Dan Martell - March 23, 2026


Everything I Learned From Being Around the Top 0.01%


Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

193.34311

Word count

2,856

Sentence count

134

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

8

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Billionaires don't play the same game 99% of people grow up playing. They don't just play a different game, they break the rules that most people are taught. And that's how they become billionaires. In this episode, learn why.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.080 Billionaires follow rules that 99% of people don't even know exists. And I'm not talking about the
00:00:05.580 stuff you've heard from everybody before. Work hard, wake up early, read books. I'm talking
00:00:10.860 about the actual operating system these people run on. I've spent time with Richard Branson,
00:00:16.060 Naval Ravikant, Travis Kalanick, Toby Lutke, Tony Robbins, and dozens of other billionaires,
00:00:21.200 and every single one of them taught me something that completely changed how I build businesses
00:00:25.680 and live my life. So in this video, I'm going to break these down into five buckets and every
00:00:31.560 bucket builds deeper understanding of how they operate, starting with the one they all have in
00:00:37.400 common. Bucket number one, they just play a completely different game. You and I grew up
00:00:43.160 learning one game, go to school, get a job, work hard, save some money, retire at 65. That's the
00:00:50.780 game we were taught. Billionaires aren't playing that game at all. They essentially deleted it and
00:00:56.760 they installed something completely different. That's how Richard Branson is able to run 400
00:01:02.780 companies and was able to ski with us all day long while we hung out at his lodge in Switzerland.
00:01:09.400 But before we can install anything new, you need to take the old programming out. Which brings us
00:01:14.520 to bucket number two, delete your old software. Your mind is like an operating system, okay?
00:01:20.160 think about it like your phone. If you don't start updating it, your phone starts to lag.
00:01:25.160 That's when you need the new software update. Your life works the exact same way. But before
00:01:29.620 you can update it, you need to delete the old one. So to delete your old software,
00:01:34.140 we need to follow these rules. Our first billionaire rule, laws are meant to be broken
00:01:38.720 sometimes. Travis Kalanick, who is the founder of Uber, was one of my first investors in my
00:01:44.120 company Flowtown. And we used to spend time in the jam pad watching him build the first version
00:01:50.680 of Uber. And what we immediately saw Travis face with was all the taxis in the city that were
00:01:57.060 threatening to sue. There's 13,250 taxis in New York today. There were 13,250 taxis in New York
00:02:05.400 60 years ago. Those original taxi guys all got their license for free. And then they lobbied
00:02:10.480 city government to give out no more and they created artificial scarcity every time somebody
00:02:14.640 took a ride it was illegal travis just didn't accept that he had a vision for the future he
00:02:20.200 didn't just break the rules he changed them by 2017 over 36 states passed new laws for ride sharing
00:02:27.400 not because the industry asked nicely because travis made the old rules irrelevant first
00:02:32.960 and my belief is very simple if everybody had to follow the letter of the law then no business
00:02:38.300 would ever be started but obviously consult your lawyer i'm not responsible for what you choose to
00:02:42.700 do but just so you know every day i get one or two tickets on my car for where i park i pay the
00:02:47.660 fine i consider it adding to the economy because i choose every day to have my cars be available
00:02:52.620 for the dozens of kids that come with their cameras to take pictures that's an example of
00:02:57.020 where i break the rule that's what i gotta pay that's what i'm willing to pay next we go to
00:03:01.500 billionaire rule number two think and first principles it's kind of like starting from a
00:03:06.460 a blank slate and saying, I want to go from point A to point B as fast and cheap as possible. How
00:03:11.980 would I do that? And the best example of this is Elon Musk. That guy literally breaks everything
00:03:18.020 down into first principle. I'm talking to quantum level. His whole rule is that if it doesn't break
00:03:22.800 the laws of physics, it should work. See, NASA paid roughly $380 million per launch of their
00:03:28.620 rockets. SpaceX cut that down to 67 million because Elon asks, why not? That is a first
00:03:36.020 principle framework where you break complex problems down to their most basic undeniable
00:03:40.980 truths. So here's how it works. You don't ask, how was this done before? You ask what's actually
00:03:47.300 true about that? And those are totally different questions that will get you totally different
00:03:51.520 answers. They will help you find how the billionaires think about innovation. So that
00:03:56.700 will start to delete the old software in your brain but what do you replace it with bucket number
00:04:01.460 three install the new software this is where things get really interesting i want to bring
00:04:07.580 back the phone example again because once you've cleared that old software and you deleted it now
00:04:12.020 you're able to install new software because the hard drive's open to make it even more effective
00:04:16.260 so let's talk about billionaire rules that help you install your new software which leads us to
00:04:21.640 billionaire rule number three, look for leverage, not labor. Most people think more work equals more
00:04:28.140 money. Billionaires think more leverage equals more money. Leverage means a little bit of input
00:04:34.160 and a lot of output. You know, if you haven't heard Archimedes quote, he says, give me a place
00:04:38.600 to stand with a lever and I can move the world. Meaning that with the long enough stick, if he was
00:04:44.040 sitting in the right place with the right lever and he pulled on it, he could literally create
00:04:48.100 the force to lift the world. For me, I learned this from a billionaire mentor, Naval Ravikant,
00:04:52.960 because he breaks it down into four C's of leverage. There's only four ways that if you
00:04:57.860 study and master them, you can create anything in the world without hammering your calendar.
00:05:02.740 And the first C is code. Those tools are incredible leverage to get a lot of output
00:05:08.400 because you create it once and it lives forever because it doesn't take you doing anything for
00:05:12.860 the computer to continue to run every night and crunch numbers to actually get your result.
00:05:16.440 The second C is content.
00:05:18.640 And if you think of content in two buckets,
00:05:20.380 both the ability to create a checklist or a playbook
00:05:23.180 for how something should get done,
00:05:24.660 or for you to document your content for your ideas
00:05:28.320 to give it out to the world.
00:05:29.820 I believe your genius is better used as content
00:05:32.580 than as labor. 0.59
00:05:33.700 The third C is capital.
00:05:35.100 And I'm sure you've already heard this,
00:05:36.240 which is it takes money to make money.
00:05:38.120 It takes you understanding how to deploy your dollars
00:05:40.600 to work through investing to actually make money.
00:05:43.440 The fourth C is collaboration.
00:05:44.840 And this is my favorite.
00:05:46.440 And that is understanding how to recruit,
00:05:48.980 work with people, partner with people,
00:05:51.060 but essentially unlocking the labor force
00:05:54.500 working through a person
00:05:55.900 that might have access to thousands of people.
00:05:58.060 One person, many customers, that's collaboration.
00:06:01.700 That's why Naval and every one of the billionaires
00:06:04.060 I mentioned have mastered these four Cs
00:06:06.600 to build their empires without increasing their labor.
00:06:10.240 Next is billionaire rule number four.
00:06:12.320 Focus on net worth and net work, not active income.
00:06:16.820 The billionaires that I just mentioned
00:06:18.700 aren't billionaires because they made a billion dollars.
00:06:21.760 They're actually billionaires because they own something
00:06:24.860 and made it worth a billion dollars.
00:06:27.240 Most of them don't have a billion dollars
00:06:29.340 in cash in a bank account.
00:06:31.020 It's the value of the thing they've built,
00:06:33.480 either a business or their value of their stock
00:06:35.980 or their companies, and that's what makes them a billionaire.
00:06:39.480 And to do that, the biggest lever
00:06:41.900 you could ever build is your network.
00:06:43.700 I believe the more hands you shake,
00:06:45.640 the more money you make.
00:06:47.200 You need to be out there talking to people
00:06:48.820 because when I bring people into my business
00:06:51.020 to co-create companies with me, partner with me,
00:06:53.440 invest in my businesses,
00:06:54.780 I don't control the whole thing anymore.
00:06:57.280 See, most people think you need to own the whole thing.
00:06:59.400 That is the biggest mistake
00:07:00.580 people starting off in business make.
00:07:02.600 Elon Musk only owns 19.8% of Tesla
00:07:06.300 and that business makes him a bazillion dollars on paper.
00:07:09.980 So stop asking yourself,
00:07:11.260 how do I make more money and start asking yourself,
00:07:14.120 what do I own that can compound?
00:07:16.520 For example, Martell Ventures, which is my AI venture studio,
00:07:20.200 we own dozens of companies.
00:07:21.900 This is where I took my knowledge and my skill,
00:07:24.300 documented it, partnered with people
00:07:26.120 and have built all of these companies.
00:07:28.120 Literally, we're on pace in only the second year
00:07:30.960 to do almost $250 million in value.
00:07:34.260 And that's why all the billionaires I've ever met,
00:07:36.340 they don't think about how much cash
00:07:37.940 they have in a bank account.
00:07:38.940 They ask themselves, how much do I own, equity, assets,
00:07:42.760 and then who do I know that can solve the biggest problems
00:07:45.260 that I might face?
00:07:46.220 That's valuable.
00:07:47.860 Now that you've got some new software installed,
00:07:50.000 a new understanding of building net worth,
00:07:52.720 not active income, 0.86
00:07:54.160 next we need to make you the laziest person on your team. 0.85
00:07:56.940 Which brings us to bucket number four, just act lazy. 0.85
00:08:01.340 Every time I've met a new billionaire,
00:08:03.820 I will tell you I'm often surprised,
00:08:05.960 Not by how much they work, but how little they work.
00:08:09.640 All the billionaires I know, when I text them, they reply right away.
00:08:12.340 They're the fastest to reply.
00:08:13.600 They're always available.
00:08:14.700 If I say, hey, I'm thinking of doing this thing, they're like, yeah, no problem.
00:08:17.820 Their whole philosophy is, I don't want to be the bottleneck.
00:08:21.500 I don't want to be the person that needs to be there to move something forward.
00:08:24.640 Because if I am, it can't move forward.
00:08:26.700 And what's funny is you watch them, you would call them lazy, but they do it on purpose.
00:08:32.160 So here are two billionaire rules on how to be lazy.
00:08:35.280 Billionaire rule number five, create your filter.
00:08:38.320 And I learned this from Richard Branson,
00:08:40.140 one of the smartest.
00:08:41.300 You see, Richard, when I last saw him,
00:08:42.900 he doesn't carry a phone.
00:08:44.700 What he does have is his assistant, Helen.
00:08:47.480 She is the filter.
00:08:48.780 Nothing gets to Richard unless it's supposed to.
00:08:52.000 Now, to you, if you didn't know, you might think he's lazy.
00:08:55.200 But what you would hear
00:08:56.280 if you could listen to those conversations
00:08:58.040 is that he's using his time for the best resource he can,
00:09:01.920 not operationally, but looking and identifying
00:09:04.560 for those next opportunities when i spent the week with him i saw him do several multi-million
00:09:09.760 dollar deals just through conversations at dinner and watching him work made me realize i had to
00:09:16.000 redesign my whole day and that's when i got an in-person executive assistant to help me deal with
00:09:21.840 all the noise by the way if you want to know exactly how i've set up my life and my executive
00:09:26.880 assistant to handle all of this i'm giving away my ea playbook just dm me youtube ea on instagram
00:09:33.200 and I'll send it right over.
00:09:34.680 This took me years to create perfect
00:09:37.060 and it is my gift to you for free.
00:09:39.260 Which brings us to billionaire rule number six,
00:09:41.660 stop working so hard.
00:09:43.820 See, most entrepreneurs fill every freaking minute with tasks. 0.90
00:09:47.360 They do calls, they do emails, they do meetings. 0.84
00:09:49.680 They feel productive
00:09:50.700 because they're always doing something, they're busy.
00:09:53.240 Do you wanna know what the top people do?
00:09:54.780 Like Jeff Bezos who founded Amazon,
00:09:57.140 he actually brags that most mornings he putters.
00:10:00.460 He doesn't run to work
00:10:01.920 Because he said to himself a long time ago,
00:10:03.840 the truth is I got to ramp up my brain.
00:10:05.800 I got to be ready.
00:10:06.840 And I just got to make two to three
00:10:08.620 really good decisions every day.
00:10:10.300 Not 50, like some of you, not 100, but three.
00:10:14.300 And if he does those three every day with consistency,
00:10:17.920 that creates leverage and compounding.
00:10:21.040 What makes billionaires different than most entrepreneurs
00:10:23.260 is billionaires protect their thinking, not their time.
00:10:27.140 They understand their best work, their best energy
00:10:30.160 is whenever they decide to do it and they guard that.
00:10:33.720 So now that you've got that mindset,
00:10:35.360 the leverage, the systems, all of it is useless
00:10:38.240 if you don't know the reason
00:10:39.560 why all this matters in the first place.
00:10:41.580 Which brings us to bucket number five,
00:10:44.200 fall in love with the game, not the outcome.
00:10:47.240 Recently, I was sitting across the table
00:10:49.100 from a bunch of people
00:10:50.080 and they were worth billions of dollars
00:10:51.600 and not one of them talked about
00:10:53.520 how much money they were making.
00:10:54.660 They all talked about the people they were building.
00:10:57.860 They talked about who they were becoming,
00:11:00.160 They talked about what scared them for years.
00:11:02.700 They talked about what they learned
00:11:03.960 and how they overcame that.
00:11:05.280 The numbers were a by-product, not the primary reason. 0.99
00:11:08.700 They didn't give a shit about their bank account. 0.98
00:11:10.740 They looked at it as a way of being 0.99
00:11:12.040 and that life is a place to do the work,
00:11:14.600 to become more, to help other people achieve more.
00:11:17.280 Which reminds me of a quote I heard,
00:11:19.080 which said, your personal income
00:11:20.720 is tied to your personal development.
00:11:22.680 If you want your bank account to go up,
00:11:24.800 you have to personally develop yourself.
00:11:27.080 If you're not doing anything to make yourself better,
00:11:28.840 don't be surprised if the money doesn't show up.
00:11:31.480 There's two rules that I watch billionaires execute
00:11:34.540 that taught me this.
00:11:36.280 Billionaire rule number seven,
00:11:38.060 never, ever, ever stop growing.
00:11:41.140 I've watched my friend Toby, founder of Shopify,
00:11:43.960 do this every year.
00:11:45.440 Toby has this rule that the company has to grow 40% per year.
00:11:49.560 And if you can't keep up, you become the bottleneck.
00:11:52.460 And he's the first one to say this.
00:11:54.680 If you actually go on GitHub right now,
00:11:57.220 which is like this nerdy software platform,
00:12:00.100 you will see Toby, the CEO of Shopify.
00:12:04.040 He's put more code into his GitHub
00:12:06.720 in the first two months of the year
00:12:08.680 than he did the last year so far.
00:12:10.500 But here's what most people miss.
00:12:12.220 The growth isn't just about the business, it's about you.
00:12:15.160 What skills are you developing?
00:12:16.960 You'll get paid for the value you bring to the world.
00:12:19.580 Not the time, not how hard the time was,
00:12:22.260 not how hard you worked,
00:12:23.320 but how much value you created with that time.
00:12:25.660 so if you think about it every problem could make you sharper every failure could make you tougher
00:12:31.340 every higher fire and hard conversation could be an upgrade for who you are if you look for the
00:12:37.900 lessons so the point of business isn't the outcome of getting to a place of buying a thing or making
00:12:43.900 a lot of money it's who you become in the process finally billionaire rule number eight build a life
00:12:51.340 resume jesse itzler super cool dude i mean if you haven't seen him he's not only a world-class
00:12:57.260 speaker he's a world-class person and he essentially schedules his whole life around
00:13:02.620 the most important parts we were talking last week and this is what he said to me i take every friday
00:13:07.580 off every month i take a whole week off that's not something he decided to get to eventually
00:13:13.260 he's been doing this for a long time if you read any of the books he's written i mean this is how
00:13:17.740 he's operated and he has a thing called the annual misogi essentially a life-defining activity
00:13:24.460 something that's challenging that for many people should be 50 impossible it could be an iron man
00:13:30.460 or hiking a mountain or even writing your first book that way every year has a thing you can go
00:13:36.380 oh 2024 was this 25 was that 26 was this what's my misogi for 27 and the biggest takeaway i've had
00:13:43.900 from spending time with billionaires is they don't just focus on adding zeros to their bank account
00:13:49.500 they prioritize living a life worth remembering so when you think of all these billionaire rules
00:13:54.780 i need you to bring them together and remind yourself of one thing stop trying to win a game
00:14:00.940 someone else designed build your own game that's what the billionaires have done they said i've got
00:14:05.900 my own rules my friend laurie said it the other day she goes when i feel bored i realize i'm being
00:14:10.860 boring and if i'm bored i should probably start doing things that are not boring and if you're
00:14:15.900 feeling that way today take that inspiration start building a life worth remembering so here's what i
00:14:22.300 need you to do is below based on all these rules i need you to write down the one that resonates
00:14:27.340 the most with you drop a comment and tell me which one it is and remember if you want my executive
00:14:32.060 assistant playbook just find me on instagram and dm me the word youtube ea and i'll send it right
00:14:37.420 over now next up if you want to learn how to scale your business in six simple phases click
00:14:42.860 the video and i'll see you on the other side