The Priceless Lesson I Learned from Sam Oven's $32,000 Quantum Mastermind
Years ago I bought Sam Oven's Quantum Mastermind. What I learned shocked me and was a turning point in my life.
The program was $32,000. This was the largest single investment I had made in myself or my business up until that point.
It was scary but to learn from others many steps ahead of me plus network with 7, 8 and 9 figure entrepreneurs? Worth it IMO. They offered installments which helped too.
After two months of virtual masterminding, my partner and I met up in Los Angeles for the in-person event.
It was a solid event, I met some great people and Sam dropped some knowledge that led to some breakthroughs, specifically one priceless lesson that had nothing to do with business.
First of all I think Sam Ovens is both a genius and kind of a weirdo. As someone who identifies as a weirdo myself, I am qualified to recognize my own.
On day one, after going through some business stuff, Sam got started sharing a personal story I had never heard him talk about before.
Personally, I wish he shared this more often because it's so important.
He told the story about how the year or two prior, he had grown a massive team that worked out of a fancy, expensive office in New York City.
His team had ballooned to about 50 people while the company's revenue skyrocketed to more than $50 million.
He was making more money than ever before. He started buying cars and watches and quickly had more stuff than he had ever made in his entire life...
But surprisingly, he told us that he became absolutely miserable.
He basically found himself hating what he had created - his company (This was Consulting.com at the time which he sold to focus on Skool.com) and life that continued to grow in revenue but also complexity.
After his unhappiness grew and giving it some thought, he decided to radically change his situation and downsize his operation.
He fired everyone but a small core team of five people, moved to the forest outside of Los Angeles and grew his hair out to almost unrecognizable levels.
Before I got to the event, I had never seen Sam with long hair so when I saw him I laughed and was kinda like YO WTF somebody call security on this homeless man, then he told us this story.
Aside from his visual transformation from clean cut to long haired hippy, what was also interesting was the business transformation.
Sam said that before in NYC Consulting.com was doing about ~$50M in annual revenue and after, they were doing about ~$20M or so.
Despite this dramatic drop, they were far more profitable from a net margin perspective because they had far less staff and the business was simple to operate.
A true less is more case study. Sam's story definitely changed the energy of the room a bit and led into a new topic of discussion: purpose, vision and values.
He emphasized the importance of having values and a clear long-term vision as a filter for what you do and who you work with, which he failed to do in New York.
This is when stuff got wacky.
As soon as Sam started talking about vision particularly, hands shot up across the room...
"What do you mean by long-term vision, can you explain what you mean?"
"How do you create a long-term vision? I barely have a vision beyond next week or month, let alone next year."
Sam called on them one by one, answered them briefly then called on a new guy, and what he said hit me different.
"Sam, what is your vision and purpose? How do you figure that out? Every month my company deposits money into our account but truth is I don't even know why I'm doing what I'm doing. Is there really a purpose to any of this?, the guy asked with a fake half-smile to mask his clear discomfort.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I thought I was the lost one in a room of dudes who had it all figured out! Yet we were all just as lost in our own way.
Being the ADHD/emotional/visionary type, vision and purpose came easier while making money was something I had to learn and master.
This is why I joined the mastermind in the first place but ironically, it had taught me to shift my focus and remember why I started.
By hearing Sam's story, it became abundantly clear that the pursuit of money and status alone, no matter how big you went, was a hollow, unfulfilling mission.
To make this hollow mission whole, I needed a clear, compelling and exhilarating vision.
When I got home, I cancelled my membership to the mastermind and rebuilt my life and business from the ground up, grateful for one the most important lessons I have ever learned...
Without a clear vision and a higher purpose, life and business are meaningless.
Today every time I hear this quote, it reminds me of this story:
"Some people are so poor, all they have is money."
