May 28, 2026 • 31 mins
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Ever wonder what it really costs to get everything you've ever wanted? It's often after the money lands, the accolades pile up, and the followers multiply — that the most driven people finally admit they gave up the thing they wanted most: a life. That reckoning isn't failure. It's the price tag no one shows you on the way up. Understanding what success actually demands of you might be the most important business decision you ever make. We sit down with entrepreneur and host Michael Scalar alongside Roland and Marino to examine the hidden sacrifices behind real achievement — and what the highlight reels on social media will never tell you.
🎧 Everything's Energy podcast
Chapters
- (00:00) - - The true cost of success and fame
- (06:00) - - Duty, leadership, and business models
- (09:29) - - Entrepreneurship and innovation costs
- (11:30) - - Ambition and unique drives
- (14:16) - - Extraordinary lives and connection challenges
- (16:56) - - Success: attention and fake friendships
- (19:07) - - Sacrifice, faith, and entrepreneurship reality
- (22:08) - - Believing in yourself and the hustle
- (24:45) - - Learning from failure and mentorship
- (27:28) - - Skills school doesn't teach
People
Creators & Guests
- Michael Scalar - Host
- Roland - Writer
- Marino - Writer
Transcript
Click here to view the episode transcript.
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Episode Transcript
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Michael (00:00):
Alright. You're tuned into the Everything's Energy
(00:02):
Show or EE Show. I'm MichaelScalar. I'm here with Roland and
Marino. And today we wanted tohave a little circular
conversation about the cost ofsuccess.
And I think we'll tie in alittle bit of the fake success
you see on social media. Butmostly, we're we're gonna dial
into if you really wanna be richand famous and successful, there
are costs. You don't just becomea millionaire. You don't just
(00:24):
get to a Lambo or a yacht or aprivate jet unless for some
reason you inherited it. And Godbless you if you did, you're
very lucky and probably didsomething amazing in your
previous life, or at least Ihope so that somewhere you
earned it because damn, I want aprivate jet.
So where do you guys wanna startwith this one?
Roland (00:42):
Well, how are we defining success? Are we
defining it purely in a monetarysense, or are we also defining
it as an achievement? Becauseyou could say someone could
sacrifice a lot in terms of,say, personal relationships, for
the achievement of businesssuccess, multiple marriages,
failed relationships I'll
Michael (00:57):
build on that because I have the finances, I have
success. And at the end of theday, I I was happier before I
had the financial success or thethe street credit because I
Really? Had work life balance.
Roland (01:10):
Okay. I have no work
Michael (01:11):
life balance now running multiple industries,
managing multiple people. I wenton vacation. I still worked four
hours a day minimally just tomake sure everything was still
in line. So when people go, Iwant to be rich and famous, you
have to realize not only does ittake a huge amount of effort to
get to being rich and famous,there are a lot of costs
(01:32):
associated that people don'tcalculate, which is your ability
to sleep in, your ability to goto events on the weekend, your
ability to date, your ability tohave friendships. I've I mean,
there's a push and pull heretoo, because there were a lot of
friends that didn't rise to mylevel in spiritual or a lot of
(01:53):
it was spiritually and justmentally evolving.
So the like party friends. Usedto be in the the music industry.
Moved away from that. There wasa lot of reasons, specifically
around, the drug and alcoholculture, staying up very late. I
people, well, don't you missDJing?
I'm like, no, I actually don't.I I miss the music side of it.
But every time I go out, someonewas trying to stick some sort of
(02:14):
substance up my nose every turnturned around. It's like, okay,
it's like dodging spoons. It'slike, no, I want to wake up
tomorrow and be functional.
So but for me, it's a lot of itis dating. And just I want to be
able to go to the beach. I wantto be able to go scuba diving.
And I can barely allocate thetime in a day just to go to the
gym, let alone go do something Ireally love. So there's passion.
(02:38):
What what you're passionateabout. And hopefully, if
someone's doing something theywanna be successful and they're
gonna be passionate about it. Ifyou're not passionate about it,
then better just run. Likethere's nothing wrong with
working a nine to five job ifyou can have some passion and
build a relationship, havefriends and work life balance.
But a lot of people, they seethe Instagram fame of, oh, this
(02:58):
guy's got a Lamborghini and allthese girls, and he's got the
bust down watch.
And they're not realizing thewatch is fake. It's a knockoff.
It costs them $200. The girlsare probably rented. The Lambo's
probably rented, and they'reliving in a mansion that you can
find for rent on Airbnb.
And a lot of
Marino (03:14):
them are found out. People go out and they find them
and they showcase
Michael (03:17):
Buy my course and you can be like me renting Airbnbs,
renting Lambos, paying forhookers. It's great. Yeah.
Roland (03:23):
But, you know, that's not real success. So coming back
to what you just said, I mean, Iwant to turn this into an
interview on that, but was itworth it for you?
Michael (03:32):
Well, the I have the unique pleasure of being in an
industry where we help people.So seeing people get helped,
that I can get passionate aboutthat. Makes this is why I still
do what I do and I don't justrun off to scuba dive and drive
a Lamborghini underwater while Iscuba dive, is we're helping
(03:53):
people. So EE system, we'rehelping people. So that part's
amazing.
But it's really hard to findpeople to bring in that can run
things as dynamically as I can,because it's not a linear
business. We're not running acoffee shop where we just have
to make sure there's beans,cups, and some staff to barista
it. So it's a very uniqueindustry.
Roland (04:13):
It's interesting too, because when you peel back the
layers and you look at themotivations of successful people
over time, like my own journeyfrom starting my own business
about fourteen, fifteen yearsago until now, I've experienced
my definition of success. Am Iwhere I want to be? No. I would
like to achieve more, but that'smore me wanting to kinda test
(04:35):
myself and see what I'm made ofwhat's possible rather than
thinking I'm gonna find a pot ofgold at the end of this journey.
But a lot of people who areincredibly successful in the
material monetary sense in life,after a while, it's not about
the success of achievement ofthe things they get, it's about
the process.
Mhmm. They become reallyaddicted to the process of a
client here that I see go to hishouse, and he owns 30 something
(04:59):
car dealerships. And, you know,I do some health stuff with him.
So he pays for high level healthservice because he can afford
it, which is a wonderful benefitof being successful. And I
remember looking at him, I saidhe was on a phone call as I was
doing some work with him, and Iheard what he was going through.
And I looked at him, I was like,this just drives you, doesn't
he? He's like, this gets me outof bed in the morning. Because
(05:19):
it's not about the moneyanymore. He doesn't need more
money. He doesn't need toachieve more material stuff.
The success becomes his way ofinterfacing with reality as I
would assess and define it. Sois that also in some cases what
also drives you now that yousay, didn't I don't have the
same work life balance. I'm notmaybe as personally happy as I
(05:41):
was. But is there a fulfillmentbeyond just helping people that
also inside of you gives yousomething that's a positive
feedback?
Michael (05:50):
Well, some days, yes. Some days, no. A lot of it is I
feel like I was God God bestowedupon me a mission. And if I just
effed off, I'd probably getstruck by lightning. You know,
there's a sense of duty, andthere's there's honor within
that.
If I'm a very honorable person.I took on the task of being who
I am, so I have to complete it.That means I have to show up
(06:13):
every day and make sure I'm I'mputting in the work. I'm I like
to think of myself as a leader,not a business owner, because a
business owner will just say youguys do all the work. I make
sure that everything Imicromanage details because
perfection is in the detail.
There's a lot of people that runcompanies, and they're like,
well, these things aren'tworking right now. So how much
time do you do you spend workingin your company? Do you go into
your office or your shop? Andthey're like, well, no. Never.
(06:34):
I'm like, you need to go in atleast an hour a week, see what
they're doing or spy on themwith cameras so you can see what
they're doing or not doing.Because at the end of the day,
human nature is to be lazy. Andso if you you can hire people
all day, they're gonna do thebare minimum normally. The the
real passion in creatingsomething that's evolutionary is
is watching it evolve. And mostpeople, they'll create, say, a
(06:57):
coffee.
We'll just use the coffee model.And they go, oh, well, I made
this and we're selling it, it'sfine. A smart leader will say,
well, we're selling this onecoffee. We need to figure out
reasons to come in after theybought that one coffee.
Starbucks does this with theirseasonal, menu of pumpkin spice
and peppermint and all thesethings, is you're creating a new
product on the fly.
(07:17):
If you're not creating newthings or evolving what you
currently have or lookingtowards the future, what people
might want, you you know, you'regonna have a short lifespan and
success. There's nothing wrongwith that either. Like I said,
if you made enough money and youwant to just be done with it,
sell your business and go doother things, that's fine. But
at the end the day, when youhave something as critical as
people's wellness in your hands,you kind of want to sit there
(07:41):
and be like, well, how can weimprove this for everyone?
Because I I don't see ourcompany EE system like just
having one product.
It should be a modality thatevolves into a higher evolution
of the modality as well asoffering things that are in
synergy with the modality, whichobviously we're working on.
(08:02):
Supplements, adjuncttechnologies, meteorology
devices, or things to show adifference before and after.
These are all things that arenecessary. So for me, I kind of
I see myself there's there's nota lot of people that can do what
I do. And if there were, I wouldjust pay them to do it.
(08:22):
So I have a sense of duty inbeing the person who's skilled
enough to do it, and I'm justgonna do it.
Marino (08:26):
I was gonna add, I think that there needs to be something
else that pushes you throughbecause as you move into so
like, for example, when Iworked, I used to work at a
catering hall, wedding receptionvenue, to pay my way through
college. And there's a privilegeto having a nine to five because
once you walk out of thatoffice, you can just hang up the
(08:48):
towel. Right?
Michael (08:48):
I can never just be like, I'm out. Peace, boss.
Roland (08:51):
That is the responsibility of actually
taking on ownership of workingfor yourself though. Right?
Because you you it's hard toreally turn off when the day is
done because you're like, well,I could do this tomorrow. So you
might do some planning or you'rethinking about the things that
have been done or have yet to bedone that you have to.
Marino (09:09):
Mhmm.
Roland (09:10):
And that is just the nature of living in this current
capitalistic Western societywhere your ability to produce
with the value that youdemonstrate with service or
product is really directlycorrelated to your livelihood
and who wants to aim formediocrity when you are a self
starter entrepreneurial thing.Mhmm.
Marino (09:29):
Yeah. And I saw this with the owner because when
people would come in and hewould introduce himself, like
everyone's like, oh, that's theowner. Like, so cool or It's so
special. And there's validity tothat because he did a lot of
work, but I don't think everyoneelse, especially that worked
there, saw all that he had togive up to have that. Yeah.
And as I moved in responsibilityto becoming the captain and
(09:52):
junior major dean, then I foundmyself with work outside of
work. Now I had the bride andthe groom calling me during the
week and planning things, andand now it's getting harder to
just separate myself from it. SoI can see if I were to
transition into, like, havingthe business, it wouldn't be
this is my role. It's everythingis your responsibility.
(10:13):
Everything.
So that's a huge cost. And it'slike if you wanna I mean, if you
can handle it, and to your pointwe've said earlier, I think
that's what it should be about.It's about who am I gonna become
in pursuit of this Mhmm. Andfall in love with the way that
you are interacting with thebusiness or with life. That's
what will give you the highermeaning to get through it.
But if it's just strictly forthe monetary thing, it's gonna
(10:33):
come at some point that all ofthe responsibility constantly is
gonna burn you out.
Roland (10:37):
That's, yeah, really well said. And something that
kind of dovetails into maybe adifferent perspective. Most
people think what's the cost ofsuccess? And they're thinking
instantly money. I'm verywealthy, successful.
But how about the chase of thething that's never been done
before? Like the cost of beingso skilled at something, it may
(10:57):
not be money that motivates you,but it's being able to be the
person who invented something
Marino (11:02):
Mhmm.
Roland (11:02):
That or I should say,
Marino (11:03):
I'm the expert because
Roland (11:04):
it was already there. Like, think of a Nikola Tesla.
Right? Mhmm. He didn't give acrap about finances.
He wanted to figure out thefabric of the universe as it
related to understanding howenergy interfaces with the third
dimension. Yeah. But you look atsomeone like a Steve Jobs or a
true innovator, those people arewired differently.
Michael (11:23):
Well, and Steve Jobs is a great, instance because he
worked himself to death.Correct. He didn't even get to
enjoy his finances.
Roland (11:30):
But I guarantee you, he probably would have not done it
any other way if he had anopportunity to redo
Michael (11:35):
think he even said that on his deathbed. He wished he,
you know, had taken it wasn'tthat he took care of himself
better, but it was, I forgetexactly what it It was something
along the lines. If I'd known itwas gonna be like this, would
have done it a littledifferently. And so he wanted
that success. He wanted to bethe big dog, and he was.
But at the cost of building anempire and then falling to
(11:56):
pieces because he burned himselfto a crisp.
Roland (11:58):
And that's the classic story with highly driven people
in some regards, but it's almostlike a wiring that you can't
undo. If you're if you're builtthat way, you you have to to
follow that and chase thatbecause I look at, you know,
what what you're talking about,the the big monetary success.
What drives me personallyslightly different is I want to
(12:18):
be able to do something in a wayor figure something out in a way
that's never been done before asmy mission, my legacy, I don't
really care about legacy, but ifI'm here in a human body in a
lifetime doing something, Idon't wanna waste and squander
my time.
Michael (12:32):
Mhmm.
Roland (12:33):
So my mission is to figure out something to help
humanity that's never beenfigured out before. And the cost
that sometimes comes with thatis there's a loneliness factor.
Because if you look at the worlda certain way and other people
look at the world more commonlyamong their way of things, it's
different from yours, you don'tfeel like you can find
commonality there. The other is,you know, if you're wired a
(12:56):
little more neurodivergently,which is a word that's popularly
used nowadays, finding asignificant other who
understands your nature ofbeing. If someone comes from a
very traditional family and theywant stability, nine to five
predictability, but you're like,no, I feel like working on a
Sunday because I'm inspired, andthat throws them off because no,
Sunday is when my family comesMhmm.
We have lunch. So romanticrelationships become harder.
Michael (13:19):
Well, that that's a really great point because most
women, for for me, most womendon't understand entrepreneurs.
So they're they've dated thesenine to five guys, and so they
expect evenings together,weekends together, outings,
dinners. Entrepreneur, they
Marino (13:37):
Yeah. Sit at
Michael (13:38):
They work at home. They're constantly working. And
it's like, so if if you'redating this person, you're
probably only gonna get anegligible amount of time. So
for me, I'd actually have tofind an independent woman
probably that doesn't live nearme, and we spend time
periodically have some phonecalls, very minimal contact
because simply don't have thetime. This is why I don't date.
(13:59):
I know I don't have the time todedicate to a woman. They need
Roland (14:02):
to know what they're signing up for.
Michael (14:03):
Right. But it's hard to find women that have actually
dated someone that's unique.Most people entrepreneurs are a
very small percentage of thepopulace. Populace. Mhmm.
Most people date people thathave a normal set schedule, so
they they have an expectation.And then I've dated women. Why
aren't we doing this? It's like,first off, calm down. This is
(14:24):
not normal.
You know, and there's videos onthe Internet of, I love the one.
He's the girl's in the g wagon,and she's like, you need to pay
more attention to me. You know?And complaining and he's on his
phone and he puts his phonedown. All of sudden, they're in
a broken Toyota.
There's no air con. She's like,why is it so hot? Where's my
Chanel? Oh my god.
Marino (14:43):
And then
Michael (14:43):
he picks his phone up, they're back in the g whacket.
And she's like, oh, you do yourthing. Yeah.
Roland (14:47):
That reminds me of the old joke is that money doesn't
buy you happiness, but crying ina Porsche is way better than
crying on a bike. But that is avery good point because, know,
I'm married and my relationshipdynamic, my wife is, she's a
singer and a music producer. Sothere's times it's nine ten PM
and she's in the studio doingher work, and I actually am
(15:08):
thrilled by the fact that shehas such an atypical life.
Michael (15:12):
She has an outlet outside of you.
Roland (15:13):
Yeah. But she has an outlet, but she also because of
her world, she understands that,like, look, I I gotta do my
stuff when it comes up. Thepeople come in when the people
need to come in. I fly out hereto do these podcasts with you
guys. I'm gone for a week, butthat's the life I chose.
And I was very intentional aboutsaying to her, I don't wanna
live a normal life. To me, isalmost insulting or ordinary is
(15:33):
a little bit of an insult. Nooffense to anyone who wants the
nine to five thing. But I'mwired the way where work, life,
they're not separate things. Idon't take the costume off fully
at the end of the day because Iread about the things that I'm
interested in that happen to bethe things I also do for work.
Mhmm. And I have my outletsoutside of that, which I'm
(15:54):
fortunate enough that I canafford to do some of these
things because Vroom, vroom.Vroom, vroom, car stuff, go fast
around the corner. But, youknow, it also allows me to
achieve a childhood dream thatI've been working towards
because I couldn't do it as anactual vocation myself. So, you
know, rounding out thismonologue of it besides the cost
of never being able to not thinkabout work, your social and
(16:19):
personal life, the viable poolof people that you can really
find deep connection withbecomes directly correlated to
the amount of people who want tolive a more extraordinary life
Mhmm.
That's a success basedmotivation within their
existence. So it's a little bitof a lonelier journey, and you
have to get very comfortablewith self reliance, self
(16:41):
soothing, and self motivationbecause sometimes people are
gonna try to tear you downbecause what it is you espouse
in terms of your successhighlight what they're unable to
do, unwilling to face in theirlives. And that's why
friendships sometimes have todiverge as people go on their
own journeys because they'rehere to succeed.
Michael (17:01):
Well, and then, know, the term it's lonely at the top.
It's lonely for a reasontypically too, because when
you're at the top of a mountain,everyone else wants to be at the
top of the mountain with you,but they don't want to do the
work. So they just want to standnext to you to seem important.
And then the next thing they dois they have a sales pitch. Oh,
well, you and I, we can do thisbig thing.
It's a startup. So they're justtrying to use your platform to
start something up. Soconstantly getting pitches,
(17:23):
constantly getting, pulled in adirection because people are
trying to get something out ofme. This is common with anyone
that's made successes. There'sconstantly someone trying to get
your attention for something forsome reason.
And this is why these wealthypeople have bodyguards half the
time. It's just it's not becausethey don't feel safe. It's
because they don't want peopledragging them across the room to
give them a sales pitch.
Roland (17:44):
Hey. Am I
Michael (17:44):
showing you
Roland (17:45):
my new app, by the way?
Michael (17:46):
Yeah. Exactly. He said that. Like, well, I've got this
new thing. It's gonna be thebiggest thing since Bitcoin.
If you get in now oh god. No.Run. I don't think I don't
Marino (17:53):
think people even think about that, how how differently
you're treated. Because I, onetime, went back to my university
and I did a talk, and after thatpeople lined up to talk to me.
They needed a room so we endedup getting out of there. But
then the way people wereinteracting with me, I really
didn't like it. Because it waslike they were putting me on a
pedestal and I just didn't likethe interaction.
(18:15):
It was very it was not authenticin a way. And so Everyone's
trying
Michael (18:22):
to suck off your any kind of success. So you gave a
talk. I was a DJ for years. Iwas
Marino (18:26):
a Yeah.
Michael (18:27):
A well known DJ. I had extreme anxiety while I was a
DJ, I didn't realize how bad itwas until I stopped DJing. I was
like, my anxiety is gone. Oh mygod. A lot of us just being in a
room and everyone comes up toyou and they wanna talk to you.
They wanna know you. You wannabe your friend because you're
someone.
Roland (18:41):
Yours.
Michael (18:41):
Yep. And it would suck me dry. I'd literally, like,
hide in a corner.
Marino (18:44):
Don't talk to me.
Roland (18:45):
That's the introvert's dilemma too. Right? Yeah. Uber
social and people wantingsomething from you, so it's a
one way energy exchange. Yeah.
They're not equitably fillingyou back up with the
interaction. It's they wanna getto know you. What can you do for
them? What can you teach them?What fast track
Michael (19:00):
you wanna They just wanna be near energy that's that
they they perceive as exciting.
Marino (19:06):
Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah. So that's another cost is, your
inability to create genuinefriendships because people
Michael (19:15):
Constantly want something. Want something from
you. And unfortunately, we livenear California, which is the
epitome of what can you do forme? Maker y. It's like, so what
do you do?
What can you do for me? I'm anaspiring actress, actor, and I'm
just trying to make it big. It'slike, can
Roland (19:30):
I show you my showreel? But that that you know, it's in
in hearing this and kind oftaking a step back, I don't
wanna paint the picture that theroute to success is just filled
with a bunch of negativity thatyou need to shoulder, but I
think it's important to set thetone and expectation to do the
things that other people don't,you're gonna have to do the
(19:51):
things that other people won't.Mhmm. That came out really
nicely there. Yeah.
Was A happy accident. And thereality of it is it's also part
of the symptom of the society welive in. We live in a world
where you are rewarded forhaving achieved more, having
accumulated greater resourcesbecause of the opportunities
that abides you. And there is apolarity to, I guess, that which
(20:16):
you attain and that which youmust sacrifice because it is the
way that it's currentlydesigned. Not everyone can do
that.
They can't all follow theirdreams or else everyone would be
exactly where they want to beand compromise and setbacks
through failure rather thanusing them as motivation to push
you forwards wouldn't result inthe vast majority of people
(20:38):
saying, well, I wanted to be amusician, but accounting was
stable. You know, that has to bethere in society for people to
go for things. But, know, theother thing it takes, and I
don't know if this is a cost,but it takes an incredible
amount of sacrifice, belief inyourself, trust in the unknown
of the process.
Michael (20:57):
It's faith really too.
Roland (20:57):
It is.
Michael (20:58):
I don't know a single entrepreneur that wasn't piss
poor at some point. Yeah. Theyall rose from nothing. And it
was, the hope and theperseverance that got them
through it. People go, oh, Iwant to be rich.
And you'd be so great if I wasrich. It's like, well, what's
your pathway? And I thought,well, I don't have one. It's
like, you need to innovatesomething. You need to be
innovative.
You need to there's no you know,it's it's part luck almost and
(21:21):
faith. Like, if you have a greatidea and it's legitimately a
great idea, not a pipe dreamthat you cooked up around a bong
at a party some night, you youhave to foster it into and
there's a lot of steps to doingthat. And they don't teach this
kind of stuff in school becausethere is no course for it. It's
simply willing it into existenceand saying, F you to anyone that
(21:44):
says you can't do it.
Roland (21:45):
I took an entrepreneurship school course
in school, and there was nothingabout any practical stuff that I
use today to run my ownbusiness. And to the point that
you just made, I I have thiskind of buddy back home, and
he's texting me all these newideas about, oh, like he wants
to make money. He's like, whatstocks should I invest in to
make some quick money? I'm likemy god. That doesn't really work
(22:06):
because no one has a crystalball.
Michael (22:08):
That's like gambling.
Roland (22:09):
And then he's like, well, maybe I should do a high
end car rental company. I'mlike, the the the burn rate on
that is absolutely atrocious.Insurance, consumables,
depreciation is like, what doyou think about a high end
restaurant? And he's in thetray. So and I keep going back
to him.
I like, what do you think? Whatdo you think? Emulating someone
else's idea or just doingsomething because logically
you've seen someone make moneyin it. No one who achieves
(22:32):
anything great does so basedupon purely left brain logic
ideas. I I remember being veryyoung.
This is one of those momentsthat really left an impression
on me. My girlfriend's friend'sdad at the time didn't finish
high school, but he had thiscarpet business. And you think,
business, it sounds like themost boring thing in the world.
He pretty much did most of thecarpet in Southern Ontario where
(22:55):
I grew up. And I was talking tohim one day and he said, you
know, guy, I've never
Marino (22:59):
Yeah. Made
Roland (23:00):
This is really like the mustache mullet guy, you know,
but he was like, he countryOntario. He's like, I've never
made more money when I owepeople money. And I sat there
for a second and went, I'venever made more money than when
I bought He literally just tookloans he couldn't cash in. He
just kept taking risks. Becausehe believed in himself and he
(23:21):
could execute, it paid off.
The one thing that will alwayscome from believing in yourself,
or I should say success onlyever comes from believing in
yourself, but the cost of thatis living in that perpetual
unknown and riding that faithtrain. But it has to be that
way.
Michael (23:38):
Well, there's like a hustle factor here too. So
there's there's this instancewe've we've talked about where,
you know, this guy who canbarely afford a BMW m three
really wants the BMW m three. Sohe takes out the lease. Now he
he has no money for rent. And sowhat does he do?
He really wants to keep thatcar. This is the the weirdest
kind of concept. So what does hedo? He hustles to make enough
(23:59):
money to be able to afford thatcar once he's gotten it. So that
loan concept there of, well, Ireally want this objective, and
I'm just gonna get it and I'llfigure it out after.
It doesn't work for everyone,but those who have the ability
to hustle and the brain, they'llbe like, I'm gonna figure out
how to keep this freaking car.Yeah. Yeah.
Marino (24:17):
I think some people who kind of talk about success also
say that it was like puttingyourself in the environment, but
then when you get the least,what happens is the should
becomes a must. Yeah. Becomesreal.
Michael (24:29):
Yeah. Yeah. It's like kinda like having kids. Mhmm. I
don't think there's a strongerforce on the planet than a
single mother.
She's like, I've got to put foodon the table for these kids. She
will go out and she will kill abear if she needs to
Roland (24:40):
to put food on
Michael (24:41):
the table for her kids.
Roland (24:42):
That might be dinner, actually. Yeah.
Michael (24:43):
Might be. Exactly. We're having a bear tonight.
Roland (24:46):
I've had it before, though, by the way. It's
delicious.
Michael (24:50):
Whole another con actually, I'm curious. How was
the bear?
Roland (24:53):
It was so I I was somewhere and this random guy
and his buddies are barbecuingat a race, and he offered me
looking back, this is a baddecision. He offered me a plate
of meat, and he's like, there'sfour different meats here. This
is this this is this is bear. Iwas like, hold on. A bear?
I was like, I looked at it like,what am I gonna have this up?
Tried the bear. Like,deliciously cooked. Hopefully,
(25:14):
no parasites. So that's how thebear was.
I'm I think.
Michael (25:19):
Well, yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, people wanna
they want the path to quickmoney. It doesn't exist. If you
can't be passionate about it,then you're definitely gonna
lose money. You're gonna burnout at a certain point and just
be like, throw throw your handsup. There's many times in my
life where I wanted to throw myhands up and I said, don't have
a choice, so I'm just gonna keepworking hard.
I've done multiple otherventures out of EE system. Most
(25:40):
of them failure, but great hightuition learning experiences to
things I utilize today. Mostentrepreneurs, they will tell
you that they have had multipleventures and they did they did
terrible at most of them. Theywere normally the early ones and
they learned a lot from them. Ifyou're not willing to, you know,
go to school, so to speak, andI'm not talking about go to
university because I don't thinkthere's a whole lot we're
(26:01):
teaching people of use in anyschool on the planet at the
moment.
Roland (26:05):
There's a lot of highly educated baristas out there.
Michael (26:07):
Yeah. If if you wanna and this really doesn't apply to
the older crowd because it'sharder for you to do that. But
if you're, say, you're in yourtwenties and you wanna be
wealthy, offer your time forfree, whether it's a day or two
out of the week, to someone tomentor you that is wealthy. You
(26:28):
will learn more working fornothing from someone who is
wealthy in that one day or twoday a week that you give, and
you that's your tuition, really.You're paying your time Mhmm.
To go sit with someone to mentorthem. Just be like, I'll be your
assistant for Friday, Saturday.I just wanna be around you and
absorb your energy, see how youwork. Doesn't matter if that guy
(26:50):
only makes an hour phone callduring an eight hour shift
you're working. The amount ofinformation you're gonna gain
from how he communicates aloneis gonna be invaluable.
There is no better course inlife than being around people
that are successful. I learnedthings in the medical,
scientific, physics world frombeing around people in those
fields, from reading, beingdiligent, and and having a
(27:13):
yearning to learn those things.School teaches you textbooks.
Textbooks textbooks, I mean, ifyou wanna learn math, cool. Use
math, use calculus in businessright now.
How many times are you gonna usecalculus in business right now?
Very, very little. Peopleskills, sales skills, networking
skills. These are things thatthat get you into the situations
(27:35):
you wanna be in. Learning how tothink dynamically, critical
thinking.
These aren't things that arereally taught in school. Does
does the university teach youcritical thinking? I imagine not
Nowadays, it's moreindoctrination. Yeah. It's
literally how to not thinkcritically.
It's part of being the lemmingherd. So you wanna you wanna be
successful, hang out withsuccessful people, and and do it
(27:56):
on your dime. Because nosuccessful person is gonna let
you sit next to them and pay youunless it really benefits. And
you're gonna have to be therefor five, six, seven days a week
if you're paying and you'regonna be their grunt. But if
you're they're not paying youand you're providing time,
they're gonna be a little morelenient and they might actually
want to coach you.
And having the connections ofhanging out around in those
(28:18):
circles are invaluable.
Marino (28:20):
Yeah. And also what it does, that school doesn't do, is
the expectations that are drawnupon you of that group, that
changes your behavior. Itchanges how you show up, what
you think that they think youshould know, so that now you're
staying up late to learn thesethings and it modulates your
behavior and kind of morphs youinto the kind of person that is
(28:41):
in that circle, which you don'tlearn in school. In school,
you're just memorizing stuff.
Roland (28:44):
Yeah. It's like the concept of knowledge attained,
not applied is absolutelywasted.
Michael (28:49):
Mhmm.
Roland (28:50):
But And I think that's a great point because you will
never learn more from life thanthrowing yourself into the deep
end with someone who hasachieved some form of conceptual
success that you would like toemulate in your own version. So
I think maybe, Michael, you'd bethe best person to initiate this
rounding out the title of thecost of success. What's your
(29:12):
what's your sound bite? What'sthe thing you wanna leave people
with that's your greatestlearning in in what you've
achieved and experienced so far?
Michael (29:19):
Cost of success is never giving up. It's there is
no that's not an option. Mostpeople will sit there and
they'll be like, well, I can gothis way or this way. There's
only one path. When when you'rein in in the seat, there is no
the Yoda the Yoda, there is notry.
There's just do. Not Yoda.
Roland (29:36):
Don't use the Homer Simpson. Trying is the first
step to failure. Use the Yoda.Yeah. There is no do.
Michael (29:40):
You only have no option to get it done. So I've applied
that throughout life wheresomeone we've hit this big role.
The things are on fire. I'mlike, I don't wanna hear about
that. What are our options?
Yeah. I don't care if they work,but we're gonna try the options.
Cool. Marino, what's yours?
Roland (29:56):
Your sound bite and the concept of the cost of success.
Marino (30:01):
I would say whatever I mean, we mentioned a couple of
them here. Whatever those are,having something more
meaningful, having a vision or adestiny greater to pull you
through all of those is beingwilling to accept those costs in
your pursuit of obtaining thatbecause it's about who you
(30:23):
become in the process, not whatyou obtain.
Roland (30:25):
Yeah. I like that. I would add, you know, if it's
your mission in life, the costis always well worth it because
it is what you've been put hereto do, whether that's by divine
orchestration, if you believethat, whether it's by self
selection or stating yourpurpose. If it's what drives you
in life, everything you have topay in order to get that, you'd
probably do it over and overagain.
Michael (30:47):
Or if it's Yoda beating you with a stick on your back
and
Roland (30:49):
telling make things levitate. Like a little
backpack. And we want to knowwhat you guys think. Please drop
in the comments what your coststo your achievement of success
are. And I guess we should saylike, subscribe, and do share
this with all that you feelcalled to do so.
Michael (31:03):
Absolutely. Alright. Well, thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you those watching. Asusual, every Thursday, you know
where to find us.
Alright. You're tuned into the Everything's Energy
(00:02):
Show or EE Show. I'm MichaelScalar. I'm here with Roland and
Marino. And today we wanted tohave a little circular
conversation about the cost ofsuccess.
And I think we'll tie in alittle bit of the fake success
you see on social media. Butmostly, we're we're gonna dial
into if you really wanna be richand famous and successful, there
are costs. You don't just becomea millionaire. You don't just
(00:24):
get to a Lambo or a yacht or aprivate jet unless for some
reason you inherited it. And Godbless you if you did, you're
very lucky and probably didsomething amazing in your
previous life, or at least Ihope so that somewhere you
earned it because damn, I want aprivate jet.
So where do you guys wanna startwith this one?
Roland (00:42):
Well, how are we defining success? Are we
defining it purely in a monetarysense, or are we also defining
it as an achievement? Becauseyou could say someone could
sacrifice a lot in terms of,say, personal relationships, for
the achievement of businesssuccess, multiple marriages,
failed relationships I'll
Michael (00:57):
build on that because I have the finances, I have
success. And at the end of theday, I I was happier before I
had the financial success or thethe street credit because I
Really? Had work life balance.
Roland (01:10):
Okay. I have no work
Michael (01:11):
life balance now running multiple industries,
managing multiple people. I wenton vacation. I still worked four
hours a day minimally just tomake sure everything was still
in line. So when people go, Iwant to be rich and famous, you
have to realize not only does ittake a huge amount of effort to
get to being rich and famous,there are a lot of costs
(01:32):
associated that people don'tcalculate, which is your ability
to sleep in, your ability to goto events on the weekend, your
ability to date, your ability tohave friendships. I've I mean,
there's a push and pull heretoo, because there were a lot of
friends that didn't rise to mylevel in spiritual or a lot of
(01:53):
it was spiritually and justmentally evolving.
So the like party friends. Usedto be in the the music industry.
Moved away from that. There wasa lot of reasons, specifically
around, the drug and alcoholculture, staying up very late. I
people, well, don't you missDJing?
I'm like, no, I actually don't.I I miss the music side of it.
But every time I go out, someonewas trying to stick some sort of
(02:14):
substance up my nose every turnturned around. It's like, okay,
it's like dodging spoons. It'slike, no, I want to wake up
tomorrow and be functional.
So but for me, it's a lot of itis dating. And just I want to be
able to go to the beach. I wantto be able to go scuba diving.
And I can barely allocate thetime in a day just to go to the
gym, let alone go do something Ireally love. So there's passion.
(02:38):
What what you're passionateabout. And hopefully, if
someone's doing something theywanna be successful and they're
gonna be passionate about it. Ifyou're not passionate about it,
then better just run. Likethere's nothing wrong with
working a nine to five job ifyou can have some passion and
build a relationship, havefriends and work life balance.
But a lot of people, they seethe Instagram fame of, oh, this
(02:58):
guy's got a Lamborghini and allthese girls, and he's got the
bust down watch.
And they're not realizing thewatch is fake. It's a knockoff.
It costs them $200. The girlsare probably rented. The Lambo's
probably rented, and they'reliving in a mansion that you can
find for rent on Airbnb.
And a lot of
Marino (03:14):
them are found out. People go out and they find them
and they showcase
Michael (03:17):
Buy my course and you can be like me renting Airbnbs,
renting Lambos, paying forhookers. It's great. Yeah.
Roland (03:23):
But, you know, that's not real success. So coming back
to what you just said, I mean, Iwant to turn this into an
interview on that, but was itworth it for you?
Michael (03:32):
Well, the I have the unique pleasure of being in an
industry where we help people.So seeing people get helped,
that I can get passionate aboutthat. Makes this is why I still
do what I do and I don't justrun off to scuba dive and drive
a Lamborghini underwater while Iscuba dive, is we're helping
(03:53):
people. So EE system, we'rehelping people. So that part's
amazing.
But it's really hard to findpeople to bring in that can run
things as dynamically as I can,because it's not a linear
business. We're not running acoffee shop where we just have
to make sure there's beans,cups, and some staff to barista
it. So it's a very uniqueindustry.
Roland (04:13):
It's interesting too, because when you peel back the
layers and you look at themotivations of successful people
over time, like my own journeyfrom starting my own business
about fourteen, fifteen yearsago until now, I've experienced
my definition of success. Am Iwhere I want to be? No. I would
like to achieve more, but that'smore me wanting to kinda test
(04:35):
myself and see what I'm made ofwhat's possible rather than
thinking I'm gonna find a pot ofgold at the end of this journey.
But a lot of people who areincredibly successful in the
material monetary sense in life,after a while, it's not about
the success of achievement ofthe things they get, it's about
the process.
Mhmm. They become reallyaddicted to the process of a
client here that I see go to hishouse, and he owns 30 something
(04:59):
car dealerships. And, you know,I do some health stuff with him.
So he pays for high level healthservice because he can afford
it, which is a wonderful benefitof being successful. And I
remember looking at him, I saidhe was on a phone call as I was
doing some work with him, and Iheard what he was going through.
And I looked at him, I was like,this just drives you, doesn't
he? He's like, this gets me outof bed in the morning. Because
(05:19):
it's not about the moneyanymore. He doesn't need more
money. He doesn't need toachieve more material stuff.
The success becomes his way ofinterfacing with reality as I
would assess and define it. Sois that also in some cases what
also drives you now that yousay, didn't I don't have the
same work life balance. I'm notmaybe as personally happy as I
(05:41):
was. But is there a fulfillmentbeyond just helping people that
also inside of you gives yousomething that's a positive
feedback?
Michael (05:50):
Well, some days, yes. Some days, no. A lot of it is I
feel like I was God God bestowedupon me a mission. And if I just
effed off, I'd probably getstruck by lightning. You know,
there's a sense of duty, andthere's there's honor within
that.
If I'm a very honorable person.I took on the task of being who
I am, so I have to complete it.That means I have to show up
(06:13):
every day and make sure I'm I'mputting in the work. I'm I like
to think of myself as a leader,not a business owner, because a
business owner will just say youguys do all the work. I make
sure that everything Imicromanage details because
perfection is in the detail.
There's a lot of people that runcompanies, and they're like,
well, these things aren'tworking right now. So how much
time do you do you spend workingin your company? Do you go into
your office or your shop? Andthey're like, well, no. Never.
(06:34):
I'm like, you need to go in atleast an hour a week, see what
they're doing or spy on themwith cameras so you can see what
they're doing or not doing.Because at the end of the day,
human nature is to be lazy. Andso if you you can hire people
all day, they're gonna do thebare minimum normally. The the
real passion in creatingsomething that's evolutionary is
is watching it evolve. And mostpeople, they'll create, say, a
(06:57):
coffee.
We'll just use the coffee model.And they go, oh, well, I made
this and we're selling it, it'sfine. A smart leader will say,
well, we're selling this onecoffee. We need to figure out
reasons to come in after theybought that one coffee.
Starbucks does this with theirseasonal, menu of pumpkin spice
and peppermint and all thesethings, is you're creating a new
product on the fly.
(07:17):
If you're not creating newthings or evolving what you
currently have or lookingtowards the future, what people
might want, you you know, you'regonna have a short lifespan and
success. There's nothing wrongwith that either. Like I said,
if you made enough money and youwant to just be done with it,
sell your business and go doother things, that's fine. But
at the end the day, when youhave something as critical as
people's wellness in your hands,you kind of want to sit there
(07:41):
and be like, well, how can weimprove this for everyone?
Because I I don't see ourcompany EE system like just
having one product.
It should be a modality thatevolves into a higher evolution
of the modality as well asoffering things that are in
synergy with the modality, whichobviously we're working on.
(08:02):
Supplements, adjuncttechnologies, meteorology
devices, or things to show adifference before and after.
These are all things that arenecessary. So for me, I kind of
I see myself there's there's nota lot of people that can do what
I do. And if there were, I wouldjust pay them to do it.
(08:22):
So I have a sense of duty inbeing the person who's skilled
enough to do it, and I'm justgonna do it.
Marino (08:26):
I was gonna add, I think that there needs to be something
else that pushes you throughbecause as you move into so
like, for example, when Iworked, I used to work at a
catering hall, wedding receptionvenue, to pay my way through
college. And there's a privilegeto having a nine to five because
once you walk out of thatoffice, you can just hang up the
(08:48):
towel. Right?
Michael (08:48):
I can never just be like, I'm out. Peace, boss.
Roland (08:51):
That is the responsibility of actually
taking on ownership of workingfor yourself though. Right?
Because you you it's hard toreally turn off when the day is
done because you're like, well,I could do this tomorrow. So you
might do some planning or you'rethinking about the things that
have been done or have yet to bedone that you have to.
Marino (09:09):
Mhmm.
Roland (09:10):
And that is just the nature of living in this current
capitalistic Western societywhere your ability to produce
with the value that youdemonstrate with service or
product is really directlycorrelated to your livelihood
and who wants to aim formediocrity when you are a self
starter entrepreneurial thing.Mhmm.
Marino (09:29):
Yeah. And I saw this with the owner because when
people would come in and hewould introduce himself, like
everyone's like, oh, that's theowner. Like, so cool or It's so
special. And there's validity tothat because he did a lot of
work, but I don't think everyoneelse, especially that worked
there, saw all that he had togive up to have that. Yeah.
And as I moved in responsibilityto becoming the captain and
(09:52):
junior major dean, then I foundmyself with work outside of
work. Now I had the bride andthe groom calling me during the
week and planning things, andand now it's getting harder to
just separate myself from it. SoI can see if I were to
transition into, like, havingthe business, it wouldn't be
this is my role. It's everythingis your responsibility.
(10:13):
Everything.
So that's a huge cost. And it'slike if you wanna I mean, if you
can handle it, and to your pointwe've said earlier, I think
that's what it should be about.It's about who am I gonna become
in pursuit of this Mhmm. Andfall in love with the way that
you are interacting with thebusiness or with life. That's
what will give you the highermeaning to get through it.
But if it's just strictly forthe monetary thing, it's gonna
(10:33):
come at some point that all ofthe responsibility constantly is
gonna burn you out.
Roland (10:37):
That's, yeah, really well said. And something that
kind of dovetails into maybe adifferent perspective. Most
people think what's the cost ofsuccess? And they're thinking
instantly money. I'm verywealthy, successful.
But how about the chase of thething that's never been done
before? Like the cost of beingso skilled at something, it may
(10:57):
not be money that motivates you,but it's being able to be the
person who invented something
Marino (11:02):
Mhmm.
Roland (11:02):
That or I should say,
Marino (11:03):
I'm the expert because
Roland (11:04):
it was already there. Like, think of a Nikola Tesla.
Right? Mhmm. He didn't give acrap about finances.
He wanted to figure out thefabric of the universe as it
related to understanding howenergy interfaces with the third
dimension. Yeah. But you look atsomeone like a Steve Jobs or a
true innovator, those people arewired differently.
Michael (11:23):
Well, and Steve Jobs is a great, instance because he
worked himself to death.Correct. He didn't even get to
enjoy his finances.
Roland (11:30):
But I guarantee you, he probably would have not done it
any other way if he had anopportunity to redo
Michael (11:35):
think he even said that on his deathbed. He wished he,
you know, had taken it wasn'tthat he took care of himself
better, but it was, I forgetexactly what it It was something
along the lines. If I'd known itwas gonna be like this, would
have done it a littledifferently. And so he wanted
that success. He wanted to bethe big dog, and he was.
But at the cost of building anempire and then falling to
(11:56):
pieces because he burned himselfto a crisp.
Roland (11:58):
And that's the classic story with highly driven people
in some regards, but it's almostlike a wiring that you can't
undo. If you're if you're builtthat way, you you have to to
follow that and chase thatbecause I look at, you know,
what what you're talking about,the the big monetary success.
What drives me personallyslightly different is I want to
(12:18):
be able to do something in a wayor figure something out in a way
that's never been done before asmy mission, my legacy, I don't
really care about legacy, but ifI'm here in a human body in a
lifetime doing something, Idon't wanna waste and squander
my time.
Michael (12:32):
Mhmm.
Roland (12:33):
So my mission is to figure out something to help
humanity that's never beenfigured out before. And the cost
that sometimes comes with thatis there's a loneliness factor.
Because if you look at the worlda certain way and other people
look at the world more commonlyamong their way of things, it's
different from yours, you don'tfeel like you can find
commonality there. The other is,you know, if you're wired a
(12:56):
little more neurodivergently,which is a word that's popularly
used nowadays, finding asignificant other who
understands your nature ofbeing. If someone comes from a
very traditional family and theywant stability, nine to five
predictability, but you're like,no, I feel like working on a
Sunday because I'm inspired, andthat throws them off because no,
Sunday is when my family comesMhmm.
We have lunch. So romanticrelationships become harder.
Michael (13:19):
Well, that that's a really great point because most
women, for for me, most womendon't understand entrepreneurs.
So they're they've dated thesenine to five guys, and so they
expect evenings together,weekends together, outings,
dinners. Entrepreneur, they
Marino (13:37):
Yeah. Sit at
Michael (13:38):
They work at home. They're constantly working. And
it's like, so if if you'redating this person, you're
probably only gonna get anegligible amount of time. So
for me, I'd actually have tofind an independent woman
probably that doesn't live nearme, and we spend time
periodically have some phonecalls, very minimal contact
because simply don't have thetime. This is why I don't date.
(13:59):
I know I don't have the time todedicate to a woman. They need
Roland (14:02):
to know what they're signing up for.
Michael (14:03):
Right. But it's hard to find women that have actually
dated someone that's unique.Most people entrepreneurs are a
very small percentage of thepopulace. Populace. Mhmm.
Most people date people thathave a normal set schedule, so
they they have an expectation.And then I've dated women. Why
aren't we doing this? It's like,first off, calm down. This is
(14:24):
not normal.
You know, and there's videos onthe Internet of, I love the one.
He's the girl's in the g wagon,and she's like, you need to pay
more attention to me. You know?And complaining and he's on his
phone and he puts his phonedown. All of sudden, they're in
a broken Toyota.
There's no air con. She's like,why is it so hot? Where's my
Chanel? Oh my god.
Marino (14:43):
And then
Michael (14:43):
he picks his phone up, they're back in the g whacket.
And she's like, oh, you do yourthing. Yeah.
Roland (14:47):
That reminds me of the old joke is that money doesn't
buy you happiness, but crying ina Porsche is way better than
crying on a bike. But that is avery good point because, know,
I'm married and my relationshipdynamic, my wife is, she's a
singer and a music producer. Sothere's times it's nine ten PM
and she's in the studio doingher work, and I actually am
(15:08):
thrilled by the fact that shehas such an atypical life.
Michael (15:12):
She has an outlet outside of you.
Roland (15:13):
Yeah. But she has an outlet, but she also because of
her world, she understands that,like, look, I I gotta do my
stuff when it comes up. Thepeople come in when the people
need to come in. I fly out hereto do these podcasts with you
guys. I'm gone for a week, butthat's the life I chose.
And I was very intentional aboutsaying to her, I don't wanna
live a normal life. To me, isalmost insulting or ordinary is
(15:33):
a little bit of an insult. Nooffense to anyone who wants the
nine to five thing. But I'mwired the way where work, life,
they're not separate things. Idon't take the costume off fully
at the end of the day because Iread about the things that I'm
interested in that happen to bethe things I also do for work.
Mhmm. And I have my outletsoutside of that, which I'm
(15:54):
fortunate enough that I canafford to do some of these
things because Vroom, vroom.Vroom, vroom, car stuff, go fast
around the corner. But, youknow, it also allows me to
achieve a childhood dream thatI've been working towards
because I couldn't do it as anactual vocation myself. So, you
know, rounding out thismonologue of it besides the cost
of never being able to not thinkabout work, your social and
(16:19):
personal life, the viable poolof people that you can really
find deep connection withbecomes directly correlated to
the amount of people who want tolive a more extraordinary life
Mhmm.
That's a success basedmotivation within their
existence. So it's a little bitof a lonelier journey, and you
have to get very comfortablewith self reliance, self
(16:41):
soothing, and self motivationbecause sometimes people are
gonna try to tear you downbecause what it is you espouse
in terms of your successhighlight what they're unable to
do, unwilling to face in theirlives. And that's why
friendships sometimes have todiverge as people go on their
own journeys because they'rehere to succeed.
Michael (17:01):
Well, and then, know, the term it's lonely at the top.
It's lonely for a reasontypically too, because when
you're at the top of a mountain,everyone else wants to be at the
top of the mountain with you,but they don't want to do the
work. So they just want to standnext to you to seem important.
And then the next thing they dois they have a sales pitch. Oh,
well, you and I, we can do thisbig thing.
It's a startup. So they're justtrying to use your platform to
start something up. Soconstantly getting pitches,
(17:23):
constantly getting, pulled in adirection because people are
trying to get something out ofme. This is common with anyone
that's made successes. There'sconstantly someone trying to get
your attention for something forsome reason.
And this is why these wealthypeople have bodyguards half the
time. It's just it's not becausethey don't feel safe. It's
because they don't want peopledragging them across the room to
give them a sales pitch.
Roland (17:44):
Hey. Am I
Michael (17:44):
showing you
Roland (17:45):
my new app, by the way?
Michael (17:46):
Yeah. Exactly. He said that. Like, well, I've got this
new thing. It's gonna be thebiggest thing since Bitcoin.
If you get in now oh god. No.Run. I don't think I don't
Marino (17:53):
think people even think about that, how how differently
you're treated. Because I, onetime, went back to my university
and I did a talk, and after thatpeople lined up to talk to me.
They needed a room so we endedup getting out of there. But
then the way people wereinteracting with me, I really
didn't like it. Because it waslike they were putting me on a
pedestal and I just didn't likethe interaction.
(18:15):
It was very it was not authenticin a way. And so Everyone's
trying
Michael (18:22):
to suck off your any kind of success. So you gave a
talk. I was a DJ for years. Iwas
Marino (18:26):
a Yeah.
Michael (18:27):
A well known DJ. I had extreme anxiety while I was a
DJ, I didn't realize how bad itwas until I stopped DJing. I was
like, my anxiety is gone. Oh mygod. A lot of us just being in a
room and everyone comes up toyou and they wanna talk to you.
They wanna know you. You wannabe your friend because you're
someone.
Roland (18:41):
Yours.
Michael (18:41):
Yep. And it would suck me dry. I'd literally, like,
hide in a corner.
Marino (18:44):
Don't talk to me.
Roland (18:45):
That's the introvert's dilemma too. Right? Yeah. Uber
social and people wantingsomething from you, so it's a
one way energy exchange. Yeah.
They're not equitably fillingyou back up with the
interaction. It's they wanna getto know you. What can you do for
them? What can you teach them?What fast track
Michael (19:00):
you wanna They just wanna be near energy that's that
they they perceive as exciting.
Marino (19:06):
Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah. So that's another cost is, your
inability to create genuinefriendships because people
Michael (19:15):
Constantly want something. Want something from
you. And unfortunately, we livenear California, which is the
epitome of what can you do forme? Maker y. It's like, so what
do you do?
What can you do for me? I'm anaspiring actress, actor, and I'm
just trying to make it big. It'slike, can
Roland (19:30):
I show you my showreel? But that that you know, it's in
in hearing this and kind oftaking a step back, I don't
wanna paint the picture that theroute to success is just filled
with a bunch of negativity thatyou need to shoulder, but I
think it's important to set thetone and expectation to do the
things that other people don't,you're gonna have to do the
(19:51):
things that other people won't.Mhmm. That came out really
nicely there. Yeah.
Was A happy accident. And thereality of it is it's also part
of the symptom of the society welive in. We live in a world
where you are rewarded forhaving achieved more, having
accumulated greater resourcesbecause of the opportunities
that abides you. And there is apolarity to, I guess, that which
(20:16):
you attain and that which youmust sacrifice because it is the
way that it's currentlydesigned. Not everyone can do
that.
They can't all follow theirdreams or else everyone would be
exactly where they want to beand compromise and setbacks
through failure rather thanusing them as motivation to push
you forwards wouldn't result inthe vast majority of people
(20:38):
saying, well, I wanted to be amusician, but accounting was
stable. You know, that has to bethere in society for people to
go for things. But, know, theother thing it takes, and I
don't know if this is a cost,but it takes an incredible
amount of sacrifice, belief inyourself, trust in the unknown
of the process.
Michael (20:57):
It's faith really too.
Roland (20:57):
It is.
Michael (20:58):
I don't know a single entrepreneur that wasn't piss
poor at some point. Yeah. Theyall rose from nothing. And it
was, the hope and theperseverance that got them
through it. People go, oh, Iwant to be rich.
And you'd be so great if I wasrich. It's like, well, what's
your pathway? And I thought,well, I don't have one. It's
like, you need to innovatesomething. You need to be
innovative.
You need to there's no you know,it's it's part luck almost and
(21:21):
faith. Like, if you have a greatidea and it's legitimately a
great idea, not a pipe dreamthat you cooked up around a bong
at a party some night, you youhave to foster it into and
there's a lot of steps to doingthat. And they don't teach this
kind of stuff in school becausethere is no course for it. It's
simply willing it into existenceand saying, F you to anyone that
(21:44):
says you can't do it.
Roland (21:45):
I took an entrepreneurship school course
in school, and there was nothingabout any practical stuff that I
use today to run my ownbusiness. And to the point that
you just made, I I have thiskind of buddy back home, and
he's texting me all these newideas about, oh, like he wants
to make money. He's like, whatstocks should I invest in to
make some quick money? I'm likemy god. That doesn't really work
(22:06):
because no one has a crystalball.
Michael (22:08):
That's like gambling.
Roland (22:09):
And then he's like, well, maybe I should do a high
end car rental company. I'mlike, the the the burn rate on
that is absolutely atrocious.Insurance, consumables,
depreciation is like, what doyou think about a high end
restaurant? And he's in thetray. So and I keep going back
to him.
I like, what do you think? Whatdo you think? Emulating someone
else's idea or just doingsomething because logically
you've seen someone make moneyin it. No one who achieves
(22:32):
anything great does so basedupon purely left brain logic
ideas. I I remember being veryyoung.
This is one of those momentsthat really left an impression
on me. My girlfriend's friend'sdad at the time didn't finish
high school, but he had thiscarpet business. And you think,
business, it sounds like themost boring thing in the world.
He pretty much did most of thecarpet in Southern Ontario where
(22:55):
I grew up. And I was talking tohim one day and he said, you
know, guy, I've never
Marino (22:59):
Yeah. Made
Roland (23:00):
This is really like the mustache mullet guy, you know,
but he was like, he countryOntario. He's like, I've never
made more money when I owepeople money. And I sat there
for a second and went, I'venever made more money than when
I bought He literally just tookloans he couldn't cash in. He
just kept taking risks. Becausehe believed in himself and he
(23:21):
could execute, it paid off.
The one thing that will alwayscome from believing in yourself,
or I should say success onlyever comes from believing in
yourself, but the cost of thatis living in that perpetual
unknown and riding that faithtrain. But it has to be that
way.
Michael (23:38):
Well, there's like a hustle factor here too. So
there's there's this instancewe've we've talked about where,
you know, this guy who canbarely afford a BMW m three
really wants the BMW m three. Sohe takes out the lease. Now he
he has no money for rent. And sowhat does he do?
He really wants to keep thatcar. This is the the weirdest
kind of concept. So what does hedo? He hustles to make enough
(23:59):
money to be able to afford thatcar once he's gotten it. So that
loan concept there of, well, Ireally want this objective, and
I'm just gonna get it and I'llfigure it out after.
It doesn't work for everyone,but those who have the ability
to hustle and the brain, they'llbe like, I'm gonna figure out
how to keep this freaking car.Yeah. Yeah.
Marino (24:17):
I think some people who kind of talk about success also
say that it was like puttingyourself in the environment, but
then when you get the least,what happens is the should
becomes a must. Yeah. Becomesreal.
Michael (24:29):
Yeah. Yeah. It's like kinda like having kids. Mhmm. I
don't think there's a strongerforce on the planet than a
single mother.
She's like, I've got to put foodon the table for these kids. She
will go out and she will kill abear if she needs to
Roland (24:40):
to put food on
Michael (24:41):
the table for her kids.
Roland (24:42):
That might be dinner, actually. Yeah.
Michael (24:43):
Might be. Exactly. We're having a bear tonight.
Roland (24:46):
I've had it before, though, by the way. It's
delicious.
Michael (24:50):
Whole another con actually, I'm curious. How was
the bear?
Roland (24:53):
It was so I I was somewhere and this random guy
and his buddies are barbecuingat a race, and he offered me
looking back, this is a baddecision. He offered me a plate
of meat, and he's like, there'sfour different meats here. This
is this this is this is bear. Iwas like, hold on. A bear?
I was like, I looked at it like,what am I gonna have this up?
Tried the bear. Like,deliciously cooked. Hopefully,
(25:14):
no parasites. So that's how thebear was.
I'm I think.
Michael (25:19):
Well, yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, people wanna
they want the path to quickmoney. It doesn't exist. If you
can't be passionate about it,then you're definitely gonna
lose money. You're gonna burnout at a certain point and just
be like, throw throw your handsup. There's many times in my
life where I wanted to throw myhands up and I said, don't have
a choice, so I'm just gonna keepworking hard.
I've done multiple otherventures out of EE system. Most
(25:40):
of them failure, but great hightuition learning experiences to
things I utilize today. Mostentrepreneurs, they will tell
you that they have had multipleventures and they did they did
terrible at most of them. Theywere normally the early ones and
they learned a lot from them. Ifyou're not willing to, you know,
go to school, so to speak, andI'm not talking about go to
university because I don't thinkthere's a whole lot we're
(26:01):
teaching people of use in anyschool on the planet at the
moment.
Roland (26:05):
There's a lot of highly educated baristas out there.
Michael (26:07):
Yeah. If if you wanna and this really doesn't apply to
the older crowd because it'sharder for you to do that. But
if you're, say, you're in yourtwenties and you wanna be
wealthy, offer your time forfree, whether it's a day or two
out of the week, to someone tomentor you that is wealthy. You
(26:28):
will learn more working fornothing from someone who is
wealthy in that one day or twoday a week that you give, and
you that's your tuition, really.You're paying your time Mhmm.
To go sit with someone to mentorthem. Just be like, I'll be your
assistant for Friday, Saturday.I just wanna be around you and
absorb your energy, see how youwork. Doesn't matter if that guy
(26:50):
only makes an hour phone callduring an eight hour shift
you're working. The amount ofinformation you're gonna gain
from how he communicates aloneis gonna be invaluable.
There is no better course inlife than being around people
that are successful. I learnedthings in the medical,
scientific, physics world frombeing around people in those
fields, from reading, beingdiligent, and and having a
(27:13):
yearning to learn those things.School teaches you textbooks.
Textbooks textbooks, I mean, ifyou wanna learn math, cool. Use
math, use calculus in businessright now.
How many times are you gonna usecalculus in business right now?
Very, very little. Peopleskills, sales skills, networking
skills. These are things thatthat get you into the situations
(27:35):
you wanna be in. Learning how tothink dynamically, critical
thinking.
These aren't things that arereally taught in school. Does
does the university teach youcritical thinking? I imagine not
Nowadays, it's moreindoctrination. Yeah. It's
literally how to not thinkcritically.
It's part of being the lemmingherd. So you wanna you wanna be
successful, hang out withsuccessful people, and and do it
(27:56):
on your dime. Because nosuccessful person is gonna let
you sit next to them and pay youunless it really benefits. And
you're gonna have to be therefor five, six, seven days a week
if you're paying and you'regonna be their grunt. But if
you're they're not paying youand you're providing time,
they're gonna be a little morelenient and they might actually
want to coach you.
And having the connections ofhanging out around in those
(28:18):
circles are invaluable.
Marino (28:20):
Yeah. And also what it does, that school doesn't do, is
the expectations that are drawnupon you of that group, that
changes your behavior. Itchanges how you show up, what
you think that they think youshould know, so that now you're
staying up late to learn thesethings and it modulates your
behavior and kind of morphs youinto the kind of person that is
(28:41):
in that circle, which you don'tlearn in school. In school,
you're just memorizing stuff.
Roland (28:44):
Yeah. It's like the concept of knowledge attained,
not applied is absolutelywasted.
Michael (28:49):
Mhmm.
Roland (28:50):
But And I think that's a great point because you will
never learn more from life thanthrowing yourself into the deep
end with someone who hasachieved some form of conceptual
success that you would like toemulate in your own version. So
I think maybe, Michael, you'd bethe best person to initiate this
rounding out the title of thecost of success. What's your
(29:12):
what's your sound bite? What'sthe thing you wanna leave people
with that's your greatestlearning in in what you've
achieved and experienced so far?
Michael (29:19):
Cost of success is never giving up. It's there is
no that's not an option. Mostpeople will sit there and
they'll be like, well, I can gothis way or this way. There's
only one path. When when you'rein in in the seat, there is no
the Yoda the Yoda, there is notry.
There's just do. Not Yoda.
Roland (29:36):
Don't use the Homer Simpson. Trying is the first
step to failure. Use the Yoda.Yeah. There is no do.
Michael (29:40):
You only have no option to get it done. So I've applied
that throughout life wheresomeone we've hit this big role.
The things are on fire. I'mlike, I don't wanna hear about
that. What are our options?
Yeah. I don't care if they work,but we're gonna try the options.
Cool. Marino, what's yours?
Roland (29:56):
Your sound bite and the concept of the cost of success.
Marino (30:01):
I would say whatever I mean, we mentioned a couple of
them here. Whatever those are,having something more
meaningful, having a vision or adestiny greater to pull you
through all of those is beingwilling to accept those costs in
your pursuit of obtaining thatbecause it's about who you
(30:23):
become in the process, not whatyou obtain.
Roland (30:25):
Yeah. I like that. I would add, you know, if it's
your mission in life, the costis always well worth it because
it is what you've been put hereto do, whether that's by divine
orchestration, if you believethat, whether it's by self
selection or stating yourpurpose. If it's what drives you
in life, everything you have topay in order to get that, you'd
probably do it over and overagain.
Michael (30:47):
Or if it's Yoda beating you with a stick on your back
and
Roland (30:49):
telling make things levitate. Like a little
backpack. And we want to knowwhat you guys think. Please drop
in the comments what your coststo your achievement of success
are. And I guess we should saylike, subscribe, and do share
this with all that you feelcalled to do so.
Michael (31:03):
Absolutely. Alright. Well, thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you those watching. Asusual, every Thursday, you know
where to find us.
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