KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The Truth, Does Money Equal Happiness?

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

My name is from Carl's Baranetti. And on today's podcast show, we have a very special guest, as we always do, because we always have special guests on these podcasts. Cyrus Messani, how are you? I'm doing well, bro. How are you doing? I hope you're doing well, man. You're a good person.

You're an amazing person. I appreciate that, man. I appreciate you for having me on, dude. Listen, this is going to be podcast episode number two for us. I was on your podcast the first time. This go around, we're going to be talking a little bit slower because apparently I talk pretty fast. And we're going to make it more about, what you want to say? talk about. Dude, you're the host, bro.

Listen, when I think of you, I think business. I think equity. I think merges and acquisitions. I think massive deals. But as of lately, you told me you want to get more present in your life. Honestly, yeah, 100%. Like, like, where I'm at mentally right now is like, I've been, on a real note, like, you and I have had this conversation and it's like I, I think we've been pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing. And I'm at this point in my life where I'm like, I'm just enjoying what I have because, like, on a daily basis, that's all we have, right?

Is like what's in front of us. And to be even, you know, get a little bit more, like the person you're with at any given time is the most important person in your life, right? So for me, I'm really leaning into that on a whole personal note. And I think it's important to have because especially as a driven entrepreneur like yourself and myself, we're always trying to set the bar higher and higher.

And when we were 20 years old, all we wanted to do is get to that point where we can get to the next level. And it's almost like a moving goalpost. Well, dude, like, here's the reality. Like, I had a dream of buying a G-wagon. Yep. Right? I wanted the Matt Black, G-63, AMG, lifted,

all custom red interior, blah, blah, blah, blah. Totally loaded, yeah. I went and bought that cash. a couple years ago. Then I'm like, okay, I want to go. And that was one of my top goals from when I was younger. I always said, I'm going to buy a G-wagon. This is what it's going to look like, yada, yada.

Then I went and my other big goal was pay my mom's house off. I went and I did that, bought my mom's house. And then after that happened, which are great accomplishments. After that happened, I was like, like, I still feel like there's still a missing piece here. Yep. Like, what's next? And when I really reflected in on that, I was defining my success by these outward things that I was chasing. Correct.

I was defining success by, oh, when I have the G-wagon and I have the roly and I have this and I pay my mom's house off and blah, blah, blah, then I'm successful. But what I realize is the moving goalpost, right? It will continue to move forever. Correct. And for me, I'm like, no, like I can't do that anymore. Right. So I switched my definition of success. I completely threw out all definition of success in the fact of, oh, it's all material things.

And I shifted my definition of success to positively impacting one person on a daily basis, period. So we're talking relationship currency. That's it. All I'm talking about, not even so much currency, just what I'm talking about is, is just one positive action can literally change the world. That's the butterfly effect. Like that's the whole thought process behind what I do, right? Like is if I can possibly impact your life today, right, then you go and you possibly impact one other person because of that. Correct.

Then this is how we actually change the world. Correct. You know, and this is where I think that I'm, I've leaned into so hard because I, you know, I've been very, very successful on the business side. Correct. And it's great. And I love it. And I'm so thankful to be there and have that and yada, yada, yada. But at the end of the day, like, I think this is what.

matters. Correct. This conversation. The conversation I have with with other people, right? Like, these are the conversations that actually matter. And I tell everyone that, like, is getting into this at such a young age. Like, we have Gio, who's here recording this entire thing. He's 20 years old. And I was like, the fact that you're just in this moment right now and you get to have this job itself being surrounded by top producers and just experiencing like this incredible culture around you. Like, that is the end goal. Like, you've made it. And like, Gio has these massive goals as an entrepreneur and he wants to get to so many places. But I try to remind them like, hey, like once you get to this point, you're just going to move it back a little bit further.

That's it. A little bit further and a little bit further. And I think for like a lot of people in real estate, it's like, let's get to like 100K a year. And once you get to 100K a year, I promise you your life doesn't seem like that different. Then you make it, let's get to 500k a year. And you get to 500k a year. And it's like, it's just always one of these things where like, what are we actually chasing when all said and done? We're chasing a feeling. But if we could just understand that that feeling is being surrounded by the people that you love and that you enjoy spending time with. And we could live that next. And we could live that now what ends up happening exactly well like and here's the reality like when you really break it down

you're typically trying to fill a void of something with material successes correct whether that is you know me trying to prove that you know for me right as a as a coming from playing playing playing soccer, being a professional athlete, getting a car accident, ending my career ending, right, to getting into real estate, I felt like I have, and this is all my own mental and battle because I'm a big believer in like life's an inward journey, not an outward journey, right? Correct. But my battle was I truly thought like I need to prove to everybody that I'm still good enough.

Yep. And I didn't realize that until very recently. But I didn't realize that until I got my I did that I bought my mom's house I did the The car Yada yada yada I didn't realize that like that's what I was trying to fill is that void right like that void of Of I'm not good enough and I'm gonna prove to everybody outside that I'm good enough and maybe that'll show me that I'm good enough But what I realize is it's really here Yeah It's really inside that I got to fix before I fix all this other stuff on the outside Correct and we see so many entrepreneurs building these massive companies

and obviously they sell out for hundreds of millions of dollars. Like what do you think is going through their minds when they spend 20, 30 years building something and they wake up the next day. They have all this money in the bank and they don't have like that job to go to as far as a CEO or building that business. Like what do you think is the end game when people are just kind of stuck in this not a rat race? Because they've skipped the 9 to 5. They're obviously very wealthy and they're doing their own thing. But like they're stuck in a different race, like the entrepreneur race.

Well, it's pretty interesting. Like, I mean, that's a whole different conversation. But like, I mean, I consult with a lot of these people that own these 100 million, 200 million, blah, blah, dollar companies and like, or startups that are crushing it. Yep. You know, 120, 200, 500 million valuations. And I have these conversations outside of, you know, in front of the cameras and stuff with these owners. And what I realize is it's like, we're all chasing the same thing. Like you really break down life, what's life about?

Like we're born and then we die. And everybody wants to enjoy their life. And people choose their, people choose that success means this and this is how I'm going to enjoy my life. You're chasing enjoyment of life typically, right? And for me, I chose that I thought that the enjoyment of life would mean, you know, oh, if I get these things, then I'm going to enjoy my life. But what you realize is when you get these things, you still feel the same way. So in order to actually enjoy life, you have to do the inward work. So everyone's chasing their own definition of success.

And we all define success based on our own past experiences and our own beliefs and really our environment. And that's the crazy part. like everyone's meaning, although it's different, is still oriented towards the same projection, which is happiness. Correct. I think most people are chasing happiness in life, like period and a story. I think that's what most people are, you know. They're getting their job.

The reason they go to a nine to five job is so that they can make money so that they could support their family, so their family could be happy, which would then make them happy, so on and so forth. But what they don't realize is they have to make themselves happy before they can help anybody else become happy, right? Yeah. And I think this is such a thing, especially in our culture that I've like, like I told you, like recently just been really like sick of is like this culture is like consistently like selling something consistently like, oh, I got to be the next big thing. I got to have the nicest this.

I got to have the name. Forever you will chase that. Because as soon as they make the nicest iPhone last year, they just came out with the new one yesterday. Well, look at billionaires. I won't say names. but like you build the biggest company on earth and then you try to conquer a different planet it's like it just never ends you know

take the planet then we take the galaxy then we take the universe it's like you're consistently going to chase something else if you don't do your inward work yeah and this is where I'm like really leaning into recently like more than anything because of the and recently I mean the last couple years I've really been pushing into that

that like thought process of like look like I truly have to be Cyrus has to be happy before I can make one happy. Yep. Right? And I still can't make you happy, but maybe I can positively impact you that leads you to have a thought process to get there, right?

Correct. There's an interesting book called Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And I'll just go ahead and summarize it like in theory. But like when you cover your basic survival needs, you now elevate your goals to something else, whether it's money, it's that, it's status, it's fame, as recognition. Once you cover all of that and once you've covered everything when it comes to love and relationships and you really fulfilled every single part of your life that you need to become I'm happy. Now you start chasing meaning. So let's talk about that. What's the meaning behind

everything that you're doing? Because you're involved in so many ventures, you're investing in startups, you're doing real estate investing. You have your own brokerage. Like when all is said and done, obviously we're all chasing the same thing, which is happiness. But what's the meaning behind this when, like I said, 100, 200, 200 years from now, people are looking back like, who was Cyrus? That's a good question. For me, for me, I look at it as can I When I am gone, will this world be a better place? When I leave, will this world be a better place? And if I can confidently say on a daily basis that I'm doing that, then I feel great.

I love it. And I will never regret any decision I made or anything like that, right? I'm a big believer in like ego. I believe ego is the absolute devil. The fast as we learn how to kill it, the fast we can start in the moment. And the fastest way to kill ego is. is through gratitude on a daily basis. 100%.

Like if you just, so, so ego's the absolute devil. But every day, if you kill ego, right, with gratitude, with, look, I'm blessed to be here, so on and so forth, yada, yada, yada, whatever you want to say. Correct. Like, then that kills that ego so then you can be grounded again and then be able to be in a way of giving. Yeah. Right. Someone had told me this.

Actually, one of my clients told me this. And he was like, you know, the coolest thing about, about, like, nature is it's all in giving. Yeah. Right. The bees, they pollinate, and then they give, and then they create this honey, and this honey is given, you know, yada, yeah, yeah. You can go through all of these things. Yeah. But in order for everything to work, we need bees.

Yeah. And bees give. And then you have the plants that give. And then they give oxygen to us and yada, yada, yada. Like everything is forgiving, but in human nature with ego. we say we want. Yeah. Before we give.

So if we can learn to give before taking, I think the world would just be. And the irony is once you learn how to do that, you start receiving more. Correct. And then as you see the people that are building these companies, what they're doing is they're adding more value to the economy than anyone else is in regards to that one product or that one service, they become these billionaires. And what do they do? They start philanthropy and work and they start giving it all away.

Yeah, because you realize that at that point, you know, amongst tax benefits and yada, yada, yada. Like, you realize, like, shoot, like, I have all this. Now what? And what's the feeling you get when you give something away? What do you mean? What's the feeling you get when you give something away? When you donate to charity, when you help someone else?

Oh, my gosh. It's, it's, honestly, it's the best feeling in the world. Happiness. It's it. That's it. And that's the best. And that's the best. And that's, I think, like, like, if we can learn to live into that, just as a human

race more, I think the world would just be better. So to answer your question, that's all I want. when my life's over with like like I hope that the world's just a better place than it was when I started here. I love it man. Just to wrap up, what is your one word of advice for someone that is in real estate? They feel stuck and they're looking for some clarity on what to do in order to get to the next level. I think that it depends on what you define that next level. So again, we talk about success being whatever your definition is, right? So I believe everybody, everybody, you know, in this room, you and I, like, we have different definitions

of success. So one, like being clear on that definition of what success is for you. And when he says clear, write the actual thing down and put a date behind it. Because I think a lot of people have dreams, but if you want to make it a goal, you have to define it, like put a number next to it and then put by the day that you actually want to accomplish it. Yeah. So 100%.

Like, write it down. Writing something down is very powerful. What I do. Yeah. And you'll see it like on my social. I do it all the time especially. It's like I'll say I want to do something and I literally just post it on social and I'm saying I'm doing this. And then it's like also it holds me accountable.

Right? Like because now everybody knows it. So I can't escape it now. You know, I got to do it. Right. So that's a little hack that I do just. But like I would say define your success. What your definition of success is.

If your definition of success is close 100 million in real estate, cool. Let's visualize it. Let's map it out. Then let's execute. I think if we do those three things, we can accomplish anything in the world, right? Visualize, map it out, execute. But then you have like, if your definition of success is $10 million in real estate, that's cool too. But whatever you want to do in the industry, whatever you want to do in life, I think it's very important to be clear on what you want, right?

And that was something that from a young age, I was very clear, like, I want X, Y, Z. Now, what I realize is I was chasing the material stuff that now when I got, you. got it, I'm like, okay, now I just want to impact people. Yeah. You know, so, so I think that the advice would be set a clear goal, visualize where you, what that goal is, put a plan together and then just go out and execute it. And find whoever's done whatever you want to do and just ask them for advice. That is the biggest hack in the world.

Biggest hack in the world. Like if you don't, if you don't have, and people are always like, oh, I got to find a mentor. And they like text, they're like message me. Can you be my mentor? I'm like, that's literally not what it's like. It's sometimes just like you're a mentor in some things in life that I'm a and then on other things in your life, I'm a mentor for you. Right.

Like that's just part of the- My mentors don't even know that I'm their mentee. I'm watching them off YouTube. I'm reading their books. Like it's a whole entire, yep. Correct. So find someone that's doing what you want and where you want to be and lean into that. Yeah.

Cool. How can people find you? Easiest way, Instagram. It's Cyrus Andre. at Cyrus Andre C-Y-R-U-S-A-N-D-R-E Perfect. And make sure you tune in to our next episode

where we continue to add value to help agents build systems to scale out of production. Appreciate you. We out.