Matt King. Welcome back to the Actually Academy Podcast, man. Thanks, man. I think this is four or three? I don't know. This is number three, I believe, and we're over here on your ranch. You've come a long way since when you and I first met to now owning a ranch out here in Texas, man. How's it been? It's funny because when people tell me like, oh, you've come so far, you've come a long way,

it doesn't feel like I've come anywhere. It feels like it's just all a part of this journey, but I look at the destination of where I'm going and I'm like, yeah, like it might, from where I started to today, yeah, it might look like it's far to you, but to me it's like, I've only gone like a mile and my journey is thousand miles. Like I got a forever to go. But the ranch has been probably one of the

best decisions I've ever made. I think when gone like a mile in my journey is thousand miles. Like I got a forever to go. But the ranch has been probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. I think when we are aspiring, especially young people aspiring to grow and to build, we lose sight on joy. And we think the way to get to where we want to go is 70 hour work weeks. It's saying no to the friends. It's saying no to the fun stuff.

And that's true. You're going to have to do all those things too. But I look at my kids. I have a six-year-old daughter, a three-year-old son, and a six-month-old. And I watch how much joy they have in life. And you had that joy. I had that joy. But we deprive ourselves of that joy as we're growing and as we're scaling, but you've done an incredible job of maintaining that joy,

taking the summers to go travel, going on the... but we deprive ourselves of that joy as we're growing and as we're scaling. But you've done an incredible job of maintaining that joy,

taking the summers to go travel, going on the boat things,

like doing all this stuff, you've maintained that joy.

I think that joy actually brings us a more powerful fire

to burn inside of our business and inside of the operations we're running

to actually achieve more success.

So the ranch has been incredible to bring me more joy and help me have more fun on the journey, which actually

makes me far more productive and far more effective in the pursuit of where I want to go.

I've seen a noticeable difference. Like I would compare you in the very beginning to very much

like operations math. And now you're more well-rounded, Matt King, the person, the individual.

I like that you say that because I've got a running theory that I'm testing out right now,

which is that adulthood is just a race to return to childhood.

Yes.

And how you win adulthood is by returning to childhood because when you're a child,

you're unencumbered by all of these opinions of others.

You're doing things because they're interesting and you're following your curiosity and you're a child, you're unencumbered by all of these opinions of others. You're doing

things because they're interesting and you're following your curiosity and you're playing.

Yep. Like you're having a shit ton of fun. And so you're a manager of a family office.

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