10 Lessons From My First 60 Days at Acquisition.com

What I Didn't Expect to Learn in My First 2 months at Acquisition.com

Aug 14, 2025

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I've been inside some incredible companies. Goldman Sachs. Credit Suisse. Real (6,800 to 26,000 agents and $1B market cap in 24 months). Teles Properties ($300M to $3.4B in 5 years and sold to Douglas Elliman).

But nothing prepared me for what I found in my first 60 days at Acquisition.com.

I expected everyone to be jammed. I expected packed calendars and people working hard. That part was true. What I didn't expect was something far more valuable… and much harder to find.

Leila and I recorded a podcast breaking this down but here are 10 tactical lessons I learned that you can (hopefully) implement immediately:

1. The Competence-to-Humility Ratio

At Goldman, we had extremely competent people. Super smart, super sharp. In that individual contributor environment, it was acceptable to have an ego, heck even be an ass, because they're so brilliant.

But finding brilliant people who also have genuine humility is just incredibly rare.

The Implementation: When hiring, completely separate your technical and cultural interviews. Have non-technical team members conduct culture interviews because they have technical-bias and can focus on the cultural fit.

BTW, a good question to ask yourself is: "Would I want 10 more of this person in my organization?"

If the answer isn't an immediate yes, it may be better to keep looking.

2. Environment Gives You a 50% Head Start

I learned something counterintuitive during candidate interviews.

Candidates asked me about the “how” (the skill) required to give feedback. While having the mechanical skill to give feedback or practice sincere candor is important, there is another massive accelerator… the environment.

Meaning, if the environment (aka culture in this case) is not wired for feedback, candor, and insane self-improvement… then it really doesn’t matter how much Berne Brown skill you got, it won’t work.

The right environment probably gets you 50% there automagically. Then add a little skill on top of that, and you are instantly a 70% skilled person because of the lift the environment gave you.

The Application: I know this sounds harsh, but it maybe easier to stop trying to change people. Instead, change the system that shapes them. Hire people at 80% who can close the 20% gap with your environment, not people at 30% hoping they'll magically transform.

3. Write a Freaking Memo

I came up with this acronym internally: #WAFM.
Write a Freaking Memo.

Because nothing great ever happens without being written down. Take the Declaration of Independence, or The Magna Carta or my partner Alex Hormozi’s $100 Million Offers. All written down first.

For people who are curious about how to write a good memo, start with this outline:

The Framework (Why-What-How-Now):

Why: Why is this important? What are the stakes?
What: What is the actual problem at 30,000 feet?
How: How do we solve it? All mechanics and risks.
Now: What's the specific recommendation?

The Rule: No meeting without a memo.

In fact, Alex and I tried to skip this once. We got ripped apart and had to apologize the next day for breaking process… not just because we broke process, but because our thoughts were not organized, it caused confusion, and nobody was able to have a good discussion because we didn’t WAFM.

4. Pain-First Job Descriptions

Most companies copy-paste generic job descriptions. Meh. Which is why they get generic candidates.

I have found that most of the time we hire for one of two reasons: To solve a current gap (aka pain) or to create something (aka capability) for the future.

My Process:

List every painful thing you need solved (or growth capacity needed)
Turn each pain point into a specific responsibility
Let AI clean up the language… but never let it write the substance

I wrote every bullet point for our general counsel search. The result was 1,000 applications and we found exactly who we needed. One candidate told me: "The job description felt like it was written just for me."

That’s magical and it was worth every minute of us writing it!

5. The Daily "Show for It" Question

Every night before bed, I ask myself: "What do I have to show for it?"

Meaning, what tangible result did I create today?
This separates effort from outcome instantly. In this case, a result is something specific I can point to or measure.

Results could look like:

Finished document that solves a specific problem
Made decision that moves project forward
Hired someone who starts next week
Eliminated process that was wasting time
Created system others can follow

Just Activity looks like:

Had meetings about strategy
Researched competitors
Worked on improving processes
Brainstormed solutions
Caught up on administrative tasks

The difference is actually pretty stark: results are concrete and specific. Activity is vague and time-based.

6. Unreasonable Timeline Compression

I walked into a finance project that "needed six months."

I asked: "Why can't we do this in 60 days?"

The team looked at me like I was crazy.

We did it in 60 days.

The Unreasonable Method: Question every "reasonable" timeline. Do it kindly. And a little thoughtfully.

Ask "What would need to be true for us to complete this in 60 days?" Give yourself permission to be unreasonable. You'll be shocked what you can accomplish with compressed timeframes.

7. Start Any Project the Same Day It's Assigned

I learned this in college from one seminar: As soon as you're assigned a project, start it that day. Not tomorrow. That day. Even if its just one page, one problem, one mind-map, one-outline or one line of code. Start every project the same day it is assigned.

Let me tell you why…

Inspiration and momentum are perishable. When you're struck with either, act immediately. The half-life of both is incredibly short.

My Rule: You want a super fast, shitty first draft. Always. This removes judgment paralysis and creates momentum faster than perfectionism ever will. Also, you will shock yourself and your team will appreciate how fast you work and it will give them permission to write shitty first drafts too.

8. The Partnership Language Hack

People fear stepping on toes when collaborating across departments. I had a chance to fix this with simple language…

Instead of: "I'm working on that project."

Say: "I'm partnering with [Leila] on this. "

The Result: Everyone welcomes partnerships. Credit goes to the owner, value goes to everyone involved.

This is the exact reason how A-players work, and how they get looped into projects that are critical to the strategic importance of the company… all by being involved across perceived “silos” with quick partnerships.

9. Give Everyone a Functional Title (Even Contractors)

For example, stop calling people "VAs" or contractors.

It's somewhat demeaning and strangely limits their contribution.

What if "Virtual Assistant" becomes "Operations Manager." Suddenly, they're not just following orders… they're thinking strategically about operations.

The Standard: Every person in your organization gets a title that commands respect, regardless of location or employment status. This allows them to own their contribution, not their place in the org chart.

10. New Leader Advice Collection

In my first few weeks, I met with every single employee at the company. It was the fastest cultural red pill I have ever taken.

One think that really helped me was a specific question I asked every single team member… "What's one piece of advice you have for me?"

Why This Works:

Shows immediate humility (they knew more about the company)
Creates instant connection (they want to help me)
People who give advice automatically care about your success
Gives you cultural intelligence faster than any other method

I have every single person's advice documented.

The patterns revealed exactly how to succeed in the new environment which could’ve taken me months if not years to learn by trial and error.

If you run a company or lead a team, you should watch this video:

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