Larry Weidel built a brokerage business across 30 states after his father was killed when he was 11. He credits his parents' work ethic and a philosophy of expecting greatness and personal responsibility for his success.
Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind, where we get real world insights on winning from people who have accomplished amazing things. I'm your host, Larry Weidell, and let's get going. I'm here talking with Bill Whittle from Louisiana and I guess Baton Rouge, is that right? Bill Whittle.
That's right. Baton Rouge has been here for 40, 50 years.
40, 50 years. And went there for. For college, right?
Is that right? Yeah. 1969, left the state of Indiana, where I played high school basketball, recruited to play balls. You went to school there, graduated and went out and coached for a number of years. And then it got into business after that.
So. So people will know who you are. And again, we're going to, you know, as an entrepreneur and helping other people get in business for themselves. How many offices do you have from your brokerage firm, let's say, you know, your financial business? How many offices do you have and how many states would you say you're in?
Yeah, well, Larry, you know, it's like, as far as. It's something that you've built. And then the other ones, I bought out from other companies. People decided, retired, probably 30. 30 different states. About 300 offices.
About 300 offices. Yet you're. If you can. It's nice to be able to do what Elon Musk did and you just make enough money with your. Your original business to go out there and buy something like Twitter. Right. And you, you did so incredibly well with your first group. That put you in a position to absorb others in. That's what successful companies do. That's a normal progression because not everybody is doing well. And the other thing is leadership changes. People that start companies, they don't live forever and they get other interests. And so as you do. Well, that's one thing to talk about, Bill, is as, as you do well, opportunities open up, and you probably never expected that. And so you're probably in a surprise situation when those things came along. Would you agree?
Well, not necessarily, Larry. I did expect it. I've never been surprised anything's happened to me in my life. I did expect it. I'm. I really mean that. I'm not saying that arrogant or egotistically. I expect everything great. I'm never surprised. When I had a great marriage for 46, 47 years, I'm never surprised. I raised great kids. It wasn't by luck. It was by design. I do think the hand of God's been on my business, my life, but it wasn't luck. And it was never a Surprise. And the same thing. When something happens bad to me, nine times out of 10, I realize I had something to do with it. But also when things happened to me good, I realized I had something to do with it. So I've never really been surprised and I've always been expected. Therefore, I'm always prepared. So when the time does come, I expected it, so I'm prepared.
And so talk about as you, you know, if we get into this thing so people can understand how you think and what your operating mindset is, where did that come from and how quick did that come to you as you were growing up?
I think a lot of that did come from as I was growing up. I grew up extremely poor. My dad used to call it poor, and I was below poor, but yet I was happy. I mean, I didn't know we were that poor because I didn't think we were that poor. I grew up with knowing the great equalizer in life was hard work. I didn't care if it came down to, you know, whether it was getting to a fight. I remember one time as a child, I told my dad, I said, well, you know, what do I do if, if a guy's bigger or stronger, tougher and somebody start. He said, but don't you ever start a fight because we come home, you start a fight, I'm going to whip your rear end. He said, but if you ever run from a fight, you come home, I'm going to whip your in. I said, well, it sounds like I'm going to get my rear end whip no matter what. He said, no, you're not listening to me. He said, and my dad got killed when I was 11 years old. That's part of my, I think, hard knock story. But he said, no. He said, he said, I'm talking about finding an equalizer. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, a brick or a rock or stone, don't you run from anything. And that much. Again, my dad got killed when I was 11, but all these, these, these philosophies in my mind, he taught me these things to never run from anything. Don't ever start anything unless it's good. But like a fight, don't start that fight, but never run from the fight. Just find a way to fight if it's worth fighting for. And so he learned to me that hard work was a great equalizer. So I learned hard work as a kid, luckily, because if I wouldn't have learned that when my dad got killed When I was 11, I was on the street by the time I was 12, 13 years old. Well, what if I wouldn't have learned hard work? I wouldn't have been able to survive in the real world. And that served me very well in the rest of my life. Then there's other principles that my mother. He said, where did I learn it from? Well, I learned a lot of those things from my father, but I also learned from my mother when my dad got killed, I really felt like that he was a strong person in my life, which he was, by the way, but a very uneducated man. 8th grade degree, didn't graduate, obviously high school drove before Cliff, but once again, hard work, hard work, hard work. No excuses, nothing like that was tolerated. But he was a very loving, caring man. But he just, it was just a real structured type mentality. And then he dies. I take my mother takes over. I watched my mother, she was 27 years old, having to provide for three of us kids. We had no insurance, no investments, no money, no nothing. So we lost the house, cars, everything. So by the time I was 12, 13, everything was gone. So I watched my mom go to work at a cabinet shop. She had a fifth grade degree. Watch her go to work at a cabinet shop. At that one day at the cabinet shop, she had been working all night long at a White Castle hamburger shop up in Indianapolis, Indiana. Going to work at a cabinet shop all day long. She was fatigued that day. Her hand goes into a table saw at the cabinet shop, chops her left hand off and she goes back to work. Larry. The next day with a no, with her hand chopped off, knowing she's got three kids at home that she had to provide. No husband, no money, no nothing, no skills, no education. I saw my mom do that. Well, you see that in your mind, you don't become the victim, you become the owner of your life. And think, man, if I watched my mom do that and accomplish what she did and trying to raise us kids could do a very good job of it. But she was doing every. I learned that do everything you can with what you've got and things seem to work out. And that's what happened.
That wraps up this episode. Consider leaving a rating and review if you like what you heard. In addition, I have a free video for you and it contains my best insights from 20 years of running my own business and also coaching million dollar earners. You'll find it whitelowinning. Com Webinar. Thanks for listening and do it big.
