REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 177. The American Mandate

Episode Date: November 22, 2021


If we don’t have freedom, we don’t have anything. In today’s episode, Andy talks about the real American mandate that we should implement to protect the freedom and the future of America and the 3 practical daily steps we need to take as our obligation towards the greatest country on earth.

What is up guys, it's Andy Purcell and this is the show for the realest say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society. And welcome to motherfucking reality guys today. I got something a little bit different for you. Um, I was in Las Vegas on Saturday and I gave a talk, uh, to, uh, uh, about a thousand people. And then it's, I don't know, I don't know how many online thousands of people online stream. Um, and I, and I went to this event, which I no longer really do events anymore, but I went to this event because it's an event my good buddy Cole Hatter puts on, and it's called Thrive. And it's about for-purpose entrepreneurship. Okay. Now, all entrepreneurship and all businesses should be for-purpose. All right. That's how you make

them work. You solve problems. And in exchange for solving those problems, money comes in. That took, that lesson took me 10 years to learn in business the hard way. When I started in business, I was only 19 years old. All right. You guys, a lot of you guys know the story, but a lot of you guys don't. I was only 19 years old. I had $12,000 with my business partner, Chris. Okay. We got that money from painting the stripes on parking lots. We started our own retail store of sports nutrition products. The reason we chose sports nutrition products was because we couldn't literally afford to do our first choice, which happened to be tanning salons. Okay. We couldn't, we didn't have

enough money. So we had to, we had to go with a cheaper model, which it's a good thing that happened for us, right? Because tanning is dead in the water now and health and nutrition are only growing bigger and bigger and bigger and becoming more important of our daily lives. So everything does happen for a reason, but we had to start small. Okay. We couldn't find anybody to rent to us. We didn't have people to back us. Nobody was giving us money. All right. We found one guy who would rent us a store for a thousand dollars a month. And that was $12,000. And that was our whole entire amount of money that we had. So we had to pay this man $12,000 a year rent upfront to even get a lease in this old retail store that used to be a bridal shop, we built out the store with supplies we got from Home Depot. Okay?

We had our friends and our family help us build the shelves, the countertop, paint the store. We had $10,000 in credit card debt that we got from pre-approved credit cards to go out and start our first batch of inventory. I mean, dude, when customers first came in our store, they would come in and they would look around and they would say, Hey, you guys getting ready to go out of business? And I was like, no, man, we're fucking, we're just getting going. And I was offended, right? Like I didn't even understand why they would say that. But now I look back at pictures and I look back at photographs and I'm like, well, fuck dude, that looks like a store that's getting ready to go out of business. But that's where we started, man. That's where we

started. Our first day we sold $7. Our next day we sold $0. Our third day we sold $23. It took us eight months to have a day of $800. It took us six years to get a second retail store open. Okay. The first three years I didn't get paid at all. I lived on and off in the store for the first two years of its existence. Okay. We had humble beginnings, man, humble beginnings. And that lasted for about 10 years. Okay. The next seven years after those first three, I made $695 per month for a grand total of about $58,000 for the first 10 years that I was in business. I could have made more money legitimately working at McDonald's the first 10 years I was an entrepreneur. All right. That wasn't $58,000 per year. That was $58,000 total for 10 years. Okay. So I understand a whole

lot about what environment needs to be created to grow a company. All right. Now, truth be told, the reason that it took us 10 years to become great in business was because we didn't understand that we were a for-purpose business. Just like most of you who were early in business haven't come to that conclusion yet. We exist to solve problems. We exist to help people solve their problems. We exist to empower people. We exist to help people in anything that they need to become healthier, happier, mentally tougher, and more successful in life. That's what we do. And once we understood that purpose, things changed. Our companies grew. In fact, we grew 100% year after year,

and up until 2020 was the hardest economic environment ever. 100% a year. All because we switched from the mentality of trying to sell to trying to help. Okay, now you guys know the success. I own a whole bunch of different companies. They're all successful. All right. Our companies employ hundreds and hundreds of people and thousands of people outside the walls of our HQ. We're building two more headquarters buildings right here in St. Louis. We're going to employ

a thousand people on site in the next two years. We're building one of the greatest companies in the history of business. We're doing things that no other business has ever done. We're innovating. We're solving problems. We're making the world better. We're making people better. And we'll make you better too if you give us a chance.

And we started out that very first day with a $7 sale. And now we've got a company that's worth literally billions of dollars and a whole bunch of other companies that are doing very well too. And that's all because we grew up in an environment that was conducive to growing a business. We grew up in an environment of freedom. All right? Tens of thousands of people outside of these walls make their income because of the decisions that we made to help solve people's problems. So if you're in business and you're thinking about what the fucking problem is, the problem is most likely that you are focused on what you can take and not what you can contribute.

And once you make that switch, your business will grow too. Okay. But that's not really what I wanted to get into in this talk. I just want to explain the context of where I gave it. You see, I'm able and have been able to succeed in business and grow and employ people and create dreams and do all of these things because of this simple concept called freedom. It's tossed around a lot these days. There's a lot of people out there screaming about freedom. And some people are confused about why people are so urgent about freedom. And I want to explain a little bit about

why it's important to you guys who are out there building businesses to care about freedom right now. What have we called America since 1776? Everybody knows the answer to that. We've called it the land of opportunity. We hear it a thousand times. And it is the land of opportunity. People are proud to live here. People from all over the world, immigrants, will do literally anything to get here. They will cross continents. They will go in migration caravans.

They will suffer to get here because this is the only true land of opportunity in the world. Every single person in America has the opportunity to choose a career they love, to build a business, to make money, to raise a family, to get involved in politics, to influence culture for the better. Where else in the world can you do this? Nowhere. And I want to transform the way you think about your success and think about America and think about freedom. Okay, a lot of you guys know that I like that movie,

Saving Private Ryan. It's one of my favorite movies ever. I think it's one of the best movies ever made if you sit down and get a chance to watch it. But there's a scene at the end of that movie. All right. And there's they walk up. And if you haven't seen the movie, I'll summarize it. OK, basically, there's a guy who is has three other brothers and they all get killed. All right. And he's over fighting World War Two in Europe. And the military realizes that all of his brothers got killed.

And so they set a special unit to save Private Ryan. All right. Now, during the saving of Private Ryan, a whole bunch of these people get killed. And he is protected by these men. All right. And they give their lives to protect his life so that he can go live his family's legacy. And at the end of the movie, after all of this crazy shit that happens during the movie, they go to the cemetery over in Normandy

where all of these men are buried. And he gets to the grave of some of his friends and he falls down and he's in tears and he looks at his wife and he says, tell me I've led a good life. Tell me I'm a good man. And his wife says, you are. And the reason that scene has always stuck with me is because that man understands and understood very real that other men came before him, and now he has an obligation. He has to earn the right to live a great life in America. He owes these men. He owes these people a great life in return for their lives that they gave. And I feel like we've lost that. I feel like we've lost that a little bit here in America.

So I want you to think about that as I'm talking about what I'm about to talk about. Because America isn't just the land of opportunity, it's the land of obligation. Now, we've all talked about and heard about and been frustrated with all the ridiculous mandates that have been in this country over the last year and a half or so. Okay, there isn't a single person listening to this that hasn't been frustrated or inconvenienced or questioned a lot of the things being passed down from our government. They don't pass laws anymore. Now they just mandate what we do. And that's not freedom.

That's not serving the majority. That's not the will of the people. And so I'm going to talk about a different kind of mandate. I'm going to talk about the American mandate, which is your obligation to pursue greatness, not just for yourself, but for your country. You guys need to understand that this country is not just a land of opportunity for you. It's meant to be a land of opportunity created by you. The founding fathers and the generations of Americans who went before us built an amazing country for us. They invested in this country for us. So you, whoever you are, if you live in this country, you have an obligation

to build amazing things for other people that are going to come after us. That's the American mandate. Okay. And that's the only mandate that fucking matters. The last year I've gotten involved in a lot of political talk. I changed my entire format of my show. I went from talking about money and how to make it to talking about what's going on in the world because I realized a very simple thing, that if we don't have freedom, we don't have the opportunity to do the things like I've been able to do. And I care about you guys who aren't quite there yet. Okay? So the reason I'm talking about this

is I want you to understand why I talk about and why I'm so passionate about freedom. Okay? We have to protect this cause or you will not get where you want to go. That story I just told you about coming from literally nothing to where we are now,

you won't be able to do that in today's current environment. We're overtaxed. We're over-legislated. We're over-litigated. And we're pressured into a situation where some businesses have to pay more to the government than what they get to take fucking home. And guys, that's not right. That's not freedom and it's not conducive to the land of opportunity. And the only way to protect it

is by becoming the land of obligation on an individual basis. And that's what I'm talking about here, guys. I'm not talking about getting involved in politics to improve America. What I'm talking about is what you do in your own life. Lots of people, lots of people, millions of people have died or suffered great loss to produce the America that you and I benefit from. The least we can do is to set an example of greatness in our own lives. The least we can do is to create dynamics that motivate other people to be fucking great. That's our obligation. The American mandate is the only mandate.

It's the only one. You guys have all heard the Kennedy quote from back in the 60s. John F. Kennedy says, ask not what the country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. And he didn't mean the government. He meant the country. Our country has already done so much for us. What are we going to do for it in return? And I want to give you three things, practical things that you can do to fulfill what I call

the American mandate. I'm going to give you three practical things. Okay. So I'm not talking about today, go run politics or go run for school board or go run. We need you to do those things. But what I'm actually talking about is how you live on a daily basis. Okay. So what are these three things that make up the American mandate? Well, first off, guys, you've got to choose the hard path every day. Okay. America is not perfect. It's got major problems, but maybe it's not as bad as what they think. Because I can tell you this, when I go out in the real world and I observe what's going on, I sure as fuck don't see any of the shit that they tell us on TV. I see good people. I see people that care about each other. I see people that are willing to help each other. Okay. So we aren't as

bad as we think, or as we're told that we are. Okay. But you know, what I do believe is a real problem in America is that it's too comfortable. It's too easy to achieve success. We don't have an oppression problem here. We have a fucking spoiled rotten brat problem. We have more resources than any fucking nation on earth. We got people bitching about how oppressed they are from their thousand dollar iPhones. Guys, we've never had more access to opportunity yet. We're not even grateful for it. We don't appreciate it. Okay. We have more opportunities here than any nation on earth. Our standards are so high that you can literally half-ass life here and still survive. What other country can you actually do that in? Okay. And this is why we have an

obligation to intentionally choose the hard path. In fact, I believe we have an obligation to choose the hardest path because that's the one that's going to take the most out of you. You have to intentionally move out of your comfort zone and continue executing after you're tired, after you're frustrated, after you're angry, after you're exhausted. Okay? You have to push through. You know, when I bought my first house here in St. Louis, it was a pretty middle-class house, smaller house, average house, you know, 1,800 square feet. Real nice lot, great place. I was really happy to achieve that goal of buying my first quote-unquote grown-up house.

And, you know, it's no secret that I do cardio outside. And I've always been an outdoor cardio kind of person. And, you know, now I live in a house that, you know, is iconic. Okay. It belonged to a former president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant. The property is historic. It's crazy. It's an awesome property. All right.

And there's been a journey to get from that first property to this property that I'm in now. All right. But when I did my outdoor cardio with that first property, you know, it was hard, man. Like it was little hills. And, um, you know, I went, I went through the course, uh, the little course around my house and it was pretty tough. And then I moved into this house in between these two houses and that house, uh, you know, when I moved into that house, it was a big house. It was 11,000 square foot house. Okay. Um, I would go through, uh, the neighborhood and I had a new route for my outdoor cardio and that outdoor cardio was really hard. And if you've been following me for a long time, I used to have

this part on that walk that I called death mountain. And it was cause it was a hard Hill, man. And so like the house got nicer, but so did the course that I called death mountain. And it was cause it was a hard hill, man. And so like the house got nicer, but so did the course that I did my cardio on got harder. Right. And then I moved into the house that I'm in now, which is this brand, you know, estate compound or whatever you want to call it. Um, it's awesome. But the hills around the house are easily twice as hard as even my last house. And I like to think about this as a true metaphor for how we grow as people. Okay. That's the only way that we grow is by pushing ourself beyond what we think is hard now. All right. And what does that do? And why is that important? Well, one, it gives us the ability to develop things that we need in our lives, skills that we must have like grit, fortitude, perseverance, mental toughness. Okay.

But it also shows all these people around us what it looks like to level up. It's not about us. It's not just about what we get and the life we live. It's about the life we live and what others see and perceive of that. See, it used to be cool to be successful. It used to be something that was celebrated. And the reason that it was celebrated was because it showed other people what was possible in this amazing country when you have freedom. And we're losing that. We're losing the ability to execute on that. And that comes from our personal decisions to take the hard path on a daily basis.

So choose the hard path. That's the first part of the American mandate. The second part of the American mandate is that you must take your own character development seriously. All right, there's a quote that you may or may not have heard, but America is great because she is good. But if she ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. And I want you to really think about what that means, because I still believe in American goodness. I still believe that most people out there are decent people.

I don't think the media has it right. I don't think the news has it right. I don't think Hollywood has it right. I don't feel that when has it right. I don't think Hollywood has it right. I don't feel that when I walk down the street and I travel all over this country and I don't see what they're talking about. I see good people. I see people that care about others. I see people that treat others with love and respect. I see people who are willing to listen and who are willing to come together, but it's hard to do when the message of division is pumped down our fucking throats 24 seven by organizations that are supposed to serve us. Okay. We take for granted here in this country, not only that we have decent people, but that decent people

will always be that majority. Someday, guys, the shitbags may outnumber the saints. The people who do bad and have bad intent may outnumber the people who are good and have good intent. And what kind of world is that going to create? I don't think that's one I want to be around for and if we don't want to be around for it like me you better get committed to stopping it you know how you keep that from happening you know how we keep the world from being overrun by shitty people focus on standing higher and stronger in your character. And how do we build these character qualities?

It's the same way you build anything else. You build it by taking action, by always doing the right thing, by always being honest, being kind, being hardworking, having integrity, doing the right thing, even when it's the hardest thing. Those are the things that build character, and we're losing that. That's the second part of the American mandate. The third part of the American mandate is you must work to secure positions of power and influence. And when I say that,

people always get nervous because they think that seeking power is wrong. They think it's self-centered. But who puts that message to us? The people with power. Seeking power is not a bad thing if you use the power that you achieve to make a better place. And you need to understand this. In a nation, in a country, in an organization, somebody is always going to be in power. It's going to either be good people or it's going to be bad people. But it's going to be one or the other. And so it's up to us to understand that we have an obligation to create influence by becoming great. Okay. When you think about

Tom Brady and you think about how influential he is amongst the NFL organization, he's probably the most influential guy ever right now. Okay, what about Michael Jordan and NBA players? What about Elon Musk in the business world? You cannot argue that these aren't some of the most influential people. And they're not influential because they're on social media every day,

posting all this shit, saying all this shit. They're influential because they're fucking great. They're influential because they are the very best at what they do. And they've proven it over and over and over and again. And the reward for being great and the reward for being the best is power and influence. And when you become the fucking best at what you do, that power and influence will naturally come to you and you'll have a decision to make. You'll be able to either use it for good if you've cultivated good character seriously, or you won't if you haven't made that investment in your character. Because power corrupts. Power lends itself to negativity if you don't have strong

character, strong values, strong integrity that you're comfortable standing in. And this is why it's important to practice. This is why it's important to consistently do these things day in and day out. This is why it's important to realize that everybody's watching you. Your kids are watching you. Your neighbors are watching you. Your friends are watching you. Everybody's watching you. And as irrelevant as you may think that you are, you have the obligation to become the best example of what you think this country should be for no other reason than other people have come before you and actually died

so you have the opportunity to do so. That's the only way this gets better. That's the only way. We got to choose the hard path every day. We have to take our own character development seriously every day. And as a result of our success and our work, when we achieve power and influence and when we get involved,

we have an obligation to do what's right, not just for us, but for the people that are coming after us. You know, Ronald Reagan said it best. Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for. It must be protected and handed on for them to do the same. Or one day we'll spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. This is your obligation. It is your obligation to maintain freedom. It is your obligation to fight for freedom. It is your obligation to be the best that you could possibly be in all areas of your life for the people that come after us. That's your obligation to America. That's the American mandate. That's what you owe this country because of what you've been given to have the

opportunity in this country. This is not just the land of opportunity. It's the land of obligation