00:00 When I was in fifth grade, I felt ashamed for being poor.
00:05 My parents had gotten divorced.
00:07 My mom was a waitress and she was raising four kids
00:10 on a waitress income.
00:11 And so I was wearing hand-me-downs for my brothers
00:14 that were almost a decade older than I was.
00:17 One of the most popular kids in school,
00:19 he came up to me when I was wearing bell-bottom jeans
00:22 in the 80s, which were not cool back then.
00:24 And he pushed his shoe at the bottom of my flared out jeans
00:28 and he said, "Ding dong,"
00:30 and he rang the bell on my bell-bottoms.
00:32 All the kids laughed and I just,
00:35 I wanted to shrink up and disappear.
00:38 And I linked up in my mind that being poor
00:42 meant people don't like you.
00:44 And being rich, having cool, nice things,
00:47 people wanna be around you, people wanna be your friend.
00:51 I just felt sick to my stomach every time
00:52 I'd have to go to school.
00:56 And I just wanted to be invisible.
00:58 So elementary school was hard, junior high was even harder,
01:04 high school kinda sucked too.
01:06 And then I graduated college and I got a job.
01:10 And I knew the first day of that job
01:14 that this was gonna be a job I didn't like.
01:17 But I had this idea for a business
01:19 that I was going to start.
01:20 And I thought, well, you know what?
01:21 I'm just gonna work here for maybe four months or so
01:25 just collecting a paycheck to support me
01:28 while I get my business off the ground.
01:30 There was this guy that worked there, his name was Charles.
01:33 And he was a short guy from the military.
01:36 One day, he just walked up to me
01:38 and he started calling me a loser
01:40 and giving me the L on his forehead.
01:43 Every time he would see me at the office,
01:45 he would just come up to me and be like,
01:47 "Loser," you know, in front of everybody.
01:50 All of a sudden, I didn't know what to say.
01:52 And I felt like I regressed all the way back
01:55 to elementary school when I was getting teased back then.
02:00 And that was really the straw that broke the camel's back.
02:04 I mean, I just remember laying in bed one night
02:06 next to my girlfriend thinking,
02:08 "How did I end up in this life,
02:10 "working at a job I hate,
02:12 "in a company that sucks,
02:15 "and having this dream for a business
02:19 "that was going nowhere,
02:21 "in a relationship that's not working,
02:23 "completely out of shape, and miserable?"
02:27 Felt like a stranger in my own life.
02:29 And I felt alone and lonely
02:32 laying right next to this woman that I loved.
02:35 I didn't know what to do,
02:38 but I had heard of personal coaching.
02:40 And through a friend,
02:44 I was introduced to my first personal coach.
02:46 I talked to her on the phone,
02:48 and for the first time ever,
02:50 I had somebody that I could talk to,
02:51 that I could share the challenges I was going through,
02:56 that could challenge me and say,
02:59 "Look, I believe in you.
03:01 "You can do more than this."
03:03 I started working out regularly.
03:05 I started taking action to grow my business.
03:08 My company was, I would call big stores and restaurants
03:12 to see if they would wanna sell their gift cards
03:15 on my website.
03:17 And then finally, I got ahold of somebody
03:19 at Borders Bookstore.
03:21 They were the first company to finally say,
03:23 "Yes, we'll partner with you,
03:26 "but you have to pay for them up front."
03:28 So I said yes, and I bought $25,000 worth of gift cards.
03:33 I got lots of stores and restaurants to say yes now,
03:35 since I was buying them up front.
03:38 But as I started taking more action on my business
03:41 and exercising again, I felt alive again.
03:45 Eventually, I quit that job,
03:47 and I was working for myself full-time.
03:50 Even when my business was going good,
03:53 I was constantly worrying about money.
03:55 And in the first two years,
03:57 I mean, I struggled to pay my mortgage.
03:59 I was constantly worrying about
04:00 whether I could pay my bills.
04:02 My income went up and down.
04:03 I was maxed out on all my credit cards.
04:07 I remember I was taking out the garbage one day,
04:09 and I was just thinking, "Oh my God,
04:10 "it's so hard working for myself and being my own boss.
04:13 "Maybe I should just go back to having a regular job."
04:16 And since I was taking out the garbage,
04:18 I thought, "Maybe I should become a garbage man,
04:21 "because then maybe I can get a steady paycheck
04:24 "and some benefits."
04:26 And even though it might be hard work physically,
04:28 I just thought, "Oh, I wouldn't have to think so hard."
04:31 'Cause I was just feeling burned out
04:32 from working so many hours but not making a lot of money.
04:36 And then I thought, "You know, I'm just gonna quit."
04:38 And that's when I talked to one of my best friends,
04:40 and he said, "Dude, you can't quit."
04:42 And he challenged me to read a book a week.
04:44 And so I read a book a week for 36 weeks in a row.
04:47 One of the books was a book called
04:50 "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran.
04:53 And in the book, he talks about how
04:54 if you do work you don't love,
04:57 if you bake bread with bitterness in your heart,
05:00 you'll bake a bitter bread.
05:03 Now I realize that passion is everything
05:05 when it comes to having your own business.
05:06 It's gotta be something you're really interested in.
05:08 It's gotta be something you're excited about.
05:10 And I wasn't super passionate about my business.
05:12 I was excited to be able to work for myself,
05:15 but ultimately I wasn't super passionate about it.
05:17 I just said, "You know what?
05:18 "If I lose my house, I lose my car,
05:20 "but I'm doing what I love, then so be it."
05:22 And that's when I thought,
05:23 "Well, maybe I could be a personal coach."
05:27 And so I started marketing myself as a coach,
05:31 and I just started focusing on doing what I love,
05:33 trying to help more people.
05:35 And just being focused on helping people,
05:37 eventually my business started taking off,
05:40 started getting more and more clients,
05:41 helping more and more people.
05:42 Eventually a handful of coaches asked me
05:46 if I could help them, share my secrets with them,
05:48 and help them grow their business.
05:50 And that's when I realized that all the things
05:52 that I had to learn through trial and error,
05:54 I could share with other coaches,
05:55 and they could become successful much faster than I did.
05:58 My company's made the Inc. 5000 list
06:00 of fastest growing companies in North America,
06:03 and we've done it for the last three years in a row.
06:05 So my advice to anyone wanting to achieve
06:09 high levels of success, don't just hope to be a millionaire,
06:13 don't just dream to be a millionaire,
06:15 decide to be a millionaire.
06:17 Whatever it is that you want to achieve,
06:19 whatever goal you want, you can have it.
06:23 All you have to do is decide to have it,
06:25 and your success is inevitable,
06:27 if you're willing to do the work,
06:29 if you're willing to take action
06:31 to make it happen in the world,
06:33 and if you're willing to do the work on yourself,
06:36 and work through your fears, your doubts,
06:37 your limiting beliefs.
06:39 Try something out, and have it not work out.
06:41 You gotta be willing to be criticized by other people.
06:43 Even take risks, financial risks.
06:46 The most valuable things I learned
06:48 were how to let go of the poverty mindset,
06:51 the welfare mindset that I grew up in,
06:54 and to have a much more abundant mindset.
06:57 When I grew up feeling like I was poor,
06:59 in reality, I was even rich back then.
07:02 I just didn't realize it.
07:04 But when you let go of the fear of not having enough,
07:06 then you realize that there's always been enough,
07:09 and there always will be enough.
07:10 The richest person in the world
07:11 isn't the person with the most money,
07:13 it's the person with the most gratitude.
07:15 Comes from knowing that there's always been enough,
07:17 there always will be enough,
07:18 and there's even more coming.
07:20 More great stuff is on its way.
07:22 (inspirational music)
07:25 (inspirational music)
07:28 (inspirational music)
07:32 (inspirational music)
07:35 (dramatic music)
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