In this episode, I sit down with a business builder who breaks down one of the most misunderstood realities of winning: you cannot live a balanced life and expect uncommon results.
We dig into why obsession — not talent, not IQ, not luck — is the real separator between top performers and everyone else. From chess masters to elite entrepreneurs, the pattern is the same: the ones who win hardest are the ones who care the most.
We also talk about:
- How to know if you're actually passionate about your business — or just forcing it
- Why most people quit before ever getting good
- The dangers of choosing the wrong business model
- The single most underpriced skill in the marketplace today
- What he wishes he understood at 20 (especially about scalability)
- And why the business you pick matters more than the effort you put in
If you're a creator, coach, or entrepreneur trying to pick the right path — this episode will save you years of trial and error.
Ready to scale smarter and faster?
👉 https://go.eliteceos.com/new-elite-main-vsl-4954?utm_source=ep088
Timestamps:
1:10 From Orthodox Jew to call center owner
1:33 Becoming religious “by accident” (because of a girl)
2:30 Oxford, Budapest & leaving religion behind
3:29 “I got sued INTO a business” – entering HVAC
4:06 From cigar kiosk to high-end cigar lounge
4:47 Landlord lawsuits & expensive HVAC lessons
5:24 Meeting the HVAC tech who became his partner
6:07 Launching an HVAC company with zero experience
6:32 Pivoting from HVAC into solar (and why solar is brutal)
8:15 Accidentally discovering the power of call centers
9:13 Fixing the real problem: nobody calls their leads
10:00 The VA who started cold calling (and it worked)
10:46 Building a real call center: dialers, scripts, systems
11:20 What Scalifi actually does for home service companies
12:25 Why Peter refuses long-term contracts
14:36 How they source and filter cold-calling data
18:51 The real math of cold calling (300 contacts → 1–2 appointments)
20:08 Why cold calling works because it’s hard
23:11 When cold calling doesn’t make financial sense
25:00 How to pay call center agents the right way
27:01 The real challenge: managing humans, not tools
31:07 Why he only hires callers from Latin America
35:46 The metrics that actually matter (CPA is king)
37:29 Why he can’t use a call center to sell call centers
41:34 Immigrant upbringing & watching his dad start over
44:46 Business as a hobby – why he’d “retire” into another company
47:05 Starting work at 11 a.m. & designing a “retired” lifestyle
50:07 Struggling with content and fixing it with a media team
53:18 Unpopular truth: you can’t be balanced, you must be obsessed
55:22 Lightning round: mistakes, reading, and scalability lessons
56:58 Where to find Peter online (Scalifi)