Alex Hormozi joins Sam and Shaan to discuss his work habits, the psychological roots of his drive, and what it was like to take a year off after selling his company. The conversation turns to the concept of entrepreneurial “seasons” — how both Sam and Alex use time-bounded thinking to make big commitments feel less heavy.
Speakers: Sam Parr (host), Shaan Puri (host), Alex Hormozi (guest)
Work Ethic and Partnership with Leila [00:00:00]
Sam: You seem like a grinder. When you were building these businesses, were you just doing 80-hour, 100-hour work weeks? And what about now — because you’re jacked, you look like a bodybuilder. How did you balance being fit and getting married? You seem like you’d be grinding hard.
Alex: My wife works in the business with me, so we’re true 50/50 partners. It’s very rare — I recognize how rare it is. She is 100% matched with me, and she should just as much be on this call because she runs the other half. From a work standpoint, she has more output than I did. She is the operator. She builds the infrastructure, does the recruiting, sets the HR stuff, does the culture — she runs everything. I just occasionally come up with a good idea and try to stick with it long enough to see it come true.
In terms of grinding — this is what we like. I love business. I love this. There’s nothing that really stimulates me like this, so I do as much of it as I can. If we want to go to dinner, we’ll go to dinner. But we’re single — no kids — so we work from about five-ish to four-ish. Usually in the middle of the day we’ll go to the gym for an hour or two, then come back and keep working, and go out to dinner at night. That’s kind of our lives.
The Psychology of Drive [00:03:30]
Sam: You seem pretty — this isn’t quite right, but I’d say you’re a little neurotic. Shaan has a little bit of it too. There’s something deep-rooted inside of you that’s compulsive. You’re obsessed about stuff, which I am as well. What’s that rooted in? What are you trying to get done?
Alex: I think originally the drive came from just crippling insecurity and needing approval. Then from a behavioral conditioning standpoint, I got immediate feedback that was positive, and I was conditioned to continue those actions. Now I continue to do them without the original catalyst that got them going to begin with.
I don’t think I suffer from the insecurities as much as I used to. I’d say I’m probably 30% better than I was at the beginning — and it might just be because I have this massive pile of money that I use as an emotional crutch to tell myself I’m not a piece of shit. I mean, if it all disappeared, I’d find out how much actual growth I had versus whether I just compensated by circumstance.
Sam: Yeah, that would help. I’m just being real.
Alex: You can send it to me and we’ll find out. Let’s run the experiment.
Taking a Year Off [00:06:00]
Sam: So there’s this compulsion — but you said you pretty much took last year off. You didn’t work that much. What’d you get up to?
Alex: We went out to dinner every single night to a five-star restaurant for seven straight months. We moved to Vegas temporarily. We traveled a lot — Cabo, Scottsdale, Sedona, Flagstaff. We traveled all over. Honestly, it felt pretty empty. You can only eat so many times. There’s just not a lot to do.
It felt good having that rest though. When I sold my company — which was a year ago last week — the first six months I was like, “I need to decompress.” It felt good to have that. And then I was like… and I’m in that phase now where I’m like, “All right, now I’m ready for war again.”
Shaan: You can’t be in the trenches forever. You need breaks from being at war. And maybe even phrasing it differently — it’s not a break, it’s a shift in how you’re thinking. It’s going from dirt to clouds. But I still think it’s high-leverage activity. It’s just a different type of output.
Entrepreneurial Seasons [00:09:00]
Sam: You said something in one of your videos that — you’re one of the only other people I’ve heard use this phrase. I use it a lot: “I had a season” or “this season I’m doing this.” That’s been a game changer for me.
My personal trainer and mindset coach — he does this all the time. He’ll say, “I’m in a season right now where I’m practicing not waiting.” He comes up with these little themes. He’ll say, “Right now I’m in a season where I’m going to eat whatever I want.” It’s kind of like in the entrepreneurial world — it’s like time boxing. “I’m going to give myself two hours to get this done” or “I’m going to launch in the next two weeks no matter what.” I’ve used time boxing for productivity, and now this seasons thing — it makes every decision you’re making less of a heavy commitment, because you’re like, “It’s okay.”
Alex: Yeah. Because there are beginnings and ends. This season is going to feel a little different — just like winter feels different than summer. That’s how I use it. Do you use it like that? I just noticed you said that phrase.
Sam: Yeah. Maybe it’s a fitness thing, I have no idea. I have no ownership over it.
Alex: I think about it in terms of entrepreneurial seasons. At least for me, they might have been roughly five-year chunks. This is going to be my fourth season. They’ve been about the same length. I think it probably takes me about three years to really see something through, and then two years to figure out how I’m going to transition from that thing — or realize I need to, or modify it. It’s kind of like a PE cycle almost.