REAL AF with Andy Frisella - How Millionaires Create Mental Toughness Through Adversity in Business, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO168

Episode Date: August 24, 2017

When you experience an extreme situation that presents an obstacle that is hard to overcome, something amazing can happen: it can end up becoming one of the best things that ever happens to you. The process of recovery, the journey of overcoming, can produce qualities in your character and assets you can add to the arsenal you use to achieve the highest levels of success. Bottom line: obstacles are opportunities for greatness. You have to choose to believe that.

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, today I've got a little bit of a story That's kind of going on right here with our company And one of the guys in our company I want to share with you guys

A lot of you guys have our company I want to share with you guys. A lot of you guys have seen on my Facebook and my Instagram that one of our guys, Cole Wright, was in a real bad motorcycle accident last night. Broke his pelvis, broke some bones in his spine, has a lot of internal injuries. He's in intensive care here at st louis university hospital um he's gonna live and and luckily it looks like he's not gonna be paralyzed or anything like that he's gonna be on crutches uh and have to go through a lot of physical therapy for the next year um but i spoke to cole this morning via text and he said something to me. Once I text him, I said, Hey man, how's everything going? Uh, you know,

how are you hanging in there? And he's like, I'm great. I really appreciate the text, like really enthusiastically. And what that got me thinking about guys and what I, what I told I told him, we talked back and forth for a minute, but I told him, you know, that as much as this sucks, you know, these kind of things that happen to you, these very extreme situations that are very hard to overcome, these big obstacles, these things end up being some of the best things that happen to you. And I told him, I said, I don't expect you to see that today. But through his recovery and through his work

and through his coming back from that, he's going to have created a story that is going to inspire and encourage people to overcome their own obstacles, whatever those might be. And I'm a real firm believer that you're not going to find one really successful person out there that doesn't have a real story of overcoming obstacles. Because just like in the weight room, without resistance, you can't grow. Your muscles are not going to grow without weight resistance. Your mental fortitude and strength and ability and skills are not going to grow without resistance. And that's why every single person you meet who is very successful athlete or a very successful business guy or whatever, they have a story of overcoming extreme obstacles.

It's not because they're making them up. It's because those obstacles are what eventually help determine and develop and create the skills and the fortitude and the persistence that's needed to succeed. And in a lot of ways, as bad as this is for Cole right now, it really is going to be a big blessing because he has a long road ahead of him. And here's the thing about Cole's recovery that he doesn't understand yet is that there's going to be days where he doesn't feel like doing rehab. Like right now, everybody's cheering him on and they're saying, yeah, Cole, we're praying for you. We're pulling for you. You know, let's get well soon. And he feels good just like any of us would. But once that fades out and it will fade out, you know, he's going to have to deal with

the step by step by step recovery process. And that's going to be a very lonely road. It's going to be a tough road. And there's going to be days where Cole doesn't want to get out of bed to go to physical therapy. He doesn't want to go do the work that needs to be done. And as positive as a guy, as he is, I know there's going to come times where he doesn't want to do it, but here's the thing. And this is what's great about situations like this. He doesn't have a fucking choice. Okay. He doesn't have a choice, but to go through the rehab, he doesn't have a choice, but to work through the pain. He doesn't have a choice, but to try to overcome all the little obstacles that he's going to have to

overcome over the next 12 months. He doesn't have a fucking choice. And that's where people that succeed in life, whether it be financially or any other area, but this is an entrepreneurial podcast, so primarily we're talking about financial success. Successful people don't give themselves a choice but to succeed. They look at it very parallel as if they were somebody who was recovering from a significant injury or obstacle that had to do the work. And that's what Cole's going to learn through this process. Now, Cole's a very determined guy. He's a very tough guy. He's a very strong guy. And he's a great guy here at the company, but it's going to develop his mental acuity and his ability to persevere and his ability to fucking have grit to the point where the other things that come through his life are going to be that much easier. And guys, when you're working as an entrepreneur and you're working as a business person and you're, you're financially driven and you want

to succeed, you guys have to get to the point where you're not giving yourself a choice. It is, I am going to fucking succeed no matter what I have to do, no matter how hard it is, no matter how difficult the road, no matter how many obstacles stand in my way, no matter how many people stand in my way, no matter what. On the days I don't feel like it, guess what? I'm still getting up. I'm still putting my fucking work boots on and I'm still going out and kicking fucking ass. That's what people who succeed do. And a lot of times these people who succeed in life develop this ability to persevere and put their backs against the wall and give themselves no other options. You know,

go back and listen to zero option mentality, but to succeed by choice. You know, there's two ways to fucking have a zero option mentality. There's one way you could be injured like Cole is and literally not have a choice. Your choice is to either get better or fucking be in a wheelchair or be handicapped or be physically, uh, you know, uh, disabled for the rest of your life, which I know he's not going to do. So he doesn't have a fucking choice, but in success, people who are extremely driven, extremely successful and extremely, um, well accomplished, they have the ability to mentally flip that switch to where they don't have a choice, but to do the things they need to do. If you talk to them, it will sound really fucking weird. Okay. Cause they'll talk as if they don't have a choice. They will talk as if they don't succeed, the world is going to fucking end. And they have conditioned themselves to believe this as fact. Okay? They think that if they don't succeed, their world will end. And you know what? Their world will end. Because that's how much fucking pride and how much focus and how much intensity and how much drive and how much value they put

on success to where if they don't get to where they want to go, their life will have been a waste. And guys, I'm telling you right now, success is hard. Being successful is very, very hard. It takes every fucking bit of your focus, every bit of your energy, every bit of your concentration, every single bit of your fucking soul is required to get where you want to go. And that's why in this situation that I'm talking about with my friend Cole, I'm actually really thankful because this fucking situation that he's dealing with, which seems like it's going to be terrible, is actually going to end up being the best thing that ever happens to him. And guys, you guys, if you could develop the perspective of your

obstacles actually being a workout for your brain, for your fortitude, for your intensity, for your ability to persevere and see them as a benefit as opposed to seeing them as some negativity or an obstacle or some sort of thing that's holding you back, how much more positive would you feel about your journey? How much more positive would you feel if every time someone stood in your way or every time a situation didn't work out, you didn't look at it as like, oh shit, man, this situation sucks, blah, blah, blah. No, you say, you know what? This is great because I have an opportunity to grow. I have an opportunity to get stronger. I have an opportunity to get better that my competitors and the people that I'm going to be competing against my entire fucking life don't have, which puts me in

an extreme advantage. How valuable is that mindset? How much happier would you be? How much stronger would you be? How much more impactful would you be to the people around you with that level of thinking? Guys, your obstacles are not obstacles. Your obstacles are tools for you to use for you to get stronger, whether it be mentally, physically, psychologically, it doesn't matter. Emotionally, your obstacles are there to teach you. They're there to mold you. They're there to forge you into a fucking machine. But unfortunately, most people don't look at obstacles that way. They look at obstacles as this negative thing. Life hates me. The universe hates me. God hates me. I'm unlucky. I'm the worst that there is. Bad things only happen to me. And that's because you're choosing

to see things the wrong way. You're choosing to pick the perspective of you're a victim as opposed to being a fucking battle-hardened motherfucking warrior that is going to kick ass. And you are so thankful for these obstacles that they are going to make you stronger, more effective, and more successful over the course of your life. I challenge you guys to see your obstacles as a great thing. I challenge you guys to see your problems as a great thing. I challenge you guys to see your problems as a great thing. I challenge you guys to quit being victims and fucking pussies and whiny little cry babies about every bad thing that happens to you and start being thankful that you have the opportunity to grow, get stronger, get more focused, get more skilled, and kick more ass because of every hardship you face.