Are You An Underdog | Turn Disadvantages Into Advantages - Dean Graziosi

What if I told you that being an underdog could be one of the greatest unfair advantages that you have? There are going to be some things that you've already heard, maybe you've already read a book on, or you went to a live event and somebody taught it. But what I'm hoping to be is the person who finally gets you to implement it into your life. Maybe it's the first time you heard it in the way I describe it. Maybe it's the first time you said, wow, it makes more sense than it ever had before. And these are the steps I'm going to take to get them into my life. And that's what I'm hoping because so many people are looking for a new wealth vehicle. So again, before I digress there for a second, I've been really thinking about this a lot, a lot now more than ever before in my life on how, let's just say your growth vehicle is your current job or your current business or your current whatever it is that makes you money. And let's look at it as a vehicle. There's dollar signs on the side, I'm visual. So you got your current vehicle, you're in. There's dollar signs on the side. And you want that business to make you more money or you're in that wealth vehicle, that job, maybe that business that's kind of, eh, doing okay. And you're looking around at all the other cars like, wow, that one's shinier, that one looks faster, that one's more silver, that one's brighter, that one's easier. And a lot of times people will go through life jumping from one wealth vehicle to another and go, oh, I'm out of that. The hell with that job. That was terrible. Got this new job. And then six months later it's like it's not really working. Let me look. Oh, there's another one. And you go, I'm going to start my own online business. And you jump and you throw that old job away, that old car, you trash it, you get it squashed and you're in the new one. Okay, I'm going to do online, make money online. Then you drive in this one for a while and you dabble and you try a little bit and that really doesn't work out either. In fact, now you're starting to stress out because you're not making money. And you start looking at it and go, maybe it should be real estate. And you jump out of that vehicle and you go, another. You get the point. I don't mean to Go on too long. But I really want to make the point is it is so important to have the right wealth vehicle. But what's more important is to go upstream and make sure you have the success rituals, the success rules, the success habits to make those companies flourish. In so many cases, people think that the next magic money machine, the next vehicle, will be the one that takes them off into the sunset and allows them to live a life of prosperity and wealth and abundance and joy and doesn't. Today we are going to talk about the underdog advantage, as I like to call it. The underdog advantage. What does that mean? In some way, shape or form? Have you ever felt like the underdog? Have you ever felt like the cards were stacked against you? You didn't have the money. You don't live in the right area. You don't have a supportive boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, parents, siblings. You don't have the education other people have. You don't have a partner with a bunch of money. Have you ever felt like you were too small, you were too short? You know, whatever it is, I've been blessed to have thousands of people work in my companies and under my brands. I've read tens of thousands of posts in my life of my students. Like the post you're doing right now, or you go to Facebook or Instagram. We get thousands and thousands and thousands of posts or messages every single week. And I obsessively read them because I want to know what you need from me. I want to serve you to the best of my ability. If I don't do that research, then I'm not. Then why would you follow me? Right? So I read that and I realize so many people feel that they're an underdog. In fact, I even had someone say, you understand, Dean, you had a lot of struggles as a kid. You didn't have money, you were stressed, you didn't have lunch money. So life was so painful when you were a kid, you have this desire for more. He goes, I have an unfair. I have a disadvantage because my parents were so good, they sent me to the great college, they paid for it. He's like, I didn't really need to fight for anything. And now I don't have that. His life was so good. He felt like an underdog, right? So I believe, and I appreciate all the comments, I believe so many people feel like an underdog. But what if I told you that being an underdog could be one of the greatest unfair advantages that you have, all with a shift of how you frame it when you're an underdog, Meaning I'm going to give you an example. In my life, when you're an underdog, so many people say to you, oh, my God, stop being a dreamer. You can't do that. Oh, it takes money to make money. Hey, let me ask you, have you ever had an idea, like, you think of an invention? Like, I'm going to create this widget that's going to help moms or new moms, or I'm going to create this thing that allows your car to do xyz, or this app that's going to be amazing, or this something, something, something. And you tell some people and they say to you, that's a great idea, but somebody probably already did it, or, oh, to get on tv, you need so much money, or you know how to be a producer, or you need to take lessons on how to be good on camera, or, oh, my God, you got to trademark it. You got to get a patent. That's going to take years. Do you have money for an attorney? So people are looking at you like the underdog, and they're just taking their. Projecting their own thoughts and telling you that you can't. Now here's the cool part is because of the change of story, the change of your thoughts, the change of framing, how things are positioned, you could say, they're right, I can't do it. And did you ever have that invention? And then you tuck those thoughts down and then a year later, someone else has the app, someone else has the invention, someone else has that idea, they're on TV making a gazillion dollars. Why didn't you do it? Because maybe people telling you you can't was the anchor. But what if we made that the wind behind our sale? I wrote a book. My first book ever was called Totally Fulfilled. Totally Fulfilled was a passion of mine because I had been teaching real estate for a long time. And what I realized is when I sat in customer service or I talk to people that weren't making money yet in real estate, I found out that a lot of times, most every time, it had nothing to do with the real estate education that I was teaching at the time, it would be like, my spouse doesn't support me. I don't think I have the money. My boss is paying us. I don't have the time. All these excuses, except for the one that they really wanted. They wanted this next level, but they weren't actually doing it. So I said, how can I obsess? How can I learn? How can I dig down and Climb inside their head and help people have the tool to have momentum, right? So I decide I'm going to write a personal growth book. Now, when I look at that book, when I look at that book now, I wish that I would have waited longer. That's why I wrote Millionaire Success Habits. I look at it now, you know how we all grow. That was 10 years ago. I wrote that book. But let me just tell you, the Power of youf Can't. I wrote that book. First book I ever read. I had dyslexia. I'm not a good writer. That's a story. I don't know if I should write a book. I'm not that good. I. I don't know if I should write a book. I barely graduated high school. I don't know if I should write a book. My grammar is horrible. I don't know if I should write a book. That's what smart people do. I don't know if I should. I had all these beliefs, but I said, the hell with it. I'm just going to write it. So I write this book. I write totally fulfilled. I get done with it. I'm like, I think this is a great book. And I go out and I hire what I believe I heard is the best editor. Clean it up. So I send it to her. She lives in Virginia. I fly all the way to Virginia. I sit with her, I go over it. She says, okay, give me two weeks. She calls me three days later, I'm like, oh, I didn't think I was going to hear from her for three weeks. Two days later, she said, dean, I got to be honest with you. I can't edit this book. I'm like, why? And she said, I know you told me some of your insecurities. And it kind of shines through. This isn't a book. It's a 250 page conversation. It is so far off. It doesn't need an editor. It needs a real writer. It needs a complete rewrite. Wow. Felt like the underdog. As soon as I hung up, I'm like, what is wrong with me? Why would I try to. This is the stories that started. I'm going to show you the difference between the anchor and the wind behind your sail. The anchor sunk in. For the first couple days, I'm like, why did you think you could write a book? Oh, my God, I'm not that smart. And then literally at the time, I had just met Joel Osteen, I think, at the time. And I popped open his book and I read like Five pages. I'm like, now that's what a writer does. That was good. Mine does stink. And. Oh, God. And I had all these beliefs and at that moment, think of that pivotal moment. God, I couldn't think. The pivotal moment in my life. Anchor or win. Behind the sail. Underdog. Poor me. Underdog. Advantage. It's no good. It doesn't read right. And all of a sudden I went two days of thinking all those stories and I said, literally on the third day I woke up, I said no. And I switched it to an advantage. I didn't know I was doing this. I'm sharing you in hindsight. But I switched it. And I'm like, no. She wants to say that I can't write. Yeah. In fact, I don't even want to fix the grammar. This is how I talk. The book is written like a 250 page conversation. If you read Millionaire Success Habits, you know how I write. I write the way I talk. I think it's conversational. I think that's why Millionaire Success habits were over 350,000 copies. It's one of the best selling books in the last 12 months. Let someone critique that now. What's it, 1/10 of 1% sell over 250,000 copies. And I did that because it's the same. Millionaires are totally fulfilled. Totally fulfilled. I've evolved a little. But anyway, I get this feeling and I'm like, I'm going to show everybody what I'm made of. She thinks that this book isn't going to be a best seller. Watch how many books this sells. And I started taking the power of you can't and said, really? You don't think I can? And I found this fuel. I can't tell you. Nothing changed. She still thought the book was shit. I never wrote a book before. I did have dyslexia. I was in special reading. All those factors were the same. You know what changed? The only thing that changed was my perception. I turned the underdog unfairness to the underdog advantage. And I started being empowered. Three days later, four days later, five days later, the power started to build, the thoughts started to build. And I'm like, literally, I was out of my mind. I'm like, no, this book is going to break barriers because everybody else wants to make it perfect. I'm just going to create a conversation. And the momentum started to build. I hired another editor and I said, do me a favor, just clean this up. To make it look like I don't look too dumb, but let my words shine through. I don't care if they're perfect. I don't care if I have a vast vocabulary. Just do it. They cleaned that book up. I got a publishing deal, and the book hit the New York Times best seller list within two weeks. It was my first book, and it hit the New York Times best seller list. What if I look back? I've had a million of those. By the way, if you heard that story before, I've shared that on stage before. But what if. What if at that moment and many other moments, did I feel like the underdog and just tuck my tail between my legs and go, yeah, they're right. No, I found a way to take the power of you can't and go, really? You don't think I can? And shifted it. So now what I want you to think about is when people come at you and tell you, you can't. You're too small, you're not rich enough, you didn't go to the right school. That's for dreamers. It's not the right economy. You're someone that should work for somebody. Play it safe, play it small. Tuck your life in is what they're basically saying. I want you to start thinking now. Just flip the framework. Literally think of the words. Flip the framework. Instead of it framing you down, I want you to think instead of it being kryptonite. It is the wind behind your sail. It's your motivation, it is the nitrous oxide. Because I have literally programmed my life, my brains, my thoughts. When people say that won't work internally. You know the two voices we have. Think about the two voices. Did you ever. If you don't think, you have two voices. If you think, I'm schizo, sorry, but we all have two voices. I'll give you an example. Do you ever have a friend and you go to dinner and they show up and it's supposed to be fancy, and they show up with, like, sneakers on and, like, dressed horrible or weird colors, and in your head you're like, hey, what's up? And your thoughts going, why the hell would you wear that? Or anything? Or sitting with your spouse, and they say something. Or our friends and they say something like, oh, yeah, that's great. And in your head, like, that was the stupidest thing. Why would you say that? Right? I'm giving you an example. We have two thoughts right now. I have a thought in my head when somebody says, that's not gonna work now. Too many people have that, oh, Facebook marketing. That won't work. Oh, Barnes and Noble. Did you know that less than 5% of the books in Barnes and Noble sell more than 100 copies? Somebody said that to me. I'm like, oh, yeah, I know. That's. I feel bad for a lot of authors. They work so hard simultaneously. In my head, I'm like, did you just tell me I can't. Did you just tell me. And I could literally feel vibration. I could feel energy, I could feel momentum. I'm like. So I have reframed, reprogrammed my thoughts. That when someone says they can't, that is my power. That's not my kryptonite. You're juicing me up. Tell me more. Tell me how many times that a guy that can't write good can't have a mo. Now, I have multiple New York Times best sellers, sold over a million books. Come on. I'm using that as one example, but I'm telling you, it happened when I was a kid and I wanted to go into real estate, and I didn't have money. And everybody around me, my friends, family, said, come on, you know, it takes money to make money in real estate. I made it happen because they told me they can't. So in your life, has anybody ever told you you can't? And how do you flip that around?