Have you ever considered that the roadblock in your path may just be the stepping stone you need? Join Wayne and me as we tap into the wisdom of Ryan Holiday's "The Obstacle is the Way" and the time-tested Stoic principles of Marcus Aurelius to unearth how our perceptions not only shape our responses to life's hurdles but can transform them into opportunities for unrivaled growth. Our discussion traverses my journey as a resilient real estate developer who, faced with innumerable challenges, learned to harness optimism to forge ahead where others might retreat.
We take you through a personal odyssey of growth and persistence, from a novice in the real estate world to building a robust portfolio, all while seizing upon the Stoic belief that adversity is not an impediment but a catalyst for creativity and success. I recount the birth of Valley Forge Innovation Park in Fillmore, Utah: a venture that whispers the promise of revolutionizing sustainable construction with American Spec Modular's manufacturing prowess and American Spec ESG's waste-to-lumber breakthroughs — all despite the echoes of skepticism that often greet pioneers.
Rounding out our conversation, we share how relentless pursuit of personal growth and gratitude not only enriches our lives but can also be a powerful force in overcoming and reframing the obstacles we encounter. Whether it's a lighting project tangled in bureaucratic red tape or the grander scale of innovation in material sustainability, we're eager to show you that the questions we ask in the face of doubt can lead us down paths filled with success and transformative solutions. So, come along as we delve into these compelling stories and inspire you to question your perspective on the very obstacles that stand before you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, welcome back to the show Wayne Aston.
Here with Aston Incorporated,joining me is my co-host, dallin
Aston, and we are going to becovering some fantastic content,
starting with the book theObstacle is the Way by Ryan
Halliday, one of my all-timefavorite books ever written, and
(00:22):
I did a refresher on itrecently.
I actually do a refresher onthis book almost every year.
It's one of those books thatyou reread and you absorb and
you apply, and the reason Iwanted to cover this one today,
dallin, is because I know you'veread it and I'm interested to
see and pull out some of thenuggets that you are
(00:45):
implementing out of the book.
But this inspires me to one ofthe universal principles we're
going to be talking about, sowe've introduced our universal
principle series.
This is one of them, and theuniversal principle that we're
going to be covering in part ofthis show today is perspective
determines action.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
OK, and I love this because if my perspective is X,
then it absolutely influencesthe output.
And if you have a totallydifferent perspective when
you're in the exact samecircumstance, it's going to be a
totally different output.
So, perspective, you couldthink of this as maybe the lens
(01:31):
through which everything passesin a human, and so now that's an
interesting concept, becauseeveryone's got a different
perspective.
Everyone's perspective is acombination of life experiences,
programming who you hang outwith, education, religion,
politics, all of these things,and so unique perspectives drive
(01:55):
unique outcomes and uniquebehaviors.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, it's interesting you say that because
it's something that I havenoticed a lot over the past year
.
I think you and I have had thisconversation a lot, whether
it's in the car or just on thephone or whatever, talking about
this perspective determinesbehavior concept.
And it's so interesting whenyou acknowledge that this is a
(02:22):
thing.
Then you start to notice, ohman, I do this in this scenario.
But then someone else doessomething and you're like well,
why on earth would you?
Oh, and I feel like for me it'shelped me be more loving in a
sense, because then it says OK,well, perspective determines
behavior, their perspective isthis, so they're going to behave
(02:43):
that way.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Well, yeah, and it causes you to pause sometimes.
Like in the moment pause andconsider that their perspective
could be influencing what thisoutput looks like.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
And so now you can't put judgment on that because you
can't see.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
You can only see the tip of that iceberg.
There's all of that icebergunder the surface.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
You have no idea what's going on, that's right,
really really right.
And, like you said, all thesedifferent things factor into
religion, political views, theircurrent scenario in life,
relationships, financial, I mean.
All this stuff contributes toyour perspective and also how
you feed your mind right.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That is a major influence on perspective what
you consume, what you feed yourbrain, and that's a choice, oh
man.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But that will also determine your behavior, because
it influences your perspective.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
So I think it's really powerful principle.
Absolutely Considering thiswhole principle here, I've
developed this thing that youknow.
I like to joke around withpeople and meetings and I always
say that I'm the king of silverlinings, that's one of my
superpowers, because you canchop my right arm off and I'll
(04:00):
tell you why this is good for me.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
OK.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Like that's extreme, but seriously, like as a real
estate developer and as a serialentrepreneur, both of those
things really require someone tohave almost an ignorance to
(04:23):
challenges or almost an agnosticattitude, Like it's, almost
like this perpetual optimism.
And so our analysts out therelistening our mathematicians,
like our quantitative analysis.
Those are the guys that buildour models and spreadsheets.
They don't necessarily havethat.
(04:45):
They are very logical andthey're very you know one side
of the brain and they viewthings completely differently
than what I'm talking about,because, as a real estate
developer, it never goes smooth.
It just never goes smooth.
So combining real estatedevelopment with
(05:06):
entrepreneurship, that's areally good combination, because
entrepreneurship is not smoothand we've talked about a lot of
examples already.
We're 13 episodes in.
We've covered some of that.
But I think the resilience thatcomes from me is this attitude
that it's OK for me to getknocked down.
(05:28):
Getting knocked down is part ofbeing in the game and it's like
I know I'm gonna get back up.
How many times am I gonna getback up one more time?
Well, how many times is that?
Well, it's always one more.
It might be a hundred times, itmight be a thousand times.
Like there's no other defaultanswer than I'm always going to
(05:51):
get back up.
And that right.
There is a major differentiatorbetween a successful
entrepreneur and one whocollapses in the apocalypse
event right, that brings up theobstacles away.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Right, absolutely.
So I mean that when you say onemore time, hey, my arms chopped
off.
This is why that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
That's obviously not a good thing right, yeah, yeah,
it's like well, that's you know.
I hear that I'm like that's nota good thing at all, but one of
my but to your point, one of thethings that I love so much
about the book is there's a lotof references to Marcus Aurelius
, a lot of stoicism in this guy.
So if you're not a tenant ofstoicism, you should check it
(06:38):
out, because stoicism is MarcusAurelius guided the most
powerful military force in thehistory of man.
Okay, I mean, he conqueredmultiple continents.
And you do the research onMarcus Aurelius and what the
Roman Empire did.
It was biblical, but I love hisattitude and his philosophies
(07:00):
on stoicism.
He a lot of what thisperspective determines you know,
behavior determines actioncomes from as stoicism.
Marcus Aurelius is saying look,if I choose to be hurt, then
I'm hurt.
If I choose not to be hurt, I'mnot hurt.
And so you know.
You can apply that like oh, myarms chopped off.
(07:21):
Well, that means I get to focusa lot on the other arm and my
chest and my shoulders and allthese other areas that my legs
are gonna get really big.
My legs are gonna get beast modelegs right.
So, when you start to train yourmind into the programming of.
You know, and you can use thisin a daily situation like it's,
(07:44):
when you feel yourself feelinglike a victim or a martyr, you
feel that, oh, I've had a shitday, man.
Well, at least I'm not inprison.
Well, I bet that could be inboot camp.
Right now I could be in the gaschamber in Sandy.
You know Marine Corps recruitdepot in San Diego sucking in
hot gas you know, slobbering outof my mouth, nose and eyes Like
(08:07):
it could be so much worse.
And so the stoic attitude ofMarcus Aurelius really permeates
this whole book and this wholeattitude of being the king of
silver linings.
It's choosing how I feel aboutthe circumstance around me,
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
well, when I, you know, I saw a picture the other
day, it's like look, neither ofus have lost a limb.
You know this analogy here,it's like man, that is something
that is so I can only imagine.
Right, and I saw a picture theother day of this guy that had
lost his leg and it was a beforeand after picture and it was
one of him in a wheelchair.
And then the next picture overwas him balancing on one of his
(08:47):
legs, but he was shredded.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I was like what.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I mean how on earth like that just goes to show you
right, you know you don't haveto take it from me or you and
that scenario.
I mean we could talk aboutthings that could be applicable,
but that right there, you knowpeople are doing it, you know.
I mean that just was superinspiring to me and I think it
goes along well with this.
It's like, man, you know, youmake, you know what doesn't
(09:12):
really matter what happens toyou.
What matters is okay.
What are you gonna do aboutthat?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, yeah, and there's a lot of examples out
there.
That's a very extreme one.
I just use the extreme exampleof losing an arm because you
hear about, you know, the galthat had her arm eaten off
surfing by a shark.
Oh yeah, holy cow, but what hasshe done?
You know, she's turned it intoa torch.
What she's done is she'sflipped that into a total
advantage of her life.
(09:37):
She's motivational speaker.
There's a movie, there's all ofthese things that wouldn't have
been there if it weren't forher losing an arm.
And so how interesting is that?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Like, take a second and really think about that.
That just hit me like a ton ofbricks and hopefully it hits
listeners with that too.
Like what you just said.
I don't know.
You know you gotta realize howpowerful that is.
None of that would havehappened if that didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah, like that is wow so now you can step into
this chaos and you can findgratitude.
So, guys, here's the game.
The game is when I'm getting myteeth kicked in, I'm finding a
gift in it.
What is the gift in this thatGod has intended for me?
Cause there's always a gift init.
(10:24):
There's always a teacher insideof the chaos.
Okay, so, instead of focusingon the feelings of being a
victim or being screwed over bypartners, or you know, screwed
over by the government, right?
I mean there's a lot of popularhot buttons right now we could
be complaining about politicsall day long and we choose not
(10:44):
to.
But plenty of people are Feelingvictimized because they have to
pay $6 a gallon for gas, forexample.
Yeah, lot, there's a lot ofrelevance to this today, right
now, guys, and I'm just sayingthat the game here, finding that
gift, that's where you reallyget, that's where you develop
some Jedi skill into, becauseit's not just mindset, I'm not
(11:07):
just talking about how I chooseto look at the world.
I'm talking about actuallytaking the obstacle and turning
it over onto the flipside intoan advantage that I can use and
implement in my actual life, inmy daily execution.
That's the game right.
One of my favorite examples inthe book you know the authors
(11:32):
talking about World War Two andI'd love history I mean, I will
make references to every one ofthe wars over these shows, but
this one was in reference to theinvasion of Normandy and
talking about the GermanBlitzkrieg.
You know Hitler had built upthis incredible Blitzkrieg was
(11:53):
the German word for lightningwar and they had built up these
incredible columns of Panzertanks which were way, way
superior to the American tanksthat we had at the time, the
Shermans.
And what Germany was doingreally effectively for quite
some time against Allied forcesis they were rushing into these
(12:13):
cities all over Poland and youknow wherever they were invading
, and they were using theselightning fast columns of tanks
to go in and overwhelm thetarget.
And what would happen is theresponse was so, the response of
whoever was being invadedinside of a city was so.
(12:33):
There was so much chaos and somuch fear that that inspired
that it caused some realproblems.
Well, eventually, general DwightD Eisenhower got, got his his
heads of you know, theauthorities there all together
in a conference room and he laidout a plan.
(12:54):
He had finally come up with astrategy to use against this
Blitzkrieg, this Blitzkrieg thatthe strategy the Germans were
using.
And so he realized the that thedemise was found within their
own strategy.
And what they ended up doing isthey ended up realizing that if
(13:15):
they could bend it withoutbreaking and allow a column of
tanks to penetrate a city deepenough, then they could surround
their rear and flanks, and hereferred to it as like a meat
grinder.
He's like we're going to letthe column of tanks into a net
or a meat grinder surround themfrom the back where they can do
nothing about it.
And that is how the war was onelike World War Two, was
(13:40):
literally one in that epiphanythat the General Eisenhower had.
So, guys, that's an example,another extreme one, but an
extreme example ofimplementation, of using the
obstacle as the way.
And this comes from, again,marcus Aurelius' teachings of
(14:01):
the impediment the impedimentbecomes the way.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Right, well, you can also take that to a more day to
day scenario application.
I mean, you absolutely can.
But I mean I also go back toyou know, let's take that
principle and apply it to theguy with the one leg that got
ripped right, that got shredded.
It's like, okay, well, that's,that is first of all amazing.
But, man, if he had his leg,there's still an obstacle there
(14:26):
For all of us.
There is still an obstaclethere.
Well, what is that?
It's going and literallytearing down your muscles.
It's eating the right things,it's doing the necessary things
to become that way, leg or not,right, and that in of itself is
an obstacle.
You know, ryan Holiday talksabout how it's like.
You know, you plant your feeteven, and again, I'm not quoting
(14:51):
him directly, but I just recallthrough the book he talks about
planting your feet and justtaking the next step.
Yeah, just continue inchingcloser until you build that
impenetrable fortress that isyou.
You know, until you become stoic.
You become so clear that thisobstacle will get me to where I
(15:13):
want to go.
The obstacle doesn't even phaseyou anymore.
In fact, it doesn't evendiscourage you anymore.
In fact, you view it as anecessary step.
You embrace the chaos at somepoint.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, when you've programmed yourself to the
extent I'm saying, you embracethe chaos when it comes, because
you know, that you're on thepath of the next level of
expansion.
Yeah, and you're like, andyou're like.
Oh my gosh, I can't imagine whythis is happening to me, but I
can't wait to find out what thegift is, because God's got
(15:43):
something in mind for me and itis beyond my current
comprehension.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, right, interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Now I want to apply this to you and your situation.
You know you talked about inour very first short episode of
Origins just you know, you kindof deciding you wanted to step
into the world of being a realestate investor and build a real
estate portfolio.
What was the number oneobstacle for you in looking at
(16:12):
that goal and what would eitherkeep you from the goal or have
you achieved the goal?
Can you remember what thebiggest obstacle was, boy?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I mean, I can think of a lot, but probably the
number one, if I had to say,would be just the lack of
knowledge.
I just was sitting therelooking at something.
I was like this is something Iwant to do, but I literally know
nothing about it.
Yeah, and that was superdaunting and you can.
That honestly trickles down toall these other things.
Right, If I don't know how todo it, then I don't know what
(16:47):
questions to ask.
If I don't know what questionsto ask, I don't know what to get
good at.
If I don't you know what I mean, Like I don't know what I don't
know, yeah, and that was amassive obstacle for me.
Yeah, Right, and so you know.
And again you can go back andsay, well, I did, I had a
shallow credit profile, I had, Ihad no income.
I think all those things areside notes to the fact that I
(17:10):
just I knew what I wanted to do,but I had no idea how to get
there.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So when you have no idea, you have no certainty and
it's easy to say no.
Yeah, oh, oh, it's easy forfear to say this is crazy yeah.
There's no way for me to see howto even start this, right?
How am I supposed to buy twocondos for roughly 400 grand
(17:35):
each?
Right, I have no money?
Right, that seems like anobstacle.
I think the listeners are like,like I'm trying to underscore
here.
For the listeners, that is anobstacle.
Money is a big obstacle, right,and you can choose for that to
be the obstacle that will keepyou from the goal.
Yeah, now you could have cometo me and said hey, dad, can you
lend me money or can you dothis?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And I knew that if I removed that obstacle by giving
you any money, even for earnestmoney, not even, not even if I
gave you five or 10 grand for anearnest money deposit to get
over the first pump it wouldhave crippled you, it would have
crippled you because you wouldhave not.
You would have not becomeresourceful enough to go find it
(18:18):
yourself, absolutely.
And what you did is you turnedthat, that obstacle of no money,
into the absolute path.
Like it's remarkable how itturned.
Like you, absolutely this.
So, guys, this isn't.
This actually happened.
This is what is actuallypossible.
And it turns out that, insteadof you know down, I mean I, I, I
(18:39):
give him some ideas.
Hey, you should be talking tomortgage lenders, you should be
talking to investment bankers,you should go out and talk to
friends and family and see whatcomes of all of it.
And I was thinking that hemight be able to go and get, you
know, some investment loansfrom the bank and maybe raise a
few bucks to, you know, fill inthe gaps.
Well, what does Stalin do?
(19:00):
He goes and he and raises allcash for the entire takedown of
the entire and then structuresit in a way that his investors
come in and do the debt and theequity.
That's phenomenal.
I mean, that's exactly what I'mtalking about when an
entrepreneur decides they'regoing to do it and then they
remove, then they take theobstacle and they flip it into
(19:21):
the advantage and it becomes theway.
That's the.
That's exactly what I'm tryingto get across here.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Well, another thing too, is that obstacle is now the
story, right?
So when we're talking about,you know, the, the surfer, they
got her arm bitten off.
It's like that.
That has become the story now.
And then you know, and allthese other things that are
happening because of thathappened because of that.
Now, all these things in mylife are happening now because
of that obstacle.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
There's credibility.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Oh yeah, there's self confidence.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, Like you, your fear is on a different it's a
totally different plane.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, the perspective , my perspective, is completely
changed.
That's right.
It's like oh, you know what?
It's totally possible.
And now, and and I'm sograteful for that obstacle too,
because it taught me hey, look,you know, not only is this
possible, but it's an incredibleopportunity to learn and grow
(20:19):
and become someone who canactually execute on this type of
thing, the goals that we have,if they're good enough, if
they're audacious enough.
We will not be the person thatcan accomplish those goals today
that we need to be toaccomplish those goals.
If we were that person, thosegoals would already be done.
That's a huge that is huge.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That's gold.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
That's kind of what I'm what I'm attributing this to
is like, back then, that me wasnot the me that could have done
it.
Yeah, but you know, it tookthat obstacle to grow me into
the person that could do it.
Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yep, absolutely.
This is a this will be anongoing theme of.
Maybe we might touch it onevery episode of the show.
Who must I become to do X?
Who must I become to reach thistarget?
Who must I become to make thisimpossible or improbable impact
(21:15):
on humanity?
Because the version of me todayis capable of what I have today
, right and so, even like amonth from now, I've got to be
bigger, faster, stronger,smarter in ways I can't, I don't
even know, don't even know yet.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah Well, and I would argue that, look, the
version of ourselves today is byno means bad.
It's it, you know, and we can,people can view it as that.
Oh, if only I were this, ifonly.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I were that.
That's very dangerous, in myopinion, right I?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
agree, but but I guess what we're trying to say
is like look, when we have avision of what we want the
future to look like, if thatfuture is not current, it's like
, well, okay, then we're not theperson that can accomplish that
future.
But the the current, presentmoment is obviously the number
one priority.
That is the most important,because the only way we can
become so in the future is if wechoose to start becoming so now
(22:06):
.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Right, this is why I use this term.
You know serial entrepreneursin the ruthless pursuit of
personal expansion.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Because, because you, I came to the, the awareness
that this version of myself,that I want to be, that I'm
chasing, the ambition like that,like that, that hero of mine,
that's a version of me that'sthat's way out there, that's got
all of this and doing all ofthat, and that that goal me.
(22:37):
There's a lot of learning, a lotof skill and a lot of
perspective that still has to beincreased, and so so that
drives me to be takingcontinuing education to you know
my fitness goals, to my.
You know my spiritual ambitionand my connectedness with God
and my relationships, and, likeall of these things we talk
(22:58):
about and constantly expanding,we talked about expansion as an
obligation.
Well, that is my belief system.
I think that God, I believestrongly that God wants me to
find it.
He wants me to realize andbecome that highest, most
powerful version of myself I canpossibly be, because he knows
(23:18):
how much, he knows how good thatwill feel if I could ever reach
it.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Right?
Well, that makes now even morebeautiful.
Right, in my opinion,Absolutely Well, now, with that
perspective, that's anotherperspective.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
With that perspective .
Speaker 2 (23:33):
now I can take a look at where I'm at now and say,
man, I sure am grateful for now,I sure am grateful for the
present.
I'm sure I'm grateful for whatI'm doing now, because that's
going to lead me to there.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And that's a that's a really cool point to bring into
this whole thing, because whenwe talk about being the king of
silver linings, their gratitudeis a must.
So when we're trying to findGod's gift in chaos, gratitude
in all things is required.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Gratitude and you know what, guys?
There are days candidly inrecent days, but consistently
over my life, where I feel likeI have nothing to be grateful
for and it's insane.
It's like ego.
It's like an ego cloud over mybrain.
That's a cloud of stupidity,like how can I sit down and not
(24:26):
make a list of things I'mgrateful for?
But some days I just feel sobeat down and so depressed.
I'm having gratitude and I'mjust having a prayer of
gratitude to God for the factthat I'm on planet earth or the
sun is shining, I'm gratefulthat I'm breathing and that's
(24:49):
all I can muster up sometimesand that seems so weak.
But it's critical to, on adaily basis, to find gratitude
and feel gratitude, becausegratitude for exactly what the
present, like you said, thepresent right now, that's key
for us to be mentally,emotionally, energetically in
that space or on that plane, tobe able to manifest something
(25:12):
different.
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Well, not only that, but I think there's another
element of this, where you'resitting here and you can, you
know, if you practice continualgratitude right now, it will
allow so that it becomes a habitwhen you make it.
And I say make it in the termsof whatever your goal is.
Part of this whole conversation, I think, is that there's no
(25:36):
finish line.
You're going to constantly bebecoming that person, but, man,
there's always going to be thosedays, even when you're, you
know, even someday, hey, you'rea billionaire, you're still
going to have those days thatthat status does not take away
the fact that you're a humanbeing with real emotion yeah,
(25:57):
you'll probably have more ofthose, right, the goal is not
for things to get easier.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
The thing is the goal is to become more capable of
handling more chaos.
Right With gratitude withgratitude, with love and grace
yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Absolutely, and as you expand you'll be more and
more conditioned for thosethings to continue growing and
happening to you yeah Right.
And saying, oh, I'll begrateful when I have this.
That is a, that's a dangerous,because you won't be.
If that's your opinion, thenyou're going to get the million
dollars and you're not going tobe grateful.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, yeah, you wish it was 10 million at that point.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, it's the same thing with giving you know
you're going to say, oh man, Iwould, I would give if I only
had money.
Well, no, you wouldn't, yeahRight, no, no, you wouldn't, you
have to be you have to be verypresent, focused very focused on
right now.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, Because right now is all you can really impact
right like your choice in thismoment.
You know I'm thinking of some ofthe some of the real life kind
of narrative for the listenershere on where I've implemented
perspective determines action orthe obstacle is the way
mentality, and you know we talkabout Sage Creek a lot.
(27:08):
We had.
There's a lot of examples.
One that's coming to mind waswe were working with Grand
County officials on the lightingdesign and you know I'm neck
deep and designing this wholepool complex, this resort area,
and it's in my mind it's themost amazing place, right?
Well, as we submit all theplans and the lighting plans and
(27:31):
the construction plan set, thebuilding inspectors push back
and they say, well, the lightingcode for the pool area has to,
it has to provide 50, no, excuseme, five foot candles of light
per square foot.
Well, if you guys know, if youguys know what that measurement
is.
That means it's like daylight,it's sport court lighting at
(27:53):
night, and most of the hotels inMoab have this sport court
lighting at night.
It's ridiculous, it'suncomfortable, and we hired
spectrum engineering here inSalt Lake phenomenal lighting
engineering firm, who takelighting very seriously, who
really were the only companythat I could find that could
that could help me help thecounty see things clearly.
(28:15):
And so we conducted somestudies.
We did light studies.
We actually had someone downthere, you know, measuring light
.
And here's the interestingthing, guys, is that Grand
County's got this dark skiesinitiative and you know, moab
was ranked the number one placeon earth to view the stars in
(28:36):
2019 in National GeographicMagazine.
So the dark sky, the dark skiesinitiative, was a big deal down
in Moab, right, but all thehotels don't comply with dark
skies initiative.
So there's this because of this50 year old antiquated archaic
code right intheir building code.
And so we're we're kind ofhaving a collision with the
building department.
We're saying, guys, you wantsport court lighting daylight
(29:00):
for safety reasons on the pooldeck at night, but you also want
to celebrate the fact that youcan see the stars better than
anywhere else on earth.
These are in direct kind of youknow antagonist positions here.
So what we were able to do iswe were able to put a report
together that proved that acertain Kelvin rating 2700
(29:24):
Kelvin rating on the lightingscheme is what's required in
order for the body to startproducing melatonin and to be
able to start relaxing.
And 2700 Kelvin is a lot lowerlight and it's a lot warmer.
It's a more yellow, orange, hue, okay, and so now we're
(29:46):
measuring warmth, we'remeasuring the light capacity,
we're measuring how much light,and we were able to articulate
in a full write up a case thatwe were able to get Grand County
to make an exception.
So the obstacle turned in theway we were able to use the dark
sky initiative and say, okay,we can accomplish both guys.
(30:06):
Here's how we do it.
What the resolution ended upbeing was building inspectors
allowed us to install thelighting scheme that we designed
, which was really onlyproducing about 20% of what the
code required much lowerlighting than required.
But we had emergency switchesso if we had a casualty in the
(30:26):
pool or a problem in the pool,we could flip on the emergency
lighting.
When it would turn up to thatfive foot candles of light per
square foot and we could meetthat code.
But that was a great compromisebecause it did a lot of.
It was a lot of firsts in GrandCounty.
It's the first resort to havetrue resort level lighting,
(30:47):
ambient lighting, relaxinglighting.
It's the first commercial,might even be first residential
pool to have colored lighting inthe swimming pool itself, Cause
that was another piece of thecode was they wanted to have
bright white lighting in thepool.
If you've been to Sage Creek,like you have, you know that
pool changes colors.
It's a mystical thing, it's atotal experience but, it's the
(31:10):
same.
The building inspectors gave usthe same leeway to say, okay,
if you have emergency switches,you can kick it on the bright,
light, white, and that's how weresolve that.
So, instead of us just lookingat code and having a collision
with the building departmentsaying no, no, no, we were able
(31:31):
to get clever and resourcefuland just help educate and help
them understand a bettersolution.
And it became the way, the dark,the actual fact, the dark skies
initiative.
And so we actually, in all ofthat, we got to write the new
dark skies initiative.
It was a two page deal and wegot to work with Spectrum
(31:52):
Engineering to co-author an 18page dark skies initiative.
So now all the hotels condosdown in Grand County are gonna
be forced to get up to that youknow that standard here within
the next few years, so that'sreally cool Very cool.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, that's very cool.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
You know there was another.
There was another for thelisteners edification.
If you haven't read theobstacles the way, you've got to
go get it.
But I'm also recalling thisstory about Amelia Earhart and
you guys, everyone knows AmeliaEarhart.
She was the first female pilotto cross the Atlantic Ocean and
(32:35):
her goal was to do that solo.
But back in those days being afemale pilot wasn't a very cool
thing right, it was like and allof the people that were in
authority to actually authorizethat weren't having it.
They didn't want to see that,and so there was a really great
lesson for any entrepreneur thatcomes from Amelia Earhart
(32:56):
situation.
What happened was she gets aphone call one day and she
receives this just basicallyoffensive offer and they
basically say, hey, good news,you're gonna get to do your
Atlantic flight, but we're gonnahave two male pilots, they're
(33:16):
gonna chaperone you.
We're gonna pay them a ton ofmoney.
We're not gonna pay you anymoney.
Are you interested?
And you know, I mean what aremost people gonna do?
Most people are gonna say pah,pah, no, they're gonna, they're
gonna, they're gonna say are youkidding me?
Yeah, the default is gonna beto the negative reaction.
The ego is gonna say go poundsand.
(33:38):
But Amelia Earhart wasenlightened and she said yes.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
And she did it.
And what it did was it changedeveryone's perspectives.
It proved that she was capable.
It gave her credibility andtrack record and within very
short period of time she did endup doing her own thing.
And one of the lessons here foranyone listening, is that if
(34:07):
nothing is beneath us and we'rewilling to be humble and we're
willing to just take action ifwe're not getting paid, but if
it's maybe just for thepossibility of getting some
credibility or some track,record under our belt then take
action.
That's better than sittingwaiting for the perfect
conditions, Right, Okay, I'mgonna say that again.
(34:30):
We cannot wait for the perfectconditions.
They will almost it's almostnever going to happen that the
perfect conditions exist for usto start our new business or
launch our new app or launch ournew product.
So, as a serial entrepreneur,you've got to say you've got to
put a stake in the ground todayand say I'm going today.
(34:53):
It doesn't matter what it is NowI'm gonna remind you today.
Today is actually we're in themiddle of July and gas prices
are creeping up on $6 a gallon.
Inflation is over 9% and manypeople are saying should I buy a
real estate investment?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
today.
I was just thinking about thisBecause the interest rates are
really out of control.
And.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
I mean, I don't know, you know, and they'll go on and
on and on about should I dosomething right now Because the
political environment is suchand I've heard, you know, I'm
listening to CNN and they'resaying that there's a bubble,
there's a real estate bubblecoming Fucking, kidding me, come
on.
(35:37):
Like stop listening to the news,guys, stop.
Okay, if you watch CNN, do notlisten to the show anymore.
Just turn our show off rightnow.
Okay, the news is poisoned andyou cannot go listen to all of
what the media wants you to hear, because that's a propaganda
(35:58):
machine, it's a fear machine.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Okay, sorry to cut you off, but on that note,
excuse me for laughing here, butI saw a video the other day of
this news reporter and she wastalking and she was like she was
.
She was saying how someone wastrying to control the media and
(36:22):
she was like under her breath.
But it was caught on the micand this video went viral and
she says that's our role orthat's our job.
And I was like whoa shoot, yeah,like you think about that.
How do they want you to feeland react?
Right, they want you to beparanoid.
They want you to be afraid,because that sells right so
(36:44):
anyway, back to your point.
I just had to throw that inthere.
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
All right, guys.
I mean you're gonna hear a lotabout Fillmore Utah, okay, as we
get going, as we get intoepisodes and episodes as the
show goes on here.
But we're working on a bigproject in Fillmore Utah.
We're calling it the ValleyForge Innovation Park.
Awesome, okay.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Valley.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Forge special place in my heart, harkening back to
George Washington 1777, winterencampment, and so just the
Patriot in me is always kind ofleveraging details and names and
things like that.
So Valley Forge Innovation Parkit's starting with 151 acres
(37:31):
that we own in Fillmore, utah,and I can't tell you how many
lenders I've talked to to do thesecond round of financing on
this who are like and they'reall saying Fillmore, utah.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
I mean there's only 2,500 people that live in
Fillmore what's in?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Fillmore.
Fillmore hasn't expanded in 50years, right.
But now, perspective determinesbehavior, right.
And none of these lenders knowwhat I know.
None of the lenders know whatwent into the site selection and
why I bought the property, andthey don't know why we're
developing what we're developingin Fillmore and this is a great
(38:15):
example of the obstacle is theway, because when the general
population is saying you'recrazy, this is a stupid idea,
why would you go to Fillmore,utah?
I know, if I get enough peoplesaying I'm crazy and this is
stupid, that I'm doing the rightthing.
(38:35):
Right, so this is an ongoingthing, guys, and I'm emboldened
and I know I'm the unorthodox,I'm the outlier, and my
certainty comes from myself, notvalidation from lenders.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Like and if I can't educate lenders to come around
and see the vision, then I don'twant to be working with that
lender anyways, yeah.
And now when the right lendersees the vision and says, oh
yeah, my God, that is amazing,boom.
Then it gets done.
And that's what's happeninghere.
And so we're in the earlystages in Fillmore and this
(39:10):
second round of capitals iscoming around.
But what we're developing downthere includes 1.2 million
square foot manufacturingfacility for American Spec
Modular and a 600,000 squarefoot production facility for
American Spec ESG.
American Spec ESG we'vementioned is a produce.
(39:35):
What we do is we will acceptand process landfill waste and
turn it into superior lumberproducts.
Okay.
And our leading product israilroad ties.
It's a fantastic product.
The cool thing about it is is91.5% of rail ties right now in
America are made of oak soakedin creosote and they're I mean
(40:00):
they're cheap.
I mean they're like 75, 80bucks a piece.
But the problem is they have tobe replaced every five to eight
years at great and ongoingcosts to the state of Utah or
any state or Union Pacific orwhoever the authority is that's
paying for their rail lines.
What we're producing here withAmerican Spec ESG is a rail tie
(40:22):
made of trash that has the tinsial and spanning strength of
steel, fireproof, waterproof,mold proof, termite proof,
doesn't expand and contract in afreeze thought condition, holds
a spike better than wood and wecan guarantee the tie for 50
(40:43):
years without replacement.
Geez, okay, that's a home run.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
That's a home run in innovation and in technology.
It's an industrial technology,but we have contracts lining up
with some major states to buythese ties and actually start a
campaign of replacing the oldties.
One of the cool side benefitsis the fact that the old oak
ties are an environmentalproblem.
(41:10):
They're soaked in toxiccreosote Interesting and that
leaches into the ground,creating an environmental issue
wherever the rail line is.
So it doesn't suck that thesenew ties don't leach into the
ground.
They're actually carbonnegative footprint.
And so we're cleaning up anenvironmental issue and saving
these states hundreds ofmillions of dollars in the
(41:32):
process.
Okay, so one really cool spinto that whole thing is we're the
only company on earth that cantake that old, toxic oak tie.
Suck the creosote out of it.
Split it chip it, dry it andreduce it down into an aggregate
that we can then mix in withall of the garbage and we can
(41:55):
reuse all of the old ties wecollect to make a new tie Again.
The obstacle is the way.
So there's just innovation andaction.
We're implementing Now Fillmore.
There's gonna be a thousandexamples of why Fillmore is
obstacle is the way.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
But I wanna.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Just I'm introducing Fillmore into this equation now
because it's relevant.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah, and I mean, as we wrap up here, I also wanna
kind of touch on that in thesense that, man, I'm facing that
as well.
The obstacle is the way because, like you mentioned, interest
rates, all this stuff goingcrazy, I mean, let's call it
what it is, that's a realobstacle.
But if you lean into that andyou say, well, okay, instead of
(42:42):
saying this can't work, sayinghow can this work, yeah, better
question, right, betterquestions Right, yeah, it makes
all the difference.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yep, well, I'm excited to continue on, guys.
Thank you for chiming in today.
We'll wrap this episode.
Hope you'll join us on the nextone.
Hey guys, welcome back to the show Wayne Aston.
Here with Aston Incorporated,joining me is my co-host, dallin
Aston, and we are going to becovering some fantastic content,
starting with the book theObstacle is the Way by Ryan
Halliday, one of my all-timefavorite books ever written, and
(00:22):
I did a refresher on itrecently.
I actually do a refresher onthis book almost every year.
It's one of those books thatyou reread and you absorb and
you apply, and the reason Iwanted to cover this one today,
dallin, is because I know you'veread it and I'm interested to
see and pull out some of thenuggets that you are
(00:45):
implementing out of the book.
But this inspires me to one ofthe universal principles we're
going to be talking about, sowe've introduced our universal
principle series.
This is one of them, and theuniversal principle that we're
going to be covering in part ofthis show today is perspective
determines action.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
OK, and I love this because if my perspective is X,
then it absolutely influencesthe output.
And if you have a totallydifferent perspective when
you're in the exact samecircumstance, it's going to be a
totally different output.
So, perspective, you couldthink of this as maybe the lens
(01:31):
through which everything passesin a human, and so now that's an
interesting concept, becauseeveryone's got a different
perspective.
Everyone's perspective is acombination of life experiences,
programming who you hang outwith, education, religion,
politics, all of these things,and so unique perspectives drive
(01:55):
unique outcomes and uniquebehaviors.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, it's interesting you say that because
it's something that I havenoticed a lot over the past year
.
I think you and I have had thisconversation a lot, whether
it's in the car or just on thephone or whatever, talking about
this perspective determinesbehavior concept.
And it's so interesting whenyou acknowledge that this is a
(02:22):
thing.
Then you start to notice, ohman, I do this in this scenario.
But then someone else doessomething and you're like well,
why on earth would you?
Oh, and I feel like for me it'shelped me be more loving in a
sense, because then it says OK,well, perspective determines
behavior, their perspective isthis, so they're going to behave
(02:43):
that way.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Well, yeah, and it causes you to pause sometimes.
Like in the moment pause andconsider that their perspective
could be influencing what thisoutput looks like.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
And so now you can't put judgment on that because you
can't see.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
You can only see the tip of that iceberg.
There's all of that icebergunder the surface.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
You have no idea what's going on, that's right,
really really right.
And, like you said, all thesedifferent things factor into
religion, political views, theircurrent scenario in life,
relationships, financial, I mean.
All this stuff contributes toyour perspective and also how
you feed your mind right.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That is a major influence on perspective what
you consume, what you feed yourbrain, and that's a choice, oh
man.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But that will also determine your behavior, because
it influences your perspective.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
So I think it's really powerful principle.
Absolutely Considering thiswhole principle here, I've
developed this thing that youknow.
I like to joke around withpeople and meetings and I always
say that I'm the king of silverlinings, that's one of my
superpowers, because you canchop my right arm off and I'll
(04:00):
tell you why this is good for me.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
OK.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Like that's extreme, but seriously, like as a real
estate developer and as a serialentrepreneur, both of those
things really require someone tohave almost an ignorance to
(04:23):
challenges or almost an agnosticattitude, Like it's, almost
like this perpetual optimism.
And so our analysts out therelistening our mathematicians,
like our quantitative analysis.
Those are the guys that buildour models and spreadsheets.
They don't necessarily havethat.
(04:45):
They are very logical andthey're very you know one side
of the brain and they viewthings completely differently
than what I'm talking about,because, as a real estate
developer, it never goes smooth.
It just never goes smooth.
So combining real estatedevelopment with
(05:06):
entrepreneurship, that's areally good combination, because
entrepreneurship is not smoothand we've talked about a lot of
examples already.
We're 13 episodes in.
We've covered some of that.
But I think the resilience thatcomes from me is this attitude
that it's OK for me to getknocked down.
(05:28):
Getting knocked down is part ofbeing in the game and it's like
I know I'm gonna get back up.
How many times am I gonna getback up one more time?
Well, how many times is that?
Well, it's always one more.
It might be a hundred times, itmight be a thousand times.
Like there's no other defaultanswer than I'm always going to
(05:51):
get back up.
And that right.
There is a major differentiatorbetween a successful
entrepreneur and one whocollapses in the apocalypse
event right, that brings up theobstacles away.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Right, absolutely.
So I mean that when you say onemore time, hey, my arms chopped
off.
This is why that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
That's obviously not a good thing right, yeah, yeah,
it's like well, that's you know.
I hear that I'm like that's nota good thing at all, but one of
my but to your point, one of thethings that I love so much
about the book is there's a lotof references to Marcus Aurelius
, a lot of stoicism in this guy.
So if you're not a tenant ofstoicism, you should check it
(06:38):
out, because stoicism is MarcusAurelius guided the most
powerful military force in thehistory of man.
Okay, I mean, he conqueredmultiple continents.
And you do the research onMarcus Aurelius and what the
Roman Empire did.
It was biblical, but I love hisattitude and his philosophies
(07:00):
on stoicism.
He a lot of what thisperspective determines you know,
behavior determines actioncomes from as stoicism.
Marcus Aurelius is saying look,if I choose to be hurt, then
I'm hurt.
If I choose not to be hurt, I'mnot hurt.
And so you know.
You can apply that like oh, myarms chopped off.
(07:21):
Well, that means I get to focusa lot on the other arm and my
chest and my shoulders and allthese other areas that my legs
are gonna get really big.
My legs are gonna get beast modelegs right.
So, when you start to train yourmind into the programming of.
You know, and you can use thisin a daily situation like it's,
(07:44):
when you feel yourself feelinglike a victim or a martyr, you
feel that, oh, I've had a shitday, man.
Well, at least I'm not inprison.
Well, I bet that could be inboot camp.
Right now I could be in the gaschamber in Sandy.
You know Marine Corps recruitdepot in San Diego sucking in
hot gas you know, slobbering outof my mouth, nose and eyes Like
(08:07):
it could be so much worse.
And so the stoic attitude ofMarcus Aurelius really permeates
this whole book and this wholeattitude of being the king of
silver linings.
It's choosing how I feel aboutthe circumstance around me,
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
well, when I, you know, I saw a picture the other
day, it's like look, neither ofus have lost a limb.
You know this analogy here,it's like man, that is something
that is so I can only imagine.
Right, and I saw a picture theother day of this guy that had
lost his leg and it was a beforeand after picture and it was
one of him in a wheelchair.
And then the next picture overwas him balancing on one of his
(08:47):
legs, but he was shredded.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I was like what.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I mean how on earth like that just goes to show you
right, you know you don't haveto take it from me or you and
that scenario.
I mean we could talk aboutthings that could be applicable,
but that right there, you knowpeople are doing it, you know.
I mean that just was superinspiring to me and I think it
goes along well with this.
It's like, man, you know, youmake, you know what doesn't
(09:12):
really matter what happens toyou.
What matters is okay.
What are you gonna do aboutthat?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, yeah, and there's a lot of examples out
there.
That's a very extreme one.
I just use the extreme exampleof losing an arm because you
hear about, you know, the galthat had her arm eaten off
surfing by a shark.
Oh yeah, holy cow, but what hasshe done?
You know, she's turned it intoa torch.
What she's done is she'sflipped that into a total
advantage of her life.
(09:37):
She's motivational speaker.
There's a movie, there's all ofthese things that wouldn't have
been there if it weren't forher losing an arm.
And so how interesting is that?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Like, take a second and really think about that.
That just hit me like a ton ofbricks and hopefully it hits
listeners with that too.
Like what you just said.
I don't know.
You know you gotta realize howpowerful that is.
None of that would havehappened if that didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah, like that is wow so now you can step into
this chaos and you can findgratitude.
So, guys, here's the game.
The game is when I'm getting myteeth kicked in, I'm finding a
gift in it.
What is the gift in this thatGod has intended for me?
Cause there's always a gift init.
(10:24):
There's always a teacher insideof the chaos.
Okay, so, instead of focusingon the feelings of being a
victim or being screwed over bypartners, or you know, screwed
over by the government, right?
I mean there's a lot of popularhot buttons right now we could
be complaining about politicsall day long and we choose not
(10:44):
to.
But plenty of people are Feelingvictimized because they have to
pay $6 a gallon for gas, forexample.
Yeah, lot, there's a lot ofrelevance to this today, right
now, guys, and I'm just sayingthat the game here, finding that
gift, that's where you reallyget, that's where you develop
some Jedi skill into, becauseit's not just mindset, I'm not
(11:07):
just talking about how I chooseto look at the world.
I'm talking about actuallytaking the obstacle and turning
it over onto the flipside intoan advantage that I can use and
implement in my actual life, inmy daily execution.
That's the game right.
One of my favorite examples inthe book you know the authors
(11:32):
talking about World War Two andI'd love history I mean, I will
make references to every one ofthe wars over these shows, but
this one was in reference to theinvasion of Normandy and
talking about the GermanBlitzkrieg.
You know Hitler had built upthis incredible Blitzkrieg was
(11:53):
the German word for lightningwar and they had built up these
incredible columns of Panzertanks which were way, way
superior to the American tanksthat we had at the time, the
Shermans.
And what Germany was doingreally effectively for quite
some time against Allied forcesis they were rushing into these
(12:13):
cities all over Poland and youknow wherever they were invading
, and they were using theselightning fast columns of tanks
to go in and overwhelm thetarget.
And what would happen is theresponse was so, the response of
whoever was being invadedinside of a city was so.
(12:33):
There was so much chaos and somuch fear that that inspired
that it caused some realproblems.
Well, eventually, general DwightD Eisenhower got, got his his
heads of you know, theauthorities there all together
in a conference room and he laidout a plan.
(12:54):
He had finally come up with astrategy to use against this
Blitzkrieg, this Blitzkrieg thatthe strategy the Germans were
using.
And so he realized the that thedemise was found within their
own strategy.
And what they ended up doing isthey ended up realizing that if
(13:15):
they could bend it withoutbreaking and allow a column of
tanks to penetrate a city deepenough, then they could surround
their rear and flanks, and hereferred to it as like a meat
grinder.
He's like we're going to letthe column of tanks into a net
or a meat grinder surround themfrom the back where they can do
nothing about it.
And that is how the war was onelike World War Two, was
(13:40):
literally one in that epiphanythat the General Eisenhower had.
So, guys, that's an example,another extreme one, but an
extreme example ofimplementation, of using the
obstacle as the way.
And this comes from, again,marcus Aurelius' teachings of
(14:01):
the impediment the impedimentbecomes the way.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Right, well, you can also take that to a more day to
day scenario application.
I mean, you absolutely can.
But I mean I also go back toyou know, let's take that
principle and apply it to theguy with the one leg that got
ripped right, that got shredded.
It's like, okay, well, that's,that is first of all amazing.
But, man, if he had his leg,there's still an obstacle there
(14:26):
For all of us.
There is still an obstaclethere.
Well, what is that?
It's going and literallytearing down your muscles.
It's eating the right things,it's doing the necessary things
to become that way, leg or not,right, and that in of itself is
an obstacle.
You know, ryan Holiday talksabout how it's like.
You know, you plant your feeteven, and again, I'm not quoting
(14:51):
him directly, but I just recallthrough the book he talks about
planting your feet and justtaking the next step.
Yeah, just continue inchingcloser until you build that
impenetrable fortress that isyou.
You know, until you become stoic.
You become so clear that thisobstacle will get me to where I
(15:13):
want to go.
The obstacle doesn't even phaseyou anymore.
In fact, it doesn't evendiscourage you anymore.
In fact, you view it as anecessary step.
You embrace the chaos at somepoint.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, when you've programmed yourself to the
extent I'm saying, you embracethe chaos when it comes, because
you know, that you're on thepath of the next level of
expansion.
Yeah, and you're like, andyou're like.
Oh my gosh, I can't imagine whythis is happening to me, but I
can't wait to find out what thegift is, because God's got
(15:43):
something in mind for me and itis beyond my current
comprehension.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, right, interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Now I want to apply this to you and your situation.
You know you talked about inour very first short episode of
Origins just you know, you kindof deciding you wanted to step
into the world of being a realestate investor and build a real
estate portfolio.
What was the number oneobstacle for you in looking at
(16:12):
that goal and what would eitherkeep you from the goal or have
you achieved the goal?
Can you remember what thebiggest obstacle was, boy?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I mean, I can think of a lot, but probably the
number one, if I had to say,would be just the lack of
knowledge.
I just was sitting therelooking at something.
I was like this is something Iwant to do, but I literally know
nothing about it.
Yeah, and that was superdaunting and you can.
That honestly trickles down toall these other things.
Right, If I don't know how todo it, then I don't know what
(16:47):
questions to ask.
If I don't know what questionsto ask, I don't know what to get
good at.
If I don't you know what I mean, Like I don't know what I don't
know, yeah, and that was amassive obstacle for me.
Yeah, Right, and so you know.
And again you can go back andsay, well, I did, I had a
shallow credit profile, I had, Ihad no income.
I think all those things areside notes to the fact that I
(17:10):
just I knew what I wanted to do,but I had no idea how to get
there.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So when you have no idea, you have no certainty and
it's easy to say no.
Yeah, oh, oh, it's easy forfear to say this is crazy yeah.
There's no way for me to see howto even start this, right?
How am I supposed to buy twocondos for roughly 400 grand
(17:35):
each?
Right, I have no money?
Right, that seems like anobstacle.
I think the listeners are like,like I'm trying to underscore
here.
For the listeners, that is anobstacle.
Money is a big obstacle, right,and you can choose for that to
be the obstacle that will keepyou from the goal.
Yeah, now you could have cometo me and said hey, dad, can you
lend me money or can you dothis?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And I knew that if I removed that obstacle by giving
you any money, even for earnestmoney, not even, not even if I
gave you five or 10 grand for anearnest money deposit to get
over the first pump it wouldhave crippled you, it would have
crippled you because you wouldhave not.
You would have not becomeresourceful enough to go find it
(18:18):
yourself, absolutely.
And what you did is you turnedthat, that obstacle of no money,
into the absolute path.
Like it's remarkable how itturned.
Like you, absolutely this.
So, guys, this isn't.
This actually happened.
This is what is actuallypossible.
And it turns out that, insteadof you know down, I mean I, I, I
(18:39):
give him some ideas.
Hey, you should be talking tomortgage lenders, you should be
talking to investment bankers,you should go out and talk to
friends and family and see whatcomes of all of it.
And I was thinking that hemight be able to go and get, you
know, some investment loansfrom the bank and maybe raise a
few bucks to, you know, fill inthe gaps.
Well, what does Stalin do?
(19:00):
He goes and he and raises allcash for the entire takedown of
the entire and then structuresit in a way that his investors
come in and do the debt and theequity.
That's phenomenal.
I mean, that's exactly what I'mtalking about when an
entrepreneur decides they'regoing to do it and then they
remove, then they take theobstacle and they flip it into
(19:21):
the advantage and it becomes theway.
That's the.
That's exactly what I'm tryingto get across here.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Well, another thing too, is that obstacle is now the
story, right?
So when we're talking about,you know, the, the surfer, they
got her arm bitten off.
It's like that.
That has become the story now.
And then you know, and allthese other things that are
happening because of thathappened because of that.
Now, all these things in mylife are happening now because
of that obstacle.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
There's credibility.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Oh yeah, there's self confidence.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, Like you, your fear is on a different it's a
totally different plane.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, the perspective , my perspective, is completely
changed.
That's right.
It's like oh, you know what?
It's totally possible.
And now, and and I'm sograteful for that obstacle too,
because it taught me hey, look,you know, not only is this
possible, but it's an incredibleopportunity to learn and grow
(20:19):
and become someone who canactually execute on this type of
thing, the goals that we have,if they're good enough, if
they're audacious enough.
We will not be the person thatcan accomplish those goals today
that we need to be toaccomplish those goals.
If we were that person, thosegoals would already be done.
That's a huge that is huge.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That's gold.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
That's kind of what I'm what I'm attributing this to
is like, back then, that me wasnot the me that could have done
it.
Yeah, but you know, it tookthat obstacle to grow me into
the person that could do it.
Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yep, absolutely.
This is a this will be anongoing theme of.
Maybe we might touch it onevery episode of the show.
Who must I become to do X?
Who must I become to reach thistarget?
Who must I become to make thisimpossible or improbable impact
(21:15):
on humanity?
Because the version of me todayis capable of what I have today
, right and so, even like amonth from now, I've got to be
bigger, faster, stronger,smarter in ways I can't, I don't
even know, don't even know yet.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah Well, and I would argue that, look, the
version of ourselves today is byno means bad.
It's it, you know, and we can,people can view it as that.
Oh, if only I were this, ifonly.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I were that.
That's very dangerous, in myopinion, right I?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
agree, but but I guess what we're trying to say
is like look, when we have avision of what we want the
future to look like, if thatfuture is not current, it's like
, well, okay, then we're not theperson that can accomplish that
future.
But the the current, presentmoment is obviously the number
one priority.
That is the most important,because the only way we can
become so in the future is if wechoose to start becoming so now
(22:06):
.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Right, this is why I use this term.
You know serial entrepreneursin the ruthless pursuit of
personal expansion.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Because, because you, I came to the, the awareness
that this version of myself,that I want to be, that I'm
chasing, the ambition like that,like that, that hero of mine,
that's a version of me that'sthat's way out there, that's got
all of this and doing all ofthat, and that that goal me.
(22:37):
There's a lot of learning, a lotof skill and a lot of
perspective that still has to beincreased, and so so that
drives me to be takingcontinuing education to you know
my fitness goals, to my.
You know my spiritual ambitionand my connectedness with God
and my relationships, and, likeall of these things we talk
(22:58):
about and constantly expanding,we talked about expansion as an
obligation.
Well, that is my belief system.
I think that God, I believestrongly that God wants me to
find it.
He wants me to realize andbecome that highest, most
powerful version of myself I canpossibly be, because he knows
(23:18):
how much, he knows how good thatwill feel if I could ever reach
it.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Right?
Well, that makes now even morebeautiful.
Right, in my opinion,Absolutely Well, now, with that
perspective, that's anotherperspective.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
With that perspective .
Speaker 2 (23:33):
now I can take a look at where I'm at now and say,
man, I sure am grateful for now,I sure am grateful for the
present.
I'm sure I'm grateful for whatI'm doing now, because that's
going to lead me to there.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And that's a that's a really cool point to bring into
this whole thing, because whenwe talk about being the king of
silver linings, their gratitudeis a must.
So when we're trying to findGod's gift in chaos, gratitude
in all things is required.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Gratitude and you know what, guys?
There are days candidly inrecent days, but consistently
over my life, where I feel likeI have nothing to be grateful
for and it's insane.
It's like ego.
It's like an ego cloud over mybrain.
That's a cloud of stupidity,like how can I sit down and not
(24:26):
make a list of things I'mgrateful for?
But some days I just feel sobeat down and so depressed.
I'm having gratitude and I'mjust having a prayer of
gratitude to God for the factthat I'm on planet earth or the
sun is shining, I'm gratefulthat I'm breathing and that's
(24:49):
all I can muster up sometimesand that seems so weak.
But it's critical to, on adaily basis, to find gratitude
and feel gratitude, becausegratitude for exactly what the
present, like you said, thepresent right now, that's key
for us to be mentally,emotionally, energetically in
that space or on that plane, tobe able to manifest something
(25:12):
different.
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Well, not only that, but I think there's another
element of this, where you'resitting here and you can, you
know, if you practice continualgratitude right now, it will
allow so that it becomes a habitwhen you make it.
And I say make it in the termsof whatever your goal is.
Part of this whole conversation, I think, is that there's no
(25:36):
finish line.
You're going to constantly bebecoming that person, but, man,
there's always going to be thosedays, even when you're, you
know, even someday, hey, you'rea billionaire, you're still
going to have those days thatthat status does not take away
the fact that you're a humanbeing with real emotion yeah,
(25:57):
you'll probably have more ofthose, right, the goal is not
for things to get easier.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
The thing is the goal is to become more capable of
handling more chaos.
Right With gratitude withgratitude, with love and grace
yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Absolutely, and as you expand you'll be more and
more conditioned for thosethings to continue growing and
happening to you yeah Right.
And saying, oh, I'll begrateful when I have this.
That is a, that's a dangerous,because you won't be.
If that's your opinion, thenyou're going to get the million
dollars and you're not going tobe grateful.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, yeah, you wish it was 10 million at that point.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, it's the same thing with giving you know
you're going to say, oh man, Iwould, I would give if I only
had money.
Well, no, you wouldn't, yeahRight, no, no, you wouldn't, you
have to be you have to be verypresent, focused very focused on
right now.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, Because right now is all you can really impact
right like your choice in thismoment.
You know I'm thinking of some ofthe some of the real life kind
of narrative for the listenershere on where I've implemented
perspective determines action orthe obstacle is the way
mentality, and you know we talkabout Sage Creek a lot.
(27:08):
We had.
There's a lot of examples.
One that's coming to mind waswe were working with Grand
County officials on the lightingdesign and you know I'm neck
deep and designing this wholepool complex, this resort area,
and it's in my mind it's themost amazing place, right?
Well, as we submit all theplans and the lighting plans and
(27:31):
the construction plan set, thebuilding inspectors push back
and they say, well, the lightingcode for the pool area has to,
it has to provide 50, no, excuseme, five foot candles of light
per square foot.
Well, if you guys know, if youguys know what that measurement
is.
That means it's like daylight,it's sport court lighting at
(27:53):
night, and most of the hotels inMoab have this sport court
lighting at night.
It's ridiculous, it'suncomfortable, and we hired
spectrum engineering here inSalt Lake phenomenal lighting
engineering firm, who takelighting very seriously, who
really were the only companythat I could find that could
that could help me help thecounty see things clearly.
(28:15):
And so we conducted somestudies.
We did light studies.
We actually had someone downthere, you know, measuring light
.
And here's the interestingthing, guys, is that Grand
County's got this dark skiesinitiative and you know, moab
was ranked the number one placeon earth to view the stars in
(28:36):
2019 in National GeographicMagazine.
So the dark sky, the dark skiesinitiative, was a big deal down
in Moab, right, but all thehotels don't comply with dark
skies initiative.
So there's this because of this50 year old antiquated archaic
code right intheir building code.
And so we're we're kind ofhaving a collision with the
building department.
We're saying, guys, you wantsport court lighting daylight
(29:00):
for safety reasons on the pooldeck at night, but you also want
to celebrate the fact that youcan see the stars better than
anywhere else on earth.
These are in direct kind of youknow antagonist positions here.
So what we were able to do iswe were able to put a report
together that proved that acertain Kelvin rating 2700
(29:24):
Kelvin rating on the lightingscheme is what's required in
order for the body to startproducing melatonin and to be
able to start relaxing.
And 2700 Kelvin is a lot lowerlight and it's a lot warmer.
It's a more yellow, orange, hue, okay, and so now we're
(29:46):
measuring warmth, we'remeasuring the light capacity,
we're measuring how much light,and we were able to articulate
in a full write up a case thatwe were able to get Grand County
to make an exception.
So the obstacle turned in theway we were able to use the dark
sky initiative and say, okay,we can accomplish both guys.
(30:06):
Here's how we do it.
What the resolution ended upbeing was building inspectors
allowed us to install thelighting scheme that we designed
, which was really onlyproducing about 20% of what the
code required much lowerlighting than required.
But we had emergency switchesso if we had a casualty in the
(30:26):
pool or a problem in the pool,we could flip on the emergency
lighting.
When it would turn up to thatfive foot candles of light per
square foot and we could meetthat code.
But that was a great compromisebecause it did a lot of.
It was a lot of firsts in GrandCounty.
It's the first resort to havetrue resort level lighting,
(30:47):
ambient lighting, relaxinglighting.
It's the first commercial,might even be first residential
pool to have colored lighting inthe swimming pool itself, Cause
that was another piece of thecode was they wanted to have
bright white lighting in thepool.
If you've been to Sage Creek,like you have, you know that
pool changes colors.
It's a mystical thing, it's atotal experience but, it's the
(31:10):
same.
The building inspectors gave usthe same leeway to say, okay,
if you have emergency switches,you can kick it on the bright,
light, white, and that's how weresolve that.
So, instead of us just lookingat code and having a collision
with the building departmentsaying no, no, no, we were able
(31:31):
to get clever and resourcefuland just help educate and help
them understand a bettersolution.
And it became the way, the dark,the actual fact, the dark skies
initiative.
And so we actually, in all ofthat, we got to write the new
dark skies initiative.
It was a two page deal and wegot to work with Spectrum
(31:52):
Engineering to co-author an 18page dark skies initiative.
So now all the hotels condosdown in Grand County are gonna
be forced to get up to that youknow that standard here within
the next few years, so that'sreally cool Very cool.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, that's very cool.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
You know there was another.
There was another for thelisteners edification.
If you haven't read theobstacles the way, you've got to
go get it.
But I'm also recalling thisstory about Amelia Earhart and
you guys, everyone knows AmeliaEarhart.
She was the first female pilotto cross the Atlantic Ocean and
(32:35):
her goal was to do that solo.
But back in those days being afemale pilot wasn't a very cool
thing right, it was like and allof the people that were in
authority to actually authorizethat weren't having it.
They didn't want to see that,and so there was a really great
lesson for any entrepreneur thatcomes from Amelia Earhart
(32:56):
situation.
What happened was she gets aphone call one day and she
receives this just basicallyoffensive offer and they
basically say, hey, good news,you're gonna get to do your
Atlantic flight, but we're gonnahave two male pilots, they're
(33:16):
gonna chaperone you.
We're gonna pay them a ton ofmoney.
We're not gonna pay you anymoney.
Are you interested?
And you know, I mean what aremost people gonna do?
Most people are gonna say pah,pah, no, they're gonna, they're
gonna, they're gonna say are youkidding me?
Yeah, the default is gonna beto the negative reaction.
The ego is gonna say go poundsand.
(33:38):
But Amelia Earhart wasenlightened and she said yes.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
And she did it.
And what it did was it changedeveryone's perspectives.
It proved that she was capable.
It gave her credibility andtrack record and within very
short period of time she did endup doing her own thing.
And one of the lessons here foranyone listening, is that if
(34:07):
nothing is beneath us and we'rewilling to be humble and we're
willing to just take action ifwe're not getting paid, but if
it's maybe just for thepossibility of getting some
credibility or some track,record under our belt then take
action.
That's better than sittingwaiting for the perfect
conditions, Right, Okay, I'mgonna say that again.
(34:30):
We cannot wait for the perfectconditions.
They will almost it's almostnever going to happen that the
perfect conditions exist for usto start our new business or
launch our new app or launch ournew product.
So, as a serial entrepreneur,you've got to say you've got to
put a stake in the ground todayand say I'm going today.
(34:53):
It doesn't matter what it is NowI'm gonna remind you today.
Today is actually we're in themiddle of July and gas prices
are creeping up on $6 a gallon.
Inflation is over 9% and manypeople are saying should I buy a
real estate investment?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
today.
I was just thinking about thisBecause the interest rates are
really out of control.
And.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
I mean, I don't know, you know, and they'll go on and
on and on about should I dosomething right now Because the
political environment is suchand I've heard, you know, I'm
listening to CNN and they'resaying that there's a bubble,
there's a real estate bubblecoming Fucking, kidding me, come
on.
(35:37):
Like stop listening to the news,guys, stop.
Okay, if you watch CNN, do notlisten to the show anymore.
Just turn our show off rightnow.
Okay, the news is poisoned andyou cannot go listen to all of
what the media wants you to hear, because that's a propaganda
(35:58):
machine, it's a fear machine.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Okay, sorry to cut you off, but on that note,
excuse me for laughing here, butI saw a video the other day of
this news reporter and she wastalking and she was like she was
.
She was saying how someone wastrying to control the media and
(36:22):
she was like under her breath.
But it was caught on the micand this video went viral and
she says that's our role orthat's our job.
And I was like whoa shoot, yeah,like you think about that.
How do they want you to feeland react?
Right, they want you to beparanoid.
They want you to be afraid,because that sells right so
(36:44):
anyway, back to your point.
I just had to throw that inthere.
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
All right, guys.
I mean you're gonna hear a lotabout Fillmore Utah, okay, as we
get going, as we get intoepisodes and episodes as the
show goes on here.
But we're working on a bigproject in Fillmore Utah.
We're calling it the ValleyForge Innovation Park.
Awesome, okay.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Valley.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Forge special place in my heart, harkening back to
George Washington 1777, winterencampment, and so just the
Patriot in me is always kind ofleveraging details and names and
things like that.
So Valley Forge Innovation Parkit's starting with 151 acres
(37:31):
that we own in Fillmore, utah,and I can't tell you how many
lenders I've talked to to do thesecond round of financing on
this who are like and they'reall saying Fillmore, utah.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
I mean there's only 2,500 people that live in
Fillmore what's in?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Fillmore.
Fillmore hasn't expanded in 50years, right.
But now, perspective determinesbehavior, right.
And none of these lenders knowwhat I know.
None of the lenders know whatwent into the site selection and
why I bought the property, andthey don't know why we're
developing what we're developingin Fillmore and this is a great
(38:15):
example of the obstacle is theway, because when the general
population is saying you'recrazy, this is a stupid idea,
why would you go to Fillmore,utah?
I know, if I get enough peoplesaying I'm crazy and this is
stupid, that I'm doing the rightthing.
(38:35):
Right, so this is an ongoingthing, guys, and I'm emboldened
and I know I'm the unorthodox,I'm the outlier, and my
certainty comes from myself, notvalidation from lenders.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Like and if I can't educate lenders to come around
and see the vision, then I don'twant to be working with that
lender anyways, yeah.
And now when the right lendersees the vision and says, oh
yeah, my God, that is amazing,boom.
Then it gets done.
And that's what's happeninghere.
And so we're in the earlystages in Fillmore and this
(39:10):
second round of capitals iscoming around.
But what we're developing downthere includes 1.2 million
square foot manufacturingfacility for American Spec
Modular and a 600,000 squarefoot production facility for
American Spec ESG.
American Spec ESG we'vementioned is a produce.
(39:35):
What we do is we will acceptand process landfill waste and
turn it into superior lumberproducts.
Okay.
And our leading product israilroad ties.
It's a fantastic product.
The cool thing about it is is91.5% of rail ties right now in
America are made of oak soakedin creosote and they're I mean
(40:00):
they're cheap.
I mean they're like 75, 80bucks a piece.
But the problem is they have tobe replaced every five to eight
years at great and ongoingcosts to the state of Utah or
any state or Union Pacific orwhoever the authority is that's
paying for their rail lines.
What we're producing here withAmerican Spec ESG is a rail tie
(40:22):
made of trash that has the tinsial and spanning strength of
steel, fireproof, waterproof,mold proof, termite proof,
doesn't expand and contract in afreeze thought condition, holds
a spike better than wood and wecan guarantee the tie for 50
(40:43):
years without replacement.
Geez, okay, that's a home run.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
That's a home run in innovation and in technology.
It's an industrial technology,but we have contracts lining up
with some major states to buythese ties and actually start a
campaign of replacing the oldties.
One of the cool side benefitsis the fact that the old oak
ties are an environmentalproblem.
(41:10):
They're soaked in toxiccreosote Interesting and that
leaches into the ground,creating an environmental issue
wherever the rail line is.
So it doesn't suck that thesenew ties don't leach into the
ground.
They're actually carbonnegative footprint.
And so we're cleaning up anenvironmental issue and saving
these states hundreds ofmillions of dollars in the
(41:32):
process.
Okay, so one really cool spinto that whole thing is we're the
only company on earth that cantake that old, toxic oak tie.
Suck the creosote out of it.
Split it chip it, dry it andreduce it down into an aggregate
that we can then mix in withall of the garbage and we can
(41:55):
reuse all of the old ties wecollect to make a new tie Again.
The obstacle is the way.
So there's just innovation andaction.
We're implementing Now Fillmore.
There's gonna be a thousandexamples of why Fillmore is
obstacle is the way.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
But I wanna.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Just I'm introducing Fillmore into this equation now
because it's relevant.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah, and I mean, as we wrap up here, I also wanna
kind of touch on that in thesense that, man, I'm facing that
as well.
The obstacle is the way because, like you mentioned, interest
rates, all this stuff goingcrazy, I mean, let's call it
what it is, that's a realobstacle.
But if you lean into that andyou say, well, okay, instead of
(42:42):
saying this can't work, sayinghow can this work, yeah, better
question, right, betterquestions Right, yeah, it makes
all the difference.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yep, well, I'm excited to continue on, guys.
Thank you for chiming in today.
We'll wrap this episode.
Hope you'll join us on the nextone.
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