Dan Martell - The 5 Levels of Your Success Journey

00:00:00.000 Hi there.

00:00:00.500 I'm Dan Martell, serial entrepreneur, investor,

00:00:02.560 and creator of SAS Academy.

00:00:04.000 In this show, I'm going to talk to you

00:00:05.760 about the five levels of success.

00:00:08.500 It's something that I think can really

00:00:10.000 help you understand where you're at in your journey

00:00:12.760 and what you can aspire to as an entrepreneur.

00:00:16.120 I think it's really powerful to understand.

00:00:18.000 And be sure to stay at the end.

00:00:19.160 We're going to share with you how to get access

00:00:20.620 to my future living training.

00:00:22.840 This is a framework that I taught at a live event that

00:00:25.620 really helped my clients understand

00:00:28.440 how to speak their future into existence and the mental model

00:00:32.820 to think about that.

00:00:33.820 So you get access to that at the end.

00:00:35.580 But let's get into it.

00:00:49.320 So the five levels, I first heard of it briefly.

00:00:52.820 I remember I was involved in bringing

00:00:54.800 John Maxwell, one of the world's number one leadership

00:00:57.840 trainers, speakers, coaches in the world to my hometown.

00:01:01.740 And it was a real honor.

00:01:02.880 One of the coolest parts I'll actually share with you

00:01:04.600 was because my wife had it on her bucket list.

00:01:09.420 Essentially, she said, if I could meet anybody

00:01:11.900 in the world in the personal development space,

00:01:14.460 it was John Maxwell.

00:01:15.640 So when I had the opportunity privately,

00:01:18.280 I worked on the event, the organization.

00:01:21.080 I contributed to it financially.

00:01:23.040 And the only thing I asked was for my wife, Renee,

00:01:26.640 to be the person that met John at the airport,

00:01:29.200 picked him up, and drove him around for the day.

00:01:31.600 And I gave that to her for her birthday.

00:01:34.000 And she was blown away.

00:01:36.660 And the crazy part is John flew in privately.

00:01:38.640 So she showed up.

00:01:39.960 And his pilot is also his driver.

00:01:41.720 So Renee ended up not even driving,

00:01:43.700 but spending time with him all day

00:01:46.460 as kind of like his buddy and gave him

00:01:49.960 the lay of the land of the city, et cetera.

00:01:51.660 It was a full day event.

00:01:52.360 It was incredible.

00:01:53.540 I digress a little bit because recently,

00:01:55.520 So that was the first time I kind of heard of these concepts.

00:01:57.560 And then not too long ago, I was talking to my buddy Jason

00:01:59.980 Gaynard, the creator of MMT.

00:02:03.260 And I asked him, I said, hey, man,

00:02:04.760 it seems like there's a lot of people

00:02:07.080 that are getting into speaking and teaching, et cetera,

00:02:09.440 amongst this group.

00:02:10.200 And traditionally, in the early days,

00:02:11.860 the group was very much about business builders

00:02:14.280 and entrepreneurs.

00:02:15.440 And he said, yeah, because they're

00:02:16.720 migrating from success to significance.

00:02:19.640 I said, what do you mean?

00:02:20.520 He goes, well, there's these five levels of significance

00:02:24.260 or success.

00:02:24.800 And I was like, oh, I remember hearing that from John Maxwell.

00:02:28.700 So I want to share this with you because, A,

00:02:32.080 I have a personal story around kind of my journey.

00:02:34.980 And I want to kind of map that to these five stages

00:02:37.240 so that you can have some context of wherever you're at,

00:02:40.200 there's always a next level.

00:02:41.540 So that's always a good thing to know.

00:02:43.920 And you know what it is to really inspire you, hopefully,

00:02:47.060 to pull yourself forward wherever you're at in your business.

00:02:50.300 So let's get into it.

00:02:51.700 The first stage is survival.

00:02:53.440 At the bottom of the five stages is really just

00:02:56.560 this idea of survival.

00:02:57.820 I mean, humans really need the skills and the resources

00:03:02.800 and the mindset to just survive.

00:03:05.180 How do they fend for themselves?

00:03:06.400 It's kind of like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

00:03:08.240 At the bottom is just like food, shelter, water, just making sure

00:03:13.260 that they can survive.

00:03:14.180 And I know for me, if you don't know my story,

00:03:17.080 as a teenager, I came from a really challenging environment

00:03:21.400 and got myself into a lot of trouble.

00:03:23.280 And by the time I was 16, I ended up

00:03:25.560 in jail for the second time.

00:03:27.420 And that, for me, was still just this level of trying

00:03:31.580 to survive and trying to get out of negative influences

00:03:35.460 and try to be a positive, at least just not

00:03:40.500 being a negative on society.

00:03:42.000 I literally was just in survival mode of trying

00:03:44.520 to figure out, what do I not understand about life?

00:03:47.640 What do I not believe on it?

00:03:49.860 My beliefs were obviously messed up,

00:03:51.360 But what do I need to do to just get to the next level?

00:03:55.220 And fortunately, I had some incredible people

00:03:57.340 show up in my life to help support those decisions

00:04:00.100 and to get me back on track and help me understand who I am

00:04:03.980 and what made me take and rebuild my relationship

00:04:05.820 with my family and really set me on the path

00:04:08.960 of being the entrepreneur and the person and the father

00:04:11.460 and the friend that you see today.

00:04:14.100 But it all started at just that survival stage.

00:04:16.460 So I just want to share that because that's the foundation.

00:04:18.800 Some of you guys might be there.

00:04:20.420 You've found this video for whatever reason

00:04:22.500 and you're really struggling, but just

00:04:24.320 know that there's another level that's not far away.

00:04:27.980 And it just requires a little bit of a shift in the way

00:04:30.500 you're approaching your day, your habits, and your beliefs

00:04:33.400 to make that happen.

00:04:34.540 Number two, security.

00:04:36.360 So once you're surviving, the next stage is security.

00:04:40.060 And for me was, again, as a young age, 16, 17,

00:04:44.500 was this place called Portage.

00:04:45.860 Portage was a rehab center that adolescents went to

00:04:52.040 to really understand what made them tick

00:04:55.040 and how to work through some of the challenges

00:04:57.420 and the values that were obviously misaligned

00:05:01.100 to become somebody that could stay sober and be

00:05:04.740 productive in society.

00:05:06.260 So when I say security, it's literally

00:05:08.960 just a different environment, typically,

00:05:10.960 and a different set of people supporting you in that process.

00:05:14.080 I did 11 months in this facility to try to understand

00:05:17.240 what made me tick and who I am and really just

00:05:21.420 have the ability to feel safe.

00:05:22.900 Because if you're trying to get from survival to security

00:05:27.680 and you don't feel safe, it's really

00:05:29.120 hard to make the right decisions.

00:05:31.080 So just know that that's the second stage.

00:05:33.580 And it could be just a shift in your environment.

00:05:37.120 Actually, at our house, we have this quote.

00:05:39.160 I can't remember verbatim, but my wife put it on our Blackboard.

00:05:43.140 We have a Blackboard quote that she changes monthly,

00:05:45.680 and it's, if the flower is not blooming,

00:05:48.300 you don't throw out the seed.

00:05:49.380 You change the soil.

00:05:50.960 And for me, that's what that means.

00:05:53.220 Security is really an environment thing,

00:05:55.480 and it doesn't matter where you're at.

00:05:57.140 It doesn't have to be bad for you to realize.

00:05:59.080 For me to get to the next level, I

00:06:01.640 might have to build a different environment

00:06:04.140 where I can feel more secure in expressing my thoughts

00:06:06.480 and going after my dreams and having support in doing that.

00:06:10.380 Number three, stability.

00:06:12.300 You know, at the end of the day, what I've learned,

00:06:13.880 especially having two young boys,

00:06:15.600 is what they want is routine and stability.

00:06:18.100 They want consistency.

00:06:19.200 They want to know, like, this is the routine.

00:06:21.340 This is the process.

00:06:22.080 As much as I love variety, and I love waking up every day

00:06:25.660 with a sense of, like, what can we do today?

00:06:28.300 And not having too much, even though I do

00:06:31.200 have a lot of process and routine in my life,

00:06:33.340 I do like to create variety and go on a lot of different trips.

00:06:36.540 For me, it was my dad.

00:06:37.740 You know, my dad decided to, he's my hero.

00:06:42.180 He's one of the most, you know, he

00:06:43.480 taught me everything I know about business in the early days

00:06:45.720 because I just listened to him talk on the phone.

00:06:48.120 And my dad uprooted his life, changed neighborhoods,

00:06:52.380 bought a different house so that when I got out

00:06:54.420 of Portage, the rehab center, we had a new environment for me.

00:06:59.420 And that created this stability that I

00:07:02.220 didn't know prior to that.

00:07:03.740 And I had to change high schools and kind of build

00:07:06.060 a new group of friends.

00:07:07.460 But I could do it under, like some of them knew of me,

00:07:11.920 but I could do it under kind of a different context,

00:07:14.460 where all of a sudden now, this is who I am.

00:07:16.280 This is who I decided to be.

00:07:17.980 And my dad made a lot of sacrifices to make that happen.

00:07:22.740 I'll always be super grateful for that.

00:07:25.280 Literally, like from supporting my computer addiction,

00:07:28.740 I literally started coding and staying up till 2

00:07:31.080 in the morning.

00:07:31.580 He bought me every computer book.

00:07:33.300 And he built that base of stability

00:07:35.520 for me to be able to kind of continue that journey.

00:07:37.880 And that, to me, is how to think about it,

00:07:40.060 is you need stability in your life

00:07:41.820 so that you can start to now go to the next level.

00:07:44.740 Number four is success.

00:07:46.540 And this might be where you're at today, where you finally

00:07:49.420 got a business, it's successful, it's making profit,

00:07:52.100 it's growing every year.

00:07:53.580 And for me, that was Spheric.

00:07:54.660 Now, you got to understand is I started building software

00:07:57.140 companies at 17, where now I'm at 24 when I started Spheric.

00:08:02.140 And it wasn't until I was 26 that it finally,

00:08:04.740 because I almost went bankrupt, it

00:08:07.380 wasn't until that point where I finally realized

00:08:09.420 that this thing was going to work.

00:08:11.100 But what happened was after that company, at 28,

00:08:14.860 we got acquired by a US firm.

00:08:16.920 It was an incredible outcome for me.

00:08:18.360 I owned 100% of the company.

00:08:19.860 It was a multimillion dollar company.

00:08:21.780 I became financially wealthy.

00:08:23.900 And it allowed me to all of a sudden

00:08:26.700 feel confident about the skills and the habits

00:08:30.480 and the process that I used to get that outcome and success.

00:08:34.600 And I think that if I didn't have that,

00:08:37.340 I don't think I would have built the confidence

00:08:39.100 to do the next thing and the next thing.

00:08:40.920 So to me, it's like success will breed other success

00:08:44.920 once you get on that.

00:08:45.980 So nobody's ever going sideways.

00:08:48.160 We're either growing or we're dying.

00:08:50.240 And at some point in that growth trajectory,

00:08:53.680 as you're improving your habits, you're

00:08:55.160 improving your commitments, you're

00:08:56.240 improving your discipline, then you

00:08:59.960 start to build momentum and excitement.

00:09:01.940 And that's the success phase.

00:09:03.320 That's where you start seeing that, OK,

00:09:05.420 the way I think about the world is a little different

00:09:07.500 than everybody else.

00:09:08.420 The way I manage my day is a little different

00:09:10.980 than everybody else.

00:09:11.900 The income that I'm generating is completely

00:09:14.500 different than everybody else.

00:09:15.880 And that's the success phase.

00:09:17.440 And it feels really good.

00:09:18.680 But there's another level above it.

00:09:20.820 Number five, significance.

00:09:22.880 So what happens very often, and I

00:09:25.480 coach many of my clients around this.

00:09:27.200 I have some clients doing 100 plus million in revenue.

00:09:29.640 And even though that's incredible,

00:09:31.480 they did that from zero to within five years.

00:09:35.260 So crazy amount of growth.

00:09:37.200 I think for them and many other companies,

00:09:39.100 even at a lower level of revenue, they realize, hey,

00:09:42.720 it's not about the money.

00:09:44.640 I'm not here to just make more money.

00:09:46.800 I need to understand how this work impacts the lives of others

00:09:50.380 and how I contribute.

00:09:51.640 And that's where the significant part comes into play.

00:09:54.520 For me, a lot of it came from the YouTube channel.

00:09:57.820 I wanted to document a lot of the things that I learned.

00:10:02.760 I decided I'm going to teach 98% of everything I've ever learned

00:10:05.860 as a way to honor every person that ever showed up in my life

00:10:09.400 and taught me something about life.

00:10:11.140 Anybody that showed me a strategy, a tactic, a process,

00:10:14.240 a framework, a model, a way of thinking

00:10:16.540 that supported me in making decisions.

00:10:18.340 All my mentors, all my advisors, all my peers,

00:10:21.700 my coworkers, et cetera, I just wanted to take that

00:10:25.660 and share it in a way that was highly leverageable.

00:10:27.700 I mean, the cool part is when I shoot a video,

00:10:30.280 there's no extra cost if a million people watch it

00:10:32.960 or two people watch it.

00:10:34.500 And that was my opportunity to provide,

00:10:38.340 to give back to the community, to provide significance,

00:10:41.040 to really feel like I'm contributing.

00:10:43.520 Because I believe that life supports others that

00:10:46.240 support life.

00:10:47.280 So if you're giving, you get more.

00:10:49.200 Now, you shouldn't do it for that reason.

00:10:50.740 You should do it selflessly.

00:10:52.120 But the truth is, it feels really good.

00:10:54.220 Having the ability to have an impact even

00:10:57.120 on one other person's life is more than most people.

00:11:01.020 Most people don't even, because they're not at that stage yet,

00:11:03.800 they don't even feel confident enough because they haven't

00:11:05.900 even achieved success that they are the kind of person

00:11:08.300 that could do this.

00:11:09.360 And I would argue is that if you are the person that

00:11:12.340 starts to do this, even when you don't really have success,

00:11:15.280 I mean, at the end of the day, you're probably two steps

00:11:17.680 ahead of hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions

00:11:21.020 of other people.

00:11:22.080 And you could definitely support them on that rise up.

00:11:24.860 And when you do that, you'll actually

00:11:26.840 get so much more for yourself, for your circumstance,

00:11:30.160 for your opportunities than you could ever imagine.

00:11:33.080 And that is all the fifth stage, which is significance.

00:11:36.920 So here's a real quick recap of the five stages.

00:11:39.460 At the bottom, you have survival,

00:11:40.960 just trying to survive in life.

00:11:42.400 Security is the next level up, where

00:11:44.380 you want to feel like you're secure to start

00:11:46.340 to take some kind of positive actions.

00:11:48.800 Third is stability in your environment.

00:11:51.160 Fourth is success in your personal life

00:11:53.780 and really owning your circumstance.

00:11:55.880 And five is significance, which is all about contribution

00:11:58.560 and giving back and helping other people.

00:12:00.240 As I mentioned at the beginning of this episode,

00:12:02.080 I want to share with you my future living training.

00:12:05.080 Essentially, it's a model that I taught at an event

00:12:08.640 in San Francisco that helped my coaching clients

00:12:11.320 understand how to speak their future into existence.

00:12:15.720 And what I mean by this is you need

00:12:17.320 to understand that where you're at today

00:12:18.720 and where you want to be are two different places.

00:12:20.860 And if you don't start thinking, acting, looking,

00:12:24.960 visualizing the future state in regards

00:12:27.400 to what's possible into the future, not lying about it,

00:12:30.800 Not saying you're there already, but really just

00:12:33.500 talking about your goals, et cetera.

00:12:35.160 And I walk you through exactly how to do that.

00:12:36.740 You can click the link below to watch that.

00:12:39.080 If you don't do that, it literally

00:12:41.600 could be a 3x multiple in your growth curve right now.

00:12:44.440 So if you're not doing this, if you don't understand

00:12:46.360 this framework, you could be three times more growth impact

00:12:50.780 results in your business by just understanding that concept.

00:12:53.960 So you can click the link, get access to that.

00:12:56.240 If you like this video, I'd love a like, subscribe to my channel,

00:12:59.400 Or more importantly, let me know below in the comments

00:13:02.180 what you liked the best.

00:13:04.160 As per usual, I want to challenge you

00:13:05.500 to live a bigger life and a bigger business.

00:13:07.480 And I'll see you next Monday.

00:13:09.360 Future living.

Dan Martell - September 30, 2019

The 5 Levels of Your Success Journey

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