101: How to Become 1% Better Every Day
Behind Their Success: Episode 101
Alan: [00:00:00] and then I get in my car accident, my fault, head on collision dark winter night
in 2015. No one was killed, fortunately 'cause it would've been entirely my fault. Crossed the
double yellows lift, kitted pickup truck head on. Fortunately, no one's killed, but this is not a
fender bender.
This is 30 miles an hour. Head on collision, both sides. Both airbags deployed, so we were okay,
but that was the second chance my dad never got.
My dad died in a car at 28. I've seen pictures of his car, I've seen pictures of my car. They don't
look very different. And this is when I found personal development.
Paden: Hello everybody. Welcome to Behind Their Success Podcast. I'm Paden Squires, the
host, and today we have on Alan Lazaros. Alan is the CEO and co-founder of Next Level
University, a global top ranked self-improvement podcast. With over 1 million listens in thriving
international community. Alan's journey is one of transformation from overcoming tragedy in a
near fatal car accident, to building a business that blends mindset mastery with entrepreneur
growth. His heart driven no [00:01:00] BS approach to personal and professional development
has helped countless entrepreneurs unlock both profit and purpose. Alan, welcome on Behind
Their Success.
Alan: Thank you for having me. It is an absolute honor. We talked a little bit before we hit record
about how in the beginning it was crickets, so I'm very grateful to be here. 'cause in the
beginning, no one gave a shit.
Paden: Yes.
And,
and you know, that's, that's especially true in podcasting. Right. your mom's listening in the
beginning, but not, too many else people. Right,
Alan: Maybe not even that.
Paden: right. Yeah. Well, at least they'll tell you, listen. I'm
like, well, I don't have any downloads.
Alan: Depending on what your first episode is, maybe you don't even want them to listen. right.
Paden: Right, right.
Alan: Yeah. So thank you for
having me. Seriously. I appreciate it. I, I, I don't take it lightly. I won't waste anyone's time. And,
uh, I meant what I said too. I, I always try to remind myself, 'cause I, I'll share this.
So I hit a PR last week. I did 54 coaching sessions, trainings and podcasts last week.
Paden: Wow.
Alan: That's in a seven day period. That's the most I've ever been able to do and [00:02:00] I'm
just trying to sustain this level of momentum. I was a little bit late. You were very respectful. I
really appreciate it. 'cause I had a client going through some stuff, uh, about to quit in business.
So we'll talk about that.
Paden: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, Alan, like, give everybody, you know, the high level story of
where'd Alan come from? Where'd he start? And, and kind of what are you doing today?
Alan: Okay, so born and raised in Massachusetts. Uh, tough start. Tough start. One of the
interesting things about my life now is I kinda look a little bit like a silver Spooner who started on
third base and it couldn't have been farther from the truth. I joke, I say I couldn't even see the
ballpark. Uh, but it is interesting to have that first impression of like, oh, you know, so tough,
tough, tough start.
So birth father died when I was two. In 1991, suddenly in a car accident,
Paden: Hmm.
Alan: my mom was 31. Everything's numbers for me, so I'm an engineer and everything's
numbers, so forgive me for that. But mom was 31, sister was six, I was two. 1991. Birth father
died at 28 years [00:03:00] old, suddenly in a car,
Paden: Hmm.
Alan: and that changed my life.
Not only that moment, but later on, which I'll get to. I had a stepfather named Steve Lazarus
from age three to 14, so my birth last name is McCorkle. It was John McCorkle. It was Jim, Joe,
John Jane, Joan, Jeanette, my dad, John McCorkle. It was a big Irish Catholic family in
Massachusetts. And when my stepfather came into the picture, we stopped associating with the
McCorkle.
We were trying to be sort of the Lazarus. I took his last name around age seven, and I playfully
refer to this part of my life as boats and bs. And the reason why is he worked for a company
called Agfa. They did hospital computers. It was a GFA hospital computers in Massachusetts
during the.com bubble.
Now for anyone who remembers the nineties. The US is the largest economy. Exactly. Okay.
Whoa. First of all, what in the hell was going on back then? Right? So I playfully refer to this and
I wanna be respectful to, to them, but I also need to be honest, uh, they ran am. [00:04:00] A lot
of people in the nineties just had a lot of abundance and, and honestly, a lot of people in the
nineties in the US who weren't that conscientious, had a lot of abundance.
And my mom and stepdad definitely fell in that category. So we had boats and we had ski trips
and we had snowmobiles and we had to do Coty motorcycle. And my mom drove A BMW and
we had a yacht and we had an apartment building and we hung out with people who owned golf
courses. And it, it's interesting in hindsight.
I'm 36 now. but it's very clear looking back that they were like big kids with money and they did
not get along, and that's a polite way to put it. Okay. So I playfully refer to that part of my life
from three to 14 as boats and bs. I went from boats and ski trips, stepdad leaves.
I'm 14 years old. I'm a freshman in high school. I'm about to start high school. Hardest year of
my life. Wouldn't even be able to talk about this until my thirties. stepdad leaves, takes his entire
extended family with him, also takes 95% of the income with him.
Paden: Hmm.
Alan: So we go from boats and ski [00:05:00] trips, Xbox, Dreamcast, early Christmas presents
to, I get free lunch at school now 'cause our income is so low, we don't have cable.
My mom treats an W for a little Honda Civic, the.com bubble bursts the whole thing. And I'm not
gonna starve. But how are we gonna keep the house in the family? No dad, no trust fund, no
generational wealth. And it's like, you know, if it's gonna be, it's up to me type of thing. So. That
same year, hardest year in my life, my mom gets in a fight with my Aunt Sandy, her sister, and
we get ostracized from her side of the family.
So we don't associate with MCC Oracles anymore. The Lazarus has left completely, haven't
seen or spoken to a single one of them since.
Paden: Wow.
Alan: And I've only seen or spoken to two human beings from my mother's side.
Paden: Wow.
Alan: So by the time I'm 14 years old, I've know, I know nothing but abandonment and tragedy
and challenge and death and mortality, and I became this esoteric, semi genius, [00:06:00]
achiever with abandonment issues.
So two reactions, right? Two reactions. One is the, I think there's the real world. There's the
social world. So in the social world, I became a chameleon. Fit in, fit in fit in. Don't lose any more
friends, don't lose any more family. Just hang on to everyone you love. And I became this sort of
dim your light.
Do whatever you can to fit in social coward.
Okay? But behind the scenes when no one was watching, it was, it was fight baby. It was aim
higher, work harder, get smarter, aim higher, work harder, get smarter. I became this. The drive
was ridiculous. So I got straight A's through all the high school. I got the President's Award
behind me, signed by George W.
Bush. And I got all the scholarships and financial aid I possibly could. 'cause my dream was to
go to WPI, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It's kinda like a mini MIT in Massachusetts. And I
went from when my stepdad left, I hope I get into, even if I do get in, I can't go. 'cause it's
$50,000 a year. And that's back then, 50 grand a year back then too much.
But anyways, [00:07:00] so I get all the scholarships and financial aid possible. I mean, I get in,
I, I'm able to go. And I get my computer engineering degree, high distinction master's in
business, and then the economy's coming back 2012, bachelor's 2013 masters. And I just tech
company after tech company, after tech company, after tech company, and I do corporate.
And 65 a year to 85 a year. 85 a year to 1 0 5 a year. 1 0 5 to 1 25, 1 25 eventually to 180. I
work for a company called Cognex, a bunch of different tech companies. iRobots, Sensata
Technologies, Cognex, climb the corporate ladder. Then I get in my car accident. So at this
point, I'm 26 years old. I paid off 84 grand worth of college debt in a single year.
I have 150 grand in a Vanguard account. I don't need much. 'cause in high school and college I
was broke. So I just drove a 2004 Volkswagen Passat, no kids, no mortgage. My expenses were
super low, which is a superpower in business. And I knew what tech companies to pick 'cause
I've always been a techie. We were mining for Bitcoin in my dorm room in 2007.
These, the super nerds of the world [00:08:00] went to my school, right, and then I get in my car
accident, my fault, head on collision dark winter night in 2015. No one was killed, fortunately
'cause it would've been entirely my fault. Crossed the double yellows lift, kitted pickup truck
head on. Fortunately, no one's killed, but this is not a fender bender.
This is 30 miles an hour. Head on collision, both sides. Not good. Fortunately, it was a lift kitted
pickup truck, so they were okay, and we kind of went under it. And I was driving a 2004
Volkswagen Passat, which I used to call the tank. And this car was the German engineered steel
trap of a car. Both airbags deployed, so we were okay, but that was the second chance my dad
never got.
My dad died in a car at 28. I've seen pictures of his car, I've seen pictures of my car. They don't
look very different. And this was my quarter life. Um, existential.
Paden: What, what, what age you say that was close to the same age, right?
Alan: Yeah. Yeah. He was 28
and I was 26. And so this is when I faced everything. I [00:09:00] faced everything. 'cause
before that, I didn't talk about my dad.
Paden: Mm-hmm.
Alan: Before that I, I didn't face the abandonment stuff. And this is when I found personal
development.
This is when I found self-improvement, personal growth. And I read every book, Stephen Cubby,
Tony, Rob, you name it, right?
And, and that was 10 years ago. And I started a little company called Alan Lazarus, LLC, what
you'll never learn in school, but desperately need to know good luck getting speeches at high
schools and colleges with that
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: tagline. And ever since then, I've been trying to bring personal development to the
masses.
In my own unique way. And now we have a podcast, 18 person team, 24 clients as of yesterday,
112 podcasters and business owners that we work with. And like I said, it snowballed quite a bit,
but ultimately, personal development principles is what I was missing. And growing up there's,
there was none, and I'm talking none.
I, I call it the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Small town. Small minded. And, and I, I was not
small minded, and fortunately, I, [00:10:00] I reevaluated my existence at 26.
Paden: Yeah. That's amazing. That's a great, that's a great story. And, and, and while, you
know, our, our stories are definitely different. There's some, there's some similarities. my father,
he didn't pass away till I was in college, but, um. Abandonment issues through divorce and, you
know, you know, all that, that that typical kind of story.
And, and in my personal life, it drove me to be a high achiever. I didn't even realize that. Right.
It's like I'm running from abandonment issues trying to prove my worth, yada, yada, yada.
Alan: Same. Hey,
Paden: You don't even know why you're doing it
Alan: and then eventually it's like, this is not working
Paden: Yeah. Well you're like, you know, it sounds all great and you know, I even talk to friends
or whatever and they're like, yeah, I just don't have that like you do. And I'm like, well. It's torture
too at the same time,
like you know what I mean?
Alan: people say that to me too because they, they're like, well, you have this drive and this
hunger, but that was, it was to avoid massive paint.
Paden: Yeah. You're
just run. Yeah.
You're
Alan: just run, you're running in the opposite direction of what caused you the most pain.
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: And, and it does. You're right. [00:11:00] You know, I got the chip on my shoulder.
Don't take off the chip. Just make sure the chip doesn't run you into the ground. Make sure you
run the chip.
Paden: yeah. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. And, and for me, you know, I, I would say I, I really dove into personal development. You
know, I had my first kid 2016, second one in about 2017, and that's where I really dove headfirst
right
into into that all kind, you know, that, that whole world, right?
And reading all the books, doing all the podcasts, you know, all that stuff.
And it's really kind of developed what it's today. But, um. What do you like, what, you know, you
say you had the car accident, but like, do, do you remember specifically how you discovered
personal development or
like what flipped that switch.
Alan: two things. Uh, so one of them is a book by Brony Ware. Do you know who Brony Ware?
She's an Australian woman. She wrote a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.
Paden: Okay. I know. Yeah. Okay. I know
Alan: Yeah, you've probably heard of the book. It's, it's a very famous book for a reason. I think
it's powerful, but, so I almost die in a car,
and then I find a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, and I was filled with regret.
What a, what a coincidence, right? My, my [00:12:00] reticular activating system was looking for
answers, because when you get humbled to that level, you know you can't live the same way
you've been living in the fast lane, so to speak. Cog Next's motto back then was work hard, play
hard. I used to say work hard, play harder.
Like that's the level of super achiever guy. I was, brought my high school friends to college,
college friends to corporate. I mean, it was, we ran muck, we were fun. I grew up, I grew up in
an environment that was about, about fun.
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: And so when I, I had so much regret around all that because quite frankly, drank too much
and too often didn't take care of my health.
I at 26 realized, okay, I gotta, I gotta turn this around. And I now have since found out, I think you
might know about this too, since you've obviously done some of this reflection, there's
something called an ACE score, adverse Childhood Experiences. And if you have a High ACE
score, which I have confirmed from my therapist that it's, I finally had the courage to ask
[00:13:00] her, like, and I already knew the freaking answer.
Uh, right. Yeah. 'cause you know, on the soul level. And she said, Alan, you know, the highest
I've ever seen. And she didn't wanna tell me. And I just, I bawled my eyes out and I just, I knew
already, but I needed her to hear it too. 'cause she's a therapist, so she hears all the worst. And
she'd been doing therapy for decades.
And so it's like, okay, well out of all of her clients, the hundreds of clients, like, I have the highest
she's ever seen. Like, I knew something was up here. So anyways, uh, high a score is, is
correlated with early mortality. So if you have a high adverse childhood experiences score, you
can take a test.
Typically you drugs, alcohol,
And so luckily I had the second chance to turn all that around. But to answer your original
question, I found the top five regrets of the dying by a woman named Brony Ware. I have since
interviewed her and I fanboyed hard on that
Paden: I get.
Alan: and I have this flashcard that I always carried around.
It's all tattered and ripped up now [00:14:00] if you're on YouTube, but it's the top five regrets of
the dying. So she worked in hospice for eight years and she figured out that everyone had
similar regrets. And the number one regret of the dying is I wish I had lived a life true to myself
and not what others expected of me.
That hit me like a ton of bricks because I, you know, did I choose to be an engineer or was that
what mommy wanted? Right. So is that what I had to do in order to make money? Alan, you're
good at math. Engineers make a lot of money. Engineers are good at math. You should be an
engineer. Well, that's probably not enough to go off of.
Right? So for me, it was gonna be lawyer politician president, or it was gonna be engineer M-B-
A-C-E-O. And I remember vividly having this conversation in my head of like, which one of those
I want to go down. But I think a lot of that was just. How do I aim as high as possible to try to
prove my worth?
Like you
Paden: Yeah. Oh yeah.
Alan: Yeah, a a hundred percent. And then the other thing, personal development, Tony
Robbins, TED Talk. Now, regardless of what you think of Tony, the TED Talk's magnificent. It's
magnificent. It's called Why We Do What We Do
Paden: [00:15:00] Yeah.
Alan: It. That for me was yes, this is how I figure out. Why I'm doing this.
Why did I do all this? Why, why was I drinking? Why, why is the question who, what, when,
where, why, and how are the questions? And why is the most powerful? And if you know why
you're doing what you're doing, not why you think, you know, like why deeply unconscious,
subconscious programming, you can turn it all around.
And that's what I do now, I I, I am a computer engineer, so I say I reprogram my clients for
success, but alignment with who they really are,
not what society wants them to be. It.
Paden: yeah, my similar journey, you know, abandonment issues as a kid. high achiever, you
know, had financial insecurities as a kid, so I never wanted to be poor. Kicks me right down into
the money world as A-C-P-A-C-F-P, you know,
doing all, doing all those things.
Right. Um, it really comes back to my fear of being poor. Right.
Alan: yep.
Paden: And, and, you know, unraveling a lot of that stuff, you know, a lot of the work I've done in
the last 10 years [00:16:00] and, and, um. It is just amazing what you, you know, you can, when
you dive in there and willing to just look at every piece of yourself and not gloss over it.
Right. you know, you may have spent a lot of years there after that tragedy. Right. You said you
couldn't, you couldn't really speak to it for, till past your thirties.
the fear, yeah. I mean, like, you'd still be carrying that with you today if you had never turned
and faced that.
Right. And I think.
I think people, you know, it's a strategy of humans is to run away from something. but a lot of
that stuff you, you literally can't run away with, you know, away from. And if you're gonna literally
carry it the rest of your life if you don't put together the courage and turn around and look at it.
Right.
Alan: Absolutely. Well said. I mean. I never talked about my dad. I never talked about my
stepdad leaving. I never talked about most of the stuff that I now can talk about,
Paden: Yeah.
Yeah. And
Alan: and I, I haven't given you the whole
thing, obviously.
Right? Because some of it's not my story to [00:17:00] tell, but that's why I say it's so funny.
Well, my mom and stepdad did not get along, and that's a polite way to put
it. It's like, you know,
Paden: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Alan: 11 years than what I said right there.
Paden: Yeah. Yeah. And same here. It's like, alcohol, you know, drug addict, you know, all these
things and the chaotic situations I was placed into as like a 10-year-old, eight, you know what I
mean?
Like insane things, right.
and yeah, it took me a lot of years to deal with any of that or
look at any of that. Right.
Alan: of the things that you find later on is you ran in the opposite direction of, a lot of shitty
things, and then you became a good person out of
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: Like I ran in the opposite direction of a lot of the crap. And eventually you, 'cause I'm 36,
right? And I go back to when they were 36 and I'm like, oh, oh my God.
Paden: Right.
Alan: Like big kids with money, right? What are we doing here? But then I go. Oh, of course
Irene in the opposite direction of everything they [00:18:00] were because I didn't want, I saw
how unfulfilled they were. They were miserable human beings
Paden: yeah,
Alan: and everyone I was around because like attracts like
Paden: yeah.
Alan: and it's, everyone hates their job.
You guys don't even like each other. Nevermind. They love each other. So marriage scared the
shit outta me,
right? And, and I, as a kid, I remember thinking like, this cannot be it. This is fucking terrible.
Paden: But, but at the time, you dunno anything, any
different, like that's normal. Like you think that's what marriage is, right?
Alan: And then the racism, all of it, like white trash town.
And again, for anyone who's from my hometown, not everyone.
Okay. Relax, small minded town, white suburbia. When I went to college, it was like, whoa.
Yeah, exactly.
Paden: percent here, same
Alan: you know, when I was a kid it was. Whoa. You know? Whoa. But you don't know. You
don't know. And, and so you just try to, you try to be a better person and hopefully you face all
that stuff. I, I think the Lion King's the best metaphor,[00:19:00]
you know?
Birth father dies, runs away from his problems. A Kuna matata pretending everything's fine when
it's not,
Paden: standards way down,
Alan: Way down. Right. And, a Kuna matata, it's like, yeah, it's real easy to take no
responsibility. And then Nala calls him out and says, well, someone needs to do something.
And then he goes back to Pride Rock. I just got the chills. He goes back to Pride Rock and
realizes it's devastated and, you know, lies and deceit and, and he has to face, you know, his
past. I feel like that's a good metaphor for all of us, and I think that's why it does so well. I saw it
on Broadway. I also love the movie, like I was always drawn to it and didn't know why I think.
Paden: a hero's journey, man. It's a classic, you know, it's a classic, most movies are like, and
the
Matrix, it's amazing,
Alan: Uh, unbelievable.
Paden: for, the hero's journey and, Kind of, it's kind of a documentary of how the world works if
you
Alan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Red pillar, blue Pill.
Paden: I mean, there's a whole lot more truth in it than, than, you know, people even realize on
the surface, um,
when you
Alan: for sure.
Paden: start digging into that stuff.
But like, So
Alan: [00:20:00] the red pill at 2016.
Paden: yeah. Yeah. Somewhere in that timeframe
Alan: that going? Pretty good. I.
Paden: Like I,
you know, I,
you know, I, I'm lucky enough that, that I had, you know, I was just thinking about this yesterday
and almost got emotional about it yesterday, was thinking. Of the adults I did have in my life that
stepped up teachers, people that
Alan: Yeah.
Paden: it's not even till now that I even realize,
Alan: Yeah. Who's the teacher? For me, it's Mrs. Pryor.
I emailed her a letter. She wrote it and read it in front of her class and cried. Apparently I wasn't
there, but I had wrote her an email in my mid twenties and I said thank you when it was when I
was 14.
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: I was going through all that, all that at home, and no one knew, 'cause I was hiding it.
Obviously Christine Pryor changed my whole world, you know, and she took me to WPI for a
math competition. And we used to debate existential conversations, you know, whether
unconditional love is real or not. Two guesses which side I was on. [00:21:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, exactly. And so I get emotional too when I think about certain people who saved my life,
Paden: Yeah. And mine, mine was, uh, well, I mean, there's, there's more than one. I mean, I
had outstanding high school teachers. The one I was thinking of yesterday was, uh, Mrs. Arnie.
She, uh, taught me the love of reading for sure.
And that, uh, that changed my life a lot ways.
Alan: Nice.
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Paden: Well, man,
Alan: you, Payden.
Paden: woo. That's
Alan: vulnerable men. I love
it.
Paden: Yeah, man.
And that's something I've been trying to get more and more, and I find myself on these podcasts
even doing more and more of that. So, you know, when, when you talk about diving into self
development stuff, right? you obviously teach people, you know, at a high level here, or coach
people at a high level.
Like what, foundational habits do you think important for, you know, entrepreneurs or people that
are trying to, you know, chase their goals or be successful at, you know, whatever that is? Right.
[00:23:00]
Alan: The number one is a meta habit, which is habit tracking. 10 years ago I had these little
black notebooks. They're all over there in the corner. I should put 'em here so I can show 'em,
but these little black notebooks, mechanical pencil. Engineer, nerd.
Paden: I know.
Alan: And, um, I have a system of success, three categories, five habits under each, 15 habits a
day.
And I used to check 'em off and then erase 'em and check 'em off and erase 'em. And then
eventually I did these flashcards. I had, I have like stacks of 'em and eventually I was like, I gotta
save the trees here. So I, I digitized it all and I put it into Google Sheets. And now every, every
team member, every client tracks metrics and habits every day.
I just got off with a client. We call it a system of success. His name's Max, and we updated his
system. and again, this isn't some pitch of my coaching. This is what we do and this is the
advice Every call, I promise them this. I say, we're gonna improve yourself by 1%. We're gonna
improve your system by 1% metrics and habits, and then we're gonna improve your execution of
the system by 1%. Now that means [00:24:00] 3% per by week or per week. And if I crunch the
numbers on that, you put a dollar on a financial calculator and you grow it by 3% per week for
10 years.
That is night and day. It's insane. As a matter of fact, I'll give you this stat because most people
don't know this. I have it written up here. 0.1% improvement every day for 50 years makes you
84 million times better. Now, literally, go do this. Don't do it in chat, GPT. 'cause for some reason
chat GPT has is terrible with
Paden: just can't add.
Alan: It can't, it's insane. It's like, oh my
Paden: do you figure all this out? You can't
Alan: Yeah, I gotta go grok because I can't, with the math, my, my girlfriend almost sent a
proposal with bad, it's like, sweetheart, double check.
GPT does not know numbers. But anyways, and I'm the math and science nerd, so, okay.
Paden: yeah. You live in that world big time.
Alan: Always. And so do you
Paden: Yeah. Oh, Yeah,
Alan: I understand, right?
So the amount people don't know Finance is mind blowing. It's, it's crazy. But anyways, so it's
like, well, I wanna be financially free. Well, [00:25:00] you should probably study finance.
Paden: That's what I did.
Alan: It's like, no, I just wanna be financially free. That doesn't work that way. That's like saying I
wanna be in shape, but I don't like exercise.
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: But anyways, put it all in a financial calculator. Grow it by 0.1% per day, 0.1%, one 10th of
1% per day
Paden: Com
Alan: 50 years. Now Kevin, my business partner's, like 50 years. No one takes like 50 years. I
was like, dude, just do it. 84 million. It's 83 something. I rounded up
84 million. Now here's the kicker, and this is why.
This is my explanation for why I work every day. People think I'm nuts. What do you think it
would be if I took weekends off? 439,439,000.
Paden: breaking compounding, right?
Alan: That's exactly it. And people are like, why do you work every Saturday, Alan? That
numbers, I don't work all day, but I need to get 0.1% better. Go ahead.
Paden: And, it's [00:26:00] worse because the, I say regular people are nor normal people. It's
not that they don't get better on the weekends, they slide way back.
Alan: I know
Paden: slide way back
and kill all the progress they just made for the last five days.
Alan: used to too. I used to party.
Paden: Yeah. it's like the diet thing, right?
Like you're great for five days and you're like, oh, I'm gonna reward myself by going back to
exactly what just, you know, that I'm trying to get away from.
Alan: it's, it's literally mathematically neutralizing
Paden: What, what is it like Warren Buffett says, like, you know, the number one rule in finances
is like, don't break compounding
Alan: ever.
Never break compounding. Yep.
Paden: and, and,
Alan: called maximizing points. Right. So the credit card companies obviously know this, right?
So my, my mentor, he was the COO of iRobot and technically CEO. But the founder didn't give
up the title. That's all fine. Uh, he was the one when they crossed the billion dollar mark on Wall
Street.
He was, you know, running the [00:27:00] company then. And I worked as an intern. And he's
one of my main mentors now, and he, he's, he's on the board of a bunch of companies, blah,
blah, blah. But he said, Alan, the credit card companies are lining their pockets with people's
ignorance.
29% interest.
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: Are we kidding? That's criminal man. Straight criminal.
Paden: dude, like, you know, of course my, you know, my passion and my life work's been, you
know, all around in the, in the money space and, and it's such a, um. It's such a habitual, like,
psychological thing, and it's not, you know, so many people think it's like a lack of information or,
or, or whatever,
right?
Like people, like, it's like working out, right? Like people know how to lose weight. Like
just, you know, move a little bit more, eat a little less, right?
Like,
Alan: it. That's it. There it.
is. That's it.
Paden: and in finance, how do you be successful in finance?
Spend
Alan: Earn more. Spend less.
Paden: and Invest the
Alan: Invest the difference.
Paden: Yeah.
And, and, and you know, obviously [00:28:00] there's a million different strategies under all of
that.
Right.
But like, if you don't got, you don't have that
Alan: I
Paden: none that's gonna work, right?
Alan: the fundamentals.
Paden: Yeah. And that's what I, I
think what people don't understand too is like, you know, they come in and they see successful
entrepreneurs like me, you, you know, the other people I have on the sca, you know, on the
show. And they're like, they see these people, they think, they think they've, um, you know,
Alan: Yeah, I got something special
Paden: yeah. Something special, some natural talent, some amazing thing. And you don't
realize, it's like, no, it's just 10 years of compounding.
Alan: a hundred percent.
Paden: you know, 10 years of steel stacking, compounding, all that.
Yeah. That's what
it's,
Alan: The Compound Effect is my favorite book. For that reason, rationality is actually my
favorite. The Compound Effect is my second. People think, well, oh, you love Darren? No, and
again, Darren's great, but it's, it's the principle,
Paden: Yeah. it's the universal truth.
Alan: truth about it.
It's, it's, so I wanna share this with everybody. 84 million when you take weekends off becomes
[00:29:00] 439,000. That's true for health, wealth, and love.
Paden: Yeah. It's everything.
Alan: don't pay attention to your partner, you will get divorced. It, it's what you're doing every
single day. People like, what do you mean? 54 coaching sessions, trainings and podcasts Last
week.
My average is 54 right now. Why would you do that? Compounding.
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: I wanna get a little bit better. That's why I'm here. I wanna serve and I want to improve my
craft. I have something called the 25 Impact points of effective Communication. I go back, I do
something called Facebook Memory of the Day. Whoa.
Paden: Those things are cringeworthy if you go
Alan: Uh, brutal.
I was, I was college when Facebook was founded.
Paden: Yeah, me too. So I, you're younger than.
Alan: Oh, okay. Nice. So we're in the, okay, awesome. So you remember when it was just
college,
Paden: Yeah, there were only college,
Alan: only college
Paden: college parties on there.
Alan: That's what I'm saying. So 16 years ago, and
I'm like.
Paden: I had
Alan: I kid you not.
Paden: try to get a real
Alan: Good for you, [00:30:00] good for you. I didn't. I didn't. And I, I wanna see it.
I do. I kid you not.
I was so ridiculous. Now keep in mind, I was the math and science guy.
Paden: yeah.
Alan: I was not the literature guy. And I literally said this, and now I adore reading all the books.
Hundreds, thousands of books probably at this point. But I actually said this, this is crazy. I said.
I read about the dangers of drinking, so I quit reading what that was, obviously a joke.
Okay. That was
Paden: yeah, yeah.
Alan: that is the power of compounding. I'm a completely, this is Alan 3.6. I'm gonna be Alan 3.7
37 years old in November. And Alan 3.6 is so much more than Alan 2.6 and so much more than
Alan 1.6. And when I give speeches, I always say, think of a dumb thing you did in high school.
Everyone goes, yep. And I say, you would never do that again. And everyone goes, yep. And I
say, why would you not do it again? And I say, you are now more aware of the long-term
consequences or potential consequences of that [00:31:00] terrible choice.
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: All of us are dumb in high school. We don't know anything. And so when you accumulate
wisdom, when you accumulate knowledge, when you accumulate skills, when you accumulate
speaking abilities, you, you become very, very empowered.
You learn how things work and then you can work 'em.
Paden: Yeah. Then you
Alan: And yeah, so it's been, it's been awesome. And when I was 26, I thought I knew a lot, and
now I'm 36 and realize I knew nothing in comparison. And at 46 I'm gonna feel the same way.
Paden: well see. And that's, that's the mind blowing thing. look at your 10 year ago memories,
right? On Facebook, and you see that and you're cringing like everybody,
right?
Like, you're like, oh, what an idiot, or whatever, right?
but then it's like, guess what? What do you believe today that you're gonna think is totally
ridiculous in 10 years?
Because
Alan: Where, that's what I'm saying. I'm always doing that.
Where are we still putting leeches on our skin to cure illness?
Where do we still believe the earth is flat? [00:32:00] Where are we wrong? I spend my whole
life looking for where I'm wrong. Huge cred hits, by the way, apparently when you're the student,
people think you're a student and they think you don't know anything,
which is a whole nother thing.
That's been interesting. YYI left the conversation with one of my mentors and Amelia said, just
so you know, everyone over there thinks you don't know. And I was like, what do you mean?
She's like, they think that they're smarter than you. And I was like, they could not possibly. And,
and she's like, no, seriously, because you're the one asking questions.
And I'm like, yeah, that's why I am smarter.
Paden: That's why you are.
Alan: Oh my God. But apparently showing up with all the answers no. Is is the, the, it's the short
term win at the
Paden: Yeah,
And you know, like, I like flying on the radar in situations like that. Right. Or just like, you know,
I'm
not
Alan: do too. The problem is that's not how you get clients.
Paden: Sure, sure, sure. Yeah. Situation or whatnot, but like, yeah, dude, like I'm, I'm
Alan: Especially when you look 15. You know what I'm [00:33:00] saying? Then I have to, I need
the credibility, man.
Paden: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Alan: this 12-year-old business coach? Right?
Paden: But here's the thing, when you ask that question, there's about six other people in the
room that have the exact same
question, right? If, if not more,
they are just too, you know, their ego, pride, whatever it is, won't let 'em ask the question. 'cause
they don't wanna look stupid, right?
They just wanna look at you and like, oh, he's stupid
over
Alan: Yeah, I know. I know.
Paden: So, you know, you're the numbers, the tracking guy, right? Like, I just want the listeners
to understand that like. what, you hear him say that he's got these tracking of these habits and
all these things he do daily and, and, you know, a listener will hear that and think, wow, this is
this crazy complex thing.
Right? And, and yeah, it is. It's not normal.
And, and when I say that, I mean like, if you want different results, you gotta do different
things, right? And, it's obviously a passion of Alan's. to push himself as far as he can, and he's
implemented all these tools and created systems and tools and organization around all that so
he [00:34:00] can consistently have a, a, a system that pushes him to improve, you know, at, at
at all times.
Right?
Alan: Yeah, well, I, I use this in speeches and trainings. I say, imagine if Michael Phelps's coach
was like, I just swim around.
28 medals, 23 Gold. Michael Phelps, he was in the pool every day from 2003 to 2008. No
birthdays, no holidays, no family, no days off. Now, he also had mental health challenges. He
talked about, okay, so you gotta stay centered in this. I'm not recommending this for everyone,
but I tell people, I say since my car accident, I haven't taken a full day off.
That was 10 years ago. I work every day, build the self, build the family, build the business, build
the self, build the family, build the business. And I used to be too much of a coward to share this.
And I was on a podcast once with a woman named Deborah. She said, oh my God, Alan, that's
so bad for you. And I said, no, Deborah, that's bad for you.
This is good for me. This is who I am. I dated [00:35:00] someone in my twenties and she said,
dating you is like dating a fucking StairMaster. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. And I have a super
achiever partner now who, who I, I realized I was so afraid to go to therapy 'cause I thought I'd
lose my edge.
Paden: Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Alan: It got bigger, man.
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: After some of the healing, my drive got bigger. I thought my drive was from pain.
Paden: Yeah. You thought it was all this anxiety. If I let go of all that, like, you know, I'm, I'm
gonna suck or
Alan: It got so much bigger.
I was like, I thought I was ambitious before. Holy crap. Only there's more in there. So my point
is, is not everyone needs to shoot for Michael Phelps levels.
Not everyone even wants to. I will tell you, if you want to, you better get your ass in the pool
metaphorically.
If you don't want that, that's okay.
You don't have to be like me. But don't, don't chop me down and here's the thing, the people
who are like, oh, that's so bad for you. It's, I'm healthier than you are. I'm more fulfilled than you
are. Why are you telling me how to live?
I have a [00:36:00] better life than you.
Paden: It makes 'em feel bad.
Alan: I know Payden. I don't wanna make anyone feel bad, but I want to reach my full
potential and I
Paden: no, you need to hold yourself back for my feelings.
Alan: No, I've been doing, I did that for 26 years, man. I
Paden: Me
Alan: that anymore. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh.
Paden: that's, you know, it's like the crab in the bucket thing, right? Like, how do you keep crabs
in a bucket? Well, you put a second crab in the bucket and won't let you know. Neither one of
'em will let each other climb out. They'll keep pulling each other back down, pulling each
other back down. And that's, where a, a lot of people don't realize how massive, you know, your
environment affects you. you.
know, we, we, especially in Western culture, like to think, well, like we're this independent
person operating not in some context and overarching environment, right? And, and one of the
greatest, you call it hack or, or whatever in your life is like, you wanna change your life, change
your environment,
and that will in of itself because it's not like you affect your [00:37:00] environment or your
environment affects
you. it's both.
and,
right? Like you're part of the same whole,
and if you change part of your environment, you're going to automatically change part of you.
And that, that's a huge thing for habit change.
It's like why did, why does the drunk get, you know,
get clean in, in rehab, different environment?
And why do they immediately go back to drinking when they go back home? They're back in the
old environment.
Alan: It's one of the reasons I'm here. I want to meet incredible, inspiring, motivated, educated
people who wanna reach their full potential. I spent too many years squandering my potential
and I will not do it ever again. And you wanna reach your full potential. I realized somewhere
along the lines after 26, I thought my friends would be happy for me. I thought I was a fitness
model, fitness competitor, fitness coach. Quit drinking six years sober. I thought they would. I
thought when I became a more virtuous man, I thought that they would like me more. It has
been alarmingly the opposite alarmingly,
and I reached this point in my life where I said, [00:38:00] okay, Alan, you are here to reach your
full potential.
And for some reason, most people don't seem to care about that. You are a weirdo. Own it.
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: And I will only get along with someone to the extent they wanna reach their potential. I
realized that my girlfriend, dude. It's, uh, girlfriend and future wife. Girlfriend does not do it.
We've been together for six years coming up on it.
It's all part of the plan. This woman is unbelievable. She wants to reach her full potential. I, it's
one o'clock. I guarantee you she's learning or reading or studying or on a coaching set. She's
doing something. I'm certain of it to, make herself better,
Paden: Yeah.
Alan: and we get along unbelievably well.
I look at past relationships and I go, Alan, what were you thinking? Dude, they're wonderful
people,
but they don't give a shit about reaching their full potential.
And if I, if you wanna reach your full potential, Payton, I will be a great ally. If you don't wanna
reach your potential and you wanna stay [00:39:00] mediocre, I'm gonna be a pain in your ass.
Dude. And I, I finally just owned that man. Own it is my most important metric. it's called the
golden Metric Own. It is my most important metric. So a lot of the things I've even shared here,
the old me never could have even shared,
Paden: Yeah. That's great, Alan, man. And, same here. You know, people see me and think, you
know, I'm this achiever and whatever. My wife's a dog.
Alan: dude. That's what I'm saying. Same.
Paden: Well,
dude, Alan, man, this has been a great conversation, man. What, like, you know, listeners
wanna get to know more about you, follow you, what, like what's the best way they can connect
with you?
Alan: So the best way it's gonna be me, not ai, not my assistant. DM me on Instagram. can DM
me on LinkedIn. You can DM me on Facebook, Facebook personal. That'll all be me. You can
email me. Um, I always say this, my absolutely people are people who are humble inwardly,
who have high work ethic and they wanna reach their full potential.
If that's you, please reach out. You can Google my name, chat, GPT. It will, it will all come up. It'll
be me, [00:40:00] email, Facebook, LinkedIn, the whole thing. If you want big rewards for
minimal effort, do not reach out under any circumstances. I am not your people and that's okay.
Paden: There's plenty, plenty of people will sell you that story.
Alan: Yeah, it is. It is fake. It is not real.
Paden: plenty of people on the internet that'll sell you that thing.
Alan: They are selling it. It is a lie. It is a lie and it's not fulfilling Anyway. It's not, it's not fulfilling,
right? So wanting huge rewards for minimal effort. You can go play the lottery and see how that
goes. And I'm not interested because I wanna put it all on the court. And when I faced mortality
at 26, I said, Alan, you regret not giving it your all.
I got straight A's in high school, but I didn't have to try that hard.
Right? I didn't put it all on the, yeah, I was just naturally gifted. I was resting on talent and I'm not
interested in that. So if you wanna rest on talent, go somewhere else.
Paden: Yep. Yep. I, uh, I appreciate that, Alan. Man. Like I said, a lot of things you hear
resonate with me. Very similar, very similar stories of, [00:41:00] you know, uh, I was a talented
kid and, and I didn't have to do anything because I had talent,
right? And, um, I hate that.
That's not who. Well, Alan, appreciate you man.
This has been a great conversation. Listeners. Catch you next time,
Alan: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate,
review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're
trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs.
You can follow us on social media by searching for me Paden Squires.
Or going to padensquires.com on the website and social media. We're always sharing tips of
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