Struggling To Start? Listen To This

I think our gifts come from our struggles, right? Like our gifts come from what we don't have. Welcome to the Dean Graziosi Show. I'm so excited you're here because this is a really special video. In fact, it's a three part series we're calling the Fireside Chat, where I sat down with three of my team members, my high level team members, and talked about them being underdogs, their disadvantages, how they didn't have the support, the money, the income, the education, but how did they rise to the top of their career because they used their disadvantages as their superpower. And this is to celebrate this week, my brand new book is launched, the Underdog Advantage. My first book in three years. I'm so excited. And because of that, we sat down and did this Fireside Chat. And I think it's absolutely something you need to see if you're ready to go to another level of life. You want more. You want to stair step your career all the way to the top. You want to start that, turn that idea into a business. You want to scale the business you already have, but maybe you don't have the money, the resources, the support. Then you're going to want to watch every second of this three part series and at the end, you'll learn how you can get a copy of my brand new book, the Underdog Advantage. The hardcover. For free. Yes, for free. All right, welcome back to the second part of the Fireside Chat. This is my book, the Underdog Advantage. We're talking about being an underdog, how to turn those disadvantages into your advantage. This is the week I'm launching the book. So I'm so excited. So that, that's why we're sitting here talking. I got three of my team members from diverse, different backgrounds, underdogs in their own way. And I think these three you guys represent so many people watching. This has been so much fun. The last Fireside Chat, which was maybe a few days ago for you, it was just minutes ago for us. Through the magic of television and video, we talked about the mindset. How do you shift the mindset and turn your disadvantages into your advantage, make it your underdog advantage. The most successful people I know, the most successful people you admire, from sports teams to athletes to generals to presidents to billionaires, if you dig under the hood, they were all underdogs. They all didn't have the resources. They all. Nobody believed in them. People told them they were crazy, they were dreamers, they were fools. But then why did they go change the world, make money, win the game, because they turned their disadvantages into their advantages. And that's what this book is about. That's what this conversation's about. Last one was mindset. This one, I want to talk. We had so many questions, hundreds and hundreds of questions from you guys saying, I have this disadvantage. How the heck am I going to start my own business? How am I going to take an idea and make it real when I don't have money? Dean, come on, be real. How am I going to take this business I have that's floundering? I don't have the resources to scale it. You're telling me that I could just turn my disadvantages into my advantages and, oh, I'm rich. No, I'm telling you you already have what you need to be successful. I'm just going to show you how to unlock it. So. So when it comes to starting your own business, we had great questions come in. I'd love Jeremy, if you got one of either your own or I know you've seen hundreds of hundreds of the questions that came in. You were personally looking at them. So what do you got?

So Paula asked. She said she's been in her career for a very long time. She's got a comfortable salary, comfortable life, but she knows she's not living the life that she was actually put on this earth. But she's too comfortable to start something new. She doesn't have the confidence to start, like, to basically step out and do what she's supposed to be doing. How do you, like, overcome that? Because I know that you've done it so many times. How do you stop doing something that pays really well and makes you feel comfortable, but you don't feel fulfilled inside?

Yeah, it's a great question. There's lots of answers. Like, when I get a question like that, I feel like 500 things come to my brain at once. But for Paula, great, great question. Let me just ask you this, Paula. Let's pretend I don't know how old you are, but let's pretend you're 96 years old. Right now. You're 96, and you're looking back at your life and you say, I'm so glad that I stayed in that job that didn't fulfill me because it really, what it really made you have a good life, an okay life. I believe at the end of our lives, if we don't look back and say, I tried everything that I wanted to go after I squeezed the juice out of life, I believe it'll be the Biggest disappointment in the world. I put myself in that space all the time. When it's when I feel like, oh, my God, I'm living in the house of my dreams. Why I have enough money to quit and never have to work again. Why do I go into the office early every day, stay late every day, work nights, work weekends? Because I found a calling. I found a way to continue to feel like an underdog, to continue to find new hills and mountains to climb. So not to just all put it back on me, Paul, the first thing I'd say is staying at that job will do only one thing. It'll cover the bills and you'll be comfortable. Do you really want to be comfortable or do you want to find a new challenge? And that's one of the foundations. But here's the thing. If you look at it through the eyes of being an underdog, you're an underdog right now because you're so damn complacent and you haven't reached out to find something new. So here's the strategy I believe works, and if I look back on my own life, is stay at that job. Let's just say you're gonna stay at that job for the next year. Cut out the things in your life that aren't serving you. I don't know about you guys, but I've watched the shift and the transformation of you guys. You have to start saying no to the things that don't really move the needle in life. If you're complacent in your job, you're probably complacent with a few friends. You. You're probably complacent with going out to happy hour and doing a certain thing and watching certain Netflix, and you're binging on Netflix. You probably pick up your phone sometimes and you're gonna check one thing on a DM and you end up doing 45 minutes or an hour scrolling through crazy shit that doesn't serve you. God, the universe, the next level of you. So here's what I'd say. Now there's a whole chapter on how to transmutate that energy into fulfillment. But I would take a year. I'd say no to all the crap that doesn't serve you. And take that extra time and start working on your next level. Start converting those things that are disadvant into your fuel. Stop thinking you need resources and be resourceful. Take the extra time and start building that business. Start building your own thing. And if you're a logical thinker, Shabana, you're Very logical in how you do things. I know you calculate all the things. Like if you were shifting a company, if you were shifting from what you're doing now and you wanted to go into your own business, if you took a year to do it, if you laid it out, if you cut out some extra things in your life and. And you just put those extra time, would that feel comfortable in merging over a year? Totally. Right. So what I would say, Paula, is take the next year and slowly build that company. But give yourself a deadline. Because the end of the day, if you don't tap into you 2.0, I think it's going to be the biggest letdown of our lives.

So I have a question for you, Dean. As an underdog, there's so much going on in your life, right. You're trying to make, you know, ends meet, struggling with everything. How do you find the time or energy to identify your superpower? Or how do you know this is the next thing that I want to do?

Yeah, really great question. And here's what I believe. So I'm going to tell you a story that I think will really resonate with that. When I was a kid, I moved in with my dad when I was 11 or 12 years old. And I moved in with my dad because he was having a really hard time with divorcing my mom. And they divorced when I was three. But he was still having a really hard time with it. And I knew he was, like, really unstable in a lot of ways. So I made a deal with him and I said, I'll move in with you. Maybe that'll help him, right? And I left my mom and my stepdad a school I liked. I left my Mongoose BMX bike and my best friend, Ross Romeo. And I left seventh grade, and I moved in with my dad. Now, when I moved in with my dad, I left a cozy, comfortable house and room that I loved and moved in with my dad. And I literally moved into the bathroom. I've told that story before, but true. When I moved in, he had a house he was remodeling. He didn't really have the money to finish it, so the heat wasn't working. So we slept in the bathroom because we could plug in an electric heater. So I moved in with him, and it's like, anyway, but I moved him. But the reason I'm telling you this is because how I identified your question, how I identified my superpower, wasn't some methodical process of, let me write down all the things I'm good At it wasn't that. It was, in hindsight, it was looking backwards. So I moved in with my dad and I realized there were certain things that triggered my dad to put him in a really bad space. And when he was in a bad space, it was really difficult for me. It was really stressful. I love my dad. I don't want to make him feel bad, but by 12 years old, I got off the school bus one day and threw up blood because I had a bleeding ulcer. I stressed so much that if my dad went down one path, he was very violent and he would fight with people and fist fight and get arrested. And I was a part of all this. That's why I don't like confrontation, because my dad would lose his mind. He'd fist fight and fight with every person. But on the other side, he was this sweet, loving dad that would take me fishing and go camping. So I had. I had fishing, camping, loving dad that I think I would. I know he would die for me. And I had dad that was violent and angry and wanted to kill the world. That caused me to have an ulcer and be sick to my stomach and stress and bite my nails and not sleep at night. So that seems like, oh, you know, I'm not saying poor me, I'm saying this was my blessing. This was my. This was how you shift. This is how I found my superpower. So living with my dad, I believe God. I believe in God, but I believe that was part of my journey, not this disaster. Because when I lived with my dad and I recognized this, I was able at a really young age to see that my dad started going down the bad path. And I knew how to feel it. Not even hear it, feel it. And I knew how to manipulate my dad to stay on the good path. Because for a 12 year old with an ulcer, it was like death if he was on this side and great life on this side. So I learned how to read him, manipulate him, and get him in a loving space. Now he's like, what does that got to do with anything? That became my superpower because I can go on stage right now in front of 10,000 people and I believe, I feel the audience, I know what they need. I know how to manipulate them to a better level of life. Not manipulate for bad, but manipulate for good. Get them inspired. I know how to get people to get my book in their hand because I can't help their life unless they get. They get my book and they read it. I can get on stage and get them to Listen to what I'm saying. Because I could just be a speaker. I could be somebody who makes an impact. Well, I was able to impact my dad. It made me intuitive, made me read people, made me communicate in a way that makes a difference. And now that's my superpower. I'm great on camera. I'm just saying, like, I feel blessed that I can sit and talk to people at home through my heart. I can get up on stage without slides and talk. All because of that traumatic experience when I was younger is now I identify as a superpower. Now, I know a lot of other people have gone through traumatic stuff as a child, and I'm not in any way making light of it, but it's become their anchor. I would have been successful if my dad didn't treat me that way. I would have been successful if my dad was a different guy. But what if there was a mechanism that all of us could use? That's why I wrote this book where all of us, no matter where you were in the past, that question you have, you can identify all these difficulties in your life and identify how that's created a badass version of you, and that's your superpower. They're all different. And then all of a sudden, when you think you needed resources or you needed people to help or you needed a better past, all of a sudden, by the time you're done identifying this or realizing this, you go, oh, my God. This was all designed for me. I am this version of me. And all of a sudden, you pull your shirt open and there's an S underneath it. Right? And that's the greatest thing is when I love when I get to. I watched it in you. I watched it in you. I love when I get to see somebody identify their own superpower because they're just looking through the past. And I think. I think our gifts come from our struggles. Right? Like, our gifts come from what we don't have. My kids were born with more privilege than I was. I had that. They live in an amazing area. And I love when my kids fail. I love when things go wrong. I love when it's not designed for them because I watch them grow the most. But again, most people don't realize that that's their gift. I hope that made sense. Totally.

Yeah. I got a question. We see it all the time in kind of what we're doing, and I have friends that do it, and I'm sure we all do that. That friend that goes to the. Wants to start going to the gym, but he Buys all the gym clothes and all the shoes, but doesn't go to the gym. How do you. Or what would you say to somebody that they meticulously planned, they took that 12 months, but they're just afraid to take that leap to start their own business. Everyone has that million dollar idea and. And you could ask anybody, hey, what's your million dollar idea? And they'll tell you, but they're afraid to start that business.

Yeah. So here's what I believe. I think the biggest thing standing between people from where they are to where they want to go is the story they tell themselves. And I shared it in the first part of this video. It's cumulative. I also said that you have these two voices. One that says, go for it. Do your own thing. Go to Australia, Let your parents sell their house and just go for it. The other voice is like, you're going to let your parents down. I'm a school, everything up. I should stay here. Right. I should stay in the army because my aunt says I'm never gonna be anything. I should just be a serviceman for the rest of my life. Not that that's not a noble thing, but you wanted more. I should just stay in Indiana with my buddies, drink on the weekends. I'll get a decent job and it'll be fun. Like, we have these two voices. One says, I can do it. One says, I can't identify those two voices. You're not schizophrenic. We all have them. If you're scared, if you get the gym closed, meaning you figure out, you register the llc, you buy the URL, but you don't do it. That just simply means the story on why it won't work is just a little bit louder than the story on why it could work. As crazy as this sounds, if you just find the mechanism to shift the story that could work and make it a little louder than the voice that can't, you'll take action. And if you don't, you won't. And the majority of the world doesn't. You know, let me just look at chapter five. No, chapter four is Underdogs are Relentlessly Resourceful. Now, I'll ask you this. You have a stepson.

I do.

Right. Yeah. He's 21 years old. You only have two options to give him. You can give him a million bucks to start his own business, but you didn't do so great as a stepdad. He's not that resourceful. But you gave him the resources. You gave him a million bucks. You could either Give him a million bucks or help him be relentlessly resourceful. But one or the other, which one would you choose?

Relentlessly resourceful. Ten times out of ten, what I.

Would say to you, if you're dying to start that own business, your business, but you're like, I don't have the money. Fantastic. It means you have to be resourceful. And let me just share this with you. Have you ever met anybody that was a trust fund child that was innovative, happy, successful and thriving? I haven't. I'm not trying to be rude, but I just never have in my life. Everyone I've met with trust funds are struggling. They're struggling with substance abuse, they're struggling with trying to find happiness. They've been through 13 different companies because they got the resources, but they weren't resourceful. Right. What are the statistics on lotto? How many people hit lotto and they're broke within two years? They got resources, not resourcefulness. Right. Think about Silicon Valley. The new thing is, come up with the next Facebook or YouTube. Go raise a whole bunch of money. In Silicon Valley, so many people raise the money. It's not theirs. And those businesses do what, 90% of them, they flounder. They flopped because they had resources, not resourcefulness. Here's what I know, and I want to share this with you. If you're going to start your own business or you're dying to start it and you think you need money, is I'll tell you what resourcefulness did for me. I never had anybody give me any money. I never had anybody fund my companies. I never hit lotto. I don't have a rich uncle. My parents, I retired both of them in my 20s. I had to be so resourceful that every company I started had a cash flow within 30 or 60 days or I was broke. So what happened was, is it wasn't poor. Me, I don't have the money. No. I built cash flow companies. I built that company with Tony Robbins. I'm successful now. We came out of the gate week one, we were the most profitable company, one of the most profitable companies in America. Why? Because that resourcefulness is still in here. I still have the underdog mindset. I didn't say, Tony, give me 5 million. I'll take 5 million. Let's see if we make money. I told Tony, I'm like, we'll be profitable week one when we launch this company. Because I don't know any other way. I don't know how to raise money in Silicon Valley. I don't know how to Borrow money. It doesn't mean it's bad. It's just when you take those disadvantages and you turn them into your advantages. I know how to build profitable companies because I never had any money to fund them. There's so many things you are resourceful at that you're bypassing. You're discrediting it. You're like, ah, yeah, I'm good at solving problems. It's no big. I'm good at persuasion. I'm good at being organized. That's what it is. That's your superpower. You just need to add fuel to it and stop thinking you need the resources of other people. Does that make sense? Yeah.

I was just gonna ask you, how many underdog evolutions do you think you've gone through?

Because, like, oh, my God. I know that's a really great question. You probably watched three of them or four of them.

I know at least five of them right now. I remember, like, going through, like, one of them was coming here to working you, that marketing teacher telling me. But I remember coming here and working with you and getting in fights because a couple of the guys that used to work here, they were a little bit older. And I was like, oh, shit. Like me, maybe I'm too young for this. Like, maybe I can't do this. But I remember, like, that was another, like, evolution I had. It's like I just had to push past it.

But I remember it never ends. And here's the cool part. If you keep an underdog mindset, you don't want it to end. I watch when people get comfortable and cozy and they believe that they're not an underdog anymore. I watch complacency. And that's that old saying, if you're not climbing, you're sliding. And I think that's when things dip. That's when companies dip. That's when revenue dips. That's when you struggle. And I love keeping this underdog mindset. I love being relentlessly resourceful, even when I don't need to be. And that's how you win the game. Guys, if you're liking this conversation, of course we're having a fun little fireside chat. We're doing the best we can to incorporate all of you watching between these three and my stories. But the fact of the matter is, this is the week you need to get the underdog advantage. This is my favorite book of all time. I believe this will be my bestseller. Let me show you how to take your disadvantages and turn them into fuel. Let me show you how to reach that next level of income abundance. Generation Joy. Take your career to the next level. These are the foundational pieces you need. That's why Millionaire Success Habits was one of the best selling books. It's still on the bestseller list. Go to an Amazon store right now. Business Amazon Store Best Seller Rack Millionaire Success Habits will still be there after three years because people realize magic money machines don't work. You need the foundation. This one even goes upstream more and shows you how to shift what you think is holding you back into the thing that takes you where you want to go. And here's the cool part. You can go to Amazon right now, grab it for $19.95 or this week you can get it free. Yes, I bought the hardcover. All you need to do is go to deansbook.com that's deansbook.com we threw in bonuses that'll blow your mind. Even a 90 minute live training to show you what I believe is the greatest way in the world to make impact and revenue in today's shifting culture and today's shifting economy. I'm so excited about this book. Thanks for joining us here. This is part two. We'll be back with part three. Be on the lookout for the video, but right now go grab the book. If you liked this podcast, make sure you rate it and also make sure to click subscribe so you never miss out. You can always follow us on Instagram. And if you don't already have Millionaire Success Habits, you can grab it for free@deansfreebook.com Remember, all success starts here.