March 11, 2025 • 64 mins
What happens when rock bottom becomes the foundation for a remarkable life philosophy? Lenny Richardson's journey from debilitating depression to discovering the ancient Greek concept of eudaimonia reveals how our darkest moments can become our most profound teachers.
The conversation explores the three essential pillars for a fulfilled life: health, wealth, and relationships. As Lenny eloquently explains, these pillars aren't just nice-to-haves—they're the fundamental components of true freedom. When any one pillar crumbles, our freedom diminishes along with it. We become victims to poor health, financial instability, or toxic relationships rather than authors of our own stories.
One of the most thought-provoking moments comes when we discuss the gap between expectations and reality. "Enough is not an amount," I share, "it's a relationship with what you have right now." This perspective shift challenges the endless pursuit of more that keeps so many of us perpetually dissatisfied. Through Lenny's experience, we see how arbitrary goals like "becoming a billionaire" often lack substance—we chase numbers without questioning what actually brings fulfillment.
The discussion takes a practical turn when examining investment strategies. While traditional financial investments have their place, Lenny makes a compelling case for investing in yourself—your skills, knowledge, and capabilities—as the highest-return investment possible. Unlike market investments that can collapse overnight, personal skills remain valuable regardless of external circumstances.
Perhaps most refreshingly, we explore how balance operates seasonally rather than constantly. Just as nature cycles through distinct seasons, our lives require periods of intense focus followed by recalibration. This seasonal approach to balance allows us to address our priorities appropriately without burning out or neglecting other important aspects of our lives.
Ready to reconsider what freedom truly means in your life? This episode might just change how you approach health, wealth, relationships, and ultimately, your definition of enough.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What I say is that their expectations just don't
meet reality.
So I think that's kind of whathappiness is.
It makes me think about theidea of being enough.
If you feel like you're notenough, your expectations are
exceeding reality.
But the problem is, sometimesour expectations can be rooted
in imagination.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the Journey to Freedom podcast.
I'm Dr B and I'm your host.
Man.
What another day, what anexciting time to be around Today
.
You know, I'm not sure you knowwhen you're listening to this,
when you're watching, but as ofrecording today, this is
President's Day in 2025.
Just thinking about the countrythat we're in, the world that
(00:52):
we're in and the opportunitiesthat are there, I went over to
Costco today because they'reones who are sporting DE&I and
I'm not sure wherever you standon that, I, just as a Black man
who did his dissertation onopportunity, and you know versus
(01:12):
you know what somebody has thepotential to do, based on what
the opportunities are andrealizing as a country, we're
not quite there yet where we canjust go out at least this is my
belief where we can go out andmake sure that we have the same
opportunities as the rest of ourcounterparts that are in life.
And so, although I think thatDE&I needs to, you know, I guess
(01:37):
, when you think of theevolution of initiatives, you
know I think we're not in thesame place we might have been in
the 90s and the 2000s, but Istill don't think we're there
yet.
I think that there is time forit.
And you know, sometimes Iwonder what the fear is.
What is the fear If we haveprograms that allow people to
(01:59):
excel?
Is the fear that the folks thatare currently in power,
currently is the fear that thefolks that are currently in
power, currently in those jobs,currently, you know, running the
world, will not have thoseanymore and we have to be equal.
And so, Lenny, I'll beinterested after we hear your
story and just some of yourthought process, you know, on
this particular issue.
But other than that, man, wehave some opportunities.
(02:23):
I was talking to Lenny rightbefore the show and just
realized that he just gotmarried.
Oh my gosh, I'm so jealousright now because, just to go
back, to be able to, I'll be 60years old here in March and I
have eight children and 16grandkids and I go back to
thinking about I'm not sayingthis isn't a great time in life,
(02:46):
because it is, it is wonderful.
But you know, sometimes you,you wish you could go back, but
know what you know now, right,like, know everything.
I know that I'm 60 years oldand go back and start over and
do it again and all thedifferent things and all the,
all the growth that we wouldhave and all the you know.
I think the biggest thing thatI would say I would do
differently is I'd just do itfaster.
(03:07):
I would get to where I'm at somuch faster and I wouldn't do
some of the silly things that Idid.
I wouldn't spend so much timewatching TV and movies and some
of the things that I did I wouldnot change.
Any time with my kids.
I had some amazing as my kidswere growing up and learning who
(03:29):
to be.
You know, I think I could try.
I could be a better dad.
I could be, you know, morepresent.
I started out as a PE teacher,you know, when they were
starting to be born and so, youknow, I was able to be at.
You know every single one oftheir events and, you know, do
all that kind of stuff, and atone point my kids went to school
with me, At least my daughtersdid.
(03:51):
And so I got to be the favoritedad on campus and all that kind
of stuff.
But oh my gosh what it would belike to just, you know, love my
wife more and do more thingsthat would give us family time
and that kind of stuff.
So congratulations.
I'm so excited for you.
This is a great time, don't?
Cherish every moment that youcan, because it goes so fast.
(04:15):
I hope that I'd be like thebiblical characters where I can
live 700, 800 years.
I don't think that's going tohappen.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
That would be nice.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
That would be wonderful Cause then it'd be
like this is gonna get goingagain.
So you're like what would lifebe like at 200 years old?
Like what would you not know?
What else could you go?
Try you know?
But you're south of the hill,right?
You don't wanna be like laid upin bed at 200 years old.
You wanna be like Noah gettingready to build an ark.
I think he was 428 or somethinglike that when he started
(04:43):
building that ark, or 480.
That's why he's 480, because hewas 600 years old when the ark
went out.
So imagine what that would belike.
But I don't want to talk aboutme anymore today, and so, lenny,
I've asked you to tell yourstory.
I want you to talk about yourlife.
Whether you start at yourmama's womb and jump up to now
(05:04):
or somewhere in between, thisgets to be your opportunity,
your chance.
I just appreciate you being onand willing to take the time
with me today as we explore whoyou are, and so thanks again for
being on.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I'm ready to hear it.
All right.
Thank you again for having meon.
By the way, I appreciate this alot.
Yeah, so, man, I did not expectto tell the whole story, or I'm
trying to think of exactlywhat's where a good place to
begin is, but yeah, so, just asI guess it's a slight
introduction to myself, myname's Lenny Richardson.
(05:39):
One of the main things I kind oftalk about the most these days
is sort of time management andthe idea of being productive.
I know you mentioned earlier,Dr Arnold, that you have kind of
five pillars.
One of my, I guess, coremessages that I like to share
with people is sort of this ideaof building the pillars of
(06:01):
eudaimonia, and for anyonelistening that's not familiar
with that, it sort of comes fromGreek philosophy, kind of
classic Greek philosophy, andit's sort of basically what the
philosophers believed were theessential pillars towards a good
life.
For some people, freedom mightbe an idea behind it, but it's
(06:23):
essentially health, wealth andrelationships.
I know one of the pillars youmentioned was finance, but it's
essentially health, wealth andrelationships.
I know one of the pillars youmentioned was finance, but
building up your health pillar,building up your financial
wealth pillar and building upyour relationship pillar is sort
of the idea behind eudaimonia.
So that's kind of the coremessage that I like to share
with people.
The reason why I like thatmessage so much is because years
(06:46):
ago, over a decade ago at thispoint yeah, close to a decade,
at this point that was sort of alesson or an idea that I
learned that I would say waspretty pivotal in the grand
scheme of things.
Like I mentioned, if I talk toomuch, please cut me off.
Oh no, you're good.
(07:07):
Yeah, like man.
I think so years ago, maybeabout a decade or so ago.
This is something that myparents don't like me talking
about too much, but I kind ofwent through this really bad
bout of depression, and this iskind of back when I was in
college.
I was never clinicallydiagnosed, so I just want to put
(07:28):
that out there.
I know some people throw aroundthe word depression and some
people have been diagnosed, somepeople haven't.
I don't want to take away frompeople who were actually
diagnosed, but to me it feltlike severe depression, laying
in bed every day, just no energy.
I would skip class every singleday.
(07:49):
Pretty much Didn't want toassociate with friends.
A lot of it sounds embarrassingto say, but a lot of random
bouts of crying and tears forreasons in hindsight made no
real sense.
I guess At least my currentself would say it made no sense
Back then.
It made plenty of sense to me,but yeah, so really dark times
(08:13):
I'll call them, and so Iremember kind of me jumping
around in the story without Idon't want to make it too long
of a story, but at some point mythought process was I don't
like the way this situation I'min is.
I don't like feeling depressed,I don't like feeling so alone.
And so the idea I kind of hadwas how do I fix the situation
(08:37):
that I'm in?
And I didn't really have peoplearound me.
One, I didn't want to tellpeople about the depression I
was in.
Two, I think even if I knew ofsomeone who was going through
the same thing or could give mesolutions, but I just didn't
know who to go to.
So what I did is I just readbooks.
So I went to Penn State.
(09:00):
For anyone who may, be,familiar with Penn State.
Around the same time, because Iwasn't going to classes and
because I had switched my major,a lot of things escalated.
I got kicked out of college andI could no longer use the
campus library because you hadto have a valid ID and check out
books.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You could go inside, huh, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I could go inside, but you couldn't check
out any books.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So and at the time too, because I wasn't a student,
I had to I kind of got throwninto the work world much faster
than I anticipated.
So what I would do is I wouldgo to this library off campus
and I would kind of just make alist of different books I wanted
(09:46):
to take out, or at leastdifferent topics, kind of
jumping around.
I eventually started readingphilosophy, and that's where I
learned about this concept ofeudaimonia.
I think I was reading maybe theRepublic by Aristotle or Plato
I think it's by Plato, but thebook's irrelevant.
But eventually I came acrossthis idea of eudaimonia coined
by Socrates, and he said youknow, if you want to live a
(10:06):
fulfilled life, if you want tokind of have freedom in your
life, um, and live the highestquality life possible, you
should seek out building thesepillars, get in the best shape
you possibly can.
You don't need to be rich, butyou do need to be at least
financially living below yourmeans and you need to build high
quality relationships.
And this isn't, you know, thisis a combination of platonic and
(10:34):
romantic.
Um, he's not suggesting theplayboy lifestyle for anyone
that's listening, but, you know,just having a good social
circle and having goodrelationships with people.
So it's weird because when Iheard that like, as I'm reading
this, half of it sounded obviousLike sure you know, be healthy,
have money, have a good socialcircle there, and I thought to
(11:05):
myself I'm not doing any ofthese three things.
I had no money, despite workingtwo jobs.
I had really no good socialcircle because I was so busy
working I wasn't taking the timeto build relationships with
people.
I didn't have a girlfriend atthe time.
If I wanted to have agirlfriend, I certainly don't
think I'd be able to pull it off.
And then, health wise, I waspretty out of shape at the time.
(11:25):
I had a history of growing upwith kind of health issues.
I had really bad asthma thatled to me taking these steroids
which made me gain lots ofweight, and then I became obese,
and it was I didn't really knowexactly at that time in the
past how to break, I guess, thatcycle of obesity.
So, I struggled with my health alot when I was younger.
(11:48):
But, yeah, I'm kind of sittingthere reading this book and I'm
thinking to myself, wow, this isobvious and I'm not doing any
of it, so let me try to fix that.
So I spent maybe about a fewyears, probably about five-ish
years, really trying to dial inhow to get in much better shape,
(12:08):
how to focus on my, how tounderstand how to count calories
, how to work out efficientlywithout injuring myself,
understanding more aboutfinances.
Finances led me into becoming areal estate agent.
I'm still licensed as a realestate agent, even though I
don't really do it that much.
That led to a whole separatecareer path and, finally, with
(12:34):
relationships, I did have mytime where I tried to go on
dates and try to figure thingsout with that.
Eventually, that led to megetting married, which I just
got married July 8th of or, I'msorry, august 8th of last year.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Make sure you remember that one.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, I tried to correct myself, but hopefully
the wife does not see that part.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Oh, you got fast.
You got out fast.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
It was just a just a slip of the tongue you were
thinking about it you're likeyeah but but yeah, um, so yeah
that's uh, that was kind of thethe goal around that time.
I did eventually get back intocollege, but the goal was for me
to kind of build those thingsup, understand those three
pillars more.
And that's been kind of thething I've been promoting a lot
(13:23):
lately.
That's kind of the message I'vebeen sharing, um, and what
actually when I saw your, when Ikind of the thing I've been
promoting a lot lately, that'skind of the message I've been
sharing, and actually when I sawyour, when I kind of saw your
podcast, the idea of findingfreedom, to me those things link
up so much.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Like.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I feel like I don't know.
It's weird because I think thisis this might be like a hot
take, I don't know.
I feel like freedom is almostself-defined.
I think there's certain thingsthat'll help you find freedom.
To me, it's difficult if you'reextremely unhealthy to be free,
because I think to some degreeyou're kind of a Victim might
(14:00):
not be the best word, but you'realmost a victim to your health.
Same with finances If you'refine, you don't need to be rich.
I know people online say youneed to be millionaire, super
rich.
I don't believe in that.
I think you just need to beliving below your means.
I think if you're someone who'sliving paycheck to paycheck
some people do it intentionallyIf you're doing it
(14:22):
unintentionally, then I thinkyou can be sort of a victim to
your finances, which to me meansyou're not free.
Same with relationships If youhave poor relationships, if you
don't have people around youthat are supportive, or if you
don't have even an internalrelationship with yourself
that's supportive, some peoplehave bad self-talk.
(14:43):
I think that puts you in aposition where you also can't be
free.
You're almost a victim toeither your external the people
who are around you externally oreven yourself, mentally,
psychologically.
So I think the three of thosethings kind of create this idea
of freedom, even no matter whatyour true definition of freedom
will be subjectively.
(15:04):
I think to a degree you have tohave all three of those things
at least somewhat worked on ifthat makes sense.
But yeah, so I spent a lot oftime doing that and kind of over
the years I did what I call Icall this the master's degree of
life pretty much, where youspend a lot of your 20s and 30s
(15:29):
just doing stuff and makingmistakes so that way you can
just learn lessons, learnvaluable lessons that hopefully
you don't make mistakes multipletimes, I guess is kind of where
I'm getting at with that.
But spent a lot of time gettingmy master's degree of life.
And then eventually I had a fewpeople reach out and they kind
(15:52):
of said you managed to get somuch done in what seems like a
little bit of time Before I was30, wrote I can't talk today
wrote a few books.
I had a podcast myself inNorthern Virginia.
It did pretty well.
I worked at a law firm one ofthe best law firms in Northern
Virginia did real estate for alittle bit.
(16:14):
It was a lot kind of packedinto relatively a short period
of time and I thought to myselfyou know what?
Maybe I can help other peopledo this exact same thing and
kind of pretty much, even thoughwe all have 24 hours in a day.
Perhaps I can help other peoplestructure their day
appropriately.
So that way, if you are thekind of person that wants to get
(16:34):
in shape, wants to get betterwith your finances, wants to
have better relationships, ormaybe you just have hobbies that
you want to pursue but you feellike you can't really dedicate
time to pursuing them, maybe Ican help other people do those
things.
So that's kind of where all thebad stuff, in a weird way, was
(16:57):
sort of one of the best things.
I call it a blessing indisguise.
At the time it was horrible, itwas a terrible situation for me
to be in at least disguise.
At the time it was horrible, itwas a terrible situation for me
to be in at least, but it endedup being pretty beneficial, I
would say, in the grand schemeof things, so far at least.
So that's kind of what I sharethe idea of eudaimonia and the
idea of time management, justbecause, as I was sort of
(17:18):
helping people build up thesethree pillars.
I found it difficult to sort ofwhat's a good way to put this.
Everyone has differentpriorities with these pillars,
which is completely fine.
It's difficult to get everyoneto kind of focus on all three,
and so what I kind of realizedis, instead of trying to get
(17:39):
people to focus on health, moneyand relationships, what if I
just help them with the thingthat sort of leads to all those
things being built, which istime?
It's really how you structureyour day.
So that's kind of where thingsare now in current life.
I created this company calledProductivity Accelerator, trying
(17:59):
to help people with their timeand with structuring their day
so that way, hopefully, they'lluse their newfound time and
their new positive, structuredday to build their health the
way they want to build theirfinances, the way they want to
create the quality relationshipsplatonically or romantically,
whatever they want.
(18:19):
They'll have the time to dothat so that way they can live
that fulfilled life or that freelife, have freedom.
So that's kind of where we'reat now.
I don't want to.
I can continue if you want meto.
I didn't want to go too deep onit, no.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I think I got.
I got a few questions that Ithink will kind of kind of
spring for our conversation, andthen one's a philosophy
question that I'd love to askyou.
But when I think about theconcept of time and we think
about what freedom is and how ifwe could get the belief system
of people to understand thattime is infinitely more valuable
(18:57):
than money.
If I were to write you a checkfor a million dollars and say
here's a million dollars, butyou's a million dollars, but you
can only get one week to live.
Or, as it rates you a check fora thousand dollars and say I
promise you you get to live 200,which is more important, and I
would think that 99.9% wouldthink that the hundred dollars
(19:21):
and the thousand dollars and getto live to a hundred, instead
of taking a million dollars andget to live a week, because you
know the proof of what our end,because that goes into our
relationships, right, becausesomebody's on their deathbed.
They're not saying I wish Iwould have spent more time at
work, I wish I would have spentmore time making money, because
you can't take the money withyou, but they would say I wish I
(19:41):
spent more time with my spouse,or I wish I spent more time
with my spouse, or I wish Ispent more time with my kids or
my parents, or whatever thosequality relationships are.
No-transcript.
(20:07):
That I had for you, um, is aquote that, uh, I've been
pondering for a while now and itgoes like this enough is not an
amount, it's relationship withwhat you have right now.
So think about that for a second.
Enough is not an amount.
I think we spend so much timethinking I'm not enough, not
(20:31):
just in amount of money.
I'm not enough for myrelationships, I'm not enough
for the things that I do.
I don't feel like I'm enough tobe the person I need to be.
But it's not an amount and Ithink we equate it to be an
amount and but really it's justrelationship with what you have
right now and then your beliefin isn't enough.
(20:53):
And that's where you weretalking about.
You don't have to be super rich, you don't have to be.
I think freedom is the timehaving time to, just because I
think people can own your time.
You know people can tell youwhen you're, when you're in a
poverty situation and you'rejust going to work and barely
making it, somebody owns yourtime right.
They tell you when you can getup.
They tell you when you can takea break.
(21:13):
They know you go to thebathroom.
Tell you when you can get.
You know you can go uh home.
They tell you you know which,where you, what movies you get
to watch, what do you get to dowith your spare time.
All that is determined whenyou're in that stressful
situation of not having enoughto be able to do some of the
things, uh, that you would loveto do and have the freedom to do
(21:34):
it kind of when you want to doit.
So I'll let you, because you'rea philosopher and I love it.
You got the masters inphilosophy of life.
So talk to me about enough isnot enough.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, no, I've never heard that expression, but I
love that and this makes yousaying that it reminded me of
this is sort of.
This is a philosophy I've beenkind of thinking about for a
little bit, maybe about a yearor two, because sometimes I'll
kind of go through differentwebsites like Reddit, instagram,
facebook and you kind of youget into the uh sort of the I
(22:09):
guess the, the black hole of thefeed or the black hole of just
kind of scrolling sometimes, andI get interested when I read
what people write, and sometimesI see people talk about like,
being unhappy.
Um, we, we talked earlier aboutrelationships, I think, before
the the show started.
Um, I see that a lot withpeople with relationships,
(22:30):
people say, well, I'm not happywith my partner or I can't find
a suitable partner for whateverreason.
Um, and it made me think again.
This is my theory.
I feel like the common idea, atleast that I'm hearing from a
lot of people, when they feellike they're unhappy with
something, is what I say is thattheir expectations just don't
(22:52):
meet reality.
So I think that's kind of whathappiness is, and it makes me
think about the idea of beingenough.
If you feel like you're notenough.
It's because you expectsomething more, like your
expectations are exceedingreality.
But the problem is sometimesour expectations, in my opinion,
can be rooted in imaginationand sometimes your imagination
(23:14):
can be so outlandish or justcompletely unrealistic that
you're.
It's kind of like I'll hearpeople say I want to be a
billionaire and I always askpeople why do you have that
number?
Why do you want to be abillionaire?
Why a billionaire?
Why not like 100,000 air ormillionaires extreme too but why
a billion?
And I think people just hearother people say I want to be a
(23:36):
billionaire, and so they repeatit and which is fine to have big
goals.
But my issue is that the oddsof you being a billionaire is
probably unlikely.
It's good to try if you want to, but the downside is that if
after 5, 10, 15, 20 years youaren't a billionaire, I think
(23:58):
you'll make yourself at leastthese people who have that goal.
They'll make themselves unhappy.
And I think the reason isbecause their expectation is
that I should be a billionairebecause I want to be a
billionaire, when in reality, ifthey just appreciated the
current reality they had andmaybe in pursuit of being a
billionaire, they have afantastic life.
Maybe they became a millionaire, hypothetically speaking, but
(24:21):
because their expectation isbillionaire and it wasn't
millionaire, or it wasn't justbe happy, whatever, something a
little bit more realistic,they're always going to be
unhappy.
They'll never be enough forthemselves.
That's kind of.
When you brought up thatstatement, it made me think
about that idea of happiness andexpectations meeting reality.
(24:43):
So yeah, I don't't know.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I like that quote I've never heard that before,
but I'm gonna, I'm gonna stealthat.
I love that because I don'tthink most people want to be
billionaires.
I think they want the lifestylethat they think a billion
dollars gives you.
But if they were to really, ifthey really map that out and
what it takes to be abillionaire, they don't want to
be a billionaire, they want tospend like a billionaire would
spend, but then they don't evenrealize that that gets old after
(25:12):
.
If you have a billion dollars,you can't spend it.
You really can't unless you'rebuying corporations and
everything else.
But if you were just to spendit on lifestyle, it's impossible
to spend a billion dollars onlifestyle because there's only
so much you can have and thatgoes back to that amount.
And so one of the things thatthat that triggers to me is
(25:32):
identity and who we are Rightand who we believe we are, and
how do we change that identity.
You know, like one of my lifegoals is to help people become
the person that they need to bein order to do what God put them
on the circuit to do.
How do you become that person?
Because if you're not spendingtime doing that, then that's
really difficult to do.
Like we get to have thisconversation, you and I, where
(25:54):
we get to talk about this stuffbecause we have enough freedom
in our lives to be able to mapout some time to be able just to
have conversations.
So we're not in this survivalmode.
You know, paycheck to paycheck.
If I don't do this today then Imight not have my lights on, I
might not be able to live, andwe get to kind of talk about
(26:15):
some of this stuff when we thinkabout identity, you know who,
how, how is our identity shapedthat allows you and I to be able
to have these conversations,and then our friend down the
street to not be able to havethose conversations because of
where their identity is doesn'tallow them to move forward.
So what do you think in yourlife so far?
(26:38):
Because obviously everythingdidn't go right.
All the time you don't getkicked out of school or not be
able to go to school ifeverything didn't go right.
All the time you don't getkicked out of school or not be
able to go to school ifeverything's going perfectly
right, you know, or you'rehaving to work more than you
want to.
But what are those?
Those things?
Are those people who came intoyour lives, relationships that
helped shape the man that youare today you're asking.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
You said which relationships help.
Yeah, what?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
things, what points of interest, what pivotal things
happen that help shape thatidentity that allows you to be
who you are?
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
It's a combination of a lot ofthings I know.
For me, parents were a bigthing.
My parents, thankfully, wereextremely supportive throughout
my entire life as I do this fromtime to time.
(27:39):
I've thought about this in thepast because so I'm from
Philadelphia, from WestPhiladelphia, and I know when I
was young my parents made it abig effort to move out of West
Philadelphia and I have somefamily that Not to go there.
No, unfortunately.
No, that would be nice, but youknow it's funny Whenever I tell
(28:05):
people I'm from WestPhiladelphia, you're the only
person that's never sang theFresh.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Prince song, but yeah no.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
But yeah, thankfully they made it a mission to move
out as quickly as they could.
And I think about it sometimesbecause just another one of my
personal philosophies I thinkit's easy for a lot of people to
.
I've had conversations withpeople and I say to them
(28:40):
sometimes good things kind ofjust happen to you fortunately,
and those good things kind ofcreate sort of almost a catalyst
of more good things happening.
Okay, I think for me, myparents, moving out of West
Philly was probably thatcatalyst that I can't take any
credit for.
Moving out of West Philly wasprobably that catalyst that I
(29:01):
can't take any credit for,because I've seen some people
who never and some people stayin West Philly and they do
perfectly fine and they leadsuccessful lives.
But I always think about what ifI stayed?
What would that be like?
What if I went to the publicschools in Philadelphia?
What if it was more dangerous?
What if I joined maybe somegang or I don't know?
What if it was more dangerous?
(29:22):
What if I joined maybe somegang or I don't know?
I think about that a lot.
So, as far as peopleinfluencing me, I think my
parents was a huge influence,very supportive, very forward
thinking, and they sacrificed,of course, a lot to kind of help
me with which I take zerocredit for.
So that's all on them, I dothink.
As far as other influences, Idon't know if I would say that
there's a lot of, maybe,personal influences, at least
(29:46):
when I was in college, moreactively trying to change my
identity, if we put it that way.
I know sometimes, for me atleast, besides reading books and
I would say books are what's agood way to put this Sort of a
(30:06):
good resource that helped mechange my identity.
Sometimes some YouTube videos,I'll be honest, and some
channels, just different peoplewith good, positive mindsets
also to me, were good influencesand they helped me change my
identity sort of in a positiveway.
Um, yeah, I would say for themost part my parents were kind
(30:27):
of the main ones.
They were always just reallypositive and very they really
helped me kind of stay on track.
Um, a lot of it besides thatkind of came from a few people
I'd meet who were just goodinfluences, but maybe not in an
extreme way.
A lot of it was books just forme reading.
Maybe a book would lead me to avideo or lead me to a concept
(30:47):
and I'd go down a rabbit hole.
I don't want to take away frompeople who I've met who
certainly were good influencesand help shape in a good way
that I'm not giving credit to.
But yeah, if I had to give ananswer, I'll say my parents are
probably 95 percent of it.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
it is absolutely a village that raises you and
shapes your identity and that'sfor all of us.
And then you wonder sometimesyou go, okay, so it goes both
ways.
Right, there, there's alwaystwo sides to every point.
There's, you know, there's nosuch thing as a one-sided piece
of bread or one-sided coin orone-sided pancake, and so it can
(31:26):
go that way so you can havethose influences in your life.
Like you thought about, if Iwould have stayed, what would
the other side of that coin looklike?
And when I start thinking aboutabsolutely a thousand percent,
is the books you read.
Right, because, because nowyou're listening to people that
have gone before you that you'reinterested in, absolutely, it
(31:49):
could be YouTube and and thepeople that you listen to and
the, you know the way that itforms, how you think, that
informs how you think.
I mean, and you can go bothways I mean there's people who
watch reels all day long, everyday, to get entertainment value
but no educational value, and Ithink those two things are so
(32:10):
separate.
You know, education doesn'tnecessarily have to come from a
school, of a teacher in the wayour traditional thing, but, um,
if we're, if we spend our timetrying to be entertained, and
then we don't spend our timetrying to be educated on how do
I move forward, how do I dothings, which is kind of cool,
because I think the statistic Iheard was 80% of all search
(32:32):
videos on YouTube are how-tovideos instead of just
entertainment.
Now, if you were to go toInstagram or TikTok or any of
those, I don't think you'regoing to see as many searches
for educational outings.
They're just straightentertainment.
But identity is who we are, youknow, and without seeking out,
(32:56):
at some point, those greatrelationships, like you know you
, you just got married and sothat's a relationship that I'm
sure that you plan onflourishing in a positive way,
you know, and you guys feed offeach other and you ask each
other questions and and you moveforward, um, but without
working on identity because Ithink about living in purpose
and I think I see you living insome of your purpose.
(33:19):
You know, as you know, your,your modium and your three
pillars, and you know, but Idon't know if you can live
totally in purpose withoutserving others.
And I'd love to hear what your?
Thoughts are on what it meansto serve others, and I know you
talked about the company youstarted, and can one live in
purpose and be growing and, youknow, thriving, without serving
(33:42):
others?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
my.
My simple answer is no, I don'tthink you could.
I, I can't imagine a realitywhere that's possible.
Um, funny enough, years ago I Ikind of once thought you could
kind of just live sort of anideal lifestyle by yourself, and
it didn't take me very long torealize that that's pretty much
impossible, I think, I don'tknow.
(34:06):
No matter what, I think we allkind of rely on each other.
Maybe rely is a strong word,but to a degree we all have to
kind of have a certain positiverelationship with each other in
order to thrive.
And there definitely is a sensethat you have to serve other
people in order to thrive.
I mean, in any sense, whetherit's business related.
(34:27):
If you have a business, youhave to serve your clients or
employees in order to thrive asa business.
From a personal standpoint, ifyou want to build relationships,
you have to in a sense serveyour friends or your family.
You have to do things for them,and that might sound, I know,
doing things for people.
Sometimes to some people thatmight sound like, oh, I have to
(34:48):
just always do what they want.
That's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
There's a certain word I'm looking for.
There's certain reciprocitythat needs to occur between
people.
In order for you to thrive, youneed to do things for them, and
there's a certain expectation,a quiet expectation in a sense,
it's not a bad one, but there'san expectation that they'll do
something for you, and I thinkthis is just how we as humans,
we as a society, this is how wethrive.
(35:16):
I actually think when people,when you see kind of the
breakdown of communities, it'swhen that relationship kind of
gets distorted, where you haveone side that might be taking
too much and not giving back.
At least that's kind of how Icurrently see it.
Maybe that'll change in thefuture, but I think that's kind
of the one of the main reasonsthat that I don't know different
(35:39):
groups kind of break down.
Some people in the group aretaking too much, others might be
giving, but there's not a goodreciprocation, if that makes
sense.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Well, absolutely.
And serving others doesn't meanthat and I want to really kind
of define this, as we sometimeshave this belief that there's
lack, that there is an abundance, that there's a finite amount
(36:13):
of resources, finite amount ofresources and if I give you some
of what I have, then there'snot going to be enough for me,
instead of believing, if I giveyou some of what I have, there's
(36:33):
more than enough for everybody,because we come up with the
resources that are needed.
You know, even if it's not whatwe've already identified as a
resource, we create a newcontinue to thrive and within
that, you know thinking that,like what you're saying is, or
that we can get along becausethere is enough resources that
we can be able to give and notworry about.
(36:55):
You know, if I give them my,you know I don't'll only have
three left, and then they'llhave more than me.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
My life is worse.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
With the philosophy that you're talking about money
and relationships.
Does that work where there'slack or does it work where
abundance is abundant?
I guess that's the lack ofbetter words.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Does it work when there's no?
I mean, I don't think it workswhen there's a lack.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
I guess, when you have a lack mentality, because I
don't believe there's a finiteamount of resources.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
See, that's.
That's.
That's an interesting question,I feel like.
I feel like sometimes finite ismore a perception.
Okay, I mean, I do think thatthere's a debate that sure, some
things are finite, but I guessmy counter that would be even if
(37:59):
it if it is finite this is megetting way too philosophical
about it.
It's almost like money To adegree.
I guess one can make anargument that money is somewhat
finite.
I guess the counter questionwould be even if it is finite,
(38:22):
is it still possible to split itup enough where everyone is
able to live a decent, qualitylife?
Now, everyone might not be ableto live an extraordinary
lifestyle we can't all be JeffBezos or a billionaire but could
we all live a pretty happy andfulfilled life?
I think, if that's the question, the answer is yes.
Even if there's finiteresources, we could all live a
good life, as long as we're allhelping each other with that and
(38:44):
no one's taking too much ordoing it at the detriment of
someone else.
It's almost like if I had a nextdoor neighbor.
Me and the neighbor both have atree.
My tree grows apples, his growsoranges.
Maybe on any given day there'sone or two apples or oranges on
(39:07):
this tree we can happily share.
Maybe I give him all my orangesand I have none, but I'm happy
with it because I don't need anytoday.
I know some is going to growback.
It's technically finite, butsome will grow back in the
future.
He does the same finite, butsome will grow back in the
future.
He does the same.
The issue is that the issuecomes, I think, when he just
(39:28):
wants all of my oranges and he'snot willing to give me any of
his apples, or if I want all ofhis apples and I'm unwilling to
give any oranges ever.
Hopefully.
That's a really confusinganalogy.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I think it's a great analogy because that's kind of
what happens in our world.
But just by you saying that myoranges are going to grow back
tells me it's not finite.
You know, if an 80-foot cancount the amount of seeds in an
apple, the only guy can counthow many apples in a seed.
You know, when you startthinking about that.
(39:59):
And even money, money is justrepresentative of something
right?
Money in itself is worth work.
It's just a piece of paper, youknow, but it's what it
represents, and so it can't beto me.
It can't be finite because itjust represents, you know,
whatever is available for us,and we live in a world now that
I'm not going to do everythingfor myself.
(40:20):
I'm not going to grow my ownchickens and, you know, get my
own eggs and make my own cowsand all that.
So I have to use this money asa represent, a representation of
, uh, you know, of exchange, andwhat you're saying is as long
as we're willing to exchange andtrade.
You know, I don't know if it'sever going to be equal or or
(40:41):
even fair, uh, because there'sjust, there's just greed and all
the other stuff that goes inthe world that says that people
believe, if I, if I give yousomething that I don't have, if
we could really come to thebelief that, no, there's enough
for you know, there's enough forall of us.
I don't know, I, I don't.
(41:01):
I don't know how we get there.
But let's talk about money for alittle bit.
I mean because that's one ofyour three pillars that I would
love to kind of explore.
What is the relationship weshould have with money?
You know, because you hear allthe different philosophies, like
if I save it and it's in a pool, it does nothing for me.
(41:22):
If I invest it, then it canbring back returns.
If I squander it, then somepeople believe, well, I don't
deserve to have any.
What have you found?
That is this common ground ofthe relationship we should be
having with money in order tothrive.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
The relationship we should be having with money in
order to thrive.
In general, I would say mostpeople, for one, should
certainly live below their means.
I think it's always good tokind of try to increase whatever
income you have, and I say thismainly because, as someone who
(42:03):
was involved in real estate, Iknow of inflation.
Inflation is a thing.
So you don't want to just, forexample, if you're someone who
makes 50K, if you're contentwith 50K, I think that's
perfectly fine.
I think that's perfect.
If you're actually content with50K and you're living below
your means, I would say youshould still try to increase
your income, because the problemwith 50K is that in five years
(42:23):
and 10 years, 50k will beeffectively worth I'm
exaggerating a bit, but it'lleffectively be worth 30K or 20K
I'm exaggerating the numbers butit'll be worth less when it
comes to spending power.
So I think there's a certainlevel where you should be
content with the money you have.
You don't want to go above yourmeans, but you shouldn't be so
(42:48):
comfortable that you're nottrying to increase your income
in some way.
I'm weird about this.
I'm not a fan of doing too much.
Too often when I say that Iknow of most people, I can think
of kind of work, multiple jobs.
(43:08):
Without wanting to, I think ifyou're fine working multiple
jobs and job is subjective, Iguess but if you're someone who
say, for example, works a nineto five, then you work from five
to eight and then you have likea 8.30 to 1 am, I think you
should probably not.
You should try to find a way tonot do that if you can.
If you can, mainly because Ithink it'll just burn you out
(43:32):
and it'll take away from just acertain positive quality of life
.
I think if you're working 24-7,it's probably not going to be
the ideal lifestyle for you,unless you're someone who some
people I think are wired to justwork a lot.
I think if you're working 24-7,it's probably not going to be
the ideal lifestyle for you,unless you're someone who some
people I think are wired to justwork a lot.
I think that's totally fine.
I don't think that's mostpeople.
So if that's not you, Iwouldn't recommend it.
(43:55):
I definitely think investing isfantastic.
So personally I think investingin oneself is better.
I know that's not technicallyfinancial, but I still kind of
consider it financial adjacent.
I think investing in oneself isbetter than just investing in
things like S&P and justinvesting in real estate.
(44:16):
Primarily because I think thatif you can invest in yourself
and learn new skills, if you'resomeone who invests, say, for
example, in the ability to speak, you can start a podcast and
the podcast could be anadditional means of income.
It could be something that'senjoyable.
So it's still a job, but itcould be a nice job.
It's a job you actually don'tmind doing, whereas I think if
(44:39):
you're someone who just investsin, say, stocks or just in real
estate, the problem with thosethings partially in my
experience and partially fromstudies you, to a degree, can't
control those things and ifsomething happens that's outside
of your control, it might bedifficult to repeat prior
(45:00):
success, if that makes sense.
But if you invest in yourself,if you invest in skills, you
always have those skills, nomatter what happens.
If the market goes down, this isgetting financial.
But if the market goes down andyou're someone who can speak, if
you're someone who knows Idon't know technical skills like
building a website, seo,whatever it really doesn't
(45:22):
matter what happens market-wiseyou can at least, even if you
don't know what to do next, youcan always pivot your strategy
or learn something new.
Because if you're someone who'sbuilding skills.
Part of building skills ishaving the skill of being able
to consistently build skills, ifthat makes sense, whereas if
you just are someone whopassively invests in real estate
(45:43):
or stocks if I don't know, ifthe president does something in
all of our stocks, in all thecompany's stocks, go to zero
tomorrow there's not much youcan do about it.
There's no real skill that willhelp you overcome that problem.
Or I see some people who justinvest in things like Bitcoin
(46:04):
and crypto.
It's perfectly fine.
I think that's great, but I'veseen a lot of people who just
kind of put all their money in,hoping for the best and then,
when that cryptocurrency goesdown, they've lost all their
money and they can't do anythingabout it because you know that
was, that was their onlystrategy.
(46:25):
So hopefully that that kind ofanswers the question but yes, it
does.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
And uh, mr lady richard said you are, you were
hitting it so correctly in myviewpoint.
Because, um, when I think ofyou know, like you, with
investment, the number one thingyou can do is besting yourself.
The number one skill you canhave is the ability to
communicate, period.
You know you can have ideas.
(46:51):
Like you know, michael Goldentalks about there's four levels
of value, one being you knowwhere you just use your own
muscles and you work and youtrade time for money and that's
a level of value.
But you're capped out at about80 to maybe 100 grand.
If you're lucky, you're usingsome of your skills to duplicate
yourself so you don't have todo all the work and then the
(47:25):
work is done and it makes money.
But you're still limited, evenif you're a really good manager
at Lockheed making $250,000.
Lockheed owns you.
There's a ceiling on what youcan do, but once you jump into
the communication side of it andyou're an incredible
communicator, it's unlimited.
You know you're A-list actors,you're best singers, you're
(47:46):
people who are communicating.
And he says the last level isimagination and that's the
people, the Elon Musk of theworld who come up with ideas.
But even if you come up withideas, you've got to be able to
communicate it.
There's so many people who'vecome up with inventions that are
amazing and somebody elsecommunicated.
My greatest example is Ray Kroc.
Right, the McDonald brothershad this great, you know idea of
(48:10):
these hamburgers and flip-flops, or were able to do it really
well and communicate, in SanBernardino, california.
But it wasn't until Ray Kroccame around, took that idea and
communicated it and boom, wehave McDonald's, you know, the
largest real estate holder onthe entire planet.
And so when you start thinking,I mean I love what you're
saying, because if you'rewilling to spend that time on
you, you know, then you'reunlimited, you're becoming the
(48:33):
person that you need to be.
You know, when you just havemoney, you can say, well, I'm
just going to take my money andput it under a mattress, right.
You can say, well, I'm justgoing to take my money and put
it under a mattress, right.
Well, you already said it's adiminishing return, right,
because 10 years from now, it'sworth one third, or whatever it
is, two thirds of what it wasworth when you put it under your
mattress.
So that's not a good idea.
People tell us to save, save,save, save, save.
(48:53):
I'm not saying save beforeemergencies, then you go into
investment, right.
But if you're not, if you're notgrowing in your knowledge of
what that investment can do andyou're counting on somebody else
, oh my gosh, you haven't grown,you haven't been worked on
yourself and you might not beinvesting in things that you
believe in and things that youknow will actually go up, I mean
(49:14):
, over time.
You know, I guess that's whycompanies do it for employees
and they say we'll put money ina 401k and we'll we'll invest it
for you.
And then you know, we have dipsin the market where some people
like, oh my gosh, I thought my401k was going to sustain me and
then, but I lived an extra 20years longer than they thought I
was going to live and now Idon't have any money left, you
(49:37):
know.
So there's always, like yousaid, there's always got to be
the willingness, and I don'tknow if you have a percentage
that you thought through orthink through of how much should
be spent on yourself.
But people will spend more moneyon stuff, material things, like
a car or a house, or jewelry orshoes, or I mean, how many
(49:58):
people you know got a closetfull of Jordans, right?
And then you ask them well, howmuch money did you spend?
A closet full of Jordans.
Then you ask them how muchmoney did you spend on your
personal development?
Last year?
At least enough of two of thosepairs of tennis shoes.
Oh, no man, what's yourpercentage?
Thought on how much you'd bespending on working on yourself.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
I don't really have a hard number when it comes to
percentage.
I think it just kind of dependson the individual.
I know different books I'veread kind of have their own
different recommendations.
I would say part of it dependson, I think, where you are in
life and what your goals are.
(50:38):
Me personally, I'll spend mostof my money on personal
investment, like learning newskills, just because I think
that for me is the highest ROI,highest return on investment For
some people.
If you're, say someone, maybe ifyou're a college student, I
would still recommend it, but Ican understand that for a
(50:59):
college student maybe your goalis just kind of live life, have
fun, I think that's perfectlyfine too.
Life to me is also meant to belived, I think, to a degree if
you spend.
I'll share this story.
I have a friend of mine whohe's a little bit older than
myself, kind of mid 40sHopefully he doesn't get mad at
me for sharing this story, 40sHopefully he doesn't get mad at
(51:22):
me for sharing this story.
But me and him have thisconversation a lot where his
philosophy is pretty much everydollar I have gets invested.
And, as I tell him, I thinkthat's fine.
But the problem with that isthat you're not living life
anymore.
You're living life solely tosave money and solely to invest.
So then when opportunities Ishouldn't say opportunities,
(51:43):
it's not the best word but whenpeople invite him to say let's
just go hang out, let's go watchTV, let's just go relax for
once, let's go to the beach orwhatever, no, I can't, I got to
work.
No, I got to save all my money,it's like well, now it's.
(52:07):
I think at that point, if youthink of at least the way I
think about it.
I always think about health,wealth, relationships, these
pillars.
He's over emphasizing thewealth pillar but he's doing it
at the cost of his relationshippillar, because if you're
someone who's like hoardingmoney and you don't want to
spend any of it and you onlyinvest it and that's your whole
philosophy, people, I think,aren't going to find you fun.
They're not going to want to bearound you because they're
thinking to themselves.
I invited this guy to dinnerfor $20.
He won't come out because hewants to save that $20 and buy
(52:31):
stocks or put it somewhere.
So I don't really have a hardnumber.
I think it kind of depends.
I think there's a certainbalance.
If I had to give general ideaof numbers, I would say 35%
towards personal investing.
I think is pretty solid.
For the rest, depending onwhere you are in life, maybe 30%
(52:58):
have fun with it, the remainder, maybe 30% have fun with it.
The remainder save it, put inan emergency fund, maybe put
that into something more likelong-term investments, maybe put
that into real estate.
So that might be how I budgetedand bucketed out.
But I think it really justdepends on the person.
I think, as long as there'sbalance, that's kind of the key
(53:21):
thing that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
That makes sense Well , to me.
I think there's a minimum.
You know 15 percent should gointo at least.
Well, because what I see andyou tell me wrong is when I look
at what I mean, how much peoplespend on entertainment.
And you know, when I was doingfinancial advising and I was
thinking of all the things thatpeople will spend on sporting
(53:43):
events or on television or onmusic or you know, you can look
at their bank accounts and say,whoa, you're spending about 48%
of all of your incoming money tobe entertained by somebody else
who is taking that money andbecoming a millionaire or a
millionaire.
And you say, I want to be abillionaire, but I'm going to
spend all this money on myentertainment.
(54:03):
So at least take half of thatand start putting it into
yourself.
Right, and you know whetherit's like maybe it's a gym
membership, you know, for somepeople, but one that's actually
used.
Because the gym membership thatyou buy, that you go for one
month and don't do it anymore,is a waste of money.
It's not an investment anymore,it's just you know and the gym
(54:25):
has all these ways to entertainyou, but it's like, okay, so
what are you actually going todo?
And then, and then map that out.
You know, when you talk aboutcollege students that don't want
to invest in themselves, well,somebody's investing in them,
whether it's a student loan orit's a parented thing for that
amount of money and so.
But you can't make somebodyinvest in themselves or you
(54:45):
can't say I'm going to invest inyou and you have to take it
seriously.
You know it has to almost be.
I almost wish college educationthere was some.
Hey, I want this bad enoughthat I'm going to do whatever I
can.
That person who wants it badenough you find a way to to help
pay for it, because now theyare investing in themselves
instead of the person goes, oh,I just get a loan or all my mom
(55:06):
and dad will pay for it, youknow.
Well then, I'm not going to goto class, I'm just going to hang
out, relax and do whatever Ineed to be done.
Um, what I want to do, say andthank you for saying that
because, like so far, you'rejust.
You're just like reinsuring me,you're making me feel like I
got my life together.
Um, what do you?
Speaker 1 (55:27):
talk about.
I apologize, could I add onething, just please, please, um,
because when you mentioned theuh, the sporting events, I'm,
I'm with you, I'm 100 with youon that.
I think way too many peopleoverspend on maybe getting
tickets to a basketball,football game.
But I would say, if you'resomeone listening to this and
(55:48):
you really love sporting events,but you also again me trying to
balance things out maybe try tofind a way to watch sports and
also maybe get paid while doingit.
Maybe have an event.
I heard the story from someoneelse.
This is back in the day.
They'd get pay-per-view andthey'd invite their friends to
come over.
They'd buy food, pizza,whatever, but they'd charge the
(56:10):
people.
They invited pretty much acover to come over.
So they'd profit and they hadthe finance pillar built up, but
they also got the relationshippillar built up.
They made a profit off of it.
It kind of worked out.
They were paid to beentertained, um, so I agree, I
agree with you completely.
Speaker 2 (56:28):
I would just want to throw in if you can combine
those things, you might not haveto get rid of one completely,
but yeah, I love that becauseyou are now, you're making,
you're finding a way to, toutilize your, your abilities, to
be able to to capitalize.
You know what I see so hard isI and I want you to go to the
sporting events and I want youto enjoy the entertainment you
(56:49):
know.
But if you're watching, say you, you spend you know 500 on
football tickets to go to aprofessional football game.
By the time you you geteverything and then you say you
got to come home and go buy ajersey too.
Then he goes find another 175 ona jersey with somebody else's
name on the back like the gamewasn't enough yeah, yeah you're
like well, my lights are gettingweird, you know asking, you
(57:11):
know, hey, can you help me withthe?
Oh, you know, can you borrowsomebody to be able to, you know
, keep my lights on, orsomething like that.
It is just crazy, so cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
So what didn't we talk about that?
Speaker 2 (57:23):
you wanted to, that I didn't get to because I was
being selfish and asking you allthese questions that I read.
Speaker 1 (57:31):
No, this was a fantastic conversation.
I think we talked abouteverything.
I mean, I think, the mainthings from me.
As long as people are beingbalanced, heavily investing in
their time, making sure thatthey're actually spending their
time accordingly, not buyingjerseys or not overindulging in
sporting events if they can'tafford it, I think that's pretty
(57:53):
much, in my personal opinion, agood formula for a lot of
fulfillment and a lot of freedom.
That's pretty much it.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
Yeah.
So, and since you said that, Ijust want maybe we can end with
this, when we think aboutbalance and balance being a
season, or you know, cause,cause, can you be in focus, have
have focus, laser focus onwhatever the goal is achieving,
whatever it is you're trying todo, and be balanced?
Or is there a season of beingbalanced and you have to realize
(58:26):
that it fluctuates up and downbecause you know, like your
friend, I guess that wants tomake you know everything's
investing.
Is that a season or is thatlike a forever thing?
Because if it's a season andhe's trying, there's a certain
thing he wants to do, because hewants to go buy a company, and
you know, then that's going togive him some of the freedom to
(58:47):
be able to do some stuff, sohe's willing to sacrifice now or
if that's just a lifestyle,then he's way out of balance.
Right, but can it be?
Can you be totally focused onwhatever it is you're trying to
do and still be in balance?
Speaker 1 (59:06):
That is a very good question, you know.
I think it really depends onthe individual.
I think, in the grand scheme ofthings, I think there's
different seasons for everything.
If you're someone say, forexample, you're someone who,
hypothetically speaking, you'rein fantastic shape but you have
no money at all and you have norelationships, to me I would say
(59:31):
my suggestion would be maybetake a quarter, take a few
months.
Work almost solely on thefinances.
Don't stop working on health,of course, but if you're the
kind of person who's a gym rat,you go to the gym six times a
week.
Maybe cut back to two times aweek.
You can afford to not go everysingle day of the week.
If you're already perfectlyfine with that, focus more on
(59:53):
those hours.
You would be going to the gymor tracking calories.
Whatever you would do, work onyour finances.
Maybe you could at that pointget a second job, if it's not
going to burn you out.
Or if it's for a season, makesure, get a second job, get your
finances back on track.
Then after a quarter, see whereyou're at, review your finances
.
If you feel like you're ontrack, then maybe either
(01:00:16):
continue or take your foot offthe gas a little bit focus on
the relationship stuff.
So I think it kind of dependsand I think going through those
seasons and it's to me that's aform of balance.
I think if you're overdoing onething for way too long, it's
(01:00:37):
like my friend who's justinvesting.
To me that's not balance.
I don't know.
I just can't imagine it's goingto lead to the best potential
outcome by just focusing on onething for too long.
I do think you have to kind oftake time and understand that
there's seasons to things.
You have to kind of sit thereand identify which of these
(01:00:59):
things is the best to work on atany given time and really sit
there and review.
You know how long should I beworking on this?
Have a goal?
Is the goal panning out the wayI want to?
If it is maybe continue downthat path, down that trajectory,
if it's not try something else?
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Maybe get a new goal.
Depends on what the goal is.
Well, when I think about it,even nature gives us clues,
right, and so you know, naturehas summer, winter, spring and
fall.
There are seasons that are arenot.
They're opposite of each other,but they don't last forever.
You don't get summer for 12months, for four years, five
years, and I think some peopletreat their life as if no, my
(01:01:43):
balance has to be.
You know, yes, I can go througha 12 week or whatever it is
focused, I'm going to be out ofbalance.
I'm not going to have greatrelationships because I'm
working on this, this and this,but that can't go on for five
years, that can't go on for 10years.
(01:02:04):
You know, because you do have tohave, you have to have
relationships, you have to have,you know, your health, your
health will decline and thenyou're not going to be able to
enjoy any of it or do any of itif you let your health go, you
know, in pursuit of somethingelse, and so I 100 percent agree
with you Thank you for thankyou for spending the time with
us today, and just really I lovethe fact that I say I'm the
(01:02:25):
luckiest guy because I get tohave these conversations almost
every day with people where wetalk about what could make us
better, and I think you did agreat job or Lenny, I guess I
should say I don't want to callyou Larry, but Lenny that great
job of helping us think aboutsome of the things we can do
(01:02:47):
better in order to be better,and if we don't think about
those things first and we justgo out and continue to do, we
don't ever get to be, and Ithink we're human beings, not
human doers or human havers.
And so I appreciate you takingthat time.
Again, congratulations ongetting married and spending
that time, and I hope she'llwatch this and realize even how
(01:03:10):
much better you are than shethought you were.
We'll go from there, and so,for those of you who are
watching, go ahead and hit thesubscribe If this hits you in
any way that you think somebodyshould share it with people.
It's so funny that we talkabout well, this guy should hear
this and this guy Well, did youshare it with them?
(01:03:30):
No, because what would theythink about me?
Well, think that you shared avideo that they didn't watch, if
they really didn't watch it,but if there's a chance that
they would, and it helps theirlife.
You should share with them.
And so, uh, you know, I believe, your god's greatest gift, he
loves you.
If you allow him to and I hopeI can see you on some other ones
and so hit subscribe, you willfind, uh, several of these that
will meet those needs.
Uh, if you have any, oneclosing thought before we go, no
(01:03:54):
, that was it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
Um, I totally appreciate you having me on the
show.
It was fantastic, um, if anyonewants to reach out to me, feel
free.
My websitelennyrichardsononline.
Feel free to message me.
Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
That's it for me, though all right, so we'll see
you guys on the next one.
Have a great, incredible,awesome day today you.
What I say is that their expectations just don't
meet reality.
So I think that's kind of whathappiness is.
It makes me think about theidea of being enough.
If you feel like you're notenough, your expectations are
exceeding reality.
But the problem is, sometimesour expectations can be rooted
in imagination.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the Journey to Freedom podcast.
I'm Dr B and I'm your host.
Man.
What another day, what anexciting time to be around Today
.
You know, I'm not sure you knowwhen you're listening to this,
when you're watching, but as ofrecording today, this is
President's Day in 2025.
Just thinking about the countrythat we're in, the world that
(00:52):
we're in and the opportunitiesthat are there, I went over to
Costco today because they'reones who are sporting DE&I and
I'm not sure wherever you standon that, I, just as a Black man
who did his dissertation onopportunity, and you know versus
(01:12):
you know what somebody has thepotential to do, based on what
the opportunities are andrealizing as a country, we're
not quite there yet where we canjust go out at least this is my
belief where we can go out andmake sure that we have the same
opportunities as the rest of ourcounterparts that are in life.
And so, although I think thatDE&I needs to, you know, I guess
(01:37):
, when you think of theevolution of initiatives, you
know I think we're not in thesame place we might have been in
the 90s and the 2000s, but Istill don't think we're there
yet.
I think that there is time forit.
And you know, sometimes Iwonder what the fear is.
What is the fear If we haveprograms that allow people to
(01:59):
excel?
Is the fear that the folks thatare currently in power,
currently is the fear that thefolks that are currently in
power, currently in those jobs,currently, you know, running the
world, will not have thoseanymore and we have to be equal.
And so, Lenny, I'll beinterested after we hear your
story and just some of yourthought process, you know, on
this particular issue.
But other than that, man, wehave some opportunities.
(02:23):
I was talking to Lenny rightbefore the show and just
realized that he just gotmarried.
Oh my gosh, I'm so jealousright now because, just to go
back, to be able to, I'll be 60years old here in March and I
have eight children and 16grandkids and I go back to
thinking about I'm not sayingthis isn't a great time in life,
(02:46):
because it is, it is wonderful.
But you know, sometimes you,you wish you could go back, but
know what you know now, right,like, know everything.
I know that I'm 60 years oldand go back and start over and
do it again and all thedifferent things and all the,
all the growth that we wouldhave and all the you know.
I think the biggest thing thatI would say I would do
differently is I'd just do itfaster.
(03:07):
I would get to where I'm at somuch faster and I wouldn't do
some of the silly things that Idid.
I wouldn't spend so much timewatching TV and movies and some
of the things that I did I wouldnot change.
Any time with my kids.
I had some amazing as my kidswere growing up and learning who
(03:29):
to be.
You know, I think I could try.
I could be a better dad.
I could be, you know, morepresent.
I started out as a PE teacher,you know, when they were
starting to be born and so, youknow, I was able to be at.
You know every single one oftheir events and, you know, do
all that kind of stuff, and atone point my kids went to school
with me, At least my daughtersdid.
(03:51):
And so I got to be the favoritedad on campus and all that kind
of stuff.
But oh my gosh what it would belike to just, you know, love my
wife more and do more thingsthat would give us family time
and that kind of stuff.
So congratulations.
I'm so excited for you.
This is a great time, don't?
Cherish every moment that youcan, because it goes so fast.
(04:15):
I hope that I'd be like thebiblical characters where I can
live 700, 800 years.
I don't think that's going tohappen.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
That would be nice.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
That would be wonderful Cause then it'd be
like this is gonna get goingagain.
So you're like what would lifebe like at 200 years old?
Like what would you not know?
What else could you go?
Try you know?
But you're south of the hill,right?
You don't wanna be like laid upin bed at 200 years old.
You wanna be like Noah gettingready to build an ark.
I think he was 428 or somethinglike that when he started
(04:43):
building that ark, or 480.
That's why he's 480, because hewas 600 years old when the ark
went out.
So imagine what that would belike.
But I don't want to talk aboutme anymore today, and so, lenny,
I've asked you to tell yourstory.
I want you to talk about yourlife.
Whether you start at yourmama's womb and jump up to now
(05:04):
or somewhere in between, thisgets to be your opportunity,
your chance.
I just appreciate you being onand willing to take the time
with me today as we explore whoyou are, and so thanks again for
being on.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I'm ready to hear it.
All right.
Thank you again for having meon.
By the way, I appreciate this alot.
Yeah, so, man, I did not expectto tell the whole story, or I'm
trying to think of exactlywhat's where a good place to
begin is, but yeah, so, just asI guess it's a slight
introduction to myself, myname's Lenny Richardson.
(05:39):
One of the main things I kind oftalk about the most these days
is sort of time management andthe idea of being productive.
I know you mentioned earlier,Dr Arnold, that you have kind of
five pillars.
One of my, I guess, coremessages that I like to share
with people is sort of this ideaof building the pillars of
(06:01):
eudaimonia, and for anyonelistening that's not familiar
with that, it sort of comes fromGreek philosophy, kind of
classic Greek philosophy, andit's sort of basically what the
philosophers believed were theessential pillars towards a good
life.
For some people, freedom mightbe an idea behind it, but it's
(06:23):
essentially health, wealth andrelationships.
I know one of the pillars youmentioned was finance, but it's
essentially health, wealth andrelationships.
I know one of the pillars youmentioned was finance, but
building up your health pillar,building up your financial
wealth pillar and building upyour relationship pillar is sort
of the idea behind eudaimonia.
So that's kind of the coremessage that I like to share
with people.
The reason why I like thatmessage so much is because years
(06:46):
ago, over a decade ago at thispoint yeah, close to a decade,
at this point that was sort of alesson or an idea that I
learned that I would say waspretty pivotal in the grand
scheme of things.
Like I mentioned, if I talk toomuch, please cut me off.
Oh no, you're good.
(07:07):
Yeah, like man.
I think so years ago, maybeabout a decade or so ago.
This is something that myparents don't like me talking
about too much, but I kind ofwent through this really bad
bout of depression, and this iskind of back when I was in
college.
I was never clinicallydiagnosed, so I just want to put
(07:28):
that out there.
I know some people throw aroundthe word depression and some
people have been diagnosed, somepeople haven't.
I don't want to take away frompeople who were actually
diagnosed, but to me it feltlike severe depression, laying
in bed every day, just no energy.
I would skip class every singleday.
(07:49):
Pretty much Didn't want toassociate with friends.
A lot of it sounds embarrassingto say, but a lot of random
bouts of crying and tears forreasons in hindsight made no
real sense.
I guess At least my currentself would say it made no sense
Back then.
It made plenty of sense to me,but yeah, so really dark times
(08:13):
I'll call them, and so Iremember kind of me jumping
around in the story without Idon't want to make it too long
of a story, but at some point mythought process was I don't
like the way this situation I'min is.
I don't like feeling depressed,I don't like feeling so alone.
And so the idea I kind of hadwas how do I fix the situation
(08:37):
that I'm in?
And I didn't really have peoplearound me.
One, I didn't want to tellpeople about the depression I
was in.
Two, I think even if I knew ofsomeone who was going through
the same thing or could give mesolutions, but I just didn't
know who to go to.
So what I did is I just readbooks.
So I went to Penn State.
(09:00):
For anyone who may, be,familiar with Penn State.
Around the same time, because Iwasn't going to classes and
because I had switched my major,a lot of things escalated.
I got kicked out of college andI could no longer use the
campus library because you hadto have a valid ID and check out
books.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You could go inside, huh, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I could go inside, but you couldn't check
out any books.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So and at the time too, because I wasn't a student,
I had to I kind of got throwninto the work world much faster
than I anticipated.
So what I would do is I wouldgo to this library off campus
and I would kind of just make alist of different books I wanted
(09:46):
to take out, or at leastdifferent topics, kind of
jumping around.
I eventually started readingphilosophy, and that's where I
learned about this concept ofeudaimonia.
I think I was reading maybe theRepublic by Aristotle or Plato
I think it's by Plato, but thebook's irrelevant.
But eventually I came acrossthis idea of eudaimonia coined
by Socrates, and he said youknow, if you want to live a
(10:06):
fulfilled life, if you want tokind of have freedom in your
life, um, and live the highestquality life possible, you
should seek out building thesepillars, get in the best shape
you possibly can.
You don't need to be rich, butyou do need to be at least
financially living below yourmeans and you need to build high
quality relationships.
And this isn't, you know, thisis a combination of platonic and
(10:34):
romantic.
Um, he's not suggesting theplayboy lifestyle for anyone
that's listening, but, you know,just having a good social
circle and having goodrelationships with people.
So it's weird because when Iheard that like, as I'm reading
this, half of it sounded obviousLike sure you know, be healthy,
have money, have a good socialcircle there, and I thought to
(11:05):
myself I'm not doing any ofthese three things.
I had no money, despite workingtwo jobs.
I had really no good socialcircle because I was so busy
working I wasn't taking the timeto build relationships with
people.
I didn't have a girlfriend atthe time.
If I wanted to have agirlfriend, I certainly don't
think I'd be able to pull it off.
And then, health wise, I waspretty out of shape at the time.
(11:25):
I had a history of growing upwith kind of health issues.
I had really bad asthma thatled to me taking these steroids
which made me gain lots ofweight, and then I became obese,
and it was I didn't really knowexactly at that time in the
past how to break, I guess, thatcycle of obesity.
So, I struggled with my health alot when I was younger.
(11:48):
But, yeah, I'm kind of sittingthere reading this book and I'm
thinking to myself, wow, this isobvious and I'm not doing any
of it, so let me try to fix that.
So I spent maybe about a fewyears, probably about five-ish
years, really trying to dial inhow to get in much better shape,
(12:08):
how to focus on my, how tounderstand how to count calories
, how to work out efficientlywithout injuring myself,
understanding more aboutfinances.
Finances led me into becoming areal estate agent.
I'm still licensed as a realestate agent, even though I
don't really do it that much.
That led to a whole separatecareer path and, finally, with
(12:34):
relationships, I did have mytime where I tried to go on
dates and try to figure thingsout with that.
Eventually, that led to megetting married, which I just
got married July 8th of or, I'msorry, august 8th of last year.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Make sure you remember that one.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, I tried to correct myself, but hopefully
the wife does not see that part.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Oh, you got fast.
You got out fast.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
It was just a just a slip of the tongue you were
thinking about it you're likeyeah but but yeah, um, so yeah
that's uh, that was kind of thethe goal around that time.
I did eventually get back intocollege, but the goal was for me
to kind of build those thingsup, understand those three
pillars more.
And that's been kind of thething I've been promoting a lot
(13:23):
lately.
That's kind of the message I'vebeen sharing, um, and what
actually when I saw your, when Ikind of the thing I've been
promoting a lot lately, that'skind of the message I've been
sharing, and actually when I sawyour, when I kind of saw your
podcast, the idea of findingfreedom, to me those things link
up so much.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Like.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I feel like I don't know.
It's weird because I think thisis this might be like a hot
take, I don't know.
I feel like freedom is almostself-defined.
I think there's certain thingsthat'll help you find freedom.
To me, it's difficult if you'reextremely unhealthy to be free,
because I think to some degreeyou're kind of a Victim might
(14:00):
not be the best word, but you'realmost a victim to your health.
Same with finances If you'refine, you don't need to be rich.
I know people online say youneed to be millionaire, super
rich.
I don't believe in that.
I think you just need to beliving below your means.
I think if you're someone who'sliving paycheck to paycheck
some people do it intentionallyIf you're doing it
(14:22):
unintentionally, then I thinkyou can be sort of a victim to
your finances, which to me meansyou're not free.
Same with relationships If youhave poor relationships, if you
don't have people around youthat are supportive, or if you
don't have even an internalrelationship with yourself
that's supportive, some peoplehave bad self-talk.
(14:43):
I think that puts you in aposition where you also can't be
free.
You're almost a victim toeither your external the people
who are around you externally oreven yourself, mentally,
psychologically.
So I think the three of thosethings kind of create this idea
of freedom, even no matter whatyour true definition of freedom
will be subjectively.
(15:04):
I think to a degree you have tohave all three of those things
at least somewhat worked on ifthat makes sense.
But yeah, so I spent a lot oftime doing that and kind of over
the years I did what I call Icall this the master's degree of
life pretty much, where youspend a lot of your 20s and 30s
(15:29):
just doing stuff and makingmistakes so that way you can
just learn lessons, learnvaluable lessons that hopefully
you don't make mistakes multipletimes, I guess is kind of where
I'm getting at with that.
But spent a lot of time gettingmy master's degree of life.
And then eventually I had a fewpeople reach out and they kind
(15:52):
of said you managed to get somuch done in what seems like a
little bit of time Before I was30, wrote I can't talk today
wrote a few books.
I had a podcast myself inNorthern Virginia.
It did pretty well.
I worked at a law firm one ofthe best law firms in Northern
Virginia did real estate for alittle bit.
(16:14):
It was a lot kind of packedinto relatively a short period
of time and I thought to myselfyou know what?
Maybe I can help other peopledo this exact same thing and
kind of pretty much, even thoughwe all have 24 hours in a day.
Perhaps I can help other peoplestructure their day
appropriately.
So that way, if you are thekind of person that wants to get
(16:34):
in shape, wants to get betterwith your finances, wants to
have better relationships, ormaybe you just have hobbies that
you want to pursue but you feellike you can't really dedicate
time to pursuing them, maybe Ican help other people do those
things.
So that's kind of where all thebad stuff, in a weird way, was
(16:57):
sort of one of the best things.
I call it a blessing indisguise.
At the time it was horrible, itwas a terrible situation for me
to be in at least disguise.
At the time it was horrible, itwas a terrible situation for me
to be in at least, but it endedup being pretty beneficial, I
would say, in the grand schemeof things, so far at least.
So that's kind of what I sharethe idea of eudaimonia and the
idea of time management, justbecause, as I was sort of
(17:18):
helping people build up thesethree pillars.
I found it difficult to sort ofwhat's a good way to put this.
Everyone has differentpriorities with these pillars,
which is completely fine.
It's difficult to get everyoneto kind of focus on all three,
and so what I kind of realizedis, instead of trying to get
(17:39):
people to focus on health, moneyand relationships, what if I
just help them with the thingthat sort of leads to all those
things being built, which istime?
It's really how you structureyour day.
So that's kind of where thingsare now in current life.
I created this company calledProductivity Accelerator, trying
(17:59):
to help people with their timeand with structuring their day
so that way, hopefully, they'lluse their newfound time and
their new positive, structuredday to build their health the
way they want to build theirfinances, the way they want to
create the quality relationshipsplatonically or romantically,
whatever they want.
(18:19):
They'll have the time to dothat so that way they can live
that fulfilled life or that freelife, have freedom.
So that's kind of where we'reat now.
I don't want to.
I can continue if you want meto.
I didn't want to go too deep onit, no.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I think I got.
I got a few questions that Ithink will kind of kind of
spring for our conversation, andthen one's a philosophy
question that I'd love to askyou.
But when I think about theconcept of time and we think
about what freedom is and how ifwe could get the belief system
of people to understand thattime is infinitely more valuable
(18:57):
than money.
If I were to write you a checkfor a million dollars and say
here's a million dollars, butyou's a million dollars, but you
can only get one week to live.
Or, as it rates you a check fora thousand dollars and say I
promise you you get to live 200,which is more important, and I
would think that 99.9% wouldthink that the hundred dollars
(19:21):
and the thousand dollars and getto live to a hundred, instead
of taking a million dollars andget to live a week, because you
know the proof of what our end,because that goes into our
relationships, right, becausesomebody's on their deathbed.
They're not saying I wish Iwould have spent more time at
work, I wish I would have spentmore time making money, because
you can't take the money withyou, but they would say I wish I
(19:41):
spent more time with my spouse,or I wish I spent more time
with my spouse, or I wish Ispent more time with my kids or
my parents, or whatever thosequality relationships are.
No-transcript.
(20:07):
That I had for you, um, is aquote that, uh, I've been
pondering for a while now and itgoes like this enough is not an
amount, it's relationship withwhat you have right now.
So think about that for a second.
Enough is not an amount.
I think we spend so much timethinking I'm not enough, not
(20:31):
just in amount of money.
I'm not enough for myrelationships, I'm not enough
for the things that I do.
I don't feel like I'm enough tobe the person I need to be.
But it's not an amount and Ithink we equate it to be an
amount and but really it's justrelationship with what you have
right now and then your beliefin isn't enough.
(20:53):
And that's where you weretalking about.
You don't have to be super rich, you don't have to be.
I think freedom is the timehaving time to, just because I
think people can own your time.
You know people can tell youwhen you're, when you're in a
poverty situation and you'rejust going to work and barely
making it, somebody owns yourtime right.
They tell you when you can getup.
They tell you when you can takea break.
(21:13):
They know you go to thebathroom.
Tell you when you can get.
You know you can go uh home.
They tell you you know which,where you, what movies you get
to watch, what do you get to dowith your spare time.
All that is determined whenyou're in that stressful
situation of not having enoughto be able to do some of the
things, uh, that you would loveto do and have the freedom to do
(21:34):
it kind of when you want to doit.
So I'll let you, because you'rea philosopher and I love it.
You got the masters inphilosophy of life.
So talk to me about enough isnot enough.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, no, I've never heard that expression, but I
love that and this makes yousaying that it reminded me of
this is sort of.
This is a philosophy I've beenkind of thinking about for a
little bit, maybe about a yearor two, because sometimes I'll
kind of go through differentwebsites like Reddit, instagram,
facebook and you kind of youget into the uh sort of the I
(22:09):
guess the, the black hole of thefeed or the black hole of just
kind of scrolling sometimes, andI get interested when I read
what people write, and sometimesI see people talk about like,
being unhappy.
Um, we, we talked earlier aboutrelationships, I think, before
the the show started.
Um, I see that a lot withpeople with relationships,
(22:30):
people say, well, I'm not happywith my partner or I can't find
a suitable partner for whateverreason.
Um, and it made me think again.
This is my theory.
I feel like the common idea, atleast that I'm hearing from a
lot of people, when they feellike they're unhappy with
something, is what I say is thattheir expectations just don't
(22:52):
meet reality.
So I think that's kind of whathappiness is, and it makes me
think about the idea of beingenough.
If you feel like you're notenough.
It's because you expectsomething more, like your
expectations are exceedingreality.
But the problem is sometimesour expectations, in my opinion,
can be rooted in imaginationand sometimes your imagination
(23:14):
can be so outlandish or justcompletely unrealistic that
you're.
It's kind of like I'll hearpeople say I want to be a
billionaire and I always askpeople why do you have that
number?
Why do you want to be abillionaire?
Why a billionaire?
Why not like 100,000 air ormillionaires extreme too but why
a billion?
And I think people just hearother people say I want to be a
(23:36):
billionaire, and so they repeatit and which is fine to have big
goals.
But my issue is that the oddsof you being a billionaire is
probably unlikely.
It's good to try if you want to, but the downside is that if
after 5, 10, 15, 20 years youaren't a billionaire, I think
(23:58):
you'll make yourself at leastthese people who have that goal.
They'll make themselves unhappy.
And I think the reason isbecause their expectation is
that I should be a billionairebecause I want to be a
billionaire, when in reality, ifthey just appreciated the
current reality they had andmaybe in pursuit of being a
billionaire, they have afantastic life.
Maybe they became a millionaire, hypothetically speaking, but
(24:21):
because their expectation isbillionaire and it wasn't
millionaire, or it wasn't justbe happy, whatever, something a
little bit more realistic,they're always going to be
unhappy.
They'll never be enough forthemselves.
That's kind of.
When you brought up thatstatement, it made me think
about that idea of happiness andexpectations meeting reality.
(24:43):
So yeah, I don't't know.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I like that quote I've never heard that before,
but I'm gonna, I'm gonna stealthat.
I love that because I don'tthink most people want to be
billionaires.
I think they want the lifestylethat they think a billion
dollars gives you.
But if they were to really, ifthey really map that out and
what it takes to be abillionaire, they don't want to
be a billionaire, they want tospend like a billionaire would
spend, but then they don't evenrealize that that gets old after
(25:12):
.
If you have a billion dollars,you can't spend it.
You really can't unless you'rebuying corporations and
everything else.
But if you were just to spendit on lifestyle, it's impossible
to spend a billion dollars onlifestyle because there's only
so much you can have and thatgoes back to that amount.
And so one of the things thatthat that triggers to me is
(25:32):
identity and who we are Rightand who we believe we are, and
how do we change that identity.
You know, like one of my lifegoals is to help people become
the person that they need to bein order to do what God put them
on the circuit to do.
How do you become that person?
Because if you're not spendingtime doing that, then that's
really difficult to do.
Like we get to have thisconversation, you and I, where
(25:54):
we get to talk about this stuffbecause we have enough freedom
in our lives to be able to mapout some time to be able just to
have conversations.
So we're not in this survivalmode.
You know, paycheck to paycheck.
If I don't do this today then Imight not have my lights on, I
might not be able to live, andwe get to kind of talk about
(26:15):
some of this stuff when we thinkabout identity, you know who,
how, how is our identity shapedthat allows you and I to be able
to have these conversations,and then our friend down the
street to not be able to havethose conversations because of
where their identity is doesn'tallow them to move forward.
So what do you think in yourlife so far?
(26:38):
Because obviously everythingdidn't go right.
All the time you don't getkicked out of school or not be
able to go to school ifeverything didn't go right.
All the time you don't getkicked out of school or not be
able to go to school ifeverything's going perfectly
right, you know, or you'rehaving to work more than you
want to.
But what are those?
Those things?
Are those people who came intoyour lives, relationships that
helped shape the man that youare today you're asking.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
You said which relationships help.
Yeah, what?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
things, what points of interest, what pivotal things
happen that help shape thatidentity that allows you to be
who you are?
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
It's a combination of a lot ofthings I know.
For me, parents were a bigthing.
My parents, thankfully, wereextremely supportive throughout
my entire life as I do this fromtime to time.
(27:39):
I've thought about this in thepast because so I'm from
Philadelphia, from WestPhiladelphia, and I know when I
was young my parents made it abig effort to move out of West
Philadelphia and I have somefamily that Not to go there.
No, unfortunately.
No, that would be nice, but youknow it's funny Whenever I tell
(28:05):
people I'm from WestPhiladelphia, you're the only
person that's never sang theFresh.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Prince song, but yeah no.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
But yeah, thankfully they made it a mission to move
out as quickly as they could.
And I think about it sometimesbecause just another one of my
personal philosophies I thinkit's easy for a lot of people to
.
I've had conversations withpeople and I say to them
(28:40):
sometimes good things kind ofjust happen to you fortunately,
and those good things kind ofcreate sort of almost a catalyst
of more good things happening.
Okay, I think for me, myparents, moving out of West
Philly was probably thatcatalyst that I can't take any
credit for.
Moving out of West Philly wasprobably that catalyst that I
(29:01):
can't take any credit for,because I've seen some people
who never and some people stayin West Philly and they do
perfectly fine and they leadsuccessful lives.
But I always think about what ifI stayed?
What would that be like?
What if I went to the publicschools in Philadelphia?
What if it was more dangerous?
What if I joined maybe somegang or I don't know?
What if it was more dangerous?
(29:22):
What if I joined maybe somegang or I don't know?
I think about that a lot.
So, as far as peopleinfluencing me, I think my
parents was a huge influence,very supportive, very forward
thinking, and they sacrificed,of course, a lot to kind of help
me with which I take zerocredit for.
So that's all on them, I dothink.
As far as other influences, Idon't know if I would say that
there's a lot of, maybe,personal influences, at least
(29:46):
when I was in college, moreactively trying to change my
identity, if we put it that way.
I know sometimes, for me atleast, besides reading books and
I would say books are what's agood way to put this Sort of a
(30:06):
good resource that helped mechange my identity.
Sometimes some YouTube videos,I'll be honest, and some
channels, just different peoplewith good, positive mindsets
also to me, were good influencesand they helped me change my
identity sort of in a positiveway.
Um, yeah, I would say for themost part my parents were kind
(30:27):
of the main ones.
They were always just reallypositive and very they really
helped me kind of stay on track.
Um, a lot of it besides thatkind of came from a few people
I'd meet who were just goodinfluences, but maybe not in an
extreme way.
A lot of it was books just forme reading.
Maybe a book would lead me to avideo or lead me to a concept
(30:47):
and I'd go down a rabbit hole.
I don't want to take away frompeople who I've met who
certainly were good influencesand help shape in a good way
that I'm not giving credit to.
But yeah, if I had to give ananswer, I'll say my parents are
probably 95 percent of it.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
it is absolutely a village that raises you and
shapes your identity and that'sfor all of us.
And then you wonder sometimesyou go, okay, so it goes both
ways.
Right, there, there's alwaystwo sides to every point.
There's, you know, there's nosuch thing as a one-sided piece
of bread or one-sided coin orone-sided pancake, and so it can
(31:26):
go that way so you can havethose influences in your life.
Like you thought about, if Iwould have stayed, what would
the other side of that coin looklike?
And when I start thinking aboutabsolutely a thousand percent,
is the books you read.
Right, because, because nowyou're listening to people that
have gone before you that you'reinterested in, absolutely, it
(31:49):
could be YouTube and and thepeople that you listen to and
the, you know the way that itforms, how you think, that
informs how you think.
I mean, and you can go bothways I mean there's people who
watch reels all day long, everyday, to get entertainment value
but no educational value, and Ithink those two things are so
(32:10):
separate.
You know, education doesn'tnecessarily have to come from a
school, of a teacher in the wayour traditional thing, but, um,
if we're, if we spend our timetrying to be entertained, and
then we don't spend our timetrying to be educated on how do
I move forward, how do I dothings, which is kind of cool,
because I think the statistic Iheard was 80% of all search
(32:32):
videos on YouTube are how-tovideos instead of just
entertainment.
Now, if you were to go toInstagram or TikTok or any of
those, I don't think you'regoing to see as many searches
for educational outings.
They're just straightentertainment.
But identity is who we are, youknow, and without seeking out,
(32:56):
at some point, those greatrelationships, like you know you
, you just got married and sothat's a relationship that I'm
sure that you plan onflourishing in a positive way,
you know, and you guys feed offeach other and you ask each
other questions and and you moveforward, um, but without
working on identity because Ithink about living in purpose
and I think I see you living insome of your purpose.
(33:19):
You know, as you know, your,your modium and your three
pillars, and you know, but Idon't know if you can live
totally in purpose withoutserving others.
And I'd love to hear what your?
Thoughts are on what it meansto serve others, and I know you
talked about the company youstarted, and can one live in
purpose and be growing and, youknow, thriving, without serving
(33:42):
others?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
my.
My simple answer is no, I don'tthink you could.
I, I can't imagine a realitywhere that's possible.
Um, funny enough, years ago I Ikind of once thought you could
kind of just live sort of anideal lifestyle by yourself, and
it didn't take me very long torealize that that's pretty much
impossible, I think, I don'tknow.
(34:06):
No matter what, I think we allkind of rely on each other.
Maybe rely is a strong word,but to a degree we all have to
kind of have a certain positiverelationship with each other in
order to thrive.
And there definitely is a sensethat you have to serve other
people in order to thrive.
I mean, in any sense, whetherit's business related.
(34:27):
If you have a business, youhave to serve your clients or
employees in order to thrive asa business.
From a personal standpoint, ifyou want to build relationships,
you have to in a sense serveyour friends or your family.
You have to do things for them,and that might sound, I know,
doing things for people.
Sometimes to some people thatmight sound like, oh, I have to
(34:48):
just always do what they want.
That's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
There's a certain word I'm looking for.
There's certain reciprocitythat needs to occur between
people.
In order for you to thrive, youneed to do things for them, and
there's a certain expectation,a quiet expectation in a sense,
it's not a bad one, but there'san expectation that they'll do
something for you, and I thinkthis is just how we as humans,
we as a society, this is how wethrive.
(35:16):
I actually think when people,when you see kind of the
breakdown of communities, it'swhen that relationship kind of
gets distorted, where you haveone side that might be taking
too much and not giving back.
At least that's kind of how Icurrently see it.
Maybe that'll change in thefuture, but I think that's kind
of the one of the main reasonsthat that I don't know different
(35:39):
groups kind of break down.
Some people in the group aretaking too much, others might be
giving, but there's not a goodreciprocation, if that makes
sense.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Well, absolutely.
And serving others doesn't meanthat and I want to really kind
of define this, as we sometimeshave this belief that there's
lack, that there is an abundance, that there's a finite amount
(36:13):
of resources, finite amount ofresources and if I give you some
of what I have, then there'snot going to be enough for me,
instead of believing, if I giveyou some of what I have, there's
(36:33):
more than enough for everybody,because we come up with the
resources that are needed.
You know, even if it's not whatwe've already identified as a
resource, we create a newcontinue to thrive and within
that, you know thinking that,like what you're saying is, or
that we can get along becausethere is enough resources that
we can be able to give and notworry about.
(36:55):
You know, if I give them my,you know I don't'll only have
three left, and then they'llhave more than me.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
My life is worse.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
With the philosophy that you're talking about money
and relationships.
Does that work where there'slack or does it work where
abundance is abundant?
I guess that's the lack ofbetter words.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Does it work when there's no?
I mean, I don't think it workswhen there's a lack.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
I guess, when you have a lack mentality, because I
don't believe there's a finiteamount of resources.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
See, that's.
That's.
That's an interesting question,I feel like.
I feel like sometimes finite ismore a perception.
Okay, I mean, I do think thatthere's a debate that sure, some
things are finite, but I guessmy counter that would be even if
(37:59):
it if it is finite this is megetting way too philosophical
about it.
It's almost like money To adegree.
I guess one can make anargument that money is somewhat
finite.
I guess the counter questionwould be even if it is finite,
(38:22):
is it still possible to split itup enough where everyone is
able to live a decent, qualitylife?
Now, everyone might not be ableto live an extraordinary
lifestyle we can't all be JeffBezos or a billionaire but could
we all live a pretty happy andfulfilled life?
I think, if that's the question, the answer is yes.
Even if there's finiteresources, we could all live a
good life, as long as we're allhelping each other with that and
(38:44):
no one's taking too much ordoing it at the detriment of
someone else.
It's almost like if I had a nextdoor neighbor.
Me and the neighbor both have atree.
My tree grows apples, his growsoranges.
Maybe on any given day there'sone or two apples or oranges on
(39:07):
this tree we can happily share.
Maybe I give him all my orangesand I have none, but I'm happy
with it because I don't need anytoday.
I know some is going to growback.
It's technically finite, butsome will grow back in the
future.
He does the same finite, butsome will grow back in the
future.
He does the same.
The issue is that the issuecomes, I think, when he just
(39:28):
wants all of my oranges and he'snot willing to give me any of
his apples, or if I want all ofhis apples and I'm unwilling to
give any oranges ever.
Hopefully.
That's a really confusinganalogy.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I think it's a great analogy because that's kind of
what happens in our world.
But just by you saying that myoranges are going to grow back
tells me it's not finite.
You know, if an 80-foot cancount the amount of seeds in an
apple, the only guy can counthow many apples in a seed.
You know, when you startthinking about that.
(39:59):
And even money, money is justrepresentative of something
right?
Money in itself is worth work.
It's just a piece of paper, youknow, but it's what it
represents, and so it can't beto me.
It can't be finite because itjust represents, you know,
whatever is available for us,and we live in a world now that
I'm not going to do everythingfor myself.
(40:20):
I'm not going to grow my ownchickens and, you know, get my
own eggs and make my own cowsand all that.
So I have to use this money asa represent, a representation of
, uh, you know, of exchange, andwhat you're saying is as long
as we're willing to exchange andtrade.
You know, I don't know if it'sever going to be equal or or
(40:41):
even fair, uh, because there'sjust, there's just greed and all
the other stuff that goes inthe world that says that people
believe, if I, if I give yousomething that I don't have, if
we could really come to thebelief that, no, there's enough
for you know, there's enough forall of us.
I don't know, I, I don't.
(41:01):
I don't know how we get there.
But let's talk about money for alittle bit.
I mean because that's one ofyour three pillars that I would
love to kind of explore.
What is the relationship weshould have with money?
You know, because you hear allthe different philosophies, like
if I save it and it's in a pool, it does nothing for me.
(41:22):
If I invest it, then it canbring back returns.
If I squander it, then somepeople believe, well, I don't
deserve to have any.
What have you found?
That is this common ground ofthe relationship we should be
having with money in order tothrive.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
The relationship we should be having with money in
order to thrive.
In general, I would say mostpeople, for one, should
certainly live below their means.
I think it's always good tokind of try to increase whatever
income you have, and I say thismainly because, as someone who
(42:03):
was involved in real estate, Iknow of inflation.
Inflation is a thing.
So you don't want to just, forexample, if you're someone who
makes 50K, if you're contentwith 50K, I think that's
perfectly fine.
I think that's perfect.
If you're actually content with50K and you're living below
your means, I would say youshould still try to increase
your income, because the problemwith 50K is that in five years
(42:23):
and 10 years, 50k will beeffectively worth I'm
exaggerating a bit, but it'lleffectively be worth 30K or 20K
I'm exaggerating the numbers butit'll be worth less when it
comes to spending power.
So I think there's a certainlevel where you should be
content with the money you have.
You don't want to go above yourmeans, but you shouldn't be so
(42:48):
comfortable that you're nottrying to increase your income
in some way.
I'm weird about this.
I'm not a fan of doing too much.
Too often when I say that Iknow of most people, I can think
of kind of work, multiple jobs.
(43:08):
Without wanting to, I think ifyou're fine working multiple
jobs and job is subjective, Iguess but if you're someone who
say, for example, works a nineto five, then you work from five
to eight and then you have likea 8.30 to 1 am, I think you
should probably not.
You should try to find a way tonot do that if you can.
If you can, mainly because Ithink it'll just burn you out
(43:32):
and it'll take away from just acertain positive quality of life
.
I think if you're working 24-7,it's probably not going to be
the ideal lifestyle for you,unless you're someone who some
people I think are wired to justwork a lot.
I think if you're working 24-7,it's probably not going to be
the ideal lifestyle for you,unless you're someone who some
people I think are wired to justwork a lot.
I think that's totally fine.
I don't think that's mostpeople.
So if that's not you, Iwouldn't recommend it.
(43:55):
I definitely think investing isfantastic.
So personally I think investingin oneself is better.
I know that's not technicallyfinancial, but I still kind of
consider it financial adjacent.
I think investing in oneself isbetter than just investing in
things like S&P and justinvesting in real estate.
(44:16):
Primarily because I think thatif you can invest in yourself
and learn new skills, if you'resomeone who invests, say, for
example, in the ability to speak, you can start a podcast and
the podcast could be anadditional means of income.
It could be something that'senjoyable.
So it's still a job, but itcould be a nice job.
It's a job you actually don'tmind doing, whereas I think if
(44:39):
you're someone who just investsin, say, stocks or just in real
estate, the problem with thosethings partially in my
experience and partially fromstudies you, to a degree, can't
control those things and ifsomething happens that's outside
of your control, it might bedifficult to repeat prior
(45:00):
success, if that makes sense.
But if you invest in yourself,if you invest in skills, you
always have those skills, nomatter what happens.
If the market goes down, this isgetting financial.
But if the market goes down andyou're someone who can speak, if
you're someone who knows Idon't know technical skills like
building a website, seo,whatever it really doesn't
(45:22):
matter what happens market-wiseyou can at least, even if you
don't know what to do next, youcan always pivot your strategy
or learn something new.
Because if you're someone who'sbuilding skills.
Part of building skills ishaving the skill of being able
to consistently build skills, ifthat makes sense, whereas if
you just are someone whopassively invests in real estate
(45:43):
or stocks if I don't know, ifthe president does something in
all of our stocks, in all thecompany's stocks, go to zero
tomorrow there's not much youcan do about it.
There's no real skill that willhelp you overcome that problem.
Or I see some people who justinvest in things like Bitcoin
(46:04):
and crypto.
It's perfectly fine.
I think that's great, but I'veseen a lot of people who just
kind of put all their money in,hoping for the best and then,
when that cryptocurrency goesdown, they've lost all their
money and they can't do anythingabout it because you know that
was, that was their onlystrategy.
(46:25):
So hopefully that that kind ofanswers the question but yes, it
does.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
And uh, mr lady richard said you are, you were
hitting it so correctly in myviewpoint.
Because, um, when I think ofyou know, like you, with
investment, the number one thingyou can do is besting yourself.
The number one skill you canhave is the ability to
communicate, period.
You know you can have ideas.
(46:51):
Like you know, michael Goldentalks about there's four levels
of value, one being you knowwhere you just use your own
muscles and you work and youtrade time for money and that's
a level of value.
But you're capped out at about80 to maybe 100 grand.
If you're lucky, you're usingsome of your skills to duplicate
yourself so you don't have todo all the work and then the
(47:25):
work is done and it makes money.
But you're still limited, evenif you're a really good manager
at Lockheed making $250,000.
Lockheed owns you.
There's a ceiling on what youcan do, but once you jump into
the communication side of it andyou're an incredible
communicator, it's unlimited.
You know you're A-list actors,you're best singers, you're
(47:46):
people who are communicating.
And he says the last level isimagination and that's the
people, the Elon Musk of theworld who come up with ideas.
But even if you come up withideas, you've got to be able to
communicate it.
There's so many people who'vecome up with inventions that are
amazing and somebody elsecommunicated.
My greatest example is Ray Kroc.
Right, the McDonald brothershad this great, you know idea of
(48:10):
these hamburgers and flip-flops, or were able to do it really
well and communicate, in SanBernardino, california.
But it wasn't until Ray Kroccame around, took that idea and
communicated it and boom, wehave McDonald's, you know, the
largest real estate holder onthe entire planet.
And so when you start thinking,I mean I love what you're
saying, because if you'rewilling to spend that time on
you, you know, then you'reunlimited, you're becoming the
(48:33):
person that you need to be.
You know, when you just havemoney, you can say, well, I'm
just going to take my money andput it under a mattress, right.
You can say, well, I'm justgoing to take my money and put
it under a mattress, right.
Well, you already said it's adiminishing return, right,
because 10 years from now, it'sworth one third, or whatever it
is, two thirds of what it wasworth when you put it under your
mattress.
So that's not a good idea.
People tell us to save, save,save, save, save.
(48:53):
I'm not saying save beforeemergencies, then you go into
investment, right.
But if you're not, if you're notgrowing in your knowledge of
what that investment can do andyou're counting on somebody else
, oh my gosh, you haven't grown,you haven't been worked on
yourself and you might not beinvesting in things that you
believe in and things that youknow will actually go up, I mean
(49:14):
, over time.
You know, I guess that's whycompanies do it for employees
and they say we'll put money ina 401k and we'll we'll invest it
for you.
And then you know, we have dipsin the market where some people
like, oh my gosh, I thought my401k was going to sustain me and
then, but I lived an extra 20years longer than they thought I
was going to live and now Idon't have any money left, you
(49:37):
know.
So there's always, like yousaid, there's always got to be
the willingness, and I don'tknow if you have a percentage
that you thought through orthink through of how much should
be spent on yourself.
But people will spend more moneyon stuff, material things, like
a car or a house, or jewelry orshoes, or I mean, how many
(49:58):
people you know got a closetfull of Jordans, right?
And then you ask them well, howmuch money did you spend?
A closet full of Jordans.
Then you ask them how muchmoney did you spend on your
personal development?
Last year?
At least enough of two of thosepairs of tennis shoes.
Oh, no man, what's yourpercentage?
Thought on how much you'd bespending on working on yourself.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
I don't really have a hard number when it comes to
percentage.
I think it just kind of dependson the individual.
I know different books I'veread kind of have their own
different recommendations.
I would say part of it dependson, I think, where you are in
life and what your goals are.
(50:38):
Me personally, I'll spend mostof my money on personal
investment, like learning newskills, just because I think
that for me is the highest ROI,highest return on investment For
some people.
If you're, say someone, maybe ifyou're a college student, I
would still recommend it, but Ican understand that for a
(50:59):
college student maybe your goalis just kind of live life, have
fun, I think that's perfectlyfine too.
Life to me is also meant to belived, I think, to a degree if
you spend.
I'll share this story.
I have a friend of mine whohe's a little bit older than
myself, kind of mid 40sHopefully he doesn't get mad at
me for sharing this story, 40sHopefully he doesn't get mad at
(51:22):
me for sharing this story.
But me and him have thisconversation a lot where his
philosophy is pretty much everydollar I have gets invested.
And, as I tell him, I thinkthat's fine.
But the problem with that isthat you're not living life
anymore.
You're living life solely tosave money and solely to invest.
So then when opportunities Ishouldn't say opportunities,
(51:43):
it's not the best word but whenpeople invite him to say let's
just go hang out, let's go watchTV, let's just go relax for
once, let's go to the beach orwhatever, no, I can't, I got to
work.
No, I got to save all my money,it's like well, now it's.
(52:07):
I think at that point, if youthink of at least the way I
think about it.
I always think about health,wealth, relationships, these
pillars.
He's over emphasizing thewealth pillar but he's doing it
at the cost of his relationshippillar, because if you're
someone who's like hoardingmoney and you don't want to
spend any of it and you onlyinvest it and that's your whole
philosophy, people, I think,aren't going to find you fun.
They're not going to want to bearound you because they're
thinking to themselves.
I invited this guy to dinnerfor $20.
He won't come out because hewants to save that $20 and buy
(52:31):
stocks or put it somewhere.
So I don't really have a hardnumber.
I think it kind of depends.
I think there's a certainbalance.
If I had to give general ideaof numbers, I would say 35%
towards personal investing.
I think is pretty solid.
For the rest, depending onwhere you are in life, maybe 30%
(52:58):
have fun with it, the remainder, maybe 30% have fun with it.
The remainder save it, put inan emergency fund, maybe put
that into something more likelong-term investments, maybe put
that into real estate.
So that might be how I budgetedand bucketed out.
But I think it really justdepends on the person.
I think, as long as there'sbalance, that's kind of the key
(53:21):
thing that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
That makes sense Well , to me.
I think there's a minimum.
You know 15 percent should gointo at least.
Well, because what I see andyou tell me wrong is when I look
at what I mean, how much peoplespend on entertainment.
And you know, when I was doingfinancial advising and I was
thinking of all the things thatpeople will spend on sporting
(53:43):
events or on television or onmusic or you know, you can look
at their bank accounts and say,whoa, you're spending about 48%
of all of your incoming money tobe entertained by somebody else
who is taking that money andbecoming a millionaire or a
millionaire.
And you say, I want to be abillionaire, but I'm going to
spend all this money on myentertainment.
(54:03):
So at least take half of thatand start putting it into
yourself.
Right, and you know whetherit's like maybe it's a gym
membership, you know, for somepeople, but one that's actually
used.
Because the gym membership thatyou buy, that you go for one
month and don't do it anymore,is a waste of money.
It's not an investment anymore,it's just you know and the gym
(54:25):
has all these ways to entertainyou, but it's like, okay, so
what are you actually going todo?
And then, and then map that out.
You know, when you talk aboutcollege students that don't want
to invest in themselves, well,somebody's investing in them,
whether it's a student loan orit's a parented thing for that
amount of money and so.
But you can't make somebodyinvest in themselves or you
(54:45):
can't say I'm going to invest inyou and you have to take it
seriously.
You know it has to almost be.
I almost wish college educationthere was some.
Hey, I want this bad enoughthat I'm going to do whatever I
can.
That person who wants it badenough you find a way to to help
pay for it, because now theyare investing in themselves
instead of the person goes, oh,I just get a loan or all my mom
(55:06):
and dad will pay for it, youknow.
Well then, I'm not going to goto class, I'm just going to hang
out, relax and do whatever Ineed to be done.
Um, what I want to do, say andthank you for saying that
because, like so far, you'rejust.
You're just like reinsuring me,you're making me feel like I
got my life together.
Um, what do you?
Speaker 1 (55:27):
talk about.
I apologize, could I add onething, just please, please, um,
because when you mentioned theuh, the sporting events, I'm,
I'm with you, I'm 100 with youon that.
I think way too many peopleoverspend on maybe getting
tickets to a basketball,football game.
But I would say, if you'resomeone listening to this and
(55:48):
you really love sporting events,but you also again me trying to
balance things out maybe try tofind a way to watch sports and
also maybe get paid while doingit.
Maybe have an event.
I heard the story from someoneelse.
This is back in the day.
They'd get pay-per-view andthey'd invite their friends to
come over.
They'd buy food, pizza,whatever, but they'd charge the
(56:10):
people.
They invited pretty much acover to come over.
So they'd profit and they hadthe finance pillar built up, but
they also got the relationshippillar built up.
They made a profit off of it.
It kind of worked out.
They were paid to beentertained, um, so I agree, I
agree with you completely.
Speaker 2 (56:28):
I would just want to throw in if you can combine
those things, you might not haveto get rid of one completely,
but yeah, I love that becauseyou are now, you're making,
you're finding a way to, toutilize your, your abilities, to
be able to to capitalize.
You know what I see so hard isI and I want you to go to the
sporting events and I want youto enjoy the entertainment you
(56:49):
know.
But if you're watching, say you, you spend you know 500 on
football tickets to go to aprofessional football game.
By the time you you geteverything and then you say you
got to come home and go buy ajersey too.
Then he goes find another 175 ona jersey with somebody else's
name on the back like the gamewasn't enough yeah, yeah you're
like well, my lights are gettingweird, you know asking, you
(57:11):
know, hey, can you help me withthe?
Oh, you know, can you borrowsomebody to be able to, you know
, keep my lights on, orsomething like that.
It is just crazy, so cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
So what didn't we talk about that?
Speaker 2 (57:23):
you wanted to, that I didn't get to because I was
being selfish and asking you allthese questions that I read.
Speaker 1 (57:31):
No, this was a fantastic conversation.
I think we talked abouteverything.
I mean, I think, the mainthings from me.
As long as people are beingbalanced, heavily investing in
their time, making sure thatthey're actually spending their
time accordingly, not buyingjerseys or not overindulging in
sporting events if they can'tafford it, I think that's pretty
(57:53):
much, in my personal opinion, agood formula for a lot of
fulfillment and a lot of freedom.
That's pretty much it.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
Yeah.
So, and since you said that, Ijust want maybe we can end with
this, when we think aboutbalance and balance being a
season, or you know, cause,cause, can you be in focus, have
have focus, laser focus onwhatever the goal is achieving,
whatever it is you're trying todo, and be balanced?
Or is there a season of beingbalanced and you have to realize
(58:26):
that it fluctuates up and downbecause you know, like your
friend, I guess that wants tomake you know everything's
investing.
Is that a season or is thatlike a forever thing?
Because if it's a season andhe's trying, there's a certain
thing he wants to do, because hewants to go buy a company, and
you know, then that's going togive him some of the freedom to
(58:47):
be able to do some stuff, sohe's willing to sacrifice now or
if that's just a lifestyle,then he's way out of balance.
Right, but can it be?
Can you be totally focused onwhatever it is you're trying to
do and still be in balance?
Speaker 1 (59:06):
That is a very good question, you know.
I think it really depends onthe individual.
I think, in the grand scheme ofthings, I think there's
different seasons for everything.
If you're someone say, forexample, you're someone who,
hypothetically speaking, you'rein fantastic shape but you have
no money at all and you have norelationships, to me I would say
(59:31):
my suggestion would be maybetake a quarter, take a few
months.
Work almost solely on thefinances.
Don't stop working on health,of course, but if you're the
kind of person who's a gym rat,you go to the gym six times a
week.
Maybe cut back to two times aweek.
You can afford to not go everysingle day of the week.
If you're already perfectlyfine with that, focus more on
(59:53):
those hours.
You would be going to the gymor tracking calories.
Whatever you would do, work onyour finances.
Maybe you could at that pointget a second job, if it's not
going to burn you out.
Or if it's for a season, makesure, get a second job, get your
finances back on track.
Then after a quarter, see whereyou're at, review your finances
.
If you feel like you're ontrack, then maybe either
(01:00:16):
continue or take your foot offthe gas a little bit focus on
the relationship stuff.
So I think it kind of dependsand I think going through those
seasons and it's to me that's aform of balance.
I think if you're overdoing onething for way too long, it's
(01:00:37):
like my friend who's justinvesting.
To me that's not balance.
I don't know.
I just can't imagine it's goingto lead to the best potential
outcome by just focusing on onething for too long.
I do think you have to kind oftake time and understand that
there's seasons to things.
You have to kind of sit thereand identify which of these
(01:00:59):
things is the best to work on atany given time and really sit
there and review.
You know how long should I beworking on this?
Have a goal?
Is the goal panning out the wayI want to?
If it is maybe continue downthat path, down that trajectory,
if it's not try something else?
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Maybe get a new goal.
Depends on what the goal is.
Well, when I think about it,even nature gives us clues,
right, and so you know, naturehas summer, winter, spring and
fall.
There are seasons that are arenot.
They're opposite of each other,but they don't last forever.
You don't get summer for 12months, for four years, five
years, and I think some peopletreat their life as if no, my
(01:01:43):
balance has to be.
You know, yes, I can go througha 12 week or whatever it is
focused, I'm going to be out ofbalance.
I'm not going to have greatrelationships because I'm
working on this, this and this,but that can't go on for five
years, that can't go on for 10years.
(01:02:04):
You know, because you do have tohave, you have to have
relationships, you have to have,you know, your health, your
health will decline and thenyou're not going to be able to
enjoy any of it or do any of itif you let your health go, you
know, in pursuit of somethingelse, and so I 100 percent agree
with you Thank you for thankyou for spending the time with
us today, and just really I lovethe fact that I say I'm the
(01:02:25):
luckiest guy because I get tohave these conversations almost
every day with people where wetalk about what could make us
better, and I think you did agreat job or Lenny, I guess I
should say I don't want to callyou Larry, but Lenny that great
job of helping us think aboutsome of the things we can do
(01:02:47):
better in order to be better,and if we don't think about
those things first and we justgo out and continue to do, we
don't ever get to be, and Ithink we're human beings, not
human doers or human havers.
And so I appreciate you takingthat time.
Again, congratulations ongetting married and spending
that time, and I hope she'llwatch this and realize even how
(01:03:10):
much better you are than shethought you were.
We'll go from there, and so,for those of you who are
watching, go ahead and hit thesubscribe If this hits you in
any way that you think somebodyshould share it with people.
It's so funny that we talkabout well, this guy should hear
this and this guy Well, did youshare it with them?
(01:03:30):
No, because what would theythink about me?
Well, think that you shared avideo that they didn't watch, if
they really didn't watch it,but if there's a chance that
they would, and it helps theirlife.
You should share with them.
And so, uh, you know, I believe, your god's greatest gift, he
loves you.
If you allow him to and I hopeI can see you on some other ones
and so hit subscribe, you willfind, uh, several of these that
will meet those needs.
Uh, if you have any, oneclosing thought before we go, no
(01:03:54):
, that was it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
Um, I totally appreciate you having me on the
show.
It was fantastic, um, if anyonewants to reach out to me, feel
free.
My websitelennyrichardsononline.
Feel free to message me.
Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
That's it for me, though all right, so we'll see
you guys on the next one.
Have a great, incredible,awesome day today you.
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