Next Level University

Time Is Either Your Friend Or Your Enemy (2041)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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In this powerful episode of Next Level University, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros unpack why time is either your greatest asset or your biggest liability. From comparing your path to others to understanding the real reason success often comes later in life, they break down the truth behind long-term growth and the compound effect. Whether you're in your 20s, wondering why success feels so far away, or you're building steadily in your 30s and 40s, this conversation will challenge your timeline and shift your perspective.

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NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.

For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email. We’re here to support you in your personal and professional development journey.

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Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Facebook ✍
Alan: https://www.facebook.com/alan.lazaros
Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

LinkedIn ✍
Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

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Show notes:
(2:37) How youth affects success
(4:51) Why entertainment rewards youth
(6:07) Lessons from millionaire entrepreneurs
(9:54) Wealth is built with age
(12:48) The trap of social comparison
(15:47) At NLU, your success matters. Join our Monthly Meet-up—first Thursdays at 5 PM! https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
(17:17) The truth about compound growth
(20:47) Building a better future, slowly
(23:33) Track your numbers to win
(28:10) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

I hated Gary Vee for a long time. Then I loved him for a long time. Now I feel like, all things considered, he's pretty good for the world, especially what other content is out there. But he has something he says all the time that has become a meme. No matter what age somebody is, they come up to him and say, gary, I need advice, I just feel so behind. He'll say how old are you? And they'll say however old they are, and every time he says you're so young.

Kevin Palmieri:

You got so much time left. You have so much time left.

Alan Lazaros:

I feel like he's right Most of the time, most of the time. I was on an entrepreneurial panel yesterday and I was speaking to 20 year olds that was the average age in the room and whenever I talk to young people, this what we're going to talk about today becomes very, very, very clear to me, and I agree in this case with Gary Vee and what Kevin said of these. Kids have so much time and I'm not certain we fully understand how much time is a critical component in the success equation.

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri.

Alan Lazaros:

And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.

Kevin Palmieri:

At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros:

Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love health and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri:

We bring you a new episode every single day on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits and defining your own unique version of success.

Alan Lazaros:

Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level University, next Level Nation today for episode number 2041. Time is either your friend or your enemy A frenemy, if you will, I believe that's what some people say. Alan and I were talking about this before we recorded this episode. We were having a dialogue, a conversation about this, and Alan has said how come young people expect to be successful? Because if we look at the people that are most successful, they're usually old. Because they have the compound effect. They have time, they have knowledge, they have experiences, they have connections, they have a lot. I mean, they have years under their belt. And I said because most of the people on social media that are successful are young. And then we were like okay, well, what else rewards you for being young?

Kevin Palmieri:

The example I used to Alan was when I was 21,. My advice for somebody in fitness is drastically different than my advice to somebody in fitness today, because when I was 21, it didn't really matter. We all know somebody that was in our high school whether it was somebody who had a crush on or somebody you were envious of or whatever who was just in unbelievably good shape and they didn't do anything, they just were in unbelievable. I mean, how many people actually went to the gym in high school. Like, if we really think about that, I was going to the gym by myself. Nobody else was coming with me.

Kevin Palmieri:

Really, yeah it was very few and there was like some, some girls. It was like what, how the hell do you look like that?

Kevin Palmieri:

yeah potential trigger warning. They don't look like that anymore a lot of them because time they weren't investing in the future. They were just in that good of shape and they had the curves that they had at that age because they had developed earlier. Whatever it is, I sound weird talking about high school girls, but I was the same age as them at this point. Okay, so it's not weird unless you make it weird like I am. But yeah, we were talking about that. We were talking about sports. When you're young, you get paid a lot. You get paid less usually as you get older, because you're less quote unquote valuable, because you can't run as fast or you're not as strong.

Kevin Palmieri:

Depending on as you get older, because you're less quote unquote valuable because you can't run as fast or you're not as strong, depending on the sport yeah, depending on the sport. Actors and actresses well, hollywood is a very vain place, so statistically you don't look as good as you age for them. I'm not saying that. There's a, a scene in um knocked up one of my favorite movies. We can't legally tell you to lose weight, but just tighten up, tighter, tighter. That's. That's the reason they make jokes about. That is because that's real, that's actually how it happens.

Alan Lazaros:

Of course it is. Of course it is.

Kevin Palmieri:

So athletes, musicians, actresses, sports? Was there another one?

Alan Lazaros:

we said Social media Music Was there another?

Kevin Palmieri:

one we said Social media Music.

Alan Lazaros:

You already said music.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, so that's kind of A lot of the front-facing careers. Yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

Those are the very entertainment-oriented front-facing careers Entertainment careers. So sports is entertainment. And then you mentioned wrestling. Growing up you liked WWE wrestling. Yeah, and that's usually younger too. It helps liked wwe wrestling, yeah, and that's usually younger too, and so everything that's sort of front facing on camera, which is really what all of us are seeing the most of, and then on social media as well I think it's either based on sexiness or performance, those two things, and then a lot of times those go together and a lot of times, yeah and I'm not saying you can't be sexy as you age.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm not saying that. What I am saying am saying is Hollywood and most of the places that are in control of that stuff probably don't agree with me on that two other entrepreneurs that were with me, both very successful in business, both obviously multimillionaires, and the professor that had me come in.

Alan Lazaros:

He's in his mid to late 40s and he was roommates with when they were in college at WPI. They were roommates and so I was kind of the young doesn't fit in guy, for sure, for sure. And I'm in a completely different industry too, because one of them was in tech, the other one owned several sky zones, trampoline parks.

Alan Lazaros:

They're like trampoline parks. Yeah, exactly, and he was talking about how, in COVID, that was a challenge because you basically had to pay. He had to pay $100,000. He had to pay insurance, so that the insurance on those places is ridiculous because if someone gets hurt, right, so he had to pay. There was seven months where they were closed down and he still had to pay insurance, as if 100000 people had jumped in the park.

Alan Lazaros:

So, also to speak yeah, so we got to talk real with the kids about OK, you guys are that, I did that, but if you do want this other road, let's explain what this is actually like. Let's explain how we got here and what jumped off the page for me as the 36 year old in the room. I'm in the middle here You've got these older gentlemen and they're very successful statistically speaking, and you've got these young kids that are 20. And it's okay. I got to bridge the gap here. I need them to understand Because at one point in the panel I said listen, they're more successful than I am, but I'm only 36.

Alan Lazaros:

So I'm still at the beginning of my building Cause they're in a different phase. They're like semi-retired buying in businesses and I mentioned hard work being critical and one of the other guys was like, well, I don't really work much anymore and that kind of thing, well, in your thirties you did, for sure, I know you did. And he's like, yeah, a hundred percent, so it was good. It was a really good sort of experience for me and for the kids. But what I wanted on TV, not in media, not the weather person, but in real life, real flesh and blood, human beings that you actually know in the real world. Think about the ones that have the most wealth. I guarantee you they're 35 or up. Kevin and I are building wealth. We're in our later 30s now. Like we didn't have a lot of money in our 20s. We did well, we had six figures, but we didn't have homes and boats and yachts, which I still do not have, a boat or a yacht, so it's fine, but the other.

Kevin Palmieri:

thing though, is how many people have grandparents out there that are broke as hell? That's super common too.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, you and I looked up the stats, and there's two stats that I want to share with everybody, just to make this land because we're orienting the podcast more towards next level you, your own unique version of success success through personal development. And when it comes to external success, which is what we're talking about in this conversation whether it's business or career you pick either one the compound effect of long-term resume building is how it works, and so your career builds over time, just like your business builds over time. Kevin and I have had more quote unquote success in business in the last two years than the previous six. We've been in business for eight years, so in the last two years we've had more, we've generated more success and more impact than the first six combined. And if that trend continues, that exponential growth curve continues which we're working really hard to ensure happens and also hoping as well then in the next two years it'll be more than the previous eight, and then the next two years it'll be more than the previous eight, and then the next two years it'll be more than the previous 10. And that's how exponentials work, that's how businesses get really successful, that's how careers take off. And so two stats that I want to share with everybody.

Alan Lazaros:

You and I looked this up two weeks ago, I think, and again I'm using a US stat. I know this is a global podcast and I'm not trying to be an ignorant American here, but just I wanted to understand the stat of this country. So the stats for this country in particular, just because that's where Kevin and I live, 80% of the wealth of the United States is in the hands of people 44 and older. Right, it's Gen X and baby boomers, and there's more millennials than there are Gen X and baby boomers in terms of population in this country by far. So, in other words, a very small amount of the people have a very large amount of the money, and that's normal, that's not abnormal. That's like how it works.

Alan Lazaros:

But older people build and generate wealth and they, you know, they have properties and they invest. And I mean, think about who you, when you rented in the past, who did you rent from? You didn't rent from young people who own properties, right, you rented from older folk. When I was in college, I had a landlord who was in his 50s Makes sense, right? One of my clients. He's in his late 30s. He owns seven properties. He didn't own seven properties when he was 20. No one owns seven properties when they're 20, unless they had generational wealth and had it given to them.

Alan Lazaros:

So my point here, and the last stat that I want to share as well Kevin and I looked this up just for funsies and this is me nerding out a bit, so bear with me, but we looked up the how many I said. I bet you there's only, there's less than 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs that are under the age of 40. Did I use the 40? Yeah, 40. Yep, we looked it up. There's one. There's only one. It's Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook and, by the way, he's 40 now this year. He's turning 40 this year. The point is and Fortune 500 CEO? What that means is the top 500 companies on planet Earth, the largest 500 companies. So Walmart's on there, apple's on there, disney's on there, that kind of thing. The CEOs of those Nike, the CEOs of those companies are always older, because young people don't know much about business and stuff.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, Well, and again, you just have way more experience as you get older.

Kevin Palmieri:

Right, I've learned so much this year but that's because I am able to stand on the results of last year and the lessons of last year and the awareness of last year and I know way more now than I did 10 years ago, for sure. But I understand it's hard to disconnect from this because I don't think when we I think everybody struggles with comparison to some degree, in some way, shape or form. Maybe it's not the same way, but when you're comparing yourself to others, I don't think you're comparing yourself to people that are 70. I think you're comparing to yourself to people that are similar aged and everybody does a really good job of making it look like they're.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think about that all the time. I see people on Facebook. It's like they're posting this and they're posting that. It's like how the freak do you afford all this? I don't understand how you, how you, afford all this stuff, a lot of them have money from their parents.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, I know that now, but generational wealth is a thing, right, I mean imagine when Emilia and I have children and our children are in their twenties, like they're going to have whatever they want, right?

Alan Lazaros:

Will you adopt me An apartment above the garage? Yeah, you're funny. No, the point I'm making is it's generational wealth. What does that even? Let me explain real quick. So, okay, my client that has seven properties. They have two young daughters Shout out to you guys, by the way, I know you're out there listening and when they have 14 properties in the next decade, their daughters are going to just be wealthy, but they're not going to have done it themselves, right, and there's a lot of that. That's not new. That's a thing, right, and there's a lot of that. That's not new. That's like a. That's a thing, right. So, but I don't think people think about it.

Alan Lazaros:

And one thing I wanted to ask you, kev, is I've been ranting and raving about two books for a long time. The first book that I fell in love with personal development book, and this was the one that I would slide across the table to a younger Alan, no-transcript, give a shit about the author, so, anyways. So the compound effect is the most powerful concept in the world, I think. And then the other one is the one I keep showing on, which is called the Flywheel by Jim Collins, and that's basically the compound effect for business. And the compound effect is small, seemingly insignificant choices compounded over time. And when I was on the entrepreneurial panel, we were talking to these people in their mid and late 40s and it was OK, yeah, of course, you guys dialed it in, bought some businesses, boom, boom, boom, failed early, learned, grew.

Alan Lazaros:

And one of the students reached out and asked he said how do I say no more? And I said brother, you're 20. I don't know if you should say no more. My 20s were to just go learn, just go say yes, do a bunch of stuff, learn who your people are and who your people are not, learn what is for you and what's not. I don't think you should start off saying no to everything, but when you turn 30, you better flip that script quick and start saying no ASAP, rocky, because once you start getting older and older and older and I said this to the kids I said if I were to ask what's more valuable time or money everyone up here would say time. But when I was in my 20s I would have said money, nlu, listener, what is happening? I just wanted to jump in here and let you know if you want to get to the next level faster.

Alan Lazaros:

We have a free virtual monthly meetup at the first Thursday of every month. You can connect with like-minded people and become a bigger part of this amazing global community. The link to register will be in the show notes, and I think most people in their 20s and I happen to be broke and I needed money. I was broke in college. I didn't have any money and so I needed money. I had plenty of time, didn't have any money, and the truth is, time is more valuable, but when you're young, it seems like money is because you have plenty of time. You just don't have any money, and that's why investors are so key when you do start businesses. And Kevin and I went a different road. But my question for you, kev, is I was preaching the compound effect from the moment you and I reconnected in our mid-20s.

Alan Lazaros:

Do you now understand more as to why.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yes and no. Well, yes because we're experiencing it, but no because, Jesus, I don't even. It's so hard to explain, Cause, in a way it doesn't really feel like anything's different, but everything is. I understand it, and but it's weird to experience it because it's different than you think it's going to be. And it takes it takes a lot longer than I was sold. I was sold a fucking lie you know, two turns into four, four turns into eight.

Kevin Palmieri:

Not here, it doesn't, nope, nope, it doesn't not like that, it doesn't not in the personal development space, not like that. No, it's yeah, that's it. It's like yeah, you magic penny, that shit ain't real. Here you should have.

Alan Lazaros:

You should have heard one of the guys. He said we did 1 million the first year, then it was 2 million, then it was 5 million and then it was 20 and then it was 40 and I was sitting there going tech products, tech products are good, well not. I said that doesn't work with personal development I think, the lesson the lesson is, honestly, it's way.

Kevin Palmieri:

Let's put, let's do it this way. It's way easier to be a little worse tomorrow than you were today in terms of effort. You just do less than you did today, right. But if you can just do a little little, little, little little more tomorrow than you did today read one extra page, that's it just one. If you do that for long enough, things look really, really different. So I think, if anything, it's not even about the results that I look at. I look more at the fact that, like I mean, I didn't I haven't gone from learning 30 minutes a day to learning two hours a day. I still aim to learn 30 minutes a day. I've just done it for a long period of time where I've had the opportunity to read a lot of books, but it's never been like, oh, this is way too much. I'm doing four hours of learning today. That's not how it works.

Alan Lazaros:

How many books do you think you've read?

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't know. I don't know. Probably not. You've got to be upwards of 200 or something, right? I honestly don't know. I've started a lot and then, like this sucks, I can't read this Alan sent me something recently. I was like I can't read this thing.

Alan Lazaros:

This is.

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't like it. Willpower doesn't work. No offense to whoever wrote it, but I can't do it. I can't.

Alan Lazaros:

It. You know, turn it off In this case I'm talking about Audible or Spotify but or just put it down.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, or yeah, you could. You could do that. Throw it out the window. You can throw it out the window there are.

Alan Lazaros:

there are some seriously detrimental books.

Kevin Palmieri:

There, seriously, are you got to be careful with the books? I just, I understand that it's really hard to plan like that for the future. I understand, I I am. Again, I'm not.

Kevin Palmieri:

That is not my natural tendency. My natural tendency was not to plan for the future. My natural tendency was to look good. Now, luckily, a lot of that carried over to good habits. Not a lot Much in the fitness realm carried over to good habits. Everything else was kind of a shitshow.

Kevin Palmieri:

But I don't know if there's any way to make it land, other than if life is really easy and really simple and really without resistance today. It's not. It's not going to stay like that forever. If you could increase, if I could sit someone down and say, look, we're going to increase the resistance, and all I mean by that is, like the challenge of life, almost an unmeasurable amount. So when you go to bed tonight, instead of watching 15 minutes of TikTok, you're going to read five pages. That's it. That's all you got to do, nice. But 20 years from today, or five years from today, or two years from today, whatever horizon you can see to, your life is going to be 10 percent better. Is that something you're willing to sign up, for that's the question I needed to have.

Alan Lazaros:

Not, but it's more than 10 percent, I know.

Kevin Palmieri:

I know, but I'm just throwing numbers out.

Alan Lazaros:

OK, numbers are not accurate.

Kevin Palmieri:

That's very unexciting. It's definitely more than 10%. Well, whatever the number is, whatever, let's just say it's 50%. Okay, hypothetically Way more than that, but it's fine. 10,000%, that's where you lose me. It's like Kev. What if I told you that you were a 4.7 million time better podcaster today than you were at the beginning?

Alan Lazaros:

When you go back I'm sorry, this is great, I know we got to jump. When you go back and listen to old content, you're alarmed, of course.

Kevin Palmieri:

This is what I hear when you say that I know I got to jump.

Alan Lazaros:

I am alarmed. Yeah, that's what that is.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm still alarmed Today. I'll alwaysmed. Yeah, that's what that is. I'm still alarmed today. I'll always be.

Alan Lazaros:

Anyone can go do this. You can go back five years ago and look at photos. I have a perspective folder that I look at and it's like oh yeah that makes sense Me at 20?.

Kevin Palmieri:

Same, not great. No-transcript. Friend is not. Time is not your friend. Friend is not your friend.

Kevin Palmieri:

If it's the other way and things are getting better, yeah, and there's more money in the bank account and your relationships are better and you have better friends and your boundaries with your family are better and you feel more comfortable in your body and all that stuff. Time is your friend, but the only way to dictate whether or not time is your friend or your enemy is to make sure that you're doing habits that are pouring into your future as much as they're pouring into your present. Even that's a dangerous game. Okay, what's your next level lesson?

Alan Lazaros:

before we skadoodle on out of here, I was on with a client earlier and shout out to you, you'll know who you are. And he opened up his Monarch. Monarch is a financial budgeting app and I said what's your intention for today? He said I want to go through Monarch and I was like perfect, pull it up, shared his screen and we went through every single dollar that he spent from March to April, every single one. We found 12 things to get rid of, 12. 12 useless. And for you out there watching or listening, they're not useless. I'm just I'm emphasizing we didn't think we were going to find anything.

Alan Lazaros:

This dude's buttoned up. He tracks his finances every day. We found 12 things to get rid of, 12. Now he has a forecast Next year is going to be very financially bright. The rest of this year, rather, and next year even more. He felt scarce financially and he said I need to do something about that. And then we had a conversation and we looked at his numbers and we went okay, let's just get rid of all this shit you don't need. And he literally said on the call he said this software is a service they get you it's. You don't realize how quickly you need this app and that app and this app and we got rid of like three apps that he's not even using.

Alan Lazaros:

I had a client once who was spending thousands of dollars. Her grandkids bought a bunch of stuff on her iPhone. She didn't even know, and you just got to look at the numbers. And that was one the last piece of this, too, what I learned from yesterday they look at numbers. At one point I said wait, wait, wait. How many spreadsheets do you guys have? They both started laughing and one of them said I have eight up on my laptop right now at home, I said. And then I turned to the kids and I said listen, this is what no one's going to tell you. We all live in our spreadsheets, all of us.

Alan Lazaros:

And the guy said verbatim if you are not good at Excel, you should not be an entrepreneur. What he meant by that is you need to track your numbers. You need to. He said every dollar that's ever gone out of my business had my approval. That's why he's winning. That's why he's successful. If you take that away, there's no way you can't just wing it and succeed. That's not a thing. Even though it looks like it from the outside in. From the outside in, it looks like NLU is winging it. We look like a mess. We're not late, we got to go up, we got to jump up, but from the inside out, it's all by design. Every single thing is by design, and I just that's my next level lesson is time will be your friend when you design your life for a bigger, better, brighter future.

Kevin Palmieri:

Mine is much shorter than yours. Time is only a strategy. If you're practicing the right behaviors, wow, throw that up on a fucking bumper sticker. It's also very weird because you don't. You won't understand what I'm saying, most likely unless you're a podcaster or an audio person. You'll get it. My audio is all weird. It's like a new laptop and my headphones are really loud, so I can hear myself way louder and I feel like I'm narrating something and it's great. It's very strange. I can hear everything in my like the grumble in my voice. It's interesting. It's very.

Alan Lazaros:

I feel like the camera's a little higher too you're. It's like we're looking down on you a little more I moved my camera like two weeks ago.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm just saying you just noticing now, noticing this now no, I've noticed, I just I'm mentioning it now yeah, it's. There's no optimal way to set up a freaking giant camera on top of a tv. I still am yet to figure out a way. I have an idea, but I it's too late now you literally, you got this I won't. This is it forever it'll never.

Alan Lazaros:

This is it. I'm never, never changing again. Yeah, no, we no. We're going to invest in and that's how I know you went out of business we're going to invest in some new, some new cameras?

Kevin Palmieri:

Okay, If you are looking for an opportunity to get more self-awareness through journaling, we have the next level dreamliner. It is bite-sized so you can do it every single day. It makes it sustainable, right? There's a lot of journals out there that it takes 45 minutes to do and it's just not sustainable for most of us. So if you're looking for a sustainable journal, it's on Amazon. We'll have the link in the show notes.

Alan Lazaros:

This book right here Reset, by Dan Heath. We are reading this in book club. We're on chapter three. So on Saturday, what's today? Thursday? Today is Friday. So in two days, yeah, okay, tomorrow, 1230 PM, eastern Standard Time, we are reading chapter three of Reset. Join book club, it's totally free. We talked recently on an episode, kevin and I about what's the one thing that you would never change, on whatever level you get to Reading personal development books, was my answer. And if you want some more accountability to read personal development books, join us. The brainstorming sessions on book club our next fucking level. It's a great book too, very good book.

Kevin Palmieri:

Thank you, brother. Yeah, did you write it I picked it.

Alan Lazaros:

I did pick it. All right, I didn't write it, I picked it. Uh, you don't have to have read the book. You don't have to be caught up. You can come in and out. You don't have to be on camera or microphone. The link will be in the show notes. You can join in and out anytime you want. We are grateful to have you Book.

Kevin Palmieri:

Club's a cool place to be cool with cool people and cool books. You know it. Not bad, as always. We love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you at NLU. We don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Alan Lazaros:

Keep it Next Level Next.

Kevin Palmieri:

Level Nation. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros:

We mean it when we say family. If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri:

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

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