Sam Alaimo: 00:29

This is the No Bell podcast where we talk about how to optimize your technology, life, and mind. We're joined by special operations veterans, entrepreneurs, investors, and others who have overcome difficulty to make it to the top of their craft by staying in the fight. Alright. What's your name?

Mike Lahiff: 00:49

Mike Lahiff Where'd you grow up? Glenside, Pennsylvania.

Sam Alaimo: 00:53

Okay. Where'd you go to school?

Mike Lahiff: 00:54

Elementary school is Glenside Weldon, then I went to Bishop McDevitt High School. I went to Abington Middle School for a little bit.

Sam Alaimo: 01:01

So I wanna hear about some of the misadventures of your school era. Tell me about tell me about selling candy.

Mike Lahiff: 01:06

So I was supposed to really supposed to take the bus to junior high. And, even though my my house was, like, right on the cusp of, like, you could walk a bus. And every now and then, I took the bus to junior high, but, I usually just walked. I like walking in the morning. I walked with some of my friends.

Mike Lahiff: 01:19

Sometimes I just walked by myself, and, you know, we always walked past this place. It was called Lee Mart at the time. It was this little mini mart, and, it's, like, where kids would go and buy cigarettes. They didn't care. Like, they would sell you could have been 5 years old.

Mike Lahiff: 01:30

They would have sold you a pack of cigarettes. But, I was walking past them one morning, and the guy that owns it, you know, stocking shelves, they had a supply truck outside, dropping them off a bunch of goods, and, I saw boxes of Airheads. I was like and I was like, how much is the box Airheads? There's a bit of pricing on it or whatever, but there would be, like, a box of, like, 500 for roughly a nickel per Airhead. And, the guy saw me all the time, and I got him to front me a box of Airheads, and I said I would pay them by the end of the week.

Mike Lahiff: 01:56

And then so I took the Airheads to school, took some books out. You know? My my product was more important, and, I started slinging on this school for a quarter a piece. And I was selling I was making, like, a 100 to $200 a week in change from selling Airheads. So on Friday, I'd go to the bank with a school bag full of change and dump it at that bank.

Mike Lahiff: 02:17

Got the change, swapped it out for cash, went and paid him, and then I I netted the profit. And I did this for basically the whole school year. I was, like, the candy guy at school. Then we'd had competition popping up. There was no blow pop, but I'm still the airhead guy.

Mike Lahiff: 02:30

And then my principal is I I wonder if he's still around. His name was mister Worthington. He was a badass. He was, like, I think he was a veteran. He was supposedly a former, like, Golden Gloves boxer, but he was really cool.

Mike Lahiff: 02:41

He was he he was he was stern, but he he was strict. Do you know what I mean? Like, he he wasn't you knew not to fuck with him. And and one day, he snatched me up in the hallway, and he was, like, get to my office, and they called my parents. My dad had to leave work because I was in the office to come pick me up because I was getting suspended.

Mike Lahiff: 02:57

The dad was like, why are you suspending my why why why is he in trouble? He thought, like, I did something, like, really bad. He was like, god. You're selling Airheads in school. My dad looked at me, and I'm like, I'm selling I'm selling candy.

Mike Lahiff: 03:07

And he, like, looked back. He's like, you called me out of work to come in here to pick up my kid for selling candies. Like, trying to run a business. Shouldn't you be teaching them about business in school? So that ended my candy days just for a little bit.

Sam Alaimo: 03:18

Squash the entrepreneur. Yeah. I I vaguely recall you told me a story once about fences and your dad. Does that ring a bell?

Mike Lahiff: 03:26

Yeah. So, well, I have a couple of fence stories, but, basically, when I got in trouble, it wasn't so much, like, hey. You're grounded. Go to your room. It was, like, physical labor.

Mike Lahiff: 03:35

It was, like, go out there and paint the garage. Go out there and paint the fence, so I had to paint the fence in our yard. I had to we had 2 we had 2 garages when I was growing up, and I had to scrape all the paint, and I had to paint. I wasn't my punish I I wasn't allowed to go out and, like, play with my friends. I I was I was probably around middle school time, 6th, 7th, 8th grade time frame.

Mike Lahiff: 03:54

I wasn't I forget why I even got in trouble. I couldn't go back out until I finished painting the garages. Took me, like, 2, 3 days, and I had most of the chip or the paint chipped off. Right? I was going around the garage chipping all the flaky paint and then putting 2 coats over it.

Mike Lahiff: 04:09

And, the one day I did it all by myself, and my friends were like, can you come out? I was like, no. Next day, I was out there chipping, or can you come out? I'm like, no. Not till I get this done.

Mike Lahiff: 04:17

Next day, my friends come by. I was like, yo. You know what, guys? I didn't need, like, another guy for to play football or whatever. I don't even remember what we're doing.

Mike Lahiff: 04:25

And I convinced them all to help me paint the garages so I can get out. So I had, like, 8 kids in my backyard painting with me to so I knocked the 2 garages out in 3 days, and my dad came home from work. I went out playing with my friends. He came home from work. I came home from playing with my friends, and he was sitting there.

Mike Lahiff: 04:43

I was like, oh my god. He looks like he's gonna kill me. And I was like, what? And he was like, why'd you go out? I'm like, the garages are done.

Mike Lahiff: 04:51

And he was like, how the hell did you get these garages done so fast? And I was like, well, I got everyone to help me out. And so, I still he ended up making me paint the fence after that, and I he said I had to do it by myself. So my punishment continued. He didn't let me, squirm my way out of that one.

Sam Alaimo: 05:10

And he's got some wisdom. Yeah. So what what was the earliest memory you had of being a seal? And I I tied to the the letter you wrote yourself.

Mike Lahiff: 05:21

My earliest memory of, like, being on a seal operation?

Sam Alaimo: 05:25

Wanting to become a seal.

Mike Lahiff: 05:27

Oh, wanting to become a seal. Yeah. So, it was, like, 4th, 5th grade.

Sam Alaimo: 05:37

That's early.

Mike Lahiff: 05:38

Yeah. So I got, again, I got punished, and I wasn't allowed to watch TV. And, you know, I was pacing around the house, driving my parents nuts, and my mom was like both my parents are, like, read a ton, and they always have. And so my mom was like, read a book. I was like, oh, you know, okay.

Mike Lahiff: 05:58

I don't wanna read a book, and then she was like, come on. And we went to Barnes and Noble bookstore, got in the car, got in the old station wagon, drove over to Barnes and Noble, and, I got that, like, set me to, like I used to love going to Barnes and Noble and just, like, hanging out for hours, like, especially when we're in the military, like, we're on a training trip. I used to be like, just go by myself, get a Starbucks, and, like, walk around and look at a ton of shit. But, anyway, so, I walked I found myself in a military section, and, there was a book there, and a guy was all painted in camouflage. It looked like he was hiding in the jungle, and it had a big golden seal trident on it.

Mike Lahiff: 06:35

I didn't know what a I didn't even know what a Navy seal was. Took that book, read it in school, and so you have a 6th grade yearbook, and then in the 6th grade yearbook, you had to write, in 20 years, I will be doing and,

Sam Alaimo: 06:49

let me come back

Mike Lahiff: 06:49

to that. I'm gonna fast forward. Make it through SEAL training, and I graduate. My parents are at the graduation my family's are at. And my dad handed me my 6th grade yearbook.

Mike Lahiff: 07:00

I was like, how is this? The fuck are you giving me this for? I totally forgot I wrote this, dude. And in the 6th grade yearbook, I wrote I'll be a Navy SEAL working on top secret missions, yada yada, and my buddies gave it to him. And, it shocks me out.

Mike Lahiff: 07:13

That that was cool. So I wrote that when I was in, like, the beginning of 6th grade where every other kid was like, I wanna be a fill I wanna Philadelphia 70 sixers. I wanna be professional baseball player, whatever. I'm like, I'm gonna be in the military, be in a Navy SEAL. I said, I will be a Navy SEAL working on top secret missions.

Mike Lahiff: 07:28

I'll have little to free time for my family, and, I'll, yeah, I'll take a picture of it and then send it to you. And I'm gonna help reduce pollution by 7 if you're crying on pollution by 70%, whatever the fuck that means. But, like, at the time, like, like, they used to have, like, the green planet days at school. I don't know if you remember them or whatever it was called, and so I guess that was really big at the time, and, it influenced me.

Sam Alaimo: 07:57

So you got in trouble a lot, got into a lot of fights, decided you were gonna enlist and become a SEAL. Yeah. Talk about the story of how you you you got over the past, instances of of causing trouble and then finally making your way into the SEAL team. What you have to go through to get that.

Mike Lahiff: 08:14

It was a lot. So me enlisting in the navy wasn't, an easy road. So 911 happened. First of all, I was in college, and I was a straight knucklehead. My grades were average to piss poor.

Mike Lahiff: 08:27

I was focused way more on partying and etcetera. And, but I was done. Totally. My first I I went through 4 different undergrads. My first college, I had a 0.0 GPA.

Mike Lahiff: 08:37

After my 1st semester, I was supposed to be there to play football. Then I I left, and I came home. My dad was like, I'm not obviously, I'm not paying for you to go to college. Like, he so I was working I was working a construction job full time, digging ditches at night. Part time, I would work at a pizza shop, and on the weekends, I would bounce at a bar, but I was also taking 2 college classes to, like, get my credits going at Penn State Abington, which is, like, a satellite campus of Penn State Main.

Mike Lahiff: 09:07

And that, like, my op I was thinking, oh, I'll get my grades. I'll get some good grades over the next 2 semesters going part time. I could get into Penn State Main. In the fall, I took, like, a full I stopped working construction and did a full fall semester, tossed some pizzas, bouncing at this bar on the weekends. I made more money bouncing than I did work on construction.

Mike Lahiff: 09:25

It was crazy. I made and I had to work, like, 1 or 2 nights a week. And then I dropped out, and I bought a plane ticket. And at the time, you couldn't buy a plane ticket online. I went down to a travel agency.

Mike Lahiff: 09:37

The shop walked in. I was like, I need a plane ticket to get me to Lake Tahoe. They're like, how much money do you have? I I had, like, 300, and they're like, we could get you to Reno. And I was like, I was like, that's just place sounds like heaven.

Mike Lahiff: 09:50

And I was like, I gotta go there. So I really had no plan. Got a plane ticket for, like, that weekend. I made sure I had enough cash to, like, last me, like, a week. I had a couple ski resorts, like, written on a a piece of paper to get to.

Mike Lahiff: 10:05

I told my parents I was dropped out of school again, and I'm moving to Lake Tahoe, and, well, I thought my dad was gonna kill me too. And, well, went to the airport, took the train down to the airport, flew to Reno, got out, and it's in the middle of the fucking desert. And I was like, oh my god. Where are the where's the snow in the mountains? So I got to I'd flag down a taxi, and the taxi was like, you know, where are you going?

Mike Lahiff: 10:28

I'm like, Lake Tahoe. And he, like, looked at me like, how much because I look I look like a poor little kid. He was like, how much money do you have for, like, children? And he was like, it was like a a $100 cap ride or something back then. And he told me he's like, where are you going in Lake Tahoe?

Mike Lahiff: 10:42

I was like, take me to Sugar Bowlski Resort. And then he took me to Sugar Bowl Ski Resort. And then I got there and and, walked into the administration office, and they hired me on the spot. They're like, yep. They needed the bodies.

Mike Lahiff: 10:53

And what they they had, like, a dorm building on the grounds where all the employees lived. It was it was fucking awesome. I lived there for a couple months and just well, I was a ski ball. And, so then I came back home. When I came back home where I go, oh, I went to Cancun for a while with my friends, and I moved to this beach house.

Mike Lahiff: 11:11

And then finally, I was like, alright. I gotta get my shit together. And I applied to a couple different colleges, and my dad was like, I'll make a deal. You get accepted to one of these colleges. The first one you get accepted to, help you get there.

Mike Lahiff: 11:22

He was like, but then you're completely on your own. He was like, I'm gonna get you set up, and he was like, but then it's all on you. This is your last shot. So I was like, alright. So I knuckled down there for the next 2 years, and I did really well.

Mike Lahiff: 11:33

Like, I got my grades up. I mean, I wasn't, like, a 4 point o, but I was like, it was like a 2.5 GPA. And, but I was having a great time. Everything was good, and then 911 happened, and I was like, I don't know. That seed that was planted when I read the men behind the Trident just exploded, and I was like, oh, I know what I gotta do.

Mike Lahiff: 11:54

And so the one day I waited. It took, like, a a another semester and a half, but I remember sitting in a in a class. I must have nodded off or something, and a and a professor started giving me a bunch of shit. I walked to the Navy recruiter. I was like, I wanna go to the Navy.

Mike Lahiff: 12:11

They're like, awesome, because they're car salesman, and they wanna take everyone that walks through the door. And they're like, fell, and I start filling out all this paperwork. They're like, what do you wanna do? I said, I wanna be a seal. And they basically were like, yeah.

Mike Lahiff: 12:20

Right. Give me a seal. And that's time they had a seal challenge contract. And, you would pick a rate. I think when you went in, they already had the pipeline through BUDS.

Mike Lahiff: 12:29

Oh, yeah.

Sam Alaimo: 12:29

They go straight to BUDS.

Mike Lahiff: 12:30

Yeah. Yeah. So at this time, it was a thing called a seal challenge contract where you would pick a certain job, and there was only a hand like, not every job would qualify you to go to BUDS. So whatever. I went down to MEPS, did, like, the whole medical stuff, did the ASVAB, and I crushed the ASVAB.

Mike Lahiff: 12:46

They were trying to get me to, like, think about crypto or nuke, and I was like I was like, nah. I don't wanna do either of those things. And then I picked PR, parachute rigger, because I was like, what's gonna get me to boot camp the fastest?

Sam Alaimo: 12:59

Oh, yeah.

Mike Lahiff: 12:59

And they're like, parachute rigger. And I was like, that's it. And, but then, it got held up when I started doing the background check stuff because I've been arrested so many times, and all my arrests were bullshit. Like, they're not bullshit. I was guilty.

Mike Lahiff: 13:13

But it was, like, disorderly conducts, underage drinking, fights, that kind of shit. And, so I had to get waivers, and I show up in those office. And I had ended up and at the time, they were trying to recruit hard because, like, 911 just happened. Like, everything was getting increased. And I was there's he was like, dude, we can't let you in.

Mike Lahiff: 13:33

And I was like, come on. What what do I need to do? The gist of it was is, like, if you get a letter from each judge that you have ever seen saying that they, like, bless this for you to go in, the guy was just fucking with me because he didn't think I would actually go and do it. And so I left. I was like, okay.

Mike Lahiff: 13:51

That's what I'll do. And so I, drove back to Philly, went to the court houses. I would, like, sit outside the court houses. They're like, what are you doing here? I'm like, just sign this thing.

Mike Lahiff: 14:03

Have the judge sign this. And, like, they're all just, like, laugh. Like, you're fucking crazy. No. And I was like, alright.

Mike Lahiff: 14:08

I'll just sit here and wait. Just keep knocking on the window, keep knocking on the door. And I didn't get all of them, but I did get a handful. Went back to Pittsburgh, handed to my recruiter. He said, take take this to the captain.

Mike Lahiff: 14:22

So then the captain has a meeting with me, and he's just like, I can't believe like, he was shocked that I did it. And he was like, alright. We're gonna get your waiver. He was like, but you're you don't qualify for a sales challenge contract. You have to go in the regular navy.

Mike Lahiff: 14:35

You have to go to boot camp, go on a regular navy, and then eventually, you could try out for butts if you want to. So then I went to boot camp. At boot camp, they asked for volunteers to try the test to go to seal training. I did that, passed, went and did an interview with the guys, and they said the same thing. They're like, hey.

Mike Lahiff: 14:54

We can't. You have too much in your record here with waivers. Like, you have to go to the fleet for 2 years and prove you're not a ship bag and then apply again. And that's what I did.

Sam Alaimo: 15:04

You always pick the hard way.

Mike Lahiff: 15:06

I didn't. No. Nothing's been easy. Nothing's been easy. It was, yeah, it was a fucking and then I ended up quitting, which fucking

Sam Alaimo: 15:15

I wanna I wanna dig into that. Okay. This is called the Nobel podcast for everything.

Mike Lahiff: 15:19

Yeah.

Sam Alaimo: 15:19

Absolutely. If you quit, you ring the bell 3 times. And walk me through. So the first time you're in buzz, you're not the senior listed guy. You're kind of a gray man there.

Sam Alaimo: 15:28

Yep. What went on in your head? Like, what was the talk track like? What was the specific moment? What did it feel like leading up

Mike Lahiff: 15:34

to that quitting? So I'll I'll rewind, like, going through this. So I was I went through boot camp, went through my a school in Pensacola, Florida. I got orders to shore duty in Jacksonville, Florida, which was great. So I went there for and the shore duty orders for 2 years.

Mike Lahiff: 15:57

It was a rag squadron, like a training squadron. Alls I did was work and train. Work and train. Like, I was waking up in the mornings and swimming. I was running in the afternoons.

Mike Lahiff: 16:11

I was lifting weights in between and doing my push ups and pull you know how it goes. And, I was just and I had no idea really how to train, but, I mean, now with the and at the time I got my orders, my wife was pregnant with my first daughter. We drove, and we had her right before she was born right before we left for California. We packed up the car, drove cross country to California, checked in, and we were supposed to class up, you know, pretty quickly. What they did was, at the time, they, like, canceled the winter class.

Mike Lahiff: 17:00

So we're in PTRR. The whole class was in PTR for 6 months. It was, like, 6 months of first phase. It was fucking ridiculous. Even sustainable.

Mike Lahiff: 17:08

Yeah. It was fucking ridiculous, but it was fun. Like, I had a blast doing it. And then we finally classed up, and it was great. And we we classed up and and started going through 1st phase.

Mike Lahiff: 17:21

And then when I was in 1st phase, my wife, I remember we were walking into, Navy Exchange, and she was, like, doubling over in the parking lot. She was like, there's something wrong. I was like, knock it off. You know? Everything's fine.

Mike Lahiff: 17:38

She was like, no. There's something really wrong. And I was like, I was like, alright. Let's just go to the hospital. And it was it was a Sunday, and we went to the hospital, and she ended up her appendix burst, and she she was in a bad way.

Mike Lahiff: 17:49

She was in the hospital for, I don't know, 2, 3 weeks, because, like, she got so septic inside, but she was breastfeeding our daughter at the time. So now, like, immediately, my daughter's not breastfeeding anymore. I have to figure out formula and feed her at night. Her mom's in the hospital, but, like, my parents came out, and her parents came out to help. I was like, oh my god.

Mike Lahiff: 18:05

Is you know what I mean? Like, looking back, what I should've done was talk to the command Mhmm. And been like, hey. My wife's in the hospital. This is what happened.

Mike Lahiff: 18:15

We have a newborn at home. And they would have just rolled me to the next class. Yeah. But I was already there for, like, 8 months because of PTRR that I so that was tough. And then, like, my daughter wasn't taken to the formula.

Mike Lahiff: 18:25

We ended up figuring out she had to switch the soy formula. It was a fucking mess. And, it just added an extra level of stress that you don't need when you're out buds. Anyway, if we get in the hell week, before hell week started, I I had, cellulitis, like, all in my crotch. It was in my armpits.

Mike Lahiff: 18:41

It was in my butt crack. There there was a couple of, like we had, like, a breakout in our class, and there was a couple other guys when we set up to go to to the medical, and they would pop the cellulitis stuff and squeeze did you get cellulitis when you were there? No. Oh, it's awful. Hurt so bad.

Mike Lahiff: 18:57

And, it stinks too. So they put me on a bunch of antibiotics when we started hell week, and, like, they just, like, fucked me up. They fucked up my stomach because I didn't wanna eat, and it was a mess. And, whatever. I fucking ended up quitting.

Mike Lahiff: 19:10

And, so I quit Monday night or Monday at dinner, so we're, like, 20 like, when you get past Monday night, you get to Tuesday. Monday night of Hell Week, you quit. Yeah. At dinner. Right at right after dinner, I quit.

Mike Lahiff: 19:22

And, like, right around dinner.

Sam Alaimo: 19:23

Do you remember that? Do you remember sitting there at dinner and thinking about, am I gonna I

Mike Lahiff: 19:26

don't really remember sitting there thinking about it. I just remember doing it.

Sam Alaimo: 19:30

That's crazy.

Mike Lahiff: 19:31

Yeah. And so I remember there was a trigger point where I was hurting, whatever. I was being a pussy. And one of the instructors god. I can't Rob would have remembered his name.

Mike Lahiff: 19:43

And he was just, like, yelling at our boat crew. Like, well, whatever. They're doing the instructor thing. And and I remember looking at I was fuck this guy. You know what I mean?

Mike Lahiff: 19:52

Like, who's this guy? You got he he was, like, a tiny guy. He was tiny, destructive. Whatever. I it was me being an asshole again, and, I just let my mind went went over on that one.

Mike Lahiff: 20:03

And I just got up. I was like, I'm done. And I hit the bell, and I left. And I went to sleep right away. You know, you have to go sleep in the barracks because of med checks and stuff.

Mike Lahiff: 20:11

And, I woke up the next morning. I was like,

Sam Alaimo: 20:14

what the fuck? So I took that whole night of sleep, and then the next one, I get hit you what you just did.

Mike Lahiff: 20:18

Yep. Man. I was devastated, dude. Someone ran over my puppy. I was like, fuck.

Mike Lahiff: 20:24

And so I didn't wanna go back to the fleet, and so I was like scram I was like, alright. I'm gonna go EOD, or I'm gonna try to. So I went over to the EOD office. I had to go take the PST because there was a couple at the time, there was a couple guys that that dropped from training, but they they were able to get orders to EOD. And, and I was hoping to go on that train.

Mike Lahiff: 20:46

And it was working out. Like, I was getting processed through admin. It looked like it was gonna work out, and, I was walking across the grinder one day with my, like, my records from the record office, and I remember instructor Dallas Reyes was there. So if you ever listen to this, thank you. He was like, life.

Mike Lahiff: 21:06

He was our proctor at First Face or through PTRR, and I think our proctor switched that First Face. But we used our proctor for, like, 6, 8 months. It was crazy. He's like, why? What what the fuck, man?

Mike Lahiff: 21:17

I was like, I know. I fucked up. He was like, yep. Well, what are you gonna do now? I was like, I'm, applying to go to EOD.

Mike Lahiff: 21:26

He was like, why are you doing that? I was like, well, I wanna go to the fleet. Like, he's like, why'd you join the need? I was like, to be a seal. He was like, well, then go be a fucking seal.

Mike Lahiff: 21:36

And I was like, but he was like, go talk to your detailer. Go get orders as soon as possible. Doesn't matter if it's a shit job or not. Just fucking take it and crush it, and you could get back. And I was like, you know what?

Mike Lahiff: 21:49

You're right. Stopped my AOD package, called my detailer. I got sent to Japan, moved out to Japan with my family, spent the next, I was only I was only out there for, like, a little over a year. I was there, like, 15 months, but I was on a ship, dude. I was Hayes Gray and underway all the time because we're forward deployed.

Mike Lahiff: 22:06

Even though I was working with an air squadron, we were, like, constantly deployed on the USS Kitty Hawk. I just got out there, and I just started at the time, I finished college. I got finished my credits at night and everything,

Sam Alaimo: 22:18

and, I finished my undergrad degree, and then I eventually got back to. So the first time we went through, quit, it's a part of, like, 0 eyes is so huge because it's it's like an endless process of iteration, AB testing, left and right boundaries, trial and error. So what was the talk track like inside of your head, buzz number 2 versus number 1, knowing what you know now, knowing what it's like in the fleet, knowing what it's like to ring the bell. But then also on top of it, your second time, you were the senior enlisted leader of your team your of the class. I was helping you out.

Sam Alaimo: 22:49

What what was your head space like there?

Mike Lahiff: 22:52

I think it being an LPL actually helped because, you don't wanna let your guys know. My headspace. I was just like I I didn't even I worked a lot with my mental stuff, and I was like because you know that negativity is always gonna creep into your head at some point. Like, not not like saying, like, oh, go quit, but, like, anything you do in life. You you got that fucking voice in your head that's, like, telling you you're no good or you're not good enough, you're not smart enough, you're not fast enough.

Mike Lahiff: 23:22

I was, like, constant fight in my head, like, you shut the fuck up. I'm running this train. And and it's funny when you make that switch. I I think all team guys are really good at this, and it's like, some people already have it, but, like, some people make the switch when they're in SEAL training, and then, like, that drives you through the rest of your life. And so being a class leader helped because I don't wanna let anyone down, and it kept me focused on everyone else except for myself.

Mike Lahiff: 23:50

So even when, like, the pain train was happening or something, I was just like, ah, whatever. Like, let's just keep crushing. And I knew it would be it would end. You know what I mean? Like and I knew that before, but for some reason, I let it get to me.

Mike Lahiff: 23:59

But I was like, dude, it's fucking And just and if things got tough, I would I would and I used to always tell people this. I'm like, hey. Just don't focus on finishing steel training. Don't even finish focus on finishing the phase. Don't even fit focus on finishing the fucking month.

Mike Lahiff: 24:16

Don't even focus on finishing the week. Don't even focus on finishing the day. Just get to the next fucking meal. And if that you start struggling getting to the next meal, just focus on your next step. Put one foot in front of you.

Mike Lahiff: 24:29

Like, if you start thinking, like, oh my god.

Sam Alaimo: 24:31

I got another year

Mike Lahiff: 24:32

of this.

Sam Alaimo: 24:33

Like, we'll destroy you. I can't I can't remember how many times you said that just running 0 eyes alone.

Mike Lahiff: 24:38

Yeah. Like, just one foot in front of the other. Like, trying to eat an elephant, dude. One bite at a time. That's it.

Sam Alaimo: 24:45

Talk about the concept of what is a buzz on a man, and what does it take to become one? Because you were the automatic of your buzz class. Correct?

Mike Lahiff: 24:51

Buzz class. Yeah. Not SQT, though. Yeah. I was honored to get it, no pun intended, but, I wasn't expecting that.

Mike Lahiff: 25:02

And I I was not the fastest guy. I was not the I was not the best swimmer. I was not the strongest. I did stay the LPO through the the whole time in BUDS. I don't know.

Mike Lahiff: 25:17

Class votes on it, and the instructors vote on it, and I got it. And I was like, oh, shit. I was fucking badass. Thanks. It's a cool tradition.

Mike Lahiff: 25:24

Yeah. You know, it was just I don't know. Just do your thing. Just focus on your team.

Sam Alaimo: 25:31

So I asked Rob the same question because it was a fascinating question. You go from graduating BUDS, graduating SQT at the absolute top of your game, top of your physical performance. Your your mind's in the right spot, ready to crush whatever.

Mike Lahiff: 25:45

Mhmm.

Sam Alaimo: 25:45

And then day 1, you check into the teams, and you're a fucking new guy.

Mike Lahiff: 25:48

Yeah. Can you talk about what they And you get your soul crushed.

Sam Alaimo: 25:51

Exactly. Talk about that. What was that like? And and what was the use of it? What was the utility?

Mike Lahiff: 25:56

So I'd I I I knew that was gonna happen, so I wasn't like it wasn't too much of a sticker shock. I was expecting it, but I didn't realize how bad it could get. Like and when you check into a team as a new guy coming out of SQT, it's like, stay in the fuck by. Hopefully, they're still doing that in the teams because it's it's you get you gotta put people's egos in check. When when you finish seal training, you're you know, you feel like you could crush anything.

Mike Lahiff: 26:24

Like, you're on top of the world. Like, you feel like you're bulletproof, and and it's you need that you need that ego slap. And that's a good thing so that they make sure you check it out the door and, pay the man because of all the people that have gone it before us. And so it was, I think that's very important. Hopefully, they're still doing it.

Mike Lahiff: 26:46

But, yeah, going again wet and sandy again. God, I'm miserable. What was that? And, like, the PTs and yeah. I did a lot PTs as a new guy and stuff, And it's like, you thought that was over when you finished buzz, and just it never ends.

Mike Lahiff: 27:00

And it's a good lesson in humility just because, like, life is fucking hard. You wanna be something. You wanna do something that's incredible. That's gonna be fucking hard, and, we learned it at the best place, I think.

Sam Alaimo: 27:14

Yeah. So while you're in, you wanna talk about the difference between the different mission sets because you saw a pretty full spectrum. You saw VSO. You saw direct action. You augmented foreign special forces.

Sam Alaimo: 27:25

Can you talk about a little bit about each of those?

Mike Lahiff: 27:27

Yeah. Shit. I guess I'll just start from the beginning. Yeah. We I mean, you guys weren't that far from us, but, you know, we got dropped in we knew we were going to Afghanistan, closer to border of Pakistan, basically, in the middle of fucking nowhere.

Mike Lahiff: 27:49

Yeah. It was just a platoon living living at the edge of Afghanistan, and it was it was basically our mission orders was, like, don't let the Taliban take control take control over here again. And but what's crazy, so we relieved after seal team 3, I think we relieved. Right? I can't remember.

Mike Lahiff: 28:11

Yeah. It was still team 3. And when we got there, those guys were like, you could tell they had a hell of a fucking deployment. They're they're little shell shocked going on, and, and we heard they were taking a lot of, like, a lot of fire all the time. And but, you know, especially as a new guy, like, you're all fired up, full piss and vinegar, and you wanna go fucking take everything on.

Mike Lahiff: 28:34

And you got there, and you looked at these guys and like, woah. They need a break. Like, these guys need to get the fuck out of here. But before them at that same location, there was, like, a 150 army soldiers or something at the same place, and they almost got overrun. And it was like, oh, so you take a 150 people out and swap them with, like, 12 dudes?

Mike Lahiff: 28:55

That's the worst that could happen. Yeah. But it was and it was, like, an interesting time because, Obama was in office, and they were starting to try to put rules like you couldn't do night remember when I started saying you couldn't do night raids?

Sam Alaimo: 29:09

Wait. I'll just be mentee.

Mike Lahiff: 29:10

Yeah. The rules of engagement were trying they were trying to change. It was, like, basically, you had to get fucking shot before you shot someone. It it was ludicrous. And, it was 2010, Greg.

Mike Lahiff: 29:22

Yeah. 2009, I thought we went.

Sam Alaimo: 29:23

2,002 we had 2010, 2011. That's right. Okay.

Mike Lahiff: 29:29

And, so we got there literally the first day we were there. No. I got there at night, got sleep. I woke up into the I woke up in the morning to rockets and mortars coming in. I was like, what the Like, oh, this shit's real.

Mike Lahiff: 29:50

And so, you know, we'd start to right out the gate where it started getting after it. And so that that first 3, 4 months of deployment, it was just that. It was, guys were they're just constantly attacking our base, jumping on the wall, rocking the 50 cal or what or whatever gun you're getting on, and then we're trying to go out and hit them. You know, we're we're trying to get intel where they're because they would change, like, their there's 2 sites, point of origin sites all the time, so we were trying to set ambushes and traps. And, dude, we got really fucking creative.

Mike Lahiff: 30:25

It was it was that it was like, when I read those books as a kid of what those guys were doing in Vietnam, it was like, that's what we're doing those first three. I was like, this is what I was looking for. And then winter started setting in. You know how winter is over there. Fucking everything dies off.

Mike Lahiff: 30:41

Well, a couple weeks into it, I mean, you guys, our sister platoon had, the halo crash, which was devastating, and then Gibby, I know, got wounded and a couple other guys, like, he got hit by an IED. So, like and then we had guys who are getting fragged, and it was like I was like, okay. This shit's, like, really picking up. We gotta we gotta take the fucking gloves off and stop, like, playing patty cake here, and we did. We did a phenomenal job of it.

Mike Lahiff: 31:06

And at one point, we went we went hard into the paint for for a couple weeks, and then, there was no one left to attack us. So it was like, alright. What do we do now? So then we got pushed into the VSO mission. To do the VSO mission, remember when they were telling us that we're gonna do the village?

Mike Lahiff: 31:25

For people that don't know, VSO stands for village stability operations. It's a very focused green beret style mission. The green berets are, like, awesome at it. That's what they're they're they're bred for, and the idea of it was to go live in a village with the locals, just a handful, not the whole platoon, just a handful of people, and sit and drink tea with them and went over their hearts and minds and help them build security and keep keep Taliban. Yeah.

Mike Lahiff: 31:55

And, sounds great on paper. In reality, on the ground, totally different animal. And team guys, when everyone started hearing we're we're gonna we're getting pushed to this, people were like, what the? No. Like, we want we always wanted to just do direct action missions and stuff.

Mike Lahiff: 32:12

And so the we didn't know what really how to even get like, we had an idea how to get started, but, basically, our chief was like, alright. Life, go hang out with these green berets for 2 weeks. And so I wouldn't say that at VSO for 2 weeks with these green berets, and it was it was actually very active. Fucking got a bunch of RPG shot at us the first day I was there. Took a bunch of small arms fire.

Mike Lahiff: 32:40

We got ambushed a one time. It it it was it was interesting tactics that we're using. I wasn't the happiest camper, and I almost got killed, like, 3 times in, like, 10 days. I was like, Jesus fucking Christ. I wanna get back to the my my team.

Mike Lahiff: 33:00

And, they're great guys. I some of them were great. It it it actually, some of the guys were fucking badass, but they're they're they're working in, like, a a a bigger army world, and their rules were it was just different. Mhmm. It was just different from the way we operated.

Mike Lahiff: 33:18

And so we got back to the team. We found a place to go do VSO. We we we started we got a building, and it was like the dead of winter. It was fucking freezing cold. And there's, like, there's just there's no electricity over there, no plumbing, none of that.

Mike Lahiff: 33:30

It's it's Right. It's like you step back in a time machine to to biblical times. It's fucking wild. And, living in the mud hut, it was just a fucking suck fest, And it was super slow. Like, I it it would have been better if it was a little more kinetic or something just because where we had, like, certain targets to go after, like, but it was just kinda like, yeah.

Mike Lahiff: 33:54

Go live here and feel it out and see what happens. It fucking sucked. So that that was a wrap on our that first deployment.

Sam Alaimo: 34:01

What about working with the Poles?

Mike Lahiff: 34:03

Yeah. The Poles was my second one. I got to do some stuff with the the British SBS too on that deployment, the first one, which is cool. I mean, totally random. It wasn't, like, set up.

Mike Lahiff: 34:14

It wasn't supposed to happen. We flew me and, Billy flew back to Kandahar. We had to go pick up, like, bags of cash to come back for the VSO site, and, you know, I go around, pay these tribal people. And,

Sam Alaimo: 34:29

we're hanging out

Mike Lahiff: 34:30

at a cafe, and Billy Billy used to do the SDV stuff, and he did it with some SBS guys. And he saw, like, a dude that he knew, and they started hitting him off. And they're like, oh, yeah. Our our compound's right over here. Why don't you guys come over tonight and hang out?

Mike Lahiff: 34:41

Because it was New Year's. And, I think it was New Year's. It was, like, right around that time. And we ended up having they had a New Year's Eve party. Totally different lifestyle living out of, Kandahar for those guys compared to what we were living in up there.

Mike Lahiff: 34:55

They had a great they had, like, a whole bar set up and everything, and so we had, we had a blast. We're just hanging out, partying with them because we had a couple days until we were gonna we couldn't get a flight back. All the flights were, like, red. It was, like, sandstorms or something. So we're just hanging out, working out, hanging out with these guys, but and they're like they were trying to then then we started talking, like, bigger operations.

Mike Lahiff: 35:16

And they were working mainly in Hellman Mhmm. And we were further up north and talking about doing some joint ops. You know, Billy was doing his thing. Like, Billy was I wasn't like I was just so fly on the wall listening to them. And then, they were doing some time sensitive targeting, and, I was like, yeah.

Mike Lahiff: 35:34

Fucking they asked where we want to go. I was like, yeah. I got my kit. Let let's rock. And just went and did a couple of times since then targeting ops with them.

Mike Lahiff: 35:43

It was it was pretty cool. Hit some places that had, like, boatloads of heroin at it, and, we had a we had a good time. And then, so my second deployment, we started off at UConn. I was really pissed that we went to UConn because everything was, like, getting wound down. But I was only in UConn for, like, 8 weeks or something, not even.

Mike Lahiff: 36:05

And then, I got sent over to do, Jpat. Jset? No. Jpat. JSATs were when you did it, like, not in wartime.

Mike Lahiff: 36:18

JPAT. I forgot what they stand the acronym stand for. It's been 10 years. And then, so I went over, did the the pole mission with them. So he worked with the Polish Grom, but we also had guys working with the Polish JWK.

Mike Lahiff: 36:34

And, we're working in in Paktika and Gosney province mainly. I was I was talking great. These guys are aggressive. They're good. Grom was very aggressive.

Mike Lahiff: 36:45

Well, too aggressive. They they ended up getting, the a bunch of guys got ambushed on this one op. Their commander got killed. Their commander was, like, in a stack on the door. It it was a fucking mess.

Mike Lahiff: 36:58

And so they got shut down for quite some time, so all my work was focused on JWK. They had the potential to be aggressive, but their hands were severely tied from their own country and the whole NATO thing. So they kinda leaned on me to be, like, the the the aggressor because our ROEs were slightly different. And, but we are we're just targeting, homemade explosive kit and ID factories. And so we've we've planned for an op for, like, 10 to 14 days.

Mike Lahiff: 37:29

So that op tempo was slow, but you would just do a fast like, you get on birds, fly out, hit a target, hang out for a bit, and then turn around and come back. It was, like, in and out. So our tempo is, like, one every roughly 2 weeks. So I wish the tempo was higher, but it was a it was a great experience because I had to sit there and work with them and coordinate. They they have the right intel to put a target package together.

Mike Lahiff: 37:54

Are they getting the assets? Like, I would have to go help and try to get them birds, and so I was going over to the army side of the house, the battle space commander, and talking to, like, the colonels and the one stars, and I'm like, hey. Help me get birch. We get these ancient many places while you guys because they were trying to figure out how they're getting, like, certain equipment and people out of certain areas because there was a big draw the drawdown was hap starting to happen. A fucking awesome experience.

Mike Lahiff: 38:18

This is I wouldn't change it, but I still you know, you miss being with, like, team guys. Right? Like, you wanna be with, your brothers, but it was it was awesome. So I got to experience multiple different ways of engaging at work, which was almost fucking right.

Sam Alaimo: 38:37

So let's bridge the gap between 2013 and 2018 when we found the 0 eyes. There's like, for most guys, you transition out to the there's a thread that kinda wind its way through that transition where guys are looking for something that they lost and that eventually somehow find it. And I think, thanks to you, a lot of us found it in 2018 with 0. I was gonna talk about that transition. Yeah.

Sam Alaimo: 38:58

Fuck.

Mike Lahiff: 38:59

So I knew 1, like, we I think we all saw the writing on the wall that there was, like, everyone getting the every time you deploy, you're gonna go into combat with, like, the those days were gone. And then I always tell people, I'm like, it's it's like practicing for a sport like football. It's like practicing for football all the time and never getting to play in a game or never getting to go to the championship. It would be exhausting. Like, you're constantly just on a practice squad or something, because all you're doing is train.

Mike Lahiff: 39:29

I don't wanna do that. And, plus, at this point, my marriage was shit. I had 3 kids. Never saw them. I was like, alright.

Mike Lahiff: 39:42

Time to time to do something different. And so I applied to b school. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I thought b school would help me figure it out. So I was like, apply to b school to get my master's in business, and I was like, oh, if I'm gonna go to get my master's, I'm gonna go to top notch school. So I just focus on the top schools.

Mike Lahiff: 39:59

And then I got into Wharton, and I was like, fuck yeah. It's in Philadelphia. It's where I grew up, so it was an easy choice. Moved back, went to school, talk about culture shock going into the because literally, I it was just why did we I was home for maybe a month before I went in the Wild. Before I a month a home for, like, a month from war.

Mike Lahiff: 40:23

And next thing I know, I was sitting in

Sam Alaimo: 40:25

a fucking class with a bunch of direct action Afghanistan on Helos. One sitting on

Mike Lahiff: 40:30

the Yeah. Sorry, dude. And now here I am with, like, a dip in Copenhagen and

Sam Alaimo: 40:37

It's a mind bender.

Mike Lahiff: 40:38

Yeah. I did not fit. That that was a but Wharton has an awesome veterans club. So there was there's some other team guys. It it was great.

Mike Lahiff: 40:47

So, like, once I found seeked out the other veterans, and then and then you start making friends with people that aren't veterans, it it whatever. It loosens up. But I was in I was in a tough spot at the time. And and in business school, going back to school, especially a hard business school, like, talk about getting fucked in the face. It was like It's

Sam Alaimo: 41:05

almost worse than making new guy in some ways.

Mike Lahiff: 41:06

Yeah. I I I I thought I was gonna fell out that 1st year. I spent so much time in the library. Remember when I saw you and we didn't see each other for, like, almost a year? And we flew to Houston at the same time to go on a job hunt, and I got I fucking gained, like, £30 and, like, eat me.

Mike Lahiff: 41:21

You're like, damn. You're fat as shit. I was like, oh, fuck, I know, and so, I got back when we're working out, but, whenever I finished business school, and then we had no idea what to do, me and you jumped into doing the search fund together, which also learned a ton in that. But it was like, you're it's like walking around in the dark trying to find something. Like, you but you didn't even know what you're looking for.

Mike Lahiff: 41:45

Yeah. I think that because you missed the camaraderie, the teamwork, the brotherhood, You miss the risk. You miss the at least I do. Like so, but then, ultimately, we started 0 wise, and, you know, we have roughly 80% of our employees are veterans from all branches, and it's fucking badass. It's awesome.

Sam Alaimo: 42:11

I you talk about the risk. You talk about that journey from during the transition to get back to, like, what matters, what's your meaning. I still don't get how you were able to drop literally everything to found zeroes. You could have been a made man at Comcast. You were doing well with real estate on the side.

Sam Alaimo: 42:28

Mhmm. We had all sorts of hustles. You were gonna make it big. How did you literally drop everything

Mike Lahiff: 42:33

just

Sam Alaimo: 42:33

out of your ass? And why is more importantly?

Mike Lahiff: 42:36

It did. It's just tired of seeing the fucking school shootings in the United States. It was, like, you know, we got out of the team I mean, nothing's changed since Columbine. Right? And you have all these people, all these talking heads, and you get all these politicians, like, never again, and send in hearts or send in our prayers and all this other like, who's taking action?

Mike Lahiff: 42:54

Who's actually doing something to help here? And I get it. It's like, 0 wise isn't like the the end all be all for actors. Do I think it could significantly help first responders and decrease their response times? Yeah.

Mike Lahiff: 43:06

Absolutely. But I was, like, tired of turning on the news and seeing another school shooting and then another school shooting or even active shooters that weren't even, like, at the Virginia Beach Municipality Center. That was right down the street from my house when I lived in Virginia Beach. And I was like, what the fuck? Like, it's only gotten worse since Columbine, and Columbine happened when I was a senior in high school.

Mike Lahiff: 43:29

And, I don't know. It was just like a weird epiphany. I was just sitting there. I was like, I think we can make this work. I'm gonna do everything in my power to try.

Mike Lahiff: 43:41

Are we perfect? No. But it's been a hell of a ride. Here we are 6 years later. Literally, it was 6 years ago this month when it was, like, I quit my job, sold all the real estate, and just went all in.

Mike Lahiff: 43:55

And, look, we're we've already detected with people with guns and gotten arrests. I mean, they weren't the active shooter in nefarious accurate work, like, that we really want, but we don't know how many lives we saved with just getting those handful of people already. Right. It's just the beginning.

Sam Alaimo: 44:10

But that doesn't that doesn't come about, right, unless you take that massive risk. So, like, you you you called me and the other guys. We literally quit our jobs to do this with you. So, I mean, there's something to that. There's some sort of leadership to that.

Sam Alaimo: 44:23

So, I mean, let let's approach the leadership then from that direction. How do you tie in your your leadership your second time through at butts? Your leadership starting zero eyes. That willingness to take a risk despite severe consequences. How do how do you think about that that other people might be able to learn from it?

Mike Lahiff: 44:42

Well, at least in a business context, I was just like, dude, what's the worst gonna happen? Doesn't it doesn't work. What? We get egg in our face. Our egos are bruised because we have a failed business.

Mike Lahiff: 44:54

So what? But there's so many lessons learned in there. There's always a silver lining. You just sometimes you have to search really hard for it. And, like, the search phone.

Mike Lahiff: 45:02

I remember when we closed down the search phone, I was a failure, but it was like, but it wasn't because we the the the way we learned to do due diligence and stuff while we're in the search fund and and think about seller notes and stuff, I turned around and applied that to real estate right away, and it was like, boom. I'd start closing all those real estate deals. I would have never been able to do that if I didn't do the search fund. So was the search fund really a failure? No.

Mike Lahiff: 45:25

Or is it it was a win. But then, like, I've looked at the business, and I was like, alright. What's the worst that could happen? It doesn't work out. It fails.

Mike Lahiff: 45:34

We have to go back out and get jobs. We'll get a job. Like, I'll go I'll go be a fucking landscape. I'll go back to construction or what I was doing in high school and and balance at a bar if I have to to make money and put put food on the table. It's not the end of the world.

Mike Lahiff: 45:48

Like, figure it the fuck out. If there's a will, there's a way, man.

Sam Alaimo: 45:52

It's one thing I'm always amazed at with you, especially in your eyes, is you you your patience to see how a situation unfolds. I suppose I would have that. Oh, that's right. I don't know. How is that?

Sam Alaimo: 46:02

Because I'm still at the point where I wanna act the instant I see something to act upon. Whereas you just sit back and say, let's let's see what happens.

Mike Lahiff: 46:10

Yeah. Where does that come from? I don't know. A lot of practice. Actually, I got it from So if I was in it when I was in the teams, I would react differently to things.

Mike Lahiff: 46:20

Like, I wouldn't have as much patience to see how some like, the situation would develop, but, you turned me on to a book a long time ago about, there's, like, 2 ways people oh god.

Sam Alaimo: 46:34

Thinking fast and slow. Thank you. Yes.

Mike Lahiff: 46:36

Yeah. Thank you. And I was like, oh my god. That's like, I'll think fast and wanna react fast. Yeah.

Mike Lahiff: 46:43

You can still think fast, but react slow and, like, that whole concept there. And I was like, so now as much as I wanna, like, I hear something, and I, like, wanna jump out of my skin and make something happen right away, I'm like, okay. Give it 24 hours. That, like, do I always like, do I have to make a decision on this right now? Is this a well, a lot of times, the fucking problems just go away.

Mike Lahiff: 47:04

You know what I mean? Like, they just, like, dissapate. If it doesn't go away, then it's like, alright. Let's let's let's find a root cause here. And then you think you find a root cause, dig a little bit more due to due to double root cause.

Mike Lahiff: 47:15

I'm like, learn that from the search fund days. I forget the guy's name that we're doing some due diligence stuff with one time, and he kept saying root squared. Get, like you think you have the root cause of something, but go deeper. There's another root in there. And it takes time to find that.

Mike Lahiff: 47:32

So it's like, alright. This is the and 50% of solving a problem is a state of the fucking problem. Sometimes people don't even know what the problem is, and it's like, alright. What's alright. Everyone knows there's fires going on.

Mike Lahiff: 47:43

What's the problem? And sometimes you ask that in the room and it's crickets. People are like, so you try to, like, alright. Let's write. We think this is the problem.

Mike Lahiff: 47:52

Okay. Well, what's causing that? And you work your way backwards, and you need time to do that. And and sometimes those answers just unfold them themselves in a way if you just are like, alright. Listen on.

Mike Lahiff: 48:03

Cool.

Sam Alaimo: 48:04

I wonder I know you have 3 roles for your kids. I wonder how much those roles actually impact you and your leadership. What are those 3 rules?

Mike Lahiff: 48:13

Yeah. So first one's the golden rule. You know, $3 the way you wanna be treated. It's pretty pretty fucking simple. The the second one is if you wanna get better at something, You practice.

Mike Lahiff: 48:28

People always, like, think they're gonna, like, become the ace at whatever. I don't know. Pick something. Whatever it is. It could be something with exercise.

Mike Lahiff: 48:36

It could be something with business. It could be it it doesn't even matter. No. You gotta spend, what is it, 10000 hours? I think 10000 hours is a little crazy, but, like, you you still have to spend a significant amount of like, if you wanna be the best guitarist, you wanna be the best singer, you wanna be the best fucking pitcher in baseball, Guess what?

Mike Lahiff: 48:54

Get your ass out there. Genetics do come into play, but you still gotta get out there and practice. You, like, you gotta train. So, like, when my kids are like, try something new or new sport, and and, you know, they're they're not happy with their performance, or I'm like, dude, you just gotta get out there and practice, like, practice more. And the third one is pretty easy that you get knocked down, get back up, and stay in a fight.

Mike Lahiff: 49:21

Because if you're trying to, like, 0 eyes, for example, how many times have we been knocked down? It it happens daily at this point. You just get back up, and I got punched in the gut again. Get back up. Keep moving forward.

Mike Lahiff: 49:32

Ew. Like, we know we're trying to do something good, so that's in the end, it's gonna work out no matter what. Just keep trying to do it and just keep getting back up and keep charging.

Sam Alaimo: 49:43

We're gonna get way deeper into 0 hours in the future, but for now, we'll keep it, we're gonna take a different path. What are some things you do every day? Some rituals you have. I know you you like your heat. You like your cold.

Sam Alaimo: 49:53

You like some other things. Yeah. That keep you sane during, like, the severe ups and downs of 0 eyes. What do you what do you

Mike Lahiff: 49:59

do on a daily basis? I try to stay consistent with a lot of it. Okay. So and it's changed a lot over the last couple years. Sleep is, like, my number one now and wasn't always, but, like, dude, I need 7 to 9 hours of of sleep.

Mike Lahiff: 50:16

Right. If I get less than that, I'm I'm not operating at a 100%. Like, I wanna operate a 100%.

Sam Alaimo: 50:21

I know when you're not sleeping because I get a slack at 4 in the morning.

Mike Lahiff: 50:24

Yeah. Yeah.

Sam Alaimo: 50:25

Because and

Mike Lahiff: 50:26

and the stress, it will wake me up it will wake me up, like, 3 in the morning. And and when I know it wakes me up like that, I'm like, I am not gonna be able to go back to sleep when I'm gonna sit there and toss and turn, so I'm like, fucking just lean into it. Yeah. And then you get it off your plate, and and then I'll go take a nap. And sometimes if it's really bothering me, but I'm not leaning into it, like, I'll just go and, I don't journal, but I'll go grab, like, just a piece of paper I would print or a random fucking notebook, and I'll just write.

Mike Lahiff: 50:55

And I at the time that I'm writing all this stuff out, like, this is this is the plan. This is gonna be a masterpiece, and then I dump it all out of my head, and I go back to sleep. And I go and look at it in the morning, and then so I'm like, this fucking gibberish. But it made me feel better. But, so my rituals, getting up in the morning, I have a cup of coffee.

Mike Lahiff: 51:16

I try not to eat until lunch. Sometimes I like I like I was always a huge breakfast guy, but I I I really try to stick to the intermittent fasting. I try to eat from, like, 12 to 8. They have my schedule. I look at my schedule before I go to bed at night, so, like, I'm not super surprised in the morning or I forget something.

Mike Lahiff: 51:33

But, I try to get all my emails out before my kids even get up. I try to do that, like, first first thing in the morning. So the ball's out of my court. Like, everything I need, and then I could go back and look up my emails at the end of the day. And so I'm not stuck in a fucking email inbox all day, which sucks when when that happens.

Mike Lahiff: 51:51

The and it had to work out. The and the cold plunge, dude. That's, like Life changing. I I don't do it. I rarely do it on the weekends just because there's so much going on with, like, my kids and sports and stuff, and and I also like to take downtime and have fun with my wife and my friends and my family.

Mike Lahiff: 52:10

But sauna, cold plunge, get a workout in 2 times a week. And then at night, I try to really shut it all off around, like, 8 or 9, and I'll do, like, a cleanup sweep on messages. Like, I'll I'll look through our Slack messages real quick, which I probably should stop doing because sometimes it makes me stay up later. But I don't know. There's so much going on all the time, so I'm like, fuck.

Mike Lahiff: 52:37

I gotta stay on top of everything. That that that's really really it. I try to keep it pretty balanced. I do block my calendar from 8 to 10 and then from, nothing after I nothing after 3:30 PM. That's not I'm not hard on the after 3:30 PM because we have to talk to people on the West Coast, but, I'd try to keep it.

Mike Lahiff: 53:03

So the only if I'm gonna do meetings, it's only 10 to 3, and I'm already thinking about, like, changing that. Keeping those blocks, but, like, certain days for certain things. So it's not like in a given day, I'm going from, like, in an investor meet to a potential partnership meet to, legal meet to, a marketing discussion meet. Like, because I need and I have it, like, back to back to back. You need time to stop and, like, reset your fucking brain before going into one of them.

Mike Lahiff: 53:32

So I always play with it.

Sam Alaimo: 53:35

Alright. We're running out of time. Do some rapid fire q

Mike Lahiff: 53:37

and a, fast

Sam Alaimo: 53:38

as you can answer. If you can have a conversation with 1 human being, dead or alive,

Mike Lahiff: 53:44

who would it be? Anyone. That's so hard to answer. What's your answer, Epictetus? I knew you would say something like that.

Mike Lahiff: 54:01

I kinda wanna say, like, one of my family members, like, that I didn't know, like, a grandfather, for example. But I I I'm not gonna say that because I'm gonna focus on, like

Sam Alaimo: 54:15

damn. Alexander the Great. That's a good one. If you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it be?

Mike Lahiff: 54:24

It would just be about the golden rule.

Sam Alaimo: 54:25

Nice. 3 I know you read, like, crazy your whole life. So what are 3 books you think would change people's lives?

Mike Lahiff: 54:33

Change their lives?

Sam Alaimo: 54:34

Change their lives.

Mike Lahiff: 54:37

Alright. So the the 3 that had big impacts on me, well, men behind tried it. I don't think that's really on a premise unless you're, like, a 9 year old. Well, maybe not. Who know who know who knows?

Mike Lahiff: 54:49

But, when I was in high school, I read like, I wouldn't go pick it up and read it now, probably. I don't know. But I read rich dad, poor dad when I was, like, when I first when I I was, like, 16, 17. That really changed the way I thought about just work and time. Like, where's your time going for dollars that you receive?

Sam Alaimo: 55:09

MBA or Rich Dad Poor Dad?

Mike Lahiff: 55:14

Rich Dad Poor Dad? Yeah. 100%. To that. Yeah.

Mike Lahiff: 55:18

You don't need an MBA to be an entrepreneur something. Like, I did that for we did that for transition, like, because we we had you know, we're coming off a war, but you don't need an MBA to, like, go start a company. No. Absolutely not. Rich dad, poor dad.

Mike Lahiff: 55:29

It just puts you in a different frame set, different mindset. The oh, man. There's so many good books out there, Sam.

Sam Alaimo: 55:44

Musashi was great too.

Mike Lahiff: 55:46

Musashi's out there. That was that was my most recent one, so it's been top of top of mind. I'm gonna have to say, go for Musashi. I don't know why I'm blanking on it, but it was my, like, all time favorite book. I've told you this before too.

Mike Lahiff: 56:05

Dumas writes

Sam Alaimo: 56:07

it. Got a Monte Cristo.

Mike Lahiff: 56:09

Yes. Thank you. Great book. I don't know why I was blanking on that. Also a great movie.

Mike Lahiff: 56:12

That's probably, like, my number one book. What about

Sam Alaimo: 56:15

3 movies you think could change people's lives?

Mike Lahiff: 56:23

I mean, you got Braveheart. It's fucking epic epic. Gladiator. Epic. And licensed Mohegan's.

Sam Alaimo: 56:38

Classic movie. Alright. Anything going on,

Mike Lahiff: 56:43

No, man. It's been great. Thanks for having me on.

Sam Alaimo: 56:45

Thank you. That's it for this episode. If you wanna check out more from the podcast, head to zero eyes.com/nobell, where you can see show notes, read more about our guests, and suggest guests or topics of your own. Until next time. Stay in the fight.

Sam Alaimo: 57:05

Don't ring the bell.