Transcription
Well, Dan, good to have you here, my friend. Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me. Uh, you know, it's it's a pleasure to have you here. You talk a lot about high performance and and help people really get to become the best versions of themselves. And you know, I I watch the way that you grind, you do this, and you've been doing it for a long time. How do how do you keep yourself motivated? The average person can't keep them motiv themselves motivated even in their 20s and 30s, and here you are, you know, just still driving harder than anybody.
Um, I'll be 80 my next birthday, which you may or may not uh, Paul and I've been doing this 54 years, and um, the um, but I'm still I still have fire in my belly. I've tried to retire three times. I moved to a 15th-century storybook home, Guri Castle, uh, in 1984, thinking that I I had made quite a bit of money, uh, that I thinking I I'm done. I just want to play golf and bounce the grandkids I didn't have on my knee, etc., etc.
Um, and uh, I realized that wasn't fulfilling. I wasn't such a great father; I'm probably less of a grandfather, uh, because I'm always in the hunt. And uh, this is my third meeting today; I have two more meetings uh after this meeting. Wonder what you know about, thank you very much, and um, that's just the way I am. I've got a lot of drive still. When I was your age, uh, and this is no [ __ ] 10 to 12 meetings a day for a minimum of 10 years straight, arguably 25 years straight, for 26 years. I never took a day off, including the day that I got married.
You worked on your wedding day, correct? How did that how did that go?
Well, um, um, my wife, um, we like her parents thought she cut the deal with a devil, me. And I said, uh, just pulling information out of the air, I said, "We're going to get married, we're going to have a bunch of kids, I'm going to put you in a castle, you're never going to have to work, we're going to have Butlers and all the things, uh, jet planes, uh, and all that came to fruition. Uh, the um, but interestingly enough, the richest woman in China, who I happen to know, hasn't taken a day off in 29 years, and I met her back three or four years ago, and she was interested. She said, "I hear you're trying to break my record." No, ma'am, I've taken days off now. Um, and so I still have the drive, but I'm from U the bar of East LA. I'm a I'm a uh, you know, bio bad boy who turned good, and the um, but more importantly, when I when I took on the idea of coaching 31 years ago, my idea was to create a trillion dollars with the Meatheads, average kid with no money, and show them how you can do it. And uh, when that came to fruition, uh, a number of years ago, the uh, now what am I going to do? Well, now we're at 2.3 trillion, and some of the biggest transactions in recorded history, either I personally did or I did through my Meathead mentee, uh, and I'm still driving hard. I mean, U there's a reason why the three largest Sovereign funds, uh, Norway, Kuwait, and China use me. There's a reason why uh, you know, the U I've met five presidents, whether they listen to me or not, you know, is questionable. Full disclosure, Trump just went a landslide. I've known Donald about 40 years, and the um, uh, the world still has a gazillion opportunities, and um, when the worldwide uh financial markets went 24/7 365 a number of years ago, I could not understand why I want to sleep, because somewhere someplace on this planet you can make money. Okay, uh, some of the ways that the kids make money are questionable obviously, but I mean, um, as long as it's legal, moral, and ethical, and morals and ethics swing in the wind, uh, as long as it's legal and there's a rule of law, um, I don't see how, you know, anybody can't better themselves.
Yeah, well, it's more opportunity than ever for people that want to take advantage of that, but I think the thing that is lost a lot with the younger generation now is the hard work aspect of it, and some of that professional, you know, professionalism like yourself. I mean, you you dress the part, you act the part, you look the part, and I think a lot of that has been lost in kind of today's business world.
Well, the kids today uh feel entitled, whether they're entitled or not is questionable. Um, they feel that my generation or the generation just after me uh [ __ ] the world up, and in a lot of respects they're right; we did [ __ ] the world up. Um, but U if if the the kids today they want to save the world, they talk about climate change, they talk about about the ozone layers, etc., etc. Well, there's plenty of studies that nobody talks about on CNBC or CNN or ABC that, for example, if we if January 1 next year we did everything that everybody wants to do about saving the planet, everything we didn't miss one single thing in 5,000 years, the planet wouldn't be saved. We're beyond the precipice; we're beyond the cusp, but nobody wants to admit it; nobody talks about the goddamn ash that's going to hit us in 181 years, not maybe not perhaps for real. If if I when I was at Oxford speaking a number of years ago and I said, um, "Do you know you talk about um uh gender gender neutral, etc., etc. Do you know if we did everything we could to break the glass ceiling for ladies or uh transgender, etc., you know how many years it would take? 131. Would you still be carrying carrying haers on front of the embassy? No. Do you realize that's just look at each other equally? You know how long the it's going to be equal pay, man, women in it? 171 years if we implemented every single goddamn thing that everybody wants today, 171 years. So so is it just is it just a political thing? Is it a scam? Like why are people pushing these agendas so strongly, like climate change, for example? Money. All these guys are making money. Uh, most of the automotive world hates Elon Musk because he put the his foot up their ass about electric cars. M uh uh Aerospace hates his ass because he he's brought a a rocket back and used it again. Boeing in the Aerospace industry and myself have known you can reuse rockets for almost 50 years. Why isn't anybody do it? Because the government will pay again and again and again. Um, we're we're locked in. I'm not saying we should just give up and roll over and die, but you know, enjoy your lives. I mean, uh, um, the um, this room reminds me uh of um uh I used to be in the movie business, okay, and we used to edit films, okay. Most of the films I couldn't stay awake, but one of the movies I was involved in as executive producer was kigia, okay. Now it would be classified as soft porn, and so uh the um, but that came and went, and then it went to hard porn, and now we have movies that have soft porn in them every on TV. You know, you've got sexual scenes; it's unbelievable. Uh, in 1956 or 57, I was sitting watching TV uh with my dad, and the first tampon Tex commercial, wayam, and my dad went berserk. He said, "This is the end of mankind," okay, about five four five lers the first tampon commercial went on, okay. Now they teach women how to put tampons on on TV. Does anybody really care except they represent 51% of all money spent, so they have to cater, so they're catering markets, and we're being driven by algorithms. Fortunately for me, there's still no algorithm for 100,000 transactions like I've been involved in, uh, and there's still no not an algorithm uh for uh the people I met. But to get back to your original question, I have the energy because I'm still excited. You know, I'm uh I'm going to be this excited for my next meeting. I'm going to be this uh this excited for my dinner meeting. Hopefully my w wife will calm me down. I told you I have a lot of free time now because I expected to win in the election, and I expected to be in Parliament. We were going to buy a house in London, uh, and I was going to because I I'm a UK citizen as well as a US citizen, and uh the so she's dragging me to the Eagles and Adele. I didn't know who the [ __ ] Adele was, uh, now that we're here in Vegas, and so uh she loves it; she she she says this is the first five years I'm going to have of you in decades since we were kids.
How does that feel for you?
Well, I'm I'm pissed off; I lost the election. I would be a disingenuous old man if I said I I wasn't pissed off, but uh it allows me to spend more time with uh people like yourself, doing podcasts, and you know, I do these for free, and I know the kids, and I call everybody kid because I'm either old enough to be your father or grandfather. The kids are monetizing these; I didn't even know what monetized meant a few years ago, and he said, "You know, damn, these guys are making money off this," so what? God bless him, you know, uh, as long as it's not pornographic, but there are now podcasts on not my voice, AI generated. We're going to court; they're pretending to be you.
Yeah, yeah. My face and saying words about the Holy Scripture, and that's not me, okay, and we're going to court in four places in the United States and two places in Europe uh to have them taken down.
Wow. But it's not you know, but when they come out of uh Pakistan, it's almost impossible to take them down.
Yeah, well, so where is the opportunity today for the young man that's just getting into business? And you obviously been doing this for over 50 years, but what would you spend your time and energy on if you were just in your 20s right now, looking to get into the business world?
Healthcare. Um, one of my mentees, the current senator of Florida, Rick Scott, um, when he left me in the late 80s, he says, "Damn, what can I do?" And I said, "Internet," which is morphed uh now into uh uh the um uh the various parts of the internet, and I said, "Healthcare." 40 years ago, Healthcare grew at 3% a year worldwide. This year it's going to grow at 26% worldwide. Wow. By 2030, it's going to be GR in the low 30s worldwide. We're all getting we don't want to die; we're not as poor as the world uh thinks; we have money to pay for things, uh, and the um it's it's it's just a burgeoning. When I first went into Healthcare 51 years ago, it there was maybe five verticals; now there's 500 verticals that you can make money. You can make money now. Doctors make money by treating patients like this. I'm not too comfortable with this. I show him my hand; I got a scar; I want him to look at me and touch me, you know, and poke me. Um, but there's there's there's money. As I I was telling my driver coming over here, I I started coming here in 60 in the late 60s, okay, and Vegas didn't look like anything like it looks now, uh, just uh five years ago when I I I did a seminar here. The Vegas doesn't look the same; it's it's a Burg City. You have sports teams and all the things that were never planned for back in the day when bucksy SE go came up with the idea in the late 40s, uh the right now uh Healthcare um with no money uh everything's free on my website; I don't sell anything; I you know, I my life's divided into three parts: pro bono, charity, and managing my assets that we're in the process of giving away through our foundation. Um, but for the kids like you, um, but it takes sacrifice. I was asked in Forbes that's doing a documentary uh that'll be released next year, uh, "What's the single one thing that you could determine or point to that is your success?" I snap back immediately: the 100 the countless 100 to 120-hour work weeks for decades for decades. You know, I don't know Elon Musk, but he said not recently, a number of years ago, "You give me somebody that works 100 hours a week, and uh he will by accident accumulate and manufacturer or whatever the term is uh two to two and a half times more the guy that only works 40 hours a week." And if M really gets into the admin Administration, really...
Mhm.
Rumor on the street at least 20 to 40,000 jobs less in Washington DC. That'd be amazing. 20 to 40,000 efficiency uh which the government I don't know if it's ever seen, maybe in George Washington's time it was more efficient. Um, but he he Trump is surrounded by guys, he is crazy, and he does uh his alligator mouth overloads his hummingbird ass uh un often very often basis as as does mine.
Yeah, well, why do you think the country, you know, uh rebounded and put Trump back in office? What do you what was your take on just the whole election?
Because they had enough. Yeah, they couldn't take it anymore. Yeah, left him no option, and and and not that I feel sorry for the Democrats, but they had really no option because if they had all this money raised for Biden and and Harris, she was going to get the money or I'm sure she would have gone to court, and they but who would they have put in her place?
Who?
Well, they didn't have anybody. Yeah, plus they didn't have any money, and we were short on time, so I I don't know. Um, uh, having lost an election uh recently, I I went for 20 almost 30 years saying, unlike you in the audience, "I can't remember the last time I lost." I can't say that anymore because the wound still not healed up yet, but um, so I know what it feels like, but it took me an hour to recover. The worst part of the loss is my daugh was visiting me, and I came down to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, she and she's all sad looking. "What's wrong, honey? Your dog die or something?" "No, Daddy, you lost the election." I said, "Well, that's sweet, honey, but it's all right." It took me an hour to recover. Yeah, it was I spent 21 months, and it failed, so no, I'm off to the new thing, and I got a lot of free time to do your podcast.
Yeah, well, selfishly I'm glad you're here. What uh so what do you think happens next with Trump getting back in the White House? What do you think will end up, you know, coming about for?
Well, I I heard on CNN and on Fox this morning that the Department of Justice is already ready to fight him now. Why they would do that and publicize it, you know, they want to lead uh and be aggressive, um, because the Department of Justice is the same Department of Justice that thre all those cases, all those cases go away now, they just go away, you know, and we the the government spent tens if not hundreds of millions trying to make sure he didn't get the run for president and try to put him in jail. Well, all that's uh the United States public, I told them that they they think that's a horeshit because now that's not that's not possible; it can't happen. Um, I believe that Trump, having already been in the White House one time, is going to be not cautious, that's the right the wrong word; he's going to run towards the gunfire in a more prudent manner, in a more prudent manner. Um, but he is uh got some big big uh world go kind of guys with him, I.E. Elon Musk, uh the uh I want to thank Joe for endorsing right at the end, uh which I'm sure had something to do with his uh election, and um a few people. I hope somebody in the government keeps track of all the [ __ ] that said they're going to set themselves on fire, of all the asshole that said they're going to buy a one-way ticket, of all the [ __ ] that said they're going to move to Canada, etc., etc., etc. Now, I personally, if I was president, and that's probably why I shouldn't be president and won't be president, uh, would uh, you know, uh Deport him. You flapped your big lips; you're on a plane to Kazakhstan or whatever the uh, but I don't believe Trump's going to do that, although Trump has a tendency to get even, and the example I use about getting even, what are the odds of 55 of your friends MH all committing suicide in 30 months? Uh, that had something to do with your server, Hillary Clinton and her server that she scrubbed. 55 of her advisers and friends somehow all committed suicide in 30 months. It's crazy. Why did the world-class swimmer uh almost to Olympian standards cook of Obama drown in two feet of [ __ ] water the week before his tella book was going to be published? How's that possible? So with all the you know [ __ ] that happens with politics and everything else, what was your motivation to run, and why did you want to um be be in Parliament?
It's one of the only things I've never been involved in. I've been offered four times in the United States to run for um office, two times for governor in California, two times for governor in Texas, and I was always too busy. I was in my late 70s, and I said, "Well, I'll spend my early 80s in politics and see what I can do." The one thing I can tell you, um, I had five town hall Town Hall meetings, all of which were successful, and I told him um wrongfully, I told him, "There's going to be blood in the streets; somebody's got to make sacrifices. You don't want to have taxes raised, and you don't want to have benefits cut on the old veterans, etc., but something's got to give." And the new uh regime in the United Kingdom is doing all those things, so whether they'll be in the office more than five years, but I I don't want to say I want to give back, but um through the million plus people that I've created a trillion dollars with, um, if you want to save the world, God bless you, go save the world, but and so I'm living vicariously uh whereas uh I have three kids, all grown successful adults, um they're beyond me being able to influence now; they got their own lives. I have grandkids, U but I'm still influencing uh the world through the couple million people that I've influenced, and money is not everything; it's not it's the only thing anybody keeps track of, but if you want to change your world, it starts some place, and normally starts with an idea, then money, and sometimes money then the idea. So watching Trump, you said you've known him for over 40 years. What have you what did you what have you learned from him in business and life?
Well, I didn't learn from him, but the difference between him and almost everybody that's listening to this podcast, he never gave up; he doesn't know that word NE do I.
It's true.
Yeah, he never gave up. A lot of [ __ ] hit him; a lot of [ __ ] hit him. What is that? How do you keep persevering or push through the ball buster? What about you, like when hard things happen or you know you have bad things happen to you or whatever, how do you keep pushing through that?
Um, my dad only gave me two bits of advice, both were golden. I got in a lot of trouble; I CRI tried to kill my teacher in grade school. I mean, it's all online; it's no big secret. He says, "Danny, it's not what people tell you; it's how you interpret what they tell you." And through my 11 and CH cherishing mom, I was able to put a positive SW spin on being short, fat, Mexican, a product of an illegal alien. Now you got to be real creative to put a positive twist on that when you know self-esteem is built the first seven or eight years of life, okay, and I'm taking all this crap because my mother and my grandmother came across the the Border as illegal 1924 from Mexico, uh, and so uh we lived in a uh not 100% illegal but almost 100% illegal uh East LA, uh just uh West excuse me, just east of uh Dodger Stadium. Congratulations, Dodgers, about time. Went and went finally. Um, the other thing that he uh uh instilled in me is never quitting, never quitting, just keep pushing, just keep pushing in the uh and running running towards the gunfire. Yeah, he served in two wars; I served in one. 61% there was a vote in the UK four or five months ago, if Putin invaded Europe, M how many between 18 and 38-year-old men in the UK would serve or fight for Brit? 61% said no. I'd ask the same question in the US; probably will be even lower than that. We got big mouse here, but you know, right now 80 almost 80% of the kids that try to get in the military can't uh um qualify either because uh they and this is awful thing to say, they can't read and write, uh they can't do the physical exercise, etc., etc. The um everybody not everybody that's that's but the people that want to succeed, they don't want to have to sacrifice anything to or sacrifice within the limits that are now considered strenuous. Um, in Europe, the the work week is moving towards 28 hours, 28 hours, 28 hours. Wow. In France, maybe 24. That's I mean, you do the numbers. Um, the when I used to come here uh in the in the late 60s, the uh when Vegas was a just embryon not embryonic but it was just at the beginning, I mean, um, you had double shifts on 12 off 12, and U I don't know if anybody does that anymore.
Yeah, I think it's never been easier to get ahead if you're willing to do the hard work. I think that's, you know, something that I've learned and and that I'm grateful for is that that work's never been the issue, like I'm never afraid to put your head down, and when you know that you kind of just have a confidence about no matter what's going on around you, if the world's going a little bit chaotic, you don't mind because you know that you're the asset that if you put your head down that you're going to rise to the top of that.
Well, from chaos comes order, and uh the world is chaotic; there's 41 wars currently on the planet. Wow. We're F and I'm not saying wrongfully focused in on uh Gaza and Ukraine; I'm not saying that's wrong, but there's 39 other wars; there's uh seven or eight wars in the African continent, okay; there's two or three wars in the South American continent; uh um there's uh four to seven wars, depending on what what you classify War uh in Asia, but nobody writes about them; nobody reads them, you know, talks about them; they're not important, and I'm not saying those two other two words that I've alluded to are not important, but Jesus, the news, it it was interesting when uh Trump had 266 electoral votes; they kept it at 266 all night till the next morning, right? Okay, and they still there's three or four states they haven't called yet, and he last time I looked it was 290 something, and he's ahead in all those States; he's going to have 320 three. I mean, it was obvious that the people were pissed off, and one of the reasons I know this is because I talked to universities un University of Pennsylvania, University of Florida, uh, and uh the Naval Academy should be Pro uh government, uh, and the kids have had it up to here; they did they don't want anymore of the [ __ ], but the other side of it is POL politicians have been lying since forever, yeah, through I mean the media; it's like there's no trust in that anymore; it's it's one of the reasons why I think people have gravitated to what you know a lot of what you do because the clips go viral because you're so honest. You have a very Brash way of just saying the thing that nobody else... some of my Clips have been banned by YouTube in foreign countries; they're not banned in the United and and I look at the YouTube, and I they ask me uh or ask cat is there anything we can do? We've been banned; we you know, and they're monetizing it; it's ET, and he said, I look at it said [ __ ] I wasn't harsh.
I said the S uh you know, or the c word a couple times. I said [ __ ] a couple times, um, but now I mean it's will this uh make uh news less liberal? I doubt it. A lot of the news organizations, since I watched it since the election, they're digging in their heels; they they want to fight. Well, I I can guarantee you now that Trump's not running again, I mean he's he's going to give him a fight. MH, you know, and uh will he close down the various regulatory bodies that are so liberal to get them away? I don't know that. I don't know. He's got smart lawyers, and my uh my um experience with the the current uh uh to be president is decades ago. We same the same lawyers, okay? He used the same law firms that I did, uh, and some extent he still does. And so you know, wealthy people use uh the same representation and uh but I I I I can recall uh the um he said then he wasn't interested in politics, right? You know, he obviously, although when he was really young he said that, you know, I I'd make a good president, but I think his father uh told him was shut up, you know, you have no idea where that's going to lead.
Yeah, I mean you you know, you hinted that you're about to turn 80 years old, so much wisdom in all those different years. Um, what what advice or wisdom do you want to tell that next Generation? What do you you know, what's the message that you're trying to get out to people? Okay, uh, it's twofold. For people that summon middle class, upper middle class, you were told when growing up you can be anything you want to be, Johnny, you could even be president. Well, that's a lie, okay? You can be almost anything you want, but I mean to be president, a lot of things have to be josed to fall into line. Um, and uh education uh is uh still important, but it's not as important as when I was growing up. I only went back graduate from University because nobody in my mom's family had ever graduated uh but University education did me little or no good really, uh, just took two and a half, three years more longer uh before I got out there in the trenches. But today uh challenge yourself with 100-hour work weeks, but if you're not passionate, so long hard work and passion. Uh, a lot of kids when they get out of school, if they go to school uh don't know what to do. I understand that. I was in the military. I was a mil I was a career army officer and then a general officer. God God Rest his soul, with Ron said, you know, Danny, a young man like you could get rich in the civilian World. A light bulb I've told this story a million times went over my head. I never connected the dots, wealth Pena, but and I out of the Army in six and a half months, and the rest is history. And the um because I had been given many many responsibilities you wouldn't normally get as a 21, 22, 23 year old old in the military, uh you would be 45, 50, 60 years old in the civilian world, uh but in the military I was given these and I exceeded at all of them, like you know, because I was always hardworking.
Yeah, always hardworking. So you talk a lot about hard work. Besides hard work, what about you know, networking and and um marketing and all those kinds of things? What's the best advice you have in? Well, I mean there are million oh there are 10 million marketing guys out there. Sure, okay. Uh, most of which are not successful, okay. Uh, the um podcasts are a euphemism that they couldn't succeed in anything else. It's like if you can't do teach, okay? If you go this is three or four years old information, we did the numbers of the of the top then 50 podcasters, and some of them are still there, but for the most part they hadn't done dick besides podcasting. Yeah, ex or in the old days it was putting asses on seminar seats. Sure, okay. Yeah, uh and they haven't done dick now. It depends what the podcast like when we were driving over here, podcast how to go uh collect chicks, become a chick magnet. Some of the guys had done that, okay, but I think it's a sad commentary if you got to go pay with a greatest respect somebody like you to show them how to go get their Willy wet. I mean, what the [ __ ] I mean something's not right. And I've said this countless times, I got more sex in the Beatles. I mean, but if you don't ask you don't get, okay. Now guys are afraid to ask or forbid touch anybody because of all the things you read and uh you know, he he abused me. I said no. I said whatever. Um, but now but now uh have turn for the men in the audience, turn there's a thing called sexual transmutation, the Napoleon Hill wrote about many many decades ago, the same thought process and guys are always thinking about sex. You know, I don't know, I don't know when it ends for me. It ended in my 60s, but about sex, turn that to something else. You be be passionate about and whatever it is is stick to it until you're successful and find somebody that has been successful in that that you which you want to be successful in, not somebody that wrote a book. They used to say when I first started doing the seminars in the 90s, who would you rather be coached by, somebody that read 700 books or did 700 deals? And obviously I was a 700 deal guy, and there was no other 700 deal guy or anybody that had created anything, but most of the kids would rather be liked than effective, okay. Uh uh people can get um uh written about in Facebook where they don't like you or they dislike you, and uh people commit suicide over things like that. I I don't understand that that's so totally out of my uh my realm. But you're the average of the five people you hang around with normally. It's a cherishing mother, maybe a part-time dad, maybe a sibling, okay, maybe a one grandparent and the Kid Next Door, okay? What do those people know about creating high-performance people? Nothing, nothing. Last night I had a drink with somebody I've known since I'm 10 years old, and he were like brothers, okay, and uh we were talking about that, said why didn't you tell me this when I was 15? Why didn't you tell me this when I was 20? I didn't know it then. Well, that's part of the hard part about today's world though is there's so much noise out there, there's so many people that profess to have the answers, and how do you get around those five people that truly know how to help you get to the next level? Well, you you have to in today's world you have to engage in embarrassing activity, you have to risk being told no, okay, you have to be risked get away, Kid, you bother me, uh, and um today the kids are fragile, the kids that complain the most and the the even though they they want to be treated as elitist, um, for sure Trump's an elitist and people um ascertain wrongfully in my opinion he's elitist because he was born rich, his dad left him with however money he left him, uh um but I contend it's that it's the training the father put him through, not the money he got when he was turned 21 or 22 whenever it was, his dad put him in the breach. Um, my dad indirectly put me in the breach uh because he didn't have a father, he treated me like it was a Corporal in his platoon during the second world war, the Korean War, and um but that you can overdo that. U my kids dressed for every meal, Butlers gloves, and you get my kids to go to a formal event over your dead body now. So you can you can't overdo it, but I'm the kind of guy you do 10 reps, I'll do 50. Yeah, you take five pills, I'll take 500 pills, okay? So I'm over you know, I'm OCD uh and ADHD, and so I'm you know, I I think that I know I don't think that I have to do more more uh but it's voted well for me, and here I am almost 80 and I'm in good shape. I went to my 60y year reunion, God forgive my classmates are listening, I looked like the son of my classmates.
Mhm. I fell for him. I mean that's [ __ ] that's shitty. We're all about the same age, and the little cutie PI from my era are not little uh short uh plump grandmothers and in some cases great-grandmothers, uh, and uh the women have fared better in my class than the guys, the guys you know don't look too good, and I'm the only one in the class that said I can't wait till our 70 70 year reunion. The other classmate don't want to have one. Sure. Well, you you know you do take your appearance and and your health and all those things very um you're very intentional about it as far as wearing a suit every day. Is there a reason that you do that? You're always dressed very ni because because when I was young, first of all, I look 10, 15 years younger, and so I want to look older, so I I've tried mustache beers and everything else, of course now it's all gray, uh, and um and uh you were taken more seriously in your job. Um, I didn't wear a tie to school, uh, but I um all the jobs when I was a box boy uh at bonds market for a do five an hour, uh you know, um I'd come with a sports coat, a tie and slacks, and I'd take the sports coat off, but my my mother would dress me up, and to this day you know, uh uh my mother dressed me when I was young, my wife last few decades dresses me, and you're going to go out, people to see you, but of course now I mean waiting outside the hotel, four or five people came up to me last night at dinner and you know they know who I am, sure, and I appreciate all that, and I'm not so snobbish like a lot of the guys push him away, and I don't uh that's why I have a couple million people to follow me, uh, and I'm thankful for that, but you only have two times to make a first impression, one when they see you walk in the door or you walk up to the bar to buy a drink for someone else, okay, and two is when you open your big [ __ ] mouth, okay, and you either stick your foot in your mouth or you say something that's intelligent and uh the uh I tell people that they uh should practice uh go to Toast Masters, uh they should go to improv, these are uh they should they should learn their communication skills because the current last generation and a half have no communication skills because they've lived behind the computer.
Mhm. And even though um the zoom calls help save the economy, it it thwarted uh cognitive growth 25 years at least because you know you you can put a zoom call on hold or oh we've got a bad communication whenever you this is some advice whenever you have a zoom call and they have a picture of themselves and not them, I won't take call like that, okay? There's something not right, uh but Mo most of the kids you know uh have low self-esteem, if any, they're not they have little or no confidence, but that's almost entirely due to your parents first eight years of life. And in business uh you you started General Motors, you started uh British Petroleum, okay? You come in as a junior analyst, you went to University whatever, okay, uh in six months we'll check back when you got your feet on the ground in Elon M's world and Steve Jobs world and Steve who I knew, uh you got six hours to six days to get your feet on the ground otherwise you're thrown out the door. Of course that puts a lot of pressure on the kid, uh but I believe it should you know diamonds are made from pressure, um and but now you're considered uh like the devil. I'm called the Darth Vader of Finance. What did why did they call you that? Because um there are no Second Chances. You know, we all know people in the 12-step program, hi my name is Dan I'm an alcoholic, okay? I've been sober 82 days or I come back next week, uh hi my name is Dan I'm an alcoholic and I slipped I got 14-hour sobriety, okay, and then you do a jelly roll, everybody hugs each other, okay? The business world is not a jelly roll in real business that I'm alluding to, and the ladder up to that real business there are no Second Chances, there aren't any. I said for decades I haven't lost any. Now I can't say that anymore, but some people say that are trying to make a bad event, me getting my brains kicked out in the election into a a a a swallowable event is that it's good, maybe it'll make Dan more humble. I I doubt that, but uh my wife hasn't seen any difference, she says losing that has made me more aggressive. I can see how that could happen because now you got that burning desire again.
Yeah, uh it makes me want to think in five years I'm gonna run again and I'm gonna [ __ ] eat that guy Al, but I'm not going to run again. Uh the um I plan on reaching at least a million more people in the same time frame I would have been in office. Yeah, uh and now with the internet that's possible. You said at the beginning of the podcast that you haven't been able to you know be the best dad and Granddad. Do you have any regrets of that? Would you do it differently looking back? On the one hand I wasn't tough and I was tough. I mean I can imagine my kids, I mean you wouldn't believe uh why do I have to be home at 8 o'clock on Friday night? Because I [ __ ] said so. Now I would probably explain it more, okay? Because because I said so is not an explanation to a teenager. You know the only expl the the reason for you climbing out the window at 1:30 in the morning is the answer that Dad gave just because I said so. I I would be a little less of a tyrant uh and allow him to do things, um and I would have been uh more of a tyrant and uh holding them accountable, um but uh my sons had jobs when they were you know they should have been 16 but they were only 14. My daughter didn't have a job until she um graduated from University and so um but the the kids today um they lack leadership, they don't need as many hugs, and normally the parents one parent hard one parent soft and of course kids know how to play that, okay. Um but then and and I know some tragic cases where both parents were hard, but I know more more extreme trag cases when both parents were soft. Sure, you know, uh when uh 30 years ago when I'm introducing my wife to uh my relatives and um he was an angel. Now now these are grandmothers and aunts that are in their late 80s, 90s, but and Sally says you told me you did all these bad things, and then I we talk to my cousins that are my contemporaries, angel. I mean he should have gone to San Quinton five times, and I I was resident a number of times and the but as you get older you block out you want to remember just the good times.
Sure. Yeah. Well, I guess the last question I would ask you, you know, I appreciate your time today Dan is I mean you again so much wisdom in 80 years, what's your best piece of advice that you can leave us with? Those who get find something you're passionate about, and those that get laser beam focused first State leer being focused longest will win and succeed most awesome. Well, I appreciate you again and where's the best place for people to look you up if they want to find more information? I'm uh Dan pena.co.uk. Everything's free, kids. We have 32 gigs now. I don't know if that's a lot or a little really. I don't. Sounds like a lot, okay? It sounds 32 you know they talk about one two gigs, um and we have thousands of hours on YouTube, um and I know I'm on Tik Tok and stuff like that. I don't know exactly how those things work, um and the um but we've got kids that uh uh last night at dinner uh the three servers we had um uh the one server that actually served us didn't know who I was, but the other servers didn't, they came with thank you, thank you, and they showed me this is the business I bought and most servers uh have second jobs, they're in real estate etc etc and he says this this building is mine because I heard you four or five years ago etc etc and the um uh and and it's all free, it's all free, and uh 20 years ago my uh content was the most expensive on the net, and people used to complain you know I I got to save up I it's a mortgage payment and U plus we had customer service and I don't like customer service and we and we give lifetime mistakenly you know the lifetime guarantee [ __ ] we had Life Time Forever, okay, and so people and so I said we're going to give it all away, so 2005 or six uh we went from the most expensive um to the uh for free, and everybody that had ever bought anything from us still had a lifetime guarantee, but that's not many of those are now 20 years later, and a lot of the big guys that you know uh would call and say you're killing us, what are you doing this for? One I don't need the money, that sounds bous, it's not meant that way, and two uh the you know if I can help another 50,000 or another 100,000 kids um achieve their goals uh and it's free, but the problem with free is they got no skin in the game.
Yeah, they just don't commit to it. Yeah, exactly. And so we've struggled with that, but I still get emails, I got answered an email this morning from 2008 uh and he didn't get it for free uh U but uh and he's still struggling, but some kids get it like this and some kids take years, but the important thing is never to stop, never to give up, keep running you know towards I call towards the gunfire uh and uh the one thing I can guarantee if you don't start you know uh the uh outcome automatically you don't have to think about the outcome, it's going to be failure and regrets a [ __ ] and the older you get you're too young yet and you're too young regrets a [ __ ] yeah I could have should have would have that's not how you know when you put that on your gravestone I could I should have would have and um but I've enjoyed it very much. I'm glad we worked it out finally. Yeah, thank you for being PA with everything. I have more of that now. I never gave a podcast 20 years ago, but we wouldn't be sitting here 20 years ago, I assure you. I I assume as much. Well, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.