Why "Desperation Induced Focus" Is the Key to Success, Plus Listener Questions

**Shaan Puri** (0:00)
If you could only get done one thing this year, what would it be? Don't waste your time with anything else. Just take your best person, which is either you, the CEO, whoever, and make them responsible for that problem and give them everything they need to do it.

**Sam Parr** (0:22)
Do you know where I am or no?

**Shaan Puri** (0:25)
I have no idea where you are.

**Sam Parr** (0:26)
Oh, I'm in Portugal, dude. I'm recording this on a microphone, like a Blue Yeti mic and just my iPhone.

**Shaan Puri** (0:34)
Oh, okay. That's pretty good.

**Sam Parr** (0:36)
It's sick, right?

**Shaan Puri** (0:37)
What are you doing in Portugal?

**Sam Parr** (0:39)
So Jack Smith, our friend Jack, he is looking at retreats out here in the rural area of Portugal, like outside the city. And he wants to buy a retreat and turn it into a meditation retreat.
And he asked me to go with him and check it out with him.

**Shaan Puri** (0:55)
So I, he's like buying a retreat center.

**Sam Parr** (0:59)
Yeah, but like a plot of land that has like five to 20 cabins on it. He's looking at multiple places.

**Shaan Puri** (1:07)
And why is he doing that?

**Sam Parr** (1:09)
Because silent retreats made a difference in his life. And he's like into meditation and stuff. And he wants to do it.
And he likes Portugal. I don't know why it's really cheap here, dude. We went out to dinner with like six of us. And I felt like we went to a fancy dinner and ordered a ton of stuff and it was 120 bucks.

**Shaan Puri** (1:24)
That's amazing. So he's also buying a farm.

**Sam Parr** (1:27)
Isn't that funny?

**Shaan Puri** (1:29)
Your short term rental thing is just like, it's not even short term rental. I wouldn't even say that.
Buying a big ass piece of land. At least to put your flag down.

**Sam Parr** (1:40)
Is this like the yellow taxi cab thing where like we're talking about yellow taxis, therefore we see them everywhere? Or have you noticed that this is like this is popular? I can't decide.

**Shaan Puri** (1:49)
I don't know if it's popular or not, but ever since you posted your photos of yours or you sent me yours, it went from like an idea that just sounded like a pain in the ass to something I'm like kind of itching and wishing I had myself. So and I don't even like like we discussed, not even like leaving the house. So, you know, I don't even know why I want this piece of land. I'm never going to go.
I'm literally never going to go.

**Sam Parr** (2:13)
I don't think I'm going to go that much either. I'm renting it out. What's the time?

**Shaan Puri** (2:17)
Yeah, and I don't want to deal with all that. I don't know, Ben, have you do you want a piece of land now? Ever since you saw what Sam was doing, did he influence 100 percent?

**Sam Parr** (2:28)
It Portugal sounds like I actually like I was already into it. But Portugal is just like increasing my interest, like exponentially. That sounds incredible.
I think buying a place out here is not wise whenever I go abroad. I just I love going abroad and I love meeting new people and cultures, but it makes me realize how America like we have our act together. For for most things, I would be a little nervous to buy a place out here without speaking the language of being a foreigner and stuff.

**Shaan Puri** (2:57)
What is Jack even buying? What do you need for a silent retreat? Like you need like a place to sit on the ground.

**Sam Parr** (3:02)
Well, you have like staff like feed breakfast, like give you breakfast every morning.
And they have like a pool and a restaurant. I mean, it's like a proper like hotel. But the salaries are pretty sick.

**Shaan Puri** (3:16)
A silent hotel. OK, I kind of like this idea now. I don't know why I went from.
Why does he need anything to I need this?

**Sam Parr** (3:24)
It's cool, right? Man, this stuff is actually cool.
So I it's people are talking about it. It seems like in my world at the time, but I can't just tell us just because I notice it now.

**Shaan Puri** (3:33)
I wish he was not making it like a retreat because that's still going to be like only for those who really want to like have this intense life experience.
I wish it really was more like a silent hotel. It's like a place you can go for a night or two while you're in town.