REAL AF with Andy Frisella - Control Your Focus, Control Your Outcome, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO102

Episode Date: October 25, 2016

The minds of successful people are always active. They have an opportunity mindset and want to make the most of everything that happens in their lives. That's the good news. But according to The MFCEO, the one downside of that mentality is that they think they can focus on everything; they think they can divide their attention and energy into every possible project. Spoiler alert: They can't. In this episode, Andy Frisella provides some practical tips for to how to focus on one thing; and how that laser-like focus can lead to even greater success.

I want to be a motherfucking hustler. You better ask somebody. What is up guys? You're listening to the MFCEO Project. I'm Andy, I'm your host, and I am the motherfucking CEO. Guys, if this is your first time listening, welcome. This is episode 101. If you want to know what the project's about, what we're here to do, what we're trying to do, and what we are going to do, go back and listen to episode 100. I think it outlines it pretty clear. What is the MFCEO Project? basically guys it's a podcast based around entrepreneurship entrepreneurial values leadership values taking initiative taking responsibility and core values that basically make up why our society has been successful for the last oh i don't know 230 years or so

how many years are we at mon i was just thinking I was just thinking about that. I think it's 250, 260. Is it? Something like that. Anyway, the last couple hundred fucking years. How about that? Right. Guys, our society has gotten away from what has made our society successful. And we are here to help show people, teach people, talk about the values, the techniques that successful people have used over the course of time to become better at entrepreneurship, become better providers, become better leaders and become better people. That's what this is about. You guys have to realize that you are the CEO of you. You are an entrepreneur of you. You need to think of yourself as your own brand, especially in this day and age where we're consumed with social media. We have this whole second world out there that is social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat.

And there's reality, there's real world, and then there's this other world, the, Snapchat. And, you know, there's reality, there's real world, and then there's this other world, the social world. And because the social world, we're all so involved in it, you are a brand. And if you don't run your brand properly, guess what? Your value is decreased. So we talk a lot about how to handle your social aspects. We talk a lot about how to handle these values,

how to provide value. Basically, guys, go back, listen to episode 100, go back and listen to some of the past episodes, and you'll get the drift. I think a lot of people really resonated with that episode and must have shared it with people because we have a significant number of downloads normally, but I was checking our stats and I saw that, wow, we blew the doors off of some of our daily records. So thank you guys for listening to it.

Yeah. Sharing it. Everybody's behind the mission. You know, it's not just a, this isn't just a podcast. It's a movement. And, you know, we don't ask you to buy things. We don't sell programs. This is a way for us to give back.

And, you know, some of you guys are fathers and and you know, you didn't grow up in an entrepreneurial family or you're not an entrepreneur and you want your kids to do better. Well, this is the kind of podcast that you can listen to and learn some of these things that you can pass along. We do this as a passion project. It's something that we care deeply about and we want to provide real value to you guys. Today, we're going to talk about something that is very, very, very important in every aspect of achievement. The podcast generally is for people pursuing success, entrepreneurs, business people, regular human beings that just want to get better. People like you that have active brains, okay? You're always thinking, you're always looking at the world, and you have an opportunity mindset. Or if you didn't, you wouldn't be listening to this, okay? But here's the problem that I see with

bright, capable people that I run into all the time. Because you see potential everywhere, sometimes you allow your attention to be distracted by everything, okay? You value hard work, you have all the tools, you have the drive, you have the discipline, but you spread those tools all around so thin that it's hard to produce a result. And I know most of you listening here suffer from this. Okay. Here's the truth. The most elite successful people on this planet know how to put on the horse blinders. They know how in a world of opportunity to choose one opportunity and take that full force of their work ethic and their drive and their ambition and their want and drive it home on a single point. This is bring something up that annoys the shit out of me.

A term that all you young motherfuckers like to use out there and all the wannabe Instagram entrepreneurs have in their profile says serial entrepreneur. Okay. That's the most worthless fucking term on the face of the earth. First of all, you're not okay. Otherwise we would know who the fuck you are. Second of all, there is very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very few people that could become true serial entrepreneurs. Okay. Most of you motherfuckers that are serial claim to be serial entrepreneurs. You just don't have the discipline to attack one fucking point to make it grow as much as it can. I see this all the time. I know guys who are moderately quote unquote successful, who have 17 different fucking businesses and they're starting something

new all the time. When, if they just concentrated where they were strong they'd be a fucking hundred millionaire but instead they're getting by they're living a mediocre life they're spreading themselves way too thin so they can pretend like they're fucking warren buffett all right there's only one motherfucking warren buffett you know how warren buffett got to be warren buffett because warren buffett knows how to build a fucking team war Warren Buffett isn't making all those decisions. He's not running all those companies. He's a team builder. He's a guy who comes up with fucking ideas, builds teams around those ideas and lets that team do the work. Okay. So the term serial entrepreneur, when I see it makes me think dumb fuck. That's what I think.

Yeah. I think it's somebody pretending to be something that they aren't and they're probably not good at any of the fucking companies that they have and it's the most popular term right now because entrepreneurship is cool well here's this how about you get yourself to uh an earning level of eight figures a year and then start a new company you You know what I'm saying? Stop talking about serial entrepreneur when you're making fucking 50 grand a year spread out from six fucking companies. Yeah. That's just an impressive way or trying to be impressive way of saying that you're throwing a bunch of things against the wall and hoping that something

sticks. Yeah. And that goes right into what we're going to talk about. These people lack focus. They lack the ability to drive a point home. They lack the ability to stay on top of something and see it through until harvest time. a field for five, six, seven years without seeing a result. So what do they do? They get frustrated and they go start this or they go start that or they go start this. And then their little plant, the original plant, it might sprout a little bit, but it never becomes the fucking true crop that it could be. You see what I mean? Absolutely. And dude, I'm going to tell you right now, one of my, if you have serial entrepreneur in your profile and I see it, I fucking laugh. Like, I laugh at you. Period. Unless your name is Warren Buffett or fucking Richard Branson, you know?

But if you're fucking, you know, Joe Blow, or even if you're moderately successful and you call yourself a serial entrepreneur, I think you're a fucking moron. Right. Personal opinion. But it's right. So, this is what I'm going to talk about today, guys. We're going to talk about focus. All right. We're going to talk about relentless, single-minded, sharp as a knife focus, the kind of focus that you can look at and see with total depth, total certainty. So total clarity, a goal and commitment to that goal.

All right. I'm going to drop three principles on you that have helped me maintain focus because guys, let's face it, developing the kind of focus that we're talking about is not something you're born with. I used to be the guy who used to want to start a new business every three months. I used to be the guy who thought that, you know, I needed to do something else all the time. So I understand the process and I'm going to try to teach you guys how I overcame that process to learn how to really focus in on the one or two things I'm really, really, really good at to allow those things to mature and provide fruit. And then what I'm going to do things I'm really, really, really good at to allow those things to mature and provide fruit. And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you some best practices to help you maintain focus that I think will help you in the position that you're in.

All right, so I'm just going to get started right now and just say right up front, the best way to stay focused, guys, is to focus on one project. And remember this basic principle the most important thing is to provide value it's not about you it's about what you give it's not about what you take it's about what you give it's not about the money you make it's about what you give and I know we've covered this over and over and over again but this is something that people have a hard time grasping. If there isn't value in your idea for the other person, it will never work. You should throw it in the garbage. All right. That aside, you know,

people who bounce from one business venture to the next are the ones who are always focused on what they're going to take, what's in it for them, how much money are they going to make. Those are the people who are always going for six months and then jumping to something else and then jumping to something else and then jumping to something else. If you focus on the money, guys, it's going to be really hard to focus on the benefit that you're providing on. Us as humans, we have a very limited ability to focus. So you have to trust the process that when you focus on providing value, that the money just comes in.

All right, does that make sense? Yeah, it makes total sense. And guys, that's not to say that there's nothing, that there's anything wrong with making money because absolutely there is nothing wrong with making money. You have an obligation to make money. But if that's what's driving you, if that's your priority, if that's what you think about nonstop,

you're wasting so much time that could be spent on how you could provide value, how you could make a better product, how you could provide a better service. And that's taking away from your ability to succeed. All right, so if you focus on the wrong things, you're going to have a difficult time. You follow what I'm saying? Yeah, it's really, I mean, I don't know.

It's kind of amazing if you really think about it. It's counterintuitive. It is counterintuitive, but it's also, I mean, you're literally saying that the people who are bouncing from one thing to the next, if they took a hard look at themselves, it really is because they're selfish. They're just looking for the next greatest opportunity for them to cash in. Yeah. And that's why these people bounce from one thing to another thing to another thing their whole entire lives.

Yeah. They never really stick into something and never really become anything. And then they end up getting jaded and getting bitter and then blaming the whole world for not fulfilling what it is. The world doesn't exist to fulfill you. You exist to fulfill the world. And if you can adopt that mindset, the money is going to be part of the reward that you get. It's not going to be the whole reward because you're going to get all kinds of other rewards.

You're going to get fulfillment. You're going to get to see people grow. You're going to see people solve problems. There's going to be a lot of pride in those things that you get. And that's a big part of the reward. The biggest part of my job reward is not the money. I know people think that, but it's not it. The biggest part is seeing people lose a hundred pounds or change their life or get their confidence back or build up, you know, their life to a quality that they want it to be. And, you know, that's what we try to focus on here at our companies. We focus on providing the tools and the information necessary for them to make those

changes. And because we focus on those things, the money naturally comes in. It's a lesson that I think people need to learn that doing the right thing is often good for business. It's always good for business. Well, yeah. Always good for business. Good point. It's always good for business. Well, yeah. Always good for business. Good point. It's always good for business.

But I think people think that a lot of times they have to choose between doing the right thing and having practical business success. Whereas that requires just a total mind shift. No, they need to take that idea and throw it in the fucking garbage. Right. Because that's not the way to think about it.

Right. It's about providing value, period. Right. And providing value comes down to doing the fucking garbage. Right. Because that's not the way to think about it. Right. It's about providing value, period. Right. And providing value comes down to doing the right thing. And when you do the right thing, better than anybody else, and you're providing more value than anybody else, guess what happens?

You make more money than anybody else. And that's just the way it is. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You can fucking argue it all you want, but I can point at every single business, every single business, every single one and argue the point that you would say, Oh, that's not true. Cause every single business out there is an example of that. Every single one of them just is. But in practical terms, what you're saying is if you do the right thing,

if you provide value, it is going to help you hone your focus. Yes, absolutely. You know, you only have, like I said, you only have the ability to focus on one or two things. And if you're always focused on your bank account or always focused on your money, this is where people really screw up. You know, they focus on their lack of money. They focus on their need for money. They focus on the bills they have to They focus on, uh, the bills they have to pay. Well, that takes away their focus from how do I make a better product that people are actually going to want? How do I make a better service that people are actually going to want? How do I do the best job I possibly can? That's going to make people excited to do business with

me. And whenever they lose the focus on those points, that's when their business kind of falls apart. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So they get caught up in the day-to-day. You have to push that shit out. The negative shit, the worries, the anxiety, the stress. Be aware of it, but push it out.

And don't focus on it. Focus on that one handshake, that one smile, that one thank you, that one positive Facebook post somebody's going to write about you because you did such a great job. If you focus on that every single day, that's going to cumulatively, uh, you know, affect your business in a positive way over time. And, and because people get caught up in the day to day and the bills and the anxiety and the, the, I don't have the lack, you know, they get more of that. Right. And you know, guys, the thing about success is that, you know, they get more of that. Right. And, you know, guys, the thing about success is that, you know, it takes time. It takes tremendous amounts of energy. It takes tremendous amounts of tenacity. And when you diffuse your efforts on multiple projects, because this one isn't working yet because you're impatient and you haven't let it grow the way it needs to grow. Good things are not going to happen for you.

You're going to spend your whole entire life on a three-year plan. That three-year plan is going to go like this. Start something, work my dick off. Two years, I'm not making money. Three years, I'm making a little money. I'm not making enough money, so I'm going to go fucking do this other thing. And people spend their entire lives in that process. How many guys do you know that every time you see them, they're into something new?

Right. Dude, I've been doing the same thing for 17 years now. You know what I mean? Like that there's no coincidence there that we're doing OK. Right. You know? Right. You have to learn to commit to the project that allows you to provide the most value to the market and to the world. And if you put all your effort into that, the money is absolutely going to take care of itself. I get that question all the time.

Which one should I choose? Which one can you be the best in the world at? Which one can you be the top 10 in the world at? Which one can you provide the most value to someone else? That's how you answer that question. Which one should I choose? Right. But most people will do what? They will say, I'm going to pick the one that I think I can make the most money at. Right. And it ends up blowing up in their face. Right. When I hear you say that, I'm going to pick the one that I think I can make the most money at. Right. And it ends up blowing up in their face. Right.

When I hear you say that, I think you can't really ask, how can I provide the most value without using the word I? How can I provide the most value? And when you do that, you're asking, what do I bring to the table? What are my assets? What are my experiences? What do I care about? And because it adds that personal dimension, you're going to be so much more invested in it. You're going to be, and you're going to be so much more driven to make it successful. Yeah. Agree. Totally. Totally.

So guys, first point, the most important thing is to provide value, focus on value, focus on what you can give, focus on what you can provide. Focus on how many people you can make happy, how many people you can make advocates, how many people you can make sing your praises. Focus on that. All right. That's point number one. Point number two is you have to change your mindset about opportunities. Opportunities aren't passively found or lost. You are in control of creating opportunities. Okay. Nobody's going to come to you and just offer you this tremendously great opportunity like in the movies. All right. It just doesn't fucking happen. Um, now when you're up the ladder of success or somewhere in the middle, like let's say where I am, I consider myself somewhere in the middle.

I do have people who are higher up on the ladder than me that I'm friends with that will say, hey, Andy, I've got this opportunity for you, blah, blah, blah. That shit does happen through networks. But when you're just starting out and you're a regular Joe and you don't fucking know anybody, it doesn't fucking happen. Right. All right. So you have to understand that you are in control of creating your opportunities. And here's what I mean by that. I meet people all the time who say shit like this, Andy, I've been working on this business, but I just heard about

this amazing opportunity doing this other thing. And I'm just afraid that if I don't stop what I'm doing in this business and grab this other opportunity, I'm going to miss out. And guys, that is like the most amateur, most un-entrepreneurial statement you can make. Like if you're really this guy, if you're really in this position, you probably should just have a regular fucking job. Okay. You decided you wanted to do this. You decided that you wanted to start this project. That means you've never really, and we're gonna get to that at this point in a minute, that you've never really committed to this project. You're still in it for you. You're still in it for your money. You're still in it for your dollars. And people are thinking right now, well, of course I am because I care about myself. Well, yeah, but you have to get through your fucking head by changing your mindset that the way you take care of yourself is by taking

care of other people. Okay. You determine whether your project you're working on is a great opportunity. You determine if the product idea that you have is a million dollar product. And in fact, don't even focus on million dollar product because it ain't enough money. All right. If it's a $10 million product or a $50 million product, set your high goals. Okay. You do that through focus, hard work and persistence and by being patient. Okay. But if you keep jumping around looking for the next opportunity or the next million dollar product idea, guys, you're not going to be able to do shit. Okay. You're going to be the guy in a three-year cycle. We just talked about a minute ago. Opportunities are not found, discovered or lost. They're created and they're

developed by the focus, hard work and patience that you put into them. Okay. Time is always going to be a factor. And I'll give you an example of this. How many companies do you see that spend $30 million a year on Superbowl ads that you've never heard of before? And you never fucking hear of them again. A lot happens every year. Yeah. Every year. I can't think of anyone to stick in my head. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. But the reason for that is you can't buy people's trust. You can't buy people's top of mind recognition. It's impossible. It doesn't matter how much money you spend.

Time is a factor. It will always be a factor. It takes somebody time to see your brand, to get to know your brand, to hear your voice, to see your face, to learn to trust you enough to swipe their credit card or make an order on your website. You cannot buy your way into somebody's heart and brain. Okay. It takes time and it takes years guys. It's not a fucking month. All right. Quit jumping from thing to thing, the thing, the thing, this is the equivalent. And this is the analogy I use. It's the equivalent of this. You want to run a marathon, all right?

26.2 miles, okay? Every time you go out to try to run a marathon, you get to mile 17. You get to mile 18. And you say, fuck, I'm never going to get there. I've been doing this for fucking 18 miles. I'm never going to get there. So what do you do? You turn around, you go back, and you start a new marathon.

And you think, well, maybe this time I'll get to the end. And what happens? You get to mile 15, 16, 17. You're like, fuck, this is hard. It's getting hard. You know what? I'm not getting the results I thought I was going to get. And what happens?

You stop. You go back. You start a new marathon. That's the same thing people do with business. Do you ever complete your marathon? No. This business is exactly the same. You follow what I'm saying?

Absolutely, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's exactly the same. If you get into it, and you make a little bit of progress, a little bit of growth, and you learn a lot of shit, and then all of a sudden it gets hard, and then you quit and you start something new, realize you're going to have to go through all that same shit over again. Right.

You know what I mean? And isn't it, I mean, the people that I know come to you and say, oh, man, you know, I am working hard on the project that I started with, but I'm looking over here and I just heard, you know, I met this guy who basically said, now is the time to get in. And if you don't get in now, it's going to be an opportunity that's forever lost. And what I hear you saying is... Dude, I hear that every fucking week.

Right. And you know how many of those opportunities that now is the time that I've missed out on? One, over 17 years. Yeah. You know what I mean? But it didn't ultimately determine your success because I think...

No, because I dedicated the shit to my shit. Right don't don't you think that that fear though that you're going to miss out on an opportunity don't don't you think that that's you're missing out right isn't this come down to what you say like you've always said that successful people have kind of the I think it's called the abundance mentality yes or there's never a shortage of opportunities and that right and that's what that's the difference there's opportunity a shortage of opportunities. Right. And that's the difference. There's opportunity everywhere. And because of what we just said, successful people understand what we just said. They understand they create their opportunities.

Right. Dude, I'm a firm believer, man. I could start a fucking tire company today and make it a fucking $100 million company. I could start a sleeping bag company. I could start a fucking cooler company. You know why i know i can make it work because i'm gonna fucking make it work right you see what i'm saying i'm gonna do whatever the fuck it takes to make it work i don't care what whatever i have to do i'll do yeah and that's that's what people don't understand they think there's some sort of magic to it right it's just a decision and that leads into the third point which is are you even a

hundred percent committed before you even start you know i wouldn't start a sleeping bag company or a cooler company or a tire company without already knowing where my outcome was going to be and being committed to that no matter how fucking long it took first form is going to be a billion dollar brand. I have no fucking doubts about it. I tell people that peers of mine in the industry, they fucking giggle a little bit, but I'm used to being giggled at. I've been giggled at my whole fucking life. You know, in five, six, seven, eight years, they're going to be like, fuck. We always knew you could do it. Exactly. Exactly. But the point is, is that, dude,

I'm committed to that a hundred percent. I'm all in. And we talk about that a lot on the podcast too. You guys know that, but it's amazing to me how many people start a business and their attitude is like, Oh, you know, this, this might be cool to try this or yeah, maybe I'll do this and I'll see what happens, dude. If that's your attitude, there is no fucking way that you're committed and there's no way that you have the proper focus or the proper, uh, area focused on. Okay. And I know that wasn't the best way to say that. I got a little tongue tied there, but you guys know what I mean? You're not focusing on the right shit. Right. Okay. Um, with the amount, with the right amount

of focus, right? Talking about two different things, how much focus and where are you putting the focus? And if you're, I, if your mentality is, I'll do this and I'll see what happens or, Oh, this might be cool to try. You're going to get fucking bitch slapped. It's the way it is, man. Dude, success. Sorry, man. No, no, that's fucking hard. Entrepreneurship is fucking hard. Running a business is fucking hard. Entrepreneurship is fucking hard. Running a business is fucking hard. It's not something that you could just, oh, I'll see if I can do this and try it. Dude, I see this in my industry all the time.

A lot of people, because of the way I speak and the way I present myself as a regular dude, they say, oh, look, dude, if that goon can do it, I can fucking do it. Hey, motherfucker, you're welcome to try. But I'm going to tell you right now, you better bring it all because this shit is hard. You know what I mean? Absolutely. I know what it took me, and I'm a smart motherfucker. And I'm a hard worker.

I will fucking outwork anybody. And I'm going to tell you right now, it took every fucking thing I've got, and it's going to take everything I have to get where we want to go. So that's really why I don't give a fuck about competition because I know they don't have it. They don't have what I've got and it's going to take everything I have to get where we want to go. So that's really why I don't give a fuck about competition because I know they don't have it. They don't have what I've got. They don't have what we've got as a team. Right. So tell me if this is a stretch as an analogy, but most people who have brains in their head, if they meet somebody, they wouldn't be like, oh yeah, I think I'll get married to him. You put a lot of thought into that. And when you come to that point where you're going to get married to somebody,

you realize, like, I'm going to take vows often before God and witnesses. And you realize, okay, this is, you know, I'm not going to just try this. I'm really serious about this. And I don't think people realize when it comes to an entrepreneurial venture, like a business idea. They don't put the same amount of commitment into it. They don't even think about it. They don't think of it like a marriage because that's what it is.

You're going to be living with that business for the next 50 years. Is that a cheesy analogy? No, it's even more of a commitment than a marriage. I mean, dude, if you don't think that fucking my business gets more of my time than my marriage, you're fucking crazy. It's not even in proportion. And people are going to say, well, that's not right. Well, you know what? It's what it is.

That's what I'm talking about. What are you willing to fucking give? But it is amazing that people are like, well, I think I'll try this out for a little bit. It's because entrepreneurship is glorified. You have all these stupid fucks on the internet posting pictures with their rented fucking cars on their fucking fake ass fucking somebody else's airplane, you know, with cars they don't fucking own. They never owned in front of somebody else's house saying how they're trying to act like they're fucking ballers on the Internet. And you know what, dude? That shit ain't fucking right because it gives people a glorified idea of what this is about.

And which is why I try to take the opposite approach. I try to almost discourage people from being an entrepreneur because dude, most people just aren't gonna be able to do it. That's just the way it is. It's something that they're not going to be able to fucking do. Right. And because these stupid fucks on the internet let all these people think that, Oh yeah,

you could, you you know be like me i'm fucking 19 years old i'm rolling a fucking lambo or you know i work four hours a week and i fucking blah blah blah you know what dude if that's what you believe entrepreneurship is about dude you have no business being an entrepreneur because it is the complete opposite of that. Remember, like, like I'm trying to think of something that would be representative of entrepreneurship in my brain, like in terms of like a movie, you know, like, you know, like Castaway, like the movie Castaway, where the dude's on a fucking island all by himself. All right. Nobody to talk to.

Nobody understands him. He has to make up his own fucking friend because nobody understands what he's talking about anyway. And one thing after another, after another, after another goes wrong and he has to figure out creative solutions to all these problems. That's what entrepreneurship is. That's a great analogy. That's what it's like. It's like having nobody that understands you in your whole circle, having one thing after

another, after another go wrong and you having to fucking improvise all these other solutions to fucking fix these things. Okay. And then as you become like a more successful entrepreneur, it's the same thing, except for the people that are, the problems are coming from the other people in your organization and you're having to fix all their problems. Right. You know what I'm saying? Right. It's, it's just, dude, unless you want to subject yourself to total mind fuck torturous life that you get paid well to do dude entrepreneurship is not for you right

it just isn't and it sure as fuck isn't for you if you're thinking oh let me try this out and let me see if it fucking it'll work dude get the fuck out of here with that shit you're gonna get stomped you know you're gonna end up walking around with a fucking mushroom stamp on the side of your fucking face tyler you know what i'm talking about. So get your head straight before you even start the game. Dude, 100%, man. You have to be 100% committed. You know, commitment comes before focus. It comes before you even decide where to focus.

And the decision comes before dedication. You have to make the decision. You have to decide. And the Latin form of the word decision You have to decide. And the Latin form of the word decision is actually to cut off all other options. Okay. It means I am deciding that I'm going to lose weight. I am deciding that I'm going to start this business and make it successful. A lot of people decide they're going to start a business, but they don't decide anything more than that. They think starting the business is the fucking goal. Starting a business doesn't mean shit. Okay. I see these people all the time

celebrating starting a new business. They ain't shit, man. Like really, we should be having your fucking funeral because it's brutal. I'll start this new business, blah, blah, blah. And I'm always like, Hey, congrats. You know what I'm saying? Like, dude, call me in a fucking year, bro. Welcome to the underworld. Yeah, exactly. But you have to ask yourself those tough questions. You know, do I understand how hard this is going to be? Do I understand how long it's going to take? Do I understand this whole process is going to be very, very messy and probably detrimental to my personal life at some point? It's just the way it is. And you have to be very, very messy and probably detrimental to my personal life at some point. It's just the way it is. And you have to be willing to answer those questions. And when you do that, you realize

that you can't possibly bounce from one thing to the next. You have to focus on one thing and become fucking great at it. You know, so many people, guys, they, they get this, it's the magic thing. When they think they can bounce from one idea to the next idea, the next idea, the next idea, they still believe that there's some sort of magic involved here. There's some sort of unseen force that's waving the magic success wand over your head. And you get this like wind at your back, everything you touch turns to gold power and become overnight successful. It's not how it works.

It's a grind. It's a hustle. It's a fucking 10 to 15 year fucking struggle. And it's just the way it is. If you're not willing to pay that price, don't get into it, period. Okay, you've got to be committed a hundred percent from the start, anything it takes, whatever it takes, no matter what, or it's not going to work out. It just

isn't. I know you're going to share some best practices in a second, but I wanted to, I was jotting down your principles and I want to just review them for everybody. Number one was the best way to stay focused on one project is to remember the basic principle that the most important thing is to provide value. Use that as the screen by which you filter out all the other stuff. So you're not interested in hopping from one thing to the next for money-making schemes. You're interested in locking in with laser-precise effort onto one main thing that you can provide value. That's principle number one. Principle number two was second way to stay focused on one project is to change your mindset about opportunities.

They aren't passively found or lost. You create them. So don't worry about missing out on opportunities because you're the one who creates the opportunities for yourself. And then you said the third way to stay focused is to make sure you are 100% committed before you even start. 100%. Cool. So what kind of-

100% committed, Vaughn. 100% committed. It's kind of like how you're 100% committed to being a bad motherfucker. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Tell everybody what you're committed to. I'm 1,000% committed.

To being a bad what? A bad, awesome person. There you go. Yeah. Tyler's 100% committed to i'm a thousand percent to being a bad what a bad awesome person there you go yeah tyler's a hundred percent committed those mushroom slaps he's laughing he's laughing oh man so you have some practicals not that that no we just talked about wasn't practical no i'm gonna give some practical okay things to help you maintain your focus. Because I know if you are a true entrepreneur at heart and you're listening to this, it is exciting to want to build shit. Okay? The serial, I know I dogged on the serial entrepreneur, but I do get it.

Everybody wants to be that because the exciting part for a real entrepreneur is not the money. It's the building. I call them class A builders. It's people who want to take something and they want to put some pieces together and they want to create something new. And that's exciting shit. But if you ever want to actually build something great, you can't just bail out on a project when it's in stage one to start another one. You know what i mean can i can i say something about that real quick just because you you and i've talked about the whole serial entrepreneur thing and i don't know i mean i know you're not an nba guy but steph curry you

know was the nbp curry with the shop bought yeah nba mvp the last two years and he's got that crazy that's all i know steph curry i don't well i't know a ton, but I do know this because I read several articles about this. That's in one of my rap songs I listen to when I work out. Steph Curry? Who's the rap song? I don't know. Okay. Anyway, he's got this sort of crazy shot that he shoots, and he's falling over backwards,

and he's doing all this stuff, and he's always hitting these crazy shots because he's got this crazy form. And so now somebody came out and said that that's the worst thing that could happen for young kids to be wanting to copy Steph Curry yeah because Steph Curry has learned the fundamentals so well that he's able to do that but if you try to do that you're gonna well dude there's guys like that there's guys like that in baseball too like if you look at like Prince F Fielder or guys like Jim Tomei who have these crazy fucking gigantic uppercut baseball swings

that when they hit the baseball, it goes 4 trillion fucking miles. And then you go to Little League baseball games, you see these kids trying to do that shit. They're trying to do it, right. But what they don't tell you is this dude strikes out 9 times out of 10. Right. So in the area of entrepreneurialism, people see somebody like, we'll say Gary. So they see that Gary has the wine library and VaynerMedia and all this other stuff.

And they're like, Oh, I want to be a serial entrepreneur like Gary. And they don't realize he's come to such a point of maturity that he knows how to complete one product. That's like saying, that's like saying. You see where I'm going with this? Yes. A hundred percent. People disagree with that statement, though, very strongly, because they want to believe that they have that. Right. Dude, entrepreneurship is a talent and a skill. You, just like Gary said when we went and got him on the podcast,

you might be able to, you know, he used the NBA analogy. He said, look, I might be able to get pretty, I like basketball, I might be able to practice every day and become good at basketball. But am I ever going to become LeBron? No. No. There's a natural ability, and Gary has a natural ability. I have a natural ability.

There's a lot of other people out there that have a natural ability. There's a lot of people out there who have created tremendously successful lives, very, very quality, high earning incomes that didn't have a natural ability, but instead they cultivated an ability to a point where it was effective. Okay. Now you're not going to take somebody who has that natural ability and look at them and say, I'm gonna be like this if you if you don't have it and people don't think that it exists but it does fucking exist it just does and it exists in the work ethic in the grind and the intelligence and the ability to connect the ability to recognize how you provide value the

ability to communicate all these things it's like a perfect storm of skills that people have. And just because you don't have it doesn't mean that you can't be very successful. It just means don't try to be somebody who's got a natural ability for that. Right. Right. Makes total sense. I just wanted to throw that out there. Yeah. And people get upset when I say that. I'm dogging people. Dude, I'm sorry. Not everybody here. Like, dude, I played football in high school and I played sports. And guess what? I thought I was pretty fucking good. But there was a lot of motherfuckers a lot better than me. And they had natural ability I didn't have. Right. There's no matter how much work I could do,

I wasn't going to make it NFL. I wasn't going to make an MLB. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Just the way it is. And there's a real, I mean, there's a real simple solution for people who say, well, Andy, you don't believe that I have this ability? No, probably you don't. You probably don't. If you do, show me.

Exactly. I mean, show me. The proof is in the success. The truth is, Vaughn, is most people just don't have it. I'm not saying they can't be a successful entrepreneur. That's what this fucking podcast is for. Right. But they don't have that level.

And let me clarify, not having that level doesn't mean you can't create a business that earns the same amount of money that that man earns or that those kind of guys earn. It means that you can't run 20 different fucking companies. Right. And make them all work. Right. You know, people who are entrepreneurs have this fucking disease. It means that you can't run 20 different fucking companies and make them all work. You know, people who are entrepreneurs have this fucking disease. I call it the golden touch.

All right. And the golden touch means this. And it's not a good thing. It's a bad thing. People who are successful in one area start thinking that they can be successful in other areas. And what they do is they think, oh, because I made it here, I can make it here. And over here, the second area is something i know nothing about but i'm i made it here so i'm i know i can make it here and so what they do is they think they have the golden touch the midas touch and they go over

here and they lose their fucking ass right that's absolutely true it happens all the time yeah it's the demise it's the demise of most small and mid-level successful people. Right. They spread themselves too thin because they start reading their own fucking news clippings. Right. Dude, you ain't that great. Right. That's why I stick to what I fucking know.

I get people all the time. Hey, I want to start the shoe company. Do it with me. Or hey, I want to start. I don't do fucking shoes. Right. Hey, I want to start consulting. I don't fucking consult.

Hey, I want to blah, blah, blah. Well consulting i don't fucking consult hey i want to blah blah blah well i don't blah blah blah you know what i do i do what i fucking do right i'm the best at it period right you know what i mean you're so right though it is amazing that that i i've met a lot of phds who are very very smart in their particular doctors are the worst if you're a fucking doctor you think because you made a couple hundred grand a year, you're some kind of fucking businessman. You're a fucking crazy ass motherfucker. Let me tell you right now, stick to writing fucking prescriptions and doing your fucking whatever it is you fucking do. Because I've seen more doctors lose their fucking asses because they got money to spend on shit.

Dude, go fucking gamble the money away. Go buy cars, go buy shit, buy your wife some fucking Rolexes. You doctors are the worst because they have a fucking gigantic ego about it for some reason. I'm a fucking doctor. And they think they're going to come out and be fucking Mr. Entrepreneur. They don't know a goddamn thing about business. Yeah, dude, I see it all the time, all the time. But it is true. They're doctor listening. Hey, Mr. Doctor, if see it all the time. All the time. But it is true. They think they're smart in one thing. Hey, Mr. Doctor, if you're listening right now, which your ego is probably too big to listen to somebody who isn't a doctor, so I'm safe, but you're the worst fucking business

people ever. Period. Exactly. Dude. People who think they're smart in one thing think they're smart in everything. People who think they're smart are the dumbest motherfuckers. Right. Right.

You know, they have these huge egos. They're not humble. They who think they're smart are the dumbest motherfuckers. Right. Right. You know, they have these huge egos. They're not humble. They think whatever they do is going to work. I went to school for 15 years so I know whatever, blah, blah, blah,

and I can do this. Dude, you know what doctors should do? They should do fucking single and multifamily rentals and that's it because you have the cash and it's almost impossible to fuck that shit up.

That's a good point. But anything else that you do, you're going to fuck that shit up. That's a good point. But anything else that you do, you're going to fucking lose. Unless you treat it like you're becoming a new doctor. Right. Like you treated your medical school studies or you treated, you know, whatever. People look at it like it's an entrepreneur thing. Like there's a magic to it. Like, oh, I'm going to open up's, there's a magic to it. Like,

Oh, I'm going to open up and it's just, it's just going to happen. Right. And then I'm going to become this dude. If you're not studying this shit on a daily basis, every fucking day, if you're not making yourself a student of success and taking this as serious as you would take anything else in life,

dude, you're going to get pounded because there's people like me and people like Gary and people like all these other success drive up and down fucking any street and see all these big ass companies that that is their life that is their livelihood that is their life's work and those motherfuckers study this shit right you're not gonna make it just by opening up and you don't deserve to make it by just opening up you're're going to get fucking smashed. 100%. That's the way it goes.

Absolutely. So guys, let's get down to how I help, how I think I can help you stay focused on this, all right? Being an entrepreneur, like I said, we come up, you know, with all these ideas. We get excited and we want to do them, all right? I get it. You know, I come across great ideas for products or businesses all the time. I come across a lot of bad ones, but I occasionally do come across great ideas for products or businesses all the time. I come across a lot of bad ones, but I occasionally do come across ones I think will be fun to do

or exciting to do or things I think I could get behind. It's hard to just say, and I get this, guys, it's hard to say, well, screw that idea. I'm not going to do it. So to help you get to a point where you can pass on the opportunities that you think are great, start doing this. Instead of just saying no, say, I'll do it in the future and create what I have is a future project folder. All right. And that's actually like a folder on my desktop, my computer. It's just a word document with a fucking paragraph or two about the idea that I can come back to at a later date. You know, I put all the shit that distracts me in this folder and I don't even think about it or go back and look at it until what I'm working on is at a point of stability that to where it can run on its own. All right.

Which is very rare, by the way, I, I have so many things going inside my own umbrella of companies that for me to take on something new, I just don't have the time or want or whatever, but dude, there is some ideas that, you know, uh, I like, and that maybe one day I'll get to them. And the way for me to deal with that, like fear of missing out is to put them in this folder to know that they're there for me to come back to. So guys, uh, uh, step one, create a future project folder. It'll help you stay on focus. It helps you let go without really letting go. It's something that helps me stay on my game

and stay with the horse blinders on. Step number two. So step number one is a future projects folder. Step number two is pick one or two trusted advisors for feedback. Okay? And then don't listen to what anybody else tells you. Stick to what they tell you. Everybody's going to have an opinion on what you should do.

Most of these people haven't ever done shit in their lives. Quit listening. This brings me to a point. Why would you listen to somebody about your future, your life, about your business decisions that has never fucking done anything with their own life? That's a very good question. It doesn't make sense. And so many people let those people come into their circle and come into their influence decision making. You just cannot do that. Okay, so pick two or three people who have been, you know, where you want to be, who have done things similar to what you want to do and cut the rest out.

I've seen so many entrepreneurs derailed by friends and family who are well-meaning but fuck them up because they don't know what the fuck they're talking about. They just don't. And I'm sorry to your mom and dad. I know they were great parents, but the likelihood of them knowing what the fuck they're talking about is very slim period something you have to deal with okay they say stuff like Oh Johnny have you considered changing your logo from green to pink and adding you know the fluffy rainbow and a unicorn or you know they'll say something like I don't know if your

idea is going to work. I mean, people, they don't have a lot of their times on their hands for that kind of stuff or their product, you know? Uh, and you know, when they do want to spend their money, they want to spend it on stuff like, uh, you know, go to the Packers game and shit like that. Like, dude, they're going to say everything they can to try to negatively get you off your game, thinking that they're saving you from a bunch of heartbreak. You need to cut that shit out. You can't listen to it. Okay. Go to people who have done it. Go to people who have done what you want to do. Listen to those people, trust what they say, and never fucking doubt yourself when you're chasing something that you believe in. Okay. People are going to constantly fill your brain with this and that dude, you have to learn how to politely turn it down, politely move away.

Uh, and sometimes unpolitely turn it down to be completely honest. You know, there's been a number of times where I've told people like, Hey dude, uh, you know, they keep pressing, keep pressing, keep pressing. And finally I look at him and I say, Hey, what the fuck do you do for a living? Well, I'm a fucking this. Well, I'm not a fucking this. I do what I do. So I'm not coming to tell you how to do your shit. So keep your opinions to yourself about how I do my shit.

You know what I mean? Sometimes you just got to tell people because they don't fucking get it. Families like that. They're the worst. You know, they think they're going to, they think they could fucking tell you everything about your business. Right. So point number two, you know, pick one to two, three trusted advisors, anything you could find that has done something that you want to do.

Listen to them, trust them, ignore what other people say and focus on the advice that they give you. Don't focus on the negativity. Don't focus on the, I don't know if you should, or I don't know if you can. Don't focus on the negativity. Don't focus on the, I don't know if you shoulds, or I don't know if you cans. Don't focus on that shit. Focus on what the people who have done it have to say, because those people understand what you're trying to do, and other people don't. Have you found, I mean, obviously, one of the main ways to determine who you're going to choose as an advisor is, have they accomplished what it is you're wanting to accomplish? But have you found that there's a particular way

that really successful entrepreneurs give advice? Because I know at one point, I feel like it was early on in our podcast career that you said, I think you said something like, a really truly successful entrepreneur who understands the nature of entrepreneurialism is never going to tell you your idea is going to work or your idea is not going to work. They're not going to put themselves in that position.

Well, I don't, I, yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. So, so what, what are the kind of things they're going to say is they're going to say, okay, well, if I, they're going to, like if somebody came to me and they said that, I would automatically assume they're committed to their idea. So I'm thinking like, all right, I'm not going to talk this guy out of his idea. Right. So what I'm going to try to do is focus him the best direction I can for him to get the

best possible results. So how they're going to communicate that is not like the average person would where they're like, oh, I don't know, fucking blah, blah, blah. They're going to say, well, from my experience or how i would do this would be x y and z and they're going to give you steps on how to direct that um they're not going to go uh you know oh you know that's that's a good idea but blah blah blah blah and if they do have criticism they're going to say things like this instead of saying well i don't think that's going to work or this or that they're going to say well have you thought about this have you thought about well, have you thought about this? Have you thought about what was going to happen when this happens?

Have you thought about what's going to happen when that happens? You see what I mean? Right. So they're going to cultivate and probe you to create your own solutions, which is what you're going to have to learn to do anyway. But average people don't do that. Right. They don't have the perspective. They don't have the knowledge. They don't have the, they just don't have the perspective to speak on it.

It seems to me like the difference. So they default to negative. You know what I mean? Right. They default there. Right. And it seems to me like the difference between an expert advisor and somebody who's just an armchair quarterback is that the armchair quarterbacks almost always focus on things

that really just come down to personal preference. They say, say oh your logo is blue and it should be pink you know whereas the advisor knows objectively what's true right and they give you the freedom to choose whatever you want that is your own personal preference logo doesn't fucking matter yeah no it matters what it stands for right right i Right. I mean, yeah, you're right. What you're saying is correct. Okay. So point number one, future project folder. Point number two, trusted advisors. Ignore everybody else.

Okay. Those two things are going to help you keep your focus on point. Point number three, take time every day to close your eyes and reconnect to the vision that you initially had for your business. A lot of people get so consumed with the process and the discouragement and the band-aids. And by band-aids, I mean the small things that come up on a daily basis that you have to fix over the course of time that they lose sight of what they envisioned in the beginning. So you have to learn to recenter yourself on that ultimate vision on a daily basis. Otherwise, you'll get, you know, one degree or two degrees off course,

and then you get five miles down the road and you're not even, you don't even know where the fuck you are. You see what I'm saying? So you have to understand that business is executed in the trenches, but you have to take time out of the trenches to remind yourself what it is and why it is that you're doing this. Okay. And it's easier to focus when you keep the final product on your mind. When you keep the final vision at the forefront of your brain on a daily basis, it's easier for you to cultivate decisions and ideas and things that are going to help to make

that vision materialize than it is to, you know, be so in the trenches every day that you end up, you know, putting your head down for six months, poking it out of the hole, and then looking around not knowing where you are. That's something that's very common in entrepreneurship. There's a term that most business, I've heard a million times, it's not my term, but it's the difference between working in your business or working on your business. We mentioned Warren Buffett earlier. Warren Buffett is tremendously awesome at working on his businesses. He doesn't work in his businesses. In his businesses, he builds great teams and puts

them into motion. Those people work in the businesses. His job is to look at it from the 10,000 point view or 10,000 foot view, look over and say, okay, this looks good. Change this, change this, change this. And these guys go execute. Now I realize when you're a small business owner and you're starting, it's likely only you. So you have to remember to do what we're talking about here and to take time to pull back and focus on the big vision. Like for me, where I'm at, I'm 17 years into this business. My time working in the business is very limited. I do not really do anything that has to do with day-to-day operations. Nothing.

Like I do nothing. Okay? 100% of my time is working on the business. It's the 10,000-foot view, the strategy, the focus, the chess, so to speak, of our companies. That's my job. Now, when I started the business, I had to work the calendar all day long. And then what I had to do is go home and think about the big picture. All right. So you have to learn in the beginning to separate yourselves, you know, from working in the business. One thing to keep in mind here, too, guys, is that if you are to a point like I am, which I know some of you are, where you're working on your business all the time, you have to take time to think about what it's like to work

in your business. OK, so like what I have to do is I have to take time every day to sit back and think about what it's like for our customer service reps or go sit with them while they do calls or go into the warehouse and talk to the guys and see, you know, what the, what the gripes are. Cause you know, they'll always, I poke them and prod them and tell me the real shit that's wrong, you know, and then it's my job to go fix it. You see what I'm saying? So if you're to a point of, of, of working on the business, most of your time, make sure you take time to think about what it's like for your people, you know, because just because you're not doing the job doesn't mean that it's perfect or it couldn't be done better. See what I'm saying? Absolutely. So the reverse is also true in that situation. Most of you guys listening need to step back from working in your business, AKA making the actual sandwich and work on the business,

you know, AKA how you're going to grow into two, three, four sandwich shops. You see what I'm saying? It makes total sense. Yeah. So guys,

the best practices, one future project folder, two trusted advisors, three, take time to reconnect on the bigger picture. All right, guys, you know, we don't charge for anything here. All I ask is that if you found value in the podcast, would you please bring us one person? As I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, this isn't a sales

oriented tool like 99.9% of the other podcasts. I'm not selling programs. I'm not, this is a project of passion. This is a project. And the reason it's called a project is because we want to make a difference. We want to improve people's lives. We want to give back. You know, I've been a very fortunate person. I've been very, very fortunate in everything that I've been able to accomplish so far in my life. And I want to share that with people to bring back the gutsiness and the grit that founded what has built our country. especially when it comes to competition, especially when it comes to business, especially when it comes to building shit. I think most kids these days are taught that they can't do and they need to depend on other people versus they can fucking do. And I think it's somebody,

you and me and all of us together need to stand the fuck up and say, no, that's not how it is because I'm living proof. And I know hundreds of other people who are living proof. So we got to quit buying into the social message and the media message that, you know, we, we aren't able to be successful or that success is bad or that all these other fucking things that are bred into our culture right now, you know, I'm fucking sick of it. And that's where the, that's where the passion comes from in this project. So guys, if you believe in that, if you believe in helping people take back

control of their life, spread the word. And just to remember guys, a reminder guys, we are, we are still running the contest for the celebrate the hundredth episode of the MFCEO projects. So go to themfceo.com forward slash contest and sign up for a chance to come out to St. Louis and to hang with us for the day. Probably be part of the podcast recording session and then obviously just hang with Andy and learn one more. We're going to have like five or six people coming out. Yep. It's going to be cool. We're going to do a couple hour Q&A live. Probably record that. It'd be cool.

Be some good content. Yeah. You know, basically, guys, I'm going to put myself at your service for a day to help you guys figure out what it is that you need to do on your personal situations. Give you a little bit more personal attention. But yeah, guys, I appreciate you guys so much. We are fastly and quickly becoming one of the top most downloaded podcasts in the world. That is all you. That is all you guys spreading the message.

I appreciate you guys so much because it gives me hope in the people in this country. And that, to me, is more valuable than anything that you could ever give me monetarily. So thank you so much. And I'll see you next time. And that, to me, is more valuable than anything that you could ever give me monetarily. So thank you so much, and I'll see you next time.