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How do other business models discussed on the internet compared to the Alpha 2.0 business model? I get a lot of questions about this, and we’re going to analyze it in detail today.
-By Caleb Jones
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We’re going to go through a whole bunch of the big-name business gurus you can find online, including many you’ve probably heard of. You may love (or hate) some of the guys on this list, but today, we’re just focusing on their content and how their business advice is (or isn’t) compatible with an Alpha 2.0 business.
An Alpha 2.0 business structure means a location independent income of at least $75,000 a year (in U.S. dollars) before taxes that requires no more than 30 hours a week to maintain once the business is up and running. Of course, you can make more than that; I certainly do. And you can choose to work longer hours than that. If you’re an ambitious guy with big goals, that’s fine too. Alpha 2.0 is not “get rich quick” in which you have to make a million dollars a year and work 14 hours a day. That’s not part of the model.
Let’s look at some of the other business models and see how they fit in here.
The 4-Hour Work Week
This is a book by Tim Ferriss. I read it when it was first published around 2007ish, and it is 100% Alpha 2.0-compatible. In fact, some aspects of Alpha 2.0 are derived directly from some of Tim Ferriss’s material. His book, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is really an update of Michael Gerber’s The E Myth and The E Myth Revisited from back in the ‘90s.
Tim Ferriss talks a lot about location independent income — so yes, that’s Alpha 2.0. He focuses primarily on selling products, but an Alpha 2.0 business can sell products, services, or information. You’re not locked into any one of those.
So in terms of the 4-Hour Work Week business model, which is an online company usually selling products in a location independent way where you outsource a lot of the functions — all of that is 100% compatible with Alpha 2.0. You may proceed without caution in terms of his business content.
One last note. I have not really kept up with Tim Ferriss’s new content in the last three or four years, so it could be that he’s updated his business model with some new content and advice that may or may not be Alpha 2.0-compatible. I really don’t know. But the book we just discussed is totally compatible.
High-Income Skills
This is Dan Lok. He teaches something he calls The Wealth Triangle, and the three pieces to that are having a high-income skill (which he defines as something with which you can make at least $10,000 a month), having a scalable business, and having high-return investments.
How does that work with Alpha 2.0? Dan Lok doesn’t really talk much about optimizing your time and getting your business to the point where you only need to work 30 hours a week. Lok, like many of the guys on this list, is into really into "get rich" stuff; high six- and seven-figure incomes. This is fine, but the Alpha 2.0 model does not require you to make a six-figure income.
Now, in my personal opinion, I think you should make a six-figure income, but that’s just Caleb’s opinion. That’s not Alpha 2.0 in terms of business model. As long as you make $75,000 in location independent income, you’re free and you’re good to go.
As far as I know, Lok also doesn’t talk at all about location independence. A lot of his stuff probably is location independent, but I don’t think he talks about that as a virtue or an aspect of his business model.
I’ve also been asked a lot about how the high-end skills model works with Alpha 2.0. People think Dan Lok says you should focus on a high-income skill first and then start your business — but that’s actually not what he says. What he says (or at least strongly implies) is that you need to start your own business with a high-income skill as a self-employed person.
I talk about being a consultant, for instance, and that is a high-income skill, but it’s still your own business. What he’s saying is that you probably shouldn’t go out and start your first business selling widgets and hiring a staff of 15 people because you don’t have any high-income skills yet.
I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with that; it depends on the person. There are no giant incompatibilities here, there are just things missing in Dan Lok’s business model that you’d have to add in to achieve Alpha 2.0 status.
The 10X Rule
10X is our hyper buddy Grant Cardone. 10X is radically different from Alpha Male 2.0. It essentially has nothing to do with an Alpha 2.0 business.
10X is all about busting your ass, working 14 or 15 hours a day, and making hundreds of millions of dollars. If you want to do that — and I’ve said this many times — please do. I’m not going to stop you; I think that’s great. The aspect that I don’t agree with is working 14 hours a day six or seven days a week for 40 or 50 years.
When you have a business like that, you’re not free. There are many men I personally know who make huge incomes who are not free. They bust their asses working long hours seven days a week even when they don’t feel like it. So it really depends on what your priorities are: busting your ass and making tons of money, or not making as much money, but being free.
That said, I really like Grant Cardone’s material. I personally use 10X material in my own personal business structures. That’s where I violate my own Alpha Male 2.0 model a little bit: I talk about working less than 30 hours a week, but I work a lot more than that. I like Grant Cardone’s stuff in terms of the motivational aspect.
But an Alpha Male 2.0 does not work more than 30 hours a week unless he chooses to. He doesn’t feel compelled to. I don’t have to work the hours I work, and soon, I won’t have to work at all to maintain my current lifestyle. But personally, I like a lot of the grinding, hard-working, set-big-goals aspects. But again, that's just me, not Alpha 2.0.
Just be aware that if you’re following a hard-core 10X model, you’re going to bust your ass 15 hours a day six or seven days a week for 27 years because you want to make half a billion dollars. That’s great, it’s just not Alpha 2.0 because you’re not going to have the freedom of time the Alpha 2.0 does, and you likely won’t be location independent.
In fact, with the exception of the 4-Hour Work Week, that’s the piece that’s missing in most of these models: location independence.
The Millionaire Fastlane
This is a very popular book. I get asked about it all the time. I read it a few years ago, and it didn’t really help me much because it rehashed a lot of material from other business books I’d read before.
The Millionaire Fastlane really just tells you not to have a job and to start your own business — so that is pure Alpha 2.0. You cannot have a corporate job and be free even if you love your job.
Beyond that, the Millionaire Fastlane advice is kind of generic. Just about everything in that book, when he talks about the specific application of things in your business, you could apply to an Alpha 2.0 business structure. The only big difference is that he talks a lot about having employees — and an Alpha 2.0 business model means you have no employees.
If you have actual employees in your company, it’s overwhelmingly unlikely that you’re free. Barring the rare exceptions, when you have to dick around with employees and all the work involved, all the regulations, taxes, paperwork, and all the legal risk involved, you’re not free. The legal risk alone of having employees these days (particularly in the USA) is utterly ridiculous.
Other than that, pretty much everything in Millionaire Fastlane applies to Alpha Male 2.0. Nothing comes to mind that dramatically contradicts an Alpha 2.0 business model.
Sam Ovens
For those of you who don’t know, Sam Ovens is a guy who teaches consulting. I cannot comment too much on his material because I don’t know much about it. I know who he is and I’ve seen a few of his videos, but I’ve never really delved into any of his material, so I can’t really say whether it’s compatible with Alpha 2.0 or not.
As far as I can tell, he is more about grinding, busting your ass, and making millions and millions of dollars a year. He also does not teach location independence, which again, is something a lot of people on this list fail to do. He’s more about being a traditional consultant working with clients and companies within your city. Obviously, that’s not a good idea if you want to be an Alpha Male 2.0, because you want to be location independent.
If some of you are more familiar with his material and he does teach location independence, please correct me, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t. Beyond that, I don’t really have much to say about it.
Tai Lopez
Tai Lopez is fascinating. His personality is the exact opposite of mine. He is an extremely extroverted, emotional, talkative guy. I like Tai Lopez, and I have consumed a lot of his free content. I don’t relate to him on a personal level, but I like his advice.
In terms of his business advice, he’s really big on using partners. He’s very big on going into business with other people. That is valid advice when you want to build a Dan Lok/Grant Cardone-type income where you’re making hundreds of millions of dollars a year. One of the facets of the Alpha Male 2.0 business model, though, is that you own 100% of any business you consider a primary source of income. You can own bits and pieces of companies that serve as secondary or tertiary income, but your primary income sources, you should own completely.
Working under small business structures while working with equity partners is extraordinarily dangerous. The odds of success drop dramatically. It’s just as bad as getting monogamously married. I can tell you countless horror stories I have witnessed in which partnerships don’t work out. That’s why I emphasize complete ownership of your primary income sources.
Now, you could argue that once your company gets into the seven-figure zone, taking on investors and partners makes a lot more sense. Yes, that's often true.
In Alpha 2.0, the model I recommend when you want to use partners is this: You have your LLC that you own 100% of, your partner owns 100% of his LLC, you design a legally enforceable contract that specifies what the revenue split will be, and one of your companies sells the product and pays the other company. That way, if there are any problems, you still own your company and you’re covered.
Gary Vee
Here’s another very extroverted, talkative guy. Gary Vaynerchuk primarily talks about being a social media influencer, and to the degree that he even teaches a business model, he teaches how to be a personal brand and how to get involved on things like Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and so forth, cranking out a massive amount of content.
Much like Grant Cardone, he leads by example and works 14+ hours a day and really hits it hard. You could argue he doesn’t really need to work those hours, and he probably doesn’t. You could also argue that he’s location independent; if you have a personality-based business like Alpha Male 2.0, you probably are location independent.
So there’s a lot of overlap between Gary V. and Alpha 2.0, but I have to say this: An Alpha 2.0 business does not mean you have to be an influencer or that you have a personal brand. You can sell products on Amazon or Shopify without anyone knowing you who are and still be pure Alpha 2.0. Mine is just a business I’ve decided to do in which you actually see my face, you know my name, and you know who I am. You can have an Alpha 2.0 business without people knowing your face or your name.
Those are the models, and I hope this has helped give you a basis for comparison with the Alpha 2.0 business model.
An Alpha 2.0 business structure means a location independent income of at least $75,000 a year (in U.S. dollars) before taxes that requires no more than 30 hours a week to maintain once the business is up and running. Of course, you can make more than that; I certainly do. And you can choose to work longer hours than that. If you’re an ambitious guy with big goals, that’s fine too. Alpha 2.0 is not “get rich quick” in which you have to make a million dollars a year and work 14 hours a day. That’s not part of the model.
Let’s look at some of the other business models and see how they fit in here.
The 4-Hour Work Week
This is a book by Tim Ferriss. I read it when it was first published around 2007ish, and it is 100% Alpha 2.0-compatible. In fact, some aspects of Alpha 2.0 are derived directly from some of Tim Ferriss’s material. His book, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is really an update of Michael Gerber’s The E Myth and The E Myth Revisited from back in the ‘90s.
Tim Ferriss talks a lot about location independent income — so yes, that’s Alpha 2.0. He focuses primarily on selling products, but an Alpha 2.0 business can sell products, services, or information. You’re not locked into any one of those.
So in terms of the 4-Hour Work Week business model, which is an online company usually selling products in a location independent way where you outsource a lot of the functions — all of that is 100% compatible with Alpha 2.0. You may proceed without caution in terms of his business content.
One last note. I have not really kept up with Tim Ferriss’s new content in the last three or four years, so it could be that he’s updated his business model with some new content and advice that may or may not be Alpha 2.0-compatible. I really don’t know. But the book we just discussed is totally compatible.
High-Income Skills
This is Dan Lok. He teaches something he calls The Wealth Triangle, and the three pieces to that are having a high-income skill (which he defines as something with which you can make at least $10,000 a month), having a scalable business, and having high-return investments.
How does that work with Alpha 2.0? Dan Lok doesn’t really talk much about optimizing your time and getting your business to the point where you only need to work 30 hours a week. Lok, like many of the guys on this list, is into really into "get rich" stuff; high six- and seven-figure incomes. This is fine, but the Alpha 2.0 model does not require you to make a six-figure income.
Now, in my personal opinion, I think you should make a six-figure income, but that’s just Caleb’s opinion. That’s not Alpha 2.0 in terms of business model. As long as you make $75,000 in location independent income, you’re free and you’re good to go.
As far as I know, Lok also doesn’t talk at all about location independence. A lot of his stuff probably is location independent, but I don’t think he talks about that as a virtue or an aspect of his business model.
I’ve also been asked a lot about how the high-end skills model works with Alpha 2.0. People think Dan Lok says you should focus on a high-income skill first and then start your business — but that’s actually not what he says. What he says (or at least strongly implies) is that you need to start your own business with a high-income skill as a self-employed person.
I talk about being a consultant, for instance, and that is a high-income skill, but it’s still your own business. What he’s saying is that you probably shouldn’t go out and start your first business selling widgets and hiring a staff of 15 people because you don’t have any high-income skills yet.
I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with that; it depends on the person. There are no giant incompatibilities here, there are just things missing in Dan Lok’s business model that you’d have to add in to achieve Alpha 2.0 status.
The 10X Rule
10X is our hyper buddy Grant Cardone. 10X is radically different from Alpha Male 2.0. It essentially has nothing to do with an Alpha 2.0 business.
10X is all about busting your ass, working 14 or 15 hours a day, and making hundreds of millions of dollars. If you want to do that — and I’ve said this many times — please do. I’m not going to stop you; I think that’s great. The aspect that I don’t agree with is working 14 hours a day six or seven days a week for 40 or 50 years.
When you have a business like that, you’re not free. There are many men I personally know who make huge incomes who are not free. They bust their asses working long hours seven days a week even when they don’t feel like it. So it really depends on what your priorities are: busting your ass and making tons of money, or not making as much money, but being free.
That said, I really like Grant Cardone’s material. I personally use 10X material in my own personal business structures. That’s where I violate my own Alpha Male 2.0 model a little bit: I talk about working less than 30 hours a week, but I work a lot more than that. I like Grant Cardone’s stuff in terms of the motivational aspect.
But an Alpha Male 2.0 does not work more than 30 hours a week unless he chooses to. He doesn’t feel compelled to. I don’t have to work the hours I work, and soon, I won’t have to work at all to maintain my current lifestyle. But personally, I like a lot of the grinding, hard-working, set-big-goals aspects. But again, that's just me, not Alpha 2.0.
Just be aware that if you’re following a hard-core 10X model, you’re going to bust your ass 15 hours a day six or seven days a week for 27 years because you want to make half a billion dollars. That’s great, it’s just not Alpha 2.0 because you’re not going to have the freedom of time the Alpha 2.0 does, and you likely won’t be location independent.
In fact, with the exception of the 4-Hour Work Week, that’s the piece that’s missing in most of these models: location independence.
The Millionaire Fastlane
This is a very popular book. I get asked about it all the time. I read it a few years ago, and it didn’t really help me much because it rehashed a lot of material from other business books I’d read before.
The Millionaire Fastlane really just tells you not to have a job and to start your own business — so that is pure Alpha 2.0. You cannot have a corporate job and be free even if you love your job.
Beyond that, the Millionaire Fastlane advice is kind of generic. Just about everything in that book, when he talks about the specific application of things in your business, you could apply to an Alpha 2.0 business structure. The only big difference is that he talks a lot about having employees — and an Alpha 2.0 business model means you have no employees.
If you have actual employees in your company, it’s overwhelmingly unlikely that you’re free. Barring the rare exceptions, when you have to dick around with employees and all the work involved, all the regulations, taxes, paperwork, and all the legal risk involved, you’re not free. The legal risk alone of having employees these days (particularly in the USA) is utterly ridiculous.
Other than that, pretty much everything in Millionaire Fastlane applies to Alpha Male 2.0. Nothing comes to mind that dramatically contradicts an Alpha 2.0 business model.
Sam Ovens
For those of you who don’t know, Sam Ovens is a guy who teaches consulting. I cannot comment too much on his material because I don’t know much about it. I know who he is and I’ve seen a few of his videos, but I’ve never really delved into any of his material, so I can’t really say whether it’s compatible with Alpha 2.0 or not.
As far as I can tell, he is more about grinding, busting your ass, and making millions and millions of dollars a year. He also does not teach location independence, which again, is something a lot of people on this list fail to do. He’s more about being a traditional consultant working with clients and companies within your city. Obviously, that’s not a good idea if you want to be an Alpha Male 2.0, because you want to be location independent.
If some of you are more familiar with his material and he does teach location independence, please correct me, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t. Beyond that, I don’t really have much to say about it.
Tai Lopez
Tai Lopez is fascinating. His personality is the exact opposite of mine. He is an extremely extroverted, emotional, talkative guy. I like Tai Lopez, and I have consumed a lot of his free content. I don’t relate to him on a personal level, but I like his advice.
In terms of his business advice, he’s really big on using partners. He’s very big on going into business with other people. That is valid advice when you want to build a Dan Lok/Grant Cardone-type income where you’re making hundreds of millions of dollars a year. One of the facets of the Alpha Male 2.0 business model, though, is that you own 100% of any business you consider a primary source of income. You can own bits and pieces of companies that serve as secondary or tertiary income, but your primary income sources, you should own completely.
Working under small business structures while working with equity partners is extraordinarily dangerous. The odds of success drop dramatically. It’s just as bad as getting monogamously married. I can tell you countless horror stories I have witnessed in which partnerships don’t work out. That’s why I emphasize complete ownership of your primary income sources.
Now, you could argue that once your company gets into the seven-figure zone, taking on investors and partners makes a lot more sense. Yes, that's often true.
In Alpha 2.0, the model I recommend when you want to use partners is this: You have your LLC that you own 100% of, your partner owns 100% of his LLC, you design a legally enforceable contract that specifies what the revenue split will be, and one of your companies sells the product and pays the other company. That way, if there are any problems, you still own your company and you’re covered.
Gary Vee
Here’s another very extroverted, talkative guy. Gary Vaynerchuk primarily talks about being a social media influencer, and to the degree that he even teaches a business model, he teaches how to be a personal brand and how to get involved on things like Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and so forth, cranking out a massive amount of content.
Much like Grant Cardone, he leads by example and works 14+ hours a day and really hits it hard. You could argue he doesn’t really need to work those hours, and he probably doesn’t. You could also argue that he’s location independent; if you have a personality-based business like Alpha Male 2.0, you probably are location independent.
So there’s a lot of overlap between Gary V. and Alpha 2.0, but I have to say this: An Alpha 2.0 business does not mean you have to be an influencer or that you have a personal brand. You can sell products on Amazon or Shopify without anyone knowing you who are and still be pure Alpha 2.0. Mine is just a business I’ve decided to do in which you actually see my face, you know my name, and you know who I am. You can have an Alpha 2.0 business without people knowing your face or your name.
Those are the models, and I hope this has helped give you a basis for comparison with the Alpha 2.0 business model.