The Most Pivotal Moment of Your Life..

This is a day that we have to decide what's next for us. This is the day we decide. This is the day we commit. This is the day we could celebrate where we're going. This is the day we can anchor in a date that we're going to accomplish certain things. Because at the end of the day, when we decide, when we commit, when we get to celebrate, that's when change happens. Dabbling has never worked for any of us. We know that. Not with diet, not with relationships, not with exercise, not with the success you want. But I also know, on the edge of a commitment, let's just make it real. Because it's easy to say, today's the day to decide, commit, celebrate. And it's still scary. You still have your life. You still have the beliefs that have cost you a lot in the past. You still have people in your life that think you're crazy and maybe you're a dreamer and you're going after too much. All of those things will still be here tomorrow. But I know what it's like to be on the edge of that decision. And I don't think we ever truly know in our lives which one of the hard decisions we make is the one. What is that decision that you get to make that day when it's finally, no, I'm standing strong for this, or finally saying, yes, I'm doing this, or no, I'm not listening to this voice anymore. I'm going with this voice. And I want to share a little quick story here. And this was again, this wasn't planned, but I was trying to think in my life when was one of my toughest decisions ever. And it was probably 25 years ago when I decided to go all in on this. It was a big shift. Remember, I had a collision shop, I sold used cars, I had apartments, and I drove a tow truck at night. That's that. So imagine, as I said earlier, you go to your family and say, hey, I'm doing what Tony Robbins does. I'm going all in. I'm going to spend every dollar I have and have to borrow hundred thousand dollars on my credit card, but I'm going all in. And I've said this before, and I want to share it again. My sister is one of the best people I know. Her son Tanner, helps run this whole company. I love our family. My sister and I are a lot different. When I decided to do this, my sister, being the loving sister she is, drove from Virginia to New York nine hours to sit me down like an intervention, legit when she knew I was going all in, she's like, enough's enough. You've had more success than we ever imagined. We're so proud of you, Dean. Look what you've accomplished coming from nothing. You own a collision shop. You built houses. You have some apartments. We're so proud of you. But enough's enough, Dean. You're gonna use all your money. And she did that out of pure love. There was no malice in her voice. We don't have envy or jealous between us. It was love. And sometimes can love be crippling when people think they're protecting you, right? So that was cool. My sister did that, and I'm like, why? Should I? Maybe. Maybe not. And then all of a sudden, I talked to my dad, and, well, that's just a whole nother story on how I was insane and a fool. He is not as elegant with words as my sister. But then the cool part is I had my dear friends in my life that I grew up with since fifth grade. The guys, we drank beers together, went out on the weekends and stuff like that. When I told them what I was doing, they were, yeah, you're an idiot. You're an idiot. Oh, really? You're going to be on an infomercial. All right, Tony Robbins, literally. My friend Ricky AK Moody would bust my chops and go, hey, Tony, right? Trying to mess with me. I want to tell you, they could be funny, they could be serious, but they're those moments, right? Don't we have all those moments? And I want to tell you, this is 1,000% true. There's no adjusting this story. I took a walk down the street from where my grandmother's house was when I was. I grew up mostly with my grandmother. My parents got married and divorced a lot, so. So I ended up at Grandma's house. Thank God. She was such an amazing woman. She's the one that told me I could do anything, that I could be anything. She was just incredible. When I was 17, my grandmother ran out of money. My grandfather died when I was 10, and she had to let go of her house. It was a house that had been in the family since my great grandparents. It was a house built in 1787 in upstate New York in this tiny little town. And she couldn't pay for it anymore, and I begged her not to sell it. And I was trying to pay the taxes. At 17 years old, I was hustling, trying to pay the taxes, and one day just came home, and she said, dean, I don't want you to stress this is my responsibility. And she sold the house. It's like, oh my God, it bugged me forever. And I helped her get into a nicer little rented house and I helped pay for it. And I took care of my grandmother financially until she passed away about 15 years ago. But I want to tell you something. I went back because I had another friend on that road where my grandmother's house was. And I just want to tell you there was a moment that I was a millimeter away from not doing this. I got to a point and I said, I can't do that. They're right. I'm not Tony Robbins. I don'. Have enough money. I invest all my money to get started. But then you have to actually run this business. And it wasn't like today where you can start online and you could start for free and could start in communities and go find people on Amazon. None of that stuff existed. There was no Internet like that. There wasn't even MySpace 20 something years ago. So I had to go all in with an infomercial and then buy product and put it in the warehouse and get a call center. And it was a lot. And I literally, in my collision shop, I had a phone that was red. And I said, don't anybody answer that. That's my, that's my self education industry phone. Right? There wasn't even cell phones. If that phone rang, I'd run across somebody like, the red phone's ringing. And it was. Anyway, long story short, I was in my head one day and I was walking down the street. I just took a long walk because the memory of my grandmother is huge. She told me I could do anything. She also told me I was beautiful every day. She was just an amazing woman. And I contemplated. And I was saying, I'm not Tony Robbins and I'm not somebody else. And I don't have money and I don't have experience and I didn't go to college. Maybe I don't know how to run a business like this and how am I gon TV and all these things. And I was an inch away. No, I was a millimeter away from quitting. Just being honest. But something inside of me just knew. Like I just knew I was meant to do something different, though I was already on my way of doing good in this town. I was just called. Who's ever felt like you're just called? You just know there's more in you. You're just called to serve. You're called to do more. You're called to impact more. Called to lead more, called to be someone that can impact others, make more money, solve problems, give it all to charity, but you just know it. And I'm walking down the street feeling completely conflicted. Completely conflicted. Like going down in two different directions of like, what do I do? And I remember thinking, one of the things that shifted in me was. And I've shared this story before, but what really shifted that day? Taking this walk. And this walk. Who would have known? Looking at my life now, this walk was a difference between the life I have now and being here with you. Or a life where I probably was the best collision repair guy in that entire county. Right. And there's nothing wrong with that. But this moment. And I remember thinking, I don't have to be everything to everybody. I don't have to live my sister's life. Her life is amazing. She's successful. I don't have to live for them. I. If I looked at the end of my life and I didn't at least try this, I feel like I. Why didn't I utilize the gifts that God or the universe gave me? I just had this empty feeling and this alive feeling. I don't even know how to explain it. They were, like, smashing against each other like ships in a storm. Storm of, you're crazy. Why the hell would you do this? And I must. I have to, or I'll feel dead inside. And I remember thinking, but what if I just boil it down and just do one thing for people? I don't have to be everything for everybody. I don't have to be everything to my family. I don't have to be everything for the people I serve. I'm not Tony Robbins, but I know how to make money. I went from a broke kid with nothing to making money with cars this one simple way. And I remember thinking, I could teach that one thing. I'm good enough to teach that one thing. And the compound effect of. I always talk about narrowing that niche and say, I could teach that one thing, and I think people would want it. And my desire to just fill my soul and not want to be at the end of my life and have God play a video of the man I could have been. And this merging of, like, back and forth was so difficult. And I thank God for me. That's my. I thank God that that day I just set him in. I'm just doing this. I have to. I'd rather try and fail. Like Theodore Roosevelt's quote, the man in the arena. I don't want to be in the stands with someone else's name on my back. I want to be in the game. If you're on this, if you're a part of this journey, you want to be in the game. I'd rather be in the game and lose the game than on the sidelines going, oh, look, I knew he was going to miss that ball. Like, that's just not me. I didn't embellish any of that story. It was tormenting. It was tormenting. When you have people who love you telling you you're crazy, you have friends making fun of you, and you look at your bank account, it doesn't look like the bank account. You need to roll something like this. It was stupid. It was probably idiotic, and thank God I did it. My whole point is you never know what you can do until you decide to do. It.