We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - Classic 20: Our Interview with Tony Robbins

Episode Date: July 31, 2022

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN: 13:13 - Why business and life are all about adding value. 25:08 - Why investors in 401(k) plans put up 100% of the capital, take on 100% of the risk, and only 33% of... the return. 51:26 - Why you should plant your seeds when you have nothing, to gain abundance in business and life. *Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Join the exclusive TIP Mastermind Community to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Stig, Clay, and the other community members. Tony Robbins’ book, Unshakeable. Preston and Stig’s discussion of Tony Robbins’ book, Unshakeable. Tony Robbins’ charity, Feeding America. Meet Tony Robbins’ at his Unleash The Power Within events. Related Episode: Unshakeable byTony Robbins - TIP134. Related Episode: Tony Robbins' Book - Money, Master the Game - TIP 018. Related Episode: The Life Force Revolution with Tony Robbins - RWH001. Our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool. Check out our favorite Apps and Services. New to the show? Check out our We Study Billionaires Starter Packs. SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors: Bluehost Fintool PrizePicks Vanta Onramp SimpleMining Fundrise TurboTax HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it! Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm

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Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to TIP. In today's classic episode that originally aired back in September 2018, Preston and I were absolutely privileged to interview Tony Robbins. Preston and I have followed Tony for years, so having a chance to sit down with him and share our discussions with you was unforgettable. During our discussion, we talked to Tony about his books Unshakeable and Money Master the Game. Additionally, we talked to Tony about the things that matter the most, which is how a person can find their higher purpose, how to accomplish the things people will be able to.
Starting point is 00:00:30 want to master in their own lives, and most importantly, how to have a real impact. For people who are not familiar with Tony, he's a New York Times bestselling author of multiple books. He's also entrepreneur of multiple businesses that produce $6 billion annually. So without further ado, here's our interview with Mr. Tony Robbins. You are listening to The Investors Podcast, where we study the financial markets and read the books that influence self-made billionaires the most. Keep you informed and prepared for the unexpected. We are super pumped to be here with the one and only, Tony Robbins, number one New York Times bestseller across multiple books.
Starting point is 00:01:24 Stig and I, we're a little bit shell-shocked right now, but Tony, welcome to the investors' podcast. We are thrilled to have you here. Gosh, I'm thrilled to meet you both. I know you guys have the number one podcast of its nature in the world, so I feel honored to be here. And thank you for your kind words. Yeah, thanks, Tony. So we're just going to jump right into this first question. And so Stig and I have read your book Unshakable.
Starting point is 00:01:44 We've also read your book, Money Master the Game. You talk about this in the book, but I want you to explain it to our audience. What was your motivation to get out there and write this? I mean, your first book was a behemoth. And your second one's big. So what inspired you to do this? Because this is not an easy undertaking to do this. I love, you know, things that are where there's no net.
Starting point is 00:02:08 I love the idea of a live event because you never know what's going to happen. You got 10 or 25,000 people. And you never know what's going to happen. And I love that playing with O'Net and the newness of it all. You know, writing a book, you're sitting solitary. There's no feedback to see how you're doing. And so I just don't really like them. But I got so pissed off in 2008.
Starting point is 00:02:27 That's really what made me write this is I said, I got to get this out to people. And I got to get in a form that's inexpensive and they don't have to go to a seminar to do it. Because the amount of abuse that happens in the financial system, as you guys both know well, It's not a bunch of evil people trying to destroy people's lives. It's just a bunch of very large corporations that are doing what their edict is to do, which is to maximize shareholder value. But that's not to maximize you as an investor. And the only way they can make more money is more fees.
Starting point is 00:02:53 And I've worked with Paul Tudor Jones, one of the top 10, you know, financial investors in the history of the world, literally, for 24 years. I've worked with him literally every day, five days a week. He writes me and gives me the details. I meet him four times a year in person. And he's not lost money personally in all those years, which there's nobody in his category of his volume and size that's done that. So I've learned a lot from him. But when 2008 happened, and I grew up with a lot of suffering. So I'm not some great special person.
Starting point is 00:03:22 I just hate suffering for others because I know what it feels like. And there was so much suffering. And even in successful, financially successful people, but also it was watching people losing their homes. It's watching people lose, you know, 50% of their entire, you know, retirement net. egg overnight. And it was so preventable. And it just made me crazy. I did incredibly well during that time because as you guys know, when things melt down, you can actually better faster than when they're growing. If you keep your head together, if you know what you're doing, and I've worked with some of the smartest people on earth in this area. So I just felt like somebody's got to do something.
Starting point is 00:03:56 And two years later, still nothing was done. And I saw a documentary that won an Academy Award, and it was all about the financial crisis. And it systematically showed how a few people almost destroyed the entire world economy. And then the punishment was we gave them more of our money. He was just like, so at the end of this thing, you're either totally depressed or you're totally angry. I was on the angry side because the press doesn't change anything. I thought, okay, I got to convert this energy into something productive. What can I do as one person? I'm, you know, I'm not special, but I have a special connection, which is I know some of the smartest financial people on earth. What if I interviewed 50 of them? And I brought to the table the best
Starting point is 00:04:34 financial minds on earth. Nobody from the Lucky Sperm Club, everybody who built it from nothing. And so when I, you know, I got access to Warren Buffett and Jack Bogle and David Swenson and Bert Malkiel and Carl Iconn and all these people, Ray Dalio, the smartest guys in the room. And so then they started referring me and I got deeper and deeper in that group. So I wrote this six hundred and seventy page crazy book as you described, Money Master the Game. And then the reason I hate writing books, but the reason I wrote this book is I thought, we got the longest now officially, longest bull market in our history, obviously a correction is coming. You get a correction every year, but a bear is going to be here at some point. And I want to make sure people are prepared
Starting point is 00:05:13 and realize that's the greatest time in their life. I wanted to be able to take a millennial who thinks they have so much debt they can never be out of it and show them in a weekend and read a book in a weekend and be done, a playbook of here's how to go from where you are to where you really want to be. Or take a baby boomer who thinks, I started too late, I can never get financially secure and show them how they can do it. And so, that's a good. And so, That was the impetus for unshakable. And another thing is, you know, I donate 100% of the profits to feed people because when I was 11, there was no money and no food and I was fed.
Starting point is 00:05:40 So I fed two families at 17 and I got it to 100,000 people and the million a year, four million. Now we feed 100 million people a year for the last four years, 400 million people and I'm going to feed a billion over the next six years. So 100% of these profits go to help us make that happen as well. So people can change their own life and we feed 50 families for every book as well. you know Tony my favorite part about your entire response there is right at the end and it's for multiple reasons not just the impact which is somewhat mind boggling to think that you are going to be able to feed a billion people but i think for the person that's listening to this kind of wondering about the information they're about to receive when a person says that they give
Starting point is 00:06:21 all the proceeds of the book away to a charity you don't have a you you are incentivized to tell the truth. You're incentivized to provide the best information you can provide. And that is not how a lot of the finance industry is structured. And I think that that is such an important part for people to take away from this is that you are not incentivized. Buffett has a quote. We heard him at the last shareholders meeting. He said, you show me the incentive and I can show you the action or the reaction. I'll tell you what, your incentives for this are really in the right place. And let me just throw this out there. And I'm sorry to be talking so much because we want to hear from you. But feedamerica.org forward slash Tony Robbins. If you want to participate in this and help Tony
Starting point is 00:07:09 achieve this feeding a billion people go there and we'll have a link to that in our show notes. Thank you for that. But I just want to plant a seed. And that is if they just buy the book, I'll feed 50 families. But if they want to join me, we have 49 million people in the richest country in the world that wake up every morning not knowing where their next meal is going to come from. 17 million are children. So that's not a statistic to me because I was one of those. It's not like I'm some good person. I've suffered enough that I don't want anybody else to suffer. But if you don't need $100 or you've gained in a million dollars, up to $4 million I match every year. So there's no limit other than $4 million. So you can put $10 in and I'll match it and you'll
Starting point is 00:07:45 double your impact or you can put no money in and just get the book and I'll feed 50 families. But I hope people who care about this issue, not everybody does, but they do. double your impact and join me in this and I'll match you on whatever you do. Tony, I really love how you include yourself and your own story in your response there because it is no secret for those of us who have been following your career that financially you have the deck stack against you in your early life. Talk to us about how your life were in the early years. And then what has happened since?
Starting point is 00:08:17 I know there's been quite a few things has happened since, but your personal journey to where you are today, in your own words, how did this happen? You know, I always tell people you overestimate, most of us, overestimate what we can do in a year, and then we're disappointed, but we underestimate what we can do in a decade of growth, or in my case, four decades of growth, right? So there have been a lot of stages long way, but I grew up in a family where I had an incredible mother.
Starting point is 00:08:42 She loved me completely. I have a younger brother, younger sister, five and seven years younger. So I was kind of the adult in the room, and my mom was a good human being, but a troubled lady, and she abused alcohol and prescription drugs. And she did, she got a little crazy. So she would, you know, smash my head against the wall until I bled. She would pour liquid soap down my throat because she thought I was lying until I threw up and I wasn't lying.
Starting point is 00:09:04 And so when somebody you love is trying to harm you and yet you still know they love you, it messes with your head a little bit. But I finally figured out I needed to become a practical psychologist. I need to be able to predict her moods and change them. I need to understand what was driving her. And so much of who I am came. I often say that if my mother had been the woman, I'd hope she was, I wouldn't be the man I'm proud to be. And so I'm truly grateful to her because she did the best she could do and she really did love me, but she had huge problems.
Starting point is 00:09:32 And I had to learn to separate people's behavior from who they are because otherwise I'd go crazy. And so that helps me today. When somebody behaves insanely, meanly, harshly, I know that that's not their soul, their spirit. That's their behavior. And so that helped me to be able to help other people. I think along the way, I learned that if I could keep learning, if I could become a learning machine, that any problem I could solve, any problem I had, if I could solve it for me, I could solve it for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, eventually tens of millions of people. And so my path has been really just constant growth. I took a speed reading course when I was 17 and I said, you know, leaders are readers, you know, I want to compress decades into days. If I can take 30 years of a guy's life and I can compress it down to the most important insight, I can save a whole lot of time and serve a lot of people, including myself. And so I didn't read a book a day, but in seven years, I read 700 books in the air of human
Starting point is 00:10:25 development, psychology, physiology. And pretty soon, you recognize that everything is a pattern. You know, you know, as financial orientation, it's all pattern recognition, pattern utilization, you're really smart pattern creation. That's what makes somebody brilliant in any field, and certainly in finance. And so I got really good at recognizing everything is a pattern with human beings and that there are patterns that make you angry, patterns that make you sad, patterns that make you grateful, patterns that make you excited. And if you think it's you, it's hard to change you, but if you realize there's just a pattern, you can change anything.
Starting point is 00:10:56 And once I understood that, my capacity grew. And so by being put on the line with no net for decades, you tend to grow. And if you're passionate about constantly getting better, you expand. And so over those decades, that's happened. And then I began to grow companies because early on, I realized my ideas are going to die in my lips unless I learned to grow and build a company and develop innovation and marketing. And so I had none of those skills. And I was terrible.
Starting point is 00:11:22 But I created Ravenfan clients, which made up for my education in the business side. And now I'm privileged enough to have 54 companies. You know, 12, I actively manage. We do over $6 billion in business. And 14 different industries as unique as stem cells to, you know, I'm one of the owners the L-EFC. I have an e-sports team. I love to light people up.
Starting point is 00:11:41 I love to arm people with strategies and tools that give them control their own. own life. And so finance is one of those areas. So Tony, what I, what I captured at the start of what you were saying is so important that we found. There was a book by Carol Dweck. She's out of Stanford. Yes, not familiar with her. She's great. Yeah, the book mindset. And when you were talking about your quote there where you said, you know, if I didn't have the mother that raised me that way, I wouldn't have become the man that I became. it takes a person with a growth mindset to be able to understand that and not really play the victim card because so many people that are going through a rough upbringing like that are saying,
Starting point is 00:12:22 well, I can't succeed because I'm a victim or I was treated this way. And I can only imagine how hard it is to teach yourself or train your mind to think, I'm not a victim. This is an asset in some way. how does a person how does a person go about doing that I can't wrap my head around how a person can make that transition without coaching or somebody
Starting point is 00:12:48 some positive influence in their life so for you at that early age how did you make that transition of the mindset I think it honestly was reading biographies and autobiographies in mass meaning some of the most brilliant humans in history and I'm reading their stories and I went from feeling sorry for myself to going
Starting point is 00:13:07 This is part of the path to growth. This is part of the path to becoming a person who has influence and impact in a beautiful way in the world. Because virtually every story I read, you know, Churchill came from a very privileged background. But the hell that that man went through, you know, in order to try and save his country and turn the world around is just extraordinary. And so you read these stories and all of a sudden I couldn't tell myself the story of the victim anymore. And I think the other reason is because as a victim, I can't help anybody. And I've always had this internal drive of I just love human beings. I love to see them feel fully alive.
Starting point is 00:13:41 I hate to see them in pain. And so if I'm a victim, then my life is over. And most people pick the victim approach, not because they're victim oriented, but because they're just scared. We're all deathly afraid we're not enough. I've never met anybody. Presidents of countries, billionaires. We all have a place we feel we're not smart enough, rich enough, young enough, old enough,
Starting point is 00:14:00 sexy enough, you know, I don't know anything enough. And we feel like you're not enough. the deeper fears you won't be loved. And love is the oxygen of life. And so most of us are, especially in the social media, are trying to constantly prove that we're somebody special. But, you know, there are people, I have a friend that's got it one of the top gyms here in South Florida. And he told me, Tony, every single day, people come in men and women, set up all the weights, take a bunch of pictures and don't work out. And they post it on Facebook and so forth because they just want to project this image. I mean, it's scary because the only way you have
Starting point is 00:14:34 self-esteem, esteem for yourself is by making yourself do incredibly difficult things, things that no one else can know, but you know, pride comes from pushing through. It doesn't come from ease. You know, the path of least resistance will never make you proud. It'll never make you strong. It'll make you fulfill. It'll make you weak. So for me, early on, the approach to being a victim, it just made you couldn't, your life would have no meaning. It means that, yeah, you could point to something and say, that's why my life is this way. It's not me. There's nothing wrong with me. you can still love me, but who wants to live that way? And so I think, you know, I didn't have role models,
Starting point is 00:15:09 but I had role models through books. Books allowed me to transport myself to World War II, another time to another history, to another way of thinking. Plus, if you read an autobiography, where the author themselves wrote it, and it's like you think like the author as you do that. And so if you keep reading those things, you get the pattern of thinking of some of the most brilliant minds on the planet.
Starting point is 00:15:29 And so my whole thing is my original teacher was Jim Rohn. He used to say, miss a meal, Tony, but don't miss reading 30 minutes a day. And I don't mean clickbait. I don't mean some blog. I mean like a real book where something that's got strategy or philosophy that can help you change your life or help someone else. And so that obsession for decades has really served me really well. But I think the other thing is I think I learned early on that life is worthless if it's just about you. It's not about me. It's about we. And this whole me mindset that we have today, Like, what am I getting? What am I not getting? You know, what's, you know, who's hurt me or who, you know, they don't usually ask who have I hurt because everybody's hurt somebody even to get an intended or have been hurt by somebody. But that's like, step up and grow. But I think the biggest thing is early on, I realize that life is about adding value. It's not just business. You can't get wealthy, you know, financially without adding value. Even as an investor, you're providing capital to the right places. If they add enough value, you're going to win. If you can do more for other people in your life, in your relationship,
Starting point is 00:16:31 relationships in your business, you're going to prosper, you're going to have beautiful relationships, you're going to have a beautiful life. There is no substitute for adding more value than anybody else and constantly improving the way you add that value. And if it's in business, you've got to also market that value because you're going to have the best product. But if you don't get it out to people where they want it, dies on your lips. And so I think it's a combination of those things that help to shape me. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. All right. I want you guys to imagine spending three days in Oslo at the height of the summer. You've got long days of daylight, incredible food, floating saunas on the Oslo Fjord, and every
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Starting point is 00:20:52 Go to Shopify.com slash WSB. That's Shopify.com slash WSB. All right. Back to the show. So, Tony, we actually invited you here on The Investors podcast to talk about your new book, Unshakeable. And it seems like we're talking about everything aside from that. So, so sorry about it.
Starting point is 00:21:15 And here's another question. That's not about the book. With your knowledge, with your extensive set of skills, and with everything that you have experienced. If you had to go back and give a piece of advice and do that to yourself whenever you were 20, 30, 40, and 50, respectively. And here's the kicker. It has to be the same advice.
Starting point is 00:21:38 So regardless of where we are in life and regardless of the age we are, what would it be? That's a great question. It's an interesting question. I wouldn't necessarily think that at every age it's the same advice, but sometimes repetition is the mother's skill. If I had one piece is it's add more value. I mean, it's my mantra.
Starting point is 00:21:56 It's my obsession. It's like, how can I do more for others? And that's not just because I'm a good person or something. I think I am a good human being. But it's really because that's the only thing that's fulfilling. And what makes you fulfilled is growing and giving. If you're not growing, I don't care how many trophies you have. I don't care how many millions of people love you.
Starting point is 00:22:12 I don't care how much money you got or how many, you know, cattyman awards you have, or whatever your way of measuring is, you're not going to be happy. You know, how many people have you seen that are incredibly wealthy that have honored in every way? Millions of people love them and then they kill themselves, right? Because they stop growing and then growth gives us the opportunity to give. And I think, look, everybody can be selfish. But when people say human beings are selfish, we can be selfish. I've certainly been selfish.
Starting point is 00:22:36 But that's not who we are. And my proof to that would be, look at what people do when they have a great experience. When something transforms you, when something is so joyous, the first thing we want to do, share with somebody we love. Why is that? Because you can only have so much pleasure in the body by yourself, right? From, you know, achievement, acknowledgement, success, money, drugs, alcohol, rock and roll, whatever it is that floats your boat. But there's only so much we can hold inside. But when we grow and we give something, then our life has a different form of meaning. It's not about just being happy every moment. If you're happy every moment, your face hurts. You know, we've all experienced that. But what you want is meaning, then life is beautiful. So I'm pretty obsessed with trying to be. to bring that to people as much as I possibly can. I love it, Tony. Such awesome information pains me to transition away from such deep thought and like such
Starting point is 00:23:29 motivation for people. But, you know, Stig and I just love finance too much to stay off topic. You know what so neat about that is? I don't care who you are. Finance isn't everything. But when people are struggling financially, they have problems in their relationships. They struggle financially. They snap at their kids and they feel bad about it.
Starting point is 00:23:46 And they struggle financially. They beat themselves up internally. When they struggle financially, it helps them physically. So I think this is one of the areas of life, body, emotions, relationship, spirit. But it's one of the areas we've got to master. And I'm grateful you guys are doing this. And I'm grateful so many people listen to you. Because I know you guys both minds, hearts, and the way you move and the way you teach is not for your own personal gain.
Starting point is 00:24:07 And there's nothing wrong with people gaining from their business. Don't get me wrong. But I know your true incentives because I've listened to a couple of podcasts and I've read about some things you guys written. I've talked to people that have interacted in your shows. And they all talk about your absolute sincerity and your desire to serve. So that's why I feel like we're brothers on the path. I can't tell you how much of that means. That just made my month.
Starting point is 00:24:29 Tony, so in your book, the first time I read through this, and I'm going to hold this up to the screen so you can see my yellow highlight here. I like that. My dog tagged or my earmarked page for this particular quote, because I love to this quote. And this came from Jack Bogle in your book. And the end of the quote says, you put up 100% of the capital. You took 100% of the risk and you got 33% of the return. Explain to our audience what Jack's talking about here in your book. This is, first of all, this is what I was saying earlier about the system. I mean,
Starting point is 00:25:04 when I met Jack, one of the first things he said to me is this after we spent, you know, he invited me for 30 minutes and I was there for four and a half hours. He said at the end, he gave the quote saying, you know, I invited Tony over for 20 minutes or 30 minutes and he goes, four hours later, I had the most intense interview of my 65-year career, but we became good friends. And one of the things he said to me is Tony, he said, you really, I think, could educate people. And he said, if you're going to make a difference, you've got to show people the impact of fees. He said, especially in the 401K space everywhere, but in the 401k space, because that's where 90% of Americans have their money. It's in their
Starting point is 00:25:35 home and it's in their 401k space. And the abuse in this system is just insane. So before I answer your question, let me get people a context. Here are these companies. I mean, Imagine let's take 401K, where everybody puts their money, the majority of Americans put their money. It's a $6 trillion industry with a T trillion. Up until four years ago, they didn't have to tell you what they're charging you. What industry on the face of the earth can take your money without telling you what it is, and you'd accept it? And as a result of that, 71% of Americans still think their 401k has no fees. There's no bigger lie on the planet.
Starting point is 00:26:09 And so four and a half years ago, almost five years ago, the Department of Labor changed the rule and said, you have to show people what they're being charged, which is like exciting. But how did the industry respond? They're not going to give up this cash flow. So they come up with 30 to 50 page disclosure documents that if you got a PhD in finance, maybe after four hours you can find all the hidden fees, which are usually about 17 of them. You know, Forbes put out an article that shows the average person in their 401k is paying 3.25%. They'll get Vanguard and they'll charge you two and a half points hidden inside there.
Starting point is 00:26:43 management fees, they call it. Vanguard, you can get for, you know, five basis points, five one hundredths of a percent for those that understand what I'm talking about. That's like, do you want to buy a Honda cord for $30,000? Or would you rather pay $800,000 to the same car? There are people living next door to each other paying thousands percent more than the person next door for the same product.
Starting point is 00:27:02 So you can solve this if you wake up. So here's what Jack was explaining. The average fees, Jack went really conservative. He said, what if the average fees are only two and a half percent? He goes, I know they're more. But let's be super. for conservative. Over an investor's lifetime, that puts 80% of the compounded returns in the hands of the manager, not the investor, and yet most people put their money in a mutual fund.
Starting point is 00:27:24 But what happens is 96% of all mutual funds don't match the market. They fail to match the market. So you're paying all these fees for nothing, for underperformance. And it's going to somebody who's not doing anything to your advantage. I mean, here's how it works. And I'll give you the math now. So Jack said, think of it this way. Let's assume that you make a one, investment of $10,000 age 20, and it's going to grow in the market at 7%. The market's produced 8% over the last 20 years. We'll call it 7% to be conservative. He said, you know, by time you get to the retirement age like me, that's $574,464.
Starting point is 00:27:59 But if you pay 2.5% in fees, and most people are paying 3.5 to give you an idea. The total management fees and the other expenses also compound. And so you end up not with 574,000, you end up with 140,000 in the same period. So you put up 100% of the capital, you took 100% of the risk. They got 439,000, you got 140 grand. That's 77% of your returns are going to somebody else who's usually underperforming. It's insane. So this is the big underpinning that if you talk to somebody like Jack Vogel or David Swenson at Yale,
Starting point is 00:28:33 who's the greatest institutional investor of all time, you'll tell you the greatest ripoff on the planet are these mutual funds. And it's all because there's no way they can beat the market after fees. It just doesn't matter how smart these guys are, and they're not that smart. You look at the hedge fund industry. I mean, it's been decimated in the last six or seven years because it doesn't match the market. They charge 2% plus 20% of your profits. It's the biggest scam on the planet. Unless you got a Ray Dalio or Carl Icon or, you know, a Warren Buffett.
Starting point is 00:29:00 Outside of that, these guys, there's a few players that are unicorns in the whole world. The rest of them do not win over time. So, Tony, in continuation of that discussion, I would like to talk about your first book. Money Master the Game back from 2015. One of the key concepts that Preston and I took away from that book was Redalio's All Weather portfolio max. You talk about how stocks were only one among several asset classes. Now in Unshakeable, the main focus is on stocks, even though that you also briefly mention other asset classes and how you can mix that into your portfolio. But regardless, what has changed, if anything, in the market?
Starting point is 00:29:43 And say that you are reassessed investors, then you do not follow the market like on a day to day or even a year-by-year basis, but you just want that passive approach. What should you do? I just interviewed Ray Dalio again yesterday. Ray's a dear friend now. And for people who don't know, Ray, I think most of your audience probably does. He's the most, you know, you think about investors. He's one of those successful investors in the history of the world. He's the most successful hedge fund investor in the history of the world, return more capital to investors than anyone alive.
Starting point is 00:30:11 So pretty brilliant man. And he just wrote a book that your audience would probably enjoy. And if they go to Principles.com, he wrote a book called Principles, but he has a new book that is on the market crashes. It's really a template of all the market crashes in the last hundred years. And he shows how he navigated in 2008, not so many other times successfully, when everybody else was decimated. So I think if they want to go deeper than my conversation, Ray's a good place to go.
Starting point is 00:30:37 The reason I put less of him in Unshakeable is just I wanted to go from seven and sixty pages down at 250 they could do in a weekend. So I still mention it. But yes, the market is highly valued right now. But here's what I've learned for context that I think is really important. Nobody. Nobody successfully calls the market over time. Nobody.
Starting point is 00:30:56 You know, Warren Buffett is not a market guy. He's a value guy. And he will tell you he's going to be wrong. Every one of the smartest men in the room, they're not the CNBC commentators that tell you they know what they're doing. Every one of them says to you, this is what I think, but I know I'm going to be wrong. So they do four things, and then I want to create context for you, that, you know, Ray Dalio is a, you know, completely different investor than Jack Bogle, than David Swenson,
Starting point is 00:31:18 then Burton Alkeld, then Carl Icahn, they all do it differently. But what they all had to come over four things. One, they all are obsessed with not losing money. And they don't do that by trying to time the market. Like if you talk to Ray right now, yesterday he told me, he said, listen, where we are in the business cycle, he says, I could be wrong, but I don't see you at 2008. Here's why. But I do know in the next two, probably maybe three years, we're going to have a significant correction because that's the business cycle.
Starting point is 00:31:43 And this one's been extended for a long time. And he gave us all the reasons. But he could be dead wrong. He knows he could be dead wrong. So the way they defend that is what I teach is, you know, the most important financial decision is to become an investor, to become an owner, not just a consumer. But the most important investment decision bar none that every one of these men agree with and women, the way you protect yourself as asset allocation. As Ray said it, you know, everybody has a favorite investment. you grew up as a kid and your family was constantly rehabbing homes to try to make money,
Starting point is 00:32:12 then real estate's your gig because you were reinforced forever. If somebody gave you a stock at 12 and you still own it, you're a stock guy. But I don't care what asset class you have or how smart you are or how well you've done over time. There is a day when that asset class, every asset class will drop 50 to 70%. And if that's later in your life, you're completely screwed. So we all know we've got to diversify. But it's really how much goes in risk assets where the upside's unlimited, but the downside's unlimited.
Starting point is 00:32:38 What percentage of those assets go in less risky environments that have less return, but through time can still compound? And as you well know, that has to do with when you need the money, you know, what's your risk tolerance? And, you know, how much access to you have cash flow are factors that influence that. But the first thing is most investors are obsessed of trying to make money. These guys, to a man and to a woman, are obsessed with not losing money because they know if I lose 50% in a market,
Starting point is 00:33:04 it doesn't take 50% to get even. But if you had 100 grand, you ask the average person, you lost 50%, how much do you got to get to back? And I'll say 50%. No, if you had 100 grand it drops to 50, now you do 50% improvement. You're at 75. You're still 25,000 in the whole. It takes 100% improvement. So these guys know that.
Starting point is 00:33:21 And they defend it by asset allocation because they know they're going to be wrong. Second, they're all obsessed with this whole concept of how do I get the least amount of risk with the most amount of return. Right. And so this mindset, most people think billionaires are people. took gigantic risks and they got lucky or had balls of steel and test of fortitude. That's not how 99% of them do it. They all do this by looking at things and saying, I want to have a risk ratio where I am really, I'm asymmetrical. I have asymmetrical risk reward, very little risk with gigantic potential upside if it works. So for example, I've coached for Paul Tudor Jones for 24
Starting point is 00:34:01 years. Not lost money in 24 years at what he does. Pretty amazing. How does he do it? Well, part of it is, you know, when I met him, he had some challenges and he'd left one of the principles. I dug it out that he'd live by, and it was five to one. If I'm going to risk a dollar, I want to try and make five. I know I'm going to be wrong a lot of the time, but if I'm wrong, I can risk another dollar. I'm still making a ton of money on five. He can be wrong four times out of five and still be okay, whereas the average person is trying to get that 10 or 12 percent. He knows he's not going to get every time, but he goes for it. I'll give you a better example. fast, you guys probably know of. Pretty famous because in, you know, the worst economic time in the last,
Starting point is 00:34:36 you know, 80 years, you know, in the middle of 2008, 2009, he took $30 million and converted into $2 billion. How do he do it? Well, he bet against real estate. Everybody thought real estate's going to go up forever. He bet against it. But here's the brilliant part. He structured his bets with asymmetrical risk reward, which means he never risked more than six cents to make a dollar. You could be wrong 15 times and still make money. That's how you do. take 30 million to make $2 billion in the worst economic time in history. Or one more example would be Richard Branson. I'm lucky enough to be friends with him. And he's such a genius. But if you look at Richard, this is a guy everybody thinks huge risk taker. And he is with his life. I mean,
Starting point is 00:35:16 four or five months ago, almost died on a bicycle accident. He's gone balloon accidents, you know, both accidents. He puts his life on the line. But he never does that investing. His whole thing is, what's the downside? That's where he starts. He doesn't want to lose money. And he's obsessed with asymmetrical risk or warrant. And so when he was starting virgin, big risky thing. You're going to take on one of the biggest British airlines and you're going to buy 10 Boeing jets. So what he did was he negotiated for one full year with Boeing until he got them to agree that if he did not make it in business in the first three years, he could give all the planes back with no economic loss to himself. So look at this. No downside, 100% upside. Well, that makes your business a lot more
Starting point is 00:35:53 comfortable to run than where most people do. Third thing they all agree on is they really want to make sure they're tax efficient because they know it's not the dollars you earn, it's the dollars you keep. So I train all the people that work with me. Tell me what it really is after taxes and after all fees. That's all that really matters, the spendable dollars. You know, you guys know, compounding. You think a dollar and you double it for 20 times, you know, $1, $2, $4, $8,000, it becomes a million and $28,000. But if you just pay 33% in tax each year, most people you say, well, what would that be? If 33% tax and I end up with a million and 48, excuse me, a million 48 with the number, what will I end up with? And people go, well, see, 33% tax or 33% of, you know, a million is
Starting point is 00:36:35 700,000. So you're probably, you know, you're going to still, you're going to lose 33,000, you're going to have 700,000. No, with compounding, you compound the cost. So you end up with $28,000 instead of a million and 48,000. If you just pay in 33% tax, so these guys don't start with tax. Starting to invest based on taxes is stupid. That's not invest. That's, you're getting involved in a scam. But if you found a good investment, believe you're not going to lose money and you're diversified enough, you've got the right asset allocation, and you've got some asymmetrical risk ward, now you want to keep as much as you can.
Starting point is 00:37:06 And so they focus on all the ways to do that. And then finally, the fourth one is really one we all know. It's diversification, but they're obsessed with it. They want to diversify obviously amongst assets. They don't fall in that trap of, I love real estate, I love stocks. They have to diversify because they know they're going to be wrong. but they diversify across assets, nothing in just real estate or just some, but they also diversify within assets.
Starting point is 00:37:27 I don't have one piece of real estate that I put everything in, obviously. They diversify across countries, and they diversify across time. Because you're going to have some timing that's going to be off. But if you diversify in all those ways, even in the last decade, remember where the S&P was basically flat for 10 years, you know, if you diversified across indexes across multiple countries, you know, and if you dollar cost average your investments as an example, just those two diversification. across time and across location, you made an average of 7% compounded through time, even in the last decade.
Starting point is 00:37:58 So there's always a way to win if you understand these dynamics. And all these people are different, but these four things are in common. Don't lose money, asset allocation, make sure you look for as much asymmetrical risk reward as possible, be tax efficient so you keep more dollars and diversify your tail off. Those four things and things they all had in common. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. No, it's not your imagination. risk and regulation are ramping up, and customers now expect proof of security just to do business.
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Starting point is 00:41:25 objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. This and other information can be found in the income fund fund's prospectus at fundrise.com slash income. This is a paid advertisement. All right, back to the show. And perhaps, Tony, if we can add a fifth point to this list, we could talk about biases. It seems like all of us, even the best investors. Since they're human, they are prone to biases, whether it's confirmation bias, overconfidence, reason to be bias, is really just to mention a few. And you're also a very successful investor in your own right.
Starting point is 00:42:01 So I'm curious to hear, based on your own experiences, and of course also the interactions you have for these high-powered super investors, how do you and how do they combat biases? And which type of impact has it had on that portfolio when they have not been successful? I'm pretty obsessed with not letting these biases affect me. And I've gotten much better at that in the last seven years since I started on this with this group of people. Because, you know, when you're around a guy like Ray Dalio, you know, who's, you know, he made money in 2008, when everybody was losing everything, right?
Starting point is 00:42:35 He's, you know, had a, what, a 23% compound of return over 21 years. I mean, he's, you know, he's, when I went to go interview him, I, we were interrupted because he had take a call from the Chinese prime minister, right? He's managing money for China. You know, it's like, this is a pretty wild thing. And so when he says to me, Tony, you know, what kills everybody in business is, you know, confirmation, you know, all the different bias, but confirmation bias. Everybody looks for other ideas right, right, to confirm it.
Starting point is 00:43:01 And he goes, Tony, it'll kill you. He goes, I am obsessed with finding people who are very smart, not anybody, because anybody will disagree with you. All right is going on the web. Everybody thinks they're a genius. But somebody's super qualified as much as I am, but diametrically, I should say, opposed to what I'm doing and wants to argue with me about it. I want to see.
Starting point is 00:43:19 He seeks those people out every day of his life. If you know anything about his culture at his company, it's not for the weak at heart. And everybody's job is destroy somebody else's idea and prove it there because only the best survive. And so that mindset has helped me immensely. Because when I had the beginning, like my worst investment was when I was like 23 or 22, I think it was 23. And I lived in Marina del Rey and I was just starting to grow a little bit, make a little bit of money. And there was a place that Marina Del Rey in LA is kind of a high-end beach community, a lot of wealthy people there.
Starting point is 00:43:53 And there's a little place around the corner called the Barron's Cleaners. And, you know, that was the place where every celebrity went. And so I went there just to be inspired, you know, to leave my cleaning, but see the people coming in and out. And one day this woman drives up in a brand new Rolls-Royce convertible, you know, and she's gorgeous and getting all these clothes. And so I walked up to her and I said, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I said, I can't help but notice you're obviously quite successful. What are you or you and your husband do? And she said, my husband and I saw I was heartbroken. And then she said, we own a penny stock company.
Starting point is 00:44:26 And I said, you got any tips? I'm the dumbest-ass thing you could possibly do. She's making money because they're taking fees like crazy. It's not their investments. And so she gave me a tip and I put all the money I had in it, which was like, I don't know, $4,000, $3,800 or something like that. And I lost it all. I went to zero, right?
Starting point is 00:44:42 I think my good fortune is that I've had painful experiences early on that were small enough that it made me sensitized. And then I got trained by the best people. So, you know, what could be the mistake I'll make today? I've got some brilliant RIAs that I work with. you know, I'm partners with, and I bounce everything off them, but I also have the privilege if I'm thinking about an oil investment, you know, I get to call T-Boon, you know, he's the oil Oracle. If I'm looking at where is the market going, I can go from anybody from Paul Tudor Jones
Starting point is 00:45:10 to Ray Dalio to Carl Icon, and these are the people that, you know, I'm able to call friends now. So it's hard to mess up. In fact, and I have to say most of it was from the implementation of the same systemic thinking that made these guys great investors on the business side. I'm a product of the people that I work with. So I'm far from perfect. But so far things are going really well because I'm surrounded by the best people and I don't make decisions on my own or think I'm the smartest guy in the room because I'm not. The way you started there and you were talking about confirmation bias and how Ray had kind of suggested that was one of the ones at the top of the list. For me, I felt like I learned a lot about all these biases by studying Robert Chaldeany.
Starting point is 00:45:49 I'm assuming you're a fan of Robert Chaldini. I'm a big fan of Chaldini for 30 years. Is there anyone else that you've read through the years that you would put at par or that could also complement some of that information that Robert Chaldeany puts out? Oh, there's so many books that, you know, like the Nudge type books and so forth that will also give you additional tools. But I don't think there's anybody in his class. I interviewed him, gosh, it was 35 years ago for the first time when he first was, you know, at Arizona speaking and, you know, and teaching these principles. I think it was even before influence was out. And he came out with influence.
Starting point is 00:46:22 So I don't think there's anybody better. highly recommend that book to anyone to understand those unconscious tools. But I also think more of his focus is understanding the unconscious tools that trigger you to feel like you're forced to do something, social proof reciprocation, all those things. I think it's really important for you to study the best investors and you guys interview them, so you guys are a great source of it. In Money Master Game, you know, I did 10 of those interviews with some of the best in the world because what you start seeing are patterns that not only what not to do, but also what to do. And I think you need both.
Starting point is 00:46:54 You need the guardrail so you don't go off the cliff. You also know what I need where to steer. You know, I learned to become a racer when I was in my 20s and, you know, went to racing school and I'll never forget. I got what I went to Laguna Seca, not far from you guys are. I got with his driver is one of the best in the world and became a good friend. He goes, I'm going to show you what a car can do. And he sticks me in this car.
Starting point is 00:47:12 And, you know, if you go to Laguna Seca, there's this area where you go, it's corkshire, you go straight at a wall and go around it. We're going 165 an hour straight at a wall. And he showed me what a car can do. at the end, he goes, you know what? You know, in four days, you're going to do that too. And I was like, dude, I mean, this is insane. He goes, Tony, we're not going to have you do that corkscrew on your own.
Starting point is 00:47:31 I'm going to be beside you. And we're going to put you in a spin car. And there's a great metaphor. He goes, before, if you're going to be a great driver, I don't care if you're the best driver on earth, there's going to be a situation out of your control. There's going to be somebody whose car breaks up in front of you, or their tire is going to go through, you know, toward your windshield. Or there's going to be oil in the track you can't see in a wet environment.
Starting point is 00:47:50 He's going to say, so the most important skill in racing, is coming out of a spin. And as he's speaking, I'm thinking, that's the best metaphor for life. Because everyone does well when it's going well. What do you do when you're in a spin, when things are working, when you can crash? And he goes, all you got to remember is,
Starting point is 00:48:03 we're going to be in a car. You're going to drive at 120 miles an hour. And you're going to find out how much concentration that really takes. You know, people think, you know, drivers aren't athletes. They are. You're sweating just from the concentration
Starting point is 00:48:14 and your muscles are flexed. Everything's going. He goes, the minute you lose certainty or lose focus, everybody does, I got four buttons on the right here. I'm going to touch one of those buttons and it'll lift up one of these four wheels and we're going to spin out of control in that direction.
Starting point is 00:48:28 He goes, now, here's what you got to do. He goes, everything in you's going to want to look at the wall because, A, if we hit the wall, minimum there's going to be damage you're going to have to pay for and really bad we die. And he goes, I'm not in control, you are. So he said, you're going to have to really focus. But here's the key.
Starting point is 00:48:44 Come out of a spin. Focus on where you want to go. Don't focus on what you're afraid of. And I thought to myself, no problem. But then I'm going 125 miles an hour at a wall. And all of a sudden, it was a little bit of concentration. He pushes that button. We're spinning out of the wall.
Starting point is 00:48:59 And what do I do? I immediately look at the wall. Because wherever you look is where you steer. Now, he's going to save both our lives. So he physically grabs my head and shoves it to the left where we need to turn. Well, I'm fighting him because I want to see the death happen. Right? It's like, but because he keeps shoving my head, I steer to the left.
Starting point is 00:49:17 Where my head goes is where you steer. And now you're doing the right thing. But you don't get immediately. That's the problem like. You ate like a pig for 30 years. You dieted it for five days. How can I lose more weight? Well, dude, you haven't done this very long, right? And so you're still heading to the wall. So your gut wants to look at it. But he held my head. And sure enough, the final seconds, you know, I'm thinking it's two inches in the wall. It's, you know, like more like 10 feet. And my heart's beaten out of me. He goes, did you get it? I got it. I got it. I didn't get
Starting point is 00:49:43 squat. He took a dozen times for me to learn to just train myself to look away. Now, here's why I tell you the story. Here's my question. If you focus on what you want, or you guaranteed to get it. No. No. But if you focus on the wall, you're guaranteed to hit the wall. Pretty high probability. What we have to train ourselves to do is focus on what it is we really want as investors, as human beings, and not focus on what we're afraid of it. Not because we're guaranteed success, but because we're guaranteed failure if you focus on what you don't want. Yeah. Tony, what a story. Man, it just gives you such a visual on how you can apply that to so many different things that are going on in your life. So I really appreciated that story.
Starting point is 00:50:25 Of course. Thank you for your time. Sir, seriously. Thank you guys. I've really enjoyed our time together. Thank you for your time. I know your time is extremely valuable. And we just want to give you an opportunity to give a handoff to anything that you want to talk about. That's your passion. Well, my, you know, my biggest passion is feeding people. So I think of people listening in, we've already mentioned it. If you'll pick up this book for yourself, I think you'll find great value. for you. I know you will, but also we'll feed 50 families. And once again, if you care about this personally, and you want to donate $10, $100, a million, a million, up to $4 million, I'll match it. If you go to feedingamerica.org for slash, I believe it's Tony Robbins, and we can help feed some people
Starting point is 00:51:07 together. I'm also doing an XPRIZE because I want to feed a billion people sustainably around the world. And so we're bringing some of the smartest minds together and putting together a 15 or $20 million prize. We're still refining it in that area. And then, you know, if, you If you care about other subjects, there's a great group of people that I work with. You know, slavery and human trafficking is with more people enslaved today than any time in human history, a smaller percentage of the population, but more people. And it makes me insane. If it was your daughter, what would you do?
Starting point is 00:51:36 So I work with a group called Underground Railroad, which is former FBI, Seal Team 6 and CIA members that go into different countries and train the police how to capture these guys. I've actually gone on these undercover with them. And it is mind-boggling what can be done. So whether you care about flavory or food or anything, find something that you really care about and make that donation because I can tell you, I don't know anybody. You know, I entered Sir John Templeton about this many times. And he said this to me. He goes, I've never met anybody that's tithed.
Starting point is 00:52:07 I don't, you don't have to be religious who's taken 10% of their income and giving it away over a decade who hasn't become incredibly abundant financially. And I think that most people when they hear about donations or things like this or philanthropists. They go, yeah, well, easy for them. If you're not willing to give a dime out of a dollar, you're not going to give a hundred million out of a billion. I had an experience one day where I was young and I was building my businesses and once again, overestimating what I could do in the year and frustrated. And it was around midnight. I was driving on this place called the 57 freebie in Pomona, California, in Southern California,
Starting point is 00:52:38 not a nice place at the time. And I was so frustrated. I was asking myself, I was driving at midnight. You know, why am I not succeeding? Why is this not happening? And then I all of a sudden I pulled over literally on the side of the freeway and I used to keep physical. hard journals. I still have this journal. And I wrote one sentence on a full page. I wrote the secret the living is giving. And I burst into tears. And I just realized, hey, when I started this
Starting point is 00:53:01 business, it was all about serving and helping people. And now I'm frustrated and I'm not succeeding. It's all about me. And I just realized that's why I was so unhappy and that's why it wasn't going to level I was. And it takes time to build something, you know? And, you know, that started to turn the quarter, but about three months later, I was still in tough financial place. I wasn't a bad psychological place, but I just wasn't resourceful enough yet. And I had, I don't know, 19, 20, 21 bucks. It was around $21. It was all in change and small bills, you know, and I couldn't pay my rent. I'm living this 400 square foot bachelor apartment in Venice, washing my dishes in the bathtub and eating on this hot plate on top of a trash can. It was just, it was terrible. So I went to
Starting point is 00:53:41 this place called El Torito because it was a taco bar. You could have tacos and burritos and salad. I think I'm just going to load up on these carbs. And I left my car at home. I walked three miles to it. It's not a big walk, but I didn't want to pay for the parking. It's like you only got $21 or $19, whatever it was. So I go and I load up. I eat like crazy. And I'm looking out, you know, I went there also because there's these yachts that go by and that was the completely more opposite than my lifestyle. Just reminding me there are people doing well, even though you're not, buddy. So you're missing it's something. And so sure enough, I finished the meal. And right as I'm finishing this gorgeous woman walks in her,
Starting point is 00:54:13 I couldn't help but no, she's just really beautiful. But then I'm waiting to see the guy she's with, and the door behind her that's holding the door as a person half her size. And it's this little boy, and he's probably eight, nine years old, third or fourth grade, if I remember right? And he's wearing a suit and tie and a little vest and held the door for his mom and hold out the chair for her and sat down and gave her total presence.
Starting point is 00:54:34 Like you could just see, he was not distracted. He was there for his mom. And I don't know something about it, just moved me. And so I was on the verge of tears. I don't even know why. it just triggered something in me. And so I wouldn't pay for my meal. You know, it was $5.95.
Starting point is 00:54:47 So I don't know. You know, maybe I had $16, $17 left, whatever it really was at the time. And so I walked up this little boy, and I didn't look at his mom. And I just shook his hand and I introduced myself. And I said, what's your name? And I think it was, I can't remember. It's been somebody. I think it was Charlie.
Starting point is 00:55:00 And so Charlie, I said, you're a class act. I said, you know, I saw how you held the door open for your lady here and how you held the chair for her and how you're so present with her. And I said, that's a man. And you're here taking her to lunch. And I said, then it's even more impressive. And he goes, well, I'm not taking a lunch because, you know, I don't have a job yet. And I said, yes, you are taking a lunch.
Starting point is 00:55:20 And I had no plan to do this. I just reached in my pocket spontaneously, took all the money I had on earth, it's 14, 15, 16 bucks, whatever, and some change. Put it on the table in front of him. And he looked up and his eyes got really big. And he goes, I can't accept that. I said, yes, you can. He goes, how come?
Starting point is 00:55:35 I said, because I'm bigger than you are. And I started to laugh. And he giggled. And I didn't even look at his mom. I just, I didn't do it for that. I walked out of that room, the restaurant, no car, and I kind of skipped home. I probably looked like a total idiot. I was high as a kite.
Starting point is 00:55:49 And, you know, I should have been like, what the F did you just do? You don't have any money for your next meal, right? And that's the way my mind had always been, like scarcity. Yeah. And I went home and I had no fear. I can't even explain it to you. I woke up the next morning. I knew I had no money, you know, and I had no meal.
Starting point is 00:56:05 And I was like, well, fasting, I get fasting for a few days. And I wasn't stressed at all. And then this unbelievable gift comes to me. And the mail, snail mail in those days, right, traditional mail. I get the mail from the mailman around noon, haven't eaten a thing, not worried about it. And I open up all these bills, which is a little depressing. But then I get this personal note, I undo it and read it. And it's this man I loaned $1,000 to three years before who was desperate.
Starting point is 00:56:30 I didn't have a lot of money, but I loaned to him. I chased him for six months because I needed the money so bad. He wouldn't even return my phone calls. And he writes me this long letter apologizing saying, you were there for me when I needed it. And I wasn't there for you. but I am now, and he gave me like $200 of interest. So I had $1,200. In those days, that would last me three, four weeks, right?
Starting point is 00:56:47 So I'm sitting here reading this letter, crying my eyes out, and just feeling such grace, and I was like, okay, so why did this happen? I don't know why it happened, but here's what I decided. It happened because grace came to me because I did what was right. I didn't do it for a woman's attention. I didn't do it for any reason except it was the right thing to do. I knew in that moment it was the right thing to do, and it was a decision made with no thing.
Starting point is 00:57:10 fear. Because, you know, I have a lot of companies now in the early days. Some of these companies were on the verge of bankruptcy during some tough times. I didn't bankrupt any of them, but it was so on the edge. And even in those days, I never went back to this scarcity. I had challenges, but I never had the fear. And so I planted my seeds when I had nothing, and it gave me abundance. And so your listeners, they have something. To teach your brain, there's more than enough and put a systemic way of giving back to something you care about. I don't give it, five bucks or ten Because I talk about this in the book, nothing gives you more joy. Nothing changes your biochemistry because we can measure what happens to you hormonally
Starting point is 00:57:48 in your mouth literally minute by minute these days than giving. If you buy something for yourself, nothing wrong with that. But things don't hold your happiness very long. If you buy experiences, learning experiences, travel, thinking with your family, those have a longer resonance of joy. But all the research shows it's not just my philosophy that we are made to give because when we give, even if you bought coffee for four people in line, you don't know, the joy in that person's body will be there for a minimum of 24 hours, usually multiple days.
Starting point is 00:58:20 You buy something, there's a hit. Maybe when you get in it, there's another hit. But after some short period of time, it doesn't give you the same hit. Plus, it's just not meaningful. So my hope is that the people listening will say, I want to do well and I want to do good. And I don't have to wait until I do well to do good. I can do good now, and that will help me do well, because it'll shift my own psychology. It'll make things richer and more. So I hope people are inspired by this conversation.
Starting point is 00:58:44 I know most your audience probably already is huge givers. But why not do a bit more? Do a bit more just to remind yourself what you're capable of. And I know you cannot give like this and not receive on a massive scale. You cannot not prosper if your life is about adding value to other people's lives. And I hope the people here will take advantage at least of the book for themselves and maybe be inspired by that so they can change their own life. If they don't do anything else, I'm still going to feed 50 families for their effort in reading the book. Thank you, Tony. This was just amazing. Thank you so much for our time today. Thank you guys. I really enjoyed it. Listen, if you want to come to an event sometime as my guest, I love to have you. So I'm doing an event in New York in November.
Starting point is 00:59:22 If you guys want to come as my guest, we'll have 14,000 people there and it'll knock your success. Just let our team. Oh, my Lord. Look on my website. Anytime you want to come, reach out to me and I'll have you guys. Love to meet you in person. If there's anything we can do to help you, Tony, seriously. if there's anything we can do with the marketing of, you know, the movie that you're working on, anything, please let us know. We want to help you in any way we can. You guys are really kind. We'll become good friends. I'll look forward to meeting you personally sometime soon. All right, guys, that was all that Preston and I had for this week's episode of The Investors podcast. We see each other again next week.
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