The Ramsey Show - App - You Can Choose to Be a Victor or a Victim (Hour 1)

Episode Date: April 3, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. Joining me on today's show, Ramsey Personality number one bestselling author Ken Coleman to talk about jobs and career questions. And so you've got questions around employment, which would be a bit of a topic these days. You can jump in.

The phone number is 888-825-5225. And, of course, any questions you've got of us on the money subject, we're here to help you on that as well. Record unemployment claim filings. Record. Not even close. Yeah. Smashed it through a brick through the window. We're not done yet. Record. Not even close. Yeah. Smashed it.

Mm-hmm. Through a brick through the window. We're not done yet. No. No, for sure we're not. No, it's going to, there's going to be some more of that. Yeah. So, what are the things that we can, because when you see that, it's like a lightning strike into your heart.

For some folks, it terrifies them more than the virus or its implications. The fact that they could lose a company, they could lose a job, they could lose a career that they've worked on. What are you telling people? Yeah, you know, there's no great recipe. There's no great poem that I can recite to people. And I think you have to start with what we know to be true about the human psyche. And we all have to choose, all of us, in these uncertain times when bad things come our way that we don't have any control over, I'm either going to be a victor or a victim. Yep. So that's what I'm starting with because that's just real.

I mean, we are in a situation that is so unpredictable. Forget unprecedented. Now we're in unpredictable land. And my heart breaks day for leaders right now, CEOs, whether it be a mom and pop operation of five people or a company of 500 or 5,000. This is as complex as a leadership situation that many people will ever face. And that's hard and that's big. But here's what I do know, that the human spirit has what it takes to rise above this. It doesn't mean you're not going to get bruised, battered, beaten during this time. That's all real. But Simon Sinek, who was a friend of ours, said something earlier today

on Instagram, and I'll steal it for him because I thought it was really good. He said, you know, this isn't about being positive right now. He goes, because the reality is that there's a lot of bad stuff happening. He said, but this is about being optimistic. And the difference between optimism and just being positive is that optimism is saying that the future will be better. The future will be brighter.

And we've got a role to play in that. And that's the idea of being a victor versus a victim. And, you know, you think about you and I love military history and history in general. You think of the great wars. Well, it doesn't matter who eventually won the war. I can tell you that even the victor of the war had some battles that were devastating, and there were tremendous losses. And yet we've got to continue to go forward.

And so we're experiencing loss in an almost unfathomable way. However, what can we do? What will we do to come out on the other side? That's what I'm telling people. And that's where we've got to be focused on perspective. And we've got to act out of that. I think what causes you to melt down and move into victim mode, when it happens to me, I know what's going on. It's I am taking the current circumstance which sucks

and i am acting like that's going to be forever that's right i'm taking that snapshot and saying that's the whole film instead it's one frame in the film strip and the thing's going to keep turning and it may actually get darker. The music may go boom, boom, boom, boom. That's right. You know, before the hero music comes on. But I think if I can always reach out there and go, okay, what's September look like?

That's right. All right, then what's August look like? Okay. Then what's July look like? Okay. And you start dialing it back then you start to go well you know i know by then if you're someone that's lost a job i will have found something to do uh to feed my family that's right i know because i'm not going to just sit here and watch this all happen to me i'm going to go get a job doing something. And there's a lot of people hiring right now.

That's right. They're not necessarily high career jobs, the things you would want to do if you're making $80,000 a year. But you can go make some money today to feed your family. That's right. And now, then by a month from now, maybe your old job's back. Or a month from now, maybe your old career starts to move again. Maybe it's two months i don't know exactly but it's not forever it's a well it's not a it's not a forever thing

and if i take the if i lose my perspective and i take this moment in time then i lose my hope that's right well here's what we know from neuroscience let me nerd out for you folks what dave said is absolutely right the science backs Dave up. There's this thing in our brain called the reticular activating system. And what it is, it's a filter for our brain because we have so many impulses coming at us all day long. And we'd all be walking around just grabbing our ears and couldn't function if our brain didn't have a filtering system. The way it works is, is what Dave just talked about. When I am focused on the negative, when I'm focused on what is coming at me right now, the direct threat, and that's all I focus on right now, not September,

here's what happens. The brain goes, oh, that's what we're focusing on? Okay, so I'm going to go take pictures of that. It becomes a camera, is what scientists have said. And so everything you encounter throughout the entire day is evidence of what you're focusing on. So the idea here is, if I'm a negative thinker, I'm a victim, then I go to the grocery store and the clerk who just scanned my thing treated me like I was a jerk. Well, no, they didn't. You're just walking around thinking that the whole world's against you. And so that's what you see. It's the idea when we buy a car and we drive home, we see that car for six or seven days in a row. It's everywhere. We didn't

see it the day before. Is there more cars out on the market than there weren't? No. It's what you're focusing on, and you just nailed it. That's the key right now to say, what do I have to do now to survive so that I can thrive down the road? It's these are circumstances. These are not our sentences. We're not sentenced to this. This isn't an economic pattern. This is an economic anomaly, to say the least. So we've got to batten down the hatches and get ready for the future. Yeah, and just this, too, shall pass. Can't be said any better than that. I've got to lock my brain in on that.

That's right. Because I go crazy. That's right. Otherwise, and so do you folks. Yeah. You go crazy. no one's immune to it and um you just um oh wow all right your questions about money and jobs ken coleman is with me for today's show the phone number is 888-825-5225. You jump in. Hey, we're doing real life here, baby. It's what we do.

This is not me yelling politics at you. I could. I'm kind of in the mood. I could join you on that for an hour. But I think instead we'll just do what we do best. That's right. Do the Dave Ramsey Show with Ken Coleman at my right hand here. So there we go. This is the Dave Ramsey Show with Ken Coleman at my right hand here. So there we go. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. In times of uncertainty, there is one thing you can control, you.

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It's everything you need to start getting your money on the right track. This proven plan doesn't change with the economy or what's happening around the globe start your free trial of financial peace university today at davramsey.com slash fpu Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Travis starts us off this hour in Texas. Hi, Travis.

How are you? I am doing all right. How are you guys doing? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Awesome, awesome. Well, first of all, I have to say it's a huge honor to get to speak with you guys, both you guys, Ken Coleman and yourself. Thank you. I'm a listener for about two years. You guys have totally transformed my life. I'm still currently in Vegas at two, but I'm on the back end of it and uh we're gonna fight through but anyway uh my question today is um how do i handle the mental fatigue at work whenever um i'm trying to be positive and everyone

else is being so negative around me we uh know, we are quote unquote in essential business right now, uh, here in Austin area. We don't know how long that's going to last because we're again, quote unquote essential. Um, but right now we're doing good. We have work for months and you know, I, I don't understand why we can't just believe God and be more, you know, have a more positive atmosphere here, but it's just, it wears on me. And I'm getting kind of wore out. And, you know, I've battled anxiety and different things in the past. But praise God, I've been free for two years from that.

And just trying to stay focused in this. And just wonder what, you know what i can do what can i say to people to get them to maybe turn around or you know so just get a grip here you know calm down as you say well i tell you i i think i would i would not focus on what you can tell other people to try to change their behaviors because of how it's affecting you. I think that's a normal reaction for you to go, I can't handle all this negative ninny stuff, and the sky's falling, it's depressing me. And I think that's a natural reaction. I think what you're going to have to do is realize that people see what they want to see,

they hear what they want to hear based on what they're focusing on, and you cannot change the way your coworkers are thinking and acting. You could try to influence them, but I think the way to do that is by modeling the way your co-workers are thinking and acting. You could try to influence them, but I think the way to do that is by modeling the way. It's not about what you're saying. It's about what you're doing, how you're talking, how you're acting. I think you're going to have to find a way to turn those people off. I don't know if it's walking around with earbuds in, if it's that kind of work, but you've got to learn to shut those voices out. I'll tell you something else that a mentor has taught me. It's really huge for perspective and the right type of mental discipline. And that is the first thought in your day and the last thought

in before you go to bed. The first thought when you wake up, Dave, I've learned it's really, really huge. For me, it's in the word. It's in prayer. And the first thing I put in my head of the day is not the news. It's not somebody's opinion. It is from Scripture. Other people can have a positive thought. You can read a book, you know, something that's, again, good content that sets your day off right. The last thing is the last thought of your day before you go to sleep. I would really be disciplined about what you put in your head before you lay your head down and i think

that that is something that's very practical that has helped me and i think it can help you the other thing that is sometimes i can walk through anything if i can see the end of it and um i don't know it's not it's a judgment you, Travis. You've got to make your decision on this. But one of the things that I'm telling our team here is that when we're under pressure, what's inside of you squeezes out. So what you've got is a group of people that this is kind of the way they are, and the situation is just exposing it. And so I'm going to start asking myself, do I want to be here long term?

Now, I'm not suggesting you walk out the door and quit, but I'm going to start asking myself, is this the kind of group of people I want to hang with for an extended period of time? Yeah, I'm probably going to stay there through this mess, but then I'm going to start looking for a different environment overall because, you know, what the problem is is that it's exposing, the pressure is exposing what's inside of you. So, hey, thanks for the call.

Open phone is at 888-825-5225. Ken, you and I have, when the pressure has hit me in the last couple weeks, it is exposing that I am a contrarian. Right. Sure, sure. We already knew this about that. Right. But whatever everybody else believes, I almost never do.

Yep. Whatever everyone else does, I mean, if the experts say I immediately go, they don't know what the heck they're talking about. If the experts say the economy is going to crash, I don't believe them. If the experts say we're all going to die of the coronavirus, I don't believe them. And sometimes I get my, you know, I have to chew on a shoe from that. I put my foot in my mouth because of it. But because I've made my living and I've made my life and I've made my personal life come alive and become very, very, very prosperous by being perpendicular. That's right.

I don't borrow money in a culture where everyone does. I do live on a budget in a culture where no one does i do give generously with outrageous generosity in a culture where not enough people do and i do lead in our company way different weird leadership style uh in a culture where most people don't and so i've i've made a really good life being a contrarian. Yeah, it's been good for you. But it also gets you in trouble. Yeah, well, but, you know, okay, so you're poking fun at yourself, but let's look at

that, let's play that out. I mean, you want to see the facts. Well, I've gotten more, you know, under pressure. My default is, well, sure, screw the experts. Right, right, right. That, screw the experts. Right. Right. That's right. That's right.

Well, because I think you want to see the facts. Okay, let's look into this. Just because you're calling an expert and just because you think this doesn't mean that I necessarily think this. But I really think what drives you on this is it's not just, okay, you may think this, but that doesn't mean that we should behave the way you tell us to behave. Because you've been a rugged individualist, let's just call it that. I mean, there's a reason the phrase, live like no one else, so later you can live and give like no one else, became a thing. Because it was a lifestyle before it was a phrase. And, you know, look, I'm in the same boat, Dave,

in that when I hear the worst numbers, let me challenge the audience to do something. I want you to go, whatever news you watch or read over the next few days, I want you to look in the articles or even the headlines and look how many times you see the word could appear. It's everywhere. I've just set a bunch of people free, Dave. You're going to see the word could in all these negative news stories everywhere. What does that say to you? Well, it could happen. It could happen.

It could happen. Well, guess what, Dave? I could get run over by a train, but I'd have to be standing on the railroad tracks to get run over by a train. I'm being crazy with this analogy, but I'm also proving the point that if you focus on all the things that could go wrong, guess what? That's all you think about, and you start to act in a way that says, I could get hit by a train. Instead of going, wait a second, what would have to be true for me to get hit by a train? I'd have to be so dumb and reckless to put myself on the train tracks when the train's supposed to come through.

Well, you're known for being reckless. An absurd example, but you get my point. Stop worrying about all the things that could happen. No. What should you be doing right now? You know, I think the thing that all I'm pointing out is whatever's inside of you, when the pressure comes, it squeezes out. The good and the bad. That's right. And it's kind of the same thing like I tell people about money. You know, when you get some money, it magnifies who you are. That's true. If you're an angry

person, God help the people around you when you get money. That's true. If you're a kind and giving and generous person, you'll become a philanthropist. If you're crazy, you get crazier. If you're immature, you really become a four-year-old. So let this fire refine you. Yeah. Let it expose what it needs to expose. But then call it out. That's it.

Own it. What is really going on? Because it's really a good time for personal transformation. It really is. It's a really good time to renew and or deepen your faith. That's right. Because really, who is going to fix this? It's not going to be the Democrats.

It's not going to be the Republicans. And it's not going to be Dave Ramsey or Ken Coleman. That's true. It's going to be God. And so, you know, where are you placing your hope? Where are you placing your faith? And, you know, it's a time to review those kinds of things. This stuff starts, you know, the more freaked out you are, I catch myself, man,

if I'm getting freaked out about the economy or I'm getting freaked out about the virus, where am I placing my trust? It challenges me. Challenges me. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major healthcare costs.

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chministries.org. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Brent and Brittany are with us in Pennsylvania. Debt-free scream time. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Dave.

We're doing well. How are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. How much have you guys paid off? We paid off a little over $106,000. Good for you. And how long did that take?

It took three years and three months. All right. And what was your range of income during that time? About $100,000 to $150,000. Nice jump. What do you guys do for a living? I am an elementary school nurse. And I'm a physical therapist.

Okay. What kind of debt was the $106,000? I'll take most of the responsibility for this. We paid off a little bit of Brittany's remaining school debt. I had a car payment, and the rest of it was my school debt. Okay. Very cool. How long y'all been married? We've been married for 10 years. Okay, so what happened three years ago that got you on this journey? I'll do that one. So we were having, let's call it a discussion about our finances three years ago.

Let's call it that, yeah. Yeah, let's call it a discussion. It got louder and louder and louder, and eventually the discussion came to Brent looking so completely tired and frustrated, and he said to me, you spend way too much money. And I threw my hands up and I said, that's it. I'm done. I'm not going to be the reason for this. I said, where's that Dave book? And I read the total money makeover and that's it. Oh, so he brought in all this debt, but you spend too much money. That's right. Yep.

That's how it goes. Yeah. That was a Yeah, that was a good narrative. I like that. Okay, so you're like, okay, we're going to do this. And when you say, where's that day book, you're going to get both of you on it or what? Well, I had been introduced to it by our brother and sister-in-law a couple years prior to this journey. While we were on vacation, I read the book. I was totally on board, but at the time, not all hands were on deck. So we kind of wrote it out for a few more years until that breaking point, and that's when everybody got on deck. Okay. All right. Very cool. Good. Good for you guys. Good. So what was the biggest thing you learned when people say, how did you get out of debt? What was the biggest thing you learned that the two of you started working together on?

You say, everybody's got to do this if you want to get out of debt. So I think for us, we established goals and boundaries. We definitely had a budget, but the goals were big for us, so we incorporated our whole family into our process. We broke it down, and we had a chain link for every $1,000 we paid off. We took a chain off. But every $10,000, we told the kids, you know, when we get to that $10,000 mark, we'll do something fun. So if we came up short every couple weeks on what we expected to pay, we saw the disappointment in the children's face, and it was like, man, we've got to do better next time.

So we really pushed forward, and that's really what kept us going as a team. You know, we really used the kids to kind of motivate us and get through it. Yeah. You've got to have a visual. You've got to have a sense of traction, don't you? Yeah, definitely. It's a big deal. That's why the debt snowball works so well.

Ken, this is pretty impressive. And their incomes go from $100 to $150. How'd you do that? That's my favorite question. Well, for me, I am a certified CPR instructor, so I picked up extra CPR classes. And then this past fall, I was given the opportunity to help teach PA students clinical skills at one of our local universities. And for myself, surprisingly enough, I never really thought I'd find myself in this position, but just keeping good contacts. I got invited to be an adjunct professor for one class at the university that I graduated from. Helped teach that class.

The following year, they asked me back for two more additional classes. And now kind of waiting this year to hopefully have the opportunity to at least participate in those classes, if not more. Awesome. Way to go, guys. Yeah, your career's evolved is what you're saying in both cases you just took the next steps and had a reason to do it because you want to take some of those chain links off so that's that's that's the way to do it right there well done you guys well done proud of you who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you

oh probably my my sister and my brother-in-law. They kind of kept us going, and I'd definitely say just our family, our parents. So I'm guessing you guys are working from home. Yes. Okay. I'm not. I'm working. Are you? Okay.

I work in the hospital, yeah. Oh, so you're on the front lines. Well, thank you for that right now. We appreciate you. And crazy times out there. How does it feel in the middle of this craziness to have that $106,000 weight off of you? So recently, you know, we're actually almost through step three. So we kind of found that this time of need, and especially in our community, across the country, really, a lot of people are in need right now. So we found ourselves in a good position that we decided, you know, maybe it's a little bit early, but we give back a little bit.

So we found ourselves over the last few weeks donating to local food pantries and things like that. And it feels good to be able to give back, but at the same time, like at the end of the process, we still have money left over to be able to, you know, put towards our savings to build up our emergency fund. And it kind of gives you a good feeling that you can be able to have the best of both worlds. So we're having a good time with that right now, fortunately.

Proud of you guys. Very well done. How does it feel to be debt-free? Oh, it feels so good. Where's that Dave book? Yeah, where's that Dave book? We passed it on. Don't worry.

Yeah, we paid it forward. Very fun, you guys. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires, number one bestseller, and that is the next chapter in U2's story. You guys are rock stars. I'm so proud of you, hero. Way to go, guys.

Absolutely incredible. Brent and Brittany in Pennsylvania, $106,000 paid off in three years and three months, making $100,000 to $150,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right, Dave and Ken, we're going to do this the way Central Pennsylvania does it. Three, two, one. We are debt-free!

That's how it's done. That's how it's done. Even in the middle of all this craziness, you can stop and have a party. That's right. You can just stop and go, hey, we did this over three years and three months. And they fought and scratched and clawed through that three years. That was a tough three years. Tough.

But you know what's so beautiful about that whole story? They just became debt-free, and they're already looking to give to others and not just look to give. They can give. What a beautiful thing. That's the human spirit on display right there. Yeah. They can't live like no one else, and they can give like no one else because they stuck with the baby steps.

You can do it. If you live like no one else, later you can live and give like no one else. And, you know, for some folks, this craziness, this crisis, the economic crisis for most people, has affected more people directly than the virus has. We've lost about 100 jobs now per case of corona out there. And so for those that are worried about that part of it, I mean, certainly both things are serious, not discounting anything. But this might be your wake-up call.

That's right. I mean, when I went broke, that was my wake-up call. I had done a lot of stupid stuff, and I didn't have my act together. I didn't have any savings. I didn't have any money. I was putting everything back in, highly leveraged into real estate, built a house of cards that fell in on my head because I was stupid. And, you know, a shift in the economy took me out and took me to the woodshed.

And, you know, horrible experience. Best thing that ever happened to me. And to millions of others. Yeah. And so there's a chance right now this could be your wake-up call. This could be the time that, you know, 50 years from now you're telling your grandkids, back in odd 20 there was a coronavirus. That's right. And I changed my life, and ever since then I don't 20, there was the coronavirus. That's right.

And I changed my life. And ever since then, I don't borrow money and I save money. That's right. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America. Ken Coleman will be concluding this week as we've had a week of messages of hope. The last one will be this coming Monday with Anthony O'Neill, but Monday night, Rachel Cruz, Tuesday night, Chris Hogan, Wednesday night, Christy Wright.

Last night, Dr. John Deloney was a big hit, of course. Tonight, Ken Coleman will be giving out a message of hope, how to control your thoughts and actions and feelings in a crisis. You can watch this on Ken's YouTube and Facebook channels, on mine as well, on Ramsey Solutions' website, DaveRamsey.com. However you want to get in touch with us, you can be able to catch this whole podcast series, this whole video series on hope. Ken and Rachel and I kicked it off last Thursdayursday night a week ago with a the message of hope and that gave us the idea that each one of the ramsey personalities should also do their own because we're just dumping positive usable content into a marketplace that uh it's fairly easy to

show up if you drop a white speck into a bunch of black. That's right. And in the sense of, you know, I don't know, whatever analogy you want to use, where there's a touch of light in the bunch of darkness or whatever, because it's all negative. And so we're trying to say, hey, yeah, this is tough. We're not denying that, but this is a moment in time, and where do we go from here? So tonight should be a big deal. Yeah, I'm excited about it.

What we're hearing from people is I need some direction on what to do because I've had a whole bunch of uncertainty come my way. And so I'm going to walk people through how the brain works. We talked a little bit about this earlier in this hour but this idea of you have to change the way you think before you can change the way you act you can't act your way into change you have to change your mindset then that'll change your actions and then the feelings that you know that that we're so worried about will take care of themselves when we're thinking properly and acting properly and let me tell you something we're in a war right now i mean this is this is in the trenches.

This is battle time. And we've got to fight, and we've got to have new strategies every day. And this is a day at a time having the mindset of, I'm going to be a victor, not a victim. I can control some things right now. We talked about this. You mentioned, Rachel, and you and I, you know, our theme that night was control the controllables. and in order to control the controllables we have to think only about

what I can't control everything else I don't need to be thinking about it that's going to put me in a dark place not one human can handle that kind of negative pressure but when we think about what we can control then we will act on what we can control and you'd be surprised how resilient you will be the interesting thing is when you actually you know let's say the problem is 100 and the only thing you can control is 12 out of 100 the interesting thing is you get your peace the peace in your soul your your fear dissipating happens exponentially, and you can just wipe out everything. You can wipe out most of the angst and the anxiety by doing the 12. That's right.

Because you know, okay, that's all I can do. Now all I can do is all I can do, and as Art Williams says, all you can do is all you can do, and all you can do is enough. That's right. And that, you know, there's an example of that is when we're doing crisis counseling with somebody that's in a, they've got a big pile of debt, and we sit down and we just give them a budget. And they lay out their budget, and they say, okay, I can do that. Now, their financial position didn't change a dollar yet.

That's right but the fact that they've got a plan for what for the money that they do have there is a you you in a counseling session a coaching session i've watched it thousands of times over 30 years their countenance changes your face changes yeah you see you see it there's when you do what you can do, it moves things. Amanda is in Texas. Hi, Amanda. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Your question for Ken Coleman. Hi, Dave.

Hi, Ken. Thank you for having me on. Sure. My question is for you. Well, first of all, in 2008, my husband started teaching their classes, and we made a goal to be millionaires and debt-free by 2020. Oh, cool. And here we are, praise the Lord. In November, we sold our property in Oregon and moved to Texas

and we are millionaires and debt-free and 40 years old. Wow. And now we are jobless. My husband was severance in February and his job and he gets a paycheck till the end of the year. Um, praise the Lord for that. And I was a substitute teacher and now that's gone away. We have four elementary children, but we are teaching them at home and I'm in real estate school now, but we need to know, we need some direction can on a job, a business to start. We love people.

I was in the ministry. My husband's a financial whiz, and we both love people. What was your husband doing before he lost the job? What was his career? He was in business banking. He was a manager for U.S. Bank. Wonderful Christian, awesome people Bank. Wonderful, Christian. Awesome people there.

I just love them. I want to make sure I heard you correctly. You guys have decided, we want to launch our own business. We're millionaires now. You've got some financial cushion to the end of the year. You're in a new state. You've decided you want to open up a business, an entrepreneurial venture, and the two of you are doing this together.

Is that what I heard? That's what, yes, we would like to do. We just don't know what to do. Oh, this is fun. This is actually why I enjoy these questions, because you guys are in a whole different situation in that there's no stress and pressure on you to make a living off of this at this point. This is just about what's the right thing.

So here's the exercise. And it would be great if both of you were on the phone, but I'll give you the questions that you two need to sit down and answer, I believe, separately. Then I think it's a fun exercise to come together and reveal your answers over a nice dinner and begin to dream together. So here are some questions, okay? So what I want you to ask is, who are the people we most want to help? Now, these answers might be different. That's why I'm having you do it the way I want you to do it. So answer the question, who are the people we most want to help? Now, these answers might be different. That's why I'm having you do it the way I want you to do it. So answer the question, who are the people we most want to help? See, we know that business is about solving problems. So that leads to the second question.

What are the problems that move your heart the most? What problems do you want to solve? If you were going to start a business, you're starting a business to solve a problem. That leads to the third question, which is a version of the second question. What solutions do you get most excited about providing? So you think of a business as offering either a product or a service. Okay? It's that simple. And so you go, all right, we look at all three of those questions and we begin to see the answers.

And what you're going to see is your heart is going to reveal some answers. And then the two of you want to sit there and look at that and go, okay, are we in alignment there? And then what are the different ways, in other words, the types of businesses that would allow us to provide a product or a service for the answers to those questions? And you'll see alignment. You'll see that the problem you want to solve has a person attached to it. You'll see that the solution that you want to provide has a problem attached to it. And that's how you get clarity in dreaming up, hey, what business do we want to be in? So the three questions are, who are the people you most want to help? What's the problem you most

want to solve? What's the solution you most want to provide? Okay. All right, cool. And see what that does is it gets your brain, you know, you're not thinking way up here like they are right now. We don't know what businesses are, Dave. No, you start simple. And you go, what's the common denominator? Yeah, 30 years ago, I didn't know I asked those questions, but I did when we started Financial Peace University. Right. The people you wanted to help were people in debt.

Obviously. Yeah. And people that wanted to learn how to handle money and become wealthy. That's right. And be outrageously generous, right? That's right. So pretty much everybody knows pretty much what that is. The entire world, and become wealthy. That's right. And be outrageously generous, right? That's right. So pretty much everybody knows pretty much what that is. The entire world, yeah.

Yeah, and so a little small market. Right. A little niche market. Right. But I did. I walked through those questions without even realizing it. That's right. It's an entrepreneurial exercise is what it is.

That's all it is. Yeah. It's really brainstorming, but what it does is it's taking this big, complex idea you're trying to come up with, and it's breaking it down, and you will see inevitably a tie between all three questions. Very good. Very good. Speaking of Financial Peace University, we're doing something for the first time in the middle of this crisis. In 30 years, we are offering a 14-day free trial for the entire premium product.

Everything. It's all online. You can watch it from home. Financial Peace University, a 14-day free trial. You can watch all nine lessons. You can watch all the lessons from the Legacy Journey. You can watch all the lessons from Smart Money, Smart Kids. Do it all right now.

A lot of you have some time on your hands. Stop watching Netflix and binge on this, Dave. There you go. It's a free trial. And the EveryDollarPlus budgeting app, the world's best budgeting app, is there as well. So check it out. It's a free trial. Go to DaveRamsey.com slash hope.

Lots of free or near-free resources there to help you out while you're home. Check it out. A 14-day free trial. Financial Peace University. Do not miss this. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made the Dave Ramsey show one

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