I achieved freedom by doing this...

We get on this journey because we think it's going to be about financial freedom. I don't want to work for somebody else, but entrepreneurship is all about working for somebody else. It's like the ultimate working for somebody else. You're working for somebody else to sell your thing for 50 bucks. You just got to do it so well that it becomes effortless in time for people to give you 50 bucks and buy your thing.

So I have this secret fear. It's a fear that I'm a little bit ashamed of. And it's also a fear that I'm afraid everybody else is gonna find out about. And it's a fear that deep down underneath all of this handsomeness and all these YouTube videos, that I'm just a selfish asshole who wants to take people's money. No, God, please, no. No, God, I hate that. And I only have that fear because that some part of me that has. That. There's some part of me that just wants to be the richest person in the room and for all of everybody else to think I'm really cool for being rich. Reason I'm telling you this is because most of us get on this path of being entrepreneurs to be financially free. Because a lot of us come from very humble backgrounds. Me too. Most of the rich people that I know come from very humble backgrounds where we grew up with like, nothing. Like almost nothing, right? And so we get into this mode of trying to get money. Money. And funny thing about entrepreneurship is it has a way of stripping away your selfishness because the only way that you really succeed long term is by serving other people. I got an email from one of my customers a couple of weeks ago that irked me. It was a person in our incubator. Our incubator is one of our higher end programs. And we work with students, we get really involved in their businesses, help them cast a vision, launch profitably, build the foundation for a seven figure business. And there was this. There was a customer that we kind of made some arrangements for. And I think we went above and beyond to try and serve this person, help this person. And he wanted a refund. And he wanted a refund not because of anything that we did wrong. He was just not happy. In this conversation with this customer, he said, I used to think that you were trying to help people become financially free or have financial freedom, but it turns out you're just trying to line your own pockets. I had this thought of like, oh, man, if that's your perspective, if that's what you think this is about, you're gonna have a really hard time, because if what you think you're signing up for when you become an entrepreneur is to become financially free.

You'Re gonna be doing things for yourself the entire time. This is the irony of this journey that you and I are on, is that most of us start because we're selfish, because we want to be rich, which is awesome, by the way. I think you should be rich. I wanna be rich. I think we should all be rich. And I think we all can. I think capitalism's cool like that. The more you make, the more I can make. It's awesome. It's a progression of the world. But most of us start because we want something, but if we don't learn that it's actually about.

Man, we're gonna suffer for a long time because we're gonna be trying to feed ourselves, get more. And there's just like, there's a limit to that. There's a limit to the amount that you can take. Now you can become, like, you can be modestly successful. You can make six figures. Being a D bag that just rips off other people. Like, you can do, like, you can manipulate your way to six figures for a while, but eventually, especially in today's marketplace, eventually the market finds out the only way. The only way to win is to be genuinely in service of other people. Isn't that awesome? And doesn't it suck? It sucks because it's so much easier for us to just like wine and say, this is what I want, I want, I want. And like most of us do that. We think about how much money we want to make, we think about what business we want to do. We think about what about our happiness level. We think about ourselves. It is finding that flow where you are actually fed by the creating and the giving to other people that is ironically, where financial freedom comes from, especially today. And you can create something and it becomes an nft and you become a multimillionaire. You can come up with a product idea that other people build and become a multimillionaire. You can come up with a song that gets shared on TikTok, and you become a multimillionaire. You can write a book and it gets tweeted out by Oprah, and you become a multimillionaire. Like, there's. There are so many ways to get rich once you are in the mode of creating for other people. Isn't that beautifully ironic? So we think we get on this journey because we think it's going to be about financial freedom. I don't wanna work for somebody else. But entrepreneurship is all about working for somebody else. It's like the ultimate working for somebody else. You're working for somebody else. To sell your thing for 50 bucks, you just gotta do it so well that it becomes effortless in time for people to give you 50 bucks and buy your thing. This matters to me because I, at some level, know exactly what that customer of mine was saying, because I was that too.

I started because I wanted financial freedom. And so I paid mentors to teach me about money so that I could have financial freedom. But it turns out business and entrepreneurship is all about the customer.

And so often we talk about our own journeys and the amount of money we're making and that he's making. We compare ourselves to all these people out there. No one talks about the customer. The person who wins is the person who thinks about everybody else. Jeff Bezos won because he built a platform that was purely for the customer. If there's one thing Amazon.com is about, it's obsessive attention to the customer experience, end to end. You know, I had an interesting moment where I. I think I learned this for the first time. And it was when I random, randomly. I had started a new business, and I noticed in the sales that somebody bought for a second time, and they bought three units instead of just one. And so I just randomly cold called the guy, and he answered the phone, and I was like, this is Ryan from Sheer Strength Labs. Is it okay if I ask you about your experience? And he's like, yeah, yeah, sure. And he went on to give me this glowing review over the phone. And it felt so good, right? Like, I was. I wanted to know, like, why did you, like, what prompted you to come back and buy three? I just want to know. And he just told me all about his experience, and it felt awesome. I actually. I'm getting goosebumps telling that story. Cause, like, that. I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that phone call. That phone call left, like, I remember that as clearly as when I sold my company.

Man, I haven't thought about that in so long. But when I called that guy and I realized, oh, we have something here.

That, like, that, like, made me want to double down, right? It was still selfish, but I, at least now, like, had, like, a person in mind that I knew I was helping, that I could go aggressively get my products in the hands of.

And I think I want more moments like that phone call. I think. I think I. I get more juice out of people saying that My book changed their lives than I do out of selling a.

I don't know, $300 a month membership.

The book cost 10 bucks on Kindle. I don't even know what I make from the book.

Wow. I don't think I realized that about myself.

All those exciting moments for me come from I'm really creating a win for somebody else. It just feels good. It's just fun. It just makes you want to go more. But every time I think about what I'm going to get out of it.

I feel tired. I feel drained. I kind of feel like an asshole. I kind of feel like an imposter. I have those thoughts of, like, who am I to talk about this stuff? I'm such a loser. Like, all my negative thoughts usually come on the other end of, like, I'm gonna get something. Because, like, the I'm gonna get something starts in a position of lack of. So you have to assume that you have something. You at least have time. You at least have focus. You just have curiosity about other people. You can only get so far being selfish. You get a lot farther when you create for other people. Most of us are selfish. I am selfish. This customer was coming from a selfish place.

And entrepreneurship has a way of ripping that out of you or at least taking out, saying, see, this is what you're like. The whole world reflects it, asshole.

And then the more we unlearn it, the more we create for other people.

The wealthier we become. That wild. So I guess the moral of this video is, I'm a prick, you're a prick. All of us have it in us. We have this seed of selfishness in us that we let percolate into all parts of our lives. And then we're like, why am I not making more money? I should find out the latest hack to make more money. And I have that, too, right? And I have it with stocks that I want to buy that I hope go to the moon. And we have it with crypto, and we have it with businesses. And the people who win are the ones who selflessly give to other people. And even if I'm wrong, they're happier than us. So I'm gonna practice just doing it because it feels good, not because of what I get out of it. And I know. I almost wish I didn't know. I know that when I go into that mode, I'll get everything that I want. But you won't need it anymore because you'll actually be enjoying the experience. I think that's the secret to life. I'M pretty sure. I think. I think we did it. I think that's the secret. Yeah. We can go home now. Knuckle me on camera. Yeah.

I hated doing that video. I hate. I hated. I hated every minute of that video. I secretly hope we don't publish this. Which means you're going to publish this.