Do Not Let Anyone Take Away Your Opportunity To Grow
18 Apr 2022 · 17 min
Dean Graziosi argues that you must fight for independence and become a value creator rather than expecting equal outcomes without effort. He contrasts producers with what he calls parasites, defends capitalism as the path to opportunity, and shares how he retired his parents before turning 30.
Questions this episode answers
April 18, 2022.
Over 13 companies (speaker's claim).
Before he was 30 (speaker's claim).
About 14 years old (speaker's reference).
Chapters
Fight for independence. Fight for the ability to have success or failure on your own merits. Do not let. Do not let anyone take away your opportunity to grow, opportunity to shift other generations.
Welcome to the Dean Graziosi Show. All success starts right here.
Hey, it's Dean Graziosi. Thanks for coming on a walk with me. If you're listening, if you're watching, the audio might not be perfect. I say that all the time, but hopefully the message is exactly what you need to hear in this crazy time in history. No matter what you're doing, if you're trying to learn more, be more, achieve more, you are producing for this world. You're becoming a better human. You realize that if you're not climbing, you're sliding. If you're not growing, you're dying. If you want more, you want to give more, contribute more, help family, help friends, help strangers, help your church. We must be producers. But there's also parasites. Those that feel that they're owed something, those that feel when things don't go wrong or don't go right, it's someone else's fault. But I want you to think about this analogy. Did you ever see a shark? And sometimes there's those parasitic fish stuck to the shark. You see a shark swimming, there's like three or four little fish. They literally just live off the shark. That's their whole life. That's okay. And that balance probably is great for the ecosystem. But what if there was a thousand of those fish stuck to the shark? Too many parasites compared to producers, and things collapse. And I just got to say it like it is. I think every generation probably fears a time in history, right? I'm sure they were freaked out in the 70s, they were freaked out in the 40s, they were freaked out in the early 1900s. As things shift, people get scared. But I have to tell you, at this time in history, whether it's Covid, whether it's too many years of soft times, whether it's too many, too much entitlement in the world, the parasites are starting to grow. And here's the bad part. The parasites. And this sounds like a really bad thing, and I don't mean it that way. But the parasites, those that blame others, those that want more equality for not putting the work in, are actually the ones with the loudest voice. So if you say anything against it, you try to just wake someone up, not the woke culture, but awaken someone to realize that. That we have the opportunity to do anything possible, no matter where you come from, that we are responsible for Our own success and failure that we shouldn't feel obligated to anything. They're the ones with a louder voice right now. And the producers in the world are the ones keeping quiet. And that's a really scary time because if the producers give up, if the value creators give up, then there's nothing that drives this world, drives this economy. Listen, people have defected from countries around the world. Now I'm just talking about America here for a minute. No matter where you live in the world, I wish you the absolute best, but I'm just going to talk about America here for a minute. People have sewn empty soda cans together to sail across the street sea to get and hope to America. People have walked thousands of miles through deserts and sacrificing maybe close to their lives to get to this country. People, people have defected from multiple countries around the world to do everything in their power and risk their lives to come to America. Why? Because it is a land where you could be the producer. Not based on your skin color, not based on where you came from, not based on how much money you have, based on the amount of effort, risk, chance, grit and energy you put into it. Listen, I could say that because my grandfather, my grandparents came from Italy with nothing, not a dollar in their pocket, couldn't speak the language. And two generations later, I get to live an abundant life and secure my family and take care of the people I love and impact the world and do all kinds of awesome things and retire my parents and all that. My wife's parents came from Mexico with nothing. Her father with a seventh grade education. And by the time I met my wife, her family was prospering. All five siblings, all in business for themselves, all doing great. It is the opportunity to be the value creator. And then what scares me is that you have politicians. Listen to this for a second. This says, I don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative. I really want you to hear this. We have people in office who have never created a job or created value in their entire lives. It does not make them bad people. It makes them out of touch with reality. Out of touch with reality. When you've never created a job, when you've never had the chance to impact others, when you've never had the chance to fail miserably, to risk it all, to go all in, to want to achieve more. If you spend 10, 20, 30, 40 years in public service, thank you. But you get sucked into a system that's not reality. To the people on the streets, those wanting to start small Businesses or want to climb the ladder in their own, the, the job that they have, they want to be an intrapreneur, right? Kick ass for another company. So listen, the reason I'm sharing this today is because I am worried about this country I love and whatever country you live in. I, I, I hope, I hope you have the opportunity to go after your dreams and fight and, and listen, I've met people from, I bet over a hundred countries that have come from places that were repressed and still were able to achieve more. But I have to tell you, living here in America, there's a weird time going on here where the value creators are criticized, where even some of the words I'm sharing right now, people could get offended by, you know what? We're too soft. You know, there's a saying that strong times create strong people, strong people create good times, good times create weak people. And I think we're in a place where there's too many people that don't have to worry about food, they don't have to worry about shelter over their head. So what happens is when we don't have to worry about those things, we get soft and worry about the tiny things. We make the big deal out of the tiny things. And the fact of the matter is it's the loud minority that's causing the crap. Because listen, the last thing you ever want to do is take away the opportunity to dream. Take away the opportunity that you could do more, achieve more than your parents, that you could leave a legacy for future generations after you. That's what makes America or the American dream, no matter where you live, what makes it so powerful is because you have the opportunity to do more. Listen, I'm not, this is not about me bragging and saying, look at me. But I literally, this is not an exaggeration. I slept in a bathroom with my dad as a kid because we didn't have money and he didn't have heat in the house that he had. And there was even walls in some of the house. So the only thing he had was electric. So we could plug in a little electric heater. And when it was so cold at night, when it was so cold at night, the only place it would stay warm is the tiny little bathroom with one little electric heater. I'd go to school with pennies to pay for my dollar lunch and be embarrassed and not even do it. I lived in a trailer park with my mom and she worked three jobs to make 90 bucks a week. How do you go from my grandparents coming from Italy with nothing. Living that way with my parents and then having the ability to say, I'm not settling, I'm being distracted. I was disturbed with the way my parents had to struggle. I retired both my parents before I was 30. I've been able to do amazing things, have dyslexia and be a multiple New York Times bestseller. Start over 13 companies and, yeah, have way, way more success than I could ever imagine possible. That happens when you live in a land where you have the opportunity to grow based on your own merits, based on knowing that no one is coming to save you, no one owes you shit. When you accept that no one owes you anything in life, that it's all on you, that you might be listening to this and you're going through a tough time and I'm so sorry. My prayers and heart go out to you. If you know me, I say that with sincerity, not hyperbole or just to say it. But usually when your back's against the wall is when you do your best and when you have the opportunity to do it. I'm afraid living here in America, the last real stronghold, that there are people pushing to make decisions for equality because we have such soft times that will actually rob an entire country of knowing you could do more, be more and achieve more. Listen, I want everybody to prosper, but it's not a time to criticize those that have achieved more. It's not a time to criticize capitalism, and it sounds like it's got a bad name. Capitalism is what's made America so powerful because it allows people, no matter what their background is, to achieve, do more, and produce value in this world. My daughter, I heard this story before, so I'm not going to tell you I made up the story, but my daughter was in a small Christian school, only 35 kids in her entire grade. Not in her class in her entire grade. And then she switched. This year she went into high school, and she went into one of the largest high schools around with 600 kids in her grade. She wants to play softball there, and I believe she will for the whole four years. And she came home and she said, dad, this school's really different, even the teachers and the kids. And she said, you know, what is socialism? What is. You know, she asked me a lot of really good questions, and she said, it's almost at a place where I feel bad that we're successful. And it kind of broke my heart. You know, I could feel my daughter having this questioning, and I get it. And I love her for having the ability or the nerve to just ask me and share. And we went back and forth and share talked and. And I said, you know, please know that in your heart you've watched your father work, but you've only known me for, you know, you're only alive 14 years, and you don't know what it took the. The sleepless nights from 17 years old to now to achieve that. And she knows a lot of it because. Anyway, my whole point was she said, explain it to me how there's a whole group of people that feel that wealthy people should denounce what they have, that there shouldn't be private business, that. That people with money are greedy and everybody should be more equal. And I told her this story that I had heard a long time ago. I said, babe, what if you. What you do? What if you practice? My daughter pitches for softball. And I said, you have a pitching coach two days a week. I said, in between that, my daughter babysits, like, a lot of hours each week. I said, you babysit in between that, you have a pitching coach twice a week, and in between that, you pitch with me twice a week. And she works out three days a week. So she works out three days a week. She pitches with a coach. She pitches with me in the last three months. Oh, my God. She's really good. Like, I think she'll start all through high school. I said, you work almost every day on being a better pitcher because you want to play and start all through high school. She's like, yeah, so. So I said, what if you did all that work and there's another girl on the team? Doesn't make her a bad person. She doesn't want to put in the work. She actually is looking down on you because in some areas, because she feels you. Why should you be starting when she knows how to pitch right? But she doesn't really say much. But you put in the work, you do the. In between babysitting and paying for. And she pays for so much of her own stuff through her babysitting money. But anyway, so she puts in the work, puts in the time. But what if you get to the big game and the coach says, brianna, you've been pitching so great and you've been working really hard, but this other girl, she really wants to pitch. She's kind of envious. So I'm going to play her instead of you so it can be more equal. I said, let me make it even different. That's really hard. What if you have an entire class in this new school and half the Kids in there are putting the work in. They're going after, they're doing the homework. They're not partying at night. They're not staying out late. And they give up hanging out with their friends because they're doing the work to get straight A's. And half your class gets straight A's. And the other half of the class just decides they don't want to. Not if they have a learning disability. I'm not talking about that. But if the other half of the class doesn't feel like doing the work and wants to go out more, and they're 15 now, so they want to be with their friends every night and go hang at the mall, and they get Fs. And then your teacher comes to you at the end of the semester and says to you, hey, guys, I know some of you have worked really hard and got A's, but some of you in this room haven't. And you got Fs. I don't think it's fair that you get A's. We're gonna give everybody in the class C pluses. And my daughter said, dad, dad, that wouldn't be fair. The other girls and the other people did all the work. And I said, understanding what? Socialism, Making people equal, based on being alive, based on being this earth. That's exactly what some of the principles of socialism is. And she said, that would take away everybody's drive. I said, exactly. I've been to China and walked the streets, and you see hundreds of thousands of people without a smile on their face, without passion, without joy. Don't wish for something that if it came, no one would like it. No one wants to be equal. No one wants participation trophies. You want to freaking win. You want to go after it. You want to help others. You want to impact the world. This is a really random share today. And I didn't even know where it would go other than saying, listen, fight for independence. Fight to know that no one's coming to save you, that it's on you, that you're not owed shit, that we are responsible for the failures that we've had. If people took advantage of you and stole from you, I'm so sorry. But what if that's part of your journey designed by God or a higher power? Listen. Fight for independence. Fight for the ability to have success or failure on your own merits. Do not let. Do not let anyone try to create equality and take away your opportunity to grow, opportunity to shift other generations. Remember, I started this off with, there's parasites and producers. There's always been parasites, not knocking it. That's the way the journey goes, but you have more. That's the way the world goes, but you have more parasites than producers. The world shifts and it's over. The opportunity to grow is over. And do you really want, do you really want just to be equal? When you have dreams, goals and desires that could be fulfilled, don't let anybody take that away. Fight for the chance to be the value creator, the producer, the one in your family that helps shift the world. That's my message for today. Hope it made sense. Appreciate y'. All. See ya.
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