October 14, 2021

How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Dyrdek from 0 to $405M in Exits | My First Million with Sam Parr and Shaan Puri

Check out the My First Million episode page

“I am human optimization, I’m optimized to be happy. Your goal is not to be happy in pockets, your goal is to be happy every single hour of your life.” – Rob Dyrdek
- You can avoid all negativity if you constantly live in a state of experiencing, creating or problem-solving
Every day for the last 5 years, Rob has written down how he feels about his life, work, and health on a scale of 1-10
- He compares this qualitative data to his quantitative data, what he’s doing and what the correlating feeling is
- Mastery of self – Rob runs a daily analysis on himself to ensure his work/life always aligns with his priority for happiness
“You have a certain level of human capacity. In order to scale it, you either hire or automate it” – Rob Dyrdek
Start at the end – decide exactly what you want out of a business before you even start it
- This can apply to all goals in your life, not just your work
There is great value in being open about your financial circumstances/opportunities with a peer group
- Creates a strategic environment that functions off of collaboration and accountability

Rob Dyrdek (@robdyrdek) is a former professional skateboarder, the star of TV hits Rob & big and Ridiculousness, and now the CEO of a venture studio, The Dyrdek Machine. Rob Dyrdek details how the optimization of your life can help you achieve your peak potential for happiness and financial sustainability.
Hosts: Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP)

There is a running joke in The Challenge Reddit forum that The Challenge is on for 1 hour of MTV airtime and Ridiculousness is the other 23 hours
- Ridiculousness is actually 60% of airtime on MTV
- Ridiculousness saw better ratings when blocked in consecutive episodes rather than single episodes

The Dyrdek Machine LLC – operating entertainment/venture studio
- Distributes capital from LLC into Real Estate holdings or co-founding ventures
  - Tries to own 25%-70% of every mature venture he owns
  - Built 17 companies and sold 6 of them – netting $450 million
  - Real Estate targets – manufactured housing, multi-family units, storage units, RV parks
Every Dyrdek venture uses a lifetime structure called ‘The Unified Theory’
- All goals are strictly established from the beginning – Everything is built to sell
- Start at the end – decide exactly what you want out of a business before you even start it
  - Start at the End: How to Build Products That Create Change by Matt Wallaert
  - Rob designs his life this way, not just his businesses
The Dyrdek Machine prioritizes IRR (internal rate of return)
- Allows your expenses to stay in line with your dividends
- The continuity of cash flow and reinvestment embodies the ‘Machine’ name

“You have a certain level of human capacity. In order to scale it, you either hire or automate it” – Rob Dyrdek
- Rob lives an incredibly automated life, his designed balance helps his priority allocation and leads to more overall happiness
  - He sends his wife a detailed plan every day; this avoids any disconnect or misinterpretation of priorities
  - He adds a love quote to this plan as well – it’s the little things
“Quantitative and qualitative data is what I live my life off of” – Rob Dyrdek
- Every day for the last 5 years, he’s written down how he feels about his life, work, and health on a scale of 1-10
- This data helps Rob correlate how he’s feeling to the things that he’s doing
“I am human optimization, I’m optimized to be happy. Your goal is not to be happy in pockets, your goal is to be happy every single hour of your life.” – Rob Dyrdek
- Two mindsets that hinder happiness: Dwelling/Negativity & Hopeful/Wishful
- You can avoid all negativity if you constantly live in a state of experiencing, creating or problem-solving

Sam hypothesizes how big Rob Dyrdek could have been if he came up now with resources like TikTok and other social medias
- Rob believes his stunts and ideas couldn’t be financially supported through those mediums as opposed to the corporate backing he had in his early career
Business trends that Rob is following closely:
- Water filtration for skin and hair care
- Superfoods and plant-based products
- ‘Ugly-cool’ in comfort footwear
White spaces present the most opportunity in markets for Rob’s opportunity analysis
- Founder-Market fit is importantl there should be a personal relationship to products