The ONE Thing Successful People Do on a Daily Basis - How Highly Successful People Think

Speaking on stages all over the world was literally a dream of mine. Twenty years ago, I wrote in a journal that someday I'd love to speak on stage with Tony Robbins and Richard Branson and help impact lives the way they do. But as I sit here and think about it, I'll never take it for granted again. It was one of my goals and my dreams that I get the chance to be on stage with a thousand to eighteen thousand people. Dean Graziosi, Dean Graziosi, take one. I just had a debate with a buddy of mine, the debate that the whole world has, even if it's internally, and that's the debate between tactics or mindset. Think about that, right? Everybody's like, so I'm literally debating with a guy, he's a great real estate investor and he teaches other people how to do it. And I said, he's like, it's tactics. He goes, if someone doesn't know how to find a deal in today's world, they're never gonna do it. And he went on and said, they don't know how to market, they don't know how to do this, they don't know how to do that. I said, totally agree with that. But what if they get the best tactics in the world? What if you give someone a business on how to sell $20 bills for 10 bucks, right? You give them the tactics on it, you don't need much on that. But then they go home and their husband's like, oh, that doesn't work, hun, we can't do that here. Or do you see our president's no good, or our economy's going in a different direction, or we should be happy with what we have. All the things that, the little things that derail us, that I don't care what the tactics are. If you approach it at 80%, you approach it at 70%, you, you're going to dabble. And then when we dabble and we don't get results, those tactics don't mean nothing. We fall back into our old habits. So the magical combo and why these events and what you put together, Gene, is so incredible is because you have people sharing the tactics. How to make money in real estate, how to make money in different areas, how to make money being in the knowledge industry that Tony Robbins and I are working on. Like you share the tactics, but then you get myself and Tony Robbins and Grant Cardone and Gary Vee and all these incredible people that are coming here saying, man, without this straight. And that's the magical combo. And I know you realize it, but that's what I love to see on the outside. It's like, my mindset's straight, give me a tactic. Mindset, straight. Give me a tactic. Right now. If you ask anyone under 30 years old what they want to do for a living, do you know what the number one top thing is?

YouTuber.

Yes. Being a YouTuber. Good call. I love the fact that people want to make impact. I love when people are sharing. I love this whole branding thing, like, brand my identity. Am I the guy with the big watch in the Lambo, or am I the guy with the heart and my chakras are aligned? Like, what am I? So the thing I would say about branding and about possibly an influencer or being a YouTuber or doing that kind of thing is lean into your soul, like, what you truly are. Because I see a lot of people coming in because they want likes and money, and it just doesn't last. When I realized I was put on this earth to help other people, your question is answered in a way I know is a different answer than you're probably expecting. But when I realize that's why I'm on this earth, I. My brand started to grow on its own when I started speaking from my heart, when I truly wanted to help people, not just impress them. There's a difference between helping and impressing. When I wanted to help them, my brand took on a life of its own. And people started realizing what I stand for. And the people that don't like what I stand for, that's okay. They go follow someone else. Maybe they follow Tony or Gary Vee or somebody else. Right? So that changed everything. When I just spoke from the heart rather than trying to build this brand or this Persona, I believe the people who don't last are the ones that are one person on the screen or on Instagram or YouTube and there's somebody else in real life. You align those two and everything changes. And I'll just share. I know I've been in this business for a long time. I have an unfair advantage to a lot of people watching. But I started with one. Like, I started with one. Course I started with one. Like I was in that position. And it all starts with one. And I have to tell you, I ignored social media. I Up until about a year and a half ago, because I've had infomercials forever and I wrote books and lucky that my books are New York Times best sellers. So I kind of ignored social media. And then I didn't, and I just started going on social Media and being me and being transparent and speaking from my heart and trying to serve other people, trying to impact other people. And we just blew past 720,000 followers on Instagram because I'm just so. Everybody's like, how'd you build your brand? I'm like, probably in my 20s or 30s, I would have tried to calculate building the brand. Now. I just had faith that people will feel my heart. And it's working.

We've got 4,000, 5,000 people in the room right now. What compels you to come do this?

I have to say there was lots of different reasons, if I looked in my 20s, why I worked so hard. I was running away from a life I didn't want. And that's okay if that's where you are while you're watching this, if you're desperate to get away from your life, you don't want feel it, like, grind the pain in so it pushes you to move. Probably in my 30s, it was building a business, building a legacy, just getting security from me, helping other people, building a team. 40s, maybe the same. But right now, I would say for the last five years of my life, more than ever, it's. I truly believe that I was put on this earth to impact people's lives, because I remember what it was like to be out in an audience, to wonder where my future was. And it wasn't just when I was broke that I was like, where the hell am I going to? What am I going to do? Who's going to help me? I also started. I got to a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, and I remember feeling lost in my little town. I remember feeling alone in my little town. I didn't want to be the big fish in a little pond. I knew I wanted to do more, and I didn't know where to go. And everybody else thought I should be happy. And internally, I was sad because I felt like a horse at the beginning of a horse race, but my gate wasn't opening right. So I know that feeling. So at this phase of my life, I'm 50 this year, and I just know how many people are sitting in that audience and just need one spark. They don't need. They need just a spark to go. I can do this. And if I can provide that, I'll fly to Atlanta, I'll fly wherever you do. The events. We're doing them in other parts of the world. You know, I'm writing my seventh book right now, Tony, and I. I mean, you look at somebody like Tony Robbins, he's been doing it for 40 something years. He's impacted more lives than any of us, and you can't stop that guy. And because he's impact driven, he wants to change lives. He doesn't need any more money. I'm blessed to be in a position where I don't need any more money. It's about impact, and we all need that thing. Like, at a time, I was running away from a painful past. Then I was building a company. Now I'm running towards to be a guy that by the time I leave this earth, my family can say, wow, my dad, my grandfather, he left impact. That's gonna last forever. So that's why I'm here.

What's your take on live immersive experiences? Like, we give at success resources versus just the video.

What's your favorite band?

Acdc.

Acdc. Wow. Same era.

All right.

Yeah, acdc. So if I said, hey, man, Gene, I can get you front row tickets to acdc and you're gonna be around other ACDC fans who know the songs. You're gonna be right up front. Or I could just get you the DVDs. Which one would you want?

Live experience.

Yeah. So that's kind of a simple analogy, but behind that is a lot of times, even though the knowledge is the same, I create at home courses and I love them. The knowledge is the same, but the experience is different. Because a lot of times we're at home watching something and we have the family in the other room. You could have a spouse that thinks you're crazy, that you're even watching, that you're answering your phone and you feel alone. A lot of times, entrepreneurs or people who just want another level of life, we feel alone. And because the rest of our family's like, hey, Gene, stop going for so much. You're good. You're good. Like, a lot of people tell us to be satisfied. That's how the world talks to us. But when you come to a live event, you just saw the audience out. There's 5,000 people out of their mind. So you look around and you don't feel crazy anymore. You go to lunch with someone who goes, hey, you could do this. Let's rock this. The person behind you taps you on the shoulder is like, let's do this right? So all of a sudden, you're getting the mindset from people doing it. You're getting the tactics from people who are doing it. You're gaining new capabilities from people who are doing it.

And.

And you're surrounded by people that don't make you feel crazy anymore. In fact, you feel like the normal one. So live events and workshops and masterminds have transformed my life. It's been my one unfair advantage above all else. Hands down, nothing compares.

Dean, we hear a lot about the importance of having a mentor in life. What's your take on that?

I'll just give you an example on my own life. My children at this moment are 10 and 12. And the truth is, I hope neither one of them wants to go to college. Some people are watching that and just cringed. But college doesn't deliver, and college doesn't teach specialized knowledge. Napoleon Hill identified that in 1937 when he said, general knowledge, no matter wide and deep, will never take someone to another level. You need specialized knowledge. Now, with that said, I'm not discrediting any of it because my daughter wants to play college softball and my son wants to be a doctor. So they're both going to college, and that's cool, and I'll support that. And people, if you went to college, I'm not dogging it. You put your time, effort, and energy in. Just because I didn't go doesn't mean other people shouldn't. But I wanted to shock. I want to shock people to realize that we can go a lot faster with a mentor. And why I talked about my children is what I said to them, if you want to go to college, great. But if not, what I'd love you to do is take a year and figure out what you think you want to do for the rest of your life. We're asking kids at 17 to figure out what they're going to do for the rest of your life. You know, only about 12% of people who get a degree find a job in that degree that they like out of. Like, it's crazy, that statistic. But what I told them is find an area you like. So I use the example of my daughter. She loves design. I said, if you love design, you want to be an interior designer. What we're going to do is we're going to research and find some of the top interior designers in the whole country, and then you're going to write an amazing letter and you're going to go work for that person for free for an entire year and let them mentor you. And you're going to be their best employee. They're going to want to pay you in a month, but you don't. You just take the knowledge and at the end of that year, the you'll be able to start off where they left off. If that person has 30 years of experience, they failed miserably. You can avoid that, they've succeeded incredibly. You can gain that. You can know the philosophy, the mindset. So you can either spend 30 years figuring out or get a mentor. And it just what Tony Robbins always says, condense decades into days. So having a mentor is like, it's the unfair advantage to the people who have it and a massive disadvantage for people who don't understand the value of it. It doesn't matter who's watching or where you are. We all have struggles. We all feel like we've been an underdog at a moment. Like being an underdog, meaning maybe your parents didn't support you, maybe you didn't come from the right country or the right state or the right town. You didn't come from money, you didn't get the right degree. You had a father that never told you, you loved you, you were abused. Like, I've had a lot of things of those things happen to me, which we all have. And I think instead of just talking about the struggles, let's talk about how we get through those is. And again, I'm going to refer back to Tony because we spend so much time together. But I've been thinking through these lenses for a long time, but Tony puts great, elegant words to it. And when I think of my past at this phase of my life, and I wish someone gifted this to me in my twenties, is, life happens for us, not to us. And what I believe is, what if, if you're watching this right now and you're going through struggles, you're going through a hard time, you went through a hard time that you shouldn't have. What if instead of thinking of, I can't believe that happened to me, what if you thought, wow, this was designed for me? And I look at it now as I had to pay my success tax. Yeah, we moved a lot when I was young. We didn't have money. I had dyslexia, I didn't go to college, I didn't have money. You know, struggles with my dad and all this stuff. But when I look back, all of them like, and I don't mean to digress here, but you ever see the movie Slumdog Millionaire? Absolutely. Okay. He wins at the end. They don't know how he knows all these answers because it was his life experiences that allowed him to answer those questions. Now, what if God, the universe, whatever you believe in, created this path for you so you can have all the ammunition you need that when it's time to gain the tactics and the mindset. You're set like Slumdog Millionaire. You have the answers when I look. My dad had a really tough time when I was a kid. He was the youngest of 12. He was sexually abused, physically abused. And he made some bad decisions being a parent. And I had to. I had to make sure my dad didn't go down one path. My dad could be the greatest dad in the world, and my dad could be crazy. Like, scary crazy. Like 10 years old with a bleeding ulcer, throwing up blood when I was 10 because I was so scared of him and loved him all at the same time. But now I realize that that was given to me as my gift because I learned how to read my dad's emotions before he'd walk in a room. And if I saw he was going down a bad path, I learned how to. Through love, through empathy, through compassion, through being authentic, I could steer them down the good path. And now because of that, I could sit on your stage with 5,000 people and I feel them. Like, when I'm on stage, it's not recorded. It's not. You see, I don't use PowerPoint. I don't use slides. I feel their emotions, and I think I feel I know what they need. But that was a gift from my dad, and that was part of my success. That was part of what happened for me. So instead of us looking like, I can't believe. I can't believe. Why? Why? Imagine if you just shifted today, like, right this minute and go, what if that was my design? What if it was meant for me? So I could be at this moment, watching this video, ready for another level. And all of that is going to be the ammo to fuel your full potential. We are in Atlanta, Georgia. Love this city. Just got off stage at the National Achievers Conference. What an amazing audience. I think there was five, six thousand people there playing full out. And now being off stage, this is my time to decompress. Now, this is. We're at a antique store that I cannot get my wife out of. And I can say wife now because I'm married. When you see this, which is awesome. My mom's over here, too. My mom came down, say, hi, Mom. And I'm just sitting here talking on camera because in this episode, I want to tackle a debate that I've experienced and witnessed for so long. And that is the debate between what you need to be successful, to go to another level, to make more money, to have more abundance, joy, whatever it is that you desire. And is that needing more tactics? That's the step by step, the plan, the strategies, or is it the mindset so you can overcome all the stuff in your life, have the hunger, have the desire, overcome the obstacles, and actually use the tactics. I just got in a debate with someone two days ago that's really successful and he's like, it's all tactics. Some people think it's all mindset. In this episode, I'm going to tackle that debate and let you see where I stand. I'm starving. Are you guys ready? Yes. So if I asked you and you hang out with me too much, we're together every single day of our lives. My wife. But the debate between for someone to be successful. The biggest thing I hear with people is that they're kind of almost leaning heavily to one side or the other. And I think it does a disservice to them. It's either the tactics or the mindset. So if you get certain people, like, if there's even people online, like influencers that are really successful and they're always like, oh, the hell with the mindset stuff. You just need to know how to make the money, right? And they kind of make fun. They kind of. It sounds silly, like kind of poo poo on personal growth, right? Like, ah, the hell with that foo foo stuff. You just need to know what to do and execute. But how does someone execute if they don't have the right mindset? If. If an obstacle hits them and they get scared or their friend tells them they shouldn't do it, then they never start it. Right? So I think what I see is sometimes people lean too heavy in one direction. They get the mindset and they're motivated, they're excited. But then they don't have the tactics.

They're not sure of themselves to begin with. So it's easy for them to be swayed if that one person. And then they can say, oh, great, I guess I'm gonna try it.

Yeah, exactly. And well, that's easy. And I think it's your subconscious also like to protect you. It's like, oh, it's not the right time. Or wait, your family said it wasn't working. So anyway, this is just a soft version of this debate, but what do you think? In your 20s if someone said, I want to make you a millionaire by your 30, in your 20s, if someone said, I can give you the step by step process to do it or not both, or I'm going to work on your habits and your personal growth in your 20s, which one would you have chosen?

I would have chosen step by step, hands down.

Everyone would.

Yes. But then as you get older and you know that there are obstacles and challenges and, and ups and downs in your life, you lose your. You tend to lose your motivation and lose your drive and you get. You tend to settle with like, okay, you know what? I'm not that bad right now. You become lazy. You tend to, you know, just be.

Okay with your life.

And you don't have admissions to go any further. But when you're. So you need the mindset.

Well, think about. So think about, think about. You sit with your friends, right? Only because I've heard you with your friends, right? Amazing friends, all of them. Whatever group you're in, they all want to go to another level. But when you think about it, think if one of your girlfriends comes you, Jetsey or somebody says comes to you, and they say, oh, my jewelry line, I want it to go to another level. Right. They never talk about them. Think about what Jetsy says. Like, I think I gotta get in more stores. I need to help. Have somebody help me do it. But if you think about with Jetzi, for example, she's gaining the tactics, trying to learn the tactics. But the part she's missing, in my opinion, is the mindset because she doesn't have the fortitude. This is the, this is the word that I think most people think that you need resources to be successful, like Jetsy. I'm going to use her example. Right. Jetsy thinks she needs. She's always like, who can you connect me with? Connection? Is there anybody that can lend me money, lend me money to expand my business? Can you get me into another boutique? Right. All of those are resources. But this is the part that I will debate at 50 and looking back on my life is I think in our 20s and 30s, maybe in your 40s or whatever age you are. We think if I just had the resources, the tactics, right. Or the resources and tactics could be the same. But also it's like you're looking for these things for the outside world to help you. When I believe 1000%, what you need is to be resourceful. Yes. Right. Jetsi, does it need any connections from us or anyone? She doesn't need another boutique. She doesn't need a cash investment. She doesn't need to buy her jewelry cheaper. She doesn't need to have different designs, her jewelry school. What she needs to be is resourceful.

What equals results, Consistency, yeah, hunger. You're not consistent. You have more patience. It's just naturally you have more patience and more. You know, nothing. You're unstoppable. When you're in your 20s, when you're a teenager, when you're, you know, you're dreaming, then you get to your old. You're older, you're married, you have kids. Reality hits you like, you know, if this is not hitting this fast, it's not gonna hit ever. But you have to be consistent.

And to be consistent, you have to be hungry.

You have to be hungry, but you have to have, like, that mindset to keep going. Otherwise, you can easily say, my life.

Is good and it's cumulative. So if I call. You call a mom and you say, mom, what do you think? Oh, baby, be safe. You don't stop immediately, but it questions. And I talk to Lisa and she's like, oh, babe, maybe it's the wrong president. And then you look at the news and those three little things combined, you go, oh, maybe it's not a good time. So that's why my debate. In my 20s, I would have said 90% tactics, 10% mindset. Now, being in business for 30 years, I failed miserably. I've made good money. I know for a fact it's 90% mindset. Because when you have the right mindset, you become resourceful. Being excited or motivation doesn't carry you through because you be excited. But then you fail. You can be motivated. You can come to a Tony event, my event, and be excited. But if you go home and you don't carry that mindset, then the tactics mean nothing. Because the three things I was gonna say is the right mindset to me, creates resourcefulness. It creates an inner desire. Cause you know what you truly want. It allows you to realize that most of the world is full shadows of shit. And they're wrong. That if you listen to other people, you get their results. Like, you build this barrier with mindset. So then when you do find the right tactics, like something I create or Tony creates or somebody else creates, or you have a great mentor when the mindset's anchored. That's why I wrote Millionaire Success Habits. Then you could plug in anything. You want to lose weight, plug it into that same process. You want to fix your relationship, you plug it into the same process.

You touched on such a good. You said you've been doing a journal. I can remember you doing that years ago. Doing a journal is wonderful. And you have the right mindset while you're doing the journal. But if you go home and you close the journal and you put it.

On the top shelf, Yeah, I live with my journal. My journal is right there. Yeah, there you go.

And you're taking your motivation and you're putting it on the top shelf.

Well, that's what it all falls back to. Fundamental basics like setting goals are useless if you set them January 1st and you don't look at them all year. How goals are achieved as you look at them every single day of your life, you sell yourself every single day. And that goes back to mindset. Right. So it's like to me, you can give someone. I always say it, it's probably too redundant. You give somebody a business on how to sell $20 bills for 10 bucks and if they don't have mindset, they'll still screw it up. It doesn't work where I live. People think it's fake water, but you.

Can'T make them drink.

Yeah. When people just search for tactics, they're the people that every two years are on to the next thing. Oh, I'm gonna make money in real estate. Oh, I'm gonna make money in the knowledge. Oh, I'm gonna make money on stocks because. But they're not anchoring in. They don't realize the piece they're missing is not the tactics. It's their resourcefulness, it's their mindset.

Mindset that I had growing up as a child. I couldn't do it. I can't do that for certain people. People who have that low self esteem, so not sure of themselves and feel that they can't take that step because of fear itself.

Yeah. Well, that's the whole process of changing that story. Right. It's not. You can't change your past. All you have to do is change the story of the past. Right. And instead of. I mean, that's why I'm writing my new book, Underdog Advantage. It's because what you thought was an under a disadvantage in your life. I was lucky enough to find it as an advantage. I struggled in school. I had dyslexia. I was in the little room with Ms. Thompson. You know what I mean? Like, I struggled with all those same things, but there was some point that snapped in me where I said, screw all of you. I'm going to make it because of that disability. Right. And I was just lucky enough to have people help me shift it. You weren't. Until a later age. Right. So you're right. I mean, that's why. Same thing. How many people you think are going to watch this right now? That thousands and thousands of people watch this and there's somebody watching, going well, Dean, you're smarter.

If there was somebody like you as me, being a young child and an adolescent to a teenager to an adult. What an amazing thing. What an amazing thing. It would make somebody like myself feel like something. Feel that feeling.

Yeah.

I can do anything.

Well, I have to tell you the greatest.

You have those teachers in my day.

That knock you down, put you in.

A special room for special needs people.

I mean, you probably remember. I remember coming home and telling you crying because Ms. Thompson called me dumb and sat in front of the entire room and she'd say, you're dumb. Just spell it out. Don't you see the way it sounds? And the way I looked at it, it sounded the way I said it. What do you mean, sound it out? Yeah, exactly.

But it's more your seller with.

She was mean to me too. Because of you. She was mean to me day one, she's like, oh, you're Gloria Posta's son. I said, yeah. She's like, she was mean to me all year. Thanks. Appreciate that.

I came in after having the measles for the months I don't remember, and I came back to school and she said, well, welcome. How was your vacation? Did you have fun?

Here's the cool part is, because of new platforms, because of Instagram especially, we have every day hundreds of kids under 20 sending us comments like, oh my God, we're giving them that hope. No, but every day we get a story from 12 year old to 19 year old. I bet you we get 100 a day of kids like, I'm so glad I found you. I don't feel crazy anymore. And you're giving permission to people who feel like an underdog to realize that that could be their advantage. It's just switching perspective. Like, this isn't rocket science. If you feel you can't, you can't. If you feel that you can, you can. But it's giving somebody that confidence. And usually that takes exactly the debate we're talking about today. It's mindset. You didn't need the as a kid, you didn't need the tactics to be more successful. You needed someone to help you shift your mindset. Then you would have found the tools to be successful on your own. It's as simple as that. Sa.