Ve [00:00:01]:

Welcome back, listeners to Inside the System episode 13 this is the podcast style space where I interview your favorite creators to help you get an inside peek of the inner workings at how they grow and build their personal brands and businesses. And our guest today is not your average book enthusiast. He's a true advocate for spreading wisdom and inspiring a hunger for knowledge as the lead researcher for Stairway to Wisdom, a platform where Matt dives deep into the world of books, providing you with insightful, breakdowns and a captivating newsletter app piece each week. But Matt's story doesn't stop there. He has experienced a remarkable range of adventures. He's fought in boxing matches in Russia, worked as a nightclub bouncer for over a decade, led an international record label with a global distribution, and even had encounters where he lost a staggering 100K in a single day, not once, but twice. His accomplishments have earned him a community service medal from the Queen of England, all before the age of 33. And yeah, now 33, so have birthday on that as well. And having absorbed the wisdom from over 1000 books and meticulously taken notes, matt witnessed the profound and transformative power that lies within the pages of great literature. This fueled his obsession to share the best ideas from the finest books he's read with as many people as possible. And so in today's episode, we'll have the privilege of delving into Matt's insights and strategies on the path to building unwavering discipline in various realms from someone who has tried it all. And so, without further ado, let's dive right in. Matt, welcome to the show. I'm thrilled to have you on here. We've had so many great conversations so far. How are you, man?

Matt Karamazov [00:01:40]:

Thanks so much, V. And yeah, it's so nice to be invited here just to talk about some of my favorite things. Yeah, reading has just done so much for me and self discipline as well. It's one of the foundational skills that you could ever develop. It's the one thing that will lead to everything else that you want in your life. I'm doing okay myself. I just turned 33 yesterday. So, yeah, I'm ready to dive right in. Let's not waste any time. Let's talk about some self discipline, some books, and let's get going.

Ve [00:02:21]:

Happy to hear that, man. And let's dive right in. So I want to start at a personal story perspective and about your life. So I want to know what were some key turning points or experiences that have helped you develop, like, a strong sense of discipline in these various areas of your life? Now, what were those transitioning points?

Matt Karamazov [00:02:42]:

There are really two ways that I approach this generally, and I arrived here from two different directions. One was just massive frustration with where I was. And I was at a horrible place that I didn't want to be. And literally the only place or the only way that I could get out of my current situation was developing this insane, sickening level of work ethic and self discipline and forcing and just fighting my way out of where I was. It was after one of those times where I lost $100,000 in a single day, right? And so that was not a good time for me because it represented a significant amount for me. It's not like I could toss that off and nothing it was a big investment for me and it was gone. So it was a massive frustration. Nothing was going right. So I had to become discipline. There was no other choice. And the other way that I sort of approached this, which is mostly my default state, which is pretty good, I'm generally an optimistic person. I'm happy most of the time. I'm nice to people, you know what I mean? So one of the things that made me so disciplined was that this abiding, just this love for life that just will not go away, it will not be defeated. There's no situation that can keep me down permanently. And so it was just this awareness of all the opportunities that surrounded me, right? And especially with the internet. The Internet is miracle territory. And just having so much possibility, so many amazing people doing these awesome things and posting about it, I wanted that for myself as well. And the only way that I was going to get there and build this life that I would love living is by developing this unreal self discipline that would take me there. And so those two routes, basically, this massive frustration and massive possibility.

Ve [00:05:01]:

On the first point, when you talk about massive frustration, what does that look like? I want to see if any of the listeners here relate to that point. How far low did that point have to be in order for you to realize I need to fix this situation? Sometimes we are in a safe zone where we're not in a bad enough situation to feel triggered to fix it. So I do want to hear yours, if you don't mind sharing.

Matt Karamazov [00:05:29]:

No, I don't mind at all. It reminds me that story, and I can't remember where I first heard it, but there's a dog sitting on a nail and this guy's walking by the dog and his owner, and the guy says, that must really hurt. Your dog's just sitting on that nail. Why doesn't he move? And the owner says, Well, I guess it doesn't hurt enough to move. We're like that as well. If it doesn't hurt enough, we're not going to move. So you sometimes do have to hit rock bottom. You have to hit that massive frustration. And I'm sure people can relate to mine. My particular frustration was financial. I was in a deep hole, right? And the 100,000 wasn't completely mine, but still I had to pay it back to the people that I borrowed from. And it was about 30,000 of my own money at the time, and my record label was just kind of taken off. But it wasn't blow 30,000 and not think about it taking off. It was significant blow. And there were missed credit card payments and late fees. And it's frustrating when all these things pile up and it's almost like you're down already and they're kicking you with these. You're over your limit, so here's another $29 fine or something like that, and you can't take too many of those without just getting really sick of it all and just getting this or building this massive determination to get out of your situation. Now, luckily, I had a support system. My parents have always stuck with me. They believed in what I was doing. They supported me as well. I had friends that I could talk to, which is just so critically important. I'm not entirely sure about the numbers, specifically about this loneliness epidemic, but I'm absolutely sure that people are much lonelier than they ever have been before. There's not these strong networks, these friend groups that have been in place before. These are eroding, and it's literally devastating. The perfect storm can happen where all of these things are coming together at once. And it's a horrible place to be in, but sometimes being there, it's so bad that it just forces you to want to get out. And that's what happened to me.

Ve [00:08:07]:

I can relate to that. And I understand what you're saying, and it makes me wonder if you have an opinion on this or if there was a framework you've ever read about in the books, the thousand books that you've read so far. And that is, if you are in an uncomfortable position, but just not uncomfortable enough to make a transition, do you advise or recommend people to kind of dive lower in order to kind of find that spirit, to fix that situation? Does that make sense?

Matt Karamazov [00:08:46]:

I understand I don't believe in doing things that make you weak, so I wouldn't sabotage my own efforts just to make it worse, but I would maybe tap into the pain that's already there because we all have these sort of compensatory strategies, right? I'm going to pick on Netflix. I have a Netflix subscription, too. But people, they watch Netflix because their life is so bad that it takes their mind away from that. And it's why people turn to drugs and drinking, right, where they don't want to face how bad their situation actually is. But if they did actually want to face it, and they would realize what kind of a situation they're actually in, how frustrating it is, how horrible it is, then they'd have the motivation to dig themselves out as opposed to simply hiding from it and not doing anything. Right. Just sitting on that nail.

Ve [00:09:52]:

Yeah, I see. And I would say, from what you've told me, it's better to measure just how serious or costly these situations that you're in or these elements are around you, affecting you to be able to once you quantify, you understand how you can reduce it and move forward in a positive manner. You spoke about support systems and how you had family and friends that were there to help support you when that situation occurred. Do you have any advice or ways for people to find their own circles, their own support systems, whether that through mentors, accountability, partners, communities, to help them align themselves?

Matt Karamazov [00:10:40]:

Yes, absolutely. And I think if you don't have those systems in place, it should be a main priority. And one of the things that the sort of mindset shifts that's really helpful here is that people are generally helpful. They want to be on your side and they're generally nice. And more than that, I find that if you're nice first, then they will most likely respond in kind. That's one of the things I learned from being a nightclub bouncer, right? If you go in and you're acting like a jerk first, that's exactly what you're going to get out. But if you approach them in a way that's more personable and open, people are going to respond the exact same way. And it's interesting how that all works out. So knowing that that's true, that people are generally good, they want to help you and people want to connect as well, just knowing that will help you sort of take a lot of the pressure off when it comes to making new friends and sort of getting yourself out there, because it is scary. I'm more of a quiet, introvert type guy. I mean, I sit home and, and read, you know, I work out by myself. Like, I spend a lot of time in, in silence and solitude, but at the same time, you know, I can't stay there. I realized that all of the most amazing times of my entire life were all spent with other people. And sort of, once you realize that, you realize that there's so much out there, there's such a big upside to you getting yourself out there and making friends, embedding yourself inside these networks of support that it gets a lot less scary. And especially when you know that people are generally good and it gets easier over time. One of my business mentors, unofficial mentors, Alex Hermosi, he talks about the rule of 100, right? And basically really short, you do 100 reps of that thing that you want to improve each day, right? So if you started 100 conversations with a stranger every single day, which is a lot, maybe you want to start with ten or even five. And it doesn't have to be in person, but it could be online or what have you, then you're going to get a lot better at speaking to people over time, and you're going to improve rapidly. And you're going to find that your support network, your network of friends and supporters and believers, grows exponentially when you start getting yourself out there. And there's a really dumb phrase that I think about all the time, but it goes something like the doors of opportunity will open for you, but you have to be moving down the hallway. It sounds kind of cringe to say like it belongs on a motivational poster or something but it's true, you have to be moving and these opportunities will come to you.