A motivational talk by Dean Graziosi arguing that lasting, meaningful success and happiness come from struggle and effort rather than ease or entitlement. Uses a parable about a gambler in a casino to illustrate that getting things without work leads to lack of appreciation, and issues a challenge to choose hard, disciplined paths to reach one’s full potential.
I don't know anything in life that's come to me that's been magnificent and sustainable. That was easy. This man is an obsessive gambler. Maybe even a little on the border of addicted as a gambler. And he's going to the slot machines, and he wins sometimes, and he loses. And he's up and he's down and he's miserable and he's happy. He's got these emotions all over the place. And he does whatever he has to do to gamble. Probably made some bad decisions. So he passes away. He wakes up and he's in Las Vegas. And it's beautiful. And the lights are blinging, the music, the sound of the slot machines. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And all of a sudden, he's got a pocket full of money. So what's he do? Go straight up to the slot machine. He puts the money in. Bam. First pull of the trigger, money comes pouring out all over. He hits the jackpot. And then he hits the jackpot again. And he's like, wow. And by the end of the day, it's like every time he puts his money in, it's a jackpot. Now it's the end of day three. Every time he puts his money in a slot machine, he wins. He looks over, he finds somebody who seems to be working there, seems like they're in. They have an authoritative position in this casino. And he walks up to. He goes, wow. It's not what I expected. I thought heaven would be different than this. And the guy looked at him and said, who says you're in heaven? Think about that. If everything you tried in life, if everything you do went easy, you wouldn't respect it, you wouldn't want it, you wouldn't desire it. If I gave you your first car, if you know any of your friends. Let's look at if you know any of your friends that got their first car with no work. I made a deal with you guys that you pay half a car, I pay half. If you save up 20 bucks, you can get a $40 car. Save up 10 grand, we can get a $20,000 car, right? But anyone you know that got their first car for free without working for it, they either crashed it, or it's dirty, or they don't appreciate it. If you know people who paid for their own college compared to those who their father or their mother paid for it, and they never had any repercussions. The ones that paid for it in so many cases fight for it. Because every word, every teacher, every classroom costs Them hard earned money. People who don't pay, don't pay attention. People who don't work hard for something they want don't get the results. People who so don't look for the easy button in life. Because I don't know anybody who's had the easy road. Listen, I'm 50. I had friends that I knew that were trust fund children. You guys aren't going to be trust fund children. You guys can work for opportunity. I have trust fund people that I trust fund kids that I know. I'm sorry. And if you are one and you're successful and happy on the inside, I just haven't met you yet. But I have yet to meet a trust fund baby grown into an adult that's fulfilled or found peace. I know a lot of them that are partiers. I know a lot of them throw the best parties on the planet. I know a lot of them that go through drugs in and out. I know a lot of them that go through relationships in and out. I know a lot of them that throw fundraisers and find God and then they steer away from God and then they find yoga and then they find meditation and they're always searching. Always searching. Because everything was so damn easy when you were a kid. You wanted it easy. You didn't want to do the chores, you didn't want to clean your room, you. You didn't want to do it. But those that are willing to put the work in, those that aren't so soft, those that aren't feeling bad for themselves because they had to work, those that realize if you want it, you got to fight for it, guys, that's the next level of happiness. Fighting, struggling, going through the hard times is what allow you to appreciate the good times. The reason I appreciate you guys, my family so much is because when I was young, I didn't have that family. The reason I appreciate abundance and wealth so much, cause I didn't have any. A reason I love to cook and go grocery shopping, still is. Cause there was no groceries in my refrigerator when I was young. So you don't get to appreciate the good unless you fight for the heart. So this is my challenge to you right now. Fight for it. Go the hard route. If there's an easy path and an easy button, it's always, in most cases, it's wrapped with something else. It's wrapped with an agenda. It's wrapped with circumstances, with failure. Because you're looking for the easy way. Be educated about it. Model other people that are already doing it. Don't be overly risky when you can learn from others and take the path, even if it's hard, if at the end of that path is your full potential or next level potential and you on the journey towards discovering who you really are. Sam.
