Greg Reid: Your Success Equation

Hey, gang. This is Ryan Daniel Moran and you're listening to Freedom Fast. Today we're going to be joined by Greg Reed. Greg is an internationally known speaker and best selling author of the Millionaire Mentor, Three Feet from Gold and his latest book, stickability. Before we go into today's show, I want to ask you a question. Do you know what it takes for you to be successful? I get that question a lot and I used to answer it by saying that there's no clear cut road to success and that you have to find your own way. And then I met Greg Reed at a conference. Greg and I were having dinner together after one of the day's events and I was going through a transition period. That's when Greg pulled out a napkin and he said, ryan, pay attention because what I'm about to tell you, people pay me $5,000 to teach them, kind of rolled my eyes. But then he pulled out a napkin and wrote what he would call the success equation. I've asked Greg to come on today to the success equation with us here at Freedom Fast Lane. Because you often don't hear of success as something where you can plug in certain variables in order to achieve a successful result. Pay attention as he's going through his formula and listen as you plug in your own variables to develop your own success equation. This is a real life changer. So enjoy today's call with Greg Reed.

Hey everybody, this is Ryan Daniel Moran and you're listening to Freedom Fast Lane today. I'm really excited to introduce you to someone who is a personal friend of mine. He has personally been a friend, a mentor, a confidant and somebody that I just look up to and really, if I'm being honest, aspire to be like. I'm joined by Greg Reed today. Greg Reed is the number one best selling author of a variety of books that you can find on Amazon, including Three Feet from Gold. He's also releasing Stickability coming out here in a couple of weeks. He's also a really entertaining speaker. He's always a lot of fun to have around, so I'm really excited to have him. Greg, thanks for hanging out with me today.

And the crowd goes wild. What's with the three names, man? Are you gonna become a serial murderer or something?

That's it. Yeah, I added the third name so that when I'm a serial murderer, no one can find me. That's it. You caught me, Greg.

That's what it is. Nice.

I don't even know how to transition away from being a serial murderer.

Well, there you go, that's how you warm up for people doing your own podcast at home. Here's how you like to do the introductions and warm up.

Anyway, Greg, when I'm not murdering people in my spare time, I'm reading your books and seeing you at conferences. And you and I had a really deep conversation when we first met. And I'll never forget when you pulled out a piece of paper and you drew out the success equation for me. And looking back on that moment, I would. It's just something that I knew I wanted to share with my listeners and my readers. And from your own words, from the horse's mouth, I would like for you to talk about the success equation. And I'll add in, I'll sprinkle in some of my own personal experience with it. But I'd like for you to talk about exactly what that is because it really is a profound shift for entrepreneurs and people who just want their lives to have a certain outcome.

Well, absolutely, and thanks for bringing that up too, buddy. I mean, the realities are, you know, see these late night infomercials. And when you see these late night infomercials, the first thing they show you is how easily it's going to fold up and go underneath your bed or in the closet. Because that's where most of this stuff goes. People get all fired up and excited, but they don't have a blueprint to follow through. And I also realize these same people say, find your passion and the money will follow. And after much investigation, I realized that that is a fallacy. It really isn't true. And I know it might have a knee jerk reaction to a lot of people listening here, but I'll give you an example. You see, I watch late night talent shows like American Idol, for example, and I see these kids show up and they're full of passion. They're all just fired up. But unfortunately, most of them are lacking something called talent. So the success equation is the letter P plus T times A squared plus F equals success. And it sounds like a fancy math test, but it really isn't. And understand this success is not deemed by money, right, Ryan? I mean, it's living a purpose filled life. Do we agree to that?

I would agree with you.

Yes. So there's a lot of nurses and firemen, a lot of people that might not have giant monetarial success and rewards, but they are living a very successful life. So anyway, the P plus table times A squared plus F equals success. So again, if you show up at American Idol and you're Full of passion, but you stink at it. You're horrible. Will you be successful? And the answer is no.

William Hung was.

He got his 15 minute of fame.

I found the loophole.

There it is. Well, it depends again what success really means. Like is that living a purpose filled life, you know, just having a little bit of, you know, again, you could do something horrible and become famous doesn't make you successful. So the reality are you can have that passion but you need the t, the passion plus the talent. So if you're passionate about singing and you are talented now you got really, you got a shot at least. But without the first A, we'll never make it. And that is you got to take action. You got to do something with that God given gift. If you are passionate about singing and you're talented but you did nothing with it, you're not going to have success. But the second A is the most important and that is association. Aligning yourself with people that are already getting the results you want is a true definition of success. So if you are passionate about singing and you are talented, you are willing to take action, pay your dues and you aligned with someone who is in the industry who could open up the doors for you and you had the f faith that that's the journey you're destined for, well, chances are you might have found your success equation. The bottom line is the most successful people that I have interviewed around this world followed that equation whether they knew it or not.

Now I've got a question for you Greg, because that sounds awesome and I actually really believe and get behind that philosophy. But I can't tell you how many times I pulled out my journal and I physically wrote out the equation and it didn't jump out at me, it didn't, it didn't get clear to me until actually probably a few years after I really discovered it. Where I would write down, gosh, what are my passions? I don't have one passion that just stands up and kicks me in the face. And I started, so I started writing them all down. I'm really passionate about this. I'm really passionate about baseball. And then, and then it was talent. Well, talented at lots of things or I guess I don't really feel talented around this passion. And there was a bit of a process to kind of discovering what that meant for me, for me. And it was almost like I had to slide into it, ease into it. I'd like for you to comment on that. If there's a way that you can find it faster, if there's a way to answer those questions easier, or do you kind of have to discover it over time?

You discover it over time. Some people get it the quickest. Aha. Like I did other people. It takes them literally, like you just said, years before it comes. You know, all these, again, motivational speaker guys. You know, one of the tough things is they always get you to follow their program, their system. And with the success equation, the reason why it's such a challenge, because it's your system, it's individual for each person, and it's not the timeline. There's no starting watch for completion. It's when it comes to you. Our job, our responsibility is at least to give people this equation so that eventually they're armed with the tools that they can discover. For myself, I owned an advertising corporation for many years. That's what I did in my life. And I was very successful. Very, very successful. And one day my mentor said, you know, this success equation goes, what are you passionate about? What would you do if you could do it for free? And I said, I'd be a teacher. I go, the challenge is there's no money, and I like my lifestyle. He says, what are your talents? What are you good at? And I said, I'm full of hot air. I'm a good talker. How could you take action with the right association? I said, well, I could become one of those motivational speaker author guys. And he goes, do you believe that that is something you could actually achieve? And I said, absolutely. And right then and there I went, holy smokes. You mean to tell me that I could make a living just talking and sharing with people the experiences I've done? And right then, I just had the epiphany and sold my business for my first millions of dollars. And I went directly into this line of work because I realized that this is what my destiny, my success equation, was leading me.

So you are saying that you can follow your passion and the profits will show up, but you're saying that these other elements are just as important because you have to have the talent and the association and the action in order for that passion to become a reality?

Absolutely. And it goes down to, you know, people say passion's enough, you know, find your passion and the money will follow. But again, if you are a woodworker and that's your passion, but a bird won't even live in your birdhouse, then chances are you're not going to have, quote, unquote, success. And the realities are, is that people need to follow this equation in sequence. For it to have the longevity that most people are looking for. And I'd say out of all these ones, each one's equally important. The most impactful one for me is that association. It seems to be aligning yourself with people who can open the doors for you. A couple years ago, I went to Africa and climbed and summited Mount Kilimanjaro. And, you know, I didn't ask some surfer kid here on the beach of La Jolla to take me up the mountain. I went to the top Sherpa that I climbed it 6, 700 times. And that's why hired and wherever they put their boot print, I put my boot print because I knew they'd make it to the top. And I realized to get anything we want in life is we got to surround ourselves with people who are already getting that same goal.

Greg, why do you put faith in the equation?

Oh, man. Well, many, many reasons. My personal one, I mean, my politically correct answer. But my reality answer is I'm a faith driven person. I'm a very spiritual human being. So I believe that that, you know, takes a big role in my life. And the most successful people say the same thing. But faith doesn't always have to be spiritual. It also can be faith in yourself. It could be faith in your talents. It could be faith in your association. It could be faith in your journey. So, you know, we kept a broad spectrum for everybody so they can find what they resonated with and attack it with everything.

Well, something that I learned from you about faith is I come from a very religious background, so I had a lot of ideas of what faith was. But the way that you framed it to me when we first started going through this together was that sometimes faith is just having the confidence to step out in that action, knowing that you're not going to know all the steps along the journey. But having the trust and the faith that it will work out how it is supposed to gives you that confidence to take that first step.

One of the great interviews I did was with a guy, Truett Cathy, who owns Chick Fil A restaurants. He's a billionaire. And I said, you know, if I was going to do anything different in my life to have greater success, what would it be? And he said, stop planning. And I go, well, that goes against everything I've learned. He goes, well, last year you had a lot of plans. And I said, yeah. And he goes, how did that work out for you? I said, not good. And he says, you know, you might hit a goal from time to time because you're an action taker. But how it went, as you know, did not go as fruition like you expected. And he said, the secret is to look for unexpected opportunity and capitalize on that. I go, what do you mean? He goes, well, if I want to get to the end of the street and that's my goal, I have to get off my backside and start moving, walking towards that goal. He goes, a planner is going to plan every step where they're going to pause and take a break, but I'm going to look for opportunity. Did a kid leave a skateboard or a bicycle out and make my journey shorter? He goes, if I get real lucky, I'll wave down a neighbor and hitch a ride to the end of the street. He goes, either way, I'll get there. I'll hit my goal. I'm just not so caught up in exactly how it has to happen.

Interesting. So in that sense, he's not saying don't have goals. He's saying just look for opportunities that present themselves that you didn't foresee and take advantage of those.

It's having a goal. The goal is the destination. It's not getting so caught up on the minutia of the in between and it's realized. I interviewed the gentleman, Ron Klein, who invented the credit card magnetic strip and change banking. And he says, whenever I see something out there that needs improvement, he goes, I look at where things are and where the end goal, the ultimate dream would be. And he goes, the middle stuff is just the journey because I never get caught up in that. And he goes, I don't look at a problem as a problem. I just look at it as a challenge so I can find the solution. And it seems like every great leader I ran into said the same thing. They all have goals, but they work on more of a strategy rather than a plan, because strategies can change and adjust, but a plan, people try to stick to it and they wonder why. They get roadblocks and they get stumbled.

You've mentioned association being a really important part of the success equation. And you hang out with all these incredibly successful people. For a lot of people that are listening, they're not as well connected as somebody who gets to interview the founders of Chick Fil A and the inventors of the credit card. How can people, when they're discovering their success equation and they're starting to head down the path of success, start to surround themselves with people who can help pull them in that direction and elevate that association part of the equation?

Well, first of All I disagree and I say that's a bunch of crap. Because the realities are you can hang out with those same people and that's a bunch of hooey. So I can't go with that one. And anyone that's sitting there saying they can't, well then maybe they're right because that's what they believe. But the realities are it's not true.

Understand this, you put a serial killer in his place. There you go.

The most successful people are also the most available. People get this because they've got the most free time. See, if you're brand new at something, you're happy, go lucky you're fresh or new, you got nothing to prove. If you're at the pinnacle of your field, the top, you're happy, go lucky you're at the top. There's nowhere else to go if you're in the middle. Usually people are a pain in the neck. They're finding their own way. They're filled with ego, they're edging God out. So for myself, I realized I'm just going to jump to the front of the line. When I wanted to become a best selling author, I called every number one best selling author in America and said, will you teach me? They did. When I want to become a speaker, I went right to Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Dennis Waitley, Charlie Truman. I went right to the top and they taught me. And here we are. Same thing in everything I do in life. If I'm right now making a major motion picture, I'm going right to the top. Directors and producers realize that the most successful people are always the most available.

Interesting. You just blew my mind.

Boom.

Alright, Greg. So a lot of people have an idea about where they want to be or who they want to be or what they want to accomplish. But there's this aspect of success where sometimes we get kicked around, sometimes we take risks and they don't go how we wanted to. I've had plenty of those in my career. And a lot of people give up when they're, dare I say, three feet from gold or when they're at that point where they're so close to having success but then they give up. What do you tell people when they're at that point in order to encourage them to stick to it and to keep going and working their success equation down their path to success.

Well, the difference between that portion is something called the knowing. It's not the beliefing, it's not the hoping, it's not the wishing, it's the Knowing it's when you know in your heart, when you know in your soul that this is what you're supposed to be doing, then that's where you keep persevering. But if you're only interested in something and you're not committed, you'll have the results the same. If I go to a bar tonight and I see some hot gal and go, man, I'm really interested in her, as soon as things go wrong, I'm out the door. But if I find someone I fall in love with and I get married, well, as soon as we have challenges, I'm going to work through those things and understand that I'm committed. And that's the difference. When people are just interested in something, that's when they give up. It's the people that are committed to that outcome. They never.

So would you give us some examples of that? How does that show up in people's lives when they're really committed to something? How does that show up and manifest in their lives?

I'll give you an example. I'm right now looking across the street at an Italian restaurant. Now, this Italian restaurant has literally gone through changing of the guards of family over probably 100 years. And right now, the business is not doing too good, but it's still hanging in there. And I went and asked, I said, you know, why do you guys keep going and don't close down the door and say, well, we don't have a choice. It's a family business. We got to keep the heritage going. They're committed to keeping that happen no matter what, to all costs, because that's what they know that, you know, there's ups and there's downs and there's turmoils and there's success, and they're just having a little rough time right now. So they're riding this storm out because they know in their heart of hearts they have to keep this tradition going because they want to pass it on to the next generation as well. So the difference is they're really committed to seeing through, even through, the challenging moments.

I loved the book Three Feet From Gold. And you hammer the point that a lot of people who are really successful experience their success right on the other edge of their most difficult times. Would you comment on that?

Well, actually, that's a Napoleon Hill quote, and it's amazing. It says, we will always have our greatest success just one step beyond our greatest setback and failure. So when people are going through their most challenging times and things look the worst, good news, that's where the Miracle happens. But most people run away in fear. And the realities are that's when we want to embrace and go, look, things tough, things suck, they're hard, whatever, but that's the way life is. You know, look, nothing comes easy. The difference is going with the flow and making sure that you surround yourself with the most positive, like minded people. That will be encouragement along the way.

And I understand you have a follow up book coming out that really hounds on that specific idea. Correct?

Right. Well, after we did Three Feet From Gold and became a great success, Napoleon Hill foundation went in the archives and they found vintage home video. And on there was a recording from 1940 where Napoleon Hill was being interviewed on a radio show. And everyone knows him talking about the principles of success. But on this one he talked about the three causes of failure. The three causes of failure. He says, look, he goes, you know, there's a million different books and programs that teach you what to do to become successful, but if you do these three things, I guarantee you'll fail. I thought that was amazing. And from there I realized that he had one word that summarized everything. He said, most successful people have something called stickability. So the word and the book that's coming out along with the motion picture is called Think and Grow Rich. Stickability, the power of perseverance. And what's cool about here is I got to interview some of the world top thought leaders and pick their brain. And I'll tell you the first one because it'll kind of again, kind of blow our mind a little bit. But I was watching 60 Minutes and I remember this guy was on there named Marty Cooper and you don't know him, but he invented the cellular phone. And two days later I'm in his office and I'm going, Marty, what does stickability mean to you? And he said something the same thing like Truett Cathy, he goes, stickability has to be parallel with another word called flexibility. Says if you're not willing to adapt and if you're not willing to adjust, you'll end up being stuck. And then he told this story about a spider monkey. Have you ever heard this story?

I don't know. I'm waiting for you to enlighten me.

Well, he said the spider monkey in the rainforest is the most quick, nimble creature there is. You can't harpoon it, spirit catch it, it's just too wiry. But one hunter figured it out. He took a big heavy log and drilled a tiny hole inside and left the log at the base of the jungle. He dropped a Little peanut inside that hole. The monkey would smell it, come down from the treetop, reach his hand and tie that little hole and grab a hold of the nut, and his fist would become so big, he couldn't pull it back out and become anchored to that log. An hour later, the hunter would come by and capture the elusive spider monkey. Now all he's got to do is let go and pull his hand out and live to fight another day. But that monkey thinks that nut is saving him. The moral is, are we holding on to our own nut in life, but it's in the shape of a bad job or a relationship or a car or fear or guilt or remorse. We think it's saving us, but right now it's leading to our demise.

Boy, do I get that. Boy, do I understand that. Okay, so explain to me What I didn't quite understand there was. You mentioned that stickability goes hand in hand there with flexibility. And you started talking about the spider monkey and sounded very flexible. Where's the stickability in that lesson?

The stickability is to have a crystal clear picture of what it is you want in life, but having the courage and the fortitude to sometimes let go so you can adjust and look for opportunity. So if that monkey would have let go and pull his hand out, he could live to fight another day. Till one day could figure out how to get that nut out without being stuck. The same thing in life with Truitt. Kathy is getting to the end of the street. That's the goal, the destination. But he's willing to be flexible enough to adapt and adjust. Look for a skateboard bicycle or a car driving by. The realities are, we know what we want and need in our life, but sometimes we got to let go of the stuff that's holding us back so we can move forward.

You know, I've talked to so many people that want to be successful and are trying really hard to be successful, but they haven't had all things line up for them just yet. And they're stuck on a strategy that isn't working for them. It's worked for somebody else. So they're convinced that it's going to work for them. And I think that's a really nice reflection of the power of something. Like the success equation is that someone's success equation could be completely different than yours, and it's okay. Like somebody else's success equation. They can go do something and it work out really, really well for them. And you can try the same thing, and it doesn't line up with your Passions or your talents, or maybe you don't associate with those types of people and that's perfectly okay. Let them be them and go, do you, I think there's even. People take the idea of modeling a bit too far in this sense. They think that they have to do exactly what the other person did in order to achieve the same result, even if it doesn't match up with the parts of their success equation. And I tell people, find out what works into your mold, what lines up with your passions, with your talents, and that's how you'll be successful, not duplicating what somebody else has already done. Would you agree with that?

A thousand percent. Even in the Internet marketing space. I mean, just because one thing that works for one person doesn't mean it's going to work for another. And I see it constantly and it drives me nuts. You go to these events where someone pitching their technique, but that worked for them, and it might even work for them four years ago, but it's not, might not work for the next person in today. We have to have the courage to look at that and say, does that make a fit for me? And have the willingness and again, the fortitude to adapt and adjust with your own spin to it. For example, when I write books, I write books the way I'd want to read them. That's it. It goes against all common sense and my publishers are mad at me and the whole bit, but I write books the way I want to read them.

They seem to do just fine. Greg?

Yeah, I make movies the way I want to read them. I go on stage and I wear jeans and the way I want to look because I'm doing it my. My way, my version. And so the, you know, when you were a kid, your mom said, just be yourself and people be attracted to you. And I realized that's the same thing as life. What we want to do is be ourselves, take techniques, we want to take tools from our experts, learn from them, but add our own spin to it, our own way. And that's where the success lies, right around the bend.

You just reminded me of a story of when I was traveling in Thailand. I was in this hotel room and the power went out for about 12 hours. And in that time of my life, I was facing some challenges. I had been trying some things that just, I really felt confident in. That hadn't worked out for me and I had taken some risks and, well, the risks didn't turn out how I thought they were going to. So I was going through a bit Of a challenge. And I was on this trip, you know, getting my. Getting refreshed a bit, and the power went out for 12 hours. And at that time, I had no Facebook, I had no texting, I had no tv. There's nothing to distract me from my thoughts that I probably had been running from. And during that time, for some reason, I had this, I guess I'll call it a moment of clarity where I realized that I had spent so much time trying to go out and get and force and knock down doors and kick them down, and I was going to go in and win the game of success, right? And during none of that time was I focused on becoming the type of person that it was just natural to attract that type of success. And the minute I had that switch, I pulled out my journal and I wrote it down and I read that every day until I had it really sunk in. And ever since I made that shift, I just felt just this overwhelming weight from my shoulders, feeling like I could be myself. And things became so much easier. Success started being attracted to so much faster just by operating in that core person of who I am. It became a natural thing, not something that I had to like, kick down and force my way into.

That's great. Well, again, you're a little bit more advanced than the average bearer. That's one of the reasons I like and I love hanging out with you. See, many receive good advice, but few actually profit from it. And it's a matter of seeing some of our circumstances and understand that they are learning experience. Look, we're just passing through, guys. I mean, we have 100 years at best on the spinning rock called Earth. What we need to do is make the most of that time that we're here. It's that simple. And it's kind of like, are we living up to what we were put on this planet to do? And it's time to sometimes look on the inside. And I guarantee we're not put on this spinning rocks to push through doors or do whatever or to whatever. It's about ease and grace, finding what it is that our destiny, our purpose is, and then pursuing with everything you have. And that's what the success equation was created for, is to help people find what that purpose might just be for them.

You mentioned that you're making a movie for stickability. Talk briefly about that.

Well, the movie for stickability is done. It's out. It's amazing. What happened is I. Well, you'll have to see it. I made the funkiest movie again. There's no way for me to explain what this movie is, because no movie has been made like this. I took the typical talking head, one of these motivational, secret type things, but then I made it an actual storyline with actors. And then I added in a live event on stage where I interview these people. And then I tied in other things. So it's kind of like the most cluster mess of every possible genre you can think of into one thing. And it's only 40 minutes long. I did everything, quote unquote, wrong. I said, I'm gonna make a movie the way I didn't want to see it. I don't want to sit for an hour and a half, two hours. I'm making 40 minutes. I don't want to listen to a bunch of talking heads. So here's how I'm gonna do it. I want thing. I think, here's how I'm gonna do it. And I just made it the way I'd want. And by doing so, I think it turned out to be pretty cool.

Cool. Greg, what do you hope to inspire in people through the book? Stickability and the short film?

I'm going to say this. People listen to this. You know, everyone tells you, go buy the book. Look, I'm going to tell you flat out, go buy this book. I'm not going to ask you, go buy this book. It's a life changer. Not just because I wrote it. It's because of the stories of the amazing people. I mean, imagine sitting down with a guy who says, hey, I'm going to go bring a rat into the restaurant business. And everyone said, he's crazy, out of his mind. For years, everyone shunned him. He goes, no, I'm going to bring a rat into the restaurant business. I'm going to make it the most famous thing in the world. Everyone laughed at him till finally one person believed in him, did the first investment, and that's called Chuck E. Cheese Restaurants. He goes, you know, down all the way to the founder of the Make a Wish foundation, where, you know, one little boy's wish, just as a fluke, turned out to be one of the biggest nonprofits in the history of the world. I got to sit down with amazing human beings and pick the brain. But I got to tell you, one of them, and this story is just absolutely fascinating is Steve Wozniak, co founder of Apple Computers. I said, what made you guys the success you are? And he says, because of the lack. I go, what do you mean? He goes, well, we lacked. We had no money. And I Go, how would that make you successful? He goes, because I looked at it as an opportunity. You see, when microprocessors came out, we could afford one chip. He goes, so I had to take a hewler Packard machine that go from point a to point B with 20 chips. Chips. I'd pull away five and I'd still get it to work. I'd pull away five, get it to work until finally I can go from point a to point b with my one chip. Not because I'm trying to be cool or slick. I could afford one chip. He goes, if I had more money, I would have built a computer the size of a skyscraper. But by having that lack, we had to have so much ingenuity to think of the quickest, direct solution so that we can go from point a to point b the softest, easier way, and from there, change the entire way of personal computing. And it's so interesting how one person can look at a huge obstacle and another person looks at it as an opportunity.

Greg, it's always engaging and entertaining to hear you talk for people who want to reach out to you more and, you know, connect with you more and hear more about what you're all about. Where would you send them to?

Well, my website is bookgreg.com that's b o o k g r e g bookgreg.com and again, come hang out with me, come say and anyone that sends email, by the way, it doesn't go through a secretary or filter. It goes right to me personally on my iPhone. So reach out if I can add contribution anyway. But door number two, go get a copy of stickability. It is an absolutely amazing book and I highly recommend it.

Cool. Greg, it's always a joy to talk to you. Thanks so much for inspiring us today and I really look forward to reading stickability. Thank you so much.

We got rock on.

I hope Greg Reed's success equation has as much impact on you as it had on me. It was a real eye opener and life changer for me and I know it'll be that for you if you allow it to be. Hey, I want to ask you a favor before you go. You know, it really helps us spread our message here at freedom fast lane when you leave a five star review for us on itunes and share the show with people that you know would find value in it. So if you like today's show with Gregory, do me a favor and go over to itunes and leave us an awesome review and tell somebody that you care about about the show. Thanks for listening, everybody, and we'll talk to you.