What We Would Do with a Billion Dollars

00:00.00	Max Shank	Welcome back folks to Monday mornings with max and mike hope you are kicking your week off the right way I'm excited to have you here I'm excited to have my buddy mike here with me today. We're gonna talk about something which I think is a pretty cool thought experiment which. Will lead to your greater action. It's what would you do with a billion dollars and 1 of the things that's useful about this is that it gets you to think about mission instead of business it lets you think a little bit bigger and then. Ideally, what you'll do is once you have a clear set up for how you're going to use that billion. You redo the thought experiment on a new sheet of paper with what would you do with 1 million. What would you do with 1 hundred thousand. And you work your way down into what the core importance overall is and then what the core important thing for you to work on right now is so thank you for joining me mike what's up.
01:07.55	mikebledsoe	Yo? Yeah, ah this is a fun is a fun thought experiment. It reminds me of a similar thought experiments I've done in the past and usually it's at a conference where there's some speaker on stage that's trying to inspire you to to. Higher action and it works um another couple other questions I've heard is it that are in the same vein but are different so we're gonna run with this but a couple I'll throw out there is what would you do? if you couldn't fail and then what.
01:41.22	Max Shank	The.
01:45.39	mikebledsoe	On the flip side of that. What would you do? if you were going to fail no matter what? So if you were going to fail no matter what? what would? what would you do? and so I think a combination of these questions really can fill in a lot of gaps around.
01:50.66	Max Shank	Well.
02:03.70	mikebledsoe	You know what you stand for and what you're excited about and I especially like the 1 you know what would you do? if you were to a billion dollar question is really fun because I think as kids we we all thought about you know what? if I won the lottery. What would you do with the lottery winnings you know I remember doing that as a kid.
02:18.22	Max Shank	Right.
02:21.99	mikebledsoe	And ah, but the if you're going to fail no matter what is like well now you really have to go after what? what? you just truly enjoy So Not as dark of a. It's not.. It's much darker than the billion-dollar question.
02:40.72	Max Shank	I Mean what would you do? if you couldn't fail I mean I suppose I would appoint myself God King of the earth and then ah everything else would just boil down from that pretty naturally.
02:55.13	mikebledsoe	It's it's kind of like the you know if you had 3 wishes first wishes and limited wishes. Ah problem solved. Ah yeah, so what would you do with a billion dollars max.
03:00.94	Max Shank	Right? That is kind of like a top out.
03:08.40	Max Shank	Well, ah you know of course you have to set aside some of that for filling your yacht with the venezuelan gymnastics team. But then there's still plenty of money left over to. Ah. To invest into Steady. So this is where the practical mind comes in right? Is you you put you got to put some of it away and you figure out what percentage you're comfortable with ah in my case I would say you got to I would probably take 1 hundred million of that. So ten percent and I would invest it into. Um you know power companies food water maybe some sort of technology as well and probably I would have that managed by someone else. So I would have like that investment professionally managed and then beyond that the question really gets me thinking about what I can give to the world and usually what you think you would like to give to the world stems from what you think is wrong. The world and so the things that come to mind are sustainable communities and also schooling because if anyone has listened to any of our shows so far I think it's pretty clear which side my bread is buttered on. When it comes to schooling especially public schooling especially K through 12 or specifically K through 12 because I think it is such a colossal failure and such a waste of 12 years of your life. So I start thinking about how I could. Implement a different system of schooling that would be based on using simple language and learning about values and creating value and I would really have to rebuild it from the ground up so that kind of goes. The reason I don't do that now is it's a tremendous amount of work that requires a huge amount of capital. But I think as a kid you probably need to do more playing you need to do more wrestling you need to do more basic movement and gymnastics I hand coordination. I'll tell you what you would not be sitting in a desk for long periods of time. No chance you would learn history only within the context of why history is important. You know I think that history is done so badly because it's just a bunch of.
05:59.89	Max Shank	Random facts to remember with no reason why we're remembering them because history horrifically bad right? It's not practical. You know, ah a pie Chart fractions percentages. Ah you know eat That's like ah.
06:03.44	mikebledsoe	Well mathematics is taught the same way. Yeah.
06:19.32	Max Shank	Even with how you would invest. You know? what's the yield on what you put in versus what you get out and that should be applied to how you use your time how you use your money all of these different resources. Um, how to interact with other people. The difference between. Voluntary action and coercion. These are things that are like really really important and of course the purpose of turning a child into an adult or the difference is that an adult can take care of themselves and a child is dependent. Essentially so.
06:51.80	mikebledsoe	I Like to say it as it. Ah, you're not an adult until you can parent yourself and that's that's who's parenting you.
06:57.30	Max Shank	Ah, well then I guess I'm not really an adult. Ah anyone ah I'll take anybody. Ah no, 1 ne's been able to do it yet. Um.
07:12.90	mikebledsoe	Well the the education thing is interesting because the there's 3 categories in all of ah, the capitalist world that are the most that people spend the most money on as Health wealth and relationships And. Ah, So if you're for instance. Ah a coach. There are coaches for those categories and and the reason is is because well the fastest way to learn anything in my opinion is to hire a coach to teach you and the a good Coach. Ah. And the reason these categories are so popular if you're if you're a health a wealth or relationships Coach. You can charge premium dollar and the reason is is because no 1 was taught that shit in school and if they had that edge. Yeah.
08:02.30	Max Shank	And those are the only important categories like what else is really important.
08:08.64	mikebledsoe	Everything that you learn in school should be in should ah be ah the context should be set by Health welfare relationships I don't think there's much else in that context is missing.
08:18.81	Max Shank	It should be yet. It should be clear what the value is of what you're learning like we're learning this because blank blank blank in your life is going to improve your life in this specific way. So just to. Wrap up what I was saying about history is history is the story about how humans clump together pretty much how they group together and then they divide apart so with regard to history like most of it is a waste of time. The specific examples should be given. To reinforce principles and I think principle based learning is what's actually important because then you'll have a framework for where to put all of these examples the difference between anarchy and totalitarianism and the pros and cons of both of those things. So it would really I would want to prepare more for this conversation to specifically lay out how I would change schooling but that would be how I think I could make the biggest. Improvement because I think that the only the only like true war or the only true battle is within the hearts and minds of people. You know everything else is a result. Of that lost battle. The fact that a person can't sit quietly for ten minutes means they're going to be easily um, distracted by something else. The fact that a person can't think critically is the reason they're going to get easily swindled and the more you look to an authority. To compensate for the fact that the individuals are let's say stupid or gullible or whatever instead of buy or beware and a fool in his money are soon parted now. You have this gargantuan bureaucracy who. Only will grow in size and that's where that's where like all of the evil stuff actually happens. It's not jeffrey dahmer it's the stalins and the mao's and the things like that like no no serial killer even though it sounds like viscerally bad has. Even come close to the damage that authoritarian governments have done to people.
10:52.90	mikebledsoe	Yeah, they're responsible for the murder of the the most amount of people homicide outside of War is minuscule.
10:57.76	Max Shank	Um, and not just murder not just murder like huge amounts of suffering like a lot of people survived, but it was horrific suffering.
11:07.33	mikebledsoe	Right? right? Yeah things that people should learn. You would you would improve the education system come.
11:11.78	Max Shank	So that's what I would do to 1000 million hundred I would create a new 1 I wouldn't try to repair the old 1 I I don't think there's a chance to repair the old 1 There's so much.
11:22.11	mikebledsoe	That's ah, that's a good idea Buckminster fuller would agree with you.
11:29.63	Max Shank	Ah, special interests at play and so many Palms being greased through Nepotism I don't think Prussian you told me this.
11:35.42	mikebledsoe	Well you know school was I think the the the modern school was ah russian. Yeah yeah, and yeah, the the yeah the King at the time was.
11:45.48	Max Shank	Convince the troops to go to war.
11:51.15	mikebledsoe	Was trying to figure out how do we get these peasants to fight for us because every time we try to recruit them to fight for us. They kind of just run away. They don't really care. Um, and yeah, if you can indoctrinate somebody from as early as the age of five I mean I know I know parents that put their kids in school 3 or 4 years old
12:08.74	Max Shank	Her.
12:10.29	mikebledsoe	Just the you know I'm ah I'm a patriotic guy I love I love american values and principles I believe that the you know the the founding documents and philosophy that the United states was founded on are extremely sound I don't think we're really. Anywhere near what was intended. Um, but when I look at schools and I see people you know pledge allegiance to the flag. You know it's very very interesting because you can go all over the world and find them doing that in every school to their flag and. If you do that every day you're programming the mind to be in agreement with whatever the government says so it doesn't I think I think the education system you know, ah people always say that. Ah you know the the. Children are the future and we need to invest in them. Ah, but I don't think really people people don't actually understand what that means they usually just think that they need to throw more money at the situation but the reality is is yeah something completely new needs to be built because yeah, there's a. It's a system of memorization and regurgitation versus the actual understanding of of principles and the beautiful thing about principles. Yeah yeah, well how would you incentivize better learning.
13:29.31	Max Shank	Well the incentives are in the wrong place.
13:38.32	Max Shank	Um, there has to be some correlation with the performance of the students to be able to take care of themselves after the fact. So if you focus on those important skills and then you demonstrate like let's say you know.
13:48.99	mikebledsoe	So but.
13:57.48	Max Shank	Ninety percent of our graduates are self-sufficient by age 18 ah, that's that's really something because there are a lot of ways to make a dollar I don't understand why it's set up so you you just enter the workforce at eighteen rather than. Like you could become an electrician in like six months if that's how you want to go about it and right now there's such a bougie ah disdain for crafts and trades not everybody has to be like a ah. Professor of some kind you know what I mean so I think the the idea should be helping kids become valuable teach them about it's it's really value and values and so that would probably be the best way is if. There was some sort of and incentive structure based on the ability of the students to be able to be self-sufficient and something like that I'm just riffing here. But um, you need you need incentives. In the place of those who are responsible for the actions.
15:13.83	mikebledsoe	Beautiful. That's how you do with a billion dollars.
15:19.30	Max Shank	Um, yeah, ah a yacht with the venezuelan gymnastics team ten percent professionally managed put in safe investments and then the rest of it to develop ah sustainable communities and better schooling and that could all kind of. Work together. But I think it so the reason I think that way is I think most adults are too far gone to like really change. Um, they're like a little bit too stuck in their existing beliefs and it's it's just a harder battle. You know, um. I think Dr. Seuss realized that he started out with political cartoons and then switched over to children's books he has a lot of funny political cartoons about world war 2 that are worth checking up if you haven't seen him. Ah yeah, oh yeah.
16:02.19	mikebledsoe	Um.
16:09.39	mikebledsoe	Interesting. There's there's a there's a company called tuttle twins that you can check them out on Instagram I invested in 1 of their movies at or it's a tv series. Ah yeah, yeah, ah they they teach. Ah.
16:17.39	Max Shank	Very cool. Yeah. How cool.
16:29.21	mikebledsoe	Kids the value of capitalism and how to thrive in this world and and and and ah educates them on the dangers of communism socialism and things like that. Ah, anyways, anyone should go listen. Go follow their Instagram account they put out really good stuff. Yeah, but I saw that and I go this is this is something I believe in I don't know if I'll get my money back them being capitalist I bet I will but the I find it really cool that they're there. Breaking these concepts down into picture books and cartoons and things like that that kids can can digest because I mean I'm fortunate enough that I was I was raised by a father who had he understood principles and so ah.
17:06.73	Max Shank	Ah.
17:18.81	Max Shank	H.
17:22.78	mikebledsoe	Didn't matter the topic that came across my plate I understood what rights were and what rights were not and I was able to smell bullshit from pretty far away because of that.
17:33.75	Max Shank	Yeah,, that's pretty cool I think there are so many lies told all the time and you need to understand that every interaction between 2 people is either going to be a win win a win lose or a lose lose. And when you have voluntary action. It's always a win-win. Otherwise the person doesn't make the choice like if you get to say no, That's essentially what freedom is dependent on the freedom to say no or yes.
17:59.63	mikebledsoe	Right? but.
18:07.80	mikebledsoe	Yeah, if everyone has that power then the world's a much better place but most people don't even know they have it.
18:13.42	Max Shank	And and you get a lot more variety too. I mean think of all the wonderful different types of cuisine. There are think of all of the different types of exercise that you can do you can dance you can do Pellotis you can do Crossfit you can do Kettle belt I Mean. You have just a much wider range of choices and and you also have more um agency you know like the locus of control is something that's closely correlated with ah happiness and meaning and things like that and if you are.
18:36.40	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
18:51.93	Max Shank	In control over your resources which are both um, energetic time financial. Um, you'll feel a lot more empowered and you'll feel a lot less hopeless. So.
19:03.92	mikebledsoe	Um, you know.
19:08.45	Max Shank	Yeah, it's kind of like teaching someone anything you know if someone tries to learn a language as an adult. It's a little harder. It's possible. But if you learned it as a kid. It becomes a bigger part of you. Yeah.
19:18.73	mikebledsoe	Absolutely less less deprogramming needing needed. You got to unlearn a lot of stuff start a religion.
19:24.75	Max Shank	Maybe your religion would be better. Maybe your religion would be better. Maybe I'm like ah yeah, maybe school is not the right word for it.
19:34.50	mikebledsoe	Ah, yeah, it's got to be a whole new. You know, just create a new word I Think that's the way to go? Yeah, new word for a new system. Yeah yeah.
19:38.72	Max Shank	Yeah, and a new word. Not a school or religion. Okay I like that off to think about that a little bit anyway. So That's my my billion dollars is about safe investments a splash of hedonism and then the lion's share to. Writing what I believe are the wrongs which seem obviously wrong and pretty easily Solvable. You know, physically mentally spiritually things like that. So anyway, what about you? mike.
20:04.00	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
20:11.54	mikebledsoe	Oh mean I we're aligned quite a bit but um you and I are aligned on a lot of things. My approach would be a little bit different and ah so I would take ninety percent and put into to save investment so 900 million dollars.
20:15.66	Max Shank	You and I think.
20:30.63	mikebledsoe	And a safe investment something that would guarantee at least a ten percent return
20:31.29	Max Shank	Um, you greedy bastard are.
20:37.47	mikebledsoe	Ah, well I've got a good explanation. Why so.
20:43.10	Max Shank	Ah, explain to the folks at home. Why you're such a greedy bastard.
20:48.94	mikebledsoe	Ah, well because if I invest ninety percent with a guaranteed ten percent or greater return. That means that I'll have a Hundred million dollars deposited to me each year is is what's possible. So ah and I doubt I would need.
21:00.70	Max Shank	To the.
21:05.45	mikebledsoe	All hundred million dollars every year so some of that would compound and so um I would well the thing is is I think I would have a hard time even knowing what to do with 100 million dollars. So billion dollars seems a little outrageous ah but i.
21:22.16	Max Shank	That's the whole point. That's the whole point is it's supposed to be. You can't just be like I would invest nine hundred and ninety million and I would spend 10 million on a ranch where I teach kids how to raise cattle.
21:26.46	mikebledsoe	Me.
21:31.96	mikebledsoe	No, no, no, but this there's there's a strategy here. So the strategy is I may I may dip into that money. But here's the thing is 1 thing I've learned in business is if you can't manage a business that's doing a hundred thousand dollars a year well
21:38.46	Max Shank	Um, like.
21:49.44	mikebledsoe	You're not going to manage a business that's doing a million dollars a year will and it's better to make the mistakes and learn things with a small amount of money and and have all the it's a less expensive expensive lesson if you do it that way. So I would want to do a lot of innovative things. And so tying the money up and something ninety percent of the money and up in something that's going to guarantee me a Hundred million dollars. A year is very very attractive because with 100 million dollars I could do a lot of things 1 of the things that I would would do that 1 hundred million dollars with the if I if I achieve. Massive success and having more money helps us move faster I'll start sweeping that money that's invested and is something that is so I have more direct control over. But yeah billion dollars in my account I would I wouldn't do anything but I would I would start. Interviewing the the best financial consultants and and create some type of accountability with those things because people get shady sometimes um and have it invested safely but take the other 1 hundred million would buy a home I'd get like fancy. Fucking penthouse here in austin texas just overlooking the City. So I'd be 1 um, and then I would get a ranch outside of town about forty five minutes away then I would get a home in the mountains maybe flagstaff arizona get a home in the mountains. And then get a beach house in in Florida and probably some type of property down mexico probably somewhere like wahaca or something like that. So ah I would get I would have my four new homes and then and some some rovers at each 1 and pools and indoor pools and all that stuff we just go into I mean I get I could talk for hours about what I would put in my home but we'll leave that alone and.
23:56.31	Max Shank	Full of all the adult toys. You could possibly want.
24:00.63	mikebledsoe	Yeah, that So that's my that's my hedonistic desire is is multiple homes different locations being able to fly private to from 1 place to another seems like the way to go. Ah. Yeah, just like basically like Swedish spas set up at every single 1 of them and and then I would I would invest in Community I would buy properties for the purpose of of putting ah people that I that I hold dear and in the same location. Ah, and ah be self-sustaining.
24:35.70	Max Shank	So a concentration camp for friends and family. You group them all together. Ah.
24:40.84	mikebledsoe	Yeah, whether they want to or not, they're coming. Yeah so I would I would do that and and for the purpose of um, what I'm really interested in is I as I look at the world is how do we decentralize. Food distribution. So 1 of the things that have become very apparent to me in the last couple years and and I've gotten on the phone and discussed this with you before max which is there's a there's a lack of high quality food distribution and so we have a. Ah system set up where due to subsidies. It makes it more difficult for someone who's doing good farming work to get their food to market and it makes it easier for shittier product to get to market and so it it makes some food. Ah, artificially. Inexpensive and cheap and it makes other food artificially expensive and so what I would really like to see is to empower people who want to get into sustainable farming and sustainable regenerative farming practices. Creating land for that giving them a place to do that I would love to invest in Blockchain technologies for the purpose of removing a lot of the administrative load that that comes with food distribution and yeah would I would. Like to create some type of crypto token that people could use to buy their food and and fund the farms and things like that. So I imagine to kickstart a project like that you really need. Farmers and some land and distribution channels set up first. So that's that's 1 of the things I would like to tackle when I look at when I look at the world I'm 1 hundred percent with you on the education front like when I have kids they're gonna be homeschooled and they're gonna be learning from a very principal. Perspective and always having context and they're gonna be my kids will probably be adults by the time they're 12 so ah, the that's the plan who knows until you have kids I don't think you can really tell. But. Education's important, but like you were noting trying to get adults to change behaviors via education extremely difficult. They're they're very entrenched in what they want and 1 way that I've seen to make both adults and children move but especially adults.
27:27.27	mikebledsoe	Is just economics. There people are driven by this exterior environment of economics where things are incentivized and certain things aren't incentivized so I would really like to go to work on how to create an economic structure. That is that will Improve. People's ability to make good decisions. So Good decisions around food would become easier and more convenient because the the reason a lot of people choose what they choose is because simply convenience so that would be.
28:03.90	Max Shank	Oh really I don't know if I agree with that I know that people choose based on convenience but I would argue that it's maybe even more convenient to buy in bulk and eat healthy.
28:06.33	mikebledsoe	That would be that would be my main. You don't think people choose based on convenience.
28:22.54	Max Shank	Than it is to eat crap at the drive-through. no no no no no I think both like I think um, if you if you put like 6 or 8 cups of rice in an instapot with some.
28:24.80	mikebledsoe	Well I mean short term convenience. Not.
28:41.55	Max Shank	Bulk chicken. It requires no effort but you have you know, maybe 10 meals available for the average person and requires no extra dishes or anything like that I think it's kind of a fallacy that eating healthy is more expensive. It's just that you have to learn the skill of cooking and back to the economics point I think that's where seeing the difference. Like cost per meal and cost per calorie.. There's actually a funny website I can't remember the name of it off the top my head but this ah this really? um, Clever nerd. Put together this whole website that was like cost per calorie cost per gram of protein and he took like all these different foods and put them in like a big old ah spreadsheet and it it was really illuminating to see how you could. Eat the cheapest and then there are different levels in terms of how much you want to spend so I I think food is ah crazy important because we need food and in fact, we are food so it's it's 6 what?? What's a more important lesson.
29:59.57	mikebledsoe	Yeah, well I think the drive throughugh is more convenient I mean if you have to cook either the the energy cost of of cooking people don't have the foresight.
29:59.71	Max Shank	Than that.
30:08.95	Max Shank	But it will require you less time it will require you less time and less money like you just have to show the math to someone you buy an instapot at 60 bucks. 1 time you buy 25 pounds of rice you buy twenty pounds of chicken at a time and you throw it in the pot. And you slather it in spices and maybe cheese and it's delicious and it's much cheaper per meal and it's less time investment per meal but it does require? Yeah, but I mean it's still going to be a better result. It's just like a savings account. It's the same idea.
30:35.59	mikebledsoe	Big guy playing ahead.
30:46.68	Max Shank	As a savings account. Are you going to save the money. Are you going to spend the money on bullshit.
30:49.24	mikebledsoe	Are you definitely going to get a better result and and I remember.
30:53.13	Max Shank	But is all I Just want to be clear that it is cheaper timewise and it is cheaper moneywise to eat healthy if you buy in bulk than it is to do the allegedly cheap convenient thing.
31:07.33	mikebledsoe	Yeah I was at a nutrition seminar once where 2 people left the ah the the venue at the same time 1 went to go get a fast food item another 1 popped in the grocery store the closest grocery store picked up strawberries almonds and. And some meat some deli meat because they were they were going for. You know the convenience and not having to cook and they show back up and ah the woman who was getting healthy food showed up just a couple minutes before you know it was a little bit faster and the price was the price was about the same.
31:40.46	Max Shank	Ah.
31:46.00	mikebledsoe	And because you so I bring that up because I mean you're not wrong, but the idea that I think the the thing that's expensive to people is that they have to think in order to to make their own food. Get their stuff so education has to be a component to that.
32:00.40	Max Shank	Earth.
32:05.42	mikebledsoe	Because if you do just get people healthy food at ah at a better price then you know they still don't know what to do with it I mean they put I remember I was studying in school I was taking like ah 1 of those health classes like Health For. Um, what they called like health administrators people who who try to impact the health of entire populations cities and stuff like that. There was an experiment done where they put a lot of really healthy produce into the poor part of town. They go Wow. All these all these.
32:32.46	Max Shank	Yes.
32:43.86	mikebledsoe	Poor people are in this food desert and you know when you go into the convenience store where they're doing their grocery shopping. There's no produce. There's nothing healthy, no hot healthy options available and they put a bunch of produce in there and it went rotten and. People just chose not to buy it and I think a large part of it has to do with a lot of people just don't know what to do with food. They don't know how to prepare it. They don't know um and the idea of having to learn how to do that or the fear of screwing it up. Is is really huge.
33:20.27	Max Shank	Well and of course that's not 1 of the subjects that's taught in school and you know if you blame there's no end to the blaming. But if somebody has a problem ninety nine percent of the time. It's the parent or whatever authority figure taught them beforehand right? so.
33:36.60	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
33:40.90	Max Shank	If You don't have the understanding of food like look you can eat garbage food and as long as you don't eat too much. You won't be obese you might not be healthy, but you you can eat the worst possible. You could eat big Macs every day. And not be obese as long as you don't eat too many of them like there's there's a it's like I say all the time you know 99 percent of people's problems come from having bad security at their lips. The words that get out and the food that gets in.
34:00.87	mikebledsoe	Yeah, what.
34:14.63	mikebledsoe	I yeah, that's very true. It's very true. Yeah, so I think that yeah you say you bring up that good point. Lot of it's education is not necessarily not cheaper or less convenient. Um, and I think that some people are just Goingnna be That's just where they're gonna be they're they're never going to change. Yeah and and.
34:41.42	Max Shank	And I don't think it's wrong to let them choose that be obese eat fritos and big macs all day like you you die in a blaze of glory like chris farley on cocaine with a couple of horse like there's no shame in that game.
34:56.78	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah, so I think that. Ah yeah, I'm not here to save the world but I do think that there's there could be ah I look at the landscape of what's happening in the food industry and I see you know. These really big corporations that make really port food and do a lot of gmo and they're they're robbing the soil of minerals and and they're doing a lot of mono cultural crops and it's just not good for the soil. Um and some people suspect. That you know we're just creating deserts here in the United states and a lot of deserts around the world. There's been um, stories of there was a huge agricultural boom that preceded it being a desert. So.
35:53.77	Max Shank	Huh.
35:55.59	mikebledsoe	Places in like egypt and where there was a massive amount of people a lot of monocultural farming going on so I don't know here's the thing is we don't know if that's actually true or not but it's ah it's a compelling story. And I can tell the difference when I eat food in other countries versus the Us. So I really? Ah what I see is we're going into a dangerous zone of having too much monocultural farming happening too many pesticides being used all these things.
36:18.82	Max Shank	E.
36:33.71	mikebledsoe	That are harmful to the the soil and the environment at large which we live in that environment so we're going to poison ourselves. So I think that systematically creating 1 being decentralized is important because you want.
36:38.46	Max Shank	Ah, right.
36:52.42	mikebledsoe	You don't want a single point of failure with your food system and decentralization will allow people to have more to be more empowered to make the food choices that are good for them instead of being given the limited food choices that are delivered to them I think it also put people more in touch with their food. Um. People people who who tend to shop local when it comes to food and other other items too tend to be more they care more about the product that they're getting and so I think that there's a really cool incentive there in and making it decentralized and local. Ah, and I would really like to proliferate the regenerative farming movement as a whole to offset some of the the bullshit that that I see as bullshit going on and I think also a lot of young people want to get into.
37:38.23	Max Shank	The.
37:49.73	mikebledsoe	They they feel the same way they want to get into regenerative farming and want to be closer to nature and things like that. But they don't have the money to buy the real estate and the way that the economic system set up right now is about to get very difficult to come by real estate because the big boys are. Buying it up as the interest rates will be going up next year
38:10.79	Max Shank	Oh we'll see how that goes. Yeah I got a friend in Montana actually who's working on some of that regenerative farming including like a little power plant. That's the centerpiece. It's like a biological power plant centerpiece.
38:22.40	mikebledsoe	I Know a guy is doing it wyoming I don't know no Evan. Ah yeah.
38:28.42	Max Shank	His name Eric Oh well, we should link him up then ah yeah I agree with you I mean look I think ah farm subsidies are bad just like ah most things with good intentions. Ah, end up being destructive I think having lots of options is always better. Um, some of the best meat some of the best produce we get now is from Walmart so just being attached to a big corporation. Doesn't mean the quality has to go down In fact,, um, yeah. You know, certified organic Grass-fed Beef grass-fed bison at Walmart That's organic I mean that's um, pretty cool I think um I think food is such a big part about the health of these society So I'm definitely with you on that and it does. Come back to education I Like the idea of like I I guess crowdsourcing or crowd investing ah with with the sustainable agriculture would be a really cool idea. I Could totally get behind something like that.
39:43.48	mikebledsoe	Yeah, 1 of the things I've been looking at closely are Das daos decentralized autonomous organizations and um, when I first learned about ethereum the cryptocurrency and I started understanding what smart. Smart contracts were I started imagining what may be possible that now that that I didn't there's no way that I with my knowledge base I and going to go in there and be able to create something off the backbone of Ethereum I'm not that level of engineer I'm not sure I'm any level of engineer.
40:18.19	Max Shank	Um, doesn't seem like it.
40:22.38	mikebledsoe	But the ah no I you know I'm an audio engineer I can engineer audio and that's about that's where that that ends I'm a relationships engineer like that.
40:32.11	Max Shank	Um I can make noise is that the same thing audio Audio engineer.
40:40.73	mikebledsoe	Ah, ah so ah like I can play with audio and postproduction that's about it that would be an audio engineer. So.
40:48.81	Max Shank	But you could find an engineer to help you with that if you if you so desired.
40:52.80	mikebledsoe	Totally but 1 of the things that's happened with these daos that have come out is there's a platform called aragon where you can start your own decentralized autonomous organization and then now what they have is like oh do you want it to be a membership. Oh. Do you want it to be. Ah, ah to build your reputation in the market. Are you doing fundraising so they've got about 6 different categories of really popular tas that you can start and then basically um, it works with Nfts so I'm sure. Everybody's heard about and nfts at this point and the a lot a lot of how these das work is you have to buy an nftt in order to say it to membership because that's what I've been looking into the most is how do you create a membership dao. And people would purchase. There would be a limited amount of tickets to be a part of the dawo and say I'm looking at starting 1 with 100 and fifty members. There'll never be another once these 1 hundred and fifty nftts are Meanted. There's no more. And nfts that will be created and if you want to be a part of this club or whatever it is you buy this nft. It might cost 25000 dollars but it's a lifetime membership if you ever want to sell it in the future you can sell it on the market and the idea is that you could purchase a membership to be a part of a club.
42:16.40	Max Shank	P.
42:22.92	mikebledsoe	And you can also and an investment You can also sell that later so you own a part of the ideas you own a part of the organization. You're not just you're not just purchasing membership. You're you're purchasing ownership in a way. So yeah.
42:35.87	Max Shank	So it's kind of like a corporation selling shares a little bit. Yeah.
42:42.42	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and so what it what it allows for is things that would if if done by a business by with with typical technology would be a really heavy administrative load there would to account for everything. So.
42:56.75	Max Shank	Right.
43:00.88	mikebledsoe	The the cool thing about the blockchain and smart contracts is you can create a lot of if then rules in the real world and and as these things are met things like accounting like the modern accounting like what we're using in like the conventional accounting and baking when you look at what's possible with blockchain seems very ridiculous.
43:05.74	Max Shank	Ah.
43:19.79	mikebledsoe	Like Wow this is really antiquated by Comparison. So when when I think about accounting and well when most people think about Accounting. It's like Okay, what's the what are the financials and that's usually what's being accounted for but true Accounting. Um, a more global accounting is are you accounting for everything. Are you accounting for things that may not necessarily be monetary in nature even though you know.
43:42.33	Max Shank	Well like a farm for example, right? like the whole idea of let's say having 1 hundred and fifty shares of a farm and having a bunch of if then rules so conditional rules for if this then do this? um.
43:55.88	mikebledsoe	Me.
44:01.70	Max Shank	You know that it it probably does get pretty tricky like you have to be very clever to figure out how to run that organization. Um, autonomously and you probably can't account for everything which is funny like you can't account for all of the um potentials. Well and that's um.
44:09.39	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and I Think. Now we can try.
44:21.37	Max Shank	You know it kind of shows the evolution of computer science in the beginning there was if then and ah, it's very similar to the way that law has developed from the code of Hammurabi which was if you blind a man's eye then.
44:26.84	mikebledsoe	And.
44:41.18	Max Shank	Then your eye shall be blinded as well and I don't know hardly anything about computer programming. But I know that if you relied only on if then it's kind of like a caveman style programming where it's going to be so many conditional statements. Rather than the more elegant and sophisticated rules and algorithms and operations that they have available Now. So um.
45:07.81	mikebledsoe	Yeah, Well yeah, and that's the 1 thing I see about the dao is like I'm I'm watching and I'm not hot to get in right now because I think that a lot of people 1 of the the really big mistakes that I'm seeing being made in the. Consciousness of a lot of people who are excited about this and taking action on it as they go decentralized autonomous Organization. We don't need hierarchy anymore. There's just gonna be. We're gonna be able to vote on everything and I'm going. Oh you guys are go for it and you know watch us watch this go? um. And I had ah I had a woman that was wanting to do ah a dow that was wanting to do community and all this I'm like cool I'm interested and then she was like all right and we don't need any hierarchy and I was like whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa. Ah, you're defying nature.
45:55.25	Max Shank	Impossible.
46:01.22	mikebledsoe	By by saying that we're not gonna have a hierarchy. You trust me, you don't want to define nature she will slap you like a bitch you got to ride what is right? So yeah, there's somebody needs.
46:13.11	Max Shank	Someone needs to have the call someone needs to be able to make the call.
46:20.32	mikebledsoe	There needs to be response and and um.
46:23.31	Max Shank	Roles and responsibilities operating agreement. You know a lot of the things from more traditional. Yeah more a lot of these things from right? but a lot of these things from traditional organizations still ring true. Um.
46:25.73	mikebledsoe	Well they think they can have a lot of that without without the hierarchy.
46:40.69	Max Shank	For something that is as autonomous as possible like I think you might agree that a lot of the role of a leader or manager is to delegate and automate and. The more you automate the less you have to delegate but it still has to be somebody's Responsibility. You know, even when you're putting together a phone call script or something like that. It's going to be if this then this if this then this and the more you can automate that process.
46:57.84	mikebledsoe	Most.
47:12.95	Max Shank	The more you can multiply that process that you've created and that's why computer software ah has such a huge premium because the exponential val the exponential return is so high just the same as um. You know selling ah a program. You know it's it's no coincidence that it's called a fitness training program when I write 1 I think about I am literally um, uploading a program and you are installing it into your brain. And you are executing that file. And for example, if you execute the ultimate athleticism program you're going to get better at handstands deadlifts airborne lunges front levers that sort of thing if you execute the primal athleticism daily practice. You're going to get better at bouncing rolling. Um, carrying things crawling climbing these you know wider array of things. So it's no surprise that it's called a program because that's literally what you're doing is you're implanting a program and that's also why it's so Scalable. You know I can sell. Um, a million copies of simple shoulder solution and there's no extra administrative cost to doing that. It's still just a few percent for the the credit card fee essentially so that's why software so is so powerful and.
48:44.38	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
48:50.69	Max Shank	It can be code or it can be like a written program. You know even religion you can think of as a program.
48:54.55	mikebledsoe	Now.
49:01.62	mikebledsoe	You're gonna freak some people out. Ah so totally it is.
49:02.18	Max Shank	I mean it. It is a program is it not I mean some of them are some of them are effective like I think mormonism is an effective program. It even has like a built in um generator which is the mission that they go on. I mean look mormonism is what like a hundred ish years old more less, not sure 200 can we get a fact check around this. Okay, so let's call it 2 hundred. Let's call it 1 hundred and 50 years right yeah please
49:27.30	mikebledsoe	I'm not sure I think it's the late Eighteen hundreds. No I'm not yeah, there's a mormon listening please let us know.
49:41.19	Max Shank	Yeah, we can't google right now. Ah that religion has more members than judaism and judaism is like 10 times longer. Okay, and it's because that that program is more geared toward.
49:52.68	mikebledsoe	Yeah, like twenty or 30 times longer. Yeah yeah.
50:00.84	Max Shank	Toward Growth. You know what? I'm saying So Um I think both of those religions are yeah are typically like pretty effective at making people wealthy so that program is effective from that standpoint it. I'm not saying it will necessarily make you the happiest because Mormons seem a lot happier than Jews but I Also don't think they're as funny and this is these are just my ah, ah blind observations right? Jews seem funnier Mormons seem happier. They both seem pretty Wealthy. So I just look At. Whether the program is constructive or destructive right? So Religion Fitness training program. Ah actual code or a dao or something like that. It's all it's all programming humans school. Programming humans and if you're able you said that an adult is able to parent themself. Maybe that's also a good analogy for the master slave if you are the administrator of yourself then you can program yourself as well and that's. Really high level. Um adaptability.
51:16.57	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and you can't program yourself. You can program your own subconscious mind these are there's countless techniques for doing that I think it's the most effective way of making progress towards what you want is if you're not if you're not doing something.
51:24.12	Max Shank	Tap.
51:32.65	mikebledsoe	To program your subconscious mind. You're really missing out. Ah oh I brought I brought the dow up because I brought the dow because we're talking about what would we do with a billion dollars and the.
51:38.39	Max Shank	Absolutely.
51:47.14	Max Shank	Is that what we were talking about I forgot.
51:51.40	mikebledsoe	Something like ah so so it got me if this takes me back to a conversation you and I were having a year ago or or more and how do we have a a community and and. Decentralized communities that can interact with each other so they're all, there's these sovereign little cities and they can interact with each other and do trade with specific cryptocurrencies and all that and what I what I'm seeing with the dao is the real possibility because before I was thinking. I would need a billion dollars or I would need a hundred million dollars in order to start this project but now with the these fundraising dows and and all what I'm seeing emerge I don't know if it's quite ready for what I want to do with it yet. What I'm seeing emerges. Maybe if you have a solid enough vision and you have a good enough program then you can get your investors and now you can make it you can make it happen so it's very exciting times a little bit different than a business.
52:55.76	Max Shank	Oh yeah.
53:02.92	mikebledsoe	Ah, typical business that gets investors I think that there's a lot of excitement around right? This is just like it's the future. It's how things will be managed in the future will primarily be through blockchain and so I think if you do something in blockchain people are more likely get on board. The other thing is. Ah, you're less likely to have ah, it's a lot easier to have visibility of what's going on and there's a lot less opportunities for Fuckery. So I think it it makes it for an easier thing for people to invest in because ah. Things are so transparent with a lot of the blockchain technologies so you can set things up where everything's just very visible. So I think that raising money for those types of ventures are a lot easier, especially when you look at some of the you know what's happened in the last couple decades with.
53:46.79	Max Shank	Oh.
53:58.83	mikebledsoe	You know enron and that guy who was it that did that ah Bernie madoff and he had that dude that the fire the fire festival guy. Ah, who actually did some time but all all those things had had it existed in. You know a dow instead.
53:59.91	Max Shank	Bernie made off made off with all their money.
54:18.83	mikebledsoe	Would not. It would probably just wouldn't have even happened because people would have been able to spot it and I think that there's gonna be a lot of people and people have done this with cryptocurrencies they they write a white paper and they launch it they get investors and then disappear. So I'm not saying that that there's no fraud.
54:35.71	Max Shank	Oh yeah.
54:38.63	mikebledsoe	There's no fraud in these things but over time what I see happening is the fraud will will become minimized because people will know what to look for and there's also the the ability to create transparency where it's necessary is also going to be there.
54:54.23	Max Shank	Oh.
54:59.73	mikebledsoe	So yep, crowd crowdsourcing that's the way to go.
55:03.87	Max Shank	Yeah, if you have a good enough idea and a clear plan. Um I don't think it's difficult to get investors. Um.
55:12.30	mikebledsoe	Yeah, all right? Well it sounds like it. We don't need a billion dollars for ideas. So we just need to create it now you get? yeah, get you start working on yours I'll start working on mine.
55:18.33	Max Shank	Now you just need other people to have a billion.
55:32.61	Max Shank	It's interesting. How a lot of it comes back to education a lot of it comes back to it doesn't necessarily need to happen in a school but a lot of it comes back to educating people. And a lot of similarities with food I think we both realized just how important food quality is not having a single point of failure having um you know that decentralized decentralize is a way better word than. Not having a single point of Failure. It's much more exciting right? now is decentralized. Ah.
56:10.30	mikebledsoe	Um, but decentralized means a lot of different thing like it. It encapsulates that plus many other things yeah increase in choice.
56:14.95	Max Shank	Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, um, so as far as how to execute this strategy for our listeners. Um, what's a good way to go about it.
56:37.28	mikebledsoe	Ah, you know I think I think write write down what you would do with the billion dollars and I would also there you go.
56:44.99	Max Shank	And then maybe write down what you do with a million after afterward I think that's the way to do It is start out with a billion so you're like in the blue sky version and then you snap back to a little bit closer to reality with the million unless there are any ah billionaires. Listening in which case ah get in touch with us. We have plenty of ideas for your money.
57:07.69	mikebledsoe	My mike at the strongcoach dot com is my email. Yeah, yeah, and I think it's also worth you know do the I like doing the pie in the sky first billion dollar million dollar and then what would you do? if you were guaranteed to fail no matter what you did you were gonna fail. What would you do so.
57:31.44	Max Shank	Ah, what I don't understand the question but I do like it I I don't even know how to if I was guaranteed to fail Fail Why would I do it at all I Would if if I knew I was going to fail.
57:38.67	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
57:45.26	mikebledsoe	Ah, well a lot of things you wouldn't do Well I think that gives insight into what you enjoy not necessarily what your purpose or mission is but what what you like is like all right if I was gonna fail I might as well just set myself up in baha on the beach and surf you know, like if I'm guaranteed to fail.
57:50.40	Max Shank	I Would do nothing.
57:53.97	Max Shank	Oh.
58:04.63	Max Shank	So so what? what would I do if I'm guaranteed to fail is more like what it. What would I do if I could do like nothing ah professional is that is that what it is like how would I fuck off.
58:04.91	mikebledsoe	Least I'll you know live life like that.
58:17.97	mikebledsoe	Ah, yeah, yeah, that's where my mind goes when I hear that question. Well yeah, what would I do if I was guaranteed to fill.
58:26.67	Max Shank	I've never heard that question before um, maybe it what it really is what would you do? if you could never work again. Does that sound like ah the spirit of the question.
58:33.75	mikebledsoe	Um, yeah, doesn't sound as exciting. Yeah, same spirit but the other 1 seems a little more jarring.
58:43.33	Max Shank	Well, the first 1 I would do nothing the first 1 I don't understand it makes no sense to me. What would I what would I do if I knew I would fail if I knew I would fail I would not do the thing like the only reason you would do something is if you thought it had a percentage chance of success and that's.
58:59.70	mikebledsoe	That.
59:02.15	Max Shank	That's human nature that's desire. That's hunger. That's that's hope that's the only reason anyone ever does anything is because they think that there is at least a chance that it will be better if they do that thing. So if you know you're going to fail. You would never do it to. Non -question as far as I'm concerned. However I'd be happy to replace it for it. I think everyone will agree with me on this 1 um I think I think what would you do? if you could never work again.
59:22.99	mikebledsoe	Ah, it hit me up. Let me know let's see if everyone else receives it that way.
59:39.56	Max Shank	Is a good way to identify how you like to spend your time though. Um, and and do it detached from the result as much as Possible. You know, maybe you would sing. Maybe you would do some woodworking. Maybe you would do. Ah you know you would just surf all day. Maybe you would play music something like that I think that's a really good. Um I Think that's a good way of looking at it is like what would you do? if you couldn't work and what would you do. If ah, you could only pick 1 career and do that those ah those extremes feel like a good way to sort of surround your your truth. You know what? I mean.
01:00:16.12	mikebledsoe	Um, like that.
01:00:29.80	mikebledsoe	Ah I don't have a truth. No.
01:00:30.94	Max Shank	You don't have a truth I mean I think the truth is that we're the most adaptable creatures so you can change any time. It's just scary. It's just scary. That's that's the truth that I live by.
01:00:41.93	mikebledsoe	Our graph.
01:00:48.71	Max Shank	You know I see people do it when they're under huge amounts of strain they change dramatically and unless provoked that way they often don't people just ride the momentum and that kind of goes back to that programming thing because what we're doing is we're talking about programming ourselves for. Ambition essentially with this question and we're setting that ambitious intention and if you are able to program yourself every single day but you choose not to then you are relegated to.
01:01:09.69	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
01:01:27.51	Max Shank	The momentum of whatever the stories and stimuli that you've had and believed up to now. Yeah, anything you'd like to ah yeah, anything you'd like to add.
01:01:34.70	mikebledsoe	Well said wrap this bad boy up.
01:01:47.28	mikebledsoe	Ah I Love this exercise. What would you do with a billion dollars, get this dream. Big can be fun, especially if you're looking at the hedonistic aspects of what you can do with it. But when you get into the purpose and mission of Things. Ah. And like what max said going from a billion dollars to what we do with a million dollars and then looking at Wow is is this something that enough you know it being 20 coming into 2022 ah it being something that. You might be able to fundraise through a dao. Ah you know, maybe it's possible. So Hopefully this inspires you to do something that that ah excites you and and helps other people. All got how about you any final thoughts we good in.
01:02:40.90	Max Shank	Cool. Um, program yourself or pick a good program I think the exercise will help you discover where your ah truest desires really are and yeah, that's about it. You can find me at maxshank dot com at Maxshank. Mike you work and they find you.
01:03:05.11	mikebledsoe	Ah, mike underscore Bletzo on Instagram and the strongcoach dot com. Ah yeah, and you can jump in my program if you want if you want to program your business there. You go all right brother. Love you.
01:03:18.00	Max Shank	There you go Awesome! Thanks brother. Love you Bye everybody.
01:03:24.39	mikebledsoe	Enjoyed the talk.