The lifestyle of a brownstone restorer offers deep pride and solid people but limited freedom — scoring 21 out of 30.
On lifestyle metrics: Pride scores 9/10 — Mark is genuinely proud of his work and the craftsmanship is impressive. People score 7/10 — subcontractors are great but some buyers aren't. Freedom only gets 5/10 — projects have end dates allowing breaks, but during active builds, weekends disappear and the phone never stops. ✦ AI generated
Sam Parr · My First Million · 2026-07-21 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 18:16
For pride, he was very proud of what he was doing. I was actually proud for him. I thought it was amazing. I'm going to give that one a nine. [...] Now, people, I met some of his co-workers, some of the guys doing work. It was awesome. They were really cool and lovely. I'm going to give it a seven just because some of the people who he sells his properties to, I probably don't want to hang out with some of those folks. And now, freedom. I'm going to give this one a five. The reason I'm going to do a five is because each project has an end date. So, he could take some time off if he wanted to, but when he's there, like in the thick of it, it seems like Saturday and Sunday is included. He's always on the phone like dealing with regulations and things like that. So, the lifestyle score gets a 21 out of 30.
verbatim transcript · starts at 18:16
18:15of 30. All right. Now, let's do lifestyle. So, can you have pride in the product that you're making? Do you like the people who you work with and your customers? And does [music] it provide any freedom? So, for pride, he was very proud of what he was doing. I was actually proud for him. I thought it was amazing. I'm going to give that one a nine. He said that sometimes he'll make
18:35stuff and like the buyer will just come in and like destroy it, which would really suck, but he still gets a nine. Now, people, I met some of his co-workers, some of the guys doing work. It was awesome. They were really cool and lovely. I'm going to give it a seven just because some of the people who he sells his properties to, I probably don't want to [music] hang out with some
18:51of those folks. And now, freedom. I'm going to give this one a five. The reason I'm going to do a five is because each project has [music] an end date. So, he could take some time off if he wanted to, but when he's there, like in the thick of it, it seems like Saturday and Sunday is included. He's always on the phone like dealing with regulations and things like that. So, the lifestyle
19:09score gets a 21 out of 30. All right. So, here's what that adds up to. For business, he gets an eight. For lifestyle, a 21. 21. 21. >> [music] >> You wrote a 31 >> for Biz. He is going to get an eight. Lifestyle 21. Add all that up. What's that up to? That's 29. So Mark O'Brien buying, restoring, selling brownstones. SAM score 29.