0
SPEAKER_01
My friend, I am such a big believer that your mindset is everything.
0
SPEAKER_01
It can really dictate if your life has meaning, has value, and you feel fulfilled, or if you feel exhausted, drained, and like you re never going to be enough.
0
SPEAKER_01
Your mindset is everything.
0
SPEAKER_01
And our brand new book, The Greatness Mindset, just hit the New York Times Best Seller back-to-back weeks.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I m so excited to hear from so many of you who ve bought the book, who ve read it, and have finished it already, and are getting incredible results from the lessons in the book.
0
SPEAKER_01
If you haven t got a copy yet, you ll learn how to build a plan for greatness through powerful exercises and toolkits designed to propel your life forward.
0
SPEAKER_01
This is the book I wish I had when I was 20, struggling, trying to figure out life.
0
SPEAKER_01
10 years ago at 30 trying to figure out transitions in my life and the book I m glad I have today for myself.
0
SPEAKER_01
Make sure to get a copy at lewishouse.com slash 2023 mindset to get your copy today.
0
SPEAKER_01
Again lewishouse.com slash 2023 mindset to get a copy today.
0
SPEAKER_01
Also the book is on audible now so you can get it on audiobook as well over there also.
0
SPEAKER_00
There s a zillion people who are like, you suck, none of this is true, whatever.
0
SPEAKER_00
And for me, it rolls off my back because I have evidence.
0
SPEAKER_01
But if I didn t have that, I would probably have to... Welcome to the School of Greatness.
0
SPEAKER_01
My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur.
0
SPEAKER_01
And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness.
0
SPEAKER_01
Thanks for spending some time with me today.
0
SPEAKER_01
Now let the class begin.
0
SPEAKER_01
Welcome to this special masterclass.
0
SPEAKER_01
We brought some of the top experts in the world to help you unlock the power of your life through this specific theme today.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s going to be powerful.
0
SPEAKER_01
So let s go ahead and dive in.
0
SPEAKER_00
Many of the people that I know who have tremendous amounts of money have huge fears around being poor and so it s just as an interesting thought like a lot of people who don t have money see people who have money as Thinking differently and they might in that they are more uncomfortable being poor than you are Like it is more painful for them than it is for you It might be I m just being really it might be why some of them are stingy too with the money I m gonna spend this $5.
0
SPEAKER_01
I m gonna keep it.
0
SPEAKER_01
You know, they re very stingy with all of it
0
SPEAKER_00
Two nights ago, we were out to dinner with a guy who just got valued at a billion, right?
0
SPEAKER_00
And it s off cash flow.
0
SPEAKER_00
It s not one of these software things.
0
SPEAKER_00
It s off, he s getting, yeah, he s making real money, crazy money.
0
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, I m not going to that gym.
0
SPEAKER_00
He s like, for equal, I said, I m not paying $200 a month for a gym membership.
0
SPEAKER_00
It s a different perspective.
0
SPEAKER_00
Now, I m not saying I m that way.
0
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
0
SPEAKER_00
I m okay spending on gym membership.
0
SPEAKER_00
That s fine for me.
0
SPEAKER_00
But everyone has their own things.
0
SPEAKER_00
there are these behaviors, like he got, the other guy who had the 250, he got to that point because he squeezed everything out of his business, which made the business so valuable, and then he was able to sell it.
0
SPEAKER_00
But the billion dollar guy was saying, he s like, you know what they don t tell you about when you sell your business, because he s sitting next to the guy with the 250, right?
0
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, the moment you sell your business, he s like, you have no cash flow.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so he felt that, too.
0
SPEAKER_00
He s like, what are you going to do?
0
SPEAKER_00
He s like, you re going to take the money, and then what are you going to do?
0
SPEAKER_00
You re going to try and buy more cash flow, because you ve got to replace the cash flow you had with the business.
0
SPEAKER_01
You ve got to get real estate assets.
0
SPEAKER_01
You ve got to do something else.
0
SPEAKER_00
He s like, why bother?
0
SPEAKER_00
He s like, I ll just keep it.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so he doesn t have any intentions of selling.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so it was an interesting lesson for me, too, because we obviously got rid of our cash flow asset when we sold all three last year.
0
SPEAKER_01
You ve got a lot more money, but you don t have the money cash coming in.
0
SPEAKER_00
Right, because then it looks like this finite asset.
0
SPEAKER_00
The business goes on forever, in your mind, at least.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so it gives you this illusion of control, this illusion of security.
0
SPEAKER_00
And me, personally?
0
SPEAKER_00
Most people wouldn t believe this when they hear it, but I m very risk averse.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so I probably need, what s the core changes that I need to have?
0
SPEAKER_00
I probably need to be a little bit more of a risk taker than I am.
0
SPEAKER_00
tend to always take the lowest risk path when I can.
0
SPEAKER_00
Even the idea of when I quit my job to start entrepreneurship, it was because I knew that the path that I was on was guaranteed not to get to me where I want.
0
SPEAKER_00
So I had a zero outcome.
0
SPEAKER_00
So this one, even though it was lower, I had a low chance of success, the other one had 100% failure guarantee.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so it felt like the lower risk option for my long-term goal was to quit my job and become an entrepreneur for that reason.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so people are like, I m really risk averse.
0
SPEAKER_00
I m like, so am I. Like I hoard money.
0
SPEAKER_00
I do, I do.
0
SPEAKER_01
You haven t spent any of the money from the exit, so it s like just sitting in the bank.
0
SPEAKER_00
Nothing, we started working the next day.
0
SPEAKER_00
We didn t even take a day off.
0
SPEAKER_00
We literally sold, wire hit, and we started working on acquisition.com the next day.
0
SPEAKER_01
Let s say you had to start putting that cash flow every month into other things, team, resources, whatever it is.
0
SPEAKER_01
And that wasn t coming in.
0
SPEAKER_01
And let s call it 100 grand a month was coming in with cash flow.
0
SPEAKER_01
I don t know how much it is.
0
SPEAKER_01
But let s just say that is going into hiring team and other things to support you getting to the billion in two and a half years.
0
SPEAKER_01
What would need to shift inside of you after three months of feeling no cash will come in to stack your bank account in order for you to be okay with it, to get to that billion quicker?
0
SPEAKER_00
I would just have to be more secure, just realistically.
0
SPEAKER_00
Like I use- What does that mean?
0
SPEAKER_00
Is that an internal- I use cashflow from businesses as evidence to the fact that I m not a failure.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so I use, I ve always, like, it has been easier for me to change my conditions than to change who I am.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so I have used my material success and accolades to quiet the voices of not being good enough.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so for that, like me having that, if I had that little voice that peeps up, it s like, Hey, look at that.
0
SPEAKER_00
And I m like, okay, no, no, I m okay.
0
SPEAKER_00
I m not, I m not that bad.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so, so I d have to, I d really have to re-engineer the conversation I have with myself around how I value myself.
0
SPEAKER_00
Because then people are like, well, if everything disappeared, how would you feel about yourself?
0
SPEAKER_00
I like to think that I would be uncomfortable and that I would change my views, but I haven t needed to do that yet, and so my effort goes elsewhere.
0
SPEAKER_00
But that s what probably would have to happen in order for me to make that change.
0
SPEAKER_01
What is the thing that you re afraid of inside of yourself?
0
SPEAKER_01
Is it a self-worth thing?
0
SPEAKER_01
Is it a self-love thing?
0
SPEAKER_01
Is it a belief that you re not good enough?
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it d definitely be a good enough thing, for sure.
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it s just like maybe I m not as good as I think I am.
0
SPEAKER_00
Maybe everything that I ve been putting on media, maybe my book, maybe all these things are actually not true and I don t know what I m talking about, right?
0
SPEAKER_00
Because clearly I don t know what I m talking about because I m not making any money.
0
SPEAKER_00
So these things have been... That s why acquisitions.com is the other half
0
SPEAKER_00
like the actual businesses of Acquisition.com compared to the media of Acquisition.com, it is the other half because it s the evidence of the fact that the things that I say are true.
0
SPEAKER_00
Because those are getting results.
0
100%.
0
SPEAKER_01
And they re growing.
0
SPEAKER_00
Right.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so that way I feel bulletproof when I make the content, when I make the book, when I write the stuff.
0
SPEAKER_00
There s a zillion people who are like, you suck, none of this is true, whatever.
0
SPEAKER_00
And for me, it rolls off my back because I have evidence.
0
SPEAKER_00
I m like, no, no, it is true, and here s how.
0
SPEAKER_00
But if I didn t have that, I would probably have to, it s, because I don t know what the right call is there.
0
SPEAKER_00
Because if I didn t have the evidence, it would be hard for me to say, you re wrong, because I don t have any proof that they re wrong.
0
SPEAKER_00
But you have evidence now.
0
SPEAKER_00
Right, and so I have this evidence.
0
SPEAKER_01
So how do you change the belief inside that you re good enough with the years of evidence now?
0
SPEAKER_00
The question is like, have I built a billion dollar thing yet?
0
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
0
SPEAKER_00
It s a fun convo and it s great because this was wonderful, Louis.
0
SPEAKER_00
Because I get to see my own limiting beliefs.
0
SPEAKER_00
Everyone deals with this.
0
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
0
SPEAKER_00
Like at every at every level you re dealing with this of like feeling of inadequacy You know feeling not good enough feeling you re not smart feeling like you don t work hard whatever it is Like I have that stuff all the time because you think that the external circumstance is gonna is gonna solve that And I would say that it does to a degree it becomes a crutch, right?
0
SPEAKER_00
But then you have this crutch and then you just tie yourself worth to the accolade or the thing Rather than still yourself and maybe I need to do more work on that.
0
SPEAKER_00
Who knows?
0
SPEAKER_01
If you could overcome one thing or eliminate one thing internally to become a better leader to yourself to quiet the noise or help you take a risk in a different way.
0
SPEAKER_01
I m not talking about lose all your money, but take the risk to help you accelerate this.
0
SPEAKER_01
And you don t have to by any way, but I just believe that it s possible for you to do that.
0
SPEAKER_01
I believe you can be a billionaire in two and a half years.
0
SPEAKER_01
If you shift whatever inside of you is holding you back to get to that space.
0
SPEAKER_01
What would be that one thing to eliminate or overcome internally to make it happen?
0
SPEAKER_00
This need for external validation, 100%.
0
SPEAKER_01
The need for external validation.
0
SPEAKER_00
I knew when you started the question.
0
SPEAKER_01
Why do you need external validation?
0
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I think part of it s so ingrained in us, if you think about us as kids, right?
0
SPEAKER_00
Like, how do you orient yourself with the world?
0
SPEAKER_00
You get reinforced or punished at all phases, directly, indirectly, but you get reinforced or punished, and the things that you get reinforced, you do more of, the things you get punished, you do less of, right?
0
SPEAKER_00
Like, that s just how we learn behavior, how we learn to function in society, right?
0
SPEAKER_00
Touch that thing, ah, it hurts, we got punished.
0
SPEAKER_00
Okay, you know, your parent tells you to sit down and be quiet and eat, and you learn to sit down and shut up and eat, and then we wonder why
1
SPEAKER_00
Adults don t move because we re told to sit when we re running around, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
We learn.
1
SPEAKER_00
Or at school, sit down and be quiet.
1
100%.
1
SPEAKER_00
And we wonder why we eat so much when the reward for everything we did when we were a kid was food, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
We wonder these things.
1
SPEAKER_00
So the reason external validation is so hard, at least for me, is because it s how I learned everything, is because external validation gave me the directional guidance of what s good and what s not.
1
SPEAKER_00
And then as you get older, it s where am I going to get that validation from?
1
SPEAKER_00
And so I would say that my external validation
1
SPEAKER_00
is still 100% there, it just comes from different sources.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I m more selective on whose validation I want.
1
SPEAKER_01
So how much external validation do you need in order to overcome this belief to go all in and do it in half the time?
1
SPEAKER_00
No, I think I just, I need to be able to validate myself.
1
SPEAKER_00
And that s fundamentally, I think Epictetus said this, he said like, if you need someone else s, he has this quote, it s so good, but it s basically like,
1
SPEAKER_00
You need to be able to give, you don t need to swear to somebody else.
1
SPEAKER_00
You should be able to swear to yourself and bear witness to yourself because your word should be good enough.
1
SPEAKER_01
So you need to eliminate external validation from you feeling good enough.
1
SPEAKER_01
Probably, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s probably that.
1
SPEAKER_00
Obviously, it s good to have feedback in life.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I think that s why it s also difficult in general, because it s not eliminate or have more of, it s to what degree and from whom and about what.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so then it gets a little bit more complex.
1
SPEAKER_00
But even using those different lenses, I think it s good to unpack it for anyone who s listening, which is like, OK,
1
SPEAKER_00
Layla said this, so this is not mine.
1
SPEAKER_00
But most times when we re afraid of something, it s not actually like this amorphous crowd that we re afraid of.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s like one or two people s opinion.
1
SPEAKER_00
Like it s your dad or it s your whatever it is, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
And you re worried about what they re going to think.
1
SPEAKER_00
And they re not even thinking about you, but you think they re thinking about you.
1
SPEAKER_00
They re thinking about their dad.
1
SPEAKER_00
Whatever it is, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
And so she restated this earlier on to Mike, like when we were together five years ago.
1
SPEAKER_00
She was like, and she like made me name the person.
1
SPEAKER_00
It wasn t my dad, it was somebody else for this particular thing.
1
SPEAKER_00
She was like, are you gonna let this guy stop us from getting what we want?
1
SPEAKER_00
And it was like when I saw it, it was like looking in front of me.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was like, she s like, what if this guy hates you and thinks you re terrible?
1
SPEAKER_00
Is that a worthy enough reason to still keep going?
1
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
She s like, let s go.
1
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
1
SPEAKER_00
And so she was very good with that.
1
SPEAKER_01
What do you need to say to yourself every day to believe in to believe you re good enough?
1
SPEAKER_01
If you could say one thing to you That no one else needed to hear but you needed to hear it from you.
1
SPEAKER_01
What would that be?
1
SPEAKER_00
I don t know if it would be a saying thing.
1
SPEAKER_00
I don t think it d be like an affirmation.
1
SPEAKER_00
I think it s just a belief What would the belief be?
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I mean fundamentally the belief would just have to shift that that The doing this is enough Validation
1
SPEAKER_00
for me.
1
SPEAKER_01
Not the results.
1
SPEAKER_00
Right.
1
SPEAKER_00
And that s I mean fundamentally that s always the goal is that you can you can detach the doingness from the result.
1
SPEAKER_00
I think what I ve been able to do has been to extend the time horizon between the doingness and the result but not necessarily fully eliminate it.
1
SPEAKER_00
I m patient in that I can continue to do things for very long periods of time before seeing a payoff.
1
SPEAKER_00
But if I were able to truly eliminate it I think that would be kind of like a next step.
1
SPEAKER_00
Then again it s that borderline on insanity because if you never get feedback on sometimes you re like maybe I should change direction.
1
SPEAKER_01
You ll keep getting feedback because you re creating you re taking action.
1
SPEAKER_01
Know the more you do that you ll have more businesses.
1
SPEAKER_01
You ll be acquiring you ll be creating more content and everything will be growing at the same time Yeah, right hundred percent.
1
SPEAKER_01
I love seeing you, you know go through this process internally because I think I m open to it I just want to win, you know, I mean like I just want to be better.
1
SPEAKER_01
What does winning look like?
1
SPEAKER_00
It s achieving the potential it s taking all this raw potential and
1
SPEAKER_00
The line in the Bible that always scared me the most was, too, who much is given, much is expected.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so, for me, I always felt like I was given a lot.
1
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
1
SPEAKER_00
Like, I was born in America, right off the bat.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was born as a guy.
1
SPEAKER_00
I have insane genetics.
1
SPEAKER_00
Like, from that perspective, I was a six-pack when I was 15.
1
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
1
SPEAKER_00
I have a pretty high processing load.
1
SPEAKER_00
Like, I can usually, I do okay with complex problems.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was bilingual, basically at birth, because parents talked to me in a different language, so that gave me good language abilities.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so it s like, these are all things that were given to me, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
And I was born into, from a money standpoint, a decently wealthy family, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
Not ultra-billionaire, but never worried about food or shelter or anything like that, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
And so these are all the things that were given to me.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so to me, I m like, man, much is expected, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
And not necessarily that that s, you know, God, whatever.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s just, I expect a lot of myself because I see so much potential.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I want to, like, by the time I die, I would like to have nothing left in my potential tank.
1
SPEAKER_00
And it just all had been transformed into my reality.
1
SPEAKER_01
What would you say are the top three to five rules on money, if you could boil it down to three to five?
1
SPEAKER_02
It s a game.
1
SPEAKER_02
The number one rule is it s a game.
1
SPEAKER_02
You re playing a game.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s that simple.
1
SPEAKER_02
If you look at it as a game, just like anything, you can get better at it.
1
SPEAKER_02
Whatever game you play, if you play Uno, if you play Monopoly, if you play Clue, if you play Jenga, if you play Fortnite, anything you play
1
SPEAKER_02
You know, you re going to get good.
1
SPEAKER_02
I remember in my time, I was playing Fester s Quest.
1
SPEAKER_02
I played Zelda.
1
SPEAKER_02
I used to play Final Fantasy 1.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I would play, obviously, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.
1
SPEAKER_02
But it was also, what was the Mario Kart?
1
SPEAKER_02
Is it Super Mario Kart?
1
SPEAKER_02
And you know how you would do the three jumps, and then bam, it s going fast.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I would beat this time, 32 seconds.
1
SPEAKER_02
I was so proud of it.
1
SPEAKER_02
But I played it 50,000 times, right?
1
SPEAKER_02
So the game with money.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s exactly what it is.
1
SPEAKER_02
Once you learn how to play the game with money, then it has to do with timing, then it has to do with different kind of things.
1
SPEAKER_02
Like, you know, a year ago, I get a call from a guy who needs cash.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s okay.
1
SPEAKER_02
He needs an investment.
1
SPEAKER_02
He has something he has to sell immediately to get cash in return.
1
SPEAKER_02
Okay?
1
SPEAKER_02
Because he needs the money right away.
1
SPEAKER_02
So it s okay.
1
SPEAKER_02
So what are you selling?
1
SPEAKER_02
He says it s the two greatest Wayne Gretzky cards.
1
SPEAKER_02
I said okay.
1
SPEAKER_02
Signed or unsigned?
1
SPEAKER_02
No, this is a PSA 10 1979 OPG.
1
SPEAKER_02
Signature?
1
SPEAKER_02
No, signed.
1
SPEAKER_02
But it s the Holy Grail.
1
SPEAKER_02
So the OPG one sold in 2016 for $453,000.
1
SPEAKER_02
Okay, and just five years prior to that, it sold for $92,000.
1
SPEAKER_02
So from $92,000 to $451,000 in 2016, and he calls me.
1
SPEAKER_02
And a top sold in 2016 for $205,000.
1
SPEAKER_02
So two cars combined sold in 2016 for $600,000.
1
SPEAKER_02
He has them both.
1
SPEAKER_02
He has them both.
1
SPEAKER_02
And he wants to sell it to me.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I said, okay, what do you want to sell it for?
1
SPEAKER_01
He s like, $600,000.
1
SPEAKER_02
I said, I m not going to pay you that.
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, you know, he wants $600,000, I m not going to pay you that, but we talked about it.
1
SPEAKER_02
And eventually he gave me a number, right?
1
SPEAKER_02
And it was still a number.
1
SPEAKER_02
I had to still cough up, you know, a half a million dollar check to the guy.
1
SPEAKER_02
But we met at the PSA headquarters, classy guy, total gentleman.
1
SPEAKER_02
We sat down, transaction happened, the CEO of PSA came, showed us the poster on the PSA headquarters, I think it s in Newport, of the card is on the wall.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s the most expensive hockey card in the world, right?
1
SPEAKER_02
Okay, no problem.
1
SPEAKER_02
So, I m not a hockey fan.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m an investment guy with hockey.
1
SPEAKER_02
But I ve interviewed Wayne Gretzky six years ago.
1
SPEAKER_02
So I like greatness.
1
SPEAKER_02
I like anybody that just goes and crushes it with their game, right?
1
SPEAKER_02
So, I buy this card.
1
SPEAKER_02
So I buy the card, I don t think much of it.
1
SPEAKER_02
One card, not two.
1
SPEAKER_02
Two cards, it s both of them.
1
SPEAKER_02
I bought both of them, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_02
So the other guy who owns the card
1
SPEAKER_02
wouldn t sell his card for a million dollars if you paid it to him.
1
SPEAKER_02
So here s what I do know.
1
SPEAKER_02
So two guys own the card?
1
SPEAKER_02
Me and the other guy.
1
SPEAKER_02
There s only two of us, okay?
1
SPEAKER_02
You paid a million, he won t sell it to you.
1
SPEAKER_02
So that means there s only one in the market, because it s me, because I m willing to sell it, right?
1
SPEAKER_02
So it s on eBay right now.
1
SPEAKER_02
If you go on eBay right now, you type in Wayne Gretzky OPG, it s on market right now for a million dollars, right?
1
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_02
One of them is on the market for a million, the other one s on the market for 400,000.
1
SPEAKER_02
So you ask me for a rule of money, I had cash.
1
SPEAKER_02
If I don t have cash like that, I can t double my money that quickly.
1
SPEAKER_02
So we just talked about three of them.
1
SPEAKER_02
Money is a game.
1
SPEAKER_02
You need cash, because opportunity is going to come up, and it s a doubles game.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s a doubles game.
1
SPEAKER_02
Everything about money is a doubles game.
1
SPEAKER_02
A doubles game to me is I pay you $1,000.
1
SPEAKER_02
Can we double it in six months?
1
SPEAKER_02
No.
1
SPEAKER_02
How long in 12 months?
1
SPEAKER_02
Okay, no problem.
1
SPEAKER_02
I ll do a double in a year.
1
SPEAKER_02
Here s $1,000, I get a double back.
1
SPEAKER_02
So, if you take $1,000 and you double it, every year what happens?
1
SPEAKER_02
$1,000 goes into 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 2, 56, 5, 12, a million.
1
SPEAKER_02
A thousand dollars is nine doubles away from a million.
1
SPEAKER_02
Now, you take a million and see what happens if we double it nine times.
1
SPEAKER_02
One million goes into two million, four million, eight million, 16 million, 32, 64, 128, 250, 65, 12, a billion.
1
SPEAKER_02
A million is ten doubles away from a billion.
1
SPEAKER_02
But how do you find the doubles?
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, that s the game.
1
SPEAKER_02
That s the part of the game.
1
SPEAKER_02
That s what I m trying to tell you.
1
SPEAKER_02
So the doubles now becomes investment opportunities.
1
SPEAKER_02
what you buy into.
1
SPEAKER_02
Do you start a company where you can really scale it and finding something that can scale?
1
SPEAKER_02
Do you invest into things that are going to give you 6, 8, 10%?
1
SPEAKER_02
Or are you going to go play ball and take the risk?
1
SPEAKER_02
That s the game that you re going to start learning.
1
SPEAKER_02
Part of my money is going to be hedged and I m going to buy some gold because I m not going to become a billionaire off gold, but I m buying it because gold is money and something happens to the economy, I m protected with the gold.
1
SPEAKER_02
But you know what?
1
SPEAKER_02
put some of this money in mutual funds because I know long term I m going to make 8-12% on this, I m fine with that.
1
SPEAKER_02
I might do a real estate deal because
2
SPEAKER_01
Because long term I may do some money, although right now commercial real estate may be an interesting dynamic, because I think Zoom crushed commercial real estate.
2
SPEAKER_01
The commercial real estate model, it s been crushed.
2
SPEAKER_01
And by the way, it may never come back the same way ever again.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, I don t even think.
2
SPEAKER_01
I think it s gone.
2
SPEAKER_01
Here s what I mean.
2
SPEAKER_01
Look, we have this space, right?
2
SPEAKER_01
Okay, you ve got this space.
2
SPEAKER_01
If you get this today, right now, office space in Dallas, office space nationwide, companies are looking at their business models and they re just saying, why do I need 100,000 square feet of office space?
2
SPEAKER_01
Why do I need it?
2
SPEAKER_01
But if you go out there and you look at the numbers, you re like, okay, I don t know if I m going to do commercial real estate.
2
SPEAKER_01
But if I find some small, if I team up with an investment banker, if I team up with a guy that s managing money, and I go with a VC team, and this is a guy that s flipping opportunities fairly quickly, and I dump a million dollars with him, and within five years he turns a million dollars into five million, that s five X in five years, that may not be a bad idea.
2
SPEAKER_01
So you ve got to find those, and they re out there by the way.
2
SPEAKER_01
You have to, they re out there.
2
SPEAKER_01
So Ray Dalio plays a game of doubles.
2
SPEAKER_01
Warren Buffett s a doubles game.
2
SPEAKER_01
All these guys are doubles game.
2
SPEAKER_00
And, well, he s investing in businesses.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m a business guy.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m not a real estate guy.
2
SPEAKER_01
There are people that are, and by the way, that doesn t mean real estate doesn t work.
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, it wouldn t make any sense for me to say there s real estate billionaires everywhere.
2
SPEAKER_01
Our president is a real estate billionaire.
2
SPEAKER_01
So for me to knock real estate would have no value to it, but for me, I m more about
2
SPEAKER_01
I have an idea.
2
SPEAKER_01
What are you guys doing?
2
SPEAKER_01
Me and Tiffany are thinking about starting a marketing company.
2
SPEAKER_01
Okay, how can this thing scale?
2
SPEAKER_01
Well, let me tell you what we ve got.
2
SPEAKER_01
We ve got three packages.
2
SPEAKER_01
Boom, boom, boom.
2
SPEAKER_01
We re going to be a target audience.
2
SPEAKER_01
We re going to be targeting people in this world.
2
SPEAKER_01
Okay, interesting.
2
SPEAKER_01
How much are you going to pay?
2
SPEAKER_01
We foresee us doing $6 million a year in revenue within 24 months.
2
SPEAKER_01
What have you done to be able to earn this?
2
SPEAKER_01
I m a Columbia guy.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m a this, I m a this.
2
SPEAKER_01
How much money do you need?
2
SPEAKER_01
I need $2 million.
2
SPEAKER_01
I can t give you $2 million.
2
SPEAKER_01
Can I come in for $100,000?
2
SPEAKER_01
I ll put $100,000.
2
SPEAKER_01
this thing sells for $200 million, that $100,000 all of a sudden became $2.2 million, that s a victory.
2
SPEAKER_01
So those opportunities are out there.
2
SPEAKER_01
You just gotta focus.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then the last one I would tell you with the money, so we talked about what?
2
SPEAKER_01
We talked about game.
2
SPEAKER_00
Money s a game, you need cash.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s a doubles game.
2
SPEAKER_01
Doubles game.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I ll tell you one more would be you have to be maniacally
2
SPEAKER_01
maniacal about being patient.
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, you have to be patiently aggressive.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, patiently aggressive.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s so tough to do.
2
SPEAKER_01
Because you want your money to double now.
2
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
2
SPEAKER_01
It might take 10 years.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but if you are willing to do the 10 years, it may double 40 times.
2
SPEAKER_01
It may double 30 times.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, like when Bezos said, just hang tight, I m not going to give you dividends, just trust me on this.
2
SPEAKER_01
Trust me on this.
2
SPEAKER_01
Right?
2
SPEAKER_01
And at the beginning, if you ve heard the story where he goes and raises $2 million, he gets $50,000 from 40 people.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s what, $2 million.
2
SPEAKER_01
And he gives them 20%.
2
SPEAKER_01
20% just for $2,000,000.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know what that 20% is worth today?
2
$200,000,000.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s the point.
2
SPEAKER_01
So can you imagine, 1994, Amazon gets started, forget about you put $2,000,000.
2
SPEAKER_01
Just say you put $50,000,000.
2
SPEAKER_01
You put $50,000.
2
SPEAKER_01
What is a half a percent of a trillion dollar company right now?
2
SPEAKER_01
A half a percent, you re still a half a billionaire.
2
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_01
Your $50,000 is worth $500 million, give or take, whatever the numbers we re doing, right?
2
SPEAKER_01
The point is, that is a massive victory.
2
SPEAKER_01
The guy who put $10,000 and he gave it to Berkshire Hathaway in 1974, I don t know if you ve heard this story.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, Warren Buffett is starting, he says, I ll give you $10,000.
2
SPEAKER_01
Never touches the money, goes back to his regular job, makes $100,000 a year.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know how much that $10,000, have you read this article?
2
SPEAKER_01
No, tell me.
2
SPEAKER_01
The $10,000 if you go on Business Insider, you pull it up, is worth $780,000 today.
2
SPEAKER_01
780 million million never did anything to it.
2
SPEAKER_01
So that s the part about patiently aggressive Yeah, it s very hard to do but the doubles get bigger later on not early on the doubles are bigger You re 15 20 20 Papa talks about just like his successes.
2
SPEAKER_00
He s he s lived longer.
2
SPEAKER_00
I
2
SPEAKER_00
You know, he s just stayed around longer to let the money continue to compound, and that compounded interest is where it s at.
2
SPEAKER_00
What s the three greatest investments you ve made in yourself, and would you recommend those same investments in other people, or what should they be doing in their life right now?
2
SPEAKER_01
So, you know, I will tell you, I went to a Harvard OPM program one time, and I spent... OPM?
2
SPEAKER_01
OPM is Owner-President Management Program.
2
SPEAKER_01
So if you run a business that does $10 million or more, you get to go to it, and it s three years of three weeks living on campus, right?
2
SPEAKER_01
I went there, but I didn t go afterwards for different reasons.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I went there when I spent that $50,000 and I was on campus for three weeks.
2
SPEAKER_01
You spend three weeks with 144 people from 64 different countries.
2
SPEAKER_01
So watch what happens.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m sitting there, and at this point in the game, I have no idea what it is to be a CEO.
2
SPEAKER_01
I ve gone from being an employee to a salesperson to a sales leader, to a good manager, but I don t know what it is to be a CEO.
2
SPEAKER_01
I have no idea what it is to be a CEO.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I sit next to this guy, he becomes my teammate, my partner.
2
SPEAKER_01
He owns the Victoria s Secret of New Zealand and Australia.
2
SPEAKER_01
The reason why I m laughing is because the last day
2
SPEAKER_01
Eight of us were chosen to go present a business opportunity.
2
SPEAKER_01
So he keeps telling me, Patrick, I m going to kill it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Just watch what I m going to do.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m going to scare the hell out of Lynette.
2
SPEAKER_01
I think the lady s name is Lynette because she s the main person that does it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Watch what I m about to do.
2
SPEAKER_01
So he goes up on stage.
2
SPEAKER_01
Lewis is a very simple guy.
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, good looking guy, but he s not a charismatic anything.
2
SPEAKER_01
He just goes up on stage.
2
SPEAKER_01
He says, let me tell you why you ought to invest a million dollars into my new lingerie line.
2
SPEAKER_01
He says, here s a PowerPoint, here s a PowerPoint, you see all the sexy women here?
2
SPEAKER_01
You know what?
2
SPEAKER_01
I think it s more important for you to see this face to face.
2
SPEAKER_01
Ladies?
2
SPEAKER_01
No way.
2
SPEAKER_01
Bring some in.
2
SPEAKER_01
Seven models come in half naked wearing the lingerie, the entire place.
2
SPEAKER_01
All the entrepreneurs are going crazy, but the teachers are furious with them.
2
SPEAKER_01
The lady s running up, takes her jacket off, is trying to cover all these women.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was phenomenal, right, to see this here.
2
SPEAKER_01
But the point is, on Harvard s campus, right, think about it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Here s the part.
2
SPEAKER_01
Five years goes by, I m talking to you about it.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s called marketing, right?
2
SPEAKER_01
You remember it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I remember it.
2
SPEAKER_01
But when I was sitting next to him, I said, I said, listen, man, I m trying to learn how to be a good CEO.
2
SPEAKER_01
What do you suggest about being a good CEO?
2
SPEAKER_01
He says, man, I ve got 7,000 employees, and I have seven CEOs that report directly to me.
2
SPEAKER_01
I spent three weeks with this guy telling me stuff that he does with his CEO.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s not a motivational speaker.
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t even think he s got a thousand people following him on Instagram.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s worth a couple billion.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s not an influencer.
2
SPEAKER_01
But those three weeks of talking to him, I was like a kid in a candy store, trying to pull information out of this guy, and it was all technical stuff.
2
SPEAKER_01
It wasn t motivational stuff.
2
SPEAKER_01
What time do you wake up?
2
SPEAKER_01
What s your daily routine?
2
SPEAKER_01
None of that stuff.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s what do you do when you re trying to hire a person and you know you ve got to give him equity, but you re afraid if you give him too much equity and he leaves early,
2
SPEAKER_01
and you protect yourself, that if you fire him, does he still get the other two-thirds?
2
SPEAKER_01
How do you do this?
2
SPEAKER_01
Well, you set it up this way.
2
SPEAKER_01
What do you do to make sure your attorney that you have, that attorney that you have, who is negotiating with the other attorney, and he doesn t really want to go to court.
2
SPEAKER_01
So behind closed doors, they re settling, and he s not really working on your side, he s working on the other side to kind of speed it up.
2
SPEAKER_01
How do you get him to, well, you ve got to get another attorney who holds him accountable.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m like, these are the things that he said to me that you can t read about.
2
SPEAKER_01
You said three investments, that s one of them.
2
SPEAKER_01
Vistage was 100% a great investment because we met once a month for three or four years with a man named John Morris.
2
SPEAKER_01
John Morris is a local guy in Santa Monica, a guy that d be great for you to get connected with him.
2
SPEAKER_01
We re sitting in a meeting one time with John Morris, and one of the entrepreneurs going out of business.
2
SPEAKER_01
And he says, guys, I got bad news.
2
SPEAKER_01
Because you would start the meeting and he would say, here s my personal life, here s my health, here s my marriage, here s my business, here s my kids, and we would all talk amongst each other.
2
SPEAKER_01
Everybody had to sign NDA so you don t tell your story.
2
SPEAKER_01
But one guy gets up and he says, guys, I got bad news.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m about to go out of business.
2
SPEAKER_01
Why?
2
SPEAKER_01
If I don t get a half a million by this Friday, we re shutting down.
2
SPEAKER_01
If I get it, I ll last another year and a half and I think we ll make it.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I m shutting down.
2
SPEAKER_01
This is what John does.
2
SPEAKER_01
Tell me what you need for half a million.
2
SPEAKER_01
What are you willing to give up for the half a million?
2
SPEAKER_01
What are you willing to do this?
2
SPEAKER_01
He says, give me a second.
2
SPEAKER_01
In front of all of us, calls a guy who is in his business, same industry, says, here, take this call, go talk to him.
2
SPEAKER_01
Terms.
2
SPEAKER_01
Boom.
2
SPEAKER_01
Guy comes back ecstatic.
2
SPEAKER_01
By Friday, half a million was in his account.
2
SPEAKER_01
This is the kind of guy John Morris is, right?
2
SPEAKER_01
So Vistage to me was,
2
SPEAKER_01
Watching people from different industries every month for nine hours for one day nine hours and everybody would share their problems It was 1500 bucks a month some number like that a hundred percent well worth if you get qualified to go in because Vista s you have to do it s just like Tiger 30 if you ever do this thing called Tiger 33 I think it s called it s kind of like you ve got to have 50 million
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, there s things like that everywhere.
2
SPEAKER_01
This is one of them.
2
SPEAKER_01
Where you ve got to reveal your financial plan.
2
SPEAKER_00
Network, you have to know who you are.
2
SPEAKER_01
There s a lot of that happening right now, and I think it s great if it s by real business people.
2
SPEAKER_01
Not social media influencers.
2
SPEAKER_01
And let me explain to you what I mean by this.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, for example, if somebody wants to learn how to create a podcast, I want to go learn from somebody that s running a 6 o clock.
2
SPEAKER_01
I remember, I think, you taught a bunch of people how to monetize webinars and podcasts.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, you were the guy that taught people how to do the webinars.
2
SPEAKER_01
And you made people millions, by the way.
2
SPEAKER_01
You made a lot of people a lot of money with what you were doing with webinars.
3
SPEAKER_01
A time that people didn t think webinars had money.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, five, six, seven years ago.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I mean, at a time that nobody was thinking about it, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
So I ll go on, you re doing webinars, why are you doing webinars?
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, Lewis taught me how to do this.
3
SPEAKER_01
Lewis, yeah, Lewis House, oh, no, webinars, yeah, okay.
3
SPEAKER_01
So, but this is not webinars, this is not, this is about these guys, how did you go from- Bigger strategy on everything, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, this is stuff that you sit there and you re like,
3
SPEAKER_01
Wow, you guys are doing how much per year?
3
SPEAKER_01
$820 million.
3
SPEAKER_01
How many employees have you got?
3
922.
3
SPEAKER_01
How many people on your board?
3
SPEAKER_01
Seven of them.
3
SPEAKER_01
How do you handle conflicts?
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, this is the stuff that you talk with these guys.
3
SPEAKER_01
So, I recommend the OPM program.
3
SPEAKER_01
I recommend the Vistage program.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I m an obsessive reader, man.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I don t know how many articles and stuff I read.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I would recommend subscribing to, when there s like business insider that can pay $99 per year, pay for it.
3
SPEAKER_01
If there s a Wall Street Journal that you pay $600 per year, pay for it.
3
SPEAKER_01
If there are these handful of stuff that you can get that s not just the general news, if you spend $1,000, $2,000 on these news sites that are sending the elite articles that s different than the main ones,
3
SPEAKER_01
Don t hesitate.
3
SPEAKER_01
Pay for it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Because everybody s going to talk about the general stuff, but that additional stuff is written by ... It s advanced stuff.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it s advanced stuff.
3
SPEAKER_01
So imagine like ... Insider.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s the insider stuff written by the CFO of Snapchat that s telling you nine ways to protect yourself against cybersecurity that will be boring to other people.
3
SPEAKER_01
But you re looking and you re saying, this was legit.
3
SPEAKER_01
So those kinds of investments is what I would say to you.
3
SPEAKER_02
And if you lost your job right now, what investments should you make in your stuff?
3
SPEAKER_01
If I lost my job right now, and I don t have a job lined up within four weeks, that means I have a very weak contact list.
3
SPEAKER_01
So the problem is a long-term problem.
3
SPEAKER_01
So you are the long-term.
3
SPEAKER_01
If you cannot replace yourself with a job within four weeks, you have a terrible contact list.
3
SPEAKER_01
Relationship exactly because you should be able to replace your job within four weeks if you got a solid contact list Why shouldn t you be you should like, you know a person gets like we fired a guy named Mark and he was with AIG for 22 years and I love this guy, but he just wasn t a fit So I talked to Marcus and mark this is not gonna work out, but I m telling you right now I got a job for you lined up at Columbus and
3
SPEAKER_01
He said, seriously, I said, interview is set up.
3
SPEAKER_01
The CEO of Columbus calls me for a review.
3
SPEAKER_01
I said, no question, this guy s a phenomenal guy for you.
3
SPEAKER_01
He gets hired like this within two weeks.
3
SPEAKER_01
You should, if you have the contacts, like this you ought to be.
3
SPEAKER_01
So if you don t, it means the problem is, you either don t have enough value in the marketplace, or your contacts are weak.
3
SPEAKER_02
When you think about someone you wanna connect with, what goes through your mind of the sequencing of how do I reach out to this person?
3
SPEAKER_02
What s the first questions?
3
SPEAKER_01
I do a lot of research on the person.
3
SPEAKER_01
I do a lot of research on the person.
3
SPEAKER_01
You re really good at that, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
A lot of research on the person.
3
SPEAKER_02
I think people don t.
3
SPEAKER_02
know how valuable understanding who someone is and what their history is and what makes them tick.
3
SPEAKER_02
How meaningful that is when you do that.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I think you did this when you first interviewed me, you just knew a lot about me and you did research.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I m like, man, it takes so much time and energy.
3
SPEAKER_02
And when you re running a business with a thousand employees, you re doing 10 sales calls a day, you re a husband, you re a dad, how do you manage building relationships when you have so much going on though?
3
SPEAKER_02
And you have no free time.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so this goes into at what level you want to go to in life.
3
SPEAKER_01
Meaning, there is levels in this game, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, listen, Gary Payton is alpha, but he s not alpha when Michael s in the room.
3
SPEAKER_01
When Michael s in the room, Michael s the alpha.
3
SPEAKER_01
Kobe s an alpha, but not when Michael s in the room.
3
SPEAKER_01
But anybody else in the room, Kobe s the alpha, including Magic Johnson, including Shaq.
3
SPEAKER_01
But when Barclay s in the room with Shaq, who s the alpha?
3
SPEAKER_01
Shaq s the alpha.
3
SPEAKER_01
But when Barclay s in the room with Carmelo Anthony, Barclay s the alpha.
3
SPEAKER_01
Everything s about levels, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
So what level do you want to go to?
3
SPEAKER_01
So if you want to go at the next levels, it s going to require you to be a little bit more meticulous and detailed about your strategy, about the kind of help you re going to need, the kind of research you re going to need, the kind of relationships you re going to need.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, and then figuring out like your schedule, and sometimes people want to have the four hour work week.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m not a four hour work week guy, but some people want that lifestyle.
3
SPEAKER_01
And you have to give credit to Tim Ferriss, because Tim Ferriss started a movement with a bunch of laptop entrepreneurs all over the world.
3
SPEAKER_01
And guess what?
3
SPEAKER_01
They love it.
3
SPEAKER_01
When I talk to these people that read four hour work week,
3
SPEAKER_01
And I m in Malaysia, and look at my life.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I said.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I m making a few hundred grand a year, or a few million a year, or whatever it may be, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Good for you.
3
SPEAKER_01
I could never, I m a terrible vacation guy after three days.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m a three day guy.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I know myself.
3
SPEAKER_01
If I go to Bora Bora, if I go to Greece, and we have to go after three days, my wife will say, babe, you good?
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, babe, it s three days, babe.
3
SPEAKER_01
She says, I get it, babe, just kinda.
3
SPEAKER_01
And we re typically go because we re entertaining people.
3
SPEAKER_01
We re not going, it s like, we re taking 500 people, 400 people, 300.
3
SPEAKER_01
So we re entertaining people, it s not like,
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, you re going because when we go, we go, we get our stuff done and we come back and we have a great time together because now we have a system.
3
SPEAKER_01
When you have kids, it s different because you can go longer with kids because you re vicariously living through them.
3
SPEAKER_01
I like going to Universal Studios.
3
SPEAKER_01
I can go to my kids  Universal Studios because I see how he looks at Harry Potter and you know, the spiders and this stuff.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s beautiful when you see their imagination, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
But going back to the question you re asking, so how do you find time to do research?
3
SPEAKER_01
How do you find time to do all this other stuff?
3
SPEAKER_01
If you want to compete.
3
SPEAKER_01
In the top 1% of 1% of 1% of 1%, the price is a bigger price.
3
SPEAKER_01
And Lewis, there s no way to describe how to do it.
3
SPEAKER_01
There isn t a formula for it.
3
SPEAKER_01
You just have to figure out a way how to do it.
3
SPEAKER_01
If it means I come home and I have to watch a person s interview from 11 o clock to 2 o clock in the morning, and I come to the office at 8 a.m.
3
SPEAKER_01
to do my interview, and I have to come and go read through 20 pages of notes, I have to do that.
3
SPEAKER_01
And if I don t do that, you can tell in the interview.
3
SPEAKER_01
If I do do it, you re like, how does he know that guy s date?
3
SPEAKER_01
How does he know when this happened at this time?
3
SPEAKER_01
How do you know when this happened?
3
SPEAKER_01
It s a lot of research.
3
SPEAKER_02
The level of detail and attention, people will remember for decades.
3
SPEAKER_02
They ll remember and always think back to, you know, that person really cared.
3
SPEAKER_02
That person was really thoughtful.
3
SPEAKER_02
That person was genuinely interested in me.
3
SPEAKER_02
And they ll just continue to remember that.
3
SPEAKER_02
And good things will come to you when you come from that place, when you constantly do that extra work to care about someone.
3
SPEAKER_02
What do you think are three things that rich people do differently than the poor people or people that aren t thinking about building wealth in that way?
3
SPEAKER_00
Number one, and you ll be surprised to hear me say this, they don t take inordinate risk.
3
SPEAKER_00
You re going to find that the majority of very wealthy people are extremely conservative in how they invest.
3
SPEAKER_00
They don t need to beat the market.
3
SPEAKER_00
They ve already done that.
3
SPEAKER_00
They just need to preserve their capital.
3
SPEAKER_00
So what you find them doing, and I don t know what that number is for you, wealth means different things to different people, but when you are fortunate and you become wealthy, what you ll find is most of those people do not take a lot of risk.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they invest in things that are very long term, they don t use a lot of debt in most cases, they don t use leverage when they re investing, they don t take very speculative positions on,
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, you hear that they might buy Bitcoin or they may, you know, buy a speculative stock, but if you look at it as a percentage of what they re worth, it s nothing.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so they re willing, when they re making that investment, they re saying, I m willing to lose it.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s entertainment almost for me.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s not something I think that I m going to have to live off.
3
SPEAKER_00
And the other thing I found, because I advise a lot of wealthy people, because my companies that I invest in,
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, of which I have over 30.
3
SPEAKER_00
At any one time, 10% of them are being acquired by a private equity firm or being bought by a strategic.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I ve known the entrepreneur and maybe it s their first liquidity event.
3
SPEAKER_00
I try and help them on that journey.
3
SPEAKER_00
And some of them, you know, get $100 million or $80 million.
3
SPEAKER_00
We ve got plenty of situations like that.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they re young.
3
SPEAKER_00
And what happens is you find out later that entrepreneurs are actually really bad investors.
3
SPEAKER_00
They re very good at running a business, and they focus myopically on that their whole lives, but when they actually get liquidity, it s usually their husband or wife that was the person that was taking care of the family and mitigating the risk.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they re the ones that are the better investor.
3
SPEAKER_00
And that s why I say in a family, you have to have a team approach.
3
SPEAKER_00
But I ve learned this, that you really
3
SPEAKER_00
you ll find that what s successful about families is they know what they re good at, or wealthy people, and they know what they re not good at.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they don t try and do things they don t understand.
3
SPEAKER_00
And this is, it s important because you have to say, I have limits on my skills.
3
SPEAKER_00
I know what I m good at, but I ve been very fortunate and I m not going to go risk anything now doing something I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_00
I see that characteristic a lot.
3
SPEAKER_00
And the other thing that I would say is different, and this may have a lot to do with the concept of karma, another lesson I learned from my mother, that if you re successful and you talk to wealthy people, you ll always find that there s something that motivates them to be philanthropic, to give money to something that matters to them.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that s the whole idea of giving back.
4
SPEAKER_00
You ve been successful and you have to find the cause that motivates you.
4
SPEAKER_00
You re willing to spend your time and money supporting.
4
SPEAKER_00
That is a big difference because if you believe in karma, and I do, when you do that, it kind of protects you against the horrific downside of something bad happening to you because you re just so greedy.
4
SPEAKER_00
You can t, when you had success and you re a wealthy person,
4
SPEAKER_00
If you show me a greedy wealthy person, just wait ten years.
4
SPEAKER_00
Then you ll just show me a person.
4
SPEAKER_00
Somehow karma will separate their money from them.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s what I find.
4
SPEAKER_01
Or they ll get sick or something will happen where
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
I really believe this.
4
SPEAKER_00
I really believe it.
4
SPEAKER_00
And you ve got to find those things that you can give back on that mean something to you.
4
SPEAKER_00
But if you abuse karma, it s got a special gift coming for you.
4
SPEAKER_01
So finding ways to give back.
4
SPEAKER_01
Are you giving back in a lot of other ways, philanthropically, right now as well?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you know, I like to have a concentrated approach.
4
SPEAKER_00
I call it five and five.
4
SPEAKER_00
I prefer to pick five charities, or in our case,
4
SPEAKER_00
We support a dance company.
4
SPEAKER_00
We support some hospitals, some educational institutions.
4
SPEAKER_00
And give enough that it s a material gift and that I have a say in how it s spent very often.
4
SPEAKER_00
And above all, I like to see expense ratios reported.
4
SPEAKER_00
I generally don t support charities that can t provide, just like an investment, some kind of a statement on where my money went.
4
SPEAKER_00
Right.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that is actually something I think Bill Gates is famous for early on, saying, why can t I treat my charitable investments as I do my private ones and ask for some performance metrics?
4
SPEAKER_00
And I kind of believe that he s right.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m curious.
4
SPEAKER_01
Do you think the middle class is financially stuck?
4
SPEAKER_01
And if so, what can they do to start achieving more financial freedom?
4
SPEAKER_00
No, they re not stuck.
4
SPEAKER_00
And one thing that s democratized, and we ve learned it since this whole pandemic started,
4
SPEAKER_00
You can create a new opportunity for yourself online with virtually no barrier to entry.
4
SPEAKER_00
Many, many people did it as a side hustle and it s now producing more income than their first job.
4
SPEAKER_00
The whole idea of trying to solve for customer acquisition, using creativity, using video, using music, using photography, using storytelling, animatics, graphics, to actually sell a service or product, starting locally and then expanding.
4
SPEAKER_00
There s millions of new businesses that have been started during the pandemic.
4
SPEAKER_00
We see them every day on Shark Tank, but they are basically taking middle class people out of middle class.
4
SPEAKER_00
They re, and I d say,
4
SPEAKER_00
If you look at Shark Tank, we have plenty of people that have been working in the middle class for years and all of a sudden exploded to the upside with a great service or idea that they did online.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that s why I really think people should empower themselves.
4
SPEAKER_00
You can try things online.
4
SPEAKER_00
You can see what works.
4
SPEAKER_00
You don t have to get the first one right.
4
SPEAKER_00
But those tools are there for you.
4
SPEAKER_00
And most of this is done on Facebook in geo-locked advertising.
4
SPEAKER_00
80 cents on the dollar of what my company spend is on Facebook.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I always find it very funny to see people bashing Facebook saying how evil it is when really it s running small business in America because they have that unique geo-locking advertising feature.
4
SPEAKER_00
So, you know, we shouldn t shut it down until we find something better.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
And what would you say are a couple of qualities that you really look for when you re looking to invest in someone or when someone has an idea and whether you invest in them or not, you re like, this person s going to be successful, whether it s in this thing or something else.
4
SPEAKER_01
What are those two or three qualities that all of them seem to have in your mind, whether it be a leadership skill or
4
SPEAKER_01
clarity, what would that be?
4
SPEAKER_00
I prefer to invest in entrepreneurs that have failed once or twice before, that have felt the sting of failure and have gone down the road and not had success the first time because their motivations are completely different.
4
SPEAKER_00
than a more arrogant first timer that thinks everything they do is going to make a hundred million dollars.
4
SPEAKER_00
It just doesn t work that way.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so that s one thing.
4
SPEAKER_00
I love, there s three things you have to have the ability to do and know if you re going to be successful in business.
4
SPEAKER_00
Number one is you have to be able to articulate your idea in 90 seconds or less.
4
SPEAKER_00
It explains to me why anybody would want that product or service.
4
SPEAKER_00
And if you take more than a minute and a half, you re never going to be successful.
4
SPEAKER_00
You re just not.
4
SPEAKER_00
And number two is you have to be able to explain why you re the right person to execute on that idea.
4
SPEAKER_00
In other words, what is it about you that knows how to take this idea, which good ideas are a dime a dozen.
4
SPEAKER_00
Executional skills are really hard to find.
4
SPEAKER_00
So what is it about you that can execute on this business and make it work?
4
SPEAKER_00
I mean, those two together start to be really interesting, because then as an investor looks at it and says, well, I m going to mitigate my risk.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ve got a great executional
4
SPEAKER_00
expert here, and I ve got a great idea.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then lastly, the one that I think you have to have a good command of, you have to know your numbers.
4
SPEAKER_00
You have to be able to explain gross margins, market share, break-even analysis, how many competitors, how fast can you grow?
4
SPEAKER_00
And I think that s who I want to invest in, someone who has a command of all three of those.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s probably got more than a 50% chance of being successful if they can do that right.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
I love your take on things.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wanted to know, for those that are in their late teens, early 20s, what conversations should they be having with friends or mentors around money?
4
SPEAKER_01
I feel like a lot of people are afraid to talk about it or they don t share how much they make or how much a home costs or whatever.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s just like this hush-hush mentality.
4
SPEAKER_01
What should we be talking about in our late teens, early 20s or even 30s?
4
SPEAKER_01
But what types of conversations should we be having to shift the narrative around money so we can start attracting it in our favor as opposed to rejecting it?
4
SPEAKER_00
Well, first of all, we need to teach it in high school.
4
SPEAKER_00
Luckily here in Florida, it s been put into the curriculum.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I m very proud of that.
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, I used to be in the educational software business.
4
SPEAKER_00
There s 110,000 school buildings in America.
4
SPEAKER_00
The majority of them in New York, in Florida, Texas, and California.
4
SPEAKER_00
And abysmally, most of them don t teach even debt.
4
SPEAKER_00
They don t even teach how to use a credit card, which is ridiculous.
4
SPEAKER_00
We ve got to change that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And luckily, we are.
4
SPEAKER_00
We re starting to see it creep into the curriculums in all the major states, which is good.
4
SPEAKER_00
But I think parents have a responsibility to talk about money, which is always sitting at the table every day.
4
SPEAKER_00
It always is.
4
SPEAKER_00
And getting their kids to understand how a credit card works is very important.
4
SPEAKER_00
And again, I talked about not entitling.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s important, too.
4
SPEAKER_00
But within your friends, I mean,
4
SPEAKER_00
Don t be embarrassed to talk about money.
4
SPEAKER_00
You re going to be talking about money for the rest of your life.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s always going to be part.
4
SPEAKER_00
You can t live without it.
4
SPEAKER_00
You have to deal with it.
4
SPEAKER_00
It can cause great joy and give you personal freedom or it can be catastrophic in your life, destroy your happiness completely.
4
SPEAKER_00
Your choice is where does it fit?
4
SPEAKER_00
Do you want it to destroy your life or would you prefer that you understand how it works and respect it for what it is and deal with it?
4
SPEAKER_00
That s a personal choice people have to make.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I would say the best way to do that is learn more, talk more about it, and don t be afraid to discuss it.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t care what age you re at, but certainly at the age of 16, you should be discussing that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And above all, taking 10% of whatever anybody gives you, your grandmother, your birthday gift, whatever it is, and set it aside and start investing it.
4
SPEAKER_00
The earlier you start, the less pressure you have when you re in your 60s.
4
SPEAKER_00
Because you gotta have at least a million and a half bucks in the bank, and you can, if you just save,
4
SPEAKER_00
$100 a week.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s what Beanstalks is all about.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s why I got involved in Beanstalks.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s the whole idea.
4
SPEAKER_01
And do you think someone in their late 40s and 50s, do you think it s too late for them to start learning about financial literacy if they ve struggled in their 20s and 30s and 40s?
4
SPEAKER_01
Do you think it s too late to start investing and saving?
4
SPEAKER_01
What should people do in their 40s and early 50s?
4
SPEAKER_00
No, they should at any age.
4
SPEAKER_00
I mean, the truth is changing your spending behavior in your 40s is difficult, but you can do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
And at that age, you should start saving 20 to 25% of what you re taking in, which sounds hard to do, but it isn t.
4
SPEAKER_00
You just stop buying those $5 coffees and you stop buying stuff you don t use.
4
SPEAKER_00
Anybody can go look in their closet and see all the crap they bought.
4
SPEAKER_00
that they never used.
4
SPEAKER_00
And basically you killed that money when you did that.
4
SPEAKER_00
You bought something that you could have had invested and it could have grown 6% to 8% a year for you, but instead you bought some piece of junk that you re throwing out now.
4
SPEAKER_00
Everybody s guilty of that.
4
SPEAKER_00
I actually think my mother was right.
4
SPEAKER_00
She s always said that people can save 20%, they just don t have the backbone to do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
And she did, and she died a very wealthy woman.
4
SPEAKER_00
She had a secret account she kept from both of her husbands.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was the older brother, I was the executor for the state, and I remember the lawyers calling me up saying, you gotta come down here.
4
SPEAKER_00
Your mother had a lot of money.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I always wondered how she did it.
4
SPEAKER_00
She basically bought dividend-paying stocks in her 20s and a whole bunch of telco bonds, 50-50 portfolio.
4
SPEAKER_00
She loved telco bonds, they used to yield 6% in those days, and she loved dividend-paying stocks, S&P stocks.
4
SPEAKER_00
And over the 50 years that she had this account, it just provided
5
SPEAKER_01
massive appreciation.
5
SPEAKER_01
Should people die wealthy or should they die broke because they spent their wealth on charity or giving back or whatever, living their life and going on trips and adventures?
5
SPEAKER_01
What s your philosophy there?
5
SPEAKER_02
You know, the trouble these days is you don t know when you re going to die.
5
SPEAKER_02
You make certain assumptions and then you live an extra 10 years or 20 years and you live in a time in your life when you really needed that money for your comfort.
5
SPEAKER_02
You know, it s probably better to not make an assumption, I think I m going to die when I m 88, because you don t know what technology is going to provide or what your genes really have in store for you.
5
SPEAKER_02
I would prefer to die with a good chunk of dough in the bank and then gift it to a cat.
5
SPEAKER_02
A cat?
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
You know, cats only last 14 years.
5
SPEAKER_02
We break 14 years for them.
5
SPEAKER_02
I m just kidding.
5
SPEAKER_02
I probably give it to a combination of, you know, in my case, I feel safe because I can roll it into a trust that doesn t provide for you after, you know, you finish college.
5
SPEAKER_02
So I don t feel I m entitling anybody or cursing anybody s future.
5
SPEAKER_02
So I ll just probably roll it into one of my family trusts and say, I don t need it anymore.
5
SPEAKER_02
The only thing I m taking with me to the afterlife is my watch collection, all of them.
5
SPEAKER_02
I m going to eternity I got a lot I don t even say anymore how many I ve got it s I I haven t you know really I m very proud of my watch collection and it s a incredibly it s got some amazing pieces and it s taken me years to build this collection and I m going to need it to tell time in eternity so I m taking it all with me.
5
SPEAKER_01
What do you think is the best investment you ve ever made in yourself?
5
SPEAKER_02
Well, the best investment I ever made in myself was myself.
5
SPEAKER_02
You often doubt yourself, but I went through some very tough times, right from when my mother cut me off through several business ventures I failed in, and then you just don t know, serendipity knocks on the door.
5
SPEAKER_02
The thing is, as an entrepreneur, you ve just got to keep getting up every day.
5
SPEAKER_02
You have to stay in the game, you have to stay in the race.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s very, very hard.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s like that story of the guy with his fiancée, you know, you just have to focus.
5
SPEAKER_02
And you have to find somebody that s willing to focus with you.
5
SPEAKER_02
But I m glad I did what I did.
5
SPEAKER_02
I wouldn t change a thing.
5
SPEAKER_02
I ve made plenty of mistakes.
5
SPEAKER_02
But it is who I am today, and I m very proud to be able to offer the things I do to my family.
5
SPEAKER_02
and to support different initiatives and charities and support the arts and collect watches and guitars and cook and all these things are made available because I ve been able to focus on being successful in business.
5
SPEAKER_02
And that is the great American dream.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s going to remain that way forever.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s the essence of why Shark Tank works.
5
SPEAKER_02
I m very proud to be part of the platform.
5
SPEAKER_02
I can guarantee you 13 years ago when we started this thing, we had no idea what was going to happen.
5
SPEAKER_02
I mean, it s just, who knew?
5
SPEAKER_02
But now, nine-year-old girls to 99-year-old men come up to me saying, look, let s talk about that deal last week on Shark Tank.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I m happy to do it.
5
SPEAKER_02
I mean, I think it s a wonderful outcome and we re proud of it.
5
SPEAKER_02
And as we start to work on season 13,
5
SPEAKER_02
I mean, no television show last 13 years, practically none, less than 5% of them.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s amazing.
5
SPEAKER_02
So it s great and we re proud to do it.
5
SPEAKER_02
I don t know, that s the whole idea that I encourage people.
5
SPEAKER_02
Don t pursue entrepreneurship out of greed of money.
5
SPEAKER_02
You will fail for sure.
5
SPEAKER_02
Because every time I talk to anybody that s had a big liquidity event, I say, you know,
5
SPEAKER_02
did you see it coming and how did it happen? 
5
SPEAKER_02
They said, we never saw it coming.
5
SPEAKER_02
We were just working one day and then boom, I was poor, now I m rich.
5
SPEAKER_02
That s always the way it is.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s not that you re saying you re counting your dollars.
5
SPEAKER_02
You don t have any until one day, boom, something happens and then
5
SPEAKER_02
The funny thing is you find yourself right back to work.
5
SPEAKER_00
I hope you enjoyed today s episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.
5
SPEAKER_00
Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today s episode with all the important links.
5
SPEAKER_00
And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel exclusively on Apple podcasts.
5
SPEAKER_00
Share this with a friend on social media, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well.
5
SPEAKER_00
Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review.
5
SPEAKER_00
I really love hearing feedback from you, and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.
5
SPEAKER_00
And now, it s time to go out there and do something great.