On this episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, I sit down with my good friend, Charlie Kirk, to talk about his journey as an entrepreneur, father, husband, and friend. We talk about how he got into the restaurant business, what it's like being a father, and what it means to be a partner in a business.
00:00:56.000The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts, and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.
00:01:09.000I have enjoyed being a founder and meeting other founders.
00:01:12.000And when I meet other founders, I love hearing their stories.
00:01:16.000And I think that in every founder story, there's something that you can glean to say, am I doing things as good as I could be?
00:01:22.000And so one of the things that I found as I uh met Charlie, and this is the first time we've met actually in person, was that you're an entrepreneur.
00:01:31.000You have this entrepreneurial journey that I don't think a lot of people would realize that I didn't even realize.
00:01:36.000And because I've been an entrepreneur for 28 years, Charlie, a little bit longer than maybe you.
00:01:42.000Um, but is uh as I've looked back past 28 years, I still think about the different inflection points I've had in my career and all the things that I learned at those different inflection points.
00:01:51.000You're, I think, years ahead of where I was, but I still have learned a ton from just talking to you a little bit.
00:01:57.000Um but before we jump into our entrepreneurial journey and share with a room full of entrepreneurs and executives, Charlie.
00:02:49.000Um, but no, it Scottsdale's in a great place.
00:02:52.000We build a lot of restaurants in Scottsdale and in Arizona Airmarket, and it's great, and hash is great, but um you live there, you're married.
00:02:59.000So you're doing the father figure thing, and it's it's hard, right?
00:03:02.000It's a lot, especially as an entrepreneur, right?
00:03:04.000Um there's there's practices that we have to sustain to keep it all together, such as honoring the Sabbath, which is really big in our family, just resting for one day.
00:03:42.000But um, did you ever see yourself here though?
00:03:44.000Like go back to when you were in Arlington Heights and you're like, I'm gonna be an entrepreneur, I'm gonna build uh a thriving business, which I don't think a lot of people understand.
00:03:53.000You have a lot of different business events that you're doing.
00:03:57.000And it's not just events, it's actually business investments and initiatives as well.
00:04:01.000And that's what was surprising to me is like you're a true full-blown entrepreneur.
00:04:07.000It's been kind of a uh uh interesting journey.
00:04:11.000But no, look, what I've always been someone who has been into building stuff, and especially whether it be brands or businesses, and one thing I think that people don't quite grasp is that we have a thousand employees in what we do.
00:04:24.000You know, we have a very successful um for-profit entity, a very successful non-for-profit entity, you know, what well over 140 million dollars in revenue now.
00:04:44.000Uh I myself know my skill set, and managing is not one of them, you know, managing people day to day, but I'm really good at trying to find a vision, put forward exactly how we're gonna get there, and then being kind of that life force.
00:04:55.000Um, and as an entrepreneur, I find this especially with founders.
00:04:59.000Founders are rarely good day-to-day managers.
00:05:01.000Sometimes they are, but the one thing the founder has is that spark and that relentless drive to go to the next location or to the next uh interval.
00:05:10.000And I what I have found is that that is a rarity in a lot of times, where sometimes my team is like, Charlie, why do you keep on pushing?
00:05:22.000And and understand as founders and executives and as entrepreneurs, you're you're at you're in a genetic uh rarity, literally, because most of the world just kind of wants to keep things the same, and it's our job to push them and to give them the vision and to instill them exactly what success looks like in them, what success looks like.
00:06:15.000As an entrepreneur over all these years, too, Charlie.
00:06:17.000I've thought, you know, what is the spark?
00:06:19.000I I've been the founder, you've been the founder of the of your organization.
00:06:21.000And when I have invested into all these different brands now with Savory, one of the things that's interesting is when we meet with a founder and the founder's like, well, we want to do a transaction with Savory, and we want to go retire.
00:06:34.000And the reason why we bow out of that is because they are the spark.
00:06:37.000And I think that they're still so important for that culture of that business for many, many years past.
00:06:43.000Now, when the brand is thousands of units and it's Chipotle, I don't think that people care as much about who the founder was.
00:06:48.000But when you're in the realm that all of us are in, which is call it two to 20 or a little bit beyond, it I feel like it really is important.
00:06:56.000Yeah, I know it's incredibly important.
00:06:57.000And also, you as the founder and everyone in this room that has started something or is running something, you have an obligation to be the hardest working person in that entity and to set the tone and set the pace.
00:07:07.000Nothing collapses an organization quicker than when either the founder during growth mode.
00:07:12.000Now, during sustained mode is different, but during growth mode, the founder is noticeably working less and putting less time in than the team.
00:07:18.000That that is a recipe for catastrophe.
00:07:19.000And that happens when you get a lot of outside money sometimes into a business where the founder hasn't really had to earn it and has had a ton of outside investors or private equity money.
00:07:28.000And they're like, Oh, you know, I'll just kind of work a nine to five, but you guys have to stay till you know 8 p.m. every night that creates dissension and you know, obviously inevitable collapse.
00:07:36.000That but it's also it's more than just the hours worked.
00:07:38.000It's the founder has this original and initial vision of exactly where he or she wants to see this business go or this entity go.
00:07:46.000And that's honestly what makes this country so unique.
00:07:49.000I mean, I just visited South Korea and Japan uh this last weekend, you know, nice weekend trip.
00:08:07.000Like you start different businesses, yeah, like in their culture, you do a job, you do it for 30 years, you do it super well, and that is your duty.
00:08:14.000And they do, and by the way, it's incredibly appealing in a lot of ways, but there is a dynamic diamond dynamism that's missing, right?
00:08:20.000There's kind of this energy and this um this uniqueness that we have in this country.
00:08:25.000And you go to you go to continental Europe right now, which is actually economically not done very well last 15 years, and we've done very well considerably.
00:08:33.000Entrepreneurship is largely dying across continental Europe, right?
00:08:36.000Maybe if you have like one restaurant, maybe if you have like one brand, but this idea of scaling and pushing and like the Italian tax code cannot grasp the idea of losing money to grow a business.
00:08:58.000And the point being is that um, we as entrepreneurs, everyone in this room, I think it's one of the things that makes this country so exceptional and important.
00:09:05.000I agree because it creates new wealth, it's new risk in the marketplace, and it delivers for the consumer and the customer and the citizen, um, new ideas, better products, and it's that constant competition is always refining us towards a better version of success.
00:09:46.000I've not I've never heard that one, Charlie.
00:09:51.000We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries, and today I want to point you to their podcast.
00:09:56.000It's called Culture and Christianity, the Alan Jackson podcast.
00:10:00.000What makes it unique is Pastor Allen's biblical perspective.
00:10:03.000He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues we're facing today: gender confusion, abortion, immigration, doge, Trump in the White House, issues in the church.
00:12:13.000And so I know my demerits and I know my faults, and knowing your nature is incredibly important.
00:12:19.000And that goes with time as well, which is I find that if I'm enjoying something, I will spend like endless amounts of time and my day will be completely derailed.
00:12:26.000So I have to try to put on very strict limits.
00:12:28.000Um, and then as an entrepreneur, you have to obviously have very strong spiritual health, whatever that is in your life, very strong, obviously, mental health, connection and relational health, and then physical health.
00:12:38.000I think I see far too many entrepreneurs.
00:12:40.000I could list five in my life that I know that just completely forsake the physical health when they're in growth mode, right?
00:12:46.000They're eating terribly, they're not sleeping, they're not exercising.
00:12:52.000And when you're young, that's correct.
00:12:54.000But I actually would make an argument, not only is it bad for you, obviously, health-wise, but like it actually makes you harder to run that business and to grow that business.
00:13:01.000I think that people that are properly prioritizing sleep and properly prioritizing diet, um, are actually better founders and better entrepreneurs.
00:13:09.000And so, but anyway, going back, time management.
00:13:11.000Um, I find what separates the good from the great entrepreneur is someone that is able to meticulously be able to manage their time.
00:13:18.000You know, I was able to spend spend a lot of time with Elon Musk, you know, a year ago, and regardless of your opinions of him, he's a phenomenal entrepreneur, right?
00:14:21.000The also, I I was I did a lot of thinking about this last year.
00:14:24.000Like, what is it that really drives me?
00:14:25.000I love solving complex problems and doing the things that people say they can't actually be solved.
00:14:30.000Yeah, I'm sure you're very similar in that way, which is like, okay, people say that you can't have this kind of a restaurant or you can't have this kind of thing.
00:14:44.000Because again, if if it was simple, there would be no reason for entrepreneurs.
00:14:48.000Entrepreneurs are people that you know quit companies while they might be ascending, or they're putting out a second mortgage on their home, or they're diving into savings or liquidating their 401k.
00:14:56.000And I think there's really something admirable about that kind of ambition.
00:15:00.000Yeah, uh, it makes the world a better place.
00:15:01.000And so the greatest reward I'd have to say is just seeing the journey and seeing obviously some of the lives impacted along the way.
00:15:10.000I've I've been fortunate enough too, um, Charlie, as a as an entrepreneur to go through some cycles where I've built a business, sold it, built a business, sold it.
00:15:17.000And people have always asked me before, like, what's been the best part?
00:15:19.000And I've said, honestly, it is a journey.
00:15:21.000So I had the bumper sticker way before you, just so you know.
00:15:24.000And um, in my mind, I thought, you know, I was always excited growing up in Chicago.
00:15:29.000I always had like this poster in my room, and it was a picture of a Ferrari.
00:15:32.000And I just remember, man, one of these days, Charlie, I'm gonna make enough to buy a Ferrari.
00:15:37.000And I remember when I bought my first Ferrari having an exit, and I think a lot of people here that do know me a little bit know that I'm a car guy.
00:15:43.000And I remember getting in, I'm like, this is so cool, right?
00:15:47.000And the second day was like, that's pretty cool.
00:15:49.000And then like two weeks later, I'm like, totally cool.
00:15:52.000A month later, Charlie, I was like, it's a car.
00:15:55.000And it was so wild to me how anticlimactic and fast that was.
00:15:59.000And so when you say journey, I have a good friend, and I think many of you have met her today, but she just went through a business sale as well.
00:16:05.000And she's like, Man, I'm reminiscing the last 25 years of busy building my business.
00:16:09.000And I feel like I appreciate more the journey of having gotten here than actually had gotten here to where I sold.
00:16:15.000And and you need to enjoy every day then.
00:16:16.000Therefore, because the reward is actually the process, it's the process of solving problems.
00:16:21.000And there's a reason why you're on your third fund, Andrew, because after your second or for first second one, like, okay, fine, you could go retire.
00:16:28.000Like, okay, that's not what life's about.
00:16:29.000It's about value creation, it's about pouring into people, it's about making people's lives better.
00:16:33.000And I think that's always lost because the outside world that is anti-entrepreneur or at least value neutral on entrepreneur, they're like, oh, it's all about the money.
00:16:41.000I mean, look, yeah, that's that's a way to kind of token.
00:16:44.000It's a way to tokenize and measure your success, obviously.
00:16:47.000No one here should be against it, but we would all say that it's about the team too.
00:16:51.000I mean, I look at my team, I'm like, I'll go to war with these guys.
00:17:15.000You don't you don't want to be around you?
00:17:17.000In fact, if you are a lonely entrepreneur, it's like probably won't work very well, honestly, unless you're an incredible whiz kid engineer that has a gizmo better than anybody else.
00:17:25.000But you guys largely in the restaurant space are in the relationship business.
00:17:29.000That is we are in that tight margins, it's knowing customers' names, it's knowing your employees.
00:17:34.000Hey, you have a tough day, bad day, you're going through divorce, and someone just break up with you.
00:17:37.000Like, that's what it's all about, right?
00:17:39.000And um, it's not just about, you know, maximizing the bottom line, which of course is part of it, but it's I think I bet everyone in this room would agree that what is the most precious thing you have?
00:17:48.000It's the team, it's the human beings that actually make it happen.
00:18:28.000But honestly, when it comes to a brand, it has to be something, and I go I'm constantly trying to build brands.
00:18:34.000It has to have a missional statement as to why or what you are doing, especially when you're trying to have employees, that it's not gonna just be enough as a job.
00:18:41.000They want to feel as if they're part of something and they're building something.
00:18:43.000That's something that's really changed the last 30 or 40 years, especially when you're adding kind of younger employees.
00:18:48.000Um, but look, the cliche stuff, you know, building on social media, building on digital media, all that stuff matters.
00:18:54.000But even beyond that, like building a brand that will last and that will be durable.
00:18:59.000Um, it needs to be connected towards the founder's energy and vision.
00:19:04.000And sometimes, honestly, if you're at like a couple dozen locations, it's okay if the founder is associated with that brand.
00:19:10.000If I think about the local restaurants that are not scaled, I know the owner of those restaurants.
00:19:28.000And so when you're trying to build a brand, it one of the hardest things for an entrepreneur, and we have not done this successfully yet, is separating the brand from the founder.
00:19:51.000It but I wouldn't, I don't think like the kind of doctrinaire corporate approach is well, you know, I'm a private equity investor and we're investing in this restaurant, and we need to make sure it's not too reliant on the founder.
00:20:02.000I get that, but honestly, I don't think that's necessary.
00:20:05.000In fact, I think it actually might be unhealthy if that entrepreneur is the is the face on social media is the one that could best describe it, that can best sell it to investors and to bankers and to future customers for sure, right?
00:20:20.000I I think that there is an inescapable bond between the entrepreneur and the brand that I think that far too often the experts in the corporate world want to try to separate.
00:20:29.000And I actually don't think that should happen as much.
00:21:43.000So in building a brand then too, let's let's go a little further with that.
00:21:46.000And that is in our industry, we we love having someone like ovation, and they're here with one of our tech partners, and we get feedback immediately.
00:21:53.000So you go into a hash kitchen or into any of our counterparts here at the restaurants, and you leave and you're like, ah, this wasn't really good, and you hit ah, it wasn't a good experience.
00:22:00.000Or you get people to throw comments on Yelp, or you get people to go out and start talking negatively about you in the in the industry.
00:22:07.000It's hard for us because we're trying to build a brand, Charlie.
00:22:10.000And so, how have you, because I'm sure that you've received some of this in your business as well.
00:22:18.000We have no haters, no criticism, but nothing but supporters.
00:22:21.000How do you how do we all learn from taking opposition and criticism?
00:22:24.000Actually, I have a quick question for you.
00:22:26.000How seriously do you guys take Yelp and all that?
00:22:28.000As a customer, you never know, because I write these these screeds against some of these restaurants, not Sicilian butcher.
00:22:34.000Um, like how seriously do you guys take that in the world?
00:22:37.000I think that it is a um a lagging indicator of how we're doing, not leading.
00:22:42.000I I do think it's something that we look at because we have to.
00:22:44.000There's not a lot of different ways to know how you're doing.
00:22:47.000I feel like all of us, and maybe I can't see a lot of you guys, by the way, just like the first two rows, but how how many of you guys in here rely on Google more than Yelp?
00:23:20.000Like you get as founders as savory and our team, we look at you know, people having bad experience after bad experience.
00:23:26.000It's good to see that and go, we need to address this, this, and this within the business.
00:23:31.000But how do you take it and then just as a team to not let it melt you down and turn that opposition or criticism into a street?
00:23:36.000Yeah, look, first of all, all feedback is an opportunity to get better, right?
00:23:39.000And the at least in my business and what I do, anytime someone has negative feedback, I personally see it through to make sure that it's addressed, and I do it like aggressively.
00:23:48.000I do it really fast, and I do it involving the parties and the actors that were responsible.
00:23:54.000So it's a learning lesson, so it never happens again, right?
00:23:57.000So we run these big events, 20,000 people show up.
00:23:59.000It's the biggest events uh we've won in Phoenix.
00:24:02.000Um, and if someone has a bad experience, I go straight to the events director.
00:24:31.000But you can tell, this is what's really important.
00:24:33.000You guys have a good antenna as founders, a legitimate piece of feedback and an illegitimate piece of feedback, right?
00:24:38.000And that when that legitimate piece of feedback comes through, you need to personally usher that through the process because it's easy to just delegate and be like, ah, you know, that's just an outlier.
00:25:12.000That's kind of eats away at the margins and the core of what we do.
00:25:14.000So, as far as um like sustaining the brand, though, uh, you want to try to be ahead of it, right?
00:25:20.000And this is where I think founders and entrepreneurs should never be disconnected from the lived experience of what you are trying to actually present forward.
00:25:28.000And so that means you guys should continually make sure you are eating the food that you are serving to make sure that it's still good.
00:26:33.000And then you can use prudence to be able to navigate.
00:26:35.000Yeah, that's actually a very powerful one.
00:26:36.000That is you got to go through some probably some exercises to get there.
00:26:39.000But it takes time, it takes mentorship.
00:26:42.000And that's again going from good to great.
00:26:44.000Yeah, it is good to great, you look at feedback as an opportunity to upgrade and to turbocharge, not just to either get bitter or to dismiss and act as if nothing is wrong.
00:26:53.000Even though the statement, I gotta be honest, feedback is a gift.
00:26:56.000I know it is, but when someone says that to me, I want to wanna punch them out.
00:27:00.000Yeah, But not all feedback is you have to use prudence and wisdom to know, like, okay, this is just a person that literally complains for a living, right?
00:27:06.000They want a free meal, they want a free airline ticket.
00:27:09.000But there's also you could tell somebody that writes like a very thoughtful letter, you know, I was ignored a couple of times, this and that.
00:27:15.000Like, okay, you know, this is something that we we need to take care of for sure.
00:27:30.000Okay, well, tell us a two-minute master class on just teaching and leading those uh if in the ideal world you have a clear set of articulated values for your company that is no more than one page, maybe two pages.
00:27:44.000And in the onboarding process of onboarding a Gen Zer, you not just recite it, you get buy-in as to what those values are.
00:28:19.000You have now established a standard of conduct that when they break it, like, hey guys, remember in that onboarding three months ago, you said you're not gonna bring your personal life into business.
00:28:33.000This is probably always been true in corporate life.
00:28:35.000It is so enormously important for Gen Z because they have a tendency to try to make that there's no like work-life separation.
00:28:45.000And it they also will cry injustice sometimes for something that you think is a normal operating corporate business practice that they need to be reminded to in clear detail.
00:28:56.000So you can have like the 10 commandments of savory brands or whatever it is, right?
00:29:01.000And that process, then there's no wiggle room or excuse.
00:29:04.000And what it is, it needs to be publicly displayed, right?
00:29:06.000It needs to be everywhere when you come into work, when you come out of work.
00:29:17.000And again, if there's a problem, be like, I don't think you're a good fit here anymore because you're not living up to the standard that you already agreed to.
00:29:48.000They can't do one thing with and like so privileges and principles are due for two different things.
00:29:52.000So for us, it's where it's worked very, very well.
00:29:57.000We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries.
00:30:00.000And today I want to point you to their podcast.
00:30:02.000It's called Culture and Christianity, the Alan Jackson podcast.
00:30:06.000What makes it unique is Pastor Allen's biblical perspective.
00:30:10.000He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues we're facing today: gender confusion, abortion, immigration, doge, Trump in the White House, issues in the church.
00:31:19.000Like this year has been a little bit more uh tumultuous than I think a lot of us have experienced in the past, and also that we probably plan for.
00:31:25.000Give us some guidance as to what you're hearing and thinking about the economy itself going into 26 And how should we budget our career or budget our businesses so that we're we're safe in our career?
00:31:35.000Please, anything I say here, guys, take with an enormous grain of salt.
00:31:37.000Please have it be one data point and a factor of many.
00:31:40.000Last thing I want to tell is the economy is great.
00:31:42.000You guys open five new locations and you know they close and I have a you know Yeah, yeah.
00:31:51.000Um But look, I happen to be very long term bullish on the American economy uh for many reasons, not just psychologically.
00:31:58.000Uh just as a side note, I think in reminding your workers that their tax are not tipped up to a certain amount and their overtime is not tipped now, I think is a very interesting potential morale boost that you can tell to your workers.
00:32:11.000I'm bullish because after traveling the world, both to Europe and Asia, they are all looking to America and they are telling me as a traveler the American economy is the best.
00:32:19.000We want to put money into America, we wanna buy American securities, we want to buy American real estate.
00:32:24.000That's amongst the ruling class and the investor class of these other countries.
00:32:28.000Secondly, I think that there is a massive pent up economic boom that's waiting to happen around artificial intelligence that is gonna reverberate positively throughout the entire economy.
00:32:38.000I think it will make your businesses more efficient.
00:32:40.000I think you'll be able to better analyze data.
00:32:42.000I don't think, honestly, if we're doing this five years from now, I think we'll left like we used to look at Yelp.
00:32:46.000AI is now better able to synthesize, you know, a hundred different receipt transactions in an hour, and we could tell whether or not they had a good experience or bad experience.
00:32:53.000Like, I think the way that we analyze data and it guides your businesses is gonna completely change and it will make you more profitable.
00:32:59.000It'll make your businesses better and more attractive.
00:33:01.000And so if I were to give you a piece of advice you should take, embrace AI wholeheartedly in every way you possibly can, because if not, you will you it's the same people that didn't embrace the steam engine, okay?
00:33:11.000You will be or the oh, what's that internet thing?
00:33:20.000I was talking to a major, major multi-trillion dollar fund uh manager the other day, and he says their data shows the American economy is a lot better than even the Fed thinks it is.
00:33:29.000So I I happen to be very optimistic person.
00:33:32.000Um I think that there is probably going to be a market correction at some point.
00:33:36.000I think that publicly traded securities are vastly overvalued, largely because money doesn't know where to go right now.
00:33:42.000So it just keeps on going into these high, um insane multiply, you know, the same six companies and NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft that just keep on there.
00:33:50.000But the actual like brass tax, consumer sentiment is actually okay.
00:33:54.000Consumer spending is remaining strong.
00:33:57.000If there were some pitfalls of where the economy is, housing remains to be a big problem.
00:34:01.000However, shelter inflation hasn't gone up too much since January.
00:34:05.000But the last thing I'll say is this is the more I spend in the economy, both as an analyst and actually as a participant, the more I realize that so much of this is psychological, that if people believe things will be better, they will be better.
00:34:16.000You guys are the top, like the biggest one-to-one correlation of that statement that I could imagine.
00:34:22.000Either people eat out because they think things are good or they do not think they things are good, right?
00:34:26.000And so I would say that the more that we can cheerlead the economy, the better.
00:34:31.000And the more that we can say that it's good, the more that it will be good.
00:34:34.000I would much rather be the United States than continental Europe right now.
00:34:38.000I would much rather be the United States than a lot of these other countries.
00:34:41.000I think there might be some one or two minor corrections, but we have every possible asset.
00:34:45.000I think that we're gonna see better energy prices.
00:34:47.000I think we're gonna see uh more capital deployment.
00:34:49.000Also, guys, if you're gonna go to more, um, if you guys are gonna be building more, you know, whatever it is, convection office, whatever it is, there's a hundred percent depreciation coming back in the tax code here, which is huge, and heavy machinery discounts.
00:35:00.000I don't know how that applies to your businesses, but it does.
00:35:04.000And so eventually you're gonna see this thing pop where there are so many incentives based on this latest tax bill that I think will be enormously positive.
00:35:13.000And if, if the no tax on tips and no tax in overtime actually does end up materializing into demand-driven parts of the economy, there'll be more people that have more money in their pockets that will spend it more in restaurants, right?
00:35:24.000So again, don't take this to the bank, but generally, I am investing like a bull.
00:35:28.000I, especially a long-term bull, a five, 10-year long-term optimist.
00:35:33.000Um, I think that we have such incredible assets.
00:35:36.000And the last thing is like I talk to entrepreneurs, they still are in growth mode, they're in problem solving mode.
00:35:41.000And I think as long as we keep that kind of mindset and that psychology, um, I think we're gonna be at a very, very good place.
00:36:13.000But it's King Solomon's phrase, which is really amazing when you think about it, because it's good no matter what season of life that you're in.
00:36:19.000If you're going through the worst of times, this too shall pass.
00:36:31.000So it's a it's a time transcendent truth that applies towards all uh periods as an entrepreneur.
00:36:38.000It humbles you when you need it and builds you up when you need it gives you hope when you need it and also gives you a little bit of a dose of uh a gut check.
00:36:44.000Um one of my favorite verses though is uh Romans 828 which it says that God uh works all things for good for those who love him uh it's a very freeing and liberating verse uh for those of us that are Christians because we believe that when things can be really bad God is working it for his good his perfect and pleasing will which is a very very hard teaching when you come across business closures or staff layoffs but it's very liberating that God is working all things towards an ultimate good so I love that and it kind of is very freeing that I don't have to be in charge of everything.
00:37:12.000And there is a God and I'm not him and I surrender to his will.
00:37:15.000I appreciate that my uh my quote I'm gonna share it with you is that okay?
00:37:18.000Yes please um is from Epictetus and it's if you want to improve be content to be thought foolish and stupid the original stoic yeah he was a former slave that became a stoic yeah and I love it just because as entrepreneurs and all of us here building businesses we are pretty foolish.
00:37:34.000It's very very hard but you have to be content in the fact that we've signed up for this that we are showing up every day to battle through it.
00:37:42.000And so I'll all I'd like to leave everybody here with is stay the course um be smart stay positive I like that you have a positive outlook on the economy.
00:37:51.000I do too we're investing like crazy right now into the market don't do it because I told you just no no no we were doing it before but this year and and even next year.
00:38:00.000But I appreciate you sharing some of your wisdom and and you're obviously in circles that we're not and so thank you for sharing some of the things that you're seeing and you're hearing and thank you for sharing your entrepreneurial journey I think that all of us learn from each other even if we have differences um by elevating each other.