Busting Money Myths | Changing Your Perspective Could Yield More Success - Dean Graziosi

We're here for a reason. We're not here for the 9 to 5 grind and just go to bed every day and go, oh, I made it through another day. Oh, I made it through another day. And then in the morning go, oh, can I make it through today, man? There's more for us than that. A lot of times people speak from kind of the top of the mountain and tell you how great it is up here. You should join me. And I'd like you to know that I've been in the ditches. I've been. I've been in the trenches. And I know what that feels like. So I want to tell you, I speak from a place of. I know what it's like up on top to accomplish, to fulfill your desires. I know what it's like to tap into your full potential, not feel like there's more. I mean, I always feel like there's more, but I know what that feels like. But I also know what it feels like to live in a bathroom with my dad. When I was a kid, as weird as that sounds, it was the only place we could plug in an electric heater where it would be warm in the wintertime, right? So I've been everywhere. But let me just first tell you this. In 1988, I lost my dad, my home, and my income. No, my dad did not die. He's still alive. He's 83 and looks like he's 60. And he's in a great place. He's engaged, he's doing awesome. But in 1988, I was two years out of high school, and I was working with my dad, and he went through a really horrible divorce and other situations in his life that really affected him in a bad way. And his childhood come back and haunted him and all that kind of stuff, and he kind of checked out. I lost him. He. He disappeared. And we had a collision shop in Marlboro, New York, and he just said, let it go. Let the house go. I don't care. So two years out of high school, I was 19 years old. And I just remember feeling so despair. Like, so much despair, like I had nothing. I had no college education. I barely got out of high school. I was going to work with my dad in this collision shop, and that was gone. So he leaves. When he took off, I had the collision shop, and I moved everything out of it because we couldn't pay for it anymore. This big building, and all my friends helped with trucks and stuff, we moved all the stuff. And then I moved him out of the House that he was in that I lived in with him, I moved all his stuff out of that and I rented the house, right? So I moved all the stuff that was in that Collision shop to that actual garage. And I worked out of that garage for probably a year trying to get back on my feet. I had a wood stove in there, I had my tools in there. I had the ability to paint cars in there. I mean, it stunk, gave me headache. But I worked my way back and you know, one thing at a time. I got a car done, I got more cars done. I went to the family that owned the Collision shop that my dad, we kind of had to leave. And I said with my hard work and dedication and decisiveness and convincing and persuasion, I got them to give me the Collision shop back. So I moved the stuff out of there. I went back, got the Collision shop going, got auto sales, got Enterprise Rent a Car and I started cranking. I started buying real estate. I started doing no money down deals and. And real estate really transformed my life. But then again, in 2005, I discovered my weaknesses on my way up climbing. I hadn't run big businesses and my business was getting bigger and bigger and hiring people. And I made some massive mistakes. I trusted some people. I hired the wrong accountant and I lost everything again in 2005, I had no money. I was in despair. I know what that feeling was. Those sleepless nights, two o' clock in the morning, stressed. Where am I going to go in my life? What am I going to do? And not only did I rebound, I found a journey, I found a path. I found the strategies and the secrets and the habits that not only can keep you on track, to break through those barriers, to finally go to that level of success you desire, you deserve, and mostly reach your full potential. I've discovered them along the way. People have such a crazy relationship with money. You don't even realize it. I mean, think about it. Money is one of those things we're taught we shouldn't desire it, we shouldn't want it, we should have this weird feeling about it. Maybe we make too much of it. Well, simultaneously, it's the number one thing that causes crap in our lives. It's crazy. It's like being at a therapist. It's like therapists in the middle, you and money on the other side. Like, I don't want you, I don't need you, you're bad. But I to have a better life, I want more of it, right? It's like, okay, how do we get all this So I want to spend the time right now and go over money and how it can be a foundation for getting more of it the right way. So your heart is filled, so you feel amazing about making more of it. So let's just start with this. When people say money doesn't buy happiness or money's evil, let's just think about this. According to cnbc, finances are the leading cause of stress. I want to open this up because I want to see your chats coming in. Just went. It's the leading cause of stress in a relationship. Imagine that arguing about money is the top predictor of divorce, says Sonya Britt. The top predictor of divorce. How Sad is that? 76% of Americans admit money is the significant source of stress in their lives. 76%. Okay, so we're all walking around saying it's not money, it's not money. But can money improve the quality of all areas of your life? Absolutely. But before you answer that question, let's go over some common money myths. And I think again, if you're here today with me right now, taking the time, not doing something else that could be more important, potentially more fun, it's my job to give you the foundation for success before we give you how to actually go do it. Because you could give somebody and think about what I'm going to say. You could give somebody a business on how to sell $20 bills for $10 and push them out in the world and somehow they fail. You know it. And you know people that would they get inside their mind, is it really right to sell $20 bills for $10? And should I stand on the corner or should I do it online? Or maybe I should do a Facebook ad or maybe I should get a course on how to do it or should I do my, should I do it like multi level marketing or you know, maybe I should do it at my office, but maybe my boss will get mad, you know, maybe I'll just, maybe I'll just start Monday. And a year goes by and nobody does anything. So it's my job today to first off, strip the barriers like the myths about money and then start building this foundation. So when you stack on what you can do and then you learn how to take action, then you look back and go, wow, that guy Dean was onto something. I've always wanted to do something more. I've always wanted a new side income or new money or be in control of my life or put more away for retirement, but I never actually moved. This is the process to get you to Move. And to get you where you desire. Let's cover the common myths. Myth number one. The first belief is that money is scarce. And that money, I mean, we've all heard money doesn't grow on trees, but we've lived with the constant fear that money could run out. Now I'm looking at my slides because I want to make sure I wrote all these out. I want to make sure I hit it. But think about that. We have this gut feeling of like, if we have savings, is it going to go away? If we have a job, is it going to go away? Is money going to run out? And the fact of the matter is that money doesn't actually vanish. There's always been the same amount of money, right? Or they print more. Right? There's actually printing more money. It's not vanishing. It's not going off into thin air. It doesn't get burned. It doesn't get ground up. Right? That's not the point. What happens is money never goes anywhere. Money isn't scarce. What happens is money simply flows from one group to another. Does that make sense? Money is simply just flowing from one group to another. So why not, instead of protecting or obsessing on protecting from losing all of your money, the question should be, how do you become part of the group that money is being transferred to? Think about that. That's what your desire is. It's not going away. I mean, think about in all my years. I'm going to digress here for a second. In all my years of being in business, in all my years of making money, in all my years of running a company successfully, in some years I didn't run it the best. And then I realized I wasn't best at running companies. I was great at starting companies. I brought the right people in and all those things. When I look at my companies, whenever I wanted to go to another level, I would analyze and go, where can we cut? Where can we make savings smart? Now, I'm not saying at all that you shouldn't be frugal and you shouldn't be smart with your money. People smart with their money, who spend less than they make always will live a more fulfilled, older age. I totally get that. But what happens is we get so used to protecting and saving that we don't spend enough money on thriving and making. In my experience through all the years is when I wanted to bring more money in my company, I'd spend weeks with the CFO and controllers and look and say, where could we cut? And we could cut this much Or I could open up an abundant mind and I could say, what new campaign can we create to help people? What new, what houses can we flip in my real estate business? What more can we do to bring it in? And always, always producing more income, always outweighed trying to make cuts. Now that's an extreme, but it's the same thing if you're in. If you had parents that went through the Great Depression, or grandparents who went through depression, the Great Depression, or parents who work nine to five and work their butts off just to get by and still don't have enough for retirement, you could have inherited this thought of, save, save, save, don't step out, don't step out. And all of a sudden you get older and you go, why did I waste all this time thinking money was scarce when I could go get it? So here's the second myth is that somehow we believe that money doesn't solve problems. Problems. We're kind of, it's, it's kind of bred into us that, you know, I mean, they quote, people quote the Bible as saying money is the root of all evil. I think it's the love of money is the root of all evil. But is money really evil when you have the opportunity? I mean, people do evil things with money. Right now I would ask what problems would go away for you right now if you could cut a check for it? What problems would you cut a check for right now? Think about it. Is there some old medical bills? Is there old college debt? Pay your parents house off, Set some money away for college for your kids? Would you tell your wife or your husband to stop working in that job? That's taking away who they are as a person? Would you make sure your kids knew that they're not going to be spoiled, but when they're older, they'll have some money to borrow against for their first house or borrow against to start their own company so they're not enslaved. Buy a job. Would you quit a job that's killing you? Would you be a more full time mom, more full time dad, more full time grandparent? Let me ask something. Are all of those kind of problems and could a check solve those problems? Absolutely. So we got to, we got to reframe the way we think about money. Money is an abundant, amazing thing that can solve problems. And when you start thinking that way, then all of a sudden there's no excuses. They're not like, well, if I made more money, I might be a jerk. If I made more money, people look at me, if I made More money. Maybe I'm greedy. No, money solves problems. You want to make more of it? I want to give you a little story here. I took my family to Cabo for a family reunion. It's really great to have everybody together. This is a little while back. My mom and my stepdad and my sister and my nephews and my family and my kids and in laws. It was pretty spectacular. I rented this and I feel blessed. I'm not bragging, but I rented this amazing, huge house right on the water, waves crashing in the backyard. Had someone who took care of the house, a cook. They were literally catching tuna out and coming to the dock and bring the tuna in the kitchen, fillet it and made ceviche and tuna, sushi and sashimi. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. But while we're there, and this is a story that's gonna. This will make sense in a second. I'm not just bragging, but while we're there, my stepdad, who I've known since I was 10 years old, 9 years old, my stepdad got really pale and all of a sudden passes out. We don't know what's going on. He's white, white, transparent white. We call the ambulance. We're in Mexico. It's a little scary. Ambulance comes. I mean, you know, it's crazy. The ambulance comes. Then someone stops the ambulance and says, you should get in our ambulance. And, you know, we think, my stepdad's dying. My mom's freaked out. Long story short, we get to the doctors. Luckily, I had a friend who lived down there who was a doctor, said, definitely go to this hospital. We get to the hospital, he needs emergency surgery. Doctor walks me outside. Remember, to this day, exactly, like, literally, I'm in a hospital. Can I talk to you? We walk out of the front doors, they open up. We go outside. It's a little tiny hospital. And he said, your dad's colon burst. His large intestines are ruptured. He's bleeding. He's actually below the amount of blood that he should be alive right now. And we need to do emergency surgery right now. There's no question. But in order to do that, we need $30,000. Now, I'm not. I don't think they would have let him die. But they don't take Medicare. They didn't take insurance. They took cash or credit card, nothing else. I was able to pull out my black card and I handed it to him. I said, put it on here and go save my stepdad. I went in, I gave him a hug I told him I loved him. He shared some thoughts. Take care of your mom. If I don't make it, did the surgery. He made it. He's still doing good. That's it. But that gave this cut a check for a problem, the problem goes away. It gave it a whole new meaning. I'm not saying they would have let him die, but literally said, we can't start until we have cash. That was cutting a check for a problem. So stop feeling bad about wanting to cut checks for some problems. Myth number three, Somehow we believe. And I've had way too many conversations with people, and this might not be you, but I want to throw this in there because I've talked to too many people. I've been blessed, talked to thousands of my students around the world. I've read tens of thousands of your comments, so I get it. And so many people have this inner, inner feeling that if you're making money, you're somehow taking it from someone else. Do you feel that ever? And it's a little bit like if I get a head. And again, I'm not saying the majority of you do, but a lot of people do. If you know how to make money, if you desire to make money, you are ethically obligated to go make more and then give it all away if you want. Think about this in your life. If you started making more money, right? Would you be taking it away or would you be giving it back? Let me ask you, would you maybe have someone clean your house so you can go do what you do that makes you more money or fulfills your heart and soul? Spend time with your kids? Would you maybe get your dry cleaning done more? Get someone to mow your lawn? Would you get a personal trainer? Would you get a nutritionist? Maybe a natural path? Would you attend more events? Would you buy more information? What would you do? Would you buy a new car? Buy a new house? Every one of those things is you're helping the world flourish. You're making more and you're spending it. You're helping not only economy in your home, you're helping the economy in the world. You're helping the economy in your neighborhood. You're going to employ people who right now maybe can't afford to feed their family. So when you. You got to flip that completely. On the opposite side side, when you, when you make more money, you help the world flourish. How about thinking about it that way? Next myth, and this is the biggest one of them all, money doesn't make you a best version of yourself. I Think there's some instances that that could be true. I always said that money, money and alcohol make you an extreme version of who you are on the inside. Did you ever see somebody who's kind of a jerk and then they get some drinks in them, like, that guy's a real jerk? Or you see somebody who's got a little bit of money and they're kind of off, and they get money and they're really off. But I like to see the good in the world. I see the complete opposite. When people have money, they might go through a little phase, but then they become a better version of themselves. And I want to explain why. You want another level of success. What does that mean when you really think about it? When you really think about success, what does that mean to you? I know getting money out of the way would be great. Financial freedom would be great. But what does it really mean to you? Who would you become if you had money? You know, my family. When I was a kid, money was the thing that we worried about the most. I told you I lived in a bathroom with my dad because it was the only place we could plug in an electric heater and stay warm for the winter. I lived in a trailer park with my mom. You know, I'm not complaining. That's the journey I was on, and I wouldn't take any of it back. But my parents, my mom worked two jobs making about 90 bucks a week. I lived. I was a latchkey kid, me and my sister, at a really young age. Or I went to Grandma's house. I didn't get to see my mom much when I was a kid because she was always at work. Not to say that again. It's not poor me. My parents could barely come to baseball games or anything that I was a part of. They were busy. They were trying to make things work. They did the best they possibly could. But do you think they were the best version of themselves? If my parents made more money, could they have maybe stayed together? Could they maybe have gotten in better shape? Could they have coached? Could they have done a lot of things? Of course, they would have wanted to do all of those, but money dictated their lives. But let me just share this with you. For me, I wrote down some things where I think I'd become a better person because I'm not choked by lack of money. Do I think about it? Of course. Do I work hard for my money? Absolutely. And if you're sitting there right now going, dean, you're rich now. It's easy. Listen, there's a journey. But wherever you are, I've been, I wrote down coaching because I don't worry about money because it's out of the way. It's not something I obsess on. It's like oxygen in the room. When's the last time you thought about breathing? Have you thought about how abundant the air is in the room that you are right now? Have you said, wow, this is so great to have all this oxygen just here. It's free. There's so much of it. No, you haven't thought about that. But if I gave you a cocktail straw and said breathe through that, all you would think about is the oxygen in the room and getting it into your lungs. When money is the thing you think about without realizing it more and more, you don't have time for the other things. So when money stopped being a worry, when money stopped being thing that I thought was going to run out, I wouldn't have enough. Then guess what? I was just left with me. And I didn't like some of the things I saw. I'm just gonna be completely honest. I didn't like some of the things I saw because I was running so hard for so long for money. Business, success, money. Business, success, money. Whoa. Business is doing good. Wow. Books. New York Times best sellers are selling, oh, hundreds of real estate deals. They're moving. Company's doing good. Money and success were there. All of a sudden I was left with me and I got to work on me. I got to attend masterminds. We're kindred spirits. If you've bought any of my courses or spent money. I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on my own self education buying courses, buying tapes. I listen to an audio course or audio book every single week. I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for masterminds to learn and absorb and and do self education. I'm growing as a person. I'm so far from perfect. But I want to be the best human on the planet. I want to be the best motivator. I want to be the best. I want to inspire you. I want to deliver you real wisdom. I want to be the best dad in the world. Just my desire. If money was the took up my thoughts, I couldn't do that. So coaching. Not only have I paid for coaches, paid for consulting. I get to coach little League. My son's. It's T. Rex league, kind of like right before little league. But I coach. So not only do I go to all the games, I do everything in my power not to miss a practice. I haven't missed one practice yet this year. He's also on flag football. I missed one half of practice, and I got there halfway through. And my son's like, dad, what's up? No other dad's there for every single practice. And I'm not the head coach, guys. Just the head coaches are smarter, more brilliant. That's their job. I get to show up. They bring the bags, they bring stuff. I get to show up, throw the football, throw the baseball, do some grounders, do some flag plays. I get to do the cool part. But I'm there. I'm there for every game. My daughter, softball. I'm there for every softball game. I go to every single one of her practices. I take her to. She's got a pitching coach. She's doing amazing at pitching. I go to pitching coach. I couldn't do that. I don't know what success means to you, but that. That's what it means to me. At this phase of my life, I feel like the most successful man alive when I show up at practice. And I'm the only dad there. And the other dads are just as good as me. They love their kids just as much as I do. I don't love my kids anymore. But I wasn't afraid to know what money can do and go after it. I guarantee you're as smart as me. If we took an IQ test or a spelling test, most everybody right now would beat me. My kids really gave me a purpose in life that I didn't know existed. If you're a parent, maybe you get that. Of course you get it. But I kind of was just. I've been in fast gear since I was 17. Running away from the pain of my childhood, running away from being broke. I was just running away from pain, running towards something new. Success. I fail fast. Go. Fail fast. Go. Fail fast. Go. Fail Fast. Go. I didn't really know why I was doing it all. I was just running away from something painful. I didn't know what I was running towards. Then I had kids that made me step back and really think about it. And then when money really wasn't an issue, something I thought about every day, started thinking about life. Like, what am I here for? What am I doing? What kind of parent do I want to be? And maybe it's because I'm halfway through my life. I'm saying half at 50, I'm going to 100 minimum. So halfway through my life. Maybe that's the age. Doesn't matter what age you are right now. TWICE you know, 70, 90, 20, 40, doesn't matter. But start thinking about, why are we here? I don't want to get in a big philosophical discussion here, but we're here for a reason. We're not here for the 9 to 5 grind and just go to bed every day and go, oh, I made it through another day. Oh, I made it through another day. And then in the morning go, oh, can I make it through today? Man, there's more for us than that.