Started/sold some startups. Founder + president of Hampton @hamptonfounders. Host My First Million podcast on the side.
NYC
Joined July 2012
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Sam Parr retweeted
-don’t watch Euphoria
-don’t call your girlfriend your “partner”
-don’t own a dog under 50lbs
-lift weights
-go for walks
-don’t follow Instagram models
-don’t cheat on your girlfriend
-stay up til 2AM with your girlfriend’s dad on Christmas Eve watching Saving Private Ryan
-call your friends for no reason
-treat customer service employees kindly
-take random moments throughout your week to be grateful for your health
Sam Parr retweeted
if you want a sense of how absurdly fast things are moving, remember when anthropic ran super bowl ads mocking openai for the chatgpt tone + ads?
well that was feb of *this year*.
so like ~7 months ago. it feels like at least 5 years ago.
i have a lot to say about these ads but holy fucking shit… this might be the most tasteful & brutal takedown of a category leader i’ve ever seen. & during the fucking super bowl? insane.
usually these things almost always fall flat (see: slack “welcoming” microsoft teams with a fucking newspaper ad & how cringe that was), but this one lands dead center.
even normies will clock the subtlety. the capturing of chatgpt’s drift in personality, tone, & vibes is absolutely unreal. almost surgical. normal ppl i know make fun of how chatgpt talks.
imo openai made themselves vulnerable here by simply trying to do so much (enterprise, codex, consumer, etc) & lacking a singular cohesive narrative other than they have 800m users. like even google is taking shots about openai being forced to run ads.
anyway i’ll post more but this was an absolute master class (i have posted about how openai competitors should handle their ads play, & this is a great start). also i would not count anthropic out of the consumer race yet (they have a lot of room to grow & even potentially acquire small startups).
All the SNL cast talk about the costume lady.
They always mention her on podcasts and books as like the one who's seen it all and makes it all happen.
Her name's Donna Richards and she's been there since the 1970s. Her job is to get the host and guests ready in costumes.
Which basically means she's dealing with the most famous people on earth and like directing them, telling them what to do.
Like the host will complain sometimes and say like "i feel dumb and don't wanna wear this" or whatever or like "are you sure?"
Her job is to
- Be assertive but not rude: Yes. It looks great. This is what you're wearing. Go on stage now. Hurry up. You rock.
- She's a "nobody" but has to lead famous big ego celebs.
- Sometimes be therapist and calm them down when nervous, other times like "hey get your ass ready hurry up."
She's like guiding these people to be dope and be calm and succeed and all that.
Sorta a corny tie in here: but i think that type of energy is needed when guiding clients in a service business.
Dictate. But nicely. Balancing assertiveness and calming.
People who get rich overnight vs. through cash flows.
With all these upcoming IPOs there are tons of overnight rich people. Of course, they were rich along the way, but now they have liquidity over night.
My observations of people who get rich overnight vs. those who've accumulated as they went:
- the overnight people are more likely to be weird and have issues
- cash flow is often what makes people feel wealthy, not a lump sum. People who have huge sums say when the cash flow disappears, they feel broke.
- a top overnight rich mistake: irreversible mistakes in the first 12 months. starting/investing in businesses, buying diff houses. Often best to get used to it first.
- I hope they have spouses BEFORE the money hits.
- Overnight wealth...prolly more fun and exciting!
What else?
Sam Parr retweeted
sat down with Ethan Evans (who spent 15 years at Amazon working with Jeff Bezos)
we talked about:
- what it's really like working for Jeff
- his "?" emails
- the story of Amazon Prime
- who Jeff studied
youtube.com/watch?v=0_hpTKQq…
I've owned motorcycles since 2001.
My favs:
- 1996 honda xl650. Road it cross country. Cost $1200.
- 2008 Bonneville. Simple. Always worked. Enough power.
- GoPed Bigfoot. Got it when I was 12.
- Honda Passport 70c. More fun riding a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow.
Least fav:
- Triumph Scrambler. Pipe burnt me so much.
- 1995 BMW r100. Crackheads steal the spark plugs.
- 1980's Honda 3 wheeler. Death trap. So fun.
Sending out a weekly newsletter. samparr.com
This week's:
- 800+ conversations with successful founders taught me one thing: for any piece of advice, you can do the opposite and still win
- @dhh never raised VC. @bhalligan says raise a lot
- MrBeast works until he crashes. Rob Dyrdek works 40 hours a week
- A 6 year old bootstrapped knife company doing over $100 million a year
- Average net worth by age (35 to 44 is $670,000)
- I skated home with balloons for my kids' birthday
- Why admiration is what to look for in a spouse and a co-founder
Anthropic made $16 billion in the first half of this year, so a ~30b run rate (but will be bigger as its growing like hell).
They are only 5 years old!!!
With these ai companies growing this fast, I'm starting to take huge numbers for granted.
Building a company worth $1b in a decade is nuts. A $30b company in less than a decade, incomprehensible. A $30 billion run rate in 5 years...like its hard to get the physics behind this.
The 7 cofounders are now worth ~$15b each. That's like $8m a day for each founder that they made for themselves since starting.
There are so many crazy takeaways from this. But the obvious one is how much change can happen in such a short time.
I hate flying. The claustrophobia issues I have...its controlled a bunch of stuff in my life.
I read this book last month on panic attacks.
Its the only book I've read that has made a difference.
It hasn't cure my claustrophobia, but last month I had the best flight I've had in 15 years. Sharing so other f*cked up people can get fixed.
Been fun watching @isaacfrench_ grow on social.
He started insta recently-ish and not has 300k followers and great content.
I love Isaac because everything he does: its thoughtfully done and has this perfect balance of force, meticulousness, art, and capitalistic.
He becomes a student of shit and executes wonderfully.
