Every Entrepreneur Should Hear This Podcast

Is life better today than it was four years ago? @ the last presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked if the average American was better off four years ago than they are today. Now, true to any politician, she didn't answer the question. She provided some canned answer about her plan to help the middle class. And Donald Trump was preparing his favorite Haitian dog recipe. I kind of got mad at this answer from Kamala, and I know every politician has their canned responses, but it sent me down a rabbit hole because I wanted to answer this question for myself. I looked at this and said, does anyone remember four years ago? Does anyone remember the year? That was 2020, in case you forgot. 2020, not a fun year. One out of five stars would not recommend in 2020. Most of us were concerned about things like hyperinflation. We were concerned about government overreach. We were concerned about the pandemic spreading. We were concerned about what the vaccine would do and what the long term consequences would be. There were very serious concerns in 2020, so much so that I have peers who were preparing for civil war, for civil unrest, who are stocking up food for years and preparing for what they called the fourth turning or the undoing of America. Yet despite all of the warnings and concerns about hyperinflation or even civil war, we as a society have continued to move forward over the last four years. And there have been incredible innovations at a record pace in things like artificial intelligence, self driving cars, healthcare, even space travel. Since just the year 2020, the stock market is up almost double. GDP has expanded, despite the fact that we've gone through two recessions and there are more opportunities to start businesses for entrepreneurs than ever. I'm thinking about things like TikTok Shop and all the opportunities with AI and heck, even OnlyFans. Now, this is not unique to the last four years. If we look at Donald Trump's term from 2016 to 2020, we were riddled with uncertainty and political division. And yet we as a society continue to expand by almost every objective measure. So let's look at the last eight years so that we can cover one presidential term from someone that you probably don't like and one term from a president that you probably liked. In the last eight years, since 2016, the broad stock market as measured by The S&P 500 index is up almost three times, up three times in eight years. GDP is up over 50%. In just eight years, Bitcoin has gone from $500 a coin to over $70,000. We've had two recessions and each one was the shortest in history. We had one in 2020 and that was the shortest on record. And then we had another one two years later, and that one was. And contrary to the World Economic Forum depopulation agenda, the population of the world has gone up by half a billion people in the last eight years. Now, you may chalk this up to government printing of money or government policy, but I look at this a little bit differently. I say despite questionable government policy, despite at least mixed financial decisions made by politicians, we have continued to innovate. We have continued to expand into new markets, we've continued to create new things. Entrepreneurs have continued to start new businesses. Capitalism is much stronger than any one politician, than any one administration. And despite our concerns and our fears, over the last eight years, the economy has expanded. Opportunities have gone up and there are more opportunities now than there were eight years ago. Total wealth has gone through the roof. We have seen brand new platforms and brand new tools come onto the scene that are now ubiquitous. With the way that we do business on a day to day basis. We could have never predicted that eight years ago. But first, why does this matter? Why do I care about this so much? And guys, it's honestly because I really struggled with this earlier in my life. I was in College during the 2008 financial crisis and I was an economic student during that time. And I was scared and a lot of people around me were scared. And I was listening to a lot of voices out there who were warning about how bad the collapse was going to be and how long we would be in it. And I also happened to be starting my first business at the same time. So I was making money from my college dorm room and also really scared about the state of the world. And I didn't know what to do. And so I sort of froze. I didn't bet on my business getting bigger because I was afraid of what was going to happen in the world. I didn't invest the profits that I was making in my business because I was afraid that the economy could melt at any time. And so as a result, I missed out on so many opportunities for years because I was afraid because of the voices that I was listening to in the media, I felt uncertain. So I didn't build for the long term. And as a result, I not only missed out on millions of dollars worth of opportunities, but I also got deeply unhappy. I started seeing the world through a very fearful lens. I started trying to consume as much information as possible so that I could prepare for the next great challenge that we would go through. And that didn't make me happy and it didn't make me successful. And even though I believed so strongly that I was correct and that the world was going to hell in a handbasket, the economy boomed, markets expanded, new opportunities came on the scene. And so I had to adjust my worldview. I had to question if the fearful narrative that I had about the world was true. And today I see a lot of entrepreneurs going through the same uncomfortable transition that I went through back in 2008, where there's a lot of uncertainty and there's a lot of voices saying what they think is going to happen in the world. And as a result, people for the first time are going on defense rather than betting on things getting better in the future. And that's why I think this matters so much. All of this progress that we've made in the last eight to 10 years was during a time when we were ripped apart by a political divide. We faced unprecedented economic uncertainty. We were ripped apart by a pandemic. Despite all of these challenges, we have a society have continued to march on and continue to innovate at a record pace. Yet despite this, we don't feel it. We don't feel more abundant. We don't feel like the world is getting better. We don't feel like we have more opportunities today than we did 10 years ago. We don't feel like the world is a better place. Instead, most of us feel like the world and even our lives are worse off than they were a handful of years ago. We are more stressed, we are more anxious, we are more divided because we are constantly beamed the bad news in the short term rather than paying attention to the progress that we're making over the long term. Progress takes time. Problems are in our face right now and problems get our attention. So we are constantly beamed the problems that face us on a day to day basis. And they are real problems. But we miss the entire progress that is happening in the background because of innovation, because of capitalism, because of entrepreneurs like us who are betting on the world getting better over time. In fact, we're the ones who are creating a better world over time. Because we're the ones who say, I want to create a better life for myself, I want to create a better life for my family. And in order to do that, we must bet on the world getting better so that we can create the products and the solutions and serve our customers in a way that is more abundant that we believe the world is today. Capitalism assumes that we live in an ever expanding universe. We assume that there is an infinite pie. We assume that things are going to get better, and we assume that over time things will expand. We have to assume that as entrepreneurs and as capitalists. Otherwise what would be the point? What would be the point of taking a risk? What would be the point of creating something new? What would be the point of trying to make your life better? If we didn't assume that the world was going to be more abundant in the future than it is today? So if we're going to thrive in the next chapter, we have to turn our attention away from the short term problems and put our attention into creating a better long term future and betting on things getting better over time. In order to do that, we can use history as our guide. I laugh when people talk about late stage capitalism because capitalism as an idea is really only about 200 years old. The wealth of nations was published in the late 1700s and information spread a little bit slower back then. There was no Amazon.com where you could order a book. They didn't even have chatgpt to summarize. Books. Ideas spread a lot slower back then. So the idea of free market capitalism is really only in our culture for about the last 200 years. And in that time we've made incredible progress. Here's what I found. Since the dawning of capitalism, 83% of extreme poverty has been eradicated. Even though population is expanding, the number of people living in poverty is going down. People have gotten freer too. Despite the media narrative that capitalism is exploitative, an entire worldwide industry of slavery was eradicated from the planet within one generation of free market capitalism taking a hold of our ideas and culture. That was because for the first time, capitalism said you have rights and you have rights to keep what you earn and you can keep the fruits of your labor. For the first time, we recognize that human beings had sovereign rights. That was a uniquely capitalistic idea. And because of that, people have gotten freer since the dawning of capitalism. If you know anyone who's old enough to remember the year 1950, then they've seen a 100x increase in GDP in their lifetime. That means that we are 100 times more productive today than we were in 1950. There are 100 times the number of goods and services and opportunities to buy and transact than existed in the 1950s. Heck, if you're even old enough to remember the year 2008, then you've seen an entire remaking of the American economy. In 2008, there were no Facebook ads. There was no Amazon, FBA. There was no TikTok, there was no Instagram, there was no like button on Facebook, there was no Bitcoin, there was no chatgpt. None of these things existed. And yet today, they are part of our everyday experience as entrepreneurs and business owners. Fifteen years from now, we can only assume that this trend will continue. We can only assume that over the next 4, 4, 8, 15 years, there will be new opportunities, there will be new innovations, there will be new platforms that don't exist today, and they will be better than what we currently have. This is the real context of where we are as a society. But this is not what you will hear on the news and this is not what you will see on your social media feed. That's because an optimistic view of the world doesn't get clicks. Positive news doesn't go viral. Optimism doesn't get your attention. It is much easier to focus on the problems that we face right now and the fears and the concerns over what the next politician or the next president will do, rather than focusing on the fact that regardless of what happens, even if we face a worldwide event like a pandemic, even, even if we have questionable or even horrible political policy, history tells us that we will continue to expand, that there will continue to be new innovations, and that capitalism is much stronger than any politician or even an administration. Over time, capitalism assumes that things expand. And therefore, even if we do have problems in the short term, even if we have uncertainty or doubts about policy, over time, things will expand. And entrepreneurship requires that we are betting on things expanding well into the future. If the future was not going to be better, there would be no point in starting a business, there would be no point in investing, there would be no point in planning for the future. And that's why the way that you see the world is so influential over the success that you will have over the next few years and for the rest of your life. Right now, half the world, or at least half the United States, is concerned that we will be worse off in four years than we are today and certainly worse off than we were four years ago. However, history tells us that over the next four years, eight 12 years from now, the world is going to be better. Even if there is horrible policy, even if we have questionable fiscal policy, even if we have problems that we don't know how to deal with, history tells us that things will continue to expand. Let's just look at E Commerce data from the last handful of years. In the last 10 years, e commerce sales are up 6x and in 2014 and 15 people were already telling me that it was saturated, that they were late to the party. Must have been nice you got in before all this competition. Well, guess what? The market is six times bigger than it was when I got into this game. And heck, today as I sit here, platforms like Walmart.com are already doing more volume than Amazon was 10 years ago. In other words, today Walmart.com which almost no one e commerce looks at, it's now as big as Amazon was when I got started. And that's not Even to mention TikTok shop, which is the fastest growing e commerce platform in history. And that is going to be a thing over the next several years. For my entire career, I have seen entrepreneurs wish for when things were easier. This was true when I was a lowly affiliate marketer from my college dorm room building websites that ranked in Google to sell things for other companies. Fast forward a few years and people were pining for the past when there was less competition on Google and even Yahoo. But what they didn't see was that there were new tools being developed, that there were new ways to build websites, that things were getting faster and easier. Yes, there was more competition, but there was also more opportunity. And there were more customers too in E commerce. I've seen that happen as well. Yes, there are more people competing for things than there was 10 years ago, but the market is also up leaps and bounds. There are more platforms and more customers and more ways to check out. And that is only going to continue. So you can pine for the past like all of us do at times, or you can be excited for the future because history tells us that the future always brings new opportunities that we can't see today. So let's make this really practical for a second. In four years we can assume that capitalism is going to continue to expand because we live in an ever expanding universe. In four years, it's safe to assume that markets will be higher, that valuations will be higher, that E commerce sales will go up, that innovation will be happening faster and governments will be bigger, deficits will be bigger. And we'll also be facing new problems and challenges that we can't foresee today. All of those things will be true and there will be new opportunities as well. So you're faced with a choice. You can either bet on things getting better and therefore go on offense, or you can listen to the fearful voices and you can go on defense. And if you decide to do that, you will find no lack of people to support that. I mean if you look at some of the talking heads like Robert Kiyosaki or Peter Schiff or Harry Dent, they have been predicting economic meltdown not just for months or years, but for decades. So you will find plenty of voices or data to suggest that we should be afraid of the future. But I can tell you from personal experience that that does not end well. In fact, on a personal note, the reason why this matters to me is because there have been two chapters of my life where I was more afraid of the future than excited about the future. Growing up. I grew up in a religion that taught that the world would degrade year over year over year, until finally the hero would come back and save us from our own depravity. I also believed in college while I was studying economics, that at any point the government debt, the government deficits, the bad government policy would eventually collapse and we would have another depression like era. And so, as a result of these beliefs, I was waiting for the end. Instead of betting on or creating the future, I missed out on opportunities like long term investments during the biggest economic booms in history. I didn't go all in on those businesses. In fact, I reacted from fear. I made short term decisions instead of long term decisions because baked into me was a belief that at any time the rug could be pulled out from under me. Now my opinions have changed because as you get more data and you have more life experience, hopefully you also adjust your beliefs. Now I believe that God is redeeming us, that he is restoring the world through us and that we can participate in that redemption. I believe that the world is expanding and that we live in an ever expanding universe and we can participate in the growth of that. That we can create new solutions and we can make the world better than how we found it. And that will always be the case. I may be right or I may be wrong, but the beliefs that we hold determine the decisions that we make. The way that we see the world determines the financial decisions that you will make. The way that you see the world will determine whether or not you create something over the long term or you cower in the short term and you wait for things to be better. And no one that I know who is successful says, I wish I had started later. The way that we see the world has consequences, direct consequences for your finances and for the life that you create. If you believe that the world is going to improve over time, then you will bet on the expansion of the universe and you'll participate in it. If you believe that redemption of the world is happening through you, then you can be a willing participant that changes how you treat people. Rather than waiting for the world to end, you're seeing yourself as a participant in the world getting better. That changes how you treat people. It changes how you treat your customers. It changes the way that you view opportunities and challenges. And it means everything about your success and your financial future. So our beliefs matter. The way that we see the world matters. If you believe that the world can be undone by one president or one presidential term, then you'll always be in fear and you'll be putting off building the life that you actually want. My belief is that the world is going to expand and improve regardless of how we see it, but that we have a choice to participate in it or not. My question to you is which worldview is more helpful in building the life that you want? Is it more helpful for you to prepare for disaster, or is it more helpful for you to bet on a brighter future? It is my belief that abundance starts with how you see the world. If you believe that the world is a threatening place, then you will try to extract as much as possible to try to be safe. You will try to look for short term hacks and shortcuts. You will try to get as much as you can as quickly as possible so that you can feel safe. That affects how you treat your customers and your partners and your investors, and how you show up to work on a day to day basis. But if you believe in an abundant world, then you are thinking about giving to your customers more than you take. You're thinking about creating value for your investors. You're thinking about creating opportunities for your team members and your employees. You're thinking about creating more than you can extract. And it's been my experience that the people who operate with that mindset tend to create it. So the beliefs that we have about the world dictate what we create within that world. And so this has everything to do with your success over the next 4, 812 years. Despite what is happening in Washington D.C. the way that you view the world during that time will dictate the results that you create at the same time. That's why over the next few months here on the channel, the content will assume that the world is going to be better in four years than it is today. We're going to be talking with people who are creating a better future. We're going to be looking at the best opportunities for the next chapter of entrepreneurship. There is enough negativity in the world. That's why I See my job as the leader of capitalism.com to be one of the optimistic voices. And I'll be bringing people and examples and opportunities that are ripe for right now because I believe that entrepreneurs must assume that the world is getting better no matter what is happening in the short term. There are enough negative voices in the world and for the last several years there have been enough negative entrepreneurs warning against fear. And you know what has happened during that time? Markets have expanded, opportunities have expanded, innovation has increased. And I think it's time for us to turn the page and to participate in the next chapter of the expansion. So I want to be louder about this because I know what it has cost me to be fearful about the world. I know what it has cost my customers and clients and partners to feel uncertain. But when we are confident in where the world is going, we create amazing things. I just spent eight weeks on my podcast and YouTube channel sharing the entire framework for how we build million dollar businesses. And it works. It works faster now than it did back in 2013. If you believe that the world is getting better, if you believe that things are going to expand, then you will confidently apply that playbook. If you believe that you're going to be under threat over the next four years, then you will find all the reasons why it won't work. You'll find all the reasons why you shouldn't start that thing, you shouldn't go in that direction, you shouldn't invest in this thing. You'll find all the reasons not to do it. But if you know that the world's getting better and if you believe that things are expanding, then you'll find every reason why it will work. You'll find every reason to bet on the idea that you're excited about because there are resources that, that make it possible. And you know what happens, whichever one you believe you will create. I realize that not everybody is going to agree with an optimistic worldview. And that's okay. That's their own journey. I've chosen to believe that the world is gonna continue to get better. And guess what? I find evidence for it everywhere. And I find that to be a helpful framework for seeing the world and an empowering reason for, for me to build my businesses and to invest the profits and create long term wealth and create more opportunities. I no longer see it as my job to persuade people to be entrepreneurs or persuade them to be optimistic. But it is my job to call out those of you who can do nothing else but be entrepreneurs and believe that the world can be better and is going to be better and will be better because of your participation in the expansion. It is my job to call you out and to empower you with the resources and the frameworks and the playbooks that make it possible for you to create that in the world. And if that's you, and if you need some help, there are free resources@capitalism.com that can help you get started on your road to building a million dollar business and beyond. Best place for you to get started is over@capitalism.com playbook. That is our free course, our free resources, our best case studies for entrepreneurs who have built million dollar businesses using our framework. And if it's not my framework, that's fine. There are plenty of opportunities, both now and coming in the future for us as entrepreneurs to create a life on our own terms and also the world as we best see fit because we're the ones creating it, not government officials, politicians or bureaucrats. That's what I believe here@capitalism.com thank you for watching. Thank you for being part of this. I hope you'll subscribe and be a part of this next chapter. We're doing a series all about optimism, all about opportunities that are coming down the pike. Talking with people who are creating new things, who have done big things, who are betting on big opportunities. And I hope that you'll be around for it. Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time. Take care. And now a quick word from Dr. Travis Zigler, one of our members from the capitalism.com.

Community. I'm Dr. Travis Zigler and along with my wife, Dr. Jenna Ziglar, we started a brand called Ilove. We had our exit in June of 2021. So that was a huge milestone for us both from making us financially free to getting us out of debt, student loan debt that we've had since we became doctors in optometry school. And when we sold, we were doing close to 450,000amonth. I started with capitalism.com back in 2017, 2016, around that time, and I joined the tribe first, which was the equivalent to the incubator. Now the biggest thing, and I think this is the fear that brings us all back, is they're afraid of investing and getting that return on your money. And so my fear of investing in myself, I'd never done anything like that up to that point. And my wife wasn't there and I joined without consulting her, which was, I don't recommend doing that. But it was probably one of the best decisions we've ever made because it's just amazing what an investment in yourself with capitalism.com has done for us. You know, nothing changes after like an exit or a financially freeing exit or anything like that. But how is our life different from joining capitalism.com?

It'S our therapy. Ryan is known as the entrepreneur's therapist for a reason, and it's because when you talk to him, he gets you out of your own head. But if you join, this is a proven system. I mean, people have gone through this and they've, they've come out the other side better. If you join this and you don't get results, it's up here. It's not. It has nothing to do with the course. It has nothing to do with the people that are in capitalism.com it has to do with you. You need to look in the mirror because you can get the exact same course as the person sitting right next to you and you guys will both have two different results. And it's all because the mentality that you take into the course, if you go into it, or joining the networking or the mastermind, if you go into it with a negative attitude that this isn't going to work, it's not going to work for you, so don't join it. But if you go in ready to go, it's going to work. It worked for me. It's going to work for you too. It's just you gotta steer or jump over the mental hurdles because believe me, you will hit roadblocks like you wouldn't believe both in, in your personal life and in your business life. And that's what this is here for. It's here to help you get through.

Those. If you found value in this podcast and you're ready to go Deeper, here are three resources where we can help you. One, you can grab my book 12 months to 1 million on Audible or Amazon. It has over a thousand reviews and it's the playbook to building a seven figure business. Second, you can join our community of entrepreneurs who are following a plan to build a 1% net worth by building businesses and investing the profits you can get plugged in@capitalism.com 1. And third, if you're looking to go deeper and build a seven figure business that you can sell, you can work closely with us inside the capitalism incubator and you can get on the waiting list and find out what we do over at capitalism.com Inc. That's capitalism.com Inc.