Transcription
The truth is, the thing that you've been chasing for so long—perfect amount of money, the perfect body, the highest status—this isn't actually what you want.
By all accounts, I'm considered a successful person. I've started nine businesses and sold a couple for a solid six-figure profit. I built this YouTube channel to almost 300,000 subscribers in 3 years. I'm a professor with an MBA and most of my PhD completed. I've competed at the highest levels in sports, and I've helped thousands of people reach Financial Freedom with my methodologies. Even after all this, I wondered why I wasn't content. It's taken me 36 years to figure all this out, and I'm going to save you decades of time to just share my insights with you. Today is actually my 36th birthday, so I thought I'd jump on here and just share some thoughts with you. I'm going to open up a little bit more about me, so this is going to be a bit more of a personal video, so I hope you enjoy it. Gary Teague asked a bunch of questions that I've received numerous times in the comment section, so I'll touch on some of these later in the video as well.
We all do this. We all tell ourselves, "I'll be happy when..." I'll be happy when I make $10,000 more per year. I'll be happy when I lose 10 pounds. I'll be happy when I reach Financial Freedom. If that's true, why aren't more rich people happy? Why are they often more stressed out than people who have few? It's because happiness isn't found in a number. It's not found in any one accomplishment. The problem is that the financial world and industry lies to us all. It makes us believe that when we have enough money, then everything's magically going to be okay. When your house is paid off, life will be easier. When you have enough money to retire, you're going to be happy. When you hit that coveted $1 million mark in your investing account, all will be good.
So we set this goal in our mind, and we obsess over it. We work overtime or two jobs or start a side hustle and light a fire up under ourselves so that we can get to this goal. Looking at a compound interest calculator is so fun because it shows you that if you just stash away a bit of money every single month for a foreseeable future, it's going to grow to so much, and at that point, you're going to reach your goal. $400 per week into the S&P 500, that historically appreciates at a total return of 10% or more, will grow to $789,500 in 30 years. That's awesome because you'd only put in a total of $144,000 over that time period. And it would have grown over $640,000 more—amazing! But what if I put more in? What if I put in $1,000 per month? Now, within 30 years at a 10% average appreciation, that will have grown to $1,973,288. I will have only put in $360,000, and it will have grown over $1,600,000 in all—compound growth—wow! What if I just put in a little bit bit more? You see, enough is not really ever enough, if we're truly being honest, especially if that goal is just a monetary number. You can always have more, and really that's not even the worst part of this.
In pursuit of this compound growth, at some point you work day after day. You save some of that money and put it away to invest. You try to make more money to then invest with. You keep going and keep going, working towards the goal and doing the plan. You know that 30 years from now it'll all pay off. Then boom, 30 years fly by. You're now a millionaire—congrats! What did you lose along the way though? The most valuable asset that any of us will ever have: time. Time's something we can never get back. We can always go and make more money. We can always go and accomplish a new goal, but we can never get one second back.
So, Professor G, you obviously teach on this whole idea of finance and of compound growth and long-term wealth building. How can we still be a high-achieving individual, build a high net worth, accomplish goals, but still be mindful of the most important asset of time?
One huge thing that I learned about myself in these last 36 years is this important truth. Early on, I started my first business, which was a supplement shop of like protein and creatine and things like that back in college. I built that thing up, and within about 3 years, that thing was profiting way more than I ever thought possible—possible. I could have definitely just stayed at that supplement shop, made a comfortable living, and been totally fine. But instead, I got bored, and I sold it. I did the same thing with a gym that I built up for about 10 years. That thing was profiting enough to make a comfortable living. It was also fun just being in a gym environment, but at a certain point, I just thought, "Okay, I'm done with this," and I sold that one. The end goal of actually making it and hitting to the point where it's a well-oiled machine and just making money where I don't have to work quite as hard isn't as gratifying as I ever thought that it would be. I learned that I love the climb more than the accomplishment. I find joy in the journey.
So what do you need to understand about yourself? We were all created uniquely, and we all have something that makes us tick. So I want you to take some time and just think: what matters most to you, and how can you make sure that you're doing that specifically?
Back to that question from Gary Teague: a couple things I've intentionally placed in this office. Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. This is my lifeblood in all things. I never lose. My friends and family will tell you that I'm a pretty competitive person in pretty much all areas of life, and I've actually said audibly to them, "I don't lose," and I truly believe this. One can only lose if they give up, and if what they just struggled through or momentarily failed at didn't teach them anything. I said, "I don't lose." I never said that I don't fail or haven't failed. I've failed in business, in investing, in relationships, but I haven't truly lost because I learned from it and came back 10 times stronger, which helped me in all of my next ventures.
The man in the arena, right here behind me, is a speech from Teddy Roosevelt. It basically says that there's going to be naysayers, there's going to be some keyboard warriors leaving some rude comments, there's going to be people that are actually praying for your downfall, but what truly matters is the only ones that actually enter into the arena and actually do the work and actually try are the ones that can actually say anything. It's not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who's actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. I'd rather try and fail than have never tried and then just be sitting there wondering what could have been if I actually gave it my all. Go out there and try! I tell my students all the time: go out there and fail fast. Do what you think that you need to do in order to succeed and give it everything you got, and if you do momentarily fail, at least you fail fast, so you can learn very quickly what is the reason why you just failed, or what is the reason why this isn't working at this point. Fix that thing because now you have data, you have actual reason and things to work on to make it better. Fix that, and you'll probably become a wild success.
One big thing for me that helps me enjoy more of my precious time is understanding my priorities. For me, that's starting my morning slow, usually with a cup of coffee and the Bible. I try to start my morning with gratitude, knowing that I'm blessed to be able to live this life, have this platform on YouTube, meet so many amazing people with my private Financial coaching business, and get to teach brilliant young minds at the University. While work is important and demanding at times, you have to understand that you're in control of your own life. To me, spending time with my loved ones is my biggest priority, specifically with my fiancée. I want to be fully present when I'm with her, and so in order to prioritize my time with her, I need to finish all of my business stuff and actually wrap it up so that it's not in my mind when we hang out. I have to be intentional about scheduling my day and making sure that everything gets done, because if I pack it too full and there's things that overlap, even though I stop working, it's not necessarily out of my brain. And this is something that I just had to learn, and I'm still kind of learning, to be honest. But I used to add way too much onto my plate, thinking that I could do more than I could actually sustainably do, and it used to creep into my time with her or with other loved ones. This wasn't healthy, and it wasn't sustainable, and it's something that I'm definitely working on.
My next priority is working out and staying fit. We only get one body, so we need to take care of it. It's not worth it for me to work an extra hour rather than get to the gym for that hour. Yes, I could probably make more money if I was working for that hour, but I care more about quality of life and being healthy, and to me, I need to move my body in order to feel that way. You're in charge. No one's coming to save you. You have to control what you can control. You can't control necessarily what's going to happen, but you can control how you're going to react to what happens. Until you take full ownership of your life, life is just going to keep happening to you, and it's probably not going to feel so great.
The other couple of things that I have surrounding me here in this office is this Gall Barcelos and then also that drawing right there. This rooster is big in the Portuguese culture, and my heritage is Portuguese, as my grandfather grew up there, while my grandmother's from Spain, which may be a reason why I love La Liga or the Spanish Premier Soccer League so much, and that's why I have that Real Madrid ball right there—Hala Madrid! As far as that drawing, my brother's a big-time artist who has worked with awesome companies like Adidas and has like 40-foot murals in multiple countries all across the world, so I had him draw me something one time, and on the drawing it says, "It ain't heavy if it ain't heavy," and to me that just goes perfect with my mindset of, yeah, it might be heavy or this thing might be hard, but you just got to get through it, and you got to push it, and you just got to call it like it is and just keep moving. All of these things remind me of family, and I love to keep family close.
I learned over the last 36 years that it all comes down to balance. Getting rich is great, but at what cost? That's why I made this channel called Investing Simplified, because the financial world is just too complicated, and it's taking people so much time, effort, and anxiety to figure all this out, so I wanted to simplify it for the masses. You can get amazing returns and understand your finances and absolutely take charge of your own financial future with just a couple of easy steps and by somebody helping you by simplifying the information, and that's my goal for this channel. I'm down to be that person for you, and I hope to keep doing this for as long as God allows.
I'm very interested right now: what's the biggest lesson you've learned in your life? Be awesome to have a little library of comments down below that we can help each other out. After writing out that comment, go ahead and watch either one of these two videos to keep you going strong in your investing journey. Remember to keep investing simplified.