THE ED MYLETT SHOW - What's REALLY Holding You Back from Financial Freedom

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

Are you truly prepared for the future, or are you just hoping things will work out? In today’s episode, I’m sounding the alarm on where we’re heading financially and what that means for your future. This isn’t just about goals or dreams—this is about waking up to the reality of what’s happening around us. The cost of living is skyrocketing, wages are stagnating, and inflation is eating away at our savings. Whether you’re 22 or 62, it’s time to take a hard look at where you are and where you’re going. I’m sharing eye-opening stats, like how home prices have soared 138% in the past 15 years, while incomes have only risen 25%. This trend isn’t getting any better, and if you don’t make changes now, you could find yourself working harder just to keep your head above water. It’s time to stop waiting for someone else to save you—no politician, no influencer, no external force is going to fix this for you. I’m challenging you to think about your career, your spending habits, and your future. If you’re not earning enough, it’s time to consider new skills, a side hustle, or even a complete career change. The world is evolving fast, and so must you. I’m not going to sugarcoat it—this path won’t be easy. But if you want to rise above the average, you’ve got to be willing to put in the work and develop skills that make you undeniable. Remember, your future won’t be shaped by chance—it will be determined by the actions you take today. This episode is about confronting the truth, taking control of your life, and making the decisions that will set you and your family up for success. Key Takeaways: - The alarming gap between rising costs and stagnant wages - Why relying on traditional savings or a single income stream may not be enough - The importance of developing skills that make you irreplaceable - How to think differently about spending and saving in today’s economy - Why now is the time to take control of your financial future This episode is your wake-up call to stop coasting and start making strategic decisions about your life. It’s not about fear, but about preparation. The future is coming whether you’re ready or not, and today’s the day to decide where you fit into it. Max out your life! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Wealthsimple, built for possibilities. Visit wealthsimple.com slash possibilities. This is the Ed Myron Show. Welcome back to the show everybody. So I'm really excited about this week's show because it's gonna be a little bit different. You know, usually what we do on the show is you guys submit a topic or I come up with a topic that could be in any number of different ideas.

It could be about personal development, self-confidence, peak performance, spirituality, mental programming, you name it. We go through all kinds of different stuff, health and wellness, family, achievements, success, bliss, you name it. And then I usually say, and here's eight keys or nine strategies or 10 of this or that. And this week, I don't know that there's an easy answer to what I want to cover, but what I want to do is begin to get you to think this week because I have growing concerns about frankly the future for so many of us, especially when it comes to the topic of money,

which is one of the most popular topics that I cover on the show, because I don't cover it very often. And what I want this to be this week is you're listening or you're on your ride or you're riding on the treadmill or you're watching this on YouTube, wherever it might be, that you really give some thought

as to the future of your own life and what it's going to look like 10 and 20 and 30 years down the road. And I don't say that in the normal way I talk about on the show, where we talk about our dreams and our vision. I want you to have an audit of your life today because I have some concerns.

All of the data that I look at doesn't bode well for millions and millions of people, especially in the United States when it comes to retirement, when it comes to money, when it comes to creating experiences for their family, stress, et cetera. And so I wanna give you some stats, just to sort of set the stage. And when I give you these stats about everybody else, I want you to think about your life.

I don't care if you're 22 years old listening to this or 72 years old. And believe it or not, our audience is so diverse. We have people from every walk of life, all over the world, all different demographics listen to this show or watch this show. And so you got to see you in these stats and they matter. And I want you to wake up and listen very closely today as I cover these things, because somebody needs to bring this to your attention and I got to get you thinking about it.

And I'll try to give you a couple ideas, but more today is illuminating the truth and defining it. You know, there's so many distractions to the truth in the world today with, you know, all the world issues going on and we're in an election season the time that I am recording this and so there's all these things that will get us to look around and look outside of ourselves for answers to some of these problems and none of these problems are going to solve themselves. No government person is going to solve them for you. No actor, no reality TV star, no influencer on social media is

gonna solve these problems. These are real issues and I worry sometimes that we're so distracted that we don't look at our own lives and it concerns me and I don't want you to wake up ten years from now if you're 22 go my gosh I'm 32 years old I've still got student debt and I'm not in the job or the career that I want or if you're 52 years old and you wake up in 10 years and now you're 62 years old and you're a few years from retirement and you're millions of dollars short,

and you look back at your life and go, I wish somebody would have alerted me and made me think, because you're more resourceful than you believe you are. And if you really get focused on fixing something, I think you can fix it. You've got a powerful God that has your back as well. And so that combined, we can fix things, but we got to know what the problems are first. So let me just give you some statistics.

First of all, I think these are going to blow your mind. Over the last 15 years in the United States, incomes have increased 25%. But the cost of a home has gone up 138%. Think about that. Incomes up 25, cost of a house 138. And I worry about for my children right now, they're ever having the prospects of buying a home. Especially some of you that live in California or states where homes are expensive, the idea of saving $200,000, $300,000 so you can put a deposit, a down payment down on a $700,000

or $800,000 house, which is what a lot of homes cost there, after taxes saving $200,000 so you can put a deposit a down payment down on a seven or eight hundred thousand our house Which is what a lot of homes cost there After taxes saving two or three hundred thousand dollars after your 401k is funded It's almost impossible and even if you live in the Midwest and you know your home is three four five hundred thousand dollars You have to accumulate a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a down payment on a home after taxes after what everything costs nowadays to go to the grocery store, and that's just the deposit, the down payment on a house. And so think about that for a minute how crazy that is because you know there's two political parties in the United States and one will give you their

information on one and one will give you the information on the other. You know one will tell you that the rich don't pay their fair share. Well statistically here's the facts. The facts are that the bottom 50% of taxpayers in the United States pay 2% of the taxes. The bottom 50%, the bottom half, pay 2% of the taxes. The top 1% pay 46% of the taxes. So the truth of the matter is that's not a real truth. By the way, that's just income tax. That doesn't count the property taxes and sales taxes that affluent people tell. The other party, though, doesn't address the other problem, which is what I started with. People aren't making enough money.

So these companies are keeping so much of their money that the big corporations are keeping so much wages haven't gone up. The stat that I gave you in the beginning matters. It's a fact. Wages have only got up 25% over 15 years, but housing prices are up 138. So it's harder and harder and harder for a family to build a great life. And this is now with almost every family having two incomes and sometimes three or four incomes. So one party who tells you the rich don't pay their fair share, that's not true. The rich pay most of the taxes. But the other party who tells you everything's great, they're not telling you the truth either

because the fact of the matter is people aren't making enough money to build a great life. And that's the middle class. Never mind working people on minimum wage or poor people in our country. It's not fair. So there's not a solution in the middle and I'm not looking at one party or the other to fix it. They're both wrong. People ask me all the time, why don't you speak out on politics more on the show? Because I'm not really a

member of either place. I have my own beliefs and some of them fit in one party and some of them fit in another. But the fact of the matter is they're both wrong. And we're not being served by it. One party that's kind of the party of you figure more the affluent. Well wages aren't going up. People aren't making more money. In the 50s and 60s, you could have a single family, single income and a family and they could own a home and have a decent life and take a couple vacations and retire that's gone now both mom and dad work sometimes mom works two jobs dad works two jobs their wages are going up 25 houses are going up 138 and what happens to people like

my kids age so both are. And so I'm not waiting around for anybody politically to save me. The solution clearly is not raising more taxes because as taxes go up the same people pay most of the taxes already and then they don't pay higher wages. But the other problem is also true. When we've reduced taxes these same wealthy people haven't given it back in wage growth. So it's kind of a really interesting dichotomy right I'm gonna say this to you again it's really true that the wealthy pay most of the taxes but it is

also true that when you cut their taxes they don't increase wages for the people that they pay at the rate they used to certainly big companies don't. So this will give you an idea, give you a flavor. If you had a million dollars in 1985 with inflation that's out of control, people will tell you, well, inflation has gotten in control last couple of years. Inflation is crazy. Go to a grocery store, your entire order. It's crazy how much more food is right now and wait till gas prices go back up. So in 1985 if you had a million dollars to this day in 2024, the same price, the same value of that million dollars, you would need 3.1 million dollars

to provide the same level of wealth that a million did in 1985. Now let me ask you a question, how many of you currently have 3.5 million dollars saved right now? And by the way, what will you need 20 and 30 years from now? This idea that you know you're a millionaire, that was a big deal in 1985. Being a millionaire today is not in any way a super extensive lifestyle like it once was. That's a term, you know I have a friend of mine go, hey so and so is a six figure earner. And as if that's an impressive thing or that they're wealthy. Well, six figures was a lot of money in 1985.

It's not a lot of money in 2024, not with what things cost. And if you're not at six figures, where are you? I mean, you're really falling behind. And that may be of no fault of your own. It blows my mind that a school teacher in our country can't make six figures. It blows my mind that first responders don't start off in many cases at six figures. It blows my mind what companies pay people for the positions they're in now. It also blows my mind that the solution is just to tax the people that pay all the taxes anyways.

And so a couple more stats, okay? The average American right now has a $48,000 car and their average salary is $45,000. Think that through. The average person, their salary a year is less than how much their car costs them to buy. The average person who makes $100,000 a year also owns two cars and their family and those cars are valued at $127,000. So it turns out actually the person who thinks they're doing well,

they're doing worse than the person who knows they're not doing well. You make $100,000 a year, both your cars are worth $127,000, you paid for them. So most people spend more money on their car or cars than they do what they actually make in a year. This is scary stuff. Okay, they also carry, the average person also carries about $70,000 of student or consumer debt combined. Right now to this day, $70,000. A couple more stats and then I'll stop painting the sign of what I'm so worried about. This is now the first time in our country where the average American has a net negative savings rate. That means in

the history of our country it's the first time the average person owes more money on consumer debt than they have in savings. They owe more money on credit cards, they owed more money on student loans than they actually have saved. And most people, most of their savings is through for savings at their job through a 401k and that money's not been taxed yet. And most people don't even understand that. And so that is not, you say I got $70,000 in my 401k. No money's not been taxed yet and most people don't even understand that and so that is not you say I got $70,000 in my 401k no you don't you have $70,000 before the taxes in your 401k and then you got to ask yourself a question when you retire ten years from now 20 years from now 40 years from now

are taxes likely to be higher or lower at that time so then let's just say they were 40% then. So that's $70,000 you've got is now $45,000, right? I just left my place in Maine, my favorite time of year, which is the fall. Autumn leaves are beautiful. By the way, they're everywhere on my property right now. They're beautiful until they clog your gutters.

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I'm voting for so and so. I'm voting for the other one. And all these things that are worthy of our attention end up distracting us from our own life. And I want to say this to you again, no one's coming to save you. Nobody's coming to save you. I don't know about you, but I don't come from a family that has any money. So I didn't inherit any money. I'm not going to hear back. I've inherited a little bit of debt, right? I'm not going to inherit money. No one's going to come

with a magic, you know, pot of gold and pay off all my bills. No, that wasn't gonna happen for me. I don't come from that type of a family. And my guess is 99.9% of you don't either. And all you've done is try to win in your life. You played the game the way you were supposed to play it. And I'm telling you that this is the reality now, and it's not getting better. The trends are getting worse. So I don't know what you feel,

but I feel like what if I could change my life? And then there's this other thing coming, and that is there's a revolution happening in the economy with AI. And if you start to study what's happening with artificial intelligence, we've always had AI, by the way, but now what it's able to do and what they're programming it do is going to eliminate many careers. And if it doesn't eliminate them, it's going to make their wages suppressed because these robots will be able to do things on an automated basis that a human being can do. And so you won't need to supply and demand will tell you that either it's going to eliminate

millions of jobs or it's going to further suppress and reduce what people get paid to do them. This is a real thing and I know some of you say, well, I'm in the trades that doesn't affect me. Yes, it does. They're building robots right now that can flip and do drywall. They're starting to learn how to 3D print a house. These are real things. There's a prospect over the next 10 to 20 years that millions of jobs could be eroded

and the stats I just gave you, this is the current economy before things get suppressed and that hopes that there's no major event that happens no major terrorist event around the world at least in the United States they're happening around the world or that there's one big world type war I didn't mean you to tune in today to get to the negative what I did is to say okay wake up what are you gonna do and I want you to ask yourself you know what I'm never gonna retire at my pace not the way I'd like to live my life and what's more crazy to me is you going to do? And I want you to ask yourself, you know what? I'm never going to retire at my pace, not the way I'd like to live my life. And what's more crazy to me is you go to a mall on the weekend, they're packed.

People are still spending money like they have it. People still spend money to buy things to impress people who don't care. That's what blows my mind. We're a consumerist economy, right? Where we got to buy things to impress people this watch this purse these shoes Right. I could tell you the wealthiest people I know the mega wealthy people I know Don't buy things to impress people It's the one sort of on the cusp that think they need those things when you're actually really wealthy

It I can tell you because I've been through every stage. I've been poor I've been middle class and I've been wealthy and I've been in between I could tell you because I've been through every stage. I've been poor, I've been middle class, and I've been wealthy. And I've been in between. I could tell you when I was poor, I was just paycheck to paycheck. When I was middle or upper middle, I kinda wanted to buy things to impress people, to look wealthier than I was and feel wealthier. But when I actually got wealthy,

you actually almost, when you really get there, wanna almost, I don't wanna call it hide it, but you don't wanna brag it or show it. And so like my main car most of the time is a truck. Most of the time favorite car I've ever owned. I've owned every car in the world. People think I'm crazy. I've owned Rolls Royce's, Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, you know, I've owned lots of different

cars. I've owned Jets. I'm blessed, right? My favorite car I've ever owned is my Ford Raptor. I love that car and that's a great car. It's an expensive car, right? But it's my favorite of all of my cars, the fanciest of ones because when you actually get wealthy I don't think you want the attention of necessarily always being wealthy the question becomes for you today after I've laid all of this out

As a friend is are you listening a little more closely now a little bit more awake by the way, I'm an optimist I believe there's solutions to everything I think but I can tell you this and any given time Somebody's winning and people are losing and if you want to be one of the people winning you got to start to think and realize these are issues. What I just laid out for you here most people don't care about. They're not paying any attention to. They'll get around to making their life great. They'll get around to making their dreams come true. They'll get around to starting their business. And then there's this other thing that worries me if I can be candid that I think social media is what what did you just conclude what you just concluded is man I need another income I need to control my future I need to start a business I need to start another

business I need a secondary if I've got a job maybe I should start to find something part-time that could supplement my income get me a side hustle that I could supplement my income with and then maybe that turns into a full-time gig. Maybe I need to start to study and learn a new trade or a new craft that's not going to be replaceable. Maybe I got to go chart to chase my passion again, right? I want to become entrepreneur and a lot of you that are listening to this are entrepreneurs and here's one of my biggest concerns. I think social media has made entrepreneurship ridiculous. It makes it look easy. It makes it look like everyone's driving

Lambos, everybody's on a yacht, everybody's taking vacation. It's a cakewalk. It's easy. Everyone's giggling and chuckling. They're at events. They're jumping up and down and singing and praying and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Entrepreneurship isn't like that. So if you want to be an entrepreneur, it's a grind. It's difficult. As hard as you think it is to be an entrepreneur and build a great business a million times harder It's a grind. It's mentally taxing. There's early mornings late nights people let you down. There's ups and downs There's no predictable income that the real entrepreneurs that are listening right now like amen my lat man. Tell them Right. This stuff's hard building a great life is difficult. It's not easy

Right, and you got to, you almost gotta be like put on armor and go, I'm gonna go do something great with my life. And I'm gonna have to wake up. I'm gonna have to make some changes. I'm gonna have to build some new skills. Because here's what I know. The cream always rises to the top. If you're, if you get mega skilled at something, you become great at something that solves people's problems that you're passionate about. Okay. I believe it rises to the top, but average ordinary skills, average ordinary thinking, average ordinary life produces average ordinary results. And I think it's heading in a direction where so many people are going to be in a bad place.

You have to be great. You have to get great at it. You have to be the best at it. And I don't know that enough people, at least in my case, I'm going to say it to you today, you got to get great at what you do. Are you the best in the world at what you do? Are you working on your skills? Are you working on your abilities? Do you get up most mornings fired up about your life? By the way, are most of your days difficult? Because if they are, that's a great sign that you're doing something awesome, right? If most of your days

you're like, I don't know how I'm going gonna fix this. I can tell you that's what entrepreneurship is. And if you're not an entrepreneur, what is your answer to this stuff I just shared with you? And maybe it's that you're gonna get so great in your chosen career that you're so awesome that the people in your company or industry can't deny you and you're gonna get promoted and make progress on that career. I gotta tell you this more than ever it's gonna be the great people in every industry that survive and thrive and people with average skills average mindset average savings

habits Are gonna mean a world of hurt this AI things gonna change stuff, right? It's already trending in the wrong direction. So what's the answer for you? I could just tell you, I think that if you're in these stats, these data that I'm referring to, you need to consider either building an entire new skill that solves people's problems, or you need to start a business on the side, or you need to leave your career and start a full-time business at some point. That's what I believe, okay? I think you got to get so great that you're undeniable. So great that the market demands you. And more and more and more it's not going to be good enough to be in the average. You go to that mall on

the weekend and watch people spot spending money on those tennis shoes and that purse and that shirt and you know guys whatever this your pair of pants that you got to have. You watch those people okay? Then you go through what they think about what they're planning on doing on Sunday night to start their week Monday. Most of just autopilot and get in their car. They're going to go to the same place. They're going to do the same thing. They're going to clock in.

They're going to clock out. They're going to go spend money. They don't have they're going to put money into their 401k that they're not going to get for a million years then get taxed on and they're just going to hope that someday stuff changes. And if that's you, I wanna challenge you today, say, no, that's not the life I want. I'm gonna take control of my life.

I'm gonna take control of my life by being aware, by being a saver, and I gotta make more money. I gotta help more people. And no, not everything in life is about getting wealthy, okay, no, not everything in life is, my gosh, about getting wealthy. Okay, no, not everything in life is my gosh about, you know, material things. I could just tell you I've had most material things. It's overrated. But I can tell you what's not overrated, being able to protect your family, being able to

care for your family. Many of you are going to be in a situation someday or are currently where you're going to have to take care of your children and your parents at the same time. Right now you're having a hard time just taking care of yourself, right? That's probably coming. What's not overrated is being able to call shots in your life, being able to give to the charity or the church that you want to, be able to help out a family member in need. What's not overrated is being proud of yourself. What's not overrated is being great. What's not overrated is being proud of yourself. What's not overrated is being great.

What's not overrated is overcoming a bunch of adversity and difficult times and being proud of yourself for how tough and resilient you are. Getting to the other side of it. As great as you think it's gonna be to make your dreams come true, it's pretty damn good. But let me tell you what's even greater. Making the dreams come true of the people that you love.

Being the rock in your family, as I call it, the one. And every family that wins, that's happy, or faith-based, or wealthy, any one of the three or all of the three, there's one person that changes that family forever generationally. One person rises up and says, I'm the one. I'll take the shots, I'll take the risks, I'll get up early, I'll stay the risks. I'll get up early.

I'll stay out late. I'll get great in my career so that I'm undeniable. Or I'm going to get great in my career and start a business. Or even though I'm full time hustling, I've got a side hustle for my family that I want to win in. I want to challenge you today to not be a statistic. If you've listened to this show for a while, you've heard me and my guests talk

a lot about how critical it is to have your wellness goals in order, especially lately with me. So you know how powerful visualization is. When you visualize yourself one, ten, thirty years from now, you've achieved all your goals. Ask yourself this, am I healthy at that point? In your visions, of course you are, but like anything else, without a plan to get and remain healthy, you can't hit the goal. That's why I'm so thrilled to be partnering with LifeForce. It's co-founded by my good friend Tony Robbins and Peter Diamanis. LifeForce is a leader in proactive care. The LifeForce membership includes everything you need to understand your wellness and help you make good decisions today to keep you on track in the future for your health. Listeners on my show get $250 when they first sign up for their membership by going to mylifeforce.com Ed that's my lifeforce.com

Take control of your wellness with life force and see what the healthiest version of you actually looks like and is capable of These products and statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration These products are not intended to diagnose treat cure or prevent any disease One thing about that too I can tell you something very interesting. My friends that make $50,000 to $60,000 a year by and large are actually doing slightly better than my friends that make between $80,000 and $110,000. You think that's impossible. Well, here's why.

The ones that are making $50,000 and $60,000 a year, by necessity, every single month, they're smart with their money. They're smart with their home purchase or their apartment rent. They're smart with their car purchases, where they pay money on food, the different things they buy. They're smarter. And once you get to that 80 to 110, you become somewhat delusional. You start thinking you're pretty wealthy.

You start thinking you're pretty successful. You start thinking you're pretty successful. You start imagining that this income's just gonna keep going up all the time. And I find that a lot of people between 80 and 110, 80 and 120 aren't self-aware at all. They start buying a car they can't afford. They start going to restaurants they don't need to be going to too often.

They start buying consumer goods that are outside their means to impress people who don't care. And ironically, that's sort of the delusional state. Now once people get to three, four, five, $600,000 a year, there's other things that come with that. But I've got to be candid with you about that as well. A lot of these people that you see that make $300, $400, $500, $1 million a year, I know many of them and many of them have no money either.

They have not learned to control the beast within them to spend the money they make. And so no matter what they make, they spend all of it. But ironically, income is not a direct correlation to comfort and wealth. It's just not. And so don't always just think by making more money, your life's going to get better. You've got to get in control of yourself, of your money, of your spending, of your mind, of your spirit, and what really matters to you in your life. I'm not saying don't have nice things. I'm wearing a very nice watch right now. I have a couple of them and I bought them way after I could afford them, way after. I don't ever finance things like that. I

always pay cash if I'm gonna have something stupid like a watch on my wrist. It's gonna be something that I know that I can afford that I'm not gonna miss the money when I spend it. But I did not become a wealthy man by buying watches to impress people way early in my life. I didn't do that. I saved and saved and saved and I finally started buying some stupid things at the point where it almost didn't matter. So ironically, sometimes people who make 50 to 60,000 a year are smarter with their money by necessity than people that make 80, 100, or even $200,000 a year. Be smart.

The money you make is a blessing. This body you have is your temple. Treat your body like a temple. Train it. Get it fit. Get it hydrated. Get it strong. Get it pliable.

Get it flexible. Right? And with your money, it's a blessing when it comes in. And so you should treat it as such. Don't treat it as something that's just going keep coming in like it's always gonna be there Because it may not and the reason I bring this to your attention is I really believe there's a wide open lane For awake people for alert people for aware people for intentional people I had told my daughter this the other day and I want to say it to you just to give you advice

She's a she's a junior in college and she's like daddy I've got another year to him be out in the real world and you know, it's it's a dog eat dog world daddy And I said really Bella. I think you're only competing with 10% of the people She says what do you mean? And I said, I think 90% of people are sleepwalking through their lives They're just on to the next barbecue. They're on to the next television episode of the show they love. They're on to the next thing on Netflix. They're on to the next football game on Sunday. They're not spending any time working on themselves,

working on their craft, getting great, developing their body, getting fit, getting strong, developing their mind so that it's a weapon, developing their resiliency and toughness. Most people aren't putting themselves in difficult situations where they're probably going to fail, where they learn all the great lessons of life, where they're not comfortable. Most people are just kind of going all on the crowded road of life, all going in the same direction. The football game, the barbecue, the political issue, the thing on TV, the thing everyone's

got the answer for, their opinion about X, Y, or Z. They're all kind of sheep living life asleep, not aware that time is ticking by, that they're falling further and further behind. And I said, Bella, what I know about you is you're not going to be one of those people because you were raised by me and I know how you think. You want to be somebody, you work on yourself. Your fitness, your faith, your mental toughness matters. You wanna be somebody, you wanna do something great with your life.

You live intentionally, you're self-aware, you understand the statistics. You saw your daddy when he was poor, you saw your daddy when he was middle class, and you saw your daddy when we got to the other side, and you know the big difference isn't how where we live or our house, the big difference is all the people we can help. All the difference we can make, the places we can dedicate our time and money to, because daddy worked on himself, daddy got better, and you know daddy's

not that talented, daddy's not that smart, but daddy will fight for his family, daddy will fight to win, daddy's not gonna be a statistic the my let family the thumbs the world's not gonna have their thumb on our family anymore and so really Bella nine out of ten people sleepwalk through life that other 10% that's a dogfight you're gonna be competing with 10% of the people and that 10% I really believe this Bella if you work hard you live right you continue to grow you learn from your mistakes now you're competing against one or two percent. And then it gets good.

And I said, here's the other thing, Bellaboo, nobody has it all figured out. Nobody has all the answers. Most people are faking it, including your daddy, most of the time. But I'm willing to put myself in spaces and positions to win, even if I don't have all the answers, even if I might fail. And I have no illusions that entrepreneurship or even leading a company if you're a CEO or having a job is easy. I don't believe the Lambo life on Instagram. I don't believe any of that stuff.

I know it's difficult. I'm built for the fight. I'm built to do something great and so are you. And as I say that to my daughter, I want to ask you something. Are you really wanting to do something great with your life? Because I could just tell you it's trending in a direction you guys a Million dollars and 85 you need three million for the same now the average person's car

Costs more than they make a year and maybe listen you. Well, wait a minute. I just did the math. That's not true for me I mean, I make 80,000 a year and my car was only 50 Did you hear what you just said? Did you hear what you just said? That's not gonna work That's not gonna work. And by the way, you will never stop working at this pace So I just want to challenge you sister or brother this week It's just sort of a wake-up call about where the world is and you can decide based on what I described where you

fit in it and where you want to fit in it. But I can tell you this, no one's coming to save you. It's time, a lot of you guys out there that are leading families, it's time not to be a boy anymore. It's time to be a grown man and win for your family. You hear me? It's time to step up. It's time to be a grown man and win for your family. You hear me? It's time to step up. It's time to step up It's time to hey, maybe you need to start a second career dad

You young men out there that aren't married yet that don't have kids right now. You're working for those kids someday right now You're working to take care of your mom and dad Okay, don't be casual about it. Don't be like everybody else. Don't be a sheep. Don't be a sleepwalker Get up do something great get great at what you do. Build your body. Build your mind. Build your spirituality. Build your resiliency. Put yourself in situations where you're probably going to fail and learn a ton. You ladies out there, you moms, it may have to be you. Maybe you single moms out there, your children are looking at you. Let me tell you something. Everything with your kids is caught, not taught. Is mommy fighting for our family?

Is she giving everything she's got? Is she starting a business? Is she working on herself? What's she reading? Where's she going to the gym? Man, imagine if your kids copied you, right? And then I would just ask yourself this question. Would you wish your life on your children?

Like right now, if I said, your daughter can have your life on your children? Like right now if I said your daughter can have your life, your son can have your life, would you wish your life for them? Okay, I say this to you as like a brother. That I wish better for you. If the answer to that question is no, I want them to have better. I want better for you. You're still alive. You can still turn this around. And maybe it's going pretty good. Pretty good's not your standard.

You wanna live a great life. When it's over and they plant you in the ground, you wanna go hey, it was pretty good. Both of them standing there going, yeah, she had a pretty good one. Pretty good, pretty good. Is that what you want? Or do you want them to go, wow, what a life?

Those memories, look at that difference. Man, she turned it around. At that age, she turned it around, she started a business, she wrote a book, she started speaking, she started that career, she did this, she did that. You men out there, what do you want at the end of your life when your kids are standard? And you young men that are listening, don't even have kids yet, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

By the way, if your parents are still alive, when they're in their final days, what do you want them knowing about their son, where he is in his life, how proud he's made them? Right? You should think about that stuff today. And I believe there's a lane for you. I believe that lane is shrinking, but in some ways it's wide open because more and more people are going down the road

that I've described. And if you can just not go with the flow, just don't go where everybody else is going. Don't go with the in-crowd. Go the different direction. Here's a rule of thumb. When everybody's going one way, you go the other. Because you're going the great way.

All right, you guys, I told you, not everything's a solution this week. it's a challenge. Here's the stats here's the world where do you fit into it and what do you want to do about it and I'll be back next week with a show that can help you with some specific recommendations of how to change your life in some area that matters most to you. All right everybody God bless you max out your life. This is the Ed Mylon Show.