In Episode 17 of the Playing To Win series, Rich sits down with Pijman Gadimi, a self-made entrepreneur, philosopher, and best-selling author, to discuss how he built a multi-million dollar empire in a short period of time, how he got his start in the entertainment industry, and how he became one of the most successful actors of all time.
00:05:40.200And ultimately, we ended up taking a journey from California to Virginia, where we ended up in her brother's basement as illegal immigrants, you know, basically ended up there.
00:05:51.160And we had like just we had social security numbers, but they said not valid for work.
00:05:56.300And they were basically still reviewing our case for staying, you know, in the country, et cetera.
00:06:00.720So, you know, it was a difficult time where basically we couldn't work.
00:06:04.760And so she went to work for her brother together and she basically became a cashier during that time.
00:06:10.600And, you know, my mom was very royal during her time in Iran, meaning like she had a very good job.
00:06:15.820She was head of a big government agency there.
00:06:19.100So it was very bizarre for me to watch someone with so much class and elegance basically be a cashier in a crappy restaurant, you know, and us living in a basement with a mattress.
00:07:08.840I was about to turn 15 and basically got me a job as a telemarketer.
00:07:12.580And I got them to overlook the fact that I didn't have papers.
00:07:15.140And, you know, being a telemarketer that young, not barely speaking like English in a good way, I still basically figured out that, you know, I didn't have a choice but to make it work.
00:07:26.360And, you know, fast forward, basically I turned a $12 an hour job into $2,500 a week in commissions, selling roofing, siding and windows and everything else.
00:07:35.560And by 18, I was the director of that very same company.
00:07:37.960And then I had a green card and I started looking at the future of what, you know, could be of my life.
00:07:44.620And I said, I've already hit the ceiling in this small company.
00:07:46.960I have to look bigger and I have to start back at the bottom somewhere where there's a larger ceiling.
00:07:52.260I didn't know what I wanted to do in my life, but I knew that banking, since I wanted to make a lot of money, most people want to get rich when they're young, but I really meant it.
00:08:00.120I just didn't want to live in a basement.
00:09:29.800And it felt really bizarre to be alienated and kind of taken from the poster child to the nobody gives a crap about you, you can get out.
00:09:37.560So, you know, it took me a year to overcome that.
00:09:39.940But from there, I combined my passion for cars and my knowledge of finance.
00:09:46.140And I created the world's first alternative investment fund that basically gave people access to investing in automotive, watches and arts.
00:09:55.420Can I just take you back to the banking thing?
00:09:57.800Because I wanted to ask you a question.
00:09:59.540I've noticed a lot of times when you get let go from a job, they hire you because you're a resume, but they let you go because of fit.
00:10:17.820And let me explain what I mean by that.
00:10:19.360But you brought up a really good point when you said fit.
00:10:21.500Because, you know, at some point, we're car people, so I'll bring the car story into this.
00:10:27.140And, you know, one day I was looking basically outside the boardroom I was in with a lot of my peers who all were, you know, much older than I was.
00:10:33.240I was a very young guy in that position.
00:10:35.020And a lot of my peers were like 40, 50 years old.
00:10:37.560And, you know, basically I looked out the window and all of them had like really the latest Mercedes or Lexus cars or anything, you know, all sitting outside.
00:11:57.360Well, I started a company called VIP Motoring, which at the time was just a tuning shop.
00:12:02.000It started as, that's why it was called motoring and nothing, banking or anything else.
00:12:05.580It started just basically putting wheels and tires and everything else on cars, you know, suspensions, some of the basic bolt-ons.
00:12:11.520And, you know, fast forward to the last recession we had, I basically, as a banker, I kind of foresaw what was coming and a lot of my contracts for these car parts were basically dealerships.
00:12:23.080I had a unique niche where I was customizing cars and dealerships before they were sold.
00:12:27.780So basically, I was creating packages like Brabus and things like that for cars for dealers.
00:12:32.660And when I realized that these contracts were going to basically end soon, primarily because the recession was coming, you know, I felt like basically we're going to come back.
00:13:21.980They basically looked at it and go, oh, yeah, well, if this guy qualifies, you know, and the car's $10,000, well, basically, he can get up to $14,000 on his good credit, you know?
00:13:31.960And I knew that was wrong because I was in the banking space the whole time this was happening.
00:13:35.160So when I started seeing it pull back, I started seeing the indicators that they were basically starting to look at the fact that this wasn't going to last forever.
00:13:43.680And one of the things I would say is Wall Street's always ahead of Main Street.
00:13:46.280And so when I saw Wall Street pulling back, I started thinking to myself, I go, well, Main Street's about to feel this very soon.
00:13:53.180And so when I went towards my contracts, at first, everybody was like, no, we're fine.
00:14:04.560The same cars were sitting with my stuff on it.
00:14:06.820So I started kind of conversing and they said, basically, we're not getting the lending.
00:14:10.120So eventually, we're just going to have to cut back this program because we're not going to be able to sell cars at 120, 130% of LTV with these parts.
00:14:18.480And people can't finance them anymore.
00:14:19.840Most people aren't going to want to put $30,000, $40,000 down.
00:14:23.680And I said, okay, so what are we going to do?
00:14:25.780They go, well, we're going to cancel your contract.
00:14:28.000So long story short, I basically had to watch as they were basically pulling all my revenue down to nothing, you know, because they were the lifeline of my entire business.
00:14:38.060And I, instead of doing that, I basically started forecasting that they were going to be stuck with a lot of cars.
00:14:43.920So I started looking at what if I was able to buy those cars at significant discounts when they went under.
00:14:49.060And I was able to basically buy them and resell them later.
00:14:52.520You know, basically just park my money there if I was cheap enough.
00:14:58.240Well, at first, I thought about it as an individual.
00:15:00.520But then it wasn't going to work because I wasn't going to be able to pay taxes on everything.
00:15:03.820So I ended up getting a dealer's license in VA and I ended up turning VIP motoring into auto sales too.
00:15:10.340Now, my goal was I'm just going to buy cars and sell them.
00:15:13.160And I realized nobody's buying cars in the middle of a recession, you know.
00:15:16.900So I put all my money into these cars and they're sitting there and nobody wanted to buy them.
00:15:21.060And I didn't have a reputation for selling them.
00:15:22.960And basically, I used my banking connections from back in the day to call some of my old clients that were with me back in the day, like investing.
00:15:29.680Basically saying, where are you parking your money now?
00:15:33.180And a lot of them were like, well, right now we're still looking for options, but we don't trust the banks.
00:15:37.880You know, we're trying to look for alternative places to put it.
00:15:40.400So I was like, well, you want to put it into some Ferraris, Lamborghinis?
00:15:46.640And I'm like, well, I bought it cheap enough.
00:15:48.780I guarantee your money personally because I had some money and I was like, you know what?
00:15:51.760I'll back your money if you back my cash flow, basically, because I tied my money in these cars.
00:15:56.300So if you untie it and something happens, I'll pay the difference, you know?
00:16:00.640So you can't really like basically lose.
00:16:02.500And it was a way for me to gain their confidence.
00:16:04.340And I must have made like 200, 250 calls, you know, to different people that I felt could have been qualified to give me anywhere from $2 to $5 million.
00:16:11.600And basically, I ended up finding two people that backed it for me.
00:16:14.880And at the time, I only had like $3.5 million in inventory.
00:16:17.780So two out of 250 committed to backing the fund.
00:16:59.360But it wasn't they didn't want to do business with me.
00:17:01.140So I realized when I started calling people after that basically there was a very small pool of maybe 10 people that really were in the bank only to do business with me specifically.
00:17:11.040You know, so I started realizing that and out of those 10 people, basically, I identify originally three people, one of them backed out last minute.
00:17:19.280So it left me with basically two people that backed my first batch of cars.
00:17:22.920Now, as I did and went through buying more cars, I started realizing how this game worked and I learned as I was going.
00:17:29.820I made some mistakes, but the overall scope of my gig was pretty solid 20 percent returns.
00:17:35.000So I said, I'll split the return with you.
00:17:37.160And if there's a danger, I'll back up your danger with my personal money.
00:17:40.180And it kept going and it kept going and it kept going.
00:17:43.120And basically, as we kind of grew, it became this whole investment firm in exotic cars.
00:17:49.300And we needed to create more cash flow because we realized we didn't have that much units and that many like repetitions.
00:17:56.900And there wasn't that much margin in these cars.
00:18:00.240So I started looking into other assets and I started learning the watch business and the art business and basically came to a level where basically I was I was becoming a buyer for stuff.
00:18:10.880I was going around looking for stuff, anything from watches to cars to art that people didn't want or needed to get out of.
00:18:18.020And I basically created all the connections to buy the margins and doing that a couple of years.
00:18:23.240I got really, really good at it and basically created a brokerage side to our business that basically allows the same customers to invest money.
00:18:31.360But also as a result, get access to cars they can actually drive because these funds were not like they would buy the cars and take them home.
00:18:39.340They were investing in the cars and they were staying with me.
00:18:42.380So whenever they wanted their own car.
00:18:44.380What kind of rate of return did you have to pay on that?
00:18:45.800Originally, 15, 17 percent, which was very high, you know, especially because I was keeping 3 to 5 percent, but I was learning the model.
00:18:54.500Now we only pay 10 percent, which is very, very little compared to what's happening in the world.
00:18:59.300I mean, it's about to become a lot compared to what's about to happen.
00:19:02.900But meaning 10 percent was what I considered a much more fair investment for everybody.
00:19:10.960And the benefit wasn't just the 10 percent, it was the access to the brokerage firm.
00:19:16.400I was finding people that basically bought cars and watches anyways.
00:19:21.080And so they were like, hey, I need a dealer license to do this.
00:19:24.540Like there's a lot of play that you can give me here by just being part of this.
00:21:17.540You know, I had been much more successful in my life and people kind of knew that across my family grounds, et cetera, in Iran.
00:21:23.480And so word got to him that I would be visiting Dubai and since Dubai is a country he can visit from Iran, he just wanted to meet.
00:21:31.320And he asked my aunt who then asked my mom if it'd be okay if she let him know where I would be, what hotel, so he could come and at least engage in some level of conversation.
00:21:43.100And so he showed up and, you know, it wasn't bad at all, actually, because I never held it against my dad for leaving.
00:21:50.380I never thought that was a bad thing that he left.
00:21:53.440Like I actually thought my after I met my dad again at 30, I felt that it was a great thing that my dad left because he's the conventional type of person that was very like in his with his new family is very much like my daughter has to go to school and she has to graduate college and then become an architect, a lawyer, that kind of mentality.
00:22:11.880You know, and there's nothing else but the conventional path to success.
00:22:15.540And I realized that if I had grown up with someone that was so restrictive and so authoritative towards just following the path others have taken, I would have probably never been here.
00:22:27.240So it actually gave me a lot of confidence in the fact that I guess everything happens for a reason.
00:22:33.180And him leaving was really liberating my mom to raise me on her terms her way.
00:22:37.760And I think my mom basically just said, hey, listen, you got to learn how to play the game.
00:22:42.100You know, you're going to win some, you're going to lose some and take the hits and run with it.
00:22:46.860I met this guy at 29 or 10 at this conference, Suli Breaks, and he does, you know, he's a spoken word artist.
00:22:54.820And one of these hits for him, like he got like five, 10 million views off this one video, but he said something in it along the lines of never let school get in the way of your education.
00:23:03.040And I'm not a big fan of college or university in its current like form today.
00:23:09.080I don't really think it serves men and it seems to be like an indoctrination system for toxic feminist values today anyway.
00:23:16.140But what do you think of the path through entrepreneurship versus the path through colleges or universities?
00:23:22.440Like if you could do it all over again, would you do it exactly the same way or would you go to university and college?
00:23:27.120If you had a son, let's say, would you encourage him to do the school route or would you encourage him the entrepreneurship route?
00:23:35.260So I think the first thing we need to kind of break down here is that I don't believe the word entrepreneurship is used properly.
00:23:43.420So I think entrepreneurship is about, because I think entrepreneurship is about the evolutionary process where creativity meets business versus I think being a business owner is a very different thing.
00:23:55.800So I don't consider a restaurant owner an entrepreneur.
00:23:59.460Yeah, there's a lot of guys out there that call themselves an entrepreneur, but they're really about to franchise.
00:24:24.940That's society in general, I think, that's kind of robbed that term from the prestigious level down to like the more like there's people out there that you'll see that will babysit seven dogs and they call themselves an entrepreneur because they have a dog walking business.
00:24:39.760That's not the same as the guy that has.
00:24:43.600And I think that's why I say if I had to choose between my own child at some point, which I don't have kids, but if I was to have kids and they were going to ask me, should I go to college or not?
00:24:53.240I think anything you do, regardless that you choose to go to college or that you take on the business route has to come from a place that has a plan associated with it.
00:25:04.380I think too many times today we have young kids that go to school without a plan.
00:25:08.800And listen, I'm not a fan of school in the sense that I'm like, you have to go to school or can't go to school.
00:25:13.400But if you know for a fact you want to be a lawyer and you go, I want to be a lawyer, that's what I want to do.
00:25:19.180Well, you kind of should go that route because you should learn law the way society teaches law because it's important.
00:25:27.160However, if you said like, listen, I want to start – I want to be rich.
00:25:32.360Okay, well, just being rich doesn't mean you have to go to school to get rich.
00:25:38.300So I think that when parents go, well, to be successful, you have to go to school, that's the key to breaking the person down and forcing formalized education that isn't relevant.
00:25:49.460And I think what happens is then basically you're telling your kid like you need your diploma, but you're not telling them why you need it.
00:25:57.080If the kid later is going to start a business, what, is he going to hang the diploma in his home office?
00:26:01.640You know, is he going to hang it in his like little office in the corner that nobody's going to see?
00:26:44.860And I think any person that considers school without a plan or school with a plan, right?
00:26:49.440Like either ways, if you don't have a plan, you're screwed.
00:26:52.260If you have a plan, then part of that plan requires making the right decisions that will get you closer to your goal.
00:26:57.900And I think that if school is used as leverage to get to your personal goal, it's fine.
00:27:03.300But if you don't have a goal, I think teaching your kids to have a goal first holds a lot more weight than just forcing formalized education on them one way or another.
00:28:15.520Because if I'm not excited about a car, like, it's almost like, eh.
00:28:20.240The thing with cars too, like, a lot of people ask me, they're like, why don't you, like, buy things like Paganis and, like, stuff like that?
00:28:27.900And I tell them basically, no, there's one reason.
00:31:11.340Like, meaning I feel like it's one of those cars you're stuck with forever unless someone really wants it worse than you.
00:31:16.680Like, it's just there's such a small amount of them that move hands, meaning, like, they're such low-traded cars.
00:31:22.840And every friend I've ever had that's owned one, like, basically was married to it for, like, four years.
00:31:27.740And I feel like I get bored of my cars, like, every, like, six to eight months.
00:31:30.760So, it's, like, hard for me to be, like, I'm going to buy this for a year and then be, like, I want out and be like, oh, yeah, I got to sit on it for, like, three more years.
00:31:38.280Do you own these personally or do you run them through your dealership so that you don't pay taxes?
00:31:43.060If you see it on my Instagram, it's 100% owned by me, meaning, like, it is paid by me and in 99% of cases paid taxes on with a personally owned tag, no Montana tags or anything.
00:31:55.080So, how do you make money off an exotic car?
00:31:57.780Because, I mean, you claim that leasing is stupid.
00:31:59.660You also say that there's a way to hack the exotic car market so you can make money off it.
00:32:03.600So, I mean, if I'm going to go out and buy a $300,000 McLaren 720, that's what they go for here, roughly.
00:32:10.460So, let's say it's $300,000, you're going to pay 13% tax on it.
00:32:14.820McLarens in value tend to drop like a stone.
00:33:23.000There are some options that could have to be prettier, but it doesn't need them.
00:33:25.980So, when you're looking at the sticker, basically, you go, if you walked in the dealership and bought it for 580K, and right now, you would have lost about $120,000 on your car, even if you're driven it one mile.
00:33:40.960But if you bought it 120K off of sticker, and the depreciation isn't going to change for the next two years, then you're technically 40K ahead of the retail market.
00:33:54.160So, if you buy way, not just new, but, I mean, even if you buy used, at the right depreciation angle, basically, what you do is you're buying the depreciation ahead so you have room from wholesale to retail, just like a dealer does.
00:34:13.780Except if you pick the right car, the wholesale to retail doesn't change that much over the years like a conventional car.
00:34:20.660So, if you look at depreciation, for example, on a 720S, okay, you see the depreciation brand new, and you basically continue that depreciation all the way down over the next five years, and it's brutal.
00:34:33.700You know, like the first two years are really bad, and the rest keeps getting worse, you know, as you drive, because the miles and the condition go up.
00:34:40.240However, if you buy, as an example, a 675LT, the one before that, but the LT model, right?
00:34:49.720So, what happens is, what happens is, it starts high at like 420K for the sticker, and it drops over, in the next four years, it basically drops to like 200K.
00:35:00.320And you can see that, you can clearly see that by looking up one right now.
00:35:04.800A 675LT sells between 180 to like 220, depending on if it's a spider or coupe.
00:35:10.680You guys get away with amazing prices there, man.
00:35:39.460Right, until the 600LT, the previous McLaurin models with roof scoops were really rare.
00:35:45.160Now, with the 600, they produce so many roof scoops that it just doesn't really help.
00:35:48.820Like, it just basically became an option.
00:35:51.060But if you look at the 675LT, there are so few that even when you have a dealer that holds a roof scoop car, they basically don't want to sell it.
00:35:58.240Let me see if I can pull it up here to show what it looks like to these guys.
00:36:01.260You know, they're basically saying that's the dollar and that's what it is because they know you don't have a comparable car on the market, if that makes sense.
00:37:01.100So, it's selecting the right car, selecting the right mileage, selecting the right option packs to guarantee that when you try to sell it, it doesn't become a burden.
00:37:11.460Because one of the biggest fear people have is they go, if I try to sell my car and I can't, then I'm stuck with it.
00:37:17.000And if I get stuck with it, then basically it's going to be very hard for me to get my money back out.
00:37:21.120But if you're buying the right cars at the right prices, there's always a buyer.
00:37:25.560But if you're buying just the car at the right price, but it's not the right car, then there isn't always a buyer on the other hand.
00:37:40.080So, like, let's say you buy a car now and you go, great deal today.
00:37:44.760But if that car isn't going to be a great deal in 12 months, then basically you're going to have to lose money to get out.
00:37:50.960And that's the part people don't pay attention to.
00:37:53.200You see, they get married to the car just like they get married to their wives without ever questioning the divorce because they say, well, it's not going to happen.
00:38:02.260So, what happens, though, is you have to be prepped for that.
00:38:05.000You have to assume that when you hit the divorce point, you're pre-prepared for what's coming.
00:38:11.300So, you have to look at it as you're basically getting a prenup.
00:38:13.840It's like a guarantee that you know exactly what you're going to lose by the time you get out.
00:38:18.120Or you're not going to lose based on how you buy.
00:38:20.840And if you have that top of mind, then you're basically going to be ahead of the market by the time you get out.
00:38:26.100Even in the case of a COVID insane thing happening that stops the market, it still doesn't matter.
00:38:34.300Like, it just does not change the game because you're ahead of the dollar significantly.
00:38:40.860Let's segue into the COVID and the economy in just a moment.
00:38:45.680Does your system work in Canada, too, or is it specific to the U.S.?
00:38:49.480No, I mean, the only reason Canada doesn't work as well as the U.S. is, A, you have less supply of exotics.
00:38:56.840B, your banking systems aren't as advanced as ours in terms of how much they lend and how willing they are to lend on exotics.
00:39:59.600The hyper car market for, like, cars that were basically 918s, P1s, the stuff that's really expensive, that stuff in the classic car market basically died, like went to shit last year at the end of the year.
00:40:14.220So, the big money that came in the game basically exited the game before the issues.
00:40:18.940And then, so, you'd have that big drop then.
00:40:21.620Now, we've seen that stable back up while the mid-tier market started basically getting an influx of cars on the market from people losing their jobs and everything else and dealers not being willing to pay big money for cars because they couldn't buy and sell cars during that time.
00:40:41.400As a result of that, a lot of dealers basically weren't writing checks unless the deal was so good that they couldn't lose.
00:40:48.520So, basically, they were writing checks so low that they brought the mid-market completely down.
00:40:53.400And if you look on the watch market, watches historically do the opposite of cars, meaning whenever investments get really tough when it comes to, like, people putting money in banks and the stock market because there's a lot of volatility.
00:41:08.320They basically park money in Rolex, Patek, and some of these other brands.
00:41:12.280So, it makes it much easier to basically corner the market if you play overall across all channels rather than just playing one channel where you say, oh, well, the economy is horrible, but the real estate market hasn't really moved recently as much as it had at first when it dropped and now it's back up.
00:41:29.700So, how is or where is the correlation, which you could say, basically, depending on what gets hit, like, tech isn't hit right now.
00:42:37.720There's a lot less money at play in 2008 than there is now.
00:42:40.820In our worst right now, we're, like, 17,000.
00:42:42.720So, it's, like, you have such a difference in dynamic in the market today than you had in 2008 that I think people aren't taking in consideration when they're looking at the economy as a whole.
00:42:53.220That also took at least a year, like, 14, 15 months for it to drop down 50% in 2008.
00:43:00.780We saw it drop down to, I think, 18,006.
00:43:03.740I think it's around 24 and a half right now.
00:43:06.100I think it's going to bounce down a few more times before we see a bottom.
00:44:40.880Like, and I think that was part of the reason I didn't stay there because I had a very clear awareness towards where my starting line was and what cars I was dealt.
00:44:50.440And I think that a lot of people don't have that path out of poverty.
00:44:55.820So when you criticize something that they don't know how to handle, they basically have only a defense towards it.
00:45:03.140You know, I had this issue come up back when I was growing in, like, throughout my career.
00:45:09.420MLM, I'm sure you've heard of MLM companies that basically extort people of whatever for the associated products.
00:45:14.940You know, I had an MLM company, like, basically try to recruit a lot of my employees, you know.
00:45:20.460And I went to one of their meetings one time just to hear out what the fuck these people were basically falling victim of.
00:45:25.260And I realized that, you know, I would tell these people, I'm like, you're wrong and this is stupid and this is horrible.
00:45:36.120Like, like, why are you hanging on to this idea?
00:45:39.080And then over the years, I realized that I was attacking their only hope.
00:45:43.780So if they gave in, basically, and they said, yeah, you're right, this is shit, they didn't have a backup plan.
00:45:49.760They didn't have a, like, I'm going to go another way and basically start my own business and this is fraud and this is bullshit.
00:45:55.460They basically were like, you're attacking my only hope.
00:45:59.820So if I don't defend it, I'm going to have no other plan.
00:46:03.680And one of the things I realized is that the same happens when I tell someone they're poor and they don't have a plan.
00:46:08.780They're basically like, you're attacking my dignity and I have nothing else left.
00:46:14.040And I think that one of the things that I've realized over the years is that I get criticized for that and I don't stop doing it because I feel like the mind needs a shock to wake up.
00:46:26.460You know, it needs to realize that it's not okay, but there is a way.
00:46:31.640And you have to question who you are and where you are if you're going to grow and change.
00:46:36.880And I think if you just let people be okay with being poor, then all you're doing is basically feeding into their ego saying, you'll do all right, be comfortable as long as it takes, you'll eventually find your way.
00:46:51.320And I'm more the opposite where I'm more like, let me shock your mind into this realization as much as you might think I'm the enemy or I'm the asshole for saying it.
00:47:00.040If I'm that shock that's going to wake you up, then it's okay.
00:47:04.360Like, I don't mind because I'm not going to be in your life anyway, so I don't really give a shit.
00:47:07.920And at least if I trigger that to change, then you'll change.
00:47:12.420Even if out of the 10 people I shock, 3 wake up, it's better than non-waking up.
00:48:08.780He got back up nine and he won the ninth time.
00:48:11.340Like for you, you know, you made 250 calls and you had two people contribute to the exotic car fund, right?
00:48:18.440Like you had 248 times that you fell down before you got up twice and got off a phone call and people committed money.
00:48:27.920So like whenever I do it personally, I don't do it from a position of critique or hate or resentment or any of those things.
00:48:37.100It's like take ownership for your, you know, for your life and go and do the work like everybody else is expected to out there.
00:48:43.680But I think that we live in this participation trophy society today that breeds a lot of weak men and it's not getting any better.
00:48:50.060There's there's like a lot of the most rare thing today, I believe anyway, is strong, competent, virtuous men that can get shit done.
00:48:59.520There's not a lot of guys out there like that anymore.
00:49:01.700There's more weaker men out there now.
00:49:04.280Well, I think social media has made it easy to find the other weak men to be amongst.
00:49:09.520I think that's basically, you know, like I think basically in the old days, you didn't have a voice if you were weak, right?
00:49:15.880Like meaning unless you were an expert or you were good at something, you had mastered something.
00:49:20.400Basically, nobody even heard who you were, what you were.
00:49:22.500But today's social media has made it so easy for even the ignorant to basically chime in on a conversation without any fact data or any type of even research and basically say, yeah, that's what I believe.
00:49:37.380And then all these other morons just basically trickle in following the same lead instead of educating themselves and saying, you know what?
00:49:45.240Maybe I'd like to have an opinion on this based on my own research, you know, and I think that because the same way it's become so easy for people to be mediocre, it's been so easy to continue life without taking ownership that people have just become silent towards that process.
00:50:03.400They're like, well, I'm just good being me.
00:50:11.640I am me and the world has to accept me for me.
00:50:14.440I don't have to get better and be a part of the reason the world functions.
00:50:18.640I just have to be there and the world just has to accept me.
00:50:21.980And I think this mentality of entitlement and victimhood is the reason why people don't get don't close the loops in their own lives and get anything done.
00:50:31.940You know, like if something happens to them, if their girlfriend leaves them, they go, oh, yeah, like you don't realize what it's like to be heartbroken.
00:50:38.560Or if they get in a car accident, you don't know what it's like to be in a car accident where someone else hits you.
00:50:43.380And it's like, why do you seek someone to follow through your pain and your inadequacies instead of basically being part of the solution to move past this?
00:50:55.120And basically what they're looking for at that point is they're looking to feel good about their victimhood.
00:51:00.840And I think one of the issues is that social media has made it so easy for them to that they basically don't change.
00:51:16.860But by accepting that and by glorifying that, what happens is you meet others that go, yeah, drunk drivers should be off.
00:51:24.080But you're not really moving your own life past this.
00:51:27.180You're sticking and dwelling again in what has occurred to you.
00:51:31.160And one of the big mistakes people don't realize is that it's about moving past an experience, not living in the experience and being stuck in it.
00:51:41.160And it feels so good to be the victim because people agree with you.
00:52:09.260Yeah, I mean, I think lessons around money are the most important lessons I've learned.
00:52:14.520I mean, you have to learn not to be emotional towards money.
00:52:17.540It's one of these things where I say, if you want to make a lot of money, stop worrying about making it and start worrying about what you're really good at.
00:52:25.000And I think once you get really good at something, you'll realize that the money comes after you because people want to pay you to do it rather than you just saying, I want to be rich.
00:52:34.500I want these things instead of figure out what you're really good at.
00:52:39.160I spend the majority of the beginning of my life chasing this idea of not being poor.
00:52:44.660And in context, many could argue, well, that's the reason I didn't end up poor.
00:52:49.860But I think one of the big things that occurred in the middle of my life was basically this shift in my mentality that was like, I can't run away from poverty.
00:53:03.040And so those are two completely different things.
00:53:06.040And I realized that also when I got fired in a way, because, you know, I used to believe in the separation of we work for others and I work for myself.
00:53:20.080We are our own boss no matter what we do, because we work with our own intent, right?
00:53:25.080Like if you work for somebody, meaning someone else writes your check, you're still working for yourself, meaning that person is paying you for a service.
00:53:33.720Like you are earning the money for your own benefit.
00:53:38.060You're not working there out of no choice because someone put a gun to your head.
00:53:41.240You're working there based on the skills and values you can provide.
00:53:44.580You just haven't faced the ability to provide them to someone on your own.
00:53:48.240So you're selling them to someone instead.
00:53:50.620But you're still creating that revenue for yourself.
00:53:54.080And I think that you want a bigger house, you want a nicer car, you want these things, so you work.
00:53:59.940And somewhere along the way, again, that victim mentality came in that like I'm working for others and it's a bad thing.
00:56:01.320How can I make my new business make me 150?
00:56:04.000You see, they create a limitation on their business that has no correlation with their old job because they're so interested in their own benefit out of their new business.
00:56:12.820So they limit themselves because they're afraid.
00:56:15.260Like, again, they go back to what we just talked about, which is I don't want to be poor, so I don't want to lose my income.
00:56:20.720Instead of basically, what if my business could make $30 million this year?
00:56:25.100Why am I limiting it to just making $150,000 for myself?
00:56:30.780And I think that change in limitation and boundary of understanding is what drives so many people to downplaying themselves and basically playing themselves out of the game.
00:57:24.340Like, so, and that helps me understand basically industries because I realize I see a pattern.
00:57:30.700And if, like, you find, for example, five guys that have found a lot of success in, let's say, agriculture, I don't know anything about it.
00:57:39.460But I would learn more about from them as to what matters to learn in agriculture rather than just kind of learn everything about agriculture, which would be probably unwise in a time where I don't have time to learn everything about agriculture.
00:57:52.440So, you know, I learn through people more than I learn through, like, watching others interview people or even listening to their books.
00:58:00.900I think I would be, A, a lot richer and, two, a lot smarter if I read more books.
00:58:07.120But the thing is, for me, I just don't, A, don't have the mental capacity to sit through it.
00:58:13.940And, two, it just bothers me when I'm not active, like I'm one of these people.
00:58:18.600So I've kind of frameworked my own life around learning my way so I can continue growing and not be handicapped by the fact that I don't like books.
00:59:08.400I found that if someone hasn't helped themselves to a certain stage, I just feel it's very difficult for me to waste my time bringing them to what they could learn on Google in 10 minutes.
00:59:18.840I mean, like, basically, someone has the ability to self-educate in so many sections of life that if they truly are interested, a lot of the questions they ask, they could self-discover.
00:59:32.020And if someone has taken that step, then I feel like it's important to help their trajectory but not create their trajectory.
00:59:40.360And so I've learned, ultimately, over the years to become a better teacher because I've committed to it through my books and my educational products.
00:59:47.500And so I've learned what matters most to people who truly want to learn versus basically trying to, like, sell courses for the sake of selling them, you know?
00:59:58.440I feel like those people, I usually, when people come to me and they go, hey, I have all these questions about your car stuff.
01:00:36.040I always call people that ask you questions over and over again, ask holes, because all they do is they keep asking you some shit and they do nothing with it.
01:00:43.040And the other thing that I learned quite a few years ago is if you're not paying, you're not paying attention.
01:00:47.900So there's a lot of people who will be like, hey, you know, can I like I get emails and DMs all the time from people like, hey, you know, it looks like you're in this neighborhood in Toronto.
01:00:55.720You know, it'd be great to grab a coffee with you sometime and pick your brain.
01:00:58.300But what they're really saying is they want to pick my pocket because they want to steal my time from me.
01:02:26.400Yeah, I mean, I'll probably buy anywhere from three to eight cars a week.
01:02:34.260I'm probably buying about 15, 20 watches a week.
01:02:37.960And outside of that, I'm doing a lot of writing lately.
01:02:41.460So I'm trying to come out with a third sequel to Third Circle, which is my final book ever.
01:02:46.340So I don't plan to write any other books.
01:02:48.900So that's been a work in progress for the last year.
01:02:51.880And it's my most important, like, project to date.
01:02:54.680So that's kind of what I work on the most.
01:02:56.660But I would tell you that the majority of my time now, because between all the companies I have and the investments I have in companies, is spent basically either on the phone or on Skype with people.
01:03:05.560I'm more from an advisory world than anything else.
01:03:08.540So, like, I believe in creating results through people.
01:03:11.260So I don't believe in micromanaging even my own businesses.
01:03:13.880So I spend a lot of proactive time coaching my own team and people that have basically my interest at heart in being better at what they do rather than just correct their course.
01:03:27.640So a lot of people will sit in an advisory board and be like, whenever you have a problem, call me, you know, like I have some solutions or I can help you out with this issue or give you some guidance.
01:03:39.140I go, whenever you have a problem, figure it out.
01:03:42.160When you don't have a problem, call me so I can make sure we can work on the things so that when you have problems, you know how to handle them without me.
01:03:50.140And so, you know, having these proactive calls with people has really helped kind of not put my companies in a reactive mode and also keep a good grasp on the mental state of the people that are basically creating results for me.
01:04:07.360You know, I've always felt that that was much better approach to leadership, especially in a lot of cases where in a lot of my businesses, I'm an absent leader,
01:04:18.180meaning I'm not a CEO that is functioning a CEO.
01:04:23.660And in the cases where I have CEOs, it's become easier to engage in more of a friendship style conversation regarding how the person can grow to a better state and be better prepared for what's to come.
01:04:45.880Yeah, so the best things to do right now, like I think if you want to learn more about anything you've learned today is basically visit learnfrompja.com.
01:04:55.300That you'll find all of my courses we discussed on this show.
01:04:58.920And of course, if you want to follow me, get a kick out of life, talking cars, watches, and of course, philosophy.
01:05:04.480You can follow me on Instagram at ICreateMillionaires or on YouTube at Exotic Car Hacks.
01:05:09.160Both places that I'm very active on, but Instagram is really the best way to reach kind of a broad spectrum of everything I do rather than just one aspect or another.
01:05:18.880And Rich, I want to appreciate you for having me on the show.
01:05:21.540You know, very nice of you to, you know, welcome my story onto your audience.