Male: This Isn't Your Average Business Podcast and He's Not Your Average Host
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Male: This isn't your average business podcast and he's not your average host. This is the James Altucher Show on the Stansberry Radio Network. James Altucher: This is James Altucher at the James Altucher Show, and I'm welcoming Kamal Ravikant. Kamal, welcome to the show. Kamal Ravikant: Thanks, James. Really happy to be here. James Altucher: Kamal, I don't even know how to introduce you. You've done so many different things, and we talk about – we keep running into each other all over the country, whether it's venture capital stuff, personal improvement stuff, Internet marketing, whatever. You're involved in everything. Kamal Ravikant: Yeah, or maybe I'm just talking here, right [Laughs]? James Altucher: Yes, it's true. So you're the author of "Love Yourself", "Live Your Truth". You're a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, you're a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, you do all sorts of things with Internet marketing, so I want to talk about all of these things because, really, Kamal, the whole basis of this podcast is I want people to get the sense and the reality that they can free themselves from whatever's holding them back, whether it's a job or fears about their education or fears about whatever, relationships. And you've been through it all and lived to tell the tale, so I'm just gonna start asking questions, and you go for it. Kamal Ravikant: Yeah, sure. And actually, one of the things is I was in the army. It's like I mention it because I'm very proud of that fact and also, like, it just kinda shows – I'm in such a different place in my life than when I was in the army, but it just goes to show you how life – you can just end up anywhere you want and utilize the experience that you had even when you were 18 now at 42. James Altucher: Okay. Let's start with that because why the heck did you go in the army? You were eighteen years old, you could probably get into some school or whatever. Why'd you go into the army? Kamal Ravikant: I was actually in a state school in Upstate New York for a year and it was like 16,000 people, everyone was from Long Island, and all they did was drink, and it was 500 people in my classes, and I would never go to class, would just drink and get AIDS, and I was bored out of my mind. James Altucher: I can't stand that whole getting AIDS thing. www.verbalink.com Page 1 of 35 Kamal Ravikant: Yeah [Laughs]. James Altucher: That's such a drag to get AIDS. Kamal Ravikant: Yeah [Laughs]. So I was just bored and I just wanted to be challenged, and I was eighteen, like, just – and that seemed like the best way for me to be challenged. I just walked in the recruiter's office and he showed me photos of which – how bad it actually could be, and I was like, "Okay, this sounds right." And also I was – having being – I was born in India, but raised in the U.S., but being an immigrant and being a young immigrant, you feel a certain level of patriotism and, like, gratitude to your country that you want to pay back. And so I did that as well. So actually left school and joined the army. James Altucher: Well, and what – Kamal Ravikant: ______ [Crosstalk]. James Altucher: – did you start out as, a private? Kamal Ravikant: Yeah. I did enlisted. I was _____ at Fort Benning, which is infantry. I took the ASVAB, and that's a special test they determine what specialty you can choose, and I scored, like, 98 out of 99 percentile, so I could have chosen anything, and I chose the one that the people who basically fail the ASVAB _____, infantry, which is what is really the military's about, the soldier. And I tell you that was, like – it was a great training in life at eighteen to be, like – being taught, like, people shooting at lead and how to lead a team of men under stress like that. You carry that with you for the rest of your life. James Altucher: Yeah, and this wasn't, like – even though this was during the – kind of the end of the Cold War, I was sure it was probably not too many years after the Gulf War. So there was potentially a reality of going to war. Kamal Ravikant: Mm-hmm. Yeah, but you don't really think too much about that when you're eighteen, honestly. There's a reason why the – James Altucher: Which I think is the sad thing. Kamal Ravikant: – military recruits young men. James Altucher: Like, there's so many things – www.verbalink.com Page 2 of 35 Kamal Ravikant: Huh? James Altucher: – they send eighteen-year-olds too, whether it's college or war – Kamal Ravikant: Yeah. James Altucher: – that 40-year-olds would not go to. Like, I would never go – Kamal Ravikant: No way. James Altucher: – to college, and I would never go to war. Kamal Ravikant: True [Laughs]. I think both you and I spend our time talking to people that are doing both. Yeah [Laughs]. James Altucher: Exactly. And yet people act like, "Oh, no, it's patriotic to join the army. These people are defending you." I'm fine with that, but I have – whenever I put back the argument, "Okay, well, you're allowed to volunteer too and you're 45 years old", nobody ever says, "Okay, yeah, I'll volunteer instead of my child." Kamal Ravikant: Yeah. James Altucher: So I – Kamal Ravikant: ______ [crosstalk] your actions, right? James Altucher: – applaud you for joining. Like, I think it's a great thing that you joined, but I just don't see many 50-year-olds joining. Kamal Ravikant: No, but I recommend it. In fact, these days, people will ask me, "______ eighteen-year-olds." And I'll say, "Listen, honestly, especially given the state of what'll happen, where you'll be sent, what might happen to you in military, you're better off just grabbing a backpack and a taking a couple thousand dollars and go to a country where you don't speak the language for a few months. You will grow just as much as you have in the military." It's the level of being thrown in situations where you're just not comfortable. Every day you're being challenged, which is what the military's really about. James Altucher: I would say, too, that's a good choice for any eighteen-year-old, even those eighteen-year-olds who are trying to decide whether or not to go to college. And I've talked about this on other podcasts, and you and I have talked about it quite a bit, but just in general, www.verbalink.com Page 3 of 35 getting life experience is incredibly value, as opposed to any organization or institution, which is gonna try to regiment you, which is either the army or college. But again, the one thing about the army, which I have to say and I wish I had done it, is that you get a very good workout for at least six months. Kamal Ravikant: [Laughs] I'll tell you something interesting. I used to be very, very undisciplined before the army, and that was part of the reason. I thought it would teach me to be disciplined because I never went to my classes and I just drank a lot, typical college freshman. And I learned something, which was in the army, they can yell at you, scream at you, and they can force you to do stuff, but in the end, you have to step up on your own and do it. Like, I remember there was a – in boot camp your PT test by the time you graduate, you have to score a certain amount on it. And if you score really high, peers had to call you PT stud. And I was, like, the smallest guy in my unit. Like, I was, like, the only brown guy in the – I think in the U.S. army at the time. This was 1990. At least _______. And so I had a bit to prove, so I kinda made a mental decision that I was gonna be a PT stud in my unit. I was gonna beat everybody's PT scores. So I remember, like, we would come back to our barracks, like, really exhausted and fall asleep at night, and while people would be sleeping, I'd be underneath my bunk doing pushups. There was no drill sergeant yelling at me, no one telling me to be in better shape, but it was, like, a little decision I made for myself, like, a little, like, commitment I made to myself that I was gonna be better. So I was actually doing that on my own on top of all they were making us do, and that was a great lesson for me. James Altucher: And how many pushups would you do? Kamal Ravikant: I was able to do, I think, like, 90-something in two minutes. James Altucher: Oh, my gosh. And how many can you do right now, like, 20 or 30 years later, however many years later it is? Kamal Ravikant: Honestly, I can probably do about the same.