Dan Martell - From Dr＊gs & Prison To Self Actualizing Entrepreneur： My Story

00:00:00.000 Today, we're heading to Portage. It's a rehab center that saved my life when I was 17.

00:00:13.120 Actually, right outside where we're at now, which is called Sussex.

00:00:17.080 If you've ever heard me share my story about getting in a high-speed chase and almost taking

00:00:21.260 my life, that actually happened right off the highway up here. And Portage just happened to

00:00:28.900 me 20 minutes away from where that incident occurred there's no correlation to it other than

00:00:34.800 that but I ended up going to jail for six months getting released to rehab therapeutic community

00:00:41.520 it's what they call it and I spent 11 months in therapy working on myself and understanding what

00:00:48.620 made me click and really getting to the root of a lot of trauma and resolving those insecurities

00:00:55.560 and self-esteem issues and you know anger issues and so I've been coming back here two or three

00:01:02.660 times a year for 20 geez I'm getting old 24 years that's a long time 24 years um and with no

00:01:14.740 agenda other than one which is I want to pour into these kids the possibility that they can

00:01:23.980 live an extraordinary life sober it sounds so simple it sounds trivial it sounds duh i think

00:01:33.060 to a lot of people but i know when i was there my biggest fear my biggest concern was okay

00:01:40.520 i'm bought in i have a problem i should not be doing drugs what am i gonna do for fun like

00:01:49.060 what is my life going to look like because the way i see it is i'm going to get a job

00:01:54.100 and i'm going to go to work and after work i'm going to go home and i'm going to sit and stare

00:01:59.220 at a wall or watch a lot of tv or play video games and that will be my life for the rest of

00:02:04.500 my life and i would that was my biggest like oh my gosh what am i going to do right i wasn't

00:02:10.900 into sports i didn't grow up playing team sports um so i love going back there and kind of

00:02:18.740 you know telling them my story but also telling them how my life looks like today

00:02:23.340 and you know always leaving it off with the commitment I make that if they get

00:02:28.420 out stay sober for a year that they can reach out to me and I will help them make

00:02:33.440 any dream that they have become a reality. I would love to say you know

00:02:37.700 hundreds of kids have reached out to me but the unfortunate part is is that it

00:02:42.180 is tough some people do relapse and but the good news is from my experience and

00:02:47.860 And because of a lot of the people I went to Portage with is even in the relapse, they had learned so much about themselves.

00:02:54.900 They're able to reduce the bottom that they hit and sometimes self-correct fairly quickly to not let it become a thing.

00:03:06.280 So that's what I'm going to do today.

00:03:10.220 Also going to hang out with my buddy Luke.

00:03:12.720 Luke's a fascinating dude.

00:03:14.180 Luke's the staff there.

00:03:15.160 but uh luke came into my life as a i want to say 52 year old man when i was a kid no no luke's not

00:03:23.800 that old but he uh he must have been in his late 30s he came in as a resident when i was the chief

00:03:30.220 of portage so portage is interesting because the way the program works is the residents run the

00:03:35.980 program so there's a chief and the chief have older members and older members have team leads

00:03:42.340 and there's teams and essentially everybody goes through the program and eventually becomes chief

00:03:47.720 and you might be chief for two weeks, three weeks, but I was a chief and Luke came in as an older

00:03:54.800 member because, and nobody knew it at the time, but he was testing out the waters to see if he

00:03:59.360 wanted to become staff because that's another cool part about Portage was that all the staff

00:04:03.760 were ex-drug addicts, so they truly understand the struggles and the challenges because they've

00:04:07.880 been there themselves that's a beautiful thing so uh yeah and so luke's been a friend of mine and

00:04:13.520 he's uh he's from quebec he's got a strong french accent i always make fun of him because he makes

00:04:18.800 fun of me and i love him i love him so much i had the mandate to create a man roll can i pull it

00:04:26.200 yeah all right just so i understand the context because you said it quickly on the phone this is

00:04:30.640 going to be the clinical guide the playbook is what i call it sop of portage yes because there

00:04:38.000 has been a philosophy but never documented there was never a here's how you run a feelings

00:04:43.700 management meeting here's how wow so this is the book that saved my life yeah that's cool

00:04:49.500 yeah did you ever heard about educational portfolios yeah yeah i study adult learning

00:04:55.680 university to go from your bachelor to your master to your PhD. But I base that on educational

00:05:04.760 portfolios. So what that means is we're going to connect with a specific university and

00:05:11.040 that will count. So when we have one of our counselor that needs credits for motivational

00:05:17.160 interviewing for whatsoever courses, based on the presentation of their portfolio, they

00:05:23.940 will have the credits automatically this is crazy it's based on the task approach look at this man

00:05:30.900 did you come out with these models yeah this is all from a lot of study first a lot of

00:05:37.300 a lot of interviews you interviewed a lot of staff no no no no not one i didn't interview

00:05:43.380 nobody i did most of my research and you know what's funny portage never had the definition of

00:05:50.340 of taking care of feelings, follow-up.

00:05:54.260 None of that.

00:05:55.100 How to write a ticket, back to work, yeah.

00:05:58.320 Back to work, basic values.

00:06:00.980 These are, but these are the, this is.

00:06:02.700 And leisure time.

00:06:05.780 Are you on your image?

00:06:07.540 But all based, an issue, you know,

00:06:10.100 if you look at the definition in the dictionary,

00:06:12.180 you're gonna have, it's portage definition.

00:06:15.220 But the reason, you know, a lot of people

00:06:19.180 used to say and still say that even an adult coming to portage if they went

00:06:23.860 through the curriculum they become a better person like this is this some of

00:06:27.940 this stuff's fundamental human approach to living okay I'm here to talk about

00:06:34.060 about therapy and after we talk about the rich shit all right okay hey guys

00:06:47.260 and invited himself sure did i just love it because it's something

00:06:56.540 for dan martell who was here in 98 that's a long long long time ago

00:07:04.060 and still calm and want to go where he says everything started for him.

00:07:14.940 And it's definitely not in a room like this to see where he's at in life.

00:07:23.280 I was just telling him what he said.

00:07:25.080 I know, Dan, I'm a big fan of you, and he has a hard time to take that compliment.

00:07:36.300 And for him, what he does is natural, it's what he wants to do,

00:07:40.960 but for me, when I watch him on videos, because I'm a follower, it inspired me every time.

00:07:53.200 especially the last one I saw because that's the last one basically the

00:07:57.760 accident because Dan do a lot of biking and then there's a person that turned and

00:08:04.960 Dan is coming he told me at 31 kilometers an hour and hit the car and you see him in the air and

00:08:10.900 you see him fucking get up man like almost nothing happened it's like wow where he's

00:08:19.000 have in life what he has done since he completed his program and be so done so humble about what

00:08:31.800 he has he's not the guy that brags does he have pride i hope so where he is in life right now

00:08:41.320 He has a lot of pride, but bragging and pride for me, it's two different things.

00:08:48.320 So, listen to his story, guys, because it's quite inspirational.

00:08:55.320 The goal is not that everybody will become Dan if you do your program,

00:09:00.320 but Dan, it's not money that he will describe himself, it's success and happiness.

00:09:08.320 success and happiness

00:09:10.920 and that's what everybody

00:09:13.140 we hope to achieve

00:09:15.600 like I told you guys yesterday

00:09:17.760 if you hate my gut

00:09:19.560 I don't care

00:09:20.640 I better sleep tonight

00:09:21.960 but if you hate my gut

00:09:25.140 and my goal is you guys

00:09:27.200 to become happy

00:09:28.300 and you achieve that

00:09:30.320 hate me as much as you want

00:09:32.480 and I'm okay with it

00:09:33.960 the goal is to be successful

00:09:36.860 and happy

00:09:37.600 that's the goal to achieve

00:09:40.100 so Dan

00:09:41.680 thanks Luke

00:09:43.540 you know usually

00:09:47.660 I try to come back at least

00:09:50.140 once a year, a couple times a year

00:09:51.780 and I usually

00:09:54.080 share my story, today I'll share that

00:09:56.200 as I think some of you guys might

00:09:57.960 resonate with it, but I

00:10:00.060 want to

00:10:01.680 open up the conversation to answer

00:10:04.100 some of your questions

00:10:05.080 it seems like the McLaren's kind of famous even before I show up now so people immediately

00:10:09.940 want to know what I do and how I've you know created the life but

00:10:14.400 so it's not me speaking it's more us having a conversation unfortunately I'm not able to stay

00:10:23.060 for lunch because of the COVID protocols normally I do and we get to talk further but if there's

00:10:28.120 anything you would have liked to ask me there I would encourage you to ask me here if that's okay

00:10:32.300 um and I'm just really grateful to come here like even today I was driving up and

00:10:39.740 just thinking you know 20 but 23 years ago just how much is how much has changed but

00:10:48.000 Portage saved my life and if you ever met my dad and you asked him what does Portage mean to him

00:10:54.940 he would tell you that it gave him his son back and looking at the family I have today and my

00:11:04.340 two incredible boys and my wife and the opportunities that I get to experience today

00:11:08.720 it's just pretty fucking awesome but you know I was still that kid that grew up in a

00:11:16.580 in a tough situation I have two younger brothers and older sister I grew up in Riverview New

00:11:21.900 Brunswick. I got diagnosed with ADHD when I was nine. I had a crazy-ass temper. I'd get so upset

00:11:33.120 sometimes I'd see red and just pretty much if there was something to grab onto and break I would

00:11:39.480 do that and it got to the point where my parents literally couldn't handle me and had to call the

00:11:43.240 police one day when I was 11 because they were worried that I would do something bad in the

00:11:49.940 middle of the night like they just didn't even feel safe having me in the house and that was

00:11:54.040 kind of the beginning of my journey or you know path to you know crisis center foster care you

00:12:05.280 know I was the first and last child my foster dad ever had because I you know the everything just

00:12:11.480 the shit I did in his house to the point where one day he left me at home while he was running

00:12:18.740 errands and I lit off roman candles in the middle of his house like firing all over the place and

00:12:25.380 this is a single guy with a beautiful home couches caught on fire books burnt and I just remember

00:12:32.120 like sitting in this smoke-filled room and just grabbed my backpack filled it up my clothes and

00:12:36.800 ran away I was at 12 years old 13 ended up in a group home because I couldn't you know no no

00:12:42.660 foster parents wanted to take me I spent a year there and that that's kind of where life kind of

00:12:48.260 started getting really bad because I was living with 16, 17-year-olds teaching me stuff that I

00:12:53.120 probably shouldn't have been learning as a 12, 13-year-old, and ended up getting introduced to

00:12:58.260 drugs, and then life just spiraled way out of control. I ended up in jail the first time when

00:13:03.600 I was 15, ended up in Kingsclare, spent six weeks there, got out. As I was leaving, the guard said,

00:13:11.040 I'll see you soon, and I was like, why would you see me soon? Today's my last day. He goes, we always

00:13:15.260 do. I was like, what a fucking asshole. Turned out he was right. Nine months later, I was right back

00:13:24.100 there. So the moment that really changed my life was actually not far from here in Sussex, New

00:13:30.880 Brunswick. I was in a stolen car, high and drunk, trying to make my way to Quebec because the police

00:13:38.640 had found a bunch of guns and drugs in my house and my parents called the police and they were

00:13:44.180 trying to find me and I ended up taking the actually like I got lost it's embarrassing to

00:13:50.680 say but I was trying to get to Quebec ended up in Frankton took the wrong turn ended up in St. John

00:13:55.740 so you know that highway from Frankton to St. John so I thought I was going to Quebec ended up on that

00:14:00.420 road then thought well I don't have enough gas to get to Quebec anymore even close to it I'll just

00:14:05.760 go to Fundy and like hide in the woods like trash the car hide in the woods and as I was coming

00:14:12.020 through Sussex I took the exit to get some more gas and there was a routine roadblock and when I

00:14:21.560 pulled over the police officer asked me for my driver's license and I told him you know it's my

00:14:25.500 mom's car and I forgot my license at home and when he asked me to pull over I took off. Prior to

00:14:31.980 stealing the car I had a handgun in a backpack and I made a commitment that if the cops got too close

00:14:37.540 I was just going to pull the gun and let them do their job.

00:14:40.860 And I ended up getting quite away from the police in the high-speed chase,

00:14:46.100 turned into a neighborhood, and there was an open garage door,

00:14:48.820 and I thought maybe, you know, I could sneak into the garage,

00:14:51.960 close the door, and make my getaway, you know.

00:14:53.540 Maybe I watched too many cop movies, but came in way too much speed,

00:14:58.380 smashed into the side of the house, and went for the gun.

00:15:02.020 And I could hear the cops getting closer,

00:15:03.860 and as I was pulling on the, trying to get the gun out of the handbag,

00:15:06.780 it got stuck on the rope, on the handbag, and before I knew it, the cops grabbed me,

00:15:13.320 the feets didn't even touch the ground, and threw me in the back of the cop car,

00:15:16.720 and I woke up sober the next day, wondering what my life was going to look like.

00:15:21.500 So, from that moment to ending up, I did six months in St. John Regional,

00:15:29.460 that was the adult facility before Miramichi was built,

00:15:32.480 and there was actually a portage program in the jail, the adult jail,

00:15:36.780 and um worked on myself tried to come to Portage then they said no go do your pro like go prove to

00:15:43.920 us that you actually want help so I had to go do that six months and then eventually

00:15:47.260 I got allowed to come here and you know I still remember my dad picked me up I went to court

00:15:55.240 they released me my dad drove me here and you know never you're driving up that highway and

00:16:01.840 this long road and you're like where the hell is this place and you know you come across this

00:16:05.680 beautiful lake and back then it was just a bunch of trailers right and I ended up doing 11 months

00:16:11.740 of therapy 11 month program like everything you should and could have worked on I had to work on

00:16:20.200 I came in for the first two months I acted like a chameleon I did I was playing a part I wasn't

00:16:25.020 doing any therapy got in trouble with one of the girls Carol physical contact they were going to

00:16:31.720 kicked me out, went through a whole process. Luckily, I got to stay, worked through that,

00:16:38.900 eventually ended up as a chief. That's when I met Luke. Luke came in as a member for a few weeks as

00:16:45.460 he was testing out the grounds, I guess, to become staff. And there was like this moment when I was

00:16:49.560 chief and one of the residents, Bobby, just like, just fucking got under my skin. And I ended up

00:16:56.940 throwing the keys and jumping out the pantry window because they were all like trying to talk

00:17:01.420 to me and I just like went in the pantry closed the door jumped out the window ran ran about the

00:17:05.640 building and Luke was the guy that they sent to come talk to me and you know and it was cool

00:17:11.000 because I think Luke you you knew how much trouble I would have gotten in if they knew that I threw

00:17:15.100 the keys and you like told me to go I think you might have brought me the keys and you're like

00:17:18.820 take the keys put them on don't let anybody know you jumped out of the window because you're gonna

00:17:24.340 fuck up your transition so I don't know I went I went through a lot here and it definitely saved

00:17:32.980 my life and the craziest part of that story was at the end of the program it's helping Rick right

00:17:37.440 Rick still works here I'm assuming yeah so Rick there was uh three camps on like actually right

00:17:43.200 where this building is there was three additional like buildings that nobody went in and Rick was

00:17:48.920 cleaning out one of the camps and he asked me if I would help because I actually stayed on

00:17:52.380 after my program to help Rick build the school so I was around here and in one of the rooms there's

00:17:57.940 this old computer okay like this old like from the 90s okay well it was 1998 was like early 90s 486

00:18:05.340 computer okay and sitting next to this computer is this book on programming software programming

00:18:10.940 called Java and I just opened the book and started reading it it read like English and I thought fuck

00:18:17.900 that's crazy I'm I don't know anything about programming but I can understand what it says

00:18:22.380 and I started the computer up and just followed the first chapter of this book and I got the

00:18:27.140 computer to say hello world which doesn't sound like a big deal but in software world it's actually

00:18:33.320 like pretty crazy that I'd never touched a computer before just followed the instructions

00:18:37.500 and what happened for me is weird because there was like this unfounded belief that maybe I was

00:18:44.840 smart at computers I was such a fuck up in other areas of my life that I was just trying to find

00:18:48.960 something and I started to believe that maybe I'm like this undiscovered computer genius right like

00:18:56.220 I don't know if you guys have ever felt like completely like moronic about the way you

00:19:01.060 approach your life but sometimes you think maybe there's like this part of your life that could be

00:19:04.740 a genius and that's that's what happened for me in that moment I was just like okay maybe computers

00:19:09.160 could be a thing and so this is like right when the internet was really taken off like Amazon

00:19:15.700 started in 96 this is 1998 and I got out and I discovered the internet and it turned out to be

00:19:23.240 obviously a big deal and I remember I had two passions at the time I had software because of

00:19:29.240 you know writing some code and plants for maybe obvious reasons back then but my dad said

00:19:35.840 no no that's what i was allowed to grow but i did have a passion for plants because of the weed

00:19:43.060 so that's you know to be honest with all of you guys i grew i grew weed that's that's like i grew

00:19:48.340 a lot of weed in that period before i went to jail and um so i wanted to get into botany but my dad

00:19:54.540 said like you should probably have a garden as a hobby and get into this computer stuff and probably

00:20:00.160 the best decision but yeah I did I did grow when I got out I had on the front of my dad's cottage

00:20:06.440 I spent 1500 bucks building one of the most advanced hydroponic setups to grow tomatoes

00:20:12.300 watermelons and I had tomatoes that grew like they were like seven pound tomatoes

00:20:17.020 they were so big they actually split and they were they're actually not that tasty but

00:20:21.620 um and then you know fast forward today I I've built uh several companies that I've sold

00:20:31.140 I became a multi-millionaire when I was 27 um I'm 42 today I own a lot of companies I have a

00:20:39.840 spreadsheet any any questions you got yeah what books if any did you read in that period yeah

00:20:45.640 tons. I'll tell you a story. Last night I went out for date night with my wife every Thursday

00:20:53.440 and on our way back there was no there was a lineup at the ice cream store I wanted ice cream

00:20:59.140 so I go into the kitchen my son's birthday was on the weekend and he had ice cream cake from

00:21:03.320 Dirty Queen. Amazing. Best part's the middle right? So anyways I'm like cutting the ice cream cake

00:21:09.220 and as I'm cutting it in the kitchen I look out the window and there's these three kids on their

00:21:14.320 bikes driving down my driveway into my yard as if they were like friends of my two sons

00:21:18.920 that but they're in bed right like it's eight o'clock eight thirty at night and they're just

00:21:23.900 smiling and uh so I go to the front I put the ice cream cake down I go to the front door

00:21:28.600 and I open the door and this this kid's just like uh I saw your car I really like it what do you do

00:21:35.460 and I'm like uh so so sweet so I I say I know what you're asking me but the reason I have this car

00:21:43.620 is because I read books and his response was people pay you to read books I said no no they

00:21:54.080 don't but I have businesses but it's not the business I'm in that's interesting because you

00:21:59.600 can you can create wealth in any business real estate software honestly anything we live in this

00:22:05.060 really cool world even more today than back then but what is true amongst all the rich people

00:22:11.040 is that they read books, and I know, I can prove this real quick. If you, in wherever city you're

00:22:17.580 from, do you guys know the street with all the big houses? Trump? He writes them. But here's the

00:22:24.260 thing, there's always exceptions to the norm, because if you guys know who Gary Vee is, he

00:22:27.280 doesn't read books either, but again, he's exceptionally not the norm. But every street

00:22:32.120 with the big houses, inside the big house, do you know what they all have? Library. Every fucking

00:22:37.880 one of them. Do you think that's by chance? It's not. It's because if you're the type of person

00:22:44.680 that realizes everything they want to create or have, it will only happen if they learn how to

00:22:51.560 become the person who can create that, then you have to read books because nobody's going to go

00:22:56.400 to university for 45 years, right? And I just think books are such a beautiful trade because

00:23:02.340 I can find somebody like Elon Musk where he's lived 45 years and he's become world-class at

00:23:10.420 what he does and in six hours read that person's perspective on how he approaches his life

00:23:16.860 or Warren Buffett or Oprah or Shaq or Kobe or whoever. Like literally all these people you

00:23:23.180 admire probably have a book and you can learn about the way they look at life and if you read

00:23:27.180 any of those books, you would discover patterns. Success leaves clues, okay? Remember this, success

00:23:32.320 leaves clues, and you'll see the clues in those books. So the first book that I ever read, and it

00:23:39.320 took me a while, I got into computer, this is what's funny, is I started reading computer books because

00:23:43.160 of the book here. So I went to chapters, and my dad, beautiful human being, finally after I

00:23:48.540 kind of straightened my life out, he started to trust me a little bit. He said,

00:23:53.320 if you read the whole book, I will buy you the next book. So you have an unlimited budget for

00:24:02.420 books as long as you read the book. And it started with one book and it turned into, he probably

00:24:08.220 spent $3,000 in six months reading, buying me computer books from chapters at Crystal Palace

00:24:15.080 in Moncton. Yeah, I just couldn't stop. I'd go in, I'd start on HTML, Cold Fusion, CGI,

00:24:22.360 Pearl, architecture design, and I would just sit there and code and learn and study.

00:24:29.020 So what's funny is I did that for, you know, 17 to 23, okay, so six years.

00:24:37.240 Never occurred to me once, even though I started my first business when I was 17,

00:24:41.100 failed, started another business when I was 19, failed. It never occurred to me to read a business

00:24:47.620 book. Isn't that crazy? No, never, not, not, there was never a moment somebody said, you should read

00:24:52.640 a business book. Nobody ever said that to me. I thought I had a computer problem, like a computer

00:24:56.680 issue, right? So at 23, I'm in Ottawa and I'm, I'm Rideau Center. It's the mall in Ottawa. Um,

00:25:05.080 I'm going, I'm going to the Starbucks there and I just, it's in the chapters and I just happened

00:25:09.840 to go through the book department. I saw personal development, and there was a book called Love is a

00:25:15.380 Killer App, and I resonated with it because the software, there's a thing called the Killer App.

00:25:20.480 The spreadsheet was the killer app for personal computers, okay, and I didn't even, not only did

00:25:26.260 I not read books, like I wasn't into reading business books, I bought the CDs so I could

00:25:31.060 listen to it, okay, so I listened to this book, Love is a Killer App, and that book changed my

00:25:35.980 whole view on reading because the guy Tim Sanders who wrote the book said you know basically good

00:25:43.600 people do finish first and to be a good person you should network like it's your net worth so you

00:25:49.260 build your your peer group of positive people you should acquire knowledge not only for yourself but

00:25:56.300 for your customers that's a crazy idea I should read books not for my sake for my customers sake

00:26:01.780 so I could teach them stuff about their business.

00:26:04.080 That's how I become valuable.

00:26:05.900 And you should really approach your life

00:26:09.860 and other people with grace and be a good dude.

00:26:12.860 He called it a love cat, right?

00:26:14.220 Could never get behind the word love cat,

00:26:15.620 but good dude, I can get behind.

00:26:18.120 And that was the first book

00:26:21.000 that like cracked open the door

00:26:23.400 to the point that today I've read over a thousand books.

00:26:27.340 I read 10 pages every day

00:26:28.780 and I have for tens of years.

00:26:31.780 and when people ask me about the mclaren i always say that's the car the book spot

00:26:37.860 isn't that crazy so there's a lot of books i i don't know if there's if you said like what's

00:26:43.140 the one i'm interested dan i would probably have to say uh think and grow rich by napoleon hill

00:26:49.700 because it's the book that all the rich people point to because it's been around since the 1800s

00:26:56.420 yeah well reread it i reread it every year because i'm a different person and when i

00:27:00.740 I read it I'm like I see things differently right but in the book he talks about primary aim which

00:27:06.640 is having a vision for your life which is what I was talking about earlier that book is so

00:27:11.380 fundamental in every every athlete actor tick tocker whoever you admire musician they probably

00:27:21.780 read Think and Grow Rich so that's that's where I would start appreciate the question man

00:27:27.240 i'm savannah savannah savannah nice to meet you

00:27:32.920 yeah it's a great question savannah we think of it and what we focus on we amplify right so if i

00:27:47.740 think i'm lonely and i keep thinking about it i just amplify it's why a lot of people that watch

00:27:51.720 the news during covid holy shit it tore their people i have i have friends of mine's parents

00:27:58.840 that i was close with that i've seen in a 12 month period like they're not the same human being

00:28:05.900 because for 12 months they sat and watched the news six seven hours a day they are not the same

00:28:11.320 person when i talk to this human being there's something different they shifted okay i don't

00:28:18.440 watch the news. I will fight you if you've asked me to watch the news. I will physically attack

00:28:25.840 somebody. If they put a camera here and say, you got to go watch that, I say, let's get ready to

00:28:29.860 rumble. I ain't watching it. That's how much I care about what I put in my mind. Can I control

00:28:35.500 a global pandemic? Like, I know I have resources. I don't have fucking resources like that, okay?

00:28:40.160 So what can I control? I can control how I show up. I can control where I spend my time. That's

00:28:44.660 why Luke's like, hey, when you come up, there's all these protocols. That's okay. I'm game. I'll

00:28:48.300 play the game, but I'm not not going to go because of it, right? So yeah, I think the I is the problem.

00:28:54.980 Try to find other people that you could help. And this is what's crazy is the thing that you're

00:29:00.680 dealing with the most. Somebody said, because one of my big areas of my life that I give in

00:29:06.520 the community is at-risk youth. So everywhere I go, as I'm traveling, et cetera, I always go speak

00:29:11.840 to foster kids, group home kids, homeless people, youth, right? And the reason why, maybe it's

00:29:18.480 obvious to you guys now, is because that was my reality. I went through that, and I think that

00:29:24.720 inherently the human condition, the reason we're here on earth, check this out, you guys want some

00:29:29.320 big heady shit if I haven't gone there already? We'll start with the fact that most of us will

00:29:36.520 have kids, right? Regardless if you feel ready or not, you'll probably have kids at some point.

00:29:40.480 a parent's primary, coded into your DNA approach to life is to create a better life for your kids.

00:29:48.720 Some of you guys may have kids, and that's why you're here, because you want to show up better

00:29:51.580 for your kids. So in our human condition is this concept of making it better for the previous

00:29:58.700 generation, okay, for our communities, for our kids, for our family. And that's what drives us

00:30:03.860 forward. That's what drives progress. And the thing that will light you up the most, potentially,

00:30:10.480 is asking yourself, what pain did I experience

00:30:14.160 that I would love to help other people

00:30:16.540 get through easier or avoid?

00:30:21.400 And that's an area that if you knew that,

00:30:25.400 and I'm just using it as an example,

00:30:26.980 if it was loneliness, if you studied loneliness

00:30:30.040 and you studied tools to overcome that

00:30:32.480 and you got good at it

00:30:34.040 and you started being an example for other people

00:30:37.240 and they came to you for advice on how to overcome it

00:30:39.560 and you could give them those lessons you learned,

00:30:41.700 it would fill you up in a way that it just does.

00:30:48.100 And, I mean, selfishly, that's why I'm here.

00:30:51.020 Like, I love this.

00:30:53.120 And I don't love it for any ego reason.

00:30:55.280 I just love it because I know that the more I support all of you guys,

00:31:03.360 the more I'll get in return.

00:31:05.180 It's how the universe works, right?

00:31:07.000 The more we give, the more we get.

00:31:08.840 Okay?

00:31:09.020 Some people that want more, it's because they don't give shit.

00:31:11.940 They literally are like, I want a McLaren.

00:31:13.480 What are you giving?

00:31:14.380 How are you showing up?

00:31:15.360 What value are you creating in the world?

00:31:16.680 Who did you help today?

00:31:18.300 Nobody.

00:31:19.260 But you want something really fancy.

00:31:21.000 Why?

00:31:21.460 That's not how it works, right?

00:31:23.280 You need to give if you want to get.

00:31:25.100 And the more you learn to become the person who can give even more, the more you'll get.

00:31:28.540 And that's the game.

00:31:29.740 That's why reading books is such a great trait.

00:31:33.160 Anybody who's got any burning questions, just do what the fuck they tell you to do.

00:31:36.420 It sounds crazy.

00:31:37.100 okay so when the doctor told me I got to do this 20 minutes a day for two weeks and then come back

00:31:42.220 and see them a hundred percent I did that and a little bit more right so luckily I have the range

00:31:48.740 of motion I just don't have the strength so I have this ball that I got to squeeze to work on the grip

00:31:52.940 strength so I don't have the grip strength yet shoulder range of motion I don't have a hundred

00:31:57.280 percent yet there's still pain there I can barely do seven push-ups when I used to be able to do

00:32:02.480 a hundred which is really weird like not even being able to push I have to do like knee push-ups

00:32:06.480 right now to work on my shoulder strength so my swim is still impacted but I don't know honestly

00:32:14.740 I'm just I'm gonna start that day and just smile my coach actually says when you smile and you work

00:32:20.740 out it's proven scientifically to make you faster and even if it's not I just believe shit because

00:32:28.000 it sounds cool it just makes me smile so yeah I will smile the whole day yeah my swim's kind of

00:32:34.100 funny because it's a one-off swim. I can't breathe out this side because it pulls on my shoulder so

00:32:38.100 I can only breathe out one side. It makes me a lot slower but appreciate the question. I have

00:32:43.940 essentially a commitment I make to everybody that goes through this portage okay. People always

00:32:48.720 reach out to me. Other therapeutic communities know it's this place, this location, you guys in

00:32:53.960 this room. If you get out and you stay sober for one year I give you permission to reach out to me.

00:33:00.080 It's very easy to find me on the internet. Luke has permission to give you my cell number, my email

00:33:04.000 and I will help you create any dream you could possibly conceive of.

00:33:08.400 And I will give you 100% of all of the resources that I have access to

00:33:12.200 to make that a possibility for you.

00:33:15.180 You guys do the work, finish the program, stay sober for a year, and reach out.

00:33:21.540 Most people don't because they're scared of what's possible.

00:33:24.740 I want to encourage you to not be scared.

00:33:26.760 It could be as simple as getting your college degree,

00:33:29.260 and we can figure out how to do that,

00:33:30.560 or it could be is I want to start a business

00:33:33.600 or I want to become a famous music artist.

00:33:35.760 I honestly don't care, but I will help you.

00:33:39.140 Cool?

00:33:40.360 Thanks for having me, guys.

00:33:41.620 Appreciate it.

Dan Martell - January 17, 2022

From Dr＊gs & Prison To Self Actualizing Entrepreneur： My Story

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