Episode 1000 – Sam Antion Leadership Principles
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute, the entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1000. Did you hear me? 1000 of Screw the commute podcast. Today we're going to do a commemorative issue for replay of what I did at episode 100 on Leadership Principles from my dad, Sam Antion. And, oh yeah, it cracks me up. Not laughing wise, but just every time I think of him, that's for sure. So I hope you didn't miss episode 999 that was on subject lines. And pick up a copy of our automation book. screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And you've heard me say that a thousand times. However, version 3.0 is out, so if you're just revisiting this after a while, throw away version 2.0 and pick up version 3.0 with all the new stuff that we automate with. And check out my mentor program, greatinternetmarketingTraining.com and my school IMTCVA.org.

[00:01:29] Wow. Thousand episodes. Now we did a little math with the help of ChatGPT and it looks like screw the commute is in the 0.25% of all podcasts, right? And only about 7000 podcasts in the world have ever reached 1000 episodes. And now we are one of them. We actually have more than that because we had special episodes for youth and things like that. But. Wow. And consider that the average podcast lasts ten episodes.

[00:02:09] Okay. So I think we we beat that one. And it's interesting that Father's Day is coming up when this, um, this episode came out because, you know, I just so Revere him. In fact, he's been sitting here talking to you for a thousand episodes, not me. So this episode is his leadership principles, loosely based on the eulogy I did for him back in the year 2000. And I throw in some commentary with each leadership principle. And I got to tell you, I listened to this. Well, I kind of listened to this with tears in my eyes yesterday before I decided to put it out. And I really think this is the best work I have ever done. I've, you know, helped tens of thousands of people with the intricacies of selling and email marketing and all that stuff. And public speaking. But this one really takes the cake in a much broader picture of success in life and in business. So it is what I consider my best work. I'd like to hear what you think about it. So here we go. I'm going to replay episode 100 and take it away, Dad.

[00:03:23] This is a special episode. We're going to talk about success in leadership. And I hope I can make it through this without getting emotional. The last time I did this, someone else had to finish it for me as I ran out of the room crying. And some of this is going to be a little in your face.

[00:03:44] And with tens of thousands of people eventually hearing this episode, I'm pretty sure some of them are going to be mad at me and unsubscribe, but that's okay. I've made a career out of telling things truthfully as I see them, so I have to say to those unsubscribers like the line from the movie A Few Good Men, you can't handle the truth. Well, anyway, you're probably wondering why I'm going to get emotional. Well, this is loosely based on the eulogy that I did for my dad back in the year 2000. So I'll give you a little more detail on that later. All right. Our podcast app is in the iTunes store. You can also go to Screw the app, where we have complete instructions to show you how to use all the fancy features so you can take us with you on the road and put it on your cell phone and your tablet, and also go over to screw and subscribe to something so we can give you updates whenever a new episode comes out or special episodes, we can send you an email and we have lots of ways to contact you. And this would really, really help out the show. And you know, we're going into our, you know, second hundred episodes. If you could go over to iTunes and leave us a review and a rating, we'd really appreciate that. Now our youth program is in full swing.

[00:05:13] We're looking for young people that are doing entrepreneurial things. And when I say young, that's up to let's say early 20s. If they're older than that, they might be a candidate for our regular podcast. But if you know anyone, they can get in touch with me at orders@antion.com orders@antion.com to see how to apply to be featured on an episode of Screw the Commute. Special Youth edition. And of course, that's in the show notes too. Now our on demand TV channel is on Roku TV. The first channel is the Public Speaking channel, and we have several others coming brutal, Self-Defense, Protection Dogs Elite, and various internet marketing channels. So if you have a Roku device, that's a really good deal. You can get thousands of channels and you can hook up your Netflix and other channels through the same device. And I've got about $100,000 worth of free training on the channel. And we'll and I just got word we're we're now approved on Amazon Fire TV. So you can also go there and search for public speaking. And we are the public speaking channel. It's a great way to get a lot of free training, and a lot of people are getting rid of cable because of these, these ways to watch TV. Now our sponsor is me again. It's the Tom Antion Internet Marketing retreat and joint venture program, where myself and my staff work with you for a year to get either you started in an internet business, or use the internet to take your existing business to a new level.

[00:06:53] And I'll tell you more about that later. But the details will be at great internet marketing training.com. Well, that'll be in the show notes at com. Or you can go directly to great internet marketing training.com. All right. Let's get to the main event the Antion success method. Now these are success and leadership principles. You need to be able to tell the boss to take this job and shove it. If you already have your own business, I'll tell you how to take it to a much higher level. And these principles will also help you in any aspect of your life, not just your business. Now, I don't want any of you that have heard me do this topic years ago. Worry because I'm not going to get as hardcore because I don't want iTunes requiring me to make this episode E for explicit. All right. So for those of you that didn't hear my original recording, we had to give it an R rating for language. So I'm going to keep this at a G rating. But that doesn't mean I won't say some harsh in-your-face things. I know there are lots of people out there that will say anything to keep you happy, just so they can take your money, regardless of whether what they tell you helps you or not. Well, I'm not that person.

[00:08:15] I tell it like it is. And because I do so I can sleep at night knowing I gave you the best information I could. Now, you probably will hear me get a little excited on some of these points that I want to tell you that this episode is loosely based on a eulogy I wrote for my father in the year 2000, where I wrote down ten leadership tips I learned from him since I was a little boy, and I'll be throwing in some other ones and some spin offs as we go along. Now, what I plan on doing is popping back and forth from that eulogy to my commentary. I want to make sure you get some learning points on things that you can do to really be much more successful in your life and business. And also coming up this year is the premiere of the American Entrepreneur documentary created by Hollywood producer Teri Marie. It's based on my dad coming here from Syria in the early 1900s and making himself an entrepreneur. And he turned me into an entrepreneur. And I've helped thousands of entrepreneurs. So watch for the premiere coming out. And that's also please sign up to get notifications at screw. Com so you don't miss it. Anyway, my dad passed away at the ripe old age of 94. And that was from the physical world. But I can assure you, he's here with us on this episode and all the other episodes.

[00:09:49] Now let's see. I can tell you right now that some of you are going to say, well, Tom, you're a little old fashioned, aren't you? When you tell us some of these simple principles from the old days. Well, maybe I am, but most of the people that have money in the world are a little older, and they appreciate what I'm going to tell you. It's going to be a long time and a pretty sad day when this stuff that I tell you in this episode goes out of style. So you can be assured that the people that have money will appreciate these things. I'm going to try to also attempt to burst some myths that I'll get to in a second. Now, what I'm going to tell you is not some government funded study. It's not some big scientific thing. It's not backed by special interest groups. It's going to be a report on some of the things that I've seen in the world and that I've experienced. I'm going to rag a little bit on parents, even though, hey, I'm not one myself. I will act as a reporter to tell you some of the things I've seen from the children out there nowadays, and that I don't like. I'm hoping that the things we talk about today can help fix it a little bit. All right, well, here's some of the myths that I'm going to attempt to bust.

[00:11:15] And one is that positive reinforcement is good. I don't think it is. And the next one that you should only do what you're good at and and you should delegate things you're not good at. This is the biggest bunch of BS I've heard in a long time. Another myth is, is that we are a hard working society. All right, Oh, I'm going to bust that one. Another one is that you must have balance in your life. And I think that's kind of a crock. You'll see why when I talk about that. Here's the one that'll throw you for a loop. You shouldn't support your kids. Now, that sounds a little outrageous, don't you think? That I think you shouldn't support your kids. But bear with me and I'll explain what I mean by that later. And you're going to learn how you may be sabotaging yourself by believing any of the above. And most people see our average by definition. See, if you use the word most. Well, that by definition means that that's the average. And that's what most people do. I mean, if you want to be extraordinary, you must be willing to do what average people aren't willing to do. If you can pass that on to your kids, hey, you're going to have a nice, ripe old age. And you also learn the pursuit of excellence will make you feel and look like a superstar. You're going to learn how to make your own breaks and you're going to learn.

[00:12:48] And this is another harsh thing. I'll keep it g g rated, but you may just be creating the next generation of human losers. Now let me do a little flashback here. When I did this the first time, my propeller had elaea or, you know, my techno geek propeller head. Ilya was here covering the phones. I think we had 6 or 700 people on the line during that call. After I got into some of the in-your-face stuff. I could hear the phone ringing off the hook. Right. It was in the other office, and Ilya could hardly keep up with the calls. What I was thinking was, oh boy, people are mad at me now for calling their kids human losers. Plus plus all the other harsh things I was talking about. So I finished the call, and Ilya ran into the office. Before he could say anything. I said people were mad at me, aren't they? He said it was totally opposite, and that parents and grandparents were calling to get a copy of the recording. Both the parents and the grandparents wanted a copy to give to their kids. Think about that for a minute. The parents were buying a copy to make their kids listen to, and the grandparents were buying copies to make their kids listen to. Who were the parents that were buying copies for the kids? Oh, man. So both generations knew something was really screwed up and getting worse.

[00:14:24] And just in case you think this is just life success principles, I'll be expanding on some of these principles and teaching you a little later, how to build credibility and how to turn that credibility into big bucks in your business. Okay, let's get to the eulogy. The title of my eulogy for my dad was Leadership Skills from a man who came to America in a dung filled cattle boat. Now, I would like you to project a little bit into the future. Before I go through this, I want you to ask yourself the following question. What will my children say about me when they are in their 50s and 60s? What will my children say about me when they're in their 50s and 60? Do you get that? I want you to ponder that. And for those of you out there that didn't have good parents, and some of you may even hate your parents, I hope you get something out of this too. See, I was fortunate, but. But maybe you weren't. So I'm hoping that from this episode, you can help break the chain in your family and do whatever it takes so that your children feel as strongly about you as I still do about my dad. So I'm going to read a little bit from the eulogy, and then I'm going to throw in commentary. I want you to meet my dad, Sam Antion. So let me take you back to July 3rd, 2000, when I wrote the following words for my great speaking e-zine.

[00:15:59] So here we go. This is the eulogy. I've been bragging about my dad ever since 1973 when I did my valedictorian speech. I've even done professional speeches about one of the techniques he used to make me tough when I was just a baby, until I was preparing his eulogy this week. I have never actually written down all the leadership skills he taught me. As I was working on them. I thought that they would be a good example that anyone could use in their life. And from the platform. And please bear with me a little, because most of my people are speakers who are on my easing list. So I'll be referring to speakers a little bit as we go. I only saw dad speak in public once, and that was at his 50th wedding anniversary. But I witnessed his leadership skills that are going to be listed in this episode. My entire life. Let's go to number one of this top ten list. Leadership skill number one. Build it strong. Dad would always build things more sturdy than they needed to be, so that he would never have to worry when an extraordinary force was applied. He knew that whatever he built would stand up to the test. This applied to both character traits and real hammer and nail construction. In fact, without his insistence on this leadership trait.

[00:17:29] I wouldn't be here today. When I was 16 years old, a drunk driver doing nearly 100mph. That's 161km/h for those of you outside the US. Ran his car off the road, smashing it into the corner of our living room. I was the only one in the room when my whole living room exploded around me. Had this been a normally built house, the car would have burst through the wall and killed me. My dad at the time put extra heavy reinforcements in the corners of the house and planted big, heavy shrubs so that if a car ran off the road because we lived near the road, it wouldn't hurt his family. Here's my commentary on building strong. This would be kind of the modern day cliché would be give 110% and you got a good joke that you can use in your speeches. So I was at a company one day, and I saw this big sign they had up. It said we give 110%. 5% on Monday, 15% on Tuesday. You know, and so on. Um, so that's not what I'm talking about here. But I do want to take a little sidebar and tell you about when the car hit my house. I mean, I'm 16 years old. I'm on the floor in front of the TV watching. I think it was. What's my line? It was an old, famous TV show. And I hear what sounds like an airplane crashing outside my house.

[00:19:06] And in a few seconds later, my living room explodes. The front picture window gets blown out, the front door gets blown out, lamps are flying past me. I'm covered with plaster. So I turn on the outside lights and I run out the opening that used to be the front door. And and I could see a guy laying on the front yard with his foot turned around the wrong way. I mean, he's screaming at me and he's pointing, get my friend, get my friend. And I looked around and a car is sticking in the corner of my house. The passenger slumped over and there's blood everywhere. His scalp is like rolled back on his head. And I might note this is before they invented Aids, so I wasn't really worried about that. And I'm just a kid, though. I had just gone through first aid course in high school. I'm flipping out trying to think what to do. So, uh, so I'm thinking about the drills they put us through and the order you have to do things. Okay. Okay. Okay. Breathing. Bleeding. Broken bones. Okay, okay. Guys. Breathing. All right. Bleeding. Yeah. Yeah, he's definitely bleeding. Okay. And now I'm thinking how to stop bleeding. All right. Direct pressure, indirect pressure. Direct pressure, indirect pressure. So somehow, in my youthful and infinite wisdom, I got the idea that indirect pressure would be the right thing. So I grabbed him around the neck and I started squeezing.

[00:20:37] You. You might notice that this may have some adverse side effects. My brother runs out of the house and says, don't kill him. He didn't mean to hit the house. Oh, well, then there was more blood than any. The reason I'm laughing through the whole thing is there's more blood than anything else the guy lived. No thanks to me. And? And I lived because my dad built it strong. All right. All right, here's some more commentary on building strong. Well, I think I've been in business nearly 42 years formerly, and one of the biggest complaints that I have is that people half ass things. And and then they wonder why they didn't work. So in fact, I figured it out. You know, I have a lot of students in my internet program, and I get calls like this. Hey, Tom, I've been working really hard for a couple days on this internet, and I'm not rich yet. So I sat down and figured out I've put in 60,200 hours. Okay. In the past 25 years, if you just did a conservative figure of how hard I work on this. So. So trust me, you're not working that hard. And and you wonder why you're not successful. Think about that. In fact, you let me know when you hit your first 5000 hours in any field that you're at. And then we'll talk. All right, so whose fault is it if you're not successful? Is that the the fault of your parents? Tough question, isn't it? I mean, were you patted on the back for poor performance when you were a kid? And no, I'm not saying you shouldn't encourage people to do better.

[00:22:16] I'm saying you should try to explain the consequences of their actions to them. Explain to your child. Or or was it explained to you that there's no guarantees of success? Explain to them that if they choose to watch a worthless reality program instead of studying their math, that's why they got a poor grade. Let me explain to them that that that's why they aren't allowed to watch reality programs or anything else until they've got their homework done and and their scores improve. Explain to them why this is important to them and how those dumb shows are not. And what about you? Did you choose to go out for dinner or out with the guys or girls instead of working on your business, or your weight loss, or whatever goals you've set for yourself? Well, there's consequences to what choices you make. I mean, every time you make a blatantly wrong choice, you are hurting yourself and those around you. And no, I'm not talking about trying at something and failing. I mean, that's really great because you at least tried and you can learn from your mistakes. I'm talking about not trying that hard in the first place. So here's a success tip that I've been using my entire life.

[00:23:36] Announce your plans and then you will be too embarrassed to fail. I've done this over and over my whole life. I bought a hotel before I graduated from college, and I announced it to everybody that I was going to do it, and people laughed at me and told me I was crazy and and then, darn if I didn't do it. I started a practical joke entertainment company long before punk was around, and long before it was cool to to do so. And people told me I was crazy. I opened a nightclub in a place where you shouldn't be able to open a nightclub, and it was very successful for a long time. People told me I was crazy. If they tell you you're crazy, that's when you know you're doing the right thing. Because if you just do average things, that's what you're going to be an average person. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I'm just saying you can do more than you think you can if you put your mind to it. Now, the place that I'm sitting in right now, I told people I was going to get a no money down loan on this million dollar house, which is now worth 2 million. And people said, you're crazy. You can't do it. The best mortgage brokers in town told me I couldn't do it. Well, we'll see is what I'm thinking. Do you think I did it? Yes, I did, did I did I take it? No, I didn't take it because 5% down got me way better terms.

[00:25:02] So that's what I did. So here's the way I look at things, folks. If somebody tells you you can't do something, here's what that means. That means they can't do it. It has nothing to do with you at all. I mean, if they're worthless slugs and they don't do the things that it takes to be successful, well, that's not you. That's them. And so listening to these people was one of the worst things you can ever do. I did a podcast interview recently. I think it was with Dave Baron, and he said, take advice from people whose past is your future. I thought that was a great way of saying, don't listen to people who haven't done what you want to do. Let me repeat that for you. Take advice from people whose past is your future. So that's a really great way of telling you don't listen to people that never did anything. All right. So for this section build it strong. And that's your first leadership tip. All right, leadership skill two. Don't take shortcuts. Now we're back in the eulogy. Dad was an electrician by trade, and when doing his wiring, he would always route the flat wires he worked with in a nice, symmetrical and evenly spaced pattern. He would never just cut across the shortest distance to save wire and make his costs a little cheaper.

[00:26:33] I remember as a child watching him and asking him why he did this, when it would be a lot shorter to just run the wires directly between two points. I'll never forget him glaring at me. He said when someone looks at this job years from now, they will know a professional did it. And also, if they ever have trouble, they'll be able to track down the problem easier because I did a nice, neat job. And he said to me, it's like, oh man, don't you ever cut corners to save yourself a little trouble or expense. You be excellent in everything you do. I remember that moment like it happened yesterday, and you can be darn sure I see him looking over my shoulder in everything I do. I can't remember dad ever being out of work one day in my entire life. When everyone else was laid off, he was always in demand. All right, let's go to the commentary on that. See, great people take pride in their work. Not like a bunch of scab laborers. And for those of you young folks out there, a scab laborer is somebody that doesn't care what they do when they build something or they just slop it together. I had four sets of these scabs coming to fix a house of mine, and I had to throw out every one of them. Nobody cared if they did it right. And finally, after I threw the last guy out, I gave up and I couldn't get anybody to do it, right.

[00:28:07] So. So I just gave up. I mean, that's scab labor. So I don't want you to be like that. Now, I'm not talking about being a perfectionist because you do have to balance functionality, cost and time. But I found that taking the time to do things correctly can be a great reputation and credibility builder. So if you're known for the fact that people can give you a task and it will be done on time and right the first time, you will become a very valuable person in a very short order. If you have a company, it will thrive because if the customer has had trouble with everybody else they've hired and they don't have trouble with you, they'll come back to you over and over to customers and potential customers. Your reputation will be, hey, this person gets the job done on time and on budget. That's how I stayed in business all these years without getting a job. All right. I built a reputation where a lot of people on this earth trust me. And I'm never going to let them down. So that's the kind of attitude you want. You have to be proud of your work. Now, I've used this idea of not cutting corners my entire life, and I use it now all the time. When someone tells me or a student tells me that something is good enough.

[00:29:32] I say it's not good enough. Let's make it better. And after all the whining, they can see that I was right. And now they have something they can be proud of. I use this concept with all my products. I take the time to make them better in the beginning, and I take the time to add value to the product so that I know they are much better value than what the customer bargained for. And these things are reputation builders. Another pet peeve of mine is people think they work hard. Okay, now here's the success step. Will you please learn? And this is going to be hard in today's society. Will you please learn what the heck hard work is? Most people don't have a clue what hard work is. They perform at about 10% capacity and they think they're working too hard. I got to tell you, I grew up in a high level sports environment, and I went to college on a football scholarship, and I was fourth in the state of Pennsylvania, which is a hotbed for wrestling. And I only got beaten by people that went on to play pro football. I mean, you know, so I was in the the throes of high level sports for a long, long time. And one good thing about sports is that you learn how to work. One bad thing is that you're surrounded by a bunch of morons, because there's a lot of them out there in high level sports.

[00:31:01] But anyway, sports is good for the character building of learning how to work. And if you don't think so, try to run a mile uphill with full football gear on a 90 degree day, and then work out on the field all morning and then go do it again in the afternoon when it really gets hot. Okay, then the next day, get your brains beat out by people six feet nine, weighing £310, that can run a 4.9 second 40 yard dash. All right. And I've, I've been against all those guys and and then do it again regularly for five years. Well it's five years because I, I squeezed four years of college into five. Pretty good huh. But let's see if you can handle that. And that's just a little bit of work, folks. So don't tell me that you're working too hard. I don't I really don't want to hear it. Then I get people that are broke calling me, telling me they're not having much success with my program. And when I talk to them, they tell me they're spending a couple hours a week working the business. And and this is the one that really gets me when they tell me, well, Tom, when I get back from my two week vacation, I'm really going to buckle down and work your program like vacation. Are you crazy? You're telling me you're broke? You're putting out virtually zero effort, and you're not having success in your business, and you're taking a vacation? What's wrong with you? I mean, don't get me started.

[00:32:32] Learn how to work. Yikes! Geez. Ah! All right. Let's get to leadership skill number three from the eulogy. Don't waste things or people. Do you think a nail isn't worth much? Well, at the age of 73, dad was purchasing some used lumber that someone had advertised in the paper. When he went to pick it up, he saw a large number of boulders in the front yard of the place where he bought the lumber. He asked what they were going to do with the boulders, and the man said, I just want to get rid of them. Get them out of here. So dad spent two weeks hauling them back to our house, and another two months cutting them up with a chisel and a hammer. He then built a beautiful stone fireplace and chimney for one of our rental properties. And I can't tell you the number of nails I removed from used lumber that dad made me straighten out and use over again. And I still do it to this day. See, a bent nail with a little help can be very useful again. Sometimes people also need a little help to do the job they were meant to do. All right. My commentary on that. I see people today with no respect for anything. They waste time.

[00:33:50] They waste resources like water, for instance. Now. Now, many of you out there let the water run when you're brushing your teeth. I see you out there. Go ahead. Hold your hands up. Admit it. My dad would roll over in his grave if he ever saw me doing this. I simply cannot do it to this day. I don't care if I'm in the Ritz, the Four Seasons or any of the hotels I've been around, around the world, or I've been in around the world, I cannot let the water run. I cannot waste resources. Now. I'm no tree hugger, but I just can't stand waste for waste sake. And yes, I believe there's a balance between waste and quality of life. I mean, I certainly don't live in a tent. I just don't want you to squander your resources. And what do you think is your most important resource? Well, I would say it's time. So here's your success tip use your throwaway time to improve your business and improve your life. See, in the past I spent a lot of time at airports. I used to fly around speaking all over the place and my entire 1042 page e-book click The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing was written while waiting around at airports. I teach my public speaking students to practice small chunks of their speeches, whether they're in the shower or washing the car. I mean, use your throwaway time to study. When you're on the go, your cell phone will hold 100 hours or more of training educational podcasts like this one, and success materials, and make your car a traveling university, and you'll be much further ahead.

[00:35:37] You'll be able to learn and improve your business and your life. Okay. Leadership skill number four be self reliant. Okay? Working as a team is great, but when the team isn't there, you just don't sit down and wait for help. Dad pretty much built every building and rental property we own. I remember being so busy with football and other activities that I didn't get to help him too much, and I probably would have slowed him down anyway. One day he was working on remodeling one of our buildings. He asked me to go to the automotive store, a parts store, and get him about 20ft of clear glass tubing and several bottles of Coca-Cola, and I wondered, what was he up to? He never drank Coke and our car was working fine. So I came back with the tubing and the coke, and I stood back and watched as he did his thing. He plugged one end of the tubing and he started pouring Coke in the other end. I was, of course, certain he had lost his mind after spending those three months building that chimney. So I asked him what he was doing. He said, well, when you boys aren't around, it's hard for me to make things level, because I can't be at both ends of these long two by fours.

[00:36:54] And of course, this is long before laser levels and all that stuff. So he went on to say, I'm going to nail one end of the tubing on one end of where I'm working, and take the other end of the tubing with me to the other end of the board. He knew from his self-taught physics studies that liquids seek their own level. He could see through the clear tubing to the Coca-Cola inside the level of the coke. On one end of the tubing would be exactly the same level at the other end of the tubing, and that's where he would nail his board, and it was always perfectly level. All right. Commentary on being self-reliant. You see, this is what molded me into believing my entire life that delegation is a bunch of crap. Let me ask you, what great person wants to always wait for somebody else to do things for them? See, all great people have a sense of urgency about them. They're not willing to wait. And and I don't know who said that originally. If somebody knows, please let me know. But all great people have a sense of urgency about them. Yes, delegation makes sense after you are highly successful, but many people overplay their importance to mask their laziness. Let me repeat that. They overplay their importance to mask their laziness. They don't have two nickels to rub together, and they're getting their nails done and their hair blown and throwing parties and buying fancy cars and blowing all their money, delegating, making everyone else do the work for them so they can play the big shot.

[00:38:32] Then how do you supervise this stuff being delegated if you haven't done it yourself? You're just getting taken for a ride most of the time because you don't know any better. People could tell you anything and you wouldn't know the difference. I'm not saying go do your own brain surgery or work your on your own teeth, but I'm talking about many of the things that your business needs. You could do yourself quickly and inexpensively. Your business would thrive if it got done really fast and on a low budget. But if you blow all your money delegating. I mean, God help you. Yes, I believe there's things that are too complicated and would take too long to learn, and you'd never get the skill to do it right anyway. But most things aren't like that. Most of the time, the delegate word comes up when it's something you don't like doing. Listen to that. Let me say that again too. Most of the time, the delegate word comes up when it's something you don't like doing. That's just another instance of lack of discipline, probably stemming from your parents. And and I know many of you love your parents, and I'm just trying to tell it like it is as a reporter.

[00:39:42] Did your parents tell you to pick up your room and then do it for you. If you didn't. Were there consequences if you didn't do it? Did your mom or dad say it 20 times and it didn't matter if you ignored them? I mean, do you have to tell your children more than once to do something? Well, let me give you a scenario here. It was something from my life. It was a Friday afternoon, and I had to get a postcard mailing out the first thing on Monday because of a sick employee and another one with a family emergency. I got stuck with the mailing with no help. The cards already had postage on them, but I had 2000 labels to attach over a weekend so the mailing could go out on Monday, or all the postage and printing would be wasted. I called my girlfriend at the time to help me, and I want to note here that I had done numerous things for her whenever she needed it, so it wasn't like coming out of the clear blue and asking for help. I called her on Friday at work and told her my problem. I asked for help and told her that we could probably knock the entire thing out in about six hours on Saturday or Sunday. She said nah, no. And the only excuse she had was I feel like relaxing this weekend. That was a reason. Well, the mailing went out and so did she.

[00:41:03] I never spoke to her again after that moment. I put on all 2000 labels, and I was happy that I did it, because I didn't fold under pressure and cry because I didn't have any help. My training took over and I buckled down and slammed all the labels on while listening to success tapes. And here's a quote from me. I hope you put it up on your wall or something. You're not too good to do the work that will make you great. If you think you are, the chances of you being great are slim. Let me repeat that. You're not too great to do the work that will make you great. If you think you are, the chances of you becoming great are slim. Buckle down and get some of these skills so that you don't feel you have to delegate everything until it makes sense to do so. No. Excuse me? Do them until you're making so much money where it doesn't make sense for you to do them anymore. How about that? That's when you start delegating. The reason I have money in the bank today is that I didn't blow it all delegating things as I was coming up when times were tough. I mean, I can do things that would cost 100 times what it cost me to do them on the open market just by doing them myself. So you need those kinds of skills in your business and in your life.

[00:42:29] All right. Let's go to leadership skill number five from the eulogy study that only went to the fifth grade. And that was after skipping two grades. So he really only had three years of formal education at ten years old. The oldest boy with father deceased, he was head of his household and shining shoes to support the family. He saved part of his tips and ordered an electrical engineering course from the American School. At 13 years old, he had his own electrical contracting company and installed the first electric light in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. He also bought his younger sister the first electric washing tub in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. Every time he wanted to learn how to do something, he would read, read, read, and then read some more. When he retired around the age of 73, he sat down and read the entire World Book Encyclopedia. All right. That's a lot of reading. And see, this is where I'm coming from. And any influence I had at 94 and being legally blind. He listened to hours and hours of biographies and books on tapes and newspapers, on tape provided by the Library of Congress for Blind People. He knew more about current events than anybody. So if you want to learn how to do something, study and try it out till you get it right. Here's the commentary. The concept of studying is one of the biggest concepts in my entire life, and caused major shifts in my emphasis in my business life.

[00:44:11] When I was coming out of the entertainment field into the speaking arena, I didn't really know how to be a professional speaker. I was good at entertaining at parties, but I didn't really know about microphones and hotel rooms and professional presentations. So what did I do? I fell back on the skills that I'd seen my dad do over and over. I started studying. I bought every book I could on presentation skills. I remember riding my bike to a used bookstore and I almost couldn't get home. It was full of books hanging off the bike on public speaking and public speakers that were famous. I studied them and I still have them here in my library. If you ever come and visit my house, you'll see hundreds and hundreds of books that helped mold my speaking career. And after I started studying and practicing these things, I started getting pretty good at it. Guess what? When you start getting good at something, in other words, when you start pursuing excellence, people start asking you to help them and teach them what you know. So I was helping them people so much I couldn't get my own work done right. That's when I wrote the Wake Em Up Business Presentations book, and I created the Wake Em Up video professional speaking system, and these are still selling today. And that's where I made my fortune on the internet.

[00:45:31] So I became a presentation skills expert. Now along came the internet. Around 1994, and in those days, it was hard enough to sell your products across the street, let alone, let alone around the world from your desktop. I tried every possible thing you could find on internet marketing. I studied, I studied, I studied for two years, folks. In fact, in two years, the web guy told me that only 400 people had visited my website. Right? That's how pitiful I was when I started. But I kept at it because there's no way I was going to quit. So I kept at it and I started getting good at it. And I met Corey Rudl, who was my first really good teacher, and I started making money and I, I kept after it and I kept after it. And guess what happened then? In my pursuit of excellence in selling on the internet, people started begging me to teach them. I never planned on being any kind of internet guru. People begged me and they said, please teach us what you learned. And and that's where bootcamp started. Where you learn how to make money sitting on your rear end. All right. And, you know, I came from a comic background with the entertainment company, so I'm not going to call it boot camp like all the other people do. I called it bootcamp, and I've done them all over the world. And it's probably one of the top three longest running internet seminars ever.

[00:46:56] But it all came from the pursuit of excellence in studying. That's how it all happened. And then one time I remember this. This really freaked me out. This is where I'm starting to get a little excited, and that I came home from the post office late one day, and I came home and the school bus was letting kids off at 2:00, and I asked the neighbor if it was a holiday or something because I don't have kids and rarely am I out fighting traffic. He said, what do you mean holiday? I said, well, the school buses let the kids out at 2:00. He said they let him off at 2:00 every day. I couldn't. I couldn't believe it. I mean, it's no wonder there's such morons. And and it's no wonder they can't spell. And it's no wonder they can't fill out a job application. I mean, do you know, folks, I had a graduate student here for 90 days. I tried to find something that she could do, right. She could not spell or put a paragraph together as a graduate student. And also, I'll tell you what, if there's anybody out there and this is all anonymous, so nobody's getting called out here. But if you've ever gone to your school and complained about too much homework for your kids, quit listening to me and get lost because I think you're an idiot. All right.

[00:48:14] No, I mean, you're a total idiot. What do you mean, too much homework? What do you think? Everybody around the world. Or why do you think everybody around the world is beating our pants off in education? Why do you think that is? I've got some figures here, a little bit old, but they really, really tell a story. It's from the Daniel Goleman emotional intelligence test. He he said that high achievers study an average of 27 hours a week, compared to lower achievers that are only 15 hours a week. I guarantee you, I beat that 27 hours every week. And here's another thing American mothers want their kids to be happy. Oh, isn't that nice? We want our baby to be happy. We don't care if he's on welfare and drugs and getting going to the therapist every week. But Asian mothers want their kids to be successful, and that's why they make them study and go to class and do things they're supposed to do. See, I told you I was going to get excited here, folks. I mean, let's see what else. Well, there's another study. This is international test scores said in the US by the fourth grade. Aid. And by the way, I'm not sure how current this is. So you might have more recent figures, but this is the last research I did on this by the fourth grade. We're in the middle of the world on how much we know. By the eighth grade we're near the bottom, and by graduation, we're dead last in world education.

[00:49:45] You know, this is pitiful. I think this guy's name was John Leo. And this this was in the US News and World Report, and I don't I don't know how old the info is, but I doubt if it's much better today. There's another little study. Now, it's not a scientific study, but it was good enough for the US News and World Report to report on. Some guy did a little study where he asked a bunch of college graduates to figure out the following problem. How much change should you get back after putting down $3 to pay for a 60 cent cup of coffee? I don't know where they found a 62nd cup of coffee or soup and a $1.95 95 sandwich again? I don't know. It's not it's not in any of the big chain stores, I'll tell you that. So anyway, 56.3% of American college graduates were unable to figure out the change. Does this pitiful or is that pitiful? I mean, what do you expect? Do you expect big success when you can't even do simple math? I want you to make your kids see the value of study. I mean, it's opened up my life to such riches and greatness and meeting wonderful people. I can't tell you. And and all because I study. Make them see the value of studying as soon as possible. And then you dig in and study yourself to improve your business and your life, and be a great role model for them.

[00:51:12] All right. I've been beating you up for a little while. Let's take a break for our sponsor, which is me. See, I turned the internet marketing world on its head around the year 2000. People like me were charging 50 or $100,000 up front to teach what we knew to clueless business people who refused to learn on their own. Now, I'm a small business advocate, and I knew many small businesses could never afford that kind of upfront money. So I made all those gurus mad by charging a relatively small entry fee to my program that also got a percentage of profits that was capped. So you're not stuck with me forever. So for me to get my big money, you have to make way bigger money. Plus, you know, I'm not going to disappear on you because I won't get any of my money, right? I went one step further and has never been done before. I have a big estate home and a TV studio where my students, as part of their year long training, come and actually stay in my house for an immersion weekend. That's just one of the unique features of the program, which is the longest running, most successful, and most unique program on internet marketing field. And and one thing I didn't tell you. It also includes a scholarship to my licensed internet marketing school that you can either use yourself or gift to someone.

[00:52:33] So check out the full details at Great Internet Marketing Training.com. Great internet marketing Training.com. And we'll have that in the show notes. All right, let's get to leadership skill number six of the eulogy. You can have whatever you want if you're willing to work for it. Well, this was the 1910 version of Just Do It. I don't want you to think I was given tons of things by my parents, or I wasn't given tons of things by my parents because I was. But the most valuable thing that I was conditioned from a very young age is that the world did not owe me a living. I had to earn it. I got a serious work ethic that I will always carry with me. See if I want something, I go after it. Now, I won't step on people or or cheat anybody. The last time I did this, the last time I did this, I was really fired up and I blurted out, no, I won't sleep with people. I was supposed to be step on people. And I'm thinking I probably wouldn't get too far if I went that route anyway. But I won't step on people to get whatever it is I want. And I and I won't cheat or steal, but I will work until I get it or I don't want it anymore. Now, this would be foreign language to most of today's youth.

[00:53:58] So the commentary on this is where I'm talking about the next generation of human losers. That's a pretty harsh thing, I know. I just want to really smack you in the face with it to let you know I'm really worried about today's youth. I see so many people that they can't cope with just the normal pressures of daily life. These are the people that turn to drugs and alcohol and therapy because nothing means anything to them. They never experience the joy of accomplishment. Everything has been given to them. And I remember vividly, I mean, this is probably, folks, 39 years ago when I had a nightclub and outside of Morgantown, West Virginia, and it was a family restaurant and pizza shop during the week. I remember hearing two kids that had come down to the lake from Mount Lebanon area of Pittsburgh. It's a fancy area of Pittsburgh, and one of the kids was complaining to the other kid that his mother had only given him $60 for a pair of jeans. I'm thinking $60 for a pair of jeans 39 years ago. I'd like to slap that kid. I mean, I mean, this is unheard of. The kid probably never earned $60 in his entire life right now. Where's the discipline? Where's the parents teaching this kid about value? If it was up to me. Every kid on earth, no matter how rich, would be working at a fast food restaurant or some service business to respect people and to learn how to treat people right and to respect the value of what they have.

[00:55:28] Most of them don't. Most of them think the world owes them a living, and this doesn't get them too far with guys like me, because I can hire you if I want to. But if you act like that, trust me, I don't want to, because I don't want to sit here 10 to 12 hours a day and hear you whining all day. I've had people come in here that accepted the job months in advance and didn't show up. I had them accept the job weeks in advance and they didn't show up. I had this one girl showed up for work. And these aren't all girls, by the way, folks. And she was here for four hours. She was the biggest dunce I had ever seen in my life. Actually, I'm the biggest one for hiring her after only four hours, she wanted to know where her bonus was. I wasted time all morning on her because she couldn't understand anything, and she went to lunch and never came back, which was a blessing. So these are the kinds of people that I run into that can't spell or can't fill out an application. And one lady, this lady, I would really have some choice words for her. She never disciplined her child. Always positive, always defending him. All that kind of crap.

[00:56:43] And he. He cost her a fortune. She joined my mentor program, and he told her that he knew everything that I knew and that she. And then she wanted her money back. So I gave her a money back. I pointed out to her 50 different things wrong on the website that her kid put up for her. And that means the kid was clueless, obviously. She said, well, he went to Microsoft certification. Well, so did a billion other people that never made a nickel selling on the internet. But she wouldn't hear it. She just defended her. Good boy. And and then the dumb lady goes to some other guru who just pats her on the back and tells her everything is fine and praises her boy. And she spends a fortune with this guy and gets nothing for it. She got taken for the ride of her life because her dumb, but was sticking up for her kid. And I'm all for supporting your children, but you are not doing them a favor by making them think they're better than they are. Yes, I'm all for encouragement to get better, but this method of building hyper self-esteem, that's a term I may have coined. I don't know. Hyper self-esteem is a losing proposition. Another great example of this is a little bit old, but there was this this show on TV, I think it was called the filthy Rich Trail Ride, where they, they had this reality TV show where they had a bunch of rich kids trying to drive cattle.

[00:58:11] And this was comical because every one of these rich kids was a total loser by any decent standard on earth. I mean, other than they had a lot of money, but they were just clueless. They couldn't hardly cross the street without somebody pointing the direction, right? The only kid that was any good was Anthony Quinn's son, Anthony Quinn. For those of you who don't know, was a very famous and very rich actor, probably at the time one of the richest ones in the world. They interviewed the son and asked him how he could do all this stuff so easily. He said, because my dad, even though he was so rich, gave us a good work ethic. He told us the world does not owe us a living and we had to work and be competent and good people. And that was the only kid that was worth a crap on that whole show. And then don't get me started on Paris Hilton. You know what a role model that is, folks? I mean, do you want your girls to follow in her footsteps? I mean, her claim to fame is she's got the Hilton name, she's got a smoking hot body, which she's perfectly happy to give to anybody with a video camera. And she can get $100,000. If she used to be able to get $100,000 to walk in and out of a nightclub for 20 minutes.

[00:59:29] I mean, the money seems good. I thought she can get that any more, but I hear she's cleaned up her act somewhat. But do you really want your kids acting like her now? I would take the 100 grand, I admit, but not in that way. So teach your kids and yourself how to work for it. So. So here's your success tip. Put pressure on yourself. Push yourself a little. I mean, it's just like weightlifting and weightlifting. You don't go lifting £400 all at once. You lift a little bit more than you could do last week, and then you start adapting. And then next week you start a little bit more and you lift a little bit more, and maybe the week after that you fall back a little, but you keep trying and eventually you become very strong physically. The same thing would happen to you mentally if you put a little pressure on yourself. One of the things my dad did for me that was really unique for someone with no education is he. And he came over on a boat from Syria was when I was a young boy. Well, actually, I was a baby. And it's kind of. If you ever heard of a song named A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash, he named the song was about this drunk father who knew he wouldn't be there for his boy, so he named him Sue to make him grow up tough.

[01:00:46] That's what the song was about. So here's a website you can go to. Screw the. Screw. This is a representation I used in my speeches a long time ago. See, my dad was about 50 when he had me and he thought he wouldn't be around to raise me. He wasn't an old drunk, but it was the same as the song. So when I was a baby, before I could even walk, my dad would put pillows in front of me and put my toys on the other side of them to teach me how to overcome obstacles. Now, this is a guy, like I said, only had a couple years of formal education, but he thought, hey, I brought this kid into the world. I'm going to make him strong. So I was a baby when he did that, but that was stuff that he demonstrated to me my entire life. It was always, you can have it if you're willing to work for it. So put challenges on yourself and challenges on your children. Another thing that comes to mind I can't help but tell this one I'm, I don't know, maybe 50 years old. And this kid, we played pick up tennis at the local courts and this kid's 14 years old. He plays on the the high school tennis team. So we're playing and I'm tearing him up. And he gets finally he gets because I'm hitting shots he's not used to.

[01:02:07] I know the angles of the court and all these tricks that I know are the trade for old geezers have to use to work, to play against young people. So he gets so mad, he slams his racket down and runs and walks off the court. And his his mother happens to be there. He's chasing him. Say, oh, it's okay, Johnny, it's okay, you know? And if I would have done that when I was a kid, I would have been running laps till I was 40 years old. Okay. All right. This is the kind of thing. No, it wasn't all right. It was like, oh, this guy is an old fat guy beating me. Maybe I should learn something here. No, it was like, no, I'm leaving, you know, so they couldn't he couldn't handle the pressure. Okay. So put challenges in front of your kids and challenges, uh, on yourself. All right. Leadership skill number seven. Give before you get During the depression, work was more than scarce. This is from the eulogy, more like non-existent. Even my dad was out of work. He told me that. He said to himself, you know what? I'm a really valuable worker and I'm not going to sit around here and do nothing when there's work out there that needs to be done. He knew there was a fruit shipping warehouse not too far from where he lived, so he went down to the loading docks, dressed for work, and just started helping the men load apples.

[01:03:29] Eventually the foreman noticed them and asked the other guys who he was and they said, well, they didn't know, but he was just loading apples. In fact, he was doing the work of three guys. The foreman was so impressed that he hired him on the spot, and he hired several of my dad's cousins who were willing to prove themselves first. Now, not realizing I was being influenced by my dad, I used to do the same thing when my landlord in college would work on our house. I'd go out and help him just to learn how to fix things. And he told me that in 25 years he had been renting to college students that not one student ever had offered to help him. This is let alone try to learn something. You know, I said, hey, Frank, you know, I'll help you out, but you teach me what you're doing here, right? And so this is the same landlord that gave me the biggest financial break of my young career, when he guaranteed the financing and sold me his largest rental property, a hotel in Fairmont, West Virginia, when he retired to Florida. I hadn't even graduated from college yet. I made over $400,000 in the mid 70s on this property. And it's always a reminder to me to give before you get. Another example comes to mind in that when I got out of college, I didn't have any job, of course, because I had all this rental income.

[01:04:55] I had five apartment buildings and a hotel before I graduated, starting with nothing. And I might add, all of it was from using the techniques in this episode. Now I was bored and I wanted to get my pilot's license. So I got my private pilot's license. But I wanted to fly bigger planes, not airliners or anything like that, but, you know, really fancy twin engine corporate type planes. So I hung around the airport and I would take every crappy flight that no one else wanted, and they sold planes at our airport, and they they would fly me to Wichita, Kansas, to pick up a new Cessna plane and bring it back to Pittsburgh. And I'd fly small planes to California, and I'd fly all night and I'd do every rotten job. They had to build my experience level. In fact, one time I flew back from Wichita. See, in those days, they didn't have any navigation radios in the new planes until you got them home, and then they put the radios in. So I flew back from Wichita reading the road signs, going down route 70 all the way back to Pittsburgh. So I'd go along when other pilots were taking planes places and they would teach me during the trip. I traded work at the hangar for advanced lessons in the bigger planes. And yeah, I could have paid for them, but it would have cost a fortune.

[01:06:19] And my education was really much deeper. Immersing myself and being around planes all day, every day. So after that, I qualified as a part 135 charter pilot. Part 135 is a little more advanced than a regular commercial pilot. And then I got hired for $30 an hour. This is 40 years ago, folks, to fly the big planes because they were so impressed with me and my skills and how I was willing to go the extra mile. So who are you going to impress by refusing to put in any extra effort. I mean, you can't even impress yourself. No wonder there's so much depression in the world. I mean, how can you be happy with yourself knowing you're operating at a really low level? And let's say you have a company who would impress you more. The clock watcher who can't wait to run out the door at quitting time or earlier, or the person you can't get to leave work who couldn't get enough, and who took stuff home to work on. How about the person who came in early because they couldn't wait to get back to their project from yesterday? Well, of course that person would impress you. You see, that's the person who gets the raises and the responsibility and the great recommendations when they eventually move on. So if you have or want to start a company, and if you want to tell your boss to take this job and shove it, the people that hire people to do contract work.

[01:07:50] Do you think they want the losers that they have to watch over every two seconds? No. They want the person that makes their life easier and they can trust. That's the person that gets the breaks. That's the person that gets the business. So I'm not saying be used and taken advantage of by your employers. I'm just saying you use others by helping them. I'll repeat that. You use others by helping them. That's another quote you can put my name on. You know why? Because you'll help yourself even more. So give before you get. All right. Leadership skill number eight. You can overcome obstacles. This is one of my favorites. I have a visual I just told you about. When I was a baby. My dad was making me crawl over pillows. And anybody that knows me knows that I'm unstoppable. And long before Cynthia came out with her book, I was being and teaching people how to be unstoppable. You know, right out of the chute. Pretty much unstoppable because of what my dad had done right with the pillow stuff. Knowing that you can't be held back no matter what happens to you, is a very powerful feeling to have inside. It gives you an unbridled confidence. Both my parents aligned to make me feel this way. And most of you don't know about this, but 33 years ago I lost everything and was totally broke.

[01:09:21] The drinking age went from 18 to 21 on that nightclub I had, and I lost $400,000. I was supposed to be a millionaire before I turned 30. I lost everything. And then I tore my Achilles tendon with no health insurance. So 33 years ago, I was actually sleeping on a mattress in a vacant house, injured and unable to walk. I I was living off what little credit I had left. My girlfriend left me and my dog got run over. So I wrote a country song. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, the whole time I was in that lonely, vacant house, a powerful feeling burned inside of me to overcome the obstacles, which I did by coming up with an idea for a unique entertainment company that, in turn, helped launch my speaking career. And I did that by keeping humor around. I know this sounds like a cliché a little bit, but I kept humor books around me. I watched Candid Camera on TV, which was the stimulus for my prank master's entertainment company that really got me worldwide publicity and kicked off my speaking career. So staying upbeat in the face of adversity I know is tough, but you must do that because it's all downhill if you don't. Let me ask you this question. I mean, this this is the commentary. Are you forcing your children to learn to overcome obstacles, or are you making yourself look good by buying obstacles out of their way? That's a hard thing to hit a parent with.

[01:11:02] I tell you, because a lot of them say, well, I want to give the child things that I didn't have. Well, are you doing them a favor by doing that? I mean, did you have to work for spending money as a child or was it given to you? Did you have to work your way through college or was it paid for you? I mean, if you had everything handed to you, maybe you don't have these skills. Maybe you need to get them. I can tell you, you're not doing a child a favor by giving them everything. Because that's the child that can't handle the normal pressures of life. Kind of like that kid on the tennis court. Scored there in drugs, their therapy, their drinking, eating disorders. I even met a mother that her daughter is cutting herself. Oh my God, those kind of things really didn't exist that much when I was a kid. We had to work for what we got. We appreciated things, we appreciate accomplishment. And yet again, I think every child should have to work outside the home. So here's a success idea for you. I think your kid should have to do your neighbor's chores and vice versa. How about that as a unique idea? Because that will make you so darn embarrassed if they screw up that you'll start teaching them what to do.

[01:12:25] So your success tip is pick something that's an obstacle in your personal life or or for your business life, and put a laser focus on that problem. Make it your waking thought and think about it during the day. Think about it when you get home. Think about it several hours before you go to bed, and then take action to keep trying options until something works. You can overcome obstacles, and if you have kids, find out what they perceive as an obstacle in their life and help them brainstorm ways to overcome it. Then encourage them to take action. You can overcome obstacles. All right. Leadership skill number ten. Risk everything for something truly worthwhile. All right, back to the eulogy. Did you ever wonder why many people don't achieve their goals? Well, could it be because they were never really willing to commit fully to them? They always gave themselves easy outs so that when the going got tough, they could bail out easily. Around 1946, with a house full of kids and more on the way, my dad took every nickel he had and went 50 miles out of Pittsburgh, out of the city, and bought 150 acres of land, a bulldozer, and enough fuel to run it. He did not want his kids being raised in the filthy air and tough streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He built a truck stop and a motel and eventually warehouses, rental colleges, and our house on National Route 41 mile east of Claysville, Pennsylvania.

[01:14:05] His work can still be seen there today, along with that chimney I mentioned earlier. That's on one of our rental properties. All the kids grew up healthy and strong, and not one ever got into trouble. Except the time I ran away from home and ate grass, soup, and hot dogs for two hours before I gave up and came home. All right, so here's the commentary. Now, I'm not telling you to be irresponsible, but when there's no turning back, fear is a really great motivator. Here's another thing. For years I've heard people say getting fired was the best thing that happened to them ever in their entire life. Now, they don't say that at the time, all right. But when they look back, that's what forced them to make significant changes that helped put them where they are today. There was no turning back. They had to excel. Now, when you're in that situation where there's no turning back, you really have to accomplish things. And many times folks say there are things you never dreamed that you could accomplish. So when it's appropriate, risk everything and you'll do all right. I'm going to throw in some sidebars here before I do the end of the eulogy. One has to do with balance. And I believe that, you know, you hear everybody saying, well, you have to be balanced. Well, isn't that nice? You got to be balanced.

[01:15:34] Well, most of those people are seriously broke. I'll tell you what I want you to think of anybody that you know and admire as a super high achiever. It could be Olympic athlete. It could be a sports figure, an entertainer, a super successful business person or or something like that. Do you think they're balanced? If you want to achieve really great things, you can't be balanced. It just can't happen. You have to do extraordinary things and put out extraordinary efforts towards those achievements. This is opposite of balance. Now, I'm not saying to ruin one area of your life to make another great. That's very common. I'm just saying that if you have laser focus and you have a successful environment around you and you work hard and I mean work hard, that's what it takes to be a superstar in whatever you want to do. If you're happy with mediocrity. Okay, I can't blame you or shame you for that. If that's what you're shooting for. No problem. Just don't cry the blues and complain about not reaching large goals. I don't want to hear it. And nobody else does either. But if you want to be excellent and achieve great things. This is according to Doctor Sidney Lecter. He's a psych professor at Yale. It's about the eight qualities of high achievers. He talks about laser focus, successful environment and clear vision and other things. But one thing that he said that I really resonated with is that, you know, people would call me a workaholic because I'm very interested in my business and doing a good job and taking care of customers.

[01:17:26] And I play tennis and I play with the dogs. So if you tell me I'm a workaholic, I just tell you. Shut up and mind your own business. Right? I call it what Doctor Lecter calls a winning pace. That is my winning pace. And this is where I excel. Now you have to find your winning pace. And maybe it's not as tough as mine. I'm kind of an oddball, I admit, because I went to the doctor and, yeah, I'm overweight. But the doctor actually said, and I quote, you should have been a Clydesdale because he said he's got people half my age falling apart. He said, you're doing twice as much as them and accomplishing more, and you don't even feel bad and you're not even tired. So you just have to find the winning pace that suits you. But I'm saying push yourself harder than you have in the past. I mean, don't go having a heart attack on me, but most people can do way more than they ever dreamed they could. And here's one other tough part I may as well throw in right here. If you have a spouse or significant other, you need to have one that's on the same page as you. If you don't, everything becomes tougher. And instead of the synergy realized from a team, you have a boat anchor tied around everything you do.

[01:18:56] And I certainly don't pretend to be any relationship expert, so you'll have to look for another podcast to help you with that. I just thought it would be good to mention it. All right, so back to balance. I don't think it's the greatest idea if you want to excel and be highly successful. All right. So I'm going to throw in another pet peeve of mine about being on time. This is a real important success principle. It seems that with the new generations, this concept of being on time has kind of gone by the wayside. I mean, is it because we don't have watches anymore because our cell phones keep time for us? I mean, what is it now? On a couple episodes of this podcast, I recently interviewed a Gen Z expert that's like up to 18 years old at the time of this recording and a millennial expert. And they're they're pushing 40. Both of them were somewhat at odds with me on this issue of being on time. They said, well, these generations don't see time the way us oldsters do. I'm like they said, they told me time is flexible with these young people. Flexible. I mean, here's what I said to them. I said, okay, do you mean I put a sign on my store window that says open at nine? Uh, or maybe ten. It all depends on whether the employees slept in or not.

[01:20:20] I mean, that's crazy. And one of them had no answer for me, and the other admitted that there are times when time is important, but it wasn't. But I wasn't optimistic with either one of them. To me, it's just a continual erosion of basic, common courtesies and ways to operate your life. That makes sense. Now, I contend nobody respects you if you're late. If you want to be a high achiever in your business and life. Don't be late all the time. It's not cool. I mean, it might be cool for Madonna to show up late at a party, but if you're in business, people have to depend on you. Heck, in life people depend on you and it costs you in both business and life. I mean, I've even heard of daycare centers who charge $20 a minute if you're late picking up your kids so it costs you if you're late all the time. And if you're in business and trying to do business with older and more wealthy people, you better darn well show up on time or early, or you'll lose more business than you'll ever realize. And sure, I'm bringing this to light here and telling you about it, but I can't tell you how many deals I've passed on and how many investments I did not make in people that weren't even disciplined enough to show up either on time for in person or on the phone.

[01:21:47] I just skipped them. I can't depend on them, and I certainly have zero respect for people that are chronically late. It's a lack of discipline. I mean, there's just no reason for it and it's hurting you. And again, like I said, there's no reason for it. You hear me? If you're chronically late, you just need to chronically back up and add 15 or 30 minutes to do whatever you're doing. Because if you're late all the time and I emphasize all the time, there's something wrong with you. It's impossible that it's someone else's fault all the time. You can blame it on your kids. You can blame it on traffic. You can blame it on your dog. I don't. I mean, sure, I know once in a while things come up that are out of your control. But if it's chronic, look in the mirror. It's you do something about it. The motto around here is, if you're not early, you're late. All right. So I'm going to run through a little recap success checklist here, some of it from my dad, some of it's from my own thoughts. But to recap build it strong. Don't take shortcuts. Don't waste your time or resources. Be self-reliant. Study. Work for things. Give before you get. Learn to overcome obstacles and risk everything when it's appropriate. Now here's some extra principles I throw in as some of my success principles Hang around with better people.

[01:23:22] I mean, there's been plenty of people I've heard say that your average income is based on the average of your closest five friends. Well, look around you. See if that's true. Another thing. Invest in yourself. I bought so many training programs. I mean, you could build a skyscraper with the amount of money, but I'm investing in me because I'm self reliant and I'm willing to invest. You at least invested enough time to listen to this episode and spend some time with me. But are you buying training programs? Are you going to school in one way or the other? I'm not trying to push my training down your throat, but I'm just saying I invest in things and look where it's gotten me. I took training from Dottie Walters and Corey Rudl, and I spent a fortune on it because I wanted to learn from the best of the best, and it's paid off to the tune of millions and millions and millions of dollars. So invest in yourself. See, I learned how to create great value for others, and in turn, it's paid off handsomely for me, both in money and lifestyle. This is one thing that's really important to your success. See, if you make yourself so important as a source of value and learning, people can't help but deal with you. You'll always be in demand, but so many people are just happy to get by and get to Friday so they can go to the movies on the weekend.

[01:24:48] Hey, that's okay. But if you have not created value for people that you do business with or interact with in life, that will be your destiny. Waiting for Friday to go to the movies. Do you really want that to be your fate? Okay, here's another success idea. Let's see. Do something no one else has done. Just like this retreat center I'm sitting in. This is the only place in the world you can actually live with a guy like me for an immersion weekend on the topic of internet marketing for small business. I've been doing this for 17 years. Nobody else has done what I'm doing here. When you can claim you're the only one who did something, or the first or the biggest, the best, and all those kinds of superlative words, it helps make you more successful in business when you can claim things like that. Another thing control your image. I actually just cancelled out a major speaking engagement that would have earned me a minimum of $50,000, and maybe 100,000. How many of you out there would be willing to do that? Probably not too many. I get that. But the rest of the program was populated with a bunch of loudmouthed BS scammers that are not credible. So I don't want that to rub off on me and makes me want to take a shower just to be around them, so I cancelled. I actually mean, I didn't accept the engagement because I've only cancelled out of one engagement my whole life and that's that's another story.

[01:26:24] Get really good at publicity. I built my whole career even before the internet was around on publicity. I refused to cold call because, as I said just a minute ago or just a second ago, you. You must control your image. Cold calling to me is begging for business. I want people to call me. The entire struggle. Power struggle of the call changes when they call me. It's basically. Are you available? And can we afford you? So get really good at publicity. Get really good at copywriting. Of course. My course copywriting 901 comm is there for you, waiting for you. It's made me lots and lots of money. I've identified copywriting as the number one business skill I've acquired in 42 years of formal business and really, since I'm ten years old, writing flyers to put door to door. My course on this is one of the best and most cost effective there is. Many people charge you $10,000 for courses not as good as mine. At the time of this recording, it's only 297 bucks and I'll even finance it for you. Get this copywriting skill. Okay, I told you about announcing things so that you're too embarrassed if you don't do them. That makes you really scratch and crawl to keep after it and get yourself a laser. Focus on what you want to achieve.

[01:27:51] Use your throwaway time. And here's another really big one. Be consistent. See, pretty much people know what to expect out of me. They know that if I say something, it's going to happen whether there's a nuclear attack hits or not. Right? And if it doesn't happen, I'm going to tell you why. And I'm going to make up for it. See, consistency is credibility. Consistency is trust. So if you're not consistent, nobody knows what the heck to expect out of you. How do you expect them to do business with you when you're there one minute and gone the next? It's the same in relationships. Why would somebody want to be with you if they never know what to expect? Now, I'm not saying spontaneity and surprises aren't fun. I'm saying, are you dependable to do what you say you're going to do? So be consistent and it will pay off greatly. Be on time. And I've harped on that enough, but it's a big stickler with me. Be tough but fair. Another thing that helps me be successful is I always laugh at failure for two reasons. One, because it keeps me open to learning the most I can from the failure, and two, it keeps me loose. When you're able to laugh at your failures, you're able to easily or much more easily. It's not necessarily ever easy to overcome failures, but you can come up with solutions to make it better the next time.

[01:29:20] If you get all tense and crack up and cry and start drinking and taking drugs, well, what's the chances that it's going to be better the next time around? And it's time to take responsibility for yourself and to be a good role model for your kids. If you have any. And I hope from this point on, nobody listening to this pat somebody on the back for poor performance. You encourage them to do better, but don't reinforce poor performance because that's just that will just make you get more poor performance. And oh my God, this, this thing with giving out trophies to everybody and all this stuff just floors me. These concepts were invented by people I call highly educated idiots. It doesn't surprise me that many kids are incapable of achievement when they grow up. I mean, where is the incentive to work harder? Where is the life learning that you don't always win? I come from a small town where common sense was our key to survival. Okay. You know, you know what small town people would say about this trophy BS. Here's what they'd say. This is a small town saying if you told that to a donkey, he'd kick your brains out. Okay. So all right, so I'm going to do this last little section of eulogy in a minute. But if you like this idea of recapping what you learned from your parents, maybe you want to write one for your parents.

[01:30:53] How about that? A lot of people emailed me after this came out that said they did one of these for their parents, and some were alive and some had passed long ago. But what it did was really make them think of the nice things their parents did for them. You can print out the transcript of this podcast episode, which is in the show notes. And hey, leave it around and and in your children's bedroom. Maybe they'll get the hint the right one for you. How about that? All right, so here we go. Let's close up this episode with the final part of my dad's eulogy. Here we go. Even though dad was only on stage once that I know of his leadership principles are influencing tens of thousands of people through me. And because of all the people he touched over the years, I spent the 4th of July this week at the funeral home viewing. Which to be honest, I thought was going to be a pretty barren sight, especially being 94. All dad's friends had died off. I couldn't believe it. People were everywhere. People that I'd never seen before or even heard of were telling me stories of when they were down and out 60 or 70 years ago. My dad was the one that helped them or gave them a chance or encouraged them. Sorry folks. I just about fell on the floor when someone told me that around 1923, my dad took on the responsibility for an entire family of kids who had an old drunk for a father.

[01:32:35] Dad worked all week for $0.50 to buy a big sack of potatoes, to feed six kids in himself for the week. I was told that dad taught the boys of the family trades so they could go out and find work, and that these people thought the sun rose and set on my dad. I had never heard a word about them before my dad's viewing on July 4th of the year 2000. So one more lesson that maybe I didn't learn too well from dad is don't boast, just do good things. Well, Tom, what's this got to do with great speaking? Well, I'm hoping if you got this far that you saw some value in my dad's leadership teachings. I'm hoping that when you take the stage that you walk up there as a good example for many people, you will touch in your career. My dad didn't have the stage in the conventional sense, like we do every time we speak. He lived the stage. In fact, he was the stage that good leadership stands on. You living as a good example both on stage and off, will be what ultimately makes you a great speaker. I can teach you the techniques, but you must provide the good example 24 hours a day, seven days a week, not just when you're on the platform. Thanks, dad. Your little hippie and I know you're going to crack up at this dumb nickname of mine, and you can remind me to tell the story of how I got that name on a future episode. Thanks so much for listening.