Digital Social Hour - Avoid This $1 Trillion Mistake in Business | Dan Pena DSH #536

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

🚨 Avoid This $1 Trillion Mistake in Business! 🚨 Tune in now to this eye-opening episode of the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! We've got the legendary Dan Pena, the $1,000,000,000,000 man, dropping some serious knowledge from his castle in Scotland. 🏰 Whether you're an entrepreneur or just curious about the future of business, you can't afford to miss this! 💰 Dan dives into game-changing insights on cash flow, the economy, and the critical errors that could cost your business big time. From the fear and uncertainty in the global market to the unique investment strategies that could save you, this episode is packed with valuable insights. 🌟 Join the conversation as Dan shares his no-nonsense advice on leadership, the power of tough love, and why today's entrepreneurs need to think differently. His experience mentoring millions and creating trillions will leave you inspired and ready to take action! 🚀 Don't miss out! Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 #DigitalSocialHour #SeanKelly #Podcast #DanPena #BusinessMistakes #Entrepreneurship #InvestmentStrategies #Leadership #TrillionDollarMistake #AlternativeInvestment #BusinessMistake #InvestorAdvice #Mentorship #EthicalInvesting CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:40 - Dan Pena 01:08 - What Industries Dan Is Investing In 04:03 - Fear In The Economy 08:27 - Tough Love 12:47 - AI 14:54 - Regrets 16:50 - Victim Mentality 19:50 - Politics 22:05 - Climate Change 25:25 - Money and Happiness 29:04 - Leaving Your Kids With Your Money 32:40 - The 5 People You Spend the Most Time With 35:00 - Working Hard 36:51 - Making Your Dad Proud 38:45 - Modern Day Religion 43:15 - Importance of the President 47:05 - Emotional Bank Account 49:29 - Dan’s Regrets 53:14 - Closing Thoughts 54:05 - Dan’s Political Career 56:47 - Outro APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Dan Peña  https://www.instagram.com/danspena https://taplink.cc/danspena SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

and people are afraid. And we have a whole new generation like yourself that have made money in other ways, alternative methods of investment, which I may or may not agree with, but you've made it. So that's all that's important. And that you've learned how to make money

in spite of the f***ed up economy. And I take my hat off to you. I'm not so sure my generation would have been that innovative. In fact, I'm positive my generation wouldn't have been that innovative. I don't have to think about it. Yeah.

Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. All right, guys. We got the trillion-dollar man here today, Dan Pena, coming in from his castle in Scotland. Thanks for flying in, man.

You're welcome. By the way, when he went three, two, one, it reminded me I used to be in the movie business. And some of the movies that we made would probably be considered pornographic in today's market. And so forevermore, I see flashbacks of naked people running around, except there's nobody naked in here. But anyway, yes, thank you. I appreciate you giving me the time. You wear a lot of hats. You've been in a lot of industries. Yes, sir. How do you choose which industries you enter these days?

If cash flow, if free cash flow does not cover debt service, at least 1.5 to 2 times, I'm not interested no matter what the industry. Okay. So you're willing to do anything as long as the numbers are good? As long as it's legal, moral, and ethical. Okay. And you were mentioning you got a crematorium out here. You got assisted living. Cemetery, a funeral parlor.

Okay. And are you mainly on the investor side these days or are you active? No, I'm an active chairman. I'm chairman of 23 companies from Germany to South America to the United States to Canada to China. Wow. Which countries do you see a lot of opportunity in right now? Wherever cash flow covers debts.

It doesn't matter the country. It doesn't matter the industry. What does matter always is the management. It's tough. And subsequent to corona, management and employees, you know, you hear the, we're short-staffed. Everybody's short-staffed. And now, or not now, but during corona, everybody had a supply chain challenge. And those are not things that you can just forget about. But given that you have a good supply chain or adequate,

given that you have enough employees to staff, then as long as cash flow is covered at least one and a half to two times, I'm interested. And more importantly, you, my mentees are interested. And then they either ask me to be their chairman or they don't ask me to be their chairman. Yeah, because you're mentoring, what, thousands of people at this point? Well, we have several million.

Several million? Yeah. The $2.3 trillion that I've directly or indirectly created are through guys like you. 99% of all the people that have utilized QLA, I've never met because all the QLA product is free. We don't sell anything. We haven't sold anything for 20 years. And the reason, somebody asked me a few days ago,

well, why do you give all this shit away? And then he said, I don't mean the shit, but all the stuff away because of customer service. We got so tired of you. Oh, the tape doesn't work or the disc doesn't work

or the CD. And I just said we'll just give all the shit and then customer service went away so i mean um and it's been easy i mean when you give everything away and now it's all digitized it took us a while to get everything digital yeah but i mean it's now no customer but we still get guys that bought something in 1994. Oh, by the way, it broke. You know, and I thought CDs were forever. Yeah. But they're not.

They could break. Well, yeah, they can break. And so we still maybe 1% of our efforts are replacing stuff that doesn't work anymore for whatever reason, even though we never had a lifetime guarantee. There seems to be a lot of fear and uncertainty in the U.S. right now with the economy, with the dollar. Is that something you've been seeing? Yes, and it's not just the U.S. It's everywhere?

Everywhere. We have 40 wars going on right now, as you and I sit here speaking, 40 wars around the world. The ones that they're more cognizant of are Ukraine, Israel, Gaza now. But there's 38 other wars. People are scared shitless.

And in mainland Europe, the last thing they want is another European war. And I talked to some very sophisticated people. I was in the Pentagon last year amongst other places. And if you think NATO is going to defend Ukraine, what are you smoking? Give me some of that shit. If it's not addictive, I'll get high with you. That's is going to defend Ukraine, what are you smoking? Give me some of that shit. If it's not addictive, I'll get high with you.

That's not going to happen. It just won't. They don't want to see another mainland war. I mean, we have a very successful mentee named Peter. He's the largest independent health care provider in Hungary. Well, Ukraine's right next door. I mean, he's created hundreds of millions of euros. And if the war spreads over to Hungary,

either because of Putin or because of Ukraine, his fortune is, what, cut in half? Cut by 80%? So the people over there are worried. And it's not that they don't believe anything Putin says, but they almost don't believe. If he says he's going to be a good boy, you know he's not going to be a good boy.

So the people are afraid. And the currencies reflect that. And even though people are saying that the dollar isn't what it used to be, that's true. But all the other currencies aren't what they used to be either. Like I gave a speech at Oxford about five years ago, and they said, well, everybody's got big deficits. At that time, the US deficit was not the current $33 trillion as it is today, but it was about $26 or $29 trillion. And I says, all we have to do is

devalue the dollar. On Friday, a dollar's a dollar. On Monday, $1.40. You do away with all the debt. What president wants his legacy to be that he halves the largest economy in the world? Nobody's going to do that. So we're going to suffer with, in my judgment, certainly the rest of my life, with these deficit problems. And people are afraid.

And we have a whole new generation like yourself that have made money in other ways, alternative methods of investment, which I may or may not agree with, but you've made it. So that's all that's important. And that you've learned how to make money in spite of the fucked up economy. And I take my hat off to you.

I'm not so sure my generation would have been that innovative. In fact, I'm positive my generation wasn't that innovative. I don't have to think about it. But the world's in trouble and I met with a very leading political lawyer in London a few weeks ago he came to the castle for coffee because I'm running as an

independent for office there and he says the world is on its way down and we're winning the race. Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life. Click the application link below, and here's the episode, guys.

I mean, you can't find someplace. You can find little pockets, but you can't find pockets, but only pockets of prosperity. You know, after World War II and after Korean War, which is my generation, I mean, the world prospered. Yeah. Okay. You don't see that anymore. You don't see that anymore.

And it's, you've got two guys my age running for president in the United States. Full disclosure, I know Mr. Trump from another life. I've never met President Biden, but we should have guys 35, 40 years old running for president, not 80. Yeah, I liked Vivek. I was upset when he dropped out.

There's talks of World War III. Oh, yeah. They don't talk about the war to end all wars anymore because we've already passed that. And I'm pretty sure, I'm not positive, but that if a war breaks out, and I hope it doesn't, it will be in Europe. Somebody's going to make a mistake. They're going to launch a missile. They're going to do this and that. But it's a tough time to be raising kids, trying to create a family, et cetera. It's a tough time.

What do they have to look forward to? Yeah, it is pretty dark. You got kids? Yep. i have three children and two grandchildren okay you hear this term tough love right that's how i was raised what do you think of that well my dad invented tough love well when i went off to the military i volunteered for the draft 1966 which seems a lifetime ago because it was uh they had 400 people in the barracks and bunk beds three high and of the 400 that were trying to sleep 150 200 are crying at night because they've been beaten because in six in the 60s you could still beat people in the military wow okay and so uh and i yelled out if you think this is hard you should

have been raised in my house this is a fucking country club of luxury compared to how i was raised um and my dad was really tough, extremely tough. And my kid brother, who's 15 years my junior, who's retiring from the L.A. County Fire Department as deputy chief in a few days, going to his retirement dinner. I mean, but we have kids that have never, they feel entitled. We have kids that have never been really held accountable. We have kids that got away, not with literally murder,

but kids don't do what their parents tell them to do. Kids do what they see their parents do. And in my particular case, my dad was an extremely disciplined guy, a disciplinarian. He treated me very harshly. But I'm absolutely 1,000% positive that I wouldn't be the man I am today if it wasn't for that tough love. But you can overdo tough love.

You can. I'm probably, I'm not a proponent of overdoing it, but in hindsight, I have one special needs child, and I have two kids that are out in the real world, a 37-year-old daughter and a 40-year-old son. That compared to the other people that they went to school with, et cetera, you know, I was extremely harsh. I won't say cruel, but I was harsh because I set very high standards, and I held them accountable to them, very high standards. Most parents that want to be their friend, they're pleasers. Yeah.

And my dad wasn't a pleaser, and I certainly am not a pleaser. Our kids are closer to their mother than me. Okay. Fortunately, somebody in the family, parents, has to be a nurturer. Somebody in the family, okay? Usually the mother. Yeah, usually. And in our case, family okay usually the mother yeah usually and in our case absolutely was the mother but the corresponding dad is supposed to you know at least how i was raised

is supposed to hold the kids accountable you know you know uh and not just you got to be home by 11 o'clock i don't even know if that means anything anymore but when i was a kid if i wasn't home by 11 o'clock i paid the fucking price i mean i paid the price. But it's not an easy time to have kids. You know, that's why a lot of kids, I don't know, a lot of kids, some kids are freezing their eggs or their sperm to bring them to life when there's a better time. But, you know, the Professor Hawkins of Cambridge

who died a couple years ago in 2004 said in a nationally publicized article, we are at the apex. Homo sapien is a monkey with a slightly larger brain. We're on nothing but an average planet. And we have seen our best days. That's what he said in 2004. Wow.

I said in 2014 almost the exact same thing. I'm 10 years behind Hawkins. But when you think about it, the first aircraft airplanes with the Wright Brothers was about 1907. 62 years later, we put a man on the moon. All that was accomplished in 60 years.

One lifetime. What's the next lifetime? About now. 69 to 2024. We haven't made the same progress in the last 60 years as we made the first 60 years. And if you go back 60 years before the Wright brothers, we had the industrial revolution. So we should be farther ahead than we are. And we've always had war. We've always, you know, the Romans had their times, the Indians had their times, the Persians had their times.

And the Homo sapien is, you know, in my judgment, has shot its wad. I mean, and that's why, I don't know Elon Musk personally, but that's why Elon has a story about it. It wants to be a second planet race. Okay?

Yeah. That's because we're through on this planet. You think we've peaked as humans? Correct. What about AI? Okay. AI has just come, it's been around a while.

But in the last three to five years, I mean, you put AI on your website, I mean, it's instant cashflow because they're hoping it's going to be like.com. Yeah. But if you remember the. com ended in a bubble.

Bursts were 80 or 90 or 95% of all the money that was made in dot com disappeared in dot com. I'm not sophisticated enough to know that's going to happen. But I do know with all my heart, people that say that AI is going to create more jobs, they're lying. You have to be really thick to think. We were in a restaurant last night where in the bar, in the outer bar, not at the bar, robots were serving drinks. Wow. Okay.

Robots were serving snacks. Okay. Now, how can anybody say that that guy, that little guy, cute as hell to look at, you know? The only thing is you couldn't tip him. I tried to tip. It locks down. You can't tip.

So maybe, I don't know how that equates to the original question, but I mean, we're going to have less jobs because of AI. About five years ago, the then most powerful computer in the world played chess against three grandmasters. The three grandmasters won the chess game. And the moderator, it wasn't Bill Gates, but it was somebody like Bill Gates. It might have been Teal from Silicon Valley. And he asked the computer, what have you learned from this experience with the grandmasters? And the computer thought about a millionth of a second.

It says, do not trust us. Google fuck it. Do not trust us on its own of its own volition. The computer says to us, do not trust us. You listen to Elon, you listen to Bill Gates and some other luminaries and you,

we should be afraid of computers. So you're not getting a neurochip in your brain? No. No, no. I'm not getting a neurochip. I can't speak for my children. Yeah. Do you have any regrets with the children, the way you raised them?

Oh, well, no. Well, I have three regrets in my life. My one regret is I'm an experienced combat trained army officer who never saw combat the second uh as I told my mother the night before she died mom you're not fucking sick don't be a bitch I'd like to have that one back she's dead the next morning wow uh and the third I didn't set my goals high enough really those are the only regrets I have but you've achieved so much success yeah but I I left a lot on the table there were three or four year periods where I rest on my laurels. And it's hard when you've got a lot of money, and arguably I do, it's hard to not make a lot of money.

I mean, the law of numbers, okay? You really have to be advised by some real pinheads and or have a death wish. And a lot of kids can go through their family's fortunes like shit through a goose. But those are my regrets. My regrets, I probably wouldn't have sent my kids to the best schools. You wouldn't have? I wouldn't have because they got arguably good educations in some cases great educations but how they it's not what you learn in school it's how you put it to use right and most kids uh and i call you all kids because

i'm either old enough to be your father or grandfather most kids don't utilize what if you believe in a god, what somebody gave you. Now, some people, I'm going to my 60-year high school reunion in a few days. I was voted most likely not to succeed in my class. Wow. And I'm going to be giving a speech, as a keynote speech. Now, how do you tell people that are 78, 79,

their life's behind them? Now, how am I going to inspire that audience yeah when i was known as a class fuck up so you were not a good kid growing up fuck i was terrible i've arrested five times flunked out of university three times um try to set this high school then i'm going to give a keynote speech on fire. Wow. I rebelled against any kind of authority. The Army saved me. Entered a private, left an officer. I needed somebody that held me accountable.

Today, one of my, not nephew, niece, was the head of a human resource at one of the casinos here. Nice. One of the big ones, okay? And she quit and went to work for one of the other big casinos. But I said, well, why did you leave? This girl kept complaining she wanted to see the head of human resources. I need to see the head of human resources. Only the head of human resources will understand why I'm unhappy here. So finally, after weeks and months,

she got to see my niece. And she said, my car broke down today. I had to take a cab. And you're wearing $3,000 shoes. And so my niece said, I don't understand how the car breaking down, how you having to take a cab and my $3,000 shoes

have anything to do with human resources here. But she quit that job. She's not in human resources now. Now she's in some other senior management. But it's not my fault her car broke down, as she told me over coffee a couple days ago. Victim mentality. Thank you. That's exactly right.

A lot of people my age have it yeah well i i i know they do uh and i you know i've had the privilege of speaking at oxford the naval academy wharton a bunch of great schools in the last six seven years and um certain portion of the kids have the victim mentality yeah and a certain portion of the kids have let's get done right okay and it's funny. I wish I had done this over the last seven, eight years when I'm speaking at schools. It's like the kids that have the let's get shit done mentality kind of sit together,

and the victims kind of sit together, and it's... They gravitate. Correct. Like I say, poorness rubs off. I'm from the body of East Los Angeles, or nobody was rich.

I mean, the good jobs were teachers and cops. My dad was a cop. But, you know, now I'm told that staffing is a problem. You can't get people to work. Yeah, I heard prisons are struggling finding guards. Yeah, and part of that is that people have found a secondary and tertiary method of earning a living on the net. I mean, I won't say anybody can make money on the net, but almost anybody can make money on the net. Whether you make a lot, a lot of money or you don't make a lot, a lot of money, it depends on your skill sets.

Yeah. But the kids today, the kids are basically good. They just need leadership. And leadership is a rare commodity. And it's not something that you get rich on. There is a deep underlying sickness in America, in my opinion, one man's opinion. And again, I know the former President Trump.

Why are there so many people pissed off about politics? So many. I mean, Jesus. I mean, tens of millions. Might be hundreds of millions. Yeah, maybe more. And because, well, first of all, politicians don't have the best rep, okay?

Not the highest quality people go into politics. The people that become lawyers, normally they'll go to Wall Street or they're in the business environment. When you go to law school, you don't necessarily, your first choice when you get out of law school isn't to be an assistant to some congressman. And so we have a poor talent pool.

But that's not just here. And because I'm running as an independent for Westminster Parliament in the UK, talent pool but that's not just here and because i'm running as an independent for westminster uh parliament in the uk uh there's a the talent pool is not great for politics across the board and i'm experiencing it now um and myself i never thought that i'd have anything to do with politics but i've been at the top of my game for a long time now, and I want to do something else with my 80s. Yeah. And so far, I find it not exhilarating.

That would be an exaggeration. But I find it interesting how my mother used to say, a man that cheats on his wife or his family can justify it in a thousand ways, okay? You can make up bullshit why you did it, okay? She didn't do this, the kids do this and that. In politics, they can make up

the most asinine things. The thing that my pet peeve is they're setting up a city or a town in Rwanda for the immigrants. Okay. Well, my wife and I have run a charity in Rwanda.

We've been to Rwanda. You can't walk from here to you without corruption. I'm positive the 200 and some odd million pounds that have been given by the British government to the Rwandan government, if 5% of that actually

got to building houses, I'd be surprised. Of course, we haven't got to climate change yet. There's been 11 expeditions that have both gone to the North Pole and South Pole, 11, since 1903. My wife and I are 11th, and all the other 10 are dead. Whoa. We've been to the North Pole.

We've been to the South Pole. We've talked to the North Pole. We've been to the South Pole. We've talked to the scientists. And we're in a, the next ice age is going to be between 5,000 and 7,000 years from now. No matter what we do. Okay? And all the water that we're worried about losing,

which we're not really losing that much, is going to turn to ice. And most of the people that inhabit the planet Earth are going to be gone. They're going to be frozen to death. But we've been there and we're in the middle of a cycle. I've said this on TV a zillion times. We're in the South Pole, which not as many people know, it's on a mountaintop.

And so if you're not suffering from oxygen deprivation, and we're sitting there with the scientists, young guys, PhDs from MIT, Caltech, Stanford, wearing flip-flops, Bermuda shorts, and T-shirts in 40 Below Zero, and they're going through these ice cores. And then he says, this ice core, 55,000 years ago, it was 1.8 degrees warmer Celsius than it is today. I said, stop, professor. Let's go back up to that ice core. Now, how do you know that? And then they got all kinds of scientific ways that they know it. And so, it's going to be this cold

or this warm again. Yeah, after the next ice age, 5,000 to 7,000 years, the next warming period is going to be 11,000 to 15,000 years. It's going to be just this, you know, just this warm or just this cold, depending on how you look at it. And whenever I'm asked to be 11 to 15,000 years. It's going to be just this warm or just this cold depending on how you look at it. Whenever I'm asked to be on a panel

to talk about global warming or climate change, as soon as the other panel members know it's me, they don't come to the panel. Because the first question I ask them, young man, PhD, MIT, PhD, when was the last time you were at the North Pole or the South Pole?

Have you ever been? No. And you're pontificating. I have been. I met with a scientist. Yeah. When was the last time you were in the Pentagon to talk about climate change? Never.

I was there last year. How come they didn't ask you? And then the panel's over. Wow, so global warming was just all propaganda? Oh, I believe. Al Gore, God bless him. I wish I had thought of the scam, actually. But it would have been twice as good as Bitcoin.

Twice as good as Bitcoin if I had thought. But Al Gore came up with it. And there's interesting pictures from 2008. He's standing in the North Pole or the South Pole. And the North Pole is a Russian deal. The South Pole is an American deal. But he's standing in the north pole or the south pole and the north pole is a russian deal a south pole is an american deal but he's standing in the middle of the north pole uh you know 60 below zero and he says by 2012 or 2014 there won't be any north pole then they show him again in the picture

of 2022 it's colder than it was uh my wife and i renewed our vows wedding vows at the north and south pole um we had more fun at the North Pole because the stories of Russian scientists and everybody drinking vodka all day are absolutely true. Okay? They contend it's how they keep warm. I don't, you know, but how they keep from blurry vision or blurred answers to questions.

But, so we've been to these places, and nobody else has. Whenever I listen to, not in whatever, the I don't carry credit cards, I don't carry cash. And my wife gives me a $20 bill when I'm in America.

In case I get lost, I can get a cab. $20? $20. That's no money. Yeah. But Sally and I have been together decades. She started giving me $20

in the early 90's so I mean she hasn't upped my allowance but I do have I think $20 I have a driver but why are you against credit cards? I'm not against credit cards my wife just doesn't allow me to carry them the queen well the queen god rest her soul

the king of England doesn't carry cash or credit cards he has people that carry cash or credit cards. He has people that carry cash and credit cards. So I don't consider myself the king of anything other than my estate. You do live in a castle.

I do. I'm not lonely. It's 50 times 1,000 square feet. It's 156 acres. It's well manicured. We have our own golf course. Our staff, our butlers and some of our housekeepers have worked at Buckingham Palace, have worked at some of these places.

And working for us is like a country club vacation because all those big rich estates and royalty pay very little. They allow you to use on your resume that you serve tea to the queen, et cetera. Oh, so they don't pay you.

They pay you. We pay. We pay a lot. We pay probably 40% to 60% over the going wage and have. We also give virtually all our employees get a 13th month. We pay them for 12 months. We pay them for 13 months. We give them an extra month.

Because my wife and I worked for Tips once. I mean, we were poor. She waited tables. I know what it is. Nobody believes me, but I know what it is when you're hungry and your stomach sounds like a mix master. It's growling. I know what that feeling is.

Fortunately, it hasn't been for a few decades. And about 20 pounds ago. So we have the luxury of having been poor. We like the fact that we treat people as we would have wanted to be treated when we were at the other end

of the stick. Did you meet your wife when you were broke? Yeah. Sally loaned me 30,000 pounds. Just came up in a conversation last night. In fact, uh, the, um, because this is my third and longest lasting fortune, but I had two fortunes before and I lost them because I was young and I thought I knew everything. Yeah. So two girlfriends before her, you're talking about girlfriends or? No, no, no, no. I didn't, I was broke. Uh, but no uh but no she loaned me well i never paid her back

she gave me 35 000 pounds which is about 42 000 oh back in the uh 80s uh when i was broke how did she get that oh she had saved she's from a poor family she lived in a caravan like a mobile home wow her caravan is about was about half as big as this room. Okay. Because the plane we flew in on from Miami a couple of days ago, the plane was bigger than her home was.

Jeez. Humble beginnings for both of you. Yeah. I think that gives you guys an edge though, right? Because you experienced it. Yeah. And right now we're in the process of giving our money away

to foundations and trusts, et cetera. both to the schools I went to. The grammar school I went to, Marilyn Monroe went to. Wow. 19 years beforehand. But when she lived there in the barrio, it was white trash that lived there. When I lived there, it was Mexican trash that lived there. What's your opinion on leaving your kids with all your money and business and everything? We're not. You're not doing anything at all? It'd be called a million each, anything. Only a million?

Yeah, but that's not very much of our estate. And why did you decide to only do that? Because they're not mature enough. But they're 40 and 37? Yep. I said they're not mature enough. Huh. Wow. Now, I plan they're not mature enough. Huh. Wow.

Now, I plan on living another 20 years. If they get mature in the next 20 years, you know, trust can be changed. So you got high standards for matureness. Correct. What would that look like? You're the average of the five people that you hang around with. Okay. Let's just say the people that you spent most with. Okay, so you don't like... Okay, now let's just say

the people that you spent most of your life, five people. Okay. Okay. Did any of them know anything about creating high-performance people? No. Okay.

Did any of them know anything about... Now, we're separating high-performance people from net worth now. Did any of them know anything about creating massive wealth? No. Okay, okay. Now, I'm sure somebody in that five was a nourishing person,

maybe your mom. Yeah. Okay, maybe one of those five might have been a religious person depending on if religion is in or out, okay? But so it's potluck how people turn out. I happen to, the five people for me was my dad, who wasn't there that often, but he was a strict disciplinarian. He was like a superhero.

My mom, who was very nourishing, very devout Catholic. When I was young, I wanted to be a priest. I wanted to be a priest. Wow. A lot of people think that that's pretty funny. Even I think it's pretty funny when I talk about it. I had a grandmother who was my mother's mother, who was also, I won't say a religious fanatic,

but nourishing. And then I had a kid brother, the guy that's retiring from the LA County Fire Department. And then I had one best friend who actually is a recently retired corporate executive from Vegas. And those are the five. But nobody knew anything about high performance.

The only person that knew something about high performance was my dad. My dad was an All-American athlete in high school, and I couldn't catch a ball. But I rebelled. I wanted to be able to do something that my father didn't do, and that's make a lot of money. When he first came to the castle in 1985, 86, we're standing in our drawing room,

and the ceiling is a Napoleonic chandelier, a real Napoleonic chandelier, a real crystal, blah, blah, blah. And I put my arm around him, and he looks up at the chandelier and says, son, just tell me it wasn't drugs. The only thing he could relate to making this much money that I did at that time, 40 years ago, was drugs. I said, no, dad, it's kind of like drugs.

It's oil and gas. And oil and gas can be addictive just like drugs, I'm told. But he came for three weeks. He only stayed five days. He was so uncomfortable. Really? It was so out of his comfort zone. He was playing golf with my head of security then,

who was a retired Royal Marine. And my mother came to die there, and she never stepped into the castle. She lived in a cottage on the estate, and she used to go to talk to the maids and the butlers, and this is my son home. Yes, ma'am. No, no, he's too busy.

I don't want to talk to him right now. And so I see her at dinner. But they were way out of their comfort zone. Wow, it was just such a big change for them. Well, it was a big change for me. But again, the five people, as soon as I realized that the poorness rubs off, richness rubs off.

Why do Olympic athletes train with other Olympic athletes? To get better. Correct. And then I started on a venture. To this day, it's hard for me to find people that are more successful than I am. But now I find kids. You know, I've had the privilege,

or either the, some people don't call it a privilege. I've met five presidents. I've met six privilege or either the, some people don't call it a privilege. I've met five presidents. I've met six secretary of states. I've met two kings. I've met three queens. I've met, you know, the secretary of John Connolly, who got shot when Kennedy got shot,

the magic bullet, the river. John Connolly was one of my sponsors in Texas when I lived there. So I'm associated with high-performance people. And high-performance people don't allow you to shirk responsibility. High-performance people hold you accountable. And so that's what I've done, and I still do to this day. And it's worked out well.

The program that we started 30 years ago has created trillions now. The largest deal in recorded history, the $500 billion NAOM, the City of the Future in Saudi Arabia. One of my mentees, Dr. Klaus Keinfeld, he was the first CEO. That was his idea. So we've created at least a million millionaires. We've created a couple hundred billionaires. We've created the program.

So directly or indirectly, I've helped these kids. A lot of them dirt poor. A couple of rich, goody two-shoes, but mostly dirt poor. But you need to be around people money's not everything it's the only thing that anybody really keeps track of but you need to have the devotion uh for 26 years i didn't take a day off wow and there's five or six people around the world the richest girl lady in china didn't take a day off for 26 years one of the richest people in the uk a lawyer didn't take a day off for 26 years. One of the richest people in the UK, a lawyer, didn't take a day off for 26 years. So there's about eight or nine of us. A couple are dead now.

And during Christmas, during childbirth, during anniversaries, during Valentine's Day, during, I always worked. Today, I don't call it work. I still work 50, 60 hours a week. But I was asked by Forbes magazine a couple years ago, what do you, what one key thing, Mr. Pena, can you attribute your success to? I didn't even have to think, like I'm pausing now.

The countless 100 and 120 hour work weeks over over, at that time, 25 years. I can't count them all. But when I think about it, remember, we don't do what our parents tell us to do. We see our parents do. When my dad retired from the LAPD after 28 years of service, he had 735 statutory days off he hadn't taken wow 28 divided by 735 he never took a day off and he got a check at that time for about i don't know 59 000 this was 1971 which was a lot of money yeah okay and uh for the they were paying him but you can't do that now now you can't accumulate that many days now because of him probably yeah yeah if you can't do that now. Now you can't accumulate that many days.

Because of him, probably. Yeah, if you don't use them in a year, you lose them. So that was my role model, and so I never, and when I was on Wall Street, when trading went to 24-7, 365, I never went home. I mean, I slept at my desk. I went to the YMCA across the street and took a shower because I could trade someplace somewhere 24-7, 365.

And the lazier guys didn't do that. They found out they can work less because they were able to. There's a market open someplace. But it's tough to maintain that fire in your belly. And it's unusual the fact that I'm as old as I am and I still have it. Yeah. A lot of people lose that fire. Do you think early on a big part was you wanted to make your dad proud of you? Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't do it in athletics, uh, but I certainly could do it, uh, in, uh, in business. Um, I get, uh, I got a big award, uh, most successful alumni. And I went to a little school that you got a big award,

most successful alumni. And I went to a little school that you got to explain about, which is Cal State University in Northridge now. And so he's been interviewed on Channel CBS. Mr. Penny,

you must be really proud of your son getting this big award. She says, yeah, yes, yes. He looks right in the camera. And he says, but my son is successful not because of me, but in spite of me.

Wow. I didn't do anything for my son, Danny. Damn. And he didn't. Then they talked to the dean of the School of Business, Shirley Teeter, who was about my age. And she went on and got a PhD, and then she became dean of the School of Business. And they asked Dr. Teeter the same question. She says, they added the question,

what have you seen change in the 25, 30 years that you've known Dan Pena? The only thing that's changed with Danny Pena is his accomplishments. He's looking right in the camera, caught up with his big fucking mouth. They cut that out for the Six O'Clock News, the fucking part. But I built up a lot of animosity because I shamed her into getting a PhD. I shamed her because she's really a great teacher. But I used to tease her, you know, you can either have a love life or your PhD. There was no room in between.

She was from a poor farm someplace. But I made it, you know, I probably should get the award at my graduate or my reunion, 60-year reunion in a few days as the one that accomplished the most with the least. They don't have that award. Yeah, you got most likely to fail. Correct. And my kids don't like that story.

Yeah. My kids get embarrassed that at one time, you know, I was considered a failure. Do you think you were rebelling because of your strict father? Absolutely. Absolutely. And at that time, the Catholic church was very strict.

Now, I didn't see any of the abuse, and I know it went on, but I didn't see any of that. The only thing I saw were nuns and priests beat kids, not sexually abuse them. Yeah, yeah. And I certainly got beaten. But for and priests beat kids, not sexually abuse them. And I suddenly got beaten. But for every beating I got, I deserved 10 more because I became very cagey, you know, slipping under the radar. But my wife and I are very close to the Catholic church. We support St. Teresa now. And I say jokingly, it's not so funny now,

but I put my money on the bitch before she became a saint. So we've supported orphanages in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, South America, here, and the lepers. I mean, we've supported a lot of people, mostly Catholic, not all Catholic, but we've supported Muslims, we've supported, you know, I used to be partners with Israel, Israeli National Oil Company. I was partners with the Arabs, the Japanese government,

the Russian government, the Russian government, the Mexican government, the UK government, Yemen government, Sudan government. So we've been around. But when you're successful, it's easy to be joint venture partners with these people. But you got to start someplace. And most people give up before somebody gives them a break. Somebody's got to give you a break someplace

because nobody starts from the pinnacle of life unless, you know, Barron Trump is a good example of somebody starting at the pinnacle. It's rare though. Yeah, it's very rare. Because money cycles every three generations. Yeah, and then the,

hope's not a strategy, but I'm hoping that it works out for Barron, but it's a tough horse to follow. It's tough. Anyone I've gone into business with that comes from money. It just never works out. It's tough. Yeah, absolutely. The standards are not there. Now I know religion's played a big role in your life. What about modern day religion? Do you think it's been compromised a little bit? Uh, you mean, uh, the modern day Muslim, the modern day Catholic, the modern day Jew, you mean that? Yeah. Um, I, I think that when the modern dayday Muslim, the modern-day Catholic, the modern-day Jew, you mean that? Yeah. I think that when the modern-day, if that's the right terminology, I'm not sure it is, got started,

their heart and their morals were in the right place. But we transgressed. You know, when poor Muslim women get half beat to death or beat to death because they're not wearing their, what do you call it? And there's nothing right about that. That's all wrong. When Muslim little girls from schools get kidnapped and raped, etc.

Nowhere in the Quran, and I read the Quran, nowhere in the Quran does it say you use religion as a tool to go out and kill people and butcher people. But nobody is not guilty a little bit. I mean, all the religions are guilty to some extent because they all have to exist on money.

And normally the zealots get most of the money. Psychopaths like me get most of the money. About 10%. Yeah. Yeah. But we're on that path, like me, uh, uh, get most of the money. 10%. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, and, but we're on that path and I don't see us,

I don't see a switching. I don't see that changing. Um, yeah, it seems really divisive right now. It seems like they're always fighting. Yeah. Nobody, I won't say nobody,

but very few people have anything good to say about, about some of these things. And, um, like everybody's waiting to see how Israel is going to react to all the missiles. There's a bunch of people that say, why don't you just call it a win? Unfortunately, only one person got hurt, and they fucked it up.

But Netanyahu, without a war, is out of a job. I mean, there's a whole lot of people that would like to see him gone, and I don't know him at all, although I have been partners with the Israeli government. is out of a job. I mean, there's a whole lot of people that would like to see him gone, and I don't know him at all, although I have been partners with the Israeli government. But those Middle Eastern countries play hardball. The U.S. talks about playing hardball,

but at the end of the day, we all have a little, I want to be liked. And when you're a leader of the free world, as President Biden is, and I'm not a proponent of him, but I mean, he doesn't know, he's got very few alternatives that won't piss somebody off. Right.

Very few. It's a tough spot. How much importance do you place on the president? Because they get all the blame, but do you think they're actually making moves? Well, I don't think Biden's making too many. You know, I know it's glamorized and he talks to the wall and nobody's there. He falls downstairs.

I fell down two years ago, Christmas Eve, cut my head open. I was running from the pavilion into the castle and it was raining. I slipped. And so I know your coordination at closing in on 80 isn't the same coordination of young people like yourself. And so I have a little, you know, I cut him a little slack. But I'm more worried he gets into office again and then Camilla is president. I have more concerns about that. I'm not saying anything bad about her.

But, you know, she hasn't accomplished much, if anything. But what's really worrisome, getting back to a question or two ago, we've got nobody 25 to 35 that's interested in politics, that's charismatic, you know, that can carry a conversation, that's a real orator. When I was raising money back in the day, I studied Hitler, I studied Winston Churchill, and I studied John Kennedy, their speeches.

The greatest orator that we've had in the last 100 years is Adolf Hitler. Wow. That's just it. Unfortunately, he had nothing good to sell, but he was a hell of a speaker. There's no question about that. Can't deny that, yeah. And the world is in a different place now if you're born in 2020 you're supposed to be able to live at least till 100 2020 okay uh when i was born the life expectancy was 55

wow okay 55 uh and so now the reason a great majority of my portfolio is in healthcare, healthcare has been growing for the last 40 years. 40 years ago, 3% a year. Last year, 25% a year. And by 2030, 28% a year. Damn. Because we all want to live longer. We all more or less have the money to live longer.

And notwithstanding pharmaceutical wanting to charge as much as they can, the cost of health care proportionately per capita is going down. Nobody wants to talk about that. And so, you know, my grandchildren should live easily into their hundreds. Now, we have good genes. The men die in the early 90s

and the women die in the late 90s, early hundreds. That's really good genes. Yeah, yeah and so um i'm sure uh and this with no exercise smoking and drinking so and i i know it's not as popular to drink now as it used to be but i'm sure that you know unless i get hit by a train my wife and i are going to space next year unless it goes down and you know uh crashes into the earth, I'm going to live until at least I'm 100. Nice. Yeah, and so I'll be able to go to YouTube

and hear myself say, fuck, shit, when I'm 100. Make grown men cry on stage. Well, we had a guy. We hadn't had a guy shit his pants in about, this is a true story, seven or eight years. And then last year, the gods were with us. We had a ex National Hockey League star

that you know his name shit his pants in the seminar all the way from his back's corner seat to the closest toilet. Gobs of shit. He then took his underwear, apparently my maids, took his underwear off.

And we don't run out of toilet paper at the castle. But the stall that he was in, he had to use his underwear as toilet paper. So we've had a couple of seizures. Oh my gosh. But we haven't had anybody shit themselves in a while. I thought I was losing my touch, but I'm not losing my touch.

What are you saying to trigger that? We have two bank accounts in life. We have a financial bank account. You made a few bucks, God bless you. And we have an emotional bank account. I would guarantee all the money I have against all the money you have. And I'm positive there's a big disparity

that your emotional bank account isn't as strong as your financial bank account isn't as strong probably not okay the fact that you use the word probably means i know i'm right but the fact is the really big guys like elon musk as i affectionately call him he truly doesn't give a shit what anybody says about him right he truly doesn't give a shit what anybody says about him. Right. He truly doesn't give a shit what people think about him. Okay? He says on a personal interview, not with Oprah, but somebody like that, he said, I would rather cut my stomach open with a can opener

than talk about my personal life. Mm. Okay? He believes in seppuku, which is when the Japanese assassinate themselves, kill themselves when they fuck something up. Okay? which is when the Japanese assassinate themselves, kill themselves when they fuck something up. And the guys that I've been privileged to be around, Donald Trump is not dissimilar to that

and the other super wealthy guys. I had the privilege of working with Steve Jobs. I arguably am one of the last guys to see Steve Jobs see him alive. He was in India and Sally and I were at a private club. He was there on a dance floor about as big as this area. He danced for five hours straight by himself. Wow.

With his eyes closed and his head like this. And then finally when the band and everybody stopped playing, the general manager came up to me because he said, you said something. I said, hi, Steve, because I know I knew him. And he says, do you think you could tell Mr. Jobs the place is closed? And I said, why don't you tell him?

We don't know how he'll react. I can guarantee, I know how he'll react. I would just let him stand there and dance if I were you. And so we left. And then I don't know how much longer he was there. But I saw Steve try to throw a programmer out a window. I saw Steve throw a, you know, the old time computers, the big.

Yeah, the box ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And a programmer. He couldn't control his temper, right? No, he was violent. And now, you know, if you say shit to somebody, I mean, they want to go see human resources.

Right. Yeah. People have gotten soft right you call them snowflakes correct and that's because they melt under pressure they melt under pressure and the uh it's changed but i think it's remarkable that kids like yourselves can generate followings with podcasts and arguably make money from them. Yeah. I would have bet against this. I did bet against it. I told you, I thought podcasts were shit.

You bet against crypto too. Yeah, I bet against crypto. The story's not out on crypto yet. But temporarily right now, I'm wrong about crypto. No question about that. But the kids that have thought of ingenious ways of making money on the internet is quite remarkable. Yeah, it's a different era, man. Yeah. I think it's easy from an older generation to kind of hate on the younger ones, right? Well, not hate. I mean,

I'm jealous. You know, I've had some big, big opportunities to make some investments at ground level. And I said, they'll never work. Well, I mean, Bill Gates didn't think the internet would work. I mean, he passed on it, and he's, whereas I'm not educated in that arena, he is. So he should have known, okay? People didn't think Amazon would make it. No, and I remember meeting Bezos back in the day when his office was about half this big.

Now, you know the first acquisition thing he spent money on? What was it? He had three employees. One of the two employees, they were packing boxes. They're on the ground with their knees or knee pads. That was the first thing because no matter how young you are, you're on concrete for day after day, week after week, packing boxes,

your knees go out. And so the first acquisition he made, or expenditure, he bought three sets of knee pads. Wow. That is legendary. Did you think he would make it? I met him.

He's Cuban. He's got fire in his belly. I can't speak about now, but 26 years ago, he was right at the beginning. He has fire in his belly I can't speak about now but 26 years ago he was right at the beginning he has fire in his belly and he's got something to prove I didn't know him well enough to know

who he was proving it to but a lot of fortunes are made you know you're a fucking bum you're never going to amount to anything okay and self-fulfilling prophecy you wind up being a bum

and not amounting to anything. Whereas the kids, nobody ever called me a bum, but I was voted most likely to not succeed, which I'm going to remind them at the reunion in four or five days. You kept your seats at that one. Oh, yeah. But the hardest thing for me to do, how do you tell people 78, 79, 80,

they still have time to make it. I'm a great speaker and I'm a better bullshitter, but I mean, most of the people in the audience are just going to say, you know, that was for Danny. That was not for us.

But I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to tell Marilyn, if you're listening to this, I'm going to tell the, Marilyn, if you're listening to this, I had a crush on a girl since grammar school. And the, I don't think I've ever told her this. And now we're out of high school 60 years.

I'm going to tell her that I had a crush on you since we were in the fourth grade. She's going to regret not. Yeah. Well, probably that's what Sally says. Sally says these, and most of the girls that are left in our class are little short, regret not. Yeah, well, probably. That's what Sally says. Sally says these,

and most of the girls that are left in our class are little, short, chubby grandmothers now. Right. Okay? A couple of them are in wheelchairs. A couple of them have those, you know, those frame things that you walk up with. Yeah, yeah. But I remember them when they were 30, 40 pounds lighter.

I remember them when they had curly blonde hair. I remember them when they used to wear tight sweaters. I fondly remember that when they don't look anything like that anymore. Time changes, man. Time flies. Anything you want to close off with? Yes. I appreciate the time.

I don't wish you good luck. I wish you all the luck you deserve through hard work. I don't deserve. That's through hard work. I don't know any other way than hard work. If there's anything I can do as a follow-up, don't hesitate to tell my office. But I'm spending most of my time now

on the 23 companies I'm chairman of. And I give a few seminars a year, not many. And I'm busily getting prepared to run for election this coming November in the UK. I fully expect to win in a landslide. I fully expect to ride a white charger into Parliament until the masters of arms tear me down off my horse. You can say, fuck shit, a lot of bad words in Parliament

because that was the language of the 13th, 14th century, and shit, a lot of bad words in Parliament, because that was the language of the 13th, 14th century, and it's never been changed. Wow. The only word you cannot use is liar. That's going to be tough. I've already been chastised about calling people liars. You're judicious with the truth. That's what Churchill used to say.

You're judicious with the truth. But I like helping kids and i i like success and i like this medium that i don't understand fully and how the kids like yourself you know uh make it uh and you can make a living some of the guys i'm told make a lot of money doing this yeah um and um i was on um the guy that's going to fight Tyson, his brother's show. Oh, Logan Paul? Yeah, yeah. And they tried to explain, off camera,

they tried to explain to me in the two hours how when you have 10, 15 million, how you hit the cash register. Yeah. And I said, that's a great scam. And then his father, who was in the back behind me, said, that's what I told him. It's not a scam.

It's just a new model. Okay? But you can't find the right words to describe what it is. I always use scam. And, of course, now Tyson's going to fight his brother. Who you got winning that? If Tyson doesn't win, I'll be highly surprised. If it's a regular fight, not with 16-inch gloves

and not choreographed, because I just don't believe Mike is, you know, at his age, I consider him young, but I mean, compared to the kid who's 28 or 30 years his junior. But the fact that that can happen, I think it's tremendous for entertainment.

I think it's tremendous as long as nobody gets hurt. I think it's tremendous. And I hope both Tyson and the kid walk away with a fistful of money. Yeah, they will. But it's going to be – Tyson is still a formidable – when he won the championship, I was in the second row and behind me was Danny DeVito

and a bunch of actors, Robert De Niro, etc. And when Tyson won that, he was hitting the guy with such velocity, the sweat, the bullets of sweat, I'm in the second row, were coming off the guy's head and hitting me like BB guns. That's what it felt like.

Holy crap. Okay. And I mean, and of course he won and he, and other than the trouble that he got in and I've gotten my, my own sets of troubles over the years, but I'm, I'm glad that he apparently has resurrected his life.

And I, and I, I, whatever you want for this deal that you're doing, I, I hope that, uh, it hopes on a strategy that you work hard enough to make it come to fruition. I hope that, I hope it's not a strategy,

that you work hard enough to make it come to fruition. Absolutely. Dan, it's been an honor. Thanks so much for coming on. Okay, my pleasure. It's my pleasure. That was fun, guys. I hope you learned a lot. Hopefully Dan didn't make you cry,

but if he did, hopefully you can gain some strength from it, right? Otherwise, see you next time. Okay, very good. Thank you.