Unstoppable Decision Making | Creating A Framework For Decision Making With David Hauser
Episode 151
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Episode Title: Transform Your Life with Self-Experimentation featuring David Hauser
Episode Summary: David Hauser, author of 'Unstoppable', shares his journey of overcoming a learning disability and achieving remarkable success in entrepreneurship, resulting in the sale of his company for $200 million. He discusses the importance of balancing life and how frameworks used in business can apply to personal health. David emphasizes self-experimentation in wellness, advocating for personalized approaches instead of mainstream narratives.
Key Topics Discussed:
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Introduction to David Hauser
- Background on David’s entrepreneurial success and the idea behind his book 'Unstoppable'.
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Overcoming Learning Disabilities
- David reflects on feeling behind in school and how it fueled his drive for success.
- Insight into his learning style and how it shaped his educational journey.
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Mindset and Identity
- Discussion on the persistent drive for success and its impact on personal identity as one shifts from business focus to legacy.
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Self-Experimentation in Nutrition
- David’s journey through various diets (including keto) as a means to find what works for him, emphasizing that personal testing is crucial.
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The Importance of Sleep
- Practical tips on improving sleep quality and its effects on overall health and well-being.
Actionable Takeaways:
- Experiment with different diets and fitness routines to identify what truly works for you.
- Practice mindfulness during meals to enhance awareness and satisfaction.
- Prioritize sleep as a crucial element for better health and productivity.
Key Quotes:
- "Feeling behind drove my success."
- "Action is the key to progress."
- "Prioritize sleep for optimal health."
Frequently Asked Questions:
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What is the main theme of David's book?
- The theme revolves around self-discovery and optimizing life through actionable frameworks.
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How does David recommend approaching personal health?
- He advocates for an experimental approach, iterating on what works for the individual rather than strict adherence to popular diets.
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What key changes can improve sleep quality?
- Going to bed earlier and eliminating screen time before sleep can significantly enhance sleep quality.
Action Items:
- Try one new health-related habit this week to improve your wellness.
- Evaluate your current mindset regarding diet and fitness.
- Reflect on your definitions of success and identity.
Discussion Questions:
- What steps can you take to apply self-experimentation in your own life?
- How can shifting your mindset impact your sense of identity?
- What are your thoughts on the effectiveness of mainstream diets?
Related Resources:
Social Media Snippets:
- "The feeling of being behind can fuel your success."
- "You must take action to make things happen."
- "Want to improve your health? Start by prioritizing sleep."
Podcast Description: Join us as David Hauser reveals how he turned personal challenges into entrepreneurial success while navigating the complexities of health and wellness.
Podcast Intro: "You're listening to ChooseFI. The blueprint for financial independence lives here..."
Podcast Extro: "You've been listening to ChooseFI Podcast, where we help middle-class America build wealth one life hack at a time."
Transform Your Life with Self-Experimentation: Insights from David Hauser
David Hauser's journey from a learning disability to entrepreneurial success offers valuable lessons in self-improvement and health optimization. His book, Unstoppable, is not just a memoir; it serves as a guide to anyone looking to make significant changes in their personal and professional lives.
Overcoming Limitations
One of the first steps in David's journey was recognizing and overcoming his learning disability. This challenge ignited a drive within him to prove himself. If you find yourself feeling like you're always behind, let that feeling fuel your ambition. Use it as motivation rather than an anchor. The key realization here is that limitations can become the very catalyst for extraordinary achievement.
Embracing Mindful Decision-Making
A cornerstone of Hauser's philosophy is the application of decision-making frameworks, often used in business, to personal health choices. Here are some actionable steps to incorporate mindful decision-making into your routines:
- Identify Your Challenges: Recognize what holds you back in your health journey, whether it's poor diet, lack of exercise, or insufficient sleep.
- Prioritize Self-Experimentation: Instead of adhering strictly to popular diets, test various approaches. For example, try eliminating sugar for a week and observe changes in your energy levels and mood.
- Measure and Adjust: Just as a business tracks its metrics, keep a log of how different diets or fitness regimens affect your well-being. Adjust accordingly.
The Importance of Sleep and Rest
Sleep is crucial for optimizing your health. David emphasizes that quality sleep can drastically improve your mental and physical well-being. Here are simple steps to better your sleep:
- Create a Sleep Schedule: Aim to go to bed by 9:30 PM. Consistency helps regulate your body's internal clock.
- Limit Screen Time Before Sleep: Give yourself at least one hour of screen-free time before bed to improve sleep quality.
- Evaluate Your Sleep Environment: Consider blackout curtains to eliminate light and a cooling mattress pad for comfort.
Nutrition: The Personalization Approach
Instead of following mainstream diet trends, focus on what works uniquely for you. David's experimentation with various diets, including keto and vegan options, highlights the importance of finding a nutritional strategy tailored to your needs. Here's how to approach your diet:
- Conduct Your Own Experiments: Try different diets for short periods. Track your energy levels, digestion, and overall health.
- Replace Assumptions with Data: Challenge the status quo. If something hasn't worked for you in the past, don't blame yourself. Instead, look at the diet itself.
- Mindful Eating: Pay attention to your food; savor the textures and flavors rather than rushing through meals.
Building a Continuous Improvement Framework
David advocates for a continuous improvement mindset in both business and health. Here’s how to implement this in your life:
- Iterate and Improve: Regularly reflect on your habits and identify areas for improvement. Make small changes and assess their impacts.
- Set Clear Goals: Establish specific, measurable health and fitness goals. This could be running a certain distance or reaching a target weight.
- Incorporate Feedback Loops: Regularly check-in with yourself about what feels good and what doesn't, and adjust your plans based on those reflections.
Supplements and Health Optimization
Hauser brings to light the role of supplements in achieving optimal health. He advises caution and a scientific approach:
- Understand Your Needs: Don't take random supplements; opt for those based on your blood tests and nutritional needs.
- Quality Over Quantity: Invest in high-quality supplements and avoid multivitamins unless they are carefully formulated.
- Regular Testing: Commit to periodic blood testing to monitor your levels of vital nutrients like Vitamin D3 and B12.
Mindset Shift
Finally, the mindset you cultivate is fundamental to your personal growth. Here are strategies to shift your perspective:
- Be Kind to Yourself: Understand that self-improvement is a journey, not a destination. Celebrate the small victories along the way.
- Seek Balance, Not Perfection: Strive for a balanced approach to health and wellness rather than an all-or-nothing mentality. Control means understanding choices without feeling restricted.
- Embrace Lifelong Learning: Always look for new information and insights. The process of learning should be continuous and joyful.
Closing Thoughts
David Hauser's story is an inspiring testament to the power of self-experimentation, mindful decision-making, and continuous improvement. By applying these principles in your own life, you can achieve a sense of balance and fulfillment that leads to lasting success.
Incorporating these strategies does not require a complete overhaul of your life. Instead, focus on one area at a time, whether that's improving your diet, prioritizing sleep, or setting personal goals. Remember, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step—take that step today to live your life to its fullest potential.
As a successful start-up founder, David Hauser felt mercilessly driven to create success through extreme measures. He joins us to talk about his drive to succeed and how he has applied an experimentation framework to his health and wellness.
[elementor-template id="143609"]David's Story
In grade school, David realized that he had a learning disability. This realization lead to the fruition of two skills.
First, his drive to succeed was developed at an early age. He felt that everyone else was ahead of him and felt strongly about getting ahead.
I think I had this drive very early on; [the other students] were always ahead of me. So I always felt like no matter what I did, I was behind. I was the kid that wasn't smart enough, so it created this ongoing drive in my life to prove everyone wrong. Right, and now that I look back at this many years later, I can see how important that drive was to my success. Right, without that I would not have gotten to where I am today.
Second, this learning disability taught him how to learn. Outside of simple hard work with tutoring five days a week, he came to understand how he learned. He learns from seeing, doing, and listening to the teacher. He doesn't learn by taking notes and reading the textbook.
The drive he found while in grade school has never left him. The goal of catching up with and outperforming his classmates was an ever-present goal. Although to some extent, he wishes it would relent a little bit. He still compares himself to others as a measure of success.
Building A Company
He always knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. In fact, he went to Babson College because it offered a program focused on entrepreneurship. He had built several smaller businesses before college, so the idea of building businesses was not a new idea.
The idea for Grasshopper came from a need that he and a cofounder found in their own smaller businesses. They needed a phone system that made them sound like professionals, instead of just picking up their cell phones. The solution was based on solving their own needs.
The most interesting and best businesses I’ve ever seen come from a genuine pain point that I’m solving for myself more than even for others...it's something I'm solving for me today.
David and his cofounder had no experience with phones and no money to bring in a team. So, they just started taking action. The first piece of hardware they bought cost $250,000 but they had to convince the vendor to give them credit because they only had $150,000 in the bank. It took a lot of trial and error but they built a very successful business.
Just take "a" step forward. This is what I tell people all the time and you'll learn something, right. Maybe we would've failed at Telecom. Maybe the whole thing didn't work. But if we didn’t take the first step forward of starting to build something, nothing would have happened.
Having an idea for a business is great, but you have to take action for anything to actually happen.
An Education In Entrepreneurship
David attended Babson College to earn a degree in entrepreneurship. However, it may not be a completely learnable skillset.
I have a very controversial view on this. I firmly believe that you cannot teach entrepreneurship. I think it's something that is inherently within someone. It's a combination of being able to understand and take on risk; as well as calibrate that risk against the reward. And it's just not something you can teach. What you can, however, teach is a lot of the skills that make you a better entrepreneur.
Skills, like reading a balance sheet, hiring, firing, and being a manager, are all important to know. However, most people that graduate with this degree don't actually start their own businesses. Many end up working in an entrepreneurial role at a company.
Venture Capital Funding
Based on his frugal mindset, David has a different take on the extreme examples of venture capital funding. Grasshopper was 100% bootstrapped. David believes there are zero reasons to take on VC funding except in very rare markets. However, the media glorifies VC funding so many seek it out.
As an investor, he tells entrepreneurs that they should not take investments. Instead, go as long as possible without taking any money. With that, the economics of your company will make more sense because you need to make a profit.
'The Frugality Problem'
David admits to a frugality problem. Although there are positives, there is a dark side to his frugality.
When you look at budgeting there are two approaches. Some feel that they need to increase income to solve the problem. Others feel that they need to decrease expenditures. The right answer is somewhere in between. However, David is on the side that wants to decrease expenses.
There is nothing wrong with decreasing expenses, but at some point, it may not be worth the time he puts into it.
Unstoppable: 4 Steps To Transform Your Life
Unstoppable: 4 Steps To Transform Your Life is dedicated to the desire for balance with your health and fitness. The book portrays a somewhat retroactive journal through his journey towards health. David admits to doing nothing halfway, so the book outlines some of the extreme measures he went through on his journey.
The journey started with doing what everyone said was the right thing to do, going to the gym. After a few hours without results, he decided to double down. He transformed from never running outside to running the Boston marathon in just 3.5 months. Now he does yoga six days a week, but six months ago he never did yoga.
This extreme mentality can bring both positives and negatives.
For me, I've seen a lot of positive results only when I direct it towards positive things. And I could easily direct that same extreme viewpoint and kinda going way overboard to the wrong things. And what's worked for me is directing it toward the right things.
At some point, he decided to apply A/B testing as an experimental framework for his life.
Creating The Framework
As you start to use the framework, you'll need to determine what matters most to you. Start to identify the issues, prioritize them, experiment, measure, and test. Once you have the results, integrate those positive changes into your life.
David encourages readers to start with small changes. As you start to see results, experiment with bigger changes.
Here are a few places to get started:
- Start going to bed earlier, around nine or ten p.m. You will wake up naturally when the sun rises.
- Don't eat within three hours of bed.
- Delete all social media from your phone.
- Cut news out of your life.
- Stop eating sugar.
David's Experiments
At first, David followed all of the traditional guidelines to the extreme. He cut out all red meat, ate a super low-fat diet, and exercised for 30 hours a week. When this wasn't working, he decided to switch things up.
He tested 15 to 20 different diets after deciding that conventional wisdom wasn't working for him. The goal was to determine the link between the food he ate with how he felt afterward. Instead of just accepting that feeling bad after eating was a part of life, he decided to find a diet that changed the way he felt. In the end, the keto diet worked best for him.
Mindful Meals
One trick that helped him with eating was the steam oven. Instead of two minutes in the microwave, it takes 20 minutes to heat up a meal. With that time, he can take the opportunity to slow down before he eats the meal.
Although David has cut many foods out of his life, he is not saying that you have to cut everything out. Remember that control doesn't mean restriction, it means freedom from frustration. As you make your food choices, keep your end goal in mind.
Think about it. Understand the risks. And then if you want some fried food, go eat some fried food because you enjoy it. Right. Like, what good is it if you went through all of life saying 'ah, I wished I had a slice of pizza' and then you die. That kinda sucks. But also understanding that when you eat that pizza there is an impact...but just take it on with your eyes open.
Related: When You Eat Matters
The Food Pyramid
The food pyramid is a misinformation campaign that has been passed down for decades. The food pyramid suggests that sugar is good and fat is bad. However, that is not necessarily true.
The determinations of the food pyramid have dominated the grocery store for decades. Food items strive to be low in fat and high in sugar. But this is not always the best diet for a person.
David hopes for a future food pyramid that is actually based in science and has two or three options to choose from. It could change our society's perception of what is "good food" versus "bad food."
Supplementation
As you continue your health journey, supplementation is something to consider. However, it should be one of the last pieces of the puzzle. If you choose to take supplements, do not proceed at random. Instead, you should get blood testing done to determine what you need.
Supplementation goes a long way for sure because there are things that we just can’t do naturally.
David takes these supplements every day:
- D3
- Salt pills
- Fish oil
- B12
- Magnesium
You can find the brands he uses on his website. Make sure to find a quality blood test to determine which supplements you may need to take. In general, a one-off test for a single nutrient, like D3, should cost between $15 and $20. A full panel would cost between $500 and $750 and you should expect to run these tests for 6 to 12 months. David uses Parsley Health to help cover the costs of testing.
If you decide to take supplements, then make sure to consult a doctor about the proper dosage and which supplements would be most useful for you.
How To Connect
The Hot Seat
Favorite Blog, Podcast, or Book: Sapiens but Evolution of Everything is a close second.
An Inflection Point: A change of how he did not feel hungry anymore. The time he could walk out of work and realize that he accidentally skipped lunch because he wasn’t hungry.
Favorite Life Hack: The Squatty Potty and baby wipes. Plus, his convection steam oven.
Biggest Financial Mistake: Investing in restaurants, food, and related things has been the biggest mistake financially and emotionally.
The advice you would give your younger self: Make sure you go out there and do something. One step at a time.
What purchase have you made over the last 12 months has brought the most value to your life? The Ooler by Chilipad
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