The Biggest Lies You've Been Told About Money

We're going to talk about rule breaking. The game is essentially this. The richer you are, the more equity you have, the more equity they have, and the more assets you can buy. The more assets you can buy, the more ownership you have, the more you own, the more you can own our country. If you don't understand terms, contracts, equity ownership, you will never be a top 1 percenter. And if you let that sink down in your core, you can change the game. And so if we want to become really, really rich, we got to do the things that are really, really boring. My entire Ms. Buy businesses, take back Main street, take equity and ownership. We get skin in the game and we say, f Starbucks, Fuck Walmart's. I want a corner store. That's what we do. I'm not so good as a motivator, but I am here to tell you, I think a little bit different of a story. And that story is this, that I am going to talk about how the elite, the very few on high, make so much money that they can own you, me, and all of us. And then we're gonna Robin Hood their asses. And what we're gonna do is we're not gonna steal from the rich. Cause when people say that, they're a bunch of socialists who think you aren't capable. And that's not what I believe. I believe you are capable. You just don't know the rules because they don't share them. And so we're not going to talk about motivation. We're going to talk about rule breaking. And I think if we steal the strategies from those on high, then we can take the money and not redistribute it, but make more of it all around this country. And so that's our goal today. But I do have a warning for all of you. And that is, once you see this code, once you peel back the hood, you'll never be able to unsee it again. It's like that little wizard at the end of wizard of Oz. When you hear the huge voice, you. You pull back the curtain. You realize all those motherf ers who make billions, they look just like you. And guess what? I've met a lot of them, and they're no smarter. They might work a little harder, but they're really not much smarter than the rest of us. And so, like my friend Andy Frisella says, I'm gonna tinfoil hat you guys today. Now for a tough truth to start with here. This is tough. We're not making victims. But I wanna be honest. The deck is actually stacked against you. It is not fair. And this is true. It is not fair that the sweatier work you do, the less money you actually make. That those builders and doers out in the world make less than the people on the keyboard all day. And so we have to rewrite the rules. And I learned this because I came from a family of nothing. I came from a family of immigrants and then they somehow let me in this club called finance.

It's true, I didn't actually come from a lot. I was the first in my family's history to experience real financial success. And that left me in an uncharted territory.

It's so important that all the work.

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And for more than 15 years, I worked inside Wall street in finance, seeing behind the scenes what actually happens. I worked at Goldman, I worked at State street. I worked 70 and 80 hours trying to figure out the rules. And then 2008 happened. And 2008 was a turning point for me because I was at Goldman Sachs. And I remember sitting on the trading floor where I worked and watching lines, if you could imagine, of security guards walking in, holding cardboard boxes, setting them down on individual desks of people who had worked 70 and 80 hours just like me, every single week, some of them for years. And I watched some of them try to hold back tears as they get fired. I had to walk in every day and cross a and Occupy Wall street picket line. And what didn't stick with me as much was the pain and tears of people who had given their lives to a company to be cut. But it was actually one mentor. And that mentor also got fired. But he smiled on the way out, and I remember a little alarm going off in my head and thinking, what's the difference between him with smiles and them with tears? And the difference is this $36 million in stock options Goldman gave its partners in 2008. This guy knew the rules of the game. And while all of the employees were playing for salaries, he was playing for keeps because he got millions of dollars in equity in his negotiation. And so everything I talk to you guys about is for this right here, that the only thing people can't take away from you is ownership. And. And guess what? The rich don't speak English. They speak contracts. And most of us don't even like to read those. And so if we want to become really, really rich, we got to do the things that are really, really boring. And that's about when my life changed. Because I realized something. Me talking to you right now is not going to make you money. You getting inspired and listening to rah rah speeches, it's not going to make you fucking money. Because sadly, we can work so hard for so many years day after day, and if we're playing the wrong game, are we gonna make billions? No. How many of you guys have worked so hard doing all the right stuff that everybody told you to do, going to college, starting earlier than everybody, staying later, and you're still not making a million bucks a year? Most people miss this one thing, and that is ownership. And I want to get more humans into ownership, which is why, at contrarian thinking, we own 22 companies that do. And some of these companies do millions or tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars a year, all because I started to realize most people do not actually realize why people make money. They think they do. But the next way to make more than 90% of CEOs is something I was never taught, even when I was climbing up the ranks at all the big finance companies. You guys want to hear something wild? All right. So I was listening to a video presentation. I heard this guy saying, I make more than this CEO and this CEO and all these CEOs combined. And I thought, that's a lot of money. I'm kind of a math person, so I think that would be a lot of money. And then I realized how people lie to us, and they lie to us so that we don't understand the game and it is this. You know, I make more than the CEO of Goldman Sachs a year. Do you guys believe that? I don't know. CEO of Goldman Sachs makes $2 million a year? Okay, maybe I make more than that. How about this one? I got Buffett beat. I make more than Warren Buffett. You guys believe that? Your spidey senses should be tingling right now because Warren Buffett actually only pays himself $100,000 a year in salary. And look what they say. They say right here. I don't know if you can see it demonstrate his commitment to modesty and frugality through his $100,000 salary. Well, here's the truth. The CEO of Goldman Sachs made $35 million in 2021. Warren Buffett demonstrating frugality. I mean, this is kind of where people go, don't mess with the grandpa. But the truth of the matter is, Warren Buffett is worth $113 billion. Now, I'm no mathematician, but the math ain't mathin'. With $100,000 a year into 100 billion, you guys know how many years the 92 year old would have to be alive? A million. He's old. He ain't that old. And this is how people lie to us. Because they say if you work for me and you focus on salary, you too can become like me. But the truth of the matter is, Warren Buffett makes $6 billion a year. $6 billion. Do you think that that means that he doesn't pay himself very much and be commended for that? No. Now, is there anything wrong with this game? Absolutely not. Every time I see somebody making billions, I get excited because I know they're just like you and me. But the difference is you gotta understand the game you're playing and the rules we live by. You don't actually want a giant salary. How many people here, when you hear people on stage saying, I make 2 million, I make 20 million a year, you think they're talking about the money that they bring in, but that's actually not the name of the game. The name of the game is ownership. And we're losing right now, as Americans. Only 14% of us actually own direct stock. So where's the rest of it? Well, the top 10%, we own 84% of all the valuable stock. So all value of stock out there. And if you take one thing away from me today, I want it to be this. F the motivation f the inspiration. Make sure you're not playing Legos in a world of people playing chess. If you don't understand Terms, contracts, equity ownership. You will never be a top 1 percenter. And if you let that sink down in your core, you can change the game because you can be at the bottom of it. And let me tell you how you can be at the top of it. This is my former boss at Goldman, Bruce Heyman. And he bought Canada. Well, not exactly, but he actually bought the ambassadorship to Canada. How wild is that? You guys know if you had enough money, you could buy a political position. Turns out you can. And now you might say, cody, how do I know that? And how much maple syrup is that exactly? I hope there's no Canadians here, because they're going to be like, not okay, all right, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Good day. So how do I know that it's because publicly it's written. Look at this. The text is tiny, but the words are important. This guy paid $1 million plus $1.7 million in donations raised for Obama, and he bought into the ambassador of Canada position. And in fact, that's how a lot of our politics works. So Bruce, he is peaking right now. Look at this guy. Have you seen dance moves this good? These are the people that run our country because they actually understand the game that they're playing and we don't. The game is essentially this, guys, the richer you are, the more equity you have. The more equity you have, the more assets you can buy. The more assets you can buy, the more ownership you have, the more you own, the more you can own our country overall. That is wild. Now, part of this should liberate you. You should go, I could buy an ambassador position. And part of this should make you a little wary of the words people say. Now, if you're like, okay, Cody, I get it. Rich people, they have equity. How do we get some? There's essentially five ways. You start with a company, you have a startup. The second one would be you become such a good employee that you're irreplaceable. The third one would say you invest in companies and get equity that way. And the fourth one would say you buy a company like you buy a house. And the fifth one would say you buy a company with other people's money. Now, my entire mission is buy businesses, take back Main street, and make sure that Goldman Sachs and Bruce and his ridiculous attire doesn't own everything in our country. That is my idea. We don't need more dance moves like this from Bruce. Now, what we do need is, if I tell you how I got here, my belief is that you can. Then you could copy my Homework. You can Robin Hood from me, just like we Robin Hood from those on high. Because what I did is I started in finance, and I bought boring businesses on the side. And those boring businesses were things like Laundromats. Who in here now talks about Laundromats because of my social media? Anybody? You're my people. I know. Okay? So I bought businesses that nobody likes, that everybody thought was boring and that people thought wouldn't make them much money. But it turns out the money is often in the boring. My very first acquisition made me 67k a year. Is anybody up here bragging about 67k a year? I don't think so. And yet those tiny little things compound. And what you would see if you were here is it's really important to me that you don't think the things I'm talking about are just things that I'm capable of because I'm in finance. Chris Delineier, who's bought not one, but three businesses. Now, you would see Angela in Tacoma, who bought a business and replaced her salary. You would see a bunch of other humans who every single day are probably just like you and are getting into the ownership game. And why that's so important for you to see their faces is because you can't be what you can't see for most humans. And it took me a long time to be able to see through the code and realize why some people were packing up boxes and crying and some people were walking out with smiles on their face. And my belief is that if you all can see more humans, just like you buy in businesses, then you might actually change the game entirely. And in fact, there's this guy by the name of Bernard Arnott. Does anybody know who this is? Richest dude in the world. He's worth $241 billion. This is when I realized acquisitions could actually create empires. Because we hear these stories about Jeff Bezos having to sleep on his floor, right? And us, you know, and these big entrepreneurs having to give it all up and almost lose it all. And then we got Bernard. And if you looked at what Bernard did, first of all, no fashion icon over here. But what did he do? He bought a bunch of distressed businesses, rolled them all up, and created one of the biggest empires that made him the richest men in the world. And I think if you actually show me your ownership, I can show you your future. If you show me your salary. I have no idea. And why do we know that? Because how many people have been laid off just in the tech sector this year? Does anybody know 230,000 people? There are 7,000 people in this arena right now. Can you imagine what 230,000 people all lined up would look like all cut off from the thing that they worked 70 and 80 hour weeks on? And I think that's no way to live. I think instead we buy tiny little businesses, we give lifeblood to main street, we take equity and ownership, we get skin in the game and we say Starbucks. Fuck Walmarts. I want a corner store. That's what we do. All right, I'm going to speak, spit some facts and figures at you. I'm going to give you one screenshot that I want you to just, I want you to take a picture of it on your phone. Because what I can't do is tell you all this in the amount of time I have today, okay? So I want you to take a tactic with you. Not just inspiration. Couple quick statistics. Business buying. We are in a decade of business buying. We have millions of baby boomers who own more businesses than ever that are going to sell those businesses or they're going to close forever. You are going to be the answer to that. You are going to be the answer. Even though you might not know how to buy a business. It's a little bit harder than may I have one business place. But the problem and the bad news for people is something that I'll tell you that most people on the Internet won't, which is this shit ain't easy. This is not pressing buy on E Trade, but it is actually pretty simple. And so while not everyone has what it takes to run a business, the good news is there are 7,000 people in this room. One out of 10Americans owns a business in their lifetime. That means there are 700 of you in this room right now that can and will own a small business. Who are the people? There we go. Yeah. Now, the people that can own a small business are those who are willing to work so hard. You redefine the meaning of the word. You have heard a lot of that from the guys on this stage. I think you all know how to work hard. The problem is you're playing the wrong game. So if you learn the right game and then you listen to the greats tell you how to work, I believe just about any human willing to put in the work can own a small business and can speak the language of the rich, which exists in contracts. And if you don't believe me, I just like you to see the faces of people that look just like you that are buying businesses. People in private equity like to get rich quietly. They don't like to get rich together. There's 10 steps to buying a business. You can't learn them all in 20 minutes, but if you have a guide and a GPS, it's a lot easier to know where you're going. This is what you have to learn. I want to plant a seed, and the seed's going to go like this. I want you to picture in your head you are at the end of your days. How many people in this audience want to make the same amount of money you're making right now? Want to have the same title you have right now. Think that you're done building your legacy. I don't think that's this crowd. I think you want more. And if you're going to do that, then you can help us make sure. No more Bruce's own Canada and the U.S. because every time I get scared about people like this owning our country, I just picture this guy and I think, if this guy can do it, do you guys think you can buy a business? You guys think you can do it? I know you all can dance better than this guy and have better abs. I've seen this crowd. This is a fit crowd. All right. The truth of the matter is people who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it. And you guys are the ones who are doing it. Here's where I want to end. In 2020, we saw the few make decisions or on behalf of the mini. And it didn't go so hot, did it? But you guys in Utah, you kind of weren't down for that, which is why you had the biggest migration. You and five other states had the biggest migration of talent and businesses to this state than almost any other. Because you guys believe in freedom. And you guys believe in your ability to be the ones to affect the outcome. Who's in office. You guys own the future. And so here is what I am asking of you. We started this country as a nation of owners, and we have let it become a nation of serfs and owned. We need to buy back our houses.

We.

We need to buy back our businesses. Because you would never let your neighborhood be owned by Walmart and BlackRock and Starbucks. You would never live in a McDonald's house, and yet you eat there. So the next time you think that you can't buy a small business, I want you to picture a world so filled with neon signs of the conglomerates, you can barely see the stars. And you are going to be the answer to that. Now I'm going to leave you with one last thing. This is a little gift for you. It's called My Fuck salary. Get equity. Moral of the story, go to ContrarianThinking Co or ask Dan. We'll send it out to you guys. It's going to be your first steps. It's easier if you have a guidepost. It's free. But it's your steps to owning a small business. Take a picture of this. Start your business journey and then tell us how you do now. Where we're gonna end is this. My father said a truth that is so true that how many business owners are out here? We got a lot of business owners. I hear you. He said something that I'm gonna leave you with. Cause it's a warning. The way you make millions and billions is ownership. Have I convinced you of that? There's one problem. It's hard. And so he said, you're not really in the arena. And if you haven't had a night in the dark, head in your hands, unsure of what to do next. Have you all had that owners. So know that it is gonna be harder than you think. But I wish you many sleepless nights and dreams so big you could buy Canada. Thank you guys so much. Let's go.

Thank you.

I picture young Cody in the crowd. I picture my younger self and I think, how could I actually switch serve her better than anybody else. She was one of the 7,000 that bought a ticket that skipped her Saturdays to be here today. How could I make her really proud and serve her? It's way easier to serve one than it is to serve 7,000. And so if I leave feeling like 20 year old Cody would have thought, whoa, this opened up a whole new world and I'm going to take some action today, I get a lot less scared because I know what she wants. And there's going to be a few.

Cody's in the audience.