Entrepreneur mindset for success: 4 principles for business growth

—transfers. You transfer energy— earth— you transfer your energy up here, they can be transferred right down here. Listen, out in California they were having some earthquakes, and the earthquakes were destroying the buildings. The buildings were literally being wiped out. And so what they wanted to do is they said, we have to create a new technology, a new infrastructure for the building, so that even when the earthquake comes, they don't get destroyed. And so they put this new technology in the building so that when the buildings get hit with the earthquake, they may sway back and forth, but it's the constant shaking and vibration that destroys the building. And so they said, "We don't mind if it sways back and forth, but we gotta stop it from shaking." Because when it's shaking, it's breaking. What I found is that's life. That every once in a while life comes, and depending on what we're made of, we either sway like a big tree, or we shake, or we break. This gentleman I'm about to bring to the stage is an investor. He's a real estate investor, and if anybody knows anything about investing, you have highs and you have— lows. You have ups and you have— downs. Sometimes you make money, And sometimes you lose money. And he's experienced all of that. But you know what he did? He said, I've got to put together an infrastructure so that when the storms come in investing— and they're going to come— I may sway, but I won't shake, and I won't break. And so I need you to stand to your feet because I'm about to bring to the stage the unshakable investor. And I need him to feel your energy because when you get him, he's going to get Hello, hello, hello! How's everybody doing? Are you fired up? Yeah! Are you ready to be educated? Yes! Alright, get your pencils and papers out because I'm gonna give you 4 Tobyisms. And at the end of this, there's gonna be a quiz. So, listen up. Okay? Tobyism number 1, and we've talked about it for the last day and a half. Decisions. The decision you make shapes your life. But the life you want should shape your decisions. Good stuff, huh? Yes. Do I need to repeat it? Yes. The decisions you make will shape your life, but the life that you want should shape your decisions. Okay? In 1995, September 23rd, my entire life changed. See, when I was young, young adult, I wanted a family. I wanted to get married. I wanted to have kids. But the very first thing that I wanted in that was a little baby girl, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby girl. I wanted her to look at me with those big blue eyes and say, "Daddy, daddy, daddy," no matter what. I wanted her to just worship the ground that I walked on. I wanted her to know everything about me and to believe that I was the absolute best thing. I dreamt of that every day. And then I got married. And on September 23rd, 1995, 30 years ago this month, That dream came true. I'm there in the hospital, the doctor brings the baby out, and see, I grew up in a different life. I had 4 brothers, 4 sisters. My mama and daddy's problem wasn't a lot of love to grow up, there wasn't a lot of food to go around, there wasn't a lot of love to go around. But when that doctor handed me that baby girl in my arms, my whole world changed. Instantly, at that moment in time, I knew what unconditional love was all about. Instantly, it just engulfed me. This burning fire came within me and said, "This is what it's all about. This is what you've been looking for. This is what you've been praying for. Here it is. Now take care of it." I took the little girl home with my wife, of course. Uh, and every day I went to work. Now at that time I had a landscape company, and in that we had a retail nursery, so we had to have plants for jobs, all that. So twice a week I would get up really early, about 3 or 4 in the morning, load up that truck and trailer and drive a long drive from Texas to Louisiana and pick up plants and come back. Now prior to that, it was a long, boring drive. It was one that I didn't enjoy. But now it was different. See, now on that road from Dallas to Louisiana, I could dream about my baby girl at home. I could think about all the things that she will be doing. The crawling, the walking, the talking, all this stuff. It was a daydream there, pick up the flex, and a daydream back. It was exciting every day. I did that trick. It made it fun and enjoyable. And after about 3 months, I come home one day, late afternoon, and my wife is standing there just grinning from ear to ear. I walked in, my name was brought to you. You would not believe what your good girl did today. Baby, she's 3 months old. What could she have done? She sleeps, she eats, she poops. Let her not watch you. She goes, "No, no, no, no, no. Listen to me." So I lay her down on the floor every afternoon on the quilts. And today I'm over here straightening stuff up and she's watching me. Then I go over here and I'm in the kitchen and she's watching me. And then I come by and I make little funny faces at her and she smiles back at me. And I'm standing there like this. What's wrong? See, I had a vision of what I was going to watch her grow up, how she was going to grow up. I had a vision, a dream of me being there when all those things happened. I wanted to be that person that made her smile. I wanted to be that person that saw her first everything. I would go on a 6-hour drive and think about it, dream about it, envision it, and now it was happening without me. I was pissed. Now, what's the first reason I just gave you? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Decisions. Decisions. So right then and there, I had to make a decision, and I did. Right then and there, I realized that if I continue doing what I'm doing, my dream of my life with that baby and my family was not going to be reality. I knew right then and there. In 3 months, it had already gone away. In 3 months, I had already missed out. What was it going to be like in 3 years? In 10 years? In 15 years? In 20 years? If I didn't make a decision, nothing was going to change. But it— I got up the next day and I sold that company. I got up the next day and I went into the office of the shop. I gathered all my guys around and I said, I'm not doing this. This is not what I wanted. This is not where I want to be. And this is not providing the family, the future, the financial stability that I wanted for my family. I had a supervisor say, hey, here's the keys. You want to run this shop? I said, "It's all yours. It's all yours." I said, "If you can pay me, pay me. If you can't, you can't." Now see, this is totally easy numbers coming up. I had families. See, there was no money. I didn't get any money from selling that. I didn't know if I was ever going to get any money from this guy. I will tell you, in 60 days, he closed shop. I didn't have another job. I didn't have a backup plan. I didn't have any savings. But what I had was a dream and a vision and a desire that was more powerful than anything else. And so, Tobism number 2, what we've been here all weekend, no excuses. I didn't allow the fear, the The anxiety, the maturity, the responsibility, I didn't let that cloud me. See, I could have said, well, you know what, I don't like this, so let me do this first. Let me save up this first. Let me put this on the market first. Let me do all these things first, and then I'll make a decision. We do it all day long, don't we? Don't we? Yep. I got some coffee bags that I'm going to put out on the market. I got some new products. I just— see, every day we have dreams, we have passion, we have a fire inside of us to become great, to do great, and to share it with the world. But we allow the excuses to stop us. I didn't. See, what I wanted trumped everything else. I wanted to have every second of every minute that I could with that little girl, because she was my world. So I sold the company, and I got into that company of business called the mortgage industry. And this is me with that baby girl. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] That's what I got to enjoy. Come on. See, I found an opportunity to where I can work from home and learn a business and enjoy watching her grow up. Now, I didn't know anything about the mortgage industry. I had no money, had no knowledge, but I had a friend who I said, hey, you're doing that mortgage thing, right? "Yep." "Could I come by, sit with you for 30 days, and learn what you do?" "Yeah, I heard you sold your company." "Well, okay, yeah, kinda." "I can't pay you." "That's okay. Tell me how it works." He said, "Well, as you know, interest rates are kinda low, so refinances are moving. People are looking to refinance their mortgages." So if you come here, I'll show you the products, the programs, but I can't pay you and you have to get your own leads. So I said, so let me make sure I understand this. If Mr. Jones comes to me, wants to refinance his mortgage, it's a $300,000 mortgage, we process, we underwrite, we close, we fund, and I get paid. Yep. And how much are you paying? 1%? So it'll be $3 grand. Yep. And if I did that 10 times a month, I'd make $30 grand? Yeah, but nobody does that. But I can, right? I mean, there's no limit, right? I can make whatever I want to make. You can make $100,000 a month if you want, but it's just not realistic. That's why. See, again, excuses, limitations, ceilings. And this is what we all listen to. Excuses and limitations. See, I didn't want to know what I couldn't do. I wanted to know what I could do, because that's what I do. I see something, I visualize it, and then I attain it. And I don't let excuses ever cloud or block my path. So I went to work. Again, no money, had to close loans, and so— and no market. Now, we had no internet in 1995 that I was aware of in the poor neighborhoods, especially no social media. So what we would do is I would work during the day, learn plots on the programs. When my little baby girl would take a nap, I would run over to Office Depot and I would print out one 100 flyers. When she woke up around 4:00, 4:30, we would load her in the car, my wife would drive, we'd go to a neighborhood, and I would sit on Pax's lap, roll the window down, and she'd go to mailbox to mailbox, and I put flyers in the mailboxes until we hit all 100 every night. Waiting for the phone to ring. Waiting for customers call. And if those 100 lines didn't generate a ring, I'd tweak it up, go back on the people, burn down another 100 until we got the phone ringing. See, Tobyism number 3 is what I really, really will tell you is when the rubber meets the road. See, I knew there was an opportunity. I knew there was a way of life that I wanted. And I knew there was no limitations. And I also knew that nobody was going to do it for me. So Tobyism number 3: If it's going to be, it's up to me. If it's going to be, it's up to me. I knew this. I knew that I had to take action. I knew that I had to be the one going out there, hustling it up, Now, yes, I had a coach/mentor. When a client came in, I would run it past him, he would guide me directly before, but he never did the work for me. I had to do it myself. You have to do it yourself. You have to take the first 3, make a decision, shape your future. Don't allow any excuses to cloud it, get in the way, or risk them. And guess who gives who gives you the most excuses? You do. You will talk yourself out of everything every stinking time. But see, that right there wouldn't allow me to have excuses. I wanted that more than anything, and I was willing to do whatever it took to have that. Now fast forward 5 years later. She wanted to get into competition too. That's not cheap. But 5 years later, we were in San Antonio, Texas, standing at the World Championship. She is 5 years old. I'm sitting on the front row. They go through their routine. It's a 3-day event. They score each day. We knew what we needed to score to win the World Championship. He's 5 years old. What you going to do, tumble, toss, cartwheels? But you know what? I was there. The routine is over. I'm sitting front row and all the parents are there. They read off the score and I started bawling. I started bawling. I look around and make sure there's no other dads watching me bawl like a little 2-year-old baby. And guess what? There were no other dads. There were no other dads. I was the only dad on the football team. There was no one stupid enough to even try to do it. She come off, run up the net, and the mom goes, "They just won the World Championship." I don't give a shit. See, if you have a dream that's bigger than you, you could achieve anything you want. There's a fire inside you. There's a burning desire inside you to be great, to be wonderful, to be amazing, and to have it all. And you're entitled to it. You're entitled to it. There's nothing that's stopping but you. Don't let the noise screw you up. And that's what I did. Now I'm standing here today, 30 years later. That's my granddaughter. Yeah, that's my granddaughter. As you can see, I'm a little heavier there, but It's okay. I'm just gonna look at it. That's good. That's my man. 30 years later, I get to enjoy it all over again. Because see, this is where we're at right now. At the office, on the computer, in a different world, but the same life. The same fire. The same passion. Simply because I made the decision 30 years ago, I get to live the life I want. With the people I want to be with. I didn't allow for no way. Excuses to stop me. Toby is number 4. If you don't quit, you can't lose. If you don't quit, you can't lose. And when you wrap those up, put them in a package, and put a pretty little bow on them, you will conquer the world. Now for all of you that wrote those down, I have a special prize for you, special gift. Come see me. I've got a book back there that'll transform your life. I will autograph it for you because if you bring me the 4 Toby's, I'll almost just eat it. I'm not joking. See, it's all about what you want. See, I had a mentor a long time ago. And I didn't know how powerful he was. His name was Zig Ziglar. They sure do know him. I had the opportunity to work for him for a few months, and he came in. I was going around teaching mortgage classes, sales training, and I got so pissed. We'd go into a room like this, we'd give this performance of a lifetime on how to be a better loan officer, how to do more deals. And maybe 10 of the 200 would sign up. And I said, what am I doing promises? I don't know anything about it. But see, what you have to remember, and this has stuck with me for a long time, people will do exactly what they want to do. People will do exactly what they want to do. I wanted to spend every second of every minute of every day possible with that baby girl. I wanted to create a life so that when this baby girl came, nothing changed. Nothing changed. What's your goal? What's your dream? What's your passion? And what's stopping you? Ask yourself, where do you want to be? One week, one month, one year, 10 years from now? Go back 1 month, 1 year, 10 years. Where were you? Have you achieved your goal? Have you achieved your, uh, life dream? Or have you allowed the noise, excuses to stop you? I want everybody here to do yourself a favor. Stand up. Hurry, hurry. We don't have time. Stand up. See, you just made a decision to to do something, give yourself a round of applause. My name is Jerry Brown. I am the Executive Director of the Office of Federal Antitrust. I'll tell you one thing, if you don't get anything out of this, you're not going to get tired because that's the 4th round since the lunch break. Are you guys having a good time? Yeah! You're having a good time. All right, so we said yesterday, a couple of our speakers have been saying to make sure that you're taking notes because note takers are Money makers. Notetakers are money makers. Notetakers are money makers. We want you to make that money, but we also want you to make a change. But remember what Anthony told you guys yesterday, take all the notes in the world, but make sure you're taking the right notes. Absolutely. So as we get ready to bring our next speaker to the stage, I am so excited to hear what this gentleman what someone has to say because he has a wealth of wisdom. I had an opportunity to speak to him just about an hour ago, and he has blessed my life just with that short conversation. And how many of you know, just by having a short conversation with someone, it can literally change your life? Oh yeah! Woo! All right, so are you ready to have your life changed?