Why Most Entrepreneurs Fail (And How to Succeed) | Dean Graziosi DSH #1350

The world's going to go to hell in a handbasket. AI is going to make it so nobody has to work anymore and capitalism dies.
Money won't mean anything. The dollar is going to deflate.
It'll be like Venezuelan's money. It's going to be worth nothing.
America's going bankrupt, Sean. If I said all those things to you while you were in high school, while you were in college, do you have a compelling future? No.
All right, guys, got someone today I've watched for years now. Very excited for this one.
We got Dean Graziosi. Thanks for coming on today, man.
Good to be here, Sean. Yeah.
You've been up to a lot lately. Still grinding.
Yeah. Still love it.
That's why. Yeah.
I could tell by the passion and all your webinars and everything, you're really teaching something that means a lot to you. It does.
It's kind of the, it's just thing you don't realize when you're younger, you know, when you want to get ahead. Most of us are running away from something.
We're running away from a childhood we don't like, running away from, you know, watching your parents maybe settle. We're running away from the norm.
You just don't want to live the normal path, right? And I think when you're running away from that, you're just looking for that opportunity, right? You're looking, I'm got to find the hunger. You've got to find that opportunity.
What can bring me the money, the freedom. And then there's a, there's a time where it shifts, where hopefully you get the money out of the way at some point, we could talk about that.
And when you do, then you realize how cool would it be to do something that I would do for free, but I love to do every day. And I think that's where's where the craft of your artistry or your craft really starts to hone in.
Yeah. I love how you talk about money because I think over 50% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, right? Yeah.
And you're basically saying that when you live that way, you can't operate like yourself. Yeah.
I mean, you think about it. I look at my parents.
Amazing.

They were married and divorced a lot, right?

But at the kitchen table, I don't think they realized how much money was the conversation.

My parents split when they were three, so it was two different tables.

But always, I shared this once with Lewis Howes, right?

If I asked you about the oxygen in the room right now and said, have you thought about it?

You're like, no, it's just abundant.

It's everywhere. But if someone choked you, all you'd think about is oxygen.
Same with money. You don't realize how sometimes money chokes our thoughts, our dreams, our goals.
I would, but I'd like to, but. So when you realize that money, it's not the root of all evil.
You can solve problems for yourself. You could solve problems for other people.
You can give it all away if you want. But if you realize that our money does solve problems and it, and once you get money out of the way, I guess, I know we jumped right into this, but once you get money out of the way, um, there's nobody left in the mirror, but you, because I know in my twenties and my thirties, all I did was hustle to get away from being that broke kid who had dyslexia, who lived in a trailer park.
I didn't, I wasn't into personal development. I wasn't in my twenties.
I was by the time I was in my thirties, but in my twenties, it was just gun, run, run, run, run. And I started getting momentum start.
I had apartment houses. I was building houses.
I had a collision shop. Then I started in the self-education industry.
And all of a sudden there was a time, Sean, where I didn't think about money anymore.

And I had to face that guy in the mirror,

face those issues that probably drove me to be a crazy entrepreneur in the first place.

There was no like, when, when,

like when was kind of here.

And then I had to work on me.

And I think that's a wish I would love

every single person, no matter what age you are.

At some point, if money wasn't an issue anymore, what kind of man would you become? Or what kind of woman would you become? Yeah. And I think it's a different answer.
It is. So once you made some money, you finally found out what you were running from? Yeah, for sure.
And some of it, it's almost like there's certain things that happen in life.

Maybe it's just me more than most.

Maybe you could share if you have one,

but there's certain things in life that happen.

Maybe they're not the best, so you just tuck them away.

Like, I'm just hustling.

I want to get this podcast going.

I want to get my company going.

I want to be independent.

I want to be self-employed.

I want to have a certain amount of millions invested.

All these things, and you just go, go, go,

and something else triggers that thing from childhood or the past or the feelings you had, and you're like, I don't have time for that, and you just go go go and something else triggers that that

thing from childhood or the past or the feelings you had and you're like i don't have time for that and you put it in the box that's the way i looked at it and then there was a certain point in my life where uh like the lid came off the box and i couldn't put it back on because i i had reached way beyond any financial success i ever thought was possible i was having impact around the world them. Partners in my dearest friend here.
I mean, I'm married to the love of my life. I know that

sounds like, yeah, Dean, you're perfect. No, it took me a long time to get it.
I went through a divorce. I had bad partners, right? I had to go through what was wrong to get what was right.
But there was a certain point where I had to face, I had to face the things that were driving me in the first place. And I think that may have been one of the hardest of them all.
Wow. Your insecurities.
Yeah. Insecurities and running away from, you know, not wanting to be like my dad and wanting to prove myself as a man and all those things that drove us in the first place can also drive you a little crazy until you finally face them.
And then I'll tell you one more thing I want to share with everybody. I also thought that,

like I said,

we can go in any direction you want.

My parents were married nine times.

My father was very physical

between the two of them, right?

They had five for my dad,

four for my mom.

My dad lived in a very violent,

had a very violent childhood.

His father beat him really bad.

So my father was very violent,

very aggressive.

I mean, I had a bleeding ulcer

at 12 years old because I was so worried about my dad doing crazy stuff, not physically to me, but to other people. Right.
So long story short, what did I do? I'm like, head down, just get freaking successful. You don't have to worry about your dad.
You don't have to worry about your mom, all that crazy issue. I had my own apartment by the time I was 17.
Like, just do your thing and go, go. And I was, it was grind, hustle, screw everything.
No, my past doesn't bug me. Who gives a shit me who gives a shit like just go go go and then there's a moment where you don't have to run so hard and it's like the box pops open it's like i don't deal with that and i'll tell you what i used to think is i got the hustle because i love the hustle i love the grind i'm 56 years old i still grind hard every day i started four o'clock every? I used to think that I was, I didn't want to cure some of that because I thought that craziness was the drive.
Like, what if I did that? What if I got soft? What if I got complacent? What if I had no more resilience, right? What if I wasn't creative or innovative or resourceful anymore? And that was another lie. When you get that clear, you become more centered, more focused, and you realize there's a whole nother level.
I think I've grown since I've gotten more aligned. Wow.
What a journey, man. Thanks for opening up about that.
Yeah, I think childhood trauma plays a major role in all our lives and some of us never address it, right? True. How did you eventually face that, I guess? Was it a specific process? You know, I'd love to say that personal development has been a part of my life for a long time.
You know, I first listened to Tony Robbins probably 27 years ago and now he's my dearest friend and partner. But when I listened to him 27 years ago, it started this journey.
And I went, I've gone through all of my still do personal development. I read a book a month.
I listened to it while I work on it and I have to, because it's like a muscle. You can't go to the gym for three weeks and get a pump and think you'll stay in shape for the rest of your life.
So if you want your head straight, you want to focus on the best version of you, you want to focus on solutions and not let old stories hold your back, all that stuff keeps popping up. Yeah.
Right? And every level, there's a new devil. So every time you think you got your shit figured out and you're going to the next level of a sudden you hire your third employer your 50th employer your 500th or you get to a million 10 million 100 million or a billion every one of those levels have a massive amount of new devils and each one of those could trigger something from your past and trigger an insecurity trigger a a fight or flight you know and um i'd say for me what finally, and again, I'm ready to talk about any part of business.
I just, I'm here to serve today. So whatever I could do to help.
But for me, it took a really big thing. I went through a divorce and I realized like that a decade ago, going through a divorce in the middle of having everything dialed in, business dialed in, dad of two at the time, now I'm a dad of four wow um when that happened it was such a shock to my system that all those old things came flying back into my life and yeah and just had to face them did part of you i think maybe it affected you so much because you saw your parents get divorced and you were kind of like yeah i'm doing the same thing right i don't want that to happen to me yeah and our childhood when my parents just hated each other they still don't talk wow after 52 years of being apart they still don't talk i got remarried seven years ago and we went to italy to get married i had to fly my parents were in their 70s i had to fly them on different planes and put them in different hotels oh my 50 years after their divorce i can talk about crazy right so what i think happened is i thought i'm gonna put my kids through the same crap we went through the violence the anger all stuff and it just it just triggered it and it was there was zero way not to face it so all i'm i'm saying is i waited later in life if there's something bugging you before we get into business i hope you make millions of dollars i hope you live into your full potential i hope you find joy remember success without fulfillment is the is the greatest failure of them all find a balance your life.
I truly wish that for every single person listening. And there's a path and plan for everyone.
Model proven practices, persist to you succeed, keep moving forward, find hunger. We could talk about all that today and I'd love to.
Yeah, let's do it. But if you don't look in the mirror, deep in the mirror and say, how do I, how do I solve some of those things that are driving me crazy? They're eventually going to come out.
So I wish someone gave me the advice to say, start healing them now, not overnight. Don't like, but start working on things that you align with.
Find somebody in the personal growth world that you resonate with. Maybe you, you have somebody you follow that's making money and they're helping you with marketing and sales.
Find someone else that helps heal your soul, heal your heart. And again, I think if someone told me that at 24, I'd be like, get out of my way.
Come on. I don't have that foo-foo crap.
Just tell me how to make the money. But I realized I could have had a more balanced journey.
And then the other thing too is when you get that out of the way, Sean, you get to find real deep reasons why that drive you way more than money. why why do you did you know that 80 of all entrepreneurs who start on their own like solopreneurs 80 who start a business within five years are out of business geez eight zero 50 in the first year i don't think it's a lack of hunger i don't think i should say i don't think it's a lack of capabilities i don't think it's a lack of smarts.
I don't think it's a lack of opportunities. It's a lack of hunger.
It's a lack of focus. It's a lack of real deep purpose that you would die before you would give up on it.
Right. And, um, and I think that's why though it might sound like it's like, I don't need to work on that.
I think we all do because you can find this balance that when things go wrong, you look at it differently. When things go wrong, you look at it as the wind behind your sail rather than the anchor that can hold you down.
And it's just something I wish someone would have shaken me when I was a little younger and said, hey, hey, keep hustling. Don't slow down, but work on you at the same time.
Yeah. Yeah, I feel like when you're really aligned with your purpose, it's way harder to fail.
It is. It is.
So hard. When you were first making money, was your identity tied to it, tied to money? Of course.
Of course. I'd like to pretend it wasn't, but it surely was.
How did you kind of break apart from that? When I realized that even when I added money, I was still the same person. I still had the same deep down inner insecurities or things that went wrong.
I'm still the same guy. And then, yeah, I would say realizing it didn't solve the problem, it makes life easier.
I would never, every single person here should do their own thing, hustle. And if it's in a career, go crush it in a career, get the promotions, do whatever it takes because making more money, you solve more problems.
That's a fact. You can take care of your parents, put money away for kids someday, donate it all to charity.
Everybody should go after it. But it shouldn't be the main reason you do it.
And what you realize once you have it, it just amplifies who you are. Money is just an amplifier.
If you and I both know people that are kind of rude and obnoxious, give them alcohol or money. They're more rude and more obnoxious.
Find somebody who's shy and an introvert, give money that is shy and an introverted millionaire. It amplifies who you are.
So I think I got to a point where I realized I didn't want to be, I didn't want money to be my identity. I wanted purpose and passion and impact and being a good husband and being a good father to my now four kids.
And for me, I've taken that really far. Like if you look on my social, I, you know, I flew here on my plane today.
You'll never see a picture of my plane on social. I've never done an ad on my plane.
I live in the house house of my dreams i've never posted a picture of it um i wear a t-shirt every day i put a collar on today's deal but i wear a t-shirt every single day of my life i i i feel the opposite of showing it now because i want people to to respect me for my depth of wisdom and my depth of caring not just because i because of money and that's impressive to me because a lot of people show off on social media to get views, but you're pulling serious numbers without that. You have the world record for a number of live viewers with Tony Robbins, right? We do.
Yeah, that's super impressive. That means you're just providing immense value then.
Yeah, our last 11 events have averaged a million people each. 11 in a row.
That's insane. Like, that's actually insane matthew mcconaughey too i read his book i freaking loved it i got done if you ever listen have you ever listened to his book no i need to put it on your list green lights everybody should listen to it uh i've been seeing him on podcasts and it's really deep stuff yeah it's so good it's deeper than you would think like you wouldn't look at it as like oh he's a celebrity sharing some this guy's journaled for every day of his life with 30 years.
Wow. And he went through all of his journals over a year and found all the common roads that left to success and all the stuff that failed for him.
Wow. And he found these ego paths and in my head path and he found when I'm open and have my heart.
So just framing that, I know now you want to listen to it because that's where it came from. So I got done listening to Greenlights, the book'm like and you know and he reads the book himself with that mcconaughey you know he's just got that voice that kind of pulls you in right and uh we got done and i'm like damn i want more mcconaughey so long story short we had a mutual connection i sent him a seven minute voice memo saying love the book the world needs more mcconaughey let's do a big live event let's turn your book into course.
Because I told him a book and a lot of ways a book is very inspirational. A course or a training can be transformational because you give homework, you give tools, exercises, right? It's more video.
So he agreed and we went to work, created something phenomenal. And we did a one day event, two and a half million people showed up.
Holy crap. Yeah, it's insane.
You're the master of that, taking information and kind of figuring out how to disperse it in the right way. Yeah, and it was great.
People came and had six hours with me, McConaughey, Tony Robbins, my partner, and other great guests. They had the time of their lives.
So either they came, and one thing we can talk about today if you get in on the business side is I'm a really huge advocate right now of value in advance, obsessive value in advance when it comes to making an offer, making sales. So that's why when Tony and I do these big events, we do a three day or six day immersive events.
We're giving so much value. So we want people to say yes and work with us and buy our products and stay with us forever.
but we look at it is if someone's going to spend six hours with us i want them to leave and go

damn that was amazing That was worth my time. I don't think I'm going to move forward, but damn, that was worth it.
And then we're in their ecosystem for life. The best would be is they watch for six hours and go, God, if I got that much for free, imagine what I could get if I worked with these guys.
Well, that's i feel like there's a lot of distrust now right there is social media because a lot of courses or gurus were promising a lot have you seen that it's been you know it's been like that forever i've been in this 28 years i started in infomercials because everybody's like why are we in infomercials because there was no internet i know that's hard hard to imagine in your life or my kids' life. Imagine a life without internet, right? And there was that, there was the same thing when it was the infomercial error or direct response or people doing it through catalogs and mail.
There was always those players, but now it's just easier access, right? Somebody with a Facebook account and an Instagram account could be in business pretty, pretty quick,

you know,

under a thousand bucks,

you're in business ready to go.

So I'd just say,

so look,

look for people that resonate with you that have a little depth and

breadth.

They have experience and just make sure the thing they're teaching you on,

they've actually gone through,

you know?

Exactly.

Yeah.

Who's the one teaching it?

Like you and Tony have nine figure businesses. Yeah.
You know, that's not by luck. You've done it multiple times at this point.
True story. Yeah.
14 companies now, right? Yeah. That's insane.
How do you balance all that? Well, I don't have 14 all at the same time. I run to, I help run Tony's main company, which he's got an amazing team over there and I helped them run that.
I stepped in over there when the world went from when COVID hit and Tony was a live event business and they had to switch to digital. And I just went over to help my friend and, and I helped run that company.
Um, then we have our company mastermind about 400 employees between the two. Those two take up, um, the majority of my time.
Mastermind. So that's just a giant.
Mastermind.com. We co-founded.
Yeah. Wow.
400 employees. That's pretty crazy.
Yeah. It's fun though.
You're still growing too. We are.
What's the main focus this year? Is it those two companies? It is. It is.
I think we're in a really unique space right now, whether you live here in the States or anywhere in the world. Technology is growing at a pace that none of us can calculate.
Like, you know, being my age, I watched, you know, I had the first car phone before cell phones came out. It starts with a pager and it goes to a car phone where you got to bolt this big thing to like the base of your car.
It's like having an old school phone in your car. And then it went to a bag phone.
Then it went to the brick. I've been through all of that.
I've been through the start of the internet, the scale of the internet, all those things.

And I've read obsessively about technology through the years.

But if I saw someone compare it,

if you look at throughout the history of time, Sean,

of evolution, like social evolution.

It's not a 45, it's less than a 45, but it's growing.

And printing press, car, all these things happen.

But when the steam engine came out, it was a pretty big blip and then when the steam engine turned into gas engines and rocket and jet fuel went straight up social change everything you know because you can transport food you can do everything you it changed the world dramatically um and when they talk about i saw somebody compare that to the internet and AI up until right now, we just spent a steam engine and now we're a gas engine, jet fuel. You watch how AI is growing exponentially faster than anyone can even calculate.
I think some people are going to sit on their hands and wait to see what happens with that. And those that get ahead of it, I think this is the gold rush.
I think this is one of the greatest times in history to get in business, stay in business, grow in business. You could grow something now with AI and agents and help, especially your generation who grew up with a phone in their hand.
Technology is not intimidating. I have to, literally, there was no computers when I was in school.
So I have to learn all this stuff and hire, I have probably 50 young people on my team that are just working on this things nonstop. Right.
But I see this. I think that truly is, um, an incredible time to do your own thing, to, to gain skills and capabilities at your fingertips to like, like I'll always say the fastest way to get from where you are to where you want to be is find somebody who's already done it and model proven practices.
How great is it that you can access people? You can access information. You can access knowledge.
You can access AI, affordable to everybody. So if we got great opportunity coming, if you're not intimidated, then what are the ingredients people need to not play small? Yeah, I'm a huge fan of AI.
Did you see this AI boom coming at all or did it catch a surprise? No, it catches. Oh, you were prepared? Mm-hmm.
That's where I feel like timing is important, right? You could capitalize off the earliness of it. For sure.
Do you have AI companies or investments? We do. We do AI companies, AI investments, and even Tony and I are doing a big event in May.
And we're going to showcase an AI that's literally going to change the game. Oh, yeah? Yeah, literally change the game.
Wow, I'm excited for that one. Yeah.
I mean, if you think about, if I had to ask you, Sean, why do you think 80% of solopreneurs fail? Even if you go with 50% of businesses fail first year, why would you think they fail? Lack of guidance, lack of information. Yeah.
Yeah, 100%. Because I look at my early years with no guidance, no mentorship.
I could have done all that in like way less time. Yeah.
With the right information,. Isn't that so true? I was grinding.
And we grind and then we get in our head, no one can do it the way I would do it. No one's ever done it like I want to do it.
Right. And it's so funny.
We're coming out with something we're calling guided business development. And I think it's going to change the game forever.
I mean, think about when you started, if somebody was with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said, whoa, wait, Sean, this is the way you should do this. No, this is the business plan.
No, this is the marketing campaign. No, this is the headline you choose.
No, this is the kind of sequence, funnel, follow-up sequence. No, this is how you bond with your clients and just there for you.
So there's never a blank page that you're stuck on. There's never a stressful moment that you can't get an answer for.
And that's where we are, right? Especially when you can take and download. I've been in this business almost 30 years, Tony over 40, we've got like 75 years between the two of us.
Imagine we get the chance to download that into an AI that's there. Imagine that being downloaded.
Imagine on your phone, you got Tony and Dean to say, Hey, when it comes to mindset, who's better? Tony's the goat. There's nobody even close in second place.
That guy's best in the world. and not because he's my dearest friend there's nobody close and comes to marketing i get to do things that most people haven't a lot of people you know we've we've done the biggest internet launches in the world and we continue to do them year after year we impact people in a hundred you know our next one in may we'll have about 800 000 to a million people in over 120 countries like we get to that.
And now we have the opportunity to download that and make our legacy AI that thinks like us. I mean, think about that, right? That unfair advantage to go, it took you guys 70 years to figure this out.
Tell me how I can do it in three months. Yeah.
Right? I don't even use Google anymore. I don't know the last time I was there.
I don't even know the last time I used it. It's at that point where I feel like ChatGPT is more accurate.
It is. Or at least more specific.
More specific. That's better.
Google is off sometimes. Yeah, but I'm a huge fan.
I mean, I'm a chess player and I use AI to get better. I play poker a little bit.
I use AI to get better. It's just making me a better podcaster too.
Yeah, and you know what? I would bet to say we're talking about learning from other people. I think it's really awesome what you do, Sean.
I mean, you get the opportunity to interview different personalities, people with success, people from different backgrounds. Some people are going to come in and talk all about money.
Some people are going to talk too much about personal stuff and you wish they talked more about money, right? Some people are going to lean extremely left if it comes to politics, extremely right. You get to collect all that knowledge and you get to, I love thinking through the lens of throw away what doesn't serve you and keep what does, right? You might have a podcaster and half of it, like, I don't agree with that, but there's one nugget and it's almost like it goes in your collective wisdom and it stores up.
So I think you got a total unfair advantage for your business for what you're doing. Yeah.
I say I take at least one thing from every guest, at least, you know, it doesn't matter who it is. It could be an OnlyFans girl.
It could be Andrew Tate, could be you. I'd say everyone has value in certain areas.
Without a doubt. Without a doubt.
Yeah. And you've gotten to hang out with some very important people.
I saw you talking about hanging out with Richard Branson. I'm sure you've learned a lot from guys like that.
I sure have. You know, one of the greatest lessons I learned from Richard Branson, uh, and it wasn't because I was totally cool.
It's because I raised a million bucks for his charity years ago. And cause it was just a worthwhile cause.
He was doing something huge to help people in need. And he said, I'll cover all the costs.
So whatever you raise a hundred percent goes to people in need. So raised a million bucks.
Then he invited us. an island necker island yeah in the caribbean famous so he invited us to come so i go and i'm an early riser i get up four i used to get up at five now it's four but i got up at five every morning no one else was up on the island but him and me and i bumped into him twice and he's like you like being up early i remember he's like do you know how to sail i'm like absolutely i never sailed a day of my life right he goes i'll meet you at 5 a.m tomorrow let's sail around the island so I had that opportunity it's cool I've shaken his hand but this was me and him on a little sailboat yeah we got to sail around the island it was pretty cool it was really awesome and what you realize and this is something please everybody here when when you don't have success yet it feels magical it feels mythical it feels like you have this cool thing in your desk like it's almost like richard how did you become a billionaire and like he looks around and like pulls something like this out of his pocket and it opens and like star beans come out and it's like oh it's not as complicated as people think the little things are the big things i love that saying small hinges swing a big door what is your what how do you how have you have you spent enough time on your purpose the purpose so strong or why so strong that when stuff goes sideways when you doubt yourself imposter syndrome all that stuff comes in your purpose outweighs your worries it's just bigger than that like it how do you have a morning routine that sets you in for a day of success, right? How do you focus on solutions, not obstacles? How do you focus on what you have, not what you lost, right? How do you not focus? How do you become a culture of progress, not a culture of comparison? We live in a comparison world with social media, right? How do we, like all these little things that people, no, no, that's not it.
It really is. And the more I've been blessed to meet billionaires and some of the most successful people on the planet, and I get to call so many of my friends at this phase of my life, it is all the little things that were cumulative that they didn't give up.
They kept going until they hit success. When they failed, they found a way to shake it off and keep going because their purpose was big enough or they they use the failure as energy not as an anchor like all these little things so the reason I share that is this was probably 15 years ago when I was with Branson and I was doing good my company at the time was doing about 80 million a year so I was doing extremely well but nowhere near I am where I'm today.
I think I've grown a lot since then. But I remember thinking, yeah, maybe millionaires don't have the magic, but if you're a billionaire, maybe they have the magic.
And I remember sitting on the boat asking him things and he was talking about how he found his hunger and how he wanted to take care of his mom instead of mom. He wanted to take care of his mom and and started in seventh grade and he told me all these things and it was all the same little things it was all these same little cumulative things that added up that made him richard branson but the one big takeaway that he got i got i said hey i'm fine you know my companies are doing well and i feel like i want to give back more um not guilty about making money but i wanted to do more the world.
And he said something really cool and I'm going to paraphrase it, but he basically said, hey, God, the universe, whatever you believe, puts people on this earth with different capabilities and different skills. And he said, thank goodness for the people that say go to a homeless shelter and help and serve and maybe serve food or help people get clothes.
Thank God for those people. He said, but you are given the gift to know how to make money.
So I think you should go all in on that because some people need to go there and help serve food. You can walk in and hand them a check for 50 grand.
If that's the gift that God gave you, go make as much money as you possibly can. If you want to give it all away and impact lives, you should, but you have a gift.
And I thought it, like it gave me permission to go faster, harder, stronger. And since then, and my partner, Tony is obsessed with, with giving back and serving others.
But you know, I get done 30 million meals through Feeding America. We build churches in Africa.
We, you know, I mean, when the, when the fires hit in California, we had to do fun stuff. Tony called me.
He's like, there's a lot of people that were in rich areas, but there's a lot of people who weren't and they can't even afford to go to an Airbnb right now. So Tony's like, I'm going to put up 750 grand right now to get some Airbnbs for him this week.
I'm like, put me in for 250. Let's give a million.
Like we get to do those fun things in the invisible. I didn't put it on social.
I don't tell anybody when I donate money or do things like that, but I get to do it. It makes me feel good.
Like my little scorecard of life. Right.
And then I just think, wow, if I give more away, that means I'm going to sharpen my skills to go make more of it. Cause if I heard somebody say once, if, if you think money doesn't solve problems, you haven't given enough away yet.'s powerful it's really powerful i bet you've learned a lot from tony over the years i have how did you first get on his radar because there's probably thousands of people trying to work with him right yeah um mutual friend uh hooked us up when we were going to have a half hour lunch and we ended up spending like five hours together.
We just hit it off. We both canceled the rest of our meetings and we hit it off and he invited me to an event.
I went to an event and then I flew to his house about two weeks later and we spent two full days together just talking about life, about business and just a lot of similarities. A lot of alignment.
All those little things. Yeah.
His mom was like my dad and just all these little alignments. And it's funny you say that.
I got to tell you, we start building this friendship. It's probably 12, 13 years ago.
And every time I'm with him, I started going to some meetings with him. Everybody is pitching him on this business that business.
And he's telling me about, I got this one. I mean, the flood of, I'm sure you get them now, Sean, wait, wait in five years.
In five years from now, when you're even more successful, in 10 years, imagine 35 years from now, you did it every day of your life. You're worth a billion bucks, whatever it is that you have a goal for.
Imagine the amount of opportunities that come in. It's opportunity overload.
Even for me, it's, it's, I have to learn to just say no. And so many of them are amazing, but We just can't say yes to everything.
So, but I was watching all these people

wanting to be partners or get his database.

And I'm like, I made this commitment.

I'm like, I don't want to do business with Tony.

I want to just, we're friends.

Let's leave it.

So we went about five, six years

of just building a really solid relationship.

And then one day we were on a, on the golf course.

I golf twice a year, so to see,

we just golf together twice a year

because it gives us like three hours of uninterrupted time. We're both not that great at it.
Luckily, we're about the same, not that great. But we're on the, and we talked about, if we were going to start a business, what would we do? And that's why we co-founded Mastermind because we both said, he said, if I didn't find Jim Rohn, who's probably no old Jim Rohn, personal development stuff.
Tony went to a Jim Rohn event when he was 17 and changed his life forever. He didn't have a lot of money.
He was living out of his bus. He was living out of a Volkswagen bus, didn't have a house, didn't have anything, but he gave 50 bucks to go to a Jim Rohn event.
And every word of Jim Rohn said shifted his life and found a way to go to his next level event and started working for Jim Rohn. That's how Tony started.
Started teaching Jim Rohn stuff and then evolved to teach his own stuff. And Tony Robbins, 28 years ago, I bought his product off of an infomercial called personal power.
I was already doing pretty well by then, but it shifted my life completely. So we just had this conversation.
What's the one thing that shifted both of our lives more than anything? Like we were joking, like I'd be asking you to, you want to double, you know, you want to double that order on with your fries. If I didn't find personal development and self-education.
So that day we decided let's, let's share what we know. We'd been in it for 70 years.
Let's teach people that their life experience might be the greatest asset that they own. You know, we just talked about what's the fastest way to get the result you want.
Find somebody who's already done it, get guidance, get mentorship. Right.
So that's when we decided that's how master morning was, was formed. It was on a golf course to saying, let's create something to teach people to do what we do.
And then when we're gone someday, we hope we build an army of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people that are taking their life experience and giving back, impacting others. And that's the torch.
Yeah. I love that.
Has the business relationship ever bled into personal? Because you guys are friends, right? Super close. And working with friends can be tricky sometimes, right? Yeah.
I'll give you a little hint if you ever bring on partners or anybody listening, if you bring on partners, you got to align your values. And what I mean by that, especially when you're on your way up and you're hustling, sometimes you'll meet somebody where you know, if you partner, the money could come in, but you got to compromise your ethics and your values to make it happen.
And I know that some people listening right now saying, I get that. I've done it in my twenties.
I chose the wrong partners. You got to be aligned.
It's like choosing a spouse or a significant other. You got to be aligned.
If one person only cares about money, one person cares about people first and money second, no way it's ever going to meet. It's never.
And if you choose money first, I've never seen anybody win who chooses money first. Wow.
That's deep. Right.
You got to choose. Is it a service that impacts people? Does it really have depth and breath and breath is it sustainable you've watched online campaigns come on with the six figures in six minutes somebody will blow up and then why are they gone in 18 months because the product wasn't built right it wasn't done right it it takes it takes a depth of caring and then go make all the money in the world but my whole point is picking the right right partner is really important without compromising who you are and really being aligned, like almost write a prenup of, is this what you believe? And this is what I believe.
And if it doesn't work out, how do we go about it? You know how many people get stuck in ugly partnerships? I mean, it happens all the time. And especially the creative who brings on a partner who's an operative.
They think through completely different lens. The crazy, innovative entrepreneur who does podcasts and does crazy stuff compared to someone comes in and wants structure and standing operating procedures and processes.
Yeah. They're two different languages.
I've watched those two explode into ugliness. So you just got to be really clear on

the way in. But once you choose the right person, the best advice I could give is don't keep score.

If your capabilities and someone else's capabilities align and one plus one makes five,

where I've seen them go sideways, like, wow, maybe you're working on a career. What do you spend most of your time on? I would say researching for guests and self-development.
Okay. Think of those two things, right? You bring in a partner and it's like, wow, Sean's off at first it's love.
Like, oh man, Sean's so amazing. And all of a sudden there's a time where someone's, your business grows to 40 people and your operator's running 40 people on a day-to-day basis and worrying about money and finances and all the pieces and human resources.
And do we go from an accountant to a CFO? Do I just need a controller? I don't know. Maybe it's a controller now.
Oh, I got to interview controllers. No, I think we're big enough for a CFO.
All these things are happening. Yeah.
And Sean's watching a podcast of Lewis Howes and Dean so he can prepare for the thing. And now he's going to a mastermind in freaking Phoenix.
Dude, I'm doing all the work. This guy's lounging.
I'm telling you, it goes that way. When you find the right partner, someone goes, Sean working on his personal development.
Sean getting ready for a podcast is the reason we have this business. Go let him live into his craft.
I'll keep getting better at my craft. Right? But you got to have that right partner.
And then you got to realize once you're in it, if you guys have an end goal, then you can't keep score. You can't be like, well, Sean's doing this.
I want to do this. Once you keep score, it's over.
And I have to tell you, we're partners for seven years, Tony and I. It has never, there has never been one ugly moment in seven years.
That's impressive. Never one.
And I'll tell you why we work on, Tony taught me this and I'm just going to, I love to say when the guy taught me something, he goes, imagine, are you in a personal relationship? Yeah. Okay.
You can take this for your personal relationship or business relationship. Tony said to me once, imagine if you felt love when you gave it, not when you received it.
How would your life change? Gave it. You felt love when you gave it, not just received it.
Yeah. Right? Like think about if you go, I talk about this way.
Imagine coming home. My wife handles four kids, our two little ones and some older kids, right? She's juggling all the time.
Imagine coming home from a long day of work. Like I'm killing it in work, hustling, put out a problem.
Someone quit. Something happened in marketing, right? You do all that.
And then you come home. It's like, God, I'm working so hard.
You come home and my wife, I'm in a mood. So I walk in and I don't give her a kiss.
Don't give her a hug. Just in a mood.
She keeps score. That night we go to bed, she lays on the other side of side of the bed hey he was cold to me now i'm in bed forgetting that i was even rude when i walked in going why the hell is she on the side of the bed well screw it i don't need this i'll go watch tv on the other side all of a sudden this intimacy breaks all the things break because you're keeping score well and then you start thinking well you know what i'm putting 60 hours a week is she really putting 60 hours a weekend with the kids and the wife like and i hired.
I mean, I got a house cleaner. I mean, what the hell is she doing? And then he gets to jump on planes and go to Vegas to have a podcast with Sean Kelly.
I don't know. Like all of a sudden it's the end of a relationship.
It's the same in business. And I'll tell you, Tony shared that with me.
I love the guy. He feels the same for me.
We try to outdo what we can do for each other. Instead of me thinking, Hey man, I'm hustling this week at Mastermind.
I wonder what Tony's doing. It's like, no, no, no.
I'm hustling for both of us. I know he's doing what Tony Robbins does.
And sometimes Tony can make one call and set up our whole year. I'm not going to mess with that.
And he's not going to mess with my hustle. And in my lane of expertise, when he's like, we're doing a launch, we're going to put a million people in, you know what Tony says? Tell me what to do, brother.
When we put a million people in the room, I'm like, go do what you do best, brother. Right? And when there's no score and you feel good about giving more than receiving, it creates this culture that you want to just impress each other more.
You want to do more for each other. And it's rare.
And it probably happened, Sean, I'm just being completely transparent because I was 48 years old when we started our partnership. If I was 28, I don't know if I would have done it.
So the reason I love sharing this, again, being on this podcast, I know you said your average viewer is probably 25. Here's what I want to share.
I just have more time on this earth than most of you, right? I'm still in the game every day. I still have young kids.
I'm 56 with a two-year-old. So still running and gunning and I love it.
What you should do is just take a moment and hear this because I'm you in 25 years. I'm you in 20 years.
I'm you in 30 years if you're listening right now and you have the opportunity to go, wow, that's coming. It doesn't mean you have to do what I do at 48 or 50 or 55, but you could slowly start keeping your eyes open for these things if you're keeping score, if you're not focusing on the little things, if it's money first, picking the wrong partner, losing my hunger, losing my focus, right? Sometimes you get in a business because you have this passion and purpose to do this thing.
And then money steers you down a different road. And you're so far away from your original idea.
You might be making money and you wonder why your soul is empty. Why you want to go home and kick the dog.
You just don't feel purpose. You're drinking too much on the weekends.
You're partying too much. It's because you're nowhere near your original purpose.
Stop sometimes. Take a look.
Find that thing that drove you in the first place and start steering your ship back towards it. Wow.
I love that, man. Keeping score, I'm guilty of that for sure.
I was too. I went through a divorce.
So sometimes you learn from this thing, right?

Yeah.

And I think as men, sometimes we're too logical

and we're just like, oh, I worked this amount of hours.

Why didn't you do that?

Yeah.

And then you take it out on people.

Yeah.

That's a true story.

It's so true.

And can I tell you the first thing

in your personal relationship that'll do?

Yeah.

Kill intimacy.

Yeah.

No crush intimacy.

No.

Like, why do we have all this intimate connection?

But now you're thinking, wow, I worked all day today.

What'd you do? Did you sit on the couch? Were you on social media too much? I've said that exact sentence. You get in your head.
You're like, we're on social media all day. And it's like, really? Like, and I'm not saying it could be true.
Then you have to have a conversation about it. So I'm not saying ignore it, right? You have to have the right partner that aligns with you.
And you are a growing entrepreneur. You're going to want someone to appreciate that growth.
You're going to want somebody, and I mean this, you're going to have to be in, I'm just being honest as a crazy entrepreneur that does stuff that most people aren't willing to do or does stuff in the invisible others don't. I'm not knocking anybody who has a career because anybody in a career who's killing it, that's great too.
But you're going to do different things. You're going to say no to things.
Other people usually say yes to, and you're going to say yes to things that other people say no to. It's very counterintuitive sometimes.
And a significant other can be like, I just don't understand. Why do you sacrifice? Why do you do these things? I would say sooner than later, try to let your partner see inside your mind.
Let them see how you look at the world because it's different than most. And you might not realize it, but it's completely different than most.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Dating entrepreneur is not easy. No.
And I read a little bit of your background in 2016, you started. Yeah.
Dropped out of school. Yeah.
Loved it. Loved the story.
But just think of the average person dropped out of school, started your own thing, starting a podcast when there's millions of podcasts out there. Why would yours make it? What are you going to do different? What do you have different than everybody else? You have no followers.
All those things seem logical to other people. And inside the entrepreneur's mind, you're like, screw that.
I'm going to be a top podcast. I'm going to build a big business.
I'm going to do my own thing. But you could see people on the outside think you're nuts.
Yeah. Right? And you got to let a significant other people that you care about, you got to let them into that world and let them see it sooner than later.
And maybe it doesn't last. I'm not saying for you.
Or maybe someone goes, I understand how they work. Like I'm so blessed.
You know, again, I of course went through a divorce, so I know I had to mess it up to figure it out, but I'm married to the love of my life. Like not even, not even a joke.
Like I don't look, I don't stray. My wife could hire a private investigator to freaking film me

for a week without me knowing and when she saw the video she'd love me more yeah like that's the phase of my life I'm in I wasn't always that guy I'm that guy but I want to tell you why because this is a woman that if I call on date night and I'm like hon I'm so sorry this project's got me bound out I can't make dance recital for my little daughter Vida and I'm gonna miss our date my wife would say,

hon,

everything we have

is because of you.

Go kick ass.

I got the kids. We'll do date night another time.
I love you. I get off the phone like, damn it.
I need to be twice as successful. I love that woman.
Compared to really, you're going to miss date night? I'm already dressed. What the hell? Then as a man, it's like, start thinking, score.
I'm here killing myself. I got to solve a problem because somebody's quitting or something's going on and you're worried about date night.
Like that's how it happens. So transparency, crazy transparency.
Let your significant others see the madness that usually you just think about in the shower when you wake up at three o'clock in the morning. Anyway, I hope that helps.
No, that was great. You mentioned comparison earlier.
I did want to talk about that because you have kids and it's a major issue with my generation. Mental health is at an all-time high, mental health issues.
Yeah, your generation is the worst in history. I think- I just read an article on it.
Yeah, I think social media would be right. I think it's a, I think there's two things and I'm not getting political, but Tony and I have had this conversation about why your generation, how old are you?

28, so a millennial, I think.

Yeah, so millennials are on more antidepressants,

more suicide, and more depression,

and Gen Z is following, right, than any other generation.

And Tony and I talk about this a lot.

Did you ever see the study they did?

They did a Harvard study on survivors of cancer who lived the longest and they looked at food diet background they looked at everything you know what the only you know what the common thread was for the people who lived the longest what was it purpose really they had a reason to live huh right so think about that we all need a compelling future if your future seems smaller than your present day are you excited no right do you know your future is going to be better yeah you know it's going to be bigger yeah you know your company's going to grow you're going gonna marry someone that you really enjoy maybe kids someday yeah right bigger future but what if i said sean you know i'm just using this example right global warming is going to end the world or crazy president last one first the one that's here now whoever you care about it's going to end the world um the world's going to go to hell in a handbasket. AI is going to make it so nobody has to work anymore and capitalism dies.
Money won't mean anything. The dollar is going to deflate.
It'll be like Venezuelan's money. It's going to be worth nothing.
America's going bankrupt, Sean. If I said all those things to you while you were in high school, while you were in college, do you have a compelling future? No.
And I think we have a whole generation that was brought up with all that stuff in the news and on social media of like, why, why would I even try more? The world's probably not even going to be here in 20 years. Whether you think again, not being employed, whether you think it's the ice caps melting or you, whether you think of bankruptcy and broke or that money means nothing anymore you only need one or two of those things to go why and then when you don't have a compelling future i mean this is the best it's going to get that's where depression comes from now this is just my belief this is this is deep conversations when tony and i are sitting up till two o'clock in the morning just talking because we think of how can we give people a more compelling future we don't judge i'm not judging anyone i'm not but it's here so if we love doing big events because in that moment when we do an event with a million people for three days about three hours a day everybody's getting a compelling future everybody realizes that we can be from different parts of the world different religious backgrounds different financial backgrounds different uh you know um political background and we can all come together for three days because we all know we're meant for more.
We just need a path and a plan to see how to achieve it. And we get to do that.
And we watch a million people, you know, not that you can see them all at once. We know people are coming together going, and I think that's what you said.
I think the number one thing that could help is crafting your own compelling future to realize nobody's coming to save you. And maybe some things that could help you think of a better future.
Innovation is solved a lot throughout history. Hasn't it? Yeah.
If you think of oil, it used to be the black stuff on camel's hooves, right? Innovation figured that out. Innovation will figure out how to get away from oil.
Innovation, I, and maybe I'm a, someone would call me and maybe I'm overly optimistic. And I think you got to be brave enough to be overly optimistic.
Like it takes bravery to be optimistic in today's world. So people go, oh, you're a dreamer.
The world's ending. Oh, you're, it's like, no, I believe that innovation is going to find a way to get rid of, that we won't need to use oil in the future or we'll have a clean version of it.
I think innovation will do that. I think innovation will solve so many things.
I think innovation can help solve hunger as AI comes. I think there's so many things.
So when I feel that way, that I feel the future is bigger, I want to be a part of that. I want to ride that wave.
I want to be an inch in front of the big wave coming in. I want to ride it all the way to the shore, right? So I would say one of the biggest things, if you find yourself falling, you know, in your head, if you find yourself going, why should I even do this? Maybe just find a way to craft a compelling future that's bigger.
Be bold enough and brave enough to be optimistic and say, screw it. This world's going to be amazing and I'm going to be out in front.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'd rather be optimistic than pessimistic. Yeah.
What's the benefit? I would have never started any of the companies if I wasn't optimistic. And if you would have looked at data and pessimists, being a pessimist, would you have ever done anything? Most businesses fail.
Why would yours do it? So many podcasts nobody people nobody listens to right right you had to be an optimist you had to be a dreamer you had to be bold you had to be hungry right again the little things that are the big things i just named some i didn't give you any magical money machines or how to do the special marketing tactic you just had to do those things on a regular basis. You sitting here, why I already have respect for you

because I know how many times

you already thought about quitting.

I know how many times you're thinking,

how come this podcast,

how come we're monetizing at the level we need to

to go to the next level,

get a new office, double in size.

I already know all the shit

that you think about in the invisible.

I already know how many times you probably thought,

maybe I should quit and get a steady job

and maybe that would make my girl

or my significant other happy.

Like I already know that,

but you're still here doing it. So I have such depth of respect for you without even barely

knowing you. Wow.
Everything you said has happened. Literally I've thought about quitting.
I've

thought about getting a job, you know, that's spot on. I think every entrepreneur struggles

with that, right? When they're starting out, it's not an easy life, man. I know it's like

glorified on social media, but it's really up and down. I'm going to tell you a little, um,

Thank you. it's not an easy life, man.
I know it's like glorified on social media, but it's really up and down. I might tell you a little, um, everything has, it's good and bad.
True. Yeah.
So as an entrepreneur, a lot of times it's very lonely because you'll, you'll meet new people in your life that will have the crazy dreams, but some of the people you went to college with or friends with or high school friends, they took a traditional path.

So it seems odd to them.

And to them, it seems odd.

And to you looking at them seems more consistent, more of a,

they're going 70 miles an hour, but there's guardrails up on the road.

As an entrepreneur, you're going 150 and then 10, 150 and then 10. There's no guardrails.
You're on a freaking cliff. You know what I mean? It's scary.
But everything has its circumstance. Everything has its good and bad.
I want to tell you a little story, if you don't mind. I grew up in a small little town in upstate New York.
I had a dear friend, one of the greatest guys on the planet. dude um growing up I always and at 16 I was fixing wrecked cars and flipping them and selling firewood to my teachers that's what I did in high school right my first two businesses firewood business and cars and I just always knew that there was more my big why was I wanted to retire my mom she was always struggling her whole she was such a badass, such an incredible woman, but worked three jobs to make nothing.
I just, I retired when I was 23 or 24 years old and she's still alive. She's still with me.
She's 80 years old and I still send her a check every week of her life and bought her car, bought her house. Same with my dad, right? So those things that drive you can really get the rocket off the ground, start the momentum.
But I'm digressing. Your friend.
Yeah, my friend. So always thought I was crazy.
And I remember two years out of high school, we lived in about an hour from New York City. And his uncle was a head of a union in New York City, laborers union or bricklayers union.
And he said, dude, enough with the dreaming. We can go work for my uncle.
We can both get manager roles. We can make like 1200 bucks a week, which back 30 years ago, 40 years ago, whenever it was, seemed like no one in my family had ever made $1,200 a week.
It seemed like a million dollars a year, right? Yeah. And he's like, yeah, you don't have to worry anymore.
It's consistent. My uncle, take care of us forever.
We'll be on the best jobs. And he took that job.
And I remember thinking to myself, maybe he's right. Maybe I'm the fool.
I don't have an education. I didn't go to college.
I didn't come from money. I have dyslexia.
I probably don't, I don't know what my IQ is. Like all these things you're thinking, right? Long story short, he went in his life.
I went mine. I had the roller coaster crazy times, ups, down, all the stuff I mentioned to you in the invisible.
His was more consistent. I bought a 20 acre farm back in this little town I grew up in.
My wife loves it there. We grow garden there.
We have animals there. We have a lake where we fish and all stuff.
Bring the kids there. Last year I go back, I get to spend time with him.
And as we're sitting there and he came with a six pack of beer, I hadn't drank a beer in probably a year. I popped the beer, I'm drinking a beer with him.
And he said, Hey, I always thought you were crazy. He said, I want to tell you, I really commend you.
I'm like, Oh yeah. I don't really talk about my success when I'm there.
I'm just the guy that grew up there. Right.
But he said, I got to tell you something. I used to thought to think you were crazy, but I missed it.
And like, what do you mean you missed it? He's like, I took that steady road. He said, but going to the city to work from here is an hour and a half train ride.
He said, I got up and left the house before the kids woke up. And I got home when they were asleep.
Wow. He said, they're 21 and 24.
Because I missed it. And I felt it.
Like I could cry right now for him because I could feel his depth of like. So my whole point is all roads have their pros and cons.
But what I love about being an entrepreneur is you got to put, you got to do the hard part for a while. You're going to question yourself for a while, Sean, anybody listening, you're going to fail.
You're going to, you're going to, you're going to have people tell you you're crazy. Things are going to get pulled out.
You're going to hire somebody. You got to let go.
You're going to have a partner that doesn't work out and all of those things. But it gets to a certain point where that knowledge turns into wisdom and intuition.
And that's when your business starts to hum. And then you'll learn leadership skills that you haven't yet.
And it's not even time to learn. You'll learn leadership skills and you'll actually hire the right people and you'll hire generals and they'll help you fuel your company and they'll have your back and you're going to get to a point where you'll realize no way in the world would you have ever chosen any other route than the one you did because you will be in control of your calendar.
You will not miss your kids waking up in the morning. You will not miss baseball practice.
You'll not miss whatever the things you don't want to miss because you will be in control of your calendar. You will not miss your kids waking up in the morning.
You will not miss baseball practice.

You'll not miss whatever the things you don't want to miss

because you will be in control

of what goes on your damn calendar.

And if it takes hard work,

if you got to live the hard way for a little while

to live the easier way for the rest of your life,

then I'm going to encourage you to do it

because everything has its byproducts.

And for me, someone else to be in control of my calendar, my time, my life, my decisions, I'd die to be on the opposite side of that. I love that story.
Dean, it's been an honor having you. Where can people find the next event? Keep up with you.
Yeah, I think we have a link. Our next event is May 15th.
You can go to thrive700.com. Thrive700.com.
It's Tony, myself. We got Jay Shetty coming.
We got

Matthew McConaughey coming, some other amazing guests. We should have 800,000 to a million people

in over three days. We're going to show you why everybody should not only be an entrepreneur,

how you can get guided business assistance and development and why everybody should

be selling what they know. I love it.
We'll link below. Thanks for coming on, Dean.
Appreciate you, man. Yeah.
Check them out, guys. See you next time.