoring doubt, you will never be able to truly focus. And focus is everything.

• 31:14Nick Bare?

  All of these things that I'm talking about, they tie together.

• 31:21Nick Bare?

  Because when we allow doubt to become the noise, that noise reduces and eliminates our focus. And our focus shifts from the signal to the distractions. And now we are spending our time, our energy, our money, our mental bandwidth on the distractions, the noise, as opposed to the opportunity, the growth, the signal.

• 31:50Nick Bare?

  I believe those were breakthrough moments in my life, in my career, in my entrepreneurial journey,

• 31:57Nick Bare?

  that if I wouldn't have worked through, powered through, I wouldn't have set up my 30s for the success that I have achieved and experienced thus far.

• 32:12Nick Bare?

  Steve Jobs said, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

• 32:46Nick Bare?

  Number four.

• 32:50Nick Bare?

  "I pressed on the gas and never let off."

• 32:56Nick Bare?

  What does it really look like and feel like to go all in?

• 33:03Nick Bare?

  I've sat with this question myself for a while. What does it really look and feel like to go all in?

• 33:14Nick Bare?

  And if there's one word I can use to describe it, it is pressure.

• 33:19Nick Bare?

  You constantly feel, experience, and thrive, truly thrive off the feelings of pressure. There is a pressure against you to keep going,

• 33:34Nick Bare?

  to push that pedal, that gas pedal, to the floor and not let off.

• 33:41Nick Bare?

  From the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep.

• 33:45Nick Bare?

  I spent all of my 20s

• 33:50Nick Bare?

  and the first couple of years of my 30s with that pressure. And it's not comfortable pressure. Even though I was thriving off that pressure, it doesn't always feel good, but it was necessary

• 34:06Nick Bare?

  to keep momentum moving forward for breakthrough, for improvement, for growth.

• 34:16Nick Bare?

  I believe that if most people lived with me and watched, felt how hard I had to work for 10 years to build BPN into what it is today,

• 34:29Nick Bare?

  I believe, I honestly believe that most people would say, "No, thanks. I don't want that. It's not for me."

• 34:38Nick Bare?

  And that doesn't make me special. That doesn't make me any more important than anyone else.

• 34:45Nick Bare?

  I think just about every entrepreneur who has worked for a decade plus to build something

• 34:52Nick Bare?

  would say the exact same thing.

• 34:57Nick Bare?

  You know, we see these entrepreneurs, we see these business owners, we see these highly successful people for what they have achieved and what they have, and we say, "I want that."

• 35:08Nick Bare?

  But when you pull the curtain back and you realize what it takes to actually get there, to do it, what they had to sacrifice, how much they had to work, the pressure they experienced, when you see that, when you watch that, when you feel that, oftentimes it's like, "No, I actually don't. I don't want that. It ain't worth it."

• 35:33Nick Bare?

  For some people it is, for others it isn't.

• 35:37Nick Bare?

  And again, doesn't make anyone any better than the next.

• 35:44Nick Bare?

  But it's a decision that we have to make, I had to make. In my 20s, I was willing to sacrifice a lot

• 35:57Nick Bare?

  to set my 30s up for success,

• 36:01Nick Bare?

  also knowing that there was a lot of uncertainty.

• 36:05Nick Bare?

  You know, when you're building, when I was 20 years old, I was 25 years old, I was 28 years old,

• 36:14Nick Bare?

  you're working and you're building and you're grinding and the pressure is heavy, but there's a lot of uncertainty. You don't know if it's all gonna pay off.

• 36:25Nick Bare?

  You don't know that when you get to your mid 30s, if any of it worked.

• 36:35Nick Bare?

  That uncertainty is what keeps you going. That uncertainty is also the pressure.

• 36:45Nick Bare?

  This morning in my run, I was listening to a podcast between Ed Mylett and Hermosy. And one of the things that was discussed was that you are compensated appropriately in proportion to the risk you are willing to take on.

• 37:02Nick Bare?

  You are compensated appropriately in proportion to the risk you are willing to take on.

• 37:11Nick Bare?

  By pressing on the gas and never letting off,

• 37:16Nick Bare?

  operating with immense pressure and a lot of uncertainty, that is risk.

• 37:26Nick Bare?

  And if that risk pays off and it works, you are compensated appropriately,

• 37:33Nick Bare?

  but you need to take the risk. Without the risk, there is no reward.

• 37:42Nick Bare?

  It's that easy. It is that simple. If you want to be appropriately compensated in your lifetime, whether that's more money in your bank or more freedom in your 30s, more time to spend with your family, a job promotion, a bigger house, whatever it is, whatever appropriately compensated means for you, in order to get there,

• 38:06Nick Bare?

  there's a few things you have to do.

• 38:09Nick Bare?

  But one of the things that will increase your chances of success, of achieving that, is the need to take on more risk.

• 38:20Nick Bare?

  That's it.

• 38:22Nick Bare?

  You see, anyone can commit to a goal that requires one month of focus, three months of commitment, or one year of restriction. But can you do it for three, five, seven, 10 years?

• 38:38Nick Bare?

  Can you?

• 38:41Nick Bare?

  Because you have to. Everyone talks about consistency, but true consistency is something you can do for 10 years or more. Not 10 days, not 10 months, 10 years.

• 38:55Nick Bare?

  To shift the trajectory of your life, not even your life, generations after you,

• 39:03Nick Bare?

  can you commit to something for a decade? Sacrifice for a decade to set the next couple of decades up for success?

• 39:17Nick Bare?

  Came across this LinkedIn post a few days ago by Konstanty Slawowski.

• 39:28Nick Bare?

  Not familiar with this individual, but I thought the LinkedIn post, the LinkedIn post

• 39:36Nick Bare?

  was pretty powerful.

• 39:39Nick Bare?

  And it says, "You do not build a business because it is easy. You build it because it is hard. Most people think you build a business for freedom. You do, but not because it makes life easier or because it removes pressure. You build because it demands something from you. Clarity, courage, discipline, resilience, standards. It forces you to pull your ability into one direction. That is why it changes people, not because business is glamorous, but because hard things reveal you. They show you where you are weak, where you are vague, where you quit too early, where you lower your standards, where you still need to grow.

• 40:24Nick Bare?

  And if you stay in that process long enough, something else happens. You start becoming the person the outcome requires.

• 40:32Nick Bare?

  That is why ambitious people choose hard goals, not because they are irrational, but because difficulty builds you. It focuses your effort. It turns intention into action. It gives shape to your ambition. Hard things call something better out of you. That is often the real reward.

• 40:53Nick Bare?

  Press on the gas and never let off.

• 40:58Nick Bare?

  Not for a marathon prep, not for a quarter, not for a year.

• 41:06Nick Bare?

  Do it for an uncertain amount of time with no finish line in sight. It might take five years. It might take 10 years. It might take 20 years. That is the risk you have to be willing to take to be appropriately compensated. Number five, I started reading and listening to everything I could get my hands on from people who have walked in the shoes that I wanted to wear. This is the first time ever citing and quoting Dr. Seuss on a podcast.

• 41:47Nick Bare?

  The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

• 41:59Nick Bare?

  Yesterday I was asked the question by someone, "Who do you look up to?"

• 42:05Nick Bare?

  We were in a sauna when I was asked this question. And I, I've been asked this question many times before, and it's always a really hard question for me to answer.

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  Because there have been different chapters and seasons and intersections in my life where I've looked up to different people for different reasons.

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  And I responded with, "It depends for what reason at what point in my life and for what outcome am I trying to achieve."

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  There are people I look up to from an entrepreneurial perspective, building a business. There are people I look up to

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  from a leadership lens.

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  Military leadership focus. There's people I look up to who are bold and firm in their faith and belief. There's people I look up to

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  for the way that they lead their family as fathers, as husbands.

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  It's hard for me to say that there's this one person that I

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  love everything that they do in all areas and disciplines of their life. But there have been people who I have looked up to over years and years and years for different reasons, whether I know them personally or I read their books, listen to their audiobooks, consume their podcasts.

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  But I think we have to ask ourselves the question when

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  we're learning from people or watching people, they are a guide, a mentor, a coach and educator for us.

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  And the goal for me of all the books that I've read and audiobooks I've listened to in my runs and podcasts, like I said, I've consumed. It's identifying pattern recognition in people that has produced highly successful results. What do these people do that is alike from one person to the next?

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  That I can learn from their behaviors that I can adopt and implement into my life to experience similar benefits?

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  And you try some of those out and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

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  But over the years, I have read

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  over 100 books at this point.

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  Reading hard copy physical books, listening to audiobooks

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  on my morning run while driving, they said podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts that I personally listen to, it's called Founders. David Senra is the host and he reads biographies, autobiographies, memoirs of highly successful people.

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  And you can always take a little bit away from

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  each individual, but

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  when you sit back and reflect, like I said, the goal is to identify these, this pattern recognition of their behaviors that you can adopt and implement in your life that has produced highly successful and productive results for those people.

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  And I ask myself the question when I'm auditing, who to learn from? Whose behaviors to adopt? What's valuable?

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  Like what qualifies them to be a person to learn from?

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  They have had to have done something significant.

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  This is the way I approach it.

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  Have they built and sold a business? Have they influenced change on a mass scale behavioral level?

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  Have they led the charge of highly successful teams or organizations?

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  Or have they been extremely successful in a

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  discipline on their own? To an athlete, for example.

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  It's not just someone who has built a social media following and platform, but someone who has actually built something, achieved something, influenced change on a mass scale behavioral level.

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  But if I look back at my twenties, I spent a lot of my twenties and I still do today and I will into the foreseeable future, learning, educating myself.

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  That is a routine, that is a system, those are habits that I will never abandon. Because as soon as I stop learning

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  and growing and humbling myself, that is the moment I begin to erode and die and digress.

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  I can pinpoint when I started consuming more books and audiobooks and podcasts.

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  And

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  I was sitting in my barracks room in South Korea.

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  We were on a nine-month training rotation. BPN was struggling at that point. I was preparing to transition out of the military after coming back from South Korea and being stateside.

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  And I knew something had to change.

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  And I was sitting there asking myself, what steps do I take next to build this business? To reach more people, to gain awareness?

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  And I didn't know. I didn't have the answers

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  myself at that point. So I started reading.

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  It started with online articles and it led to books, which led to audiobooks and eventually podcasts. And I became addicted to consuming information from people who have been there, who have done it.

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  Who have walked in the shoes that I wanted to wear.

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  And that was extremely beneficial for me and it still is today and it will be into the future.

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  Start listening, reading everything you can from people who share similar values and beliefs

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  and have goals similar to yours.

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  But who have done something, who have achieved,

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  who have won,

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  who have walked in the shoes that you want to wear.

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  So those are the five things I did in my twenties

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  that I think have attributed to the success in the life that I live now in my thirties. So I hope you guys enjoyed this one.

• 49:41Nick Bare?

  Thanks for listening and as always, go one more.