đź“– Read the full transcript of this episode
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Want to know what drives a successful entrepreneur to keep pushing forward after they’ve already “made it”?
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur best known as co-host of the popular My First Million podcast, founder of The Hustle (sold to HubSpot for tens of millions of dollars), and Hampton, his latest venture, an exclusive network of high-growth founders.
Sam shares his unconventional journey, starting from his humble beginnings with a hotdog stand and moving on to building thriving businesses. He opens up about key lessons, mistakes, and the importance of surrounding yourself with industry disruptors.
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If you’ve ever wondered about the mindset and habits behind a successful business leader, this conversation with Sam Parr is for you!
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01:03 - Sam’s entrepreneurial journey and background
03:37 - The psychology of success and motivation
04:34 - Innovative approaches to leadership and delegation
19:53 - Navigating fame, friendship, and trust as an entrepreneur
24:48 - Personal transformation through fitness and self-improvement
27:09 - The importance of routine and support systems
27:26 - Overcoming mental health challenges
28:22 - Inspirational figures and their impact
31:54 - Productivity tips and daily routines
34:52 - Mastering storytelling and continuous learning
42:53 - Discovering game-changing products and habits
46:14 - Fascinating people to follow and learn from
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Twitter/X: @thesamparr
Website: https://www.joinhampton.com
‍Podcast: https://www.mfmpod.com
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Auto-generated from YouTube. May contain minor errors.
girls still don’t think I’m cool it’s mostly uh men who will comment on anything shirtless related my parents control money with me like you’re in my house I pay the bills you’re going to do what I say so it was like all right you then I’m going to do what I want and I’m going to I got to go acquire capital in order to do what I want the people I admire are screw-ups and fearful just like I am and it felt like I used to have bad eyesight and once I met these people and got to intimately know them I put good ey glasses on it and like I was like the world is clear I can dominate this just like these guys do because it’s okay that I’m a screwed up person so what’s been going on what have you been doing today I had to record MFM and then I had to do this last thing now I’m doing your thing I’m in Westport Connecticut
living in a 7500t house testing out what it’s like nice drop of the 7500 foot it’s very good it’s a rental and I got a steal but I just wanted to see what it would what it would be like to rent a big house and I lose everything and it’s a and so I don’t now I’ve learned I don’t want a big home so do you want to just give a little bit of background on yourself I’m I’m assuming most people know who you are I’m assuming anyone who’s like anyone who knows me probably knows you from MFM or whatever but can you just talk a little bit about like you know you built the hustle you sold it you started MFM it’s been insanely successful what are you doing now and how are you thinking about work going forward my 62nd background is that I am from St Louis Missouri I grew up with my mom being a teacher and my father owned a produce business selling fruits and
vegetables basically I went to college in Nashville Tennessee I started my first business which was a hot dog stand I realized the internet was awesome and I heard about a company called air bed and breakfast at the time that’s what it was called I cold emailed the founder Joe gbia who you met recently and I was like interviewed me for a job and here’s why you should and he was like do you live in the Bay Area I said yes which I didn’t he’s like all right great my office Monday so I fly out there go to his office Monday get a job offer I leave school and move out there I lied on my resume because I actually had a DWI and I lied about it and they did a background check and they caught me so the day before I was supposed to show up they said you’re fired because you’re a liar and that was the smart that was right on their part I did lie and
then I started uh so I was in San Francisco with nothing so I started a roommate matching business which was like Tinder for roommates which is stupid it should have just been Tinder for Tinder um sold that only made like 50 Grand or something started a conference called hustle con that made like 60 Grand in the first 6 weeks and then like 200 or 150,000 I forget in profit in the first like 10 months when I hosted it again after that I parlay that success into the hustle which was a newsletter which everyone at the time laughed at newsletters now everyone thinks they’re awesome and I think they are awesome I sold that business for tens of millions of dollars towards the end of that company the hustle Shan Pur who was my friend was like I want to create this podcast called my first million I’ve recorded the first episode here it is I said that’s awesome the hustle will become your publisher we publish it after about
8 or 10 episodes he was like just come on and do the thing that we do so I did and that’s kind of how the podcast became what it is today and then most recently I started a company called Hampton which is if you’ve heard of yo or chief or some of these other companies it’s a community based business so it’s founders of companies typically in the $25 million Revenue range they pay to be a member we interview them we vet them and then I think that’s going to be a pretty huge company and I’m focused mostly on that so I split time between MFM and Hampton so when you think about like what drives you in this next phase so you did really well I think you made enough money that if you wanted you could retire now how do you think about work I made enough money that I didn’t have to work again but I didn’t make enough money to please my ego that’s
for sure is your book out by the time this podcast is live no but we can talk about it a little bit well I don’t want to give it away but you and I have similar anxiety around money which is for some reason it never feels like enough whether that is because we have fears of running out or fears that were inadequate compared to our peers I still very much have that and so I’m working somehow to please that but I would say I’m also doing it a bit as like an artist where I feel like I’m compelled and obsessed about creating things and no different than an artist whether they’re good or bad I’m not saying I’m a great artist but you know I’m just like addicted to launching stuff and the dopamine that comes with creating things so in this next business you’ve delegated a lot so I think your old business you were like command and control the hustle was you you know obvious had team but
you’re the dictator and in this business you’ve hired a CEO and now you’re delegating the operations to them what’s that been like for you heavily inspired by you and it’s been awesome so there’s been like headaches where I’m still trying to and I’m text you all the time where I complain about how do I deal with this situation am I am I getting in the weeds too much am I not in the weeds too much and so there’s been like those normal Pains of learning a new skill set and having a new structure but it’s been awesome so basically I’m like the marketing department because I’ve got the podcast and I’ve got my personality whatever you want to call my brand and that drives growth I also quite good at coming up with interesting ideas that pounce on opportunities so that’s what I focus on but I’ve hired a CEO who runs the company on a day-to-day basis eventually I’ll launch more companies and have more CEOs I think but
it’s been life-changing I wish I would have done it sooner I just I didn’t have the confidence to do it and I also was too much of a puss to break the mold and hanging out with you rubbed off on me and I realized there’s many ways to build great companies and I like your way well that’s awesome and I would say my way like anything else the grass is always greener as you’ll learn that there’s lots of downside to doing it this way but in terms of like abstracting away work it’s definitely very elegant it’s not like I work less by the way and we’ll talk about the daily routine which is something on here I still am doing you know I say a 40-hour work week some weeks it’s 30s some weeks it’s 90s 90 hours you know it varies but I still have like a 9 to 5 job I’m just not in charge of HR like I used to be or
I don’t like look at the budget all the time I don’t make the budget do you know what I mean I only focus on things that I actually add a significant amount of value towards yeah Chris has a saying there’s no such thing as problems there’s only people problems so if you can have someone else deal with the people problems that’s a pretty good life yeah and I have a people problem as well right I got to make sure the CEO is happy and he feels rewarded and all those things but I work with him I don’t work with the other 20 people or the 50 contractors we have so you mentioned that you know we’re both afflicted by this feeling of never enough you know which obviously I relate to and you know I wrote a book about it and that’s kind of also what I want this podcast to be a little bit about probing a little deeper with people about you know pulling back the curtain and
seeing like well what makes this person tick and why are they still going and what drives them and I wanted to ask you I was I was talking to my therapist and I was talking about this feeling that I have where you know whenever I get white space I feel it if I have excess time I will you know I’ll buy 20 books when I have time to read two I’ll start 10 companies when I have time to run one like I’m always stacking up and she just stops me and she goes Andrew what would you have to feel if it wasn’t for all this and it kind of stopped me in my tracks I was like well I don’t know like am I I’ve always looked at it as this very positive thing right because it really serves you in business to be generative and start new stuff all the time but I did have to ask myself am I distracting myself from something right what what is
it that actually is driving me do you have a sense of that like what would happen if you just like stopped for a year or two years so I like I think that when a lot of people like complain there’s like oh and people are like you shouldn’t keep doing stuff and then but sometimes the answer is like dude I love this I like it like shut up don’t try to change me like I’m actually happy I’m not unhappy I’m happy I have traumatic things that I’m always working through but I’m happy when when I thought about it after my therapist asked me I went you know what it’s interesting when I was in school I was always like popular like I was likable and whatever but I wasn’t never the guy right I wasn’t like the guy that everyone wanted to hang out with it would be like I would be friends with like a bunch of different groups or whatever and so one of the things
I realized about myself is that when I started my companies I was the guy right Suddenly It’s like my own little clubhouse that I’ve started where I’m important and I’m the dictator and I get to figure out how everything goes so there’s you know maybe like a little bit of stuff there and then the other piece is like when I grew up I just didn’t want my parents tell me what to do my parents were controlling and I just wanted to rebel against that and so that manifested in me going and starting all these businesses do you have something similar like why why are you the way you are so we’ll start let’s go through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs so like on the bottom is is like stuff you want I don’t really want stuff except for I want a big house where my family could come and they don’t annoy me because they have their own space that’s basically the only stuff I want and and I have
that now I don’t really need any cars I don’t need to fly private maybe I’ll do those things but I don’t need any of that crap but so I wanted to start businesses to acquire some things like that the next thing is I wanted to acquire was I wanted to be like a Time billionaire I wanted to spend my time how I want I realized at a young age life is short so if I work really hard for a short amount of time we live in a capitalistic Society it’s never going away so the best way to win is to have enough money that you could tell anyone to go screw themselves and I could spend my time how I want and then if we go up that need or that hierarchy a little bit then there’s like I start stuff because my parents controlled money with me like you know it was like not that they were like crazy about it but
it was like you’re in my house I pay the bills you’re going to do what I say so it was like all right you then I’m going to do what I want and I’m going to I got to go acquire capital in order to do what I want and then if we go higher up that list it’s basically a deep seated like insecurity of like girls didn’t want to date me I felt bullied I had braces I was goofy looking even though I was probably actually the bully but I like felt insecure and then I grow up and I see people like you you’re only a few years older than me you were fortunate that you found your path whether you found it on purpose or you fell into it you found this really cool path and you carved out that path at an early age I carved out a different path and I’m like man Andrew
found this other path that I like more now I have to feel like I’m behind him now I got to hurry up and catch up and I want to be not that I want you or what you represent or my friends who are like this as well I don’t want to crush your Tower it’s like I want to have a skyscraper just as big because I want to feel adequate and I want to feel as good like I belong to have a seat at the table so it’s basically comes down to like a feeling of inadequacy one of the things I’ve observed about the most successful people I meet is when they see someone that they’re jealous of so it’s like oh they have a thing I want they just go okay well I’m as smart as them what are the cheat codes how do I work backwards from whatever they did and I’ll just copy that and learn and
it’s not about tearing the other person down like you said it’s really you put it really well you said I just want to build a skyscraper next to yours yeah yeah yeah I don’t want you like you know the cool thing about capitalism is it a lot of people think that it’s a winner takes all Market it ain’t I can create value and you can create value and so I just want to be a serious person and to prove that I’ve got the chops to do what I think I’m capable of doing and I’ve also I used to host these events called hustle con so we probably had 200 or 150 speakers at them and so we’ve had grammarly people like you I don’t know if you ever spoke at one but people like you Casper Away Travel WeWork just whatever any startup that you could think of that was started around the 14 to 18 era they probably spoke at our events and I would be
backstage with these guys and I would meet them like Alex from the athletic which is like a big Media company that sold for hundreds of millions of dollars or whoever Sam Yagan from OkCupid and Match.com and I would meet these people and for the most part I would hang out with them and I would think I don’t think you’re significantly smarter than me and in some cases I think you’re actually dumber than me but we’re mostly all in the same ballpark there was only like three or four people Max from grammarly being one of them where I’m like yeah dude you’re horsepower you have more horsepower than me like my oven doesn’t burn that hot you just actually are smarter than me and there’s nothing that I can do it’s genetics but for the most part I was like we’re in the same ballpark but you’re like way more successful than me in the terms of traditional success that’s messed up I should have that too and what’s interesting
is that you have the same fears that I have like I would be backstage and I remember Sam Yagan who started OkCupid and then he was the CEO of match.com I think it was you know multi-billion dollar company he was so nervous to speak at this event and I remember I had to calm him down not calm him down but I was like hey Sam are you okay do you want to talk it through I could tell you seem a little high strung you know I’ll just be your sounding board for a minute and I remember like these people were so nervous and they were bitching about they got to fire someone but they’re afraid of the confrontation or they were like they had just raised $100 million in funding and I’m like dude why are you freaking out he’s like I don’t know how we’re going to spend this in order to live up to this valuation so they had all these normal fears that I
have and I remember it feeling like this is awesome the people I admire are screw-ups and fearful just like I am and it felt like I used to have bad eyesight and once I met these people and got to intimately know them I put good eyeglasses on it and like I was like the world is clear I can dominate this just like these guys do because it’s okay that I’m a screwed up person and so that gave me so much confidence yeah this is the problem I feel like you know on Instagram people compare their looks to these beautiful people photoshopped or whatever but then on podcast they compare themselves to us and it’s like we don’t go on MFM and talk about all the ways that we’re messed up and all of our stresses we go on there usually prepped and we’ve prepared well for me I’ve prepared for a day I’ve got all these smart things we prepare you know you guys prepare too and it’s
like we look really smart but behind the scenes everything tastes like chicken man like I’m in not Hampton but I have my own Forum groups I’ve got four of them and so I’ve been doing that for about 15 years and there’s probably 24 men and women that I’m in these Forum groups with and I’ve seen like every single person that I look at and I go that person’s got it figured out within two or three years I go okay that’s their thing that stresses them out and every single person has something that’s driving them insane people problems final stress totally because it humanizes everybody you realize everyone is doing the same thing yeah it’s awesome and if you read like you know there’s so many people are like oh Elon Musk my hero he’s awesome and then you read about divorce divorce divorce like he doesn’t look very healthy whatever this is like all right all of our stuff stinks and we
all have flaws and I think that’s very invigorating when I hear that and I see that I’m a member of Hampton as well and I’ve got guys who are worth many many hundreds of millions of dollars and they’re wonderful people but they all got stuff you know everyone sucks a little bit and so it’s awesome to see that you mentioned you know your parents being like hey you’re in my house you know I’ve got control what did it feel like for you to make more money than your parents I don’t know if you do now but you know tax you do and how did that change the dynamic and then also what do your parents think of you like are they like proud are they supportive or are they kind of like you know prove yourself like how’s that played out for you because it seems like every entrepreneur has that chip on their shoulder it does and I’ll tell you here’s the experience so
the experience is you’re on your computer on Christmas break when you’re at home you’re working on your computer they say why don’t you get a real job you’re not working and I’m like you guys quit bother me I’m working they’re like dude you’re playing on your phone I’m like you don’t get it and then you do that for about 5 years so I did that for 5 years and then they start realizing oh you have health insurance I don’t know what your job is but that’s cute that’s cool if it you know if it fails maybe you’ll get a real job whatever and then my exit happened and I remember it said like Sam Parr sells hustle for a rumored like $40 million or something in some article and I shared them the headline and they’re like okay but do you have health insurance and like they didn’t quite understand and then they start seeing some things in your lifestyle change or in my case that changed a
little bit but it was like with the podcast at least it was like people would start recognizing me on the street or people would start emailing my parents because they found their email somehow and they would ask them questions and they’re like okay this is weird and then they see like maybe your lifestyle changes a little bit and they’re like all right this is cool congratulations we’re so proud of you and then I think lately what it’s turned into is intimidation where it’s like this weird thing of like they feel inadequate sometimes like being around me and I’m like you guys that’s just absolutely ridiculous like that’s not how I’m from Missouri and so they’re right now I’m in basically Greenwich Connecticut looking to maybe buy a house and like they’re like maybe they don’t feel worthy sometimes or they feel intimidated or in a weird way and I’m like that’s just absolute nonsense you should never in a million years feel that way and then occasionally things happen
where family or distant family will ask for stuff and more likely than not you should always say no to that and that causes some tension and so there are some weird rifts that do happen but I think you have to let people know that like this money is just an it it’s really not important what’s important is just that I’ve carved my own path and it just so happens that the outcome is money but it could be just as cool if it were art or a family or being a great teacher yeah it’s amazing like be careful what you wish for like when I was growing up money in my household was like super stressful my dad’s business was always struggling or my parents never had enough money and then as a kid when I was in high school I was the kid who would bum money off friends like I never had money for beer I’d always be borrowing money from people you know I’d pay them back but
I was always broke and so when I got money I was like oh this is going to be awesome I can like share it with everybody and like give my parents money and I can like give my friends money and all this stuff and I noticed it just created weird Dynamics like weird dynamics and also like you know brought siblings you know I worked with two of my siblings that adds its complexity like it’s really really and don’t get me wrong there’s people that pull this off but usually when you peel back behind the scenes it becomes like a business operation not a family well ultimately it doesn’t matter so like it’s not actually that important and so like I admire a family member who’s a good parent just as much as I admire a billionaire I just admire people who are ambitious and get after it whether that’s being whatever they want to be or a business person and it also doesn’t matter because usually I
found the way it works is you feel inadequate and so you want to like tell your parents like no I’m legit like I can do it you see like here’s all these articles about me and then it’s like all right I had an exit I’ve got money let me treat everyone let me buy all this stuff but then it goes to the next thing which is like dude this is embarrassing like I don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable this is not and plus I don’t even think that this is important like you shouldn’t value a person just because of the money thing so I’m actually just not even going to bring it up and let’s just hide anything and that’s where we are now which is like I don’t want to if you ask me how much something costs before I would brag about it I would probably double the price just to look cooler now it’s like dude I don’t even want to tell you what
I have because it’s just not important and I don’t want you to feel like inadequate or anything like that so you had you got rich but then interestingly you also got famous two years later and you know you’re not Leonardo famous popular is the right word yeah well okay if we just look at business Bros you’re famous amongst business Bros right all that experience that first of all I feel immense gratitude so I don’t know how many people listen to the podcast now but many many millions per month I think last year I think we had 100 million like downloads and YouTube views which is a lot and when someone comes up to me it’s nothing like Mr Beast but it’s like good for our little niche and when someone comes up in the street which happens you know a bunch of times a day I feel so much gratitude I’m like I can’t believe you listen to us like that’s just I feel so thankful
that you would give me attention but then on the other side is I feel incredibly uncomfortable so I feel a little bit uncomfortable for safety reasons I also feel more uncomfortable because I don’t want them to think that I’m some Guru who has the answer because I don’t I’m just thinking out loud a lot of times when I’m talking I also think that I feel a little bit a sense of inadequacy because I’m like just so you know there’s people that are way more successful than I am who just shut up and don’t talk about it and you’re only glamorizing me because I’ve got a loud mouth I’m not actually the baller you know the real ballers are the people I’m talking about and so you should admire them and so I feel a sense of like dude you don’t want to talk to me talk to the people I’m talking about like I’m just a talking head right now do
you ever worry that you’re getting a false version of somebody when you meet them because they know who you are yeah like one of the things I noticed is like when I didn’t have money and success you know I would meet you know I think back to high school and it would be like the guy who’s like I don’t know just some guy who’s kind of a dick would be kind of a dick to me but now that same guy is like a successful you know investment banker and he wants to raise money for my company and suddenly he’s like my best buddy and treating me really well now I know because I went to high school with this person I’m just making this up but I know because I went to high school with this person this guy’s actually a dick or a weasel but if I just met him without knowing him from high school I’d be like oh this guy’s really nice right do
you worry about that at all yeah I basically have a group of five friends who like they have keys to my home they are on my kids like trusts or whatever and like I will give them my bank account and I will tell them every single thing about me and I won’t hold back anything and so that’s my small crew and it’s like my tribe and then there’s like 10 or 15 other people of which I would put you in that category where I also like won’t hide anything and I’m like here’s my net worth here’s my portfolio I don’t care you can see all of it here’s a screenshot of the thing I’m going through this issue I’m arguing with my family about this I’ll share all types of stuff with you and then outside of that Circle everyone else is a no I won’t I don’t want to share anything with you and so it’s important you just have this tight tribe and I think that
