October 8, 2023 • 7 mins
Is success really an illusion? Join me as I share my personal insights on this intriguing question, drawing from examples from popular singing shows like 'The Voice' and everyday life situations. I delve into the deceiving nature of self-perception and its impact on our perception of success. Tune in to understand why it's important to surround yourself with objective individuals who can help identify and analyze your blind spots. You'll hear anecdotes from my interactions with successful business tycoons and professional athletes, underscoring the value of surrounding yourself with winners.
Further, I'll dissect personal decisions and share the thought processes behind them to highlight the importance of objective analysis in critical life scenarios. This episode isn't just about success - it's about the journey towards achieving it and understanding the elements of luck and self-perception involved. Be prepared for a frank exploration of these topics and much more! Remember, success is not just about where you are but also about how you got there. So, brace yourself for an enlightening conversation that will challenge your perception of success and the journey to achieving it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My wife and I were watching the Voice the other day
.
For those of you who don't knowwhat the Voice is, more or less
it's a blind audition singingshow.
You go on, all the judges arefaced away from you.
If you sing good enough, theypress a button turn around, I
want you on my team.
You compete all the way to thefinale and you win some cash.
It's kind of like American Idol, and it used to really really
(00:21):
bother me when somebody withtalent, somebody with skill,
would be on the stage and nobodywould turn around for him.
The fact of the matter is thatonce somebody's team fills up,
they can no longer get morepeople on their team by
definition, and it would botherme when it was just the luck of
the draw.
It's like, dude, if you weretwo people earlier, you would be
(00:42):
on this show and you mightactually win it.
You were that good.
There's an element of luck tobeing successful.
For sure.
There's an element of luck toget onto this show, and that
used to really bother me.
But a lot of oftentimes thesepeople come back the next season
.
They get on.
Everything is right in theuniverse.
Now, what really bothers me iswhen somebody absolutely sucks
(01:04):
and they're up there singingtheir ass off and they really
think, like dude, I got it goingon.
That really bothers me.
Here's the opposite side ofthis coin.
This is what also bothers me.
You see a girl that's a 10.
She's with a dude that's a four.
And you start to make up thisscenario in your head like, oh
what?
This doesn't make any sense.
(01:24):
Maybe it's just momentum.
Maybe this dude's rich, maybehe's got a huge dick.
You're starting to.
You're trying anything you canto make this make sense in the
universe, doing all types ofmath in your head.
That also really bothers me,not for the reason you probably
think, but both of thosesituations.
What they have in common isthat those people lie to
(01:45):
themselves and they have peoplearound them reinforcing that lie
.
In terms of the bad singer,they're listening to themselves,
they're completely tone deaf.
They're thinking, yeah, I gotit going, I can win this show,
I'll go on American Idol, I'llgo on the Voice, I'll crush it.
And their moms probably like,oh my God, honey, you sound so
good.
Their friends are like, yeah,go up on karaoke, you're going
(02:08):
to crush it.
Dad's telling them how goodthey are.
This girl that's a 10.
That's with a dude that's afour Probably looks in the
mirror and sees everything wrongwith herself.
This is too small, this is toobig, this doesn't look right.
And maybe they were in a toxicrelationship with some dude.
That's like you're fuckingdisgusting, you're terrible, I
hate you, you're never going tofind anyone better than me.
(02:28):
So then when that relationshipends, she goes out into the real
world and she starts seeingthese dudes at her fours.
She thinks she's on that leveland then if a dude that's a 10
shows her attention, I'm notgood enough for this.
This isn't going to work out.
I'm intimidated by this.
These people lie to themselvesand they've surrounded
themselves with liars.
What's the point of this?
(02:50):
This is a business podcast.
What's the point of me tellingyou this?
I've had, cumulatively,hundreds of millions of dollars
of net worth sitting across fromme in the chair, right across
from me.
I've interviewed these people.
I've had hours of conversationswith these people.
One thing they all have incommon, from the business tycoon
(03:12):
to the professional athlete, istheir objective with themselves
, and they find individuals toanalyze their blind spots and be
objective about them.
You can only go so far byyourself, even with ultimate
objectivity.
Then you need to surroundyourself with what Wayne Norris
calls eagles winners people onthe same mission, people that
(03:36):
want to succeed and they want tosee you succeed.
So sometimes they'll have thehard conversations that you
don't want to hear, but you needto hear to get to the next
level.
That's why it bothers me somuch when I watch the voice and
somebody sucks.
That's why it bothers me somuch when I see a girl that's a
10, she's with a dude that's a 4because she's lying to herself
and she's surrounded by liars.
(03:57):
You need to find eagles, evenif that means you have to pay
for it.
Here's an example when all thatCOVID money funny money was
being thrown around EIDL loanthey tried to give me 500 grand
at like a 1% interest rate.
Never again in my life will Iever have that opportunity to
get half a million bucks at a 1%interest rate.
(04:18):
Never I had a lot of peopletake the money, take the money,
take the money, take the money.
So I thought who is the mostobjective about this situation?
That knows more than I do?
First person I asked was mywife.
She does all my books at thebusiness.
She understands the balancesheet and the profit and loss.
(04:39):
Next person I asked I paid mywife.
She's on the payroll of mybusiness.
Next person I asked is myaccountant, who I also pay a lot
of money.
What do you think about this?
What do you think you can dowith this?
What are the ramifications ofthis?
I hired a lawyer to look at thedocuments hundreds of dollars
an hour.
To basically put it in layman'sterms, what is the potential
downfall of this?
(04:59):
I talked to my financial advisor, who I pay a pretty penny every
single year.
Then I talked to my mentor, whoknows me better than anybody,
and then I talked to somebodywho actually took the money.
So I talked to all thesedifferent people that had a
different perspective.
I aggregated that informationand, instead of being paralyzed
by analysis, I had to act, and Idid.
(05:20):
You know what I did.
I didn't take it.
They dumped the money in myaccount.
I gave it right back.
Nope, don't need it.
I've talked to enough peoplethat know more than me.
I don't need it.
That's just my example, right?
Think about areas in your lifethat you're trying to improve.
Maybe it's your health andfitness.
Maybe it's your relationship.
You got to pay for therapy withhealth and fitness.
(05:42):
Maybe you need to pay for atrainer.
Maybe that's going to hold youaccountable For your business.
Maybe you need a business coach, or maybe you need a good
accountant or a financialadvisor.
Whatever you need to do tosurround yourself with
objectivity, do it.
The cost you're going to pay tohave the objective analysis
around you pales in comparisonto the cost you'll pay long term
(06:06):
by being surrounded by lies.
And look, I learned this fromsitting across from these dudes
that are worth way more moneythan me, have way more success
than me.
This isn't me talking, this isthem talking through me.
So if you think I'm full ofshit, if you think I don't have
any success, that's fine.
I promise you, the people whoI've sat across from have way
more success than you, andthey've been objective.
(06:27):
They've surrounded themselveswith eagles, and that's the
lesson I want to leave with youfor today.
Look, guys, I'm not going to doa lot of this.
I'm not going to do a lot ofjust me talking into the
microphone, but every once in awhile, I just want to have a
conversation where it's me andyou Things that I've picked up
in this podcast.
That will hopefully help youget to the next level.
As always, guys, if you likethe episode, do me a favor.
(06:50):
Leave a five star reviewwherever you're listening to
this.
If somebody needs to hear this,share this episode with them.
The only way this podcastcontinues to grow is if you
continue to share the episodes.
So do me a favor, share it, andthat's it, guys.
We're going to do this together.
All right, I'll do this at theend of every episode.
We're doing it together Onthree One, two, three, one, two,
(07:13):
three.
My wife and I were watching the Voice the other day
.
For those of you who don't knowwhat the Voice is, more or less
it's a blind audition singingshow.
You go on, all the judges arefaced away from you.
If you sing good enough, theypress a button turn around, I
want you on my team.
You compete all the way to thefinale and you win some cash.
It's kind of like American Idol, and it used to really really
(00:21):
bother me when somebody withtalent, somebody with skill,
would be on the stage and nobodywould turn around for him.
The fact of the matter is thatonce somebody's team fills up,
they can no longer get morepeople on their team by
definition, and it would botherme when it was just the luck of
the draw.
It's like, dude, if you weretwo people earlier, you would be
(00:42):
on this show and you mightactually win it.
You were that good.
There's an element of luck tobeing successful.
For sure.
There's an element of luck toget onto this show, and that
used to really bother me.
But a lot of oftentimes thesepeople come back the next season
.
They get on.
Everything is right in theuniverse.
Now, what really bothers me iswhen somebody absolutely sucks
(01:04):
and they're up there singingtheir ass off and they really
think, like dude, I got it goingon.
That really bothers me.
Here's the opposite side ofthis coin.
This is what also bothers me.
You see a girl that's a 10.
She's with a dude that's a four.
And you start to make up thisscenario in your head like, oh
what?
This doesn't make any sense.
(01:24):
Maybe it's just momentum.
Maybe this dude's rich, maybehe's got a huge dick.
You're starting to.
You're trying anything you canto make this make sense in the
universe, doing all types ofmath in your head.
That also really bothers me,not for the reason you probably
think, but both of thosesituations.
What they have in common isthat those people lie to
(01:45):
themselves and they have peoplearound them reinforcing that lie
.
In terms of the bad singer,they're listening to themselves,
they're completely tone deaf.
They're thinking, yeah, I gotit going, I can win this show,
I'll go on American Idol, I'llgo on the Voice, I'll crush it.
And their moms probably like,oh my God, honey, you sound so
good.
Their friends are like, yeah,go up on karaoke, you're going
(02:08):
to crush it.
Dad's telling them how goodthey are.
This girl that's a 10.
That's with a dude that's afour Probably looks in the
mirror and sees everything wrongwith herself.
This is too small, this is toobig, this doesn't look right.
And maybe they were in a toxicrelationship with some dude.
That's like you're fuckingdisgusting, you're terrible, I
hate you, you're never going tofind anyone better than me.
(02:28):
So then when that relationshipends, she goes out into the real
world and she starts seeingthese dudes at her fours.
She thinks she's on that leveland then if a dude that's a 10
shows her attention, I'm notgood enough for this.
This isn't going to work out.
I'm intimidated by this.
These people lie to themselvesand they've surrounded
themselves with liars.
What's the point of this?
(02:50):
This is a business podcast.
What's the point of me tellingyou this?
I've had, cumulatively,hundreds of millions of dollars
of net worth sitting across fromme in the chair, right across
from me.
I've interviewed these people.
I've had hours of conversationswith these people.
One thing they all have incommon, from the business tycoon
(03:12):
to the professional athlete, istheir objective with themselves
, and they find individuals toanalyze their blind spots and be
objective about them.
You can only go so far byyourself, even with ultimate
objectivity.
Then you need to surroundyourself with what Wayne Norris
calls eagles winners people onthe same mission, people that
(03:36):
want to succeed and they want tosee you succeed.
So sometimes they'll have thehard conversations that you
don't want to hear, but you needto hear to get to the next
level.
That's why it bothers me somuch when I watch the voice and
somebody sucks.
That's why it bothers me somuch when I see a girl that's a
10, she's with a dude that's a 4because she's lying to herself
and she's surrounded by liars.
(03:57):
You need to find eagles, evenif that means you have to pay
for it.
Here's an example when all thatCOVID money funny money was
being thrown around EIDL loanthey tried to give me 500 grand
at like a 1% interest rate.
Never again in my life will Iever have that opportunity to
get half a million bucks at a 1%interest rate.
(04:18):
Never I had a lot of peopletake the money, take the money,
take the money, take the money.
So I thought who is the mostobjective about this situation?
That knows more than I do?
First person I asked was mywife.
She does all my books at thebusiness.
She understands the balancesheet and the profit and loss.
(04:39):
Next person I asked I paid mywife.
She's on the payroll of mybusiness.
Next person I asked is myaccountant, who I also pay a lot
of money.
What do you think about this?
What do you think you can dowith this?
What are the ramifications ofthis?
I hired a lawyer to look at thedocuments hundreds of dollars
an hour.
To basically put it in layman'sterms, what is the potential
downfall of this?
(04:59):
I talked to my financial advisor, who I pay a pretty penny every
single year.
Then I talked to my mentor, whoknows me better than anybody,
and then I talked to somebodywho actually took the money.
So I talked to all thesedifferent people that had a
different perspective.
I aggregated that informationand, instead of being paralyzed
by analysis, I had to act, and Idid.
(05:20):
You know what I did.
I didn't take it.
They dumped the money in myaccount.
I gave it right back.
Nope, don't need it.
I've talked to enough peoplethat know more than me.
I don't need it.
That's just my example, right?
Think about areas in your lifethat you're trying to improve.
Maybe it's your health andfitness.
Maybe it's your relationship.
You got to pay for therapy withhealth and fitness.
(05:42):
Maybe you need to pay for atrainer.
Maybe that's going to hold youaccountable For your business.
Maybe you need a business coach, or maybe you need a good
accountant or a financialadvisor.
Whatever you need to do tosurround yourself with
objectivity, do it.
The cost you're going to pay tohave the objective analysis
around you pales in comparisonto the cost you'll pay long term
(06:06):
by being surrounded by lies.
And look, I learned this fromsitting across from these dudes
that are worth way more moneythan me, have way more success
than me.
This isn't me talking, this isthem talking through me.
So if you think I'm full ofshit, if you think I don't have
any success, that's fine.
I promise you, the people whoI've sat across from have way
more success than you, andthey've been objective.
(06:27):
They've surrounded themselveswith eagles, and that's the
lesson I want to leave with youfor today.
Look, guys, I'm not going to doa lot of this.
I'm not going to do a lot ofjust me talking into the
microphone, but every once in awhile, I just want to have a
conversation where it's me andyou Things that I've picked up
in this podcast.
That will hopefully help youget to the next level.
As always, guys, if you likethe episode, do me a favor.
(06:50):
Leave a five star reviewwherever you're listening to
this.
If somebody needs to hear this,share this episode with them.
The only way this podcastcontinues to grow is if you
continue to share the episodes.
So do me a favor, share it, andthat's it, guys.
We're going to do this together.
All right, I'll do this at theend of every episode.
We're doing it together Onthree One, two, three, one, two,
(07:13):
three.
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