Start With A Win - Adam Contos: Why 90% of High-Achievers Get Trapped in Complacency

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

This week, I’m sitting down with Mitch for a deep dive into success, purpose, reinvention, and why your best chapter may still be ahead of you.My career has taken some fascinating turns. From law enforcement to entrepreneurship to leading one of the world's most recognized real estate brands as the CEO of RE/MAX Holdings, I’ve learned that while the titles on your business card may change, the mission stays the exact same: build trust, solve problems, and help people move forward.Whether you're just starting out, navigating a major career transition, or wondering what’s next after achieving significant success, I’m sharing some practical wisdom on how to create momentum, find your ultimate purpose, and build a life you never want to retire from.00:00 Intro01:40 Adam’s powerful definition of success04:15 Why solving problems become the foundation of every career move07:35 The side hustle that unexpectedly opened the door to RE/MAX12:15 The shift from “wins and losses” to “wins and learns”13:10 How micro wins create macro results17:15 Why boredom might actually be pointing you toward your next season19:36 The Game Changer Strategy 23:20 The Struggle Strategy28:30 Lightning Round – Major Insights, Listen til the EndABOUT DREAM THINK DO PODCAST:DREAM THINK DO is the motivational podcast that gives you the stories, science, and strategies to DREAM bigger, THINK better, and DO more of what you were put on the planet to do. Hosted by Mitch Matthews – success coach, author, and keynote speaker – each episode features powerful conversations with world-changers like Brendon Burchard, Lewis Howes, Sara Haines, and Michael Hyatt… plus everyday people with extraordinary stories.Whether you’re an entrepreneur, leader, creative, or someone chasing a big dream, you’ll get the inspiration and tools to take your life and career to the next level. Think personal development meets real-world strategies – all delivered with heart, humor, and zero hype. https://mitchmatthews.com/blog/ ===========================Subscribe and Listen to the Start With a Win Podcast HERE:📱 ===========================YT ➡︎ https://www.youtube.com/@AdamContosCEOApple ➡︎ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/start-with-a-win/id1438598347Spotify ➡︎ https://open.spotify.com/show/4w1qmb90KZOKoisbwj6cqT===========================Connect with Adam:===========================Website ➡︎ https://adamcontos.com/Facebook  ➡︎ https://facebook.com/AdamContosCEOTwitter  ➡︎ https://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOInstagram  ➡︎ https://instagram.com/adamcontosceo/#adamcontos #startwithawin #leadershipfactory

Good test of that is where do you feel like you're bored or complacent? You know, there's this thing called accountability. And when we start getting boarding complacent, we ignore accountability because we're good enough with good enough. But try and be better than you were last time you did this. That's a win in my book. Yep. So ultimately, if we're not getting better, you know what?

We're getting worse. And you might as well just pick a date on the calendar then that is the end of it all because you just keep getting worse. Welcome to Start With a Win, where we unpack leadership, personal growth and development, and how to build a better business. Let's go.

Coming to you from Area 15 Ventures and Start With the Win headquarters, it's Adam Contos with Start With a Win. Today is an interesting episode because I get to be interviewed by Mitch Matthews on the Dream Think Do podcast. Let's take it away.

Adam, my man, I'm so glad you're here. I'm so grateful for you taking the time, buddy. Welcome to Dream Thing, D. Thanks. Great to see. again? No joke. Thank you for having me on your podcast. And when we talked, I'm like, God, I got to get Adam on Dream Thing Do. So I love this. All right. I got to ask, it's almost like, you know, as I was writing your intro, I'm like, it's like I'm interviewing

Indiana Jones, because you've had all these different lives, these different facets to your career. You were kicking indoors as a SWAT leader, as a Marine. You've had success in real estate. you've been the CEO of Ria Max Holdings. Now you're, you know, doing amazing things, you know, with an private equity firm. You've got your own book, your own podcasts, you're all over the world. How do you describe what you do in this season? Like if somebody says, hey, Adam, what do you do? How do you try to encapsulate it right now?

It's funny. I've kind of argued that in my head over and over again. And I heard somebody define the, create the definition of, success. And so this is what I say I do. I do what I want to do, when I want to do it, where I want to do it with who I want to do it with, and how I want to do it. So that's what I do. So I mean, I put that on a business card, right? Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's people, what do you do? Well, I'm supposed to be retired. But so basically I do what I want to do is what I say. But I have, like you, I have to have purpose. I mean, you got to be engaging in. And,

in some activity with people that you want to be around to create a result. So that's the way I look at it. And whatever that might be, so will be it. You know, skiing, you know, going biking or driving an ATV around the ranch or who knows what or working on a business deal. I mean, I have a business meeting scheduled on Saturday at 3 p.m. And I look forward to it. So, you know, whatever you want to do.

That's why I see. Yeah, you're not doing it out of obligation. You're doing it out of passion and mission. right like that's that's beautiful because i you do hear horror stories of people you know working a career they don't love to get to the finish line of retirement and they're dead six months later because they do they they emerge from that without purpose with no identity and they just shut down and it's tragic so i love your passion i love i love that as a definition of success that you're living right now which is just perfect now i you know i i mentioned in the intro bumper

of, you know, some of your amazing adventures and successes. But I do want to dive into this because a lot of people that listen to Dream Think do. They're successful. They're high achievers. They're getting it done. But whether they're, you know, recent college grads entering into the workplace or people in their 40s and 50s who are kind of thinking maybe it's time for a change. I think it's really easy to assume everybody, you know, everybody that's ever been successful

has a straight line in their career. You know, like that they, they went in their career knowing exactly what they were going to do and they've achieved it. Whereas with yours, I think there's a, there's not a lot of straight lines, but boy, there's a lot of success. There's a lot of winning.

So how do you encourage somebody to, like step into the adventure and figure it out as you go? Because, I mean, like I said, Marines, SWAT team member, entrepreneurs, CEO of REMAX. like not necessarily a straight line. How did this work out for you? Well, I mean, the reality is we all kind of carry the same mission in life.

And that's to meet people, gain their trust and understanding, understand their challenges, and then help them solve those challenges. And if you look at all of those different adventures that I've been through, they have all been the same. Everybody said, well, what did what did being a cop have to do with the corporate world? Well, I met people who didn't know me and didn't trust me. I gained their trust and confidence and I helped them solve their problems. Same thing I did in police work. Same thing I did on the SWAT team. Same thing I do today doing business investments and working with other people.

So the reality is you have to figure out, what are you? I mean, you're like a giver, a taker, a connector, a remover. I don't know what it is. I like to think that I'm a problem solver. And so no matter where I go, I look for problems to solve. And that's my passion is finding that puzzle to put together and help people with their own challenges. And really, that's all we're doing is in business is selling solutions. So, you know, no matter what business I was in, I was like, oh, okay, you know, that looks like fun.

And don't get me wrong. You know, it's, I've gotten to do a lot of fun stuff. I failed a lot also. I think everybody does. We just don't talk about that because it's, it's not super fun to talk about all your failures. but you just got to look at it and go, okay, didn't kill me. Nobody else died and we're able to figure it out. Yeah.

I love that. And I love that identity as a problem solver. When would you say that you started to get clarity on that? When did you start to say, well, boy, that's kind of the connecting concept here or like kind of how you saw yourself. When would you say that started to settle in for you? probably when I was a little kid. I used to love to find things that were broken or could be better.

And I would take them apart and try and fix them and make them and modify them and make them better. And it was, you know, I wanted to make money. I owned a lawnmowing business when I was a little kid with my brother, started working early on. I worked in a garage in high school and, you know, working on cars and things like that. So I just liked to figure out solutions to things. And then it, you know, moved me up into my dad and my grandfather went law enforcement. So I was third generation in that. So I knew I wanted to go do something as a public servant.

I wanted to be a Marine because my uncle was a Marine. But, you know, it just finds something to latch on to and go after it. Go, go solve some problems, right? Like, I love that. And I, that is truly, it sounds like kind of what you've done and done effectively. And it's been through experiment. which I am a big fan of that. We talk about that with Dream Thing do,

that as you get a sense of doing something new, you don't have to burn down your current life. You don't have to quit everything. You can start to experiment. You can start to try things. And I know, you know, people might ask you, wait, how did you go from law enforcement to be the CEO of Remax? But I know there were some entrepreneurial experiments in there

that led to that, that helped set that up. that also wasn't necessarily a clear, straight line. Talk to us about kind of the entrepreneurial experiments that led to the leadership of Remax saying, hey, come over here. So I've always had an entrepreneurial bug in me. I always wanted to find a way to connect with people and, you know, make money doing it in some business manner. So I'd started a couple of companies when I was in law enforcement.

One was an online police supply company that was in the late, 90s. So as the internet was just starting to evolve, I kind of wish I'd kept that one because it would have been huge by now. But I shut that down. I started a security consulting company. I was a counterterrorism instructor, Homeland Security instructor, things like that. So I started doing some work with different companies on when you would create an emergency response plan. So this was late 90s, early 2000s. Businesses were starting to look at physical security more intently and how they train their employees. I love training. I taught police academy classes for like six years, taught police academy cadets how to stay alive in the business. Got with a couple guys.

We built one of the largest SWAT schools in the country, trained a lot of different SWAT teams around the U.S. and from the military and taught sniper schools and things of that nature. But ultimately, I just, I loved the transaction of helping somebody with something in exchange for. or compensation or payment or whatever. So part of my security consulting company, I created a real estate agent safety program because I saw that real estate agents were getting killed doing their job

or getting robbed or sexually assaulted things of that nature. And I thought, this is terrible. Somebody's got to do something about it. But ultimately, in order for somebody to pay attention to something, they have to pay for it. So I started building this program in the real estate space. And I had known the founder of Rematch,

I met him through law enforcement. He was very close to the law enforcement community. And he said, hey, why don't you come over and teach this to some of our folks? So I did. And they loved it. I got integrated into the real estate franchise space and was working with a whole bunch of people around the U.S. in different brands, not just RIMax. And then one day he called me up.

He goes, hey, we became friends. He started mentoring me and my business. And he said, why don't you come work for us in business and leave law enforcement full time? Wow. I moved to a volunteer status in law enforcement, which I still do today, by the way. I still volunteer in law enforcement. I teach firearms and pursuit driving. That's great.

But ultimately, I started to the bottom of Remax being a business consultant because I understood the business at that point. And I worked my way up in the organization. And lo and behold, about 15 years of trial and error, you know, going through the Great Recession and, you know, turning around different regions. or helping franchisees grow or getting rid of franchisees who weren't growing things of that nature, I ended up in the C-suite. That's, I love that. And I love, and I do want to really kind of point out, Dream Thing Doer, like what we're talking about is those entrepreneurial endeavors while you were in law enforcement, that was all on the side.

Like, I'm a big believer in creating side hustles, like diversify your career by doing things on the side building something because I always say the best time to build a business is when you're not dependent on its income initially, right? You make good decisions that way. You can grow in the right ways. So, you know, we train people out and do that. So I love that, you know, you were doing these entrepreneurial experiments that it sounds like really were successful and impactful and needed. I mean, I don't know if you've heard, but just recently, just in the last few weeks, there was a cold case of a real estate agent who was murdered in Des Moines, where I'm at 15 years ago, cold case, they reopened it and they just arrested who they think

the person, the murderer of this real estate agent. And that was something that, you know, even at that time, like definitely a case study for what you're talking about was safer, just the need and all those things. So I just, I love what you're doing and what, what, you've done and again what it's what it's where it's brought you which is perfect which you know fast forward to today uh you've got a best selling book you've got a podcast uh you know you're talking and showing people how to start with a win that's the name of the book name of the podcast for you what's a win what what does that what does that mean for me a win is an accomplishment so you've got yeah you don't have wins and losses you have wins and learns

and I just, I want to, I want to find some sort of a goal to go after each day. And it might just be a, you know, one of those softball pitches that you know you're going to win it. You know, the whole make your bed theory or whatever. Right. But ultimately, I want to find something that's going to challenge me and I want to go be challenged with it and see if I can overcome that challenge, learn something, help somebody fix something, whatever it is. And it just depends on what space you want to be in. Do you want to make money doing it? Do you want to give?

to somebody else doing it because life is about giving. It's all about reciprocity in life. The more we give, I'm a firm believer, the more we get. And I'm not giving to get, but I'll tell you what, I love giving. So getting happens. So, you know, the reality is I look for these little micro wins to turn into macro wins. And if you're just sitting with, say again. Yeah, talk to us about that.

Because that's like starting with the win, I know the book goes in depth. It's not just the start of your day. but this concept really does matter. And I love the book from the standpoint that big picture, it's a great concept, great metaphor, but you get into that like the specific strategies to actually make this happen. So what is starting with a win mean?

I mean, making a plan or finding a challenge of some sort, whether or not it is making your bed, whether or not it is going to the gym, your health sticking to a system is a win, making that system better is a win. You know, there's all these different concepts. You know, Kaizen or, you know, aggregation of marginal gain. If you look at Sir David Brailsford of the British cycling team, you know, he wanted his folks to find 1% improvement on everything that they do.

And then that 1% adds up. It aggregates. You've got the compound effect by Darren Hardy. He's just a great guy, great friend of mine. And he still lives to that book, even though it's, you know, 10 years old or something like that. But ultimately, it's about. doing these little things that compound to make you better. So that win might be adding two and a half pounds to what you're lifting in the gym

or going an extra 100 yards on your jog or on your walk or spending five more minutes with your dog or with your children or who knows what it is. But try and be better than you were last time you did this. That's a win in my book. Yep. So ultimately, if we're not getting better, you know what, we're getting worse. And you might as well just pick a date on the calendar then that is the end of it all because

you just keep getting worse. I want that date to be pushed out as long as possible. So I want to age backwards. I want to get better. I want to grow more. And it's fun. That's where I gain my satisfaction. I don't gain it by sitting on the back porch, you know, watching the leaves fall off the trees

or, you know, watching it. I don't like TV. I think it is mindless and a waste of time. if I'm going to look at something on my computer or whatever, I'll watch a video about AI and how that's changing and growing. You're picking it. You're not scrolling past it. Exactly.

Yeah, you just, you know, I like to say be intentional. And that's ultimately what starting with a win and winning is about is being intentional in what you're doing and how you're doing it. I hope you're enjoying these conversations and finding value in them. If this episode challenged your thinking, encouraged you, or gave you a tool you can use to become a better leader, share it with one person who needs to hear it. Leadership isn't learned alone.

It's passed from person to person, conversation to conversation, and action to action. If you're listening on a podcast platform, I'd be grateful if you'd leave a review also. If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss future conversations. And if you have a question, a thought, or a topic you'd like to see us cover,

leave a comment, please. I read them and I'll do my best to respond. Thanks for being part of the Start with a Win community. community. Keep learning, keep growing, and keep leading. And we got a lot of high achievers that listen to Dream Think do. And what I think a lot of folks that aren't high achievers, when they look at people who are getting stuff done in high achievers, you think, oh, man, you know, they probably never feel burnout or they never feel overwhelmed or, you know, they maybe never feel bored. And it's, I love that what you're talking about is even if you are already winning, you know, sometimes you can

get bored with that or you can feel burnout from that. So I love that you're equipping people to say, hey, like, let's draw a line and let's define some new wins. So like when you when you talk to that high achiever and maybe they're already winning in a number of areas, how do you guide them on defining some new wins, setting some new challenges to go after? I think a good test of that is where do you feel like you're bored or complacent? because if you can identify those gaps and those opportunities, you can take a look at those things from another perspective. And we have the ability now to sit down and very easily review our day.

You know, you can take your calendar and upload it into AI and say, tell me where I'm getting bored and complacent or ask me questions and help me identify that and then help me break out of that shell so that I can become better than I am. And I love this, you know, there's, there's this thing called accountability. And when we, when we start getting boarding a place in, we ignore accountability because we're good enough with good enough. And I, I just, I don't like that feeling. I want to look at something and go, you know, I look at my car and I'm like, oh, I'm like,

I got it washed the other day, but you know what it's dusty. I want to make that better. Or there's something on the floor. I want to pick that up. And maybe I'm just weird and obsessive about those things. but ultimately that's like the little treasures that I find in my day are the, you know, when, and the thing that everybody should look at is how can I make that a little bit better? And it becomes a game, you know, gamify your life.

I have a friend, his name's Q, and I just interviewed him this morning for like the third time on my podcast. And he's like, I go, how do you keep winning? He goes, I look at my 168. He has 168 hours available to him in the week that he's not sleeping. He goes, what can I do in that 168 to make more money, be better, be a better dad, you know, grow my business portfolio, whatever it might be. So it's an obsessive personality type. But here's the reality is if you're always looking and trying, you're not going to burn out.

And I've burned out several times in my career. Believe me, I mean, law enforcement, corporate, whatever it might be. Yeah. You're frustrated. You feel overwhelmed. But if you're always looking for better, it's hard to burn out. Yep. I love that.

I love that. All right. With the book, it's been out. It's impacted a lot of people. What do you hear that people, what's one of the favorite strategies? When you hear from readers, when you talk to your audiences that you're speaking to, what's one of those standout strategies that are like, oh, that's a game changer? I think a lot of people like party with the beast.

Yeah, I love that. Talk to us about that. All right. So inside of all of us is this fear, doubt and overwhelm. We doubt ourselves quite frequently. And you got to, you have to almost think that it's like you're going into a room. And there's, there's a beast in that room. And you're afraid of going in that room. You know, you're standing outside the room. You're like, why do I want to go in this room? I'm going to have to fight this beast. but do you really have to fight the beast? If you go in and have the attitude of,

I'm going to go in and I'm going to enjoy my time with this beast. I'm going to flow with whatever I'm doing with the beast. And whatever happens happens. I'm going to enjoy myself. But the reality is we all have that doubt. Can I go in and deal with this beast? But you have to go in and deal with the beast every day. It might be a meeting.

It might be a customer, a cold call, or an upset customer. It might be somebody you're trying to close a business deal with or somebody you have to hold accountable in business for some, you know, maybe they're defaulting on a contract or something like that. But you can't ignore the beast. The longer you stay outside that room, the stronger that beast is going to be. But the quicker you get into that room and engage the beast on your terms with a positive attitude, the easier it is to overcome that beast. So you can either stand outside and let that beast beat you up internally because it's not physically with you. or you can party with the beast and go,

I'm going to go have some fun with this. That's right. Give me a favorite example of that, where either in your life or maybe you've heard from a reader, where's somebody that went in and just face that beast? Well, I mean, perfect example is like SWAT calls.

And this is where I learned that is Bruce Snelling. You know, rest in peace, Bruce, great SWAT commander that I worked with for many, many years and just a great man on this planet. But Bruce, we were at a SWAT call, and it was a very difficult situation. And you could tell that there was some second guessing in the guy's minds, you know, of,

all right, is this going to be scary? Because, I mean, you get a briefing. You're like, holy smokes. Okay, this person might have, you know, a sniper rifle. They might have, you know, be heavily armed or explosives or just very, very difficult situation. And nobody's coming to save you. You're the last line of defense. So you need to go in and deal.

with this. And Bruce was like, look, you know, it's, there's a beast here in all of us. And he told a story. And then he looked at everybody. He said, let's party with the beast. And it, I mean, the reality is that, you know, you have a gunman, you have somebody barricaded, whatever it is on the other side of that door. You're going to do everything you can to be the best that you can to solve this problem, the safest way for everybody. But the reality is you have to take action. and if you are afraid to take action, nothing's going to happen. So in fact, it might just get worse. So it was a common thing for us to look at each other and say, party with the beast and just go do your job.

Just kick that door in and go, right? And that applies in SWAT, but that applies in life. That applies in parenting. That definitely applies in business. I love that. That is party with the beast, baby. I love that. Now, here's another question for you with the book.

I know with getting to talk with a lot of different amazing authors like yourself, there's usually strategies that you put in your book that come naturally to you. But then there's usually at least one strategy that, boy, it didn't come natural. You still have to choose it. You wrestle with it. What's one of those strategies with start with win? Where you maybe just didn't come natural, you had to choose it, wrestle it to the ground and learn how to do it yourself in spades.

Like, what's one of those for you? I'll have to say doing what we're doing right now. So I worked undercover for two years. Yeah. I didn't want anybody to know who I was, see my face, do anything like that, because I had to go in places and sit there and do drug deals, business dealings, things like that with very dangerous individuals. And I was by myself.

and, you know, I might have had, I would have support agents around the area or something like that. But working undercover can be a wild thing. So you get into the shell and you're like, all right, I'm not a public figure. Now change channels and get into the corporate world. I'm on a stage talking to thousands of people at once. And I need to go up there and be an extrovert where before I was a total introvert. And I need to go out. I need to sell them in the dream.

I need to connect with these people. I need them to feel my excitement and engage in that because that's the best way to build trust and belief in somebody hearing what you're saying. That was really, really difficult for me. Getting on stage, you know, you hear about people who are afraid to get in front of people or afraid to get in front of the camera, things like that. That's my beast. And every time I dealt with, I always said I'd rather be shot at than have to go do that. but ultimately, you know what, I enjoy it now because it's connection and you can train yourself to do anything you want. So that tactic and that situation in and of itself, I would say more than anything, if people don't see you, they don't hear you, they don't connect with you, they cannot build a relationship with you.

So don't send them an email or a text message, send him a video and directly deal with them. That's a tough one to get over. I teach executive MBA students at a business school every now and then. And that's one of the projects I make them do is shoot a video explaining why they are a leader in the organization. Scares the hell out of them. Yeah. So absolutely. They have that Teledega Knights experience where it's like, why are my hands going up?

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But it's so true. And it's that thing of, boy, if you can get over. the panic of the red light, right? Boy, then you can push through. And I love that. I did a, at Fort Benning,

I did a workshop on worry and stress for a bunch of special forces guys that were being downsized out of the military. And I'll never forget. I'm like, you know, these guys are literally, you know, they've dodged bullets for a living for a very long time. They are specialized.

they are highly equipped, highly trained to do some of the most dangerous things on the planet. And here I am talking with them about anxiety and worry and the science and the neuroscience of anxiety and worry. And I apologize to them. I'm like, you guys have faced fears. I've never even fathomed. Then they're like, but you don't understand. We're highly trained to dodge bullets, but you're helping us, you know, be equipped to do a job

interview. And they're like, we're more afraid to do that than we are, you know, to duck. things being shot at us and things exploding around us. And it is, you know, different fears for different seasons and different beast for different days. And boy, you just have to learn to step in. And even the bravest most, you know, the highest achievers still have new beasts and new fears they have to face.

So I love that. And I appreciate you continuing to push yourself. Because, man, now you're amazing at it. But I can only imagine the wrestling match that that was. it certainly was. It's it reminds me of a saying that a friend of mine has and he had been through a lot of, I mean, hell and back in people making accusations. Because the better you get and the higher you get in something, the more accusations you face. Just people trying to pull you off the mountain. It doesn't matter how great, honest, ethical things like that you are. There are going to be people who try to destroy you in your reputation and things like that in order to remove you out of the way so that they can try and do what you've done. But, He always said they can't eat you. And I mean, it's, you look at it and you go, you know, you're right. Yeah.

Right. What are you afraid of anyway? So you just got to overcome that internal self-doubt and go for it. Yep. It's so true. I love it. Oh, this is so good. All right.

We're going to now do a lightning round of questions. We're going to be able to go after a number of them in a short amount of time. And yeah, I just want to get into your head just a little. bit more with these. So lightning around question number one, what's something bigger, small that is big or small that you're intentionally learning about right now? AI. What do you find it? It's, you better continue learning because it's always changing. So I'm finding that it's

definitely something that leaders need to know, but you also need to know from a leadership perspective. So how do we lead in the AI world? And I, I suggest everybody, go out and read about that extensively, watch videos, there's a briefing every day by several different prominent people in the space, and you'll start to catch on with it and then try it. I mean, it's, you know, don't put your personal

information out there for everybody and be careful about data leaks, but the reality is go do it. Yep. Nothing, nothing better to just get in there and start messing around, build something. It is.

I find myself being wildly excited and wanting to throw up. And it's about a, you know, 51%, 49% from, you know, day to day, sometimes 80, 20, all those things, right? But boy, you can't go in blind. You got to go in and start learning because it's not going away. Jeannie's not going back in the bottle. So I love that. I love that. What's a win, bigger, small, that you're currently working on that scares you a little bit? I'm working on some business deals right now. Can't say much more than that. Can't say much, yeah. Yeah, but I mean, those are those are what you think about day in and day out. Do you ever think you're going to run into business deals that don't scare you? You know what I mean? Like, it's that, is it, is it part of what, what scares you? Is it the new? Is it the risk? What do you think in, in, with all of your experience, with, you know, all of the, the wins and the losses you faced, what's something that that scares you now that you have to push through? I think the, what's

scares you the most is probably that something's going to pop up that you didn't consider or you don't know about. So some sort of a regulation, a rule, a liability, you know, somebody somewhere signed a contract for you or for somebody else that you're doing a business deal with and you're like, well, wait a sec, that conflicts with what we can do. So there's always the unknown, but there's no way to get to that unknown unless you continue working your way through the deal. Yep, I love that. And it kind of comes back to, like you say, your core, core talent of just solving problems. Yep, right? And fixing that. I recently interviewed Dave Munson. I'm not sure if you've come across him, but he's got Saddleback Leather Company. And he's got this great story. And Saddleback makes these exquisite leather briefcases. They're guaranteed for 100 plus years. He's got a book called they'll fight over it when you're dead because his whole goal is he wants to create things that people have to put in their will.

But, you know, they make these beautiful bags and now shoes and all these different leather products. And he said, for the longest time, I thought we had a leather company. He said, actually, we've got a problem solving company. And we work with leather. And I think I think you're exactly right. It's that embracing and saying, hey, just because problems are going to come, that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. It's just meaning, hey, how do we figure it out as we go?

So I love that. So good. All right. Next one. You work with a lot of high performers. You are a high performer. What do you think separates the people that, you know, that actually execute and get things done from those that stay stuck planning? Well, you know, there is a trepidation or a fear that people have in taking action.

I think once you develop a minimally viable product, you're kind of in the zone and you better jump. So some people overthink things too much. There's a level of risk tolerance that causes you to take action versus continuing to rethink things. And I'll tell you, the world is moving so fast right now that you can continue to rethink things forever. And you're never going to get to the point of taking.

action. So at some point you have to draw the line and take action. And if you're wrong, then you learn something and you go back and you replan. But ultimately, you know, I, I think that's one of the challenges we have in the corporate world is you have people who like to plan and not do. So the whole doing aspect, you know, you're at the door and the beast is inside. You better go in the room. And, you know, you can sit there all day long. And, you know, you can sit there all day long. nothing happens. Yep. Yeah, kick that door in.

Let's go. You got it. Absolutely. And it is. It's that trust in that inner nowhere. And, you know, like that's why we dream things do.

We dream to say, hey, what if, right? And we think, like how could we? But then you got to do. You got to step.

You got to learn. All that stuff. I love your, there's not wins and losses. There's wins in learning, especially when you're focused on the right things. I love that. All right.

Two more lightning around. I got 20 more than I could ask you, but I have two that I really want to ask you specifically. One of which is we always try to do a bunch of research. I always say I try to stay this side of stalking. But one of the things I'm really impressed by, there's numerous things that are impressive with your life and your career. But I know you've been really intentional about building a friend group, a peer group, you know, people that you travel with and vacation with, all those things, you've been really

intentional about cultivating that. And I know as people go and achieve, they, you know, pursue bigger dreams. They go after bigger achievements. Sometimes their peer group has to change. We always say you have to give yourself permission to get some new friends. How have you done that? How have you attracted and then kept friendships that allow you to be more of you, that allow you and encourage you to succeed? What does that look like for you? How has that been for you? I think there's a couple of rules that my wife and I live by when it comes to the circle

of people that we travel, engage with, things like that. And my wife and I are incredibly close. We've been married for 19 years this week. and, you know, we're best friends. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

And, I mean, the reality is it's because we have complete transparency and trust in each other. And we share a lot of the same interests. So, you know, if there's something she wants to go do with her friends or something that's, I'm not interested in. And I'm like, go do it. I, you know, complete trust in what you're doing. And vice versa. But we, we like to adventure.

We like to travel with friends. But we're very careful who we travel with. We don't travel with people who complain. We don't travel with people who want something from other people. You know, the people we travel with want to give to each other. So, you know, there's always like little gifts going back and forth and things like that to our friends. And like she has to pack little, you know, gift bags for the ladies in the group, things like that. But it's fun.

You know, you do things with people that you want to spend time with. And that's really the rule. So keep your group small. We have very few, but we have enough. And I always get people, I'm in a mastermind group. And there's always people who are like, hey, I want to be part of your mastermind. No. I'm sorry.

We're not taking applications. So, yeah, that's just that's how it is. Clownhouse is closed. Exactly. But it does. It matters. Yes. Totally.

And there has to be trust and confidence in all these people. There's, Nobody that is offensive to anybody else. There's nobody that wants anything from anybody else. And you have to think any of these people, if something happens to you in the middle of the night and you're somewhere else, can you pick up the phone and go, I need some help? And they will say, absolutely, where are you? What can I do? So, I mean, it's kind of that litmus test.

And we're fully content with everybody involved in it. And I'm very quick to get rid of those that don't fit that, that whole picture. So, you know, I would just say be very, I used the word intentional before. You have to be extremely intentional with your associations instead of just trying to know everybody all the time. That's great if you're in sales and you're just trying to sell stuff. But that's not your friend circle. Right.

So true. I love that. I love that idea of nobody wants anything from anybody else. Nobody needs anything from anybody else, but everybody's focused on giving. And really, I love the even the metaphor and the literal bringing gifts to each other, right? Like, I love the generosity, the sharing, but the trust. But you do. You have to be intentional with that.

And I so appreciate that. We hear sometimes, you know, well, I don't have that. How do I get that? And it's like, well, you can start by being that for somebody else, right? So, but to be intentional is exactly right. This doesn't happen overnight. This is something that you guys have built over time. And I just so respect that.

So I love it. All right. I've got my last question. I don't want it to be the last question. I'm going to have to have you come back because this has been great. But when you think about kind of the best advice that you've had over your life, I used to ask, like, what's that piece of advice or that piece of wisdom you wish you'd known earlier? but that almost feels like it's embedded with regret.

I don't want that. What's a piece of advice or what's a concept that now you're grateful, you know, especially in this season? I was in a small group mastermind, and Bill McDermott, who was the president or the CEO of SAP, now he's with another company, came in to have this small conversation with us. And I was just becoming a new CEO. And I said, Mr. McDermott, I mean, you're one of the best, one of the top CEOs in the world.

What advice do you have for me as a new CEO to be the best that I can be? And it's written on the wall behind me here for anybody who's watching the video. It says, stay hungry, stay humble. And that's what he said to me. He goes, stay hungry, always be learning, always be getting better, always be looking for something that you can absorb in order to help others. but stay humble because you're under a spotlight and people are going to look at you and go, oh, that person's pretentious or that person thinks are better than somebody else or whatever. But the reality is you have to have a ton of humility in order to be a great leader

and in order to find success. So that sticks with me everywhere. Stay hungry, stay humble. And it's something that I will always remember because he gave such profound advice, you know, eye to eye to me. on what can help me become a great leader. And I'll tell you what, it's carried me a long way. I love that.

I love the balancing effect of those two things together, right? Like you can continue to grow, you can continue to strive, you can continue to win, right? Stay hungry, but I love the balance of stay humble, right? To be able to know who you are and to stay committed to helping others

and building that trust and connection. That is so good. And obviously it served you well. So this is awesome. Adam, thank you so much for being so generous for coming and spending the time. And we will have all of your contact information and best stuff in the show notes. But what's that best place for people to start a conversation with you? Adamcontos.com.

That's easy. That's it. Make it easy. Exactly right. I love it. My man, I so appreciate you. Thank you so much for living the dream think, do life. We love you and we appreciate you greatly.

Thanks for having me on.