Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Cut the Tie podcast. I am your host, thomas Helfrich. I am on a mission to help you cut the tie to whatever it is holding you back from success, and that success has to be defined by you. I say this a lot If you don't define your own definition of success, you're chasing somebody else's dream, and that's just not going to work. I promise Today I'm joined by Alexander Spetsky. How are you? Good, man, good? Thank you for having me on more of a look at what's necessary for rebuilding culture in the future.

Speaker 2: 0:25

On a new socioeconomic standard. So that's sort of like my philosophical side and I guess, since I've been writing for so long, most people know me for that. But my general vocation is building businesses. So I've built everything from gyms to hospitality ventures to tech, and I think that I'd say probably the last nine years have been primarily in tech.

Speaker 2: 1:06

My last company was a Bitcoin exchange in Australia. We built the first Bitcoin-only savings app in the country and it became quite a success. I exited that a couple of years ago and for the last year I've been building what you could call the first social travel app. So imagine like the social dynamism of an Instagram with the travel utility of a Google Maps or TripAdvisor. So like that's sort of. I'm trying to build something that's in the blend there, because I truly believe that the way people travel, move around and, in fact, live like we're moving into a more location, independent world and a more sort of mobile lifestyle. So I'm trying to build something for people that bridges that gap. And, yeah, we we raised some much funding last year and we've been working our asses off to build it. It's quite a large product. We looked at our GitHub the other day and we've pushed more features in the last six months than Twitter, instagram and Facebook did combined in their first three years. So it's a big product and, yeah, man, I'm excited to get it out into people's hands.

Speaker 1: 2:13

Yeah, is it officially launched? Is it in beta?

Speaker 2: 2:16

No, no, no, so it's a beta right now. We're going to launch over six months. So we're going to do a rolling release over six months because of the complexity of the product, because you've got events in there, you've got maps, you've got reviews, you've got recommendations, you've got a social feed. It's quite broad, but the first public release will happen on the 20th of June, so we've got eight days.

Speaker 1: 2:41

That's a long time. That's pretty long. How are you awake right now? Um it's stupid.

Speaker 2: 2:48

You're up pretty late. Yeah, man, it's been. It's been busy me and the boys are here, so the the team is distributed. I actually live in Brazil and some of my team are from Georgia, the country, some are from Europe, some are from America, and we just kind of flew into Prague, which is where the big conference is, where we're releasing it next week, and we're just here like plowing away and it's coming together. I do like Bratislava, it's a beautiful city. It's a beautiful city. It's one of my favorite.

Speaker 1: 3:15

My wife is Slovak and so I know it's Czech. Just for those like that's Czech, like I know it's Czech enough, it's a train right away for us. That's all of us, um, do love the city. Great place it's. Uh, I, good luck getting stuff done. There's no distractions there that possibly could pull you away from your work at night. Not at all, not at all. So that should be pretty easy to focus. Uh, you should have picked like berno or someplace like a little bit chiller, like a few like an hour away or something. It would be a little bit chiller, like a few like an hour away or something. Yeah well, this is next time, next time. Well, good luck on that. So, before we get into your journey, a little bit, you know, and the ties you've cut, metaphorically, so to speak, with the definition of success for you.

Speaker 2: 3:59

Definition of success. Hmm, that's a. I think success is quite a moving tug. I don't think it's a place you necessarily arrive at. It's a North star or a direction you move in. And I think if you are, if you're in alignment alignment is maybe not the right word, but if you are facing that direction, if you are continually making progress in that direction, I think that is the process of success, not the destination of success.

Speaker 1: 4:34

I bet that's interesting. Most people don't. No one's actually answered that way, but I think that's. I think that's right. I think if you ever get there, you didn't actually. You know you're chasing the sun, you'll never get to the sun, and so you're all you'll do is get off course from where you thought you could be. Not always all of them are bad, but you know, occasionally you're like where the hell is the sun? It's always behind me. I think that's a great way to think.

Speaker 2: 4:59

So you're, you Pursuing a path. I think that's really important.

Speaker 1: 5:03

So what's your current path? You're like is it release-based? You're like, eight days out success metrics right now, yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:10

Right now, that's all that matters. That is the path. But even beyond that and this is why I said we don't have a launch day, we have a rolling release. I won't define the metric of success based on how we go at this conference. This conference is about putting something into people's hands, seeing how they use it, getting the feedback and then iterating and acting on that feedback.

Speaker 2: 5:31

And I think I've learned this as an entrepreneur over the years is you know, everyone talks about, oh, you know, you need to fail, and fail fast and all this sort of shit, and it's kind of a failure and success. People kind of measure them in weird ways and then they say, well, look, failure is the path to success. And then we'll, you know, success, the path to failure. In that case, like it's, it's all a little bit confusing, which is why I think this sort of angle of looking at it as a pathway it's like look, man, you're going to trip over, you're going to fall over, you're going to get back up. You need to persevere, you need to you that you are moving in that direction. I think you are on the way of succeeding. No-transcript. Were you satisfied with the life that you lived, or did you have um, or do you regret it? And I think we won't know that metric, or we won't know that thing until we get to our deathbed.

Speaker 1: 6:28

So until then it's a path, until then it's math, it's journey. Talk about your journey a little bit and maybe what the biggest kind of obstacle tie, metaphorically or whatever you've had to kind of cut to get to where you are.

Speaker 2: 6:43

Yeah, I've been someone who all throughout my life I never had too many ties actually, which maybe I'll give you an unconventional answer here is my lack of ties probably caused me more problems. So I left home at a relatively youngish age, like 17, 18. I took my scholarship money, so I was very academically strong. I went to university. I decided that everyone at university was an idiot. So I took my scholarship money and I invested in stock market. I taught myself, I self-taught myself to trade derivatives and I turned like $5,000 into $60,000 in a matter of six months. I thought I was a genius. I was like, watch out, warren Buffett. Thousand dollars in a matter of six months. I thought I was a genius. I was like watch out, warren Buffett, I'm coming for you.

Speaker 2: 7:24

And my goal was to make my first million by the time I was 20. Unfortunately, this was 2007. So then I lost everything and I somehow managed to get a bunch of loans from the banks all sorts of stupidity. I don't even know how I did this and I ended up a quarter of a million dollars in debt when I turned 20. So that put me on an interesting path and the only thing I could do at the time in order to pay the loans and feed myself was to go knock on doors and sell stuff. And I was this kind of academic kid. I had no friends. I was really introverted. The idea of going and selling something was preposterous, so the only thing I could do was that. So I sold paid television while I was living on someone's lounge room floor. I didn't have a TV, I didn't know what was on television, but I learned how to sell and communicate by necessity because I had to eat, and that sort of opened my life into a very different direction. I went from studying to be a civil engineer to having to drop out of uni, pay back these loans, become entrepreneurial, and you know, my life took me along that path and I built businesses.

Speaker 2: 8:25

I blew up more than I succeeded. In the early days I built a gym which blew up in my face, solar energy company where I made my first million when I turned 23,. And then dispute with the government and all this sort of crap with government rebates and all this sort of stuff, and that blew up in my face as well. My first app failed the hospitality venture. I grew that from one shop to 13 shops in the space of six months. Most of those failed. I ended up with a couple of those that succeeded, if we're going to use that word, and then I ended up selling those and my first two apps also failed. They didn't work out, but I kept persevering and I think the older I've gotten, the more I've tried to actually be a little bit less unhinged and instead tether myself to something.

Speaker 2: 9:17

So maybe this is an unconventional angle for the show, but I've tried to tie myself to a theme and try and narrow down the scope or the I shouldn't say the ambition, but the target in the early days, because what I did very much in my 20s was I tried to do too much with too little resources, too little ability, too little capability, too little capital or whatever the case was. So, yeah, my last company, which was a success, was me sticking to one thing, tying myself to the thing and really like rebuilding that and compounding on it, and it's the same thing with this one. When I raised this venture round with the investors, they said, okay, so what's your exit strategy? I said exit strategy. I said no, no, no. This is a game for the next 10, 15 years.

Speaker 2: 10:04

I said I'm building something that I'm not building it to exit. I'm building it to like. This is a part of my life and if Zuckerberg wants to come and offer me a billion dollars in five years, I'll think about it, but this is about tying and tethering myself to this thing and compounding that over time. So hope that's a useful answer. It is.

Speaker 1: 10:26

And listen, there's a book called 10X is Easier Than 2X by Dan Sullivan, and what you did was actually just cut the ties of all the shit that you should have said no to before. Okay, there you do it. And every entrepreneur on the planet I am not, I am. It's the same thing. You go and try a bunch of stuff, if that's what you do, and then you're like that all was dumb or it didn't work. Then there's cost me a lot or didn't make enough. Whatever, the answer is it's 1.5, 2x, and you're like I'm going to go back to the thing that can actually make money. I've done it. You could argue, this podcast is that, but I enjoy doing that show. Do you remember the moment, though, when you knew you were going to just go focus on the one thing? That was like just a like, the actual like, that's it.

Speaker 2: 11:12

Yeah, I think the first wake up call for me was when I did find Bitcoin, for example. I went all in and I really got sucked down that rabbit hole because for me, I found bitcoin very interesting from a uh, social perspective, from an economic perspective, from philosophical perspectives, you know, because, because I I've always been interested in australian econ history, how the world functioned, the story of money and all this sort of stuff, and and for me, like really narrowing down on that, like and it wasn't immediate, like when I first discovered bitcoin, I screwed around with all the shit coins and all that sort of stuff and then over time, I just eliminated all the noise, all the crap, all the junk, all the distractions, everything like that, and I just focused in on Bitcoin and it manifested in the product, our product. In the beginning, investors were like what the hell are you doing? Why don't you allow people to trade between Ethereum and this? That I said no, no, no.

Speaker 2: 12:01

Bitcoin is a savings instrument. People have the opportunity to acquire the best money on the planet before the rest of the world does. The only functionality is set up the account, link your bank and buy five bucks a week, 10 bucks a week, 50 bucks a month. I'll just bellicose the average into it. That's it, nothing else. Forget about trading.

Speaker 1: 12:19

Forget about all this other I told myself 10 years ago that I still like when it tripled and I'm like how did I do that?

Speaker 2: 12:24

You are still so early. You know, one Bitcoin will go like billions of dollars in the in the next 10, 20 years. So it is it is not going away.

Speaker 2: 12:32

You, you, you, dollar cost average into that thing and that's it. You forget about it. And that for me, was, was, was massive and it really simplified my life. During that period and when I exited that, I sat down and I wrote some books and once again I just focused on one book, did that, launched that and I hit the bestseller list. We got into all sorts of crazy podcasts with that Jordan Peterson, this, that, all sorts of things and then, yeah, finished up with that. Then the second book that took me two years of real, real, real laser focus, and I didn't as I was finishing the book, I was starting this business. So there was a period of like heavy, heavy, heavy overlap where I was trying to do both and now that the book is done, that released last year.

Speaker 2: 13:12

Now I'm into this and yeah, man, I think it's also part of an age thing. You know you pass, you get past 35 and you realize you know it's kind of. You know, when you're in your 20s, you're at a, you're at a buffet and you want to eat the chicken, the salad, the beef, the pork, the this, that you want to eat everything and you realize you just stuffed your food full of you, stuffed your stomach full of food that you don't really like. And now, so you pass that 35 point. It's like look, I like the beef. So you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna eat more beef. Forget about the salad and all the other bullshit. This is it.

Speaker 1: 13:39

They should only have one piece really. Why am I at a buffet at all? Couché, Let me get out of here. Got my money back. What are you most grateful for?

Speaker 2: 13:51

grateful for at this point is my wife and she. We found out she was pregnant on christmas last year, so she's due for a baby soon. So that's for me that's like the highlight, really great for that.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Yeah, that's a, that's a big congratulations, that's a. By the way, that may change your perspective. Some, some things. When you want that little thing comes out, I'm telling you that, absolutely guaranteed. Um, if it doesn't, I'd be. You know, you might want to, might want to check my head again. Why? Because it should. Congratulations, that's, that's fantastic. What you know. Give us some advice to the 20 year old, something out there who's like you. What advice?

Speaker 2: 14:28

yeah, I, I if I could go back to my 20s. I know there's a lot of advice. It's like use your 20s to experiment, to explore and all this sort of stuff. I think that probably is valid for the early 20s. I spent too much time experimenting, exploring, blowing things up and all that sort of stuff, and I probably should have started compounding earlier and compounding. When I say that, what I mean is narrowing the focus and finding the one or two things that you should do and do well. So if I could go back to myself in my early twenties or if anyone is in their early twenties or mid twenties listening to this is get to that thing that you enjoy, that you're good at, and compound, compound as soon as possible, because compound growth is truly the, not just in investments, but in your own capacity, in your own skill set, in your own results, is truly the. You know, whatever they call it, the eighth, ninth wonder of the world I mean compound anything that adds value.

Speaker 1: 15:26

Right, it's something that I definitely you know, at some point.

Speaker 1: 15:29

If you wait too long, by the way, the only confining you're going to do is into yourself, and I'm one of those people that did way too much at twenties and thirties, um, and I know, I know exactly what you mean. Find something you love to do that solves a problem, that you have some skills in, and pour it all on skills. Uh, cause, as you see success up, that raises the passion, and even from, like you know, your dollar cost, average idea. Leave it Just, forget it Like, just treat it like a drink you didn't buy at a bar, right, I mean, and, and, and. The truth is, if you do that and you do all the things that are still behind the scenes that you know, you get money working for yourself and getting your own talents to work, and you're you're when you hit forties fifties, you'll be really freaking glad you did that, absolutely, I mean.

Speaker 2: 16:20

Mean, I think it's. It's funny, man, the older you get, the more you realize things are so simple. They're not easy, but they're simple, you know. And then when you, when you're young, you think it's all complicated, um and it it, it isn't. It's just like. You know the, the straight line, the gordian knot, you know, when alexander the great cut the gordian knot, they were like oh, you know, to become king of this land, you need to untie this thing before the sun rises. He pulled out his sword and he cut the fucking thing in half. That's it. And to take that approach I think in life is a real lesson who gives you inspiration?

Speaker 1: 16:47

Dead or alive? You?

Speaker 2: 16:49

can be anybody. Okay, yeah, I think my. The person who I'm inspired by the most, whoever lived, is Alexander the Great. I think he was the greatest individual who ever lived. Were it not for him, rome wouldn't have existed, the Western civilization wouldn't have existed. None of what we have today would have existed. A vision, a tenacity, a perseverance, a vision, a strength, a courage that few people, in fact nobody in the history of humanity has ever matched. And whenever I'm feeling like a bitch, to put it crudely, I will go back and listen to a history book or something like that about him and then harden up and get back to work.

Speaker 1: 17:35

Yeah, yeah, he was ahead of his times. Actually. I think if, uh, I think if christianity was around during that time, he probably would have taken it, and I think that happened later in the roman empire, but I think he was probably one of the ones that could have done it. Um, because he was like different, uh, so brutal, but brutal for the times probably not, I don't know. Uh, interesting answer, because most people do pick uh things earlier, so I love, I love to hear the difference. It's great. If you had to start over today, though, and could go back at any point, you know, would you? And if you would, what would you do differently?

Speaker 2: 18:06

I would have kids younger. That's my straight up answer. It's the only regret I have is that I waited too long and I think think that's been a. I think it's been a.

Speaker 2: 18:15

An epidemic in our millennial sort of generation is that we kind of we had one foot in the digital age, one foot in the in the pre-digital age and we kind of almost like conned ourselves into thinking that we'd be young forever and that we can still, like, have our cake and eat it too, that sort of sense of I, you know, everything will be fine. And I see a lot of people my age like scrambling. Now I'm trying, you know, organize kids and this and that, and it's like you know, sure, we are healthier, we're younger and all this sort of stuff and we can probably be younger for for a longer period of time. But my, my piece of regret here is that by the time my kids are in their early 20s, I'll practically be 60. And I don't like that thought. So I got more time for myself, but I got less time with them. So if I could go back and do it all over again, I'd have kids in my 20s.

Speaker 1: 19:06

As a guy that's 49 who has a 15-year-old, 13-year-old and 10-year-old. So I was later in life. You won't feel so old when you're 49. Old, so I was later in life. You won't feel so old when you're 49. You you'll be happy you had them when you did, because you'll look back and go man, I would have been a shit dad at 25 possibly.

Speaker 2: 19:23

I mean, it's one of those things we don't know.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Yeah yeah, I definitely think a lot of 20 olds don't realize the word resentment. That you would realize, man, I would have been pissed. I lost my 20. There is no good time. It just happens when it's supposed to for you. So I'm trying to help you not feel so regretful because it happening actually for you when it's supposed to be happening or it will be, and but when it's a here change shit, because 92% of the time you spend with your kids is before the age of 18. So when you're worried about their twenties, don't worry about it.

Speaker 1: 19:51

They're not going to be around anyway yeah it's just, you have plenty of time because, like that age group before they're 12, you'll you're going to want a break. Look, look around that, the. The question I would tell you, though, is uh, anything, you know, when you, when you look back in your life, you say I'd go back and do that differently, just do it now. That's always. That's kind of the full.

Speaker 2: 20:15

Exactly, yeah, that's, and that's why we're on a mission to have as many babies as we can with the wife Appropriate statement, but they're called Irish twins here.

Speaker 1: 20:25

If you can have two within 12 months.

Speaker 2: 20:29

Me and my brother. I've worked marriage so I thought maybe maybe we can pull that off. So I thought maybe we can pull that off, we'll see.

Speaker 1: 20:35

Good job, well congrats. If there's a question I should have asked you today and I didn't, what would that question have been? Oh, okay.

Speaker 2: 20:41

If there was. Ooh, oh man, I've been asked this question before and I can never answer it very well. Yeah, it's the one question that always stumps me. Uh, I, I don't have a good answer for that question, I'm sorry. Yeah, I, I have failed you should.

Speaker 1: 21:01

The answer should. Even I wish you would have told me you were going to ask that before we got here. There you go, I did. I sent it to an email, all right, yeah, it's the mystery question. We're gonna have it. So, since he didn't ask questions, a question I would have asked him and we're gonna go have it. So, since he didn't ask a question, here's a question I would have asked him and we're just going to go shameless plug. Who should get ahold of you and how do they do that?

Speaker 2: 21:18

All right. So people can I mean I'm, I'm across all the social. So if, if my name is uniquely spelled S V E T S K I, so if you search that on Google, you'll find me all over a little bit more active on X, but even though actually, you know, I'm not even active on any of the socials these days but too busy building stuff and kind of like living in the real world. But if you do want to connect with me there, I'm on Substack on X and I guess I'm on Instagram, but I haven't used that in a year or two. And then, obviously, if people are interested. You know what we're building at Atlantis is a new kind of social network. So I think if people actually want to connect with me, that's where I'm more active, because that's less social, where you know the people you follow, the people you connect with. That's the content, you see, as opposed to algorithmic clickbait, which is what we're trying to avoid. So people want to find me on there. It's atlantisio forward slash Svetsky, and you'll find me on there.

Speaker 1: 22:26

Wonderful. I love it. Thanks for coming on today. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 22:30

Absolutely man.

Speaker 1: 22:31

Thank you, listen, if you made it this part of the show. Thanks for listening, watching. If this is the first time you've been here, I hope it's the first of many and if you've been here before, thank you and come back, get out there, go cut a tie. Find your success first, though, because otherwise you're chasing someone else's dream and it won't mean anything when you get there. Thanks for listening.