The Ryan Leak Podcast - The Cost of Success

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

In this episode of The Ryan Leak Podcast, Ryan asks a bold question: What does it cost to be you?  Success often looks easy from the outside, but the behind-the-scenes story usually includes late nights, tough decisions, and sacrifices no one ever sees. Whether it's private jets, real estate empires, or viral influence, there's always a price tag success doesn't advertise.This kicks off a short series on success we'll be unpacking over the next few weeks... so if you're chasing a dream, this one's for you.Want to get a weekly dose of encouragement straight to your phone? Text “podcast” to 469-809-1201 to join the list.

What's going on, my friends? Welcome back to the Ryan League podcast. I am your host, Ryan Leak, it is I. And we like to keep things short and sweet on this podcast because I know that you're busy. And so am I. But we like to give you just some small nuggets of inspiration that can help you throughout your week and add value to your life, your work, your relationships, leadership. And over the next couple of episodes, I'm actually going to be doing a podcast series on success. Just three or four episodes. I'm not exactly sure, but I know I want to do at least a few because I've been around a lot of success lately just in the flow of where my career is. And I've actually been blessed to meet some of my heroes and some people that I look up to. And there's a lot of the insights I've just been noticing about success that I think, one, can help you be successful.

but two, also help you to know how to steward success when you do get it or when you do have it. There is this guy on Instagram who interviews millionaires and billionaires. His handle is at school of hard knocks. It's at school of hard knocks with a Z. Got to love it. And I love what he does. He literally walks up to people on the streets that look, rich in some way, shape, or form, and he just starts interviewing them. He walks up to people with

supercars, or they could be on a yacht, or walking out of a luxury brand department store, and he stops them and says, hey, how did you make your first million? What do you do for a living? What do you do to afford this house or this car? And it's a very interesting channel, and what amazes me is that The answer is always pretty simple for them. They'll say something like, oh, I just sold a tech company. Yeah, or I just built a makeup company and sold it. Like they say it like it's just super casual. Like it's no big deal.

And at School of Hard Knocks goes on to actually ask them, what's the most amount of money you've made in a single year? And they'll say, you know, 300 million or 400 million. Like they always give like this number. and it's just always so casual. And what I've learned, listening to following, being around successful people, is successful people have a way of making the impossible sound like brunch plans. Okay.

I've got friends who fly private, and the way that they talk about it makes it sound like it's no different than ordering an Uber. They'll say stuff like, yeah, I just got a jet car, fractional ownership, split it with a couple of buddies, and boom, you're good. I'm like, you're making splitting a private jet sound like we're splitting spinach artichoke dip at Applebee's. Like, what are we talking about? I don't know if you got these like real estate friends. I think we all have some real estate friends that talk like this. Yeah, I just bought 10 houses, flipped them, made a billion.

Yeah, I was bored. So I just decided, you know, we're just going to flip some houses, the Loreno, you know, just, you know, we're just doing anything. Like, like a billion dollars. Like, like, it's like, where you just board on Zillow and you just found these properties. Yeah, yeah, just bought a duplex, fixed it up. Sold it for 27 times to what I paid for. Yeah, I picked up some land from my grandpa, sat on it for a decade and flipped it for a few million. You know, got a couple of Airbnbs, you know, some rentals in Florida, you know, like they just drop these little lines of success.

You're like, but it's got to be harder than that. And here's what's interesting. The way they talk about success, they make it sound easy, look easy. But what they don't tell you is that they didn't sleep for three years. You know, what they didn't tell you is that contractors ghosted them mid-Rena. That tenants trashed the place during spring. break that the Airbnb got a one-star review because the soap wasn't lavender. What they won't tell you is that there were lawsuits, tax bills, plumbing disasters,

hurricanes, leaky roots, and perhaps even a mild emotional breakdown in a Home Depot parking lot. People will tell you what they did, but they will rarely tell you what it cost. The ease in their tone isn't always arrogance. It's just that once you survive the chaos, it's like you develop amnesia for how insane it really was. My friends do not be fooled behind every, yeah, I just drop ship this thing to the moon and monkeys bring it back down to China. And they just, as they tell you their story, I just want you know behind it is a, 10-part docu-series on Netflix of drama that most people would never see.

You see, we are inundated every single day on our televisions and on our phones with people who are successful. We see the Olympian getting gold. We see the CEO ringing the NASDAG bell. We see the best-selling author on a book tour. We see the influencer with 3 million followers. We see musician dropping another chart topper we see the podcaster hitting number one on Apple podcast we see a politician getting sworn in but what we don't see is that Olympian waking up at 4 a.m. for the last 15 years what we don't see is the CEO missing their kids recital again what we don't see is that author rewriting chapter 3 for the 11th time. What we don't see is that influencer managing constant criticism and comparison. What we don't

see is that musician getting rejected 98 times before one song ever went viral. What we don't see is that podcaster recording 100 episodes before anyone actually listened to a word that would come out of their mouth. What we don't see is that politician getting death threats for just having an opinion. My friends, there's always a hidden cost. And perhaps you've heard me say this before, but it's worth repeating, if you ever see somebody you admire, you want to ask them the question, what does it cost to be you? Because that following, that car, that house, that business, that platform, it all came with a price. And the worst thing you can do is want someone else's life, but be unwilling to pay the price that they paid.

I love what John Maxwell says in one of his books. Somebody came up to him after a speaking event and said, hey, I want to do what you do. And he responded, yeah, but are you willing to do what I did to be able to do what I do? The truth is, the life that you want tomorrow might cost you the comfort you're clinging to today. It might cost you some old habits.

it might even cost you some old relationships. So by all means, I want you to hear me today. I want you to dream big, no question about it. I just want you to know that on the other side of that dream isn't just hard work. It's sacrifice. And not just the kind that keeps you up late at night grinding.

Getting on the grind. No, no, no. I'm talking about the kind that makes you rethink who and what you're willing to carry. into your future. And so as you dream this week, as you have goals, as you have aspirations, as you think about a future version of you, I want you to begin to just count the cost because the cost of success is not always what it looks like.

Thanks for listening to the Running League podcast today. If today's episode added value to your life in any way, I would just ask that you share it with a friend. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe. I also send out an encouraging text every single week. If you'd like to subscribe to those encouraging text messages, you can text the word podcast to the number 469-809-1201, and you'll start getting some encouraging text messages for me.

Hey, have a great week, and next week, we are going to be diving into the dangers of success. Today we talked about the cost of success, but next week I want to talk to you about the dangers of success. Hey, have a great day.