A short motivational monologue by Dean Graziosi describing the concept of a “success tax”: the unavoidable hardships, failures, sacrifices, and persistence required to reach high-level goals. Graziosi uses a musician/road-to-Madison-Square-Garden example and personal anecdotes (failed relationships, family friction, early setbacks) to argue that sustained effort and resilience are prerequisites for significant success, and he urges viewers to ‘pay’ their success tax and persist despite rejection. Ends with a brief call-to-action to watch more videos.
Chapters
And what I want to talk about today is getting your knuckles dirty. Yeah, that's what I want to talk about. I want to talk about getting sweaty, getting beat up, failing, feeling embarrassed, going against the grain, not listening to your family, not listening to your friends, feeling like an oddball, feeling alone, working hard when no one's watching. That's what I want to talk about today. You're like, wow, Dean, I thought this was going to be inspirational. This is inspirational. And this is the part I've been talking about a lot. You've probably heard me say it, but I'm going to say it again. You don't go to the gym once and get in good shape. You don't hear this out of my mouth once and then do it right for the rest of your life. I want to talk about you. And if you're paying your success tax, right? Everybody pays tax. Do we like it? No, but we know we got to pay income tax. We got it. We. We make money. A certain point goes through, we buy something. Sales tax, we gotta pay tax. No way around it. There is no way around you getting your next to your next level of life without you paying success tax. It's never gonna come. And what do I mean by that? Now, if you've seen me on stage or heard me share this, I'm gonna share it again. I want you to really listen. This is your life we're talking about. If you want to be a famous musician and you want to be at Madison Square Garden and you want to stand on the edge of the stage jamming in your guitar and have 50,000 people singing your song, that would be the ideal, that would be the goal, that would be the glory, that would be the home run. That would be the magic. If you are a musician, that could be. If you want to run your own company, make your own money, inspire others, become a millionaire, become a billionaire, whatever it is you want to do, that would be the. The grand. Like. Ah, right. But what most people are unwilling to do is do what it takes to get on stage in front of 50,000 people where they're singing their songs. We see people sometimes we envy them. We wish we could be them. But are we willing to do what they do? If that person is doing that? I would bet to say that that person played when no one was watching, played that guitar until there's a song, right? Until his fingers bled when no one was watching. Maybe he skipped going out with the boys. Or she skipped hanging out with her friends. And maybe he missed prom. Maybe parents Said, if you keep playing that guitar, we're not paying for your college and you have to move out. Then they moved out. Maybe their girlfriend or boyfriend broke up with them because all they did is play in the band at night. What about when they had to pack up an old van and go from dive bar to dive bar were their first songs that sucked. People threw beer bottles and booed them off stage and they left crying. Or they went to a place and they drove four hours and they got there and the owner wouldn't let them on stage or let them on stage and then wouldn't pay them and they drove back with their tail between their legs. What about when one of the members of the band quit? Because, like, this is stupid. My parents said, I'm an idiot. I am an idiot. What about all that? That's all. Success tax. And then when they got their first record deal, they thought they were going to get a lot of money and they didn't. They got a record deal, song went popular, but the record company screwed them out of their money. But they kept going. Their wife or girlfriend broke up with them because they were too obsessed. They kept going. Their parents stopped talking to them, they kept going. Their friends told them they were losers, they kept going. They got booed off a stage, they kept going. And all of a sudden they're in Madison Square Garden playing in front of 50,000 people and everybody's envious, saying, I could do that. No, you couldn't. Unless you're willing to pay all the success tax. So let me ask you again. Are you paying your success tax because you can't get there? There's an auditor, believe me, with a checkbox going, you want the millions? You want it. Have you put the time in? Have you felt failure? Have you felt embarrassed? Have you felt miserable? Have you had the stress? Have you had the worry? If you're not willing to do that, then get out of line. Get in line with 98% of the world who plays it normal, who lives with status quo. They're okay with an okay life or even a good life. Go over there. That's the line for everybody else. This line of super successful people, this is a line of people who are willing to pay their tax. Are you willing to pay yours? And as I say that, can you look back in your life and start changing some of that past that you thought was so hard and so bad and realize you were just paying your due diligence? You were just doing the things you had to do. You were doing the things to Build up the grit to build up knowledge into wisdom so you could have the tenacity, you could have the energy, you could have the enthusiasm to avoid everything around you, to go through the shit, to walk through the mud so you can get to that next level of glory in your life. Now that's what success tax is. Listen, I love being successful. I love having the freedom to make the choices I want. I love employing an incredible group of people. I love inspiring the world. I love that I have millions of dollars in my bank account. I love that I own millions and millions of dollars in real estate. All that's great and I love it. And I would do it all over again to get back here. But I promise you it didn't happen by accident. I promise you it didn't happen by giving away a free book. It didn't happen because I stumbled onto a great real estate deal. It didn't just happen because I created a high level mastermind or low level mastermind. It happened because I put the work in and I have failed miserably. And I've questioned myself and I've asked if I'm really smart enough to do this. And I felt like I was a phony at some cases. I went through all of it. I lost relationships. I stopped talking. Some people in my family stopped talking to me. I went through all of that. But I found a way to go. I'm still heading in the direction I want. I know where I want to go. My sight is set on it and I'm doing whatever it takes. I don't take no for an answer. I fail very fast. I get up and I brush off and I keep going. I'm encouraging you right now to stop taking no for an answer. To stop giving up. To stop letting other people get in your way. To stop thinking the obstacles in your path are there to hold you back, when indeed they are. The success tax that you have to pay to get to where you want go, I want you to start reframing it today. If you've heard me say this, good. Let it sink in. If this is the first time, let it sink in. Pay your success tax. Stay on your path. Don't let anybody tear you off it. And watch how you can truly be set for life. That's what I want, for all of you, to be set for life. To have the rules for success. That's my message for today. I want this one to sink in. Watch this twice if you have, if you need to watch it five times. What's up? What's up. Hey, before you go, you need to watch these next few videos. They're absolute game changers. Hurry up and click right over here and watch them, and I'll see you there.
