What I Learned From My 40s

I was willing to be uncomfortable. I made more money and Learned more in 14 months than I had in the previous 10 years so that I could grow and I could become more, so that I could have more, so that today I can give more. Hey, all right. So today this is going to be a doozy, because this is about leverage. So my 20s, worked really hard, 30s, learned a little bit about leverage. And that was through franchising and building ReMax, right, of Indiana, where I had 85 offices, doing four and a half billion a year in sales with 1200 salespeople. And then, as I mentioned in previous videos, I retired, took some time off to raise my children, get through the pain of a couple of divorces. And then I got a call. I got a call from a man I had hardly knew. But I was an investor in a company that I put together, and things weren't working out. And so this gentleman, his name is Len McCurdy, came to mediate a divorce of a business that I had financed. And during the meeting, the person that I invested in his company wasn't playing nice, shall we say? And I just said, listen, I know where money comes from. I just need to provide service to the world, whether it's through my products or services. And I could make, you know, money, because money is a means of exchange, right? Which is what I learned in my, you know, in my teens and twenties, if I want to make more money, provide more value and more service in the marketplace. And marketplace gives you money. People, companies, governments, whatever. And anyway, this gentleman then came to our offices in Kansas City, and he helped negotiate me exiting the company, losing all the money that I put into the company, but doing it in an amiable, respectful way where the people that were left had a company to build, customers were taken care of. And he really helped me walk away with dignity and grace and really, you know, above the line. And why am I sharing that with you? I said, well, I could have, you know, fought, you know, this process. I could have, you know, gone to court. I could have gotten into a lawsuit to get my money back and my investment back. But because I believe that money just circulates all the time, and there's an abundance of money. I knew where the money came from, right? Providing services. But that's not the story I want to tell you. I lost the money in that deal, walked away, started doing other stuff. And about two years later, I got a call from this guy, Len. And Len says, hey, John, this is Len McCurdy. You may remember me. I helped you get your business divorce. By the way, there's a theme of divorces, right? This was my. You know, I had two divorces before that in marriages, but this was my first business divorce. And he said, I really loved the way you allowed that to flow and not to have a lot of animosity and not to blame or shame or make anybody feel guilty. And you just walked away and you said, you're going to go make some money somewhere else. Said, well, I have an opportunity for you. I said, well, what's the opportunity? And at the time, you know, I remember I retired a couple times at the time I wasn't working. And he said, well, my son invented this technology that allows you to look up, look down, look left, look right, look into a whole room. And since you have a real estate background, you know, we're thinking we can change the dynamics of real estate. Instead of having photos of homes or rooms inside the house, or photos of a hotel or a hotel room or a ballroom where you get married, we could do a virtual tour with the technology of my son invented or came up with. I said, wow, let me take a look at it. So I flew from la, which is where I was living, to San Francisco, and I took a look at this technology. I said, oh, my God, this is a game changer. This changes, you know, how people could look at homes anywhere in the world, and they built this technology so that you can just go onto your computer. The virtual tour would be taken with a special camera and equipment on the camera, and you wouldn't have to have, you know, download or a plugin. You could just see inside a house, through a house, look up, look down, look at the pool, look at the left yard, the right yard. You get what I'm saying? And so his son and his son's friend Kevin and Howard came up with this technology. And then Len says, do you want to get involved in this deal? He says, my plan is to raise money, build the company, and take it public. I'm like, oh, my God. Yeah, I don't know anything about taking it public. Now, just to put things into perspective, Len had a previous company that had over 5,000 employees. 5,000 employees. This guy was like a brilliant, loving, caring, kind entrepreneur that was teaching his son how to build, you know, companies. And his son's friend and Len got involved. And I said, yeah, I'd love to get involved on this. So guess what happened? I made a decision to go and learn from an expert who knew way more than I did about business, about raising money, about Creating a leverage model of a OPM using other people's money. We raised $28 million. We built an entire team and infrastructure. Okay. With 150 salespeople in six months. We started to sell virtual tours to set you 21. ReMax Caldwell Banker Better Homes and Gardens all the companies started using our company's virtual tours. Bamboo.com and guess what happened on the ninth month? Ninth month from startup to a successful IPO. An initial public offering on NASDAQ, the Big Boy platform for the stock market. And our stock, which was named Bambi for bamboo.com, bambi. You know, the investment banking will say Bambi is hopping because we were making sales. Our stock was just going, going, going up in the Internet heyday. And then we did a merger of equals with another company that went public called iPix. At the time, we were each worth $400 million. The combined company had a valuation of over a billion dollars in less than one year. Two and a half billion within a year and a half. That was the valuation of the company. Now, what's the lesson here? Number one, when opportunity knocks, you better listen. I had to move from, you know, I've moved a lot. Every time, you know, an opportunity arose from Montreal to Toronto, moved Toronto to Indiana, moved Indiana to Vancouver, moved Vancouver to la, moved LA, to San Francisco, moved for the opportunity that knocked on my door. So I was willing to be uncomfortable. I was willing to start over. I was willing to learn. I was willing to pay attention. Are you? So the lesson here for you is there are people who are thinking at a whole other level than you are whole other level than I am. So I keep seeking out those people. I made more money and Learned more in 14 months than I had in the previous 10 years. 14 months, made more money and learned more about business leverage, building teams, scaling. So all of the how to for me, for you, is readily available. So in my 40s, those are about leveraging, leveraging other people's money, leveraging other people's knowledge, leveraging other people's skills, leveraging other people's networks, leveraging other people's know how and other people's willingness to show and teach and share so that I could grow and, and I could become more, so that I could have more, so that today I can give more and you cannot give what you do not have. So every one of us is on a, you know, on a path. The question is, are you on the path to growing? Are you on the path, you know, to becoming more or are you on the path to, you know, just being more of what you already are. Like, I don't want to be who I am today, tomorrow and next week and next month and next year. I don't want to get older without getting wiser and smarter. I want to get wiser, smarter. I want to know more. I want to become more so I can give more. So your lesson is there are ways to leverage your talent, there's ways to leverage your time. And I'll leave you with this final lesson for the 40s. There's no such thing as time management. The only thing you can get great at is to know what to do in time. Now if you like that, wait till you hear some of the stories of my 50s. Hey, this is John. And if you like that video, watch the next video because it is packed with things that you can do right now to achieve success way faster than ever before.