Dan Martell - These Rules Made me So Rich I Questioned The Meaning of Life

00:00:00.000 I'm going to share with you the 17 rules of success.

00:00:02.880 These rules are what make the top 0.01% of people successful.

00:00:07.140 Some of these rules are what I used to make my first million before 27 years old,

00:00:11.240 and others are from what I've observed rubbing shoulders with some of the richest people in

00:00:15.200 history. So without further explaining it, these are the 17 rules of success.

00:00:19.240 The first rule is to ignore advice from the bottom 99.9%.

00:00:23.020 If you want to be rich, don't listen to broke people.

00:00:25.600 The truth is, if your parents, your friends,

00:00:27.640 your teachers have achieved the thing

00:00:29.000 that you want to achieve, then great advice.

00:00:31.300 If they haven't, then don't internalize it.

00:00:33.440 Don't respond to it.

00:00:34.680 At the end of the day, a lot of people in your life,

00:00:36.900 your parents, your friends, your teachers,

00:00:39.120 they all want to see you not hurt.

00:00:41.620 They don't want you to go through pain.

00:00:43.480 So they're gonna give you advice

00:00:44.700 that's gonna help you avoid that.

00:00:46.240 But the truth is, if you wanna be successful,

00:00:48.420 you actually have to go through pain.

00:00:50.140 You have to look forward to challenges.

00:00:51.700 You have to do things that other people aren't willing to do

00:00:54.160 so you can live a life that very few people can.

00:00:56.420 There's this concept called crabs in a bucket.

00:00:58.480 And oftentimes people don't wanna see you do better than them

00:01:00.940 because if you do,

00:01:02.460 then essentially you're showing them the truth

00:01:04.320 of where they've been living a lie.

00:01:05.980 So what do they do?

00:01:06.700 They pull on those crabs, pull them down the bucket, 0.99

00:01:09.640 they stay stuck.

00:01:10.620 This is what happens oftentimes in small communities,

00:01:13.040 in small towns, in certain countries.

00:01:14.920 That is just the default behavior towards people

00:01:17.840 that are trying to win and be successful.

00:01:19.760 So don't be upset, just don't pander to it.

00:01:21.880 Find people that have done it before

00:01:23.440 and ask them for the advice.

00:01:25.120 get the support from them.

00:01:26.740 Asking people that have never done the thing you wanna do,

00:01:29.120 what you should do with your life is not a winning strategy.

00:01:31.640 Which brings us to number two,

00:01:33.380 which is the results you're looking for

00:01:34.960 is in the work you're avoiding.

00:01:36.900 A long time ago, I decided to do this crazy thing

00:01:39.400 called the 12 hour challenge.

00:01:41.420 Essentially what you do is you start in the morning

00:01:43.060 and you walk for 12 hours in a row.

00:01:46.040 Some people might hear that and go like,

00:01:47.520 that doesn't sound too crazy.

00:01:48.740 Let me tell you what happens around hour eight,

00:01:51.640 nine and 10.

00:01:52.660 Your body was not designed to walk for that long,

00:01:56.620 to stand up straight for that long.

00:01:58.560 And your muscles start to fatigue and wear down

00:02:01.480 and the pain and the muscles and the tension.

00:02:04.300 Honestly, almost like doing a full distance marathon

00:02:07.020 or half Ironman.

00:02:08.480 I've done both and it hurt.

00:02:10.600 But here's what's crazy.

00:02:11.860 During that walk, I'd given myself a bunch of prompts.

00:02:14.280 And one of them was,

00:02:15.260 the cave you fear to enter most

00:02:16.820 holds the treasure that you seek.

00:02:18.500 It's a Joseph Campbell quote.

00:02:19.920 And I was thinking about this the whole walk.

00:02:22.320 and I would just meditate around

00:02:24.040 what cave do I fear to enter most?

00:02:26.840 What conversations do I fear?

00:02:28.500 What work do I fear?

00:02:29.740 What decisions do I fear?

00:02:31.200 What strategies scare me?

00:02:32.940 What am I worried I'd have to sacrifice

00:02:34.860 on the back end of a decision?

00:02:36.240 I just kept meditating and thinking about this question.

00:02:38.840 And all of a sudden I started getting all these input,

00:02:41.720 these flashes of like,

00:02:43.120 you need to talk to this person and close down that thing.

00:02:45.280 You need to make a decision around this.

00:02:46.660 And I just started writing everything down in my journal.

00:02:49.400 That 12 hour walk,

00:02:50.580 Even though it was grueling physically, it was some of the most enlightening thoughts and energy and work that I'd done on myself.

00:02:57.880 Because it was kind of crazy.

00:02:58.800 For the first time in my life, I took a day to myself to just walk and be with my thoughts.

00:03:02.360 And that was a beautiful experience.

00:03:04.460 So pains and challenges are actually meant to shape you.

00:03:06.860 You don't walk away from them.

00:03:08.240 You don't fear them.

00:03:09.160 You don't pretend like they're not there.

00:03:10.640 You actually want to enter that cave.

00:03:12.780 Most people avoid the hard work because they're scared at what it's going to require.

00:03:16.700 Most people don't wanna do or make those decisions

00:03:19.620 because they've made up stories about the sacrifices

00:03:22.220 that they would have to make to achieve.

00:03:24.700 In the achievement, there's a new level of success

00:03:26.960 that they're scared they're gonna have to uphold.

00:03:28.840 And they would rather stay small where it's comfortable

00:03:30.860 and there's nothing scary about that

00:03:32.320 than actually expand and achieve stuff that's bigger

00:03:34.760 and be more successful

00:03:35.660 because then now you have something to lose.

00:03:37.420 That scares people.

00:03:38.660 Most people are more afraid of their power

00:03:40.920 and their potential than they are of staying the same.

00:03:43.700 Which brings us to number three,

00:03:44.960 which is simple scales, complex fails.

00:03:47.620 It's one of my favorite concepts in business

00:03:50.040 because what's easy is adding a ton of complexity

00:03:53.060 to a business.

00:03:54.160 You know, Elon Musk talks about this all the time

00:03:56.020 when it comes to engineering.

00:03:57.160 He says, you should be removing so many parts

00:03:59.500 when you're building the next iteration of your product

00:04:01.780 that it doesn't work.

00:04:03.220 And you'll have to add 10 to 20% back

00:04:05.820 to actually make the solution

00:04:07.080 because what's easy over time is to create complexity.

00:04:10.420 It's interesting because I see people lie to themselves

00:04:12.440 in life all the time.

00:04:13.480 You know, I have a friend that is a home builder and, you know, he was like, you know, I'm trying

00:04:16.680 to scale my home building business. And I said, well, cool. You just sell more houses. And he's

00:04:19.980 like, yeah, but it's not that easy because I got a team and I've got all these different demands

00:04:23.400 on my time and I'm trying to find ways to get my time back to scale my business. And I said,

00:04:27.920 what do you do? I mean, you sell houses. So you just build houses. He's like, well, we also do

00:04:31.560 lease build outs and we do renovations for people. And oh, and we're working on some new multi-unit

00:04:36.180 projects. And I laughed. I said, hmm, you think you're being simple by focusing on construction,

00:04:41.400 but you actually have four different businesses

00:04:43.860 that you're pretending are just one.

00:04:45.680 Each one of those businesses

00:04:47.080 could be a 10 million plus a year business,

00:04:49.400 but because you have all four,

00:04:50.880 you don't have time to make any one of them a great business.

00:04:54.200 So understand this, it's so easy to make something complex,

00:04:57.360 it's hard to keep something simple.

00:04:59.140 Every time you add something, it starts with negative value,

00:05:02.380 meaning that just having it in your business,

00:05:04.740 it has a negative impact.

00:05:06.420 The customers are confused because it's another option,

00:05:08.460 it's another thing your finance team has to manage,

00:05:10.240 Your customer support team needs to know about it.

00:05:12.280 You got to deliver it.

00:05:13.320 The salesperson's selling it.

00:05:14.620 So every time you add something,

00:05:16.180 it starts with negative value,

00:05:17.620 which means it has to be so important,

00:05:19.740 so valuable that it overcomes that negativity.

00:05:22.480 So think about what you can remove in your business.

00:05:25.200 You'd be surprised how you could probably get rid

00:05:27.240 about 60 to 70% of the things you sell,

00:05:29.760 the services you offer, the features and benefits,

00:05:32.000 and most customers wouldn't even notice,

00:05:34.300 but you'll make more money.

00:05:35.400 Which brings us to number four,

00:05:36.860 which is a spend money to save time,

00:05:38.880 not time to save money. See growing up I watched my dad do this all the time. He would drive around

00:05:44.060 and mow lawns at different apartment complexes he owned because he'd rather do it himself. He knew

00:05:49.060 it got done right and he saved the money by paying somebody else to do it. The challenge was is then

00:05:53.120 he didn't have the time to actually go look at more real estate deals. He didn't have the time

00:05:57.780 to be there with his kids especially on a weekend when he was doing this kind of work. Looking back

00:06:02.220 I understood why he did it but I also saw opportunities for him to have done more. Broke

00:06:06.780 people spend time to save money. I mean, I've seen people, you know, drive for 20 minutes to go to

00:06:11.700 Costco to save 10 cents on gas, not realizing how valuable their time is. And they could have just

00:06:16.600 paid a little bit more, got that 20 minutes back, and then use that to go become more valuable.

00:06:21.520 The most successful people I know protect their time. They spend money to buy back their time,

00:06:26.400 invest that time to become better, choosing goals to grow them with that new time.

00:06:30.880 Business and life is all about trying to find ways to create leverage. If you're too busy doing it,

00:06:35.520 doing it, doing it, you're not going to have the time to expand and grow who you are. Which brings

00:06:39.960 us to number five, which is 80% done by somebody else is 100% freaking awesome. I talked about this

00:06:46.580 so many times in my book, Buy Back Your Time. Here's the big idea. Anybody else that does

00:06:51.300 something for you, even if it's 80% as good as you, saves you that time that you can go do things

00:06:57.040 that light you up that only you can do. And I hear this all the time. I coach a bunch of entrepreneurs

00:07:01.340 and they say, but Dan, my employees can't do it as good as me.

00:07:04.900 And I don't disagree.

00:07:06.180 They probably can't because they're not you,

00:07:08.160 but they can at least do it to a level

00:07:10.060 that gets the job done.

00:07:11.700 And then you take that time and go spend it

00:07:13.880 on things that make you way more money

00:07:15.640 than paying that person that hour

00:07:17.300 to do the thing you didn't wanna do in the first place.

00:07:19.540 Because you will only scale as fast

00:07:21.400 as your ability to delegate.

00:07:23.060 Most people with small businesses don't know how to delegate.

00:07:26.140 They need to do everything.

00:07:27.660 They need to have their finger on the pulse.

00:07:29.600 They're double checking everybody's work.

00:07:31.140 They're hiring people and telling them what to do,

00:07:33.080 essentially doing their job.

00:07:34.280 What's the whole point?

00:07:35.180 So I came up with this thing called the 10-80-10 rule,

00:07:37.340 especially for the creatives.

00:07:38.700 The philosophy I have is the first 10% of a new project,

00:07:41.820 I wanna be involved.

00:07:42.860 I wanna provide some input, some strategies, some resources.

00:07:46.400 That's the first 10%.

00:07:47.640 The next 80%, the person's gonna go do the project.

00:07:50.740 They're gonna start creating.

00:07:51.860 They're gonna go do some research.

00:07:53.080 They're gonna learn.

00:07:53.880 And then once they actually get everything kind of done,

00:07:56.940 then they bring it back to me for the last 10%.

00:07:59.460 That 10% is where we really refine it

00:08:02.180 to make sure that it really delivers

00:08:03.980 on the promise we're making to our customers

00:08:05.900 or to whoever asks us to do this thing in the first place.

00:08:08.620 And then that way I get to buy back 80% of the time

00:08:12.020 from doing the work that somebody else can do.

00:08:14.540 And I see people mess this up all the time.

00:08:16.240 They clean their house before the cleaner shows up

00:08:18.540 or they're mowing their lawn

00:08:19.980 when they should be working with a client

00:08:21.720 making five times more money than they could

00:08:23.940 than mowing their own lawn

00:08:24.980 or they're running around spending 30, 40% of their week

00:08:28.540 just running errands when they could have used an app to buy stuff or they could have hired

00:08:33.080 somebody to do meal prep. So not spending an hour for every meal or washing their own laundry. I

00:08:37.220 mean, even simple stuff like that with wash and fold will save you so much time. So this is

00:08:41.500 something you can do at work for sure, but even more importantly in your home, which brings us

00:08:45.740 to number six, which is worrying is a wasted use of your imagination. I got this from my coach,

00:08:50.500 and my let, and I love this saying, if you just think about it, that anytime you worry,

00:08:55.240 you're worshiping the problem.

00:08:57.020 You're literally looking at the thing that could go wrong

00:08:59.400 and you're making it the most important thing

00:09:01.360 of a future that is as likely as happening,

00:09:03.940 the bad, as the opposite, which is something awesome.

00:09:07.000 You know, one of my clients, when I talk to them,

00:09:08.860 they always think about the worst case scenario.

00:09:10.960 It's a normal default behavior.

00:09:13.000 The problem is, is in that situation,

00:09:15.260 they're playing defense, they're not playing offense.

00:09:18.060 Here's the big idea, is the negative outcome

00:09:20.220 is as likely as a positive one,

00:09:22.520 meaning that your ability to imagine a future

00:09:25.960 that is negative is as probable

00:09:28.200 as imagining a future that is positive.

00:09:30.740 What you focus on expands.

00:09:32.920 So if you wanna play a game

00:09:34.140 where you're playing defense all the time

00:09:35.940 and worried all the time,

00:09:37.080 you're just gonna be in a negative space.

00:09:38.740 That is not gonna let you hit your goals

00:09:40.500 or achieve your dreams.

00:09:41.560 Whereas if you focus on offense,

00:09:43.340 where you're pushing, you're expanding,

00:09:45.400 worrying about what could go awesome,

00:09:47.140 you're planning for success.

00:09:48.900 So use your imagination for positivity, not worry.

00:09:52.000 One concept I like to focus on is API.

00:09:54.940 Assume positive intention.

00:09:56.700 Assume that no matter what happens,

00:09:58.400 that there was a positive intention behind it.

00:10:00.180 You're not worried about it.

00:10:01.180 Somebody cut you off in traffic.

00:10:02.840 Assume they gotta get to the hospital.

00:10:04.140 Somebody didn't reply to your email.

00:10:05.540 Assume something important's going on in their life

00:10:07.580 and they'll get back to you eventually.

00:10:08.900 It is as likely the reason as the opposite

00:10:11.680 and you're making it all up.

00:10:13.500 It's in your head.

00:10:14.560 It's not even true.

00:10:15.660 It's as likely to be true as the opposite.

00:10:17.560 Do you understand how crazy this is?

00:10:18.800 So don't let worrying take over your imagination.

00:10:21.420 Which brings us to number seven, which is patient with results, but impatient with action.

00:10:26.820 I get business owners coming to me all the time saying, Dan, I'm trying, I'm doing the stuff.

00:10:31.220 I watch your videos, I listen to your coaching, and I'm doing it, I'm doing it, and nothing's

00:10:35.860 happening for six months. If everything magically happened in six months, then I would be way

00:10:41.780 further along. The truth is, is most people aren't patient enough to dedicate a decade or effort to

00:10:48.980 what they want to create. They said, if I'm not a millionaire within six months, there must be

00:10:52.900 something wrong. And the truth is, is you can't make a baby in one month with nine women. Some 1.00

00:10:57.740 things take time. Some things require consistency over long periods of time. And most people are

00:11:03.980 just not willing to be dedicated for that long. That doesn't mean you should slow down. I want

00:11:09.160 you to take action consistently, be impatient with your action, but be willing to go long periods of

00:11:15.600 time without seeing any results. It's the people that can do that that win the biggest in life.

00:11:20.120 Which brings us to number eight, which is begin with the end in mind. I first read this in an

00:11:24.940 incredible book called Good to Great by Jim Collins. It's like if you're climbing the ladder

00:11:28.820 of success and you actually got to that destination, if you didn't plan for what it

00:11:33.180 looked like, you might find out that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. And I see this

00:11:37.320 happen all the time where people give up their relationships, their health, their mental

00:11:41.280 stability all for this achievement of success, not realizing that once they get there, it doesn't

00:11:46.980 feel good. They were climbing a ladder leaning against the wrong wall. And then what do you got

00:11:51.680 to do? You literally have to climb all the way down that ladder, grab it across the room and

00:11:56.360 lean against a new wall so you can start that process all over again. The most successful

00:12:00.300 people I know start with the end goal. They literally say, what's the outcome we want to

00:12:05.180 achieve? And then how do we work backwards to achieve that goal? They break it down into very

00:12:10.440 clear projects that will allow them to hit that outcome. Which brings us to number nine, which is

00:12:15.620 to be blissfully dissatisfied. I also got this from my coach Ed, because it's one of his favorite

00:12:20.800 things to teach his clients. The idea that you can't be incredibly grateful for what you have,

00:12:26.000 and in the same breath, know that you are here to create more, to do more, to become more. That's

00:12:30.720 just silly. Some people say to me, they go, I want to do this, but I feel selfish if I go after this 0.87

00:12:36.180 goal. And I go, interesting. Are there people in the world that have more money than you? Yes.

00:12:40.600 Do you think they're evil? Absolutely. You can get mad at them, but if they're not doing good

00:12:44.720 with their money and you think there's better ways for them to use that money, go make money,

00:12:49.140 go be rich. You know, wanting more isn't bad. And I think that's what holds people back.

00:12:54.400 Most people are scared to want more because they think in wanting more that they don't

00:12:58.640 appreciate what they have. Separate those things. Those are completely different. I can be

00:13:02.600 ridiculously grateful for everything right now. I can say I get to, I don't have to. I can have

00:13:07.240 that mentality. And in the same moment, understand that I'm here to do great with my life. Which

00:13:12.600 brings us to number 10, which is to invest in your skillset, not your lifestyle. When I was in

00:13:17.860 my early 20s, I realized after two failed companies that I needed help. I was reading books, but they

00:13:23.680 were computer programming books, which is the skill that I had developed, but I hadn't learned

00:13:28.480 the skill of building a business. So I found this business coach, this guy named Bob, and I wasn't

00:13:33.200 even paying myself. I had saved just a few thousand bucks to be able to even hire him. Even though I

00:13:38.060 made a commitment for the year, I only had two months. So I figured if I could pay him for two

00:13:42.160 months and he taught me how to grow my business, then that would allow me to make more money to

00:13:46.040 be able to pay him for the rest of the year. And luckily the bet paid off within the first 12

00:13:50.940 months. I made almost a million dollars working with my coach. And that's when I really solidified

00:13:56.280 the philosophy that I have to invest in myself, in my skillset to learn the things that are the

00:14:01.680 gaps. Because if I already knew what I needed to know to be successful, then that success would be

00:14:06.120 in my life. The fact that it is not is the reason why I have to continue to acquire the next level

00:14:11.400 of skills to allow me to grow. See, I choose goals that grow me. And I often say to my team,

00:14:16.660 if the only people that can help us are within these four walls, we're all in trouble. Spend

00:14:21.340 more times investing in you more than you invest in your job, because I actually know that that

00:14:26.000 investment those skills and yourself will actually make you a better person to be on our team so

00:14:31.160 don't try to keep up with the joneses by buying the bmw and the the nice furniture and the new

00:14:36.820 condo instead take all that money invest it in yourself so that you can create more value you

00:14:41.580 can make more income and live a life that very few people will ever be able to dream about which

00:14:46.720 brings us to number 11 which is to never rush decision you know back in the day i was looking

00:14:51.640 at an investment opportunity. Essentially, I could buy these homes in Detroit. And a guy approached

00:14:56.420 me at an event and said, hey, the minimum purchase is 10 homes. It's $100,000. Called my brother. He

00:15:01.820 was into real estate. I was like, hey, man, you want to buy these homes? He's like, sounds crazy,

00:15:05.800 but sometimes things that look too good to be true aren't. So I decided to say yes. And it

00:15:10.900 happened within a matter of hours. We wired the money. We became owners. They managed the property.

00:15:16.240 We didn't think too much about it. A year later, we hadn't gotten any checks from these homes

00:15:21.620 Well, essentially they ended up being condemned homes.

00:15:24.000 We move way too quick to make a decision.

00:15:26.700 Here's what I've learned about that since then.

00:15:29.060 Anytime you have a big decision to make, slow it down,

00:15:32.300 make a list of things that need to be true

00:15:34.180 for you to decide to move forward,

00:15:35.920 sleep on it at minimum and work through that process.

00:15:40.040 I'm not saying don't make any quick actions.

00:15:42.540 You wanna take action to verify an idea,

00:15:45.700 an investment, making a decision,

00:15:47.440 but you don't wanna sit there and analysis paralysis.

00:15:49.600 You want to look at it and say, what's the risk return?

00:15:52.220 Use the end in mind to make your decisions.

00:15:54.440 The top entrepreneurs in the world, Elon, Steve Jobs, Bezos,

00:15:57.780 were meticulous with their decision,

00:15:59.760 but you don't want to make it without the information

00:16:01.860 and you don't want to make it too quick.

00:16:03.460 You want to take action quickly and decision slowly.

00:16:06.000 Which brings us to number 12, which is invert your questions.

00:16:09.580 And I first got this from Charlie Munger.

00:16:11.400 He has this great quote that says, invert, always invert.

00:16:14.440 The idea is this, most people can't tell you what they want in life,

00:16:18.440 But if I ask them, what do they not want?

00:16:21.080 They can make a list of all the things they don't want.

00:16:23.480 So the cool part is, is your brain has an easier time

00:16:26.160 trying to find the negative.

00:16:27.240 So what you do is you ask the negative

00:16:28.740 and then do the opposite.

00:16:30.720 How can I guarantee to make money?

00:16:32.420 Blast yourself, how can I guarantee staying broke? 1.00

00:16:35.040 Be lazy and don't improve myself and eat like crap. 1.00

00:16:37.860 Then those things would probably cause me to stay broke. 0.99

00:16:40.320 Perfect, do the opposite.

00:16:42.060 See, as humans, we're a lot more inclined

00:16:44.140 to find the negative.

00:16:45.660 Inverting it, it'll give us the path

00:16:47.620 to find the positive things we should do

00:16:49.540 to get those results.

00:16:50.580 Which brings us to number 13, which is play to win,

00:16:53.120 don't play not to lose.

00:16:54.500 So I have these people that are always saying to me,

00:16:55.980 you know, I've got this strategy to save on taxes

00:16:58.020 or I've got this really sneaky way to not pay vendors.

00:17:00.500 I get that.

00:17:01.260 But my whole philosophy is instead of trying

00:17:03.200 to focus on contraction, I wanna focus on expansion.

00:17:06.760 I wanna focus on how do I make more money.

00:17:09.380 I literally have friends that have uprooted

00:17:11.540 their whole family, their whole living situation,

00:17:14.580 their relationships to move to a country

00:17:17.160 to save a million dollars or half a million dollars.

00:17:19.960 Instead, they should have had the conversation

00:17:21.460 with somebody to say, hey, how do we create enough wealth

00:17:24.060 where it doesn't impact our lifestyle?

00:17:26.480 How do we expand in a way

00:17:28.240 where that tax isn't a big issue?

00:17:30.460 I'm not saying pay one penny more than you should.

00:17:33.060 What I am saying is instead of focusing on how not to lose,

00:17:36.500 why don't you spend that time

00:17:37.600 on finding ways to win even bigger?

00:17:40.340 What you focus on will expand

00:17:42.900 And the problem with that is one is a scarcity mindset

00:17:46.700 and the other one is an abundance mindset.

00:17:48.860 And any person you admire in this world

00:17:51.000 has an abundance mindset.

00:17:52.640 They believe in the potential of the future.

00:17:54.700 It's a better energetic place to live in

00:17:56.660 and it'll create bigger results for you.

00:17:58.680 Which brings us to number 14,

00:18:00.260 which is to start with the what, not the how.

00:18:02.980 I know a lot of people,

00:18:04.100 they struggle with their ability to dream.

00:18:06.540 They don't give themselves permission to really think big.

00:18:09.320 They don't understand that there's a lot of magic

00:18:11.680 in the ability to project a future

00:18:14.080 that is just honestly,

00:18:15.740 there's no way you know how to create,

00:18:18.040 but you allow yourself to see it and to believe it.

00:18:20.860 Because if you're always focused on the how,

00:18:23.380 then you'll actually miss the opportunity

00:18:25.060 to create something huge.

00:18:26.380 So focus on the outcome.

00:18:28.040 Don't worry about the how yet.

00:18:29.980 Hold the belief true in your mind that it's possible

00:18:32.320 because what you focus on will expand.

00:18:35.080 The truth is, is a big enough what and a why

00:18:37.720 will take care of any how.

00:18:39.640 See, some of you guys, you go to the how,

00:18:40.960 which keeps the idea small

00:18:42.180 because if you don't know how to do the how,

00:18:44.000 you just kind of reduce the size of your goal

00:18:45.960 until the how meets it.

00:18:47.100 Instead of saying, who would I need to become

00:18:49.160 to achieve this bigger dream?

00:18:50.840 Then from there, you'll go find the how.

00:18:53.040 The how will literally magically be presented to you.

00:18:55.460 You'll be having a conversation with somebody

00:18:57.000 or you'll read something or you're in a book

00:18:58.940 and you're like, oh my gosh, this is the thing

00:19:00.700 that I need to learn how to do

00:19:01.740 that I didn't know how to do

00:19:02.560 to actually get this result I want in my life.

00:19:04.860 So just know, holding the what and the why true

00:19:07.720 is gonna be more powerful than focusing on the how,

00:19:10.560 Which brings us to number 15,

00:19:12.320 which is to look for the problems in everything.

00:19:14.920 Most people tend to avoid conflict,

00:19:16.660 but if you wanna be in the top 0.01% of earners,

00:19:20.120 you need to look for the problems in the world.

00:19:22.440 Most entrepreneurs I know, all my friends,

00:19:24.360 they can't turn it off.

00:19:25.760 They walk around and they see opportunity,

00:19:28.540 AKA problems all around them, inefficiencies,

00:19:31.700 things that frustrate them,

00:19:33.380 things that aren't properly built.

00:19:34.740 And they see these potential solutions,

00:19:37.460 businesses, revenue, income all over the place.

00:19:40.900 They see it in other people's businesses.

00:19:42.360 They go to a restaurant,

00:19:43.380 they're like, they're doing this wrong.

00:19:44.560 They see it in how a product's made.

00:19:46.540 And that is a skillset that you have to develop.

00:19:49.280 You have to look around the world and run the numbers

00:19:51.760 and understand how could you find a solution to a problem.

00:19:54.920 Here's a hack, go around your house

00:19:57.060 and just make a list of anything that frustrates you.

00:19:59.880 It could be as simple as the charging station

00:20:02.300 where you plug in all your phones.

00:20:03.580 Doesn't seem very intuitive.

00:20:04.920 I can never find the connector.

00:20:06.000 I don't like the fact that every time I park my car,

00:20:08.360 I don't know how much distance I have

00:20:09.960 to the end of the garage.

00:20:11.220 I don't understand why I have to put my clothes

00:20:13.400 from the washer to the dryer.

00:20:15.040 But that's an example of focusing on problems.

00:20:17.920 They're all around you.

00:20:19.260 I remember one time when I was younger,

00:20:20.740 I went to Australia and I went to a store

00:20:22.660 and they were selling rum and Coke in a can.

00:20:25.120 And I thought, that's so obvious.

00:20:27.140 Like, why are we not doing this back in Canada?

00:20:29.700 If you travel the world,

00:20:31.480 you will see people solve problems in creative ways

00:20:34.660 that are probably not well-known

00:20:36.160 in other parts of the world,

00:20:37.200 and that alone could be a massive business.

00:20:39.360 So here's the deal.

00:20:40.100 You wanna be really rich though?

00:20:41.420 You wanna solve rich people problems.

00:20:43.240 The richer the person is or the problem you solve,

00:20:45.840 it will be a lot easier to make money.

00:20:47.920 Most people, when they start,

00:20:48.840 they solve broke people problems

00:20:50.040 and they wonder why the idea never takes off.

00:20:52.040 Which brings us to number 16,

00:20:53.480 which is to be a river, not a reservoir.

00:20:56.580 When people have good ideas,

00:20:58.240 they think, I gotta keep them to myself.

00:20:59.800 I can't tell anybody.

00:21:00.760 You need to sign an NDA

00:21:01.760 or I'll never tell you about my idea.

00:21:03.320 The truth is, is great people, folks that change the world,

00:21:07.440 they have this abundance mentality

00:21:09.380 to not only their financials and their resources,

00:21:12.360 but to their ideas.

00:21:13.620 See, even like business coaches

00:21:15.140 or people that teach their expertise online,

00:21:17.640 a lot of them are holding back.

00:21:19.180 They're not giving away their best stuff.

00:21:21.120 And then they're wondering why people aren't leaning in.

00:21:22.940 It's like, if everything you share

00:21:24.360 just sounds very simple and basic

00:21:26.160 because all the great stuff

00:21:27.540 is stuff that people have to pay for,

00:21:29.220 then nobody's gonna know

00:21:30.020 that you're actually the best at what you do.

00:21:31.560 My belief is that information should be free

00:21:34.400 and implementation should be paid.

00:21:37.060 If you wanna demonstrate your expertise,

00:21:39.120 help people get a result in advance

00:21:41.340 of ever working with you.

00:21:42.840 If I wanna recruit incredible talent,

00:21:45.340 I need to teach people out in the world

00:21:47.240 how to get the best job in the world

00:21:48.880 and hopefully they take that advice

00:21:50.620 and eventually apply for my job.

00:21:52.300 Create from a place of abundance.

00:21:54.580 Teach, give it away.

00:21:56.060 Let the information flow through you.

00:21:58.040 Don't be a reservoir, be a river.

00:22:00.380 If you do it right, here's the big idea.

00:22:02.740 Your marketing will help more people

00:22:04.280 than your product ever will.

00:22:05.980 If you give everything away for free,

00:22:07.920 high tides rise all boats.

00:22:10.020 The more you get reach and reputation,

00:22:12.260 the more opportunities will come back to you.

00:22:14.580 My philosophy is very simple in life.

00:22:16.260 I wanna create more value for everybody in my world

00:22:19.040 than anybody else in their world.

00:22:21.000 If I focus on that desire to help other people

00:22:23.100 achieve their outcomes, I know it's gonna come back.

00:22:25.680 Which brings us to 17, which is to monetize your passion.

00:22:28.740 There's this great quote by Warren Buffett

00:22:30.300 that says you can't teach passion.

00:22:32.160 And for me, that was coding.

00:22:33.440 Learning how to create software and write code,

00:22:36.200 that was the thing that I became supremely obsessed about.

00:22:39.620 I focused on it, I woke up and I started coding,

00:22:42.660 I would think about it all day long if I couldn't code

00:22:45.160 and I'd stay up till late in the night to write code.

00:22:48.380 Here's what I learned at a young age.

00:22:49.820 If I could find a way to have my profession

00:22:52.240 be the thing that I love to do that I would have done for free,

00:22:54.780 then it's gonna allow me to go further

00:22:56.320 where most people won't.

00:22:57.720 See, the best people in the world,

00:22:59.400 the folks that you see on social media or in the press or whatever, building these massive

00:23:04.240 businesses, it's because they're passionate about the problem. They're passionate around

00:23:08.760 building the solution. They play around to find out what they're burning passion for.

00:23:13.160 So here's how you find out what you're passionate about. What do you do when you procrastinate?

00:23:16.760 That's my favorite one. It's what do you do? Some people, they organize their closet. What

00:23:20.800 if you could get paid a lot of money to do that? And be like, oh, you can't get a lot of money.

00:23:25.040 Closet organizers don't make a lot of money. No, but people on YouTube do. Can't make money 0.98

00:23:28.880 digging dirt? Yeah, you can. It's called an excavation company. You can buy an excavation

00:23:32.480 company, make a million dollars a year, and your job could be sitting there on these massive machines

00:23:37.440 moving dirt around. So don't tell me that you can't monetize your passion. You haven't figured

00:23:41.960 out how to because you haven't leaned into it. If it feels like fun, is it really work? When I

00:23:48.040 travel the world with people I admire, doing cool stuff, creating content, having fun conversations,

00:23:54.140 building this empire. If that's work, sign me up all day long. I mean, I don't want to brag,

00:24:00.900 but most of the time I'm doing meetings on the back of my boat, wake surfing. I'm having chats

00:24:05.700 with people and responding to text messages in between runs on my mountain bike. I'm shooting

00:24:10.720 content with my buddy driving around in supercars. If that is work, then awesome sauce. And the cool

00:24:17.820 part is it's available to every one of you. And just because you don't have the belief today

00:24:21.600 doesn't mean it isn't true.

00:24:23.280 So here's the big idea.

00:24:24.420 Only do things that light you up.

00:24:26.180 Find ways that you can get paid to do those things

00:24:28.620 over and over and over again and become obsessed with it.

00:24:32.040 Because at the end of the day, success is self-defined.

00:24:34.760 So if you love everything you do in a day,

00:24:36.720 you've already achieved success.

00:24:38.400 Those are the 17 rules of success.

00:24:40.500 If you wanna learn how I brainwash myself to success,

00:24:43.040 click the link and I'll see you on the other side.

Dan Martell - August 06, 2024

These Rules Made me So Rich I Questioned The Meaning of Life

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript