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The Man Who Owns 4% Of All Bitcoin: "I Made $15 Billion By Using ChatGPT!" | Michael Saylor

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The Man Who Owns 4% Of All Bitcoin: "I Made $15 Billion By Using ChatGPT!" | Michael Saylor

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2911 segments

0:00

I used AI to make $15 billion last year.

0:02

>> You did?

0:03

>> I did. Because the AI gave us a solution

0:06

to the problem that no one had ever

0:07

encountered before in the history of the

0:08

world. And so my advice is don't try to

0:11

outwork the robots. What you want to do

0:13

is ask the AI to do something that's

0:16

never been done before. And if you want

0:18

to create these incredible success

0:20

things, you want to locate the magic

0:23

opportunity. I know this because I'm an

0:26

technology entrepreneur. And we're

0:28

[music] the biggest buyer of Bitcoin in

0:29

the world. So what is my mission? I'm

0:31

preaching the gospel of digital

0:33

empowerment [music] in Bitcoin as

0:35

digital money. And it's going to be the

0:36

best long-term capital asset. And you

0:39

can actually own something and someone

0:41

more powerful than you can't take it

0:43

away from you.

0:44

>> What do you mean they can't take Bitcoin

0:46

from you?

0:47

>> So this is a stack of currency. You walk

0:50

through an airport on this, they ask you

0:52

if you have cash. They just take it. So

0:53

cash in a physical form is a problem. So

0:56

what do you do? You put it in the bank.

0:58

So the bank then decides whether you get

1:00

to keep it and whether you get it back.

1:02

But I could move a million dollars of

1:03

Bitcoin from here to anywhere, to

1:06

London, to anywhere in cyberspace in a

1:08

few seconds. So the last thing in the

1:10

world you want to save is money.

1:12

>> So what about this? Why not just put all

1:14

of my money into gold?

1:15

>> Well, gold is up 12% a year, but Bitcoin

1:19

is up 33.

1:20

>> What about the S&P 500?

1:21

>> You're going to get double the

1:23

performance from BTC that you would get

1:25

from like the S&P index.

1:26

>> So should I buy a house?

1:27

>> I will tell you why you shouldn't buy a

1:29

house.

1:29

>> And then you sold a bit of Bitcoin

1:30

recently after telling a lot of people

1:32

sell a kidney if you must but keep the

1:34

Bitcoin. So why did you sell the Bitcoin

1:35

instead of your kidney?

1:36

>> Because

1:38

>> Michael, beyond just buying Bitcoin,

1:40

[music]

1:40

what is a good strategy to build and

1:43

become wealthy in your view? And then

1:44

>> [music]

1:44

>> you have 10 rules for young adults

1:46

building a strong foundation for their

1:47

life and career. So let's go through

1:48

these.

1:49

>> So first,

1:53

>> This is super interesting to me. My team

1:55

gave me this report to show me how many

1:56

of you that watch this show subscribe

1:57

and some of you have told us according

1:59

to this that you are unsubscribed from

2:01

the channel randomly. So, favor to ask

2:03

all of you, please could you check right

2:05

now if you've hit the subscribe button

2:06

if you are regular viewer of the show

2:07

and you like what we do here. We're

2:09

approaching quite a significant landmark

2:11

on this show in terms of a subscriber

2:12

number. So, if there was one simple free

2:15

thing that you could do to help us, my

2:16

team, everyone here to keep this show

2:18

free, to keep it improving

2:20

year-over-year and week-over-week, it is

2:22

just to hit that subscribe button and to

2:23

double-check if you've hit it. Anything

2:25

I'll ever ask of you.

2:26

Do we have a deal? If you do it, I'll

2:28

tell you what I'll do. I'll make sure

2:30

every single week, every single month we

2:32

fight harder and harder and harder and

2:33

harder to bring you the guests and

2:34

conversations that you want to hear. I

2:36

stayed true to that promise since the

2:37

very beginning of The Diary of a CEO and

2:38

I will not let you down. Please help us.

2:41

Really appreciate it. Let's get on with

2:43

the show.

2:45

>> [music]

2:47

>> Michael, because of your success as a

2:49

technology entrepreneur, you are a

2:51

multi-billionaire from my

2:53

math and you're heavily focused on

2:56

digital currencies at the moment,

2:57

specifically Bitcoin. What else do we

2:59

need to know about you in terms of what

3:01

you've built and accomplished outside of

3:02

that?

3:03

>> I always wanted to make a technical

3:04

contribution. So, that the early

3:07

business was business intelligence. So,

3:09

how do you extract intelligence from

3:11

large raw data sources and that was what

3:14

MicroStrategy did. We created a global

3:16

business intelligence company. And

3:18

[snorts] I think in 2020, when the COVID

3:21

lockdowns took place and the world

3:22

turned upside down, that was when I

3:25

discovered my greatest idea and it

3:27

wasn't even my idea, right? It was

3:29

Satoshi's idea, but I discovered Bitcoin

3:32

in 2020 and the company today is

3:36

$60 billion, but we peaked about 125

3:39

billion. So, we got somewhere between

3:41

100 and 200 times bigger since we

3:44

discovered Bitcoin.

3:45

>> And when you speak to the general public

3:46

now, when you do podcasts like this,

3:48

what is the the essence of the message

3:50

that you're aiming to communicate to

3:51

them.

3:53

>> Bitcoin is is digital empowerment,

3:56

digital capital. We're living through

3:59

the digital transformation

4:01

of assets, and this is just as profound

4:06

transformation as digital intelligence.

4:09

The real profound breakthrough of

4:11

Bitcoin is this idea

4:14

that you can take economic energy,

4:17

convert to digital form, and tightly

4:19

bind it to the person, the family, the

4:22

company,

4:23

or the country. We can talk about how we

4:25

all hate countries, but you know, the

4:27

history of the world is all the weak

4:29

countries getting smashed by all the big

4:31

countries. So, if what you're interested

4:34

in in is empowerment and fairness and

4:37

equity for the small company, the small

4:41

family, the small person, the small

4:44

country, the weak,

4:46

how do you do it? Well, you basically

4:49

encrypt the money, put it in cyberspace,

4:53

protect it with a private key. So, like

4:56

now you can actually own something and

4:58

someone more powerful than you can't

5:00

take it away from you.

5:02

>> There's two types two types of money

5:04

there in front of you. There's dollar

5:06

bills, and then I've got a couple of

5:08

Bitcoin on the table. What do you mean

5:10

they can't take Bitcoin from you?

5:13

>> Okay, so this is a stack of currency.

5:15

You walk through an airport on this,

5:17

they ask you if you have cash. If you

5:19

do, they

5:21

Cash in a in a physical form is a

5:23

problem. So, what do you do? You put it

5:25

in the bank.

5:27

Well, the bank is is a counterparty. So,

5:29

the bank then decides whether you get to

5:31

keep it and whether you get it back. You

5:33

go to the bank and you ask for it back,

5:34

they might ask you why you asked for it

5:36

back. If you ask for that much back,

5:39

they file a form

5:41

with the Treasury Department. You know,

5:42

if you ask for too much money back too

5:44

soon, right, someone comes knocking on

5:46

your door. So, the challenge with this

5:48

this is fiat currency

5:50

and um you hold this at the pleasure of

5:53

the nation-state. I mean, not just your

5:56

nation-state. It's like every country on

5:57

Earth gets to decide whether you get to

5:59

spend this stuff, right? Which is

6:01

interesting and if you want to actually

6:03

transfer money to someone in another

6:05

country, you need the permission of your

6:07

bank, another bank, the central bank of

6:10

their country, the corresponding bank.

6:12

There might be seven different banks

6:13

that have to decide whether the money

6:15

gets from here to there. So, this is

6:17

permissioned money, you know, that's uh

6:20

managed by the state and with Bitcoin, I

6:23

can take a million dollars. I can

6:25

actually encrypt it in a chip in a

6:27

physical coin, the Cascascius coin,

6:31

and that's a million dollars. I slide it

6:33

across and it's literally a bearer

6:35

asset, you know, and so that's one

6:37

manifestation of it. But, you could also

6:40

put it into information form. I could

6:42

transfer this to you just in the form of

6:45

a private key that I wrote on a piece of

6:46

paper and I gave to you.

6:49

>> of letters you can give me.

6:50

>> Yeah, or I could send you a message. I

6:52

could send a text message. So, so, good

6:55

luck getting a million dollars of gold

6:58

from here to London if people don't want

7:00

you to move it, but I could move a

7:03

million dollars of Bitcoin from here to

7:05

anywhere in a few seconds. The idea was

7:08

I don't want to trust Apple or Google or

7:12

Morgan Bank or a central bank or a

7:16

government, right? And so, in the

7:18

extreme case,

7:20

you know, two people can meet in Africa

7:23

and I can trade you some Bitcoin for

7:25

your truck

7:26

and I don't need the permission of seven

7:29

banks and 16 governments and 32 other

7:33

bureaucrats

7:35

in order to buy that truck.

7:37

>> What is it that most people, the average

7:39

person, doesn't understand about the

7:41

nature of money as it sat in their bank,

7:44

as it relates to the debasement of it or

7:47

the sort of inflation of it. Because

7:49

most people think if they've got, you

7:50

know, $10,000 in their bank and they

7:51

keep it there, and maybe getting

7:53

interest on it at 4% a year, they're

7:55

going to be good.

7:56

>> So, this is about $10,000, I guess. Um

8:00

1 acre of land in Miami Beach on the

8:03

water cost $10,000 about 100 years ago.

8:09

I know this cuz I have a house on the

8:10

water and I have the the deed of sale,

8:13

and it was about on 2 acres and it was

8:16

$20,000. The entire house cost $100,000.

8:19

And uh it's about $20,000 worth of land.

8:22

Today, uh 1 acre of land on this the

8:25

same acre

8:27

on the water

8:28

$10 million?

8:30

Maybe $20 million. So, you know

8:34

what happened here, right? It's the same

8:37

dollar. It works out to be a thousand X

8:41

increase in price. So, when land goes

8:44

from $10,000 to $10 million, that means

8:47

that the currency, the dollar, the money

8:51

lost about 7% of its economic value

8:55

every year for 100 years running.

8:58

If you lose 7% a year

9:00

you know, then you get cut in half,

9:04

right? 10 times.

9:06

Right? So, what do most people not know

9:08

about about money? What they don't

9:10

realize is that the best currency,

9:13

money, my money being a medium of

9:15

exchange, unit of account, store of

9:16

value, the dollar, the best in the 20th

9:19

century and the 21st century, the US

9:21

dollar

9:22

lost 7% of its value every year going

9:25

for 100 years. That's the best it's ever

9:26

going to get.

9:28

It's not that good for everybody else.

9:29

If you go to most other countries, they

9:32

lose 14% of their value, and so they

9:34

collapse in about 30 years. So

9:37

what you have is a situation where if

9:40

you store your wealth and currency and

9:43

and the money of the society, the

9:46

question really is just are you going to

9:48

lose most of your money within 10 years?

9:50

That's the weak currencies in in Africa.

9:52

For example, most currencies in Africa

9:55

you couldn't hold you your wealth even

9:57

for 10 years, maybe 5 years.

9:59

Or are you going to lose all your money

10:00

in 30 years? Hyperinflation happened in

10:02

Brazil, happened in Argentina, you know,

10:05

that's Mexico, that's most places, and

10:08

that's the status quo. The average fiat

10:11

currency, you know, collapses in about

10:13

29 years, I think.

10:15

And then the best is if you happen to be

10:17

a citizen of the greatest nation in the

10:19

world and you win all the wars, you're

10:21

just going to lose all your money in

10:24

you know, half-life is 35 years. You're

10:26

going to lose your money over the course

10:28

of 100 years.

10:29

>> So, should I buy a house?

10:31

>> So, you get to the next interesting

10:33

point which is that $100,000 in 19, uh,

10:38

26

10:39

in Miami Beach

10:41

today would be worth $100,000, that

10:44

house,

10:45

50 to 100 million dollars.

10:47

So, the house is better, right? In fact,

10:50

if you're trying to preserve your

10:51

wealth, you have to acquire scarce

10:53

desirable property.

10:55

So, your choice is do I buy real estate?

10:58

Do I residential real estate? Do I buy

11:00

commercial real estate? Do I buy a

11:02

private company? Do I buy a public

11:04

company? Like stocks? Do I buy

11:06

collectibles?

11:07

So, let me tell you why you shouldn't

11:08

buy a house.

11:09

Because, uh, there's a 2% property tax

11:12

on houses in in Florida, which means

11:14

that if you buy a house, you pay 2% of

11:16

the value every year.

11:18

2%, you know, means that every 36 years

11:22

you actually pay the cost of the house

11:24

in tax to the government. Not a very

11:26

good store of value because, uh, you're

11:29

taking on a massive tax load

11:32

and you're taking on a maintenance load.

11:34

But having said it, it's still a better

11:36

deal than just holding cash in a bank or

11:38

holding cash in a safe. You know,

11:40

commercial real estate looks a bit

11:41

better, right? Because with commercial

11:43

real estate, you can offset the tax, the

11:45

insurance, and the maintenance cost with

11:49

rents.

11:50

So, what really works out with

11:51

commercial real estate most of the time

11:53

is you buy a million dollars commercial

11:56

real estate, you have a bunch of fees,

11:58

you charge rent. The rent offsets the

12:00

maintenance cost. You don't really make

12:02

any money on the rent, but the

12:04

underlying million dollars appreciates

12:06

7% a year every year. And so, you

12:09

actually can build wealth

12:11

with commercial real estate if you can

12:12

just cover the maintenance expenses.

12:15

>> Most people are are told that the way to

12:18

build wealth when they leave university

12:20

and they get into the working world is

12:21

to buy a house. So, most people that's

12:23

what most most people do. They They get

12:25

a job, a 9:00 to 5:00, they take the

12:27

money they get from that, they go and

12:28

get a mortgage, they buy a house, and

12:30

they move in. That's kind of what we're

12:31

all told implicitly. Is that a good

12:34

strategy to build and become wealthy in

12:36

your view?

12:38

>> The only way that it's a good strategy

12:41

is

12:43

you're buying the house in a

12:46

jurisdiction where the property taxes

12:49

are manageable. Then yeah, you can you

12:51

can generate some wealth. But if I flip

12:54

that and you end up taking a 7% mortgage

12:57

and you get massive tax and massive

12:59

insurance expenses,

13:01

then that same investment, you know,

13:03

works out the other way and it it

13:05

crushes you to death. So,

13:08

a better idea generally is commercial

13:10

real estate if you're if you actually

13:12

have the, you know, the business acumen

13:15

to to get into commercial real estate

13:17

business cuz you can pass all the

13:19

expenses through to your tenants.

13:22

These things are all hard, right? Real

13:23

estate business is hard, starting your

13:25

own company is hard. Investing in other

13:28

companies is hard. The conventional

13:31

thing, the safe thing is I just put all

13:32

my money in a money market and I get

13:34

paid 3% and then after tax I've got 1.5%

13:38

and the currency is losing 7% of its

13:41

value a year and you're just losing 5 or

13:43

6% of your wealth every year for your

13:45

life. So

13:46

that's why Bitcoin is such a compelling

13:50

thing. That's why people that believe in

13:51

Bitcoin are passionate about it because

13:53

the average person shouldn't have to be

13:55

a real estate expert. They shouldn't

13:57

have to be a tax expert. They shouldn't

13:59

have to be capable of launching their

14:01

own restaurant or bar or bakery. You

14:04

shouldn't have to be a stock picker. Why

14:07

shouldn't the typical person just be

14:09

able to take their money, put it into an

14:12

asset which appreciates in value 15% a

14:15

year and they don't have to worry about

14:17

it?

14:17

>> What about the S&P 500? They can just

14:19

put it into the stock market, right?

14:20

>> Yeah, John Bogle's real contribution and

14:23

the success of the S&P 500 is this idea

14:27

that

14:28

currency is not a store of value.

14:31

Real estate is illiquid and scary and

14:34

difficult and inefficient and high

14:36

maintenance. So what is the liquid

14:39

capital asset that it can I can buy and

14:41

it turns out to be like SPY. It's just

14:43

the S&P 500 in the form of an ETF. So

14:46

that has returned 15% over the past 6

14:49

years.

14:50

Over 100 years?

14:52

Maybe 10%? Something like that?

14:54

>> Every year?

14:55

>> And if the US dollar is losing 7% of its

14:57

value in scarce desirable terms over the

15:00

course of 100 years and you're getting

15:01

10%

15:02

you're getting a 2 or 3% boost and

15:06

in return for accepting the volatility

15:09

of being invested in the stock market,

15:11

but it's not a bad idea, right? If you

15:14

want the conventional best idea to

15:17

preserve your wealth without taking on

15:20

individual, you know, corporate risk and

15:23

individual real estate risk, I just buy

15:24

the S&P index and wait.

15:26

>> What about this?

15:29

This is gold.

15:30

>> Yep.

15:31

>> Why not just put all of my money into

15:33

gold?

15:34

>> It's not an awful idea to buy gold. Gold

15:37

is up, um,

15:38

12% a year

15:41

for the past 6 years. So, whereas the

15:43

S&P's up 15, gold's up 12, the NASDAQ's

15:46

up 18.

15:47

Bitcoin is up 33.

15:50

Okay, so,

15:52

generally, if you look at the world and

15:54

you say, "Where do you want to save your

15:55

money?" You want to buy a capital asset.

15:58

Gold's a winner, S&P's a winner,

16:01

diversified tech stocks are a winner.

16:04

Bitcoin is a winner. Now, you're going

16:06

to say to me,

16:08

"Well, so then, well, why Bitcoin?"

16:10

Well, the answer is, if you're living in

16:12

Turkey, if you're living in Argentina,

16:14

if you're living in Brazil before the

16:16

currency collapses, or Mexico, or

16:18

Venezuela, or any country in Africa, you

16:21

don't get gold, you don't get the S&P,

16:23

you don't get QQQ. You can't buy

16:25

diversified real estate in the US. Those

16:28

options I named are a Western world

16:31

conventional capital assets. So,

16:35

the big mistake,

16:36

don't invest in non-capital assets.

16:38

Don't put all your family's money in

16:40

soybeans, you know? Don't buy barrels of

16:43

crude oil, don't buy cotton, don't

16:46

invest in things that a factory or a

16:48

robot or an AI can generate infinite of.

16:53

You buy things that the robots and the

16:55

AIs and the big factories cannot pump

16:58

out by the million gallons. And so, what

17:01

is that? It is maybe an ounce of gold,

17:04

it is a share in the 500 most desirable

17:07

companies in the world, it is one out of

17:11

21 million Bitcoin. All of those things

17:14

are things that the robots are not going

17:16

to create infinite of. Those are capital

17:19

assets. Which capital asset

17:22

is a function of where you live

17:24

and what your mindset is. If you're

17:26

living in a war zone,

17:28

my advice is Bitcoin because you're not

17:32

carrying this through a checkpoint,

17:34

right? Like, you know, if if you need to

17:36

go through an airport, you want

17:38

something that you get to keep and take

17:40

with you.

17:41

>> You talked about the robots there.

17:43

>> Yeah.

17:44

>> And uh when we say the robots, I think

17:46

we mean both the the surgeon robotics

17:48

we're seeing, but also artificial

17:50

intelligence that's going to empower

17:52

them to be very, very intelligent.

17:53

>> Yeah.

17:54

>> How has this changed your thesis in how

17:57

you view the future? Cuz it's it's a

17:58

profound surprise, I think to all of us

18:00

that artificial intelligence is

18:02

accelerating at the rate we're seeing.

18:04

>> Technology fails until it succeeds. When

18:06

I was at MIT, people were trying to

18:08

make, uh you know, speech recognition

18:10

work. It just didn't work. For a

18:11

thousand years, people wanted to fly and

18:13

it didn't work. And in 1902, the New

18:15

York Times declared that every learned

18:18

scientist knows that you'll never be

18:19

able to fly. And then in 1903, we fly.

18:22

In 2023, you know, the AI started

18:26

working. You can see what's happening.

18:28

We've affected the digital

18:29

transformation of intelligence.

18:31

Cars are going to drive themselves.

18:33

It's pretty clear that anything that

18:35

takes massive human labor, you know,

18:38

whether it's lawyering, writing a

18:39

contract, or composing a poem, or

18:42

composing a script, or composing

18:46

It's like, you want a book?

18:47

Tell the AI what kind of book you want.

18:49

Here's my 10, you know, I want this. I

18:52

want it to be set in London. I want this

18:54

protagonist. Can you make it like that?

18:56

Put some more violence in it.

18:58

Uh you know, Voltaire, right, was

19:00

impressive because he created, you know,

19:03

this much literature. And and when he

19:05

did it, it came out of the mind of one

19:07

man, and that was quite amazing.

19:09

And you know, I think we're always going

19:12

to admire the people that did it first.

19:15

Right? But, you know,

19:17

the AIs will think for us.

19:20

You know, put the AI into the robot.

19:22

We're not that far, right? Like when I

19:24

sit when I sit and I talk to my voice

19:27

assistant, whether it's Chad or whether

19:29

it's Grok, and it's it's like she knows

19:32

everything, and she keeps getting

19:33

smarter.

19:34

You know, you know, every single week

19:37

she gets smarter, and it's like what

19:38

happens when they go into a robot? It's

19:40

like

19:41

Well, you can you pretty much can

19:43

imagine

19:44

a billion robots, and maybe we'll pay

19:46

200 bucks a month for a robot, and the

19:49

robot will just pretty much do

19:51

everything.

19:52

And so, the question is do you want

19:53

someone to do everything, to cook, to

19:56

clean, you know, to take out the trash?

19:59

Would you like a self-driving car? Of

20:01

course, you do. We're on the verge of

20:03

these perfect products, right? That

20:06

like we'll get to the point where we're

20:07

like I I I I

20:09

You used to actually have an oven that

20:11

burned things?

20:13

Like what?

20:14

What what it was stupid? Yeah, it was

20:16

too stupid to know it was going to burn

20:18

the

20:19

Huh? Why don't you just put intelligence

20:21

into the appliance, right? What why

20:24

would you ever have an unintelligent

20:25

appliance, right? At this point, when it

20:28

gets exponentially cheaper. We used to

20:30

get in traffic accidents.

20:33

Right? Like like the big reveal, right?

20:35

The big the big inversions when people

20:37

realize that the self-driving cars are

20:40

safer than the person-driven cars,

20:43

right?

20:44

It's like you used to make mistakes.

20:47

You know, the irony, of course, is now

20:49

when you send a message to someone, if

20:50

you want to prove that it came from you,

20:52

you have to actually put errors in it.

20:55

Right? It's like if you put errors in

20:57

it, I believe you typed it. You know,

20:59

the AI can draft the thing as though it

21:01

had a PhD in English, and it had 20

21:03

years experience as a copy editor. And

21:06

so, we're reaching this point where

21:09

lack of of effectiveness is just

21:13

laziness, right? Like, if you wrote

21:15

something which wasn't perfect,

21:19

it's cuz you're lazy, not because you're

21:21

not perfect. I mean, the AIs create

21:23

perfect documents. They do perfect

21:25

research.

21:27

The robots will do any amount of work.

21:29

And I I think Elon makes this point,

21:31

which is we're about to trip over an age

21:33

of abundance.

21:34

>> Do you believe that's true?

21:36

What What does that say about Bitcoin?

21:38

Because I'm looking at some of the

21:39

quotes here that Elon said about the age

21:40

of abundance. And he says, "In the

21:41

future, where anyone can have anything,

21:44

you no longer need money as a database

21:46

for labor allocation. If AI and robotics

21:48

are big enough to satisfy all human

21:50

needs, then the relevance of money

21:52

declines rapidly. I'm not sure we will

21:55

have it. If you are stranded on a desert

21:57

island with a trillion dollars, it will

21:58

be pointless because there is no labor

22:00

to allocate. In a benign scenario, we

22:03

will have universal high income. Much as

22:05

universal basic income mean anyone can

22:07

have any products or any services that

22:09

they want. Universal high income via

22:12

checks issued by federal governments is

22:14

the best way to deal with unemployment

22:15

caused by AI/robotics.

22:18

Because AI and [snorts] robotics will

22:19

produce goods and services far in excess

22:21

of the increase in money supply, so

22:23

there will be no inflation. Work will

22:25

become optional, kind of like playing

22:27

sports or a video game. You can go to

22:29

the store and buy vegetables, or you can

22:31

go and grow them in your backyard

22:32

because you like growing them.

22:34

That's what work will be like. AI and

22:36

robotics are going to make so much stuff

22:38

and provide so many services that they

22:41

will actually run out of things to do

22:43

for the humans. Money is fundamentally

22:45

information. The true constraints of the

22:47

future won't be financial. They'll be

22:50

energy and mass.

22:52

>> He's half right. I agree with with part

22:55

of what he says. That is, consumer

22:58

goods, consumables, utilitarian goods uh

23:02

will become abundant. But, there are

23:04

always going to be scarce desirable

23:06

goods that will not become abundant. And

23:09

I think he overstates the case. Money

23:11

will still be valuable, wealth will

23:13

still be valuable. But, I'll give you an

23:15

example.

23:17

Henry VIII didn't have clean water.

23:19

Did not have heat, did not have cooling.

23:22

These things the King of England did not

23:23

have. And technology gave all these

23:26

things to the middle class.

23:28

And so, if you live in the middle class

23:30

today, you know, you can have your

23:32

appendix out, you know. But, Henry VIII

23:34

didn't have dental crowns, he didn't

23:35

have x-rays. So, you get modern medical

23:38

care, you know, the infant mortality

23:41

rate has plunged. Life is safer, clean

23:44

water, clean air, right?

23:48

Clean food. And technology gave them to

23:51

us. We stamp out infinite Coca-Cola,

23:54

infinite Hershey's bars, ice cream,

23:56

right? Running water.

23:59

Right? Electricity. So, all of those

24:01

things have been given to the middle

24:04

class, the working class in the

24:05

developed world. Right? Not everywhere,

24:07

but let's say in the developed world.

24:08

But, everybody doesn't get a Hampton's

24:10

house, everybody doesn't get their own

24:12

private jet, they don't get their own

24:13

private yacht. So, what happened with

24:15

the explosion of affluence?

24:18

Massive utilitarian entitlement, lots of

24:21

cars. But, you know, okay, so everybody

24:22

gets a car, but how many people get a

24:24

Porsche? What happens with humanity is

24:26

we always invent the luxury car.

24:29

We come up with the trophy asset. And

24:32

And again,

24:34

>> But, but most people don't actually want

24:35

that. They want to be able to like feed

24:37

their family and not have to worry about

24:39

the bills. So, all of those people,

24:41

you're saying that those people are

24:42

going to be They're going to be good.

24:43

They're not going to have to work.

24:44

>> I'm saying that if if your aspiration is

24:47

a good life,

24:49

if you want infinite food, infinite

24:52

energy, infinite education, infinite

24:55

entertainment,

24:58

right? You're probably going to get it.

25:00

My point is, in theory, right, why does

25:02

money matter today?

25:04

Cuz everybody, you know, has electricity

25:07

and water. Because people want to buy

25:08

something more than water. By the way,

25:11

water is the proletarian drink.

25:14

>> What does that mean?

25:15

>> It means that if you go to a restaurant

25:17

and you don't and you can't afford

25:18

anything else, you ask for a cup of

25:19

water,

25:20

right?

25:21

>> [clears throat]

25:21

>> And then if you have some more money,

25:23

you get yourself a Coca-Cola or a soft

25:25

drink, and that costs five bucks. But if

25:27

you have more money, you buy yourself a

25:28

vodka. And then when you have more

25:30

money, you want to buy yourself the

25:31

specialty high-end tequila. And and

25:34

eventually people find a way to spend

25:36

$38 on a drink.

25:38

And uh, you know, in New York City, you

25:40

know, you can see that everywhere. Why

25:42

do we go to restaurants and pay $300

25:45

to eat at a restaurant? Because you can

25:47

actually feed yourself on three bucks a

25:49

day. And the answer is,

25:51

there's always going to be a hierarchy

25:53

of affluence, and people are going to

25:54

find things to aspire to that will be

25:57

more than

25:59

the utilitarian mean that everybody

26:02

gets. If I give you a universal health

26:04

care, people want private health care.

26:06

If I give everybody a house, someone's

26:08

going to want a house twice as big.

26:10

Everybody's always going to have a

26:12

reason to want something more, you

26:15

>> Because we're status orientated animals.

26:18

>> That's the cynical way to look at it,

26:20

but the other way to look at it is, I

26:22

wanted to be sitting on a mountain peak

26:25

skiing, but not that mountain peak,

26:28

because the snow's not good on that

26:30

mountain peak this week.

26:31

>> And it's too busy on this one.

26:33

>> Yeah, and that one was too crowded.

26:35

You know, it's like there's always going

26:37

to be

26:38

some exclusivity, you know, there's

26:41

going to be a quest. So I I think that

26:44

money's not going away. I think it's

26:46

pretty obvious if you look around you

26:49

that that Uh, people still need money.

26:52

It is true

26:54

that the basic needs in life, basic

26:57

transportation, basic energy, basic

27:00

health care, all of those things can be

27:02

manufactured in quantity and they'll get

27:04

progressively cheaper. We'll call them

27:06

consumer goods.

27:08

>> If this uh knowledge work does become

27:11

I guess taken by the robots and the AIs,

27:14

there's some people say there's going to

27:15

be new jobs created and everyone will be

27:16

fine. But it's not clear to me that

27:19

there will be enough new jobs created in

27:20

a period of time um to satisfy the

27:23

demand of people to have something to do

27:27

professionally.

27:28

>> It used to be everybody was a farmer,

27:29

right? And then all of a sudden in

27:31

America we have new jobs like called

27:33

accountants and lawyers and film

27:35

producers. You're a podcaster. Your job

27:38

didn't exist 20 years ago. It did you

27:40

know, the job description did not exist,

27:42

the business did not exist. There's a

27:44

lot of things that exist today. Yeah. I

27:47

There are people that make a living

27:49

putting on makeup and clothes and

27:50

posting on Instagram and that was not a

27:52

job that existed 30 years ago.

27:55

So, there'll be a lot of new jobs.

27:57

There'll be dislocation. There's going

27:59

to be political unrest. What do I think?

28:03

I think this is the best argument in

28:05

favor of encouraging a free market and

28:08

allowing uh liberal

28:11

uh unregulated

28:13

businesses to prosper because

28:16

if you have a progressive society and by

28:20

the way, the United States is sort of

28:21

more progressive.

28:22

>> Define progressive in this context.

28:24

>> You're allowed to start a business.

28:26

You're allowed to sell product.

28:28

It's not illegal

28:30

to

28:31

to create a podcast.

28:33

By the way, you you can't do what you're

28:34

doing in Cuba.

28:35

>> Yeah.

28:36

>> Right? In North Korea you couldn't do

28:38

it.

28:38

>> I read something crazy last night about

28:40

driving autonomous cars. It said lawyers

28:42

are trying to stop block EVs because

28:46

these particular lawyers make a lot of

28:47

money from litigating car accidents.

28:50

>> We wouldn't want people to not crash.

28:52

>> Yeah.

28:53

>> Like Yeah, so the point is there all

28:55

sorts of laws in restraint of trade.

28:57

Like you can't have an Airbnb. In the

29:00

face of modern technology, if you have

29:02

modern technology is creating

29:04

dislocation, if your goal is to

29:07

embrace the technology,

29:09

create maximum productivity,

29:12

and then minimize the disruption and the

29:15

inflammation,

29:16

then the more degrees of freedom you

29:18

offer,

29:20

the less pain there'll be because in a

29:22

more free society, you're going to have

29:25

10,000 new kinds of businesses pop up or

29:28

100,000 new business opportunities that

29:32

no one conceptualized. And they'll be

29:34

threatening to the status quo, but

29:36

they'll be rational and they'll create

29:38

value, and then they will create gainful

29:40

employment, and they'll create wealth

29:42

for all the people that are displaced

29:45

right by by the technology.

29:50

>> Steve, what you doing?

29:51

>> Uh just making myself a delicious

29:53

coffee.

29:53

>> From the freezer?

29:55

>> From the freezer. You not heard about

29:56

Cometeer?

29:57

>> No.

29:58

>> Oh my gosh. This is going to change your

29:59

life.

30:00

Couple of months ago, the founder of

30:01

this business called Matt sent a big

30:03

shipment of this coffee to our office in

30:06

London. What most people don't know is

30:07

that the processing of coffee takes out

30:09

a lot of the taste. So what they do is

30:11

they flash freeze it at the optimal

30:14

moment when it's most tasty. And they

30:17

send you in the post the coffee in these

30:19

little frozen ice cubes. Now Matt sent a

30:21

big shipment to my office. I moved it to

30:23

the kitchen. I said to the team, knock

30:24

yourselves out. And then I saw so many

30:26

messages in our Slack channel of people

30:27

going, "Oh my god, what the hell is

30:30

that? It's so delicious." All I have to

30:32

do is pop it out in the morning using

30:33

the little button on the back of this

30:34

thing. I pour my hot water in, and I mix

30:38

it,

30:39

and that is done. You can get $30 off

30:42

your first order of Cometeer Coffee if

30:45

you go to cometeer.com/steven.

30:48

Try it and please Instagram DM me,

30:50

LinkedIn me, and let me know if you love

30:52

it as much as I do.

30:54

One of the things you've heard me talk

30:55

about quite a lot over the last couple

30:56

of years, and this is something that's

30:57

true in business and content, but also

30:59

with everything in life, is that

31:01

consistency is the thing that really,

31:03

really compounds. The same is true in

31:05

sales. When your team is small,

31:07

consistency happens naturally. The team

31:09

knows every deal, so nothing gets

31:11

missed. But, as I've experienced, when

31:13

you grow, this starts to break down and

31:15

deals start to slip, follow-ups don't

31:17

happen, leads go cold that shouldn't

31:19

have. And when this happens, a lot of

31:20

leaders look at it and think they have a

31:22

people problem. When actually, it's a

31:23

systems problem. The businesses that

31:25

I've watched scale well commercially all

31:27

have a system that team uses every

31:29

single day. And for my team, that system

31:32

has been our sponsor, Pipedrive. It's an

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31:45

It's what keeps our commercial operation

31:46

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all. Head to pipedrive.com/ceo.

32:09

You know, earlier you were talking about

32:10

how you can get AI to write a book. I

32:11

was thinking as you were saying it, the

32:12

interesting thing is, I now ask my AI

32:16

um what book I need to read.

32:18

And to make that book for me, versus

32:20

being prescriptive to it and because it

32:22

has what it this huge memory on me. It

32:24

knows what I'm I'm dealing with. It

32:25

knows the businesses I'm building, the

32:26

problems I have. And so, I just say,

32:28

"What What do I What's the question I

32:29

should be asking you? Or what should

32:31

book should I be reading?" And then,

32:33

"Can you make that book for me? Make it

32:34

20 pages. I like it in this particular

32:36

style cuz it's my favorite style of

32:37

author. And then I I want to download it

32:39

as an MP3 file and listen to it on my

32:41

way to work. I have 43 minutes.

32:43

Could you say what should What's the

32:45

question I should be asking you?

32:46

>> Yeah, you're you're using You're using

32:49

that as an example, but at the end of

32:51

the day, you have to govern the state

32:54

space. For example, anybody could say

32:57

what question should I ask, but the real

32:59

issue is what's the What are the input

33:00

constraints? If you're a baker in

33:02

Nigeria

33:04

in Lagos.

33:05

>> Okay, yeah.

33:06

>> Right? There's a certain set of

33:07

conditions that are different than if

33:09

you happen to be a fireman in Los

33:11

Angeles.

33:12

>> Yeah.

33:12

>> Right? And so

33:14

what's the state space that you're

33:16

exploring in order to create a

33:17

contribution?

33:19

And I'll give you an example like um

33:22

I used AI. I used AI to make $15 billion

33:25

last year.

33:27

>> Is that a true story?

33:28

>> This is true.

33:29

>> Okay.

33:29

>> You did?

33:29

>> I did. Yeah.

33:31

And I used an AI to make $15 billion in

33:33

a way that no one would ever conceive

33:35

that you could make $15 billion.

33:37

>> This is a true story?

33:38

>> Okay. Yeah, let let's let's go back to

33:39

me in 2025.

33:41

We have a company that has billions of

33:43

dollars of Bitcoin. Uh $30 billion of

33:46

Bitcoin. We want to actually raise

33:48

capital to buy more Bitcoin. We maxed

33:51

out the equity markets. Uh we became the

33:53

largest issuer of convertible bonds in

33:56

the in the world. And we maxed out the

33:58

convertible bond market. And And uh that

34:01

was our journey in the first 5 years of

34:03

our Bitcoin.

34:03

>> To simplify this for Jenny Davis, you

34:05

borrowed as much money as you could from

34:06

traditional means.

34:07

>> Yes.

34:08

>> Okay.

34:08

>> Yeah.

34:08

>> To buy Bitcoin.

34:09

>> Yeah.

34:09

>> Yeah.

34:10

>> By the beginning of 2025, we had issued

34:12

as many convertible bonds as you could

34:14

issue. We were the largest issuer in the

34:16

world. And it wasn't scalable. So, we

34:18

needed to invent a new type of security,

34:21

a new type of credit instrument that we

34:23

could use to borrow money to buy more

34:25

Bitcoin.

34:27

So,

34:28

we went to the AI. I went to the AI and

34:30

I started exploring how do I design a

34:32

preferred stock.

34:34

And so I said, I think I want to create

34:36

a security that's not a common equity

34:38

and I don't want it to be a bond. I want

34:39

it to be some hybrid in the middle. A

34:41

preferred stock, you know, for the

34:44

layman, it's it's just a security that

34:46

could be anything. You can give it any

34:47

terms. I can sell you a preferred stock

34:49

and give you the right to put it back to

34:51

me in 12 months and it looks like that.

34:53

I can give you a guaranteed coupon on

34:55

it. I can give you conversion rights and

34:58

and make it look like equity. So, we

35:00

used AI to design a convertible

35:02

preferred stock called STRK. When we did

35:05

it, no one had ever created a preferred

35:07

stock that was backed by Bitcoin before

35:10

and and we'd never issued it and so it

35:13

was kind of a combination of financial

35:15

engineering and digital asset

35:17

engineering and legal work and

35:20

securities law.

35:21

So, we built it and

35:24

and, you know, when we asked the lawyers

35:26

and the bankers, they're like, well, no

35:27

one's ever done it before.

35:29

Okay. And and you know, their their

35:30

their answer, by the way, is no one's

35:32

ever done it before and people don't do

35:33

that. So, we don't think you should do

35:35

that.

35:36

And we're like, well, everything else

35:38

that people have done we've maxed out

35:40

and so we're kind of at the point where

35:43

our growth is going to stop unless we

35:45

find a way out of the box. So, we're

35:47

going to have to do something no one's

35:48

ever done before using

35:51

new technology, right? We're using

35:53

digital capital. We're using uh

35:56

digital intelligence and we're using a

35:59

digital treasury company. So, three new

36:02

forms of something in order to create

36:04

value.

36:05

And after we'd done three of them, we

36:07

decided what we wanted to do was create

36:09

a short duration credit instrument, one

36:12

that would be would trade stably around

36:14

$100, around par.

36:16

And we're trying to figure out how do

36:17

you get a preferred stock to trade at at

36:20

a stable level? It's what what you would

36:22

call technically short duration credit,

36:25

but it's like we're trying to create a

36:26

money market type instrument where

36:28

people can buy it at 100, sell it at

36:29

100, collect the yield, and not worry

36:32

about it trading up and down or being

36:34

sensitive to interest rates.

36:36

Well, if you do that, you have to vary

36:38

in order to get it to trade stable, if

36:40

you want the price to be stable, you

36:41

have to change the dividend rate.

36:43

And so, we created an instrument

36:46

that where we could change the dividend

36:48

rate every month. Now, had anybody ever

36:50

done it? No. In the history of the

36:52

world, no one ever created a variable

36:54

dividend rate preferred stock.

36:56

Is it illegal? No.

36:58

Why has no one ever done it? No one ever

37:00

had a reason to do it. They never

37:01

thought to do it.

37:03

The lawyers, the bankers, the

37:05

conventional investors, they're like,

37:06

"Well, we've never seen it done before.

37:07

We're not sure you can do it."

37:10

We go to the AI, we said, "Well, can we

37:11

do it?" They're like, "Of course you can

37:12

do it. Just do this, this, and this, and

37:14

this, and it Well, they said they don't

37:15

like that. Well, just do this, this,

37:16

this."

37:16

>> Which AI?

37:18

>> Chat GPT.

37:19

Open AI.

37:20

>> So, Chat GPT made you $15 billion?

37:23

>> Yeah, because the short of it is, we

37:24

brought our IPO to market, it became a

37:26

$2.5 billion IPO, the biggest IPO of the

37:30

year to date.

37:32

And then, we put a shelf registration on

37:34

it, we sold another $8 billion of it.

37:38

So, we sold 10 and 1/2 billion dollars

37:39

of that instrument, plus 4 billion of

37:41

the other instrument. So, we basically

37:43

sold $15 billion of credit, which kind

37:46

of equates to the company making about

37:48

$15 billion.

37:50

>> I'm thinking about what this means

37:51

generally for the average person

37:52

listening.

37:53

>> Yeah.

37:54

>> Because everyone's like searching for

37:55

business ideas.

37:56

>> Right.

37:57

>> New ideas. And you're telling me that

37:58

you you can use AI now to come up with

38:01

novel business ideas and solutions that

38:03

are outside of the box and that would

38:05

generate value for people. Um you though

38:08

there is it's almost like hearing that

38:10

there's an arbitrage opportunity with

38:11

this intelligence.

38:13

Now, I was reading something the other

38:14

day that said only 2% of households have

38:16

a Chat GPT or AI subscription still.

38:20

So, do you think there is an an an

38:21

arbitrage there for people who go to AI

38:23

now and and can build business ideas

38:26

from it?

38:27

>> If If you're an entrepreneur, right? If

38:28

you If you aspire to create a business

38:31

or create something of value, then it's

38:34

the no-brainer is you definitely should

38:37

pick one or more of these AIs and maybe

38:40

you want to become adept using multiple.

38:42

They're They're just different tools.

38:43

It's It's kind of like saying you got to

38:45

learn how to use a computer and you got

38:47

to learn how to read reading, writing,

38:49

arithmetic, right? Just basics.

38:52

And then

38:53

once you've done that, you you do need

38:56

to have some domain expertise in

38:58

something, right? The question is

39:01

what are you going to do, right? You

39:02

either want to create

39:04

a new product or you want to create a

39:06

new service

39:08

or you want to radically transform an

39:11

existing product or service using AI to

39:15

be much cheaper, much better.

39:19

But to my mind, you know, I would try to

39:21

create something magical.

39:23

Like for example can you create

39:25

something that does everybody's

39:26

accounting, does you know, does the work

39:28

of a million accountants and sell it for

39:30

10 bucks a month?

39:32

Right?

39:32

>> If you're 18 now, if your kids came to

39:34

you and said, "Dad, what should I

39:36

go and study at university? And what

39:38

shouldn't I study at university?

39:40

Would your answer be different now as we

39:42

stand on the foothills of this new

39:43

technology?"

39:44

>> You want to study the new thing, right?

39:46

You want to learn the new thing. And so,

39:48

if you look at the history of of

39:50

science, the real question is, what's on

39:52

the S-curve?

39:53

>> On the S-curve?

39:53

>> The whole theory of the S-curve is for a

39:55

thousand years we try to fly.

39:58

And infinite energy makes no progress.

40:00

You cannot fly. And then in 1903

40:04

all of a sudden we can sort of fly.

40:06

And in 66 years we go from flying 20

40:11

miles an hour to flying 300 miles an

40:13

hour. First a fighter jet, then a

40:15

passenger jet, then we have like rockets

40:17

that are unmanned. Then we have manned

40:18

rockets. And then we have rockets to go

40:20

to orbit. Then we have rockets to go to

40:21

the moon. And so that's an example of an

40:23

S curve. But then you know what happens.

40:25

In the mid 70s, we designed the 737, the

40:27

747.

40:29

And we hit a wall. You know, and 737 is

40:33

still the primary airplane for the next

40:34

50 years.

40:36

And if you look at the efficiency of an

40:37

airplane from 1975

40:41

uh to the year 2025, over 50 years,

40:44

the modern airplanes are 15% more

40:47

efficient.

40:48

Like So, what you got was a diminishing

40:50

return. And when you're on the S curve,

40:53

things are doubling every 3 years.

40:55

You're doubling, you're doubling, you're

40:56

doubling. You're exponential growth.

40:59

And then you hit diminishing returns.

41:00

And then you stagnate. And then you

41:02

stop. And then things are just not

41:04

getting any better. So,

41:05

>> Let's show an S curve on the screen. And

41:07

also

41:08

uh the the new S curve coming in below

41:10

it.

41:11

>> Like when I was at MIT, you know,

41:12

everybody basically flocked to uh

41:15

electrical engineering and computer

41:16

science. Because that was the cool

41:18

thing. And so, the mistake to make when

41:21

you go to school is

41:22

you get at the end of the S curve. You

41:24

basically start studying something that

41:27

has hit diminishing returns. And once

41:29

you hit that diminishing return,

41:32

no material progress may take place for

41:34

100 years. It might be that you just

41:37

can't break through. Propulsion

41:40

technology is the limiting factor. Like

41:43

why don't we have planes that will fly,

41:45

you know, supersonic, you know, on um

41:49

you know, a tank of gas that's that's

41:51

this much, right? Or fusion drives.

41:53

Well, cuz we don't. Now, on the other

41:56

hand,

41:57

semiconductors

41:58

uh started exploding. And semi And

42:00

semiconductor technology has continued

42:02

to advance. We haven't hit

42:04

that limit yet. And that's that's why so

42:08

many profound breakthroughs were made in

42:10

computer science over the past 50 years.

42:13

>> This is kind of hit a nice curve, hasn't

42:15

it? As a form factor, my iPhone here.

42:17

You know, that over since the iPhone, as

42:19

you said, since the iPhone like 6,

42:22

it hasn't really gotten thinner, but uh

42:24

the battery hasn't really taken a leap

42:26

forward as such. So, we're now looking

42:28

for another form factor to interface

42:30

with computers.

42:31

>> Yeah, you know, the iPhone 1 didn't have

42:33

cut and paste.

42:35

And we didn't get cut and paste till the

42:37

version 3.

42:38

And so, there was a rapid improvement

42:40

versions 1 through 6 or 1 through 7,

42:44

call it.

42:45

And at that point, you start hitting

42:48

diminishing returns. And if you were to

42:49

do some utility function, and you were

42:51

to score on a scale of 1 to 100, you

42:54

would have gone from like 5 to 70 in a

42:58

hurry, and then you would have gone from

43:01

70 to 90 over the next few iterations,

43:04

and then that you're 91, 92.

43:07

You hit that limit, and I if if you are

43:10

starting a company, right? You don't

43:11

create another iPhone.

43:13

Right? The [clears throat] real question

43:14

right now

43:15

is uh

43:17

can I create smart glasses where I have

43:19

something that's like my Maui Jim

43:20

sunglasses, I put them on, they weigh

43:22

nothing, and they have the camera, and

43:24

they see what I see, and they hear what

43:26

I hear, and they know where I am,

43:29

and plug that into AI, and in that

43:31

point, I can just say, "Hey, Eve, what

43:35

is that?"

43:37

You know, "Where am I? And tell me about

43:39

that." And and it's like

43:42

"Why do I have to type anymore?"

43:44

>> When I met Mark Zuckerberg, he showed me

43:46

the the device that's on the way from

43:48

Meta. This is not secret, cuz I know

43:50

they've talked about it publicly. Which

43:51

is just a it was just a plain wrist

43:53

strap with no screen on it.

43:55

But it linked to the glasses.

43:58

And in the glasses, when I looked

44:00

around, I could see all of my screens

44:01

and everything like that. And I And if I

44:02

just because of this wrist strap, if I

44:04

just click, it clicks on all the stuff.

44:06

So, I was just like, "Hey, with this

44:07

little wrist strap. The wrist strap

44:08

again was just like a cotton bracelet,

44:11

very thin cotton bracelet. And as I just

44:13

looked around, I could click on

44:14

everything and open things and call

44:16

people and send texts and go on YouTube,

44:17

etc. And it was just up here in my

44:19

peripheral. You imagine again, imagine

44:21

that on an S curve. At some point it's

44:22

going to be a some sort of like almost

44:24

like contact lens type thing

44:26

that's that I can just

44:29

>> By the way, this is why you should study

44:31

fantasy, right? Because they have this,

44:34

right? In magic worlds, right? This is

44:36

like

44:37

you know, like I just wear my talisman.

44:39

You know, I have a necklace. What does

44:40

it do? Oh, it makes me omniscient, all

44:42

powerful, immortal, indestructible. I

44:45

live forever. What what what do you have

44:47

to do to make the product work? Nothing.

44:50

I'm wearing the wristband and I walk and

44:51

every door opens to me and stuff

44:53

happens. And here's where Elon gets it

44:55

right. It's like the number one

44:56

engineering mistake is engineers want to

44:58

optimize the part that shouldn't exist.

45:00

Like make the parts go away, right? We

45:03

start on the topic of what should you

45:05

study,

45:06

right? It's It's study technologies that

45:09

allow you to create magic things that

45:11

your parents could never

45:13

If your parents would say that's magic,

45:16

you're on the right track, right? So,

45:17

like how about What's better than the

45:19

wristband? Just like How about you just

45:21

like implant one pellet?

45:23

>> Neuralink.

45:24

>> Yeah. Maybe it's a Neuralink. Maybe it's

45:27

Maybe it's when I'm born, there's a

45:29

slight implant and now I I hear like I

45:33

can talk to the AI in cyberspace

45:36

forever.

45:37

>> But should you go study that because

45:38

conceivably the artificial intelligence

45:41

and the robots are going to be the ones

45:42

that create that technology. If they

45:44

have a PhD in everything and that's

45:45

accelerating.

45:46

>> Yeah, well, I guess we're back back to

45:48

the what should you study? You ought to

45:50

study digital intelligence or digital

45:53

assets. If you can generate,

45:56

you know, generate proteins, generate

45:58

generate any kind of

46:01

life form or enzyme or protein or the

46:04

like, maybe it's interesting.

46:06

But I think with regard to AI,

46:09

you don't want to learn how to do things

46:11

that AI can do. What you want to do is

46:13

learn how to ask the AI to do something

46:17

that's never been done before. Like if I

46:19

were to go back to school, 95% of what I

46:22

learned, uh, probably wouldn't want to

46:24

study.

46:25

>> What about a surgeon? Do you think

46:26

you're going to be a surgeon?

46:27

>> No.

46:28

>> What about a a lawyer?

46:30

>> No.

46:31

>> Accountant?

46:32

>> No.

46:33

>> Driver?

46:34

>> No.

46:36

At some point, what you have to do is

46:39

ask

46:40

the AIs aren't really answering the

46:42

question yet, but you have but you have

46:43

to ask whatever is the marginal question

46:45

that hasn't been answered by the

46:46

civilization. Maybe I'll take it I'll

46:49

take that position, which is

46:51

the way you create value in the world is

46:53

you bring something into the world that

46:55

wasn't here before.

46:58

>> This is something that I've made for

47:00

you. I realized that the Diary of a CEO

47:01

audience are strivers, whether it's in

47:03

business or health, we all have big

47:05

goals that we want to accomplish. And

47:07

one of the things I've learned is that

47:09

when you aim at the big, big, big goal,

47:11

it can feel incredibly psychologically

47:14

uncomfortable because it's kind of like

47:16

being stood at the foot of Mount Everest

47:17

and looking upwards. The way to

47:19

accomplish your goals is by breaking

47:21

them down into tiny, small steps, and we

47:24

call this in our team the 1%. this

47:26

philosophy is highly responsible for

47:28

much of our success here. So, what we've

47:31

done so that you at home can accomplish

47:33

any big goal that you have, is we've

47:35

made these 1% diaries, and we released

47:38

these last year and they all sold out.

47:40

So, I asked my team over and over again

47:42

to bring the diaries back, but also to

47:43

introduce some new colors and to make

47:45

some minor tweaks to the diary. So, now

47:47

we have a better range for you. So, if

47:51

you have a big goal in mind, and you

47:53

need a framework and a process and some

47:55

motivation, then I highly recommend you

47:57

get one of these diaries before they all

47:59

sell out once again. And you can get

48:01

yours at the diary.com.

48:03

And if you want the link, the link is in

48:04

the description below.

48:06

There should be a button just down below

48:08

here. And if it says subscribed, you're

48:10

already subscribed. If it says subscribe

48:12

bar, that means you're not yet. And if

48:14

you're not subscribed, please could you

48:15

do us a favor and hit that button. It

48:16

helps the show more than you know. And

48:18

according to the algorithm, you're

48:19

someone that watches our show, but you

48:21

haven't yet hit that button. Thank you

48:22

so much.

48:24

Beyond just buying Bitcoin, is there any

48:26

sort of actionable steps that the

48:28

working class should take right now to

48:30

pre- prepare for this robot transition

48:33

that you're talking about?

48:35

>> I mean, the actionable step is is

48:39

learn

48:40

>> Learn about the robots.

48:41

>> digital. Right?

48:42

>> Digital.

48:42

>> Like understand digital. For example,

48:45

how much content's available on YouTube

48:46

right now? Like

48:48

>> Infinite, right now.

48:49

>> Right? What can you get for free on

48:51

YouTube and what can you create of

48:53

value, right? If you're in the business

48:55

of content creation, my advice would be

48:58

study digital channels. As As like,

49:02

should I go and become a stage actor on

49:04

Broadway?

49:06

It's It's a It's a

49:09

a much smaller thing. Mr. Beast can get

49:11

100 million subscribers, you can get 20

49:13

million subscribers. You're not getting

49:15

20 million subscribers if you do the

49:18

thing that your parents' parents did.

49:21

So, I think that you want to look at

49:22

digital platforms. There's There's

49:24

digital communication like Acts or

49:26

Instagram, there's YouTube and

49:29

and the like, but there's also

49:32

There's also digital intelligence.

49:34

>> Let's just just test that first point a

49:36

bit. I guess a lot of content creators

49:38

are thinking at the moment now because

49:39

of these frontier models that can

49:41

produce video content, pictures. A kid

49:44

in Mumbai or Manhattan, where we are

49:46

now, can set up an agent while they're

49:48

asleep and say, "Listen, just post 100

49:51

videos while I'm asleep on this every

49:54

single platform.

49:55

I actually I'll make five agents and

49:57

I'll ask all of them to post 100 videos

50:00

each. So, you're going to have this you

50:01

have in terms of supply and demand,

50:02

presumably that's a supply shock.

50:04

There's this slop tsunami coming in. And

50:06

then if you look at demand of attention

50:08

online, it is arguably fixed. Financial

50:10

Times did a report said that young young

50:12

people are actually starting to come

50:14

down in terms of time spent online. Uh

50:16

slightly older generations are starting

50:18

from a lower base, but they're still

50:19

going up, but they're starting from a

50:20

lower base. So, you've got a tsunami

50:22

slop of supply and fixed demand.

50:25

I get this even this business feels a

50:27

little bit insecure. Actually, a lot of

50:29

the major podcasters are actually down

50:30

on YouTube. If I look at the top who I

50:32

would consider the sort of top five

50:34

podcasters in my niche, um every single

50:36

one of them is down at least 50% in the

50:38

last 20-ish uh 12 12 24 months.

50:41

>> Well, the solution is certainly not to

50:43

not pay attention, right? So, for

50:45

example, if you're in the business of

50:47

creating content right now, you would

50:49

ask the question, can I enhance the

50:51

content with AI?

50:53

Or can I better market or distribute the

50:55

content with AI?

50:57

>> What is the moat?

50:59

>> The moat's going to be the most talented

51:01

content cre- the person creating the

51:03

best stuff that everybody wants to see.

51:05

There are videos being created like,

51:07

here's a walk-through of a 16th century

51:10

warship.

51:11

And you know, I don't know if you've

51:12

seen a guy constructs the entire warship

51:15

from the keel and he creates the ribs

51:17

and he shows you the lower deck and the

51:18

ballast and he takes you through every

51:20

step and it's a three-dimensional uh

51:22

video animation.

51:24

Takes about an hour and it's absolutely

51:26

riveting. I have no reason to care about

51:29

16th century warships, but I can't take

51:31

my eyes off it because it's just so

51:34

fascinating to see him explain

51:35

everything.

51:36

>> Are you saying creativity is the moat

51:38

still?

51:39

Or understanding what humans want and

51:41

then delivering it it which I guess is

51:43

creativity.

51:44

>> Let's say the Led Zeppelin example. But

51:48

what what you see in human history

51:51

is

51:52

within 10 years of whenever there's a

51:55

new technology platform, there's some

51:58

geniuses. They push it to the limit and

52:01

they do 95% of everything that can be

52:04

done and it all happens within 10 years

52:06

and they live forever. So

52:08

why didn't anybody before Beethoven do

52:10

stuff with the piano? Well, the piano

52:11

comes out, some genius does stuff with

52:14

the piano, right? And between Beethoven

52:17

and Chopin and you know, and a a few

52:19

players, it's like it's not clear to me

52:21

if humans try for another 10,000 years,

52:23

they'll do

52:24

much better.

52:25

So with Led Zeppelin, you had electric

52:28

guitars and amplification and everything

52:30

kind of clicked late 60s.

52:33

Like the sound of the early 60s was not

52:35

quite there and then by 1971, 72, you

52:39

could do some amazing stuff. And if you

52:41

think about all the classic rock between

52:43

1970 and 1980,

52:46

you have human creativity pushing the

52:49

edge of the envelope in so many

52:51

directions and then you hit this

52:52

diminishing return. And then along comes

52:55

sampling, right? And then you get

52:57

Swedish House Mafia and Avicii and

52:59

that's new technology and then they push

53:01

it to the extreme.

53:03

And then along comes YouTube and Justin

53:06

Bieber comes out of nowhere, you know,

53:09

and Mr. Beast comes out of nowhere and

53:11

they push it to the extreme.

53:13

And what you see with every generation

53:15

is

53:16

I give you a new thing, whether it's a

53:18

piano or electric guitar or internet.

53:22

Think about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg

53:24

and what he did at just about the point

53:26

when you could do that with the web and

53:28

then think about the early mobile apps,

53:30

you know, WhatsApp and the like and it's

53:32

like

53:33

what you want to do if you want to

53:34

create these incredible success things

53:38

is

53:39

you want to locate

53:41

the magic opportunity right at the right

53:45

point on the S curve where it just now

53:48

became commercially viable to do it and

53:51

is a zero to one moment and you want to

53:54

be there. You want to be the first

53:55

person

53:57

that applies that technology, right? To

54:01

this new idea. Like what did our company

54:03

do to to go from nothing to 60 billion

54:06

dollars or from 1 billion to 60 billion?

54:09

We were the first company to take

54:11

digital capital, Bitcoin,

54:13

and put it together with digital credit

54:17

and a digital treasury model. So, we

54:19

created a credit instrument, a security

54:21

that you could never created before. You

54:23

couldn't have made it 10 years ago. You

54:25

couldn't build it on top of anything

54:27

other than Bitcoin. So, we needed to get

54:31

to the point where we had 10 or 20

54:32

billion dollars of capital

54:35

and then we could create this thing that

54:37

was a multi-billion dollar thing and

54:39

that becomes resident and that window

54:42

is like 12 to 24 months. And you go

54:45

through that window and you create

54:46

something that might be a hundred

54:48

billion dollar thing because you go

54:50

through if you went through 36 months

54:52

early, you smack into a wall and you

54:54

fail. And if you wait,

54:56

like at this point, our company is 20

54:58

times bigger than the next biggest one,

55:00

50 times bigger than the company doing

55:02

something similar. Did we plan it? Not

55:06

at all.

55:07

We found some extraordinary cool thing.

55:10

We committed to it with all of our heart

55:12

and soul and we declared we were going

55:13

to make it work come hell or high water

55:16

and we got punched in the face a hundred

55:18

times and every single time we ran into

55:20

a problem,

55:21

we stopped, we recalibrated, we went a

55:24

different direction and the process of

55:26

creating something beautiful,

55:28

like the beautiful thing, like everyone

55:30

wants a bank account that pays 10%. So,

55:32

if you can figure out how to give people

55:34

this thing they want with a new

55:37

technology

55:39

that was impossible that did not exist 5

55:42

years or 3 years earlier.

55:44

Then you resonate in the society, right?

55:47

You would go viral. Like we were just

55:48

the first ones to get there. It

55:50

exploded. If you gave me a billion

55:52

dollars right now and said run a

55:53

marketing campaign, it wouldn't be as

55:56

effective. Like you couldn't buy the

55:59

success with a billion dollars of

56:00

marketing. You just have to that let's

56:03

up guys. They didn't spend a billion

56:04

dollars marketing. You got to be in the

56:06

right place, the right time,

56:09

and you have to have the courage

56:11

to offer people the new thing.

56:14

>> I have been thinking a lot about this.

56:17

This idea of you said, you know, if you

56:18

spend a billion dollars you couldn't go

56:20

as viral as that. And if someone came

56:21

along and spent a ton of money today,

56:23

they couldn't go as big as

56:24

let's say Michael Jackson.

56:27

When we go back through history, I was

56:28

thinking about this this idea because I

56:30

watched the Michael Jackson documentary

56:31

recently and he was

56:33

at a level of fame that is I don't think

56:36

we've ever seen since. And I think part

56:38

of the reason why it was because there

56:39

was a constraint on the distribution

56:41

channels back then. So in my house,

56:44

there was 20 albums over there, books of

56:46

albums, and Michael Jackson was like

56:48

three of them. And then the other way

56:50

that we could consume was the TV over

56:52

there and there was like six channels

56:54

and MTV was one of them and it was

56:56

Michael Jackson all day.

56:57

>> [snorts]

56:57

>> In the world we live in now where

56:59

there's my phone experience is a

57:01

completely different phone experience to

57:03

yours because of AI. AI is learning what

57:05

I like and showing me my own little

57:07

version of the world. I wonder [snorts]

57:09

if it's possible to be

57:12

as big as a

57:14

Michael Jackson once was for anybody

57:16

these days. And actually I even with the

57:18

YouTube you mentioned earlier, I wonder

57:20

now if fame or cool being a content

57:23

creator or a musician once looked like

57:26

this

57:27

this sort of like high ceiling and then

57:32

you're known for a hundred years like

57:33

Michael Jackson.

57:35

And now with algorithms that are

57:37

personalized, does it now look like

57:38

this?

57:41

Shorter and shallower.

57:44

>> Is it possible to get big? You could

57:46

say, well, I can't get as big as Michael

57:48

Jackson, but on the other hand, Elon

57:50

Musk got big.

57:52

Right? Like Like there are things that

57:54

get big, right? Companies get big.

57:56

OpenAI went from nothing to how many

57:58

users in just a few months.

58:01

So I I think what you could say is going

58:03

viral is about hitting a resonating

58:05

frequency in the civilization, whether

58:07

it's an artistic frequency or it's a

58:09

political frequency, or it's a it's a

58:12

technical frequency. Yeah, there are

58:15

some things

58:17

where there's going to be a glut.

58:18

There's going to be Well, let's take

58:20

Instagram, right? It's like

58:23

on one hand, a billion people have like

58:26

bad photos posted online, but on the

58:29

other hand, there are people that

58:30

managed to get, you know, 8 million

58:33

followers, and they, you know, are the

58:36

Kard- Kardashians, you know? You have

58:39

these people that get massively big, and

58:42

that's the other side of the equation.

58:46

So

58:46

I don't really know how it all plays out

58:50

except for the fact that it seems clear

58:52

that there is room for human creativity

58:55

and innovation.

58:57

And if your goal is to make a

58:59

contribution,

59:02

right? If you're at the If you're in

59:03

your working years where you want to

59:05

upgrade the world and make a difference

59:08

and be remembered for something,

59:10

then a a pretty simple principle is

59:13

don't keep doing the same thing over and

59:16

over, working harder and harder every

59:19

year, fighting against the modern

59:21

automation,

59:23

you know, epidemic, right? Don't try to

59:25

outwork the robots. It's like you're

59:28

you're lamenting, you know,

59:30

how difficult it is for a content

59:32

creator, but let me remind you that it

59:34

used to be you would go be a college

59:36

professor and teach 200 students a year

59:40

for 20 years and you would feel that

59:43

your life contribution was 4,000

59:46

people's whose minds you touched.

59:49

And now you get 4,000 people a second.

59:53

Okay? So, you're charging yourself

59:55

against,

59:57

you know, the next thing, but if you

59:59

look back in time, technology has given

60:02

us the ability to amplify

60:05

our intellect and amplify

60:08

our creativity

60:10

in a way that is

60:12

unprecedented in human history.

60:14

>> Yeah, I think I think in part it's I'm

60:15

wondering now if we're kind of

60:17

we technology said, "Okay, you can reach

60:19

more people." TV, radio, all these

60:22

things. And actually now with

60:23

intelligence, it's saying, "Ooh, we can

60:25

figure out exactly what Michael wants."

60:27

So, we're starting to live in these

60:28

smaller echo chambers where your

60:30

creative idea or your creative piece of

60:32

content reaching lots of people is going

60:33

to become harder because the algorithms

60:34

are now in the way and they're deciding

60:36

who sees what.

60:37

And they're optimizing for

60:39

the the I guess the platform, the the

60:42

platform's monetary desire. The other

60:44

thing that I think is really interesting

60:45

and I've been mulling for the last

60:46

couple of months is that that which is

60:49

really really hard and scarce and

60:50

actually you could say something being

60:52

hard and scarce are are the are the same

60:55

cuz to create something scarce is also

60:57

hard, like you did with that financial

60:58

instrument. Very few people on Earth

61:00

could have created that. We don't run

61:01

public companies, we don't have the

61:03

information, etc. Or even that YouTuber

61:05

you mentioned who walks you through

61:06

those

61:07

the 1600s or whatever. That is very hard

61:10

to do. I theorize that actually pursuing

61:12

that which is hard and scarce Getting

61:15

you to come here today is not easy. So,

61:17

that's kind of my moat. Michelle Obama

61:18

coming and sitting down with me here is

61:20

still kind of my moat. Um is is is what

61:23

we should aim at.

61:25

What do you think of that as a theory?

61:27

>> I agree. Let's say you have a business,

61:29

whatever your business is,

61:31

right now the right thing to do is to

61:34

spend an intense time with the AI

61:37

considering what are all the ways you

61:39

can upgrade and improve the product or

61:42

the service you create, right?

61:44

Uh, for example, like the it used to be

61:47

you do this in English and the issue is,

61:49

well, what if What about Japanese or

61:50

Chinese or French or whatever? And, you

61:54

know, the hard way is you learn 20

61:55

languages and, you know, but then how

61:57

does your guest How do we translate it

61:59

or you hire, you know, we used to spend

62:01

money to hire translators, but now

62:04

you could have the AI translate this

62:06

into a hundred languages, right? Now,

62:08

the question is should you

62:10

or not? Can I enhance it?

62:12

Right? It's interesting when someone

62:13

describes something, but you're like,

62:15

let's just put up a chart of the S curve

62:16

there. And then the next step is can I

62:18

market it better or distribute it

62:20

better? And the next step is

62:23

am I creating something that'll be

62:24

valuable in a decade? Well, will it be

62:26

valuable in a hundred years?

62:28

>> Well, this is probably a good time to

62:29

mention this. 24 months ago we started

62:31

exactly that, which is

62:32

>> They're all aliens, you just never see

62:33

them.

62:38

Arabic

62:43

>> Tell me.

62:43

>> Yeah, and and ask yourself how many

62:45

people that do podcast interviews offer

62:48

that level of quality of content? And

62:51

>> I can see that

62:51

>> I think that you're I think you're

62:52

outstripping like I don't know that

62:54

anybody else has done it that well.

62:57

Right?

62:57

>> We started almost three years ago and

63:00

for the first 24 months it was a tragic

63:02

failure. So, you had the data scientists

63:03

in the corner of our office failing for

63:05

24 months. And then about 12 months ago

63:08

for the first time ever we saw that the

63:10

translation technology underneath us had

63:12

improved and that we could get the view

63:14

duration in Spanish to be higher

63:17

[snorts]

63:18

than English.

63:19

>> And how many months do you think Jimmy

63:20

Page spent trying to master the electric

63:22

guitar?

63:23

More than 24 months?

63:24

>> a lot longer.

63:25

>> My advice to an entrepreneur is

63:28

you focus, you commit.

63:31

If you're successful in less than 4

63:33

years, you got lucky. It's pro- Yeah. If

63:36

it takes you 10 years, well, between 4

63:38

and 10 years is is very, very normal.

63:42

If you haven't had success by the

63:44

10-year point, you're probably not cut

63:45

out for the business. But, you know,

63:48

what you're doing is it's totally

63:49

logical. It's like, is AI going to

63:51

remake this industry? The first issue is

63:54

can you make the product better? And the

63:56

second question is what's it worth?

63:58

Right? Right? You can do that. Can you

64:00

get paid? You know? And by the way, even

64:02

if you didn't get paid,

64:04

I would argue that your audience have

64:07

limited attention span. It's like, I

64:08

don't have time to listen to every Lex

64:11

Fridman, every Joe Rogan, every Diary of

64:14

the CEO, and every one of the next 20.

64:16

And so, I'm going to become loyal. I'm

64:19

going to become a customer and a fan of

64:22

whoever serves me the best content. And

64:25

certainly, if I'm a native Portuguese

64:27

speaker

64:28

>> [snorts]

64:28

>> or a native Russian speaker, you all of

64:30

a sudden just leaped, right? To the top.

64:33

>> This gets to my point about hard and

64:35

scarce because

64:36

people in in Portugal maybe have never

64:39

heard Michael Saylor before in

64:41

Portuguese.

64:42

So, in terms of scarce, it's actually

64:43

the only interview now available that is

64:45

2 hours long of Michael Saylor talking

64:48

in Cantonese with Steven, you know?

64:50

And so, that the we then are competing.

64:52

We have That's kind of the moat then,

64:53

right?

64:54

>> And that that becomes a benefit to all

64:55

your guest. You're the distribution

64:57

channel for me

64:59

to send the message of digital capital,

65:03

digital empowerment to the world. And

65:06

then,

65:07

your guest become your moat. I think

65:09

that

65:11

with every single business, it's pretty

65:13

clear you have to ask the question, is

65:15

technology going to cannibalize my

65:18

business or disrupt it, and am I going

65:20

to be the one that embraces it and

65:22

evolves and grows with it, or am I going

65:25

to fight it? And then of course,

65:27

you're in a dialogue with the market.

65:30

For example, the great thing about what

65:31

you've done is if you've done it, you

65:33

can look and see how it runs and how and

65:35

whether YouTube actually expands your

65:37

reach, and then you can look at the

65:38

engagement and and figure out whether or

65:41

not you're able to monetize that,

65:43

whether you're able to

65:44

able to convert that, and then you tweak

65:46

it, right, and adjust, and you're

65:50

6 months or 12 months can be enough that

65:52

you have a lasting advantage forever,

65:54

right? If you're 12 months ahead of

65:55

everybody else,

65:56

>> and you're compounding in

65:58

>> Yeah, it compounds over time, and then

66:00

maybe they never catch you. Like it's

66:02

That's you know, but that's the story of

66:04

every business.

66:06

Right, that's the that's the story of

66:07

Ford Motor Company and Standard Oil,

66:09

that's the story of Microsoft, it's the

66:11

story of Facebook, it's everybody's

66:14

story, which is

66:15

you just have to focus, commit, and then

66:19

if you're good enough,

66:21

invariably what happens is is your

66:24

customers

66:26

will make you the winner.

66:28

The world needs someone to do what you

66:30

do.

66:31

Like someone had to has to win, right?

66:34

There needs to be a winner. The audience

66:36

out there wants they want what you do.

66:39

They want they they want to walk into

66:41

the living room and figure out what

66:43

Obama was thinking, or they want to

66:45

hear, you know, what Mark Zuckerberg was

66:47

thinking, and they want someone to bring

66:50

them into that living room. They want

66:52

you to host them in. They need someone

66:55

to do that job. You don't

66:58

you don't have to be

67:00

what, perfect or better than anybody

67:02

ever lived. You need to be better than

67:04

the people that are currently doing it

67:06

now, or you need to be one of

67:08

you know, a handful of people that are

67:11

that are doing it because at that point

67:14

right, the audience comes to you, the

67:16

guests come to you.

67:18

You're making a market, right?

67:20

You're the market maker in that

67:22

information.

67:24

It's just the real key is

67:26

know what your value proposition is,

67:28

stay in your lane.

67:30

You know, don't don't try to compete in

67:33

an area where you're not going to be the

67:35

best in the world.

67:37

But on the other hand

67:39

right, the the one thing that's pretty

67:41

clear is that anybody can have the best

67:44

in the world in like 2 seconds at their

67:46

fingertips. And so you don't want to be

67:49

the third best. You don't want to be

67:51

mediocre across a bunch of things. You

67:53

want to be exceptional in one area.

67:56

Figure out what that one area is and

67:58

then

67:59

maybe you have 2 million followers then

68:01

200 million followers, right? Then

68:03

eventually, you know, over 100 years 2

68:05

billion. You

68:07

You just You just have to have this

68:08

vision.

68:09

>> One of the things that comes with the

68:11

pursuit of being first is you go over

68:14

the hill, you take the arrows as the

68:15

phrase goes. And so even in that

68:17

experiment that I just showed you that

68:18

we started 3 years ago, which was trying

68:19

to figure out how we translate the

68:21

diversity into lots of different

68:22

languages. It sounds simple. Problem is

68:24

you you discover you could up.

68:25

Spanish words are longer. So the video

68:27

in Spanish is 3 hours 10, but in English

68:29

it's 3 hours it's just 3 hours. And then

68:31

the video's going to be out and then

68:32

Cantonese, how long is Cantonese words?

68:34

And then you go, "Oh my god." You have

68:35

to then translate all the thumbnails and

68:37

all the titles in 20 languages at the

68:38

same time. That's why you end up 3 years

68:40

in when you thought it was just a 1-hour

68:43

job. But also, if you zoom out even

68:45

further, there's this graveyard of other

68:47

things we tried that never worked.

68:49

There's this the other 90% of

68:51

experiments we ran in the corner that

68:53

did nothing.

68:54

And it's I I always say to the team,

68:56

there's two things a year that define

68:57

us.

68:58

And of that, in our failure and an

69:00

team, which is literally what it's

69:01

called. We tried 60 things. Now, but

69:04

there's this that you know, five of them

69:05

are meh.

69:06

Two of them

69:08

game-changing. So, the attitude of

69:09

dealing with failure at the very

69:11

forefront of trying to be first, I think

69:14

is something people don't talk about

69:15

enough.

69:16

>> Focus your energy.

69:17

Guard your time.

69:19

Just cuz you can do a thing doesn't mean

69:21

you should do the thing.

69:24

Right? Most of the time, the reason

69:26

people fail is they get successful in

69:28

their 30s and they're successful at one

69:30

thing and it's like all of a sudden

69:32

they've decided they're going to do 10

69:34

other things because they're good at

69:36

everything and they dilute their focus

69:38

in 10 ways.

69:40

People always underestimate the

69:42

maintenance obligation. Like always.

69:45

And so I the right the right solution to

69:48

growth is

69:50

I would like to make whatever I'm doing

69:52

twice as good.

69:54

And if I do 10 things to make it 10%

69:57

better, I'm probably diluting,

69:58

distracting the uh phenomenon that

70:01

causes most businesses to fail.

70:04

It's uh dilutive distractions or it's

70:06

it's dilutive expansions. They do one

70:08

thing, it works, and then instead of

70:11

turning their energy in

70:13

to make that better and better and

70:15

better and better, they start to

70:17

bifurcate and trifurcate and they expand

70:21

and they overreach

70:23

to too many areas. It's like the dude

70:25

with the great restaurant

70:27

and he's got the second restaurant and

70:28

he's got a chain of 37 restaurants and

70:30

they all suck.

70:32

And it's like, "Yeah, I remember the guy

70:33

used to have There's no one, by the way,

70:35

with a failed restaurant chain that

70:37

wasn't a successful restauranteur at

70:40

scale one.

70:41

>> Mhm.

70:41

>> Right? Like, you didn't get to a failure

70:43

of 37 or 62 or 437 until you had a good

70:47

one, but it's very, very common that

70:50

people think that they can just

70:51

cookie-cutter these things out and you

70:54

can't. And so, the conundrum that you're

70:57

putting your finger on is

70:59

I want to grow and progress, but I want

71:02

to not dilute and distract. And that

71:06

requires this maturity of saying, I

71:08

tried it,

71:10

had a moderate success, but it's not

71:12

enough. Kill it, right?

71:14

Like and and and move on because it's

71:17

just not going to work.

71:18

>> There's two things that came to mind

71:19

there. The first is a lot of young

71:21

people come up to me and they're 9

71:22

months into their idea and they're not

71:24

rich yet. So they're They look over

71:26

there and they see their friend has

71:27

started a thing with a CBD. And so

71:31

they're like, I think I need to go into

71:32

CBD. And so their careers kind of look

71:34

like this sort of like swinging through

71:35

the jungle grabbing onto the next branch

71:37

and letting go of the last and never

71:39

really making um

71:41

upward motion towards any goal. And then

71:43

the other thing I thought about as

71:44

you're speaking is I've been mulling

71:46

this um I've really only in the last 2

71:48

months this idea that if you take a

71:51

long-term approach to things, you make

71:54

foundational decisions today

71:57

that create huge competitive advantages.

72:00

And the simple analogy I would give, if

72:03

you gave me 10 seconds to make the

72:04

highest possible tower that I can, what

72:07

I'm going to do is I'm going to go like

72:08

this and I'm going to go like this and

72:09

I'm going to try and do something like

72:11

this and just by nature of the time

72:13

constraint,

72:14

it's unstable. If you gave me 10 years

72:17

and infinite blocks again, I would start

72:19

like this. I'd do this one here. I'd put

72:21

this one here. I'd put this one here and

72:23

I'd build something more stable. And

72:25

when I look at some of the great

72:25

founders and also when I saw that you'd

72:27

been at your you know MicroStrategy for

72:29

more than three, almost four decades I

72:30

think it was, I thought, oh, you're one

72:33

of the rare long-termists in a world

72:36

where most of my generation, we think

72:37

about our career or what we're working

72:39

on in like maximum 5-year periods. Then

72:42

we'd either quit and go do something

72:43

else.

72:44

Startup founders, they build so they can

72:46

sell and then they they they're sort of

72:47

holding it together with tape as the

72:49

acquirer comes to buy the thing. And

72:51

they're nervous as the contract's being

72:52

signed cuz they know if the the acquirer

72:54

looks under the hood they're going to

72:55

see some but then I look at Elon

72:57

and I go oh gosh he went and

72:59

rebuilt a brand new battery and then

73:00

built the charging network and SpaceX

73:03

took two decades. My question is about

73:06

this long-termism and does it create a

73:10

competitive advantage?

73:12

>> I think Elon thinks like a

73:14

like an engineer and uh if you if you

73:17

look at his businesses they're all built

73:19

upon each other. Like

73:21

if you figure out how to launch a rocket

73:23

and you have the

73:25

the highest payload capacity and the the

73:29

the cheapest cost to orbit

73:31

then you've got an advantage. Now the

73:32

question is what do you want to put in

73:33

orbit? We put satellites but what

73:35

satellite? Like Starlink satellite

73:38

because that's the thing everybody

73:39

wants, internet. And so all of a sudden

73:42

he's got an advantage,

73:44

you know, in the sky and then you build

73:46

on that advantage and you know, with

73:49

battery technology, right? You see that?

73:51

>> could have gone to Russia and bought a

73:52

rocket and just shot that up and

73:54

that would have been the short term.

73:55

Even with Tesla he could have bought the

73:56

batteries off Ford or

73:58

>> One great natural example is like a

74:00

chambered nautilus. If you look at if

74:02

you look at a creature and it's building

74:04

a shell and it's spiraling out on itself

74:07

and basically it keeps building on its

74:09

own structure and it's nature's solution

74:12

for growth under pressure. It's the

74:14

Fibonacci sequence too. If you look at a

74:16

Fibonacci sequence, if I have this and

74:19

then the next structure is here and the

74:20

next structure is there and the next

74:22

structure is there

74:24

part of my previous business is the

74:27

foundation for my next business. And so

74:29

if you're thinking your growth strategy

74:31

is to build on a foundation of something

74:33

you already had and extend its

74:35

functionality in a natural fashion

74:38

that's natural stable growth.

74:41

When your second business idea is

74:43

unrelated to your first business in any

74:46

way other than the fact that you own

74:48

both.

74:49

Right? Now you're not building on a

74:51

stable foundation.

74:53

So, most of these businesses that work

74:55

and and the the best ideas that they

74:57

start with someone dominating a market.

75:00

I'm really good at this.

75:01

>> Sounds like a bet.

75:02

>> Yeah, and now what is the natural thing

75:05

that I can add

75:06

that I can use my existing business to

75:09

to maybe I'm marketing it. Well, you're

75:11

Coca-Cola. Well, we deliver a pallet of

75:14

drinks to 87,000

75:16

restaurants in the UK every morning.

75:19

What's the natural extension? Well, I

75:21

can put one more type of drink on the

75:23

pallet, right? You need to use your

75:26

distribution strength, your market

75:28

strength, your technical strength in

75:31

order to lever. I think you look at all

75:34

the great businesses

75:36

in the history of the world. I got

75:37

Standard Oil, Ford Motor, Boeing,

75:39

Microsoft. The things they did that

75:42

worked were generally building on top of

75:46

their foundation, either loyal customers

75:48

or distribution or some financial asset

75:52

they already had. Another way to say it

75:54

is

75:55

if there's no one else in the world that

75:58

has that is better situated to do this

76:01

thing than you,

76:03

then you're probably in good shape,

76:04

right? If there are 97 other companies

76:07

that have more assets than you in that

76:10

space, well,

76:13

you got to bet that all 97 of them are

76:15

not going to react to you when you do

76:17

it. It's a bit harder. So,

76:19

>> And that's where the long-termism comes

76:20

in because to build that fundamental

76:21

advantage, it it it by definition is

76:24

going to take time.

76:26

>> Good example,

76:28

uh Amazon

76:30

Prime, right? Where Amazon started

76:33

giving free shipping, you know, first

76:35

free shipping or very cheap shipping and

76:37

one day shipping and and everybody said,

76:39

"Well, while losing money. You're losing

76:41

money. You're losing money." And they

76:42

lost money doing this for like a decade.

76:45

And then they got to some point where

76:46

like everybody in the country was a

76:49

member of Amazon Prime and then like,

76:51

"Okay, well, now it's 20 bucks a month

76:53

instead of 10 bucks a month." And it's

76:55

like an extra $10 a month times like 100

76:58

million people. And people like, "Oh my

77:00

god, they just made $12 billion

77:02

in one press release per year in cash

77:05

flow.

77:06

And that's worth like $250 billion." And

77:09

And you're all like, "Well,

77:10

what were you doing?" It's like, "We

77:12

were

77:13

We were building the moat." That story

77:15

is not uncommon with every other thing.

77:18

It's like you first believe,

77:20

you build the biggest distribution

77:22

channel you can. People are going to

77:24

tell you They're going to tell you, "Oh,

77:26

there's no future to whatever the

77:27

podcast. There's no future to

77:29

something."

77:31

And what'll happen is 99% of people will

77:34

drop out because they don't believe. And

77:36

the true believers, the ones that are

77:38

not creative, won't adapt.

77:41

And then there'll be some that'll say,

77:42

"I believe, but I also know there's a

77:44

threat, but I'm going to channel the

77:46

technology threat, and I'm going to

77:48

evolve, and I'm going to emerge as

77:50

something a thousand X better

77:52

than anybody could conceive."

77:54

And that's a beautiful story.

77:57

>> So, speaking of strong foundations, you

77:58

have 10 rules for young adults building

78:00

a strong foundation for their life and

78:01

career. And you've talked about two of

78:02

them here, which is focusing your energy

78:04

and not chasing every good idea.

78:05

>> Yeah.

78:06

>> The second one was guard your time. The

78:08

third one is train your mind.

78:12

And with that, you've got train your

78:13

body.

78:14

>> You know, the funny story of that is I I

78:16

was invited to a cocktail party of a

78:18

billionaire on the French Riviera in a

78:20

beautiful home. And I showed up, and I

78:23

walked into the party thinking I was

78:25

going to hang out. And another

78:26

billionaire showed up, and he said, "You

78:28

know, Mike, I just had twins, a boy and

78:30

a girl. And I'm walking around asking

78:33

all of all of my friends for advice for

78:36

them. And I want you to like write some

78:39

advice for them that I can give to them

78:41

on their 21st birthday.

78:43

And he's got this book where he's

78:44

actually collecting advice for his his

78:46

children that to give them on their 21st

78:50

birthday.

78:51

As young adults. So, I sit down and I

78:53

think think think think think and I'm

78:54

like, focus your mind, guard your time,

78:58

and train your mind. You got to learn

79:00

that you got to

79:01

learn something, right? You got to learn

79:03

reading, writing, arithmetic. You have

79:05

to actually develop a cultured base. So,

79:08

I was like, get an education, and then

79:10

train your body.

79:12

Like, because if if you're weak, you're

79:14

not going to make it, right? You're not

79:15

You're not going to survive. And then,

79:17

think for yourself. Everybody in the

79:19

world wants to program you to believe to

79:22

do something they want you to do.

79:24

And you have to have the presence of

79:27

mind to think, that's not right. Just

79:29

because everybody that I know and

79:30

famous, rich, and beautiful people tell

79:32

me it's right doesn't make it right. You

79:34

need to decide think for yourself.

79:37

And then, curate your friends.

79:39

Because you you know, you become who you

79:41

surround yourself with. And if you

79:42

surround yourself with positive uh

79:44

inspirational, talented people,

79:47

you'll be the best person version of

79:49

yourself. And if you surround yourself

79:50

with negative, cynical, failing people,

79:54

they're going to want you to fail or

79:56

they're not going to inspire you to

79:58

succeed. And

79:59

and they'll bring you down.

80:01

And so, after curate your friends,

80:03

curate your environment, right? Like,

80:06

make it a happy place where you can work

80:08

or you can live. And you know,

80:11

the world didn't say you had to be in

80:13

the dark and in an ugly situation. And

80:15

And after that,

80:17

keep your promises.

80:19

At the end of the day, people remember

80:21

if you didn't keep your promise. So, you

80:23

you tell you tell someone you're going

80:24

to do something, do it, right? If If you

80:27

keep your promises, you'll find those

80:28

are the people that invest in you. They

80:30

uplift you. They make you successful.

80:32

They may be the difference between life

80:34

and death or the difference between

80:35

success and failure for you and

80:38

and ultimately, you know, we're all in

80:40

relationships with each other, right?

80:42

And and no one is so powerful that they

80:46

can afford to take anybody else for

80:47

granted.

80:49

We all need each other and and um

80:52

finally,

80:54

stay cheerful and constructive. It

80:55

doesn't matter whether bad things

80:57

happen. The point is people want to come

80:59

to work with someone that's cheerful and

81:01

happy and constructive. They want to,

81:03

you know, they want to be in a

81:04

relationship with that person. All those

81:07

are just basic principles to get through

81:10

life and then the final point is upgrade

81:12

the world. If you have a plan, if you're

81:14

on a mission to upgrade the world,

81:17

you're going to feel better about

81:18

yourself. You get up every day, you have

81:20

a mission, you have something to do.

81:21

Like, what is my mission?

81:23

You know, I'm preaching the gospel of

81:25

digital empowerment, right? Satoshi

81:29

created

81:30

this

81:32

economic property right. He gave

81:34

economic empowerment to 8 billion people

81:36

for the first time in human history.

81:38

And we created the world's first perfect

81:40

money. We created, you know,

81:43

digital energy, digital matter, digital

81:46

property, right? We can be a thousand X

81:50

more as as humans with technology than

81:54

we were.

81:55

I look through all human history and I

81:57

see it's a story of misery.

82:01

You know, why do people die? Lack of

82:02

clean water, lack of clean air, lack of

82:05

clean food, lack of clean money.

82:08

What do we want? We want to live

82:10

forever. We want to live happily

82:11

forever.

82:12

>> Do you want to live forever?

82:14

>> I want to live as long as I can live in,

82:16

you know, constructively and make a

82:18

contribution. If if I could be if I can

82:21

be engaged and vital, then yeah. At the

82:24

point that I can no longer make a

82:25

contribution,

82:27

uh then I will move on gracefully.

82:29

>> But if there was a button in front of

82:30

you now, and the button, pressing it

82:32

guaranteed you immortality, would you

82:34

press it?

82:34

>> I think so. I suppose so.

82:36

>> Why aren't you then committing more of

82:38

your efforts to longevity? People ask

82:40

Elon the same question.

82:42

>> I think

82:44

there's 8 billion people on the planet,

82:46

and there are many people that I respect

82:48

that are much more qualified to pursue

82:49

that mission than me.

82:51

>> And the thing that you've chosen to

82:52

focus your efforts on and become the

82:54

leading voice on, and I've watched you

82:55

for many, many, many, many years as

82:56

I've, you know, when Bitcoin comes down

82:58

in price and when sometimes I need a bit

83:00

of a therapist to

83:01

remind me of why I've invested in

83:03

Bitcoin, and that person has been you

83:04

over the years.

83:05

And then when it's up, you know, you're

83:07

you're

83:08

to your credit you're consistent about

83:09

it. And that is,

83:11

you know, I I have watched you and

83:13

thought, I think this guy must be he's

83:14

either like batshit crazy or a genius.

83:17

And it's sometimes hard to tell. And it

83:18

goes back to what you were saying

83:19

earlier when people will say you're

83:20

crazy at first, and and then you'll be

83:22

proven right. Now, historically you've

83:24

been proven right.

83:25

>> If you if you zoom out from when you

83:26

started advocating for Bitcoin,

83:28

Bitcoin is down right now. So again,

83:30

we're back into fear. People are scared

83:32

again in that It's funny what happens

83:34

because when it was going up a couple of

83:35

months ago, everyone thought, "Oh my

83:36

god, this is going to be the future of

83:38

money." And now it's down, everyone is

83:40

like convinced that it's it was always a

83:41

Ponzi scheme and it's it's done. You've

83:44

got a

83:45

I guess trying trying to simplify this

83:46

for average people, you've taken a lot

83:48

of debt out to buy more and more and

83:50

more and more and more Bitcoin.

83:52

Is that accurate?

83:54

>> I guess we've got about 6 and 1/2

83:55

billion dollars of convertible debt and

83:57

15 billion dollars of preferred stocks

83:59

outstanding, and we're sitting on top of

84:01

about 58 billion dollars of assets right

84:04

now. So, we have raised

84:07

about 65 billion dollars in capital to

84:09

buy Bitcoin, but most of it was in debt.

84:11

>> Okay.

84:12

>> Of the 65 billion, for the most part

84:15

we've raised capital with equity and

84:17

some debt in order to buy Bitcoin, and

84:20

we've been doing that because we wanted

84:22

to pump 65 billion dollars of capital,

84:26

of money, of energy into the ecosystem.

84:28

So, we're we're powering the ecosystem

84:31

with capital.

84:32

>> Everyone theorizes, I've seen a few

84:33

people on my timeline that I follow

84:35

theorize how bad it would have to get

84:36

for Bitcoin in terms of price for you to

84:38

be in trouble. Because you have a lot

84:40

>> Bitcoin could fall to $5,000 a coin, we

84:42

would still be over collateralized

84:44

against the debt.

84:45

>> You'd still be fine.

84:46

>> Yeah.

84:47

>> And the other thing people theorize a

84:48

lot, and I again I did a comment

84:49

analysis to figure out what people want

84:50

to hear from you, is you sold a bit of

84:52

Bitcoin.

84:53

You've been asked this a few times, I

84:54

know.

84:54

>> Yeah.

84:54

>> You sold a bit of Bitcoin recently after

84:58

telling a lot of people maybe to hold on

84:59

to their Bitcoin.

85:01

People want to know why you sold the

85:02

Bitcoin.

85:03

>> Okay. Well, so let's make the first

85:04

point.

85:07

The only person that's never sold more

85:10

Bitcoin than me

85:11

>> Satoshi.

85:12

>> is Satoshi.

85:13

Satoshi never sold a million a million

85:16

one Bitcoin.

85:18

Our company has 847,000 Bitcoin. And so,

85:21

we bought more and we're holding it more

85:23

than anybody other than Satoshi and

85:25

Satoshi's not active. So, we have a

85:27

reasonable chance of of never selling

85:30

more Bitcoin than Satoshi if we just

85:31

keep at it for the next few years.

85:33

Um what I've said is um

85:36

>> So, I should probably share this. This

85:37

is This is why there's a kidney.

85:39

>> Yeah.

85:39

>> Cuz you said sell the kidney if you

85:40

must, but keep the Bitcoin.

85:41

>> I I have I have waged a campaign

85:44

non-stop every day for 6 years to to

85:48

promote and advocate Bitcoin as a

85:51

long-term store of value. Right? And and

85:54

what I would say is if you have money

85:56

that you don't need for the next 4 years

85:59

and your choice is do I invest it in the

86:01

S&P or a house or a private company or

86:04

soybeans or money markets or debt

86:07

instruments

86:09

I think that Bitcoin is the best. Right?

86:11

I think that Bitcoin is digital capital.

86:13

It's going to be the best long-term

86:14

capital asset.

86:16

And uh you know

86:18

>> So, why did you sell the Bitcoin instead

86:19

of your kidney?

86:21

>> Yeah. Um

86:23

We sold some Bitcoin a few weeks ago

86:26

because there was a narrative or a

86:28

belief in the market that our company

86:31

had become so systemically integrated or

86:33

important to Bitcoin that we could never

86:36

sell.

86:37

And if we sold Bitcoin would go to zero

86:40

and our stock would go to zero.

86:42

>> Because you own 4% of the total supply

86:44

of Bitcoin.

86:44

>> We own 4% because we're the biggest

86:47

buyer We're the biggest buyer of Bitcoin

86:49

in the world. So the first sentiment was

86:51

well Bitcoin will never succeed if they

86:53

don't keep buying. And the second

86:55

sentiment or belief

86:57

uh misconception was if we sell it'll

87:00

crash Bitcoin and it'll crash the

87:02

company.

87:03

And because of that short sellers and

87:06

and certain people in the market took

87:08

the position that the $55 billion of

87:11

Bitcoin we own was worth nothing.

87:14

And so what we had was this ignorant

87:18

uh skeptical notion that all of the

87:21

company's assets were worthless.

87:23

And because the company's assets were

87:25

worthless we wouldn't pay our dividends

87:27

and because we wouldn't pay our

87:28

dividends the credit would go to zero

87:30

and the equity would go to zero. The

87:31

company would fail and the coin fail.

87:34

And we said well Bitcoin is trades $20

87:38

billion a day or more and we've got 55

87:41

billion of it and if we were

87:43

0.01% of the market we could still meet

87:45

all of our obligations and it's not

87:47

going to change the price of Bitcoin but

87:48

no one believed us.

87:50

So if if you want people to believe that

87:53

you can do a thing you have to do the

87:55

thing. If you told me you could do a

87:56

backflip right now but I said you you

87:59

can't at some point you have to do the

88:00

backflip. Right? Especially if I tell

88:03

you that I'm going to throw you in jail

88:05

if you can't do a backflip.

88:07

>> Who told you that?

88:08

>> Well that's exactly what's going on in

88:09

the market. The market's position was

88:11

the company is worthless. the stock is

88:13

going to zero, Bitcoin is going to zero

88:15

because they can't sell, right?

88:17

So, if we want to defend Bitcoin,

88:21

like we have to prove that we can sell

88:24

it on occasion, right? So,

88:26

what we're doing is we're

88:28

commercializing the market in digital

88:31

credit. And if you have a billion

88:33

dollars of Bitcoin and they believe it's

88:35

worth a billion, you can sell 200

88:37

million dollars of credit and then you

88:39

can grow the business if they believe

88:41

that. If they don't believe

88:44

that the Bitcoin is worth anything, you

88:45

can't and you sell the 200 million of

88:47

credit, the credit's worthless and the

88:49

company's worthless.

88:50

And so, we were in a doom loop or the

88:52

market was in this doom loop this this

88:55

negative short I don't know, like a

88:59

psychosis almost like hyperventilating

89:02

saying that the largest buyer of Bitcoin

89:05

can't sell it and if they do sell it,

89:07

Bitcoin will fail. And what we needed to

89:10

do was demonstrate that if we sold

89:12

Bitcoin, it wouldn't fail.

89:13

So, when we sold the Bitcoin, it was 60

89:16

59,000 and it traded up. And so, we

89:18

broke that misconception, we broke that

89:22

that narrative.

89:23

It turns out that the break-even point

89:25

for us is about 3.2%, so if Bitcoin

89:28

appreciates 3.2%, we can pay the

89:30

dividends forever by just selling the

89:32

Bitcoin.

89:33

But you can imagine if you're a short

89:34

seller, you say, "Well, you can't sell

89:36

the Bitcoin, hahaha, because Bitcoin

89:38

will fail." And so, they want to say

89:40

that the credit is worthless because you

89:42

won't sell the Bitcoin. So, the way to

89:44

break that cycle is you sell the

89:45

Bitcoin.

89:46

Now you can illustrate that the credit

89:48

is actually good credit, we can pay the

89:51

dividends forever and now the credit

89:52

investors

89:54

>> without having to sell more Bitcoin.

89:55

>> No, the whole point of this was

89:58

we were selling equity in order to pay

90:01

the dividend on the credit.

90:03

>> Yeah.

90:03

>> And the short sellers took the position

90:05

that you're going to sell the equity

90:07

until the stock goes to zero

90:09

because you can't sell the Bitcoin.

90:10

>> Yeah.

90:11

>> So, how do you actually get How do you

90:13

break that? Well, you have to say

90:16

well, we can sell the Bitcoin.

90:17

>> And you sold enough Bitcoin to pay the

90:19

dividend.

90:19

>> So, we sold enough Bitcoin to pay the

90:21

dividend, to prove that we could fund

90:23

the dividends with Bitcoin, which means

90:25

we don't have to sell the equity. And if

90:27

if we don't have to sell the equity,

90:28

then the equity trades at a premium to

90:30

Bitcoin, trades rationally, and then the

90:32

credit trades rationally. So, it was a

90:35

benefit to the equity investors and the

90:37

credit investors to show that you can

90:39

power the company with Bitcoin.

90:41

>> Do you Do you intend to sell more?

90:44

>> It's not our primary strategy. So, if

90:48

the if the the common stock trades at a

90:51

premium

90:52

to the underlying assets, then probably

90:54

we fund with the common stock. But, if

90:56

the common stock ever sells at a

90:58

discount or trades at a discount to the

91:00

common to the Bitcoin assets, then you

91:02

sell Bitcoin in order to protect the

91:03

common stock.

91:04

>> And what do you think Bitcoin's going in

91:05

terms of monetary value? In terms of one

91:07

Bitcoin. Currently, what did you say

91:09

it's worth? 68,000 or something?

91:11

>> I think it'll appreciate about 30% a

91:13

year for the next 20 years.

91:16

Right? And then it'll slow down to being

91:18

appreciated about 20% a year. So,

91:21

>> You think it's the best asset to put

91:22

your money in really it really

91:23

respective of

91:25

who you are?

91:26

>> Another way to say it is I think it a

91:27

pre- I think it outperforms the S&P

91:29

index by a factor of

91:33

1.5 to 2.

91:34

>> Who shouldn't invest in Bitcoin?

91:37

>> The right people to invest in Bitcoin

91:38

are long-term capital investors. So, if

91:40

you have a certain amount of money

91:43

and you don't need it for the next 4

91:45

years

91:46

and ideally 10 years, then you would

91:48

take a portion of your capital

91:50

investment portfolio and buy Bitcoin.

91:53

And if you believe in it, if you're a a

91:55

Bitcoin maxi, if you spend 100 hours

91:57

studying it,

91:59

uh you'd buy a lot.

92:00

And if you're not sure, you'd probably

92:03

diversify that portfolio across, you

92:06

know, some real estate, some equity,

92:09

some other long-term assets, and some

92:12

Bitcoin.

92:13

The people that shouldn't buy it are

92:14

people that need the money back in 12

92:16

weeks.

92:17

>> What about like a regular 25-year-old?

92:19

Um

92:20

One of the questions that I saw emerging

92:22

from some of the interviews you've done

92:23

is if if a normal young person has a few

92:25

hundred dollars to invest today,

92:27

why should they bother with Wall Street

92:29

products like stocks or corporate stocks

92:31

instead of just buying a real Bitcoin

92:33

and holding it themselves?

92:36

>> Yeah, I think if you have money to

92:37

invest for the long term, you're going

92:39

to get double the performance from BTC

92:42

that you would get from like the S&P

92:44

index.

92:44

>> But for that 25-year-old, would would it

92:46

not be smarter for them to spend it on

92:48

something that's going to help them

92:49

train their mind, like you said?

92:52

If you only have a hundred dollars.

92:53

>> I wouldn't go spend five hundred

92:55

thousand dollars on an expensive, you

92:57

know, university education, but I would

92:59

spend twenty bucks a month on an AI

93:02

subscription. So So yeah, you should

93:04

definitely spend money necessary to get

93:06

the

93:07

the super grok or the pro or the

93:10

professional edition, whether it's, you

93:12

know, twenty dollars a month or two

93:14

hundred dollars Two hundred dollars a

93:15

month is the most I would spend. Twenty

93:18

dollars a month is probably the least I

93:20

would spend. But look, we're talking

93:22

about your Netflix subscription at that

93:23

point. But I

93:25

after you've done that, then you're

93:27

talking about what you ought to be

93:29

invested in.

93:30

I think that the that you ought to be

93:32

invested in digital capital cuz you can

93:34

take it with you anywhere in the world.

93:37

If you invest in an Airbnb or real

93:39

estate, you know, you're you're locked

93:41

into a certain city. You can't travel

93:43

with it. It's high maintenance. There's

93:44

a lot of risk. If you invest in an

93:47

individual stock, you have a lot of

93:48

anxiety because they come and they go,

93:50

and you got to pick the right stock. And

93:52

most stocks will fail, but some will

93:53

succeed, but but it it really is much

93:57

more challenging.

93:59

I I think really it comes down to

94:02

if you have a liquid portfolio,

94:04

you know, are you going to invest in

94:06

like the S&P index if you're a

94:08

conventional capital investor, or you're

94:10

going to invest in Bitcoin if you're a

94:11

digital or a you know, a a a technology

94:14

capital investor.

94:17

>> Michael, we have a closing tradition

94:18

where the last guest leaves a question

94:19

for the next guest not knowing who

94:20

they're leaving it for. And the question

94:21

left for you is what is one thing you

94:24

believe that maybe you haven't talked

94:26

about enough

94:27

that you think likely 99% of the world

94:30

don't yet believe.

94:34

>> If I look at my life and I think about

94:36

something that's been that's had a real

94:38

impact on me, it's after I got a full

94:41

education,

94:42

you know, uh

94:44

from college, I

94:46

I eventually

94:47

went back and I studied two topics on my

94:50

own.

94:51

One, uh like practical applied

94:53

statistics, all the stuff that Nicholas

94:55

Taleb wrote, like Fooled by Randomness

94:57

and Skin in the Game and The Black Swan.

95:00

And uh you know, how do you know the

95:02

difference between something that's

95:04

meaningful and something that's just

95:05

misleading random data. That was

95:07

profoundly valuable to me and I would

95:10

say, you know, anybody that hasn't read

95:13

all of those books probably ought to go

95:15

read those books and and obsess over

95:19

uh applied statistics.

95:22

That's the one thing that AI will not be

95:23

able to do for you when you have to

95:25

decide whether to cross the street while

95:26

you're typing on your phone, that you

95:28

know,

95:29

the AI will not give you a never-ending

95:32

real-time stream of common sense to tell

95:36

you you should or should not do that

95:38

thing. And so I I think that that's

95:40

really important. And the second thing

95:41

that I did after I left school and and

95:44

after a a lifetime of experiences,

95:48

like I went back and I just read uh

95:51

The Story of Civilization by Durant.

95:54

Every page.

95:55

11 volumes, 14,000

95:58

pages. Most of the history that you read

96:01

in school, it's the CliffNotes.

96:03

But if you go through the entire thing,

96:06

and I recommend that one just cuz I

96:08

think it was a pretty well-balanced

96:10

history that covered art and culture and

96:12

politics and technology, and

96:14

it's not just military history, not just

96:17

political history, but it was

96:19

you know, all

96:21

a very synthetic history.

96:23

When you go back and you read it all

96:25

as an adult,

96:28

then it gives you such a profound

96:30

appreciation for humanity, and it gives

96:33

you so much wisdom. And what you'll find

96:35

is all these things you think you're

96:36

discovering, they got discovered in like

96:39

15th century Russia. And then they got

96:41

rediscovered, you know, like most of

96:43

these things that people tell you are

96:46

this is new and profound. Oh, it's new

96:48

and profound 100 times in a row, or

96:50

1,000 times in a row. It's just the the

96:52

story was told a different way each

96:54

time.

96:54

>> Give me an example of a a thing

96:56

that we think is new, but history tells

96:58

you

96:58

>> Maybe the fact that currency started

97:00

getting debased when Nixon went off the

97:02

gold standard, you know, and

97:04

what happened in 1971, or whatever. And

97:08

the truth of the matter is that was the

97:10

point at which the US dollar started

97:13

weakening at a much more rapid rate.

97:16

But it turns out that every currency

97:18

everywhere in history has been debased.

97:21

My point here really is uh

97:25

I think people think that they that they

97:27

learn stuff in college,

97:29

but really it's not too late to go back

97:32

and relearn math, especially applied

97:34

statistics, and it's not too late to go

97:36

back and relearn history. And as an

97:39

adult,

97:40

you always appreciate those things much

97:42

better.

97:43

Yeah, you almost it's like the education

97:46

is wasted on the youth.

97:48

You know, because you don't you don't

97:49

have the life experiences to appreciate

97:52

what you're reading.

97:54

But also, you know, they're they're

97:57

summarizing, editing, and censoring a

97:59

lot of the stuff you read.

98:01

And and if you just go back and say I'm

98:04

just going to, you know, read the entire

98:06

thing in its entirety. And

98:07

there are a lot of other things you

98:08

could also read, full histories of other

98:11

things, but

98:12

as an adult

98:15

I think that that just makes you a

98:16

better person and makes you a better

98:18

business person, makes you a better

98:19

leader. And also, it helps you overcome

98:22

the arrogance of thinking, oh, I'm the

98:25

first guy in human history that ever

98:28

encountered it. And and what you'll

98:30

realize is no, you're not. And the

98:33

empowering part is someone else did and

98:35

this is how they worked their way

98:36

through the issue. And and that can be

98:38

very inspirational for you.

98:41

>> Michael, [snorts] thank you. Thank you

98:42

for taking the time. Thank you for

98:43

opening all of our eyes. And thank you

98:45

for

98:46

building a business which has continued

98:48

to innovate in such a way that people

98:50

never thought was possible. Thank you

98:52

for introducing me to Bitcoin.

98:54

I think you both introduced me to it,

98:55

but also you enabled me to have a mental

98:58

framework for not selling it. When

99:02

if I had, I would have lost a lot of

99:03

money. And thankfully now I don't even

99:05

know where it is. My brother my brother

99:07

and some of my siblings take care of it

99:08

for me. And I don't have to experience

99:11

the angst. And also just thank you for

99:13

pushing for this idea of sovereignty

99:15

because I think

99:16

in the world of increasing censorship

99:18

and centralization,

99:20

sovereignty I think is a really winning

99:21

idea. And I think that's what you're

99:23

sort of philosophically aiming at as

99:24

well. And um

99:26

>> [snorts]

99:26

>> yeah, I hope to speak to you sometime

99:27

soon because you're a very you're an an

99:29

individual capable of speaking about

99:31

such a broad range of subjects that I

99:32

care so much about.

99:33

>> It's a pleasure to be on the journey

99:35

together.

99:35

>> Thank you, my friend.

99:36

YouTube have this new crazy algorithm

99:38

where they know exactly what video you

99:40

would like to watch next based on AI and

99:43

all of your viewing behavior and the

99:44

algorithm says that this video is the

99:47

perfect video for you. It's different

99:49

for everybody looking right now. Check

99:51

this video out. I bet you you might love

99:53

it.

Interactive Summary

The speaker, a technology entrepreneur and the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder, details how he leveraged AI to generate $15 billion by pioneering novel financial instruments, an feat deemed impossible by conventional finance. He passionately advocates for Bitcoin as the superior digital capital, outperforming traditional assets like fiat currency, gold, and the S&P 500 as a long-term, immutable store of value, citing the inherent debasement of conventional money. While recognizing the potential for an AI-driven "age of abundance," he posits that money will retain value due to humanity's perpetual desire for scarce, luxury goods. His advice for young adults centers on embracing new technologies like digital intelligence and assets, fostering long-term vision, and adhering to core principles like independent thought, careful relationship curation, and a mission to positively impact the world. He explains his company's strategic Bitcoin sales were to disprove market misconceptions about its inability to sell without crashing the asset.

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