REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 15. Real Talk: What Winners Do In Times Of Crisis

Episode Date: March 19, 2020

Our country has hit some hard times recently. Fear and anxiety are sweeping the nation and a lot of people are experiencing adversity. In todays episode, I share with you what you need to understand about adversity and the opportunity it brings.

I told my teacher, dumb bitch, I'm gonna get millions. Watch this. In a project living. Damn. Spoke it till existence. Voila. Mode changed to 50. What up?

Got more cars than diddy. I only weigh 180, but my watch cost 250. What up? What's up, guys? Andy Frisella here, and this is the show for the realists. Say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness, and delusions of modern society, and welcome to motherfucking reality. Guys, today we have one of my real talk episodes.

These are short episodes where I throw a little lightning at you and hope that I shock you with some truth. The reality is here with all this coronavirus craziness going on and all the people panicking, I feel like I want to put a defibrillator onto people's brains. You know, those little bitty things that we shock people back to life with and jolt them awake. Because there's too many people running around acting like life has become a nightmare. They're acting like they're being chased by Freddy Krueger or Jason or an actual killer virus. Listen, there is a reason to take all of this seriously.

Of course, there is an absolute reason for concern. Yes, but concern does not mean chaos. It doesn't mean people acting like this is the end of the fucking planet because it isn't. The fact is, guys, people need to wake up. They need to shake it off and start thinking a lot more clearly, okay? We all, I think, need to take a deep breath, look around, get our bearings, and calm the fuck down. And I'm going to do this today by sharing a little story with you. It's a story that I think will really help for you guys to put things in perspective

and realize exactly how we should be thinking and what we should be doing while the rest of the world is losing their heads. Okay. So let me tell you a story the story is about a guy named Bob Bob had a problem he had to keep his company afloat during World War two see the business he worked for sold a fizzy beverage that was super popular but as we know in a lot of these fizzy beverages the main ingredient was sugar and the problem with that during world war ii was sugar was highly rationed that meant it was super expensive and bob's company was already deep in debt so he had to find a way to make his product for less money and distribute

it to way more people and he had to do it fast. Luckily, Bob was a smart guy, and he was up for the challenge. Now, if you knew him in college, you wouldn't have known he was such a stud by looking at his report card. He flunked out of high school once. He barely graduated out of military school. He flunked out of a prestigious technical school, and then he dropped out of another school just after one semester. Bob wasn't smart as in most people

when they think of smart. He wasn't an intellectual brainiac. His friends noticed that he rarely even read a book. But young Bob, he possessed a couple character qualities, a couple key skills that would be essential later in life. And one of these skills was leadership. And while he often failed as a student, Bob excelled at getting people to do what needed to be done. At military school, he was the leader of every kind of club and organization there was, from drama to the football team. Now, the reality is his ability to delegate work effectively wasn't always used for what we might call noble purposes. For instance, he often paid other students to do his math homework. Sure, I get it. That sounds a little

shady, but Bob wasn't sorry about paying for his grades. If you could get someone else to do the work better, Bob used to say, there's no reason not to. So yeah, he paid other people to do his homework. He skipped class, but the reality is Bob wasn't afraid of hard work. And after dropping out of college, he worked his way up from an entry-level job working as a laborer to become a machinist apprentice, then an assistant stock clerk, then a purchasing agent, and then a sales agent for some crazy new invention called an automobile. This determination to put in all this hard work along with the working on his skills as a leader allowed him to quickly climb the ladder to become vice president and soon after Bob became the CEO of a new soft drink company.

It was a soft drink company that had experienced great success in the early 1900s. It had become so influential, they had even reshaped America's image of Santa Claus himself. But the rise of Hitler and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor didn't just threaten freedom and democracy. The economic restrictions and regulations that came with the war threatened business for everyone. You understand that? The war threatened business. Financially, the situation felt hopeless. But here's the thing. Bob was a resourceful guy. He was innovative. He was unfazed by the surprise and challenges. So when the United States entered World War II, he rose to the occasion. Instead of letting the price of sugar determine whether his company succeeded or failed,

he took it into his own hands to take his product worldwide. First off, he made a promise. Every single soldier on the front would be able to buy his sweet fizzy drink for only five cents five cents no matter how much it cost his company to make it was going to be widely available wherever they were in the world Bob would make sure our American soldiers could have as he put it a little taste of home it was a huge promise for a company that was already deep in debt. It was a commitment that could have totally ruined his company. But guess what? It paid off.

As Bob began the project of shipping huge quantities of his products overseas, he got a call from a pretty powerful fan of his soft drink, General Dwight David Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander of all Allied forces. He called Bob from North Africa and he had a stunning request. Eisenhower wanted enough equipment to build 10 bottling plants along with 3 million bottles of Bob's drink. It's the drink that would someday be called the official soft drink of summer and America's real choice. Bob sent a company engineer immediately to Africa. Within six months, the first plant was operational near the front lines.

Eventually, the government, yeah, that's right, the United States one, not two, not 12, but 64 more plants to be built along the European and Pacific fronts, all to fulfill this huge order. And to fulfill that huge order, Bob's company was given all the sugar that it needed. Now, listen up here close, because this is what separates the people who are panicking, thinking that this coronavirus is going to be the end of the American economy from the men and women in our country who are true Americans. All of this that happened would have been an enormous payoff for Bob's resourcefulness and his innovation, but he didn't stop there because it was so difficult to

distribute individual bottles on the front. Bob pushed for more innovations in soda distribution. One of those innovations was one of the first soda fountains. We might call that the greatest generations versions of a soda machine. Okay. It was delivered to the soldiers on the front with a very unique paint job. It was green, brown, and black. That's right, the colors of camouflage. Other innovations he pushed for included a six-pack and a coin-operated vending machine. When all was said and done, more than five billion bottles of Bob's drink were distributed to U.S. troops in World War II, and that didn't even include servings from soda fountains or shops. So does this surprise you? Are you surprised that Bob's company is now a worldwide household brand? I'm talking about the real thing, the crisp,

refreshing drink that goes great with a bag of piping hot french fries you guys know what i'm talking about i'm talking about coca-cola and here's what you need to understand and here's what i want to drive home about this american success story coca-cola wasn't a necessary product think about that we're in a fucking war guys and a soft drink guess what it's just not at the top of the priority list people didn't need it in their everyday lives and it didn't fill a gap in the market but because Robert Woodruff made sure every soldier had access to coke and made sure that everyone knew about his promise he made coca-cola a wartime necessity he made necessity. Soldiers said it boosted morale. Many of them

wrote home amazed that they could even get a Coca-Cola so far from home. The military was so grateful that the top brass worked extra hard to ease travel for Coca-Cola's distributors. The distributors came to be known as the Coca-Cola colonels. Coca-Cola also helped on the home front too. They used their old slogan, the pause that refreshes, to push for more breaks for factory workers and building planes and ships and all the people who were hard at work for America's war efforts. Because of Robert Woodruff's resourcefulness and innovation, people all around the world discovered the amazing taste of Coca-Cola.

Listen, guys, this coronavirus is not the first thing that's ever hit the American economy with a massive blow. It's not the first time this country, or for that matter, the whole world has faced a serious global life-threatening crisis. You have a choice. Are you going to walk around and panic? Are you going to assume that your business is going to fold and your life is going to be ruined? Or are you going to be like Robert Woodruff and decide to take an opportunity to build a brand to become iconic like Coca-Cola? Okay, there's a lot of lessons to be learned from this story. And I'm going to tell you right now, if you want to be like Bob, you need to realize that seeing opportunity in adversity isn't a skill.

It's a choice. You don't have to learn how to see the good in a bad situation or find the opportunity in adversity. You just have to do it. It really isn't about having some pre-existing ability. It's about making a choice. You have to choose to believe that something good can and does come out of everything that happens to you. And this includes the current situation with the coronavirus.

That's what Robert Woodruff did. He said something good will happen to Coca-Cola as a result of America being at war. And making that choice is an act of the will, not of the heart. Don't assume that your emotions are gonna cooperate because I'm telling you right now, they're probably not. In the beginning, you may feel like shit over the situation you're in.

That's normal. You're going to be upset. I totally get it. I understand that a lot of businesses right now are hurting. They're in fear. I understand a lot of people right now are scared. I'm not making light of that by any means, but when those feelings start to creep in

and try to force you to say, man, this sucks. Your will needs to take control. You need to take control of the conversation in your head and say, it doesn't matter if this situation sucks. What can I learn here? What can I do to make this situation actually work to my advantage? And here's the great part. You're just choosing to recognize something that's already true, regardless of whether you believe it or not. And that's this. There is always something good that comes out of a difficult situation. There is always an opportunity amidst the adversity. That's just the way it is. And usually you don't have to look that hard to find the good. You don't have to make shit up. Nine times out of 10, it's going to be obvious

to you. And the only way you're going to miss this opportunity is if you self-pity, anger, and bitter yourself to death. Listen, even in the midst of absolutely horrific circumstances, 99% of the things that happen in life can have a positive result. There can be some good found in them that can help you develop as a person. They can even help your company thrive in the midst of a piss poor economy. It doesn't matter if the economy is hit by a pandemic or a fucking war. Go ask Robert Woodruff what he thinks.

I'm telling you guys, seeing the good and the bad, seeing the opportunity in the middle of adversity isn't a skill. It's not a talent. It's a choice. It's an act of your will will the first step to finding the good is choosing to see it the first step to discovering the opportunity is choosing to see it that was Robert Woodruff's mentality figure out how to thrive during a wartime economy or die I call

this mentality zero options mentality. You have zero options. You either choose to find the good and the bad, and you get visionary and innovative, and you make the situation work for you, or it's over. Period. That was Robert Woodruff's attitude. That's why he was successful.

That was America's mentality during World War II. Figure out how to beat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan or die. And that's why we kicked our asses. You get it? I hope you do. You have to choose to see the good and the bad. You have to choose to see the opportunity and adversity and figure out what you have to do to make those things work for you. There is no other real option. The only other real option, guys, is packing it in. And we know you what you have to do to make those things work for you. There is no other real option. The only other real option, guys, is packing it in. And we know you're not going to do that.

Okay? If you don't understand that and embrace that mentality during this coronavirus chaos, you do not have the mindset of a winner. And I suggest that you learn to develop that mindset right fucking now. Think about it, guys. It's real simple. Make the choice. Put your emotions aside. Focus. Keep moving forward. Innovate. Find a solution and make this thing work for you and your business and hang in there. This is the greatest opportunity a lot of you will see in your entire lives if you can push the emotions aside and recognize the opportunity to innovate, evolve,

and find a solution that helps you be valuable to the world in this time. These times are scary. People panic. This is what happens. This is a big separator between the people who will thrive and the people who will fade away. A lot of you right now, your competitors, the people that you are competing against are going to pack it in. They are going to stop doing what they want to do in terms of growing their business. They're going to find excuses. They're going to limit their aggressiveness. This is not the time for that. This is the time for you to figure out how you can actually improve. How can you use the situation to make your business and your life more effective and better in the long run I'll tell you what guys

and I know it sounds insensitive but it's the truth this is exciting for business don't panic stay calm stay focused and things will work Work out.