The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Robert Luxenberg, Mind, Money and Wealth: What They Don’t Teach in School Book

Episode Date: August 27, 2019

Robert Luxenberg, Mind, Money and Wealth: What They Don’t Teach in School Book

Hi folks, Chris Voss here from thechrissvossshow.com, thechrissvossshow.com. Hey, welcome to another podcast. We certainly appreciate you guys tuning in. Thanks for being here today. And of course, we always have the best guests. Today we've got an incredible interview from an incredibly smart book author. He's written three books and he's written Mind, Money, and Wealth, What They Don't Teach in School, Robert Luxenberg.

Robert, his bio, is an accomplished businessman, speaker, author, and philanthropist. He was a Canadian swimming champion, a member of the Canadian national team, and leader of the Canadian contingent, and tailing 36 sports to one of the largest international sports games in the world. He was 47 years old when he turned down a well-paying executive positions, found a business partner, and bought his first apartment building. Before he celebrated his 50th birthday, he'd become a millionaire and was a multi-millionaire several years later. He's owned several hundred residential apartments, presently

develops self-storage facilities, converts landmark buildings to hotels, and has built a restaurant, bar, and villas in Mexico. He teaches real estate to anyone interested in building real legacy wealth, and he wants to share his lessons he learned with the power of the mind and wealth building with young people just starting out. His latest book, Mind, Money, and Wealth, What They Don't Teach in School, is available on Amazon. You can take and get it there, and his other two books that he's written, The Third Q and Unlocking the Secrets. So, hi, Robert. Welcome to the show. Glad to have you here. You know what? It's a pleasure being with you this afternoon. Awesome sauce. Now, you've got a great website here that people can take a look at to get the book. They can get it on Amazon, but it's mindmoneyandwealth.com. And you can check it out on Amazon at mindmoneyandwealth, what they don't teach in school. So this has been a pretty

awesome book for you out of the three books you've taken and done so far. Yeah, this is actually something that I take to heart because I wrote it for my children. It was a legacy to them. I saw them in their late teens, actually growing up with an incredible lack of knowledge in key areas, as far as I was concerned. My kids go to a wonderful private school, and yet there were some serious missing pieces there. So I'm a proponent of school, of course with those missing pieces I decided okay I'm gonna write this book. It was on my bucket list and I executed on it and got the book done and I am absolutely humbled by the results. It's getting out there really fast

Europe, worldwide and I'm getting emails from young people all over the world as well as older people that have read the book and connected with it. So I'm getting emails from young people all over the world, as well as older people that have read the book and connected with it. So I'm humbled by it. I'm humbled by the results and looking forward to sharing it with your listeners. So what does the book cover? What does it entail more in depth? Well, it starts off with the discussion of the mind. And this is an important piece as far as I'm concerned. There are hundreds of books out there that give you all sorts of information on how to make money,

or how to build wealth. And you know, some of those books are really excellent. But at the end of the day, if you don't have the mindset for wealth, if you don't have the mindset for growth, none of that's going to happen. You can read 100 books, and I promise you, you're going to stay where you're at. So the beginning of my book, I really focus in on my story, and then the power of the mind and what to do, frankly, to set the mind for success. And then the second part of the book is the discussion of money, again, something for some strange reason, they don't teach in school, don't get it. I mean, kids just have no idea how to balance a checkbook. And they don't, most don't know about compounding the most powerful force in the universe, according to Albert Einstein. And then finally, wealth building itself. You know, they know how

to get a job. They know how to work by the hour. But as far as actually building serious legacy wealth, they don't know. It is disappointing that schools don't teach entrepreneurism. They don't teach some of the life skills like credit reports and like what you mentioned. I remember my dad, I think the Albert Einstein thing was, wasn't the Albert Einstein thing where if I give you a penny every day and you put it in a passbook savings account that earns a minimum amount of interest, was that the reference that Albert Einstein had? I don't know specifically about Albert Einstein, but I know that in my book, I reference penny doubling. Double a penny every day for 31 days. Would you take $5 million or would you take the penny doubling? Your choice.

My dad used to run that by me, that example by me. And I think he cited it was Howard Hughes that used to say that, but I don't know. It's one of those things that's out there. But he would ask me, would you rather have a penny a day for 10 years or would you rather have a million dollars? You know, we don't always have a million dollars.

And then he would explain compounding to us. And it really is sad that they don't teach more stuff, life skills in, you know, how to be a good parent, maybe how to raise children, how to balance a checkbook. Like you say,

no one teaches you any of that stuff. You're correct. How to manage your credit, how to get credit. Um, you know, I learned so much crap in school and public school. Um,

and the one key thing that I learned in school that was like the most important thing financially for me as an entrepreneur or just in life was typing class and the reason that was so important was it helped me write my business letters for our companies and type out our invoices that is unbelievable you know I still type with one finger, but it's funny because I did take a typing class in high school. And the reason I did that was to meet girls. Ah, there you go. I didn't really learn to type. Clearly you had your mind on something else. I think so. I think so. You know, you're of that age at that time. So yeah. And so I would,

we, me and my business partner, we'd take turns each weekend doing all the invoicing. And so he would be sitting there henpecking for, you know, all weekend long for clients. And then, you know, I'd be like, okay, done. But it was really important for me in just reading, writing. You know, I suck at English, but it's made me better at it. But, yeah, it's really interesting. So it's great you put this in the book

so that these people can learn. It's good that it's targeted toward the youth so they can learn. I mean, they have such a opportunity with the world as it is today in being able to virtually create businesses, virtually create offices, virtually be able to create income.

And yet their parents raise them and they go, what do I do now? Go get a job. Well, there we go. And that comes from the previous generations. That's the way they were trained. Yep. And they just end up enslaved to these employers that don't raise their pay, don't pay them well, dismiss them.

It's even worse now with the contract labor that's out there where they can throw you off the bus anytime they want. No, it's exactly true. And unfortunately, people seem to put weight on being paid by the hours. They're being paid by their limited time. And that is a huge error for many different reasons. First of all, the moments that you have in life are precious. And who knows how long that will last. I actually do a study in the book, an analysis near the end of the book, as to actually how much time you really have here. And it will blow you away because, you know, young people especially think they have all the time in the world. But actually, they don't.

And when you start taking into account things like driving in traffic, sleeping, taking a shower, worrying about the future, being resentful and angry about the past, and I can go on and on and on. I get very specific in the book about these things. It's actually more like a football game. So as you know, a football game goes, what, three or four hours? The game is an hour. But the ball's in play for 11 minutes yeah

that's life you know we got to get it together because at the end of the day we think we're we're going to be living that three or four hours but it's only 11 minutes long so I think if we were taking into account an 80 90 year lifespan you know really we're talking about life as as we know it and should know it being in the present 10 years so fast and you're being paid by the hour holy cow think about that that's pretty simple i need to do something better with my attention i need to get out more but no that's that's brilliant that's awesome um you know a lot of people don't recognize that you know you and i are probably at the age where we get to a point where it starts

moving really fast for us like we wake up and we're like what a year went by what where'd that go um I you know I go through a whole I go through a day sometimes and be like what did I what the hell happened today um and then the naps don't help you know where I'm kind of like a half day person I take a nap I just nap really these days so uh it goes fast and you know I see so many of of uh people that I talk to that are youthful and I'm like this is really the most important time of your life you've got to you've got to use this time you've got the energy you know I don't know about you Robert but at my age you know the back hurts the hips out the eyesight's going you know falling apart and it's like I don't know about you, Robert, but at my age, the back hurts, the hips out, the eyesight's going, falling apart.

And it's like, I don't have time to chase around like I did our early businesses when I was in my 20s. It's so true. I'm 61. You look a lot younger than I do. But I got to tell you, frankly, I've kind of made some serious shifts in my lifestyle, actually, over the last while I'm eating better. But exercise wise, I found an amazing trainer who's actually taken me through mobility and posture training, along with circuit training. And I got to tell you, I have never felt better. I feel like a 25 year old. So I think, you know, where, yeah, my eyesight's going my, you know, I know that I don't hear as well as I did, but physically and even mentally, I feel fantastic.

So I don't think we're destined to fall apart. I think we can make some choices that will help us in that regard. And it helps if you're self-employed too, because you have more time to do stuff. Like you and I have freedom to be able to do what we want during a day. And so we can go work out. We can, you know, kind of contemplate when you, but when you're on that slave drive where you're, you know, you've got to wake up, race to your work, go through the, you know, hour or two hours of traffic, um, and then do the, and

do the whole thing, you know, with the work and, and then come home, you're, you're pretty much spent energy wise and, uh, attention wise. And most people just want to gel out at that point. So they don't have a lot of time to work on, uh, themselves, their lives or doing their own thing. And most, most people don't think outside the box, which is probably a good reason for them to get your book. Yeah. I mean, there, there's no question about it. Most people are so incredibly limited by that quote unquote, that box. And they live in about it. Most people are so incredibly limited by that quote-unquote, that box, and they live in that box. They don't even know what's outside of the box,

and when they hear from individuals that have some ideas on how they can better their lives, but, of course, the information's out of the box, they go, well, you know, I live in this box. I'm staying right here, and I actually talk a lot about that in the book. I like to say that the instructions on how to get out of your box are out of your box. And it's so true.

And, you know, and the other issue is money. It's such an interesting topic. I talk to so many different generations, people that are religious, non-religious, different religions. And when you talk about money, I seem to get a similar reaction to it. Well, you know, money is not that important. You know, health is more important or this is more important. Well, you know, money's not that important. You know, health is more important, or this is more important. You're overly focused on money. And this is a key issue, as far as I'm concerned, because I totally disagree. And I think people need to take a

step back, especially those that react that way, because I noticed those that react that way, in a negative way about money, usually need it. They usually don't have a lot. And my attitude towards money is simple. It's a limb. It's one of your limbs, okay? You need, and you have one for relationships. You have one for, you know, the love of your life, your children. You need one for health.

These are limbs. They're an important piece of life. And guess what? Money is one of them. I think money is spiritual, to be honest with you. The more of it that you have, the more people you can help. People need to really take a step back and think about that one. It gives you the freedom to do the things you want to do. And hopefully, you'll be able to be creative and do the things that you were born to do or you're passionate about. But the more money you have, the more people you can help. And you can take a look at Gates. You can take a look at Buffett. You can take a look at Branson.

These guys, they inject huge, huge sums of money into various charities throughout the world. They're doing their best with all this money that they've made. And from what I hear, the majority of it to help the world, to make it a better place. So if that's the case, why is money a bad thing? You've got to think about that. Yeah. A lot of people have hangups about money. I mean, sometimes it starts as early as a, uh, as a child, your parents always tell you, you're at the store. Hey mom, can I buy this? And they go, we don't have enough money. Uh, and then, you know, there's a lot of, sometimes indication, negative connotations that you're raised with. Like your parents will tell

you, like my father used to always say, I used to say, Hey dad, look at that BMW. And he drove a VW. I never thought of those two. So anyway, I'd say, Hey, look at that BMW or the Mercedes. And he'd say, well, the bank owns it. And that he got away with that for a couple of years. And then finally I asked him one day, I go, what does it mean dad, when the bank owns it? And he goes, well, they have a loan and they make payments. And I go, so you don't do that with your car. And he goes, no, I, I make payments to the bank. So I'm like, well, the bank owns your car to your VW. So how are they different? Yeah. And I kind of got him, I kind of got him in, in the, in the thing. thing but i mean this was something

you know that i was picking up through the program and my parents and and their attitudes about money and certainly you know it's really tragic that that you know i i've i've talked to some of my other families that run uh they have kids and said you know you need to start having your kid think about some other things other than just getting a job. And unfortunately they, they can't understand my world, your world. And, um, all they, all they know is you show up for a job, you get your paycheck and you pray to, you know, pray till Friday and, and then you get it. And, and then it's gone again after taxes. Yeah. And that's a big one. I mean, that most people don't even understand, you know, it's funny cause after taxes. Yeah, and that's a big one. I mean, that most people don't even understand.

You know, it's funny because they think that they're going towards this secure place. You know, a place they're going to wake up exactly the same time every morning. They're going to the same job. They're going to get their paycheck and all as well. The truth is times have changed, as you well know. You know, your jobs are insecure. Companies are going offshore. They're going online. Your job may not be there tomorrow. Pension plans are falling apart. And frankly, when you're shackled to a job where you're working by the, quote unquote. By the way, I hate that word. I just want you to know it's a pet peeve of mine. Retirement? Sucks. The right

word is refire. They've done study after study. People that have retired usually physically and mentally just literally go straight downhill. Oh yeah, they die within what is it, one to three years if they don't find something to do? Yeah, and I mean, I don't mind at the end of the day if you want to use the word refire. So in other words, switch, okay, you're leaving this job, you're leaving this company, you're leaving whatever it is that you're doing, switch over and do something else. Keep at it, never stop.

This bit with, you know, I'm going to retire in some community in Miami and I'm going to swim every day and do yoga and that's the end of that. That's the beginning of the end if you take that attitude. You know, you really got to get it together in that regard. So coming back to this, their expectations are that they're going to have or their hope is that they're going to have enough money to retire. And the truth is more and more now that's not the case.

So people got to really put some thought into, you know, where this money is going to come from. Not just for then. that's the other part. What about living well now? Why wait till then? This so-called retirement to live a good life. And I think that that's where people need to take a step back and think about it. And that's all I kind of ask people to do.

In my book, I talk about a lot of reasons why they got to take what I have to say seriously, and they're really good reasons. But at the end of the day the alternative is not good mm-hmm and and yeah a lot of people pass away very long I love the mantra and I this is my rule too I love the mantra of Warren Buffett and he says I'll retire about seven years after I die. There we go. I love it too. And you know, that's a guy that people should admire and watch. Yeah. And he espouses a lot of what you talk about in your book, investments, you know, fast track to freedom. You've got a great graphic here that I'm looking at on mindmoneyandwealth.com. You can also find his book, Mind, Money, and Wealth on amazon.com. And you got a great thing here about the difference between working hard

and working smart. Yeah, and that's a key one for people to understand. Because on one side, we talk about working hard, which is if you think back to previous generations parents always told you well if you work hard you're going to do well in life and on that side you have jobs where you're paid by the hour paid by the week which of course entails a certain number of hours and a limited amount of vacation time and then they're self-employed I mean self-employed people think about it these are people that are more shackled to their job than anybody else because if they take a vacation, their little business of theirs goes down the drain. They're not getting paid while they're away.

Or if they get sick in hospital. Exactly right. Whereas I promote working smart. And in the area of working smart, there's two ways for that to happen. One of them, of course, is investing smartly, investing well, becoming an investor. That could be real estate. It could be the stock market, though. There's a big caveat to that. This is not a place to dabble. This is Las Vegas if you're listening to your friends or your taxi drivers. And this is a dangerous place. And I say, don't do it. But if you train yourself, you read a hundred books you take courses and you do this right you don't gamble there's money to be

made there there's money to be made in so many different places you know self storage I mean development and conversions I could go on and on there's a hundred different places you can invest where you can make significant money then the other place would be medium to large businesses so I guess the best way I have to ask a question to yourself. Am I making money when I sleep? And if the answer is no, then you're not building wealth. If you go to sleep and you're making money, if you go on vacation, you're making money,

okay, then you're on your way. And I don't know too many people that can answer yes to that. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. You know, being able to just do what you want when you want. I love being self-employed because you get your paycheck whenever you want. You're like, hey, I need some money to go on vacation. I'll just take a check.

You don't have to sit there and go, I've got to wait until Friday. You know, I remember one of my family members wanted to come down for a holiday and they did the annual you know disneyland christmas holiday and he called me up and goes oh we can't do it and i go what do you mean we plan this whole thing and what do you mean you can't do it he's like well my boss just came to me and said i can't take that vacation that i had scheduled and planned and i'm like well tell him to go to hell and then you, you know, he's like, you can't do that, Chris. And I'm like, oh yeah. I mean, I can tell my boss to go to hell because it's me, but, um, but you know, this is the way people live. So you sit down in your book, you outline some of the different mindsets that people have around money and the way they think about money,

the way they think about having a job and things of that nature. Yeah. I mean, uh, I really spend quite a bit of time on this topic because it's that important. And when people are young, of course, they're developing an underlying blueprint, which is based on their belief systems that are being built from a very young age. So, you know, your parents are always using the words, be careful. We all think, you know, we've all dealt with that. Be careful. Don't do this. Don't do that. You could get hurt. Well, these plant very deeply rooted seeds, frankly, into your psyche. And you've got to pay attention to that. And if your parents also have this attitude towards

money, well, we can't afford that money. It doesn't grow on trees. Rich people are crooks. And I've heard things like that over the years. These are going to plant seeds of negativity towards money and cause limitations. So one of the first things that I talk about is fear. Because, you know, what stops us from living the life that we want to live? Well, one of them is awareness. Okay, that's first and foremost, the difference between making $50,000 a year and a million a year is simply awareness. And the second one is fear, the limitations that were created. And even now, you know, a lot of the people I talk to, my friends, a lot of my readers that I connect with on a daily basis, the people that are probably listening here, there's a percentage of them that are listening to this going, you know, well, I'd love to do that, but it's too hard or I'm scared or, you know, what do I do next? And really, at the end of the day, fear holds them back. And fear will also convince them, create psychological patterns of thought that will limit them from going forward.

And if I may, I'd like to describe this whole thing because I think this is actually a really good visual for people to understand. And many people will connect to it. It's called perturbation. So perturbation, if you were to go into the dictionary, is basically aggravating molecules to such a point that state is changed. So a good example would be boiling water. So we take a pot of water, we put it on the stove, we put the heat up, and the molecules get aggravated, the atoms are vibrating, and they get agitated to a point where they reach this ceiling. And if they burst through that ceiling, of course, you have steam and change of state. Or you can turn that heat off and nothing happens. They go back to where they were.

And I think that that fits perfectly with how we think as human beings so so many people I know are aggravated and upset with the position they're in they're miserable in fact they hate their job they hate their boss they hate their situation they hate their lack of freedom maybe they hate their relationship who knows at the end of the day you can see that slowly but surely, they progress to a point where that agitation gets worse and worse and worse, and they're getting close to a ceiling of change where they're going to take massive action and shift and change. 95, if not 99% of those people, when they hit that ceiling, they turn down the

heat. They go back to where they were. They get comfortable in their misery. So for a few days or a few weeks, they're going to feel okay. They didn't burst through that ceiling, but you know what? I'm comfortable with where I was. And then the process starts again. They get agitated, they get frustrated, and they're slowly but surely coming through to that point, that ceiling, and they're going to have that choice again. Well, I suggest highly that when your listeners and people in general terms get to that ceiling, that they burst through that ceiling. They go through it, they put fear aside, and they get through it to the next level because what is going to happen

is they will never go back. Once they burst through that ceiling to the next level because what is going to happen is they will never go back. Once they burst through that ceiling to the next level, whatever that may be, maybe starting a business on the side, maybe buying a piece of real estate, maybe changing the relationship, whatever it is that they're doing to get a better life, they will never go back now.

They're now in kind of the next stage of that little graph, that perturbation period. And by the way, if they burst through, they'll do this again to the next level and the next level. And eventually they're going to look back. They're going to be multimillionaires living a wonderful life of freedom with great relationships and great health. But that's only going to happen if they burst through that ceiling.

Guess what? It's uncomfortable, Chris. It's really uncomfortable. You've got to get out of your comfort zone. But isn't it wonderful to be uncomfortable and really really rich and free yeah yeah it's actually kind of comfortable but you have different levels of that where you need to blow out and move up to the next level add the next business or add the next investor or whatever the case may be we we started over three different companies at one point in time and then we just kept adding more corporations or loaning money or investing. And, um, yeah, we just, you get, you gotta keep going to the next

level. And, um, yeah, it's interesting how people, they operate in that kind of thermostat. I think I heard Tony Robbins talk about it, how it's kind of like a thermostat. And they just kind of stay in that range. And sometimes they get sick of everything. But until you actually decide to do something about it, nothing's really going to change. No, you're 100% right. You have to make that decision, that choice, and take massive action on it.

I mean, you know, I followed a lot of these great mentors out there. Tony Robbins is certainly one of them. T. Harv Eker is another, Canfield and John Kehoe and all these guys. And they profess the same thing. The concept of the thermostat, actually, I talk about it in the book. I think it's brilliant. You know, the blueprint, we all have a blueprint for money, comes from our childhood, our, you know, our schools, our friends. We have a blueprint for relationships. We have a blueprint for health. And it's evident. You have to pay attention to it. And once you see what that blueprint is, this is the coolest part of it. Once you recognize you have a blueprint, and if you don't like that blueprint, you can change it. But you've got to first recognize

that you have these belief systems that are driving your behavior, that are driving your thought patterns. Unfortunately, most people won't do that. But the minute you take that step back and say, holy shit, I was brought up wrong when it comes to money. Well, guess what? That's the thermostat we were talking about. Because maybe they were brought up that $50,000 a year is a good thing. Work really, really hard and maybe one day you'll retire well guess what that that sticks And that's how they're gonna function. That's how they're gonna behave That's how their decisions are gonna be made the rest of their lives and by the way more often than not they passed on to their children unfortunately

Yeah, if you recognize the blueprint that you had and I had a blueprint of scarcity I got to tell you you, at the age of 47, you know, I considered myself a pretty smart guy. And, you know, here I was a VP, a senior VP of all these companies, and I thought I was doing well, but I had nothing to show for it. At the age of 47, I kind of looked in the mirror and I said, Oh, my God, something's wrong here. Humble yourself, I said to myself, I took a step back and I literally said no to a job offer that I had to run U.S. operations for a company in Canada. And literally started from scratch, from the ground up,

with very little money. Three kids and a wife at home to take care of. And you're not at an age where you usually want to be starting over. Well, 47 actually. You know, I'm hoping people will start at an earlier age. This book is actually targeted at young people. You know, there's no, there's no expiry date to success. And so at the age of 47, you know, I made a decision to change my life, because I had this underlying blueprint of scarcity that was limiting me from getting to

where I wanted to be. And I'll tell you, I was miserable. I mean, I was just so uncomfortable with the fact that, you know, where's the money? Where's the wealth? I mean, I really expected to be a very wealthy man at the age of 47. And I wasn't. I was a very sad camper. And you're probably spending your life working for other people, making them wealthy. That's exactly right. And you know, you depend on these companies, maybe you got stock options. So now you're depending on them to make the right decision. So that if the company is doing really, really well, well, maybe you'll make some money on the stock options. And, you know, in my case, three out of three, the companies did not do what they were supposed to do. So I walked away, you know, after tax with just making a living, but absolutely not building wealth.

And that's what hit me hard. At the age of 47, I noticed that there was a trend going on in my life. And that trend was not a good trend. I mean, I was going to be one of those guys just praying that I could have enough money to retire, so to speak. So what were some of the steps you went into? Give us some examples of what you decided to do, what started working for you, and maybe some investments or what businesses you started and things. Well, and it's a really good question, you know, because that is a question I get from people. What did you do? Okay, so good. You made a decision that something was wrong. But what did you do from there? So the first thing that I did was humble myself, frankly. You know, I really stopped the talking and really started to listen. I went on a rampage.

I read 120 books. Wow. I read books on business. I read books on the mind. I read books that were motivational. I read books on sales. I read books on health. I just went crazy reading books.

I basically said, you don't know what you don't know, and started to read and learn from the great mentors out there. You know, there's an old adage that success leaves tracks. And so I started following these great mentors out there who were successful, are successful, and I was paying attention. The other thing that I did is I went to seminars, courses, special camps. I went to some really, really good ones. Seminars on business for sure, marketing, you know, guerrilla business school.

I went to Tony Robbins stuff. I went on a rampage of seminars, different types of courses. I already come from a background of real estate, which is kind of ironic. And that is that, you know, right out of university, I was doing real estate, but guess what I was doing? I was a salesman. I was making everybody else rich while I made a living and I was taxed and not building wealth while all these people around me who are buying these commercial buildings were becoming multimillionaires right in front of my eyes. And I missed it. Okay. That's the weird part of it. I missed all that. I couldn't figure it out. It didn't hit me. I didn't have a mentor explaining things to me, you know? So,

you know, I, I really wanted to learn as much as I possibly could. And I even went to something called, um, like warrior training with T. Harv Eker. It was one of the great camps that I went to. It kind of shook my world where you're dealing with fears and your belief systems and your blueprints, and you're kind of shaking it up both intellectually with theory as well as actively doing different exercises and stuff, and you walk out of there a different person. I literally spent the next several years doing anything I could to take fear and put it at bay. Now, you're always going to have fear there. You just need to learn how to manage it. So I laid on a bed of nails when they broke a concrete block on my chest. I walked

on broken glass. I swallowed fire. I walked on fire. I broke rebar with my neck with somebody else running at me with it. And I skydived and I bungee jumped and I did all these things. And I got to tell you, made a difference. You know that, listen to this one, it's true. It's compulsory in my family for my children to skydive. Oh, nice. The way university is compulsory in my family for my children to skydive oh no the way university is compulsory for me it's a training ground it's it's a database builder but so is so is skydiving

it's help them as they get older um to stretch out those walls that we as parents created yeah we're they they're they're born unlimited and and as parents created. They're born unlimited. And as parents, we think we're doing a great job as we slowly create these walls around them of being careful and fear. I want the opposite for my children. And actually, two out of the three have already done their skydiving and they loved it.

And one is 16 years old, my daughter, she's going to be doing it maybe even next week. I know some parents that want to throw their teenagers out of a plane, but I don't think it involves a parachute, but no, just kidding aside. No, I think that's really good. You've got to, it's interesting. You know, my experience was my parents moved around a lot when I was a kid. And so I got to see a lot of different cultures, a lot of different areas, a lot of different things and I had a harder time when I moved to places that were not as big cities after living in big cities and having that sort of experience and mindset and that stretch if you will as you mentioned it was really important. I think my parents, I would have more fun jumping on a plane

at my early days than I would now. But it definitely stretches your mindset. It expands your mind. It expands your reference points. It expands your library, as you mentioned. And you've got more to play on. And I think your expanse of what is possible for you is definitely widened permanently. No, I totally agree with you. And I think it's an

important piece to our growth. And, you know, so I started with all of that. It was really about information, digesting that information, feeding that supercomputer up there and saying, well, wait a minute, there's just a lot you don't know and you don't understand. So I was building awareness. But the other part was for sure dealing with the fear and people don't even realize how deeply rooted fear can be I mean fear can affect you in so many different ways your decision-making process your closed-mindedness can all come from fear fear of the unknown fear of success fear of failure feel of you know fear of making money or being rejected I mean I

can go on and on. It's just in every aspect of our lives. So if you can work on that, if you can work on your fear, I think that that's going to be a step in the right direction. I'll give you an example. So here I am professing that you need to make a change. Think about it from my perspective. I was just, I was just wined and dined by this company. And this is a true story. They took me to play golf, we had this wonderful dinner, all the executives toasted me and said, welcome aboard. And here I was about to start with them, I'd be traveling a lot, I had three babies at home and a wife. And I was on my way home, actually, from this event. And i had a chest pain and it you know it wasn't a heart attack i did

pull over uh and i knew it wasn't there was something wrong it wasn't a heart attack that was going on i mean later i figured it out it was my my mind my body telling me something was wrong but what was really interesting is that the moment i pulled over there was a song on the radio cats in the cradle by harry chapin I don't know if you remember that song. I do, yeah. Okay. And it's really the story of this little boy who's asking his father to play with him. And the father, you know, nicely says, he's busy. I'm busy with this. I'm busy with work. But you know what? We're going to play soon and we'll have a great time then, son. And this is repeated at the beginning. The son wants to play with dad,

but he's never available. The second part of the song is the reverse now. Now the dad is older, the son is older, has a family of his own, and the dad reaches out to the son and says, you know, hey, son, I'd love to get together with you. And the son says, you know, I'd love to, dad, but you know, I'm really busy, busy with this, with my kids, busy with work. You know, we'll have a good time then, Dad. We'll get together at one point. And I cried like a baby when I heard that song in the car. So I was a wreck. I mean, you know, my chest was hurting. I'm crying. And I knew something was terribly wrong. I talked about it with my ex-wife, my wife at the time. And that very morning, I called the CEO of the company, and I said, I'm not coming in.

Thank you very much for offering me the position, but I'm not coming in. It's not going to work. And I tried to explain. At the time, he was extremely upset. Now he's offended by it. But you can understand, you know, he had hired his guy, and this guy is saying, I'm not coming to work.

And I started from ground zero. Think about it. Ground zero. I didn't have – there was very little money. And I had three kids that needed me and an ex-wife, a wife at the time. And here I said, no, this is wrong. This isn't working. I'm not going to make the same mistake again.

And I'm going to head in another direction. And the reason I tell this story is because we're talking about overcoming fear. Most people would not have done what I did. I talked to many of them, so I know. It took a lot of courage. And I think that, you know, that's what it takes to be successful in life. It takes courage to take that step, to be uncomfortable, to look for something better. And that's what I was doing. I wanted a better life. You know, I understood, you know, I saw people around me getting sick,

some people dying. I understood how fragile my life was. And I wanted to make this life the best it could be, but I was on the wrong path. So that's kind of what I'm hoping certain people who read the book or listen to me will get, hey, wait a minute, maybe I'm not on the right path. Maybe there is a better way. And not to be afraid of exploring that and then ultimately taking massive action to make the changes. You know, money, I got to tell you, it's abundant out there. Okay, there's trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars. There's so many ways to make money. You can take any niche, any passion that you have any idea and do something online and make money.

I mean, today more than ever before, I think that you know, some people say it's harder. I actually think it's a lot easier today. There's so many tools out there that if you do it right, you can do it from the comfort of your own office or your own bedroom. You can make a lot of money. So I want people to get beyond that fear and understand they can do that and better their lives. You've got to learn to think outside the box. It's amazing how much our belief systems,

one of my biggest challenge was, is, was, and still is weight, uh, eating, uh, habits,

exercise, all that sort of good stuff. And, uh, years ago I popped through, you know, what you talked about, you know,

where you blow through a thermostat and I just got so sick of being overweight and out of shape. And, uh, I was drinking, I think 10 to 15 Mountain Dews a day, just eating garbage day. Oh, my God. Just eating garbage food.

And I just broke one day. And so I started, I said, screw it, no more pop. And I became vegan and just started eating healthy. And then I started exploring all these belief systems that I'd set up. And some of it came from my parents. You know, my parents taught me, you know, they meant well, but they taught me, you know, stuff like, oh, here, eating is a reward. So, oh, you did good, Chris. Oh, you get a candy bar, or you get a Coke, or you get, you know, some kind of crap that you really shouldn't be eating. Or finish the food on your plate, or you're not leaving.

The food on their plate. It's a classic one. Yeah, that's a total classic one. And so I started exploring all these belief systems about why I was eating the way I was. And I kind of did my own study. But yeah, I started realizing there were certain patterns of belief that I had that, you know, finish your food. You've got to eat three meals a day. You've got to eat, you know, a certain amount of, you know, like they have that, what is it, the diet hierarchy or whatever, the triangle, the pyramid of food and nutrition. But, you know, coming back to entrepreneurism and stuff and business life and money, we all have these different belief systems about all sorts of different things that are self-limiting. And until we can get outside of that box and start looking at some, you know, why do I believe this?

Why do I believe that? Why do I, you know, who made this rule that I just picked up one day and followed? And why do I believe it and why am I following it? It doesn't make any sense. That's exactly right. Challenging as those makes a lot of things. What are the things that we can find in your book? We're talking today, of course, with mindmoneywealth.com. You can get it, Robert Luxenberg, and you can check it out

also on Amazon. What are some other different tips and tricks and stuff that you have in your book we can talk about? Well, I go through the process. After I talk about the mind, I do talk about money. Again, something I don't really teach in school. And compounding is a huge piece of that. We did talk about this earlier. I love to ask people, if you double a penny every day for 31 days, would you rather take that or would you take, right now, a suitcase with $5 million cash in it? And, of course, more often than not, people are going to say,

are you kidding me? Give me the cash, please. But actually, when they do that, they're leaving $5,700,000 plus on the table. Because if you double that penny for 31 days, you end up with $737,000. And here's a key piece. Now, let's do the exact same exercise, but let's inject taxation into it. So I think it's fair to say in Canada, it would be a little bit higher, but in the United States, 30%. Is that a fair number? It depends on what you make, but yeah. Let's take 30% taxes from the first penny all the way down. I just said that if you didn't have taxes, you'd end up with $10,700,000 plus. You would end up with $82,000 at the end of the day

because you've injected taxes to that. So one of the things that I talk about, and this is the whole concept of understanding wealth building and compounding is the effect. First of all, the compounding effect, which is extremely powerful. As I said, Albert Einstein called it the most powerful force in the universe. But the second piece of this is to understand how damaging taxation is to the compounding

effect. So the objective is, which is why I say, you know, you want to work smart, is to find investments and opportunities where you can defer taxes or reduce taxes. And I talk about the fact you should really understand your own tax code. I know that the tax code is usually prefaced with a paragraph that it's up to you to push the tax code to the limit. You don't cross it, you don't do anything illegal, but you push it to the absolute limit. Well, here's the problem with 99% of the population. They let their accountants do the work, and I guarantee you they're leaving a huge amount of money on the table.

Yeah, because they're liable usually, and so they always want to stay far off the line. Exactly. And plus, they don't have time for you. Otherwise, the accountants would cost a lot more. We pay them by the hour. So at the end of the day, you've got to look for investments and opportunities that are going to defer taxes. You're going to look for opportunities that are going to compound your wealth. So what I say to people is it's time to start focusing on a different approach to money. Instead of going, hey, I make $100,000 a year. That's pretty damn

good. Well, I told that to my father when I was younger, and he gave me shit. He told me, well, you know, that means nothing to me. What do you make at the end of the day after taxes are taken out of that after you paid your rent and everything else? And he I was taken aback by that comment from my dad. Well, what he was trying to tell me is that don't focus on, you know, that that income that you're making on an annual basis because it's misleading. So I think what you need to look at is net worth. What is your net worth? What are you worth today?

Whether it be your house, an apartment building that you own, investments that you own, maybe a 401k or an RRSP, whatever it is that you have accumulated in terms of wealth, that's what you've got to focus on. That's what matters. So, you know, if you were to create an Excel spreadsheet, yeah, I mean, of course you're

going to have your income there. It's important to know what you're bringing in. But what's more important is to know what you're doing with it, to be able to build the wealth. And what you want to do is monitor on a monthly or certainly at the very least on an annual basis, you know, is your net worth going up? Because if your net worth isn't going up, you're not building wealth.

That's one of the things I talk about in the book. Obviously, I get more specific about it. I even give spreadsheets to, you know, to look at. But at the end of the day, I think it's a complete shift that's necessary here. People need to start looking at other things that maybe they weren't brought up on. And that is the ability to build wealth, to build your net worth. Because as you do that, if you're compounding, then, you know, 50,000 can turn to 500, thousand can turn to five million actually pretty quickly i became a multi-millionaire you know and and and i'm not saying this to boast i'm saying this

because i i did this from ground zero at the age of 47 and i was able to become a millionaire and then ultimately a multi-millionaire in just a short few years so if i could do it why can't other people do it and of course i go into some of the ways you can do it in my book. And I do talk about real estate quite extensively. Awesome sauce. So be sure to check it out. Go to mindmoneyandwealth.com. What they don't teach you in school is the name of the book, Robert Luxembourg. And it's been wonderful to have you today. Anything more, Robert, we need to know about your book and all that good stuff? Well, I am trying to get this book into the school systems now, both in Canada and the United States and beyond. I have a lot of headmasters that have

read it and have said this is a missing piece, that it needs to get in there. Either way, I have a lot of young people reading it, and I have CEOs buying it for their employees to give to their children. I have parents buying it for their children and then enjoying it themselves. So I highly suggest that people take a peek at it. You can go to my website, which is mindmoneyandwealth.com, but certainly go to amazon.com. You can see the book there. It's available in audio.

It's available as an e-book or just a regular book, and it's a good coffee table book if you want to call.com. You can see the book there. It's available in audio. It's available as an e-book or just a regular book. And it's a good coffee table book if you want to call it that. And it's Mind, Money, and Wealth, What They Don't Teach in School. That's awesome. And I highly recommend it.

You know, I didn't go to college. I started my first business when I was 18 and I've worked for myself all my life as a serial entrepreneur. Teach your kids from an early age because it's so important where it's a language they need to learn. And once they get to entrepreneurial bug

or the drug, as I like to call it, it's hard to get rid of. And they learn and they adapt. And I got to tell you, being an entrepreneur, you learn to be self-actualized. Really, you have to self-actualize. You have to become self-responsible. If you really want to teach your kids responsibility, teach them to be an entrepreneur or at least give them the tools they could do. And certainly while they're young enough to be able to learn this stuff, be able to get educated about this stuff where they're not, you know, like you say with the song, you know, the time to learn this stuff is when you're young and you're still in the nest. Once you're on the nest and you're busy chasing your tail and you're trying to make a buck so you can, you know, have a car and have a place to sleep and maybe some top romp to eat at night, you know, you don't have time to read a book and go, well, I don't know how to be smarter.

So I think it's great that parents share this with their children. And I highly recommend that, you know, parents start preparing their kids more for the future by being an entrepreneur, because that's really where it's going to be at in the future. I see this as a society where we're all entrepreneurs. We're all thinking, we're all at our own think tanks and we're sharing ideas back and forth with one another. Certainly, you know, it's, it's, it's a world where all the money is going more and more to the top people and everyone's just kind of slaving to help them build wealth and they can do this as well. So go to mindmoneyandwealth.com, check it out. Order his book at amazon.com, Mind Money and Wealth, What They Don't Teach You in School by Robert Luxenberg.

It's been wonderful to have you, Robert. Thanks for being on the show. It's been a lot of fun. And thanks to my audience for tuning in. We certainly love and appreciate you. Be sure to further show your friends, neighbors, relatives. Be sure to give this show a view if you would on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, like the 50 different places this is syndicated at. We certainly appreciate you guys tuning in. Thanks to my audience. We'll see you again next time.