Transcription
Today I've got something really special, and it's around one word, one key concept. That when I think back of all the things that I do that has caused me to be successful, it's this one word, and the word is courage.
Courage is the way. Courage is required. Courage is the ingredient. Courage is the missing piece. See, nobody does something big, risky without being scared. No, no, no. I wanted you to understand, I am scared most of the time when I'm doing it because there's all these other things that could fall apart. But regardless, I take a step forward. I find the courage to do it. Courage is making a decision not without fear, but in spite of fear.
This weekend I was meditating, and something came to my mind that really kind of jarred me. Because I talk about these concepts I'm going to share with you all the time, and I had to be honest with myself that I wasn't living or playing into the game as big as I possibly can. And I know we can make up excuses. "Well, Dan, if you, if you go after bigger things, then it might sacrifice your family time." But Dan, if you go after bigger things, it might sacrifice your net worth. Dan, if you go after bigger things, it might sacrifice your your your personal time. It might not be enjoyable. You might say, "Well, I build all this stuff so that I can enjoy this quality of life." But here's the thing. I was just playing small. Isn't that wild? I was like, "Man, why do I got to have these thoughts, these ideas?" Well, I know where they come from. I know what they're meant for. I know how to translate the the download, the transmission into action.
So, I call up my business partner, Rody, and I said, "We got to talk." Went to the gym on Saturday, and afterwards we went for coffee, and we sat down, and I designed the business model, the transition of where I knew we had to go. And trust me when I tell you that this is going to be easy, it's not. When I tell you that it's not going to have massive consequence of the current structure of the team, it it will. I'd love to tell you it's going to be easy, no. But I'll tell you that it's going to be a required part because I know. And that's what I want to encourage you to consider. You know when you have courage. You know when you're taking action in spite of fear. You know when you are brave in your pursuit forward, and you know when you're acting out of fear. Fear stands for false evidence appearing real.
So here's what I want to encourage you to consider. The first one is this concept called ratios of risk. Ratios of risk. When you start a business and you think about like how much money you would put in to make a return. Well, would you spend or invest $10 to make $1,000? I'm assuming so. Okay. Well, if you want to make $100,000, are you willing to invest $10,000? Some people have a hard time with that. They're like, "I want to make 100 grand this year in profit, but I'm not willing to invest $10,000." Well, see, I work with a lot of people that, you know, these kids that come to me, "I want to make a million dollars." Well, are you willing to invest $10,000? No. Are you willing? Like they don't even want to invest the time to read a book, but they want to be millionaires. I have guys that I coach that want to make a hundred million, 600 million, a billion, but they don't understand there's a ratio of risk. There's a ratio of how much you're willing to put on the line for the return. Don't tell me you want to build a $100 million business, but then shy away from a five or $10 million investment. See the difference?
A lot of people see my life and they're like, "Holy cow, Dan, you have like a real team and like real offices in a real building and like dedicated full-time, not a bunch of part-time people all over in the Philippines." I'm like, "No, these are like seasoned CEOs. I have multiple people in my life that make seven figures a year, like real real executives, real boards, real investments, real equals risk are required." The ratios of risk are required. Write that down. Really get familiar with this concept. If I want to be a millionaire, am I willing to invest? If I want to make $10 million, am I willing to invest? If I want to make $100 million, am I willing to invest? See what happens if you use absolute dollar amounts, then it gets scary. But if you use ratios of your goals, then it's more relative and it's honest. That's the first one. If you want to have courage, you got to ask yourself, is the ratio of a risk relative to what I'm trying to accomplish? That's number one.
Number two is you got to meet the moment. You got to decide if today is the day where the moment is for you to step into your power, to become the person you want to become, to go after the dream. If if it's right now. Like I want to tell you right now, in this world, there's opportunities for you to go and create something that hasn't been created before in a way that hasn't existed to create it. And you can do it right now. My coach a year ago, about a year ago, he says to me, he goes, "If you're not a billionaire in the next five years, I'll never talk to you again." Well, I didn't have a desire to be a billionaire. I live an incredibly high quality of life. I really enjoy the life I live. But he wasn't wrong. He explained to me his thinking, his thoughts, why he said that. Crazy part is I have it all on camera. I was there with Sam, my creative director and videographer, and he captured it all. And I walked away a bit tormented because I was a little frustrated. Why would he say that? It's not what I asked him for advice on. But in the same moment, I realized that I could. I sat down. I drew the diagram. I drew the process. I drew the thing. And I and I had to make the decision consciously to say, "I got to meet my moment. I got to decide. There's a moment in time right now, this world for me, AI, Martell Ventures, AI Venture Studio, incubating, launching, fostering, supporting companies non-stop. I built the infrastructure. I have the know. I've got 28 years of experience. And I was pretending like I didn't know. I was acting as if I didn't know. And as soon as he challenged me to meet the moment, to build a billion-dollar company in five years, I sat down, I drew the diagram, and I figured out how to do it. Now, I'm still on the process, but so far, we're on pace. It's wild.
So, when's the last time you were asked to meet the moment? Did you did you step up into it? Did you decide enough's enough? I'm sick and tired of being mediocre. I want to be great. I want to be one of the greats. I want to go create something that's magical in this world. I want to go create something because of who you are. Like, when's the last time you realized that you're allowed to want to create something for no other reason other than the fact that you know you can create it, that you were meant to create it, that you're alive, you're a creator, you were born to create. It is a big idea to ask yourself, am I willing to meet the moment? That's number two.
Number three, this is a big one because a lot of people have the hard a hard time being courageous because they are scared of what's the downside? What if I try to step up into my power and I embarrass myself? What if I offer to help somebody to be successful and I fall short? You know, a lot of people are more comfortable supporting other people than doing the thing for themselves. They give better advice to other people, maybe you can resonate, than they do taking it for themselves. They they'd rather step out of their way to help other people win than do the work to see them win. Interesting. Big reason is they don't feel worthy because I mean, they're just worried to let people down. But here's what I know, and this is why I call it intentions of result. Your confidence, the bravery, the the courage comes from your intentions, not your possessions, not your results, not your accolades, not the things you've done in the past, not your history. All that stuff back there is not your worth, is not your ability to step into your power. Your intentions are. Look, if you start a project with somebody you admire and you tell them at the beginning, "Hey, I want to do this for you. My desire is to see you win. I want to I'm going to put all my resources behind it. There's a chance it may not work, but I want you to know my intentions are pure and I want to see you win." If somebody said that to me and we were working on something and it fell short, I'd be like, "That's cool. We tried." See, a lot of people don't even try out of the fear of potentially hurting somebody or failing somebody or whatever. But the truth is is that if your intentions are good, then the person won't be mad at you. Unless they're not a nice person, you probably don't want them in your life. It's kind of a crazy idea, but I want to encourage you to consider that your intentions are your confidence. Your intentions is your courage. Your intention is where your bravery comes from. If you wake up every day, make it about other people, and your intentions to help people, and your intention to put yourself in places that scare you, but you decide to do that anyway, and you go for it, that's how you win.
So, here's the thing. I want you to choose some area of your life. It could be like in loving relationships if you're single. It could be financial if you're scared of rejection. It could be something. But I want you to add a habit because I'm more interested in the habits, not the hacks. A lot of people ask me, "What's the hack, Dan, to get to a million in my first year as a young person?" No, no, no. Let's talk about your habits.
So, here's the habit to build courage. Whatever that area of your life is that you want to amplify or grow, I want you to make a commitment daily to putting yourself out there. So, for example, yesterday I was doing a car meet up with a bunch of kids, and this kid came up to me, has a marketing agency, and he's super nervous, and he says, "I have a hard time talking to people. I get super in my head, etc." I said, "Well, you just got to get more reps. You got to get exposure therapy." The way you do that is for him as he goes out and about in society, he's going to ask for a discount. When he goes to buy a coffee at Starbucks, he can say, "Do you guys do um, do you guys do Canadian discounts? Do you do new? Do you do nice guy discount?" I don't care what you say. I want you to ask for a discount. He's like, "Really?" I said, "Yes." You got to get reps.
If you're single, this is my homework for you. You have to approach people and ask, "Hey, are you single? Hey, do you come here often?" You need to talk to people. It was super awkward. Yesterday I was on my road bike, and I stopped to get some Starbucks, and this woman talked to me as I was waiting. She asked about my clip-in pedals, and we had small talk, and then I went sat down and pulled out my phone to get some work done before I jumped back on my bike. And she came over and she said, "Hey, excuse me. You know, I'm not sure, is that a wedding ring or are you married?" And I said, "I'm very married. Very married." Um, and I said, "Thank you." Because obviously she was interested. And she was a very attractive, athletic person. And she goes, "You know, it's really hard to meet other people similar age that are into because I was wearing my my road biking gear, they were athletic." And I said, "No, I totally understand." And I said to her, and honestly, kudos for asking because honestly, most women don't approach men. Most men definitely, I mean, most men are usually the ones that approach women. But I'm just saying in general, if you want to change something in your life, you have to ask yourself, what's the habit if I did every day, it would make it unreasonable for me not to achieve that result? Where in my life do I have to add a habit to be more courageous? That is your homework. And I want you to leave a comment below and let me know what it is. Where are you going to decide enough's enough? That the risk ratio needs an investment. That the moment right now is meant to be met. And that your intention to win is all you need to be worthy of it. Tell me what habit you're going to change.