Drunk Business Ideas That Could Make You Millions
Hey, I got my drunk ideas. Should we do some drunk ideas?
Yeah, let's do it.
All right. So again, to, to frame this, these are ideas that I had that I don't think are good, but I still wanna say 'em. So I call it drunk ideas, even though I didn't have them while I was drunk. I was stone cold sober, but that's my cover story. All right. So drunk idea number one is called And you got to tell me, I think I did this before. And by the way, one gem came out of it, which was my Lucky Water brand that I do intend to create. So, you know, some gems do come out of this. So Ben, you're a participant in this one. I need you both to give me your idea, your reaction. What should the scale be on the reaction? Is it like, you know, on a scale of sober to piss drunk or like on a scale of like, you know, horrible to good idea? How do you want to rate these?
Let's do 1 to 10.
1 to 10. All right. First idea is called Very Long Distance Girlfriend.
Okay.
So I had this idea because I realized like I'm sitting there and me and my wife, we like to watch all these dating shows, right? So we watch Love is Blind, we watch The Bachelor, and you watch these shows and it's sort of like, it's like the honeymoon period. And I, like, I would say most people's homes are like ours. It's like the scene is this on screen. You see like two usually beautiful people. Living some kind of fairytale date. And then like one person's kind of like, you know, there's some drama, one person's being dramatic or one person's unsure and the other person's really good or whatever. And then you, and then if you, if you zoomed out off the TV, you'd see a couch with usually a couple sitting like 6 feet apart from each other. Cause they're so sick of each other. You know, there's like, you know, in their sweats, not dressed up with their, you know, double chin eating their popcorn and Cheetos and being like pointing at the screen and be like, ah, she's not even that hot. Or like, you know, oh, he's, you know, such a jerk. And it's like judging these relationships, right? But like, there's something to this of why we like it, right? We like seeing these other relationships.
But I also think it's like when we do that, we do that with UFC. It'd be like, oh, he shouldn't have tapped out.
Yeah, dude, he's such a pussy.
He's so weak. He looks scared.
Yeah, dude, he's so scared. That's why I don't like him. Cause he's scared.
It's like, yeah, he's not confident.
Oh my God, there's a spider in my room. You know, like, so, so, so yeah, there's definitely like a judgy, there's a fun in judging it. But I would also say there's a fun in the sort of fairy tale. Like, I think everybody, when you're watching these shows, you sort of put yourself in the shoes of either the person pursuing or the person being pursued. You know, you're the, you're the damsel or you're the prince, whatever it is. So the idea behind Very Long Distance Girlfriend is as follows: it's a service or app. I think it's just a service. I think it's just a text message. This is a phone number you put in your address book, and we give you the perfect boyfriend or girlfriend. You're never going to meet with this person. It's not even the intention. It's just somebody who's going to treat you perfectly because they're paid to do it. And so, so it's like prostitution. It's like, what's a prostitute? A prostitute is somebody who's paid to love, to love you, right? To make love to you. But that's a lot. I don't want to cross that line. That's a lot of work. So this is like, you know how Tinder made dating easier because you don't have to like go date everybody. You just sort of swipe left and right easily on your phone. It kind of gave you this like flirting hit. But you didn't have to go out, put in a lot of effort. So here's what you would get if you, if you sign up for Very Long Distance Girlfriend. There's, there's gonna be a person that pretends to be your girlfriend. They're gonna text you, they're gonna ask how you're doing, they're gonna be emotionally there for you, they're gonna text you maybe photos of themselves, they're gonna like say that they want you, you're gonna be like, oh my God, I'm, I'm, this person wants me. They're never gonna nag you, they're never gonna, uh, get mad at you, they're never gonna get jealous, they're never gonna do any of the things that real human beings do when, that are the downsides of relationships, only the upsides. None of the downside. So for girls, you're gonna get Prince Charming on the other side. He's gonna be complimentary, he's gonna be thoughtful, he's gonna be there for you. And for guys, you're gonna get sort of what you want as the perfect girlfriend. And we're just gonna hire call centers of just dudes, and they're gonna behave as your very long-distance boyfriend or girlfriend. All right, give me your— give me your ratings. I'm gonna start with Sam.
I give that a 10. I think that, uh, I think that's great, to be honest. I think that surely that, like, if we went to adultfriendfinder.com or something like that— is that what they do? What is Adult Friend Finder? What is that, like, like webcam, or—
you're asking the wrong guy. I don't follow these questions. I have no idea.
Yeah, I mean, this is brilliant. How many friends do you have who you've only met via texting? And you've like— I've got like a bunch of friends who I've only ever texted.
So why? Or even heard their voice or talked to them like through voice.
And in fact, I have no desire to really meet them. Like, I don't want to go out of my way to go like, same, hang out with them. I'm getting all the benefits that I want out of just the texts.
Yeah. So anyway, I have a lot of friends like that and I consider them to be really close friends. I can't tell you how tall they are or what their voice sounds like, but I love them. And so because of that, I'm in. What do you think, Ben?
I give it a 1. It sounds diabolical.
It sounds—
A 1-0 or just a 1?
A 1-0. Honestly? A big slow roll for a 10?
Yeah.
There's this genre of idea of Sean business idea that essentially is, I went and watched an episode of Black Mirror and said, actually, that's a good idea. And this is one of those.
But that's a great idea though.
That's actually—
Like, have you remember that, remember that TV show on Disney called Smart Home where, uh, the, the, the, it's like a smart home. It's like Alexa before Alexa, basically.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So great idea. Yeah. And the smart home ended up being the mom and the wife. So it kind of is like what we're describing now. So I think that like, yeah, I haven't watched Her.
I think Her is something like this. It's like a voice assistant that he kind of falls in love with. I haven't seen that. But again, it's not even about falling in love. It's just, dude, it's fun to get certain types of text messages, right? It's fun to get a funny text from a friend. It's fun to get something interesting texted to you. That's kind of what The Hustle does. The Hustle just sends me some interesting stuff every morning. The Milk Road tries to do that. Here's some interesting crypto stuff, right? We're your friend, but I'm not really your friend. I'm just sending you some cool stuff. You like getting that message, but that's for the work part of our life. What about the personal side? Ben, are you telling me you would— I mean, I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna say no, but let me just put it out there anyways. You're telling me you would not want to be getting texts from a woman who's so into you, and it's not cheating, you're never going to do anything, it's not even a real person, you're never going to see him, nothing like that? Especially if you're single, right? Like, I'm not talking about— like, we're all— I think we're all married men, right? So, so it's not for us. This is for 25-year-old me, not 30— I don't know how old I am— 34-year-old me.
Yeah, I, uh, obviously we're not the target demographic, all of us, because we're all married.
Yeah.
Um, but having said that, like, even if it was just like a, as a, as a, a friend type of thing, I like, I already have actual friends that I don't text back. The last thing I need is another thing that's literally just a person to not text back. I don't need another one of those in my life.
But fair enough.
Fair enough. Maybe it's a bad idea..
But no, no, no. As a, as a business idea, of course it's a good idea. Of course it's like, this has money-making potential as a thing that is good for humans. You know, that's, that's why I gave it a 1.
Oh, I'm not, I'm not in the, the good for humans. I know, I know.
I just felt like I had to be the conscience here. I had that one person had to be like, Sean, you know, this is okay.
Okay. It's good. I, you know, I'm the, I'm the devil. You're the angel on the shoulders. We have to be there. Yin and yang. That's how it works. That's good. Uh, yeah. You know, if you want good things, you should, uh, you know, go eat your vegetables, work out, you know, wake up and pray, do all the things, right? Like, that's cool.
Don't invest in Russian companies.
Yeah, don't invest in Russian companies. Don't have the very long-distance girlfriend service for $19.99 a month. Don't, you know, don't use TikTok. Don't do any of the things that you do, probably. All right. Next idea. It sounds related, but it's not. It's the huge beds company. You kind of alluded to this earlier. I've been thinking about the luxuries of life that I care about. We all, we all know what I do. Private chef, personal trainer at my house. I live like a king. The one thing I don't live like a king with is my bed is only king-sized, but a true king would not have a king-sized bed. True kings have what's called an emperor-sized bed. Have you ever heard of these? No. So athletes have these. I saw these because there's a woman who has this business. It's already a great business. Is a woman who makes beds for NBA athletes. And so Shaq has a 24-foot bed, I believe, of like 24 foot, like in diameter. And, um, you know, a whole bunch of NBA players do this. They have 12-foot diameter beds, 18-foot, things like that. The room, it's like, it looks ridiculous, but the whole family can sleep on there and still have their space. Uh, like, you know, just to get to your spot on the bed, you kind of have to crawl there like a small child just to your pillow. Like, cuz there was such a long runway. And so I've always saw these, I thought these look super comfortable. And I've decided I want a very huge bed. And I realized I wouldn't know where to go buy it. So my idea is a DDC brand called Huge Beds, name TBD. We need to, we need a better name.
No, no, no, keep it. It's like, it's like the, it's like the company Big Ass Fans.
Yeah, it should be Big Ass Beds. Okay, that's the name. That's Big Ass Beds for badass people. Marketing slogan included with my drunk ideas. Alright, so, so Big big-ass beds. And basically it's just a D2C brand that sells you this, right? Like, these are very expensive. So these, these run for like $20,000 on average, I think, is like the cost of these like humongous oversized beds. And that's why athletes buy them, because they're— NBA players are already very tall, plus they got a lot of money. So it's like the sweet spot for them. And this woman who they buy it from, it's this one woman, and she just sells it all through her Instagram. Basically, it's like some player posts a picture of his bed, tags the woman, People go look at hers. She has like an Instagram full of huge beds. People go buy from her. Um, so I think that's just like a niche that somebody could go own, big-ass beds. And I think, you know, okay, athletes is one, but we need to find a new niche. We may need to go into a new sport or maybe, maybe it's business nerds who are trying to optimize their sleep. And it's like, you know, you make up some mumbo jumbo about this.
Having a big bed is not gonna make you sleep better unless you're like 8 feet tall.
Have you tried it? Well, have you ever been in a— maybe it's like a free-range chicken. Maybe when you're not confined by this, you know, like maybe you have anxiety all night cuz you might fall off the bed, right? Maybe just being able to stretch out is nice, right? Maybe, maybe not being so cramped is nice. I don't know. Seems like there's some benefits.
There definitely maybe is, but definitely probably isn't. I mean, haven't you been in, in a Cal— haven't you been in a California, uh, king-size bed before by yourself?
I have a California king-size bed. Yeah.
You have a California You have a California King and it's not big enough for you?
A California King is like the same size as a King. It's just longer instead of wider. It's the same overall size. It's just longer.
So it's not the same overall size, but yeah.
Uh, no, no, it's the same size, but it's like less wide, more long. Are the other ones more wide, less long?
You have a California King.
Length times width, baby.
That's a huge bed if you ask me. That, I think that's big. Is that not, is, is it just you and your wife in the bed or do your kids stay there sometimes?
My kids stay there and my dog. So it's like, you know, we got a full house in the bed.
I think that likely there's another thing that should be addressed than making the bed bigger. Yeah. Like, don't let— I would call it— I would create a— how about we call it— I thought we'd create a little kid bed company or dog bed.
Yeah.
Or we'll call it a crib. Or we can make like a dog bed business.
Also a good idea.
I think maybe those are the solutions to your problem instead of making a 20 by 20 A 400-square-foot bed.
Ben, what do you got here? It seems like you might be on my side.
Sam is so wrong on this. I, I have a king-size bed. It is a good size.
Uh, I don't want to be good enough for you.
No, I don't want to be anywhere near my wife when I sleep. I want to have to shout for her to hear me. Like, there's always like just some little toe poking me in the middle of the night. And if you could just offer me I never have to worry about that, eh? B, you're right, Sam. Is it gonna actually give me better sleep? Probably not. Is it gonna be an amazing experience to just like crawl onto this massive piece of luxury that is 20 feet long? Yes, it sounds like an amazing experience and I want it. I want to feel that.
And you spend a third of your day on this bed, right? You spend 8 hours on this bed. Why not? Just why not sack it out?
The second that you said like a 20-foot-wide bed, I just knew I wanted it. My heart knows that I want one of these things.
Wait till you see the pictures.
When you see the picture, you're like, ah, this looks like lavish. Ravish as fuck. All right.
So, uh, do you guys, one question, do you guys sleep with a pillow in between your legs?
Of course. I sleep with a maternity pillow.
Same. So I, I have a body, I have a body pillow. And so I like basically spoon the pillow because I need my, my knees to be, I, I can't have my knees.
Well, that's just straight ergonomics. That's just like, that's proven. That's not even like us being weird. That's us being scientists. So the reason I use my wife's pregnancy pillow is science.
Do you, do you really? You use her?
What does she use? I bought two. So I, so I bought hers. I bought her one cuz my buddy, my buddy told me this. My buddy goes, congrats, you guys are pregnant. Fantastic. So happy for you. Hey, get your phone out and go to this website. You're gonna buy this Swedish pillow. It's $200, but trust me, best pillow ever. And I was like, oh my God. Like never been so intrigued by a sales pitch. Took out my phone, ordered it right there. I'll never forget where I was. I was in an Uber in Las Vegas when this happened. And I thought, all right. And it's, it's like, it says like 5 weeks to ship. I was like, oh my God. This must be fantastic if it's like such a shitty experience. And so, uh, it arrives, it's amazing. My wife uses it. She's like, it's good. And I was like, oh, only good? He really built it up. Let me try it out. I try it for a nap. So good. I order myself one and now she never just use, she never uses any of 'em. I use both of them actually. And I, I, it's fantastic.
What's it called?
Uh, I'll have to look it up. It's, uh, it's like some Swedish name that I don't really know.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of those. I'll buy one. I just had like a really long pillow that I just kind of spoon, but maybe I should buy one of these.
It is called— oh, here it is, bbhugme.com. So the two letters BB, then hugme.com. BB hug me. And it's designed in Scandinavia. So that's not Swedish, Scandinavian. And just look at it. It just looks like it's gonna be good. And then it is good. It's really, it's really great. Really great pillow.
Alright, I'm gonna buy one of these. Wow, this looks huge.
Yeah, it's not that big. But it's like kind of like, it's like got like beads inside or whatever. So it's sort of like forms to your body. It's great.
Alright, I'm on board with this. I bet these guys crush it, by the way.
Yeah, I can imagine the things really, I think it's pretty expensive. It's like $200 for one pillow, which is great. Sigh. A lot. Alright, so here's my next drunk idea. I got two more for you. HOA court. Okay, so do you guys have an HOA where you live?
No, I'm— no. One time, if I remember correctly, Sean, you had an HOA just for a duplex, didn't you?
Yeah, yeah, me and our other person, we had an HOA with an HOA fee. But we both, as soon as we bought the place, we were like, yo, we're not gonna put $400 into this every day, right? Like, and we both just agree we're not putting $400 a month into this.
You have an HOA, Ben?
Yeah. And I kind of hate it.
So my HOA has been harassing me lately. I've been getting letters. So I rent, I rent my current place and, uh, we live in this neighborhood and there's some Karen in this neighborhood that just hates me. And she's like, oh, I don't like that you, you know, leave the trash bins out a little, you know, an extra day. I don't like that you work out on the like street and the driveway. Like you, no exercise, no exercise equipment is allowed.
I'm like, what is that? Are you exaggerating?
Really? No, no, there's literally, there's 3 complaints. There's that, there's that, and then there's another one which is, um, we get like water delivered, like, you know, like the kind of like a water dispenser. So you get these jugs, these 5-gallon jugs. And so they're like, kind of like, they're like, the guy delivers it to our door, but he tucks it behind this pillar. So if you're looking at our house, you can't even see it. You'd have to like walk up to our, like walk halfway up our thing to go see the thing. And so somebody just keeps complaining to, and our landlord's like, dude, what's going on? Does it look, and he lives in another state. So he is like, what is this? Like, can you just, Are you like fucking up things? I'm like, no, I don't do anything wrong. Okay. The trash I do leave out a little bit. Um, but you know, besides that, it's not a big deal.
Like when you're working out in the street, is it like just you and your trainer? And what do you do? Just throwing a medicine ball or something?
No, we're doing lunges. It's like, dude, I can lunge in the street. There's nothing. Or like we have a battle rope that we'll put on a, you know, art, but that's my driveway, dude. I can do what I want in my driveway. Um, and so in my neighborhood, it's like mostly really old, people that like don't really do it, do much. So, you know, I get it, but I'm not disruptive anyway. So, so this HOA thing, and so I first was like, I was like, okay, I have two choices. I can either just quietly resolve the issues, just listen, just move the trash cans in, put the battle rope inside the garage, only move it out when I want, and water jugs, like I guess I could pull them inside the door. It kind of takes up space, but you know, no harm done.
No, you cannot do those. No, no, no, no. Number one is not happening.
Right, right. This is war. And so I went to war. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna waste my time and energy fighting this HOA. Who is this HOA after all? I demanded names. I demanded to speak to somebody. I said, they can call me direct next time they have a problem. I said, here's my number. I put it out there. I started to, um, I said, I started to go take photos of other houses. I said, I'd like to file some complaints myself. Oh, what is this children's swing in the front yard this person has? Violation. Why is this person's garbage cans outside? Violation. Why is this person riding their bicycle exercise equipment on the street? Violation. And so I started fighting back. I started saying, is it because I'm the only brown guy in the neighborhood?
I just— of course I was waiting for the race thing. You had to do that.
You had to. I can only wonder what's so different because again, I see violations all around me now. And so I'm— I am based— but there's no— my complaints are falling on deaf ears. And I'm wasting a bunch of time. I need HOA Court. It's a Judge Judy-like show streamed onto Netflix and/or YouTube where I can go present my case and it's a place for petty people to do their thing. And that's, that's my pitch is, is actually a show. It's a TV show, HOA Court or Petty Court. Petty. Yeah, maybe Petty Court. Maybe Petty is, is the right way to do it.
I think that's beautiful. But isn't this, do HOA people not have a, what's that called where, um, before you go to court, you can hire arbitration, arbitra— an arbitra— arbitration, arbitration, mediation. Yeah. Is there— what do you do with HOA? How do you know who wins?
You can't win. That's the problem. HOA is this like, you know, ambiguous force that just controls you even though you, you, you know, you pay your hard-earned American money to live in this place, to buy this land, to live free. But the freedom's not there. And that's why we need petty court to bring back our freedoms and to put, put these petty people back in their place.
Do you, um, like, do you just like reply all to an email?
Well, no, it's like they use these agents like cowards. There's like a, there's like a random HOA email address with like one person behind it. It's like, no, who's complaining? Is the majority of the neighborhood complaining? Maybe it's a democracy. Maybe we need 51% complaints for me to change the way I do things. Why does one person get to change my way of living?
Right.
That sounds a little crazy to me. So I just feel like there's no justice. And then when there's no justice, I can't sleep.
And that's so— but I want to dig deeper on this because I actually think that it's totally not worth your time to fight this. This is— this is a fight.
This fight is certainly not worth my time.
No, it is definitely. These fights are worth our work. This is what living is for. I love doing this stuff. I love fighting with neighbors and like trying to win and like rub their face in it like a dog who pees inside. I love this.
And so is there a way I don't believe that's considered the best practice anymore, by the way, for dogs, for dog training. Well, I don't deal with HOA. I don't want PETA coming after us.
Is there, is there a way that you can set a trap and figure out who it is? Hmm.
I don't know how I would do that. Um, oh, I know. I put a unique letter under the doorstep of everybody in the neighborhood. I say, listen, I heard about the complaint. And I understand. In fact, I'm sorry that I did what I did. You know, I would just love to make it up to you. What's your favorite flavor, chocolate or vanilla? I'll send you a treat because you were right and I was wrong. And I just need you to know that you were so right with your HOA complaint. So just shoot me your— hey, just text me your favorite flavor. Honey Pot.
Gotcha. That's actually pretty brilliant. And you could do one of two things. You could either say this person's a flavor, this person, it's a what size t-shirt you are, or you could just get a bunch of different Google numbers and see which one.
Oh no, no, even better. Google, I say, hey, have you guys seen this asshole who lives over here? Guy keeps putting his free, he keeps doing lunges in the street. Am I right? Like viol— violence in our neighborhood. Um, I think we should escalate this. He's not listening. Uh, I believe it was you who made the complaint, but maybe I have that wrong. If it was you, I'd like to discuss steps of how we might escalate this issue to make sure that jerk goes down. You bring them in, bring them close before I put them, put them away.
I, I, I would love for you to do this. How many people live in the neighborhood, you think? Uh, how many people are part of an HOA?
No, it's the neighborhood. It's everybody's defaulted in. It's probably, I don't know, like 100, uh, maybe 60 houses, 100 houses, something like that. It's a lot of, a lot of time and energy. You don't think, I may have to like shut down one of my businesses just to do this.
You don't think you know who's doing this?
I have no idea. Really? It hurts me cuz I know there's somebody who walks by smiling at me while I'm working out in my garage. I just work out in my garage with the, with the door open just to have some air. Right? Like, listen, no, no big deal. I'm allowed to do that in my home gym.
You, you can't change your behavior. You have to continue doing it.
Well, I've already bent, but, uh, you know, I, I brought the water bottles inside and I moved the trash cans.
But, uh, you should buy lawn chairs and put 'em in your front lawn and just hang out there without a shirt consistently. I think that's what the move has to be.
That's a gift to the neighborhood.
All right.
Um, last idea. Last idea. All right. The NBA All-Star Game just happened and, um, And every sport has this, and baseball has the Home Run Derby, football has the Pro Bowl, NBA has the dunk contest and the All-Star Game. Why doesn't this exist for business? Is that a thought that's ever crossed your mind? Why don't we have the tech All-Star Game? Why don't we have the business, the business All-Stars? I feel like there's an opportunity here to bring together the who's who. I'm just gonna use tech for now. So bring together the who's who of tech. Just the all-stars, honor them, get them to compete for our entertainment and just make a weekend out of it, right? Why aren't we, why are we treating this like the sport that it is? So here's, here's how this might work. Tech All-Star Game is basically a hackathon and I get Zuck and I get Larry Page and Sergey, Sergey, and I go get founders of different mega companies and they're gonna perform. It's gonna be live streamed onto YouTube and they're gonna have to build something. They get 24 hours to build something. So you have an all-star designer, you got Johnny Ive, working with Mark Zuckerberg. All of a sudden you got Brian Chesky working with, you know, uh, whoever, you know, Sundar or whatever. You, you get, you pair these guys up into random combinations and they're gonna have to do a hackathon. They're gonna have to build something and demo it and somebody wins the trophy for building something cool. 'Cause you've seen that like Dharmesh loves to hack and build little projects. I remember when COVID happened, Kevin Systrom, the guy from Instagram, he built this dashboard that was measuring the viral coefficient and the spread. 'Cause he is like, hey, these, politicians are just like making statements and we have no source of truth, no dashboard that tells us how this thing's spreading and how it's not per city. And that's what we need to look at. And so he built this dashboard there and I just thought, huh, I wonder what would happen if you unleashed these types of brains, the all-stars in a, in a little competition of their own, a little hackathon of their own. What do you think of this idea?
I think if you can, if, if it's, if the, if the idea is like an award thing, then I think that's the worst idea you've ever had. I think that's a horrible idea. If you think, if it's like a hackathon, no one will ever do that. But I think it's an interesting exercise. And that, and here's my question to you. If you took, let's say Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, um, uh, the Google guys and the CEO, and you had them do a hackathon, do you think any of them are actually still capable of making anything?
Like making it, but it wouldn't be them on their own. So you'd pair them with like, Every team is the all-star, an all-star engineer, so all-star technology person, an all-star designer, and then an all-star CEO product visionary.
No, that's bullshit.
You want one-on-one.
If it's just that, like, for example, I can't probably build anything.
He might, you know, he's gonna go build like a blog.
Well, like, if it was like you and me, it's like you guys, like, you gotta go make like a business in the next like week. I'm very confident that just me on my own, I could build something that makes money. Right. Do you think that, uh, what are the Google guys, Sergey and Larry Page? Do you think that they're capable of actually making anything?
Maybe like, I know Zuck can. So Zuck, when, when Snapchat came out, I remember that, uh, he recognized the threat that was Snapchat so early on and created Facebook Poke. He literally wrote code into the Facebook Poke, like their, their competitor that they, they, I think they released it in 9 days or like 19 days or something ridiculous. And he was one of the lead engineers actually writing code in the project. Now he doesn't normally do that, but that was like the story at least.
Do you think—
I think he could. I think very few others could. I remember, so Mike, Michael Birch, who, who built Bebo, he was a programmer, right? He's a programmer's programmer. He built 4 or 5 startups that were all interesting and successful. And we did a hack week and I invited Michael. I was like, Michael, come hang out. Don't just be Mr. Investor, you know, far away. Like come hang with us, live in our, like, we're staying in your cabin, so like, just come hang with us. And he came and I was like, you wanna build something? We're all building these little like, you know, apps. And he's like, well, don't exactly know JavaScript. Like, the languages I know aren't really used anymore and I don't really remember a lot of it and I haven't coded in years. My machine is not even set up to do it. So, you know, I don't even know what I could build at this point. And so he cooked us dinner instead. And then later he got back into programming. He's like, oh yeah, like, okay, now I got my machine set up. I'm, you know, I'm using Python. I'm learning the new languages instead of the old stuff. Everybody, he like ramped up over time and now he loves to code. He codes all the time. But I think when I put him on the spot, when he hasn't been doing it, no, he was, it was tough for him to just like go build something even though he's an engineer.
So let me tell you something really quick. This, this isn't that shocking cuz I didn't exactly own a tech company, but I made a, I, I owned a company that made tens of millions of dollars on the internet. When you used words like Python and JavaScript or whatever you said, I have literally no idea what those are. Like, for real, I don't know how programming works.
Try to guess. What is Python?
Well, it's like a language, but I don't know, like, I don't know what you use it for. I don't know what it does. When people talk about like Ruby on Rails, I'm like, so there's like a Java on Rails? Like, how, like, is there, like, I literally don't know what the words—
what are these rails you speak of?
Yeah. Or they'll be like, well, this is CSS and this is HTML and this is— I'm like, I don't know. Like, is one of those like the outdoor siding of the home and like Like, I need like an analogy to— I, I still to this day, I have no idea what they mean.
This is like when I told you, I, you know, I go into Home Improvement, they're like, okay, so is it a drywall or— and I'm like, it's not wet. Like, wait, what do you mean? Like, can you gimme 4 or 5 types of walls with some photos and I can tell you which one it looks most like? Hey, can we do like a prison lineup here? And I'll point to the wall that looks most like my wall.
Like when people talk about this stuff, so the way that we worked at my company was I would sit with the engineer and I would just draw. I'm like, the website, it probably should look something like this. And I'll write the words that it should say. And once you click this button, let me draw the second thing that you should see.
And I would give that—
I would give that to them and it would work somehow. And I, and I, to this day, I have no idea how any of those things work.
Yeah. And who, who needs to? I used to, I used to be like, oh, I wish I knew how to code. I'd be so much better if I knew how to code and I would love to learn how to code. I'm still actually, I'm still like kind of at night I'm taking this like, you know, Udemy course on Python or something like that. And then our buddy Sully was like, he's like, yeah, people say that. And he's like, I used to know how to code. He's like, uh, he's like, dumbest thing ever. Who cares how to code? He's like, you could pay somebody here. Here's a guy in India. He can code whatever you want. You just tell him, he'll do it.
And he's like, can I explain why that's stupid? Knowing why I actually totally disagree with him. I think that the, the key is at least you knew how to do it. So then, and if you don't want to do it anymore, that's fine. But I actually think that when there's been times where I've talked to my developer and in my head, I'm like, well, you just got to click this button and you see this. And they're like, well, you don't even have to click the button. You know, like this technology, the way it works is you can just— I'm like, that works. That's a possibility. Like, I don't even know. I wish I knew how to code. So I knew what frameworks I could like work within, because when I, as someone who doesn't know how to code, I'm like, how do you, how did you? I didn't even know that's possible. Like, you know what I mean? It's like asking someone in 1800, to like explain to them how text messages work. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. What the hell is a phone? Let alone, you know what I mean? Yeah. And that's how I feel sometimes when we're talking about coding.
So I think that's true. I, I actually agree and disagree with what he said. So I agree in the sense that I used to think, I used to have this story in my head that if I, if I knew that, then I'd be able to be, do so much more. And I don't believe that that's true. I think that anything I wanted to do, I could do by just, you know, hiring one of many, many programmers out there or using a no-code tool. It is actually not holding me back and I can get the same result whether I do it or not. The part I disagree with is I think it's really awesome to be able to have an idea in your head and be able to make it happen yourself because there's a huge lossiness in trying to explain to something else, explain something that's in your head that's kind of fuzzy to somebody else, having them download your fuzzy picture, then they output it in an even fuzzier way. It's like a game of telephone and it comes out very different. A lot of times, like when I write something or like, like if somebody says, all right, Uh, can you help me with this email? I'm like, yeah, but you gotta gimme the keyboard. And they're like, well, no, I'll like, I'll, I'll type it. And I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like, I don't just think of the email, I write the email and while I'm writing it, I think of what to say. Like, I, I can't create content in a, in my head. I create it while I'm doing it. And I think most great things that get created are like that. You're building it and while you're building it, you're sort of like figuring out what you wanna build and like playing with the idea live. And that's what gets separated when you're not the builder yourself. And so I'm, I, I am jealous that I don't get to do that when it comes to building apps.
And let me ask you one more question. So let's just say that we took some of the big folks. I actually, I won't use Elon because he's proven it, but like you take the guy who started Snapchat, Evan, I think.
Yeah. Zuck, the Google folks, Bezos, maybe not Bezos because he's also proven it, but you take them and you strip away like what they've done and they're the same age, but, you know, they've just been like an insurance agent their whole life. Do you think in one scenario, do you think that they could still accomplish something great? And then on the other side, let's just say that they decided at the same time when they were young, 19s and starting Facebook, let's just say that like, you know, instead of Facebook, I'm going to focus on like music or this like music app, like still tech, but just like a slightly different version. Do you think that they would be even remotely as big and successful as they are?
So the second question I think is much easier to answer, which is I think all of those people would be very successful by any like kind of objective measure. But would they be people that we know their name, we talk about them, and they're, you know, 100 billionaire, you know, status? No. You know, I do not think that's true. I think luck plays a part in the magnitude of the success, but not the probability of success. So I think all of them, the probability of success for them is all 90+%. They would all be good at what they do, positive impact, you know, make millions of dollars over their career and be like considered top of their field in whatever field they go to. The magnitude of success, the fact that they end, you know, Bezos ends up being worth hundreds of billions of dollars, that I think is, um, much more luck of the bounce on which opportunity you took versus others. Um, so yeah, so that, that's kind of my answer to the second. What would you say?
I agree. I think that— so for example, there's this guy named David Karp. You know who David Karp is?
He's the Tumblr guy, right?
Was it—
was it a billion? It sold for a lot of money, but he's totally— then they shut it down. Tumblr's totally nonexistent anymore, and he, uh, he doesn't— I don't even know what he does. He just— he's not relevant. And I think that a guy like him, who I've seen talk and I've heard and I've read his writing, he's pretty brilliant. And I'm like, man, if Tumblr had not sold, or if you were working on something else, I think you could have been way better. Another one is the guy who created Meetup, Scott, I think his name is. He is amazing too, but Meetup is not that big of a— it wasn't that big, it wasn't that interesting. I think if that guy would have worked on something else, it actually would have— he would have been significantly more successful. And, and some of these guys, it's kind of like they're Lance Armstrong and they're riding the Tour de France in a mountain bike or with a flat tire. It's like, man, you— that was needlessly hard. If you could have been way better if you, if you just picked a different thing.
Level 10 hustle, level 10 skill, level 6 opportunity, right? Meetup to me is like a level 6 opportunity. It was just like a really hard space to go into. He did the best of anybody who went into that space. We all know the name because of that reason. But Meetup just wasn't as big as not meeting your friends in real life and only talking to them online through Facebook. Right? Like Facebook was just a far larger opportunity. And I don't think it was that Zuck knew that. So I don't think it's that they're so kind of like, um, big brain that they just, they filter out bad ideas. That is luck. Like best idea. I think, you know, like there's a lot of text messages that get leaked from Zuck early on and he was, he thought Wirehog was gonna be the, the real thing. He was like, you know, still debating. I don't know if I should do Facebook when Facebook was like already a thing and working. And he's like, he's like, I think, you know, this is, this stuff that we're doing right now is gonna really help us when we do Wirehog, which is like a file transfer protocol that he just thought might be bigger. And, um, you know, obviously at some point he recognized, no, this is the opportunity. Let me do this. But like, it's not like upfront he just said, I analyzed 100 opportunities and I've identified the one that's gonna be this app that has like billions of users. I don't believe that that's true at all. I think you sort of luck into the size of the opportunity and the era that you were born. You know, these guys, if they were born before the tech wave, they might have just been the best blacksmith in town and not had like any of the tools that let you become a $100 billionaire because there just was no leverage available to you, you know, 100 years ago or whatever.
Yeah. I, uh, by the way, Michael Chandler and Justin Gaethje, they, uh, they fought like a 3 months ago. These are two UFC guys and they're both known for kind of being like big meatheads who just stand in the middle and bang and hit each other really hard. And they don't— they're just kind of crazy. And Justin Gaethje at the end said something amazing. He goes, I love that. He had just suffered this like 3-round war where they're banging each other in the head as hard as they can. And you feel sad because you're like, this guy is going to have brain damage. And at the end he goes, what just happened? I love it. He goes, I feel like I was born in the wrong era. I should have been a Roman gladiator because I would have loved to fight to the death in front of all you people. And I, and I heard that and it gave me chills. I was like, I believe you. You're— you and I are not the same. You're crazy. Like, you are built to be a warrior. And sometimes I think about that. I'm like, who today? Like, I think like, who was like, like Alexander the Great? If we put him in like today's era, like, would he just be like too brutish? And we'd be like, dude, you're an idiot. Bounce. Like, get out of here, you dumb idiot. Or like if Napoleon came into play nowadays, like, would we just kind of like—
a dating app?
Yeah. Like, what would— like, what would like the gladiators of then be working on now?
Like, Would they just like, well, let's ask our historian, Ben, you study these guys. What do you think if you transplanted Alexander the Great or Napoleon into this era or Edison, would he be like, what are you, a dating app?
Really? That's so stupid. Or would he think that that's the coolest thing ever? And he goes, I wish I could have done this.
I doubt Edison would be into dating apps, but I like, I was on my Alexander the Great episode. One of the points I made is I was just reading this book about Alexander the Great and it talked about a contract that he negotiated. With one of his contractors, one of his suppliers to move their baggage train from one area to another. And I was just like, oh, this is like not that different. Like he had contracts that he had to negotiate and he had suppliers who provided his weapons and like logistics and he just contracted them out and he had people in charge of the contracts and like had basically kind of the same organization that CEOs have. So I think like, yeah, so Alexander the Great, I think he'd be a, His personality, he'd probably be like a CEO. Edison would be like an entrepreneur, kind of technical, but moves out of it like a Zuck. Like, yeah.
Yeah, that's interesting. I think about that all the time. About like what, like the, the, you know, people who dominated from hundreds of years ago, what would they be like today? And vice versa. I'm like, dude, if Zuck didn't learn how to use a computer, like, would that guy just been a dork like in the 1800s? Like, what, could he even have survived the plague? Like, you know what I mean? And so I think about that all the time.
Cool, guys, I gotta run.
All right, end of episode.