REAL AF with Andy Frisella - Solve Problems or Die Trying, Part 1, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO32

Episode Date: December 15, 2015

Life and business are both full of problems. If you want to be successful, you better figure out how to approach them--and how to solve them.  This is part 1 of a 2-part series.

Hey guys, this is Vaughn Kohler and you're listening to the MFCEO Project. You've heard the saying, mo' money, mo' problems? Well, the truth is, mo' life, mo' problems. Whether you're a successful entrepreneur or an everyday person just trying to make it in life, you will run into problems, left and right. The question is, how do you plan to solve them? That's today's podcast. Hey guys, what's up?

You're listening to the MFCEO Project. I'm Andy and I am the motherfucking CEO. Guys, we get a lot of emails asking, what is a motherfucking CEO? You guys talk about a lot of things other than entrepreneurship. I'm not a CEO. I don't own a business. This podcast is about being the MFCEO of your own life. It's about taking control of your life.

It's about improving your life. It's about taking responsibility for where you are and where you aren't in your life. And whether you're an entrepreneur, somebody who works inside a company, somebody who doesn't have a job, you're going to learn things that are going to help you move forward here. So don't let the title CEO scare you away because ultimately, we're all the motherfucking CEOs of our own life. I'm here with my co-host, Vaughn the Impaler, Vaughn Diesel, DJ DJ God. I'm ready to impale. He's on point today.

And my other co-host, Ben Newman. What's up, dude? What's going on? Good to be back in the studio. Yeah, so question of the day today today we'll just get right into it how fucking stupid do you have to be to think that passing more gun laws to regulate guns is going to stop criminals from having guns okay is meth illegal ben meth is illegal, is crack illegal, Vaughn? It is. Do people still smoke meth and crack? Do you see what I'm saying? They do, yes. How can you argue this point?

You're not going to remove the millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of guns on the street. It's never going to happen. It's the same thing we talked about, the Somali thing. Is it idealistically a good idea in theory? Maybe. I mean, I personally don't think it is but like let's say let's take the other side of the coin let's remove the guns and i and that's what i think would removing a hundred percent of the guns solve crime no it wouldn't because criminals

are still going to break the fucking law right and that's what people don't understand and so when we hear this argument of oh i'm gonna take all your guns away like i i can't even participate in the argument because it's so fucking stupid well you mentioned mentioned well you mentioned crystal meth or or what did you say crack cocaine dude is murder illegal yeah murder is fucking illegal yeah yeah but you mentioned those things laws don't thes do not stop people who are intent on doing things illegal from doing things that are illegal. Right. That's the definition of a fucking criminal. But the thing about those drugs is that there's probably, I think, only a handful of laws with regard to those.

If I'm not mistaken, I want to say, like, literally there are thousands of gun laws already in existence. So why do we need more? Dude, look, man, it's idealistic thinking. It's like what we talked about on the last podcast. I realize we missed a week. Sorry, everybody. But with Sean, when we were talking about, with Sean Whalen,

we were talking about idealistic viewpoints. I can appreciate idealistic viewpoints. I can appreciate the idea of everybody being successful in life. I can appreciate the idea of everybody being disease-free. I can appreciate the idea of everybody being successful in life i could appreciate the idea of everybody being disease free i could appreciate the idea of world peace but reality is a different thing okay and people need to start looking at the problems in terms of what realistically can we do to solve the problem not what can we ideally do to solve the problem?

How much money is spent on guns every year? Guns and ammo. Fuck, dude. I don't know. Imagine what that would do for me. I'd probably spend 50 fucking grand on guns a year. Imagine what that would do to the economy. You don't see me out killing people.

You know what I mean? Right, right. I'm actually waiting for the first guy to get cheated on by his wife and blame the bed. Yeah, no shit, dude. I mean, it's just it's just it's an obscene argument. Like there goes Vaughn with the sexual examples again. I know. Actually, I said that right.

I said that wrong. I'm waiting for the first. I'm waiting for the first guy to be cheated on. And then their spouse blame the bed is really what I meant to say. The bed's so comfortable, I can't help but fucking on it? No, no, it was the bed that did it. But dude, it's just such a ridiculous argument that I can't even participate in it. You know what I mean?

All right, what's your view on guns? I mean, really really do we want to start with this right but anyway you know with the san bernardino shooting which was horrible you know everybody's talking about it everybody uses these tragedies to get on the political bandwagon like they know what the fuck they're talking about right you know what i mean right oh without guns it wouldn't happen no you. You know, without guns, what would happen? The cops wouldn't have guns like they do over in fucking Europe. And the people would have killed three times as many people.

But see, what's interesting about it, and this is where, you know, with politics, you could pick any political issue, right? It's just not possible. If you were to remove all guns, if there was a way, right? You get some big magnet and you push a button and all the guns are gone. A guy who wants a gun is going to go make some kind of a gun to go and kill somebody, right? I mean, just people who want to do bad things are going to go and find a way to do bad things.

Well, let's talk about this, okay? And then here's the other argument. You don't need an AR-15 to deer hunt. Hey, motherfucker, AR-15 isn't intended to deer hunt. You know what the Second Amendment is for? It's not for fucking hunting. Okay, the Second Amendment is for an armed civilian force to balance out the power of the government versus the people. If you are too fucking uneducated to understand that and you say you don't need an AR-15.

Like when you see these senators and congresspeople, you don't need an ar-15 a deer hunt well that's not what it's fucking for right they're blatantly putting your ignorance back in your face by even saying that argument vaughn you're shaking your head absolutely you know what i'm saying what's crazy to me it's like taunting somebody right it's like taunting us like they say that knowing because, you know, motherfuckers in Congress and Senate know what what that law is for. And then they say that shit and they're doing that, knowing that most people are too ignorant to understand that. I made your exact point, too. Well, I've made that point to a lot of people. And invariably I get somebody that says, wait a minute. So you think that the United States is going to end up becoming a totalitarian government?

And my answer is not so long as the Second Amendment is enforced. Let's look at fucking history. Yeah, look at history. It's not like we're immune to the idea that our country is so pristine and so perfect that we could never become what we never wanted to be. I mean, obviously the founding fathers thought that that that was a possibility. Yeah, because otherwise we wouldn't have the Second Amendment.

Dude, look, man, it's crazy. It's ridiculous. Like, I can't even. I'm just glad I have this outlet to where, like, people can't immediately like talk back. So I don't feel like

I need to punch him in the face. Yeah. You know, like, dude, you're you're you're a fucking moron if you can't understand the purpose for having an armed civilian force in our country. Now, i will tell you something that will make you smile

as much as every time some tragedy happens and it's politicized by the people who want to control all the guns and get rid of it and and just crap on the second amendment every time something like this happens guess what happens gun stock gun sales go up yeah and if you checked uh the news today smith and wesson's stock went up six percent today hey man look so there is a common sense among the everyday everyday people there is a common sense most people listening to this are shaking their head yeah we're gonna have that one or two idiot people who send in you know like the bro did a couple weeks ago the meme about get educated, bro. Right.

You know, that guy. But the point is, is, you know, if you can't understand that, I can't help you, man. I mean, I can send you a helmet in the mail for Christmas, you know, so you don't hurt yourself too bad. Yeah. You know, that's reality of life. Right. So anyway, moving on, what are we going to talk about today?

We're talking about solving problems, like being someone who, when you encounter a difficulty or something you can't figure out, are you the person, are you the type of person who's going to solve that? Well, you know, the funny thing about that is, is that goes, that's such a huge topic on macro and micro level because all value created in business is created through problem solving. Whether it's a company creating a problem or creating a product that solves a problem, whether it's an employee inside of a company who solves problems and then therefore makes themselves more valuable so they earn more pay, you know, you can talk about this on such different levels. I mean, what level are we wanting to hit on this today? The level you start with on everything, which is the personal level. Yeah.

I mean, something that I think you very much agree with is that there's no problem in the world that anybody is going to be able to face if they're the problem in their life. Well, I think we've gotten to a point in society, just like we talked about the gun thing this week, and we talked about the Syrian refugees a few weeks ago, where everything that somebody does causes some sort of repercussion or offense or bad reaction,

that people are afraid to be the problem solver anymore. And guys, what you don't understand is it doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur and everyday Joe, Whether it be if you work at AutoZone, whether it be if you work at McDonald's, whether it be if you're a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, it all comes down to your ability to solve problems, and that's where your value is going to come from. You know, the first problem that people are going to have to solve, obviously, you know, when we talk about this, I think, is themselves.

It's almost like getting out of your own fucking way. I said this so many times. Everything starts with you. It's not a single problem that you're really going to be able to solve in life that doesn't require you to solve the problem of you first. Does that make sense? You have to make sure that you're thinking right. You have to make sure you have the right attitude. You have to make sure you have the right perspective and the willingness to do what it takes to solve problems that face you. And that could be problems such as, you know, my neighbor, you know, is his dog shooting on my yard or my boss is, you know, not allowing me to make my own decisions or,

you know, my coworkers aren't doing their jobs and people are afraid. I think at their core of even having little bitty, you know, quote unquote confrontational discussions that end up productive, that it keeps them from ever really solving anything, which keeps them from creating value, which keeps them from making money or being successful in their life. But, you know, there's there's one thing you talk about all the time.

Being successful is hard. Right. So it's very easy when you're facing a problem or a challenge to just back up against the wall, hide in a corner and say, hey, I'm not going to do anything about it. But the most successful people, they focus on solutions, not problems. They have a challenge. They have. I've heard you talk about it so many times, Andy. You're in the middle of challenge. And it's almost like you thrive in that environment as opposed to going your back up again. I won't deal with that issue. You know, you desperate. You're like, I want to find the solution to that problem because I want to make it better. Yeah. I mean, for me, you know, my experience is that first of all, for me, I'm most comfortable in that state of uncomfortableness of looking for the solution. Um, that's where all the good things come. That's where all the

productivity comes from. That's where all the gold ideas come from. That's where all the progress comes from. And I don't know a single entrepreneur or successful person out there that doesn't feel the same way. And I feel like most people in society look to avoid every problem or stick their head in the fucking sand and pretend like it's not there because they don't want to take responsibility for fixing it. You know? And that's nonsense,'s, it's nonsense, man. It's a passive mentality that will get you no, literally nowhere in life. You're, you're not creating any value for anything, not yourself, not your family, not your friends, not your company. You know, it just makes you, I mean, what are you doing?

Whether you were born with that or you cultivated it, it sounds like you just learned how that's your disposition in life. You're not going to be passive. You're going to be active. You're not going to shy away from something. You're going to do what you need to do to take care of it. So I guess my question, if I can start the conversation this way, is how do you think somebody needs to be oriented just on the very basic level to even think of problems like in problem solving you know I don't know man because I this is my biggest frustration as as a a business owner slash CEO slash leader is that I have a difficult time connecting to the mentality of avoidance of the issue

or fear of trying to work a problem out. I have a hard time connecting with that. Let's say I have five guys and there's a clear problem in their project that they're working on that nobody's stating it. I walk in, I point at it like it's the 800 pound gorilla in the room and say, well, there's your fucking problem. I don't know. That's natural to me.

It's natural to me to want to address that. And I feel like to be successful in life, you know, I literally cannot think of one person that's not like that. They're going to walk right in. They're going to say, there's a fucking problem. Now, what are we going to do to fix it? And I think most people are just scared because they don't want to take responsibility

for solving the problem. And I'm not talking about these big, giant problems either, like, you know, solving world peace. I'm talking about little problems. Like, you go in the bathroom at your work and it's filthy. And you're like, well, fuck, that's not my problem. You know what I mean? And, you know, Joe over there, Joe and and tony man everyone's a piss on the toilet seat

i'm not gonna wipe it up you know i'm just gonna like act like it's not there like that's what it starts with like i use this example in my uh we had a company meeting a couple days ago it's i think it's bred into the the the solving the problem is bred into your character. And if it's not into your character, you have to make it part of your character. The example I used was I cannot think of the last time I pulled up into a parking lot where I saw a random shopping cart like out in the middle of the parking lot that I didn't go grab and put in a cart corral. And, you know, I didn't leave the cart out in the parking lot.

You know, and I'm not talking about just out in the middle either. I'm talking about, like, you know, maybe they put the front wheels on the curb and just kept it from rolling anywhere. I still go get that shopping cart and put it where it's supposed to be because I see that as a fucking problem. And it becomes just part of who you are, where you see trash on the floor.

You don't think, oh, I wonder who threw the trash on the floor. You're like, where you see trash on the floor. You don't think, oh, I wonder who threw the trash on the floor. You're like, fuck that trash on the floor. It's not supposed to be there. I'm picking up. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And it starts with stuff like that. And like, I can't let myself like, it's, it's really weird, man. I cannot let myself walk by a piece of trash or a shopping cart in the middle of a parking lot without picking it up. It's like obsessive compulsive disorder. Like I can't fucking help it. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I think of what Sean said last episode where he says, how you do one thing is how you do everything. And that really stayed with me. And the whole point is, is that I love the fact that you said, we're not just talking about major cosmic fix world peace. We're talking about little things.

And it was funny because I don't know if I told you guys this, but we're looking for a new car. We found a car that we thought we'd like. It's a pre-owned vehicle in Columbia, Missouri. And so we went to go look at it. And when we got there, this guy, this salesman or this auto dealership has known for like a week that we were coming to see this car. So when I got there and I opened it up, guess what? It was dirty. It was a pretty good looking car, but it wasn't- It would have taken five minutes to clean it. Right. But it would have taken five minutes to clean it. It wasn't detailed and there wasn't

a full tank of gas. And I'm sitting here thinking, that car was dirty. You couldn't even solve that small problem. Are you really going to solve a problem if I buy it from you and maybe there's some problems with it or I have some greater need? And I thought to myself, no way. Within two minutes, I knew that there was no way I was going to buy that car. But therein lies the problem with society is that when people think that they have a sale, they're not willing to go that extra mile. That's a good point. Why not make the car shine so you can guarantee yourself the sale? People want to take the easy route. And I think that's what you face a problem.

You face a challenge. I'll do nothing. But Ben, I was going to get that sale anyway. And that's where people operate from. And that's where they're not thinking fucking a year from now down the road. All right. How many people have that car been perfectly spotless, perfectly clean, full tank of gas with a fucking ribbon on it and a thank you card

with a fucking gas card of QT in it? All right? How many people would you have told? You would have posted on Facebook. Absolutely. And you would have told 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 people. You know what I mean? you would have post on Facebook absolutely and they were told 100 200 300 400 500 people you know what I mean they would have read about that and that dude Joe Smith salesman whatever he would have at least one or two other customers out of that and that's where people short-sighted so you know instead of and that guy's looking at it

and I guarantee you that that guy who's that car he's going home saying yeah man you know this motherfucker came in he looked at this car he didn't buy it he's going home saying, yeah, man, you know, this motherfucker came in, he looked at this car, he didn't buy it, he's, you know, blah, blah, blah, blaming you. Right. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Oh, he's a tire kicker, he's a this, he's a that. No way.

And, dude, that's where people fuck up, man. The responsibility is on you. It's not on your fucking customer. It's on you. You know what I mean? It's not on the guy that you know comes to you drove fucking 150 miles ago look at the fucking car I did I was pretty serious about it so if it would have looked great it would have

been great but I want to go back I want to go back to something you said just a second ago Andy you said that sometimes guys are you know they're they're crowded together they're in the room They're trying to figure something out. And you walk in and you go, well, here's your problem. And you state the problem. But I know because you and I have talked about this that there's a huge difference between people who you call problem staters. Well, oh, we got a problem. And people who are truly problem solvers.

Could you describe the difference? Dude, we have this core value in our company called accept responsibility. And what that means is, you know, when you have a problem in whatever it is you're doing, whatever part of responsibility you have, you have to say, you know, yeah, Hey man, I fucked up. I did this, blah, blah, blah. That's 50% of the core value. You know what the other 50% is? It's to actually go out and fix the problem. All right. Because it does nobody any good to be the guy that says, Oh yeah, there's our problem. Dude, I have, dude, I'll fucking say it.

I don't care. I've got employees that work here in this building that are problem staters and haven't graduated to problem solvers yet. You know? Oh, well, here's the problem.

Okay, well, what the fuck do you think you should do about it? Right. You know what I mean? Just bring me the, I already know the problem as like, and you guys who are listening,

your bosses, as dumb as you might think they are, they're probably your boss for a reason, and they probably already know the fucking problem. And the reason they haven't pointed it out is because they're waiting for you to graduate from little baby kid who shits on the fucking play school toilet to grown man who pisses in the fucking urinal and solves the motherfucking problem. Just because they don't come in and say, hey, here's your problem, Johnny boy, doesn't mean they don't know it exists. They're probably waiting for you to graduate into being an adult

and actually taking responsibility and solving the problem. You know, people who say, you know, oh, shit, here's the problem, and don't do anything about it, you're fucking worthless. There's no value in that. You know, people think that's where the value is. It's so passive. It's so passive. It's like this is the way it is, period.

It implies that there's nothing you can do about it. Look, man, it comes down to very simple, you know, a very simple idea of understanding that it takes action to solve that problem. And I would honestly like the problem staters versus the problem solvers versus the guy who doesn't even state the problem. The problem staters are the most frustrating. They're the ones that you really want to like kick right in the fucking ass because dude, those are the guys who, you know,

no better, but they're not doing anything to fix it. They're waiting on you to direct them or tell them or put a little plan out in front of them instead of taking responsibility, being a leader, being an adult, owning whatever's going on, and creating a situation that produces a productive result. You know what I mean?

That's what your fucking job is, man. You're an adult. I can totally see what you're saying because at least the guys that don't even know what the problem is they have an excuse exactly they don't know what they do exactly exactly so like you have a guy who doesn't recognize the problem dude i could put my armor on him say hey dude look here's the problem i you know you i don't know why you didn't see it but here's how you recognize that problem and then you know here's how you fix it and those people will usually say okay and next time it happens you know hey i got a flat tire on the fucking on the forklift you

know here's how you fix the forklift you know what i think happens is people are trying to play it safe rather than taking the opportunity to grow i'm a big believer that making yourself uncomfortable speeds up the process of mental toughness no No question. And you have to apply pressure in order to grow, right? Everybody loved when Will Compton was on the show, right? Let's take Will. Do you think all of a sudden Will was a guy who could just squat 400 and something plus pounds, 10, 12 reps, bang, bang, bang? No, he had to apply intense pressure on himself by throwing the weight up on his shoulders

and doing four reps at that weight, then six, then eight, then moving up. It's the constant pressure that drives growth. That's when you show your value because then a coach or your employer or your CEO can look at you and say, that's somebody who's willing to throw the weight up on their shoulders, have the pressure come down against them, and they're willing to grow their muscle to drive it up and to make something of themselves. People think by protecting themselves, they're going to sit in a corner, pretend like they don't see the problem, that it makes them more valuable. It's much more valuable to have somebody who wants to make something happen than somebody who just completes a to-do list that you made for them the day before.

Right, and that's all they do. That's all they do. That's all they do. I totally, I mean, the guys, I mean, and this goes for any, any CEO out there. And I know a lot of them, any single CEO. I know the guys that surrounded him at dinner or drinks.

The guys who are close, the guys get invited to his house for Christmas. Those are the dudes who fucking solve problems. Those are the dudes that they call. And call and I say, hey, Jason, did you notice we had this, this, and this happen? Oh, yeah, I noticed that last week. I already got this, this, this going. You see what I mean? They're already on top of solving the problem before I even fucking saw it.

That's the people who create value. Those are the people who make hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars and millions of dollars a year. Period. That's it. That's the people who create value. Those are the people who make hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars and millions of dollars a year, period. That's it. And a lot of people, they tell themselves these little excuses. They either tell themselves, well, I don't want to, it's like, you know, it's like school, right? Like when you're in fucking grade school and, and you know, you're getting an A and everybody else is getting Cs and they're like, Hey, fucking kiss ass, you're getting A's. So they're afraid to go out and solve the problems because they don't want to look like a brown noser or something. B, they don't want to go solve the problems because it takes work. C, they don't want to go solve the problems because, you know, it's a situation that makes them different than their peers and they don't want to step out and be uncomfortable you know I mean the reality of life is that dude if you want to make a good

living if you want to make money okay and you want to be successful you have to solve fucking problems you have to not only recognize the problem you have to solve the problem and you have to anticipate the problem before it appears that's where you get guys who are making the seven eight figure salaries no matter what level of success that you reach. I think that's the important thing. Like you think, oh, well you reach this point of success. There's no more problems. No, the problems are bigger.

You have to make yourself more uncomfortable. It becomes a proactive mentality, not a reactive. Like, dude, the guys who are making a hundred grand, 200 grand, they're reacting. Okay. And a lot of people listening to this are like, man, a hundred grand, 200 grand. It's a lot of fucking money. And it is a lot of people listening to this are like man 100 grand 200 grand it's a lot of fucking money and it is a lot of money but the reality is you can make just by reacting and solving problems you can make that kind of money in business period because most people will not do it all right but you become the guy who anticipates problems before

they happen dude what happens is you create a situation where you're invaluable to the company because it's so rare. It's so rare. And you don't have to own a company. It's just so rare to have that kind of person in that it's super valuable. You can't live without them. You know what I mean? Absolutely. There's a common theme that goes through all of these MFCEO episodes, whether it's kill it every day, whether it's how to lead your team, whether it's Sean Whalen. In fact, Sean Whalen, we talked about this a lot in that episode. And it's a it every day whether it's how to lead your team whether it's Shawn Whalen in fact Shawn whether we talked about this a lot in that episode and it's a common theme and that is if you want to be successful you cannot be passive no you have to be active right have to just yeah you said proactive not

react right yeah anticipate like even bringing it down to customer service situations dude who's more valuable the guy that reacts to negative situations that happen or the guy who anticipates negative situations happening and fixes them before the customer ever even knows it happened? You see what I mean? Oh, yeah, yeah. That's a great example. Right.

Like, dude, let's say you got a customer, you own a shoe store. And the reason I say this is because I've seen this happen. All right, Red Wing Shoes in Springfield, Missouri is a shoe store. And we, we, the reason I say this, cause I've seen this happen. All right. Red wing shoes in Springfield, Missouri is a shoe store. They sell a work boots. Okay. I don't, not everybody knows what red wing boots are, but they're, they're the shit. All right. And super high end work boots. Uh, and they know their customers because their customers are like, you know, repeat generational customers. Like it's like Ford. Like people who only have Fords, they only drive Fords. People who wear Red Wing shoes will only fucking wear Red Wing shoes, period. So customers come in year after year after year after year.

Well, dude, like let's say, you know, John Smith comes in, and I've seen this happen because our first store is right next to a Red Wing. You know, and he normally wears a 12, we accidentally shipped them an 11 and a half. All right. Well, you know what they do? They fucking ship them a 12 on top of it that, you know, so that when the guy gets the box and it says, oh man, I got 11 and a half instead of a 12. Yeah, we, we, we caught that.

Your 12s will be there tomorrow. You know what I mean? Wow. Like, dude, that's what I'm talking about though. And that's solving a problem that creates value, that creates a customer, that creates money in your fucking pocket forever. You know, and we don't see that in society. But how many times have you gone into the shoe store, gone into the restaurant, and all of a sudden they tell you or they try to tell you, no, I'm pretty sure that you ordered 11 and a half. You may wear 12s, but you ordered 11 and a half.

Like, to try to, that's their way of solving a problem. I want everybody to pay attention. That is not solving a half. So you may wear 12s, but you ordered 11 and a half. Like to try to, that's their way of solving a problem. I want everybody to pay attention. That is not solving a problem. You don't, yeah. I don't even want you to start talking about. No, I do.

Trust me. That's the lazy person's mentality. I want to argue. I don't want to take responsibility. I got that question. One time I did a periscope on it. Is the customer always right? Well,

it depends. Do you want to fucking make a lot of money? Do're not period you know what i'm saying do you want to argue it'd be a broke motherfucker your whole life and then be right or do you want to do you want to eat some fucking crow sometimes and let them be right and put money in your pocket you did order onions that time though yeah exactly dude i didn't want to tell go back and uh what was that in i don't know i don't know either anyway go back and listen to all of the podcasts and you'll hear the story of uh the onions so andy you've been talking about how how we should be oriented you know how our basic disposition of being a problem solver but i'd be interested to know like how does the successful

person view problems themselves okay you know the difference between how you how you're oriented and how you look what's your what's the proper perspective before the show started dude successful people okay unsuccessful regular average joe people view problems as what, as what they say as a problem. They're like, fuck, I got this problem.

I got like, I've got this customer. He's fucking dick. You know, I don't want to deal with them. He's, you know, he's always wanting to,

you know, argue with me about this or that, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Successful people look at the same guy, the same customer who is negative, blah, blah, blah. Successful people look at the same guy, the same customer who is negative, who is vocal about things they're upset about, and they don't look at that customer and say, man, fuck that guy. He's a dick. That's a problem. You know what they say?

That's a fucking opportunity. Because I know if he's vocal with me, he's going to be vocal with me about how good I am if I can get him to switch his mindset. All right. It's very simple. Regular people look at problems as problems, people who are successful, people who make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, millions of dollars a year. Every problem is an opportunity to get better. Period. It's very simple. Okay. In my business. Oh, somebody has got a better product than I do, which never fucking happens, by the way.

But let's say they did. I go buy the product. I pull the product in my lab. I taste their product. I test their product. And guess what happens? Three days later, I got a new product on the shelf because it's an opportunity to get better.

I've said this before. It's how you look at your competition. Everything that a negative or an average person perceives as negative a successful person sees as an opportunity everything you know oh i've got a new store that opened up that's competing with my store fuck i don't know if i want to pay my bills a successful person looks at that same store and says fuck i wonder what they're doing right i wonder if they're doing anything better than us so that i can be better than them you know what i mean they're not it's just all perspective but i think you have to be willing to gain that mindset, right?

There's a willingness to gain that mindset by making yourself uncomfortable over long periods of time. And when people see that, you have to take action and then you see it again and you take action. You start to love that uncomfortableness until you mentioned earlier, until you want to become proactive to when you see it, you you're like i'm taking that on right there right because you have perspective having done it for a long period of time right i think we can all go back to periods of time you say because of this perspective i'm going to take action in this situation but if your habits have been to run and to run and to run when you have problems guess what's going to happen the next time you have a

problem you're going to run stick your head in the sand and act like it's not there make yourself uncomfortable how many times over 17 years have you had to make yourself uncomfortable i every day is it i knew that'd be the every freaking day so for everybody listening are you willing to make yourself uncomfortable to become what you're supposed to become. And sometimes that's as simple as like me taking something that the normal person would not see as a big deal. Like, dude, you asked my guys seven,

dude, I have a text message going on my phone and it's labeled S2, which stands for supplement super stores. S2 inner circle. It's all the managers of my stores to this day. I look at the fucking numbers every day, every day. to this day i look at the numbers every day every day and those guys get a text from me every day like saying hey you know a good day or hey you know we could have done better here and it's not always in that language you know it's in

the it's in my my language which is get your fucking head out of your ass. Right. You know, but the reality is, is, you know, I, I create things sometimes personally to make me uncomfortable. Like dude, how about the power list? Even if it's a little, no, even if it's a little deal, like, like, um, like let's say, like we measure our stats on percentages of certain products that are sold with certain other products. Because what those percentages tell me is that the person is addressing issues properly. So like we have like a percentage that like shows like, just for an example,

how many multivitamins are sold with protein. Okay. And there's a percentage of that. And the reason there's a percentage of that is because micronutrients are extremely important, which is what multivitamins are. And if you're not taking micronutrients, FYI, if you're listening here, the rest of your supplements are going to be way less effective. Okay?

And there's science behind that. Show that. Or your body's not operating on, when it has vitamin deficiencies and mineral deficiencies, it doesn't operate on an optimal level. So by looking at these stats, I can see if guys are actually asking the right questions. It's like the fucking matrix, right? Like the zeros and ones. But I see what questions people are asking. You know what I mean? So I see a, let's say our normal vitamin percentage is, you know, 40% and I see it at 38%. I'll freak the fuck out. And it's not a fake thing. Like I'm, it's not a fake thing. Like I not a fake thing like I'm making an issue out of nothing.

It's like, dude, that much matters to me. You know what I mean? If we're down by 2%. Compound that over the course of a year. Exactly. And most people will let that go and let that go and let that go until that percentage is down to 2%. They're like, fuck, we got a problem.

You know, we went from 40% to 2%. I don't know what happened. Well, what the fuck happened was is you didn't look at the problem when it first started showing its head. You stuck your head in the sand and a sandstorm came and ate your whole fucking house away. You know, what you're saying really truly has application for every aspect of life. Dude, think about a relationship. That's what I was just thinking. Like you wake up, you know, the guy or we'll say the girl who wakes up and suddenly, you know, their spouse says, hey, I'm leaving you.

And you're like, wait, what? And you realize this didn't happen overnight. This happened because you neglected the relationship. You didn't do the little things over time. For years. And by the time things come to a head, it's too late. But I want to say two things. Number one, I go back and say, Ben, did you really say freaking?

Who do you think you are, me? Me? Fucking? Yeah, you said freaking. I don't know. I apologize. Everybody, fucking. I think my F-bomb limit is like extra high,

so he's just trying to bring it back down a little bit. The second thing I want to say is, Andy, you have also used the analogy, and I think it's a really good one, is people either see problems as a pit they fall into and they have to dig themselves out of, or they see it as a path to greatness or a path to something better. And I know that you've, you know, you have a huge appreciation for people like Steve jobs for people like, uh, Richard Branson, those guys. And I, you know, as I think about it, they're real, they're literally has never been an innovation or anything great created

in the world. That wasn't a response to a problem. Exactly. Well, and that's, I mean, and we're talking about, let's talk about entrepreneurial mindset there for a minute. You know, a lot of these, dude, this gets on my nerves so bad right now because entrepreneur is like such a hot term right now. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm going to fucking be a boss.

I'm going to be balling with my millions and my fucking Bentley. Like, bro, that's not being an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is someone who walks into a fucking restaurant and looks around and says, all right, all these servers are operating at fucking 20% when they could be operating at fucking a hundred percent, which would create this much more business, which creates this much more money, you know, and create this much more positive reviews on Yelp. All right. There

are people who think about problems that need to be solved. It's not people who think they're fucking p-ditty all right so yeah every great product was a problem that was solved you know um we talk about i mean we talk about everything you know oh damn you know too bad we can only use a telephone at home or in a phone booth we can't ever talk to people we're driving in a car going around uh town what's the solution a cell phone something we all use every single day you know oh here's a it's too hard to find the right pair of shoes uh it's too hard to find the right pair of jeans it's too hard to find you know this or that i've got to spend 18 hours a day shopping and going from all these other stores what's the problem tony shea starts zappos you get your shit the next day you can shop at every single store without leaving your house all right and. And he's making millions.

Yes. Or billions really. Right. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the point is, is that,

you know, that's the mindset. You see a problem and you create a solution. Not, I want to be an entrepreneur because I fucking want to ball hard, which is what all these stupid fucks on the internet keep trying to promote these young kids. You know,

I'll be rich at 24 months. You'm going to be rich at 24 months. You're going to be rich at 12 months. No, you're not. You're going to have to fucking a come up with a solution. I mean, can it go a lot faster than it has in the past because of technology? Yeah,

for sure. It can. What took me 17 years could take you six. I didn't have somebody out there telling me what to fucking do. You know what I mean? We didn't have the internet. We didn't have these instant communications. If I want to talk somebody across the country i had to fucking send them a letter and then they had to get it and send it back you know right people don't realize that so

the time can be cut down tremendously maybe 16 years can be cut down to eight or six or five but it's still going to take time and you know if you're in it for them if you're focused on the dollars that you're trying to make and not the solutions or the value you're trying to bring, you're going to miss the fucking point. I don't have any hard evidence or data on this, but I've got to believe that there's objectively that people who make a lot of money in a quick, easy, short amount of time. I got to believe that the majority of those people lose that money. Well, sure. Relatively quickly. Yeah.

I mean, I definitely know that that's true. Easy people lose that money. Well, sure. Relatively quickly. Yeah. I mean, I definitely know that that's true. That's why I say easy come, easy go. Right, right. You know, you don't learn the lessons that it takes to, you know, create. I mean, do people do that? Does that happen? Yes, it does. We see it all the time.

You know, people come out, they come out with a fucking, you know, the Snuggie. And all of a sudden, this dude's going from, you know, being an auto mechanic out with a fucking you know the Snuggie and all of a sudden this dude's going from you know being an auto mechanic to being a fucking billionaire and then you know five years later it's like

you read a story founder of the Snuggie gets you know beat up with 500 grand in a suitcase at the strip club like you know what I mean you

because these people didn't and you know I'm sure the Snuggie's different people are going to email and be like actually the Snuggie was founded by George Washington VII. So if you're one of those people, fuck you. I'm making an analogy.

Asterisk hole. Yeah. Second of all, the point is that when you don't have to work for it and you don't have to grind and bleed and learn all these lessons, you don't value it, number one. Number two, you don't learn the lessons it and and bleed and learn all these lessons you don't value it number one number two you don't learn the lessons it takes to make more of it so that whenever you start spending it you could actually use it to make more right you know and it goes away you know people do crazy shit they do shit like you see on tv like i can't even look at fucking instagram

for one fucking day without seeing some rapper or some fucking Instagram celebrity posting a picture of them on a fucking airplane with a bunch of cash on the table. Like you think that's what fucking real millionaire people do? You know what I mean? Or like throwing money in the air, like, dude, the fuck, what is this? You know? And then, and then there's a link at the bottom and says, Oh yeah, buy my success program. Right. You know what I mean? Right. Right. So one of the things that I think is really consistent with people who have driven really big success, you know, you talk about jobs, you talk about Branson, you talk about Trump, you know, these people, their vision is so big that it really becomes applied pressure. So imagine if your vision is so huge that you face a small problem. Now, some people may look at it and go,

boy, that's a really big problem. But the vision is so big that it face a small problem. Now, some people may look at it and go, boy, that's a really big problem. But the vision is so big that it keeps you fighting with that applied pressure that you want to take on the challenges. And a small challenge or even a big challenge is not going to hold you back because you've been accustomed because of a big vision over time to apply that pressure every single day. That's why I always, you know, I agree with that 100%, but that's why I always say, and some people get really, like, certain people, even people that work with me, tend to disagree with this, okay?

But I fucking, they're wrong, I'm right, bottom line, all right? Let's just get that fucking straight right now. So, but they have this idea, you know, setting small attainable goals is what's gonna keep me going and you know i've got to crawl before i can run bull fucking shit dude a big goal a huge gigantic goal that most people can't even conceive is always going to produce a better result for you than setting these small goals you know what you're doing when you set these small goals?

You're setting yourself up for complacency. Protecting yourself. Yes. Oh, my goal is to make $47,500 a year. When you're making $45,000, that ain't a fucking goal. How about your goal is to make $500,000 a year? Now what action are you going to take on top of that to make that happen? That's my point.

And when you face a problem. It generates massive action. When you set giant goals and you set these big fucking dreams that nobody can comprehend, you know in your heart that the action it's going to take is 10 times more, 100 times more, a million times more. So you go out and you may not ever hit that goal of you know building a 10 billion dollar company like my goal is you know what i mean but what if i hit a 1 billion dollar company or what if i hit a 2 billion i'm not gonna fucking be crying and maybe if i am crying it's gonna be in a fucking g650 flying from here to fucking paris you know what

i'm saying your life's's going to be good. Failing a fucking huge goal will always produce more than succeeding in a small goal. Period. So do you think- Hold on. What Andy's saying is stop protecting yourself, right? I mean, a new year's about to start. Don't approach this year and protect yourself with some, I'm going to increase by 1% next year.

Why would you want to increase by 1% so when a gold does come, it looks so freaking big you don't want to do anything about it? Five fucking years in a row, my company grew 100% in a row. Five years in the worst economy ever. From 2007 to 2012 or 2013, whatever that five is. I'm not

good at math. Where's my abacus? You know what I'm saying? But the point is we did it and nobody could fucking say it otherwise it's black and white it's in the fucking numbers and if i would have told somebody in fact i told many people especially banks and if you're listening right now here's my middle finger to you all right that we were going to do that and they said no you're not going to do that blah blah blah and guess who's knocking on our door now so can we fucking we want to to be your personal finance.

I don't need it now. You see what I mean? Absolutely, yeah. Dude, huge goals. 100%. But your vision was big enough that you applied pressure every single day to make that happen. Yeah. Dude, it's every opportunity.

That's the, that, dude, that is the difference between a billionaire and a millionaire or a millionaire an average guy is the amount of pressure they put on to execute on every fucking opportunity that they can dude i've got a friend who i i'm in business with in a small project right now but it's going to be a big project who's a billionaire okay this motherfucker calls me at 9.30 at night, 10 o'clock at night, 1 o'clock at night, and he,

let's chat about this, you know, about the project. I'm like, motherfucker, I'm sleeping. You know? But the point is,

is that his level, and I have no problem admitting this, his level of execution is higher than mine right now. You know what I mean? Time is an irrelevant thing to him. And I've learned that. And I appreciate that about him because I admire the dude. I'm like, fuck, this guy's a hustler. And I'm hoping to get some of that from him. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't look at my phone and say, oh, fuck this guy. Why is he calling me? I'm like, dude,

that's awesome. You know what I mean? It's cool. You can say you can tell people it's me. Yeah. I don't want I'm not going to say who it is because the project is confidential. But the point is that it's about your ability to, and it ties back into the subject here, it's your ability to recognize a problem, execute on the problem. Recognize that a customer has a problem, solve that problem. And solve it in a way to where they have to tell everybody. If you can understand that concept, there's nothing you can't do in business. It's that fucking simple. With social media now, everybody has a voice. If you, your guy who you went to buy a car from, if you went to that guy, you know, if that guy had done what I said, if he had cleaned the car, polished the car,

put a bow on it, put a gift card in there for you, you would have posted on Facebook and would have got him two to three more customers. And if you do that with every customer, guess what happens? You could grow 100% per year. The easiest way to grow 100% a year is to get one fucking customer to bring another customer. And if you do business that way, that's what happens. But people don't look at it like that. Instead, they look at the most, the least I can do to still get paid. What's the least I can do and still get paid? What's the least I can do and still get a raise? What's the least I can do to still get paid? What's the least I can do and still get paid? What's the least I can do and still get a raise? What's the least I can do and still be in line to be fucking assistant manager next seven years from now? Fuck that. What's the most you can do so somebody who above you or your customers, if you own a company, could say, God, this guy is a fucking machine.

Dude, you should go shop with him, or I need him right next to me as a CEO. He's my right-hand dude because he solves every problem with enthusiasm, going the extra mile every time, every fucking play for the course of life. And guess what happens? If you can adopt that mentality and execute on it, you're to be a multi-millionaire because dude it's one out of every fucking 10 million people have it and i'm serious that people are listening right now they're like oh yeah that's all it takes that is all it fucking takes do that for 10 years send me a fucking case of don perry on from your yacht because that's the point yeah i'm going to

anticipate the the appearance of an asterisk hole who does not understand and is very confused. And he's going to say, wait a minute. You're telling me I have to create these amazing goals and that small goals are worthless? And I think he's going to accuse you, if the asterisk hole is consistent, he's going to accuse you of inconsistency. But what I would like you to clarify is that you're not talking about, you're talking about two different things. You're not talking about action steps. The things on the power list are daily tasks. They can be small.

Those things can be little incremental steps toward a goal. The power list is action for the day. If I do this every day, compounded and relentlessly. You got to have a little bit of fucking intelligence here. All right? A little bit. You've got to be able to look and have this big fucking vision that's massive that only you can really see. You've got to break it down and say, all right, I don't know.

I mean, I do this badly, okay, or poorly for you grammar people out there. All right? I take a huge vision and I'm like, I want it in fucking one year. Right. When in reality it takes five years or 10 years, but what that causes me to do besides ignore the fuck out of everybody in my office, what it does is it creates a situation where I'm taking gigantic fucking steps every single day because I'm trying to accomplish that in literally a year. Right. So what I do is I go and I break the plan down backwards. All right. And for you, maybe you're better than me. Maybe you can recognize a goal

that should take five years and label it as five years. I'm happy the way I am because it produces massive action on my end. You know, it makes me frustrated. Frustration makes me act. Make sense? Yeah. Okay. So, so I, you know, you've got to be able to see the plan. You work it down and break it down into an amount of years time.

And then you break it down into daily actions that you know it's going to require. You know, everybody, I did a scope on this a few weeks ago. Everybody's always looking for that big thing, like the big one break or the big this, that, or the big thing that's going to make me go from here to there. It's not a big thing. It's all these little things added up together that eventually one of those things will be a big thing. You know, you'll get a story on fucking Oprah or you'll get, because like, you know, everybody's like, oh, you get oprah show and she talks about her

product the most loved or whatever that thing is you become a millionaire in one day well how many fucking emails how many failed sales calls how many failed designs how many failed this that and the other did it take for you to get on the fucking show you know people don't look at that so it's just being able to break down daily into daily actions that are going to be above and beyond what your normal shit would be that create a momentum of progress, which creates momentum of winning, which ultimately gets you to your goal. So, I mean, yeah, you know, I get what you're saying.

Like, people are going to say, oh, well, you say set small daily goals. That's your path. That's like saying. I like what Ben said. Those are tasks, really. That's like saying, hey, I want to drive to California from St. Louis. Right.

And I need to drive X amount of miles a day to get there. You know what I mean? Right. But it doesn't mean like... It's not like saying, oh, I want to fucking drive from California to St. Louis, and so my goal is going to be, let's get to Kansas City.

You're never going to get to fucking California.ia right you're going to mean yeah it's not the same thing absolutely no if you got somebody who doesn't understand that i'll tell them yeah well you you hit on something which i think is really important let me this is a kind of a math example that i always give what you were mentioning like the really highly successful person they do it every day over and over and over and over again. So when you get the big vision and you break it down, they actually follow through and do what they said that they were going to do, right? So for me, every single day, right, a silent voice generates no revenue. Every day I have what I call points of contact, 20 points of contact out into the marketplace for business, for whatever it might be. I do that every single day, compounded over and over. I will not let a day go by where I don't do something that is 100% in my control to do.

What most people do, and if you're listening, we're trying to help you here. We're not pointing in your face saying you're not doing it. What a lot of people do is they get really busy. They'll do 20 if that was their goal. And then they end up falling short and they say, well, I'm so busy in all these other areas. I can't do the 20, I'm doing 15 Andy and because I'm doing 15 it's close and I'm so busy let's look at the compound effect of that because this is what you were talking about your two percent earlier right if you work 20 days in a month and your goal is 20 points of contact this is easy guys that's 400 if you're one of those individuals who falls off a little bit, and they may, well, Andy, I'm really busy because I was doing the 20 for a while.

Now I'm doing 15. If you average 15 over the course of the year, and one day, yeah, 15 between 20, it's not a lot. But how about doing the math? Five a day times five days in a week is 25, times four weeks in a month is 100, times 12 months in a year is 1200. That's 1200 times you decided to not do what you were supposed to do. If your goal's 400, how many of you can operate at your highest level by falling short of three months of what it takes to be successful? It's not possible. It's not. So if you want to be successful, what Andy's saying is have a big vision, break it down,

but then you better do what you said you were going to do. And if you don't do what you said you're going to do, you're going to have to deal with that problem. And that problem is you're going to take action and you're going to stay exactly where you are. So two things. First is, guys, if you want to check out the show notes for this episode, it's themfceo.com forward slash p32. And you can check out the website and all the things we have to offer on that site. And then the other thing I would say is we're about halfway through your notes, Andy. And we're not done with our podcast.

Yeah, we're just going to turn this into a two-parter. So we're going to turn it into a two-parter. I've got a couple final thoughts I'm just going to leave everybody with on this episode. You know, we're talking about solving problems. You know, at the end of the day, you've got to take personal responsibility for solving the problem instead of passing it on for someone else. I mean, that's what it comes down to. Recognize the problem.

Solve the problem. Don't pass it on. Don't wait. Don't hide in the corner for the boss to come say, hey, that was Johnny's fault when it's really your fucking fault or even if it was Johnny's fault why don't you be the guy who steps up and becomes a leader solves the problem fixes the problem creates value in yourself we're just going to put more money in your own pocket you know I get a lot of questions

guys and I appreciate your trust in me I get these questions all the time and a lot of you tell me about some problem that you're facing, and I'm honored that you want my input. But here's the reality. There's a shit ton of questions I get about problems that I know that you could find the answer to yourself. You know the answer already. And sometimes it's as simple as just going out

and going to that fucking machine called Google that we all have and finding the solution. And if you can't even go to Google before you ask for anybody's help to try to figure it out, guess what? You're being fucking lazy as shit. All right. So here's the thing. Quit cheating yourself. Quit looking for the easy way. Quit looking for the mom or the dad or whoever, the boss to come in and solve your problem. Because the reality is guys guys you're losing out on the ability for you to cultivate the habit of solving a problem on your own and you don't ultimately learn anything so if you go through the tough process of identifying the problem coming up with

the solution implementing the solution you're going to learn something that you'll never forget for the rest of your life and you're going to ultimately create huge value in yourself and huge value for your company, huge value for your customer, which is going to ultimately put money in your fucking pocket, which is what we all want. See you later. Good night. I'll talk to you next time.