Entrepreneur and CEO/co-founder of Acquisition.com, a portfolio of companies she built with husband Alex Hormozi.
Leila Hormozi's entire initial weight-loss plan was to take whatever she was about to eat and eat half of it. It worked for the first 60 pounds before she moved on to macros and lifting.
“I just had the fuel. I mean, and the funny thing is, I remember, uh, my plan was this, just eat half of what you're eating.”
Steal thisStart a diet with one rule: eat half of whatever you were going to eat.
Leila Hormozi describes the mechanism behind her overnight transformation after her sixth arrest: she vividly imagined where her life would be in 3-5 years if nothing changed, and the fear of remaining the same became greater than any fear of changing.
“The fear of remaining the same was so much greater than any fear I had of change that I changed the next day. Like, I threw out all my alcohol. I decided I was moving out of the house I was in. I lived with 6 people. I said, I'm not drinking, I'm not doing drugs, I'm gonna work out, I'm gonna eat healthy, I'm gonna get a second job.”
Steal thisVividly play your current trajectory forward 3-5 years until the pain of staying the same outweighs the fear of changing.
Leila Hormozi predicts the future of fitness looks nothing like boutique gyms: people will soon take a pill that controls their appetite, and many will choose being skinny via a pill over going to the gym.
“I think that the future of fitness looks completely different than boutique gyms. I think that, you know, I mean, I know what they're doing in the background in the labs, which is like people are going to be able to soon take a pill and they're going to be able to control their appetite. Why do you want to go to the gym every day if you could just be skinny? Lots of girls don't give a shit.”
Leila Hormozi says she and Alex began building Acquisition.com the very day after they sold Gym Launch, having already worked out where the proceeds would go (first deals, a 40,000 sq ft headquarters, real estate, and stocks).
“The day after we sold, we started acquisition.com.”
Leila Hormozi describes the framework she and Alex used to choose Acquisition.com: what each of them is best in the world at, what daily work each can sustain long-term with people they like, and where there's room in the market to capitalize on both skill sets.
“Really, it actually started with what am I best in the world at? What is Alex best in the world at? Right? That's one piece. The second piece to that is what is the ideal day-to-day for Alex to sustain so that he knows that he's not going to want to quit because the work he's doing with the people he's doing it, he doesn't like. Same for Layla, right? So it's like, do things you like with people you like. That's how you sustain performance, in my opinion.”
Steal thisBefore choosing your next business, define what you're best at, the day-to-day you can sustain, and where the market lets both compound.
Leila Hormozi sold Gym Launch partly because the people she'd network with and compare herself to in private equity were more aspirational than those at the top of the fitness industry; who you compete against sets the tone for who you become.
“And I think that who you compete with or who you compare yourself to, right, is like that. Sets the tone for who you wish to become in many ways. Like if I get in the room with whatever, you can just say Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or whatever, and I have a company that I aspire to have like theirs, like I'm gonna compare myself to them.”
Steal thisPick the industry whose top players you actually want to become like; the company you keep sets your ceiling.
Leila Hormozi sold Gym Launch partly because the people she'd network with and compare herself to in private equity were more aspirational than those at the top of the fitness industry; who you compete against sets the tone for who you become.
“And I think that who you compete with or who you compare yourself to, right, is like that. Sets the tone for who you wish to become in many ways. Like if I get in the room with whatever, you can just say Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or whatever, and I have a company that I aspire to have like theirs, like I'm gonna compare myself to them.”
Steal thisPick the industry whose top players you actually want to become like; the company you keep sets your ceiling.
After seeing roughly 1,000 businesses at Acquisition.com, Leila Hormozi says product-market fit exists on a scale, not yes/no, and her shorthand for a bad business is weak product-market fit, weak founders, low margin, and low potential.
“I, I think product market fit is not It exists on a scale. It's not yes or no, but like poor, like weak product market fit, weak founders, um, low margin, low potential.”
Leila Hormozi says the number one problem she sees in founders is emotional, not technical: they're either too impatient to let any strategy play out, or too tolerant and conflict-averse, wanting to be liked at all costs and making bad decisions because of it.
“The number one problem that I see is not technical and it's not even a practical problem, but more of an emotional problem, which is I think founders lie on one of two spectrums, which is either They're incredibly impatient and because of that, they never wait long enough to see if any kind of strategy will work. They just change it.”
Leila Hormozi reframes patience: she can wait because she's busy doing the work that makes the thing happen. People feel impatient mainly because they're removed from the daily progress, so her job is to constantly show Alex the progress being made.
“patience is just figuring out what to do in the meantime. The reason I can be more patient is because I'm fucking busy doing all the shit to make the thing happen. Right. But if you're not the one in there having the meetings, hiring the people, recruiting the stuff, putting the tech in place, then it feels like it takes a long time.”
Steal thisStay patient by staying in the work; the impatience comes from being removed from daily progress.
Leila Hormozi's advice to female entrepreneurs: even where unfairness is real, the question is whether dwelling on it is useful. She refuses to focus on thoughts that aren't useful and reframes added challenges as chances to acquire more skills.
“The question to ask yourself is, is this useful? You know, a lot of people come to me and they say, isn't it hard to do business because like, you know, you're a woman and you're married to Alex? Like, do people take you seriously? I'm like, I don't know. Is that a useful thought? If it's not, then why the fuck would I focus on it?”
Steal thisWhen a discouraging thought arises, ask 'is this useful?' and drop it if the answer is no.