177. The American Mandate
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Summary
In this episode, I talk about how to become great in business and why it took me 10 years to learn in business the hard way. I also talk about why you should be in business for the right reasons.
Transcript
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what is up guys it's andy priscilla and this is the show for the real estate goodbye to the lies
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the fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality guys today
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i got something a little bit different for you um i was in las vegas on saturday and i gave a talk
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uh to uh uh about a thousand people and then some i don't know i don't know how many online
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thousands of people online stream um and i and i went to this event which i no longer really do
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events anymore but i went to this event because it's an event my good buddy cole hatter puts on
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uh and it's called thrive and it's about for purpose entrepreneurship okay now all entrepreneurship
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and all businesses should be for purpose all right that's how you make them work you solve problems
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and in exchange for solving those problems money comes in that took that lesson took me 10 years
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to learn in business the hard way when i started in business i was only 19 years old all right you guys
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a lot of you guys know the story but a lot of you guys don't i was only 19 years old i had 12 000
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with my business partner chris okay we got that money from painting the stripes on parking lots
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we started our own retail store of sports nutrition products the reason we chose sports nutrition
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products was because we couldn't literally afford to do our first choice which happened to be tanning salons
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okay we couldn't we didn't have enough money so we had to we had to go with a cheaper model which
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it's a good thing to happen for us right because tanning's dead in the water now and health and
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nutrition are only growing bigger and bigger and bigger and becoming more important of our daily
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lives so everything does happen for a reason but we had to start small okay we couldn't find anybody
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to rent to us we didn't have people to back us nobody was giving us money all right we found
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one guy who would rent us a store for a thousand dollars a month and that was twelve thousand dollars
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and that was our whole entire amount of money that we had so we had to pay this man twelve thousand
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dollars a year rent up front to even get a lease in this old retail store that used to be a bridal shop
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we built out the store with supplies we got from home depot okay we we had our friends and our family
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help us build the shelves the countertop paint the store we had ten thousand dollars in credit card debt
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that we got from pre-approved credit cards to go out and start our first batch of inventory i mean
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dude when customers first came in our store um they would come in and they would look around and they
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would say hey you guys getting ready to go out of business and i was like no man we're fucking we're
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just getting going and i was offended right like i didn't even understand why they would say that but
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now i look back at pictures and i look back at photographs and i'm like well fuck dude that looks like
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the store is getting ready to go out of business but that's where we started man that's where we
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started our first day we sold seven dollars our next day we sold zero dollars our third day we sold
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twenty three dollars it took us eight months to have a day of eight hundred dollars it took us six years
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to get a second retail store open okay the first three years i didn't get paid at all i lived on and off
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in the store for the first two years of its existence okay we had humble beginnings man humble
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beginnings and that lasted for about 10 years okay the next seven years after those first three
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i made six hundred ninety five dollars per month for a grand total of about fifty eight thousand dollars
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for the first 10 years that i was in business i could have made more money legitimately working
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at mcdonald's the first 10 years i was an entrepreneur all right that wasn't fifty eight
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thousand dollars per year that was fifty eight thousand dollars total for 10 years okay so i
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understand a whole lot about what environment needs to be created to grow a company all right now
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truth be told the reason that it took us 10 years to become great in business was because we didn't
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understand that we were a for-purpose business just like most of you who were early in business
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haven't come to that conclusion yet we exist to solve problems we exist to help people solve their
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problems we exist to empower people we exist to help people in anything that they need to become
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healthier happier mentally tougher and more successful in life that's what we do and once we understood
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that purpose things changed our companies grew in fact we grew a hundred percent year after year
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in the up until 2020 was the hardest economic environment ever
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a hundred percent a year all because we switched from the mentality of trying to sell to trying to help
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okay now you guys know the success i own a whole bunch of different companies they're all successful
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all right our companies employ hundreds and hundreds of people and thousands of people outside the walls of
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our hq we're building two more headquarters buildings right here in st louis we're going to employ a thousand
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people on site in the next two years we're building one of the greatest companies in the history
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of business we're doing things that no other business has ever done we're innovating we're solving
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problems we're making the world better we're making people better and we'll make you better too if you
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give us a chance and we started out that very first day with a seven dollar sale and now we've got a
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company that's worth literally billions of dollars and a whole bunch of other companies that are doing
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very well too and that's all because we grew up in an environment that was conducive to growing a
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business we grew up in an environment of freedom all right tens of thousands of people outside of these
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walls make their income because of the decisions that we made to help solve people's problems so if
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you're in business and you're thinking about what the fucking problem is the problem is most likely
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that you are focused on what you can take and not what you can contribute and once you make that switch
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your business will grow too okay but that's not really what i wanted to get into in this talk i just want to
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explain the context of where i gave it you see i'm able and have been able to succeed in business
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and grow and employ people and create dreams and do all of these things because of this simple concept
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it's tossed around a lot these days there's a lot of people out there screaming about freedom
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and some people are confused about why people are so urgent about freedom and i want to explain a
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little bit about why it's important to you guys who are out there building businesses to care about
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freedom right now what have we called america since 1776 everybody knows the answer to that we've called it
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the land of opportunity we hear it a thousand times and it is the land of opportunity people are proud to
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live here people from all over the world immigrants will do literally anything to get here they will
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cross continents they will go in migration caravans they will suffer to get here because this is the
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only true land of opportunity in the world every single person in america has the opportunity to choose a
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career they love to build a business to make money to raise a family to get involved in politics to influence
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culture for the better where else in the world can you do this nowhere and i want to transform the way you
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think about your success and think about america and think about freedom okay a lot of you guys know that i like
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that movie saving private ryan it's one of my favorite movies ever i think it's one of the best movies ever made if
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you sit down and get a chance to watch it but there's a scene at the end of that movie all right
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and there's they walk up and if you haven't seen the movie i'll summarize it okay basically uh there's a
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guy who is has three other brothers and they all get killed all right and he's over fighting world war
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ii in europe and the military realizes that all of his brothers got killed and so they set a special unit
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to save private ryan all right now during the saving of private ryan a whole bunch of these people get
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killed and he he is protected by these men all right and they give their lives to protect his life
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so that he can go live his family's legacy and at the end of the movie after all of this crazy shit that
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happens during the movie they go to the cemetery over normandy where all of these men are buried
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and he gets to the grave of some of his friends and he falls down and he's in tears and he looks at
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his wife and he says tell me i've led a good life tell me i'm a good man and his wife says you are
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and the reason that scene has always stuck with me is because that man understands and understood very
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real that other men came before him and now he has an obligation he has to earn the right to live a
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great life in america he owes these men he owes these people a great life in return for their lives that
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they gave and i feel like we've lost that i feel like we've lost that a little bit here in america
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so i want you to think about that as i'm talking about what i'm about to talk about
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because america isn't just the land of opportunity it's the land of obligation
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now we've all talked about and heard about and been frustrated with all the ridiculous mandates
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that have been in this country over the last year and a half or so okay there isn't a single person
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listening to this that hasn't been frustrated or inconvenienced or questioned a lot of the things
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being passed down from our government they don't pass laws anymore now they just mandate what we do
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and that's not freedom that's not serving the majority that's not the will of the people
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and so i'm going to talk about a different kind of mandate i'm going to talk about the american mandate
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which is your obligation to pursue greatness not just for yourself but for your country
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you guys need to understand this country is not just a land of opportunity for you it's meant to be
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a land of opportunity created by you the founding fathers and the generations of american who went
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before us built an amazing country for us they invested in this country for us
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so you whoever you are if you live in this country you have an obligation to build amazing
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things for other people that are going to come after us that's the american mandate
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okay and that's the only mandate that fucking matters the last year i've gotten involved in a lot of
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political talk i changed my entire format of my show i went from talking about money and how to make it
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to talking about what's going on in the world because i realized a very simple thing that if we don't have
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freedom we don't have the opportunity to do the things like i've been able to do and i care about
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you guys who aren't quite there yet okay so the reason i'm talking about this is i want you to understand
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why i talk about and why i'm so passionate about freedom okay we have to protect this cause or you
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will not get where you want to go that story i just told you about coming from literally nothing to
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where we are now you won't be able to do that in today's current environment we're overtaxed we're
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over legislated we're over litigated and we're pressured into a situation where some businesses
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have to pay more to the government than what they get to take fucking home and guys that's not right
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that's not freedom and it's not conducive to the land of opportunity and the only way to protect it
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is by becoming the land of obligation on an individual basis and that's what i'm talking about here
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guys i'm not talking about getting involved in politics to improve america what i'm talking about
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is what you do in your own life lots of people lots of people millions of people have died or
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suffered great loss to produce the america that you and i benefit from the least we can do is to set
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an example of greatness in our own lives the least we can do is to create dynamics that motivate other
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people to be fucking great that's our obligation the american mandate is the only mandate it's the
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only one you guys have all heard the kennedy quote from back in the 60s john f kennedy says ask not what
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the country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country and he didn't mean the government
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he meant the country our country has already done so much for us what are we going to do for it in
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return and i want to give you three things practical things that you can do to fulfill what i call the
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american mandate i'm going to give you three practical things okay so i'm not talking about today go run
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politics or go run for school board or go run we need you to do those things but what i'm actually
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talking about is how you live on a daily basis okay so what are these three things that make up
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the american mandate well first off guys you've got to choose the hard path every day okay america is
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not perfect it's got major problems but maybe it's not as bad as what they think because i can tell you
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this when i go out in the real world and i observe what's going on i sure as fuck don't see any of the
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shit that they tell us on tv i see good people i see people that care about each other i see people
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that are willing to help each other okay so we aren't as bad as we think or as we're told that we
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are okay but you know what i do believe is a real problem in america is that it's too comfortable it's
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too easy to achieve success we don't have an oppression problem here we have a fucking spoiled rotten
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brat problem we have more resources than any fucking nation on earth we got people bitching
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about how oppressed they are from their thousand dollar iphones guys we've never had more access
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to opportunity yet we're not even grateful for it we don't appreciate it okay we have more
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opportunities here than any nation on earth our standards are so high that you can literally
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half-ass life here and still survive what other country can you actually do that in
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okay and this is why we have an obligation to intentionally choose the hard path in fact
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i believe we have an obligation to choose the hardest path because that's the one that's going
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to take the most out of you you have to intentionally move out of your comfort zone and continue executing
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after you're tired after you're frustrated after you're angry after you're exhausted
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okay you have to push through you know when i bought my first uh house here in st louis
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um it was it was a pretty middle class house it's small smaller house uh average house you know
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1800 square feet real real nice lot great place i was really happy to to achieve that goal
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of buying my first quote-unquote grown-up house and um you know it's no secret that i do cardio
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outside and i've always been an outdoor cardio kind of person and uh you know now i live in a house
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that you know is is iconic okay it belonged to a former president of the united states uh ulysses s grant
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uh the property is historic it's it's it's crazy it's an awesome property all right and there's
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been a journey to get from that first property to this property that i'm in now all right but when
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i did my outdoor cardio at that first property you know it was hard man like there was little hills and
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um you know i went i went through the the course uh the little course around my house
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you know it was pretty tough and then i moved into this house in between these two houses and that
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house uh you know when i moved into that house it was a big house it was 11 000 square foot house
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okay um i would go through uh the neighborhood and and i had a new route for my outdoor cardio and
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that outdoor cardio was really hard and if you've been following me for a long time i used to have
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this part on that walk that i called death mountain and it was because it was a hard hill man and so
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like the house got nicer but so did the course that i did my cardio on got harder right and then
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i moved into the house i'm in now which is this grand you know estate compound or whatever you want
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to call it um it's awesome but the hills around the house are easily twice as hard as even my last
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house and i like to think about this as a true metaphor for how we grow as people okay that's the
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only way that we grow is by pushing ourself beyond what we think is hard now all right and what does
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that do and why is that important well one it gives us the ability to develop things that we need in our
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lives skills that we must have like grit fortitude perseverance mental toughness okay but it also shows
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all these people around us what it looks like to level up it's not about us it's not just about
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what we get and the life we live it's about the life we live and what others see and perceive of that
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see it used to be cool to be successful it used to be something that was celebrated and the reason that
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it was celebrated was because it showed other people what was possible in this amazing country
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and we're losing that we're losing the ability to execute on that and that comes from our personal
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decisions to take the hard path on a daily basis so choose the hard path that's the first part of
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the american mandate the second part of the american mandate is that you must take your own character
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development seriously all right there's a quote that you may or may not have heard but america
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is great because she is good but if she ceases to be good she will cease to be great and i want you to
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really think about what that means because i still believe in american goodness i still believe
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that most people out there are decent people i don't think the media has it right i don't think the
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news has it right i don't think hollywood has it right i don't feel that when i walk down the street
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and i travel all over this country and i don't see what they're talking about i see good people i see
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people that care about others i see people that treat others with love and respect i see people who are
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willing to listen and who are willing to come together but it's hard to do when the message of division
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is pumped down our fucking throats 24 7 by organizations that are supposed to serve us
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okay we take for granted here in this country not only that we have decent people but that decent
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people will always be that majority someday guys the shitbags may outnumber the saints the people who do
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bad and have bad intent may outnumber the people who are good and have good intent
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i don't think that's one i want to be around for and if we don't want to be around for it like me
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you better get committed to stopping it you know how you keep that from happening you know how we keep
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the world from being overrun by shitty people focus on standing higher and stronger in your character
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and how do we build these character qualities it's the same way you build anything else you build it
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by taking action by always doing the right thing by always being honest being kind being hardworking
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having integrity doing the right thing even when it's the hardest thing those are the things that
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build character and we're losing that that's the second part of the american mandate the third part
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of the american mandate is you must work to secure positions of power and influence and when i say that
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people always get nervous because they think that seeking power is wrong they think it's self-centered
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but who puts that message to us the people with power seeking power is not a bad thing if you use the
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power that you achieve to make a better place and you need to understand this in a nation in a country
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in an organization somebody is always going to be in power it's going to either be good people
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or it's going to be bad people but it's going to be one or the other and so it's up to us
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to understand that we have an obligation to create influence by becoming great okay when you think about
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tom brady and you think about how influential he is amongst the nfl organization he's probably the
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most influential guy ever right now okay what about michael jordan and nba players what about elon musk
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in the business world you cannot argue that these aren't some of the most influential people and they're
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not influential because they're on social media every day posting all this shit saying all this shit
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they're influential because they're fucking great they're influential because they are the very best at
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what they do and they've proven it over and over and over and again and the reward for being great and
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the reward for being the best is power and influence and when you become the fucking best at what you do
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that power and influence will naturally come to you and you'll have a decision to make you'll be able
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to either use it for good if you've cultivated good character seriously or you won't if you haven't
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made that investment in your character because power corrupts power lends itself to negativity if you
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don't have strong character strong values strong integrity that you're comfortable standing in and this
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is why it's important to practice this is why it's important to consistently do these things day in and day out
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this is why it's important to realize that everybody's watching you your kids are watching
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you your neighbors are watching you your friends are watching you everybody's watching you and as
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irrelevant as you may think that you are you have the obligation to become the best example of what
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you think this country should be if for no other reason than other people have come before you and
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actually died so you have the opportunity to do so
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that's the only way this gets better that's the only way we got to choose the hard path every day
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we have to take our own character development seriously every day and as a result of our success
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and our work when we achieve power and influence and when we get involved we have an obligation to do
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what's right not just for us but for the people that are coming after us you know ronald reagan
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said it best freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction we don't pass it to our
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children in the bloodstream it must be fought for it must be protected and handed on for them to do the
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same or one day we'll spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was
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once like in the united states where men were free this is your obligation it is your obligation
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to maintain freedom it is your obligation to fight for freedom it is your obligation to be the best that
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you could possibly be in all areas of your life for the people that come after us that's your obligation
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to america that's the american mandate that's what you owe this country because of what you've been
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given to have the opportunity in this country this is not just the land of opportunity it's the land of
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obligation went from sleeping on the floor now my jewelry box froze fuck a pole fuck a stove counted
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millions in the code bad bitch booted swole got her on bankroll can't fold that's a no headshot case closed