If You’re Scared of Looking “Cringe,” Please Watch This

AAlex Hormozi
Small Business/StartupsBooks & LiteratureAdvertising/MarketingExerciseMental Health

Transcript

00:00:00This is the first piece of content I ever made.
00:00:02This is the first ad I ever made.
00:00:05Fast forward to today, we make 450 pieces per week.
00:00:08I broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest selling non-fiction of all time with $106 million in sales in a weekend.
00:00:12And we had a portfolio of companies that did north of $250 million in agri-revenue last year.
00:00:16In this video, I want to show you just how far anyone can come.
00:00:19And not to judge your first chapter by someone else's 25th or 1000th chapter.
00:00:23Also, quick shout out to Don Mazzetti. You're the one who inspired me for making this.
00:00:26Here's one promise I can make to you.
00:00:28You will be cringe.
00:00:30And so, let's define these terms real quick.
00:00:32Shame is breaking someone else's rules.
00:00:34Guilt is breaking your own rules.
00:00:36Cringe is supposed second-hand embarrassment.
00:00:40Someone's saying, "Oh, that's cringe."
00:00:42Saying, "I'm embarrassed for them."
00:00:44But in reality, it's a defensive status play.
00:00:46Which means you should interpret it as if someone says,
00:00:48"Oh, that's cringe. They said that to you."
00:00:50It means I'm beginning to change my status relative to other people or relative to them.
00:00:54And therefore, I'm on the right path.
00:00:56And so, we have to ask the question, like, whose rules are we breaking?
00:00:59Did we agree to their rules?
00:01:01If we set the rules, what outcome did those rules optimize for?
00:01:03A rule is an if-then statement. Is that true?
00:01:06How do we know that? And why does that matter?
00:01:08People seeing you try hard will say,
00:01:11"Why are you taking this so seriously? Why do you even care?"
00:01:14But the truth is, they've never cared about anything in their lives.
00:01:18Like, when's the last time they took anything seriously?
00:01:21Of course. Never. And it shows.
00:01:24And so, I had a guy once come up to me and tell me that
00:01:26he saw how hard I was trying with content.
00:01:29And then he said he'd almost outsourced all of it down to two hours a week.
00:01:33And he was like, "Yeah," like bragging about it.
00:01:35And I said, "Yeah, it shows."
00:01:36And he just, like, looked at me and I was like, "Yeah, it shows." Right?
00:01:40He was trying to be cool about the fact that he didn't try hard,
00:01:43but all it looked like was that he was losing.
00:01:45But back to point. Is it cringe to care?
00:01:49Yes. Of course it's cringe.
00:01:51You can make anything cringe by just caring about it.
00:01:53And the only people who think caring isn't cool are people in high school
00:01:57or people who got older but never grew up.
00:02:00So, be real about this for a second.
00:02:02Just changing how I talk about something can make it sound cringe.
00:02:06So, in the fitness world where I came from, right, bodybuilding,
00:02:09you could be obsessed over muscles, oiling up and posing in tiny trunks
00:02:13on a stage for strangers, right?
00:02:16Maybe competitive chess, right?
00:02:18Staring at a board for hours in dead silence,
00:02:20obsessing over wooden pieces like your life depends on it.
00:02:23Making YouTube videos. Cringe.
00:02:25Setting up light. You're going to set up your little lights
00:02:27and talk to your little camera like an idiot.
00:02:29Like, no one's listening, right?
00:02:30Editing for hours just for a couple views and comments.
00:02:34Oh, writing a book. That's cringe.
00:02:36Locking yourself away for months or years.
00:02:39Pouring your soul into words that most people will never read.
00:02:41Like, you're just going to sit away and type on your keyboard, right?
00:02:43Anyone can make anything cringe, right?
00:02:47Because anyone who cares about anything is cringe.
00:02:51But the worst, and I think Dom Mazzetti said this and I love this,
00:02:54the cringiest thing of all is to be scared about looking cringe.
00:02:58So, why are you hating on someone else who actually has a passion
00:03:01or interest or actually tries?
00:03:03Like, do we really want a world where people care less?
00:03:05Because when you make that claim, like, who do you really hate?
00:03:08Who does the person who says that's cringe really hate?
00:03:10Do you hate them for committing to something?
00:03:13Or yourself for lacking the guts to commit to anything?
00:03:16I want to show this in the realest form I possibly could.
00:03:19I went through the archives. I scrolled all the way back.
00:03:21And I'm a weirdo about, like, I try to keep everything.
00:03:25So, I have, like, my lifelong texts and videos and pictures.
00:03:30And I'm very grateful for that.
00:03:31So, I'll give you a tiny piece of advice to anybody who's on the journey right now.
00:03:34Document more.
00:03:35Like, I would say I don't have many regrets in life,
00:03:37but one of them is that I didn't document the struggle.
00:03:40I didn't document the journey because I was ashamed of it.
00:03:42I didn't want anyone to know.
00:03:43It's kind of like the people who, like, when they're overweight,
00:03:45they want to take pictures of themselves because they're ashamed.
00:03:47But it's like, one, you've got to face reality.
00:03:49And two, if you believe that you're going to win,
00:03:52this will be part of the story you tell.
00:03:54And so, like, Kanye was documenting in the very early days
00:03:57because he believed so hardcore that he was going to win.
00:03:59Right?
00:04:00And I'm grateful because I knew the moment that I actually started documenting purposefully
00:04:04was the day that I had $1,000 in my life in my bank account after I lost everything.
00:04:08I was like, I will never let this happen again.
00:04:09And this will be the beginning of my comeback story.
00:04:11Hey, guys.
00:04:12Real quick, many of you guys are getting started in business.
00:04:14And don't know, but other entrepreneurs have already tried to help.
00:04:17And so, 3.6 million copies were donated by other entrepreneurs in my book launch.
00:04:21And I'm donating these books as well.
00:04:23And so, if you're starting in business and you would like the Ultimate Business Backpack,
00:04:26all three books, this one shows you how to figure out what to sell.
00:04:29This shows you how to get people to find out about it.
00:04:31And this one shows you how to make money from it.
00:04:33And when you have all three, you can actually get started.
00:04:35All right, on top of that, you have 30 days of school that you can get absolutely free.
00:04:39And all of this, including the books, including school, including shipping, is 16 bucks.
00:04:43Yeah.
00:04:44Like, we lose money on this.
00:04:45So, go grab it.
00:04:46It's the ultimate thing I can give you, my gift.
00:04:50Enjoy.
00:04:51If you go there and it's shut down, it's because we ran out.
00:04:53But as long as the link still works, there's books.
00:04:55And so, I want to show you some real stuff.
00:04:59It's tough.
00:05:01But I hope you enjoy it because I think everyone, you know, many people will compare their current
00:05:05chapter to, like, my chapter, somebody else's chapter, whoever your person is.
00:05:09But it's not real.
00:05:10It's made up.
00:05:12Like, compare it to this.
00:05:14This is the first ad I ever made.
00:05:17Now compare that to my first professional ad that I ever made.
00:05:21It's super cringe.
00:05:24Okay.
00:05:25Here's my cringey first post where I was trying to get people to give me money.
00:05:29Right?
00:05:31I'm just like, "Hey, I started this thing.
00:05:33Please, please give me money."
00:05:34Right?
00:05:35Here's my first content piece that I ever made.
00:05:38Sounds very dialed, right?
00:05:40Strong hook, strong meet, strong payoff.
00:05:43No.
00:05:44It's horrible.
00:05:45Right?
00:05:46And this is the first YouTube video that I made when I started making YouTube content.
00:05:49And this is my first IG post.
00:05:52Now, 90 days after that first ad that I showed you, I lost everything for the second time.
00:06:01And that's when I made my first podcast.
00:06:04And so, my goal was to document the lessons so that I had something to look back to as
00:06:08I moved up in my career.
00:06:09And I thought it'd be really cool if Buffett or Bezos or Musk had dumped some sort of video
00:06:14diaries of the come up, not just the top.
00:06:17Right?
00:06:18As something like an artifact for us to learn from that we could follow in their footsteps.
00:06:22Unfortunately, the world is too rational of a place to reward the undeserving.
00:06:25That's a Charlie Munger quote.
00:06:26In order to get what you want, you must deserve what you want, which really means that you've
00:06:30got to be good.
00:06:31And the only way to get good is to be willing to be bad for a very long time.
00:06:34And so, this is my promise to you, is that you will be cringe.
00:06:39These videos, these pieces of content, your first product, they will be cringe.
00:06:42But you will also not be alone.
00:06:44And so, the point is this.
00:06:45You'll figure it out as long as you start, take feedback to get better, and never stop.
00:06:50And if this motivated you to stop judging yourself, because hopefully these are super cringe, I
00:06:54made an entire video on the iterative process that I followed to get here, which you can
00:06:58watch.
00:06:59Let's see what this is.
00:07:00Hey guys, and in your next installment of the Mind Game series, I just want to talk about
00:07:06love versus discipline.
00:07:07And it's a topic that I feel like gets totally misconstrued within the fitness industry because...
00:07:13Hey guys.
00:07:14Welcome.
00:07:15Okay.
00:07:16So, measuring yourself is a really important thing for tracking progress so that you can
00:07:19make adjustments to your meal plan.
00:07:21Makes sense.
00:07:22You want to track as many variables as you possibly can.
00:07:25The reason for that is not because you want to see...
00:07:27I don't know.
00:07:30A trainer?
00:07:31I have no idea.
00:07:32Hi guys.
00:07:33I'm Alex, and I'm the owner of United Fitness.
00:07:36So, welcome to our family.
00:07:37Thank you for the opportunity to earn your business.
00:07:40So, I just want to tell you a little bit more about what we do.
00:07:43United Fitness, we strive to be the leading body in life transformation business out there.
00:07:48Are you tired of fitness places that don't make you have fun or give you the results you
00:07:52want?
00:07:53Well, United Fitness is ready to change that.
00:07:54And you know how?
00:07:55Now, we're gonna have you lifting weights.

Key Takeaway

Achieving $106 million in weekend sales and $250 million in annual revenue requires enduring a 'cringe' phase of low-quality initial output to gain the skills necessary for elite performance.

Highlights

Cringe is a defensive status play used by others to signal a change in their relative social standing when someone else begins to improve.

Documenting the struggle with only $1,000 in a bank account serves as the foundational narrative for a future $106 million book launch weekend.

A portfolio of companies generating over $250 million in annual revenue began with a first ad that lacked professional hooks, timing, or production value.

The fastest selling non-fiction book of all time resulted from a process of producing 450 pieces of content per week.

Deserving a desired outcome requires being willing to be bad at a skill for a long period before becoming good.

Timeline

The Social Function of Cringe

  • Shame results from breaking the rules of others while guilt results from breaking personal rules.
  • Cringe is perceived second-hand embarrassment used as a social tool to protect the status of the person observing the effort.
  • People who mock others for trying hard typically lack personal commitments or serious pursuits of their own.

Initial content and ads often lack the polish of later success, as seen in the transition from first-ever posts to a 450-piece weekly content machine. Observers use the label of cringe to defend their own status against those who are actively changing theirs through effort. A rule is simply an if-then statement, and those who criticize often optimize for staying comfortable rather than achieving specific outcomes.

The Cost of Caring and Commitment

  • Anything becomes cringe the moment someone demonstrates significant care or obsession toward it.
  • Boasting about minimal effort or outsourcing often masks a lack of results in the actual work.
  • The highest level of cringe is the fear of appearing cringe to others.

Obsessions in bodybuilding, competitive chess, or YouTube production can all be framed as embarrassing when stripped of their context. Bodybuilders oiling up for strangers or chess players staring at wooden pieces for hours appear ridiculous to those who do not value the craft. Hating on someone else's passion often stems from a personal lack of courage to commit to a difficult path.

Strategic Documentation of the Struggle

  • Documenting the early stages of a journey provides the necessary artifacts for a future comeback story.
  • Avoiding documentation due to shame prevents the creation of a complete narrative once success is reached.
  • A $16 business bundle including three books and 30 days of schooling is used as a loss leader to help new entrepreneurs start.

The decision to record the journey began at a low point with only $1,000 remaining after losing everything. Successful figures like Kanye West documented their early days because they maintained an absolute belief in their eventual victory. Facing the reality of a difficult starting point, such as being overweight or broke, allows that struggle to become a powerful part of the final success story.

The Path to Deserving Success

  • First attempts at ads, content, and products are inherently low quality and embarrassing in retrospect.
  • The world is a rational place that rewards those who have developed their skills through long-term repetition.
  • Mastery is achieved by starting, accepting feedback, and refusing to stop despite initial failures.

Early professional ads and fitness videos often feature weak hooks, awkward delivery, and poor production. These artifacts serve as proof that talent is developed rather than innate. Following the wisdom of Charlie Munger, one must deserve what they want by becoming good, which necessitates a long period of being bad at the craft first.

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