Dean Graziosi, speaking in a first-person YouTube video, recounts his rise from a poverty-stricken, unstable childhood (special reading in school, frequent moves, parental instability) to success as a real-estate investor and best-selling author. He describes a turning point when he rejected the limiting stories he told himself, built businesses (dealership, house flipping, owning apartments), and later dedicated himself to teaching others. Central themes: mindset (the stories we tell ourselves), going deep to discover underlying reasons people hold limiting beliefs, and compassion (illustrated by an anecdote with his young daughter) as part of his method for helping others change their lives.
Chapters
At this point in my life, a lot of people ask me, what's the secret to your success? And you know, there's not just one answer, but something reminded me of it this morning. I'll get to in a minute. And made me have the desire to do this video. So what's my purpose? What drives me? What am I all about? You know, thinking back, just getting out of high school, I barely got out of high school. I didn't go to college. I was in special reading until 10th grade. My parents married four times each. I moved all the time. I, I lived a lot of my childhood in a trailer park or moving from apartment to apartment, sometimes even being evicted. Our family had nothing. In fact, my family asked a lot of times where I came from. And when I think back, I realized that I was at a point where I told myself some pretty crappy stories. You don't have money, you're broke, you're in special reading, you're not going to have a college degree, you don't have rich parents to help you. So it takes money to make money, it takes brilliance to be successful. And I was letting that be a part of who I was. But I was so blessed one day in my life watching my mom struggle, when I think back, that was one of the biggest things. Watching her struggle one day I realized, no, that's not me. My future can be determined on what I think it's going to be. It doesn't have to be my circumstances. I create my circumstances. And when I realized that, my life started to change. In my 20s, I became a real estate investor. I had my own car dealership, I started flipping houses, I had 20 something apartments. And the real estate market turned and my life had changed forever. And about 14 years ago, it just hit me one night, I said, if I can allow myself to be that kid, that broke kid guy feeling sorry for himself to be able to achieve so much, why can't I help others do the same? And it's been my absolute passion and my vision to inspire other people to take action. Yeah, I truly believe I have the best real estate strategies on the planet to get people engaged. But more so, I want to work on what goes on between your ears and because the story you tell yourself, the story that you say to other people is the life you live. And I don't want one person to be a part of our program or be in society not to be living up to their full potential. You know, I never would have believed that kid living in a trailer park who was small and scared and broke and wearing hand me downs. Could be so blessed to meet so many famous people and people I admire and presidents of the United States and people running for president and people asking me for advice to help them move along in their careers. I never would have realized that being in special reading, I'd have multiple New York Times best selling books and sell millions of books and touch the lives of countless people across the country and own hundreds of houses and truly live a life I only once dreamed of to protect my family and to help touch the lives of other people and inspire. And when people ask me and friends and family say, how do you have so many successful people all around the country? You see it on dean graziosi.com posting hour after hour of people's lives being changed. It hit me this morning and it's the reason I'm doing this video. My daughter this morning got up for school. She's 6 years old, didn't want to go over and over, even being whiny, which is so unlike her, said, dad, I don't want to go. Dad, I don't want to go. And I realized this morning what my gift is. It's going deep. It's depth. Because this morning, most parents and most times in my life, maybe in my past, I would have said, suck it up, you're going to school. Stop being lazy, stop being slow, stop being whiny. But what I realized, there's a reason behind everything in life. So instead of me doing that, I took a moment and I said, brianna, how come you don't want to want to go to school? I just don't want to. I said, is there something going on in school? How's your friend Vivian? Is there something wrong? And literally she broke down crying. And she said, yesterday, dad, Vivian was really mean to me and didn't talk to me all day and it really hurt and I just don't want to go back. I could have said, suck it up, it's okay. That's how life is. Deal with it. But I said, no, hon, let me just share something with you. My daughter is so compassionate. We rescued her only dog that she has. And I said to her, baby, do you know how sometimes you rescue a dog and when our dog is sad, you love our dogs and you love animals and you love horses and you're affectionate and care about your little brother. You have such a caring heart. And she said, yeah. And she got a smile on her face. I said, okay, in life, there's always going to be people that could be mean to you or have a bad day. But instead of focusing on that and letting them affect you, why don't you use your heart and your compassion and just say, I'm sorry you feel that way. And go find a lonely friend in your class that needs a friend and give them that love and compassion that you have in a moment's notice. She wanted to go to school. She was excited. She couldn't wait to share. And it hit me. That's what my gift is. That's what my unique ability is. My blessing is in life. If you say, I want to make money in real estate but I can't, or it's too hard, or I don't have money, or I'm scared, there's something deeper. And that's what my focus has always been, to find what's deeper. I know I can deliver the right wisdom to profit. But if it's not right in here, if you're just saying one thing, but your heart feels another, I'll never get through to you. So it's been my obsession since the day I started to go deep on my students, Deep on people that need help. Find their true reason, Give them something to replace it. Give them a purpose, a better vision, a path and plan, and get them to change their life forever. So when people ask me why, it's probably because I watched my mom struggle. And I decided in one day to hell with those stories I was telling myself. The hell with my past. The only thing I can affect is the future, and I'm going to take control of it. And why I have so many successful students, because of depth. Because I want to go deep, understand where people come from and give them a better path to a better life.
