Application Over Knowledge

In the entrepreneurial world today, there is more information available, most of it for free, than there ever has been before. In fact, you could listen to a new podcast, read a new blog, read somebody's end content somewhere every day for the rest of your life and never run out, but is that a good thing?

I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum Podcast made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds, those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution.

Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny, we define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority. The few who are willing to hallucinate. There could be a better future and instead of just daydreaming of what could be we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real.

We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution and we always will be.

I am actually walking around downtown San Francisco right now, right by the Maritime Museum and Ghirardelli Square. My family and I are out here for the holidays. We're going to be here until the 30th and then we fly back home to Austin for New Year's Eve. We like to spend New Year's Eve at home, quiet where usually inside with the doors locked by about 7:30 at night.

But I wanted to check in with you and do a quick podcast. I've had this thought recurring over and over again as I watched social media, as I talk to entrepreneurs, as I see what's going on in our world, the world of being an entrepreneur. I'm going to walk away from the alarm that's going off. I hope you didn't have to hear that.

And when I look at the entrepreneurial world today, there is more information available today for free and at very low cost than there ever has been. And if you're willing to pay, you could, it's crazy how much information and classes and frameworks and data and so much that you can go out and buy today or listen to or absorb or consume. But my question is, is that really a good thing?

See, here's what I think is one of the biggest challenges and entrepreneurship today is that there is so much content available, there is so much content out there to absorb podcasts, books, blogs, so much out there that people have forgotten that application trumps knowledge any day of the week. So you can be the smartest person in the world, know everything, but if you're not doing anything with it, my question is a very resolute who cares?



And one of the biggest problems I think that's happening in entrepreneurship today is far too many people are looking at the content absorption, listening to content, reading the content, looking at content as the goal or as an outcome. And let's be honest, it just isn't. The problem is reading and absorbing and listening to podcasts and reading another book and looking at another blog posts and going to another event means absolutely nothing if you're not applying it and actually making a difference in your own life.

Cadey and I, my wife Cadey and I had been really successful as entrepreneurs. We've made tens of millions of dollars in profit. We've made hundreds of millions of dollars in gross revenue in our businesses since we've been together for the last 15 years. And I think one of the most important aspects of our success, probably the most important aspect of our success, is that we will not allow ourselves to go learn something without applying it and then go learn something else. In fact, it's a conversation we have all the time. Hey, should we go to this event? Well, we really haven't gotten everything applied from the last event. Let's wait until the next time they hold one and then we'll go to the next one.

Because we have always had a rule that if we're not applying it, if we're not actually making something happen out of it, it doesn't really matter because we don't want to get caught up in the pattern that so many entrepreneurs are caught up in today where when you go to the event, people actually act like the event was their goal.

I remember the first time I ever went to a Tony Robbins conference. I was about 19 years old. I went with my friend Anthony. It was a smaller event. It was just, let's be honest, it was 27 years ago. And Tony Robbins wasn't as popular as he is today. He was still crazy popular. There's about 2000 people there.

And what was bizarre was even back then, one of the questions that I get asked most often at that event was hey, how many times have you been to the Firewalk Seminar or to the Unlimited Power Weekend? And I remember thinking, this is my first time. And the instant thought I had was why would I come again? If I'm coming and I'm experiencing it and I'm taking my notes and I'm going to go apply everything, why is the goal to come again?

And I had people tell me, well, oh, I've been to seven of them, I've been to eight of them, I've been to 12 of them. And it was like a badge of honor that they had been to so many of these conferences. So I started asking, well, great, what have you applied? What have you done with it? How has it changed your life? You've been here 12 times. How has it changed your life?

And what was shocking was how few answers I got to that question that meant anything. Of course people said things like, oh, Tony Robbins has made me feel better and this event is so, so incredible and I'm so much more motivated and I feel like I've broken down barriers. But when I would press and say like, tell me really what have you applied and how has it changed things the conversation got very thin and somewhat uncomfortable. I think, that's 27 years ago.

Flash forward to today, there is exponentially more information and content and podcasts and audio books and regular books and everything else available today that we can read and absorb without applying and fool ourselves into thinking that we're actually making progress.

Here's something that happens to me all the time these days. I'll have a coach or an author or an expert or someone who has knowledge and says, you know what I really want to do is and learn online marketing. I want to be able to coach and sell some stuff online. I'm going to learn the frameworks to sell online. And I'll say, hey, that's easy. Just buy a book called Expert Secrets. It's how I learned. I mean, I'm in Russell's inner circle. Russell Brunson's, the author of Expert Secrets, and it is by far one of the best books out there if you want to get get into online marketing. If you're an expert, an author or somebody who has knowledge and you want to convert that to a business online, I don't think there's a better book than Expert Secrets.

But here's the fact about Expert Secrets. If you read it and you apply it, you will be in business online. If you just go through the exercises and you actually go through and achieve each thing Russell tells you to do and you go through each exercise and you actually complete it, you will have an online business. So whenever I recommend it to somebody, whenever somebody says you know, Alex, I really want to have an online business. I want to learn how to sell online, what would you recommend? And I'll say, well, have you read this Expert Secrets? And they'll say, oh yeah, great book. I loved it. And I'll look at them and say, well then why doesn't have an online business? Did you apply it? What did you do next? Did you take the frameworks and actually use them? Did you figure out what type of business you're in? Did you go through everything to understand what it is that you're actually going to do online? Because that book is a blueprint to having an online business. From zero to making money online, that's absolutely all you need.

But today it feels like entrepreneurs want to overload themselves with so much information before they pull the trigger and actually do something. And so this is how you apply this for you. How much information did you absorb in 2018? How many podcasts did you listen to me? How many audio books? How many books did you read? How many conferences did you go to? How many seminars did you go to?

Because here's a trick for 2019. Look at last year, figure out what was the best content that you actually absorbed, went out and saw, went to a seminar, listened to, read, listened to a podcast. And here's a secret to make 2019 your absolute biggest year yet. Commit to applying it. Commit to applying it. If you went to a good conference, if you listened to good podcasts, if you read books with people who are successful and you apply those things, your entire life is going to change. Application over knowledge.

Here's one of the things that any entrepreneur can do to beat an entrepreneur who knows that more than them. So if you're an entrepreneur who's starting out or if you haven't been in business for a long time or if you're just getting your legs underneath you in and starting to make some money, starting to have some revenues come in, if you want to beat the entrepreneur that's been in business forever, here's what you do, apply like crazy. Make things happen. Actually take the steps and do what you're learning rather than just absorbing information and moving on.

Because unfortunately today there's far too many entrepreneurs that listen to podcasts, read the book, download another audio book and go to another seminar and we confuse that that is actually moving forward as an entrepreneur. We confuse that any of those behaviors are actually going to develop a business for us. We confused that that is progress in what we really want. And while it's activity, while it's doing something, while it's spending money and spending time until you apply it, you haven't actually taken a step towards having the business you actually want. Application over knowledge changes everything.

So if you're listening to my podcast, do me a favor. When you listen to one of these episodes, commit to doing at least one or two or three things that is going to apply what I shared with you and your entire life will change. Make 2019 the year that you don't just absorb, the year that you apply.

You know, typically at the end of my podcast I send you to our application or I asked you to download my book. Well, for the next few podcasts I have a simple ask. We're trying to make this podcast grow like crazy in 201. We've had 1.2 million downloads, which has been absolutely amazing and I want to get the Momentum Podcast for the entrepreneurial personality type to as many people like us as possible.

So today, here's my ask, share this with somebody. Let somebody know that you listen to this podcast, go online and make a post and say, I listened to the Momentum Podcast and you should too. Help me increase our listenership and get more people to not just listen, but apply the information that I share with you on a daily basis.

Thanks for being a listener, I love you and appreciate you and I can't wait to share more with you in 2019 that you don't just absorb, but you actually apply and make a difference.